← The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers
The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers
182 - Fleetwood Mac - Self-Titled - Dane Cook
01:27:26
Dane Cook makes his first appearance on the The 500 to discuss Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham’s first album with Fleetwood Mac.
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The 500.
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The 500 JM been walking us down through that 2012 edition so it ain't nothing too new. Hundreds more to go and in need of a friend. The king of peaceful angelo. Talking the 500 until the end Talking the 500 until the end with my.
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Man JM.
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A
On the 500 Talking the 500 until the end I got nothing but love for you Tell me what you really want to do first you love me then you get on down the line But I don't mind I don't mind I'll be there if you want me to no one else I could ever do Got to get some peace in my mind. You know we got to start it out with the opening song. It's Monday Morning. It's by Fleetwood Mac. It's from their 1975 single Self Titled album. Even though it is the tenth record, it's still the first one that they. I think it's the second one that they did self titled to be honest with you. It's also number 182 out of 500 on the 500 with Josh Adam Myers. What's up everybody? Welcome to the only podcast where comedians going through Rolling Stone magazines listed the 500 greatest albums. I'm the comic. I don't know a lot, but what I do know is I love making this podcast and I love you guys for tuning in. So if you're here for fun, stay if you want. If you want in depth, detailed, all this cadoodle, you gotta go find another dude. We're just having a blast here. What is up? What is up? Happy holidays, everybody. I know we're all getting ready for it. I'm getting ready to leave this weekend. I'm gonna be at the Comedy Store on Sunday doing the goddamn comedy Jam. Monday I'm doing Shimmy Shimmy Ya. And then the next weekend, I'll be headlining the La Jolla Comedy Store right outside of San Diego with my good girl Justine Marino. And to close out the year, I will be at the Minnesota House of Comedy doing six shows. I think we're doing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, even a Sunday, which, you know, I'm gonna go rap early and then go to the Benihana across and then two days later, we're doing the New Year's Eve at the House of Comedy. So come one, come all. Joshadamyers.com for tickets at Josh Adam Myers on all social media. And if my agent fucking gets to work, I will have more dates for 2025 to let you know about. But follow me at Josh Adam Myers on all social. Follow the podcast the 500 podcast on all the socials. And you can subscribe to the youtubes Josh Adam YouTube.com backslash Josh Adammeyer79 or YouTube.com backslash the 500 podcast. That's how you watch us watch the full episodes on YouTube every Thursday or get them a day earlier. If you subscribe to the Patreon, $5 a month gets you so much and $25 a month will get you a whole bunch of merch. You'll get the hat, you'll get the sweater, you'll get everything. Go to patreon.com backslash the 500 podcast and join the fleece army. Attention. All right, Fleetwood Mac. Is this our first one? I think it is, yeah. I think this is the first one we've done. What a way to intro somebody that's never heard Fleetwood Mac before. Because you're getting the album right before Rumors this is. And we're gonna go all through that. The. The first grouping of the lineup that will then go on to be one of the most successful rock bands in the history of music. And you search for a guest, you hope you get one good. And then the Heavens. Open up. AKA Emily. And she finds us arguably one of the greatest stand up comics that's ever lived. Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today for the first time on the 500, Mr. Dane Cook. And if you don't know who Dane Cook is, you have been living under a rock for almost 25 years. I would say 20. No. Yeah, about 25. Yeah, I think about 25. He's been arguably one of the biggest selling comedians in the world. Movies employee of the month. Good luck, Chuck. Some of his records harmful if swallowed retaliation were two of the only comedy records. Maybe like I think like maybe one or two other comics have done this and I'm not even sure about that. That have been the best selling in the. Not just in the top 10 but I'd say either number one or number two. But I'm almost positive number one. And this guy right now is on tour doing the fresh new flavor tour. He's got dates coming up in Phoenix, Denver, San Bernardino. Go to Dane Cook.com for more info. But this is why we do the podcast. It was fun to sit down with this dude, man. I am a huge fan. He's one of the reasons I am a comic and he's a good friend. So rate, review and most importantly, subscribe to the 500. Let's get to it. You know, let's not waste any time. Raid review and most importantly, subscribe to the 500. Listen free on all platforms. Anywhere you get your pods. Leave a five star rating. It really does help us. Leave us a review. Leave us a review. Get rid of those negative ones. Let's pump up the good ones. Follow me at Josh Adam Myers on all social media. Follow the podcast at the 500 podcast. Email the podcast@500podcastmail.com Follow the Facebook group run by Crazy Evan. And for all things 500, go to our website, the500podcast.com. Let's do this old school. All right, well, guess there's nothing left to say but here we go with number 182 out of 500 with Fleetwood Mac favor. So just so everybody's listening, we just went through an ordeal to finally get the perfect audio and we had about, about probably about five minutes of. Of pre. Ramp preamble. Is that what it's called? I'm not gonna.
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B
Do you want me to preamble the preamble and catch you back up?
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A
Please do. Because just to preface everybody, you know when you think this is the thing and I and Dane, you are truly a rock star comedian. You are in every in every sense of the word. From the, from the, from the moment you introduced. We're going to get into all that too. When you introduce yourself to Comedy Central in the world. You were a comedian that at me as a young kid was like, you know, or not young kid was in my 20s, but I was like.
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B
I was gonna say, you're older than me.
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A
Damn it. It didn't come. No, wait. But the truth is that you are this rockstar comic. So for, for you to be coming on to do Fleetwood Mac, which is rock and roll, but it's probably the most adult contemporary mellow. And I think of you with Guns and Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, Van Halen. So. So tell me why you're.
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B
By the way, I didn't, I didn't interrupt there. But like you could easily look at like, you know, the chain or. There's a lot of stuff that's pretty hard and heavy coming out of that. There's a lot of ferocity, especially from Lindsay and Stevie. But, but yes, you, you, you. I think you said it's in that yacht rock sort of, you know, it's got that, that sensibility to it. Fair enough.
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A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So. So how are you here for this? And you had gotten into it a little bit about your.
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B
You.
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A
So tell us. Catch everybody back up.
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B
So I always loved. Well, first of all, loved love music. Loved everything from the Rat Pack to a lot of Glenn Miller. My dad was always playing big band stuff. I wasn't really a big jazz guy, but once in a while, like there was a movie that had to do with jazz. What I found is I loved the, the, the puzzling of, you know, harmony and, and the layering, you know, even, even to this day. And this is for a part 2. I love K pop. I'm huge into K pop and, and, and I love it because I think it's probably the best pop music in the last 20 years is K pop. Because of the, the surgical intricacies with how they layer as opposed to just cut and paste or copy paste. They're doing things that I think are sort of reminiscent of like Peter Frampton and stuff that's sort of like, you know, mixing in that era. But back to why Fleetwood Mac, a number one love musical theater, participated in musical theater. Always enjoyed how the chorus and the melody and the harmony and the just orchestration with the, you know, the, the, the. The behind the scenes singers and then the blending. I've loved it.
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A
Well, yeah, because I, I know you. You must have done musical theater. You Must have you. Of course you did. Of course you did. Give me. Give me the role. It's high school.
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B
This was the role that changed my life. Absolutely. And it changed it in an instant. I'm standing behind the door, waiting for my entrance in a play called Anything Goes, and I'm Billy Crocker. Okay? The lead role, 11th grade, anything goes. In front of 1100 people at Arlington High School Theater. I'd never played in front of more than 10 people in my own class, you know, the. My own classmates. And then suddenly, I had to go through a door and start singing. As the spotlight hits me on the second tier of the. Of the ship. The whole play takes place on a ship. Yeah. And I'm standing back there, and I'm like, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I have the ability to go out and sing in front of people. I don't even know if I can be in front of people. I don't know. And I'm just standing. I'm fixing my hat and my suit. And when I heard my cue, which. The countdown to the queue in that play to this day, there's only one other cue that ever scared the. Out of me and excited me so much was waiting at SNL for Don Pardo to say my name before I walk through the door. But on that day, 11th grade, I hear the. The five lines away from my. Four lines away. Three, two, one. Boom. Open the door. Spotlight hits me immediately. Billy Crocker's on the. The ship. I remember in my head thinking, I got it. I'm. I'm. I can do this. Like, I don't know how long I'm gonna do. In that moment, I was like, I got it. So the appreciation for musical theater, the. The craftsmanship that went into making songs like that with a lot of different moving parts and people coming in and throwing lines, and I just loved it. And this leads me up to listening to a lot of Fleetwood Mac at home, enjoying Fleetwood Mac with my family, realizing different people were taking on different roles. Christy or Stevie or Lindsay, who was singing, who was front lead, who was supporting. That. That was so different from a lot of other music I listened to. And then when I'm 14 years old, going back to junior high, my first concert ever is Fleetwood Mac.
