John Popper + Gina and Bryan (Carolla Classics)

Summary

Adam Carolla Show – John Popper + Gina and Bryan (Carolla Classics)
February 6, 2026
PodcastOne / Carolla Digital

Overview

This Carolla Classics episode revisits some of the most beloved and hilarious moments from the Adam Carolla Show, focusing on fan-requested gems featuring Blues Traveler frontman John Popper. The episode blends laughter, sharp musical critique, stories from John Popper’s colorful life, and the beloved banter between Adam, Gina Grad, and Bryan Bishop. The main focus is John Popper’s legendary harmonica skill, his playful approach to jamming on unlikely pop songs, and the group’s comedic tearing down (and occasionally defending) of pop music sacred cows from the '80s and '90s.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. John Popper “Fixes” Songs

• The Setup

  • Adam shares a classic story of entering his wife’s car, discovering T-Pain’s “I’m in Love with a Stripper” blasting, and deciding it would be perfect for Popper's signature harmonica improv.
  • (01:37) Adam: “You know how I love John Popper fixes songs… I got into my wife's car … and the song ‘I'm in Love with a Stripper’ by T-Pain is playing. Adam's guest is one of his favorite artists, John Popper. Adam tells the story, then John Popper whips out his harmonica and starts playing it to the song.”

• Popper’s Harmonica Jams

  • Popper auditions harmonicas, then joins in with fluid licks over the most random pop hits, transforming them with his artistry.
  • Gina and Bryan react with amazement—a recurring bit in show history.

• Memorable Reactions

  • (04:47) Gina Grad: “That was like such a dopamine rush!”
  • (04:53) Gina Grad: “My vagina is so confused.”
  • (05:01) John Popper (riffing): “I will confuse your vagina.”

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2. On Harmonica Playing, Talent, and Musical Prowess

• Adam and John riff on musical skill and pop stars

  • Adam lauds Popper’s playing, trashes famous musicians with questionable harmonica chops (Bob Dylan, Alanis Morissette), and draws colorful analogies.
  • (07:18) Adam: “John. Couple things I love about John, I love the fact that he says that Bob Dylan's a horrible harmonica player. And I agree. I mean, yes, he's bad at it.”
  • Popper elaborates on technique and his influences, naming harmonica peers.

• Popper’s Musical Origins

  • Credits the Blues Brothers for inspiring him to play at age 14.
  • (19:03) John Popper: “The Blues Brothers. Oh, I wanted to be a comedian … and then I saw the Blues Brothers and just something clicked about that harmonica…”

• Practice and Teenage Anguish

  • Reflects on obsessive practice, lack of a social life, and how adolescent suffering forges musical skill.
  • (32:29) John Popper: “If I was getting laid all through high school, I wouldn't touch the damn thing.”

• The 10,000 Hours Principle

  • Discussion about Malcolm Gladwell’s theory and channeling youthful suffering into mastery.
  • (32:47) David Wilde: “You need 10,000 hours.”
  • (33:13) John Popper: “Everybody does have suffering … They just fill it with different crap.”

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3. Wild Tales: Weapons, Arrests, and ATF

• Popper recounts colorful incidents with firearms, a Civil War cannon bored for dog food, and a run-in with the law.

  • (12:20) John Popper: “Really, what happened was I got caught sitting in my car smoking some weed while my friend was doing 100 miles an hour … and I had legally transported like 14 guns in my car, and that's what made the news.”

• A stalker, an ATF investigation, a limo ride with a .44 Magnum, and a support call from Ted Nugent—Popper’s life reads like rock'n'roll gonzo journalism.

• On Stalkers:

  • (13:29) John Popper: “Actually, once you're stalked, you realize it has nothing to do with you. It is so unflattering… It's like the voice on the TV is talking to my face…”

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4. Comedy, Wordplay & Songwriting

• Popper shares how comedy and music intersect in his career.

  • Cites writing a song about the Challenger explosion to meet his high school English requirement.
  • (36:16) John Popper (singing): “…teacher in space will not have died in disgrace…”

• Talks about getting into the New School as a harmonica major (straight F's, but a song gets him in).

• David Wilde praises Popper’s lyricism, wit, and uniqueness as a songwriter:

  • (35:28) David Wilde: “One thing that separates him is he's a great songwriter… I don't think since Willie Dixon there's been someone that good.”

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5. Bashing and Salvaging Pop Songs

• The Group’s Musical Critique Bit:

  • Adam, John, and David Wilde run through a list of songs they claim to hate, asking Popper to redeem them with harmonica.
  • Targets include: Rod Stewart’s “Passion”, Hall & Oates’ “Family Man”, Steve Miller’s “Abracadabra”, Depeche Mode’s “People Are People”, Prince’s “When Doves Cry”, Sly and the Family Stone’s “Family Affair”, and the oeuvre of Duran Duran.

• Notable Quotes:

  • (58:33) John Popper: “I'm the bacon of rock and roll.”
  • (55:12) Adam Carolla: “I've always said, well, John Popper's incredible voice, that's overshadowed by his incredible harmonica playing…”

• On Duran Duran:

  • (72:15) John Popper: “I have truly loathed [them] throughout my childhood.”
  • (74:00) Adam Carolla: “It’s a soundtrack to gay porn… Their whole thing is just weird Euro gay porn.”

• On ‘People Are People’

  • (66:32) Adam Carolla: “It's mope rock. Like, it's like a bunch of British guys moping.”
  • (66:50) John Popper: “They're keeping it factual.”

• On Pop Cultural Influence/Persistence

  • Adam rails against the “museum built for hacks” by radio and program directors, not unlike viral memes before the internet.

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6. Showcase: “Look Around” by Blues Traveler

• Adam expresses deep admiration for the track “Look Around”

  • (104:55) Adam Carolla: “I looked this up today. It's 20th … of rated Blues Traveler songs. I got it number one, at least top three, but it's 20. … this is a great example of a song that's so much pathos to it and the lyrics are so good... John Popper is such a virtuoso on the harmonica that his voice gets left behind a little bit. He has a great vocalist, and if you listen to this song, you'll get it.”
  • They play and analyze the song, noting the emotional intensity and underrated singing.

• Gina and Joe Coy marvel at Popper’s signature vocalisms:

  • (110:36) Joe Coy: “Dude is so on another level, bro… No one sings the way he sings.”

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Popper’s Quick Wit:

  • (05:01) “I will confuse your vagina.” – John Popper

• On Musical Skill:

  • (07:28) “I'd like to see [Bob Dylan and Alanis Morissette] duel it out.” – John Popper

• On Childhood Practice:

  • (27:27) “That's the thing. It's like you don't practice, you just play… I had no social life…” – John Popper

• Adam’s Radio Rant:

  • (76:53) “The program directors played the shit over and over again… No, you don't. You're familiar with this song.”

• Popper Sums Up Blues Mastery:

  • (32:29) “If I was getting laid all through high school, I wouldn't touch the damn thing.”

• On Duran Duran and Internet Porn:

  • (80:09) “We just prevented the next Simon Le Bon from happening.” – John Popper

• Popper’s Metaphysical Lyric:

  • (36:16) “Sometimes we try to reach the stars and sometimes we hit the ground wow…”

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Memorable Segments and Timestamps

• Popper harmonizes with T-Pain (I'm in Love with a Stripper): [02:45–04:47]
• Popper on Bob Dylan’s harmonica and musicianship: [07:18–09:45]
• Popper’s arrest/guns/ATF/Ted Nugent story: [12:15–15:16]
• Comedy and songwriting crossovers ('Challenger' song): [36:06–37:40]
• Musical roast: Popper “fixes” terrible pop songs: [57:17–68:04]
  • “Abracadabra,” “When Doves Cry,” “Man Eater,” etc.
• On Duran Duran, pop culture, and payola: [72:13–78:04]
• The “Look Around” deep cut showcase: [104:43–110:49]

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Tone and Vibe

• Fast-paced, unfiltered, and openly irreverent, with affectionate ribbing and moments of genuine admiration.
• Carolla is acerbic and direct, Popper is self-deprecating and quick-witted, while Gina, Bryan, Joe Coy, and David Wilde provide color commentary and fan energy.

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For New Listeners

This episode is a masterclass in why the Adam Carolla Show endures:

• Hilarious, sometimes vulgar honesty (“My vagina is so confused…”)
• Deep-cut music nerd banter (Popper’s encyclopedic—and hilarious—musicianship)
• Real talk on artistic drive (youthful suffering, practicing out of loneliness)
• Surreal stories from the road (cannons, the ATF, gun-toting limo drivers)
• A genuine love for music and for poking fun at musical icons

Skip the ads and the intros if you must—but don’t miss the harmonica jams, the all-time roasts of '80s pop, and Adam’s soapbox meditations on musical taste and creative suffering.

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[End of summary]

Transcript

[Adam Carolla]

Foreign.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Welcome to Corolla Classics. I'm your host, superfan Giovanni. This is the podcast. We play the best moments, highlights and fans like the clips from all 16 years of the Adam Corolla Show. We have a companion podcast titled Corolla Classics. You can find the ad free archives at Podcast one plus. Check it out and sign up if you'd like to get access to the ad free archives of the Adam Carolla show, The Adam and Dr. Drew show, as well as access to the brand new podcast Beat It Out. Make sure to check out Adam Carolla's substack adamcorla.substack.com and if you'd like to request a clip, please email us classicsdamcarolla.com now on to the clips coming up. First, we have a request from Sergio. Sergio writes, hello, my name is Sergio and I'm a huge fan of acs. I've been listening to Adam since he would cover for Stern. I really miss the old days with a full cast and absolutely miss Bald Brian's drops and Gina Grad's news. I have several favorite moments from the show, but there was an episode where one of the staff members moved Adam's car and happened to leave the radio station on something that Adam would not normally listen to. Adam starts the car and the song I'm in Love with the Strippers like T Pain is playing. Adam's guest is one of his favorite artists, John Popper. Adam tells the story, then John Popper whips out his harmonica and starts playing it to the song. Is there any way that you can share this with me? The episode number? Or even better yet, play it on Cruel Classic someday. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my email. I really appreciate it. Long time listener, first time emailer. So Sergio, here we go. Sergio got it for you right now. Adam Carola show up. So 2452 Joe Coy, John Popper, Gina Grad, Brian Bishop from 2018. Hope you enjoy.

[Adam Carolla]

Hey, can we. You know how I I love John Popper fixes songs.

[John Popper]

Yep, yeah, I've got them ready.

[Adam Carolla]

I got into my wife's car and Gabe, who's five feet away on the other side of the wall, had put it on the Drake channel. I was surprised that Gina had her visceral reaction to Drake.

[Gina Grad]

I'm not a fan.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't know anything about Drake other than I don't get it. I don't get Moses, but that's exactly how I feel.

[Gina Grad]

Nothing personal, he seems like a nice guy.

[John Popper]

I don't he Seems like a nice guy. The video where he was dancing in that cube.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, yeah, the bling.

[John Popper]

That's a while ago, but.

[Gina Grad]

And I don't hate him. I kind of just hate his fans.

[Adam Carolla]

His T. Pain. Anyway, on the Drake Channel, on the On. I guess it was Sirius xm. T Pain had a song called I'm in Love Wit. Is it wit a stripper or that? Okay. Witness driven. This is. So this was playing when I got my wife's car.

Okay.

Finding which harmonica to use. 10,000 times. He just switched harmonica.

She.

All right, Jon Gino's going out of her mind. That was the most glorious thing I've ever seen in my life. It's great in person. Oh, my God.

[Gina Grad]

That was like such a dopamine rush.

[Brian Bishop]

Gina, have you ever had more extreme reaction to an artist?

[Adam Carolla]

Two songs back to back.

[Gina Grad]

My vagina is so confused.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, I have that effect on women. Well, now I love teaching.

[John Popper]

I will confuse your vagina.

[Adam Carolla]

It's fit to be tied.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

All right, this ADAM Cole Show 2452, a listen request. And now we're flashing back to the earliest example of John Popper coming onto the podcast to spruce up a song with his harmonica. There's a bit that actually originated back on the 2006-2009 Adam Cruella Morning show. John came in and played along to Paula Abdul. We're flashing back all the way to Adam Corolla show up. So 907. This is from the podcast days after. They've already done this bit several times back in the radio show days. And this is from 2012, approximately six years after they first discovered this idea. Previous to this, Adam Carolla would have John come on Loveline and pretend to be jamming with John Popper, do an extensive bit talking about his history with all these different instruments, and then he'd pretend that Adam and Drew were playing along in studio. Drew was always kind of begrudgingly going along with it, sometimes even getting monosyllabic, seeming like he was, like, over the bit. But to this very day, people still think Adam and Drew were actually playing instruments alongside John Popper. So the bit worked. Hope you guys enjoy Adam Cole's show up. So 907, John Popp. David Wilde 2012. Check it out.

[Adam Carolla]

Mandate get it on. And welcome to Little One on One. Well, it's actually One on Two. That is me, Adam Perolla, and of course, David Wilde from the Rolling Stone joining us. And none other than John Popper from Blues Traveler. Hey, always good to see you, John.

[John Popper]

Good to see you, too.

[Adam Carolla]

As you know, I'm a huge Blues Traveler fan and maybe a bigger John Popper fan.

[John Popper]

You've said so much nice stuff about me. I just want to come and give you a giant hug.

[Adam Carolla]

It can be arranged.

[John Popper]

You rock. You rock.

[Adam Carolla]

We'll get my assistant Matt on that immediately. John. Well, let's see. I saw Jon over at Jimmy Kimmel's house when Rowdy Roddy Piper got a friend of ours and David in a sleeper hold and actually put him out.

[John Popper]

Yeah, we're excited about that. And it's weird as how the big wrestlers always. They hug and love you as they put you out.

[Joe Coy]

Like, it's okay.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, just going to sleep.

[Joe Coy]

It's all right. Just go to sleep.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I think it's like when the vet puts a dog down.

[Joe Coy]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

I felt like he was putting him to sleep and we wouldn't have to worry about him again. It's okay. We'll dispose.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I remember. You got a nice kick out of that.

[John Popper]

Oh, man.

[Adam Carolla]

John. Couple things I love about John, I love the fact that he says that Bob Dylan's a horrible harmonica player. And I agree. I mean, yes, he's bad at it.

[John Popper]

I'd like to see him and Alanis Morris had Duel it out. That would be kind of cool.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, when you're using it as sort of a breathing apparatus, it's not a good thing. We're just inhaling and exhaling through the thing. But I. I'm. I'm with you. I.

[John Popper]

Look, you want to play like. I got harps here. You want to play like Bob Dylan right now?

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[John Popper]

There you go. Just let her rip.

[Adam Carolla]

So all I have to do is breathe in and then blow out.

