TAFS Unplugged: Kurt Vile

[Music] Alright. [Music] Smoke on my lip. I wrote a song. Yeah. Some people said. I was doing that wrong. Yeah, but check out my hands. My chiming cords on a gold, told me to wear the guitar. Where else been melting in front of my eyes? Yeah, my baby girls, they keep me high, yeah. I ain't on no trips though, no LSD. True love is the pure drug for me. Yeah. [Music] Jumping my whip, my engine winds in. Zigzag my whip, down link and drive you. Poke on my lip, feel I can fly. For a while, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why? Why? Yeah. [Music] Smoke from my ears. My brain is burning. My candle's burning. I'm never learning. Watch as my life breaks down. Just as a song breaks down. I wrote a song. Yeah. Some people said. But check out my hand. My chime and chords on a gold toe man. The wind guitar. Smoke from my ears. My brain is burning. My candle's burning. I'm never learning. All right. [Applause] Thanks. All right. [Music] Every time I look at you. Sparks fly from my eyes. I caught that prize. Guess I knew what to do. Seasons come and seasons go. But my mind is surely growing. Into something more holder. Think I'm getting smarter too. But you always were. And you always are. And I am so proud. Of what you've become as well. Always growing. Always showing. A little spark around the world from whence you walk. Now walk. [Music] I flew close to the sun. And I had a whole lot of fun. Then I guess I had to come down. Punishment fit in the crime. Well, made a few friends out there. On the moon in the clouds. Had a whole lot of laughs. Hell, I'm still laughing now. So look who's laughing now. But you always were. And you always are. And I am so proud. Always growing. Always shining, showing. And you walk. That's right. Walk now. [Music] I'll take it. [Applause] [Music] Yeah. [Music] They will lie, drove on up to New York City. Deep down will life was shitty though. [Music] From Philadelphia, A is where I'm from. Guess we're coming for a shot of glamour. Not that I don't feel where I love. In fact, I know that it's better by the trees. But less people know that sometimes well. They make it slowly and needs a hint of the highlight song. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Ladies and gentlemen, Kurt Vile, get it up here. The new album, Phil Duffy, has been good to me. You can clap again if you want. How you doing? Good. You just played. It was phenomenal. I'm great. I love. Yeah. I'm excited to be here. I'm only excited for this, to be honest. Really? Yeah. No, to do after this. No, nothing today, but I've been excited to come on the show. And I love your set, and I thought we thought you were like the good kind of weird, so I'm glad to be here. Thank you. Yeah. Like geek chic kind of. Yeah. Yeah. I get that a lot. So yeah, I guess just first off, tell us about the new album and how you feel. I listened last night. I enjoyed it quite a bit. What is it out? Is it out? It is out. No, it's not out. May 29. May 29. May 29. May 29. May 29th? And is there any symbology behind that number? Numerology. No. I've got the two. You've got the nine. Then you get 11. Then you get Maves. There's five. Then you get 16. No. No. No. All right. Cut. I'm always. So I listened to the album last night. It's like, it's got a lot of kneel. I feel like. Is that fit safe to say? Kneel. Kneel. There's always kneel. Yeah, there's always. Are you a kneel? I'm a kneel. Yeah. Do you see them live? I saw with Crazy Horse. Oh, this time? Yeah. Oh, that was incredible. Yeah. I saw them in Philly. Like, the day I got home from a tour, I saw them in Philly with Crazy Horse. Yeah. This time, this last time, with Crazy Horse. And then I was just scheming and scheming and I was like, I got to see it again. So then I drove up to Massachusetts to see it again. I had to, it took some convincing because I'm a family man. Yeah, I know. I got two dollars in a life and such. So you lied to them? No, I told them what I wanted to do, which was I got to go up, I want to go up to Massachusetts where my tour manager is where he, so he can get me these record shelves so I can clean up my house so I can see me really young and Crazy Horse. Okay. Yeah. And that's what I did. You know why it's like you've been rocking on the road and you're so addicted to rock. You have to go rock more of in Massachusetts. And I'm so glad I did because Neil canceled. They cut that tour off like a couple shows later. So I saw that Crazy Horse twice. Have you met the man? I've met the man a few times. But only this last time, the last time I saw Neil was in Toronto and my buddy Travis from the Sadies is an incredible guitar player. In fact, I was playing his guitar earlier when I was shredding. And he's buddies with Neil and Travis is the first person ever. Even