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A
No shit. Really?
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B
Yeah.
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A
Oh, my God. Wait, so what. What year is that? What are you. You're in. You're 14 years old. That's what, 80, 88?
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B
It's like 80. I'm 72. To 82. So around 86. I'm, I'm. I'm seven rows back in the middle with my brother, my sister Kelly and myself staring at Stevie Nicks spinning like a whirling dervish. And the whole place rocking Boston Garden. And they were rocking Boston Garden. And it was immediate right there. It was my. My love of Fleetwood Mac was already pre existent, but my lifelong love of Fleetwood Mac was cemented.
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A
Oh my God. It's like you're getting them the, the arsenal of that, that set list by that point. Did they already do Little Lies? Was Little Lies still. Because that was how I got introduced to him. I got sitting in the back of my mom's car on the way to the dentist. Dentist office and just tell me, tell me three little line.
- [14:03]
B
I think it was, it was right around that time. I don't remember if that was on the, the set list. But what I remember more than even the music was how at the start of every song, the crowd's shrill and shriek of excitement. Like as a 14 year old kid, one of the smallest people kind of there. The experience of being in the middle of Boston Garden and looking around and the enthusiasm for songs maybe I didn't even know or never heard them do live. When I tell you, it was a visceral reaction. It was, it was, it was bonkers. And also I was waving the whole time at Stevie. I would wave and she'd look down and wave. Maybe I was the only kid there. She gave me little waves and, and so it was just, it was really delightful, but impacted me in such a major way and it made me also want to also understand the origin of who they were, why they were. And then of course, where are they going to take this?
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A
Where was it? Now this is, this is a, you know, a question that I was just thinking because in middle school, if I was in middle school and I said, oh, who's your favorite band or you want to see? Oh, I saw Fleetwood Matt. People, you know, at my time in middle school, people are like, ew, Fleetwood Mac. That's like, dude, that's, that's old. Like it's all about. They like Molly Crue in this were.
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B
Your friend Van Halen was that year. That was the year. Yeah.
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A
So could you. Is it. Was Fleetwood Mac cool amongst kids your age or, or are you just the outsider that's got to keep it quiet that you kind of like this, you know, adult music almost?
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B
Yeah. It's like I think in school I'm, I'm drawing the VH on my book. And I'm. I'm into Motley Crue girl. Of course, I'm 14, so girls, girls, girls was like putting my puberty in check. Yeah. I don't know if I was walking around, you know, throwing out Tusk lyrics, but I was, I was. If you asked me, I was. I would talk about Fleetwood Mac with you. But I really, in all sincerity, where. Where it impacted me the most and still takes me back to when I really like, sit and sort of meditate with some. Fleetwood Mac is the. The best eras of my mom and dad's marriage before they separated, which was right around the same time. 14 or 15 years old, we had a couple of good years where we would go to Maine every summer. We would go to York Beach. We'd rent a cottage in York Beach, Maine. And those were the song and maybe a little Huey Lewis sports you'd hear on the beach or you'd hear, you know, some other, you know, spend out ballet or whatever was kind of like in that top, you know, 20. But for us, it was a lot of Fleetwood Mac. And those were good summers, man. They were maybe the best of our family summers before things changed. And so it brought a lot back in terms of just the meaningfulness and the. And the. The roots of what their music meant to me.
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A
I couldn't agree with you more with what you just said right there, because I had a very. My parents never got divorced, but had many years where it was like they should have. And it's like when I think of. When I think of the best time in their marriage, it's hall and Oats, it's Early Police, It's. It's Duran Duran. It's. It's that 80s kind of, you know, just some. Which arguably, you know, some of the greatest music American music ever made. I mean, because I always say like the. This, the 60s and the 70s. Well, definitely like rock and roll in the 50s and the 60s. But, you know, in the 70s, it's a lot of. A lot of the British bands are taking over as the greatest artists. It's not until you get, you know, like the Van Halen's and the Fleetwood Max to really like start kind of kicking it back over into where America is. Like, you know, in the. Not saying in the discussion, but I always feel like British people did rock and roll a little bit better than we did Once. Once we started it, they kicked it in high gear until, like. Until hair metal.
- [17:55]
B
And it didn't feel like that. That, you know, you name some of the Artists that I. I love and have had the good fortune of seeing. But I think sort of mid-80s, it was a bit of a hodgepodge in the best way possible. You had rock and you had the Michael Jacksons and you had, you know, Pat Benatars and Blondie, and, like, it was sort of. Everything was in play for a little while. It didn't feel like the boy band era or the grunge era was, like, as prevalent and sort of like muting everything else, I think 85 to 89. If you look back at those, like, top, you know, 20, top 30. It was kind of a unique blend of who was still holding on from the 70s and making some interesting. Who was popping in the 80s, the Madonnas and all the, you know, the hollow notes and. And then, you know, rock was still in there. You know, rock was still sort of like, making its dent. So I. I love that era and I. My shuffle of that era, it may seem sort of like all over the place, but if you looked at the charts, it's really not. It's really like what was happening around that time.
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A
Did you ever see the. The documentary on Netflix where they're recording the We Are the World? And, like, my favorite part ending. My favorite part in that song really is the Huey Lewis part. And it's like, it just sucks that, like, this guy that was such a huge dude. I mean, the power of love. I mean, from Back to the Future, one of the greatest movies of our lifetime.
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B
Back in Time, even back in time, it's just.
- [19:25]
A
It's so great. And yet he's just almost this, like, forgotten guy. And, I mean, the Police, you know, one of the biggest bands in the world. And it's like. But now all we get is Sting, and it's just. We don't really have. Even with. With Fleetwood Mac. Like, dude, it's. You can go see. You can go see Stevie Nick. She's been opening for Billy Joel. I. I saw. I've seen her twice while she's been doing it. One in Baltimore, I took Mushrooms with Bill Burr and we went to go see her. And, dude, it was. If you've never done it, I know you don't do like that, but if you ever are going to take mushrooms, go see Billy Joel. I promise you, you'll have the greatest experience around. Everybody that looks like your mom and dad, Fair enough. But it's. It's just seeing her for the first time, it's like you're seeing, like, you know, that's the closest we're Gonna get to whatever Fleetwood Mac is because, like, the, you know, Christine's gone now. I think Lindsay is having issues with his vocal cords or did he get kicked out for Mike Campbell or something along that. I think we might have them in the back. I mean, you're just.
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B
I think that's what. I think. He's just. He's also like, man, that's a guy that, you know, I've. I had seen them many times over the years, and it's like, that's a guy that gives everything he has vocally every night, and sometimes he's really, like, doing this. That's, like, almost tribal sounding. You know, He. He hits these weird high screeches and screams, and you can kind of understand that. I think he, you know, a little piece of them was like, hey, I'm. I'm not gonna have this voice when I'm 70, so I'm just gonna give you everything I got every night.
- [21:01]
A
Yeah. So that. Now I want to spin this around to you because I. I was watching a performance of Lindsay, and this was the. The dance. This was them coming back together in, like, 97, and they opened. Oh, you were there for that?
- [21:15]
B
Oh, yeah. I came and saw them here. I want to say that I saw them. Oh, where was it? The Coliseum out here? Yeah. It was amazing.
- [21:26]
A
And that. But that. That opening of. Of the. Of the chain. You see, Lindsay, I mean, like you said, putting everything into it, murdering, like, really using that voice, like, and I wanted to spin that around in you because I also think, like, the first time and even now seeing you, it's just like, you've always put so much into it. Were. Were rock stars the influence? Because I always pull from, like, Axel, and I pull from Scott Weiland, like. Like, besides comics, like, what. What musicians did you really merge into your act? Because I. Because I can see it.
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B
Would you believe me if I said one of the first performances, unbridled performances that made me go, I. I gotta do something. In and around. That was Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka 100. And when you turn. When he turns to Charlie at the end and he goes into that. You stole fizzy lifting drink. You bumped into the ceiling, which now has to be washed and sterilized. So you get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir. Dude, he's screaming a kid in front of his grandfather. He's. He's terrible. He's terrifying. But I loved him. He. He's enchanting, but he's, you know, borderline psychopath.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And I remember watching him and then Realizing, you know, Young Frankenstein and all these other things that I'd watched him do and was like, I want to channel that. Yeah, I want to channel that. And then that got me into the era of watching everything from Kings of Comedy, where I'd watch Jerry Lewis be subdued and Robert De Niro be over the top and broad and sort of bonkers. And so music was sort of always there foundationally. And I loved everything I said Peter Frampton earlier, I love that he did a weird thing with the voice. And I want you like all these ideas that, that in Carlin. When I learned from Carlin that it wasn't just that he was brilliant, mind the musicality. When I could close my eyes and if you almost just like didn't listen, it was, it was trumpet, it was music, it was metronome, it was tempo. And it was later learning from Johnny Carson, watching tonight's show and then finding his old 1966, 1967 interviews where he was saying it's more about the musicality and the, the, the, the way you kind of like, what is that? Like, modify your, your vocal tones. He said, that's, that's more interesting than what you think is funny. What you think is funny isn't as interesting as how you pocket it and how you present it and when you hold back and when you have a secret and then when you go. And to me, all of that stuff was there at the beginning of my stand up career in 1990. I was already realizing you got to have that little bit of, you know, style in whatever it is that you're doing in order to turn it into showmanship.
