I Don't Know About That - Steve Lukather

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

In this episode, the team sits down with legendary guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, and founding member of the band Toto, Steve Lukather. Make sure to follow Steve @SteveLu...katherOfficial on Instagram and @SteveLukather on Twitter and be sure to check out his new album "I Found the Sun Again" on Spotify and Apple Music. Also be sure to check out LEVARA ( @LEVARA ) on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/artist/3g4z4hZGJFwqtwsv7tGul1?si=culEN9PfRnm4OCyqVOUXLQSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:02:59 See, because Hollywood, people go, who's going to fuck me in this bar, Hollywood? Oh, okay. That's where it comes from. All right, all right. They thought Hollywood, Florida was going to be me in this bar? Hollywood. Oh, okay. They thought Hollywood, Florida was going to be another Hollywood California. They wanted it to be. Did they really? They thought they were going to make movies there. There was a water tower there that we used to drive by when I was younger
Starting point is 00:03:16 and it had like film rolls and this and that and whatever. And then they, when it didn't work out. And Alyssa Lamb swimming in it. And then when it didn't work out they changed it to like birds and Florida stuff, like palm trees. They're like, Hollywood, yeah. We have a Hollywood Sydney.
Starting point is 00:03:30 Oh, no, we have a Broadway. No, there's a place called Broadway. In the middle of Sydney, they go Broadway. It's got a couple of rub and tug bars and a chicken shop. That's what I remember. As in a porto and a galo and a rub and tug. That Broadway is talking about broads as women, so they give you the rub and tugs.
Starting point is 00:03:48 That's the Broadway. That's the Broadway. How is everyone? Did we all have a wonderful week? Yeah. We got over our depression episode. I listened to it back. It made me sad.
Starting point is 00:04:00 Yeah, that was a couple weeks ago. Oh, okay. What was last week? Aliens. Ah, aliens. Aliens. That was never happened. That was never happened. That one never happened.
Starting point is 00:04:08 You'd think it happened, but it didn't happen. How does your butthole feel, Jack? Did you get probed, Jack? Oh, yeah. Do you reckon an alien has ever taken anyone up into anything? Why not? Because it's ridiculous to think that they've taken people up into space and then dropped them back down.
Starting point is 00:04:25 I didn't say they dropped them back down. I mean the people who tell the stories. Oh, I don't know about them. I also watched the Lisa Lam documentary. Look, far be it for me to ever criticize Netflix. They've been wonderful to me. Wonderful. I love the Netflix.
Starting point is 00:04:37 But fuck me, that documentary went too long. It was an accident. They go, she's acting weird. And then later on the documentary, turns out she was off her meds oh okay and it turns out like the day before she was like she was she was like living with other girls in a room and then they were like can you please get her out of here she's fucking nuts yeah and then she went down the lobby and went i'm crazy but everyone in hollywood's crazy and then they go they go, this was really weird. Why didn't they call the authorities? Because she was on Skid Row.
Starting point is 00:05:08 Yeah. Everybody on Skid Row is walking around going, Hollywood. All your dreams come true in Hollywood. I know a place you can have a swim. Right? So that's what happened to her. I didn't see it yet. Yeah, I thought the storyline about her was the least interesting part,
Starting point is 00:05:24 but I would watch a 10-part documentary about the Cecil Hotel. The hotel was fascinating. I want to hear every fucking story that comes out of that hotel. And now they're making it into a fancy hotel. And whoever bought it bought it for $29 million and then sold it for $80 million. So he didn't give a fuck. I'm not assuming it's a he. I'm sexist.
Starting point is 00:05:42 It just sounds like a guy's endeavor to buy a hotel on Skid Row. I don't know a lot of women who go, this is what I'm going to do with my money. You're probably safe with that assumption. Skid Row Hotel. Yeah, no. Yeah. Jack's face was very, yeah, no, I wouldn't like to do it. And I consider myself a woman in many ways.
Starting point is 00:06:00 Especially in my decor taste. I wonder if you had money, Jack, how would you decorate? I imagine there'd be a lot of Grateful Dead teddy bear stencils on the wall. He'd be rich as hell, but still look like he's in college. A lot of tapestries with tie dye. Yeah, yeah. And like a Lego room.
Starting point is 00:06:18 Ooh, now, okay, you can be my interior designer. Empty bottles of Mike's Hard Lemonade just lying on the bookshelf. I recycle. What are you talking about? That'sade just lying on your bookshelf. I recycle. What are you talking about? That's crazy. I don't do that. I drink them.
Starting point is 00:06:28 What have you got for us, Jack? Comment world. Yeah. Oh, it's hot. Comment world. It's comment world. Reading comments off the internet in comment world. Opinionated fucks, but we don't give a shit.
Starting point is 00:06:41 So fuck them in the ass and let's be done with it. It's comment world. So fuck them in the ass and let's be done with it. It's coming. So fuck them in the ass and let it be done with it. I think that was a Beatles lyric originally, wasn't it? That was off the White Album. Yep.
Starting point is 00:06:54 So as we learn in our depression episode, the negative comments affect us greatly. FYI. I wasn't affected. Here's a five-star review. Okay, good. It's good if you're five-star review. Okay, good. It's good if you're into Jim Jefferies. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:07 If not, it's going to annoy you. But the whole team is pretty amusing. That's like sex with me, to be honest. And it's fun to listen to the banter. The granny love is a bit much. Sometimes you've got to listen to... I think because Jim's always talking about the hot grandmas that we have on. The granny?
Starting point is 00:07:26 Granny love. Our hot grandma guests. Who was our hot grandma? Heidi. Oh, I see. I like the older women that come on the show. I've got myself a taste for that since coming on this show. I don't know where that's come from.
Starting point is 00:07:39 I like how this person commented too much, and then their comment sparked a new granny love session. You bloody, we got the good sorts on. I tell ya. Since I see you guys look at the comments, I love the format of your podcast. It's perfect for how you do comedy. Your crew is fun too. And here's
Starting point is 00:07:56 a fact you may as, maybe as elated as me to find out or be reminded of. Horse spunk is one of the most expensive liquids on earth. Which leads us to our next episode. Horse spunk. No, we can't afford that. We're doing donkey spunk, which is electric.
Starting point is 00:08:12 Of course it's more expensive. Yeah, that would be the most expensive liquids in the world because you get a stud horse, a race horse. Their sperm is worth a lot. It's worth more than my bloody sperm. I'll tell you that much. I know how much I can get for mine. Just a fine.
Starting point is 00:08:26 Sir, why are you masturbating in this clinic? Stop mailing this to us, please. This is an email we got, which we rarely get, so we're going to read it for sure. We have an email account? It's really something.
Starting point is 00:08:42 If you want to email us, you can see where our budget goes. It's idkatwjj at gmail.com. I wonder why we only got one email. Is there a dash and a couple numbers in there? It's the acronym for I don't know about that with Jim Jefferies. It's very easy to
Starting point is 00:08:58 fucking figure out. It seems a bit much. At gmail? At gmail. Okay, guys, email us. I need Jim's famous It seems a bit much. Add Gmail? Add Gmail. Okay, guys. Email us. We cracked the code there. I need Jim's famous math skills for this one. All right. What you do is your nine-time table, you just drop a finger down,
Starting point is 00:09:12 and that'll tell you. You can go right up to 10, you can. Yeah. That's exactly what he asked. Seven times nine. 63. Done. How many sandwiches do you think you've consumed realistically
Starting point is 00:09:22 in your lifetime up until this point? What about unrealistic? Dealer's choice on whether you'd include burgers as sandwiches here. do you think you've consumed realistically in your lifetime up until this point? What about unrealistic? Dealer's choice on whether you'd include burgers as sandwiches here. Yeah, five a week, six a week, five a week. Probably five sandwiches a week. When I was a kid, I had a Vegemite sandwich or peanut butter sandwich every day, every fucking day in my whole life.
