Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 75: Brendan Bayliss & Ryan Stasik (Umphrey's McGee)

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

Big Something vs. Andy Frasco & the UN "Royal Rumble 2020" tour has officially come to an end... And to help soothe that pain of separation, Frasco & the boys jump on tour with LEGENDS, Umphrey's McGee! We welcome guitarist & lead vocalist, Brendan Bayliss to the Interview Hour and learn about his origin story. Shawn & Andee have good advice for expectant mothers. Ryan Stasik rejoins the show as Andy's co-host to close out the week. "We are going to win" EP 75. Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, tour dates, the band and the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com The views discussed on this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the guests. Check out Andy's newest single, "Keep on Keepin' On" on iTunes and Spotify Follow the legends themselves at www.umphreys.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Brian Schwartz Shawn Eckels Andee Avila Ahri Findling Arno Bakker 

Shut the fuck up. God damn it, that was a fun show. I watched the whole show, and I watched it again today. That was just fucking fun. I felt it in my house. Holy shit. Every, ah, god damn it. It was just fucking, what the fuck?

Hey, it's Schwartz. Listen, I just got back to my desk and heard that, once again, fans are giving you drugs and you're eating them on stage. This is not a joke. I've left you this message before. Unfortunately, you're thick skulled and you're not getting it. You can put this on the podcast. You cannot take illegal substances from anyone ever and do them in public on stage. You will get arrested.

You will call me crying. I will have to fucking get on a plane and bail you out. And then you can say goodbye to going to certain international markets. And you can also just say goodbye to the momentum because it's going to set you back. Seriously, Andy, get your shit together. If you want to do drugs, I don't care what you do as long as you drink water and balance it out. But don't do it in private.

Certain things are not for the public. Okay? Pull your head out of your ass. Okay? Pull your head out of your ass. All right. Here we are yet again. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco. How we doing today, everyone? Fucking chilling. Hope you're rocking.

Hope you don't get the coronavirus. I've been fucking neurotic as shit. I'm such a hypochondriac. It's scary out there. Just wash your hands. If you're going to, you know, just don't, just be careful, you know. But like, even if you're a hypochondriac, you know, I thought, you know, having a flu is a coronavirus. So, you know, just don't overthink it.

Just be here, be present and, um, we'll figure this out. But anyway, here we are. I'm in Oregon. Just finished the Royal rumble tour, which was fucking insane. Chicago was sold out. Columbus was sold out. Buffalo was sold out. Brooklyn was sold out. Boston was sold out. Oh, Ithaca was kind of sold out. It was my birthday. It was dope. But Charlotte was sold out. Just thank you so much for coming out to the Rumble. Now we're on tour with Umphreys McGee.

Fucking crazy. These guys are dope. The first day they came into our hearts. We bonded and we hugged it out. And they're just good guys. And this is going to be the umphreys episode so we got brendan bayless on the show and we have um stasek of course is going to talk some shit at the end but it's been fun touring with bands man it's just like you know it's like when you're by

yourself on the road with the same cast of characters it might get mundane a little bit you know no disrespect to my band but it's nice to have some fresh blood that want, you know, they want to hang out and get to know each other and shit. But tour's been tight Northwest. Uh, you know, it's always scary opening cause you know, Oh shit. Is anyone going to show up early and they show up. So shout out to the Umphrey fans for showing up early, watching our show, making us try to do a different set list every night. You know, respect to that. We did. We got Brendan doing some rapping.

We got fucking Stacey crowd surfing to basketball hoops. You know, we're making our imprint on the band and it's fucking awesome. And shout out to them for letting us be part of the gang for a week. And I have a feeling this isn't the last time we are going to get together. But oh man, we're almost done, guys. I've been on the road for a month and a half. Can't wait to go home to my new house in Denver and just watch porn and just chill out and drink with my boy Dave Bruza from Green Sky. I mean, I'm starting to get a nice little network out in Denver that's a family, dude.

It's so cool to be there and have a place that, you know, we're all just trying to relax and chill out and just try to be friends because when you're be friends. Cause you know, when you're on the road and you know, you got to take your times and where you got to be present and build relationships. You know, like I was on the mushroom bender last weekend and I started calling everybody, call my dad. I call, I was driving, we were driving and I was like a little microdosing while I was driving a little bit and just, you know, I'm not like doing it when I'm super high, but like we had to drive 20 hours straight from Chicago. No, from, yeah, from Chicago to our cut up hands from the rumble. And I'm rolling in there like a

wounded soldier. And, you know, I realized I haven't talked to any of my friends, you know, it's like, you know, it's important, you know, when we're living on the road and stuff, you have to go and take the communication up. You have to keep in touch with your family. Cause you know, this is when we start getting lonely, I think, is when we stop communicating because we're so busy. And then we feel like, oh yeah, they stopped calling us because we stopped calling them. You know, it's a, it's a two way road. So just be communicative with people you love. You know, I was just talking with Ernie and I realized I haven't talked to him as a friend in a while and he's going through a tough time. And you know it's like we forget life happens and we forget that life is about friendships and life's about finding people you want to be with and

finding people you want to you know spend life with so don't be afraid to talk to someone you haven't talked to even if it's an old high school crush like hey what's up linda what's up girl i haven't thought about your ass in a while. I'm thinking about you. People love that. I mean, don't try to be like a fuckboy or whatever, but be a person and care about each other. I call my mom just to tell her I love her. And I normally, it's hard for me to say I love you.

I don't know. Maybe some days I don't love myself. But, you know, that's just part of it. You know, you got to let love in. Like Caleb Hawley says, if you don't let love in, then you're not going to be able to give love out. So shout out to Big Something Guys for opening me up and becoming a brotherhood.

Shout out to the Umphrey guys who just let us into their fucking, into their arms with warm embrace and sounded kind of gross, but you know, yeah, me and me and Stacey getting it on. No, but all right, I'm gonna leave it here. Keep it short and sweet. We got Brandon Bayless on the show. Um, we got Stacey. It's Umphrey's episode. Let's kickphrey's episode. Let's kick it off right. And shout out again to everyone from coming out to the Royal Rumble. Shout out to all the podcast fans who never saw our band before, but came out to the Rumble.

It was a perfect welcome to the party type show. So welcome to the musical part of me. And for everyone else listening to the podcast, let's fuck shit up. All right, guys. I'll see you at the tail end with Mr. Ryan Stasek. All right. Next up on the interview hour, we got fucking Brendan

Bayless from Omfrees. Motherfucking McGee. We just went on tour with them for a week they are fucking shredders

dude play some Humphreys Christopher while I pimp out Brendan a little bit

you know I didn't think he'd want to talk to me to be honest I thought he was shy

I don't know I just didn't know anything about him i hung out i hang out with stay sick that's my dog i got to meet him he's fucking he is he talks shit he was talking shit on us all week like good shit talk like the kind of shit talk i'm like fuck yeah i'm proud of that shit talk and uh he's the man so ladies and gentlemen great story he opens up to me and we're going to be friends for life.

I have a feeling. Not like I'm bragging about it, but you know what I mean. He's fucking awesome. He's a good guy. All right, guys. Enjoy Brendan Bayless. You're goddamn right. What's up, dude?

How you doing? What's going on? You're asking me questions, and I'm'm gonna deflect it and talk about you i think i can't wait so you're gonna open me yeah while i try to open you i have a lot of questions i can't wait i've been looking what's the first question how old are you 32 wow how old are you it doesn't matter it's just a number yo let's talk about your early life uh what was your outlets in life like when younger when you're like a kid like what'd you do were you were you add like you yeah i was uh super high strung what what do you mean like if there was a i just was bouncing off the wall yeah like i just I just had one speed. It was like Charlie Sheen.

It was go. Yeah? Yeah. So yeah, I grew up. Makes sense in your music. A little bit. A little bit. Annapolis, Maryland.

I was born in 76. So you can do the math to figure out how old I am. Yeah. And my dad was the head tennis coach at the Naval Academy for the men's team. When you were growing up. Yeah. So I grew up on tennis courts. I was playing tennis when I was three.

