Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 81: Anders Osborne

Episode Date: April 21, 2020

Living ever relentlessly in the Real World, Schwartz gives Andy some admittedly good advice to start the show. And we are ecstatic to welcome WSP show favorite, Anders Osborne to the Interview Hour! Andy and he talk on mindfulness and the perils that some folks who struggle with substance abuse face during this pandemic quarantine. Ahri reviews regrettable haircuts and Arno keeps it relevant. An old buddy and former piano teacher, Danny Zagayer shows & dishes out some good stories. This is ep 81 Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out Andy's new album, "Change Of Pace" on iTunes and Spotify Follow the man, the myth, the legend at www.andersosborne.com Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Brian Schwartz Ahri Findling Arno Bakker 

hey it's Schwartz Friday after your shit show last night I thought you did really really well thank you some notes and all you keep asking me for is sponsorship money and you know to find some partners and find some money out there you know we certainly have the numbers um but I'm going to say this again I want you to have. I want you to have the money from the sponsors. But who in their right mind is going to spend advertising dollars with you when you're, you know, doing mushrooms live on your Facebook? You don't need to do mushrooms in front of 50,000 people that are watching these videos. And you need to know that if you do that, you're not going to get any sponsors. So please just, you can't have all these expectations

and then not be a good partner. So be a good partner and I'm confident we'll find some sponsors. Thanks, dude. All right. How we doing, everybody? Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast. I'm Andy Frasco.

How's everyone doing? How's everyone's heads? Their hearts? How's the boredom? Is it kicking in? You know, we're a month in, guys. I know we're all trying to be fucking strong, but I got you, dogs.

I got you. But also, check out all this shit I've been working on because we're here to pump you up. It's Andy Frasca World Saving Podcast. Try to get you out of the darkness that is the media right now and trying to get you some conversations with some musicians and artists and entertainers that are worth something and that could hopefully get us out of

the weird, scary times that we're in. But check this out. Oh shit, you hear this? I got sound effects. Check this out. I'm going to remix. Wrong one. Oh my God.

Oh my God. Oh fuck. Woo! oh my god oh my god oh fuck woo okay sorry I got all these sound effects now someone masturbating I'm trying to keep myself sane through this madness you know I'm thinking about all those lonely people out there

Doing this quarantine alone and stuff And you know It must be hard And you're feeling like no one cares But we care And we're thinking about you You know I also think about all the old users

And the old Maybe relapsing Maybe hitting the sauce a little too much or getting back into things because they're nervous because they lost their jobs. I mean, we're not really thinking about those people as much as we should. I know we have to think about the elderly and the people who are sick and can't get good immunity, but we also got to start thinking about the people who are doing this alone, who might have mental health issues regarding depression in the past or alcoholism or all that stuff that might hit a relapse during this. So we're thinking about

you. If you're feeling lonely, hit me up on the Instagram. I'm here to talk. I'm just doing fucking videos and shit. And the shit show, which is fucking awesome. Shout out to everyone watching the shit show. Yeah, we hit 50,000 viewers on Thursday. And then due to 420 episode with Doug Benson and Mahali. And then this Thursday

we have Paul Hoffman from Green Sky. We have Marcus King and we got another special guest. Maybe Gary Goldman. So that'll be fun. Just trying to keep you guys entertained. My new record comes out this week on Friday, which I'm super excited about. I'm really proud of this.

I hope you guys go to Spotify or fucking YouTube or something. Listen to the record. Give it a shot. Maybe you never really liked my music, but you're here for the podcast interviews and that's fine. Maybe give it a shot. Give it a second chance. Maybe hope you like it. First record, big record deal. And I want to make sure that people, at least the first week, my label's like, oh, this guy just fucking bullshitted us into getting a big record deal. So shout out to y'all. Shout out to everyone who's been donating to the Venmo for this musician's cause, trying to get the band fed. It's hard times right now. And I'm trying my best to take care of my people because I've been looking at it. I had this realization today that I might not have a job until about September. And it kind of freaked me out. And I went through this. I still have this anxiety right now, this fucking shook thing. And then I talked to Anders Osborn this morning.

right now, this like fucking shook thing. And then I talked to Anders Osborne this morning and I kind of got out of that little anxiety web because everyone's dealing with it. And I think anxiety is just you thinking about the future or you thinking about the past and not actually being present with the moment. So everyone, let's take a deep breath. Everyone, if you're listening to this, stop what you're doing. Close your eyes. Take five big breaths. Keep taking deep breaths while you hear this masturbation sound. Because that shouldn't distract you

when you're in the moment. It distracted me. But seriously, take some time for yourself. I know we're thinking about all the stuff in the future when we're going to get out of this, but let's focus how we're going to appreciate this right now. And that's what Anders Osborne taught me. We got a great episode with him.

He's such a great guy. He's so philosophical. He's just a good guy, and's so philosophical. He's just a good guy and he's dealt with so much with addiction and having existential crises even through being sober and how we just talked them out. I really loved this interview and I think you will too. So ladies and gentlemen, let's start the fucking show. It's time. We're thinking about everyone. Stay focused. If you need to fucking scream. It's time. We're thinking about everyone. Stay focused. If you need to fucking scream, scream. I know this shit sucks, but if we could do this together,

just remember you're here. You have all these people around you doing the same thing. You're not alone. Keep on keeping on. You like how I did that? But I love you. I'm here for you. I'm serious. You call me, FaceTime me If you don't have my number, Instagram me I've been joining people's Zooms They're like, Frasco, you just joined my Zoom For a couple seconds I'm like, fuck yeah

So I joined the Zooms And tried to cheer them up Because people are sad right now And it's not just the elderly who are sad I think it's finally kicking into everyone now that this shit is real. So I love you. I'm here for you. Let's enjoy Anders Osborne. Let's enjoy the shit show. Thank you so much. I hope you're not sick of me. You've been seeing a shit ton of me on Instagram. Sorry about that. And Facebook, got a new record coming out. And

I'm just trying to do my best to keep everyone present and happy and thank you so much for all your nice messages about seeing what we're doing alright guys let's enjoy Anders and I'll catch you on the tail end alright next up on the interview hour we have Anders Osborne.

The fucking goat, y'all. Chris, play some Anders. Play some old Anders if you don't mind. Play Coming Down. This is one of my favorite songs. It got me out of doing coke excessively. And it got me out of just thinking about life as a party and thinking about it more of what you want to leave your footprint

with and how you want to approach relationships and whatnot. Anders is such a great guy. He's from Sweden. Moved to New Orleans. Crazy story about that. He tells me that at the end of the interview. Just an all in all good guy. I learned so much from him and I really respect him. I think he's one of the best songwriters to ever do it and for him to be so humble about it is something I look forward to trying to emulate

because he is the GOAT. So ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy Anders Osborn. And Chris, play this song for a little longer than we normally do. Because it's a beautiful song. All right. Love you.

This ain't no relapse. It's more like a bounce. Way up in heaven and back to the ground. Keep your arms wide open, baby. Yeah, I'm coming down. I've got the mind of an army In a single man's heart I might look like a wild one

But I will never, never, never Stray or fall from you So keep your arms right open, baby I'm coming down Yeah, you know I talk too much I got nothing to say I get deadly quiet When I really, really need your help

Keep your arms wide open, baby Yeah, I'm coming down Addicted to something that I can't touch It's like a giant abyss That I'll never, never, never fill up So keep your arms right open, baby Yeah, I'm coming down Yeah, I'm coming down

Like a man losing grace I'm coming down Falling flat on my face I'm coming down Like a storm through the clouds So keep your arms wide open, baby I'm coming down So keep your arms wide open, baby

I'm coming down Passion, oh passion Running through my veins It sets me on fire Yeah, it drives me insane So keep your arms wide open, baby Yeah, I'm coming down now Now everything's hopeless

You know this whole thing's in vain Unless I got you, baby Hold me again Keep your arms wide open, baby Yeah, I'm coming down now So turn on your love light and please bring me home What's the sense of dreaming when you're dreaming alone? So keep your arms right open, baby

Yeah, I'm coming down Coming down now I'm coming down like a man losing grace I'm coming down falling flat on my face I'm coming down like a storm through the clouds Keep your arms wide open, baby Yeah, I'm coming down Keep your arms wide open, baby. Yeah, I'm coming down.

