Joy, a Podcast. Hosted by Craig Ferguson - Ed Begley Jr

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

Ed Begley Jr. needs no introduction. Beloved actor and environmental activist. Check out his new memoir To the Temple of Tranquility...And Step On It! and buy it here http://tinyurl.com/nxj4ahr8. In his memoir Ed shares hilarious and poignant stories of his improbable life, focusing on his relationship with his legendary father, adventures with Hollywood icons, the origins of his environmental activism, addiction and recovery, and his lifelong search for wisdom and common ground. EnJOY! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Angie Martinez, and on my podcast, I like to talk to everyone from Hall of Fame athletes to iconic musicians about getting real on some of the complications and challenges of real life. I had the best dad, and I had the best memories and the greatest experience, and that's all I want for my kids as long as they can have that. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For 10 years, I've been obsessed with one of the most bizarre

and audacious cons in rock and roll history. We were all facing 20 years and all that good stuff. The lead singer tried to pull off an English accent and they went on the road as the zombies. These guys are not going to get away with it. The zombies are too popular. Listen to the true story of the fake zombies on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to know how to leverage culture to build a successful business?

Then Butternomics is the podcast for you. I'm your host, Brandon Butler, founder and CEO of Butter ATL. And on Butternomics, we go deep with today's most influential entrepreneurs, innovators, and business leaders to peel back the layers on how they use culture as a driving force in their business. Butternomics will give you what you need to take your game to the next level. Listen to Butternomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy.

I talk to interesting people about what brings them happiness. Ed Begley Jr. is a legend in show business and he came down from on high to talk to poor lonely me in Hollywood. He's a wonderful man. Ed Begley Jr. I first met you, it was, I'm going to say it would be about 1997. Was it Drew Carey?

It was the Drew Carey show, right? You were so good on that show. Oh man, you were so good on that show. But I remember, one of the things that really stick in my mind about it was that you turned up in an EV1. I did, that's right. I had one in that year. You had an EV1. 97, yes. The electric car. And I was like, I remember because I said, does it go fast? And you said, yeah. And we drove around on

the Warner Brothers lot in an EV1. And it was like, shut off a shovel, that thing. Yeah. It was unbelievable. And then they shut it down. They crushed them all. They did. They did everything where they had them in production available available for lease, and not sale. Keep in mind, they'd never sold one. They just wanted to lease it so they could control it. Right. There's a line in Shakespeare, I think, to condemn with faint praise. That's what they did with that car.

They had all these ads in the LA Times, not for a long time, but they had full-page ads. The electric car, the Saturn logo was as big as my thumbnail, maybe. Really? Nobody knew where to get it. I'd poll a group of people, hundreds or dozens. I'd say, how many people know about the electric car? All hands would go up. The GM electric car, hands would go up.

How many people know where to get one? One person, maybe. Nobody knew where to get it. I remember, because I remember at the time saying, I would do this. I would get an electric car. How did you charge the EV1? Was it a deal to charge it? Yeah, it was a bit of a minor bit of work to charge it properly.

You could charge it at 110 volt, but that was, you know, slow, slow. Right. With that amount of current. But if you had a 240 volt line in your garage, many people do for an electric dryer or some other appliance. Everyone in Britain has that. Yeah, exactly. That's the standard voltage. Exactly.

Right. So it's not that difficult to get an electrician to come and wire it if you don't have it because there's, you know, three wires coming into everybody's home

that, you know, equals 240 volts so you can do it. It's so crazy to me that the... Who shut it down? Did you... I mean, I know

there was that documentary who killed the electric car. Did you see that? Yeah, I'm in it, believe it or not. Oh, I didn't see it. So I wouldn't know because I didn't see it. So I wouldn't know. It's a good documentary.

Chris Payne did a wonderful job. Well, who killed the electric car then? They rightly put the blame at several people's feet. You know, there's lots of people that did things that made it go away.

But Wagoner, I think that's his correct name, the guy at GM, when they said, what's your biggest success while you were there? And he said something I don't remember. And he said, what's your biggest success while you're there and he said something i don't remember and he said what's your biggest failure he said killing the electric car oh really they knew it it was it was right in the cusp of being something

great and now every manufacturer has electric cars yeah no they all have to do it now and it's do you drive an electric car you do i have yeah i've had uh electric cars since 1970 believe it or not quite Quite primitive then. What? What did you have in 1970? Let me be full disclosure clear here. We're talking about electric, you know, electric cars. A golf cart with a windshield wiper and a horn. Electric cart with a T and all the important...

Electric cart. A K and a T. Electric cart. Do you play golf? I never thought of that. I do not play golf. I'm terrible at anything involving a sphere. Count me out.

I don't think of you as being a big sporty man. No, I'm a play golf. I'm terrible at anything involving a sphere. Count me out. I don't think of you as being a big sporty man. No, I'm a bike rider. I used to ski, but now I've kind of slowed down. You know, I have to say, I fell off a horse about three weeks ago. Oh, boy. And it hurt a bit, but I'm okay. But I'm 61 now, and I don't think I'm going to ski again. You get an idea of what it's like to come back from a fall.

Oh, boy. And it's not like it used to be, man. I know. I can't do it anymore. There's no rolling, no tuck and rolling. No. I can tuck or roll. I can't tuck and roll.

It's like when I have to do a job. No, I can sing or dance, but I can't sing and dance. That's me too. My drumming now. I can do the hi-hat. I can't do the kick now, I can sing or dance, but I can't sing and dance. That's me too, my drumming now. I can do the hi-hat, I can't do the kick drum, or I can't do the snare drum. Are you a drummer? I used to be a drummer. Yeah, me too. Yeah.

You didn't start out as that. You were an actor. You were a kid actor, weren't you? Yeah, I started at 17. I wanted from the age of 10, but I had no skills, so I was shocked that no one gave me a job. I had a real wake-me-when-I'm-famous attitude, and I never got any work, and I finally trained, and I got work. You would do well now, because now it doesn't matter. Exactly.

Just reality star, and next thing you know, you got 13 on air. What was your first gig? My Three Sons. That's right. I think I asked you that before. My Three Sons, which is in the Hall of Fame. It's an American classic. It is.

