February 14, 2025 • 52 mins
Singer Shaun Cassidy's talent goes well beyond his gene pool.
The 'Da Doo Ron Ron' hitmaker tells Oliver all about his 'nepo baby' experience, and shares what he'd be doing if his family wasn't famous.
Plus, how his connection to Goldie Hawn dates back to the days when Kate was a bun in the oven
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi. I am Kate Hudson and my name is Oliver Hudson.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We wanted to do something that highlighted our.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Relationship and what it's like to be siblings. We are
a sibling.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Railvalr No, no, sibling. You don't do that with your mouth, revelry.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
That's good.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
My man, Sean Cassidy, who I have known for a
minute now, is in the waiting room.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
He uh produced, created.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
A show but I still think could have been a hit.
And he danced with my mom. He's a superstar.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Uh bring him in. Let's see what the hell is this
fucking guy's doing now, because it's been a minute since
I've seen this. Dude, Look at you, Look at you. No, no,
look at you, look at you. This is crazy, dude.
I haven't seen you in so long.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
It was a little unnerving.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Actually how long how long has it been?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I mean almost twenty years.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I think this fucking nuts. It's a quick trip. I
just I don't know. It's scary sometimes.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You know, I got three kids now, and they're all
older seventeen and fourteen.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And then it's just like before you even know it,
we're just dead, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Hopefully we have some fun along the way.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
We do We do well. How are you? Number one?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I'm great. I have a few kids of my own.
We have I guess four kids. Maybe since I've seen you,
maybe that possible. Maybe. Yes, we have a nineteen year old,
eighteen year old, sixteen year old, and a thirteen year old.
And we live in the wine country of Santa Barbara,
(02:13):
which is a beautiful place to live and raise kids.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Wow. You lucky, man, I love it.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
How is Aaron?
Speaker 4 (02:20):
She's great, man, she's great. We have three seventeen, fourteen, eleven,
and yeah, things are pushing along very nicely, you know,
not without his bumps and a few little bruises, but
that's to be expected, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
But the fact that we've maintained for twenty plus years, Yeah,
it's pretty good, dude, It's pretty good. You know. I'm
still in this business, believe it or not. I'm still an.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Actor, but I'm producing. I have a deal at Fox,
so it's been really fun doing that. Doing this has
been a blast. And just hustle up money any way
I can. You know, I'll sell my.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Soul just it just depends on the price. That's kind
of where I'm at, you know, how long have you
been doing this podcast? Well? Shit, four years now five.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah, we were kind of when we started there was
nine hundred thousand podcasts and we're like, holy fuck, you know,
and this is when sort of Dax was blowing up,
and of course you've got Rogan and all those guys now.
But and we're like, oh, it's it's there's so many
people now. Of course there's six plus million podcasts out there,
so you know.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's it's been fun though.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
It's been fun to reconnect with my sister and do
something together creatively. It's there's been iterations of it, you
know what I mean, Like she's been busy as she
is nice sort of take over. But I dig it, man,
I dig it. I like talking, I like getting to.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Know I think I would enjoy it as well. You
have one, don't you?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
No, I don't. I've been asked to them. But I
found the fact that there were six million already a
little daunting, and I thought, well, podcast, but when I
like the people who are hosting them, there's something interesting
to talk about. I think it's fun and I don't
(04:18):
listen to too many. I don't either, by the way,
I've been doing this forever. I don't listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
There's a great one called the five Hundred Songs of
Rock and Roll, History of Rock in five hundred songs,
where this man goes so deep dive on the connective
tissue of different songs and musicians play on records and
the songs that inspired the song, and the song the
(04:46):
songs that were ripped off. Sympathy for the Devil has
like a six hour podcast just on it. Wow. But
I'll listen to that because I just I tend to
know some of the people. And it's great when you're
on a hike you can just go for hours.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, now, I yeah, I know. It's great. It's great
to put the to put the earbuds in and just
sort of roll, you know, and you can lose yourself
in them. For sure.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I just I feel like there's so much more I
can do. And by the way, when I when I
walk in and when I run, I don't like, I
don't like to listen.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I I that's the time for my thoughts. Yeah, for sure,
you know, that's the time to sort of plan my
next strike.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
It's so funny. I was just talking to Mom. I
literally just got off the phone with Mom to come
on with you, and she's like.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Oh, tell Shoan, I say, hi, Oh my god. We
sang together. You know what was that? What did you
guys sing?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Was it a variety show your mom hosted? Had a
special only Han special And they asked if I'd come on,
and we sat at a piano and she sang you
below to somebody else, you below to me saying a
(06:02):
little like, uh, valid version of the do run run
against that? Uh. Mom was and is adorable and I
had a crush on her, like everybody in the world,
I think, And it was really sweet. It was really
and you know what's interesting. I was thinking about this too,
passage of time. I was in Hawaii with your mom
(06:26):
when she was pregnant with Kate. Oh wow, she and
your dad you were already here and you were a
little kid, and you when you were born, you had
some health challenges.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
D yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I had maconium aspiration. Back in the day, they just
let you cook in there until you came out. You know,
I was in there for three weeks too long, and
I basically, you know, ate ship and almost died. I
mean Essentially, I took a dump in the boom and
couldn't hold it and I inhaled it.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I think you were in Hawaii too, right, kid, But
she was very pregnant, and I think this was after
we'd already done that special. We had mutual friends when
we went a little group, and you know, I knew
your dad and your uncles.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
We used to play cards together and actual, oh yeah,
a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And I think that I think they opened for me
in a couple of shows here in the Anything.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Yeah, amazing, No, I know when so my dad, you know,
we've talked about this. We had sort of a tumultuous
relationship and talked about the early Time show. But we've
reconnected again, which has been actually really nice.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Good.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
But that dude likes to gamble. I mean he still
goes and plays poker like five times a week in Ventura,
you know. And it's funny because oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
when I was I don't play cards much anymore, but
I got hooked on poker.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I was addicted to I loved it so so much.
I had a poker in my old house.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I play a commerce, I played hustler, I played in
WBT events, I played in World series of Poker events
where I I busted on the first hand on TV
on ESPN. That's a whole other story. And then when
I reconnected with my dad and it was just really
interesting to apple, Yeah, look at a man who I
(08:16):
didn't really know that well and reconnect with someone who
is so similar to me in so many ways, not
just poker, but kind of his philosophies of life, the
way that he operates.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Just it also sound.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
And look like yeah, I know, I know, and then
just the tone of who he is. And when we
drank a few, we drank a bunch of beers and
like we're getting teary eyed because it was just really unreal,
you know, to see someone in front of you who's
your father, who you were, and who you emulate and
didn't realize it. And for him to see his younger
(08:51):
self essentially in me.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
It was a really uh it was a moment. It
was a moment, you know.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
But anyway, all this to say that he still plays poker.
We used to go to Seaside, Oregon and him and
his brothers would play Liar's Poker. They'd have ones out
everywhere and play Liar's.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Poker with the serial Numbers.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
They grew up in Portland, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
remember them going to a story here and there too.
We may have played Portland together.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I don't know how I met them. Again, I think
all of my friends were older than me when I
was like fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, Everyone was like in their twenties. Yeah,
but we hung out a lot back then.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Bernie Topplin is a real good pal of mine, and
Bernie produced an album for them. Yeah, And I'd know
I met Bernie when I was ten because my parents
went to see Elton John at the troupid Or and
brought Elton and Bernie back to the house. And wow,
miraculously we ended up being friends later on and stayed
friends and are still very good friends. But I remember
he produced the Hudson Brothers.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
How old were you and Elton and Bernie came to
your house?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Ten?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Do you remember that? Oh? Yeah, very well? Because I
had bought your song the forty five. I thought it
was weird.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Why are my parents a going to the Troupadour which
seemed like a young people place and they worked, but
they seemed one hundred to me?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Why are they going to see Elton John. How do
they know Elton John?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Because Elton John was a brand new thing and the
was a very big deal for Elton John. It kind
of broke him in America.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
And he was like twenty three and Bernie was like
twenty or twenty one. And apparently my father and my
mother invited them back to the house, and I think
Bernie wanted to meet my mom, and I'm pretty sure
Elton wanted to meet my brother David, who wasn't They
ended up playing around the piano, sitting around the piano
playing tunes and Bernie talked to me, what are you doing?
(10:47):
I'm music and maybe I'll play music someday. Well, good
luck Son, it was and somehow we reconnected years later,
and when I did the show The Hardy Boys, Bernie
actually a guest star on it because they called and said,
do you know any famous people? I said, well, I
know Bernie Topping, Yeah, and they said, okay, he can
come on the show. So wow, I don't know we
(11:09):
got on that, but Hudson Brothers, Burnie, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Connection then, well, I'm sure you know.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Growing up the way that you grew up in the
spotlight and your family and all that I'm sure you
have some amazing, you know stories as far as yeah, you're.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Actually anything about that, OLLI, it's a whole other world
when you grew up in a show business fanily No.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
But but here's the difference. You know, you you were
in a time where where legends were being made. You
know what I'm saying, Like nowadays.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Legends there's still like every decade, Nah, did.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
You're with Elton John at ten years old? Him playing
the piano in your house? I mean, you know what's
the equivalent. It's like, it's like Kendrick Lamar at my
house with my kids. Well, to put put this into
some this for everyone listening. So I met a million
years ago. I had I had an acting deal at
(12:04):
the WB at the time, and there was a show
called The Mountain which still to this day. And I
said this in the intro. I don't know why this
thing didn't keep going because it was so fucking great.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
So great, the cash was great.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Ah, everything was great.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Really good. And Stephanie Salvat, who I worked on the
who did the OC with Josh Schwartz.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And I still watch it. I'll still watch clips and stuff.
