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- [00:01]
A
Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. It's not another app begging for your attention. It's a second brain for problems worth solving. Get started with Claude at Claude AI Clubrandom. Today's episode is brought to you by Quo, the business communication system. Built so you can never miss a call. Half of business communication still looks like a group project that nobody's managing. So here is where QUO comes in. When Quo, your whole team can handle calls and texts from one shared number. Money is on the line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free. Plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com random, you have one new message translating. Disney and Pixar's Hoppers is now available on Disney. You could say that again.
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B
Critics are calling it Pixar's funniest movie ever and a wildly entertaining ride.
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A
Blizzard Potato. It's certified fresh and verified hot. Now we party. This is incredible. Incredible. Wow.
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B
I am clearing the rest of the day.
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A
Disney and Pixar's Hoppers now available on Disney. Rated pg. Well, folks, if you're gonna spend money on something, it might as well be something you actually like. That's what I always say. That's where the Club Random merch store comes in. That's right. Get yourself a cozy hoodie. Look at this. This is really well designed. That's right. Get yourself a cozy hoodie to snuggle away your sorrows. Or some new Club Random shirts. Look at all this shit. I have to attract a partner with similar interests and live happily ever after. I've seen crazier rom coms. So head over to clubrandom.com and bring home some random.
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B
I had no idea.
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A
Oh, that's right. They don't get media.
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B
We didn't get that out.
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A
Well, you just don't trust them.
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B
Don't trust. I've never trusted. What are you talking about?
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A
Oh, my gosh. It's Brad Pitt's brother.
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B
How you doing, man?
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A
That's a funny song.
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B
Good to see you.
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A
That's a funny song, by the way,
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B
was a true story.
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A
What?
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B
Other than Brad Pitt's brother?
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A
Sounds like it was many stories, many days in your life that.
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B
Well, that was actually about me and my friend Brett James wrote that song. Because when you're single, you Know, Christmas is a weird time, you know. So I was. I called my buddy Brett James and he was a great songwriter. I said, what are you doing the day after Christmas? Because he had a family and everything. So we went down to my house in the Virgin Islands and stayed out all night. And literally I Woke up around 2:30 in the afternoon and Brett was out there playing guitar and he had this riff, you know, started. And it was that riff. And basically that song was written about our night before.
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A
Out all night.
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B
We were out all night.
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A
The riff part.
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B
Yeah, that was back in the day.
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A
Well, it's funny you say that because this very room, I used to have a party Christmas night, Christmas day. But night it was very popular because everybody's doing something in the day they don't really want to do. Relatives, family, kids around. Even as a kid, I sort of had enough by the end of it, you know. It wasn't like Halloween where you stuff with candy until you're bouncing off the walls from the sugar rush. You were just kind of like.
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B
So you guys were into Christmas or not?
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A
Totally. Of course.
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B
Yeah. Our family really was too.
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A
Yeah, we're Americans to Christmas. Yeah. No, don't. And of course kids, you're getting presents. Of course we're fucking into Christmas. But like when you're an adult, you know, this is after I used to go. When my father was alive, I used to go back to New Jersey and see my family at Christmas. Then, you know, years later, and then my mother was gone, so there was no, you know, I would see my sister, but not at Christmas time because neither of us really cared when we were older. We were both atheists at this point, so. But we had great memories of it. But I would have a party Christmas night every. This was the party house. Always has been. And boy did people love it. They were so ready for.
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B
I bet they came early too.
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A
Came early, stayed late. But they were ready for something adult. And it was only the same very day. That's how much it annoys people that I can't even wait for the next. You say your party was the next day?
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B
The next day.
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A
This was Christmas night.
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B
So is this still going on? No, no, no.
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A
But I could revive it. It's a really good idea.
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B
But there was a moment that the pillow sweating the other way.
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A
Why? For years, I mean.
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B
Yeah, but what made it stop.
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A
What made it stop was I had a girlfriend in Canada and I went there for three Christmases. I mean, I was there. I mean, what I did for love. Because I don't like to travel to cold weather places in the cold. You know, I just quit touring after like 42 years at. But even when all the years I was doing it, my agent knew, don't book him in Minneapolis in February. I mean, I'd fire them if they even tried it, you know.
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B
But my manager, Clint did that one time. So back before I could decide when I was going to tour. I didn't mean to interrupt you, but. No, but back when I could decide when we were out there all the time. Like, I would pack to come home for years. So we were out there all the time. Well, we were in this. We were in this place in upper Michigan called Sault Ste. Marie. And it was so cold that the inside of the bus windows were frosted over.
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A
I think I played there.
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B
It's a casino up there.
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A
Yeah, it's a casino, right?
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B
So back in the day, I played there and my manager and agent's name was Clint, Clint Hyam. And I took my finger. The frost was inside the window and I took my finger and I went, fuck you. Clint sent him a picture of it.
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A
But I mean, like, you're old school, I think, like me when it comes to show business. I mean, there's that story about you, like, having your foot crushed or some shit, and you still did the show. And I always think about it when, like, not to, like, always be shitting on the younger generation, but you know, where shit is due, I will shit. And the way they cancel shows because it doesn't even have to be something physical, it's just. I'm not feeling it. So all you people who, like, came out here and rearranged your life and your day and your weeks and your babysitter to come see me. I'm sorry, I just. I got. I got that sinus headache.
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B
I know people that. That canceled shows before they went on, that people were already there and they just said, I'm not going on. And then.
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A
And then.
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B
Now the thing is. Now the thing is, is they're not mentally fit.
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A
Right. Or they. Or they show up three hours late.
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B
Yeah. There's a certain thing, like, I think that and how I came up and all the clubs and the casinos and whatever it is I played and then getting to the next level, there's a certain. I don't know, there's this certain gratitude, and I think it was the way I was brought up also. But you just didn't cancel. I mean, it's show business.
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A
There's no business like show business. Yeah, they smile when they Are low.
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B
Yeah.
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A
They smile when they are low. They don't cancel the show when they are low.
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B
No.
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A
And we should redo the song. Redo the song for the chapel. Roan fans,
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B
have you ever canceled?
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A
Never canceled. Also never missed a show in over 40 years. About 40 years on the road, except for two times, and both times it was because the plane couldn't get there. The plane physically couldn't, once it broke and once it was weather. Never missed one episode of Politically Incorrect, which was like 2000 episodes or something. Probably 800 real times. Never missed any of those shows except for the two they made me when I had Covid, wink, wink. So I could have done. I felt way worse other times when I did the show pre Covid, you know, if I had just the flu or something. But back then, you know, it was just like, that's the heroic thing to go on there. Don't get anybody sick. But, you know, you could do. I'm not kissing them, you know. You know, we're not making euphoria here. I'm just talking to them across the table.
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B
But it is interesting to see the. Like, there is a difference and everybody's different, whatever. But I know the way that you. How hard you worked coming up and doing what you did. You had a dream and you were meeting people and you were like. It was. The work was a part of the process.
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A
Same as you.
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B
So same as me. But it is a little different today. I'm not saying that people don't work hard, because they do. But when people ask me for advice and they say, this is what they say, and there's this internal voice telling me as soon as they say this, they'll say, well, how do you. Do you have any advice on how to make it? And there's this look, I wanted to make it too right, but still you don't. There's this internal voice inside of me thinking that person's never going to make it, telling myself not. I wouldn't tell them that, but, well,
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A
maybe it's the kind thing to do.
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B
Maybe it is.
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A
But no, you never know.
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B
It ain't up to me to tell them.
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A
Yeah, yeah, you never know.
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B
But you don't do it to make it. You don't. You do it because it's what you do. You got up every night and did your thing because it's what you do.
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A
And a lot of times I. I can't speak for other comedians, but I'm pretty sure this is how they felt, too, at that stage. You have to really Psych yourself up to keep going and to do it. Because the last experience you had with it sucked so bad.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Really? Way worse, I bet, than. I mean, when you. I've seen it in smaller venues, even in larger ones, sometimes when the audience isn't listening to the band and the band knows it. Right?
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B
That's right.
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A
Okay. But you're in the middle of a song, you know, you have each other to like. Okay, you know what? Fuck you people. We're gonna just enjoy playing this for each other and it's still a great song and whatever. Comedians don't have that latitude.
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B
You just. Oh, no. You're so exposed. You're so exposed.
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A
Exactly.
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B
You're more exposed than we are. Like, I have this mentality of going, okay, the worse the audience, the more we're gonna give them. They're going to like it where they like it or not.
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A
That is the attitude you should also have as a comedian. I did not. That's the bad thing when I was young and stupid is that is exactly the attitude that would have served me well. And it was the precise attitude I lack. Yeah.
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B
But there had to have been a moment where. I mean, I remember me and the band were. It was in some arena. Maybe it was Rupp arena in Lexington, Kentucky, somewhere, or something like that, where we knew that it just changed. Something was changing. It's not like it was yesterday. It's not something like that.
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A
In your popularity.
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B
Yes. But in the connection with the audience.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And so there had to be a moment for you like that.
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A
Oh, yes. It's perhaps even more obvious with me, because laughter is very measurable.
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B
Right.
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A
You know, you either hear it or you don't, you know, and they're either laughing all the way through your set or maybe sporadically. But I remember literally the date the first time I did 20 minutes, and it was like, from beginning to end, it was solid. Like, there was. There was no genius. But for 20 minutes, I could actually make strangers laugh continually. And that, to me, was like, one of the watershed moments.
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B
It's such an incredible talent, and I think you are born to do that.
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A
Partly, yes. You. Absolutely.
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B
I mean, you have to have the gift of gab, but you are born to do that.
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A
Well, you know what you really need for it? Timing.
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B
That's exactly right.
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A
You are either born with timing or you're not. It's innate, I guess.
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B
And there's something to be said. Like my friend John McGinley was telling me. I forgot who he was talking about.
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A
The actor.
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B
Yeah, the actor. Dear friends with him.
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A
Oh, yeah, Platoon.
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B
He was talking about when you're on stage, either as a comedian or an actor or what, the gift of pausing. There's something that brings a man. It's timing and then you. Yeah, it's timing and you have to feel it.
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A
You can't teach it. You cannot. You really can't. I mean, you also need material. You could get writers to do material. But I feel like material is always best done by the person who writes it because they hear it exactly the way it's supposed to do it.
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B
Yeah. The pacing and everything of it. Yeah.
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A
That's why it's always painful when they portray comedians in. In movies about comedians and they're doing. It's just. It's one level removed from reality. And to a comedian, it's just nails on a chalkboard. Yeah, it just is, you know, I mean, you must see people sometimes in movies portraying musicians and.
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B
Oh yeah, all the time. Yeah.
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A
I mean, sometimes it's.
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B
Sometimes it seems authentic.
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A
Yeah. And they do it way better than they used to. I mean, in the old days, you know, a guy would go to play the piano, they would just cut to his, you know, and they wouldn't even attempt. And now they seem to be able to do it. I mean, they have tricks that. I don't get it. But where you just see the person sit down and start to play and pan up so you never cut away. And yet it's definitely not that person playing the piano at that level. Somehow they. But, you know, that's show business.