Starting point is 00:09:42 And so I'm 44 now. You've got to do the calculation. 17? 100? Yeah. So let's see, 300 times by 40. 300 times 40? 300 times 40, yeah. 12,000 sandwiches.
Starting point is 00:10:01 12,000. That seems low. A lot of bread, a lot of gluten. Yeah. Turns out I'm intolerant. Someone said, comment world. I laugh.
Starting point is 00:10:13 That's about it. Keep doing what you're doing. Smiley face. Thank you. All right. Someone said that now that Jack is getting the hang of things and really taking charge of the podcast. That's a good one.
Starting point is 00:10:27 What's the next one? I think he needs... Who the heck? I think he... Turn off the mic. Who the heck? I think he needs to have a role in grading Jim.
Starting point is 00:10:35 Maybe one in ten on how Jim has been a boss that week or how much of an asshole Jim's been. And then someone follows up. Oh, Jack, I gotta get a ten every week.
Starting point is 00:10:43 I make you do about four hours work a week. Like, if I I got to get a 10 every week. I make you do about four hours work a week. Like, if I'm not a good boss, fuck me. And then someone follows up and goes, you want to hear more from a spoiled wiener kid of a Coke company owner? He said he's never had a Pepsi. That's fucking strange. Jack is pathetic and frail.
Starting point is 00:10:58 So, you know, the comments even out. Yeah, that was from the Pepsi Corporation. It's a Jim Jeffrey said that one? Yeah, like what happens when you go to like Taco Bell? They only serve Pepsi. Don't go. He doesn't go to Taco Bell. But you can still have a water at Taco Bell.
Starting point is 00:11:12 Just don't go. No wonder you're miserable. Taco Bell's wonderful. Look, I've had it on occasion, but that's a secret. Oh, don't tell anyone. I know. Hey, this is between all of us. Okay.
Starting point is 00:11:26 This comment says Forrest when he speaks is like a teddy bear running out of battery power that's true that's a good one like teddy rock spin like it starts off like I love you let's go play games
Starting point is 00:11:42 hug me I thought it was because I trail off Apparently a lot of people say I trail off on this podcast Which is weird I used to do that when I started stand up And then I just didn't So maybe it's something I need to work on here Well I think it's something that you always
Starting point is 00:11:54 Yeah yeah That's my game There we go I do that when I have important information Yeah I do it I guess I do it when I'm doing the questions. It's making me anxious.
Starting point is 00:12:09 Can we move on, please? People really enjoyed our depression episode. They liked us opening up and talking about our struggles. People were even supporting each other
Starting point is 00:12:19 in the comment section when someone else said they had depression. People were like, hey man, I hope you're doing okay. It's the most positive I've ever seen
Starting point is 00:12:24 in a comment section except for the week before it. Except for the blood I hope you're doing okay. It's the most positive I've ever seen in a comment section, except for the week before it. Except for the bloke who went in the comment section to advertise his rope company. People did not like the astrology episode. That one wasn't positive. Depression, very positive comments.
Starting point is 00:12:37 Astrology, very negative comments. That's funny, I didn't know that the astrology one was negative. I went on Ricky's astrology podcast I know less now. I know less about astrology. We're going to went on Ricky's astrology podcast on ILS now. We're going to have a special segment of Comment World, which is Forrest fights back. Oh, I didn't know. Oh, yeah, that's right.
Starting point is 00:12:53 I do remember that people didn't like the astrology. So I'm just going to read the first comment and how Forrest responded. I didn't feel like I fought back. He trolls the comments. People were upset. We did astrology and they were making analogies to the fact that, you know, they just stormed the Capitol and this is the kind of stuff that I was like, come on. This is a bit much and stuff and disinformation. I was like, I don't feel like anyone on here.
Starting point is 00:13:17 Maybe Kelly. I'm not sure, but I don't want to speak for you. We wanted to interview someone who stormed the Capitol, but no one was allegedly there. I don't feel like we were like, astrology, you gotta believe it. We're just talking about everyone, like, not everyone. A lot of people liked it, to be fair, but then some people lost their shit. I had multiple friends text me going, what the fuck is up with the
Starting point is 00:13:33 comments? Jim's calling it BS the whole time. It's like, people are like, Jim's peddling this snake oil salesman. It's like, what are you, he said it was fucking BS. But the thing is, it still exists. It still exists. It's a thing. If we want to do an episode on unicorns, right,
Starting point is 00:13:48 and we say when were they originated, how many people believe in them, what was the first unicorn, was it in a bit of book or something, you can't go and just go, unicorns don't exist. They do exist in the hearts and minds of children. And that's what happens. Astrology exists in the hearts and minds of people who believe in bullshit. There are people that believe in it. And, you know, people that, but, and I, I, I, I don't know if I would go with the argument
Starting point is 00:14:12 that it could be harmful. I mean, I feel like people were like, oh, but some people say cancers are blah, blah, blah. And then you're a cancer and people treat you differently. Well, okay. Don't be friends with that person. Yeah. There's nobody that's going to be persecuted for their fucking Zodiac sign.
Starting point is 00:14:26 Like, wars will not be started because you're a Virgo. I'm sure we'll get more comments on this, though. I'm sure. The Nazis tried to get a whole lot of people, all the Tauruses. There's a little known thing about World War II. The Tauruses were fucked. Hitler saw that the moon was in retrograde. And he was a scorpion. you know those two don't get along
Starting point is 00:14:48 poor Tauruses so anyways I used to do this on the Jim Jefferies show instead of like trying to go in there and be like fuck you to everybody I used to just be super silly and positive and weird and stuff and still people didn't well do you remember the first thing we did is we created an entire email back to people who sent
Starting point is 00:15:06 us shitty messages. He's saying, thanks for signing up for the Jim Jefferies fan club. You'll get new information weekly. People would be like, stop, unsubscribe. This was on the show and I didn't know this because at the time I was in the digital part, I was in the writer's room, but apparently my comments would get read in the writer's room.
Starting point is 00:15:21 So I was like, alright, well I'm entertaining people. This first one, this first interaction, the first comment was sent by a guy named ZZuckerZusatzZZ. And he goes, well, that's R-tarded. Going as far as sprinkling, and he goes something negative. Forrest responds, your name is dumb. Get a new one, please.
Starting point is 00:15:39 Well, ZZ, top yourself. And then someone called out Forrest for being a jerk, and then Forrest goes nah I said the name was dumb he seems okay I do need to get a life though very perceptive
Starting point is 00:15:51 you must be an Aries rising can you please help me with this seriously I have no friends and you seem pretty cool maybe we can get to talk via whatsapp get to know each other
Starting point is 00:16:00 is that cool with you thanks for helping me get on track I love you that guy's clearly a Parsis and uh that was me writing Parsis. That was me writing that. Sagittarius all the way, man.
Starting point is 00:16:10 Someone goes, funnily enough, Richard Dawkins made a pretty good program about debunking this nonsense. And Forrest goes, that's not funny. You never watch Richard Dawkins for the laughs. And then someone's like, who decided to make this book?