I'm like, man, it was so good.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
The music was a ten, you know, I remember I
discovered ray La Montaigne essentially, it was it was amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
The music was amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well, one extraordinary thing happened because they we had a
great music supervisor and Warner Brothers was feeding us new
artists like Blink one new artists time. But there was
this other artist, this band called Green Day, which had
some success and then kind of faded and had this
(13:07):
new record coming out called American Idiot, and they asked
us if we would sort of break the record on
the show to help give it some juice because they were,
you know, been in a while for Green Day whatever. Anyway,
so we're playing all these songs from American Idiot in
(13:27):
the show and it becomes their biggest record ever. Yeah,
and that was exciting, and you guys were great. It
was really fun.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
The whole thing was fun. I still haven't seen anything
like it, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
I mean, it was that WB tone that had that
soap element, but everyone was so grounded and real that
it didn't feel.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Over the top. And it was such a great story
sort of you know, semi based on some kind of
reality with Dave, you know, who is.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
The family that founded Mammoth Mountain.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah, And I was just there two weekends ago in
Mammoth and I hadn't been there since I was a kid,
and it was really fun to sort of see all
the history there, knowing.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
That this is what was you know, you know, by the.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Way, David, my character Dave Carver, was named after the
guy who founded Mammoth, you know who was.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And there's a there's.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Actually a a place on like Lift fourteen or whatever.
It's called Boundary, which I think ours was called Boundary Mountain,
but there was like a yeah, but there was a
there was a you know, like a drink spot or
a food spot called like.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
The Boundary or something like that. You know. It was
just really really cool to see.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
But anyway, yeah, I mean it was ski slopes, it
was sexy, it was fun.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It was sort of the haves and the have not.
It was that battle. I mean, it all it's all
you wanted. Yeah, you know, mc gee did produce directed
at the Pilot. Let me ask you a question, what happened? Well,
why didn't we get picked up? It would just not
get good numbers. I mean, well it was the dying
days of the WB.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
I had something to do with it. They were having,
I think a problem just generally getting people to watch
the WB Yeah. I never know what these things. There's
so many things nothing to do with the quality of
a show. I mean, I've been really fortunate. I've gotten
a lot of shows on the air. I haven't had
too many shows that ran a long time. But you know,
I sort of gauged success by the experience, not the result,
(15:26):
and I considered them mounting a great success because I
had a fantastic experience.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Why things run and why they don't. I just came
off a show that ran five years called New Amsterdam,
really a great show, And the irony is it was
on NBC five years. I live in a relatively small
town the central coast of California, and people through the
years would say, hey, what are you working on. I'm
working on the show New Amsterdam. They'd been good for you,
(15:56):
clearly had not seen it. Show was canceled. Netflix picks
it up. It becomes the number one show in the world. Suddenly, Hey, everybody,
that New Amsterdam.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's a heck give a show. Are you creating?
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Are you constantly creating and writing and developing?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Are you where you at.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
To make something every day, I don't know. I get
up and make stuff. I have to deal at Universal,
which I've had for a long time, and I have
three different.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Pilots in various stages of development right.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Now, one of which writing, two of which I'm overseeing,
and one or all or none may see the light
of day. But that's business, and I've been I started
performing again. I hadn't. I hadn't performed asconcert was in
nineteen eighty at the Astrodome in Houston. I said good
night and like mu zoom, and then didn't do another
(16:56):
show until like twenty twenty. But I decided, weirdly terrible
timing in the middle of the pandemic to go out
and like tell stories and sing some songs that people
of a certain name I know, and it kind of
caught fire. It did really well. So I'm going to
keep trying to do that as a little side hustle
because it's fun, fun, fun.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah. So where did you actually grow up? Where were
you born and raised?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I was born in LA at Saint John's Hospital, Santa Monica.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Wow. I grew up.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
In LA and New York. My mom was a movie
actor and whenever she was in a movie, I'd be
in LA or wherever the movie was shooting. And my
father was primarily a Broadway actor musicals. If he was
in a hit show in New York, we moved to
New York. So back and forth, and I've lived.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
In both places as an adult.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
And about twelve, no more, fourteen years ago, with four
kids under seven, we moved out of LA because I
wanted to give them more time with a childhood.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah, and I'm grateful we did.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, yeah, I did. I did you know similar I
I had a similar experience. We were in Colorado for
half the year when I was growing up.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
You grew up too, right, Yeah, that where Golden and
Kurt lived. Yeah, so we were there about half the year,
you know, for a while. Then my grandmother got sick
and we had to sort of spend the rest of
the time in LA. My parents say that if Grandma
never got sick, we might have even moved there. But
I sort of followed suit. You know, when I had
my kids, I took them out of school for two years.
(18:39):
We're getting out of LA. We're going to put you
in the public school system in Basalt, and we are
going to live in the mountains and it was amazing.
I'm really really amazing and so beneficial for them. You
can see it now, you know, just the way they think,
how they operate, how they love nature.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
We have the same experience, and I you know, we
lived in a pretty fast area when we left, and
and the kids who grew up in the area we left,
we see them now and they're like, I mean, wait,
our kids are like rubes I love. I mean, they've
been around the world a bit with us, but their
(19:17):
home is here and they're grounded and they're they're amazingly
neurosis free.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, yeah, so amazing. Nice work. Yeah, And how many
siblings did you have? Total?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
My older brother David, half brother, my father, my mom's
and I'm the oldest from Shirley Jones. And two younger brothers, Patrick,
who was also an actor and runs a theater now
and outside of Nashville, and youngest brother, Ryan, is a
set decorator.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Does everyone was everyone in the business? Every single one?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah? Pretty much? Not my kids, No, not yet. I
had three older ones. I mean they're behind the scenes
a bit, but no, we'll see.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
But you didn't know anything else, right, I mean I'm
relating this to myself, like, you know, we didn't know
anything else, and now that Kate has kids, I have kids.
Why it has kids? Like, there's a lot of grandkids
in slash cousins. They all want to be in the
business because it's all that they know. I mean, essentially,
was that kind of how it worked for you growing up?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Yeah? I thought about this a lot on reflection. I mean,
it's funny, you know people the nepo baby thing, people
talking about it. I have no issue with that because
I know a lot of nepo babies and other business.
You know, Dad owned the hardware store. You learned about hardware,
and you took over the hardware store. Mom owned the
vet clinic, and now you're the veterinarian running. I think
(20:50):
it's great schooling if that's what you are passionate about.
And like you, in our case, we grew up that's
all we saw. Well, we kind of knew how to
do it by osmosis. But I don't really think if
had I grown up in a family that wasn't in
the business, I ever would have become an actor. And
(21:10):
I just sort of like I was kind of eighteen
years old. Cute kid could walk and talk at the
same time. So I ended up on a television show.
But I'm doing the television show. I'm like the writer's room.
That's where the magic hap. I was like on to that.
It was like, Oh, that's what I need to be doing.
And I don't really love the life of being a
public figure. I liked sitting alone in a room thinking
(21:33):
and making the stuff up. I was the most reluctant
famous person, and some of the choices I made reflect that,
because I was offered all kinds of things that probably
would have been great if you wanted a big I didn't.
I just want the minute I became famous, it was like, Okay,
I'm not going to be known as his son or
her son or his brother or whatever. I'm going to
(21:54):
be known as me now, and now I'm going to
go hide in my room for like ten years about
what I really.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Want to do.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
That's what I did, and I love writing, I love producing,
and only again in recent years I've been like, I
guess I can go on the stage again and you know,
jokes and sing and now I really enjoy it. But
I don't have the burning, you know, the hole that
so many performers have love me, But what was.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
It like growing up in that kind of a spotlight
because it wasn't dissimilar obviously to what I went through,
your mom and your dad and all of that, you know.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I mean, it's always double edged.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
It's a fun, you know, energetic, big lifestyle, but at
the same time, you know, for me, you know, there
is some desire to not have your parents be known
and personally for me, I didn't like when when when
people would come up to my mom when I was
a kid, you know, we're having dinner and they'd come up,
(22:52):
and it would like bother me, you know, because.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
She's my mom and you know, this is when I
was little, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
But your mom, who I watched have that experience more
than once, was always very gracious. She's very really gracious
and a lovely, lovely lady and very unshow busy. Like
my mom is like one of the most grounded people
you'll ever meet. And she taught me by example how
you treat people in public. And she always talked about,
(23:26):
you know what, really this was just our job. In fact,
my parents used to say, we're just here in LA
for the movie or the TV show. Don't worry we're
going to be living on a farm in Pennsylvania, because
they were both these coast people. My dad was from
New York, she was in Pennsylvania, and they were like
always talking about we're going to go back, We're going
to live in the country.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Dad wants to be wrighter.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So that never happened, but somehow that message like went
into me and I am basically living the life my
parents talked about mattering but weren't able to actually get
to themselves. And I've thought about that, but I've also
thought about what you were saying. And in terms of
like if people feel they own your parents, yeah, often
(24:09):
at your expense. It can be hard. And I recently
did this, oh actually sidebar about wine because somebody gave
me a bottle of your oh gogy ye maybe. Well,
there's one called Goldie. It's a chardonnay and the Kurt makes.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
All the wine and Senrita Hills and it's a it's
a pino and it's.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Really it's fucking good man. There's like ten vintages, twelve
vintages of them.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
We make one too here I'll tell you about in
a second.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
But yeah, uh.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Oh, in terms of like feeling that like ownership of
your parent. I was. I was doing this event for
Turner Classic Movies, and they were talking to me about
my career and my mom and my dad, and I
introduced a movie she'd made called The Courtship of Vetti's
Father that she did with ron Howard, and she worked
(24:59):
with Ronnie twice. I'm the music man and this, and
I was on the set of both of these when
I'm like four years old, and I remember being jealous
of Ronnie Howard because he was playing her son, and
everybody's thought was her son because of the movies, and
I'd forgotten I actually felt that way. I only seen
(25:19):
the movie there, I go, oh, because I've seen ron.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Over the years since.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yeah, but it's an interesting, weird looked feeling pride parent.
Isn't my mother beautiful? That people really love her? Isn't
that awesome? But I wish we just had this time ourselves.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah? Yeah, no, for real.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
I mean I can completely relate to that, you know.
