Do Go On - 445 - Huey Lewis and the News

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Huey Lewis (of the News) was born Hugh Gregg III and his road to the top of the charts was long and eventful, tune in to hear his wild life story!Suggested by Ryan Rotigliano and Micaela McRae (CW: suicide)This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 04:49 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSupport the show on Apple podcasts and get bonus episodes in the app: http://apple.co/dogoon Live show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Watch Do Go On The Quiz Show: https://youtu.be/GgzcPMx1EdM?si=ir7iubozIzlzvWfKSubmit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/Check out our merch: https://do-go-on-podcast.creator-spring.com/   Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/lewis-hueyhttps://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_384_-_huey_lewishttps://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/huey-lewis-playing-to-win-186299/https://www.bigissue.com/culture/music/huey-lewis-the-power-of-love-is-family/https://daily.jstor.org/the-poet-who-wanted-to-be-eaten-by-vultures/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody, Matt, Jess and Dave here. Sorry Jess, just butting in quickly to let the listeners know that I'm going to be in Sydney this week coming up the 8th to the 12th of May and you can get tickets now via MattShillComedy.com. Then going straight to Brisbane on the 16th to the 19th. So tickets for my show Dryer Dryer in Sydney in Melbourne. Sorry Matt, I'll just cut you off there. I just need to tell everyone that our quiz show, our web series is out right now. Do go on the quiz show. You can see it on Stupid Old Channel for free on YouTube. Type in, do go on the quiz show and you can see three episodes right now covering topics

like Google, Queen Victoria, the Olympics, and we've got five more episodes coming up. So like and subscribe, whatever that means. They are big topics too. And I said Sydney and Melbourne, I meant Sydney and Brisbane. Anyway, let's get on with the show. I'm still here too. Oh, hey Jess. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and as always, I'm here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart.

I'm Jess Perkins. I'm Matt Stewart and just thinking about being here with you two, feeling so good every time Dave goes, welcome or whatever. Yeah. I forget what he says, but I love it. That iconic thing he says at the start. I just think how good is it to be alive? Yeah.

That's what my brain says. Yeah. I don't always say it out loud, but I always think it. I feel so good to be alive. I'm asking rhetorically. It is great to be alive. Wow. I have nothing to add.

Nothing to add. Fantastic. Hey, other than I wish I was never born. But apart from that. Apart from that, nothing. Well, I mean, what a great mindset to be in to explain the show. Thank you. So hello, it's Jess again.

And we will say that at the start of every time we speak. Dave here, by the way, should have said that. So I'm going to put your mother on. Jess? I'm your mother. Have you been eating vegetables? You know, mum stuff. Yeah, have you been eating vegetables? You know, mum's stuff. Yeah, have you been eating vegetables?

Definitely not. Anyway, how this show works is one of the three of us goes away, research is a topic usually suggested to us by our wonderful listeners. They learn all about it, they absorb it, they bathe in it and they come back, they tell the other two about it who never interrupt and who are very polite and kind to one another. And we always get onto the topic with a question. Now, Matt, it is your turn to do a report. What is your motherfucking question? Whoa. My question is who am I? Oh, I love a who am I? I was born in New York City in the year 1950. Okay. 1950 New York City. Okay. Yes. Donald Duck.

I have sold over 30 million records worldwide. Musicians 74, 74. Okay. Yes. My birth name and you can buzz in at any time. My birth name is Hugh Craig the third. That was my buzz. That's a terrible buzz. Sorry. It was like, it was unpleasant to listen to. Even more unpleasant to do.

I can imagine your throat must feel awful. Yeah, God. Go on, answer it. Sorry, where was I? Oh, God. Hugh Craig the third. I think that might be a man known as Huey Lewis. Correct.

Oh. Which I know Matt has been very keen to report on for a long time, and I am so happy that day has finally come. A free choice came up. I was actually after a show during the comedy festival, talking to one of our great Patreons, Sophie Waldron, and I was saying, I was throwing out some facts about, I don't know why it came up, maybe the bar outplayed a song,

and I'm throwing out some facts about it. I'm like, I really would have loved to have done an episode on, but I just don't think anyone gives a shit. And she's like, no, from what you're saying, that's what an interesting laugh. I think it'd be a great episode. So I said, all right, so. So a lot riding on Soph's shoulders right now. And she keeps breaking those.

Yeah, we'll quickly explain that. Oh yeah. Well, she was in the UK last year. She had a fall and broke her arm. And then just last week at the time of recording was hit by a car. She said, I made getting hit by a car sound really fun. She thought she'd give it a go. Got hit by a car, had the exact same break on the other arm.

First arm, not fully healed. Second arm now broken. That's a bad run. Yeah. So I just want to go on the record and say getting hit by a car is not fun and I'm sorry I've made it sound really exciting. Oh do you think people are trying to emulate you, their hero? Well that's why I'm going on the record now because I don't want to be sued again. I don't have the money to be sued again.

Okay. That'll ruin me again. You haven't recovered from the last time. I haven't recovered from the last time. You. Okay. Okay. Yeah, you have- That'll ruin me. Again. You have not recovered from the last time. Again. Yeah. I haven't recovered from the last time. You definitely-

You're still bankrupt, is that right? Yes! You have not recovered. But I have a PayPal, if any- No. Well, I have not recovered my investment. On me. In you.

Yes, that's right. Well, um, I'm so sorry to hear that. Um, but are you up for- Well, are you up for me to tell you this story? Well, I hope so. You tell me. Well, in parts, there are some sad parts now that I think about it.

No. How about we skip those bits? Let me know when there's a sad part and I'll cover my ears and go, la la la la la. I mean, there's a few, like, there's some, he's had some ups and downs. I was, you know, there's a couple of mentions of suicide, but I won't be dwelling on them.

Okay. Little heads up there. Yeah, nice little warning there. So yeah, I think, Jess, me on them. Okay. Little heads up there. Nice little warning there. So yeah, I think Jess, me saying bit of a pick me up, most of it. Okay, here we go. He's covered himself, legally. So-

Which you did not. I did not, that's exactly what I did wrong. Huey Lewis was born in 1950 as Hugh Anthony Craig III. Craig. And it's not like me saying American Craig. It's spelled C-R-E-double G. It is. Do they pronounce that Craig?

Maybe they pronounce that Craig, actually. Hugh Craig the third. Yeah, is that right? So yeah, his parents, you can probably guess his dad's name, Hugh Anthony Craig Jr. and his mother, Maria Magdalena Baczynski, and the young family, when he was just four years of age, moved to Marin County in California. He had a very bohemian upbringing, which is really interesting because he's sort of in

the 80s, he was like big pop star. During the middle of the 80s, he was like as big as it got, you know, pretty- Spoilers. Seen as being kind of straight and stuff like that. But his upbringing was quite the opposite of that. Very behemian. His dad was studying medicine and went on to become a radiologist. But he postponed that for a while to pursue life as a jazz drummer and piano player. Oh, we're doing both at once? Yeah, I think so. It was awful.

But with jazz, it's hard to know. Titty titty. It's a different time. Bling bling titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty titty jazz? Yep, me too. According to Huey, after his dad graduated from Duke as a pre-med, he said, I'm going to be a professional drummer. And he went to New York and played for a couple of years, but he became very disenchanted. He was Bohemian, but he always believed in discipline and he saw all of his heroes stoned. So he went back to medical school. He was like, ah, he didn't love the drug scene of it all. Loved- it's so interesting. I love jazz. I love the Bohemian lifestyle, but not

those drugs. Not those pesky drugs. That's not what I mean it for. I was more into the drugs and she was an artist, a bit of a hippie, born in Poland, but she had a really rough time early, if you do the math. Her and her parents fled Poland during the Second World War. Right. According to a 1984 article in Rolling Stone written by Christopher Connolly, his mother Magda had wound her way through Portugal and Brazil as World War II raged.

And Lewis later said, she often says that during World War II, the sound of freedom to her was jazz, American jazz. When there was American jazz around, there were GIs around and you knew you were safe. Oh wow. Things were incredibly hard for his grandparents when they arrived in America though, was American jazz around, there were GIs around and you knew you were safe. Oh wow. Things were incredibly hard for his grandparents when they arrived in America though, according

to Huey. When my grandparents came to America, they had a real tough time. They were quite wealthy in Poland, but in America they were discriminated against and not very rich. They committed suicide together. And in that moment, my mum became a Bohemian. She was probably, if not the first hippie in San Francisco one of the very first hippies took LSD and hung out with Timothy Leary Ken Cassie and Alan Ginsburg all these people in the blossoming beatnik hippie scene in

Sausalito any of those names ring about I know Alan Ginsburg, but can yeah from that beat generation Yes, so she was right at the center of this. Yeah, wow. And because of that, so was young Huey. Like he did. I'll mention a few times, but he'd at different times during his childhood, he'd like wake up in the middle of the night. So the people he walk into the kitchen and Allen Ginsberg sitting there.

