Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard - Marcus Mumford

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

Marcus Mumford (Prizefighter, Sigh No More, Wilder Mind) is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter, singer, and producer. Marcus joins the Armchair Expert to discuss enjoying occupying the liminal space between his kids and his parents, being born into the church attended by Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, and becoming pen pals with his wife Carey Mulligan at bible camp when they were 10 years old. Marcus and Dax talk about finally feeling able to embrace being an artist with his new record, forming Mumford & Sons from childhood friends, and not understanding ahead of time how performing at the Grammys would impact their career. Marcus explains loving to tour in weird ways like on a boat and a train, releasing a weight with his song Cannibal, and the magical experience of readiness on his new album Prizefighter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert. I'm Dex. Randall Shepard. I'm joined by Monica Lily Padman. Are you excited that your name is very similar to the little boy's name in... Game of Theron or a Night of Seven Kingdom. I do like it. But his name is Dex Soul.

His middle name is S-O-L. Yeah. Makes me think he's got really cool parents. Well, I think he does. We're in love with them. He's so good. This is an intro, though. I don't know if this is the place for it.

It's okay. It's okay. Marcus probably loves him. This is an incredible episode. This fuck, we are, we are so happy with this guest. This was so much fun. Marcus Mumford. Marcus is a Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer.

He's the lead singer of the band Mumford and Sons. His albums include, Sy No More, Babel, Wilder Mind, Delta, ding, ding, ding, Rushmere. And is a new Mumford and Son. son's album out now called Prizefighter listen to it we're lucky enough to have heard him blast us yeah spoilers he sings for us in this episode and it's incredible and the album is incredible yeah he sings the shit out of that song powerful please enjoy marcus mumford this episode of armchair expert is presented by apple tv the new u.s home of formula one starting march 7th you can watch complete all access live coverage of every Grand Prix, including practice, qualifying, and sprints all in one place.

Watch every race live only on Apple TV. He's an object to. He's an ultra best guy. Yes, sir. Look at that beautiful guitar. It's gorgeous. Yeah, the inlay. Where do you guys live?

Oh, shit. She grew up going to school, driving by. Stone Hedge. Am I remembering the right person? No, I'm not. Oh, who are you thinking? I'm fucking thinking of the gal. This is embarrassing. We're cutting all this. We're leaving it all in. I'm failing in my 51st year. No, no, that was from Fargo Season 5 and Ted Lassau. Most Incredible actress. Juno Temple.

She's from down there, and she used to cross Stonehedge on the way to school. She went to B. Dales, didn't she? Is that what it was? In the school, that lots of that. Oh. Lily Allen went there. Oh, wow. Oh, very in the news right now.

Yes, man. We just had our thousandth episode, and I'm pretty good at keeping the details straight. But I have conflated two English powerhouse actresses. But Carrie was also Zoom. She was Zoom. And Zoom's harder. Oh, Carrie was Zoom, was she? Yeah.

Yeah. So that's harder. It's like they happened, but they didn't happen. Yeah. How do you do this? Well, let me show you what's happening. Through the episode. Because ideally, this is the only brand of lozenges I like.

The other ones give me gas between you and I, Marcus. Because you have to push through a bit of an indigestion barrier with the gum. Mm-hmm. Because on the other side is the elation. Yeah, yeah. The ones I like only come in two milligram. Oh, fuck that. And I need four.

No, no, it doesn't touch the sides. That's right. You got to have four. And so I have to supplement with a spray. So I basically make this a four. It's an apothecary. Yeah, yeah. That's fantastic.

Are you a nicotine head? Yeah. I just saw the gum in his stuff. It's my last remaining vice, other than pride and sort of general cuntiness. Nicorette is my last one. Okay, that's good. But Marcus, we should not aim to get rid of it. There's nothing wrong with it.

No, my doctor was like, have at it, bud. Yeah, I don't even know that we should call it a vice other than we would die without it in that respect. Yeah, well, that's true. Why don't you call it a virtue? It's a virtue. Do people ask you, like, non-nicotine users when they see you consume it compulsively? Do they go like, well, what's it make you feel like? They ask you that?

Yeah, I get a bit of that, or I get a bit of like, what brand of gum are you obsessed with? Yeah, yeah. And what's your answer to the feeling you get? Because I have a go-to. I only get a feeling with the lack of it. I said the feeling is absence of vegetation. They go. That's much more eloquent.

Yeah, yeah. Like, I don't feel it. Other than the morning, the morning's nice. The first coffee and a fucking pop, pop, pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. You get a buzz? I get a little. You know from the first one? No, I get buzz from my first coffee.

Yes, yes. And I've taken coffee much more seriously since I stopped drinking. When did you stop drinking? 19. Oh, wow. 2019? Seven years. Good job.

Congratulations. Yeah. I didn't know that we had that overlap. Yeah. What about you? I haven't drank in 21 years. Wow. But I had a nice little go-around with opiates during COVID.

Okay. Bad spell had the detox in the whole nine. A relapse. We'll call it. Yeah. Yeah. We'll call it. Yeah.

Yeah. Don't call it a relapse. I've been here for years. You're too young to know all that. No, he knows. You know you guys are the same age. We are? I didn't know that.

It's a lovely age. It's a good age. I like it too. About to hit 40. Coming into our prime. That's right. How do you feel about it? I feel fantastic.

Yeah, me too. I like it. We were just talking about it. You know, occupying that space between our kids and our parents is kind of a a nice place to be figuring stuff out in. Don't you feel like it's the age, though, where time is start, it's 11-11, everyone make a wish. Oh. So, don't you feel like it's the age where you start really feeling the passage of time?

That's true. Because your parents are aging and then you have your kids. I feel like a slight shift in authority. I feel like it's time to sort of know what I think a bit more. Interesting. Whereas before you could kind of. rely on the opinions of your elders a little bit. And I don't know, a lot of people go through phases in their 20s where they're like,

really like, this is definitely what I think. But like, I don't have many answers for a while. I've had lots of questions. Wisdom seeping in is what you're feeling. Maybe. Yeah, maybe, yeah. But so if I do the math now, then I think you and I are on nearly identical trajectories. Did you quit at 29?

About 31, yeah. I don't actually know. I think it was 2019. Where are we now? 26. So that's six and a half years and I am 38. My wife and I are so equally bad at maths that on my last birthday, she wrote me my birthday card and she said,

happy 39th birthday. And it took me a full three hours before I went next door with my calculator. And the year, because I knew the year, minus the year I was born. Sure. Which I thought was quite a clever way to calculate it. That is good. Turns out I was 38.

Yes, that's right. And so actually, for my birthday, she got me an extra year. I mean, these parallels will they stop? January 2nd of this year, I walk into my bathroom and my lovely bride has handwritten me a beautiful card and it says, happy 52nd birthday. And I thought, oh, she accidentally wrote a 2 on the inside. She'll get it straight.

No, doubles down on 52, three or four times. Actors make, can't count for shit. Oh, my God. Maybe it's actresses. They can't do it. And then we'll get into other less fun parallels. But hey, you know, I think we got a lot of them. So I think strangely you were born in California.

Was indeed strange. Yeah, I was born in your Belinda, Rootent-in-Tooten-Anish County. Which is heavy, heavy Christian country. Yes, sir. Which is why I was born there, yeah. Yeah, so mom and dad worked for or were leaders in a church? Yeah, in a church called the Vineyard Church, which weirdly Bob Dylan and Johnny Mitchell went to with Tebow and Burnett in the 70s.

Really? Yeah, wild. And then my parents went out and worked there for a couple of years. and got trained up by the guy who led it called John Wimba, who's like a grandpa to me, always used to bring me quick silver t-shirts when he used to come and stay. And sort of this large, bearded American,

very Californian kind of guy with Hawaiian shirts who'd show up in southwest London at our house and be like a real fish out of water. And was this amazing guy, he was actually in the righteous brothers. Oh, he was? Yeah, and sort of gave up all that and then went west. Was it mega-churchy style? No, well, it's a bit smaller than that.

Very community-based. It's an amazing church. I mean, like all churches, it has its floors. But it was kind of a cool community to grow up in. We had a real open house. We had always had people through. The church bought the house next door to us and knocked through the wall as a guesthouse. My mom loved hospitality.

It was always baking, cooking stuff. And so I'd sit in the kitchen with her, watch her and listen to music and talk. But what makes me think your parents must be pretty unique in their own right is my very good friend from London was just here last week, British Automotive, journalist, Jeff Row, and we were in the hot tub chatting about religion, and he was really saying, you know, it's so different there than here. Yeah. I mean, even the evangelical kind of strain is so dominant here. And he's really wrapping his head around it because he's married to an American woman with

American parents from the Bible Belt, and he's trying to understand how deep it goes here. So because it's so not standard there, what took your parents there? My dad was working for the Church of England, which is very traditionalist. and wearing a dog collar and doing lots of kind of last rights, births, weddings and funerals. That was the jam. The big three. The big three. And then went and saw Wimber speak at Westminster Central Hall in like 85.

Both of my parents felt like we've got to go to California and understand what this thing is about, which is a real risk at that point in their careers and their lives. They had one kid. Because the Church of England had to have frowned upon that depressive. Absolutely. At that time particularly. And so it was a risk. And they went out and felt like that's what they were supposed to do with their lives.

They felt like that's what God was telling them to do. And so they went out to Orange County to go spend time with Wimber and learn about how they did church. And then planted the first church of that kind outside of the U.S. In our little front room in Wimbledon. Okay, which is Wimbledon the tennis venue we think of? Yeah, that's right. Southwest London, that's what kind of kid were you there? Do you have siblings?

Yeah, I have an older brother, six years older than me. My wife's a little sibling as well, and both of our older brothers, fiercely intelligent. Both went to Oxford University, double first. And so we grew up as the younger kids who had to, like, juggle in the corner for attention because we couldn't keep up with the conversation at the dinner table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think there's part of that. Okay, if you're a smart, I'll sing.

Yeah, exactly. It was a bit of that. Watch me to play the drums on sauce pants. It's my vibe. And then always had this kind of Californian streak culturally in my life. So I like, peroxide blonde my hair when I'm 10, when I first met with my wife, actually. Where did you guys meet? I mean, I know, Bible camp.

Bible camp. You met her when you were 10? Yeah, we were pen pals. What? Yeah, she was about a foot taller than me. She's an absolute giant at that time. And I was quite small. She's not a giant now.

I love that you say she was a giant, not that you were small. She was frequently massive. And I would go on her shoulders in the swimming pool. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She wrote in her journal. On, I met this boy called Marcus. He's two years younger than me.

So definitely not underlined boyfriend material. Oh, my God. Like she was Bridget Jones' diary already. I got a nine out ten. And my cousin, who was her age, gone eight and a half. Oh, shit. Really good. Before we keep proceeding, you're married to Carrie Mulligan.

That's right. In case anyone doesn't know that. I always hate when people say that when I'm an interview, but alas, I would be like, who are doing who there. Everyone's talking like we should know the why. Right. Now, that needs to be framed in your house. Yeah, we do have that.

It's not framed. We used to fax each other. That's so special. What kind of faxes? Pictures and doodles and... Anything naughty? Nothing naughty, no. We were like 11, you know.

Yeah. I know, but... Tell me everything. You know, just all my doodling generally. I found my way into penis and balls, cowboys. Oh, you know, there's a lot of that, but I was trying to be the meathead. I'm the meathead now. I can take the uniform most, but...

Now that you've got her. So suffice to say you liked her. I don't remember feelings like that. Okay, okay. No, she was a friend. And we kept in touch until we were like 14 or something. Then we lost contact. We were both on Facebook for about a six-month window.