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B
Yeah. I went in. I went to the bathroom before I came in here, and it reminded me of something, that there's a poster on the wall and I had no idea I was gonna talk about this today. And it reminded me of this film you did that just blew my mind. What, the one on religion?
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A
Oh, religion. Yeah. Those posters are gay posters. They don't. I mean, that was my career in the 80s, doing things like B movies like that. One of my writers makes those. They're hysterical. But religionists. Yes.
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B
I can't tell you how many times I've seen it, like. And I forgot about it.
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A
That means a lot to me because here's why.
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B
Is because I grew up, a lot of that movie spoke to me. It really did. Because I do believe, you know, I grew up very Southern Baptist. Right. And after I saw, after I saw that film, the girl I was dating at the time, she and I drove around just about a 10 mile radius of where we lived and we counted 32 churches.
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A
Yeah. I've been to places like that. Memphis is like that. Yeah. I remember driving through. Wow. And, well, that means a lot to me because, you know, that movie, I'm sure did not play in the theater there because I remember when we. Probably not when we released it, and it was financially one of the biggest documentaries ever. Now, the numbers are way lower for documentaries, but I think when it came out, it was the seventh biggest one ever. And it didn't play in most of the country because in most of the country, the Bible Belt, they are not going to show religious.
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B
Well, look, I can tell you it really spoke to me because I grew up Southern Baptist.
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A
Yeah. I hear this all the time. I went people like that to church
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B
with my grandmother and my mother, and then she was a very godly woman. And I was taught that this is the way, or if you don't do it this way, it's wrong, or you're going to. You know, they literally scare the hell out of you. Right.
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A
Well, the. As a Catholic who went through the system, you know, and my mother was culturally Jewish, I don't think she ever went to church. But we'll say she's Jewish. Yes. People always say, oh, Bill, if your mother's Jewish, you're Jewish. I'm like, okay, first of all, religion is an opinion. Okay? It's not an ethnicity, it's an opinion. It's just an opinion that I think Muhammad is God or Jesus is God. I don't have an opinion. I was forced into having an opinion that was Catholic when I was young. Now my opinion is neither one of them. So don't tell me what I am. What I am is a Catholic raised atheist.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Okay. That's what I am. And I put in time with the Catholic Church. And I want credit for it. I want the credit because it was
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B
painful, I think, for me, like, I've been on stage so much and I've seen music, like, change people. And I think there's gotta be something
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A
in there, not something that we don't understand, of course.
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B
Like, I think there's something much bigger than all of us that's full of love, light, and positive energy and connectivity that we don't understand.
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A
Well, I can only go halfway there with you once you start describing what it likes about the world or us. Love and light. I don't know about that. I mean, because there's a lot of stuff that's dark and not.
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B
I understand that.
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A
Yeah. So my thing is, people think there's some big difference between atheists and agnostics, it's the same thing. Even atheists don't say, we are sure of what it is and it's not God. No, we just, we don't know and we don't care. We're never going to know. So we don't put a lot of energy into it, but we definitely don't think with all the fucked up shit on earth. I could start a list, but let's not get depressed. But you know what I'm talking about with all that shit. Either God is incompetent or cruel or I mean, there's just no reason for a lot of the suffering. And so, like, I'd rather not. If I think about it too in terms too much of like he did this, I'll start not to like him. And I want to like him if he or she. It exists and it's just, and maybe
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B
it's my messed up sense of humor, but I probably wasn't supposed to laugh at this moment. Again, I didn't think we were going to be talking about this, but it's my messed up sense of humor. You were talking to this guy in, in this religious bookstore and he said, yes, he said that no matter what, if it's, you know, I'll be in a better place, whatever. And you said, well, why don't you kill yourself?
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A
Why don't you hang yourself tomorrow? Then I know I'll be in a better place.
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B
I like spit my water out in the bus. I was laughing so hard. So anyway, poor guy, I saw that poster in there and I just had to bring it up.
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A
Oh, thank you. Yeah, now that was in Boston. You know, the ones I really, I mean, I loved all the ones we did. But like the ones in the south, there was the, the truck stop, the truck stop in Raleigh. And you know, I do have an affection not just for that part of the country because I played it my whole life and those are my people. Those are your people. And I love your people. And I hate it that America and the kind of snobby people that I rub shoulders with a lot out here. I'm sorry, but that is a lot of what Los Angeles is. Very uber woke snobby types who just. And I think I used to be more of them. I'm glad I'm not. And I think traveling the country and being in those places just gave me a very different perspective than people who just stay here because, you know, I always have more fun there. I like the audience better usually because they were generally liberal, but not stick up their ass. Woke like anti. Cause politically internal.
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B
You can't say anything to them.
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A
Yeah, that's great. So I would always have a better time in Huntsville, Alabama.
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B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
Or where NASA is, you know.
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B
Did you ever play Knoxville? I'm from Knoxville, Tennessee. Did you ever go there?
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A
Of course I played them all.
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B
Yeah. Yeah.
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A
No, I mean. And I've done this editorial on my show a couple of times about country music, which, you know, I feel like country music and me, we truly met in the middle. I mean, when I was a kid and I grew up with the late 60s 70s radio. That's my formative years. I was 12 in 1969 when what topped the charts was the Beatles somewhat. They were a little on the. They had hey Jude that year, so they had the biggest one. But, you know, Tommy James and the Shondells and the Rascals and we're still in that era. The Rolling Stones, I mean, great bands. And Aretha Franklin and, you know, and. So. Oh, I forgot what I was gonna say.
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B
No, you were talking about you met country in the middle.
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A
Oh, yes. So back then, country was picking and grinning you. It was just to somebody in the New York. I was New Jersey. The New York media market, it was a total hick. It was. Hee Haw was on in the.
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B
Well. And they presented it that way in a lot of ways.
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A
Excuse me. I love you, bro, but I don't think they were misrepresented.
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B
Oh, they were.
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A
I'm just saying they were not like they're. Oh, look, he's playing.
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B
You know what's crazy, though? If you go back and watch some of that. I mean, as hokey as it is, if you go back and watch some of those old versions of Hee Haw that was out.
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A
It is.
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B
It is. Some of that stuff is like. It's pretty funny.
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A
It is funny.
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B
The writers on that show, I mean, they knew who they were and they wrote to those people. It was great.
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A
You know what it was really. It was hick. Laugh In.
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B
Yes.
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A
You know, there was a show. Laugh In.
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B
Yeah, I know. Laugh In.
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A
Right, okay. And it was kind of. Let's do that. But for, you know, like, the three fifths of the country that sound like you, not the people who sound like me, which is perfect. Perfect English.
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B
Oh, you. Oh, my God. If you went. If you went to, like, my mom has a twin, and I grew up in a family of women, and. Wow, you would have a hard time listening to them at a family function.
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A
Why?
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B
It was just because of the accent. What you're talking about.
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A
I know. I like the accent.
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B
Oh, no, I talk the way I talk. But I mean, like, I would take girls home with me for, you know, Easter or Christmas or whatever, and they would have it. They'd almost need a. Like a Rosetta Stone book, you know, or whatever to get to follow along.
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A
Girls who didn't have a Southern accent like you. I imagine you took a lot of girls home for a lot of holidays.
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B
Well, I took one girl home, like my family. I mean, I don't know. How many siblings did you have?
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A
One.
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B
One. Okay, so I had a sister, but I also had an aunt Missy that was my same age. My mother's sister. My mom and my grandmother were in the hospital at the same time having us. Swear to God. This is some East Tennessee shit here. What were we talking about? I don't even remember.
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A
No, no, let's go back to it.
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B
What was it, though? What was it?
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A
It was something important.
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B
So I took a girl home, and it's a family full of women, and they dissect everybody that you bring there.
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A
Right.
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B
Every girlfriend I ever brought there. They were just talking behind her back or whatever. And I took this girl home one
- [24:03]
A
time because they thought she wasn't good enough for you.
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B
Well, possibly. But I took her home for some holiday the next day. I called my sister. I said, okay, what did everybody think? And she goes, well, she was fine and all, but she had the wrong bra on with that shirt.
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A
Right.
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B
It was that detailed.
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A
See, we never do that.
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B
Yeah, I know. People do that.
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A
I know men are. No, I talk about men and women.
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B
Yeah. Oh, no, we don't do that. We don't.
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A
We don't. We don't. We never say, oh, oh, Kenny, he was wearing the wrong bra.
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B
Yeah. Or it's.
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A
Yeah, it's just like.
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B
We don't think it.
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A
Yeah. We're plainly better.
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B
So. Yeah.
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A
But I mean, you know. Okay, let me broaden this out since we're on this subject. But, like, I feel like the biggest change, like, big overarching change in music as far as lyrically, when most music is love song music of one kind or another. Now, of course, there's protests, songs about everything, and there's songs. We don't even know what they're about. Crimson and clover, over and over. Okay, if you say so, Tommy. But. Okay, so. But like, love songs. Here's the problem. In the old days, when people were very, shall we say, prudish about, you know, the Beatles, I want to hold your hand. I mean, that's as good. It was just about love. Nothing was sexually explicit.
- [25:28]
B
Oh, no? No.
- [25:29]
A
Okay. I feel like somebody like you are so much, so much more elegant about the way you are communicating this. But it's, it's just, I don't know, maybe it's my age, but to me it's so classy, you know, like, I love guilty pleasure.
- [25:47]
B
Yeah. Thank you.
- [25:47]
A
Because I feel like there was quite a few years when I felt that way. I mean, you have a line, live
- [25:54]
B
in the middle, you know.
- [25:55]
A
Well, you know, like, don't tell your mama about us.
- [25:59]
B
Yeah.
- [25:59]
A
I feel like it's better if we kept it that way.
- [26:01]
B
Uh huh.
- [26:02]
A
That is something I've said. I mean, if I had a nickel for every time.
- [26:06]
B
That's right.
- [26:07]
A
I'd probably have at least $2 in 10 cents.
- [26:09]
B
And that is a very authentic song for me. Right? I mean, it's very authentic.
