Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend XX
[0] What's up?
[1] This is Mike Diamond, Mike D. And I feel optimistically uncertain about being Conan O 'Brien's friend.
[2] I'm Adam Horowitz, a .k .a. Ad Rock of the B .C. Boys.
[3] And I feel, I don't know.
[4] I feel like I would be, I'd be kind of bullshitting if I said, I mean, we've met before.
[5] But I certainly would like to be, but I'm not yet friends with Conan O 'Brien.
[6] You're okay with the idea of us being friends.
[7] I mean, yeah, I have enough friends.
[8] Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brandy shoes, walking loose, climb the fence, books and pens, I can tell that we are going to be friends.
[9] Yes, I can tell that we are going to be friends.
[10] Hey there, welcome to Conan O 'Brien Needs a Friend, joined by my fellow attorney, Sonam of Session.
[11] Hello.
[12] And that's how an attorney sounds?
[13] That was my attorney voice.
[14] Very good.
[15] Hello, yes.
[16] Okay.
[17] Objection.
[18] Just cost me, no. That's a judge.
[19] Sustained.
[20] Okay, no. Overruled, sir.
[21] All right.
[22] You got it.
[23] No one knows the law like you, Sona.
[24] Of course, Matt Goreley.
[25] Hello, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
[26] Okay, all right.
[27] Uh -oh, I object.
[28] Object, I'm a caricature.
[29] Now, I don't know much about such city things, but I know an honest man when I see one.
[30] Well, it's clear, Sonny, you don't know what a lawyer is.
[31] I don't.
[32] Yeah.
[33] And you, your only exposure is through cartoons, I guess.
[34] That's most things.
[35] Yeah, maybe one children's production of 12 angry men.
[36] But who am I to talk?
[37] I've lived off of caricatures for many years.
[38] Do you be a good lawyer?
[39] Do I?
[40] Yeah.
[41] This is a true story.
[42] I had an uncle who always wanted me to be a lawyer because he was a lawyer, and he was always saying, you'd be a great lawyer, and you should do...
[43] And your mom's a lawyer.
[44] And my mom's a lawyer.
[45] And so he was saying, you should be a lawyer all the time.
[46] And he was pushing...
[47] And then I graduate college.
[48] I start becoming a comedy writer.
[49] I'm actually starting to have success at it, and he would still say, you should be a lawyer.
[50] And I would think, huh, I'm actually, this is doing okay.
[51] Then I'm working on Saturday Night Live.
[52] Then I'm getting on camera a little.
[53] little bit.
[54] And he's still saying you should be a lawyer.
[55] And then I'm on the Simpsons.
[56] And I'd see him and he'd still bring it up.
[57] Then I get the late night show.
[58] And I swear to God, he called the head because he had gone to the same college as the head of NBC.
[59] So he suddenly didn't know him.
[60] And they were years apart.
[61] But he suddenly got his number and he called him.
[62] And he said, what is all this about Conan doing this late night show?
[63] That guy should be a lawyer.
[64] Oh my God.
[65] No, he didn't.
[66] He did.
[67] He did.
[68] He did.
[69] He did.
[70] And he suddenly got.
[71] So I get a call from Bob Wright, who's like, you know, runs NBC for General Electric.
[72] And he was laughing.
[73] He was like, this guy just got on the phone and yelled at me and said, Conan should be a lawyer.
[74] And I'm like, yeah, I know.
[75] You should have told him he should have been a comedian.
[76] Yeah, you should have a late -night show.
[77] But his argument was, you know, if you're a lawyer, you get to be your own director and your own actor and your own script.
[78] And I was like, no, no, no, trust me, very few people have late -night shows.
[79] Did he ever come around?
[80] I don't think so.
[81] I think it was always a mystery to him.
[82] And to be fair, you know, I just came from people that knew nothing about show business and didn't care about show business.
[83] So I think it was, it was just felt like, what the hell is he doing?
[84] Wow.
[85] What is this nonsense?
[86] Knock it off.
[87] Go to BC law and be a lawyer.
[88] And, you know, I'm sure there are some people out there that would say that would have been a better use of my time.
[89] But yeah, it was just, that was interesting.
[90] ever want to be a lawyer?
[91] No. I always thought I...
[92] I just...
[93] I'm sorry.
[94] I would have done a really great job at being a lawyer.
[95] No, you couldn't do that.
[96] Why do I think you could be a lawyer and I couldn't be?
[97] I didn't say I could be a lawyer.
[98] I said that someone else wanted me to be a lawyer.
[99] You should not be a lawyer.
[100] I could be a lawyer.
[101] You wouldn't show up your client would be sitting there.
[102] Yes, how fiercely have I fought traffic tickets?
[103] Oh, sure.
[104] That's just a small, small glimpse.
[105] I'll give her that.
[106] She's amazing.
[107] And she used to miss whole days at work because she was in traffic court.
[108] And she would admit up front, oh, yeah, no. I was doing 95 miles an hour in a children's parking lot in elementary school.
[109] And they caught me. Children's parking lot.
[110] You know, like a children's house.
[111] And whatever.
[112] And then you'd go there and you'd say all this bullshit to the judge and you'd get off.
[113] I would win.
[114] Yes.
[115] That's what we need.
[116] We need the Ws.
[117] And I would bring the doubles.
[118] The wins.
[119] I'd be one of those billboard lawyers and everybody would come.
[120] Like Sweet James.
[121] Okay.
[122] Like Jacob and Rami.
[123] But here's the problem.
[124] I think you're very motivated when you've, someone's done you wrong.
[125] The man has given you a ticket.
[126] Then that gets your Armenian blood boiling.
[127] True?
[128] Because you are Armenian.
[129] Yeah, is it true.
[130] Okay.
[131] Let's not take that too far.
[132] Don't label me. But it does.
[133] I've seen you when you see.
[134] read, you go into this special mode, where you have superpowers.
[135] I'm talking about you represent someone else.
[136] Yeah.
[137] And you're supposed to be there at 8 o 'clock in the morning and have done all the preparation.
[138] But somebody took some gummies and somebody kept the judge waiting.
[139] I disagree.
[140] And someone when the judge said, Ms. Mofsessi, and you're like, get off my ass, judge, and shove that gavel where the sun don't shine.
[141] How's your Armenian blood doing now?
[142] It's really boiling right now.
[143] I think I would crush it out.
[144] You haven't seen me on jury duty.
[145] Do you know how good I am at jury duty?
[146] That's a totally different thing.
[147] Shut us, Matt.
[148] Yeah, I object.
[149] You're out of order.
[150] I object.
[151] You're out of order.
[152] Contemptive court.
[153] Mismof Sestian.
[154] Stop telling people to shut up in the courtroom.
[155] I had notes.
[156] I had mental notes for the people who were the two lawyers.
[157] I was like, I could do what they're doing.
[158] Are you kidding?
[159] I know, but then you'd have to go do it.
[160] And all I'm saying is that you're a free spirit.
[161] And once there's a task given to you, there's part of you that rebels.
[162] And that's why you work with me. I'm just trying to think right now if I was in serious legal trouble, which of you two assholes I'd want to represent me. Obviously.
[163] Well, I'm taking his fame out of it.
[164] Eduardo's pointing to me. Oh, first of all, no, don't take my fame out of it.
[165] I want to be able to stand up, ladies and gentlemen, uh, I'll be representing the defense.
[166] Of course, you all know me from my 30 years experience.
[167] You should be a lawyer.
[168] I thought you said you're not famous in this scenario.
[169] No, I said I insist on being famous.
[170] Oh, no, no, no. You Before we examine the evidence, let's look at my 10th anniversary special.
[171] Jury, yay, this stuff holds up.
[172] Yay.
