Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

On this week's episode of Artist Friendly, Joel Madden is joined by Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World. Earlier this year, Jimmy Eat World unveiled the 25th anniversary tour of Bleed American — a landmark album that wrapped their sophisticated, heartfelt storytelling in giant hooks and polished production. Before their headlining run kicks off next week, the frontman stopped by the Artist Friendly studio to discuss the right way to finish a song, growing up in the ’90s, and their ability to fit anywhere. “I don’t know how, but we’ve definitely done tours where it’s like nine ska bands and us or eight hardcore bands and us,” Adkins tells Madden. “Somehow we don’t get chased out of the room.” ------- Listen to their Artist Friendly conversation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------- Follow Artist Friendly! IG: @artist.friendly TikTok: @artist.friendly YouTube: youtube.com/@artist.friendly ------- Host: Joel Madden, @joelmadden Executive Producers: Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Jillian King Producers: Janice Leary, Josh Madden, Joey Simmrin Director/Visual Producer/Editor: Ryan Schaefer Audio Producer/Composer: Nick Gray Music/Theme Composer: Nick Gray Cover Art/Design: Ryan Schaefer Additional Contributors: Anna Zanes, Neville Hardman ------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Good Charlotte. Good Charlotte is a band I started when I was 16 with my brother, and it is the reason I'm sitting here today. Thank you, Good Charlotte. We're going on tour. June 20th, San Diego County Fair, Delmar, California. And July 25th through August 30th, Good Charlotte and Avenged Sevenfold touring in the U.S. Starting July 25th, Thunder Ridge Nature Arena in Ridgedale, Missouri, an ending at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, California on August 30th. If you are in the UK or Europe, we're coming to you this

November. November 8th, we are in Stockholm, Sweden. November 11th, we're in Munich, Germany. November 13th, we're in Brussels, Belgium. November 14th, Dusseldorf, Germany. In November 16th, we're in Amsterdam. November 17th, Paris, France. November 19th, London, UK. November 20th, Manchester, UK. Tickets are on sale now. We will see you at the show. The creative puzzle you got to solve to create like a song is not dissimilar from like just the fundamentals of that apply to all of life. The life. You don't know why, but like you just, you chase the thing you're excited about.

And sometimes that ends up coming home with a bunch of stuff with like an extra bag of vinyl toys. Yeah. Is any of this like fan donated or is no no fan stuff that I could think of But and maybe some of it but just cool shit that's I picked up over it's kind of like at our studio We just have like the the fan or sometimes like a music venue will give you something of appreciation Lots of that stuff. Yeah, it goes in our in our studio. Yeah we have that stuff all around the building Yeah like you know you got like you sold out this thing and they give you this little thing. You did at the of the tour they gave you this thing or you know the promoter give they're cool actually yeah no i mean like it's usually like a local artist person that they're bros with took some time yep like did this

piece and they're giving it to you and like you don't know how you're going to actually get it home but like it's it's now yours i thought i was the only one that got that stuff we got it we got it's not all the time yeah yeah it's nice it's actually really nice i think that like artists maybe Maybe, this is just what I think, maybe like I personally like things that feel like trophies because I didn't get any trophies growing up. I just didn't, I wasn't like an athlete and I didn't have trophies is a thing. Like it's actually meaningless, but it isn't because you accomplish something and you got a trophy for it.

You want to keep it so you look back and remember it? Or like what's the thing in that moment? I think it feels like a little bit of an accomplishment. Like it represents the accomplishment. you're being seen in that moment for the thing that you struggled to overcome. Yeah. Yeah. No, it is cool.

It's certainly cool. Like when we got our first gold record. Yeah. It was a huge deal. Big deal. It was a huge deal because it just like so much about that time was unreal. Yeah. And then they're handing you this thing and it's like, who am I right now?

What is this? Yeah. It took a minute for it to sink in that like this actually happened. It's a huge deal though. when you think about like, it's more likely for someone to become a pro athlete or even like an astronaut than get a gold record or a platinum record. Especially now. Yeah.

It's actually like so hard to make some art or, you know, some creative product, however you want to, whatever you want to call it. I call it art. And then the world consumes it in a way that a large enough people, you know, some creative product. have agreed that it's good and all consumed it where it amasses a million copies right now, whatever those metrics are. It's actually like pretty unachievable. The fact that that many people found something that they connect with and what you're doing and decided they were going to pay their money to own it forever is like the hugest compliment you can get. Yeah, huge compliment. So my perception of you guys always was, so my perception of you guys always was,

well, I was always a fan. I think you know that. Like we've always, we've always seen each other around over the years and it was always been nice. But we were always fans of your music. But I always felt like you guys had a very grounded kind of approach to that side of it. I can sit outside as a music fan And because I'm in a band, I get a little, I have an understanding of both sides, but I'm truly a fan. So I get to look from both angles. And I see your band and you guys are cool. You're agreed on as a, I think, one of the forefather bands of a kind of genre and time in music. And also your records were super cool.

And like it tended to be that like really cool people, like all the people that I knew that got The people that got me into Jimmy World were cool people that I respected their taste. Thanks. And you had also, but you also had mainstream big success. It's not, you can't argue with that. It's like you had like big songs, big records. As a band, you're a big band. You play show, like you've had a long career of succeeding at a high level in this space that like you came from.

from was mostly like it's garage music, it's bands. It's mostly small stuff, you know what I mean? And you emerged to a global kind of place as a band. And you seemed always to handle it in a very kind of grounded, balanced, no nonsense kind of way. I think we're really fortunate in like the things that, I mean, this is my high school band. Right. The things that we started in high school.

Yeah. Same guys. This band is my high school band. The things that we learned early on, like in that formative years as a band, as people, we were really lucky in the sense that those things that were our foundation coincided with what you, I feel you need to have like a long, dare I say, career in this thing. Yeah. Where, you know, like I said, no one has the magic formula to hit the nail on the head every time

for commercial success. So what can you do? What is what's in your control? I can be proud of the thing I put my name on. I can feel like I'm doing the best work I can given what I know about how to make music and my physical abilities, limitations in actually doing that. That's what I can do. Everything beyond that is like totally not up to me, you know, kind of filtering everything through that lens is you end up making a pretty good decision. when you're faced with a choice. Yeah, you make a good, to me, success and anything is like one good decision at a time, right? Yeah. And also I would say what I see from getting a front row seat, some bands can get in their own way, right? They can be unpleasant to deal with, right? So it's true.