I was playing tournaments when I was six, seven. Were you any good? Yeah. Yeah. I could play. And then right at 14, I started playing guitar. And once I started playing guitar, just my focus shifted. Your dad's named Bob, right?

Yeah, Bob. So is that hard to have such an amazing tennis coach and you're trying to follow his footsteps? Was he harder on you than he was on the other kids? Well, so I'm one of four kids, and I think I was probably the most athletic. My little brother didn't even play at all. He went straight to skateboarding and punk rock.

But I think maybe my dad thought that I was the one chance that I'd actually be like, he'd have a kid that would be a tennis player, which actually, side note, reminds me, we opened for Widespread Panic at a tennis stadium in Charleston, South Carolina. And in between songs, I said something like, my dad always dreamed that one of his kids would be at a tennis stadium, and here I am, but it's playing guitar. So was he pissed that you were becoming a musician?

Or what was his personality? Was he pissed that you were becoming a musician? What was his personality? You've got to be so focused to be that high up as a coach. Yeah, he was super supportive. He never was like, we're playing tennis today. It was just whenever we asked, he would play as long as we wanted to. He never forced it.

I think he saw a lot of tennis parents growing up. He's recruiting kids and he's seeing parents and enforce their will on their kids so he never did that with us yeah um but we were around it all the time like in the summers we were just kind of like he was uh working at a country club teaching lessons so we would just be there all day so i was just basically either playing tennis or riding my bike or something you know it's you'd be there at summer all the summer you just be there just just there's a running around and like blowing shit up with fireworks and trying not to get in trouble what did you learn from tennis that you still take from music now that's a good one um that i think the most important thing I took from it is the mental game of when you mess up,

you got to let it go. Because if you keep thinking about it, what just happened, you're fucking up the future. Yeah. So I think when I make a mistake on stage, like my voice cracks or I've hit a wrong note, I try and quickly just look out in the crowd and make eye contact with somebody smiling

and just move on, you know? Yeah. That's important, right? Do you get in your head a lot? Yeah, I'm in my head right now. About what? About you. Yeah?

Yeah, I mean, I'm just lost in your dreamy eyes, really. I tell you, your dance moves last night really made me just want to take off your clothes. I know. I have that effect on people. Like, do you suffer with anxiety your whole life um i mean everybody has self-doubt um anxiety yeah i guess it's always you know you never think of i guess i never really think that i'm deserving of where i am and at any minute the rug's gonna be pulled out or like still yeah every day i wake up every

morning like what am i gonna do when i grow up yeah you know what i mean so that see i'm dealing with that now like that never goes away do you think that is a fuel to keep you trying to work fucking hard yeah i think uh yeah it's definitely a motivating factor because once you start thinking about it's like well here i'm 43 years old like i'm not qualified to do anything else i had i have a college degree but it's from 1998 yeah so like i don't know what else i would do what'd you get a degree in english and philosophy okay so you're doing it you're songwriting yeah but uh basically when i was at notre dame i went to the music department at the end of my sophomore year and I said I want to be a music major and the head of the department was like you can't read music

you have no formal training he said that's like me trying out for the Cincinnati Reds he said I think you should do something I know I think you should do something else with your life and I walked out of that building and I was like fuck that guy you know I'll just do it on my own terms what was the what do you think the'll just do it on my own terms. What do you think the difference is do you think you'd be a different musician if you got that major? Well yeah I probably would have been you know playing classical guitar at weddings and you know in that whole scene just I walked out of that room and was like well I'm playing in a band with Ryan Stasek and we're just gonna do it that way. Is that how you, who was the first guy you met in the band? Yeah.

Well, Joel, technically, I met on campus in a music theory class. Really? And I dropped out of it. After three classes, I was like, this is not cool. And he was in a band on campus, and so i knew who he was and uh stasek i met basically two maybe two or three days after he he's he's a year younger than i am and uh he his name was pony he introduced himself his whole circle there was chili pony roach migs doc they all went by nicknames you were meatball uh i'm in his phone i'm'm Meatball. Did that stick in college

or that's a new nickname? It probably came about once we started touring because everyone would go out to like Chinese restaurants or Indian and I'd just get a meatball sandwich from Subway

and sit in the van. Really? Yeah. Go back to this, you had this gang of people that you had. Like, did they help?

Were they playing music? Or was this just like you guys being college kids and having fun hanging out together? It was college kids having fun. I mean, we all kind of played, but no one took it seriously. You know, like we'd get drunk and sing like Pearl Jam Black, you know, really loud. And at Notre Dame, there's not much of a music scene there.

So everybody who's like in the, I guess, hippie world with long hair and patchworks, we all gravitated toward each other very quickly because there's very few of us. And so we just kind of created our own scene. That's great because I think, yeah, was that South Bend? South Bend, Indiana. There was never really a scene for really. There's no music. So how did you know that this band, you were going to go regionally?

Did you start regionally? Oh, yeah. It was all concentric circles. It was like the bar on campus, and then it was the bar across town, and then it was the bar on the other side of town. And then it was just, we'd go to Michigan and Kalamazoo, and then we'd go down to Indianapolis, and the circle would just get bigger.

But you guys graduated? Yeah, I graduated in 98. Joel graduated in 90. I think he graduated in 72. He's the old guy. Yeah. Stace graduated a year after I did, and the original drummer, Mike, graduated two years.

So when I graduated, I had to wait around at South Bend for two years and the day after he graduated we moved to Chicago and everybody moved into the same house except for me and then we hit the road three days later for six weeks so only those two years when you're waiting around for these guys to graduate what was it like what were you doing so actually right away what i right when i graduated i started taking classical guitar lessons because i figured i wanted to be a musician if the band didn't work i would play classical guitar and do that so i applied for um at iusb which is indiana university at south bend and they actually had a super legit music program yeah like hoosiers have a good yeah their piano department was like was off the charts so i auditioned right away and there's

four levels you can get and i got level four which is the best so i was full-on like playing guitar 12 hours a day i was doing classical for three or four hours and then practice with umfries every day and then practice on my own every all day do you think that where you learned your chops yeah 100 100 yeah 100 that's crazy because like you're working on this like when did you who told you that we should start touring like was it the plan was it who was like the businessman that was like in this band that was like let's fucking get this rocking? You know, we all just kind of bought into this is fun, we want to do it. There's only so many bars we can play. Joel had more experience.

He was in a band before I got to Notre Dame, and they had been kind of playing the circuit. What band? It's called Stomper Bob and the 4x4s. So. Was it bad? It was cute. You know, Joel's cute.

You know, that's just what it is. So, like, that's crazy because, you know, I was like, I didn't, I grew up in a big city. Where'd you, you grew up in Maryland. That's pretty big. I was in Annapolis for eight years, Boston for four years. What'd you do in Boston? Annapolis for eight years, Boston for four years. What did you do in Boston?

My dad got the job at MIT, and I moved there the year Return of the Jedi came out. So I think that was 83. Okay. Did you like Boston? Do you remember it? Yeah, I do. We lived with no traffic about 20 minutes from Fenway. So we lived in Wellesley, which is like this affluent town in Massachusetts, and we were like the white trash family that lived in the neighborhood.

Were you raised wealthy? Was your dad making money playing or working tennis? Not, you know, it's crazy. It wasn't a lot of money in coaching, but he supplemented by doing the country club thing, and he was doing really well by the time I was in like fourth or fifth grade, and then he got the job offer at Notre Dame, and he figured that none of his kids were smart enough to go to MIT.

So he went to Notre Dame and took like a 70% pay cut, like literally like rolled the dice. So you guys could get an education. Yes. He dedicated his career for you guys. Yeah, 100%. Holy shit, that%. Holy shit. That's so honorable.

Totally. And then they sold the house. And your mom was down? Yeah, my mom was like Phi Beta Kappa. They have master's degrees, and they were both professors. And the minute she got pregnant, she dropped everything to be mom, which is crazy. That's inspiring, man.

