Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Jack Black

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

Jack Black (Borderlands, Kung Fu Panda, High Fidelity) is an actor and musician. Jack joins the Armchair Expert to discuss how he feels about being shouted at on the street, getting started in the alternative comedy scene, and having two brainiac parents. Jack and Dax talk about their experiences with drug use, how theater saved his life, and what bands influenced his music career. Jack explains when he feels like he found his acting voice, why he loves acting in movies adapted from video games, and chronological music marathons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert. I'm Dax Shepard, I'm joined by Monica Padman. Hi. Hello. Oh, this was a long time coming. In fact, I think I even flirted with this around the strike time when I had gone and done a charity event on stage and I told a story

about chatting with him backstage and we were both like, well, when's he coming on? And now he's finally here. He barely does anything. He does, it was very flattering that he came here. Jack Black, oh my God, do I love Jack Black. Who doesn't love Jack Black? He's an award-winning actor, a comedian, and a musician.

Kung Fu Panda, Nacho Libre, Jumanji, Welcome to the Jungle, The Holiday. And he has a new movie out in theaters this Friday, the 9th, called Borderlands, dystopian futuristic tale. He plays a robot. Oh. Yes. I love Jack Black. Me too.

He is, I think, one of the most likable celebrities. And he also... Is a rock star. Tenacious D is so kick ass. It's crazy how good his voice is. He sang a little bit. He did. He sings a little bit, which is fun.

I listen to him sing all day long. Please enjoy Jack Black. We are supported by Squarespace. Guys, we have a Squarespace website that it's just gorgeous that Wobby Wobb, you built that yourself using all the templates, yeah? I sure did.

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standard suite of advanced safety and driver assistance features. It's available in three separate trims, the well-equipped preferred, the boldly styled sport touring or the exquisitely refined Avenir. Visit Buick.ca to learn more. Tap the banner or visit this episode's page to learn more. Oh my God, what an entrance. Oh, more than a shake much? Down, down. Oh, wow. I was wowed.

Wow. Good to see you. Good to see you. I like the suspenders. I wanted to be playful and cute for you. The engineer pantaloons. Pantalonies. Jack almost drank some of our spoiled milk.

Thank god we caught it in time. We have spoiled? We offer spoiled milk? Yes. I didn't even know that was an option. There were three different flavors of spoiled milk, thank God. We caught it in time. We have spoiled, we offer spoiled milk? Yes. I didn't even know that was an option. There were three different flavors of spoiled milk. Oh my goodness. I like to come and throw people's spoiled milk away.

What are you drinking there, coffee? Coffee. I knew it. Just a little giddy up and go. You wanna know what I'm working with? Yeah. The remains of my pre-workout. Oh yeah.

You ever fuck with pre-workout? No. Oh my God, Jack. I do of my pre-workout. Oh yeah. You ever fuck with pre-workout? No. Oh my God, Jack. I do get my steps. In fact, I got some steps on the way here. You walked. But we live so close to each other, I did not nearly get enough steps.

That's how close we are together. I was with my kids, I bet it was three weeks ago, it was like on a Sunday, and we were coming down Vermont, and we were right at Finley, and we saw old Jack Black on the were right at Finley and we saw old Jack Black on the corner adorned in tie-dye like a middle of a Sunday. That's how I do. About to cross Vermont on your own and I don't know why it made

me so happy. Did you give a shout out? I didn't. Do you wrestle with this? I'm like this man gets shouted at. I shouldn't shout at him. I wanted to very badly and this is a little bit of a pattern we've already developed. Yeah. Well, I have the headphones on, so I have plausible deniability. I can always pretend like I didn't hear the shout out. Have you ever thought about incorporating blue blockers as well, so that there's no way eye contact wise we know if you saw?

Yeah. I like to go noise cancellation and listen to whatever I'm listening to, my book or music, and then I will still hear a shout out. I shouldn't even admit this, but sometimes I hear a shout out and sometimes not. Sometimes you don't. Probably. I don't know. I don't know when I don't hear it.

That's a big question mark. How would you? But I plow forward nine times out of ten just thinking, if I actually know that person, they'll hit me with a text later. I'm not gonna stop and chat if I don't have to, just because I am like scared of the stranger danger. Yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. Well, there's a lot that happens.

I would imagine you have the same thing I do, which is like, there's some commitment to deliver. It's not like they're meeting Daniel Day-Lewis, and they're expecting a somber smile. It's like, you're a good time, Charlie, you're fun. And I feel like I better give that to you. And then the question is, do I have the energy right now to give that to you?

That's the thing. And also, are you on your way somewhere? Sometimes you gotta be rude. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Unfortunately, you gotta be rude. It's 100% part of the job, and I love my job. It's a small price to pay

for the incredible life that I've had. I will stop and chat with anyone who loves my junk. It's a small price to pay for the incredible life that I've had. I will stop and chat with anyone who loves my junk. It's a bummer when you stop and chat because they've shouted you down or chased you down and then you realize they don't really know who you are. They're just like, I know you from somewhere. Can you tell me everything you've done? Yeah.

Nope, nope, keep going. Oh, I have a friend who says something great. Michael Rosenbaum, he was Lex Luther on Smallville and he always had his head shaved. So he definitely gets it bad where people, they know they know him, but he doesn't have his head shaved. And his go-to is they'll go, where do I know you from? And he'll go, did you see Seabiscuit?

And they go, yeah. And they're so excited about remembering Seabiscuit that then he's just moving on and he's not in Seabiscuit. That's a good move. That's a good pivot. You're so distinct and my guess is that you might struggle with, like, I could go out and not be distinct, but then who are you? Do you struggle with that?

Yeah. No. I don't know how to go out not distinct. I don't think it matters what I wear. I think they can tell from my gait and from my shape. Have you tried camouflage? No. But I have worn a Stormtrooper mask. I've done stuff that where it should be, you can't know who's under there. I don't think I would do well on the mask singer. I think everyone would know. But wouldn't it be cool if you

had a button where it was like anonymous and then turn it back on when you need it. When you've got an event where you have to turn on the mustard. Yeah, like a cloak, a visibility cloak. But if I had to choose, the button only goes one way for the rest of my life, I'd leave it on. I like the life. I mean, I'd leave it off. If it's an anonymity button, I'd rather be known.

Oh! Oh my God. Knock on wood. Oh, I shouldn't have even played with that. But definitely be careful what you wish for. Yes, yes. It'd be like Twilight Zone episode. Dude, that would be a good Twilight Zone episode. Do you want to reboot Twilight Zone?

Wait a second, we should talk to Jordan Peele. Oh, that's whose hands we were trusted in. Well, he did do it for a season. Maybe he just dipped his toe in the Twilight Zone waters because I think he was like the new Rod Serling for a minute. Remember? I don't remember that. Are you sure it's out yet? Let me tell you something. in the Twilight Zone waters. Because I think he was like the new Rod Serling for a minute, remember? I don't remember that. Are you sure it's out yet?

Let me tell you something. I love me some Jordan Peele. Same. Me too. And you've met him, I'm sure? I never crossed paths with him, never met. Have you met him? We interviewed him and I think you would like him 10 acts if you sat and got to know him.

He's a very special and sweet person. Yeah, I've watched all of the movies several times and I've always find deeper layers in every watching and top 10 funniest people of all time. Yes. Dude, Key and Peele, Oh, forget about it. You don't get funnier than that.

And then when I see them scrolling through the TikToks or the Instagrams, I'm like, it's getting funnier. That hat making sketch, do you remember that? The best. Unreal. The cap outdoing each other, it's getting funnier. That hat making sketch, do you remember that? The best! Unreal. The cap outdoing each other, the competition of the caps. There's a woman making it on his head. He's got a whole sweatshop on his head.

Ah. There's a handful of sketches that made such impressions on me throughout my life. There's a couple Mr. Show sketches. Oh yeah. Just brought one up with Polar she was on, but do you remember the sketch? You were on Mr. Show. Yep, I did a little thing. Show sketches. Oh yeah. Just brought one up with Polar she was on, but do you remember the sketch? You were on Mr. Show.

Yep, I did a little thing here and there. Where Dave Cross was hosting a talk show and he was answering questions, but the questions were given on the previous episode. And so he wants to remind the callers to not ask questions about the pets, because that was last week's episode. And it starts and he's completely disheveled

and falling apart. And then he pans a TV around and he goes, see, this was last week's episode. And it starts and he's completely disheveled and falling apart. And then he pans a TV around and he goes, see, this was last week's and he looks a little better. He's like, just to remind everyone the concept of the show, you're gonna be calling for this episode, right? Yeah. We're trying to delay the questions. They've only done five shows and every time he turns

the TV, he's getting better and better looking. And then the first show, he looks great and he's so excited about this new concept. Well, we're not gonna take callers today because I'm gonna give the topic for next week's calls. That's more than comedy though. It's math. It's mind blowing, you know,

like a mathematical equation and surrealist genius. They are one of my favorites of all time, not only because they were so funny and brilliant, but also they kind of gave me my big break. It was Mr. Show that discovered Tenacious D and gave us a platform. They put us on HBO right before them, or was it right after?

I can't remember if we were the caboose or like a little cartoon right before Mr. Show, but it wasn't animated. It was me and Kyle doing Tenacious D. That's what really got my career started. I had little parts before that, but that was the big break. Jack, I was front row for all this.

You were there at the tapings. I did go to A taping, but I moved to LA in 96. I wanted to get into comedy. I didn't know what to do. I started at the groundlings. I had one friend who was dialed into y'all's scene, which was the Largo scene. And I went to every show at Largo

and I saw you numerous times and I was enamored with you genuinely. And then you were a guy I would be around in real life who then was all of a sudden on HBO. And I was like, oh my God, this guy from the alternative comedy scene. Like I was watching so excited that people like you were coming off of that stage and getting on HBO.

It was so thrilling. That was an exciting time. The alternative comedy scene, you could feel it at the time that it was a movement and it was kind of springing out of alt rock, the tail end of that. And that was the world I had been submerged in Detroit. And I was like, oh, this is weird.

This is like comedy and punk rock. Some of them, like Bob Odenkirk came from the Saturday Night Live world, but he kind of came out of there with a chip on his shoulder and an edge and a fire and maybe a little burn in his gut. And he wanted to flip it over and turn it upside down and give it back to him in a subversive, brilliant way. It was fun and exciting and anyone could get in. It didn't really matter where you were from.

I didn't have any in with that crowd, but me and Kyle were from this theater company, Actors Gang Theater Company, and we started writing songs and playing songs. We had one song and we went to this place called Al's Bar in the middle of downtown. It was a total dive. Hipster, stoner, drunk people,

like maybe 12 people in the audience. And we played Tribute, our one and only song. And who's in the audience? David Cross. So lucky. And he was like, you guys are great. I have a comedy troupe. You guys should open for us.

We're called Mr. Show. I didn't know who they were. And I had spent the whole decade before that scraping and surviving and going on every audition, turning down nothing. I do everything. But you landed in some of my favorite stuff. Northern Exposure is like my all-time favorite show.

To this day I can't re-watch that, but thank you. I'm gonna take the compliment. Okay, why can't you re-watch it? I just remember at the time being so horrified and embarrassed by my performance and the weird way I looked. I was like, oh! What was the part?

What did you play? I was just so nervous, and I had a hard time finding my voice in that character. It was kind of the lost years. My 20s where I didn't really know who I was yet. I got some little parts here and there, but I always felt like I didn't quite nail it. It wasn't until Tenacious D that I started to feel like,

oh, this is my voice. And that's why if anyone ever asks me, how'd you do it? What do I do? I wanna be an actor. I always tell them start writing and find your voice that way. I know it sounds really, really simple and yet it's probably the most elusive thing, your voice.

And you can weirdly, when I look back before I found my voice as an actor till after, when I listen, I'm like, yeah, that's actually not. I mean, figuratively and literally, learning how to talk the way you would talk to your friend takes a minute. The early days, you have to just be a puppet in someone else's vision.

You're always just coming from a place of giving them what they want. You don't exist, you're just a vessel. It's not until you start to get a little more self-confidence and participate in the creative process where you're doing a dance with the director and you're like, okay, so that's what you want, here's what I want, and then you kind of meet each other

in the middle, that's a spark of something good. And your voice. You're right, you spend the first part of your career trying to figure out what they want, and you literally never ask yourself, well, what would I wanna see myself do in this? Which is tricky because the reason they want you is because of your voice,

but you haven't had time to show your voice like it's this bizarre Cycle catch 22 catch doos doos JD sound I want to start at the beginning. I'll go wherever you want before we start at the beginning I just saw you recently and we just kind of touched on it Where I saw you on the street and like I didn't know what to do and then I had seen you backstage at this thing We did some fundraiser recently downtown. Yeah, we were doing it for the crew. For the crew.

All the crew that were hurting during pandemic times cause they were all out of work and everyone talked about how the actors and the writers and the directors were out of work, but no one was talking about how the crew probably hurting the most. So that was a great cause. Yeah, it was.

And then we were both there. But it was weird cause pandemic was still going on and we all kind of crowded into that backstage area There's like a hundred comedians all like Strike it was for the strike. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, cuz it was recent. You know what it was in my mind. I was still in the pandemic About being with people. Yes. Well, that's kind what we talked about. So I was crossing the green room to get myself something to drink.

I spotted you on the couch. And honestly, I even talked about it on the show after this happened. I had a moment where I was like, I feel good about going and talking to Jack finally. And I'm gonna do it. First I'm gonna get a Diet Coke. And you saw me look at you

and then you could walk across the room and you go, hey, don't ignore me. You saw me. And then I was like, no, no, for real, my game plan is I'm coming directly to you after I get this Diet Coke. And then I sat down with you and we chatted for a minute and yeah, just to bolster your claim,

you were like, yeah, I haven't been around as many people in a long time. Well, it felt like a super spreader and I kind of settled in and I, unlike the rest of the world, was enjoying my isolation, staying in my bubble. I'm always in there anyway. You're built for it.

It was good to hang out with you and it's funny that you were planning on coming back to hang with me, but my insecurity forced me to yell out to you, I know there's cooler people on that side of the room. This is my question. When you were around that Largo alternative scene, were you intimidated or did you feel comfortable? I never felt really part of the alternative comedy scene. I felt like me and Kyle were kind of these theater nerds

on the outside of it, but I loved it and I loved them. And I loved that world and Largo was the best. The layers of perspective are just so funny because of course from my vantage point I was like, oh these two are so dialed into this whole world. They're like the mastheads of this. Well we had a sweet golden ticket thanks to Mr. Show. We became fast friends with Flanny, Mark Flannigan,

the owner of Largo. What a guy. That was the hot spot for all of the comedy that I was checking out. Can you relate to, from the outside, you're in that core world. You start on Mr. Show, you work with Stiller. There seems to be all these yummy clubs

you've been invited into and you're in, but do you still identify more with I'm a theater nerd musician and I'm not? Name the comedian. Yeah, I guess my core is theater nerd musician and I'm not, name the comedian? Yeah, I guess my core is theater nerd that goes back to my roots in high school. That's the fountainhead of my creativity. I used to have dreams.

I remember when I was in high school, I went to Crossroads for my last two years of high school, a little private school in Santa Monica for the arts and sciences. Lot of famous alum. Yeah, Jonah Hill came from there. I don't think he's been back to visit though. I think he's like, fuck that school. Bunch came from there. I don't think he's been back to visit though. I think he's like, fuck that school.

Bunch of rich kids. I don't think he really would claim it. I claim it because it was a huge part of me getting started on my journey. I had a great teacher there, Scott Weintraub, who was real challenging. And high schoolers don't usually do a production of Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bracholt Brecht.