I was at college. And she was somehow on Facebook. And we got in touch through that. But then we both quit and were out of touch. And then I saw her on a billboard for an education. Oh, yeah. And went and saw it. And then was in Los Angeles.

Okay, no, hold back up. Okay, sorry, I'm speeding. No, I just. I want to know, because I have this with this girl, Daniel Fox, who lived at the end of the street in my grandparents' house. And I would always spend the summer at my grandparents' house. And I was just wildly in love with her. If I had been driving around at some point and saw Daniel Fox on a billboard, and then I went

to the movie, I would have been fucked up. I guess what I'm asking is, when you saw the movie where you were like, oh, goddamn, a little bit? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She is. With respect, I agree.

Yeah, yeah. But also you were probably like, but I know her, but that's my buddy. And then eventually, when we reconnected, it was like, I know you. You're exactly who I know. Yeah. And it was cool. We got married pretty quick, right? Yeah.

And I think because of that, because it was like, yeah. You guys were both at a really interesting moment in time for yourselves professionally in that it's starting to work for you. And this whole new world, at least in my experience, was like, it's fun, but it's chaotic. And is it real? Maybe to find, at that moment when life's getting a little hard to come. to comprehend to plug back into somebody who is experiencing the same thing and from the same place. So she came down to Nashville.

We were writing our second album. First album just come out. We'd toured it. It'd gone well. We were writing the second one in this rental home. We had lots of friends there that had come over in the evening. We had to do picking parties. And then we were playing in someone's basement, a room this size.

A friend of mine in L.A., who I'd been staying with and talked with about Kerry, had gone to New York, seen her, called me and was like, we're going to come to Nashville. Nashville see you play this basement show. And they arrived in Nashville at that time. I was stood outside the Starbucks and I could see them come out. And she runs down and jumps back into my house like, game over. You're like, I'll be married in minutes. Two days before that, we got the call asking us to play at the Grammys for the first time with Bob Dylan.

Wow, whoa, whoa. And so she entered stage left at a moment that was weird for me. And she had just been nominated for an Oscar and done the whole thing with an education. Yeah. So she was a couple years ahead or a year ahead, whatever. And was so helpful to me in that moment being like, look, you can be in control of this. And you can say yes to this. You can also say no to it.

And I was not in a phase of my life and I was saying no to anything. For sure. Right. Yeah, yeah. So she was so helpful. And you're absolutely right. It was just at this moment. You're getting untethered?

We left Nashville. She flew to L.A. to be with me during rehearsals. And it was like four days after we'd reconnected to me. Wow. Yeah. And then she had to leave again. She was shooting shame.

But then somehow... Inside Lenn Davis. Inside Lund Davis. Is that somehow part of this story? No, that comes a bit later. When we played with Dylan at the Grammys, that was the first time I met T-Bone Burnett, who has become like a sort of fairy godfather to me in music.

And he said, any time from now on, that I'm doing something interesting or that you're doing something. Let's call each other. That's awesome. So then when the Cone brothers called him to do inside Lund Davis, he called me and said, Do you want to come and be my... Wow.

The title was associate producer or something. And so I just was there and Kerry was in the movie. Do we start singing in church? Not really. When's music start? Music starts early, like pots and pans, playing drums, and I was a drummer. And who was your Bonham? Who was your God?

Yeah, I was more Bonham than Star. You were one or the other, but became Star. Okay. Well, Ringo later. My guy was a guy called Terryone Gully, who was a jazz drummer, played for a guy called Christian McBride. and I went and saw him play with my skateboard. He signed my skateboard.

When I was like 13, at Pizza Express Soho with my mom. Was mom or dad super into music? They were all very into music. None of them played anything. They just played it in the house. I'm just curious, did they stick with the church? Still going? Life, yeah.

Wow. Right. I'm retired. Because I do think we interview a lot of people, generally more R&B singers, females, who they grew up singing in church. It's such a great tradition. And I do worry as much as I have my reservations about religion.

And most of all of R&B, it starts in church in America. And I just wonder, like, as that fragments, where's the next crop? Where do all these young kids start learning to sing like that? Yeah. And school choirs, I didn't get into the main school choir, so I was in the B team and learned to sing harmony. It was fun and very helpful. I was going to say, that's a good skill probably. Yeah, we wouldn't sing what, tenor parts.

We'd sing the alto parts. And my mom was an alto too. So she always sang harmony in the kitchen, whatever we listened to. And what kit were you playing? Did you have the kit you wanted? Yes, I did get a Yamaha Maple, which is what I wanted. And it was natural wood. Well, that's handsome.

It was great, very functional. It was a workhorse. Do you collect drum sets? I do. What's the coolest one you got? I have a red sparkle Ludwig's 60s kit. Okay, great. And a champagne sparkle 60s kit.

And I really like these CNC kits that are new. And then what about guitar? When do we pick up guitar? Towards late teens. And so you were a skateboarder into jazz who was going to be? Church. Yeah, with peroxed blonde hair. At a public school. Listening to Sublime. Because the Californian influence in my life,

no one else was listening to Neil Young at home. No one else was listening to Sublime. So I always had that little extra cultural lane. Now, I was a skateboarder, punk rock, bleached hair, spiked the whole night. And really, I was just so insecure. I was rejecting the other style.

I didn't think I could nail. But it read as incredible confidence to my peers, thank God. Did that happen with you? I got sent home from school because I wasn't allowed blonde hair Which is a Yeah

An incredible role So that was the kind of school I went to Yeah Kings College Are you research team He is the research team He does it on his up But it's a public school

I guess I thought maybe You would have gone to like that religious school We call it public But it's private Oh So my parents spent all of their church salary on my education Which is why then when I left college

It was a responsibility Yeah you got to Edinburgh University Yeah Because we had no other they spent all of their money on my education. So you felt like you needed to pay them back? So I felt slightly good.

So in terms of my arrest development, felt like I was on sabbatical from university from most of my career until now. I feel comfortable in my skin and this new record that we've made is my favorite thing we've ever done. And I feel like now is the moment where I get to really embrace being an artist.

Wow. Whereas before I felt like I was kind of moonlighting. Proving yourself? Not so much that. It was just like I was on a track. You have been feeling like you're supposed to return to university for 20 years, and now you finally don't feel like you need to return. And this record, this prize fighter record, is like it for me.

That's great. That's amazing. But how is it going socially, these interests in this extreme look? It's going fine. I was always like a slight outside. I wasn't the best at anything, but I tried everything. Was it all boys? Yeah.

And I went to school with Ben in the band from the age of eight. Were you guys best friends, or just you ended up having me Yeah, no, we were. It must be so fun to be able to share it with this kid you've known since you were eight. And now the three of us is close to brotherhood or indeed marriage. Yeah, that's right. Because it is more like marriage, really, because the only other person in the world who has experienced that is Ben and Ted. Yeah, exactly. Yes. We also have to navigate stuff that normally I don't think you navigate with a coworker.

Or a friendship. There's something when you're both that it takes everything up to a different level of intimacy. Because these natural things, there's highs and lows. highs are great to share, but the lows are like, no one involved has a clear head because everyone's suffering at that moment. It's not a great... You're communally going through something. Yeah, there's no outsider unaffected by the thing to be objective. Which is why when we're making records, I like to work with producers. Because some people are like, why don't you just self-produce?

You guys know your way around a proton. And you produce things on your own, yeah. I use things for other people, but I like having the objectivity of someone else who hasn't looked at the tickets. Or got burned on a song you love. Exactly. This is like that other thing we did that we got fucked down. Exactly. So the objectivity of a producer. And then for us on this new on Prize Fighter, we had Aaron Destner,

who's known us for 15 years or something, helped us with the demos for our third record, has been a friend of ours for a long time, seen us go through lots. Also happens to be in one of my favorite bands of all time, the National, has had this production career with people like Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams. It's gone crazy. And so to have him come in at this point and be that objective voice,

knows us all really well. We trust him. He trusts us the dream. You're also at a stage in your career that I tune at where it's like all of these kids that we're trying were now all at these award shows, which is bonkers. It's like I look around the Golden Globes and I'm like, oh, Ben and Melissa, who we run in theaters and no one came. You're starting to see friends that are now producing for Taylor Swift or whatever the thing is happening. It's pretty wild. And London, when we first started as a band, it was amazing for music.

People that really inspired us like Laura Marling and there in the well. Also, at that time, it was Adele and Florence. And these amazing artists that have obviously, so we've seen a lot of them go, Adele presented our album of the year, the Grammys. The only reason I think we got anywhere close to winning it was because she wasn't not. But for her to give that to us is so sweet.

Our contemporaries, A, are some of our biggest inspirations, but also we've seen their success right the way through from very early on, which is kind of a unique thing. Okay, so you're playing drums. When do you start playing, not just in your... room but with other people what age we play at weddings and bombetsers and birthday parties from the age of like 12 to make pocket money and then publicly the first time i sang a song i think was for a music exam when i was 16 i did a version of all

along the watchtower by bob dillan what was the effect it went down much better than i thought it would was that the first mini hit we're like oh shit some people are looking at me a little different yeah and then i played a bit i didn't really do very much until My year out between high school and college, I lived in Denver. Denver, Colorado. Yeah, because I had a U.S. passport so I could come and work. Dual citizenship. Soccer coach in Denver and would play open mics, lots of clove cigarettes.

And would do open mics, and they went all right. And then I went to college. And amongst my cynical British friends, when I dropped out to go and do music, they were all like, really, mate? Right. Because they've been at the open mics. We're not at dropout stage yet. We're not. So I had a friend who took me to one side and was like,

I'm not sure this is a great decision. Wow. Is he still a friend? I hope you bought him a rangerow. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It was really at college that I started doing my mics. And then I quit to go play drums because I was a session musician,

to go play drums for Laura Marling. And then she invited me up to come and sing a song in her encore. At the end of her show was like a hoot-nanny moment. And that's when her manager spotted me and was like, You should do this. So how do we assemble Mumford and Sons? 2007? Two weeks after that, I said to him, like, I think it's a band.

I don't think it's a solo project. I've been doing writing and recording some demos at Ben's house. He lived with his parents still, and they had an attic with a little studio in that you had to climb through the little cubbyhole. Oh, yeah, yeah. Carrying fucking equipment up there? Yeah, yeah. It was a nightmare, very hot, no AC, and had been doing some demos and then inviting anyone I knew who was playing in other bands. We were all playing in other bands at that point.

to come play these songs with me, and at times there'd be like 14 of us on stage. But what we noticed was that at that time when the four of us sang together and played together, it felt different to when everyone else was in the room. So I know how you know Ben, obviously, he's been a friend since you were a little kid. How do you meet the other two guys? Yeah, Winston, I'm at church and we were like 15. You've known him at that point too. And then Ted, we met in London when I quit college and he was a bass player.

He showed up with the coolest pair of boots and a leather jacket I'd ever seen in my life. and could sing and play double bass. It was like, oh, this guy's a triple threat. It's funny how often when I watch docs on bands, how much of it is that? Like, so-and-so walked in and their hair was awesome. Yes, it's like, the music's kind of secondary to the vibe. But then when he opens his mouth to sing it's like, oh, wow, he's got this really unusual voice, and he can sing harmony and it's cool.

Did you watch a mic get loud, that drumming documentary? No. Fuck. No, I didn't. Oh, it's so great. Okay, then never mind that. And then there's another doc. I want to know if you watched.

Oh, did you watch the Zeppelin Dock that was out last year? I haven't watched that yet. Okay. What is unbelievable about that band is they met, and I think six weeks later, they played that first show we've all seen in Black and Away, which might be still their best show they ever played. I've only inherited other people's views about this documentary,

but it seems that they were all totally obsessed with Bonham. Yeah. And then it was like Jimmy's band. I don't know that I focused on that as much as just, obviously, they had all been working a lot, So it's not like they were green in that sense. But the notion that these strangers could have come together and played that show in six weeks, it's so mind-blowing.