Starting point is 00:16:29 And Forrest goes, group effort. We just decided that we should keep things positive. Find ways to make ourselves better individuals and then we can help make positive change in our own communities. Going forward, the podcast will only be about astrology. I think everyone will really like it. Be blessed. We are all children of the stars. forward the podcast will only be about astrology i think everyone will really like it be blessed
Starting point is 00:16:45 we are all children of the stars and then someone made fun of him and he goes good zinger are you an aquarius yeah fun fun times in there so we're back on track everybody with depression all right are we ready for some ads or you got any more for us jack i have one last funny one that really made me laugh someone goes to all the astrology believers I've got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale as well and Forrest goes
Starting point is 00:17:09 how much is the bridge it's not for me I'm helping my uncle find one I forgot about that one if the bridge is in good shape and the price is fair I will let him know
Starting point is 00:17:20 I never saw that one I forgot that one that's a good one. Funny. Yeah. Fuck, these are making me laugh so fucking hard. I'd like to buy a bridge, but I have no way to put it. I've already got a bridge.
Starting point is 00:17:36 We got another bridge. I'd like to buy a bridge so I can burn it. That's it. That's the end of that. Jack's crying. Forrest makes me laugh so hard Yeah God
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Starting point is 00:19:27 Off your D plus lotion today. We thank you, Amphuman, for sponsoring our podcast. All right. Let's welcome our guest today, Steve Lukather. G'day, Steve. Hey, how's it going, Jim? Good, man. We all know who you are.
Starting point is 00:19:44 We don't have to do the guessing game, read a book by its cover. Well, let me give you a proper introduction then. Steve Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. He's a prolific session musician, has recorded guitar tracks from more than 1,500 albums, representing a broad array of artists and genres. He's also contributed to albums and hit singles as a songwriter, arranger, and producer, such as Michael Jackson, Lana Richie, Richard Marks, Chicago, Donner Summer, and Boss Gags. Nominated for 12 Grammys, he's won five, and in 2012 started touring with former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Heard of him.
Starting point is 00:20:24 Yeah. And his new solo album, I Found the Sun Again, comes out February 26th. 1,500 records, Steve. I don't think I've done that many comedy gigs. That means you must have done shows on top of that. So that seems like a fair amount. What drives you to actually do that? That seems moronic to do that many hours.
Starting point is 00:20:48 I was a kid. I was a teenager when I started doing this. There was so much going on. It was so exciting, single guy following my dreams in the studio. And the next thing you know, I was in the studio doing 20, 25 sessions a week plus being in a band, so I didn't really have time for much else. I always think that about because before, Toto,
Starting point is 00:21:10 you were a session guitarist, right? Do you look at like, okay, so I love Oasis, right? You might have your own opinion on it, but they were a bunch of kids from school who weren't very good at their instruments, no one was or whatever. As a session guitarist, you play with Michael Jackson and stuff like that. Do you ever look at like bands that just come together and they all met in high school and go
Starting point is 00:21:27 that guy's fucking shit but he's in you too like i was playing in bands since i was 11 years old so i know all about that when i got to high school it got more serious because that's when i met the carl brothers and me and Michael Landau, famous guitar player. We were in that band and, you know, Jeff, the drummer was in Steely Dan when we were in high school. So we knew the bar was pretty high. So we were all studying music at that time. We were all teenagers. And by the time we were out of that, we were doing demo sessions for people
Starting point is 00:22:00 and before machines and all that stuff, used to hire musicians to play sort of like the minor leagues, concession players. And, you know, I got bumped up, you know. I mean, this job doesn't exist anymore. How do you meet those people when you're 11? When I was at school, I couldn't even find other people who were funny. Yeah. Like it wasn't until I was a comedian I met other funny people.
Starting point is 00:22:22 I'm like, all right, these are other funny people. Right. And to all the people I went to school with, none of you are funny. You weighed me down. I was a bit freakish. When I was doing it in the 60s, there wasn't a lot of young guitar players. So I was a little more freakish at the time.
Starting point is 00:22:38 Now I'm just weird and freakish. What's our specialty subject, Forrest? So we're going to talk about music production and what goes into creating an album and i guess the first question would be can you walk us through the process can i walk you through the process of work and steve you're gonna have to correct him what how to make an album what do you do first well you write the songs first okay yeah you write the songs then you show up to the recording studio. You go, I got a song, right? Then you've got to get a producer.
Starting point is 00:23:07 You show up. No, no, no. You've got to know people. You don't just fucking show up. You've got to know a couple of people. So what happens is you write the songs. You might just be strumming along and you know it acoustically and that type of stuff.
Starting point is 00:23:19 And then you've got to get a good producer onto it, right? You get someone like your Quincy Jones or whatever or George Martin or something like that. And one of these people who comes along goes, oh, that'll be good. We could put another bit through here and a string bit through here and pull that thing. And then each person records their bit individually, right? So the bass records their bit, their thing, and then they try
Starting point is 00:23:38 to mix them and put the levels all different and stuff like that. Levels different. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they do all that type of stuff. And then I imagine, yeah. Yeah, they do all that type of stuff. That's right here. I imagine, yeah, they move those knobs. All those knobs do different volumes and they put everything and they try to put it all together.
Starting point is 00:23:52 And then sometimes it's all, the song is won or lost in production. It's the same as casting for a movie. It's whether you get all those components right. And then I assume like, you know, when the Beatles were recording, like Ringo put down his drum thing and then he was just like this, and now I'm just going to go off to the pub, everyone. Like I imagine that's what happened. He's like, yo.
Starting point is 00:24:13 That's not what happened, man. They played it live. The Beatles did do it live though, right? Because they did the first album they did in one day. And that's why Twist and Shout, John Lennon's voice is so hoarse. Because at the end, he was just screaming. Yeah, they did side one a day, side two a day, and there was no overdubs. Or if they
Starting point is 00:24:31 did, they just had to transfer it live. Like if there was a tambourine or a double vocal, they had to do it live and just transfer it to another two-track machine before there was a lot of multi-track recording. Yeah, but then George brings in the bloody sitar and they go, oh, we can't do this live.
Starting point is 00:24:50 They were making records differently. There were more tracks and they were a little more experimental because they didn't have to play it live, so they didn't care. What about all the knobs Jim's talking about? Yeah, there's slidey knobs and there's turny knobs. Yeah. It's the same thing over and over and over again. It does the same stuff to each track
Starting point is 00:25:07 because each track has a different, you know, sound on it. A guitar or a bass or drums or cymbals or keyboards. So what effects usually is that board controlling? Well, you can put any kind of effect in it. It'll usually reverb or, you know, some sort of a delay unit or something like that is usually what goes in know some sort of a delay unit or something like that is usually what goes in there most of the time unless during mixing it might be different now be honest when you look at those sound boards with all those knobs no one's using all of them
Starting point is 00:25:35 are they like there's one bloke who knows how to use all of them it's not that hard it's just the same learn one of them and you got them all they all do the same thing it's just for different tracks i just think i'm overpaying luis is what i'm trying to get you know that's another story when we first started doing records and everything we were doing was live we'd overdub and then produce the hell out of it but like the basic bass drums guitars and keyboards were all done live all right oh okay that's the way we used to make records for everybody you know it wasn't until pro tools and all that stuff came in where you know towards the end of this you know the end of the i don't know 80s or 90s beginning of the 90s people started
Starting point is 00:26:21 doing things one guy at a time for you know for whatever reason whether they could play the track all the way down one time or it was to isolate each track so they could mix it differently yeah do you know what pro tools are arjun what pro tools pro tools yeah no i thought you're gonna try it There's something you eat so your gut's balanced? No. It's just a big digital taper cord, really. You can do a lot of things with it. You can cheat a lot with it,
Starting point is 00:26:55 too. There's a lot of toys like Melodyne that can make you sing perfectly in tune or line up all this. You can take the tracks and line them up on a grid to a click track and make everybody sound perfectly in time. So these days you need a laptop and a celebrity and you can make a hit record. The other pro tools are a purse to collect the money, condoms and some mace. You've been in the music industry since the 70s, right?