- [26:13]
A
But. But it's when I was a kid growing up and like looking up to men and, you know, you know, I was a red blooded American heterosexual boy. I like the guys who are like attractive to women, whether it was Joe Namath or, you know, somebody like that. You ever have one of those problems that follows you around all day? You leave work, go to dinner, try to relax, and it's still there in your head mocking you. If that happens to you constantly, maybe it's time to check out Claude for help. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. What's helpful is that Claude doesn't rush you. It actually helps you think. Think not. Here's a quick fix. Good luck. It pushes deeper. It pulls together research from dozens of sources surfaced, connections that you'd miss, and miracle of miracles, shows the work. At Club Random, we connected Claude to our internal tools, emails, docs, calendar. And suddenly Claude had context. Which is what makes it useful. It's not another app begging for your attention. It's a second brain. And with Cowork, you can hand off tasks and walk away. Real tasks, reports, spreadsheets, presentations, finished and sitting there when you get back. Not drafts, finished products. If you write code, Claude code handles the tedious stuff. Refactors, bug fixes, all the work that somehow each your entire afternoon. There's a reason companies like Stripe, Shopify and Pfizer trust Anthropic for problems worth solving, get started with Claude at Claude AI clubrandom. Today's episode is brought to you by Quo Q U O, the business communication system built so you can never miss a call. You know what's amazing? We have AI cloud computing, self driving cars, and somehow half of business communication still looks like a group project that nobody's managing. One person has the calls, somebody else has the texts. Customer information is hiding in three different apps. Then everyone wonders why things fall through the cracks. So here is where Quo comes in. When Quo, your whole team can handle calls and texts from one shared number. Everybody sees the same conversation, the same history, the same customer details. And it works. With the tools you already use, you can keep your existing number, connect your CRM and get set up in minutes. One of the best features is that Quo automatically logs calls, creates summaries and flags next steps. So even when you're off the clock, your business isn't losing track of opportunities. Money is on the line. Always say hello with quo. Try quo for free. Plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.comrandom, that's q u o.com random. And that was a very attractive thing to me that, like, somebody would be able to, like, attract women on the level of, look, I'm gonna be your guilty pleasure. Okay? You know, you can have Poindexter over there, but when you just wanna fuck somebody, like, I'm your boy and you
- [29:58]
B
don't have to feel guilty about it. Like, to me, that's what it is,
- [30:02]
A
the highest pinnacle to get in life. To be that guy.
- [30:04]
B
To be that guy.
- [30:05]
A
Because I certainly was the other guy. I think when I was younger, I was like somebody who was like, I
- [30:11]
B
don't know, maybe we've all been that guy and didn't know it.
- [30:14]
A
The guy who. No, yeah. Oh, the guy who's getting shafted or the.
- [30:20]
B
Yes, the guy that's getting shafted too.
- [30:22]
A
Yes.
- [30:22]
B
But we've all been that guy, probably.
- [30:25]
A
I definitely know I was that guy.
- [30:26]
B
Yeah, I was that guy. I like being the other guy better.
- [30:29]
A
Yeah, I mean, like, I'm sure you know the great classic eagle song, Lion Eyes, that's kind of in that area because, you know, in the song, you know, she's given to a man with hand as cold as ice. Yeah, right, right. I mean, so being.
- [30:47]
B
I'm gonna assume that being from Jersey, I mean, were you a big Bruce guy?
- [30:56]
A
Bruce Springsteen?
- [30:57]
B
Yeah.
- [30:58]
A
I am a Bruce guy.
- [31:00]
B
Yeah, me too.
- [31:00]
A
I mean, I don't know how giant I You know, I don't know. Now that starts to get to be. It's so funny. Everything has to be.
- [31:11]
B
See, I just refused to do it. Like, I was very thankful. And when I came on your show in November that you knew. I didn't want to talk about that because I've never, ever.
- [31:22]
A
I don't want to talk about it.
- [31:23]
B
Yeah, you didn't want. Yeah, yeah.
- [31:24]
A
At your show. I don't want to. I mean, I don't want to talk about it all the time. I want to talk about it in the places I do want to talk about. But, like, I'm multi dimensional. Hello. You know, so, like, yes, on the show, have the governor of California, Gavin Newsom could be our next president. Am I going to just shoot the shit with him?
- [31:42]
B
No.
- [31:43]
A
Then we're gonna talk about real shit.
- [31:45]
B
I just never felt like it was my place.
- [31:47]
A
It's not always everybody's place. You're right.
- [31:50]
B
There's a certain ego, I think, that lives in there and a certain box inside your head and your soul that you have to check for some reason to think that you can make a difference. And I.
- [32:04]
A
Well, you can make a difference by speaking out. And it doesn't. It just. You're just. I mean, I think they've actually studied this. When celebrities talk. I think it has the opposite effect.
- [32:15]
B
I agree.
- [32:16]
A
They were all waiting, by the way, for Taylor Swift in 2024 to. If Kamala just had Taylor's. It didn't help. And they think it hurt, you know, people, Real regular people, you know, like us.
- [32:29]
B
Yeah, the back poor.
- [32:32]
A
You know, like us when we were behind the hay. Remember the hay? Weren't. We have. Okay. And we're just being real and drinking moonshine.
- [32:42]
B
Yeah, I've never had that once, but anyway.
- [32:44]
A
Oh, you've never had moonshine once I've had it. You know who gave it to me? I still have two jars of it if you want some.
- [32:53]
B
No, I don't want any.
- [32:54]
A
Larry Flint.
- [32:55]
B
Oh, God.
- [32:56]
A
See?
- [32:56]
B
Yeah, that's great.
- [32:59]
A
I don't know if it's great.
- [33:00]
B
I think it's great.
- [33:01]
A
It is kind of great.
- [33:02]
B
It's great.
- [33:03]
A
Why am I denying it?
- [33:04]
B
No, it's great. Larry Flynn. Yeah, Take it. It's great.
- [33:06]
A
Came over in his gold wheelchair. Every time he came to a party at my house, when I used to have parties at my house and in his gold wheelchair.
- [33:15]
B
Woody did such a great job in that film. Woody Harrelson as and the People versus Larry Flynt.
- [33:20]
A
It was great.
- [33:22]
B
By the way, I saw a Thing with you and him, and it was aghast. It was the funniest thing.
- [33:26]
A
I know. We did that on 420.
- [33:28]
B
I looked. Yes, I look. I see. Like Woody's in his pajamas.
- [33:32]
A
Yeah, that's what I see. He was very insulted because, you know, Laura told me he spent a long time in the day picking out what he thought was a great outfit, which is so fun. So absolutely. How different we think.
- [33:45]
B
But anyway, did you see how we got off politics?
- [33:48]
A
Well, yeah. And I just want to say, I love Larry Flynt. I don't want anybody to hear this and think, oh, I'm slagging on it. No, I loved Larry, and I would. He was a fan, like, way before I was famous. He just had seen me, like, on the Tonight show, and, I mean, he always wanted to. I could never have a conversation for three minutes without him saying, bill, why don't you have me on your show? Because you sound like that. Larry, I love you, but you're like, I'm not trying to scare the horses in the street, if you know what I'm saying. I know you do.
- [34:21]
B
Well, but anyway, I've never saw it to be my place, to use my stage or platform, no matter where I'm playing, to tell people how to think or how to vote. They hear that. They get that everywhere else. Everywhere. On every device.
- [34:35]
A
Exactly.
- [34:35]
B
Every network. They're there as an escape from all that stuff.
- [34:39]
A
I didn't see. I don't see. I mean, in my world, like, I don't watch a lot of comedies, comedy standups, because it was like, well, that's what I do. I don't want to see something and think, oh, you know, that's kind of like a joke. I do. I don't want to know. You know what I mean? I want so I can be more pure.
- [34:59]
B
I will tell you, though, used to. When I first got started, I was so competitive and wanted to get to the next level. I would be that person going, you know, why them and not me? And then I just. I don't know. It was. I would have to.
- [35:11]
A
Okay, you're playing this fear now.
- [35:13]
B
Yes.
- [35:14]
A
So you won, right? Because that is to be the first country.
- [35:19]
B
But, I mean, early on, I would be that competitive. Now I'm just, you know, whatever happens, happens.
- [35:25]
A
One of the great things about aging is you become so much more mellow because you did it. You don't. A lot of my anxiety when I was younger was always about, am I gonna make it? Am I? You know, am I?
- [35:39]
B
Yeah.
- [35:39]
A
And once you do it's like the biggest off your shoulder. Especially for guys like us who are single. You know, we're lone wolves. We don't have that. Like, you're a chaser.
- [35:51]
B
I like it.
- [35:52]
A
You are. Oh, I don't know what you're talking about, Kenny. All my energy goes to healing America. I don't have time. I would love to, but I can't. The country needs me and that gets all my attention and, you know. And you don't. No. You ever did.
- [36:14]
B
No.
- [36:15]
A
Not even in your fucking island paradise?
- [36:17]
B
I used to.
- [36:18]
A
Yeah, that's right.
- [36:19]
B
Yes, of course. But I have learned that I do. To help me sleep. I do, like a wee gummy every now and then to help me sleep. But then I had to learn my dosing because when I first did that a couple of times, I didn't know my dosing. And all of a sudden I lost my motor skills and I was like,
- [36:36]
A
you never perform, honey. No, that would be crazy.
- [36:39]
B
That'd be crazy.
- [36:40]
A
You don't drink.
- [36:41]
B
But I mean, like. Like last year we did 12 shows at the Sphere. Last year. We're going to do another 11 or 12 this year. And that's like. To see what's going on up there and behind us. I can only think about the people that are high out there watching it, you know, because it's. It's a completely different. It's. Let's just say for people that have lived with and experienced my music for a long time, they come to that space and it's almost like they experience it in a completely different state of consciousness. And so I. Yeah, I don't get high doing that. You know, I just. I used to drink on stage, but I don't do that anymore.
- [37:21]
A
Yeah, I do, too.
- [37:22]
B
I always thought it gave me some sort of edge or something, or I was having more fun. But then I realized that was just. That was a falsehood.
- [37:31]
A
Yeah, well, I don't know. I don't think it's always a falsehood. I think liquor really is a good time.
- [37:38]
B
No.
- [37:40]
A
You know, but for me to get
- [37:43]
B
up there and do. The older that I've gotten, the more I realize that, because there was a moment of my life where I wanted to be one of them. They were getting drunk, I was getting drunk, and there was this common synergy on stage. And then the older that I've gotten and the more I really am, I don't know, very particular about what I put into my body.
- [38:03]
A
Me too. You have to be when you're older,
- [38:05]
B
so I can do that, of course, and continue to do it. So, no, I don't get high on stage. I don't really drink.
- [38:10]
A
No, I mean, let's not kid ourselves. Liquor and drugs have improved my record collection.
- [38:16]
B
No, nobody do, of course.
- [38:18]
A
I mean, drugs do. I mean, you know the group the Doors? Yes. They're named after the Aldous Huckley book, the Doors of Perception, which is what he referred. Yeah, it's what he referred to drugs as. So, you know, it does open doors. It can make you better at what you're doing artistically. The problem is that at some point you then do way worse. And you have to know where that is. And it's always moving like a clitoris. You just can't quite keep licking the.
- [38:49]
B
Really well, metaphorically. I realized, though, that there was, after a while of being out there and acting like that, I realized there was a fine line between a groove and a rut. So
- [39:06]
A
that's perfect.
- [39:07]
B
Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah.
- [39:09]
A
He should put this patent in his groove.
- [39:12]
B
And it's really bad when you think you're in a groove, but you're really in a Ruth.
- [39:16]
A
Yeah.
- [39:16]
B
And so I just kind of had to have more clarity up there.
- [39:20]
A
Yeah, me too. And look, I don't regret. I regret many things in life, but I don't regret the things that apparently were necessary as a passageway to where you get to.
- [39:36]
B
That's right.
- [39:37]
A
It's silly to beat yourself up now that you're a butterfly for when you were a worm. You had to be a worm before you were a butterfly. Yep. I mean, you in particular. Yeah, no, it's true.
- [39:50]
B
And no, there was a lot of rite of passages to do what we did.
