A section of Bellavista Crescent in Winnipeg’s Crestview neighbourhood now carries the honorary name Brent Fitz Way.
The naming ceremony takes place Friday, August 7 at 10:00 a.m. It is the street the drummer grew up on.
Fitz spoke to CBC News Manitoba about the honour.
“Look, as a humble St. James, Crestview kid, it’s humbling to hear you even mention the street Bellavista. It’s on the news. What? What’s going on there?” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
“I will say I spent years on that street, and there’s so much magic, but I would’ve played a Kiss record or a Bay City Rollers record or two on my little Mickey Mouse record player in my parents’ house down on Bellavista,” Fitz continued. “There was nothing in the manual that said one day that would lead to — and, of course, there’s a big story in between of how this all comes about. But my love for music and becoming a professional musician and just the privilege of going around the world and ending up back where we are today.”
Fitz added: “I’ve said to myself for years and years, I didn’t know I was gonna be the Manitoba missionary. But as a Winnipegger, we’re kind of small-town proud, and I’ve always thought and found a way, like, ‘Well, isn’t that how we do it in Winnipeg?’ Self-deprecating, kind of without the fanfare, but quietly crushing all the time. So somehow this is a really special thing, and it’s really great for my parents. My dad’s gonna be there [at the street-naming ceremony], and my sister’s actually coming, and she’s a amazing musician. She just got home from Malaysia playing with The Commodores. How about name-dropping right there? So there’s two of us, but I will gladly, instead of ‘me’, it’s the ‘we’ for the neighborhood, and it feels great to be able to put a little geotag on the neighborhood.”
His sister is Brenda Fitz, also a working musician. Their parents, Mervyn and Audrey Fitz, still live in the city.
Asked what he thought when he was told about naming the sreet, Fitz said the reasoning surprised him: “Well, yeah, it doesn’t compute, but one of my dearest friends said, ‘Brent, just don’t even put your music successes into this spin.’ He goes, ‘You’ve just been such a great ambassador to the city.’ But again, I don’t take that as, like, ‘Oh, yeah, I am.’ I really just feel like this is what I do as a person that has that privilege to go around and play music around the world for the last 30, 40 years. And I find everything I learned from that street and that neighborhood and this city is all the tools I’ve been using forever. So I’m just this beacon of, of celebration. And, yeah, when I found out, I was, like, ‘Well, all right, I’ll accept for now.’ But it’s not like I’m looking forward to standing there, seeing my name, because, like I said, I’m just a proud little St. James kid. And it is a little surreal.”
Fitz was born March 27, 1970 and graduated from John Taylor Collegiate in 1988. He trained in music theory through the Royal Conservatory Of Music in Toronto from childhood into his teens, and plays piano, guitar and bass alongside drums, singing backing vocals as well.
He left Winnipeg in the mid-1990s for Los Angeles, picking up work with former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke before joining ex-Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick and future Mötley Crüe singer John Corabi in Union.
Since then he has drummed for Alice Cooper, Vince Neil, Theory Of A Deadman, Gene Simmons, The Guess Who, Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, Derek St. Holmes, Ronnie Montrose, Sass Jordan, Econoline Crush, The Dead Daisies and Phil X & The Drills.
In 2010 he joined Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, and has played on every Slash solo release since Live In Manchester that year, including all four studio albums.
He also holds the drum seat in Triumph and plays with fellow Canadian acts Streetheart, Harlequin and Toque.
