183 - Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger - Andy Richter

Summary

Podcast Summary: The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers - Episode 183: Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger with Andy Richter

Release Date: December 4, 2024

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Introduction to the Episode

The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers delves into Rolling Stone Magazine’s esteemed list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In Episode 183, host Josh Adam Meyers invites comedian and longtime friend Andy Richter to explore Willie Nelson's seminal 1975 album, Red Headed Stranger, which holds the prestigious rank of number 183 on the list.

Guest Introduction: Andy Richter

Andy Richter, renowned for his role as Conan O'Brien's sidekick on various late-night shows, brings his unique comedic perspective to the discussion. Richter’s deep appreciation for Willie Nelson's work, despite his primary association with comedy, sets the stage for an insightful conversation.

Exploring Red Headed Stranger

Richter and Meyers embark on an in-depth analysis of Red Headed Stranger, examining its place within Willie Nelson's prolific career and its impact on the country music genre.

Background and Significance

Richter highlights the album's raw and stripped-down approach, contrasting it with the heavily produced Nashville sound of the time. He remarks, “Red Headed Stranger is like Exile on Main Street; it reinvents country music with its minimalist style” (21:28).

Artistic Independence

The duo discusses Nelson's departure from the mainstream music industry's constraints. Richter emphasizes Nelson's desire for creative control, stating, “He was chewed up and spit out by the Nashville machine, so he took matters into his own hands” (22:10).

Musical Composition and Storytelling

The conversation delves into the album's storytelling prowess, particularly its concept as a narrative of love, betrayal, and redemption. Meyers notes, “It’s a Western, a Samurai story in musical form” (87:42), underscoring the album's timeless and universal themes.

Comparison with Contemporary Works

Richter draws parallels between Red Headed Stranger and other iconic records, such as Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. He states, “Red Headed Stranger is the wall of country music, its rawness comparable to Nebraska” (86:08).

Personal Anecdotes and Connections

Richter shares personal experiences attending Willie Nelson concerts since childhood, illustrating his longstanding admiration for the artist. He recounts sitting in Nelson's tour bus during a Conan bumper segment, highlighting the personal bond between them and Nelson’s genuine character.

Impact on Country Music and Beyond

The episode explores how Red Headed Stranger influenced the evolution of country music, paving the way for the outlaw country movement alongside artists like Waylon Jennings. Richter comments, “Willie turned country music into a form of storytelling that rivals the best narratives in any genre” (94:16).

Cultural and Critical Reception

Meyers and Richter discuss the album's enduring legacy, noting its induction into various halls of fame and its critical acclaim over the decades. Richter asserts, “This album is culturally significant; it remains relevant because of its authenticity and emotional depth” (93:29).

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Wrapping up the discussion, Richter offers an elevator pitch for Red Headed Stranger: “It’s a primal, genius masterpiece that transcends country music, offering a compelling story and raw musicianship” (96:12). Meyers echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the album's universal appeal and storytelling excellence.

Notable Quotes

• Andy Richter (21:28): “Red Headed Stranger is like Exile on Main Street; it reinvents country music with its minimalist style.”
• Andy Richter (22:10): “He was chewed up and spit out by the Nashville machine, so he took matters into his own hands.”
• Andy Richter (87:42): “It’s a Western, a Samurai story in musical form.”
• Andy Richter (86:08): “Red Headed Stranger is the wall of country music, its rawness comparable to Nebraska.”
• Andy Richter (93:29): “This album is culturally significant; it remains relevant because of its authenticity and emotional depth.”
• Andy Richter (96:12): “It’s a primal, genius masterpiece that transcends country music, offering a compelling story and raw musicianship.”

Timestamps for Reference

• 21:28 - Comparison with Exile on Main Street
• 22:10 - Nelson’s departure from Nashville
• 87:42 - Red Headed Stranger as a Western/Samurai story
• 86:08 - Rawness compared to Nebraska
• 93:29 - Cultural significance and legacy
• 96:12 - Elevator pitch for the album

Final Remarks

Episode 183 of The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers offers a rich exploration of Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger, blending musical analysis with personal anecdotes. Andy Richter’s passionate commentary highlights the album’s artistic brilliance and its pivotal role in shaping country music. Listeners are left with a profound appreciation for Nelson’s genius and the timeless nature of this iconic record.

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For more episodes and discussions on the greatest albums of all time, visit the500podcast.com.

Transcript

[Josh Adam Myers]

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[Andy Richter]

Sh.

[Josh Adam Myers]

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[Andy Richter]

Parent this show is brought to you by distro kid bring your music to the masses.

[Josh Adam Myers]

The 500.

[Andy Richter]

The 500J been walking us down through that 2012 edition so it ain't nothing to you hundreds want to no when in need of a friend.

[Josh Adam Myers]

The king of peace for angelo talkin.

[Andy Richter]

The 500 until the end talking the 500 until the end with my man.

[Josh Adam Myers]

JL.

[Andy Richter]

On the 500 talking the 500.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Until the end don't cross it don't boss him he's wild in his sorrow he's riding hiding his pain don't fight it don't spide it Just wait till.

[Andy Richter]

Tomorrow maybe he'll ride on again that is the title track from Redheaded Stranger. It's by Willie Nelson from his 1975 record of the same name. It's also number 183 out of 500 on the 500 with me. What's up everybody? My name is Josh Adam Myers. If you're tuning in for the first time. I'm a comedian. I don't know much about music. I know a little bit, I think after. After 320. No, 317. We've done 317 episodes. I'm trying to do my math. I feel like I know enough. Like I'll see names pop up, and I'm like, oh, my God. I remember him from. That's Daniel Lanois. I know Daniel Lanois. He's from. And then I. I can't really remember right now what he did, but I know that name. John Landau. They're popping up. John Cale. Always seeing John Kale. But this is a podcast where comedians going through Rolling Stone magazines listed the 500 greatest albums all the way down to one. Thank you to everybody that came out to the House of Comedy in Arizona. Saw some of my fleece army out there. I love you guys. Keep letting me know, man. Keep showing up at these shows because we got a lot of great. December 15th and the 16th, I'll be at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles with Bill Burr on the 15th, Bobby Lee on the 16th. Then I will be in San Diego. Well, La Jolla. December 20th through the 22nd at the Comedy Store, headlining. And then to close out the year, December 26th through December 31st, I will be at the House of Comedy in Minnesota. And then if my agent. I got some stuff coming in. I don't know, man. We'll see how next year pans out. I think it's gonna be a good one.

[Josh Adam Myers]

There's.

[Andy Richter]

There's dates showing up. I want. I want a chunk. And I think in March, I'm going out with. So, yeah. Josh Adam Myers.com for tickets, go to Punchup Live, Backslash Josh Adam Myers for everything else, and go to Josh Adam Myers on all social media. Have you been watching the podcast? Episodes drop on our YouTube page every Thursday. Just search for the 500 channel. You can go. I think it's actually YouTube.com backslash the 500 podcast. And if you want to watch the podcast, there are two ways to see my guest and I each week. Watch the full episodes on YouTube every Thursday, or get it a day earlier by signing up for the Patreon for $5 a month. I think that comes out to be about 65 a year. And if I'm not mistaken, you're helping us out. And if you give us 25amonth, you get some cool merch. Jeremiah will send it to you. I think we owe some of you guys some hoodies. So go to patreon.com backslash the 500 podcast. Come on, man. Pay for us to do this show. We're almost done. All right. Will A. Jenkins Nelson. That is not his name, but this is our second record of his. We've done. We did Stardust or Starlight, the one we did that with. With Raelyn today. I mean, sometimes you get a guest and sometimes you get a guess. This is one of those guests where it's like, I was so excited when I saw him booked and then to sit down and immediately be like, this is going to be such a blast. The one and only Andy Richter. You know him as being the co host, sidekick, whatever you want to call of the Conan O'Brien late night talk shows throughout the years, or the Conan O'Brien show or just Conan. It went through so many different iterations of it. And since June 2019, Richter has had his own podcast on the Earwolf Network entitled The3Questions with Andy Richter and recently launched a new show on Sirius XM where he takes calls directly from fans. Listeners can hear the Andy Richter call and show every Thursday on Conan O'Brien radio channel 104 and the Sirius XM app. I had to like, because this had to come through. This is such a weird thing. Like, it didn't show up in the Google Doc. So Adam had to send this to me in this email and I just had to like, keep scrolling to the left, as that sentence went, because I didn't know it. But dude, Andy rules. Raid review and most Importantly, subscribe to the 500 Listen Free on all platforms. Leave a five star rating. We love you. Follow me at Josh Adam Myers on all social media. Follow the podcast at the 500podcast. Email the [e-mail] Follow the Facebook group run by Crazy Evan. And for all things 500, go to the website the 500 podcast. Calm. All right, kiddos. Fleeces, fleeces. Five honeys. Dig into it. Willie Nelson, redheaded stranger at 183. I'm saying this because I live in whatever music I'm listening to at that moment. That's the greatest music ever, in my opinion. So. So I'm. I've been Willie Nelson for like three days and I'm like, this guy. I mean, you can't beat this guy.

[Josh Adam Myers]

This is.

[Andy Richter]

He's the redheaded bandit. This is the dude. He's the guy. And then I went to see Mars the Mars Volta documentary last night and I'm like, you know what? I. I don't know why I would even think Willie. This is this Mars Volta, the progressive rock. The way the sound of that prog rock.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Forget Willie.

[Andy Richter]

And then, and then this morning I saw this little mini documentary on like, Sabrina Carpenter's taking over music. And I'm like, I mean, she's the greatest. Who's better than Sabrina? So that's that was the story of how we got from where we are right now to where we are. No. You know what's funny? And I am a poser, Andy. I'm wearing my. Can you see it?