Keep your arms wide open, baby. Yeah, I'm coming down. Coming down. Anders, welcome to the show, buddy. How you doing? I'm doing great. How are you? Good, man. Come on now Awesome. You had a little experience doing the podcast, I'm talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I personally like the quarantine. It forces us to take a break for a second, but I don't know. What about you?

What do you think about it? I've been all over the place, but first I was like completely, this is bullshit. Okay. This I'm not buying any of this. I'm all in with David Ike, you know, that type of shit.

We're being regulated. We're being put in our place. The cabals got us, you know? Yeah. And my concern, the first, like, this is right before I went to try to start my tour five, six weeks ago.

And so my whole processing of it was like, okay, my fear wasn't the virus. My fear in the beginning was in 24 hours, they basically, they changed everything. And then someone asked me, who are they? And I go, that's what's scary. I don't know. Once you know, but they said, well, you're listening to the experts. I go, where were these experts before? Like they just show up. There's an expert now that's telling me stuff on a news media. So that's where my head went first. Then I started to listen more and more, take it seriously. Some of my friends got sick. And I'll tell you another story about what happened to me as far as being sick in a minute.

So then I went through all that. And then two weeks into it, and I was like, okay, I got to help everybody. I got to pay my band. I got to pay this. I got to do all altruistic stuff. gotta we gotta save everyone then my anxiety sideswept me probably two and a half weeks into quarantining myself so at the end of march and dude as an addict and alcoholic i have a lot of issues but i usually don't get like severe anxiety panic attack i can be anxious. But this shit, man, it's like I thought I had it and I couldn't breathe. I thought I had a heart attack.

And it went on for six, seven days. Like everything was my vagus nerve was broke. And this was I had ruptured. I just kept thinking, oh, my God. And then all of a sudden I went, no, this is in your head. This is straight up anxiety so i started processing it differently and then i felt really good i mean really good meditated as usual but i took an extra you know 30 45 minutes every morning and spent an hour and a half

meditating and breathing techniques and cold showers and all kinds of cool stuff then it's been coming and going back and forth and then i went back to like i don't follow news but i try to get the word on where are we are we opening up you know so i i sample maybe news every other day i go in for and as soon as I see Trump or, I just, I screw it. Nothing new to see. Like, I just watch some headlines, and then I get out.

Yeah, Dr. Fauci. Yeah, somebody died. Somebody died. Somebody famous died. I go, I don't want to know about famous people dying, okay? It's okay. So, but, so all that stuff, that's been the process.

Now, last week, I've had some amazing meditations and i felt i i don't know i get these moments and glimpses of kind of just i guess it's, how do I put it? I feel the planet's love return to me or something. And the way I described it in one of the AA meetings I was in, it was, it's like, I got to split three, four seconds of the love I feel for the planet and the earth was given back to me in the exact same amount. And I started to cry while I was meditating and I was just, I was choked up and very overwhelmed. And I realized, and it sounds cliche, but literally the amount that I give, whatever I give in my existence as Anders here, in this personality, is exactly what I will get back.

The planet won't give me more love back because I couldn't handle it. My nervous system wouldn't be able to process that amount of love. I would probably have to, you know, ascend. So a lot of people talk about ascension and all this stuff. Oh, it's coming. I go, most of y'all, myself included, we're not ready for that. Our nervous system is wired in a very specific way for your particular journey and lessons and existence this time around. You can't jump into a Babaji existence unless it's what you're intended to do. So I think we need to,

let me rephrase that. What I need to do is to make good decisions minute by minute based on, you know, things that are good for other people, be of service and all that stuff. So to answer your question, I think nature gave us a little nudge and said, hey, we just need a break. We just need a couple of minutes. Why don't you guys just take a deep breath? Yeah. Right? And how more clear can you be than to take away our breath?

I know. That's what I'm saying. Like, do you think this quarantine is keeping us more present to the time right now? If you approach it with that in mind, yes. If you approach it,

you know, with fear, which is what I have on and off but it's getting a lot the last week has been a big change for me yeah there's a there's a lot less fear because the fear can sometimes be about your own death or if i die how does my family provide um will i suffer if i get sick there's a lot of a basic primal, you know, my, every cell in my body wants to survive. So it's, it's fighting for that, you know, against that fear. But, you know, if I feel the unity and the love and the intention of all things,

and I tap into our greater consciousness, I mean, I haven't known you very long, but I've known you my whole life, Andy. I felt that it's like that, right? It's very clear. Dad, I have hopes and I see glimpses of that is happening for all of us. We're all saying, you know what? I love you guys. Yeah, it's totally true. I think we needed this reality check to make us realize that

we're not bigger than we actually are in our body. We're trying. We're trying our best. And this is survival right now. And it's always been survival. Why do we have to overthink our lives? And why do we have to overthink we're bigger than we actually are? We're just people, man. We're just trying to survive. Like you said, your body is wired for survival. So with that being said, with your body being that way, how much stress is it to take care of your boys while they're off the road?

Is that a big stress for you? Or you've been finally accepting that this is just part of it and we need to start taking care of ourselves? Yeah. I think some of the altruistic side and the you can feel compassion without giving people money you can feel compassion without always having to sacrifice your own existence uh time today in my morning meeting with a group i had a good friend of mine out in la was telling me, there's a beautiful image of a guy with a big bag filled with money and he's giving it to everybody. And he keeps giving away the money. And then next to him is another guy with a huge big sack full of hearts and love. And he keeps giving out his heart everywhere. And at the end of it, there's the end result of what happened. The guy with the money ran out and at the end, he has nothing left. The guy with the heart has a hundred times the amount of love and hearts.

Yeah. And that's, yeah, keep going. No, no. And so I think, to answer your question, I think there's a lot of, you can spend time just talking on the phone. You don't have to find all these great causes that you have to show the world. Like you said, I am really great still. I'm not just drawing a lot of people to my private party five times a week when I'm touring. Because you can't really fill that insecurity and inferiority. That can't be filled with other people's acceptance. You have to work on your own self-acceptance and then you can share of that to

your band members and managers and booking agents and restaurant clubs all that you just have to share it together and if somebody reaches out and they need a hundred bucks i go let me take a look and see what i got and you send them that yeah but but But this format of just consistently, which is what we as musicians have been trained since the beginning of our careers, if there's a benefit, yep, I'll do it because it makes you look good. You're supposed to look good at all times. You don't have to look good. You can have shitty hair on a Sunday morning.

You can be hungover or you can be in whatever state you want as a musician. Why do Americans put musicians on such a high pedestal? That makes us feel like we have to be perfect. I think what comes to mind are a couple of things. One is we have assumed the role of being the perfect host, because I do think that live performances has become like massive events they're not just the live performance to pay your bills yeah their live performances have become giant events they're supposed to gather thousands thousands of people are supposed to come to see you and hear what you have to say. And then you're supposed to deliver this, I mean, literally in the words actual meaning, a fantastic and out of worldly experience is what is being almost asked of you yeah and

then you have so that i think that the perfect host is one of the syndromes we have and we don't i think you it's better to look at people that also fail some of the session players that i love are not always perfect you know i'm not going to mention names but they come in and they're not always great but when they're great it's unbelievable the stuff that comes out every once in a while yeah same same with writing uh playing a guitar solo that fumbles and falls on its face. Yeah. The pants fall off you and all the embarrassing things. You have a small dick or a bill, whatever it is.

All that shit. Yeah. And that's in a guitar solo or a sax solo. We think it's a failure. Yeah. I think that's the glory that's a human experience and it's actual true art form

we have to expose those imperfections yeah I totally agree I feel like why are we living we're not perfect people in general so why are we putting that pedestal into our music?

