Kenny Chesney | Club Random with Bill Maher

Well folks, if you're gonna spend money on something in Spanish, well be something you actually like. That's what I always say. That's where the club random merch store comes in. That's right, get yourself a cozy hoodie. Look at this. This is really well designed. That's right, get yourself a cozy hoodie to snuggle away your sorrows or some new club random shirts. Look at all this shit I have to attract a partner with similar interests and live happily ever after. I've seen crazier omkoms, so head over to clubrandom.com and bring home some random. I have no idea. Oh that's right, they don't get media. We didn't get that at all. Well, you just don't trust. Don't trust. I've never trusted. What are you talking about? Oh my gosh. Brad Pitt's brother. How you doing man? That's a funny song. That's a funny song by the way. That's a true story. What? Other than Brad Pitt's brother. Sounds like it was many stories, many days in your life. Well, that was actually about me and my friend, Brett James wrote this song because when you're single, Christmas is a weird time. I called my buddy, Brett James, and he was a great songwriter. I said, "What are you doing the day after Christmas?" Because he had a family and everything. So we went down to my house in the Virgin Islands and stayed out all night, and literally I woke up around 2.30 in the afternoon and Brett was out there playing guitar and he had this riff, you know, started and it was that riff. Basically, that song was written about our night before. We were out all night. That was back in the day. Well, it's funny, you say that because this very room, I used to have a party, Christmas night. Christmas day, but night, it was very popular. Everybody's doing something in the day. They don't really want to do relatives, family, kids around. Even as a kid, I sort of had enough by the end of it, you know. It wasn't like Halloween. We were just stuff with candy into your bouncing off the walls from the sugar rush. You were just kind of like. So you guys were in the Christmas or not? Totally, of course. Yeah, our family really was too. Yeah, we're Americans. Yeah. To Christmas. Yeah, no. Fucking and of course, kids, you're getting presents. Of course, we're fucking into Christmas. But like, when you're an adult, you know, I used to go when my father was a lot of ways to go back to New Jersey and see my family at Christmas. Then, you know, years later and then my mother was gone. So there was no, you know, I would see my sister, but not at Christmas time because neither of us really cared when we were older. We were both atheists at this point. So, but we had great memories of it. But I would have a party Christmas night. This was the party house. Always has been. And boy did people love it. They were so ready for. I bet they came early, too. They came early, stayed late. But they were ready for something adult. And it was only the same very day, you know. So that's what it annoys people that I can't even wait for the neck. You say your party was the next day. This is Christmas night. So, is this still going on? No. No. No. But I could revive it. It's a really good idea. But there was a moment that it, that, that, that was a year or any other way. Why did it years? For years. I mean, uh. What made it stop? What made it stop was I had a girlfriend in, uh, Canada. And I went there for three Christmases. I mean, I was, I was there. Yeah. I mean, what I did for love gets I don't like to travel in the cold weather places in the cold. You know, I just quit touring after, like, 42 years in here. But even when I, all the years I was doing it, my agent knew, don't book him in Minneapolis in February. I mean, I'd fire them if they even tried it, you know. But, um. My manager Clint did that one time. So back before I could decide when I was going to tour, I didn't mean interrupt you, but no. But back when I could decide when I went, you know, when we were out there all the time, like I would pack to come home for years. So we were out there all the time. Well, we were in this, we were in this place in Upper Michigan called Sue St. Marie. And it was so cold that the inside of the bus windows were frosted. I think I played there. That's a casino up there. It's a casino, right? So back in the day I played there and my, uh, manager and agent's name was Clint, Clint Hyam. And I took my finger. The frost was inside the window and I took my finger and I went, "Fuck, you Clint." Sit in my picture. But you're, I mean, like, your old school, I think, like me, when it comes to show business. I mean, there's that story about you, like, having your foot crest or something shit. And you still did the show. That was I always think about it when, like, not to, like, always be shitting on the younger generation. You know, where shit is due, I will shit. And the way the cancel shows, because it's something to be something physical is just, I just, I'm not feeling it. So all you people who, like, came out here and rearranged your life in your days and your weeks and your baby sitter to come see me, I'm sorry. I just, I got that sinus headache. I know people that, that, that canceled shows before they went on, that people were already there. And they just, I'm not going on. And then, and then, and now the, now the thing is, now the thing is, is they're not mentally fit. Right. Or they, or they, or they show three hours late. Yeah. There's a certain thing, like, I, I think that, and how I came up and, and all the clubs and the casinos, whatever it is I played, and then getting to the next level of there's a certain, I don't know, there's a certain gratitude. And I, I think it's the way, the way I was brought up also, but you just didn't cancel. Yeah. I mean, it's show business. There's no business like show business. Yeah. They smile when they are low. Yeah. They don't cancel the show when they are low. No. And we should redo the song. Yeah. Yeah. From redo the song. We'll be on the channel, Ron fans. Have you ever canceled? No, never canceled. Also, never missed a show in over 40 years, about 40 years on the road, except for two times. And both times it was because the plane couldn't get there. The plane physically couldn't once it broke. And once it was weather. Never missed one episode of politically incorrect, which was like 2,000 episodes or something, on probably 800 real times. Never missed any of those shows, except for the two they made me when I had COVID, wink, wink. So I couldn't, I felt way worse other times when I did the show pre-COVID, you know, if I had just the flu or something. But back then, you know, it was just like, that's the heroic thing to go on there. Don't get anybody sick, but you know, you could do, I'm not kissing them. You know, we're not making you for you here. I'm just talking to them across the table. But it is interesting to see the, there is a difference. And everybody's different, whatever. But I know the way that you, how hard you worked, coming up and doing what you did, and then you had a dream and you were meeting people and you were like, it was, the work was a part of the process. So same as me. But it is a little different today. I'm not saying that people don't work hard because they do. But when people ask me for advice, and they say, this is what they say. And there's this internal voice telling me, as soon as they say this, they'll say, well, how do you, you have any advice on how to make it? And look, I wanted to make it too, right? But still, there's this internal voice inside of me thinking that person's never going to make it. Telling myself, not, I wouldn't tell them that. But maybe it's the kind thing to do. Maybe it is. But no, you don't have to meet it, tell them. Yeah, you never know. But you don't do it to make it. You don't, you do it because it's what you do. You got up every night and did your thing because it's what you do. And a lot of times it, you will, I can't speak for other communities, but I'm pretty sure this is how they felt too at that stage. You have to really psych yourself up to keep going and to do it because the last experience you had with it sucked so bad. Yeah. Really. Way worse, I bet then, I mean, when I've seen it been smaller venues, even in large, you want sometimes when the audience isn't listening to the band and the band knows it, right? That's right. Okay, but you're in the middle of a song. You know, you're having each other to like, okay, you know what, fuck you people. We're going to just enjoy playing this for each other. And it's still a great song and whatever, comedians don't have that latitude. Oh, no, you're so exposed. You're so exposed. Exactly. You're more exposed than we are. Like, I have this mentality of going, okay, the worst audience, the more we're going to give them, they're going to like it where they like it or not. That is the attitude you should also have as a comedian. I did not. That's the bad thing when I was young and stupid is that it's exactly the attitude that would observe me well. And it was the precise attitude I like. There had to have been a moment where, I mean, I remember, I mean, the band where it was in some arena, maybe it was Ruperina and Lexington, Kentucky, somewhere or something like that, where we knew that it just changed. Something was changing. It's not like it was yesterday, it's not, it's something I can just tell. In your popularity. Yes. But in the connection with the audience. Yeah. And so there had to have been a moment for you like that. Oh, yes. And perhaps even more obvious with me, because laughter is very measurable, you know, you hear it or you don't, you know. And they're either laughing all the way through your set or maybe sporadically. But I remember literally the date, the first time I did 20 minutes. And it was like from beginning to end, it was solid. Like there was no genius. But for 20 minutes, I could actually make strangers laugh continually. And that to me was like one of the watershed moments. It's such an incredible talent. And I do, I think you are born to do that. Partly, yes. I mean, you have to have the gift of gab, but you are born to do that. Well, what, you know what you really need for timing? That's exactly right. You are either born with timing or you're not. It's innate, I guess. And there's something to be said, like my friend John McGinnelly was telling me, I forgot who he was talking about. The actor? Yeah, the actor. Oh, I know. Oh, yeah. So, he was talking about when you're on stage either as a comedian or an actor or what, the gift of pausing, there's something that brings a man. It's timing. And then you, yeah. It's timing. And you have to feel it. You can't teach it. You cannot. You really can't, I mean, you also need material. You could get writers to do material, but I feel like material is always best done by the person who writes it because they hear it exactly the way it's supposed to be. Yeah. The pacing and everything. Yeah. That's right. It's always painful. When they portray comedians in movies about comedians and they're doing, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's one level removed from reality. And to a comedian, it's just nails on a chalkboard. Yeah. It just is. You know, it's, I mean, you must see people sometimes in movies portraying musicians and, oh, yeah. All the time. Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's, sometimes it seems authentic. Yeah. And they do it way better than they used to. I mean, the old days, you know, a guy would go to play the piano. They would just cut to his face, you know, and they wouldn't even attempt. And now they, they, they seem to be able to do it. I mean, they have tricks that I don't get it. But where you just see the person sit down and start to play and pan up. So you never cut away. And yet it's definitely not that person playing the piano at that level. Somehow they, but, you know, that show business. Yeah, I went in, I went to the bathroom before I came in here and it reminded me of something that there's a poster on the wall. And I had no idea I was going to talk about this today and, and, and, um, it reminded me of this film you did that just blew my mind. What? The one on religion. Oh, religious. Yeah. Those posters are gay posters. They don't know. I mean, that was my career in the 80s, doing things like beam movies like that, that one of my writers makes those, they're hysterical. But to religious, yes. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. Like, and I forgot about it. That means a lot to me. Because here's what is, is because I grew up, there, I mean, it, a lot of that movie spoke to me. It really did. Because I do believe, you know, I grew up very Southern Baptist, right? And after I saw, after I saw that film, the girl I was dating at the time, she and I drove around just about a 10 mile radius of where we lived and we counted 32 churches. So. Yeah. I've been to places like that. Memphis is like. Yeah. I remember driving through the, wow, and, well, that means a lot to me because, you know, that movie, I'm sure, did not play in the theater there because I remember when we, probably not. We released it and it was financially one of the biggest documentaries ever, now the numbers are way lower for documentaries, but for, I think when it came out, it was the seventh biggest one ever. And it didn't play in most of the country because in most of the country, Bible built, they were not going to show up. Well, look, I can tell you, it really spoke to me because I grew up Southern Baptist. You know, I hear this all the time, and I went to church with my grandmother and my mother and then she was a very godly woman and, and I was, I was taught that this is the way this or, or if you don't do it this way, it's wrong, or you're going to, you know, they literally scare the hell out of you. Right? Well, the, as a Catholic who went through the system, you know, and my mother was culturally Jewish. I don't think she ever went to church, but then we'll say she's Jewish. Yes. People always say, oh, Bill, if your mother's Jewish, you're Jewish, I'm like, okay, first of all, religion is an opinion, okay, it's not an ethnicity, it's an opinion. It's just an opinion that I think, Muhammad is God or, or Jesus is, I don't have an opinion. I was forced into having an opinion that was Catholic when I was young. Now my opinion is neither one of them, so don't tell me what I am. What I am is a Catholic raised atheist, okay, that's what I am. And I put in time with the Catholic church, and I want credit, I want the credit, because it was painful. I think for me, like, I've been on stage so much, and I've seen music like change people, and I think there's, there's got to be something in there. Not something that we don't understand? Of course. Like, I think there's something much bigger than all of us. Of course. That's full of love, light, and positive energy that, and connectivity that we don't understand. Well, I can only go half way there with you. Once you start describing what it likes about the world, or it's love and light, I don't know about that. I mean, because there's a lot of stuff that's dark, and not too much, and not lovely. So, like, I understand that. Yeah. So, my thing is, people think there's some big differences between atheists and agnostics. It's the same thing. Even atheists don't say, we are sure what it is, and it's not God. No, we just, we don't know, and we don't care. Yeah. We're never going to know. So, we don't put a lot of energy into it. But we definitely don't think, with all the fucked up shit on earth, I couldn't start a list, but let's not get the first. No, it's not, yeah. But you know what I'm talking about. With all that shit, either God is incompetent or cruel, or, I mean, there's just no reason for a lot of the suffering. And so, like, I'd rather not, if I think about it too in terms too much of, like, he did this. It's not to like him. And I would not like him, if he actually, it exists. No, and it's just. And maybe it's my messed up sense of humor, but I probably wasn't supposed to laugh at this moment. I didn't, again, I didn't think we were going to be talking about this, but it's my messed up sense of humor. You were talking to this guy in this religious bookstore, and he said, he said that no matter what, if it's, you know, I'll be in a better place, whatever. And you said, well, why don't you kill yourself, you'll hang yourself tomorrow, then. I know I'll be in a better place. And I like, spit my water out in the bus. I was laughing so hard. So, anyway, I saw that poster in there, and I just haven't bring it in. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Now, that was embossed. And, you know, the ones I really, I mean, I loved all the ones, but I, especially like the ones in the south. There was the. Well, truck stop. The truck stop in Raleigh was, and, you know, I do have an affection. I, not just for that part of the country because I played it my whole life. And. Those are my people. And those are your people. And I love your people. And I hate it, that America. And the kind of snobby people that I rub shoulders with a lot out here, I'm sorry, but that is a lot of what Los Angeles is, very uberwoke snobby types, who just, and I think I used to be more of them, I'm glad I'm not, and I think traveling the country and being in those places just gave me a very different perspective than people who just stay here. Because, you know, I always have more fun there. I'd like the audience better, usually, because they were generally liberal, but not stick up their ass. Yeah, yeah. And woke, like, anti, because political and politically interact. You can't say anything to them. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. You know, so I would always have a better time in Huntsville, Alabama. Yeah. Where NASA is, you know, I've ever played in Huntsville. I'm from Knoxville, Tennessee. Do you ever go there? Of course. I played them all. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I, and I just done this editorial on my show a couple of times about country music, which, you know, I feel like country music in me, we truly met in the middle. I mean, when I was a kid, and I grew up with the late 60s, 70s radio, that's my formative years. I was 12 in 1968 when what topped the charts was the Beatles, some what they were a little on the head, hey, Jude that year. So they had the biggest one, but, but, you know, Tommy James and the Sean Delves and the Rascals. And we're still in, in that era, the Rolling Stones. I mean, great bands and I read the Franklin, and, you know, and, so, oh, no, I forgot what I was going to say. No, you were talking about you met country in the middle. Oh, yes. So back then, country was picking in a grenade, you know, it was just, to, somebody in the New York, I was, I was enjoying it. the New York media market, it was, it total heck, it was he-haw. Was it was on in the Senate? Well, they presented it that way in a long ways. Well, God, don't think to use me. I love you, Barrow. But I don't think they were misrepresenting it that way. No, they weren't. They were not like they're, oh, look, he's planning it. You know what's crazy though, if you go back and watch some of that, I mean, as hokie as it is, if you go back and watch some of those old versions of he-haw, that was out. It is, some of that stuff is, like, it's pretty funny, I mean, it was funny. The writers on that show, I mean, they knew who they were and they wrote to those, it was great. You know what it was, really, it was, it was Hick Laffin. Yes. There was a show Laffin. Yeah, I know Laffin. Right. Okay. And it was kind of, let's do that, but for, you know, like the three-fifths of the country that sound like you, not the people who sound like me, which is perfect English. Oh, my God. If you went to, like, my mom has a twin and I grew up in a family of women and, wow, you would have a hard time listening to them at a family function. Sorry. I mean, it was just because they love the accent, you know what you're talking about. I know. I like the accent. Oh, no. I talk the way I talk, but I mean, like, I would take girls home with me for, you know, Easter or Christmas or whatever and they would have it. They'd almost need a, like, a rose out of stone book, you know, or whatever it can't take to follow along. And girls who didn't have this other night can't like you. I imagine you took a lot of girls out for a lot of holidays. Well, I took one girl home, like my family, they, I mean, I don't know how many siblings did you have? One. Okay, so I had a sister, but I also had an aunt, Missy, that was my same age. My mother's sister, my mom and my grandmother were in the hospital at the same time having us. So where to God? And this is me, Tennessee. Yeah. I'm telling you. See? What were we talking about? No, I can't even remember. No, no. Let's go back here. What was it? No, what was going on? Something important. So I took a girl home and it's a family full of women and they dissect everybody that you bring there. Right? Every girl front ever bought there, they were just talking behind her back and whatever. And I took this girl home one time because they thought that she wasn't good enough for you. Well, possibly, but I took her home for some holiday the next day I called my sister. I said, okay, whatever I think. And she goes, well, she was fine and all, but she had the wrong bra on with that shirt. Right. It was that detailed. See, we