[173] The judge, I find you guilty of being hilarious.
[174] Thank you.
[175] Thank you.
[176] All right.
[177] I will fight for you.
[178] Yes.
[179] Let's move it on.
[180] Let's move on to the show.
[181] My guest today are the founding members of the Grammy Award -winning rap, hip -hop group, Beastie Boys.
[182] They recently released a third.
[183] 30th anniversary edition of their classic album, Ill Communication.
[184] I'm absolutely thrilled they are here today.
[185] Adam Adrock, Orvitz, Michael, Mike D. Diamond.
[186] Welcome.
[187] Yeah, yeah.
[188] So you're okay with the idea of us being friends.
[189] Is that bad?
[190] It's kind of like I'm trying to sell you a Kia.
[191] I have a Kia.
[192] I used Kia that's not in great shape.
[193] I have a used Kia.
[194] I don't have a Kia.
[195] You have a, okay, so.
[196] Yeah.
[197] That would mean you wouldn't want another one.
[198] No. See, that's the problem.
[199] I'm trying to go to hire.
[200] How did I know you had a Kia?
[201] I just knew it.
[202] I just, like, dirty Kia.
[203] What do you mean?
[204] When you say dirty, is there just a lot of crud inside the car?
[205] So gross.
[206] It's just, can I interject here?
[207] Sure, Mike.
[208] Please, and you don't even have to ask.
[209] It's disgusting.
[210] It's like literally disgusting.
[211] Like old, you know, kicked up like old cereal and stuff inside.
[212] I don't eat cereal in my car.
[213] Not an animal.
[214] What is all that food crap?
[215] There's other food.
[216] But I don't like go to my car with a bowl of scenes.
[217] Guys, I was just back in, just back in Boston.
[218] And my older brother, Neil, I went for a ride in his car.
[219] It's the dirtiest car I've seen.
[220] It had just crud, caked on the inside.
[221] And at one point, there's a little panel that if you push, it opens up.
[222] It's not the glove compartment, but it's just for, I don't know, just some tick -tacks, whatever you might want.
[223] I pushed on it opened up, maybe 19 packets of ketchup from a fast food restaurant.
[224] And I said, what the fuck?
[225] And he went, it's nice.
[226] If you need ketchup, it's right there.
[227] And they're free when you go through a drive -thru.
[228] So is this the kind of animal you are?
[229] Can we, like, move on from this?
[230] Geez, you guys.
[231] Okay.
[232] How's your day so far?
[233] They're so good.
[234] Can't complain.
[235] Yeah.
[236] Got some ketchup packets.
[237] We have more important things.
[238] We have more important things to talk about.
[239] We have met you guys.
[240] performed on my show in the past.
[241] You did an interview.
[242] I remember bumping into you a couple of times in New York.
[243] I was always super happy because I was a big fan of the music, but I also always found you guys, Beastie Boys, really funny.
[244] That was in the music, it was in the videos.
[245] And I always thought that that was kind of integral to what you were doing.
[246] Am I correct about that?
[247] Yeah.
[248] We talk about it, and I feel like actually it's a thing that I don't know this is maybe dangerous territory here but I think a lot like there's a lot of our audience that doesn't get that or hasn't at different points different junctures over time.
[249] I don't see how that's possible because from the very beginning when you guys first hit the scene I remember thinking they're funny like your early videos and this is years before I got on my got a late night show.
[250] I remember thinking these are funny guys.
[251] They're New York funny.
[252] Am I wrong?
[253] It feels very New York.
[254] Well, yeah.
[255] We're from New York.
[256] Well, that's all the time we have.
[257] This is called where people are from.
[258] We've established.
[259] We've got this.
[260] All I do is geolocate people.
[261] And then we kind of wrap it up.
[262] But New York, we have it.
[263] Blay, send us off to the printer.
[264] No problem.
[265] The guy who doesn't know how our podcast works.
[266] You know, we met in high school.
[267] We were friends.
[268] We've just been friends this whole time.
[269] And what do you do with your friends?
[270] You just have, you know, you're supposed to just have fun.
[271] Yeah.
[272] And so we kind of, when we were, you know, in high school making music, it was fun.
[273] And so we figured we just go with that.
[274] Yeah, but could I add on.
[275] You don't need to ask permission.
[276] You can just go.
[277] No, I do because, may I interject.
[278] You don't understand.
[279] Like, otherwise he's going to be like, Mike, I was speaking here.
[280] So, like, I feel like I said it.
[281] But permission, it's, I'm like, you know, I'm taking that away from happening.
[282] That's why I'm here.
[283] Because Mike is a pain in the ass.
[284] Oh my God.
[285] I asked to do this by myself.
[286] No, but I think like we grew up at a certain time also in New York where it was like, A, we come, you know, Adam and I, anyway, Yauk was an only child, but we come from family.
[287] So I think like there's this necessity when you're like at this, at a New York City table, read culturally Jewish table where everybody is speaking on top of each other.
[288] Like you kind of have to figure out how to be funny to survive.
[289] Otherwise, yeah, it's just your way.
[290] that is your dealing with the world and then I think I don't know I remember from like a really young age like we always when we first became friends like we all had Monty Python's big red book which was blue the cover was blue yep that was like as important to us as like any punk rock record or something you know what I mean that was like a very high that was like just something that was important it was important to us to aspire to be this is like a funny like that I always started out getting interested music you know through the Beatles as a kid, but I always remembered and then became crazily into their allure and learning everything about them.
[291] The thing I always remember is whenever you ask, like George Martin or something, when he first met the Beatles, what grabbed you about them?
[292] He never said it was the music.
[293] He said it was their sense of humor.
[294] And I always thought, that's not possible.
[295] They were, it must have been the music.
[296] And he went, no, the music was, music was okay.
[297] It was their sense of humor.
[298] And then, of course, they were, they were integrated.
[299] It's, it's part of the same, I don't know, it's, it's part of the language of the music is the comedy.
[300] to me anyway.
[301] No, and the Beatles were huge Peter Seller.
[302] They were like huge fans at the Goon show.
[303] Yeah.
[304] You know, and that you could see once you kind of like you geek out or nothing, you do the nerd searches of the Goon show and on YouTube and stuff.
[305] And you realize like a lot of their humor, you know, they were students of that.
[306] Yeah.
[307] For sure.
[308] Or contemporaries.
[309] You guys have always said Adam, you know, started the band.
[310] He was the initiated it.
[311] How did he initiated it?
[312] Was he the one that said we could do this um i wasn't there i don't know i i was yeah yeah uh were you ever in the beastie boys yep briefly yeah no i could do videos i'll vouch i'll vouch i'll vouch i'll vouch for you were there 88 to 89 i remember yeah yeah yeah and you were replaced by a look like yeah i was like fast and furious seven yeah well adam before he was in beastie boys he was in a band called the young and useless.
[313] But before there was Beastie Boys, I was in this band called The Young Aborigines, which I guess would probably a name that would get us to cancel.
[314] Like, is that an appropriationist?
[315] I just keep going.
[316] I mean, I'm just saying you have to be honest about these things.
[317] Like full disclosure, right?
[318] Cultural appropriation.
[319] Again, I wasn't there.
[320] I was in a band called cultural appropriation.
[321] Yeah, that would be good.
[322] Yeah, we killed.
[323] Anyway, so Youngergeridge's, Yauk was our, like, everything.
[324] He was our road crew tour.
[325] He was the only one who knew actually how to make things work, honestly.
[326] And we played two gigs in one night, and then we broke up.
[327] And it was John Barry, who was the first guitar player before Adam, from Beastie Boys.
[328] And myself and Kate Schellenbach, who is the drummer, the original drummer from Beastie Boys.