Yeah, it's like uh it's very uh admirable and noble so like my kids are kind of low-key dumb we're going we're going we're not going to mit we're going to notre dame was notre dame hard to get into yeah well so here's the thing as a local and a townie they they call us faculty brats. Oh, really? Because basically, you have to have like a 15 or 1600 SAT to get in. And I had like 11 or 12 tops, you know. But because I had the faculty, yeah, it was good enough. I got in and I graduated. But yeah, so we moved and he basically took a massive pay cut,

sold this house, and then he got hit by this, I don't know what the tax is called. It's whatever, the property tax. And the law changed since then, but basically all of the savings that they had, they had to give to the government. It was kind of fucked up the way everything went down. So when we moved to South Bend, it was like,

we're month to month on a credit card, you like starting and he built it back up and how old were you here uh sixth grade sixth grade yeah so you're living poor in it not poor i mean we were in a we're in a nice neighborhood but we were like eating tacos we never went out to eat you know there's no restaurants or anything we had mcdonald's yeah um and then slowly as he within three or four years he took them from they eating tacos. We never went out to eat. There's no restaurants or anything. We had McDonald's. Yeah. And then slowly, within three or four years, he took them from, they weren't even in the top 50, and then four years later, they were in the top 10

and played for the national championship. So then he started getting a little more money. Yeah. So once you start winning, that's fascinating, because once you start winning, the school's going to dump more money into the program. Yeah, and I also think that the longer you're there, you get a raise every year a little bit.

So at this point, were you a Cubs fan yet? No, at this point I was a Red Sox fan. Really? Yeah. So when did you change? So the day I moved to Chicago, literally there was a Cubs home game and I lived one stoplight from Wrigley Field. So within like 10 minutes of pulling up and moving,

there was a game. And I was like, this is my yard. It's just like people walking around, throwing beer cans. I lived right next to Wrigley Field. So right away, it was kind of like, I'm here. This is who I should be. Get behind. And then how many games did you go your first year?

The first year, I didn't go to that many. And then once Umphrey started making a little more money and got some notoriety, people started giving us tickets for free and trading backstage passes for tickets. And I'd say yes to all of it. And then what's crazy is when people see you getting into something, then there'd be people in the industry or promoters be like, oh, I know you're a Cubs fan, man.

Here's some tickets. And it just started, like, falling out of the sky. Yeah. And they were terrible. So it was easy to get. Yeah. And I lived within walking distance of Wrigley Field for several years. And then I'd start doing things like wait until the second inning and walk up.

And you can get a super cheap ticket. What do you like about baseball? Okay, what I like about baseball, it's kind of like it's one of those few periods where it's, okay, we're going to be here for a couple hours. I'm going to put my phone down, and I'm just going to, whatever problems I have, I'm not going to think about for three hours, and I'm just going to turn my mind off.

It's almost like, I would assume what golfers get, that vibe, like they just go out, and they're in the zone for four hours. So something about you walk in the park, and it's like, I don't care what the hell's going on in my life i'm not going to worry about it for the next couple hours is being present important to you yes and how hard is it to be present it's impossible for me like i've i mean i literally have you read the book the power of now yeah okay eckhart tolle yeah so that that blew me away

and it made me realize if you can get into that moment where it's like every step, like I'm walking out to go to the bathroom, I'm like, man, I'm lucky I can walk. Man, I'm lucky I can take a piss. Then there's no problems in life. But I can only hold on to that for about 10 seconds. Yeah. Me too, man. It sucks.

So what do you do to train your brain? Do you meditate? Do you hang out with your kids like does having your kids keep you present oh yeah for sure because you don't have you can't be selfish yeah and you can't get lost in your own in your own space because someone's crying or someone just poured a glass of milk on your computer what do you think is the hardest accomplishment the hardest accomplishment yeah like do you think is the hardest accomplishment? The hardest accomplishment? Yeah, like,

do you think raising kids is harder than being in a band? I think it's actually, what's hard is being on the road and then we're on this schedule and it's like a party every night. I mean, you can really... No, no, I've been hanging

with you guys for a week. Yeah, by the way, I picked up the bar tab last night. Oh, thank you, bro. No problem. Yeah, tonight, tell me before you go home. I'm going to get you home and you picked up the bar tab last night. Oh, thank you, bro. No problem. Yeah, tonight, tell me before you go home. I'm going to get you home

and you're going to be hungover. But yeah, tell me about this. So I guess the hardest thing is like you go out and it's a party and every night is Friday night and every night there's an old friend

you haven't seen in 10 years and every night there's an excuse. But then you go home and you got to flip to being up at 7 a.m. and you're dealing with like packing lunches and like filling out like homework sheets that the kid, you know, like it's just a flip of, it's 180 degree turn.

And then you're there for three days and then you fly back out and then you go back to the complete opposite. So I think that's the hardest part. Yeah. And I guess the greatest accomplishment is um when my wife and kids are just telling me how happy they are and they're proud of me and like that i feel like i'm keeping it together yeah because you know it's you know it's hard have you ever not kept it together um i don't know. There was a period, I guess, yeah. I got divorced in 2005. And there was about six months where I just didn't give a shit.

And I would just grab the bottle and take a shot at 2 in the afternoon. Really? Yeah. And that summer, I remember we were on tour with Big Summer Classic. It was String Cheese, Yonder Mountain, all these bands. All together? Keller, yeah. We did like three weeks, four weeks.

It was awesome. That's fucking awesome. And we were just getting after it every night. And then we were in Canada one night, and I remember getting on like a chairlift that you'd fix like a telephone pole with, with Michael Travis, and going way up and all the guys in the band kind of i saw them looking at me and i was like oh shit i'm in

trouble and the next thing i remember because i was hammered i kind of come to like from a blackout and i'm leaning against the bus and my whole band and crew are like in a semi-circle around me and i kind of look up and i'm like really and they're like yep and i was like okay oh that's all you need that's all we need that's the only time this was how important the band was to you yeah that's all you needed was then wake you up snap yeah so how long did it take for you to mourn the divorce uh you know it was it's kind of, it's, once I met, so I got remarried in 2010. And about a year after getting divorced, I basically was back into a full-time relationship. So I got super lucky because I found somebody quickly and she knew me before,

and she knew my whole story, and she was no pressure. She was like, whenever you're ready, I'll take as much of you as you want to give me or as little. She was just like, go do what you got to do. Just wrap it up. She was awesome. Fucking awesome, dude. So I was like, well, I got to marry you now.

Yeah. I think that's the test. Yeah, right? Especially when we are doing our life, and we're on the road all the time. I think the woman or the man or whatever you're into really needs to make you feel like you're comfortable with just being yourself. Yeah, and supporting it and embracing it. You have to fit into this mold for this to work. So, yeah, i got super lucky my wife is amazing and she every time i leave i'm it's hard for me to go on the road and she's like

she's like stop being a pussy you have the greatest job in the world people love what you do people you make a lot of people happy go do it we'll be fine i'll be here when you get home damn and it's yeah so i so we overthink it and we still, but then we still overthink it. You have everything going and we're still at this point where like our brain is controlling us not being present. Totally, man. And that's,

and she teaches yoga, my wife, and she's all about meditation and health. And so it's kind of... Excuse me, I just burped. Oh, that tasted like tequila from last night. That was fun, by the way. That was fun.

Your brother's cool. He is a cool dude. Yeah. He likes music. He loves music, man. He's in a couple bands in Portland. Yeah. Yeah, he started sing-alongs in the bar last night.

It was crazy. He was like, for for longest for the longest time go back to your your wife and um your your family i want to know about the dip day so like you you party you know you're having fun you're entertaining making people happy how long does it take for you to get back into dad mode because you know our brains it's sometimes you know when you drink too much yeah if you do whatever, it's like that day after that you really feel depressed. Oh, man.

It's horrible. It's like guilt and shame, regret. Yeah. I mean, I get hung over a lot. How do you get through that? I'm used to it. I think you kind of get used to feeling guilty. That's what I feel too.

I was a Catholic guilt, but I don't know. Yeah, so I guess. Did guilt run? Okay, dip's what I feel too. I was a Catholic guilt, you know, but I don't know. Yeah, so I guess. The guilt runs. Okay, dip day, I like that. Yeah, it always happens,

right? And it's weird for me because sometimes I'll get the dip day the day before I leave to go back out because I'm like, I was just home.