It's a classic Fred McMurray. Yeah. To get a star is in the, you know, it's in the Hall of Fame. It's an American classic. It is. It's a classic. Fred McMurray. Yeah. To get a star of that magnitude, you know. To do TV back then. Yeah. That was a big deal. Yeah, to get a movie star to do television, they had a guarantee he would only shoot like

one day a week. So we do all this stuff with him, with Fred McMurray on Friday, let's say. All different actors came in, all different, you know, shots, angles and what have you to do it. You're done. See you next week. See you what? One day a week? One day a week. I love that. That's what I miss about the glory days

of sitcoms. When we were doing the Drew Carey show, we got it down to two and a half days a week. That was such a good show. It was a fun show. It's lost media now though. It's like you can't find it anywhere. Is that true? Yeah. I think there's something to do with the music rights on it or something damn it all that was so fine it's i don't know where it is but it is do you hear about drew carey during the writer's strike what he did

what did he do he kept an open tab at a restaurant in hollywood i think it's called scribbles or scandals or sandals or something. It's a restaurant, like a diner that everybody likes to go to. And Drew kept an open tab. So if you had a WGA card, you could go in and get I love that guy for so many reasons. Isn't that amazing? He's amazing.

He's such a great guy. Swingers, that's it. Swingers, yeah. Swingers restaurant. It shouldn't shock me for a moment. That's the mean i think he would do his tab was like 70 grand or something for the strike i mean to just buying uh tuna melts for every writer in time for like five months which is but that's who he is i'm gonna call him up and embarrass him when we're done yeah i the thing is as well he gets embarrassed with that kind of thing it's weird good then my work is done if I can embarrass him.

So let me ask you this, because you're a child of show business, right? I mean, you're Ed Begley Jr., because your dad, Ed Begley, was a famous actor too, right? Yeah, big actor, 12 Angry Men, juror number 10. Right. Won an Oscar for Sweet Bird of Youth, Best Supporting. I didn't know he won an Oscar. Won a Tony for on Broadway with Paulul muni and uh inherit the wind big big actor big time so was he hesitant about you becoming an actor or he was quite hesitant

and rightly so my older brother tom tom had been in show business with him briefly i mean going back to you know like vaudeville they had a vaudeville act together father and son right but it turned out at some age tom went i didn't want to do that you made me do that and i want to be playing stickball with the guys and you had me when you're a stupid act and forget about it and then so he didn't want to do it for about five or seven years then he went no i was wrong the second time the first time was right now was right again i want to be an actor again my dad was like that ship is sail boy i remember saying to my older brother tom who i worship, that ship has sailed. But he occasionally got him a job on something like Alfred Hitchcock Presents or something.

The glory days of television, man. Glory days. Everything was, the whole city was pumping with work at that time. Rod Serling, he wrote patterns that my dad was brilliant in, and Dick Kiley was in, and all these, Everett Sloan was in. Just nothing but great writers. Sidney Lumet directing these TV shows like 12 Angry Men. Then it became, it was a television show, I believe, a teleplay.

Then it became a great movie and it's still here. Paddy Chayefsky, that's the golden age of television. But you know what I think? I think this is the platinum age of television right now. I hear you. You were on one of the best shows ever made recently, The Bear Call Saul. No question. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Come on. Unbelievable.

Doing it once with Breaking Bad, then to do it again. I know. I remember I saw Bob Odenkirk. Our kids used to go to the same school, and I know Bob a little bit. And, you know, one of the nicest, easiest men. I love Bob so much. Unbelievable. So I see him in the parking lot. We were dropping the kids off at the school bus or something and I said, what are you up to? Because Breaking Bad had just ended. And he said, well, the guys have come back to me and they want to take the Saul Goodman

character and maybe do something with it. I said, you going to do it? And he went, I don't know. Can they do it again? That's what I thought. I didn't, but man, did they ever. I prefer Better Call, and I love Breaking Bad, but I prefer Better Call Saul.

I don't know, it's like which child do you like? I like them both so much, but they really, the art direction, the cinematography, it's like a feature film. Every single episode is like a feature film. And then Vince and Peter know how to do it. Every episode they have that thing like they had in Breaking Bad,

that original visual thing. You go, what the hell does that mean? Pants flying through the air and a motorhome blows past the pants. What could that possibly mean? A lowrider car going, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, on the hydraulics with spent shell casings down on the ground. Right. And the window blown out and back. What does that mean?

And then we learn. I think the visual storytelling is unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's fantastic. I think the visual storytelling is unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's fantastic. But what also kind of struck me with Better Call Saul was it seems like they had mellowed ever so slightly

in the sense that, and for me, because Breaking Bad sometimes is like, I can't watch this. I know, it's so painful. It's too hard. It's just too hard. Yeah. But they kind of dialed it back just a tiny bit

for Better Call Saul. So that when the violence or the horror did happen, you were like, yeah, these guys deserve that, you know,

and all that. It was amazing though. I mean, just amazing. Did you have fun doing it? I had the best time ever. You still enjoy the act in that?

I love it. I thought I'd be done by now, but I, people still call. Well, you're a great actor, right? I mean, I have no that? I love it. I thought I'd be done by now, but people still call. Well, you're a great actor, right? I have no idea what I'm doing. And anyone who was on My Three Sons. Exactly.

And everybody knows how punctual you are. I mean, I've never heard of anyone say that. You know what? I'm going to say something now, and I really believe it's true. What? Well, first of all, the first part we all know is true. I'm not Joaquin Phoenix. I'm not Meryl Streep.

I'm not Bob De Niro. I don't have that level of skill. I just don't know nothing bad about it. No judgment. I don't have it, but I show up on time. No, I do not. I show up early every single day. I never cost him any time and I always there know my lines and they remember that stuff as it turns out, who knew? A hundred percent. I mean, I think that what kills actors, particularly on the way up, young actors, is attitude when you think that you're so talented that people will look beyond your behavior, which that's not the case. what I think the character is in my lines and all that. But then my job is also to make every single department do their job better, to help the boom man, the lighting guy, everybody.

The first assistant with his follow focus, hit that mark so he can keep it in focus, all that stuff. That's my job, to make their job as easy as I can, having done my job. Did you get that ethos from your father? Was that... 100%.