You just kind of got to believe in magic a tiny bit. Oh, I totally believe in magic. I think writing songs is like trying to catch fairies and nets. Noel Gallagher talks about it like, everyone knows songs fall from the sky by magic. And you just have to have your hands out ready to catch them. Otherwise, fucking Bono or Chris Martin. Everyone's just walking around.

Because these sons have been just clearly have their hands out. Yeah, exactly. So I bumped into him in a bar in London a few years ago, and we just finished a tour. And he was like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm just chilling out. And he's like, what the fuck are you talking about? You're a songwriter? You've got to get to work, write songs. You have no excuse not to write songs. It's your job. What are you doing? And it's like, oh, shit, he's right. Better go and write some songs. How long before the four of you were playing that it was clicking, you were putting songs down that you thought had merit? Was that a quick process? It was quite quick. I had a collection of songs that I'd written at college, sort of naked on my dorm room floor. They're very raw, too raw.

Indulgent? Yeah, yeah. Okay, sure. Yeah, yeah. Trying to put T.S. Eliot to song, you know, is that kind of indulging. It was a knight. It's hard to be pretentious. It is.

You have to be. Oh, you'll never make it. But I had started honing my narcissism well enough to write songs, I think. And then we started playing a couple shows, and then we got asked to support other bands. And that was helpful because it was like, right, well, we need enough songs to fill that set. So I remember the day I wrote Little Lion Man and my ex-girlfriend's kitchen, which is probably a bit rough. But then showed up at the rehearsal studio like three hours before sound check

and was like, lads, I think I've got another one for the set. And they were like, few. Because we only had like five at that point. Yeah. Were you expected to play like 35 minutes or something? Yeah, like half an hour. That's six songs. And you feel half an hour with a bit of chat, sometimes a bit more chat.

Isn't it funny, too, how much of this stuff? There's no science to it, but there is like the infamous Beatles stuff. They're playing in Germany forever. They're just playing. They were honing there. Yes. I mean, that documentary is my favorite music documentary. The Peter.

Yeah, Peter Jackson one. Yeah. And it's nine hours, which is shorter than your average day in the studio. Okay. But watching that documentary, I mean, it's the most beautiful. I think you get an idea of some of the hanging around. You know, you're watching like Ringo twiddling. Ringo's always on time.

He's always ready to play. He's always sticks in hand waiting for the moment to come. Very underrated drummer. He gets a different tone out of the drum set to any other drama in history. And then Jim Keltner, who played on all the Beatles solo record. He's now like 82. I recorded with him a couple years ago. He is one of the coolest cats of all time. And Bob Dylan's drummer, and he gets a different kind of tone out of the drums to anyone else.

And these great drummers, I think, are able to do things. And just hit a drum in a way that no one else can. Admittedly, I didn't like the Beatles. My mom had positioned it as, this house is a Rolling Stones house. Really? We're not talking about I want to hold your hand. We're talking about I got a girl pregnant. Interesting.

You weren't fucking gnarly. See, we were in Oasis House, not a blur house. There you go. Yeah. And have you come to appreciate Laura's sense? Yeah, yeah, I have. But I'm still in the waist this guy. Yeah, yeah, right.

And I'm a stones guy. You can't change that, really. I know, yeah. Nurture. That's wild. It's the tribalism. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that comes from growing up in a house where your parents care.

I didn't. So I just like it all. They didn't have their identity infused with what bands they liked. Exactly. There was no identity connected to it. So you were free. You're free agent. Free, can take it all.

So what did it lead you to? Taylor Swift. You. Taylor? Yeah, I mean, Taylor. No, but as a kid, what I did it. Yeah, exactly. Taylor was a little later.

I'm pop top 40. Brittany. Brittany, yes. Spice Girls. Hanson. Like, the big Hanson. Remember Hanson? Love Hanson.

Oh my God. Really. I think I did a cover of that, actually, back in the day. You did? That was my first CD. Was it? Mine was Pure Shores by All Saints. All Saints.

As a single. And then the first record I bought myself, I bought two from the CD exchange on Wimbledon Broadway. I bought Kind of Blue by Mars Davis, under-instruction from my drum teacher because he was like, you'll play what you listen to, you got to play that.

And then for myself, I bought Miss Education at Lauren House. Oh, amazing. I mean, that's advanced. I was more in the... You're in a M-Bob. But I'm just saying All Saints, TLC. I love TLC.

I loved All-Saint. Robin. Yeah. All of it. Early Robin. Yeah. Sick. But Monaco will be the first to admit.

Most of her musical tastes came from film and television. If she saw something on TV, She heard something rather. If I heard a soundtrack, I was like, I want that song. Like, once it was into buying songs, like Napster and stuff like that. So what were the shows that led you to? Like, Grey's Anatomy.

One Tree Hill? I was on a One Tree Hill. No, okay. So Gray's Anatomy. Yes. Obviously. So when Garden State came out, did it change your life? Yeah, yeah, okay, cool.

I get you. Yeah, yeah. I know you. I know you. I see you. Listen, I've changed. I've become cool. But no, I was a sponge.

I was a sponge to all of it. that. The shins. Oh, my God. Yeah. But no, it was great. It was great. I was open to it all. That's cool. Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Apple TV, the new U.S. home of Formula One. You can now watch Complete All Access, live coverage of every Grand Prix, including practice, qualifying, and sprints all in one place. I will be consuming all of those things, Monica. I know you will. I kill for Friday to start watching practice one, following it in on a sprint weekend. Oh my gosh, two races.

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Your new TurboTax expert stays back and works tirelessly to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real-time notifications as you go about your day. Honestly, it feels like someone finally figured out what we've all been wanting. It's not some sterile tax office from 1987, and it's not a real-time. just an app where you're on your own. It's both. The human expertise was smart modern tech. You drop off your stuff, go about your day, and get real-time updates as your expert works through everything. That's the upgrade. Head to turbotax.com to find a store location near you and get matched with a turbotax expert with real-time updates and iOS app. Mine was I have to like punk rock. I'm going to these shows. None of them are melodic. I hate it all,

but I'm pretending I love it. And then I'm just looking for anything with some melody. I'm just following. So did Blink 182, like, change your life? Well, I'm so much older. I saw exploited when I was 11 years old with my brother. I saw Black Flag in their trashy. It was a teenager. I went through post-sublime, probably.

I went through like Papa Roach and Blink 182. I love Blink 182. Let me be clear. And then I was starting to go off at some 41 when that started. I loved it. And then I was like, that was the end of my... I'm going to get off the train here. I'm at my stop.

Yeah. This is actually interesting now that we're talking about it because I think that the reason there are clubs is I wanted to be like everybody else. You wanted to conform. Exactly. So I'm picking top 40. I'm picking what's on TRL. You want to be able to talk with your friends about what's popular.

I want to be normal, regular. That's interesting because I get to like 18. I want to do something no one else's day. Yeah, you want to be different. This is our freedom of being white. Right. Interesting. Yeah, yeah.

Like I'm like, wait, you guys are nerdy and I want to be the opposite. That's interesting. And she's like, I'm brown. please don't notice I'm brown. I knew all the same shit you do. Yeah, isn't that weird? If you were white, I wonder what your fucking musical taste would be here. Well, the truth is you probably still like Taylor Swift.

Of course. Yeah. Wow. That's the great unifier. Exactly. 10 million tickets sold. That's why she is who she is. Yeah.

Okay, so I want to jump to you record, sing no more. It comes out in 2009 and it's a monster. I mean, you get nominated for two Grammys. Little Lion Man is enormous. How do you take that on? We just play shows. That's the only answer we had. Just keep your head down and play shows.

Just play shows. We were probably a bit dismissive of the world's reaction to our music for a long time because we were like blinkers on, head down, just play shows. That's the thing we can understand. I can't understand how our song suddenly got big in Australia on the radio. I can't get my head around that, but I can get my head around playing a show in Melbourne. And so still now, I don't look at streaming numbers. I don't look at social research.

responses. I don't look at radio plays. Are you like healthy and he didn't care about money? I care about money so much. No, yeah. Our household didn't have expendable money, but my parents instilled in us a spirit of generosity. We were taught to tithe as kids. Give away 10% of everything you ever get. I mean, the belief system is like,

it's not ours anyway. Right. It's closest to a sort of Native American view of ownership and stewardship. But it was like, ticket sales is what we can understand. Right. You can see that there's venues are getting bigger. Yeah. And we climbed all the rungs on the ladder. We didn't skip any, but we only did them all once. And most bands do them 10 times. How are you making peace with the tension of, I'm an outsider? I'm not with you guys. And this is my

art. And, uh-oh. No, it's for everyone. Everyone likes it. There's a little bit of tension there, no? Well, I think I probably responded to that by driving my negative narrative and finding the negatives. In any review I would read, which I did at the beginning, I'd always read them. I'd pick out the one line that hurt the most, and I'd dwell on that. I knew you didn't really accept me. You're acting like you accepted me, but I have the proof I'm not really. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Everyone thinks I'm actually a come in it.

Yeah. It's so brutal. And you miss so much. I mean, we had fun, but I was not present to a lot of the early success of our band, because I was either in the negative narrative or I was like, let's move on quickly because this isn't going to last, so we have to build for the next thing. You can have this paradox of actively hating parts of it, and then maybe fearful the next one's not going to be as good.

You can also still want to keep it, right? Yeah, I haven't felt this level of a sense of pride in our work, honestly, ever until this record. It's really freeing. I just fucking love it. And I don't really care if other people like it or not for the first time. That's huge. It's massive. I think it's a lot of personal growth and all that boring stuff.

But I really don't care what people think. I love it. And I'm excited to play it every night. If people come along for the ride, then great. But if not, genuinely, for the first time, I don't think it'll hurt my feelings. Wow. To that same extent of, like, the rawness. And I think that's the vulnerability of artists.

and that's fine. Your job is to feel things. I just think this is cool because we just had Stapleton on it. Luke Combs had this moment. A lot of these musicians now that we're interviewing have had these moments

where you performed at the Grammys and then the album went up 99% in sales. There's very few moments that are that make it or break it. I don't think I was aware to that extent what the Grammys could do in terms of moving. Thank God. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but I was still shitting myself.

I was still very nervous. But like I had that feeling with the first TV appearance we did. Did you love, like, We did vitamin and it was like, where's your drummer? I was like, I think he plays drums, maybe? Does he? Maybe that's my guest. But, no, our first TV appearance was here in L.A. with Craig Ferguson.

Oh, we love, Fred. And I broke two strings and forgot all the words. And it was a fucking disaster. Oh, no. Still makes me feel like. Yeah, that's horrifying. That was awful. And so they were like, we have to move on.

Sorry. We had to play a different song. Wow. It was a disaster. It was horrible. I'm so sorry. But was Craig great at help? Yeah, he was sweet.

No one could really help me in that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Jack, Daniel's good at help. There was no help. But no, the Grammys was made fun by the fact that Dylan was so weird and wonderful. That first one, we'd rehearsed for two days, we'd done all the camera rehearsals. We were aware that it was going out to 50 million people or whatever it is. And we play a song, we come back behind the curtain, Aivit Brothers play a song.

And then we were all supposed to go on together and play Maggie's farm. So we play a cave, Ava Brothers, go on. We walked behind the curtain. Bob's there. And he goes, play that again. And I went, what? And I'm still holding my guitar. And he goes, play that again.