- [39:54]
A
It's pain. I mean, you had to.
- [39:54]
B
It's called paying your dues.
- [39:56]
A
And it's. For me, it's painful to look back. I had occasion because getting this award and so I have to put a clip package together of like, oh, so you had to go and career stuff. So I was looking at like some early stand up on tv and it's like all I could think of is make it stop. Please make it stop. I'm doing this set on the Tonight show and it's not horrible. I'm sure the people are laughing. Johnny's laughing. I'm not laughing. I mean, I'm just. Because.
- [40:26]
B
Were you nervous?
- [40:27]
A
Well, no, I actually wasn't. I was very confident.
- [40:30]
B
Were you high?
- [40:31]
A
I was not high.
- [40:32]
B
Okay.
- [40:32]
A
But I did look like I belonged. I just. The material just embarrasses me. Now, some of it.
- [40:38]
B
Was this the first time you did the.
- [40:39]
A
Well, there's the one. The first one, yes. And then there's. I was watching one of the early ones. You know, we're talking about the mid-1980s and the jokes. Oh, and by the way, a lot of it you couldn't even do today because it would be so politically, somebody
- [40:55]
B
would be triggered or offended.
- [40:57]
A
Very much so. I mean, if you were a teen trap, talking about primitive people. Primitive people.
- [41:05]
B
I mean, they were.
- [41:06]
A
Fucking chopped my head off that I betrayed primitive people and the audience and everybody. And I always say, if everyone was in on it, how can you blame. You know, if everyone was in on it, nobody seemed to be objecting. And.
- [41:22]
B
Well, you know how you can get lost. I mean, when you're on a bus a lot or in a hotel room a lot, you can kind of get Lost on YouTube and whatever. But some of the stuff that Rodney Dangerfield said and all these people and everybody was laughing, it was great.
- [41:37]
A
John Rickles. Oh, remember Don Rickles?
- [41:39]
B
Oh, God, it's great.
- [41:41]
A
Yeah. I mean, he also could be corny. I saw him open for Sinatra near the end of sinatra's career in 95. Took my mother to see him at Radio City Music hall. And he was still doing the ethnic jokes, and it was a little cringy then. Then 1995, the black guys in the band behind him, you could see him going, like, don't trip on it. You know, it is what it is. He'll be dead soon.
- [42:11]
B
Okay, look, so when you were growing up, like, who did you see and however you saw them, how they came into your life, that made you want to be you. That made you want to do Tony Carson. Johnny Carson, Yeah. So doing his show the first time must have been a huge deal.
- [42:27]
A
Yeah, it was. And even if there hadn't been that personal element, it just was a huge deal. Because back then, if you did good on your first time, you were, like, officially in show business, even at the very bottom of the. The barrel, but officially in. And they'd invite you back. And then it looked like, oh, well, Johnny liked him. That was a huge thing.
- [42:45]
B
And then you all of a sudden had 20 days you could go out and show. Yeah.
- [42:48]
A
Then you could. Well, I wouldn't. I did get hired by Diana Ross to open for her in Las Vegas. Yes. Which was a big thing, but, you know.
- [42:56]
B
So how did that go? Cause I hired a comedian.
- [42:59]
A
That's horrible.
- [42:59]
B
I hired a comedian once to open a New Year's Eve show for me, I Don't know if. You know, speaking of really country comedians, there was a guy named James Gregory that I became friends, was really great, and I loved him. And he did the circuit in the south and everything. You know, sold his T shirts after the show and everything, all that kind of stuff.
- [43:18]
A
Yeah.
- [43:18]
B
Well, I hired him to open for us on New Year's Eve one night, and he said he would never do that again.
- [43:24]
A
I don't blame him. First of all, New Year's Eve is the worst night of the year for the comedian because.
- [43:29]
B
But it's a music crowd listening to a.
- [43:32]
A
At the time when they're very drunk.
- [43:34]
B
Yes.
- [43:35]
A
It's like. It is a perfect storm of everything. A comedian.
- [43:38]
B
So you did that with Diana Ross.
- [43:40]
A
It was not New Year's Eve, but
- [43:41]
B
still, though, it was.
- [43:42]
A
Oh, yeah. Yes, absolutely. And it was really painful. First of all, this was 1982, which I call the dead ball era in Las Vegas post Rat Pack. So it wasn't Sinatra or maybe the last years of him or something, but it wasn't that crowd. And it wasn't the. They finally found a way after, like, wandering in the wilderness for, I think, the whole 80s, maybe the 90s. Yeah, in the 90s, they tried to go family. They were like, oh, fuck, this is stupid. It's Las Vegas. Then they finally found a way, and they did. They attracted the young crowd back to Las Vegas. Like, it's a whole new thing, and it's fun and we can go to clubs and do ecstasy and.
- [44:20]
B
Yeah.
- [44:20]
A
And, you know. But when I opened for her, it was just like the whole town was very old. You know, just everything was.
- [44:31]
B
You and I were.
- [44:32]
A
I was 26 and they weren't.
- [44:34]
B
Oh, yeah. It was a much bigger gap at the time.
- [44:36]
A
Right. It just was a 26 in Vegas, guys.
- [44:41]
B
Yeah, that's great.
- [44:42]
A
And, you know, it was just a painful. The audience was a tough audience anyway. Vegas, terrible rooms for comedy because it was plush. Whereas comedy, you want this kind of shit. So the laughs bounce.
- [44:55]
B
You think they were jaded at all?
- [44:57]
A
Not by me. They didn't know who I fucking was. No, they were definitely not.
- [45:02]
B
I think you and I would have fit in and go with a Rat Pack, though. I would like to think we would.
- [45:07]
A
Kenny. You. You. I'm telling you, a lot of your songs make me think, you know, that actually, at 70, I should be even more depressed than I am about not being able to live the way all your songs remind me. I used to live. I used to be the guy who was the guilty conscious Guy, I used to stay out. You know what we did last night. You know, I used to tell girls, don't tell your mother. All these things that made life wonderful, you know, Wonderful. I was living on fast forward, all this kind of shit. Like, my friend rock. What do you call yourself? Hillbilly rock star.
- [45:46]
B
Billy Rock star out of control.
- [45:47]
A
And, you know, like, friends are worried about you.
- [45:50]
B
You should have been out there then when it was awesome. Anyway, go ahead.
- [45:53]
A
Out where?
- [45:54]
B
When we were hillbilly rock stars out of control.
- [45:56]
A
Oh, I'm sure.
- [45:58]
B
Before social media, it's like comedian in Hollywood out of. Yes. Great.
- [46:02]
A
I mean, I always say, but you made it through. There's an old saying that somebody said it. When you get to be a star, a celebrity, whatever, you get a year to act like an asshole. And I may have taken two.
- [46:16]
B
Yeah.
- [46:17]
A
You know, and you may have taken.
- [46:21]
B
You know, when you get a record deal, I feel like, you know, the business gives you one big lemon to squeeze. And we squeezed every bit of that, and that lemon is fine, you know, and we squeezed every single drop out of that lift. We had a lot of fun.
- [46:35]
A
What year did the last drop ooze?
- [46:37]
B
Oh, no, we're still squeezing it. But it's a much different fun now. I mean, it's almost the kind of fun we had from 1994 till around 2010.
- [46:57]
A
Do you think you.
- [46:57]
B
We had a lot of years, a lot of. Then I was, like, just tired of it. I woke up one day and I went, mm, I think I'm. I think I'm tired of this. I want to do what I do. Because I woke up on the bus one day and I went, are you taking a bus? Well, when. Back in the. Yeah, I still have a bus. I fly to the first show, and then I'll kind of ride the bus here and there, and then I'll fly home.
- [47:20]
A
How long's the bus ride usually? Six hours.
- [47:23]
B
Oh, yeah. Six hours. Six hours. Six hours.
- [47:24]
A
And that don't bother you?
- [47:25]
B
You. Not now. I sleep better on the bus almost than I do anywhere in my life.
- [47:29]
A
Sleep on the bus?
- [47:31]
B
Yeah.
- [47:31]
A
I went on a bus once. I rode with the band when I was opening with somebody else to Wolf Trap. You must have played wolf trap outside D.C. oh, yeah, yeah. Outside venue. Very big in the summer.
- [47:42]
B
Yeah, like amphitheater. Yeah, yeah.
- [47:45]
A
But, like, people on the lawn.
- [47:46]
B
On the lawn? Yeah.
- [47:47]
A
Yeah. I mean, lawn people, I call them, if you can't even get. Get close to where there's seats. Okay, but. But it's lovely Beautiful, starry night. But like that night driving, it was hard on you to going from Charleston, West Virginia. I'm sure you've played there.
- [48:05]
B
Oh, yeah. But look, the interstates in this, it's worse now because the. The. We haven't fixed the infrastructure. So the buses just do this more than they ever used to. Right. So it's harder now. But I remember waking up on the bus one day, I was 40 something, and I went, okay, you acting the way you're acting out here is not why you wanted to do this like this. So that's when I kind of started to change a little bit. And now I'm so focused on what I do. I love being up there and I love feeling good up there. And so. But not to say we don't have any fun, but I'm not really getting
- [48:42]
A
this from the songs. I'm getting a guy who really does like to be carousing.
- [48:48]
B
No, no, he don't.
- [48:49]
A
I'm being very popular.
- [48:51]
B
I don't think that's ever going to leave you.
- [48:52]
A
That's what that is.
- [48:54]
B
I don't think it's ever going to leave us.
- [48:55]
A
Just as a fan.
- [48:56]
B
No. I'm just saying it's never going to leave me or us. But I can tell you.
- [49:00]
A
No, no, it's our bodies. Look, you know what?
- [49:04]
B
And we didn't invent it. It was given to us.
- [49:07]
A
Bodies are to individuals what geography is to countries. Your geography, ultimately, is much of your destiny. We do have oceans on either side to protect us. Poland is between Germany and Russia. You know when your body allows you to act crazy, you do. And when it doesn't, you don't. Because the. You know, of course, you can wake up with a hangover when you're 25, but you get over it when that tips. When the pain is so much worse than the pleasure it gave you. Now, there are some people who can't help themselves, and they just keep going until they die because it does kill you.
- [49:52]
B
Yes, they're on a slippery slope and will never come back. But that's kind of the epiphany that I had on the bus that morning. I went, mm, I felt like shit. And I was like, mm, this is not why I wanted to do this. And if I keep doing this,
- [50:07]
A
it was that sudden. I mean, you used the word.
- [50:09]
B
It was kind of that sudden epiphany. I know it. Yeah, it was like an epiphany.
- [50:11]
A
As a Southern Baptist, I'm sure you know what the original epiphany was? The burning Bush. That's where we get the word.
- [50:20]
B
I did not know that.
- [50:22]
A
I think. No, that is my memory. But again, that's what you were told. Anyway. College was 50 years ago. I smoked pot. But no, the burning bush. I think that is true.
- [50:34]
B
I did not know that.
