- 6/9/2025
Billboard cover star “Weird Al” Yankovic takes us through a day in his life and shares how his versatility has allowed him to perform on iconic stages like Coachella. The legendary parody artist opens up about his chart-topping hits on the Hot 100, teases an exciting Broadway musical in development, discusses how he prepares for tours, his collaboration with Dave Way on his Polkas, the creative process behind his parody of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” why he’s stepped back from creating parodies, and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00Hey Billboard, how you doing?
00:01I'm Weird Al Yankovic, and you'll be spending the entire day with me.
00:05But first, let's have lunch at Crossroads Kitchen!
00:21We're at Crossroads in LA.
00:23This is a place you've been coming to for a long time, right?
00:25Yeah, I mean, this is my favorite upscale vegetarian restaurant in Los Angeles.
00:29And I just remember when Impossible Burgers were a thing, there were only three restaurants
00:33in all of America that had Impossible Burgers, and this was one of them.
00:37And I was very, very excited to have an Impossible Burger here.
00:41And literally, within six months, they're selling them at White Castle.
00:44Well, it's funny to be sitting at a vegan restaurant with the king of singing about junk food.
00:50Come on, hold the wheat, all right.
00:53It doesn't matter if it's boiled or fried, just eat it.
00:57I love Rocky Road, so have another triple scope with me.
01:01It's interesting that food has been such a continuous theme in your canon, as it were.
01:06Yes, yes.
01:07Is that something that, along the way of songwriting, you realized it was just fruitful material,
01:12and it always proved to be funny? Or why did you keep coming back to it as a theme?
01:16It's just something that doesn't get covered in pop music that much.
01:20Enough, someone said.
01:21Enough.
01:22I mean, most songs are about love and relationships and things like that.
01:27And nobody writes that many songs about tacos.
01:30So I just figured somebody had to fill that vacuum.
01:34And I just thought of it in a business way, that if I wrote a lot of songs about food,
01:38then I could write off my grocery bill on my taxes.
01:41Of course.
01:42Of course.
01:43Because it's all inspiration.
01:44Yes.
01:45Completely.
01:46Oreos.
01:47Bologna.
01:48Lasagna.
01:49That's a write-off.
01:50Yes, completely.
01:51I have to say, too, having recently rewatched UHF, you eat the most disgusting-looking hot dog
01:55in the world.
01:56Was that like a real everything on it?
01:58It's a very gross-looking hot dog.
02:00Yeah, that was before I turned vegetarian, so that was a real Twinkie wiener sandwich.
02:04So I don't know how I came up with that idea, but for the uninitiated, it's a Twinkie split
02:10lengthwise with a hot dog, preferably cooked, placed inside of it, and then with spray cheese
02:17on top.
02:18Yeah.
02:19And then that's a Twinkie wiener sandwich.
02:20But for the full experience, you just take the whole thing and dunk it in a glass of milk.
02:23Yes, that happens.
02:24And I had to eat about a half a dozen of those during the filming of my movie.
02:27And I will say, it's not as bad as you think, but having said that, still not that great.
02:42Showing up at Coachella with Yo Gabba Gabba, this is just the latest of the random places
02:47that you turn up.
02:48Yes.
02:49Like, I feel like I'm constantly discovering fairly new artists who are throwing you in
02:53their videos.
02:54I mean, you recently were in Claro's Terrapin video, standing in for her singing very dramatically.
03:00You were in the Weezer Africa video.
03:03I recently saw you doing something with the Linda Lindas.
03:06I feel like this speaks to something bigger about you and your career, which is how comfortable
03:10you are in any genre situation.
03:13And that's not what I necessarily would have expected from someone who grew up playing accordion.
03:17And I think you're really ahead of your time in kind of seeing beyond genre and kind of
03:22looking at pop music in a genre-less way.
03:25Where did that mindset come from?
03:26Kind of coming up, like, what genres of music were you into?
03:29You know, I grew up listening to rock radio.
03:32So my primary interests were pop and rock and things like that.
03:37But I was interested in all genres.
03:38Lin-Manuel Miranda has a quote about how listening to my polka medleys made him understand that
03:44songs didn't have to be in any one particular genre.
03:46You can, you know, play with them and blend them and songs are their own thing and genres
03:50are kind of put upon them.
03:52I've just always liked the idea of being able to slip seamlessly, you know, from one genre
03:57to the next and to have my albums as sort of as random as possible.