And it was the cave. So I started playing. He went to start playing banjo. And he was like, I can sing on that. And we went, what? And he went, I want to sing on that. And I'll sing Maggie's farm on that. And we're like, we'll do what you want because you're fucking Bob Dylan.

But you've already played it? We just rehearsed it. And we've already played the cave. And he wants to change the whole arrangement right there. Roughly, Tony, his bass player, who's the Bob Whisperer, comes over. He's like, calm down, Bob. into it like the rehearsal. Okay.

Did you watch The Greatest Night in Music? It's about the recording of We Are the World. No, I didn't see that, no. You tell, I don't really watch music documentaries. I'm learning that. And I get it. Do you listen to other people's podcasts? No, and I wouldn't watch a comedy doc, but of course I watch music.

What is cool about the doc, I think you would appreciate, is we have everyone. Who do you want? They're all there, right? You have Michael Jackson, you've got Holo notes. You've got fucking Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan. Everyone's there. So to see them all, it's a. really wild thing to observe, but Bob can't sing like the other folks. That's not what he does,

right? And he is struggling. And there's a moment where Stevie Wonder who can do everybody. He's a crazy mimic. He says, you want to sing it like this. And he does Bob Dylan, and it's on film. And you can't tell it's not Bob Dylan. And he uses his voice in his range to show him how he should do it. And then Bob's like, okay, and then he does it. That's such a cool moment. That's very cool. All right. You're not going to watch it. You hate me. Do you think you don't like him because it's intimidating? Or it's just boring because that's what you do. It's boring because that's what I do.

I got you. I think unless it's Get Back. Unless it's The Beatles. Movies about musicians, don't really do that. I didn't watch Springsteen movie yet, even though I'm obsessed to Bruce Springsteen. I get that. Star is born, I thought, depicted tour life

the most accurately out of any of them. Although you don't know because you've only seen one or two. Yeah. That's not a great. Look at the one I sample. That's true. You went to Baskin Robbins. You tried one flavor.

You know the best flavor of the 31 flavors is vanilla. That's true. That's true, to be fair. Okay, tell me about going to India in 2010. Or don't, if it's not interesting. No, we just didn't really have an audience in India. Sure. We went anyway.

Got told to go back to our own country at our last show in Kolkata. Really? Yeah, which I think was fair. It was fair because given, you know, innate racism in England, the other way around. It's like, yeah, fair enough. We probably earned that historically. But it was amazing. touring in weird ways and doing things that feel scary. We just done this train tour.

That was next. Yeah. India was awesome. It was really fun. I mean, it was very hectic. It was stupid. Did you have in the back of your mind, though, that the Beatles went there? A little bit. And it was just an adventure. We'd done a tour on a narrow boat at four miles an hour. That was really fun. And we were like, let's go to India and do that. Yeah. So the thing I loved about reading about your history is I too love when you can take this thing that you do, that's your job, and you can figure out a way to leverage it into a bunch of other crazy experiences that kind of have nothing to do with it. Because otherwise, you can miss it. It can all go by. I read about this railroad tour. You guys had vintage railroad cars you were in? Yeah, we did one with Edward

Sharp and the Magnetic Zero's an old Cremedson show in 2011 or 12 or something like that. 11. Thank you. Yeah. And we were like, let's do that again. Now, the train thing is fun for the artists. The audience doesn't really get involved in that because you can only fit like 100 people on it. Tell me about your car. A bunch of vintage rail cars all linked together that go around the country. So the first one went from Oakland down the west coast across to we ended up in New Orleans. And the second one we started in New Orleans and ended in Burlington, Vermont. And for us, a lot of it is seeing places we wouldn't otherwise see.

Like I've seen more of this country than most of my friends who live here. Sure. And I'll argue on a train, you're seeing the backyard of everything. On a highway, you're seeing the front yard. Totally. And it's amazing. And I like to stay up in the middle of the night and sit in the front of the bus and watch. the world go by, particularly in North America.

Yeah. I just find it fascinating. Like being stuck in an electrical storm in Kansas, in the middle of the night. Any tornadoes? You've seen some tornadoes. Yeah. Nothing like it, right?

Stone's always really fun. But was the car itself? Did you have your own car? No, we had our own room. And was it from the 40s, 50s, 60s? Do you know? Was it wood paneled? This one was wood paneled in, I would say 50s, I think.

It was there like a cocktail? Like, was there a little bar and shit? Yeah, and like the people running the train are all in outfits. Oh, how fun. It's fun. I love. So jealous. And then we'd rehearse every day because we had these guests come and join us.

And so we'd learn their songs on the train on our way to sound check. And then when we get there, we play it. We should do that. I know. You should do a live show train experience. It would be a net loss to her, but we'll do it. You're not going to make any money. Yeah.

Not for that. We had this conversation about management company. We're like, look, we're not going to make any money. You're definitely not going to make any money. For this one, we had a house band and we paid everyone the same amount of money, like a flat fee, including ourselves. We're like, look, It's an experience.

This is like a five-day vacation where we're working. Did you take psychedelics on the train? No, you don't need to. Okay. I would think that would have enhanced it. I went on this trip down the Grand Canyon with a bunch of people I didn't know. And we get to the bottom and it's like eight days of rafting and staying on the beach. Unbelievable.

And at the end of it, we find out they would all been on acid the whole time. I was like, this is the one place in the world. You definitely don't need acid, man. Exactly. And those rapids, we're doing them on kayaks. They're pretty dangerous. But no better way to drown. Oh, God.

You got to drown, man. You think you're drowning in, like, Willy Wonka's Chocolate River? No, I'm too much for a control freak for that. Okay. Is everyone in the band on the same page, for the most part? Even when we're talking about you guys coming up, you're, like, tunnel vision, head down.

Are you all like that? Yeah, we are. Ted our base player is a bit more chill. We need that. Yeah. Because Ben and I are, like, in it on everything. Oh, man, I recently said to us, like, most artists kind of asked to just know where they need to be.

When I go to this level of detail. But we're quite details-oriented. We care about it. Yeah. Okay, I need to say, though, that I Will Wake came out. That was enormous. You won the Grammy. Fastest-selling album in the year.

Things are fucking cranking. Yeah, that's what I'm told. $600,000 in the first week. That's bonkers. And in UK, I think, foreign is also the fastest selling album that you're in the UK. You can't go anywhere without Mumford & Sons at this point. I want to go to your solo album, which is 2022, self-titled. Yeah.

I want to bond with you on this experience, which is I have for years on here been acknowledging that I have been molested. And that was its own hurdle to just say that. And I got quite comfortable being able to say that. That was fine. And now I'm writing a memoir. And last year, really, the whole year was about, do I have the ball to write down the details of this? Because the details were always going to be mine. I didn't want anyone to be envisioning me.

It's weird that that was still some wall between my shame. Interesting. Like, I can say that happened, but I don't need you to know anything that actually happened. And I bet it took me four months to tell that story. And when I'm writing it, just I cannot help but thinking of people knowing this about me and how still exposed that feels. And I was pretty emotional during the few months. I was having really weird kind of spikes of emotions and moodiness. And I would forget that's why I was having that.

But I finished it, and something about it existing there feels like a lot of weight is off my shoulders. But for me, there's still the hurdle of like, and also I've not put that out. Yeah, that wasn't going to be my question. I was like, do you put that out? And I didn't hear that. Right. So I can understand writing Cannibal, because it's about his sexual abuse. There's details.

Yeah. Dude. I wasn't that song. This one. I was like, fuck me. That sounds pretty intense. What's the gap between writing it and then knowing, okay, now I'm going to put it in the world

and people will know all this about me. I mean, I was pretty scared, honestly. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, it's pretty detailed. I mean, I played it to a few people who are very helpful. I played it to Elton John. Played to Brandy Collar. Elton was like, I've never heard anything like this.

And I'll do anything to help you if you want to put it out. And Brandy had said exactly the same thing. Like, I'm with you. It wasn't fucking shocking how many of us. Yeah. And part of the exhausting process of putting it out is hearing other people's stories. Yeah, sure. Because you need to comfort them.

Yeah, yeah. And it's an absolute privilege. And my general view on it has been, all right, I'm going to have boundaries around this. I'm going to say, like, thank you so much for sharing that. I hope you have what you need. That's good. Because I'm not your guy. It would be fucked up, wouldn't it?

Like, I'm not going to be your guy on this. Yeah, I can't. Yeah, can't. And that wouldn't serve you. Obviously, it wouldn't serve me. And putting it out was straight. And then the rest of the record is not really about that. But because that was the first song, it got a lot of the attention.

I feel like grateful that I put it out. I honestly felt glad I have also been able to move on. And I think without it, I wouldn't have come back to the band as energized or as joyful or as free. And I think that's a big part of the freedom that I now feel in the band. It's like, I got that. I moved on. It's out there. I toured it.

It was great. Musically, I'm very proud of it. The whole record. And it helped my songwriting. and it certainly helped my ability to accept myself. Well, my body keeps betraying me is a line. Yeah. The body betraying me, putting that out of your body to there,

has that helped in any of that? Yeah, like I've been on a real journey last few years. And part of that was not feeling like a victim, I think, and being like, I've got control of this. I can drive this train. I'm not just a passenger, and I won't just be a passive. My thing is I can intellectually know how ridiculous this statement is, but emotionally I don't know it in my body, which is I grew up in such a

homophobic environment in Detroit in the 80s. You lived all day long in fear that someone might think you were gay. Yeah. And now I've done this thing that does make me gay in my mind. And now I have this fucking secret that I know if it were to be revealed on the playground, I'm just fucking dead. I'm a pariah. I know intellectually that's insane at 51 with a family and all these things. But that fear of the whole world going back to elementarying is still alive in me in just crazy way. It's shocking to me. And so what's your process now having written it? I felt that wave of relief that you're talking about.

And then I have fear of people reading it. And then even more, I have the fear of what I'm doing to you right now, which is like, I want to be able to put it out and I don't ever want to have to talk to you about it. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's not going to happen. You've done baby steps. Like, was this the first time anyone's ever known about that? Yeah, yeah.

And the second song on the record is about the process of playing my mother the first song. Wow. Well, how should we proceed without this getting too heavy is the first line of the second song on the record? Wow, yeah. Yeah. But we talk about it on here. You are very open. I mean, not with the details, but with that something you've gone through.

But I'm in control of it, right? Like, you're not going, well, why didn't you blank? Or why didn't you tell your mom or why? You're worried about the types of questions. So yeah, it's just the loss of control of me being able to say exactly how. So while me and you waited three years, what happened to me, I got really lucky in a sense, which is I was in high school. I've been carrying it for, I guess, 10 years or whatever.

And I was talking with a girl and went to school with who I liked so much as just a friend. This is Danielle again? It's not. No, no, Daniel Ford. I would have never risked her thinking I was gay. But this girl was vulnerable enough to tell me that she had been raped the year before. Wow. And I'm kind of sitting there with that really special trust that she just extended to me in my lap.

And I just kind of felt myself saying it out loud. Honest to God, as stupid as this is, to look at her face and the fact she didn't say, oh, so you're gay. I went, oh, my God, this whole story I think I'm telling myself might be wrong. She doesn't think I'm damaged. I mean, that's certainly my experience as women led me through the wilderness. You know, it's so interesting and probably quite common that as a man, if you allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to a woman, often you'll find out going to lead you to the promised land. Yeah. And that's certainly my experience as people like my wife and Brandy and Phoebe Bridges.

Yeah, it's powerful, man. It's pretty life change. I mean, it was also quite funny playing my mom that song. Like, how long did it take her to put together what the song was? Was it immediate for her? Yeah. And painful for her. Of course.

