Marcus Mumford

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dax, Randall Shepard. I'm joined by Monica Lily Padman. Are you excited that your name is very similar to the little boy's name in Game of Thrones or the Seven Kingdoms? I do like it. But his name is Dex Soul. His middle name is S-O-L. Yeah. Makes me think he's got really cool parents. Well, I think that's a good thing. And he's so artistic. We're in love with him. So good.

This is an intro though. I don't know if this is the place for it. Okay. Okay. It's okay. Marcus probably loves him. This is an incredible episode. This fuck we we are we are so happy with this guest. This was so much fun. Marcus Mumford. Uh, Marcus is a Grammy award winning singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He's the lead singer of the band Mumford and Sons. His albums include Sigh No More, Babbel.

Wilder Mind, Delta Ding Ding Ding, Rushmere. And there's a new Mumford and Sutton's album out now. Called Prize Fighter. listen to it. We're lucky enough to have heard him blast us with a live performance. He sings for us in this episode and it's incredible. And the album is incredible. Yeah, he sings the shit out of that song. It's powerful. Please enjoy Marcus Mumford.

This episode of Armchair Expert is presented by Apple TV, the new US home of Formula One. Starting March 7th, you can watch complete all-access live coverage of every Grand Prix, including practice, qualifying, and sprints. All in one place. Watch every race live only on Apple TV. Yeah, that's you Look at that beautiful guitar. It's gorgeous. Yeah, let the inlay. Where do you guys live? Oh shit, she grew up going to school driving by

Stone Edge. Am I remembering the right person? No, I'm not. Oh, who are you? I'm fucking thinking of the gal. This is embarrassing. We're cutting All this. We're leaving it all in. I'm failing in my fifty first year. No, no, that was from Fargo season five and Ted Lasso. Um most incredible actress. She's from down there and she used to cross Stonehenge on the way to school. She went to Be Dales, didn't she? Is that what it was?

that Billy Allen went there. Oh wow. Very in the news right now. Yes, man. We just had our thousandth episode and I'm pretty good at keeping the details straight, but yeah. I have conflated to English Powerhouse action. She was Zoom. Uh Carrie was Zoom, was she? Yeah. Yeah. So that's harder. So like they happened but they didn't happen. Yeah. How do you do this? Well let me show you what's happening through the because ideally

This is the only brand of lozenge I like. The other ones give me gas between you and I, Marcus. Because you have to push through a bit of an indigestion barrier with the gum. 'Cause on the other side is the elation. Yeah, yeah. The ones I like only come in two milligram. Oh fuck that. And I need four to touch the sides. That's right. You gotta have four. And so I have to supplement with a spray. So I basically make this a four.

It's an apothecary. Are you a nicotine head? Yeah. I just saw the gum in his eyes. It's my last remaining vice. Other than pride. Mm, sort of general cuntiness. Okay, that's good. But Marcus, we should not aim to get rid of it. There's nothing wrong with it. No, my doctor was like, have at it, bud. Yeah, I don't even know that we should call it a vice other than we would die without it in that respect. Yeah, well that's true.

Why don't you call it a virtue? It's a virtue. Do people ask you, like non nicotine users, when they see you consume it compulsively, do they go like Well what's it make you feel like? Do they ask you that? Yeah, I get a bit of that or I get a bit of like what brand of gum are you obsessed with? And what's your answer to the the feeling you get?'Cause I have a go-to. I only get a feeling with the lack of it.

I said the feeling is absence of agitation. There you go. That's much more eloquent. Yeah. Yeah. Like I don't feel it. Other than the morning. The morning's nice. The first coffee and a fucking pop, pop, pop. Yeah, nice. Poppy pop poppy. You get a buzz?

I get a little drink. You know from the first one? No, I get a buzz from my first coffee. Yes, yes. And I've taken coffee much more seriously since I stopped drinking. When did you stop drinking? Nineteen. Oh wow. Two thousand nineteen? Seven years. Good job. Congrats. I didn't know that we had that overlap. Yeah. What about you? I haven't drank in twenty one years. Wow. But I had a nice little go around with opiates during COVID. Okay.

Had a bad spell, had the detox in the whole nine. Yeah, yeah. Don't call it a relapse. I've been here for years. You're too young to know all that. You know you guys are the same age. We are? Oh it's a lovely age. It's a good age. I like it too. About to hit forty. Coming into our prime. That's right. How do you feel about it? I feel fantastic. Yeah, me too. I like it. We were just talking about it, you know.

Occupying that space between our kids and our parents is kind of a nice place to be figuring stuff out in. Don't you feel like it's the age though where time is start it's eleven eleven, everyone make a wish. So don't you feel like it's the age where you start really feeling the passage of time? Because your parents are aging and then you have your kids. I feel like a slight shift in authority. I feel like it's time to sort of No what I think.

A bit of a interesting. Whereas before you could kind of rely on the opinions of your elders a little bit. And I don't know, a lot of people go through phases in their twenties where they're like, Really, like this is definitely what I think. But like I don't have many. Wisdom seeping in is what you're feeling. But so if I do the math now, then I think you and I are on nearly identical trajectories. Did you quit at twenty nine? About thirty one, yeah. I don't actually know. I think it was

Two thousand nineteen. Where are we now? Twenty six. So that's six and a half years and I am thirty eight. My wife and I are so equally bad at maths that on my last birthday, she wrote me my birthday card and she said Happy 39th birthday. And it took me a full three hours. before I went next door with my calculator. And did the year because I knew the year minus the year I was born. Sure. Which I thought was quite a clever way to calculate it. And it turns out I was thirty eight.

Yes, that's right. Actually, for my birthday, she got me an extra year. I mean these parallels well they stuff January second of this year. I walk into my bathroom and my lovely bride has handwritten me a beautiful card and it says, Happy fifty second birthday. And I thought, Oh, she accidentally wrote a two on the inside, she'll get it straight. No, it doubles down on fifty two three or four times on me. Actors mate. Oh my God, maybe it's actresses. They can't do it.

And then we'll get into other less fun parallels, but hey, you know, I think we got a lot of'em. So I think strangely you were born in California. Was indeed strange. Yeah, I was born in your blender. Root and Tuton, Orange County. Which is heavy, heavy Christian country. Yes, sir. Which is why I was born there, yeah. Yeah, so mum and dad worked for or were leaders in a in a church. Yeah. In a church called the Vineyard Church.

Which weirdly Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell went to with T Bone Burnett in the seventies. Oh really? Yeah. Wild. And then my parents went out and worked there for a couple of years and got trained up by the guy who led it.

called John Wimber, who's like a grandpa to me, always used to bring me quicksilver T shirts when he used to come and stay. And sort of this large bearded American, very Californian kind of guy with Hawaiian shirts, he'd show up in South West London at our house and be like a real fish out of water. And Was this amazing guy he was actually in the Righteous Brothers. Oh he was early on, yeah.

gave up all that and then went west. Was it mega churchy style? No. Well, it's a bit smaller than that. It's very community based. It's an amazing church. I mean, like all churches, it has its floors, but it was kind of a cool community to grow up in. We had a real open house.

We had always had people through. The church bought the house next door to us and knocked through the wall as a guest house. My mum loved hospitality, was always baking, cooking stuff and so I'd sit in the kitchen with her, watch her and listen to music.

But what makes me think your parents must be pretty unique in their own right is my very good friend from London was just here last week, British automotive journalist Jeff Rowan. We were in the hot tub chatting about religion, and he was really saying, you know. It's so different there than here. Yeah. I mean, even the evangelican kind of

strain is so dominant here. And he's really wrapping his head around it because he's married to an American woman with American parents from the Bible Bell. And he's trying to understand how deep it goes here. So because it's so not standard there, what took your parents there? My dad was working for the Church of England, which is very traditionalist and you know, wearing a dog collar and doing lots of kind of last rites, births, weddings.

and funerals. That was the gem. The big three. The big three. And then went and saw Wimber speak at Westminster Central Hall in like eighty five. Both my parents felt like We've got to go to California and understand what this thing is about, which was a real risk at that point in their careers and their lives. They had one kid. Because the Church of England had to have frowned upon that depression. Absolutely, at that time particularly, and so it was a risk.

And they went out and felt like that's what they were supposed to do with their lives. They felt like that's what God was telling them to do. And so they went out to Orange County to go spend time with Wimber and Learn about how they did church and then planted the first church of that kind outside of the US in our little front room in Wimbledon. Okay, which Is Wimbledon the tennis venue we think of? Yep. That's right. Southwest London, is that what it is? What kind of kid were you there?

Do you have siblings? Yeah, I have an older brother, he's six years older than me. My wife's a little sibling as well, and both of our older brothers. Fiercely intelligent. Both went to Oxford University double first. And so we grew up as like the younger kids who had to like juggle in the corner for attention'cause we couldn't keep up with the conversation at the dinner table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that's part of that. Okay, if you're smart I'll sing.

Yeah, exactly. It was a bit of that. Watch me sort of play the drums on sauce pants. It's my vibe. And then always had this kind of Californian streak. culturally in my life. So I like peroxide blonde my hair when I'm ten. When I first met my wife actually. Yeah, where did you guys meet? I mean Bible camp. Bible camp. Yeah, we were Pen Pow.

A foot taller than me. She's an absolute giant at that time. And um I was quite small. She's not a giant now, right? I love that you say she was a giant, not that you were so massive. She was freakishly massive. And I would go on her shoulders in the swimming pool. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She wrote in her journal, I met this boy called Marcus. He's two years younger than me, so definitely not underlined boyfriend material. Oh my god. I got a nine out of ten. And my cousin, who was her age.

Going eight and a half. Oh shit. Really good. Before we keep proceeding, you're married to Carrie Mulligan. I hate to say that. In case anyone doesn't know that, I always hate when people say that when I'm in an interview, but alas, I would be like Carrie. Everyone's talking like we should know the why. Right. Now That needs to be framed in your house.

Yeah, we do have that. It's not framed. We used to fax each other. Special. What kind of faxes? Pictures? Yeah, pictures and doodles and anything naughty? Nothing naughty, no. We were like eleven, you know. Yeah. I know but Tell me everything. Just all my doodling generally. I found my way into uh penis and balls, cowboys. Oh yeah, there's a lot of that, but I was so impressed. I was trying to know the mainhead. I'm the mainhead now. Now that you got her. Okay, but so suffice to say

I don't remember feelings like that when I no, she was a friend. And we kept in touch until we were like fourteen or something. Then we lost contact. We were both on Facebook for about a six month window. I was in college and she was somehow on Facebook and we got in touch through that. But then we both quit. And were out of touch and then I saw her on a billboard for an education.

