Summary6 min read

Friends Keep Secrets: The Hunter Biden Episode

Podcast: Friends Keep Secrets
Hosts: Benny Blanco, Lil Dicky (Dave Burd), Kristin Batalucco
Special Guests: Hunter Biden, Joe Rogan, Dave Grohl
Date: July 7, 2026

Episode Overview

This lively, unscripted episode brings Hunter Biden into the Friends Keep Secrets household for a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation. Set in Dave and Kristin's LA home—hidden cameras included—the hosts, joined by Joe Rogan and Dave Grohl, explore topics from addiction and shame to politics, family, art, public scrutiny, and hope for the future. The episode blends trademark silliness with sincere, moving moments, showing a rarely seen, vulnerable side of Hunter Biden.

Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. Hunter’s Personal Journey: Addiction, Shame, and Recovery

Hunter’s openness about addiction:
Hunter doesn’t shy away from the details of his struggles with drug use, the associated shame, and public exposure.

“Want to talk about crack cocaine? I’ll talk about crack cocaine. I have no shame over any of it.” — Hunter Biden [06:04]
On the public airing of his private life:
Hunter describes how the global exposure of his personal life, while harrowing, has ultimately been liberating.

“One of the beautiful things about what they did to me… is that I don’t have any secrets.” [06:56]
The cycle of addiction and shame:

“You’re only as sick as your secrets. The thing about the cycle of shame is that you have this secret… it’s like you have this secret, and it just eats you alive.” — Hunter Biden [08:57]
How love and connection saved him:
Hunter recounts meeting his wife Melissa and the life-changing power of being loved and accepted as he truly was.

“She just looked at me and said, ‘Well, that ends today.’… 10 days later, we got married. It was the most mystical, magical moment in life, because it saved my life.” [16:53]

2. Political Scandal, Media, and The Reality of Public Scrutiny

Family under siege:
The hosts dig into the impact of the media storm on Hunter and his children.

“The New York Post wrote, I think, 1.5 stories every day, every day about me for over 18 months.” — Hunter Biden [14:18]
“I don’t understand.” — Benny Blanco [14:27]
Weaponization of personal pain:

“Used as a weapon. The essence of evil is truly to just not see people as humans anymore.” — Benny Blanco [14:50]
On being a political target:

“They had to destroy him. And so how did they destroy him? They do it through his only living son… And by the way, I gave them a lot of fucking ammunition.” — Hunter Biden [10:48]
Media and AI-fueled disinformation:
Hunter and the hosts discuss how misinformation spreads online, exacerbated by algorithm-driven outrage and the looming disruption of AI.

“These motherfuckers are putting on algorithms… that were leading to suicide among teenage girls at an exponential rate… The biggest driver of engagement is conflict.” — Hunter Biden [30:25]

3. Politics, Partisanship, and the Loss of Common Ground

The sportification of politics:

“It’s become like a sport or a religion… the ability to move forward as humanity—we’ve just lost it.” — Benny Blanco [28:03]
The need for logic and humanity:

“I lean logic and humanity. At the end of the day, I’m always just blown away that… at least we have this person who’s the great opponent… Where’s the person?” — Dave Grohl [13:08]
Loss of shared reality:

“Now we’ve just lost the common thread of being able to decipher what’s unquestionably true or not, and add that wrinkle with the AI and the online shit… there’s just no common ground.” — Dave Grohl [60:00]
Power of the oligarchs:

“There’s literally like six of them… Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel… and they use all that data to feed us bullshit.” — Hunter Biden [61:18]

4. Public Life, Security, and the White House Experience

Secret Service and security realities:
Details about his brief period with Secret Service and how quickly it was revoked after negative online attention.

“The next day, the president canceled the Secret Service, which is fine.” — Hunter Biden [37:31]
A glimpse inside the White House:

“It’s the honor of your life… Every time I walked in, I just thought of all of the history and all of the weight of the legacy of being—the son of one of 46 people who had served this great experiment.” — Hunter Biden [23:15]

5. Family, Fatherhood, and Unconditional Love

On Joe Biden the Dad:

“My dad calls me every day. He always has… The lesson that is learned in the hardest way possible is that one day you pick up the phone and they’re not there.” — Hunter Biden [21:36]
The importance of connection:

“If you wanted to change the world, go home and love your family and your neighbors and your community, and that’s it.” — Hunter Biden [66:39]

6. Creativity and Healing through Art

Painting as therapy:

“What saved me was my art. I painted my whole life. I have over 100 finished paintings in my studio.” — Hunter Biden [21:21, 46:36]
Sharing art with the group:
Hunter gifts original paintings to the hosts; they discuss abstract art, creative expression, and letting go of perfectionism.

7. Humor, Freestyling and Signature Sitcom Energy

Lighthearted moments:
- Jokes about “modeling” and OnlyFans [01:14, 49:54]
- Dave Grohl’s “political” abstract painting, and the group’s playful debate about what makes art political [48:15]
- A group attempt at a freestyle/rap auto-tune jam about “getting in the streets,” politics, calling a Biden, and “down with the man” [64:08]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On fame and exposure:

”The coolest thing… I don’t have any secrets.” — Hunter Biden [06:56]
On public shame:

“You’re only as sick as your secrets.” — Hunter Biden [08:57]
Melissa on Hunter’s addiction:

“I have a really, really serious problem. I’m addicted to crack cocaine… She just looked at me and she said, ‘Well, that ends today.’” — Hunter Biden [16:53]
On being used as political bait:

“The essence of evil is truly to just not see people as humans anymore.” — Benny Blanco [14:50]
On changing the world:

“If you wanted to change the world, go home and love your family…” — Hunter Biden [66:39] “I think people are evil. I think we’re just so much better than this.” — Hunter Biden [55:08]
On politics and fact:

“Now we’ve just lost the common thread of being able to decipher what’s unquestionably true or not…” — Dave Grohl [60:00]
On AI and media:

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” — Hunter Biden [61:44]
Freestyle group jam:

“Get in the streets… Down with the man… If you need a friend, just call a Biden.” — Group [64:08]
Lighthearted art talk:

“Can I sway policy with this?” — Joe Rogan (accepting a painting from Hunter) [46:18]

Important Timestamps

00:10–05:45: Introductions, jokes, Hunter’s openness on shame and addiction
06:10–14:00: Addiction, public scrutiny, life after exposure, family impacts
14:26–18:00: Media obsession, children, the cost of public shaming
21:36–23:54: Joe as a father, daily calls, White House life
28:00–32:00: Politics as spectacle, AI and social media discussion
33:36–36:00: Propaganda and political targeting (espionage tactics)
42:14–44:59: Public confrontations, misinformation, being a villain
46:18–48:00: Hunter gifts paintings, discusses his art practice
56:47–58:16: Power and responsibility of creators/hosts
59:15–61:00: Dave’s view of politics, reality versus bullshit, vulnerability
64:08–65:10: Autotune jam, playful wrap-up
66:26–66:45: The power of love and moving forward

Final Thoughts

Despite the hosts’ initial reluctance to get “political,” the episode is both deeply human and refreshingly open. It’s as full of heart as of humor, offering rare authenticity from Hunter Biden and the entire cast. They end with a message about the importance of love, connection, and community as the foundation for real change—inviting listeners to look past the noise and meet each other with humanity.

For listeners seeking honest, unfiltered conversation about fame, vulnerability, and the intersection of public life and personal healing, this is a must-hear episode.