Really heady stuff. Yeah. Great material and I got over huge stage fright. Like I wasn't gonna do the first show. I was like, I'm quitting the show the day before the show and he was like, Jack, meet me at the Ray's Cafe. Let's talk about it. And he talked me off the ledge

and I just went through huge personal demons at that school and that theater. And I remember I had dreams there of being in the theater and having the power of flight, like I could fly like a superhero when I was in the theater. I was like, I'm gonna use my powers and I fly out of the theater doors and then immediately lose my powers of flight

and just be a regular human. And that was just a perfect dream that I still remember that captured the power of that creativity. The theater and that world will always be the main thing. Well, an apple's probably never fallen further from the tree than your parents, both being engineers in the aerospace industry. Your mother in particular, it's very rare that I research someone and their mother has their own Wikipedia page with a hyperlink. aerospace industry, your mother in particular, it's very rare that I research someone

and their mother has their own Wikipedia page with a hyperlink. So your mom was a fucking gangster, worked on Hubble. Apollo 13, she helped with the abort guidance system. In the manna something, nuclear missile tracking system. Probably, now you know more about it. I need to go back and read that Wikipedia. You gotta bring up my mom.

There's probably some additions in the last few years Your mom was born in 1933 and she's a fucking engineer She doesn't meet a single other woman becoming an engineer getting her double masters. Your mom has been a very unique Human being she was a badass. She was super smart and she was super fiery and passionate she had to decide when she was a teenager between ballet or going into engineering school. She decided that ballet didn't have a very long career path and engineering school had more possibilities. But if she really had it her way, she would have done both.

There's a little bit of a call to the theater in a way. I inherited that part. She took off to find the lights. What is it? She took off to find the footlights. And I took off to find the sky. I know you know what it is. You don't know what he's singing, do you?

Harry Chapin. I don't know, wait, who? Tex Terry Chapin? Harry Chapin, the taxi cab. Oh man, now you've found the limits of my theater thread. Oh, sure that would be you. Is that from Triple-A? I go flying so high when I'm stoned.

Oh boy. You know this fucking song. I'm gonna listen to it as soon as this is over. Harry Chapin about being stoned. Yeah, he falls in love with a girl. She goes to chase the footlights of the stage. Oh yeah. And he takes off, he was gonna be a pilot. But all that ended up happening is he gets high in his cab,

but he picks her up one rainy night from the airport, years after they had their romance, and he drives her home. Is he a stoner? Yeah, big time. And she's into theater? She became a very successful. And he's like, I'm just a stoner, I can't help it.

And then she leaves him. For the white hot lights of Broadway. And he's just stuck smoking a joint on his couch. Well he was gonna be a pilot but he never got it together. And then he was humbled by having to drive her as her taxi driver. Years later. What an incredible emotional song. But then he became a rock star to get the last laugh. He did, that's the good news.

Monica, cut this entire thing, please. I'm not, this is fascinating. Salvin, this is gold. You know, of course, Cats in the Cradle. You like that one, though. That same guy? Yeah, Harry Chapin. Okay, I know the hit.

Okay. I know the hit. Yeah, this one you'll recognize. Is it gonna be the second song when I go to Apple Music? Yes, it will be. Okay, okay. And it probably charted in the 50s when it was out. So you've heard it.

But Cats in the Cradle became more famous not because of his version, right? Didn't a 90s or 80s rock band cover it? Cats in the Cradle. Yeah, that's how I know it. Are we not talking about the same? No, no, no. Poison?

No, no, no, no. Oh, fuck, not no doubt, but it sounds like that. The guy had really long hair, we're so sidetracked. More doubt. Rod, you wanna find it? Cat Stevens? No, not Cat Stevens. Fuck Cat Stevens.

Get him out of here, Rod. That would be embarrassing. I love Cat Stevens, Yousef Islam. What's your favorite song? Dude, anything from Harold and Maude. Trouble, trouble, oh. And well, where do the children play? Hey, hey, hey.

Oh, fuck yes. That dude's a master. I like the one in Rush Forward the most. You really pulled a U-turn because you were anti-Cat Stevens a second ago. Oh, I love Cat Stevens. And now you're back. He had no place in the cats and cradle conversation.

Well, Cat Stevens can't do cats in the cradle. That's too redundant. Too many cats. You just said cat. We hate cats. Homeboy came in with Cat Stevens. Even though cat. Cats in the cradle, that's too redundant. Too many cats. You just said cat. I hate cats. Homeboy came in with the Cat Stevens. But I like the one that's in Rushmore the most.

Oh. It's the most beautiful Cat Stevens song. I don't even remember that Cat Stevens. You know it, I'm failing to remember. I love Rushmore. Isn't that the greatest? Oh, such a good movie. Wind?

Wind. Oh, wind is great. I'm lippin' by the wind of the wind of my soul. Rint-rattle-doodle-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Where I end up, where I go, only God really knows. Fret-fret-a-lippin'-battle-doodle-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. I can't help but share that song. You got it.

I can't sing, but I got the lyrics. You used to sing it to the kids. You made it to the next round. Or maybe Kristen did. I used to sing it to the girls over in, son. You got it. I can't sing, but I got the lyrics. You used to sing it to the kids. You made it to the next round. Do you remember that? Or maybe Kristen did. I used to sing it to the girls every night. Jack Idle. I just advanced you to the next round.

Oh, fuck. Can you be my coach? How does it work? Can you advise me? You have to wear a mask. I'm not sure yet. I haven't pitched it yet to the studios. All right, we're back.

Now, dad was also an engineer. Yes. Did they meet on the job? Weirdly, my mother was an aerospace engineer. She was really into Middle Eastern folk dancing here in Los Angeles. And my father was a master electrician. And he was also weirdly into Middle Eastern folk dancing.

And that's where they met. Wow. Through their relationship, he became an aerospace engineer. They both ended up working at TRW. And she had already had a husband and had your three siblings. Correct. My half brothers and half sister. So again, this is a woman born in the 30s who becomes an engineer and also kicked a guy to the curb in the 60s, which didn't happen.

Right. Exactly. What a renegade. She started off living in Brooklyn in the 30s. So she saw World War II come up. She saw all of that crazy shit go down. And she would get on a train from Brooklyn to Manhattan when she was like nine years old by herself to go to ballet class. Can you imagine a world where a nine-year-old gets on a train?

It was a different New York. Yeah, kids can get on trains by themselves, why not? So she meets my dad and they're both Brainiacs and they're both into crazy dances from all around the world. They both had little bits of the arts. They were dancers, but I did fall pretty far from the tree. Neither of them had ever been in the theater proper and I didn't have any connections in that world. I was not a Nepo baby. The opposite, quite in fact. in that world, I was not a nepo baby. The opposite, quite in fact.

But they were super supportive of me. They never pressured me to have something to fall back on. But they were, I found out years later, worried. Of course they were. They kept it from you, which is great. That's what a good parent should do. He said something about alternative comedy, as if normal comedy's not hard enough,

he's chosen an alternative comedy route. Did you excel at science? I'm guessing no. That was the other reason they were worried about me, is like his grades. We're brainiacs, how come he's not getting straight A's? Jack, when you think about how different your kids might potentially be from you,

if you're the first female to be an engineer and your kid can't get through chemistry. I mean, they're literal rocket scientists. Let's call it what it is. It's rare that you can say this. Yeah, you can barely ever say it, but here we can say it. Yeah. And their kid just can't get it done.

Do they have an explanation? You never know what the next generation is going to be capable of, no matter who their parents are. It can come from anywhere. But they came to every performance of every show that I did through high school, and my mom, God rest her soul, never blinked once when I had to keep on coming home in my old room

all through my 20s. It wasn't until I was 30 that I really got my proper footing. Really? Yeah, well, tenacious D, right? When I came up on your radar is when I was finally getting the footholds. I would love a baby like Jack. He could come stay back at my house any time.

I bet she just adored you. I was a handful though. I had struggles with drugs. There was lots of reasons she should have, would have, could have kicked me to the curb, but she didn't. Kukanya. Kukanya. Oh, the Devil's dandruff.

The boogie shuggy. I don't have a... What a product. I wish I could have kept on going. Colombian Flake. Oh, you'veogie shoogey. I don't have it. What a product. I wish I could have kept on going. Colombian Flake. Oh, you've got more names. Shall we powder our nose?

The embarrassing conversation you realized the next day you shouldn't have had, drug. What I read was you were very advanced. You got into it way earlier than I did. And acid too. My brains should not have survived. And in many ways they didn't. Or set you on this great trajectory

But in rapid order you grew up in hermosa you moved to Culver City at 10 mom and dad get divorced you move in with dad In fairness though. I was getting bad grades before that so that's not why I became a dumbass We're not gonna blame that okay, but still disruptive very much So and when you get to Culver City is much different vibe than Hermosa. Were you doing well socially in Hermosa? We moved out of there I think I was 10. I never really fit in Hermosa because I was never really a surfer. I went out with a couple friends once and I got like a rash on my belly and I had a waterlogged surfboard and I didn't like getting up at five in the morning. There were so many reasons I just never fit in with that surfer crowd. And even though it is the hotbed of punk rock, I didn't know about punk rock.

I was there in the seventies, but I didn't know Black Flag. They weren't on my radar. Is that where Black Flag's from, Hermosa Beach? Yeah, because Keith Morris, who is a Hermosa native, was there with Black Flag. At the very beginning, there was all kinds of radical scene happening there,

but I was never really part of it. And then moved to Culver City, went to junior high there, and started dabbling with the Devil's Dandruff and all kinds of... In middle school. Who introduced you to the Devil's Dandruff? No, once I got my bar mitzvah at 13 years old

and became a man. I was now ready to experiment with that. And also I was just getting into heavy metal music and I don't want to blame heavy metal music for my dark path, but it was definitely a rite of passage in a Beavis and Butthead way. Yeah, this is what it means to be a man, to be in the devil music and just be hardcore. The same way my kids, I think, got really into super scary movies when they were like 12, 13 years old.

I was like, this is a little too scary for a kid. It's a rite of passage. So you wanna go to the dark side to prove you can survive it. And so I went down that road and the more dangerous, the more attractive. It shows your bravery more and more. I don't think people who are not all right, so you're exactly my brother's age

and I don't think people understand how present the devil was in our culture. The devil moral panic was nationwide at this point, and you had many, many popular metal acts that were proclaiming their allegiance to the devil. You had Rodney James Dio, friends of mine's older brothers would have upside down cross posters.

I remember being pretty terrified at 10 or 11 years old of how much satanic shit was swirling around. It kind of is a way to show that you were brave, right? You weren't afraid to dance with the devil. That's right. And it's funny because I've been doing a lot of research lately, just going down rabbit holes and reading books about that era of rock and roll. And Black Sabbath was the first one to really embrace it, even though Led Zeppelin had a little bit of that. It was more about you heard rumors that Jimmy Page was into the occult, but there were no songs that were like,

Satan came and spread his wings. That never happened in Zeppelin. You attribute that to Zeppelin because their sound was so hard rock. And the angel on the album was a little like fallen angel. Was it Lucifer? It was a stretch, but Black Sabbath, they came out the gate, their very first song,

Black Sabbath on the first album, they kind of threw down the gauntlet. But even Black Sabbath, they were like, no, we never wanted to celebrate the devil. We were just doing like a horror movie music. But the marketing team, the record label were like, no, we're gonna lean heavy into this devil thing. And this is your album cover.

It's like a haunted house, and there's a lady that looks like a witch there. It worked. Well, Upside Down Cross is everywhere on all the albums of that day, lots of pentagrams. But then they were so anti-Satanism, and they were like, that's not who we are. We're putting on a show, you fucking idiots.

And like when Anton LaVey or some of these hardcore Satanists actually started rallying around and putting on parades Oh Black Sabbath is coming to town. We embrace your Satanism. They were like no you fucking idiots. They started wearing right-side-up crosses to ward off the evil spirits. I'm just fascinated with that movement in music. Alasir Crawley, like he would hang out. But that marriage never really happened. Maybe there were some bands that movement in music. Alistair Crawley, like he would hang out. But that marriage never really happened.

Maybe there were some bands that fully embraced it. Who were your bands in junior high? In junior high, before I found heavy metal, I was all about like Styx, loved the Grand Illusion, loved Yes, great band. I loved Journey, the softer side of rock. You're real soul. The little boy we all wanna be

before we get to junior high and we realize we're gonna get destroyed if we don't slay some lions in the jungle by committing ourselves to the devil. I was into sticks before the Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto misstep that they had that kind of destroyed them. No, there's some damn good sticks. You'd rather be a blue-collar man.

Sha-ka-ka-ka-ka. Great songs. And then I remember I went to the record store in Culver City to get the new Journey. I was going to expand my Journey library, I remember, because I loved Escape. What a great album. There was a dude there who was wearing like a flannel,

and it was like, nah, here, this is what you should get. And he handed me Ozzy Osbourne, Blizzard of Oz. All right, this guy seems cool. I'm just gonna do what he says. And again, so Ozzy's still musical. It's like still good music. I'm gonna say great music. Okay, great, even better.

Cause I took that home. Now I'm only 13 years old, mind you. I took it home and I listened to it and it was the best thing I'd ever heard. Is Crazy Train on? Of course Crazy Train is on it. Yes, Blizzard of Oz baby. It was a masterpiece and Randy Rhodes, that guitarist who was with us too briefly, died in an airplane crash. Up there with Cliff Burton. Was a genius. He was right there with Eddie Van Halen. Those two would have been duking it out all through the 80s if he had survived.

Stay tuned for more of our fire and chair expert. If you dare. Wherever you're going, you better believe American Express will be right there with you. Heading for adventure? We'll help you breeze through security. Meeting friends a world away? You can use your travel credit. Squeezing every drop out of last day? How about a 4pm late checkout? Just need a nice place to settle in? Enjoy your room upgrade. Wherever you go, we'll go together. That's the powerful

backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash ymx. Benefits vary by card, terms apply. ["The Gap of the World"] So Ozzy was kind of the gateway. He was the gateway. And really, it wasn't true metal. There was a lot of pop music hooks and beautiful sections in there. It's more classic Rocky to me.

Yeah, so that opened it up and I was like, I gotta see everything that Ozzy's done. So I went back and discovered Black Sabbath retroactively and then Led Zeppelin. And do you start wearing shirts declaring your allegiance to them and does that attract other boys? And then once again, the cooler the better

because if I had the Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio era Black Sabbath, the mob rules. There's like a dark imagery and it looks like there's a Satan, but it's subtle and people give you the nod of like approval. Like, yeah, yeah, we're in the club. Okay, so who breaks out the blotter or the devil's dander first?

I was introduced to LSD, guess I was maybe 14 or maybe 13. It was a friend of mine. I'm not looking for a name, I'm just curious. Were you hanging with a 26-year-old dude that was a tradesman? He was older. I did look up to him like a big brother figure. I had a thing where I wanted a father figure even though I had a great dad, but I wanted the dark dad.

I wanted the one that was going to show me the ways of the dark side. And this guy filled in that role. We did acid and I remember that night laughing as hard as I'd ever laughed and having this strange feeling of being whole for the first time. And suddenly this big dark mysterious universe that I didn't know how I fit into, it all felt right. Laughing till I cried and having kind of a weird spiritual experience.

But then it led to the darkest day or night of my life where it wouldn't stop and it stopped being fun. And it was so bad that I was locked in this insane brain prison where all I could see was chess pieces going off into infinity, playing a game with myself, and I had this terror that I was never gonna break free of it. And it was like, as good as that first hour and a half was, it wasn't worth it.

And thank God I made it through the night. I don't think I slept a minute. Once the thought enters your mind, this may be permanent. The second you have that thought, you're fucking cooked for hours. Yeah. You're like, oh shit. You're remembering stories you heard growing up of like,

you know Mike Benner, I saw him at the gas station. He's been trippin' for four years. You have this one story. And you're like, oh wow, this is happening to me. I'm gonna be him. So you stopped doing it after that or no? I might have done it again after you're like, oh wow, this is happening to me. I'm gonna be him. So you stopped doing it after that or no? I might have done it again after that. Sure, sure.

