147 - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà vu - Jeff Daniels

Summary

Podcast Summary: The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers – Episode 147 featuring Jeff Daniels on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Déjà Vu

---

Introduction

In Episode 147 of The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers, host Josh Adam Meyers delves into Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by exploring Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s iconic 1970 album, Déjà Vu. The episode features a captivating conversation with Jeff Daniels, a celebrated actor and musician, who shares his insights and personal experiences related to the album and his multifaceted career.

---

Exploring Déjà Vu

The episode begins with Josh setting the stage for the discussion on Déjà Vu, emphasizing the album's significance as the 147th entry in the countdown.

Jeff Daniels expresses his admiration for the album, stating:

“I am probably in Amsterdam. I'm not sure... Maybe I didn’t make it there. Maybe I got mugged in Paris or Brussels or wherever.”
— [00:02:11]

Jeff emphasizes the personal connection he feels with the music, highlighting how the album's harmonies and political undertones resonated with him during his formative years.

---

Jeff Daniels’ Musical Journey

Jeff Daniels recounts his early exposure to music, particularly how Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young influenced his musical tastes during high school in 1971. He reflects on the band's ability to blend acoustic work with four-part harmonies, drawing parallels to Bob Dylan but with a unique ensemble dynamic.

“...they were doing kind of what Dylan did, except with four-part harmonies... they were taking some of that political thing and kind of... Yeah, to a young kid in high school, that got my attention.”
— [00:06:10]

---

Recording Déjà Vu: Collaborative vs. Solo Efforts

Josh and Jeff discuss the intricate process behind recording Déjà Vu. Jeff provides an insider's perspective on how the album was less of a collaborative group project and more of individual sessions where each member contributed their own songs.

“This is like the White Album. Everybody bringing a track... It’s a little bit more collaborative on the White Album because the band still plays on it.”
— [00:29:43]

Jeff highlights the addition of Neil Young to the band, noting his uncompromising nature and how his contributions elevated the album.

---

Jeff Daniels’ Acting Career and Collaborations

Transitioning from music, the conversation shifts to Jeff's illustrious acting career. He shares anecdotes from his time on The Newsroom, detailing the pressure and significance of delivering pivotal speeches.

“...Aaron [Sorkin] came up and he goes, you know, we need to see what happened... I hit a home run on the first 10.”
— [01:41:15]

Jeff discusses his experiences working with legendary directors like Woody Allen, Robert Altman, and Mike Nichols, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and adaptability in acting.

---

Balancing Comedy and Drama

Jeff reflects on his transition into comedy, particularly his role in Dumb and Dumber. He describes the challenges and rewards of working alongside comedic geniuses like Jim Carrey and the collaborative dance required to create memorable performances.

“...I knew I could do comedy. I had done comedies in theater and so I knew I had that...”
— [00:57:17]

He underscores the importance of trust and mutual support in comedic collaborations, likening it to the dynamic within Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

---

In-Depth Track Discussions

Throughout the episode, Jeff and Josh dissect various tracks from Déjà Vu, offering nuanced interpretations and personal reflections.

1. "Carry On"
   Jeff praises the song's ability to capture the essence of the band's first album, noting its energizing vibe and Stephen Stills' multifaceted contributions.

   “Stills, Neil, Crosby, Nash... That's the order. Remember the Beach Boys? Remember the Beatles and all those harmonies? Listen to this. Perfect.”
   — [01:17:53]

2. "Teach Your Children"
   Although not Jeff's favorite, he appreciates the song's sing-along quality and its positive message, despite its heavier backstory involving personal tragedies.

   “...It's positive. It's... to those who are just singing it. Not really worried about what was going on when they wrote it.”
   — [00:49:09]

3. "Almost Cut My Hair"
   Jeff discusses the song's reflection on maintaining ideals amidst changing times, drawing parallels to societal shifts and personal resilience.

4. "Country Girl"
   Highlighting the song's complex structure, Jeff admires its orchestration and mournful waltz feel, seeing it as a yearning for simplicity and authenticity.

---

Personal Reflections and Philosophies

Jeff shares heartfelt reflections on his upbringing and the values instilled by his parents, particularly his father's empathy and integrity.

“...he would say, come on up to my office, and he would sit with him for half an hour and he would tell the guy at the end of it, you know, don't worry about it... He took care of people who had less than he did.”
— [00:49:42]

He parallels these lessons with his professional life, emphasizing the importance of supporting and uplifting those around him, whether on a film set or in personal interactions.

---

Thoughts on Modern Society and Hope for the Future

Jeff and Josh delve into contemporary societal issues, discussing themes from songs like "Teach Your Children" and expressing hope for unity and empathy in a divided world.

“...until we can get back to that, I don't see it.”
— [00:46:12]

Jeff emphasizes individual responsibility in fostering positive change, encouraging actions that contribute to the greater good.

---

Final Messages and Reflections

As the conversation winds down, Jeff imparts a message of compassion and resilience, reflecting on the darkness and challenges of the modern world.

“...find something good to do for yourself or for somebody else, that's... that's a start that you can do. Can you change the world? Probably not. But can you do that every day? Yeah.”
— [01:14:34]

---

Conclusion

Josh Adam Meyers concludes the episode by thanking Jeff Daniels for his candid and insightful contributions. He invites listeners to follow Jeff’s musical endeavors and stay tuned for upcoming episodes.

“Jeff, thank you so much for coming on. Buddy. Please come back... This has been incredible, and I really appreciate for time and... this has been so much fun.”
— [01:23:39]

---

Notable Quotes

• Jeff Daniels on Overcoming Stage Fright:
  “But walking out there and sitting in a chair with just the acoustic, singing my own stuff, thinking that it's going to be just as easy as walking on a stage.... There was a nakedness to it that I wasn't prepared for.”
  — [00:15:50]

• Josh Adam Meyers on Music and Harmony:
  “To you know, it's. It's the same way we go to the movies. There's something about sitting in that dark room with strangers, feeling that, you know, that, that moment.”
  — [00:86:47]

• Jeff Daniels on Collaboration:
  “You got to have that chemistry... That's the magic thing, chemistry.”
  — [00:34:43]

---

Key Insights

• Individual Contributions in Collaborative Projects: Jeff highlights how Déjà Vu was a blend of individual artistic expressions, allowing each member's unique strengths to shine while contributing to the collective masterpiece.

• The Intersection of Music and Acting: Jeff’s dual passion for music and acting enriches his understanding of rhythm and timing, enhancing his performances in both fields.

• Resilience and Empathy: Drawing from his upbringing, Jeff underscores the importance of empathy, resilience, and supporting others as foundational values both personally and professionally.

• Hope Amidst Division: In discussing societal issues, Jeff advocates for personal responsibility in fostering unity and positive change, reflecting the enduring relevance of the album’s themes.

---

Conclusion

Episode 147 of The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers offers a profound exploration of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu through the lens of Jeff Daniels’ rich experiences in both music and acting. Their engaging dialogue provides listeners with a deeper appreciation of the album's artistic legacy and its enduring impact on culture and personal growth.

Transcript

[Josh Adam Myers]

Next Chapter Podcasts when you think about businesses that are selling through the roof like aloe or Allbirds, sure you think about a great product, a cool brand and great marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making, selling and for shoppers buying. Simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does online business better than Shopify. It's home of Shop Pay, the number one checkout in the world. You can use it to boost conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going through. To checkout, sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com income all lowercase go to shopify.com income to upgrade your selling today. That's shopify.com/income. This show is brought to you by Distro Kid. Bring your music to the masses.

[Jeff Daniels]

The 500.

[Josh Adam Myers]

The 500J been walking us down through that 2012 edition so it ain't nothing too you hundreds more to go and in need of a friend the king of peaceful angelo Talking the 500 until the end Talking the 500.

[Jeff Daniels]

Until the end with my man JL.

[Josh Adam Myers]

On the 500 Talking the 500 until.

[Jeff Daniels]

The end Carry on. Love is coming Love is coming to.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Us all that is the opening track by Crosby, Stills, Nash and young from their 1970 record Deja Vu. It's also number 147 out of 500 on the 500 with Josh Adam Myers what's up Felice Army? I am Josh. I'm a comic and I'm going through Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums. We are chipping away right now. I am probably in Amsterdam. I'm not sure. Or I'm dead in Amsterdam. Or maybe I didn't make it there. Maybe I got mugged in Paris or Brussels or wherever. The I am making my way through Europe. I'm doing this, of course, ahead of time so I don't have to bring any equipment. Hopefully I see you guys out there. If you live in another country in Europe, send me a message and I will come have lunch with you. I'm documenting the whole thing. We're going to post it on my YouTube YouTube.com backslash Josh Adam 79 subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. And my social media Josh Adam Myers on all social subscribe to the channel's YouTube the 500 podcast. Watch all the episodes and if you really want to help us, subscribe to the Patreon patreon.com backslash the 500 podcast. Join the Fleece army for $5 a month, you support the show and we love you. For 25, you support the show. We love you and we send you merch merchies. Be a part of the fleecy. We love you guys. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for all the help. DJ Morty Coyle, Emily, J.T. peter, Adam. This is one of my favorite things to do, especially when you have a guest like today. When I get back the end of this month, August 29th and the 30th, I will be at the Plano Mic Drop Comedy club right outside of Dallas, Texas. Then I will be in Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Saudi Arabia with Bill Burr doing a comedy festival. New Orleans, Vancouver, La Jolla, Arizona, Wisconsin. I've got a bunch of gigs. I'm going to be busy. I'll be in Canada a lot next year. We've already got Calgary booked. We've already got Winnipeg booked. Edmonton booked. Come one, come all. Josh. Adam Myers.com for tickets. It's going to be a great year, guys. I'm excited to get back home. I'm assuming I'm loving this trip, but who knows? Who knows? Maybe I'm dead. All right, Crosby, Stills, Csny Sissany. Sissy. Deja Vu. Well, this is our second record. We did the first one. We're doing the second one. I'm not going to talk anymore. Let's get to our guest, a legend, a true actor and an incredible musician. This is where the Emily Kagan meager comes into full effect. We got a code red booking. The one, the only Jeff Daniels. I mean, come on, guys, the newsroom. One of the greatest speeches in television history. Arachnophobia. Dumb and dumber. Dumb and dumber too. I could keep going. This dude is so cool taking the time out to talk about this record. I love doing this podcast. When I get to sit down and talk to these dudes, what a gift. All right. Oh, go to his website and check out his music. By the way, he's got some incredible stuff and some upcoming tour dates in Michigan this month. Raid review. And most Importantly, subscribe to the 500 listen free on all platforms or anywhere you get your pods. Follow me at Josh Adam Myers on all social media. Follow the podcast at the 500 podcast. Email the [e-mail]. Follow the Facebook group run by Crazy Evan. And for all things five zero zero, go to the website the500podcast.com. All right, y', all, here we go. 147 out of 500 with deja vu by a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Yeah, I don't even know how to start because. Because, Jeff, I'm such a huge fan of yours, man, that this is always. This is why I do the podcast, is be able to sit down with people that I love. So thank you for coming on to talk about Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. And also to let you know, we had, like five other big names that wanted to do this record. And I told them all, pardon my language, to off.

[Jeff Daniels]

Oh, boy.

[Josh Adam Myers]

This is Jeff's record. He got first dibs.

[Jeff Daniels]

Okay.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I couldn't. I couldn't be happier, man. So what a pleasure. Deliver.

[Jeff Daniels]

It was a long.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No pressure, no press. Don't worry, I'll cover a lot of the info. We just want to know your opinion, your love. We're going to talk about this. We're going to talk about some Crosby, Stills and Nash. But I guess, you know, just to dive right into this, you know, when and why. Actually say, start there. Why are you here for? Out of all the records we probably offered you, why are you here for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young? Deja Vu.