Yeah. You know, like people, we take, I think we take music so seriously, and it should, I mean, it is a serious thing, you know. It is about entertaining, but it's also about finding the words to express who you are and, like, how you want to be remembered when we go. So do you have, do you feel like this syndrome like you have this syndrome, this perfect host syndrome?

Not as much anymore. Fairly recently, to give you a little quick, in 2017 in August, end of August, I was getting ready to hit another tour. I was going to meet the bus in Missoula. And for the first time in my life, I just fell to my knees in the front room. My son was there and my wife. And I just started crying hysterically. I just started screaming and weeping. I was like,

I can't go. I can't go. I can't do this anymore. I can't do this. And I couldn't quite explain it, but it was like a breakthrough and a breakdown. And something in me just broke. And I said, I can't do this anymore. And my son hugged me. And it was a young teenager. He's like, Dad, it's going to be okay. You're going to be okay, Dad. It's okay. And all of a sudden, inside that kind of break, another voice inside of me says, hey, you're a grown up. You're a man. You got to go work. You got to go do your thing. But you're going toup, you're a man, you got to go work. You got to go do your thing,

but you're going to make some changes from now on. You can't, this is not how you do it. This is wrong. You got to adjust now, but you got to stand up, go to the airport. It's time to go to work, be a man. So I just like, okay. So I approached it differently. And I call that same day, I called a new therapist. And I figured out who I needed, what type of therapist and age, gender, the whole thing. And I said, okay, it's time to get started. I got to figure stuff out. And I went in there and I still go see this guy. And have I made all the changes I want? Far from it. But that was the first change where I understood that I have the freedom and the power to design my own existence. I don't want to play. I'm not going to do things that are not suitable for, first off, my personality, my character, and also they're not playing to my strengths because I'm here to serve. So to answer your question, since then, I've made adjustments.

I feel the pressure sometimes, but I think part of the things that are, you know, stuff like a lot of times we talk about a certain venue in our business. You work at that venue. You draw a certain amount of people to that venue, you have a certain amount of two buses and a semi or one bus and a big trailer or crew, everything has to be in place. And that's where you're striving for. But I haven't heard many people talk about, well, my dream scenario is a really dark, dark, dingy 80 capacity coffee house where I get to play in a surround sound 5.1. And I only invite people that have been divorced or like they're not specifying what they're looking for and what they want and who they're trying to reach. They're just approaching it like I want everyone to love me as much as possible, and I will show that I deserve to be in that position.

Which means that when you have the road cases from live at Fillmore East, and if you don't have that, if you grew up looking at that cover, you keep failing until you have that. Or if you're looking at live at Budokan, and you never get't have that, if you grew up looking at that cover, you keep failing until you have that. Or if you're looking at Live at Budokan and you never get to do that, then you fail. See, the thing that I realized is if I keep looking at what someone else has accomplished, then I'm not living the life I'm destined to live. I have to first start with my own intention to figure out what would serve me well

and the people that are into the same stuff I like. Same music, same lyrics, same experiences, and same personalities. And then you can expand from there, but you see where I'm going with this? Yeah. Do you think that triggered your existential crisis in the bus in 2017? Because you were expecting everyone, you got to be perfect, you didn't know who you were, really, and who you wanted to play for in your next part of your career, right? That was it.

And I think what started was a midlife crisis. What happened? I think the number one thing I was realizing is that I was a guy in recovery and my new found success had been based on the fact that I was in redemption and recovery and I struggled. My lyrics were struggling and I was revealing all the struggle and it was over and over. So that had started to become a mantra and a new script. Instead of being the party guy, I was now the recovering redemption guy. And seven,

eight years into singing that same, I'm living in the mind of a junkie, you kind of go, no, but I'm not. Why am I singing this over and over? Why am I keeping the same mantra of self-realization over and over and over? Habitually, I realized, no, I'm changing. I don't want to be that. I want to sing soft, not just heavy, enormous martial stacks and blow people away, which had also become a thing. I'm like, I grew up with James Taylor and Joni Mitchell and John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Clifford Brown and classical music. So all these things became a little bit more in the forefront.

It was time to explore, okay, so you're in your 50s. What do you want to talk about? How do you want to sound? And what kind of life do you want? Do you want 150 dates a year or do you want to talk about? How do you want to sound? And what kind of life do you want? Do you want 150 dates a year or do you want 80? If you do 80, how do you make a living doing that? I don't know. Let's think about that. So all those things, yes. So that's kind of where the process started. And then you start also looking at, do I have enough mentors in my life or am I the only top force driving everybody? And I think I had too many people that I was teaching and dragging along and I needed more serious mentors, people that I looked up to and I could learn from on a daily basis.

So I started to look for that and reach out to people like that. And I try to get a balance of peers that are sort of in my place, people that I can teach and help and people that I can look up to. And then the more I balance that, sort of the more balanced and in harmony, I think my both personal and professional life becomes. Yeah, you know, because you keep on talking about how in 2007, that person who talked to you saying, you're a man. Own your life. Don't have anyone else own your life.

That's it. So when we finally own our life, we're actually happier, right? Oh, it's amazing. It's crazy. I know. It's the simplest thing. I just talked to my wife she was so cute she was okay i'm gonna really listen after 20 years together she's like okay i'm gonna take notes okay i'm like okay i talk i talk a lot about myself and she's like okay i'm gonna really give you this i'm like and then she came back with some of the most amazing observations. But it was about that too.

It's this false idea I have of not being free because I hand over my freedom. As a people pleaser, I get my self-soothing through other people's affirmation. And it doesn't work that way. Yeah, because I think we're trained to be that way because all we are doing is trying to entertain people the whole time so like we stop thinking about what we want to do as entertainers and we're thinking about what we think they're gonna like as entertainers yeah and that's i think that's the hardest part about understanding self and like realize like i'm

like i had this thing for 10 years about being the party guy and everyone like i'm the party guy on the party but i grew up listening to like bob dylan and folk music and damian rice and you and just people like coming down was one of the song one of the records that got me into music anders i just want to like thank you yeah for real For real? For real, for real. Sean Eccles, my guitar player, put that. He's like, you need to listen to this. Because I was going through a really heavy, heavy just taking drugs and just partying. And I listened to that record. And it woke me up saying, I don't need to do this anymore. People like you are surviving. So thank you. Really, seriously record was is has changed my life

and i really appreciate you so much for you know keeping me going because you know i i'm the same way where i don't have a stop i just go until i'm tired and i'm beat up and then i'm in this existential crisis that oh fuck i'm done i don't want to do this. I'm just like, I give everything out, you know? Yeah. But that's just not controlling who I am and the destiny I have for tomorrow. I'm just giving out all, like that's a great analogy about money.

Like the person who gives out money all the time is end up broke. But the person who gives out love all the time is still full. So what about, how do these people who have these addiction problems, like you're going to these AA FaceTimes, right, or AA Zooms. I feel like this is a time where people start relapsing when they realize their job's gone.

