Episode 4,000! Cars and Comedy with Jay Leno

Summary

Adam Carolla Show — Episode 4,000!

Cars and Comedy with Jay Leno
Release Date: September 16, 2025
Guest: Jay Leno (comedian, former Tonight Show host, car enthusiast)

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Overview

In this milestone 4,000th episode, Adam Carolla welcomes legendary comedian and longtime friend Jay Leno to the studio. The conversation is a lively blend of personal stories, car enthusiasm, humor, and commentary on comedy, legacy, and evolving culture. The show reflects on Leno’s career, his vast car collection, his life with wife Mavis, misadventures, and the nature of late-night television, while remaining grounded in the banter and motorhead camaraderie fans have come to love.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• Celebration of Adam's 4,000th episode with a reflective, personal, and comedic conversation.
• Jay Leno’s life updates: weight loss, Mavis’s health, and car projects.
• Deep-dive into car culture, stories from the road, and automotive history.
• Insights into show business, the evolution of comedy, and late-night politics.
• Honest discussion about aging, legacy, and the changing American landscape.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Jay Leno’s Health and Weight Loss

Timestamp: 02:54–04:10

• Adam notices Jay looks "trim" and asks about his health.
• Jay details his weight loss: from 224 lbs to 173 lbs.
  • “I ate a lot of watermelon. I eat like a watermelon a day. It’s all water.” (03:23)
  • Credits “Colin Chapman theory of less weight means more horsepower.” (03:29)
• Less carbs, less red meat, and cut back on steak.
  • “I was a steak every day kind of guy.” (04:04)

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Car Adventures, Porsche Stories, and Mechanical Mishaps

Timestamp: 04:10–12:21

• Reminiscence about Talladega, high-speed records, and close calls.
  • Jay recounts spinning a Porsche GT at 189 mph: “It spun eight times… I just kept cutting the wheel. So I flat spotted all four tires, but I didn’t hit anything.” (05:12)
• Discussion of the Paul Walker accident and testifying about driver error vs. car defects.
  • “It’s driver error… I lifted my foot off the throttle. It was my fault.” (06:19)
• Debate on older vs. modern-car safety features.
  • “McLaren F1 has none of these… that’s what driving used to be.” (07:49)
• Car video game culture; Forza and PlayStation’s use of Mark Donahue’s book.
  • “People who read the book and then did the racing game went faster… That’s how authentic the game is.” (09:46)

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Personal Reflections: Mavis’s Health and Life at Home

Timestamp: 10:21–15:16

• Jay talks compassionately about his wife Mavis, who is coping with Alzheimer’s.
  • “She’s not in any pain… You try to find the humor… She’s not walking anymore. I usually carry her around now.” (10:25)
  • Heartfelt shoe-shopping story, blending humor and love.
  • “The fire was still there… Just made me laugh.” (12:59)
• Jay reflects on their marriage and his contentment in caregiving.
  • “She needs me so I can do things for her… She smiles and is very happy…” (13:57)
  • “I have been extremely fortunate in my life, so I’m not gonna whine…” (14:19)

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Car Culture: Inclusive vs. Exclusive Events

Timestamp: 15:16–18:56

• Discussion of “The Quail” event at Monterey Car Week, ticket prices, and elitism.
  • “And I see myself as a young man on the other side of the fence looking at those cars… It’s a $4,000 ticket. I wouldn’t understand… Make a $100 donation to a charity.” (15:19)
• Jay’s preference for egalitarian car meets: “Cars and Coffee,” Midwest car shows.
  • “You meet hundreds of guys that have one car… It’s a family heirloom.” (17:11)
• Love for grassroots car culture and the “30 Under 30” initiative at Audrain Concours.
  • “If you’re under 30 and you spent less than $30,000 and you started the car yourself, you could enter…” (18:12)

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Car Stories and Legacy

Timestamp: 23:21–28:30

• Jay’s passion for car history, restoration, and connection to previous owners.
  • “I like the story more… I would reckon to say that you spend more time standing in front of the three-wheeler that the guy made himself in 1931…” (24:11)
• On being a “custodian” rather than an owner/collector.
  • “The custodian of these cars, the janitor of the car.” (25:32)
• Musings on what happens to collections after death.
  • “I’m trying to set something up, but we’ll see what happens…” (26:38)
  • “Peter Mullen had $100 million endowment… Two weeks later, the building’s empty, everything’s sold.” (25:48)

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Car Culture’s Human Element: Dealer and Auction Tales

Timestamp: 28:30–35:17

• Hilarious tale of car guys expressing interest at a funeral.
  • “I know this is probably not a good time, but, you know, if you want to sell the Porsche—she goes, I’m burying my husband. What’s the matter with you?” (28:30)
• Advising a widow to get a fair auction price, not undercut.
  • “I’ll give you $800,000, but it’s actually worth about 4 million, you know… if I can get you 3.5 to 4 million, you have to bake me some cookies.” (30:01)
• Stories behind Duesenbergs and other automobiles, highlighting wild, often dark, histories.

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Comedy, Late Night, and Showbiz Wars

Timestamp: 35:17–44:10

• The challenges of late-night TV and the misrepresentation in media.
  • Jay on his politics: “We made fun of both sides. Nobody could figure out our politics.” (36:34)
  • “Leno lashes out at Colbert… I didn’t say it!” (36:56)
• Reflections on being “the man” in comedy; experiencing jealousy and blame.
  • “I hated you for the longest time… cause you got the Tonight Show. But you weren’t even up for it!” (39:02)
• The Conan Tonight Show debacle and network politics.
  • “You got fired when you were number one in the ratings, which is insane.” (40:04)
  • “We want what’s above number one.” (40:04)

Memorable Quote:

“Who do you tackle? A guy with a football.” — Jay Leno (38:29)

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Generations, Math, and the Tactile World

Timestamp: 48:16–52:17

• Jay laments younger generations’ limited mechanical and mathematical skills.
  • Story: Man doesn't understand why half a pound of pastrami costs twice as much as a quarter. (48:43)
  • “I think something happened during COVID… I find my attention span—maybe it’s a thing of getting older—but it just seems like something happened. I’m looking at videos way more than reading.” (49:53)
• Adam and Jay reflect on the value of “hands-on” learning and problem-solving.
  • “The heart is healthiest when the head and hands work together.” — Jay Leno (50:45)

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Standout Car Stories

Timestamp: 53:30–58:57

• Jay describes receiving Dean Martin’s son’s Lamborghini Miura (a seized-up car gifted to Jay) and reconstructing it.
• On the significance of individual cars and what they symbolize.
  • “Imagine every girl you ever went out with in high school still looks the same and they're waiting for you. So I go in the garage…” (55:26)
• Stories of John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot, their down-to-earth character, and the fickle nature of fame.
  • “It is such a cruel business…here’s a guy, a nice guy, not a prick, and I eventually got him on (the show).” (58:11)

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History, Legacy, and Cultural Amnesia

Timestamp: 60:14–63:50

• Jay and Adam discuss the fading of cultural memory, e.g. guests who don’t know Laurel & Hardy.
  • “Who’s Laurel & Hardy?” (61:47)
  • “Celebrity provenance – Hoot Gibson.” (62:17)

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Legendary Favorite Guests, Stand-Up Life, and Being an “Everyman”

Timestamp: 63:02–75:54

• Jay’s favorite guests: Rodney Dangerfield, Bob Newhart, Johnny Carson, Charlie Sheen.
  • “Make Letterman laugh—that was the highlight of my career. He’s a tough guy to make laugh.” (72:23)
• Tales from comedy’s rougher gigs: traffic school, prisons, old age homes.
  • “Hilarious. Oh yeah, hilarious. I realized I’ve got a cultural moray here…” (86:09)
• Jay’s unique take on “laziness,” self-esteem, and what makes people fail (hint: rarely their comedy ability).
  • “Never believe in yourself. Make other people believe.” (83:57)
  • “Low self esteem can motivate—it’s a good thing.” (85:53)
• Self-motivation stories; betting on himself to get comedy stage time, e.g., offering bartenders $50: “If I get a laugh, give me my $50 back. If not, you keep it.” (79:12)

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Accidents, Retirement, and the Future

Timestamp: 95:19–101:20

• Jay recounts his recent run of accidents (fire, trike clothesline, rolling down a hill).
  • “I just had like two or three incidents. They all happened in the last couple years, but before that I never had any problems.” (95:33)
  • “I had to call my face guy. ‘Guys, I need another face…’” (96:17)
• On retirement plans:
  • “No, I retire when I have my stroke. That’s usually how it works…” (97:34)
  • “I do this for free…I mean, it’s fun, telling funny stories.” (97:47)
• Current projects: working on a 1918 Stutz Bearcat, turbine engine rebuild with the original Chrysler engineers.
  • “They said, ‘We’ll build you a new motor, just pay for the parts.’ It was like the movie Cocoon…They did a wonderful, wonderful job.” (98:52)

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps and Speaker Attribution)

• Jay Leno on weight loss: "I'm using the Colin Chapman theory of less weight means more horsepower." (03:29)
• On the dangers of old cars: "It's driver error… I lifted my foot off the throttle. It was my fault." (06:19)
• Leno on car culture: “You meet hundreds of guys that have one car. And it’s a family heirloom.” (17:11)
• On legacy: "The custodian of these cars, the janitor of the car." (25:32)
• Giving honest auction advice: “I’ll give you 800,000, but it’s actually worth about 4 million, you know. And she said, ‘Oh, it’s not worth that much.’ I go, I said, can you bake cookies?” (30:01)
• Jay on late-night headlines: “Leno lashes out at Colbert… I didn’t say it!” (36:56)
• Jay on fame and resentment: “Who do you tackle? A guy with a football.” (38:29)
• On young people and hands-on learning: “The heart is healthiest when the head and hands work together.” (50:45)
• Adam on cultural amnesia: "It's almost like not hearing of World War II." (61:50)
• Jay on self-motivation: “Never believe in yourself. Make other people believe.” (83:57)
• On retirement: “No, I retire when I have my stroke. That’s usually how it works.” (97:34)

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Timestamps for Notable Segments

• Jay Leno’s dramatic Porsche spin-out & mechanical stories: (04:34–07:05)
• Mavis Leno and life reflections: (10:21–14:50)
• On inequality in car shows: (15:16–18:56)
• Auction honesty & car deals: (30:01–30:56)
• Leno discusses legacy and what happens to car collections: (25:41–26:38)
• Late night politics, firing, & comedy culture: (36:03–41:27)
• Jay’s take on hands-on learning and COVID attention: (48:43–49:53)
• Comedy war stories: (63:02–89:59)
• Accidents, shop life, and why Jay doesn’t retire: (95:19–97:47)
• Chrysler Turbine Car restoration story: (98:24–99:52)

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Summary Tone and Style

The episode is laid-back, warm, and full of affection, reverence, and sharp wit. Jay Leno’s humility, fascination with everyday people, and deep knowledge of car history shine brightly, while Adam Carolla brings out both the nostalgic and comedic sides of his guest. Personal reflections on family, legacy, and mortality are balanced by mechanical adventures, shop talk, and "only in comedy" tales.

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For New Listeners

If you haven’t listened:

• You’ll find a rare, candid look at Jay Leno’s personal life and ethos.
• The episode is packed with car stories, stand-up wisdom, and a unique view into classic Hollywood, late-night, and blue-collar America.
• Notable for its unfiltered, kind-hearted tone, honest laughs, and deep dives into the “why” behind car collecting and comedy.

Skip to ~15:16 for classic car culture, or 36:03 for insightful late-night TV tales. For pure comic value, don’t miss the prison gigs and career advice at 86:09 and 83:57.

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End of Summary

“I do this for free – I mean, it’s fun, telling funny stories. So if you can get paid for it, why not?” — Jay Leno (97:47)

Transcript

[Adam Carolla]

Well, in this episode, Jay Leno, legendary comedian and good friend Jay Leno joins me for my 4,000th episode. That's a good conversation. So I think you're going to enjoy this and we'll do that right after this. Hey, this is Adam Carolla from the Adam Carolla Show. Betonline continues to be your number one source for all your football betting action. Betonline has more ways to get in and stay in on action with the latest odds, news and scores. Even live in game betting. From every NFL and college game to mlb, UFC and NHL futures as well, Betonline remains your choice. For sports wagering info. Head to the website today and take advantage of their industry leading VIP program with level up bonuses and weekly cash boosts. In between games, head over to Betonline's casino with all the top Vegas style games including poker and live casino. Betonline. The game starts here.