[John Popper]

Yeah. Now just kind of go. Yeah. And just lean a little more on one than the other. All right. Like. Yeah, like, there it is. That's just above his repertoire.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I know. And listen, when you're good at something, like, let's see what I'm. I'm good at hanging doors.

[John Popper]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

And if there was some guy who was legendary at hanging French doors, except for every time I saw a set of French doors the guy hung, it sucked.

[John Popper]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

I would speak out.

[John Popper]

I've got a great example for you. We were over in Iraq and we saw one of Saddam's palaces, and he did everything on the cheap. Like, it looks like it's marble, but it's really like plaster with marble hanging on it.

[Adam Carolla]

Sure.

[John Popper]

And the staircase is like, one side of the Italian staircase would have, like, 14 steps. They would have 17 steps really?

[Adam Carolla]

Wow.

[John Popper]

So you go in and see this palace and it's all, ew, it feels off.

[Adam Carolla]

Maybe Bob Dylan built it.

[John Popper]

Yeah, exactly. I think metaphorically. Bob Dylan's the Iraqi staircase builder.

[Adam Carolla]

The part where these guys, you know, they're iconic and they're great songwriters and they're legends and they're in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. But look, if your harmonica playing sucks, then your harmonica playing sucks. And we're allowed to say your harmonica playing sucks and blows and blows. And John Popper plays well, again, I don't know who is as good as John Pop. Right. I suppose you do.

[John Popper]

There's a couple of guys out there, I think Howard Levy, I think he plays chromatic scales on a blues harp.

[Adam Carolla]

Which that's hard to do.

[John Popper]

That's hard to do. You got to do overblows, which I sort of know how to do. But he does them like they're butter.

[Adam Carolla]

Are you better now than you were 15 years ago in some ways? Do you keep learning or how's it work?

[John Popper]

You know that we played the Roseanne theme the last season, and I do a little riff on the end of that, and that was about as smooth as I can do.

[Adam Carolla]

Riff.

[John Popper]

And I'm glad that got on TV somewhere. Right? You hear that on A Lifetime or something. I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember being able to do that.

[Adam Carolla]

Susie Cracks the Whip is the name of the newish cd. And by the way, Blues Traveler is going to be playing in Zanesville, Ohio, September 25th, and Chicago on the 27th and Kansas City on the 29th. And what you can do is you can go to. Once you go to bluestraveler.com and then you can find out wherever you're listening, whatever date, wherever it might be.

[John Popper]

What I like about getting older, though, is that what you want to say. The stuff you want to play is a little more interesting. Like, I think you're not trying to spew your load all over everybody every time.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

And then I kind of like you walk down and fuck them all, as it were. You know, the calf and the bull thing. You know that saying, no, but go ahead. The calf says to the bull, hey, they're standing on a hill over all these heifers. And he says, hey, dad, let's run down and fuck one of those heifers. And the bull says, no, let's walk down and fuck em all. I like that comes with age and that seasoning. And I think that's what's fun about being in a band for so long.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You get to walk down and fuck them all.

[John Popper]

Yeah. We once opened for the Neville Brothers and one of them was just playing a cowbell.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[John Popper]

And he was running the room with a cowbell. How do you do that? Like, we were all like, how do you, like, own a room with a stick and a piece of metal? But you gotta just be old enough to do that.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

And that's age.

[Adam Carolla]

Also, I don't think cows are that smart.

[John Popper]

Yeah, it's true.

[Adam Carolla]

Try to stay away from the ones with the seven stomachs though. I find out I found is that how many. How many stomachs does a cow have?

[John Popper]

I feel good.

[Adam Carolla]

4.

[John Popper]

And it's strange that I know that, but what did you do to a.

[Adam Carolla]

Cow with a stomach? So you not only. And I want to talk about how you got. And David Wilde. You can jump in anytime. Just so it doesn't seem weird, like you're not here or something.

[David Wilde]

I'm just watching you two bond. I don't want to ruin the match.

[John Popper]

Right. This guy.

[Adam Carolla]

I like the fact that you have weapons.

[John Popper]

Thank you.

[Adam Carolla]

I like the fact that one time I spoke to you about your Civil War era cannon where you'd fire dog food out of it.

[John Popper]

Yeah. Yeah. I still got that.

[Adam Carolla]

It was. The barrel of the cannon was bored out just perfectly for dog food.

[John Popper]

It's a rough barrel, so you can't put balls in it like real munitions, or else it'll bounce around in that barrel and explode. So it's good for like tin cans and things. And that's what it's for. I mean, seven grand will get you a rough barrel. 20 grand will get you the rifled barrel that will really shoot projectiles a mile away. And I just don't need anything shelled that badly.

[Adam Carolla]

And hidden compartments in your car.

[John Popper]

Yes, yes. That. That really went well.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. What happened with that story?

[John Popper]

Really, what happened was I got caught sitting in my car smoking some weed while my friend was doing 100 miles an hour. And that was really what happened. But it was moving day and I had legally transported like 14 guns in my car. And that's what made the news. And what's funny is everyone think I broke the law because I had guns in my car. And that was the legal part.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[John Popper]

And I said, no, it was for weed. And I go, oh, that doesn't matter. So the part that's actually illegal is nobody cares about.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[John Popper]

And it was funny. And the next day was the funniest part because I get up in the morning and I get a call from the atf. And I had a stalker whose uncle was retired atf. And she says, oh my God, I heard he got arrested. I'm worried for my life. And so he. The ATF calls me, goes, hi, can we just come over and see what you're doing? And I said, well, no, I got to go to the airport, I'm flying somewhere. They said, okay, well, I just want you to know that we've checked you out and you're all good with us. And there's this girl saying that she's scared for her life. And so we show him the police reports we have on this girl. Luckily, document your stalkings, people. And actually, a funny side note, she wound up stalking the ATF guy for a while.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[John Popper]

They just. Stalkers just want.

[David Wilde]

Did that hurt?

[John Popper]

No. Actually, once you're stalked, you realize it has nothing to do with you. It is so unflattering. You're thinking, I'm so great. Who could not stalk me?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

It has nothing. It's like the voice on the TV is talking to my face, you know, it's. It's hard.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[John Popper]

So I get in the limousine to take me to the airport, and in the back is a.44 Magnum. Apparently the limo guy wants to sell me this gun. He heard I like him on the radio. Our top story, it's the quote I said to the cops, which is, why do I have a police siren in my car? The real answer is, if there's an earthquake, people are getting the fuck out of my way.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[John Popper]

That's why I have a police siren in my car. But you don't say that to the police.

[Adam Carolla]

Right? Right.

[John Popper]

So I said, if there's a natural disaster, I won't get left behind.

[Adam Carolla]

Uh huh. Now where?

[John Popper]

That was the quote. And mind you, these cops said, we have no idea who you are. We could care. And bam. Right? You know? So it's all over the news, and I'm playing with this cool.44 Magnum as I'm rolling to the airport, hearing about myself on the news. It has interchangeable barrels. You know, the six inch barrel. So I'm playing with that and I get to the airport and the phone rings and it's Ted Nugent.

[Adam Carolla]

Mm. Makes sense.

[John Popper]

It's a travesty, man. They're trying to railroad you, man.

[Adam Carolla]

He heard someone was selling someone else a gun and he immediately got on the phone.

[John Popper]

He invited me down to his ranch in Texas.

[David Wilde]

To bow hunt?

[John Popper]

No, for machine guns. Apparently machine guns are raised on ranches.

[David Wilde]

Do you know him? You Have a relationship with him.

[John Popper]

I've been with him on the Howard Stern movie. We hung out in.

[David Wilde]

I had the greatest phone call from Ted Nugent. I never had met him. And I'd done some liner notes for Aerosmith for some box set, and I. It was actually my first day at the west coast office of Rolling Stone. I walked in, the phone rang and said, it's Ted Nugent for you. And I picked it up and he said. The first thing he said to me was, is this David Wilde? I said, yeah. He goes, man, I thought when you became a rock critic, you had to leave your dick at the door, but you're still holding onto yours with both hands.

[John Popper]

There you go.

[David Wilde]

And I went, oh, thank you. Nice to meet you. And he goes, I want you to write liner notes. I read your Aerosmith, I want you to write a box set liner notes for me. And I hesitated because I'm not a particular Ted Nugent fan. And within one second of hesitation, he knew, and he goes, don't worry, David. I love me enough for both of us.

[John Popper]

Aw, that's cool.

[David Wilde]

And I literally, if you ever read the liner notes to the out of control Ted Nugent box set, I never say anything good about him. I just quote him, saying great things about him. It was great. What a great personality.

[Adam Carolla]

He's sort of David Lee Roth and Gary Busey esque in that they're a little bit nuts, but they can talk a mile a minute.

[John Popper]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And everything they say, you get the feeling they've said it 20 times that day, but you haven't heard it before. Exactly. So they pulled it off somehow.

[John Popper]

I'm very terrified that I'm going to become that person. I use the same jokes over and over again. You know, like with the harmonica, it's like life. Sometimes you blow, sometimes you suck.

[Adam Carolla]

Right, Right.

[John Popper]

And I've said that for 20 years. And I'd said it on Kelly Ripa, the beginning of this tour, and everybody loved it. And I felt like, God, get some new material.

[Adam Carolla]

Well.

[David Wilde]

And yet Michael Strahan gets the job instead of. I think John Popper would be much more.

[John Popper]

But it's just such a great go to line for the harmonica.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, the thing about most lines is most people haven't heard them. As a comedian, when I repeat myself, I always pause for a minute and think, oh, who's.

[John Popper]

Yeah. Don't you want to be like, why are you laughing at this? I've said this 50 million times.

[Adam Carolla]

I try to keep, like, in the mid 30 million times that I repeat Myself. But it is weird. And then you realize people make whole careers out of doing this.

[John Popper]

You got to do it.

[Adam Carolla]

And then at a certain time, at a certain point, if you don't say, get er done in the middle of your set, people are going to actually want their money back.

[John Popper]

Mad at you.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You don't say blows or sucks. People are gonna be disappointed by John Palmer.

[John Popper]

My parents hate it when I said it on Fox News because it's like life. Sometimes you blow, sometimes you suck. And then they went right to a commercial. My parents are like, oh, my God, he just got kicked off of Fox News. I kind of like that, actually.

[Adam Carolla]

It is funny.

[John Popper]

I'd love it if I got thrown out of the building.

[Adam Carolla]

It's funny when your parents. Cause to your parents, you're just their kid. So you can actually, like. I can say, my mom wants a copy of my book, but I don't really want her to read my book that much because it says a few things about her that aren't flattering.

[John Popper]

That's true.

[Adam Carolla]

And she'll never buy the book. So I can say to her stuff like, they only gave me two copies, and then two guys from work took them. And then I don't want to ask for more because I don't want to get into trouble. That's. She'll be like, yeah, don't get fired. And you don't want to get your publisher mad at you. And they'll buy into it.

[John Popper]

I think they want to buy into it. I think there's a certain amount of denial your parents are willing to. I'd be like, mom, let me tell you, at the time, I tried crack once. I'm making salad, right?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

Wants drinks.

[Adam Carolla]

My mom. My mom used to. When we did Loveline on mtv, she'd say, like. She'd say, like, eddie Gravitch is in town and wants to see you guys tape a show. But if it's gonna be, I don't want to get you in trouble. Well, I host the show, so I could. Yeah. I just don't want to. I don't want to get you powers that be. Like that conversation where I'd go to the producer, Stone, Stanley, look, a friend of mine live down the street. Okay, you know what, Carolla? That's it. Rackman, get in here. Carola, you're out. We've had enough. You and your fucking star tantrums. You want who to come in and watch what? I don't think so. Yeah, but to you, you're never a celebrity. You're Always their kid.

[John Popper]

Yeah. When I got arrested, my mom. I wasn't allowed to mention it at Easter because my mother in law was there. Now are your sister in law's mom, you grew up where in New Jersey? Princeton. Oh, really? I was born in Cleveland and moved to Stamford, Connecticut. Did like elementary and middle school there and then high school, moved to Princeton.

[Adam Carolla]

The harmonica, how do you find that and at what age?

[John Popper]

The Blues Brothers. Oh, I wanted to be a comedian. I wanted to be. I'm not quite good. I'm good enough to get that I'm not funny enough to be a comedian. You know, I'm what you call one of them connoisseurs, an aficionado, if you will.

[Adam Carolla]

And you want to be a comedian? Well, the Blues Brothers were taking music and comedy and putting it together.

[John Popper]

It was Saturday Night Live, I watched live and then I saw the Blues Brothers and just something clicked about that harmonica and I really wanted one. And it took me, I think I was about 14 when I got my first one and really started playing it when I was 16.

[David Wilde]

To show how cool that is, John is sitting here with a literal briefcase full of blues.

[John Popper]

That's true.

[David Wilde]

Like this box of harmonics.

[John Popper]

The Hohner people make them.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, it's so cool, that movie. To me, one of the best movies ever. Because first off, no, that movie could never and would never be made again.

[John Popper]

Yeah, you're right.

[Adam Carolla]

No one would know what to call it. And you have to call everything a rom com or pure comedy or, you know, or an action film or a musical. Yeah, that movie would be difficult to put a. For Hollywood executive to put a label on.

[David Wilde]

I feel it's a very bad rom com with Matt Guitar Murphy and Aretha Franklin. I feel it's a misguided rom com week Sea story.

[John Popper]

Oh, I'm brain farting on the director. What's his name? Yeah, I got to be in the sequel. So I mean, like, that's what inspires you to get into show business. And then you're in the movie. It's very surreal.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

And he said, you know, basically they did Men in Black and then Ghostbusters.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[John Popper]

You know, right after this.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[John Popper]

So it's kind of no Ghostbusters. Men in Black was basically ripping off Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters right at the same time.

[Adam Carolla]

Good point.

[John Popper]

You know, it's kind of like they'll rehash it.

[Adam Carolla]

Speaking of the blues Brothers, what, 2000.

[John Popper]

2000. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

I was over at Phil, one of.

[David Wilde]

The top two best Blues Brothers movies.

[Adam Carolla]

I was at it's definitely top five. I was at Phil Rosenthal's house as, you know, producer, creator, whatever. Everyone loves Raymond and the greatest guy in the world with a brick pizza oven.

[John Popper]

Is that the guy that went to Russia and.

[David Wilde]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Made the movie.

[John Popper]

I saw that.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

That was awesome.

[David Wilde]

Oh, he listens every day to this podcast sporting. And he's gonna be very happy. You know that.

[John Popper]

Kudos, sir. That was awesome.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Oh, no, it's a great. It's a great documentary.

[David Wilde]

Don't say kudos, say it's a mitzvah.

[John Popper]

Mitzvah. Good Yontif.

