I Am all in again. Oh, let's just you.
I Smell Pop Culture with Easton Allen and iHeart Radio podcast. Do you smell what I'm cooking? You probably do. Hey, this is Easton Allen. This is the I Am and podcast I Smell Pop Culture one eleven productions. I Heard Radio, I Heard Media, I Heard podcasts. Thanks again for joining us. We're so excited this one. We're going back to the very first moment of Gilmore Girls for this interview.
Today.
We're talking to someone very important that has a connection to the very first frame of Gilmore Girls that you could ever see. We're really really excited about it, and it got me thinking about the importance of a theme song, the importance of an intro. You know, I'm personally I'm gonna let you into my world a little bit. My name is Easton and I'm hosting this show. And you know, I know a lot of you don't know who I am, so let's let's get to know me a little bit.
I love theme songs. I listen to theme songs for pleasure on my playlist right now I have I just listened to the Entertainment Tonight theme song that doesn't even have any lyrics. That's just the trumpets. I love theme songs so much. I think they are so important and I think that they they produce a feeling within you
that normal songs cannot. And I don't know what that says about my brain, but like, there are so many good theme songs out there that you can't like, I have to rip these from YouTube and put them on my playlist. I think theme songs are so important. I'm curious what your favorite theme songs are. You leave a comment on the Instagram of this of this episode and tell me what your favorite theme songs of all time are. The theme song to Gilmore Girls, of Course, is where
you lead. It's by King or her daughter Luise Goffin. But if you go back to the pilot episode, it is a different theme song. And this song that I will tell you in a moment here, this song was also the theme or the intro to a movie that I love so dearly. It's called So I Married an AX Murderer and it's with Mike Myers. And if you haven't seen that movie, watch that movie immediately. I absolutely love it. But it uses the same theme song and it's so good at setting the stage at getting setting
you up for what you're about to experience. And I'm going to tell you more about that theme song and why we're interviewing the person we're interviewing today.
After these messages, iHeart podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app.
Hey, everybody, So when we do that, when we toss to commercials, I just want everyone listening. While you're listening to those commercials, I am jogging in place. I'm doing push up. I am not resting the entire We do it in real time too. I don't just like say, let's hear some commercials then I walk, then I skip ahead. No no, no, I said there. For the entire time you've heard commercials, I have been jogging in place. So I'm there with you. I am in the trenches. This
is Easton Allen. It's the I AML and podcasts. I smell pop culture. We're talking about theme songs at the start there, we're talking about the importance of them, how they set the mood for a TV show, for a movie. If you go back to the pilot of Gilmore Girls, the very first episode, the first frame of Gilmore Experience, the first moment of Stars Hollow, you're going to hear There she Goes by the Laws. That's a song that released in nineteen ninety originally, and it's such a good song.
And I know you're all familiar with it because if you're listening to this podcast, you've definitely seen the pilot of Gilmore Girls. Come on Now. It's such a good song. A lot of people have covered it over the years. The Buu Radleys covered it in the aforementioned So I Married an Ax Murderer, and in nineteen nine, Sixpence None the Richer covered it and they just shot up the chart with that version. It's so beloved it. There's a lot of people that think that There She Goes is
their song. There's a lot of people that believe they don't know it's a cover. They think it's a Sixpence on the Richer song. It is such a good version too, they really they put their sixpence spin on it and it's so good. So today we are going to talk to Lee Nash, who is the singer of Sixpence on the Richer. She has a heavenly voice that you hear when you listen to There she Goes, when you listen to kiss Me, when you listen to Don't Dream It's over.
These are some amazing songs, and Lee Nash is the voice behind them all. She's been the singer of Sixpence on The Richer since they formed. They've been nominated for Grammy. They've been such an integral part of pop culture, especially the nineties pop culture. They're like just ingrained in the nineties and we're going to talk to Lee. We're gonna hear all those stories. We're going to talk to her about there. She goes, Hey, Hey, a huge Gilmore Girls
fan too, so we're gonna talk Gilmore. We're so excited to have Lee Nash on with us. And you know, they're actually on on tour right now. If you want to see sixpence on The Richer Live, you have a chance. They're in as we record this. They're in Orlando and that's where Lee is joining us from. Uh but there's still many dates left on the tour throughout the month of December. You can get all that information at sixpence on The Richer dot com. But come in live from
the dressing room in Orlando, Florida. We have Lee Nash here with us now. Lee, thank you so much for doing this. How's it going.
