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Loverboy will be working for the weekend at Rock Ambleside

North Shore-based guitarist Paul Dean talks band history
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Loverboy performs at Rock Ambleside Friday, Aug. 17. Show: 8:30 p.m. (rockamblesidepark.com)

You can’t turn Paul Dean or the rest of Loverboy loose.

It’s been almost 40 years since the band’s power ballads first hit the airwaves, sending young hearts in Camaros racing.

So when lasting fans of Loverboy roll up in their SUVs at Ambleside Park this Friday evening, Dean promises to have them feeling like they’re 16 again.

“I always joke that we’re the ultimate Loverboy tribute band,” says Dean, on the line from his home somewhere in the mountains in North Van.

Can you blame him or any artist worth their weight in platinum for wanting some solitude?

Still, the septuagenarian rocker is showing no signs of slowing down.

Dean feeds off the energy of the fans as he checks off dates on Loverboy’s robust touring schedule. The secret to a successful revival is simple – give the fans what they came for.

“They want to hear the hits,” declares Dean, who is equal parts lyricist and axe player for Loverboy.

“Working for the Weekend,” is arguably the song that gets fans amped up the most. Dean conceived the essence of the anthem while walking around Kits Beach one day and noticing the place was strangely empty.

“And I went, ‘Oh yeah, I bet everybody is just waiting for the weekend.’ A little light comes on – there’s a pretty cool title,” recalls Dean.

He presented the tune to Loverboy lead singer Mike Reno who offered, “Well, what about Working for the Weekend?”

The rest is music history. In recent years, “Working for the Weekend” has been the soundtrack for ad campaigns capitalizing on nostalgia, namely a RadioShack Super Bowl spot and a Diet Pepsi commercial featuring a middle-aged man driving a shaggin’ wagon.

Dean takes all the attention Loverboy has earned in stride. The rocker’s humble attitude can be put down to his upbringing in Invermere, B.C.

There were fewer than five other musicians nestled in the region known as the Rocky Mountain Trench.

Naturally, they gravitated towards each other and Dean fell in with the group at 16. 

“That kind of kept me sane,” he says. “I’m not a real boonies kind of guy.”

Dean’s trusty acoustic taught him how to miss the school bus and be late for school.

“All kinds of good stuff like that,” he says.

Twice a year, if Dean was lucky, he would find his way to Calgary and a make a beeline for the record shop. The teen would return home to Invermere with an armful of LPs and learn the music of instrumental rock groups such as The Fireballs and The Shadows.

Music was the driving force that sprung Dean from the remote town and eventually toward stardom.

He cut his chops with some Canadian bands in the ‘70s, including Streetheart. Dean co-wrote songs, played guitar and sang backup on the band’s debut album, Meanwhile Back in Paris.

“That’s when I really started writing songs,” he says.

In 1978, Dean left Streetheart and made his way to Calgary where he met Mike Reno. Their first jam session went down in a warehouse tucked in the nightclub district. That night the foundation for Loverboy was formed.

The band’s chemistry was crafted from a fusion of music styles when the rest of the members joined together in Vancouver in 1979.

For Loverboy’s enduring charm with audiences Dean credits Reno, who he says has “one of the most amazing voices in rock – still to this day.” Then you add drummer Matt Frenette’s military-style beats, Doug Johnson’s jazz skills, “groove meister” Scott Smith, and of course, Dean’s musical talents.

The group made its live debut opening for KISS at the Pacific Coliseum on Nov. 19, 1979.

Dean rattles off some stories from that evening with an energy that makes it seem as if it was last night. He recalls being pummelled by toilet paper rolls.

“I don’t know if it was a sign of affection or ‘Get off the stage, you bums, we want to hear KISS,’” says Dean with a chuckle.

Perhaps a little shell-shocked, Dean remembers walking off stage and seeing a mirage: the members of KISS coming towards them in full makeup.

“That was like, ‘There they are.’” 

After the Coliseum show, Loverboy started playing the clubs around town the following week. With a name like Loverboy and playing all original tunes, there were bound to be some growing pains.

Combs, ice cubes, quarters – every kind of projectile – flew from every which direction at the band, to the chants of: “We want Aerosmith and AC/DC.”

Actually, it was Dean who came up with the name Loverboy. Originally, they were going to call themselves the Dean Reno Band or Reno Dean Band. Dean tested it out on his wife’s younger brother and registered a neutral reaction.

He figured the band would need some edge if they were to stand tall amongst the REO Speedwagons and Rick Springfields and Foreigners of the early ‘80s.

Dean’s eye caught an ad for CoverGirl makeup on the back of his wife’s magazine, and he started riffing on that.

“CoverBoy – that’s kind of a cool name for a band, I like that,” Dean recalls thinking. “And then it goes without saying where it went to next,” he says. “We just went with it, (Loverboy), for better or for worse.”

Dean knew Loverboy’s star was rising after Bryan Adams told him as much. Both rockers found themselves looking to rent the same North Van house at a parallel point in their careers.

 Loverboy had just launched their eponymous debut album and Dean didn’t know what was happening.

Adams, who Dean says has a business sense that matches his musicality, told Dean: “You realize what’s going on with you and your band, right? You guys are killing it out there.”

Over that summer, Loverboy’s debut record sold one-million copies in Canada and doubled those numbers when it reached the U.S.

Many musical achievements followed over the years. Dean won a Juno Award, along with Reno, for writing “Turn Me Loose.”

At the 1982 Junos, Loverboy walked away with an unprecedented six awards in one evening – a record that still holds today.

Loverboy has since produced a number of worldwide hit singles.

Their songs are famously featured on the soundtrack of iconic ‘80s movies, including Footloose and Top Gun.

Asked if Loverboy has been tapped for the Top Gun sequel, Dean says it could happen.

“I know Mike is interested in doing that,” says Dean.

He remembers going to see Top Gun in the theatre with one expectation in mind. When the famous juke box scene comes up at the end, Dean was certain the song Loverboy lent to the soundtrack was going to play .

Of course, that moment belonged to The Righteous Brothers.

“I go, ‘Wait a minute, what?’ recalls Dean. There was a consolation though: Cruise and his co-stars appeared in the “Heaven in Your Eyes” video.

Some songs write themselves, says Dean. 

"Emotional" was inspired by a true story – the time Dean was caught in a storm with his wife on Windermere Lake.

“My wife was freaking out," he recounts. "I was laughing and she was just losing her mind because of the waves.”

Dean drummed out the tune in five minutes on the side of a table.

Conversely, “This Could Be the Night” took years and years to write, says Dean, “to finally find discourse that really hit home and was honest and that Mike could really sing it, which he did – he nailed it.”

Dean looked to his wife, Denise, for help. It turns out the song needed a woman’s touch.

“Ask any girl what she wants and what’s she going to say?” Dean inquired of his wife.

She responded: “Make it last forever.”

And with that, Dean had the foundation for a hit love song.

"Ask any girl, in this lonely world

Ask any girl, she'll say make it last forever"

Loverboy has only had a brief hiatus in the last four decades. The band stopped touring after the hair metal bands yielded to the grunge groups.

But a charity benefit brought back waves of nostalgia that Loverboy couldn’t shake.

A small tour was set up in 1992, “just to take the temperature,” says Dean. The devout fans were loving every minute of it, dancing and singing along to the hits.

Expect that same energy at Ambleside, promises Dean. The kid will be hot tonite.