What's In A Name?
There has been a lot of speculation as to where the name "Max Webster" came from. It has been widely reported that the band members picked the name out of a phone book, among other incorrect theories. Kim Mitchell finally put the question to rest by reporting the true origins of the name on the message board of his own website. His posting is repeated here:
max websters name came from mike tilka the bass player..he was in a
band called 'family at macs'..and they did a song
called 'webster'....we were looking for a jethro tull type name...a
real human name but nobody in the band with that name...Daryl Stuermer has a slightly different, yet very similar version of the events leading to the name creation. Daryl was in a band with Mike Tilka in Windsor and later went on to perform and record with Jean-Luc Ponty (1975-77), perform with Genesis (1978-92) and perform and record with Phil Collins (1982-2004). His version of the origin of the Max Webster name has unfortunately been removed from his website. I'll try to retrieve the text of that somehow.