[Jeff Daniels]

It was at a time in my life, I'm gonna say it was 71, it was released. I was early in high school, and so my tastes in music were being formed. I had come out of the late 60s and I was. I mean, I can go back to Here Comes My Baby from the turtles, Dave Clark, 5. You know, I was. I wasn't very. You know, my musical taste wasn't very interesting. Seeger came out with Ramblin Gamblin, man, and that first album. Then Arlo Guthrie did Alice's Restaurant. Yeah, that got my attention just because of the acoustic work and the storytelling. And then Woodstock happened. And I remember being in the seventh grade and asking my dad if I could, you know, go to Woodstock with some high school friends who had a car, and dad didn't get very far. But that was. What was that about? And so I'm young and I'm looking at that. And this was before ELTON John, which 11, 17, 70 really kind of catapulted me into. Okay, what was that? Yeah, but it was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It was the acoustic work and of course, the harmonies and their stance. They were doing kind of what Dylan did, except with four part harmonies. What Phil Oaks did, Tom Paxton, they were taking some of that political thing and kind of, maybe not so much with Deja Vu, but certainly with Four Way Street. They were a band that was going to say some things. And. Yeah, to a young kid in high school, that got my attention so you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Were already like, in a sense, interested in what was going on in the world at a really young age. Was that your parents or. Because, I mean, I always remember my dad, like reading the Washington Post and he would listen, he'd watch the nightly news, and we're from the D.C. area, by the way. But it was, you know, I vaguely remember Bush vs. Dukas, literally only because there was a paper meme of a drawing of a vagina chasing a penis. And it was like, Bush versus DUIs. Another up matter. It was like something stupid like that. And that was my intro to politics. So really you were, when you were like, when you were younger, you were already interested in what was going on in the world, but I assume it's probably because a lot of.

[Jeff Daniels]

No. And I was. And you know, I. A small town in the Midwest, and I grew up in a Republican household, a small business owner, farmer. My mom was a farmer, worked on a farm and we didn't talk about politics. I didn't even know that it was a Republican household until I went to New York City and realized, oh, this is different from where I'm coming from. I think Crosby, Stills and Nash kind of were going, hey, come over here, listen to this. And, and, and I, I wasn't, I, I didn't really go to the acoustic guitar myself until about 76, 77. But stills and Neil Young got my attention and, and maybe 15, 12, maybe 20 years later, 25, I, I, a friend of mine got tickets to see them in Chicago at the United center, and I hadn't, I never, I didn't get Neil Young. You know, I love Stills. I loved Stills and I didn't know why. And then later on, it was the musicianship and his, you know, that whole Crossroads Live thing he does. You know, someday I'm gonna try to learn how to play that the way he does. And Treetop Flyer and all that. I was really taken with Stills and, But I didn't get Neil. And then when I saw him in Chicago and they played Almost Cut My Hair, which is on the Deja Vu album, and they turned it into like an 18 minute thing, epic things. And Neil, you know, with his black Les Paul, just that single note stuff that he was doing while Stills was, you know, well, and just pierced through the United center. And I go, okay, I get Neil Young now. I get Neil Young. They were so different, you know, and they had egos and they hated each other.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Album. Oh, you're telling me. After I've learned everything, I mean, we'll get all into that, but it's.

[Jeff Daniels]

It's kind of funny, you know.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, yeah, but here's. Here's something funny. Jared, you. You might know some of this, but. But Jeff, this is actually interesting. I have a connection to three out of four of the guys in this band. I've jammed with Stephen Stills at my friend told my friend Toll Wilkenfeld's house. She has a recording studio. The bass player play with Jeff. Becky. Excuse me. I also played with Jackson Brown that night. Who else? Oh, Neil Young. This is not a connection. But from doing this podcast, we did one of his records and probably my favorite song that I found from Neon and I was much like you. Like, I only really knew, like Harvest Moon and like Ohio and a few others, but when I heard Lookout Joe about Vietnam vets coming back to. From Vietnam and seeing how the 70s has changed with hookers and drugs and prostitutes and became probably my favorite song that I found from doing this podcast. I still listen to it multiple times a week. I love it. And nothing with Graham Nash, but I was one of the people that Melissa Etheridge was gonna get sperm from. It was between me and David Crosby. Yeah, I mean, I was young, but she wanted a kid. And I said, all right, you know, I got good gene. I know.

[Jeff Daniels]

What are you doing Tuesday? Yeah, okay. But.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But there's a thing about them is that, you know, we were lucky enough. This never happens on the podcast, by the way, where we do usually the first record first, you know, because a lot of the artists, their first album is their best record. And so sometimes, like when I did Dylan, we did it backwards. We started with Time out of Mind and we've worked our way down. I think we did like Love and Theft and a few others. It wasn't until John Wesley Harding that I think I really got what people love about Dylan. And now I'm really becoming a fan because as you know, as a Dylan fan, you need to start at the beginning and move your way towards the back. Because those seven, eight minute songs about God and death and the devil that he did in the 90s and the 2000s, they're not the same. You got to know the early. But what I love about this band, you know, is you have this first record of theirs and they get together, they're all in their respective bands. You know, I might this up because I've got some of it written down, and if you correct me, but I know we've done the Birds, so. So David Crosby's in the Birds. You have Stephen Stills is In the Hollies, or am I mixing it up with Graham Nash? No, Graham Nash is in Buffalo Springfield. Yeah. Stills is the Hollies. Nash is Buffalo Springfield. Okay. Well, I was close.

[Jeff Daniels]

Young were Buffalo. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yes. And. But this is the thing, is that they get together. Let me pull up my little one sheet. They get together and they make this record. They make the record after they play Woodstock. So their first gig ever is Woodstock?

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I mean, what. Can I ask you a question? What was. What was the first performance you ever did, and were you scared shitless doing it?

[Jeff Daniels]

Me personally? With a guitar? Yeah. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, yeah. Not just guitar. No. As an actor, anything like any. Your first performance, was it a natural thing? I mean, obviously, it probably wasn't the size of Woodstock, but.

[Jeff Daniels]

No, strangely, which is why I pursued it. I knew exactly what to do. You know, I. Being on stage and having 600 people and I'm playing Fagan and Oliver, I knew exactly what to do. And I knew how to time the joke. I knew how to sing the song, I knew how to do the staging. I knew how to hold an audience. It was all just natural ability that I had no idea why I knew it or anything. When I picked up the guitar and started gigging, which happened 30 years later, that was the terror. To walk out and sit in a chair with just the acoustic, singing my own stuff, thinking that it's going to be just as easy as walking on a stage. As an actor, you know, you've got this character filter which protects you in a way. You just kind of do it. And, you know, I never. Stage fright. Nerves.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No.

[Jeff Daniels]

But walking out there and sitting down, the flop sweat just, like, dripping off me, I. There was a nakedness to it that I wasn't prepared for. And it took about 30 club dates to learn how to rise above it. And it was the same thing as, like, doing a talk show, you know, I mean, I did. I've been doing those forever. I did Carson twice, you know, and Colbert, and you name it, I did them. Conan. And, you know, it's. How do I. How do I do this in seven minutes? You're out there and everybody's. And you gotta be funny and you gotta be. And what. What. What. What am I? And there were early things with me with Letterman where I'm just a zero. And. And I finally figured out the character I have to play when I walk out there. Is me in a good mood.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

That's your character, Jeff. In a good mood. And I usually wear a fedora just Because I love him. And once I put that on, it's like Joe Bonamassa, who's an incredible player.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Guess of the podcast he's been on. Been on a couple times. Yeah, we love Jeff.

[Jeff Daniels]

Love him. He's Joe Bonamassa backstage. And then here come the glasses, here comes the suit, and he says, I become this other guy. And it's a little bit like acting. So the same thing with the acoustic guitar in the chair now, any kind of trepidation about it? Remember, you're in a good mood. Oh, yeah, I'm in a good mood. Boom, out I go. And then I'm on top of it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But also. And also. But also because I'm friends with, you know, very close with Bill Burr. And you know what he's explained going on those talk shows, especially someone like Conan, it's just like, he's got you. Those guys got you, and their goal is that you can just. They'll set you up, and you set them up, and it's like. It really is like a beautiful dance. And for someone who, you know from acting and working with actors, and then also on top of that, you know, having the musical abilities and timing from acting and music, I mean, you. You must. I know you said you probably didn't feel like it, but, dude, you know, you and Letterman together, you and Carson together. I mean, that it's. It's a beautiful dance that. I mean, none of us could tell that you were nervous at all.

[Jeff Daniels]

No, but it's the ability to tell stories, you know, on the fly.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

You know, I mean, you don't have to suddenly become Robin Williams or Marty Short. Yeah. Just kill like those guys do. Can you tell a good story that has, you know, rhythm to it, and you learn how to do that, and, you know, that comes with time and figuring out how to do it. But it's the same thing with the gigs, you know, is sitting down in that chair is the story leading up to it. And then here comes the song. It's almost like a mini musical, except I'm doing the book and the. And the music. And so, you know, I've learned how to do it. I enjoy the challenge of that, but it was guys like Stills and Arlo and Neil Young and Steve Goodman. Later on, Lyle Lovett, Christine Lavin, John Hyatt, Keb Mull, Stefan Grossman, the guys who picked up an acoustic guitar and could do it. Jason Isbell has that great album, Foxes in the Snow, you know, just Jason with an acoustic in a studio in New York City. I love that. I just. That Crosby, Stills Nash and Young and Deja vu was the trigger to send me, you know, on my mate on my way toward an acoustic guitar, which I bought my first one in 76 and have been playing one ever since.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You still have that first one you bought? Yeah, I love that. Oh, Joe's tried to. Joe. Joe's trying to buy it off here. I'm sure he's like, listen, man, you will get rid of that thing. I'll pay top dollar.

[Jeff Daniels]

I don't love it. I'm a Martin scru snob now. But I. It was a Guild D40. That's. The neck's too skinny, the body's too big. I played it for about three years. Then I saw a friend of mine playing a Martin Om and I'm just.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Going, oh yeah, dig it, dig it. So how much When I was talking about this record and doing the first one where you have the three guys, you know, and then you were lucky enough that later, I mean, it's been almost over a year, I think, at least since we did that first record and to really dig back into this and then find out the interesting story behind this, you know, for all the listeners and. And Jeff, I don't know how familiar you are with the backstory of this, but before we get into some of the tracks, you know, like I mentioned, they play their first gig at Woodstock, then they come out with the first record. Neil, by the way, at this time is. Is laying in the back. He actually played with them at Woodstock, but he is his own person. He's uncompromising. The first record comes out, it's the. This enormous hit. It's not. It doesn't like drag. It doesn't take time to blow up. It blows up. And people are calling them a super group amongst. With all the different singles, it almost defies explanation that. That they're going to be adding Neil Young to this band. It's already a perfect trio. It's like, how could it get much better? And by the time they get to this record, this album, basically what we were talking about for a moment and I mentioned it to you, Jared, why you'll find this interesting as a Beatles fan. This is the White album. This is a fractured record. This is not a collaborative effort. There are them playing together and working on certain things for. For certain moments. But this is basically a member of the band, excuse me saying, I'm gonna go to the studio, I'm gonna do a song and if you want to come in, cool. But if Not. I could give a. I'm working on this alone. Some of these sessions. I think I saw somewhere that 800 hours. Yes. Stephen Stills estimates the album took around 800 hours of studio time to record. Sometimes they'd be doing 80 takes of some of the songs. Before I get any further. What's the most amount of takes you ever did in a scene? And what was it for? Whoa.

[Jeff Daniels]

We were close to. I want to say 78, please. On the Purple Rose of Cairo, the Woody Allen movie. Wow. It was a oner. A one shot of a four page scene and I'm sitting in. In a. In a Ferris. A Ferris merry go round.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Which they had found somewhere in Brooklyn. And it was a real one. We were inside and so it was all kind of built for us. Great, Terrific. So I'm sitting here with Mia Farrow and it's a love scene and the camera slowly pushes in. No cuts, no close ups, nothing. And at the end of the four page scene, there's a kiss. That's it. Well, we're shooting. The problem is were located about two miles from the JFK airport. So the flight pattern of the planes either taking off or landing was just under four minutes, which was about the time it would take to do four pages a minute a page. So we would get to. And you're doing the scene and the camera's coming in and we're on the last. We're on. We're now we're at three pages. Top of fourth page, here we come. And you can hear the plane. You can hear the plane landing. And you kind of speed it up to try to get to the kiss. And then cut. And they look at the sound guy, he goes, no, I heard the plane. So Woody just kept going. And it was 78 takes. And I don't think we ever got one that I know we didn't because then we go, well, let's go into editing, we'll see what we got. Because he didn't want to do close ups.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yes.

