JB- Now you are turning the tables on Idol viewers. So instead of judging, you're putting yourself out there for the public to hear. You've got a band together. There's a new single out. Actually, first tell us about the band. What's the vibe? What's the style?

ZW- The band's called Haymaker. For lack of a better description, I would call it heavy country. You know, there's this thing about kick-ass country, which has a bunch of people in it that I don't really dig at all, you know, 'cause there's kind of a redneck sort of attitude toward that stuff that I'm not really diggin'. I'd call it heavy country, you know? We're somewhere between the Eagles and George Thorogood to The Kentucky Headhunters and a number of other things, largely influenced by the fact that we all have a strong rock background to begin with. Pretty heavy rock background, but we tried not to push it so far and so dark. We try to be a little funner [sic] and a little more rock 'n' roll about it. If that makes any sense, you know? A little bit of the rockabilly vibe, where The Stones are going to be playing music, but with a big production and big harmonies. Sort of vibe of the Eagles or of The Band and be about the strength of a number of voices and a number of different personalities coming together and making one sound all together. And we try to make it simple, idiot-proof music, you know? We tried to make sure that all the arrangements were really straight and really understandable on first listen, and that every song had a big a chorus that we could possibly go for and had hooky sections. I mean, the idea was that every time, on first listen, this would have impact and hopefully would grow beyond that and the immediacy for our listeners.

JB- The single, Go For a Ride, is on the Canadian Idol website at idol.ctv.ca. Listeners are posting their comments. Have you looked at any of them?

ZW- Yeah, I've scrolled through. I think there were about 35 of them up there today. I think 32 out of 35 were pretty positive. I mean, first of all you got to question who are the people who actually post comments on a website, you know? That's a very select group of individuals that, you know, may or may not be representative of the average viewer, or our average listener. That being said, it's been proven in the music business over and over again that doing surveys and doing marketing groups and doing testing groups is never representative of what the public really thinks. 'Cause as soon as you empower somebody to have an opinion, they have an opinion based upon criteria that they never thought about in their lives.

JB- Right. One of the comments on the website is asking "Where can I get the CD?"

ZW- Um, it comes out July 22. It's on EMI. It should be in every store humanly possible, and it's also - for right now - it will be online a couple of weeks before that through iTunes. You can go to www.myspace.com/haymakerfeatzackwerner and you can listen to a number of tracks off the record right now. But it should be in every store that EMI ships records to, and I guess, that's most of the stores in the country.

JB- Any tours or shows coming up, then?

ZW- We just finished playing three nights in Medicine Hat, which was a blast, because the rest of the band all live in Medicine Hat, so it was really fun to start working by doing a hometown, three-night stand sort of thing. We also did an outdoor festival there. We're singing the national anthem for the ALS foundation, we're doing an unplugged set for the March of Dimes campaign in Toronto. We're slowly booking up the rest of the year. I can't really go on tour until September obviously because of the show, so we're sort of mixing and matching. We're doing some rodeos in Alberta and some in Ontario, so all that stuff will be on the website as we go along.

JB- Well, natural question then: Will you be performing on Idol with the group?

ZW- Um, you know, I have to earn that slot just like anybody else. Obviously I have some advantages over the rest of the world, because hell, it's not like I'm going to be Rihanna tomorrow in record sales, or Maroon 5 or whatever, so I have some leg up, but nobody's made me any promises; that's for sure. I think that the Canadian Idol public would like to see me do it, or I'd like to think so. If nothing else but to give me crap afterward.

JB- Do you want me to? I'll put out the feelers and we'll get some people out to lobby.

ZW- I could use all the help I could get, 'cause let me tell you, people sell records immediately after they're seen on Idol, and my band is a bunch of real good guys, real good pros. We put on a big entertaining show, and I think we would do a really good job of it. I think that the public would really like to see us do it, you know? They liked seeing Sass sing. Whether they thought it was great or indifferent . . . Although I think she's an amazing singer.

JB- Mmm. Hmm. Well, so it should be a interesting summer then with your music and Idol starting up. So that's tonight on CTV.

ZW- Yeah, and this music thing is getting back into the NHL for a few minutes. You're way past your prime, so I'm having a blast doing it, and I have not seen tonight's show yet. I'm really looking forward to it. I love what our editors do, and I'm sure they put together a really good piece of entertainment.

JB- Sounds good, and I'm sure we'll be checking in with you a little bit later in the season as well.

ZW- OK. Thanks for talking to me.