← The Nerve with Maureen Callahan
The Nerve with Maureen Callahan
Stephen Colbert's Overdue Dismissal, Coldplay Couple's Shame Spiral, and Billy Joel's Untold Stories
01:18:12
Maureen unloads on pompous Stephen Colbert, his exit from CBS and how this could be the first domino to fall in the entire late night franchise. She also peels back another layer on the Coldplay couple scandal and the elitist message this affair sent to the rest of the company. Then Maureen examines the troubled beginnings of Billy Joel, as told through the new HBO documentary about his life, and how the depths of his talent have been underestimated by so many. Pique: Get 20% off your order plus a FREE frother & glass beaker with this exclusive link: https://piquelife.com/THENERVE Masa Chips: Get 25% off your first order | Use code MAUREEN at https://MASAChips.com/MAUREEN Done with Debt: https://www.DoneWithDebt.com
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- [00:01]
Maureen Callahan
Not all meals are created equal. For instance, breakfast has the spicy egg McMuffin for a limited time and lunch doesn't. McDonald's breakfast comes first.
- [00:15]
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Nerve Host
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Nerve. We are so happy to be back with you. So much has happened over the past few days and we are thrilled that the Mini Nerve on the Obama's Marital Summit on Michelle's podcast. We here at the Nerve consider it a summit, one that did not really do much to move the needle. But we're very glad that you loved it as much as we thought you would. So, so happy. And the only real takeaway I think is that I think that we should all start a helpline for Brother Craig, don't you? Anyway, we have tons to get into the latest on the Coldplay Kiss Cam earthquake. This is a developing story. The expulsion of the Huffy self important windbag that is was Stephen Colbert and what it means for the future of late night television on the whole, plus a packed celeb roundup, a Jackie O and JFK Jr. It's not so much a coincidence, but it's a phenomenal lining up of anniversaries and geographies that really goes unremarked upon and has since JFK Jr crashed that plane back in 1999 killing himself, his wife and her sister. We also then are going to transition into some lighter fare. We have a small and just like that recap befitting a smaller, much lesser episode. And that's saying something with a side of superior Sopranos intel. And plus your emails, your we got a ton of response to last episode's discussion of the Amy Griffin memoir the Tell. And again, I did not know how that would land with you guys, but it really, really struck a nerve with you. No pun intended. And so it's just more evidence that we're really all working on the same wavelength here. We've also got an examination of one of the greatest and to my mind, culturally underappreciated musicians ever. He is the subject of a new HBO doc that dropped over the weekend. It is a lot so let's dig in. We've all had days when skin feels dull, hydration doesn't stick and energies all over the place and no amount of water, skin care or coffee seems to help. That's where Peak's radiant skin duo comes to the rescue and it is a game changer. This doctor recommended product trusted by experts like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Will Cole supports whole body wellness from the inside out. And with over 15,000 five star reviews, it's clear this product delivers results. Here's how it works. Sun Goddess Matcha provides steady calm energy throughout the day. No jitters. It supports skin clarity and gut health because great skin does start from within. BT fountain electrolytes hydrate like nothing else. Even with plenty of water, many of us still feel dehydrated. The difference here clinically proven ceramides lock moisture into the skin at a cellular cellular level, leaving it plump, fresh and glowing. Purity matters peaks Quadruple toxin screening ensures all ingredients are free from heavy metals, pesticides and mold. Just clean science backed hydration and energy. So say goodbye to fatigue, dry skin and energy crashes. Are you ready for a healthier hydration? Get 20% off plus a free frother and glass speaker here. Peak Life.com thenerve Again that's Peak Life.com thenerve so this is the kiss cam shot for the ages. And as I said on Megyn Kelly show, the most interesting thing Coldplay has ever done. Now as we all know, the married CEO of an AI tech company called Astronomer, his name is Andy Byron, quote tendered his resignation on Saturday after he was caught canoodling at a Coldplay show on a kiss cam with a woman who was not his wife. Who was she? This guy's if this guy's a genius, you know, heading a company, he he should have been fired for this move. He was cadoodling with his head of HR of human resources. So her name is Kristin Cabot. She is also married. We'll see for how much longer. But you know, I think there are a few reasons that this story has gone so viral and has had just like a long tail over the news cycle. For one, all of us live in a surveillance state. We have been since September 11th. But the invention of smartphones and facial recognition, it's all made the idea that any one of us have any privacy in public a thing of the past. So how amazing that these two idiots, these two arrogant heads at an AI tech company. Don't get that. You know, when you go to an event like that, it's on the ticket. It's on your receipt. When you buy it, like you're going to, your image and likeness might be splayed all over the earth's airwaves. Get with it. Okay, two. Now, it's rumored that they were in a corporate box partying with their own employees. Rules for the. Not for me. So these are two people, again, who are setting the tone, making the rules, hiring and firing. One of whom in Ms. Cabot, is supposed to be the person. Trouble. Ostensibly, we all know HR is there to protect the company, not the employees. But ostensibly, she's supposed to be the person that you, as an employee, if you are having trouble, can go to. And they are flaunting their affair like this, again, allegedly, in full view of their employees. It looks like the woman who was next to them, who hit her face was just like, oh, shit. So right there, they're telling their own employees that their only loyalty is to each other, not the company. And I would imagine there's a lot of celebrating over at Astronomer HQ today. We actually pulled some reviews off of Glassdoor. Reviews that were written. Written. Excuse me. Well, before this scandal. One dated March 14, 2023. Cons. It got two stars from this former employee of more than one year, per the self report. Terrible leadership with horrible communication skills. I guess unless tongues down your throat are involved, you're not communicating very well. Complete corporate dysfunction and clicky toxic environment. You know, that tracks, right? Okay, cons. This is from a former employee. Again, less than one year, dated May 8, 2025. So mere months before this. This happened. Leadership is a disaster. Everyone with a chief in their title is in a power trip. I think it's on a power trip. But unless you mention growth or the trendy word of the moment, like AI or crypto, you're invisible to them. Okay. Thirdly, and we rarely see this, and I think this is another reason this story is resonating. Andy Byron's wife immediately, and I mean immediately, dropped her married name and left her comments open on Facebook. And that is the response, you know, we all too often see, especially from, like, political wives, that there's always this sort of equivocation, and they'll stand next to their ne' er do well husband who's, like, screwed everybody that's in their. In their, you know, field of vision for years and years and years, and they'll stand by and they'll just take the hits. And they're just gonna do it for the kids and the country and blah, blah, blah. This woman is a hero. She should get a TED Talk and start a podcast and get a book deal and tell the women of America how you deal with marital betrayal. She goes on the Nerve shortlist, by the way, for our first annual awards. No question, she's already there. Now, I would like to take this moment to announce a new feature here at the Nerve. Now, we always. Again, they're