Why, of course. I think I got some bad acid. That's what I heard. Sometimes you get the bad one. There was a few hallucinogenic experiences, mushrooms and acid. But Coke, now that's a sexy pants partner. Well, I was just down to clown with anything

that my big bro or my crew of heavy metal maniacs were into at the time. It wasn't a gang, but it was like a brotherhood. There was some coke. You know, when you first take it, there's an initial rush and a feeling. It's similar in that a doorway opens in your brain and you're like, I fucking get it now and I have a lot of brilliant things to say really fast. And you go for hours and hours and you say some things

where you're talking about love and you're talking about connections and you're talking about things in the future that you're gonna do. And it's in retrospect, so embarrassing. It is. Thank God there was no recording. But it actually would have been nice

if someone had recorded it just to play back as a cautionary tale of how ridiculous you can sound. I witnessed myself a single time I had been recorded by my girlfriend, and it's a bummer. I mean, I think that might be the lowest feeling I've had is looking at my face and going, how I thought I was coming across versus what I'm seeing now. What a gap.

But I would say the thing I liked about it most is I'm not optimistic. I'm very pessimistic, couple toots of that stuff, and I'm like, you know what? Everything is gonna work out. I got spiritual. I like talking about God and stuff that I don't usually talk about,

and I don't really feel a connection to. I'm definitely leaning atheist, but for some reason, once I get all cooked up or whatever the drug may be. There's a version that brings out a nice side of yourself, which is like, I'm so interested in whoever I'm talking to. Someone will be telling me

that their father was a firefighter. And I'm like, wait a minute. And this is sincere. I'll be like, oh my God. So your dad was like, a firefighter? Yeah. And I'm in it. This guy's dad was a hero.

Tell me more, and I wanna know about the movie of their life where their hero dad was- But you already want that. You don't need- Imagine it squared. That seems intense. It gives you a brief energy that lets you delve deeper than you normally would with other people.

Maybe that's why Freud supposedly used it a lot in sessions so that they could go deeper than you normally would with other people. Maybe that's why Freud supposedly used it a lot in sessions. So that they could go deeper than they usually would about themselves and about the nooks and crannies of their personality. Was the move to crosswords, crossroads, crosswords. We should open a competing school across the street called crosswords. But were your parents sensing we need to put him

somewhere else and get him out of this crew? Yeah, but in the midst of all of that turmoil and darkness, there was someone from the crew. This dude was into this person who we had all met when we got on a bus and went to the arcade in Westwood. It was called Westworld back when arcades were a thing. Play your favorite tabletop video games. And we met these girls and we both fell for the same girl and he kind of called dibs or whatever, and I was like dibs, shmibs.

And then I started a romance on the side and he didn't know, and then when he found out he wanted to kill me, and then he did beat the shit out of me. It wasn't over yet, there was gonna be some more ass kicking. My parents just noticed. There was going to be some more ass kicking. My parents just noticed that shit was going sideways and they're like, we got to get you the fuck out of there.

And I was like, yeah, I agree. I don't want to be here anymore. We're so relieved because you maybe wouldn't have sent up the white flag. I don't know what would have happened there. So I went to this little tiny school called Poseidon that was on Pico between Bundy and Barrington. It's not there anymore. And it was a school with a lot of kids that had been kicked out of their schools from all over the city. And it was kind of a last chance kind of school. Yeah, it was the island of broken toys.

Misfit Island. But it had some great teachers in it. There was a theater teacher named Deb Devine, who I latched onto and she taught us all improvisation games and viola-spoling games and got us all thinking about telling stories. And it was kind of like theater therapy. You could work out some of your demons by playing roles and just coming off the top of your head

with shit you're gonna say to the other person in the scene. It was kind of amazing. And she is still a great theater force in Los Angeles. She's got a theater called 21st Street Theater here in downtown LA. She has outreach programs to kids all over the city who come and learn theater.

She's an awesome lady. That's so cool. Yeah. There was also like a therapist in the school. There's only like 20 kids in the school, but the therapist was a bodybuilder also. Oh, wonderful. Because sometimes he would have to defend himself.

There's some rough characters at this school. Wow, mixed messages. Yeah. Were there smoking breaks built in? I'm being sincere. There was smoking. And there was kids going in to see him and talk to him, and I was like, what's going on there?

Because there were some kids that it was compulsory. They had to go talk to the therapist a certain amount of times a week, and I was not in that group, and I was jealous. I was like, I want to talk to the therapist a certain amount of times a week and I was not in that group and I was jealous I was like, I want to talk to the muscle building therapist. Yeah, I talked to him just on the sides Like how do you get into there? It's like you can come in if you want you know, it's set an appointment I was like, yeah And I went in there

I just wanted to see what was going on in here and we got to talking and then it only took me about a minute Before I started spilling my guts about how I had stolen money from my mom and all the shit that I was carrying around, how guilty I was. Doing drugs. The drugs, but mainly the betrayal of my mom, who just was unconditional love for me. And she didn't know that I had stolen money to get the drugs. And I just bawled my eyes out. I cried so hard and it felt so good.

Because I grew up with a Jewish upbringing and I learned a lot of my value system there, but I didn't have confessional. And there was something about just sitting there with this therapist and just confessing my sins or whatever you want to call it, my guilt, that felt so cleansing. Your shame. Yes.

I saw him for the next year once a week and it was like a major turning point for me. Yeah, that's really lucky. I don't know if this is exactly what you're explaining, but I had this struggle with my mother who loved me beyond measure. I was the golden child. She believed I could do anything.

Juggling the duality of wanting to live up to how much she loved me and then also fucking running with the devil any chance I could. Trying to fuck, do drugs, just living with this kind of dualistic identity was rough. I felt a lot of deep shame that I wasn't really behaving in her absence the way I did in her presence.

Did you hold onto shame and guilt for years? Like when did you have your muscle building therapy moment of confession? 29 when I got sober and started going to AA. So I just kept racking up. I just made it worse and worse. I just moved across the country so she couldn't see. And then once every few years I'd have such a bad bottom

where I almost OD'd and I'd call her crying and go, all right, here's what I'm really up to. And I can only imagine how terrified she would be listening to whatever update. I would just hold it for like three years and I'd call her in some terrible spiral. I'm gonna die from this. And then I'd call her for two weeks because I felt better. It wasn't until you're like 29 that you found someone who was objective

from the situation that you could spill your guts to that was there to just listen? Well, like you, at 29 I go into AA and I start admitting to all the shit I'm carrying, stealing from people. 10 years of addiction, I racked up some stuff I had to get off my chest. I was just walking around like, I am a piece of shit. And yet the weight that gets lifted, it's kind of crazy how effective

saying out loud to somebody your thing is. Yeah. You're suffocating under it, and then you say it, and it's like 80% of it's gone. And then it's kept at that. And then it gets kind of easy. Nothing compares to the first time that I confessed to that therapist.

That was the big one. And the rest of the time, I was kind of chasing the dragon, and I never quite had that same release, that explosive waterfall of emotions. Did he try to get you into lifting? No. Because if I were him, I'd been like, Jack, I think you could put up some serious weight.

I should get into some lifting now because the steps program is not getting it done. It doesn't matter how many steps I get, I could never catch up to the caloric intake. Because speaking of which, you wanna talk about addiction, that's my heroin, it's my yummy yummy cheeseburgers or whatever the fuck it may be. Doesn't matter how many salads, that's making me nauseous.

I want the good stuff. Cheeseburgers is my favorite thing in the world. It's the best sandwich. It is, it is. Obviously. I was just telling Monica, two days ago, I put a ribeye in the fucking grinder. A ribeye, Jack, like a $50 ribeye.

And I turned it into three hamburgers. And I was thinking people would be so mad I did this. But then I was like, who cares what shape the ribeyes in? But it was so good as three burgers and I ate two of the three. Did you put cheese on it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's actually interesting

because if you had a regular ribeye and you put cheese on it, people would be mad. They'd be upset. They'd be like, you're ruining it. Interesting, even if it was an aged cheddar. I mean, not for me, I love cheese. The more, the better. But when did the food come into play?

Food was always a problem. From the get-go, I remember when I was around 10, going to Mickey D's and crushing like five filet-o-fishes, and that was back when they had the Styrofoam boxes, and then I would literally crush the boxes with my thumb, see if I could pierce all five in one crush. That was so much fun, and that was back when they had the deep-fried cherry pie.

Yeah, I would dip my finger in there just to get the, I didn't care about the crust, I just wanted that hot cherry jam. Well, I don't wanna psychoanalyze you, but your first memory is 10 of the five filet-o-fish and mom and dad are getting divorced. Yeah, not too hard of a leap. There might have been something there, some regulating.

I remember years before that of them fighting all the time, so it was kind of a relief too. They got a divorce, like, good, get the hell away from each other. Divorce is always a crazy thing, how it's going to affect the kids because you want them to stay together on some deep level because that's where you came from. But you also want to get a part if it's toxic. OK, so after Crossroads...

So Deb Devine says, What are you doing here, Jack? You got to go to Crossroads. It's just a few blocks away It's the best school in the city. You've got it kid. You got something here I told my parents I want to go to Crossroads and they were like, all right, we'll pay for that It's expensive then after Crossroads I went to UCLA things turned around in a big way cuz I was a fuck-up and now all of a sudden going to this

It's Ivy League at Jason. I was at UCLA theater. I ended up there too. You were there too? Yes, there's another overlapping thing. I too went to UCLA. I think I'm a little older than you. I was there during Aichman years. Were you there for Aichman in the football program? No, Troy Aichman went there. I didn't even know that.

Yes, he was the quarterback. So yeah, I think it's Ivy League too, cause I went there. Yeah, I'm gonna burst a big bubble here. As the only one who didn't go to UCLA. It is not considered Ivy League, but it's a very good school. It's right next door.

They say it's better than Berkeley now. What's the second best weed that it could be? Not Ivy, it's a Holly. Holy. Holly Leak? That doesn't sound right. But I was a horrible student at UCLA also. I just didn't do well with academics in general

and it didn't change when I got to college. I would always, same as high school, fall asleep. There was something about a classroom environment that didn't jive with my brain for learning. I learned a lot better in the theater, on the job, doing the thing that I loved. Your circadian rhythm was triggered by the classroom. Yes.

It told you it was nighttime, as soon as you got in one of those desks. Could be narcolepsy. No, it's not. Do you think it was ADHD? Because as soon as class was over, I was a huge burst of energy, and I'd go running into the sculpture garden,

ready to smoke joints and high five and talk about a show, let's put on a show. There was something about actually being in a production, in a show where I could be working on the most difficult, heady stuff, doing Shakespeare, stuff that was way above my grade level. I had a great experience meeting other theater people and the social element was hugely beneficial,

but as soon as I had an opportunity to do theater outside of school, I jumped on that. How did you discover the Actors Gang? The Actors Gang Theater. So there was a writer from the Actors Gang Theater Company who was a high school teacher at Crossroads, and that's how they first got on my map, and I would go to see their shows when I was in high school.

I was like, oh man, someday. Was Tim Robbins performing in those shows ever? He was directing some of them, but he was overseeing, he was kind of the overlord of the whole theater group and the creative director, but he was also really busy with making movies at the time. Then I was at UCLA doing theater there,

but I was still keeping an eye on the actors gang and going to all their shows, and then an opportunity came up to get a little part in one of their plays called The Big Show in Santa Monica, and I came in and I had some songs and I got some songs into the show, so I quickly became one of the musical people in the gang. Really quick, how long had you been singing at that point

in a way that you thought like, yeah, I'm a singer, or had you yet? I only started singing where I really identified as a singer in high school at Crossroads. I did some musical theater. Okay. I did Hip-HIn and another show called Carnival. And so there was an opportunity to go with the actors, getting to the Edinburgh Theatre Festival in 1989,

which is the Mecca of the theater universe where people from all over the world come to Edinburgh, Scotland. Dan Lewis might be there, Daniel Day. Yeah, Dan Lewis might be there. Daniel Day. Yeah, Dan Lewis might be there. I especially love Daniel Day when he plays Americans from 1901. That's when he really thrives.

Bill the Butcher. 1888 to 1901. I'm an oral man. There will be blood and Lincoln. Those are two. Well, and Bill the Butcher. And Bill the Butcher. All around that time.

Why? Why is he so good around that time, why? Why is he so good at that time? He was born in the wrong century. Once I got to that theater festival, no looking back, and I was not going back to UCLA, and I didn't tell my parents for a while, because I knew how much they wanted me to get that degree,

and I didn't have the heart to tell them that it wasn't in the cards. How long were you hiding this secret? I hid it for a good year. And were you updating them like your grades and what classes? No, I mean they knew that I was at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival and at that point my dad lived in France. They had moved to France so I was kind of like my life is my own but I still didn't want them to know that I had dropped out like this was the thing I was doing and I was gonna go back to school and I just never went back But that's where I met Kyle and that's where the seeds for tenacious D were first planted

Do you shift gears from acting to I'm gonna be in tenacious D and I'm gonna be a musician or are you thinking? I'm gonna do all things at that point. I'm just turning 20 There's a little dream that oh, maybe I could be a rock and roller. Me and Kyle could start a band. We could be a rock and roll comedy team. He's a great guitarist. He was gonna give me some lessons. He's gonna teach me how to rock.

There was just this weird, dumb, impossible dream. But there was also something, even before we had played for anyone, I was like, there's something very funny about you and me getting up on stage and rocking really hard and being rock stars and wanting to be rock stars and thinking we're rock stars.

It's so dumb. It's so wrong. This is a bad idea. And there's something hilarious about how bad this idea is. And I knew, I just felt like there's something here. There's something magic. I can't even put my finger on it. So that's another thing I tell people whenever they say,

hey, I like your career, how do you do it? I was like, you gotta find yourself a Kyle, because there's things that I will do with Kyle that I would never do alone. There's things that I don't feel I have permission to do alone, but with me and Kyle, that's different. I credit my entire personality to my best friend Aaron Weakley, who I met in seventh grade.

Like if I hadn't met him, I'm not sure who I am. Because I was like, oh, if we're both acting this way, I don't really care what anyone else thinks. I would have never had the confidence to explore who I was without that safety net. I want that for my kids so fucking bad, and it's not my business to tell them, but it's like, I just want them to find their soulmate

that gives them the confidence to be the weirdest version of themselves. It is a gift. You hope that everyone can have that time in their lives when they meet that person that opens up the universe. Yeah. Okay, so you guys are performing. You're doing as we said, you get on Mr. Show.

Also, I'm assuming Tim Robbins is seeing you at the Actors Gang perform. Because you end up in Bob Roberts and the great Sean Penn. Oh, Dead Man Walking. Dead Man Walking. Oh my God. You end up in Dead Man Walking. I'm gonna take that compliment

that you liked Dead Man Walking. You haven't actually said you liked me. I do, you're the weird brother that shows up. You're giving me a compliment. Yeah, I can see you in my head. I was already told you though, I was a Jack fan from 96. Okay.

So I'm like, oh, this motherfucker is here now too. Dead Man Walking. Once again, I'm gonna say this was before I had found my voice and I had some ideas, but I didn't speak them out loud because I was afraid that they would be dumb ideas. But that was a great movie and it was a great lesson in acting and watching Sean Penn do his thing

and Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, but I would be fine if they deleted my scene from the movie. In fact, if there is a way that I could erase it, I would. You might be able to say, tell AI, show me Dead Man Walking without Jack Black. I might be able to do that. We're so close to that. Wait, what's the first movie

that you don't feel like that about? Bob Roberts is my actual first movie, and that did end up being a really good calling card. I'm proud of it. It was a moment in time where I was so terrified of fucking up and so terrified that there's a camera on me and that there's a full crew of people here. It was so alien and foreign to me.

I had done theater, but this was a whole different animal, and my character, luckily, was terrified in that moment of being in the presence of this godlike figure, this Republican politician rock star named Bob Roberts. I just wanna be him so badly. And young Jack Black really was feeling that same way about Tim Robbins. So I was able to channel it and plug right in.

