Club Random with Bill Maher - Billy Corgan | Club Random

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Bill Maher sits down with Smashing Pumpkins icon Billy Corgan for his second visit to Club Random, diving into free speech, political division, and the rise of AI in music and entertainment. Billy riffs on reaching his own version of Valhalla but finding real joy in unconditional love, shares stories of bringing his kids on stage to dance during shows, and dishes on Dark L.A., song titles that stick, and Taylor Swift’s cultural takeover. Plus: the truths (and tall tales) of castles, islands, and the myths of rock & roll fame. Subscribe to the Club Random YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/clubrandompodcast?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch episodes ad-free – subscribe to Bill Maher’s Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://billmaher.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you listen: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/ClubRandom⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support our Advertisers: Go to ⁠https://zbiotics.com/RANDOM⁠ and use RANDOM at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics. Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to: https://www.wildalaskan.com/RANDOM. It’s summer, and it's time to heat up your strategy before your competitors beat you to it. Go to ⁠⁠https://www.RadioActiveMedia.com⁠⁠ or text RANDOM to 511-511. Message and Data Rates May Apply. Buy Club Random Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clubrandom.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices ABOUT CLUB RANDOM Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did in television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random. There’s a whole big world out there that isn’t about politics and Bill and his guests—from Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld to Jordan Peterson, Quentin Tarantino and Neil DeGrasse Tyson—talk about all of it.  For advertising opportunities please email: [e-mail] ABOUT BILL MAHER Bill Maher was the host of “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC) from 1993-2002, and for the last fourteen years on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 40 Emmy nominations. Maher won his first Emmy in 2014 as executive producer for the HBO series, “VICE.” In October of 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher’s uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous.” Maher has written five bestsellers: “True Story,” “Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? Politically Incorrect’s Greatest Hits,” “When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden,” “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer,” and most recently, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” FOLLOW CLUB RANDOM https://www.clubrandom.com https://www.facebook.com/Club-Random-101776489118185 https://twitter.com/clubrandom_ https://www.instagram.com/clubrandompodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@clubrandompodcast FOLLOW BILL MAHER https://www.billmaher.com https://twitter.com/billmaher https://www.instagram.com/billmaher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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to try them out for yourself. This episode is brought to you by Defender. With a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms and a weighting depth of 900 millimeters, the Defender 110 pushes what's possible. Learn more at landrover.ca. So what's the worst part? He goes, I had to buy the whole village

that went with the castle. Because I've looked. Are you serious? A rock star, Bill. We look at these things. Bill. Here I am in your house again. How are you?

I go. You look at trim, Bill. I actually never changed, but... I know. You look like you lost weight. I did not. Really? I'm telling you.

It's just my memory. If I kept losing... all the weight people say I keep losing, I'd be like 100 pounds. No, I'm always, like, within a pound or two. Did you ever gain weight? Did you, were you ever plump? Yeah, I was not, I was plumpish, yes. I would say, like, late 20s. I have pictures of me, like, on my first sitcom. And yes, my face was a lot fuller. And it's like, this is before I really even gave a thought to what constituted being healthy. Because before that, I was poor. So when you're poor you just eat whatever shit food and you're also in your 20s you don't yeah but yeah i mean

i was uh the older i mean it's paradoxical but i really feel like the older i get in some ways of course not every way you can't but i'm healthier i mean i get way less like colds and flu i used to get that every year because i drank more i ate shit food it didn't get proper rest you know you take better care of yourself and it's amazing yeah because we have occasionally share the same makeup people? You and I? Well, because our production worlds cross occasionally. You don't know this, I'm just telling you now. I don't know. Really? We do? Occasionally. It might be somebody who used to work

with you, or maybe it's just because there's some cross over. Do you about your podcast? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I think I had a hand in your You did. Thank you very much. I'm very proud of it because you're very good at it. Oh, thank you. But my point is I was going to talk about your skin because... This is a little weird, Mrs. Robinson. This conversation is getting a little weird. Well, Bill, I mean, your skin looks so good. Thank you.

I'm always... I appreciate it. I'm always back-channeling trying to figure out what you do for your skin, Richard. I won't reveal the secrets I've learned. Well, you know, everything is made in the kitchen, I believe. I heard that. You know, that's the old saying my abs are made in the kitchen, but it's not just abs. You know, it's really what you put in your body.

I mean, I was ranting about Kennedy last week. He finally, like, went too far with me. And I mean, I was so wanting to be with him for his quest to relook at how we just, in the macro, look at health in America. And I think he was right about so many things. And certainly one of them would be, I mentioned this on the show, I never had a Western doctor no matter what was wrong with me, ever said to me. And what do you eat?

Right. As if that shouldn't be, like, number one on the questionnaire about whatever's going wrong with you, that's going to have some input into it. How can it not? How could it not? But it was just, that's just not on the chart of Western medicine, maybe more now. So I was hopeful that he would like, you know, that kind of thinking and not the crazy part, but the crazy part, you know, he couldn't resist. And so, yeah. Well, we're in crazy time, part.

well look i might drink a little more than usual today because i mean i don't know when this is airing but this is a shit day because a guy who sat there charlie kirk got shot today and i can't stop thinking about it and it neither can i and we shouldn't and if you're on the other side of the political divide and you don't care because the wrong team guy got shot fuck you you're what's wrong with this country? I love when our country can yell, scream, point, cajole, mock. Anything past that, I just can't. I can't. Right. No, I have, well, I'm going to be all over this Friday night on my show, of course, but just the fight I have been having with the left while i'm of course the irony as a lot of people in my position is still a liberal

just a traditional liberal not won't go along with their like a lot of the stuff that's just crazy out there too far which gets trump elected blah blah blah as i always say to my woke friends we voted for the same person you're just why she lost um oh good okay took me a second sorry i'd absorb that okay um you know they're the people who don't want to to talk. It's my main issue with them. And Charlie Kirk was a guy who, like, he was always talking. And I talked to him here. You know, the right winger say what you want about them, but they talk to you. They're not into this leftist thing. The left really has much more of a, I don't talk to you. I don't want to deal with you. You're deplorable. I can't break

bread with you, that attitude. And like all the right wingers, they don't have that attitude. Now, again, I didn't vote for them. And Charlie Kirk and I certainly don't agree on much politically. But he sat here. He's a human being. He's not a monster. And a husband and a father. Yes. And I liked him. I liked them all. They're all nice people when you meet them in person. and they're not as crazy as they would nobody's as crazy as they make them out to be and we're never going to solve this unless it begins with both sides agreeing we both do it you know the right absolutely is full of well violence has to be off the table it's just right it's it can't be well in this instance or i just i i can't you you just can't and i and

maybe people aren't sophisticated enough because they don't really know the world. And I'm not just talking historically. I mean, the world, it's a complicated world. And if you've traveled at all, you're, you become grossly aware of how different the world is outside of America. And if you've been anywhere where sectarian violence has been part and parcel of the history, you know, that that stuff doesn't go away on one election cycle. You're talking to people who like, you know, it's going back hundreds of years. You know, it's Sarajevo. Sure. I mean, a guy works for, me who's literally in America because his family was he had members of his family murdered during

that whole you know that I don't even know what you call it because we tried not to call it a war but well but it wasn't the Balkan wars sure but I'm saying don't forget the the propaganda of the time you know but I mean in the 90s I mean it's you mentioned sectarian okay Sarajevo when it was Yugoslavia was a city of Muslims and Christians uh it was it was in the Olympic it hosted the Winter Olympics and eight years later

people were getting shot when they went out to get milk because there were snipers that it is not crazy to think that something similar could happen here I mean people have been talking for a while

about a low grade civil war this is what it means to start one And like I said, both sides, you mentioned political violence. At the state of the union, Biden's last one, he said political violence has no place in our society, something like that. And the Democrats all stood and clapped. And the Republicans sat there like, and it's like, really, you can't applaud for that, you fucking assholes?

And again, unless we start with both sides. the Luigi Mangonis, which is like, you know, I hope this isn't becoming like a copycat thing. Like, oh, this is a cool. But that's, sorry, but that's why I think we need to say culturally, societally, left, right, American, don't care, ambivalent. Political violence has to be off the table. It cannot be an instrument to achieve goal. It just can't.