- [24:42]
A
Were you, I mean, in middle school and high school, because you're doing musical theater. Are, are you. Because the fed the second. I've always only recognized you and notice you being like one of the coolest guys in comedy from the beginning, the way you introduce yourself. Do you know how much I love your half hour? We talk about it all the time. It's one of the most influential things in my career. You know, were you, you know, were you a cool guy in middle school and high school like that?
- [25:07]
B
I think that by the time I got to that first special that now you're talking like 2000, right around that time, Comedy Central half hours. From 1990 to 2000, I'd gone through a real metamorphosis from being a bit of a wallflower, an introvert, somebody who had a lot of, you know, even like some self loathing. And like, I just had a lot of anxiety. I definitely Was riddled with all this, you know, voices in my head sort of stuff. And I had to learn how to get out of my own way. When I was finally three or four years into Stand up and I'm surrounded by, you know, Bill Burr, Patrice O'Neill and Bobby Kelly and Gary Goleman and a myriad of other comics that were coming in and out. Yeah, I was starting to learn with them, like, who are they behind the scenes? What do they allow themselves to be when they hit the stage. And by the time I got to that special, I realized my ability. I'd realized, you know, that I could. I was still that kid in a lot of ways, but I'd also learned that I had. I could. I could come to life with showmanship. And so what you saw at that point was definitely more showmanship than I would hit a few years later when it would be like showmanship and writing and more personal.
- [26:23]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny. And the. One of the biggest compliments about you I've ever heard was from Burr talking about watching you middle on a show for a head headliner and one of his older headliners. And he goes, dane would put the fear of God in one of those headliners eyes.
- [26:41]
B
And it's like.
- [26:42]
A
Because I could imagine like just coming out the way that you came out and just kicking them and having no idea, like they never knew who you were. And you're this young kid just. Just bringing it very much. And see how I spin this just like Fleetwood Mac and this record. And the reason I say that is because, I mean, obviously you know this, but to all the fans and the people listening, this is Fleetwood Max 10th album. This is. This is not the debut record. This is the debut of the. Of the. Of the version of Fleetwood Mac that really brought them on to be this huge, huge success. How many lineups before this album?
- [27:26]
B
So.
- [27:26]
A
So we've been so Dane, we've been doing this podcast for about six years. Names come in and out that we hear all the time. One of them is that this band is formed for this. Have you heard this blues legend named John Mayall, Blues Breakers? Have you ever heard of them? He's basically. He's basically where Clapped Clapton, you know, joined this guy. He's basically, you know, this, this blue British blues guy. And. And Fleetwood Mac starts kind of out of the ashes of this guy's band. So guitarist Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McV, they form Fleetwood Mac. Several songs reached the top two spots of the UK in the late 60s. Early 70s, they went through a bunch of lineup changes, which are. And let's get to just the meat and potatoes of it. Where. Where do you have it, Jared? Like, where would really be a good place to start because that's how you highlighted it, so. May 70, Peter Green quits Fleetwood Mac after a bad acid trip caused his mental health to deteriorate. More that later. August 70th, Christine McVie joins Fleetwood Mac. Two years after marrying John, Christine, formerly of a band, the Chicken Shack, becomes a keyboardist and vocalist in the band. She is featured on Fleetwood Mac's fourth record, Kiln House, for which he also drew the COVID art. February of 71, Spencer leaves the band before a sold out show at the Whiskey. He left to, quote, unquote, get a magazine and never returned. The band later discovered that Spencer joined a Christian cult known as the Family Solid Cult, one of the good ones, you know, Bob Welch is hired as his replacement. Was ever a moment, I gotta say, because I feel like. And being in Hollywood, has there ever been a moment in your career where you're like, it, dude, Scientology seems like a good idea, like a cult or anything?
- [29:09]
B
No, no, there was no. There was never a backup plan because I honestly was like, I'm. If I'm. If I'm good at this, I'm definitely at everything else. So there was no. Yeah, no vocation that I was interested in early on.
- [29:24]
A
Have they ever come after you, though? Have not come after you in that way, but like, you know, hey, man, just come in or anybody ever pitched it to you, like in a fun way? No, no, no, no.
- [29:32]
B
I never had to use the bathroom as I was walking by or never got. No, no, it was. It was definitely never something that I crossed paths with.
- [29:42]
A
Okay, cool. All right. We ask everybody about Scientology, by the way, we have pamphlets to send you just in case you want. All right, so where was I? So. August72, Kerwin is fired from Fleetwood Mac. His alcoholism strained the relationship with the band. Explosive fight backstage led to him destroying his Les Paul. He refused to perform, was promptly fired by Fleetwood. He's replaced by Bob Weston. October 73, Weston is fired after having an affair with Fleetwood's wife. Fleetwood married Jenny Boyd and we've been doing this podcast for years. She is the older sister of what Jim Jeffries has called the golden of Patty Boyd. And you should know Patti Boyd because she's Layla, the Air Clapton song. She's George Harrison's wife that. That left to go with Clapton. So, you know, we talk about her a lot A lot of music been written about that woman. Boyd and Weston had an affair during Fleetwood Max tour promoting Mystery to Me, Mick Fleetwood found out. He was devastated. Weston was fired and the rest of the tour was canceled. After completing their final show in Lincoln, Nebraska, the band temporary split. And then that brings us to. To this moment, basically, which is in Fleetwood Mac. They relocate from England to California to manage the band's affairs better in California. The recording and album heroes are hard to find and set out on tour. Shortly after finishing the tour, Bob Welch leaves the band. He's the guitarist, singer, and composer, ending Fleetwood Max ninth lineup in eight years. This is Dane. This is where this gets so cool. This. This is where the Fleetwood Mac. So keep in mind at this time, it is Christine, the. A female singer, songwriter, and then you basically have their rhythm section. You have. You have Mick on drums and MCV on bass. So mcv, where was I? Okay, here we go. So Mick Fleetwood met with producer Keith Olson at Sound City Studios to listen to some demos. Olson plays Fleetwood, an album he's been working on, because. What have you been working on? He's like, I've been working on this stuff. But this couple Buckingham Nicks, right? They hear the music and they're like, we want Lindsay Buckingham. This guy rules. They hit him up. But. But this is. Lindsay won't do it unless they bring his girlfriend Stevie, right?
- [32:01]
B
What's their thinking at the time? Do we know that? Were they like, we don't want two females.
- [32:06]
A
Okay, yeah, they don't want two females. They already got a female. So they're like. They're like, dude, we just want him. And he's like, I'm not doing it unless you get my. You get my girl in the band too, right?
- [32:18]
B
I'm assuming at this time they're together.
- [32:19]
A
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This. This is the question. So this is. This is what's so crazy. Like I just said, they only want Lynn's. They get Stevie, which is the luckiest thing that could have ever happened to Fleetwood Mac ever. She made the band. She literally is, in my opinion, the most famous person out of that band. Her voice, her look, everything. What is the hap. What is the happiest accident you've ever had when you planned on a Lindsay, but you got a Stevie by mistake?
- [32:48]
B
Oh, boy. Man. That's an interesting one, because, you know, in stand up, it's. It's. You can look at so many years on the calendar, and what seemingly was a, you know, cul de sac was really an entry point. Sure. And I think that I've shared this before, so forgive me if I'm repeating, but I definitely think that it's one of the, you know, sort of highlights of my life and career was in 1995, being asked. Being pursued by Saturday Night Live and being asked to come in there and audition and day of realizing I didn't have what it took. I didn't have. I wasn't confident enough. I wasn't. I wasn't ready for what I knew went. Took place behind the scenes there. And I, I didn't go. I didn't. I day of. I did not go until see Lauren Michaels and the rest of the people waiting for me. I sat outside Rockefeller Plaza and actually I did. I just shared this with. With Dana and Dave David on their podcast. But it was. It was the most pivotal moment because I felt like I had failed. I felt like I'd let myself and my team down. But what I didn't realize until way later was I, It. It's. It incentivized me and it lit a. Didn't light a fire, put a volcano under me to go. Now I have to make it on my own to prove that spitting myself out of that round was the greatest decision I could have made. And when you cut to 2005 and I'm. And I'm hosting it and then being asked back to host and, you know, staying friendly with Lorne Michaels and having now a relationship with him over the year, like everything that came from the worst moment was, little did I know, years later, leading to something that was more. Way more preferable.