Just like eating cereal from the box. Yeah. Hello. And then was it his dad's walking around being like, these hippies keep taking drugs, fuck off, get a job. Yeah. Yeah. So like beatnik poets, jazz musicians, all that sort of stuff would be hanging out his house all hours of the night, but he was naturally gifted academically.

And sort of like sometimes, you know, you rebel against your parents in different ways and he was just gifted academically. It's sort of like sometimes, you know, you rebel against your parents in different ways. And he was just like nailing school. His mom is like on LSD and stuff. And he's like just. Really studious. Yeah, smashing it. He skipped second grade

because he was, you know, ahead of everyone else. And he later said that was due to him excelling in the sandbox. Bit of fun. Bit of fun. Second grade, you know, I was very early in school. Skip second grade, must excelling in the sandbox. Bit of fun. Bit of fun. Second grade, you know, I was very early in school. Oh, skip second grade, must be pretty good in the sandbox. When I was in grade one, I thought I should probably skip a grade. I'd seen it on The Simpsons.

I knew it was possible. And I said, mum, I think I should skip a grade. And she said, why? And I said, I've read all the books in the class. And that's not even true. I hadn't read all of them. I'd purposely skipped some that I thought were a bit boring or below me. Sounds like you're good at skipping.

Yeah, I should have skipped. Yeah, skip books, skip class. Yeah. When I was in prep, which is the first grade of primary school here in Victoria, I remember someone got a question right and the teacher jokingly said, good work, straight to grade six. And they actually walked out of the room and started walking up the corridor and the teacher would be like, oh, no, no, just a joke. Just you didn't actually going to grade six.

Oh my God. And they're in grade prep. Yeah. That's so funny. That's really cute. And also so dumb. It's like it proved that they shouldn't be doing that. The one kid who didn't go out there was forced to go to grade six. Yeah. When he was about 12, maybe 13, his parents got divorced. You could probably see that coming. Oh, they seem so aligned exactly one of them loved drugs the other one hated drugs yeah the original odd couple yeah I thought if they can't make it work what hope do the rest of us have? exactly. this is shocking to me I need a

moment. it sounds like... don't give me a moment then. we'll give you a moment in post. Oh yeah, great. Thank you. AJ, if you could edit in a moment. Thank you. So yeah, it seems like, I think his mum sort of got custody for the most part, which makes sense again. Give it to the drug. Not the sober doctor.

Not Hugh Craig the second. What kind of parent could that be? And his dad was keen for him to go to this conservative prep school in New Jersey, which seems like a weird thing for a Bohemian dad to want him to do, but it was just mainly to get him away from the drug scene. He didn't think that was good for him. This resulted- His dad, such a wet blanket.

The mom and dad went to court over it. Oh. And the mom's like, no, I I wanted to stay here in the drug house. But that's like, no, I wanted to go over there away from the drugs. And it was a bit of a stalemate until the judge asked Huey what he would want to do. And he felt awful about it. He's like, oh, man, I don't. It was pretty traumatic to have to choose basically to side with one parent or the other.

But in the end, he went with the prep school. Apparently he got sucked in by this great glossy brochure, made it look so much fun. But when he got there, he didn't like it so much. Hated it. It wasn't quite the picture postcard he was expecting. But while there he did continue to enjoy music, apparently he'd hop on trains to Philadelphia and saw shows by blues legends like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. And academically, he was earning honor roll grades, especially maths or math as they say over there.

And he was also an all-state baseball player. He was a pitcher. So just like. Wow. Kind of high achieving and whatever he did. Yeah. Due to him skipping ahead back in grade two, he graduated high school at the age of 16 and his grades, including a perfect 800 on his math SAT, meant he was accepted into Cornell University in New York to study electrical engineering.

Wow. At 16. Yeah. What a guy. Real dooky study electrical engineering. Wow. At 16. Yeah. What a guy. Real Doogie Howser over here. Yeah. Yeah, Doogie Howser actually based on him. Wow.

Yeah. That's true. They changed it from like- Huey to Doogie. Huey to Doogie and electrical engineering to MD. That's good stuff. They cut out all the music stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

People aren't going to believe this. And the bass, people are going to be like, a bit much. Yeah. Make it believable. And the Bohemian parents, no, stuff. Yeah, yeah. People aren't going to believe this. And the baseball, and they're like, ah, people are going to be like, ah, a bit much. Yeah. Make it believable. And the Bohemian parents, nah, nah, nah, nah. We'll cut all that out, dad. But apart from that, it's exactly alive. It's crazy. He planned to focus on baseball over the summer before heading off to college,

but his dad instead convinced him to hitchhike around Europe instead. His dad was like, this is the last thing we're going to make you do. You're 16. You've graduated. As far as I'm concerned, you're a man now. But not in the eyes of the law. But he's like, you're a child. And his dad's like, look, I feel like a bit of a nerd for sending you to that prep school. Yeah. I'm going to try and get some character back into you. You have to hitchhike now, OK?

Yeah. You got prep. Not down the road. You got perfect on your SATs, to be honest. That really made me feel sick. I think he was like, you know, pretty wise. And that is much more common wisdom now. This is in the 60s.

Yeah. But gap years weren't really a thing back then. But he was like, no one knows really what they want to do yet, or it's unlikely. Maybe you'll find yourself over there. Just bum around for a year and just take your time, basically. Wow. He's so young. 16's so young. Yeah, that's too young. I was so dumb at 16.

I'm pretty dumb now, but like, I reckon I can get on a plane and go to a different country by myself now and I'll be OK. At 16, no. You'd be freaking out. Absolutely. Probably at 20 I still was actually. Yeah, so he seems very all over the shop. Gone from go to prep this conservative prep school to go bum around for a year in Europe as a 16 year old. But his mum apparently said this was the first good idea his dad had ever had. So she liked it.

She's like, yeah, it's a great idea. Apparently, she gave him a Bob Dylan record and said, apparently, the poet's really loving this guy. I should check it out. And after the breakup, his mom also started seeing a beat poet named Lou Welch. I don't know. Is that Renee Meringue? Yeah. And according to Matthew Wills writing for JSTOR, he was a hard drinking beat poet and an

inspiration for one of Jack Kerouac's characters in Big Sur. He also helped bring Huey up and became his stepfather. So sort of in holidays from prep school, he'd go back for the summer. So he goes from like blazers and tires and stuff during school term and then full hippie lifestyle, LSD in the middle of the, well not him, but you know, people around him. How interesting, yeah.

And I think his mom, I listened, there was a really good episode of WTF that came out back in 2013. And it's just, yeah, I've listened to that a few times while putting this report together and I just love hearing him talk. He's just real, he's real fun. He just seems like like a super nice guy. Yeah, cool. But yeah, he was sort of like, you know, I'd be wearing the blazer and you get home, mom would be like, take that blazer off. We're going to see some music or whatever.

Wow. It's kind of a really interesting way to like raise a pretty well-rounded person. You know, it's like put them in this really conservative school, but then also like loosen up a little. It's, it's, it's interesting. It could be terrible, but it sounds like maybe it's working okay for him. That's right. Um, apparently, uh, his mom also had boarder at the time, a guy called Billy

Roberts, who was a folk singer songwriter. And his claim to fame is that he wrote the song Hey Joe, which became a huge hit for Jimi Hendrix. So that was just he was just boarding at her house. He wrote it during the 60ies. Um, and, uh, he played a lot of harmonicas. Um, at once. Up and down, up and down. So he just had heaps in his room and he gave a few of his old ones to Huey. And, uh, he took a few of them on the, on the trip with him as he went hitchhiking. Cool.

And, uh, yeah, then in, in 1967, he left home in Marin County, California, and hitchhiked his way across America with the aim of flying to Europe from Boston for some reason. That's closer. Yeah, I guess so. I'll drive as far as I can, you know, go catch hitch as far as I can and then go from Boston. But yeah, did you neither do you guys know who Hey Joe? No. The song Hey Joe? No. Hey Joe, don't make it bad. Is that right? That one. No, that's not the one. But that's all right.

I thought it was more impressive than you both gave it. But we're very young. Wait, Jimi Hendrix is that's very cool. Yeah. Cool person. It's one of Jimi Hendrix really big ones. You know, his were all basic big songs were all covers like all along the watchtowers of Bob Dylan song. But yeah, that was that's one of the big ones like an all time great rock song. How's it go? Hey Joe! No, no down here, here no more.

Okay, none of that sounded right. But yeah, it sounded like Black Dog didn't. Whole lot of love. Whole lot of love. So God damn it. Damn it. That's going to keep you up at night. And this guy wrote whole lot of love. All right. We're pausing for a second. So these **** can hear this.

AJ, sorry. Rude. Dear listeners, just give us one second. We're just going to play. And would it be in this top five Spotify songs? I feel like I would know like Purple Haze, Foxy Lady, all along the Watchtower. Yeah it's in amongst those. Really? It's had...