And then as you get older, as I got older,
there's so much pride in the icon that is my mother,
you know, whereas before it was maybe a rejection because
of an underdeveloped brain. Divorce and needing all of her attention,
(26:02):
you know, maybe from an unhealthy place too, then growing
up dealing with my own shit and understanding and being
so prideful of how of what an icon she is
and what she has done, you know, for her industry
as a woman, you know, and even beyond that, you know,
mental health and children. So you know, it's it's funny
(26:23):
how you go from one place and then sort of
end up, you know, end up.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
We are where I am right now.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
You know, my mom's a great example of it's not
about the success you achieve, it's what you do with it. Yeah,
and Kurt is a pretty inspiring guy too. I think
only met him once. But I I worked at Disney
for a long time. I had an office, actually I
Walt Disney's office, believe it or not, for like four years. Wow,
(26:51):
just dumb luck. Yeah, I ended up in there and
I used to give tours. This is where Walt gave
notes on Pinocchio and in the matter. Kurt Russell's picture
was all over the place at Disney. And when I
was a little kid, he was the Disney guy. And
the fact that he you know, transformed himself and went
(27:14):
way beyond that as an actor.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Pretty impressive. Oh yeah, oh god, yeah. And he's having
a major resurgence right now. It's just right working his
ass off. What was it dynamic? Like sibling dynamic growing up?
You know, as you guys were getting older. I mean,
was it fun? Did you have fun? Was there fighting?
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I mean especially just you're on the road, you know,
I mean your move and you're shaking, Like how did
that all pan out?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
It changed? I mean our father died when I was eighteen,
Patrick was fourteen, Ryan was ten, and my brother who
were my older brother David, were estranged, which was rough,
but in a strange way, his loss bonded us. I
literally remember the day he died, the four of us
(28:02):
hugging and crying and sort of forging this like he
will live in us. It wasn't said, but that was
the feeling, and it's been an actual experience. We are
now all well, David has passed, but Patrick, Bryan and
I are all older than my dad was when he died.
We see each other and see our father, you know,
(28:23):
like the experience you had with your dad.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
You may see it in your uncles too. I don't know,
but it really validates this notion that life is continuous.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
It just sort of travels through these cars we drive
called our bodies, you know. But he's here, David here,
and my brothers. Yes, we thought Patrick and I were
the closest in age. I was the oldest brother in
the house. And Patrick was an athlete and tall and
very like hot headed. And I would torture him mentally,
(29:00):
statistically often, which he reminds me of to this day.
And Ryan was often on the sidelines trying to find
a way in.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Was there a lot of competition between the kids, you
know what I mean between the brothers.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yeah, but we all kind of again had different lanes. Yeah, So,
I mean I couldn't throw football like Patrick. Patrick was
the quarterback at Beverly Hills High School. You know, I
was in satin pants shaking my ass at some club.
So and Ryan was very internal and thoughtful and artistic.
(29:47):
And he's kind of the historian in our family now.
He has every memento related to my father and my
parents and their careers and our lives. And David, you know,
he was an only child who my father had left,
which was sort of the core wound for him. Always
(30:09):
trying to get his approval. And my father was a
tough guy, and my father never.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
They never reconciled that huh, back.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And forth, you know. But my dad, as you know,
inspiring in many ways as he was, he was not
a good father. He was not conscious father. There was
no going to the little league game or showing up
at the open house.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
It wasn't on Broadway, okay, right? That was his priority.
His priority was his work, right.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah, I mean he was. He was a narcissist his priority, right.
But I got a lot of great stuff from him.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
No doubt, no doubt about that, you know what I mean?
And you know he was he was.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Physically around, it seems, but just not there, right, not
even that physics, not even that right, Okay, No, he
was like a guest star in the house. He'd show right.
And is that just because he was working so much?
I mean is that really what it was?
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Often in New York?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:12):
But did he ever did your mom? Was it ever like,
you know, hey, like your kids needs you? I mean,
was there ever any chatter of that or was it just.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Like this is just what the fuck it is?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah? Probably? But my mother, I mean, my mother was
working a lot too. Yeah, you know, honestly, I was
kind of running the house. You were, Yeah, there'd be
like housekeeper around maybe and me yeah and uh and
then David when David would show up, and David would
come like on weekends when he was younger, and we
(31:43):
looked together for a year when he was eighteen and
I was ten in New York and David ended up
in a Broadway show. It was his first job, and
that was really fun. But as we got to know
each other later, as we got, you know, closer in age,
and I'm in my twenties season his late twenties, and
I also now had this very similar experience because David
was a big pop star and eaty star off the
(32:05):
Partridge Family, and then I had a very similar experience
to his, like seven eight years later.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
There are very few people that have had that experience.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
So to be able to talk to him about it, like,
you know, yeah, it was helpful for both of us.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
I think, how did that happen for you?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
You know?
Speaker 4 (32:25):
I mean, because the way you talk right now is like, yes,
you didn't like the fame part your soul sort of
wants to find a dark room and creates stories. But
how did this all come about is did you want
to be a performer or.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Was this just something like fuck everyone's I knew, I
said earlier, I knew how to right. It was a
way I wanted out of my house. Here's true story.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
I'll I signed a record contract when I was sixteen
while I'm in high school with Warner Brothers, and their
idea to break records for me was to record like
individual singles, put them out in various markets in Europe, Australia,
see if you can get a hit record. If you
get a hit record somewhere, then you can bring it
back to America, put it in front of the DJ
(33:14):
and it'll loop out of the pile of one hundred
that he's been given that week, you know. And I
ended up having like a number one record in Australia,
at a number one record in Germany. And I'm then
going back to high school in algebra, which was like
and then I graduated from high school. I haven't seen
any money, really, and do I go to college. Our
(33:35):
family's manager, who was like my aunt, basically said why
don't you go on some acting auditions, you know, see
if you can walk and talk at the same time. Job.
So I literally went into it like that, and my
second audition was The Hardy Boys, and I got the part,
and Warner Brothers then quickly hustled to put together the
rest of these records. So the show comes on, my
(33:56):
album comes out. It's the biggest selling solo debut in
history until Whitney Houston.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
A few years later.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Wow, a big record nominated for to Me. I opened
the words, I'm like Beyonce and the show's a big
hit and it's happened, and all I want to do
is go back to my room.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Wait a minute, wait, So when this is all going
down and you're doing.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
This is going down while you're one years old running
around on the beach in Honolulu with Kate, but are you.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Just like, oh my god, wait a minute, Like I
don't really want to be doing this, but they're pushing me.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
To do it. Me. It just scared me.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
It was like too much.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
But you had no choice, right, I mean you did
have a boy.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, I could have joined the army.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
You could have said like I don't want to do this,
I don't want to do it, but but you did.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
But I wasn't like I don't want to do this.
I just didn't have a drive to do it. I
just sort of okay, I'll try that seems like an
interesting experience. I love to sing.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, I could sing. Yeah. I wasn't a very good
actor when I started. I got better, but I.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Mean I wasn't like on some train to be an actor.
And the concerts were amazing, I mean Madison Square Garden.
Then yeah, Astrodome, fifty five thousand people. It was crazy.
But like, by the time I was twenty one, I
got married partially to escape, like I want a family,
(35:29):
bought a house, did a whole thing, and kind of
stayed home for the eighties and read books. And you know,
all my friends had gone to college. I hadn't, so
I felt like I better try and catch up. So
I ended up reading way more than they did because
they were at keg parties or whatever they were. And
then at like twenty nine, I sold my first script
(35:49):
and off I went, and I've been doing this consistently
since then.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
So wait a minute.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
You probably had an opportunity, obviously, to continue their career
that you that sort of fell on your lap, right,
and to sort of parlay that into big, big things,
and you made the choice to say, you know, what
I did the touring, I played msg hardy boys, like Okay,
(36:17):
I'm done with.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
This, yes, But also I was really fortunate my first
script I wrote it was a show called American Gothic,
which I the last acting I did was a Broadway
show called Blood Brothers with David We did it for
like over a year and a half on Broadway, and
in the day I'd already had it gotten a little
office at Universal, where I still am, weirdly, and I
wrote the script called American Gothic that became a series.
(36:40):
Sam Raimi produced it with me, and Wow starred Gary Cole.
Sarah Paulson's first job had a great cast and became
like the darling of the nineteen ninety four TV season
Beautiful in the New York Times. So suddenly I'm like
a new kid, and people the show was very dark,
(37:01):
and my image had been very light, you know, buenex Door,
so that people couldn't quite get their head around how
those two things went together. And I was off and
running now and I've been doing the job happily and
relatively successfully for thirty years since then. But had that
not happened when they called me to play Vegas? When
(37:23):
I'm thirty five, I would have been in Vegas playing
yeah you got to old, Yeah, Yeah, yeah family. Yeah.
But you know, I didn't want to be justin Timberlake.
I didn't want to like take the teen idol thing
and transition to be serious artists. Now. I just didn't
want to.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah. I loved what I was doing.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
I still do. Yeah at this stage in my life,
to be able to go out and tell stories, which
is primarily I mean, I sing songs and there's music.
But when people ask me, why would you go out
at this stage in your life if you never did
it all those other years, said because all those are
the years I thought i'd have to, with all respect
(38:03):
to Mick Jagger, putting on the same outfit and shaking
the way. You know, I couldn't get my head around
how do I do anything else? But I realized, oh,
storyteller thirty years.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
I can tell.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Stories that people might find interesting or funny or emotional
or whatever, and sing songs, but present the songs in
a context that is fresh, so you don't feel like
I'm just doing some old these tour.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
That's cool, that's cool. As it set up, like, are
you already doing dates? I mean, is this something I
did it for four years and stopped last year. I
did it during the pandemic, which was yeah, yeah, yeah,
just out of the blue, they called me in Mark
and Philly in Boston to do shows around the holidays on.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
So I'm thinking that maybe at the end of next.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Year I'll go out with a real tour again. How
does that feel? Man? Because as a writer, you know
that you.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
Don't get that those performing nerves, know, even as an
actor doing like shows that we do, right, I mean,
it's like you know, your rolling camera and like like
here we go. I mean, have you felt that? And
you know, I know you've been doing it for the
last four years, but what is it like to get
on stage again and feel that sort of rush better?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
It's way better.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Well again, when you're playing like a basketball arena, Yeah,
everybody's screaming, you can't really engage. You're just feeling this energy,
which is amazing. But now I can look people in
the eye and actually have interaction, talk about things that
kind are funny or meaningful or you know, hopefully interesting,
(39:41):
and have a shared experience the other You know, I'm
stupid because I'm I thought, well, I'm the only one
who's changed. It's like, no, no, the whole audience has changed.
They've a lot, we've gotten married with the wars or
head kids. So they bring something to the party too,
you know. And it's actually beautiful. It's really it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
You should call my dad because the Hudson Brothers are
going back out on tour. They are Yeah that Oh
my god, I'm fuck dude, Like I mean, a.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Billion years ago, I mean, they are always in some
sort of tumultuous situation where they're not talking to each other.
