After the Golden Scoundrels destroyed a van for their new music video, they were greeted by the OPP due to an apparent 911 call
The only thing the Golden Scoundrels shot this Sunday was a music video.
But, for a few moments, the local band was suspected in a firearms call during a noisy day of filming at a gravel pit down Old Goulais Bay Road.
The song But I Won’t is about the type of intrusive thoughts that people never act on, and the video features the band taking out their frustrations from a long tour on their van.
“We got it to a location where we ended up just destroying it,” said drummer John Belanger.
“We took axes to it, sledgehammers, hockey sticks. We ended up playing on the van, like I set my drum set up on top.”
Purchased for $1,000 for the project, the video was capped off by lighting off fireworks inside the van.
After their shoot, the band was greeted by the OPP as they drove their van back down the road.
“We knew that we still had to get it out of the bush, so we didn’t want to destroy it mechanically. We only wanted to do cosmetic damage to it,” Belanger said.
“I was driving the van out of there, and then an OPP officer flagged me down, and he was like, ‘What’s with the van?’”
Later, Belanger learned that six police cruisers had been on route for an apparent firearms call connected to their music video.
“Naturally, I shit my pants,” Belanger said.
“When he said, ‘OK, I just need your information just in case there’s any follow-up,’ and he said he was going to turn around, I was like, ‘Holy crap!’ and we all died laughing about it.”
After getting the van out of the woods, Belanger said the band took it to the scrapyard.
He said a variety of safety measures were taken while filming the video, like soaking the interior of the van ahead of lighting the fireworks and ensuring they cleaned up the site before they left.
“We had numerous talks about it. We wanted to make sure nobody was going to get hurt,” he said.
“We cleaned up the place and everything, but somebody decided to call the police on us.”
Set for release on Sep. 4, the But I Won’t music video will accompany the band’s Full Chisel tour this fall, including dates in Sault Ste. Marie on Oct. 3 at Oktoberfest and Oct. 9 at Blaster Powerhouse.
Formed in 2024 with Belanger, frontman and guitarist Josh Penno, bassist Brandon Ruch, and Todd Webb on the fiddle, the country and folk group recently came out as one of the winners in the 2026 Meltdown Competition.
Learn more about the band here.