Loading summary

Transcript799 lines

[00:01]
Joe Rogan
Hunter Biden. Ooh, Hunter Biden.
[00:09]
Benny Blanco
He's always somebody you can confide in.
[00:14]
Dave Grohl
Been through a lot, seen a lot.
[00:18]
Hunter Biden
We love our friends.
[00:26]
Joe Rogan
We gotta get down to business. It's real, real presidential in here, right?
[00:33]
Benny Blanco
I mean, this is.
[00:33]
Joe Rogan
I can feel it. It's in the air.
[00:34]
Dave Grohl
He's not. He's not a president in any way.
[00:37]
Joe Rogan
I know, but he's not our first
[00:38]
Benny Blanco
step into the political realm.
[00:39]
Dave Grohl
This is not a political thing.
[00:41]
Joe Rogan
He's the closest we've ever been to a president on this show.
[00:44]
Dave Grohl
I think some of our guests are very like, what are you talking about? I guess he's an entree.
[00:52]
Joe Rogan
You're, like, always against us. You're supposed to be on our team.
[00:55]
Hunter Biden
He's laughing.
[00:56]
Dave Grohl
I don't even know that I want to get political. That's kind of why I'm saying just.
[00:59]
Hunter Biden
Whoa. Hello. Hey. Hey.
[01:04]
Joe Rogan
Wow. Dave.
[01:05]
Hunter Biden
Dave.
[01:05]
Dave Grohl
Oh, God, we're hugging.
[01:06]
Hunter Biden
I want to hug you.
[01:07]
Joe Rogan
I'm going in for a hug. Oh, I went under on wow.
[01:09]
Benny Blanco
That was.
[01:10]
Joe Rogan
Whoa, you strong back.
[01:11]
Hunter Biden
Politics is coming for you whether you like it or not.
[01:13]
Dave Grohl
We're talking way too politically.
[01:14]
Joe Rogan
You should model.
[01:15]
Hunter Biden
Are you saying I should do. Only fans. You want to talk about crack cocaine? I'll talk about crack cocaine. I have no shame. This is amazing.
[01:21]
Dave Grohl
Unbelievable.
[01:22]
Hunter Biden
What saved me was my art. Wow.
[01:24]
Benny Blanco
Your humanity.
[01:25]
Joe Rogan
What's up with the aliens?
[01:26]
Hunter Biden
Oh, yeah, they're real. Really?
[01:27]
Joe Rogan
You ever freestyled before?
[01:29]
Hunter Biden
No.
[01:29]
Joe Rogan
You want to try it?
[01:30]
Hunter Biden
Get in the street. Eats. He's the only person who's ever said,
[01:34]
Joe Rogan
I like, feel his back.
[01:36]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, I did a strong work out.
[01:38]
Benny Blanco
Your back?
[01:39]
Hunter Biden
No, but I paint like this.
[01:40]
Joe Rogan
You work out a lot?
[01:41]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, no, I work out. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I'm not enough to have a strong training for the cage fight with Don Jr. And. Yeah, tell us a little bit about this.
[01:51]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, tell us about this. You wanted it to happen, right?
[01:55]
Hunter Biden
Oh, my God. I'm 56 years old. I don't want you.
[01:57]
Joe Rogan
You look athletic, though.
[01:59]
Hunter Biden
Oh, thank you. Yeah, Yeah. I like these compliments.
[02:02]
Joe Rogan
You look like. You know what you look like? You look like a guy who'd be wearing a shirt like me, and it'd be rolled up and there'd be like a pack of cigarettes. Yeah, definitely.
[02:08]
Hunter Biden
A pack of marble.
[02:09]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
[02:10]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, exactly.
[02:11]
Joe Rogan
Exactly. You got great teeth. Are those your real teeth?
[02:14]
Hunter Biden
No, they're not my real teeth. Yeah?
[02:15]
Joe Rogan
When'd you get them?
[02:17]
Hunter Biden
After smoking too much crack for a long time.
[02:19]
Joe Rogan
Really?
[02:20]
Hunter Biden
No, it wasn't. I mean, you know, I Got. I had caps. I knocked two of my teeth out when I was, you know, playing football.
[02:26]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[02:27]
Dave Grohl
A lot of people have veneers.
[02:28]
Hunter Biden
One dentist told me that. It is like I grew up on well water, so I didn't have enough fluoride in the water.
[02:38]
Dave Grohl
We're talking way too politically.
[02:40]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, yeah.
[02:41]
Joe Rogan
You know, I wanted him to slick his hair. I wanted him to slick his hair back.
[02:45]
Hunter Biden
Which, by the way, according to rfk, is like, you know, is turning people into.
[02:50]
Dave Grohl
What's up with that? Too much political.
[02:52]
Joe Rogan
Can I say one thing? Just. I know.
[02:54]
Dave Grohl
I'm joking.
[02:54]
Joe Rogan
Taking all political. I don't know enough about politics.
[02:59]
Hunter Biden
He is truly insane. He's like an amateur taxidermist. And there's all of these stories, like how he took a bear. There's this one story. He found a dead baby bear. True story. And he, like, hiking in the mountains in the Catskills or something. And I don't know exactly where it was. He put it in the back of his car. Okay. And he came up with this brilliant idea, is that he took the bear with a bicycle and he hid it in Central Park. Okay. And the joke was supposed to be, according to the person that did it with them, is that there was a bear bicycling in Central park and it fell off into the bushes. Okay. Where you come up with the fucking joke? I don't know. Yeah, exactly. Somebody finds the bear, and the world goes crazy. It's on the front page of the New York Times. It's like every. This is like, 25 years ago.
[03:49]
Benny Blanco
Because they thought the bear was really bicycling.
[03:51]
Hunter Biden
No. So they thought a bear had gotten into Central Park.
[03:54]
Benny Blanco
That makes more sense.
[03:55]
Hunter Biden
And so, like, all of the animal control and anim. Welfare and everybody got involved, and it became like this national thing, and he literally. And so then they wanted to prosecute the person that had brought the bear into it. And supposedly they got it, like, swept under the rug. And nobody heard about it until someone came and told the story.
[04:14]
Benny Blanco
I have so many questions.
[04:14]
Joe Rogan
Are you telling the world right now? Is this breaking news?
[04:16]
Hunter Biden
No, no, no, no, no.
[04:17]
Dave Grohl
I don't even know what's true or not.
[04:18]
Hunter Biden
What part. Anything in life that is all true. No.
[04:22]
Joe Rogan
Yeah, but how do we know? Yeah, you know, that's what. Cause I'm sure you're. And me all the time. There's things written about me constantly online, and I don't read anything, so I don't know. But occasionally they come across my desk and, like, cozy.
[04:38]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. Do you have sugar?
[04:39]
Dave Grohl
Yeah, we have this oat milk that
[04:42]
Hunter Biden
we're not paid by, but we just update. You're not paid by it? No, they're not paid by it. Do you have some kind of sweetener, like honey?
[04:50]
Joe Rogan
That sweetener right there?
[04:51]
Dave Grohl
Let me tell you about this.
[04:53]
Joe Rogan
Yes. Does that say simple syrup? I think that's simple syrup.
[04:57]
Benny Blanco
It's always embarrassing when I have to open our cupboards or our fridge and I have. And I don't know what to do.
[05:01]
Hunter Biden
I'm allowed to move around.
[05:02]
Benny Blanco
Yeah, you can move.
[05:03]
Dave Grohl
Yeah, you can move.
[05:03]
Joe Rogan
No, you can't move. That's your spot.
[05:05]
Dave Grohl
I want you. Mikasa soup.
[05:06]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, perfect.
[05:07]
Benny Blanco
We might actually have sugar syrup.
[05:10]
Joe Rogan
You can sit inside the sink.
[05:11]
Hunter Biden
You can do anything you want to stay out of the sink.
[05:13]
Benny Blanco
I have a weird habit of not being able to fill the coffee on top.
[05:16]
Hunter Biden
This is perfect. Yeah.
[05:17]
Joe Rogan
Whoa, that's a lot of sugar. Stop.
[05:19]
Benny Blanco
I'm going to copy you.
[05:20]
Hunter Biden
Literally. You know, my last addiction is coffee with a little sugar. The worst drug in the world, by any measure, by the destruction that it does by anything, is alcohol. Fuck, yeah. And, yeah, I know you're screwed, and it really is. And so, like, I was drinking, like, a gallon of vodka a day while I was smoking crack, like, every 15 minutes.
[05:44]
Joe Rogan
What's the best drug in the world?
[05:46]
Hunter Biden
The best drug in the world. You know, that's the thing. Honest answer to the question. Is that the one thing about drugs, everybody goes like, why did you smoke crack? And, like, because it worked really well. It solved the problem, which was not to be in myself. And there was no faster way to get out of yourself, at least at the beginning, you know, than that.
[06:07]
Benny Blanco
Do you feel that as a society, like, just as, like, a species of humans, that we just don't do a good job and, like, helping addiction? Like, I just can't figure out why.
[06:16]
Hunter Biden
That's awful. I think it's 36 million people in America that are either in active addiction or in recovery. Yeah, so what? That's one out of every ten people. There's not. Like, I just did that Andrew Callahan thing, you know, the carnival tour, and I had people ask the question, like, are you yourself? Or by one degree of separation, know someone that is in recovery or in active addiction that, like, it has impacted your life in a big way? Someone you love or, you know, yourself? Every single hand goes up. Yeah, every single hand. And one of the beautiful things about what they did to me in, like, exposing everything about my life is that, like, I don't have any secrets. You Want to talk about crack cocaine? I'll talk about crack cocaine. You want to talk about. I have no shame over any of it.
[07:03]
Dave Grohl
Have you always been that way?
[07:05]
Hunter Biden
Oh, no, no.
[07:07]
Dave Grohl
I don't really know. First off, I don't even know if it's offensive to say that you're a political person.
[07:11]
Hunter Biden
Oh, not at all.
[07:13]
Dave Grohl
But I don't really know much about.
[07:14]
Hunter Biden
I'm politically interested.
[07:15]
Joe Rogan
But I have to know one thing.
[07:18]
Dave Grohl
What about what I was saying.
[07:19]
Joe Rogan
Because this goes with that. And then you get to say it right after. Just because he was just saying it. Just because he was saying.
[07:24]
Dave Grohl
This is what my mother said. He's exactly what my mother said.
[07:26]
Benny Blanco
He was just saying, this is our first day.
[07:28]
Joe Rogan
He was just. He was just saying it.
[07:30]
Dave Grohl
I'm sure you're right. Globally, go.
[07:31]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[07:32]
Joe Rogan
And you kind of stopped when you asked me.
[07:34]
Dave Grohl
I gave you the footage.
[07:35]
Joe Rogan
So do you feel like when all that stuff came out about you, it, like, finally set you free?
[07:41]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. Yeah.
[07:43]
Joe Rogan
That's all I wanted to ask.
[07:44]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. No, I. Look, the coolest thing about. Cool isn't the right word, but I get the sentiment.
[07:55]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[07:55]
Dave Grohl
The best.
[07:58]
Hunter Biden
The thing about the last seven years is that, number one, I've been sober since June 1st of 2019.
[08:07]
Benny Blanco
Congrats.
[08:07]
Dave Grohl
Very cool.
[08:08]
Hunter Biden
But regardless, is that is was hell. Like, I would never, ever wish the. The global exposure. They stole my digital footprint of 25 years. Every voicemail, literally every voicemail, every. Every text message, every picture, every. All of it.
[08:34]
Joe Rogan
How is that not illegal?
[08:35]
Hunter Biden
It's. It is.
[08:36]
Benny Blanco
It's.
[08:36]
Hunter Biden
It's, like, patently illegal. It's, like the biggest. You know, like the. The one thing that keeps you, like, trapped in your. In your addiction and sometimes not even addiction, and the patterns in your life which don't allow you to, like, you know, flourish and be the person you want to be is shame.
[08:57]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[08:57]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[08:58]