[Josh Adam Myers]

I see that. Your redheaded stranger T shirt. Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, it's. Well, it's. This is. So I bought this as a poser because I went on tour with this guy, real popular right now, named Jelly Roll.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, I know Jelly Roll.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, you know Jelly. How can you not. He's everywhere. He's the new Chipotle. He's on every street corner. He's the Poke bowl of music right now. And he. I went on tour. I opened for him. And. And because I was like, I've. I like country in the sense that, like, this podcast, you know, Jerry, we've been doing it, what, six and a half years?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

So it's almost. Almost. We're almost there. We're almost done. But I remember the first one was Loretta Lynn. That was my first obsession. Then it was Steve Earl. We did Guitar Town, which I know Steve is like. He's not, like, really. I don't know if he's accepted into the country, you know, because he's more of a liberal, but. And he's very outspoken. But I love that. And then we've done, like, Merle Haggard, and we've done. We did Stardust with Willie. But I. But the thing is, it's just like. Like I said, it's like I'm just. I'm always. When I do the podcast, I get involved, and. And then I'm like, oh, my God, I love this guy. Countries are music that I just. I. I used to hate. And now the more and more I listen to it, the more I fall in love with it, which. Which leads me to be. The first question I want to ask you is, as a guy, you grew up in Michigan, right? No.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Well, I was born in Michigan, but I grew up in the Midwest. And it's all, like. I grew up in Illinois. I spent most of my time in Illinois. Indiana, Illinois, mostly. My dad. My dad taught at Bloomington in Indiana iu, and when my folks split up, we moved back to my mom's hometown, which is Yorkville, Illinois, which is a small town. But it's. You know, it's weird because it's 60 or 70 miles west of Chicago, so you get Chicago TV and people talking about, you know, your Dodgers and your Toyotas and. And then. But then, look, you know, like, there are people around, especially, like, my grandparents, some of my grandparents, friends who talk real kind of country. Like, there's a little bit of twang to them, you know?

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

So. And. And I mean, there's also just kind of flat Midwestern, but they're definitely. I wasn't. I was. I did not grow up in a household with country music. But I had relatives. Like, I. I feel like I had a. My Uncle Raymond and my Aunt Helen. I. I don't. I'm sure it wasn't the case, but I feel like every time I went to their house, he haw was on tv, you know, and it was just. And it. And my. I think my Uncle Raymond had like every Louis Lamour book. Like, he just had a wall of paperback Western. So there was country music around. But it wasn't, honestly, until I became an adult that I. And I think it was Hank Williams, where I was just like, wait a minute. Holy. This is, you know, this is rock and roll, you know, and this is important and this is vital, you know, and. And I. And. But you gotta have, you know, you gotta have a gene for it. You can't. Like, everybody. I'll listen to, you know, I'll. I'll. I'll listen to Buck Owens and I have like a playlist that's all Buck Owens, and I'll listen to it and I can listen to it for three hours. And I could totally understand why somebody would go like, what the are you listening to? You know, because it is like. It's all kind of the same, but it's like, oh, man, it hits me right where I live, you know, Completely.

[Andy Richter]

Before we go even any further into that, can we just give a shout out to your aunt and uncle names, Raymond and Helen? I mean, those are. Those are top 01% of.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Of like, aunt and uncle names.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

And. And I love that they're the ones that are watching. Would you say was it he haw it?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Was he haw.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. Yeah, because we. And. And I. And I completely agree with everything you said about, you know, when you grow up. Like, me and Jer, we grew up right outside of Washington, D.C. in Germantown, Maryland, which is the suburbs of. Of D.C. obviously, in between Baltimore and D.C. and it's. And then if you go. I always say it's like, if you go 20 minutes south, you're in the. The busiest, most, you know, metropolitan city in. In the world, Washington, D.C. it's everything. But if you go 20 minutes north, you're in Frederick, which is this. Which I wouldn't, I would never call it, like, you know, on, like, The. On the level of like, you know, like the way Bakersfield or the way that. You know.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Or deep Appalachia or whatever.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, yeah. It's not. It's not that. Yeah. But. But there is a level of like, I always think that was such like a whole nother world to go out that deep. And country.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Absolutely.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. And country, because it was part of that area where I never wanted to associate myself with the far out like that. I was like, no, I'm a city guy. Like, I want to go into the district. So I'm whatever is popular, whatever is smart. I'm, you know, if you guys. Okay, cool. You guys listen to. To Merle Haggard, I'll listen to Radiohead. Because.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Intellectual.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah. I'm. I'm smart. Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

But little do you know that country music is probably just as. And let me re. Let me be very specific on this, because this statement. I'm not going to put all country music in this, but this era, the. The 60s, the 70s of country music is probably some of the best and realist storytelling that you will ever get. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And.

[Andy Richter]

But no one knows that. No one.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

This is. This is. I've said this a million times on the podcast of why I started loving more and more of like the outlaw stuff. I was like, this is. This is punk rock. This is NWA. This is like you to the man. This is MC5, but with a. With a bandolier guitar, just playing it, you know, on a prairie, talking about growing up broke, growing up with nothing, you know. You know, in this case, which we'll get into that, this is. This is the country music dark side of the moon. It's. It's the wall of country music. Because this is the first concept record which I'd like. I just love this. I love it so much. So when did it start for you? When did country, like, when did it kick in? When did it kick in the gillies.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Just. Just to follow on what you say, because, like, you know, like this album, you could say this album is dark. And it's like for country music, this is not dark. There's a whole sub genre of just murder songs of just. I caught my woman cheating and I killed her and I buried her in a mine and now her ghost haunts me. You know, it's stuck there. And you know, and that was from the 50s, you know, like there's it.

[Andy Richter]

They.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And that is like that. You want to talk about hip hop or rap, like that was. But it's just, you know, it's like the music of poor people, you know, and the poor people that are so poor that they are close to crime, you know, like that. Because that's one of the main drivers of make of crime is like, I don't have any money. And so there's, you know, like the. I mean, Merle or Merle Haggard's whole thing is, you know, I went to fucking jail. You know, I robbed people and killed people because I went to jail. He didn't kill anybody. I did go to jail, you know, because it was a thief. Yeah, yeah. But I think. I think it was probably, like I say it was Hank Williams, but also too. It was when I got in, when I was in college, because I started college at University of Illinois in Champaign, Urbana, and I think I had like a Hank Williams greatest hits kind of thing. And Lefty Frizzell was another one of my first, like, country.

[Andy Richter]

Wait, Lefty. Lefty Brizzell or Drizzle, Because Lefty Drizzle.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No. F, R I Z, Z, E, L. Because that was.

[Andy Richter]

He was the coach of the University of Maryland.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No, no, no.

[Andy Richter]

He was really.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Well, you know what? He might have been. His nickname might have come from his. It being close to Lefty, for sure.

[Andy Richter]

Sure.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And Lefty Frizzell had a. Had a son, I think, David, who was a big country star, like in the 80s. 70s. 80s.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But I started. So I started with that and then started to go. I transferred to Columbia College in Chicago and I went to film school and I started to hang out in, like, these old man taverns on the north side and the north side of Chicago, especially uptown neighborhood, it is full of transplants. Not so much anymore, but in the. Starting in the 40s and 50s, transplants from. Transplants from Appalachia, because there would. There would be. They'd cut the top off a mountain and they would take all the people that were displaced for the coal mining and drop them in uptown Chicago. And so you could. You go to taverns in uptown Chicago. And 60% of the jukebox is old country music. And, you know, and the. The. You hear in the. In the. You know, you hear in the old people's voices. When you're, you know, sitting at the bar, you can hear that they're not from Chicago, you know. And. And so I started to hear. I started to hear country music on the. On the jukebox and then found like, George Jones. And I don't know if you've done much George of A. George Jones do.

[Andy Richter]

It a little bit.

[Josh Adam Myers]

So so, George Jones, will you up.

[Andy Richter]

So. So wait, wait. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna go, why? I know this is. So I do that show, the goddamn Comedy Jam, where comedians sing. And early on, you must know John Doerr. He's like the pride of Canada. Yeah. Oh, yes. My God. Because he did. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Him. And. Him and Rory did that incredible bit on Conan where they both did the same. Yeah. So genius comedian, and he's doing it for the first time. And he. And this is very early on in the show's history. So this is like three or four shows.

[Josh Adam Myers]

We.

[Andy Richter]

We. I kind of knew it was like, you got to do a hit. You got to do something rock. But I love John so much. I was like, you do whatever you want. And he goes, I want to do she Stopped Loving you Today by George Jones.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Loving her.

[Andy Richter]

Loving her. Yeah. Yeah. But it's. But Jeremiah this. Because he knows it. But this song is literally. I think it's, like, about a suicide or he kills himself or.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No, it's. It's that. It's like we went. It's. It's a guy's funeral.

[Andy Richter]

Yes.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And it starts out. And, like, we went to his funeral, and, you know, it was sad. And then it's like. But it. But his. His suffering is over. And then it's. And it's this huge violin swell. He stopped loving her today they placed a wreath upon his door and soon they'll carry him away he stopped loving her today because he's dead.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Like, he. You know, she left him and he had been pining for her and, you know, and, like, there's a spoken word part in the middle, and George Jones is like, you know, and this time it's for sure that, you know, he's over her for good. And it's. And also it's like, that is like. It's funny you bring that one up because that. That song is produced by a guy named Billy Sherrill. I think it was Columbia. I get the. The record labels wrong, but he created a Nashville sound with Chet Aikens. Chet Akins is an amazing guitar, an amazing picker, but was, like, a dictatorial. Ran the country music part of Columbia Records in Nashville. And that's where you get all the strings and. And he stopped loving her today as one of, like, the. The, like, essential sound like. Of that sound. Huge swelling strings, huge production, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And that's exactly what Redheaded Stranger is anti. That's. Redheaded Strangers exists because of songs like he stopped loving her Today. And I love them both, but it's like he stopped loving her. Today is like, slightly less grandiose as Bohemian Rhapsody. It's like Queen.

[Andy Richter]

It's a lot. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And redheaded stranger is Exile on Main Street. You know, it's like, I love them both. They're very different things, but, you know, and they're both country, but they do different things with country.

[Andy Richter]

Sure.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Willie. Willie's whole later part of his career was because he got chewed up and spit out by that machine. By that. That you got to put strings on it. And in fact, this album. I was reading a little bit about this album. They ran it by Billy Cheryl, and he's like, this is a demo. Like, this isn't. This isn't even done. You know, like, you got to put something on this. And then they put it out and, you know, and it's a multi. Multi platinum selling album, which. Although at the time, you can't blame. I mean, even the label was like, this doesn't sound done. You know, but they didn't know. You know, it's like, that's what geniuses are for, you know, when everything is.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. When everything's going one way and that's what's popular. Everybody just wants more of the popular. Yeah. They don't. They don't give. It's like, so when you come in saying, well, I'm gonna. You know, we're gonna do this now, dude. It was like, I always. I've said this a billion times on the podcast. It was, you know, you remember, like in the late 90s, when you're talking, it's like corn and. And. And. And Limp Biscuit, and it's all big, big, big. And then the Strokes came out, and people were like. Like, wait. You know, But I. You know, this is incredible. But no one knew that that was gonna happen. Probably the rep were like, all right, you know, this doesn't have. You know, we need over. We need more production. We need bigger music. It's. Everything's big, big, big. And, yeah, you know, it's all.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It's all a cycle anyway, because, you know, Willie Nelson was referencing old. You know, like, drop it. I'm forgetting his name. Earl or. Yeah, Earl Tubbs. Is it Earl Tubbs? I forget Jeremiah.