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[Show Announcer]

From Corolla One Studios in Glendale, California. This is the Adam Carolla Show. Adam's guest today, Jay Leno. And now in honor of Jay's appearance, Adam is wearing double denim.

[Adam Carolla]

Adam Caroll, Jay Leno has been gracious enough to come by the studio for my 4,000th 4,000 show.

[Jay Leno]

Boy, I tell you. And it just feels so special.

[Adam Carolla]

It does, doesn't it? A lot of pomp and circumstance already.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. That's unbelievable.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I was made aware a couple of weeks ago that my 4000th show was coming up. I didn't care that much, but I still thought I should talk to somebody I want to talk to.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, that's very kind.

[Adam Carolla]

Jay Leno is.

[Jay Leno]

Or anybody who was available. I got it. Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

There are a lot of hard passes, but so Jay, so much going on with you. First off, you seem trim. You seem like you're down, I don't know, £20.

[Jay Leno]

No, no, I'm down. Well, I was 224 at my highest. I'm 173 now, so.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, well, I didn't. What I didn't want to do is go too high in the amount you lost and have it be less, but. So what are you doing? Or are you doing anything?

[Jay Leno]

You mean to lose weight?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Are you dieting?

[Jay Leno]

Well, no, I just say I ate a lot of watermelon. I try to have. I eat like a watermelon a day.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, well, it's all water and it's right. You know, I used to go morning and I have a box of English muffins. I have four or five of those bits of butter on it, right. And I just, you know, I gotta stop doing this. I'm using the Colin Chapman theory of less weight means more horsepower.

[Adam Carolla]

So Lotus of Lotus.

[Jay Leno]

If I lose weight, then I'll have more strength. So that seems to work.

[Adam Carolla]

So you just backed off on the carbs and the melon, all of that, and it was just a conscious thing.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And I mean, you're down 40, 45, £50.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, about that. Yeah. That's good. I feel better. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, good.

[Jay Leno]

You know, not as much red meat as I used to eat. I was a steak every day kind of guy.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, also, you know, it's funny, I just got back from Talladega, I was having a memory about you at Talladega driving a Porsche G. I went and I had some vague thoughts about it, but it's a super speedway. It's got the super speedway. Everyone knows what it is was interesting because Jay was out there setting a record in that we tried to do.

[Jay Leno]

100 laps at like 190 miles an hour. And you know, it's so funny. Even though it's The Porsche Courier GT, it's still 20 year old technology. And you begun going to the corners at 188, 189, and you feel the tires, after a while they start to wear. You're like, I mean, the whole rear end of the car is just moving around. So I was coming out of the back straight and we'd done what we wanted to do. The guy just get like this gives. Oh, you can shut it down. I thought, oh, great. I took my foot off the throttle, the ass end came around.

[Adam Carolla]

Just taking your foot off the throttle?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, it spun eight times. You know that old adage, you hit what you're looking at. So every time I saw the wall, I just turned my head. It distinctly made you. So I just kept cutting the wheel. So I flat spotted all four tires, but I didn't hit anything. So I managed to avoid that. So I was alright.

[Adam Carolla]

And I went and watched a video because I knew you were coming here. And I put on my Talladega hat because I was there last week doing some other business. And I thought, Mark Donahue back in the day set a record there in a Porsche. This was a 917 race car. Not the GT. The GT is the car that Paul Walker died in.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right.

[Adam Carolla]

And also somebody, when I did a vintage race at Fontana, died there and a Porsche meet or something?

[Jay Leno]

Well, no, the guy was going around the track and somebody came out from the pit lane, I believe, and immediately went right to the. Instead of following the pit lane around it, he just kind of went right to the wall and the car hit him coming down.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh. And I thought there was a defect or something with the car.

[Jay Leno]

No, I don't think there was. You know, I testified on Porsche's behalf because when the Walker trial, when Walker had his accident, I got a call from these lawyers. They wanted to testify again. I said, I'm not. It's driver error. Okay. I mean, I lifted my foot off the throttle. It was my fault. I mean, as much as I'd like to blame somebody at some point, it's not. You're a driver. And I'm not a professional race car driver. Not by any sense. I mean, a professional race car would have probably reacted differently or done something differently, but I just. When the guy went like this, okay, that's it. I went, oh, I just lifted my foot off, which makes the car shift. And, you know, it's a little tail heavy, so the ass hand comes around. And luckily I managed to keep it in its spin. So I felt good about that.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You know, I think my friend Mark Garagos, the attorney, was representing the Walker family. And it's interesting. Was he. Do you remember seeing him there?

[Jay Leno]

No. I just gave a deposition where I said it was my fault. I made a mistake.

[Adam Carolla]

You're spinning out of the gt.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Right, right, yeah. Cause they probably wanted to see if it was a mechanical situation.

[Jay Leno]

I always love that for the cost of just a $50 washer, somebody's life could have been saved. But the cars that will redesign and not to have traction control and ABS and all, because that's what it is. McLaren F1 has none of these. None of these.

[Adam Carolla]

The 93.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. You know. Yeah, the F1, the legendary car. And that's what driving used to be. And a lot of people like to go back to what it used to be. And that's what a race car is. I mean, most race cars. I don't think any race cars have traction control or stability control or any of that.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't know if there's some anti lock or something. The best thing I ever got out of a race car like technology would be in a modern Trans Am car. There would be sequential shifts.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right.

[Adam Carolla]

And you don't have to match rev it when you downshift. You just grab the next gear. And in terms of driving, it is one less thing to think, you know, kind of thing. And some of them are like, you don't even have to lift off the accelerator. When you grab the next gear, you don't have to push the clutch in.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right.

[Adam Carolla]

You don't have to just grab the next gear. I push the clutch in just out of habit, of respect or something.

[Jay Leno]

And then you're going to be two seconds slower at the end of the lap.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So anyway, I had a whole Talladega thought it was interesting to me that when I went back and looked at your tape, the professional instructor was named Donahue.

[Jay Leno]

Well, he was Mark's son.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, that's what I said. I said to my producer, I go, wait a minute, that's Mark. That can't be a coincidence. His name is Donahue.

[Jay Leno]

Well, you know what's interesting?

[Adam Carolla]

You know, Mark Donahue did 217 or.

[Jay Leno]

Something, but he wrote a book called Unfair Advantage.

[Adam Carolla]

Mark Donahue.

[Jay Leno]

Mark Donahue. About how he raced and what he did to the car. I guess Sony did the PlayStation, they got that book. They incorporated everything from that book into the cars. And people who read the book and then did the racing game went faster using all the tricks that Mark Donahue had talked about in the book in the, in the, you know, the recreation car for the race.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, it's really kind of interesting. That's how authentic the game is. That's pretty cool.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. I've had the Forza guys scan some of my cars. I imagine they done some of your cars.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, yeah, they did mine like 10 or 15 years ago for the first generation, the big tank car and all the other. It was great fun. It was great fun.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. They don't miss a thing.

[Jay Leno]

No, no. If you incorporate the tricks, the tire pressure, everything that Mark Donahue used in the real car, in the video game, you Will go faster.

[Adam Carolla]

So, Jay, I gotta ask you about Mavis. How is her health? How's she doing?

[Jay Leno]

She's doing okay. You know, it's okay. Anybody that deals with Alzheimer's or dementia kind of knows what this is. She's not in any pain. You know, you try to find the humor in this situation, you know? She's not walking anymore. I usually carry her around now, but when she was walking, I said, come on, let's go to Nordstrom's. Come on, buy some clothes. She's feeling kind of down. I don't want to. No, come on, let's see if something you like. Okay. And we're looking at the same thing. So we're going to the shoe department. She sees these bright blue sneakers. She goes, oh, look at those. I said, you like those? Oh, yeah, those are good. Those are cool. Well, try them on. Do you want. Yeah. How much are these? $24. Okay. Okay, thanks. Thanks. Appreciate it. Okay, honey, you want another? Honey, get another pair. I go, okay. So she sees the same ones but red and white with, you know, some bedazzler. Hit them or something. And she said, oh, these are nice. We'll try them on. So she puts them on. Honey, wear those home. Put your shoes in the box. Come on. Come on, you can walk those out. Oh, okay, great. You know, so I get up there, I give the guy my credit card, and I got two pairs, okay? I goes, it's $24. Okay. Okay, that is $887. I go, no, wait, no, no. Two pairs of sneakers. They're $24. He goes, those are $24. These were designed by Hahaha, you know, some rap guy. And all he did was take a bedazzler and hit the blue one and put some sparkle. And they were $800. And I look at her, and she's got a big smile. You ready to go? Yeah, honey. I mean, I'm glad I can afford it, you know? I mean, it made her so happy. So that kind of. I'll tell you. I'll tell you nothing. You know, my wife has always been involved.

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, you guys have been married 55 years or 50 years?

[Jay Leno]

45 years. 45 years we've been together 50. But, you know, she's always involved with women's issues. Nobel Peace Prize nomination, all that kind of stuff. So when I watch TV with her, I try to watch episodic, like, Law and Order shows that end after 45 minutes. Nothing that started on Monday and ends on Friday because she's not Going to. Remember the Monday show because. So we're watching Hawaii. I'm trying to find Hawaii Five O. First generation, 1968, you know.

[Adam Carolla]

Jack Lord. Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

Jack Lord, and every woman who meets. Honey, Honey, come here, sweetie. Sweetie, what did the man look like? Honey, Honey, give me a business test. Man, you just talks like this.

[Adam Carolla]

Freshen up this highball, would you, toots?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah. That kind of stuff, Honey. Seems so. Then Stanley Holloway, the actor, plays a genetic scientist, a genetic engineer who gets captured by the Red Chinese. Not the Chinese.

[Adam Carolla]

The Red Chinese. Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

So McGarrett goes to see his daughter, and she's about 40, and he says to her, what kind of genetic engineering did your father do? And she says, well, I'm just a woman. I don't understand such things. And I hear my wife yelling f you. Screaming at the tv. It just killed me. It just killed me. The fire, you know, the fire was still there, and it just made me laugh. And that's kind of how we have fun, you know? But she said, honey, sweetie, come here. Come here. Hilarious.

[Adam Carolla]

So she's not mobile anymore?

[Jay Leno]

No, no, no. I mean, I can take her in the car and take her place and stuff like that, but she's not walking.

[Adam Carolla]

And how's that sitting with you? I mean, are you okay? I don't want to, you know.

[Jay Leno]

Well, she is sitting with me.

[Adam Carolla]

Sitting on you. No, I'm just saying, I mean, you have such a great love story, you.

[Jay Leno]

Know, something I enjoy.

[Adam Carolla]

You're stoic and all that stuff. But I just mean.

[Jay Leno]

I don't know, I enjoy her company. I like. She's always been fiercely independent, and I like the fact that she needs me so I can do things for. And she smiles and is very happy, and she's not, you know, she's not angry or, you know, we just sort of go day by day, and I go home, I cook dinner for her, we watch tv, which is what I did when I had the Tonight Show. I'd go from the Tonight Show, I'd stop at the market, pick up something to eat and cook it. And sometimes she'd cook it, but sometimes I did. And so it's okay, you know, it's not, you know. Look, I have been extremely fortunate in my life, so I'm not gonna whine to complain about this. And it's all right. It's better than the alternative, you know, and it's okay. It's okay.

[Adam Carolla]

I was a little sad last time I spoke to you. Cause I was getting excited about going to Monterey for the Car week. And I felt. I was just talking to you. I was out on the road or something, and I felt like you were a little morose, like you didn't want to go. It seemed like a hassle. You stopped everywhere.

[Jay Leno]

Well, it's a little different now. I'm just uncomfortable how expensive the tickets are.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, the quails. Like 3500 bucks for the quails.

[Jay Leno]

No. And I feel like. And I see myself as a young man on the other side of the fence looking at those cars, and I go, why can't they come over the fence and look at the car? I mean, that's why they come there at $4,000. I mean, I wouldn't understand. Make a $100 donation to a charity.