- [50:35]
A
Yeah, because it was an epiphany. You know, it was like something that. But that's why I asked the question, because like an epiphany. Something that's very sudden, like a moment, like the aha moment or whatever, but that it sort of sneaks up upon you. You're not really thinking that way, and then suddenly you have an epiphany and you go, oh, whoa. The cloud looks like Jesus. Now I know what to do with my life, you know, that's an epiphany.
- [51:02]
B
Well, I think it was more of a gradual time for me, of realizing that, okay, if I want to continue to do what I'm doing for a long time, and if I want to do it the way that I do it on stage, I'm going to have. I can't act like all this anymore. I can do it some of the time, but not all the time. We were having fun out there. It was a lot of fun for a long time, so. But in a crazy way, it fed the creativity.
- [51:31]
A
The Eagles used to call the after party the third encore.
- [51:34]
B
Oh, I love that, because. And now it's different, though, because
- [51:40]
A
I think you're similar to me. Probably a lot of farmers would say the same thing. Like, what if you really dig down, what does it do for you? Well, certainly when you start, you need the money. Okay, so let's not say money isn't important. Money is very important. At a certain point, you have enough where you're not really. It's not the prime way. You're not turning it down. I like money, but, you know, I don't need it. So. Okay, what is it really? I think it's like, I like to be a hero. And there's an audience that likes what I do like very particularly. Like, I can do something that they. I think, or they wouldn't buy tickets or be such loyal fans. I do something they think nobody else quite does. And to get to scratch that itch, they need me to do it.
- [52:30]
B
No.
- [52:30]
A
And they speak to them. And I so want to, like, give them that gift then, you know, I really want to be their hero at that moment. We want you to, like, analyze the news this week in this funny way and say the right thing, the thing. Okay, good. I want to And I feel like you're probably doing the same thing. No question. I just. I just love that I can be their hero for two hours. This is what they wanted me to do. And I did it, you know, I didn't fuck it up. I didn't not show up. I didn't half ass. It didn't, you know, I didn't play the deep cuts that, you know.
- [53:03]
B
Yeah. And I've never done that, by the way. Like, have you ever been to shows where someone like, you go see one of your favorite acts and they play like four or five deep cuts? Like, I've never done that ever because it took me years to get them here. And I don't want that. I don't want to let them off the hook. Right.
- [53:21]
A
And they've already voted. I mean, what is a hit record? It means they voted. They voted, we voted, the people voted. This is what we like.
- [53:30]
B
We like it.
- [53:31]
A
And, you know, no matter how much I'm sure every musician has ones, they go, I can't believe this one didn't catch on. I mean, Phil Spector, they say. I mean, we know he went crazy.
- [53:45]
B
Yeah.
- [53:45]
A
Okay. What put him over the edge? A lot of people say it was. He made this record, River Deep, Mountain High. Ikentina Turner did it. He thought it was like his greatest opus yet. And he had done some real great opuses, you know, like just that wall of sound shit that was going on in the early 60s with, you know, you've lost that love and feeling. Yes. He just had his. I mean, really some great stuff.
- [54:17]
B
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A
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B
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- [55:45]
A
And then this one just didn't click.
- [55:48]
B
But I think with making music, though, I mean, for me, I think what makes a hit record is spontaneity. And so if you think that, okay, if you go into it and you're done, you're listening to it, and this is the best thing I've ever done, that kind of thing. I think you're setting yourself up because it may feed you, but who knows if it's feeding anyone else? And we all have our own reasons for liking what we do in the studio. But I think some of the best records that you have in your life and stuff that I have in my life are things that were just magic that happened and not planned. And I think that's where the best records are made, honestly.
- [56:29]
A
I know some writers have said the hits come fast. I know Sting has said that. A few other people, I feel like I've heard that before. Like, they just seem to come.
- [56:42]
B
And I've always said that simplicity is one of the hardest. Is one of the hardest things to
- [56:48]
A
do, but it's entirely unquantifiable why someone likes a song. I'll just speak for myself why I like a song. Like, I can try to describe it to you, but at the end of the day, I either like it or I don't. And it has a lot to do with the melody because. Or the way the chords come after each other. Whatever it is, some of it, it just delights me to no end.
- [57:14]
B
See, I don't like minor chords. Like, dun dun dun dun. I don't like that. I don't record them well, I mean, you can have a few, but I tend to shy away from, like, especially
- [57:27]
A
going with a lot of minor chords.
- [57:30]
B
Oh, well, I don't know. I mean, like, there's a bunch. I mean, but. But those that are. They're. They're pitched to me and I never
- [57:37]
A
write, like, what's one? I would know a famous song that has a lot of minor chords.
- [57:45]
B
I Mean, doesn't see the. Jeff Buckley doesn't. Hallelujah. Isn't it full. It's. It's full of minor chords.
- [57:52]
A
What's wrong? Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah oh, isn't that Leonard Cohen?
- [58:01]
B
Yeah, but Jeff Buckley recorded it, and it's one of the more famous.
- [58:04]
A
I hate that song.
- [58:05]
B
You do?
- [58:06]
A
Yeah.
- [58:07]
B
Yeah, of course you do.
- [58:08]
A
I feel like, first of all, I feel like it was forced upon me on several occasions.
- [58:13]
B
It probably was.
- [58:13]
A
It was. Well, that's why it's like. I don't know. It's like one of those songs that is just like, oh, you know what? You have to be just as mad about this as we are. I don't even know what you're talking about sometimes. And there's just something about it that. Yeah. I just think people. Like I was saying a million years ago, before I forgot what we were saying, like, I feel me and country music, like, met in the middle when I was a kid, and it was all about Hee Haw. That's what got us distracted. Hee Haw when I was a kid.
- [58:45]
B
Finally back to the right.
- [58:46]
A
We're back to that. It was all. It was just way too corny, and
- [58:49]
B
it was like you didn't identify with it at all.
- [58:51]
A
And it didn't sound anything like rock music. Occasionally there would be a song, you know, what broke through in the late 60s, I think 68, 69, that I still love, still play to this day. That was absolutely a country song. Rose Garden.
- [59:07]
B
Yeah.
- [59:08]
A
I beg your pardon?
- [59:10]
B
Who sang that? That was Annette.
- [59:12]
A
Promise you a rose Garden.
- [59:15]
B
That identified. That broke through to me.
- [59:17]
A
It broke through the charts and to me.
- [59:20]
B
Wow.
- [59:20]
A
But it didn't make me want to, like, oh, great, now I'm going to, like, really get into country. Country music became like, it's just. Is your music country music? Yeah, it's rock. It's.
- [59:34]
B
Here's what happened to me.
- [59:35]
A
Pop music. It's pop music at its best. That's me.
- [59:39]
B
I grew up, obviously, in East Tennessee in the country. And I had country music in my grandmother's house. Cause I live with my grand. I live with my grandmother for three or four years while my stepfather was in Vietnam. Okay, okay. And then where.
- [59:53]
A
And your mother?
- [59:54]
B
And my mom. Me and my mom, and we lived with my. My grandparents, so. So I heard country music there. Wow. And I heard. I heard country music on the way to school. But when. And on the way to the ball. On the ballpark. But when I was in school and at practice and everything I heard rock music and then my road manager, still to this day, we grew up together, David Farmer and his. In his garage. I heard Van Halen, I heard Sammy Hagar, I heard AC dc. And I still, I love that music so much. So I think that. And this is the best way I can explain me and the music that I've made. I think when you become an adult and you get to make a record and you go on the road, the music that you make as an adult is a direct reflection of everything you consumed as a child. And so it wasn't just Hee Haw that was there, but it wasn't just these things. But it was the Eagles. It was Tom Petty, it was Joe Walsh. It was.
- [61:00]
A
And the Eagles themselves are a mixture of country.
- [61:03]
B
And if the Eagles came out today, they would be considered country.
- [61:06]
A
Right. Especially with their early stuff.
- [61:08]
B
Yeah.
- [61:08]
A
Because you had Glenn frey from Detroit, Michigan, not country all, mixed with Don Headley from Texas.
- [61:15]
B
Yeah.
- [61:15]
A
And, you know, people are just like music. It usually comes out better when they're mixed.
- [61:21]
B
Yeah.
- [61:22]
A
Elvis was a mixture.
- [61:24]
B
That's right.
- [61:25]
A
Gospel, country, that he certainly grew up with, and rhythm and blues, you know, race music.
- [61:32]
B
People ask me all the time. Well, yeah, you kind of make in ways. I mean, you have a lot of layered, loud drums and guitars. Layered guitars. But I talk the way I talk and I sing the way I say sing. So I could never make a record. How do I say this? Like, there are some people out there that make country records as a vanity project. Right. I couldn't make a rock record or a, a rap record. I could, I could make one of those records, but I, it would be a vanity project. That wouldn't be authentic, and it'd be a waste of my time. I, I, so I make the records that I make, but it is a complete mixture of the music that I soaked up like a sponge growing up. And that's just the way it is.
- [62:20]
A
You know, as a fan, and I think I speak for all fans, not just to you, but to all people in show business. We appreciate whenever any of you don't do vanity projects. Yeah. This has been a message from Bill Mountain to you, my fellow celebrities, and the bullshit that you try to pass on to us. Don't do vanity projects. Okay.
- [62:43]
B
Yeah.
- [62:44]
A
You are privileged to be working in this wonderful industry where we don't really work. I mean, we work, but we enjoy our work. That is different between a job and a career. I've had jobs. A job is something I don't like to do, but I do, because I need money to eat food. A career is something that, Yes, I, you know, put my shoulder to the grindstone, but it's a very.
- [63:09]
B
A very festive element. You get to make people happy and laugh, and you get to have this man cave down here that's unbelievable.
- [63:17]
A
Be their hero. We get to be the hero. If you do what you do and stick to what you do. Don't do the vanity project.
- [63:25]
B
Yeah.
- [63:26]
A
It's just, you know, we see it
- [63:28]
B
all the time, and I cringe.
- [63:29]
A
You know, if you're an actor and you also want to sing, you better sing awesome, you know, and the pendulum
- [63:38]
B
swings the other way on that. If you're a singer and you want to be an actor, you better be pretty good.
- [63:43]
A
That's an easy. I feel like that's.
- [63:45]
B
You think that's easier?
- [63:46]
A
I do, because I've long held a theory that anyone can act. I mean, not anyone, but it's like, please, children do it. Former wrestlers do it. I mean, there are a few. Yeah.
- [63:55]
B
Former wrestlers.
- [63:56]
A
I did it. It's just not that. What is reality tv? It's people acting their lives. It's just that we're all.
- [64:04]
B
And there's a lot of ways for people to get jobs these days.
- [64:06]
A
Here's how to think of it. We're all liars, and acting is lying. It's just. And people are just very good at it, especially Americans in this era. They're just a bunch of fucking phonies. So they're acting all the time about every fucking thing.
- [64:20]
B
Well, now more than ever on these phones and stuff. It's all just a bunch of posing. Yeah, it is. And I'm trying to think of singers that became good actors. Dwight Yoakum, I think, is a good actor.
- [64:33]
A
Yes. Oh, no. Quite a few.
- [64:35]
B
Yeah.
- [64:37]
A
Frank Sinatra.