[Andy Richter]

Look it up, dude.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No, it's. He had a record shop, and. But he's. And he was a Texas singer, and he's saying, walk in the floor over you, earnest tub. That's who it is.

[Andy Richter]

Okay.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Like, when Willie was doing this album, he was like, ernest Hub Did a bunch of stuff where was just him and guitar. Like, it was all stripped down. And that's what, you know, country music came from people sitting on a porch with acoustic instruments, and it had what they call this high lonesome sound, which is like yodeling into English folk music. And it was just guitar and banjo. So the notion that country music needed a bunch of bells and whistles, like, that was a new idea, you know, and then that idea became old. And so they go back and it's the same thing. Like, the Strokes are just the.

[Andy Richter]

You know, the. It's, you know, years ago.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, they're just Velvet Elevation, Velvet Underground. You know, the Strokes are the Velvet Underground. So it's kind of like. It's just, you know, music tends to kind of reinvent itself. It's the same thing in tv. Matt Weiner, who created Mad Men, wrote on one of my first sitcoms and gave me the pilot to this show called Mad Men that was about advertising in the 50s or, you know, and everyone told him, no, we're. Period pieces do not work. Period does not work. They want things that are for today. Today. Finally get somebody to bike. They put it on. It's the biggest thing ever. All those people that told him, period doesn't work, then are doing, like, swinging 60s, you know, like twa stewardesses.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

They all just follow, follow, follow. And in one sense, you think, oh, you cowards. But in the other sense, it's like, well, yeah, but they're not geniuses. Like, it's like, it takes geniuses to say, no, we're gonna go do this now. This is what we should be doing. And what's your.

[Andy Richter]

Not off topic? Because I. Because AMC is one is the network that Mad Men was on.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Are you.

[Andy Richter]

Is there a network of, like, that?

[Josh Adam Myers]

You.

[Andy Richter]

Because I was thinking about this, because I was watching the Penguin. I've been watching that. And then I'm like, watch Dune Prophecy next. I'm an HBO guy. Are you. Is there a network that you swear by?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Like, oh, I mean, definitely. HBO is pretty great. FX does really good stuff these days. And I mean. And when I was. When I was shopping around shows and I did two shows for them, like, Fox was like. I would always say, like, Fox is where you have the Simpsons and When Animals Attack. And somewhere in there, I feel like I fit in. Like, I mean, Foxes, you know, Fox has got their problem. And you are.

[Andy Richter]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You know, and when I did work for Fox, I was like, well, I'm not working on the Death Star. I'm on one of the ships that's near the Death Star. But it, you know, it's. Fox was another one, and Fox still does. They'll do Interesting. I mean, interesting with a trashy sort of exploitative edge. But, like, that's what, you know, I don't want to watch West Wing, you know, I want to watch When Animals Attack.

[Andy Richter]

Sure. There's nothing wrong with an animal attack. Is there a network that you're like, I'm not everything. Like, I'm not. And I. I mean, we might both. We both sold shows before, so maybe we shouldn't do this, But I'm gonna say it. Maybe I shouldn't. Showtime. I just can't get it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I don't. Yeah. I mean, I don't really know them, but, like, I mean, there is the obvious one. Like, cbs. CBS is really still kind of cornered the market on, and that isn't to say anyone out there. I'll work for you. I don't give a. Give me a bet you need a host out here. I'll be there. But. But, you know, CBS is just. I mean, it's their business is stuff that Graham grandparents can watch with the grandkids, and they. Yeah, that's sort of been their deal forever, you know, and that's just like. I feel like, yeah, I mean, I could do something there, but it wouldn't exactly, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, they want Bob and Abishola or whatever they want, like. Yeah, yeah, they want. They want all the. The. The. The Big Bang. I don't think I've ever watched one episode of the Big Bang Theory. Not one.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I honestly don't watch a lot of comedy. I just, you know, it's like, I feel like it's a plumber watching hgtv. I just am like, no, I want to see, like, late. I. The. The one that I just have been just cruising through is Lioness on Paramount. Plus, it's another. Yet another Tyler Sheridan show, and it's about Zoe Saldana runs a team of undercover CIA agents, and it's all women who go undercover to befriend the women near terrorist targets and then kill them. And it's great.

[Andy Richter]

It's just.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It's all. It's such dad tv. It's all like, you know, we gotta get it on a jet to Langley immediately, and, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. Oh, I love. Dude, I'm in. Dude, Yellow Yellowstone. I flew through a lot of that. I. I, you know, the. I'm watching. What was I watching right now is like. Like, I'M doing Penguin. It's. I, I love anything HBO does. So that's like, if they co. Sign it, I'm like, all right, I'm going with it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

They also did the documentary stuff on HBO is like, it's the best. Almost everything. Like, there's. It's very hard for HBO to make a documentary that I'm not into, you know, like, because sometimes documentaries, just on topic, you know, I don't give a. About that. But, yeah, almost everything they do is. Is, you know, they just, like, they, like. I don't even give a. About yoga, but there was just like a four part, you know, yoga expose, which was. I was like, I was there for it.

[Andy Richter]

I, I. The night that, the night that the Going Clear, the Scientology documentary came out is the first night that I did dabs, which is like the strongest weed you could ever do. I was buying vape, took a dab, I went home. I was all excited to watch that documentary. And I mean, I think I laid in the fetal position watching Going Clear. It's. It's still one of the scariest things.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I thought you ran out to get a personality test.

[Andy Richter]

My f. My. I've. You know what's funny is I. Because I've heard buddies say they wanted to go into Scientology just to like, Like, I think even Nick Kroll's talked about this.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Go undercover.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, not even go undercover. Just go get the test as like a joke. And, And I'm telling you, he. I remember, I think it was Nick that said that he and another buddy went. And it was like, they've never been left alone ever since. They find them at every address they ever go to. Everything. They keep sending things. Yeah. So. And then even from that going back to that Mars Volta documentary, that's a huge part of the ending where it's like, like, you know, he was. He was married to one of the women that were like, why am I talking about this? Watch the document. I was about to bring up Danny Masterson, and I'm like, no. Just.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Willie Nelson. Josh, stay on topic. Jesus Christ.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

All right, so. So Willie Nelson. Something that blew my mind about this record, Andy, is that this is his 18th studio record.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

18Th in 1975. So I, I know that it always feels like in the, in the past, you know, like the Beatles. Like, you know, nobody realizes it when, unless you really see it, that they only had a career of about six or seven years.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Right.

[Andy Richter]

And in those six or seven years, they put out about 10, 11 records. So, yeah. Willie. Willie's story is an interesting one. Do you know it or you know dude? Because I don't know if everybody. I know we talked about this. We did Stardust before.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, you mentioned it. Yeah but that's cover so it doesn't really count. You know what I mean?

[Andy Richter]

But I'm talking. We never really talked about his career. Is that so this guy, you know, he was. He's a radio DJ for years and a guitar teacher. And a guitar teacher, yeah. And he's so. It's like I'm trying to see like. Like the. In 60 he moves to Nashville, signed a publishing contract that allowed him to join Ray Price's band as a bassist. This is 62 Records, his first record. So 62. This album came out in what, 75. Yeah, yeah. So that's. That's churning them out. Due to success, Nelson signed in 64 with RCA Victor. Joined the Grand Old Opry the following year. After mid chart hits in the late 60s and early 70s, he grew weary of corporate national music scene and in. In 72 moved to Austin. Austin motivated Nelson to return to performing in 73 Signs with Atlanta. Damn, he's all over the place. He's at every fight. He's just turning and burning. Nelson turn turned to outlaw country in 73 and then well he and he.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And he and Waylon Jennings sort of. And they didn't say, you know, I mean Waylon Jennings has a. Has a song called don't you think this outlaw thing's done got out of hand and it's all about being busted for drugs and stuff. You know because. But yeah, they. They were sort of called outlaw because you know, probably because they had long hair. Honestly they had greasy long hair and they did a bunch of pills.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, they have a song together that. They have a song together that, that me and Bill Burr like not to name drop, but we've sang it a million times. Just as like enough of the cocaine nothing baby.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah yeah. No they. But yeah it was. It was a. All just to move away from that. But it was also. I mean I think you know, Willie didn't like what was going. I mean it'd be interesting to see like if he had caught on in that Nashville sort of factory.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

If he ever would have been this. But he was just kind of rejected by it. And he did have his own ideas and he did. He did have his own style that he would not get rid of. Like he had because he, he. A lot of what he does is jazz and I'm not a musician so. I don't understand a lot of this stuff, but he sings and plays behind the beat. Like he's, you know, he's like. Or he's a little slow. It's. You know, and they would. There's these constant critiques about his kind of flat so, you know, singing. And he was singing off the beat and. And the only use they had for him was as a songwriter and he wrote Crazy for Patsy Klein, he wrote the Nightlife for Ray Price, and he wrote Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away for everybody. And. But not only that, he wrote those three songs in like two days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One which I just am like, he must have been visible from outer space because those are classics.

[Andy Richter]

Crazy itself. Yeah, that.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

That is one of the most iconic, like, not just country songs, but songs of all time.

[Josh Adam Myers]

All three of them. If you don't know all three of them. Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away. That's. I mean, that has become almost like a jazz standard at this point. And like the song Nightlife, it's. It's the nightlife.

[Andy Richter]

I love the boogie. No, no, it's.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It's all about.

[Andy Richter]

It's on.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And if you. And if. If you. One of the best country albums that you'll ever be able to hear. And. And you should listen to it the minute we're done here. Ray Price did an album called the Nightlife and this was the title song. And it's full of just like people like losers at a bar songs, you know, like, there's one. There's one called. And. And Willie. Willie, I think, wrote this one too. It's. Are you sure this is where you want to be? And it's. It's him singing to a woman who he can't get out of the bar. Like, it. Like his wife or somebody that can't get out of the bar. And he says, take a good look or look around you. Take a good look at all the local used to be's. Are you sure this is where you want to be? Which is just. Fuck. That's, you know, just in terms of lyrics that. It's like you said, that's the kind of thing where I'm like, I challenge any genre of music to talk some of the. Some of the country lyrics that you get and some of the stuff that, that he's written and some of the stuff that, you know, there's just so much to this music, you know, not today's country. Today's country is.

[Andy Richter]

Well, I actually, you know, and I'm not gonna say you're. You're. You're wrong. The. I think there was a real bad period when I was really getting into music. So I'd say. I'd say late 90s verse and. And all the way up until maybe about five or six years ago. Yeah. Because now there's emerging.

