BRENT FITZ, Drummer For TRIUMPH And SLASH, Gets Part Of Winnipeg Street Named After Him

Part of Bellavista Crescent in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada's Crestview neighborhood has been given an honorary name: Brent Fitz Way. Brent Fitz has drummed with the likes of Slash and Canadian rock bands TRIUMPH, STREETHEART and TOQUE.

The Brent Fitz Way street-naming ceremony is taking place on Friday, August 7 at 10:00 a.m.

Brent got his start playing drums at a very young age and participated heavily in his middle school and high school music programs. He began formal training in music theory from the Royal Conservatory Of Music (Toronto) as a child and continued throughout his teenage years. He's a skilled piano player as well as a guitar player and back-up vocalist.

Brent left his hometown of Winnipeg in the mid-1990s to explore music opportunities in Los Angeles, where he scored some work drumming for ex-GUNS N' ROSES member Gilby Clarke before hooking up with ex-KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick and future MÖTLEY CRÜE vocalist John Corabi to form the band UNION. Since then, Fitz has gone on to sit behind the kit for the likes of Alice Cooper, Vince Neil, Slash (as part of SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS),THEORY OF A DEADMAN and TRIUMPH, among others, and moved to Las Vegas.

Speaking about getting a street named after him, Brent told CBC News Manitoba (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "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?

"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," he 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.

"I've said to myself for years and years, I didn't know I was gonna be the Manitoba missionary," Fitz added. "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."

Asked what went through his mind when he got the call informing him that a part of the street would be named after him, Brent said: "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."