[Adam Carolla]

You'Ll be glad to know, in the young man department. My son is now 19, has been going for a decade. The Quails is by far on the other side of the fence. Two years ago, we didn't have a ticket for him. I snuck him in. We got him in through the restaurant, the golf course or whatever.

[Jay Leno]

Well, the funny thing is, the fence is only two feet high.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

It's this tiny fence, and you can step over it.

[Adam Carolla]

So you know what you do. And by the way, I know it's not a financial thing. It just seems a little gross. It's sort of like.

[Jay Leno]

Well, to me, I see. I like the car shows that are a bit more egalitarian, like a cars and coffee thing. You'll see a 68 Dodge Dart park next to a Ferrari GTO. And I'm looking at the Dodge Dart because I've seen every Ferrari out there. Yeah, you go, I haven't seen a really pristine 68 Dodge Dart.

[Adam Carolla]

You go to, like, the Winnetka Dodge, the one in the flood basin off of Sepulveda and Winnetka or whatever. That's like your kind of.

[Jay Leno]

That's great. You know, I went to one, I was doing a show in Wisconsin, and they said, oh, there's a car show tomorrow, because my plane didn't leave till like 2 o'.

[Adam Carolla]

Clock.

[Jay Leno]

So next. Oh, I'll go to the car show. So I won't go to the car show. And it's guys. I would say half the guys there still had the car they had when they were in high school. And now that their kids are going to college, they're gonna get a chance to restore it.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Jay Leno]

And, you know, they got the little bratwurst going and they're cooking the bratwurst and they got a couple of beers and this guy's just sitting around. You know, here in California, you meet one or two guys that have hundreds of cars. You go to the Midwest in New England, and you meet hundreds of guys that have one car.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Jay Leno]

And it's a family heirloom, and it's nothing. One guy, the car that won was a 66 Pontiac Tempest with a straight six. And the guy had looked like it came out of the. The showroom floor. It was probably a $2,800 car when it was new. But it's just fun just to see that and to hear all these guys talk about what they're going to do with this car when they finally finish it. And they'll be either retired or dead by the time they arrive. But the whole thing was just sharing the experience. And I go, oh, okay. Because you go to these rich guy things, and a lot of these rich guys who buy a car, send it off to a store, get the car back, enter it and win a prize and then sell the car, I go, I mean, what fun is that? You know? So that's why I enjoy the more just the regular. You know, we started a thing at the Audrain Concord, which is in October, called 30 Under 30. And because there are so many kids that like cars but couldn't get in a car show. So if you're under 30 and you spent less than $30,000 and you started the car yourself, you could enter it in this show. And the turnout was like hundreds of cars. I mean, guys with, you know, the BMWs from the 90s and, you know, 2002s and they put them all back together.

[Adam Carolla]

And the level 2002. The model, not the year 2002.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right.

[Adam Carolla]

But the enthusiast, nobody knows anything about cars.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, for me and you, I guess that's true. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

BMW 1600. Well, it's not from the 1600s.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you know, there is a philosophical. I don't know where you come down on it, but I meet people on the road. You meet people on the road, they get out pictures of their 65 Mustang notchback, and they show you pictures of it from high school, and then they tell you what they're doing with it. And there's insane reverence and enthusiasm and emotion tied up on what is essentially $6,000 car. But it's them, you know, and then you think, well, you have so many different cars. And there's a part of me, sometimes when I walk away from those conversations where I go, that person loves their car way more than I would love any of my ten cars.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right.

[Adam Carolla]

Because they're so tied up in this one thing. And sort of, who's the joke on here? Because this person is passionate and so tied up in this.

[Jay Leno]

Well, my favorite is when I go to these car shows and the husband and wife have matching Mustang outfits, you know, the shirts that say Mustang in the pan that say Mustang. And they're all excited. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's great.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Well, I was just in at the Pabst Theater in Wisconsin.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, that's a nice theater. Yeah, it's beautiful.

[Adam Carolla]

And that's where your friends. You purchased their Dodge Dart.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. And so I got a call from Jay on the road. Hey, I got somebody from Wisconsin. I don't know, there's eight or nine of them. There's a whole clan. It's like kids.

[Jay Leno]

And there were a couple, they were, like, 19. He was going in the service, and she was working in a trucking company, you know, like as a receptionist or something. And she bought a 68 Dodge Darwin 383. And he bought the Charger, and they had them their whole lives, and they got divorced, and, you know, she got her car and he got his car, and. Yeah, and they still love the car. They sold it to me. Oh, you gotta buy it. We want you to have it. Okay. As soon as I got it, you want to sell it back? I want to do. I just bought it, you know, so I sell it. If I ever sell it, I'll sell it back to you. Okay. So that's kind of where we are, but. Yeah, they said they liked the show very much.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, they had a good time.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, they said it was great. Yeah, they really enjoyed it.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, it's a cool theater. Milwaukee's kind of a sleeper town. Like, it's interesting towns that are on the way up and towns that are on the way down, and you can kind of market, like if you're out here long enough. Melrose was dicey and dirty and crappy, and then Melrose got popular and cool and hip, and now Melrose is starting to slide back down.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right. I guess the third set of riots where they burned it down.

[Adam Carolla]

Right, right. And old Town Pasadena was hot in the 50s and then started getting crime. And so things have a sort of ebb and a flow to them, and LA is on the decline. But you think of Milwaukee, you think of Laverne and Shirley, 1974, something like that. And you go there, and it's vibrant.

[Jay Leno]

It is and, you know, I find any place that's cold has guys that can work with their hands. And that's what they do in the winter. They go in the basement, they take a motorcycle apart, they fastidiously put it back together or rebuild an engine or something like that, you know, I remember I bought a Bugatti from a guy, and he had like six or seven dresser drawers filled with paperwork and correspondence. And I took all that with me, put it in my. But it was always sunny, you know, so I was always driving the car, right? And then we had A. About 10 years ago, we had. It rained for like the whole month of February. I said, well, I can't take it. Let me go through this. And then I realized this Bugatti was bought originally by Pierre Verone, the guy who the Bugatti Veyron is named after. And this was a race car. And it went from $150,000 car that I bought to a $2 million car. So I called Bugatti and I said, you know, I got all this paperwork. So they had me bring it to pebble beach. And when the Bugatti Veyron Sport came out, they copied it after my car, using the white and the light blue, the two tone. And they had on display as the instigator for the Veron, you know. Really? Yeah, yeah. Kind of fun. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I mean, you like the story?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah, I like the story.

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, you're. Jay, stop me if I'm wrong here, all right?

[Jay Leno]

You're wrong.

[Adam Carolla]

Jay has his. You have the 93F1.

[Jay Leno]

94F1.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, sorry.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Did they come out in 93 or are they just in one year?

[Jay Leno]

No, they're all right.

[Adam Carolla]

So jay's got his 94 McLaren F1. Could be worth 25 million bucks. All right, now, 65ft from that is a three wheeled, handmade motorcycle car that a guy wrote drove Indian, maybe that the guy drove across the country in.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right, right.

[Adam Carolla]

I would reckon to say that you spend more time standing in front of the three wheeler that the guy made himself in 1942.

[Jay Leno]

1931. 31.

[Adam Carolla]

Telling the story of how a kid built that thing and rode it across America. And that's more where your head is in terms of motor.

[Jay Leno]

No. The kid was 17, and he told his father he wanted a car, and you can't afford a car. So he and his dad went down to the junkyard, they bought an Indian motorcycle engine.

[Adam Carolla]

I did have an Indian. That's good. I remember that.

[Jay Leno]

A bunch of model A sheet metal. He built this three wheel car in the 30s. Yeah. They drove it from Minneapolis to Alaska to San Diego and back to Minneapolis during the Depression. And it's a fascinating story. And when he was, like, in his late 80s, it was rotting in his backyard, and he was so afraid that some motorcycle guys would come, take the engine, take the engine, throw the car away. He said, if I give it to you, will you promise not to sell it? I said, yeah, I'll fix it up. Okay. So I never met the man. And then one day I had Michelle Williams, you know, the actress on the show. And we're talking, and she just happens to say, you know, you got my grandfather's car. I said, well, I don't think so.

[Adam Carolla]

The Michelle Williams Dawson Creek and then all the movies after that.

[Jay Leno]

And that was her grandfather. Really? It just made me laugh. I went, oh, how about that? That's kind of cool.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So you think yourself as the custodian.

[Jay Leno]

Custodian of the car. That's crazy. The custodian of these cars, the janitor of the car.

[Adam Carolla]

And every five years, I ask you, but there's no point. Plans for the cars when you're gone.

[Jay Leno]

Well, you know, I keep hearing, you know Peter Mullen. Peter Mullins.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, the collector. Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

He had $100 million endowment for his museum. This is going to go for 100 years. I said, well, that's great. You know, two weeks later, the building's empty, everything's sold. I don't quite understand how that works. I thought there was an endowment. Well, the family would not. Car people. You know, just because you like car doesn't mean all your grandchildren. Everybody else likes them, and everything just got sold. It's just. Oh. So, I mean, I'm trying to set something up, but we'll see what happens.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you know, you don't have greedy kids or kids at all.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right, right, right. You just have greedy friends.

[Adam Carolla]

Podcast hosts who are going on their 4,000th episode.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, my wife's getting calls now. Hey, when Jay dies, you want to sell? You know, the funniest thing was.

[Adam Carolla]

So you're trying to set something up.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Where it'll remain intact.

[Jay Leno]

Well, yeah, at least for a while, hopefully.

[Adam Carolla]

But because you don't have, you know, but, you know, nephews and nieces and.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, but not the car person. You know, just people have health issues and whatnot.

[Adam Carolla]

O'Reilly Auto Parts. Yeah. Well, guess who's in the business of keeping your car on the road. That is O'Reilly Auto Parts. O'Reilly Auto Parts. Well, they offer friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs. Good folk over there. I've always used O'Reilly. I used them back in the day and I use them now. And for me, they're very conveniently located. I hit the one up on Foothill a few weeks ago and then I hit the one in Glendale the other day, too. So whether you're car aficionado or an auto novice, you're going to find the employees at O'Reilly Auto Parts are knowledgeable, helpful, and best of all, they are friendly. So stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit us@o'reillyauto.com Adam that's o'reillyauto.com Adam.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

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[Jay Leno]

But I'll tell you a funny story. I met this woman and her husband died and she had a Porsche Speedster. And they're at the funeral. This is absolutely true. They're lowering him, the casket into the ground and the guy taps on his shoulder, go, I know this is probably not a good time, but, you know, if you want to sell the Porsche, she goes, I'm burying my husband. What's the matter with you?

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I mean, car guys are big time enthusiasts and they're motivated. And it's like, I think it was the Duesenberg you found buried in the garage over here in Burbank or Glendale or something.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, right around the corner.

[Adam Carolla]

And I was just thinking about.

[Jay Leno]

Well, you know, this area, the Daytona, the.

[Adam Carolla]

Shelby Daytona that was in that garage all those years at Phil Spector's bodyguards, daughter. And people are knocking on the door wanting to get like, there's a weird buried treasure aspect to this. And that guy thought, I better talk to this woman first.

[Jay Leno]

Well, you'll like this story. I get a call from this woman and she said, my husband passed away. He had a Ferrari 275 alloy car he bought in 71. We've had it all these years. Okay, I'm talking. She says, I'd like to sell it. Are you interested? I said, what do you want for it? She goes, well, he told Me, it was worth $800,000, so I'm not going to take any less than that.

[Adam Carolla]

It's a little light.

[Jay Leno]

And I said to her, I'll give you 800,000, but it's actually worth about 4 million, you know. And she said, oh, it's not worth that much. I go. I said, can you bake cookies? She goes, yes. I tell you what, if I can get you three and a half to four million, you have to bake me some cookies. She goes, that'll be fine. So I called David Gooding. It's an alloy car, blah, blah, blah.

[Adam Carolla]

Gooding and Company Auction Company.

[Jay Leno]

The auction company. And they got $3.75 million for the car.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I was going to say it's a $4 million car.

[Jay Leno]

I know, I know. But she thought the last figure she got from her husband was 800,000. Then it sat in the garage for another 15 years.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Jay Leno]

You know, so.

[Adam Carolla]

And also he.

[Jay Leno]

And you know, he makes you feel good.

[Adam Carolla]

He paid 9 for it or something when it was new or 11 or whatever.

