QLS Classic: "Weird" Al Yankovic

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of course. I Love Supreme is a production of I
Heart Radio. This classic episode was produced by the team
at Pandora. Hey, Hey, what's up? This is Gil's classic
April four, two thousand eight team with the great Matthew
Alfred Yankevin. That's right, y'all. Weird al Yank joins us
and he talks about hilarious songs that Prince would never clear,

(00:21):
why he turned down the opening slot on Michael Jackson's
nineteen media bad tour, and how he got away with
poking fund At, Kurt Copaine, Coulio, Azelia, and many more
not to mention. I gotta say this, uh roll call
intro is one for the record books. I hope you
enjoy QLs with Weird Ali Jandi all right, yeah, ready, yeah,

(00:52):
you're yelling already like you. Let's go great well South Freemo.
Roll call, Suprema Suprema, roll call, Suprema, Suprema, Role call, subprema, Suprema,
role call rewind select that who come back again? Select Yeah,

(01:19):
I want to do. We are in the greatness of
of of of greatness right now, ladies and gentlemens of
great Yes, we are the greatest of frens. We are
in the Yo. We are remixing this road call, Thank
you very much, Supremaremo Role frem Srema road Call Sarea

(01:48):
road Yes to all of y'all. Yeah, I just had
the remix. Yeah the brand call side free ro call
free to road Free Much Fremuro Fremuch. My name is

(02:17):
sponte yea, this is my home. Yeah. Even a Zeq
thinks my mind is gone free Fremo road Freeman, Fremo
road Free, road call freem My name is Sugar. Yeah,

(02:43):
I got the Sugars. Yeah, I got Sciatica and now
I'm living with a hurdy Are pretty much road Premuch,
side to roll Fremuch Freema Roma sucking roll of all

(03:05):
the concerts Boss Bill has been Yeah, weird Al Yankovic. Yeah,
in the top ten bro Car Frese s Frema road
So Frema southing suthing to Frema ro Premu Sun Sun
to Frema rolling role Car Yeah, far from a Virgin. Yeah,

(03:32):
weird all is here? Yeah, like a Saya pretty much
southing Sure Rob Fremu su su Su Frema road Fremure
road so Sure road Cry I don't free style. Yeah,

(03:54):
I am the worst. Yeah, it would be better if
it were rehearts wrong pretty much pretty much. That waste

(04:24):
was like, they're gonna beat your ass for doing is
that you'll playing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that last minute,
like zero o'clock in the morning, shout out to the
movie school. Yes, first time we've done that all first
we've never changed the music up before we had to.
We're in the greatness of greatness, ladies and gentlemen. What

(04:48):
more can I say? We have one of the greatest.
I mean, he shut down his own category. He is
a one of one. There, the job is taken. Know,
it's just like you know, you are the greatest parody

(05:10):
satire right, satirist, yes, satirist. Yeah, you are the goat.
Thank you, man, you are the goat as well. Thank you.
I feel goatist. Lazy and gentlemen, please welcome Alfred Matthew Yankee.
Now I have to use it my social Security numbers five, six, nine,

(05:36):
man one. I'm grateful that you did this. I'm thankful
because you know we've all been fan of yours. But
I mean it's to the point that you're not even
a proper down You're a verb your I mean, like
a weird out of the song. Yeah, are you weird
out that song? Exactly exactly? Um, how how are you though?

(06:00):
Place for using doing very well? I just just got
back from Hawaii last night. We were there. We live
there part time, and uh, I'm just kind of getting
used to, uh not seeing the ocean and and flowers
and beautiful things all the time. Um. We love on
the east Side. Hey, we live out in the jungle.

(06:25):
We're about another half a mile down the road and
we got there's like no internet, no nothing. We're in
the jungle. Baby really yeah, why because it's it's a
whole different kind of Hawaii. Mean, you can go to
the West side and there's like you know, you can
have your drinks by the pool and it's very res
already and very nice. But but the East side is
like old Hawaii and it just feels like, you know,
you can really kind of it's a place where you

(06:46):
go and do nothing. A lot of people like go
to Hannah and they go, oh, there's nothing here. That's
kind of the point. It's like a great place tell unplug,
so you needed to uh sort of recharge and and yeah,
I act and yeah, it's a it's a whole It's
kind of like the the opposite of l A. So
a couple of times a year, my family goes out
there and just kind of unplugs and you know, talk,

(07:08):
talk to the cows, you know, hang out. Now, you
just scared me with no Internet? Yeah, get you away
from Instagram? Why would you ever want to do that?
But I understand it's necessary. Um, where are you from?
From Linwood? Yeah? In fact, Shook Night went to my
high school. Wait wait, wait, wait wait, sarcasm detectors right now,

(07:34):
that's absolutely true. Fred Gwynn from The Monsters, Mark Spits,
I believe, and Kevin Costner also went to the same time.
Uh So, first of all, what were you like as

(07:55):
a kid? And I asked that very slowly because I
don't think people were yeah accurate in describing themselves. But
I mean, well, this might come as a huge shock
to you, but I was a little nerdy really, you know,
I was. I was definitely well, I was sort of
a you know, a sort of a weird kid, I was.
But I was always a good student. I was always

(08:16):
a straight a uh student, the kind of guy that
you try to copy off of during math class and
then beat up at recess pretty you know, because you
try to gave the wrong answers anywhere. But now, I
was always a good kid, but I was always a
little strange. I kind of kept to myself and and
ate with other nerdy kids during lunchtime, that kind of thing. Basically,

(08:39):
yeah in this room red backstory, Um, so you're your
gift of music? How did that start? Like? Well, I
guess it started when my parents decided I should take
accordion lessons. Uh, and why they would have gave me
sign when they they? I think, you know the joke

(09:02):
answers that they realized that according music was going to
take over Western civilization. But but really, I think they
honestly thought that, uh, it would make me more popular
because you know, when you played the accordion, you're a
one man band. You're the life of any party, you know,
something that they were right in their own weird way.

(09:24):
I mean, you're there's no one in this world that
does not know who you are. So it's like it
was actually, uh kind of a stroke of luck that
they decided on such a dorky instrument. Because Dr Demento
the Distructions really started my career. He says that, um,
you know, when he got my first tape in the mail.
He said, if it was some teenage kid playing the
guitar and doing those same songs, he wouldn't have given

(09:45):
it a second thought. But because there was this teenage
kid playing the accordion and somehow thinking he was cool,
he said, well, that's the novelty. That's where it's sam aretime.
So can you right now for us how the accordion works,
like as an instrument, like how physically weeks? Yeah, how
physically works and how you read the music does? It
is like a piano. The right hand part is like

(10:06):
a piano. Talking about piano accordions, there are different kind accordions,
but that's the one I use. So the right hand
part is exactly like a piano, and the left hand
part is buttons. Uh. Their accordings have different numbers of buttons.
One twenty is like the standard one. The top two
rows are basses and all the rest are chords. Like
the next row of chords is major chords, then minor
chords and seventh chords and then diminished chords. And there's

(10:29):
a lot of repeat buttons because you don't want to
have to like do one button on one side of
the accordion. Then immediately go, you know, um, so just
it's just, you know, looking back on it, it's kind
of a hard instrument to learn. And I figured out
because my I gave my daughter accordion lessons, like a
few years ago, she out of the blues decided she
wanted to play the accordion, which you know, I have
to say that so they don't send me to send

(10:51):
her to child Protective Services. And we got her a
little accordion and I taught her some Christmas songs and
she lost interests after couple months, but but she actually
you can play a few songs. Is there a left
handed accordion for those that whose lead hand is there left?
You mean to play like the keys on the left hand?
You know, that's a really good question. I don't know.

(11:13):
I mean, maybe you could play it upside down. I've
never seen that done though. That that's I have no idea,
But I don't know. Are you related to now? There
was a clip when you first came to UH Tonight
Show to sitting with us and we did this extended
polka jam and it was based on a Yankovic who
was Frankie Yankovic. Yeah, are you related to him? Not?

(11:36):
Not not not as far as I can figure. I mean,
I maybe several generations, like I'm sure we're all we're
all native somehow, but but no direct relation. But that
might have been another reason why my parents decided I
should take take according lessons, because there was already America's
polka king, Frankie Yankovic, and they thought, oh, there should
be at least one more accordion playing Yankovic in the world.