It's going great. Thank you so much for having me.
We're such big fans. I mean, you're such an icon. Your songs are such an integral part of popular culture. But I want to go back to the beginning. I want to go back to the to the start here. You grew up in New Bronfels, Texas. Uh, and it's sixpence on the richer is such an early inspiration for so many artists now. But I want to know when you were growing up and you were first getting into music who inspired you.
It was Patsy Kline and Willie Nelson. Because I grew up in the hill country in Texas. I think that's just that's what my parents were influenced by, and therefore that's what I had around to listen to, and so it was really a lot of older country artists and kind of still is.
Yeah, because especially like in your solo music, like you, it's more of a country style now, is that right, A.
Little bit more singer songwriter esque kind of stuff. Yeah. I did a lot of solo work while I was raising my son the last twenty one years, and now it's really fun to be back out with the band and touring again. We're having a really good time. And so yeah, that's where you're catching me today.
Yeah, as we record this, Lee's in Orlando, Florida, about to play, about to play a show. I'm going to say, you're backstage right now, you're right about to go on. Huh.
Yeah.
But how did Sixpence on the Richer start? Like, how did you guys all meet? How did the band start?
Matt Slocum, the guitar player and principal writer in the band. He and I met in like nineteen ninety two. I think I was a freshman in high school and he had just written his first song and he heard me singing I think in church or or in school like a talent show, and wanted to hear what I sounded like singing this song that he wrote. And so that's that was a very humble beginning. He just literally handed me a take on a bus, on like a school bus, and there we were. I sang it and it's had
a nice sound to it, I suppose. I'm mean, I go back and hear it now, and I'm like, what did anybody ever see in this band? But I'm thankful that that people have connected with our music. What's wonderful.
Your vocal style is so distinct, and like as soon as you sing one note, people know like, oh this is a sixpence on the richer song. How what was the process like of like finding that style for yourself?
For myself as a vocalist, I have to say, it's it's come straight from God. I had nothing to do with I don't mean to sound too woo woo or whatever. I don't mean to be annoying in that sense, but I really can't credit it. I didn't take any lessons to speak of. I mean, I was a in choir in high school and that was great. I add a great teacher. But I think I just let my my humanness get out my voice, like like I think Leonard Cohen said, maybe it was somebody else. I let my
heart inform my throat. So that's yeah, that's my style. And then as far as sixpence in our sound, I know when I met Matt, he was listening to a lot of really cool bands like XTC and Sam Phillips, which I know probably she comes up quite a bit maybe on this podca but in the Sundays of course and the Cranberries, And I think I already said XTC, but lots of lots of really cool bands that I had never heard of and probably wouldn't have because I
was too busy listening to Willie Nelson. So when we put our styles together, I guess.
Yeah, I'm so curious.
What when you first start the band and you guys first start writing songs, like, what was that collaborative process?
Like, well, it wasn't very collaborative as far as writing at certainly not getting because I was so young. I was sick fifteen turning sixteen when we made our first record, and Matt had written all the songs. But there is always a collaboration, you know, with a vocalist and new music. And again, like his I was so young, not that he wasn't. He was also very young, but just a lot smarter than me and read a lot more books. So the lyrics were really to me, and I think
they are mystical. I think they're really beautiful, and we're doing some of that really really early material on this tour and it's it's crazy, like how the meanings of the songs have changed for me over the years, And probably our fans would say the same. Maybe I don't know but any collaboration was just me trying to wrap my head around what I was singing and make it, you know, make it connect with the listener's ear and heart.
You know, as you got on this tour and you're playing these songs that you wrote, like some I imagine you're playing some of the earlier stuff, And how does it when you sing it, especially in front of people, does it take you back to that moment you wrote it, or how does it feel for you to perform those early songs.
It's really fun. It's really fighting getting to see the crowd react because will come out strong. I don't want to give it away, but we come out really strong, really early stuff, and it's really loud, and I think people like, there's an influx of children coming to our shows.
I don't want to insult them. They're not children, but compared to me, I mean, they're what my age was when I first started, Like fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year old kids, young adults coming to our shows, some of them singing the new material, some of them just came to hear there she goes and kissed me. But it's I think it's amazing and really a full circle moment for us as a band to be kind of somehow harvesting these new young fans. It's awesome.