He never, ever walked to the set. He ran to the set. Mr. Begleyley we're ready for you now oh hold that boy i'm going in you know he said he started running with his stubby little legs he just ran his ass to the set got right there knew everybody's name made everybody's job easier people have an odd idea about how hollywood is it's actually it's a very i mean it's very work town it's work based more than anything else and this idea that you know those actors are millionaires and they you know going on strike

and you go well some actors absolutely are millionaires and make a great deal of money but i think the vast majority of actors in this town it's like it's a middle class job exactly vast majority of people just getting check to check. But I learned something as far as cooperating and making everybody's job easier. I did a movie called She-Devil with Meryl Streep. Oh, yeah. That's a great movie. and wonderful and she always does something brilliant and susan sideman the director would say you know what i think you should do something else and she says something and i'm sitting there thinking that's terrible my god she's going to get now scolded by meryl streep how dare you tell me what to do and how dare you come up with a lesser idea right she goes okay let me take this sows ear and make it into a silk purse and here you are did exactly what she said and made it

completely fine it wasn't as good as what she did right it's like nearly as good or maybe even as good but she does she could take a bad idea and make it great have you ever worked with you don't have to say any names but you've ever worked with an actor and you've thought what the hell are you doing here because i've i i'm well i'm going to preface this by saying that i've worked with a couple. I'm like, why are you doing this job if it's so painful? I know. Because it's easy. And, you know, all you have to do is just, like you say, be professional about it. And everybody's cool.

That's what people want. Right. If you had a reading, if you auditioned some manner and they like what you did, try and do that the first take. If they want to do something else, then do that. You want to do something that's occurred to you since the reading fine ask the director if he wants to see that

I just bring in like a a salad bowl with different stuff if you want some of this or that what do you want on it yeah and you guys pick

what you want will you read for a part if you like it or is that in the rear view mirror I don't have to read often but when I have the opportunity I'm happy to

my agents no we don't want you to read we don't want I said dude opportunity, I'm happy to. My agents, no, we don't want you to read. I said, dude, I like reading. I get to go and play the part in the room. Then I get to do it again with pay in front of a digital camera. Well, I guess you do. See, I had a different thing about reading for parts. I always thought, wait, so you want me to do the job,

and then if you don't like it, you fire me? I feel like, because once I get as far as learning the lines, which you've got to really do for the reading, then now it's mine. I care about it. And then I get fired. I found it very difficult. And of course, everybody gets, you know,

doesn't get every audition. It just doesn't happen for anyone. But I found it very tough. I couldn't take it. I'm thinking right now, I haven't had a read in a while, but if I had a read for something tomorrow, for something good, sometimes I get confused, like a casting director. Wait a minute, you read for me last month.

I said, yeah, but that was different. It was great material. This one isn't so great. So that's what it is then, if it's good material. If it's great material, I get to go and play it in a room. I get to play that part. It's gravy if they want me to do it again in front of a digital camera. That's gravy.

Back in 1969, this was the hottest song around. So hot that some guys from Michigan tried to steal it. My name is Daniel Ralston. For 10 years, I've been obsessed with one of the most bizarre and audacious cons in rock and roll history. A group would have a hit record and quickly they would hire a bunch of guys to go out and be the group. People were being cheated on several levels. After years of searching, we bring you the true story of the fake zombies. I was like blown away. These guys are not going to get away with it. Listen to the true story of the fake zombies on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to know how to leverage culture to build a successful business? Then Butternomics is the podcast for you. I'm your host, Brandon Butler, founder and CEO of Butter ATL. Over my career, I've built and helped run multiple seven-figure businesses that leverage culture and built successful brands. Now I want to share what I've learned with you. And on Butternomics, we go deep with today's most influential entrepreneurs, innovators, and business leaders to peel back the layers on how they use culture as a driving force in their business. On every episode, we get the inside scoop on how these leaders tap into culture to

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I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day. Every weekday, we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us. Like a recent episode with author and podcaster Glynis McNichol on her new memoir, I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself. It's all about seeking pleasure in middle age. At some point, I stopped feeling shame around any part of my existence. There was a point where I thought, who's benefiting from my feeling ashamed?

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So let's talk a little bit about, because you and I have a similar, not, not, well, a similar story when it comes to the old, uh, the old alcohol. I had a thirst. I like my gargle. Yeah, I did. What age were you when you quit? I was 30 years old. It was 1979. I was almost the same.

Look at you. Just before my 30th birthday. My daughter got sober at 15. If I'd gotten sober at 15, I'd run the world. You know, I look at that because people sometimes say, you know, I spilled more on my tie than you drank

and all that i'm like yeah that doesn't make you better at it that just means you drank longer i'm glad i got sober when i did because i felt like i think 30 is is kind of a sweet spot because you've done enough damage to really fuck up your life a bit, but usually not beyond repair. Yes, yes. And you've convinced you. This is what I thought. I'd convinced myself without a shadow of a doubt that I was someone who had alcoholism. That's what I have.

Drew Carey, you were sober already. Oh, yeah. I was sober three years by the time I started working on it. Good for you. Me too, before St. Elsewhere. Same thing, three years before St. Elsewhere. St. Elsewhere. I never would have been able to do it. I got a huge gig for you. Didn't you get

like ten Emmys for that or something? I got nominated six times. I never won, but I got nominated. You never won? No. That's awful. No, it's fine to get nominated. It really is. It is, but I mean, I always think when you go to these award ceremonies and you think, I'm not going to win, but you kind of

hope you do. Every now and again you do. You you think what if yeah i remember once i won an emmy and i was like the first time i won an emmy i was like so excited i didn't want to be that excited i totally blew my cool i was like this is the greatest thing it is it is a great it's such a rush it is a rush oh my god i love it i would know the winning rush but i know the nominated version that's fine that's enough that's all i need i think you've i think you've had a few can you've won stuff haven't you i was nominated recently too for this show great show done by these wonderful women called control all to lead about a woman's health clinic i got nominated for an for an emmy for that for best you know like streaming show or something, or online only show, whatever

they call it. And I was literally, this is the truth, sitting there thinking, oh, please, God, don't let me win. I just don't know. I don't feel like talking to a lot of people right now. Please, God, don't let me win. I was actually praying that I did not win, and I got my wish. Oh, yeah, you didn't win?

And if you saw the show, you know why. Careful what you pray for. People say, you try to act so humble. I said, I'm obviously humble. Go see some of my early work. I have reason to be humble. I've got a lot to be humble humble. I said, I'm obviously humble. Go see some of my early work. I have reason to be humble. I've got a lot to be humble about. I don't know.

I think you're being a bit tough on yourself. But that's the kind of thing that surprised me, I guess, and I think surprises civilians who are not alcoholic, is that I thought when I stopped drinking, I'd, I'd get better, you know, mentally. And that, that wasn't the case for me. I kind of go crazier, not in my behavior, but in my, my level of discomfort. Do you know what I mean? Was there a period early on where it worked for you?