Okay it's in the top five, you're right. Foodie Child, good one. It is the third most played. It's had nearly 300 million plays. Wow. But I guess... We're gonna have to know it. Okay, let me say that again. So we've just, I've just played Hey Joe to Dave and Jess

and now I'm gonna tell them a quick fact again. So at the time his mom had a boarder named Billy Roberts. He was a folk singer songwriter who wrote the song Hey Joe. Oh my God. Wait, from Jimi Hendrix? Yes, that's right. No freaking way. I love that song.

Man, you're lying. That's the coolest thing I've ever I love that song. You're lying. That's the coolest thing I've ever heard. It's just to me, it's just a wild upbringing. Totally. It's like Alan Ginsburg, Hey Joe writer. Yep. I wouldn't have known Billy Roberts by name, but the guy wrote Hey Joe. Yeah. Just all these people are floating through his sphere. It's very cinematic, isn't it?

It feels like Forrest Gump. Totally does. You know, like all these historical figures are just floating through his life. And that happens, you know, that continues to happen to some extent. So yeah, so off he goes. He hitchhikes across America. Chunk of the trip he rode with a guy who'd stolen a car and him and a few other hitchhikers each night in the middle of the night would steal petrol by siphoning it so they could continue their trip. He talks about it like, you know, there were times where

they're driving off and there's a guy coming out after him with a shotgun and stuff like that, like pretty hectic sort of visual. A fun montage though with the movie. Yeah, exactly. And then this gargling petrol, sorry! His life would make such a good film. He couldn't afford a plane ticket, something I should have mentioned probably. So I had to figure out another way of boarding a plane. So his parents said go hitchhike around Europe, but gave him no help in getting to Europe. I think they gave him, they gave him, well his dad gave him a few hundred bucks, but

he's like, I need this. I'm trying to make this stretch out for a year or something. I need to hold on to it as long as I can and only spend it when I have to spend it. You can't get on a plane. Please tell me you started siphoning plane fuel. He built his own plane. I mean, he's trying to do some sort of engineering.

Yeah, he built a plane and fly it. Yeah. So yeah, it's good guess, but no, luckily, one of the guys who picked him up along his journey across America filled him in on this scam, how to scam his way onto a flight. And, you know, it's sort of complex, but also sort of really simple. Basically, you get there really early. I think you kind of find just a ticket. Obviously, it's not all computerized and stuff back then. And then you forge, change the details just with a pen. And the key was picking a really undesirable seat, you know, middle

row over a wing or wherever the ones that would sell last. It's like planes would rarely be fully sold out. They're the last ones to go. So you pick one of them. And then the other trick was you then sit. So you'd say, I'm sitting in row 27B, but then you'd sit in row 34B. And that gives you two shots at it. If someone goes, hey, I'm meant to be sitting there

and they come over and say, can I check your ticket? Oh, hey, I'm meant to be sitting there and they come over and say, can I check your ticket? Oh, sorry, I'm meant to be over there. So you get, it doubles your chances of getting away with it. That's good. And he got away with it. Wow. That's so funny. Yeah, he flew, it worked and he flew to Europe. Once he got there, he hitchhiked down through France and Spain to Marrakesh in Morocco. He bumped into a South African guy who'd hitchhike his own way up through Africa. And they decided they're going to go to Marrakesh for two days, but ended up staying there for

months. Just smoking hash and busking in the square with his harmonica. And he earned, and busking in the square with his harmonica and he earned, I forgot what the currency was, but basically four bucks a day. One buck would pay for his accommodation, one buck for food and he was making a small profit every day just from busking on the harmonica. Wow. Love it. And this is just an instrument he's been teaching himself since, you know, not that long ago. Yeah. After a few months, you know, hair's grown out, just looking like hippies and whatnot. And after a few months, they decide to hitchhike back north into Europe.

So they're in Marrakesh in the north of Africa. They head back into Europe. But to do this, they have to go back through Spain. And apparently it was quite hard for hippie types to hitchhike through Spain. At the time, I don't think I realized this, but Spain was under the dictatorship of a guy called Francesco Franco. Is that? Oh, no, no. Yeah, in charge for a few decades.

Ruled for it with an iron fist for a long time. Yeah. So people apparently it was just a lot tenser there. The vibe was very different. People weren't necessarily going to just pick up some random hitchhiker. And he said a lot of the people who did pick them up would be from other parts of Europe, like German tourists and stuff. And he'd just be playing harmonica all day, waiting

bit by bit, moving across. And then you'd be playing harmonica all day in the back of the car. I'd be like, shut the fuck up. I'd be pulling back over. Sorry, this is as far as I'm going. I'm actually, I'm going to live here now. I'm actually driving to the ocean. Yeah.

Oh, that might explain this next thing. Because, yeah, one of the stories he tells is he got picked up by an old Dutchman. I think he was maybe in his seventies, a guy called Jimmy Van or something. And he cruised up in this old Chevrolet, 1920s, 1930s Chevrolet, which apparently had been featured in the classic film Casablanca. There's another sort of Forrest Gump moment. This one of the greatest films of all time. It's meant to be, right?

Yeah. Never seen it. It looks boring, but yeah, is that long and my god damn, I don't give a damn, man. My god damn, I don't give a damn man my god damn I don't give a damn man that's played against Sam all right what's the one I'm thinking of where they say come with the wind yeah frankly my dear I don't give a damn right play it again Sam frankly my dear I don't give a damn man wham bam thank you ma'am there it is God it's beautiful to watch his brain work. And Rose or whatever. Rosebud. There are three classic movies that I have not been able to sit through, but I really should.

I don't know what Rosebud is. Rosebud is the one about that guy, the media, loosely based on that media guy, Orson Welles or something. No, Orson Welles directed it. Yes. On Road to the Starter. Yeah, there were fragments of thoughts. Yeah, but it's Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane.

Rosebud is also a, it's a cheat in The Sims. It's a money cheat. Do you think that's a little nod? Probably. The Sims is very, very high art. What are some of the other, because that rings a bell, like it feels like in the back of my brain. I'm thinking of that.

You can also type in Kaching, Rosebud. Or there's another one. Anyway, it doesn't matter. So anyway, I'm just playing the Sims a lot at the moment. So all of a sudden he's driving through the dictatorship of Spain. Yeah. In the Casablanca. In a Casablanca classic Chevy.

But this guy, this old fella, this old Dutch fella said he was driving all the way to Holland. So he's like, oh, fantastic. You can take us For you know ages Only problem was old Jimmy was a bit of a loose unit and had a tradition of stopping at every bar They passed and he'd have a shot at every bar they went And his passengers would have a shot as well. So every bar. Everyone's just shitfaced. Yeah, including the driver Yeah, which is not ideal. No turns out no, but we're looking at it through a modern lens. That's true

Yeah back then yeah, whatever We're in a dictatorship What are you gonna remember is with cars back then they didn't have seat belts Yes, the seat belts that obviously kill you in an accident. That's right. Now we've got these killer seat belts. Yeah. It's very dangerous. They didn't crumple either, right? Exactly. Yeah.

No crumple zone because the car would just plow through whatever it drove into. Yeah. The car was stronger than everything. Which is what it did soon because he was off his chops and he plowed through a fence and into a flooded field. Like, but maybe it was a harmonica playing in the background. So they're all off their chops in this classic old car. Even at the time, you know, it's a 30, 40 year old car and the water is just coming up through the floor.

And they're like, oh, this isn't good. But they're all off their chops and he's like, it's all pretty blurry, but he vaguely remembers the Dutchman getting out of fire extinguisher and spraying the engine and it seemed to get it going again somehow. I'm not, I should say I'm not a mechanical engineer or scientist. Or mechanic. No, I am one of those. And then- Or a firefighter? Yeah, I'm a firefighting mechanic, but I don't see how that would be relevant here.

So they end up driving off again, but, when they got stopped at the Portuguese border, he realized his passport was missing. It had floated out of the car in that field. Oh, no. So he was out again, had to find his way to Seville to go to the American embassy to sort out a replacement. I must say, they were driving to Holland and they've somehow driven into Portugal. They were driving the wrong way. Yeah. What's going on there?

Unless you're going up along the whole coast, I guess. Yeah, I think, I mean, the driver was drunk. Yeah. But it just seems funny to be like, where you going in the Netherlands? All right, we're going to go here. I'm going the long way. We'll head west. Yeah, that is interesting.

Why would they have done that? Oh, that's a scenic route. Probably because you thought there'd be more bars along the coast. Yeah. You could drink along the way. Yeah, because Seville is right, you know, it's right down south. So, yeah, I think it checks out. But yeah, why would he have been going through Portugal?

Maybe it was just to get out of... Yeah. Maybe it was just a better place to be at that time. Go along the coast because there's no dictator there. But does that mean he has to ditch his friends to go to so they keep going without him? I believe so. So he heads to Seville and you know, he doesn't have much cash on him. He just has enough.