[Jay Leno]

Screw over an old lady and it makes you feel good. You get. It's kind of like, oh, you know, it was kind of fun. It was fun.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. I mean, it must be nice to be in that position, too. Although, I don't know a lot of rich guys that wouldn't have bid on 800 grand on something you know, is between 3, 5, and 4.

[Jay Leno]

Well, then you're the bad guy, you know, I mean, that's a great. You know, the great thing about exotic cars like Duesenberg, there's always a great story.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

Like, I have a car called the Duesenberg, barrel side. All Duesenbergs are built in 1928. It took 10 years to sell them because the Depression hit. So if you got a 34 Duesenberg, it's really in 1928, but it wasn't sold till 34, so it's titled 34. So this is young guy. He's 17 years old. His grandfather, who's still alive, leaves him $17,500 in stock. So he and the grandfather take the money, they cash in the stock, they go down. They buy him a brand new Duesenberg for $17,500 or $18,000, pretty much. They drive it home. The grandfather's son, his father, furious that they've sold the stock and bought this stupid car, throws them both out of the house. You know, the father doesn't want anything to do with either one of them. You're so stupid. Then the Depression hit, okay? Now he's got a car. He's got a Duesenberg car. And the stock was worthless, so he had the car for about 10 years. Then he sold it to a guy who was one of the first GIs into Berlin during World War II. And he and four or five other GIs raided all these German safe deposit boxes. They took a bunch of diamonds and all the money they could find. They took it. They stuffed them in the frame of a motorcycle, a gold motorcycle. Welded the frame back up, left it with a motorcycle dealer, gave him some money and said, we're going to come back in a year and pick this up. Okay, no problem. So I come back, the bike's still there. They bring it back to America, looks fine. Okay? Cut the frame open, bought a huge estate in Connecticut, and he bought the Duesenberg. Okay? He had the Duesenberg about a year, and then just bonded over a woman. He drives into the garage, shuts the door, and asphyxiates himself. Now, 25, 30 years later, I go to a car show and I meet his brother. Now, his brother would never sell the car to anybody who knew the story. Cause I didn't know the story. He said, do you know anything about Duesenbergs? And I said, well, yeah, Duesenberg, Fred and Augie. And he goes, oh, you know a lot about them, huh? I go, oh, yeah, yeah. He said, you want to buy one? I said, yeah, you got one. I got one sale, okay? So I bought it, and I went to his house, and he had tons of motorcycles, but you got to take all this crap, too. I said, yeah, fine. I'll take all the motorcycles off it. So I buy the whole thing, okay? I get the car home, I start doing research or I find out the story. And every Duesenberg collector had been to the guy's house going, look, I know your brother. Dad, I'm really sorry. Hey, do you want to sell the car? And he would never sell it to anybody that knew the story, but he sold it to me. So I restored it, took it to Pebble Beach. You know, it's like 800,000 to restore the thing. And I took him for a ride in it, and I said, it runs good. I go, and the brakes are really good. He goes, well, you know, I did the brakes before I sold it. The thing was a rusted hulk when I got it. I said, oh, I appreciate it. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for doing that. It's kind of funny. So there's always a good story, you know, there's another Duesenberg I have. There was a woman named Evelyn Walsh Maclean who was kind of like a Paris Hilton type, you know, socialite. And this is when the Lindbergh kidnapping was going on. A lot of anti German sentiment going around. So she reads in the paper that night, she has a dream. And in her dream, she sees Bruno Hampton, the German, kidnap the Lindbergh baby. So the district attorney says, would you tell that story to a jury? I certainly will. So they bring her up. They swear in. Tell us about your dream. Yes, I dreamed that that man everybody kidnapped the baby. And then she passes out on the stand from her arduous testimony. And there's a book called Kidnapped, and it's got a picture of her chauffeur putting her in the back of the car after her arduous.

[Adam Carolla]

The vapors.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah. Arduous turmoil, you know. Hilarious. Just hilarious. But I just like the idea you think you get screwed by the court now. Oh, my God, you had a dream.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

And in your dream. Guilty.

[Adam Carolla]

So last we spoke, I think you were explaining you weren't going out to pebble this year. It's probably. I spent most of the time at the track, so it's a little less toity and a little less toity, you know. But we're also sort of lamenting the state of late night and affairs. And I know you got some flack for saying you didn't saying innocent. Very innocent statement, which is why we getting so political all the time.

[Jay Leno]

Well, what happens in the press? I did a thing. They wanted to talk about the humor of Ronald Reagan. Now, I had dinner with Reagan a couple of times, and he was funny. He was a funny guy. He had my favorite Reagan line. He goes, jay, Jay. Were you a good student, Jay? I said, no, Mr. President, I wasn't. He goes, gee, neither was I. And every day I kick myself thinking how much further I could have gone if I just applied myself. And I just thought that was a great line. I mean, you're president, I'd say if only he'd studied a little harder, you know?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

I mean. And Jay, you had an Indian Jay? I had an Indian chief. Do you know what the Chief is? Yes, Mr. President.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh.

[Jay Leno]

And we would talk about cars and motorcycles. So he was kind of a fun guy. So anyway, so then the interviewer says, how did you and Johnny handle politics? They said, well, we made fun of both sides. You know, we never picked a side. Nobody could figure out our politics. That's all. I said, okay. About three weeks later, Colbert gets fired, and the headline is, Leno lashes out at Colbert. I didn't. Leno says you're supposed to make fun of both. No, I didn't pick. And then I got every comic calling me names and saying, why did you say, I didn't say it? They always do that in the press.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't know why. It's Lucy with the football. It gets moved every time. Why do we take a run at it? You know? It's gonna happen.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And it does. It bothers me when comedians sort of jump on other comedians.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. I don't like that because I never mention another comedian in a disparaging way. I just don't. I just ignore it. When all the guys were attacking me and Stern, all this, I just said, yeah, I just let it go. It's fine. It's fine. You know, my attitude in show business is don't believe the good stuff or the bad stuff. Hey, you suck. Okay, well, thanks. Thanks for your opinion. Hey, you're the greatest. Well, thank you. Thank you. You know, obviously, I like the good a little bit better, but for the most part, I don't dwell because it's just what it is, you know?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, Well, I mean, at a certain point, you sort of become the man. And, you know, you go from the outsider and the comedian's comedian and the indie band to playing arenas. You know what I mean? And once you do that, then a certain amount of people will feel compelled to attack you because you're the man, Even though you're no different than you were before. But you.

[Jay Leno]

Like I say, who do you tackle? A guy with a football.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. And you're hosting the Tonight show, so now you're the man. And we're all these edgy, independent outsider types, and we all think we're some punk band playing some small club up on the Upper east side. And so my feeling is like, well, it could be possible that people change or they become different, but if the guy was funny and he's still funny and he remains funny, being successful doesn't put him on some list where I have to tear him down.

[Jay Leno]

You know, I've had. I had one guy come up to me. I won't say who it is, but fairly famous, he goes, man, I hated you for the longest time. And I said, why? What did I do? He didn't do anything. But you got the Tonight Show. And I thought, I should have got it. I go, but you weren't. You never guest hosted, right? Yeah. You were never even up for it. He Goes, I know, but I thought I should have gotten it when you got it. And I said, well, I'm sorry. Sorry about that. I don't know what to tell you.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, it's an interesting thing. It did remind me of that when you were going through the situation with Conan and stuff, where Conan was going, ever Since I was 9, I dreamt of hosting, and I remember sitting back going, I dreamt of playing center field for the Dodgers. But it doesn't mean it's owed. It's not your birthright, just because you wanted to do it.

[Jay Leno]

Well, people think you have all this power and. And you got $150 million. No, I didn't. I got fired. How do I have any power?

[Adam Carolla]

Right. You know, you got fired when you were number one in the ratings, which is.

[Jay Leno]

That's my favorite thing.

[Adam Carolla]

Insane.

[Jay Leno]

I remember I had a meeting with them, and they, I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to say about Conan, but. And they said, why do you want to replace me? I said, we're number one. We bid number one for 14 years. He said, we want what's above number one. I said, okay. And I had to laugh. Even the other guys, okay, what is above number one? I said, the show's making money. You're doing fine. I've never missed a show. Out of 4,631 shows, I missed two shows because, oh, I was ill one day, and they wanted me to stay home an extra day, but that was it, you know, and it just sort of made me laugh, and I thought, all right, guys, you want me to go? I go, fine, fine. And then, see, what happened was Craig Ferguson came along, and he was a huge hit, and then he was opposite Conan, and I believe he was beating Conan in the ratings. And that's when Jeff Zucker said, I think we made a mistake. We want you to come back. I go, you know, that's really not going to work. He goes, I'll tell you what, why don't you do a half hour from 11:30 to 12? And Conant is 12. I go, Conan's not going to do that. So he mentions it to Conan, and Conant wrote the letter, you know, people of Earth, all that kind of stuff. And then I got blamed for all that, and it was fine.

[Adam Carolla]

It's weird getting blamed for a bunch of stuff. And I marvel at this. I was actually talking to Dr. Drew about this on the ride in because I was saying, I love that you carpool.

[Jay Leno]

I think that's fascinating.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I was on the phone, but I know how it sounds. But I said, years ago, it always stuck in my head. I went on this rant where I said, look, I want you to make your son and your daughter lunch, and I want you to make them breakfast. I want the parents involved and I want the symbolism. I'm not talking about the money. We're talking about free, free lunches and schools and free breakfast. I said, it's slop anyway. But I want the symbolism of the parents engaged, up in the morning, making the breakfast, seeing them off, put a little note in their bag with their name on. And I said, I don't care about the money, the taxes. I don't care. It costs 50 cents to feed a kid. I don't care. I pay enough in taxes. I want the parents involved, engaged. I don't want the government feeding your kids. Starting age, of course, you know, the next day it was like the Young Turks. Adam Carolla doesn't want your kids to eat. You know, but what I was laughing about with Drew is I was like, is that really my thing? Like, I don't want kids to get food, or I want only my kids to get food, But I don't want Drew's kids to get food. Cause that's more food my kids could get. Like, you really think that's my position as a tax paying citizen and as an adult, do you think Jay's a bad guy? You know, it's like. And I don't know what they think.

[Jay Leno]

Well, you mentioned something. We used to do headlines and I used to read school lunch menus. Oh, yeah. One of my favorite was meatloaf with soft breadsticks. Monday, Wednesday, meatloaf with crunchy breadsticks. That was extra. Because obviously what they couldn't give away on Monday, they kept to Tuesday and then finally Wednesday. Oh, now they were crunchy breadsticks. That always made me like.

[Adam Carolla]

We have, I'm told, a birthday cocktail party for you.

[Jay Leno]

For me?

[Adam Carolla]

This is the people, the famous people that celebrate your birthday.

[Jay Leno]

What? But my birthday's not till April.

[Adam Carolla]

I know, but there were people who came before us.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, you mean other people who also.

[Adam Carolla]

Have the same birthday.

[Jay Leno]

Yes. Well, Saddam and I used to celebrate.

[Adam Carolla]

Really? What is. I'm sorry. It's written on this page that you're 55 years old, but that just can't.

[Jay Leno]

No, I'm 75 years old.

[Adam Carolla]

That's what I would assume.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, I would guess that paper is 20 years old.

[Adam Carolla]

That's what I think.

[Jay Leno]

Yep.

[Adam Carolla]

Ink's dry. All right. We'll play it just cause oh, you want to take. You want a break and do it. Yeah. All right, I'll tell you what, we'll take a quick break. We'll come back with Jay's cocktail party right after this. Shopify starting a new business. Well, that can be intimidating. Yeah, got a lot to think about. Let's make it a little easier with Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands that are just getting started. Get started with your own design studio. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store to match your brand style. Get the word out like you got a marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. And best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert. With world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and beyond. It's Shopify. Right, Dawson?

[Show Announcer]

Turn your big business idea into Shopify on your side. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com corolla go to shopify.com corolla shopify.com corolla.