[Josh Adam Myers]

There's some good people. Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Well, they're like, dude, listen, I. I mean, I. Jelly is all. You know, I. I was. I remember when I was like, met the guy and I was like, yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna like this guy's music. And he's offered me to go on tour with him. And then I listened to it. I was like, no, this isn't bad. I was like, oh, yeah, it's. Yeah, you know, it's purse. Because he's. He's still. He's. He. He's not doing outlaw, but I can tell that he's influenced by it and being real. I. I think there was that. When you say the bad country and. And I'll say this is like that. Like that. That crappy like Toby Keith or like, yeah, yeah, you know, or like.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Or even if you listen to modern country now, it's. And I mean, if people make jokes about. I'm not the first one to notice it. It's like, it's. It's like AI and you plug in dirt road pickup truck, drinking beer by the creek with my girl. Honoring. Yeah, it's all. And it's all just the same regurgitated Jason Isbel, who's a really great. But I mean, he doesn't. He's sort of beyond country. I think he's more considered. They call him Americana. Yeah, like, he said. I taught. I talked. He was on my podcast and I talked to him and he said, like, he said, yeah, they're just. They. They are good at pushing buttons in Nashville right now, and people just love to have those buttons smashed. They're just. They just keep hitting those same buttons and people. They like it, they buy it.

[Andy Richter]

It's probably. Probably the most popular music right now next to, like, hip hop. I. Dude, Beyonce. Beyonce just did a country record. Post Malone is going into a country record. Jelly. Like, I mentioned him again, he's one of the biggest touring artists right now. I think he just had the number one record.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Country has.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Which.

[Andy Richter]

Which look is. You know, it is like jazz, a true American art form. It's unfortunate that for years so many people would be like, you. You'd ask somebody, what. What do you listen To. I listen to everything but country. Yeah, I've heard that a million times.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Absolutely.

[Andy Richter]

And. And it's because, like I said, they've been getting force fed and they didn't go back. And that's why this podcast is so awesome, because we go back to find out about what all that great was. And, and I mean, this, this. I. I don't, you know, I don't know if I would have heard this in 1995, 96, when I was like, in high school and listening to grunge, if I would have been able to appreciate how incredible this record is. But listening to it now at 45, it's hands down, I'm like, why haven't I been listening to this for years? This is so powerful, so incredible. And. And that's just listening it on the surface, not even really digging into the lyrics yet. And then the more I read the lyrics and I figure out the story of the redheaded stranger, it's like, it's like, oh, of course they made a movie out of this. Do you know the full story?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Richter]

So for every. So I don't want to cover you up, but for everybody else.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No, you go ahead.

[Andy Richter]

So I want. It's not. It's not. I want to try to see if I can consolidate this because it's two paragraphs, but the story begins with Time of the Preacher, where the character evokes for his wife. So I basically, it's. He. It's. I want to see if I can cut out 90% of this. Do you want to do it?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Sure you do.

[Andy Richter]

I don't want to talk it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

This. The album is based on an old country song and, and just in the 50s. It's not like old, old country song called the Ballad of the Redheaded Stranger, which is on the album. Which is. Which is the part that's, you know, about, you know, don't cross him, don't boss him. He's wild in his sorrow. That is the. And. And that. What's hilarious to me. And I didn't know until I did some reading about this, that song was written for Perry Como.

[Andy Richter]

Really?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yes. But because of some sort of publishing problems, they didn't. He didn't do it. So it was given to some other guy. Luther Guitar boogie. Somebody. Some guy that didn't. And it got a little bit of radio play. And if you ever. It's. It would be fun to look, look, look it up. And it's like on YouTube, it's a very sort of like bouncy kind of Kind of song. All the lyrics are the same about a guy rides into town and a woman tries to steal. You know, touches his horse and he shoots her dead immediately. Yeah. And gets away with it because she was trying to steal his horse.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I mean, and that was, you know, there again, talk about dark. That was a bouncy country song in the radio in like 1954. This is a fun one. Let's dance to this, honey. And shot her dead and I killed her there. Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Hooked her horse in her underwear.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And Willie. Willie used to play it on his radio station and then he used to cover it. And his. His wife. Before this album, and he had left, he was on Atlantic, which was a good situation for him. And he made a couple albums for them. One called Shotgun Willie, which is a really good album. And Phases and Stages, which is kind of his first sort of dabbling in a concept album. You know.

[Andy Richter]

These are like. These are like his two outlaw ones. These are the ones right now.

[Josh Adam Myers]

This is the beginning of. This is the beginning about. I'm outside the Nashville machine. Atlantic closes their country division. So he goes over to. I forget who it is. Rca. I don't, you know, say the labels, but he goes to a new label where they give him. They don't pay him a ton of money, but they give him complete control. And the. He's talking to his wife and his wife says, why don't you do Ballad of the Redhead Stranger and why don't you write a bunch of songs inspired by that? So, like the fact that. That the Time of the Preacher is. Takes place in Blue Rock, Montana is just. Because that's where the redheaded stranger. And so he just is riffing on this song, the Blue Headed Stranger or Blue headed. The Red Headed Stranger, and filling out the story and. And adding other songs that he writes himself to it and songs that already existed like Blue Eyes, Crying in the Rain. And it's, you know, and it's a. It's a western, it's a samurai story. It's just.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, it is.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It's a sparse story of love and betrayal and viol, silence and redemption, you know, and it's. And it's all there in an album with like bass guitar and harmonica, you know, and piano, his sister on piano.

[Andy Richter]

If you could make a concept record, what would it be about? What would your concept record be?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Probably something about the humiliation of the workplace. That having a job is just an endless parade of humiliation and. And know what to do about it, you know, like, I don't have a Solution. I. But I do just feel like, oh, yeah. I mean, I. You know, I've had lovely workplaces, but I do just feel like that what you're told is life is kind of like, well, you have to go eat, you have to go. You have to go do. Someone will tell you what to do. And that person might be a idiot. They might be. And, you know, they might be nice. It might be awful. And. But you got to do what you're told. And I don't. I don't know what to do with that because I. I can't. I don't have a better system, you know, Gotta work, gotta make a living, you know, Gotta buy groceries.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. All I hear in my head is, I'm like, I don't want to talk by the water cooler. I don't wanna talk to you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

What would yours be?

[Andy Richter]

I. I was thinking about that I would do something about my dog. Just. I don't know. Like, I rescued her in West Covina, and. And, you know, she's just had such a great life with me, and it's kind of what she would see and with me. You know what I mean? Like, that was what I was thinking about that as I asked, that it would be like. I think it would be from the dog's perspective of seeing. Yeah, that's. Now, listen. That yours is way better and way more relatable.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I'm actually. I actually have. Have an idea in my head, you know, like, one of my many ideas that I never execute about a story that's kind of about. Because I. I got divorced a few years ago and I got a dog. We had dogs, but I'd lost them in the divorce. I mean, you know, I sort of like. I didn't like, necessarily lose him, but I just kind of like, my. My kids were still there. It's kind of like. No.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

The dogs sort of belong in that house. They're little dogs. So I got a dog of my own and. And you become so bonded to this creature that you get on like a whim and they become bonded to you. We went to some rescue place because my daughter saw online they were advertising this litter of puppies, which was hilariously, they called Boxer mix. Like, no, that's a fucking pit bull. That is no Boxer Mix. But we got there and. And I was living in an apartment building at the time, and I couldn't have. I couldn't have pit bulls like they had on the lease. Like, there were certain breeds you couldn't have. Although three weeks later, some lady moves in with three pit bulls. So I, you know, I don't know if anybody was really paying attention to that.

[Andy Richter]

Sure.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But we ended up, we're in this rescue place and, and there's all these dogs and this one just kind of had come up to us and was just like really cool and chill and, and, and pretty. You know, it's like, you know, that is kind of, I mean, people are always like, what a good looking dog. And you're like, thank you. I mean, it's, you know, I mean it does, it does tend to matter, you know, especially when they're pretty. I mean, if they're sort of like weird looking too, that's charming in a way too. You, you, you end up loving them anyway, which is my point.

[Andy Richter]

Of course.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You randomly pick this creature that then is totally devoted to you. You. And it is kind of. I talked about this actually on Jim Jeffries podcast and they used it as a clip. It's like people are like, we don't deserve dogs. And I'm like, yeah, we do. We made them. Like the reason that they're devoted to us is because we engineered it that way. You know, like wolves came up to the fire and we gave them bits of meat. And then we realized, oh, this thing will guard us while we sleep. You know, let's, let's reward the ones that do better guarding and let's reward the bigger ones and breed the bigger ones with other ones. And you know what? I'd like one with spots. Let's breed something that makes spots. You know, it's like, it's all that. They exist because of our needs. You know, they're, they're creatures that we, that are designed to do. My dog is like great Pyrenees and border collie. And the one thing I, I, I, I feel like I'm not, I'm letting her down because I do not have livestock for her to guard because that's all she wants to do is just guard something and somebody.

[Andy Richter]

You know, I have a, I have a 80 pound Doberman that I, I do not know if she'll protect me. I don't, I think maybe she's popped off a little bit, but she's such a, you know, she's just, it's, she's the best.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And yeah, Doberman's are sweet dogs. My aunt, sweetest, My aunt had had a few Dobermans and, and they were really sweet. They were, we went to visit her in Atlanta and she had just gone to the grocery store. The dog we couldn't get out of the car because the Doberman got up on the hood and was barking at us. And then she came home and was like, get off the car. You know, and then we, we got out and then that dog, that same dog that was like, wouldn't let us out of the cart, then followed me around, in love with me. And I was about 8 or so the entire time we were there. Like just with such a sweetheart. But just, just if you're a stranger and you come up, it's like you, you're not getting out of that car. But then the minute you get out of the car, she's like, I love you.

[Andy Richter]

I know. And that's, that's why she's so incredible. It's also because it's, you know, and I didn't get her ears done. So she, they just hang. So nobody.

[Josh Adam Myers]

People know she's good for you.

[Andy Richter]

Why would I put the dog through anything? And all the. That people say it's about ear infections. I've had the dog for age. She's had one ear infection. It's all aesthetic. Exactly.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Richter]

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 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, and getting paid. They're 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 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 e year. Dig it. I think you're on mute Workday starting.

[Josh Adam Myers]

To sound the same. I think you're on mute.

[Andy Richter]

Find something that sounds better for your career on LinkedIn. With LinkedIn job collections, you can browse curated collections by relevant industries and benefits.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Like Flexpto or hybrid workplaces, so you can find the right job for you.