[Adam Carolla]

You can say Judos if you want. Judos to you.

[John Popper]

Kudos.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So he, by the way, just in the one and the two category, a couple months back, five, six weeks ago, I saw Jaws over there. And he always. David will attest to this when he shows a movie during one of his Sunday night screening nights. He has a movie theater in his home and a pizza oven in his home. Invites. He always invites somebody from the film. Like, where.

[John Popper]

Where is his home?

[Adam Carolla]

I sat. He asked me not to tell you specifically. I sat next to Chuck Heston's son when they did the Ten Commandments and stuff like that. It's always somebody. And sometimes the guy starred in the film and sometimes the guy just worked as the first AD on the film. But this was Jaws and he did the whole Jaws thing. And everyone watched Jaws. And then Phil sort of spoke about a little and at a certain point he turned away like 62 year old woman. And he was like, phyllis, now you did editing and sound mixing on Jaws. What was that experience like? And she paused and she sheepishly said, phil, that was Jaws 2. I've never felt worse for a human being in my life.

[David Wilde]

You know the Jaws 3 sequel, that didn't happen, right? Jaws 3 people. Nothing it was supposed to do. They were gonna really make a comedy.

[John Popper]

That's a great title.

[David Wilde]

Which. Great title. It never happened.

[John Popper]

Those jaws 3D where like the shark followed them, that they flew to Jamaica to get away from the island. Right. The shark followed them down.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Popper]

He like took another plane. He took a later flight. It was horrible.

[Adam Carolla]

That was so not, not. Not quite up there with Blues Tri, not Blues Trial, But Blues Brothers 2000. Yes. But Jaws too. And at a certain point, not for you.

[John Popper]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

But just for everyone else in the room, say it was a wonderful experience. I shan't soon forget it. And then move on because no one's ever gonna go, wait a second.

[John Popper]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

I know the guy who did the sound mixing for the Original Jaws one, and you are not it. Like, nobody's gonna ever call you out. I would have went home completely content. I wouldn't have Wikipedia'd her.

[John Popper]

I met a kid. Or this was. I thought it was Henry Thomas. And he's coming up to me. He's a big fan. Like, oh, my God, you're Henry Thomas. This is the kid from E.T. oh, my God. So, like, months later, almost a year later, I get a letter and say, my name is Lucas Haas, and you met me at a bar one night and was convinced I was Henry Thomas. And I didn't want to disappoint you, so I pretended to be Henry Thomas all night for you.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow.

[John Popper]

And I actually gave him credit on. Right. I met him. We made up since. But you know, he was in the Witness. I know. I would have been so happy to meet Lucas Haas, but I thought he was Henry Thomas and made such a big deal out of.

[Adam Carolla]

Is one of those things where when I. Somebody. Somewhere around the third time they call me Alan, I just go with it. Like, I don't. You have a little window there.

[John Popper]

Me too.

[Adam Carolla]

I'll be Hootie.

[John Popper]

If you want me to be Hootie, I'll be Hootie.

[Adam Carolla]

Correct them on the first and second. Hootie. And then after that, I always thought.

[David Wilde]

You were better looking than the Blowfish.

[John Popper]

I had one girl get mad at me because I wouldn't acknowledge that I was Sister Hazel guy, and I showed her my little wiki page on my phone. I'm like, what am I doing? I want to just leave.

[Adam Carolla]

You could do worse. I'm on my way to my car. So where were we? Yeah, so now you're in. You say, Patterson. Where are we now?

[David Wilde]

Princeton.

[John Popper]

Oh, Princeton's where I grew up.

[Adam Carolla]

Princeton.

[John Popper]

Well, I didn't even tell you the kicker of the arrest story.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, the arrest story.

[John Popper]

So I'm in the airport, and everyone's looking at me like they caught me masturbating because they all like, hi, John. And it's weird being known for something you weren't trying to be known for. But the kicker is, I go through the metal detector, and I forgot I had a metal container full of weed in my coat after just being arrested. It didn't set the thing off.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow.

[John Popper]

It was as if God had said, you've had enough, son, and patted me on the head and sent me on my way.

[Adam Carolla]

I feel like if you are going.

[John Popper]

To thank God for our airport security.

[Adam Carolla]

Be in a blues band.

[John Popper]

Which is why I would be packing the Weapons in the first place, if.

[Adam Carolla]

Anybody, if there's even blues attached to anything you do, you should get a free pass. Like, you're not a commercial airline pilot. You don't drive a school bus.

[John Popper]

Yeah, but rules are rules.

[David Wilde]

You know, there's so many blind musicians in the blues that you would need for glaucoma.

[John Popper]

And for you, the dumbest thing, the thing, the moral of the story is if you go 110 miles an hour in population, you pay a price. Yeah. Because we see the cop running to his car, and that's when we instantly pulled over and felt bad because he's thinking, you can see on his face, I'm never gonna see my kids again. I'm gonna have to shoot somebody. And that's the. That was the bad piece.

[Adam Carolla]

So.

[John Popper]

So, you know, we deserved. Basically, we just had to pay a ton of money.

[Adam Carolla]

You say you picked up the harmonica at 14, but you really didn't start playing till 16. You mean you were practicing for two years?

[John Popper]

I had it. You know, I didn't really play. I played it right away. I could play songs on it. But, you know, it was fun. But I wasn't really like, wow, I want to do this for a living. And then when I saw the Blues Brothers, that was around 16, and then I was like, aggressively, I. I want to do this right. And that. That's when something started changing. And, you know, I was still kind of interested in being a comedian, but the Blues Brothers led me to Paul Butterfield, you know, because someone said, dan, it sounds like Paul Butterfield. So I'm like, who's Paul Butterfield? I go get a Butterfield live album. I mean, people don't understand how ignorant I actually am about, you know, who musicians are and, like, the names of people. I would be calling you Alan if I hadn't been watching you a lot.

[Adam Carolla]

Sure.

[John Popper]

And I. I get a Paul Butterfield album, and he's amazing, and I go to Kiss, the album, it's a double album, and I actually dropped it on the floor. It was the live Al, but I learned Drifting and Drifting on the second disc by heart. Every day I would wake up and play that thing. Butterfield was playing a bunch of Elmore James tunes. This got me back into the old blues stuff. So from Elmore James, I learned Muddy Waters, I learned John Lee Hooker, and this eventually led me to Jimi Hendrix. And when I heard Voodoo Child, the long version with Stevie Winwood, that's when I was no longer interested in comedy. And from there, it was all about music.

[Adam Carolla]

And how many hours a day would you say you played?

[John Popper]

That's the thing. It's like you don't practice, you just play. Like, I, I had no social life, you know, what was I like 15, 16? And you know, I, I wasn't the charmer you see before you today. That's true.

[Adam Carolla]

Probably the frames.

[John Popper]

You lie down. You lie down in the basement with the TV at sort of half volume and you just play till you get tired. And then you just watch some TV until you feel like playing again. And I mean, months would go by.

[Adam Carolla]

That would, you know, because I'm sort of curious about this. Like, I think having time on your hands is good. When you're trying to develop yourself. When you're old, it kind of sucks because you're kind of done. You're out of the idea phase of life.

[John Popper]

We say that sitting in a studio you built by hand. See, I think it's just different ideas.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I mean, old, old. Like, you know, when you're old, it just becomes lonely. Like, you see these commercials were like, hey, friendly helpers. They'll come to your house, they'll do light housework and hookers. It's always sad to me when they say they'll do housework, they'll prepare meals, and then at the bottom it says companionship.

[John Popper]

And it's like you should call hookers friendly helpers.

[Adam Carolla]

You're just paying some 23 year old to come to your house for companionship. Friendly help. Sad.

[David Wilde]

I think you're completely right in that, like with kids today, as parents are like social directors for their kids. So there is not the.

[Adam Carolla]

You're Julie from the love pod.

[John Popper]

Oh, yeah. I would never do that if I had kids. I be like, you need to go off and get in trouble and figure some things out.

[Adam Carolla]

But here's the deal. If we're in New Jersey and it's circa 1984 and there's a young John Popper, and you have Internet pornography.

[John Popper]

No, this is before Internet pornography.

[Adam Carolla]

That's my point. Oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I got you now we have a ton of Internet pornography. You have a tablet and a laptop.

[John Popper]

Computer that I knew how to work, assuming I grew up with it.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, yeah. Now you know, you're a whiz with a computer and the laptop and you have Internet porn and you can download any movies you want and watch. See, you can watch Blues Brothers anytime you want to watch a Blues Brothers. And you can watch your favorite scene over and over again and the whole nine yards. Do you ever master the harp?

[John Popper]

I think eventually, if you got to.

[Adam Carolla]

Masturbate that often during your refractory, you would practice.

[John Popper]

Yeah, I think eventually you would just. It's like a muscle. It would need to rest after a while. You would. You would eventually come up.

[David Wilde]

Have you just proposed the greatest Back to the Future new film?

[John Popper]

I really want to find out. I want to be the guy to check this. I want to have the amount of erections I had in 1984 with the porn to back it up.

[Adam Carolla]

We all know I'm talking about an.

[John Popper]

Unstoppable amount of jizz filling up my basement as I was floating on an inflatable raft until the ceiling. Would I finally crawl across the ceiling and get out that little exit window? But I think the thing that would have stopped me is my parents wouldn't have allowed me to have. They would have been very controlling about what I would have been able to have.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, this is my.

[John Popper]

They wouldn't let us have a black. A color TV until 1982.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[John Popper]

They were convinced it was bad for our eyes.

[Adam Carolla]

That's my point. That's the thing. Like, here's Joe Frazier's dad was a sharecropper. If his dad was an investment banker and he grew up playing, you know, Ms. Pac Man.

[David Wilde]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Would he be smoking Joe? It's the generation duking it out in the ring.

[John Popper]

The generation after the people that struggled and made it are always gonna be spoiled brat kids in some way.

[Adam Carolla]

So. So who. With YouTube and you porn and every movie under the sun that you could watch. You could watch the Grinch who Stole Christmas in August.

[John Popper]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

Would you master that instrument?

[John Popper]

Ultimately, yes. It would take longer. I think it would be. I'd be a lot more distracted. It'd be less focused. But eventually there'd be an empty feeling of, I've done this already. Oh, I know this porn. I've got them all memorized. That's the problem. You know, I'm into the free porn, so I don't want to subscribe to anything. Is where you put your credit card number. So as much free stuff and then you start memorizing. Oh, yeah, this is the one. Okay, I'll start paying attention now. Okay, I'm.

[David Wilde]

Hold on. Are you saying there's porn on the computer now?

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. Well, it just hit Wednesday.

[John Popper]

No, don't. Don't tell him more for us.

[Adam Carolla]

So I don't want it to run out. That way.

[John Popper]

I don't have to run out. So my point is that you would be. Eventually, you'd be like, I'm still bored. Eventually, if you had everything you want, you would still be bored. And there'd be something that would make you want to take your moped, your Pook Magnum 2.

[Adam Carolla]

I remember you had one of those.

[John Popper]

Scamper off 20 miles an hour into the woods, Herringtown woods, and smoke a dube and play to the sun setting and feel like that's the most important thing. And that's the thing, is you want to feel like it's really important. It's about self important. Wow. I'm playing my music. Like you need to have that angsty.

[Adam Carolla]

Thing when you're a teenage. Well, I always. I have this theory, and I've probably used you. And you can take this in the spirit in which it's intended, hopefully. But if John Popper was getting laid.

[John Popper]

All through high school, I wouldn't touch the damn thing.

[Adam Carolla]

That's what I'm saying.

[John Popper]

You got it. See, that's different than porn.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, no, but what I'm saying is.

[John Popper]

I was living the quan, you know, the dream of I got the hot chick. And, you know, that's.

[Adam Carolla]

That's what I mean. Like, to really feel, like, to master something, you need some downtime.

[John Popper]

Yes. Some weekends at home, Some suffering.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

Of some sort.

[David Wilde]

You need 10,000 hours.

[John Popper]

The thing is, everybody does have suffering. I remember I was complaining about this girl that I was in love with in high school and how she, you know, she doesn't even know I'm alive or she just thinks of me as a friend. And this girl next to me who has complained is like, yeah, I know what you mean. In my last period, I think I just flunked my trig test and I wanted to go, you don't know about suffering. But it dawned on me. Everyone has a capacity for suffering. They just fill it with different crap.

[Adam Carolla]

Sure.

[John Popper]

And so to them, the worst thing in the world is flunking a trig test. And who am I with my little. She doesn't know I'm alive. Say that's worse or better.

[Adam Carolla]

How big were you when you had the pook moped?

[John Popper]

200 plus. I was a pretty fat kid.

[Adam Carolla]

So is it one of those things where you just gassed it and it made a different sound, but it didn't go anywhere?

[John Popper]

That's how you knew it was working.

[Adam Carolla]

But you weren't moving.

[John Popper]

And I put a gas mask on the headlight to make it look really cool.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

Yeah, it was awesome.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. I remember moped.

[John Popper]

Yes. And it had, like, the top tank, but the Engine was missing. So it's like someone, like, shot out the middle part of the engine.

[Adam Carolla]

It's really. Everyone got everyone. I didn't have a moped.

[John Popper]

People would ride by me and go, why don't you get a real motorcycle?

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[John Popper]

Just like.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, it's sort of all the danger of a real motorcycle. None of the cool.

[John Popper]

Well, you know why I got it was we moved on my 16th birthday from Stamford, and the driving age in Connecticut is 16, and the driving age in New Jersey, 17. And my parents told me this on moving day, which happened to be my birthday. Guess what? You're not driving for nothing. So I used the guilt that I was quite good at being Catholic to get a moped, which you could get a thing for. You get the permit early, right? And then I flunked out of school, so then my little brother got to drive it around the yard for now.

[Adam Carolla]

You flunked? You flunked out of school? Why, you racket.

[John Popper]

I made a vow, a personal vow, that I would not do homework. And I wanted to see where that would take me.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow.

[John Popper]

And you know what I found out? How to glut the system. You know, like, if you skip class, you get a detention. Mm. Skip detention, you get another detention.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[John Popper]

Just keep getting detentions, and eventually you have so many detentions, you can't possibly do them right. You're free at that moment, you're free. They can't punish you.

[Adam Carolla]

It's one of those things where, like, if you owe the IRS five grand, you got to pay it back. But if you owe him $750,000, you could probably cut a deal with them.

[John Popper]

Exactly.

[Adam Carolla]

So you get that number up as high as you can, and then you pay nickels on the dollar.

[John Popper]

There was one point where I had to repeat junior year, and that's how I wound up meeting the rest of my band senior year, or I would have missed the whole blues travel. So I want to see a career move, right? And you're only allowed 18 absences in Princeton High School, and I had, like, 150. But because I was on the program, they classified me emotionally disturbed, which basically meant I got to kick it for the rest of the year.