Starting point is 00:27:22 Yeah, I've been doing this professionally for 45 years okay so then what what do you think is the biggest change that you've seen in terms of uh the production obviously pro tools is a is a big thing but yeah i mean that's a great tool if you use it as such you know but if you use it as an excuse then you know like can you sing that live can you actually do that live does it sound like right that's another Does it sound like that? That's another question. Some can, some can't. But I don't know. The difference is the level of entry is different.
Starting point is 00:27:55 You used to have to work really hard and go in the clubs and send in demo tapes, get turned down, playing, refine your stuff, your band or your music, playing in front of high school dances and all that stuff and you get that reaction you get the chops of building a plan three four sets a night and then when you did get into the recording studio you had some sort of idea level of playing that you knew you could pull it off and they had demo sessions for guys you can go and make 25 bucks to play on somebody's demo or something like that. So you got practical experience of being a session guy without the pressure. So like then when you moved up to the real leagues,
Starting point is 00:28:30 that's when the pressure started up and all that. So you had to be used to playing under pressure with the red light on, everybody going, there's just a chord sheet here. Let's kind of off the song. So you better play something. That's basically what we did. I think to draw a parallel to stand-up comedy, stand-up comedy was like that when I started out. You had to start off by going to clubs, getting on stage as much as possible,
Starting point is 00:28:51 clubs, clubs, clubs, clubs, clubs. And now, and then it's sort of in America it used to be you tried to hone your four minutes so you could get on Letterman or Leno and all that type of stuff. And in Britain you had to try to get an hour length so you could go to the Edinburgh Festival. And now everyone tries to get, for a while there, we all tried to get an hour of material so we could get a Netflix special
Starting point is 00:29:08 because that became the new thing to strive for. And now I feel it's gone the other way. People are fucking doing TikTok and all this type of bullshit. They're never getting live. They call themselves comedians and they're doing little shitty videos. And now I sound like an old man. No, I was actually thinking the exact same thing when he was talking about it because now you can just get famous off of you know when vine was uh around and youtube
Starting point is 00:29:30 famous thing it was weird to me i want to be famous well what do you want to be famous for well i don't know i just want to be famous i want to have my own clothing i mean you should be famous something it was a byproduct of something you did that was meaningful or successful. It connected with people, and you got the fame by accident. Yeah. Yeah, fame is like if – well, they always say rich and famous, and it's very hard to get rich without the fame. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:56 No one wants to be poor and famous. That sucks dicks. I'm telling you, poor and famous is the worst. That's one on the ride down. Oh, there's that guy. I know my career's reached its peak and it's on the way down because I'm starting to play those other rooms that I used to play on the way up again.
Starting point is 00:30:16 I'm like, oh, it's good to see you again. It's like, do you want fries with that burger? Is there a song that you didn't play on, but the first time you heard it you went, holy shit, I wish I had been on that song? Billie Jean. Oh, you didn't play
Starting point is 00:30:35 on Billie Jean? No, I played on Beat It, Girl Is Mine, and Human Nature. The bit in The Girl Is Mine where Michael and Paul seem to have a chat. How much did you cringe in that recording? When Michael said the term
Starting point is 00:30:52 I'm a lover, not a fighter, did you chuckle just a little bit and then just go, I'll get back to me riff? I mean, as they were singing live, I may have bit my lip a little. Because you know, Michael, you know, you know, here's the thing. Like that goes by.
Starting point is 00:31:09 Well, Paul, I'm a lover, not a fighter. Here's the thing. We got the call from Quincy to we're going to do the duet with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. We went, me and Jeff McCartney went, holy shit. So Quincy sent us over the cassette of the demo and we were going this has got to be this is going to be insane you know I mean Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney this is a very interesting meeting and this is a song I heard Michael wrote it or something like that so we got it and we were all excited you know you know roll the joint you know go ready to dig
Starting point is 00:31:46 the track and we put on the song and we started cracking up the dog gone girl is mine i mean really that's right the dog you know a lot of these things that we played on, we had interesting feelings about, and we were wrong. Now, when we were there, when Paul and Linda showed up, they came into the studio, and they were just the warmest, nicest people. Michael came in, we put the phones on, we started jamming on I Was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder.
Starting point is 00:32:26 And that was roasting. Somewhere that's on tape somewhere. I don't know where. That loosened everybody up and then we took the song, we tried to make it as good as we could. Now, on your new album, what's the name of the album?
Starting point is 00:32:42 I'm sorry, I got it right here. I Found the Sun Again. I Thought I Found the Sun Again was my favorite track of the album? I'm sorry, I've got to write here. I Found the Sun Again. I Found the Sun Again. I Thought I Found the Sun Again was my favorite track on the album. So just, okay. It was my favorite track on the album. And that's written about your girlfriend, correct? Yes, sir.
Starting point is 00:32:57 Now, did you also write Rosanna? No, I didn't. Oh, good, good. That must be awkward. Every time, like whoever wrote Rosanna, every time they get on stage, their wife must just be like, you're singing the song about your ex-girlfriend again. People want to hear it.
Starting point is 00:33:12 That's not the case. That's not the case? No, that's not the case. A lot of these names were made up or a compilation of people. I promise you I'll never write a song with a girl's name in it again. Yeah, no. I'll never write songs like Stan and Morty. Yeah, come to think of it, Paul McCartney never does that, does he?
Starting point is 00:33:39 Whenever he writes a song, it's always me, Shell, my bell, and then he's married to Linda for 40 years. There's never a song called Linda comes out. There was one about vegan burgers yeah not a lot of stuff rhymes with linda but linda yeah throw her out the window sorry mom my mom's name's linda so my bad what else is up guys awesome bag on now? Yeah, who else? Well, okay, so speaking of then, can you take us kind of through the process of putting an album together? And even if it equates to a real life story that you have. There's no wrong way to do it as long as you're making music.
Starting point is 00:34:18 I mean, the Stones did Street Fightin' Man off of a player, off of Keith's demo. He just played to that. Oh really? So that's where you get that wild guitar sound. No, man, this look, I mean,
Starting point is 00:34:32 the way we did it was we just go out there and the four of us would get the rhythm section track. And then we start overdubbing on a double a guitar part, add another keyboard part, add a tambourine, start putting a few other little bits and pieces on it. And by the end of the day, it sounds kind of like a record without vocals. How collaborative was your guys' songwriting process?
Starting point is 00:34:50 Was there somebody that was like mainly in charge of? Well, at first it was David Page, our leader, along with Jeff and Carl. At the time, I was a teenager at the time when I joined the band. And he was writing such great songs. But he encouraged us all to be, he'd hear us sticking around the piano or guitar and go, that's a great riff. You should finish that. So he encouraged us all to step up. So by the third, fourth album, we were all contributing our own songs.