- [34:48]
A
I. I can't believe that, like, what you. You just did, you get to the door and you just, like the voice in your head says you're never. No, there's not. It's not even worth.
- [34:57]
B
That's crazy. Jay Moore was on the show at the time, and my manager, we had a mutual manager, Barry Katz. He was managing Jay. So I'd been to snl. I knew I saw sort of what was happening there. I learned a little bit from Barry and from Jay. And you got to realize, man, in 93 or 94, when they were looking at me, Marcy Carson, everybody, are coming down and basically whispering in my ear, like one Sandler left, like, you're the guy. You are what we. What you play. I played guitar on stage. People didn't know I played late at night. I didn't want it to be a guitar act, but I would play late at night, so they knew I play guitar. Energy, you know, filled a Certain void that they were going to be looking to fill. And so here they are telling me, like, do this, do this, do this. But knowing I was still very beta, and I was not unlike guys like Patrice O'Neill, unlike guys like Bobby Kelly. They were real tenacious in what we would call today alpha. They were kind of like, intent on getting what they want. They were aggressive. I was, I was still finding my own voice. I was only at the helm on stage. I was not a guy that would look you in the eyes and say, I have the better idea. That's not funny. What I'm telling you is funny. Never was I gonna say that in 1994. So when I get to the, the, the. The park bench outside of Rockefeller Plaza and I sat there and had a bit of a emotional crisis and then an anxiety attack, full fledged anxiety attack. Then I went to a pay phone. First person I called was my mother, even before my manager. And I said, I, I can't do this. I'm not. I'm not doing it. And of course she was like, don't. It's all, it's all going to work out. Do it or don't do it. And then I called my manager. I was like, I can't go in. He's like, you should go in. I'm like, I can't. He's like that. Now they're expecting you would be, like, uncool to cancel it. And I, I just said, I can't. I'm not. I'm not gonna do it. So, yeah, it was pretty. Two years later, when you're in, in Tampa at some gig that I don't even remember the name of it, with a temporary plastic sign. That's. Those are the gigs I'm doing with a, you know, a Kinko's made plastic sign. And you're performing in front of that, you know, that brick wall and you're seeing Jimmy Fallon. Of course, Jimmy got it, which, by the way, Jimmy might have gotten it. Anyway, Jimmy was an incredible talent on the come up, so maybe I would have got it. Maybe Jimmy Fallon would have gotten it the way he got it. But I was watching Jimmy Fallon in the middle of these place nowhere gigs going, oh, I wish I felt ready at that moment. You know, it was tough.
- [37:35]
A
I can imagine that. Barry's like, bang. You know, I'm trying to see if I can do a good berry. Do you do a good berry? Cats, do you have a good berry?
- [37:44]
B
Let me tell you something, papa. Moments like this don't come along very often. And when they do, you gotta really look at yourself, look inward, and be like, what the. Going on? What's going on, man?
- [37:58]
A
That's. I couldn't do it better. That was. That was perfect.
- [38:01]
B
Yeah, that was. Barry was really. I mean, but he was a gem because he also. When I. When I looked at him and said, I'm gonna figure this out on my own, he. You know, as my representative and as somebody who probably knew me better than anybody outside of my small comedy circle, he just looked at me and he was like, I believe you, Papa. I really believe you. And he didn't say, but you. Or. He never brought it up again. And he didn't take me to task. He just said, you know, get to work. Because we. We. We knew. We knew one thing, or I knew one thing. Me and the guy, the squad of guys, my graduating class. I'd like to say I talked about this years later with Burr, and I certainly talked about with Patrice. We all knew we were the next group.
- [38:45]
A
Yeah.
- [38:46]
B
We felt like. And we didn't. Probably didn't say it. Listen, we can. As old men. I'll say what I couldn't say then because I would get my ass kicked a lot for being probably too short or, you know, trying to be ahead of the pack when all I was doing was what I was doing. But the reality was we had a secret. And the secret was, where next? Like it or not. And it was a gap between the Robin Williams era and the guys, mostly, that made it, and we're on tv. And then the terrible suck that was early Comedy Central. Oversaturated and underperforming, like a terrible comedy filling. Terrible, you know, time slots. Terrible, terrible takes on things and hacky. And we knew doing these college gigs, we were hitting something that Comedy Central really still wasn't. They were doing it sort of like by, you know, by, you know, by proxy. But we knew what we were doing off television in their ears, for real was awesome.
- [39:51]
A
Yeah.
- [39:51]
B
And that a few of us, you know, the Chappelles and the. You know, the. Again, the Watching Jay Moore's out there, you know, watching Jim Gaffigan come up the ranks. There was a lot of people in and around us. We. We knew what we were doing night after night. So it was a special time. Even though it was a. It was a difficult time, the 90s, but it was a special time because I think a lot of us were like, all right, if I just stick with this, then something's gonna come of it.
- [40:17]
A
I gotta ask you this, because I was Talking to Artie Fuqua and Godfrey at the Cellar a couple nights ago. And they were talking, saying, like, before, it was all four clubs. What. When it was just the one. You know, what was it like? And he's like, dude, that table was just everybody on each other. What was the. What was the funniest yet meanest thing Patrice ever said to you in a jones?
- [40:37]
B
Okay, so a couple things. First of all, I didn't stick around at the table a lot. I was the guy that I liked sitting at the table earlier in the night when everybody was sort of coming and going. And if you talk to those guys in that era, I. I'd 86 myself out of there. And there were two reasons why I was still really. I was not into, like, verbal hazing. Yeah. I didn't like it. I was real sensitive to it. I was also meeting a lot of cute girls in New York City, and I was the one. I was sort of. I was sort of dip everybody. A lot of comics are ugly, and a lot of the ugly guys sat at the table. And I was kind of cute. I had a big Irish head, but I knew my angles. Yeah. So I was sort of like. I'd hang out. I'd be at Howard Johnson's in Times Square with a cutie.
- [41:26]
A
Yeah. After the.
- [41:27]
B
After the gig from, you know, NYU or something. But. So I didn't hang out the table a lot. But I'll tell you this. In all my years with Patrice, he never. I think I'm the only person he never took a shot at. Never really. Never. Our moms were good friends. Our moms sat together and watched us at the comedy connection. And of all the people that he skewered verbally, he never, ever, ever once came at me. And one time I asked him in Florida, I said, patrice, you've. You've obliterated everybody. I know, but you've never even really come at me with anything. And it was kind of interesting, man, because he just. In his own way, he was like, I love you, man. I love you, buddy. And I. You know, and he. He. We busted chops a little bit, but never in front of people. And he never came at me like that, ever.
- [42:17]
A
Yeah. Yeah, it's him. I wish I only.
- [42:21]
B
And I have to say this for the record, he's one of the only true comics. And burr that when I was getting. I was going through the spanking machine, which everybody has to. When you make it and hit that. That level, everybody's gotta, you know, go through the spanking machine. But I took it. I. I got put through the spending machine with the new Internet that was coming in that was also allowing everybody to grab a paddle. And those two are the only guys that went on the radio and said, dude, Dane's put in the work. He's a good dude. And all this hullabaloo. Go yourself. Yeah, I love those guys for that. They really, they really protected me when I found out. There was a lot of comics that were real quick to want to see what bus was coming next and how they might be able to throw me under it. But little did they know I know how to drive a bus. Yeah, dude, I've got a class C license. Those names, nobody knows who they are. Patrice and Burr, man, they were there for me, dude.
- [43:26]
A
And two of the best. Hey, everybody. So you guys have probably heard me talk about how I've been in bands 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 internal question of how do we get people to hear us? But then again, that was before there was Distrokid. Distrokid is a digital music distribution service that brings 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 these? 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 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 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 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 Kid app is now available on iOS and Android. Go to the app or Play 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.
- [45:40]
B
I think you're on mute.
- [45:41]
A
Workday starting to sound the same.
- [45:44]
B
I think you're on mute.