[David Wilde]

See, Adam, I know you hate to illuminate, but I now understand John. Why John's great. Much better. Because, like I said, honestly, like, you know, you talk about the blues and all, but, like, one thing that separates him is he's a great songwriter. There's a lot of people who, you know, love the blues and play the blues well. But John is, like, this great writer, and one of the things that makes him great is he's the fact that you love comedy so much. You're really witty as a lyricist, and you. There's great wordplay. And, like, I don't think since Willie Dixon there's been someone that good. No.

[Adam Carolla]

So.

[David Wilde]

But that's. I think, because you weren't. You weren't throwing into school. You threw it into your. You're writing for.

[John Popper]

You know, I actually used a song to get out of my senior year English deficit.

[David Wilde]

How did you do that?

[John Popper]

The space shuttle blew up senior year, and they were asking us, you know, I was in English and I wrote a song about it. And the songs Ain't that Life.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow.

[John Popper]

Sometimes we try to reach the stars and sometimes we hit the ground wow. Sometimes when we do, It's a silent night and sometimes there's a terrible sound I can't remember a lot but teacher in space will not have died in disgrace the TV says how everybody cried but take another glance At a good distance and just a couple of people died with hope in her eyes she streaked up through the skies and the wreckage Washed up on the beach I wonder if anybody asked her Is there anyone up there to teach? But ain't that like. I'm 16, by the way Ain't that. I'm telling you about life what grade.

[David Wilde]

Did you get on that? Great.

[John Popper]

I passed. I was flunking English, and they just. I had to go appear at some, like, adult PTA meetings and sing the song. And then I not only graduated with that, but first year, I went to the New School and I was a harmonica major again. They're really. You know, they were starting a jazz program, and I didn't have to have a curriculum because they had straight Fs. And I'm sitting there with the dean. He's looking at my transcripts, like, oh, God. And I had a harmonica in my pocket. And so that's what basically, fuck school, fuck grades. Have a harmonica in your pocket is the moral of the story. And he said, okay, we'll let you in. But I had to take an English class. And basically I just went to my old go to. Which is just nod, challenge the teacher about everything.

[David Wilde]

Sure.

[John Popper]

You know, it was critique in art history. Like, what are art critics really made of? And like, well, what does that mean? What Plato said, Right. And then just sang the space shuttle song at the end of the thing. And they passed me again.

[Adam Carolla]

I was failing biology in 1980 at North Hobbit High. And I Sung the jingle bells Batman smells Robin laid nag song. And a single tear came out from Mr. Dillbery's eye and he moved me right along.

[John Popper]

There you go.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't understand how my kids do the jingle bells Batman smells Robin laid an egg thing.

[John Popper]

Still gets you, doesn't it?

[Adam Carolla]

I want to find the guy who wrote that song. If in fact it was a. I.

[John Popper]

Like to think we all wrote. I think it was a communal.

[Adam Carolla]

And how did. Does it just keep going along?

[David Wilde]

It takes a village to write that.

[John Popper]

Down because we all wonder if Batman smells or not.

[Adam Carolla]

But how do my kids know it?

[John Popper]

That costume has gotta be sweaty. And it introduces a premise that we hadn't really. Oh, wow. You know, crime fighters probably do sweat.

[Adam Carolla]

But is it one of these things where it's just on every campus at the same time? Like, I wonder. I've always wondered about like the whole Rod Stewart stomach pump, that thing.

[John Popper]

Yeah, I remember that.

[Adam Carolla]

And how that one worked. Like how pre Internet, how that worked.

[John Popper]

Do you hear him on like behind the Music, like talking about how horrif that whole trip. We were back on an airplane flying back from Australia when we got the news that I had to get my stomach pumped for the.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, really?

[John Popper]

And it was just like to this day he's traumatized by it because he does not suck dick. He does not. Well, listen, and I was with my.

[David Wilde]

Family first off, but the standards albums that he did, those suck dick.

[Adam Carolla]

It's his right.

[John Popper]

Yeah. See, whether or not Rod Stewart sucks dick is a completely debatable issue, I can tell you.

[David Wilde]

Depends on your perspective.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. I can tell you that passion, like at a certain point, I love a guy, by the way, I love when they're writing a song that won't end.

Right.

And it's a piece of shit that won't end. Like Passion by Rod Stewart and. And then at the end he just starts. He just starts vamping.

[David Wilde]

Free associating.

[Adam Carolla]

Even the president needs passion. He's like looking around. Looks like our engineer pushing his potentiometers needs passion. It's like, Rod, the song sucked at minute two, it sucked at minute three, and now they're minute seven and a half. It's really fucking grading. It's right up there with the American Woman. Like, I would like a list of songs that suck at the beginning and will not end.

[John Popper]

My all time champion is the Alanis Morrison, like Dear Raymond, where she's just doing the laundry list of problems she's had with past relationships. Like these poor bastards.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't Know if anything, don't talk to her. Like the part where somewhere around the hundred 128th time when the guy from the guess who is explaining that he has no need for the American women. By the way, I wish I could have got all the women together and say never fuck one of these guys in this band ever again. I'll fucking have him. He'll write a new song called Burton.

[David Wilde]

Cummings is off limits, ladies.

[Adam Carolla]

He's gonna write a new song called I love you us m'. Lady. Like he fuckin. Don't come near that guy's dick.

[John Popper]

Fuck that. Damn, Dexter, you could have used a little more tongue and not put so much pressure on my labia. And what is that weird, funny third testicle thing?

[Adam Carolla]

It's called a hydrocyst. I think Dr. Drew would call it even. The president needs passion. Oh God. So that hot legs and there's about eight other songs that he has that suck.

[David Wilde]

That's a good stuff.

[John Popper]

If you want my body and you think I'm sexy. It was catchy. But you know, I think that was just oversaturated for me.

[Adam Carolla]

The good stuff. Maggie May. I mean, I got to the bottom of Rod Stewart. I figured it out. It always bothered me because I was like, how can the first cut is the deepest be such a great song? And how can that same brain do the first cuts of deepest and passions? Like, how does that come out of the same brain? Because one is a great. Well then of course, Cat Stevens. It worked out. Then it all snapped into focus with me and I was like, oh, how do I love this Rod Stewart song? And then hate all these other Rod Stewart songs? I realized because it's a Cat Stevens song, that's why.

[David Wilde]

But Rod Stewart, I will say I did a lot of work with Cat Stevens and I said it to him. Rod Stewart sings it better than Cat. Steven sings the hell out of that. He's great at.

[John Popper]

Jack Black said in that movie with John Cusack about, you know, the post sins high fidelity.

[Adam Carolla]

High fidelity.

[John Popper]

The post sins of an artist like I just called to say I love you by Stevie Wonder. You gotta love Stevie Wonder to sort of put up with that song. And we all do. Yeah, but it's not. If we just met Stevie Wonder on that song, it would have been, what the hell is it?

[Adam Carolla]

Well, see, my feeling is it's a critical mass kind of a thing. And it's a. You have it with performers too. Like they're guys who make really funny movies and then, yeah, you know, there's someone there's but at a certain. Okay, but at a certain point, somebody needs to pull like Mel Brooks aside and go, seriously, stop it.

[John Popper]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

Stop it. Because you're destroying your legacy.

[John Popper]

I think when he made that movie Life sucks. Yeah. That was kind of the point.

[Adam Carolla]

That's where someone should have pulled him aside and said, please stop doing things.

[John Popper]

It's time that you settle down.

[Adam Carolla]

Right. And. And my question. And I bring this up all the time with hall and Oates, like, all right, everyone loves Sarah Smile and All Rich Girl and all that kind of stuff. But they have now more shitty songs than they have good songs. And they need to be punished for it. We've all been punished with Man Eater and always makes me think Family Man. Oh, Family Man. Brutally bad. So it's a.

[David Wilde]

They didn't write that either. That they chose to do that.

[Adam Carolla]

It's intensely bad. Like it's offensively bad. My bark is worth. I mean, worse than my bite. And Manny and all these music is.

[John Popper]

A little kinder because it reminds you of a time. That's the thing.

[Adam Carolla]

Like when I think of Manny, I'm.

[John Popper]

Thinking of that 80s dance that Molly Ringwald made famous and you know, whoa, here she comes.

[Adam Carolla]

They have offensively bad songs. They have songs.

[John Popper]

That's cuz you once believed in them.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I was, I. I was just. I was neutral with them. And then I felt like I was raped. With Family man and Man Eater and a handful of other songs.

[David Wilde]

This was written by the guy who did the Exorcist theme.

[John Popper]

You can only be raped ad really?

[David Wilde]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

Adam, you can only be raped if you let them into your car. And don't worry, according to that Missouri guy, you can't have a baby by them.

[Adam Carolla]

I. Who wrote this song?

[David Wilde]

Mike Oldfield and I think his sister Sally. The guy who did Exorcist. Theme from the Exorcist.

[Adam Carolla]

I hope he's attacked thousand wolves. That would be ironic right now.

[David Wilde]

But they maybe on the way to the mailbox. He got his royalty checks.

[Adam Carolla]

That's true.

[David Wilde]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

This is. See, I hear this and I just don't hear anything. Like it's just.

[Adam Carolla]

It's a non. It's.

[John Popper]

Yeah. Bennett.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. It's nothing. It's a zero. It's the opposite of music. You don't need music. This is not music. Oh, wait, I like it. Yeah. Salvage it.

[David Wilde]

This is the first time I've ever enjoyed man eater.

[Adam Carolla]

This is family man.

Come on.

[John Popper]

I think I can do this solo. From long. From long train running. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

It's basically just A riddle of Doobie Brothers. It's just.

[John Popper]

It was.

[Adam Carolla]

It was such a. Yes, I agree. This is.

[John Popper]

He's saying, leave me alone. It's like, leave me alone. I'll get the song done. All right. It was a. He had to fill an extra tune of the record.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay, please, David Wilde, help me understand. Please help me understand. I feel like, okay, I'm a couple things. I'm. I'm a carpenter and I'm a comedian.

[John Popper]

So is Jesus.

[Adam Carolla]

And I don't claim, but I did not gouge the elder. See, that's the joke. I repeat now, if somebody came to me as a comedian and said, here's a series of. Here's a five minute joke I would like you to tell. And I. And I read it as an accomplished comedian and it was just a zero. Just empty calorie styrofoam piece of fucking shit with an 80s bad sax solo in the middle of it. I would look at it and I would go, no, I've written good jokes before and I've done plenty of comedy before. And this, sir, is embarrassing. It's horrible.

[John Popper]

Let me augment the story a little bit. Then someone brings you a sack full of cash.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, I'm listening.

[John Popper]

And then a bunch of cocaine.

[David Wilde]

Now all the answer.

[John Popper]

And then there's some really, like the dresses in the 80s with the hooker boobs thrusting out. And this is all happening to you at once. Meanwhile, your wife is leaving you and the kid has some weird exotic disease.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm listening.

[John Popper]

Now all this stuff is happening. Just bought a helicopter.

[Adam Carolla]

Let's start recording.

[John Popper]

Building renovation. And you're saying, yes. You know what? All you do is just sing this crappy little thing. And then I've got. I've got all this money to deal with all this crap.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you know what? This can. I don't want to cut you off, but don't give me all the cocaine and all the money because we have to give it to the program directors, too.

[John Popper]

We should just sell the cocaine.

[Adam Carolla]

This needs to be played on the radio eventually.

[John Popper]

I say we sell the cocaine and hire a kid to sing this crappy song.

[Adam Carolla]

That's a good idea. All right. Let me give a little love to a company that John Popper can get behind. Carbon.

[John Popper]

Hell, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

That's right. That's your strongbox for your computer files. They back up your computer and it's automatically. And it's not. It's somewhere else deep within Cheyenne Mountain. It's a NORAD thing. I can't talk about it anymore. Automatically and continually. We use these guys. I wrote two books, David. You got to use these, too. You're writing thousands and thousands. We're 90,000 words.

[David Wilde]

I'm going to back it up. I'm going to back up CeeLo's book as soon as I get home.

[Adam Carolla]

Please backup, and don't phrase it that way when you're telling your wife you can access the backup files anytime, anywhere with the free app. You can use Carbonite and like I said, we used it when I was writing. Not Taco Bell material, thank you very much. And in 50 years, wallaby chicks, unlimited backup for your PC or Mac. Just 59 bucks a year and, oh, a pittance. A pittance, my friend. And you can have a free trial [e-mail] use the offer code ACE and get two free bonus months if you decide to buy. So no credit card required. That's carbonite.com offer code ACE. Quick break. John Popper here. John, the new album, by the way, Susie Cracks the Whip. Great album, Great album. And John sent me a wonderful letter on a day I was speaking about.

[John Popper]

I heard that. I actually sat down on the crapper and listened to that thing entirely.

[Adam Carolla]

It was incredible.

[John Popper]

My legs fell asleep.

[Adam Carolla]

I'll give you all the details and we'll right back after this. That's a little something from just John Popper, Blues Traveler, Susie Cracks the Whip out as we speak. And David Wilde here.

[David Wilde]

David, it's a great album. I just want to tell people. It's like it's the best album song collection, I think, you know, in a decade. From you guys.

[John Popper]

Thanks. Great.

[David Wilde]

And it's one of the strongest records ever. And you worked with a guy, Sam Hollander. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Great.

[David Wilde]

It's just really, really. I recommend it to everyone.

[John Popper]

It was about four years for me in the making, really, I'd say, because after the last album, bluestrovver did North Hollywood Shootout. It was a good record, but I was already getting bored with the. We had a system of writing where somebody would bring a riff and we'd make a song out of it. And then I'd sit in my car and make words to that. You know, we'd put on a disc and I'd sit in my car and write words to it. And then we'd go and work on. They'd be working on the next song, and then I'd have more words to write. I was getting like an assembly line and it started feeling like we were writing the same song over and over again. And so for North Hollywood Shootout, I Said, let's try something different. I'm going to be the complete lord and master of the set album. Let me just direct it entirely. Well, instead of having utter autonomy, then every decision I made was questioned because these guys aren't robots, they're thinking musicians and they got brains in their heads. So it completely didn't work. You know, I mean, we got some good songs on North Hollywood Shootout, but it wasn't the effect of trying to get different sounding songs written. It became just more, more trouble. So I didn't quite know what to do. And then I put my own money in and I went down to New Mexico to see my friend Jono, who this is the guy who when we first came to New York and playing at the Nightingales bar on Second Avenue, he was the house band there. And he sort of took us under his wing and like showed us how to sell drinks and work a bar. And he's got the studio out in New Mexico and we just co wrote and I got some friends of mine and we co wrote and I learned about co writing, where you write part of a song, part of the words, someone else writes all of the words and you get to just pretend you're Billie Holiday and you're just the vocal, right. And it was a fun role to play. And I started really getting comfortable and the best songs started rising. Sometimes I wrote music, sometimes I didn't write music. And that experience just sends you off on all these great ideas. You start reacting off of new stuff. And I took this idea to the band and we went with people that weren't even friends of ours. We went and got Ron Sexsmith, who's.