It's like, and they're like, after enough times of that, you're like, I don't know if we want to deal with them or I don't know if. Well, you keep the focus on why you doing this because it should be fun. Right. It should be rewarding. You should be challenging yourself in a way that the challenge brings a reward. Yeah. And, you know, that also means like in that you, you, there's a respect for everybody in the, in the process. Yeah.

You might have really passionate disagreements about a direction of something, but you've got to realize they're all fighting for the same thing. They're coming at it passionately for maybe different areas. I mean, that doesn't happen all the time, but like it might. But you got to realize, like, you're arguing with me right now because you're on the same team and you're trying to make this better. Yeah. Like that reduces all ego. You know, I need to have my cool part in the song because I thought it up and you're telling me like your cool parts better or like. Yeah, but it sounds to me like you guys have a very functional band.

I think so. I mean, we're still here. We're still here. Exactly. We're doing something, right? I don't know. Well, I was just going to say, so I was going to say to reinforce. the accomplishment that is Jimmy World. You guys started the band in what? 94. 94. Okay. So you started

in 94, 32 years ago, right? Think about that. Yeah. This is crazy. You still be together. Like a marriage, it's got to be functional, a functional relationship. Yeah. Because everything else wears off. You could have a hit record or you could have a this or that and then you don't. And then you can't again and then you don't. And then you can't again and then you don't. And at some point, that's not as shiny and exciting as doing something you, from my experience, you go full circle where you're like, back to, I just really want to make something that I love. I mean, this year is the 25th anniversary of our album, Bleed American, which is objectively are most successful in what most people consider success metrics. And when we made that,

it was all about us. Right. And what we want to do and what's exciting for us. And chasing the ideas we're excited about in the moment with no regard of of and is anyone going to like this no result are we going to no result what are we going to what label are we going to shop this for like what's our marketing plan you know how are we going to self promote nothing none of that it was like we have these songs we want to record where we we like them let's see if we can make them the best that we can be yeah and like as time goes on like what you're saying about like this like up and down of the trends are going to come and go. People's tastes are going to come to go. Like, the way people consume music is going to be drastically different over time too. Like, as that's something

new I didn't expect in the 90s to happen. But like, we've proven to ourselves that when we're focusing on that, like what we can control keeping things fun for us, it works in that other way. So it's like when you start thinking about like some imaginary demographic that's going to be hearing this thing and what they're going to think about it. Like you gotta say, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what has been really successful for us is honoring our ambition and goals and dreams. That's what works. It's like not chasing this thing, not making decisions about like the editing process of

creativity, like where, how you kind of tweak an idea. Like maybe we should make this more of a rock song, maybe. Why? Because it's exciting for you or because you're chasing like some imaginary listener. Right. It's not going to work. There's nothing or some result. Yeah, or some result.

Like there's nothing. I feel like the right people are going to connect with it. Not everybody will, but like people can hear when you're trying to be, it's like insulting. Yeah. Almost when you're like trying to chase their approval. It's like,

it's just a turn off. Oh yeah. Yeah, it's a young mistake, I think. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

It's kind of a young mistake. It's just like, yeah, chasing people's approval. it's a good way of putting it. 25 years of Bleed American. That record, I mean, it's on all kinds of lists of like the great records. It's a great record.

Well, thanks. And it deserves to be on those lists. It's a great record. And I remember when that record came out. It was fucking, that record is the shit, man. That record is great. Well, thanks. I mean, clarity is a great record.

That's a great record, too. What are the records that you would say you hear from fans the most? That's their favorites. It's all over the place. Yeah. I think people, it's usually the album that I think people connected with when they heard about us first. Right. There's definitely something special and elevated about like the material that you heard that got you into a group that other albums can't touch.

Yeah. It doesn't matter, you know. And that's different for everybody. There's just something special about that. Yeah. And for a lot of people, it was Bleed American. For some people's clarity, uh, features is like a big one. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just, yeah, it's kind of all over the place. Do you have a favorite? Do you have a favorite album? Yeah, like, do you have one that just, I don't know if I do either. Yeah, trying to, trying to rate or organize or put a sort. Your work is kind of, it's tough because like I, like, I know that I did the best job I could at each of those points in my life that we made those. And you can't beat yourself up over something that is like maybe now you would approach differently.

Yeah. Or you know more about something. Like I would, I feel like I connect the dots the best I could. every stage of my life when we made albums and recorded things. That's a great way of putting it. I do think as a musician, you're probably most excited about the thing you just did. Yeah. Like that's just sort of like a time.

When solving that puzzle, the creative puzzle is fresh, like you're stoked on it. Yeah, because I guess you wonder, like, I always go like, do I have anything else to say? And then I go in and I start trying to write. And then you dig and then you make something that you like. And it's a good feeling. And you want to, you know, it's like, that is the process. You're trying your best to get to the truth. You go in thinking like, what do I have to say?

For me, that's like the sure way to not have anything. Yeah, well, I just go like, what do I have to say or what am I interested in? Or what do I want to, what do I like? The question is, is like, what could I even make? Right. I guess like in the back of my head that I get short-circuited at that point because, like, it's what do I have to say? And then the parentheses that's good enough to say. Yeah, or like, what if it's nothing?

Like that trips me up every time because I got to remember it's not about like I said being good enough. It's just about working. And then like for me, it's just like vomiting up whatever comes out. And like it's a song. And then I go, what am I saying there? And then I'm like, oh, okay. It's like something really simple or something, whatever. But yeah, because I don't go in with any idea.