[329] She played percussion in Young Aburgies.
[330] And I played drums.
[331] But then Yauk, like, really, it's not even so much he wanted to be in that band, but he wanted to be in the band.
[332] So he's like, all right, we're starting a new band.
[333] So then it was like John, myself, and him, and then Kate.
[334] And then I was the one who I drew the short straw.
[335] And so I had to sing, which I really didn't want to do.
[336] Wait, the short straw is the singer?
[337] In my case, I didn't want, I would, I definitely would have, way rather at that time would have rather played drums.
[338] That would have been my ideal, but it didn't work out that way.
[339] Wasn't to be.
[340] No. Anyway, so then, but Yaak was, I mean, he was the visionary in terms of like, we're going to do this.
[341] And Adam and I could go back and forth in many, we could talk story for hours about how Yaak was a master manifester.
[342] I mean, at that age, I definitely didn't know what the word manifest meant.
[343] But, you know, he was really someone who was just fucking just, completely determined to do something and would get it done, I think, beyond probably our, I don't know, we're a little more like, oh, yeah, seems like a good idea at us.
[344] We'll do it.
[345] Or just like, you know, you're with your friends.
[346] You're like, oh, we should do this thing.
[347] And like nobody like does anything after just we should do this thing.
[348] But then he'd show up with like a camera and film.
[349] Like, oh, I guess we're actually going to do the thing that we're talking about.
[350] Thank you.
[351] Yeah.
[352] It's like, you know, I think about you're with your friends and they're like, how many times you're with your friends and somebody says the crazy?
[353] idea and you're like yeah okay that just becomes one of the thousand crazy ideas that never ever happens 99 .9 % of kids your age say we should do this thing and then they smoke more weed and they don't do anything that and then it's that you're that's that's I don't know I was going to go somewhere with that but yeah go ahead you have to single out the potheads I know why why are you attacking the potheads you know no I just like math kids you know like you're right they're not always doing the stuff you're right you're always like doing the crazy ideas you know what you're right you know I apologize are smoking the pot the math kids are doing the math I think you're right and I'm I'd like to apologize okay and I'm also apologizing I'm sorry I'm just to your eyes I'm apologizing to Sona because she's I partake you don't just partake you don't just and I'm on apologetic I get things done now you have a twins I do.
[354] They're so young.
[355] But they're also why I do it.
[356] So it's okay.
[357] It's fine.
[358] It's fine.
[359] I had the chance to have a really nice, lovely conversation with Adam on the Warner Brothers lot.
[360] I want to say it was about a year before he passed away.
[361] He was there directing, I believe, a video, some project.
[362] And I could tell he wasn't well.
[363] But I was coming out of the commissary.
[364] He was going to into the commissary and we just had like this nice bonding conversation wasn't that long but it was when we just first showed up with the Warner Brothers lot to do that iteration of whatever the hell we were doing and seemed like an absolutely lovely guy but it's always been clear to me that you call them the manifesto or the catalyst to the person who's you've got all the ingredients you just need someone to create the friction or set the you know get the thing moving and it felt like in you guys are saying that was maybe an adam yeah but it's be it's it's honestly beyond that because it really was like he was the guy who would have the craziest fucking idea that anybody would possibly have in the room and then like exactly what adam said then show up the next day with the equipment that would make it all possible and then you're doing it so we didn't do all of the stuff that he was saying though thankfully yeah you wanted to do a tour underwater Yeah.
[365] How was that going to work?
[366] Yeah, I know.
[367] He really, really thought about it, had drawings and everything.
[368] There was a lost city of Atlantis fascination that went on for a while.
[369] Actually, actually.
[370] Yeah.
[371] Did he believe the lost city of Atlantis existed?
[372] It's not about that.
[373] It's just this idea of like having this underwater, you know, presenting we are doing on tour in an underwater environment.
[374] it.
[375] And granted, I would give it to him.
[376] Had we done it, nobody else has ever done it prior.
[377] And there's probably a lot of good reasons for that, you know.
[378] Yeah, logistically, it's just a lot.
[379] There's no, there's no oxygen down there.
[380] No, and with a tank, and then you have to wrap at the same time with your oxygen.
[381] Yeah.
[382] I mean, and call me old fashion, call me old fashion, but I think when I was a kid, I was told, like, you know, water or electricity.
[383] They kind of came to two separated.
[384] That's never been proven.
[385] Never been proven.
[386] It's just more bullshit.
[387] Yeah.
[388] I always appreciated that the music is clearly was so solid and so fantastic.
[389] And I want to talk about ill communication because when that came out, it was such a soundtrack.
[390] I just listened to it a lot at the time.
[391] And it's one of those records.
[392] albums that becomes the soundtrack for that time in your life, which is, I think, a hard thing to achieve.
[393] But I think everyone who was my age, or obviously younger, who heard that at the time was like, okay, these are the songs that sort of imprint on us at that time.
[394] And I remember I was, I guess I would have been in New York at the time.
[395] And I know that you guys, you came from New York.
[396] we've talked about that and then you and you've said before that the new yorker grew up in like the boston i grew up in there was no there's no iPhones you're not listening to your music that way and this is probably much more true in new york than it was in boston music's coming at you from all these different places out on the street and that that was instrumental no pun intended to how you guys formed um yeah i mean i don't think our story is unique you know that unique i feel like that's sort of how things especially bands start you know you're into this thing and it's you're hearing things and you find friends that are into the same sort of thing and you move along that way but something special about being in new york is that you do hear it you're we talked about a lot like you walk down the street just getting from a you know from here to there you're hearing you know music from the pizza place you're hearing you know somebody drives by with the radio or whatever like you're hearing all this music and i feel like our time was an interesting time to grow up in like you know 70s to hear radio, you know, it was a great time for radio, right?
[397] Like we had, the one station would play like David Bowie and the stylistics and, you know, and whatever, it would be like everything would be playing.
[398] And so all of those influences.
[399] And in New York, you'd go uptown, you hear like, you know, when we were little kids, we'd hear salsa and boogaloo coming from radios and, you know, punk rock up from the east side or whatever.
[400] You know what I mean?
[401] All these different sounds.
[402] And it formed us as kids growing up.
[403] And so we took that with us.
[404] And I think, you know, us as friends, and like we all do as friends, like we, it's not just about the one thing.
[405] Like, we all talk about the TV shows.
[406] So, like, we write rap lyrics.
[407] So, of course, we're going to talk about Chef Boyardee, and we're going to talk about the odd couple and we're going to talk about all this dumb stuff that's, I mean, not dumb, pretty dumb, but it was important to us.
[408] Well, it's genius when you look back at it now.
[409] Like, we all try like, oh, my God couple is one of the best shows ever created me, whatever.
[410] appreciate it too because there were so many you drop in so many things like you had a rhyme you know that because i think were a similar vintage i remembered when you guys rhymed rod carew and i'm like who's talking about rod carew anymore at you know pinch on the neck of mr spock i just there's all this stuff that was evocative of my growing up in the 70s and your kind of respect for it i remember too when i would when i would go to new york this is something that was also true It was that the times I lived there, when you got in a cab, you were listening to the music that that cab driver was listening to, which often was not top 10.
[411] So, anytime you enter to space, you were inundated.
[412] People talk about how we're siloed now.
[413] Everyone's listening to the music that they exactly want to hear through their, you know, iPods.
[414] Air pods.
[415] Air pods.
[416] Ear goggles.
[417] iPod.
[418] Yes.
[419] Okay.
[420] I'm sorry.
[421] You don't have to exacerbate it.
[422] Sorry.
[423] You could just sort of help me. You said iPods.
[424] You meant AirPods.
[425] Yes.
[426] All right.
[427] This is why we don't get anything from Apple.