And like, can you talk about that a little bit? Because no one's really, everyone's talking about the old people, the older, not old people, the older people uh you know getting unhealthy but like what about the people who lost their jobs or don't have any and they and they were addicts and do you do you get a lot of are you hearing a lot of stories like that yeah a lot of relapse uh i don't know i mean i i don't know if I have the answers. I just think that I was listening to, I think it was Ram Dass, some old recording of his, but he was talking about, because Krishnamurti talks a lot about fear and fear itself and not the fragmented parts of fear, which is fear of having no money or fear of being alone and all the separate

small little fears we have. And Ram Dass, I think it was Ram Dass that said, you have to really embrace and accept fear because fear is the natural state of being separate, of individuality. When you embrace individuality and separateness, you are in the state of fear. That's the way it survives. It's the only way that you can be separate. So it's a healthy reaction to being separate and different and individual. All the things that we glorify are the state of fear. This was a quote,

so I'm just, but it resonated with me tremendously. So in order to combat fear, you have to stop being separate and you have to really approach moments like that with unification, which leads me to your question. When you are in a state of relapse or you have picked up again or you just got out of rehab or you've been sober two years and God damn it, why the fuck am I drinking again? Just know that it's okay because you're in a state of fear you feel isolated separate and uh that's the actual also the physical reality of where you are you are now separate yeah you're not unified. So you have to put more effort instead of fighting the fear. Worry less about the fear and the drinking and the drugs and start spending a little more time on unification with others. only know what you know. And it's a really simple, almost cliche statement. But if you think about going to the internet to Google something, you will Google what you want to know, which is based on your knowledge. So you're in a reverb chamber. You're not learning anything new. You're just

learning what you want to learn. If you speak with other people, they will resonate from their echo chamber and it'll be new information. And you'll start to unify because you hear things that are the same. So I think that the best thing you can do is don't beat yourself up over a relapse. Embrace it for now and go, okay, I'm going to make sure I survive it. I'm not going to OD. I'm not going to drink myself to death. If you have kids, family obligations, stay true to those because they're important. People need you. People always need you. They need you. You have to remember that you're not unnecessary, But spend a little time on, a little more time every day on unification,

to feel united, to be one with all things. Think about the planet, how much it loves having you here. Yeah. Even if you don't think so, but it does. You come from this earth, you didn't come to the planet. Yeah. It didn't ship us in, we came from it. Yeah, you're right.

And it's also the same thing of we think, like you said before, you're writing songs about being an addict still at 50 when you're not an addict. So it's this idea of we're never going to change. And once an addict, always an addict? Is that kind of like this mind state of

we're not living present? We're living in the past when we were addicts. So our brain is telling us that we're still addicts when really we're not. All you have to do is just start being present and snap out of it, right? Brilliant. It is halftime at the Enni Fresco interview hour. Welcome back to Review. I'm your host, Ari Finling. Today, I'm reviewing cutting your own hair. I did it last night, and I will tell you, it is the biggest mistake I have ever made in my 33 years on God's green earth.

And I say that having paid for sex in a third world country. Do not do it. Don't make the mistake that I made. I look horrible. I look like Edward Scissorhands. My wife won't look me in the eyes. My daughter does not know who I am. Don't cut your own hair. You have no reason to do it. You're not going to see anybody for like another 17 years. Just start wearing bandanas. Start wearing headbands. If you've had a fedora that you've always wanted the confidence to wear, do it. You got a sombrero, do it. You got one of those Chinese rice farmer hats that are pretty racist to wear, wear that. You'll look like you're in Mortal Kombat, okay? Most videos of you shoot lightning out of your fucking fingers. Nothing

matters. Don't cut your hair. Don't make the mistake that I made. This has been Review with Ari Finlay. Don't cut your hair. Don't make the mistake that I made. This has been Review with Ari Finlay. Don't cut your fucking hair. This is our time to be artistic, right? Because we're stuck in our houses. Why can't we? Have you been artistic through this? Yes.

It took me a minute. It was very hard first. I started about four or five songs, and then I realized none of the lyrics i was coming up with were relevant to anything they were like because and i think it took me about three four weeks to realize i don't know what to say about this because I don't know this. So if I started to say things, it would be about my feelings and emotions. And I felt like I don't know how relevant they are right now to anyone because I haven't come to the point where I have anything to reveal except for fear or anxiety or lack. And I don't think that wasn't a healthy place. But I have been creative.

These streams I do every other week, we think of things that we can involve my fans and other people so they can feel really included in a moment on a Friday night. I have now started writing. I've reached out to a few of my friends who were co-writing via FaceTime, which I love it, it's fun. Started to write songs that are based on when I come back out. So some epic big rock numbers

and how we're all going to sing along on this one thing. So it's a cool moment for me, because I haven't done that in a minute, where I think of these anthem-like moments that we're going to have together. So it's optimism for the future. Oh, yeah. I think this is going to be amazing. I think it's easy for me to say not being on a respirator or having my family members go through it right now. Yeah. But I must say, you know, when this is all said and done, I really hope that, yeah, that we have, I don't just hope, I have complete faith that we'll be in a pretty spectacular place, at least for a few years.

Yeah. I think it will resonate for a few years. Do you think you're, because through this, have you been getting to become closer with people that you never thought you'd be closer with? That's a great question. Yes, I have. Like who? Explain.

Like what? Like, you know, because we're musicians, so everyone is on different time schedules. When we're all stuck in the same room, we can finally get to talk to our mentors, right? Yeah. Jonathan that started to play guitar with me right as this happened, Jonathan Sloan, he and I talk pretty much every day. He's in his early 30s. He's a monster guitar player.

Just so good, man. And I've invited him to co-write with me and then we kind of share so his amazing chordal idea like there's all kinds of stuff happening there but we are both in recovery so we have this really honest beautiful connection there's also a owner of a music store in town called international guitars yeah vintage guitars uh steve and steve and i have a gratitude list he sent started sending to me three four weeks ago so it's seven in the morning i go good morning i love you i love our connection today i'm grateful for and he goes down and i'm like oh so every morning if he's not there by 8 30 i'm like hey hey i'm grateful i'm like desperate i'm feeding for my gratitude i mean

come on man i need my damn gratitude yeah how important is that oh it's so beautiful it's really it's it's changed a lot i'm gonna keep to keep that up. I mean, I love that. Just first thing that comes through my eyes, my optical sensors are receiving gratitude the first thing in the morning. It's amazing. Yeah. It's great. How long did it take you to receive gratitude, do you think?

In this event? No. Or in your life? Yeah. I think it was part of my recovery. I think in rehab week four, I had a breakthrough. And I think it was a form of gratitude. But we call it playing the tape through, where basically the film starts playing in your head.

the tape through where basically the film starts playing in your head. And in my case, I started to see everything from being 11, 12 years old, drinking for the first time, thrown up, and then the whole sequence up till that moment where I sat at the rehab. And I realized who I actually was, what I had actually done, and all the lies I had told, the exaggerations and the pretending, this enormous damage I had done. And I cried so hard for over three hours. I just couldn't take it.

I kept screaming. I wanted the tape to stop playing. I couldn't take it. I kept screaming. I wanted the tape to stop playing. I couldn't see it anymore. Just things I had done that I don't want to maybe bring up too much personal, but it's just horrible things in my addiction all the way since I was young. It wasn't just the last seven, eight years of hard crack smoking or anything like that. It was like, smoking or anything like that. It was like, no, this was throughout my life. And I felt this sense at that moment of, and all these people stayed with me anyway. I cannot believe this. I mean, because they see deeper. They see deeper than just the addiction, maybe. What do you think? What's your analysis on why do you think these people stayed with you?

What do you think? What's your analysis on why do you think these people stayed with you? Yeah, I think you hit it. They are further along in their evolution and development. Even if they don't know they are, they are. They just, they're not. Sometimes it's fear. They stay because they're very fearful.

So you create a codependency. But some people that are staying with you they're with you because they just they know that you're beautiful yeah and they trust it's gonna it's gonna come around and they just they're patiently waiting I don't know how they do it but that was the first time and it's you know it's given that little seed I've gotten the opportunity. And I have to thank AA and NA and the programs. It steered me into directions that I now find the same unbelievable people outside the rooms, the AA rooms. You don't have to be an addict or alcoholic to have that depth and that ability to help me. I just see it in other people, and I learned that from those rooms. Yeah, I bet. Why do you think people get into substance abuse so early on in their life?

It's a long and a short version. I think one version of it is, you know, they say that scientifically, so your mind, body, and your soul, the unconscious of you starts its development. The first six years, seven years are very important for what's called the id personality or the the base brain right the reptile that which is the foundation and also the existence of your unconscious or subconscious an adult. It handles all your, basically your, your habits, your reactions, your emotional reactions, your, uh, you know, uh, your way of handling and coping with things. your way of handling and coping with things.