Hunter Biden
And there's a saying in the program which is, you know, you're only as sick as your secrets. And the thing about the cycle of shame is that you have this secret. Like, for instance, like, I smoke crack. Like, it's one thing to go back to your family and say I use cocaine and I need to go away to take care of that. It's another thing to say, I have been living in motel rooms on I95 in, you know, West. You know, Hampton, Connecticut.
[09:25]
Benny Blanco
All the eyes on you, which you.
[09:27]
Dave Grohl
Beyond just your family.
[09:28]
Hunter Biden
Oh, yeah.
[09:29]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[09:29]
Hunter Biden
I mean, much more so when that happened is like, it's the most liberating thing that you can imagine. If. If you survive it?
[09:40]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[09:40]
Benny Blanco
Weren't you ever, like, why do they care about me? Like, why are you. Is it just because. Is it just the political nature of, like, you being adjacent to your dad?
[09:49]
Dave Grohl
Yes.
[09:50]
Hunter Biden
And so that the. The. I didn't ask that because I knew exactly what they were doing. It didn't. Nobody, at the end of the day, nobody does care about me, you know what I mean? Except the people that I. That I hope care about.
[10:01]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[10:02]
Hunter Biden
Because I've never been in elected office. I've never attempted to run for anything. I don't. You know, I'm. I'm not serving in an administration or any of that stuff. It was all about power. Right. When he was elected, my brother, my dad. I mean, excuse me, my brother, myself, my sister and my mom were in a car, and. And they both died. My brother and I spent, like, two months in the hospital. And so in that period of time, he had made a commitment. He didn't want to go to the Senate, but he got sworn in when he turned 30, and he had made a commitment that he would never buy a stock or a bond. There is no two people that are more different, literally, in the world than Joe Biden and Donald Trump. So they had to destroy him. And so how did they destroy him? They do it through his only living son. My brother had just died, and so they just like. And by the way, I gave him a lot of fucking ammunition.
[11:00]
Dave Grohl
Oh, man. Yeah.
[11:01]
Hunter Biden
I mean, you know, and. But they stole a lot of ammunition. It doesn't make it right that you, like, you create. And then they created all of these narratives that had nothing to do. You know, they spent seven years investigating me because they had come up with these conspiracies that I had taken a $10 million bribe from a Ukrainian company and that I being bought by the Chinese and that I, you know, like, they had all of these things. And what they came up with after seven years is that in. When I was in the. The thick of my addiction, I hadn't filed my taxes on time. And when I figured out I didn't file my taxes on time, I went to the irs. As soon as I got sober, I went to the irs.
[11:42]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[11:43]
Hunter Biden
Took a loan and. And paid all my back taxes.
[11:45]
Benny Blanco
But you were also in the throes of addiction, wasn't it?
[11:47]
Hunter Biden
Well, yeah, which is usually 100%. You do an audit, and then you come up with a payment plan with the irs. All of the other stu. That they investigated for seven years, not a single thing, like the laptop, the Laptop literally proves nothing other than I had a really, really, really wild time for a two year period. And it's well documented. Yeah.
[12:05]
Dave Grohl
Like 10 years ago, not seven years ago, like 12 years ago.
[12:09]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[12:09]
Dave Grohl
Were you living life thinking, not even thinking about this stuff or were you always like, a little bit like the way, you know, just thinking, you know, my father is a prominent figure. My behavior might be under more scrutiny or did this totally blindside, you know?
[12:23]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[12:24]
Hunter Biden
You know. No, I mean. Oh, the scrutiny, like as you're doing it or before you. The volume and the vitriol of it, the cruelty of it blindsided me. Because the one thing like, about politics is this is. Everybody says to me, you must be used to this. I've been. My dad's been a national figure since I was 2 years old. Never ever in the 54 years since then has it ever been like this.
[12:53]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[12:53]
Hunter Biden
Ever. The cruelty, that level of vitriol, that level of like, if you don't agree with me, then you are evil.
[13:01]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[13:02]
Hunter Biden
Is staggering.
[13:05]
Dave Grohl
Why don't the. I don't know a lot about politics. My parents are Democrats.
[13:08]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[13:08]
Dave Grohl
I have a feeling when I look at all the facts, I would lean Democrat, but really I lean logic and humanity. At the end of the day, I'm always just blown away that I can't look at the Democratic side of the thing and be like, well, at least we have this person who's like the great opponent to what's happening over here. I feel like, where's the person?
[13:24]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, well, this.
[13:26]
Dave Grohl
Could it be Benny?
[13:27]
Hunter Biden
Benny? It could be Benny. Could it be you? Yeah. Could it be me? Hunter, 28, right after the cage match,
[13:35]
Joe Rogan
there's a few things I have to know. How did it feel going through that with your kids?
[13:42]
Hunter Biden
I mean, I love my girls more than anything in the world. And I have a little six year old Bowie now, too, and named after my brother. And the thing that is the most important to me was the constant of that. I didn't think about it, like, woe is me, like I'm being exposed for all of these things. What I thought about is, like, my daughters in high school and college that were, that were that you know, their friends coming up to them, you know, every 30 seconds. I mean, the New York Post wrote, I think, 1.5 stories every day, every day about me for over 18 months. Oh, my God.
[14:27]
Joe Rogan
Do you know where you.
[14:27]
Benny Blanco
I don't understand.
[14:28]
Hunter Biden
Every day.
[14:28]
Benny Blanco
That's so.
[14:29]
Hunter Biden
And that doesn't include the Daily Mail, which did the same thing.
[14:32]
Benny Blanco
They really fixated on you.
[14:33]
Hunter Biden
I was on the COVID of the New York Post more times than anyone in the history of the paper in a one year period of time.
[14:40]
Benny Blanco
Addiction and all of this stuff impacts so many people and it really impacts the families. And I feel like then to have it just be used as this kind of bait in a. Which.
[14:50]
Hunter Biden
Used as a weapon.
[14:51]
Benny Blanco
Yeah, used as a weapon. The essence of evil is truly to just not see people as humans anymore. And I feel like what was happening
[14:58]
Hunter Biden
to you is in my opinion, the definition. Yes.
[15:01]
Benny Blanco
Do you why I stole. I stole that from David Brooks.
[15:04]
Hunter Biden
Do you remember David? It's the truth.
[15:05]
Dave Grohl
Stay in this conversation.
[15:07]
Benny Blanco
No, you can say it, Benny.
[15:08]
Hunter Biden
Oh, that was about you. Keep going.
[15:13]
Benny Blanco
We're working hard on it today.
[15:15]
Joe Rogan
The two of you.
[15:16]
Hunter Biden
No, but I. But, but, but to your point, Benny, the, the, the thing that was the hardest is that, that thought, you know, like those negative thoughts you get in your mind. I. Look what I was able to do because it all came like, crashing down right when I met Melissa. Melissa and I like, met by chance. I moved out to la. Didn't tell anybody where I was in my family.
[15:43]
Benny Blanco
Wow.
[15:43]
Hunter Biden
And I planned to disappear. Like I. One way or another, I was going to disappear. And I didn't have. The truth is I just didn't have the courage to do it the fast way. Yeah.
[15:52]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[15:53]
Hunter Biden
And so I was living from hotel room to hotel room until I'd run out of money and I'd go to a motel and then I'd be in my car and then I'd figure out how to get more money and then I'd be back. And so I was like surfing around every, every part of LA county and, and I was at this place and someone said, you should meet a friend. Anyway, I ended up somehow walk into. I been on an actual date with a civilian in 23 years, and I walk into a restaurant and this woman had agreed to meet me. I sat down, I literally came in and I looked at her. I almost did. I looked her in the eyes and I said, I know this isn't the way to start a date, but I love you. No, you did? Yeah.
[16:45]
Dave Grohl
Oh my God.
[16:46]
Joe Rogan
You said that the first.
[16:47]
Dave Grohl
That was the first.
[16:48]
Joe Rogan
Were you sober?
[16:49]
Hunter Biden
First thing I ever said to her. Are you sober?
[16:51]
Dave Grohl
That's ridiculous.
[16:51]
Joe Rogan
You were on drugs.
[16:52]
Hunter Biden
No.
[16:52]
Dave Grohl
Do you think it's ridiculous?
[16:53]
Hunter Biden
I was constantly on drugs, but it was the first sober thought I had. I looked and I said, like, listen, I have to tell you the truth. I have a really, really serious problem. I'm Addicted to crack cocaine. And when you say crack cocaine to anybody, stigma the tape that plays in their head. And understandably. And she just looked at me and she said, well, that ends today. I swear to God.
[17:18]
Dave Grohl
What a response.
[17:19]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. I want to cry. And then 10 days later, we got married.
[17:23]
Dave Grohl
No, that's crazy.
[17:24]
Hunter Biden
It was. And I. Look, if my. If any of my friends came to me, said, look, I've been smoking crack for the last two years, but I met this great girl and we just got married.
[17:34]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[17:35]
Hunter Biden
And I would be like, you got to go back to what you have. I mean, if my daughter did that to me, I would panic and die. But it was literally change your life. But it was one of those moments that, like, I truly believe that it was whatever you believe in, like a higher power, God or whatever. It was, at least for me then the real ride began for Melissa, but at least for me was the most mystical, magical moment in life, because it saved my life.
[18:09]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[18:10]
Hunter Biden
And not that my parents. Not that my dad didn't call me every day that I was out there. Not that my daughters didn't, like, laid themselves across train tracks for me, is that I had to hear it. I looked at her, and what I saw was someone that loved me for all of me, like, knowing everything and that, like, that unbiased. My dad is the definition of unconditional love, but the unbiased, unconditional love from a stranger, like, I saw myself finally. Yeah. And I was ready to forgive myself, man.
[18:43]
Joe Rogan
And then, you know, they always say it's just like, you can't, you know, having addiction in my family a lot, you can't help someone until they're ready to help themselves.
[18:53]
Hunter Biden
You can't love them out of it.
[18:54]
Joe Rogan
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how much you love them, how much tough love doesn't matter. They have to turn that switch in their head.
[18:59]
Benny Blanco
Do you feel like it's taught you, like, new things about humanity within yourself that, like, has given you, like, moving forward in life? Are you, like, had I not. I'm not saying that was a good thing, but had I not experienced all of these things, I wouldn't be the whole or person that I am today.
[19:14]
Hunter Biden