I just never go in with any ideas. That is funny like later on you kind of like, when you're working, it's like that you're enter that sort of like you have to both resist the temptation to put on the editing hat yeah like too early in the process or you'll you'll kill it whatever whatever it is you're trying to say you want to like be in the way of yourself as little as possible like when you're in that kind of like flow state of creativity you want to nudge it a little bit within the parameters that you the editor wants to keep it in and you can't use words to describe it in the moment it's just like I want to nudge it this way because it feels like it wants to be this type of thing

And then live for me goes hand in hand with it. So I find I need to make something I'm excited about because that's the only way I'll get back on stage. Yeah, I mean, that could be the way that you're sort of nudging it. Yeah. Like does it like I'm flowing. I'm working. I'm trying to like create this thing and I'm not trying to self-censor too much. But the nudge is, will this be fun to play?

Yeah. I want to make another moment. But like in the, but and then later on you kind of when you're thinking about it, after it exists, then you're sort of like, what was I trying to tell myself in that moment? And that kind of changes over time. Yeah. Kind of. You know, like, what was I trying to say?

Well, this thing I was just letting it go. I was trying to be free in the moment with no self-censoring. Like, what was I actually trying to say to myself? And it's like later on, you kind of like you as a listener almost later on kind of like connect with the thing you did. Yeah, more than at the time. I always go, oh, I actually understand more now what a song is about than I did when I wrote it. Yeah, that happens all the time for me. Like, I'm not too, there's, there's just like a, in the moment you sort of know, do I like this?

That's it. Does it feel good? Is there a fuck? Yeah. Yeah. That's happening with this thing I just did. Great. I think that's like to me when writing, it's something like a stream of consciousness.

Yes. I'm just like, uh, you know. And then. How's that again? Uh, and then, um, well. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, that's a lot. That's a lot of work. It sounds like.

And then I think how it feels is like my body responding to what's coming out, right? Right. So I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, this is fucking cool. And then we'll get to the other side of a song and then we'll finish it and I'll either just put it away or I'll listen to it or whatever and make some little changes. And then later, usually later on I get deeper into like, oh, I think this is about that. Yeah. So.

later on being the key part there yeah somewhere if you start too early like he won't finish the thing right later on so that's that's that's that's that's the trick for me man is like putting on the editing hat too early yeah can you overthink a little if you find yourself can i overthink a little do you overthink where else in your where else in your life do you overthink there's no chill in thinking ever no you're i don't actually like sleep i just like lay i just like like rest my body when my brain just runs. Really? Yeah.

What do you think that is? I have no idea. I have no idea. I don't know. Are you ADHD type of person? I don't know. I've never been tested for anything, but I'm sure that like... Did you go to college?

For about a year and a half. Okay. It's kind of funny. I felt like that was like the music thing was like I was passionate about it. What could I do that would be something I could support myself in the future? I thought, I'll do photography. Oh, wow. I'll do photography.

I'll do, but, but I, but like, so are you a, but being a fine art thing that I could ever make money doing that. I'll go, I'll be, I'll go into journalism. That's a good thing I dropped out to sleep on floors, right? Yeah, it's a tour in a van. Yeah, it was just funny. Like, the path I thought was safe was about to get decimated by the internet, you know? Yeah.

All of it. All of it. And now AI. Everybody, everybody, um, the people that I think are thriving right now. I try to tell my kids is, you know, like when they're worried about or thinking about about the future. How many kids do you have? I have three boys.

Oh, wow. Yeah, they're late teens, early 20s now. Oh, wow. Yeah. Teens is a circus, man. It's real. So they can do adult damage. They can make adult mistakes.

But they're a kid still. They think they're an adult. But they're a kid. They don't have experience. So when you try to tell them something, you're like, hey, I've been alive for 46 years. Listen to me. They don't understand. There's a big part of me that's still you.

Yeah. Right now in this moment. I know exactly what you're doing. Yes. I am still there a lot of the time. Yeah. The people that I know that are thriving now, like in their late, you know, in late 40s or like what they're doing, the entire industries didn't exist when I graduated high school. Yeah.

I know maybe two people in my, from, I can think of in my graduating class of knew what they wanted to do. went off got education to do it and are still doing it like one of them is like an architect right everybody everybody else is like wild west man that journey of whatever you think an adult should be is uh the wild west it's bullshit to think that there's and i say this for anyone listening because there's a lot of people listening or like figuring out their lives as we all are i'm currently doing that sitting across from you yeah all of us right me too whatever in this moment this year this day this month, whatever, I'm worried about right now, in a year from now on this day, in this moment, I'm not going to fucking remember likely what I was worried about. We tend to overthink, we tend

to overanalyze, we tend to over-stress, like chronically, I'd say, and focus on little details or little things when, to me, the zooming out and looking at the big picture and trying to go towards something is probably like the best way I can live is like point upwards and try to go towards things and worry as little as possible about like most of the details so that I don't get caught up. Like what you just described, entire industries have emerged in the last year, two, five, 10 that didn't exist. Everyone now just agrees that they're there because they're working in and they're making money and they're building lives. But five years ago, you would have been like scratching your head going like, what are you talking about?

That is what we always have to remember that is the way life works, the way the world works, is that there's always emerging possibility on the horizon and it'll never not be that way. There'll always be more things that emerge. The creative puzzle you've got to solve to create like a song is not dissimilar from like just the fundamentals of that apply to all of life. for life because it's like you need direction you need a goal you know but like I think a lot of the stuff that you're tripping out on yeah in the moment are usually not about the moment they're about they are about a year from now there's stuff that don't it doesn't exist yet now but you got to

you got to hold that balance of like you can't just like be so living in the moment that you have no plan yeah yes because like it's not that's not rewarding either like to the to you have no you know, you need some direction of how are you going to carry yourself into the future, but like you at every moment have to be paying attention to the data coming back from that effort. And adjusting and making. Yeah, because like what you, the, because it happens all the time in that solving that creative puzzle, you got to be willing to completely let go of that end thing based on what's coming back.