[Andy Richter]

You get [e-mail] jobs finding where you fit. LinkedIn knows how the last song that Here it is. The this the Blue Eyes, Crying in the Rain was the last song Elvis played before he died.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No. Wow.

[Andy Richter]

Early morning of August 16, 1977, he played it on his piano in Graceland. And then later that day he died from the overdose of prescription drugs. Which, which I wrote wrote, which I wrote about it. I was just wrote. I just wrote like such a lovely song. It was funny as I was going through, because I want to go through some of the tracks as I was going through them, the same, the same descriptive words kept coming up. Sweet, lovely. And this is, this is solely just on the way it sounded. It's like I, I. These are the first initial reactions to hearing it. And then everything changed because as you'd read the lyrics, as you read the lyrics you'd be like, like, wow. Like, you know, Dark. Yeah. Mysterious. It's like. Let's talk about, let's talk about the opening. Let's just go right from the. The beginning of this or Time of the Preacher. So it opens. This is the introductory track. It describes a man who is abandoned by his love and sets off on a journey to rediscover meaning and purpose. The Western style, the instrumentation as well as the COVID art is enough to situate the story geographically. And the final verses names the time, which is 1901. Have you ever. I wanted it. This is kind of a two part question. Have you ever gone on like a Vision quest. Have you ever gone on a quest where you're like, I need to get away. I just need to, like, find myself in a sense?

[Josh Adam Myers]

No, no, no. I'm not like that. I mean, I've done hallucinogens, but that was for fun. You know, it wasn't like. And they. They were revelatory in a certain way, and it. You know, because I was young and what they did kind of teach me, and I. And I would do them usually in a group with other funny people. And it did.

[Andy Richter]

People. You got. You're.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You're.

[Andy Richter]

You know, I've taken mushrooms with. There used to be a party in 4th of July that a lot of comics are at, and there'd be, like, Kumal Nanjiani before he got buff and Pete Hones.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Nate Craig and. And it was such a great. You know, these are all great comedic minds. You obviously have worked with some of. I mean, in my opinion, you know, the Robert Smigel and Cody. You ever take. You take mushrooms with them and psychedelics?

[Josh Adam Myers]

No, no, no, no. Conan never done any. No Conan. He's never done anything like that. And I. And I don't think. I mean, yeah, they're not. They're not big. Nobody from the Conan years of my life are big partiers. Like, they're. They're all pretty. They're all good boys, you know, that, like, they get their kicks and. And they're rebels by being funny, you know? Like, Robert Smigel is punk rock, but he's not getting drunk, you know. Wow. But I mean, punk rock in this. In this. In the sense.

[Andy Richter]

Oh, my God. Yeah, dude. The. The triumph.

[Josh Adam Myers]

They.

[Andy Richter]

The insult Tom, the insult dog. I mean, that's is. Is. Is the most punk rock. Like, that's the. That's the beginning of man on the street. And not just man on the street, but, like, literally, if he did it, he might get punched, but because it's.

[Josh Adam Myers]

The dog, it's a South park genius. It's a genius gimmick, you know, and the shittier the puppet looks and the more like, you know, like, the paw with the something, you know, like props on it just coming in from six feet away. Sure.

[Andy Richter]

It all.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It all works so great. But no, these were, like, friends back in Chicago. These are, like improv friends, but still some of the funniest people in the world.

[Andy Richter]

Sure.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And. And what. What it re. What that those times would reveal to me were like, new ways to be funny and sort of like new facets of myself, not even necessarily as a performer. But just, you know, because we would do improv basically. We do bits with each other, but like, you know, roaring, screaming, you know, I went to film school and then did improv afterwards. And for a while I would have parties. It would be film school kids and, and improv kids. And the film school kids would always be like, why are they so loud? Like, like, you know, like kids with black, you know, Cure fans with like black fingernail. Why are they so loud? And I'm like, well, because it's called Joy. But you know, that was, that was like the way that, that, that's what that revealed to me. It didn't reveal to me. You know, I got a universe in my thumbnail kind of stuff and the vision quest kind of thing. I have therapy for that. You know, I mean I, I've been in therapy forever. And that's, that's the thing that gives me progress and that's the thing that reveals things to me. The only time I've ever gone away by myself is to get something real written. You know what I mean?

[Andy Richter]

Like, you had to, you had a deadline or you just.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah. Or just, or even just like a self imposed deadline of like, I want to get this pilot written. I'm going to a hotel for a couple of days, you know.

[Andy Richter]

All right, so. So let me flip the script on this because this was, this. I was. If you didn't. Which I love that, that answer too. But I want to talk about, let's talk about the start of a journey that, that, you know, you. You're offered the job as a writer on CO Ronan. Yeah. Did you, did you have any idea that that was going to change your life? Like what. You know, you know, just set that up because I, if I read. Which is true because from the Wikipedia is that you're brought on stage to test the lighting. Like, like Robert Smigel brings you because you work with. Yeah, set it up for me. I don't want to this up.

[Josh Adam Myers]

No, it's okay. I had been doing improv. I had done some shows like, like we did it. We started a show in Chicago that went to New York and then to la. And while I was in New York doing that show, a couple of friends of mine got onto Saturday Night Live for a season, season or two. And I met Robert through them just kind of, you know, like hanging out basically. And then when I went to LA to continue that show, Robert came to LA and looked me up and then we hung out, you know, we drove drunk. Basically. I think I did the driving but he came out. He was out here riding the ill fated Hans and Franz movie, which.

[Andy Richter]

Oh, I didn't know there was gonna.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, they put the kibosh on it because Arnold was going to be like their mentor. Like, even I like some sort of godlike figure. But this movie, Last Action Hero Bomb, and oh, yeah, Arnold decided I can't make self. I can't make fun of myself anymore. I can't, you know, do jokes about my identity. So it. The whole thing just went away. Arnold, dude, that would have It.

[Andy Richter]

That would have ruled. Because one of my favorite. And I think what. And you obviously know Kevin Nealon is. Is one of my favorite people. And he's so great and he's so funny. And for him to have finally a movie that is that he's not just some, you know.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Not background, just the supporting cast. Let him be his star.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It would have been one of the buddies in the buddy comedy.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And Robin. Robert told. Has. I don't remember them, but Robert told me some of the things that he wanted to do. And it would have been really funny. It would have been really, really good. But he said that they just couldn't get it done. So I met him there. Then Conan, who had worked on SNL with Robert also during a writer strike, had gone to Chicago and they did a live show. Bob Odenkirk, Robert and. And Conan did this live show in Chicago. Then he went after that. He went. He left SNL and went to the Simpsons. And Robert still stated. Robert was at SNL still. Then the job, the Letterman job came open. Lauren picked Conan to run the show and he said, I want you to run this show. And Conan said, no, I want to be the host. And he just. I think he just pestered Lorne and. And just would not take no for an answer. And Lauren said, all right, you'd be the host. And also. And you know, coincidentally too, they had all these. The network had all these other ideas, Greg Kinnear being one. They. They filmed a couple test shows which you'll never see because apparently he shat the bed really bad. Dad.

[Andy Richter]

Really?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

They. They're like, you know, whole. Conan will show you. We'll get Greg Kinnear. And then we. We know, like, oh, Greg Kinnear's doing test shows. And then they're like, yeah, it's not gonna be Greg Kinnear. I'm like, oh, well, it must have not gone well. So Robert Conan gets the job to host. He says, robert, write the show with me. You know, like, run the show with me. And so Robert came in to there do that and I got a call from Robert just saying, hey, I'm. And I'd heard, you know, oh, David Letterman's replacement is this Simpsons writer named Conan O'Brien. And I had, I had seen like the clips on the news and in fact went with Kate Flannery, who plays Meredith on the. I'll drop all the names, just.

[Andy Richter]

No, no, drop the names. But also she's been on the podcast.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, she has. She was, she was in my first. She was in my first improv class. Like, oh, wow. Yeah, we were. We've been friends and, you know, co workers since. Well, what would that have been, like 1989? 90? Something like that. So I was in LA. I, I was in LA doing the movie Cabin Boy because after we did these live shows, I got a part in Cabin Boy and move back to LA to like, that was what I was gonna be in LA now and be an actor. She's. She. Jeff Garland was doing a sitcom pilot where he played like a sort of like, like a Ralph Cramdon kind of cop thing. It was like a live or a multi camera sitcom. So Kate and I go to see the filming of that pilot because. And Jeff's an old friend of mine and we sit in front of Bob Odenkirk, who I had known because he was engaged to a woman that had been on an improv team of mine. But I didn't, I didn't know him beyond that. I just knew him like, oh, that's. He's a very funny guy. He wrote for SNL and.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And him and Carol Leifer sat behind or sat behind me and Kate and talked almost exclusively about Conan and this deal. And I just sat there soaking it all up, eavesdropping on, you know, on this whole thing. And then like within a week, Robert calls me and says, hey, I'm. I'm head writing this show. Do you want to come and you know, want to submit and be a writer? And I was like, yeah, sure, of course. And I had never, I'd never pack it for a late night show I had never done. So I just was like, oh, I don't know, I'll sit down. Like, I. A desk bit. I think I even said, like, what do.

[Andy Richter]

Like what do.