Starting point is 00:35:17 Did you prefer the studio to the live work because being a session guitarist or is the live work just as exhilarating? No, the live work, you knowilarating no a little live you know it's like you know it's like you go out in front of an audience man there's nothing like it i prefer it my studio comedy albums aren't as good you're interacting with the people but you know i i equate it like this it's like making a record is like painting you can step back and look at it come back the next day and start fix it start over and live playing is like formula one you bang in the wall you gotta keep going now so that's different kind of excitement did you tour with michael jackson everything when you when you did be just this studio no no we just
Starting point is 00:36:01 did the studio i did a whole bunch of all the crazy stuff at that time. Five or six albums in a row. Because it always felt like every time Michael Jackson had a guitarist, they had like a mohawk or some big type of hair or something. There was always a... Hey, I resemble that. I don't make my hair look like this, dude.
Starting point is 00:36:23 Thomas for a fucking year what uh where do you keep your Grammys you put those by the front door I have a common they're over the bar area thing you know I got a commendation from the mayor
Starting point is 00:36:40 of Miami bragging and because when I used I used to have a job that was sort of dangerous and we saved somebody's life. And I don't know what to do that. It's kind of weird. You don't just hang it somewhere, you know, like to be like, Hey, I said, so I've actually put it in the guest bathroom. So if you sit down to take a shit, you look at it and you have to read what happened.
Starting point is 00:36:57 I have, yeah, go ahead. No, I was going to say, so you were the anal retriever. Yeah, exactly, yeah. I won Comedian of the Year at Montreal, and my trophy, for some reason, it's got the best weight. I keep it in my house to club people if they break in. I just think, like, if you've ever held, like, a Grammy or an Oscar or anything like that, they've just got such a lovely weight to them
Starting point is 00:37:21 that there is going to be one day that a stalker's going to break into a celebrity's house and be clubbed to death with a Grammy. It looks great in the headline. Yeah, they're going to have like a gramophone fucking indent in their forehead. Exactly. I've tried to get a Grammy several times because there's always
Starting point is 00:37:42 best comedy albums. So every time I break – You deserve it, man so every time I break I'm fucking with you man what happened the bear was a good special had the gun control thing and then I that was a fantastic bit ah thanks mate now here's the deal who would you lose
Starting point is 00:38:00 to every year it goes to Dave Chappelle get the Grammy you have to bring out a record of your special. So every year, and you have to make a thousand copies. So my garage is filled with thousands of copies of my different specials because I've always wanted to qualify for a Grammy. I don't even know where you sell them. I don't even know where to give people my comedy albums.
Starting point is 00:38:28 But, you know, if you ever come over to my house, Steve, I'll give you a fucking four or five of them. You can give them to all your friends. All of Toto can fucking have a copy of Bear and Freedom. I like that. Tell them at your gigs, man. I'm a swag. Hey, I'll tell you one thing.
Starting point is 00:38:44 It's my birthday this week, so I bought myself a toilet from Japan called a Toto toilet with a self-flushing. Did you ever try to sue them or have you used the toilet and gone, these are outstanding? Do you have Toto toilets? I have a Toto toilet. Nothing cleans the prune out like that bad boy. It cleans you all the way.
Starting point is 00:39:04 It cleans you all the way. No, they actually had the... We didn't know that there was a Toto at the corporation until it was too late. I mean, the name of our high school band was Still Life. And I thought, that's a great name. We should keep with that.
Starting point is 00:39:19 And Jeff and David were adamant about changing it to Toto and started writing it on all the tape, you know, the tape you know the tape boxes and i'm just like guys are you sure you want to do this well okay we're first album just ships and we get a postcard another postcard we got something in the mail from tom scott famous sax player who was in japan playing at the Blue Note or something like that. And this was 1978. So he
Starting point is 00:39:48 sent us a Polaroid of a Toto toilet with his shit floating. Nice name. Like this. I'm like, oh my God. My band's name is a kid with a urinal trough.
Starting point is 00:40:06 Everything's a Toto toilet. So I just laugh at it and go, I got to have one. I have to have one. They're good toilets. You can say what you want about the Japanese, but they make a hell of a toilet. I love Japan. I go every year at least once in 1980.
Starting point is 00:40:23 I got a lot of projects over there I do besides the Toto stuff and Ringo stuff. I just love the people and the whole vibe. It's been really hard to be locked up in a house and do nothing for a year. I used to be on the road 220 days a year. Am I correct? I think I know a bit about the Beatles. When they went to China, no, Japan, the word Ringo means either, no, it means Apple.
Starting point is 00:40:49 The word Ringo means Apple in Japanese. Do you know about this? And then they opened the Apple company. I've heard of that one. It's true. I'll ask him. I'll call him later. There was another, this might be urban myth, right?
Starting point is 00:41:02 That in China or Japan, the second highest rated show ever was the pilot episode of Joanie Loves Chachi, right, because it turns out that the word chachi means penis. Everyone looked at their TV guide that week, Joanie Loves Cock at 4.30 in the afternoon. I might turn this on and see if it's any good. I love shit like that.
Starting point is 00:41:28 It makes me feel good inside. Let's take a quick break. If you're like me. Sorry. Sorry about that. Sorry. You must be struggling. Are you sad?
Starting point is 00:41:45 Yeah. Don't do it. Are you sad? Yeah. Don't do it. If you're like me, you start thinking what to eat for dinner while you're eating lunch. I love food. I can hardly wash myself. But sometimes getting into my kitchen can be difficult. Very narrow.
Starting point is 00:42:07 And cooking something delicious to eat just doesn't make it on my to-do list. That list isn't that long. Don't kill yourself. Mostly I write wake up and I never complete that list. Which is why I post mates. That's what we're
Starting point is 00:42:23 talking about. I fucking love postmates saves me from getting out of the house and getting vitamin D I just sit inside all day it's funny how you were talking about something you didn't know what it was about yet that's how the ad reads
Starting point is 00:42:36 stay fresh kids it's just like our our actual podcast he has no idea what he's going to be talking about before he picks up the paper I approve of the ads but I don't know
Starting point is 00:42:44 which one I'm about to read. With Postmates, oh, God, I love Postmates, you get food delivery without leaving your house. That's one of the big bonuses. Or even opening your door. The contactless delivery is great. It used to be a fucking misery, didn't it? You'd have to talk to them and they'd hand you the bag
Starting point is 00:43:01 and then they'd notice. They'd go, you're the comedian, right? You go, I've got to give a bigger tip now. They've fucking recognized me. They've recognized me and they know where my house is. Do you have a secret Postmates name? No. Not that I'd tell the public.
Starting point is 00:43:15 What do you think, I'm a fucking man? Without opening a door, with current state of world in mind, Postmates created no contact delivery. So now when I order my local restaurants everything gets left on the doorstep and the app tells me when it's been delivered I watch the car all the time I'm very critical of people's Postmates driving
Starting point is 00:43:33 if I see them driving and then the car turns around I go MORON! You're like you're going the wrong way Stop driving around in a circle it could be the app and the phone that's just switching the car around but I go you're doing donuts at the intersection. Postmates offers a pickup option, which I have been using to order takeout from my favorite local restaurants.
Starting point is 00:43:55 It's so important we support and uplift our communities right now. And what better way than ordering food? That was my protest. Jack does the pick-ups, though. Yeah, yeah. During every protest the last two years, I've been at home ordering food. That's my silent thing that I do. And Postmates isn't just all burgers and sushi.
Starting point is 00:44:19 Fucking hell, it could just be burgers and sushi. That's high and low and everything. It's everything. You can order even toilet paper to phone charges from stores like Walgreens and 7-Eleven. And Postmates will drop it right outside my front door. 7-Eleven, eh? Where do they go? It used to be the hours the store was open.
Starting point is 00:44:39 Right. And they just, they're a 24-hour store. They used to be open from 7 to 11. They thought that's a good name for a store. As they expanded their hours, they never changed the name. I don't know. It's catchy. It's also Jack's birthday.