(11:56):
That's tight. So I I actually, uh, I met Frankie
passed away some time ago, but I actually got to
bring him out to l A and uh feature him
in a TV special called Weird Al's Guide to the
Grammys because polka was a category for the first time
that year. Sometime in the late eighties, I guess, and
we did a whole thing where we, you know, gave
him a fake star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

(12:16):
and we did a poolside interview, We did a whole
Frankie goes to Hollywood. Um. So growing up or at
least being a teenager, um and the seventies and on
on the dawning of Disco. Uh, how are you able
to have a high school existence? Uh, it's sort of

(12:42):
like you know with band practice and that sort of
thing with the according like where you starting bands and
those things. I tried, uh, and for some reason, none
of my friends that had bands felt the need for
an accordion player. I don't know why. I just I
found out early on that if if I really wanted
to to play the accordion, I could either you know,

(13:02):
play for bar Mitza's and Italian weddings, or it could
go my own way. And I was always drawn toward
the bazaar and comedy and and when I was exposed
to Dr Demento, that really kind of opened the door
from me because I thought, oh, well, these are my people.
So with well, I want to know, like right before
Dr Demento, like where you could you play any other

(13:24):
instrument or not? Not really? I mean, you know, when
when you play the accordion, that means you can also
play the piano, of course, but uh so so technically
I could, but my right hand is very used to
keys and my left hand is not. So to this day,
if I'm playing piano, I'm you know, my left hand
is just uh, either I'm playing some very rudimentary lines

(13:45):
or I'm waving to the crowd. That is weird, so
explainingly the Doctor Demento connection and seventy s with you
given him um when I when I actually gave him
a tape. He Dr Demento came my high school oddly enough, uh,
and was doing a doing an assembly he sometimes he
signed a show where he he does you know, does

(14:07):
an educational assembly of of comedy and and and demented music.
And uh he happened to be at Linewood High School
and I at the same time, he was doing a
contest called uh some some contest for the for Pico
and Sapulvoto, which is his theme song, and people were
sending in their own versions of the picol but Pico
wanta Paulo Pico on Sapaulboa and Uh, I did my

(14:29):
own horrible version of it and gave him the cassette
tape in person, and he I think he promptly lost it.
It was terrible and I never made it to air.
But that was my first contact with him, and since
then I would send him stuff in the mail and uh.
Eventually it got good enough that he started playing them
on the radio. But when I first started, I was
like thirteen years old. They were I mean even the

(14:50):
stuff he played was horrible, but before that they were
extra horrible. Were these originals or did you even start
the world of parody? Even like I in front of
it was a little bit of both. I mean, peakle
Wi pulled it with my cover. But yeah, the first
songs I sent him, it was a combination of originals
and uh and uh and parodies, but none of none

(15:12):
of it had much of a rock field to it,
because you know, I was used to my classical training
on the accordion was was Polka's and and some classical pieces,
so I didn't I really kind of got into playing
rock on the accordion by just playing along with my
Elton John records and things like that, just trying to
figure out like rock cord structures. Okay, So the first
time I've heard of you was I think another One

(15:34):
Rides the Bus and it was like eight one like
someone It was. The actual date that we did that
was September fourteenth, nineteen eighty, which was it was a
live performance because we never rerecorded that. We I just
played it live on the Doctor Demento Show and he
happened that was it. It was live on the show
and he just happened to turn the tape recorder run

(15:54):
for for an air check, and that air check of
that live recording that is the master tape. To this day,
you still have that the original tape. I would assume
Dr Demento has it, but I mean it, it sounds
just like you know what's on the record. Is he
still still left? He is. Yeah, he's not on terrestrial
radio anymore, but he is still doing a weekly show
at Doctor Demento dot com. So he's still doing the same, same,

(16:17):
same show. Okay, So your initial rhythm section kind of
had this fart noisy thing that I always be obsessed with.
That started, you know, every kid has an obsession with farting,
But it was when I heard another one rise the
bust and I started like like trying to do fart right.
First of all, who's making that noise? And then who's

(16:39):
how do you that that is musical? Mike Kieffer Mike
Kieffer has been part of the Doctor Meno show for
many years and he is the technical term as manualist,
a person that makes those flatulent noises with his hands
and that, and I used him a lot. I used
him a lot for the first few albums. Not so
much in later albums, but it was quite a process
because he would have to make a it was a

(17:01):
whole process to record that in the studio. First, he'd
have to wash his hands very thoroughly because they couldn't
be at all greasy. They had to be super squeaky
clean dry. And then we use two microphones because when
he puts his hands together, one noise would come out
of the top of the hands and one noise would
come out of the bottom of the hands, so we
get real actual stereo separation. Yeah, no, right, no, uh So,

(17:32):
how did you, well, I know that, uh was my
balloon on the B side, I'm not certain, but how
did you how did you get to the next level
from just like making this stuff for DOTR Demento and
then like there's labels out there. My balloon was the
year before that was recorded literally in a bathroom. Uh
and the northern right of the bus and then and

(17:53):
that was still while I was in college. I was
getting my degree in architecture at the time, uh the
California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. And uh so,
and after I graduated, basically I knew that I didn't
want to be an architect. I wasn't sure that I'd
ever be able to make a career in the music
industry because just because you have a hit on the
Doctor Manto Show, that doesn't really mean anything in the

(18:16):
real world. But I decided, well, you know, I'm young,
and uh, I've I've got some time, and let me
knock on a few doors. And uh, luckily, within a
couple of years, I was able to rent land a
record deal. So based on the early recordings and some
new demos that I had done, I did, um, I
love Rocky Road for I love rock and roll, and
and based on that, we were able to land Rick
Darriner as a producer and uh A Scotti Brothers as

(18:37):
a record label, and that we did the first album.
UM did Okay, it didn't bring up the chart, but
it did fine. It wasn't it did well enough to
merrit me doing a second album. And the second album, yeah,
that's white happened. Yeah, But even even then, what was
the selling point that you know, like this is were

(19:00):
you trying to say look as a comedian? Were each
trying to be build as a comedian or you know,
or just I you know, I wasn't so much into labels,
but uh uh, you know, I I was going for grins.
It was obviously a comedy act. It was meant to be,
meant to mean novelty, and that that was the reason
why it was hard for me to get signed to

(19:20):
a record deal, because we you know, we know, we
we approached basically every record store and a record company
in town and uh record stores too, but I record
Commedy in town, and and they all said, oh, this
is really funny stuff, this is brilliant work. Yeah, we're
not interested. This is novelty. You're gonna be like you know,
if you're lucky, you'll be a footnote, you'll be gone
in six months. So we want, we want artists. You're

(19:41):
gonna have at Yeah. So within three d did you
think like, Okay, this is gonna be my one and
the only album? And well, I mean it was sort
of uh, you know, you never know, because when I
was signed, it was I was signed to a ten
album deal. And that does that doesn't mean oh I'm
gonna do ten albums. That means on the extremely off

(20:01):
chance that I'm successful enough to have ten albums, yeah, yeah,
yeah they can, right, So you never know, you never know. Um,
And my first album, like I said, did okay but
not great. And you know every album could have about
my last, so you always have that in mind. But
after Edic came out, after In three D came out
and and it did so well, I was pretty sure

(20:22):
there will give me another album after that? Can you
explain to us just uh, I guess the legal way
that you're able to do the parody? What's the line
between parody and you know, fringement? Yeah, Like, how do
you how do you navigate that? I always try to
go a little above and beyond because, according to the
Supreme Court rulings, uh, fair use would imply that I

(20:43):
could get away with a lot more than I do. Uh.
You know, in terms of parody and satire, I don't
necessarily have to ask permission, but I always do because
part of my logic is that I want to have
long term relationships with all the artists that I'm parodying,
and I want to really honestly want them to feel
like they and on the joke. I don't want anybody
to be upset or offended that I'm doing a parody

(21:03):
of one of their songs. It's all making good fun
and I want them, you know, I don't want to
step on anybody's toes. So then with the parody works
that you make, Um, how is the publishing split between
is it you or is it all? It's? Um, I'll
tell you it's It's literally a different case every time
every single one is negotiated. I would say, by and large,

(21:24):
the standard deal is the original artist keeps all the publishing,
and well, well we split the writer. Okayah, I mean
I'd love to get some of the publishing, but people
are very low through. I'll give that up. Well damn,
we already rushed to your nose versus your yeses. And
I guess your most famous no was Prince. But yeah,

(21:48):
first of all, I want to know what song did
you try? The parody of prints? And then what's the
what's the asking process? Uh? Well, uh, about a half
a dozen songs that I approached Prince for. One of
them was going to be in my movie, uh uh
like which was Let's Let's Go Crazy, but with the
lyrics of the Beverly Hillbiliefs theme song. Oh it would

(22:20):
have been fun. Uh there, I wanted to do that
about like a Mr Ron Pope peel kind of like
ad for like you can buy this for nine, you know,
and they were like a half a doesn't like that
that I wanted to try, but you can now said no, no, no,
they welcome down. You know, the princess is going to
change his mind. Now, that's the thing, you know. And

(22:42):
but you know, I respect the artist's wishes, you know,
so you want even if it doesn't matter what the
state says. No, I mean, you know he would that
he were not their wishes. I'm concerned that his prince's
wishes and you know, good man, but please demo it.