never do that. Yeah. I know many people do that. I know, man. No, I turn my men in women. No, no. No, we don't do that. We don't. We don't. We never say, oh, Kenny, he was wearing the wrong bra. Yeah. Or he is. Yeah. It's just like, we don't even think it. Yeah. We're plainly better. So yeah. But I mean, you know, okay, let me broaden this out and grab this subject. But like, I feel like the biggest change, like big overarching change in music as far as lyrically when most music is love song music, a one kind or another. No, of course, there's protests, songs about everything. And then songs we don't even know what they're about. Was it in clover? Over and over. Yeah. Okay. If you say so, Tommy. But okay. So, but like, love songs, here's the problem in the old days when people were very, so we say, prudish about, you know, the Beatles, I want to hold your hand. I mean, that's just good. It was just about love. It just didn't know, nothing was sexually explicit. Oh, no. Now. Okay. I feel like, like, somebody like you are so much more elegant about the way you are communicating this. Yeah. But it's, it's just, I don't know, maybe it's my age, but to me it's so classy. You know, like, I love guilty pleasure. Yeah. Because I feel like there was quite a few years when I felt that way. I mean, you live in the middle, you know, well, you know, like, don't tell your mama about us. Yeah. I feel like it's better if we kept it that way. That is something I've said. I mean, if I had a nickel for every time, that's right. I probably have at least two dollars. And that is a very authentic song for me, right? I mean, it's very authentic. But it's, when I was a kid growing up and like looking up to men and, you know, you know, I was a red blooded American heterosexual boy, like the guys who were like attractive to women, whether it was Joe Neymeth or, you know, somebody like that. And that was a very attractive thing to me that like somebody would, would be able to like attract women on the level of, look, I'm going to be your guilty pleasure, okay? You know, you can have point extra over there, but when you just want to fuck somebody, like I'm your boy. And you don't have to feel guilty about it. Like to me, that's the highest pinnacle to get in life, to be that guy. To be that guy. Okay. I certainly was the other guy. I think when I was younger, I was like, somebody who was like, I don't know. Maybe we've all been that guy and didn't know it. The guy who, no, oh, the guy who was getting shafted or the guy that's getting shafted. Yes. But we've all been that guy. I definitely know I was that guy. Yeah. I was that guy. I like being the other guy better. Yeah. I mean, like, I'm sure you know, the great classic eagle song, Lion Eyes. Mm-hmm. That's kind of in that area because, you know, in the song, you know, she's given to a man with hand his cold of his eyes. Yeah. Right. Right. I mean. So, being, I'm going to assume that, um, being from Jersey, I mean, we're, we're, are you a, a big Bruce guy? Bruce Springsteen? Yeah. I'm a Bruce guy. I know. Yeah, me too. I mean, I don't know how giant, um, I, you know, I don't know. It's, now that starts to get to be a, it's so funny. Everything has to be political now. See, I just, I just refused to do it. Like, I was very thankful and, um, when I came on your show in November that you knew I didn't want to talk about that because I've never, ever, I didn't want to talk about it. Yeah, you didn't want to. Yeah. At your show. I don't want it. I mean, I don't want to talk about it all the time. I want to talk about it in the places I do want to talk about, but like, like, I'm, I'm mostly dimensional. Hello. You know, so, like, yes, in the, in, I, on the show, have the governor of the California, of Gavin Newsom could be our next president. Am I going to just shoot the shit with him? No. No, we're going to talk about real shit. I just never felt like it was my place. It's, it's not always everybody's place. You're right. With a certain ego, I think that lives in there and a certain box inside your head and your soul that you have to check for some reason to think that whatever, that you can make a difference. And I, well, you can make a difference by speaking out and it doesn't. It just, you're just, I mean, I think they've actually studied this. When celebrities talk, I think it has the opposite effect. I agree. I'm waiting, by the way, for Taylor Swift in 2024, if Kamala just had Taylor's, it didn't help. And they think it hurt. You know, people, the real regular people, you know, like us, the bad guys, you know, like us when we were behind the hay, remember the hay, where we have, okay. And we're just being real and drinking moonshine. Yeah. I've never had. I once. But anyway. Right once. I've had it. You know who gave it to me. I still have two jars of it if you want some. Not a one any. Larry Flint. Oh, God. See how that's great. I don't know if it's great. I think it's great. It is kind of great. It's great. Why am I denying it? It's great. No, it's great. Yeah, take it. It's great. It came over in his Gold Wheelchair. Every time it came into a party at my house, when I used to have parties at my house. And in his Gold Wheelchair. And what he did is such a great job in that film. What do you have else in it? Oh, yeah. And people versus Larry Flint. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. By the way, I saw a thing with you and him and it was just a gas. Oh. I was the funniest thing. I know. We did that in four and twenty. I look. Yes. I know. I see. I know. Like what he's in his pajamas. Yeah. That's what I see. He was very insulted because you know, Laura told me he spent a long time in the day picking out what he thought was a great outfit. Yeah. So far, we saw absolutely how different we think. But anyway, do you see how we got off politics? Yeah. And I just want to say I love Larry Flint. I don't know what anybody to hear this and to go. I'm slagging. I'm going to know. I love Larry. And I would. He was a fan like way before I was famous. He just had seen me like on the tonight show and I know. And I mean, he would always wanted to, you know, I could never have a conversation with three minutes without him saying, Bill, why don't you have me on your ear girl? Or why don't you? Because you sound like that, Larry. I love you. But you're like, I'm not trying to scare the horses in the street. If you know what I'm saying, I know you do. Well, but anyway, like, I've never saw it to be my place to use my stage or platform no matter where I'm playing, to tell people how to think or how to vote. I mean, they hear that. They get that everywhere else, everywhere on every device, exactly. Every network. And they're there as an escape from all that stuff. I don't see. I mean, in my world, like, I don't. watch a lot of comedies, comedy stand-ups. Because it was like, well, that's what I do. I don't want to see something and think, oh, you know, that's kind of like a joke idea. I want to, I don't want to know, you know what I mean? I want, so I can be more pure. I will tell you though, used to, when I first got started, I was so competitive and wanted to get to the next level. I would be that person going, you know, why them and not me and then I just, I don't know, it was, I would have to. Okay, you're playing this fear now. Yes. So you won. Right. Because that is, you know, to be the first country. But I mean, early on, I would, I would, I would be you that competitive. Now, I'm just, you know, whatever happens happens. One of the great things about aging is you become so much more mellow because you did it. You don't, a lot of my anxiety when I was younger was always about, am I going to make it? Am I, you know, I'm like, yeah, and once you do, it's like the biggest off your shore, especially for guys like us who are single, you know, we're lone wolves. We don't have that like, you know, you're a chaser. So like it, you are, I don't want to know what you're talking about. All the day, all my energy goes to healing America. I don't have time. I would love to, but I can't. It's, the country needs me and that gets all my attention. And, and, and, you know, and you don't, no. You ever did? No. No, even in your fucking island paradise. I used to. Yeah. That's right. Yes. But I have learned that I do, to help me sleep, I do like a week coming every now and then. Tell me sleep. Yeah. But then I had to learn my dosing because I did, when I first did that a couple of times, I didn't know my dosing and all of a sudden, I lost my motor skills. And I was like, this is never fun. You never perform, honey. Never. That would be crazy. Not be crazy. You don't drink. But I mean, like, like, last year, we did 12 shows at the sphere last year. We're going to do another 11 or 12 this year. And that's like to see what's going on up there and behind us. I mean, I can only think about the people that are high out there watching it, you know, because it's, it's a completely different, it's, it's, it's, it's, let's just say for people that have lived with and experienced by music for a long time. They come to that space, and it's almost like they experience it in a completely different state of consciousness. And so I, I, yeah, I don't get how I do it. And I, you know, I, I just, I used to drink on stage, but I don't do that anymore. Yeah, I do too. I always thought it gave me some sort of image or something, or I was having more fun. But then I realized that was just, that was, that was a, that was a falsehood. Yeah. Well, I don't know, I don't think it's always a falsehood. I think liquor really is a good time. You know, you know, but, but for me to get up there and do the older that I've gotten, the more I realized that, because there was a moment of my life where I wanted to be one of them. They were getting drunk. I was getting drunk, and there was this, this common synergy on stage. And then the older that I've gotten, and the more I've really, um, and I don't know, really very particular about what I put into my body. Me too. You have to be when you're older. So I can do that. Of course. I'll continue to do it. So. So no, I don't get high on stage. I don't really drink that much. No, I mean, let's start. Get ourselves liquor and drugs have improved my record collection. No, no, no. You know, yeah. Of course. I mean, drugs do, I mean, you know, the group The Doors. Yes. They're named after the Aldous Huckley book The Doors of Perception, which is what he referred, yeah, which is what he referred to drugs as. So the, you know, it does open doors. It can make you better at what you're doing artistically. The problem is that at a some point, you make sure that you do way worse, and you have to know where that is. And it's always moving like a clitoris. You just can't quite keep licking the same spot. I really run well. Metaphoric. I realized though that there was, um, um, after a while of being out there and acting like that I realized there was a fine line between, um, a groove and a rut. So. And that's perfect. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Like, you should put this that in a row. Yeah. A groove. And, and it's really bad. When you think you're in a groove, but you're really in a rut. Yeah. And so I just kind of have, dad would have more clarity up there. Yeah. I, I, me too. And look, I, I don't, I don't regret, I regret many things in life. But I don't regret the things that apparently were necessary as a passageway to where you get to. That's right. It's still, it's still to beat yourself up, uh, now that you're a butterfly for when you were a worm. You had to be a worm before you were a butterfly. Yep. I mean, you in particular. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's true. And, you know, there was a lot of ride of passages to do what we did. It's pain. You had to, it's called pain or dues. And it's, for me, it's painful to look back. I had occasion because I am getting this award. And so I have to put a clip package together of, like, you had to go and career stuff. Mm-hmm. So I was looking at, like, some early standup on TV. And it's like, all I could think of is make it stop. Please make it stop. Yeah. I'm doing this set on the "Tonight Show." And it's not, it's, it's not horrible. I'm sure the people are laughing, Johnny's laughing, I'm not laughing. I mean, I'm just. Were you nervous? Well, no. I actually wasn't. I was very confident. Were you high? I was not high. Okay. But I did look like I belonged. I just. No. The material just embarrasses me now. Some of it. Was it the first time you did the "Tonight Show"? Well, there's the one, the first one, yes. And then there's the. I was watching one of the, one of the early ones, you know, I'm, we're talking about the mid-1980s and the jokes. I would, by the way, a lot of it, you couldn't, you couldn't, you couldn't, you couldn't do it today because. You couldn't do it now. Somebody would be triggered or offended. You know, very much so. I mean, if you weren't teamed, I'm talking about primitive people, primitive people, primitive people. I mean, you could just fucking chop my head off, then I'd be trying primitive people. And the audience. And everybody, you know, and I always say, if everyone was in on it, how can you blame? You know, if everyone was in on it, nobody seemed to be objecting and. Well, you know, you can get lost. I mean, I, I, like, when you're on a bus a lot or in a hotel room and a lot, you can kind of get lost on, on, um, YouTube and whatever. Yeah. But there's some other stuff that Rodney Dangerfield said, and all these people, and everybody was laughing. It was great. John Rickles. Oh God. I remember Don Rickles. Oh God, it's great. Yeah. I mean, he, he also could be corny. I saw him open for Sinatra near the end of Sinatra's career in '95, took my mother to see of a radio city musical, and he was still doing the ethnic jokes, and it was a little cringy. The. Then. In then, 1995. The black eyes in the band behind him, you could see him going like, "Don't, don't trip on it." You know, it's, it is what it is. He'll be dead soon. Okay. Well, look, so when, when you were growing up, like, who did, who did you see? And however you saw them, how were they came into your life, that made you want to be you? That made you want to do what you're. Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson. Yeah. So, doing his show the first time must have been a huge deal. Yeah, it was. And even if there hasn't, hadn't been that personal element, it just was a huge deal because back then, if you did good on your first time, you were like officially in show business, even at the very bottom of the barrel, but officially in and you, they didn't invite you back. And then it looked like, "Oh, well, Johnny liked him." That, that was a huge thing. Oh, and then you got all of a sudden, it had 20 days. You could go on and do stuff. Yeah, then you could. Well, I wouldn't. I did get hired by Diana Ross to open for her in Las Vegas, yes, which was a big thing. But, you know. Well, how did that go? Because I hired a comedian once. It was horrible. I hired a comedian once to open a New Year's Eve show for me. Oh. I don't know if you know. Really, country comedians, there was a guy named James Gregory that I became friends with and he was really great and I loved him and he did the circuit and the south and everything, you know, sold his t-shirts after the show and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Well, I hired him to open for us on New Year's Eve one night and he said he would never do that again. I don't blame him. First of all, New Year's Eve is the worst night of the year for the comedian because it's a music crowd listening to it at the time when they're very drunk. Yes. It's like it is a perfect storm of everything a comedian could do. So you did that with Diana Ross? It was not New Year's Eve. But I opened it. But still though, it was. Oh, yeah. Yes. Absolutely. And it was really painful. First of all, this was 1982, which I call the dead ball era in Las Vegas. Post Rat Pack. So it wasn't Sinatra or maybe the last years of him or something, but it wasn't that crowd. Right. And it wasn't the. They finally found a way after like wandering in the wilderness for I think the whole '80s, maybe the '90s. Yeah. In the '90s, they tried to go family. They were like, "Oh, fuck. This is stupid. It's Las Vegas." Then they finally found a way and they did. They attracted the young crowd back to Las Vegas. Like, it's a whole new thing and it's fun. And we can go to clubs and do XC and. Yeah. And, you know, but when I opened for her, it was just like. The whole town was very old. You know, just everything was. It was 26 and they weren't. Oh, yeah. It was a much bigger gap at the time, right? It just was 26 in Vegas. Yeah. And it was great. And, you know, it was. Just a painful, the audience was a tough audience, anyway, Vegas. Terrible rumors for comedy because it was plush, whereas comedy, you want this kind of shit to the left, bounce. - You think they were jaded at all? - Not by me, 'cause they didn't know who I fucking was. They were definitely not. - I think you and I would have fit in and go with the rap cocktail. - I would like to think we would. - Kenny, you, I'm telling you a lot of your songs, make me think that actually at 70, I should be even more depressed than I am about not being able to live the way all your songs remind me I used to live. I used to be the guy who was the guilty conscious guy. I used to stay out, you know, what we did last night. - Yeah, you know, I used to tell girls, don't tell your mother. (laughs) All these things that made life wonderful. You know, wonderful. I was living on fast-forward, all this kind of shit, - Yeah, me too. - My friend, what do you call yourself? A hillbilly rock star? - A hillbilly rock star out of control? - And, you know, like friends are worried about you. - You should have been out there then when it was awesome and you go ahead. - Out where? - When we were hillbilly rock stars out of control. - Oh, I'm sure. - Before social media. - Oh, it's like. - Comedian and Hollywood out of control. - Yes, great. - I mean, I always say. - But you made it through. - There's an old saying that somebody said it, when you get to be a star, a celebrity, whatever, you get a year to act like an asshole. And I may have taken two. - Yeah. - And you may have taken two. - Well, look, when you get a record deal, I feel like, you know, the business gives you one big lemon to squeeze. And we squeezed every bit of that, and that lemon is fun, you know? And then we squeezed every single drop of lemon. - We had a lot of fun. - What year did the last drop ooze last year? - Oh, no, we're still squeezing it but it's a much different fun now. I mean, it's almost the kind of fun we had from 1994 to around 2010. Do you think you. - We had a lot of you, that's a lot of you. Then I was just tired of it. I woke up one day and I went, mm. I think I'm tired of this. I want to do what I do. 'Cause I woke up on the bus one day and I went. - Are you taking a bus? - Well, back in the, yeah, I still have a bus. I fly to the first show, and then I'll kind of ride the bus here and there and then I'll fly home. - How long's the bus ride usually? Six hours? - Oh, yeah, six hours, six days. - And that don't bother you? - No, no. I sleep better on the bus and most of the time I do anywhere in my life. - Sleep on the bus. I went on a bus once. I rode with the band when I was opening for somebody else. To Wolftrap, you must have played Wolftrap outside DC. - Oh, yeah, yeah. - Outside venue. Very big in the summer. - Yeah. - Look at an amphitheater. - Yeah, yeah. - But like people on the lawn. - On the lawn, yeah. - Yeah, I mean, lawn people like call them if you can't even get close to where they're seated, okay. But it's lovely, beautiful, starry night. But like that night driving. - It's hard on you. - Going from Charleston, West Virginia, I'm sure you've played there. - Oh, yeah. - But look, the interstates in this, it's worse now because we haven't fixed the infrastructure. So the bussage just do this. - That's right. - More than they ever used to. Right, so it's harder now. But I remember waking up on the bus one day. I was 40 something and I went, okay. You act in the way you're acting out here. It's not why you wanted to do this. Like this, so that's when I kind of started to change a little bit. And now I'm so focused on what I do. I love being up there and I love feeling good up there. And so, but not to say we don't have any fun. But, yeah. - I'm not really getting this all from the songs. I'm getting a guy who really does like to be corrosion. - No, no, no, no, no, I'm not saying it. - I'm being very popular with women. - I don't think that's ever gonna leave us. - That's what that is. - I don't think it's ever gonna leave us. - This is a fan. - No, I'm just saying it's never gonna leave me or us. But I can tell you. - No, no, it's our bodies. - Look, you know what, and we didn't invent it. It was given to us. - Bodies are two individuals. What geography is to countries. Your geography ultimately is much of your destiny. We do have oceans on either side to protect us. Poland is between Germany and Russia. You know, when your body allows you to act crazy, you do, and when it doesn't, you don't, because the, you know, of course you can wake up with a hangover when you're 25, but you get over it. When that tips, when the pain is worth, it's so much worse than the