though one time I opened for Neil and they thought I was a crazy fan, they almost tackled me. Really? But even though I opened myself, I jumped off the back of the stage to give him actually a Sadie CD, I thought that was my end, and this whole entourage of cool old guys was like and they like held up their arm, they're going to check me like I'll have my old guys almost. And it was leave on him. It was Elliot Roberts, his OG manager almost tackled me. So yeah, anyway, Elliot Roberts was his manager, he managed, I think he started his career managing Johnny Mitchell. Yeah, I was going to guess. That was a guess. Yeah. I said it quicker. That would have been a good guess. But anyway, yeah, Travis was like, the first person to be like Neil, this is Kurt. He's played with you before. Everybody else is just like, don't give this guy, don't give this guy any in with Neil. Why? What's so wrong with you? You're a nice guy. He's like, you're in the business. You should be. I know. My mom told me when I moved to New York, she's like, just, why don't you find him? Jerry Seinfeld's address and you could knock on his door and say, I'm a young, can we have Jewish comedian and I'm like, mom, what are you talking about? I love that. Yeah. So I went to Epstein's mansion. I'll be right back. No, I'm just. That reminds, when you said that, it reminded me of, I wish we had that pedal to Seinfeld pedal. Yeah, like Sarah Sherman Seinfeld pedal where she's like, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh. Have you ever watched the video of the guy making it? It's all, it's synthesizer. It's not bass. Yeah, I would. You did you know that? I'm just not surprised. That era, that early '90s. I thought a bass guitar, I thought it's a bass. That's how bass. Yeah. That's true. It sounds like a slap-solve bass. That is actually. That's good information. Yeah. That's good information to know, for sure. But there's a video of him on YouTube doing a live to the show. But he did it every episode, I'd like to know. Yeah, yeah. What is that? It's like in the background, I was like, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh, bruh. Wow. The horns. You've noticed that. Yeah. That's, that's a real professional right there. Give it up there. It's like when you've noticed the fucking, the, the uncomfortably known, the, the symphonic part. It's like, uncomfortably known. Yeah. I feel like I was, I've been heard at a million times and then you've noticed that the little symphonic track and you're like now extra smart of music. How's that parko? D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d. You want to hear it? Isolated? Yeah. It's so beautiful. Rick Biotto does a video about it and me and my friend, my girlfriend and his girlfriend, we're both out of town. And instead of partying, we just watched Rick Biotto videos and we're, we're like, high-flying each other to the, Biotto, why this song is great, uh, on the comfortably note. And then my girlfriend called me and she's like, what do you do? I was like, I'm watching a, a YouTube video about Pink Floyd. She's like, I'd rat, that's, she's like, that's pathetic. I'd rather, I'd rather be cheating on me right now. I'd rather, uh, yeah, being, uh, wait, okay, so now I'm going to find, so this is in the background the whole time, we, how do you, let's just talk about Pink, oh, no, this is, this is not it, it's not it, uh, orchestra track here it is. Yeah, so you get all those, I don't know what instrument that is to make the seagull noise, but that's, I'm assuming that's the, you know, orchestra. Oh yeah, so like, as it, as it goes, so it's like all those like dark, hello, hello. It's a really, really, yeah, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude. Oh right, of course, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, yeah. You know, when that great band check about, uh, Pink Floyd, uh, especially the song, comfortably numb. They use that one. Of course, Daisy probably use it. Exactly. I was literally going to say, when did she start fuck me like a car? Like a cop. That's a great sex. Uh, one of my favorite songs. Yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah. Uh, yeah. Which, they have sex in the kitchen. Yeah. The, in the department. Yeah. Yeah. Leo and his therapist. Oh. And she's like, fuck me like a cop. Did she say that? Yeah. Wow. Which is like a, if I, I just sit in therapy all the time, just be like, why can't, uh, never much. Uh, anyway, so let's, let's get it into it. So you, you saw Neil, uh, wait, tell us about meeting him. What did he say to you? Hey, man. He did sort of like that. Real cool, man. You know, he never, uh, really, uh, the, what, the most memorable time is like, I told him, I was like, I've seen you a million times and, uh, this was the best by far when