I think he's got 20 bucks left, which will pay for his replacement passport. 20 bucks. He gets there and they've just closed. It's a Friday. So he's got to wait. He's got to get through the weekend until they open again on the Monday. So what does he do? Gamble it. Plays that harmonica. That's what he should have done. Should have done. Yeah. Plays that harmonica. He just, you know, hangs out playing the harmonica and some locals just started loving it and they go, do you want to play? I've got a concert on this

week. Do you want to headline it? His first ever gig, apparently in front of thousands of people. There was some decent local band there. And they're like, who the fuck is this guy? He's headlining? According to Connolly, writing the Rolling Stone, he earned 150 bucks, you know, which for him at the time was a heap of cash. Seven passports. And yeah, it was organized with the help of some communist students he had befriended

there in Seville. And he later said, I thought, we're rich. And the guy said, let's go out to dinner, let's celebrate. So 35 of us went out, the bill came, it was $140. And the guy took the money out, paid the tab and said to me, here's your 10 bucks. And I said, ah, socialism. I get it. Yeah, 10 bucks is still pretty good for someone who's got not much cash. He only had 20 on him. Yeah.

Now he's got 30. That's pretty good. System works. You've made 10 bucks. Yeah. And it's in like a day, you know, you'd struggle to make 10 bucks a day now. And what a great feast that must have been. Yeah.

With all your new friends. With all your new friends. Yeah. That's funny because he would have done the gig for free probably. So they could have said, we'll pay you 10 bucks and it went fantastic. And we get a feast. But then once you've been, once you've got 150 bucks, you're like, the things I'm going to do with this money. Anyway, so he had a wild time over there.

That's so awesome. Then just because his dad said he wanted us to pursue baseball, but his dad's like, nah. Go backpack, go hitchhiking. Yeah. Wild. And there's a heap of other stories, but we'll head back to America with him where he enrolled at Cornell. This is apparently quite a prestigious school.

And there, according to Connolly, he spent his time dodging classes and hanging out with the SDS crowd, which I think is, I looked it up, it's like some sort of Students for a Democratic Society. I think Americans are laughing, saying, which apparently is quite a good school. I think I'm gonna be saying like Oxford, I hear it's quite a good- I think it's- I think it's pretty good. People hold it quite highly. I think it might be in the top 500 universities. Yeah, I think so's quite a good school. I think I'm going to be like saying like Oxford, I hear it's quite a good, I think it's pretty good. People hold it quite highly.

I think it might be in the top 500 universities. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Up there with Monash? Yeah. Which campus? Peninsula.

Oh, no. Is there one there? No, no, no. South Africa. The South African Monash campus is fantastic. Jayburg. Yes. In Jayburg.

They've got all the facilities. Is that kind of right? Yeah. I was going to go do a semester in Jadeburg, but then I found out that I'd already done the handful of subjects I would have been eligible to do. They didn't have as big of a curriculum there, and I'd already done them. Think about how well you would have gone. Yeah. You've already written the assignments.

Oh, I know. That's right. Come on. You should have gone. You're saying that's why I can't do it? Surely that's the best reason why I should do it. I should do it again. Teach this class. Yeah. Oh, I was so excited.

That's the reason I got my passport years before I ever went out overseas. What my biggest regrets is not doing some sort of exchange to university. Like a six month, a 12 month thing. Even just a few weeks. I wish I'd done something. It was, yeah, my problem was the,

the go with the flow thing, which I've always kind of had, is good and it led me to go, yeah, I'll go to, I didn't know there was an option, I'll do that and apply. And then I, but because I didn't plan it all, if I'd thought about it, I would have seen the subjects and avoided them. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah.

So it's, but then maybe if I was really planned out, I never would have even thought to go. I don't know. I looked at doing a semester in the UK, but because they're, they're, you know, the school years are so different. I would have been there over like Christmas and New Year's and it was towards the end of my uni. So I was, I just wanted to be finished. I've already been at uni an extra year. I was like, I just want to be done.

So then I thought maybe I'll go to New Zealand. And then that didn't feel like enough of a distance. So I might as well stay. I'll just stay and finish my degree. Nothing's better than New Zealand. That's basically what you were saying you were thinking. No, I started to go like, oh, it's quite expensive to live on camp, but I'd have to get a job. At least I could get a job in New Zealand.

You know? Yeah. And then there were earthquakes and mum was like, you're not going to New Zealand. And that's not a bad call, I think. So I agree. So according to Connolly, he spent his time dodging classes and hanging out with this SDS crowd, Students for Democratic Society. He said he liked hanging out with them simply because at that point they were the only ones who smoked pot. I made fast friends with a lot of them. They're all in the movie business now or running for public office or in real estate. They're doing a lot of different things then, Huey.

They're all in Hollywood. All three other jobs. One's an accountant, one's a teacher. All of them. One's a full time stay at home dad. Like there's so many different things. He started, you know, rolling through a bunch of different bands, including one called Slippery Elm. He later said, the band was OK, but I was horrible.

And for the first time, he started getting into rock and roll. He said, I'd always go to the show and there'd be Otis Redding and the Kinks and the Flying Burrito Brothers. And I always dug Otis Redding. He really liked, and I think this was maybe like a bit of a rebellion against his parents, the hippie stuff and that sort of stuff. They like soul music and stuff like that. He said, we were weaned on radio that played Otis Redding and then the Flying Burritos and then Dylan and Led Zeppelin, Judy Collins, the Chambers Brothers, Muddy Waters, then Seals and Crofts, Folk Country Soul.

Got a bit of a mix. He said, that's what the 60s were all about. They weren't about drugs. They were about, even though he did seem to make certain friends just because of the drugs, right? Contradicts himself a bit, as everyone does. There were no drugs, not a single drug, not even a prescription. No, you couldn't get them if you wanted to. Madison didn't exist. He'd cut your toe and you'd die.

It was great. Yeah. Better times. It's a good old days. But he said it was a great time. As long as you're into it, it was cool. I don't care if it was chemistry or if it was politics or if it was about the Ood. It didn't matter. If you're into it, it was well, we'll listen, man.

We're there for you. I thought those were wonderful days. It's about youth, I think. It's an old instrument, I think. It's like a loot sort of looking thing. Sure. I think. Don't at me. Later saying it was time at Cornell. I really just joined and played in bands

for a year and a half. Then the work started to catch up with me. Basically he says he did about five minutes of work over a few years there. That's not very much. No. He said, I called my old man. I said, Pops, I'm dropping out. I want to be a musician. And he went, well, you either know what you're doing or you don't. Good luck. And according to Huey,

it looked like a very bad decision for a very long time. His parents seem pretty cool. Yeah, totally. Like for, yeah, for that time, especially, you'd think there'd be a lot of pressure to just finish and, and, and live a life a certain way. You need at least a backup plan. Yeah, yeah, for his dad to be like, all right, well, that might be a fuck up. The decision is yours? Yeah. See ya. You'll figure it out. Good luck. Yeah. You can always go back to college. Yes, you can. Not me. Dave, Doctor of Podcasting.

Still could be. Still could be. Still could be. One day. So he ended up heading back west to the Bay Area in California and, you know, got stuck into music. In 1971, he joined the band Clover as their harmonica player. Clover was already, you know, a relatively successful band

had produced and released albums and stuff without breaking through or anything. They had a few band members went on to other things including future Doobie brother, John McPhee. His name isn't Doobie. Yeah, what? How did he get into the brothers? How did he get into brothers? Hey, can I be your brother? Uh, no. How do you get into Brothers? Hey, can I be a brother? Uh, no. Thanks, though. Thanks for your interest. I'm auditioning for Brothers.

You're auditioning for Brothers? Yeah. I've got one, but I thought... Are you going to read for the part of Brothers? I could do with another one, maybe. Yeah. Oh, sorry, you're not... Yeah, you're taking auditions. I'm taking auditions. I'm holding auditions. Okay. Um, you smell and sing.

What do you think of that? That sucked. Yeah, sorry. I didn't feel it. I didn't believe it. You smell beautiful. I know I do. That's not very brotherly. To be a true brother, you have to be able to pinpoint something that I'm not sure about, you know, but I know I smell fantastic.

Yeah, you're confident in your own smell. Yes, in your own smell. Yes, in my own stench. Your musk. My musk. I'm just scanning you like one of those 80s futuristic robots, and I'm finding no chinks in your armour. Correct. No faults.

Yeah. Damn it. Bulletproof. Anyway, so I think this is around the time he started going by Huey Lewis. There was a little patch in between, between Hugh Craig III and Huey Lewis, where he, I believe went by Huey Louie. But yeah, apparently Huey Lewis was a bit of an homage to his missing stepdad, Lewis Welch. Lou Welch.

Yes, that's right. I said missing. Missing? Oh. Assumed dead. Drama. Yeah. Sorry, that was probably insensitive

when somebody's assumed dead and I'm like, ooh, juicy. What's the goss, spill? I was talking before about Matthew Wills, writing about him. We'll go back to him now. According to Wills, one day in 1971, the hard drinking beat poet walked into the woods of Nevada County, northeast of San Francisco. He took a gun and left behind a suicide note.