So if you think about what we all go through the first six, seven years of our lives, if you've been told no maybe 110,000 times, and no is that's how you're wired. If you've been told you're a piece of shit or why did I have you, you can imagine what that did. If you've been dropped off at daycare from three months old. Now you're a people pleaser because every day you're with a stranger, not with your parents. Yeah. Which is very common for our generation. We get dropped off. Both parents work. And that's a big part of me.

So every morning and some of those situations were not very good. There were some abusive stuff in some of the daycares I was in, some of the private people. Now, that has shaped me into being afraid of adults, grownups. It shaped me into not trusting to be myself and be loved for who I am. I have to adjust to the new family every three to six months. Wherever I am, I have to be fitting in with them. That's called people-pleasing. Well, that's how I function. So I think when you discover things like drugs, sex, alcohol, whatever it is, where you don't have to be that base brain, you don't have to be that base brain. You don't have to be that part of you that is so pre-written and so habitual in its script. And for me, when I drank and all that shit went away, I went, bingo. This is good. I can be a jerk. I can be funny. I can laugh at my own jokes and people laugh with

me because, man, he's cracking himself up. Oh, shit. And all of a sudden, it was all good, right? So why would I not want to do that? Yeah. Especially when you're lonely. I felt like you were lonely when you were a kid.

Lonely is a big one, too. You're right. Isolation, fear. Yeah. I also think it's different. Some people talk about, well, how do you stay creative when you're not using? And I go, well, I did a workshop in New York in January, and this came up. And I was like, I think for me it was different. I was so creative all the time.

I was fantasizing and imagining, not just creating great stuff, but bad stuff. I was constantly weaving and, and, and waving through different paths in my brain. My brain was my addiction to constantly think stuff up. And if I wasn't writing or painting or building or creating arguments or discussions or everything, politics, reading books, it was, and that was exhausting. So when I started to use, all that shut off. It was like the off switch where I went, oh, it's so quiet up here. I love it. Thank you. So, you know, and now I use meditation and exercise to accomplish a similar sort of quietness.

But yeah, so. Do you think because of this idea of not liking adults younger that you didn't have the acceptance of being your own man at 50 when you had this existential crisis during 2017? Wow, that's deep. Wow. Because you talk about this thing like the're the inner voice because i have that too sometimes when i'm sad i'm fucking just low all of a sudden this guy comes in from my soul say listen we got this you gotta just stand up that's i think that's the inner man or inner woman yeah in you yeah yeah so like for you to finally accept the advice that this man who's always been in there and it took thank god i mean

thank god you found it fuck yeah i'm gonna clap for you hold on here we go okay do it yes thank you thank you i got a soundboard thank you but you know what i'm saying like maybe that maybe that was it like maybe you finally accepted that hey i'm a man and i need to take care of this family at 50 i mean you probably were always doing that but maybe you didn't see it no no i think wow that's too i think there was there's a what you just said basically is saying i had a self i had a built-in habitual rejection towards my own grown-upness. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is some serious lingual right there.

But yeah, I just think you're totally right. And I think it's a big part of rock and roll is to not, I'm never going to grow up. And I'm like, but grown-up is different. I'm never going to grow up. And I'm like, but grown up is different. I'm middle age. Yeah. You know, if I look at a 23 year old girl, it's because I am still a boy looking. Yeah. But if I'm a grown man looking at a woman or whatever you're attracted to, man, women,

whatever, if you look at someone from your essence and your soul and your heart, you'll start to fall in love with 82-year-olds because of their glory and the light coming out of them and their wisdom or their beautiful wrinkles or their experience. so I guess what my answer would be I've never thought of that but I think there was a big part of me being a grown up that I've totally tried to reject and push away for as long as possible and I think you're right I think I came head to head with the fact that there's some shit you're just going to have to do you're just going to have to do it whether you like it or not.

Yeah. But I think we have to learn self-soothing in a healthy way. You have to go to yoga retreats. You have to go for walks. You have to eat good. You have to spoil yourself with too much ice cream. You have to do all kinds of shit. ice cream you have to watch like you have to do all kinds of shit if you if you're a good healthy drinker normal drinker you gotta have a stiff drink sometime at 11 30 in the morning

yeah yeah if that soothes you for a quick like it's okay but there's so many things that we tell ourselves we're wow i shouldn't no yeah no man it's it's that's i don't have time what do you mean you don't have time? You got this one life. Yeah. This is all you got. This is what you got, man. Every time you come back, you're not going to come back the same. You're going to be something totally different,

and you probably won't even remember this. Yeah, it's true. So with that being said, why are people still scared to live? Well, because you have to be responsible. I mean, I watch so many people say, man man i wish i could have your job man it's always been my dream i go no it hasn't yeah you would have freaking done it that's not your dream at all your dream is security your dream is family your dream is a big house you do you got lots of other dreams but this wasn't your dream i never dreamt about

being a musician it's just what i did it's a big difference when you just do it it's just what you do yeah but i created the dream how to do it as i got older but i wasn't a kid dreaming up you know scenarios of me being famous i've never had dreams of fame. I had dreams of creating amazing music that made me feel like the people, or that made other people feel the way that my heroes, whether they were Picasso or authors, movie directors, sculptures, musicians, they made me feel something. I want to create that too my dream was yeah what was your dream tell me no it's my dream it's to to create things

i think i to be brutally honest which is i think the only way to be most of the time uh true it depends on what happens but um to be most of the time. True. It depends on what happens. But there is a, people ask me what I listen to. I say I listen to other people's music accidentally. It comes around and I go, wow, that was beautiful. Or it's usually things from the past. I don't look up new music and strive forward.

I look for the new experience in the art form of music through my own self. Yeah. Which means that my favorite music is my own. And it's taboo to say that. Yeah. You know, it's taboo. People say, wow, that's weird. I go, no, why would you think I do this?

So I can compare myself to other people? That's ludicrous. I'm seeking the perfect emotional expression in the art form, which means I'm obsessed with my creations. That's what I'm doing. I'm creating. I can't get the joy out of this. And each time I don't fulfill that creation, I get inspired to try again. Let's do it again.

Let's make another record. Let's write another song. This is awesome. Wow, I got close this time. That's going to be good next time. Why does society make us feel like thinking this way is pretentious or ignorant? I think it's because a lot of society brings me back to your first question about the great host. We express other people's emotions because we live in that landscape. We are wired empathically in such a way that we kind of dwell in that narcissism of our own emotional ecosystem. We're like, okay, what does that mean? That feels this way. And then we have an ability and we've worked on the craft of expressing it. They've worked really hard at other things in their life, so when we present this, they get to feel it without having to spend 25 years learning the craft.

They get to just instantly feel it. Yeah, yeah, I hear that. If we take pride in that, it goes back to, I think, biblical stuff. Yeah. I think it just goes back to Victorian society of structure of, you know, to be humble. And it's okay. You don't have to be bragging about it. But I think it's okay internally to go, my favorite music is my own.

And if it isn't, and you're a musician or a songwriter, you need to work on your craft because that's the goal. You need to love your own stuff. It's okay. Yeah. It's like loving yourself. Oh, man, it is, man. You know?

And when you do that, you love others more. Yeah. You have more to give. You go, that, man, is amazing. Yeah. Like the song you wrote for Gary, that piano song, it's like unbelievably good. You like it, man?

Oh, it's incredible. I'm going to send you the record when we're done with this conversation, my new one. I want to hear your intake on it because, you know, like I started writing lyrics. I focused on not writing the song for the party or the groove, but to write songs for the experience of why I feel. Wow. Going back to that, you talk about when you were a kid, it wasn't about being famous.