Like you might be trying to direct a song towards something that is. is you thought it was going to go one way. And then you had a cool idea somewhere in that process that took it a completely different way. And it's no longer about that at all. It's about where you took it. You know, like life is revealing itself to you as you pass through it. Yeah, the path unfolds. It's selling your future short to restrict it to the idea you had.

You know, the things that you thought you might value now. Like if you asked 20 year old you to make a list of, like what's important, what do you value, what do you, what do you hope to get out of this life thing, your list would look probably a lot different now. Absolutely. It would probably look a lot different in another 10 years too. Yeah. Like, but that's, even in five years. That's just like the, you got to like let let that go because that's part of it. You build something and then you turn around and you're like, oh my God, look where I'm at. I'm further than I was and I've done this and I've done that. And I think like it's the same as you could say with bands is when I say they get in

their own way. I said it earlier. They can get in their own way and stop themselves on the road instead of just like, which is why, you know, making albums is such a great what you're talking about. You got to have something to like look towards and go towards and dream about and try. That's a career. One at a time. One thing at a time. Then you turn around in 10 years and like, oh my God, look, we've done four records and we've had this and that happened. You don't plan on the moments that become the ones people maybe remember you for. or this song or that song or this. Those are the moments that happen

while you're going towards your goal of existing. I mean, time is going to pass and that's not up to you. Yeah. How it does. But those things I think apply to life. Yeah, sure. I mean, like it, I think what people refer to

as a comfort zone should be more like a fear zone. Yeah. Because you're comfortable in staying outside of, you know, fear, but that's really just the, unknown. And you got to remember that outside of, you know, people talk about like when their eyes light up and they get excited talking about like the life they have that's beyond their wildest imagination. Like, well, how did you get there? You went outside your imagination. Literally, that's how you got to there. You know, like that's where growth is. That's where the true like reward.

That's like you got to think about those things that come up that are going to take you out of that zone as adventure. Yeah. Instead of like something scary, you got to remember that there's always a reward waiting for you in that adventure place that's outside of like your, your safe zone, you know, that getting in your own way thing might be like that this is always worked or this is working. I'm going to keep doing this. Great.

Yeah. But like that's got to grow. I just think like you got to leave the doors, leaving the doors open for yourself in the future is like the only way that you can get to. But I don't know, just staying in that zone is just not, it's not rewarding for me. You know, I don't think you're going to burn out. You're going to get, you're just, you know, why, why stay there? You did this.

How have you kept yourself from like burnout? Or have there been moments where you felt burned out? I don't know. I mean, you just sort of, look it. Did you ever take any like time away, like, like long periods of time away? I don't think you ever really clock out of this thing. Yeah. If you're in it.

Yeah. It might not look like a tour. It might not look like you're actively making a record. It might not even look like the, you know, what what writing looks like could be drastically different. I think it presents itself to you as time moves on. You know, and I think there's definitely been moments where I've been more active in that. But in my back in my mind, I'm always kind of like open to the creative idea that comes

in. I've said it a couple times, but I feel like it just comes down to chasing the idea you're excited about. Yeah. And that fundamental principle is what's going to carry you into music is going to carry you into everything. So I don't look at it necessarily like I'm not doing music now. I'm chasing the idea I'm excited about that might look different as time goes on.

And it certainly has. Usually involves music somehow because that's how I, it's just me now, I think. Yeah. But like music or music related, you know, it's just about being excited about something and heading toward it. How have you managed touring, career, and family? The best I can. It's hard, right? It's hard. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I would do things differently. But if you could go back. Yeah. I mean, if you watch the game tape. I wouldn't know to do anything differently unless everything happened exactly the way it did. Yeah. So there's that. But if you could, knowing what you know now,

you could go back and move a couple of things around or change some things. I try not to, I try not to dwell too much on that because like that that only informs what I do now yeah and that's that's the practical way I feel the same way that's a practical way I can look at it like you'll you'll go crazy you'll live in regret I toured a lot in the first five six seven years of my kids lives and it was really hard at the time it was really hard and we did our best they would come sometimes and we would like but also my wife like grew up around touring and she didn't like it she she wasn't into it So I was tough. And if I could go back, I don't know what I could do different because I was doing everything.

Well, that's the thing. It's like you didn't, that's a first time it's landed in your lap. You don't know. You're learning as you go. But I regret. I don't know if the word is regret, but it makes me sad sometimes if I think too much about some stuff I missed. Oh, of course.

But it also does kind of help me enjoy what I haven't missed in this. when I decided like, you know what, I did it as much as I could until I couldn't. And then we took time off. We took time away. We changed some stuff, which was great. And now I do find that I savor things more. That is really the key to it, I think, is like the idea of savoring. Yeah.

You know, that's the best way I can describe it now. Like, that's what any wisdom. My age and experience has brought me is like now. It's easier to have gratitude for the things. for smaller and smaller things that come my way. Yeah. And it's easier to savor everything that comes by. I think I didn't let myself do that.

Huh. In those, in that's probably one of the things I would do differently, like about those. Because we, I mean, we lived on tour basically. Yeah,

you guys tore your asses off. We still do kind of. Yeah, you guys tour a lot. But the, especially in the rise of, of, of,

of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,

the insanity that that was coming from where we came from the unrealness of it all. Yeah. Like playing on Saturday Night Live. Like, what? Yeah. This is my life right now. Yeah.

Like, where do you put that as a kid? Where are you supposed to put that? Yeah. What you do is like it's not you, you, you sort of stuff it or you, you, you don't accept it. Yeah, you don't process it. It's not real. It's not real.

You don't, you certainly don't savor it because it's, it seems like something that could go away at the slightest, you know, it's, it's tough because I feel like some of the things we did make sense to me as like a almost a defensive mechanism like a coping mechanism like I'm not going to let this in because this is ridiculous I don't want to be disappointed I don't want to be disappointed this is ridiculous yeah we're just a fucking band and we just like loaded out a from someone's basement like a month ago and what we're doing what are we doing yeah you were you supposed to put that man like it you don't put it anywhere is what happens you don't really appreciate you don't appreciate it you don't savor it and that causes problems.