[Josh Adam Myers]

What do I. And she's like, well, there's desk bits. Oh, right, Desk bits. Yes, of course. And write sketches. He's like, right, whatever. You know, like they. And. And I mean. And that was. And I Got long structure. I got the job and when I got there, I was the first writer hired. There was like, they were in that. Our whole floor. There was like four or five other people. And I, and I really was like, they were just pick an office, you know, like empty office after empty office. And I, I just picked the one next door to Conan's.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Because it was like, I was like, I don't, you know, I want to be close to people, you know, like, sure. This quiet end of the hall. And then my first job there was. I was given a stack of submissions, two, at least two feet high, you know, and just told go through there and find other, other writers. And I, I watched Robert do it. Robert read every word of every submission, which is very, which I found very admirable because you can read some of me read halfway down the first page. You're like, oh my God, fuck this guy, you know. Yeah, but, but I was, I was, I was gonna be a good boy and I was gonna follow his lead. Like I say, I really did admire it it. And I read through every single one. And that was my first job before I thought of anything for the show was pick some more people to write it for us. And I will tell you, out of that two or three foot stack, I found one that I really. And Robert told me be brutal. And I was brutal. And I found one and he, you know, he's a very funny guy. And, and we, we filled out the writing staff to be amazing group of very funny guys, most of them performers too. Like a very, like, like a Chicago Boston kind of split. Which was ironic because then he and I were, you know, like, it was like Chicago improv and then, and then Boston stand upy and it. Robert. Well, we, you know, we had months. We had a couple of months and we just were writing stuff and pre taping bits and figuring out how to do this. And they, there were. It got down to where it was. We were going to start doing shows and test shows and the first step was that they just took him onto 8H and they put him on kind of a set of flats and they were lighting him just, I mean, really, you know, like, like here's a ball and here's a net, you know, kind of thing. And you know what, but don't, no pressure, just that's the ball and that's the net. And Robert. And I was, you know, I had it on in my office. You have the feed in your office and I had it on and I saw him down there and Robert called me and said, hey, will you go downstairs? Will you go down there and keep him company? And I was like, yeah, sure. And I didn't even, like, question it because I knew, like, Conan needs to be kept company. Like, he gets. He runs at such a high cycle that, like, having to sit there and just have them slowly light him. Like, we all knew. Like, no, that's gonna make him nuts. Like, so. Yeah, so. And he and I already had, like, a thing going. Like, we already had bits that we were doing for everybody more so than anybody else, you know, like, he had. He has bits with everybody to this day. Like, that's most of his work. Relationships are. Relationships are bit driven, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

So I went and sat with him. Then the next test show where he was, like, doing sort of a fake interview with one of the PAs, Robert was like, go sit out there with him, too, you know, And I didn't realize it, but I'm being tried out for the sidekick role. And because there was no pressure, and he told me, do whatever you want. I did whatever I wanted. And I, you know, I chimed in and stuff, and, you know, and I. Conan enjoyed it, and he liked me, and he liked having me there. And then it just built until, you know, before we were doing actual test shows with an audience, Robert asked me, do you want to be the sidekick? Or, you know, if we have a sidekick, do you want to do it? And I was like, well, because we had this. These, you know, ambitious notions that we would be a hybrid sketch talk show, and that there'd be, like, a cast of characters that would. Or a cast of players that would be doing sketches every day, which was ridiculous. We were so stupid. You cannot do that. That's way too much work. And so I was like, well, I don't know, maybe I want to be one of the players, you know? And he said, well, okay, think about. And I also, at the time, I was. I was engaged, and I was like, I gotta talk to my fiance about it. And he said, well, let me know. And he, like, left my office and, like, you know, the second he was out the door, I was like, who am I kidding? This guy just said, do you want to be on TV every night? And I'm going, well, let me think about it. So I just called my fiance and said, hey, I'm gonna be the sidekick on the show.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. She's like, oh, great.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And then I went. And I'm like, yeah, of course I'll do it. So it started from there. We did about. I don't. It was two weeks of test shows. It wasn't, you know, 10 of them. They were kind of, there was a couple spaced out and everything. But after the, the last one or maybe the next to last one, Jeff Ross, our producer told me, told both of us, we were, we were getting ready to go out and he said, leave your, leave your show clothes on because you're going out to dinner with Lauren. We're like, oh, okay. So we left on, you know, I mean, they bought me like two sport coats and I was wearing, you know, like ties from SNL's wardrobe.

[Andy Richter]

Sure.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You know, like they're, they're vault of ties. And so we went, we get in Lauren's car with his driver. He drives us to a restaurant, beach, I remember the name on, on the Upper east side. We go in, they lead us to a table and it's Lauren and Steve Martin and, and, and then, you know, which I said maybe four words during the whole meal. But we had, you know, just sat and listened and Conan, you know, Conan talked. It was, and I was just, I couldn't believe I'm sitting across, I mean, Lorne Michael, it was already impressive enough to sit across from Lorne Michaels. But I, I'd met him by that time a few times.

[Andy Richter]

Sure.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Not, not hung out or anything, but said hello, but there's Steve Martin right there, you know, and just, whoa. And I, and then the next day Jeff Ross said, well, I guess you got the job. And I was like, I thought I had the job. I didn't realize. And it's, and I do think it was like kind of of good that I was not aware that I was being judged, you know, that I was, that I was in an audition because it really did. I was able to just be me. And I kind of, But I mean, that's my instinct anyway is to kind of like I had in my, in my work life, I don't have it in the rest of my life. And I wish I did. I can take like, I can sort of, of wall off nervousness and anxiety and go like, look, I, you know, I think it's part. I got pretty bad add and I think there's something where when the pressure's on, I can almost hyper focus because I just, I'm like, I got to turn all that shit off. Yeah, I know it's not going to help. And, and I, and then it, and that's just sort of grown from there. But it was good that I didn't have that. And Robert always told me you know, I'd be like, well, what do you want me to do? And he's like, anything you want. Follow your instincts. You're funny. If you want to say something, be funny. You know, at about two months, and it was. There was a little bit, like, don't turn it down just a little bit, you know, like. Like, give him a little more room. You know, he. He's learning. You're learning, but give him a little more room. Because I. You know, and. And. And it was. You know, and he said. He said, and you're doing fine. Like. Because I was like, is it bad what I'm doing? He's like, no, no, it's just. Just, you know, leave him a little more elbow room to sort of. I was like, oh, okay, I get it. So. And then it just went on, you know, from there.

[Andy Richter]

Here, let's. Let's wrap this up. This has been so much fun. Please come back on, because we have so many more records, and we gotta find more for you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

So. So just to go over just some of the accolades that Willie has done. 1. He's got so many. In 1993, inducted into the country Music hall of Fame. Received the Kennedy center honor, added the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. Rolling Stone included him in the 100 Greatest Singers, 100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time. He's a member of the National Agricultural hall of fame. He's won 11 Grammy awards, 49 nominations, 11 CMAs or no, that's not seen. Country Music association awards. Yeah. 11American Music Awards awards, 10 Academy of Country Music Awards. And he's also the first recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the cma. He had. I'm surprised he's not been in the rocker. Is. Did. Is he in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame? Jeremiah. Check that out. I'd be shocked.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I. I bet he probably is. Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

If Dolly. Dolly Parton just got in, I know she was like, I don't deserve to be in it. But if she's in.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Well, but, you know, the whole notion of it being the Rock and Roll hall of Fame is like. It should just be the popular music hall, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Thank you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

The hall of Fame of popular music. I mean, who gives a. You know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, I completely agree with you. And. And I actually vote on it. I vote. I vote. I started doing it three or four years ago. Yes. You get these, like, you get here. I got them right here. This is so the first one I got. This was. This was this year. So you get, like, a little, like, ballot and Then it's just like a breakdown of everybody. So it'll be like, like, you know, Dave Matthews Band.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, wow.

[Andy Richter]

You read about their accolades, and on the back there's a little thing, and you, like, rip it off.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Who makes that first grouping? Like, who. Who chooses the nominees?

[Andy Richter]

I don't know. I, I. From my understanding, it's, you know, because it's like, same thing with, like, with, like, sports. I think it's like, if it's 25 years past your first record or something, you can be.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, right.

[Andy Richter]

Right in the running. But then I don't. I don't know what we already get about. When we get the thing we've already gotten about. I think there's like 14 or 15. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. He was voted in last year, by the way. 20. 20. Yeah. So you get about. You get about, like. Like, I think about 15 choices, and you're supposed to choose 5 Wave, and then they do it, like, if you get 70 of the vote or something like that. And, I mean, one of the guys that writes on this show is. He's made so many great points. He said the same thing you said. Shouldn't be called the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Should be called something totally different, popular music. But also, it's, it's very, very based on these. The head guys, the dude, the publisher of Rolling Stone magazine and a few other. Yeah. And, like, he's just. What he thinks is cool. Like, he doesn't think Kiss is cool. So, so Kiss, who should have been in years before, like, it took. It took forever. And, And Depeche Mode and the Cure and, like, you know, just. It's just. It's not, it's just. It's just not. It's. It's. It's not fair. There's. The monkeys should be in there. There's so many that deserve it. And, and look, I. I vote on it because there was. Because the guy from Rage against the Machine, Tom Morillo, I think he wanted to paddle. Had the people that were voting on it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

So he was like, hey, you know, you got a music podcast? You want to do it? And I was like, sure. And, and so, you know, it's. It's cool to be, like, you know, a part of it and to vote on it. But, dude, I mean, I'm still learning about music. That's. That's why I do this podcast. So. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah. Well, you know, those award things are always, They're. They're always like a slightly. It's a weird thing. I mean, because, hey, it's like, it matters, but it doesn't matter. And I'm. And. And it's. You know, because it's like, with the Emmys is the same thing. It's like. And I. I just started. You know, it's. It's like, if you win an Emmy. Well, I should say most of the time, you sit there and whoever wins an Emmy or an Oscar, I would say, I don't know, 60 to 70% of the time, I'm like, like, oh, come on.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. And then.

[Josh Adam Myers]

But, like, if I was to win an Emmy, I'd be like, well, now they're right. You know what I mean? It's like they're only. They only matter, and they're only, you know, like, righteous if you agree.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And. And it's even more ridiculous with, you know, the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, because it's like. It is like, hey, quiet. Sorry. The dogs thinks an intruder is coming.

[Andy Richter]

It. The. It's.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It. The whole notion of, like, I. And I, you know, kids used to, like, who rocks harder? And, like, this. This whole thing is kind of like. It's like adults going, who rocks harder? And it's like, I don't know, you know, like, no, Judas Priest rocks way harder than Iron Maiden. And it's like, you know, and like, yeah, you could have that conversation, but. But is it really worth it? You know? Does it really matter?

[Andy Richter]

It's so funny that you just said those two artists, because Judas Priest just got in on, like. I don't think they got voted in. I think they got in on, like, a. Like a.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Like a fan vote.

[Andy Richter]

Not fan vote. Yes, but. But more like something because, like, MC5 got it this year, which I've talked about it all the time, and I'll. I'll keep praising it. They used a quote from our podcast from Kim Thale from Soundgarden, talking about MC5, which. Which is, like, the coolest ever, but Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson's like, you guys. He's like, dude, we're. Dude, I just saw them in Brooklyn. They sold out an arena, like, two nights in a row. Like, they're. They're a huge band. They're one of the biggest metal bands of all time. Put them in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Like, you're telling me, like, look, if. And nothing against, like, Like, Cher or Mary J. Blige or any. Or any like. Or even Ozzy Osborne, who already got in with Black Sabbath. It's like, just, you know, Maybe just throw more people in. Why does it have to be so, like.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Right. Right.

[Andy Richter]

I don't. I don't know. Then, you know, this is. It's all. But, yeah, and it's all.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And it's. It's also, like, picked by old people. That's the other thing. The Academy, the Emmys, it's all old people, you know, old men, specifically, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You know, the Old Man Awards, you know, that's. They all are. They're like, what old. What old people? Like, you know, a little of the shine off it, but 100. That was fun. Thanks so much, guys.