coming in and we're. We're absorbing them and we're. We are. What's the word? Integrating them. We want your opinion on specific scandals, happenings, etc. And I. I have to tell you guys, all of that said, I did feel a little sympathy for this couple at the Coldplay concert because I, too, have recently been spotted with someone I'm not too proud of. So brace yourselves. I'm going to show you this image. Here I am with the one, the only Bill Maher in an embrace, much like this couple at the Coldplay show. And yes, it does look like a hostage situation. That's. That's by design. Now, I would love it if you guys would all go over, all of you troublemakers, to the Nerve show on Instagram to that account. The Nerve show. And answer my burning question, which is the same one that Meghan Markle allegedly posed to a friend of hers after her first date with Prince Harry. And my question to you guys is, am I crazy or does this thing have legs? Okay, we will read the Best of the Troublemaker comments on Friday's show. And also, another one of you geniuses submitted an idea for a new category called Nerve Damage, and it's brilliant, and we're taking it on. Another one of you suggested that we build out a separate wing of the woodshed called the Kennedy Wing, just for the Kennedys. And I am going to consult with the troublemaker who drew our initial woodshed, and see what she can do. She's up for it. The challenge, as it were. Okay, now onto Stephen Colbert, who was summarily fired by CBS last week. And he was not just fired, but they also killed the entire late night franchise with him. Or. Or should I say Stephen Colbert killed it. He killed the house that David Letterman built. Good going. Good going. I'd love to know what Letterman thinks of this. Now, I did call him on this over the weekend at the Daily Mail, but I just wanted to say a couple of things to you guys directly. Now, as you know, we are not political here at the Nerve, and I think that this firing really goes to several things. One, Stephen Colbert has been talking shit about CBS brass on his show for a while now. And you cannot collect a salary. I don't care who you are. You cannot happily pocket A reported $16 million a year from these people and then turn around and accuse them of moral and professional turpitude. I mean, if you're really that morally outraged, Stephen, you big fat Catholic. He loves to talk about what a Catholic he is and how moral he is. That doesn't track. If you think they're evil, why are you taking their blood money? Jesus at the temple, like, kicking over the guys with the gold. What are you doing? Why didn't you quit in protest if you really think they're that evil? Oh, no, that's right. You lucked into one of the few grossly overpaid jobs left in linear television, and you were holding tight with white knuckles on the desk. You'd be fouled. The desk that once belonged to not the literal, but the figure figurative desk belonging to David Letterman. Secondly, Stephen Colbert show. And honestly, the product does not reflect the money put into. Costs $100 million a year to produce that thing and it hemorrhages $40 million a year. So that's simple math, okay? You're a loss leader, dude. Thirdly, he is such a. Such a pompous windbag. I don't care if you. Whatever side of the aisle you're on, imagine this guy's coming into your house every night if you have him in and is inveighing against you for what you think and who you vote for. This is supposed to be a late night comedy show. People who work hard all day long, and that is the vast majority of Americans, okay? And maybe they hate their jobs or maybe they hate their boss. Maybe they work for like an Andy Byron or they got to report to an HR hypocrite like that woman, you know, maybe. And then they come home to piles of dirty laundry and they've got to make dinner and they've got to help their kids with the homework and get bathed and put to bed, and then they got to figure out what bills they're going to pay and how they can pay them. And then they have to get to sleep before they have to do all of that all over again the next day. Is this the guy you really want to be interfacing with at the end of a day? Really? Now, to this point, here is one comment I found on Instagram, and this was underneath. I'm not even going to name the celebrities who were like all over Instagram going, oh my God, Stephen Colbert. This is a. What? What? This is a loss. Well, he won't be silenced. We will make sure of that. Well, he was just silenced in a pretty humiliating way. It's not. They didn't just take him out with the trash, they took the whole show out with it. Here's a comment from one of the people I'm talking about. Quote, stephen Colbert chose to use his platform as his own personal sermon. After I've worked 12 hours, then cooked dinner and got my kids ready for bed. I don't want to be lectured to or demeaned if my politics differ. It is a special kind of arrogance to think that you as a comedian can stop doing your job and instead use your show as a pulpit. Hallelujah. Truer words. Now, as for what this augurs for, the future of late night television is not good, okay? Colbert is the proverbial canary in the coal mine and all the other late night shows are going down. Jimmy Kimmel, whose contract is, is up, I believe before anybody else's. He's next. Okay? He also got really politicized. He's next. And then Jimmy Fallon's next. He's. NBC already forced him to go down from four days a week to five. Seth Meyers, who follows him at 12:30, had to fire his band in a cost cutting measure. Jimmy Fallon, by the way, is completely apolitical. So this goes to show you, this is about the marketplace, lost leaders and changing tastes and the ways in which America and really the rest of the Western world consumes entertainment and information. The format of middle aged white guys sitting behind a desk and peppering famous people with softball questions in three segments is over. It's oh, to quote the great what's the actress who did the. She played the woman at Carrie Bradshaw when she went to the to Candice Bergen's penthouse apartment with the Russian for the party. And she was the former, you know, nightclub girl who like, hadn't aged out of it and she's smoking against the rules and she goes, it's over. It's O V E R. And then her ankle twists and she falls out the penthouse to her death. That's it for these guys. O V E R. Everyone's moved over to the digital lane where we are for stuff that's authentic Jesus. So RIP the Late show. I'm sorry I took the Lord's name in vain. I know that upset some of you. I'm sorry, but I'm a lapsed Catholic. You know, I do what I can. Okay, so the Late show died at age 33. And I mentioned this because that was the same age as Christ upon his death. And it's relevant because Stephen Colbert again is such a sanctimonious Catholic and he's busy allowing himself and turning himself into a martyr. And I knew this guy was over. I knew, like it's the wor, the worst thing a comedian can do is just take themselves seriously, like just too seriously. And so in 2017, for me, this was the moment. He had Ricky Gervais on the great Ricky Gervais. Now I'm not sure what he was promoting, but I don't think he was going on Stephen Colbert's show to do a nine minute hit tops, and using that to get into a philosophical discussion defending his atheism. And you know, Ricky's a far finer mind. I don't know what Stephen Colbert was thinking, but he, you know, like all pompous, know it alls, they have no self awareness. So he, he had to try to pin Ricky against the wall and prove to Ricky that he, Stephen, with his belief in his God and his faith is right and Ricky's wrong and he's going to try to humiliate the guy on late night American television. Okay, so let's take a look at my beloved Ricky Gervais demolishing Stephen colbert in like 10 seconds flat. Here we go.
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Maureen Callahan
You believe in one God, I assume in three persons, but go ahead.
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Nerve Host
Okay, so you believe. Okay, so, but there, There are about 3,000 to choose from that have been, you know, people have been reading. Yeah, okay, so so basically you believe.
- [18:31]
Maureen Callahan
In you, you, you deny one less God than I do.