[Jeff Daniels]

Oh, he couldn't cut around a plane. So about four weeks later they built a merry go round up in Harlem in a studio. And we shot it in like five takes.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, there it is. Wow. Was. He wasn't like. Was he. I mean, he feels like a very particular person, you know, about what he wants. Like in something like Purple Rise of Cairo or Radio Days. Was. Were they long shoots? Because I always feel like he was. He was very good with the budget that he got because he's not getting a lot of Money for his movies or at least, you know, you must say at the beginning, I mean, he is one of the, you know, best directors of all time. But still, is it. Are his shoots long or what was the longest full shoot not seen? But just. If they're doing 800 hours to do a record. What was the longest shoot you were ever on?

[Jeff Daniels]

Well, Woody. No, I mean back, back then. Woody, we were usually finishing by 5:30, especially if the Knicks were playing at home.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Sure, we're gonna play clarinet somewhere today.

[Jeff Daniels]

We'll come back, we'll go into the close ups tomorrow morning. Thanks everybody. And he's go, you know, I mean, it was no, they were, they were very professional. You come in ready, he wants to see what you want to bring. To all the great directors. Did Woody, Robert Altman, Mike Nichols, Jonathan Demme. Oh my God, on and on and on. They don't come in and tell you what to do. They, you know, Altman told me 90% of what I do is casting. Oh, okay, go show me what it is.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I love that.

[Jeff Daniels]

Okay, good. Let's move the camera. You know, sometimes you get nothing and that's, you know, come in and show them what you think it is. That's why they hired you. And Woody was like that. You know, he said, with the script too, he first day he goes, okay, well, you know, this isn't the Bible, so if you want to, you know, change a word here or there, just go ahead. You know, if I need you to say it the way I wrote it, I'll tell you. And you could, you could loosen it up a little bit. And he was fine. He wanted it as natural as possible. And, and you know, that just makes you want to make what he wrote work all the way.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what was the longest shoot? Not. Not seen, but just longest project. The way they talk about Eyes Wide Shut being almost like almost two years. And that's Kubrick, who of course is very particular. And you know, of course that must have been interesting working with a, With a married couple, with Tom Cruise and Nicole. But I mean, you've been on so many different projects. What was the longest? From. From the day you showed up to the day you left.

[Jeff Daniels]

You know, I know. I don't. I mean, the television series, like Newsroom. Sure, yeah, yeah, obviously seven months, but you're shooting nine, ten episodes.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Movies? No, I was never on one of those. Were five months over and we're stuck in Romania on that. I, you know, I did, I did a 28 hour day once what was that on?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Is that the provost.

[Jeff Daniels]

In the late 80s called the Crossing George Washington. And it's one of those where you got the location. You got to get it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

You know, we tried to get it and. And for whatever reason, now it was a day shoot that turned into a night shoot that turns into dawn, and now they're putting blacks over the windows because it's 8:30 in the morning and it's got to be night, you know, And. And you. You don't know your name. You don't.

[Josh Adam Myers]

My John Adams. Who am I? No, you're John Quincy Adams.

[Jeff Daniels]

George Washington. I had no idea who I was.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Wooden teeth. No Wooden teeth.

[Jeff Daniels]

Did.

[Josh Adam Myers]

They did it. Oh, that's a bummer.

[Jeff Daniels]

Too much time in the makeup chair.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Dig it. All right, let's keep going on with this. All right, so like I was saying before, this is the White Album. They're doing all these takes. They hear Neil Young do the song Helpless, and the band flips out, and they know how special this guy is. So they say, which I think.

[Jeff Daniels]

I think if I read this somewhere, he said, great, we've got the basic tracks. I'm gonna take the tapes and go home and mix it myself.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yes. Yes. It's. It's basically they. They. I'm skipping ahead to what I have, the notes that I have for this. But it's basically when he played it for them, they're so blown away. I mean, that's when they're just like, we're not worthy. Like, they understand. Guy has a gift. And they say, no, we're not touching this. Like, this is. This is a perfect thing. And it's also like, you know, the song is. Is so in a sense, autobiographical to. To him because of what he had been through in the 50s where he's diagnosed with polio, and he's basically never been the same. It's one of the only songs on the record that everybody plays on. So it's. It's very interesting, too, which we'll come back to, because I got a good question for that one, but give you a little. We're giving everybody a little taste. We're going back. We're doing a Christopher Nolan right now. So the record company is all on board of having Neil Young. He says, I'll join. But since he's uncompromising, he's like, I'm in la. I'll do a song. But also he will walk away if he isn't feeling the vibe that they're giving. So this record is each member doing their Own songs. And if you see, the first four tracks are all individual, right? The same person wrote it, that sang on it. Maybe they do some harmonies, but if not needed, it doesn't work. They don't use it. This is not a group project. The songs, except for Woodstock, Almost Cut My Hair and Helpless, were recorded as individual sessions by each member, with each contributing whatever was needed and agreed upon. Young appears on only half the tracks, with Nash stating he generally recorded his tracks alone in Los Angeles, then brought them back to the recording studio to put our voices on and took it away to mix it.

[Jeff Daniels]

Do you think that. Because, you know, because I've heard we came together as a group and then we added Neil, but we were always going to go off and do our own things. This was never going to be, oh, yeah, can we stay together? This was going to be, we're doing this and then we're all going to go off on solo. Maybe we'll come back, you know, but. So if Stills writes the song on Deja Vu, is Stills the boss in the.

[Josh Adam Myers]

From the. From the understanding that I got from my writer, DJ Morty Coyle, shout out to him. It's. It's basically, this is. This is the White Album. This is John Lennon, this is Mrs. Ringo, everybody bringing a track, saying, I'm recording and I'm doing this, and you can add what you can, but there's a little bit more collaborative on the White Album because the band still plays on it. Dude. If you look at the album cover for this in big letters, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and then the bassist, who. They're all labeled like the basis. Jerry Reeves is written on there very small, and Dallas Taylor's on there very small. But this is. This is a. A singular. It's basically everybody bringing their vibe and them coming together and them cutting this into a record together. It's really interesting. Whereas compared to the first record, it was more of a group thing. You know what I mean? I mean, everybody probably bought more ideas, to my understanding. But. But this is. This is really cool. And then this is really why I'm so happy to have you on for this. Because, you know, with the way that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, especially after this, has done so much on the spectrum or across the spectrum with their individual careers, I see the connection to your career because similarly, like, you know, the way they see. They're like, wow, like, David Crosby did this and wow, Stephen Stills did this. You have a very, very similar career with. With all the different things, you know, not only now with With. With the music, but the acting and working with James L. Brooks, working with Sorkin, working with others. Like, you've worked on so many projects with so many incredible people and playing these iconic characters, but just like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who are blending four powerful voices, does that remind you of any ensemble that you've worked on where every personality, in a sense, had to fight for space, but just to still make it single?

[Jeff Daniels]

You go in, whether it's a play or a movie, tv, you go in wanting it to be a great collaboration where it's a blend and maybe different from music. You know, who gets the solo here. I don't like what you did there. I mean, that doesn't happen on a set. You don't do a scene and then, you know, say to Meryl Streep, meryl, you want another one. You know, it's more of a. Of a chemistry thing. You're. You're seeking that. At least. I am. You're seeking that going in, whether it's with Jim Carrey on Dumb and Dumber. You're just trying to bounce. You're trying to play tennis, verbal tennis with. Whether it's Jim on that movie or Meryl and Heartburn or anybody else in anything. It's all about plugging in and trading licks.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

On the same song, which is the scene you're doing.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

You can't do it by yourself because there are two people in the scene and one person wants one thing and you want something else, and that's. That's why you have that scene drama. So it's a. It's a little different. I haven't run into a lot of people who are, you know. Could you just stand a little closer? I'm my close up, you know.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

I haven't. I haven't run into that too much. I. I worked with people who didn't tolerate that, who were far bigger than I was. And I learned early on that it was more about making the people that are with you as good as possible.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And what actually go off of that. What actor that you've worked with, you probably early on. Do you think you learned the most from Meryl?

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah, I did a couple things with Meryl Heartburn. And then. What was the other one? Oh, it was over the hours. And she just plugs in. She's so moment to moment. She's so prepared, she's so professional, but she's listening to you and she's. Whatever you're giving her, she's using. And so that whole thing of, you know, acting in front of a mirror. And, and, man, when you plug into Meryl Streep, I could imagine suddenly it's like, it's, it's. It's the chemistry that everybody. That magical thing, chemistry. And I, you know, and I think Stills. And again, going back to that Chicago concert I saw, you know, Stills and Young were playing off of each other.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yes, yes, we're going to talk about.

[Jeff Daniels]

That, you know, ego and all of that, but, man, they learned how to do that with each other. And that's a lot of what, what a. What a good scene with a couple of actors who are listening do. And so in that sense, it was similar.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Well, and I want to. I want to go right into what you just said, because that takes us into the first track, which is Carry on, which is a Stephen still song. I love that you said that about playing off one another. Because one of the reasons. Because Steven still is such an incredible guitar player. And then to have someone like Neil Young, who also is. It's kind of like as a comedian, you know, when you hang out with a group of comics that are funnier than you because it makes you better, like you want. If you're the funniest guy in your group, you know, the guy started with, you know, Gerard Carmichael, Angelo Bowers, who unfortunately is not with us anymore, but two of the most brilliant comics I've ever met, which took my game up. And even now spending time with Burr and Big J Okerson, I mean, and being here in New York, it's just. It ups your game. And I could see why someone is talented as Stephen Stills would want to have someone like Neil Young in the band because it's going to make him a better player. And I feel maybe not so much, you know, where this is, where Carry on isn't the, you know, the guitar song on the record, but it's, it's. It is the first track and it does have one of Stephen Stills, you know, because at the time, everybody was doing this open tuning, like alt tuning of their songs, and Stephen Sills ends up putting this together. Neil Young, though, isn't on it. You have Stephen Stills leave. He does basically everything. Lead vocals, harmony, acoustic, electric organ, bass, guitar, percussion. David Crosby brought in do the harmony. So is Graham Nash. I think this is the perfect song on the record to open the album with. I don't think any other song would draw you in the way that Carry on does your thoughts on it.

[Jeff Daniels]

I agree. I agree. It grabs you immediately.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It's. This is like, I Put this onto the gym. And I was like. I mean, it still kind of pumped me up. It's just. It's. There's. This is the real moment. Because, of course, like, Sweet Judy Blue is. I'm gonna. If I It up. Sweet Judy Blue eyes. That's the main. That was the big one. Off the first record. Yeah. Which is one of the greatest songs ever written. This is arguably probably my favorite Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song. I. I feel like it's. It's just everything about it I love, you know, and then also finding out about kind of what's going on, which we're going to talk about later as well, which is like, you know, Graham and Joni are dating, but they're breaking up. David loses his girlfriend. Neil Young is just tough to work with. I mean, these are. These are real issues. So this song, I feel, carries a. A much deeper feeling and meaning behind it. And we've talked about, like I said, the career, you know, and Carry on is a way, you know, we're halfway through the recording, they realized they needed this song. And in a way, it's almost like advice to the band. We were talking about your career at the beginning, and we said, you've done so much. Was there a point in your career where you've done so much? But you hit a point and you said, what else do I have to accomplish? Well, I guess I just have to carry on.

[Jeff Daniels]

Oh, I'm there now. And the Carry on part is the really. I really. You really want to carry on? No, you know, I think that back to the song. I think if you. If you liked their first album.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

We need something that reminds you of that first album. And Carry on is that song.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Sure.

[Jeff Daniels]

It's that. Look, you know, we're not going to go completely different until later when we bring Neil in, but here's something that, you know, is harkens back to that first album that you loved so much, and then we'll go on from there. That's what Carry on feels like. A good kind of, you know, for those who like the first album, this is. You're gonna like this first song. That's what it feels like.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It really does. It really does. Why you feel like, are you done? You're not gonna act anymore? Or, like, are you just. Is it.

[Jeff Daniels]

No, you know, it's. It's. You kind of, you know, call me if you need me.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Versus chasing.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You're chilling, dude.