Also, I did a take where it was like, mm, that was okay, and then Tim was like, okay guys, let's do it again, way faster. That's the only note, just faster, and action. And then we did it again and I did it faster, and I was like, I think that was too fast. I just did it faster, but okay, and great, we got it, moving on.

I was like, wait, moving on, oh fuck, I'm too young to ask for another take. Okay, we're moving on. And then I saw the movie and I was like, oh, it's pretty on, fuck it, I'm too young to ask for another take, okay, we're moving on. And then I saw the movie and I was like, oh, it's pretty good, I wish they had used that other. And then the editor came through with another cut of the movie and it just clicked in and my part was perfect. So the lesson was just be open.

And I don't know what the lesson is, but one of the lessons is editing is hugely important. Well, I think, can I interpret one of the lessons for you, which would be when you're there, the entire thing's on your shoulders, and you really forget, oh, well, Tim Robbins is in the mix, a great editor's in a mix, a great DP's in the mix, there's gonna be a great song or score in the mix.

What you come to realize is like you're a part of this and these other elements can lift you way beyond what you assessed your thing to be when it happened. And by the way, faster is about the best note that can ever be given in anything. It was a great note because he got us moving faster than our brains were moving. And sometimes that's when the good shit happens.

And it doesn't trigger any insecurity. He's not telling me I wasn't real or I didn't blah blah blah. It's just like oh tempo is fine I can modulate that let's go from 33 to 45, but do the same thing, but it's not doing the same thing that movie I saw the cut and it was like oh my part is fucking great It's small, but it really pops off the screen and they were going to Cannes the Cannes Film Festival My part was too small to get invited to go along, but my dad lived in Cannes. I was like, I'm going to visit my dad and showing up. I got there and I called Tim and said, can you get me on the list?

I'm flying myself. And he got me into the show, so I went to see the movie and I ended up on top of a mountain smoking a joint with Tim Robbins and that great director who directed The Player and all those great, Robert Altman. Yeah. And Giancarlo Esposito, we were all up there

overlooking Cannes. Oh my God. Sucking on the devil's cabbage. This is it, I am here and it wasn't here, it was an illusion. I thought this is the beginning of my career and it led to 10 years of not being able to get another good role like that.

But Bob and David remembered my little part from Bob Roberts 10 years later. And they gave us our break partially because of that, I think it wasn't just an edges deep. So it's like, you do some good work and sometimes you expect it to just launch you and it doesn't, but those things still linger around like burning embers sometimes.

Yeah, it's like you're just putting breadcrumbs on this thing and then hoping to hit critical mass, and you just don't know what the thing is, and what's gonna pay off seven, eight years later. It's impossible to see it in the moment, but then in retrospect, you're like, oh right. That's for every job. It's not just creative. Anyone can have this sort of moment retrospect, you're like, oh, right. That's for every job. It's not just creative.

Anyone can have this sort of moment where whatever you're doing now, you don't know how that's gonna impact the future, which is important. So what do you do? You put your head down. You keep on doing you. This is an important thing.

I don't know why I'm Mr. Telling People lessons. I don't do very many of these where I talk about myself. I was gonna start with that. You don't really do this. Nah. You're an enormous star and I gotta say there's the least amount of interviews available of you of almost anyone else I've researched of your caliber. And I did want to know off the top about that but I thought we could earmark that. Well I just feel a little embarrassed and a little shy and a little unworthy of tooting my own horn and telling my life story.

It's just not what I usually do. I will say this, this is the last time I'm gonna do this. No it's not. When people ask me, what do you do to get what you got? I want it. Important career lesson number four is figure out what you wanna do, not what you want to be. I want to be a famous actor, a famous rock star.

That's not going to get you anywhere. You want to play music in front of people? Good, do that. It doesn't have anything to do with what level of success you get to. Because if you love doing it, you do it for no money and you're happy. Same thing with acting and at the end of the day,

that's what gets you to the good stuff, the juice. And as a byproduct, you probably will have some success. I'll even add, the stuff that you thought you were doing in route to somewhere in retrospect of your life will be some of the things you enjoyed the very most and would go back to. For me, Growlings, I don't think it ever got better than doing a show on Sunday nights to 100 people,

couldn't believe it was sold out, because there was no illusion of anything beyond that. It evaporated that night, it was like Buddhism. It happened on Sunday, it wasn't recorded, and that was it, it was for the pure joy of doing it, and I don't think it ever got better than that. I think that is part of why theater saved my life because there was that therapist,

but there was also that theater teacher, Deb Devine. And when I got up in front of a group of people, it didn't matter how small the audience was, and I got into a groove and I started jamming, I felt this incredible high and adrenaline and self-confidence. I think theater saved my life. There's something about that groundlings and about improv in general.

You tap into a thing and it's a mix between acting and writing. I don't think that improvisational actors get enough credit for writing the movie or the thing that they're doing. The director's like, no, that's part of the job of an actor is you write. No, it's not. If someone's getting up there and saying the first thing that comes to the top of their head, they should and sometimes do get writing credit,

but most times not. It's very, very rare. Yeah, well you enter a scene and then you end up exiting the scene. You didn't say anything that was written, yet you conveyed the goal of the scene. Is that what happens on those great improvisational movies like Spinal Tap, did everyone get writing credit?

Oh, that's a good question. Who wrote that? I don't know that it would be the fault of the producers or director or anyone nefarious. The Guild itself is really challenging, right? They're very protective of whoever wrote the first draft or the outline. So it's like you would have to petition,

there's some percentage you'd have to prove. I've been through this process where you give them both scripts and they go through it and determine whether you warrant a writing credit. So the fact that the improv is not even written, I don't even know what you submit to the guild. And also, I had a phase in my life where I was like,

I improv in every one of these movies, and then that stopped. And I was like, I have a fucking awesome job I get plenty of credit. I'm the one who gets to say it. Good if that writer gets another job I'm getting enough fucking pats on the back and even better I got to do the thing I wanted to do which is way more important than anything else Yeah, to be trusted to do the thing you wanna do is the ultimate. Yeah, keep the credit.

But have you written? Yeah, I've written and directed three movies. So you were able to transition from improvising and writing off the top of your head, as I like to call it, into writing everything in advance. I've only written one movie. It was Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.

Yes. And I had so much fun writing it, that process. Did you write it with Kyle? We talked out the story, but then the actual writing came with me and Liam Lynch, the director, at his house every night for 40 consecutive nights. I have a little OCD, I like that with the round numbers. But I had so much fun cracking the code on that

and that process and I was like, I think maybe this is what I'm gonna do. And then the movie didn't do well and no one ever asked me to write again and I never did again, but I think maybe I would like to jump back into those waters someday. Stay tuned for more of Armchair Expert, if you dare. ["Ride of the Valkyries"]

Do you find a special kind of satisfaction when you're writing your movies? If I had to list the things I'm proudest of in my life, writing's way above acting or directing. Yeah, do you have a partner when you write? Mm-mm. No, you go solo. Yeah, I go lone wolf.

I go to a hotel and go for four days, I write, I come home. Then I go on another spell. And when I'm there, I just write all day long. I've got a whole little routine. I can't do it without someone else. Yeah, that's fair. I need them to say, what do you think it should be? And then me to say, no.

Wrong, here is what it should be. I can't do it without. You need the catalyst. You need a bad idea to shoot down to get to your good idea. And vice versa. So I'm gonna shoot down my dumb ideas I don't realize are dumb. You're not a control freak, I'm guessing.

I am a control freak. You are, interesting. But I need to have someone else there to control. So Monica asked you a question and I'm gonna guess at the answer, which was she said, when did you feel like you were in your voice and found your voice acting?

I'm gonna guess it was High Fidelity. Yep, that was the big breakout. And that was John Cusack, dakin' my stuff with Tenacious D. Can we take two on John Cusack? John Cusack was everything I wanted to be when I was a kid. Oh yeah. He was the coolest.

Brilliant and cool and funny. And he hand selected you. You were his idea, right? Well we had a brotherhood through the Actors Gang because he and Tim Robbins were tight back in the day. And he in fact started his own splinter group called New Criminals in Chicago. They were like the Chicago wing of the actors gang.

So I hadn't really done any time with them hanging out, but I knew and he knew that we were both from that theater group. He reached out and Steven Frears, the director, who I loved, because I love dangerous liaisons, with my favorite actor, John Malkovich in it. So all signs were like, of course I have to do this movie, but I was so scared of fucking with my tenacious D cred

and this new thing that was burgeoning. I was like, wait, I'm in a rock band that's really working right now. I don't wanna do a movie about rock and mess with my actual career as a rock musician. And then eventually I realized, oh, I'm just terrified of failing. I have to do this, it's Stephen Frears and John Q.

So I said yes I'll do it. I heard you say that your initial fear was you're gonna be playing a guy that just shits on all music. I can see how you would think that would nullify what you're doing over here. There was also certain bands that I just worshiped that I didn't wanna talk about. Because even saying their name out loud on film, it was like a holy ground that I didn't wanna talk about. Because even saying their name out loud on film,

it was like a holy ground, I didn't wanna touch it. I didn't wanna go there. I was like screaming Macbeth in the theater. Exactly. What was the most offensive one? I didn't wanna talk about Kurt Cobain or Nirvana. I don't even know if that ended up in the movie in the end, but there were certain places where I was just,

that's just. Sacrilege. There was a few places that sirens went off in my head when I read the script, but thank God I got over that because it was the first time that I had really found my voice in a movie. It was my breakout. And then after that comes really quickly, I'm just going to kind of list them, but Orange County. And why I want to earmark that is I want to talk about Jake Casson because I love him and I've

worked with him. What a special dude and you have many times, but we're earmarking that. But then Shallow Hell is right after that. You go on a fucking pretty bonkers ride. This pattern emerges, which is Jake's part of it, right? You work with people, and I like this about you from the outside. People who work with people and develop real friendships and keep coming back and working together,

after all the cash and prizes are obtained and they don't fill the hole, I think the one thing you really can look back on with enormous pride and gratitude is playing together with like-minded people for many times. That's the big victory in this. I do feel that way with Jake because we started off with Orange County early on and we had such a fun shorthand. And the thing that was really fun with Jake because we started off with Orange County early on and we

had such a fun shorthand and the thing that was really fun with Jake is every take he'd be like now try it this way and I try it that way and it was almost like we were just doing it for fun every take. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not so much improvising but yeah playing like a science experiment let's turn over all the rocks. It was not an indie film it didn't have that big budget pressure. We felt kind of loose and free and we're having fun every day. Had you seen Zero Effect?

Cause that was my favorite movie for like 10 years. Yeah. And he was 19 or 21 when he made that movie, impossibly. He had a full head of steam coming in. And also it was Mike White who wrote Orange County, who was a big factor in that great experience. And he I ended up working with on School of Rock. So you work with Jake as a director,

you end up working with him a bunch more. And then yeah, Mike White writes it. And then he obviously kind of falls in love with you because he comes to you with the idea of School Rock. With Rudin? Yep. Those two are together and they wanna make this movie. And then the most unlikely character enters the scene, which is, again, you're so fucking blessed.

Richard Linklater, what a spirit. Did you see his recent movies on Netflix right now? It's really good. Hitman. That's him? Yeah. Oh, that does not look like a Linklater movie from the poster. No, I know, because it's a big crime thriller action comedy.

I think Boyhood is one of the most beautiful movies ever made. Also, can you imagine the patience it would take to do a movie over the course of 12 years? It's mind blowing. It's a different kind of cat. Can I tell you, this is about me, not you. I'm gonna bogart your interview.

Do it. When you think about saddest, missed opportunities type situations the second movie I wrote and directed its screen at South by and I was seated next to somebody I didn't know who this movie I made hit-and-run plays it finishes and the man next to me Immediately is like crazy effusive about the movie, but I have unfortunately back to your noise-canceling headphones Yeah, I've a little bit shifted my mind of like, I gotta get out of this theater. When you star in a movie and you're in the theater,

it gets really dicey afterwards, right? So unfortunately, I've already clicked into like, be polite and also get out of here as quick as possible. And as I exit the thing, my judge was there, and he goes, what did Dick say to you? And I go, who? And he goes, what did Dick say to you? And I go, who? And he goes, we were sitting next to Link later. And I was like, oh my God, I had a moment

to suck up some praise from Link later, and I just thought he was a fucking bogey. I got, what a regret. I mean, I would have stayed there all goddamn night. It does go to show, don't be a big shot. Always take them in. You never know who they are or who they'll be. And it's even embarrassing that I would prioritize

his praise over anyone else's. There's a lot of ugliness in this story. I like that Mike Judge calls him Dick. I know, me too. Dick Linklater. Those guys are two peas in a pod. Partially, I think they live right next door to each other in Texas.

Yeah, and Rodriguez is in that mix too. The three of them are like these bandits living down there just doing whatever they wanna do creatively. It seems so dreamy. I think it's okay. You can pick up the phone and leave a nice message for Dick. He can pick up where you left off and just say, so what were you saying about my movie?

Remember 12 years ago? I think he's working on another one of those 12 years or maybe 20 year projects. Sign me up. I'll commit to a 30 year, I mean, I'll have to keep myself alive. What a relaxed schedule. You only have to work.

What days am I working? Well, we got you scheduled for a week in 2028. Exactly. I need some time off for my kids' graduation. Oh, that's fine. You're not working for six years. Oh my God. Okay, School of Rock.

I'm delighted to hear this, because you said in one of the three interviews in your life you've done, you said that that is your proudest moment. Because you live in the neighborhood, you must be aware of there's like a School Rock. My kids were in School Rock. Oh, nice.

Like there's a cool little punkish, do you know about this here in Silver Lake? Yeah, but isn't that Flea's Silver Lake Conservatory of Music? Incredible. Yeah, what a fucking beautiful movie written by Mike White, directed so beautifully by Link Lader. You're so fucking good. That is my proudest moment. It's the one where there's a tangible feeling of accomplishment just because of kids and parents that come up to me and go, my kid started playing guitar because of that movie. And that feels like it affected a positive change in the world of a lot of kids, which is the best.

You're the center of a nice ripple. That doesn't happen often in life. It's kind of paying it forward because theater maybe saved my life and changed my life. And if it does a little bit of that for other kids, then mission accomplished. Okay, so I don't wanna lose you. I don't wanna be your science class. I just skim it into this. Are you kidding?

Yes, I just gotta look at you. Well, because I finished my coffee. Do you want another one? Yeah, we can give you another one. No, no, no. I'll go peepee and I'll make you another one. I don't need it, I don't need it. I'm here.

But would you enjoy it? I'm afraid that it might be too much. Because to be honest with you, I had a big cup of iced coffee before I even came. So this one was questionable. The third cup is where my heart explodes. Sometimes I close my eyes just to focus. I've detected the difference.

I know when it's hardcore thinking, and I know when it was like, oh, I could go for a five minutes. I haven't yawned yet, you guys. I'm still here. I feel your presence. I'm 100%. You want to go pee, though.

You want to break your poop. I would do it. I'm gonna pee right here. There's no door there. I'm gonna here. I feel your presence. I'm 100% you want to go pee though. You want to break your poop. I would do it. I'm gonna pee right here. There's no door there. I'm gonna see you pee. I'm gonna go peripheral. You're invited to. I'm gonna do the same thing after you.

Yeah. Is that gonna be uncomfortable? We all step out. We do this all the time. I'll step out. I'll hold your... You don't need to step out for him. He doesn't care.

I'm stepping out. There should be a table. I'm gonna get some fresh and stretched legs anyways. Okay, great. I'm gonna take a bite of a kind bar then. Look at this beautiful backyard area. Okay, thanks you guys. I'm done, I did it.

I did the deed. I tinkled. I made water. I didn't even really realize I've had this set of cans here the whole time. I could have been listening. I was so curious why you weren't wearing them. You know what? I'm gonna wear them now. Oh, this is gonna kick into high gear now.