you played down by the river, which was like a 30 minute version. I was like, you know, he would like be messing with the crowd. He would be like, uh, uh, you'd think he was going to be like, uh, you know, like, I would think he was, he'd be jamming out the middle section forever. The coolest space jams ever. And then you'd think he was going to go and sing the last verse and then he would come up to the mic, finally, and be like, be on my side and then go back to outer space again. Just the first, yeah. So anyway, I told him, I was like, this down by the, uh, river was the best I've seen. You, you do, uh, I was like, it was like your underground as in if it was like organic, an outer space at your underground and outer space at the same time. And then he just looked at me and he was like, oh, yeah, we can go to our space whenever we want. Wow. And then he said again, we can go out of space whenever we want. Yeah. Uh, I've joined COVID. Do you remember when he became an American citizen so he could vote for Bernie? Do you remember that? Oh, that's pretty awesome. Yeah. And they did that like COVID concert where he's like, hey, Bernie. I remember that. I started crying. Yeah. I was like, my, both of my ghosts recognizing each other, I can't believe it. Are you Neil? Is Neil your number one guy? Neil. I love Bernie too. But a Bernie, I would say number one, but Neil, no, I love Bernie, but Neil, I like Neil better than Bernie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What the hell have Bernie ever done? I love Neil. Yeah. Yeah. So wait, so did you record after those, like, uh, when, when, how long have you been working on this album and like, what went into it? Okay. I've been working on this album. I'd say, okay. out my last full-length album, it's called "Watch My Moves" in 2022, on Verve Records, and this is my second full-length on Verve Records, New York Verve Records, I'm proud to be label-mates with the Velvet Underground and Stan Gets, and that's us three. But anyway, honestly, I'd say ever since I turned that record in, it came out in 2022, and I'd get off the road, I'd be working on this record. But hardcore in the studio the last couple of years, but yeah, it's half recorded in my basement, just like the previous album, and then also some in LA with my buddy Rob Schnap, who did a lot of my stuff, and Doug Easily, this really, some of my favorite records in the '90s, like Silver Juice Starlight Walker and Pavement Wally's Alley, Sonic Youth Washing Machine, we're all done at Doug Easily's studio in Memphis, so I worked there. This is Doug Easily, no, that's me, that's Doug Easily, that's Rob Schnap in LA, that's me, and then, yeah, my drummer Kyle records some in Athens, but that's how we do it, we just, we go on the road, come back, and you get ideas. Hit the studio. How collaborative is it, like it's. Well, it's collaborative in that people show up, people play their parts, and figure it out as they go, I'll tell them if I don't like it, but I wrote the song, I don't care how much anybody else puts into it, I'm the songwriter. Yeah, that's fucking right, don't forget it, you fucking. I mean, everybody, I mean, anybody, everyone makes their own rules, but I, I was smart enough to make that rule. Have you ever had a bez in your band? What? A bez, like, from happy things. Oh, I love the bez. Yeah, yeah, just like guy that does tambourine and just as fun as that. Did you read the ruckus? Yeah. He wrote a book, how good he wrote a book. It's called Freaky Dancing? He knows how to write the freaky dancing at all. A funky dancing. A funky dancing. Yeah. Yeah, he actually, he's Maracas, right? The one video I have out, yeah, he dances, and he's their drug dealer. Yeah, he sells him drugs and he dances when Maracas, yeah. The video for Step On is priceless, he steals the show, bez. He's the best. But the one video that came out for this album called Chance to Bleed, that's the first single, there's a person in the video that's influenced by bez, actually. It's my buddy. But I pull that out of my ass. King Buckler from King Kong, his first band was slint and he left slint, because he thought the production was really weird on the first record, so he started his own band. But anyway, he's the bez in the Chance to Bleed video, which is a really good video, I should say. I wonder if bez got paid like the other guys. It would have been annoying, actually, if I was like a synth player or a drummer, like I'm like, he's doing it's easy, right? Yeah. Well, you do play though, right? What do you play? It's hard. Yeah. Shut up, dude. No, I. Not well. Yeah, but you're like. I like songs. We talked about music on the phone. I know, dude. And the first thing I ever. I'll send you a demo if you want. I want to see. The first. Hello, my name is