04:02I like the jarring segways to go from a reggae song to a polka song to a zydeco song to a
04:07hard rap song.
04:14I was just wondering if there's like a song that comes to mind that you did that where
04:17you kind of were able to prove to yourself, oh, I can do a genre that is like kind of
04:21foreign to me, kind of not what I came up listening to, and it'll be good and people
04:25won't be judgmental.
04:26I didn't grow up like a big rap fan, but it wound up being my favorite kind of song
04:31to write because, you know, a lot of pop songs are very repetitive.
04:36They don't give you a lot of words to work with.
04:38I was like, how can I be funny in seven syllables, you know?
04:42But rap songs, I mean, nothing but words.
04:45And it's easy to craft jokes that way.
04:47And I found that that was really the kind of song I enjoyed making the most just because
04:52I had so many options.
04:56Do you listen to rap now?
05:00Do you have rappers now that you'd be interested to maybe parody?
05:03Well, certainly there's, you know, always candidates and people that would be good targets for
05:07parody.
05:08When I listen just for my own personal pleasure, I tend to gravitate towards listening to the
05:12kind of bands that I, you know, listen to in college.
05:15It's like my comfort food music, you know.
05:18So I can't say that I even really listen to that much contemporary pop these days just
05:22because I'm, you know, it's a little off the radar for me just because I'm not as focused,
05:28laser focused on doing parodies right now.
05:30But I always still appreciate it.
05:32And I love hearing new music.
05:34And my daughter kind of keeps me up to date.
05:36She keeps me modernized.
05:38There's so many comedic musicians.
05:41Is there kind of a new generation of music people who like to look up to you, who come to you for advice?
05:45Absolutely.
05:46Well, I mean, not that come to me for advice, but people that I consider my peers and people
05:50that are doing amazing work in comedy music.
05:53I love Lonely Island.
05:55They're good friends of mine, and I think they're brilliant.
05:57Same with Tenacious D, Plight of the Conchords.
06:00I think Bo Burnham is very funny.
06:02There's a lot of people doing great stuff in comedy music these days.
06:05What do you do day to day, even when you're not putting out recorded music frequently to
06:10make sure that you're keeping up with everything, both as a songwriter and as a performer?
06:14I'm gearing up for a big tour, so mostly I'm just making sure that I don't have a heart
06:19attack on stage or pass out or something, so I'm trying to get my cardiovascular up.
06:23I'm doing long walks every night.
06:24And the set list is already done, so it's not like I need to be finding new material so
06:29much for the live show.
06:30So I'm very project-oriented, and the tour's the big project that I'm gearing toward.
06:35So if I was gearing up for an album, which I'm not, then I would be more focused on the
06:41charts and pop radio and things like that, and really trying to figure out, put my finger
06:47back on the zeitgeist and figure out what I should be doing.
06:50But right now, I'm just more concerned with making sure I'm able to put on the best show
06:55as possible and still do 75 dates and not somewhere in the middle of it just collapse.
07:02Since you mentioned the charts, I do have to say one way in which you've had a very unique
07:06career is, I mean, you've had songs on the Hot 100 in each decade of your career, which
07:11is, it's a long career at this point, so that's kind of crazy.
07:14Is that something that you've been aware of as your career has gone by?
07:18I've always been obsessed with the Billboard charts.
07:20Nice to hear.
07:20Every time I was a college DJ, we had the Hot 100 and the Billboard charts taped on the
07:25walls of the studio, and it was something I looked at every day and just thought, oh,
07:28maybe someday, you know.
07:31Every time I put out something, I think, oh, it would be great if this made it on the charts,
07:34but, I mean, the primary thing is just to put out something that I think is good and
07:38funny that people enjoy, but, yeah, being on the charts is something I do get a big kick
07:42out of.
07:43I was curious to what extent the songs of yours that have become hits, which aren't always
07:48based on hits or sometimes based on kind of novelty songs themselves that your parodies
07:53have then made last longer, I think, how much the hits are kind of, the hits of yours are
07:58self-selecting in that they're songs that, you know, the artists have given you permission
08:02to do, and therefore you get to kind of run with them, or if it had to do with you observing
08:08how things were doing on the charts and seeing something that was on the way up and looked
08:12interesting to play with.
08:14Well, it's both.
08:14I mean, mostly it's, you know, first I figure out what I would most like to do and what I
08:20think would have the biggest impact, and the fans would, you know, respond to the most.