Starting point is 00:44:48 Why wouldn't you change it to 24-7? Oh, wow. That's good, too. Just download Postmates on iOS or on Android. You got an Android out there? Hey? Couldn't afford it, could you? Find your favorite.
Starting point is 00:45:04 Jesus. That's a bit mean-spirited. No, you're doing good. And get anything you want delivered within the hour. For a limited time, Postmates are giving our listeners $5 off your first five orders. So you sign up now, $5 off your first five orders. It's $25. For your first seven days, yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:23 $25 in your pocket. You can buy more burgers or sushi. For your first seven days, to save $5 on your first five deliveries, download the app and use the code IDK. IDK. It stands for I don't know. That's code IDK for $5 off your first five orders when you download the Postmates app or sign up online.
Starting point is 00:45:45 Anything you need, anytime you need it. Postmates. You can't see him. My assistant, Jack, who's very into music, he's an old soul. Jack's only 21 months old. And Jack's very young, but his favorite bands are like The Grateful Dead. He's on a big kick with uh who
Starting point is 00:46:05 is tom petty's big thing at the moment i'm getting my question from yeah okay here we go i love them i wrote some of my album with stan lynch from tom penny heartbreak oh nice co-wrote lyrics with me on some of this stuff he's dear friend of mine for like 40 years oh well i guess i love tom i got to hug him before right before he died i went to jeff linda invited me to his pre-show elo thing and i went back to say hi and he was with tom i gave tom big ass a hug and he looked at me and he said it's pretty cool they passed to play the guitar i said no that's my favorite thing about my favorite thing to this day about being a comedian is when you go to the airport and they ask
Starting point is 00:46:48 your occupation the form and I get to write that with no sense of being a smartass the only problem that comes along with that when you give it to the fucking customs cunt and he starts going comedian have you got a joke and I'm like you're gonna let me through just come on man oh no Jim it gets worse
Starting point is 00:47:04 when people come up to me and sing the lyrics of Africa in my face. You know, why are you doing this? Yeah, you just go, fuck off. Just go back to your band Weezer and leave me alone. We heard the fucking song in 1981. It was like a big production thing. We didn't put it all together before we knew what the lyrics were. And then the lyrics came
Starting point is 00:47:28 and we were like, whoa, really? What are you thinking about, Jeff? What are you thinking about? It was a great track. We said, well, fuck it. We just buried it in the album and it turned out to be this golden nugget that nobody was more surprised than us. It's the least sounding
Starting point is 00:47:43 if you want to say what it sounds like it doesn't really sound like us it was a weird oddball song you know and it became this ridiculous carrot then it came out the last five years it's gone bad so it's great gets the younger people to the shows and it's really helped our career a lot you know so we're having a good time making a bunch of dough and everything was going great until this fucking pandemic hit. How did you feel about the Weezer cover of Africa? Did you like it? Just gave the song new life? The problem I have with that cover is it's exactly the same. They didn't change it. It's not exactly
Starting point is 00:48:20 the same. It's the track, but the rhythmic aspect of it, the percussion and all the way the groove feels, they changed that and they just put some heavy fuzz guitars in the chorus and he did a bunch of auto-tuned vocals and it sounds great.
Starting point is 00:48:37 I don't think he likes me very much, but that's neither here nor there. Really? Then why would he do this? I love Weezer. He doesn't like it songs and then Universal showed it so it wouldn't get out that's what I thought
Starting point is 00:48:55 that's what I remember reading was like you guys did a song of theirs back and then we were trying to be respectful like that we don't know him but the guy like refused to talk to me I'd reach out and it became a joke. So I just said, well, fuck it. Jesus. So you mentioned.
Starting point is 00:49:11 I'm friends with some of the biggest rock stars in the world and that guy won't talk to me. Okay, I get it. I didn't make the cut in Hipsterville, man. I never did. Did you, you mentioned the pandemic, everything. I know what it's done to comedy. I assume it's worse because are you getting asked to do zoom gigs?
Starting point is 00:49:31 Are people like trying to pay your money to play guitar over the fucking internet? Yeah. They're like some cameo where you just, you just lunch me and talk to people for a hundred bucks. It just feel like a whore. Yeah. Jim,
Starting point is 00:49:43 Jim refuses to do cameo. I won't do it. You will know. There refuses to do cameo. I won't do it. You want to know, there's a few reasons I say I won't do it because I'm dignified. The real reason is I just know how bad I am at talking to people. And I know if you paid me 200 bucks and then I just came on and went, happy birthday. Fucking hell,
Starting point is 00:50:00 Sharon, you're a bit older. My 400th one of the day. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah, exactly. People are really good at it. John Cleese is outstanding at it. He can rattle them off, like do about five or six in an hour.
Starting point is 00:50:13 He's good at it. Me, I wouldn't be. DJ does them and he puts so much effort. He sends them like eight minute videos and he's just like touring his condo. Like this is my antique shelf. Every now and again, I just do one for free. If someone goes, oh,
Starting point is 00:50:26 my husband's whatever, but every now and again, you got a good vibe on somebody. That's different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Starting point is 00:50:33 Jack, do you, did you have a question? Did you, Jack had a question, a music production question when making a record. Um, is there a benefit to playing the whole song as a group?
Starting point is 00:50:43 Like they used to do? Cause I, I know Tom Petty did that. I think for, uh, damn the torpedoes. is there a benefit to playing the whole song as a group like they used to do because i i know tom petty did that i think for uh damn the torpedoes they had just did the whole song as one take versus um just doing each instrument solo well yeah because you can't um and you know write out or program interplay somebody plays something unique and interesting the band follows along that's a magical take, and you would consider using that as the master. If somebody made a dumb bass mistake, you
Starting point is 00:51:09 can fix that. It's about capturing the magic take. Usually, it's right away before they start thinking about it too hard. For us, we never rehearsed. We'd just write out a quick chord chart. We'd go, what are we going to do today? David would sit down and play. I'd go, I got something we never rehearsed and we just write out a quick board charters. We'll go,
Starting point is 00:51:25 what are we going to do today? And David sit down and play. It's probably go, I got something. Let's do this one thing. Um, and then we just going to tweak it out and write out a quick chart and we take two or three was it.
Starting point is 00:51:35 Yeah. And then we started over. I mean, other people couldn't do that. That's why they hired us to play on their record. Cause they'd see the red light and all of a sudden fall apart. They couldn't play in time or they couldn't get it together some people see that and the pressure of it's too much so it sounds like you do you write the music first lyric second correct because that's what
Starting point is 00:51:53 generally speaking i mean these days as i've grown up the lyrics are better some of our early lyrics are actually hilarious because we're like i do the same thing i write the laughs first and the joke second that's a much easier way to do it so if so if you were a studio musician for a song and then you wrote the music do you ever get called them by the band when they're going to be recording it live i mean they can obviously if they're they've got to be good enough to figure it out or is there ever a time? Yeah. They got to play my parts. I mean,
Starting point is 00:52:28 it's funny when I go see somebody play and they're playing my parts. Yeah. Yeah. Did you, it'd be like somebody going to see, you go see somebody and they're doing all your jokes. They already, they already did.