It's gonna change everything. It really will. I was gonna suggest it, but then I thought you were making a choice. Me too, because I'm like, this guy's so audio inclined. He records music. He's got a whole take on why he doesn't wear headphones. I usually wear the headphones, but it makes me a little more self-conscious. Might be better without it. I don't know.

Well, you start listening to your own voice a little bit more. That encourages me. I'm like, I sound official. I like it. It gives me confidence. Or if you're listening to yourself, this sounds a little nasally. Let me modulate my voice to We'll make it less so. I don't want to get into that whole thing.

But you must have spent a great deal of time in front of a mirror fucking around with your voice. Lots. That's the start of every career. I agree. In the industry you gotta be in front of the mirror looking at how you look and how you must look to the audience. Yes. Oh real quick did you do Letterman in the day? I did do Letterman several times. Okay, so you don't love doing press,

but the only reason I wanted to be in show business was to be on Letterman. I didn't understand how I would get there, but 10, I want to be on Letterman. Yeah, Letterman, that was a big one for me. It was not the first one. The first talk show I did was Conan, and that was a huge one for me.

And in a way, nothing has beat the Conan experience because he was so down to clown. And I was like, would you mind if I do a little sketch? Not just come out and talk? My thing is putting on a show and he was into it. And their producer is Smiley. Did you ever deal with that? Smiley or Smigel?

Smiley was the producer. Okay. And that's who I talked to as like the interview before the show. Mine was Dan Ferguson always. Okay. Because he was also there. I probably talked to Fergie as well. And those shows always didn't feel like, oh, I'm going to tell my life story.

I'm going out there not so much as an interview, but I'm going out there to put on a show because it's part of the job. I have to go out there and sell this movie or this thing, and this is what they paid me for, so I contractually have to do it. Right, right, right. But I've never done one of those in-between movies just to be like, oh yeah, I'm just going to do this one for fun,

just because I love, have you? Done a talk show for fun. Oh yeah, you do all the time. Yes, a ton. Jack, I've been on some of these shows like 38 times. That sounds crazy to me because it's such a pressure cooker. It is and I kind of love it.

In fact, I'm much better at being on a talk show than I am about being in the movie I'm there to promote. For whatever reason, the talk show for me is like my sweet spot. You crush on talk shows. I'm shocked that you're not more... I have had some good ones. Yes. And this is a brag, but I so relate to the Conan thing. Most talk shows, if I go and I do everything I hope to do,

I basically executed what I was hoping to do. On Conan, numerous times I've been like, well, that was 20 times better than I was even hoping for. And he took it in a bizarre place and I happened to work well with him. I've left there going like, wow, we found some real comedy here that I hadn't even considered. Where I'm proud. I really do feel like it is the exact same beast

as going out there with Tenacious D and performing live in front of an audience. It's putting on a show more than anything. And if it goes well, I get that same rush, I get that same feeling of, wow, we really crushed it out there. And still, that hasn't dissipated at all, because you guys are what, on 25 years of this?

Yeah, we've been having great adventures still. We went to Europe just a month ago. Actually, our best place in the world is England. That market, for whatever reason, that's where we feel the most love, that's where we sell the most tickets. The audiences are ravenous, and it's changed over the years. At first, it was the United States.

We played all these great cities here, and then for some reason, Australia was our place to go, and we were crushing it in Australia. And then it was England. Is Tenacious D been the safety net? Or let me first start by asking, have you had moments in your career where you were scared? Yeah, where it feels like, oh, I think it's over.

You try to put a good spin on it, which is I wanna view this as that was a damn good run. Be happy with that. But I always felt heartbroken by those moments. I didn't feel like, oh, I got to play in the NBA now I'm retired. I was like, oh, I got kicked out of this party I was once invited to. Yeah. I feel terror when I feel like, oh, it's over. I have felt that a few times.

I'll get on the horn with my agent and be like, oh, can we get something going? I need to take some meetings or start developing something because this thing feels like a red alert. I think I'm done, my career's over. I'm not feeling that way right now. In fact, right now I feel like, ugh, I'm getting too old for this shit. Maybe I'm done and I'm happy about it.

Right, right, right, right, right. But then I know, as soon as my Google calendar gets empty, it will be right back to the panic mode and I'll be back on the horn saying, where's my old man movie? There's still rolls for it. Would you agree there's almost no sweet spot? It's either you have too much or you don't have enough or are you in a sweet spot? I'm in a sweet spot right now. My cup is full of performance satisfaction.

I kind of sidetracked you. I was wondering if Tenacious D was kind of that safety net. Even Tenacious D, I feel sometimes like, uh-oh, is this the end of the line for this band? We definitely had our moment in the sun. I always feel blessed when it's like, oh my God, we're still selling out this or that venue. In terms of a job, playing in front of an audience, playing music, and doing comedy bits with Tenacious D is the best. You only work a couple hours a day. You get to travel to a different city every day, you take a nice comfortable bus, you lay down in your weird coffin bed, and you get to a town and you have time to take

a nice leisurely walk around London or Birmingham or wherever we are, find a nice patch of grass to throw the frisbee, and you're hanging with your friends. It's just the best life. Yeah, I'm very envious of the sensation you must have when you're actually rocking an audience, like the way Bon Jovi said, and I rocked them all. That must be a very tasty feeling. It feels great when you're in a groove and you're jamming.

And it also feels great if you are putting on a show that's got some new elements to it. You're trying to blow their minds. And some of them, you know it's their first concert they've ever been to, and other ones, they've been following you for 20 years. It's a great feeling. My eight and 11 year old know the words

to probably six tenacious T-Songs, from start to finish. Wow. So don't rule out you doing this at 78, because I know you have another wave coming. Well, you know, you got that Rolling Stone still going. I gotta start doing the yoga, I guess. Get into some yoga.

Okay, the only other thing I wanted to ask you about is, and my wife is in this situation, right? You hit the lottery in that she gets this gift frozen, and it might just, hopefully and likely, go on forever and ever and ever. Kung Fu Panda, is that a little safety blanket or just like... Oh my God. Every few years they call.

Well, I never count my chickens. They haven't called up and said, hey, that thing was a hit. We got to do another one. I'm not assuming that that's going to happen, but it has been an amazing ride. That thing is going on. Yeah, that's 16 years you've been doing this. But about 20 since I first was pitched the idea because the first one took a few years.

And it is a great job. I'm so spoiled. When you go in to record some voice work, when you go in and it's just you in the microphone and the director and they're telling you, they're setting the scene, they're showing you some artwork and they're giving you direction and you're doing the vocal performance,

I get the same buzz, I get the same high. And when I feel like I'm connecting and making the people in the control booth laugh, I'm like, ugh, this rules. The actual workload is pretty light. It's about as good as it gets in show business. Speaking of Cannes, I saw one of the Kung Fu Pandas at Cannes in 2008.

Wow, yeah. The first one then. Would it have been the first one? I don't remember. That first one then. What, it had been the first one? Yeah, 2008. I don't remember. That's the first one. That must have been the first. I was begging for tickets on the side of the street and I got one to Kung Fu Panda.

It's pretty exciting. Were you smitten as hell when you saw it? We were all like, wow, this is great. We were all so pretentious at the time. We were like college students on a study abroad. There to see the fancy French movies. Maybe a Dan Lewis film. Hopefully, God willing, we're all leaving being like,

Kung Fu Panda was the best movie of the whole trip. Oh, I remember that one. Jeffrey Katzenberg was always real big on the pulling stunts to get publicity, and he would put all of his voice actors through the motions, and he had me marching down the street in Cannes with like a hundred costumed panda people dancers. Oh boy. And I was just marching down the Champs-Élysées wherever we were. Oh my god.

White-hot embarrassment. Oh That's when you know that it's working when it's so humiliating This is gonna get some clicks and some likes. Oh, fuck, that just gave me PTSD. The first movie I ever did was Without a Paddle, and we got sent to every city in America to promote it because none of us were big stars, and there was a bear in the film, Bart the Bear.

And so they were like, you know what would be a great idea is we get a guy in a bear costume on the red carpet with these guys everywhere they go. And I would be so embarrassed. I mean, a level of embarrassment. I'd rather be shitting myself in public, baby. And eventually I was like, if I see the bear again, I'm gonna leave.

I can't do the guy in the bear costume anymore. Yeah. Those things that are part of the job, get out there and dance like a monkey. I've come full circle, because there was a time when it was just like, I gotta get out of the job, get out there and dance like a monkey. I've come full circle because there was a time when it was just like, I got to get out of this business. And now I just kind of weirdly embrace it. When they're like, it's time to promote Kung Fu Panda.

Will Tenacious D do a song? We want you to do a cover of some kind. And we were like, we think it would be fun to do a Britney Spears song. I'm just sort of engaging in the promo. And so then we're like making a music video at the red carpet at the premiere. Oh, wow. That's high stakes. It turns out to be like a really funny thing. It's like if you're scared of an animal,

you're more likely to be attacked by it. Right. The public can sense your guilt, so you're like, shame, and they'll destroy you. But if you don't feel that kind of weight and you're just having fun. I'm there. My wife and I do a ton of commercials together.

As long as I'm like going all out and I do a ton of commercials together. As long as I'm like going all out, who gives a fuck if it was here, here, or here? Okay, Borderlands. That is coming out in August, right out of the gates. And I think maybe I forgot, this is not your first go-round with Cate Blanchett. She's probably my favorite actor alive.

She is the best. What a game. She crushed her. What was the thing you did with her before this? It was a little movie called The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Wow. By the same director, Eli Roth, as a matter of fact. Oh, he did that as well.

And that was a horror film for kids, kind of in the vein of Goosebumps that I had done a few years before. You played R.L. Stine, right? Correct, and this was based on a fun, cool, scary book. What's Borderlands based on? Borderlands is based on a great video game that came out like a decade ago,

and now they're on like part three of the video game. I'm a gamer, and so I was aware of the game, and I loved it. It's technically like a sci-fi Western, but it looks and feels like a post-apocalyptic desert film like Road Warrior. Yeah, it looks very, the newest Mad Max. It looks visually very Mad Max. And they've taken some elements from 80s metal.

There's like muscle-bound shirtless berserkers, they're called, with hockey masks. And it's peopled with robots. And I kind of play the R2-D2 of the movie, but it's more of a punk rock foul-mouthed R2-D2 where he's got a lot of attitude. He's this robot that's helping, but also kind of wishing that everyone would just die.

Do you have a throwaway line that's like, whatever reason, this robot has been programmed to make jokes? Correct. He is a comic relief helper, but he also hates the world that he's stuck in. And then it's a sweet story in that this little robot that you play, you have been dormant for like 37 years,

and then Cate Blanchett returns to her home planet on a mission, and then you come back to life. We don't know why, but you are inextricably linked to try to save and protect her. It's funny because I loved the role, and I loved the opportunity, but I didn't have to be there. Everybody else went to Bulgaria

and worked in the harsh elements. And I'm friends with Jamie Lee Curtis. We follow each other on Instagram. And I get this DM from her where she's like, where the fuck are you? I'm knee deep here in Bulgaria working my ass off and I just find that you don't have to be here. What order did they do it in?

Because they're acting against you. They had all of my performance. So you did it before they. Yeah, they were able to act off of what I was doing, but still, I get it, I was feeling for it. Are you at all sad because this Ariana Greenblatt First of all, did you see Barbie? Yes. What a movie? I'm on my fourth viewing. It's so fucking good. And she's so wonderful. It's a psychedelic

trip through a childhood fantasy, but it's also part of a movement You know how I was saying alt comedy came from like the movement of alt rock? Barbie feels like it's part of a movement also of Me Too and Girl Power and like this wave. It would be any other time I feel like a great art film that had a big budget. Cause it feels indie.

It's got that kind of irreverence and fuck you. And they're not feeling the big budget pressure, but it's a Goliath. It's a huge hit. Yeah, and in fact, I lament a lot of times, and you must too, like the days of the $30 million comedy coming out and making $100 million,

and there being eight or 10 of those a year, it's just so gone, and it's been gone for six or seven years, and I'm like, God, there's no comedy. And then all of a sudden I was like, no, Barbie's a hardcore comedy. I don't think I've laughed that hard. I loved being skewered in the way that we got skewered in that.

I'll tell you the funniest moment, we're on our way home from the movie theater, and my 11-year-old says to Kristen, mom, has dad ever played his guitar at you? And Kristen goes, oh yeah. And I just started dying laughing of embarrassment. I've told someone the value of Godfather. Yeah, oh man, whoopsies.

Dude, who was first though? Was it Barbie or White Lotus? Because White Lotus went straight at that too. They did, they were first. Mike White, by the way. Yeah, that's our favorite show. God, we love that fucking show. Oh, I know they're in Thailand. Yeah, I's our favorite show. God, we love that fucking show. Oh, I know they're in Thailand.

Yeah. I don't know if I'm supposed to know that, but they're in Thailand. No, I think it was. I think it's out there. It leaked. You can't keep that kind of secret. But back to your movie and Ariana Greenblatt, she's so great.

I bet you wish you would have had some scenes with her. I know, it would be cool if I could have jumped on a jet plane and been in person. And this is your fourth thing with Kevin Hart? Yeah! And Kevin Hart is pulling an action hero, different kind of character than he usually does. And if you look at the history of comedians who change gears and then go action hero, the first one I think of is Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours, where he's still funny as hell, but he's also legit badass, can fight, will fight,

does get into scrapes, and is a hero. How about 48 Hours too? Let's put that in the barrel. No, I did say 48 Hours. You thought that I said Beverly Hills Cop. I did! I went straight to 48 Hours. Oh my God, that's so weird!

Yes, but Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hours. 48 Hours, he's a convict. So I feel like that's where Kevin Hart is with Borderlands, more power to him, and he does kick ass. The thing that he has to jump over a hurdle that Eddie Murphy never did is that he's also way shorter. I feel simpatico with him, because I also am way shorter,

and I feel like us shorties, we've got to stick. Short kings. Short kings. Oh my God, short kings. with him, because I also am way shorter, and I feel like us shorties, we got to stick. Short kings. Oh my gosh, short, I think you're writing a new movie with me and Kevin Hart. We just need one more short king in there. I'll pretend I'm a short king. There it is.

A short queen, but I'll pretend like I made that up and I didn't, this is a thing. That's an Instagram thing, right? It's a thing, short kings, they're in. But you don't present as short, how tall are you? Five foot six and a half. You know when you put the half on there that you're short. You're desperate, yeah.

I do the same thing. I would round up to five seven, but I don't feel right. So when you and Kevin are in Jumanji, are you looking eye to eye basically? I might be like an inch taller. I don't wanna talk about who's, it's a game of inches. The introduction to his character in Borderlands as he arrives to rescue Ariana Greenblatt.

Roland is his character. Great tough guy name. So Roland rolls in and he says, your father sent me to save you. And she says, oh, great, he sent his shortest soldier. And you go, wow, even in this movie, he's not gonna catch a break. Right out of the gate. First description of it.

Well, it's good to let it out right out of the front. Get it out and talk about it and then move on. Yeah. And then I guess just Cate Blanchett is so fucking radical. She's just always the best actor in the room. When was the first time that I noticed her and thought, you know when it was, was Lord of the Rings. I was like, who's that incredible vision? Her delivery and her presence, When was the first time that I noticed her and thought, you know when it was, was Lord of the Rings.

I was like, who's that incredible vision? Her delivery and her presence. But then maybe my favorite performance of hers. Can we say it on three? I'm sure we're gonna have different ones. Well, but let's roll the dice. Because no one agrees with me on this. Hold on, hold on.

Okay, wait, I gotta think of the exact title. Okay, so you count us down. And then I'll say three, two, one, and then you go. Okay, ready? Three, two, one, and then we say it. I'll throw one in, but I don't think it's my fave, but I'll try. Oh, all right, good.

Okay, ready? Three, two, one. Blue Jasmine. Life Aquatic. But that speaks to her power. We got three different movies. Three different people, three different movies. Yours was Blue Jasmine.