I didn't spend enough time with my kids. I wasn't, I didn't get shit done. I wasn't productive. I drank too much. I was hungover on Monday with my kids. I didn't get shit done. I wasn't productive. I drank too much. I was hungover on Monday taking my kids to school. What am I doing?

You start thinking about that. Yeah. So do you drink when you're home too? Yeah. It's a struggle. But I know that I've got to change, i've i'm pulling it back i mean if you would have met me in 2005 what tell me no i mean i just we'd be drinking right now yeah oh really day drinking yeah but then so yeah i mean i'm i drink at home but not like not like on the road

like i'll open a bottle of wine and start cooking you know yeah and i'll slowly drink from five to nine o'clock you know and then turn it off yeah whereas on the road i won't have a sip until we walk on stage yeah and i'm drinking from nine to one well that's the thing like that's like um i'm trying to do that too where like i'm not drinking or i'm not smoking weed during the day that's hard i mean that gets me in my mind do you ever do you get anxiety oh yeah yeah so I used to I used to have to to play and be like oh we're going on in 10 minutes and now it's like if I smoke weed and go out on stage I'm like literally what's the first line of the first I can't remember the lyrics is my fly down they don't

like this song oh I don't want to play guitar like Like, I'm in my head, you know? So, like, I'll smoke weed after the show. What show do you remember that was the worst show? With that? Just, like, yeah, you overthinking it. Oh, fuck, man. You still remember it? I try to push it out of my head. I think there was one or two in, there was one in Montana.

Bozeman, I want to say. And I got stoned right before and I walked out and I messed up right away and I kept making mistakes and I had no confidence. It was just like, I didn't want to look at anybody. I was just looking at the clock, like, get me out of here. And that's when I was like, okay, I got to shift. Yeah.

It is halftime at the Andy Fresco interview hour. Who I'd Go Gay For. Back to Who I'd Go Gay For. I'm your host, Ari Finlay. This week's guy is weird, okay? Most of you are not going to agree. This guy's been on my list for a long time. His name is Larry David. Okay.

If you don't know who he is, he's the co-creator of Seinfeld. He's a co-creator and star of Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO. He's very funny. And I want to suck his dick. Okay. He's fucking got a billion dollars. He's bald. He's got glasses.

He's not classically hot. Okay. He's really not hot at all, but he's funny. And that's what people don't under understand. They underestimate how attractive humor is. Okay. And you know that when I would suck his dick or, you know, fuck him in the ass, he'd probably say that was pretty, pretty pretty pretty good this has been another edition of who i'd go gay for i'm your host ari finling larry david i love you

i want to talk about guilt um oh we can do guilt okay because italians and jews you're irish irish catholic irish catholic italian catholic and but jewish my mom's from halfy and um who you said you did you have guilt a lot of guilt in your family dude growing up so uh growing up catholic my mom wasn't super religious until like the late like when we moved to notre dame And then it was like, she wanted us to go to church every Sunday. And it was like, she was trying to get us to pray the rosary as a family for a couple of weeks. And then people would start, like my brother would be like,

oh, I got basketball practice. And my dad would be like, oh, I got to go check out this recruit. You know, so like we'd all start kind of. So did you go with her a lot? Yeah, there was like probably six months maybe. Yeah? So. Were you like a good kid in high school?

Were you like a. No, man, I got arrested when I. I mean, I was a good kid like ethically. Yeah, but you got arrested. Yeah, I got. For what? I had a, it was prom night my freshman year in high school and my parents were out of town and I had a party and there were like 15 underage kids there.

15 underage? Yeah, and this one girl came that I didn't know, and I was trying to be responsible. I was like, you can't come. I don't know you. You can't come in my house right now. And she went and called the cops. And the fucking cops showed up,

and there was not a single car in the driveway. There was like 12 bikes in the backyard. And just literally like we're on the back smoking a cigarette and like the flashlights come in so like everyone runs into my house and whoever was the last person didn't close the door behind them so they just they just walked right in and we're all 14 years old hammered and they found everything and then i ended up having to go to juvie for every monday for shut the fuck yeah and piss in a cup every monday indiana's no joke like that no so here's what happened so um all these kids get arrested and the cops are like there's two things we can do you can either do this you put your kids in this program for six hours on a saturday and you

know this alcohol, whatever thing, or you can put them in every Monday for the whole summer. And my parents were like, well, we're going to teach him a lesson. Oh, they're pissed. Yeah.

Oh, super pissed. It was in the paper. Yeah. Dude. Yeah. Yeah. And my dad was like,

you know, yeah, your dad's important. He didn't need that shit. Yeah. So my best friend, Adam Budney, who was our first light guy,

he was on the road with us for 10 years. My parents and his parents decided to teach us a lesson, and we both have to do this piss in a cup thing every Monday, go to juvie, sit in like an AA meeting style with heroin addicts, thieves, like all this, and we're 14 years old kids, you know? And then I think after like the second or third week, they realized like, okay, now we're carpooling. Who's going to drive?

Who's going to pick them up? And it started to be a pain in the ass. But literally, me and my best friend carpooled to Juvie for a whole summer. Dude, you're like Snoop Dogg, dog. Juvie. So what was Juvie? You didn't have to do time. No, but you literally go and you walk through and there's like-

Every week? Every Monday. And it was like a two-hour class and you'd piss in a cup. And literally, we pissed in a cup the last time. And then I think Adam and I went out and like the next weekend, we're drinking beer on a golf course. We're like, nah. Did that give you resentment towards your parents for me them making you do that all summer at the time at the time it

did but looking back it was like i fucked up you know i shouldn't have got caught i should have let that girl in my house just said all right just take the boot but um now you have kids like looking back oh yeah do you think you would be pissed at them if they're getting fucked up? I did a lot of dumb shit, man. I got away with a lot of shit. And I feel like karma is a real thing. So I'm kind of worried about how it's going to come back to me. You know what I mean?

I know growing up, there's two paths. And I always took the, the I guess the more dangerous one and I feel like I see it in my middle kid like he's gonna be doing he's already lighting fires and dropping F-bombs

and he's six really yeah so so and I they can look up on YouTube and I've I've seen them like

search me and one time it came up I'm doing a a 20 foot beer bong from a balcony at the Vic. How old were you? This is Humphrey's first New Year, so I was probably 26 or something, 25. It was awesome. Yeah.

But my kids are like, Daddy, what are you doing? I'm like, let's not watch this. Yeah. And then I started to think about what else is out there on the internet, because I've some dumb things too oh yeah and it's been taped so so did they have you taken it out no you just keep let it ride your dad's a rock star they mean you know my dad's an aspiring musician rock stars are rich yeah so do you think like let's talk about that a little bit like do you think um the dangerous side you said you're attracted to the dangerous side of life what did you like about it it wasn't boring you know and

it was just like it just seemed more fun and like higher risk higher reward i guess i also listened to guns and roses right away and nwa and easy and like that's what it was all about was just like partying and especially guns and roses you know and it just seemed like more fun yeah you know than just staying home and studying like let's go blow some shit up yeah you know that's what you loved about rock and roll yeah right you wanted to be with your buddies and blowing shit up and taking a fucking beer keg from the top of the ceiling yeah you know it just seemed more interesting and uh i always kind of gravitated towards those people and you can't really i want to protect my kids but i can't i'm not gonna live their lives for them i'm gonna protect them and try and shield them from stuff

and hopefully not let them know the truth about me until they're 21. Yeah. Do you think that'll actually happen? I think with technology, you think they'll find out who you were a little bit younger in life? Yeah. I mean, I remember taking my kids to the zoo. My oldest is now seven

and he was about four. And we're walking through the zoo and some guy was like Bayless and I'm like oh hey and he runs up and he's like can I get a picture and and he walks away and my son was like who's your friend I was like I don't know that guy and he's like wait you don't know him but he knows you I'm like yeah and he was that's the first time like tilt his head like huh like okay my dad's a little different. So how did you explain that to them?