It can't be rationalized. It can't be. risked. It just can't. It just can't because what we have is so rare. And both of us are the beneficiaries of a free market system. And that free market system is not fair to everyone. And free speech system. Well, that's always been my biggest thing. Anytime I've ever stepped in the political arena and it's been very, very brief, I've always made the same point. As an artist, if I don't stand for free speech, I mean, what do I stand for? Because invariably, somebody's going to stand up and say you can't say that you can't sing that right and we do have limits as we should

which is something that is directly threatening to you know specifically to a person or inciting violence very specifically of course and we do that is already in our canon but it's like when you have kids and you say to your kids like they want to argue a point you go yeah but you know what your did was wrong okay so i think most people who understand where the line is. They want to pretend that they forgot it. Do kids know what they do is wrong? My children do.

Really? How do they know? Because they're kids. Because they just know. No, no, I'm saying. I'm just, I'm making a very simple point. But I'm really asking because I don't have kids. And I feel like kids being kids who are, you know, you're not born knowing anything.

So you kind of have to learn it. I feel like kids are feral and well bill you don't have kids I'm saying it's I don't I don't think they're as feral as you think there from when I'm when I've been when I am out in public yes and you know like many of times over the years like going into a hotel say yeah and you know there will be kids the coming through in the lobby or something or when you're going up to your room in the hallway no they're feral they are absolutely feral. And they also are born without any sense of right and wrong. Did you ever read Lord of the Flies? Of course, yeah. Okay, Lord of the Flies, great book. And it's about kids who, what are they on a

desert island or sure. And it just shows how feral they are and atavistic and how awful they are at each other because you have to be taught to be a good person. I'm not, I don't totally agree with you if you want to. Well, tell me. Okay. My sense of it is, and I go back to my own relationship to myself as a child, which was complicated. But what I try to talk to my kids about was when you did that, did you feel good or did you feel bad? And that's what I mean about a sort of innate sense of right or wrong. They know deep down that even no matter how they justify their behavior. And oftentimes they have a good, you know, he stole my toy, you know, that type of thing. But deep down, they admit that they don't feel good about what they did. And I think that to me is

the delineating point that says on some level, humans are hardwired, have some innate moral sense that's just my my take then why are so many of them incorrigible schmucks why are there so much evil in the world why is there so much crime why is there so much merciless activity wrought by one human being onto another a man's inhumanity to man we all know that phrase where does that come yeah i mean i i i tend to default to there are systems in place that want to exploit human decency in essence if you can

separate a human from their own decency well there's a lot of money to be made you know porn is a perfect example porn sure when it's evil about that I'm not saying it's evil I'm saying is I'm not saying it's evil what I'm saying is

porn on some level requires a disassociative frame of mind to enjoy it I hope so if you're doing it right that's it well go into that further if you would for me disassociative frame of mine okay next time not that you would ever watch porn i don't watch porn every day okay god bless yeah i don't watch porn i i i don't believe in watching porn really i'm not judging and i'm not judging in reverse and i and if you did i wouldn't

care you'd judge me all you want next time you're masturbating in front of a a porno bill i don't i i hope I don't enter your mind. This is kind of what I'm saying. You will not. You definitely will not. Unless you show up in the video, which I'm not expected. Well, maybe somebody will look like me. And it will remind you of me.

You know, with AI, absolutely, I mean. Anyway, back to my point, Billie with Milf and Stepson. You know, that. I guess I'd be a bilf, right? Yeah, you would. Point being is that next time you're watching porn is a thought experiment. if you'd like to try this, okay? Sure.

And I'm going to assume for the sake of this thought experiment. Hey, when I have my dick in my hand, I'm all about the thought experiments. Okay. And I'm not saying you like young women, Bill, but let's say you're watching a... Again, no shame there. I've not shamed at that either.

Okay, so you're watching a young woman in flagrante. And she... I don't watch Italian porn. No, I'm kidding. Inflagrante, yes. you're so erudite bill it's what i love about you you are you're very erudite so you're watching a porn with a young woman and uh doesn't matter what's happening it's just you're she's involved on some level on some level i fucking hope so if not it's gay porn in in bill in billy's thought

experiment okay stop for a moment if you can if you're not if you're not so caught up in i'm so into this now i want to hear this so badly stop and think that that's somebody's daughter. That's so funny. Do I know this person? In other words, is it a person I know and is their daughter? No, I'm saying it's... Okay, then I'm good.

And maybe even if I do, I don't know, but that's... Sorry, sorry about the spit take, but not my first, not my first one here. Is that really what's going through your mind? Yes. But how does me, a world away, in front of a computer with my dick in my hand, how does this affect the daughter in any way? And by the way, why is it such a horrible...

Because my point was, it requires a level of disassociation. In essence, you have to, on some level, disassociate that this is a human being who may or may not be in that position for all the wrong reasons. Maybe it's all the right reasons. I'm friends with a very famous porn star who did it purposely, intentionally,

and is not damaged by it. it and is totally fine with it. Yes, porn stars are nymphomaniacs. Generally speaking, generally speaking, they really like sex and like to do it a lot. I mean, it's not... But by that classification, then you're a porn star. I could have been. I may have missed my calling. I've thought of that many times. You got the frame for it.

Well, it's not, except Armit too much. I mean, I've heard from women that's usually the skinny guys that are packing the Sinatra heat. okay uh it's it's just unseemly to ever talk about your dick so i'm not going to start but is this the first time you've ever talked about your penis on your show no but uh one of one of my ex-girlfriends once talked about it on howard stern really yes and i loved it because she blew his mind okay good i have to find that clip yeah you'll have to find that clip um anyway the first of all um i don't think porn necessarily is something that is uh harm to the people who are doing it, as they say.

I mean, involved in the actual... What I'm amazed when I do go on Porn Hub to find is that it seems like there is a literally an exhaustible number of women who are doing it. It looks, if you just go on Porn Hub and keep scrolling and scrolling, it looks like every woman in America under 35 years old is doing corn.

I mean, it is just a lot. I don't know if this is accurate, but this is like sort of anecdotal. I heard somebody talking recently. They were saying with the numbers on only fans that they estimate that 1.4% of the population of the United States is now doing porn. Yes, that sounds about right. Yeah. I mean, and when you look, if you parse that down to like what percentage of the population, okay, half of them are not women, so yes, there are some male porn stars. And by the way, kudos to them because, like, a male porn star, what a brilliant idea, a guy who says, you know what, they're going to make porn and they're going to need a real dick.

They're going to need somebody's dick to get sucked all day long by hot chicks. I could do that job. I mean, I must say there is a part of me that says, wow, I wish I had that kind of confidence. But anyway. well it's you know like it's it's a short step from there to comedy you see yeah the problem is you know uh the people who watch it do get addicted there is a real issue here so we're going the right way there is definitely an issue i'm always been on the page at least of the look i never even saw it on the computer until about i would say five or six years ago i was a guy

I grew up with magazines, and I was afraid to look at it because I was like, oh, what if they get a cookie in here? And what if they know what I'm doing? And what if they're really watching me? And well, I got over that. But the people not our age who grew up on it, they do become addicted. And it is not benign.

I don't think the kids watch it in the same way I do. Like, I don't almost ever see the man in the porn video. Usually it's a girl who comes out and does sexy stuff direct to camera for five or 10 minutes. And then a guy comes in. Well, I don't need the guy. I'm the guy. Like, once the guy comes, I don't actually like to watch them fucking and sucking. I just like to see them being sexy.

Oh, I see. You know, so, like, that's very far from kids who, like, at 12 years old, they've seen a team of Japanese men have, you know, Bukaki with, you know, Have you heard the thing where, and again, it's anecdotal, but I've heard these things, that young men, they've consumed so much porn by the time they hit their late teens, early 20s, they literally can't have normal sex with the woman. Right. Because they're so, and I have talked to young women who have complained that they get into relationships with guys, and if the guys, unless the guy's having sort of, let's call it, very edgy sex. Right. He can't.