You don't hold it. You don't hold it. You don't hold it. And that's what I've learned because you don't want to be an asshole. You don't want to let it go to your head. You certainly don't want to have to count on it. But isn't that like an unfair idea that was put in our heads that it would go to our head? I don't know, man. I've seen a whole lot of lesser shit that we've had that went to some people's heads. Yeah, but it feels to me like it's programming. It's a little bit. It's not exactly wrong. but you got to couple that with like just a healthy way to accept it a healthy way to hold it and accept it and go oh this is cool like playing saturday night live this is fucking awesome man like

and kind of find the middle is it good is it bad is it this is it that and like with no what i've learned at my age and where i'm at my life now is kind of however this sounds i'm in the middle no uh pun intended uh but i didn't mean to do that i didn't mean to do that But I am. I'm not so quick to say this is great or this is bad or this is. I'm more like, this is cool. This is great. And I go with things and I kind of like, I do savor them. I go, this is nice, but it's not the end all be all. It's, to me, it's like, I think I'm just more even keel, even about big opportunities. I'm like, we'll see how it goes. Let's see, you know, Almost because it's, you know it's fleeting, you, you savor it more intensely.

Yeah. It's not, it's not the fact that it can get, it will be taken away. Like, it's going to do this. It's all going to do this. And the fact that you're going to be ride that crest and it's going to turn the corner, like, allows you to savor it more intensely. And coming to kind of the idea, like what we do, and this is what I've kind of, this is how I've, I've maybe like, reconciled what we do in the emotional experience. of it. One, I've looked at now, it's not like some luck, dumb luck magic thing. You know, if you fuck up in the middle of your performance. It's not good. It's so that's what to me like live and live

performances and TV, that's kind of like surfing a big wave because you have to stay on the board. You have to. Yeah. It's not a given that you're going to like plenty of people have wiped out. But when you get good at it, it can be really fun, but you're also really focused. And you have, there's a lot of things you have to be to surf that big wave. And then when you cruise into the shore, you go, man, that was a fucking great wave. That was fun. Right. And then you paddle out and you look for another one. Doesn't mean another wave always comes right away. Like, there may be no more waves that day or whatever. But to me, it's like that's like when I, when I do like a big, we just got, we just did a tour and it was like the biggest shows. We've been

doing the biggest shows of our career. And that's what it feels like. It feels like I go on stage. and it feels like a big fucking wave and I have to be focused, but I am having fun, but I also want to like deliver and it feels like there's a lot of focus that goes into that. You do have to have experience. You do have to have talent. But also you savor when you get a big wave and you get to ride one again. Right. Because like you get the perfect wave.

You have your best set run, whatever it is. People call the thing. Whatever they call that. I'm not a surf. But like, great. So now you're done. Yeah. Like it's, you know what I mean?

Like where do you, like the, but I also could say it's not the end all be all. Yeah, but that's what I mean. Like it's like so the wave happened, it's over. It's easier to connect that in your mind of like the importance of that. Like you can't, you're not going to be able to coast on that for the rest of your life. Right. That one event happened because there's another wave. Right. You know, and they might not, it's going to be a unique wave in that. Yeah. And then also like who am I outside of this, which was big for me was like,

is this define me? Does this define me? Is being the singer of this band define me? And then I had to go find out that it doesn't, but it is a big part of who I am. And finding that balance of like, actually what defines me is like my family, my wife and kids, my, my friendships, my who I am to my friends and my family. And then in my everyday life. And they all like what I did with my life and my band. and they like what I've done, but like it doesn't define me to them.

Yeah, this is a part of, it's a part of you. Yeah. But then if I go into, obviously, if I go into the world and I meet a stranger, that does define me to them. Oh, you're the guy from blah, blah, blah. And you're like, well, yeah, I have. But like, I think, hey, hey, you're Jimmy World. I guess.

I'm in Jimmy, world. Yeah, sometimes. You're not entirely wrong. Yeah. But that's an experience that like everyone has in some way, right? Like everyone, even listening, there's a, there's a, the people who know you, who love you would define you differently than the people that don't know you. And I think for a long time, I was a little bit chip on my shoulder, like maybe like, yeah, I don't know. Like, like, I, I think that's also just getting comfortable in the idea that someone knows you that you don't know.

or that they have an idea of you or something. And I think that now I don't. It's like, hey, I am. Yeah, I'm the guy from the band. But I think that was like a thing that I had to grow through. Like I had to grow up in that. I mean, you're going to stop everyone that might say that to you and like give them the. Actually, no, I'm kind of more than that.

I'm so much more than that. Yeah, exactly. That's a really good. Yeah. Interesting point you bring up. Actually, I'm quite more than that. You see I'm also a dad and like an employer. and, you know, I, they're like, okay, are you doing, I was just saying hi.

Like the, like the tenacious D, like reverse fan. Hey, are you doing anything right now? Let's go to lunch. I can tell you more about like everything I'm doing. Like, I got to go. It's so funny. Like, I'm good. I was just saying hi.

Sorry. No, no, no. Come on. I thought it was cool. No, no, really. I got to go. I liked one of your songs. Sorry.

I was just saying hi. You know what I mean? But that's the thing. As an artist, sometimes we get so in our head that everything. It's so funny, man. It's like such a good. like your self identity. Yeah. I try to keep that open, you know, like a, like a room in that. Yeah. I've kind of accepted that I do this. This is kind of my thing. Like it took me a really

long time to accept that like I, okay, I, for the most part, like I'm doing a music thing as like my thing. Yeah. It seemed, it seemed hard to accept that because of what I was saying earlier about it, either going away or like who thinks that about themselves. This is ridiculous. Yeah. That's a good point. I'm still about that. I'm still. I'm still. I'm still. kind of, I'm still kind of like in the back of my mind thinking what, um, what else I'm going to do. Yeah. If this doesn't work out. Do you think that we're that like to that point, which I actually have never heard it put

like that, which I really like, like you accepting that you, you do this? Do you think it's because we're kind of programmed to think it's not a real job? It's not. Yeah. Programmed. Are you kidding? You said like, you could be an astronaut easier. A job.