[Adam Carolla]

Thrive market well, you know, it's more stressful than packing school lunches, realizing you're out of everything at 7am yeah, nothing says great start to the day like your kid yelling where's the food? So while you're holding an empty box of crackers like it's evidence at a crime scene. That's why I stock up during Thrive markets. Back to school sale. Look, I don't have a ton of time to stand in line at the grocery store. I don't want to go up and down the aisles like Sherlock Holmes reading every ingredient label. Thrive lets me shop by diet values. Even whatever food phase you're pretending to care about this week, it makes it all easy. You go online, you shop, and it's all there. So if you got a busy schedule, and let's be honest, everyone's got a busy schedule, just ask them. But you still want clean, quality food. This is the move right now. That's Thrive. Right, dawson?

[Show Announcer]

Go to thrivemarket.comacs to get 30% off your first order and a free $60 gift. The Adam Carolla show presents Jay Leno's birth cocktail party for April 28th. Let's see who's invited. Let's welcome the king of England, Edward iv. Here's the fifth President of the United States, James Monroe. Let's welcome the legendary actor from It's a wonderful life, Mr. Potter, Lionel Barrymore. Here comes Austrian businessman and the subject of Schindler's List, Oscar Schindler. Here's Italian auto designer Ferruccio Lamborghini, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee is here. It's Morticia from the Addams Family, Carolyn Jones. Here comes custom motorcycle builder Indian Larry. American golfer John Daly is here. American rapper Too Short just joined the party. Penelope Cruz is is here. Jessica Alba just walked in. And the former ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. Jay Leno is on the Adam Carolla Show.

[Adam Carolla]

Jay, by the way, makes great car [e-mail] if you want to.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, we do.

[Adam Carolla]

Avail yourself some of that available at Walmart. Oh, nice. Let's see. Something I think about all the time with you, Jay, is I have tons of buck slips with notes and stuff all the time because I'm constantly thinking of jokes or things and I'm like, and I said to you once, I don't see you writing stuff down. And you said, if it's funny, I'll remember it.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, I'm dyslexic, so I don't really write anything down. But I had something happen the other day. You would like this because you like these kind of subjects, you know, with COVID and education and all that. I'm at the deli. The guy in front of me says, give me a quarter pound of pastrami. Okay? The guy puts it. And the guy goes, here you go. He's, oh, I'm sorry I gave you half a pound. The guy goes, well, that's okay. Don't worry about it. And then the guy takes the tape with the tick, you know, take it up to the veggie, puts it on. The guy goes, whoa, wait a minute. Why is the half pound pastrami twice as expensive as the quarter pound pastrami? And I'm thinking, oh, man.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, we're in bad shape.

[Jay Leno]

This is really bad shape. He actually asked that question, the guy.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, how old was the guy?

[Jay Leno]

Early 20s.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, so he's young. Yeah, he didn't. Yeah, well. So I have this very strong belief that we're getting away from the tactile world. And also, you don't know how much math you're constantly doing when you're messing around with your cars because you get the 5, 30 seconds and then the 3, 6.

[Jay Leno]

I think something happened during COVID for example. I would sit down and I would Read for a minimum of an hour. After Covid, I read for about 10 minutes. What's that? A fly. Where's he going? Right? Is he on the window again? I get up, look for the fly. I find my attention span. Maybe it's a thing of getting older, but it just seems like something happened where I'm looking at videos way more than I'm. Every night I would go to bed and I would read and I'd have a flashlight because my wife is right next to me. So I'd hold the flashlight. Now I have the screen in front of me, but I just find myself watching videos more than reading, and that can't be good.

[Adam Carolla]

But don't you feel like going to your shop and picking up a tool and solving a problem is sort of.

[Jay Leno]

Well, yeah. Well, the heart is healthiest when the head and hands work together. That's sort of an old fashioned experience.

[Adam Carolla]

And I worry that there's a shortage of that. Like I think projects and fixing things and problem solving and all that stuff. It's real important for your sanity.

[Jay Leno]

I'm coming up Coldwater one day and I see a BMW 750, the top of the line model, sitting there. Guys got a flat tire. And he and the girl are sitting there. Can I help you out? He goes, I got a flyer waiting for the truck. I said, you got a spare? He goes, well, I don't know. I said, yeah, what kind of open trunk? Oh, there. Yeah, it's an older BMW. There's this spare right there. There you go. He goes, but there's no way to get the wheel off. And it's that flat wheel. It's got the plastic insert, you know. I said, see that little.

[Adam Carolla]

Over the lugs?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. See that little lip there? If you open your tool, if you open your flathead screwdriver. No, your manual, your owner's manual. There should be a metal tool in there. So he goes, oh, let me see. So he opens the glove box and of course, his manual is still in the original packet. It's never been opened. It's all sealed. I said, can you feel it? See that piece of metal? I'll take it off. And I say, now stick the thing and I'll pop the COVID and go there. Lugged. And it goes, that's unbelievable. So the two of us change the tire, you know, There you go. I help him out, you know, and she's looking at me like I'm Superman, you know, right? And I said, well, there you go. You all right? You got enough? She goes, look I goes, thanks a lot. I said, how could you not grow up and not know how to change a tire? But it just made me laugh.

[Adam Carolla]

It's an epidemic. Young men don't even want to drive. Forget about changing a tire. They're in no hurry to get their license. And that's indicative of the time we're living in. You were probably getting your learner's permit at 15 and a half.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember on the headlines once we the question was, should you be allowed to text and drive? And this one guy said, well, there's nothing else to do while you're driving. You might as well text.

[Adam Carolla]

Right? Yeah. And to be fair, cars used to be real engaging. I mean, you had to really drive them. And there was a sound like you could hear the wind wings and the was always coming through.

[Jay Leno]

When I drive my 51 Hudson, I got my hand on the wheel, I reach over and I have six buttons. I can just press them and change. And the Tesla, man, I gotta look at the screen, I gotta touch it, I gotta slide something. I'm constantly looking back, looking back. It's way more dangerous than driving my 5000 1/00.

[Adam Carolla]

A Hudson with a push button stereo.

[Jay Leno]

But your push wasn't ready. Yeah. And when you turn the key on, it comes on every modern car. Get in there. I take out my phone, you know, go to the thing and it crosses over.

[Adam Carolla]

You know, I love the story of the Dean Martin's son, Miura, because you have the Lamborghini birthday and I just love that Miura S I think it is maybe.

[Jay Leno]

No, it's a P400. It's a P. And then the orange.

[Adam Carolla]

One is an S. Okay. You got the P from Dino?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Was he Dean Martin's son? Drove that car to high school.

[Jay Leno]

In high school, drove that car in high school. He hit a berm in the road and it cracked the pan and the oil leaked out in the engine, seized. Right, okay, so remember this is 1966. 67.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, new. He drove it new.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. You couldn't call Lamborghini. There's no way to get him on the phone. There's no, you know, so when that blew, they tried to sell it. Somebody wanted to put a 283 Chevy in it somehow. Yeah, so anyway, so a friend of mine got it and you just couldn't fix it. Nobody knew anything about them and there were no parts of it.

[Adam Carolla]

It was a seized up V12.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah, so his wife said it sat in the yard for like a year. Look, Leno Loves this kind of crap. Just give it to him. He'll. I guess. Oh, thank you. Now it's like. It's like a $5 million car. It's like crazy.

[Adam Carolla]

It's crazy. Yeah, the mirrors are gone nuts. It's not five, but it's expensive.

[Jay Leno]

Well, one sold for four or nine, but that was an sv.

[Adam Carolla]

That's an sv.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. That could be twice the whatever. But, yes, they're super expensive cars. And it's funny that that one was free and obviously rebuilt the motor some years later. Right.

[Jay Leno]

It seems so complicated at the time now. It looks easy compared to into modern stuff.

[Adam Carolla]

What do you have that you really like the most? Like, what do you have the most affinity for in your collection? Like, I mean, I know you love the F1 McLaren.

[Jay Leno]

I like all of them because they're all so different, you know, it's like imagine every girl you ever went out with a high school still looks the same and they're waiting for you. So I go in the garage and look. It's just like it was when I got it 15 years ago. And then. Oh, this thing is great to drive.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Dino Martin probably had a hot chick in high school.

[Jay Leno]

Well, there you go.

[Adam Carolla]

He died. I think he was in the Air.

[Jay Leno]

National Guard and died in the Air National Guard. And he hit. He just flew into the side of a mountain. I don't know where the jet malfunctioned or what it was. And that was it for Dino. He never got. Dean Martin never got. That was just devastating. You know, he's a very nice guy. Dean Martin. He was a quiet guy. He was kind of a homebody. Didn't really drink. That was always apple juice and.

[Adam Carolla]

Really.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, he was always. And he was very funny. You know, he just had the funny way about him, that kind of relaxed style, you know, just, you know, Sinatra always seemed tense and, you know, a bit more aggressive, whereas Dean. Dean didn't give a crap. He just like. Yeah, sing song, tell joke, Hitcheck, you.

[Adam Carolla]

Know, who do you miss from. Not that era, but, you know, like guests who would come on your show? I guess now you know who I miss?

[Jay Leno]

I miss John Denver.

[Adam Carolla]

John Denver. Early in my career also dried in an aircraft. Experimental aircraft.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. He reached back to turn the switch to go from reserve to fuel. Either the switch broke or something happened or he couldn't reach it or it was already on reserve when it should have been on, and that's what caused the crash.

[Adam Carolla]

Do you think the Dino Martin plane story made you think about John Denver?

[Jay Leno]

Maybe Maybe subconsciously, you know, I used to work with John, and he was such an idealist. And after the show, we'd go back to his room and he'd talk about.

[Adam Carolla]

You'd do stand up and he'd play.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah, the opening act, you know, and he'd talk about environmental things and how can we fix the earth and all this. And I was sort of. I was like in my early 20s. I'm just concentrating on getting, you know, just working. So I enjoy. He was a truly decent guy. He was a nice guy. And he has had cover of Time magazine, biggest selling record artist for a number of years. And one time I said.

[Adam Carolla]

And a movie star, too, later on.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, and one time I said to him, he said to me. He called me after things had slowed down. He said, hey, I want to be on the Tonight Show. So I went there tonight. I said, let's put on John Denver. They go, jay, he's not a name anymore. I go, guys, I opened for him for like five years. He treated me. I want to put him on the show. Well, I don't know. And the network says, well, you want to book the show now? I go, no, but I mean, it's John. There's got to be people out there that want to see.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, the guy had 18 number one hits.

[Jay Leno]

Yes. John Sanford on a Tuesday. It's just such a. It's such a cruel business. It is where you go, here's a guy, I mean, and a nice guy. It's not like he was a prick and screwed people over. Now screw him. Very nice, very kind. Yeah, it was just. I mean, I eventually got him on, but it's like, you know, that happened. I mean, one time I'm playing in Canada, and I knock on my dressing room, hey, Jay, can I come in? I go, hey, how you doing? I don't quite recognize the guy, you know. Hey, anytime. Any chance I could be on the Tonight Show? I'm thinking, oh, yeah, Let me think. Who is. Who is this? I'm trying to figure it out. And he just happened to turn his head to where he went, oh, my God, it's Gordon Lightfoot.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

He was an older guy, you know, I hadn't worked in a. I mean, really older, where I had to really look past the old man to see the young man, you know, I went, oh, okay, well, let me see what I can do. And, you know, and I mentioned it, and he never did quite get on. Then he passed away. But it was just so surreal, you know, to see this guy Knock on my door and I saw him on the Ed Sullivan Show. Here's the funny thing about.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I mean, Gordon Lightfoot had tons of hits.

[Jay Leno]

Gordon Lightfoot was Canadian, and he was on the Ed Sullivan show, and they didn't know what to do with Canadians. So as he's singing a song, Free Highways, there are hockey players behind them going back and forth with hockey sticks.

[Adam Carolla]

And Canadian clubs because they needed a motif.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. Yeah. So they. Yeah, that was the. Oh, the Canadians. They like hockey. Right. Let's put some hockey players behind Gordon. Carefree Highways. Yeah. Hilarious. It made me laugh.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, that was cool. I. I think I saw Gordon Lightfoot in concert once in like that. You know where I saw him? I saw him in the same place I saw you, which was the amphitheater back when it was open. Universal.

[Jay Leno]

Right, right.

[Adam Carolla]

Which would have been 86. It was that early.

[Jay Leno]

86. 87. Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

God, I remember. That was a big night. And that was a big venue.

[Jay Leno]

That's a big venue. Yeah. But, yeah, Gordon Lightwood was terrific.