100%. That trial by fire, if you survive it and you can survive it through love and, like, kindness and connection becomes the most powerful thing in the world. So I don't give a shit what anybody other than the people that I. That I respect care, because you can't. Like you. Well, look, you guys know that, especially him. If you read the comments.
[19:41]
Dave Grohl
Especially him.
[19:42]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, but literally, if you read the. No. Oh, by the way, though. Yeah, I mean, read the. Yeah. Not that I've been reading the comments about you.
[19:50]
Joe Rogan
I don't read the comments.
[19:51]
Hunter Biden
Exactly. Mm.
[19:53]
Dave Grohl
KFC Box Feast.
[19:55]
Joe Rogan
Chuck, I can't let you have one more bite. Cause I gotta say something.
[19:58]
Dave Grohl
Well, hurry up.
[19:59]
Hunter Biden
Daddy's gonna eat.
[20:01]
Joe Rogan
The Colonel didn't do the math. He did the chicken. I mean, it's the only way we can explain this irrational amount of food. Mm. Look how much food this is.
[20:09]
Dave Grohl
7.
[20:10]
Benny Blanco
9. 11.
[20:11]
Dave Grohl
For $11, I have chicken fingers, a thick beef sandwich and fries. And a drink that's not in hand, but it exists.
[20:20]
Joe Rogan
You can have Pepsi, zero sugar, the Colonel's signature lemonade.
[20:25]
Dave Grohl
Yeah, we don't have to.
[20:25]
Joe Rogan
Sweet light.
[20:26]
Dave Grohl
We don't have to name all the drinks. Time to feast at kfc. Prices and participation may vary. Tax tip and fees.
[20:31]
Benny Blanco
Extra sweet Lightning peaches.
[20:33]
Hunter Biden
Mmm.
[20:35]
Dave Grohl
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.
[20:37]
Benny Blanco
Benny, how has therapy helped you maintain your mental health?
[20:42]
Joe Rogan
I mean, I'm nothing without my therapist. He's basically like a father to me. He's like another family member, except with. Without a biased opinion. And he helps me get through everything I need. Sometimes I come in and I feel like I know the answer. Sometimes I come in and I'm like a vase broken into a million pieces, and he helps put me together.
[21:04]
Dave Grohl
Vase? What vase?
[21:07]
Joe Rogan
Oh, it's not a vase.
[21:08]
Benny Blanco
I think it can be a vase, but it could also be a vase. But it could also be something that
[21:11]
Joe Rogan
you talk to your therapist about your mental health matters. Sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com FKS that's betterhelp.com FKS now we're cooking. Therapy's important. My first question, but then I have a string, is your dad was running for president and still talking to you. He's like the busiest man alive.
[21:36]
Hunter Biden
Literally the busiest man. My dad calls me every day. Obviously, he'll miss a day every once in a while, but he calls me every day. And he always has. And he did with my brother and my sister and now all my kids. He will text or call each one of them every day.
[21:55]
Dave Grohl
That's sweet.
[21:55]
Hunter Biden
And it comes from. Is the. The lesson that is learned in the hardest way possible is that one day you pick up the phone and they're not there.
[22:08]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[22:10]
Hunter Biden
And so, like, on his part, he thinks there's a selfish part. You know what that does? You literally. I promise you, I probably know of at least 100 people, mainly kids that suffered with stuttering. That my dad picks up the phone and calls once a month.
[22:30]
Dave Grohl
That's amazing.
[22:31]
Benny Blanco
You have a sweetness in your soul. I feel like your whole family. Dad has a too. Like, there's such a sweetness in this soul. Like, you truly are a good. Like, you just have a warmth.
[22:42]
Hunter Biden
My dad worked literally 16 hours a day every single day that he was in the White House.
[22:47]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[22:47]
Joe Rogan
What happens if you guys are on, like, vacation?
[22:50]
Hunter Biden
As a president, you don't go on vacation.
[22:52]
Joe Rogan
Are you at, like, every time you're at dinner or something? Like, at any moment, like, everything's the most important thing in the world.
[23:00]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. Particularly in the White House. When he was vice president, you had a little bit of. At least a sense of being able to remove yourself a little bit.
[23:12]
Benny Blanco
But what's that White House like? Is it even cozy in there? Like, is it fun to go there?
[23:16]
Hunter Biden
It's the honor of your life. Every time I walked in, I just thought of all of the history and all of the weight of the legacy of being. Being the son of one of 46 people who had served this great experiment, this incredible experiment that is. I worry about every day.
[23:35]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[23:35]
Hunter Biden
And so when you walk in. But it's a prison for, you know, I mean, like, it's like people have
[23:41]
Dave Grohl
to work there, right?
[23:42]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[23:42]
Hunter Biden
Oh, yeah. It's fully working. And like your freedom of movement and, you know, it's not like you can. Anyway. It was like an honor. It's beautiful and it's really cool.
[23:55]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[23:56]
Dave Grohl
You're saying because of the history and it's basically like an art exhibit.
[23:59]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[24:00]
Dave Grohl
You just.
[24:00]
Hunter Biden
Your behavior is very.
[24:02]
Dave Grohl
You can't.
[24:02]
Hunter Biden
It'd be like living in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame with guards around it. You know what I mean?
[24:07]
Joe Rogan
What's up? What's up with the aliens? You know, anything.
[24:10]
Hunter Biden
Oh, yeah. They're real, you know.
[24:12]
Joe Rogan
Are they cake?
[24:12]
Hunter Biden
No. Just from my own personal experience.
[24:15]
Joe Rogan
They're not cake. Right.
[24:16]
Hunter Biden
They're real.
[24:16]
Joe Rogan
Right.
[24:17]
Hunter Biden
Cake birds aren't real, but aliens are. Definitely.
[24:22]
Dave Grohl
You don't know anything for real about aliens, do you?
[24:24]
Hunter Biden
No, I don't. No. By the way, and I've asked.
[24:27]
Benny Blanco
You don't want your dad even tell you. There's some things he just can't tell you, right?
[24:30]
Hunter Biden
Oh, yeah. He couldn't. But I know my dad now for 56 years.
[24:35]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[24:35]
Hunter Biden
And they can look. Do the Larry David thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[24:40]
Joe Rogan
Like, do you get.
[24:41]
Hunter Biden
When you're like, I'd be able to get it out.
[24:43]
Joe Rogan
Does your family do you guys get. When you come in, like, does everyone get told secrets or. No, just the president.
[24:49]
Hunter Biden
No, just the president.
[24:50]
Joe Rogan
You don't get. Of course they're not like, hey, Hunter, come here. They're like. They don't give you three or four.
[24:56]
Benny Blanco
What's your biggest secret?
[24:57]
Hunter Biden
When we turn off the cameras, I'll tell you.
[24:59]
Joe Rogan
You got a few secrets.
[25:00]
Dave Grohl
Was there ever a moment when he became president and he said, can you believe it, kid? We did it.
[25:08]
Hunter Biden
You know, it was a really, really. That's a good question, actually.
[25:14]
Dave Grohl
Thank you.
[25:14]
Hunter Biden
I think it's all good question. But the. But this one particularly, it was really. I'm just trying to keep the competition stoked here. Yeah, yeah, please. It was bittersweet. And the biggest reason, because my brother wasn't there.
[25:30]
Joe Rogan
Damn.
[25:30]
Hunter Biden
You know, and my brother and I were a year and a day apart, and, you know, I don't think my dad would have run for president if my brother had lived, because I think that my brother would have run for president. And my mother made him promise that he would run right before he died. And so anyway. But it was bittersweet in that sense. But it was like. Yeah, but you feel the weight of it. Unless you're, you know, Unless you're.
[26:00]
Joe Rogan
So your dad. Your dad. You're telling me. When he was vice president, he wasn't like, oh, one day, I want to be president.
[26:06]
Hunter Biden
Oh, no, he wanted to be. My dad ran for president in 1988. I doubt you didn't know.
[26:12]
Joe Rogan
No, no, I didn't know.
[26:14]
Dave Grohl
I didn't know.
[26:14]
Hunter Biden
Wait, wait. So your.
[26:15]
Joe Rogan
Your father ran for president twice before? Twice before that.
[26:18]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. So he dropped out of the race before the first primary in 1988, and then in 2008, against. That's when it was the big race was Hillary and Obama. Oh, yeah. And then President Obama picked him to be his vice president. Yeah. And then. And then my brother died in 2015, so he didn't get into the race against Hillary at that time.
[26:40]
Joe Rogan
Okay.
[26:40]
Hunter Biden
And then my brother literally made him promise that he would run again. And so 2020.
[26:49]
Joe Rogan
Isn't Obama so cool?
[26:51]
Hunter Biden
He's so cool. He is, like, beyond cool.
[26:56]
Joe Rogan
I mean, she really blew me away. Michelle blew me away.
[26:59]
Hunter Biden
She is a better public speaker and smarter.
[27:05]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. It's unbelievable.
[27:07]
Hunter Biden
I really mean it. It's unbelievable. I think the president would tell you that, too. I mean, she is an extraordinary speaker and an extraordinary smart person.
[27:16]
Dave Grohl
Not to put any pressure on you, but. But that's the one person I look at where I'm like if that person ran.
[27:20]
Joe Rogan
Oh my God.
[27:21]
Dave Grohl
But I guess she probably just doesn't want the life.
[27:23]
Hunter Biden
It's a lifestyle.
[27:24]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[27:24]
Hunter Biden
Who knows? She would be so good.
[27:26]
Joe Rogan
I was gonna say, you think if Taylor Swift ran for president, she would become the president?
[27:30]
Hunter Biden
I think that if Taylor Swift put her mind to anything, she would, she
[27:34]
Dave Grohl
would definitely be the president.
[27:35]
Hunter Biden
Being president is really hard.
[27:37]
Joe Rogan
It sucks.
[27:38]
Dave Grohl
Yeah, Yeah.
[27:38]
Hunter Biden
I mean, like, really hard. And that was a six term United States Senator, the longest serving chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He knew every single world leader, not just because he met him once, but he met him dozens and dozens of times. They all came up. He was vice president.
[27:52]
Joe Rogan
That's crazy.
[27:52]
Hunter Biden
So when he got to the White House, the thing that people like, the way that it ended as compared to how it went are just like miles apart.
[28:01]
Dave Grohl
I don't want to get political.
[28:02]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[28:03]
Benny Blanco
Here's my biggest beef with. This is just the thing with politics, which is, I think it's so unfortunate, is like it has become, it's become like a sport or like a religion. Like, I feel like we have kind of lost the ability to move forward just as humanity. We have to like all just hold hands.
[28:21]
Hunter Biden
So again, what's the upside of what's happening right now? Money is that we are in money. The upside is that in the only time in my experience that you get like the truly necessary change, the motivation, the catalyst for change is through like severe catastrophe. Trauma.
[28:48]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[28:48]
Hunter Biden
You know what I mean? And we're going through severe trauma as a country right now.
[28:51]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[28:52]
Hunter Biden