Yes. That's a good pick. She crushed it. Did you hear mine? Nope. You didn't hear mine, Life Aquatic. Oh, yes, Steve Zizzo. That's a good pick. She crushed it. Did you hear mine? You didn't hear mine, Life Aquatic. Oh yes, Steve Zizzo. With Steven Zissou.

Oh what a movie. That movie, would you agree, I saw it in the theater and I'm like, I don't know, not my favorite West movie. Then I saw it again. Two years later I was like, hold on a second, this movie is very powerful. That bears repeating.

By viewing five or six, I'm like, I don't know, might be his best movie. Might be your favorite one? So good. Okay, I'm going back. You gotta go back, it's so bizarre and wonderful. Because for me, my favorite gotta be that hotel one. Grand Budapest. Grand Budapest.

Yes. That is a good one. Wow. It's a good one. I was watching it last summer on vacation. My daughter was then 10 and she came into the living room and she sat down for about four or five minutes and she was watching and she said the most dreamy question your kid could ask. She goes, wow, what's going on with this movie?

Why does it look like, what's happening? And I'm like, oh, pull up a chair. This is like the dude in Barbie. I'm like, he loves set design and he starts with wides and he pushes in and the sets move. And I'm starting to explain all the unique touches of Wes Anderson. And she and I went on a three month ride

where we watched all the Wes Anderson movies. And she got it. That's such a great thing to do with your kid. I could have died at the end of it. Oh my God. What was her fave? I'm a Royal Tenenbaums girl. Oh yeah.

I love it too. It'sums girl. Oh, yeah. I love it, too It's so sad. It's so sad. It's hard to get away from bottle rock at the beginning. I know pure and brilliant It is fantastic. How about the choice in songs? I wonder how much of that is West There's a great Cat Stevens song in that one and there's a great song by love. Yeah, there's a bomb day Rub a doobie day I can't remember any of the words. I love when you're singing. Such a treat.

I wish you would sing for three hours. You know what I've been doing lately? Do you do this? Because I kind of got away from music. I realized I'm only listening to like books and podcasts and I'm not listening to music anymore. I was like, I'm going back in and here's how I did it. Chronological marathons. I pick a band that I love, but I'm going back in and here's how I did it. Chronological marathons.

I pick a band that I love, but I've never done the marathon. And I go, I'm going to listen to every album in chronological order and see if there's some songs I've never heard by this or that band. And I love it. I'm right in the middle of Queen right now. What a great lick. And I haven't even gotten to News of the World yet. It's like those first five albums are masterpieces.

There's tons of songs I've never heard before. Do you remember the album cover with the robot on the cover and it's holding bodies, bloody bodies? That's News of the World. That's the one with most of their big hits. And that's a fun thing to do when you do the Chrono Marathon,

when you find that period where they're really in a window, where it's like now they're busting out on all cylinders. They're high fidelity. Exactly. They got their 10,000 hours. Exactly. This is my hack, cause I get in musical ruts too.

And what I like to do is go on Spotify and take a song I'm in the mood for that I love and then make a radio station out of it. Do you do that? I have done that. That's like a party trick if you don't wanna go through making a playlist for the whole party. Yeah, but I'll discover things that way.

It's not like I'm listening to the radio anymore and that's the only thing I know how to do to find new stuff. My wife kinda steered me away from doing that though cause sometimes when we're on a long drive, I'll just tell my Tesla, you know. I like to mix it up and listen to some jazz once in a while. I'm like, play Miles Davis,

and it'll just start playing some random Miles Davis. And Tanya's like, no, you can't do that. And she knows way more jazz than I do because her father, exactly, Charlie Hayden, great jazz bass player. She is totally against that random things. Like if you wanna play a great song, so we've been going the other way.

I feel like if we have a gathering, we'll just put on a record and let it play that whole side. It'll play that 20 minutes. And then you'll know when the silence comes, oh, time to flip it. I find this troublesome. I'm doing the same thing where I play records and then the 20 minutes, it's too fast.

You are up by that record player 400 times during the party. I'm not loving it. I hear you. It's an interactive experience. But if we're honest, it's more like 10 times, 400 times. That's a long party. I have really long parties. What is 400 times 20 minutes, please?

Math. Her parties always start at 8 a.m. 8,000 minutes? That's a sleepover. I have cool parties. Are you inviting him or no? Of course, I was inviting him. I feel like it's rude now to talk about

how great and long your parties are and then not invite Jack. And you're right down the street too, you're even closer to her. Oh my God, are we all in the neighborhood? Well, she's building the house two over right here. There's a big house looming over our. But I also currently live down the street from you as well.

Are you, I'm not gonna say. I won't say, but I am on that major street. Oh my God, do we ever cross paths when I'm walking? Have you ever seen them? I haven't seen you. I get my steps, but I am pretty stealth. I stick and move. I'm also not very observant,

so there's a chance we could have crossed paths. Do you get steps? Is that like your way also of getting your exercise? I go on wogs, which is a couple rounds of walking and some rounds of running. It's a mix. Oh, yeah, I don't jog. I probably should to get that heart rate pumping,

but I don't like the way it makes my bones feel. It does hurt. It's starting to hurt more and more, but I do feel like I've really worked out if there's a run in there. I should figure out a way, because when I just do my steps, it takes a long time to get the right amount,

because 10,000 don't do it. So I'm trying to get between 14 and 16,000 steps. That's a lot. 15,000 is the right amount of steps for me. It's gonna take two hours, and the size of the rectangle that I have to make through the city is so huge, it's so much. And it's like, I'm gonna take two hours, and the size of the rectangle that I have to make through the city is so huge,

it's so much, and it's like, I'm gonna have to pee or maybe poo at some point. And one time, I didn't poop my pants, but I had, this is embarrassing. We talk about this all the time. I poo my pants once a year, so you're in a safe space. Thank you. Not really though, the microphone's here.

I did buy a ticket one time to the Vista movie theater just to go in and drop a log. And relax. But then I did go in and watch some of the movie so they didn't know that's why. That's the problem with being famous because otherwise no one would care. They're like, wait, are you sure?

The movie's already started. Yeah, no, I've already seen it several times. I'm kind of a film buff. Can I have the ticket real quick, please? Yeah, I have a couple favorite scenes. I know when the scenes come up, so I'm just here for those favorite scenes. And by the way, if you're ever in the neighborhood at Vista, great restroom.

Great, great. I wanna close the loop on music and ask a kinda dangerous question, because this is a very polarizing group. But if I had to say one group owns my soul in my vibe, and I need to know if you like them or not. Wait, can I guess? Yeah.

Radiohead. Nope. Wait. Okay, I'm not guessing anymore. I just wanted one guess. I like that. I could feel it coming and I was wrong. Steely Dan.

Oh, dude. Are you kidding me? Steely Dan for me. What the fuck? Dude, Steely Dan is the radio head of the 70s. In a way. I guess you could make that argument. Do you love Steely Dan? In fact, I think Steely Dan might have been

my first Chrono Marathon. When Steely Dan hits you, you're like, good lord, Peg? Oh, hey. They're touching God. It's that good. And I was like, you know what? I need to one time listen to everything they've ever written because their genius is so apparent, I wonder, there must be nuggets that I've never heard.

There's not a bad song, that's what's crazy, is there's ones that you don't recognize are not hits, but you're never suffering through a song till the next one comes. Everyone has value and they're so unique. There's never a bad one, but. Uh oh. But, just like every band that's ever existed,

there's a window. Now that's a bigger window because they got so many great albums, but there's a window where they were clicking on all cylinders. It is a fun marathon to go through. It's one of my great regrets is I never saw them live in their full capacity, and now one of them is in the I never saw them live in their full capacity. And now one of them is in the hereafter,

so it'll never be. Wait, have you seen them live? At least five times, I think more. Did you see them while they were both there? Yes, only when they've been both there. Did you see them at the Hollywood Bowl? I've seen them in Irvine three times. I saw them back in Michigan probably three times.

I have seen them at the Bowl. I want to say I saw them in Santa Barbara at this weird outdoor thing. And their musicians were always the very best studio musicians in the world. Like anytime their drummer had a solo, you're like keep going, 14 minutes. That was their MO the whole way through

because it was those two and whoever was the best available musicians at the time. Yes. Do you know the origin of the name? Burroughs. Yeah, William Burroughs. The Vibrator. I don't remember why I know that.

Oh, it's because I was listening to Naked Lunch. Right. This is a book that had always haunted me because I'd heard people I respect always cite it as the best book ever written and that they're just obsessed with this book. And the thing that's great about Naked Lunch is you don't read it chronologically you just open it up randomly and just start reading the page and then close it and

then come back and randomly open it. I was like what? Why? And I was like that's how it was meant to be read and it didn't make any sense and because I have such severe ADHD if I just listen to it, it's gonna be like I'm listening to random chunks of it anyway, because I'm gonna phase out and be thinking about something else. So I just listened to it and I popped in and out

and I was like, oh, I get it. I'm not paying attention to it. Now I'm listening and it's a random place, just the language is great and the characters are intense and the thing that popped out was Steely Dan. I was like, wait a second, this was written before Steely Dan, and then I found out,

oh, that's where they got the name, it's from this book. It's such a weird thing, it's like a vibrator, right? Big metal vibrator. I always loved the idea of Burroughs. I like Burroughs as a figure, don't like the writing all that much.

I wanted to like it. Well, that book is tough. It's impossible to comprehend for me. But a great book by Burroughs, maybe you don't agree, Junkie. Oh, that is the most for me approachable. And it's really just his experience with drugs

and his journey. And it's so raw. Do you know you're one of three people in this industry that has the reputation of being just the nicest guy? Has that gotten back around to you? I think that that's a double-edged sword though. I have heard that before and it was when I was being roasted and I didn't want to be roasted on television.

They wanted to roast me, the Friars Club in New York City and I was like, okay, I don't want to say no. There's so many legends that are part of that club and I was like, do you ever do them where they're not televised? They're like, yeah. And I was like, let, I don't want to say no. There's so many legends that are part of that club. And I was like, do you ever do them where they're not televised? And they're like, yeah. And I was like, let's do one of those. And so I got roasted and they reach out

to different people in the industry to try to get people to roast you. And I had a good dais. And they got some videos from different people too that couldn't be there, but wanted to contribute. And Seth Rogan was one of the people and he was like, oh, I mean, I don't know really what to say, he's such a nice guy,

I don't wanna say anything shitty about him, I like him, he's a nice guy, so, fuck you, Jack, love you, and alright, bye. And it was sort of a non thing and I was like, oh, that's cool, he doesn't wanna hurt my feelings because he likes me and he sees me as just a nice guy, but if you're just a nice guy, there's a barrier between you, that's a protective thing that I've set up, I think,

so that no one hurts me. And maybe I'm missing out on a couple things because of that. If you're brave enough to be an asshole sometimes and put yourself out in that other way. I know what you're saying, because we just talked about, like, I'm interested in Burroughs. He was a horrific human being.

Horrible. He shot his girlfriend down in Mexico. Oh my God. Horrible. Yeah, yeah, I mean, he's a monster. I couldn't be more interested in burros. He was a horrific human being. He shot his girlfriend down in Mexico. Horrible! Yeah, yeah, I mean he's a monster. I couldn't be more interested in that. I know. Right? There's something about the honesty of being horrible.

Bukowski was my favorite writer all growing up. Like you know, I like that. Well there's a lack of intimacy. I'm too sensitive for a roast, Jack. I couldn't do it. I would be thinking about their jokes for like two years. Yeah. Have any rattled around in your head post roast?

No, it rolled off like a duck's back. That's another bad movie, but we could make it post roast. Post roast. It's a guy who gets roasted and it changes the whole course of his life. It never recovers. No. Okay, you've been here for so long.

I really appreciate it. I do wanna just point out, so here are the fun parallels. We had some cocaine you used, I like that. We had UCLA, which is fun. Tim Robbins, I was in the other Jumanji, Zathura. Yes! With Tim Robbins. Oh my God, we're both in the universe.

Chris Von Allsberg universe. We are both in Jumanjis that don't feature Robin Williams, the original Jumanji master. Yes, it's taken many of us to replace the one Robin Williams. I love your sci-fi Zathura. Did you see that? Yes! Oh wow.

I watch it with my boys who also love it, and that's why I always say that I'm in Jumanji three and four. I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah, cause ours didn't do so hot. You know why? You guys didn't call it Jumanji part two. I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah, cause ours didn't do so hot. You know why? You guys didn't call it Jumanji part two. It's true.

I think Favreau would be the first to admit it to you. Why did he want to get away from that? Let's not even mention it's Zathura. But listen, we did that in 2005 or four. You did it in 2019. We were pretty close to it. And that movie was done to perfection. It would be like remaking Fletch and calling it,

it's dangerous. But you would have to call it Fletch 2. You wouldn't call it Fla-choo-stra. Well there was a Fletch 2. Yes. Well one of the problems was the title. People were like, they couldn't pronounce it, and they're like, I wanna see it,

but I'm not gonna step up to a ticket counter and fuck up this name of this movie and embarrass myself in front of my family. But we have that. Yeah, you're the astronaut. I sure am. But this one really leapt off the page for me. This is really weird, I think.

We have the exact same love trajectory. You and I were both in nine year relationships that started in 1996. Wow. Mine was Brie, still love her to death. She's a wonderful woman. You're one year ahead of me. But then I've been with Kristen for 17 years.

You've been with your wife for 18 years. Tanya. That's a weird parallel. Laura Kite Linger was my girlfriend for a long time. Nine years. And I did wanna ask you this, and I think I know the answer because the fact that you ended up with Tanya

and you had met her in high school, when Bree and I broke up, my number one panic was I hated the notion that whoever met me next was gonna meet me already as a guy in movies. Yes. Did you have that? Of course, I didn't trust anyone. Even beyond trust, it was like,

I need you to know the guy that was the struggling piece of shit Hopeless I need you to know where we started or you can't know me I definitely had that and do you think that's part of why the fact that Tanya's from high school That is part of it that we have deep roots And I also just remembered in high school before everything, we didn't date or really even talk, but I remember her and her sister, she's a triplet,

and just loving the whole family. I just thought they had a real vibe and that's a big important thing in a Hollywood town and a Hollywood school where you feel like they're rooted in something real and not part of the industry really. Even though their dad's a famous musician, it's not that kind of phony bullshit. Did all three go to Crossroads?

They all three went to Crossroads. Are they all girls? Yep, they have an older brother, Josh Hayden, who's also a great musician. Are they identical? No, they're the other kind of thing. Fraternal triplets. I don't think I've ever met a triplet.

Yeah, au naturel in the 70s when they were born. Organic, they're organic. A very rare thing. And I kept in touch with them and I would see them performing sometimes. They would go out and sing and they have those beautiful blood harmonies that you hear about with the family members

that sing together. And they would do these beautiful old country jams, like Carter family era songs. And I just was always in awe of them. And we would cross paths and I had a girlfriend and she had a boyfriend and it was just a little talking here and there. And then that day came when neither of us

had a significant other. I had always been so kind of intimidated and never really wanted to really approach. Risk making the friendship weird. She made the first move is the point. We were at a birthday party, a surprise birthday party for someone else, a mutual friend, and she came up to me and said,

hey, do you ever want to go get dinner or something? I should give you my number. And I was like, oh my God. Heaven opened up above my head because I was like, this is the thing that I would always want to happen. And things moved fast. We started getting very serious

and the relationship hit the ground running. It's like we were making up for lost time. And was that driven at all too by a desire to have kids? Cause that's what- You see I'm closing my eyes right now. It's not because- I didn't detect it. It's not because I'm tired.

It's because I'm embarrassed to talk about things that are real and personal. And also because I'm trying to just go back to exactly the time and the moment that our relationship started. We were together 24-7. You got married within a year of that moment, right? We were dating for a few months and we were both talking about how we both would like to have kids.