Oh, yeah. And went and saw it and then was in Los Angeles. Okay, no, hold back up. Okay, sorry, I'm speeding out. No, I just wanna know. Cause I have this with this girl, Danielle Fox. who lived at the end of the street of my grandparents' house. And I would always spend the summer at my grandparents' house. And I was just wildly in love with her. If I had been driving around at some point and saw Daniel Fox on a billboard and then I went to the movie, I would have been

Fucked up. So m I guess what I'm asking is when you saw the movie were you like Oh god damn. A little bit? Oh yeah. Of course. Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah. My wife's one of the most peaceful women of all time. So with respect, I agree. But also you were probably like, but I know her, but that's my buddy. And then eventually when we reconnected, it was like, I know you. You're exactly who I know. And it was cool. We got married pretty quick, right? We did, yeah.

And I think because of that, because there's like yeah. You guys were both at a really interesting moment in time for yourselves professionally in that it's starting to work for you and this whole new world, at least in my experience, was like

It's fun, but it's chaotic. And is it real? Maybe to find at that moment when life's getting a little hard to kind of comprehend, to plug back into somebody whom is experiencing the same thing and from the same place. So she came down to Nashville. We were writing our Second album. First album just come out. We'd toured it, it had gone well. We were right in the second one in this rental home. We had lots of friends there, they'd come over and eat, we'd do picking parties and then

We were playing in someone's basement, a room this size. A friend of mine in LA, who I'd been staying with and talked with about Carrie, had gone to New York. seen her called me and was like, we're gonna come to Nashville, see you play this basement show. And they arrived in Nashville at that time. I was s stood outside the Starbucks and I could see them come out of and she runs down and jumps

You're like, I'll be married in minutes. Two days before that we got the call asking us to play at the Grammys for the first time with Bob Dylan. Whoa, whoa, whoa. And so she entered. Stage left. At a moment that was with me, and she had just been nominated for an Oscar and done the whole thing with an education. Yeah. So she was a couple of years ahead or a year ahead, whatever, and was

So helpful to me in that moment being like, Look, you can be in control of this and you can say yes to this you can also say no to and I was not in a phase of my life when I was saying no to anything. For sure. So She was so helpful. And you're absolutely right. It's just at this moment. You're getting untethered. We left Nashville. She flew to LA. To be with the

me during rehearsals and this was like four days after we'd reconnected. Wow. Yeah. And then she had to leave again. She was shooting shame. But then somehow inside Lewin Davis. Inside Lewin Davis. Is that somehow part of this story? No, that comes a bit later. When we played with Dylan at the Grammys, that was

was the first time I met T Bone Burnett, who has become like a sort of fairy godfather to me in music. And he said, Anytime from now on that I'm doing something interesting or that you're doing something interesting, let's call each other. That's awesome. So then when the Kern brothers called him to do inside Leon Davis, he called me and said, Do you want to come and be my

What the title was, Associate Producer or something. And so I just was there and Kerry was in the movie. Do we start singing in church? Not really. When's music start? Music starts early, like pots and pans, playing drums, and I was a drummer. And who was your bonhom? Who was your god? Yeah, I was more bonum than star. You were one or the other. But I became staringo later.

My guy was a guy called Terri O'N Gully, who's a jazz drummer, played for a guy called Christian McBride. And I went and saw him play with my skateboard. He signed my skateboard when I was like thirteen at Pizza Express Soho with my mum. Was mom or dad super into music? None of them played anything.

They just played it in the house. I'm just curious, did they stick with the church? Still guy. Life. Yeah. Yeah. Because I do think we interview a lot of people, generally more R and B singers, females, who they grew up singing in church. It's such this great tradition. And I do worry as much as I have my reservations about religion, most of all of RB it starts in church in America. And I just wonder, like as that fragments.

Where's the next crop? Where'd all these young kids start learning to sing like that? Yeah, and school choirs. I didn't get into the main school choir, so I was in the B team and learnt to sing harmony. Which is fun and very helpful. I was gonna say that's a good skill probably. We wouldn't sing the what tenor parts, we'd sing the alto part.

And my mum was an alto too. So she always sang harmony in the kitchen, whatever we listened to. And what kit were you playing? Did you have the kit you wanted? Yes, I did get a Yamaha maple, which is what I wanted. And it was natural wood. Well, that's handsome. It was great, very functional. There's a workhorse. Do you collect drums? I do. What's the coolest one you got? I have uh red sparkle. Ludvig 60s kit. Okay, great. And a champagne sparkle 60s kit.

And I really like these C and C kits that are new. And then what about guitar? When do we pick up guitar? Towards late teens. And so you were a skateboarder in the jazz who was going to church. Yeah. With peroxide blonde hair. At a public school. Listening to Sublime.'Cause the Californian influence in my life, no one else was listening to Neil Young. at home. No one else was listening to Sublime. So I always had that little extra cultural

Lane. Now I was a skateboarder, punk rock, bleached hair, spike the whole night. And really I was just so insecure. I was rejecting the other style. I didn't think I could. Nail, but it read as incredible confidence to my peers. Thank God. Did that happen with you?

I got sent home from school. Okay.'Cause I wasn't allowed blonde hair. Which is uh an incredible So that was the kind of school I went to. Yeah. King's College or your research team. He is the research team, but he does it on his own. Uh But it's a public school. I guess I thought um maybe you would have gone to like a religious school. We call it public, but it's private. Oh. So my parents spent all of their church salary on my education. Just why then when I left college?

It was a responsibility. Yeah, you go to Edinburgh University. Yeah.'Cause we had no other they spent all of their money on my education. So you felt like you needed to pay them back? So I felt slightly guilty. So I in terms of my arrest development, I felt like I was on sabbatical from university for like most of my career until now. I feel comfortable in my skin and this new record that we've made is my favorite thing we've ever done.

I feel like now is the moment where I get to really embrace being an artist. Wow. Whereas before I was felt like I was kind of moonlighting. Proving yourself? Not so much that. It was just like I was on a track. You have been feeling like you're supposed to return to university for twenty years and now you finally don't feel like you need to return. And this record, this prize fighter record is like it for me.

But how is it going socially? These interests in this extreme look? It's going fine. I was always like a slight outsider. I wasn't the best at anything, but I tried everything. Was it all boys? Yeah. And I went to school with Ben in the band. From the age of eight.

Were you guys best friends or just you ended up having mutual interests? Yeah, no, we were. Yeah. It must be so fun to be able to share it with this kid you've known since you were kidding. Yeah. And now the three of us it's close to brotherhood or indeed marriage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it is more like a marriage really, because the only other person in the world who has experienced that is Ben and Ted. Yeah, exactly. We also have to navigate stuff that normally I don't think you navigate with a coworker. Or a friendship. There's something when your boat that it takes everything up to a different level of intimacy. 'Cause these natural things there's highs and lows. The highs are great to share, but the lows are like no one involved has a clear head.

Because everyone's suffering at that moment. You're communally going through something. Yeah. There's no outsider unaffected by the thing to be objective. Which is why when we're making records I like to work with producers. Because some people are like, Why don't you just self produce? You guys know your way around a prototype. And you produce things on your own.

Or got burned on a song you love. Exactly. This is like that other thing we did that we got fucked on. Exactly. So the objectivity of a producer. And then for us on this new one, on Prize Fighter, we had Erin Desner. Who's known us for 15 years or something, helped us with the demos for our third record, has been a friend of ours for a long time, seen us go through a lot.

also happens to be in one of my favorite bands of all time, the National, has had this production career with people like Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams. That's gone crazy. And so to have him come in at this point and be that objective voice. He knows us all really well. We trust him. He trusts us. You're also at a stage in your career that I too am at where it's like All these kids that were trying.

We're now all at these award shows, which is bonkers. It's like I look around the Golden Globes and I'm like, Oh, Ben and Melissa, who we rented theaters and no one came. You're starting to see friends that are now producing for Taylor Swift or whatever the thing is is happening. It's pretty wild. And London, when we first started as a band, was amazing for music, people that really inspired us, like Laura Marling and Noah and the Whale, but also at that time it was Adele and Florence.

And these amazing artists that have obviously so we've seen a lot of them go Adele presented our album of the year at the Grammys. The only reason I think we got anywhere close to r winning it was because she wasn't not like she didn't have a rank of album. But for her to give that to us is so Sweet, our contemporaries, A are some of our biggest inspirations, but also we've seen their success right the way through from very early on, which is kind of a

unique thing. Okay, so you're playing drums when do you start playing, not just in your room but with other people? What age? We'd play at weddings and vomiters and birthday parties from the age of like twelve to make pocket money. And then publicly the first time I sang a song I think was for a music exam when I was sixteen, I did a version of All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan. What was the effect? It went down much better than I thought it would.

We're like, Oh shit, some people are looking at me a little differently. Yeah. And then I played a bit. I didn't really do very much until my year out between high school and college. I lived in Denver. Denver, Colorado. Yeah,'cause I had a US passport so I could come and work. Dual citizenship. And would play open mics, lots of clove cigarettes. Uh-huh. And would do open mics and they went all right. And then I went to college and amongst my cynical British friends

When I dropped out to go and do music, they were all like, Really, mate? Right. We're not at dropout stage yet. We're not. We're not. So I had a friend who took me to one side and was like I'm not sure this is a great decision. Oh wow. Is he still a friend? I hope you bought him a range row. Yeah. It was really at college that I started doing iPad mics and then

I quit to go play drums'cause I was a session musician to go play drums for Laura Marling. And then she invited me up to come and sing a song in her encore. At the end of her show was like a hoot and nanny moment and that's when her manager spotted me and was like, You should do this.

So how do we assemble Mumford in a sense? Two thousand seven. Two weeks after that I said to him, like I think it's a band, I don't think it's a solo project. I've been doing writing and recording some demos at Ben's house. He lived with his parents still and They had an attic with a little studio in that you had to climb through the little cubby hole to get in. Carrying fucking equipment up there. Yeah, yeah. It was a nightmare. And very hot, no AC. And had been doing some demos.

And then inviting anyone I knew who was playing in other bands, we were all playing in other bands at that point, to come play these songs with me. And at times there'd be like fourteen of us on stage. But what we noticed was that

At that time when the four of us sang together and played together, it felt different to when everyone else was in the room. So I know how you know Ben obviously. He's been a friend since you were a little kid. How do you meet the other two guys? Yeah, Winston, I'm at church and we were like

Like fifteen. You've known him at that point too. And then Ted, we met In London when I quit college and he was a bass player, he showed up with the the coolest pair of boots and a leather jacket I'd ever seen in my life. And could sing and play double bass. It was like, Oh, this guy's a triple threat. It's funny how often when I watch docs on bands, how much of it is that? Like

So and so walked in and their hair was awesome. It's like my music's kinda secondary to the vibe. But then when he opens his mouth to sing, it's like, Oh wow, he's got this really unusual voice and he can sing harmony and it's cool. Did you watch It Might It Loud, that drumming documentary?

No. Fuck. No, I didn't. Oh, it's so great. Okay, then never mind that. And then there's another duck I want to know if you'd watched. Oh, did you watch the Zeppelin doc that was out last year? I haven't watched that yet. Okay. What is unbelievable about that band is they met

And I think six weeks later they played that first show we've all seen in black and white. Which might be the still their best show they ever played. I've only inherited other people's views about this documentary, but it seems that they were all totally obsessed with Bonham. Yeah. And then it was like Jimmy's band.