And the name sixpence on the Richard, it's such a good name. Every time I say it, I feel smart. It's one of those kind of band names like I feel so intelligent when I get to say it.
And that's a C. S. Lewis quote, Is that right?
Right? Yeah? It comes from a book by C. S. Lewis called Me a Christianity And a child asked his father to buy him or for money to buy the father a birthday gift, and the father gladly gives the son the money, but he's no richer for the transaction. And C. S Lewis was comparing that to our relationship with God and how really anything that we have comes from comes from that source.
I love the connection to faith that your music has had, and that is that still a major part of the band today.
It is. I think everybody's in a different place with their faith. So I can specifically speak for all the members of the band at all. I wouldn't even try to, but but I have remained very spiritual. I think we all have. But you know, definitely things over time, you know, change and perspective shift, and uh so, yeah, it's a different, different landscape spiritually, but still very beautiful and very important. It's an important part of what we do.
You've you've done so much, You've toured all over the world, You've had so many hit songs. I hope you have an answer for this. It must be so difficult. But do you have like a favorite memory from the experience of sixpence on the richer so far?
Is there something that stands out?
I mean, I gotta say this is gonna sound so cheesy, but I think it's right. I honestly do. I think these days with these people, this is our original crew, and then we've got some people that, uh that are out with us. We've got a great merch person named Cameron, and this awesome sound person name Sunset, and we're touring with a percussionist, multi instrumentalist, this guy Steve hend Along and we're just having the best time. So, I mean,
I've got a lot of great memories. I you know, hearing our song on the radio for the first time was amazing, and getting to go to Japan and all over the world with my best friends. I mean that was absolutely insane, and those are certainly great memories. But I think at this point, knowing that we can make more memories and that's our intention is all the more exciting. So I think right now.
I love that answer.
I love I love looking forward and also the fact that when you have a sound guy named Sunset, that's how you know he's a good sound guy. You're playing some incredible places on this tour. I mean the Great American Music Hall I grew up going there in San Francisco is closing out the Troubadour in La What are you look at? Which city a you're looking forward to visiting most?
Well? It was really interesting. The very first leg of the tour was twenty five days with one day in between, like one day off, and that's pretty that doesn't really happen. Yeah, but we did it sick, but we got through it and didn't have to cancel any shows and my voice held out, which I'm so thankful for. But on that first run, we had a hometown show in our hometown
of New Braunfels, Texas. It's like this little place called Green The oldest dance hall in Texas there is called Green Hall, and it's a huge place and we sold it out and that was insane. That was a really
great night. And then and then like a week later, we were in Nashville, which has been our hometown for the last I don't know, for one hundred and fifty years or something, and we did we played, We played in Nashville, and that show sold out too, So I guess my point is we got like two really big ones out of the way. We're so thankful they were sold out. They were amazing shows. So the pressure kind
of feels off. But then we keep coming to these markets we haven't been to in such a long time and finding that there's still an audience in these places for us, and we are continually shocked and thankful from that. But yeah, La the Troubadour is gonna be great. San Francisco is always amazing. A lot of these places we're just excited to go to for the food.
Oh yeah, I'm really curious about that. What do you like to when you I know, you're the schedules place so packed when you're doing this, but like, are you know, do you try to get out and try something local?
Like what are you eating when you're on the road.
Well, yesterday we were in Key West and key Lime Pie came up a lot, and so that was sort of the deal, like the last couple of days, like who can find the best key Line pie? And yeah, there were some points late at night where we'd drinking enough where it really didn't matter how it tasted like lime. I like that, But yeah, we we try to. I mean,
some of us are more adventurous eaters than others. But uh yeah, some days I'll just go for what they have on the rider for us backstage, and sometimes I'll venture out and get the gumbo or whatever the local food is.
Oh, I love it so much. Lee Nash from Sixpence on the Richer is with us. We have so much more to get into. There's a couple big songs that I want to talk about here, so stick around. We'll be right back. This is I Smell pop culture. We're here with Lee Nash from Sixpence None the Richer. So in eighteen ninety eight, you release kiss Me hit number one on American Top forty. It was nominated for a Grammy. How did that song come together?