[Adam Carolla]

But.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, that's right, because I remember sharing that story with him about the Canadians with the hockey sticks, and he thought that. Because he had no control over. He just thought, all right.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, so John Denver, I mean, he's been gone for 15 years. 20, I don't know.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, easy 20.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, easy 20. But, I mean, that guy was a megastar. It's also. I guess it's sad. Or is it sad? You know what I mean? You talk to somebody who's under 40 and you say, John Denver, and they go, who? And then you feel bad for John Denver. But on the other hand, John Denver made a living doing what he wanted to do and singing and singing about the themes he wanted to sing about, and even died doing what he loved, which is incredibly hard.

[Jay Leno]

I'll tell you something funny. Same thing. David, my producer, he's a young guy. He's like 34, 35. And we have a friend of ours who runs a car museum and brings cars to us. Right. We're talking about it. And I talk about. I had Hal Roach on the tight show. It was. Who? Hal Roach. Who's Hal Roach? Oh, he was a prudent. He discovered. I said, he discovered Laurel and Hardy. He put Laurel and Hardy together. And this kid goes, who's Laurel and Hardy? You know, the comedy team. No, no. Laurel and Hardy.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[Jay Leno]

You don't know? I mean, I was just stunned. They didn't know. Laura just made me.

[Adam Carolla]

It's like, I've never. It's almost like not hearing of World War well.

[Jay Leno]

But you see, it's also. You know, I had a guy call me one time. He goes, hi, Jay. I know you like cars. I've got a car for sale. It's a 39 Lincoln Zephyr. I said, oh, those are nice. V12. They run a little hot. But he goes, no, this one's got celebrity provenance, so I'm going to want a little bit more money for it. I said, celebrity provenance. Who is it owned by? He says, hoot Gibson.

[Adam Carolla]

Hoot Gibson.

[Jay Leno]

I go, hoot Gibson now. Hoot Gibson. If you ever watch any of those westerns from the 40s, he was always be cookie.

[Adam Carolla]

He'd be the chef, and the damn.

[Jay Leno]

Indians are shooting arrows and I'm trying to cook my grub up here, you know. He was a comic relief. And I said to him, you know, I think you kind of missed the boat on Hoot Gibson. If he was selling this car in 1968, maybe. But I said to him, nobody goes, oh, people know. No, they don't know Hoot Gibson. Nobody knows. I said, I only know it because my father used to joke about it. Every time my father saw an old guy, guy looks like Hoot Gibson with.

[Adam Carolla]

The scraggly beard and straw hat, yell, consarn it. And throw his hat on the ground.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that kind of stuff.

[Adam Carolla]

Who did you like, who did you look forward to when you were hosting the Tonight Show? Like, who?

[Jay Leno]

Oh, I look forward to Rodney. I love Rodney.

[Adam Carolla]

Like, there's two looking. Sorry. There's two ways you can look forward to someone as a host. One is. Is, oh, this is gonna be light lifting. Like, I don't have to spin the plates that hard. You get the young Aungenoux. She's 23 years old. She's got a bad story. You're gonna have to dive in, right? But Rodney not only great, but light lifted.

[Jay Leno]

Well, I'll tell you funny, one of my faves is Charlie Sheen. You know, I love Charlie. I don't want to be Charlie, but one day I'm sitting, it's like quarter to four. We're taping it, like, 4:30. I go, phone ring, Jay, it's Charlie Sheenfoy. Hello? He goes, jay, Jay, it's Charlie, man. Charlie, man. Listen, you know, we're coming in. We got in an accident. Limo got T bone. I got T bone. You all right? He goes, yeah, yeah. I mean, it caught fire, but it's not. What are you. I said, look, we can Get a comic. Don't worry. I don't think I ought to be able to make. Don't, Charlie, just go home. All right? Just relax. Just take it easy. I'll call you next week, okay? Thanks for calling. I really appreciate that. No problem. Thanks. So I said, turn on the, you know, Entertainment Tonight or all those shows that come on about 4 o'. Clock. I don't say anything about Charlie's accent, you know, I said, get me Joe the chauffeur. You know, ring yellow Joe. Yeah, it's Jay. Hey, Jay, what's up? Charlie with you? I'm in front of his house, but he hasn't come out. He hasn't come out yet. I said, you didn't get T boned? No, I didn't get tea. The limo didn't catch fire.

[Adam Carolla]

So I called Charlie back.

[Jay Leno]

And hello, I go, charlie, it's Jay. What are you, nine? There's a monster under the bed. Charlie Sheen gets T boned on the 101. You don't think somebody else will report this story? He goes, well, you know, it's just a little higher. I said, charlie, it's fine, it's fine. But just. It's like a kid with a stupid lie. It just made me laugh. Got T boned. It caught fire. Hilarious.

[Adam Carolla]

So Rodney was your favorite One of mine.

[Jay Leno]

I love Rodney. He was great. He was great.

[Adam Carolla]

I met him one time and he was really mean to me.

[Jay Leno]

Well, he could be that way a little bit, you know, he was interesting character. He probably one of those guys. Started doing this when he was 20 and you had to. Rodney had to wait for his face and his body to grow into his act. Cause seeing a young fresh faced kid not getting. See, I knew Rodney before the no respect thing. He used to do bits. I remember one of his bits he used to do. He'd. This is when comedians would act out a skit, you know, he said, hey, welcome aboard Flight 985. This is your pilot Captain so and so and so and so. We're flying over the Rockies now and if you look on the left side of the plane, you can see the remnants of Flight 918 that hit a mountain there. Then he goes, bob, you were with me on that one, weren't you? I always thought that was like a funny bit. But he used to do those kind of bits. And this was before he did a movie called the Projectionist. It was funny.

[Adam Carolla]

Little Bob New Hardy.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, Little Bob New Hardy again, another one of my favorites.

[Adam Carolla]

He was great.

[Jay Leno]

You know, Bob, one Of my. The subtle kind of slow ball fastball, you know, he had a bit about the first astronaut to have contact with extraterrestrials. So this happens in space. So the astronaut comes back, there's a big press conference and the astronauts answering questions. And one of the reporters says, how far ahead of us is this alien life? And Bob says, about six weeks. And you realize. And it's the perfect number because two weeks is too soon. Two months. No, that's too far away. But six weeks. Oh, you can see six weeks. It's right over there. But you can't catch. You can't catch somebody six weeks ahead of you. But you can see them in the lead and, you know, just, you know, Rickles and everybody as I love, too, but more louder, more in your face. Bob Newhart just had that slow ball that was just, you know, I remember he was talking to Johnny about a time, and he's up watching TV late at night. And in some studio somewhere, the engineer in the local station had slipped in a porno tape. They're watching. It got broadcast over the air. And he talked about the guy sitting there watching. The wife's going, come to the van. I'll be there, honey. Just watching a movie. The girl is really good. She's very talented. I mean, he said everything without saying anything. So he could do, like, quote, a dirty story under the guise of. Yeah, but he was just fabulous.

[Adam Carolla]

How was Johnny?

[Jay Leno]

Johnny was great. I liked Johnny. Johnny was good, you know, he was a complex guy. Not a good drinker, you know, when he died, he left me his dad's 1939 Chrysler.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, really?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, from the dock. There was a dock with that car in it. Or at least an expose on Johnny Carson in the town he came to.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. Johnny did a thing called Johnny Goes Home. He went back to Nebraska, Right. And they wanted to seek out a car just like his dad's cars that he could drive around Nebraska.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Jay Leno]

Or around his hometown.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Jay Leno]

Well, being a small town, the car was still in the town, Right. And was owned by a guy who restored it.

[Adam Carolla]

So that's the same car.

[Jay Leno]

Same car. Johnny, the father. So NBC bought the car and gave it to Johnny, and Johnny was kind of upset because you paid 15,000. That's crazy. That's crazy money to spend that kind of money on the car. I don't really, so. But anyway, he took the car back. And then when he died, I got a letter saying in the will he wanted to leave it to me. So I've got it at the Shop. And I drive it around.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I mean, people's answers. With certain guys, like Johnny Carson, they go, it was complicated. Or that kind of stuff. It sounds a little euphemistic. No one does that with Henry Winkler. They just go, nicest guy in the world.

[Jay Leno]

I love him.

[Adam Carolla]

I've always said the code. When you were saying something that was not kind, but you didn't want to sound unkind, I'd go, jay, salt of the earth. Love that guy Henry Winkler. Great. Love that guy, Johnny. Johnny's Johnny. He's going to be Johnny. That's the code for tough. But there's a lot of great men who've been a little difficult. And also you're in a position where you have a lot of people counting on you and there's a lot of pressure and you can't, you can't be Mr. Nice Guy all the time. Stuff needs to be done. You know, you seem to be able to pull that off. But some people, it's difficult because you tell people what to do all day.

[Jay Leno]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

Right. And so some people say, well, that guy's always telling someone what to do. And it's like, yeah, because his name's on the building, he's telling everyone what to do all day. But Johnny was good to you?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, he was good to me. I liked John. He was, he was, you know, I always called him Mr. Carson. You know, that's why Letterman was such a great thing for me. Because I go, thank you, Mr. Carson. Jay, it's Johnny. I grew up back east. When I meet my parents, friends and I go, hi, Bob and Agnes. I go, how are you, Mrs. Minichelli? Nice to meet you. Nice to see you. You can't call him by the first name. So Letterman was the first place where I go, hey, Dave, nice tie. You know, I could trash him and have fun with him and Dave could laugh at it. I couldn't do that with Johnny. Cause he was an adult and a grown up, you know, like a kid.

[Adam Carolla]

Right? Yeah. The Letterman appearances for you were huge.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, that was the best time in my career. I loved it. I loved working with Dave.

[Adam Carolla]

Did you love it? Because you can never recapture the something's happening.

[Jay Leno]

Well, the thing I loved about it was we go in there with material.

[Adam Carolla]

What year? Probably. What was your first appearance?

[Jay Leno]

It'd be, what, 84 to. Well, right up to 89, something like that. And I did it about once every month or two. And I loved it because we would have something prepared and we'd never get to it, you know, to me, I used to love, like, Dave gets nervous who he's on. Like, I remember one day I went down, I got a giant meatball sandwich, right? So I'm standing outside of makeup waiting for Dave to come. Susie comes around the corner. Dave, Dave, try this meatball. He goes, no, I'm going on in five minutes. No, Dave, try this meatball. Get that disgusting thing out. So then when I went out on the show, I brought the sandwich out with me. Of course, Letterman's over. So I always liked to surprise Dave. I knew Dave's sense of humor. One time, Dave had been on the COVID of Success magazine. So I walked out with the magazine. Everybody see this? Dave on the COVID of Success. Not even. Put that. Just put that away. No, Dave, this is quite an accomplishment. Look at this, everybody. Success magazine. Dave is on the COVID And he goes, just put that away. I said, dave, did I show you this? And I take out a magazine that's twice as big. I said, I'm on the COVID of Super Success magazine. And it was like the size of Life magazine. You get a big picture of me. And of course, Letterman got the drug right away. And, you know, making Letterman laugh was the highlight of my career because he's a tough guy to make laugh. So if you can get to him, you know, that was always fun part.

[Adam Carolla]

But you had history from the Comedy Store, right?

[Jay Leno]

From the Comedy Store. You know, I remember the first time I saw Dave, I thought, boy, this guy is great. A. A great wordsmith. A bit awkward on stage and stiff. But he used to like the fact that I could just get up there and riff and be very relaxed, whereas he was very uptight all the time, you know? And I would say to him, boy, how I love the phraseology. I like how you form the words. He goes, yeah, that's okay. Well, how do you. How can you be so relaxed up there? So I think we complemented each other. I took a little from Dave, he took a little from me. So it was. It was. It was fun, but it was. It was just great because there'd always be. I remember we had a bit on the Manson place, and I said, you know, Dave, I was just out at the Spahn Ranch, just visiting Charlie and the guys. You know, Charlie and the guys and Letterman would laugh at that. And we would. You know, we would just kid back, and we never got to whatever the punchline was because we were both laughing so hard. And then Dave would throw in a line that topped my line or whatever it might be. So it was Always.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. It's kind of the verbal equivalent to playing jazz and just kind of jamming.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, I think that's probably true because I, you know, I started my career at jazz clubs. I was opening Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Mose, Allison Ahmad, Jamal Roshan, Roland Kirk. I mean, Chick Corea. Jazz audiences are great for comedy because the only place they ever worked where as soon as you went on stage, the audience went, shh, shh, shh. Cause they wanted to listen, right? Because they're a jazz audience. They're listening to music. Not like a strip joint or something like that.