Nobody was ever found, which is why biographies and his dates with a question mark. Wow. Still never been found. Wills also writes, in Song of the Turkey Buzzard, arguably his best known poem, Welch, it's spelt with a C, so that's why I'm saying Welch. I don't know if it's just Welch still, just letting you know why the poet heads out there are furious. I think that's Welch. Welch. Welch urged his friends in this well-known poem of his to quote, place my meat before the vultures in a sky burial. Sky burials in which a person's remains are placed on a mountain top to be eaten by a carrion birds are a Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and it's considered an act of

compassion and kindness for the other creatures of the earth who, after all, need to eat too. We covered that on Burial Cremation or Other. Oh, right. That's one of your options. Sky burial. Sky burial. I don't mind that.

Out in the open and they just peck away at you, yeah. Yeah, I don't mind that now. I probably, have I grown? It'd be interesting to go back. Eight years ago I was like, nah. Ew. My body is a wonderland, but not for the birds. John Mayer and that's it.

John Mayer just pecking at your body. Leave my body to John Mayer. John Mayer's like's it. John Mayer just pecking at your body. Leave my body to John Mayer. John Mayer's like, no thank you. I don't want that. No, it's no for me. John, you know you want it. Please shoo away these birds. I'm only to be pecked at by John Mayer.

John Mayer, remember after all, you need to eat too. Okay. This is an act of compassion, John. You're a creature on this earth. John, come back here. This is an act of compassion, John. You're a creature on this earth. John, come back here, this is an act of compassion. Let me compassion you, John. John, you've left a bit of my body on your plate, John. Come back.

No dessert until you finish eating me. John, okay, a bit weird. According to poetry scholar, Rod Phillips, Welch produced, quote, a finely crafted and innovative body of work in poetry. And he also said that his collected poetry is, quote, a group of and innovative body of work in poetry. And he also said that his collected poetry is, quote, a group of poems that are among the purest and most precise of all the beat creations. So he was, you know, he's almost like his mysterious death is almost maybe over

shadowed his work, but apparently his poetry was top notch. Hey, let's go for a quick break. We'll be back in a sec. So according to encyclopedia.com, the manager of the British group, Dr. Feelgood caught a Clovis show at the Palomino Club and offered the group a recording contract in England. So they'd, before he joined, they'd had a recording contract, record a few albums, didn't really take off. They were dropped by their label. Now, Huey is harmonica player in the band and yeah, gets this new record deal, but over in England. So they spent a few years there,

sort of nonstop touring in the south of England. And they supported, they went on tours and supported some legendary bands, including Lynyrd Skynyrd, who you might have also talked about in that burial cremation or other episode. You talked about the day the music got to you, did you talk about that as well? I don't think I talked about that plane. I'm just thinking of another musical plane tragedy. But anyway, yeah, this was the pre Lynyrd Skynyrd losing most of their lineup in a plane crash. But yeah, he supported them and said that they were awesome.

They also supported Irish rockers and fellow musical legends, Thin Lizzy on some pretty long tours. And Huey actually features on their classic live album, Live and Dangerous playing harmonica. And in the credits he's billed as bluesy Huey Lewis. I like that. That's nice. Yeah. So fun. So it's like, this is like known as one of the iconic live rock albums.

And before Huey Lewis was Huey Lewis, really, he was that was where you could find it. That's awesome. Did he ever try going by Huey Lewis? Oh, that's got to be the final stage of evolution. If he was a Pokemon, which I've just learned about on Primates recently, we did an episode about Pokemon. So I finally get what your kids are just learned about Pokemon Prime Ape recently, we did an episode about Pokemon. So I finally get what you kids are into. Just learned about Pokemon. A little bit more. I know they evolve.

Yes. I know that Manky becomes Prime Ape. Sure. Yes. Yeah. And I know that now maybe Hugh Craig III becomes Huey Louie, who becomes Huey Lewis, who becomes Huey Lewis. Huey Lewis, the ultimate form. Huey Lewis. Huey Lewis, the ultimate form. Huey Lewis. Huey Lewis. So yeah, Busey Huey Lewis on the plan with Thin Lizzy.

He also played harmonica on Thin Lizzy front man Phil Linnet's debut solo album. Oh my God, Linnet Skinnet. What did I say? Oh, Linnet Skinnet. No, I said Phil Linnet, right? Linnet, but I just thought that you can combine- Oh my god. Doing that thing you do on podcasts where things sound alike. Yeah.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band led by Phil Lynyrd. Imagine that would be a great- you could just do the hits of maybe, you know, full household name, well known hits. I'd say there's probably three or four by Lynyrd Skynyrd, maybe five or six by Thin Lizzy, combine the two. That's a full set. You know what I mean? Yeah. You could play that in any pub in the world and everyone will sing along to every word. Yeah, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Lynyrd Skynyrd, should we stop the podcast and just quickly copyright that?

And we're back. Yeah, Lewis really looked up to Lynyrd. He saw him as a mentor. He was asked in an interview recently if he could have one more conversation with anyone, it would be Phil Lynette. They were apparently working on a different record together, but it was never finished as Lynette died at just 36 years of age. Oh, wow. Yeah, there was a biopic. I haven't seen it, but there's a biopic about Phil Lynette, came

out a couple of years ago, I think. Anyway, Clover timed their arrival in the UK quite poorly, the way Hewis Lewis talks about it. His ultimate form. Basically, they landed around the time punk was taken off, you know. Right. And he got punched in the face on the tarmac. Yeah, yeah. But you know, so like they're kind of hippie-ish, country-ish rock, you know, like,

just very uncool in a punk scene. Yeah. So just the timing was pretty poor. While he was there, though, he saw a few punk shows, including, if not the first, one of the first shows by The Clash. He was in the audience and he's like, it's just, it was wild though, just a lot of spit. I remember a lot of spit. And he's like, didn't necessarily love the music,

still liked the music that I always liked, you know, soul and other things, but I loved the vibe. I love how they were thumbing their nose at the establishment, the music, not following any of the rules. Loved the spit. I loved the spit. And it's kind of funny to think of him at a punk show going,

yeah, I love this anti-establishment stuff. When you sort of flash forward 10 years and the band he makes it in, the news is like, you know, it couldn't be any more sort of corporatey sounding smooth, polished pop for MTV. But then you flash 10 years back and his background is so much more like, like out there than probably any of the people dressed with punk hair and that whole room. Yes. And they'd be like, you fucking square.

And he's really his reality is like, I didn't grow up with anything you grew up with. Yeah, that's right. This is the absolute opposite. It feels a bit like you taught me this about the Clash Dave that of the two major main front men of the band. Oh, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. Yeah. And Joe Strummer was more like, I'm a punk. He wrote the more sort of rocky, punky songs and Mick Jones wrote more the poppier, catchier songs.

Yeah. But you were saying that Joe Strummer was more of a higher class family. More privilege. More privilege. More privilege. And Mick Jones actually came from a working class sort of like, you know, struggling, struggled growing up. But Joe left all that to become a punk. Yeah, yeah. I think that's very funny that he's like the famous one for it.

He's there during punk really taking off, but it just didn't, you know, the timing's not great. Elvis Costello was maybe almost like a middle ground, he was closer to, you know, the punky side, but catchier version than probably, you know, Sex Pistols and stuff. Man, that's going to annoy people who know more about that scene. But you know what I'm vaguely saying. Yeah. But anyway, Elvis Costello liked Clover a bit and got them, or, you know, via, you know, a mutual connection.

They ended up being his backing band on his debut album, My Name is True. Clover. Oh, became his band. Were his band for his first album, you know, with Alison and those sort of songs. So, Hugh's played on some amazing albums there. Well, the rest of the band played on that album. Amazing albums there. Well, the rest of the band played on that album. Elvis Costello said, get you to play harmonica on a few songs, maybe a bit of backing vocals

and stuff. But Huey in the end was absent from the sessions later saying, I took a vacation. I could have sung a bit or played a bit of harmonica, but we'd been on the road since 1970. We'd been on the road for like eight, seven, eight, nine years. Yeah. Wow. He's like, I'm done. I went instead. He went to Amsterdam, but it like it became, it's like an iconic album. Yeah. He was almost on that one too.

That's amazing. Encyclopedia writes Clover cut several albums in Great Britain, but none sold well. Disappointed. The members came back to San Francisco and kind of just went in separate directions. So he's into his 30s now and the breaks never happened and he's getting to the point, which you know, in pop music, rock music, music business, you're running out of time really. What? To really break it.

Dave's goal is to have a number one. Exactly. By the time I'm 40, I reckon. Yeah. Maybe 50. 50? Oh. No, 40. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. You. By the time I'm 40, I reckon. Yeah. Maybe 50. 50? Oh. No, 40. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. You can do it. I think you can, yeah.