Uh, drinking? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Me too. I think it, I literally think it saved my life before it almost killed me. I totally agree. A hundred percent. I was such a wreck. I needed it. 16, 17 think it saved my life before it almost killed me. I totally agree, 100%. I was such a wreck. I needed it 16, 17, 18, all this stuff that happened to me.

I went, I just need to numb my ass somehow. I'll take anything you got. Right. If they'd given me heroin at that young age, I probably would have done it. Well, now, you were coming through Hollywood when a lot of that stuff was around. Did you run into it? Constantly. In fact, it wasn't like if you'd wired

your fire the way it became let's say 1980 something right before that it was like why is he not doing any of my cocaine is he a narc is he uptight should i be worried about this guy who is this guy that's not doing any drugs he won't even smoke a joint with me get him get the get him off the set that's crazy it was crazy i don't know about like the rise of marijuana and cannabis now right like it's it's like people it's like a starbucks you can get i know i mean i kind of like that is the drug i mean i've taken every drug that was available at the time i was taking drugs right i've taken heroin i've taken crack cocaine i've taken cocaine i've taken every drug that like a lot of the stuff meth and stuff

like that that wasn't there or ecstasy i was out of the game by that time right me too but i've taken a lot of drugs and the one that gave me the most psychotic reaction without a shadow of a doubt was cannabis and but high-end cannabis not the kind of cannabis they have today right i don't know yeah who knows you haven't had I wasn't buying it from a store. I was buying it from a guy. Yeah, exactly. But I don't know. I mean, it produced in me a psychosis,

which still makes me a little uncomfortable to talk about, 30-plus years later, 32 years later, nearly. I actually, now that I think of it for only a moment, I had the same reaction most of the time. When I smoked pot, I got extremely paranoid. Yep. I was just,, oh my God, I'm in the post office. The post office! What am I doing in the DMV? I don't know what to do. It wasn't a cool thing. Yeah, it shouldn't be scary to be in the DMV.

No, it shouldn't be. Well, maybe for other reasons. But it's kind of weird, though, because there is this kind of, the orthodoxy, because everything is about media orthodoxy I think right now. You've got to say the right thing or you're in trouble. And the implication is that if you, I feel anyway, if you say anything negative about cannabis that you're somehow, you know, like slightly to the right of Hitler when it comes to, you know, social interaction. I'm like, no, I just don't like it at all and never did.

I never did either. I don't know why I kept doing it. See, I loved alcohol. I loved it too. Yeah, I loved the smell. It worked. Yeah, it did. You could get it anywhere.

Yeah. It was okay to drink it. I used to drink it on the set in a scene. I would ask the prop man. I said, no, don't give me that near beer. Not during My Three Sons, though. Don't give me that near beer stuff. I need it for my character.

I need real beer. The movie was Blue Collar, and there's a shot in it you can see. Well, it's a good movie. It's worth seeing, but don't see it just for this, of course. I'm walking to my car, and I'm clearly really drunk, or I'm a brilliant actor actor or I'm really drunk. It's the latter. Well, they're not mutually exclusive conditions.

I mean, there's been plenty of really good actors who were really drunk while they were acting. That's why I drank, now that you remind me. It was your brothers in England that were the ones that, you know, Burton O'Toole, all those guys. Burton O'Toole, Richard Harris, Tony Hopkins. All those guys. Oliver Reed. Well, they're either dead or sober, though, all those guys now.

They all either died of drink or, I mean, Tony got sober. Yeah, a few of the others did, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was, I remember I talked to, there's a director I know. Do you know Peter Medak? Peter Medak, I know, I love Peter Medak. Yeah, isn't he great? He's a great guy. He's a lovely guy.

He directed The Ruling Class. What a good movie that was. Yeah, and that was, O'Toole was in that movie. It was great. When he was drinking, he said, yeah, it was insane. And Caroline Seymour was in it. Oh, that's right. So beautiful.

Yeah. That's a crazy film. Crazy film. But these movies, these kind of like, I guess that would be 70s, late 60s, early 70s? I think so. I think it's 70s. I mean, that kind of almost like Easy Rider's

what is it? Easy Rider, Raging Bull. Did you read that book? It's so wonderful. Was it accurate, do you think, at that time? Because you were working around that time. What I knew of those movies, I was not on those movies. I was not on Easy Rider, Raging that time. What I knew of those movies, I was not on those movies. I was not an easy rider, raging bull. But on a lot of those movies that those same people did,

I worked with Bob Rafelson, for instance. I worked with Paul Schrader. And in my book, I talk about, you know, what a set was like in that book. And believe me, it was the Wild West. Yeah, it kind of, I want to talk to you a little bit because the biography,

tell me the title again. To the Temple of Tranquility and Step On It. So that's, you know, it's the story of growing up. Well, it's your life story, obviously. It is. But growing up around those sets, it must have been very strange. I don't know how anything got made. I mean, I don't know how you could make a movie with a cell phone,

never mind everybody being high on cocaine you look at some of these old episodes of i don't know charlie's angels i'm not picking on them specifically but i think it might have been that show any show and i worked on that show in the 70s so i should probably shut up but i mean lots of shows like that the writing is so incredibly bizarre and then you find out everybody was high on something. Everybody was high. Everybody was high on something. Well, I think if you get a show like Fantasy Island, which runs for years and years and years.

It's a license to print money. Yeah, I mean, really it is. But that kind of thing doesn't really, I mean, I guess it exists, but it doesn't, it exists in kind of like the netflix thing like some people make a ton of money but but the actual formula of of making these big network shows i think that's that's kind of over isn't it is a lot that yeah that formulaic stuff

yeah which is a shame because i kind of loved it. But, you know, everything changes. The TV is better. It is better, no doubt about it. Now, listen, you are comedic royalty. Stop it, but go ahead. It's true because of, if for nothing else, and there's a large, large body of work, but for nothing else, you have a role in, in to my mind the greatest comedy movie of the last

50 years which is of course Spinal Tap I agree you know it's a classic it it is an amazing piece of work uh were you guys aware when you were doing it that you had I mean it looks to me like a lot of fun but having interacted a little bit with Christopher Guest, he's not what I thought he would be. He's quite a serious person, I think, isn't he? He is a very serious man about his work and everything, and because of that, he makes brilliant movies. He sure does, no doubt about it.

And Rob Reiner and the guys, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, all of them. When I did it, I had no idea what was going to happen with it at all. In fact, it was purported to be just like a part of a sizzle reel they're going to do to raise money. Because it was kind of kinescope-looking stuff, you know, old footage-looking stuff. We're playing there like black and white. Right, that's right, yeah. Mop top kind of stuff. And so that's what we did.