Adam. Friedland, he's my demo CD. Yeah. I was planning on the networking period after this thing, dude. I wanted to play it, play cool. No, no, yeah, I do. Yeah, I play a little bit of whatever. Yeah. That's cool. I'm excited to hear your music. So you have a song called "Hogi," a song called "Wa-Wa." Do you think that George Harrison was writing about "Wa-Wa," the. Man. That's fucking mind blowing. Have you ever watched it? Have you ever listened to Beware of Abaco? The demos from all things must pass? Beware of Abaco? Yeah, it's like a bootleg. But it's all the demos of George and Phil Spector. Well, I need to find out more about it. I just. Eat it? I'm can't wait to find out more about this guy Phil Spector, I just found out about it. Everybody's be able to. Did you see the "Get Back" document? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a bit. It changed my life. Heart breaking, but also funny. Like, George literally playing the most beautiful songs out of his pocket. He's like, "Everyone has choice." "When to and not to raise the voices." It's you that is sad. And they're so mean to him. Paul and John aren't even listening. They're not even listening. And then he's like. And then George literally says he goes, "I don't care if you use it, I'll just put it in me musical." Yeah. He says that. He says that. He put it in me musical. It's like. It's so crazy. Because first of all, you forget how young they were. They were like 27 or something? Yeah. And that he's still the younger kid from school. He's still like, "Dude, you're a freshman. Shut up, dude. Shut up, freshmen. We're going to fucking give you this worldly and pants you." And he's like. Yes? Or. No, that was wrong. Okay, let me run that again. And he's like, "Here comes the sun." I don't know. Okay, cut all that. Okay. Did you ever. Paul McCarty says yesterday came to him in a dream, right? Did you ever have a song come to you in a dream? I did, especially around the pandemic times, I definitely had really pretty ethereal songs in my head. And then I'd wake up and sing them into a recorder. But yeah, I've never actually recorded that. I wonder. I wonder if. I wonder if Enter Sandman came to them in a dream. That'd be cool. Yeah. I was talking about it before, how about Metallica's just baby? How about spooky scary dreams? Did you like that? Goblins and ghouls! Did you like that documentary? Some kind of monster? Yeah. So good. You do look a little Dave Mistain a little bit. Some people say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The therapy scene with Dave Mistain, where he's like, "You hurt me." They're like, "All crying, it's amazing." Yeah. Actually, I got to. My manager, Renny, who's one of my best bros, but I got to say. I think it was sometime we were on the road, kind of high or whatever, and I was like, "Renny, wasn't some kind of monster the worst documentary you've ever seen in your life?" And he's like, "Pause." He's like, "No." He's like, "Those guys couldn't even talk to each other, and then they made this movie that got them back together, and they crushed once again." And I was like, "Good point." Yeah. But I remember. I do remember when I first saw that it was so long, and it was cringy. But it was. It's the first of cringy. It's the first of the cringy. Like, you have the audacity to get this therapist and look at this. Like this sad. Yeah, in front of people. People often never, never land songs. You're like, "We need a therapist." This is too much pressure. But then it's like. Yeah. I don't know. Then it's. It's so funny. It's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen in my life. I thought I mean it aged really well. It ages great. It aged well. Yeah, if you smoke a little. I actually. I can't smoke weed anymore. We're talking about it. No. I so. I heard that you're. This is a list I have of your influence is going into this album. Okay. Okay. Neil, John Prime, Terry Allen, Doom, DJ Screw, and The Avalentches. Wow. Yeah. Does that sound like bullshit or is that correct? No, that's true. That's. They're all really good ones. Do you like The Avalentches? Yeah. You know them? Oh my god. She's I loved you. I loved the body. It's really pretty. Do they have. They had a. They released another album, didn't they? They. There was just one, right? I thought. There was just one. Yeah. And then it took them like 13 years or something to put out a follow-up. They're like Stanley Kubrick. Yeah. Yeah. And then like, cool guests like David Berman came out of hiding from silver shoes to do like a spoken word thing on- Did you know him? Yeah. I mean I grew up influenced like one of my number one. He's one of my number ones too. I was at in DC. I was at their last concert at the black cat ever. Wow. Yeah. His grandma came out on stage. That's so