pleasure it gave you. - Yeah. - Now there are some people who can't help themselves. And they just keep going until they die, because it does kill you. - Yes, and they're on a slippery slope and will never come back. But that's kind of the piphany that I had on the bus that morning. I went, "Mm, a cop felt like shit." And I was like, "Mm, this is not why I wanted to do this." And if I keep doing this, yeah. - And it was that sudden, I mean, you used the word of a piphany. - It was kind of that sudden. - A piphany, I know. - Yeah, it was like an epiphany. - As a Southern Baptist, I'm sure you know what the original epiphany was. The burning bush. That's where we get the word. - I did not know that. - I think. (laughing) No, that is my memory. But again, - That's what you were told anyway. - College, it's 50 years ago. - It's my pride. - But no, the burning bush, I think that is-- - I did not know that. - Yeah, because it was in a piphany. - Oh. - You know, it was like something that, but that's why I asked the question, because like an epiphany could know something that's very sudden, like a moment, like the aha moment or whatever. But that, it sort of sneaks up upon you. You're not really thinking that way. And then suddenly you have an epiphany and you go, oh, whoa, the cloud looks like Jesus. I now I know what to do with my life. You know, that's an epiphany. - Well, I think it was more of a gradual time for me of realizing that, okay, if I want to continue to do what I'm doing for a long time, and if I want to do it the way that I do it on stage, I can't act like all this anymore. I can do it some other time, not all the time. We were having fun out there. There was a lot of fun for a long time. So, and then a crazy way it fed the creativity. - The Eagles used to call the after-party the third on-core. - Oh, I love that. - Because, you know. - And now it's different though, because it's, - I think you're similar to me, probably a lot of, for others, would say the same thing. Like, if you really dig down what does it do for you, well, certainly when you start, you need the money. Okay, so let's not say money isn't important. Money is very important. - At a certain point, you have enough where you're not really, it's not the prime way. You're not turning it down. I like money, but, you know, that's, I don't need it. So, okay, what is it really? I think it's like, I like to be a hero. And there's an audience that likes what I do like, very particularly. Like, I can do something that they, I think, or they wouldn't buy tickets, or be such loyal fans. I do something they think nobody else quite does. And to get to scratch that it's, they need me to do it. - No, and I so, and I so want to, like, give them that gift then, you know. I really want to be their hero at that moment. We want you to, like, analyze the news this week in this funny way and say the right thing, the thing, okay, go, I want to, and I feel like you're probably doing the same thing. You're just like, I just, I just love that I can be their hero for two hours. This is what they wanted me to do, and I did it. You know, I didn't fuck it up. I didn't not show up. I didn't half-ass it. Didn't, didn't, you know, I didn't play the deep questions that, you know, yeah, I've never done that, by the way. Like, have you ever been to shows where someone, like, you go see one of your favorite acts, and they played, like, four or five deep cuts? Like, I, I've never done that ever because it took me years to get them here. And I don't want that. I want to let them off the hook. Right. And they vote, they've already voted. I mean, what is the hit record? Yeah. It means they voted. They voted. We voted. The people voted. Yep. This is what we like. We like it. And, you know, no matter how much I'm sure every musician has ones they go, I can't believe this one didn't catch on. I mean, the specter, they say, I mean, we know he went crazy. Yeah. OK. What put him over the edge? A lot of people say it was-- he made this record River Deep Mountain High. I continued to turn and did it. He thought it was like his greatest opus. And he had done some real great opuses. You know, like just that wall of sound, shit that was going on in the early 60s with, you know, you've lost that love and feeling. He just had, I mean, really some great stuff. And then this one just didn't click. But I think making music, though, I mean, for me, I think what makes a hit record is spontaneity. And so if you think that, OK, if you go into it and you're done, you're listening to it. And this is the best thing I've ever done, that kind of thing. I think you're setting yourself up because it may feed you, But who knows if it's feeding anyone else and we all have our own reason. for lacking what we do in the studio. But I think some of the best records that you have in your life and stuff that I have in my life are things that were just magic that happened and not planned. And I think that's where the best records are made, honestly. - I know some writers have said that the hits come fast. I know Sting has said that a few of the people, I feel like I've heard that before. Like they just seem to come. - And I've always said that simplicity is one of the hardest, is one of the hardest things to do. - But it's entirely unquantifiable why someone likes a song. I'll just speak for myself, why I like a song. Like I can try to describe it to you. But at the end of the day, I either like it or I don't. - No, yeah. - And it has a lot to do with the melody because or the way the chords come after each other, whatever it is, some of it just delights me to no end. - See, I don't like minor chords. Like don, don, don, don. I don't like that. I don't record that. Well, I mean, you can have a few. But I tend to shy away from like, especially going into the chords. - I watch this song with a lot of minor chords. - Oh, well, I don't know. I mean, like there's a bunch of them. But those that are pitched to me, and I'd never write it. - Like what's one I would know? A famous song print that has a lot of minor chords. - Ooh. I mean, doesn't see the Jeff Buckley. Doesn't Alayluya, isn't it full? It's full of minor chords. - Oh, what's on? - Alayluya. - Alayluya. - Alayluya. - Oh, isn't that Leonard Cohen? - Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Yeah, but Jeff Buckley recorded it and it's one of the more famous with it. - I hate that song. - You do? - Yeah. - Yeah, I of course you do. - I feel like, first of all, I feel like it was forced upon me. - That's what I probably was. - It was. - Well, that's why. - And it's like, I don't know, it's like one of those songs that it's just like, oh, you know what? You have to be just as mad about this. We are about what I don't even know what you're talking about sometimes. And there's just something about it that, yeah, I just think people, like I was saying a million years ago before I forgot what we were saying. - Yeah. - Like I feel me and country music, like met in the middle. When I was a kid, and it was all about he, oh, that's what God is, it's directing. He was, when I was a kid. - Finally back to me. - Right. Or back to that. It was just, it was just way too corny. And it was like, I didn't identify with it at all. - And it didn't sound anything like rock music. Occasionally, there would be a song, you know, it broke through in the late '60s, I think '68, '69, that I still loved, still played it this day, that was absolutely a country song, Rose Garden. - Yeah. - A big, you're a part. - I'm saying that that was on. - And it promised you a Rose Garden. - Oh, it broke through the chart. It broke through the charts. And to me, but it didn't make me want to like, great, I'm gonna like really get into country music. But country music became like, it's just, is your music country music? Yeah, 'cause it's, it's rock. It's, it's what happened to me. - Here's what happened to me. - Pop music. It's pop music at its best. That's me. - I grew up, obviously, in East Tennessee in the country. And I had country music in my grandmother's house, 'cause I lived with my grandmother, for three or four years, while my stepfather was in Vietnam, okay? And then. - Where, and your mother? - And my mom, me and my mom. And we lived with my grandparents. So, I heard country music there. And I heard, I heard country music on the way to school, but when, and on the way to the ballpark, but when I was in school and at practice and everything, I heard rock music. And then my road manager, still to this day, we grew up together, David Farmer, and his, in his garage, I heard Van Halen. I heard Sammy Hagar, I heard ACDC, and I still, I love that music so much. So, I think that, and this is the best way to rock and explain me, and the music that I've made. I think when you become an adult, and you get to make a record, and you go on the road, the music that you make as an adult is a direct reflection of everything you consumed as a child. And so, it wasn't just he-haw, which that was there, but it wasn't just these things. But it was, it was, it was the Eagles. It was, Tom Petty, it was, it was Joe Walsh, it was- - And Eagles themselves are a mixture of country and- - If the Eagles came out the day, they would be considered country. - Right. - Especially with their early stuff. - Yeah. - Because you had Glen Frye from Detroit, Michigan, not country at all, mixed with Don Headley from Texas. - Yeah. - And you know, people are just like music. It usually comes out better when they're mixed. - Yeah. - Elvis was a mixture. - That's right. You know, a lot of the people in the hospital, country, that he certainly grew up with, and rhythm and blues, you know. - I can't make any of that. - You raise music. - People ask me all the time, well, you know, you kind of make, you know, in ways, I mean, you, you, you have a lot of layered, loud drums and guitars, layered guitars, but I, I talk the way I talk and I sing the way I sing. So I could never make a record, how do I say this? Like, there are some people out there that make country records as a vanity project. Right, I couldn't make a rock record or a rap record. I could, I could make one of those records, but it would be a vanity project. That wouldn't be authentic. And it'd be a waste of my time, actually. So I, I make the records that I make, but it is a complete mixture of the music that I soaked up like a sponge growing up. And that's just the way it is, you know. - Well, as a fan, and I think I speak for all fans, not just to you, but to all people in your business, we appreciate whenever any of you don't do vanity projects. - Yeah. - This has been a message from Bill Maugh, to you, my fellow celebrities, and the bullshit that you try to pass on to us. Don't do vanity