And that's what is not benign about porn. And that's, again, something that I don't even want to watch is that it's kind of rapy. It's, you know, I don't need to, I don't, it's gross. There's a lot of spitting and coming on the face and, you know, ass fucking things that are, I'm not. So you're just like the sexy. I'm not interested. Yes. Okay.

I mean, you know, I mean, here's the thing about sex. It's very sexy. And I just don't see the need to dress it up, like with all. And if you have to, I just think you're doing it wrong. If you're using devices, if you're using food, like food should not be involved in sex at all. I find it disgusting just to eat before you have sex. I always think you should have the sex first and then dinner. It's just wrong to do it the other way because you eat, you're bloated, you're farty, your breath stinks.

But actually involving food, I just don't understand. or wigs or fucking I'm a pirate and you're a schoolgirl, you know, I just don't, I mean, if you, just fuck, you know, just learn how to fuck right. And there's enough enjoyment in that. There you go, kids. Advice from Bill. Hello, you guys, it's Heather McDonald and I have a juicy scoop for you on Audible. I've been loving their romance collection. They are a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling and they've got this down. Romance fans are among their most engaged and voracious listeners. So there is nothing guilty about this pleasure. There's more to imagine when you listen and they have audiobooks to satisfy every side of you. Audible has modern rom-coms by Lily Chew and Allie Hazelwood and titles from the romanticcy genre that is going crazy right now, like the ones taking over book talk. We're talking about authors like Devney Perry and Sarah J. Mass.

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fine i'll wear a shirt that fits it's no secret that i always look good but now my staff does too and part of the reason is true classic the shirts are tailored where you want relaxed where you need no stiff fabric no bunching no nonsense just a clean fit so skip the overpriced designer scam skip the cheap throwaway junk true classic is built for comfort built to last and built to give back. You can find them at Amazon, Target, Costco, Sam's Club, or head to trueclassic.com slash random to try them out for yourself. But you're not wrong that porn is not a harmless endeavor. That's kind of my point. If you don't have a judgmental thing, which I don't have a

judgmental thing, it's like, let's be transparent about that. Right. But I don't think the women who are doing it are being a exploited terribly much. They want to do it. I'm sure they could and should pay them more. Well, the dark side of porn is there's a lot of prostitution that goes on around the edges to make the money. Well, as someone once pointed out, if you fuck somebody and they give you money, you're a prostitute and you get arrested. But if they fuck somebody and they give you money, but there was a camera there, you're a porn star. I see. You know what I'm saying? It's a little weird that just because there's a camera there, That makes it legal.

Okay. But I think both should be legal. All right. You don't think prostitution should be? I don't really have an opinion. I'm sort of gotten bored with the whole libertarian movement. At some point it seems to not live in reality. But generally speaking, I believe, in a free society.

Well, excuse me, but not thinking that a lot of people can't get sex and would benefit from paying to get it, that's not living in reality. The reality is most people are sexually stifled, frustrated, inept, and there's something called a sex surrogate, which again, I actually, I think I talked to one once. I feel like I have a memory about talking to something. Well, I mean, it's a, again, if you just rephrased it,

it's a prostitute. It's someone who's helping you come. No, her whole take was like she goes in and helps the couple and... Okay, that's... Well, that's not a sex surrogate. That sounds like a therapist, but... But no, but she would have sex with the people. Oh, do you know about this?

With both of them? Yeah. She'd have sex with the wife and the husband? Yeah, it was like the idea was like... That's a full service. And I had this conversation. So it's something like this, and I'm just paraphrasing for the sake of conversation. Husband and wife, they'd been together.

They don't want to get divorced. They don't want to have affairs, but they're kind of stuck in their intimate life. She comes in and teaches her how to get him off, and she teaches him. But the only way to do it is she's got to kind of be in the bed. There's a great movie about that. When I say great, I mean not great, but funny because it doesn't know it's not great. But it's still amusing. It's with Merrill Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.

Okay. And Martin Short is in this? No, no, no. Steve Carell. I don't remember the name of it, but Merrill Streep and Tommy Lee Jones are a married couple. They've been married for a thousand years. He comes home at night and he falls asleep in front of the Golf Channel. And she has just had it with this sexless, loveless, peck on the cheek, go to work, fall asleep in front of the golf channel marriage.

So she sends him to this academy or something run by Steve Carell where he's got to relearn how to fuck Merrill Street. And it's just, I mean, it gets at this exact point. And he, of course, is not into the concept, but once she threatens to leave him, he does it. And part of it was she was learning how to fuck him again, because they had forgotten. And she's the funniest scene, I bet you she did it herself. Maybe it's in the script, but she's sitting there and she's reading the manual and it's telling her how to do it with a banana, you know. And so she's like starting to just suck the banana and then absent-mindedly starts eating the banana. It's a classic.

What's the name of this movie? I don't know. I forget the name of it, but, you know, just Google, Merrill Street, re-learns how to fuck Tommy Lee Jones and you will, trust me, chat GPT, will have this interview just like that. Are you into the chatter? Are you friends with your chatter? Is that something you think is bad for society? Are we talking AI?

Are we talking... I'm talking both, but I mean, I have my issues, especially with chatty. I mean, my general thing is using GROC or chat GPT or even Google, whatever they're AI, for sort of research, like a quicker version of Googling. I'm cool with that because I just assume it's an amalgamation of a vibe. Oh, there is. I mean, there's great things about it. But in terms of the furious row that's coming down the line for the arts, And AI, well, then I have a ton of opinions on those, but I don't want to bore you with those if it's not interesting to you.

It's very interesting to me. I'm in the arts. So pick a laying as much as my case. I'm in the art. I know you are, but you can't be replaced, so you're good. So far, that is true. So far. You're irreplaceable. But, well, and you think you are? I feel, I feel fine. But, but, but, but, but, but I, I'm also very, um, it's, it is scary that they have come up with like, I mean, I have an Elvis track that's, that's, not Elvis. It's A.I. Elvis. Yeah. That is a little frightening. Oh, what I've been saying, because I get asked

a lot about it in music interviews, my general things, it's over. It's already over. The world you thought of of music, just start with music, it's over. It's already over. You don't see it, but it's over. Well, you're going to have to put some meat on that bone. Okay. You're 15 years old. Okay. When you were 15 years old,

when I was 15 years old, it was the garage playing to Led Zeppelin into infinity to learn how to play something, something, something, right? Okay, that's over. If you're 15 years old now, okay, that time you're using so you can watch more porn, if you can press a button, if you can press a button and that thing can write a song for you or tell you, right, even if it gets you 87% down the road and then you use your intuition and whatever talent you have to kind of finish it and say it's yours, it's over. It's over. And that's where we are. Five years from now, so we're in 2025 when we're doing this interview, five years from now, the music landscape will be completely devastated by AI on every level, every level.

Now, I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. You will have a bifurcated society of people who do organic music, and they're literally going to say, I'm an organic musician, this is what I do, I'm not using all this technology, and there will be this other world that won't give a shit. I mean, organic, it sounds like the next generation from acoustic. Sure. Right. Yeah. But people will be celebrated for being. No, just, it's funny because it really will be a recapitulation of Dylan went electric. And to the, I mean, that's one reason why I thought that movie was so great, because they picked just that one moment.

Yeah. Which I'm sure that alluded some people who were not around for it, or maybe it got to the smart ones who could put themselves in that moment. But, I mean, even I was too young in 1965 to appreciate what was going on. The idea that the old guard, the folk, because he did start in the folk world, were just, it just seems so quaint now, apoplectically appalled that Bob Dylan, the great hope of future folk music, the guy who was going to carry the banner of Woody Guthrie and those types, he went electric. And, of course, the world was like, great, because that's a great. record like a rolling stone with the great organ and the electric guitar and you're right the audience and

by the way the audience has no responsibility to give a shit they just want to be entertained that's why say it's over right right and they're not going to give a shit right that's going to say it's over and like i'm that guy i always say it i'm just the young man in the 22nd row you know i'm just because i have no musical ability which is so liberating so i can just like what i like and not like what I like and not worry and not about like does it matter is it important music that's that's kind of what I'm saying if you yeah if there's an AI artist or there's an artist you know who's using AI to advance their whatever their their their musical cause you won't give a shit and and what you're thinking is that they all are by now they must be well from what I've heard there's not a song coming out of Nashville right now that doesn't have AI involvement particularly with lyrics I read in the paper yesterday cartoon movies, you know, I guess they... How about editing? How about camera work? How about... I mean, every level of entertainment is going to be affected. You pay, do I assume you pay comedy writers? Do you pay comedy writers?