You have children. Yeah. And just the sense that she'd spent all this time not being able to support me in something. Exactly. But I'm fucked up to tell your mom through a song. So I'm playing you a new thing. Tell me what you think. It's quite funny.

Bless her. She's a legend. I'm not my parents. Stay tuned for more armchair expert, if you dare. Why the gap, I mean, obviously you did your solo album in there, but why the seven-year gap? COVID. Winston left the band. Uh-huh.

I made a solo record. Then we're in the studio for two years. And now really quick, because last year, March. Yeah. So we got back in together in the studio like January 20th. In fact, I was on my solo tour. I was playing at the Ryman in Nashville and the boys. Ted and Ben came out for that show.

And I said, lad, should we sing a song together? We sang, oh, wait together for the first time in a few years. And it felt magic. Yeah. Just a guitar and them two. And the three of us singing together. This is a very special place to us. And that was the moment where we were like, let's do this.

And I think healthily, everyone had had a bit of a break, a bit of a reset. Was there any sense that you would not come back together? No, I don't think so. It was just a matter of timing. But then January 23, we were here in Los Angeles, actually. We met up the three of us in my house down the road when we had it. And we played a few ideas that had been kicking around. They turned into Rushmere, but then we felt like we weren't done.

While we were mixing Rushmere, Erindesner was next door. working and came in and played us a couple things he'd been working on that didn't have lyrics or melody yet and we responded to it and started making prize fight and right there oh wow and i think the freeing experience for me of getting solo record then rush me out meant that when we came to sit down to do prize fighter we're there in this long-term friend we were just ready my hands were out ready to catch the songs we were in shape and the muscles were all working there were no injuries and we were in not like our prime. And that's why we call it Price Fighter. We felt like we were just ready.

We'd also spent a summer with Pharrell Williams in Paris writing songs and hanging out. And he's like a therapist. He was like, sit us down. Certainly me, it gave me a lot of pep talks, which is super helpful. So by the time we came to Aaron, we were just in a good spot. And so these songs just poured out of us. And they're the closest to source, terms of the writing and the recording we've ever done. We'd like write it in the morning and record it in the afternoon and be done and walk away. It's a very live feel. The feeling you get as a vocalist, for sure. The closer you can record. a vocal to when you wrote it, the better.

On the first record, we did a demo at Ben's house that I played and recorded at his house in his parents' attic. And then when we came to record Sino Moore, 18 months later, we couldn't get the same emotion in that vocal. So we just used the demo eventually on a white-blank page, that song, the crashing-out song. Boy, acting so similar. You got grab the emotion while it's there, and then when it's gone, it's catching fairies, man.

Better actors is no problem. My wife being like, oh, yeah, I do that. It's no fucking problem. I've got it done that in the back of a spaceship if you needed me to. That's how you can really tell. someone can just show up and be perfect every time. Acting wise, we call them acting robots. It's like, yeah, I don't know how they're doing this.

Yeah, it's really annoying, isn't it? It is annoying. I don't like them. Fuck them. Okay, no, I want to extend a compliment and ask you if you feel it. When we had Seth Rogan on, we were talking about the studio. Did you watch the studio? I did, yeah.

Okay, great. You've seen one thing together. We want first overlap. Well, that's not a music documentary. It's not music. That's fine. But what I see is not just an incredible show. I see the results of an incredibly generous life

that every one of these people would have shown up to party in this thing. There's a lot of successful actors that they can't assemble five other ex-co stars. Yeah, right. So you think his humanity and the way he walks through the world has had a real effect. Yeah, that show is a result of who he is as a spirit. It's really on display and it's really cool. And I would argue that Price Fighter, do you feel that at all? The fact that you can call?

Chris Stapleton or however that works. I do feel that. You know, our band has always loved music and being at shows and watching our contemporaries and being inspired by them. We spent a lot of time investing into the community and it's not just so that we can name drop. It's a bit of that as well. Are you friends with the Avitz? I'm really good friends with Seth.

They're such inspiration for us. They're bad motherfuckers. If you haven't seen the Avitz play. Yeah, they're amazing. I'm doing a thing for them on Monday. They do the Muppets. Yeah, the Muppets. I'm excited.

So we've invested a lot into musical relationships, you know, stayed in touch with people. And then weirdly as a headline, you go out and you do your shows and you're a bit insulated from the community. Yeah. Festivals are always fun because you bump into other people, and sometimes those awardy things can be cool because you see people you wouldn't otherwise see. But on this record, we've never opened the door. Our band basically has always been collaborative and we've never really represented it on record. And so on this record, we were like, we want to call in our friends. And actually, Gracie Abrams has been like the fairy godmother of this record.

She's been behind the scenes with her magic wand. She heard the demo of banjo song before I'd written anything on it was like, you've got to fucking write something on that. So I text her lyrics as we were going and voice memos and be like, what do you think of this? What do you think of this? And she was always behind the scenes, just cheerleading.

Oh, that's awesome. In a way like Brandy was for my solo record, Gracie has been for Price Fighter. And so then we called her up and said, well, you sing on Badlands. And I thought she was going to just do some harmonies. She turned that song into a duet. It's like my favorite song on the record.

It's amazing. And the same with Gigi, who'd we'd done some shows with Gigi Perez. Hoseo we've known for a really long time. Like, I don't need to know you to look at the lists and go like, oh, yeah, this is a guy who's clearly been benevolent and generous with his peers because they show up. I feel deeply honored by the people that said yes. And Chris, I didn't know.

Chris, I just called. Cold cool. Hey, bud. Big fat. I think he's a generational talent. He's like my favorite voice, male voice in America. Do you know Heaven Sent by Steel Drivers? No.

I cannot stop listening to this fucking song. Since I interviewed him. It's my first band. It's my infection. Heaven sent. Heaven sent. I listen to it probably 40 times the day after. If I'm not working, I'm listening to that song.

It's unreal. Well, I think he's amazing. And, of course, he completely killed the assignment because I sent him the song. I sent him here. We all felt in the band that he would be perfect on it because it's like a kind of cowboy suicide. Yeah. He's perfect for that. And again, he's a dude who does not need to answer the phone and doesn't need to show up for people.

And he does it like endlessly. You found that out. And then I texted him and said, this is our breakback moment as well, by the way. Don't wait for the video. Okay, so you're going on tour and you kind of just nodded at it. You're doing a lot of festivals.

Is that by choice? There's the ones that have been announced. Oh, okay. Big gaps in that diary that aren't going to stay gaps, but we haven't announced them yet. But High Park on July 4th, actually, important day for you guys, and half of me. I bet you're really conflicted on July 4th.

July 4th at High Park is the one that I'm looking for to the most. Because it's been a decade since you guys played. It's been 10 years. And that's like hometown show. It's massive. Yeah. Two seconds on Nashville and then I want to hear you sing if you'll oblige us. Now that I've ruined your voice in two hours of chat.

Nashville, very special place, no? Yeah, it really is. We spent a lot of time there. And we were invited there when we first went to Tel Uribe Bluegrass Festival up in Colorado. We knew that Alison Krauss and Robert Plant were on the bill. We knew that people like Okroa Medicine Show would be kicking around. Jerry Douglas, who's the greatest slide guitar, player of all time.

Well, Dobro player of all time. And we walked in, and they all were there and all stoked that we were there. And coming in is these kind of like nerdy kids with more Americana instrumentation. They were just amazing. And Jerry became a really amazing friend to our band. We felt invited in, and then they invited us to Nashville,

and they were all around. And we've spent a lot of time in Nashville. I love it. I've been shocked to be in that town, which is also a creative. of town and just hear story after story of how available everyone is for each other. Yeah, Eleni Wilson has become a friend of ours, and I'm just obsessed with her. She's so generous.

She's so down. Yeah. We invite her on the train tour. She's like, yeah, cool. It's like they haven't forgotten that they love the art form. Yeah, a lot of them, I think. Chris is like that. Noah Khan is there now and he's like that.

Super generous people. There's a real sense of community there, which I think still exists, and it's cool. One of our closest friends is this young artist, Hannah Anderson. She's a musician. She's lived in Portland and in L.A. and from Houston. And they just went to Nashville a year and a half ago. And they've just never been happy. So even if you're not like successful and thriving, at every level there, she's like,

oh, my gosh, I should have been here my whole life. I lived in West Hollywood and it drove my shame narrative crazy. It did. Yeah, because I'd look around and be like, look at all these amazingly beautiful, successful people. I'm not doing any of that. Billboards. You underestimate the impact of these billboards that are every five feet. You really do.

They have an impact on you. Especially if you have like a competitive spirit or an artistic one, like a slightly vulnerable. And if you have both, it's tough. It's fucked. And even if you're not like competitive where I'm envious, but you're ambitious. Yes. You just have ambition and see that you're not there is a bad reminder. Yeah.

Every time you walk out at the door. Can you walk out of a restaurant and there's paparazzi there and they just like put their cameras down when you're like, oh, God. It's a wild mind fuck. I got to tell you one of my funniest moments in life. The first time I did Letterman, which I was so excited to do. He's my hero. Yeah, because he for comics is like, he's number one. Him and Bill Murray. Those are gods. So I couldn't be more excited. I'm in the back of a SUV. And Tom Cruise is also the guest that night. So he's first and I'm second. And I pull up to the theater. They've got the

whole street shut down and there are saw horses so that the crowd doesn't move in. And as my My SUV pulls up. They believe Tom Cruise is about to get out. In this audience, the people's like, ha, the cameras are all like, and I step out, and you just hear this collective, like literally 1,500 people like,

save your film. That's not him. Put your cameras away. I was like, oh, my God. What a way to walk into this theater. For my dream come true, started with, save your film. Yeah, maybe that should be

the Twentphiluvial. Save your film. So with so much gratitude, you've agreed to sing, and I cannot wait to see that. So if we may. I try. You're a party. I like you at times. Thanks for coming.

Well, you guys make this quite weird thing feel non-wired at all. Oh, good. That's nice. Very comfortable. Do you know Mark Ronson? I assume you do. You guys have a similar vibe. Oh, really?

I'll take that. He's a generous spirited man. He's a wonderful collaborator. Yeah, yeah. You know, some of those people like, Pharrell is like that, and errandessens is like that. They just get joy in seeing other. people shine. Frell's definitely like that. He's in his happiest place when he's helping elevate someone up to their true self. It's really cool. It's a cool spirit. Mark's like that too.

I had a therapist tell me that as a man, your journey is you try to conquer and you try to get yours. And then if you're a healthy man, the next phase of your life is to try to give that to as many people as you can. And I have entered that phase of my life where it's like you got to now do that. And that's the spirit of generosity rather than spirit of poverty. Yeah. It's not like, this has got to be mine. I can't give it away. It's like, I do better when you do better. Yeah. Yeah. The scarcity mentality. Yeah. Exactly. Forged him. All right, let's do it. Party.

Roll dogs is our compromise. Can you hold out my secrets? That's our line. Can you hold on my secrets? Can we swear that we'll forget? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to tell you this, and then I don't know if we want to hear about it. Yeah. Exactly. I'm going to get this off my chest just for me.

I can't carry this anymore by myself, but also we shan't ever speak of it again. Well, if that's you diminished, you know, fuck you, I guess. Yeah, I agree. I'm mad. Yeah, that's you at 70%. Yeah, Taylor was doing that in the dog. You won't make him tell us now. Yeah, later.

All right, then. There it is. Yeah. Ready? Yeah. Yeah. Here's my fun serenade. Here's the gun and here's the blade.