- [64:38]
B
I didn't know he acted. I didn't know he was an actor. What was he in?
- [64:41]
A
Frank did 54 movies.
- [64:43]
B
I had no idea.
- [64:47]
A
Oh, that's right. They don't get media.
- [64:49]
B
We didn't get that in Knoxville.
- [64:50]
A
Yeah. You were out by the hay. The Manchurian Candidate.
- [64:57]
B
I had no idea he was in that.
- [65:00]
A
Not only was he in it, he got it made.
- [65:02]
B
Wow. I got some digging to do.
- [65:04]
A
Yeah, I do.
- [65:05]
B
You know, I got this whole new world opened up to me.
- [65:08]
A
Yeah, Frank did a lot of movies. I mean, he. You know, I don't think it was. There was the Manchurian kind of. Probably is the most important one he ever did, but the man with the Golden Arm, that was pretty. About heroin. The golden army, you know, the Old White horse. You know what I'm talking about. Kenny, you're a musician, you do heroin, you know, so. But yeah, who else?
- [65:33]
B
Who else was a singer that really, like. I think Dwight was really. Is a really good actor.
- [65:39]
A
Elvis. Yeah, it's a shame that what happened to him. I mean, the first movies they put him in were not what he later called the travelogues. You know, he did. I did 29 pictures that way. Yeah, he did 29 pictures. Like 25 of them were the exact same script. Yeah, they were fun in Acapulco and, you know, it was all a clam bake. Clam bake. And you know, like 12 forgettable songs. The same script where he's like Deke Rivers and you know he's in love with this girl. Mr. Rivers only sings at 8 o' clock at the Riverboat Theater. I'll have you to leave this table, you know, you know, gets into fight. Oh, it's just terrible. Or he's running from apartment to apartment because there's one girl in one and one girl at the other. He's switching. He's wearing a mustache. Just like bullshit. But the first four that they put. I think the first four were good. Well, he was good. He had. I mean, Elvis, no one had more charisma pouring out of his body just naturally. And also great looking. So Flaming Star. I mean, that had a racial element to it.
- [66:41]
B
Oh, wow.
- [66:42]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The one that Pearl harbor ripped off of. What's the name of that one? Love Me Tender. Yeah, the movie Pearl Harbor. I loved it. People on it. Michael Bay's movie. I loved it. But it's the same plot. He ripped it off from this.
- [66:57]
B
Oh, like the more recent.
- [67:00]
A
The plot is Elvis and his older brother and they're living in this. In the prairie, you know, you would know. They're on the prairie. Bear with me. Okay. They're in the hay and the Civil War comes and the older brother is engaged to this attractive girl. Like it's the prairie, like the only hot chick in town. Okay? So he goes off to the Civil War. They think he gets killed in the war. So then the younger brother, Elvis, he gets with the girl and then the guy comes home from the war.
- [67:29]
B
So it is the same plot.
- [67:30]
A
It's the exact same plot, right? Oh, you thought I was dead.
- [67:33]
B
Dead, yeah. And.
- [67:34]
A
And use that as an excuse to my girl. Yeah, well, bro, I thought you were dead.
- [67:38]
B
It's like Homeland. Did you ever see Homeland?
- [67:40]
A
Love Homeland.
- [67:41]
B
I loved it.
- [67:42]
A
Homeland.
- [67:43]
B
But it's kind of the same plot. He comes back from. They thought he was dead. He comes back.
- [67:46]
A
You're right. You're right.
- [67:49]
B
Anyway, I watched a lot of Homeland.
- [67:51]
A
I did too. Homeland.
- [67:53]
B
Yeah.
- [67:54]
A
Especially that year and that. The year where they were in Pakistan.
- [67:57]
B
Yes. I, I, I, I. Everything about it I loved.
- [68:01]
A
She was brilliant in that.
- [68:02]
B
And she. I've never seen anybody play a character with such anxiety and pull it off. It's unbelievable.
- [68:06]
A
And it makes sense for that character. I mean, if you're the type who wants to be in the CIA and do that for a living, you're not going to be the normal nine to fiver, you know, you're going to be the person with the red strings connecting the pictures on the wall.
- [68:20]
B
Yeah.
- [68:21]
A
And that's just to find the remote.
- [68:23]
B
That's probably my favorite. That is one of my favorite. But it's on any. Still this day on any of the streaming sites.
- [68:29]
A
I agree.
- [68:29]
B
Like, I've watched it, the whole thing, like several times.
- [68:33]
A
I wish HBO had had that show.
- [68:35]
B
Yeah.
- [68:35]
A
It should have been an HBO show. Can't get them all.
- [68:39]
B
Yeah. Anyway. But I like Succession too.
- [68:43]
A
Me too.
- [68:43]
B
I loved Succession.
- [68:45]
A
Me too. That's another.
- [68:47]
B
See, we got something in common.
- [68:48]
A
We have a lot in common, I'm telling you.
- [68:52]
B
You know John C. McGinley. I know John C. McGinley, yeah.
- [68:54]
A
I don't know, but I've been. Oh, you don't always been a fan.
- [68:57]
B
Oh, God, you would. He's fantastic.
- [68:59]
A
Why is he an old friend of yours?
- [69:01]
B
I met him in 2007. I was exhausted after our tour in 2007. And I rented a house in Malibu. Well, it was called then Tranquis Market or whatever it's called. It's this supermarket out there. And I rented a house past that and Rick Rubin introduced me and Johnny.
- [69:23]
A
Has he produced your records?
- [69:25]
B
No, no, but.
- [69:26]
A
No.
- [69:27]
B
No, we've never worked together. We've been friends for almost 20 years now. But that's who introduced me to John McGinley. And John and I have been. And we couldn't be any different. It was a lot like me and you growing up.
- [69:39]
A
So there's no awkwardness about that, like.
- [69:42]
B
No.
- [69:42]
A
Why didn't you ever produce me?
- [69:44]
B
Oh, no, not at all. No. Because I've worked with the Same producer since 1997. I've kind of been in the. Oh, see, I'm not saying never one. We might one day. We better hurry. But we might. I mean, Rick made a lot of really great records on a lot of
- [70:02]
A
people and, well, he goes all. I mean, you know, there's no, like, genre. And also, he's a musical.
- [70:08]
B
He's just. He has.
- [70:09]
A
Yeah, he's not like a musical savant. He's quite. Almost the opposite. Doesn't play an instrument or, you know, I mean, I saw the piece I did on him on 60 Minutes and. And it's interesting because it's just sort of like what a fan feels. It's sort of his method, which is pretty, but amazing.
- [70:28]
B
His energy and everything is just. Is wonderful and a great energy in the studio. But that's how I met John McGinley, and John and I were a lot like you and I. Like, he grew up in New York, Jersey. He's like that. And I go to his house. Every time that I'm in. In LA or in Malibu, I go to his house and we set in the sauna and ice and all that kind of stuff and work out. He's one of my. He's really one of my best friends that in the last 20 years of my life.
- [70:56]
A
Yeah. I didn't need to picture you two guys in the sauna. Yeah. Quite frankly, I don't know why I needed to know. Like, okay, it's a friend. I got it. Producer introduced us, and suddenly we're sitting there with our dicks hanging out. I don't. Why, why. Why did it go there?
- [71:13]
B
I'm surprised you don't know him.
- [71:15]
A
Well, how would I run into him?
- [71:17]
B
I don't know. How do people run into people?
- [71:19]
A
Well, you know, and people think, how do we know?
- [71:21]
B
How did you run into me? I mean, how do we know each other?
- [71:23]
A
Because you had a great.
- [71:24]
B
That's right, I did.
- [71:25]
A
I did the show.
- [71:25]
B
That's how we know that. And I'm not even here.
- [71:28]
A
I assume that's why you wanted. I assume that's why you wanted to come here.
- [71:32]
B
Yeah, no question.
- [71:33]
A
I'm so. By the way, I just. I'm so appreciative of that because I know. I mean, you are the biggest star. One of the biggest stars in all of music. And, you know, you need any promotion. Like a hole in the head. I mean, one guy in this world doesn't need anything to sell tickets. Even though I'm going to read where you. Oh, shit.
- [71:53]
B
Sault Ste.
- [71:53]
A
Marie, Michigan. No, that's where that liquor went.
- [71:56]
B
I was.
- [71:57]
A
Say, didn't I have a shotboard? I did. It's just. I poured it into my crotch.
- [72:02]
B
You do it.
- [72:04]
A
Well, I do, but it's done. June 19th to July 11th. That's at the Sphere. I mean, the Sphere is such a big deal.
- [72:14]
B
Wow. It's a lot of fun.
- [72:15]
A
I gotta go to the Sphere.
- [72:17]
B
You should come. You should definitely come there. You don't have to come to the Virgin Islands, but you should come to the Sphere. We'll take care. I got a suite. Nobody'll mess with you.
- [72:23]
A
You know, I used to.
- [72:24]
B
You can be home early.
- [72:25]
A
I used to. You know, I go into. I used to play Vegas like six times a year. I just have been to Vegas a lot.
- [72:31]
B
I know, it's the thing. You're still probably so sick of Vegas.
- [72:34]
A
Well, it's been a year, so I'm ready to go back.
- [72:37]
B
Okay.
- [72:37]
A
I like Vegas. I love Vegas. Vegas. But I had enough of Vegas for a while.
- [72:41]
B
We would have been good in the Rat Pack, though. We would have. We would have had fun.
- [72:45]
A
We would have been good anywhere where our livers allowed us to keep drinking. That's the difference. It's not really. I mean. Yes. Would I have loved to have been with Sammy Davis Jr. For any reason? And Dean and Frank. Yes. And even Joey Bishop. But it really is about our liver mostly. I know. Like, when your liver allows you, you can be your own Rat Pack. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'd rather, you know, start my own. You can be Frank. I'm. I'm happy being Dean.
- [73:14]
B
You'll be Dean.
- [73:15]
A
I'm perfectly happy.
- [73:16]
B
Who's gonna be Sammy?
- [73:16]
A
Dean has actually the cooler one. June 19th, 20th, 24th, 26th, 27th. Oh, this is still the Sphere. Yeah. July. These are the dates. July 1st, 8th. Tattoo this on yourself, people. So you're July 1st, 1st, 8th, 10th, 11th, more maybe listed there. All shows are at 8:00 clock at the Sphere. Don't be late for the Sphere.
- [73:44]
B
Yeah, it's pretty incredible to play in that space. So it's been good for me because we didn't have to go to city to city.
- [73:52]
A
Did you have a lot to say about what plays behind you?
- [73:56]
B
All of it. Before I came here today, how much
- [73:59]
A
of your life was that? That dominating for a while. Were you having to like. Because obviously it's this multi dimensional experience where stuff is on a screen. So you want. I mean, it's your show. You want stuff on that you don't want to be like, surprise me. And then you look back and it's like, oh, whoa.
- [74:16]
B
It's so hands on sometimes to a fault.
- [74:18]
A
It's all dandelite.
- [74:19]
B
So. Yeah.
- [74:21]
A
Wait, who said all dandelite? That's me.