Not personally, but my generous network does, yes. Okay, good. So the point is, is whatever your budget is a year for comedy writers, let's say it's 100K. If you can go, I don't have to pay those guys anymore, girls. There's 100K in Bill Maher's pocket. And by the way, I like the jokes better. I mean, trust me, I've looked into it. No, I haven't guys. But they are definitely not there yet with comedy.

Okay. How about AI porn? Because comedy is just so, like, part of it just can't be sussed out with, logic. It just strikes you as funny or as it doesn't. And sometimes the more off the wall it is. Sure. And AI isn't there yet. Yeah. It's like being a... So I just, I just can't imagine them writing the kind of jokes I do. Okay, but you know, also... You produce a television show. If you could save

half a million a year using AI to do your editing or to your sound or your... No, I mean, those are not my decisions. I mean... No, but I... But you know how the world works. No, absolutely. Bottom line. No, they're going to do it. But the other thing AI can't do is that I, they could, it's going to sound catty, but they could do other shows because they're so predictably in their politics.

And that's one of my issues with AI. It is programmed by the woke. And I know this because somebody once asked it, what was my best stand-up special? And first of all, it shouldn't even be giving opinion. but it gave the wrong one, and I know why, because it was programmed by woke. So it picked like one from 20 years ago that was woker because 20 years ago

the Democrats weren't funny. The liberals hadn't gone off the deep end on a lot of issues, and it was just Bush. And also, we were 10 years away from gay marriage, and a lot of the special, or at least the end of it was about how we should have gay marriage. So the AI thing was like,

oh, this is the best, and it's not. It's good. I mean, but it's 20 years ago. The one I did in December, way better. But AI can't, AI can't do that. Just the way, like, why do I use the old iPod, the old one, the wheel one, Bill? The one where Billy Joel is featured prominently? Yeah.

Among others. Why? Because, like, I like to put my playlist together in a way that, like, no, none of those services can do. Because they can only, if you say play songs like. this they just take it from the same era I can play a song 40 years apart from another song I see and they have the exact same vibe but they're from completely different areas and Pandora can't do that right so they've got a ways to go will they get there I don't know but look we had a good run yeah we had fun I

mean didn't you just play a stadium with 80,000 people 65. Okay, well, it's a lot of people. It's a lot. It's a lot of people. Yeah, no, no, no. I'm comfortable with all that, but I, because I have young children, 9, 6, and a baby, I mean, they're going to grow up in a world where AI is going to be pervasive on every level of creativity.

You just had a baby, huh? Mm-hmm. Wow. Yeah, and thank God it looks like me. And how many baby mamas do you have? Only one. Oh, wow. Only one.

You call yourself a rockster? In fact, as we're taping this today, my wife just turned 33. Oh, so you're robbing the cradle, too. where you look like you they're like there and bill you uh like young women i mean how old are you 58 how dare you how dare you how dare you be right so how old was she when you got married uh we got married oh two years ago yeah we had kids before we got married i wouldn't i refuse to get married so i finally capitulated so you were with her when she was in her young 20s we met when she was 19 and i was 19 beats me i at least wait till there's a two in front of

their name bill you're a great you're a great order you're a great comedian you're a great thought leader oh but i'm a rock star bill that's so true that is so true i cannot fight that you are so right about that you are a rock star and you deserve those extra two years that's awesome god bless her because i don't know what the hell she saw in me i mean oh shut there's there's obvious things but oh boy you know what stop the false mod. I hate when guys do that. I'm so lucky. She's so, shut the fuck up. You know what? You're a rock star. You're really funny. You seem like a great guy. I mean, you got money. I mean, I'm not feeling bad for her that you just to put up with Billy Corgan of the smashing pumpkins.

She's done all right. She's done all right. Yeah. But she, and a baby, that's got to be, is that? It's a feral baby, bill, though. Ferrell. Ferrell, sorry. Feral. There was that singer, Fierl Sharkey, right? So I'm confusing,

feral sharky and feral baby. Do you remember the song, I might like you better if we slept together? I covered it. At Dodger Stadium, opening for Kiss, Halloween night in 1999. Is that why I remember that?

Maybe. It may be, because the record itself. Great record. Susie and the Banshees? No, it was Romeo Void. They had two hits. I might like you better if we slept together and a girl in trouble.

Bill, I know my rock. I'm not going to... Great band, great band. I think from Southern California, actually. Wow. I might like you better if we've loved to get... What a great song. What a great title.

Yeah. You know, like, title's a big thing with a record, right? You got to... Some people are big on titles. Like I say, title's not... Some people, they say they can't write like an Irving Berlin-type writer. They would want the title first. like if you knew Susie like I knew Susie you know what I mean

right quite an example well we're going back to Eddie Cantor there I was gonna say no but I'm saying is that's how those guys wrote it was like the title had to sell the song and then they would write the song I'm not a title guy I mean I think I think bands throughout the ages have like titles but I mean I wrote bullet with butterfly wings I mean that's a great title I think I stole it from Freud, actually. I remember in the Eagles documentary, Glenn Frye was like, I was riding with some guy in a car, we were on Coke,

and he said, Life in the Fast Lane. And he was like, okay. That's a good title. I mean, you want to listen to the song. But it was almost like, I have nothing but that, but I'm already like three quarters of the way through with this song. How about Desperado? How about Hotel California?

I mean, what great titles? Yeah, yeah, but. Are you an Eagles fan? Very much so. But I don't feel like they get you as much as life in the fast lane. I mean, what's Hotel California? It could be about anything. We love it because we know the song.

Desperado, yeah, that's pretty good. I think Hotel California is one of the great lyrics of all time. Oh, the lyrics, yeah. I mean, they have those lyrics there. Oh, yes. And Don has been asked about it a thousand times, and he always says, you know, first of all, he's tired of being asked about it. And he said, it's just about a journey.

journey from innocence to experience. Okay. Why does that piss you off so much? No, because I'm empathetic because I know what it's like to be asked about something over and over again, but I don't buy the answer is kind of what I'm saying. What do you think it's about? I think it's about L.A. I mean, I think it's the greatest, I call it Dark L.A. Yes.

Right? It is the greatest Dark L.A. song of all time. right like i might like you better if we slept together you could say that's a dark la song no l.a is dark california's dark um some great writer i forget may have been dashal hammett said you know l.a it's a sunny place for shady people and well chandler i mean raymond chandler he he encapsulated the darkness of this place or even uh what's that book uh day of the locust yes you ever read that book yes i mean you want to talk about dark LA. And that book was written in like

1939. Well, I think if you asked the average person, like where do you think, you know, the noir movies take place or like that milieu? They would think, oh, that's a New York thing. No, no, no. No, no. It's San Francisco.

Right down the street. It's San Francisco. Sam Spade. It's L.A. It's always out here. Yeah. Chinatown. Yeah. All of them. It's We're a shady, messy people out here. Yeah.

You know, but we're seduced by, of course. Can I tell you about my first L.A. trip as an adult? Do you mind if I tell you a good trip? So I came out here as a kid. We went to Disneyland and all that stuff. But when I came, the first time as an adult, I was about 21 or so. And I came out with a friend, and we end up staying with the friend's sister. And, you know, we're off Hollywood Boulevard.

all, you know, you know, it's right out of the movies. I'm walking and looking at the stars on the thing. And, you know, I have that impression a lot of people have, which is that kind of, is that all there is? It's more built up here as a tourist industry, but back in the 80s, it was kind of, there wasn't much to see. You know what I mean? You had the, the stars on the Hollywood Boulevard to quote Ray Davies. I have one. You do. Congratulations. Thanks. Are you proud of it, or? Of course not. It's ridiculous. You can buy one. That's true. I mean, I think you could, I mean, not anybody, but yeah, it's not. And if you just walk on the boulevard, and yes, that is a great song.