08:25And then if I can come up with a good idea for that particular song, I can't always come
08:29up with a great idea for every song.
08:31I can come up with a hundred bad ideas, but I'm looking for the one good one.
08:35But if I do find that one good idea, then I will approach the artist.
08:39If I know that artist personally, I'll approach them directly, and if not, I'll have my peeps
08:43talk to their peeps and work it out.
08:45But I always get their permission and their blessing every single time, whether legally I
08:50need to or not.
08:51And most of the time you get permission, right?
08:53I have a pretty good track record.
08:54I'd say like 97, 98% of the time, they'll say yes.
08:59And when they say no, it's a shame, but then I will just back away and not do that.
09:05I mean, my track record is a lot better since the second album came out, because after Michael
09:09Jackson, that was like the big stamp of approval.
09:13Then people were like, oh, I guess you're okay.
09:15I mean, do you feel like pop music now, as far as what you know of it, has more of a sense
09:20of humor less than it did in kind of your heyday?
09:23You know, pop music's always changing.
09:25That's what it does.
09:26That's its nature.
09:27It's hard to articulate exactly how, like over the decades it's changed, but I don't think
09:31it's any more or less taking itself seriously or funny than it was in any previous decade.
09:38It just continues to evolve.
09:39I mean, maybe not the artists themselves, but I feel like fandoms have become such a
09:44huge part of pop music, and fandoms can be quite serious and have very little sense of
09:49humor about anything perceived as a slight towards their favorite artists.
09:54So I wonder what the environment of today would be like for a musician like you, but
10:01at the same time, you seem to get a pass for like everything, because everyone loves you
10:04so much.
10:04Yeah.
10:04I mean, there's always going to be the contrarians.
10:06I mean, I think nearly everybody understands, certainly at this point, that what I do is
10:11done in good fun, and it's done from a place of admiration and homage.
10:15Completely, yeah.
10:16And, you know, I remember when I did Smells Like Nirvana, I would get a few letters from
10:21Nirvana bands saying like, how could you do that?
10:23How could you do that?
10:24And I had to explain, Kurt loved it.
10:26I got his permission.
10:27He was fine with it.
10:28Why aren't you fine with it?
10:29It's sort of a different time.
10:36Like, you didn't have to be a grunge fan to know who Nirvana was.
10:40Everything seems so much more fractured now, I think, in terms of like the pop culture people
10:45consume in general and what pop music is like.
10:48I mean, do you feel like lucky in a way to have really come up as an artist at a time
10:53when like everyone was listening to Top 40 radio and it was such a thing in everyone's
10:57lives?
10:58Oh, totally.
10:58I mean, that's one of the reasons why I'm not so much focused on parodies right now is
11:02because I long for the days of the monoculture where everybody was aware of what was big
11:07on the charts.
11:08Yeah.
11:09And now things have gotten very fragmented.
11:11Everybody's into their own specific subgenre and they're listening to just exactly that
11:16little niche kind of music that they're into, which is good in a way, I guess, because
11:20you know, it's nice for people to have choices, but for a parody artist like me, it's nice
11:25for everybody to be familiar with the same material so that I don't have to figure out
11:29like, well, what is a hit anymore?
11:31You know, certainly there are big hits and there are superstars and all that, but it's
11:35not as overwhelming as it was, say, in the 80s when everybody watched MTV, everybody kind
11:42of like knew what the big videos were, who the big stars were, what the big hits were.
11:50A bigger question I have about your career is how you became this performer, because being
11:57someone who does wonderful recorded music and especially your recordings and the sort
12:02of precision and like layered approach that goes into making them, that does not equate
12:07to you being an amazing live performer too.
12:09It's hard work and sacrifice, living in an obvious paradise.
12:14I mean, those are two, to me, separate skill sets.
12:17When did you kind of get the actual performance bug and how did you work on becoming someone
12:23who could really hold like a big theater and hold a stage on his own?
12:26It's an odd career path that I've chosen because I'm not a person that really loves being the
12:32center of attention, you know, so being on stage is sort of the opposite of that.
12:36But it's something that I've done since I was a small child.
12:39I did talent shows in high school.
12:41I did the coffee house in college.
12:44And it was just something that I enjoyed and I got more comfortable over the years.
12:51I mean, I watched old videos of myself and I could see, you know, how cringey I was, you
12:57know, when I was a teenager or when I was in college performing.