I don't know that I focused on that as much as just obviously they had all been working a lot. So it's not like they were green in that sense, but the notion that these strangers could have come together and played that show in six weeks. It's it's so mind blowing. You just kinda gotta believe in magic a tiny bit. Oh, I totally believe in magic. I think writing songs is like trying to catch fairies and nets. Noel Gallagher talks about it like

Everyone knows songs fall from the sky by magic. And you just have to have your hands out ready to catch them, otherwise fucking Bono or Chris Martin is a good thing. Everyone's just walking out.

'Cause these sons of bitches clearly have their hands up. Yeah, exactly. So I bumped into him in a bar in London a few years ago and we'd just finished a tour and he was like, What are you doing? I was like, Oh, I'm just chilling out and he's like, What the fuck are you talking about? You're a songwriter. You gotta get to work. Write songs. You have no excuse not to write songs, it's your job. What you do. And then it's like, oh Shit, he's right. I better go and write some songs.

How long before the four of you were playing that it was clicking, you were putting songs down that you thought had merit? Was that a quick process? It was quite quick. I had a collection of songs that I'd written at college. sort of naked on my dorm room floor. Very raw. Too raw. Indulgent? Yeah yeah. Okay, sure. Yeah, yeah. Good. Trying to put T. S. Elliot to song.

kind of indulgent. It was a night. It's hard not to be pretentious. It is. You have to be. Or you'll never make it. But had started honing my narcissism well enough to be able to write songs, I think. And then we started playing a couple shows and then we got asked to support other bands. And that was helpful because it was like, right, well, we need enough songs to fill that set. So I remember the day I wrote Little Lion Man.

And my ex girlfriend's kitchen, which was probably a bit rough. But then showed up at the rehearsal studio like three hours before sound check. And was like, lads, I think I've got another one for the set. And they were like, Phew. Cause we only had like five at that point. Yeah. What were you expected to play? Like thirty five minutes or something? Yeah, like half an hour. That's six songs. And you fill half an hour with a bit of chat, sometimes a bit more chat.

Yeah. Isn't it funny too how much of this stuff there's no science to it, but there is like the infamous Beatles stuff. They're playing in Germany forever. They're just playing They were honing that. Yes. I mean that documentary's my favorite music documentary. The Peter Yeah, Peter Jackson was nine hours, which is

Shorter than your average day in the studio. Okay. But watching that documentary, I mean it's the most beautiful. I think you get an idea of some of the hanging around. You know, you're watching like Ringo twiddling. Ringo's always on time. He's always ready to play. He's always sticks in hand, waiting for the moment to come. Very underrated drummer. He gets a different tone out of the drum set to any other drummer in history. And then Jim Keltner, who played on all of the Beatles solo records.

He's now like eighty two. I recorded with him a couple of years ago. He is. one of the coolest cats of all time. And Bob Dellon's drummer, and you know, like he gets a different kind of tone out of the drums to anyone else. And these great drummers I think are able to do things. And just hit a drum in a way that no one else can. Admittedly I didn't like the Beatles. My mom had positioned it as this house is a Rolling Stones house.

Really, we're talking about I got a girl pregnant. See, we were an oasis house, not a blur house. There you go. Yeah. You do have to do that. Have you come to appreciate Blora since I'm still an oasis guy. Yeah, yeah, right. And I'm a stones guy. You can't change that really. That's just nurture. That's wild. It's the Tribalism. Yeah. Yeah, it is. But that comes from growing up in a house where your parents care. I didn't. So I just like it all.

They didn't have their identity infused with what bands did. Exactly. There was no identity connected to it. So you could just take it. Taylor Swift. You. Taylor. Yeah, I mean Taylor No, but as a kid, what did it do? Yeah, exactly. Taylor was a little later. I'm pop top forty. Brittany. Brittany, yes.

Hands like the big handson. Remember Hanson? Love Hanson. Love Hanson. Oh my god. I think I did a cover of that actually back in the day. I did. That was my first CD. Was it? Mine was Pure Shores by All Saints. Oh, see it, I love it. As a single. And then the first record I bought myself, I bought two from the CD Exchange on Wimbledon Broadway. I bought kind of blue by Mars Davis.

under instruction from my drum teacher because he was like, You'll play what you listen to, you gotta play that and then for myself I bought Miss Education at Lauren Hill. Oh amazing. I mean it was advanced. I was more in the You're an MBO. But I'm just saying all saints I know TLC. I love TLC. I loved all saints. Robin. Yeah. All of it. Early Robin. Yeah.

Sick. But Monica will be the first to admit most of her musical taste came from film and television. If she saw something on TV, she heard something rather. I was like, I want that. Like, once it was into buying songs like Napster and stuff like that. So, what were the shows that led you to Gray's Anatomy? One Tree Hill? I was on a One Tree Hill.

Okay, so Gray's natural. So when Garden State came out, did it change your life? Yeah, yeah, okay, cool. I get you. Yeah, yeah. I'm I know you. I know you. I see you. What did I change? I've become But no, I was a sponge. I was a sponge to all of that. The shins. Oh my god. Yeah. But no, it was great. It was great. I was open to it all. That's cool. If you dare. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Apple TV, the new US home of Formula One.

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Mine was I have to like punk rock. I'm going to these shows. None of them are melodic. I hate it all, but I'm pretending I love it. And then I'm just looking for anything with some melody. So I'm just following. So did Blink 182 like change your life? Well, I'm so much older. I saw a As a teenager, I went through post sublime probably. I went through like Papa Roach and Blink 182.

I love Blink one eighty two, let me be clear. And then I was starting to go off at some forty one when that started. I loved it. And then I was like, that was the end of my I'm gonna get off the train here. I'm at my stop. Yeah. Actually interesting now that we're talking about it because I think that the reason there are clubs is I wanted to be like everybody else. You wanted to conform. Exactly.

So I'm picking top forty. I'm picking what's on TRL. You want to be able to talk with your friends about what's popular. I wanna be normal. Regular. That's interesting.'Cause I get to like eighteen, I want to do something No one else is dead. Yeah, you wanna be different. This is our freedom of being white. Right. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. Like I'm like, wait, you guys are nerdy and I wanna be the opposite. That's interesting. Like, I'm brown, please don't notice I'm brown.

I do all the same shit you do. Yeah. Isn't that weird? I wonder what your fucking musical taste would be. She'd probably still like Taylor Swift. Of course. Yeah. Wow, that's okay. That's the great unifying. Exactly. Yeah. Okay, so I want to jump to you record Sing No More. It comes out in two thousand nine and it's a monster. I mean, you get nominated for two Grammys. Little Lion Man is enormous.

How do you take that on We just play shows. That's the only answer we had. Just keep your head down and play shows. Just play shows. We were probably a bit dismissive of the world's reaction to our music for a long time. Because we were like blinkers on, head down, just play shows. That's the thing we can understand. I can't understand how our song is

suddenly got big in Australia on the radio. Yeah. I can't get my head around that, but I can get my head around playing a show in Melbourne. And so still now I don't look at streaming numbers. I don't look at social responses. I don't look at radio plays. Are you like healthy and you didn't care about money? I care about money so much. No, yeah. Our the household didn't have expendable money.

But my parents instilled in us a spirit of generosity. We were taught to tithe as kids. Give away ten percent of everything you ever get. I mean the belief system is like it's not ours anyway. Right. It's closest to a sort of Native American view of ownership and stewardship. But it was like ticket sales is what we can understand. Right. You can see that those venues are getting bigger. Yeah. And we climbed all the rungs on the ladder. We didn't skip any, but we only did them all once.

And most bands do him ten times. How are you making peace with the tension of I'm an outsider. I'm not with you guys and this is my art and uh oh. No, it's for everyone. Everyone likes it. There's a little bit of tension there, no? Well, I think I probably responded to that by driving my negative narrative and finding the negatives.

In any review I would read, which I did at the beginning, I'd always read them. I'd pick out the one line that hurt the most and I'd dwell on that. I knew you didn't really accept me. You're acting like you accepted me, but I have the proof I'm not really. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, everyone thinks I'm actually a cunt. Oh my god. It's so brutal. And you miss so much. I mean, we had fun, but I was not present to it.

a lot of the early success of our band.'Cause I was either in the negative narrative or I was like, let's move on quickly because Yeah. I haven't felt this level of a sense of pride in our work, honestly, ever till this record. It's really freeing.

I just fucking love it. And I don't really care if other people like it or not for the first time. That's huge. That's every savory. I think it's a lot of personal growth and all that boring stuff. But I really don't care what people think. I love it. And I'm excited to play it every night. If people come along for the ride, then great.

But if not genuinely for the first time I don't think it'll hurt my feelings. Wow. Yeah. To that same extent of like the rawness. And I think that's the vulnerability of artists and that's fine. Your job is to feel things. I think you just think this is cool because we just had Stapleton on and Luke Combs had this moment. A lot of these musicians now that we're interviewing have had these moments where you performed at the Grammys. And then the album went up ninety nine percent in sale.

There's very few moments that are that make it or break it. I don't think I was aware to that extent what the Grammys could do in terms of moving the Yeah. But I was still shitting myself. I was still very nervous. But like I had that feeling with the first T V appearance we did it. Did you love Lennon? We did Lottman and it was like, Where's your drummer? I was like I think he plays drums maybe. Does he? Maybe that's my guess.

But no, our first T V appearance was here in LA with Craig Ferguson and I broke Two strings and forgot all the words. Oh. And it was a fucking disaster. Oh no. That still makes me feel like that. Yeah, that's horrifying. That was awful. And so they were like, We have to move on. Sorry. We had to play a different song. It was a disaster. I'm so sorry. But was Craig great at helping you? Yeah, he was sweet. No one could really help me in that.

Yeah, yeah. Well Jack Daniels gotta help. There was no help. But no, the Grammys was made fun by the fact that Dylan was so weird. And wonderful. That first one, we'd rehearsed for two days. We'd done all the camera rehearsals. We were aware that it was going out to 50 million people or whatever it is. And

We play a song, we come back behind the curtain, Avitt Brothers play a song. Oh and then we're all supposed to go on together and play Maggie's farm. So we play a cave, Avitt Brothers go on, we walk behind the curtain, Bob's there and he goes, Play that again. And I went, what? And I'm still holding my guitar. And he goes, play that again.

And it was the cave. So I started playing, we had to start playing banjo and he was like, I can sing on that. Oh And we went, What? And he went, I wanna sing on that. I sing Maggie's farm.

And that and we're like, We'll do what you want because you're fucking Bob Dylan. But you've already played it. We've just rehearsed it, and we've already played the cave. And he wants to change the whole arrangement right there. Luckily, Tony, his bass player, who's the Bob Whisperer, comes over and is like, Calm down, Bob.

Okay. Did you watch the Greatest Night music? It's about the recording of We Are the World. Oh no, I didn't see that, no. You'll tell I don't really watch music documentaries. I'm learning that. And I get Do you listen to other people's podcasts? No, and I wouldn't watch a comedy doc, but uh of course I watch music docs. What is cool about the doc, I think you would appreciate, is we have everyone.