Yeah, stepping on Bella, go see. Yeah, oh, I know that song very well. Yeah, a great song. You know, like, yes, you see a lot of the biggest stars in the world, and then you come across names you just don't even know. Yeah, that's true. You know, I mean, I happen to be near Clark Gable, so I'm near. That's not bad. No, that's not bad.

But everybody's near somebody, and then there's like, you know, Biff Comsteen. Like, who the fuck was this guy? B. Comsteen? Well, whatever. I don't know. He was a cameraman for Cecil B. DeMille. You know, he crossed in a Browns board coat in some movie in the 30s. I don't know.

He just, you know, it is what it is. But, yes, I was happy to go. It was 2010. I remember the ceremony, and Larry King and Seth showed up and lots of my friends. And, you know, they give a speech. I think it's cool. It's cool. It's, you know, look, I love Hollywood.

I love all the bullshit. I love not, I always say, I'm in show business, but I'm not of it. Because I'm not really like them, and I'm not really in any category. But like when I go to the Vanity Fair Oscar party, it's, to me, that's like going to Disneyland. To stand in the middle of a room, and everywhere you look is a star. Because the stars in this town, they do not come out at night. I don't know what people think. Well, most of, I mean, to be fair, a lot of them do work.

That's why. Exactly. It's a working town, and movies started... And always has. Has been. And movies started 6 a.m. Yeah. That's a cruel business for that. Did you lock the front door? Check. Close the garage door? Yep.

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look terrible now and I look pretty good? Because I don't spend all day in the sun. Yeah. And they have to. You're on the set all fucking day. There's only so much sunscreen in the world, and you're just out there, and you're just baked. This is a working town. People just, it's not a party town, but like on those few nights when the stars do come out,

it is fun to look around the room and be able to talk to all of them. And, of course, it's show business. Most of them are pretty stupid, but, you know, they're talented. The people are so talented. and just notable exceptions, but, you know, thinking just ain't their thing. I always find people that are in the zeitgeist fascinating. Like, who would be that? Doesn't matter.

I mean, pick your Hollywood party. Taylor Swift. Sure. Zitegast. Yes. I mean, I have my opinions on that whole thing at this point, and I probably should keep it myself, so I don't get attacked by the swifties. No, I say it all the time.

I find her as a person so admirable. She never does anything I find to be like in any way of, objectionable. She's classy. You never get her with a bad picture. She seems very responsible, very smart, a good sense of humor. As a business person, she's very talented. So I'm going to say that real quick. From a musician to a musician, she's very talented. Okay. I don't get the music. But that's just me. But just take it from me. She's very, very talented. I'm sure she is. But I was going to say as a business person, she's brilliant. Brilliant. Yes. I mean, it's a total coup.

she's built. Oh, absolutely. So you can only marvel it. In fact, quick, quick statistic that heard behind the scenes, the demand for her concert tour, the stadium tour, was 900 stadiums. They could have sold 900 stadiums full of tickets. Now, that is an accomplishment. No, I always say that too. Like, even if you don't personally appreciate something on the artistic level, it doesn't tickle you, you've got to give it up for success. You just have to, or else That's what I mean. I like the glow of the zeit guys because I feel like it says something about the American public. Like, for example, why her this generation? Why Barbara Streisand another generation? Why. And look. Why Hetty Lamar, whatever, you know what I'm saying? Headley Lamar. Headley Lamar. Yeah, but I'm saying is what is it about an age that picks certain people? You're so, that's such an interesting point. And you're right about her. And look, she's a little whiny about her exes, but. in general could today's young women uh have a worse role model absolutely as role models go i'm very happy with them having their taylor swift now do i think it's pathetic that they

live their lives so much through her that they were like in tears when she got engaged yes i do because i don't think it's healthy to live your life so much through another human being you have you have you have your own are there bill mar groupies you know i mean no i mean i'm serious i mean you have you have your like kind of groupy contingent i don't investigate this but somebody showed me on the one of the dating sites there is a category like you can like on your interest bill more and there are yeah there was a lot of people like daddy bill or no no just bill mar and uh i thought that was flattering but i'm not because i'm getting some of that now now that i'm in my 50s yeah you know my social media person will show me and it's

like they start calling me like daddy billy oh i wish i would you that Billy was my daddy, but not like that daddy. That's more like a Zaddy. Well, I don't know what Zaddy is. Zaddy's a guy who's like a daddy figure, but also sexy. You know, it's like a Zaddy. I was named People Magazine's sexiest man at 50. Like, they picked everyone from a certain age.

So I got 56. A friend of mine who's around your age or my age somewhere in between, like he said to me, recently I wouldn't say what field he's in, but show business. and he said, you know, this girl come up to me and said, you're so iconic. And he said, can you believe it? I'm getting an iconic pussy now. And yes, that's what you would get.

Yeah. Well, I'm married. But you're happily married. I'm very happily married. I'm very happy to say I'm happily married. Yeah. Well, I know you had a rough childhood, so that must be great for you

that you can find that kind of stability that was lacking in your earlier years. I will candidly say that, I had a very incredible artistic life, and I thought I'd kind of seen it all twice, and, you know, dark L.A. and all of it. No, I did. I mean, I lived it all. The good and the bad and the crazy. And until I was happily married and I had my own family, I didn't really appreciate what I'd done and built. And now that I have that balance, now I have so much more zest and zeal for my musical life. It was the thing that I, and maybe because I didn't have it as a kid with my family,

because I never really knew what it was like to have a family. I mean, I had a family, of course, but I'm saying I didn't have the stability that this marriage has brought me. So having that now, it's like I finally feel like, okay, this all makes sense. You know, if you do something like you chase a career, you know, which is a dirty word in my business career, you're not supposed to say the word career, but if you do all that and you do accomplish something and people say, oh, you're this and, you know, know I love this album, but you always kind of feel this kind of hollowness about it, but you don't really know what it is. And I realized it was because I didn't have the one thing I really wanted, which was a family.

I still don't really see how they interact with each other. Like, I get the tension because I certainly have felt it in my own life between career and love. Sure. To me, those are the two things that were always vying. And I might say, if I go back and analyze my own life, the fact that I was done, so hard in high school and it broke me so badly what was your name we're not going to go into that make up a name no no Sally yeah Sally Sally ten fingers she had ten fingers yeah I know that's not really that weird anyway Sally and I feel like from that

moment on I was like Scarlett O'Hara when she says you know that's God is my witness I'll never go hungry again i see i was like as god is my witness i will never get my heart broken again like this and i will put my eggs in the basket of what i can control which is my career okay that is what will make me happy because i can't count on this other thing is looking back now not saying the the dream is over but i do you feel that was the right decision great question that you know i probably um should think about more and there's a lot to be it's not a you know 90-10 it's a 50-50 kind of thing because you because sorry because you you were poking around about me like you were saying trying to try to understand it no but i'm saying is i'm trying to sort of answer your question

why i'm asking you one no it's a great it's a great question i mean look i'm not going to get too specific at all just came out in the wash i'll just put it that way i think i was never meant to like um through the the very um formative years of my life that probably goes on longer than it should have was never going to be tied down anyway it just wasn't my nature um and part of that you know is again rock star you know you're probably so inundated that you know you get it all out of your system quicker that's true that's true no i remember a point it was i was actually out here i was working for an extended period of time. And it was the first time in my life, I was just going to like, it was like,

okay, I'm going to live like free. Right. You know, and I would meet people and I would say, look, don't ask. I don't want to be tied down. Right. Like, I'm be totally transparent about this. I'd never really been that way in my life. And I was, I was surprised how many women were like, okay, cool. Most of them, of course, thought they were going to try to reel me in on the back end. I'm sure you've had a few of those. And they got to the point where the bloom went off the rows of what I thought freedom was. Freedom to me was do what you want when you want to do it. Right.

And as long as you're having a good time and everybody's, you know, it's all adults and everybody's cool. And I lived like that for a while. And I woke up when I was like, this is boring. And I never, and to be fair to anybody, and I'm not bragging, there's no bragging this. I got to the point where it's like, this isn't really what I'm after. Right. I get it. Yeah. I disagree on the boring.