[Jeff Daniels]

You just have to enjoy 50 years of pursuing.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

And, you know, I. I definitely. You Know, once I did To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway, which I did for a year. I came out of that and I could be done. Yeah. I felt like I had accomplished whatever it was I was going to accomplish. Looking back, yeah, I did it. Now other things have come along, I've done them. But now it's, it's more about challenging yourself as an artist and, you know, being focused on some other things. I have a theater in Michigan. The music I'm really enjoying.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

You know, I can play clubs or, you know, 500 seaters all over the country and sell out, you know, so, you know, that's, that's as interesting to me now, if not more so than eight times a week on Broadway or. Yeah. You know, another night shoot in Louisiana, you know, so we'll see. I mean, it's not to say there are a couple things that are out there that are, you know, possibility of happening that I want to do.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Because I haven't done them yet. I haven't played that kind of character yet. And if it comes through, which I hope it does, great. But. Well, just going, yeah, call me if anybody wants me, you know, is there.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Who's the director that, if they called you? I don't know if you want to answer this, but who's the director that, if they called you, you, you would in a second be like, yeah, I'm there.

[Jeff Daniels]

Scott Frank. Really did. He direct, wrote and directed Godless and. Which we did on Netflix, a big Western. And I won an Emmy for that, thanks to Scott. He just did Department Q on Netflix. He did Queen's Gambit. He's really a good writer, director. And yeah, if he were to, you know, I'd go with him, you know, if he emailed me, go, I got something for you. I'll go, what time do you want me there tomorrow?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I'm sorry, dude. I'm playing a gig though, in, In Tulsa. It's a 400 seater. If you cancel, cancel it. Dig it. All right, let's move on. To teach your children. Probably, you know, one of the. I'd say, why probably the, the, the biggest, long lasting song. I feel like that might have come off of this very interesting story behind it. So this is a Graham Nash song. He wrote this while he was still in the Hollies in 68, but he wrote it very much at first like a Henry VIII by Herman's Hermit. So not the country version. It was stills, the one that told him to change it to make it have more of A country song. Graham saw his. I saw this photo of a toy hand grenade in Central park by a famous photographer that I forgot to write her name down. I don't know if you know. And there's a moment where he thinks, you can either teach your child to be good or bad. And also a little side note, Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead plays slide guitar on this little interest in Factoid. Are you a Dead fan?

[Jeff Daniels]

No. Really? And it's not a judgment at all. I just never hooked into him and. No, no, no. I went John to Bruce Springsteen in the late 70s and never look back.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, dude. There's two guys that are. Two guys that are awesome to follow, but I was. I fought the Grateful Dead for years. And then for doing the podcast, man, having. We had, you know, Senator Al Franken. Remember, he's a guy. He's the reason I'm still doing the podcast. I was gonna quit. And he goes, you can't quit. You're halfway through, man. This is groovy. And then he. His excitement, it rubbed off. And they all told me, listen to the live. The albums are good. Listen to live. I started doing that, and now I love them. But here. But let me get to the question. Well, actually, before I get to the question, you tell me your thoughts on teacher children. Because the message, everything, it's. It really is, you know, being somebody that's a father. I mean, does this song hit home in a different way, or is it just always been something that you loved and. And felt connected to?

[Jeff Daniels]

It was okay, you know, I mean, I wasn't Nash again. Nash wasn't the guy that pulled me in. Sure. Our House is a nice song, you know, that's nice. Teach your children nice. That's, you know. Sure. Yeah. But what still's doing.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

I remember Nash saying somewhere that when they brought Neil in, he. He gave us an edge, you know, and he probably gave Graham an edge because, you know, the. The songs Graham was writing, except for Military Madness, which was pretty on point. I don't know who wrote Ohio, but, you know, Neil gave them an edge and really an edge sometimes. But, yeah, there's. Some of the softer stuff is very nice. You know, the harmony is terrific. That's wonderful. But, you know, I'm. I'm kind of. Where are still songs? Totally.

[Josh Adam Myers]

This isn't my favorite, but like I said, it's definitely the one that I knew immediately when this came on. But. But to take it to the meat and potatoes of the song, though. So more than ever now, we're we're seeing a world where parents have the option to teach their children that grew up in the. With a. With hippie parents, and they teach their children to be empathetic. Or you have these. These. These new. I'll call them new parents, but that are. That are tough, and they're teaching their. Their kids, you know, not to care about their neighbor. Children are the seeds of the parents that plant them, basically. To use a lyric from one of the songs that's going to be coming out later, do you think, where he ever can get back to the garden, where we can, you know, get back to people that are open to the other?

[Jeff Daniels]

I hope so. Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I think that's, you know, the hope, basically. I don't know how or when. Right now it doesn't look possible. Everybody's divided. You know, the people in power are basically doing what they want and, you know, who's going to stop them? So I hope so. I've always felt that, you know, I go back to Reagan and Tip o' Neill and Obama and John Boehner, you know, they. They got in a room and they came together on a deal or they figured something out, and you don't get everything you want. You get. You get as much of what you want as possible, and you're serving something bigger than yourself. And until we can get back to that, I don't see it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

I think. I think it's going to come down to the people in the country who either like what's going on, you know, a year, two years from now, three, four years from now, or they don't, you know, if we still have elections. I hope we do. I hope.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah. Yeah. It definitely. It definitely feels like once, you know, 2000. Well, really 2014-15, when, when. When that, you know, that entity came into our political stratosphere, it felt like the, you know, the. The puppets out of the box. And it's like. It's just. It's just. How do you get that thing back in there once you've cranked it up and it's popped out? It's like, you know, I feel like people are only going to be leading that way because on that side, and, and it's. I do think. Listen, I. I do think they're. They're. That you still have good people in this world. But I completely agree with you. So what do you. So then how can you. As a father.

[Jeff Daniels]

And I think. I think. Oh, I just. I just think people will. Will get back there. We'll get back to that at some point. It's. It's not. This is not new. What's going on now. Maybe it seems like, you know, and in a lot of ways it is more aggressive towards something that. That eliminates people or discards people, you know. You know, and kind of tramples on what we thought what democracy was. But it's. You know, there have been politicians forever.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

That have gotten into office and done things and somebody had to. Where are the guardrails and where the checks and balances and all that stuff? So we'll see. We'll see. I mean, it's up to the people. If the people want this, then it will stay. If. If in a few years they don't, then maybe they'll go to the election elections and vote for something else. We'll see. But it's not up to an actor to decide. I know that. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

What. What. When. When you were becoming a new father, what was something that your father and. Or mother taught you that you passed along to your children?

[Jeff Daniels]

Well, invest in yourself. Which I've done. For better or worse, you know, as an actor, you choose projects that. That you want to do. Yeah, I've kind of done that. Picking up the guitar, writing plays, doing a theater company. Yeah. That's me investing in me and whatever talent I have. Just trying to see how far I can take it. Yeah, that. But, yeah, my. My parents were. Man. Treat everybody the same.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

He really was. My dad was. Was. If I ever see you treating one of the kids in town who doesn't have a lot of money. Poorly. He didn't have to finish the sentence.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Good man. What a good man.

[Jeff Daniels]

Company and in a small town, was one of the successful business owners. He was the mayor for a while. He ran the school board. You know, he's. What. He was like Atticus Finch in this little town.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

But, man, he would Some. Some guy who is barely making it with. With a family. And he'd come into the lumberyard and dad knew and the guy was having trouble paying the bills, and he would say, come on up to my office, and he would sit with him for half an hour and he would tell the guy at the end of it, you know, don't worry about it. You know, you pay me when you can. All right? And it was just private. He didn't do it for show. It was just private. He took care of people who had less than he did. And that was just. He would tell us that, but then he would show us that by example. And, you know, I've tried to do that.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Wow.

[Jeff Daniels]

I love that, you know, you're on a set with an actor and it's their first show.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

You know, and you use. And you. I've done, you know, decades of what I've done. And you can tell that he's nervous and so you sit with him and you talk to him about the scene or you talk to him about. Well, yeah, what you doing?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Where are you staying? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You just, you kind of, you know. Yeah. You want him to be good. This isn't about, you know, just say your line so we can put the camera on me. It's the opposite of that. And that, that comes from my dad.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And that's why you work and that's why you've had a 50 year career, because you do that and your dad taught you. That's incredible. That really is incredible, man.

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah. Unless you're an. Then I'll kill you. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

There'S a laugh.

[Jeff Daniels]

I've seen stars do that to people who were being divas. Oh, my God. So I. I have that in my back pocket, but I rarely have to use it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, I love that, though. I love that. And that comedy is what's going to lead into the next question. So I'm very excited about this next one. This is for me and people in my generation. But first, let's talk about the song Almost cut your hair. Cut my hair. I'm sorry. This is a David Crosby song. First song on the record that Neil and bass player Greg Reeves are on. This is David's thing, man. It's kind of goofy. This is. He's gonna let his freak flag fly. Hippies find themselves at a point where they're like, do I cut my hair today? And just enjoying the machine, you know, as you know about David Crosby, he was a rich kid in Hollywood and he took that line about the freak flag from Jimi Hendrix. I ask you the question, thoughts on Almost cut my Hair, the song. David, I know you're a Stills guy. Yeah. Love the walrus. Gotta love the walrus.

[Jeff Daniels]

We're coming out of Woodstock, you know.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, baby.

[Jeff Daniels]

And maybe that album had been released for all of us who didn't get to go. And you could tell there was whether it was the end of the 60s, which it was the end of something, or whether it was this kind of diff. We're different. This generation is different. It led to the who, it led to Zeppelin, it led to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Others of importance, you know, the Eagles Jackson Brown, I'm guessing now. But it, it was a turning point. And for them to come out with Almost Cut My Hair, it harkens back to, you know, when you grew your hair and they made fun of you. You know, Bob Seeger in that song, you know, Maine Turn the Page, you know, he has a lyric about, you know, they make fun of his hair. He says, that girl or is that a boy? And here's Crosby and Stills, Nash and Young going, keep the hair long. You know, it may be a couple years after Woodstock and we're going into the 70s, but, you know, don't lose the ideals, don't lose the principles that we were fighting for when we weren't stoned out of our minds, you know.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

You know, I kind of look at it as, you know, it wasn't a fad, it wasn't something that we just went through and now we're over it. We're all going to go corporate. It's. Hang on to that. That's the message I get. It's so on the nose. And I think read somewhere they almost didn't put it on the album. But then I think you've got Stills in, Young going back and forth on it, even on the album and certainly live. That's makes the song just elevates the song.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, I want to, I want to focus on. Let your feet. I can't even say it so hard. Let your freak flag fly. That is hard for me to get out right now. So you've done, you've done so much with, with, with, with drama theater and, and just being such an accomplished actor, but, you know, were cast in one of the most successful comedies of all time and arguably one of my favorites by two of my favorite directors. What is that like walking in there, having to, and I don't want to call it prove yourself, but working with someone like Jim Carrey, who at that time was the biggest comedic actor, and not saying you hadn't been in comedies, but playing Harry, you know, versus Lloyd, I, it's just like, are people trying to talk you out of this or are you fighting for this part? Like, how do you let your freak flag fly in a Farley Brothers movie with Jim Carrey?

[Jeff Daniels]

It was a, it was a freak flag flying moment, that's for sure. Because, yeah, I, I, the career was slowing down. I wasn't doing things that were interesting to me. I was a supporting actor and dramas and it was okay. But I knew I could do comedy. I had done musicals and I knew how to time. I could be in front of 600 people and I knew how to land the joke. I knew how to set it up. I knew, I mean, you either have that ability or you don't. And I never did stand up, but I did do comedies in theater and so I knew I had that and I hadn't yet done it on film. And so I went out to LA because I had done a couple of independent movies in the early 90s, late 80s that nobody saw. And I told my agent I got to be in something that people actually see. So I went out and auditioned for five movies and I got called back on three of them. Two. One of them was Dumb and Dumber, and that was the one I wanted. And, and I went and met with the Farrelly brothers and then they wanted me. And then I had to come in again and read with Jim and the Farrellys. And you know, I found out later they had been through 50 actors, really. Names, names, Friend Jim calling friends of his going, come on, man. Okay, but you know, 10 million. No, it's a smaller, you know, they wanted too much money because. And it was also Jim at the time, all he was was Ace Ventura. Yes, it's true, he had shot Mask, but it wasn't out yet. As we're, this is April, we're gonna start shooting Dumb and Dumber the end of April. And in the middle of shooting, he flew to Cannes on a weekend and Mask premiered and it became huge.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

And then later when they released it in the fall or winter, that's when Jim became, you know, capital letters. But at the time, you know, he was, he really wanted an actor. He was pursuing, you know, name actors for it. And they just kept turning it down. I mean, because you read it and you're going, okay, well, 12 year old boys are going to think this is their Citizen Kane but, you know, movie going public and do you really want to get in a scene with Ace Ventura? Because Jim is, you know, I mean, when Jim turns it up, you know, as, as Chris Guest used to say, you start at 11. So. Yeah, but, but I wanted that. I wanted to work with someone what I consider to be a comedic genius. And I, and I, I, I learned quickly to let him lead. Yeah, you want Jim to lead anyway. And Jim, on the other hand was going, I need someone who's gonna make me listen. I don't want to do my solo thing where I just, you know, take over a human tornado and everyone stands. I really want to, you know, make It's a buddy Buddy movie. I've got to have an actor who makes me listen, or at least I can listen, too. And so that became kind of the little formula where. And also, if you let Jim lead, you follow. You're like a puppy on a leash. And you can see me where Jim. And there's like a half second delay. Harry. What. You know, all you have to do is, like, being jerked. Okay. You know, and then you go. And so that. That allowed us to kind of, you know, and then we would get into trouble and I turn on him or yell at him or something. But it was, you know, a comedian and, you know, this. They'll try to top you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You sure?