[428] This is why they don't send me in a shit.
[429] The ear.
[430] I miss pronounced Ferrari all the time.
[431] But anyway, that's, I think you're part of a stew.
[432] You have no control over it.
[433] I think New York was unique.
[434] I only know New York.
[435] But I do think New York, because you had music blasting at you from all sides.
[436] and all different kinds of music.
[437] So I have to think that at that time, that was different than Boston or Rhode Island or anywhere else on the East Coast and beyond.
[438] You know, New York really was the place that exists probably in the whole globe at that time where you had all this different music happening at the same time, all being blasted at you, you know?
[439] And then I think also then it's an interesting thing like what you brought up of the...
[440] I don't know, I guess it's maybe just that we all grew up in the 70s.
[441] like as kids we were left alone like literally left alone and so we all and there were only three channels or four or five channels or you know it was a huge deal i remember when my parents got the cable box that was oh that was like going into hyper warp yeah i get being able to turn you have the box where i could turn beyond the three channels or four channels whatever was that was huge and being able to watch like the nix and rangers games back when there were three channels There's ABC, CBS, NBC, there's like two UHF stations, and I've mentioned this before, but there would, we would watch what came in, meaning what did we have good reception on?
[442] And once it was a Catholic Mass, but the picture was really good.
[443] So my brothers and I, like, because we don't have the palette that people have today.
[444] I remember just thinking like, well, this is not what we want to watch.
[445] Is it better or worse than F Troop?
[446] Do you know what I mean?
[447] Like, we're just watching.
[448] It's just the electricity.
[449] It's just all we need is the electricity.
[450] Don't dis F -Troop.
[451] Rat Patrol.
[452] I don't know any rant.
[453] Mr. Ed, I don't know any random show.
[454] You know what I mean?
[455] No offense.
[456] I'm sorry.
[457] I'm so happy you mentioned rat patrol.
[458] Three Nazis fighting three American GIs in the desert and it's only the same six.
[459] Every fucking episode.
[460] That's the show?
[461] They're just driving around in the desert.
[462] What was the Colonel Klink show?
[463] That's Hogan Zero.
[464] I think of that that's pretty insane that like every day after school we'd watch Hogan's Heroes which is like this you know sort of like It's funny shit It's a comedy A comedy about They said it was a P .O .W camp Not a concentration camp A P -O -W camp So that's why it was funny Jesus Christ You couldn't have known the scale of the success when you come out first album, you're touring with Madonna in 1985.
[465] If you're going to tour with Madonna, 1985, I'm thinking, is the time, you just must have been, you're in the center of an insane whirlwind.
[466] You couldn't have calculated that.
[467] It was pretty crazy for her.
[468] Think about it.
[469] She talks about it.
[470] She never got over it.
[471] Think about it.
[472] No, but it was, though, I think, where we were on that tour, and it was a huge deal that we, and totally absurd, that we got asked to do that tour.
[473] That's a bit of a story into its self, which Adam could tell, or I could tell.
[474] Either us could tell it.
[475] But anyway, or you can just read the book and it's in there.
[476] Yeah.
[477] Which would make what we're doing now completely irrelevant.
[478] What if this whole thing was just read the book?
[479] And then we just end it.
[480] You don't have to go into it.
[481] No, Madonna, but my point is actually that she booked a tour and she was playing like theaters, and by the time the tour was actually happening, she was so beyond selling out a theater in terms of stature.
[482] Like, she literally went, I think, by the tour, before the tour was finished, I think she was like on the cover of Time magazine or something.
[483] So it was like she was this, she was on her way to being a cultural phenomenon, but then she really was won by the end of that tour.
[484] Is it a coincidence that we were on that tour?
[485] I mean, I don't know.
[486] I don't know.
[487] All I'm saying is before you, guys signed up, she's in theaters.
[488] Small theaters.
[489] I mean, she used to be at the same, we used to play the same clubs in New York.
[490] Yeah, I'm just saying.
[491] And then, no one ever, no one ever talks about that part of the story.
[492] You're right.
[493] In the podcast era, this is compelling information.
[494] Well, actually, it is.
[495] Because she's flounding around.
[496] She's in theaters.
[497] It's going nowhere.
[498] You add the mixture, the key element of the Beastie Boys.
[499] Suddenly, she's on the cover of Time Magazine, which at that moment was a big deal.
[500] Huge deal.
[501] Now, no one knows what you're talking about.
[502] You don't know who Joe Franklin is, do you?
[503] Yes, I do.
[504] We were on the Joe Franklin show in 83.
[505] Joe Franklin, just for our listeners.
[506] Yeah, how do you explain Joe Franklin?
[507] Joe Franklin, a guy who never should have had a show but magically did.
[508] He named dropped everybody in show business.
[509] He had a small, almost would today look like a cable access show.
[510] And he sat there and his show was on for 40 years.
[511] Forever.
[512] Yeah, and he had like a real studio in New York.
[513] Like, you'd go, and it was like, very Vod, I guess Vod.
[514] You're more of a student than I am of this stuff, but he's like, it's Vodvillian.
[515] Yes, and a lot of his references would go over the head of anybody here, but Joe Franklin is an iconic New York institution.
[516] I can't imagine the Beastie Boys on the Joe Franklin show.
[517] And then at the end, he was like, well, you know, Phyllis, whatever he called, and he's like, I see big things happening to you since you are going to be on this show.
[518] And he was basically like, you know, you're giving the Joe Frank.
[519] It was pretty great.
[520] It was pretty great.
[521] You're like, I don't know.
[522] Next thing you know.
[523] Yeah, let me go on tour.
[524] So what you're saying, Joe Franklin blesses you, then you guys Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
[525] Madonna and then Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
[526] Oh, true.
[527] You're right.
[528] Joe Franklin blessed us.
[529] Seven.
[530] You guys have seven platinum selling albums.
[531] And that's thanks to a man named Joe Franklin.
[532] What's with the other ones that aren't platinum?
[533] Because we made more than seven records.
[534] I have bad news for you.
[535] I know.
[536] No, I don't.
[537] You know, I mean, everyone's got a couple of duds.
[538] Everyone.
[539] I like them.
[540] I mean, you know.
[541] I love that your mind works that way because there's exactly.
[542] It's what didn't work.
[543] It's there's seven that did, but what didn't work?
[544] Yeah, that's exactly how mine works.
[545] I didn't know a music insider.
[546] Would you like some musical insider information?
[547] Yes, I would.
[548] So we were at our studio here in California.
[549] And I was smoking the pot.
[550] This was a long time ago.
[551] Oh, God.
[552] And we had...
[553] I'm trying to discourage kids from doing this.
[554] We had a gold record on the wall.
[555] It was our record, Paul's Boutique.
[556] Mm -hmm.
[557] And I was looking at it, and I could see...
[558] It has our label, and I could see that it has, you know, whatever, like nine songs on the one side.
[559] And I was looking at the actual gold record.
[560] It only had four songs on it.
[561] And I was like, wait, wait, you guys.
[562] And so we opened it, and we put the record on a record player.
[563] A gold record.
[564] Well, open, like, I mean, broke the glass and took the record out of the thing.
[565] And it was somebody doing, like, piano versions of, like, Barry Manilove, like, feelings and, yeah.
[566] Just some other shit.
[567] When someone has a gold record, they just take any record.
[568] Apparently.
[569] Spray pages.
[570] I don't know about anybody else.
[571] I mean, I'm telling you.
[572] I'd like to think that for, you know, Barbara Streisand, Donna Summer, like, a real big star that it was actually their record.
[573] This should lead.
[574] In our case, it was some...
[575] I'm saying this is a documentary.
[576] Whoever's record that was, I'm just talking...