Well, Matt Slocum, my partner in the band, he wrote it when we were in Holland. I think probably around ninety six, ninety seven, maybe ninety six, And yeah, I guess. I mean, I wasn't there. I was I was down in my little motel room, gours down and he called and was like, hey, I just wrote this song. Do you want to try it and try to learn it and we'll perform it at this festival tonight. And we did, and yeah, it was instant. I was instantly in love
with this song. But that's how I feel about all of that songs, Like, honestly, it's like getting a golden nugget and kiss Me didn't feel any different, you know, but it did have a cool instant reaction. It felt fun to play, and yeah, look it us now.
I mean, I know you know this, but like Taylor Swift, it's the first song she learned to play on guitar. Sabrina Carpenter's covering it on her tour right now. That must feel so incredible to see the song still influencing pop culture now.
It is. It's really interesting. We're learning, we're learning a lot about pop culture just being on the road sort of in the throes of like what I was mentioning before about these young kids coming to the shows. It's it's like, is it because of Taylor Swift? Is it because of this Sabrina Carpenter stuff or black Pink putting out that? And what do you call it? Not an interpolation?
Yeah, interpolation Yeah, And.
So it could be it could be a bunch of stuff or it's just being that nineties thing is kind of coming back around as as as decades tend to do. And then, you know, in my opinion, people I mean not not all the way across the board, but I think people miss you know, miss bands and like, you know that nineties sound, and and I think it's rightfully missed.
It really is a special sound. It's it's worthy of being revisited as often as it is. So, uh, you know, kiss Me is in the movie She's All that from nineteen eighty nine, major part of that movie. So I read that you've said that when you play that song and you're nearest staircase, there's a phenomenon that happens.
Do you want to tell us about that?
Yeah, it's pretty I mean it's not that often that I'm singing that song there a staircase, but yeah, like some girl will get it in her head. I've got an idea. Whether it be drunk, it's sober, and they'll walk down and fall, you know, fall like in the movie. And it's pretty fun as long as they don't get hurt. It's yeah, pretty funny, exactly.
There's not a lot of artists out there that can say their music inspires people to throw themselves downstairs.
That's that's a point of pride, I'm sure.
Yeah.
And as you.
Mentioned before, there is a new song by Lisa from Black Pek. It's called Moonlit Floor and it reworks Kissed Me and that's playing on the radio right now if you want to.
Go listen to that.
The reason we had you on today is for There she Goes. Six minutes on the Richer did a cover of There she Goes. It's originally by the Laws, and that was the if you watch the pilot of Gilmore Girls, they used there she Goes as the theme songs only in the pilot. But you guys did a cover of it and it's an incredible it's an incredible version. It's so fun. Your voice is perfect for that song. What inspired you guys to cover that one in particular, Well, we.
Were a fan of that record. The Laws only put out record I think it was in nineteen ninety or nineteen ninety one, and so we were fans of the record and that was I mean, it's the perfect pop song.
And we started playing it live and even though I mean it was I guess it was five years after it's been released or something, even though it was maybe kind of obscure at the time that the Laws, the crowd knew where the claps were, like the crowds always knew the claps, and like the background vocals and anyway, we were just enjoying playing it live. But our label came and saw us perform or like, wow, you have to put that on the record, and so that's why
we recorded it. But yeah, it's just a brilliant song. And then years later we got to like this was maybe two thousand and twelve or thirteen, we went to Turkey and ended up in London and for another show and Lee Avers, the singer of The Laws, asked us to have coffee with him and he had some kind of question about business, and I guess we had the right answer, and so we just hung out with him until like three in the morning. And they get to
do that with Lee Mavers. He's kind of a to say, to say the least, he's kind of a hermit, and he did around three am, just wandered off into the night like Sasquatch, a little like a little Sasquatch. Such a great guy. We had so much fun.
What a magical moment. That's that's so awesome. One of one of my favorite movies of old time is So I Married an Xmer, which opens up with the Boo Radley's version of There She Goes and uh and as we said, the pilot Gomore Girls opens with that song. What is it about that that makes it such a good like intro or theme song or like introduction.
What do you think about that?
I don't know. I think just because it's so punchy, and I mean, really it really serves like instantly it's just classic. It just has that classic sound and and dang it, Lee Mavers, I mean that whole record is great. So yeah, I think you said on a lot of hit songs. Personally the theory, I bet there's lots lots more.
Oh my god, to see that notebook and to hear those those tapes that when people come up to you on the street if people recognize you, what is it more kiss me?
Is it more? There she goes? What do people say? First?