Because really, I mean it like your point, like, where is the leadership on the Democratic side? Where is the leadership for the people that used to be normal Republicans? I mean, I'd take Mitt Romney in like two seconds right now. I would take George Bush again if I could get him back to run. But the truth of the matter is, is in your industry, in what you guys do, what AI is about to come with, AI not in six years, in the next six months, is going to radically, radically alter everything. As a, you know, as a former lawyer, like, the profession of law is virtually gone. As a, I mean it just go down industry to industry. And I don't see that as a inherently bad thing.
[29:34]
Benny Blanco
Yeah, me either.
[29:35]
Hunter Biden
If you have leadership to like lift us out of it.
[29:38]
Benny Blanco
Do you think though, do you think it's also just a product? Like, I feel like one of the, like one of the bad things is what social media and like they say we're like in a loneliness epidemic and that people like connect with each other on social media, and it kind of creates more of communities. Like, don't you think that's also fueling so much of where we are today in politics?
[29:58]
Hunter Biden
I think it 100% is. And it's not just that. Like. And that's not. I think people talk about it, like David Brooks writes about it, like you said, and he talks about that idea of the loss of a community, that people are on their phones and on their computers rather than going to the bowling alley kind of thing. And that's all true. But sometimes I feel like writers and people that speak about it, like, put the onus on us.
[30:24]
Benny Blanco
Yeah, okay, I see what you're saying. Yeah.
[30:26]
Hunter Biden
Here's the deal. These motherfuckers. These motherfuckers are putting on algorithms. I'm sorry.
[30:32]
Benny Blanco
I know I do.
[30:34]
Hunter Biden
They are. They are instituting algorithms on social media sites, whether it's Instagram or TikTok or others that we know for certain because of congressional testimony, were leading to suicide among teenage girls at an exponential rate. And they refuse to take them down because it makes them money. So you don't think that one of the biggest drivers. The biggest driver of engagement content were they putting out of engagement is. It's conflict. And so it's like. So what do you get on your algorithm is that we're constantly at each other's throats, that we all disagree, that there's no way that we're gonna come together.
[31:14]
Benny Blanco
Entertainment.
[31:15]
Joe Rogan
I just. Speaking about all this entertainment scandal stuff.
[31:17]
Benny Blanco
Yeah. Politics has turned into entertainment.
[31:21]
Joe Rogan
I wanna know. Son, this just is a great segue for me. I need to know your thought. Tell me about the Epstein files, like, right now. Could you know them all? Cause somehow everyone was talking about it. Now no one's talking about it anymore.
[31:33]
Benny Blanco
Yeah, people are still talking about it, right?
[31:35]
Joe Rogan
No, it's like a ghost town.
[31:37]
Benny Blanco
Yeah, I'm not online.
[31:38]
Hunter Biden
You're still talking about it. I will. The only. Look, I'm not an expert on the Epstein files, okay? I have no idea because I already got sued for a billion dollars by Melania.
[31:50]
Benny Blanco
A billion.
[31:50]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. Well, she. Yeah, a billion. Like, by the way, I don't have two nickels to rub together, let alone a billion dollars. But the.
[31:56]
Dave Grohl
The sued for a billion dollars.
[31:58]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, well, she sent me a cease and desist letter and said that they were gonna sue for a billion dollars.
[32:02]
Benny Blanco
You sue people for whatever amount of money you want.
[32:05]
Joe Rogan
You can do whatever you want.
[32:05]
Dave Grohl
That's America's.
[32:06]
Joe Rogan
Wait, so you're. So you're not. So you you have nowhere. You have never been in the Epstein files. Nothing at all?
[32:11]
Hunter Biden
No. Yes. Well, supposedly somebody said that there was like a news alert. You know what I mean? She had like a news alert.
[32:17]
Joe Rogan
So you like. Yeah. You never did. You just did bad stuff with like,
[32:22]
Hunter Biden
with like prostitutes and stuff of aged women.
[32:26]
Joe Rogan
Okay, so you're.
[32:27]
Hunter Biden
Most of them were dancers, but yeah. Yeah. By the way, can you imagine if this was a woman and they were showing naked pictures of Ivanka in a motel room over and over and over again. Marjorie Taylor Greene held up a life size cardboard in the middle of a congressional hearing of me in bed naked with a woman.
[32:49]
Benny Blanco
But why? Just to be like, this is my son.
[32:52]
Joe Rogan
They were using him as a haunt, what I'm saying.
[32:54]
Benny Blanco
But this is. There's a simplicity to all of it. It's just like you have nothing to do with it.
[32:59]
Joe Rogan
It's all enter.
[33:00]
Hunter Biden
Think about what it does in the back of your head. Well, I know if son was able to do that, what does it mean about him?
[33:06]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[33:06]
Joe Rogan
Yes.
[33:06]
Hunter Biden
And so there's this thing and it's called House of Cards.
[33:10]
Joe Rogan
It's why they don't. It's why they don't do this. It's why in certain juries, like if you're going to be a juror, you can't have seen. They don't let you see what's happening online and stuff because you can get swayed. Public perception is reality. So if they say this stuff about him and you're. Let's say you're going to the polls and you say Biden. I've heard that name in the press. Oh, that's that guy who did what his ads running.
[33:34]
Dave Grohl
Actually in today's age of AI proliferation.
[33:36]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. So there's a term in espionage and that comes out of propaganda. It's called eliminationist rhetoric. And what eliminationist rhetoric was started by the Nazis as like deployed as a propaganda tool. And then Putin picked it up. And what they would do, literally there's a picture like a playbook is the first thing that they would do is they would pick their target and they would accuse them of pedophilia because there's literally no crime worse that you could accuse somebody of than pedophilia. And then they would say they're starting an investigation. Okay. And there wouldn't be any pedophilia. The guy would go like, you know, like, what are you talking about?
[34:18]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[34:19]
Hunter Biden
But then when they accused that person of bribery, you know, maybe only 10% of the electorate or the population believed that that person was capable of pedophilia, but now 60% believe that he could have been a criminal in some other respect. So remember, the first thing they did when they said that they found a laptop is Rudy Giuliani and Bernie Kerik walked to the New Castle county courthouse and stood out in front of the courthouse holding a laptop, which was not. There was no laptop that they had holding a laptop. And say that there was inappropriate pictures of me with underage children in it.
[35:00]
Benny Blanco
Oh, I see. Okay. So I see.
[35:02]
Hunter Biden
Then the New York Post Ramadans. Yeah.
[35:03]
Dave Grohl
These are politics
[35:06]
Benny Blanco
during what, years?
[35:08]
Hunter Biden
This is two weeks before the election in 2020.
[35:11]
Joe Rogan
If.
[35:11]
Benny Blanco
Where was I?
[35:12]
Joe Rogan
If AI was big right now, would you have been like, oh, that's AI.
[35:16]
Hunter Biden
Oh, by the way? Well, some of the pictures of me were really good.
[35:20]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. But would you have just been like, we could be drinking anything. It could be an unhealthy soda. It could be disgusting. It could be tearing our insides apart. Or what we could be doing, just drinking all, eating up, getting all the same feelings of a soda, but just having a healthy alternative.
[35:40]
Hunter Biden
It makes me feel good.
[35:41]
Joe Rogan
It makes me feel good.
[35:42]
Benny Blanco
That's why I think it's good that they're making you feel good.
[35:44]
Dave Grohl
Yeah, I like the taste, but it makes me feel good, too.
[35:46]
Benny Blanco
I think that's great. You're doing a good job.
[35:49]
Joe Rogan
Buy any two cans of Olipop in store and they'll pay for you, and
[35:53]
Dave Grohl
they'll pay you back for one. Any flavor, any retailer. Go to drinkalipop.comfks when you need a new mattress, what do you do? I used to go store to store and lie on the thing, but now I go on this website that Helix has and I take a quiz and I really get all this thoughtful about exactly what type of mattress I should use. And I actually have a Helix.
[36:12]
Benny Blanco
It's way more efficient to do it this way.
[36:14]
Joe Rogan
Are you telling me we've been sleeping on Helix that I can rid myself of back pain and overheating?
[36:21]
Benny Blanco
You can get to a better place in life.
[36:23]
Hunter Biden
Where do I go for this sleep quiz?
[36:25]
Dave Grohl
Go to helixsleep.com fks for 20% off site wide. That's helixsleep.com fksfor 20% off site wide.
[36:33]
Benny Blanco
And this is important. After you check out enter fks so they know that we sent you because we did.
[36:37]
Joe Rogan
We sent you. We're sending you right now.
[36:40]
Dave Grohl
Elexsleep.comfks how does the secret service work?
[36:45]
Joe Rogan
Do you guys just have it for life?
[36:46]
Hunter Biden
No, no, no.
[36:47]
Joe Rogan
You don't I thought you have it for life.
[36:49]
Hunter Biden
No, he. Who's he? Trump. So the fires happen. We went to South Africa, where Melissa's family's from, to be able to stay with her family because we couldn't go back to her house. And we were there per day, and Laura Loomer put out on her ex picture of me and my son and Melissa in Cape Town and said, this is ridiculous. This criminal has. It still has, you know, Secret Service, and they're on vacation and, you know, we're paying for it. And the next day, the president canceled the Secret Service, which is fine.
[37:31]
Joe Rogan
Are you the first person ever to get Secret Service canceled?
[37:34]
Hunter Biden
Oh, yeah, I think so.
[37:35]
Joe Rogan
Doesn't every kid have it for every.
[37:37]
Hunter Biden
No, they have it for, like, six months. Six months to a year.
[37:39]
Benny Blanco
Only six months after.
[37:41]
Joe Rogan
But the president. The president has it forever.
[37:43]
Hunter Biden
The president has it.
[37:45]
Joe Rogan
So. So, so, so, Joe, for my mom
[37:48]
Hunter Biden
and dad have it forever.
[37:49]
Joe Rogan
Forever.
[37:50]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[37:50]
Benny Blanco
They don't want it anymore.
[37:51]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, I didn't want it anymore. They're wonderful. The guys that I became really close with, the men and women that, like, were, like, there when you were like,
[37:59]
Joe Rogan
oh, no, because they weren't.
[38:00]
Dave Grohl
The OG Secret Service guy who's been there for so long who's, like, a part of your family, or do they really cycle him in and out?
[38:09]
Hunter Biden
A little bit of both. So you'll get, like, the team leaders that stay for, like, years, you know, a couple years, if not more at a time, like, at least for us, and then the other people kind of kind of cycle through details.
[38:25]
Joe Rogan
Did it make you think. Were you like, oh, my. Was it so stressful for you when your dad was president in the thing where you're like, shit, my family, like, my kids could be target. You know what I mean?
[38:36]
Hunter Biden
No.
[38:37]
Joe Rogan
You don't think like that.
[38:38]
Hunter Biden
No. Yeah, I don't. You know what I mean?
[38:40]
Benny Blanco
But when I think about the White House, I just think about, like, tradition. No, I'm like, where. I just want to know the, like, where's the, like, home? Like, is there a back interest if
[38:51]
Hunter Biden
you're looking at the White House from the front?
[38:53]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[38:54]
Hunter Biden
Okay. You know, you have the columns, and there's, like, a fountain. That's about all I know. Not the back. Not the South Lawn is the back of the White House that faces the Washington Monument? Yeah, that's the back.