Then about a year later, they went, you know what? They got the funding to do the movie, so they want to use that sizzle reel kind of stuff that we did. And then about a year later, they went, you know what? They got the funding to do the movie. So they want to use that sizzle reel kind of stuff that we shot. The low res is a feature. It's not a bug. So they, and we signed contracts to allow it to be used in a SAG movie. And that's my memory of how it happened. That's funny.

So it was kind of pieced together a little bit. Yeah. So lucky to be in it. But you became part of that kind of loose repertory company that Christopher Guest put together for, you know, A Mighty Wind and these movies. Did you do Best in Show as well? You did Best in Show as well. I did Best in Show, and that's how Chris Guest single-handedly

sprung me out of movie jail. I was in movie jail in the 90s because I'd done a bunch of movies that weren't successful box office and got poor reviews. So by 1990, it was like, yeah, Ed's fine, but who else you got? And I didn't get a lot of studio work. I could go up to Canada, do a movie with a little girl and a bear. I could go to Australia, do a movie with a little girl and a tiger. Yeah, I went to Florida and did a movie with a talking dog. I know what you mean. I went to Florida and did a movie with a talking dog. I know what you mean.

I did Ms. Bear, true story, and I did Joey in Australia. So that's what I did. You've got to do it, though. Exactly. I kept working. I did a lot of TV, so don't throw any benefits for me. But Chris Guest single-handedly, by putting me in Best in Show in 1999, I believe, was here. He busted me out of movie jails.

It's a great movie. Itails. It's a great movie. It is. It's a great movie. The method of working, I mean, there's been a lot talked about it. Is it as improvisational as it feels, or is it more scripted than people realize? It is as improvisational as you could imagine. Really? Chris Guest and Eugene Levy, that's who did the first, like three of them. Right.

Did the, you know, Best in Show, Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. Then after that, it's been Jim Piddock, the wonderful Jim Piddock too.

Jim Piddock's great. He was on the Drew Carey show as well. Yeah, he's fantastic. Yeah, yeah. Great guy too. I love him. Yeah. So they would take the time

and do the hard work of writing the treatment, the 25-page treatment. Right. So Best in Show, for instance, all it has on the page is Jerry and Cookie Fleck, which is Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara,

so I can't go wrong. I got to just stand there and not break up. Jerry and Cookie Fleck try to check in the hotel. Their credit card doesn't work. That's it. Right. And that's a great premise for people like that to work with. And so from there, it's like, you know,

the chord is G minor seventh that you're going to be playing here and just now start riffing. And that's what we do. We just play, they give you the chord chart or whatever you want to call it of the treatment and then you blow some notes after that. Now you talk about it in terms of musicianship, which makes perfect sense because all of these guys are all musicians.

They're all, they all play. Fine musicians too you are you a player too do you still play i do not play anymore i my neurological condition dictates otherwise you have a neurological condition i do i have parkinson's i kind of spoiled the last chapter i'm shocked to hear you say it and uh i'm very happy that you don't know it i'm doing pretty good this is the way park Parkinson's can be 2023. Your hands are not shaking at all. I know.

I could pass the sobriety checkpoint. Yeah. Well, do you feel okay? When did that happen? I feel okay. It happened in 2004. I got it. I didn't even know I had it for 12 years.

2016, I got diagnosed, and I've done all this stuff the AMA kind of neurologists tell you to do then for extra credit I did other holistic things that have helped too. So what you like let's let me guess you you already didn't drink alcohol so you probably stopped eating meat and dairy and stuff right? Yeah I've been a vegan for a while yeah and so also I started doing I always did vigorous exercise. I upped the ante a bit there. I do a lot of very useful exercise. I do something called glutathione.

What's that? It's something that's good for people who have neurological conditions. It kind of helps ease the nervous system from kind of zapping out a little bit. Right. And NAD helps too. Hyperbaric chamber actually helped me too. Wow, really? out a little bit. Right. And NAD helps too. Hyperbaric chamber actually helped me too. Wow, really?

You go in a hyperbaric chamber and you get an oxygen rich infusion there for the hour that you're in there. That helps a lot. And stem cells. There's places you can get stem cells and that's helped me too. That's kind of, I remember when my kids were born, they just started with the oldest boy that you could get the, from the umbilical cord. They would take it and store it for stem cells if it was ever needed for treatment later on.

Very smart. That's what they're doing. Stem cell is a very good way to go, too. So what do they do? They just inject some kind of mixture of it into you and it makes you feel better? Yeah, they give you an IV with stem cells in it for about 30 minutes with some glucose, and they give you four injections wherever you have a little bit of body fat. I have a little bit of body fat in my abdomen, so they give you four shots there.

Yeah, that's probably where I'd get it as well, or my ass. I should probably get it there too. No, I don't know. Spread it around. I'll get plenty of body fat, but I hope that's where it stops for now. I had no idea. That's good news for me. That's great because you don't come across as anyone who's even remotely infirm in any way.

You just look like you always did. Bless you. It's the truth. I had a similar reaction from people I worked with on two separate TV series. And I said, thank you so much for being so patient with my Parkinson's. I went, what the hell are you talking about? Yeah, I mean, it's really, I'm genuinely shocked to hear you. I mean, I had no idea.

That's great. See, this is why I never read the book or see the movie before I talk to someone. Because they used to say to me when I was doing Late Night, they would say, you have to see the movie before the guest comes on. And I'd be like, why? They said, well, then you can talk about the movie I said but surely the idea is that if we're going to talk about a movie that nobody has seen this movie so if the actor who's in the movie talks to me about it and I ask questions about

the movie I'm asking the questions that other people who have not yet seen the movie are going to ask isn't that the way to do it whatever you're doing this is one of the best interviews I've ever had so whatever you're doing keep doing it my of the best interviews I've ever had. So whatever you're doing, keep doing it, my friend. I'm enjoying this. But I kind of feel like interviews, like everything in life, marriage, family, to a degree you can't really do this, but marriage, relationships, movies, interviews, everything is casting. Everything is casting. I think you're right right I think it is like I've directed one movie and I compromised and compromised and compromised on casting

now I directed this movie I wrote the movie I'm in the movie and I don't like the movie now how did that happen wait a minute because I call the name of this movie it's called I'll be there and it's uh now I really really want to see you name of this movie? It's called I'll Be There. And it's... Now I really, really want to see it. You should see the movie because it's... Some people like the movie. I don't like the movie. And I've never liked the movie.