[Andy Richter]

My. My pleasure. Here, let's just wrap this up. I did want to say this one quote, because I did pull up. I thought this was so interesting about Willie Nelson because I found, like, 11 interesting facts. It said in 1970, Willie once ran into a house fire to save his guitar trigger and a bag of weed. And I. That makes me love him. He says it was a bag of primo Colombian pot. God bless his soul, dude. 91. And he's. And he's still out there performing. He's still. That's something that. He's a guy that, like, I really want to go see live now. Like, I've. I'm really gonna make. You know. Do you go to concerts a lot, Andy, at all or not?

[Josh Adam Myers]

So, not. Not as much as I used to, but. But Willie is the person who, by far, I have seen the most number of times. It has to be at least 20.

[Andy Richter]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Because even when I was a kid, he used to play the Illinois State Fair, and we would go. And every year we would go, because my half of my. My dad's side of the family is from Springfield, which is the town that the. Is the capital, and that's where the state fair was. So I would see him as a kid, then I. You know, whenever he would play locally, we would see him. You know, it was like a concert. I would go, you know, that I could go with my parents. And then as an adult, I just started to. You know, I started to go. He used to play in Manhattan all the time. I don't remember. It was a. There was a club that was like. I want to say, on like, 18th or 19th between 5th and 6th Avenues, maybe. It was. It was like south of Limelight, like, a few blocks down from Limelight and in the middle of. Of the. Between 5th and 6th Avenue.

[Andy Richter]

It's funny, I don't remember the name. Limelight now is like a pizza place. Isn't that Crazy.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. Biggest. Biggest rave, like, nightclub in. In. Basically started the. The American rave scene, in a sense, is now, like, a place to get.

[Josh Adam Myers]

How is it just. It's. It's a little places.

[Andy Richter]

No, it's just like. But there's, like. There's the ch. There's just a little sign that's like, Limelight Pizza. And I'm like, wow. Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Is it Lone Star Cafe? Is that where it was he used to play. That could have been. That could have been. Yeah. But he used to.

[Andy Richter]

They.

[Josh Adam Myers]

They used to have all kinds of different. There's different kind of music that would play there, but he used to play there and then. And I used to see so many weird. Weird, like. Like one. Like, weird people just be up on stage. You wouldn't even know about. Like, one year, there was a guy that looked like a complete maniac who was playing along with penny whistles, and he was. And it'd be like. And will it be like, give that. You know, Go ahead, Jerry.

[Andy Richter]

And.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And then he'd play like he had two penny whistles, and he would play, like, different. Like, different melodies on the two different penny whistles. And he was, like, really amazing at penny whistles. But you. I just would have this feeling like. Like that. That's like some maniac that just, like, brought him a bunch of weed and.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And Willie's like, yeah, sure. Come on, get up there. Come on. And then he always used to stand outside on whatever, 17th street or whatever street it was outside his bus and say hello to everybody until there was nobody left to say hello.

[Andy Richter]

I love that. He does seem like. He does. Did he. Did he ever do Conan? Did he ever.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, sure, Absolutely.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. You get to talk to him?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I even got to do one of the. When I was on the Leno Tonight show, he was. He was. He was the musical guest. And they wanted to do, like, a funny bumper, so the funny bumper would be, you know, coming up. There was somebody on before me, and I was the middle guest. And it was like, you know, like in the bumper, like, coming up next, Andy Richter. And they wanted me coming out of Willy's tour bus and Willie, you know, behind me waving, and then a ton of smoke. Smoke coming.

[Andy Richter]

Sure. You know. Yeah, I see. So.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And. And so I got to go, like, just go sit in his tour bus while they set it up. And they kind of. They put up foam core to kind of trap the smoke so his whole bus didn't get filled up with, you know, movie smoke. Not smoke. Smoke. Yeah, but that, but that. You know, like going on to the bus and just. And it was a nice bus and sitting down at like a little, you know, a little bank at table. Like, when you go into that bus, it was like, like putting a bag of weed on your face.

[Andy Richter]

I bad it smell.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It was like so much weed. And, and he had kids on the bus and he was worried. He's like, he's like, I. I just want to keep the smoke out, you know, because I got the kids in the back and I don't want the kids to have the smoke. And then he looked at me and he went the wrong kind of smoke. You know, we sat and chatted and he just was always super. Oh, I'm forgetting the other thing too. His guitar trigger. You know that guitar that he's played forever, that's been rebuilt a thousand times.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Which, by the way, the story behind that guitar is he wanted a classical guitar. He'd been playing steel string guitars. He called a guitar shop and they're like, yeah, we got one. And he's like, we'll bring it. They delivered it to him. And then that's been his guitar forever since.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, it's a hole in it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It. It has a gigantic hole. It used to be a little hole. Now it's like, now it's like barely even a guitar anymore. But if you'll notice, it's autographed. Hundreds of autographs all over it. And when he was on the Conan show and this is early on, he, like, had both him and me autograph it.

[Andy Richter]

No way.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I just was like, cool. I just was like, I, I was, I, you know, like, I'm not worthy. I, I just, as I was signing it, I was like, I just, I, I feel like you're just being way too polite. I said, I was like, I don't belong on here because you look at it and it's like Bob Dylan and James Brown and, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

All these different people names that you can make out. Kris Kristofferson and, like, and then Mandy.

[Andy Richter]

Rick. Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

So I'm sure it's obscured by now, but my name, you know, my name is on there somewhere.

[Andy Richter]

It's hilarious. Where is. Where, Where? Do you remember where? On the guitar. So just so if we can kind of look and, and see through pictures.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Well, first of all, first of all, we didn't have a Sharpie. It was with ballpoint pen, which is not the thing to sign a guitar with. So I, I didn't do it. Too heavy. Yeah, yeah. But I think it was like. And I'm sure there's a pick guard over it or something, but if I remember correctly, it was like, just under the pick guard.

[Andy Richter]

Okay. Yeah, we'll look for it. Danny, this was so great. Here, let me get you the final questions and we'll get you out of here.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Okay.

[Andy Richter]

What's your favorite song on this record, bud? The.

[Josh Adam Myers]

The one at the end called Hands on the Wheel, which kind of doesn't. It's like. It's almost. Doesn't really fit into the song. It's kind of what it. What it indicates because, you know, the story is guy's wife cheats, he murders her. And her lover, he goes, you know, rides off with her horse, kills another woman who tries to steal his wife's horse. Then there's, you know, then he goes and meets another woman. And it. There's redemption because he falls in love again. And this song is the second to last song. And it's. It's. It's a. Basically the. The. The end song. The end thing is like, I'm beginning to feel like my hand's on the wheel and I feel that I'm going home. And it just. It's just a beautiful song about. It's a lot. You know, it's like a love. Like the. To me, it's just like the magical. Just how somebody loving you just makes. Makes your place in the universe mean something.

[Andy Richter]

Sure.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And. And I. Actually, when I was. I was. My marriage was falling apart. I was. I was listening to. When I. When I. When my marriage broke up, I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't read a book. I couldn't watch the news. I could just listen to music.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

For like five months. And I was in Trader Joe's playing this album, and that song came on and I was full on weeping.

[Andy Richter]

Sure.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Trader Joe's to that song. Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Just like. And really. But like, you know, like, trying to be cool, like, you know, like just standing by the soup, moving cans around.

[Andy Richter]

Is that Andy Richter weeping? But you know what? In your defense, I. I got. I got emotional listening to this today, too. It's. This brings up a lot. This album brings up so much. If you let it. If you just hear it in the background, it's good background music. But the more you listen, if you feel these songs and it's that, like I said, it's the simplicity of the record and of the recording. It feels raw. It feels. It's, you know, it's. It's why everybody's Favorite Bruce Springsteen record is Nebraska, because it's the rawest, emotional musicianship that. That he could give you. And, and the recording feels. It feels like you're. You're almost there with them. And, and, and so to feel that.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, it's a western. It's a Western. And westerns. Westerns are sparse, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

There's a town that has five buildings. There's a guy on a horse and then an endless horizon. And that's. This is the musical version of that. That, like, there's no strings and it. And I mean. And that's why it is. It's. Westerns are so elemental, and it's just like a vessel that can be filled over and over and over because. And, you know, westerns are Westerns. Like, they're, you know, you think, like, well, you're going to run out of west. No. And like. And I, and I always. I said it earlier, Samurai movie. Samurai movies are just Westerns.

[Andy Richter]

Yes.

[Josh Adam Myers]

You know, they're just, they're just. There's a simple number of ingredients that get mixed up a different way in endless combinations. And you can't believe that it, that it's, that it could be so vital and, you know, and it's the same way country music is just soul music. It's just poor people's music when the people playing it are different colors, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And that's, you know, that's somebody like Jelly Roll, that's. He's singing black music and white music at the same time. And that's. That's kind of what the new. And thank God, that's kind of the new trend of country music. Although there's still a lot of racist and country music, you know, that, you know, that small town, you know, try that in a small town. There's still that ugly. Ugly in country music. But they're trying to, you know, it's.

[Andy Richter]

It's.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It's opening itself, is going to integrate itself and there's.

[Andy Richter]

I think.

[Josh Adam Myers]

So it doesn't belong to white people, you know.

[Andy Richter]

No, it's. It's. This is.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It's.

[Andy Richter]

If. If America is. Is. Is, you know, is for everybody, then. And that's why it's like this. The stupid things when hip hop was getting big and like, somebody would say something like, I didn't make this record for white people. It's like, no, but it's music and we all enjoy it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, it's great.

[Andy Richter]

So don't, don't make it so, like. So like, oh, it's only these people. Like country. Country. Can it. You could see it. You could see it being appreciated by everybody. And I also think that really when people know that like what we said is that the music is so real and raw and, and about the. The poor people struggling and know what's behind it and not that it is just sitting by the creek and drinking a beer. Yeah. When you get back, Daddy, when you get past all that and you get down to this and you get down to the Hank Williams and The Hank Williams Jr. And the Whalen, you really get to see why this is awesome. Yeah. Is there a song on this record.