At the time, I just said, that guy pays our rent. Actually, the first time I explained it to him, he was like, what do you do? I was like, well, we're kind of like pirates. We get on a boat, we go to a town, we take as much money as we can, and then we get on the boat and we go to the next town. It's fucking awesome. That's a great analogy because did he understand that? Kind of.

But he was like, pirates are mean and kill people. I'm like, yeah, we're good pirates. We make people happy. They give it. We don't take the money. They give it to us. Oh, man. It must be.

It's like you really got to learn how to communicate, right? Yeah. Is it hard for you to communicate, right? Yeah. Is it hard for you to communicate early in your life or you always were a good communicator with the band?

With the band? Or anyone in general? How you feel? Yeah, I've always been, dude, I feel like I've always been like a wear my heart on my sleeve and I don't want to,

but it's just the fucking way I'm wired. And I mean, I'm sure you could ask any of the guys like i don't sugarcoat anything and you'll know if i'm happy and you'll know if i'm pissed yeah you know i got some friends and that come see the band and every once in a while they're like yeah you need to smile a little more and i'm like oh shit you know and so sometimes i'll go on stage and like force myself to kind of get into it and it's contagious and then it spreads around then everybody's feeling it and at the same time if I'm not feeling it I know that

I'm like a dark cloud and then it that amplifies too and it gets worse so it's back to being present yeah what are your pet peeves snoring science yeah okay Alex Jones my pep you know I have so many yeah which ones really irk you when you're

having a good conversation with a friend and someone just fucking barges in and interrupts and just pushes their way

into it and pushes the other person out yeah and I probably do that when I'm drunk

but that just that gets under my skin. One of my pet peeves, I have so many. When my kids just aren't, you know, when it's just, no! Like, do you like the hot water? Do you like the food? Thanks, Dad.

None of that shit. Is it hard? What about have you has the band ever almost broken up oh yeah we've had i mean i'm sure every band you know there's been moments where it's just like i remember in the early days in the van we'd play a gig and there'd be like 12 people there and we'd be driving home from te, just silent, staring out the window. And everyone's thinking, like, is this working? Like, what are we doing? And our original drummer, Mike, see, we started in 98.

In 2002, we're on tour. We just did Bonnaroo. We're, like, moving up, at least in our mind. We're going from 40 tickets to 50 tickets you know but we're on the middle of a tour and we're in Shreveport, Louisiana and we're all having

hot markets oh yeah dude fuck we're all having dinner not no we're all not everyone's there

some people are at another table two guys aren't even there and Mike says so guys I just want to bring up I think I'm about ready for some major life changes and we're all just like and he's like yeah i'm i'm gonna quit the band i'm going to

med school and we're like i remember dropping my fork and just like standing up and walking away and i was just like that's it this is how it ends i'm in shreveport louisiana at a fucking bar on a monday night and i gotta get back in the van with this guy play three more shows and then drive so at that point i thought we were done yeah you know and then i remember going back to the hotel it was like back when we had one room or we'd have two rooms for nine people you know so somebody slept on the floor every night really yeah and it usually was me i lost in rochambeau a lot yeah but um i remember i remember calling other guys and i said come here let's let's huddle up i if you guys are in i'm in i think we can do this if you guys

want to walk this is the chance to walk and if you want to walk now i won't take it the wrong way like because this is totally unfair for anybody so i understand if you want out was mike in this conversation no he wasn't in the room it was just me andy jake um joel and pony and it's just the five of us and was like if everybody's in we can do this and if anyone wants out get now there's the door and i won't be pissed and everyone's like fuck it we're doing it and we found chris myers he was the second pet we had all these promo packs to go through he was the second one we looked at what year was this 2002 no shit what happened to mike what is he he actually passed away a couple years ago really yeah for what of

what um it's kind of i think it was alcohol related um he kind of checked himself into a rehab and i think he came out and just went straight to the bar and um but that was two that was seven or six years ago i made peace with him and he yeah how was that like i was dude i was pissed you know i didn't invite him to my wedding you know and he was pissed that he wasn't invited and i was like you walked out of my life man see ya you know i didn't do this you did and some time went by and then i saw him at a bar and we ended up going back to my apartment staying up till sunrise and just like hugging it out and you guys live in the same town yeah chicago and we kind of repatched and he came and he sat in with the band a couple times and

so we we definitely reconnected but do you still feel it like he regrets leaving yeah i got his picture on my amp it says thanks mike and i look at every night when we're playing really yeah every night i still think about him yeah like Some of the songs we're playing tonight, we wrote together. Really? Oh, yeah. Ryan was saying that's one of his best buddies. Oh, he and Mike were the closest.

Yeah, Ryan took it the hardest because they were the team, the rhythm section. And he still stayed. Yeah. So yeah, he, yeah, it's fucking crazy. That is crazy. Do you think his his parents were um i think justified because his dad was a doctor and his dad was like listen if if you want to go to med school i'll pay for your med school i'll pay for your car i'll pay for your

apartment because he i don't think they thought the band was going to work. And to be honest, what are the odds? 90%, 99% chance you're going to fail. Yeah. Or he could be a doctor. So I think he got a lot of pressure, and he dropped, and he went to med school, and then he dropped out of med school a year later and tried to get back into music. He went to music school, and then he dropped out of music school.

And then I think he was just lost. So did you try then he dropped out of music school and then i think he was just lost so did you try to talk him out of leaving the band or was it right after that moment you're like um the minute he was like i want to i'm i want to go this way i was like fuck you yeah it just i mean it's probably hurt like yeah yeah it was heartbreaking man it's like it was like you know like you guys weren't making money yeah we were not making money so you're like you're grinding you're it's like you feel like your buddy's giving up yeah basically we would the way we would do it was we would make whatever we made that month and then we'd pay for all the rental of the house the all the utilities everyone would pay all their rent and then whatever was

left over we'd split up. And sometimes we'd go out and we... The first time we played in Philadelphia, we went to settle at the end of the night with the promoter, and the promoter was like, you owe us $88, you drank more than you earned. So we all had to pull our wallets out and pay to get out of the gig. How many years were you broke with this band before you started making money?

Oh, man. How many years were you broke with this band before you started making money? Probably the first four or five years. We all made enough to get by. An honest teacher's salary. But it was still month to month. I remember maybe three years in, I probably had $700 in the bank and I went to Vegas with Mike and Pony and I lost $700

I was broke so that's why you just stayed on the road yeah we had to man that was it so nowadays now the mind state is like is it maintaining?

Absolutely maintaining. I mean, I would still like to get better. Just talk business-wise. Oh, business-wise? Dude, I think success is just being able to sustain it. Like if you, my goal from the beginning was to never get a real job. And if I can drive around the country and play guitar with my friends until I retire i mean what

else can you ask for yeah you know maybe wife and kids yeah you know do you think um that helped you become the man you are now having kids and a wife yeah because it gives you a a whole sense of responsibility that you don't have otherwise there's no reason like today getting up early so I could FaceTime with my kids you know like if without that it's like why even go to bed at a decent hour because I could just sleep in till 2 p.m sound checks at 3 30 like there's no you know so it's good so you need that kind of that push and the kick in the ass to like yeah do your life because you would you said you you'd probably spiral right yeah Yeah, you know, I think without that, without that anchor, I'd probably be a mess.

Teach me about intimacy, cause I've never had a girlfriend. You don't like, we don't have to like touch each other. You just touch me. But like, is that hard, intimacy, when you're on the road and you're always away? Or was you just gotta find the right person? Well, it's weird because my first late like my first marriage um basically she was a senior in

high school when i was a freshman in college so this is this is way before the band so i was like once the first freshman yeah she was a senior yeah and she was my baby she was a senior yeah and she was no she was a senior in high school oh okay so so i wasn't in a band at all and then all of a sudden the band came and i was just like i gotta go do this and so i do you think that's why it ended yeah for yeah um but i think it was also like it was you know I was always gone. And I'd be home, but I'd be trying to write a song. Or I'd be talking about, I'd say, we're going to do this. And I'd be referring to it as the band.