[Adam Carolla]

You've done your share of them.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

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[Adam Carolla]

I was very impressed in a story you told when we were doing the fantasy camp and you were talking about going to a club and putting 50 bucks, giving it to the bartender the guy was managing or behind the bar and saying, if I'm not good, you can keep this money. And I just feel like it's getting lost on people that you have to work for free and you have to kind of bet on yourself. And all the successful people I know all have those kinds of stories in their background.

[Jay Leno]

Well, I'll tell you my favorite story. This is Seinfeld's favorite, too, I think, to Seinfeld's story. Well, I'll tell you what the story is. This is back in the 80s now. So we'd both been on TV a little Merv Griffin, and maybe not a lot of tv. So Seinfeld picks up, I think it was the New York Post, and he sees Jay Leno named Best Face to Caricature by the American Caricatures Association. So he calls me up, and they got my 8 by 10. And then the character on the side, he goes, how did you get. I mean, how do they even know who you are? I said, jerry, I'm president of the American Caricatures Association. I had this fake stationary make called the American Caricatures Association. And I sat on a press release. Jay Lanham's been named Best Face the caricature by the American Caricature Association. I just sent it to a bunch of newspapers. You know, it's news. They don't check anything. They just printed it. It was in Time magazine, and it just made me laugh. And I. Okay, this is how everybody's lazy. Okay? You can just get away with the.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Jay Leno]

So you.

[Adam Carolla]

It's interesting to me that you have a motor and had to fight to host the Tonight show and are motivated, but you're also kind of laid back and all shucksy at the same time. And it's a weird sort of alchemy that. Oh, but a lot of people, it works. I know, but, I mean, most people are nervous lap dogs, and they're going all the time. And then there's Labradors, and they're kind of laid back, but they're not the same, most people.

[Jay Leno]

I fail when I gave a commencement address on this. The people who fail almost has nothing to do with their talents. Too straight, too gay, too high, too jealous, too egomaniacal, too narcissistic. There's always some other reason why they don't make. I mean, assuming they have the ability.

[Adam Carolla]

Are you saying to do comedy or do anything?

[Jay Leno]

Well, to do anything. You have the ability. They rarely fail because of their ability. It's like comics that they're plenty funny, but they got drunk and they hit the manager or they attacked his wife or whatever. There's always some other reason why you failed, you know, and I would always keep that in mind, you know, and just try to just concentrate on the task at hand. You know, whenever I go on stage. If I've been fighting with somebody, I get it taken care of, even if I'm not at fault. Look, I apologize, okay? Let's be friends. Thank you. So now I can go on with a clear head. The number of people I see that go into a stage performance or a singing concert and they're mad about something, it just. It doesn't work, you know, the anger comes out, you know.

[Adam Carolla]

What was the $50 behind the bar story?

[Jay Leno]

Well, what I would do, I go into a club. Boston did not really have any comedy clubs. It was mostly like, stop your war machine, man. You know, it's like Vietnam protest songs.

[Adam Carolla]

Talking the late 60s, early 70s.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. And I would say to bartender, I say, I'm a comedian. We don't do comedians. Well, can I get up there? No. I said, well, so here's 50 bucks if I get a laugh. Keep your 50. If I get a laugh, give me my 50 back. If I get no laughs, you keep the 50. Okay. And that cost me about four or five hundred dollars over the course of a month or two. But for the most part, it worked. People go, okay. And then they go, yeah, come back next Saturday if you want. You want them? See, maybe. Yeah, okay. And that's kind of how I got a foot in the door. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

I always think back, it reminds me of this for some reason, but when I was a. I wanted to be a boxing coach, but I was a carpenter. And I went into the gym to tell the guy, you know, let me teach boxing here. And he said, we don't hire. We only hire ex champions or champions. We're not hiring you. And I just went, okay. And then I saw behind him were heavy bags laying on the ground that needed to be swung. And I said, you need those heavy bags hungry. And he goes, oh, yeah, I do. I go, well, I'm a carpenter. And he goes, oh, you could hang them. I go, I could if you let me try teaching a boxing class. And he goes, well, okay. And I said, the same deal. I go, listen, I'll hang all this, and I'll do all this, and you just give me a chance to teach boxing. If I'm no good, then what do you care? You fire me. You never hire me. Just give me a shot.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, that's great.

[Adam Carolla]

And he said, yeah, okay, hang the bags because there's something in it for him.

[Jay Leno]

Right? Right. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And I think people need to sort of understand that. That people need a little motivation sometimes. And the 50 bucks. Yeah, let the kid go.

[Jay Leno]

Try comedy Nothing makes me madder than, you can't get a job without being in union. You can't be in union without a job. And I go, you're right. It can't be done. Just quit. It can't be done. You're right.

[Adam Carolla]

You know, where were you working at the time where you got the 50 to make the 50 bucks?

[Jay Leno]

I was working at Foreign Motors in Boston, which was a Mercedes Benz foreign car dealership.

[Adam Carolla]

You know, that was interesting, exotic for back then.

[Jay Leno]

Well, I remember there was a guy named Tony Sabia who was like a fashion designer. He lived in Chestnut Hill, and he had, like, five or six Mercedes, you know, the classic convertible and all that kind of stuff. And me and four other guys would go out and wash and polish his cars like once a month. And I remember we got out there and I was, like, 19, and these guys were all in their late 20s, early 30s. And one of the guys said, well, wouldn't it be great if this is our only job, just having to come out here and polish these cars? And I said, wouldn't it be great to be the guy and have all these cars? And they went, what? What are you stupid? What, you think that's gonna happen? I go, why couldn't that happen? And they're just like, what are you. I mean, they could not see past their station in life. They. That was his. I mean, really, don't even dream about doing that. Don't even think it's possible.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you know, as I've said many times, I grew up and I never even heard the word career. I only heard the word job, right? Job. You gotta get a job out of high school. Go get a job. Go find a job. And my friends were saying, wait. And they talk about this guy, you know, Steve. He got a job. He's working at the market. He's got a job. And I didn't even hear the word career. Career's, like, for other people, like doctors and lawyers, people in credit card commercials and stuff. So it's a mentality. But for you, you loved cars. And the kind of cars you love aren't free. And I was highly motivated in my life to do comedy, to get paid, so that I could go race cars and have cars and have a building to put the cars in and so on and so forth. And I don't know. You know, I think comedians sometimes shy away from everything because it's an art, you know, everything's art for them. But I was very motivated. I said, look, you know, swinging a hammer. I'm Just not gonna make enough money to go do what I want to do with these cars. And so, you know, I just got back from Laguna Seca. It's an expensive car, it's in a trailer, it's got a dually haul in it. The race fee is 1500 bucks. You know, it's all impossible as a carpenter. And I don't. And I think people with comedy get into this kind of art, part of it. And for me it was a little more nuts and bolts, like I could do that.

[Jay Leno]

I'm the same way. You know, I always tell comedians, never believe in yourself. Make other people believe. That's really the trick. Because everybody believes in themselves. Yeah, I think I'm great. Yeah, it's terrific, Bob, but you're not going to get anywhere. Convince that guy that you're great. If you've got a good product, somebody will buy it. I always meet people that go, I'm going to finance this movie myself. When people hear my story. No, they don't care about your story. If your story is any good, someone else will buy it and you'll make new money that way.

[Adam Carolla]

So I know we kind of talked about the low self esteem versus I would always say I have no self esteem, which is not good or bad. I just don't think of myself.

[Jay Leno]

Well, I'm a huge believer in low self esteem.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes, I know you are. Well, I think the self esteem movement has been damaging because we've been telling people who don't earn it or have any skill, you're number one. Don't let anyone ever tell you you're not number one. And it's like, that's gonna cause a lot of disappointed and angry kids.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. My mother always say, you're just gonna have to work harder than the other kids to get the same thing. I said, all right. That seemed like a fair trade off.

[Adam Carolla]

I always laugh because I was at my daughter's volleyball game in Orange county like five years ago, and at some point I said, I'll go get sandwiches for everybody. And I went to the Jimmy John's sub shop. But because we got there at 7 in the morning and breakfast, lunch is at 11 or something, it's not open yet. And I just went out and I stood in front of this place and it said, they're now hiring rock stars. And I thought, you are not a rock star if you're in El Cajon at the Jimmy John's sandwich place getting $11 an hour. But they had to sell it to the kids with the self esteem Movement of a rock star. You would be a rock star to work at our sandwich place. And I thought, this is not helpful. Low self esteem can motivate. Like it's a good thing.

[Jay Leno]

There you go.

[Adam Carolla]

And I also. They did a study where people are in prison for murder. Have high self esteem, because it would take high self esteem to kill somebody. My self esteem is too low to take someone's life.

[Jay Leno]

Did you ever do a prison show?

[Adam Carolla]

No, I've never done a prison show.

[Jay Leno]

Hilarious. Oh, yeah, hilarious. I remember I had a bit once, I used to do this bit. I'm playing all prisons. And then, you know, when you meet a girl, you're not quite sure how to approach her, and a guy goes, yell, just punch her in the face and fuck her, man. And the whole audience cheers. I realize. Okay, thank you, Lefty. That's very. I mean, it just. It just. It killed me because I realized I've got a cultural moray here. Well, you don't want to be too forward. You don't want to frighten it. You want to appear to be a nice gentleman and this guy just punched you in the face. It killed me. Just made me laugh.

[Adam Carolla]

How many prisons have you played?

[Jay Leno]

A couple. Not a lot. I used to do Walpole State Prison in Massachusetts. I did Terminal island once. And this is like every guy's nightmare. A huge guy comes in. He's got a guy who looks like David Spade on all fours with a choke chain around his neck. And the guy's in his underpants.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. And he sits in front, and every time I told the joke, he would kick this guy like his dog and laugh and the guy would go, ha, ha, ha. And I said, you know, this is not the best audience. Really?

[Adam Carolla]

That's out here?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And they let that go on in there.

[Jay Leno]

You seem stunned.

[Adam Carolla]

I. I am naive that way.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You really think there's a lot of. What's the word? Rehabilitation going on? Really? I don't know.

[Adam Carolla]

Decorum, perhaps?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, decorum. Yeah, that's what it was.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. Yeah. Hilarious.

[Adam Carolla]

And you volunteer, obviously, to do that. It's not a paid thing.

[Jay Leno]

No, it was a job.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, it was a job.

[Jay Leno]

It was a job. You know the state would pay you $10 to go out and do a show.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, yeah, $10.

[Jay Leno]

Same as like, you go read to people in the hospital. Yeah, I would do old people's homes. I remember one day, Bessie, we have a comedian. Bessie, do you like comedians? You know, screaming at this woman who's like, five Feet away. She's going, hey, do you like comedians? You know, I'm thinking, okay, this really.

[Adam Carolla]

Is not gonna work, but did you find. I took a job doing comedy, teaching comedy. Traffic school.

[Jay Leno]

Right.

[Adam Carolla]

And my thought was, if I can do eight hours up on my feet on a Saturday, it'll strengthen some muscle. I need to. How bad could 10 minutes at the ice house be if I'm doing eight hours, you know?

[Jay Leno]

Well, that worked out a lot.

[Adam Carolla]

And it was a workout. I thought of it as like a work. I would imagine playing prisons and old folks homes is kind of a workout.

[Jay Leno]

Well, the nice thing is, I mean.

[Adam Carolla]

It'S horrible, but it's a workout.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, but you don't know how bad you are because, you know, the audiences are terrible. They're not listening anyway, so it's not like. Sometimes it's worse if they're a jazz audience and they're really paying attention and you're not funny. Well, that's the worst one of all. If they're drunk and yelling and. Okay, now you're just. Baby, right?

[Adam Carolla]

How many are you still doing? A ton of dates?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of dates. You know what's great? There are so many of these old vaudeville houses. I was in Elmira, New York, and something, was it not, some. Somewhere in Ohio. And they're like 1500-2500 seat little vaudeville houses. And they're great.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

They're just great.