Who do you want? They're all there, right? You have Michael Jackson, you've got Holland Oates, you've got fucking Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, everyone's there. So to see them all, it's a really wild Thing to observe, but Bob can't sing like the other folks. That's not what he does, right? And he is struggling. And there's a moment where Stevie Wonder who can do everybody. He's a crazy mimic. He says, you wanna sing it like this, and he does Bob Dylan and it's on film.

And you can't tell it's not Bob Dylan. And he uses his voice and his range to show'em how he should do it. And then Bob's like, Okay. And then he does it. That's such a cool moment. That's very cool. All right. You're not gonna watch it. You hate music probably. Do you think you don't like'em because it's intimidating or it's just boring because that's what you do. It's boring because that's what I do. I gotcha. Okay I think. Unless it's get back, but unless it's the Beatles.

Movies about musicians. Don't really do that. I didn't watch the Springsteen movie yet, even though I'm obsessed with Bruce Springsteen. I get that. Star is born, I thought, depicted tour life the most accurately out of any of them that I've seen. Although you don't know'cause you've only seen one or two.

Yeah, yeah. Look at the one I sample. You went to Baskin Robbins, you tried one flavor, and you're like, You know the best flavor of the thirty-one flavors is vanilla. That's true. That's true to be fair. Okay, tell me about going to India in 2010. Or don't if it's not. We went anyway. Got told to go back to our own country at our last show in Kolkata.

Really? Yeah, which I think was was fair because given, you know, innate racism in England the other way around. It's like yeah, fair enough. Well you probably aren't that. Historically. But it was amazing. We like touring in weird ways and doing things that feel scary. We just done this train tour next time. Yeah. So India was awesome. It was really fun. I mean it was very hectic.

It was stupid. Did you have in the back of your mind though that the Beatles went there? A little bit, and it was just an adventure. We'd done a tour on a narrow boat. at four miles an hour. That was really fun. And we were like, let's go to India and do that. Yeah, so the thing I loved about reading about your history is I too love when you can take this thing that you do that's your job and you can figure out a way to leverage it into a bunch of other crazy experiences

experiences that kinda have nothing to do with it. Because otherwise you can miss it. It can all go by. I read about this railroad tour. Yeah. You guys had vintage railroad cars you were in Yeah, we did one with Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros and Old Cro Medicine show in two thousand eleven or twelve or something like that. Eleven. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And we were like, let's do that again. Now the train thing is fun for the artist.

Yeah. The audience doesn't really get involved in that because you can only fit like a hundred people on it. But yeah, yeah, yeah. That go around the country. So the first one went from Oakland down the west coast across to we ended up in New Orleans and the second one we started in New Orleans and ended in Burlington, Vermont. And for us a lot of it is seeing places we wouldn't otherwise.

see. Like I've seen more of this country than most of my friends who live here. Sure. And I'll argue on a train you're seeing the backyard of everything. On a highway you're seeing the front yard. Totally. It's amazing. And I like to stay up in the middle of the night and sit in the front of the bus and watch.

the world go by, particularly in North America. I just find it fascinating. Like being stuck in an electrical storm in Kansas in the middle of the night is seen some tornadoes. Nothing like it, stone's always really fun. But was the car itself, did you have your own car? No, we had our own room. And was it from the forties, fifties, sixties, do you know? Was it wood paneled?

I would say fifties, I think. It was there like a cocktail? Like was there a little bar? Yeah, and like the people running the train all in outfits. Oh it's fun. I'm so jealous. And then we'd rehearse every day because we had these guests. Come and join us and so we'd learn their songs on the train on our way to Soundcheck, and then when we get there we play it. We should do that. I know a live show train experience. It would be a net loss.

No, no, you don't do it to make any money. You're not gonna make any money. Yeah, it's not we had this conversation with our management company. We're like, look, we're not gonna make any money. You're definitely not gonna make any money. For this one, we had a house ban and we paid everyone the same amount of money, like a flat. Fee, including ourselves. We're like, look, it's an experience. Right. This is like a five day vacation where we're working. Did you take psychedelics on the train?

No, you don't need to. Okay. I would think that would have enhanced it. I went on this trip down the Grand Canyon with a bunch of people I didn't know and we get to the bottom and it's like eight days of rafting and staying on the beach is unbelievable. And at the end of it, we find out they would all been on acid the whole time. I was like, this is the one place in the world you definitely don't need acid, man. Exactly. And those rapids. We're doing them on kayaks.

They're pretty dangerous. But no better way to drown. Oh god You gotta drown man. You think you're drowning in like Willy Wonka's chocolate river? No, I'm too much to a control freak for that. So for that is everyone in the band on the same page for the most part? Even when we're talking about you guys coming up, you're like tunnel vision, head down.

Are you all like that? Yeah, we are. Said our bass player is a bit more chill. We need that. Yeah. Our manager recently said to us like most artists To just know where they need to be. When I go to this level of detail. But we're quite details oriented. We care about it. Yeah.

Okay, I need to say though that I Will Wake came out. That was enormous. You won the Grammy, fastest selling album of the year. Things are fucking cranking. Yeah, that's what I'm told. Six hundred thousand in the first week. That's bonkers. And in UK I think four is also the fastest selling album that year in the UK. You can't go anywhere without Mumford and Sons at this point. I want to go to your solo album, which is 2022, self-titled. Yeah. I want to bond with you on this experience, which is

I have for years on here been acknowledging that I had been molested. And that was its own hurdle to just say that. And I got quite comfortable being able to say that. That was fine. And now I'm writing a memoir. And last year really the whole year was about do I have the balls to write down the details of this? Because the details were always gonna be mine. I didn't want anyone to be envisioning me. It's weird that that was

Still some wall between my shame. Interesting. Like I can say that happened, but I don't need you to know anything that actually happened. And I bet it took me four months to tell that story. And When I'm writing it, just I cannot help but thinking of people knowing this about me and how still exposed that feels. And I was pretty emotional during the few months. I was having really weird kind of spikes of emotions and moodiness. And I would forget that's why I was having that. But I finished it.

And something about it existing there feels like a lot of weight is off my shoulders. But for me, there's still the hurdle of like. And also I've not put that out. Yeah, I ca that wasn't gonna be my question. I was like, did you put that out? And I didn't hear that. Right. So I can understand writing cannibal because it's about his sexual abuse. There's details. Yeah.

Dude. I wasn't that song this one. That was like yeah fuck. That sounds pretty intense. What's the gap between writing it and then knowing, okay, now I'm gonna put it in the world and people will know all this about me? I mean, I was pretty scared. Honestly. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, it's pretty detailed. I mean, I played it to a few people who are very helpful. I played it to Elton John, played it to Brandy Carlisle. Elton was like, I've never heard anything like this.

And I'll do anything to help you if you want to put out. And Brandy had said exactly the same thing. Like I'm with you. It's fucking shocking how many of us. Yeah. And part of the exhausting process of putting it out is hearing other people's stories. Yeah, sure. Because you you need to comfort them. Yeah, yeah. Well yeah, and it's an absolute privilege. And my general view on it has been all right, I'm gonna have boundaries around this. I'm gonna say like thank you so much for

for sharing that. I hope you have what you need. Yeah. Because I'm not your guy. It'd be fucked up, wouldn't it? Like I'm not gonna be your guy on this. Yeah, I can't. Yeah, I can't. And that wouldn't serve you. Obviously wouldn't serve me. And putting it out was straight and then

The rest of the record is not really about that. But because that was the first song, it got a lot of the attention. I feel like grateful that I put it out. I honestly feel glad I have also been able to move on. And I think without it, I wouldn't have come back to the band as energized. Or as joyful or as free. And I think that's a big part of the freedom that I now feel in the band. It's like, I got that. I moved on. It's out there. I toured it.

It was great musically, I'm very proud of it, the whole record. And it helped my songwriting. And it certainly helped my ability to accept myself. Well, my body keeps betraying me is a line. Yeah. The body betraying me Putting that out of your body to there, has that helped in any of that? Yeah. Like I've been on a real journey for years. And part of that was not feeling like a victim, I think.

And being like, I've got control of this. I can drive this train. I'm not just a passenger and I won't just be a passive My thing is I can intellectually know how ridiculous the statement is, but emotionally I don't know it in my body, which is I grew up in such a homophobic. environment in Detroit in the eighties. You lived all day long in fear that someone might think you were gay. Yep. And now I've done this thing that does make me gay in my mind.

And now I have this fucking secret that I know if it were to be revealed on the playground, I'm just fucking dead. I'm a pariah. I know intellectually that's insane at 51 with a family and all these things, but That fear of the whole world going back to elementarying is still alive in me in this crazy way. It's shocking to me. And so what's your process now, having written it? I felt that wave of relief that you're talking about.

And then I have fear of people reading it. And then even more I have the fear of what I'm doing to you right now, which is like I wanna be able to put it out and I don't ever want to have to talk to you about it. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's funny. Yeah. That's not gonna happen anymore. You've done babies.

Steps. Like, was this the first time anyone's ever known about that? Yeah, yeah. And the second song on the record is about the process of playing my mother, the first song. Wow. Well, how should we proceed without this getting too heavy?

Is the first line of the second song on the record. Wow, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But we talk about it on here. You are very open. I mean, not with the details, but with that something you've gone through. But I'm in control of it, right? Like you're not going Well why didn't you blank or why didn't you tell your mom or what? So yeah, it's just the loss of control of me being able to say exactly how it's not.

So while me and you waited three years what happened to me I got really lucky in a sense, which is I was in high school. I've been carrying it for I guess ten years or whatever. And I was talking with a girl I went to school with who I liked liked so much as just a friend. This is Danielle again. It's not Danielle Falls. I would have never risked her thinking I was gay. But this girl was vulnerable enough to tell me that she had been raped the year before.

Wow. And I'm kind of sitting there with that really special trust that she just extended to me in my lap. And I just kind of felt myself saying it out loud. Honest to God, as stupid as this is. To look at her face and the fact she didn't say, Oh, so you're gay? I went, Oh my God, this whole story I think I'm telling myself might be wrong.

She doesn't think I'm damaged. I mean, that's certainly my experience as women led me through the wilderness. You know? It's so interesting and probably quite common that as a man, if you allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to a woman, often you'll find that kinda leads you to the promised land. Yeah. And that's certainly

My experience is people like my wife and Brandy and Phoebe Bridges. Yeah, it's powerful, man. It's pretty life changing. I mean it was also quite funny playing my mum that song. Like how long did it take her to put together what the song was? Was it immediate for her?

Yeah. And painful for her. Of course. You have children. Yeah. And just the sense that like she spent all this time not being able to support me in something. Exactly. But fucked up to tell your mom through a song. So I'm playing you a nuke? It's quite funny. Bless her, she's a legend. I've my parents. If you dare. Why the gap I mean obviously you did your soul album in there, but why the seven year gap?