[Jeff Daniels]

Yes. And so it's that thing of, here's the joke. Well, I'm gonna come. Well, I'm gonna come. Well, I'm. You know, and the next thing you know, it's, what are we doing? What are we doing? And on the. On the first Dumb and Dumber that it was, maybe there was one ad lib. You know, what's the most annoying sound in the world? That was an ad lib. But other than that, everything was written. It was. It was per the script. The Jim and the Fairlies had been over it, and this is how it's going to go, and you just executed it. And. And he couldn't have been nicer, more collaborative. If I had a punchline, he set me up. If I had one, I set him up. I mean, we were. It had to be a team. And that came from Jim wanting it to be a team.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Wow. And we'll talk about a. I think they were just the kings of the 90s. The. The. The Fairlies with, I mean, Kingpin, Dumb and Dumber, something about Mary. I mean, just some of the funniest movies of, like, my. My late teens, early 20s. And to be able to work like. Like Jim. I mean, you saw it immediately as a comic. The clips I've seen of him at the Comedy Store and just how talented he was and going into living color. Were you. Were you intimidated at all? Or you just like, all right, this is groovy. Like, this is exciting. This is what I need to get out of my rut. I mean, because like you said, you had done some independence, you know, did it come back?

[Jeff Daniels]

Did you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Did you do Speed before and then, you know, or was it like, I.

[Jeff Daniels]

Did Speed before that? And we were shooting. And Speed came. We were shooting April to the end of June, I think.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

And Speed came out in June. And Jim had masked at the Cannes Film Festival. And then that was. So we both had something come out. But. But, you know, I was in speed, you know, not intimidated. No. I just wanted to execute what I was supposed to do. And especially in Jim's. Jim scenes where we're doing it together, you know, it's not a competition. Yes, I get collaboration, and. And if you're going to compete with Jim Carrey, you're comedically, you're going to lose. So it was a collaboration, and Jim was wide open to that.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I love that.

[Jeff Daniels]

And this was my agents, you know, you talked about. There was an intervention before I was to fly from Michigan to LA to start, you know, doing wardrobe for Dumb and Dumber. There was an intervention. I had three of my agents, two in LA and one in New York, on the phone at midnight before getting on the plane the next day saying, we're going to stop this from happening. This is not. You're not going to do this movie. This is a bad career move. You're going to regret it for the rest of your life. To be honest, Jeff, Jim's going to blow you off the screen.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Wow. No confidence in you to be able to stay, hang with him.

[Jeff Daniels]

Everything you had done, the comedic genius, that was Jim, you know, and I had shown nothing. I mean, maybe something wild, maybe purple Rosa Cairo, but that was. Was different. This was.

[Josh Adam Myers]

There's comedy and arachnophobia. It wasn't just a horror movie playing a funny character. I mean, but it. Way different. Not as slapsticky and, you know, but Liam Neeson. Liam Neeson. Way before Naked Gun and Police Story was doing dramas. I mean, to be able to. To, you know, you never know. It's. Yeah, but doing that now, I was saying I met the other guy. What? Leslie Nielsen. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's what I meant. But even Liam, too. Yeah. I was right about one.

[Jeff Daniels]

I haven't done it. And so. And they were trying. I was on a path to be a serious, important actor who one day would get a supporting actor nomination. And I just was going, look, I want to. I can do comedy. I want to work with Jim. And I knew then, I mean, not only would I eventually find a way to collaborate with him that worked, but I knew that I had the snowball in the head. I had the tongue on the pole and I had the toilet. Yeah, I had those three scenes.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Jim wasn't in those scenes unless they cut them out of the movie, which was possible. I was going to score, so I knew I had that. And so after I got through the first week of shooting and everybody decided that, yeah, he's going to be okay. Then we were fine. Everything was, yeah, good.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I love that. I love that. And this is, I don't want to be too off topic too, but it's like, what do you enjoy more, doing the comedy or playing the bad guy? Looper.

[Jeff Daniels]

Looper was.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I, I, I love that movie, man. I think you're great in it.

[Jeff Daniels]

So a great director. Joe Gordon Levit, Very nice. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't understand that movie. When do you want me, what do you want me to say? That was. But no, I, I, the comedy is, is more fun. It's more, the target that you have to hit is more, not everybody can do comedy. And you know, Leslie Nielsen and the Naked Guns is a perfect example of that deadpan. You, you look at him and you think that he doesn't know where the joke is, but he knows exactly where the joke is. And, you know, Peter Sellers, guys like that, John Cleese, who went big in Faulty Towers, guys like that stuck out to me. And so that's always been of, of interest to me. And, and then you do, you know, like, again, like a drama like God, Godless, where you playing, you're playing somebody who, I think I kill about 35 people throughout the whole series because it's the right thing to do, you know, but it's, you start doing that and you get into the mind of those guys. That's fun. There's fun in that, but there's also fun and time and a good joke.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Sure. I mean, it's funny because I love being funny on stage, but as an actor, I love playing serious, like, darker characters and the stillness and just even like staring at somebody and not moving is, carries so much weight where I'm such a energetic person on stage. So I can see why playing the darker characters or playing somebody that has to kill somebody, you know, can be, can be fun, but someone especially being able to work in that, you know, in the comedic world, you know, and be able to really dip into your child, you know, those, those things that you had as a kid, I mean, it's got to be, it's got to just be magical. And to be able to do is one of the best that ever did it. I mean, and, and like you said.

[Jeff Daniels]

I mean, we didn't know it at the time. I mean, we. Again, it's the fact that it's still funny to people who've seen it or are seeing it for the first time. You know, decades later is. It's like Pink Panther with Peter Sellers.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

You don't know it at the time, but then there you are, still making people laugh. Yeah, that's pretty great. It was, you know, the fun of it for me was. And actors find little key thoughts that you can hang on to, and you can say to yourself right before you do, you know, whatever you're doing on Thursday, you can grab onto it. And my key thought was, Harry has an IQ of 8. A single digit.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You play it that way, dude.

[Jeff Daniels]

Not seven, not nine. And I would see the number eight, and any intelligence that I may have had just vanished. And then it was rolling, and I was there. I. I held onto that for the whole shoot.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You did such a phenomenal job, man. And it holds up. It's. It's just. You changed teal blue and bright orange shitty toxes for the entirety of history. And I've seen so many people bite off of that. Friends of mine for Halloween. So great job, dude. Listen, if we're gonna talk about it in the next one, another something very iconic years, and we're talking about Helpless, we already mentioned the. The song before I asked the question, like, you know, we said, this is a Neil Young song. This is what he brought to the table. Everybody's blown away. This is one that everybody played on. Did you give your thoughts on it already or did you just. We just mention it. You know, how do your thoughts on Helpless? You know, I know you're Neil Young, guy. You're Stephen, still is Neil Young.

[Jeff Daniels]

You know, again, it was. Neil had the edge. And. And I don't know the lyrics offhand, but it was this kind of. Certainly melancholy. But it wasn't the sunshine that was our house and Teach your children.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Not at all.

[Jeff Daniels]

It wasn't the positive message that Graham was doing. Suddenly, here comes a song called Helpless. And it. Again, it was. They were all doing their own things, which I guess made it. Made it interesting. It wasn't carry on for 12 songs or our house for 12 songs or even helpless for. For 12 songs. It was. There was a variety in there, which. And this. When, you know, however they slotted it on the album, you know, it jumped out.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I love that you said that because this. I always like to talk about the sequencing, and the sequencing on this record is phenomenal. Like, every song, it's. It's a new adventure. But the way they've laid them out in order, it just feels right. Hey, everybody. So you guys have probably heard me talk about how I've been In bands my whole, my whole life. I love writing songs and performing in front of crowds. Just like with comedy. As a musician, it can be kind of hard to cut through the noise and really stand out as an artist. I feel like half the music projects I've been in have ended just because we couldn't figure out the answer to that eternal question of how do we get people to hear us. But then again, that was before there was Distrokid. Distro Kid is a digital music distribution service that brings you your sound to the masses. It's a one stop shop for getting your songs on itunes, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal and many more. What's Deezer? I never even heard of Deezer. How many of them are there? I know all that. That's like the holy grail of streaming services though. And, and getting paid. They want to. We want to get you paid for your music. That's huge because a lot of bands go broke before they get big. But Distrokid collects, collects earnings and payments and sends 100% of these earnings to artists minus banking fees and applicable taxes. And that's just one of the tons of benefits of using Distrokid. You can send big files to anyone with their instant Share feature. You can use the Hyper Follow feature to promote your release and get pre saves on your song. You can even create personal landing pages for yourself, your band, your brand, and whatever you you like. It has a free Spotify Canvas generator too to generate your own Spotify Canvas for your songs. And the Mixia feature instantly masters your tracks for higher quality audio. So if you're ready to bring your band to the next level, it's time to check out Distrokid. The Distrokid app is now available on iOS and Android. Go to the app or Play Store store to download it. Listeners of this show can get 30 off their first year by going to distrokid.com VIP the 500. That's distrokid.com VIP the500 for 30 off your first year, dig it. And to bring it to the question, like I was saying, but the word helpless is that so many people in this world are feeling helpless. And when you started off with that opening monologue as will in the newsroom, and deliver that speech in the pilot about how America is not the greatest country in the world and how you basically in three minutes deliver the fact that you know that this is something that, that people now go to. Did you know at the moment when you did that Speech. Aside from Harry sitting on the toilet, obviously, that that speech would be one of the most powerful moments of your career.

[Jeff Daniels]

No, I knew it was important. Aaron Sorkin had, you know, originally it was. That speech was not in the pilot. That scene was not in the first episode. The episode started with us back at the newsroom talking about what happened at Northwestern. And about 10 days before we started shooting, you know, Aaron came up and he goes, you know, we need to see what happened. So I'm writing a speech. You'll have it in a couple days. Okay. And two days later, he handed it to me and he said, do you think you can do this? And I said, aaron, I've been waiting 35 years for a speech like this.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, I love that.

[Jeff Daniels]

And not just for what it said, you know, because I thought what it said was honest and important and maybe not everybody likes it, but there it is. But also for my career. Yeah, you know, I needed to hit a home run with that speech. It was placed, what, 10 minutes into the first episode.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

So HBO and everybody involved knows that if this show even airs and the day we shot it, we didn't know if we were going to have a series, it depended on me hitting a home run with that speech. It was day three of an 18 day shoot. We love Jeff, we think he's great, but, man, does he have to hit a home run with a speech. Because that speech, if we air, will be when America sets down their remote. Yeah, they're watching Newsroom and I'll give you 10 minutes, I'm out. Boom, they go to something else. So that was important as to where it was placed. And the day of, we shot it in a place called College of the Canyons, which is an hour and a half out of LA because they had Purple Siege, which Northwestern had purple seats and an Auditorium. Number 2, 3 and 4 from HBO showed up that day. Sam Waterstone, Olivia, Tom Sadosky, who were in the cast, drove out to watch it. Sam, who's a friend, later said, I just wanted to see if I had a job or not. That's what was at stake. Yeah, that was what was at stake. And I, and I, you know, and I told Aaron and I knew, and I had been around long enough and I knew that, you know, you've got to hit a home run, you can't hit a single or you got to hit it over the fence, first take. So I did the work, you know, like any any actor would do. You memorize, you rep it, you work it, you work it. You make the choices. You get it. So you can ride it like you're riding a horse. And they, they. They shot this way first. And then when they turned around, they said, are you ready? I said, yeah, and rolled camera. And I, I hit a home run on the first 10.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Wow.