Then, then like, supporting yourself doing this. Yeah. At this level, you can do this, but at the level you've done it. Yeah, we're a multi-platinum. You're like a multi-platinum. You could, yeah, yeah, because if you want to do music, and this is what I've always thought, like, I know for a fact I'll always be doing music in some capacity for the rest of my life.

Am I always going to be playing in a rock band and that be the thing I do? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe, probably not. I mean, physically you can't. Right. You're always going to be doing something in music. I'm always going to be doing something in music.

I know that. But if you, and if you want to do music, you can. You know, I know I have, I have really talented musician friends that, like, do, they're playing music.

They, they do like, you know, brunch cover set jams. Yeah. You know, and they're great. Yeah.

They're doing music. And that's what they enjoy. Well, yeah, I think so. I mean, for the most part, but you can,

you can do that or you can be, you know, session person. You can just play music. I mean, you might not, you could just do stuff on your own, recording in your bedroom or whatever.

Like there's never been a better time to be a music fan than now. And there's never been a better time, I think, too, there's so many tools available for you just to create things now. Yeah, it's a lot. And you, it's a low barrier for. Yeah, the barrier, the barrier to be your own worldwide distributor of your creations has never been lower. That produces another problem that everybody has those opportunities and tools.

Yeah. So there's a lot more things out there. Like now the battle is like breaking to, like, Will what you do, like, transcend to being something that gets you to that place where you are just supporting yourself doing music? Yeah. I don't know. But, like, if you want to do it for that sake, you can. That's always been true.

Who drives in your band? Is everybody kind of doing different things? Is it a group? Who's pushing it forward? It could be different at different times. I think, like, the how something comes to be is not, there's a pattern of how it's things have kind of, like, happened. but it's not it's definitely not set in stone it's just about generating ideas like does something end up being a song i don't know but as long as that as long as there's like the the seeds of ideas that are coming like that's what you can do

and explore that i think um like i'll have an idea that i'll bring to the group and everything goes through a whole band editing process at some point for sure like how it gets to that editing process is is any number of ways Right. We might all set up in the room with amps and like one mic in the middle of it, like garage style and like let it roll and see what happens and then go back and listen to things that might whatever jumps out at you there. You know, I get a lot of fun about like recording everything on my own sometimes and like which is funny because. So you'll read you'll do like whole songs, complete songs on your own and then bring it to the band. I'll do. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean it happens sort of like I'm not a very good drummer. Right. Right. I don't play the drums. But it sort of, it works out because like that leaves enough space for for Zach, our drummer to like do what he would do. You know, it's like nothing is like overly defined. I'm not precious about it all. But it's kind of funny because he's like really the only drummer of I've played with. So what I'm doing is sort of like an amateur version of like how he drums.

And then he's like embellishing the seed of an idea that I come up with is a, this is a circle. Zach will bring ideas to the group. He does everything too sometimes on his own too. So he might have like a whole idea. everyone will contribute like, you know, voice memos or voice notes are a big thing, like just kind of scraps that show up and get fleshed out. It's, you know, I don't know, man. Like when there's an idea and you're excited about it, that usually means like you can hear

the next thing, we have ideas for where the next thing could be. It kind of starts running. And then you just go until like, you'll know it when you hit negative returns. Were you guys all in the same school when you started your band? Two of us were. Okay. Yeah. Rick and Tom are a year older than Zach and I.

And they went to a different high school. But it was all the same city, like all the same school system. How'd you guys meet? Well, Zach, his mom was like our preschool teacher. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, it is literally crazy.

And then the other guys, how did you meet if you're at different schools? Well, back then you sort of learn everybody in town. Okay. Who plays anything like punk music. Yeah, yeah. pretty quickly. Yeah. Because there's like not a many,

not many of you. So like through, through playing in bands and like parties. Yeah. Like semi-legal punk spaces. Right. Like DIY shows, basement shows.

You just meet the other kids that are doing the same thing. Yeah. They're all in bands and they're all like around hanging in. Yeah, same. That's cool. What music do you love now would you say? And is that different than when you started the band,

you were, you were into like in the 90s. I mean, I'm guessing it was like punk. It's been all over the place, you know, like I guess when you start writing your own songs, it kind of sounds like your record collection. Yeah. At the moment. So I think like it was a lot of, it was sort of all over the place, really.

Like I remember some of the, some of the like the fat rec stuff that was coming out. A lot of California bands would come and, you know, Phoenix general area there would be like the first stop. for anybody in San Diego going on a tour. Right. So it was a lot of like the headhunter cargo things that came to town. Yeah. Did you like that stuff?

Yeah. Oh, wow. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's probably, that's really interesting because as long as I've known you guys seen you around, been around it, I never looked at you guys as a punk band, but you always could hang.

Like, you guys could play on stage. on a lineup of any band and you throw down like you because you have these like heavy but then you also have like sweet or sensitive i think that's kind of what makes jimmy world like like jimmy world because you can play on any lineup i don't know why i don't know how but i mean yeah we we definitely have done tours where it's like nine ska bands in us yeah or like it works or like eight like hardcore bands and then us. And it works. It's, it really works, though. It's, it's just, but then you could also, somehow we don't get chased out of the room. But you could also go play with a Weezer, which is like, a guy born from 90s radio, alternative rock. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can live in alternative rock.