I really don't get we I live with out in the country, so I really get a lot of people approaching me. But on the road it's like the people that I'm meeting after the shows. It goes a little deeper than the hits. Oh yeah, But when it's when it's kissed me or there she goes, it's usually kissed me.
Because Yeah, there's a lot of people online that have like a it's it's kind of bandella effect. It's like a false ma. They swear that kiss Me was in Gilmore Girls. Like there's a lot of people that really believe that because it and it wasn't. But uh, vibe wise, it does. It does really work. Do you think that song would have fit in Gilmore Girls?
Oh?
Absolutely yeah, And I don't know why it wasn't. It almost seems like maybe it was intentional, like this song is too everywhere right now? And Gilmore Girls had a very cool specific soundtrack and Sam Phillips did she do all the music for it? For the most part? Am I wrong about that?
No? That's that's that's correct.
Yeah, So yeah, I think that they just they went for you know, frankly no, I mean, kiss Me is super cool, but those Gilmore Girls, I think they kept it fresh that way.
What so you told me before we started that you you are a fan of Gilmore Girls, Like, what what stands out to you about that show?
What did you like about it?
I think it was the the characters in it, the character to do it. But sorry, I got I got completely distracted. Let me get them gather. I like the relationship between the mother and the daughter was pretty epic, and you don't really get that a lot in shows now. The writing was brilliant, so yeah, and it's kind of like putting on a warm blanket, you know. Yeah, it's just comfort comfort watching.
Especially this time of years. So it's so great for that. We talk a lot on this show about the relationships between mothers and daughters, because again, that is like what Gomar Girls is about.
Are you close with your own mother?
I am extremely close with her and my sister, which I know there's not a sister in it, but their relationship was a little sister mother.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Do you have a do you have a fun memory with your sister?
You'd like to share with us. I love hearing that kind of stuff.
My sister and I guess this is probably a pretty common thing. But we would fight to the point that it upset our mother, and then we would laugh at her and turn her, which I think it's a phenomenon that occurs more than just in my little creepy family. But yeah, we would. I mean, how evil is that? Just a couple of headed turds just making our mom cry and then laughing at her about it. So funny, So holds up.
There's nothing better than a common enemy when you're when you're doing that kind of thing. So so you're saying, you know, Gil Wrigols does feel like a warm blanket. It's a very comforting show. We're in the holiday season now, and uh in sixpence on the Richer has a new single out called I Believe In Father Christmas.
What can you tell us about that song?
Yeah, we recorded a couple of new songs to go on this re release of The Dawn of Grace, which comes out tomorrow. The re release does digitally, and and uh yeah, I Believe In Father Christmas is an old Greg Lake song and you too covered it and it's just a Really it's a really great Christmas song. It's a little dark if you really listen to the words. It's not you know, super happy, it's it's more, you know, like one of the lines, and it is the Christmas
we get we deserve. Yeah, and it feels right for the times a little bit, just you know, just we've got to remember to good humans and not just take everything for granted.
Absolutely. I love I love a Christmas song with an edge too. That's that's that's so fun. So the Dawn of Grace, that's the reissue. It's it's out now. As this releases, it'll be out. You can hear it. And uh, and you guys are on the road for the We Are Love twenty fifth anniversary tour. And I saw on Instagram you're gonna be streaming the Troubadour Show live.
Is that right?
Hi? Yes, so excited about that. That'll be our first ever international live concert. So yeah, I really hope we don't mess it up. It's gonna be great.
It's a lot of pressure.
Yeah, No, I'm so excited. It'll be the the last date of the tour and we'll be will be good to go. Excited.
What a way to close it out and you can get info on that at sixpence and on the Richer dot com. Wherever you are you can tune in and watch them live. But but you guys are gonna be all over the country. Yeah, as we record this year in Orlando, but you're playing all over the South. You're going to Denver, San Francisco, as we mentioned, Seattle, and the tour dates I imagine are up at your website as well, is that right.
That's right. Yes, you can see them on instagram page and also on our website also.
I mean six months on the rich such an important and iconic band. You got to go see them live if you haven't before, and even if you have before, you got to see them again. Thank you so much for your time today, Lee Nash. This has been so much fun. Good but personally, thank you for the music that you make just from the bomb of my heart. Thank you for sharing that with the world. It's so important and it's affected me and so many other people.
Thank you so much. That means the world. It really does.
Hey, everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am All In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com,