- [74:25]
B
No, today, before I came Here I was, they have a smaller simulator, a sphere simulator here. And that was where you create the content and you approve it. We've been doing this.
- [74:36]
A
So what is it? What was your idea for the content? What do we see when you're on stage?
- [74:40]
B
Oh, every song is different. Every song, every piece of content is
- [74:43]
A
completely tied to the song.
- [74:45]
B
It's tied to the song. So there's 30 different things you're going to see. And today I was down there all day just approving and saying what I hate, what I love. And there's a lot of my life in that content. Like we've been creating this since, since we got done last year. So now it's all coming together. So
- [75:05]
A
it's amazing how much the human mind can really take in in split seconds. You know, it may. Some of that is probably not good. We're forcing our minds to work too quickly or without taking stuff in and social media, blah, blah, blah. But when you realize how different it is from a few hundred years ago when people would sit by a fire and just read a book, you know, I mean, I wish people still would do that. But your mind is capable of taking in a lot in a very short amount of time. And once we, you know, sort of crossed the Rubicon of where we knew we could do that to ourselves, it does become hard to go back. I'm always looking at old movies because, oh, I heard this was a classic. And sometimes it's like, eh, it just sucks. You know what? I'm sure it was great in 1950. It just is slow and obvious and the acting is terrible and I'm sure it was groundbreaking. And it's just. And some of them still hold up, but we're at the sphere level. There'll be a moment not too far in the future when if you don't have some sort of sphere experience, then it's like it's not even happening in this concert.
- [76:22]
B
And I will tell you, like, for people that are in there, like, you know, and you know what I'm talking about because you're up there very exposed and by yourself. Part of your. Makes you good at what you do is the connection that you hope with the audience.
- [76:36]
A
Yes.
- [76:36]
B
So for me, for years I was like, okay, this is me, this is you, and we are. This is the way it's gonna be all night. Us, Right? Well, now you're at the sphere, I'm there, right? And most of them are going, yes,
- [76:51]
A
in a way you're purposefully sabotaging your own show. You're purposely distracting the audience from.
- [76:59]
B
So it took me a minute to get to get them. Like, it's almost most audiences, you know, they come across the fence anyway. Like, they're horny to be there. They're excited. But some, you know, especially the first couple, like, they were just right.
- [77:12]
A
And they came to see you. It's sort of like a hot girl saying, hey, come on, my tits are down here. Yeah. But really, I appreciate you coming out. And I assumed it was just because, as I did, I wanted to get to know you better. You too. It's such a great venue for getting to know somebody. And it's like, it's great because when people, you know, who are say post 50. Yeah, but you're post 50.
- [77:37]
B
Yes.
- [77:38]
A
Okay.
- [77:39]
B
Very post 50.
- [77:40]
A
Really? Oh, yeah.
- [77:40]
B
I'm 58.
- [77:41]
A
Oh, well, you could easily pass for 10 years younger. Oh, wow. Which is great.
- [77:45]
B
Thank you.
- [77:46]
A
But, you know, celebrity takes off 10 years.
- [77:49]
B
Yes.
- [77:50]
A
The camera adds 10 pounds. It just works like that. But no, I mean, I do appreciate
- [77:57]
B
that, because when I did your show, when I did your show, I remember being. Getting ready to leave, and I got in the car with everybody and I went. I think it's like, what just happened. Like, that was, like, that was a lot of fun. You never know how those. What is 4, 5, 10 minutes we spent out there, whatever it was will go. When you first meet someone and it's on record. Right. It's just there. But I remember telling everybody in the car on the way back to the hotel, I said, I think me and Bill are gonna be friends.
- [78:28]
A
I hope so.
- [78:29]
B
I hope so.
- [78:31]
A
And you know, you know what makes it so much easier to be friends? Like, we really never. Other than 10 minutes, we never sat down together, never spoke to each other. We were aware of each other through telegenics to telegenics to electronics, I mean, and now Christmas Planet Telegenics. We were communicating telegenically. Okay. I revealed it. So what you prayed for, this didn't.
- [78:53]
B
Yeah.
- [78:53]
A
Okay. But, you know, it's so interesting because you lived a life for 58 years, and I lived a life for almost, well, 70 years. Now, I don't remember when the interview was, but probably I was already 70. So, like, it's not like we knew each other those years, but we both knew life those years. And we knew because we're in the same generation. And honestly, we're both white men in America. Life was certainly a lot worse for people who weren't that when we were born. And we acknowledge that. But we just had so many similar experiences or so much common in our background that when we do get sit down to talk, it's not like I have to get to know you from like the gig. Whereas, like somebody who's 22 or so, they just were born on Mars, as far as I'm concerned, to them. And also in reverse, but with us, it's like, well, I kind of have known you all my life. Not you in particular.
- [79:52]
B
You know, when we started this journey, like you talked about earlier, you had to work very hard and there were true rites of passage to get to a different level. And you know what? There's some commonality in that. And I feel that and I respect that. Because look, nothing doing what you do and how you did it, nothing was given to you. Nothing.
- [80:16]
A
Oh, nothing.
- [80:17]
B
And that's the way it was for me. I've been.
- [80:18]
A
And we're not Nepo babies. No, that's. Well, really not that. Look, I'm not putting down Nepo babies. Everyone's gotta make a living. And some of them are extremely talented. And I'm not surprised. Why? It is easier when you have it sort of in your blood and you're around it as a kid. You're not freaked out about it when you get on a set because daddy took you to this. Okay? I don't begrudge anybody that. Just don't ever tell me it was harder for you, which I've heard. It wasn't harder, it was easier. And I. I am. I. I just like it better that I wasn't an EPO baby. I'm like it better that I was. I am the first. And by the way, we'll be the last. Because I don't have children.
- [80:58]
B
Right?
- [80:59]
A
You don't have children, right?
- [81:00]
B
Yeah, no, I don't have children. And I think you talked about this. I never miss it.
- [81:04]
A
No, me neither.
- [81:06]
B
I mean, that's rare.
- [81:07]
A
Two guys our age who both didn't have children and also still say they didn't message. We are in a small club, my friend.
- [81:15]
B
That's true. But for me, music was always my baby.
- [81:21]
A
Same with me in my show. And comedy. Yes, absolutely.
- [81:25]
B
I never once. And still to this day I don't. But I never thought. I mean, my mom did. I would go home years ago. Mom would go away. Well. Cause my sister can't have a child. And then I'm not having a child. So my mom's now, you know, getting up there. I'm getting up there. So is my mother, but she doesn't have any Grandbabies.
- [81:44]
A
My sister did not have children either, so.
- [81:47]
B
See, we got a lot in common.
- [81:48]
A
I know. Which is our line is dying off.
- [81:51]
B
Yeah, no question. I never missed it.
- [81:54]
A
No, I haven't either. And I don't care if my line dies off. So what, like, what was going to be next? And also, by the way, if we had kids, they'd be Nepo babies.
- [82:06]
B
Yeah, right.
- [82:07]
A
They'd be Nepo babies.
- [82:09]
B
And, you know, I, I have thought about this, though. Like, only because I, I. When you get to a certain place in your life, you. You do your will.
- [82:21]
A
Oh, yeah, I've done it.
- [82:22]
B
And so I'm sitting there going, it really hit me that I didn't have a child. When I have to figure out where all my shit's going if something happens to me. And I'm like, okay. And that was a hard thing to
- [82:34]
A
do because you accumulate a lot.
- [82:36]
B
I've got so much stuff.
- [82:37]
A
Life, not just stuff, but friends in the best way. But, you know, like, life is, among other things, it is an accumulation. And when you write the will, it suddenly makes you have a need. Clarity on the value of it, where it, you know, it makes you something.
- [82:57]
B
Yeah. I'm thinking of what. Who gets what this. Of whatever, you know, and that's the first time, honestly, that I realized I've been so busy and so creative and so moving forward, but when I sat down to do my will, I was like, okay, who am I gonna give this stuff to?
- [83:20]
A
And who do I wanna make sure
- [83:22]
B
I, you know, I trust with it?
- [83:23]
A
Do it.
- [83:24]
B
I don't.
- [83:24]
A
Yes. Who do I want to let know after the fact? Oh, so.
- [83:29]
B
So let's just say, how do you like it? I mean. Yes. Looking. Looking back and saying, okay, if you had. Let's just say you had four or five kids and then you had a will. What's worse? Not having kids and giving. We. I. I assume you would give it to something that would make the world a better place.
- [83:48]
A
Right? I mean, I feel. Look, I never.
- [83:50]
B
Or would you rather give it to kids that you didn't know that would take care of it?
- [83:53]
A
Look, I never had kids because I used this. I was like, you know what? It's gonna hurt, but it's certainly better than having kids.
- [84:07]
B
You just pull that out of your pocket?
- [84:08]
A
Where'd you get those scissors? I'm Harpo Mortz. Kenny. I have props everywhere. Here's a lit candle I was carrying around under my. No, I never forgot what it was. Something about kids. Anyway.
- [84:25]
B
We don't have kids.
- [84:26]
A
Well, we don't, we don't have anybody
- [84:27]
B
to get into when we're going.
- [84:28]
A
And we don't have hostility toward people who have kids or to kids themselves. It's just not our preference. I feel like one of the attitudes that I, from the earliest days on Politically incorrect in the 90s, was trying to sort of pioneer on TV against the grain was, first of all, you're not weird if you're single and never get married. That shouldn't be a weirdness. This should be just people's choices. Same thing with kids. There's no moral dimension to it. Having kids doesn't make you a better person. If you have kids and raise them right, you have my full admiration. Yeah, but you could have kids and raise assholes. And then I think you're a huge asshole who just shouldn't have had kids. I don't think I would have been a good father.
- [85:15]
B
Father. I, I think I would be a good father, but I, I, I, I don't know that I have the skill set at this point.
- [85:25]
A
But you don't.
- [85:26]
B
I don't.
- [85:28]
A
I mean, you say is your new friend. Right? Something we said. We're friends now. Okay. So now I can just like. Yeah.
- [85:36]
B
So. I mean, I don't know anything about. A lot about your first early. Were you ever married?
- [85:41]
A
You're sk. You're, you're, you're, you're. Your sperm. It's too old. It's not.
- [85:47]
B
Yeah, it's too gone. It's just. Well, there's less swimming around.
- [85:52]
A
Yeah, well, you just don't trust them.
- [85:55]
B
Don't tr. I've never trusted him. What are you talking about? I didn't know trust was an issue. I never trusted him.
- [86:06]
A
Another good song title.
- [86:07]
B
That's pretty good.
- [86:08]
A
I never trust him.
- [86:09]
B
I never trust.
- [86:11]
A
I never trusted her. Yeah. Sing a whole song about your sperm.
- [86:14]
B
Yeah. I mean, did you ever get married?
- [86:17]
A
Not to my knowledge. I was engaged and I saw. I told you I was looking through these old clips. It takes a lot to get me to look at myself. I'm only doing this because this is a big deal, so I have to. So. But it's just torture. And there I am on the Tonight show and I do my little fucking dog and pony show out there, which is making me throw up in my mouth. And then I go and I sit down with. Which was a big honor. And I revealed, which I had completely forgotten there on the panel of the Tonight show that I'd just gotten engaged. So I hear you just got engaged. That's Very, very exciting. And I'm like, yeah, bro. I was like, what? And I remember getting engaged. It never became a marriage, but. But I don't remember doing that on the Tonight Show. And there are.