- [18:38]
Nerve Host
I love how in the middle of that, like it, Stephen Colbert goes, I've done some reading. Yes. You can already feel his insecurity prick up. He's like, I'm in trouble. This guy's smarter than I am. You know, and you would have thought that that answer would have humbled Stephen Colbert, but you know, it didn't obviously, because he just took that as a note to continue on. And as an aside, I would just like to say that men who present like Stephen Colbert, they, they look like they wish it was still 1950. The Brill creamed hair, it's solid, it's fixed, it's just, it's, none of it's moving it like it's, he's had the same hair for 30 years. What man do you know who's had the same hair? An amount of it in volume for 30 years. Okay. And the, and the tenorous voice and the old fashioned suits and the way of presenting, they creep me out. They creep me out. I look at them and think, I really do wonder what they think of women because I think they all wish they were living back in 1950 when things were different. I also, I'm just going to bet the stories will come out. I'm going to bet he's a total monster behind the scenes. I really do. Now if this guy also had any humility at all, he would have taken this note from Johnny Carson. Complicated guy, personal life, very, very dark. Another show. But Johnny Carson, king of late night, who, by the way, his show aired during the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, Watergate, Pentagon Papers, Roe v. Wade, civil rights movement, the Cold War, the AIDS crisis. I could go on. We never knew Johnny's politics ever. And he's going to explain in this old clip from Mike Wallace that I found over the weekend. He was talking to Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes and Mike Wallace even back then was like, hey, why don't you ever say anything about the social or political issues of the day? Listen to Johnny's elegant answer.
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Maureen Callahan
People say he'll never take a serious controversy. Well, I have an answer to that. I said, now tell me the last time that Jack Benny, Red Skelton, any comedian used his show to do serious issues. That's not what I'm there for. Can't they see that? But you're not neither. They think that just because you have a Tonight show that you must deal in serious issues. That's a danger. It's a real danger. Once you start that you start to get that self important feeling that what you say has great importance. And you know, strangely enough, you could use that show as a forum. You could sway people. And I don't think you should as an entertainer.
- [21:29]
Nerve Host
And I think those final words of Johnny's should be written on Stephen's professional epitaph. Good riddance. Sayonara, Stephen. As I've said before, technology changes, Humanity does not. Adios. Next up, we have a celebrity roundup. A brief and just like that recap, A striking Jackie O. JFK Jr. Story that the mainstream media has always ignored or you know, I suspect really just doesn't have the time or the inclination to do the deep reading. It doesn't take that much. But that's what we're here for. The nerve will fill that gap. And my favorite of all favorites, your emails. We are back in a minute. Here's a quick question. Did you know that up until the 1990s all chips and fries were cooked in beef tallow? Yeah. Not seed oils. But then big food companies made the switch to cheap, highly processed seed oils and now they make up 20% of the average American's daily calories. That is not good for you. And that's why I am excited to tell you about Masa, a chip that's doing things differently. Masa chips are made with just three ingredients, organic corn, sea salt and 100% grass fed beef tallow. And that is it. No seed oils, no junk. And let me tell you, they are so good, they are crunchier and tastier than your average chip. And my gold standard, they don't break apart when you dip them in your guac and they leave you feeling light, satisfied and energized. No crash, no bloat. Masa is what chips should be. Go try them and you will taste the difference. Masa chips are beloved by tens of thousands of customers and have been endorsed by industry leading health and nutrition experts. Ready to give Masa a try? Go to masachhips.com maureen and use code MAUREEN for 25% off your first order. That's masachips.com maureen code MAUREEN or for 25% off your 1st order.
- [23:46]
Maureen Callahan
Not all meals are created equal. For instance, breakfast has the spicy egg McMuffin for a limited time and lunch doesn't McDonald's breakfast.
- [24:03]
Nerve Host
We are back. So July 16 marked the 26th anniversary of John F. Kennedy, 20 Junior, killing himself, his wife and her sister in the plane he was piloting recklessly which went down off of Martha's Vineyard. Now there are details that have largely gone unremarked upon over the years. And so I went back and pulled up. I found this towards the end of my reporting and research for Ask not. And this interview is fascinating. It was done days after the crash and it was an interview Camille Paglia, who is the noted academic culture critic slash provocateur, gave to Salon within days of the crash. And if this woman wasn't light years ahead of everybody else, I'm going to read a bit of it to you. And it's the stuff that she lasered in on is incredible. Incredible. Now the question, the first question posed to her that's, that's relevant for our, our purposes, what did you make of the fact that the plane went down in full sight of his mother's estate? And it did. It's like he never got over her. Camille says so true. He Never did. In a certain way, John Kennedy Jr. S beauty was a kind of narcissism. His physical perfection came from an entrapment in a youthful Persona. He never developed as a Persona beyond that of the handsome, loyal, affectionate, wonderful brother, questioner and son. Yes, the fact that he went down with two sisters is also interesting. It's like a little family went down together there. And the woman he chose had his sister's name. People say, oh, Carolyn Bessette was just like Jackie. She was no Jackie. It's absurd. There's a tremendous elegiacal rush to find good things to say about this young woman, but she seemed to have lost energy as a personality the longer she was married to John. Interesting point. Her life force seemed to diminish. My side. Back to Camille. We are, in effect, honoring him for emerging intact. This phrase is so great from the psychological Nazi interrogation booth of the mega celebrity forced on him from his earliest years. Fascinating observation about what we as a culture and the media did in terms of choosing to view him this way and how it shaped his psyche. Camille now also goes on to discuss a harrowing fact. And this is so psychologically rich and disturbing. I mean, a shrink would have a field day. So not only did John Jr's plane go like he piloted it into the ocean, he had no business flying that plane. Not only does it crash land into the Atlantic within sight of his mother's estate, the registration papers for his plane washed up on her beach. His registration papers washed up on Jackie's beach. And that was reported, by the way, by the Cape cod times on July 20, 1999. There was a lot of weird subconscious stuff going on. I don't even think he was dialed into it. I really don't. If you want to read more, go pull up that interview. You can just Google it. With Camille Paglia. It was done with Salon, the byline. The dateline, rather, is July 23, 1999. Now, also, as I was writing this show, an email wound up in my inbox from a troublemaker asking if I had read what remains the memoir by Carol radziwill, who was JFK Jr. S close cousin's wife, and she's also a former real housewife of New York City. Now, of course, I read that book as soon as it came out. Um, and of course, Carol got an hour on Oprah. When it came out. My thoughts. I thought it was well written, if opaque. I thought it was very light on details. It made me wonder how close she really, really was. Maybe not. Maybe that's not the right way to say it, but it did make me wonder how much Carolyn let Carol Radziwill really see and know of her. I think what I came to realize again in writing and reporting the book was that Carolyn and John were both masters at making the people around them or even in their circle feel as though they were closer to them than they were. It's a real sleight of hand, but they were really masters at it, the both of them, and in reading that book. It's a slim volume, and if you're interested in Kennedy myth and lore, especially of the latter age, I recommend it. It's a good beach read. It's fast, but you get. I got the sense anyway, I got the distinct sense that Carol was actually more in love with Carolyn than she was with her own husband. And once you see it, like, you can't unsee it. Now, also to the rumor that Carol Radziwill had a ghostwriter for that book. She's never replicated the success of the book. She wrote one or two other. She wrote one other that I read. It was fiction. It was semi autobiographical. It was so poorly written, I couldn't believe they even published it. And then she had this huge book deal that she got, I believe, after her first season of Housewives. It was like 750k for