13:00And then right around 1985, I think, I could see, oh, this is when I got a little bit of
13:04confidence, you know, when I finally realized, oh, people actually like what I do and I should
13:09like, you know, maybe not be so inside my own head all the time.
13:15But when you go into tour prep mode, besides the physical part of things, what else are
13:21you doing to get ready?
13:23Like, are you someone who rehearses a lot?
13:26How does the sort of creative ideation of like what the show is going to be?
13:30I'm an over preparer.
13:31I came up with a set list about a year ago.
13:34Oh, wow.
13:35And I gave the band their marching orders.
13:38They said, here's the set list.
13:39Here's your charts.
13:40Here's the demos.
13:41Here's what we're doing.
13:42Here are the rehearsal dates.
13:43I've never played Madison Square Garden before.
13:45Never played the Forum in L.A. before.
13:47I have played Red Rocks a couple of times, which is always a blast.
13:50But yeah, I mean, it feels a little ironic because it's been almost 11 years since my last
13:54studio album and I'm playing bigger places than I've ever played in my life.
13:57And thankfully, I still love touring.
13:59It's my favorite part about what I do.
14:01So I feel extremely lucky to be able to do a tour like this.
14:05I'm under the impression you're someone who is not against a lot of fan interaction.
14:09You like talking to fans.
14:10Like, do you always make time for some fan interaction stuff when you're touring?
14:15Absolutely.
14:16Absolutely.
14:16I try to avoid people at airports that are obviously, you know, trying to, like, sell
14:21autographs on eBay.
14:23Yes.
14:24But if they're actual fans, I've got all the time on the World Forum because, you know,
14:27I really love and appreciate my fans.
14:29And, you know, I try to make every interaction a good one.
14:33Well, when I was a kid, you know, if I went up to a famous person and asked for their autograph,
14:37if they were dismissive or if they were rude, I remember that the rest of my life, you know?
14:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:41And just, like, 10 seconds can, like, determine how you feel about that person forever.
14:46So I always have the back of my mind is, like, you know, every time you meet somebody, be
14:51the best version of yourself.
14:52If you're tired, try not to look tired, you know?
14:55Just, like, really be, you know, open and engaging and make that person feel good.
14:59I mean, I'm wondering, this tour seems like it could be a springboard for, like, so much
15:05more.
15:06And it's obviously going to inspire so many more people to be listening to your music.
15:10Like, are there thoughts you have about what might come after it?
15:13Have you ever thought about doing a Vegas residency before?
15:16Well, we're doing sort of a mini Vegas residency with this tour.
15:19With the tour, yeah.
15:20Starting with a week at the Venetian.
15:22It's nothing that I would discard as an idea, but, I mean, it would have to make sense.
15:28I mean, also, I'm sure Lin-Manuel has bothered you about this, too.
15:31I feel like something on Broadway could make sense at some point, just because you have such
15:35a natural sense of storytelling and song.
15:38Thoughts?
15:38Well, I will say that's something that's been on my mind and on my bucket list for a long
15:44time.
15:44And I will say that we are in the very, very, very beginning stages of talking about a Broadway
15:49musical, like a Weird Al jukebox musical.
15:53Oh, my God.
15:53And I don't think I can really say more than that.
15:55But, I mean, you know how Broadway works.
15:57So in 10 to 20 years, hopefully it'll be in previews.
16:00Lots of workshops, yes.
16:01Yeah.
16:12Now we're here at the Way station.
16:14That doesn't stand for Weird Al Yankovic station.
16:17This is the home studio of Dave Way, the brilliant engineer who mixed my last album, Mandatory Fun.
16:24Let's go inside, shall we?
16:30So we're here now at Way Station Studio with Dave Way and Al, who have worked together on
16:40many occasions before.
16:41But tell me a little bit about your history together and the work you've done here together.
16:45Well, Dave is an old family friend, for one thing.
16:48Our wives go way, way back.
16:51And for the first three decades of my career, I worked with an engineer named Tony Papa, who
16:55was with Scotty Brothers.
16:57But it got to the point where it made more sense to work with Dave just because, for many
17:02reasons.
17:03I mean, he's one of the top engineers in the world.
17:05He's got his own home studio.
17:06And he's more of a Pro Tools guy.
17:08And Tony, gotta love him, he's great.
17:10But he was, you know, sort of an analog producer.
17:13So this was sort of everything I ever wanted.
17:15And I got to work with my old friend Dave.