But we didn't get married because it was like, don't really believe in the contract and that whole thing. Too pedestrian. Why is it necessary? And then as soon as she had a baby in her belly, my brother was like, what the hell are you, you marry her. You're right dude, I'm gonna get you. Are you fucking stupid? You're having a child with this woman, marry her. I got unbended knee and she laughed and said yes.

Oh, this is lovely. And you have two masculine boys that you love. We have two boys. They're 16 and 18. Why do you have to say masculine? Godfather, I always think of the Godfather. May he be a masculine boy. Was that a?

Luca Brazi. Oh, so it wasn't Marlon Brando that said that. Luca Brazi's talking to him. Oh yeah. May they be blessed with children and may it be a masculine boy. Oh, I forgot that part. Yeah, okay.

Well, Jack, this has been delightful. I'm glad it was mine. I think my marching orders leaving this interview are, first of all, what a slam dunk on Steely Dan. That makes me feel so much safer around you. Have you done the marathon with Steely Dan? What a great idea. I've never done that and a thousand percent that's my next.

Cause I'm a little in a rut right now. I was feeling it working out today. I'm like, listen to my shit. I even made a station. In fact, cause you were coming, I'm like, I'm gonna listen to Zeppelin. Oh, that's a great marathon. That's the first band I was obsessed with.

Learned the musician's names, got all of the stuff. I mean, Zeppelin. That's the first band I was obsessed with. Like, learned the musicians' names, got all of the stuff. I mean, Zeppelin. That was probably my first marathon, actually. The best rock band ever, in my opinion. It makes me wanna bust out my marathon list of all the marathons. Yeah, I wanna hear a couple more,

cause Queen's a great idea. I think it's for another time. Okay, okay, wonderful. Well, that means you're coming back. Yes, we're wrapping up, to be continued. Comeback for Minecraft in 2025, directed by Jared Hess. I love this plan. A reteaming with you and Jared.

Well, now we've got all the ground work done. We'll hit the ground running on the next one. Yeah, we'll go into the future. This was kind of a walkthrough history. It really was. This was like some time with my muscle-bound therapist. Oh, you know what I mean? Thank you.

That's what I said when I first got here, I was like this couch I could lay down here and it really would be therapy. All I would have to do is turn that microphone that way. We would love that and maybe on the 2025 trip, we get you supine. Yes. Yes.

Generally when people return, we'll write so-and-so returns, but this time I think we'll write, Jack Black Supine. That's a tasty title. All right, everybody please check out Borderlands. It's wild and ambitious and colorful and it'll remind you of Mad Max. And of course, Jack is hilarious.

It has our favorite actors in it, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt. Now, the second marching order is, from now on when I see you on the street, I am gonna holla. Please. Okay, wonderful.

Holla, and I may. Pretend. It's very rare that I crack my concentration on my Grano Marathon. But Pink Floyd is a great one. Really good idea. Oh my God. You know what would be a great one?

Or I'm asking, have you had the same thing, like I had some revelation at some point. Fleetwood Mac was like a kick-ass rock band before they were the Fleetwood Mac I grew up with. Yeah. I can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin. Oh yeah. Don't ask me what I think of you. Isn't that early Fleetwood Mac?

Is that Fleetwood Mac? If it's not that song they had me. Da da da da da da da da da da da. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do. There's no way that's Fleetwood Mac. Mac if it's not that There's no way that I'm gonna go back and listen. I'm gonna go find that it's not can you sing it again? Don't ask me what I think of you. I might not give the answer that you want me to that should be enough Yeah, oh well my Fleetwood Mac. Wow, can you hit us with one second? That is so not what I think right? Oh good, so you haven't had that revelation. No, I had that about three years ago Oh Well by Fleetwood Mac. Wow! Can you hit us with one second? That is so not what I think of. Right?

Oh good, so you haven't had that revelation. No. So I had that about three years ago. I was like, hold on a second. This is fucking Fleetwood Mac. They used to rock the shit out of. Yeah. And so that would be a great chronological one

because God knows what else is on the album that that great song comes out. Wait, is that before Stevie Nicks and Before Stevie Nicks. And Lindsay Buckingham joined the band? 1969. Because I feel like they were a package deal. 1969, the year of your birth. before Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham joined the band. 1969. I feel like they were a package deal.

1969, the year of your birth. They already had a huge hit on their hands. Yes. But Rumors is the album. That's the, when the window really opened wide. That's an impossibly perfect album. Yeah. ["Rumors"]

You and Kyle should play this. This is a great one. This is nasty, Jack. This is dirty, nasty shit. This is good driving Fleetwood was like, look you kids are talented but I'm driving this shit. Who here has a number one hit single? It's me, not you, Lindsay Buckingham, and not you! He was in full control. What lyrics?

I can't sing, I ain't pretty, and my legs are thin. That's the description of me. Who was singing? Who was that? That was the earlier- David Lee Roth. All right. Thank you.

Much love to you and yours. Take care. He is an armchair expert, but he makes mistakes all the time. Thank God Monica's here. She's gotta let him have the facts. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. It's Olympic coverage time. Yesterday was a spectacular day. Yeah, a few days ago for our audience. Our ladies won gold. Yeah, it was so exciting. Won gymnastics team gold. They swept it, swept the floor

with these other countries. Well. Yeah, they did, they did. They really came in. Hot, well wasn't the final score though? The second place was only five points behind out of like 114, that feels kind of close. For a gym, they could have fallen.

It was a thrashing? Yeah. Okay. They even had, we had a fall. Which one? We had a fall on beam. Oh, oh yeah, on the getting up there. Yeah, they call that the mount. Oh, the mount.

Yes, that was Jordan. Jordan Childs. Yes, I was very disheartened. As I said, I'm a big fan of Jordan Childs. But you can still be a fan of her. Not anymore, she's out. No, do I ever say that ever again? Oh, I'm cut, bro, I'm cut, bro.

If you fall one time, I'm out. No, no, no, no, no. I was just sad because I'm rooting for her so much. Oh, the stress. And then I was caught up to speed, they did a great job with those interstitial packages to tell me all of Suni's stories about her kidney issues. She gained 45 pounds, I was thinking like,

on someone her size, what is she, 4'10 or something? If Biles is 4'8. Yeah, I don't know, I'm sure. Five foot. Five foot, 45 pounds on five foot is a lot. Shorter than me. That was probably like almost a 50% increase. I mean, that's just significant.

Yeah, kidney issues, ouch. And then she's back. Really incredible. Yeah, I loved it. It's a good team, it was really fun to watch. I watched real time, I watched live. I did too. 9.15?

Yeah, I mean, I started like at probably 9.45, so I started at the beginning. I was able to fast forward through commercials, but by the time I ended, I pretty much timed it perfectly. It was great. It was great, because that was long, and I worked out the whole time, but I just kind of slowly worked out,

and then I would stop for an event, and then it was great. Yeah, it was great. I've also been watching some swimming. I really enjoy watching the swimming, because I can't swim. Yes, it's that much more impressive. Yeah, the two things, I've watched a bunch of the swimming

and I like it a lot. And then as I said, I think last time though, this two woman beach volleyball is so impressive. You know, I respect all the sports. Have you tried it? Yeah, well, I tried watching men's last night. Don't watch men's. I just, volleyball's not for me.

Okay. I know you wanted to so. Should you try the women's? Maybe just give it a shot. I'll try, cause I support women. Yeah, you gotta support women. I will watch. They're so good.

Oh my God, are they good? It's wild. And then opposite of gymnastics, you get some tall gals up in that volleyball match. Six four, six three, total opposite. Sports are interesting in that way. They really are. You kind of have to be built a certain way.

You're not gonna be a six four female gymnast. It would be very hard. It's definitely a biological advantage, being short is to gymnastics because that's a lot to be like swinging around. I've heard that the activity itself somehow stings your growth. I would love to have a doctor explain that

and whether or not that's. Accurate. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard that too, but I think it might be pop science. Or poppycock. Pop science. Okay, pop science. Is that a term?

Yeah. It is. Yeah. Oh, thanks for teaching it to me. Could you elaborate on it? Pop science. Okay, pop science. Is that a term? Yeah. It is. Yeah. Oh, thanks for teaching it to me. Could you elaborate on it? Pop sciences. Just like popular science. Okay, that's not science though?

It's like, this is of the moment. My favorite gymnast who I told you about, Dominique Mochiano, she was- Romanian? She was American, but she is of Romanian descent. Okay. Because she was in 96. You were nine.

I was seven. I was seven, I was about to turn eight when the Olympics happened in 96. Okay. You were born in 87. So 96 is nine years away from, yeah, so I don't know. I mean, I respect your story and your experience, but also 96 and 87 is nine years away.

And they happened in the summer. Yeah, but it was right before I turned an age. Yeah, I think it was right before you turned nine. I guess it maybe was. Anyway, she was four six or something at that time. She was 14 though, but she was like four six and 70 something pounds and now she's five three. So it probably did stun her growth.

She grew after quite a bit. Yeah, I mean, I guess she hadn't even maybe hit puberty. My two obsessions currently is I need to stand next to George Kittle and I need to stand next to George Kittle. Okay. And I need to stand next to Simone Biles. Both those people. I really want to, bad. I'm gonna put a lot of effort into it.

Okay, you should put it on your vision board, manifest it. That'd be a fun thing to put on the vision board because I could put a little, I could cut out pictures and I could see how close it really was scale-wise. Because I guess I won't tell this story on here because I don't know if I should. What one? But, Domini Mochiano had a sister

who her parents left at the hospital. In Romania? No, here. Oh, what the fuck? What do you mean they left her at the hospital? Because she had no legs. Oh, wow. And now there's a doc on it. So I do feel like I can talk a little bit about it

because there's a doc on it. Okay, wow. I know. You can do that? Just leave a child at the hospital? Well, she got adopted, so maybe, I mean, I imagine, I guess you can say I'm not fit to be a parent.

I'd like to give this child up for adoption. But keep this one. But I want to save these other ones. She has like another one too, I think. Oh my goodness. Really sad. Anyway, they found each other though. Oh, they did?

They reunited. Yeah. Oh good. And it feels so good? I was gonna say that, but it's not the time. Also, she became an aerialist. Oh, the sister that had been left. Yes, exactly.

And so they both kind of like. Found their way to athletics. Yeah, and sort that had been left. Exactly, and so they both kind of like- Found their way to athletics. Yeah, and sort of a similar kind. So, very nature versus nurture. We love that. Yeah, and it's on the nature side this time. Yeah, it is. Oh, I saw Deadpool.

Oh, how was it? I wanna say that. Yeah. It was spectacular. Did you see it, Rob? No, not yet. Oh my God, it's so funny. It's so funny, it's so meta.

It's constantly making fun of itself and acknowledging that it is a Marvel movie, and yet the emotional parts work when they need to work, and it's also making fun of itself the entire time. So many spectacular cameos. And then the Cudi Gra, Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, he gets that top off and I almost squealed. He looks so good, oh my God.

I do really wanna see it. What a physique. And I like it's hairy, which is kinda cool. I know this back to back fact checks, I talked about penises last time and now I'm gonna talk about Hugh Jackman's body for the next seven to nine minutes. I'm just kidding, I'll try to keep it under 25 seconds.

But what a physique. Oh my God, and then there was flashbacks at the end, like all this footage of the beginning, the very first Wolverines and stuff, and all the X-Men. And yeah, that's been going on for so long. Hugh Jackman was so young. You just kind of lock him in your mind of whatever he is currently, I do,

and then looking back I'm like, oh, he's way younger than me in there. I mean, he's young. That's cool to be still playing the same character for them. Yeah, that was one of the jokes in the movie. He's like, Disney's gonna make you do this till you're 90. That's funny. Like right in the movie.

Oh, so funny though. And I also didn't know Sean Levy directed it, which that was, you're 90. That's funny. Like right in the movie. Oh, so funny though. And I also didn't know Sean Levy directed it, which that was, you knew that. Great job, Sean Levy, really, really well done. You've worked for Sean. Twice. Oh, twice? Three times.

He was on an episode of Punk'd. Oh. I was in Cheaper by the Dozen, my first time in a movie. Oh, that was his? That he directed. Oh my god, he gave you your first movie role. He did, yeah. Oh, that was his? That he directed. Oh my God, he gave you your first movie role. He did, yeah. Oh, that's really nice.

Because we met on Punk'd through Ashton. He had already done with Ashton some big hit movie with Brittany Murphy. Just married. Just married. That was Sean Levy too. I know. I loved Just Married.

Yeah, it's a goodie. Yeah, and that came out right when we did the pilot for Punk'd, so somehow I met him, he was in the, and then, yeah, and then this is where I leave you. Yeah, that's what I was referring to. Yeah I didn't know about those others. That's cool Yeah, it was pretty funny when my kids were watching cheaper by the dozen and they just stumbled upon me They're like dad. Is this you I'm like, yeah, that is me learning how to do it in real time in front of everyone Yeah Yeah, that is me learning how to do it in real time in front of everyone. Yeah

That's that's a ding ding ding because Jack Black was talking about that with northern exposure and some of the other Things he was doing that he wishes he could sort of remove remove Yeah, cuz he doesn't feel good about his performance Cuz he was like kind of learning. Yeah, it's rough. But yeah, Jack Black was great. Oh, I love Jack Black. He's so sweet. I saw him on a bird scooter yesterday.

Oh, you did? Oh my God, ding ding ding. Oh, that's great. On my prom street and at the light there. And just saw someone like tearing down on a bird scooter. In all. Got closer, he was wearing the same. Tie-dye.

Same tie-dye shirt and headphones. I think he lives in tie-dye. Really quick, because this is hanging out, you weren't there, Rob. You were on the Family Feud, I don't think we didn't debrief on that. No. When was that?

It was like four months ago, maybe, five months ago. Four or five months ago. And who was your team? It was with Rachel. Rachel and you and who else? Her brother and her two best friends. Rachel Billson. Yes, and so you are a family member.

Yep. And how did you guys do? We did terribly. You did terribly? We lost every round. Oh no, Rob, I thought you won. No, my buzzer, we lost the buzzin' almost every time. Oh, because you couldn't figure out how to.

Apparently, the other team practiced and was really fast. There's supposed to be some trick on Jeopardy that way. It doesn't work until he's stopped talking or something. There is some hack there. Who was your opponent? Walker Hayes, he's a country guy. Okay, and he mopped the floor with you guys? Yeah.

Okay, and who had he brought? His wife and manager. Okay. Who, what were the categories? Well, my question was after God, whose word do you trust most? The guy buzzed in and said Oprah. Oh wow, not mom or dad.

Well, I then responded Obama. Oh, wow, you got really thrown. So you buzzed in with the intention of saying Oprah and then you said Obama. No, he was gonna say. The guy said Oprah, so it made me go to like, I guess we're. A famous person. I guess we're not even famous people.

Oh, O'Reilly's auto parts. Yeah, you have to go in with real conviction. Can't get thrown by these other people. They do that on purpose. I got thrown by the God thing too because my family's so religious. Sure, you were dealing with some trauma. Was parents on there?

Yeah, it was obvious. Mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle. Oh my God. Yeah, there was Steve Harvey's inducted into Hall of Fame for what? Oh. Like mustache. Oh. Comedy Hall of Fame. Sure? Oh. Like mustache. Oh.

Comedy Hall of Fame. Sure. That's hard. Yeah, and self-serving. Is Steve Harvey the host? Yeah. Okay. That's fun for him.

Yeah, it is. He deserves it, I like him. One time when I went to a live taping of Ellen in my early days of living here in Los Angeles, big deal to get to go to a taping. You went as an audience member. Yeah, and it's a really big deal. And you wait in line, you get to take a small break.

And Steve Harvey was one of the guests. He was one of the guests. Yeah, and it was fun. And when she came down dancing, did you dance? I mean, I think I danced, but not enough to, I would never wanna be on camera. Get the solo shot. Oh my God, no. So you have to figure out how to blend.