It never gets boring. What you hit on there, which I think... Bill, let me tell you a story. Let me tell you story. Okay, because I'm going to agree with you on this one point. Okay. Okay. I was with this girl.

At a circus animal. No, no, just a girl. Okay. Just a girl. And we're in Flangrante in bed. And she says to me, can you lick my back sure as one does

and I said and she was pretty hot so I was like okay if that's what you want I've done it without asking okay good and and and it was like one of those like you know when somebody asked you to scratch it back it's like no a little little more up to the right and to the left and and in this one spot in her back she could orgasm from having her back licked in this one spot.

Do you have her number? Actually, I do. And the way she explained it to me, and God bless if she ever hears us, she's a very nice person, the way she explained it to me is that sometimes, I'm not a doctor. But apparently certain nerves get rerouted. I'm sure. So how some people can orgasm by, say, having the doctor. their nipple licked. Sometimes that nerve reroutes to a different spot in the body. So in her case,

the nerve was in her back. So as long as you lick this one spot on her back. So that never got boring, Bill, let me tell you. That's almost the plot of Deep Throat. Is it? Oh, that's right. Linda Lovelace, right? Remember Deep Throat? Oh, yeah, it's the first pornography I ever saw, Bill. And the one that was the first sort of crossover, it was a national sensation. And what was the plot of deep throat. She could orgasm by clit was in her throat. Right. Well maybe she was just the nerve rerouting. That's what I'm saying. It's almost the plot. Yeah. So I live that.

I mean, I think, is that part didn't get boring. A back on a woman can be like the sexiest part. See, you know what? I don't find it. Despite all your bluster bill, you're really a romantic. I do not find a beautiful back. I do not find a beautiful back. I do not find any less sexy than the front and sometimes more. And so, like, I know you're not allowed to show the front, but you are allowed to show the back, which I always thought was like, great, that's fine.

Just show the back. I'm good. Is this too intimate for you? You brought up licking back. I mean, I'm not going to lie. That's how I feel. I'm processing it all, Bill. No, I see that.

But what was the important point that we were getting to that I really? You were trying to understand the connection between me not finding peace by having a successful musical life and then how love or marriage, successful marriage, how they sort of fit together. That's why it's so important that one of us isn't smoking. Yeah. Am I paraphrasing you? Yeah, perfectly. And that is really what's in my mind because I'm trying to get that connection because you're basically saying, unless I'm getting it wrong, that you weren't able to appreciate it. appreciate, you know, your massive career success before you had the love. And I get that the love is, is, you could then find the love and be like, oh, and this is even better.

No, I get. But why I don't know why you couldn't access the satisfaction from the career before you had. I can tell you why. I can tell you why. Okay. I had a million dollars by the time I was 24 years old. Okay. A year before. that i was making 12 000 a year working at a record store and i was broke okay so i'm a mill you know i mean we grew up in a time we're millionaire these days millioners not doesn't mean as much but the word millionaire still meant something in my brain when i was 24 years old so i have a million dollars when i'm 24 years old uh by the time i'm 26 on rm tv platinum records right saturnite live cover rolling stuff i mean i basically did by my mid 20s like most of the checklist all the boxes okay and i never felt this

sense of satisfaction about it and i couldn't quite understand why because everybody around me is like this is fucking incredible and i was like it is and it isn't okay so to answer your question the problem with all of it is it's transactional because no matter how many hit songs you write it's always what about the next one yeah no matter how many records you're sold there's always somebody's going to sell more records than you no matter how good you are there's always somebody telling you writing online that you're the worst thing that ever happened there was always like an a asterisk or a qualifier and it i mean even my band at times would was transactional with me i mean i would write these massive songs and they were kind of like

they didn't give a shit it was weird why well that gets into band psychology and we could talk about it if you want but just to finish the little spiel only unconditional love in some facet of your life gives you the proper perspective to appreciate what is great about transactional things, but allows you to see them for what they are, which is transactional. There's no Valhalla at the top of Rock Mountain. There isn't. And I've been there multiple times. Right. So when I stand in front of 65,000 people, in my hierarchical mind, my family is still above that. Right. Sure. I tell my kids all the time, and there's still little kids, and hopefully it'll endure in their brain. I tell them, because they'll come see me play. They'll come on

stage with me. I mean, we pull up to where the Mets play in New York, and my daughter goes, how many people am I going to dance in front of today? And I said, well, 41,000. She goes, okay. And then an hour later, she's on stage with me dancing in front of 40,000 people. They're having these immense peak experiences. But I tell them over and over again, no matter what you see Daddy do, no matter what you hear about Daddy good or bad, you're more important than that. You are so much more important that to me. I would trade all of this for you. Only unconditional love, sort of clarifies what's great and not great about it. And if all you have, and because I came from nothing,

it was about am I on MTV? And if I'm not, I was devastated because I must be doing something wrong. Well, I get all that because it's ephemeral. Stardom like beauty, like a lot of things. You started talking, we started talking, you know, within the context of the political thing. I mean, you were somebody who stood up for decades and talked about free speech and free thinking and a political part of this country because you're not willing to march in lockstep,

suddenly all the things that you've contributed, suddenly that's out the door. But you've been doing, how many years have you been standing up there in the political maw? Yeah, 32. On TV, yeah. So the world we grew up in, that should mean something. something like well i'm mad at bill mar today but it has some perspective now we live in your you're you're either swinging for from a rope or you're or your chairman mao but you know yes but there are still lots of people who appreciate it well i'm with them yeah i appreciate it um and that's who

i do it for and you're right there are others who went for the exits when you don't fully just go for the team and that is first of all it's not it's not helpful it's not going to elect the right people and it's worst of all boring it is boring it's boring to be predictable it's what my friend calls let me guess politics something happens and let me guess you know it's like when there's a shooting like right before they even check anything they know who did it they know whose side the person was on let okay let me guess or trump does something let me guess you know it's just it's boring and it's not sophisticated. It's just not sophisticated. Well, that's why I took myself out of the political

discourse, because I couldn't I've had a very unique life, and it's not not everybody agrees, but the point is, I've had a unique perspective. I've been in the White House, I've met smart people like you, I've been behind the Wizards Curtain 500 times. I have a very unique perspective on the way the world works. It's not for everybody, but you can't say I don't have a unique perspective. Not many people have

climbed up that particular mountain for that length of time. And when you can't have a nuanced, intelligent discussion that's not even trying to make a point to somebody, just like, let's just talk. And hey, by the way, based on my experiences, this is the way I read the football. And that's, that's why I love to have people like Charlie Kirk sit there as he did. Because I'm not going to agree with most of what he says. First of all, he was very Christy and all that. I'm an atheist. But it's okay. He's a human being and not a dummy. And unless people get it through their thick fucking skulls, you're going to have to talk to people. Let me tell you something, Bill. We've had over 200 guests here sitting in that chair. I would guess at least a quarter of

them say something that is full-on bunkers, in my view. Okay. You know, like we didn't land on the moon. Shit like that. And maybe. I licked her back and... That is the least crazy thing. You're not in that category. So far. I mean, I don't know. Well, we got a few minutes.