Here's the picture that I saved for too long. Here's my credit card and keys. And the reason I won't find peace is a song I could not complete for too long. for too long. Here's my pride and here's my shame Here's the trophy that bears my name Here's all the mistakes I made

Theonces I never gained Here's the cause I should have made Here's the substance that I crave All along Here's my vision Here's my aim Here's my suspect and the ones I blame. Whilst you're sitting taking names

I just want to belong Here's my lonely serenade Here's the gun and here's the blade Here's the picture that I say Before you were gone Here's my pride and here's my shave Here's a trophy The mistakes

Mother carries horny for you You're so hot I know I almost flew into the book show a couple times. Wow. Beautiful. Beautiful. My watch always said, we're quite a shouty band.

And that one does kick quite a shout. Oh, man. That's quite a fucking team. Awesome. The privilege of being in a room this tiny with him letting it rip. The whole time I was like, how's this our job? Yeah. We're so lucky.

That was really, really special. People normally come play some. Well, Nora sang for us, Nor Jones. Oh, my friend. Yeah, dude. Which one did they did? Oh, they did trussle. Did a few.

As you know, when those two fucking. And lock spirits. Like there's something those two, well, they call it blood harmony. Yeah, right. There's something real about blood harmony. It's like two brothers playing soccer together as well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, this was so special. Thanks, guys. Well, Marcus, this is a delight. Thank you so much. Well, come back. Yes, please. Also, I really want to double date maybe. Yeah, lovely.

Yeah, okay, great. I'm going to give you my fax number. That would be dope, wouldn't it? Only to facts. It's like Shearing with his iPad. I'm not sure about that. But facts only. I get a lay online.

I'll draw you some cock and balls pictures. And we'll get this thing going. All right. Be well. Thank you, guys. Stay tuned for the fact check so you can hear all the facts that were wrong. Hi. Hi.

What's up? How are you? Good. I have a headache. It's going to go away. It's going to go away. Did you take Advil or something? No.

Through the power of thinking. I'm just kidding. No, I will, but should I? Yeah, come on. Yeah, I guess if people want to see my pharmacy, real traveling pharmacy. It's here. This is it. Oh, it's like in one of those videos, like a what's in my bag.

Oh, sure, like a Vogue. Exactly. Yeah, this is great. What's in my pharmacy? You've always wanted to do this. I'm Advil. What will you select? Exactly.

What won't? tie. Oh, this is a hand sannie. I really like. Uh-huh. Okay. This one's vulnerable. Pepto, poopie problems. If I have muscle and or joint issues in order I prefer in a leave. I know. We've done. And then I'm your profen. Never Tylenol for body pain. Right. But if I have a headache, I know. I love a Tylenol. I know. You know what I have not tried though. Have you tried because it's so old fashioned. I bet it works the best. You ever fuck with an aspirin? No.

Look. Aspirin. Oh my God. Do you know why I got this? Why? An accident? No. I got it on purpose. When I thought my finger was going to explode on the plane. Okay. I forget why probably a Google or maybe I asked someone and they said take an aspirin. I think maybe for the sweat, like to make sure my heart didn't explode on the

plane. Did you take an aspirin? I'm sure. I took everything they told me to take. So yeah, I've got some aspirin in here for the plane. Someone should correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the difference between all these, aspirin actually thinned your blood. Yeah, it does. That's why, because that's why on planes it's good for instead of clotting. Yeah, so when you have pressure, you have your blood moving through a constricted area. And you can either attack the blood side, aspirin or the constriction side, which is the other options. That's right. Why can't you take both is my question?

Oh, why? Just you always want to take both. Yeah, one's good, two's better. I have two kinds of D. I have a leave D, ding, ding, ding, ding, a leave, and I have Zertech D. Ah, wow. So I just have a lot of stuff. You've really got it going on in there.

I do. Do you need that box still? I can get rid of that box. No, I like it. Don't you know? My tied stains. Okay. I'm now carrying one of those.

Yeah. In my backpack. They're helpful. Yeah. They're very helpful. Well, there's a lot of good free ads for all these companies. I know. It's true.

Can you have, oh, there's like not much left, but that's okay. There's enough to get it. There's probably enough. I'm taking three. Take them all once. God, you had never been a good drug addict. You would have sucked at being a drug. So I never did it.

I only do things I'm good at. My character in chips was very much how I, I just chew them all up and swallow them just to get over it. Chew them all up is disgusting. I remember the first time I had to swallow a pill. You remember the first time? Yeah, because it was a huge. I couldn't do it.

And my parents were trying to help me. You currently look 15. I'm mad. Really? Yeah. Because my hair's up. I guess. I was probably nine or ten.

I lived in my pants. How could you've made it all the way to nine before you took a pill? Oh. We didn't have those in my day. Oh, really? No. I wasn't taking Advil, I guess. I was taking chewable.

Those Flintstone vitamins, ding, ding, ding from last week. I was taking those. And they worked. They kept me healthy. But then I had to take some sort of pill, probably an antibiotic or something. And in my head, it was this big, you know, enormous. Well, relative to your head, it might have been. True.

Anyway, my parents were trying to help me in the. they were getting frustrated, obviously, because I, like, couldn't do it. Sure. And you needed to take it. I had to take it. And I don't, I think eventually, we probably cut it up into, like, teeny tiny pieces. Yeah. Made it dust of it.

Turn it into a milkshake. Mom. Yeah, we should have done that. Yeah. Why not? Mortar pestle. Yeah. Could have done that.

Anyway, so that was a hard day for me. I'm sorry that happened. I had wanted last week, I forgot to bring it up. but I had attended a concert that I wanted to talk about. That was quite special. Okay, let's hear about it. You know, I give, I attack social media so much. But I need to also acknowledge, I have discovered so many interesting things via Instagram.

Okay. One of them is Alfredo Rodriguez, who is a Cuban pianist. He makes these so exciting these songs he does. He'll do like thriller, but he puts it through the Latin, conversion. Yeah. So cool. And he'll just tackle. He did Star Wars as like what it would sound like if it had been written in Cuba. Yeah. And he's an insane piano player. And he's on stage with just a percussionist who he's been making music with for like 15 years. And these two are like they're sharing a brain. They're like the Ava brothers. Yeah. And this percussionist is only using his hands,

but he is making so much sound. He's got the bongos. He's got everything you could imagine. All And his story, which was so great, was he was living in Cuba and he got invited to this fancy jazz festival in Switzerland. Okay. And he went there and there was like all these legends there, like George Benson and all these different incredible people. So he plays piano on stage. And Quincy Jones is in the audience. He goes back to Cuba. Quincy Joan comes home and Quincy Jones calls his manager and he said, I just saw the best pianist of this generation.

I have to work with him. You've got to figure out how I can work with him. So this management team spends the next few months trying to find him. He's in Cuba 18 years ago. Yeah. Not the easiest time. They start this process of trying to get him to be able to come record. He ends up having to go to Mexico in defect and come over the border.

And he then starts working with Quincy Jones. Oh, that's so cool. Nonstop. Does three albums. with Quincy Jones. They become like, you know, mentory, mentee. It's so beautiful. I love that.

He's now a citizen. He lives in Miami. He's got a family. It's just a wonderful story. I love that. And I've never seen someone play the piano with this kind of speed and pizzazz. I mean, it's kind of mind bending to watch someone play like that. That's fun.

So I encourage everyone if you could see Alfredo Rodriguez. I know that they're having a jazz festival in Miami right now. I think. And I think John Batisse is also playing at that festival. I want to go so bad, but I was just there on the damn flight. I really still have my complaints about the length of the flight. Okay. It's too long.

Okay. So three-day commitment to go see anything. Okay. So yeah, check him out. Yeah, that's awesome. We also, we went to another, I guess we're already now because we went to a play, a theater play. Oh, we did. We did.

We went to a theater production, a musical. Three months later that Kristen was in. started and it was great. It was so great. It was impossibly good given the fact that those people had come together a couple weeks before. To do rehearsals and stuff. Start from scratch.

It was so, so funny and sweet and great. Life affirming. I loved it. Yeah. I loved it. And it was extra fun for me. Because? It was a lot of worlds colliding for me.

Okay. Obviously, Kristen. And then two very wonderful people who wrote the play. are you CBP. Oh, you knew them. Yes. I thought they were terrific. Not only had they written this incredible thing, but they as performers were fantastic.

Yes. And one of my very good friends who I did improv with, we were on an improv team together, Zique was in it as well. Which one was he? He played the flight attendant, the co-pilot. Oh, okay, wonderful. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I met him, the tall gentleman. He's fantastic and he was so good in it. And it was so fun because I hadn't seen him in so long.

And it's one of those really fun things where, like, you know, in this world, like you, especially in the comedy world, you have these people and these teams and you're around them nonstop and they're your family. And you're making things together. and it's like such a beautiful time. And then your life, sometimes your life goes into another direction as mine did. And I don't see any of those people anymore. And it, it was so like, it made me feel so happy to see him up there. Warm and fuzzy.

It made me for warm and fuzzy. And we were talking after the show and he said rightly, he was like, I feel like that team was, he was like, I just have such strong memories of practicing. at your house in my apartment. It was like right before we all sort of became adults. Like we were adults, but like everyone's lives started taking off right after that. And so it's kind of like the last phase of innocence. Okay.

Now I want to take this moment to discuss something that I think was potentially awkward that we haven't debriefed on. Oh, okay. And this likely was all from my own perspective, and I imagined all this. Okay. But here's what happened. We're watching this play. Three of the characters are gamers.

They're young boys and they're gamers. So funny. And they have matching outfits and they're in a gaming troupe and whatever. Mind you, I've not seen the play. I have no idea. I'm seeing it for the very first time. But these three boys start dancing and singing and it's so adorable. I just have this moment where I'm certain this is going to be making you.

smile so much. Oh. I'm thinking like she must love these boys right now. And so I turn around and you were with our whole pot. Yeah. And so I turn around and I look at you directly to see if like I'm right. Like are you are you just to be smiling ear to ear watching these boys being expressive and dancing and singing. Yeah. I did love it. Yeah. But it's very obvious. I turn around and I look at you and then you like you look at me and you're just like, I'm sure you're like, was he, do you remember this moment? No. Oh my God. Okay. Not at all. Well, then I see like, I see Molly and Eric and then they've seen me turn around and like lock eyes with you. And then I turn back around.

You weren't smiling ear to something. Oh, she's not as tickled by these boys as I was thinking she was going to. You are. You just weren't showing it. That's not the point. Don't even worry. That has nothing to do with where I'm going with the story. Okay.

Okay. So I made this big show of turning around and everyone's behind me. So they just saw me turn around and like lock eyes with you. And then then the song takes off right after that moment. And the whole song is about them loving. double D's and the princess with big titties. And the whole song becomes about tities and double D's. And then I started panicking thinking, does everyone just see that when I turned around

and stared at Monica, they think I've already seen this? Oh my God. You're sitting your head. No one thought that. I don't think. You can see the math of that, no? I guess. Like, hey, Monica, check this out.

And then the whole song right after I do that turns into a whole song about double D's. Well, that is something you would do. Well, I don't think I wouldn't. You literally said double D's last week on the fact check. Because you had what, ADHD? What was the thing? I don't remember, but you said it. I didn't say that.

I just said there was double D in the acronym. It was the meth medicine, right? What was it? The medicine you were taking in the meth. You're in two doses, double D. Yes. Is that what it was? Maybe.

And then you said, are you conflating it? Yeah, you made a reference to my boobs. You do this. We do this. So I don't. Well, anyways, I felt really pervy all of a sudden. I guess let's say this. If I turned around like, oh, Monica, look, they're about to sing about big boobs.

That's not me. Right. Okay. I'm pervy. Whatever the line is, that's not me. I'm not turning around like, oh, Monica, they're about to sing about boobs. That's crazy. I wouldn't do that.

