Over five decades, Toronto music journalist Lenny Stoute's byline appeared in numerous music publications and newspapers. He was most known for his well-read weekly Club Crawl column in the Toronto Star in the 1990s.Joanne Powell Pike
Toronto music journalist Lenny Stoute’s first scoop was a fluke. Filling in for someone at a small music magazine in the 1970s, his first ever assignment took him to Detroit. He was wandering around backstage when a man emerged from a trailer, brushing his teeth, according to Mr. Stoute.
“He spits, looks at me and says, ‘Who are you?’ I said I’m here to cover this Canadian band. We got to talking and he said, ‘Well, do you want to talk to me?’”
The person was Bob Seger, a genuine rock star. Mr. Stoute’s debut interview was a doozy. Over the next five decades, his byline would regularly appear in such newspapers and music publications as The Music Express, The Globe and Mail, Eye Weekly and, most recently, Cashbox Canada. The journeyman rock critic and editor was most known for his well-read weekly Club Crawl column in the Toronto Star in the 1990s.
Leonard (Lenny) Stoute died on Sept. 22, in Toronto. According to his Facebook page, he died peacefully in the company of loved ones. No cause was given. He was 78, and had suffered from spinal issues which left him in chronic pain and with restricted mobility.
The film authority Andrew Sarris once said that a critic is either a careerist or a cultist, the difference being that the cultist does not require the justification of a career to pursue their passion while the careerist does. Mr. Stoute, a self-described “born romantic” who by his own admission “sort of drifted into” music writing, was a cultist.
“I don’t think he’d had a day’s worth of training in journalism school, but he had a knack for writing and he could turn out a review as easily as breathing,” said The Toronto Star’s Peter Howell, who assigned Mr. Stoute in the 1990s. “He was never one to labour over an angle, and he loved music of all types. I could send him to cover anything from a country revue to a hip-hop show and he’d come back with something interesting to say.”
Mr. Stoute’s writing was lively, unique and often acerbic. His first major assignment with The Star was an interview with actor-musician Tim Curry in 1981. “You knew Lenny wasn’t going to write pap, he was going to get into it,” said former A&M promotional rep Jim Monaco, who worked with the star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the time. “He got along great with Curry, and he turned into a pretty prolific writer, and a good one. Sometimes the writing was a little weird.”
Stoute was a self-described 'born romantic' who by his own admission had drifted into music writing. He is remembered by colleagues for his ability to turn out a review 'as easily as breathing'.Joanne Powell Pike
More charitable adjectives would be freewheeling and stylized. An excerpt from a review of a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert in 1981 in Toronto showed off Mr. Stoute’s taste for the unconventional:
“Tom Petty takes stage promptly at 8.35, no fooling around. Tom Petty should run postal service. Also TTC. Also Air Canada. Eleven thousand bodies in attendance. Petty starts slow. Is okay, have two-hour show to do. Have to pace self.
“Crystal chandeliers hang over stage and crowd. Possibly trying for effect of old-time dance hall. Doesn’t work. Much better giant inflated oak tree, cross between horror movie jobbie and Disney tree house …”
According to a former Toronto Star columnist and copy editor who often handled his stories, Mr. Stoute would usually roll into the newsroom after concerts in a good mood, but a little tardy.
“He was a lovely, lovely man who was passionate about the music he covered,” Rob Salem recalled. “The only other thing that stands out in my mind is that he was entirely incapable, or unwilling, to file to his late-night deadline.”
Mr. Stoute covered all walks of artists at every tier of status. On a given night he might stop in at Toronto’s Ultrasound club to catch Andrew Cash telling “tales of wry times in the Big Smoke,” before taking notes on a ska show across the street at the BamBoo. At the other end of the scale, he covered 1985′s Live Aid concert in Philadelphia for The Music Express, Canada’s largest monthly music magazine at the time, with distribution in the United States.
He championed (and occasionally scathed) obscure indie artists. Superstars were not amused when he took artistic liberties. Once, the Smooth Operator star Sade phoned The Music Express office to complain about embellishments in a story Mr. Stoute wrote about her.
“Lenny was an entertaining writer, and he got us in trouble with some of the celebrities because of his exaggeration,” said the Canadian magazine’s co-founder and president Conny Kunz. “Personally I liked him and considered him part of our Music Express family.”
His passions included photography. He also self-published three works of fiction: This Plague of Love, Getting to Human, and Lockdown, Tales From The Pandemic.
Though the writer worked for the heavy metal magazine Metallion, he listened to Chopin études while he wrote. “It really frees up your mind,” he told radio personality Jaymz Bee.
Mr. Stoute had a head full of facts he freely dispensed, gently broaching a conversation on a given topic with “As you know …”. According to his daughter, he was the opposite of pretentious.
“He had a way of sharing his knowledge that didn’t feel like he was lecturing,” Julia Jill Crowder said. “He had this wonderful thing he wanted other people to know.”
In 2019, a benefit concert featuring the Look People, Big Rude Jake, Danny Marks and others raised money to help Mr. Stoute deal with persistent heath issues that resisted successful diagnosis and treatment.
“Walking is literally a breath-taking experience as my every move must be calculated for fear of a worse calamity, like a serious fall,” Mr. Stoute wrote on his GoFundMe page back then. “Sitting isn’t much better and can only be done at best half an hour at a time. An energy bleeding experience for someone who spends so much time sitting at a computer.”
Stoute, right, pictured in the 1980s, covered artists at every tier of status and was as likely to write about performances in Toronto bars and night clubs, while, on the other end, he covered the 1985 Live Aid concert in Philadelphia.Mirjana Simeunovich
The public disclosure about his condition was out of character for a deeply private man. Many who knew him for years had no idea he was born on Sept. 28, 1945, in Georgetown, Guyana. The youngest of nine children, he headed to Montreal as a young man to live with his brother before settling in Toronto in the 1970s. He never married, but had two children.
“He was a lot of things to a lot of people,” his daughter said. “He was kind of an enigma.”
Right up to the last month of his life, Mr. Stoute posted a weekly piece about the domestic music scene, called BTW, on Facebook.
He was dogged supporter of lesser-known artists such as Toronto jazz vocalist Genevieve Marentette. Said Mr. Bee, “Two weeks ago when he heard about her concert at Koerner Hall on Oct. 16, he said to me, ‘well that’s worth hanging around for.’”
He leaves his daughter, Ms. Crowder; son, Sammy Jay Copeland; partner of eight years, Joanne Powell Pike; and siblings.
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Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Lenny Stoute contributed a weekly piece about the domestic music scene, called BTW, to the digital magazine Cashbox Canada. He posted the weekly piece on Facebook. This version has been updated.