awesome. Yeah. I mean the last album is The Purple Mountain. It's just devastating. Devastating. Yeah. And uh. Yeah. You know that he. He cut through like his lyrics and I guess his vocal timbre and like the production. Everything that he stood for. He was like the effortless Bob Dylan or whatever of our generation. Yeah. And uh. I would say you're more. I would say is you know. Well, yeah David, I. I know. Like we were pen pals a little bit. Like because I heard he was a fan of my song. Somebody told me he was a fan of my song. Society is my friend. And then I wrote him. And sure enough. Like an email though. Right? I emailed him. And then he pened you? No. You were absolutely. You didn't spray perfume and kiss it. Right? No. I mean. People of you were doing letters. Yeah. But yeah. I don't know. Then my family uh. I was with my wife and two daughters when they were younger and we. At the end of a tour we drove through Tennessee. Uh. And uh. I visited David and he was really sweet and his wife at the time Cassie. he was really smart. sweet and uh yeah I was so stoked for him with that record when it came out and I was gonna plan to see him for sure yeah it's kind of like uh he's the lyrics are like it's like with that last one he's telling us yeah well I was like I wish I should I should I should I don't even know him but I wish I did I should have said done something I've got so sad that is sad man that I'm coming out while you're going through a break up well I could I certainly couldn't I will say that's the I don't I can't listen to that record I listen to silver juice a lot but I I haven't listened to that one since he passed yeah in 20 27 years I drank 50,000 beers do you have much it so us Scotch and penicillin I'm allergic to penicillin yeah are you yeah why don't you say that earlier dude you should say it is a little bit weird that you didn't say that yeah I think like you're supposed to list your allergies when you come in well I just say yeah you filled out the medical form before we're doing tafsum plugged I have no idea why you wouldn't say that you're allergic to penicillin because we put it in your drink um folks anyone that knows me knows that I love a good dad bod but with summer coming up in just a couple months I've been thinking about getting into a little better shape problem is that my body doesn't just snap back in a shape like it did in my 20s I'm working out the same amount eating mostly the same stuff but the fat around my stomach just sticks around a lot of people think that the classic dad bod just comes from drinking more beer or eating worse but for a lot of guys it's actually not the whole story as men get older our bodies reprogrammed themselves and we naturally start story more fat and losing muscle faster and the main reason for this is testosterone most men's testosterone levels start dropping as early as their 30s and when that happens it becomes easier to gain fat especially around your stomach and here's the frustrating part the more body fat you gain the more your body converts testosterone into estrogen which makes it even easier to gain more fat so it can turn into a really tough cycle for a lot of guys that's why I started using this Mars men Mars is a natural supplement designed to support healthy testosterone levels which can help your body burn fat more efficiently and build lean muscle when your hormones are working the way they're supposed to a lot of things can get easier workouts energy even saying lean it's basically helping your body get back to running like it did years ago no weird stimulants or synthetic hormones it's just real natural ingredients like tongue cat Ali shin shield agit zinc boron and more that support healthy t-levels weight management and exercise performance and the quality is legit it's made the USA and every batch is third party tested ever since I started taking this I have more consistent energy stronger lifts better focus and it is helping me shed my dad bod I'm excited to go into the summer looking like the best version of myself than even better than when I was in my 20s what else am I noticing I'm noticing steady all day drive less cravings better gym recovery so 90 day money back guarantee there's no risk worst case you don't absolutely love it and you get your money back and but over 91% of users report higher energy levels thousands of guys are feeling incredible results and check out the reviews on their website just to see for yourselves for a limited time our listeners get 50% off for life plus free shipping and three free gifts that at men go to Mars dot com that's men go to Mars dot com for 50% off and three free gifts when you check out after you purchase they'll ask you where you've heard about them please please support our show and tell them that we sent you monarch is the personal finance app that tracks everything accounts investment savings goals and spending get your first year of monarch for half off just $50 with promo code T. 