You don't do that noise, but. But that was what I was afraid the vibe all of a sudden ones were like, oh, my God, do they think. I don't think that. But I was just turned around to see like, oh, my God. I bet she loves these cute boys, Nancy. I did. You were right.

But then they immediately were letting a rip about boobs. And I'm like, oh, boy, they think. I don't think. Monica. Yeah, I don't think anyone thought that. Is that why you kept looking at your kids, too? Because you were, like, trying to, like, combat it. Like, I'm not a purve.

I'm here with my sweet children. Of course not. I was looking at my kids to see how excited they were. Their mom was so cute. Yeah, yeah. That was really cute. They had friends with them, the girls. Yeah.

I was just trying to imagine us if if I was. 12 and I took Aaron and my dad was like to make it one for one and be like if my dad was doing backflips on motorcycles like they're all into musical theater and their mom is like crushing it on stage and I was like I wonder if they're feeling pride for their mom. God I hope so I hope so yeah that's what I was trying to check in on yeah I love it yeah Delta had too much on her plate probably she was on the crew she was on the crew so she was all stressed out she was She worked so hard. Shout out to D. Money.

She did costumes. She was an usher. She filled in for some of the cast members when they weren't there. She was a PA and called everyone to set. She worked at least 45 hours last week on that play. She said that she gave actors notes. She saw every single rehearsal. And then she would film the whole show on her iPad and then come home after the show.

She's been at the theater at that point for eight hours that day. Right. watch the entire show all over again and take notes. Wow. And she had of her 20 or 30 notes over the course of the five shows, 10 of them were legit and got implemented. That's good. Yeah, she's like, I don't think the mics are on for the boys when they say this line.

It's a funnier line in rehearsal. It's not landing here. I don't think the mics are on it. And they weren't. Oh, weird. Well, good for her. I love that. I love that.

She's an industrious gal. Oh, I was so proud of her. And she. I couldn't have been proud. I waited, you know, I requested her as my usher. Uh-huh. I had to wait because she has a lot, she had a lot to do. Yeah.

And yeah, it was very, very, very cute. And hopefully they'd do more. I hope they'd do more. And I hope more people can see it because it was very cute. Me too. And sweet and funny. Yeah. And to remind people, musical theater, not my fave.

Not your fave, not my fave. Not my fave, but it was great. It was great. It was so entertaining. Yeah. And of course, seeing Kristen Singh is always so fun. Yeah, she's so good. You know what I was thinking of?

I had so many waves of happiness for her, which was like, A, she looked 12 years old. Well, part of the character, she was wearing a wig with bangs, and she does look so young. She looks so young, but her spirit was like, she was on a stage playing. Yeah, she's having the best time. She could not do that ever again. She could just act in movies and get paid a lot and acting TV shows. But she's doing this thing for free. Yeah, that she loves.

I'm watching how happy it makes her. And I was like, oh, she did it. She has held on to being 12. Like she has, she has protected this part of herself that's from childhood and still getting to do it. Yeah, very pure. It's so pure. Yeah, it's beautiful. So I had that round of happiness for.

And then I was looking around. And there were just so many people that had come that are friends of hers. And people she's worked with. Yes. And I was like, look at this group of people that love her. It's great. Oh, I was so happy for her. Yeah, it was beautiful.

Yeah. Well, great show. Three months later, check it out if you can. If it comes to your city. Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare. I fell down yesterday. Had a big tumble. So who would have thought moving so close.

Yeah. Who would have thought moving much closer to work would up your danger? Yeah. Yeah. Explain it to me because when you explain it to me, it's felt like absent of a banana peel, what you described couldn't have happened. I don't know what's happening.

It's a downhill. It's a downhill. I'm in these shoes, loafers for people who aren't watching. and my front foot just goes straight out, slips and just goes straight out. And it's also kind of slow. Like, I like know it's happening. I now know what's going on. Yeah, you were going downhill steep enough that you're putting your front foot out.

Yeah, my foot is out. It's the opposite of walking in essence. You're lowering yourself down the hill. Exactly. And so you put one foot out and put all your weight on it and it lost traction. And then you hit the fucking deck. That now makes sense. I guess.

I was underestimating the decline of it all. I think it might have to do at the slippery bottom. Is there a slippery? Does it look slippery? Sure, it's not a great shoe, but I think had you been just walking forward, you would have like spun out as you, as you tried to accelerate off your back foot. It would have spun out. But you're landing with all your weight to decelerate.

And so if you lose that footing, out you go. Yeah, but it was like slow enough that I knew I was falling, which was weird. We got bored in the middle of that. I was like, why am I falling? Why? Why? And by then, my, I scraped my knee like a little kid and broke my jeans. You ripped a hole in your jeans. I did. I ripped a hole in my jeans and I had a teeny bit of blood. A scrape. It was a scrape. I still, that part's still a mystery to me. So I understand the physics of putting your weight down. That slips out. Or I guess maybe then the knee that didn't slip is the one that ripped. Yeah. Okay. So then you went right down on your knee. Yes. And I just felt. I think I had you only way far. pounds. They could have shattered my patella at 200 pounds. I felt like such a child. It was really,

and you know how I am with embarrassment. Yeah. I, of course, you know, I pop up so fast and I'm looking around to make sure nobody's seen this. And you kind of, and you laugh. You always have to laugh, even if no one's there. You laugh. Like I, I, that was so fun. That's really funny. I'm fine. I'm fine. And, but really on the inside tears are bubbling up. Out of embarrassment. Yeah. And being like, why, how am I this age and I'm a child still?

It's vulnerable to fall. Yeah, it was so vulnerable. Yeah. I hated it. Well, I saw you in the driveway and you were like, I fell. And I was like, okay, well, that's not a whoop. Then I saw that your knee was torn. And then I did, I felt bad for you.

I said, oh, I'm sorry, buddy. Okay, this is the difference between. mothers and fathers. First, I walk straight into the house and Anna and Kristen are there like doing some designs. Uh-huh. And I walk straight in and I walk up and I said, I fell down. And I fell down and I scrape my knee like a little five-year-old.

And Kristen says, oh, no. You know, she immediately is like, oh, no. And she was like, well, what are those jeans? She liked my jeans. And she was distracted for a second by my cute jeans. Sure, the loss of the jeans. Yeah. I was like, they ripped.

She was like, well, that's okay. And then she got out the tied stain stick. And she was helping my pants. And that was all very nurturing. And then I walked around aimlessly for a little bit. So you're trying to gather yourself. Yeah. And then I ran into you coming out of the gym.

And you were like, don't go up in my clubhouse. Yeah. And then I was like, like, I fell. Yeah. And then you kind of laughed. And then you said, oh, your pants are ripped. Oh, you did fall.

As if I was like lying or something. No, just a fall. I understand. A fall could mean so many things. There's bad falls and there's inconsequential falls. And you were kind of peppy when you were telling me. So I was like, well, she didn't fall off her roof. No, no, no.

It actually wasn't inconsequential. fall. It just, it just felt like a, I just felt so childish. Sometimes I fall, I've fallen. Sometimes you take a fall, but it's an adult fall. Right. This one was not. This is a silly fall. This is a silly childish fall. And I felt like a kid and I had to tell my parents that I had fallen down. No, my parents, my two-pics. You even called your folks afterwards. My mom would be like, Did you even go on an X-ray? Yeah, exactly. No, did you clean it?

Makes you cleaned it. Yeah. I asked if you tore the skin. Yeah, you said, is it bleeding? Yesterday was a weird day in the atmosphere. Okay. Because I fell. And then Anna fell too later.

Really? She fell over like Mona or something. In same situation. She tore her knee? Yeah, she hurt her knee. Wow. And then we were walking later. and she got pooped on by a bird.

Whoa. Yeah. Yikes. It was yikes. And then Mona started to eat a condom. Me too. I've been pooped on and I hate it. And I didn't want to make like two.

Of course I was like, oh no. Do you get out your tides stick? But I, no. You need a napkin. I'm not giving the tides stick for that. Yeah, you should just keep it. You just keep it. Oh, no, keep it.

Keep it. You'll want to use it later. Yeah, you need to. You need paper towel. You know, it was, you need paper towel or a cloth. Or really, I was like, I said, do you have another shirt? Like, for me, I'm like, you throw that shirt in the garbage. That shirt's done.

But she just cleaned it in the bathroom. But I, you know, there's ways to handle things in life. And I'm often impressed by people, you know, because I was like, in my head, I was like, this is disgust. Like this. To me, I was like, oh, my God. is disgusting. This is horrible. It looked really disgusting. Yeah. And it was on her shoulder. And it was a white t-shirt. Oh, fuck. And it's brown at first, right? Like it turns white, but it comes out.

It was brownie green. It was diarrhea. Oof. They only diarrhea. I know. They don't have solid boobs. Oops. So I. I guess they're eating cigarette butts and stuff. Ew. Ew. Yeah. Think about what they're eating. And so I, yeah, I was like, well, I tried to put a positive spin on it. I was like, oh, no. I was like, well, you know, they do say that's good luck. That's right. And I think they do. They do. Okay.

Yeah. What else are they going to say? Exactly. She said or bad luck. I said, no, they don't say that. They say it's good luck. I know what's funny is it's clearly, objectively bad luck. You got shit on.

Yeah, yeah. It's never good luck to get shit on. But we say so. Well, yeah, positive spins. So, so anyway, but I just knew if it was me, I would have, it would have ruined my, you know, I was like, I fell and this happens. Yeah. What kind of day is this?

This hurt my feelings. Yeah. I was sensitive. I was sensitive. But she was just like, like she was just a little annoyed by it. She didn't let it get her. She grew up in Venezuela. You know, she has a different beginning.

You're right. Yeah. And Mona then was starting to eat a condom on the street. And I was like, we got, what is happening? Where were you guys at? Venice? No, right here. Oh, okay.

Fuck, there was a used condom on the ground. Yeah. There was some tents at it pop. up. They're probably gone by today. I'm shocked they're using safe sex. That's, that's incredible. It's true. Yeah, I guess we should be happy. It's true. Speaking of health. Okay, health update. I'm a little worried and I don't ever get worried. Not about my health. Not about my health. Tell me. I make a lot of jokes about smoking and stuff. Sure. I don't like smoking's coming back. Smoking seems to be coming back. I know. I know. You got to be careful what you're saying.

And I was thinking about like how it's so predictable. We suffer from the absence of, problems. So like polio. Like for anyone who grew up in the 30s and 40s, you saw tons of kids in wheelchairs and with crutches and huge deformities. So when they came out with a vaccine for polio, people were like, yes, 100% of people were like absolutely. But then it got eradicated. Exactly. And now you have knuckleheads that are like, no, I'm not going to get a polio vaccine. It's like because you haven't seen it. I know. You don't know how bad. want to fucking see it. Exactly. Same with measles. I think what's unfortunate right now is like we were growing up, people were dying a cancer left and right. My dad died of lung cancer. You're seeing people

fucking, you know, and now that it's curbed a bit, I don't think people realize like, how bad it is. You can't get lung cancer, man. And you will. Yeah, I mean, yeah. If you are smoking cigarette. High likelihood. Yeah. It's not one of those like, roll the dice. Like if you're smoking enough, you're getting it. Yeah, it's not like drinking. Exactly. Yeah. God.

So anyways, I just wish people would choose. I'm pro nicotine. Pick another delivery device. Ding, ding, ding. That's going to be a fat. Oh, okay. I get one your nicotine. Let's get your nicotine.

But there's better delivery device. And not a good source. And vaping too. Don't do that either. I'm glad you said that because you're a smoker. Mm-hmm. And I. A cool one, too.