It was writing the best music you can. So go back to 2017 where your focus is now to be famous in a bus, in the trailer. How did you get to that point in your life? You're sober. I mean, you should have explained that stuff. Maybe that's why you had that existential crisis because in the beginning, you're like,

I'm doing this for the songs, not the trailer and the big old tour bus and shit. No, I got, I got enchanted into my new addiction, which was now success. Success became the, it was where I put all my effort. So I worked extra hard and I feel like my wife said, you know, this morning she said,

your self-soothing took a different shape. Once you lost that self-soothing of drugs and alcohol, you're looking for whether you're overeating, overexercising, overgymming it, overmeditating. But you found above all was success, the love of others, the masses to approve of you. with success the love of others the masses to approve of you and you know i used to remember as a as a drinker active addict that i was like fuck it i don't care i'll play for 80 people in a local bar it's all i need and i meant it i really meant it Now, people on the outside say, dude, look how far he's fallen. He used to fucking pull 1,500 people in New Orleans. Now he's playing at that little dive bar. But inside, I was perfectly content.

I really was. And I think when I had the breakdown. During your addiction? Yeah, my addiction, I was fine. But it also took away some essential building blocks of existence. Yeah. Which is you have to take care of yourself. Yeah.

You're no good to anyone if you're not taking care of yourself not only yeah it's not even about if i die that probably be a relief for most but it's the burden i am on everybody else's life yeah that's i mean do you feel like that's the pressure and you're worried about how other because when we die we don't know the aftermath, but we're going to deal with that with others, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy, man. Yeah.

Are you afraid to die? Some days, yeah. I'm actually more afraid of not living enough, I think. I'm actually more afraid of not living enough, I think. I don't want to go before I've actually reached some sort of, I don't know, some intangible moment of, okay, I did it. Yeah. I did my living. Yeah.

Yeah, it's true. But I think I'm working on that now to accept it as if I die today, I have to be okay with it. That was my life. And I think the best way to approach that is to make sure you live in the moment and say, I'm freaking alive, dude. God, I'm alive. It's like waking up being gratified. The gratitude thing is fucking tight, Andrew, because I want to do that, dude. I want to wake up and be like, you know what?

Fuck yeah, dude. My froze looking good. I'll send it to you. I'll send it. Tomorrow morning, you're going to get a text from me. I fucking love that, dude. I love that. You're going to love it.

It's amazing. So I got a couple more questions. Thanks for talking with me, man. Oh, dude. I needed this. I woke up today kind of realizing like, oh, yeah, I'm not going to have a gig for a while. Let's say you have two years.

So I better get better at interviewing. But it's like, talk to me about producing. What did you learn from songwriting through your whole life now that you're producing? And what kind of tips or what do you look for in a song when you're producing? When I'm producing, I'm looking for something authentic. And it's usually kind of intangible. There are kind of, for me, there are no actual rules, but I'd like to hear the voice clearly.

If the voice is not very strong, it's not like a great pitch, or it has some weirdness to it, then I'd like to emphasize that and figure out things like, should the song be sung in a higher key? Should we capo up? Should we change it? Should we play in a C position? What if you play the same C, but you play it in an A position with a capo? How does that change the internal structure of the harmonics, right?

All those things can... So what I look for is how to bring out the authentic thing it's usually not saying write better it can be not well written lyrics but i'm still intrigued by something authentic in the attempt yeah in the process that the artist or the singer or the musician has gone through, there's something happening in there. So to answer your question, I'm looking for the individual or the band's internal authentic vibration. I'm not looking for something

that's going to be a hit for everybody. I'm not looking for something that's going to be accepted by everybody. So sometimes when people are looking for major hit records, I'm clearly not their choice. They go, no, I don't want a mono recording,

you asshole. So with that philosophy, how do you produce yourself then? I hand it over to someone else. Okay, so you never produce your own stuff i co-produce to a certain degree but that's just because i'm the writer and i have i have a harmony inside i have a vibration about the song so i make sure the producer understands hey listen listen listen this we need six guitars spread out in stereo overly distorted to be like a hum the entire song yeah otherwise it's not going to come across they go okay and then they may say how about a synth instead i go now how about a choir boy i like that better. Cool. So you start developing the idea together.

But I discovered all the way back after my second record, 1993, I discovered that I have to have a producer. Why? Because they see me. I can't see myself. It's like the old Buddhist Zen saying, the fingertip can't feel its own fingertip. Your eye can't see its own eye unless it watches the reflection.

Your soul can't see itself. Thyself cannot be seen by thyself. You need the reflection from someone or something to be able to see you. Well, that's a great philosophy for life as well. It's hard to do this alone, right? You need someone to see the reflection, to give you another interpretation, or you're just going to just say yes to yourself, and maybe that's how we become addicts. Maybe that's how we become...

I like that. Yeah. And I also think you need to witness to your life. Otherwise, are you sure it's happening? And maybe it is. I am not sure. It's true. Otherwise, are you sure it's happening? And maybe it is. I am not sure. It's true, though. I mean, it's like, how do we know a tree falls if we didn't see it? Yeah. What does it sound like?

What does it sound like? But so, I mean, my attempt to create comes from two places. One is to discover the I, and the other is to connect to the we. Yeah. And so those two forces are in balance trying to create something. And each time you get rejected, you can still feel good about the I part of the creation

or the song or the music. Yeah. But you missed the we part of it. like ah I overshot or I undershot I didn't get it and that's okay then you go all right how do I connect both of these not what do they want but how do I connect better how do I connect and then you have to go inward you have to always go inward and go, what connects to me? It is crickets on the hillside, blooming crazy. I mean, flowers on the hillside, blooming crazy. Crickets talking back and forth and rhyme. It's one of the best

musical poetic lines I've heard in any song. What does it mean to me that Bob Dylan wrote that? I don't know. But flowers on the hillside blooming crazy, crickets talking back and forth in rhyme. That line is probably the most impressive, made the most impression on me out of any line I've ever heard in music. Why? Because you could visualize it? Yeah, I don't have the reason why,

but I'll go back to that. So in the middle of something, instead of writing maybe what I think I should be writing, I go to, why did that line impress me so? And I go, I don't know. And then I may steal something about people on the levee going crazy. I have a new song where I say that. People on the levee going crazy. I mean, and I can imagine it.

I think it's part, when you're trying to write, I mean, do you ever write short stories or do you ever write poems? Yeah. I don't do a lot of short stories, but I am planning on trying to write a book. Let me rephrase it. I am going to write a book.

Fuck yeah, that's the man I'm looking for. I am going to write a book. Fuck yeah. That's the man I'm looking for. I am going to write a fucking book. What do you want to write about? I have three stories. Yeah. One was asked to do an autobiography. I don't think I'm old enough for that yet. But the one story I had is called the end of the United States.

And it's about a, an old traveler, an old sailor captain that lives down in Key West now. And it's his observations flashing back to the past. And then him talking, especially every day at lunch to this one waitress. especially every day at lunch to this one waitress. And the main question is for each person in each sort of chapter storyline, it is, how did you get here to the end of the United States? How did you get here?

And then so you get to experience the waitress and her three children. And she lives by herself now. She's got an apartment in Key West. And I go, yeah, but how did you get here? And that's both geographically, spiritually, physically, what happened. And then my idea is to try to tie these stories together into what has become the end of the United States. That brings me to my last question. How did you end up here? How did you end up here?

How did you end up here? I was traveling, hitchhiking through what was called Yugoslavia back in the days. And I got on a bus. How long were you living in Europe and stuff?

I lived in Europe for 17 years. Oh, no shit. And so stuff i lived in europe for 17 years oh no shit and so was it was i 17 16 yeah so you're traveling by yourself at 16 17 yeah and so i was probably at this point i was 18 and I got on a bus in Dubrovnik. And this gentleman walks on the bus. We had a very intriguing look about him. And he was very spunky and he was about 10, 12 years older than me. His name was Roman. And we talked and we talked and we talked and we talked and we ended up at Mount Olympus and we climbed Mount Olympus outside Thessaloniki and we went up there. And then we kept going and we went to Crete

and we slept under the stars and we worked at farms and then we ran out of the harvest season and we got on a boat to Haifa in Israel. And I'm like, yeah, I want to be Jewish. So I decided I was going to be Jewish, but I didn't know how to get a job. So I hitchhiked to Tel Aviv. And then I got to Tel Aviv and I got on a kibbutz in Hatzirim in Beersheba. And then, anyway, speeding up, about a year

after I got to Israel, I lived there. How long were you traveling? Hitchhiking for? Four and a half years. Four years. From 17 to 21? And then... What a fucking legend. Keep going. And then, he and I split

ways. He went to India and I went to Egypt. And then he said, you got to come visit me. And I said, okay. So where were you from again? Because it was usually not relevant for some reason. We rarely spoke about where people were from. It was in the moment shit.