like two books or three books, one of which was a book of essays. Guess what? It never materialized. Anyway, as to the ghostwriter rumor, which was a major plot point during the Aviva Drescher season, where Aviva said, listen, this woman had a ghostwriter. She's not a great writer. And Carol took so much umbrage that you're like, it has to be true. Like, if it wasn't true, just be like, that's ridiculous. Move along, sister. But so that went on for that animated a good. A good plot point of the whole season. I have it on very good authority. Carol Rut, she did not have a ghostwriter per se, but her editor was a legendary, legendary guy in publishing. I believe he has since retired and he reportedly rewrote that text front to back. Reportedly. Allegedly. And again, if you've read any of Carol's other musings or writings for the Daily Mail or back when magazines were still mainly, you know, at least publishing somewhat regularly in print edition, it is obvious she is not a good writer. She is not a good thinker, and she is prone to, like, unstructured sentences and poisons, syntax and misspellings, which to me just says, you're sloppy. You're sloppy and you're lazy and you can't be bothered to make sure you have spelled everything correctly. She spent a good amount of time post Housewives feasting on her late mother in law, her carcass. That would be Jackie's sister, Lee Radziwill, who, trust me, I believe she was still alive when Carol began doing Housewives. And she never said a word about it. And there's a reason because it was tacky and she would have been mortified. Mortified. Oh my God. Remember the episode where Carol, Carol, she's coming in, she's like, I've got more dignity than you bitches. I'm a Kennedy. Kennedy adjacent sister. Kennedy adjacent. And there's like a three episode arc where she goes to London to collect her husband's ashes. JFK Jr. S best friend and cousin his ashes. And she gets them and she gets into bed with, on camera with the ashes and she puts on her headphones because she's also like a 58 year old hipster and she's hugging the ashes with like a tear and like, whatever. Like, it was gross. It was so gross. Camp, pure camp. Anyway, that was more fun than I thought it was going to turn into be. Okay, I want to get to Superman really briefly because the new Superman movie is out and the Wall Street Journal did a piece on it. Is it this? Yeah, this weekend. Oh, no, last weekend. And this is the image here. And it's all about Superman, the new iteration of it, needing to save Warner Brothers. And there are a couple of things. I saw the director interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning and he was talking about how his Superman is no longer an alien from another planet, but Superman's an immigrant. Subtle. And they have excised from Superman's stated reason for being, which is truth, justice in the American way. They've excised the American way. Okay, now we've got like our fourth or fifth guy since Christopher Reeve trying to fill the cape and the boots and it's not happening. There was only one. Some actors are so iconic in certain roles, like just leave it alone. It is sacrilege to try to attempt to replace Christopher Reeve or modernize him. The guy was singular. It was the perfect marriage of this actor with this role at this moment in the Zeitgeist. And I just, it just makes me nuts. But anyway, I came across this also on Instagram and it just made my heart sing. I think Christopher Reeve, were he alive today and had he not suffered that tragic accident, he would have been A troublemaker. He would have been over here with us. You know why? Because this is back in, like, it's either 78. It's 78, I think, right? Because Marlon Brando, who remains the actor's actor, okay, The. The actor who, like the likes of Sean Penn and all those others who take themselves so seriously, worship at the altar of. So Marlon Brando, he was in his I don't give a F era, and he'd been that way since Apocalypse now, when he was, like, just being fed lines and like, whatever. So he famously, the producers, famously in the studio, paid Marlon brando, like, over $3 million maybe, or about 3 million for 10 minutes of screen time as Superman's non earthly father. And Christopher Reeve was on a talk show, and he was asked about what he thought about Marlon Brando, and the guy pulled no punches. Listen to this.
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Maureen Callahan
I don't worship at the altar of Marlon Brando because I feel that he's. He's copped out in a certain way. He's no longer in the leadership position that he could be. He could really be inspiring a whole generation of actors and by continuing to work. But what happened is the press loved him, whether he was good, bad, or indifferent or people thought he was this sort of institution no matter what he did. So he doesn't care anymore. And I just think it would be sad to be. Be 53, whatever he is, and not give a damn. That's all. I just think it's too bad that the man has kind of been forced into the hostility.
- [34:58]
Nerve Host
Christopher Reeve, one of my first childhood crushes. Look at that. He says, look what the media did. They love him no matter what he does. And look what it made him into. He's a monster. I mean, he doesn't say that, but in some substance, he's saying he's a monster. He's become a terrible actor, and he could be contributing so much more to the culture and. And to all those other actors coming up behind him who worship him.
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Maureen Callahan
So.
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Nerve Host
And instead, this is what we get. Could you believe it? This guy. Balls of steel. Truly. Okay. An American hero, really. Now onto some quick notes, per your constant request. And you don't even have to ask, you know, this. The last episode of Just like that. Now that. Excuse me. In my haste to get my thoughts out, my elocution is suffering. Just a few thoughts on an episode that basically ran like 30 minutes and felt very patchwork and very light. And I just mean substantially. I mean, the show is. It's not a substantive show, but you Know what I'm saying? It's centered around Charlotte putting together this show at her art gallery. Now, when we enter and see what Charlotte's show is, the opening night, Carrie, of course, because she's the star, so she gets as many lines as possible. She's reading from the show descriptor that's painted on the wall. And what struck me is the exhibition was positioned or written about getting to some elusive truth about the way we live. And I noticed that the word elusive was spelled I L L U S I V and not correctly as E L U S I V. And I do not, cannot give the writers any credit, any benefit of the doubt that they did in fact mean elusive, as in elusory I L L U S O R Y because they're all such lazy idiots over there. Everything about this show is slovenly. Everything. And I think it goes even to that. Nobody picked up the work. Okay. So anyway, the centerpiece of this exhibit is a complete plagiaristic ripoff of Tracy Emmons My Bed, which was a seminal provocative piece of art and installation. Tracy was part of the. What they called the YBA's, the young British artists. They were a part of a Brit youthquake of the 90s. It was young Britannica. It was part of what was going on on the trans atlant over in America. The 90s youthquake that gen X wrought. And that still does not get enough credit in the culture. It will someday, trust me. I couldn't believe that they didn't reference Tracey Emin. I couldn't believe it. The only substantial difference was, well, one, they had like a model face down, which is so literal. Tracy Emin would never. Number two. So one of the items on her bed. And this was an exhibit meant to evoke Tracy's most. At the height of a depressive episode she was having where she couldn't get out of her bed and was heartbroken. And prior to. As they're setting it up, Charlotte, who, by the way, is like a gallery head, would never be doing this. They have a condom and they're trying to fill it with what is supposed to be ejaculate. And they're going to tie off the condiments, going to be part of the exhibit, and instead of just putting in a kind of liquid that would be viscous enough to mimic ejaculate, they have them putting in actual ejaculate from which it was sourced. No idea, never discussed. And then, of course, what does Michael Patrick King have happen? He has Charlotte at the exhibit. Excuse me, at the exhibit. Fall face first into said condom, and the. And the condom breaks and the ejaculate splatters all over her. The most elegant cast, the character on the show. If. If these women don't wake up to the fact that their boss is a disgusting misogynist, and if this show gets renewed for another season and they don't push to have him, like, forced out, they're idiots. They're idiots. You don't see what he's doing to you. You don't see it. And then finally, Cynthia Nixon's character, and she's again, a body horror fusing with her character of Miranda. There's this, like, it's really a ridiculous subplot where, like, is she an alcoholic? Who knows? But, you know, this bottle of expensive alcohol winds up in her kitchen cabinet and she's debating and she finally