Right, you don't wanna stick out for not dancing, you don't wanna stick out for dancing too hard. Correct. I would love when I was backstage at Ellen watching the audience and them finding those great dancers that would pop up and put on a show. They would get so excited. They would.

Yeah, it's cute. Such a party. She said she regretted that, cause it was so painful. Like she did it on accident during one of the early piloting. They shot a few and she danced once and they were like, that really works and then she was locked into it.

It's like a lot of times she had back pain or she's gotta keep dancing. Yeah. Should I dance on this show when we go to video? Oh, God. Yeah, I know you want me to. Okay, I'll do it. Oh, boo.

I'd rather not, but because you're so hell bent on it, I'll do it. We had to fill out a questionnaire for our new employer. Yeah, we did. And it asked like, what would you want us to know about you that we might not know? And I wrote, I'm an incredible dancer. Wow.

What did you write? I don't remember that question. I must've skipped it. You might've skipped it. How many did you skip? I thought I did them all, but I don't remember that question. I must have skipped it. You might have skipped it. How many did you skip? I thought I did them all, but I don't think I did. But that must be because I think they know everything they need to know about me.

Yeah, we both had to fill out this questionnaire and I was doing it and I thought, oh my God, Dax is gonna hate doing this. And then you texted me that you had so much fun filling out the question. I was like, I don't wanna fill out this question here. And then I found that I was really having fun doing it. Yeah, it was a real role reversal.

It was. Because I didn't enjoy it. You didn't enjoy it and you love online surveys. No, I don't. Oh, I thought you did. You love going on and taking the personality test. Oh, I love that. Yeah, to me that's what it filed under.

Because all it got you to do is talk about yourself. Because I was like, what products do you love? I'm like, oh, let me tell you, I love that. Yeah, to me that's what it filed under. Cause all it got you to do is talk about yourself. Cause I was like, what products do you love? I'm like, oh, let me tell you, I love so many products. Let me hit you with it. And like, what are your hobbies? Why have so many hobbies? Can't wait to list those. I know, I guess I was like,

I don't wanna think about me right now. Okay. Cause when we do the surveys, it's to find out about you. It's not to talk about you. And I like that. I don't love, to an extent, yes, but I prefer finding out things about me.

Well, that's interesting, because I think you do. If you were to ask me, well, that's a bad example, because I would probably say yes, I have a lot of hobbies, but to have to write down everything and then look at the list and then I I would probably say yes, I have a lot of hobbies. But to have to write down everything and then look at the list and then I go like, oh yeah, I do a lot of fun stuff. Like it made me feel good. When I see it and it's the same way in a bad way,

like the Hazelden worksheets work when you're getting sober. And it's like list all the drugs you've tried. And you might think you've done a few drugs, but if you have to sit down and list it, I'll look at that list and I'm like, wow, that's nuts. Or like when at the doctor they ask you how many drinks per week. Yeah, and it's like, well, fuck.

You already know that about yourself, but you actually learn about yourself by seeing it in its totality and writing. Another one that gets scary when you're writing, there's a question that's, I forget exactly, but it's like, what drugs have you used in combination? Oh. And so, yeah, there's been some events

where it's like, it started with drinking, then I took a couple of these pills, then I did ecstasy out of nowhere, then I'm doing cocaine, and then I look at that totality, like all the things I had taken in one stretch, and that's very alarming. Like, oh, I did like 15 drugs that binge, you know? Yeah, Hazelton's a recovery place, right?

It's a treatment center in Minnesota, and I think it has the best recovery rate. But does everyone in AA take that survey regardless? Well, they made a workbook that helps going through the steps, so a lot of sponsors will send that to you when you're trying to do your first step or your second step. It's a cool little worksheet. Yeah, because the big book about alcoholics,

Anonymous, which is the only official literature, well there's some other stuff, but when they're explaining how to do the steps, there's not a ton of detail on how to exactly do that. So these people have put into action some, and they're great. That's cool. They were for me, I like Filina.

And I've given them to guys, and they seem to. How much do they cost? I think they get downloaded off the internet for free. You downloaded them? I think I did, yeah. And printed them? I think you could go download right now, Hazelden step one or step two.

You never print. I try to really conserve my ink, you're right. I'm shocked you've done this for people. One of my many scarcity things, that's where it'll bubble up. I hate printing stuff. I hate when I see Kristen printing a whole script on the printer.

I'm like, oh my God, we're gonna run out of ink. And then where do you get it? You get a printer and then they go obsolete really quickly and you can't track down the ink. I have a lot of anxiety about ink. And Kleenex. Oh fuck. I put three boxes under my nightstand yesterday

because I've only had a dwindling box on my nightstand I had in my mind that no one had gotten more. And I've been panicked for like eight days. Why don't you just order more? I do do a lot of that. It's in your hands. I do do a lot of that. It's in your hands. You know, I do do a lot of that though, and then my family makes fun of me because we have a couple thousand toothbrushes

and so much crust 3D white. Because I'm so panicked I'm gonna go to brush my teeth one morning and there won't be any toothpaste. I need toothpaste and Kleenexes. You know me and my Kleenexes. You love Kleenexes. I can't live without them. One time you were at a hotel and you were noting

that the quality of the hotel was so bad that it didn't have Kleenex. Kleenex, yeah. And I had never thought that in my life. I've never looked for Kleenex. But I think you've changed me because now when I go to hotels, I look for them. It's a demarcation. I look for them. It's a demarcation. I look for them.

Yeah, there's all these rungs of hotels. It's like what kind of linens are you getting? What kind of pillow do you get? What kind of, is there Kleenex? Is the toilet paper fucking transparent and useless or is it good toilet paper? That's for me a big indicator, but Kleenex never was. But now it is and now I have Kleenex by my bed.

Oh, wonderful. Yeah. Just one of the many ways you've affected me. Okay, Jack Black, Jordan Peele, Twilight Zone. Yeah, he did, in 2019, he did two seasons. As a producer, a or director or what? He hosts and narrates. Hosts and narrates, okay great.

It was created by Rod Serling. Sure, back in the 1600s? No, in 2019. No, Rod Serling created Twilight Zone like in the, I don't know, 50s or 60s. Oh, yeah, he's black and white. He's the original, yeah. It's black and white.

Back to the Olympics. Wouldn't it be fun if people's black and white. He's the original, yeah. He's black and white. Back to the Olympics. Wouldn't it be fun if people were black and white until color TV happened? I really wish that was real. Yeah. Sometimes I wish life was more fun. Like Pleasantville, Pleasantville.

Yeah, that was fun. When things started turning into color. Back to the Olympics. How familiar are you? Oh, you are, because you watch sprint. Do you think Noah Lyle looks like... Don't say it. Donald Glover.

I was gonna say it. I'm sorry. I was gonna guess it. You love to guess. I do. Yes, I do think that. I do too. It's like, oh, what would Donald Glover be

if he's an Olympic athlete? And Noah Lyle answers that. I'd like to stand next to him too. Although Donald Glover looks like an Olympic athlete in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Oh wow. Yeah. That's what you, he's always in his little panties.

He encouraged me to try some littler panties. He doesn't wear a boxer brief, he wears like a brief. And he looks very sexy in them. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna, Meandis has some options that are tinier and I'm gonna try them. I've liked them. It's all based on him.

So it's one of them. He's a role model. Yet another thing we could talk about Donald if you came on our men men's fan thies. So he was a member of the Actors Gang and he kind of threw that out there, but the Actors Gang is very substantial. It has a lot of people who were a part of it. Hit me with some alumni.

Jack Black. Beast. John Cusack. Beast. John C. Reilly. Helen Hunt. Kate Walsh. Jeremy Piven. John Favreau. Beast. John Cusack. Beast. John C. Reilly. Helen Hunt. Oh my. Kate Walsh.

Jeremy Piven. John Favreau. Whoa. Tim Robbins. Tim Robbins, that's the main one. Yeah, he's the godfather of the Actress Gang. Yeah, isn't that cool? It is.

Makes me wish I was a part of it. It's never too late. Too late, it's too late. It's actually too late. It's too late. It's actually too late. Okay, now some other famous alum of Crossroads. Can I pause you for one second? Because it's a ding ding ding. Because Jack and I were trying to think

of all the names for cocaine, and he said Devil's Dandruff, which is good. And there's a section of Deadpool where they say probably 50 names for cocaine, and it's so great. And I was like, I wish that, I wanted to be writing them down. Like, oh, I don't wanna forget any of these,

these are great. Were most of them new to you? A lot of them were new to me, yeah. Cool. Very creative. Okay, famous alumni from Crossroads High School here in Los Angeles that he went to. On the West Side. Very popular. Michael Bay. Really?

Oh, I didn't realize it was that, around that long. Old. Careful. It opened in 1971. Oh my God, okay, so easily accommodate Mike Bay. Jonah Hill. Sure. Kate.

Hudson. You knew that, okay. I knew that, Oliver Hudson. Kate and Oliver. The basketball player. Oh my god Maya went there Rudolph yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, LeBron son knew no, this is when Kate was going there. They were classmates Sharif O'Neill no Baron Davis. Yeah Baron Davis, Jessica Yellen. I love her um Liv Tyler Really Jason Ritter Oh Ritter

Yeah, sweetest Ritter. Oh, Ritter. Sweetest Ritter. Gwyneth. Paltrow. This is cool. What a treasure trove. Sam Ohai too though. I mean a lot of it's just cause it's LA.

Sam Ohai? Yeah, cause that's where you had Downey, the Estevez, that was a certain. Rob Lowe, Trilling. That was of a certain. Era. Age.

Keifer. Yeah, but that. I know, I know. Sorry, but they were all from Sammo. Also, they were in Malibu, I thought. That is what's confusing. A lot of them were living in Malibu, but going to school at Sammo.

I don't really understand it. I hate that it's called Sammo. I like it, Santa Monica High School. Okay. Sam-o. If you lived here, then you would have hated Sam-o. That's half of the pleasure of moving to new places, is you don't inherit all that crap.

Yeah. You know? The privates here are very distinct. I do think people don't understand necessarily the situation. In LA? Yes, when all these people are sending their kids to private schools, it seems crazy.

And it seems very, it is extremely privileged, but it seems like outrageous that everyone's sending their kids to private schools. But the public school system here is rough. It really is. And so I understand this push and pull. Yeah. What do you do?

Yeah, in my neighborhood, all the public options, with the exception of charter schools, which is why our kids go to charter school, yeah, they're in the lower like third of the state testing. So you're a little bit like, wow, that's- You're like, are they gonna get what they need? And I never had that problem. The public schools in Gwinnett County are fantastic.

And so like, you would never, yeah. Yeah, it could even be a step down. Exactly. Yeah, like if you went to a parochial school, it might not even be that good academic. Yeah. Does parochial mean religious? Godlike, I think so.

All right, let's see. Okay, the Harry Chapin song you were talking about. Oh yeah. I think it's called Taxi. It is, I couldn't believe he didn't know that. He didn't know it. You want me to play it? Sure.

Okay. It was raining hard in Frisco. I said do you want me to play it, not sing it? I needed one more fair. You sang it in the episode. Yeah, yeah, I was, the only time I felt really bad is when I sang in front of the German supermodel and she's like, that's terrible. Heidi Klum, yeah.

She was so fun. I know, she was. She blast so fun. I know, she was. She blasted me. I had to make my night A lady up ahead waved her flag me down She got in at the light Oh where you going to my lady blue It's a shame you ruined your gown in the rain She just looked out the window she said 16 pops I had failed something about her was familiar I could swear I'd seen her face before

But she said, I'm sure you're mistaken And she didn't say anything more It took a while, but she looked in the mirror Then she glanced at the license for my name a smile seemed to come to her slowly it was a sad smile just to say i promise i'll stop after the chorus no i want to hear it and she said how are you harry i said how are you soon? Oh my god, it's very autobiographical Two little smiles

I still remember you Gotta get to the band I've got something in me I've got something in me Whoa, I've got something in me Whoa, I've got something in me Whoa, I've got something in me Whoa, I've got something in me Whoa, I've got something in me Whoa, I've got something in me

Whoa, I've got something in me for Harry. Right, well we also were confused about that a little bit. Who was? All of us. Really? Cats in the Cradle and Silver Spoon? We know it, but we didn't... You didn't know it was Harry Chapin. Right. Yeah, maybe that's common.

And then, because remember, because he said, didn't it get popular with it from a 90s band, which I looked up. Oh, no doubt. No, it's not. Okay, we are... Same. There's a band that sounds just like... Ugly Kid Joe. Oh. Ugly Kid Joe.

Oh, Ugly Kid Joe. That's who it was. That does not sound like no doubt. Ugly Kid Joe, 1992, included a cover of the song Cats in the Cradle. Yeah. But did I tell you that during the sleepover with the six kids, I discovered that one of Lincoln's

playmates, this girl, she loves Cats in the Cradle, her and her dad. And then so I put it on the Sonos in the kitchen and Lincoln came down and me and her friend were singing the song, we both know the lyrics, and I don't think she liked it. Yeah, I think she's like, why does my, this girl know a song my dad knows and I don't know? I mean, I'm really projecting probably, but I.

Well, you know if she's on a happy. Because she and I know all the same songs. I think she was just a little bit like, what's going on here? Did she say anything? Felt like a violation. No, it's just a vibe I got. I think she doesn't like this.

I wouldn't have liked it. If you came, can you imagine if you came downstairs and Ashoka was singing with one of your friends? That would just never happen, right? Yeah, I'd be like, the fuck? Who are you? Go back into your office. But then yours would be more unique

because how many songs did you and your dad share? We shared a song. What one? We shared... Oh, I didn't even know Ashok liked music. Does he? Yeah, he's a person. Seems like such a waste of time.

Like music, what a frivolous... We went in the car when he would take me to daycare, I guess, or school, no, I guess it was daycare or school or something. He would play on a tape. Oh, he had it on cassette tapes. What is the song? Oh boy.

Something about a rainbow. No, I Can See Clearly Now, I can see clearly now. I can see clearly now the rain has gone Yeah, we played that a lot. And when you guys sing out loud, it's gonna be a bright, bright sunshine I think we sang silently in our head. But we played it, it was our song. In the Indian sing-along?

Yeah. How do you know an Indian sing-along? Because you can hear yourself breathing. Ha ha ha ha. No Indians are very jovial. You remember that. I know, I was there. You were there. They're living out loud just like those Italians.

Yeah, but yeah that was our song. I'm gonna send it to him. No, no that's a betrayal. Oh. He might be mad if I was like, I played that song for dad. That's our song. Yeah. I hate music, this is why I don't like music. It's so frivolous. I could like, I played that song for dad. That's our song. I hate music, this is why I don't like music,

it's so frivolous. I could have built five buildings in the time that. Also, we would listen to Clark Howard. What's Clark Howard? Clark Howard was a local. Sports company. Not sports, kind of like NPR. Oh yeah, okay.

Oh my God, my dad would listen to it nonstop and I hated it. That makes sense. I have your dad very much as a talk radio person, not a music person. But music in the morning. Any moment he could be getting more information that he wouldn't be would be a waste.

That's true, but music in the morning for his baby. Oh, you make an exception. Yeah, I wonder if he was like Paul Harvey. Do you remember Paul Harvey? Paul Harvey was great. He gave the news and he was like Paul Harvey. Do you remember Paul Harvey? Paul Harvey was great. He gave the news and he was kind of nationally syndicated and he was a real playful guy, Paul Harvey. It was Clark Howard.

Can you see if Clark Howard was? Was real? Like a personal finance guy. Oh, your dad was? It was like a Dave Ramsey. Learning how to invest. Maybe. Okay.

It was so boring. Oh, I bet. Oof. Oof. Do you think anyone in the backseat of their parents' car getting driven home from school. Oh, that'd be fun going, well, I hate this. Yes, they're listening.

Do you hear her, that you trust her? Well, trust me, this sucks. Put on Rainbow. I hate this. Rainbow song, please. Play Rainbow song. Okay. All right, please. Play rainbow song. Okay. All right, love you.

Love you. Love you.