Now they're friends, and now this one's talking to this
Now I'm not talking. It's the brother thing, you know,
and then and then, but now you know, they're together.
They got the band back together, and they're they got
dates there going on the road.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
You guys should reunite, you know, open, free, open for
each other. That's awesome. That's fun, man, that's good for
you too.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
I've seen some videos.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Oh yeah, yeah, big voice, Oh it's big. Yes, this
is It's been so great for her her.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
You know, she's accomplished, you know, so much as an
actor and a businesswoman, and singing is always something that
she loved to do but was afraid to do. And
Kate's not really afraid of much, but she faced those fears.
She said, fuck it, let's go.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
You know. I think she financed some of it herself.
I could be wrong about that, I don't know, but
she just put her money where her mouth was literally
and just crushed it. I mean, she is. Her album
is great, you know. Her voice is big and real
and gritty, and we've seen her multiple times and it's
just been really fun for her and for us to
(41:38):
sort of watch her fulfill.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Do you have any musical anything. Do you play any
instruments or.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Don't play any instruments? My biggest regret, honestly is I
wish I played instruments. Yeah, I make the joke like
I don't know. Dad left when I was a kid,
but you know, really what I.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
Hate him for is he just didn't teach me the guitar,
you know, I mean, and that's the bummer.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
I love music. I love to sing. I can sing, you.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Know, but no, I mean I don't. I don't have
any sort of real aspirations, you know.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
But kids.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Rio, my daughter is like a performer through and through
and through. I mean, it's nuts.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
She's just she's eleven and she loves to sing, and
she takes you know, hours of dance class every week.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
And she does plays. I mean, she's just I don't know,
I don't know where she came from. Dude.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
She's like sets her alarm at six twenty in the morning,
she's dressed, she's ready, she makes her own lunch. You know,
we're still in bed, and Rio's like ready to roll,
ready to go. I mean, she's extremely self sufficient. Her
executive functioning is better than mine. She's she's amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
All my kids are great. They all want to be actors.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Wilder, my oldest just finished his first acting class, which
is an adult acting class, which was good.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I want him to be with adults. He loved it.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Body my middle kid, when he's now fourteen, When he
was ten, he actually did a pilot that I did
sitcom and he auditioned for it. I thought it was
just going to be a guest spot, but apparently it
was a regular. So he tested for the network, tested
for the studio, and got the gig. And so everyone's
sort of dabbling into it, you know what I mean,
(43:21):
They're all they're all on that on the path.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Anyway, maybe I'll see them in my travels. Maybe I'll
have a show they come in for. That'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Oh my gosh, well we need to how about us, like,
let's fucking do something to do? Are you in La now?
I'm in La. I live in La.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
I live in Brentwood, And yeah, you got your Universal deal?
What is your deal at Universal? Is it like a
first look or an exclusive deal?
Speaker 3 (43:44):
No, it's an overall. I've got an overall a long time.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
So you got to go there first though, before anything.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
No, I mean NBC Universal you basically, Yeah, there are
NBC's the mother Ships. So you pitched that, pitched a peacock. Yeah,
they don't want it, and they don't want everything. Yeah,
you go everywhere.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
So yeah, I've had this deal at Fox now for
a couple of years. We're in our second year and
it's been so fun. It is like sort of reinvigorated
my creativity, you know, as you know, as an actor,
you're only as creative as the script that you're given
and the material, and then you're waiting and auditioning for
that gig.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Where this is you're controlling your own destiny.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
And you know, we've sold a bunch of shows we're
in development, and a bunch of comedies and dramas, and
it's just so much fun.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
I love it, really do. Well.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
You just said it. One of the reasons I didn't
love acting is you have to wait for somebody to
call you. And yeah, it's like magician, I can make
my own work.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
I can work for other people.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
How much does your experience growing up sort of factor
into you as a parent?
Speaker 1 (44:53):
And you this is your second time around, right, you
have other kids? Third?
Speaker 4 (44:57):
Okay, so how have you seen how have you at
least upon reflection, if you ever have.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Evolved as a dad? I'm old. Did you do it
differently when you were young? Yes?
Speaker 3 (45:13):
It wasn't good. I mean you weren't good. No, I
was twenty one.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
You were twenty one when you and your first kid.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
I was nineteen when I met my first wife. She
had an eight year old. So there's a human being
out there who's eleven years younger than me.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
I called the dad who I raised.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
And we had two kids by the time I was
twenty five, and so I have like real grown up Yeah.
And I got married from second time, like fifteen years later,
and that marriage didn't last very long, but a beautiful
daughter who's twenty five now. And then I met Tracy,
(45:51):
my wife or life. I've been married to over twenty
years and we have a great marriage. But we have
four more kids. So I got a lot of kids
and Thanksgiving lot of people and hey, they bring people.
Yeah yeah, but how am I better? Uh? More patient,
more understanding, less fearful. I've watched the arc of how
(46:15):
they change. You know, when my my girls stopped talking
to me at fourteen, that's normal. They come back to
me at sixteen and then I'm wonderful again, and so
I am lest I think by that stuff.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
Yeah, but you're gonna take it as personally right, No,
I dude, I know what you mean. I you know
my seventeen year old, fourteen year old, you know, they
go through these things.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
I'm like, what the fuck happened to you?
Speaker 4 (46:41):
Like you two years ago you were not getting out
of my bed and you were saying, dad, can you
please cuddle?
Speaker 1 (46:47):
And now it's over. I'm non existent. But you can't
take that personally. They'll be back. Yeah, yeah, you just can't.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I talk to my twenty five year old daughter almost
every day. We're really close and our son, our oldest son,
not my oldest son, but our oldest son, went to
college last year as a baseball player. Six five is
a big guy and a really really good athlete, and
I'm just loving the experience of seeing him become a man, yeah,
(47:23):
and sharing it with his mom, which in experience I
never had. And I never had an adult relationship with
my father because he passed.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
Away so young.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
So my son, my oldest son, is going to be
forty this year, was one of my closest friends. And
it's an amazing relationship because in his case, I'm a
very young dad.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Most of us don't have a dad as young as
I am.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
In my thirteen year old daughter's case, I'm the old dad.
Speaker 4 (47:49):
So yeah, wow, you you run a really I mean,
there's probably not a lot like you out there.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
As far as.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Your friend Euselli, I'm a romantic.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
And no, no, no, I get it. I get it.
I get it. Wow. That's really really cool. And your
relationships have just sort of flourished with all your kids,
like you've maintained that connection that love. It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
Christmas and Thanksgiving it really fun.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
You ever thought about writing something? I mean, it's so different.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Well I do.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
I think I just disguised a great family story in there.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Writing a feature right now, a little side thing about
a guy who's been married three times with kids from
three different ones.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
And yeah, most of them are adults.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
All of them movie, I think are adults.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's it's such a great deep
there's so much to explore in all those relationships. I mean,
it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
It's so fast though, that's the thing. It's like, it's
just I know people say when you're a little kid,
you know, yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
It's just it's a rocket ship. Look at you.
Speaker 4 (49:05):
No, I'm experiencing that right now, man, Like you know
all the things that our parents told us, well, hey,
you know, take advantage of this or don't forget this
or remember this time. And I mean, now as you
get older, that's that shit is true. I said it
to my kids and they're like, oh, I'm like, don't
I know what you're gonna do, But trust me because
(49:26):
I can't even believe it. My kid's going to go
to college and that was my little butter ball when
he's out of his room. I'm an emotional human, like
I'm going to be devastated.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Oh buddy, it's toy story four.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
You'll walk around the house and you'll see his little stuff.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Can and it's it's like a death.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
They don't tell you that either when you're to college. Yeah,
just like it's really an adjustment. And we have another
one about to go this year. Then they'll just be
the two girls here years though, you know, empty nest.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Oh gosh, no, I no, no, you're right.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
It is like a death because you know, when I
put myself, you know, just project myself into that moment
and you walk by his room and all the stuff
is still there, but he's just not there anymore.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's still like, oh, oh my god, Wilder. Even though
it wasn't chatty Kathy all the time, I was like,
he was just there and it felt good, you know,
and now it's gone. It's crazy. It's crazy, dude.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
But it does make you realize, you know, having kids,
for me, really put into perspective how much my parents
love me. And instead of taking that for granted, once
I had kids, I'm able to sort of appreciate it more.
You know, when they look at you, Mom looks at you,
(50:53):
and it's look, I just love you so much. They
get emotional watching you do something and.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
You're like, what is going on? Like what? Yeah, now
I understand that fully, you know. I'm sure mom's looking
at me like I cannot believe you're forty eight years old.
I mean, I'm sure she's also bursting with pride.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
Yes, well, dude, this has been fun, Sean. Thank you
for coming on, buddy, and it's been great to reconnect, honestly.
Speaker 3 (51:21):
Like it's the reason I did it.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
I see you. I was very excited to see you talk. Dude.
Speaker 4 (51:26):
You look amazing by the way you look like. I
think you've gotten younger. You look fucking great.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Maybe I'm less stressed than I was.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah, No, it's true. You look great. You look great
for you. Yeah, and then maybe we can I don't know,
hopefully when you reconnect, maybe in the new year.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
But we can take a little drive up to the
wine country. I love it wine by the way. Oh
my wife will kill me if I don't mention it.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got my first crush.
Speaker 3 (51:49):
Yeah, my crush dot com. We make a war. Two rows, Santa.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Rina Hills Grapes, Yep, Sam's cart backyard.
Speaker 3 (51:59):
So come on up, we'll share some more.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
My first crush. Let's do it. Buy it? Yeah, I
want to drink that. Let's do it. I would love
to all your family from you too. Brother. It's great
talking to you man.
Speaker 4 (52:10):
All right, Buddy shodcast man, it's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
He looks great.
Speaker 4 (52:16):
That was really really fun, really really fun to talk
to him. We had a blast doing that show. He is,
you know, a very talented writer.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
You know. It just seems, honestly right.