(23:03):
There's no need to do a demo for a parody
because you know how it goes, right. I mean, you
didn't do a full scale I did not, you know,
for a lot of songs. I don't even write any
lyrics until I get permission because it's really a bummer
do hard. Yeah, because I spent some times, like weeks
on a single song and to go through all that
effort and then to go I don't really like parodies,

(23:24):
you know, that's a heart break. So how far did
you get to the point of asking can I do
a parody? Or asking can I do a parody? Of
and this is what we always we always picked up
specific ideas, so we always say, we want to do
parody of this song, and here's the general idea. I
don't know where I heard from. I think someone had
asked him a question about it and he he said
something like actually I like him or whatever. But it wasn't.

(23:46):
It wasn't an eye world or like a no my
song is, but the the only thing I've I've I've
heard I've heard audio of him talking about my fat video.
Maybe he said something else best I've heard any you
like that at the time, So what do you say?
He it was, it was a rehearsal tape and um,
he's basically asking the band if they saw the video
for Fat and he's like talking about him in the

(24:08):
fat suit, and he's just like cracking up the entire
time he's saw in the story, it's pretty great. That
would have been encouraging. Yeah, that would have been damn man,
Now you would have killed n key. Think of the
other Prince songs that, um, those were my favorites. I
think I think there was something with when when Doves
Cry like I think like a fast fruit, a fast

(24:28):
food guy. One spuds fry or something like that. Another
food song, another food song? How do how do? How
do ideas come to you? Like? Do you have these
dictaphones on standby or you know, like just when moments
like well, in the in the very beginning, it was
just like, whatever stupid idea came to I had to go, oh,

(24:50):
I'll go with that. But after I started getting some
success and realizing people actually, you know, care about what
I do and a lot of people will obsess her.
But I think, well, I should put some more effort
into the us. So now, whenever I find a song
that I think has a potential for parody, um, I'll
think of like a hundred ideas for it. I'll think
of every variation on the thing I possibly can. I'm

(25:10):
very analytical about it. I'll go down the list and
and try to see which of those ideas have any
comedic potential and would be able to sustain comedy for
for three or three and a half minutes. Uh, And
sometimes none of them do. I mean, sometimes they're all
bad ideas, but if I'm lucky, one will will stand out.
So are you obsessively reading Billboard and uh listening to music?

(25:32):
And I I certainly used to. I haven't been that
obsessive in the last couple of years. I'm kind of
kind of slowing down a little bit. I'm looking at
at other projects. But but and in the thick of it,
when I'm actively trying to uh figure out what are
the parodies, Yeah, I'm listening to a top forty radio
and and and definitely studying Billboard. Well, I was gonna say, like,
you know, there's there's always as a musician and as

(25:55):
a music fan. Um, there's a point in life where
you're actually gay aged in contemporary music culture, and then
there's a point where you're like you feel like I
hate music or not I hate music, but it's well,
I'll tell you, you know, I like Top forty music.
I like that, but uh, you know it's not my
first choice. I mean, if I could listen to any

(26:17):
radio station, I wouldn't automatically listen to the top you know.
So whenever I was it wasn't that I was not
enjoying it, but I kind of felt like I was
on the clock, you know, I was working. Yeah, I
was gonna say, it doesn't make it harder for you now,
Like if you hear something insanely popular as bad Em
Booze or Bodac Yellow. And you're like, Okay, I know

(26:39):
this is this can be an instant viral moment for me.
But am I really and mostly invested to it would
be interesting, that would be interesting weird out here? Yeah, well,
I'll consider all that they both was. However, you said
they're both are parodies. That's next. What's what's your actual

(27:03):
favorite type of music, like when you're just at home,
mostly like Viking songs and whaling music, you know, thank you?
Like thirteenth century stuff. Wow, like contemporary that stuff still
better than pop music today. So that's when music was good. Yeah,

(27:27):
Like I I don't particularly engage in the music that
I make a living in, but you know, I mean
from driving a car, I've read listening to jazz and
something completely opposite or at least to get inspired. So
I find I listened a lot to the music that
I was listening to in high school and college. I
sort of like my comfort food of music and sort
of like, oh, that's what I'm asking you. What what

(27:48):
kind of stuff is that? You know? It's um, a
lot of British invasion stuff, a lot of singer songwriters
stuff from the seventies. Uh, like a lot of you know,
the kind of the garage bands from the nineties kind
of thing. Um, the grunge movement, A lot of artists
that are not necessarily comedy or novelty, but have a
sense of humor and you know, alternative stuff. And what

(28:10):
about your record collection? You still have your record collection
from when you're a teenager and all that. You know,
I should have held onto all my vinyls. My my
wife talked me and do a we got the CD like,
but it's but I, but I, but I want to
stay married. So damn yeah, they take up space. Sorry,

(28:37):
um so on me, I guess the opposite side of
the fence. We wait before I get to even get
to Michael Jackson. Um, how important is it to you too,
sort of nurture relationships, because I find that often times, Uh,
if you go the traditional business route, Okay, I'm gonna parody,

(29:00):
I'm gonna do something on Rod Stewart, and then your
manager caused their manager, the label calls it the label.
Then usually it's like some red tape ship and it
never happens. But you know, if you happened to be
friends with Rod Stewart, and you're like, look, I'm a
really cool idea. Oh yeah, I'll be honest for you
to be you know that that happens a lot, you know,
because sometimes it's just hard to get through to another artist.

(29:20):
So if I ever have a direct connection, and I've
used that several times, I mean that was I did
that with Kurt Cobain, like you know, um, you know,
my manager couldn't get through to his uh you know,
their manager. And finally, you know, I knew somebody of
Saturday Night Live and they were performing that dan. I said,
could you please get Kurt on the phone and I
got to talk to him directly. Uh that easy, well basically,

(29:41):
and then I told my manager and I said, Kurt's
fine with it. And then then his manager could call back.
Their managers say, um, Kurt fine, how did you pitch
Kurt Cobain? Uh well, this is a famous story. I
talked him on the phone and um, this is their
first time on Saturday Night Live. I'm not sure if
he was in his right mind, but I was talking
on the phone and I said, Hey, curtis so weird
Al Yankovic and I wanted to do I want to

(30:03):
do a parody of your song. Uh that smells like
teen spirit and he goes, oh, that's cool. And then
there's a kind of a pause and he goes, is
it going to be about food? He's a fan, yeah,
And I said, well, no, that's actually about how nobody
can understand your lyrics. And he goes, oh, sure, that's
funny that He was a very cool guy. He actually
wrote some very nice things about me and his journals, remember,

(30:25):
and they published the Kurkovan Journals. He wrote a well
humble bragg here, but you're uh weird. Al Yankovic is
a modern rock genius. In his you are I mean no, no,
you are, so you don't eat it. And at the

(30:48):
height of Michael Mania, I would think that it was
actually easier to uh get permission from Prince at that
time than Michael Jackson. That was then Michael's like one
of your most accommodating That was a real shot in
the dark because you know, at the at that time,
I certainly wasn't any you know, kind of household name
of just this weird kid from l A that was

(31:09):
making these stupid records, and we thought, oh, maybe Michael
Jackson will sign off on. There was like ha ha ha.
But we got were mantra was you know, it never
hurts to ask, you know what's gonna do? Say no?
So we put it out there and uh, I forgot,
I forget how long it took. But was it a
face to face thing or no? No, no. I I
got to meet Michael after the pack a couple of times,
but at the time it was it was just sort
of like, Okay, Michael signed off on it, and there

(31:31):
is a contract I've I've got a copy of it
with my signature next to Michael Jackson's signature saying that
we are the co writers of Eat It. That is cool, um,
which by the way, was one of the first records
I ever owned. Yeah. So, uh, Scotti brothers, were they
seeing Dallas signs as in like let's do the video

(31:53):
full scale? Or you know, how did you convince them
to Well they had either tiger and money by this point,
did they not survivor Yeah, so they had that, didn't
you do? I think you did? Uh yeah, very yeah
I did that in the second album as well. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
they're happy about that. Yeah. I think that was probably
the same studio the Originals recorded in. So that was nice. Um. Yeah.

(32:17):
And they also had James Brown. Yeah, they had the
it was the unreal Yeah yeah. I got to support
those Scotti Brothers artists. You know, Dan Harmon was happier
than yeah. Yeah. So, uh, who's what was the brain child?

(32:40):
Uh kind of genesis of the video to go full
scale on it? Well, that was you know, that was
that was in the days when people were obsessed with
MTV were you know, if if a video was on
heavy rotation, like Michael Jackson obviously was, you knew every
minute detail of the video and uh, it was very

(33:00):
neat a parody because all you had to do is
recreate it and just tweak things just a little bit
and it would be funny. And at the time, it
was my most uh you know, expensive video because my
first video costs like three thousand dollars and my record
label was like, oh great, We'll do all your videos
for three thousand dollars. Like no, no, no, no, hold on, um,
I think eat it at the time. My manager hates
when I talk money, but I'll tell you it cost

(33:21):
forty thousand dollars. And that was a video that was
at the time. That was Yeah, but I mean that
was the best forty dollars I've ever spent my life.
But how did you find the jacket? And how did
you get the jacket in any store? At the time
was four man. I was like, there're the Michael Jackson
had on and all that that was the piano t
We had to have an art director cook up for us.