throws it out. And what does she do? She takes the full bottle without opening it and depositing the contents down her sink and then putting it in the recycling bag and. And then tying up the recycling bag and putting it down the recycling chute, which is what every civilized person does. She's living in an expense in an expensive building. They do not let you have throw down just items unwrapped into the chute and break apart. But that's what her character does. These are trash people. Trash. Trash characters, Trash writers. Trash people. Trash show. And I'll catch you guys next week for the recap of our next episode. Okay, now we also have a great tidbit about Sex and the City at its heyday versus the Sopranos, both prime HBO shows, one a trifle, one a true work of art. This also comes courtesy of a troublemaker who sent me this item from Entertainment Weekly again just before we began talking to you. Kristen is revealing that the cast and crew of the Sopranos would not let the cast and the crew of Sex and the City anywhere near their catering, which was far superior. And I love this. I love it. Because the Sopranos knew that those people over there were trash making a trash show, and they weren't going to have that infesting their set. Oh, and by the way, I just want to say before I get to this Sopranos thing, the New York Times last Thursday, just last Thursday, ran a profile of the real Mr. Big. The real Mr. Big is a former publishing giant at Conde Nast named Ron Galati. He got pushed out in the 90s, and then he was like, you know what effort? I'm going up to Vermont and I'M going to get a farm and going to raise some chickens, and I'm going to just get married and settle down. And Page Six. And everybody in town was like, no way this guy's doing that. This guy loves the scene. He famously dated. Dated. Can't. I'll explain. Candace Bushnell, who wrote the Sex and the City columns that became the show, and Carrie Bradshaw is Candace Bushnell's alter ego to a point. Now. So he was interviewed. This is. I'm reading. I'm reading from the article. He's now married. He has at least one child. What did Ron Galati think of what Ms. Bushnell wrote? Columns in the New York observer that made it fairly clear that she was in love with him or at least incredibly infatuated with him. I can't help with that. Mr. Galati said. There's nothing worse than when you love me and I don't love you. Remember the clip we played in the last Full Nerve of. I think it was the last one or the one before of Sex and the City from Big's point of view. And Carrie was the stalker. And Big's like, hey, man, I'm just out in these streets, and every time I look around, she's. She's over there staring at me, or she's showing up at my door, like, dressed in a sex costume, unannounced, uninvited, or she's calling me in the middle of the night, yelling at me. This is how it really would. If these writers had any. Any bravery or fidelity, this is how it would have played out. Because as stated, a guy like this is not marrying a girl like that. Not happening. So the real Mr. Big, Ron meets his current wife, Lisa. This is back in 1996. So they have been married for a very long time. Like 40 years almost, right? Or 30 writers doing math. So he meets her. She then invites him to his house in the Hamptons. And so again, this is moving very fast. And so while she was there, Mr. Galati called Ms. Bushnell. The Times in their honorifics, just say, candace Bushnell. Galati called Bushnell and told her to come clear her things out of his closet. That is a cold, cold cut. Within three months, Lisa was living with him in the city. By the end of the year, they had eloped. It's Big and Natasha. It's Big and Natasha. And in the real world, Big and Natasha would still be married. Continuing from this piece, Ms. Bushnell does not seem to be holding it against him. He's a really nice guy. That's the truth. I mean, Candace, he was not nice to you. He's not a nice guy to you. All right. Anyway, this all gives us the perfect segue to this clip that is making the rounds online. And I know, I know we are all very anxious about AI But I do think that we can agree that its main contribution thus far is a winner. And it is whatever it is that is turning iconic adults into toddlers and is using their adult voices to reenact as toddlers. Very fractious, complicated conflicts. And to that end, I give you toddler Carmela Soprano, fighting in the driveway with toddler Tony Soprano, receding hairline and all. Take a look. I was referred by a Dr. Jennifer Melfi. That's great. That's fine. I gotta go. Bye. Bye. Who was that? It's the paving guy. I'm thinking of having the driveway redone. You gotta watch this. A third degree. It says with pulp. You like it with pulp?
- [45:23]
Maureen Callahan
Not this much. I like the one that says Sumpo.
- [45:28]
Nerve Host
The was that for. I'll write you up a list. You know, if that's just not you, could you. I've seen. I've seen Housewives done like this. I've seen Jay Z and Beyonce videos done like this. It kind of gets to the essential truth that, like, we're all at essence. Our inner childs are just, like, one step away from bursting out. It's amazing. I love it. Okay. Anyway, onto your emails. A ton of response to the tell, which we are going to get to. Those are the bulk of the emails, but a few lighter ones. First, the Obamas from Valerie. She has something on him. Something big, probably numerous things. And he knows she can do it. He knew what was going to happen on her podcast. He was definitely forced to be there by her. The way they greeted each other said it all. The. The forced hug and awkward kiss on the cheek. Wow. That everybody's been remarking upon that. Valerie. So agreed. I think she is making some major threats behind the scenes regarding going public. And he's not doing this because he cares about her podcast ratings. She's blackmailing him. Valerie's theory of the case. I like it. Leia. Troublemaker Leah, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. I would love to see you do a deep dive on the cultural significance of female stars being placed into conservatorships. I'm thinking of Britney Spears, of course, and Wendy Williams. If you could find one or two more examples, this could be a great episode. Why do some spiraling stars get this treatment? While others don't. Great question. Carrie Bradshaw would definitely have been placed in one by now. Okay, now we move towards the tell. This is a troublemaker who will remain nameless. I can't. So. So she read the book before we had ever done this. I should have known when it got the Oprah stamp of approval that something was wrong. Do not blame yourself, troublemaker. We're getting there. As a culture, I knew that this is not the way recovered memory works. You don't get set up with a paraprofessional who gives you ecstasy, and suddenly you have access to vivid, colorful, whole memories, complete with jewelry and scarves and everything you were wearing and everything. He said it's not like that. A troublemaker named Liz. When you discussed the tell, it really struck a chord with me. Especially when you spoke about the whispers that every child at every school has ever experienced. A troublemaker named Melissa. I'm a psychotherapist in my early 60s. This cool new use of hallucinogenic drugs in psychotherapy is so, so dangerous, in my opinion. Does no one remember back in the 80s, the John Stossel investigative piece on how these recovered memories can be induced in people? Yes. And does no one remember the satanic panic of the 90s? Look it up if you. If you're unfamiliar, public, beware. This is not a good idea. And therapists are seeing it as a new toy. This is so unethical, in my opinion. Troublemaker from Australia here, Melania. If I'm saying your name correctly, I hope so. Regarding the towel. As a psychologist, I went down a deep area of research several years ago regarding the implanting of false memories under hypnosis, under duress, such as police interrogations, and under psychedelics via assisted therapy. These practices are dangerous, to say the least. But they also are scientifically proven to show that, yes, memory is malleable. It's not only malleable, it's fallible. Too much to go into here. I absolutely agree, however, with your perspective on the book and its bad intentions. These are just our opinions. A friend of mine, she continues, recently had a cheating husband go see a sex therapist who suggested hypnotherapy. And he miraculously remembered a childhood rape at 6 years old. When pushed further to provide details by the wife, this actually turned out to be an older kid touching his private parts in a car park. So basically, he took this false memory and gaslit his wife into believing that the trauma from this incident was why he had a sex addiction and in turn why he effing in her. Her email cheated on her. Okay. Hi Maureen, this is from a troublemaker named Stephanie. I'm so glad you questioned the book the tell and I think public displays of what should be kept private in order again, just her opinion to become famous or gain monetary wealth is wrong. Unless someone is prepared to work with rape victims or assault victims by giving of themselves, in my opinion, it becomes another useless tell all. And I have come to