[577] This should lead to like a quiz show kind of investigation because I think all gold records need to be examined.
[578] They all need to be recalled and you need to go to every, you know, and you should check them out because it's probably not their record.
[579] And if it's not on a massive scale, recount.
[580] It's a recount.
[581] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[582] We need a recall of all gold and platinum plaques.
[583] Maybe the most important thing, facing America right now, at least for the next couple of months.
[584] Okay.
[585] All our energy should go into it.
[586] Well, I think, Gordon, you can be a big part of that next time, you know, say Lady Gaga's here.
[587] You could, you know, really urge her to do the same flavor.
[588] You guys have come to the right place.
[589] I have incredible power in the music industry.
[590] I didn't know you could play those.
[591] I just thought they were decorative.
[592] I didn't know either.
[593] I didn't know I hadn't thought about it.
[594] It turned out, it basically seemed like, I guess, yeah, it was somebody's record.
[595] There was a spray painted gold or something.
[596] I don't know.
[597] Because who would?
[598] Who would break the glass and put it on a turntable?
[599] They weren't counting on you guys.
[600] You were the X -Factor.
[601] We were the sleuths that uncovered this incredible crime.
[602] This could be an action movie with John Sina.
[603] Oh.
[604] I'm just saying.
[605] John Sina and the Rock?
[606] The Rock breaks the glass.
[607] We can't afford the rock.
[608] No, no. Now you can't do both.
[609] Just stick to John Sina.
[610] We can get John Sina because he does commercials.
[611] too much oh right but how about this Jason Statham is the bad guy who makes the plaques this is way too hot for me right now I love it I want in on this and I'd like to be a producer but also I'd like to be in the film I can I just say this now that we're in Hollywood California anybody that like makes action movies I just want to be in the background during an action scene I want to get pushed into like a thing of fruit that's what I just want to be in a movie where like they're chasing and somebody pushes me into like a fruit cart why fruit i think i think uh adam ad rock would like to be pushed into fruit in the background of a but wait man this fruit is that like a safe landing like what is just always the thing where like people are walking they're like whoa and the car they get pushed into a thing of fruit well there's always the chase scene that right like goes through like the like hotel and the cafe or something this was my coffee reference to cafe yeah i'll see that that is done i'll see that the listeners yeah yeah that and the and please yeah and help us uncover this uh platinum plaque yeah gold controversy uh it wasn't platinum in the story it wasn't it was you're right it was i'm sorry stickler for the details i'm gonna say that probably the same for the platinum yeah who notes maybe it's a status thing like gold you're like yeah just spray paint that yeah that album by the park of family i mean platinum maybe they had a yeah a better eye for detail and they yeah guys you move to L .A. What year do you move to L .A.?
[612] I'm going to get this thing back on track.
[613] We came out here to record Paul's Boutique because we were working with these producers called The Dust Brothers, who were from out here.
[614] And then we'd had this whole falling out with Russell Simmons and Def Jam, and we just wanted to get away from like the New York scene that we were in.
[615] And so we were coming out here to record that album.
[616] Now, did you have, because I'll admit to having an attitude a bit about coming to L .A., Did you have an attitude about that way?
[617] Yeah, I definitely have an attitude, but then we still do.
[618] We got it.
[619] Because I'm not good about driving.
[620] Are you good about actually driving to all the stuff?
[621] I'm one of the best drivers in the world.
[622] Well, aside from the drive, but do you actually make the effort?
[623] Like, do you go downtown to the arts district?
[624] Oh, downtown.
[625] Oh, God, no. No, I live in a bubble.
[626] That's my point.
[627] It's like, yeah.
[628] It's my house, and then there's like a frozen yogurt place six minutes away, and I have my playlist, and that's it, right, Sona?
[629] Yeah, you don't like to leave.
[630] never seen the sun.
[631] So Froyo, that's it.
[632] No, I do try.
[633] And one of the things that was good for me is a bunch of years ago when I started doing live sets in preparation for something, just going to these weird theaters that I didn't know about dynasty typewriter hotel, places downtown.
[634] And then I got into a thing where a couple of friends in mine and I decided, let's just eat at diners and restaurants that were established before we were born, which was 1963.
[635] So we just ended up finding all these places that had been in, and they had to be in continuous operation.
[636] So we'd find these weird places to eat in downtown L .A. that had sawdust on the floor that the cops in the 1940s used to frequent.
[637] And so then I started to really appreciate there's tons of amazing stuff in L .A., but it didn't come naturally.
[638] I have a lot of things that I need to, I wish I should have written them down.
[639] My wish was a sandwich place with the O. Filippes.
[640] So I'm wondering, was Filippe was your Your diner thing, a specific dish, or was it just not a specific dish?
[641] Find a place that was in my friends, Rodman and Greg and I would say it's got to be in, it's got to a big rod?
[642] Not big rod.
[643] No, not big rod.
[644] I've seen his ride.
[645] It's fine.
[646] Oh, why?
[647] Why did I go to a dick joke?
[648] Yes.
[649] Well, I'll tell you why.
[650] I have two moves.
[651] I'm not the professional.
[652] That's the two.
[653] Pot hats.
[654] Pot hats and dants and dutch jokes.
[655] If you look at my milieu, my uvra, that's all there is.
[656] All right, so, so it's just about the diner and the thing before.
[657] Okay.
[658] Do you know what the mili miche is?
[659] Is that what it's called?
[660] No, mele mila.
[661] Is it you trying to, mila is what you're trying to say.
[662] So you're the best driver in the world.
[663] I went to Italy this summer, a little vacation.
[664] I asked, I asked Mike Diamond, I said, what do you think of bologna?
[665] He's like, I went through there on the mille miche, whatever.
[666] And I had to Google it because I didn't know what the hell he was talking about.
[667] Mike go.
[668] I sort of luck into things in my life.
[669] And one of the things I have lucked into...
[670] You're here, aren't you?
[671] Yeah.
[672] Hi -five.
[673] Or at joke?
[674] Yeah.
[675] One of the things I got asked to do was this classic, this rally race that runs every year in Italy and has since like basically the birth of the automobile.
[676] So you did that.
[677] So I did that.
[678] And I mean, I had an incredible.
[679] dinner in Bologna it was how good was the food in Bologna 10 out of 10 10?
[680] Was it Italian food?
[681] So much Italian food oh my God, it's like Italian food everywhere.
[682] I just would be funny I just would have liked it if it wasn't Italian food.
[683] I did get Chinese one night.
[684] We did have Chinese one night.
[685] And?
[686] And, you know, that's too much.
[687] Yeah.
[688] Are you a Chinese one night in Bologna?
[689] We're just rolling the dice.
[690] I don't know.
[691] Switch it up.
[692] We've been there for like three weeks it was like yeah i didn't see that but still i mean that's wow yeah that's a high risk maneuver so um adam you've been interested in acting as i would say when i first would watch the videos i thought it's like there was almost like a cross in the road where you could have it could be music but you very much seem like a comedic actor performer that felt like that was in your bones almost like a dead end kids kind of thing i don't know if you know the a lot of yeah I have quick, yeah.
[693] A lot of people, like a lot of people want me to go solo, for one, which is a side note.
[694] Right.
[695] I can't, I couldn't do that to them.
[696] Do you still have the letters?
[697] Yeah.
[698] Wallpaper.
[699] You know, yeah, that's what I thought I would do when I was a kid.
[700] I wanted to be an actor.
[701] And then I did a couple of things.
[702] I hate the hours.
[703] Yeah.
[704] I don't know what it's like for comedy.
[705] I mean, but acting itself is, it's a hassle.
[706] You're not going to talk about Ronald?
[707] Well, we can.