[Jeff Daniels]

I looked over at the video village and they were crying.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Wow.

[Jeff Daniels]

And. And not the performance. Yeah. But what it said. And they knew at that moment, they had a series, they had a show, and they had a McAvoy. And, you know, and then we did a second take and. And Greg Mottola, director, came up and. And said, okay, on this one.

[Josh Adam Myers]

The.

[Jeff Daniels]

Second half of the speech, instead of maintaining the anger all the way through, wish it could be again, the greatest country in the world, melancholy. And so you can see the change. And then we did a whole bunch of other shots, but that became the way we did it was to bang. Here's the big rant. Chew out the little sorority girl. And then wish it could be. And here's what we could be when we didn't belittle education when we did it. Did it, you know, and get emotional about it. And that's. At the end of that day, we knew we were going to have a series.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I, you know, we. We had Rob Lowe on. We brought up Sorkin, and it's like, he's arguably one of my favorite writers, whether it's television or movies. And I saw it from immediately when my parents rented Malice years ago, which I think is this underrated movie that he did, you know, in the 90s, or maybe even the late 80s or early 90s at that. That it's like, I mean, what was. What's that experience like working with somebody? Because you were so many different directors working with somebody who's so dialogue specific and his words are like. Like you said earlier, it's. It's a. It's a. You know, it's a dance. You know, you're. But his words are so, you know, there, there's nuances to every sentence. Like, you know, like, how much fun were you. Were you having working on that show? Working with Sorkin?

[Jeff Daniels]

It's the advantage to. To working on anything where there's just one writer. Yeah, it's his voice. It's his rhythm. You know, Noah Baumbach on Squid and the Whale.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Love that movie. Very underrated. Dude, you were in two. You were in two of my favorite movies that year with Goodnight, Good Luck and Squid and the Whale. Love that movie. So underrated.

[Jeff Daniels]

That was Noah writing about his dad, and there Weren't four other writers on it? Woody, you know, Purple Rose at Cairo, it's having that singular voice. And you have that in the theater. You know, whether it's Broadway or whatever it is. There is one playwright. There isn't a committee of playwrights. There aren't three playwrights that have been on the script. And we're gonna give it to another one, which is what Hollywood does. You know, you get to, you know, the set and 10 screen, you know, five screenwriters, and we're on our 12th draft, and so you can note things to death. Well, that wasn't the case with Aaron. His. You know, and once you pick up his rhythm, it's pretty clear. It's not hard to. You just got to learn it and then be able to roll it. And it really best when you can roll it. And all the people on West Wing, I mean, I studied that show and I told Aaron, I watched that show not just for the acting, but I watched the writing and the way they could just, you know, it was. It was just like going down a. Rapids of a river.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Aaron's the river. And it's. It's. You just gotta find that. That rhythm, and it's there. And I never had a problem with, you know, Aaron, can we talk about this? I don't know what I'm doing here. I don't know my choices. I know. It was always very clear what McAvoy wanted, what he didn't want, what he was fighting against, what he was saying. It was always. You just had to learn it. And, you know, coming from the theater where you didn't change a word, you know, unless you went to the playwright and asked permission. You know, it wasn't until you go to Hollywood where you see the star walking on the set with pages going, yeah, I rewrote the end of the movie. Take a look at it. Okay. You know, that wasn't.

[Josh Adam Myers]

That.

[Jeff Daniels]

We don't change a word. Okay, great. I don't have to worry about rewriting anything in my head. Good. Terrific. Great.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, I love that. Yeah. No, to all the people making anything in the Alien franchise go back to one writer. Please, please let James Cameron do it again. No more Alien 3 or Prometheuses. Sorry, I'm just. That's my note to the Alien franchise. I love that franchise so much.

[Jeff Daniels]

But, dude.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But, yeah, Sorkin, dude. I mean, how many people go back to that speech with Martin Sheen talking to that. That Christian girl going through the Bible verses? I mean, that. That speech is up there with that people I mean, it really. And especially the direction that America's gone, you know, and there's still, like we talked about earlier, the hope of it. I mean, your character is speaking truth. And. And he. Aaron just knows. And everything that he's done, whether it's, you know, sports writers or Saturday Night Live writers or talk show, you know, whatever it is, Social Network, I mean, there's. It's just brilliant line after brilliant line. And. And it's. It's just to be able to see, you know, you do that speech and just actually talk to you now about it. It's. That makes it even better, like, just to know that it was like, you guys weren't even picked up at that point. Did you chunk it at all? You didn't.

[Jeff Daniels]

You didn't.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Like, were there moments when you were doing it or that you were, like, at the beginning when you were running it, like, oh, all right, what am I gonna say here? Or did you see it immediately? You saw it immediately, right?

[Jeff Daniels]

Well, I, you know, I did the work so that I was prepared, and then, you know, I hit it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But definitely hit it.

[Jeff Daniels]

Any actor, you know, you open on Broadway. Any actor that opens and you hit it, you just have to do the work to do that. And so I did. That's all I was just. I did. I love. Was. You know, one of Aaron's heroes, I think, as a writer, was Paddy Chayefsky. You know, he's another guy that, you know, you see William Holden and Faye Dunaway in a scene from Network, and it's. It's. It's Holden and Dunaway, but there are three people in that scene, and the other one is Paddy Chayefsky, and that's what Sorkin does and Scott Frank does. Guys like Noah did it in Squid the Whale. That's when. When it's okay that it's written. You know, the actor's job is to make it sound like it isn't. And that's. That's, you know, that's where we come in.

[Josh Adam Myers]

So I love that. Oh, I love that. All right. Speaking of somebody that wrote words that they had nothing to do with, the next song, Woodstock, was written by Joni Mitchell. And it's also.

[Jeff Daniels]

She didn't go. She didn't go to Woodstock.

[Josh Adam Myers]

She did not go. She. Graham Nash, her boyfriend, told her about it. So this is her writing a song about what? He said she was too busy doing Ladies in the Canyon, but she wrote the song, as Graham Nash described it. It's a beautiful song. I mean, it's Too bad that you couldn't go to Woodstock. You know, your dad.

[Jeff Daniels]

I had. I had a friend of mine, an actor friend of mine from New York who did go. It was a nightmare. I hated it. The mud it took. We couldn't get out. We couldn't get in. We go, oh, my God. I mean, he just. It would just. It just destroyed it for me, you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Know, I wanted to go to woodstock99 so bad. And I'm so glad, in retrospect, that I didn't, because I love the documentaries of the mess of it. I mean, it's. It's just, you know, it doesn't look enjoyable at all. And at least with original Woodstock, there was a vibe and. And, you know, their boobs out and, you know, people dancing in the mud. I mean, you get all. You get Jimmy and you got Sly in the family stone and. And. And former guest of the podcast to headline at Blood, Sweat and Tears, just. Which is crazy just to know that. So I wanted to ask you what was the greatest event that had the biggest impact on you was whether it a concert, a play, or a movie or an album. But like this, I just like to stick to more live. Something you saw live.

[Jeff Daniels]

Ooh, ooh, ooh. I was playing guitar. I was an off Broadway actor in the late 70s, and I was playing guitar, and I. I could finger pick a little, and I wanted to get better. And I went to the Bottom Line and I saw Doc Watson and Merle Watson and T. Michael Coleman, the bass player, just the three of them. And that blew me away, that. That made me want to learn what Doc was doing or Deep River Blues or something, you know, which I can play now. But that was like. That was. That was a mountain to try to climb, to try to. What he was doing and what they were doing together. And just with acoustic guitars that. And to be in a smaller room, like, the bottom line was maybe it was, I'm guessing, 300 seats. And to see somebody that. I had his album. Somebody had turned me on to him, and there he was, and I'm gonna go see him live. And. Oh, my. And he's blind, by the way. You know, that. That. That changed me. That. That sent me to the tablature books of Doc and Stefan Grossman and. And people like that. That. That was. That was a trigger.

[Josh Adam Myers]

How long ago was that? When you said, I forgot. You said, how. How old were you when he said.

[Jeff Daniels]

My 70s. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Something about live music that, you know, I. I don't. I are my writer, Morty. Well, I'll take it to this. We, we had the biggest music critic on the Internet, Anthony Fantanawan, who has this show on YouTube. It's got like 3 million subscribers called the Needle Drop. He's like the dude on the Intern. A lot of younger stuff, older stuff too. He's a really good dude. And I, we had done Prince 1999 and I asked him who's about to make their Purple Rain? And he said, Tyler, the creator and I, he's a young guy, you know, hip hop dude. But all these kids love him. And our writer Morty took his daughter and he was playing Madison Square Garden and I had nothing to do, no shows. And so I went on a whim, don't know any of his songs. And there was a moment where he is singing, rapping, and then, and then the, the. To the one side of the audience and the lights come on and you see the other side, you see the, the arena that, that side and it's all these kids just singing his lyrics. I don't know any of the songs. And it was just. It moved me so much because it was like, man, that's their dude. And, and I remember being that kid and, and it's like, it's why I go to concerts non stop. There's nothing. It's the same way we go to the movies. There's something about sitting in that dark room with strangers, feeling that, you know, that, that moment. But, but with live music, it's. It's different than any other art form, you know, like, whereas a movie.

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah, I agree with you. I, I think theater can be that way too.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, I agree.

[Jeff Daniels]

I think live music has it over theater and, and that AI can't do.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Now what Tyler did.

[Jeff Daniels]

Now Tyler's got to walk on that stage and have done the work to be that good tonight. Just for you in this room. And, and AI can't do that. Movies. You know, I think the day's coming when we can see Tom Hanks at 30 years old.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Sure.

[Jeff Daniels]

And everybody around him is AI and so is Tom. And as long as the audience is okay with that and makes 100 million, we're good.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You know, even, you know, you brought.

[Jeff Daniels]

Up live music thing is different. I think live music is, you know, Springsteen's got to get out there and do it, you know, had to walk on the stage from Four Way street and hit it, you know.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But we can watch Squid in the Whale and feel the awkward moments that, that are in that movie. I remember squirming at certain parts by how uncomfortable it was, whether it was with Jesse's character or your character. I mean, because it's. It's life. And. And that's a beautiful thing. That's. That's something that. That you can't know. Dude. It's every movie I go to see at the AMC when Nicole Kidman. Kidman comes out and does that speech that she made $25 million for. For literally just wearing a nice dress and saying, movies rule. We cry, we laugh. There's everybody cheers for that, you know, and it's. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. But I'll say it.

[Jeff Daniels]

I hope it hangs on.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Not just.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No. And you're. You know, you're. I dig it. I dig it. For sure. All right, Deja Vu. We got a couple more. Let's see. I got a little. Morty just sent me these. Deja Vu is a poignant song with a beautifully baroque intro section, has David Crosby writing about reincarnation in. In the Buddhist belief, that energy never goes away, it just keeps recycling. While Carry on was done in, like, eight hours from start to finish, this track was an arduous and laborious process to get done. Thoughts on Deja Vu, the title track?

[Jeff Daniels]

Not a lot of thoughts about it. I mean, it just. It sounds like that was the one where Crosby got a lot of help. You know, that might have been one of those where. Where, you know, they were jumping in versus just letting him do what he does or, you know. Yeah. Not a lot of thoughts about it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

That's funny that you say that, because when we were going through this, this is one that we were going to skip over, because it just doesn't. It's not bad, but obviously it's a title track of the song. But I like the question that he came up with with. This might seem like a peculiar question, but, you know, going back to any of the characters, if you've done a sequel with Harry, which you got to do the sequel with with Dumb and Dumber two, who would you want to pick up on and see where they're at now or just visit that character again?

[Jeff Daniels]

Oh, man. Oh, I have. Now. I'm trying to remember what I've.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Denton Web, and welcome home, Roxy Carmichael.

[Jeff Daniels]

No, I don't think so. You know, it would. It would. It wouldn't. You know, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in Gettysburg, after the war, you know, we shot Gettysburg and then Gods and Generals, which was actually before the Gettysburg shot it out of order. Yeah. Maybe to, you know, see the third act of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's life Maybe.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You'D want to go back into that time period again and have to, like, you know, dirt it up. And just. Those clothes did not look comfortable. I mean, I know, like, costuming. They. They definitely fluff it up. But, I mean, those are like. You're dressing like a Hasidic Jew. It's probably hot out there. You're wearing.