the opinion that victimhood has become an initiation into a large club of complainers. Agreed. It's very chic now to be a victim. So she worked as a therapist in New York and says, I have helped many who have experienced terrible traumas in their lives. The people I worked with were not writing tell alls or jet setting around the world and going on talk shows or podcasts. If they had them back then, they were people who worked long and hard and then just hard work. It's difficult work. The body and the mind is resistant to it. Often it takes a lot who worked long and hard to move on from their trauma, who did not want to be labeled a victim and who did not want to share with people who were not close friends or family. Yes, from Arlene. Maureen, thank you. I had never heard of this book and it might have been one I picked up. As a survivor of assault myself, I am very aware of how authentic a description sounds of events. I will state straight up that I don't believe this memoir. I have no faith in the use of psychedelic drugs to free repressed memory. How do you prove that? Survivors downplay their battles and protect others. Yes. This woman sounds to me just her opinion like another pathological narcissist. Hi Maureen. From a troublemaker named Christopher in Northern California. In high school we had a boys PE teacher and football coach who was rumored to be a sleazeball. It was very well known and talked about. So I agree with you that it would be known or at least assumed. Thanks for all you do. Thanks to you Christopher, for writing in. Hi Maureen. This one blew my mind and it's our last one, but it's the most relevant in terms of just the veracity of what she's doing. Amy Griffin in my opinion is not an honest broker. Just my opinion. I think you should know that Amy Griffin made a name Mitchell. So Amy Mitchell Griffin was the daughter of a very prominent family. In this book she presents herself as practically like I believe the word Okie was in there. I would not come up with that word on my own. She presents herself as like a hick from A small town who. Who came from nothing. Okay, according to this troublemaker, not so. She's the daughter of a very prominent family. Her aunt was mayor of Amarillo for a time. And by the way, Amarillo is a major hub. My bad. I've never been to Amarillo. I'm unfamiliar with it, but Amy writes about it like she's on Little House on the Prairie, like she's in Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls. No, it's a major, major hub. She grew up privileged and wealthy. I, too, share your doubts for that reason alone. Great point. Coming often, the child who gets abused and groomed is not the one from the powerful family. It's the latchkey kid. The mom is at work. The dad ran out on them. They won't tell because who would care? Rich little girls always have someone who cares. And who would listen. Not always, but often. I believe her trip. And this is, I think, being generous. I think being generous produced a false memory. Perhaps a punishment for having such a happy life. But who knows? I hate that she is spreading dirt on my old hometown with no real evidence. It's so easy to make a town in Texas the brunt of criticism for the city elite. My conclusion, again, just this Troublemaker's opinion, is Ms. Amy is a pretender and seeks some kind of survival, heroism in an otherwise lackluster existence. Meghan Markle, much question mark. Unneeded best wishes in regards. Liz. Liz, incredible email. You guys are the smartest. You're the best. The most intuitive, the funniest. Keep them coming. Please email me maureenvilmaycaremedia.com find me on Instagram @maureen callahanrider or over at the Nerve show where we are beginning our inaugural poll. Me and Bill Maher. What do you think? Legs or no? Remember to, like, subscribe and spread the word about the Nerve. The faster we grow, the faster we can bring you even more original content. Coming up, the one, the only. And if you think you're not interested, I'm gonna. It's my mission to convince you otherwise. Billy Joel. Back in a minute. The American dream has changed. Forget the white picket fence. For most Americans, the real dream is getting out of debt. 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- [56:06]
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- [56:39]
Nerve Host
We are back and I have been dying to talk to you guys about this since I started viewing it on Friday. I broke it up into two parts. And even if you think you are not a fan, trust me when I tell you this segment is about more than any single artist. It is about traumatic childhoods, it's about absent fathers, difficult mothers, the cost and the benefits of being an outcast and the cost of getting what you want. In this case, it's recognition for your unique talent and global fame. Now, I have been obsessed with Billy Joel from a very young age. And you know, I knew even back then that Billy Joel, like, wasn't cool. But cool has never been the point with Billy Joel. And so if that's your barrier to entry, I'm just going to say like, drop that. Just drop it. And keep an open mind and heart, okay? If you're not, if you think he's not for you. So when I was maybe eight years old, I discovered my dad's copy of the Billy Joel album the Stranger. And I, I didn't know it was my dad's. I just instantly knew between my mom and him, it was my dad's. My dad was the one who, of the two of them, like, they were both really good looking, charismatic people. But my dad was like the cool one. And he had really, really interesting, esoteric, eclectic, deep, interesting taste in all kinds of music. And, and my mom, like, not so much like my mom loved, like she, she loved like top 40 and she loved. Like, you know, my. Like, my dad would. Would, like, be, like, oh, you know your mom, like, she's got a crush on, like, Kenny Rogers. Like, isn't that cute? He meant it in, like, an affectionate way. He wasn't much mocking her, but they did not share musical taste, you know? And my dad, meanwhile, would, like. I would be interested in, like, how he got to the artists he got to. And he would tell me stories about, like, how he got into the Doors when he was in the jungle in the Vietnam War. You know, he was a Kennedy Democrat who became a Reagan Republican. Fascinating guy. Anyway, so I found this copy of the Stranger with its cover art and the track list, and immediately I got the concept, and it was so compelling to me. Now, of course, at that age, I knew nothing about Carl Jung and the concept of the Shadow Self or the Albert Camus novel of the same name, but I knew even back then, and maybe because my parents, really, they were complicated people that, like, there was a public face that most of us or all of us really don, and then there's a private one. And what makes everyone. It's a universal. It's a universal theme, right? And I sensed even then that my dad definitely that this album spoke to him for a very profound reason. Now, as I later learned, and I'm thinking I will eventually write about this someday, I learned at his funeral, which was only a year and a half ago, that at why that album spoke to him so much. And it's really not a cliche reason that you might think, like, he wasn't living, like, the kind of, like, double life of, like, a Cheever novel. It's nothing that cliche. I mean, it was profound. It was something that would be considered a true sin, and it was something he took to his grave. And then I was told about it. It just slipped out of a close relative's mouth during a conversation with me, and it clicked like that. And so that is to say, I connect to Billy Joel on a lot of levels. He is also a fellow Long Islander. I connect to a lot of it. I didn't know, and none of us really knew a lot about him until this new HBO documentary, which dropped about him over the weekend. And it's fascinating. It is fascinating. And I was so interested in what we would learn and what he would be willing to talk about, because back in 2011, Billy Joel had a memoir that was about to hit the shelves. It was about two months out from publication, so literally, it's about to go to the printer galleys. Would have been made, you know, And Billy had, like, a $3 million book advance, so back. So today it would be closer to, like, seven, eight. And he pulled the plug at the last minute. And so right then, I thought, like, okay, deep guy. Way more complicated than his later work. Later work, excuse me, would ever let on. And some of it is admittedly terrible. I cannot stand a song like We Didn't Start the Fire. Guess what? Neither can Billy. He won't play it anymore. He says himself the melody is terrible. He's compared it to sounding like a dentist drill. But we're going to push that aside. Let's go to Billy and his childhood. This is the first time we get a real window into it. And it's so fascinating and poignant. And you see pictures of him as a kid, and you're just. Anyway, I'll let him speak for himself. He was an obvious child prodigy. Everybody knew it. He was teaching himself classical music on the piano by ear as a child. Okay. Here he talks about his father, who is also a musician, a frustrated one. His mother, who was also a singer, and then himself is this, like, burgeoning prodigy. And what that got him at home. Take a look.