(33:44):
But then, yeah, the jack was just off the rack.
Like if you want to, you know, pay whatever. It
was six hundred dollars to get a leather Michael Jackson
jacket that could be had. Who directed? Who do you
know who directed the video? I do? That was my
manager j Levwhere. Yeah, he was making his directorial debut.
I mean I story boarded it out and figured out
the shots and then I said, here, j you deal

(34:04):
with this. I was impressed that you had Chryls song
in the video, the long haired Asian woman from Soul Train.
Oh yeah, who her hair head comes off whatever it
was that wasn't it was Michael was actual head. No? No, no,

(34:25):
I'm starting to thinking if you got Michael Peters, we didn't. Yeah,
is that a name? No, Michael Peters was the choreographer, well,
one of the choreogra persons, and what was it Gosh,
I'm going to blank his name? Was it sounds like Peterson?
He was the original white jacket. Yeah, he was the
original guy. Yeah that Michael Michael Peters. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's him. That was him. How we asked him, he said, Okay, damn,

(34:49):
how much is the original beat at video cost? I'll think, um,
I think, well, I know Billy Jean was six, it
was still under a hundred thous was it really? Wow?
Yeah it was under yeah, I mean thrill it was
a million, but I know Billy Jean was sixty five
and and bet it was like eighty five under yeah,

(35:12):
like slightly on the Yeah, we we had to recreate
the barroom scene and if you had the thing, we
look for the original locations. But it was all uh
they all yeah, that was just a set on stage. Man.
Congrats on the details. Man. Um. Actually, my favorite um

(35:34):
thing about your repertoire is your polka me at least,
and I'll say that the first time that I saw you,
not on Solid Gold or UM or MTV, uh the
Tonight show, I don't know if you did you did
you did? Yeah? Ye dog, that was the most jaw dropping.

(36:00):
That's when I started buying your albums, like back when
you're just a weird out guy and like oh the
eaty guy whatever, you know. Um, but when I saw
that that was fun. I remember that we had to
have the actual Tonight Show band playing the horn section
behind the theaetta on all the charts. Yeah. So that's
the thing, like you're not just the parody guy, like

(36:22):
you're these arrangements and and just the clever nuances of
like how you do on a volutely heart with the
clarinet stuff. Are you notating this stuff on on scoring
it or oh yeah absolutely. I mean now I use
notations software, but at the back, back then in the day,
I just would print out uh, you know, I wouldn't

(36:45):
even print out. I'd use the you know, the staffs
and just write it with the with pencil right on there. Okay,
you can help me and Steve out on this because
I'm so okay when you do uh the bang your
head bang, you're yeah, okay. The what is the the
horn hunk? That's what is that called? We we were

(37:08):
looking for it for at least a half hour. It's
a huh that's called a bulb horn. So it has
a rubber. The rubber the rubber thing. I was going
through everything, like every tie man. I couldn't google like
I was. I was God, I was looking for her

(37:32):
for the longest. And but that sounds pretty good. I
mean that really sounds. Really did that that actually sounded
And they're small. There's different sized ones too. Yeah, obviously
don't a big one because I was gonna go full
scale with the theme and do the sound effects. But

(37:52):
I wasted. It was a half hour. It was four
in the morning. It was like going through every horn me. Man, Yeah,
you know, I have a question before you move on.
You're moving on from eat it, um, so onun eat it.
Even though it is a parody song, it seemed like
you were taking the acting, in the choreography and everything

(38:15):
real seriously. And I was wondering. I was wondering, how
long it took you to uh to um, you know,
um put on all that weight to the part you
think the fact Now that was a different video. I'll
get back to when we're talking about fat. Yes, all right,
let's go to Derby. I was trying to a joke

(38:36):
that you actually gained the weight. But I had a
few salads and I hit the ball. No, I'm not
hitting the bullhorn, but if that's supposed to be when
I say something, actually, that's when someone tells me it

(39:00):
was was there to be stupid? Your first national tour?
I think I think that there. We did a national
tour in eighty four, which is kind of funny because
my first tour is eighty three. It was very small tour,
and I think in eighty four I went out with
Doctor Demento as his opening act um and it started
with like Doctor Mendo featuring Weird All Yankovic, and the

(39:21):
tour started before ed it came out and we're on
the road and eat It comes out and it zooms
in the top twenty, and in the middle of the
tour it became the tour became weird. Wait was this
so uh syndicated? It was nationally syndicated. Yeah. Really. He
did a live show at KMT in Los Angeles and
then he did a separate show syndicated out of Westwood One,

(39:44):
which went to I forget how many markets, but but
all over the country. Okay, so was there? I mean
after just talk about the pressure of life after you
eat it, well, you became known as the eating guy. Right, Um,
how did one how did life change? I think I
saw a raw footage of you even at the Purple

(40:05):
Rain premiere, right, was that was that a star moment
for you? It's it's like Eddie Murphy came in, then
Marri's Day, then Weird at Yankovic and you have this
whole like I'm just happy to be here. I think
I said, yeah, everybody knew Prince could act, but who
knew he could sing? So how how how different was

(40:29):
life after? Because you you captured lightning in the bottle
like even you know your video made Soul Train. Oh yeah,
that was my favorite introduction donors is and now this
is the closest that we will ever get to Michael Jackson,
this is Weird Yankovic and oh man, I was like, wow,
weird hours on sould Train. That's amazing. Well, I mean

(40:52):
the biggest change was that, uh it was really in
the truest sense of the word overnight fame. I mean
you hear about overnight things like that, and uh, it
really was overnight. I mean that the day that uh
eat it went into heavy rotation on MTV, which is
several times a day. You know, people were recognizing me
on the streets. I'd be in the line of a
fast food restaurant and people will be staring at me

(41:12):
like this is odd, this has not happened before. Uh
And yeah, all of a sudden, I was the eating
guy and that its It just changed in an instant.
Would you look like weird Al Yankovic even off duty?
Like were you always in Hawaiian shirts? Yeah? I've always
liked wine truth, but certainly, certainly after I've gained some notoriety,
I kind of dressed down a bit more in public.

(41:32):
I try it to be too louder garish, started wearing
hats and never I never you know, went into the
big disguises because then people like, what's weird all doing
wearing like a dark hat and dark glass? Wow? Uh So,
how how our heart was it adjusting to a follow

(41:54):
up record? Like was it is there such a thing
as uh writer's black four, you know for doing parody records?
Or yeah? I mean every every album I started out
with writer's block because like, oh, what I'm gonna do now,
Like because like, you know, you don't want to keep
repeating yourself and uh, you know you want to still
be funny, and but you don't want to like kind

(42:15):
of rely on the same tropes and memes and devices
that you use before. You want to try to find
different ways to be funny. And but how is it
that you don't want to be pigeonholed as the comedian
parody guy when you're the comedian parody guy. Well, I'm
not saying I didn't want to be the comedian parody guy.
I mean, I knew that parodies ruining bread and butter
when I enjoyed doing them, and I wasn't. I wasn't
trying to get away from that. I just didn't want to,

(42:35):
Like you know, uh, it kind of horrified me when
my record label put out a compilation called the Food Album.
Here's All Elsehood, Maybe I should write so many songs
about food, you know, I was gonna say, where they
coming to you? Like okay, and like, you know, do
more you know food songs? Well, no, they're they were
basically you know the thing about Scotti brothers. They were
wonderful to me, but every fourth quarter they'd go, you know,

(42:57):
we could really use some money for a bottom line,
gonna put out of compilation album like really another one,
you know, like here's all of owl songs that begin
with the letter R like that already so soon, there's
like two records in you already, but I'll tell you
after two records, I don't think they weren't talking about
the greatest pitch after two records, but they were saying like,

(43:18):
how about a Christmas album? Like really, I don't think so. No.
You know, they're looking for any way to quickly cash
in because they didn't know that I'd still be around,
you know, you know thirty years later. They were thinking like, okay,
you know, here's our cash car. Let's milk it right.
So on the opposite side of the uh fince uh,
we're there artists now giving you elevator pitches on how

(43:44):
to turn their songs into weird alse songs. By this point,
and I won't mention any names. It hasn't happened. No, no, no, no,
I don't mean somelaces. But well, I've had people more
more often more than giving me pitch. They would say
like when you're gonna get right of doing on one
of my songs, and it's almost like a sound like
you made it when yeah, yeah, if he covers and

(44:05):
stuff like yeah, you officially arrived. Yeah. I think when
I met Paul McCartney for the first time. He off
handedly said that I think he was kind of joking,
but still, you know, it kind of blew my mind.
Did he tell you the scrambled league story? Nobody know
that one? Okay, I was, I was the first original
for Yesterday. Yeah, that was the original lyrics, right, yeah,
scrambled eggs, um baby, hell, I love your legs whatever.