I got my one hit wondering me. Well, no, I mean, get ready to be inspired. Thank God, because at the moment, what you just said really has made me feel uninspired. I've spooked you. Yeah. I'm worried that my big break won't happen. So he was sort of looking for something to do. He's back hanging around, just bumming around and jamming in different bands and stuff. And he gets a few nights going on these local

little clubs, including one called Uncle Charlie's. And they started this night up called Monday Night Live, and he'd sort of MC it. They'd have some comics on. There'd be the house band. They had a theme song, that sort of stuff. It was almost like a live Letterman show kind of vibe. Right. And he was sort of the host of it.

And just musicians from a different, a bunch of different backing bands would roll through, like band members from Sly Stone's band, members from Van Morrison's band, even Van Morrison himself dropped by a few times to play in the shows, as did Ricky Lee Jones and of course members of the Doobie Brothers. Brothers and not. Do you remember the Doobie Brothers? Here's one of them. For some reason, you know, they built up his own scene really and they ended up getting

some free studio time for some reason. Someone was there going, oh, we've got some time in scene really, and they ended up getting some free studio time for some reason, someone was there going, oh, we've got some time in the studio, you wanna use it? And they kind of worked up this gimmick song at these nights, which was a bit of a mashup, was a disco version of the theme song from the movie Exodus, which they of course called Exodisco.

And yeah, so it was a bit of a laugh, but they ended up recording that in these free sessions, including they had the saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis, James Brown saxophonist played on the recording, like a legendary muso. And yeah, he laid a record producer, Jake Riviera, he played it for him. And he apparently said, my God, that's amazing. That's fantastic. That's the most commercial thing I've ever heard. I hope I never hear it again.

Now get out of my office. Phonogram or Phonogram put the record out, but it tanked probably for the best. If not, I guess Huey Lewis would have been forever known as the, like a novelty disco. Right. Harmonica player. I don't know. It's an interesting jumble of words you just said. Yeah. Yeah. Harmonica, I don't know if I associate that with disco a lot. No. Yeah. Maybe it was, yeah, maybe it was just doing a bit of vocals on it. I haven't actually, I listened to it briefly, but it sounded almost like an instrumental. But I probably should have sat through it. Maybe it was just a long intro. Look, I'll do nearly anything to research for this show, but I won't do that.

No, it was pretty fun. I'll listen to that anyway. His band, this sort of band started coalescing into a group, this Monday Night Live group. And they got a break when Nick Lowe and Jake Riviera turned some throwaway line Lewis set into a song, some real corny sort of thing. Like apparently he heard him say like, the best thing I knew is me. Like I can't remember what it was, but it was something real cheesy sort of play on words thing. And they recorded it as a song and Riviera was like, oh, we've got to pay you for it. You know, we use your idea.

And he was like, no, don't pay me for it. But apparently Riviera was insistent. And according to Connolly, Lewis eventually accepted a round trip ticket to London to go over and play harmonica on Lowe's Labour of Lust and also Dave Edmonds' Repeat When Necessary. So he's playing on a bunch of other albums and whatnot. And at this point, the Monday Night Collective begun calling themselves Huey Lewis and American Express.

Oh, a UK label named Chrysalis Records were keen on signing them, but said at the last minute, they're like, we need a new name. And that did change their name overnight, basically. And that's when they became Huey Lewis and the News. Yes, that's right. This episode is about the band Huey Lewis and the News. Oh my God. Bit of a reveal there. Sorry to hold that back.

Holy shit. That's a Jess Perkins level twist. That's a JPT. You're telling me Huey Lewis is Huey Lewis from Huey Lewis and the News? Yes, that's right. What in the hell? What the fuck? It's JPLT. Jess Perkins of The Twist. Talking of the early demos, Lewis is very self-deprecating saying,

you should hear these. I was an awful singer. Not that I'm a great singer now, but there was something about us. There was definitely an urgency there, a hungriness. It's so funny to be like, we weren't very good, but jeez, we were urgent. God, we were urgent. We needed to get it. Yeah.

Get that badness out of our system. We've been described as an urgent podcast. Oh yeah. Just get it out. Please make it stop. That sort of thing. In 1980, I'm kind of going to skip over the news of success to some extent, cause you know, it's just them being successful, but in 1980, they released their self-titled album. It

was recorded pretty quickly and charted very briefly, but it sank like a stone. Chrysalis gave them another shot and they fought hard for creative control. They made it themselves, but they're kind of learning on the job a bit. And this of course added pressure. They knew they needed to have a hit. So they took on a song by Mutt Lang, Mutt Lange, Mutt Lang. Mutt Lang. Yeah, Mutt Lang with an A at the end, which was called Do You Believe in Love. They'd worked with him through Clover, so they weren't that excited about it, like it didn't really work last time, but they thought it is a hit and they needed a hit.

You know, they were in their 30s now, the clock was ticking. So they ended up recording and putting out on their 1982 sophomore album, Picture This. And as a single it became a top 10 hit. So it'd been a pretty long journey, but after plugging away for about 12 years in bands, Huey was an overnight success. Wow. Mutt, as a bit of a recording industry legend, worked with Axel, ACDC, Def Leppard, The Cars, Britney Spears, The Cause, Maroon 5, Lady Gaga. He produced ACDC's Highway to Hell and Back in Black. You also mentioned The Cause. Yeah. I think we understand the also mentioned The Cause. So yeah. Yeah.

I think we understand the calibre that we're working with. The cause. The cause. Yeah. That guy who applied to be the brother in that band, he would have had to go through a lot of auditions. Yeah. So MTV was pretty young at the time, less than a year old and they made a pretty goofy film clip

and that got a lot of play which probably helped propel him a bit. According to Lewis, the label wanted to do this really serious video so they hired an advertising guy who was a fashion guy who dressed the set up in pastel colours and dressed us up in matching pastels and a lot of makeup and shot the video all day long hard hard. Two weeks later, we went to see the rough cut and everybody was there, the record company, us, and the video company, probably about 30 people. The director turned off the lights and plays the video and my heart sank.

It was just horrible. There was no direction. There was no reason for this guy to be singing off into the distance. This is a video where we're all in bed singing to the girl for some reason. That's a weird clip, but I think it's sort of goofy fun. Yeah, it rings a bell.

But he really doesn't like it. And apparently he's like, oh, this is awful. And then it stops and everyone gives it a standing ovation. He's like, yeah, I guess no one knows what they're doing because this sucks. But if they're happy with this, we're going to make our own videos from now on. And they've made a lot of real fun, goofy videos, you know? Yeah, right. There's that classic one where they're all buried up to their necks in the sand. That's funny. That's fun. That's great. That's good stuff. Yeah, I agree. Imagine you don't need to.

You can watch it in this video. Fun fact, Jess, pending the woman in that first video. You know, the love interest was William Shatner's daughter, Elizabeth Shatner. It's not that interesting. But it is very fun. Oh, 100%. That's the most fun thing I've ever heard, but it's not interesting.

According to encyclopedia.com, they broke through as headliners with the 1983 album Sports. Most of the tracks were written by Lewis or other band members. And yeah, it had so many hits. Apparently Lewis again, before this album, they're like, we were lucky to get through that last one and we sold about 10 times the amount of the first one, which bombed, but it still isn't a big enough hit to sustain us in the industry. We need this album to be huge.

We need these songs to get played on radio. So it's basically like we're writing every song designed to be a hit song, which is like pretty wild idea. Like, you know what we should do? We should just write an album of hits. Wow. And they genuinely try to do that. They're the first people to ever do that. And like, it's what happened, you know, nearly like so many of the songs became top 10 hits. Why doesn't everybody do that? Why are so many albums got a couple of tracks you just skip? Yeah, like when you're writing Ego, I'm just gonna write a couple of album tracks.

I don't want another hit. I've got too many hits. This one won't be played on radio, but that's all right. I can't play them all live. Yeah. Can't be bothered. But also like, you know, it's basically going, I don't, you know, I don't, these, none of these are really us necessarily what we want to do.

These are just made for the broadest appeal possible. So, yeah, there were top 10 hits with Heart and Soul, I Want A New Drug, Heart of Rock and Roll and If This Is It and they won a Grammy Award for Heart of Rock and Roll. Wow. So it was just a huge smash hit record. Anything is what, late 30s by now? Yeah, mid 30s. Yeah.'s in his what, late 30s by now? Yeah, mid 30s. Yeah, moving into his mid to late 30s.

Okay. You've got time my friend. Good, good, good to know. We're approaching, we're early to mid. Yeah. So I've got a couple of years left to come with my number one hit, win my Grammy. When you're in mid. Yeah, okay.

And then late, you can just sort of peter out. Yeah, I'd say mid, probably late's over soon. He's in his mid 30s. But he looked, he probably looked older. Okay. And then late, you can just sort of peter out. Yeah, I'd say probably late's overset. He's in his mid thirties, but he looked, he probably looked older. Okay. And you look younger. Okay. So this could work out well. This is looking good for you. And I look just right. I mean, he also looked like super handsome older though, so.