- [45:46]
A
Find something that sounds better for your career on LinkedIn. With LinkedIn job collections, you can browse curated collections by relevant industries and benefits like Flexpto or Hybrid workplaces so you can find the right job for you. Get started@LinkedIn.com jobs jobs finding where you fit. LinkedIn knows how I'm gonna put you up there as well as one of the best and obviously like to swing it back to Fleetwood. I mean, that's kind of what. What would happen after the. This record and the next one. It's like it's a rocket ship. Even though they've done 10 records just like you. You put your time in, you know, but then once you get. Don't work before what works worked 100. So this is like. So this is what America is finally they're getting. Because I think I was talking Morty, who helps me write this DJ Morty call, I think you know him, runs the Kibbitz Room on Tuesdays. So the record before this one, Heroes are hard to find. This is like the last couple have been almost what you would say is the beginning of the sound. But now you're getting what is Fleetwood Mac. You're getting, you know, like I said, all the members, everybody's a part of it. It's starting to sell. Very slowly it climbs to number one, hitting the top sub bot in September 14th. September, 14 months after it was released, it set the record for slowest climb to the top. Stevie Nicks said of the album, we just played everywhere and we sold that record. We kicked that album in the ass. Fifteen months after its release, it reaches the top of its charts. This. This record also has, I mean, probably some of the biggest Fleetwood Max songs. Definitely we were talking about, like how Stevie Nicks, like, is like the happy accident. This. She's got two of the best songs on this record.
- [47:39]
B
Right.
- [47:39]
A
You know what I mean?
- [47:40]
B
But also when I was looking in my notes and I was. Christine McVie, I think wrote most of the songs though on that album. Or at least. At least four or five she wrote. Right? Yes.
- [47:51]
A
Let Me. Double check that math. Yeah, if you have it, I'm pulling it up too.
- [47:55]
B
But so imagine. So just imagine that you write these songs, you. You want Lindsay, and then you're gonna. You're gonna acquiesce to Stevie Nicks coming in. Who, by the way. Hey, I don't know how Christine McVie felt at the time, but she's a beautiful, absolutely, you know, like, heart dropping, lovely woman who is gonna step in and be now suddenly in. In your limelight. And I'm not saying Christine McVie wasn't a cutie, but, you know, Stevie Nicks was like, operating in another level. Yeah. And then you're gonna hand your songs over, a lot of them to her. Now, I know Christine's saying, obviously there's. There's some of my favorite songs she did handle. But what a. I mean, that's a. A bold. That's a. That you're. You're giving a little. In some moments of your career, that feels like you're giving so much and you're gambling so much on Lindsay and Stevie coming in, and then suddenly she's going to be front and center spinning around singing your. A lot of your songs. That's amazing.
- [48:53]
A
Oh, yeah. But also, like, this is kind of funny, but about the difference between this record and Rumors, because this is all prior to all the. Basically the go that comes from this. And the first song on this record, it opens up with Monday morning and what's cool. I was talking to Morty and I never put the connections, but definitely listening to this because this is the first time doing this podcast was the first time I've listened to this record all the way through. I had listened to Rumors, but I. I knew some songs off of this, but I never from start to finish. And you listen to Monday Morning Dane. I mean, this sounds exactly like the opening two. Rumors with Secondhand News. And. And you've get. You get Lindsey Buckingham. This is, you know, written by him definitely. This is something that he probably did with Buckingham. Nicks, you know, great opener, kind of is. Is a great way to almost introduce the new band, but also for Lindsay, you know, the. You're in a new band, you're about to come out, you open up with Monday morning. You're basically saying hello to everybody. This is the new Fleetwood Mac. You're introducing yourself. What was your Monday morning when you get to say, hi, I'm Dane Cook. This is the first time you're debuting who you are, and you really are saying hello to the world when you really got to truly do it.
- [50:14]
B
This is the original cover art that I made in Photoshop 1.0 of the, of the original harmful if swallowed. So before the record deal, before Comedy Central Records gives me that, that record deal that puts me on, puts units sold on shelves. I, I make this, I, I, I put this in the jewel cases. I drew the back cover art while we were editing it. These, this is the whole track listing. That's the original and right there, all the speaking spells, all this tire in the face. So this is the original and for two years I'm pack, I'm a fulfillment center name named DC Packaging and I'm, I'm sending you these and there's probably a little bit of blood on your packaging that you don't realize because my hands are bleeding because I'm sending so many of these out a week. I did this in photo by the way. Photoshop one, literally the first Photoshop ever. I made that. And so you're like, you're, you're, you make this because you, because you want a calling card and you make a comedy album In I guess 1999 when I recorded it in Houston at the Laugh Stop. And you're told by everybody this is the era of, you know, video Kill the radio star. Kind of like comedy on television is comedy. The comedy album is no more. It's, it's moot. It's a, it's a non starter. Nobody wants a comedy album. And yet I'm selling these, I'm doing pretty good at 20 bucks a pop selling these after my gigs at a little fold out table or out of my, you know, the trunk of my, you know, Dodge Intrepid or whatever. I was driving. Nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and so, you know, for about two years time, a couple things are happening is that's going out and people are starting to like share it, like, and I'm starting to get people coming out and being like, oh, my friend gave me your, your comedy disc and we listened to it and you know, put it in our CD ROM player. I think that was the full title of that tech. But so, so two years lead up to Comedy Central coming in and they sit me down, they go, listen, we're gonna start, we're gonna do a comedy division. We've got David tell Skanks for the memories and we've got you and we've got, I want to say his name was, was it Stephen Lang? Oh, there's a comic, the, the guitar guy.
- [52:44]
A
Yeah, I know, I know who you're talking about. I okay, yeah. Stephen Lynch.
- [52:50]
B
Stephen Lynch. So they're like, we've got you. We've got to tell. We've got. And we want to put these, you know, albums out under Comedy Central Records. And they, they, they want to do a, an album deal with me, whatever that, you know, know a couple of, you know, this. And if it does well, we'll do two more. Keep in mind pre digital, nothing's ever really on an itunes type thing yet. It's still all, you know, units sold. And they say, you're gonna sell 7, 000 of these tops. And I'm like, that's really weird because I've already sold 10, 000 of these out of my trunk and I'm still packaging them and putting them out. So we, we did a record deal, which I won't get too, too much into the numbers, but like, you know, we, we, we said if we sell, you know, 500, 000 copies and they're laughing, they're like, you're gonna sell 5,000. And I. Okay, but if we reach this milestone by this date, then, you know, I'll get $2 and 10 cents per album, which, if you know anything about that, at the time you were getting 15 cents an album. But I gave, I said, I'll give you all the cut of everything. Because I was bringing in a finished album. This was edited, I had artwork they didn't need to do. They just needed to repackage it. And which they didn't even need to do that. But I think on the album was perfect. And so Microsoft Paint. And so it hits that first week and it's like 82, 000 units sold first week. And then because that created buzz, I think my second week was like a hundred and thirty fourth. I mean, it was a comedy album that was growing and certainly in conjunction to that, you know, Fleetwood Mac. I, I'd done a lot of things previous to that that nobody talked about, nobody cared and did not put me on the map in any way. So I, my hope was I was right, that the album had legs. I just didn't have the right, you know, personnel pring it out there in Comedy Central helped me to make that reality. And they were certainly very angry when three years later I was putting out Rough around the Edges, the audio version and they were having to cut off 250 per, you know, per unit.
- [55:05]
A
I had to compete with like some music released at the time too. Huh. I don't know if you ever compared those charts. That's.
- [55:11]
B
Oh yeah. If you Go back and look around, you know, the Billboard charts, you know, I'm. I'm literally right up against, you know, Mariah Carey's. And it. It was crazy seeing a comedy album, you know, with the top 10 artists of the day, and there's, you know, harmful if swallowed, dancing around the middle for weeks and weeks. It was. It was pretty. It was epic. It was a dream come true. It was awesome.
- [55:34]
A
When did you know? Because I was gonna ask this about the blowing up, but when. When was the moment that you knew? You're like, holy. Like, this is. This is actually happening.
- [55:45]
B
You know, it's definitely like a slow, steady trajectory because I was sort of a college act, and then I was underground, and then I had some stuff on tv, and then people were finding me, and, like, you either knew me at that college age or you absolutely were like, huh. So it was all very exciting to feel like I was the cool thing that you knew or didn't. But I think probably where everything turned a corner was when Tourgasm was on HBO leading up to Vicious Circle, and they were airing episodes of that, which was like a little documentary that I made, or just sort of like me on the road showing people what's. What's happened. Like, there's a. There's a moment that I'm creating, and we were showing people in real time that, like, I'm doing a college, that I'm supposed to be in front of 3, 500 students, and they've moved me to a field House with 12, 000 students. And it was turning into, like, Beatles moments. People chasing me on the bus, people. People finding me at my hotel. It. It was bigger than me. It was suddenly much bigger than me. It was certainly bigger than anything that had happened in comedy. And since Dice, I think probably, like, you know, in that, like, late 80s. Yeah. Holy moment that he totally cultivated. Dude.