17:17And we've been working together since it's been very fun.
17:20I mean, you've worked with such a variety of musicians.
17:22Like, what is working with Al like comparatively?
17:25I would imagine it's refreshing and different in a great way.
17:28Well, A, it's always fun.
17:29The thing that impresses me the most working with Al, and I tell this to other people, is
17:33like, he is so prepared and knows exactly what we're going to do from the minute he walks
17:39in the door.
17:40You did Polkomania, which is your most recent, like, big single release here.
17:44Guy like it really rough, guy.
17:46Just can't get enough, guy.
17:47Just don't waste a fuck, guy.
17:49I would love for you to take us through, I guess, a couple songs.
17:52We're going to talk about Polkomania first.
17:55Recording a polka of yours seems like a very unique puzzle to put together, I guess.
18:00It seems like because the recording itself seems to me like it must have to be a big
18:04one-take thing.
18:04And it's like a train that takes off.
18:06And you go to the finish.
18:08So what is that process like, since it's so specific?
18:11It's, you know, it is sort of like recording 12 songs all at once.
18:14I guess in the old days we didn't do it this way, but for the last few polka medleys, we
18:18do it to track, meaning there's a tempo map, which I create in the demo, and that's the
18:24same tempo map that we use for the actual recording.
18:28So thankfully my band is very talented and they can follow this wildly, you know, jarring
18:34segues and different tempo changes, and we try to stick to that.
18:38And we recorded the rhythm tracks in this room, and then all the horns were overdubs.
18:44And it's a party.
18:46Yeah, it is.
18:47And it goes by fast.
18:48I mean, it's chock full.
18:50Like Al is, A, so prepared.
18:53Like just that tempo map that he mentioned is like, you know, you can see it on the screen
19:00here.
19:01You know, there are so many little minute changes going all through, what, how long is
19:06it?
19:07Five minutes or something?
19:08Four on this one.
19:08Four, yeah.
19:09And it's, you know, very particular and the band just kills it.
19:17And then we just start stacking stuff on top of it.
19:20A lot of vocals and a lot of percussion, fun percussion.
19:26Yeah.
19:26That takes a lot of time to find out which is the best duck horn or whatever.
19:30Which dog toy makes the best sound.
19:32Yeah, I was going to say, you use unique percussion, I would think, compared to other musicians.
19:37Yeah, were there any, like, particularly funny percussion noises used on this?
19:42Do you want to listen to something?
19:43Yeah, we could listen to something.
19:44Yeah.
19:44Let's see what kind of crazy stuff we got going on.
19:46I don't remember.
19:47We always do, like, a party section where we're pretending like we're having an uproarious
19:51party and we have to be like, woohoo, hey, hey, whoa.
19:54Oh, let's see.
19:57What do we got?
19:57So we had, like, three slide whistles that we auditioned.
20:01I can see four, actually.
20:02Right?
20:03And there's only one that made it.
20:04This is the one that made it.
20:09Oh.
20:11You can't beat that.
20:12Do you remember where this is?
20:13You know where it's at.
20:14I do, I do.
20:15This is right at the uptown funk.
20:17Yeah.
20:23Written tune, too.
20:25Yeah.
20:25Yeah.
20:25But then there were, you know, rejected whistles.
20:30Oh, that's horrible.
20:32Who played that?
20:33I would never use that slide whistle.
20:34That's terrible.
20:35We're also going to talk about the favorite song of an editor and a devotee of grammar,
20:41word crimes.
20:42For this song in particular, a parody of Blurred Lines, that was a song with, like,
20:47a lot of controversy around it pretty immediately.
20:50At what point in all of that did you come in saying, you know, I'm going to do a parody?
20:55How did you get permission from Robin Thicke?
20:57How did that all go?
20:58I came up with a parody kind of a long time after it was a hit because I think when
21:04Mandatory Fun got released, Blurred Lines was already a year old.
21:08And I thought, oh, you know, this has been around for so long.
21:10But it was such a huge hit.
21:12It feels like, you know, its omission would be very much noticed if I didn't do it.
21:18You know, and again, this is after it had been around and there'd been a thousand parodies
21:22on YouTube.
21:23And most of the parodies were centered around how the original lyrics were kind of misogynistic,
21:29you know, a little rapey, you know.
21:32Yes, that's fair.
21:32And I thought, I can't go in that direction.
21:34Certainly, I got to do an angle that nobody else has done.