And the reason why I never liked the movie... And I don't want to say that... Like, some of the actors in the movie, like, I was, like, very happy to have them. And they're good actors, but it wasn't the way I wanted it to be. I compromised on a lot of things. And in the end, it just didn't.

And I think the other piece of casting, the greatest mistake I made in casting is that I put myself in the movie. Interesting. And that was, did you ever do that? Did you ever direct? I directed a couple of NYPD Blue, but I wasn't in any of them.

So that made it just nothing but fun. I loved it. Yeah, I bet you'd enjoyed it. did you ever direct? I directed a couple NYPD Blue but I wasn't in any of them so yeah that made it just nothing but fun I loved it yeah I bet you'd enjoyed it see I should never have put myself in the movie first of all

I was not as good an actor as anyone else who had cast in the movie they were all much better actors than me oh interesting I love that you have the awareness

to say these things alright I'm sitting there in the you know watching the rushes which we used to have back then I remember watching the dailies, and I'm going, oh my God, I suck, and they're all good.

This is terrible. And we try and cut around it, but it's very definitely, I think good actors, weirdly enough, and you have this, have an odd lack of vanity because people think of actors as being vain but actually i think it's it's a little more complex than that i don't think they're vain at all i think they're wildly insecure but if you give them something to be they can relax right you know i mean it's like here's your personality here's who you are here's what you think here's how you react and i who you are. Here's what you think. Here's how you react.

And I think there are certain personalities in acting, you know, who are good actors that go, oh, that's great. Now I know how to be and how to do things. I'm one of those people. I love being directed. I come in with something. Sometimes, you know, I have my choice. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's not so good at all.

And the director says, why don't you try it this way? I go, how could I have missed that? That's like 85 times better than what I had in mind. How could I not think of generally, the general category of something like that that's so brilliant and not at all what I came in with. Back in 1969, this was the hottest song around. So hot that some guys from Michigan tried to steal it.

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Hey, fam. I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day. Every weekday, we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us. Like a recent episode with author and podcaster Glynis McNichol on her new memoir, I'm mostly here to enjoy myself. It's all about seeking pleasure in middle age. At some point, I stopped feeling shame around any part of my existence. There was a point where I thought, who's benefiting from my feeling of shame? If there's a general sense of like, oh goodness, she's doing what she wants, who benefits from you feeling bad about that? Because usually not anyone whose opinion you're interested in, I would argue. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever worked with someone and you've thought, this guy has no idea what he's doing? I think that of myself on the take one. I think, oh God, I know what to think. I'm not talking about you insecure. I'm talking about what am I going to do. I've seen that happen. Yeah.

And sometimes they cut it together in the editing room and you go, you would never in a million years know there's a performance I'm thinking right now by a very famous actor and he did it one line at a time. He somehow just couldn't get his lines two in a row. Had to he did it one line at a time he somehow just couldn't get his lines two in a row had to do one single line at a time and he did it and i went this is going

to be a disaster they're gonna have to reshoot it cut it together it looks fantastic you'd never you'd never know that's amazing amazing i remember i did you remember rod steiger oh i loved rod i got to know him a tiny bit yeah i got to know him a little bit first movie i did in hollywood was a vampire movie which i think was may might have been his last movie it was a movie called oh man what's it called modern vampires i think and exactly as you would think you know what i mean like a like a schlock vampire movie i think rick elfman directed it danny elfman's brother oh wow, wow. And it was fun and crazy and sort of, I think it was awful on purpose,

but I don't know. I mean, it was awful, but it was kind of awful on purpose. Right. Bobby Pastorelli played Dracula. By the way, I'm laughing. Yeah, I know, because Bobby Pastorelli was like,

he's a guy from Brooklyn. Hey, how you doing? The creatures of the night, I'm laughing. It's fucking nuts. But I remember sitting with Rod Steiger in a car one night, and I was talking to him, obviously, about On the Waterfront. Because you know that scene he does with Brando, when Brando does the, you know, I could be a contender. Right, instead of a bummer, which is what I am. In the back of the cab, and he said, he didn't like Brando. He said he didn't get on with Brando. He said he was a terrible actor to work with.

He didn't enjoy working with him. He said said he was a terrible actor to work with. He didn't enjoy working with him. He said that he would never stay for a reverse shot. He would never do any off-camera work, which is mean. You've got to do that. Yeah, you've got to do that. And he said he would never do that for the singles in the cab show when they're doing the

You Should Have Taken Care of Me, Johnny, I Could Have Been a Contender, and all that kind of stuff. And so I went and I looked at it, and it's all in a two-shot. You know, it's both of them in the shot all the time. It's kind of interesting. I was like, maybe that's what he was doing. Maybe he was forcing it.

Maybe he was doing you a favor because it's an odd thing. I mean, Brando clearly was. Did you ever meet him? I knew him fairly well. Yeah? I got a nice chapter about it in the book. Oh, really?

Yes. Did you get along? Very well. Good. Good, because I've heard terrible stories, but I never met him,

so I don't know. But the reason I kept getting asked up there to visit him was, I knew the ground rules. He never, ever, ever wanted to talk about acting, writing, directing, claymation, puppetry, train seals, anything that was like show business. of him was i knew the ground rules he never ever ever wanted to talk about acting writing directing

claymation puppetry train seals anything that was like show business he wouldn't wouldn't talk about you'd be done you'd be out of the rolodex what did you guys talk about drywall steel pipe galvanized pipe versus copper pipe you know uh solar panels wind turbines oh he was interested in green stuff yeah electric eels as a power source. Is that possible? Come on. Not remotely. No, I didn't think so.

So I dissuaded him of that. He thought... He literally wanted to do it. I love the idea of electric eels. I mean, fuck, that would be great, though. Imagine how cool it would be to just fill your car up with eels. But he wanted to do them in a motor or something,

and he thought you could put an anode and a cathode in the water and get current. But before that, when he called me up this time, I thought, wow, this is finally it. This is the big day. He called me up, and he goes, Edward, Ed the Bagel, it's Bran Flakes. You need to get up here as soon as possible. I've got a project I want to do with you. I've got all the funding in place. I've got distribution.

Get up here quickly, please. For God's sake, we've got all the funding in place. I've got distribution. Get up here quickly, please. For God's sake, we've got to talk about this project. Project, distribution, funding. Let's go. Finally, he wants to talk acting and it's with me. Yeah.