Winston left the band. Uh-huh. I made a solo record. Then we were in the studio for two years. And now really quick,'cause last year March. Yeah. So we got back in together in the studio like January twenty th in fact I was on my solo tour, I was playing at the Ryman in Nashville and the boys Ted and Ben came out for that show and I said, lads, should we

Sing a song together. We sang our weight together for the first time in a few years and it felt magic. Yeah. Just a guitar and them two and three of us singing together at this very special place to us. And that was the moment where we were like, let's do this. And I think healthily everyone had had a bit of a break, a bit of a reset.

Was there any sense that you would not come back together in that thing? So it was just a matter of timing. But then January twenty three, we were here in Los Angeles actually and we met up the three of us in my house down the road when we had it and we played a few ideas that have been kicking around. They turned into Rushmere, but then we felt like we weren't done. While we were mixing Rushmere.

Aaron Desna was next door working and came in and played us a couple of things he'd been working on that didn't have lyrics or melody yet. And we responded to it and started making prize fire like right there. Oh wow. And I think the freeing experience for me of getting Solo record, then Rush me out. meant that when we came to sit down to do Price Fighter, with Aaron, this long term friend. We were just ready. My hands were out, ready to catch the songs. We were in shape.

And the muscles were all working. There were no injuries. And we were in like our prime. And that's why we called it prize fighter. We felt like we were just ready. We'd also spent a summer with Pharrell Williams in Paris writing songs and hanging out. And he's like a therapist. He was like, sit us down. And certainly me gave me a lot of pep talks, which was super helpful. So by the time we came to Erin, we were just in a good spot. And so these songs are

poured out of us. Oh. And they're the closest to source to the writing and the recording we've ever done. We'd like write it in the morning and record it in the afternoon and be done and walk away. Feel the feeling you get as a vocalist for sure. The closer you can record a vocal. to when you wrote it, the better. On the first record we did a demo at Ben's house that I played and recorded at his house in his parents' attic and Then when we came to the case.

record Silo more eighteen months later we couldn't get the same emotion in that vocal so we just used the demo eventually on white blind page that song the crashing out song. By acting so similar You gotta grab the emotion while it's there and then we'll just go on to catching fairies, man. Better actors is no problem. My wife being like, oh yeah, I do that. It's no fucking problem. I got it done on the back of a spaceship if you needed me to.

To show up and be perfect every time. Acting wise. We call them acting robots. It's like, yeah, I don't know how they're doing this. Yeah. It's very annoying, isn't it? I don't like'em. Fuck'em. Okay, no, I wanna extend a compliment and ask her if you feel it. When we had uh Seth Rogan on and we're talking about the The studio. Did you watch the studio? I did, yeah. Okay, great. That's not a music documentary.

But what I see is not just an incredible show. I see the results of an incredibly generous life that every one of these people would have shown up to party in this thing. There's a lot of successful actors that they couldn't assemble five other ex-costars or you think his Humanity and the way he walks through the world has had a real effect. Yeah, that show is a result of who he is as a spirit. It's really on display and it's really cool.

And I would argue that prize fighter, do you feel that at all? The fact that you can call Chris Stapleton or however that works. I do feel that. You know, our band has always loved music and being at shows and watching our contemporaries and being inspired by them. We spent a lot of time investing into the community and it's not just so that we can name drop.

It's a bit of that as well. Are you friends with the Avots? I'm really good friends with Sachs guys. They're such inspiration for us. They're bad motherfuckers if you haven't seen the Avots. Yeah, they're amazing for them on Monday. They do those like Yeah, the Muppets Day. Yeah, I'm excited. So we've invested a lot into musical relationships, you know, stayed in touch with people and then weirdly as a headliner you go out and you do your shows and you're a bit insulated from the community.

Yeah. Festivals are always fun'cause you bump into other people and sometimes those awardy things can be cool because you see people you wouldn't otherwise see. But on this record, we've never opened the door. Our band basically has always been collaborative and we've never really represented it on record. And so on this record we were like, we want to call in

Our friends. And actually Gracie Abrams has been like the fairy godmother of this record. She's been behind the scenes with her magic wand. She heard the demo of Banjo's song before I'd written anything on it and was like, you gotta fucking write something on that. So I text her lyrics.

as we were going and voice memos and be like, what do you think of this? What do you think of this? And she was always behind the scenes just cheerleading and being Oh, that's awesome. In a way like Brandy was for my solo record, Gracie has been for Prize Fighter.

And so then we called her up and said, Will you sing on Badlands? And I thought she was gonna just do some harmonies. She turned that song into a duet. It's like my favorite song on the record. It's amazing. And the same with Gigi, who'd we'd done some shows with. GG Perez.

Jose, we've known for a really long time. Like I don't need to know you to look at the list and go like, Oh yeah, this is a guy who's clearly been benevolent and generous with his peers because they show up. I feel deeply honored by the people that said yes. And Chris I didn't know. Chris I just called. Cold call. Hey, bud. Big fan. I think he's a generational talent. He's like my favorite voice, male voice. In America. Do you know Heaven Sent by steel drivers?

I cannot stop listening to this fucking song since I interviewed him. This is first band. It's my infection. No, I don't know. In faction. Heaven sent. I listen to it probably forty times the day after. If I'm not working, I'm listening to that song. It's unreal. Well, I think he's amazing. And of course he completely killed the assignment. Because I sent him the song. I sent him here. We all felt in the band that he would be perfect on it.

'Cause it's like a kind of cowboy suicide. Yeah. He is perfect for that. And again, he's a dude who does not need to answer the phone and doesn't need to show up for people and he does it like endlessly. Found that out. And then I texted him and said, This is our breakback moment as well, by the way. I'll wait for the video. Okay, so you're going on tour and you kind of just nodded at it. You're doing a lot of festivals. Is that by checking it? There's the ones that have been announced.

Oh, okay. Big gaps in that diary that aren't going to stay gaps, but we haven't announced them yet. But Hyde Park on July 4th, actually. Important day for you guys. And half of me. I I bet you're really conflicted on July fourth. Yeah. July fourth at High Park is the one that I'm looking forward to the most. Because it's been a decade since you guys played. Ten years and that's like hometown show.

It's massive. Yeah. Two seconds on Nashville and then I wanna hear you sing if you'll oblige us. Now that I've ruined your voice in two hours of chat. Nashville. Very special place, no? Yeah, it really is. We spent a lot of time there. And we were invited there when we first went to Telluri Bluegrass Festival up in Colorado. We knew that Alison Krause and Robert Plant were on the bill. We knew that people at Ultra Medicine Show would be kicking around.

Jerry Douglas, who's the greatest slide guitar player of all time. Well, Dobro player of all time. And we walked in and they all were there and all stoked that we were there. Ah And coming in is nerdy kids with more Americana instrumentation. They were just amazing. And Jerry became a really

amazing friend to our band. We felt invited in and then they invited us to Nashville and they were all around and we've spent a lot of time in Nashville. I love it. I've been shocked to be in that town, which is also a creative town. And just hear story after story of how available everyone is for each other. Yeah. Lainey Wilson has become a friend of ours and I'm just obsessed with her. She's so generous. She's so down. Yeah. We invite her on the train tour. She's like, Yeah.

Cool. I'll be back. It's like they haven't forgotten that they love the art form. Yeah, a lot of them I think. Chris is like that. Noah Khan is there now and he's like that. Super generous people. There's a real sense of community there, which I think still exists and is Cool. One of our closest friends is this young artist, Hannah Anderson. She's a musician. She's lived in Portland and in LA and from Houston.

And they just went to Nashville a year and a half ago and they've just never been happy. So even if you're not like successful and thriving at every level there, she's like, Oh my gosh, I've been here my whole life. I lived in West Hollywood and it drove my shame narrative crazy. It did. Yeah,'cause I'd look around and be like, Look at all these amazingly beautiful, successful people. I'm not doing any of that. Billboards.

You underestimate the impact of these billboards that are every five feet. You really do. They have an impact on you. Especially if you have like a competitive spirit or an artistic one, like a slightly vulnerable And if you have both. Yeah. It's ridiculous. And even if you're not like competitive where I'm envious. But you're ambitious. You've just to have ambition and see that you're not there is a bad reminder. Yeah, every time you walk out the door. Can you walk out of a restaurant and

And there's paparazzi there and they just like put their cameras down when you walk out. It's like, oh God. It's a wild mind puff. Oh, I gotta tell you one of my funniest moments in life. The first time I did Letterman, which I was so excited to do. He's my hero. He's not him and Bill Murray. Those are our gods. So I couldn't be more excited. I'm in the back of a SUV. And Tom Cruise is also the guest that night. So he's first and I'm second.

And I pull up to the theater. They've got the whole street shut down and there are saw horses so that the crowd doesn't move in. And as my SUV pulls up, they believe Tom Cruise is about to get out. And this audience of people's like The cameras are all like And I step out and you just hear this collective like literally fifteen hundred people like Save your family! Put your cameras away! I was like

Oh man. What a way to walk into this creator. For my dream come true started with Save Your Film. Yeah, maybe that should be the triple of your mind. Save your film. So, with so much gratitude, you've agreed to sing and I cannot wait to see that. So if we may. I try. You're a party.

I like you a ton of things. Thanks, man. Thanks for coming. Well you guys make this quite weird thing feel non weird at all. Oh god, that's the goal. Very comfortable. Do you know Mark Ronson? I assume you do. You guys have a similar vibe. Oh really? I'll take that. He's a generous. Spirited man. He's a wonderful collaborator. Yeah, yeah. You know, some of those people like Pharrell is like that and Erin Dessen is like that. They just get joy in seeing other people. Shine.

Pharrell's definitely like that. He's in his happiest place. when he's helping elevate someone up to their true self. It's really cool. It's a cool spirit. Marks like that too. I had a therapist tell me that as a man, your journey is you try to conquer and you try to get yours

And then if you're a healthy man, the next phase of your life is to try to give that to as many people as you can. And I have entered that phase in my life where it's like, You got to now do that. And that's the spirit of generosity rather than the spirit of poverty. Yeah. It's gotta be mine. I can't give it away. It's like I do better when you do better. Yeah, it's the scarcity mentality that we were forged in. All right, let's do it.

That's our line. Can you hold all my secrets? Can we swear that we'll forget? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you this and then I don't ever wanna hear about it. I'm gonna get this on my chest just from me. I can't carry this anymore by myself, but also we shan't ever speak of it again. Well if that's you diminished, you know, fuck you, I guess. Yeah. I agree. I'm mad. Yeah, that's you at

Seventy percent. Yeah, Taylor was doing that in the dock. We won't make him tell us now. Yeah, later. All right then. There it is. Not complete. Ευχαριστώ. Yeah. I know I don't know. That was at the Memor X moment. My wife's always said we're quite a shouty band and that one does kick. The privilege of being in a room this tiny with him letting it rip. The whole time I was like, Why how is this our job? Yeah.