Yeah, we got a few minutes. But if you start just dismissing people for anything other than just the most kind of egregious, you know, I'm a Nazi and I'm proud of it, although even Kanye has survived. and I'm not for canceling him either. He sat here once, we didn't air it because I would have been canceled. Or, you know, I'm a cannibal. Not like an army, hammer, a cannibal who was not a cannibal, and he sat here, and I was happy to rehabilitate him,

but an actual cannibal, you know, unless it's something like so out there, you know, you just got to get over yourself and talk to these people, and for all those assholes who are like, you know, I can't believe you talk to, Trump. Okay, I'm not even going to go into why that's such a stupid opinion, but just where does it end? Or I can't talk to him. Who's next? People who voted for him? Can I not

talk to Joe Rogan? Can't even talk to him? What about Sylvester Stallone? He's such a great guy. Stallone, Rocky. Really? I can't talk to him. Fuck off with this bullshit. Yeah. You know? So, I don't know. We got back onto that. I really didn't want to. I really didn't want to. No, I wasn't trying to lead you there. No, no, it's on my mind. It's on our minds. It's terrible. Let me tell you something. I got off the road. I'm so glad I did last year. I mean, at the end of last year, I wouldn't want to be out there right now. It's getting a little chippy. It's getting a little chippy out there. Yeah. Well, let's hope from this moment that there's no more of that. If I were you, I would stay out of it. Oh, I know I do. You're in front of 65,000 people.

that's not a security I'll leave it to I leave it to the way I look at it and I don't because at one point I wondered if I was compromised

meaning like should I be saying certain things when I feel you know like a day like today it's like should I say something or not

or you're just let me finish no because I want to make sure I'm clear because I don't want people to misconstru what I'm saying

my best contribution is art yes you're a person who lives in the political yeah firestorm weekly yeah it's my job you chose that yes and and you're great at it and and and you talk to people behind the scenes you have you have a very illuminated people on from every walk of the political stripe okay so i'm more of a leave it to the people who are in the fight and i use that word loosely because i i want you to because first of all you know you're an eloquent elliptical lyricist let that speak for itself you don't need to give them a reason when you're in front of a crowd well i also came to the conclusion that um i'm never

going to exactly say what i want to say not in a song like my my gift is to say it in a song what i'm saying yes so if i really want to contribute then then write imagine or yeah yeah bullet with butterfly wings you know what that's that's my contribution that's That's what the God that I believe in animated me to do. The other stuff is really for people who want to be in it on a daily level. And I can respect and appreciate that, even if I don't always agree. Right. So you were talking about unconditional love.

Sure. And that's, I mean, kids, I can kind of get that. Because, I mean, what's the worst thing a kid can do? I mean, they're feral, but, you know, they're not really capable of, like, murder or anything. But you think you're going to have that with a human? Yes. Because, like, unconditional, so, like, if you killed somebody, she'd still stay with you? Is that what?

Because, like, I feel like with adult humans, it's kind of a tough argument to make unconditional because you can think of things someone would do where you kind of would want the other person. Okay, can I answer that? No, no, let's see. Why I brought it up. No, no, but I want to, because I feel like I got what you're asking. I think to ask another human being to live up to a standard of perfection. When we say unconditionally and you bring up like a thing, like, okay, well, if you murdered somebody,

is she going to stand next to you, you know, that type of thing. I think the one thing I would say is you're right to point that out. And if you're going to ask me, is there anybody on this planet that I trust 100% that aren't my children? The answer is no. Now, I trust my wife more than most. Right. Like, I don't know what the percentage is, but it's very, very high. And I've made that commitment.

But the thing I would try to explain to is once you have children, it's the highest bond you can have with another human being. So that's the closest I've ever come. And if you want to sort of give kind of standard to it, I didn't have it with my father, I didn't have it with my mother, I didn't have it with my stepmother, I didn't have it with my immediately family. I have a very good relationship with my brother, and I trust my brother a lot. So outside of my brother and his kids and his wife and my wife and our kids, it is all transactional on some level.

And I've had the experience, however horrible it is, where I was a kid ignored by members of my family, I got successful. Suddenly everybody was really interested in what I had to say. And then when my career went down, they all disappeared again. That's a tough one if you've lived it. So this is the closest I've ever come, and I don't, I'm not a person who's waiting around for perfection. I think at 58, I think I've got enough road beneath me to say, okay, if this is as good as it's going to get, and it's really good, okay, I'm going to trust that. And if that, there's still that 4%, 7%, well, that's all I can tell you is, my, when we got down, because I didn't want to get married, and I was very transparent with my wife, said, do not want to get married, because I'd been married before and went through a bad divorce. and all that. And I was just like, I don't want it. I don't want the state of Illinois my fucking

bullshit, okay? Especially when you're talking about songwriting, copyrights, and all that shit. And my wife said, you know, we talked a lot about it. And she was very intent on getting married. And it's not important why for this. But the one thing that became clear was that she said, look, I know you're not big on trust. I understand why. But I'm telling you when we get married, our relationship will get better. And I couldn't, for the life of me, imagine how. And I'd been with her for eight, nine years at that point. And we had kids.

I couldn't conceive of it intellectually. And I'm telling you, the day after I got married, I looked her and said, motherfucker, you're right. Why? Because it brought us just that little bit closer. Because we were willing to take that leap of faith. And at the end of the day, I mean, you're here because at some point you bet on Bill Maher. you said I got something that nobody else has got and I'm sure somebody told you you ain't that

funny bill and I heard you ain't that great my own father told me I couldn't fucking sing and I'm sure there's somebody out there who would agree with them but you know 30 million records later and 3,000 concerts later I guess I do something right right so I had to navigate all that and it's ultimately about I think life is ultimately about faith and in that and I know you're not a religious person that's where I think you could at least kind of find common ground with spirituality, which is like, it is ultimately about faith. Like when people say, well, how do you know there's a God? And I go, I don't fucking know. I can't tell you that. No, that's what faith is. That's what faith is. Now, if you want the guy to crack out of the sky and go,

you know, like Mel Brooks, like, here I am. You know what I mean? I'm God. That's an interesting story that it happened that quickly, like the wedding night. You were like... I felt it. Yeah. And it's held. And not to be so glib is to say it's like a percentage. But wherever we were on the line the day after i was married we were closer and we've gotten closer since so that's all i know well you probably felt good about giving her the thing that gave her piece of mind she would say she would say you know i'm a guy i complain all the time she goes how many fucking kids do you want like i gave up my body you know nine months at a time right this is my test if you want me to prove it to you right i can't right but i can point to that

them and say, there's my living testament to how I feel about you. Right. So that's all I know. And I'm not saying this for everybody. And I would have told you three years ago, it wasn't for me. Right. I mean, that was always my issue with marriage was like, if it doesn't work out, it's like you've purposely put yourself in this prison that is very hard to escape from.

And that's sort of the argument that the argument that the, use for getting married i mean i've heard people say that in just so many words what to be imprisoned well not imprisoned but um that it's it we want to get married because it would be make it very difficult to break up i see they feel like they have to put this stricter on that's i think that's the worst reason okay but that a lot of people do for that reason well that's to me that's a weak argument if somebody says you have a big fight i'm leaving and you can you can't we're married you can't just leave they like that that they then have to work it out because otherwise it's lawyers and money and divorce and terrible you know and yeah that's a big reason why people get married yeah

i was i had a meeting yesterday with someone uh about a film project and you know the guy said at the at the end of the meeting you know he's like look if we're going to do this together i need final cut on this project and i'm i'm going to say jokingly because i like the person you know this is chicago way of saying it's like motherfucker if you need final cut we didn't get to work right if we're not in this together i don't care what the fuck you got on a piece of paper right and that's the same thing i would say with the right marriage if you need a piece of paper in a fucking ring like that's not if i'm going to go to work but then you did it no now there there are legalistic reasons and there are sort of let's call it

uh performative reasons you know we present like we're married i just think women like it Sure. They do. They just like it. It's just, you know, it's just like they feel like I know. Okay, you just had Woody Allen in here. Yes. Okay.

My wife, not that long ago, when she was working as a Maider D in New York for a restaurant. A Maider D. Mrs. Woody Allen would call and make a reservation. And she knew was Sunni. That's Woody's relationship. And I think she even knew Sunyi for some New York thing. And she would call and she'd say, this is Mrs. Woody Allen. Of course.

Oh, I've known that for many. I mean, I live in, well, I live in Los Angeles. We don't know what area. But I'm just saying in some of the wealthier neighborhoods out here, you know, that's a very important thing, that the wife, who sometimes doesn't even like the husband anymore, but they want to be able to call the restaurant and say, I'm Mrs. Blankety Blanket. Mrs. Bill Maher. This is Mrs. Bill Barr.