projects, okay? You are privileged to be working in this wonderful industry where we don't really work. I mean, we work, but we enjoy our work. That has been between a job and a career. I've had jobs. A job is something I don't like to do, but I do because I need money to eat food. - Exactly. - A career is something that, yes, I, you know, put my shoulder to the grind stone, but it's a very, a very. - And you get to the right level, and you get to make people happy and laugh, and you get to. - Yes. - Have this man cave down here that's a clear hero. - Yeah. - We get to be the hero if you do what you do, and stick to what you do. Don't do the vanity project. - Yeah, it's just. - You know, we see it all the time, and I cringe. - You know, if you're an actor, and you also want to sing, you better sing off him. - And the pendulum swings the other way on that. If you're a singer and you want to be an actor, you better be pretty good. - And that's an easy, I feel like that's easier. - I think that's easier. - I do because I've long held a theory that anyone can act. I mean, not anyone, but it's like, please, children do it, former wrestlers do it. - There are a few, I did it, it's just not that hard. What is reality TV? It's people acting their lives. It's just that we're all. - And there's a lot of ways for people to get jobs these days. - Here's how to think of it. We're all liars, and acting is lying. It's just, and people are just very good at it, especially Americans in this era. They're just a bunch of fucking phonies. So they're acting all the time, but every fucking thing. - No more ever on these phones and stuff, it's all just a bunch of posing. - Yeah, it is. And I kind of think of singers that came good actors. Do I yoke them, I think, as a good actor? - Yes, oh no, quite a few. - Yeah. Frank Sinatra. I didn't know he acted. I didn't know he was an actor. What was he in? - Frank did 54 movies. - I had no idea. (laughing) - Oh, that's right, they don't get media. - We didn't get that out. - You were out by the hay. You know, the Menturian candidate? I didn't know what idea he was in there. - Not only was he in it, he got it made. - Wow. - I got some dig in the do. - Yeah. - I do? - You know, I got this whole new world up enough to me. - Yeah, Frank did a lot of movies. I mean, he, you know, I don't think it was, there was, the Menturian kind of probably is the most important one he ever did, but the man with the golden arm, that was pretty. - Never heard of. - About heroin, the golden arm, you know. The old white horse, you know what I'm talking about? Can you hear a musician? You do heroin. (laughing) You know, so. But yeah. - Who else? Who else was a singer that were really, I think the white was really, is a really good actor. - Elvis, it's a shame that what happened to him. I mean, the first movies they put him in were not what he later called the travelogue. You know, he did, the 29 pictures that way. Yeah, he did 29 pictures. Like 25 of them were the exact same script. - Yeah. - They were fun in Acapoco and, you know, it was all a clown, big, clown, but, you know, like 12 Forgettable Songs, the same script where he's like, "Deak Rivers." And, you know, he said, "Love with this girl." - Like, yeah. (laughing) - Mr. Rivers only sings it in a clock at the riverboat theater. I'm happy to leave this table, you know, about, you know, gets into fight. You just sit, oh, it's just terrible. Or he's running from apartment to apartment 'cause there's one girl and one and one girl. The other is switching, he's wearing a mustache. Just like bullshit. But the first four that they put it, I think the first four, were good. Well, he was good. He had, I mean, Elvis, no one had more charisma scoring out of his body, just naturally. And also great looking. So, flaming star, I mean, that had a racial element to it. - Oh, wow. - Yeah, yeah. The one that Pearl Harbor ripped off of, what's the name of that one? Love Me Tender. Yeah, the movie Pearl Harbor, I loved it. People shit on it. Michael Bayes movie, I loved it. But it's the same plot. He ripped it off from this. - Oh, they're like the more recent ones. - The plot is Elvis and his older brother, and they're living in this in the prairie, you know, you wouldn't know. They're on the prairie. Bear with me, okay, they're in the hay. And the Civil War comes, and the older brother is engaged to this attractive girl, like it's the prairie, like the only hot chick in town. Okay, so he goes off to the Civil War. They think he gets killed in the war. So then the younger brother, Elvis, he gets with the girl. And then the guy comes home from the war. - Oh, so it is the same plot. - It's the exact same plot, right? Oh, you thought I was dead? - Yeah. - And he used that as an excuse to fuck my girl. Well, bro, I thought you were dead. - It's like Homeland. - You ever see Homeland? - Love Homeland. - I loved it. - Homeland. - But it's kind of the same plot. It comes back from, they thought he was dead. He comes back. - You're right. - You're right. - Yeah. - I watched a lot of Homeland. - I did too. - Homeland was shit. - I love it. - Yeah. - Especially that year where they were in Pakistan. - Yes. Everything about it, I loved. - She was brilliant in that. - And she, I've never seen him by play a character with such anxiety in Homeland, because it's unbelievable. - And it makes sense for that character. - I mean, if you're the type who wants to be in the CIA and do that for a living, you're not gonna be the normal nine to five or, you know, you're gonna be the person with the red strings connecting the pictures on the wall. - Yeah. - And that's just to find the remote. - That's one of my favorite, that is one of my favorite things on, still this day on any of the streaming screens. - I agree. - I like, I've watched it the whole thing like several times. - I wish HBO had had that show. - Yeah. - It should have been an HBO show. - Yeah. - And get 'em all. - Yeah, anyway. But I like succession too. - Me too. - I loved succession. - Me too. That's another. - See, we got something in common. - We have a lot in common. I'm telling you. (laughing) - You know, John C. McGinley, I know John C. McGinley. - Yeah. - I don't know him, but I've been a whole. - Oh, you know. - Oh God, he's in fantastic. - Why is he an old friend of yours? - I met him in 2007. That was exhausted after our tour in 2007. And I rented a house in Malibu. Well, it was called then Trinkus Market or whatever it's called. It's a super market out there. And I rented a house past that. And Rick Rubin introduced me and Johnny. - I see produced your record? - No, no, but no. No, we've never worked together. We've been friends for almost 20 years now. But that's who introduced me to John McGinley. And John and I've been, and we couldn't be any different. There was a lot like me and you growing up. - So there's no awkwardness about that? Like, like, no. - Why didn't you ever produce me? - Oh, no, not at all. No, because I've worked with the same producer since 1997. I've kind of been in there. - Oh, see you. - I'm not saying never one, we might one day. We better hurry. (laughing) But we might. I mean, Rick made a lot of really great records on a lot of people. - Well, he goes all, I mean, you know, there's no like genre. And also he's a musical. He just has to. - Yeah, he's not like a musical savante. He's quite almost the opposite. Doesn't play an instrument or, you know, I mean, I saw the piece I did on a month, three minutes and it's interesting because it's just sort of like what a fan feels. - Right. - Sort of his method, which is pretty amazing. - His energy and everything is wonderful. He's a great energy in the studio. But that's how I met John McGinnelly. And John and I were a lot like you and I. Like he grew up in New York, Jersey, he's like that. And I go to his house every time that I'm in an L.A. or in Malibu, I go to his house and we sit in the sauna and the ice and all that kind of stuff and workout. He's one of my, he's really one of my best friends that in the last 20 years of my life. - Yeah, I didn't need to picture you two guys in the sauna. - Yeah. - I don't know why I needed to know. - Yeah, you needed to know. - You were like, okay, it's a friend. We got it by the producer introduced us. - Great. - And suddenly we're sitting there with our dick sangin' out. - And I don't know why, why did it go there? - I'm suppose you don't know him. - Well, how would I run into him? - I don't know. - How do people run into people? - Well, you know, people, how do you know? How'd you run into me? I mean, how do we know each other? - Because you had a great project. - That's why I did the show. That's how we know that. (laughing) - I'm not even listening. That's why you wanted to come here. - Yeah, no question. - I'm so, by the way, I just, I'm so appreciative of that. Because I know, I mean, you are the biggest star. One of the biggest stars in all of music. And, you know, you need any promotion like a hole in the head. I mean, one guy in this world doesn't need anything to sell tickets, even though I'm going to read where you think I was. - Oh shit, I'm doing it. - So St. Marie Michigan. - Oh, that's where that liquor went. I was, say, didn't I have a shot for it? I did. It's just, I poured it into my crotch. - You do it? (laughing) - Well, I do, but it's done. June 19th to July 11th. That's at the, the sphere. I mean, the sphere is such a big deal. - Wow. - It's a lot of fun. - I gotta go to the sphere. - You should come. You should definitely come there. You don't have to come to the Virgin Islands, but you should come to the sphere. We'll take care. I gotta sweet, no bile mess with you. - You know, I used to be home early. - I used to, you know, I go into, I used to play Vegas like six times a year. I just, you know, Vegas a lot. - I know, that's the thing. - You're probably so sick of Vegas. - Well, I get, it's been a year. So I'm ready to go back. - Okay. - Okay. - I like Vegas. But I had enough Vegas for a while. - We would have been good in the rap act though. - We would have, we would have fun. - We would have been good anywhere where our liver is allowed us to keep drinking. - Okay, that's the difference. It's not really, I mean, yes, what I have loved to have been with Sammy Davis, you're in here for any reason, and Dean, and Frank, yes, and even Joey Bishop. But it really is about our liver mostly. - I know. - Like when your liver allows you, you can be your own rat pack. - Yeah. - I mean, I'd rather, you know, start my own. You can be, you can be Frank. I'm probably happy being Dean. - You'll be Dean. - I'm perfectly happy. - Who's gonna be Sammy? - Dean has actually the cooler one. - Yeah. - June 19th, 20th, 24th, 26th, 27th. - Oh, this is still