Speaker 4 (52:29):
Now, just very content and I I'm happy for him
and his family and what a guy.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
All Right, I'm out of here. Piece
Hi. I am Kate Hudson and my name is Oliver Hudson.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We wanted to do something that highlighted our.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Relationship and what it's like to be siblings. We are
a sibling.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Railvalr No, no, sibling. You don't do that with your mouth, revelry.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
That's good.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
My man, Sean Cassidy, who I have known for a
minute now, is in the waiting room.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
He uh produced, created.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
A show but I still think could have been a hit.
And he danced with my mom. He's a superstar.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Uh bring him in. Let's see what the hell is this
fucking guy's doing now, because it's been a minute since
I've seen this. Dude, Look at you, Look at you. No, no,
look at you, look at you. This is crazy, dude.
I haven't seen you in so long.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
It was a little unnerving.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Actually how long how long has it been?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I mean almost twenty years.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I think this fucking nuts. It's a quick trip. I
just I don't know. It's scary sometimes.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You know, I got three kids now, and they're all
older seventeen and fourteen.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And then it's just like before you even know it,
we're just dead, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Hopefully we have some fun along the way.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
We do We do well. How are you? Number one?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I'm great. I have a few kids of my own.
We have I guess four kids. Maybe since I've seen you,
maybe that possible. Maybe. Yes, we have a nineteen year old,
eighteen year old, sixteen year old, and a thirteen year old.
And we live in the wine country of Santa Barbara,
(02:13):
which is a beautiful place to live and raise kids.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Wow. You lucky, man, I love it.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
How is Aaron?
Speaker 4 (02:20):
She's great, man, she's great. We have three seventeen, fourteen, eleven,
and yeah, things are pushing along very nicely, you know,
not without his bumps and a few little bruises, but
that's to be expected, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
But the fact that we've maintained for twenty plus years, Yeah,
it's pretty good, dude, It's pretty good. You know. I'm
still in this business, believe it or not. I'm still an.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Actor, but I'm producing. I have a deal at Fox,
so it's been really fun doing that. Doing this has
been a blast. And just hustle up money any way
I can. You know, I'll sell my.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Soul just it just depends on the price. That's kind
of where I'm at, you know, how long have you
been doing this podcast? Well? Shit, four years now five.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah, we were kind of when we started there was
nine hundred thousand podcasts and we're like, holy fuck, you know,
and this is when sort of Dax was blowing up,
and of course you've got Rogan and all those guys now.
But and we're like, oh, it's it's there's so many
people now. Of course there's six plus million podcasts out there,
so you know.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It's it's been fun though.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
It's been fun to reconnect with my sister and do
something together creatively. It's there's been iterations of it, you
know what I mean, Like she's been busy as she
is nice sort of take over. But I dig it, man,
I dig it. I like talking, I like getting to.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Know I think I would enjoy it as well. You
have one, don't you?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
No, I don't. I've been asked to them. But I
found the fact that there were six million already a
little daunting, and I thought, well, podcast, but when I
like the people who are hosting them, there's something interesting
to talk about. I think it's fun and I don't
(04:18):
listen to too many. I don't either, by the way,
I've been doing this forever. I don't listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
There's a great one called the five Hundred Songs of
Rock and Roll, History of Rock in five hundred songs,
where this man goes so deep dive on the connective
tissue of different songs and musicians play on records and
the songs that inspired the song, and the song the
(04:46):
songs that were ripped off. Sympathy for the Devil has
like a six hour podcast just on it. Wow. But
I'll listen to that because I just I tend to
know some of the people. And it's great when you're
on a hike you can just go for hours.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, now, I yeah, I know. It's great. It's great
to put the to put the earbuds in and just
sort of roll, you know, and you can lose yourself
in them. For sure.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I just I feel like there's so much more I
can do. And by the way, when I when I
walk in and when I run, I don't like, I
don't like to listen.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I I that's the time for my thoughts. Yeah, for sure,
you know, that's the time to sort of plan my
next strike.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
It's so funny. I was just talking to Mom. I
literally just got off the phone with Mom to come
on with you, and she's like.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Oh, tell Shoan, I say, hi, Oh my god. We
sang together. You know what was that? What did you
guys sing?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Was it a variety show your mom hosted? Had a
special only Han special And they asked if I'd come on,
and we sat at a piano and she sang you
below to somebody else, you below to me saying a
(06:02):
little like, uh, valid version of the do run run
against that? Uh. Mom was and is adorable and I
had a crush on her, like everybody in the world,
I think, And it was really sweet. It was really
and you know what's interesting. I was thinking about this too,
passage of time. I was in Hawaii with your mom
(06:26):
when she was pregnant with Kate. Oh wow, she and
your dad you were already here and you were a
little kid, and you when you were born, you had
some health challenges.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
D yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I had maconium aspiration. Back in the day, they just
let you cook in there until you came out. You know,
I was in there for three weeks too long, and
I basically, you know, ate ship and almost died. I
mean Essentially, I took a dump in the boom and
couldn't hold it and I inhaled it.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
I think you were in Hawaii too, right, kid, But
she was very pregnant, and I think this was after
we'd already done that special. We had mutual friends when
we went a little group, and you know, I knew
your dad and your uncles.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
We used to play cards together and actual, oh yeah,
a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And I think that I think they opened for me
in a couple of shows here in the Anything.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Yeah, amazing, No, I know when so my dad, you know,
we've talked about this. We had sort of a tumultuous
relationship and talked about the early Time show. But we've
reconnected again, which has been actually really nice.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Good.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
But that dude likes to gamble. I mean he still
goes and plays poker like five times a week in Ventura,
you know. And it's funny because oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
when I was I don't play cards much anymore, but
I got hooked on poker.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I was addicted to I loved it so so much.
I had a poker in my old house.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I play a commerce, I played hustler, I played in
WBT events, I played in World series of Poker events
where I I busted on the first hand on TV
on ESPN. That's a whole other story. And then when
I reconnected with my dad and it was just really
interesting to apple, Yeah, look at a man who I
(08:16):
didn't really know that well and reconnect with someone who
is so similar to me in so many ways, not
just poker, but kind of his philosophies of life, the
way that he operates.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Just it also sound.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
And look like yeah, I know, I know, and then
just the tone of who he is. And when we
drank a few, we drank a bunch of beers and
like we're getting teary eyed because it was just really unreal,
you know, to see someone in front of you who's
your father, who you were, and who you emulate and
didn't realize it. And for him to see his younger
(08:51):
self essentially in me.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
It was a really uh it was a moment. It
was a moment, you know.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
But anyway, all this to say that he still plays poker.
We used to go to Seaside, Oregon and him and
his brothers would play Liar's Poker. They'd have ones out
everywhere and play Liar's.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Poker with the serial Numbers.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
They grew up in Portland, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
remember them going to a story here and there too.
We may have played Portland together.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I don't know how I met them. Again, I think
all of my friends were older than me when I
was like fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, Everyone was like in their twenties. Yeah,
but we hung out a lot back then.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Bernie Topplin is a real good pal of mine, and
Bernie produced an album for them. Yeah, And I'd know
I met Bernie when I was ten because my parents
went to see Elton John at the troupid Or and
brought Elton and Bernie back to the house. And wow,
miraculously we ended up being friends later on and stayed
friends and are still very good friends. But I remember
he produced the Hudson Brothers.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
How old were you and Elton and Bernie came to
your house?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Ten?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Do you remember that? Oh? Yeah, very well? Because I
had bought your song the forty five. I thought it
was weird.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Why are my parents a going to the Troupadour which
seemed like a young people place and they worked, but
they seemed one hundred to me?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Why are they going to see Elton John. How do
they know Elton John?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Because Elton John was a brand new thing and the
was a very big deal for Elton John. It kind
of broke him in America.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
And he was like twenty three and Bernie was like
twenty or twenty one. And apparently my father and my
mother invited them back to the house, and I think
Bernie wanted to meet my mom, and I'm pretty sure
Elton wanted to meet my brother David, who wasn't They
ended up playing around the piano, sitting around the piano
playing tunes and Bernie talked to me, what are you doing?
(10:47):
I'm music and maybe I'll play music someday. Well, good
luck Son, it was and somehow we reconnected years later,
and when I did the show The Hardy Boys, Bernie
actually a guest star on it because they called and said,
do you know any famous people? I said, well, I
know Bernie Topping, Yeah, and they said, okay, he can
come on the show. So wow, I don't know we
(11:09):
got on that, but Hudson Brothers, Burnie, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Connection then, well, I'm sure you know.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Growing up the way that you grew up in the
spotlight and your family and all that I'm sure you
have some amazing, you know stories as far as yeah, you're.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Actually anything about that, OLLI, it's a whole other world
when you grew up in a show business fanily No.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
But but here's the difference. You know, you you were
in a time where where legends were being made. You
know what I'm saying, Like nowadays.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Legends there's still like every decade, Nah, did.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
You're with Elton John at ten years old? Him playing
the piano in your house? I mean, you know what's
the equivalent. It's like, it's like Kendrick Lamar at my
house with my kids. Well, to put put this into
some this for everyone listening. So I met a million
years ago. I had I had an acting deal at
(12:04):
the WB at the time, and there was a show
called The Mountain which still to this day. And I
said this in the intro. I don't know why this
thing didn't keep going because it was so fucking great.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
So great, the cash was great.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Ah, everything was great.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Really good. And Stephanie Salvat, who I worked on the
who did the OC with Josh Schwartz.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And I still watch it. I'll still watch clips and stuff.
I'm like, man, it was so good.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
The music was a ten, you know, I remember I
discovered ray La Montaigne essentially, it was it was amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
The music was amazing.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Well, one extraordinary thing happened because they we had a
great music supervisor and Warner Brothers was feeding us new
artists like Blink one new artists time. But there was
this other artist, this band called Green Day, which had
some success and then kind of faded and had this
(13:07):
new record coming out called American Idiot, and they asked
us if we would sort of break the record on
the show to help give it some juice because they were,
you know, been in a while for Green Day whatever. Anyway,
so we're playing all these songs from American Idiot in
(13:27):
the show and it becomes their biggest record ever. Yeah,
and that was exciting, and you guys were great. It
was really fun.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
The whole thing was fun. I still haven't seen anything
like it, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
I mean, it was that WB tone that had that
soap element, but everyone was so grounded and real that
it didn't feel.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Over the top. And it was such a great story
sort of you know, semi based on some kind of
reality with Dave, you know, who is.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
The family that founded Mammoth Mountain.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Yeah, And I was just there two weekends ago in
Mammoth and I hadn't been there since I was a kid,
and it was really fun to sort of see all
the history there, knowing.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
That this is what was you know, you know, by the.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Way, David, my character Dave Carver, was named after the
guy who founded Mammoth, you know who was.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
And there's a there's.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Actually a a place on like Lift fourteen or whatever.