Yeah, but I look super handsome younger. Yeah. So I don't know. Does that balance out? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I think it still kind of works out in Dave's favour. Yeah. So I don't know. Does that balance out? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I think it still kind of works out in Dave's favour. Yeah. Thank you. Encyclopedia continues, the group's next album, Four, was greeted with high expectations.

It also produced top 40 hits like Stuck With You and Hip to Be Square. Apparently, he kind of regrets that he sang that song in the first person. It's funny knowing his backstory now, because it's all about he's initially written it all about like, he goes to work or whatever. I can't remember the lyrics, but you know, he's keeping a balance to height. He does all this. He's hip to be square. But he ended up like in the end being like, no, it's sort of funny.

People get it. I'll do it from my perspective. I do this, I do that. And but it became like that was kind of the beginning of the end for them being mainstream popular. People, you know, were giving them shit a bit. You know, it's like, how uncool. They think it's cool to be squared. That's not cool.

So, yeah, he talked about it sometimes. He's like, I kind of regret not keeping it in the in the third person. Around that same time, they contributed two songs to the film Back to the Future, previous topic, including the chart topping Power of Love, which earned an Oscar nomination for best song of 1986. That's awesome. And he actually had an uncredited cameo in that where he played like, again, like a dork, but he was like a, uh, a battle of the bands judge and his line

was, um, Marty McFly, Michael J Fox's shredding a version of a Huey Lewis song on the guitar and Huey goes, stop, stop. It's just too damn loud. Bit of fun. No, damn loud. Bit of fun. No, that's a lot of fun. Big fan of that. But yeah, skipping over the successful period, you know, they're on top of the world. Yeah, I don't want to hear about all the good stuff.

But to help illustrate how popular he was at the time. Do you know what a Q score is? I hadn't really heard of this. It's a number measurement. Apparently, there used to be a big deal. It measures the familiarity and appeal of a brand or a celebrity or whatever. And in the mid 80s at this time, apparently Coca-Cola went to him and offered him a bunch of money to do an ad and said, you currently have the highest Q score in the whole country. Like higher than, I don't know, name someone. The queen.

Higher than her. The most recognizable. And likable as well. Wow. Familiarity and appeal. So like currently I believe Tom Hanks and has been for quite a while as like the highest. Shit.

Or one of the highest. If you know that kind of idea, everyone knows him. Yes, yeah, yeah. And pretty much everyone likes him. And they've generally liked. Yeah. Yeah, Tom Hanks is a good one. likes him. And they generally liked him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Tom Hanks is a good one.

So yeah, he turned back Coke and he says, I regret that. I should have just done it. He's like, I don't, we're making good money. I didn't want to sell out. You know, I didn't want to, I don't want to look like I'm selling out for the money. And he's like, been over the coming years. Everyone did. So I wish I just went and took the money.

He also was one of the solo singers in the smash hit charity single, We Are The World. Have you seen that docker came out earlier this year? No, no, I haven't watched it. I think it's on Netflix. I watch it. You know, it's slow, but it's interesting. There's a lot of, you know, footage from the time, which is pretty cool. But the lineup is wild.

So he, not everyone got to sing a solo, but he got the late call up when Prince fell through. Fell through a wall. Fell through a wall, which is weird. Normally you fall through a floor. I was trying to say I said wall. Fell through a wall. When Prince fell through a wall. That's the kind of thing. He went flying.

Yeah. Maybe you can fall through a wall. Yeah, if you fall sideways. Yeah, you can fall sideways. But off a balcony into a wall. And then through a wall. Yeah, if you fall sideways. Yeah, you can fall sideways. But off a balcony into a wall. And then through the wall. How's this for a list of names who are all in the room with him also singing solos? Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Ray Charles.

That's amazing. I don't know any of those names. I'm young. Apparently Willie Nelson asked, he's like, oh, we should play golf sometime. And Bob Dylan came up and said, you talking about golf? That's ridiculous.

And Huey said, your last album was ridiculous. Oh! He said that's Bob Dylan. God. Bit of fun, bit of fun. Bit of fun. Sucked the fuck in Bob Dylan. If you do watch it, there's some, just look for Bob Dylan's face, or even if you don't

watch it, look at clips of Bob Dylan in the chorus, like they're all standing on the wall and he just looks so confused. It's really fun. Why is he so confused? He's just, he's like, you know, everyone's singing, and he's like, no, he's just like, it looks like he's thinking, why am I here? You can't put Bob Dylan in a chorus. No, it doesn't feel like you're playing to his strengths.

No, it doesn't feel like he'd fit. Anyway, and I say it sounded mean spirited, but he was obviously just mucking around with the legendary Bob Dylan. He's like, it's weird to be in the room with him. Fuck him. Get the fuck, fuck him. He said later, quite recently, he said of the night, it was an amazing night. I knew that evening that this was the career event of my life. 40 years later, it still is.

Wow. And yeah, he's just so nice. I really love listening to him talk in interviews. And there, I believe there's a story you've shared before. I've tried to, yeah. You've tried to share. He tells it a lot better than me. So just find him telling it.

On that documentary, I think he- Oh really? Because he's- and what episode was that? When we were talking about Live Aid? I was confused between Live Aid and whatever this is, what this, the We Are The World one was. And you did it like, I think Jess wasn't even there. No, it was You Man's Amit from Sands Pants, it was you, me and Zamet from Sands Pants.

And yeah, Matt did this. At the Sands Pants studios. A big build up to this story and then sort of forgot the ending. I couldn't remember the end. It was all set up and no payoff, but I realised that he, the story is not that good. He just tells it with such charisma

and he's so excited to tell it. And he's selling a first-hand account of this thing. So that makes it great. Me retelling it, even if I nailed it, wouldn't be worth saying. But I didn't even nail it. You couldn't remember it. No.

Through the 80s, well, you know, he was continuing to play harmonica on a bunch of different albums, really diverse stuff like Bruce Hornsby's, you know, things will never be the same, dittlin', dittlin', dittlin'. He's on that. That's just the way it is.

Yes, that's on. He played with Hank Williams Jr. I think he covered a Hank Williams Senior song on sports, the final track on sports. And even previous Do Go On topic, Jimmy Barnes. Oh wow. He played on Freight Train Heart, which is pretty fun. That's pretty cool. Our Jimmy. Our Jimmy, let's try it.

Sadly in 1987, Huey suddenly lost all his hearing in his right ear. So he's like right at the peak of his fame and he later told Rolling Stone, I felt like I'd been out in a swimming pool and my ear was full. I couldn't shake it out or pop my ears. I went to all kinds of doctors and an EMT and they finally said to me, get used to it. I said, get used to it. I'm a musician. I need this. But unfortunately, yeah. That's interesting. The doctor said it was unlikely it would ever return, but he was sort of, hopefully said acts like Brian

Wilson have a similar thing, can only hear out of one ear. And yeah, eventually he was diagnosed with Meniere's disease, which, according to Huey, is a syndrome based on symptoms. Like they don't know what's causing or anything. If you've got fullness in your ear, it feels like your ear is full. You get vertigo, bad tinnitus or tinnitus. I don't know. I've got that, but I don't know how to pronounce it. But then they call it Meniere's disease, but they don't really know what it actually is. So they don't know how to treat it. It's just like, oh, this stuff. You treat the symptoms, not the actual disease, because they don't know how to treat the disease.

And he's like day to day, it can be all the way up to okay, but at the worst it's debilitating and he can't hear and he just has to lie down, you know, the vertigo is so bad and whatnot. Yeah, vertigo is pretty full on Yeah, but Lewis adjusted to life with one ear and he went about his life and career The like I sort of said before his the follow-ups from sports and for weren't as bigger hits But the next five albums all charted in the US and never is sold as much Back to the future, like I mentioned, is probably the film you most associate with Huey's work,

but maybe also American Psycho. Have you either of you seen that? There's a classic scene in it where this is Paulie Poiso writing for Grunge. The film version of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho came out in 2000 and like the book, it wasn't shy of showing Patrick Bateman, who played by Christian Bale, his love for Huey Lewis in the news. And he's in it. He's a, you know, he's a murdering psycho.

From America? From America. Okay. And it includes a scene where an unhinged Bateman delivers a speech about Lewis's music before dispatching with a professional rival played by Jared Alito with an axe. I have seen that. Yes. In part, the scene goes like this.

Do you like Huey Lewis and the News? And he replies, they're okay. And then Bateman goes, their early work is a little too new way for my taste. But when sports came out in 83, I think they really came into their own commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter,

cynical sense of humor. And then he's doing this speech while he's like putting down newspaper he's putting on a raincoat and his victim goes is that a raincoat and Bateman goes yes it is in 87 Huey released this for their most accomplished album I think they're undisputed masterpieces hip to be square a song so catchy most people probably don't listen to the lyrics but they should because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends. It's also a personal statement about the band itself." And then he raises the axe and kills him. Classic scene. Apparently the author, Brett Easton Ellis, since said he feels a bit of

regret. He feels a bit bad about it. He's like, they weren't my favourite band. I was more of a Bruce Springsteen guy, but I didn't think they really deserved to be shadowed like that. He said, I like them more than the implied criticism that's in that text. But despite the book and the film taking the piss, Lewis is apparently quite happy to be associated with it and has even played the killer in a funny or die parody version of the scene.