the sphere. - Yeah. - July, these are the dates. July 1st, 8th tattooed this on yourself, people. So July 1st, 8th, 10th, 11th, more maybe listed there. All shows are at eight o'clock at the sphere. Don't be late for the sphere. - Yeah, it's pretty incredible to play in that space. So it's been good for me because, you know, we didn't have to go to city to city. Did you have a lot to say about what plays behind you, because before I came here to die, how much of your life was that dominating for a while? Were you having to like, because obviously, it's this multi-dimensional experience where stuff is on a screen. So you want, I mean, it's your show. You want stuff on it. You don't want to be like, surprise me. And then, you look back. - No, no, no. - It's like, I was so hands-on. Sometimes to a fault. - It's all down the line. - So yeah, I know. - Wait, well, who's that all down the line? - That's me. - No, today, before I came here, I was, they have a smaller simulator, a sphere simulator here. And I was, where you create the content and you approve it. We've been doing this. - So what is it? What was your idea for the content? What do we see when we, we're on stage? - Oh, every song is different. Every song, every piece of content is completely different. - It's tied to the song. So there's 30 different things you're gonna see. So, and today, I was down there all day, just approving and saying, what I hate, what I love. And there's a lot of my life in that content. We've been creating this since we got done last year. So now it's all coming together. So it's amazing how much-- - The human mind can really take in in split seconds. It may, some of that is probably not good. We're forcing our minds to work too quickly without taking in stuff in and social media blah, blah, blah. But when you realize how different it is from a few hundred years ago, when people would sit by a fire and just read a book, you know, I mean, I wish people still would do that. But your mind is capable of taking in a lot in a very short and minute time. And once we, you know, sort of crossed the Rubicon of where we knew we could do that to ourselves, it does become hard to go back. I'm always looking at old movies because I-- Oh, I heard this was a classic. And sometimes it's like, yeah, it just sucks. You know what, I'm sure it was great in 1950. It just is slow and obvious. And the acting is terrible. And, you know, I'm sure it was groundbreaking. And it's just-- - Yeah. - And some of them still hold up. But we're at the sphere level. You know, there'll be a, there'll be a moment not too far in the future when if you don't have some sort of sphere experience, it's like it's not even happening this concert. I will tell you, like, for people that are in there, like, you know, it's, and you know what I'm talking about, because you're up there very exposing by yourself. Part of your, it makes you good at what you do is the connection that you hope with the audience. Yeah. So for me, for years, I was like, okay, this is me, this is you, and we're right, right, this is where it's going to be all night. Right. Well, now you're, at the sphere, I'm there. Right. And most of them are going, yes, in a way, you're purposefully sabotaging your own show. You're purposely distracting the audience from it. So it took me a minute to get them, like, it's almost, most audiences, you know, they come across the fence anyway. Like, they're horny to be there, they're excited. But some, you know, especially the first couple, like, they were just, right, and they came to see you. It's sort of like a, a hot girl saying, hey, come on, my texts are down here. Yeah. But really, I appreciate you coming out. And I assumed it was just because, as I did, I wanted to get to know you better. You too. It's a great venue for getting to know some of you, and it's like, it's great because when people, you know, who are, say, post 50. Yeah. But you're post 50. Yes. Okay. Very post 50. Really? Yeah, 58. Oh. Well, you can easily pass for 10 years, you know, which is great. But, you know, celebrity takes off 10 years. Yeah. The camera adds 10 pounds. It just works like that. But, uh, no, I mean, I do appreciate that because-- No, when I did your show, when we, when I did your show, um, I remember being, um, getting ready to leave. And I got in the car with everybody and I went, I think it's like, what just happened? Like, that was, like, that was a lot of fun. You never know, you never know how those, what is four or five, 10 minutes we spent out there, whatever it was. We'll go when you first meet someone and it's on record, right? It's just there. But, I remember telling everybody in the car on the way back to the hotel, I said, I think me and Bill are going to be friends. I hope so. I hope so. I hope so. And, you know, you know, it makes it so much easier to be friends. Like, we really never-- other than 10 minutes, we never sat down together. You were-- We never spoke to each other. We never were aware of each other through telegenic. Yeah. To telegenic. To telegenic. I mean-- And now the Christmas plan is telegenic. We were communicating telegenically. Okay. I revealed it. So what? I'm afraid for this. Yeah. Okay. But, you know, it's so interesting because you lived a life for 58 years. And I lived a life for almost, well, 70 years now. And I remember when the interview was, probably I was already 70. So like, it's not like we knew each other those years. But we both knew life those years. And we knew because we're in the same generation. And honestly, we're both white men in America. Life was certainly a lot worse for people who weren't that when we were born. Right. And we acknowledge that. But we just had so many similar experiences or so much common in our background that when we do get sit down to talk. It's not like I have to get to know you from like the get. No. Where is like somebody who's 22 or so. They just were born on Mars as far as I'm concerned to them and also in reverse. But with us, it's like, well, I kind of have known you all my life. Not new in particular. You know, when we started this journey, like you talked about earlier, you had to work very hard. And there were true rights of passage to get to a different level. And you know what? There's some commonality in that. And I feel that. And I respect it because, look, doing what you do and how you did it, nothing was given to you. Nothing. Oh, nothing. And that's the way it was for me. And we're not nipple. We're not nipple babies. No. That's in, well, really. Not that. And look, I'm not putting down nipple babies. Everybody's got to make a living. Right. And some of them are extremely talented. And I'm not surprised why it is easier when you have it sort of in your blood and you're around it as a kid. You're not freaked out about it when you get on a set because daddy took you to this. Okay. I didn't bring to mind anybody that just don't ever tell me it was harder for you, which I've heard. It wasn't harder. It was easier. And I am, I just like it better that I wasn't a nipple baby. I'm like it better that I was. I am the first. And by the way, will be the last because I don't have children. Right. You don't have children, right? Yeah, not on children. And it left. You talked about this. I never miss it. No, me neither. I mean, that's rare to guys are rage who both didn't have children and also still say they didn't miss it. But we are in a small club, my friend. But that's true. But for me, music was always my baby. Same with me in my show and comedy. Yes, absolutely. I never once is still to this day. I don't. But I never thought, I mean, my mom did. I have a go home years ago, mom go, well, because my sister can't have a child. And then I'm not having a child. So my mom's now, you know, getting up there, I'm getting up there with my mother. But she doesn't have any grandbabies. My sister did not have children in there. So we got a lot in common. I know. Which is our line is dying off. Yeah. No question. I never missed it. No, I haven't either. And I don't care if my line dies off. So what? Like what? What was going to be next? And also, by the way, if we had kids, they'd be nepo babies. Yeah, right. They'd be nepo babies. And, you know, I have thought about this though, like, only because I, when you get to a certain place in your life, you do your will. Oh, yeah, I've done it. And so, okay, I'm sitting there going, it really hit me that I didn't have a child when I have to figure out where all the shit's going, if something happens to me. And I'm like, okay, and that was a hard thing to do because you accumulate a lot. I've got so much stuff. Life, not just stuff, but friends in the best way. Yeah. But, you know, like, life is, among other things, it is an accumulation. Yeah. And when you write the will, it suddenly makes you have a need clarity on the value of it, where it, you know, it makes you think, you know, what, who gets what, this of, of whatever, you know, it's, it's, and that's one of the, that's the first time, honestly, that I realized. I've been so busy and so creative and so moving forward. But when I sat down to do my will, I was like, hmm, okay. Who am I going to give this stuff to? And who do I want to make sure I deal with it? No, but I don't. Yes. Who do I want to let know after the fact? Oh. So, so let's just say, how do you like it? I mean, I, yes. Looking, looking back and saying, okay, if you had, let's just say you had four or five kids. And then you had a will. What's worse? Not having kids and giving, I mean, I assume you would give it to something that would make the world a better place. Right. I mean, I feel like, I never had-- Or would you give it to kids that you didn't know would take care of it? Look, I never had kids because I used this. I was like, you know what? It's going to hurt, but it's certainly better than having kids. You just pull that out of your pocket. Where'd you get those scissors? I'm Harpo Morx. Kenny, I, I, I have props everywhere. Here's a lit candle. I was carrying around under my, you know, I, I, I, uh, I don't know, I forgot what I was talking about kids. Anyway, kids. We don't have kids. Well, we don't have anybody to give it to. And we don't, we don't have to, we don't have host, we don't have hostility toward people who have kids or to kids themselves. It's just not our preference. I feel like one of the attitudes that I, uh, from the earliest days on politically incorrect in the 90s, in the 90s, was trying to sort of pioneer on TV against the grain was, first of all, you're not weird if you're single and never get married. That shouldn't be a weirdness. This would be it with just people's choices, same thing with kids. There's no moral dimension to it. Having kids doesn't