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Featured products include compound and drug products with the FDA does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality prescription required to see website for full details restrictions and important safety information individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monoxidil and finester right it seemed like you you're around kind of when it was like a lot in the indie kind of moment the early the late aughts early mid teen tens tens what do people call that decade the twenty tens when I was making music you mean yeah and then you were kind of part of that moment and then it seems like now like you're like do you feel like you're a certain survivor of that moment you're still around like there I imagine there were a ton of bands that just aren't around anywhere there I guess yeah that's interesting um yeah I I feel I'm glad that I'm still doing it I got no no choice it's what I'm gonna do but I I do see these younger kids sometimes and I'm like man I paved the way for these fucking kids yeah yeah makes me mad yeah but not really but I yeah I'm but then you were just talking about Neil you're like like like like guitars again yeah that's I thought I was saying this needy crapped forever I know I even I was in for like for there was a hot minute for a few years there were like I wasn't here in no guitars in my head either because there was all this Charlie XCX and Caroline Polichek shit you know like I love yeah you're a big Charlie fan I do love she's one of your goats oh absolutely absolutely who were who were your goats that's a Mark Merritt song question who are your guys man who your guys man um he was mad at me by the way why is he mad at you he was but Tom Sharpling squashed the beef oh because on my old podcast I think we were making fun of him laying down a solo on Instagram like look at this guy and I was like I was a mark like I was I was like a child we hated everything I love you all yeah Tom Sharpling I was like give me his phone number I was like I will make this right I was like I love you sir Tom is the best Tom is the best Tom Sharpling is the goat he's the goat what effect one of our goats that's funny because I was at Tom's wedding not that long ago and Tom Sharpling got married and and it's one of my favorite things is to start in the past I used to do it at school assemblies and yeah and uh uh Mark Merritt was there and I was with a friend who never met Mark Merritt I was on the show once yeah but I hadn't seen him in a long time and he's like oh my god there's Mark Merritt there's Mark Merritt I was like oh yeah it's true and then he walked up to me in a suit and the first thing he said was he what's up genius oh wait so that made me look cool in front of my friends well everything's good Mark Merritt I've invited you about seventy three times on the show and now I'm officially announcing even though you have not agreed that Mark Merritt will fill me out of real life no I love him dude I when I first but before I even started saying I was listening to his podcast wait he was mad at you because you tease because he saw you heard a clip about us teasing his jam and guess what I wish I wish I the I yeah you wish you didn't do it I'm too shy to play to play my music I love that honestly that's what I love music more than this whatever the fuck this is that made me like you because I could do it that made me like you because the first one I saw was your Julian. "Costa Blancas" and then you fed him this song. You fed him your song, you made him listen to it. - Yeah, I let him make him listen to a demo. - Yeah, and it was like, that's intense, man. I'm like, you could have said the best song ever. I don't know why you're saying that. - That's intense. - 'Cause everyone else has said the best song ever and probably your genius musician, you don't need to be doing this, demeaning yourself out on YouTube. You could be fucking, I don't know, but Paul McCartney, yeah. - Have you ever been Paul McCartney? - No. - Have you ever been John Liddell? - No, I don't know. - Oh, I wish. - Who are you, you're like, I guess, like heroes, like they say never me or heroes, obviously. - Yeah. - They say that what interactions have you had that like through music that you're like, whoa, but beyond Neil. - Beyond Neil? - Like because I signed a Matador Records in 2009, I was on that label 'til like, 2020 or something. So a lot by nepotism, I got to meet the bands that I grew up on, but even so, like early on, my first Matador album called Childless Prodigy came out and like it didn't, like on the pitch