On every episode of The Incident, I uncover a secret about the musicians you love. It could be a story from the road, a tale from inside the recording studio or just one of the crazy things that happen to a working musician.
Bahamas, otherwise known as Afie Jurvanen, has managed to carve out a name for himself in the international music scene as a songwriter, session man and, most notably, guitarist. His latest album, Barchords, was longlisted for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize.
He has used the Bahamas moniker since 2009, but has a long history of working with bands like Zeus, Howie Beck and in the case of this Incident, Feist.
At the 2008 Grammy awards, Jurvanen was slated to perform with Feist to help celebrate her work on the album The Reminder.
As this small Canadian contingent watched a parade of peers and music industry moguls shuffle into the auditorium, Jurvanen spotted a legend. The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.
"Down the hall in a golf cart comes Aretha Franklin. The golf cart proceeded to do a 25-point turn, like an Austin Powers style turnaround to get her lined up with the stage steps. She was drinking Diet Coke out of a two-litre plastic bottle, which I thought was pretty entertaining in itself," explains Jurvanen.
"That's when we realized that Aretha Franklin was opening up for us on the Grammies, on TV. As if we weren't nervous enough already, that obviously added to it. She went up there and didn't let anybody down. She put down the two-litre bottle of Diet Coke and she picked up the microphone and ripped it in half."
"Everyone in the band and all the crew, and everyone that was around was like, 'Holy Crow that's Aretha Franklin. Respect.'"
To hear Bahamas explain the entire story, hit the play button below.
Listen to past editions of The Incident:
The Loreena McKennitt Incident