Yeah, well, that's not going to happen. But it's just, it's stature. I mean, we still have that in society. It's a certain stature. And it's a certain, I know we're all in the future, we're living in the future and everything is not like it used to be. But women still are all about, not all of them, but a lot of them are all about, I got a man. I mean, you know, these women who have like three names, their first name, and then their maiden name, and then it's a dash. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

exactly it's a way to say i'm an independent woman and also i got a man okay yet i don't want you to forget i got a man okay bitch did you get a man because i got a man his name's clinton or whatever it is like i'm going to put that at the end of my independent name and that's just human nature so maria lopez marr i don't know where maria lopez i don't know where maria Lopez. But yeah, anyway. Have we run out of gas bill? I have to get by it's one of those weeks. That's why. It's just one of those weeks. God bless. Like last week, everything was easy. Like the editorial, just like a Monday night, it was almost all done. This week is just, some weeks you just get harder and then this big, big story today that happened in the middle of the week. I really do. And I'm, um, you know i don't try to get too emotional about things but there is something about having somebody who's sitting right there and you just got to know as a human being and then i mean death in itself is just a weird thing what's weird and and i i don't mean this in any other

other way than the way i mean it what's weird is we we get fixated on how somebody dies like would it have been better if he got hit by a boss or you know i'm saying like death is death and that's the sorrow of it. Actually, it would have been better because it wouldn't mean that there aren't this seething group of people on both sides who think the answer is to shoot each other. So yes, it would, Bill, have been better if he was hit by a bus. It wouldn't have been good. But it wouldn't have been like this. This is just a place we don't, we keep heading towards and we don't want to keep barreling down towards. That's

where my mind is at today. So let me ask you. But also just the idea that, you know, you've got to stop seeing people as the other. You brought up that whole sectarian thing before. You're so right. In Rwanda. Yeah, remember they were on the radio saying, go out and hatch at your neighbors. I mean, they were literally. Because they were vermin.

Because same thing with Hitler. Because when you make the people you don't agree with, the other, the deplorable, the people who you don't even deserve to live. That's when this shit starts. So let me ask you, because you are in the fray on a daily level, what's one thing that you think needs to happen immediately? Both sides have to admit they do it. Stop with the, yeah, but, you know, the right wing, absolutely true. The right wing has been terrible. There's a lot of right wing lunatics and nationalists and fucking violent people and marching in Charlottesville and lots of bullshit that goes on.

killing. We can't have that argument. Because plainly the left does it too now. I don't care who started it. Everybody both started it always in these fights. It escalates. It goes up and up and up and up and up. And then we're just on these two sides screaming at each other. Stop it. It has to start with everybody is doing this now and everybody has to stop now. So we're basically at two party political system. Yes. A two team. It's not even about part. But I'm saying is do you think there's enough will in the political leadership on both sides of the political aisle to, whether they have to go into a room and say, hey, we really got to dial this down? Do you think there's enough political will there? No, because Trump's not going to do that. Okay. He's not going to do

that. And the Republicans who sat there with their arms folded when Biden said, political violence has no place and they were like yeah that's not really worth clapping for as long as a Democrat said it no I don't think these people are going to change yet you know I mean I have a very pessimistic view so I don't want

to bring everybody down although I probably already have with a little bit of this discussion but you know I just don't see this country coming back until Charlton Heston finds the Statue of Liberty almost buried in the sand with just the you know

remember the statue of the end of the movie and then like okay it's it kind of has to hit rock bottom first and uh you know okay so how far are we from rock bottom we're we're we're we're barreling toward it but we're not there yet because america is still a great fucking country even with all the bullshit would you you mention other places in the world would you want to live anywhere else well when things started to get hairy somewhere in the last eight to ten years and i and i said at many tables with people openly who had success and wealth, they would sort of have these kind of general discussions like, if something gets bad, bad, bad, where are we going to go? And everybody would always come to the same conclusion, which is there's nowhere to go. Well, a lot of them

are going to Ireland and buying castles because that's what people do when they've had it up to here with privilege. They go buy a castle in Ireland. But yes, I mean, Ellen is to camp there. That's true. I just read Robin Wright. has said she's fleeing that's her robin right pen robin right pen yes well i think she's dropped the pen yes but uh and some other people of the you know they're fleeing you know all the always the people who lived in would you leave america bill fuck no fuck you if you think i'm leaving i'm not leaving everything looks good from afar get there you'll find a lot of shit you know what go buy a castle in ireland those castles are drafted you'll be back asshole but you can't get a castle for

you know why I know why I know that because I've looked are you serious a rock star bill we look at we look at these things exactly rock stars have to have castles last story last story I know you got to go work last story I was working with the famous

he's just recently passed away great guy Roy Thomas Baker produced all the famous queen stuff Roy very Ponzi very English and he was he at some point bought a castle and we were fascinated the band you know like tell us all about the castle

he goes oh it was all right you know owning castle and he said it was drafty you know you think you get a castle but then you find out you got to get the power and there's no AC and right the moat is down but okay right so we're like okay and he goes

but that's not the worst that's not the worst part so what's the worst part he goes I had a I had to buy the whole village that went with the castle and we said why did you have to buy a village he goes well who the fuck's going to work on the castle right so we had to buy the village of the people who had been living in the village for generations because only they knew how to take care of the castle that party didn't like people here have bought villages i think i'm maybe remembering this wrong forgive me if i got the name wrong but i seem to

remember kim basinger she bought a town in the south of all the people people. She didn't seem like someone who wanted a whole town. And of course, Jeffrey Epstein had an island. You know, I mean, Brando had his own island in Tahiti. I did look at an island once. Of course. I'd be so disappointed if you didn't. It was about $5 million. Yeah. Where was it? Somewhere in the Bahamas. Oh, nice. Because Steve Miller had bought an island, the great, the Joker. The Joker. And at that point, an island seemed like a good idea. And why did you pull the string on that? I just had this vision of being on my island, you know, the stars are, you know, it's beautiful

tonight, you know what I mean? You turn to your loved one, here we are on the island, and they're like, what's that boat approaching, you know, with the pirates, I don't know, you know, and we're all going to die because somebody's going to come on my, my island. Were you, you would have been the sole resident of the island? Yes. Oh. That was the attraction.

So there would be no, well, but then there's no police department. That's my point. There's no. it's all good it's all good on the island until somebody shows up like like like like a like a max keytie and right fear you know there's no there's no hospital you know first you hire him to take care of the island and next thing you know your dog disappears and yeah now that's the thing you know you think you're just getting away with five million but then it's just the the expenses have just begun and the remodeling oh i mean that south beach area that has all the driftwood i mean somebody's going to have a nice You're following my flow here. Yeah. So I'm staying, Bill. All right.

I'm glad you are, you're always such a treat to talk to. You're such a funny guy to talk to. So good luck at the podcast. Tell them all about it. Magnificent others. Interview a lot of musicians, but also start interviewing actors. Thanks to you, you helped me start that. And it's been a lot of fun.

Usually about 75 to 90 minutes, very deep dives. Like us. But you're fun here. Where's the band playing? The band is, we're on our way to Asia. Asia. Tomorrow. First time in Japan.

We sold out the Boudicom 25 years apart, so I'm going to play a sold-out Boudicom show in a couple days. Asia tour, first time in the, you're sure. In the old days, the rock bands would play the Boudicom, and the Japanese audience was famously quiet. Not because they weren't enjoying, just because it was in the culture. Is that still the case? No. Great. No, it's like any other audience.

now. Really? I mean, maybe a little quieter just because of the culture, but no. MTV and YouTube made every audience is the same now. Essentially. Good. That's so good. I mean, you notice it like in Norway. It's a little quieter, but But Japan, they're screaming

and shouting. I mean, I mean, Japan's kind of weird in that they're sort of obsessed with the West. Yeah. So they're kind of almost cheering because of what they've seen you know since they adopted a different cultural take to a concert right because of the influence of watching how an audience would act in the west right i don't think they had an

organic moment they sort of said oh we'll take that too like a form of dress i just remember it like the old school bands like the beetles playing there and it was like wow it was very unnerving it was i mean i went to we went to we went When Nirvana was at their absolute peak, around 92, smells like teen spirit, we went to see them play at a show, and you could have heard a pin drop between songs. And this is when they were the biggest band in the world. I mean, it was literally like deafening silence. Okay, how about that for a wrap?

We did our right for a sad newsday. Oh, my God, it was like, I laughed, I cried. Yeah. Thank you.