It's called Boundary, which I think ours was called Boundary Mountain,
but there was like a yeah, but there was a
there was a you know, like a drink spot or
a food spot called like.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
The Boundary or something like that. You know. It was
just really really cool to see.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
But anyway, yeah, I mean it was ski slopes, it
was sexy, it was fun.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
It was sort of the haves and the have not.
It was that battle. I mean, it all it's all
you wanted. Yeah, you know, mc gee did produce directed
at the Pilot. Let me ask you a question, what happened? Well,
why didn't we get picked up? It would just not
get good numbers. I mean, well it was the dying
days of the WB.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
I had something to do with it. They were having,
I think a problem just generally getting people to watch
the WB Yeah. I never know what these things. There's
so many things nothing to do with the quality of
a show. I mean, I've been really fortunate. I've gotten
a lot of shows on the air. I haven't had
too many shows that ran a long time. But you know,
I sort of gauged success by the experience, not the result,
(15:26):
and I considered them mounting a great success because I
had a fantastic experience.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Why things run and why they don't. I just came
off a show that ran five years called New Amsterdam,
really a great show, And the irony is it was
on NBC five years. I live in a relatively small
town the central coast of California, and people through the
years would say, hey, what are you working on. I'm
working on the show New Amsterdam. They'd been good for you,
(15:56):
clearly had not seen it. Show was canceled. Netflix picks
it up. It becomes the number one show in the world. Suddenly, Hey, everybody,
that New Amsterdam.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's a heck give a show. Are you creating?
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Are you constantly creating and writing and developing?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Are you where you at.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
To make something every day, I don't know. I get
up and make stuff. I have to deal at Universal,
which I've had for a long time, and I have
three different.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Pilots in various stages of development right.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Now, one of which writing, two of which I'm overseeing,
and one or all or none may see the light
of day. But that's business, and I've been I started
performing again. I hadn't. I hadn't performed asconcert was in
nineteen eighty at the Astrodome in Houston. I said good
night and like mu zoom, and then didn't do another
(16:56):
show until like twenty twenty. But I decided, weirdly terrible
timing in the middle of the pandemic to go out
and like tell stories and sing some songs that people
of a certain name I know, and it kind of
caught fire. It did really well. So I'm going to
keep trying to do that as a little side hustle
because it's fun, fun, fun.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah. So where did you actually grow up? Where were
you born and raised?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
I was born in LA at Saint John's Hospital, Santa Monica.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Wow. I grew up.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
In LA and New York. My mom was a movie
actor and whenever she was in a movie, I'd be
in LA or wherever the movie was shooting. And my
father was primarily a Broadway actor musicals. If he was
in a hit show in New York, we moved to
New York. So back and forth, and I've lived.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
In both places as an adult.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
And about twelve, no more, fourteen years ago, with four
kids under seven, we moved out of LA because I
wanted to give them more time with a childhood.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah, and I'm grateful we did.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, yeah, I did. I did you know similar I
I had a similar experience. We were in Colorado for
half the year when I was growing up.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
You grew up too, right, Yeah, that where Golden and
Kurt lived. Yeah, so we were there about half the year,
you know, for a while. Then my grandmother got sick
and we had to sort of spend the rest of
the time in LA. My parents say that if Grandma
never got sick, we might have even moved there. But
I sort of followed suit. You know, when I had
my kids, I took them out of school for two years.
(18:39):
We're getting out of LA. We're going to put you
in the public school system in Basalt, and we are
going to live in the mountains and it was amazing.
I'm really really amazing and so beneficial for them. You
can see it now, you know, just the way they think,
how they operate, how they love nature.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
We have the same experience, and I you know, we
lived in a pretty fast area when we left, and
and the kids who grew up in the area we left,
we see them now and they're like, I mean, wait,
our kids are like rubes I love. I mean, they've
been around the world a bit with us, but their
(19:17):
home is here and they're grounded and they're they're amazingly
neurosis free.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah, yeah, so amazing. Nice work. Yeah, And how many
siblings did you have? Total?
Speaker 3 (19:31):
My older brother David, half brother, my father, my mom's
and I'm the oldest from Shirley Jones. And two younger brothers, Patrick,
who was also an actor and runs a theater now
and outside of Nashville, and youngest brother, Ryan, is a
set decorator.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Does everyone was everyone in the business? Every single one?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah? Pretty much? Not my kids, No, not yet. I
had three older ones. I mean they're behind the scenes
a bit, but no, we'll see.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
But you didn't know anything else, right, I mean I'm
relating this to myself, like, you know, we didn't know
anything else, and now that Kate has kids, I have kids.
Why it has kids? Like, there's a lot of grandkids
in slash cousins. They all want to be in the
business because it's all that they know. I mean, essentially,
was that kind of how it worked for you growing up?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Yeah? I thought about this a lot on reflection. I mean,
it's funny, you know people the nepo baby thing, people
talking about it. I have no issue with that because
I know a lot of nepo babies and other business.
You know, Dad owned the hardware store. You learned about hardware,
and you took over the hardware store. Mom owned the
vet clinic, and now you're the veterinarian running. I think
(20:50):
it's great schooling if that's what you are passionate about.
And like you, in our case, we grew up that's
all we saw. Well, we kind of knew how to
do it by osmosis. But I don't really think if
had I grown up in a family that wasn't in
the business, I ever would have become an actor. And
(21:10):
I just sort of like I was kind of eighteen
years old. Cute kid could walk and talk at the
same time. So I ended up on a television show.
But I'm doing the television show. I'm like the writer's room.
That's where the magic hap. I was like on to that.
It was like, Oh, that's what I need to be doing.
And I don't really love the life of being a
public figure. I liked sitting alone in a room thinking
(21:33):
and making the stuff up. I was the most reluctant
famous person, and some of the choices I made reflect that,
because I was offered all kinds of things that probably
would have been great if you wanted a big I didn't.
I just want the minute I became famous, it was like, Okay,
I'm not going to be known as his son or
her son or his brother or whatever. I'm going to
(21:54):
be known as me now, and now I'm going to
go hide in my room for like ten years about
what I really.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Want to do.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
That's what I did, and I love writing, I love producing,
and only again in recent years I've been like, I
guess I can go on the stage again and you know,
jokes and sing and now I really enjoy it. But
I don't have the burning, you know, the hole that
so many performers have love me, But what was.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
It like growing up in that kind of a spotlight
because it wasn't dissimilar obviously to what I went through,
your mom and your dad and all of that, you know.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I mean, it's always double edged.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
It's a fun, you know, energetic, big lifestyle, but at
the same time, you know, for me, you know, there
is some desire to not have your parents be known
and personally for me, I didn't like when when when
people would come up to my mom when I was
a kid, you know, we're having dinner and they'd come up,
(22:52):
and it would like bother me, you know, because.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
She's my mom and you know, this is when I
was little, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
But your mom, who I watched have that experience more
than once, was always very gracious. She's very really gracious
and a lovely, lovely lady and very unshow busy. Like
my mom is like one of the most grounded people
you'll ever meet. And she taught me by example how
you treat people in public. And she always talked about,
(23:26):
you know what, really this was just our job. In fact,
my parents used to say, we're just here in LA
for the movie or the TV show. Don't worry we're
going to be living on a farm in Pennsylvania, because
they were both these coast people. My dad was from
New York, she was in Pennsylvania, and they were like
always talking about we're going to go back, We're going
to live in the country.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Dad wants to be wrighter.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So that never happened, but somehow that message like went
into me and I am basically living the life my
parents talked about mattering but weren't able to actually get
to themselves. And I've thought about that, but I've also
thought about what you were saying. And in terms of
like if people feel they own your parents, yeah, often
(24:09):
at your expense. It can be hard. And I recently
did this, oh actually sidebar about wine because somebody gave
me a bottle of your oh gogy ye maybe. Well,
there's one called Goldie. It's a chardonnay and the Kurt makes.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
All the wine and Senrita Hills and it's a it's
a pino and it's.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Really it's fucking good man. There's like ten vintages, twelve
vintages of them.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
We make one too here I'll tell you about in
a second.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
But yeah, uh.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Oh, in terms of like feeling that like ownership of
your parent. I was. I was doing this event for
Turner Classic Movies, and they were talking to me about
my career and my mom and my dad, and I
introduced a movie she'd made called The Courtship of Vetti's
Father that she did with ron Howard, and she worked
(24:59):
with Ronnie twice. I'm the music man and this, and
I was on the set of both of these when
I'm like four years old, and I remember being jealous
of Ronnie Howard because he was playing her son, and
everybody's thought was her son because of the movies, and
I'd forgotten I actually felt that way. I only seen
(25:19):
the movie there, I go, oh, because I've seen ron.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Over the years since.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Yeah, but it's an interesting, weird looked feeling pride parent.
Isn't my mother beautiful? That people really love her? Isn't
that awesome? But I wish we just had this time ourselves.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah? Yeah, no, for real.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
I mean I can completely relate to that, you know.
And then as you get older, as I got older,
there's so much pride in the icon that is my mother,
you know, whereas before it was maybe a rejection because
of an underdeveloped brain. Divorce and needing all of her attention,
(26:02):
you know, maybe from an unhealthy place too, then growing
up dealing with my own shit and understanding and being
so prideful of how of what an icon she is
and what she has done, you know, for her industry
as a woman, you know, and even beyond that, you know,
mental health and children. So you know, it's it's funny
(26:23):
how you go from one place and then sort of
end up, you know, end up.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
We are where I am right now.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
You know, my mom's a great example of it's not
about the success you achieve, it's what you do with it. Yeah,
and Kurt is a pretty inspiring guy too. I think
only met him once. But I I worked at Disney
for a long time. I had an office, actually I
Walt Disney's office, believe it or not, for like four years. Wow,
(26:51):
just dumb luck. Yeah, I ended up in there and
I used to give tours. This is where Walt gave
notes on Pinocchio and in the matter. Kurt Russell's picture
was all over the place at Disney. And when I
was a little kid, he was the Disney guy. And
the fact that he you know, transformed himself and went
(27:14):
way beyond that as an actor.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Pretty impressive. Oh yeah, oh god, yeah. And he's having
a major resurgence right now. It's just right working his
ass off. What was it dynamic? Like sibling dynamic growing up?