[39:05]
Benny Blanco
Oh, wow.
[39:05]
Hunter Biden
Okay. The front is. Nobody ever uses it really anymore. But the semicircle, you look at the front, you walk in, that's called the state floor. And that has like the Red Room, the Green room, the East Room, the working room. Yeah. That's where you see like all the big events, like when King Charles was just there or your state dinner. It's on that floor.
[39:26]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[39:27]
Dave Grohl
Beautiful floor.
[39:27]
Hunter Biden
Which is actually the second floor. Okay. Because below it is the entry, it's called the Treaty Room. And where you enter into the White House from the South Lawn, which is the big lawn in the back.
[39:39]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[39:39]
Hunter Biden
Where the helicopter lands and things like that. And you see the. Yeah. And so on the third floor, which is second floor, if you're looking on the front is the. Is the White House residence.
[39:50]
Dave Grohl
Just president up there and family.
[39:52]
Hunter Biden
President and family. And there's a lot in the fourth floor.
[39:56]
Benny Blanco
Like, no working people. Like, you can like go there and feel safe. Like, if you wanna not be working that day, no one's coming for your dad. And they're being like, I got.
[40:04]
Hunter Biden
Everybody's coming for my dad.
[40:05]
Joe Rogan
You can't ever forget something in the Oval Office and run down is his underwear.
[40:09]
Hunter Biden
But by the way, like what I said, you can't do that.
[40:12]
Joe Rogan
Like a charger.
[40:13]
Hunter Biden
Think about how that just changes your every day.
[40:16]
Dave Grohl
Is it even like, did they love living there or is it kind of. Is it even like that nice or is it kind of like not even as good of a home as they could have had in Delaware?
[40:23]
Hunter Biden
Again, like, really is like the honor of it.
[40:27]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[40:28]
Hunter Biden
The absolute kind of honor of being in that history is particularly if you're like, if you love that stuff. You know what I mean?
[40:36]
Joe Rogan
You left your charger in the Oval Office or something.
[40:40]
Benny Blanco
It just feels like you have to be.
[40:41]
Hunter Biden
You gotta go through all the.
[40:43]
Joe Rogan
You ever go in there? Like, I always wondered, you ever go in there and Jen just sat down in the Oval Office and like, put your feet up or something. You never did it.
[40:52]
Hunter Biden
Well, I mean, I sat down. Yeah. He's like, yeah, you did.
[40:56]
Joe Rogan
Thank you. There's like so many things. I went to a restaurant one time, somebody said, oh, Obama came in here. And I said, did they check like every food, everything? And he said, honestly, someone could have poisoned the president. And I said, how, how is it?
[41:13]
Hunter Biden
Like, so when you're the president, though.
[41:15]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[41:16]
Hunter Biden
Is that any food that is cooked for you is cooked in the presence of. Of a secret Service.
[41:22]
Benny Blanco
Really?
[41:23]
Hunter Biden
From the government? Yeah.
[41:24]
Joe Rogan
Wow.
[41:25]
Benny Blanco
But if you're the president, you're not just like being like, let's run out to a dinner last minute. Cause you can't really do that.
[41:30]
Hunter Biden
There's a 35 car motorcade and helicopters and Delta Force operators that belong with them.
[41:37]
Joe Rogan
What if you just want to get something? Get Snickers from the gas station.
[41:41]
Benny Blanco
When you go to the bathroom, if you're the president, does somebody wait outside the door?
[41:45]
Hunter Biden
So there's always someone out, like, on the residence. They don't come inside the door where there's a little elevator, but they stand at the door there, and then there's a door down the hallway towards what's called the queen's bedroom. And they stand there. And so there's basically sentinels everywhere. But they don't. They don't. When you're on the residence floor. No, the protective duty. Unless they're asked to come into that piece, because that's completely secure.
[42:15]
Benny Blanco
You know what? I don't think I can run for president.
[42:17]
Hunter Biden
It's kind of scary. So we. It was a year into the presidency. Bowie was born. Melissa's mom had just passed away from the exact same thing my brother did. Glioblastoma the same day, six years apart.
[42:32]
Benny Blanco
Oh, my gosh.
[42:32]
Hunter Biden
Crazy. And so it's about six months later, her father came from South Africa to stay with us. And it was Halloween, and Bowie was in one of those Chewbarka costumes. I mean, like, year and a half, holding, like, Chewbacca costume was, like, literally the most, like, adorable thing you could possibly imagine in this couple. Like, in their, you know, my age, maybe looked a little bit older, and came up their phones screaming, you criminal. You rapist. You pedophile, you. And, like, in my face with Bowie, like, right here. Like, right. And the Secret Service stepped in, and Melissa, like, like, pushed, like, the lady like this. And I kind of, like, stumbled back with Bowie on my shoulders and. And you just. And I got in the car, and everybody was dead silent. And we, like, drove home. We got out of the car, and Melissa's dad was like, what was that? You know, she's come from.
[43:28]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[43:28]
Hunter Biden
Johannesburg.
[43:29]
Dave Grohl
Hasn't seen anything like that.
[43:30]
Hunter Biden
And he's like, what? What? Like, what was that?
[43:33]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[43:34]
Hunter Biden
And I didn't have an answer. And that morning, interestingly enough, I open up my phone, and I'm on my Apple newsfeed. And there's a story about a woman who's a teacher in eighth grade here in Southern California at one of the schools in Southern California. And she was saying all this crazy in her class to her eighth graders. And so one of the mothers said to the kid, tape her. I want to hear what they said. And they had the tape of this woman, and she spent 45 minutes telling her 8th grade history class that I was a pedophile and that I had children in cages in China and that I was sex trafficking, and that's what I was doing for my father. Because we're a teaching.
[44:19]
Dave Grohl
Bad teaching.
[44:20]
Hunter Biden
So. But get this, though.
[44:21]
Benny Blanco
That's why.
[44:22]
Hunter Biden
Here's the thing. Yeah. Really bad teaching. But the thing is, if you believe that, if you believed that about me and you saw me in public, wouldn't it almost be incumbent upon you. Wouldn't it almost be, like, your moral duty to come up to me and say, if you really thought so?
[44:46]
Dave Grohl
You don't blame the person that came up and did it?
[44:47]
Hunter Biden
Is what you're saying that I was doing that to children? I still blame them. But the thing is that that's what they've done. And I think they've done that to about 15% of the. Of the public.
[44:59]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[44:59]
Hunter Biden
And what. By the way, one way or another, they've done that. They have. They have filled them with such righteous rage that it is okay to do anything to anyone who is the villain.
[45:14]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[45:14]
Hunter Biden
And that's what's happened.
[45:15]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[45:15]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[45:16]
Dave Grohl
Or media.
[45:17]
Benny Blanco
Well, yeah, everyone. It's just been turned. It's truly been turned into like. Like. Like a show.
[45:22]
Dave Grohl
That's the problem of the world. But speaking of show entertainment, I am ready to take this show onto the couch.
[45:28]
Benny Blanco
Thank goodness.
[45:29]
Joe Rogan
You want to go sit right here?
[45:30]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[45:31]
Dave Grohl
We're not falling for any media narratives. I don't know who anyone is.
[45:34]
Joe Rogan
We know nothing about anything. What are your hobbies?
[45:38]
Hunter Biden
Well, it's more than a hobby. It's my. Everything is my painting here.
[45:43]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[45:43]
Hunter Biden
Let's show them you're.
[45:44]
Joe Rogan
So did you dress yourself today or did a stylist dress?
[45:47]
Hunter Biden
This is literally all I have to wear. This is what I wear. Yeah.
[45:50]
Joe Rogan
You look very cool.
[45:52]
Hunter Biden
Thank you, ma'. Am.
[45:53]
Benny Blanco
He dresses like you. Wear the same outfit.
[45:54]
Hunter Biden
I know.
[45:55]
Joe Rogan
That's what I said. Wear that same outfit.
[45:57]
Hunter Biden
You know, I paint and, you know, according to the New York Post, I was like, you know, controlling U.S. policy by, you know, having. By being a painter and selling paintings. Yeah. But what I do with all my paintings is I do, like, a. Like a proof of concept, like, first. So this isn't, like, the thing, but it just was small, so I thought I made one concept. So this one's for you.
[46:18]
Joe Rogan
Can I sway policy with this?
[46:21]
Hunter Biden
Because I'm gonna make them really big.
[46:22]
Dave Grohl
I love these.
[46:23]
Hunter Biden
So the next time you'll see them, they'll be, like, really big on canvas.
[46:25]
Benny Blanco
Oh, okay. So this Was.
[46:26]
Hunter Biden
Oh, my God.
[46:27]
Joe Rogan
This has eyes and a mouth.
[46:28]
Benny Blanco
I love this.
[46:29]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[46:30]
Benny Blanco
Thank you.
[46:30]
Hunter Biden
And that's for you. You didn't get anything. I'm sorry.
[46:32]
Benny Blanco
We share. We are one.
[46:33]
Dave Grohl
I think both of these should just be hung in this home.
[46:36]
Joe Rogan
I love this.
[46:37]
Hunter Biden
What saved me beautiful was my art. I painted my whole life. I mean, I have over, like, 100 finished paintings in my studio.
[46:46]
Benny Blanco
Hey, we need art.
[46:47]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[46:47]
Dave Grohl
Can I show you a paint?
[46:48]
Hunter Biden
But for the first time, you know, to note, I'm putting them up. I'm gonna put up on hunterbiden.com. i got this all thing. I love this.
[46:54]
Benny Blanco
We're gonna get these framed, and we're gonna.
[46:55]
Joe Rogan
Never sold any.
[46:56]
Hunter Biden
Well, I sold, like, maybe, like, I had a gallery for a little bit, but then the gallery owner got subpoenaed by Congress, and literally, it's the craziest, craziest, craziest thing ever before.
[47:07]
Benny Blanco
It is bizarre.
[47:08]
Hunter Biden
The answer is the beauty of what I watch you guys do.
[47:14]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[47:15]
Hunter Biden
Is the. The gift of being able to completely not lose yourself, but find yourself in purpose and create a purpose.
[47:25]
Joe Rogan
Doesn't it feel great?
[47:26]
Hunter Biden
It's incredible. Like, all I. All I have to do is just let go. Yeah. And. And that's it. So, like, the question of, like, do you get, like. Like, never. Like, every, like, mistake is like a, like, genius.
[47:38]
Benny Blanco
And I can tell it's like, you're an artist. Yeah.
[47:41]
Joe Rogan
It's like heaven.
[47:42]
Hunter Biden
100%.
[47:42]
Joe Rogan
It's like heaven. It's like you go to. It's like. I don't know. Do you cook at all?
[47:46]
Hunter Biden
A little bit.
[47:46]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. So when you cook to me, cookbook. I cook a lot. I get the same feeling. Oh, Dave wants to show you his art.
[47:54]
Dave Grohl
Well, I know we didn't want to talk politics, but I paint too. Sometimes I can only paint abstractly, but I, too, kind of like you were saying, when I creatively do anything, I think about everything. I really analyze, scrutinize. The only place I feel like I just let my inhibitions go is when I paint. But I can't do anything but abstract art now. This is a political piece. I don't know if you're.