[Josh Adam Myers]

That you skip over the instrument? Some of the instrumentals are kind of, you know, it's like whatever.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I mean they're pretty, but it's kind of like that's not what I'm here for. And I understand. I mean, I understand like, like the place. I can't remember which ones but you know, like there, there's a couple instrumentals after each other. That is sort of the point at which he meets the. This new woman, you know. Yeah. Because there, you know, there's like a. In the Red Headed Stranger medley part he talks about. There's the first part where the guy goes and he finds the. His wife and this guy in a bar in a quiet little out of the way place. And they smiled as each other as he walked through the door and they died with their smiles on their faces. And then in the second when it comes back around, it's. He meets a woman and they smile at each other. He says, and you know, and we in a. They went to a bar, a tavern, a quiet little out of the way place and they smiled at each other and they danced with their smiles on their faces. And then there's two instrumentals that are sort of like the dance. The dances that they're doing and, and like the first one's sort of, you know, like a waltz which this. You know what another thing I love about this album is like it's full of waltzes. It's a multi platinum album full of waltzes. I know, but it's a waltz. And then there's. And then there's. And then there's a happy song. So it's like he's turned, you know, it goes from a sad sort of poignant. They're coming together and, and it's slow. And then there's the joy. You know, he refines joy. But they're, you know, but you don't have to listen to them. You get the idea. You Know I love this.

[Andy Richter]

I love it so much. Wait, hold on. I forgot to check. Did this make the cut? What? So on the 2020 re. Rank, redheaded stranger fell. Oh, it dropped. It went down 54 spots. So went to 237. So this. But it still made it. Stardust did not. Again.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Again, these rankings, you know, like, you know, it's always critics. Yeah. We used to. I remember when I was a kid, wls, the AM station would have. And I don't know, it was late. It was probably Labor Day. They would have like, the top 500 songs and they would play them, like, ranked. And we'd get so, like, mad. Like, wait a minute, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Like, you know, hang on. Sloopy is not better than Brandy, you know? Yeah. And then you end up. And it's like, no, come on, who cares? You know, because we'd always be like, hey Jude is not the best song ever. It's just not, you know, because that was always. That would always be number one, you know. And it's like, now hey Jude is. It's a nice song, but it's.

[Andy Richter]

It's a great song.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Who's really going, like, that's the best song ever.

[Andy Richter]

I mean, this list is. This list is all like. We were talking about the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. This list is all like, old white people voting. And then the 2020 list was now, like. Because that was like the summer of, like, George, Floyd and everything. So everybody. They got a lot more. Like, a lot more. There's. There's a lot more rap in there. There's a lot more newer music. So.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. So this is. So the fact that this record stayed on is actually a big deal. Because Stardust I could see, which I love Stardust, because I love the song Stardust by Nat King Cole is my favorite song of all time. It's like, hands down, I love it so much. So he hearing Willie's version and the rest of the covers are. Are beautiful. And it's just like this. It's very simple and everything. But I can see. See. I could see that being like Matt. But this. This is important. This record is culturally significant. And it also. It's like, if you're gonna have a Willie Nelson record on, this is the one that you gotta put on. And he's so big and important to music that he. That it lasts.

[Josh Adam Myers]

All right.

[Andy Richter]

I'm curious. Can you. To this record.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Not currently. My wife. My wife is not a country fan fan. So I don't really. And you know, And I've never been somebody that. To music very much, you know. Really? Yeah, yeah. No, it's just, it's sort of, it's too much of a distraction, you know, like. Because I do find like music. I, I, I listen to it. Like, I can't, I can't. Like, if I'm, if I'm trying to write even just like an email and there's music with lyrics on, I, I. It's too difficult because I'm sure listening too much to the word. So I can, I can write with like instrumental music, but I, but if there's words in it, I'm listening and that's. And, and if I'm, I don't want to be listening to something else, you know.

[Andy Richter]

Jt, dude, Andy's like Vivaldi.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Of course.

[Andy Richter]

Right.

[Josh Adam Myers]

People know I'm classy.

[Andy Richter]

I don't think. I, I know, I see. I need.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Need.

[Andy Richter]

I'm not saying I need music. I just put music on just to set a mood or just. Yeah, yeah, that's a beat. Or whatever. Do I do I think that I could. To this. Maybe it's not, it's not, it's not like, it's not not. I don't say it's not. It's a sexy album because it's not sexy, but it's lovely. This is like something that, this is something that like those Appalachian people probably too. This was like. This definitely was on. They put on the record and they started dancing.

[Josh Adam Myers]

There's a lot of murder in it. You know, you gotta, you gotta be able to, you gotta be able to get past that, you know?

[Andy Richter]

Yeah. If you know what it's about. Yeah. But musically, just sound wise, you can to it.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Absolutely.

[Andy Richter]

What would be your elevator pitch to get someone to listen to this record? Like what, how do you sum up this album?

[Josh Adam Myers]

Wow. You know, it's, it's, it's gonna sound like L high futin or anything, but I mean, it's primal. It is like. It's primal in that it is. It turned country music around. It turned popular music around. He is a once in a lifetime genius, and this is him at his best. And, and you know, you, if you, if you don't like country music, you still can love this album because it's just, it's, it rises above genre and it's a, it's a good story. And if you, you know, who doesn't like a good story? And, and it's just, and it's him at his best. It's just, it's A genius at his best.

[Andy Richter]

And there it is. That's it right there. Yeah, you can't say that any better. It's just like you. If you're. It's a genius at his best and it's probably the. One of the most famous and most prolific country recording artists of all time that, you know, I think just Willie Nelson isn't. You don't just think of him as a country, you just think of him as an icon and just. Yeah. In the, in the universe. So if you're, if you're ever wondering like, oh, that weed smoking old guy, Willie Nelson. This is why Willie's that smoke an old 91 year old that everybody kiss that everybody loves.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, Andy, there's also, there's. I also want to tell people too, please. There's an app, there's an album. I don't. I mean, it used to be on cd. That's just a collection of his demos. And I don't know if that's. If it's still available in a thing, but it's really worth listening to too.

[Andy Richter]

I'm gonna check it out. It's.

[Josh Adam Myers]

I mean, because it's kind of of, you know, they, they. This album. Everybody said it's a demo. Like, why are you playing us the demo? He's like, no, that's not the demo, that's the album. Yeah, yeah. And, and so. But there, there is some demo. So it's kind of of a similar thing and they're kind of raw and some of the recording is not great. It's obviously like being played in a hotel room or something or being recorded in a hotel room. But it's. It's after this one, my favorite Willie now collection of William Willie Nelson music. It's not, you know, it wasn't meant to be an album album, but it's just, it's really great and really, again, kind of shows you his genius.

[Andy Richter]

Do you remember the. The title of it? It's just like Willie Nelson demos or. I wanna, I want to listen to it right now because I'm in the Willie mood. I'm in that Willie. I got Crazy the demo sessions. Is that it? See the demos project, I got Willie Nelson. It's called Crazy. Did it come. Oh, yeah. 2003 is called Crazy the demo session.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yes, I think that's it.

[Andy Richter]

Okay. Yeah. Cool. So everybody dig into that. If that's not it, we'll.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah, the demos project.

[Andy Richter]

Yeah.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Yeah.

[Andy Richter]

Songwriter for Ray Price. Yeah, I'm gonna check it out. Andy, thank you so much for coming on Buddy, please come.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Problem. This is a lot of fun. I certainly will.

[Andy Richter]

We'd love to have you back. Dude. What did I tell you? What did I tell you? The one and only Andy Richter. Follow him on all social media at Richter command. Is that what it is or. Yeah, I guess. Richter command. Let me double check this real quick just so we all know. Everybody keep this in here. That's what it is. Richter Commandy. So R I C H T R C O M M A A n D Y Follow him. He rules. And listen to his podcast the three Questions with Andy Richter. Also the Andy Richter call in show. Do all of it. Do all of it. SiriusXM. The guy rules. Okay, new music. What do we got? So we just listened to nineteen seven hundred fifties Redheaded stranger. I'm just reading what's on the paper by Willie Nelson. Our new music pick this week brought to you in part by Distro kid is Hillbilly High by Terry Tara Thompson. And you can find links to the music on our website the500podcast.com and if you are in a band and we're directly influenced by one of these albums or artists and you want your music featured on the 500 website and show, send your song to 500podcasts gmail.com make sure you put the album and artists that influenced you in the subject line. Next week it's Fleetwood Mac as we go deep into their self titled album aka aka the White Album from 1975. It's a goodie. Dig into it. We got a good guest. We'll see ya then. Stay Fleasy high you can't find alone you can roll in the bree.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And.

[Andy Richter]

Let the world go. We got stars in our sky Breathe.

[Josh Adam Myers]

It in, take it slow.

[Andy Richter]

We got moon in our shine.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And a hillbilly.

[Andy Richter]

High Hillbilly high Have you ever climbed up to the top of a mountain.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And stood on a rock?

[Andy Richter]

Stretch your arms out like wings of.

[Josh Adam Myers]

A bird Catch a buzzing that feeling.

[Andy Richter]

Watch the sun setting down in the holler don't waste your time chasing dollars Take a walk through the oaks in the crowd Trees where the waters are healing when you're hillbilly high you can't.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Find alone.

[Andy Richter]

You can roll in the.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Green let the world go.

[Andy Richter]

We we got stars in our sky.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Breathe it in, take it slow.

[Andy Richter]

We got moon in our shine.

[Josh Adam Myers]

And a hillbilly high.

[Andy Richter]

A hillbilly high hillbilly high 500 keeping it fleecy for the fleece.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Nation.

[Andy Richter]

On the 500. The 500. I don't think it overstates things to say that the Beatles were the greatest gift to entertainment and culture of our time, a secular religion, if you will, with their universal appeal and demonstrable impact on people's lives. I'm Robert Rodriguez, host of Something about the Beatles. With every episode I speak with historians, musicians, artists and Beatle witnesses, all in the service of fresh insights into the most joyous cultural entity the world has ever known. I hope you'll join me and listen to Something about the Beatles now on.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Evergreen and wherever you get your podcasts.

[Andy Richter]

Hi, I'm Hal Sport and I'm Flynn McClain.

[Josh Adam Myers]

We want to tell you about our.

[Andy Richter]

Podcast none but the Brave, which is dedicated to taking a deep dive into the work of Bruce Springsteen.

[Josh Adam Myers]

We're currently in our fifth season. Our latest episodes focus heavily on Bruce's 2024 tour and have featured such guests as Anthony Castrovins from MLB network and Barstool's Kirk Minahan. We're also covering the 40th anniversary of Bruce's biggest record, Born in the USA. And as part of that coming up.

[Andy Richter]

This week, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Returns to the show for a fascinating.

[Andy Richter]

Hour long conversation about his new book.

[Josh Adam Myers]

There was nothing you could do Bruce.

[Andy Richter]

Springsteen's Born in the USA and the.

[Josh Adam Myers]

End of the Heartland. To listen you can go to our website mbtvpodcast.com or subscribe on your preferred podcasting platform.

[Andy Richter]

We hope to see you further on up the road. Thank you so much. We'll be seeing you.

[Josh Adam Myers]

Next chapter Podcast.