You can go play in punk. You could go play with a radio head or a, or a, you could also play with fucking, uh, uh, uh, the Rolling Stones or like you could, so when I look at like great rock bands, there is something about them that like you could play with the food fighters and you could play with like there's something about the optionality of a rock band that can play heavy but then also has some what I've always liked about your music is is a lot of the like the sweeter stuff the softer stuff but they work together and musically there's always got to have some depth so I always thought it was interesting though because you guys could really hang I think what speaks to me in music is is not like I've never been I've never felt like I couldn't

like something just because it didn't fit into right an identity or it's just been you know all over the place like I remember like growing up my my my record collection was like violent femmes and a little and like but also like twisted sister yeah and Def Leppard I felt like the violent fims didn't get enough credit or something like because it was maybe a or a a radio it's such a radio time i don't know like for like i got introduced to with the to to to violent femmes by like skater kids yeah you know it was almost like it was subversive yeah when i got introduced to it we just thought they were great yeah no they're amazing the 90s was an

amazing time for rock everything except for uh you know fitting clothes right you see like saved by the bell now like nothing fits no one has clothes that fit it's like everything is like not it's just not baggie yeah it was like yeah and it was like new ideas like like asymmetrical clothing right everything was like a new idea so there'd be like yeah like skids or chinko's chinko jeans they're like their legs are so big like it was a new hyper color look my hand yes let me draw more attention to the fact that uh underneath my my arms gets hot yeah the 90s was wild check it out so wild yeah so wild everything was a thing yeah i'm really grateful that i grew up in the time that i did yeah me too

analog the explosion of music that was happening and uh when you found it it was really special because you had to work to get it you had to really work to get it you had to go wait in line sometimes because the CDs would sell out. You had to go wait in line. You had to like, remember that? You'd be like, the new CDs sold out. It's sold out everywhere. Yeah, you can't.

You can't get it. You can't get it. Or you had to like, yeah, you had someone's special order it for you. Columbia House. Remember Columbia House? I do. Did you join? I ordered like the most obscure things I could think of just to see if they could get it.

And then you got charged for 10 years? Well, I didn't have buying what I had to buy and then I got out of it. You got out of it. You went through the process. Which was like filling out of paper, putting it, putting a stamp on it, sending it in like to cancel your thing. Yeah. Yeah. It was like that was the way it was. At the risk of sounding like really old about some of this stuff. Yeah. That's the way it was. We wrote when we first were shopping our demo in the 90s, we would, we made our own press kit. So we had like my sister took like a, a picture of us and we like went to. kinkos and got like the pictures printed. Yeah. And it had like our band name. And then we had a bio that Bench wrote. And then like we had our demo tape and we went. There was a magazine called the Musician Guide to Touring and Promotion.

And it was quarterly. It would come out and had all the label addresses. Oh yeah. And our guys were the clubs, all their addresses who booked the club. Every kind of like industry. It was like a like a phone book for the industry. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, Maximum Rock and Roll put out a similar one like that that we'd listed ourselves in as a group. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we would get all the addresses and we'd make these press kits and we'd send them in. And then we would call the numbers. Like, well, I'm the manager of Good Charlotte. We sent you a package and a couple people answered. We'll never forget, like Brett Gerowitz answered. And we talked to us on the phone.

You were doing like the Mentos commercial. Yeah. And that was the 90s though. you were like sending letters, writing people. You know, you call them on the land. Like, there was only landlines. So you were like calling people. I think the 90s weeded out a lot of bands because you had to like be somewhat capable.

You had to actually play. You had to like, well, you had to like find the venue. It to find the venue with like. I wonder how many bands like like dissolved because they couldn't find the venue. Yeah. Like they like. It had to drive and no GPS. You missed a turn on tour on a road.

the middle of the country, you would set yourself off by hour or two, like, before you realize on the fucking road atlas that you, like, wait, where are we? And you're like looking and you're like, oh my God, this is, this says this is a hundred miles back that way. We miss the fucking turn. We've loaded in real late because one or two of those times. It's crazy. And I don't know if it was like, if it's just me because I'm from the 90s, but, and that was my teen years. But I still think it was like the best era of music. It was pretty wild. I mean,

like, well, you know, like you, that when you discover something is always like, it's this heightened special thing. Yeah. And in the 90s was a lot of that.

I do think, I do think a lot of that music holds up still. Does hold up. Like, yeah, I mean, all the time I'm, I'm like,

whoa. And some records, I didn't appreciate that. And now I appreciate them. I'm like, fuck, this is really good. The sound.

And now like my kids listening to the 90s stuff. I'm constantly on a loop listening to all my records from A to Z. Are you listening on vinyl? Yeah. And when I get to the end, then I start over again. It takes months. I don't do it like all the time. But you go by alphabetical.

I force myself to listen to everything I have. Wow. On a regular basis. And I'm constantly like, oh. Where do you listen? At home? Do you have a room that's like your vinyl room? Sort of, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I got kind of into collecting vintage audio gear over the last few years. I just thought to myself. like I spent all this time because I didn't have that. I would just like be listening in my car. Right. I used to have that as a kid growing up, but then it kind of, I don't know what happened.

I just sort of like work so much in our studio where it's, it's all about critical listening. You're listening for, you know, where certain things are doing. What kinds of things you are recording fit into what frequencies. Yep. And how do they blend together and does this work to get the, what I want to hear? Yeah.

And I'm, just like, I want to have like a enjoy it as it's served kind of feel good without like, I mean, there's no ceiling on high five. Right. Like I don't even want to go down that road, but I, but I do want to kind of like work with the limits of maybe more vintage gear that feels like, yes, when I listen to it. So I have like a setup at my house where it's just like, is it sick? I don't know. It's, it's, I like the most crazy. Is that what you collect? Would you say? Yeah. Do you have any other collections? No. No? No comics? Yeah, I mean, I did comics as a kid. Do you keep them? Yeah, because it's sort of like, they're not worth as much now. Okay. I remember watching, you know, the Overstreet Price guy grow and grow and grow and then I came back to it as an adult. It's like, oh, this is not, I guess my Punisher War Journal series is not worth as much as I thought would be as a kid. Yeah. Some of it might be though. Some of it might be. I don't know. Yeah. I'd be curious to go through it. I mean, but it's cool. Like the, it's, it's, it's, it's, It's still cool.

Do your kids collect anything? Not really. No, my kids aren't really big on like stuff. Which is cool. That's cool. But it's kind of funny. Like I set my,

my youngest kid up with like a, with like a record player. That's cool. And when I took him like shopping to pick up some records for the first time, it was just blown. It was like, oh, it's like,

what's a, what's a, what's a, B, C, what is this like, like, oh, it was it was a double album you got by somebody.