You know, as you guys were getting older. I mean,
was it fun? Did you have fun? Was there fighting?
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I mean especially just you're on the road, you know,
I mean your move and you're shaking, Like how did
that all pan out?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
It changed? I mean our father died when I was eighteen,
Patrick was fourteen, Ryan was ten, and my brother who
were my older brother David, were estranged, which was rough,
but in a strange way, his loss bonded us. I
literally remember the day he died, the four of us
(28:02):
hugging and crying and sort of forging this like he
will live in us. It wasn't said, but that was
the feeling, and it's been an actual experience. We are
now all well, David has passed, but Patrick, Bryan and
I are all older than my dad was when he died.
We see each other and see our father, you know,
(28:23):
like the experience you had with your dad.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
You may see it in your uncles too. I don't know,
but it really validates this notion that life is continuous.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
It just sort of travels through these cars we drive
called our bodies, you know. But he's here, David here,
and my brothers. Yes, we thought Patrick and I were
the closest in age. I was the oldest brother in
the house. And Patrick was an athlete and tall and
very like hot headed. And I would torture him mentally,
(29:00):
statistically often, which he reminds me of to this day.
And Ryan was often on the sidelines trying to find
a way in.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Was there a lot of competition between the kids, you
know what I mean between the brothers.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Yeah, but we all kind of again had different lanes. Yeah, So,
I mean I couldn't throw football like Patrick. Patrick was
the quarterback at Beverly Hills High School. You know, I
was in satin pants shaking my ass at some club.
So and Ryan was very internal and thoughtful and artistic.
(29:47):
And he's kind of the historian in our family now.
He has every memento related to my father and my
parents and their careers and our lives. And David, you know,
he was an only child who my father had left,
which was sort of the core wound for him. Always
(30:09):
trying to get his approval. And my father was a
tough guy, and my father never.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
They never reconciled that huh, back.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And forth, you know. But my dad, as you know,
inspiring in many ways as he was, he was not
a good father. He was not conscious father. There was
no going to the little league game or showing up
at the open house.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
It wasn't on Broadway, okay, right? That was his priority.
His priority was his work, right.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah, I mean he was. He was a narcissist his priority, right.
But I got a lot of great stuff from him.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
No doubt, no doubt about that, you know what I mean?
And you know he was he was.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
Physically around, it seems, but just not there, right, not
even that physics, not even that right, Okay, No, he
was like a guest star in the house. He'd show right.
And is that just because he was working so much?
I mean is that really what it was?
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Often in New York?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:12):
But did he ever did your mom? Was it ever like,
you know, hey, like your kids needs you? I mean,
was there ever any chatter of that or was it just.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Like this is just what the fuck it is?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah? Probably? But my mother, I mean, my mother was
working a lot too. Yeah, you know, honestly, I was
kind of running the house. You were, Yeah, there'd be
like housekeeper around maybe and me yeah and uh and
then David when David would show up, and David would
come like on weekends when he was younger, and we
(31:43):
looked together for a year when he was eighteen and
I was ten in New York and David ended up
in a Broadway show. It was his first job, and
that was really fun. But as we got to know
each other later, as we got, you know, closer in age,
and I'm in my twenties season his late twenties, and
I also now had this very similar experience because David
was a big pop star and eaty star off the
(32:05):
Partridge Family, and then I had a very similar experience
to his, like seven eight years later.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
There are very few people that have had that experience.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
So to be able to talk to him about it, like,
you know, yeah, it was helpful for both of us.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
I think, how did that happen for you?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
You know?
Speaker 4 (32:25):
I mean, because the way you talk right now is like, yes,
you didn't like the fame part your soul sort of
wants to find a dark room and creates stories. But
how did this all come about is did you want
to be a performer or.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Was this just something like fuck everyone's I knew, I
said earlier, I knew how to right. It was a
way I wanted out of my house. Here's true story.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
I'll I signed a record contract when I was sixteen
while I'm in high school with Warner Brothers, and their
idea to break records for me was to record like
individual singles, put them out in various markets in Europe, Australia,
see if you can get a hit record. If you
get a hit record somewhere, then you can bring it
back to America, put it in front of the DJ
(33:14):
and it'll loop out of the pile of one hundred
that he's been given that week, you know. And I
ended up having like a number one record in Australia,
at a number one record in Germany. And I'm then
going back to high school in algebra, which was like
and then I graduated from high school. I haven't seen
any money, really, and do I go to college. Our
(33:35):
family's manager, who was like my aunt, basically said why
don't you go on some acting auditions, you know, see
if you can walk and talk at the same time. Job.
So I literally went into it like that, and my
second audition was The Hardy Boys, and I got the part,
and Warner Brothers then quickly hustled to put together the
rest of these records. So the show comes on, my
(33:56):
album comes out. It's the biggest selling solo debut in
history until Whitney Houston.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
A few years later.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Wow, a big record nominated for to Me. I opened
the words, I'm like Beyonce and the show's a big
hit and it's happened, and all I want to do
is go back to my room.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Wait a minute, wait, So when this is all going
down and you're doing.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
This is going down while you're one years old running
around on the beach in Honolulu with Kate, but are you.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Just like, oh my god, wait a minute, Like I
don't really want to be doing this, but they're pushing me.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
To do it. Me. It just scared me.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
It was like too much.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
But you had no choice, right, I mean you did
have a boy.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, I could have joined the army.
Speaker 4 (34:44):
You could have said like I don't want to do this,
I don't want to do it, but but you did.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
But I wasn't like I don't want to do this.
I just didn't have a drive to do it. I
just sort of okay, I'll try that seems like an
interesting experience. I love to sing.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, I could sing. Yeah. I wasn't a very good
actor when I started. I got better, but I.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Mean I wasn't like on some train to be an actor.
And the concerts were amazing, I mean Madison Square Garden.
Then yeah, Astrodome, fifty five thousand people. It was crazy.
But like, by the time I was twenty one, I
got married partially to escape, like I want a family,
(35:29):
bought a house, did a whole thing, and kind of
stayed home for the eighties and read books. And you know,
all my friends had gone to college. I hadn't, so
I felt like I better try and catch up. So
I ended up reading way more than they did because
they were at keg parties or whatever they were. And
then at like twenty nine, I sold my first script
(35:49):
and off I went, and I've been doing this consistently
since then.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
So wait a minute.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
You probably had an opportunity, obviously, to continue their career
that you that sort of fell on your lap, right,
and to sort of parlay that into big, big things,
and you made the choice to say, you know, what
I did the touring, I played msg hardy boys, like Okay,
(36:17):
I'm done with.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
This, yes, But also I was really fortunate my first
script I wrote it was a show called American Gothic,
which I the last acting I did was a Broadway
show called Blood Brothers with David We did it for
like over a year and a half on Broadway, and
in the day I'd already had it gotten a little
office at Universal, where I still am, weirdly, and I
wrote the script called American Gothic that became a series.
(36:40):
Sam Raimi produced it with me, and Wow starred Gary Cole.
Sarah Paulson's first job had a great cast and became
like the darling of the nineteen ninety four TV season
Beautiful in the New York Times. So suddenly I'm like
a new kid, and people the show was very dark,
(37:01):
and my image had been very light, you know, buenex Door,
so that people couldn't quite get their head around how
those two things went together. And I was off and
running now and I've been doing the job happily and
relatively successfully for thirty years since then. But had that
not happened when they called me to play Vegas? When
(37:23):
I'm thirty five, I would have been in Vegas playing
yeah you got to old, Yeah, Yeah, yeah family. Yeah.
But you know, I didn't want to be justin Timberlake.
I didn't want to like take the teen idol thing
and transition to be serious artists. Now. I just didn't
want to.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah. I loved what I was doing.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
I still do. Yeah at this stage in my life,
to be able to go out and tell stories, which
is primarily I mean, I sing songs and there's music.
But when people ask me, why would you go out
at this stage in your life if you never did
it all those other years, said because all those are
the years I thought i'd have to, with all respect
(38:03):
to Mick Jagger, putting on the same outfit and shaking
the way. You know, I couldn't get my head around
how do I do anything else? But I realized, oh,
storyteller thirty years.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
I can tell.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Stories that people might find interesting or funny or emotional
or whatever, and sing songs, but present the songs in
a context that is fresh, so you don't feel like
I'm just doing some old these tour.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
That's cool, that's cool. As it set up, like, are
you already doing dates? I mean, is this something I
did it for four years and stopped last year. I
did it during the pandemic, which was yeah, yeah, yeah,
just out of the blue, they called me in Mark
and Philly in Boston to do shows around the holidays on.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
So I'm thinking that maybe at the end of next.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Year I'll go out with a real tour again. How
does that feel? Man? Because as a writer, you know
that you.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
Don't get that those performing nerves, know, even as an
actor doing like shows that we do, right, I mean,
it's like you know, your rolling camera and like like
here we go. I mean, have you felt that? And
you know, I know you've been doing it for the
last four years, but what is it like to get
on stage again and feel that sort of rush better?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
It's way better.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Well again, when you're playing like a basketball arena, Yeah,
everybody's screaming, you can't really engage. You're just feeling this energy,
which is amazing. But now I can look people in
the eye and actually have interaction, talk about things that
kind are funny or meaningful or you know, hopefully interesting,
(39:41):
and have a shared experience the other You know, I'm
stupid because I'm I thought, well, I'm the only one
who's changed. It's like, no, no, the whole audience has changed.
They've a lot, we've gotten married with the wars or
head kids. So they bring something to the party too,
you know. And it's actually beautiful. It's really it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
You should call my dad because the Hudson Brothers are
going back out on tour. They are Yeah that Oh
my god, I'm fuck dude, Like I mean, a.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Billion years ago, I mean, they are always in some
sort of tumultuous situation where they're not talking to each other.
Now they're friends, and now this one's talking to this
Now I'm not talking. It's the brother thing, you know,
and then and then, but now you know, they're together.