I normally rode my bike up there. I took my car. I went to Sean Penn to get the job. So I raced up there. He wanted to talk about electric eels. Really? Distributing. He had the funding for the electric eels.

He had the distribution. Oh, my God. It was a wonderful project he wanted to do with me. And he wanted to use electric eels to power his house. It's a shame it never came to pass. I thought he was winding me up, but he was serious about it. He really wanted to use electric eels to power his house?

He literally thought it was possible. He had a vision for my wind turbine. He went, you still have that wind turbine in the desert? Yeah, I still have that wind turbine in the desert yeah i still have it how would you like to increase the power 100 percent what percent 100 percent how could you how could you increase it 100 percent and he draws a picture of like like a cornucopia with the end cut off or an ear trumpet or a funnel right in front of my wind turbine i said do you know how big my wind turbine is?

Because it's like he has a little drawing of it. I said, it's 150 feet. Oh, you've got a giant wind turbine? I had a wind turbine in the California desert. I was just part of a wind farm. I invested in it. So he knew that. And the thing he had in front of it, this funnel,

would have made that like 300 feet. I said it would tear down the wind turbine the winds would be so much you take every bird in the pacific flyway and chop them up like a cuisinart but he had all these why is it always no with you for god's sake everything's always no well you you should have got in on the electric eels i should have you you could have been a billionaire by now i'd be rich by now you'd be rich in that sweet electric eel money. That's right. Swimming in it, as they say. Yeah, swimming in it. The idea, because you hear a lot of stuff about electric cars and fossil fuel and wind turbines and stuff like that. And people, the negative is always the amount of carbon footprint that it takes to get these things

to where they are? Or the big thing about electric cars is where do all the batteries go? Is that real? You should always consider those things, but it's been very well studied by Union of Concerned Scientists, lots of other people with PhD after the name

have looked at it, and there's still pollution. There's pollution in the mountain bike. There's pollution in people. Cape men have made there's still pollution. There's pollution in the mountain bike. There's pollution in people. Cape men have made pollution with their fires. There's pollution from anything, but the question is how much. And it's a teaspoon to a tanker truck, you know, from what you make with solar panels, there's energy used to create it.

But over the life of the solar panels, which these days is 40, 50 years, you know, they don't just last a decade. People go, oh, they'll be gone in a decade. They lose power, but very little. They lose like a percentage in a year or two, another percent after that. Well, any engine does that too. And anything makes pollution. But, you know, wind turbine, for example, you need energy to make the wind turbine.

But over the long life of it, mine, for instance, I had 30 years, three decades, made me a lot of money. And it also made a lot of power. And mine was the old kind that's only 75 kilowatts. Yeah, they're all over Scotland now, the big giant ones. They're a megawatt and a half. They're two meg. Yeah, they're huge.

But it's kind of tricky because they're not pretty. No, they're not. And I think when you get so many of them, because you have to basically, with the nature of where they are, they have to be And I think when you get so many of them, because you have to basically, with the nature of where they are, they have to be in areas where there's wind, which tends to be areas that are pretty. Of the coastal areas.

Yeah, it's a little tricky. They had this idea to put them all out to sea around Britain. They could do that. They could do it so far away, you won't even notice the speck in the distance. Yeah. Run the cable in. That'd be kind of cool.

I think they should do more of that. You're still very committed to it, obviously. Do you still ride the subway in LA? I do. I ride it regularly. Yeah,

now, I've never been on it. I lived here for 23 years. I was never on it. It's a wonderful system. Does it actually? Oh, yeah.

It takes a lot of people a lot of miles. It's a big area they cover. You can take the rail or the bus or light rail or something from Pomona all the way out to Long Beach. Also, you can take it out to Trancas. It's a big area that the metro covers. I mean, I don't live here anymore. I haven't lived here for a couple of years, but I can't imagine not having a car. I need to rent a car when I get here or I feel trapped.

Yeah. You know, but maybe it's a mindset that needs fixing. Yeah, some routes are going to be trickier than others. If you live somewhere out in the middle of the West Valley and you need to get downtown every day to get to that Orange Line bus and then get to the subway and make those, you know, connections can take you a while. They're trying to eliminate that,

make that more efficient. But for me, I live in Studio City. I hop on that Metro red line, you know, to go downtown to Hollywood. It's just much easier than driving. It's quicker, easier, everything about it's better. I'm going to try it.

You talked me into it. Give it a try. Is it clean? It is. It's now clean again it was not clean for a while because of covid you know some a lot of people who have you know mental problems and drug problems kind of took over the subway stations or what have you we're taking it back not for me i have choices i could get in my electric car and go the people have no choice

working people rely on the subway and on the bus line the bus line is the backbone of the system and you got to keep those safe and the rail stations and we're taking it back every day do you uh do you get involved in local politics and a bit yeah my daughter's working at metro now so i'm very supportive of her oh cool we did a thing she rode she rides the metro all the time she has since she was a baby with me and then she did a thing where she wrote it all week didn't get in her car her electric car once wrote it all week then we went to the oscars together on the metro ah that's right yeah i heard about that yeah so that's awesome it was very very good so now she's working at metro trying to help spread the word about what works and what needs

to be worked on well let's see now i have kid youngest boy is 13, my oldest is in his early 20s. You mentioned earlier that your daughter got sober when she was 15. And I haven't seen anything like that in my kids, but I'd be terrified by that, you know, by the idea of, I don't want to, you know to discuss your daughter because that's her business. Right, right. But how did you feel about that? Did you feel like because you had gone through it, you were able to help her? Or did you have to stand back a bit and let her find her own way to it?

What was the? I did a little bit of each. You know, I just said, because there was a morning where it seemed like things were going off the rails. And I just wanted to say she said do you think dad do you think I do you think I have a problem I said yes I do okay do you want help yes I do said she says okay then I'm here but I didn't want to make her do anything it'd be a dad in this case yeah make her do x y or z tricky I mean it's funny because I mean I definitely qualified to get help when I was 15 years old I didn't get it till I was 29 but the any anyone that can say

I've met people who get sober at that age of her great yeah you know just great and I love the idea that people can get sober now when they're young there used to be quite kind of a kind of snobbishness weird reverse kind of snobbishness about you had to really screw your life up for a long period of time before you qualified for sobriety which doesn't seem fair to me imagine if they had social media when i was out there drinking i'd never work another day oh my i would not have worked in the 70s the 80s and 90s i think about i talk i have obviously i have friends who have been sober for a long time

and we talk about that that the idea if there had been social media in the 1980s I mean not because of anything other than just

like pathetic behavior exactly that was me it was just tragic it was but I mean that's the thing about and I've been guilty

of this as anyone that when talking particularly to you know in show business or doing standup and stuff, you can make the drinking ears sound funny. Right. But they weren't that funny. They were still bad. There's some serious stuff connected to it. Very bad stuff connected. Yeah. The fact that I didn't kill anybody, I'm so grateful for.