[708] I feel like that's your opportunity to jump in if you want.
[709] All right.
[710] Well, Adam had a very great role in a great TV show with an esteemed actor, Edward Woodward.
[711] Mm -hmm.
[712] This show was called The Equalizer, long before Denzel Washington discovered said property.
[713] Right.
[714] I remember this TV show.
[715] And, yeah, and then Adam played a. a rich kid gone bad in the we were all how old were like 17 or something yeah 16 17 and and uh and the highlight of the whole show was in uh busting the drug crime ring Edward Woodward takes this like a silver chain I think it was silver from around his neck and he like throws it around the villain and like lasuz him with his necklace like wonder woman yeah yeah it was a very wonder woman like uh yeah act yeah the episode is called mama's boy and i was mama's boy you're ronald first line professional acting line there's kids that want to get into the back room and i go yo chill that's my first thing that i did and uh yeah and at the end uh the guy has a sword and the equalizer comes in And he's like, oh, you caught me red -handed and he throws that.
[716] I mean, the sword goes flying.
[717] Yeah.
[718] That's where the necklace goes around.
[719] I don't, you know.
[720] But you had kind of like a rubber -faced comedian, like.
[721] I could have been, I could.
[722] There's so many things I could have done.
[723] I mean, I still could.
[724] Are you offering me a job?
[725] Yes.
[726] Yes, I am.
[727] I know in Hollywood.
[728] Should I have a show?
[729] Like what?
[730] Like, I want to know, like, like stand -up or?
[731] No, I don't think it's stand -up.
[732] I think it's, but it's an acting.
[733] That's the show.
[734] It's an acting.
[735] That's the problem.
[736] That's what you don't like.
[737] You don't want the hours.
[738] That suck.
[739] Yeah.
[740] Yeah.
[741] You got to stick around.
[742] You got to hang around.
[743] You got to stay in your trailer.
[744] Someone knocks on the door and says it's be another two hours.
[745] That's not for you.
[746] No. I get tired.
[747] You know.
[748] Well, there's a bed in the trailer.
[749] I know, but then you got to wake up.
[750] It's just a lot.
[751] It's a lot of hard work.
[752] It's really hard work.
[753] Mike, no?
[754] No. I agree.
[755] A lot of work.
[756] But I'm going to also say stand up, not for you.
[757] Because stand -up is really a lot of work.
[758] You have to, like, write your bits every, you know, you have to keep coming up with new bits and then keep trying out the bits.
[759] I'm going to say, you have to leave your house.
[760] That part sucks.
[761] Yeah.
[762] So you want something where you stay in your house and you sleep most of the time.
[763] I'd like it.
[764] Okay.
[765] I can help you.
[766] I can figure this out.
[767] Does it feel to you guys now that you're looking back?
[768] Rubber face?
[769] Yeah.
[770] I mean, you'd come around.
[771] Yeah.
[772] The way you can kind of bend your face in this great way.
[773] It reminded me of, why am I blanking on his name, that fantastic actor from the dead end kids?
[774] Satch.
[775] Yes, Satch, but who played him?
[776] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
[777] Gorsi.
[778] No, no, Leo Gorsi.
[779] No, no, Leo Gorsi, not Leo Gorsi.
[780] The guy who's not Leo Gorsi.
[781] Yeah, I know how you're doing it.
[782] But anyway, I swear to God, you were channeling him sometimes.
[783] We actually, my, an old friend of mine, Max Perlick, was obsessed with the dead end kids.
[784] used to talk about a lot.
[785] Yeah, yeah.
[786] Leo Gorsi, he was the main guy.
[787] Leo Gorsi was like the ringleader.
[788] And then there was, help me, help me somebody.
[789] They're on it.
[790] You know?
[791] Three of us are Googling, frantically Googling right now.
[792] Okay, well.
[793] I'm not the lead guy.
[794] I'm like the goofy sidekick.
[795] I don't know.
[796] I swear to God, I got a dead end kid's vibe the first time I saw you and in the different videos and, you know, I just thought like, okay, that's a possible avenue for this gentleman.
[797] Clearly what you chose was spectacular.
[798] We are lucky it worked out.
[799] Yeah.
[800] Hunts Hall?
[801] Hunts Hall.
[802] Yes, that's it.
[803] Hunts Hall.
[804] You got a Hunts Hall vibe.
[805] And I mean that as a great compliment because I think he's one of the all -time comedy greats.
[806] So there you go.
[807] Thank you.
[808] I did have something I wanted to say to go back to what you wanted to say, which was something on topic.
[809] You were you talking about the comedy aspect of our band and stuff.
[810] and we talked about it.
[811] It's like when we would write lyrics and we'd write our rhymes, one of the most important things was to say something that would make the other two laugh, right?
[812] Or the other two to be like, oh, that, you know, I mentioned Rod Carew and they'd be like, that would get something inspired, you know, whatever.
[813] But the main thing was to make each other laugh.
[814] And we put out a record, people seemed to respond to that.
[815] And so it's like anything in life, you get a response and you just sort of go with, that thing.
[816] Yes.
[817] Yeah.
[818] That was our writing room, right?
[819] Like, we was just, we'd just sit around with these you know, our spiral notebooks.
[820] Sometimes the composition books, the bound ones.
[821] Just loose paper once in a while.
[822] But everywhere, but anyway, that was the biggest, that was, that was the most nerve -wracking thing was like getting the approval of these two guys, you know, of Adam and RAPE out in the room of either the laugh or the, oh, that shit is good.
[823] That was the thing.
[824] After that, it didn't really matter.
[825] It's so funny because to think about you guys, the three of you sitting there with composition books, loose leave, whatever, working it out makes perfect sense to me as someone who's been in not that, it's a similar process, but in a different world, different mind shaft.
[826] But it makes perfect sense to me, but it also seems absurd.
[827] Of course you'd have to do that.
[828] Of course you'd have to sit around and figure this out, writing it down.
[829] To me, the ingredient that I think the magical ingredient that you guys had was it always was clear to me that you were having fun, that you, there was something really joyous about the music, the process, three friends doing this together, making each other laugh and getting to do this on a grand scale.
[830] That felt like the magic elixir to the whole thing.
[831] It didn't have to have a job.
[832] It's fucking awesome.
[833] Yeah.
[834] But you know, there are so many groups.
[835] where they managed to lose that.
[836] There are so many groups that managed to, after the initial success, they lose sight of it and it becomes a job.
[837] And I feel like Beastie Boys, that never happened.
[838] No, I agree.
[839] I mean, there were compromises.
[840] We'd have to make, everybody has to make them.
[841] Oh, really?
[842] Yeah.
[843] Do you want to?
[844] This is news to me. This is news to you, Adam.
[845] Adam's never compromised, but I guess.
[846] I mean, yeah.
[847] We're both wearing the same clothes.
[848] You're saying that I chose it.
[849] Yeah.
[850] I think you said it, very well, of just that I do feel, I think we were both super grateful of the fact that we got to basically just like do what we always did, right?
[851] We would just get together in a room with each other and try to make each other laugh.
[852] But somehow it operated on this big scale.
[853] You know, and it's the thing of like, so that's what I mean of compromise.
[854] It's like, yeah, of course we would let, be like, oh, okay, you want that to be the single on the album.
[855] I'm like, we don't ever want to listen to it, but fine.
[856] If that's what you think people are going to listen to, fine.
[857] Just looking at the video for intergalactic, you know, planetary or sabotage or I just see, and actually almost every video I can think of that you guys made, I kind of wish I was there because it looks like you're having a really good time.
[858] Screwing around.
[859] Really, really fun.
[860] And that comes through.
[861] To me, that's the secret sauce.
[862] And it is hard to sustain.
