Brian Greenway Reflects on Legacy, Loss, and the Road Ahead as April Wine Gear Up for Massive Arena Tour with Triumph
- jaybroderick
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By: Jay Broderick - When April Wine step onto the stage at the GFL Memorial Gardens in Sault Ste. Marie on April 22, it won’t just mark the beginning of one of the most anticipated Canadian rock tours in decades. It will mark another milestone in a career that has spanned generations.
In a warm and often humorous conversation I had with the guitarist, harmonica player, and vocalist on February 3, Brian Greenway opened up about the band’s past, present, and the massive arena run they’re about to embark on with the newly reunited Triumph who are celebrating their 50th Anniversary. And if there’s one thing clear from speaking with him, it’s that April Wine are ready to rock, as they like to do!
Greenway still sounds a bit amused, and thrilled, by how the tour offer arrived. “Our tour manager called us out of the blue and said, ‘How do you guys feel about doing an arena tour with Triumph in April, May, and June?’” he recalled. “I said, ‘You’re kidding!’” But it was no joke. “‘Guys, this is real,’ he told us. And I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
For music fans, it’s a dream pairing decades in the making. Surprisingly, the two Canadian rock giants have only shared a stage twice. Both times just happened to be in Texas in the late ’70s. Greenway laughed at the irony: “Well, we might have played more had they not stopped 30 years ago.” Now, with Triumph returning to the stage and April Wine firing on all cylinders, the timing couldn’t be better. “It’s going to be one of the events of the year,” Greenway said.
With the weight of the passing of founding frontman Myles Goodwyn in 2023, I asked the longest serving member of the band how easy, or difficult it was to continue on. Greenway didn’t shy away from the emotions. “I just continued to play my parts,” he said quietly. With decades of studio and touring history behind him, Greenway became the bridge between eras. “I was the only one who could seriously go back and teach Mark how the band played this, how we recorded that… I was there for the recordings. I have those memories where they don’t.” He described those memories as “ghosts”... not haunting, but ever-present. “Sometimes I’ll picture Myles or Gary or Jerry and think, ‘Oh yeah, we did that,’ or, ‘They would have liked this.’” One story in particular stuck with him. Returning to Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg, where April Wine played in 1978. “I looked out the window and said, ‘Boy, that looks familiar.’ And then—‘My God, it’s Zeppelinfeld.’ Forty-three years later, and I’m standing in the same place. It was spooky… but it lets you know you were there.”
Fans wondering what April Wine will bring to the stage for the upcoming tour can expect a tight, hit‑packed set. “We’re gonna do what we’ve been doing,” Greenway said. “You play what people want to hear.” He’s adamant about one thing... no unnecessary reinvention. “I’m a big stickler. Play it like the record. Don’t do some stupid jazz section in the middle of the chorus. I remember seeing Jimmy Page in the ’70s… he went into the 'Stairway to Heaven' solo, and it wasn’t the one he recorded. I was so disappointed.” As is typical, fans attending one of the 24 dates can expect the classics from Nature of the Beast, Harder… Faster, and First Glance, the “trinity” of albums that defined April Wine internationally.
After years of lighter touring schedules, April Wine are back to running hard. “Last year was 67, 68 shows,” Greenway said. “This year will hopefully be the same, if not more.” He wants to see the band return to the level they once held. “I want to get back to the status we were at, headlining larger places, playing 120, 150 shows a year… and Europe, and maybe Japan, Hawaii, South America. It’s coming around. I’m excited.”
And with Triumph drawing massive attention, the momentum is real. “We were always a killer opening act,” he said proudly. “Styx, Foreigner, Nazareth, Rush... they loved us. We’d sell the deadwood and help bring people in.”
Outside of the music, there is one project he’s actively working on. A photo‑driven memoir. “I got old slides developed… pictures from the late ’70s, backstage with King Crimson, Jethro Tull. I want to have the pictures and tell a little story about each one.” He laughed recalling one shot of himself in knee‑high Adidas socks and very tiny Adidas shorts. “My wife said, ‘Don’t ever show me that again. I can’t unsee that.’”
As the conversation wound down, I asked Greenway to be candid abnout his favourite cities to play in in this great country. Of course every show is special, but he shared his affection for Canada’s landscapes. in such places as Victoria, Halifax, St. John’s. And then I closed it out by asking him who is somebody he would love to have dinner with, living or dead. His wish was simple... his parents. It was a reminder that behind the decades of touring, the gold records, and the rock‑and‑roll mythology, Brian Greenway is still a man who loves music, loves the road, and loves the people who shaped him.
On April 22, when April Wine hit the stage to launch their arena tour with Triumph, they'll be kicking off a new chapter, carrying every single one of those memories with them. And judging by Greenway’s excitement, they’re nowhere near done writing new ones.
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