(44:31):
So I know that the Dare to Be Stupid tour
For anyone that I know that into you, that was
I really truly wish i'd seen this tour. That's yeah,
But no, I know, like tend other people, they're like,
you know, the Dare to Be Stupid to like, what
exactly happened doing this tour that just changed these people's lives. Sure,

(44:52):
I mean every every tour got bigger and better. Up
until then, I kind of felt kind of green, and
I think it kind of all clicked in the place
on Dare to Be Stupid cause I've in some uh
YouTube videos of me and concert versus five, and there's
definitely something that happened to make happened to my confidence
between those two years, because eighty four I just seem
a little mannic and desperate and in eight five I

(45:13):
kind of you know, feel like, Okay, I know what
I'm doing here. I go. Uh so there's probably something
to that. The uh, the performances just felt a little
bit more you know on point mm hmm um. Okay,
I want to go to Polka party and breakdown. You're

(45:34):
your harmony game on here's Johnny. No, it's it's it's
some serious shit like you, I know, you think that
like these small minuscule things are like over people's heads
or whatever. No, but it's it's really art to it,
like all about the minuscule things. How but you're your

(45:57):
self produced? Correct? Uh yeah, I am now with the
first six albums are Rick Deregers. So he was officially
producing at that time. Okay, do you I mean what
was the give and go of relationship on that? Was
he just like do what you do out and I'll
just well he wasn't that. It's like when you and
the movies like you know that sort of thing. Yeah,

(46:18):
I mean, I mean he was in charge of the sound.
I was walking with with the all the arrangements and
things like that, and you know, Rick wasn't saying we
should have clarinets here. It's sort of like you know,
that was that was my gig, and he would just
make sure that that he was sort of like the director.
He made sure that everything that I did sounded as
good as possible in the studio and matching, like for matching,
uh the patches and stuff like is that you are

(46:42):
you same? Yeah? Are you actively going after these like
same keyboards and the same drums and those sort of things?
And within reason? Yeah? I mean you know, Uh, oftentimes,
if we have access to the original band or the
original band members, will contact them and say, hey, what
were the pickups on that guitar or what did you
you know, use for this particular thing. Uh. Sometimes, especially

(47:03):
if it's a an odd sample, we'll try to figure
out where that came from and see if we can
license that as well. So, um, that's not all the time.
Sometimes we just wing it, but whenever we can, we
like to be as uh, you know, as official as possible.
Have you have you ever not blacked out but had
a great idea that you just couldn't make funny? You

(47:28):
you know, like you had a great title for lineal
Richies all night long, but you couldn't. I'm a pretty
good judge of knowing if an idea has potential, so
if it might be some some ideas might be funny
for like a throwaway gag, but they won't be, you know,
funny for three ments. So that and sometimes in concert
I would do a medley of those kind of songs

(47:49):
where like there's basically just one gag to it, like oh,
here she comes, she's a spam eater, thank you, good night,
you know, and and that's sort of like there's really
not a whole lot more to say after that. So, um,
all the ones that I winded making the parodies, I think, Okay,
well I can I can build on this, I can
put layers to this, and there's there's a direction to go.
It's not just like a one joke thing. How many

(48:13):
were these the Grammys that you want? Were they for
comedy recordings or for polka or they were comedy? Um,
they were different ones though. The first one was for
comedy recording and that was an odd category because it
was singles competing against albums, which it seems like Apple
in Orgines to me. But that's how they did it
back the way. Yeah, because they eat it one, they

(48:34):
eat it single and one against like Rodney Dangerfields album,
Murphy's album, like how do how do you really do?
Beat Murphy? I think I might have Sorry, it depends,
how could it be? Yeah? That was a comedy record,

(48:55):
uh than eighty. The next one is eight eight, And
that was for Concept Music Video, which was a category
that I think only lasted a few years. But but
I want that for fat for Best Concept Music Video.
I'm not exactly what that means, but I got to
win the Grammy. Then I won for Best Comedy Album
for Poodle Hat in two thousand and three, and for
Mandatory Fun a couple of years ago. Um we here

(49:18):
did UHF come out? Okay, so that's after even worse.
Um yeah, I was about to say by this point,
where other avenues calling you to do certain things as
far as like television, Well, well since you brought that up,
you know, I had to make a very hard call

(49:39):
talking about UHF. Uh the summer the summer of night
is when we were scheduled to shoot my movie UHF.
And that was also when Michael Jackson wanted me to
open format as of your Pan tour. Wait what what?
Yeah we got he was really a fan of yours. Yeah, yeah,

(49:59):
he liked it. He liked the whole thing. I mean
past like I'm really flat about my music. I mean
like did he buy your records? And did he laugh
at he? Um? He tells me he used to show
uh F at the Neverland Ranch to his guests. He
told me, Um, Well, when we did the Fat video,
that was actually Michael Jackson set. He actually let us
use his set to shoot that video. You went to

(50:20):
Hoyton skimmer Horn. And now that's because it was great
because that that set was built in Culver City and
it was for the kids. Remember he did like the
Baby Bad Windy did the Moon video, So the set
was like a nine ten scale to make the kids
look a little bigger. But also great for the Fat
video because I made the fat. Yeah, so both set. Yeah,

(50:42):
wait a minute, because we knew the set was still
there and they're about to tear it down and we're
like no, no, no, don't tear down. We want to
use it. And they're like okay, cool wa um. Old
boy from House Party made me some great Washington Yeah
ding dong man. Yeah, Loudy was great. He was also

(51:04):
in the in uh F. In the movie, he played
the cameraman of that really yeah, oh man, Uh so
funny Loudy Washington. Yeah, you don't remember from the Robert
Towns and Specia, but I didn't. You guys, you two
are the we read credits and we read the line
of notes that sort of thing. Um, were you hesitant

(51:27):
to revisit Michael Jackson a second time around or was
it just too irresistible a little bit? I mean it
was sort of low hanging fruit. But at the same time,
it's sort of like Michael Jackson was so you know,
I'm the president and the eighties it was sort of like,
you know, how could you not do Michael If I
didn't do you know, a parody on Bad, people are like,
how can we're not doing badun Bad? It's sort of

(51:47):
like and and that was one of those cases where, uh,
you know, like I said, usually I think like a
hundred different variations on the theme and I like analyze
it to death. But I remember the first time I
saw the Bad video, saw the world premiere, uh, and
before the video is even over, and I said, I'm
doing fat. It's gotta be fat'na, like like you're gonna
dose huge people trying to get through a turnstyle and

(52:09):
they can't quite get through. It's gonna be great. I
must have been watching you must have been watching world
premiere videos back then. I had to stay on top
of the zeitgeif so, as far as turnaround is concerned, Like,

(52:29):
it's the same that the Internet wasn't around back in
the eighties for you to turn things over in record times.
So for you, was there uh sort of an expiration
date on ideas like I have to have this out
within the next four months or yeah, I mean, I mean,
because it's like a two month turnaround between like having

(52:51):
uh the master done and having a record of stores.
And they sometimes they can if they really want to,
they can bump it a couple of weeks, but it's
still like certainly more than a month. Uh. And that's
if you have an album done, like if I have
if I want to do a parody, and the album's
like not even close to being finished, it's like, well,
this isn't gonna come out for several months, which is
why I generally, you know, the way I usually do

(53:13):
it is I record an entire album except for one track,
and I wait for what I received to be like, yeah,
the big one, Like here's the big single. Here's the
big video. But and the rest of the album is
just sort of like in the Can waiting to go. Oh,
so all the other non parody ideas get right right
uh and and hopefully those those are all songs that uh,
you know, uh, people will still remember and they'll still

(53:35):
be funny. But but back then, the things have changed nowadays,
But back then it really was all about here's a
single driving the album because you know, uh, regardless of
whether radio got behind it, MTV would would play it.
And you know, if if you had a big hit
on MTV, you had a big hit album, what in
your concert? What is your unlikely? Uh? How gonna see this?

(53:59):
You're a free bird? What's the what's the non single?
There was one song that we actually did on the
show that I was shocked that Jimmy, because I wanted
to do uh hooked on poker um. But then thankfully
I realized that song was way too complex for Stephen

(54:21):
to even conquer it. But I forgot the it's a
slow song that's on uh either someone drowned Now I
got to look it up. But um, it's a ballad. Yeah,
it's a ballad. Is a uh you don't love me anymore. No, No,
it's hang on. It's definitely on dare to be Stupid?