Because that was my focus. But I think that was also a function of age. And when you're young, you're hungry, and you career driven, you know, like this is your time to get it, you know? Um, but being on the road is it's like right now, it's really hard being on the West coast cause you, the time change. Yeah. So you're from the West. I'm from LA, but I live in Denver now. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's a challenge, man. I think. So you got to wake up earlier. Yeah. Well, it's,

we're also on dad's schedule so like I can't sleep in that late anymore I just I'm wired differently now yeah oh so is sleeping hard for you oh yeah

I have to I take Ambien why because I lay down and I go to bed even at home yeah I take like a half

you think too much yeah I can't shut it off man I close my eyes and it's just like thinking about what I need to get done tomorrow what i didn't get done today go through my shame and regret list you know me too and then it's like 90 minutes go by and i'm still awake you know so what about like you don't try meditation or anything i need to start doing that for sure

i think it's funny. Like when our, our significant others or whatever do like the yoga, which would be so perfect, but we don't want to do that. You know, like it's, it's hard, right? Yeah.

I'm starting to do yoga though. I've, I'm at least once a week now. Um, I, cause I need to look good naked. Yeah. You gotta get that,

get that dick. Oh, I was waiting for the dick jokes, man. I was like, it took 43 minutes before I did a dick joke. I thought we were gonna open

with dick jokes. No, but, so are you happy? Yeah, I am happy. I am. I,

I still like, I'll walk around with just concern. You know, I'm, I'm just like, you know, how long is this gonna, you i'm lucky as shit i'm

aware of it but i'm always afraid like it's gonna you know people are gonna stop carrying or you know like not like it anymore then what you know like how long have you known al and that whole gang like how long have you known have you guys grown up together no well like touring wise like in your professional careers. Were those your guys? Mo was like our big brothers, man. They were huge for us, man. They took us out on the road, let us open for them,

and kind of gave us a bunch of opportunities and kind of told their friends about us. Wow. So you think they really helped you get to... For sure. For sure. And we cover one of their tunes. Which one?

Rebubula, which is like hard, you know? And I think they dug it, the fact that we were doing it, and kind of took us under their wing. What's the hardest song to play emotionally? Do you have any songs that you wrote about anybody that it's really hard for you to play? Any Mike songs? It's weird, you know? Yeah, it's really hard for you to play? Any Mike songs? It's weird.

Yeah, there's a couple songs about Mike, and that'll come up. Recently, there's one I wrote about. I think it's about Jeff Austin, if I had to guess. Was that your buddy? Dude, he was one of my best friends, yeah. Can we talk about that a little bit? How hard was that? Dude, that was a real, it's still fucked up.

I was supposed to see his wife today, but she's got the flu and she's got three kids, so she just couldn't do it. But did you feel like he was already going into a spiral? Yeah. I played a gig with him three days before it all went down, and he didn't seem right he didn't he seemed kind of weak his voice was weak his he was shaky and he just he would he was a kind of a

shadow of himself you know and i knew something was wrong and we talked and the last thing he said to me before when he walked away he's like don't worry i'm gonna i'm gonna go get help and i'm gonna i'm to take care of this. And I believed him, you know, but. Did he ever, was he ever vulnerable with you? Like, oh, he's your boy. Yeah, so he and I got divorced at the same time. So that's how, so we knew each other

and we were on the circuit and it was this big summer classic. We literally got basically the same time. So he and I just kind of bonded and went from like casual acquaintances to like in one night we're like do we just become best friends and then i ended up flying out to colorado we wrote an album together recorded a record and went on tour and are those songs hard to listen to yeah man yeah yeah they are because it's just like he's still there you know so you still feel him yeah

believing in that stuff yeah you know and it's just like it's a tragedy man it's what do you think the tragedy is is it mental health yeah addiction i think it's the it's all those things but i think he just didn't realize how much people loved him and i think like we did this benefit in colorado and there were like 7 000 people there and no mission ballroom did you go to that um prune field prune field oh yeah and i i remember thinking like dude if he saw this it'd be different you know he'd be here because i i just think he he didn't't realize how much love there was for him. And I think it's just a goddamn shame. Do you think it's about misunderstanding who you are and how you're perceived?

It's like that list of shames that we keep going through in our fucking head like we need to figure out a way to like push that in the past and be focused on now right well what you're doing is a powerful thing talking about it you know because i remember the other day you brought up doing this with me and i was like yeah but i don't want to get serious and i don't want to talk about jeff austin i mean i we have to you know yeah it's a mean, it's important to like, especially if that's your buddy. It's just a tough thing because Neil Casal too

and all these guys. There has to be a fight when you're in that van for 10 hours a day and you're by yourself and you're away from your kids and you're away from everything. Those are the moments where we start overthinking, I think.

Yeah, and you go down yeah you know and it's hard to when it's hard to pull yourself out yeah and then the show is like an addiction then it's like your only way of thrill so when you're home like what do you do yeah and i think it was hard for jeff because he felt like it was a lot of responsibility on him he started over you know and doing the whole thing where it's all on him and i think he just had a lot of pressure you know yeah well rest in peace my guy amen um brendan it's so good to meet you man and so good i wish i could say the same thing i know bro but yeah i take time i'm like a fungus you know like you'll start remembering me in about a month and a half like ah frasco that was a good time i miss you um but thank you

so much for being on the show thanks for being vulnerable uh let's leave with this one uh what do you want to be remembered by oh that's a good one what do i want to be uh for being just a nice dude somebody that actually cared about other people yeah thanks for being on the show thank you man love you bro love you Now, a message from the UN. Thank you, man. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be frasco. Don't let them drink whiskey or eat lots of drugs Let them be doctors and lawyers and such

Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be frasco Cause they'll never be home They'll be beaten off alone Even with someone they love Frasco ain't easy to love And he smokes lots of weed He'd rather give you some shrooms Than something you actually need Birkin socks, sandals, and old Lakers jerseys

Each night begins a new day If he doesn't text back and he don't die young He'll probably just crowd surf away. Mamas, don't let your daughters grow up to date frasco. Cause he'll cuss at Thanksgiving, smoke pot with grandma, and stink up your whole goddamn house. Mamas, don't let your daughters grow up to date frasco

They'll have lots of sex get it, she be be Blame it on her ex-boyfriend's mouth And there we have it. Thank you, Brendan, for your honesty.

Teaching me about relationships. He did teach me about relationships. Ryan Stasek, closing out the show with me. Third time. Third offender. Third offender. Dude, what's up, buddy? Feeling great.

Yeah? Are we having fun? Are we okay with your band? Fun is an understatement. Yeah? This is an experience. And it's been lovely. Man. Lovely. It's just been fun. This is an experience. And it's been lovely. Man.

Lovely. It's just been fun. This is the last day. We're in Seattle. It's just, you know, I've been commentating. This whole podcast is your guys' episode. So we've been commentating, doing our thing. And I love closing with you.

I feel like we bonded this week. I feel like I really got to know you. Yeah, I basically just did not think very highly of you until this week. And then I was like, you used to hate our band. I'm like, yeah, I was jealous. You're like, all right, cool. I was like, I'm going to give him one more chance.

Give him four days to prove himself. And guess what? You have succeeded. Yeah? Well, I hope we're friends forever now. Absolutely, dude. Absolutely. Good people always find good people.

But I will say, last night, we were in Portland in the encore. We had Al up there and all you guys up there and standing up on the amp and just playing old 80s tunes. Beyond genuine joy. That part, you can't script those things. It was fucking awesome. I like looking at people's facial expressions in those pictures of all of us, and we're all smiling.

Genuine. That's important, right? Absolutely. What about when you have bands open for you and stuff? It's great to have fresh blood, to be part of the tour, just to kind of get you out of the mundane a little bit. I just think good people's good people. You're going to gravitate towards each other and find each other.

You ever had shitty opening bands? Just assholes? You don't say names, but like just... Like they were assholes, people? I don't recall. I don't recall. Yo, let's talk about your comedy career. So we were talking about this.