make you a better person. If you have kids and raise them right, I, you have my full admiration. Yeah. But you could have kids and raise assholes and then I think you're a huge asshole who should just shouldn't have had kids. I don't think I would have been a good father. I, I think I would be a good father, but I, I, I don't know that I have the skill set at this point. But you don't. I don't. No, I mean, you say it's your new friend. Right? Right? So now I can just like, yeah, so I mean, I don't know anything about a lot about your. Well, you're married. You're scared. You're, you're, you're, you're, you're sperm. It's not too old. It's not. It's not. Yeah, it's too old. It's gone. Well, there's less women around me. Well, you just don't trust them. Don't trust. I've never trusted them. I had no trust with an issue. I never trusted them. Now the good song title. That's really good. I never trusted. I never trusted. - Oh, yeah, sing a whole song about your sperm. - Yeah. - Were you, I mean, did you ever get married? - Not to my knowledge, I was engaged. And I saw, I was, I told you I was looking through these old clips. It takes a lot to get me to look at myself. I'm only doing this because this is a big deal. So I, so, but it's just torture. And there I am on the tonight show. And I, I do my little fucking dog and body show out there which is making me throw up in my mouth. And then I go and I sit down with Johnny, which was a big honor. - Yeah. - And I reveal, which I had completely forgotten. They're on the panel of the tonight show that I just got engaged. Easy. So I hear you just gotten engaged. That's very, very exciting. And I'm like, yeah, bro. I was like, what? And I don't, I remember getting engaged. It never became a marriage. But I don't remember doing that on the tonight show. And there. - And you saw it, but I just watched it on this clip. And, you know, how old were you? - I was 29. - Oh, wow. - Yeah. - I mean, look, I know marriage works for so many people. And some people are just, you know, you, you could say, it's just sort of a case of, you know, in co-dependence. You know, it just, the trees grow together. And at some point, the roots intermingle so much that. - And untangling that would be a lot more work, right? - Right. And a lot more work. - And I get that. - But there are some people where it's not about, it would be a lot of work or I'll lose all my money. It's really, I really love hanging out with her. I really love hanging out with him. Even Bill and Hillary, you know, I remember, when they asked her after the scandal and everything, whether she would leave him and she was like, very honest, I thought, you know, and said basically, you know, I kind of thought about it. And yes, he's a hard dog to keep on the porch. But at the end of the day, there's just no one else as interesting in this whole world, or who I really want to talk to as much. So like, that's a lot. That, to me, was a very cool thing to say. I'm sure I didn't say it word for word, but that was the gist of it. - I love Bill. I've been a chair. I've had an opportunity to meet him several times. - Yeah. - And speaking, I mean, he, I don't know of anyone that's his, he is very charismatic and can talk so well. It's, he can make you feel like-- - Oh, absolutely. - Like you're the only person-- - Oh, absolutely. - And that's a talent to that. It's really great. - Well, I may have told this story before, but I'm gonna tell it again. - Oh, I guess. - So like in the '90s, I was like invited to a number of places where he was speaking, you know, chummy with the Democratic side, and I still am with a lot of my hope. And so I brought, and of course this is the '90s. I was out of my mind, so I brought a date everywhere. So I brought this hot blonde with me. And you know, it's like a meeting of maybe the 8,800 people. And at the end, there's a, you know, you get online so you can take a picture with the president. Well, it moves along pretty quickly. With me, I got on one side, she got on the other side. And I said something very off-hand about, he was about to travel to a trade conference. And he spent the next five minutes like explaining trade to me. And when I got off the line, I said to my girl, I said, "Wow, that's so awesome." (laughing) He spent five minutes just telling me about the intricacies of this trade deal. And she said, "Yeah, the whole time he was rubbing my back." (laughing) - So that's what I love about Bill Good. - I got invited. - He was a player. - Oh my God. - Like talking about a dog. Like there's certain people, I could name certain athletes who were like this. - Oh, no question. - One is the greatest basketball player of all time. I'm not gonna mention names, but there's like, you either like, "Wow, Warren Beatty." Another one like, Warren Beatty, according to legend, you should just pull chicks over. Like, I'm the road. Like, and then be like, "I." - And there's a turn on to that, too. (laughing) - Just again, it's so exciting. I couldn't do it, but I can't deny I-- - Bill Clinton invited me to come to the Hollywood Bowl to sing. It was me and Bono and a couple of other people to sing for him. It was packed at the Hollywood Bowl. - Sure. - Wow. - So I was there and I had a song out with Grace Potter called "You and Tequila." - Yeah. - And Grace lived out here at the time and still does, some of the time. So I said, "Grace, I said you should come sing "You and Tequila with me for Bill Clinton." And Bill knew I was coming, but he didn't know that Grace was coming. And so I came out there and I introduced Grace to come on stage. And she had this, the dazzled dress, and I swear to God, it was right here. And you could see Bill was sitting there. He was, you know, in the first row and everybody was, so, and then there's me that comes out and talks to Bill and I was pleasure to be here. And ladies and gentlemen, Grace Potter and she walks out like Marilyn Monroe. - And you can see Bill go. - This is Ed. (laughing) - He was unbelievable. How'd we get on Bill Clinton? I don't know. - I love him. - I love him. - I love him, you know, but, but, you know. - But he got to know how to stop. - He got to own who you are. - I know, but there's a talent too. Like he got into all kinds of trouble, but every time come out smelling like a rose. - Well, I don't know. I don't know if he's smelling like a rose all the time, because they used to have him at the Democratic Convention. They didn't the last one, because there's too much. Well, Monica remembered. Monica remembered then forgot. Then remembered then forgot. And I think she's back to remembering that she's a victim. - Yeah. - And that hurt him. - But even after that, I mean, if we needed somebody to go negotiate, and we'd either send Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. - Well, Jimmy's dead, so I wouldn't say anything. - I know that, but I mean, like, back in the day. (laughing) - All right, I gotta go back to my real job. I could do this all night with you. This is so much fun, and you didn't even drink. That's for you. You know what? Honestly, and I know this mostly from cigarettes, but I would say this to a degree of, because that's the dumbest drug I ever did. Smoking for 12 years. So glad I finally got rid of that. - I don't smoke, but I'll go and finish. - No, well, I'm just gonna say, as you strip away the drugs, cigarettes, heavy drinking, you know. You do realize they're not as needed as you think they are. - Yeah. - You know, you can actually have a good time as yourself. - I'm learning you got in the habit of using a crutch, but it's still you in there. You are really what's still interesting and can be interested, and, you know, you don't really need a lot, you know, a little, but not a lot. - Yeah, I've never had, I've never even, to believe it or not, well, fun fact. I'm 58 years old, and I've never had a cup of coffee. - Wow, I've had a lot of them. - And, and I, it was, it was a negative association with something as a child. And I, it was, so I never, - I can tell you why, 'cause as a child, you don't need coffee, you're bouncing off the walls to me. - Right, but I'm getting a downer. And so the adults are drinking this gross brown, - Yes, it was off-getter, and everybody smoking in the house, like, and I'm going, if I ever get out of here, I'm never coming back, ever, ever, ever. I had that, talk with myself as a child, I remember it. - And I've never been back. - These people, they're breath-stinks and coffee and cigarettes. Is there a worse breath stink than coffee and cigarettes? - Yes, so. - But, you know, my mother was in World War II. - Wow. - She earned her coffee and cigarettes. - Sure did. - Breath. - Yeah. - Sure did. - All right, pal. - Great. - Man, thanks, right? - Thank you. - All right. - We'll do this. - Christmas. - Any. (laughing) - I have Christmas plans now. - You're in your island paradise in Christmas? - I'm guessing. - I wasn't this year. - But it's gotten busy. - I wasn't born on Christmas. - It's in the Virgin Islands. - I mean, Virgin Islands. - Yeah, in St. John. I've been just going down there for a long time. They ain't got really busy during Christmas. So it's like, okay. I don't know. I've been out here before. - It's the U.S. Virgin Islands. - U.S. Virgin Islands. - So you're at American Territory. - Yes. - So, because, you know. - If you're bored? - I might visit you there. - I think you will. - I haven't really gone overseas. I mean, I'm not a great traveler. So I had three, I toured in 2015. That's the last time I went to Europe. - And you have them into Europe since 2015? - No, I'm not up for that. I'm just not. - See, I love Italy too much. - I love Italy. - I love Italy. - Italy. - And when I was drinking a lot, I really loved Italy because I loved, you know, I love love red wine, especially Italian red wine. - Like anywhere in Italy? - No, I mean, I love Florence. I love the Amalvi coast. I love Tuscany. I love, and I just went to Sicily three years ago. - Yeah, I bet it is. - That's awesome. - It's awesome. Because I love the guy's father. - I'm not doing that, but I might come to the U.S. - The U.S. territory. - Virgin Islands. - Not at Christmas. It's too crazy. - Really? - But yeah, it's come to an hurricane season. Seriously, it's beautiful. It's-- - What season? - You know, storms come in with the wetter channel and with all the-- - All right, if I'm ever in New York, it's a flight from New York, right? - Three hours. Or I'll come there and we'll just roll, roll me. How's that? - Well, I'm in New York during hurricane season. - Right. game starts in New York. I am so --You can come down there. I think you'd love it. ♪ Club Render ♪ Oh my god, that's awesome. Man, they're so easy. Yeah, it's a great show. ♪ Club Render ♪