I'm like, oh, that's right. You have grown up with no physical media in your life. Yeah, like no sides. No sides.

It's like that's a, it's a different kind of thing. I think, I think it's sort of, um, you've seen vinyl come back in a way. I mean, a lot of,

for a lot of people, it's like a merch item almost. Uh-huh. You love this band. It's a collectible kind of thing. Yeah, you hold it. It's cool.

And they're not actually listening to vinyl some people. They're just buying it. It's a, it's a physical collectible. Right. It's like the ultimate, it's the ultimate collection.

collectible kind of thing because it's like it's the group that you love it's the music that you that you really are into it's and most vinyl now is limited run so like every thousand records you press is actually it's interesting like most record runs are in a thousand five thousand 10,000 max and they're one one pressing at a time so like you are getting something that's kind of in the idea of limited it is like a limited run or a color wave or whatever so the way vinyl has been brought back is really cool because for people who love vinyl, there's that. And then there's people who just want to have something that's more rare than, you know, it's cool. I bought a CD player again. That's cool. No, it really is. Because it's like since high school, I never sold any of my CDs.

Oh, wow, you kept all of them. Yeah. And I mean, I sold some recently, but like for a good 30 years, I kept all of my CDs. And, you know, going back and listening to a CD. now, it's like, oh yeah. It's really strange because like it is what you remember. How does it sound next to the vinyl? Is there like, do you find there's a difference? Some, some, some things like I think are just feel better that way or I've convinced myself feel that better that way. I used to love getting a CD the first week a record came out, putting it in my like little CD player and like reading the album. Yeah, going through all of it. While I listened to it. Packaging was it was a big thing for us as kids. Yeah. That was a big thing. It was part of the experiences you're like listening

to it for the first time digging through that. Yeah, I did that too. But the, the album experience now is something that I think is really valuable. And I don't know if, like, the majority of people now probably listen to music like as playlists or by track. I'd say the at the average listener probably, I do think that the more engaged kind of like hardcore fan of anything is listening to an album still, I think. Like the real fan, the fan who would buy a ticket to your show is someone I think that would listen to an album. The average person who's kind of just like going through their day and just needs a soundtrack or whatever is probably like, oh, I'm listening to this playlist. I do think that like we live in a time where music is more shared, more played, more artists are

getting more exposure because of the number of phones. There's more opportunity than there's ever been for artists and their music to be, you know. Yeah, you can do whatever you want. If you have an idea, like you can, doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be an album. It could be, uh, whatever. Yeah. You're not limited by anything, really. Yeah.

I still think there's a value in, um, the idea I want to chase is, is albums for sure. Yeah, me too. But it's not. Um, and we've tried not. We've tried like, uh, after the pandemic, we decided to try something where we just released singles, you know, how they go. It was, it was fun. Yeah. You know, it was like, well, you know, meet people where they're at. Like, how are people listening

to music? It's like, or how they exposed to music is usually like by a individual song or a playlist or something. Like you might, you might go back and buy the record after you discover it. Like, that's kind of what I do. Like, I listen to everything in a streaming sense. Yeah. And the things that resonate with me. I'll go and like explore. You'll buy the record. I'll go and buy the record. Right. You'll listen to it on vinyl. Which, which kind of, because things are limited now, I miss out on a lot of of records. Right. It's hard to buy. Because like I'm trying to catch you can't you can't catch everything as it comes out. There's so much stuff. Yeah. And it takes a minute for something to really be special too. Like you have to live with it. Yeah. Like I want to own this. It's got to be special. And it takes a

minute to become your soundtrack. Like I said, a lot of people love your band. I told one of my best friends, his name is Matthew Coma. He's in a band himself. Really good band. Winneka Bowling League. Really good band. Okay. Yeah, I've heard them. He's one of the most talented people I've ever met. I told him I was talking to you today and he was like, he's excited. So I'm just saying a lot of my musical friends like your band. And I think live, you guys are known for being a good live band. So I think you've built what you have touring because you don't suck live.

Most of the time. In a time where live has come back to importance. But there was a gap there, I think like, I think the last five. years it's emerged again as like something that we've all went oh shit I forgot live is where I really actually like to experience music and I think there was some gap from the 2010 to maybe 2020 where maybe we forgot or something but I feel like now and more than ever if you're a good live band it's really important and I and I think bands have to be good live and so to go and see a band and play a record you love and it sounds great.

Again, also, like, people are spending their time, their money. They go, more than ever, they're like more critical about what they're getting for their money. Yeah, I think there's definitely something to the, the, your, an experience is valuable. Yeah. And it's, you can't, as much as like giant tech wants to present you with a virtual experience that's disposable with like an algorithm

to just keep your dopamine and your attention, that gets, you do get sick at that. To me, that's just in between. In between live, you're filling the gap and you're in your car, you're here, you're there, and you're interacting with digital, but it's your attention. But always till the next in real life experience is what's always going to be the most important thing you can have. And so to be able to go and see that record is special.

So I'm really happy you guys are doing it. I think it's going to be really, really great. Thanks, man. Yeah, we're super excited. Congrats. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you so much for having me in. This is great. I don't know if you know this, but I have been a huge fan of you guys. And I always remember how nice you guys were over the years.

You guys were always one of the coolest bands. Was that slam dunk festival the last time that we were like, last time we saw you guys. Yeah. But back in the day, there was Warped Tour. There was all kinds of, we'd always run into you guys. and you guys were always so nice, so classy. Well, thanks.

And I've always had such a good impression of your band, not just because of your records. That's always the first thing, but then getting to be around bands and meet bands, like you leave impressions on people. And I always thought you guys were really, really cool, nice, like, classy guys and always great life. You guys have always like delivered, you know?

Well, thank you. That's really nice of you to say, man. I appreciate it. I was so excited you were coming on. So I appreciate it. Thanks for having me in. Thanks, bro. Yeah. All right. Thank you for listening to this episode of artist friendly. You can also watch the episodes on Spotify. Spotify premium users get no commercial breaks on my show. Make sure to follow, like, and comment because I always read the comments.