for you. It's not that this matters, but like they didn't get it, but like all my heroes, it was their favorite record that year. Jay Mascus from Dinosaur and Junior invited me on tour, Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth, it was her favorite album, and even people like, I don't know, Bradford Cox, Deere Hunter, it was his favorite album. But anyway, yeah, people like that. Steve Malchmann's for sure from pavement or Kim Gordon and Jay Mascus, that's like the big three or their friends of mine, you know. But I grew up dreaming of something like that. I was trying to think of, you know, there is-- - I'm a fanboy, like every, do you get nervous? - I get nervous, I'm a fanboy, no matter what. And like, that's how I always feel. I always feel nervous to talk to somebody that's my hero. I have so many heroes. - In that Neil's story, I'm like, this guy was shitting his pants and Neil was like, what the fuck is that? Yeah, I hope that we can. (laughing) Like, oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, I, it's scary. I still meet those guys. - Yeah. - I'm nervous. I have a brunch I'm going to and I heard the David Letterman might be on it. - Oh! - Yeah. - What are you gonna say to him? - Anti-Semite. (laughing) - Is he? - I don't know, that's what came out, what did you? See, I'm gonna fuck up, dude, I know that's the first thing I came out. (laughing) - What's wrong with why you such an anti-Semite? - So, I guess like, do you feel like an Elder Statesman these days? - Uh, no, not really. - No? - I'm glad. - 'Cause you look great. - Really? - Yeah, yeah. I mean, you look at your youthful statesmen. - You? - Yeah. - You look. - You look better. - But. - Thank you. - But, thank you. - No, honestly, I do look at myself. - We are, but I'm like, I look at you like kind of guys. - You still look alright, you don't look as good as you used to per se. - Yeah, fine, how are you going to, yeah. - But, we have our hair too. - But I like, the modern times, yes, true. - The modern times, I like playing music. I like, I like playing to the crowds. I like, in a different way, 10 or more, plus years ago, I was a train wreck on stage, like, elusive to technology. So I feel like this is sort of my Neil Young moment. I know we keep talking about Neil, but like, if you see him live now, it's crazy, of course, it's just like then. It's in another way, it's like more intense. - There's something about it where it's still going to the moment. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm excited about live music. - Bob Dylan is still touring, and he's, I don't know if you've seen it before. - Oh, yeah, of course. - But he's locked in. - He's locked in. - Yeah. - It's really actually like, I wonder, it's like, why, you know, I guess like, why those guys are doing, 'cause they're fucking old, they gotta be, no offense, I mean, they're friends, but they're old as fuck, you know? Like, they're nasty, look at that. But, it makes me sick, hell, no, no, but no, in reality, it's like, these guys are like, you know, fucking, Bob's over 80, I think, yeah. Like, and I think about like, your interaction with Neil, it's like, I think that that's like a placement, like, they're whole, like Bob Dylan's whole life, like, everyone's trying to, has walks up to him and try to say the dope is the thing they've ever said, and then he's just walked away, and they're like, fucking boxing, fucking pussy, you know? And it's like, it has to be so lonely at the end of the day, right? And I think that like, maybe they're just like on stage, it's a time where they just like, you know, they're like, this is something that I feel like, I could do me in a way that's comfortable. - I think, I think that's exactly right. - Yeah. - Like that's their moment. - It was such, dude. - Do you mean the young bulls walk up to you and they're like, you know, the third album, yeah. - Yeah, do they do that? - Your pet, yeah, you're, well, your past is your own worst enemy, is, that's another Neil Young quote, like, he puts out, he puts out, he puts out like all these classic records, and then he puts out this new record and it sounds different than the old stuff and everybody's comparing it to the old stuff. - Going back to the show. - Yeah, go ahead, sorry. - Your past is your own worst enemy. - Oh, look at that shit. - Yeah, yeah, go back to the sharply, you know, rock, rock rule, where you say that he's only into the '80s. - Yeah, yeah, he's only into the '80s Neil. (laughing) So she gets joking. Only the rest, I can take her leave, with the '80s stuff. - Yeah, yeah, which was a real shit. It was a lot of total turns, Neil. - What were you going, were you, you became a robot for a decade? A rockabilly robot? - I still love you. - No one's laughing, and I feel mean. - Neil, I