- [62:18]
Maureen Callahan
He came down the stairs. Bam. I got whacked. And I got whacked so hard he knocked me out. I was unconscious for, like, a minute.
- [62:31]
Nerve Host
So Billy was, I think, 11 at that time. Imagine that. Like, even the way he's telling it, it's so generational. I mean, today you would call the cops and have the father arrested for. I wouldn't even call that a smack. I would call that a punch. Knocking out a kid playing the piano so hard, he is knocked out cold for at least a minute. So. So Billy's father left the family when Billy was about that age 11. Here is his sister Judith, talking about their mother.
- [63:09]
Maureen Callahan
We knew that there was something very wrong, that she was most likely bipolar. We didn't know the word at the time.
- [63:18]
Nerve Host
And then Judy talks about how she and Billy now in this fatherless house, the relief is not what one would think because they have to constantly be on alert for her wild mood swings.
- [63:34]
Maureen Callahan
There wasn't peace because we knew that we had to walk on eggshells, that anything could throw her off.
- [63:43]
Nerve Host
So Judy says she thinks they were bipolar. Based on that thumbnail description, I'm going to suggest that she may have been a borderline. And we are doing a borderline segment. It's planned for the next episode. The Borderline Mother. So, of course, difficult mother, difficult father. Now, as a Child. Of course, Billy was different. Of course he was. Let's look at this description of what life was like for Billy on suburban Long Island.
- [64:19]
Maureen Callahan
The piano teacher lived right down the block from where my house was. She also taught ballet. And there were a couple of guys in the neighborhood that used to call me out, hey, Billy, where's your tutu? He knocked the books out the of my hand and smack me.
- [64:36]
Nerve Host
If you're just listening, I would say go look at these clips on. On this episode of the Nerve, because Billy Joel, who has got to be around 70, 72, I think, in telling this story, look at his body language. And even he. He start, like, he puts his hand over his head and it's almost like he's trying to push the memory back in and then, like, just make it sort of pass through him. And he's got just little tells in his demeanor that, like, this still makes him feel very uncomfortable. That because he was a boy who leaned towards the arts, that these other kids were, like, calling him gay, basically. And it was humiliating for him. And, you know, you've gotta give. Like, this is how, you know you're dealing with a true artist. Billy, rather than try to fit in with these kids and quit going to the piano teacher who also taught ballet or dance, he stays true to his own inner compass. He stays true to his own North Star. And again, this is so hard to do as a child when the easier thing is to just try to fit in and be like everybody else. And that is why my heart has always, always been with the outcasts and the misfits and the ones who see and experience the world differently because they usually grow up to contribute something of more value than the kids who are knocking the books out of another kid's hands who's just trying to get to his piano lesson. Here's more on the young Billy from his sister Judy.
- [66:14]
Maureen Callahan
He didn't like school very much. He would get dressed and he would then wait till my mother was. Pulled the car out and went. Went to work. And he would go back into the house and he would then go up into my closet and he'd bring books and a pillow and a flashlight.
- [66:35]
Nerve Host
Imagine that. You know, I mean, I always wondered about Billy as a reader because of his facility with words and the way he tells stories in his songs and how vividly his characters are specifically depicted and how they have dialogue with each other in a song and how they also have a plot that moves. And now we know. Yes, little Billy was a big, voracious, avid Reader. And he took solace in books. And just the image of him waiting for his mother to drive off to work and then go back inside and change out of his school clothes because he couldn't, obviously, tell his mother that school was a torment for him. The whole thing is so poignant. So we're gonna smash cut now to Billy's young adulthood. And he falls in love with his best friend's wife. I believe they were married. And Billy gets together with the wife. Her name is Elizabeth. And then they split up. So now he's lost his best friend and the girl who he lost his best friend over. And Billy falls into such deep depressions that he tries to commit suicide not once, but twice. So here's what Billy had to say about trying to kill himself. Quote, I was just in a lot of pain, and I'm reading this because there's music under this. We can't show it for that reason. He says, why hang out? Tomorrow's gonna be just like today. And today sucks. So I thought I'd just end it all. He tries to. So he tries to commit suicide twice. He survived both attempts, the final one, just barely. And then he institutionalizes himself, which had to take a lot of guts. A lot of guts. And it shows an impulse to live. And as he tells it, he stays in the institution for two weeks. He realizes he's not nearly as bad off as the people in the institution. And. And the way he. He talks about it, he says he runs out that front door and he runs away from that building, and he never looks back. And he makes the decision he's going to put it all into his art, all into his music. And even the people in this documentary who know and love him best say that Billy can't go deep in conversations. He goes deep into. In his music. That's where it comes out. And this is where I think Billy Joel has been underestimated by the culture. I think he's never really been fully given his due because he's not a cool guy like a Mick Jagger or a Bono or Springsteen, you know, and that's not a fair metric. It's not. And by the way, the Bruce Springsteens of the world and the other music legends of the world, they're in this documentary, younger, older, all paying fealty and giving praise to the one and only Billy Joel. Again, Billy as a reader and a writer, they talk about how he put together with his. I think it was his producer, Phil Ramone, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, which is an epic song. It is one of the unlikeliest pop hits ever. Now, from a production standpoint, the Billy talks about, I think Phil. I don't know if he's. If we have him talking about this as well, but these were like three to five separate different song fragments that he had been working on. And Phil Ramon figured out how. No, like, the solution is we put them all together and Billy says, you know, the song changes, the time signature changes in the middle of it, which is an extremely complicated thing to do. So just from a musical standpoint, it's a unicorn. And then from a lyrical standpoint, so Billy says he was writing about two people in the song. They're named Brenda and Eddie. They are the king and the queen of the prom. And he tells us he wanted to write. He had always wanted to write a song about people who peaked too early. And those we all know are the people in high school who.