[Jeff Daniels]

It was Pennsylvania, 90 degrees, 95 humidity, and we were 100 wool. Yeah. Yeah. And we all had, you know, fake beards and mustaches that kept peeling off.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You're like, all right. Is it break out here? Can I. We're gonna put down my musket. Can I take off this 80 pounds of jacket?

[Jeff Daniels]

There was, you know, we. We had, like, the Battle of Little Round Top was. You know, we kind of reenacted that. And the Confederates kept coming up the hill and up the hill, and you've got a lot of these reenactors, these guys that have drove across the country to be in this movie, and they're living in tents, and they're. They're. They're pretending it's the 1860s for four straight weeks. You know, you're in your trailer, you come out, and here they are, and they got their muskets, and they just want to be transported back. You know, they're so into it, they made the movie better because you could run the camera across their faces, and they were into it, you know, and after a take or two of the Confederates coming up, the assistant director had to get on the megaphone and say, all right, guys. Some of you seem to be putting some kind of something in your muskets. They're paper wads. There's something. We've got to stop doing that because they actually. The Confederate actors are feeling. Feeling the pelts being pelted. Remember, this is just a movie, you know, they have to get the guys to stop, you know, kind of tap, tap, tap, but boom. You know? Ouch. Ow. Forgot I got that.

[Josh Adam Myers]

That's hilarious.

[Jeff Daniels]

They were. They were that into it. They were that into it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But that's. That's so groovy, though, man. I mean, like, the people like the movie better. Yeah. I mean, you want everybody to be on board and be excited. And, like, you get real people that are. That's. This is their. This is their gig. They love doing the reenactments, you know, it's better than just getting a bunch of guys from central casting and just throwing on them. You know what I mean, dude? Big ups to. To the director. Who is that? The Ron Maxwell man? He's. And the producers. That's. It's great. I remember seeing that. All right. Our house is a very, very, very fine house. Hunky donkey. This song is written not just amongst breakups, but also tragedy, like I mentioned. Yeah, really heavy. Graham Nash and Joni had just broke up, so he writes a song about domestic bliss. And David, real tragic man. Mourning the loss of Christine. I want to make sure I get this right. Christine Hinton, who gets into a car accident. I think she's on the way to the vet, and the cat jumps on her lap, and it causes her to drive off the road or crash into something, but she passes away. There is domestic bliss on the surface, but there is this absolute tragedy. You know, I don't know if I like this song on this record because it's. It's. I don't want to call it cheesy. I. Because it's not a cheesy song. It's a beautiful song. And over the years, I think I've. I. You know, when I was younger, I might have made fun of it. As I've gotten older, you know, it's. I think it's. It's changed my opinion, but fitting it on the record. I just don't know if it fits with the vibe of this. I feel like this. And, you know, it's more of a teacher, children, but. Thoughts? I don't want to sit here and say it's bad. It's not a bad song. I mean, it's a good song, but. Your thoughts?

[Jeff Daniels]

My wife Kathleen does a sing along to raise some money for diabetes every summer. And that's one of the songs they sing along. It's an easy song to sing along with. It's. Again, it's positive. It's. It's at least you know, to those who are just singing it. Not really worried about what was going on when they wrote it. Yeah, you know, it's pretty. And Graham did a great job of writing songs like that and juxtaposes well with Helpless and, you know, later on with, you know, when Neil was, you know, coming out with Southern man and Ohio and all of that. I mean, it's. To go from one side to the other is, you know, I give him credit for that. That's a lot from a songwriting standpoint, that's a good range.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It is. And speaking of range and starting at a certain spot, your second movie. Movie is Terms of Endearment. And in the movie, you're not. You're not playing the best character. You're playing Deb's husband who cheats on her, and then ultimately she passes. But what was that like for your second movie? Because you're up there with Jack and Shirley and Debbie. I'm acting like I know her. Deborah, I'm sorry you're playing this shitty guy. How hard was that for you as your second film, to play with three powerhouses, especially Shirley MacLaine and Jack? I mean.

[Jeff Daniels]

It was. It was going to. It was like having a seat in a master's class.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I bet.

[Jeff Daniels]

Not just Shirley and Deborah, but Jack. I was 28 years old, and I just kept my mouth shut. And I just. I would go to the set when I wasn't supposed to be working, just so I could watch Jack, watch Shirley, watch Deborah. You know, they. They. I learned a lot on that movie. I was off Broadway. Next thing I know, I'm with those three people. So that was, you know, just hold up your end. And it was. Character was so unlikable that nobody, no, no star, young star with a name at that time wanted to do it, you know? I mean, you cheat on Deborah Winger and then she dies, you know. Come on, pass. You know, I. I was thrilled to get it. I was thrilled to get it. I learned a lot. I learned a lot.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Did. Did they make you comfortable the way that you make younger actors comfortable being, you know, the way? Did you learn maybe that from them? I know you said your father also implied that in you, but, you know, were they giving as well?

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah, Deborah did. She was great with me. She knew I was, you know, a babe in the woods, and. And she had just come off of the success of Officer and a Gentleman. Yeah, she was. She was the Julia Roberts of her time at that moment. And she didn't have to be nice to me about anything. And she was. She really. You know, I felt fine, you know, on the set with her. You know, Shirley was terrific, but she and Deborah were kind of at each other, and so I stayed out of that. And then Jack showed up, and I really didn't have any scenes with Jack, and I didn't, you know, annoy him by sitting next to him on the set. You know, I watched. Jim Brooks brought me. I did. I still don't see dailies to this day, but Jim Brooks asked me if I wanted to see some dailies of a scene that I wasn't in. I said yes. And so he showed me the scene between Jack and Shirley in the kitchen. It was a two shot of the two of them, and Jim or Jack goes into the. I'm one of 106 astronauts. You know, it's that speech. And he did about five takes. And this was. This is back when. And maybe it still is, but back when films. You could kind of rehearse on film, kind of learn the lines as you go, get used to it, find some choices, work off each other. And then about take six, he took off really good. Great. Here comes take seven again. Same, just different. Here's eight, where he's even angrier. Here's nine, where he undercuts it and he goes underneath. Then here's 10 where he does something completely different from the others. And between six through 10, Jim Brooks turned around. When that was the end of the takes, Jim turned to me and said, which one do I use? You know? And you watch Jack give the editor options. Yeah, and give him options, too, that he was chasing impulses. And Meryl does this. You know, that's where I learned that it wasn't about. With theater, where you rehearse for seven weeks and then you kind of lock it. And that's what you do from the first show on. It moves around, but you're supposed to kind of lock it. This is the opposite of that. You're chasing whatever you're feeling at this moment. And if it doesn't work, it just takes number seven, and you, you know, delete it. But to watch him kind of just trust his instincts and give Brooks options and then let him figure it out in the editing room is. It was a different experience than doing the same thing for six straight takes, which is a way to control your performance, where the director only has that. Well, he only did it the one way, so I guess we got to go with that. But Jack was trusted Jim Brooks enough to give it to him different ways so that Jim could work with it. Not only what Jim had written, but Jack's. You know, what Jack took from it and was able to roll with it. You know, that's where film is kind of a lot of fun. That's where the magic happens. And, you know, you only have to make it happen for the first time once. Yeah, you gotta make it look like it's happening for the first time and it's showing up at 312.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Well, I went to see my. My buddies were in, like, Bob Odenkirk and. And Burr and. Oh, my God, I can't think of his name. The guy from Spinal Tap. We're in Michael McKean. We're in Glenbury Glenn Ross. And I went about five different times, and it was cool. Seeing it, some shows it was funnier. Some shows it was darker. And some shows it was, you know, it was. It was a little bit of both. But to see the choices that the actors made, you know, in that moment, because sometimes Bob was even funny, was. Was Mr. Showbob and David. And sometimes, you know, Burr, you know, Burr was always angry the whole time, which was great. But it really. It really was this. This really cool dance and, and going off of what you said about. About Jack. I mean, there's that great Matt Damon story about the Departed talking to him where he's like. Like, you know, and he's like, you know, I wouldn't have lasted so long if I wasn't a good writer. And it's like, you know, there was a scene where he shoots the girl, and he's like, but if you cut right there, you know, but if you keep going, and then I improv this, and then. But if you cut right, you could cut right there. But if you keep going and let the camera roll and this lets him play around. And I think, you know. You know, I know that might have been the first time that he was working with James L. Brooks, but something like as Good as It Gets, where Jim and. And Jack are just, I think, at their best. I mean, it's just such a powerful performance and the writing and the. The story, you know, I. I wonder just, like, just how much, you know, they're. They're just enjoying what, you know, he's being given to say, and then how much Jack, who seems like he just really is. Is so good at. At what he does and especially from. From working with so many great directors over the years that trust him. And, you know, it's. It's. It's great. You get. You've worked with so many great people that, you know, you've been able to really see, like, just the progression between, you know, you know what bad acting is, you know what good acting is, and, you know, what being the character is. And I think someone like Jack or Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep, those people in yourself, it's like you guys live in your characters and you. And you. You understand it, you know what your character wants, and once you know that, then you can have fun, you know, and that's. That's the beauty of it.

[Jeff Daniels]

The other thing that I learned, especially on that movie and from someone as revered as Jack, is that it's because there's no rehearsal for film. It's guesswork. So this is your best guess as to what you think the scene is from this character's point of view, and maybe, you know, or maybe you don't know. And so, you know, Jack from the get go was kind of going, what do you think? If I do this or I do that? And Brooks, who's smart, brilliant. Yeah, try it. Because you never know. You get into editing, and you're gonna wish you had that one where he wasn't as angry. You're gonna wish you had that one where he said, could I try it? Where I just. I remember Jim or Jim said to Jack, he goes, yeah, great job. I have an idea. It's kind of, you know, out on a limb. And Jack said, I love going out on limbs. I get in trouble out there, and I just risk it. Risk it. And that's different than the theater. The theater is. That's inside the rehearsal room. And then, you know, they go, no, don't do that. Come over here. And maybe you find a way to, you know, do the similar thing. But it's, you know, it's weeks ago. This is on the day right now.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Roll it.

[Jeff Daniels]

Boom. Hit it. Give it to them. Now they have it. And now, months later, when they're in an editing room, they've got options. Because I learned that it's. Because it's guesswork. You don't know for sure whether this is the only way to do this speech or the scene. You know, if you're moving on TV and it's 1, 2, 3 takes, got to move the cameras, then you got to make some choices and stick to them, and that's it. But if you give yourself some options, because that's. Where you write the final draft of the movie is in the editing. I did two indies where I wrote and directed and acted in them, and that's. That's where I learned that where I'm. I'm going, okay, the scene doesn't work. Is there. I got. Is there a take where I didn't do. You know, and that's where you write the final draft. And, yeah, Brooks knew that and Jack knew that. And so let me give you a couple other options. And, you know, in the event that you need them.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, I love that. Not to get too off topic, I mentioned Christopher Walken. There's that when he did catch me if you can. And. And he has Spielberg being interviewed, and he's just doing this thing, talking to Leo, and he. He does this scene three different ways. He does it straight. He does it a little bit, like, more intense. And on the last one, he starts Crying or getting choked up. And it's like Spielberg's just blown away. He's like, I never even would have thought of that. He's giving this speech about like, you know, I think it was either being in the military or something, but it was just like, I love that choice. And it's like, that's so fun just to be able to give the director and, and wow them where they don't even think that. Wow. I didn't even think of trying it that way.

[Jeff Daniels]

It's, you know, the talent like Walken does to do that, to give it to him three different ways instead of arguing about the only way my character would do this is asking.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Give it to him three different ways. He's Steven Spielberg. He's probably going to make you look good.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

You know.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

The one that works for the story, which is a whole other thing.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Well, is the choice you're making serving the story probably to bring it back a little bit like the solo that you're doing in Almost cut your hair. Cut my hair. Does it serve the song or is it you just showing off?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, totally.

[Jeff Daniels]

Something that was. That doesn't really fit it somehow and you don't quite know why, but it just doesn't. And again, when I saw Crosby, Stills and Nash and Young in Chicago and when I saw Neil do those single note things way up high, for whatever reason, it was exactly what it needed to be and I completely got it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah. Talking about not touching something, I'm. We're gonna mention it, but for timing, I want to move on because I want to get to country girl. Because I like that question more. But for it's 4 and 20. That was the song that Stills did by himself. When he brought it to the band, they said it's perfect, do not touch it. Everything is great. I wanna, if you have any thoughts on that, you can, or, or on 4 and 20, you can, you can mention. But I want to ask you the question for country.