[David Wilde]

A great, great singer, songwriter, great, so great, really great.

[John Popper]

And we would come and they would write and all of the Blues Traveler guys are such great musicians. They would take someone's idea and run with it in incredible direct. And having Carrie Rodriguez write a song, Alejandro Escovedo wrote one and Aaron Beavers, who you know is a friend of ours from this band, Sherman wrote some. And the way we react with other co writers I think is what made this a strong album. And it also made the stuff that I do. It wasn't all over the record.

[Joe Coy]

It.

[John Popper]

It stuck out like my favorite song is Cara Let the Moon Come in. Because I've always wanted to do a song like that. And it's just a real easy, simple tune with me and the piano. And I get to not worry about going out of time because I get to be all dramatic about it and I love doing that. And the band at first was like, let's put this to a drum track. And I was like, oh, God. And I get in the studio and I tell Sam, like, this should just be me and a piano. And he listens and he goes, of course it should be just you and a piano. And I was like, thank God there's a producer in the room.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Because when it's your idea, then it seems like it's just John wanting to.

[John Popper]

And your band guys who've been with you for 25 years. You know, you're gonna have these arguments over and over. And it's great having someone in the room who knows how to get everybody doing that stuff and also knows what's cool about you. Because when you're in the band for 25 years, you don't know what's cool about you.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[John Popper]

You need somebody to go, you know what's good about you guys? What you guys do? You blur on that. You never know what's cool.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You need a fresh set of ears and eyeballs to come in and, like, go. Here's what. Let me tell you. I mean, it's. Why whenever I would work on a house or whenever I was designing something or working on something, I'd always get new eyeballs to walk through it. I'd just go, walk through and tell me, give me your. What's your take on that?

[John Popper]

I wonder how you do it. Because with a house, I can make a song that isn't quite structurally right. And you can get away with it. But in the house, stuff falls.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, well, I would get them. And people, most our ideas suck, but every once in a while, someone would go, why don't you get rid of that bay window and put French doors there so you can get out to the pool from this side of the house. And you go, that's a fucking great idea. And then you just use it. And it's your house, so why not? And I don't understand why people get egos about it. Because it's your house.

[John Popper]

And your idea in reaction to that guy's idea is what really. It sets off your idea. Idea. That's the thing.

[Adam Carolla]

Just a weird coincidence that I was in here talking about Blues Traveler and I think I was talking about. Or playing the song. Look around.

[David Wilde]

We were doing them. It was one of those Music Mondays where you picked one of the. You picked as one of your favorite.

[John Popper]

You're the one who reminds. That's why I sent you that letter, is you're the guy who reminded me. I'd forgotten about that song because we never did it for years. And you said, well, don't forget this song. And you played it for me. And I. From that point on, it's like you.

[Adam Carolla]

Can almost hear it now. It was such a great song. And. And John was telling me before I brought them out on stage at the House of Blues, that I said, well, how do you figure out your set list? And I go, well, we all just, like, pick songs that kind of.

[John Popper]

Yeah, we have a rotation.

[Adam Carolla]

We have a rotation.

[John Popper]

Big cock, tiny blow job.

[Adam Carolla]

And I said, this. This song should be in the rotation. Should play this one.

[John Popper]

We did it last night.

[Adam Carolla]

And. And I usually assume when a song is this good and not in rotation, it's just because you don't have the session guy who played the piano or something like that. Yeah, now we got it. You have so many good songs, but you started putting in the. In the rotation, right?

[John Popper]

Yeah. We love this song. And I actually. We call these kind of songs John's vagina songs.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So get you laid.

[John Popper]

Yeah. Well, that's what I'd like to call it, but the guys think it's because I have a big vagina.

[David Wilde]

Such a fine line.

[John Popper]

Yeah. See, you know, my drummer wants to be like Led Zeppelin. He wants, you know, everything to be rocking and loud.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[John Popper]

And so there's always this struggle. And I basically, now I'm confident enough after knowing these guys. Look, we're gonna do three of the vagina songs a show. I'm gonna make now a limit.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[John Popper]

Of how much Led Zeppelin I'm going to put up with for my vagina.

[Adam Carolla]

I just thought it was a great showcase because I. I don't know why, but I've.

[John Popper]

I've decided them too. You know, the thing is, they love the vagina songs. They just want me to be the champion of the vagina songs.

[Adam Carolla]

They don't want to. Yeah, I. I see. I've always said, well, John Popper's incredible voice, that's overshadowed by his incredible harmonica playing. And. But I. I think sometimes Blues Traveler and you just. Oh, they're. They're the guys who jam and play the harmonica. But this song is such a great vocal song.

[David Wilde]

See, that's always been my question. John, I've never known what you think of this, but the whole Jam band as a description, I think it's kind of. It screwed up a lot of things in a certain way.

[John Popper]

I agree.

[David Wilde]

Because I agree what. What really you were. Was a band that could really play, and that's like the allman Brothers were that. And you know, a lot of great bands were that and the band was that. And I think you're in that tradition. But I think when people think jam band, they sort of like Adam pointed out, you're a great vocalist. This is not a jamming.

[John Popper]

There was a. There was an expectation of. I. I always felt like the jam bands were so different from each other that it never really fit as a description other than there was an expectation of a very long solo.

[David Wilde]

Right.

[John Popper]

And so you just had marijuana in the background. That helps, believe me. You know, we're doing a. We're doing a show with the spin doctors on 13 October in Porchester, and everyone's talking about the famous spinning traveler segue, which is where we segue into, you know, from one band to the other. We used to do this all the time. It was very commonplace thing to do. And everyone's talking about how miraculous and great it was. And I'm thinking as the guy who's doing it, you know, what we did is we just sort of jammed in a key and all throbbed together. And then we would disappear and they.

[Adam Carolla]

Would stay up or the song would, would continue.

[John Popper]

And the reason that they seem so great in such a sacred moment is that everyone was high as a motherfucker and they're on lsd. And now we're going to do it again. Everyone's gonna be like, oh, Santa Claus is just this old man they're shoving down a chimney.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, they're gonna.

[John Popper]

If you really saw an old man being shoved down a chimney, it's nothing you really want to see.

[Adam Carolla]

They're gonna be on like a five hour energy shot in a Fresca going, what the fuck is this?

[John Popper]

Yeah, we're the same.

[David Wilde]

It's the same audience that thought that up in Smoke by Cheech and Chong was better than Citizen Kane.

[Joe Coy]

It is.

[John Popper]

If you're really st of this segue will be that there has to be really good drugs.

[Adam Carolla]

You mind getting your harp out? Because Mike lynch in the next room said, well, if you're going to play to passion, we got to play to a couple other.

[John Popper]

I'm just wondering why you didn't bring your saxophone. Where's your sax?

[David Wilde]

Should have brought you sack.

[John Popper]

Well, we'll see if I'll sing out of my.

[Adam Carolla]

Why don't we play one of my. Let's play my least favorite Steve Miller.

[John Popper]

Actually, you're right. Let me borrow your harp again for some second. I'll return that to you. It's got spit all over it now.

[Adam Carolla]

Go ahead. This is the worst song ever created.

[David Wilde]

I heard it on the way here and I cringed.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, this is again, I was told John off the area, he's like. He's like melting cheese on something. It just makes it better. You can have the shit.

[David Wilde]

Amazing. I never enjoyed that.

[John Popper]

I'm the bacon of rock and roll.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You're like, yeah, bacon and melted cheese of rock and roll.

[David Wilde]

And Steve. Steve Miller, didn't he have. He had a guy named Norton Buffalo.

[John Popper]

Buffalo is pretty good harmonizing player.

[David Wilde]

But he wouldn't. If Steve would just stop singing and stop the drum machine and just have harmonica here is.

[Adam Carolla]

I will tell you what is to me the antithesis of creativity and artistry and song smithing and everything else. The fact that he took this song. That had to be one of the worst things that came from the 80s. And I'm including AIDS, by the way. It's not just music. I'm including everything from the aid as a straight guy. This song has done much more damage, just touched my life in a much more negative way than aids.

[David Wilde]

AIDS never had a drum machine.

[Adam Carolla]

That's true.

[John Popper]

Was there an unfortunate locker room incident to this song?

[Adam Carolla]

I feel like I've been ear raped by the song every single time I've heard it.

[John Popper]

A lot of rape with you in music.

[Adam Carolla]

Somehow I would avoid the discotheques. 2009, he took out this piece of shit again and came out with a 2.0 version of this song about what, three years ago. To expose a whole new generation of ears to this horrific mess of a song. And that, to me is the opposite of creativity.

[John Popper]

By the way, what song is this?

[Adam Carolla]

This song? Abracadabra. Steve Miller.

[John Popper]

Oh, there we go.

[Adam Carolla]

Here's what Steve Miller's. Here should be Steve Miller's reaction to Abracadabra.

[Joe Coy]

Huh?

[Adam Carolla]

What? Not this Steve Miller.

[Gina Grad]

I don't.

[Adam Carolla]

The fuck you're talking about. Are you kidding? I read. I did the Jet Airliner song. I don't even know what this fucking song is.

[John Popper]

That the song we just played to.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[John Popper]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

He should be disavowing any now. He should be going OJ on this fucking song. He trotted this piece of shit out like three years ago and did another version of it. That's what a hack.

[David Wilde]

That's a war crime.

[Adam Carolla]

That's not a recording. Yes, we get the hag on this fucking this.

[John Popper]

Yeah, but I mean, all the songs kind of sound sound to like.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, his songs suck. But why take the worst of his songs?

[John Popper]

I mean, Joker is Basically, it's. I mean, there's a point we do Joker and there's a point where I actually do other songs in Joker. Like you really love me under. That goes to Joker, right?

[Adam Carolla]

You can do anything.

[John Popper]

Yeah, it's a non song underneath it all.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, we had a love.

[John Popper]

I love a love you don't find Every day.

[David Wilde]

Everything sounds better. Everything sounds better with a little John Popper on.

[Adam Carolla]

I know.

Hang on.

Oh, all right. Get ready with your harp again because I'm going to play you another one of my. Now, this song's. This song's controversial.

[John Popper]

Oh.

[Adam Carolla]

Because it's a Prince song. Oh, everybody loves Prince. Everybody but me.

[John Popper]

I gotta admit, when he does Purple Rain on tv, I jump in.

[Adam Carolla]

Love's Prince. But what's this one? This is a. This is a horrible song.

[John Popper]

Oh, I love this song.

[Adam Carolla]

This is a pretentious piece of.

[John Popper]

Well, yeah, but come on.

[Adam Carolla]

And it does not hold up very well. See, I love playing people songs. I get out my John Hyde song, bring the family and I play them songs off of. You know, I play them Drive south or whatever. They don't know what year that song was made. And I tell them it's 1986 and their mind is blown. They can't believe it's an 80s song. But this. You know what month in the 80s he put it together. Who likes. You don't like this song.

[David Wilde]

I do.

[Adam Carolla]

No, you don't. I know you don't.

[John Popper]

I. I won't lie.

[David Wilde]

I love Prince.

[Adam Carolla]

Not this song.

[John Popper]

I like any.

[Adam Carolla]

I like any rock star. I'm taller than you. Hey, listen, you. Here's what you do. You. You respect him as an artist.

[John Popper]

There's a thing he does at the end with a little keyboard.

[Adam Carolla]

That part I like.

[John Popper]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

That's the 11 seconds of this.

[John Popper]

That's.

[Adam Carolla]

I love the 11 minute song.

[John Popper]

Prince is like that. He's got 11 seconds of gold. Like I have to pull my car over when he does a guitar solo. Because he does it for five seconds and you got to hear what he's doing, cuz he's brilliant.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, also, they're state troopers that are. Well, they got the rollers on.

[John Popper]

Yeah, that's.

[Adam Carolla]

And you got to hide.

[John Popper]

I think the state troopers are broadcasting Prince just to pull me over.

[Joe Coy]

All right.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't want to start trouble. Let's play song. We can all. We can all agree. So far we haven't heard anything we've liked though, have we? In the first minute and a half of the song.

[John Popper]

Well, you know, that's the thing is, again, it evokes memories of when I was like, what is this strange thing? And I mean, I was a little creeped out by Prince in his way at first, but I became comfortable in my sexuality.

[Adam Carolla]

But here's the thing. I'm sure there are people that were getting laid to this song. And I'm sure while this song was popular and I'm sure there are people that were going through divorce and people who discovered tumors.

[John Popper]

My wife left me to this.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm going to remove all the feelings from a song and just judge it on its own merits. Because it's unfair to say, what if someone says, oh, I hate that Blues Traveler song. That's true, because I was getting laid off. That.

[David Wilde]

What kind of monster would say my.

[John Popper]

Colon removed to that song? Right, Right. Let's take the beginning of Doves Cry. Just the beat there. Just for a second. Just play the beat.

[Joe Coy]

Just.

[John Popper]

First of all, that's amazing.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, that's. That's eight seconds.

[John Popper]

Now this, I mean, that's before this came out. You never had a beat quite swinging like that.

[Adam Carolla]

Swinging.

[John Popper]

Picture a naked girl's hips to that.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, all right.

[John Popper]

Picture a lap dance.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, now it's good, but picture me driving a Nissan mini truck with no air in Chatsworth. And now it's not in a bench seat. Not so good.

[David Wilde]

It's still sexy when you say that.

[John Popper]

You just have to dig, if you will, that picture. Dig, if you will. That picture is what's bugging you.

[Adam Carolla]

His lyrics. It's just him beating all over a fucking notebook.

[David Wilde]

You say, look, that's a bad thing. That's a good thing.

[John Popper]

But like, dig, if you will, that picture is definitely a pretentious thing to say.

[Adam Carolla]

He sucks.

[John Popper]

And definitely, I couldn't stand people who dressed like Prince and walked around like, this is normal.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, I'm gonna say this as, as a lyricist, I think he sucks. I really do think his songs are lyrically horrible.

[John Popper]

I can't recall any lyrics.

[Adam Carolla]

Nothing ever made you luck. He's a self important douchebag bag, let's face it.

[John Popper]

But a brilliant guitar player, good guitar play.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, let me hear some. Let me hear some people or people. Because this. I think we can all agree. We can all agree on this one, right? We know this is bad, right? No one, no one going to defend this. Anybody.