- [70:57]
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Who.
- [70:57]
Nerve Host
When you're in high school, you think they have everything and the road ahead for them must be, like, paved with gold. But these people often peek too early, and that is the young misfit. And Billy having his own eureka moment. Now, none other than Bruce Springsteen, who talks about them, he and Billy both being bridge and tunnel artists. And I mentioned this on an earlier episode of the Nerve, like, and I relate to this. This sentiment as a. As a fellow Long Islander, you are. You're from Long island, you're from New Jersey. You're drawn to the city like a magnet as a kid, but you're taking the train or the. Or a car over a bridge or in the tunnel. You're a bridge and tunneler. And that gives you a very different look at urbanity and New York City and the arts, because you're not of it. You want to be of it, and you admire it, but you also have a bit of a gimlet eye, a bit of a cynicism towards it. So here is what Springsteen says about Billy as a storyteller. And I quote, billy's songs are built like the Rock of Gibraltar. They are simply, incredibly well put together. And one of Billy's gifts was his ability as a group. Great storyteller. He goes on to say that earlier in his career, Billy was misunderstood, which is kind of a shame, because they really misperceived the value of some of his greatest work. Yes, yes, it goes to that cool factor I was talking about. Now, in reviewing this doc, John Anderson at the Wall Street Journal does not get it. First of all, he says, who doesn't feel like an outcast at age 13. You know what, John? A lot of people, people don't. The kids who were knocking the books out of Billy's hands were not the kids who were suffering. You know, I didn't. I didn't feel like a lot of kids my age either. You know, it's not that unusual. Secondly, in talking about Piano man, one of Billy's most autobiographical songs, and they talk about the backstory in this documentary, John says of a character named Paul in the song. The line in the song is, paul is a real estate novelist. John says, or asks rather, what in the world is a real estate novelist? That always seems so obvious to me. Paul is what we would now call a broker. That's his day job. He's a realtor. Sorry, we call him a realtor. And in his off hours he dreams of becoming a published author and a literary lion. And so he's writing a book in his spare time. And the tragedy of it is it's never going to be published. But the dream keeps him alive. John, dial into your inner artist. Try it. Okay. Now the other great illuminating part of this documentary goes to Billy's ex wife Elizabeth, who becomes the brains behind Billy Joel Inc. That is a whole other conversation. The way in which Elizabeth was treated by a male dominated music industry, a male dominated media. They always depicted her as like a viper and like it's a different story that she tells and that Billy tells and the other members of his band tell. But anyway, so Billy wrote many, many songs about Elizabeth. Among them, Just the Way youy Are. That song wound up on the Stranger. Now Billy goes to the record company and they. And Elizabeth is there and they play the Stranger for all the execs and it resounds with a thud. They don't get it. And they're like, there's not a hit here and we don't even really want to put this thing out. And Elizabeth's like, over my dead body. She says, you pick a single and that'll go first and then I'll pick the second single. And the first single, fine. Elizabeth's pick Just the way you are. Monster hit. Billy hated the song. He hated it. He wanted to take it off the record. He says it's a cheesy wedding song. Elizabeth was like. And many other people feel otherwise, including, as he says in this documentary, the one and only Paul McCartney who says of and Just the Way youy Are, I get asked all the time, is there a song you wish you had written? And that is the one I always say. And Billy to his credit, says, I wouldn't know a hit single if I said stepped on it. It's not my talent. That's a real artist who's really in it. Can't really see the. The bigger thing or the outside thing anyway. And then they talk about Big Shot, which is like that song about. It's set in the 70s or 80s, and it's like a female character in the back of a limousine who's wearing a Halston dress. Detail from the song. So it's not Billy, as he likes to claim. I think he's trying to take the heat. It's not Billy Halston dress talking about everybody she knew at Elaine's and doing all the cocaine and waking up with bloody eyes and a monster hangover. And, like, you just had to impress everybody last night and you made a fool of yourself. And he's like, it's not about Elizabeth. And Elizabeth's like, I think it's about Billy. But I always heard, as many people have always heard, that it was really about Bianca Jagger, which is a far better theory of the case. I think it's Bianca Jagger. Then finally he talks about. They all talk about, you may be right. Now, I think right before this song, Billy was really. He was getting to exactly where he had been working so hard to go, which is commercial success, critical success, money, fame, all of it. So Elizabeth's son Stephen is in the film, and he's like, at a young age, when Billy's in his life, he's maybe around 11. There's some mirroring here. Billy at 11, Stephen at 11. The fatherless boy. Stephen says, this was a really exciting time because we were all so happy for Billy. He was getting everything he had worked so hard, so hard for. But it was also very scary because we knew we were going to lose him to fame. And Stephen was right. And so at the same time, Billy's going to bars on his motorcycle, riding his motorcycle all over town, and the insurance company is like, stop riding motorcycles. It's. It's too dangerous. His wife is like, stop it. It's too dangerous. He comes home one night after driving from a bar to the house in the rain, and she says to him, you're going to kill yourself. What are you doing? And he says to her, well, look at me. I came home in one piece, so I'm proving you wrong. And she says to him, only an insane person would say that, let alone think it. Lo and behold, not long after that, Billy gets in a calamitous motorcycle accident. He says he should have been killed. He should have been dead. He winds up in surgery, harms his. Like his head and his hands. He's. His hands are mangled. They don't know. What if he's got brain damage? The storyteller, the piano man. Is it a coincidence that he endangered the two very things that are responsible for his gifts? So I don't remember in the chronology when he had written. You may be right, but that. That song, he says, came out of that argument with Elizabeth about driving drunk on his motorcycle in the rain. There's a little. There's a literal line in that song, I drove my motorcycle in the rain. And Elizabeth says when she looked at the lyrics for that song and saw the couplet, turn out the lights, don't try to save me, she knew that was it. She had to leave. He was telling her, don't try to save me. And she goes, and that's the end of part one. It's quite a cliffhanger. Oh, my God. Sadly, that does it for our Tuesday edition of the Nerve. It could go on forever with you guys. Remember, please head on over to the Nerve, show on Instagram that account, and take part in our inaugural poll, the Unholy Union. Me and Bill Maher. Let us know what you think, okay? And we will see you back here on Friday when we will all reconvene for our next catharsis right here on the Nerve, where you will never guess what we're about to say next.