[Jeff Daniels]

Is there harmony?

[Josh Adam Myers]

I, I, I think so. Let me, let me take a look at the statistics. I'm pretty sure that Crosby and Nashing harmony parts again. They plan to, they plan to at least. And then they refused actually, is what it said.

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah, yeah. It's again, it's completely different from anything else.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It's a still song. It's a still song. It's it still as a song as it can be. Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

A good song is a song that can be sung on an acoustic with just an acoustic guitar. And if it Holds up. It's maybe even a great song. Yeah. You know, that whole trope. But it's different from Country Girl and all the other stuff and Carry on and all the other stuff they're doing, which is at times of those harmonies and the operatic kind of feel and the. To some of those other songs. Here comes 4 and 20, which is just so naked that it jumps out. It's the same way Helpless jumps out.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Just for different reasons.

[Josh Adam Myers]

With. With Country Girl, though, this one's the Neil Young song. And this is made up of two different songs that he had earlier written for Buffalo Springfield called Whiskey Boot Hill, which he had done as an instrumental string quartet arrangement on his debut record. And Down, down, down, which would be. Wouldn't be released till years later on a box set. He added those to a third section that he was calling Country Girl in quotations. I think you're pretty. Overall, it's very densely orchestrated and mournful. Waltz. Yeah. I was saying it's like they already had a suite with Sweet Judy Blue Eyes. So this is kind of like them bringing that. It brings us into a bar where stars are drinking, where people are flirting with the waitress. The third section simply yearns for a country girl to allow him to be her countryman and presumably take her own. Take her away from the city. I really like this one. I, I, you know, I'm not saying I dislike the final song on the record, but I really. If they would have ended the record with Country Girl, I wouldn't have been upset. And I'm not taking anything away from Everybody. I love you. It's a good song, but it's just we were. This was one that we were thinking of. Skipping your thoughts on Country Girl.

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah. Everybody, I love you. Sounds like let's, let's give it a happy ending.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, very.

[Jeff Daniels]

But where Country Girl is, you know, it sounds like Neil wanted to get out of la.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

That's one of my favorites on the whole album.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It really is.

[Jeff Daniels]

Arrangement and the. Where are they going now with. With that whole song, Country Girl?

[Josh Adam Myers]

My question was going to be. But you answered it basically about if you ever wanted to do like a Harrison Ford and just go to Montana. But I feel like, like we already kind of mentioned that, so I wanted to ask you this about it. Let me pull up where's. There's the notes right there. You know, you're a musician. And speaking of this song being three different pieces, like, like how much of, of being a musician do you bring into acting like, like it's I think.

[Jeff Daniels]

It'S easier to memorize because of music and the rhythm. There's a rhythm to playing music, and same thing with memorizing or even doing, you know, dialogue there. You find the rhythm to the sentence that he wrote or she wrote. And if you don't have a sense of rhythm, a musical sense, it can get harder.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Sure.

[Jeff Daniels]

I. I think I. I've worked with some people who didn't, and they were just slower to. To get the lines down. And so. And not to say that you have to have a musical background in order to be a good actor. You don't. But it's helped me. And I think it has to do with finding the rhythm of the dialogue, which is similar to finding the rhythm of, you know, the song, the chords, the lyrics, the melody.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I'm assuming certain. Certain, like, writers, like we talked about Sorkin finding that melody probably was like, oh, yeah, like, I know this groove immediately. Like, he's written the groove for you. But then other people, you probably have to go, okay, like, you know, this is. This is a little different. Maybe. Maybe I'm really. It's gonna have to wait until I get in there with them and. And. And figure it out with the other actor. Right?

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. It's usually again, when it's a single, singular voice that you can hear it. It's like hearing a melody.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

Richard Schiff, who was on West Wing, he came to see Mockingbird, and I told him that all those West Wing guys were great. I went to school on those guys before I did Newsroom, and. And I said to him, I said, and doing Sorkin, it's like music. He goes, no, no, it's melody. There's a melody to the. The dialogue that he writes. And. And he was right. It was more specific.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Man, this is awesome. All right, final song. Let's get you out of here, dude. Last song. Thank you for all the time, dude. This has been such a gift to me, to Jeremiah, and to all the listeners, and please, please come back. Final song on the record, everybody. I love you. Breezy. It's a soulful rocker. It's the only writing collaboration on the record, which is by Stills and Young. We already kind of mentioned it, and I feel like, you know, from everything we've talked about like this, this is a good way to kind of leave it where, you know, the opening message of carrying on. This really leaves a record that has a real sense of. Of struggle and poignancy, both in the subtext, in the actual material, on a note of compassion. And good spirits. Not to be morbid, but with so many losses recently, especially, you know, some of the great musicians like Sly Stone and Brian Wilson and then, of course, Ozzy, which, you know, just to be able to go out the way that he did and tell the world how much he loves him and raise all this money. Right. Because before he dies, what message of love and compassion would you like to leave with this world? I don't mean to be so happy.

[Jeff Daniels]

There's a lot of darkness and a lot of fear and a lot of craziness going on that no one seems to understand or how to deal with. And. And I, you know, as. As. As an older actor who's, you know, a celebrity who, you know, nobody wants to hear from us anymore. Okay. But you try to find something good to do every day for yourself or for someone else. It's Pollyanna. But it's, you know, until we get, you know, I hope, straightened out about being able to deal with each other again instead of hating each other so much, you know, find something good to do for yourself or for somebody else, that's. That's a start that you can do. Can you change the world? Probably not. But can you do that every day? Yeah. Yeah. And so that's kind of all I'm doing at this point.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You're doing a great job of it, man. And I, you know, I love that you brought up your dad and what he taught you, and. And when you have someone like that in your life that you can. That shows you how to be empathetic and love your brother and help people. I mean, even on the smallest scale of you helping actors, I mean, that makes me just so happy to know that there are actors that I look at that are extremely successful that, you know, like, that you put up on, I don't want to say, you know, on a pedestal, but you're like, oh, man, they're. They might be dicks or. And a lot of them that I've met have been very, very sweet human beings. Some of them have been. But it could just be that moment of you never know what they're dealing with in their day. But, you know, to be able to talk to you and. And, you know, hear your story, and especially what you said about your father, man, it's like you really had someone been very beautiful to be able to, like, to teach you about things. And. And I think that is why, you know, even just you sitting down and speaking for an hour and 40 minutes with us, it's like you didn't have to do this. So this has been incredible, and I really appreciate for time and. And the message and the honesty, dude. And, you know, and please do Gettysburg too. Please, please do it, man. I want to know either that or.

[Jeff Daniels]

Dumb and Dumber three, where, you know, as Jim said, they'll call it gum and Gummer.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You know, even giving us a second one was like, really. I mean, dude, it was. It was a swan song. It was beautiful, and it really was. And it's like, dude, it's like Spinal Tap doing another Spinal Tap. It's like we, the people that love it, need it. And. And it's special and. And the things that you've done, whether it's the speech in the newsroom or. Or I remember seeing a arachnophobia on opening night all dude, it's just. Just like I said, good night, good luck, Squid in the Whale. That there was two of my favorite movies that summer. And it's just everything you keep doing. I'll keep watching and please come back on, man. This was. This was so much fun. I can't thank you enough.

[Jeff Daniels]

I enjoyed it, guys. Thank you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

So we ask everybody these questions. We'll make them quick, but I got a new one I'm gonna throw in. First question is favorite song on the record.

[Jeff Daniels]

Country Girl.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Nice. What do you skip over? Is there anything you dislike on this album?

[Jeff Daniels]

Yeah, our house.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Nice. Yeah, dude, because it's the hit. I always say sometimes you hear the hit too much. All right, I'm not gonna filter this one. Can you. To this record?

[Jeff Daniels]

Sure. Yeah, sure. The rhythms change.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, it's all over the place, you know, I mean, teach your children while you're. Is not gonna be. She's like, no, listen, I know it's a first date, but, you know, just. Just ignore this. So we'll skip this track. We'll skip this track. All right, this is the. This is the one I'm gonna throw in. Out of the four members of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Rank them and how much you love them. Starting at the. The lead, you go top to bottom, you tell us which way you're going.

[Jeff Daniels]

Stills, Neil, Crosby, Nash, and, you know, I love them all, but that's the order. Order.

[Josh Adam Myers]

That's the order. All right, what would be your elevator pitch to get someone to listen to this record that's never listened to it? How do you sum this record up?

[Jeff Daniels]

Remember the Beach Boys? Remember the Beatles and all those harmonies? Listen to this. Perfect.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah. I can't, I can't, I can't. You know, I think you said it perfectly. Because I was going to mention that earlier when you were talking about some of the, the artists that you like. Like my dad loved the Four Freshmen. He loved those vocal groups. Groups. And, you know, as I've gotten older, like falling in love with the Beach Boys, falling in love with the harmonies of the Beatles. Even doing. I was we. I just did Steely Dan Asia last night and hearing Michael McDonald was stacked harmonies. There's something about harmonies and there's something very beautiful about Crosby, Stills Nash and Young. I don't know if anybody maybe next to the Beach Boys have done it better. And, and I am, you know, I don't know if we have any. I don't think we have any other records on after this, but you know, to be able to go in order and, and know what they put through this record, I think it's like it's four guys, you know, taking a break from being solo and, and making in a sense an individual solo record and then carrying on. And it's an extension of when, you.

[Jeff Daniels]

Know the story of them being at Mama Cass's house and Laurel Daniel.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Jeff Daniels]

And the three of them cross the. Nash were singing something and then Nash says play it again. Played again. And then it happened. Everybody in the room heard it. And so Deja Vu is like. And this is like, you know, a professional recording of that night in Laurel Canyon.

[Josh Adam Myers]

That's so rad. Jeff, thank you so much for coming on. Buddy. Please come back. I know we've got some more Bruce, you know, which is one of our most fought after artists, but I would love to have you back for anything. We still got another 147 episodes left, so. Your call, man. And, and, and this was just a gift to all of us, so thank you, brother.

[Jeff Daniels]

All right. Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Guys, would I tell you what I tell you? A gift from Emily, the one and only Jeff Daniels. Follow him on Instagram at Jeff Daniels official and on Facebook at Jeff Daniels Daniels music And go to jeffdaniels.com for all things Jeff. Go to his website, make sure you check out his music, upcoming tour dates. He's gonna be in Michigan. Go see his shows. He's incredible. Now we just listened to 1970s Deja Vu by Crossy, Stills, Nash and Young for new music pick this week brought to you in part by Distro Kid Down. I go by the man himself, Jeff Daniels. You can find links to the music on our website, the500podcast.com and if you are in a band or directly, even those bonies These albums are artists and you want your music featured on the 500 website. Send your song to 500podcasts gmail.com. make sure you put the album and artists that influenced you in the subject line. Next week is number 146 with Jefferson Airplane. Surrealist. I can't even say this surrealistic pilla. Pilla. It's my Pilla from 67. Great record. It's got white rabbit. It's got someone to love. It's got everything you need. It's a fun record and it's a good app. Do your homework. We'll see you then.

[Jeff Daniels]

Sometimes I do sometimes I don't Sometimes I'm right sometimes I'm wrong Sometimes I'm gone Sometimes I'm gone for I know down I go Sometimes I'm good sometimes sometimes I'm bad Sometimes I'm hanging on to things I never have Sometimes I laugh sometimes I cry Sometimes I'm true Sometimes I'm a lie before I I know down I go Sometimes I win Sometimes I lose Sometimes I hear myself singing me the blues For I know down I go saund.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Keeping it pleasing for the police nation.

[Jeff Daniels]

On the 500. The 500.

[Josh Adam Myers]

When segregation was a law.

[Jeff Daniels]

One mysterious black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald had his own rules.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Segregation in the day, integration at night.

[Jeff Daniels]

It was like stepping in another world. Was he a businessman? A criminal, A hero?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Charlie was an example of power. They had to crush him.

[Jeff Daniels]

Charlie's place from Atlas obscura and visit Myrtle beach. Listen to Charlie's place wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Next chapter Podcast.