(54:52):
But has this sort of twisted not is it a parody? No? No, no,
no it isn't. It's Oh god, I hate this moment
having a brain for it because we rehearsed it in
the we did it as a Internet extra song. Oh
you mean good old Days? Oh that was off of

(55:12):
even worse. Okay, yeah, good? Like what is what is
your your free bird? When people are yelling like, what's
a fan favorite? Um, there's not just like one song.
I mean there's not like one song everybody's into. There's
like a half a dozen parodies that that are sort
of like the big hits that people basically come to expect.
Uh in terms of original songs. Um, I think probably

(55:35):
the biggest fan favorite is there to be Stupid. And
that's maybe partly because he was used in the original
Transformers movie and people have affection for that. Yeah, um,
so for you, uh, I guess as well. I want

(55:56):
to get to the Jolios scenario. I was gonna say,
besides COOLi, or was there anyone that had indifference to
the to a cover that they previously approved but then
they didn't like or not really. I mean I've never
after somebody's approved the parody. I've never heard back afterwards

(56:18):
that they were disappointed. I think, well that I heard
on behind the music, I think Flee was like not
that thrilled with the red hot chili peppers. Pretty was
like yeah it was okay, I forgot about that. It
was about the funt stones Yea, I love that. Yeah
he didn't, he didn't, Just like it was. It's sort
of like a math. Yeah, but you know, I mean,

(56:41):
once you're covered, then you're you know, you're mortalized, you're
super immortalized. Um so for you, what is what's the
daily preparation of your band and your tour and that
sort of thing, like, well there's no like, you know,

(57:01):
typical day, you know, my my life at home, in
my life on the road or completely different realities and
uh uh. When I'm on tour, I basically try not
to use my voice up I can help it, because
I've gotten laryngitis and totally lost my voice on tour before,
and that's not pleasant because if you lose your voice,
I mean really, the only cure is not talking for

(57:21):
a week, and you can't do that if you have
to do a two hour show every night. Um, so
I I I'm very careful, uh you know, status air conditioning, status,
smoky rooms. I just try to use my voices and
frequently as possible. So basically, after the show, I'll go
back to the bus. Uh you know, probably served the
internet for a few hours. And then when I wake up,

(57:43):
we're already probably to the next city, and I just, uh,
you know, try not to talk until the sound check.
So do you turn off the air conditioning on stage? No? No, no, no, no,
that's well. Now, I don't want to make the whole
world uncomfortable. I just just the back of the bus. Okay,
let's see. Um, as far as your the ritual of um,

(58:13):
I'm having a brain fart moment right now, Um, can
you make that fart sound with you? No? The uh damn.
The as far as your your your your sets are
concerned and because I know now it's you do these
elaborate changes and all those things like how full scale

(58:36):
is are your concert performances? Well they they have been
very full scale. I mean I could love to get
you out to a show sometime, but it was you know,
it becomes sort of like almost like a like a
Broadway show in that there's costumes and props and uh,
everything was timed out to the second, like you know,
I do a big song with full costumes, and then
we play a video on a big screen on stage,

(58:57):
which is just long enough for us to run backstage
and do a costume change and come back up for
the next song. Um. So it's it's as much spectacle
in theater as we could put into a live show.
Having said that, the next tour, which is starting the
end of February, we're not doing any of that for
the first time. And you know, ever, we're going going
out and just just playing songs, no costumes, no props,

(59:19):
and we're playing the deep cuts we're playing, not playing
the hits. We're playing like, yeah, totally. It's called the
Ridiculously I'm gonna mess it up, Uh, the ridiculously self indulgent,
ill advised Vanity Tour, and and we're yeah, we're not
playing the hits, We're playing all the obscure you know,
deep cuts and and B sides and stuff that you'd

(59:40):
never expect us to play live. So and we're doing
a different show every single night, which is fun. For us,
because when we do the normal show, it has by
definition it has to be the same exact show because
it's all calculated. But the next tour is going to
be wildly different from night tonight. So when you're saying
no hits, so you won't be doing teen Spirit or
eat It or do still do eat It in concert?

(01:00:01):
Yeah yeah, not the whole song but part of a medley. Yeah, okay,
so it's just strictly the non parody things or yeah,
we might throw in a couple of surprises, but you
should definitely not come to the tour expecting to hear
the hits because it's really all about the stuff that
nobody wants to hear. I want to do an audience
displeasing show. Okay, well, I mean, well, I'm not saying

(01:00:24):
Costello did that, but he did thee Yeah that was
very cool. Yeah, my friend Um just told me to
do a cover of a radio radio. You know, we
do that whenever something screws up, which didn't happen hardly
at all in the last tour. But there were some
tours where um we were having problems with a computer server,

(01:00:45):
and the computer server you know, does the video and
it does whatever click tracks were using, and it's an
integral part of the show. And if there's a hiccup
or if something goes wrong, you know, it's a train wreck.
And sometimes when that happens, instead of just you know,
standing on stage stupidly, we go into radio radio like
Ladies and Gentlemen. There's no reason to play. I get it.

(01:01:07):
You don't change the words computer, just a straight version.
How extensive will the tour be? Uh, We're we're doing
like seventy five seventy six dates. Uh. The show Email
Phillips is opening for us, which is um, so he's
doing half an hour. My band is doing like ninety

(01:01:28):
minutes and uh, um, it's gonna be. I'm really looking
forward to it and I'll get to it. We want
to really intimate vibe. It's gonna be. I wanted to
be kind of like a hanging out in your living
room vibe, you know, like like everybody in the in
the audience just sort of in your living room. And
we're just kind of being very you know, casual and uh,
you know, spontaneous, because because my shows are not normally spontaneous,

(01:01:48):
I don't normally like chat with the audience, and so
I don't just want this one to And I have
a little lot sut of my comfort zone because I
like and annoying in advanced what I'm gonna say. But
I'm trying to break out of that and just you know,
just trying to try to hang. You're trying to challenge
itself a little bit. Is amiable? Um? Your tours? Is
it just national for the United States or it's a

(01:02:10):
world tour? Playing Canada? To have you ever done? Like,
how do you fare in other countries? Um? Canada? Very well?
Uh aw. Yeah, Australia is a good market for US.
We played there three or four times. Uh And and
pockets of Europe. We did a couple of small European

(01:02:32):
tours and and I definitely have some fans over there.
But but North America is really the main market. When
was the moment that you knew since you you dive
into so many genres like at this point you're a
treasure to all kinds of communities, all kinds of music.
Was there a moment when you knew it and you
felt it like, oh, I'm not like the other kids.
I can do this, I can do that, I can
go here. Like before my career like doing your career. Yeah,

(01:02:57):
because you I mean from hip hop to country to
good to to rock to grunge, and nobody says, no,
you don't belong here. Everybody is like he's ours. It's
hard to say. I mean I first kind of felt
the fame during the you know, the entreaty and eat
it days. But I don't think I really kind of
felt like the mass acceptance until about ten years ago,

(01:03:18):
because people kept waiting for me to go away, like, oh,
weird I was still hanging around what's he doing here?
Because everybody thought, you know, that I was just some
kind of phase that you know, people are gonna get
tired of, and and some people did. But I mean,
in general, I was able to maintain some symblance of
a career, uh since the early eighties, and and uh,
it wasn't until about ten years ago. People are like, oh,
I grew up with weird out Like really, okay Na, seriously,

(01:03:40):
this is like direct You were a direct link, much
like straight up like just everything um with when you
did the Amish Paradise. First though, where did that idea
come from? Well, it's funny, I was I was trying
to think of an idea for for for Gangsters Paradise

(01:04:03):
and uh and uh. When I as soon as the
thought Amish Paradise came into my mind, I thought the
idea was so good it made me depressed. I thought
it was that was perfect because like the Amish lifestyle
is is diametrically opposed to the gang of the lifestyle.
So to see Amish people acting like gangsters, I thought
was just hilarious and I thought I can definitely do this,

(01:04:25):
and it made me depressed because as soon as I
thought of that, I thought, Okay, the machine was gonna
you know, snap in action now and I have to
write it, and now I have to like book video time,
we have to like figure out the release date. And
I just saw my whole like next six months ahead
and be like, okay, we're doing this. Come on, whose
idea was it? I don't know who directed it. The
scene where all the sweat is pouring off your head

(01:04:46):
I directed the video, yeah, because because that was something
that I always noticed in the original singer l V
when he was sweating. And then to see I was like, yo,
he caught it to and Florence Henderson, yes, yes, was

(01:05:06):
she like your first Just what was the approach to
her and how did you get hurt of? In all truth,
we we did ask Michelle Pfiff for first because she
was uh, and then I obviously, uh, Florence Henderson gets
all the work that Michelle Pfife returns. So we went
to her second and she was amazing. She was like,
you know, she really was into it. She was like

(01:05:27):
sucking in her cheeks, like Michelle just really really going
for it. What was the what was the issue? What
was Coulio's probably the song? And how did that even
get to be a thing because did you have to
approve it from him first or did you have to
approach him first to Yeah, I mean, like I said,
I always get permission and unfortunately I'll never do this day. No,

(01:05:48):
really what happened because it's it's very he said, she
said kind of thing. My record label at the time
told me that they talked to Coulio and that he
okayed it. Uh. And then after the fact, Uh, you know,
Coolio made a public statements saying that he never approved
it and that he was essentially offended by it. And
it was it was horrible because you know, you know,
I like my track record of not upsetting anybody and

(01:06:10):
having good relationships. So that was uh and cool. He
was fined now, by the way, but there are a
number of years that there was you know, I don't
say bad blood, but you know I kind of kept
my distance so cool, I'll felt some type of way.
But TA he was cool. Yeah, no, he was great. Yeah,
tell me about the the TF hitchen. I'm sorry he
was over the roof because he probably is like us.
He's a child. He was a child and fan of yours. Um,

(01:06:31):
I'm not sure about that. I mean, I don't have
a really personal story about that. That was one of
those kind of things where like I told my manager
why I wanted to do any contacted T I S people,
and it came back that he was cool with it. Damn.
I wonder what your percentage rate is of that. I
will say that was part of my pitch too. Um
uh Chamelionaire, no no, no, a fancy uh yourself fancy.