I'm fucking funny. You are funny. But here's the problem. What? My wife reminds me this, that I think I'm funny. So I think I'm fucking funny, but that's like a one person audience that i that i know i'm 100 killing it and that's to me well who else do you who else

do you need uh well i mean if you're gonna go up in front of people you kind of need those people have you ever bombed ever i've never done stand-up comedy what about on stage on like i mean i've done i've done some i opened up for my mom as like an MC. But just real quick one-liners, funny stuff. I've never done professional three minutes, here's your time, or even open mic, go up and do it. Hold on, you opened up for your mom? My mom does comedy. I did comedy.

What? Yeah, if you go back to episode two. But tell me about this. Now that I know you, what does your mom think about your sense of humor? Did you learn your sense of humor from your mom? Through my mom, for sure. For sure.

So I was the kid who had HBO. My parents would go out and I would tape. She would make me tape the Rodney Dangerfield, all the comedy specials. And just any comedy special that was on. But this is, she didn't realize it was going to be Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Kinison. And I was young. I don't know, eight. So learning the D nursery rhymes and i just i was just always surrounded by comedy with her

i got to see george carlin i got to see a lot of comedy and she's it was always sending me and always had books and she was always telling jokes she could memorize really good jokes and i had a really good memory too so i would learn what joke do you remember of hers that she always used to say oh she has too many yeah she has too many but I ended up memorizing one

you know John Fox do you remember him no I don't John Fox had one about a teacher named Archibald Barrasol and it's a long phonetic syllable joke

about being a teacher and little I mean I memorized it and I would do that and I was always I've always been a person who's not shy where if you're at a party

and things are getting stale and stuff you know tell some jokes or something I would do that but I've never done a person who's not shy where if you're at a party and things are getting stale and stuff, you just tell some jokes. Or somebody would do that. But I've never done it the way you've done. I've never gone up on stage and had the balls to be like, here's my three minutes to have a bit. I'd like to. But the other problem is I think I'm funny when I'm drunk.

And then there's a fine line between drunk funny and going too far and being offensive or being a dick. Being an asshole, yeah. And I don't want to be an asshole. I don't want to do that kind of comedy. I want to be genuinely funny. Well, it's like low-hanging fruit. You know what I mean? It's like all the greats.

Like, who are your guys? Kennison? Kennison, for sure. David Tell. So why don't you think more comedians... Like, I just had a comedian on tour with me for a month.

It killed. Yeah. Like, do you think... Why don't they add more comedy with music? They did at Bonnaroo and it worked Because it was on such a large scale

I mean fucking Chris Rock Did the main stage Oh yeah You know Greg Giraldo You ever had a comedian Open for you guys Yeah

Who Great story In Chicago Oh he's in Broad City The girls What's his name Oh I don't know

We'll find out No it's on the tip of my tongue. He's got shows and everything. He opened for us at a college. Hannibal Burress. Sorry. Shut the fuck up. Hannibal opened for you guys?

Hannibal, I apologize if you end up listening to this and I couldn't remember your name. Yeah, he opened for us. And instead of, it was a college town in DeKalb, Illinois. And instead of announcing to like this college kid show that we were going to have a comedian, like Hannibal Buress just walked out and grabbed a microphone and everybody's like, what the fuck?

No one knew what to expect or anything. At least say, Hey, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the comedy of Hannibal Buress. Right? So all of a sudden on these young kids are like, um,

freeze. Oh, for the booing them. So he had to cut his set short. Shut the fuck up. No. And it was like, I'm free. I'm like booing them. So he had to cut his set short. Shut the fuck up. No. And he came downstairs and was like, you know, did nobody announce you?

Or they're just like, go. He just went out and just tried to do comedy to a bunch of drunk 20-year-olds. See, that's the thing. The comedian I had, Kyle, he's like, you have to, like me and Nick from Big Something, we'd walk up the first part of the stage. Thanks for coming to the Royal Rumble.

Listen, we're having comedy right now. And you have to, like, prepare people or they think they're just going to fucking heckle you. Well, that's the other thing, too, is when you come to see a rock show, the music's loud, people talk. People are fucking talkers. When you come see a comedy fucking show,

you're supposed to fucking listen to the jokes. You're supposed to, I mean, you've been to comedy clubs before. And then if you end up being one of those talkers the drunkies they rip you apart they'll kill you and how fun is that yeah i would love to do that too yeah i would enjoy some good crowd work yeah so why don't you like have you listened like todd barry does this thing where it's just crowd work he did a whole special to your podcast with him oh you did yeah he's cool man i think i mean, comedians have it rough because they're by themselves. They live by themselves.

They go to these comedy clubs. They play three nights in a town by themselves. I think it's just, it feels like it's a very lonely gig. I'm sure it can be. I think it's probably the most difficult artistic gig to do because making people laugh is not an easy thing. Even if you're genuinely funny, when somebody comes to a club and has to get their two drinks everybody's different it's i just it's way

different than music it's you and your jokes and your timing and then you're like ha make me laugh yeah at least with music you can be angry you know it's not just laughter it could be a lot of different emotions but man it takes balls and get up there and do that i think that's why my jokes work because i if I fuck up a joke I'm like let's play another tune you gotta quit quick towel throw in the towel

alright have you ever seen Kinnison live no I heard he was like opening for Metallica yeah I was young I mean I wasn't

I just remember that on television lots of dirty dirty comedy yeah okay speaking of making people laugh I talked to Brendan about Mikey.

Did Mikey make you laugh? Mikey was the character, man. He was one of the most hilarious fuckers in the world. Yeah, you were closest with him, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. What you've got to remember, too, it's college, and it's just out of college,

and you're touring. You're doing tour life in a suburban. You're running around the country all dirty and staying up late and having fun and just being silly dude was hilarious yeah because brandon told me the thing where he he there was like three days left the tour he's like i'm done i'm gonna go to med school and you guys all came in together and said well are we gonna keep doing this how hard was that for you because that

was your best boy super hard like uh uh hard at first because it's your reaction and then you have to sit in and think about it and actually think about it in his shoes be like why does he want to do this what are the opportunities he has and you know be respectful of him so once that part came to pass you know it's like okay i'm not being selfish about this am i sad am i nervous am i worried for sure those are honest feelings but is everything going to be all right? Absolutely. And do I want you to do well and chase your dreams? A hundred percent.

You're my friend. Yeah. I've never understood friendships where people root for them to fail. Yeah. Like I always want my buddies to do well. I don't want to hear of them fucking failing and be like, I knew you wouldn't do it. Like, well, you're not my fucking friend. You know, so I wanted him to chase down those dreams and do what made him happy. of them fucking failing and be like, I knew you wouldn't do it. Like, well, you're not my fucking friend. Yeah.

You know, so I wanted him to chase down those dreams and do what made him happy because really, if we're going to get to the bottom of everything, you just want to be happy. So you got to do

what you want to do or else you're not giving yourself a very good opportunity of being happy. Were you close with him when he was out of the band? Were you still his buddy?

I mean, it was definitely, it was definitely close and stayed in touch with him. Obviously, we all drifted apart because he went to med school and then went overseas for a while. And then he was trying a lot of different things.

So just basic things. When you don't live next to each other or with each other and you're traveling all the time, it's a lot more difficult to stay in touch just like any relationship. Was he a big part of the band? Did people know him?

For sure. Character. From the first four, when he was in a band with Joel, he was the character. Miro, drummer. Notre Dame's not a large school. No.

It was 8,000 undergrad and the music scene's not big. Yeah. I haven't been back in a while so I don't know how that's grown or not. But if you were in some of the playing bands and you were playing out of the bars, everybody knew each other.

How hard did it hit you when he passed? Brutal. Yeah? Yeah. Did he ever talk to you about any of his addictions? Oh, yeah. I mean, he was trying to get clean. I did talk to him a couple times when he was talking about not going

and then just always listening, just trying to be there. It sucks. You know, because you want to feel like you can do more yeah but what can you do real life yeah yeah like what do you how do you what would you say to people who are dealing with addiction have you ever with addiction um i have a very addictive personality and I have a lot of close friends and people in my life who do deal with it. I've never had a personal problem with being able to stop or say no or just like self-control style, I guess. But I don't know what to say.