Starting point is 00:52:40 And he's did. And you know, and it's not like he stole it. Like, you know, he's going to do it and you sit back and go, that's weird. you um were you ever starstruck yeah yeah who clapton clapton oh yeah i'd get starstruck by clapton
Starting point is 00:52:58 you know i invited myself on i begged to be on a session because i'm one of my all-time heroes you know he was so lovely to me he was so nice to me is he as good as as as we're meant to believe like is he well he's eric clinton you have to understand when he started nobody played like that so by today's standards you could say well he doesn't have that you know play fast thing or whatever you know but he's eric clapping the tone on Disraeli gears. I mean, that was life-changing to me. Those, this guitar sounds, you know, sunshine of your love and all that. I mean, this is amazing. That was on top 40 radio. Now you don't hear that on top 40 radio.
Starting point is 00:53:37 You could hear that. And then what a wonderful world by Louis Armstrong and not be freaked out. You know what I mean? That's why I listen to music. I listen to Miles Davis and Slipknot the same day. So tell us about your album that you're releasing at the end of the month. It's been a long time since I did a solo album because I've been so busy with Toto and Ringo that when I'm home, I just wanted to be dad. You know, I got two little kids and two grown kids.
Starting point is 00:54:04 And I just didn't have any time or motivation so when i knew the end of the last version october 19th uh that was it the last show in philly we were going to change it all up joe and i were going to do solo records we decided we were going to tour together and make more sense and we could do total shit and david page the grand you know the guy who started the band he medically can't do it anymore. He's 65 and he got some weird diabetes bummer stuff that he can't change his
Starting point is 00:54:32 medication because of a time zone thing. So he can't do it anymore. But he rehearses the band and helps me pick the material and we do the business together and all that. So it's Joseph Williams and me and Joseph's father is John Williams, the film composer. That's insane.
Starting point is 00:54:49 That's insane. His father is John Williams. John Williams, yeah. I mean, you're surrounded your entire life. You've been just surrounded by legends. My father was in the movie and TV business as a director.
Starting point is 00:55:03 My grandfather was. I was a showbiz kid, although I had no interest in doing what they did because I found it really boring. I think the first time... I was crazy. I just wanted to be a musician. They were like, yeah, sure, kid. Are your grandkids musicians? Have they gone into the business?
Starting point is 00:55:20 Have they followed dad? I have a grandkid, yes, but. My oldest daughter is 35. She's trying. You're grown kids, he's saying. So his son Trev is an incredible musician. My son Trev is a professional musician. He's got a band called LaVara. Got a record coming out. The single's called Automatic.
Starting point is 00:55:37 Check it out on YouTube. He's killer. He's incredible. Tina's actually a really good singer too though Like I was surprised she never pursued it She likes screaming better I come from a long line of screamers Do you think the music industry is alive and well
Starting point is 00:55:58 And are there upcoming bands that you rate Or do you think it's just not Because I feel personally it's not where it was I feel like guitar music's non-existent now. Well, it's there. It's just I'm not getting any press. My son's band, LaVar, is like the best melodic rock, like Journey on steroids.
Starting point is 00:56:16 You know, they got a singer that's ridiculous, hooky but still heavy and rock, and it can be played in a dance club. So we'll see. It's coming out, you know, just coming out. And obviously he's my kid, so I point, but I mean, he's been doing this for 20 years. This is the first real shot.
Starting point is 00:56:31 And he plays shows with you too, right? With Toto? We took him to Europe before anybody knew where they were and they opened up the shows and they won the crowd every night. Do you think that... Most people are like, oh, it's just their kids, you know? We're going to sit through this shit, you know? Do you think that most people are like oh it's just their kids you know we're gonna sit through this shit you know do you think that that music goes through have you seen cycles where it
Starting point is 00:56:51 goes away and it kind of like guitar bands because i remember like i was living in uh britain when sort of like the whole stone roses sort of oasis area came up before that it was just dance music and people popping pills and it felt like guitar music was dead before that for a decade. I remember the big scare when video games hit, 1980. The music was in a panic because everybody was spending their money on video games.
Starting point is 00:57:16 Oh, the bottom's going to drop out. Then there was the phony gas shortage. That was bullshit. I thought you were going to say Guitar Hero was going to kill music. That's what I thought. He's to say Guitar Hero Was going to kill music He's talking about Pac-Man And shit like that The worst fucking thing about Guitar Hero
Starting point is 00:57:32 Is they should have set it up When you learn it you can actually play the guitar But a real guitar player can't play that fucking game It doesn't make any sense to your brain Why would you do that If you could teach them to do it At the end of it they might have a little skill you know i mean it's like now you have a useless skill yeah there's songs that are harder on guitar here than it is on the real guitar it's nuts well yeah yeah you know what i
Starting point is 00:57:56 mean so i just that easy everybody would do it i just want want to clarify, so I've wasted my time. About once a decade I pick up a guitar and go, alright, I'm going to crack this and then I try to learn how to do it. I just have no intuitive way of doing it. I would love to be able to play guitar and I can play other instruments vaguely. I'm the type of person who can get on a piano and vaguely play it. I get the gist of music. You can play a Beatles song on the piano. I can play a couple of little tunes, but nothing to write home. I'm pretty hopeless, but I get where the notes are, and I get how they fucking work, right?
Starting point is 00:58:32 I understand all that, but I don't have what you call, what's the word, coordination. You don't have any chops, man. You got to sit there and practice. Like, this is the tedious part that everybody wants to skip over, but you got to do it. You got to learn your hand and exercises Like this is the tedious part that everybody wants to skip over, but you got to do it. You got to learn your hand and exercises, your scales, dexterity. And then, you know, then you go with it.
Starting point is 00:58:53 I know, but it's just so low down on my list because I still think that I'm going to play rugby league for Australia and I haven't practiced that either. And so I'm still waiting to crack that. I think you're doing okay, Jim. I think stick with what you got. Tell you what. Tell you what. I tell you what I should call a special.
Starting point is 00:59:13 No hidden talents. I show you every slight talent I've got. There's nothing that you go, he's surprisingly good at tennis. I'm not good at anything. Pinball. I'm good at pinball, yeah. I'm good at tennis i'm not good at anything uh pinball i'm good at pinball yeah i'm good at pinball but i have practiced for hours and hours and hours and i put my 10 000 hours of pinball in i know how to do shit on a pinball table yeah okay well there you go your next special is you playing pinball yeah uh so we mentioned uh your band with ringo ringo's all
Starting point is 00:59:44 stars how how do you get chosen to be in that band? Because that's, I mean, that's a band full of legends in their own right. How did that get put together? Well, Greg Bissonette, the drummer, took Ringo's agent and the guy producer who puts the bands together. He picks guys and then Ringo has the final say. So he saw me playing in Paris at some marina and Greg brought him. He said, you got to be in the band.
Starting point is 01:00:12 I said, I want to be in the band real bad. I play in Pete Best and the Nobodies is the band that I play for. For people who are listening. You don't know. Pete best was the original drummer for the Beatles and was replaced just
Starting point is 01:00:28 before the Beatles got famous. Like the day before the Beatles got famous. Um, that'd be tough to take your whole life. Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, that would,
Starting point is 01:00:37 that would be devastating. I'm not going to kill myself. He went on to be a baker. Like, like not, not, yeah. Not only was he not a rock star, he had to get up at 5am.
Starting point is 01:00:49 I heard a story and, you know, I heard that when they went to the CDs, the Beatles, and they had some old shit on there, they tightened up old Pete Best and he got a big windfall. Oh, wow. They took care of old Pete.