Me too. When I get busted for my DUI, I'm like, oh, geez, if I'd have hit someone. God help us. Oh, my God. Can you imagine? I drank a quart of vodka every day, took pills, and operated a vehicle. Yeah, me too. I don't know how the hell I did that.

What pills did you take? I would take Valium to cure the hangover. I would occasionally take Quaaludes, which you're not supposed to take. I never go around to Quaaludes. That's one that I missed. I said earlier I took them all, but I didn occasionally take Quaaludes, which you're not supposed to take. I never got around to Quaaludes. That's one that I missed. I said earlier I took them all, but I didn't take Quaaludes. I hear tell they were... They were pretty good. A remarkable thing.

They were considered a hypnotic drug. I was definitely hypnotized by them. Oof. Oof. Yeah. And then acid, I remember. Cannabis and acid were the ones I didn't like. I liked the zippy ones, like cocaine or methamphetamine. You and me both.

Or a nice, solid base note of heroin. Yeah, I did it four times. I snorted it four times, and I loved it too. Yeah, that's about how many times I did it. About the same amount of times. And I remember thinking, I remember lying down, and I'd done, do you remember remember they used to call it speedball? Yep.

Cocaine and heroin at the same time. Yep, together. And I remember lying down in a shitty apartment in New York having done that. And I felt like I was upside down and I couldn't shake the feeling of like I was hanging by my feet. Oh boy. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt like I was upside down. And I thought, this is not recreational. I'm not having a good time here.

No. And it was only another nine years before I got sober. Yeah, I started to realize it was a bad scene for me in 76. It took me three years to finally get it together. It takes a while, yeah. So, do you think, is there still a time when you're awed by Hollywood? Because I think of you as someone who's lived inside this business and this town for so long, your entire life, really. Yes. You've been inside it. Does it contain mystery and awe for you now, or is it, it's a place of work and like you ever meet someone you go i can't

believe i met you know i still get that reaction when i meet people who are fine actors fine musicians things like that i just get all the twitter because it's a big deal people that are that on their game that creative that talented yeah just when i first met joaquin phoenix i was like trembling he's such an incredible actor. It just inspires me, everything I've ever seen him in. So that was a big one. Working with Meryl Streep for the first time, meeting Jack Nicholson for the first time,

working with Bob Hoskins, for God's sake. What a talent he was. He was, yeah. I tried to get him to go in that movie I told you about. I spoke to him on the phone. Oh, my God. I wanted him to play this old rock star in it. And I spoke to him on the phone and I said, have I wanted him to play this old rock star in it and I spoke to him on the phone and I said have you been? He went well who else

is in it? Very good Bob Hoskins by the way. I said well and I said a bunch of people who were in it. He went yeah alright I'll have a think about it. I've never heard from him again. But that's alright. I have a bold work of art

right as you enter my home Bob Hoskins came in years ago for the first time looked at it and went hey what happened here what happened here what's the what is it very kind of striking modern piece is that what it is?

just a bunch of colors splatter kind of colors and what have you it's not a face or a vase or a flower or anything like that that's all right it was great it sounds good well you know what we're out of time ed well let's get together and do it again yeah i'm very happy to do it again anytime you're like i am sad to hear about your diagnosis but i am delighted for you that you had to tell me about it because i couldn't i i swear to because you know billy connolly has parkinson's right now and billy you that you had to tell me about it because I couldn't, I swear to, because you know, Billy Connolly has Parkinson's right now and Billy, you can, you can see it.

I love that man. I just, did you read that wonderful piece about him in the times? I think it was LA times. It was a great piece about him and Pam. I did not see. Oh, wonderful. I'll send it to you. Yes, please. Billy was Jackie Robinson for me.

Do you know what I mean? No question. I mean, he was like, there was,? No question. I mean, he was Elvis. He is Elvis. He is Elvis. He's amazing. Amazing. And he said that, did he tell you about this,

that he was walking through the airport and a doctor came over to him and said, I think you may have Parkinson's. You should go and get checked out. It's because of the walk. Oh, that's right. I heard something to that effect. Yes, that's right. He didn't to that effect. Yes, that's right.

He didn't know. That happened to me, but the guy didn't tell me. He told my cousin. Oh, really? And so my cousin said, rightly so, for what I knew at the time. A neurologist said, does your cousin know that he has Parkinson's? My cousin rightly said, he didn't have Parkinson's. He would have told me that.

Yeah. But he could see it and I didn't. It's amazing that they can see that. It seemed uncomfortable to come and say, Ed, this guy thinks he have Parkinson's. He would have told me that. Yeah. But he could see it and I didn't. And he didn't want, it's amazing. It seemed uncomfortable to come and say, Ed, this guy thinks he has Parkinson's. He,

I wouldn't want to do that to him. So he didn't do it to me. And it's probably just as well. I didn't learn it until years later. That's an amazing thing. I mean, but you don't have that distinctive walk. I don't see it. No,

it was very subtle, all very subtle back then. Well, look, continued health to you. You too, my friend. It's great to see you. You are an inspiration and a force for good in this time.

You are a corrective weight in the Hollywood scales. So are you, buddy. And a powerful one, too. Good to see you, pal. Always good to see you. All right. Good to see you, pal Always good to see you Alright I'm Angie Martinez And on my podcast I like to talk to everyone

From Hall of Fame athletes To iconic musicians About getting real On some of the complications and challenges of real life. I had the best dad and I had the best memories and the greatest experience. And that's all I want for my kids as long as they can have that. Listen to Angie Martinez IRL on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I am Lacey Lamar. Hi, I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm also Lacey Lamar. Just kidding, I'm Amber Reffin. What? Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber Show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network.

This season, we make new friends, deep dive into my steamy DMs, answer your listener questions, and more more the more is punch each other listen to the amber and lacy lacy and amber show on will ferrell's big money players network on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts just listen okay or lacy gets it do it for 10 years i've been obsessed with one of the most bizarre and audacious cons in rock and roll history. We were all facing 20 years and all that good stuff. The lead singer tried to pull off an English accent

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