He says, I live outside New Orleans in a town called Slidell, but it's New Orleans. I go, okay, I'll come see you. Well, a few months later, I flew over there, six months later, hitchhiked from New York City to Slidell. And three weeks after that, he said, you want to go to the city? I went, okay, I'll go to the city. So we drove in, and I said, motherfucker, this is where I'm from. It was my actual statement. He says, what do you mean? I says, I don't know, but this is where I'm from.

I remember everything. And all these past lives came up and all kinds of witches. I wrote a postcard to my mom before she passed. And I said, I found my home. I'm back home. She goes, what? She's like, what the fuck are you talking about? I said, I'm done traveling.

And then my grandfather sent me letters and, you know, boxes of stuff. And he says, yes, I used to live there. That's where I'm from. And that's where you have ancestors. And I go, what? And I didn't know. What an serendipitous moment. I mean.

It was insane. I never forget it. I never forget it. And you'll never leave. I've been thinking about Hawaii. Treat yourself, Anders. You deserve it. You're a fucking man now, dog.

That's right. I grew up. You grew up. 50-year-old man, dog. Shit, man. Treat yourself, man. Hey, Anders, thanks so much for doing this. Let's do this again.

This was fun. You got it. I love you, Andy. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And one last question. What do you want to be remembered by? My children. Yeah?

Fuck yeah. Well, I hope you consider me one of your children because I'll remember the fuck out of you too, buddy. Alright, God bless you. See you later. Thanks, Anders. Appreciate you, buddy. Bye. Love you, buddy. Well, hello. I am Arno Bacher, and this is Staying Relevant with Arno Bacher. Today, we will examine fleet and awareness in the song Halley's Comet by the artist Phish.

All you stargazers and prognosticators, please pay attention, will you? Shall we get started? Halley's Comet. Halley's Comet, Halley's Comet. How could you know that I lived in a desperate world? How could you dream that we were all made out of stone? What is the truth? What is the faithful lasting proof? What is the central theme to this everlasting spoof? Look on my windows, link up the chains.

It's gonna be easy, no splinters, no pain. It's got like rainbows and lots of spaghetti and I love meatballs. So you better be ready. I'm going down to the central part of town. I'm going down to the central part of town. I'm going down to the central part of town. Well, my friends, again we find fish. The ichthys. Propheting.

It can be no coincidence that our musical prognosticators clearly sing, Haley's coming. Haley's comet is not so much mispronounced As it is a sign, a glimpse on a fabulous tale Nota bene and be the hero Halley, all hail to Halley Halley's coming, Halley cometh That beautiful girl from an unseen galactic meadow Swirling downtown and all chained up

Like a barrel of monkeys we follow Bedazzled, all witnessing, all going down to the central part of town. And there, all wonder, all glory, we will roll around as meatballs. Everyone a meteor, everybody a stardust, everyone a comet, a beacon of light, a guiding star. Or should we all go down to the central part of town? Of course not, you fools. You stay in lockdown and prepare your own spaghetti. Thank you, Anders.

Fucking awesome. He's the man. I'm getting closer with him. He's texting me gratitude. What am I thankful for in the mornings to keep me present? Thank you, Anders. And thank you for all the art you give to this world. But ladies and gentlemen, every time we have a shit show, this is how Dolov showed up at the quarantine. But after the last week's shit show, one of my best friends from middle school was like, man,

After the last week's shit show, one of my best friends from middle school was like, man, I've been in LA. I'm at my parents' house because we just broke up with my girlfriend and I'm back. And I'm like, just fucking come to Denver. So we have another best friend joining us in our quarantine fun zone. Danny Zagayer, welcome to Denver, Colorado. Wow. This is quite a mission. Welcome to the show, Danny. Thank you so much. Welcome

to Frasco Quarantine. So little thing about Danny. Danny, I've been best friends since middle school. I taught Andy how to play piano. You did. You were the first piano teacher I had. That's my claim to fame. It was a $20 lesson at my house. I gave you one lesson. Because I wasn't even playing piano. I don't even remember the story. I remember you were doing comedy. You were doing operas.

I took piano lessons like a good Jewish boy. I remember when you came over and you were just like, Danny, just teach me one blues riff. And I think you've been playing the same blues riff your entire career. You bet your sweet ass, Danny. Shout out to that. Thank you for keep making me have a living. You got it, my man. Through that one blues lick.

I'm happy to see it, man. This podcast studio is amazing. Thanks, man. Thanks. And welcome to my house. And'm happy to see it, man. This podcast studio is amazing. Thanks, man. Thanks. And welcome to my house. And it was your first time in Denver. First time. So we're going to quarantine together. We got the trio back.

Remember when we were at the desert and I poured a hookah coal on your dick by accident? That was the first time I ever got high. We were smoking ash through our hookah. Yeah, and I remember that. You moved a coal from the hookah and fucking burned my pants, and I thought it was going to burn through my pants and light my dick on fire. And I remember jumping up, and I was so high,

I forgot that I was standing around with all my friends, and I dropped my pants because I didn't want my dick to burn, and I was just high, I couldn't remember. I forgot that I was standing around with all my friends. I dropped my pants because I didn't want my dick to burn. And I was just standing there naked. Didn't you like fall into the cactus or something? We were in the desert. Like Hunter had a cactus at his house. Yeah, Hunter's desert house. I backed up because I saw everybody covered up my genitals.

And I backed up in a cactus. Well, fuck. We've been through it all. Shout out. covered up my genitals and I backed up in a cactus. Well, fuck. We've been through it all. Shout out, but Danny is if you don't know who Danny Skyer is, he's well renounced. Is that

the word? Sure, I'll take that. Renowned. Well renowned film director, film editor. He was a cameraman on Naked in the Freight. Yep. On the camera side. On the camera side. So you're watching people just fucking starve. I've shot a lot of

close-ups of taints. A lot of taints. How does one's taint look like after 14 days of not showering? I think you know that pretty well, Andy. But is it like are you trying not to look at the taint?

Like, what's going on? It's so weird, man. I mean, you know the show, we try to shoot it tastefully. So we do like the Adam and Eve leaf in front of the, you know, boobs shot. So you do the classic stuff. But the weird, I'll tell you the weirdest thing about that is after legitimately afraid yeah after like 14 15 days they all everybody starts to smell the same well what's the smell it's like a weird it's like a weird like

it's exactly that's that's when that's when it hits your nostrils. It's like a rotting flesh, I think. Like weird. Wow. It's nasty. How do you eat? Because you can't eat. I mean, you're union, so you have to eat. We eat in the tent.

Do you have to hide from them? We have to hide away. One time a contestant was like, hey, I'll give you 300 bucks for a Gatorade. And I was like, what'd you say? He said, you're naked, dude. I think you can offer me now. Oh my God. So like have anyone like plead to like

I can't do this anymore? Yeah, people people bail out on that show pretty hard. Yeah. I've seen a guy in the Amazon just get eaten to shreds by mosquitoes and ants. Was that the worst one? That's the worst, man. What happened? You know, mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes and ants will eat that the worst one? That's the worst, man. What happened? Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes and ants will eat you. It's kind of sad, but there's not that much wildlife out there to get you. Big cats and shit. The biggest thing is

your biggest fear is insects. People are sleeping on the ground and stuff. So what about like, aren't you afraid of getting like malaria or anything from people who get it? I took malaria meds, you know, the whole time we were out there filming the cast does too. There's like a whole behind the scenes,

like keep them alive. Jesus. You know, don't, don't touch this. Cause it'll kill you. Oh my God. Fuck all that

so do you have like a wildlife guy like a jeff or there's an erwin or whatever steve erwin there's always a local med or like local shaman or whatever you know we were in peru so he was probably like a shaman guide like an ayahuahuasca dude? Jungle master, yeah. And he would give basically like, here's like a one day tutorial. Like, don't touch this because that'll fuck you up. You can eat this thing. What did you learn about those guys?