21:37And I thought, well, nobody else has made a parody of this about grammar.
21:41And that was something that was near and dear to my heart.
21:44So I went that direction.
21:46So, you know, even though it wasn't the most recent parody on the album, it actually wound
21:51up being the biggest charting one.
21:52It hit the top 40 right out of the box, which was a big surprise to me.
21:56Should we listen to like a little bit of it?
21:58Sure.
21:58Yeah.
21:59Uh, let's see.
22:02A lot of party tracks.
22:18All the vocal tracks for me, right?
22:20How many do we have?
22:21We have a bunch of vocal tracks.
22:22There's a lot that's, uh, that's the main vocal, isn't it?
22:28Meow.
22:29Is that an actual cat?
22:31Or are you, meow?
22:34Let's see.
22:34Good time to learn some grammar.
22:38What?
22:39Now did I stammer.
22:40Work on that grammar.
22:42You should know when.
22:45It's less or it's fewer.
22:46Perfect.
22:46Like people who were never raised in a sewer.
22:50See, this is one of those songs that's going to sound better on the new tour because there's
22:55so many more people to be able to sing.
22:57Yeah.
22:57There's so many vocal lines, we never could really hit them all live.
23:00Yeah.
23:01Say you got an I.T.
23:03Followed by apostrophe.
23:05Why is there what does that?
23:06I love all the little ad-libs.
23:08Just little.
23:10What?
23:10What?
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23:22But even just like getting the cowbell and, you know, the right tuning of it.
23:26Sure, sure.
23:26You know, all that kind of those little details.
23:28Yeah.
23:28They're so on top of it.
23:32I mean, this makes so clear, like, what a real puzzle it is to put together each of these
23:36songs.
23:37Yeah.
23:37You're basically deconstructing it because like, how do you get that guitar sound?
23:41How do you get that drum sound?
23:42Like.
23:43Yeah.
23:45It's like kind of forensic.
23:46Yeah.
23:48Backwards engineering for me.
23:49Yeah.
23:50So you were like just another Weird Al fan, like coming into this first show.
23:54Yeah.
23:54And it's so funny when, you know, you tell people who you're working with and more than anybody
24:01else I've ever worked with, Al gets the most, no way, really?
24:04Oh.
24:05Yeah.
24:06Oh, you know.
24:07Oh, can I come by?
24:08Can I, can I pick up a microphone that day when you're recording or, you know, something?
24:12Yeah.
24:13It's crazy.
24:14The violent reactions you get from, they just want to crawl over you.
24:19Yeah.
24:20It's a big deal.
24:21Big deal.
24:22He's a mythological figure almost to a lot of people.
24:24I'm a unicorn.
24:25Yes.
24:26Yeah.
24:27Purely as a fan of his, like, what did you always love so much about him as an artist?
24:31Oh, the fact that he does something that nobody else does.
24:35And nobody's ever done it, you know, in all these years.
24:38In quite the same way.
24:39Yeah, I know.
24:40I mean, I think people don't appreciate, A, how hard it is, B, how clever and actually,
24:47you know, well produced and put together everything is.
24:54But, you know, I think people tend to dismiss comedy things as easy, that they're a joke.
25:00Like, we don't take it seriously, but we take it seriously, you know?
25:03Yeah.
25:04Comedy is a serious business.
25:14I did just want to talk to you a little bit about your, like, everyday life, I guess.
25:18Oh, okay.
25:19Your, like, life in LA.
25:20Sure.
25:21I mean, like, you're a California guy, like, your whole life.
25:23You can tell by the tan.
25:24I've been working on this for a very long time.
25:26Yes.
25:27Or, I guess, how you take care of your skin.
25:29I mean, did you ever consider going anywhere else?
25:32Why does the LA area, like, feel like home to you?
25:35You know, I grew up in greater Los Angeles and, you know, most of my friends are here.
25:40And, you know, LA is a big town.
25:42It's got pretty much everything I ever wanted.
25:43And, you know, I enjoy myself wherever I go in this world, but it's always just kind of been my home.
25:49Is, like, doing something creative part of every day for you?
25:52Or what are you, what is, like, just regular LA like on a day-to-day basis?
25:57Like, what is a day like?
25:58I'd say more like eating would be, like, a day-to-day thing.
26:01I mean, being creative, I mean, that's a bonus.
26:03I mean, I like to think that, you know, as a human, we're all creative in our own way every day.