love you. - I love you. Yeah, I guess, let's talk about Philly. - Okay. - So yeah, I guess that, you know, you're, do you feel like your Philly's guy? - I am. I am Philly's guy. - You're Philly's guy. - I'm not the only one, but I've been, - You're more than Bradley Cooper, would you say? - Yes, yeah, more than Shane Gillis? - He's not even, he's from Harrisburg. - First of all, I don't think they're in Philly, and I am. - Yeah, that's true. - That's part of it. I'm holding it down in Philly, and I wanted to, even in my first album was called "Constant Hitmaker," but it's that short for Philly's "Constant Hitmaker," so I've been holding Philly down since, I guess the early aughts when I, 2003 I put out my first CDR under my own name, but I just wanted to put it in writing, and also there's a title track on here, you know, Philly's been good to me, which is a nod to a Tom Petty song, which is California's been good to me. - Yeah. - But anyway, I wanted to call it out. - Have you ever gotten 12 o'clock on a motorcycle? - What's that? - Like, Papa Wheely? - No. - He's not Philly at all, dude. He knows nothing about it. - Is that Philly? - Yeah, that's Philly, dude. Go on 12 o'clock? - Oh, like the kids, like the kids, yeah. - Oh, that's intense. - Yeah, yeah. - I remember, do you lick poop after the eagles won the Super Bowl? - No, I don't care about that. - He's trying to act like he's Benjamin Franklin. He's trying to be, he thinks he's Benjamin Franklin. - I don't know why I said it that way. - I like it. - No, yeah, I mean, I guess you take shots at Bruce, though, right? You have bars that are you playing at Bruce? - I love Bruce. - You better be coming. - And I better be careful. - And Neil is Kendrick Drake thing, the other. - Yeah. - I've covered a few Bruce Springsteen songs in my day and record them. But he, he's got the song called Philadelphia. And then Neil Young's got the song City of Brotherly Love. But they're both on the soundtrack to the movie Philadelphia. - But even so. - 'Cause that, you would have been young, actually, I think. - I would have been young. - Yeah, yeah. - But, and also the chicken man, the chicken man. - Yeah, they blew up the chicken man. - They blew up the chicken man. - And Philly left. - Was that a real guy? - Yeah, some mobster, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, Philly. - Wait, so you think that because Bruce Springsteen was born, I mean, it's not his, his parents lived there. He was born in New Jersey. - Right. - He has no right to have Philly's name in his mother-fucking mouth. - Well, I mean, it's kind of arbitrary. - I didn't say it's no right. - Yeah, yeah. - But, I'm really, I'm really from there. - And it's offensive. - Is it possible? - I can think about Philly and mean it, that's all. - So the streets of Philadelphia is hurt when you heard that song. - No, I like it. - Yeah. - In the moment when I wrote those lyrics, I was thinking about it. And, you know, Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks also are not from Philadelphia. How do you feel about that? You know what that reminds me of? That reminds me of, when I was a younger, I was working at Philadelphia Brewing Company and this kid, this kid, my hair was like long and shaggy. And then I got it cut way too short. And this kid got on my nerves and it was the weekend. And I wouldn't even even see him, but then I saw him at a party and he took one look at me. - The weekend? - No, it was the weekend, so we weren't at work. And I got my hair cut and I was all like shy. maybe a little stuff and I was like fuck I got this bad haircut and then I took one look at this guy and he saw me and he took one look at me and he said you look you look just like Tom Hanks not so pissed you gotta do look I know it's your hair wow and you look like Davis Day with long hair I guess go what what what a fault what a false modesty you look like the two most handsome guys on earth yeah but neither of those people I want to look like to be honest really I'll be nice either I don't want to say I look like my jacket is really annoying he looked like me check yeah I get it all the time I'm like I'm just I'm just doing me dude I'm not trying to do him I could see that you really did you make that up I've been going for it for a while I finally got it got it under my thumb do you like stones yeah of course best in fact yeah like what I said I call myself Philly's constant hitmaker I stole that from the stones album England's newest hitmaker oh so guys May 29th go get the album it's got a gatefold yep yeah listen guys you get to listen I know you're gonna like see this in the record store you'll be like oh I don't want to buy one vinyl that's such a rip off you got to folks yep that's how much he cares about you curf all everyone my straw you