(01:06:56):
I can't remember blanching the blue yes no, no, no, no,
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry we forgot it. But
but that was that was one where I couldn't um,
I couldn't get permission through their management. Uh. We weren't

(01:07:18):
getting through and and the I was like one song
away from finishing Mandatory Fun, and I wanted to do
uh my periody of Fanacy because Fantasy was sort of
like the song of the Summer, Like I just you know,
we have a relase state. I want to record this,
but we don't have permission, and nobody was getting through.
And finally I basically had a stalker. I had to.
I said, oh, she's doing a concert in Denver, Colorado,
Like I'm flying there, and I flew to Denver and

(01:07:40):
I hung out backstage and literally as she was walking
off stage and said, hey, it's a weird hel. I
really loved her. Did she know who you were? I
think so. I think it's hard to say, but I
think so. And she said, well, it's sooo to me
that I wouldn't imagine that I would, but she said,
she said, you know, I have to see the lyrics first.
I said, well, don't actually happen to half my podcast,

(01:08:02):
and I put them in front of her, and while
she was reading out, I said that, you know, t
I was cool with it, and that was because you
know that the most extreme that you had to travel
to get it might be. I mean, m yeah, I
don't think I've ever gotten on a plane to get
permission from somebody. But but wait, wait out, because as

(01:08:22):
I'm looking at this video for TACKI I'm like, so
Isha and um the other people that you had my
Man from Modern Family and and Jack Black and Kristin
Shaw and Margaret Show when you asked them, I'm sure
they were like hell fucking yeah, hell freaking yeah. I'm sorry,
but right, like, tell me what was there? Yeah, I

(01:08:43):
mean I was kind of went through my address book
and I picked some of my friends and and everybody
that was available on that day. Uh, We're happy to
do it. That was the most fun I've ever had
doing a video. It was just such a blouse. I mean,
that was what we got done so quickly. I was
almost uh sad, Like I wish you could do this
all night long. It was so fun. Yeah, that's dope.
How did you approach doing the r Kelly trapped in

(01:09:06):
the Man? Because that was I mean, that was one
of the moments I'll say, like you've been Because I'm
a person, I work. I do a lot of work
like in TV, and I do like musical parodies and
stuff or Shore whatever. And the thing that I think
listen to your music has taught me is that in
order for something to be funny, it has to be good.
Like so if you're gonna parody something, you've got to

(01:09:27):
really be singing it, and like you really gotta gotta,
you just gotta. It's gotta be believable. And the thing
with all your stuff is that it always it's funny.
But if you just listen to that song, it's like, Yo,
this mother is really singing. Like even like the harmonies
from the uh the joint us this to the other night, Yeah,
the Johnny, it was like, yo, he really singing this ship.

(01:09:47):
So when I heard the Trapped in the Closet was
trapping class, trapping the drive through, that's what Trappling the
Class is a song that is probably a parody in itself.
So for you to do it like what is it? Well,
that was a tough one to do because that was
one of those things. Trapped in the Closet was just
such a monumental composition. It's sort of like, you know,

(01:10:09):
it was such a thing that again it was sort
of like, you know, if Ridal doesn't do anything with this,
like what what's he thinking. But but at the same time,
it's it was so weird anyway, Like, where do you
go with it? You can't really make it more but
more ridiculous. So I thought, well, you know the humor
of opposite, I'll just make it as boring and banal
and monotonous and mundane as I possibly can, and just

(01:10:32):
make it about eleven minutes about like a couple discussing
what they want to do for dinner, you know, and
but still keeping all the drama, keeping all the high
drama of the original, but but making about something ridiculously stupid. Man,
now you you definitely you know that that it was hilarious.
I haven't quite figured out how this idea but would work.
But have you ever considered doing a duets album? I

(01:10:52):
was gonna ask, have you ever did any collaborations? Um?
Not as such. I mean that my first goal was
sart of a duet with because I did a song
called Ricky, which was me being Ricky Ricardo. No, no, no,
that was that was Truss McNeil, who now is like
one of the most famous voiceover artists in the world.

(01:11:13):
I mean, she's uh, she's on Animaniac, she's on Simpsons,
I mean she's like one of the top people. But
at the time she was new in l A, I
mean brand new, and uh, we put out an ad
in some music papers saying we're looking for somebody to
uh impersonate uh Lucile Ball to somebody was singing like
Lucile Ball and we got uh literally two responses and

(01:11:35):
one of the most tressed. Yeah, it was some one
of those kind of things. And she came in. She
was great, and she played Lucy in the video as well.
That's the same person that does it on the record.
And unfortunately she couldn't tour with us, so whenever. You know,
it was kind of weird because during that first tour
are big single, we couldn't do live, so we basically
just played the video. I think back then it was

(01:11:55):
like on a sixteen millimeter projector, like and here's our video.
Really we couldn't. We couldn't you know, costumes, you have
my drummer like you you know, we could. I couldn't.
Haven't tried to do trust this part. That's the costume
change time. Yeah, Terry Bosio did it with Franks out,
but anything could happened. Do you ever think of doing
other not that I would assume to have known that

(01:12:16):
you haven't. But other genres, there any other genres that
you would like to dip into? Like there a reggae weird?
There is there is? I mean I've I've covered most
of them. There's I'm sure there's something I haven't yet.
But yeah, I did a reggae song called buy Me
a Condo. It's sort of like a Bob Marley ish
kind of like like like a like a Jamaican yuppie song.
And uh, some of the new genres. Have you wrapped

(01:12:40):
your head around trap music yet? Um and mumble culture?
So some some genres are a little bit harder to
uh to parody because there's not enough word E E
d M. Would be fun to do, but you know,
you can't be too repetitive. Or maybe you could just
do poco covers of them that's true to what I do,
like you know, you know, like like yes, yes, yes, yeah,

(01:13:09):
I would like just on according no payoff when you
get to the top, no DW Yeah, I would love that.
Have you ever have there been in any pictures for

(01:13:30):
you to do, uh, like kids shows or children's shows.
I did a children's show in the late nineties called
the Weird Show on CBS. It was like ninety ninety seven,
ninety something like that. But yeah, it was on for
one season shows six years old. You know, I'll tell
you what TV show I would like to see back,

(01:13:51):
come back, and that's our TV thank you. Yeah. I
used to love those out. It used to be like
almost one like whenever you put out a new album,
yeah it wasn't some people. I used to watch your
old series like it wasn't a series or like a
special that I would be like every year, every whenever
I had an album to promote. Really uh but MTV
would play play them a lot. Those were brilliant to
interview the fake interviews, take le those interviews out of context,

(01:14:14):
and play all sort of random weird videos. I mean
that was back in the day, you know when MTV would,
uh all they play videos like this, Yeah I'm praying
he interviewed prints where you know Prince did something. Oh
yeah yeah, yeah could like this Prince, what do you
think about this speech ball? It's multi colored and it's

(01:14:34):
very fun. You know, It's just just stuff like that.
Um but yeah, I mean that was in the days
when MTV kind of you know was freeformed. They're very
gorilla and to some extent they didn't care. They're like, oh, well,
you've got those four hours, just do whatever you want.
I would. I did whatever I wanted for four hours,
and I would watch all four hours. They gave me

(01:14:55):
no money, but they said do whatever you want and
and and uh kind of went nuts. It was like,
I said, I love those, Um, how come you didn't
pursue more movies after? I would have liked to have
done more movies, but the crushing failure of my first
movie kind of dampened everybody. What I mean, it was funny.