- [56:58]
A
It was.
- [56:58]
B
It was. It was crazy, man. And the last thing I'll say about that is like. Like that. That era, when I look at it now, it's like I enjoyed the. Out of it because I had a lot of cronies in. In comedy that I started with. So it was a lot of good times. But I. I do wish that I had even better mentorship because nobody really knew what to do. You know, it was sort of like the playbook was new.
- [57:25]
A
You were the first. Yeah, dude. I mean, how. It's like maybe. Maybe Dice, because he blew up so.
- [57:31]
B
Quick, but not in the Internet age.
- [57:32]
A
No, no, no. But you. Beginning of it, like, that's you're getting. You're the. I mean, dude, you got it. The beginning is so everything right there. You. I was saying it to Morty. You were the. You were one of the last guys to get to the top by doing it. By just being funny and just like not having comedy stage show and maybe some television or like an HBO thing. Yeah, that's it.
- [57:56]
B
Yeah. And it was cool because when. When it finally, when you're asking me, like, really, when did I know? Know? Maybe not the moment I knew, but when Lorne Michaels called me in my hotel, I was doing the Vegas Comedy Festival, he called me personally in the hotel. And I remember exactly the moment when Retaliation had come out the fall of my sophomore album. Which again, when you talk about, okay, where do we go from here after harmful. When Retaliation came out with double platinum, Lauren Michaels calls me and says, you're hosting. That's all he said. We got Lauren Michaels on the phone. Hello. You're hosting.
- [58:32]
A
God, that's.
- [58:33]
B
Never forget it. And I sat right down, right on the floor, all the way down. Like the scarecrow and the wizard. I sat down, I go, I am. And he goes. And then he just said the date. And he was like, it's exciting times. It's exciting. And it was like the rest of the conversation was equally as exciting. But just hear him say, you're hosting. And. And knowing in that moment and calling, you know, calling my mom and sharing the information with my family, more, more than anybody was like, I was right on the bench that day. I was right. And if I didn't stick around and I didn't prove myself right, I would have felt like a loser who made a mistake out of fear instead of. No. I actually listened to my heart and realized there's another avenue that's solely meant for me. School.
- [59:21]
A
God. God damn, that's awesome. And what a perfect way to then go into probably, you know, one of Stevie's biggest moments. Let's talk about. I've always kind of, I'm gonna it up. I know Morty's gonna get mad at me. Rhiannon, it is real. Yeah, I know that's what it. I know that's what it is. But for some reason, it's like, I.
- [59:38]
B
Think people are singing Rihanna at these shows for years.
- [59:42]
A
But this, like a little. Little known fact about this. This is also the other title for it. It was in parentheses. Will you ever win? They use. The radio stations used to say that this is one of those. I mean, this sets up what basically Stevie Nicks is Forever. This is more than Landslide, I think, this song, because even just then, this. What the song is about, it's about a Welsh goddess. So the witches, the fertility of the moon. She shuns a God, marries a mortal man. It's mythical. It's. It's. It's everything. And Stevie is that. You know, I don't want to call her a witch, but she. She definitely looks like, you know, a chick that we dated in middle school or, like, had a crush on in high school that did Wiccan. You know what I mean?
- [60:29]
B
He's like. She was like an enchantress, you know, Perfect way to. It was something like when I picture her hair, her hair was always in motion, right? It was always like a Bree. Like before Beyonce had the wind machine, Stevie just had that happening naturally from the. From the spells that she had created.
- [60:47]
A
We. We. Us. I remember me and Burr going to see her, and when she does that, she starts doing the twirl, and it goes. There it is. There it is. The famous Stevie spin. And it's just like. It just was so perfect. And. And, you know, for. For her to, you know, kind of. Like I said, this is her first song. I'm pretty sure that she's singing on. On the record. You know, the. The through line that she has kept from this song. Wrong. You know, what is like your through line in the sense that from the beginning of your career to now, because where you've kept the same spirit, just like her with the Welsh wished Welsh witch in the cape spinning, like. What is that through line that you've kept?
- [61:28]
B
Yeah, through line is metamorphosis. Through line is introspection, the ability to. To grow with my. To grow up with a generation of comedy fans, but to allow myself to grow and change and to never try to be derivative or do what I did before, yet maintaining something that at 52, was there when I was 12, which is. I love twisted, fantastical, imaginative storytelling, and I love when harsh realities mix with absurd perspectives, because your harsh reality might be hilarious to me. And so if I'm doing commentary on yours or my own harsh reality, and I can mix in what I know people, you know, on the sidelines are thinking because they're not feeling it as deep, so they're only. They're only reacting to something emotionally at a distance. And what do we all do to protect ourselves? We make that funny. We laugh at that. We laugh at the tire in the face. The first bit of the. The lady getting hit on that harmful swallowed album and realizing it Wasn't funny what I saw. It was a tragedy at the racetrack that day. But it's. There's something very funny about saying it wasn't a good year for Mary. And I knew it when I said it, that it was something happening in 1998, which happened initially from a writer for the Boston Herald and right around 1992, I believe his name is Dean Johnson. Dean Johnson wrote one of the first reviews of me. Me. One of the first reviews of me gave me permission to be. To. To not always be as sharp or not always be in the pocket or maybe like the best I could be. But I'm still interesting enough in. In development. I'm still interesting enough traveling between the chapters. And what does that mean? He said to an audience of his readers. This new comedian, Dane Cook, reminds me of warm summer nights when neighbors gather on one stoop and there's always somebody doing an impersonation of so and so mowing the lawn. There's always somebody a little too drunk over sharing information and gossip. And there's always somebody holding court and acting the clown and making the whole neighborhood laugh. And that's what he said. I was like. He reminded him of warm summer nights. Instantly. I was like, that's what I am. I'm a. I'm a. I'm a. Randomness. What's going to happen next? It's going to be. It's. It's never going to be fluid and formulaic. It's always going to be a little bit out of sorts. I'm always going to find words as I go or change buttons or change tags or change my intention or maybe change my mind, maybe change my own perspective. Maybe I'm ignorant. Maybe tomorrow night I'm right and Saturday night I'm so wrong. But how can I change the verbiage? And so 92. He says that by the time I hit my first couple albums, I'm realizing, oh, I'm. I'm not making the misstep that I saw some of the 80s comics make, which was they put on a certain outfit and they became that character, and then they never were allowed to grow from it. And Josh, when I tell you that, that terrified me more than making it. That terrified me more than losing it all. That terrified me more than anything was the idea that you were false on stage, but you had to do it anyway. No way. And so that's the through line. It's like you. You know, you can look at any album, any title, any theme, and you may not like that album as much. Or maybe that's funnier. Or this. It's okay. It's still sort of a proper chronological journalism journaling of how I'm growing up in comedy.
- [65:18]
A
Dude, I love that. I love it. I totally see it too. From. From then until now, it's just. It keeps getting more. I feel like you over my head we. I want to get. I want to try to get through overhead landslide and then say you love me over my head. This is. This is the Christine song she sings. Lean on it. I mean, this is like. Like, yeah, dude. This is. This is. This is like any one of these that we're talking about could be on. On Rumors. This is why we love Fleetwood Mac.
- [65:50]
B
They're all. They're all earworms. They're all songs that if you listen to it a little bit, that over my head, that background beautiful little over the top falsetto. It's. It's earworm. It's in your head all day.
- [66:02]
A
It really is. This. This is the first Fleetwood Max song to crack the top 40 in America. Even though they've been around since 67 with 10 record was the one that finally did it for them. It got all the way up to number 20. Then this is the beginning. It's ushering in a string of hits. I want to use the phrase over your head. When was a time that you felt like you had gotten over your head in your career? Maybe it was like, it's moving too fast or just even. Holy shit, I'm on this lineup. I cannot believe I'm on a lineup with these guys.