And I, you know, notoriously, I've never smoked a cigarette. So I feel a little like I can't say that. You're not in a position. But actually, I kind of am in a position. I'm like, guys, it's actually not that hard to just not do it. It's not. Yeah, I started noticing, like, I think whereas people, like, they smoke for sure, but they did, they would never post a picture of themselves smoking.

Yeah, I know. And now I see it has so many posts with people buying a darts. No, people, it's back. Like, people think it's cool. I get it. I get it. I get it. It looks cool.

It looks cool. Yeah, sexy. On TV. Until you kiss someone and you can taste the cigarette. That's what I'm like, guys, in practice, that's my campaign. Oh, that's a good one. Pick kissing. That's it.

It's just called pick kissing. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Pick kissing. APK, always pick kissing. No, you don't like. More than we need.

Just pick kissing. Okay. Yeah, I just, in practice, it's not the same as how it looks. Yeah. And you guys are all coughing and stuff and like making those noises. And it's like, it's not cute. Can you even imagine when I sounded like when I smoked? No.

I would have these fucking fits. I didn't want to ask because it sounds. You can hear me coughing from your house? I feel like that. I thought that was inevitable. I mean, I hope one day I do. You will. Because I'm out in the yard, like, I was changing all the wheels on the razor.

Oh, yeah. And I was out there. And I had a couple moments to clear my throat. And I was like, if Monica's windows open, I bet she heard that. Yeah. No, I haven't. But I do wonder when you're acting for long periods of time. Like, you have a handle on not doing that.

For three minutes. Yeah. And then do you, is it like right when they call cut you clear? Well, I clear before I start. Okay. And then, yeah, likely. Yeah, in between. I get going a little bit on some cleanup.

Because sometimes we're sitting here, you know, and I'm like, it probably depends on if I'm like PMSing or something. Yeah, sure. Just how you feel about me in general, probably. And I'm like, why, like, I know when he's acting, he doesn't do this. Yeah, and if our show was three minutes long, you would never experience it. I guess that's what I'm asking. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. And, like, you know, you know how old the older men. And we have respiratory things. Yeah. And you have like digestion. So like all of you older men are starting are like burping. You're burping a lot. Okay.

You're burping through your talking. Oh, sure, sure. And it's a common thing that men are doing. And, um, and I, because we don't cry. We're keeping. It's like burbling out. Yeah.

It's like just, okay. Yeah. Just cry. You know, just cry. That's a good. I have a great story. Funny enough. Okay.

Well, anyway, I just. Sometimes when you're burping through your talks and when you're throat clearing, I think, like, is he doing this to me? Like, is this about me? Because, I mean, you know, that's if I'm really angry. Okay. Because I know he's not on set with,

I don't know if we're allowed to say, with on set. And he's like burping through his talking. He's not. I know he's not. I mean, you're, You are ignoring so many factors. It's crazy.

Our duration together. The fact that like I research for two and a half hours and then I quickly eat so that I don't have, I don't have to eat for the next three hours. We're recording. The food part. So it's like I leave myself six minutes to eat my full calories for the first half of the day. So like I pound that oatmeal. And then I come in here and I'm dealing with that for the first 10 minutes. I guess I didn't really think about the food.

That is interesting. Yeah, you see me right before. Every time right before we eat, I have pushed off eating right to the moment before we are. I'm always finishing my own meal right before we start. Well, I would say just don't eat, but that's not a good, that's not a good solution. And I didn't eat today.

And my stomach was growling during the interview, and I did. I was getting so self-conscious. And you have a headache. And I have a- so. And you're mad about my throat clearing just today. It's not a good solution.

Listen, it's not a good solution. Okay. Go ahead. Keep burping. All right. It's fine. Burbing, farting, coughing. Just do what you need to do.

I'm doing the best I can do. I know. Well. I will say this. I have recently, and I just hate this observation, which is it's considerably worse when I eat cheese. And I fucking hate that. No.

Oh. I don't think my burbbing is as big of a deal as you do. Or at least I'm not concerned about it. I don't think you're noticing it. Okay. My coughing is very disruptive to everyone in the house. Okay. You can hear it throughout the house.

You can't hear it throughout the house. burped to myself in my bathroom. Yeah. It's just when we're on video, you know. Yeah. Um, so I have sadly cut out cheese. Well, I've acknowledged, oh yeah, if I eat pizza, it's, I'm a mess the next day with my chest. Right. So I have been trying to not eat cheese and I'm like, guys. What is a life without Truly, what are we, why are we doing this? Well, can't you just cough? I mean, everyone's used to it. I mean, I'm aiming higher for myself, but I don't enjoy coughing.

I hate having stuff in my lungs. I hate it. Yeah. I understand, but do you hate it more than you love cheese? I think more and more I'm circling an idea of perhaps fucking quitting dairy. God, you keep adding things to quit. I've just heard about my throat clearing from you. No, it's not the throat clearing so much as the burping.

Okay, this is all new. That's not what you've been complaining about over the years. I promise it's been a thing I've been not wanting to tell you. Great, but for how many months? Like a long time. Since video, since video. I never noticed it. I never noticed it before.

I'm pretty good at keeping it inaudible. You never hear me burp. You never hear it. Well, no, you do, but not in the, no. not in when we're interviewing, but you often burp loudly just for fun, but not during the interview at all. It's very, it's inaudible, but you can see it. And so I am always cutting around it.

Yeah. And that can get complex. Okay. You know, I'm just telling you, but I want you to eat cheese. Well, I don't think I can, unless I want to deal with. Coughing. Yeah. I was like, how long can I be coughing before I get cancer?

I mean, the whole point of getting lung cancer is because you're putting all this shit in your lungs and then you're irritating them, you're coughing a lot, and then you have a ton of cell division, and then you have mutation, and that's why you get it? So I'm like, just because I'm not putting that shit in there, I'm certainly still doing all the disruptive, I'm sure I'm damaging my lungs, getting the stuff out. And then I don't want an uptick in my odds of getting lung cancer. So I got to quit eating cheese. Okay. See you when I'm dead. I've had to knock this whole episode. Okay, now what's the story you wanted to tell? I was just on that crying.

So we had a very, very, very sweet meeting last night. About Eric. And kind of in memory of our friend. Yeah. And we don't ever have women at the meeting. It's a stag meeting. And a woman joined. And the woman was awesome.

She goes, I don't know how all of you got through your shares without crying. But I'm going to be crying through my entire share. And I'm going to cry for all of you. And we were like, well, thank you. Oh, someone needs to. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, it was really great. Oh, man, sad.

Really sad. Okay, let's do some facts. Okay. On Marcus. Yes. God, that song. I can't believe we got to hear it. It was so good.

He blasted us right through the bookshelf. I loved it. I really loved it. Yeah. The whole album is so good. I loved him. I loved him too. Very charming.

shake when they were really popular. Because I was surrounded by some people that I was judgmental of who were obsessed with it. And it prevented me from giving him a fair shake. And I really regret that. Yeah. And I fell in love Mumford and sons. Well, they're so good. Yeah.

They're objectively great. Yes, huge, huge band. So I didn't even deserve to get that performance we got, but I am now a lifetime fan. Yeah. Okay. Did Juno Temple go to Bidale's school or Bidale? or whatever. Um,

yes. Yes. Yes. She attended, well, she attended Nmore Primary School, boarded at King's College,

and later completed her A levels at B'dale's school. Hmm. Or Bedales. Or Badaales. So he nailed that. Okay. Ding ding ding.

Nicotine is not bad for you. Comes up in the episode. There's, you know, yes, nicotine is not the part that gives you cancer. Yep.

We all know that. Well, maybe we don't all know that, but it is not the part that gives you cancer. But it can have some negative side effects. It also has some positive side effects. Benefits. Increase levels of alertness. Euphoria and relaxation. Improved concentration and memory due to increased activity of the...

Oh. Paribalthalamus. No. Two neurotransmitters. Reduced anxiety due to the increased levels of beta endorphin, which reduced. is anxiety. Okay, so those are good things. It says it can cause bad dreams and nightmares,

possible blood restriction, irregular and disturbed sleep, dizziness and lightheadedness. That's not for everyone, obviously. There can be some gastrointestinal, Bing, Bing, Bing. Side effects. Dairia.

Don't have it. Heart. You have it. No, I haven't had it since I quit gluten. I don't ever have diarrhea anymore. You sometimes have it. I've had diarrhea probably, honestly, without having the flu.

Right. I've had it probably three times or four times in the last two years. Okay. I mean, it totally, you know this update. I've shared this. I had it five days a week when I ate gluten and now I don't ever have it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Heartburn. Peptic. Pulcers, indigestion. None of these for me. Dry mouth, nausea, and vomiting. You don't have that. Side effects on the heart. Increased blood pressure, enlarged aorta,

altered heart rate and rhythm. Those are potentials. It's person to person for that, those things, and what you already are dealing with, what you already have. But it's good for you. It's working great. And for him, I think, he likes it as well.

Oh, does Letterman play the drums? Does not play drums professionally, but he is a well-known enthusiast who has played on air and famously admired, questioned, and tried to buy drum kits from his musical guests. He held Drum Week on the late show and has appeared in videos playing with professional drummers like Anton Figg.

Okay, now, got a great answer for why these musicians blow into the water bottle with the straw. Oh, great. Yeah, he was doing that. That was the first time we had seen that. But I saw it on the Taylor Dock. And I was like, what is that? What is she doing?

Singers blow into a water bottle with the straw, a technique called straw phonation or SOVT, semi-ocluded vocal tract exercise, to warm up, rehabilitate and strengthen their voices by creating back pressure that reduces vocal strain. This gentle therapeutic exercise helps relax the larynx, improves breathing, and massages the vocal cords to reduce fatigue. I thought it was like adding humidity to it.

I was way off. Maybe you could try it before an interview. To see if I don't burp? Well, let's just see what it does. Oh, okay. I mean, maybe you'll feel like so like maybe it'll fix your coughing. I'm blessed in that I have yet to really feel any vocal fatigue. Even though we do have days where we'll talk for six hours straight.

Yeah. But I have yet to. I'll lose my voice when I'm with Aaron and like screaming a lot. But other than that, I'm pretty good. That's probably because you're not breathing through your diaphragm. Probably do a lot of stuff wrong. Just screaming for too long. It's not.

Yeah. Yeah. Your child was screaming in the backyard. And you texted me. Can you hear them when I could? Yeah. And then you. Screaming with joy, I'll add.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, not screaming with terror. Her and an old friend, we're having a lot of fun back there. She has a friend. They'd like to do some screaming together. And you said you could relate.

Yeah. We didn't scream, but I can relate. I can relate a lot, yeah. Watching her and her friend together remind me a lot of Aaron and I. Watching her and her friend together, which they're such a cute duo. They are. So cute. Remind me that I used to be so hyper when I was like that age with my friend.

Yeah. And that was like a quality assigned to me. I was hyper. And I like can't relate to that girl anymore. Right. You're not hyper. At all. I know.

You should drive your grandma crazy, right? Yeah. And I would lick her arm. Yeah. Impulse control. Yeah. And just like run around and be crazy. I would just be crazy and bounce around.

Wow. I know that I grew out of that. Hmm. But it's cute to see. I know. It's shocking to me. They're not exhausted after they've been together for two days. But they're not.

No. It gives you energy. Yes, it energizes. Yes, yes, yes. The thing that I relate to is that they are, the rest of the world has melted away. I know. It has fallen away completely. And I'm, I just, I'm so happy for her for that feeling.

There's nothing quite like when you have your little soulmate. And there's like nothing else is relevant. It's the best. It is the best. I know. They're so, they're, they're, I'm so happy to have each other. My ears sometimes. Well, you know.

Again, cost benefit. All right. Love you.