Everybody just wants to be famous, man. Everybody on those shows. Even the malaria guys? Oh, the malaria guys? Oh, those guys. The guys who live in the jungle. I thought you meant the contestants. No, fuck that.

The guys who live in the jungle. Oh, they've been the contestants. No, fuck that. The guys who live in the jungle probably live the happiest lives ever because they're just stress-free. They're in beautiful nature. They've assimilated to this place. These guys are walking around in flip-flops. Because they have nowhere to be? They love it. I mean, it's their home, the jungle.

With that being said, why are we so stressed out about having nothing to do during this quarantine? it's their home you know the jungle with that being said like why are we so stressed out about having nothing to do during this quarantine you know it's like there's so many things that that like come into our lives through technology and jobs and stuff and it's like when you take away from just their daily job is i need to be alive yeah then it's just like you start creating all these stressors you know in your life were you stressed out when you're in la why did you why did you want to come to denver dude i first of all i wanted to it's good to see you guys but i needed to get out you know it's been a

it's been a stressful time the the corona everybody's like losing their jobs and did you lose your job i've lost my job i I'm not filming anymore. I work mostly for Travel Channel, so there's definitely no traveling. There's no traveling. You know, my girlfriend and I broke up, literally right as the corona was happening. It was like six feet apart. Hold on, how'd you break up?

How'd you break up? It was like we hadn't talked in a while, and then we, you know. It's kind of a funny story. We said, okay, let's just at least see each other and we can talk this out. We met at a park and it was like a total quarantine breakup. We sat six feet apart with the face masks on. Meanwhile, it's probably one of the most beautiful days that there L.A. after these rains and the air is all clean.

And it's just like for some reason there was like a yellow butterfly migration that came through the park at that time. And we're like sitting there and, you know, there's like a family just backlit by the sun just running in slow motion. Like it's like we're in the middle of a Cialis commercial or something. It's like, well, things didn't work out, but that could have been us. I love the six feet away and you're wearing masks. We got to break up, babe. Meet me at this park because I don't want to do it on the phone. We don't want to do it in FaceTime.

Yeah. Well, that's very honorable of you and shout out to you for not getting the Rona. How many days have you been really doing it? You've been staying home? I've literally been at home with my parents. I moved back home. Is that hard being a 32-year-old man? Thank you.

Yes, it is. I mean, I lived at home for a while, probably till after college and like after college and, um, just saving up to, you know, buy a house or whatever. And, and then, uh, moved out for just a couple of years and now I'm back. So it feels like a real step back, but maybe that's why people are getting depressed. Cause like everyone's like, fuck, I can't afford our apartments. I'm just going to move back with mom and dad. And then you realize I'm with mom and fucking dad yeah it was 32 years old you can't beat off in fucking peace anymore you can't i mean i found in the middle of the day i was like i gotta get something done here no but not to go to honestly like the thing that i found

explain how you beat off no no no we're into that. That's the eye of the tiger. We're going to get down there. But no, you know, it's a time to, you appreciate your family. And you don't get those moments very often. And this is a time to come together with your family and all of those people that you love and close friends. This is why you're with us, baby. That's why I'm here, man.

You're safe here. Dude, I feel safe. I swear. We've been clean. Dawg's been checking my temperature two times a day. You're fine here. But if you do give me the Rona, I got shitty lungs, dawg.

That's not good. I'm going to just haul myself up into that room and just lock myself in there. Quarantine yourself for a week before you can hang out with us? No. No, we're fine. I'm talking about we're in this together.

I think it's easier to do this. That's why I was talking about this in the opening segment. I feel so bad for people who have to do this alone. You know, because it's lonely as fuck. There's only so many fucking video games and porn videos and Minecraft you could play.

Every day starts to feel the same. And you got to just be, you really have to stay busy. But meditating, honestly, taking a second to just relax and go inside, be mindful. That's been, for me at least, the best thing. Same here. This is why I do these podcasts the shit show day is gonna help me as a video guy so we're gonna this shit show is gonna be even better than it's ever been we're gonna up the video game we're gonna up the saw what you got going i think we can do a little better i mean i movie baby i learned from the bet

no but you i'll be honest with you the reason why I'm even decently good at iMovie is because I watch over your back for 10 years. I will say this. You taught me how to use Photoshop. I'm now designing all my own shit. I'm proud of you. There you go, man.

Thanks, Danny. We're going to have a lot of fun. You'll probably be hearing more from Danny because he's with us for two weeks or a week or however long you want to stay. Your house is my house. And because I remember we used to have all the house parties at your house. That's true. From middle school. I think I got my first hand job at your house. That's the house of the hand job. The house of the hand job.

House of the rising job. House of the no job. House of the no job lately. But all right, guys. That's it for this episode. Thursday, we got a great show. The shit show. We got Paul Hoffman.

We got Marcus King. We got Gary Goldman. We got a lineup. And then we're just going to keep on doing this until you don't want it anymore. But be safe out there. I'll leave you with this. Find something you love that isn't what you used to love because

when you have something new and fresh, you'll be more interested into doing it. Stay focused. Meditate like Anders, Danny, and I've been saying. Eat good. Work out. We're going to get through this. We're already halfway through. We're going to make it. We're're already halfway through. We're going to make it.

We're going to make it, right? We're not sick, man. We're not fucking sick. You're not sick. You're not sick. I'm not sick. Mentally. Mentally.

If you stay optimistic, stay focused on the breath, on the moment, we're going to fucking do this. So let's go on a walk. Let's show you Denver, baby. Ready. We already smoked a joint,

so what's yours is mine and what's mine is yours. Welcome to the party it welcome to the party welcome to the party alright guys I love you we'll see you next week I'm not sure who the guest is

I've kind of just been doing interviews now during the week so you're going to be as surprised as I am alright I love you guys

be safe peace you tuned in to the third season of Purdy Palavas at Andy Fresco's World Saving Podcast. Thank you for listening to episode 81. Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelow and Chris Lawrence.

Now 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 worldsavingpodcast. For more info on the blog on two dates, head to andyfresco.com. We are on the brink of witnessing the birth of andy's new album keep on keeping on and no other moment in this post for years has ever needed this album more keep on keeping on everyone this week's guest is singer and songwriter anders osborne find him on andersosborne.com. This week's co-host is director and film editor Danny Zagayer.

Find him on danielzagayer.com. Z-A-G-A-Y-E-R, Zagayer. We might have special guests, but I'm completely in the dark here. It's another week down the rabbit hole. And boy, oh boy, has the world gone mad up there. There's guys with guns, loose dogs running around, all kinds of fuds and freaks. I'm telling you, I'm gonna keep my

head down, safely buried in my burrow. I'll put my own pills, I'll rest on my bolus, my cotton tail gone crusty with sticky stuck dosings and droppings that I sat on for too long. My one's wide ears picked up a urine stain, my teeth are turning tawny. My breath is smelly.

My thumps are getting weaker by the day. Thank God for the does. A doe a day keeps the doctor away. As my papa used to say. Going down on the bunny is my way. Hey ho, down the hole I go. Who could his walls be closing in? Does the does make me grow?

Am I losing it? Has this spring gone off? Are be closing in? Does the dose make me grow? Am I losing it? Has this spring gone off? Are we shooting stars? Can the rainbow sing? Have you ever heard a rabbit scream? Smoke weed every day.