[48:15]
Hunter Biden
If you're ready. I'm ready for this.
[48:20]
Dave Grohl
Obviously, with everything going on today.
[48:22]
Hunter Biden
Okay. So for real.
[48:25]
Joe Rogan
I love that.
[48:25]
Dave Grohl
Thank you.
[48:26]
Hunter Biden
Seriously, why say it's political? Yeah, but you can't. You don't see. Wait, you don't see the politics?
[48:32]
Benny Blanco
I don't see the politics.
[48:32]
Hunter Biden
What did I. I told them I didn't vote. Don't tell Them.
[48:34]
Joe Rogan
Oh.
[48:34]
Benny Blanco
Cause it says usa. Is that why it's political?
[48:37]
Dave Grohl
I think it says USA because it's political. It's not political because it says usa.
[48:41]
Benny Blanco
Look, I love it. I do love it.
[48:44]
Hunter Biden
I do love it actually, though, I
[48:46]
Dave Grohl
forget what I called it. It was something like American war.
[48:48]
Hunter Biden
And you know what's the coolest part is, is that you take that and you put it in a. Like, Melissa is like the greatest at this. You put it in like a super cool frame and it like, in like. It's like a stunning.
[49:01]
Dave Grohl
It's gonna look like a Picasso.
[49:02]
Hunter Biden
By the way, what is art? It's like the whole thing, like, just. And I know that you're like. By the look on your face, you're half joking with me, but I'm not joking at all. It's like the coolest piece about art.
[49:13]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[49:14]
Hunter Biden
Is it like. It is like the greatest expression of, like, the. The, you know, release of pain, like, whatever it is.
[49:24]
Benny Blanco
Art can be anything.
[49:24]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[49:25]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. I always.
[49:26]
Hunter Biden
For me, I paint every day.
[49:28]
Joe Rogan
Oh, yeah.
[49:28]
Hunter Biden
I write every day and I paint every day.
[49:29]
Benny Blanco
What do you write?
[49:30]
Hunter Biden
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that one.
[49:33]
Joe Rogan
What do you write?
[49:35]
Hunter Biden
Well, I know you write another book.
[49:37]
Benny Blanco
Okay.
[49:37]
Hunter Biden
But I also do poetry. Like springs. I do that. I've written a lot of essays. I'm gonna do. I think what I'm gonna do. Okay, you guys tell me.
[49:45]
Dave Grohl
Rap album.
[49:46]
Joe Rogan
You're really model. You're a great looking guy.
[49:49]
Hunter Biden
Do I do what like, you know, older. Older men.
[49:53]
Joe Rogan
You're like the most stylish.
[49:55]
Hunter Biden
Are you saying I should do Onlyfans?
[49:56]
Dave Grohl
No, that would be a lot of fun.
[49:58]
Joe Rogan
Did you see Shannon Elizabet put up
[50:00]
Hunter Biden
all my old stuff on the old. I don't think I own.
[50:03]
Joe Rogan
No, he would be.
[50:04]
Dave Grohl
He's overexposed.
[50:05]
Hunter Biden
Well, you know, what's the coolest content that you got? Did one of the coolest things that I've ever seen anybody do was when you and Ed Sheeran, in one minute, like, wrote that song.
[50:12]
Joe Rogan
How about this?
[50:13]
Hunter Biden
And they look your face. Sorry. Sorry. When the. When the four of you did the song, I was.
[50:21]
Benny Blanco
I was witnessing it as you were. I was just happy to. I couldn't. My. I literally cried.
[50:25]
Hunter Biden
But I literally was living it through your eyes because you were like, this is amazing. And I was. I was watching. I was going, oh, my God, that's so cool.
[50:31]
Benny Blanco
What's really beautiful about it is I truly having sat on this couch with Ed Sheeran. And I know that you're talented, but I've never seen Benny do what he's done. So I just. It was like, a weird moment to be like, oh, I, like, forgot where I.
[50:45]
Joe Rogan
My parents have never seen what I do. They still don't know what I do.
[50:48]
Dave Grohl
Did your mom watch the clip of Ed Sheeran?
[50:50]
Hunter Biden
No.
[50:50]
Joe Rogan
They know that, but that's not even me doing, you know, what I like the fullest. But it was cool.
[50:54]
Dave Grohl
I think that's what you do. You manipulate the software.
[50:56]
Joe Rogan
It was cool. It was interesting. Well, actually, my mom saw. One time, she came to the studio when I was writing. I was alone, and the artist. I was writing the lyrics and melody, and it was my voice. And she came in and she said, what? She didn't. And I said, no, no one ever hears this. And it was like. Cause usually, like, usually I'm with the artist when I present my ideas, like, of writing. And then, like. But back then, sometimes I would write the thing before they got there, and I'd have to show them. And my mom heard it, and she was like, you're so bad. No. She was like, no wonder you give them to everyone else. But I do have to tell you one thing.
[51:39]
Hunter Biden
But you've done every.
[51:41]
Joe Rogan
Like, I've been fortunate.
[51:43]
Hunter Biden
Major.
[51:44]
Joe Rogan
Yeah.
[51:45]
Hunter Biden
Like, musical. Like, I mean, like. I mean. I mean, like, you're, like. You're. At least. I mean, I was about to say our generation, but I'm not generation. Like Rick Rubin. At least to me, if not more so.
[51:59]
Joe Rogan
Honestly, Rick's a little better.
[52:02]
Hunter Biden
I.
[52:02]
Joe Rogan
Probably. For me, it was just the same thing as you. It was all. I was just getting stuff out. Like, I just love the process of making things.
[52:16]
Hunter Biden
It's so cool.
[52:17]
Joe Rogan
It's my favorite thing in the world. And there's a feeling you get. I don't know. I'm not a painter, so I don't know. But whenever I feel like I'm about to get it or I just got it, and every musician has this. I know Dave does for me. I get, like, this feeling in my chest or my stomach where it's like this. It's like cold. You feel like you're about to get hit by a car. Cause you just figured out the moment. That's what I get. And some of my friends have. But you have your own version of that feeling. You're more relief.
[52:49]
Dave Grohl
Yeah, mine is. I don't get that feeling.
[52:51]
Hunter Biden
You're struggling. You're like. It's a survival. Yeah.
[52:57]
Dave Grohl
Have you ever made music?
[52:59]
Hunter Biden
No, I haven't. I haven't. I don't have the. I mean, I love Music. I am constantly. I mean, I always have music on. You have a freestyle, right, by the way. And my daughters love, like. Love you, dude. Dad. Dave. He's amazing. He's one of my favorite. You gotta go back and watch Dave. Go back and watch Dave. Go back. That episode with Brad Pitt at the end is the greatest episode on TV ever. Wow. Wow.
[53:28]
Joe Rogan
She's a. What type of artist?
[53:29]
Hunter Biden
Oh, she what? I was supposed to watch a music video that is. She says, the greatest music video. Probably Pillow Talk. What's it called?
[53:37]
Joe Rogan
Probably Pillow Talk.
[53:38]
Dave Grohl
Maybe she saved that money.
[53:39]
Hunter Biden
Maybe. No, it said Freaky Friday. Freaky Friday.
[53:43]
Dave Grohl
And he made the music to that.
[53:44]
Hunter Biden
Oh, did he?
[53:45]
Dave Grohl
He helped. He helped DJ Mustard as well.
[53:47]
Hunter Biden
Freak. That's what she said. Yeah, yeah.
[53:49]
Dave Grohl
Shout out. Mustard,
[53:52]
Joe Rogan
your daughter, is she. What type of artist is she?
[53:55]
Hunter Biden
She's a painter also.
[53:56]
Joe Rogan
Oh, she's a painter. Paint together.
[53:58]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. Yeah, we did. We're doing, like, that's what I would love to do, like, film me and Maisie just painting together. You should give me grief.
[54:05]
Dave Grohl
I feel like people would like it.
[54:06]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, people, right?
[54:07]
Joe Rogan
Dude, people love you online. Whenever you do anything online, they probably hate you, too. No, you're humanity.
[54:13]
Benny Blanco
You're humanity.
[54:15]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[54:15]
Dave Grohl
You're just one. Cool.
[54:16]
Hunter Biden
Right?
[54:17]
Joe Rogan
So I love. I love your. I love your story.
[54:20]
Benny Blanco
Like, you're humanity.
[54:22]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. You're walking. You're telling it, like, as somebody who's not afraid to be myself.
[54:27]
Hunter Biden
Like.
[54:27]
Joe Rogan
And I don't care what anyone else says about me. I know, I know. It's like, you know, when I would care is if, like, my own friend wrote something about me. You know, if some person I don't know that knows nothing about my character or who I am as a person.
[54:40]
Hunter Biden
Exactly.
[54:41]
Joe Rogan
Couldn't give two shits. But if, like, my friend was like, I really hated how you do that, I'd probably cry. You know?
[54:46]
Hunter Biden
Same way. Yeah.
[54:48]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[54:48]
Hunter Biden
You know, I have a buddy, his name is Franny, and he always says, you know, like. And I always think about this in terms of humanity, but you want to know about politics. You want to go change the world, go home and love your family. And that's like a Mother Teresa. And the thing is, is, like, God Almighty. I wish everybody would kind of, like, take that lesson.
[55:08]
Benny Blanco
I know.
[55:09]
Hunter Biden
I think people are evil. I think we're just so much better than this. Forget about the politics. Republican or Democrat, who gives a shit? It's just like. Like, we aren't the image that is being portrayed back to us through these. Like, what we think are Mirrors. But they're not. They're algorithms. We're not. We're not that, like. And I really mean it. And, like, what you guys do collectively. And I mean, this is, like, you bring beauty into the world, like, through your creativity and through, like, just, like. I watch this show, and I heard the show before you guys. I saw the show before you guys called me. Because when I paint, I always, like, have, like, something on in the back, and I saw it. Yeah. I watched the Ed Sheeran one. That's the first one that I watched. Oh, thank you. Actually, the first one I watched was the first one you did, just the three of you.
[55:55]
Benny Blanco
Oh, yeah, yeah.
[55:56]
Joe Rogan
The Ed Sheeran one is a perfect example. Cause for me, the reason why we do this show, for me. For me is a. I got to be with my best friends and, like, get to. These are, like, actually my best friends when the time when the camera shuts off, maybe a little less now because we're with each other, so. No, I'm just kidding. But there's so much shit, and there's so much stuff on, like, pushing, like, these, like, weird, like, masculine narratives and. Yeah, I think when you come to us, you can. We'd be funny. We're gonna be serious sometimes. Occasionally, you're gonna get to see, like, Ed Sheeran make a song from scratch. You're gonna get, like, Lizzo freestyle off the top of her head. Like, I think it's really cool. And you're gonna get to hear you talk about your fucking life, and it's gonna be cool.
[56:48]
Hunter Biden
But, you know, that's the thing is, like, there's gotta be space for us to be able to talk about, you know, politics.
[56:53]
Benny Blanco
Totally.
[56:54]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[56:54]
Hunter Biden
There's this really incredible. It's a documentary about a guy that lost a bird in Venice. But the whole thing that I took from it is that literally everybody's going through something. Yeah. Everybody. Everybody's had their own tragedy. Everybody has their own trauma. Everybody has their own addict in their family. Everybody has had, like, everybody.
[57:18]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[57:18]
Hunter Biden
So regardless of who's at fault, it's true.
[57:21]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[57:21]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, it's true. And that's kind of cool, what this is.
[57:24]
Benny Blanco
Yeah, I hope. I mean. Yeah, it's a scary world out there. I feel like we have. It's, like, our responsibility as people to kind of. Of get ourselves in line.