[David Wilde]

I hate this so much. And when you lived on the east coast, you didn't have to hear it. It really wasn't played. But you move out to the West coast where? Kroc.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[David Wilde]

By the way, K rock did a lot of good.

[Adam Carolla]

You were listening like bad out of here hell. Like, see, we, when I grew up, yeah, we didn't have meatloaf out here. It was weird.

[John Popper]

Oh, there's meatloaf all over the east coast.

[Adam Carolla]

It was in total east coast. Like bad out of hell did not. Was not a big deal.

[David Wilde]

It was a Cleveland based east coast.

[John Popper]

I was a little scared of meatloaf, cuz he was just everywhere. And I was like, there was bikers that really listened to meatloaf and they were kind of scary people.

[Adam Carolla]

We did not have meatloaf out here. But we did have. But we were listening, like I said, like, oh, there it is.

[John Popper]

For me as a songwriter, just the way he sings says, what you and I should behave so awfully. It just doesn't scan right in the thing that always drove me nuts right out the box.

[Adam Carolla]

It's clearly such a piece of. And I just want apology. I want apology from everybody. That's all. Because I was announcing from the mountaintops. It was a piece of. When it came out, everyone's like, oh no, man.

[John Popper]

Oh, I was doing that.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, good.

[John Popper]

But you know, I was in high school. No one was really listening to me.

[David Wilde]

Can you, can you do anything to this?

[Brian Bishop]

Musically.

[John Popper]

I hate that awful me. It's like, are we selling soap?

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, it's, it's mope rock. Like, it's like a bunch of British guys moping.

[John Popper]

Yes. That's the thing. Like you're listening to Woodstock or like something where like the music's supposed to be so raucously rock. It's gonna, you know, corrupt society. And then these guys come on stage.

[Adam Carolla]

And they just start pouting.

[John Popper]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

With a sense.

[John Popper]

Got a message for all of you, right. People are people, everyone. So why should it be you and I should behave so awfully. You know? He's right, everyone.

[Adam Carolla]

I know, I know.

[John Popper]

Oh, and then this part.

[Adam Carolla]

I'll tell you one other thing that makes a man hate another man is when you crank out like this and force me to listen to it because I'm feeling something violent.

[John Popper]

I'm trying to put them in there like they're in a club in London.

[Adam Carolla]

I think guys would pretend to like this music so they could possibly get laid because they think they were sensitive or something.

[David Wilde]

Sensitive. The thing is, the only positive thing I can say is it is literally at least they're accurate. People are people.

[John Popper]

That's true.

[David Wilde]

They got that. They nailed that.

[John Popper]

They're keeping it factual.

[David Wilde]

Yes.

[John Popper]

But you know, here's the question I have.

[Adam Carolla]

Hold on. We're going into the extended dance version.

[John Popper]

Of this and the dance to this. Like, listen to dance music now. Like, what dances are you doing to this?

[Adam Carolla]

But the extended dance version of this is like you getting the shittiest burrito from Del Taco and somebody saying, what if we put 10 inches of middle in it? And you went, it's already a piece of. It's six inches. Why do you want to extend it a foot?

[John Popper]

Drugs had to be excellent, you know, like, this is like the beginning of ecstasy, I'm assuming. And there's like, blow everywhere.

[David Wilde]

But I have a bootleg where Pesh mode. Go from this into family, man. It really rocks. You're gonna like that, I think.

[John Popper]

But, like, what was it like going to a club where men wore makeup? Like, that's the thing that I could. The best thing about being a guy is there's very little makeup, there's very little foundation. You gotta, you know.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, the hygiene. I'm. I'm gonna play another song that you two are gonna like. I think you're gonna say you're gonna like it. But you, you, you. You're off of that print shit, I think. Okay, let me hear Family if fair, because this song pretends to be cool, but it's. It's a piece of. The lyrics are.

[John Popper]

Listen, you got to put the groove in this context here, though.

[Adam Carolla]

Like, dead mom been married for 15 years and still grooving on show.

Yeah.

Like, he has no listen to the lyrics of this song. It's a zero. It's a piece of grows up to be.

[David Wilde]

I'm going to call the time. This is the time that you were wrong.

[Adam Carolla]

To be somebody you just love to burn. Mom loves the both of them. You see, it's in the blood. Both kids are good around. Blood sticker than the mud. It's a family affair. Blood sticker, mud. That's the last time this guy went off road. Oh, yeah.

[Joe Coy]

Well, yes.

[John Popper]

He's got a. He's got a vocal approach. It's very lackadaisical, but that's a reference to the 60s. He's like, yeah, when you're talking about a time.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, but how about you get off the toilet and sink, dude?

[John Popper]

Well, I. I would prefer a scan that's, you know, metered.

[Adam Carolla]

Wait, at a certain point, he starts. He just runs out of lyrics and.

[John Popper]

He just goes like, yeah, I've just heard worse.

[Adam Carolla]

See, again, there's your worst.

[John Popper]

Who's not even soulful and like, at least there's this pocket going on because you can just tune out the vocalist dance to this. I mean, it makes you feel like, whoa.

[Adam Carolla]

Now look, if the bass player is due, he's doing it.

[David Wilde]

Yeah, I think it's Larry Graham. That's.

[John Popper]

It's the voice of a man whose fly is down. Yeah, things just flopped out. Something flopped out when he said that.

[David Wilde]

Circumcised or uncircumcised?

[John Popper]

It'll say on. I'm gonna say it makes a noise when it hits the table.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm sure at some point I'm just waiting for him to go. Somebody wanted me to write words to a song, but I didn't feel like he doesn't to say that. Cuz it's all good. Cuz it's a family affair, baby. It's a piece of.

[David Wilde]

Per chance. Are you white?

[Adam Carolla]

I'm not giving him a cultural pass. There's a lot of great blue stuff and black stuff. Family fair is a piece of.

[John Popper]

I don't. I think the culture pass has been given too many times.

[Adam Carolla]

Let's go to the widest band on the planet. Meaning let's have a little durama here for a second.

[David Wilde]

Sweet Jesus. I hate. This is one of my least favorite.

[John Popper]

I saw them in all time, and they played Hungry Like a Wolf, and as soon as they played, I kept yelling, hungry like a wolf for the.

[Adam Carolla]

Rest of the show.

[David Wilde]

Awesome.

[Adam Carolla]

Can you make this song better with your harp, Jon?

[John Popper]

Oh, this is a challenge.

[David Wilde]

Hey, Duran Duranor got much better. If you could turn the vocal off and the track, it'd be even better.

[John Popper]

Yeah, they play like a march, you know, Further with less.

[Adam Carolla]

Is there a band? You know, that's a good question. Sit down and really figure out who has gotten further with most with less. Like, who has sold more records, played more stadiums, fucked more pussy, and done more yacht racing. You might have nailed this ban.

[David Wilde]

You might have nailed.

[Adam Carolla]

Nobody's written more shitty.

[John Popper]

I have a girlfriend who lost her virginity in Rome, Italy, at age 15 to Simon Le Bon and ran to tell her best friend, and before she could say anything, her best friend said, I just lost my virginity to Simon Levan.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[David Wilde]

This is really awkward for me because I was gonna tell you.

[Adam Carolla]

No way.

You too?

[David Wilde]

Truly.

[John Popper]

Oh, wow.

[Adam Carolla]

There's never been a better opportunity for me to bring this up.

[David Wilde]

I thought it was Simon Levon, but it was Nick Rhodes.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm a.

[John Popper]

It's terrible when you think it's Simon Levon and it isn't even Simon Levon.

[Adam Carolla]

I Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a band that has done more with.

[John Popper]

I have lo. This is a band I have truly loathed throughout my childhood.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, it's only because they suck.

[John Popper]

And they were so popular. Right.

[David Wilde]

You know them.

[Adam Carolla]

They're nice.

[David Wilde]

They're very nice people.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. These guys say with great love when.

[John Popper]

I say how bad the bad guy on the Karate Kid, you know.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[John Popper]

Listen to Duran Duran.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[John Popper]

You could tell Haircut. The haircut alone.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. And the sleeves missing from the gi.

[John Popper]

Blonde people seemed physically intimidating again.

[David Wilde]

I don't think you even picked the worst song though. The worst one. Because it has my name in it. Wild Boys is the one.

[Adam Carolla]

Wild Boys. We tried to find.

[John Popper]

Whatever that one is.

[Adam Carolla]

That's all of them. There's no.

[David Wilde]

Here it is.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[John Popper]

This is pretty freaking awesome.

[David Wilde]

It's so anti musical.

[Adam Carolla]

It's.

[John Popper]

It's.

[Adam Carolla]

It's a soundtrack to gay porn. Their whole thing is just weird Euro gay porn.

[David Wilde]

Gay horn just called it Very like.

[John Popper]

A wolf did have a girl coming in the background. And I remember this is before porn was readily available to young children. So I would do what I could with that last 20 seconds.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah. You make a meal out of that.

[John Popper]

Made you hurry.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh.

Oh.

[John Popper]

Tell it Simon.

[David Wilde]

Like.

[John Popper]

He's so fraught with integrity here.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, far as I can tell, he can't sing.

[John Popper]

He's coming. Yeah.

[David Wilde]

I think it was primarily like John Taylor was on lead cheekbone and Simon was on rhythm cheekbone. They were. It was a look thing. It was.

[John Popper]

And the Talking Heads overly big jacket.

[David Wilde]

Right.

[Adam Carolla]

If they looked like bto, we wouldn't know who they were. Right. Yeah.

[John Popper]

Oh my God. Hey, don't.

[David Wilde]

Don't ber bto.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm not good looking band. That's a band that had to play their way out of obscurity. Not look not. It wasn't. Wasn't a Nagle album.

[John Popper]

Picture Duran Duran dressing like MC5 right O.

[Adam Carolla]

That'd be good.

[John Popper]

See, then I. I think the Wild Boys.

[David Wilde]

The worst song of all time.

[John Popper]

I just want to see the session where like, all right. You guys got Wild Boys right after this. They're like, okay, all right. What boys really trying to get it.

[Adam Carolla]

I to me.

[John Popper]

We got it. Cool take, man. You nailed it.

[Adam Carolla]

When they took. What did they do the extended dance version of that. Fucking pissed me off that we'll play that song. When Duran Duran took their shittiest songs and started extending them to seven and eight minutes long, that's when I just wanted to fucking load My vest up with C4 and just fucking infiltrate their camps. That will happen.

[Joe Coy]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

The reflex. The reflex. This is what.

[John Popper]

Reflux.

[Adam Carolla]

What. What goes on? What's going on? Who is in this bag?

[John Popper]

They're describing the feeling of the bile that's happening in your throat.

[David Wilde]

No humans were utilized in making this music. It feels absolutely.

[Adam Carolla]

Turn it down before he says he's going for the borderline. I will fucking bomb it on my own.

[John Popper]

They do make you, like, hostile, don't they? They make me angry.

[Adam Carolla]

They don't make me angry. And I'll tell you why. It's like. It's like, I don't blame the junkie. I want to find the pusher. My whole thing is I want to find the Colombian drug lord. I want to put Pablo Escobar out of business.

[John Popper]

Who is Pablo? Well, so the public is Pablo.

[Adam Carolla]

No, no, no, no.

[David Wilde]

Mtv.

[Adam Carolla]

MTV and program directors.

[John Popper]

So you're saying it's a cabal of.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, this is. Well, this is. This is paid, right? These. The. All the songs that you're hearing that are ridiculously bad songs have to do with payola. Somebody paid a program director to play this shit. We. Because we're stupid. Once we hear something. Enough. Listen. I like the Pete Ellis Dodge jingle. Pete Ellis Dodge, Long Beach Freeway. I don't like it. It's not a good song. But it's in my head, right? And if you hook me up to a functional MRI machine and played the Pete Ellis Dodge song, parts of my brain would light up. And what they do is.

[David Wilde]

Have you ever heard the extended remix?

[Adam Carolla]

I've heard Pete, Pete.

[Joe Coy]

Pete Ellis.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So what happens is the program directors played the shit over and over again. Stupid people whose brains are vulnerable listen to it over and over again. And then when they test it, they go, oh, I like this song. No, you don't. You're familiar with this song.

[John Popper]

They're using the same. Same tricks that the Pete Ellis people who wrote are. You know, there's psychologically things about repeating a simple line or a one line.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. It's not Duran Duran's fault. We shouldn't know who Duran Duran is. We should have never heard of Duran Duran.

[John Popper]

This is why I think it is Duran Duran's fault. Because there are. There is this cabal you speak of, but let's say there wasn't, like, what's popular in underground music. Eventually there will be a cabal, a story established by the mob, who, like you said, is stupid. So people will just. The mob will go, this guy's cool. Because he's wearing these weird pants. This guy's cool because his hair is different.

[Adam Carolla]

If an artist sucks, like, how many people who paint actually can paint?

[John Popper]

Here's my challenge.

[Adam Carolla]

Let's not build a museum for horrible artists. That's what the radio program directors did. They built a museum for hacks. They took Duran Duran and they gave them a Guggenheim museum so we could. And then they forced us all through the front door to witness their shit that they put up on display. That's what I'm saying. As far as the guy wants to sit in his basement and draw pictures of his cat dressed up in clown outfits, that's his notion of art. Fine. I'll never lay eyeballs on it.

[John Popper]

But there's a dilemma at work. Usher is a great entertainer. I defy anyone to find me some good Usher lyrics.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah? Well, lyrics. I mean, forget lyrics.

[John Popper]

But people talk, they get confused. They go, usher's a great musician. See, there's a difference.

[Adam Carolla]

No, he, he.

[John Popper]

Well, I. There's a blurry line in the mind of the entertained of what an entertainer is. So they. They're sort of looking at several disciplines at once and going, that's a great musician.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, stupid people don't understand lyrics at all.

[John Popper]

People are stupid and they're allowed to be. And I'm just as stupid when it's a band that isn't me.

[Adam Carolla]

People are stupid.

[John Popper]

Yeah, people are really. Those words are true.

[Adam Carolla]

That's true. I'll tell you who isn't stupid. The people that use Go to meeting. That's right. Like we do over here. Go to Meeting with HD Faces. That was Rod Stewart's band. Old band. Right? HD Faces.

[John Popper]

Okay.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. Go to meeting. Brought to you by Citrix. You can hook up with the team face. Let's say that Simon and the rest of the guys needed to hook up and collaborate on the Reflex Part 3. Super Extended Dance version for a new generation.

[John Popper]

Could Go to meeting. Withstand that.

[Adam Carolla]

But they were all on different yachts around the world banging Separate. Separate underage shirts. Same clothes. Right? And the same pirate shirt.

[David Wilde]

Different girls on film.