[863] I mean, as you say, I'm sure there are bumps on the road or compromises here and there, but it never looked that way from my vantage point.
[864] Well, apparently, they're those records that didn't turn platinum that we found out of today.
[865] Those two.
[866] Yeah.
[867] So we're going to have to.
[868] Who cares because they're not really your records anyway.
[869] That's true.
[870] I don't know.
[871] Spoken word records, yeah.
[872] I don't know what happens.
[873] Because we got very lucky.
[874] We just happened to be friends that just wanted to hang out, which we would do when we weren't recording.
[875] We'd always kind of like just be together anyways, but we didn't have to.
[876] I don't know.
[877] Yeah.
[878] We got lucky to be, I was friends with, you know, my friends, worked with my friends.
[879] Yeah.
[880] Yeah.
[881] But no, I think it is unusual.
[882] We prioritized being friends.
[883] I mean, I guess it is, I'm friends or I know of other bands that are, of our similar age that are still going, whatever in there, But, you know, everybody's on their own tour bus.
[884] Yes, they're not talking.
[885] Whatever.
[886] Like, I was they not talking.
[887] That's strong.
[888] Do you want to say names or?
[889] They speak through lawyers.
[890] Like they hate each other.
[891] No, no, I'm not, I'm not even saying hate each other.
[892] They're just, you know, they don't, they're not doing the tour to hang out with.
[893] The soda's gone.
[894] They're not doing the tour because to hang out with each other.
[895] That's what I was going to say.
[896] Soda's gone flat.
[897] Yeah.
[898] So you need to fizz, like a flat soda.
[899] It's good if you're a stomach's upset.
[900] Gingerail, it's flat.
[901] Really?
[902] I didn't know that.
[903] Hold on, wait.
[904] You wanted to go that flat.
[905] I thought the effervescence is what is good for your tummy.
[906] I don't want to talk about this anymore.
[907] You said something controversial and you just want to glaze over it.
[908] I want to shut this down.
[909] Because I realized I think I made a mistake and I just want to shut it down.
[910] No, the ginger ale is real, though.
[911] Like, I only know that because my mom told me. That's what my mom told me. Yeah, my mom wasn't a doctor, though.
[912] My mother was not a doctor either, yet she operated on many a brain.
[913] Oh, my mother was Irish, though.
[914] Mine, too.
[915] So maybe that's what it is.
[916] So you're saying as an...
[917] Are you a mixed then?
[918] Are you...
[919] I think safely, everybody in this room could say we are.
[920] Yeah, we're pretty mixed up.
[921] I am 100 % 100 .000 % Irish.
[922] Really?
[923] No Portuguese?
[924] No!
[925] No Portuguese.
[926] Nope.
[927] Why?
[928] The one ingredient missing.
[929] No, Boston, New England, a lot of Portuguese.
[930] No, but we were in Ireland, bouncing around, not whatever.
[931] I don't want to...
[932] It started with flowers.
[933] so to guys I blame you it's your dynamic that has ruined what could have been I think one of the greatest podcast ever recorded but no mili miche yeah what the fuck where are we now I feel like that's what it's gonna say on my tombstone now my D mili miche yeah does mili miche actually mean anything no I don't think why did they get us back I don't think so I brought us back here it's it's me M -L -A and then M -I -G -L -A, it means thousand miles.
[934] You don't have to lean Matt from it to the mic.
[935] You don't have to actually...
[936] I don't know how this works.
[937] It's not a tape.
[938] It's not a good mic person.
[939] Jesus Christ.
[940] Not a good mic person.
[941] I've always had a memory because you guys have that line about never rocked the mic with the panty -hose.
[942] When I was on late night, there was a guy.
[943] I could see, you know, all those years, I could see a band getting set up.
[944] And that lyric was always in my head.
[945] And there was a band setting up, which will go unname just because I don't think anyone remembers them, but they had a hit that week.
[946] Wow.
[947] And they were setting up and we could watch them prepare on camera because the cameras were just on throughout 30 Rock.
[948] So I'm getting ready for the show doing my stuff and I see this guy getting ready.
[949] And then I see him driving, I see him tying panties and bras to his mic stand.
[950] And I go downstairs and I go in and I say to the guy, you got to take those off in mic stand.
[951] And he said, but this is our act.
[952] And I said, if that's your act, you have no act.
[953] But we only did it because I remember Is that panty hose?
[954] Is that panty hose?
[955] It wasn't panty hose, but I take those down.
[956] You're kind of like passively aggressively blaming that action on us, basically.
[957] I'm saying you were responsible for this.
[958] They weren't going anywhere.
[959] Also, he was at a hardware store two weeks later.
[960] Their families remember them.
[961] Their friends remember them.
[962] No, they were all taken away.
[963] Because that's how bad the band was.
[964] Also, to be clear, but the lyric is about.
[965] about the, you know, the, like, I mean, they're, this is, this is not patty hose on our mics that we're using now, but it's, you know, it's kind of like a technical term pop, pop.
[966] So I misheard your lyrics took it out on a guy who was just trying to make it on a late night appearance.
[967] And now he, they're all gone.
[968] I'm backing you.
[969] They're, they're doing it all wrong.
[970] Because that's, there's no pop filter aspect.
[971] That's, that's some chotchkees.
[972] He's putting on his mic stand.
[973] I mean, it's disgraceful.
[974] It was Stephen Tyler's shit and it had to stop.
[975] Yeah.
[976] Um, I mean, it's, um, I mean, it's, Stephen Tyler, at least it's Stephen Tyler.
[977] You're supposed to have the scarfs.
[978] People know Arrowsmith.
[979] I know.
[980] They did go on to have quite a lot of success.
[981] It was Aerosmith.
[982] Oh, do you think Aerosmith were in Joe Franklin?
[983] Is that Conan O 'Brien bump?
[984] Wait.
[985] Oh, wait, don't hold on.
[986] Aerosmith could have been on Joe Franklin.
[987] They had to have been on Joe Franklin in like 72.
[988] Everybody was on Joe Franklin.
[989] And Joe Franklin, I was not on Joe Franklin, but we had Joe Franklin on my show in like 93.
[990] Really?
[991] Yeah.
[992] Or 94.
[993] and I think I sat in a hot tub with him.
[994] It's possible.
[995] In a hot tub?
[996] I'm going to ask listeners.
[997] Was he fully clothed or not?
[998] Well, that's, I don't want to talk about it.
[999] It's personal.
[1000] Yeah, we're shutting it down.
[1001] We're shutting it down.
[1002] I want to congratulate you both on this incredible run.
[1003] Of being old.
[1004] No, of just making it to this podcast.
[1005] Of all the things you've achieved, you could argue this is the Acme of your career.
[1006] It's a bookend, Joe Franklin.
[1007] Not without, I don't want to get whatever, sappy or anything, but when you go back and listen to the music, one of you is not here.
[1008] Is it a joyous thing for you to hear, Adam, when you're listening to that music now?
[1009] Is it ever rough to listen to them or is enough time gone by where it's all good?
[1010] Well, I'd say, A, we probably, neither of us listen to, not to burst the bubble.
[1011] Well, we don't listen to our, we're not going to listen.
[1012] And, yeah, I mean, you go back and watch an old episode of your show or The Simpsons or...
[1013] At night, I wear a tattered wedding dress and just watch in my mansion.
[1014] No, I don't.
[1015] Yeah, we're, yeah, shocking.
[1016] We're not the audience for our own music.
[1017] But, no, I don't know.
[1018] I think it's all the above.
[1019] I think enough time has gone.
[1020] There was definitely a period of time where it just I couldn't even open up a computer music file, something that we are working on because I would just get too sad.
[1021] the process would bring me right back to making.