They got the band back together, and they're they got
dates there going on the road.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
You guys should reunite, you know, open, free, open for
each other. That's awesome. That's fun, man, that's good for
you too.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
I've seen some videos.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Oh yeah, yeah, big voice, Oh it's big. Yes, this
is It's been so great for her her.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
You know, she's accomplished, you know, so much as an
actor and a businesswoman, and singing is always something that
she loved to do but was afraid to do. And
Kate's not really afraid of much, but she faced those fears.
She said, fuck it, let's go.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
You know. I think she financed some of it herself.
I could be wrong about that, I don't know, but
she just put her money where her mouth was literally
and just crushed it. I mean, she is. Her album
is great, you know. Her voice is big and real
and gritty, and we've seen her multiple times and it's
just been really fun for her and for us to
(41:38):
sort of watch her fulfill.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Do you have any musical anything. Do you play any
instruments or.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Don't play any instruments? My biggest regret, honestly is I
wish I played instruments. Yeah, I make the joke like
I don't know. Dad left when I was a kid,
but you know, really what I.
Speaker 4 (41:55):
Hate him for is he just didn't teach me the guitar,
you know, I mean, and that's the bummer.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
I love music. I love to sing. I can sing, you.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
Know, but no, I mean I don't. I don't have
any sort of real aspirations, you know.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
But kids.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Rio, my daughter is like a performer through and through
and through. I mean, it's nuts.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
She's just she's eleven and she loves to sing, and
she takes you know, hours of dance class every week.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
And she does plays. I mean, she's just I don't know,
I don't know where she came from. Dude.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
She's like sets her alarm at six twenty in the morning,
she's dressed, she's ready, she makes her own lunch. You know,
we're still in bed, and Rio's like ready to roll,
ready to go. I mean, she's extremely self sufficient. Her
executive functioning is better than mine. She's she's amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
All my kids are great. They all want to be actors.
Speaker 4 (42:51):
Wilder, my oldest just finished his first acting class, which
is an adult acting class, which was good.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I want him to be with adults. He loved it.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Body my middle kid, when he's now fourteen, When he
was ten, he actually did a pilot that I did
sitcom and he auditioned for it. I thought it was
just going to be a guest spot, but apparently it
was a regular. So he tested for the network, tested
for the studio, and got the gig. And so everyone's
sort of dabbling into it, you know what I mean,
(43:21):
They're all they're all on that on the path.
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Anyway, maybe I'll see them in my travels. Maybe I'll
have a show they come in for. That'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Oh my gosh, well we need to how about us, like,
let's fucking do something to do? Are you in La now?
I'm in La. I live in La.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
I live in Brentwood, And yeah, you got your Universal deal?
What is your deal at Universal? Is it like a
first look or an exclusive deal?
Speaker 3 (43:44):
No, it's an overall. I've got an overall a long time.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
So you got to go there first though, before anything.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
No, I mean NBC Universal you basically, Yeah, there are
NBC's the mother Ships. So you pitched that, pitched a peacock. Yeah,
they don't want it, and they don't want everything. Yeah,
you go everywhere.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
So yeah, I've had this deal at Fox now for
a couple of years. We're in our second year and
it's been so fun. It is like sort of reinvigorated
my creativity, you know, as you know, as an actor,
you're only as creative as the script that you're given
and the material, and then you're waiting and auditioning for
that gig.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Where this is you're controlling your own destiny.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
And you know, we've sold a bunch of shows we're
in development, and a bunch of comedies and dramas, and
it's just so much fun.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
I love it, really do. Well.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
You just said it. One of the reasons I didn't
love acting is you have to wait for somebody to
call you. And yeah, it's like magician, I can make
my own work.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
I can work for other people.
Speaker 3 (44:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
How much does your experience growing up sort of factor
into you as a parent?
Speaker 1 (44:53):
And you this is your second time around, right, you
have other kids? Third?
Speaker 4 (44:57):
Okay, so how have you seen how have you at
least upon reflection, if you ever have.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Evolved as a dad? I'm old. Did you do it
differently when you were young? Yes?
Speaker 3 (45:13):
It wasn't good. I mean you weren't good. No, I
was twenty one.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
You were twenty one when you and your first kid.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
I was nineteen when I met my first wife. She
had an eight year old. So there's a human being
out there who's eleven years younger than me.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
I called the dad who I raised.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
And we had two kids by the time I was
twenty five, and so I have like real grown up Yeah.
And I got married from second time, like fifteen years later,
and that marriage didn't last very long, but a beautiful
daughter who's twenty five now. And then I met Tracy,
(45:51):
my wife or life. I've been married to over twenty
years and we have a great marriage. But we have
four more kids. So I got a lot of kids
and Thanksgiving lot of people and hey, they bring people.
Yeah yeah, but how am I better? Uh? More patient,
more understanding, less fearful. I've watched the arc of how
(46:15):
they change. You know, when my my girls stopped talking
to me at fourteen, that's normal. They come back to
me at sixteen and then I'm wonderful again, and so
I am lest I think by that stuff.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
Yeah, but you're gonna take it as personally right, No,
I dude, I know what you mean. I you know
my seventeen year old, fourteen year old, you know, they
go through these things.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
I'm like, what the fuck happened to you?
Speaker 4 (46:41):
Like you two years ago you were not getting out
of my bed and you were saying, dad, can you
please cuddle?
Speaker 1 (46:47):
And now it's over. I'm non existent. But you can't
take that personally. They'll be back. Yeah, yeah, you just can't.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
I talk to my twenty five year old daughter almost
every day. We're really close and our son, our oldest son,
not my oldest son, but our oldest son, went to
college last year as a baseball player. Six five is
a big guy and a really really good athlete, and
I'm just loving the experience of seeing him become a man, yeah,
(47:23):
and sharing it with his mom, which in experience I
never had. And I never had an adult relationship with
my father because he passed.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
Away so young.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
So my son, my oldest son, is going to be
forty this year, was one of my closest friends. And
it's an amazing relationship because in his case, I'm a
very young dad.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Most of us don't have a dad as young as
I am.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
In my thirteen year old daughter's case, I'm the old dad.
Speaker 4 (47:49):
So yeah, wow, you you run a really I mean,
there's probably not a lot like you out there.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
As far as.
Speaker 3 (47:57):
Your friend Euselli, I'm a romantic.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
And no, no, no, I get it. I get it.
I get it. Wow. That's really really cool. And your
relationships have just sort of flourished with all your kids,
like you've maintained that connection that love. It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
Christmas and Thanksgiving it really fun.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
You ever thought about writing something? I mean, it's so different.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Well I do.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
I think I just disguised a great family story in there.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Writing a feature right now, a little side thing about
a guy who's been married three times with kids from
three different ones.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
And yeah, most of them are adults.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
All of them movie, I think are adults.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's it's such a great deep
there's so much to explore in all those relationships. I mean,
it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
It's so fast though, that's the thing. It's like, it's
just I know people say when you're a little kid,
you know, yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
It's just it's a rocket ship. Look at you.
Speaker 4 (49:05):
No, I'm experiencing that right now, man, Like you know
all the things that our parents told us, well, hey,
you know, take advantage of this or don't forget this
or remember this time. And I mean, now as you
get older, that's that shit is true. I said it
to my kids and they're like, oh, I'm like, don't
I know what you're gonna do, But trust me because
(49:26):
I can't even believe it. My kid's going to go
to college and that was my little butter ball when
he's out of his room. I'm an emotional human, like
I'm going to be devastated.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Oh buddy, it's toy story four.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
You'll walk around the house and you'll see his little stuff.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Can and it's it's like a death.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
They don't tell you that either when you're to college. Yeah,
just like it's really an adjustment. And we have another
one about to go this year. Then they'll just be
the two girls here years though, you know, empty nest.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Oh gosh, no, I no, no, you're right.
Speaker 4 (50:02):
It is like a death because you know, when I
put myself, you know, just project myself into that moment
and you walk by his room and all the stuff
is still there, but he's just not there anymore.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
It's still like, oh, oh my god, Wilder. Even though
it wasn't chatty Kathy all the time, I was like,
he was just there and it felt good, you know,
and now it's gone. It's crazy. It's crazy, dude.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
But it does make you realize, you know, having kids,
for me, really put into perspective how much my parents
love me. And instead of taking that for granted, once
I had kids, I'm able to sort of appreciate it more.
You know, when they look at you, Mom looks at you,
(50:53):
and it's look, I just love you so much. They
get emotional watching you do something and.
Speaker 1 (50:57):
You're like, what is going on? Like what? Yeah, now
I understand that fully, you know. I'm sure mom's looking
at me like I cannot believe you're forty eight years old.
I mean, I'm sure she's also bursting with pride.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
Yes, well, dude, this has been fun, Sean. Thank you
for coming on, buddy, and it's been great to reconnect, honestly.
Speaker 3 (51:21):
Like it's the reason I did it.
Speaker 1 (51:22):
I see you. I was very excited to see you talk. Dude.
Speaker 4 (51:26):
You look amazing by the way you look like. I
think you've gotten younger. You look fucking great.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Maybe I'm less stressed than I was.
Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah, No, it's true. You look great. You look great
for you. Yeah, and then maybe we can I don't know,
hopefully when you reconnect, maybe in the new year.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
But we can take a little drive up to the
wine country. I love it wine by the way. Oh
my wife will kill me if I don't mention it.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got my first crush.
Speaker 3 (51:49):
Yeah, my crush dot com. We make a war. Two rows, Santa.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Rina Hills Grapes, Yep, Sam's cart backyard.
Speaker 3 (51:59):
So come on up, we'll share some more.
Speaker 1 (52:01):
My first crush. Let's do it. Buy it? Yeah, I
want to drink that. Let's do it. I would love
to all your family from you too. Brother. It's great
talking to you man.
Speaker 4 (52:10):
All right, Buddy shodcast man, it's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
He looks great.
Speaker 4 (52:16):
That was really really fun, really really fun to talk
to him. We had a blast doing that show. He is,
you know, a very talented writer.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
You know. It just seems, honestly right.
Speaker 4 (52:29):
Now, just very content and I I'm happy for him
and his family and what a guy.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
All Right, I'm out of here. Piece
Hosts And Creators
Oliver Hudson
Kate Hudson
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