[57:35]
Hunter Biden
And you guys don't realize the level of reach. Yeah, I guess you do. I hope you do. And I don't mean this. I mean, I really sincerely mean this is how powerful it is when Someone with your platform is. Talks about something that they care about. It really is, you know, I mean, the amount of influence that you have.
[58:01]
Benny Blanco
Do you think we're doing good things so far with our influence?
[58:05]
Hunter Biden
Well, I just think you're doing a great thing by the, like, just the. The nature of this show.
[58:09]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[58:10]
Hunter Biden
And I think you're doing amazing things by just making, like, incredible music and making me, you know, incredible music and making me laugh.
[58:16]
Dave Grohl
But we should do more things.
[58:17]
Joe Rogan
I mean, let's say my biggest contribution and yours too, is just, like, making people feel good and trying to make
[58:24]
Hunter Biden
contributions you both made as your wives. But that's. Oh, yeah.
[58:27]
Joe Rogan
Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm just lucky to be. I'm just lucky to be in the game. She's the best person alive. I'm just like. I'm just running, trying to stay along.
[58:39]
Dave Grohl
The thing about politics, I think I naively and maybe even a part of me still does, but especially as a kid and a college student, I was just like. I would just think of politics as something other than an evaluation of the facts at hand and how they are impacting and moving forward humanity. So to, like, not which. Which that's really kind of, to me, what politics is. It's like, there's facts at hand. We have to do the best things for people, and we act accordingly based on the laws that are in place. What have you. And I feel like to just ignore it is irresponsible. And that's all I have to say.
[59:16]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. But, Dave, I think that so many people. It's not that you don't care.
[59:20]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[59:20]
Hunter Biden
It's that you don't care for the bullshit of politics. Yeah. Right. And what I'm saying is, is that we got to get through the bullshit to the things that you care about, because the things you care about, we're gonna lose. Yeah. And it is real. Like, you know, like, just what you. You said, like. I don't know if I want to talk about this. I'm scared.
[59:41]
Benny Blanco
Yeah.
[59:42]
Hunter Biden
Yeah. You ever think of a time in America where you would be, no matter what, that you didn't. That you go out and yell it on a street corner?
[59:50]
Joe Rogan
Yeah. Yeah.
[59:52]
Hunter Biden
Anything.
[59:53]
Joe Rogan
It's true.
[59:54]
Hunter Biden
I came into the country from South Africa, and I have to admit, I get nervous because I don't put it past anyone that is politically, you know, opposed to my father. Nothing has to do with me, but just wants to make a point that, what if they. What if they put drugs on me?
[60:11]
Dave Grohl
Yeah.
[60:12]
Hunter Biden
Would anyone ever believe me, by the way 90% of the people thinks that I was smoking crack when I was in the White House. I mean, I've been clean and sober for seven years, like, in a very verifiable way. You know what I mean? But ever in America, have you ever felt that way?
[60:29]
Joe Rogan
No.
[60:30]
Hunter Biden
So you can say, I don't give a shit about politics, but politics is coming for you whether you like it or not. And that's where activism, piece of it, just small ways, I think, just matter. I don't know.
[60:42]
Joe Rogan
I really do think kids are really. And I mean, kids being, like, 18, 24, are really moving in a way where they're thinking for themselves in a way that's, like, very interesting and I think could be really cool for where we're headed. Yeah.
[61:00]
Dave Grohl
The problem is that now we've just lost the common thread of being able to decipher what's unquestionably true or not, and add that wrinkle with the AI and the online shit to, you know, everyone's own individual problems, and then there's just no common ground because you can't. I feel like there's just facts that happen.
[61:17]
Hunter Biden
So who's our real enemy?
[61:19]
Dave Grohl
Our own ego and greed?
[61:20]
Hunter Biden
Well, beyond the kind of. The metaphysical kind of answer to it. These guys, there's literally like six of them that control, like, literally the oligarchs from Elon Musk to Sam Altman to Peter Thiel. And all of these guys own the data, and we get nothing from it. And they use all of that data to feed us bullshit.
[61:41]
Benny Blanco
So basically, what you're saying has happened is it's just. It's gotten out of control.
[61:44]
Hunter Biden
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
[61:48]
Benny Blanco
What do we do? What's the first step in change? And what's the. I mean, here's what we can do.
[61:52]
Hunter Biden
Storm the gates. Okay.
[61:54]
Joe Rogan
Exactly. I got a real step media. You ever freestyled before?
[61:58]
Hunter Biden
No.
[61:58]
Joe Rogan
You want to try this?
[61:59]
Hunter Biden
Oh, my God.
[62:01]
Dave Grohl
FA FA FA FA fanduel.
[62:03]
Benny Blanco
Let's go, baby.
[62:04]
Dave Grohl
Yep. Let's predict. Let's, you know, we got soccer, we got. Ooh.
[62:08]
Benny Blanco
David.
[62:09]
Dave Grohl
Nope.
[62:09]
Benny Blanco
No, I don't think he's doing this.
[62:12]
Joe Rogan
I don't think we're licensed.
[62:13]
Dave Grohl
Anyone in specific? But we got regions like Spain, France, Brazil, England.
[62:17]
Joe Rogan
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, is this a pro soccer championship that's about to happen?
[62:22]
Dave Grohl
I mean, it's more than that. It's global phenomenon.
[62:25]
Hunter Biden
Global.
[62:25]
Joe Rogan
What's the other word you would use?
[62:27]
Dave Grohl
You can predict the outcome of the pro soccer championships, games, all the Way to the end of the tournament with FanDuel predicts. Bet on a match and get bonus bets for every goal scored in that match. More goals means more bonus bets for you in your FanDuel Predicts app. Visit FanDuel.com to get started now.
[62:43]
Joe Rogan
You thinking about Spain, France, Brazil?
[62:45]
Benny Blanco
I'm thinking about Senegal. I'm going with Brazil.
[62:49]
Dave Grohl
So this is exactly like painting, but
[62:51]
Hunter Biden
why don't you just. This is not exactly like painting. This is really.
[62:55]
Joe Rogan
Let him just go. You don't even.
[62:56]
Dave Grohl
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[62:57]
Joe Rogan
Okay.
[62:57]
Hunter Biden
Pushing me out of my comfort zone. What do you want to come do it with?
[63:00]
Joe Rogan
So right now. So right now you have autotune on, so anything you sing will sound cool.
[63:08]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, I doubt that.
[63:09]
Benny Blanco
No, no, no, it does.
[63:10]
Joe Rogan
I haven't like. Like, it's like.
[63:11]
Hunter Biden
Yeah, but what am I gonna sing?
[63:13]
Joe Rogan
You know what I mean?
[63:13]
Dave Grohl
Like it.
[63:14]
Joe Rogan
But you can also rap.
[63:15]
Hunter Biden
Well, that's harder.
[63:17]
Benny Blanco
You can sing here.
[63:18]
Joe Rogan
We did something. We did something.
[63:20]
Benny Blanco
Why don't you guys do it first and warm up?
[63:22]
Joe Rogan
You guys, there's no. I didn't have time to loop because
[63:24]
Hunter Biden
they're gonna do it so good, and then it's gonna make me more nervous. But what I'm going to say, look, I do. I'm not really good under pressure.
[63:32]
Joe Rogan
I will.
[63:33]
Hunter Biden
Without the drugs. It doesn't do that very well.
[63:35]
Joe Rogan
I will tell you. Yeah, we made something a little presidential, a little political.
[63:40]
Hunter Biden
A little political. Oh, my God.
[63:44]
Dave Grohl
So, yeah, we got.
[63:45]
Hunter Biden
You want to show them first. You should do just like y' all think about.
[63:48]
Benny Blanco
We have to feed you. We should feed a theme.
[63:51]
Hunter Biden
Would you ever run 100%?
[63:54]
Dave Grohl
Would you have fun?
[63:56]
Benny Blanco
Never.
[63:57]
Dave Grohl
Would you suggest that we need to do as a country to have a
[64:02]
Joe Rogan
forward,
[64:04]
Hunter Biden
as a group? Get in the streets.
[64:08]
Dave Grohl
Get in the streets. Get in the streets.
[64:13]
Hunter Biden
Gotta get in the street.
[64:16]
Joe Rogan
Okay.
[64:16]
Hunter Biden
All I have to say now you're gonna do it right now.
[64:20]
Joe Rogan
Three, too. Yeah.
[64:22]
Dave Grohl
Just like.
[64:24]
Joe Rogan
This is exactly like Ed Sheeran.
[64:26]
Hunter Biden
Oh, wait. Just get in the streets.
[64:29]
Benny Blanco
I like that.
[64:34]
Joe Rogan
Down with the man.
[64:36]
Dave Grohl
Down with the man.
[64:38]
Joe Rogan
Okay. I like. We just made it.
[64:40]
Hunter Biden
I'm handing back the mic to my man. You know what it is?
[64:45]
Dave Grohl
It comes down to greed, greed, greed.
[64:49]
Benny Blanco
Don't look at me.
[64:50]
Hunter Biden
Don't look at me.
[64:51]
Dave Grohl
Money and politics. What a.
[64:56]
Benny Blanco
But if you need a friend, just call a Biden.
[64:59]
Dave Grohl
If you need a friend, call a Biden.
[65:01]
Hunter Biden
Joe Biden.
[65:04]
Dave Grohl
Hunter
[65:07]
Hunter Biden
Biden.
[65:08]
Dave Grohl
Okay.
[65:08]
Joe Rogan
Okay.
[65:10]
Hunter Biden
Well, that was it.
[65:11]
Joe Rogan
We did it.
[65:12]
Dave Grohl
Wasn't as scary as he thought it would be.
[65:13]
Hunter Biden
Honest to God.
[65:15]
Joe Rogan
Were you as good as Ed Sheeran? No.
[65:16]
Hunter Biden
No. I don't even think that we were in the same building.
[65:21]
Dave Grohl
I just had a full circle thought.
[65:22]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[65:23]
Joe Rogan
That you've never seen his dad in anything else besides a suit, and you'd love to see him in sweatpants.
[65:27]
Dave Grohl
Would your dad ever come over?
[65:29]
Hunter Biden
What?
[65:29]
Dave Grohl
In sweats.
[65:30]
Joe Rogan
To see her.
[65:32]
Dave Grohl
No. Would he ever come here? That was not what I was gonna.
[65:35]
Hunter Biden
This is what I was gonna say. I don't know.
[65:37]
Dave Grohl
When I think about the full circularity of this afternoon.
[65:42]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[65:43]
Dave Grohl
It seems as though. Because I'm like, just.
[65:46]
Joe Rogan
This is.
[65:46]
Dave Grohl
It's not really. You're not a political. You're not in politics. But for whatever reason you are, to us, you represent our first foray into politics. It felt serious.
[65:56]
Hunter Biden
I remember the first show you guys did, and you were like, no politics.
[65:59]
Joe Rogan
It felt serious.
[66:00]
Benny Blanco
I was scared.
[66:01]
Hunter Biden
So I'm.
[66:02]
Dave Grohl
You know, what I'm trying to understand is, like, how is.
[66:04]
Joe Rogan
How did we do?
[66:04]
Dave Grohl
How we should move forward as, you know, politically as a society, which really just means evaluating the facts at hand about humanity in the fairest, most appropriate way. And I think, whatever, we're not gonna have that answer. But I think we might have that answer. Because even when you were describing your own life and how it went down a dark path, and then immediately, the one thing that totally changed it instantly was love.
[66:26]
Hunter Biden
Yeah.
[66:26]
Benny Blanco
Yes.
[66:27]
Dave Grohl
Right.
[66:27]
Hunter Biden
Period.
[66:28]
Dave Grohl
And I think if we just imagine, move forward with love, some semblance of not necessarily romantic, but just the love of each other, I think you'd be surprised at how fast life can change.
[66:39]
Hunter Biden
If you wanted to change the world. Go home and love your family and your neighbors and your community, and that's it.
[66:45]
Dave Grohl
Can I kiss you on your cheek?
[66:46]
Hunter Biden
You can.
[66:48]
Benny Blanco
I love love.
[66:49]
Joe Rogan
Should we start interviewing, like, political people,
[66:57]
Hunter Biden
Sam?