Well thank you guys for putting it. Normally come play a song. Well Nora sang for us, North Jones, Ava Brothers. Yeah, dude. Which one did they do? Oh, they did Trussle? Did a few. As you know, when those two fucking lock spirits. Like there's something those two yeah well they call it blood harmony. Yeah, right. There's something real about blood harmony. Yeah or something like that. Well this was so special. Thanks guys. Well Marcus.

This is a deluxe. Thank you so much. We'll come back. Yes, please. Also I really want to double date maybe. Yeah, lovely. Yeah, okay, great. I'm gonna give you my facts. That would be dope, wouldn't it? Only to facts. Like Sheeran with his iPad. I'm not sure about that. But facts only. All right. Be well. Thank you guys. Hi!Hi!Sup!How are ya?Good I have a headache.

It's gonna go away. It's gonna go away. Did you take a Advil or something? Why don't you know I will, but should I? Yeah, come on. Yeah, I guess if people wanna see my pharmacy real Traveling Pharmacy. It's here. This is it. Oh, it's like an um one of those videos like a what's in my bag. Oh sure, like a vogue. Exactly. Yeah, this is great. What's in my five years? Um ad vag. None of it Well will you select? Exact wha and what won't I? Oh this isn't Oh this is a hand Sandy I really like.

This one's vulnerable. Pepto, poopy problems. Yeah. Um, if I have m m muscle and or joint issues in order I prefer an elite. I know. We've done And then an ibuprofen. Never Tylenol for body pain. Right. But if I have a headache I know. I love a Tylenol. I know. Do you know what I have not tried though? Have you tried because it's so old fashioned? I bet it works the best. You ever fuck with an aspirin? No. Look.

Aspirin. Oh my god. Do you know why I got this? Why? On accident? No. An expert? I got it on purpose. Um when I thought my finger was gonna explode on the plane. Okay. I forget why. Probably a Google or maybe I asked someone, um, and they said take an aspirin. I think maybe for the sweat, like to make sure my heart do didn't explode on the plane. Did you take an aspirin? I'm sure. I took everything they told me to take.

Um so yeah, I've got some aspirin in here for the plane. Someone should correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the difference between all these. Aspirin actually thins your blood. Yeah, it does. That's why'cause that's why on planes it's good for instead of clotting. Yes, so when you come back flotting pressure You have your blood moving through a constricted area, then you can either attack the blood side, aspirin, or the constriction side, which is the other options. That's right.

Why can't you take both as my question? Oh, why? Just you always wanna take both. Yeah, if one's good, two's better. I have two kinds of D. I have a leave D, ding ding, ding, a leave, and I have Zertec D. Ah wow. So I just have a lot of stuff. You've really got it going on in there. I do. Do you need that box still? How do you get rid of that box? No, I like it. Don't you know nine tide stain stitch. Okay. I'm now carrying one of those. Yeah. In my backpack. Yeah, yeah. They're very helpful.

Well it was a lot of good free ads for all those companies. I know. Oh, there's like not much left, but that's okay. There's enough to give. I'm taking three. You t one take take'em all at once. God, you would've never been a good drug addict. You would have sucked at being a drug. So I never did it. I only do things I'm good at. My character in chips was very much how I

I just chew'em all up and swallow'em just to get over it. Chew'em all up is disgusting. I remember the first time I had to swallow a pill. Whew. You remember the first time? Yeah,'cause it was a hu I couldn't do it. And my parents were trying to help me. You currently look fifteen, I'm gonna add. Really? Yeah.'Cause my hair's up. I guess. I was probably nine or ten. I lived in my

How could you have made it all the way to nine before you took a pill? Oh. We didn't have those in my day. Oh really? No. I wasn't taking Advil, I guess, I was taking Chewable those Flintstone vitamins, ding, ding, ding, from last week. Um, I was taking those and they worked, they kept me healthy, but then I had to take. Some sort of pill, probably an antibiotic or something. And I re in my head it was this big. You know, enormous. Well, relative to your head it might have been.

True. Anyway, uh my parents were trying to help me and then they were getting frustrated obviously'cause I like couldn't do it. Sure. And you needed to take it. I had to take it. And I don't r I think eventually we probably cut it up into like teeny tiny pieces. Yeah. Made a dust of it. Turned it into a milkshake. Mom. Yeah, we should have done that. Yeah, why not? Mortar pestle. Yeah. Could have done that. Um, anyway, so that was a hard day for me. I'm sorry that happened.

Um, I had wanted last week, uh I forgot to bring it up, but I had attended a concert that I wanted to talk about that was quite special. Okay, let's hear about it. You know, I give I I uh I attack social media so much, but I need to also acknowledge I have discovered so many interesting things via Instagram. Okay. One of them is Alfredo Rodriguez. Who is a Cuban pianist? He makes these so exciting, these songs he does. He'll do like Thriller.

But he puts it through the Latin conversion. Yeah. So cool. Yeah, just tackle he did Star Wars as like what it would sound like if it had been written in Cuba. Yeah. And he's an insane piano player. And he's on stage with just a percussionist who he's been making music with for like fifteen years. And these two are like they're sharing a brain. They're like the Avett brothers. Yeah.

And this percussionist is uh only using his hands, but he is making so much sound. He's got the bongos, he's got the everything you could imagine. All all and um his story, which was so great was He was living in Cuba and he got invited to this fancy jazz festival in Switzerland. Okay. And he went there and there was like all these legends there, like George Benson and all these different incredible people. So he plays piano on stage.

And uh Quincy Jones is in the audience. He goes back to Cuba. Quincy Jones comes home and Quincy Jones calls his manager and he said, I just saw the best pianist of this generation. I have to work with him. You've got to figure out how I can work with him. So this management team spends the next few months trying to find him. He's in Cuba 18 years ago. Yeah.

Not the easiest they start this process of trying to get him to be able to come record. He ends up having to go to Mexico and defect and come over the border. And he then starts working with Quincy Jones. Oh, that's so cool. Nonstop. Does three albums with Quincy Jones. They become like, you know, mentor, mentee. It's so beautiful. I love that. He's now a citizen. He lives in Miami. He's got a family. It's just a wonderful story. And I've I've never seen someone play the piano with this kind of

speed and pizzazz. I mean, it's it's m kind of mind bending to watch someone play like that. So I encourage everyone if you could see Alfredo Rodriguez. I know that they're having a jazz festival in Miami right now ish, I think. Oh okay. And I think John Batiste is also playing at that festival.

But I want to go so bad, but I was just there on the damn flight. I really still have my complaints about the length of the flight. Okay. It's too long. It's a three-day commitment to go see anything, okay? Uh So yeah, check him out. Yeah, that's awesome. We also we went to another I guess we're Artie now'cause we went to a play, a theater play. Oh we did. We did. We went to a a theater production, a musical. Three months later that

That Kristen was in starting and it was great. It was so great. It was impossibly good given the fact that those people had come together a couple weeks before. To do rehearsals and stuff. From scratch. It was So, so funny and sweet and life affirming. I loved it. Yeah. I loved it. And it was extra fun for me. Because? It was a lot of worlds colliding for me. Okay. Obviously, Kristen. And then two uh very wonderful people who wrote the play.

are U C B Peeps. Oh you knew them. Yes. And I thought they were terrific. Not only had they written this incredible thing, but they as performers were fantastic. Yes. And one of my very good Friends? Who I did improv with. We were on an improv team together. Zeke was in it as well. Which one was he? He played the flight attendant, the the co-pilot. Oh, okay, wonderful. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I met him, the tall gentleman. He's fantastic and he was so good in it and it was

So fun because I hadn't seen him in so long. And it's one of those really fun things where like you know, in this world like you you especially in the impr comedy world you have these people and these teams and you're around them nonstop and they're your family and you're making things together and it's like Such a beautiful time. And then your life sometimes your your life goes into another direction as mine did. And I don't see any of those people anymore. And it um it was

So like it made me feel so happy to see him up there. Warm and fuzzy. Made me feel warm and fuzzy. And we were talking after the show and he he said rightly, he was like I feel like that team was He was like, I just have such strong memories of practicing at your house in my apartment. It was like right before we all sort of became adults. Like we were adults. But like a lot and your emphasis as adults started taking off right after that. So it was kinda like the last

the last phase of innocence. Okay. Now I want to take this moment to discuss something that I think was potentially awkward. Oh, sure. That we we haven't um debriefed on. Oh, okay. And this likely was all from my own perspective. And I imagined all this. Okay. But here's what happened. We're watching this play.

Three of the characters are gamers. They're young boys and they're gamers. So funny. And they have matching outfits and they're in a gaming troupe and whatever. Mind you, I've not seen the play. I have no idea. I'm seeing it for the very first time. But these three boys start dancing and singing and it's so adorable. I just have this moment where I'm certain this is going to be making you smile so much. Oh. I'm thinking like she must love these boys right now. I did.

And so I turn around and mind you were with her our whole pot. Yeah. And so I turn around and I look at you directly to see if like I'm right. Like are are you are you just gonna be smiling ear to ear watching these boys being expressive and dancing and singing? I did love it, yeah. But

It's very obvious. I turn around and I look at you and then you like you look at me and you're just like I'm sure you're like, what is he do you remember this moment? No. Oh my god. Okay. Not at all. Well then I see like I see Molly and Eric and then they they've seen me turn around and like lock eyes with you.

And then I turn back around. You weren't smiling eerie or something like, Oh, she's not as tickled by these boys as I was thinking she was gonna You were. You just weren't showing it. Oh that's not the point. Don't even worry. That's that has nothing to do with where I'm going with the show. Okay, okay.

So I made this big show of turning around and everyone's behind me. So they just saw me turn around and like lock eyes with you. And then then the song takes off right after that moment. And the whole song is about them loving double D's. and the princess with big titties. And the whole song becomes about titties and double D's. And then I started panicking, thinking, does everyone just see that when I turned around and stared at Monica?

They think I've already seen this Oh my god, you're sucking your head. You can see the math of that, no? I get it. Like, hey Monica, check this out. And then the whole song right after I do that t turns into a whole song about it. Well, that is something you would do. Well, I don't think I would You literally said double D's last week on the fact check. Because

You had what? ADHD D? What was the thing? I remember what you said. I didn't say that. I just said there was double D in the the acronym. What was the meth? medicine, right? What was it? The medicine you were taking, the meth. Your two doses, double D. Yes. Is that what it was? Maybe. And then you said aren't you are you conflating it?

Yeah, you made a reference to my boobs. You do this. We d we do this. So I don't Well anyways, I felt really pervy all of a sudden. I guess let's say this. If I turned around like, Oh Monica, look, they're about to sing about big boobs, that's not me. Right. Okay. I'm pervy. Whatever the line is, that's not me. I'm not turning around like, oh, Monica, they're about to sing about boobs. That's crazy. Okay, you don't do that.