[Adam Carolla]

Girls Go to meeting. Brought to you by Citrix. And they could all collaborate. We use it here, they use it there. Try Go to meeting for 45 days free. Only if you use the promo code Adam. Visit GoToMeeting.com Click on the Try it free button and enter the promo code Adam. All right. I should tell everybody that, but John Popper and the rest of the Blues.

[John Popper]

Traveler just gave me an epiphany. By the way, you Know how you said if I had Internet porn, I wouldn't have worked on my instrument? That's the reason that we have Internet porn is Simon Le Bond. See, there's enough of those guys around that we needed Internet porn. Ah, I see him distracted. We just prevented the next Simon Le Bon from happening.

[Adam Carolla]

That's a good, good point.

[John Popper]

So God only knows.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, because there could be a Duran Duran Duran that was just breaking now.

[John Popper]

But Hitler was stopped. And who knows what the next Hitler would have been without worldwide democracy.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, now, hold on a second. I hope you're not saying that Hitler was as bad as Duran Duran. Well, I don't. Get serious.

[David Wilde]

They both toured. They both toured a lot, but it's close.

[Adam Carolla]

Duran Duran, personally, it's caused me more damage, personally, I think, you know, it's.

[John Popper]

A tough call, I'd say. Yeah, probably.

[Adam Carolla]

I'd say personally. The album, by the way, Susie cracks the Whip. It is out as we speak and it is great. And Blues Traveler is great and John Popper is great. And if you, if you don't believe me, then see him live because you cannot go wrong with Blues Traveler live. And if you want to find out any of the tours dates, you just go to bluestraveler.com and you can go to john popper.net and you can go to, you can Twitter them@bluestraveler. Real quick, we got a new sponsor here, John. Could you just give me a little background music while I give some love to income at home?

[John Popper]

Sure. You got it.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. You're at home oftentimes, aren't you, David? Well, bring it down just little bit a notches.

[Joe Coy]

Thank you.

[Adam Carolla]

No, not that much of some worm.

[David Wilde]

But yeah, just like Muddy Waters. Tell him to bring it down.

[Adam Carolla]

There you go. That's good, that's good, that's good. Incomeathome everybody.com can help you make your nut. You want to make some money, you don't want to leave the house. Those are two, those are my two goals in life. Make money and do not leave the house. They're proven step by step system helps people start their own cash generation. Home based Internet business. Does that sound like you? No pressure, no cold calling. Earn money on your computer 247 or as I've rounded up, 25 10. That's right. Thank you, John. Yeah, that's where you spike it. Even while you're asleep, you can make money. That's right. You're damn right. Incomeathome.com, america's leading work from home business. All right. Incomeathome.com it's giving away 1,000 bucks is so much. So just check them out. Visit incomeathome.com you could win a thousand bucks. That's incomeathome.com thank you very. Yeah. The great John Popper and of course David Wilde as well.

[John Popper]

Thanks.

[Adam Carolla]

Ah, yes, we got some stand up coming up. Crown Play Plaza Hotel Ventura, California. Ah, this Wednesday, September 26th. That is a live podcast. And then live stand up. Foxwoods Casino Connecticut, Tropicana Showroom, Atlantic City. That's coming up this Friday and this Saturday and also, ah, thank you, John. Cleveland and Philadelphia all coming up. Me and Dennis Prager, you can check that out. So until next time, it's Adam Krolo for John Popper and David Wilder saying mahalo.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

All right, this is adam krolla show 907. Come up next, we have adam carlos show 1564. Gilbert godfrey, david wilde, gina grant and brian bishop from 2015.

[Adam Carolla]

Check it out. Sorry.

[Gina Grad]

Well, the AP reports that Bumblebee Foods and two managers were charged by LA prosecutors this week with violating safety regulations in the death of a worker who was cooked in an industrial oven with tons of tuna. Jose Molina was performing maintenance in a 35 foot long oven at the company's Santa Fe Springs plant back in 2012 when a coworker. This only gets worse. Mistakenly believed Melena was in the bathroom, filled the pressure cooker with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and turned on the oven. The plant manager and former safety manager could face up to three years in prison, fines up to $250,000 while Bumblebee Foods will face a maximum fine of 1.5 million.

[David Wilde]

At least he was packe in water. Oil would have been so much, so much worse.

[Adam Carolla]

Dolphin safe. But tell that to the Mexicans. We're good with dolphins. Yeah, okay, but. What do you mean, but? Well, we go through Mexicans pretty quick. Well, we got the picture on the can now. See the little outliner guy with the sombrero. We're more careful with dolphins because they can think. How dare you.

[Brian Bishop]

You've never gotten that ducking back, man.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh my God.

[David Wilde]

Unless you're unsubscribing all over Mexico.

[Adam Carolla]

I have to laugh because my grandfather and his dad went before him the same way. So sure, I know firsthand the pain.

[Brian Bishop]

You laugh that you don't cry.

[Adam Carolla]

I could not think. We were talking yesterday about burning basically in a car. It's like the worst, worst way to this. I feel like this gotta be the worst way, right?

[Brian Bishop]

Pretty bad.

[Gina Grad]

We think tuna.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh Jesus Christ.

[Brian Bishop]

Do you think he even survived? Because a thousand pounds of tuna.

[Gina Grad]

£12,000.

[Brian Bishop]

Oh, he was crushed by the tuna. I mean, he. Probably almost instantaneously.

[David Wilde]

Right?

[Adam Carolla]

It'd be nice. Sadly, we were praying that he was crushed by the tuna. Oh, my God. How about the folks that had to empty the oven? Oh, geez.

[Brian Bishop]

Yeah, I bet there was nothing.

[Adam Carolla]

But there had to be one of these phone calls made at certain point that said, like, bert, you better get down here. Why, is there a problem? I'm gonna go with. Yeah, I'd say so. Let's say. So what happened? Did someone's hair net get caught in a conveyor belt? This is an issue. Just get down here. We got a safety violation. I could explain it to you. Or you could just come down.

[Brian Bishop]

I could move A to B for sure.

[Adam Carolla]

God, that had to be. By the way. Now, here would have been my problem, and I swear to God, I would have been like, we cannot sell what would have been six tons of tuna. We can't sell six tons of tuna. But it would have killed me to put it in a landfill. So my entire thing would have been walking up and down the floor of the factory going, shelly, don't you have a cat? You do, right? 2. Awesome. Well, why does it like Mexican flavor?

[David Wilde]

Love Spicy.

[Adam Carolla]

Spicy tuna. Spicy tuna. We'll give you the stuff toward the front of the oven. Like, I would. I would hate to throw it all out.

[Gina Grad]

Yeah, well, if you give them a burial at sea, everybody wins.

[John Popper]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. All right. Anyway. Tragic.

[Brian Bishop]

Tragic news, obviously, based on our reaction.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, well, somebody's suing somebody for.

[Gina Grad]

Oh, yeah. I mean, there's. They're facing jail. Jail time.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Gina Grad]

And I kind of feel like the guys are getting it way worse than the company, which maybe is understandable. The company's gonna walk away with a million dollar fine, and the guys could go to prison for three years and a quarter of a million dollars.

[Adam Carolla]

But the company's gonna get sued by the family of the guy that was in there. Sure.

[Gina Grad]

That would be the civil suit, right?

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah. I mean, they're a billion dollar a year company. All right.

[Brian Bishop]

I don't think people realize that when you do the audio. I read my audiobook, and it was over the course of a week, and it was, you know, five hour sessions for a week even. I was drinking the. I don't drink tea. Drinking tea and doing all that stuff because of the voice.

[Adam Carolla]

It just goes. Totally goes. It's taxing. Yeah. It's weird. It's oddly taxing. Because you think if you were to explain to some of the folks that crossed the Donner Pass, you think you had it tough.

[Brian Bishop]

I think you had it tough.

[Adam Carolla]

I had to do sit in an air conditioned room and do my audio on almost 300 pages while sipping tea and honey. Right. Like, it sounds horrible.

[Brian Bishop]

You want a piece of bread?

[Adam Carolla]

It really doesn't sound that taxing, but it really is. It's like, oh, you know what it's. I liken it to. It's like somebody tapping you on the shoulder and pushing you back to high school and you have some huge book report to do or something and you're just going the whole weekend going, oh, fuck.

[David Wilde]

Yeah, Weirdly, my heart does not bleed for the people in Nepal, but you and your audiobook situation is really.

[Gina Grad]

Is there somewhere we can donate?

[Adam Carolla]

That'd be nice.

[David Wilde]

Please, please help.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, what else do we got?

[Gina Grad]

Well, in China, funerals appear to be far more interesting than the ones here in the US because they have strippers. This is all according to Gawker. These exotic dances are part of the ceremony to honor those who've passed. And many Chinese families believe that this is an act that results in good fortune for their relatives afterlife. But according to the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese government has been trying to crack down on funeral strippers for quite some time. Earlier this year, year six dancers arrived for a funeral performance in the city of Hondan, but were fined for violating public security. And sometimes they have snakes with them. Sometimes there's a request by the person who died before they died to cut a little hole in the casket so they can see the strippers. It's pretty crazy.

[Adam Carolla]

How do they get somber? The somber cherry pie. It's a appropriate, very moving, a somber lap dance. I can be the. I'll be the priest that's administering the slash mc. Ah, look, everybody, I'm not going to sugarcoat what's going on here. Chinsu was loved by everybody in the village. He wasn't a village elder per se, but he was old and lived in the village. So technically, yeah, you could check that box. His wisdom, his love of mahjong and dominoes. I think that's his legacy. Really? Hold on a second. Kung Pak, do we have the mobile ATM set up yet or is that operational? Okay, well, give me a heads up when that thing is working because a lot of you want to stop by the atm, you know, show the ladies you appreciate their hard work. He leaves behind an adoring grandson, a beautiful daughter. Actually, one of them is Mitsuk dancing here. Yeah, Mitsuk. Okay.

[John Popper]

She's the one.

[Adam Carolla]

She's the one that has Mao tattooed on her ankle. Okay. So anyway, I think we ring a bell. There's, by the way, for those of you who didn't bring your own fruit offerings, we have a vending machine you can buy oranges from. I'm not very familiar. I'm from. I've done some work in Dade county and also Henderson county, not Mandarin county or wherever we are right now. So, again, again, I think we should all just, you know, bow your heads, but don't close your eyes. There's a lot of ass and blue flying around here. Don't want to miss any of that. Jade coffin four. Coffin four. Jade. Jade coffin four. Yeah. All right. And by the way, the mausoleum is. It's not a cash bar, but it's a bar, so it's free. We got free. What do we drink over here? Saki?

[Gina Grad]

Tsingtao.

[David Wilde]

That's right.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Left some of that over there. Anyway, tip jars, not, you know, I just put it out. If you want to fill it with tears, that'll be your business, but American currency, please, because I'll be on a plane tonight, so I'm gonna get screwed at the airport with this stuff. All right. Yes, thank you.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

All right, we have a little bit more of Adam Colishow. 2450.

[John Popper]

52.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

This was Joe Coy, John Popper, Gina grad, Brian Bishop, 2018. This is more of the episode we played at the top of the show with that clip of John jamming along with TPE. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of 24:52.

[Adam Carolla]

Look, maybe I'm just being selfish here, but I. The greeter from PF Chang.

[Joe Coy]

Oh, Jesus.

[Adam Carolla]

I love it so much. I love it. I, I, I just love it.

[Joe Coy]

So racist.

[Adam Carolla]

I love it. I know. All right, quick.

[Joe Coy]

That you were up that so much.

[Adam Carolla]

Quick break. Come right back. We'll do greeter from pfj. Hey, man, I'm rereading Not Taco Bell material for the second time. And I. And I'm getting stuck on the font.

[John Popper]

What is that?

[Adam Carolla]

Futura Missionary. I thought I knew you, man. I mean, give me a break. You know, when I second thought it actually, it does look. Yeah, it looks pretty good. All right, never mind. You can leave us a message at 888-634-1744. Thanks, y'.

All.

I just talked to lynch over the weekend. He's like, we gotta do a follow up. Ten years after that book. I was like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. It's been almost 10 years since that book's out. We were all off on our timing. Joe Coy in studio. The Koi pond. Everyone podcast one album. Apple podcasts as well. Netflix special is super funny. From Seattle. Joe Coy from Seattle. Live from Seattle.

[Joe Coy]

I'm getting ready to shoot my next one.

[Adam Carolla]

I love that. Where are you going to shoot it?

[Joe Coy]

Hawaii. Oh, yeah, we sold out four arenas.

[Adam Carolla]

I love it.

[Gina Grad]

Of course you did.

[Adam Carolla]

Sells out arenas. He sells medium sized pickup trucks. Sells everything for Hawaii.

[Gina Grad]

Tacomas and you know, the other thing. Adam, I've traveled through you multiple times. I know you. Your beloved. People get excited when they see you. They yell, man. Show the yelled loveline. They want a picture. It's all good. When Joe posts Instagram stories of people losing their minds at like little drive up windows or wherever the hell you are. Little restaurants in the middle of the night, they are. They are crying like they're seeing a beetle.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes. They.

[Gina Grad]

It's amazing.

[Adam Carolla]

Listen, I want to be Paul. I'm so excited for Joe Coy. Immense success. When he started coming on the show, it wasn't a household name. And now, now I am. He is. Thank. Great. Yeah. Now I've helped your cousin Joe Coy out quite a bit.

[Joe Coy]

Oh, so we all benefit from that photo.

[Adam Carolla]

We benefit.

[Joe Coy]

Including you.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Joe Coy]

So look, so make sure you say thank you.

[Adam Carolla]

I'm a big fan and it's a great.

[Joe Coy]

Say thank you.

[Adam Carolla]

Thank you. When I see Joe, I'll say thank you to Joe. Yeah, say.

[Joe Coy]

But say to me. I'll say to him, I just want.

[Adam Carolla]

To get into the P F Chang. So I got my family coming in here. We love a corner. Boom.

[Joe Coy]

Listen, listen to me. Listen to me.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Joe Coy]

Say thank you to me. And out there with Joe.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, I see Joe almost every week. I'll just thank him when I say I'm supposed to be on the show Wednesday.

[Joe Coy]

Talk to me first. And I'll say thank you to Joe.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay, well, if it's going to help.

[Joe Coy]

Me get a booth, can you not say so many words? Just say thank you.

[Adam Carolla]

Thank you. And thank you in advance for getting us a corner booth. Because I know P F Chang's in Burbank can get pretty crowded.

[Joe Coy]

It is very crowded on a Friday night.

[Adam Carolla]

But my.

[Joe Coy]

Once again, we do not have Corner the Boo for you.

[Adam Carolla]

I just. Well, you know, we have a nice.

[Joe Coy]

Spot by the bedroom.