[Jay Leno]

You know, write joke, tell joke, get check. It couldn't be simpler. They're so thrilled that you come to their town. You know, what are you doing here? You know, you always get that all the time. God, this is where the people are, you know? But no, I like it. I like it better than doing TV specials. You know, you do TV and they go, cut. Okay, that was very funny. All right. Tell the joke the exact same way again and we'll laugh the exact same way.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Jay Leno]

Good, good. Okay, now let's try it again. This time just we're not gonna laugh quite as much. And let's try to get. Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You've never done a special, and I think we've discussed this show.

[Jay Leno]

I did one in the 80s and I owned the master, and then I burned the master, and that was it.

[Adam Carolla]

You did one in the 80s?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. For Showtime? Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Did it air?

[Jay Leno]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, it was on Showtime.

[Jay Leno]

It did. All right. I wasn't thrilled. I didn't like the experience.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, what is it you didn't like?

[Jay Leno]

Well, you know what it is? I know where my act Is, I know if I go to Elmira, New York. I was here three years ago. I know what I did then. I won't do that. You know, when you have a. You know, I remember a comedian not gonna say who it was. He came on the Tonight show, his HBO special had just come out and he was promoting it. I said, what are you doing? I'm going on the road to promote it. What material are you doing? The same material from the special. Well, next time I saw him, he's like ashen faced. He goes, oh, man, you were right. Because people just paid money to buy his HBO special. And now they come to see him in a club and they gotta buy a ticket for this. They just heard it. And if they're fans, they probably watch it once or twice now they see you do the exact same thing a third time. Yeah, I mean, he was like. He was, like, stunned. He really didn't realize he had to have new material. After you put one of those out.

[Adam Carolla]

Who did you see that you really thought, oh, this guy's. And it just didn't pan out to the extent that you thought.

[Jay Leno]

And it didn't pan out? Well, no, I think a lot of people. It panned out.

[Adam Carolla]

And then others where you were surprised. Like, I don't know why. I was walking around the other day and I was thinking about Fred Travelina. And I remember, I said, I think Jay said, fred Travelina.

[Jay Leno]

Well, I'll tell you, Fred Travelina was, I think the last guy of the old school. You know, a tuxedo when he performed all that kind of stuff, you know, died young. Yeah. So, yeah, Fred Travelino kept calling Letterman, can you put me on? Put me on. And Dave. All right, so Dave puts him on, right? And this is exactly the thing Dave hates. So Fred, Charlie comes out, sits down. Dave goes, so how you doing with so and so? And Charlie says, well, you know, Dave with my crazy mind. And Dave, you know my crazy mind. You know how that is. And he said, let him go. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly the kind of thing Letterman hates. A setup in my crazy mind. And I just watched him just see there. It just really made me laugh.

[Adam Carolla]

You must have been hit up all the time to do the show. I mean, Gordon Lightfoot and John Denver.

[Jay Leno]

Oh, yeah, get hit, everybody. Yeah. You know, my uncle plays the spoons. He's really. You should have my cousin on. He's really funny. What does he do? He's really funny. Is he performing anyway? No, just put him on. He's really. No, you can't doesn't work that way.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, that's easy with the spoons and the cousin. But other people you open for, you had relationships with, you're friendly with, you know.

[Jay Leno]

Well, that's my favorite. A comedian called me last year I had not seen since the 80s, and he said, I don't want to do the Tonight show with you. This is while I was still doing it. I said, well, I'll tell you what. Let me have Jimmy Brogan, one of the guys, come down and watch the act. He goes, whoa, what's that all about? What do you mean, watch my act?

[Adam Carolla]

Go down to the club and do, like, a showcase.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, just show us the material you're gonna do. He goes, you know my material? I said, is it the same material? He goes, yeah. Okay. First of all, it's 40 years ago. You can't do the same material. And he goes, oh, man, you changed. No, no, I can't just put you on. Because he. I said, you know, I got Billy Crystal tomorrow. You know what Billy did today? He went over everything he was gonna say, and we got it down how we're gonna do it. Okay? He goes, yeah. I mean, it was just the stupidest conversation I ever had.

[Adam Carolla]

Do you find that a lot of comedians are lazy? And that's sort of what it.

[Jay Leno]

I think I'm lazy, so I don't know.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, there's an interesting thing. Dennis Prager. Bless Dennis Prager. But he thinks of himself as lazy, so he overcompensates by riding books and working all the time.

[Jay Leno]

Well, that's why I like doing this show every day. Cause it took up every second of my day. Cause I know if I did the show once a week and I wanted to take an hour off or something, I would feel guilty. Like, you know, I could have been doing the show every day if the show sucked. I got another one tomorrow. It's like raising laboratory mice. Another who generation will be wrong tomorrow. And again, I can move quickly from one to another. So in that case, it was actually good. It took up all my time. You know, I'd write, joke, write. Drug. Pencils down. We gotta go. We're going in five minutes. Okay, fine. Pencils down. Let's go. But we got. And then you just try to make it work. But at least I could always, in my own mind, go, well, I did the best I could. And if it was once a week, oh, you took Sunday off.

[Adam Carolla]

You know, so do you think of yourself as lazy?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, I do, actually.

[Adam Carolla]

But we're back to low Self esteem, probably.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. And I think it's benefited you a lot.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, of course. You know, comics are like that. These are the socks I wore when I had the first Tonight Show. You're still wearing them. That's right. You know, guys do that all the time.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I know. You're not lazy because when you're not working, you're physically fixing something down at the shop, right?

[Jay Leno]

I guess so.

[Adam Carolla]

And fiddling with stuff. You haven't had an incident in a while?

[Jay Leno]

No, I haven't had any accidents for a while.

[Adam Carolla]

Do you have the. You have the board up at the shop day since. Day since Jay's let himself?

[Jay Leno]

Actually, I just had like two or three incidents. They all happened in the last couple of years, but before that I never had any problems.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, you had the fire, you had the clothesline.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And you had the rolling down the hill.

[Jay Leno]

Rolling down the hill. You know the funny thing about that rolling down the hill. I go on the Internet and there are a group of guys doing the Jay Leno challenge. They don't believe I really got hurt. So these guys throw themselves down the same hill. One guy broke his arm. Really?

[Adam Carolla]

Well, the clothes lining one felt like that stung the most to me. Because you were on a trike, right? Not trike, but a side hack.

[Jay Leno]

Side hack, yeah. 1941, Indian chief, Indian four. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And they just put the cable in front of the.

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. And I just had a brand new face. And I had to call my face guy. Guys, I need another face. I told the new face. Oh, you did? Yeah, come in, get another face. Okay. So I did.

[Adam Carolla]

And with the fire, you spent the first night at home, right?

[Jay Leno]

Well, you know, my wife was having the Alzheimer's and stuff, so I could not, not go home. So I went to the hospital and they said, we got to check in right now. I said, guys, I like. My wife's by herself. She doesn't know what's going on. She doesn't answer the phone. So I go home and you get. Your face is hot, right? So I says, okay, I'm sleeping. Then I wake up the next morning and the pillow has melded into my face. I'm like, ah, I'm pulling pieces of pillow. So I get to the hospital, I'm like this. With pillow pieces stuck in my face. And it like, yeah, it was pretty funny.

[Adam Carolla]

So for you, do you have a retirement plan? Is there thoughts like, I'm sort of curious when people go, you know, I'm not. I'm super curious about this. Like, you ever Hang out with a fireman, and it'll be some guy who's 50 and fit as hell. And he'll go, I'm retiring this year, you know, And I go, why?

[Jay Leno]

Why?

[Adam Carolla]

Why? You're strong because you can.

[Jay Leno]

No, I retire when I have my stroke. That's usually how it works.

[Adam Carolla]

You're just gonna go, yeah, yeah.

[Jay Leno]

When you can't talk anymore, that's how.

[Adam Carolla]

You go, yeah, because what are you retiring from exactly?

[Jay Leno]

I'm telling jokes. Please, people. Look, I do this for free. I mean, it's fun, telling funny stories. So if you can get paid for it, why not?

[Adam Carolla]

What's your next car excursion? Where are you going? What are you doing?

[Jay Leno]

Next car excursion? What am I doing? Oh, I just was working on today. Was working on my 1918 Stutz Bearcat. So I'll put that together and drive it home tonight.

[Adam Carolla]

And your turbine car, where the old timers put the engine back together again.

[Jay Leno]

That's a great story. It's like the movie Cocoon.

[Adam Carolla]

All these old guys from 62, 63.

[Jay Leno]

From 60 to 62, those were the engineers. The Chrysler built a turbine car. They built 55. The program closed down. The engineers are all told to burn their plans and throw them away because they're engineers. They don't do that. So when my car broke down, I called Williams Turbines out of Detroit, and.

[Adam Carolla]

I said, how many of those cars exist?

[Jay Leno]

Six.

[Adam Carolla]

Six?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah. They built 55, about six, maybe three run. And we found 60 guys all over the age of 80 that worked on the original project. And they said, we'll build you a new motor. You just pay for the parts. Right. And it was like the movie Cocoon. One guy was in a wheelchair, just hopelessly, kind of twisted, but he's sharp as a tack. Membered every piece of this turbine engine, how it went, specifications. The regenerators had to drill 22,000 holes, and there were generators. His idea was, we're going to make them octagon this time. That'll get the heat moving fast. I mean, just all kinds of. Yeah, it was fascinating. They did a wonderful, wonderful job. And the sad thing was, every week another one would pass away because they're all 94, 91, 88.

[Adam Carolla]

But they put the motor back in.

[Jay Leno]

The car, and it's running now.

[Adam Carolla]

And you took it down the Dream Cruise?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, I took it on the Dream Cruise twice. It's still in Detroit now they've got it on display. It'll probably come back another month, month or so.

[Adam Carolla]

I love that story. And I always use it as an example, which is sort of politically when people talk about, well, we got a new form of socialism or new. It's like, listen, the internal combustion engine, that's what works. And I go, I always use your car. I go, but they had a turbine car that was going to be the future, but it just didn't work.

[Jay Leno]

Well, it did work well. I mean, it worked, but the trouble was, you cannot clean up a jet. It's the dirtiest kind of engine there is. And they knew by 1968, emissions were coming in. And you've got this project. You forget, Chrysler stopped building the Hemi and they built the 440 instead, because the 440 was $5, an engine cheaper to make. And when you're making 2 million cars a year, that's $10 million in savings. So every dollar. And a turbine, although has fewer moving parts. The parts that move are extremely exotic. The metals, it's 1400 degrees, so they're very expensive to produce. And the turban car probably would have sold for no less than $7,000 when the Cadillac was $4,500. So it was never really a viable.

[Adam Carolla]

Product, but a really cool piece. Cool piece and a great sound. Well, you have a turbine motorcycle as well?

[Jay Leno]

Yeah, I got the turbine motorcycle.

[Adam Carolla]

That's the craziest one. All right, I'm gonna be in Albuquerque September 26th at the chemo theater and then off to the Orpheum theater and Flagstaff doing standup. Jay's got his wonderful products now at Walmart.

[Jay Leno]

That's supposed to be somewhere now, but I'm stuck here. Here.

[Adam Carolla]

YouTube channel, Jay Leno's garage. Always great. Always great. See you, my friend.

[Jay Leno]

Thank you.

[Adam Carolla]

Always a pleasure. All right, till next time. Adam Crawford, Jay Leno saying mahalo.

[Show Announcer]

Pick up your phone and leave us a voicemail at 888-634-1744 and then get tickets to see Adam Corolla at AdamCola.com.

[Adam Carolla]

Foreign.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

CBS hits are streaming free on Pluto TV.

[Jay Leno]

I'm coming in.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

For this month only, you can watch full seasons of the CBS shows you love, from the courtroom drama of Matlock to the heroics of fire country. Go back to where it all began in inside CIS origins or watch the hilarious hauntings of ghosts all for free. Full seasons of the CBS shows you love this month only on Pluto tv. Stream now. Pay never. This September, CBS hits are streaming free on Pluto tv.

[Jay Leno]

I'm coming in hot.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

For this month only you can watch full seasons of the CBS shows you love from the courtroom drama of Matlock to the heroics of Fire country, go back to where it all began in NCIS origins, or watch the hilarious hauntings of ghosts, all for free. Full seasons of the CBS shows you love this month only on Pluto tv. Stream now. Pay Never.