- [87:11]
B
And you saw it.
- [87:12]
A
I just watched it on this.
- [87:13]
B
Crazy.
- [87:14]
A
And, you know.
- [87:16]
B
How old were you?
- [87:17]
A
I was 29.
- [87:19]
B
Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.
- [87:21]
A
I mean, look, I know marriage works for so many people, and some people are just, you know, you could say it's just sort of a case of, you know, co. Depends. You know, it's just the trees grow together and at some point the roots intermingle so much that.
- [87:41]
B
And untangling, that would be a lot more work. And I get that.
- [87:45]
A
But there are some people where it's not about. It would be a lot of work or I'll lose all my money. It's really. I really love hanging out with her. I really love hanging out with him. Even Bill and Hillary, you know, I remember when they asked her after the scandal and everything, whether she would leave him and she would. Very honest, I thought, you know, and said, basically, you know, I kind of thought about it. And yes, he's a hard dog to keep on the porch, but at the end of the day, there's just no one else as interesting in this whole world or who I really want to talk to as much. So, like, that's a lot. That, to me, was a very cool thing to say. I'm sure I didn't say it word for word, but that was the gist of it.
- [88:25]
B
I love that Bill. I've been a ch. I've had an opportunity to meet him several times.
- [88:29]
A
Yeah.
- [88:30]
B
And.
- [88:31]
A
Oh, speak.
- [88:32]
B
I mean, he. I don't know of anyone that's as. He is very charismatic and can just. And can talk so well.
- [88:40]
A
Oh, it's.
- [88:41]
B
He can make you feel like.
- [88:43]
A
Oh, absolutely.
- [88:44]
B
Like you're the only person.
- [88:45]
A
Oh, absolutely.
- [88:46]
B
And that's a talent to that. It's really great.
- [88:49]
A
Well, I may have told this story before, but I'm going to tell it again. So, like, in the 90s, I was, like, invited to a number of places where he was speaking, you know, chumming with the Democratic side, and I still am with a lot of them, I hope. And so I brought. And of course, this is the 90s, I was out of my mind. So I brought a date everywhere. So I brought this hot blonde with me. And, you know, it's like a meeting of maybe the 800 people. And at the end, there's a, you know, you get online so you can take a picture with the President. It moves along pretty quickly with me. I got on one side, she got on the other side. And I said something very offhand about he was about to travel to a trade conference, and he spent the next five minutes, like, explaining trade to me. And when I got off the line, I said to my girl, I said, wow, that's so awesome. He spent five minutes just telling me about the intricacies of this trade deal. And she said, yeah. The whole time, he was rubbing my back. So that's what I love about.
- [89:55]
B
I got invited.
- [89:56]
A
He was a player. Like, talk about a dog. Like, there's certain people I could name, certain athletes who were like this. Oh, no, question one is the greatest basketball player of all time. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna mention names, but just like, you either. Like, wow. Warren Beatty. Another one like, Warren Beatty, according to legend, used to just pull chicks over, like, on the road, like, and then be, like, out of.
- [90:19]
B
And there's a talent to that, too.
- [90:21]
A
Just, again, I couldn't do it. But I can't deny I.
- [90:26]
B
Bill Clinton invited me to come to the Hollywood Bow to sing. It was me and Bono and a couple of other people to sing for him. It was packed at the Hollywood Bowl.
- [90:37]
A
Sure. Wow.
- [90:38]
B
So I was there, and I had a song out with Grace Potter called you and Tequila.
- [90:42]
A
Yeah.
- [90:43]
B
And Grace lived out here at the time and still does some of the time. So I said, grace, I said, you should come sing you and Tequila with me for Bill Clinton.
- [90:51]
A
Wow.
- [90:52]
B
And Bill. Bill knew I was coming, but he didn't know that Grace was coming. And. And so I came out there, and I introduced Grace to come on stage, and she had this bedazzled dress, and I swear to God, it was right here. And you could see, you know, Bill was sitting there. He was, you know, in the first row, and everybody was so.
- [91:11]
A
And.
- [91:12]
B
And then there's me that comes out and talks to Bill, and I was. Pleasure to be here. And ladies and gentlemen, Grace Potter. And she walks out like Marilyn Monroe. And you can see Bill go, this. His head. He's unbelievable. How we get on Bill Clinton, I don't know.
- [91:31]
A
I love.
- [91:31]
B
I love him.
- [91:32]
A
I love him, you know, but. But, you know, but he got into
- [91:36]
B
all kind of stuff.
- [91:37]
A
You got to own who you are.
- [91:38]
B
I know, but. But he. But there's a talent, too. Like, he got into all kinds of trouble, but every time, come out smelling like a rose.
- [91:44]
A
Well, I don't know. I don't know if he's smelling like a rose. All the time. Because they used to have him at the Democratic Convention. They didn't the last one, because there's too much. Well, Monica remembered. Monica remembered, then forgot, then remembered, then forgot. And I think she's back to remembering that she's a victim.
- [92:03]
B
Yeah.
- [92:04]
A
And that hurt him.
- [92:05]
B
But even after that, I mean, if we needed somebody to go negotiate, they would either send Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton.
- [92:11]
A
Well, Jimmy's dead, so I wouldn't send him.
- [92:13]
B
I know that, but I mean, like, back in the day.
- [92:15]
A
Yeah. All right. I got to go back to my real job. I could do this all night with you. This is so much fun. And you didn't even drink. Oh, good for you.
- [92:27]
B
Yeah.
- [92:27]
A
You know what? Honestly, and I know this mostly from cigarettes, but I would say this to a degree of. Because that's the dumbest drug I ever did smoking for 20 years. So glad I finally got rid of that.
- [92:38]
B
I don't smoke and I've never. I'll go ahead and finish.
- [92:40]
A
No, well, I'm just gonna say, you know, as you strip away the drugs, cigarettes, heavy drinking, you know, you do realize they're not as needed as you think they are.
- [92:52]
B
Yeah.
- [92:52]
A
You know, you can actually have a good time as yourself. I'm learning you got in the habit of using a crutch, but it's still you in there. You are really what's still interesting and can be interested and, you know, you don't really need, you know, a little, but not a lot.
- [93:11]
B
Yeah. I've never had. I've never even. Believe it or not, little fun fact. I'm 58 years old and I've never had a cup of coffee.
- [93:20]
A
Wow. I've had a lot of them, and
- [93:24]
B
it was a negative association with something as a child. And it was so I never.
- [93:30]
A
Yes. I can tell you why. Because as a child, you don't need coffee. You're bouncing off the walls to be right. But, I mean, you need a downer. And so the adults are drinking this gross brown.
- [93:43]
B
Yes. It was off bitter. And everybody's smoking in the house, like. And I'm going, if I ever get out of here, I'm never coming back. Ever.
- [93:50]
A
Ever.
- [93:50]
B
I had that talk with myself as a child. I remember it, and I've never been right.
- [93:55]
A
These people stink. Their breath stinks of coffee and cigarettes. Is there a worse breath stink, stink than coffee and cigarettes? Yes.
- [94:05]
B
So.
- [94:05]
A
But, you know, my mother was in World War II.
- [94:09]
B
Wow.
- [94:09]
A
She earned her coffee and cigarettes breath.
- [94:13]
B
Yeah, sure did.
- [94:15]
A
All right, pal.
- [94:16]
B
Great, man. Thanks, Ryan. Thank you.
- [94:18]
A
All Right.
- [94:18]
B
We'll do this Christmas.
- [94:20]
A
Any.
- [94:23]
B
I have Christmas plans.
- [94:24]
A
Now you're in your island paradise and Christmas I'm getting missing.
- [94:29]
B
I wasn't this year, but it's gotten busy down there. It's in the Virgin Islands.
- [94:34]
A
I mean. Virgin islands.
- [94:35]
B
Yeah, in St. John. I used to go down there for a long time. Then it got really busy during Christmas. So it's like. Okay. I don't know. I've been out here before.
- [94:43]
A
It's a U.S. virgin Island.
- [94:44]
B
U.S. virgin Island.
- [94:45]
A
So you're American territory. Yes, so. Because.
- [94:49]
B
So, yeah.
- [94:49]
A
You know, if you're bored, I might visit you there.
- [94:52]
B
I think you would love it.
- [94:53]
A
You know, I have a. I haven't really gone overseas. I mean, I'm not a great traveler, So I had three. I toured in 2015. That's the last time I went to Europe. I'm not.
- [95:06]
B
Wait, you haven't been to Europe since 2015?
- [95:08]
A
No, I'm not up for that. I'm just not.
- [95:10]
B
See, I love Italy too much.
- [95:12]
A
Oh, really?
- [95:13]
B
I love Italy.
- [95:13]
A
Italy.
- [95:14]
B
And when I was drinking a lot, I really loved Italy because I loved. You know, I love red wine, especially Italian red wine.
- [95:21]
A
One like anywhere in Italy.
- [95:24]
B
No, I mean, I. I love Florence. I. I love the Amalfi coast. I love Tuscany. I love. And I just went to Sicily three years ago, and I. Yeah, I bet it is awesome. It's awesome. And I.
- [95:33]
A
Because I love the Godfather, I'm not doing that. But I might come to the U.S. u.S. Territory. Virgin Island.
- [95:41]
B
Not at Christmas. It's too. It's too. It's too crazy, really. But, yeah, come during the hurricane season. Seriously, it's beautiful.
- [95:48]
A
It's. What?
- [95:49]
B
You know. You know, the storm's coming with. With the Wetter channel and. And with all the.
- [95:53]
A
If I'm ever in New York, it's a flight from New York, right?
- [95:56]
B
Three hours. Or I'll come there and we'll just roll. You roll me. How's that?
- [96:03]
A
I'm in New York during hurricane season, right? And the hurricane starts hitting New York. I am. So you can come down there. Thank you.
- [96:13]
B
I think it'll be Club Random. Oh, my God. Awesome.
- [96:20]
A
Man, they're so easy.
- [96:22]
B
Yeah, it's great.
- [96:23]
A
Club Random,
- [96:28]
B
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying
- [96:31]
A
big wireless way too much.
- [96:33]
B
Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments.
- [96:41]
A
But that's weird.
- [96:43]
B
Okay, one judgment. Anyway. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to 15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com Athletic Brewing Company Crafts Award winning non alcoholic beers for those who want to be part of everyone round. With over 185 flavor awards, they're exceptional NA beers that fit your lifestyle and any social occasion. Summer's full of good times and Athletic fits right in. Go to athleticbrewing.com to have brews delivered to your door or find them at a bar, restaurant or store near you near Beer Athletic Brewing Co. Fit for all times. Spotify It's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people scrolling through spreadsheets searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social? Let me introduce you to fans and they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip. They stay for hours. They don't move on. They manifest. They're not a demographic group, they're fans. Spotify advertising. You're among fans.