Starting point is 01:01:03 That's nice of them, yeah. I heard it was because he wouldn't change his haircut. The rest of them were doing the mop tops and he's good they took care of old Pete oh alright that's nice for Pete I heard it was because he wouldn't change his haircut the rest of them were doing the mop tops and he's like nah I'm keeping the quiff mullet
Starting point is 01:01:10 I want to try this new style mullet it's big Louisiana who's in the band now because I went and saw you guys I think it was probably seven or eight years ago so that's when
Starting point is 01:01:24 I met Ringo which was awesome my was probably seven or eight years ago. So that's when I met Ringo, which was awesome. This time it's Greg Raleigh from Santana, the original vocalist and organ player. Me, Hamish Stewart from the Average White Band on bass and guitar. I played bass on a couple of things for him. And Colin Hay from Men at Work, who's just a ridiculously great singer. Wonderful cat. And then you have Greg Bissonnette and Ringo on drums
Starting point is 01:01:55 and Warren Hamm on multi-instrumental keyboards, sax, flute, vocals, the whole thing. I love Colin Hay. Colin Hay once left me a signed cd in orlando in orlando yeah because i he played the venue the night before me and he saw i was there and he wrote me a little message i've still never met him but as an australian he wrote um i come from orlando like he's big deal men at work right um but he's also a great raconteur he does like one man shows where he basically does stand up and a couple of songs he's like he's done like the montreal comedy festival and stuff like that very very funny man
Starting point is 01:02:28 very funny very funny man um oh that sound stopped oh thank god for that it was stressing me out the whole time i didn't hear nothing thank god um so do you do the ringo all-star band do you guys still produce new music for those tours? Well, it's not the All-Star Band, but we just finished an EP for him. I worked on a couple of the tracks. It's coming out. It's really good. It's called Zoom.
Starting point is 01:02:58 It's coming out, I think, about a month or so. I got to write a couple. I got to write a song with him and then play on the big New Year's Eve hit that everybody sang on. It was really cool. When you say Zoom, was it named during the pandemic and you just came up with that name out of nowhere? It was very topical. I'll record it on Zoom.
Starting point is 01:03:18 We saw them, I wonder, where was he there? At the John Varvatos, remember? Yeah, we saw him at the John Varvatos, yeah. I don't know if Steve was there. I was there. Yeah, that's right. Okay, that's he there? At the John Varvatos? Remember? Yeah, we saw him at the John Varvatos. I don't know if Steve was there. I was there. Yeah, that's right. Okay, that's where I was thinking. I bought a very expensive jacket.
Starting point is 01:03:32 Yeah, we were there. I did too. You started making great shit. Oh, was that the one that you were saying? Yeah, I got a silver alligator jacket. Long story. It's only $6,000 he must have the same
Starting point is 01:03:48 one of my favorite things was when Ringo stood up on that thing and like Barbara Bark who by the way at this venue at this event
Starting point is 01:03:54 Barbara Bark was there who's got to be the most smashing looking woman in the 70s you've ever seen more granny love oh yeah
Starting point is 01:04:01 she was a beautiful woman inside yeah yeah and so so ringer at one stage he wanted to just like he brought a bit of paper out of his pocket because he wanted to make a political statement and he just went he went i wanted to talk about global warming a lot of people say there's no global warming where are these people living and then he goes i've got, and then he looked over at Barbara and then she sort of whispered something to him.
Starting point is 01:04:29 He went, also, meditation. It's good to meditate. Then he sang with a little help from my friends. I was like, all right, Ringo, I'm fucking in, man. I'm down. That was such an amazing show. I loved it. I don't think I've ever met a person say a bad word about Ringo Starr.
Starting point is 01:04:48 He's one of those things that in interviews and stuff, like I've never met, well, not properly, but I'm not. And he, is he as nice as what he seems to be? Because he seems to be the only one. He's also very, very well read, very intense. And, you know, but he's also really fucking funny, like hard days, night funny. And he's really, I mean, he works out every day,
Starting point is 01:05:11 runs 45 minutes on a treadmill. The guy's going to be 81, man. He's in better shape than I'll ever be. And he just takes care of himself and he loves life. And the whole peace and love thing is real. He really lives it. It's not phony. He's the real thing. Well, he was
Starting point is 01:05:25 the only one that none of the other Beatles ever bitched about. They all sort of bitched about each other at different stages and everyone was just like, alright Ringo. He seemed to get along with everyone a lot better. When you say he's 81, he... He will be in May, but
Starting point is 01:05:41 June, July, he's only 80. He sobered up a very long time ago. He was a member of the Hollywood Vampires. Were you ever in that? You might be a bit young, right? You're a bit young for that. I know a bunch of the guys that are in it that have been in it, but I know I was too young.
Starting point is 01:06:00 What are the Hollywood Vampires? Jack, what was the Hollywood Vampires? The Hollywood Vampires were Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, John Lennon. There was some other people who sort of came and go. Robin Williams sort of hung out in that type of era as well. Colin. Yeah, and they were all hitting the- Alice Cooper.
Starting point is 01:06:18 Alice Cooper, yeah. Elton John was in it for a bit. Yeah, sure. Yeah, and they all used to hit the source pretty fucking hard, and this is before TMZ and all that type of stuff. It was the one where Nilsson and John Lennon got kicked out of the Smothers Brothers gigs because they went along to see the Smothers Brothers at the Troubadour and started fucking heckling.
Starting point is 01:06:37 And then Lennon came out with a fucking period pad on his fucking head that he got out of the toilet or some shit. They got kicked out and then John was just like, well, you know, that's what happens, isn't it? You know, people notice things when you're famous. He's like, they were just picking on us. Yeah, they frequented what, the Rainbow Room, wasn't it?
Starting point is 01:07:09 I feel like I remember seeing a documentary. It was along the strip. It was like Johnny Depp's band's called the Hollywood Vampires because of the Hollywood Vampires. They were a group of booze hounds. So the new album is called I Found the Sun Again. It comes out February 26th. Yeah, man.
Starting point is 01:07:26 I'm so proud of it. Which I think, yeah, we just didn't want to, if there was something we were going to get to it, actually it's out now because this will be this. Oh, yeah, this will come out. Yeah, it came out February 26th. I didn't know if there was anything you wanted to, if you wanted to talk about that a little bit.
Starting point is 01:07:40 Well, I'm just real proud of the record. I mean, I'll be giving this spin, you know what I mean? If you like what I do, it's there for you. If you like experimental but not too out, you know. It's like, you know, it's fusion-y, but girls would listen to it. I like the kind of fusion music where you lose one after the second bar. No, me and Jack sat down yesterday and we had the long listen of it. We actually listened to an hour.
Starting point is 01:08:06 It was the first time in a very long time that I'd listened to an album from beginning to end and actually saw how the tracks were meant to be put in that order and stuff like that and how it all flowed into each other. And I'm like, I realised I've missed that. And like now just with going in my car and just going play this song, play this song and Spotify and songs just picking up and down and all that type of stuff
Starting point is 01:08:27 I've missed the long listen. So that's going to be my new thing at 2021. I'm going to sit and listen to fucking albums in their entirety. There you go pal. Thanks for having me on man. Yeah thank you so much for being here. You know like I'm a big fan and I hope I get to meet you in person Jim. Mate as soon as gigs are back up i'll invite you to any gig you want to come to
Starting point is 01:08:50 and i'll just show up at one of yours and i'll knock on the fucking stage door awesome please you're welcome anywhere hey guys thank you for having me god bless you and have a wonderful day thank you thank you steve um this is a lot of fun man i really appreciate it bye-bye now. See you. Bye-bye. All right, everybody. That's the episode.
Starting point is 01:09:08 So if you're ever at a party and someone comes up to you and you're talking to a bird in the corner and they go, that doggone girl is mine, go, well, I don't know about that, and put them in a headlock. Free Britney. Good night, Australia.

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