But that was what I was afraid the Bible sudden was. Like, oh my God, do they think I don't think But I was just turning around to see like, oh my God, I bet she loves these cute boys, Nancy. But then they immediately were light and rip about boobs and I'm like, oh boy, they think I I don't think Monica

Yeah, I I don't think anyone thought that. Is that why you kept looking at your kids too?'Cause you were like trying to like combat it, like I'm not a perv, I'm here with my sweet children. Of course not. I was looking at my kids to see

how excited they were. Their mom was so cute. Yeah. Yeah, I know. It was really cute. They had friends with them, the girls. Yeah. I was just trying to imagine I was if if I was twelve and Um, I took Aaron and my dad was like To make it one for one and you like if my dad was doing backflips on motorcycles.

Like they're all into musical theater and their mom is like crushing it on stage. And I was like, I wonder if they're feeling pride for their mom. God, I hope so. I hope so. Yeah. That's what I was trying to check in on. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Delta had too much on her plate to probably She was on the crew. She was on the crew. She was a little stressed out. She was she worked so hard. Shout out to D Money. She did costumes.

She was an usher. She filled in for some of the cast members when they weren't there. Yeah. She was a PA and called everyone to set. She worked at least forty five hours last week on that play. She said that She ha gave actors notes. Uh-huh. She saw every single rehearsal and then she would film the whole show on her iPad and then come home after the show. She's been at the theater at that point for eight hours that day. Right. Watch the entire show all over again.

and take notes. Wow. And she had of her twenty or thirty notes over the course of the five shows. Ten of them were legit and got implemented. That's good. Yeah, she's like, I don't think the mics are on for the boys when they say this line. It's a funnier line in rehearsal. It's not landing here. I don't think the mics are on and they weren't. Oh, we are

Well good for her. I love that. I love that. She's an industrious gal. Oh, I was so proud of her. And she um I couldn't have been proud. I waited, you know, I requested her as my usher. Uh-huh. I had to wait'cause So busy. She has a lot. She had a lot to do. Yeah. And yeah, it was very, very, very cute. And hopefully they'd do more. I hope they do more and I hope more people can see it'cause it was very cute. Me too. And sweet and funny. And to remind people Not my fave.

Not your fave, not my fave. Not my fave, but but it was great. It was great. It was so entertaining. Yeah. And of course seeing Kristen sing is always Yeah, she's so good. You know what I was thinking of? I had so many waves of happiness for her, which was like A She looked twelve years old. Uh well, part of the character, she was wearing a wig with bangs and she does look So young. She looks so young, but her spirit was like she was on a stage playing. Yeah, she's having the ever again.

She could just act in movies and get paid a lot and act in T V shows. But she's doing this thing for free. Yeah. That she loves. I'm watching how happy it makes her and I was like Oh, she did it. She has held on to being twelve. Like she f she has she has protected this part of herself that's from childhood and still getting to do it. Yeah, very pure. It's so pure. Yeah, it's beautiful. So I had that round of happiness for and then I was looking around. And there were just

So many people that had come that are friends of hers. Mm-hmm. And people she's worked with. Yes. And I was like, look at this group of people that love her. Oh, it's great. Oh, I was so happy for her. Yeah, it was beautiful. Yeah. Well Great show. Three months later. Check it out if you can, if it comes to your city. Um I fell down yesterday. Had a big tumble. Yeah. Who'd have thought um moving much closer to work would up your danger is. Yeah. Yeah.

Explain it to me because when you explain it to me it's felt like absent of a banana peel. What you described couldn't have happened. I don't know what's happening. I walk it is a little downhill. I'm in these shoes. Um loafers. for people who aren't watching. And um my front foot just goes straight out, slips and just goes straight out. And it's also kind of slow. Like I like know it's happening. I now know what's going on. Yeah, you were going downhill steep enough that you're putting your

front foot out. Yeah, my foot. It's the opposite of walking in essence. You're lowering yourself down the hill. Exactly. And so you put one foot out and put all your weight on it and it lost traction. I And then you hit the fucking deck. That now makes sense. I get it. I was I was underestimating the decline of it all. I think it might have to do with the slippery bottom. Is there a slipper does it look slippery? Sure, it's not a great shoe, but

I think had you been just walking forward, you would have like spun out as you as you tried to accelerate off your back foot. It would have spun out. But you're landing with all your weight to decelerate. And so if you lose that footing. Out you go. Yeah, and it but it was like slow enough that I knew I was falling, which was a little bit more. Yeah, I was like why am I falling? Why? Why? And by then, um my

I scraped my knee like a little kid and broke my jeans. You ripped a hole in your jeans. I did, I ripped a hole in my jeans and I had a teeny bit of blood. A scrape. It was a scrape. I still that part's still a mystery to me. So I understand the physics of putting your weight down. That slips out. Oh, I guess maybe then the knee that didn't slip is the one that rips. Yeah. Okay. So then you went right down on your knee. Yeah.

And I just felt like God you only weigh five pounds. That could have shattered my patella at two two hundred pounds. I felt like such a child. It was really and you know how I am with embarrassment. Yeah. I of course, you know, I pop up so fast and I'm looking around to make sure nobody's seen this and you kind of and you laugh. You always have to laugh even if no one's there. You laugh. Yeah. Like I was really funny. I'm fine. I'm fine. And um but really on the inside tears are bubbling up.

Out of embarrassment. Yeah. And being like, why how am I this age and I'm a child still? Like vulnerable to fall. Yeah, I was so vulnerable. I hated it. Well, I saw you in the driveway and you were like, I fell. And I was like, okay, well, that's not a whoop. Then I saw that your knee was torn. And then I did I felt bad for you. I said, Oh I'm sorry, Bob. mothers and fathers. Um, first I walk straight into the house.

And Anna and Kristen are there like doing some design stuff. Uh-huh. And I walk straight in and I walk up and I said, I fell down. And I I said I fell down and I scrape my knee. Like a little five year old and Kristen says, Oh no You know, she immediately is like Oh no and then

And sh and she was like, Well what are those jeans? She liked my jeans. Um she was distracted for a second by my loss of the jeans. Yeah. I was like, They ripped And she was like, Well that's okay and then she got out the Tide Stain stick and she was helping my pants and and that was all very nurturing. And then

I walked around aimlessly for a little bit and then I was trying to gather yourself. Yeah. And then I ran into you um coming out of the gym and you were like, Don't go up in my clubhouse. Yeah. And then and I was like, I fell. Yeah. And then you kinda laughed and And then you said, Oh, your pants are ripped. Oh, you did fall. As if I was like lying or something. No, just Fall I understand. There's bad falls and there's i inconsequential falls.

And you were you were kinda peppy when you were telling me, so I was like, Well she didn't fall off her roof. No, no, no. I ac it actually was an inconsequence. Quantial fall. It just um it just felt like a I just felt so childish. Sometimes I fall I've fallen. Sometimes you take a fall, but it's an adult fall. Right. This one dw was not. This was a silly fall. This was a silly childish fall and um I felt like a kid and I had to tell my parents.

My mom would be like Did you go into got an X ray? Yeah, exactly. No. Did you clean it? Make sure you cleaned it. Yeah. I asked if you tore the skin. Yeah, you said, is it bleeding? Yesterday was a weird day in the atmosphere. Okay. Because I fell. Um and then Anna fell too later. Really? She fell over like Mona or something. S and same situation. Like tore her knee? She yeah, she hurt her knee. Wow. And then we were walking later and she got hooped on by a bird.

Whoa. Yeah. Yikes. It was yikes. And then Mona started to eat a condom. Me too. I've been pooped on and I hate it. And I didn't want to make like to b of course I was like, oh no. But I no. I'm not You need a nap. I'm not giving the tide stick for you just keep it. She gets to keep it. Oh no, keep it. Keep it. You'll want to use it later.

Yeah, you need paper towel. You know, it was she you need paper towel or a cloth or really I was like I I said, Do you have another shirt? Like for me I'm like you throw that shirt in the garbage. That shirt's done. But she just cleaned it in the bathroom. Um But I, you know, there's ways to handle things in life and I'm often impressed by people. Okay. You know,'cause I was like in my in my head, I was ruined your demands.

is disgust like this it to me I was like oh my god this is disgusting this is horrible it looked really disgusting yeah and it was on her shoulder and it was a white t shirt the fuck and it's brown at first right like it turns white but it It was brownie green. It was diarrhea. The only diarrhea. I know. They don't have solid Oops. So I guess they're eating cigarette butts and stuff. I don't know. Ooh, yeah. Think about what they're eating. And so I yeah, I was like

Well, I tried to put a positive spin on it. I was like, Oh no I was like, Well, you know, they do say that's good luck. That's right. And I think they do. They do. Okay, yeah. What else are they gonna say? Exactly she said or bad luck. I said, No, they don't say that. They say it's good luck. Yeah, yeah. It's never good luck to get shit on, but we say so. Well, yeah, positive spins. So anyway, but I just knew if it was me, I would have it would have ruined my whole I fell in.

Yeah. What kind of day is this? This hurt my feelings. Yeah. Might hurt my feelings. I'm s I'm sensitive. But she was just like, ugh. Like she was just a little annoyed by it. She didn't let it get her. She grew up in Venezuela, you know, she has a different beginning. You're right. Yeah. Um, and Mona then was starting to eat a condom on the street. And I was like, We got what is happening? Where were you guys at?

Venice? No, right here. Oh, okay. Fuck, there was a used condom on the ground? Yeah. There were some tents that had popped up. They're probably gone by today. I'm shocked they're using safe sex. That's that's incredible. It's true. Yeah, I guess we should be happy. It's true. Speaking of health. Okay. Health update. I'm a little worried and I don't ever get worried. Not about my health. Not about my health. Tell me. I make a lot of jokes about smoking and stuff.

Sure. I don't like smoking's coming back. Smoking seems to be coming back. Definitely back. I know. I know. You gotta be careful with it. It's so predictable. We suffer from the absence of problems. So, like polio. Like for anyone who grew up in the thirties and forties. You saw tons of kids in wheelchairs and with crutches and huge deformities.

So when they came out with a vaccine for polio, people were like, Yes, a hundred percent of people were like, Absolutely. But then it got eradicated. Exactly. And now you have knuckleheads that are like, No, I'm not gonna get a polio vaccine. It's like Because you haven't seen it. I know. You don't know how to fucking see it. Exactly. Same with measles. I think what's

Unfortunate right now is like we were growing up, people were dying of cancer left and right. My dad died of lung cancer. You're seeing people fucking you know I know. And now that it's curbed a bit, I don't think people realize like how bad it is. You can't get lung cancer, man. And and you will.

Yeah. I mean if you are smoking cigarettes. High likelihood. Yeah. Like it's not one of those like eh roll the dice. Like if you're smoking enough, you're getting it. Yeah, it's not like drinking. Exactly. Thank God. So anyways, I just wish people would choose I'm pro nicotine. Pick another delivery device. Ding ding ding. That's gonna be a fact. Oh, okay.

Um I get one, your nicotine. Let's get your nicotine. But there's better delivery device. No, and not and vaping too. Don't do that either. I'm glad you said that because you're a smoker. Mm-hmm and I a cool one too. And I, um, you know. notoriously have never smoked a cigarette. So I feel a little like I can't say that. You're not in a position. But actually

I kind of am in a position I'm like, guys, it's actually not that hard to just not do it. It it's not. Yeah, I just started noticing like I think whereas people like they smoked for sure, but they did well, they would never post a picture of themselves smoking. Yeah, no. And now every I see at so many posts of people buying a garage. Like people think it's cool. And I get it. I get it. I get it. It looks cool. I will be it looks cool. Yeah, sexy. On T V. Until you kiss someone.