- [66:33]
B
You know, I think there was probably over my head was. You know, I'm. I'm just past vicious circle. So here I've made it now harmful comes out. Sophomore efforts, retaliation. Now everyone. Now I'm. Now people know me. You know, I'm becoming more of a household name now HBO embraces me and I do that special. I get to work with the great Marty Kallner. And I am feeling like I. I've done it all. I've. I'm at the top of the mountain. I'm at the upper echelon and probably beyond what most comics will know or see or get to experience. And so there I am realizing this Mount Everest moment and without. I don't want to get too modeling because this is a fun podcast. And. And, you know, my parents got sick and I lost my parents. Both of my parents had passed away in that. Right after Vicious Circle. After Vicious and before Rough around the edges, which would I guess be my third. My Second special, third album, fourth album, fourth album. And that was the moment when I started to realize, man, I'm. I'm not taking good care of myself in, in life. I'm taking good care of my career. My career from 6pm at night, you know, through dinner, through the show, to hanging out with some girls or my comic buddies at the table, that part of life was good. But the guy that I was during the day previous to that was certainly in. I was lost. I was definitely very much lost. And so imagine I had. Yeah, I had to, I had to recognize before. Isolated incident. If you listen to Isolated Incident, you know, I called it isolated incident for a number of reasons, but one of them being I'm never. Nothing is ever going to be as savagely broken hearted and capsizing as losing my parents. Back to. Back within, within 10 months of each other, they're both gone. And so that's where I was like, who am, who am I in Stand Up? What do I really want to be talking about? And if I don't take care of myself during those waking hours, eventually, what if I, what if that cripples me to where I can't even get up and do this at night? And so that was it for me, man. That was a big, you know, and, and by the way, being honest, the come down off of the, the, you know, I'm up there, man, I'm, I'm, I'm like America's comic for a good eight year run.
- [69:12]
A
Where do you go? Where do you go? It's like you, you come down and.
- [69:17]
B
It'S not, and it's not, it's not coming down. Like, you know, run your canyon like you're, it's like anything in this industry, the lights are on and then the movie's over and get the out because there's another showing. And it's not personal. I never took it personal, but it was like eight years and then boom. I'm just a regular guy. I still have my fans, I still have a lot of like the cool, the cool vibe coming off me, but I've cooled off in terms of the industry going, who, who's next? Who do we get it? Who can we hold on to next that's going up? And so that was my moment of like really trying to figure out, man, who am I as, as a grown man now, as opposed to the kid who started out of Boston?
- [70:02]
A
I mean, you just literally answered the question I was gonna ask for Landslide, which is like that, that moment. It's just inevitably when you get To a place that so few days have ever gotten to. And I mean, and I mean that less, I think less than a handful. And. And it's like, it's not just like how you feel where you're like, well, I guess I don't know where else I can go. But society is just like, just because they, they. It's like once you become like Coldplay's biggest band in the world, one of the first four records, some of the greatest albums ever made in the last 20 years, and then suddenly just like the fans, they just turn on them for no reason, right? And you're just like. Because you're big. And it's like, I can imagine like you've it with such grace and, and still are constantly putting out great. And that's all really you can do.
- [70:51]
B
I. I handled it with grace and the reality is I handle it with grace because I was, I was grateful and I realized that what I had even done to that point wasn't over. But it was certainly like that period was over and I was happy to have had it. I was, I was pleased that it lasted much longer than other careers that I'd seen or certainly people, you know, that zeitgeist, sometimes they can come down that other side pretty quick. So I was not ambivalent at all, man. I was, I was sort of, in a way, I. I was also, if I'm going to be very honest, and again, I'm. Now I'm old enough where I get to say these things without sounding like I'm. I was also like, I'm gonna point my laser in a new direction and what else can I do that's not that I don't need to do that again. I've done that that all, you know, I've done that throughout. So it was really at the beginning of 2010, 11, 12, starting to look and getting into, you know, producing and getting behind the camera and working on my acting career and things that weren't that didn't associate with the same solo journey of standup. And I could do things more collaboratively with friends and entrepreneurs that are on the come up. People that came up loving me and suddenly are trying to make their movie and they're going, will you be in my thing? And it's like, yes, now I could be of service and help somebody else to hit that. You know, I. I was taking Matt Rife on tour with me in 20, 18, 19. He's a kid I knew since he was 15. I knew his dreams, I knew his abilities. I I knew that he was going to do it on his own, no matter what. I got to be privy to hearing him, you know, painting his dreams, you know, as we're, you know, sitting backstage. And then, lo and behold, he. He figures it out, gets a tiger by the tail. Now I get to sit here and trust me, I'm. I'm watching him at a. At a level that he's gone even higher than all of us. And I get to sit there and be like, I'm so glad. I love this guy, to a place where he could find himself, you know, living his dream. So now I get to, by way of other people, also experience that, which is very, very cool. Cool.
- [73:02]
A
That's. So. You've always been so supportive of everybody, of everybody. It's like, since I've known you and like, I think we bred around 2014 is when I really started becoming buddies with you. It's just. It's you. You always are there for the advice. You're always, you know, because you've. You've got. You've had every facet of the career of having nothing to having everything to still being one of the top guys and just have people before, like, you know, like, just. Just imagine, dude, like, you almost kind of like escaped a little bit where it's like the Internet, when you started trying to pull you down, it wasn't as. As it is now. It's coming from everywhere, but it wasn't like you saw all of it. Like, now if they want to pull Matt down, he's gonna. If he looks on the Internet, he's. They're gonna find. He's gonna see anything that he doesn't want to see.
- [73:48]
B
Well, every. Everybody. Everybody's in the algorithm now, and everybody's sort of like building their own influencer page. And some of them want to be the bad guy in that story, and some of them want to be the hero. And so it. It's a whole different algorithm. I'm glad I didn't come up. I'm glad. The algorithm I came up in was not corporate run. They didn't even know how to. It was pretty pure, man. It was either. It was either you were on people's, you know, eyeline because you were doing something unique. And a few. A few people might have been like, in the comments section, but for the most part back then, it wasn't as vicious as it can be now. Now.
- [74:25]
A
Yeah, yeah, we got. I want to wrap this up because I. We got to get you out of here, but we got. Let's Talk about. Let's just mention, because I'm not going to ask any more questions. Say you love me. I mean, is such a phenomenal song by Christine. It's. It's really just, you know, the. It's the start aside, too. But you go from that into Landslide, which is. Man, this is like. I mean, music, I think, touches all of us in a way, but it's like, after seeing her perform it recently and. And she's playing. Hold on, am I getting a call? After seeing her perform it and. And her giving the tribute to Christine, which. It's just, like, the most emotional part of the show. This is such a beautiful song. I. I can see why, like, this is like, you know, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it 163 out of 500 on the 500 Great Songs of all time. I mean, it's. It's magical, man. You know, but definitely, like, what a. What a. What a great record, you know, for them to introduce this band to. And then also, like, who do you think gets the most shine? Is it Stevie? Would you say Stevie, in a sense, wins this record?
- [75:38]
B
Oh, man, that's tricky, because it's easy to isolate her because she's mesmerizing. She is. She is a showman. Mean Lindsay is certainly a showman. I think the rest of the band has their incredible abilities, but it's hard to take your eye off the person who's up front and they're in costume and they're sort of, like, reveling in this beautiful moment. Beautiful. You know, mastery of music and layers. And, you know, I think I have to take a harder look at it. But when I look and I go, okay, wait, sugar daddy, and over my head. And what did I write down? Warm ways. And I'm like, ah, man, the. The writing. The writing is first, right? Nothing. Nothing happened. No movie is made unless that writer writes. So I'm gonna give MCV a little bit just off stage when I look at them, I'm gonna give MCV the ability to get that band together, to acquiesce when needed. That's a bold move, to give up a lot of her own moments that she could have been front and center.
- [76:41]
A
Yeah.
- [76:41]
B
To be able to share in that. For those reasons, I. I'm gonna give MCV the edge.
- [76:45]
A
So I'm gonna hold up the writers here just so you can see it, because you mentioned it earlier, that MCV brought so much to the table. She really did. But also. But she's all over it. Yeah. Jared, this is the thing is that is that Stevie Nicks is the wide receiver of this album where she. She scored. She gets all. She gets the run. She gets the pose to do the touchdown dance. But, but, but Christine is the. She's, you know, the offensive lineman. She's sitting there. She's. Block open so the quarterback can see, you know, the left guard. She's the left guard, dude. She's. She's. She's the left guard. Let's. Let's do our final thoughts and get you out of here. Unless there's. Is there anything else, Jared, that we need to mention about this? Like that really is like that I might have left out. I'll come back to you. Come back to me. All right, Dane. We ask everybody these questions. What's your favorite song on this record?
- [77:37]
B
I am gonna say say you love me. Me, I've been listening to a lot lately.
- [77:41]
A
It.
- [77:42]
B
For reasons just. It touches my heart. My family at the time where our family, where love was in my life as a young kid too. Starting to, you know, like girls and I. I'm gonna go and say you love me.
- [77:55]
A
I. I'm. I'm right there with you because I. I would like. I would say it's landslide just because every time I listen to it, I get emotional. But I think say you love me is probably, you know, the catchy landslide.
- [78:09]
B
Reminds me of a bad breakup that I had years later. So that's probably also gonna change my. My scoring perspective. But I still. I believe what I say, which is because of MCV's tenacity and what she supposedly gave up to allow this band to form. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go with her to the fleece army.