(01:15:19):
I mean, why do you think it didn't like? It's
hard to say. I mean, critics, you know, generally hated it. Uh.
Ciskol Niber thought I was the anti christ I think, um.
And it came out. You know, this is sort of
an excuse, but it's it's also true. It came out
in the middle of one of the biggest blockbuster summers ever.
So it came out while you know, Batman and a
lethal weapon on Honey It Shrunk the Kids and do
the right Thing, and you know, a bunch of stuff

(01:15:40):
was out at the same time, so it would have
been a lot better if it had come out during
a slower time of the year. But you know, there's
there's no telling. I mean, um, I'm just very happily
happy that you know, it's found his audience and now
it's at least got cult status. No, it definitely has it.
When was Ala Palooza, uh nineteen ninety three? I have

(01:16:03):
an autographed copy of that CD somehow, somehow, So do
you often meet I mean the way that like cats
come up to me like, yo, man, God, it's been
a few bars when you you know, like people are
always trying to I'm certain that every night there's someone
that when you're doing in stores and autographs and of
the like, that's someone saying like, hey, um, the new

(01:16:25):
you or that sort of thing. Like they always uh
try to give me ideas like you know, what you
should do, and it's always some awful parody idea that
they thought of in the third grade. But they were
just waiting for their chance to meet me. You know,
tell them this a great idea? How Duran Duran parody
from the eighties that I don't feel great? How do
you laugh? The more like, oh yeah, I'll get right

(01:16:48):
to work on that. No, no, no, I mean people
that meet you and say that, you know, I too
want to be in the same because because the thing
is is like there's one weird out and you've literally
shut you've shut it down for anyone trying to come.
I mean there's some like morning shows that do you know,

(01:17:10):
things on radio. But the thing is, nowadays there's YouTube,
there's avenues for people to get their stuff out. There
was when when I started, it was sort of a
mystery like how do you penetrate this black box of
you know, you know MTV? And it was it was,
you know a little bit harder to navigate. You have
like high humor and your level of humor and your

(01:17:31):
pin game is is past just you know, twisting a
now in the m Yeah. So it's it's like, are
you have you thought about like, is there anyone out
there like that you like that produce that's the next

(01:17:52):
weird hour? Gosh? Why the next word? You know? Coming up?
I mean there's a lot of people that do funny music.
I love Lonely Island, Tenacious de Fly to the Concord,
and there's a lot of people doing great, great comedy stuff.
As far as coming up, um, you know, I don't know.
There's a lot of funny people on YouTube. Brandy Rainbow
Is is really funny. Um, you know, I I don't
know about producing other other acts. I mean i'd be

(01:18:15):
I'd entertained that idea, I guess, but um, I don't
know what we'll see on that one. America can tell
the story or why don't you tell the story about
the dylla sample with the oh no, no, no, no, no,
it's yeah, think yeah exactly. I don't even know what
I'm asking. Yeah, yeah, no. One. One of my favorite

(01:18:37):
moments do you ever? Was uh you? It actually made
pitch work, which is weird. It's like the nicest thing
pitch Work said about two thousand thirteen. No you you
you playing uh Accordion? Which you know that that was
brilliant idea. No, but you're you're not telling the like

(01:19:00):
for the listeners like me who don't really know. But no, no, no,
it wasn't a weird Out song. It's just that when
weird Out came on the Tonight Show, he has Accordion,
I was like, Yo, we have to do Uh what
was the project? The map Villain cover of Accordion, which

(01:19:20):
is basically a song that's looped over in according actually
what I found that loop? Yeah, it's dayless it is wow.
H you know what they tell about I do absolutely yeah,
we did. We did. He was there with me kind
of jammed on that for all. I gotta tell you,
man that some of my favorite times in my life
were just hanging backstage with the Roots and playing. You guys,

(01:19:43):
didn't I see you one year like a Root jam,
like when the Grammy thing. That's where I saw him
one year at l A at a Root jam. You
came inside of the Roots there every year mother you Yeah,

(01:20:03):
years I have I have a question. So did you
end up doing ten records for Scotty Brothers or or
what actually happened to I feel like they're like Scotti
Brothers also owned Uh, I think all American broadcasting with

(01:20:24):
own Baywatch, so they they're sitting on a pilot money somewhere. Think.
I don't think they're a record label anymore. But I
was sold as an asset, you know, because they still
owned however many albums on my contract, and I got
sold to somebody else, and then I got sold to
somebody else and I renegotiated the contact twice. Uh and
each time I renegotiated, the attacked on a couple more albums.
So basically it became a fourteen album contract and my

(01:20:47):
last album, Mandatory Fund was album number fourteen, So just
three or no No. But in just thirty two short
years I was able to fulfill my contracts. You're still
quote on the label no No. I fulfilled it when
I when I delivered the last album and that was it.
They wanted to UH to re sign me, which is

(01:21:09):
very nice, and they made a very generous offer. But
after being under contact for so long, I just really
kind of wanted to be a free agent, not beholden
to anybody. I hate the idea of just owing people stuff,
you know, I just I don't you know, I just
just want don't want to have that kind of pressure
hanging over me. Do you know who Richard Cheese is?
Mark Davis? If you that's I mean, I'm I'm starting

(01:21:32):
figuring out, like who's the who's the closest person that
could that has a following? Yeah, Mark Mark does sort
of like with lounge music what I do with polum music.
He does like you know, the hits of the day,
like and it was kind of like small two Vegas lounges.
What does the latter day tupac to your latter day, Biggie,

(01:21:55):
he's an old friend I went to school with. Shuldn't Yeah.
What what other labels did you end up being on
after BMG or something? Yeah, BMG and some version of
CBS and EPIC and r c A and UH Volcano
Records and you know, and you know they're even even

(01:22:17):
one of those. Yeah, even what was on the same label,
sometimes they changed their name or they'd add some subsidiary.
And you know, I've I've probably been on a dozen
different label imprints over my career. How how um, how
did it feel because your last album actually went to
number one? Right? How surreal was that that you're you

(01:22:38):
had the number one pop album? It blew my mind,
it really did, because you know, it was basically unprecedented
that the never before had a comedy album debuted at
number Yeah, Mediatory fund and and and the last time
a comedy album even reached number one was the nineteen
sixty three that was Alan Sherman. But back in the

(01:22:59):
early sixty I mean, you know, comedy albums go to
number one all the time. Alan German had three number
one albums and Bob Newhart won like the Album of
the Year at the Grammys. I believe it was like,
you know, back then, like comedy was, you know, viewed
as more important. But yeah, there hadn't been a number
one album since then, and I just kind of thought
that that was you know, there was a glass ceiling
or whatever. It just was like not within the realm
of possibility. I thought, Oh, I really hope that's my

(01:23:22):
last album cracks the top ten, because that would be
cool for me to kind of go out in a
big way. And then when I found out that, um,
you know, I had a good chance of hitting number one, Uh,
it was very surrealistic for me because you know, I'm
obsessed with the Billboard charts and I've I've been studying
them for decades and to think that I would have
a number one album was just beyond my comprehension. That's weird.

(01:23:43):
So you have to do a parody of one of
your songs, It's possible the world, that's crazy. Thank you
for doing this for us, fans of yours, congratulation, thank you,

(01:24:04):
thank you. Yes, so all those things. Yes, I also
have to come back into my role call I wasn't
lying when I said that was one of the top
ten shows I've ever seen in my entire life. How
were you when you see? It was in my twenties,
it was I was in college at the time, and
it was um like may or something like that and
running with a scissor store maybe yeah, I think it was. Yeah,
And like I considered myself a fan, but I didn't

(01:24:25):
really realize how many of your songs I knew until
I saw you before them, all back to back to
back to even sitting here just talking about I was like, damn,
he didn't do that one. Yeah that it was. It's like, yeah,
I was like, oh man, I forgot about that one.
And I started realizing, yeah, I remember the lyrics too,
and so I'm just like, I'm a bigger weird Alf
fan than I thought I was, you know. And so
like after that, I started really going back deeper and

(01:24:46):
deeper into the catalog and it was just yeah, well,
you know, I'm still going through my rate al phase. Damn.
Now you know. My first show was going to be
the you Should Go. Like I saw this man was
hopping around on one leg with the other leg behind
his head, like it was amazing. It was amazing. Yes,
can you still careful? That is done? The most entertaining,

(01:25:21):
one of the most removed, you know, but yeah, one
of the most entertaining shows I've ever seen the entire life. Wow,
that's amazing. Anyway, how do you describe that what we
just seen? We got photo, we'll post it up on

(01:25:41):
Contortionist out. Uh yeah, so on behalf of Sugar Steve
and Boss Bill and take a little and it's like, yeah,
uh we thank you very much for coming on the show,
my pleasure. I can't wait to finally see you in
concert the deep Cuts. Maybe we'll just do one of
the hits for the encore, just for me. Uh this course,
Love of the course, Love Supreme and uh we will

(01:26:03):
see when I let's go around. Thank you, m M
of course. Love Supreme is a production of My Heart Radio.
This classic episode was produced by team at Pandora. For
more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart

(01:26:25):
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}QLS Classic: "Weird" Al Yankovic