26:08But it's not like I write 10 songs before I have breakfast in the morning.
26:11Yeah.
26:12You know.
26:13This seems perfectly normal.
26:15Yeah.
26:18So it's not like you, like, carve out a part of every day for writing or anything?
26:23No, I'm not on the clock.
26:24You know, you never know when inspiration is going to strike.
26:26I mean, most of my best ideas happen when I'm very, very tired late at night, like between one and four in the morning,
26:33which is why I always used to have a little notebook by my bed because, like, you think, oh, I'll remember that in the morning.
26:38And you never do.
26:39So you have to scribble it down.
26:41Was there a portion of your career that you felt like a bit of an outsider to, like, LA entertainment culture?
26:47And I feel like you are kind of an insider now.
26:50Like, you're friends with a lot of these people quite organically.
26:53Yeah.
26:54You know, I always kind of treasured my status as an outsider because when I first started out, I was just this, like, annoying geek from LA
27:02who was making these silly records and poking fun at the rock superstars.
27:06After a couple of years and a couple of albums, I found myself going to the same award shows, some of the same Hollywood parties and things like that,
27:13and rubbing elbows with these people that I was making fun of.
27:15I don't think it was awkward, but it was just a whole different kind of dynamic.
27:18So I've always been respectful. Thankfully, I mean, if I was, like, really, like, going at these people, it might be a little different.
27:24But thankfully, these artists actually took it as an homage and got the joke and had a great sense of humor about it.
27:31So I never really got any serious pushback.
27:34I wonder if you, like, what you think of, like, internet comedy culture now.
27:40Because, I mean, you came up in a time of, like, Mad Magazine and, like, after that MTV.
27:45But, like, do you feel, like, grateful in terms of, like, your development as a creative person that you came up at that time
27:52and not at the time of everything being super saturated on the internet?
27:56Or do you find certain things, like, inspiring now?
27:58It's all inspiring now, but I do feel like I got an advantage to come up when I did.
28:03Because in the early 80s, there wasn't a YouTube.
28:07And thankfully, you know, I got a record deal and I got into rotation on MTV.
28:12So I kind of had the market to myself in a way.
28:15Because now, it's a great thing that the playing field has been leveled.
28:19Like, anybody, literally, anywhere in the world can upload their material to YouTube or various other services like that, various portals.
28:26And, you know, if your stuff is good, chances are people will eventually see it.
28:31You know, if I was coming up, like, now, I would be competing with the entire world.
28:35Yeah.
28:36You know, I'd like to think that I'd still do okay, but it would just be more of a challenge, I guess.
28:40Yeah, well, I mean, I feel like, kind of, it's a time when it's, like, everything is up for being, you know, poking fun at.
28:47But I don't think that necessarily means that, like, there's no point to something that's, like, a little more considerate and, like, takes a little more time and thought as your stuff does.
28:56Yeah.
28:57Like, I think that quality still stands out.
28:59And if it doesn't respond to something immediately, like, it's not necessarily a bad thing.
29:04Yeah.
29:05And, you know, there's nothing negative, really, about satirists or parody artists that want to go for the jugular.
29:13I mean, I can understand that's funny as well.
29:15That's just not the kind of humor that I personally want to kind of put out in the world.
29:18Are there, like, topics or things that you've wanted to do in music that have, like, feel more off limits now in a kind of different political environment we have now than in the 80s or 90s?
29:31Or do you still feel like kind of anything and anyone is fair game?
29:35I certainly put limits on myself.
29:39I don't, I honestly don't want to do something that's going to offend people or be hurtful to people.
29:44And there are things that I did early in my career which I didn't think were hurtful at the time.
29:48But, you know, with the passage of time, some of those things have become slurs or become politically incorrect.
29:54And, you know, I understand that.
29:57I like to think that maybe my older material has been grandfathered in.
30:00People go, oh, that's a product of its time.
30:02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:03But it's nothing that I would do right now.
30:04And I'm not one of these comedians that, you know, laments the old days when you could say whatever you wanted.
30:10Because, you know, I think cancel culture is here for a reason, you know.
30:14Yeah.
30:15If it exists at all.
30:16I mean, but I like to think of it as just being respectful of people and not trying to do damage to people.
30:29Well, thanks for hanging out with me today.
30:31Got to go though.
30:32So keep in touch.
30:33Don't be a stranger.
30:34Goodbye.
30:35Goodbye.
30:36Goodbye.
30:37Goodbye.
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