And then you can taste the cigarettes. That's what I'm like, guys in front of the case. Prioritize kissing, guys. That's my campaign. Oh, that's a good one. Pick kissing. That's it. It's it's it's called pick kissing. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Pick kissing. K P K always pick kissing. No, you don't know. More than we need. Just pick kissing. Um Yeah, I just

I I in practice it's not the same as how it looks. Yeah. And you guys are all coughing and stuff and like making those noises. And it's like it's not cute. Can you even imagine what I sounded like when I smoked? No.

I would have these things. Actually I had a question for you. I didn't want to ask'cause it's You can hear me coughing from your house. Is that I feel like that I thought that was inevitable. I mean, I hope one day I do You will.'Cause I'm out in the yard like I was changing all the wheels on the razor. And I was out there and I had a couple of moments of clearing my throat and I was like, If Monica's window's open, I bet she heard that. Yeah.

No, um I haven't. But I do wonder um when you're acting Yeah. For long periods of time. Like you have a handle on not doing that. For three minutes. Yeah. And then do you th is it like right when they call cut you clear? Well I clear before I start. Okay. And then yeah, likely uh in between I I get going a little bit on the case. It probably depends on if I'm like PMSing or something. And I'm like

Why like I know when he's acting he doesn't do this. Yeah, and if our show was three minutes long, you would never experience that. Okay, and like in you know you know how old the ol older men I mean we have respiratory things. Yeah, and you have like digestive.

So like all of you older men are starting are like burping. You're burping a lot, okay? You're burping through your talking. Okay. And it's a common thing that men are doing. And um and I'cause we don't cry, we're keeping Yeah, so much is bubbling and it's like Just okay, yeah, just cry. You know, just cry. That's a gre I have a great story, funny enough. Okay. Well anyway, I just sometimes when you're burping through your talks and when you're um through throat clearing, I think like

Is he doing this to me? Like, is this about me? Because I mean, you know, that's if I'm really angry. Okay. Um, because I know he I know he's not on set with I th I don't know if we're allowed to say um w on set. And he's like burping through his talking. He's not. I know he's not. I mean you're you're you're ignoring so many factors it's crazy.

Our duration together. The fact that like I I research for two and a half hours and then I quickly eat so that I don't have I don't I don't have to eat for the next three hours we're recording. So it's like I I leave myself Six minutes to eat my full calories for the first half of the day. So like I pound that oatmeal. Yeah, and then I come in here and I'm dealing with that for the first.

I guess I didn't really think about the food. That is interesting. Yeah, you see me right before every time right before we eat. I have pushed off eating right to the moment before we eat. I'm always finishing my oatmeal right before we start. Well, I would say just don't eat, but that's not a good that's not a good um solution and I didn't eat today and my f stomach was growling during the interview and I did I was getting so self conscious. And you have a headache. And I have a headache.

So it's not a throat clearing just today. Listen, I I it's not a good solution. Okay. Go ahead. Keep burping. All right. It's fine. Burping, farting, coughing. Just do what you need to do. Um I'm doing the best I can do. I know. Well I will say this. I have recently and I just hate this observation, which is It's considerably worse when I eat cheese. And I fucking hate that. No. Oh. I don't think my bourbon's as big of a deal as you do. Or at least I'm not concerned. I don't think you're

noticing it. Okay. My coughing is very disruptive to everyone in the house. Okay. Yeah. You can hear it throughout the house. You can't hear if I burp to myself in my bathroom. Yeah. It's just when we're on video, you know. Yeah. Um So I have sadly cut out cheese? Well, I've acknowledged, oh yeah, if I eat pizza, it's I'm a mess the next day with my chest. Right.

That's a good thing. So I have been trying to not eat cheese and I'm like, guys, what is a life without cheese? Truly w what are we why are we doing this? Well, can't you just cough? I mean, everyone's used to it. I mean I'm aiming higher for myself, but I don't enjoy coughing. I hate having stuff in my lungs. I hate it. I c I understand. But y Do you hate it more than you love cheese? More and more I'm circling an idea of perhaps fucking quitting dairy. God, you you Keep adding things to

quit. I've just heard about my throat clearing from you. No, it's not the throat clearing. You're currently on Burbing. Okay, this is all new. That's not what you've been complaining about over the years. I promise it's a been a thing I've been not wanting to tell you. Great, but for how long how many months? Like a long time. Okay, then through video since video. I never noticed it. I never noticed it before because I'm pretty good at keeping it inaudible.

You never hear me burp. You never hear it. Well, no, it you do, but not not in the no, not in when we're interviewing, but you often burp loudly. um just for fun, but not during the interview at all. It's very it's inaudible. But you can see it. And so I am always cutting around it. Yeah. And Um, that can get complex. Okay. You know, I'm just telling you, but I want you to eat cheese. Well, I don't think I can. Um unless I want to deal with Coughing.

Just because I'm not putting that shit in there, I'm certainly still doing all the disruptive f I'm sure I'm damaging my lungs getting the stuff out. Uh, and then I don't want an uptick in my odds of getting lung cancer. So I gotta quit eating cheese. Okay. See you when I'm dead. Stu I've had to knock this whole episode.

Okay, now what's the story you wanted to tell? Oh, it was just on that crying. So we had a very, very, very sweet meeting last night. Uh about in memory of our friend. Yeah. And we don't ever have women at the meeting. It's a stag meeting. Uhhuh. And um a woman joined and um the woman was awesome. She goes I don't know how all of you got through your shares without crying.

But I'm going to be crying through my entire share and I'm gonna cry for all of you. And we were like, Well thank you. Someone needs to. That's nice. Yeah, it was really great. Oh man, sad. Really sad. Okay, let's do some facts. Okay. Um On Marcus. Yes. God, that song. I can't believe we got to hear it. It was so good. He blasted us right through the the bookshelf. I loved it. I really loved it. Yeah. Um the whole album. I loved him. I loved him too. Yeah. He's great.

Um very charming. I hadn't given him a fair shake when they were really popular because I was surrounded by some people that I was judgmental of who were obsessed with it and it prevented me from giving him a fair shake and I really regret that. Yeah. Fell in love with him. And well, they're so good. Yeah. They're objectively great. Yes. Huge, huge band. I so I didn't even deserve to get that performance we got, but I am now a lifetime fan. Yeah. Um okay, did Juno Temple go to

Bedales School or B Dales or whatever. Um yes. Yes. Yes. She attended well, she attended Enmore Primary School, boarded at King's College, and later completed her A levels at B Dale School. Or badales. Orbadays. So he nailed that. Okay. Ding ding ding. Nicotine's not bad for you comes up in the episode. There's you know yes. Nicotine is not the part that gives you cancer. Yep. We all know that. Well maybe we don't all know that, but it is not the part that gives you cancer.

But it can have some negative side effects. It also has some positive side effects. Benefit. Increased levels of alertness, euphoria and relaxation, improved concentration and memory due to increased activity of the Ooh. Hypothalamus. No. Two neurotransmitters. Um, reduced anxiety due to the increased levels of beta endorphin, which reduces anxiety. Um, okay, so those are good things. It says it can cause bad dreams and nightmares.

uh possible blood restriction, irregular and disturbed sleep, uh dizziness and lightheadedness. Uh that's not for everyone, obviously. Um there's some there can be some gastrointestinal drivers. Bing, bing, bing. Side effects. Diarrhea. Don't have it. Harp You have it. No, I haven't had it since I quit gluten. I don't ever have diarrhea. You sometimes have it. I've had diarrhea probably honestly without having the flu.

Right. I've had it probably three times or four times in the last two years. Okay. I mean it totally you you know this update. I I've shared this. I had it five days a week when I ate it. Now I don't ever have it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Heartburn, peptic ulcers, indigestion. None of these. For me. Dry mouth, nausea and vomiting. You don't have that. Side effects on the heart. uh increased blood pressure, enlarged aorta.

Um, altered heart rate and rhythm. Those are potentials. It's person to person for that, those things and what you already are dealing with, what you already have. Um, but it's good for you. It's working great. And for him, I think he likes it as well. Oh. Does Letterman play the drums? Does not play drums professionally, but uh he is a well known enthusiast who has played on air and famously admired, questioned, and tried to buy drum kits from his musical guest.

He held drum week on the late show and has appeared in videos playing with professional drummers like Anton Fig. Okay, now f got a great answer for why these musicians blow into the water bottle with the straw. Oh, great. Yeah. He was doing that. That was the first time we had seen that. But I saw it on the Taylor dock. And I was like, what is that? What is she doing? Singers blow into a water bottle with the straw, a technique called straw phonation or SOVT semi. A clueded vocal track.

exercise to warm up, rehabilitate, and strengthen their voices by creating back pressure that reduces vocal strain. This gentle therapeutic exercise helps relax the larynx improves breathing and massages the vocal cords to reduce fatigue. I thought it was like adding humidity to it. I was way off. Maybe you could try it before a um interview. Well let's just see what it does. Oh okay. I mean maybe you'll feel like so like

Maybe it'll fix your coffee. I'm blessed in that I have yet to really feel any vocal fatigue. Even though we we do have days where we'll talk for six hours straight. Yeah. But I have yet to So far so good. I'll lose my voice when I'm with Aaron, like screaming a lot, but other than that. I'm pretty That's probably'cause you're not breathing through your diaphragm. Probably do a lot of stuff wrong. Just screaming for too long is not great.

Yeah, your child was screaming in the backyard. Oh my gosh. And you texted me, can you hear them? Yes. When I could. Yep. Yep. Um And then you Screaming with joy, I'll add. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Not not screaming with terror. She has a friend, they'd like to do some screaming together. And you said you could relate.

Yeah. We didn't scream, but we w I can relate. I can relate a lot. Yeah. Watching her and her friend together remind me a lot of Aaron and I. Watching her and her friend together, which they're such a cute duo. So cute. remind me that I used to be so hyper when I was like that age with my friends. Yeah. And that was like a quality assigned to me. I was hyper. And I like can't relate to that.

girl anymore. Right. You're not hyper. At all. I know. Used to drive your grandma crazy, right? Yeah. And I would lick her arm. Yeah. Impulse control. Yeah. And just like run around and be crazy. I would just be crazy and bounce around. Wow. I know. But I grew out of that. But it's cute to see. I know, it's shocking to me they're not exhausted after they've been together for two days, but they're not they're it's like you're giving you energy. Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

The thing that I relate to is that they are the rest of the world has melted away. I know. Fallen away completely, and I'm I just I'm so happy for her for that feeling. There's nothing quite like when you have your little soulmate. There's like nothing else is relevant. I I know. They're so they're they're I'm so happy they have each other. My ears sometimes Again, cost benefit.