[Adam Carolla]

If it's by the back room.

[Joe Coy]

Right by the.

[Adam Carolla]

Like a private room.

[Joe Coy]

No, the bathroom.

[Adam Carolla]

Where the back room. Like. Oh. Where they have like Christmas Parties? No, no, no.

[Joe Coy]

The bathroom. Where they, you know. Poop.

[Adam Carolla]

Where they poop at a Christmas party?

[Joe Coy]

Yeah, where the people go to poo.

[Adam Carolla]

Poo and the b. The bathroom. Oh, no, not the bathroom. Table for three. I thought you said the back room like room.

[Joe Coy]

No, that's my serenity. Not to you.

[Adam Carolla]

Hold on a second.

[Joe Coy]

In the bat by the bathroom.

[Adam Carolla]

Can I just say something about my celebrity? You know, hold on. Your cousin Joe, right?

[Joe Coy]

Oh, good.

[Adam Carolla]

He's a comedian.

[Joe Coy]

So good.

[John Popper]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Guess who else is an excellent comedian?

[John Popper]

Who?

[Adam Carolla]

Adam Carolla. My. Myself. Joe was like. Joe was barely selling out the Comedy Store when I got hold of Joe and I kind of put him on. I put him on the mat. I don't want to say. Look, he. He has talent for sure. I'm not going to go up and tell.

[Joe Coy]

Very good.

[Adam Carolla]

I can't tell the jokes for him.

[Joe Coy]

But, I mean, he has more talent in his pinky than you have in your whole body.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay, I. I know that's you talking because I don't think Joe. Joe's a very gracious man. He would never say.

[Joe Coy]

One second. I just want to ask Steph if they have any.

[Adam Carolla]

Make sure.

[John Popper]

Bring up the.

[Adam Carolla]

Bring up the man show again.

[Joe Coy]

Jenkins.

[Adam Carolla]

My name is Adam Carolla. I don't know. Like a car. Well, it's spelled differently, but.

[Joe Coy]

Okay. Okay. Like a car.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Joe Coy]

Like, what a feeling.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, yeah.

[Joe Coy]

Let's say.

[Adam Carolla]

I can read body language. I don't know Mandarin, but I can read body language.

[Joe Coy]

Did you say I'm famous? Yeah, they famous.

[John Popper]

Tell him.

[Adam Carolla]

I was Jimmy Kimmel's partner all those years. It's his birthday today, by the way. What? Oh, there should know what.

[Joe Coy]

They say. Nobody know who the you are.

[Adam Carolla]

Can I say that? Father, we're hungry.

[Joe Coy]

What a cute little.

[Adam Carolla]

Can I say. I promise.

[Joe Coy]

What's your name, little boy?

[Brian Bishop]

Sonny Carolla.

[Adam Carolla]

Sunny.

[Joe Coy]

You should drop a last name.

[Adam Carolla]

That's. Huh?

[Joe Coy]

Huh?

[Adam Carolla]

Sunny. Natalia. Natalia loves the hand. Show us a handful of Crab One fans. Such a cute baby.

Hi. Hi.

I'm really hungry.

[Joe Coy]

I know.

[Adam Carolla]

Can we sit down?

[Joe Coy]

Yes. We have a nice bathroom right here. You can see.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, just stand behind me for a second. Let me. Let me talk to the man.

[Joe Coy]

Or if anyone knew who the he is, you would have nice table by that glass tiger.

[Adam Carolla]

Now, let me tell you something. Joe Coy's selling out all of Honolulu and many other neighboring islands. He's amazing now, but when I met him.

[Joe Coy]

Oh, what happened? Your career? No, no.

[Adam Carolla]

No.

[Joe Coy]

Your show got better.

[Adam Carolla]

No, not. Yeah, but Joe. Joe owes me. He doesn't owe me any money, but he owes me a debt of gratitude. Gratitude is an important word.

[Joe Coy]

You owe him a gratitude too. You owe him.

[Adam Carolla]

Son of a. You know you speak in you don't children come your ears.

[Joe Coy]

You.

[Adam Carolla]

Sonny, the. Are you Nataria? Oh, it's you get a out of my restaurant. Okay.

[Joe Coy]

You don't talk about me.

[Adam Carolla]

It's not your restaurant. It is a m. You get between 14 and 17 an hour to see people. And I earn it. The respect for me.

[Joe Coy]

And you do not disrespect me like that.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, I. Enough of the charade.

[Joe Coy]

Cover your ear, Sonny.

[Adam Carolla]

It's enough of this. Cover your ear. Now listen to me.

[Joe Coy]

Just one ear.

[John Popper]

All right.

[Joe Coy]

Which ear you want to cover?

[Brian Bishop]

Do I get to choose? Yes, Right here.

[Joe Coy]

Right here. Okay. Fuck you, Adama Carrera.

[Adam Carolla]

Now, I'm not going to stand here and take this. And not only in front of my children, but an ever growing mob of people who are waiting to get in here behind me for one second.

[Joe Coy]

I got a family that I never even met before that need a table for five.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, we'll put them on the bathroom.

[Joe Coy]

Sit right by a glass elephant.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, not the coveted glass elephant.

[Joe Coy]

Cute baby. You have a day. Yeah.

[John Popper]

Okay.

[Joe Coy]

All right, back to you.

[Adam Carolla]

Now look, did I tell you I was friends with Jimmy Kimmel?

[Joe Coy]

Yes. I love Jimmy Kimmel. He is a very funny.

[Adam Carolla]

All right, well, if you talk to Jimmy Kimmel, he'll say, you know, the funniest guy I know is Adam Carolla. He would.

[Joe Coy]

You know what? I'm starting to believe you. You sound like a very funny guy.

[Adam Carolla]

If he would answer my text, he would tell you right now.

[Joe Coy]

He would.

[Adam Carolla]

He would.

[Joe Coy]

Why don't you call him?

[Adam Carolla]

Well, he doesn't answer if he would.

[Joe Coy]

Let it answer your phone call because nobody know who Adam.

[Adam Carolla]

You know what? I don't even want to play the celebrity card. I don't even like that we're going down this road. Security. No, I'm a customer. I am a paying customer. I love PF Changs.

[David Wilde]

I even brought.

[Adam Carolla]

I printed out the menu. Got Chang's lettuce wraps here. My daughter loves. Very popular. So good. My son.

[Joe Coy]

We have new item on menu. You kids, kids let us wrapper for the kids. Especially for kids.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay.

[Joe Coy]

Come with a toy and.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay, good.

[Joe Coy]

Lots of toys.

[Adam Carolla]

But we don't want to eat that in the bathroom.

[Joe Coy]

Yeah, that's the only way you're going to eat it. You're a shitty person. So we put you at a shitty place.

[Adam Carolla]

Do you understand that? Your cousin Joe.

[Joe Coy]

Oh, so good.

[Adam Carolla]

And I'm sure he do for me. He.

[Joe Coy]

What did he do for you?

[Adam Carolla]

He. No. Well, what I do for him.

[Joe Coy]

What he do for you?

[Adam Carolla]

What I did for him. Lack of gravity.

[Joe Coy]

Know who?

[Adam Carolla]

You don't. You point your finger at me. You don't wag your finger at me.

[Joe Coy]

I. You okay again?

[Adam Carolla]

My kids are coming right here. It's too funny. You cover your ear. They've absorbed your evil words.

[Brian Bishop]

My ear still covered?

[Joe Coy]

Oh, yeah? Good. You.

[Adam Carolla]

You talk to your cousin Joe Coy?

[Joe Coy]

I already did.

[Adam Carolla]

And he will tell you firsthand that I am a hero.

[Joe Coy]

He said.

[Adam Carolla]

He said he looks. What did he say? What did he say?

[Joe Coy]

He said, did nobody know who Adam was Never seen. He swear to God.

[Adam Carolla]

He said, that's not the joke. I know now.

[Joe Coy]

And now Adam is teaching people how to play a piano. It's on your car. We sit out there in the parking lot.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, well, that's a joke.

[Joe Coy]

Piano lessons.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't do that for a living. Wow. I don't see that on the Jimmy Kimo. I told you, I don't see it all.

Someone's embarrassed.

If you could get. If Joe Coy. If you could reach Joe Coy. If he wasn't on a private jet, He Charlize Theron's pussy right now. If he was reachable, then we could talk to him and he would say, let Adam Carolla into this P. F. Changs and put him in a booth with his family.

[Joe Coy]

I doubt that highly. Daddy.

[Adam Carolla]

Is Uncle Joe mad at us? No Joe Coy.

[John Popper]

No Joe Coy.

[Adam Carolla]

I love Uncle Joe.

No, he loved.

[John Popper]

We love.

[Adam Carolla]

We watch a special together, right?

[Joe Coy]

I just talked to him. I just talked to Joe, Okay?

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, what'd he say?

[Joe Coy]

He said for you guys to stop calling him uncle.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah.

[Joe Coy]

He does not like your daddy. Daddy is a bad person. Anyways, have you tried Panda Express? Just like PF Chang's, only cheaper. And they have a booth for you right next to a treasure.

[Adam Carolla]

The booth is made out of fiberglass, but a fake wood table.

[Joe Coy]

There's one more guest here that's coming. It's just a single one person. I'm gonna put him in a booth for eight people.

[Adam Carolla]

Wait, we're just putting one person alone in a place?

[Joe Coy]

Sit there, have fun. Yeah, well, we'll send you two waitress. Okay. Have fun. Person I never met before.

[Adam Carolla]

That guy's wearing a Make America Great Again hat. And you take one Redneck. And you put him in a booth alone. But he won't let the Corolla.

[Joe Coy]

Adam. He's a respectful. Him in the be not to like you.

[Adam Carolla]

Sick of me. All right, kids, get into the car. And by the way, Natalia, take the piano tuner thing off. It's not obviously not funny anymore. It's not funny anymore. Go out to the car. I'm gonna grab a handful of mints. These are complimentary.

[Joe Coy]

Nope. $0.05 each for you.

[Adam Carolla]

They put them out in a bowl.

[Joe Coy]

Only for your 5 cents.

[Adam Carolla]

The kids are starving. Let me grab a handful of mints so they have something to suck on when we drive to Pan Express. Or Chicken Cops next.

[Joe Coy]

Absolutely not. Please do me a favor, Adam. Never come back here again.

[Adam Carolla]

Done and done. Done an. Thank you very much.

[Brian Bishop]

That's how it goes.

[Joe Coy]

That was good.

[Adam Carolla]

I like it.

[Joe Coy]

That was fun.

[Adam Carolla]

I miss it. I was sad, man.

[John Popper]

Started tearing up.

[Adam Carolla]

John Popper's here now. Glorious. Let me hear some. Look around. He. I know he never. Well, he gets tired of it. I never get tired of it. I have a handful of things in my life.

Life.

I looked this up today. It's 20th on the. In its slot of rated Blues Traveler songs. I got it number one, at least top three, but it's 20. I've got to get in there, work those rankings. But I said to John, I love this song. And he said, yeah, we never play it. And I said, you should play it. And then he said, all right. And then they started playing it in their set. And the other thing I said was, God damn, the piano so good in this song. And he's like, yeah, that guy's like one of the best session guys in the business. And I was like, oh, glad I heard that.

[Brian Bishop]

Pays off.

[Adam Carolla]

Pays off. Now, I always bring this up. I read the lyrics, too, while I was listening to it at home today. Powerful. But this is a great example of a. Of a song that's so much pathos to it and the lyrics are so good. But I've always said that John Popper is such a virtuoso on the harmonica that he. His voice gets left behind a little bit. He has a great vocalist, and if you listen to this song, you'll get it. He also plays the guitar solo in this song as well. He's happy to tell me he's going to butter his muffin before he comes in here. But listen to the power in the man's voice. Turn it up.

Yourself if you come out of waste if it ever ain't me that's been hurting you inside. And if you learn, you know much more than I that you're gonna have to go and find it it after de Beneath my ground you'll have to unearth every alle Catch you on your.

So he's playing the 12 string and this song and this guitar in the album he's credited for.

[David Wilde]

12 string guitar.

[John Popper]

I don't know if he's playing the.

[Adam Carolla]

Solo, but if he's playing the solo, yeah, sure. Oh, this is why I hate the untalented hacks of the world. The clutter, everything up. We don't have room, can't do this, no. Oh there's a part in this song where he just digs so deep, and it's, like, so visceral, and it's just so powerful getting to it. I don't know why. I love the piano, Max, you love piano and a song as much as I do.

[John Popper]

Yeah, we've talked about this.

[Adam Carolla]

I love.

[Brian Bishop]

I love, love, love piano.

[Joe Coy]

And also piano can be in any genre of music.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. And it's any genre.

[John Popper]

So good.

[Joe Coy]

Crushes every time.

[Adam Carolla]

And I love it. I love the way he ratchets up the energy or the. Here he goes.

[Joe Coy]

I can see Adam driving fast in a desert Just trying to get to.

[Gina Grad]

Vegas One tear flies out the window.

[Joe Coy]

I'm late.

[John Popper]

Turn it up.

[Adam Carolla]

You want peace to live alone? Do you want to hide and find that stage it should breathe? The perfect home. To come and eat your reach and.

[Joe Coy]

Sometime.

[Adam Carolla]

In the midst of all my cr I feel Lord, I lost enough remaining friends remind me as they say it's up to you the things you throw away.

All right, I can bring it down. This is why I hate Lou Reed. Lou reed couldn't do 1% of this song. He's sitting around this. Cops on glasses, smoking and posing. Lou Reed could never do one tenth of any of this song ever. By the way, I don't like the Bruce Springsteen song as much as I like this song either. I buy that you guys read the lyrics of the song. You'll. You'll love it even more.

[Gina Grad]

You know, the. The verses remind me. And I hope this is taken as the compliment that it is. Has a very Elvis Costello feel to it at the beginning, which I really like.

[Adam Carolla]

I just. I agree.

[Joe Coy]

I just like how he hits his lyrics, man.

[Adam Carolla]

I love.

[Joe Coy]

Dude is so on another level, bro.

[Gina Grad]

When he hits that note, I was want to cry, but.

[Joe Coy]

Yeah, but, you know, there's those. There's those little runs that he does on certain words, and you're just like God. That's so signature. It's so him. Like, you can close your eyes and you know exactly who it is. No one sings the way he sings.

[Adam Carolla]

You're going to be able to hug him in a minute. Joe Cook, he's out there.

[Joe Coy]

He's amazing.

[Adam Carolla]

Waiting for us, I'll tell you.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

All right, that's adam K Show 24:52. That does it for today's pro classics. Make sure to tune in tomorrow for an old installment. Until then, hollow and get it on.

[John Popper]

Pain ever.

[Adam Carolla]

You're welcome.