[1022] Because we really worked with Adam up to very close to the very, very end because that's what made him happy.
[1023] So anyway, and I feel like that time has sort of worked its way through.
[1024] And then there's times like, I'll hear something and be like, oh, yeah, oh, you know, the rest is like when you, because now I think once in a while, like, our things will get license to like, I don't know, we'll give a sync license to like Mario Brothers or So you'll be like on an airplane or something and that will, you'll have forgotten, or at least at my point of aging, I'll have forgotten that we've licensed that song.
[1025] And then the thing will come on in the airplane.
[1026] Oh, yeah.
[1027] Oh, that's kind of, you know, it's sort of actually nice.
[1028] I mean, Beastie Boys music in a good way is it's out there.
[1029] It's, you're going to hear it.
[1030] You know, it's not, it's, you don't have to go looking for it to hear it in the best way.
[1031] So I'm just curious if that.
[1032] you know, when you hear your own music, is it evocative of anything?
[1033] Or do you just think, like, yep, that was then, this is now?
[1034] Well, two things.
[1035] For me, I feel very similar.
[1036] It was very hard at first because not only, you know, did we record all the music together with Adam, but we were also, you know, best friends for decades.
[1037] And so we were together every day.
[1038] And so when you lose a friend like that, it's really, really hard.
[1039] And, you know, not everybody has a friend who's like a musician whose voice you hear every day.
[1040] It's, it's, it's, it's definitely less shitty now, right?
[1041] Um, but the thing about us hearing our music, like for me, hearing the music, the whole thing is weird.
[1042] Do you know what I mean, that anybody likes our band that we've played at Madison Square Garden or that we have platinum records or that people want to listen to the whole.
[1043] Platinum records that are not our records.
[1044] Multiple platinum records.
[1045] The whole thing is weird.
[1046] Do you know what I mean?
[1047] Yeah.
[1048] So when you hear it in a movie or you hear it from a car or something, it's, very weird.
[1049] Still, I don't think you'd always be weird.
[1050] I think that's healthy because it is miraculous.
[1051] Anything like that is miraculous.
[1052] And to get to a point where it's like, but of course, for we are, the beastie place is just like, that's, they're in life.
[1053] But we also not like, we don't know how to make songs.
[1054] That's the other things.
[1055] We don't know how to like craft a perfect song and write a good melody that brings you in with like the pre -chorus, into the chorus with the vamp and the thing.
[1056] We don't actually know how to do that.
[1057] So what you're saying, Adam, is you might have been, like, a potential Hunts Hall.
[1058] But you were no, but you were no Linda Perry.
[1059] I am Hunts Hall, not Linda Perry.
[1060] Yeah.
[1061] Well, congrats on the 30th anniversary.
[1062] Oh, wait, no, I have a question, though.
[1063] So, I mean, because you're not allowed to ask me questions.
[1064] That's not how this works.
[1065] Yeah, go ahead.
[1066] No, I think, it's funny.
[1067] Like, what Adam's saying, like, I really think did resonate with all three of us.
[1068] You were when Yak was alive of just that we felt like houses were.
[1069] work that we're just basically making these inside jokes and that it actually other people get let in right it's sort of miraculous that other people could even appreciate them but when so when you're crafting a bit on whatever level whether you're writing for somebody else or your own anyway yeah all right but no but just do you feel the same way that like oh this is just something we thought was funny to us like i can't believe that just going out on there and people most of my career has been all of my career, I think, has been me thinking of things that I think might make one of my other comedy people laugh.
[1070] And then later on, someone's talking to you about it because they saw it on television or it meant something to them.
[1071] And I still find that crazy.
[1072] You know, it's just, we're all getting away with highway robbery.
[1073] Just we're having fun and making things that delight ourselves and then it's a thing and so it's nice it's a it's i think i'll always be more fascinated by your side of the business by music because i i try to understand it but i don't it's just not it's not in me i i like to play it i like to play at it but to create music on the that you guys did is mysterious to me and really endlessly fascinating and every comedian I know secretly wishes that they were in a group and they were making music and playing Madison Square Garden.
[1074] No, but there is a big there is a huge comedy music crossover appreciation like when we that last video that we did that Yalk directed for make some noise and we had some reason you weren't in it but we had basically every It sounds like you were close, but we had every comedian alive was in the commissary.
[1075] I remember me insinuating.
[1076] I don't mean that as a shot.
[1077] No, no, no. I mean, I think it was shot on the Warner Brothers lot and I'm talking.
[1078] I was talking to Yalk and it would have been so easy for him to say, hey, Conan.
[1079] Do you have to have five minutes?
[1080] I mean, and he think he had a camera rolling.
[1081] Yeah, I mean, he's like, I mean, you know, I remembered him pushing me out of the way of the camera.
[1082] He actively avoided asking you.
[1083] to be in it.
[1084] He leaned against me to push me out of the way of the camera.
[1085] Yeah.
[1086] Yeah.
[1087] Yeah.
[1088] He was like, oh, you know Will Ferrell, right?
[1089] He was like, you know Will Ferrell, right?
[1090] Yeah.
[1091] I mean, he just happens to be here.
[1092] Yeah, yeah.
[1093] He's not.
[1094] No, he wanted my Rolodex, is what he wanted.
[1095] No, there is a funny crossover.
[1096] And when I would see you guys, I would think, oh, to make music that everyone wants to sing along to, but also get to be funny at the same time as you guys, uh, as you guys were like that's this that's that'd be fun but now I'm here with you sona I'm sorry yeah no I love it okay that's nice not you specifically but I love the process okay um guys I'm gonna wrap it up just because I'm not getting paid it has been 30 years where are the sponsorship breaks like where the we don't do those here it's like that's dirty linen where the where's the ads for the digital marijuana and stuff We used to have really fun ads and then this is like a crazy humble brag but at the beginning and then this thing got big where the ads now are all for like legitimate boring companies.
[1097] It used to be for like fracture prints which turned photographs into glass and I had more fun doing those ads and then it became, you know, oh, American Express, you're like, that's no fun.
[1098] Magoosh.
[1099] Magoosh was fun.
[1100] I don't want to waste their time.
[1101] I don't really remember what it was, but he just kept, the name of the company was Magoosh, and you kid just kept screaming.
[1102] Okay, please, please, we don't want them to get into the Magoosh thing.
[1103] Guys, I can't call me a Magoosh?
[1104] It's a Magoosh.
[1105] I'm a Magoosh, you're a Magoosh.
[1106] I don't remember what Magoosh did.
[1107] Gentlemen, I thank you for being here.
[1108] It was really nice having you, and I wish you both well.
[1109] Please come back, if you ever can.
[1110] Thank you.
[1111] because you're super smart, funny, gifted people, and it's nice to hang with you, and I appreciate it.
[1112] Wow, thank you.
[1113] Like I said before, we don't have jobs, so we're around.
[1114] Welcome to work here, if you like.
[1115] Well, let's not get crazy.
[1116] It's just nice to be here.
[1117] Yeah, I mean, that would ruin everything.
[1118] Then that would be a job.
[1119] Conan O 'Brien needs a friend with Conan O 'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Goorley.
[1120] Produced by me, Matt Goorley.
[1121] produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and Nick Leow.
[1122] Theme song by The White Stripes.
[1123] Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.
[1124] Take it away, Jimmy.
[1125] Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples.
[1126] Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns.
[1127] Additional production support by Mars Melnick.
[1128] Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn.
[1129] You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode.
[1130] Got a question for Conan?
[1131] Call the Team Coco hotline at 669 -587 -2847 and leave a message.
[1132] It too could be featured on a future episode.
[1133] You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM .com slash Conan.
[1134] And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O 'Brien needs a friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.