- [78:27]
A
Listening. Put. Put. When you. When you tweet or post on this on the Instagram, put. Who you think won? If you're team mcv, Team Nicks, Team Buck. Mick Fleetwood. Who knows Mick Fleetwood. Neighbor here on Maui. He's got. Yeah, he's got multiple restaurants. One burnt down actually in the Maui fires. But I mean, not literally. He doesn't live next to me. I don't. Yeah, but he's. But yeah, he seems like he'd own a lot of property in Hawaii. Like, you know what I mean? He's got that kind of vibe. Is there a song on this record, Dane, that you skip over?
- [79:00]
B
I think the one that I listened to least over the years might be is sugar daddy the last track. Wait, what's the last track?
- [79:06]
A
Last track on the record is I'm so afraid. Yeah, so it's. It's the one right before that, which I have no notes or anything about.
- [79:14]
B
So I don't know why I think Sugar Daddy might be the one that I probably. Yeah, yeah.
- [79:20]
A
Skip over. Dig it. All right. Can you. To this record.
- [79:26]
B
Oh, man.
- [79:29]
A
Wow.
- [79:30]
B
You know what? You'd have to be, like, really falling in love, maybe for the first time. No, no. You'd have to be falling in love for the second time. Time. And this is the time that you know how to keep yourself in check so you don't make the same mistakes you made before. Therefore, you can. To this album.
- [79:45]
A
Yeah, yeah. Dig it. It's upbeat, but there. I mean, there's some stuff on here that I think has got some sexiness to it. You can't. You can. The Landslide. But it's so sad that it's like. It's more of like a really.
- [79:56]
B
That might be the thing that might be what turns you on. You know what I mean? There's. There's some. You know, that's a conversation for another podcast, but, yes, totally.
- [80:04]
A
What would be. What would be your elevator pitch to get someone to listen to this record? Like, how do you sum this alb to somebody that's never heard.
- [80:11]
B
I would. I would say, oh, you're a big Gracie Abrams fan. They go, yeah. I'd be like, you should listen to this. This Fleetwood Mac album, because I don't know why I feel like this. Gracie Abrams, who I'm listening to a little bit. There's. There's something. There's something in her voice that sort of reminds me a little bit in a different way of Stevie Nicks. So I'd probably try to get him in with some. Something contemporary and then throw that on the headphones.
- [80:36]
A
I think this is. This is. You're getting a band that, you know, much like Depeche Mode. We're getting, like, Violator on their sixth, seventh record. You're getting a band that's been around and had so much ups and downs, like the. The. This is the album where I feel like the music supersedes everything. The history, the story. This is setting up arguably the greatest, one of the greatest records of all time. And if, you know, if you want to talk about Fleetwood Mac and why we're talking about them, start with Rumors, and then you go dig into this next. It's. It's a perfect record. Jerry. We. We should have gone into it more, but you had a few things that you weren't into about it. You said it was too slow, but that's another podcast Dane promote Away, please. Promote away, dude. What do you got going on? We'll promote it up the front, too.
- [81:23]
B
Well, I think what I'm probably the most excited about in the most exciting project that I've worked on out outside of my last two comedy specials, which above it all came out out last year in gridian pink. I'm releasing in the next couple of months. Outside of Stand up, In the last 12 years, I've been praying to, to create a documentary that not only shares and shows how I, you know, how I did what I did during that, that, you know, meteoric rise, but also some of the hardships pertaining to, like, having to put my brother in prison and some of the things that happened which were pretty things that people don't know about. So I'm teasing a little bit. I just finished a two year documentary. We're looking at a rough assembly of it next week. But my producers already called me yesterday and, and I said, you know, give it to me straight. And their words exactly. And these are guys that, you know, would call and say, ah, the first hour is slow, or you need this. The. I'll never forget this moment. They called me and I said, all right, well, you're sending me the link. They go, oh, we need one more week making a couple of tweaks. Do you want to hear what we have to say about it? I go, I want to hear it. It's a long pause. And then my main producer, Rocky, he goes, it's epic.
- [82:41]
A
Yeah, dude.
- [82:42]
B
And I'm about to release. I'm about to release the funniest true crime documentary ever. Boom.
- [82:50]
A
I cannot wait to watch it. Dana, I. I'm, I'm so happy you came on. Please come back.
- [82:55]
B
Back.
- [82:56]
A
There's so many more records.
- [82:58]
B
Thank you, man. No, I have to quickly say, because you've been so, you know, you've been rallying behind me for years. You're one of the good guys. And you know, when I say that, I don't, I don't ever say that, but you're one of the good guys. And the fact that we finally got to hang here and do this after, I think saying we're going to for what feels like honestly years and years, you mean a lot to me. Your friendship means a lot to me. And thank you for having me on this. And I do look forward to having a follow up when the time is right.
- [83:26]
A
Let's do it, brother. Dude, I'll see you on Monday, dude. Thanks again, man.
- [83:30]
B
You got it, brother. Thank you, guys.
- [83:31]
A
What did I tell you? What did I tell you? The one and only Dane Cook. This is why we do it, ladies and gentlemen. Follow him on all social media aincook and go to dane cook.com to get tickets to the fresh new flavor tour. He's got Phoenix, Denver, San Bernardino coming, coming up. Go see this man. He's one of the funniest dudes working right now and we all can't wait for that documentary to come out. I think it's going to be incredible. Now we just listened to Fleetwood Mac from 1975. Our new music pick this week brought to you in part by distrokid is I don't know by McKenna Michaels. You can find links to the music on our website the500podcast.com and if you were in a band and were directly influenced by one of these alternatives albums or artists, you want your music featured on the 500 website and on the episode, send your song to 500podcastmail.com and make sure you put the album and artist and influence you in the subject line. Next week it's Bob Marley and the Wailers with Not a dread. Not a dread man. And I. If, if we get the guests that I think we're getting, this is gonna be. If you're a die hard fan of this podcast podcast and and you know who I am, this is going to be great, interesting, fun, full circle. Cross your fingers, Emily. Do your work. You're the best at it. We love you. We'll see you next week. Everybody. Do your homework. Listen to the record. It's good. I'm stuck in my denial waiting for change so I can love again it's hard for me to know my mind won't choose to trust and passion always made such a fool of me but my body's aching for your touch your.
- [85:28]
B
Eyes are looking over me you're better.
- [85:31]
A
Than he ever was and all I really want is to think of you without the trouble of a memories touch Cuz he was going too messing a hurry and I don't even know what he need how can I ever start to be how to trust myself about you like those feelings in the.
- [86:04]
B
I.
- [86:04]
A
Don'T know if there'll be peace after the battle Cuz I'm stuck in my denial waiting for change so I could love it so I can love again and when I finally fall with hesitation in your arms Will it only lead to exactly where he left me in the dark? If I give my soul to you will you you promise not to break it into pieces like he tore apart my heart I don't know how to trace myself about you like those feelings in the front room to escape I don't know.
- [87:08]
B
Peace after the battle Cuz.
- [87:11]
A
I I deny so I can love again so I can love again.
- [87:28]
B
So I get.
- [87:45]
A
The 500 keeping it fleecy for the Police Nation on the 500 the 500 hundred porn, Satan, drugs, Therapy it's not just the list of what.
- [88:14]
B
I'm up to this weekend.
- [88:15]
A
I'm comedian Keke Anderson, and those are just a handful of the taboo topics.
- [88:19]
B
I've poked and prodded at so far.
- [88:21]
A
On my podcast Indecent, the show where we peel at the wallpaper of polite society. Each episode digs into the dark underbelly.
- [88:28]
B
Of our culture to dissect the things.
- [88:29]
A
We aren't allowed to talk about around the dinner table. Featuring conversations with comedians, activists, journalists, academics.
- [88:36]
B
They all help me figure out the.
- [88:37]
A
Who, what and why behind what is and isn't acceptable Behavior and decent With Keke Anderson, where NSFW meets lmao. We'd never admit it, but deep down.
- [88:50]
B
We all get at least some pleasure from bad things happening to somebody we don't want. Like history's full of stories about bitter.
- [88:56]
A
Enemies being mutually horrible. Usually nothing good comes of it, but sometimes. Sometimes you get soul singers James Brown and Joe Tex or 17th century nun Sor Juana and the entire Catholic Church duking it out and dramatically changing our world. On Beef with Bridget Todd, we tell.
- [89:15]
B
The stories of those petty feuds behind.
- [89:17]
A
Some of the greatest art, innovation and global events. Listen to Beef wherever you get your.
- [89:21]
B
PODC.
- [89:25]
A
Next Chapter Podcasts.