I don't think it's fair that the way in the world that is treated as like a crime and being punished, I think it's more like a crime and being punished. I think it's more of a disease and a sickness. Yeah, you need help. Yeah, people should deserve help. Yeah. And getting sober is not an easy thing. No.

And I'm very – I'm paying attention to that for the people that need to do that into and even even guys in our band are sober and we're trying to be respectful i'm not trying to rub alcohol on their face and stuff all the time like we have conversations about it you know but you try to be as supportive as you possibly can but sometimes sometimes you just never know yeah you know you have no idea how deep people are into things yeah it's true because brandon was telling me it was like day drinking or like after his divorce and there's one time he was on a mountain or something y'all got in his grill about like tell brendan to slow down yeah he told brendan to slow down yeah yeah how hard was that to tell a brother to slow down um you know we're it's it's it's very much like storybook brothers

and we were at the bar a lot and hang out and stuff and we all talked to each other like hey man he's he's getting close to the edge we need to reel him in as a brother and be like let's let's talk yeah and um i mean he obviously opened up about that you know it was it was one of those times you just put the arm around be like you okay yeah and when he feels the love and the seriousness of everybody who cares for him looking him in the eye and being like yo man we're seriously worried about you. And then, you know, he was able to take steps. He woke up.

He woke up. Yeah. I think that's what it is. Communication. Support system. Support system and understanding that people need people to talk to. Listening is everything. Almost for everything.

How hard is it for you to listen? I feel like I'm pretty good. You good? Did it take time? I try to be conscious about it, though. Yeah. You know is it for you to listen? I feel like I'm pretty good. You good? Did it take time? I try to be conscious about it, though. Yeah. You know, like really, really listen. I think that's the first part of any sort of conflict

is you have to shut up and listen. You can have a rebuttal, but you need to shut up and really listen. Not just wait. Not wait for them to talk and not hear, but really listen. Yeah. And then present your side, you know.

I mean, marriage, relationship, band relationships, all of those things take that kind of work. And if you're blind to not listening or having honest communication, how are you ever supposed to progress forward positively? Yeah. Same thing with comedy. It's like listening to what you,

like Gary Goldman taught me this, like write down your joke, listen to it from your mouth and see where the funny part is yeah and it's all about communication with your audience like i just think it's so fascinating because comedy is basically an open dialogue about yourself with everybody yeah and that's kind of like music sure the freedom there do you ever feel like you're you're more you're the most free when you're on stage um i feel very confident and very happy up there i think that with with the music and the improvisation it's fun to go with comedy

i like when i'm buzzed and i improvise but if i was really serious about comedy I would definitely put the work in I would write the notes and the jokes and the timing and you know go through it to make sure that it's right

and not just winging it that's kind of like how you do your music you don't just wing it right no I don't wing it you wing it yeah

that's what I was saying that's what I was saying with the comedy if you're going to write specific jokes and the punchlines and how you're going to build up the stories

and everything behind them then I need to put in the work i just can't go up there and be like oh i've got these dad bits about being a dad you know i got a couple dad yeah and i've got like one or two and i got them in my iphone notes you know maybe this will be part of my bit when i do my my dad jokes um dirty dad jokes you know just things that that become relevant that i observe but i want to write notes about them and i tell my wife about them and she's like yeah that's not working that's this is good work with that so there i put a little bit of time but if i'm gonna do it and do like three minutes then i want to have you know i want to have a routine that's solid yeah but with improvisation if we go up and the song's open

i can't prepare for that i just be in the moment yeah and that i mean been doing it long enough to be like here we go you. Let's see what happens. That's why I love guys like Chappelle. Chappelle will just like, he'll go to a room and just do an hour of just talking. He can. He's one of the best. It's just so, I'm in love with comedy, man. Yeah, it's the great.

And it will talk about laughing. That's your best medicine, right? Yeah, I agree. great and it would talk about um laughing that's your best medicine right yeah i agree i used to i used to wake up in my bunk and make myself smile for 30 seconds to like work the muscles in my face to see if it would make me more positive not pissed off you know did it work i think it kind of does like if you're really pissed nothing's gonna work you know but wake up 10 deep breaths before you get out because you know road gets tired you're tired it's tired being on the road especially we've been going lately and stuff too it's hard to find your your rest and i was like man some deep breaths and then make my face like smile and be like everything's you know give yourself present

that sort of confidence and attitude that's gonna happen it doesn't always end up like that but at least when i get out of my bunk so it get up and I'm like, it's intention. Totally. Intention to smile. Intention to give life a chance to be positive. Just be positive. Yeah. You make me smile, bro.

You make me smile, dude. This is fun. Thanks for being here. Thanks for closing the show with me. Let's go rock it. Dude. We're crowd surfing tonight. I know.

I'm going to win. I know. You're wearing the Dominique Wilkins jersey. You want this dunk. I want crowd surfing tonight. I know. I'm going to win. I know. You're wearing the Dominique Wilkins jersey. You want this dunk. I want this. I might do a fucking windmill on the people. Don't think I'm going to fucking... I'm going for you. Don't think I'm going to give you this because

you're the fucking headliner. Okay, Stasek? I'm coming for that ass. I love it. Thanks for being on the show. Thanks for having me this week. I'll see you. You got any Doom shows you need to, you pushing? Doom Flamingo will be playing in Jazz Fest. Me too. Summer camp, yes.

And we are doing a local show in Charleston two nights. Trying to put out a Doom and a Flamingo EP. So dropping some new tracks. Like live? Playing live. Two live shows, yeah, but we got some new material. So yeah, I saw the openers pit the pansies dope. She's really fucking

cool. Awesome. Yeah, I met her on one of those cruises. We did, but that's it guys. Go go watch stay sick. Go watch his comedy career is going to be at the improv in Charleston, South Carolina holiday in at nine nine forty five happy hours.

But thanks for having us and thanks for welcoming us up. You guys are the best. You guys are the best. Love you. Guys, be safe. Comb your hair. Wear condoms.

Unless you want to have children, stay sick. Agree? I'm vasectomy. That's what I need to do. I need to clean my pipes. Get vasectomies. Does that hurt?

Does that hurt? Yes. Yes. That's a whole other podcast. Okay, need to clean my pipes. Get vasectomies. Does that hurt? Does that hurt? Yes. Yes. That's a whole other podcast. Okay. Next one. We'll start snip trips and start putting people on these vacations. That should be your halftime.

Snip. We'll just call it snip with Ryan Stasek. All right, buddy. Love you guys. We'll see you next week. Jared Joseph is on the show next week. You know, Jerry? Yeah.

That was a wild interview. All right, guys. Love you. Bye. You tuned in to the third season of Joyful Jabber at Andy Fresco's World's Heavy Podcast. Thank you for listening to episode 75, produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angel,

and Chris Lawrence. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes and Spotify so we can make this a worldwide phenomenon. For info on the show, please head to Instagram at world's heavy podcast. For more, film the show on iTunes and Spotify so we can make this a worldwide phenomenon. For info on the show, please head to Instagram at world-savingpodcast. For more info on the blog and tour dates, head to andyfresco.com. Keep on keepin'.

It's the new single. Listen to the motherfucker. Keep on keepin'. Everywhere you can stream music. This week's guest is Brandon Bayliss from Umphreys McG. Find him on umphreys.com. U-M-P-H-R-E-Y-S.

Umfries. This week's guest co-host, Ryan Stasek. Find them on umfries.com. This week's special guests are Sean Eccles, Andy Avila, Brian Swartz, Ari Findings, and Arno Bakker. And it's the end of the world as we know it. If it's not rising sea levels, it might be a war. If it's not that war, it might be refugees. If it's not the refugees, it might be a war. If it's not that war, it might be refugees. If it's not the refugees, it might be a virus. If it's not the virus, it might be the medical bills. If it's

not the medical bills, it might be lack of schooling. If it's not lack of schooling, it might be your stupid neighbor. If it's not your stupid neighbor, it might be a heartless banker. If it's not the heartless banker, it might be the stockholders. If it's not the stockholders, it might be politics. And if it's politics, well, baby, it's you and me. I put my trust in us. Don't let me down. It is the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine. See you next week.