Yeah, the other movie associated with Huey is maybe Ghostbusters. As the story goes, both Lindsay Buck movie associated with Huey is maybe Ghostbusters. As the story goes, both Lindsay Buckingham and Huey were approached to come up with the theme song for the movie, but they both declined. Lindsay Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac, previous topic. In the end, Ray Parker Jr. stepped up and wrote its smash hit theme. I would have told you that was Huey Lewis. Well, there you go. That's with good reason, because it sounds like Huey Lewis in the new song.

And in particular, sounds a lot like their song that came out a couple of months before called I Want A New Drug. According to Ledger Note, the now defunct magazine Premier wrote that the film's producers admitted in 2004 that they used the song, I want a new drug as the temporary background music in certain scenes, including a clip they sent to Parker for inspiration. Parker says, I was, I wasn't copying it at all, but it seems like either that's not true or he just, what do you call it? Like, absolved it subconsciously. So it's very unlikely to be a coincidence. Anyway,

they ended up getting sued over it and they settled out of court in a deal, but it put a gag clause on it. So they've never really talked about it. Apart from once in 2001, according to Mental Floss, VH1's behind the music series had an interview with Huey where he said, the offensive part was not so much that Ray Parker Jr. had ripped off this song. It was kind of symbolic of an industry that wants something. They wanted our wave and they wanted to buy it.

But we were like, it's not for sale. But in the end, I suppose they were right, because basically with the settlement, they did buy it. You know, they paid to have it. They just, you know, it's like, what's that saying? Ask for forgiveness rather than permission or whatever. Another nailed, uh, cliche for me. But yeah, what's that saying? Ask for forgiveness rather than permission or whatever. Mm-hmm. Another nailed cliche for me. But yeah, that's true.

So yeah, associated with these films musically, he's also done bits and pieces of acting over the years, including in Robert Altman's critically acclaimed film Shortcuts and also the 2000 film Duets, in which his cover of Cruisen with Gwyneth Paltrow became another one here. Oh, that was him. Yeah, cool.

He also appeared in various TV shows. I didn't realise this, including Just Shoot Me, a few episodes of One Tree Hill, The King of Queens and The Blacklist, which was only a few years ago. They're all very different shows. Yeah. Yeah. Jumping to 2018, this is another little sad bit, well, quite a sad bit. He was playing, the band was still playing, still love music.

He was like, I'm kind of, he wasn't that upset about the band's popularity coming. He's just like, I just wanted to be in a band that can sustain a living. And that's what we do. We just like playing as a band. And the band members pretty consistent. Yeah, there's a couple of changeovers, a couple guys had died and one got into some trouble with the cops, I think. I think the guy with like, you've seen all the clips and stuff, he's always just got a cigarette hanging out his mouth. Even in like underwater scenes and stuff, very funny stuff. Anyway, um.

He got in trouble with the cops. I think he might have. I think the bad boy. Really? Wow, huge shock here. Geez, I hope they don't sue if that's not true. Allegedly. Huey, truey, Huey not truey in the Louie. No, that wasn't anything.

So anyway, jumping to 2018 and so still been touring the whole time, but sadly, yeah, his health issues got even worse. In January of that year, his other year went and brutally it happened on his way to the stage going to perform with the news. Like literally walking out to plan is like he's hoping he's just sort of shake it off. and brutally it happened on his way to the stage, going to perform with the news, like he's literally walking out to plan his like, he's hoping he's just sort of shake it off. Gordon do an interview with Andy Green. He said he hoped things would improve once he got on the stage. But when the band kicked into the opening song, the sound only got worse saying, I thought

the bass amp had blown a speaker. I just heard this horrible noise and I couldn't find pitch or even hear myself. It was an absolute nightmare. The worst thing just horrible. So he was super depressed like lowest ebb for all he went to every specialist tried every treatment, all sorts of different things, diets and you know, tried anything. But yet nothing helped. And he was absolutely shattered. And of course, the symptoms are pretty dis-debilitating in one ear, but now he's got it in both. You know, the vertigo, the tinnitus and all the rest. But Green writes, with the help of his children, he had a couple of kids below, and close friends, he slowly pulled himself out of his misery, saying, it turns out you can get used to almost anything. He has said that his, his, his kids, his relationship with his kids, uh,

is, is really strong. He felt like, though he loved his parents, it felt like he, they parented him until really up to, it was about 12 or 13. Yeah. So yeah. Whereas he's, he's like maintain a really close relationship with him. He's like, they're my best friends and stuff like that, which I don't know. Depending on the day, I think Jess would either think is real cool or real lame. It's pretty lame. Yeah.

It's that day. Try again tomorrow, Huey. He also realized his condition was even more complicated than he originally thought. Some days he was essentially deaf but other days he heard well enough to engage in conversations. He created a scale of 1 to 10 to explain it to others. 10 is what he'll never get to again, that's what he was before it first happened. And then he's like a 5, I can hear speech fine with hearing aids, under a 3 I can't even hear the phone ring, but he's just not able to sing anymore.

So he's basically had to retire from the music biz, which is so brutal. Yeah. Cause listening to music, he can listen to conversation, but music is just impossible. Um, cause there's different harmonics overtones undertones. Like you might hear the bass going bump, bump, bump, but I just hear crunchy static. Yeah, wow. He says, I fight for pitch and I can't find it.

If I can't find pitch, I can't sing. It's horrible. The timing of this was particularly cruel because when it happened, him and the band were working on their first album of original songs since 2001's Plan B. So they're working on like 17 years or something. Yeah, wow. But luckily they had recorded seven songs prior to 2018 and were able to release that as the band's final album in 2020. The album was called Weather.

See what they've done there? The band's called The News. Their big album's called Sports. Final album's Weather. New Sport and Weather. That's great. That's good stuff. Just a bit of fun.

Ask me what I think of that today. What do you think of that today? Love it. Don't ask it tomorrow. Don't ask it tomorrow. It's not even day to day. It's minute to minute. Yeah.

I'm exciting is what I'm hearing. And finally, the last thing I'll talk about, because he is back in the news. Oh my God. I didn't mean that. And, um. But not the weather. Cause he's just launched or helped launch a Broadway jukebox musical called The Heart of Rock and Roll, which is inspired by the chart topping anthems of

Huey Lewis and the News. Apparently the story sounds so weird. The story revolves around a failed rocker who winds up having to choose between a resurrected music career and an executive job at a cardboard company. This sounds like one of your questions from Who Knew It with Matt Stewart. And that is a fake movie title. I mean, I should, that should be a question. What is the plot of...

Yeah, that's good. That's a good one. Instead of a movie, do a Broadway musical. I'll try and record this. I'll record the next Who Knew It before this comes out. So, because every, you know, every all guests listen to it go on. Yeah, of course that'll ruin it. So he can have a great rock career or work at the cardboard shop. Yeah. And I don't want to spoil it. I'm not going to spoil it.

The opening night was the star starter of a fair. Martin Short was there, Michael J. Fox and the surviving members of the News. According to the Rolling Stones. How many Doobie brothers? Oh, I think probably a lot, the extended Doobie family. Wow. According to the Rolling Stone, the Lewis renaissance doesn't end there either.

Two of his songs, The Power of Love and Back in Time, are also part of the current hit Broadway show based on the Back to the Future film franchise. And for pop culture nostalgicists, like I was talking about before, one of the must see docs of the year is the greatest night in pop about the recording of the 1985 charity single, We Are the World. And he's one of the handful of talking heads who talk about it in the current day. That's cool. Just a final paragraph here. Asked by a journalist how he's learnt to deal with his health issues, he replied, well, deal with them as best as you can. You remind yourself, there are a lot of people out there, much worse off than I am.

I have two great children who won't let me feel sorry for myself and the musical has been a huge therapy for me." Oh, that's nice. Sort of, yeah. It's a real roller coaster of a story. It's an amazing laugh. It's amazing. Something.

Pretty hectic hardships. Yep. Throughout. But he just seemed like, I mean mean obviously he's had his ups and downs That's also a lyric from one of his songs. They've had their ins and outs Do you think the people who started listening to this because I did a pantera episode are gonna be thinking I'm pretty sick right now Yeah So the that's the thing his life is way more complicated and like very very interesting. Cool than you would probably think. Totally.

And it like, yeah, on and off, there's probably almost been a punchline and they still don't really get like proper respect in the music. Because it's like, because it's pretty easy in the end to write an album full of hit songs. Everyone's done it. Yeah. So. I mean, if you wanted to, you have. Yeah.

If that's what you were, if you wanted, like, commercial success from your music, and you wanted to write a bunch of songs that lots of people like. Yeah, and if you wanted to be the most famous and liked person in America at one time. Yeah, obviously, anybody could do it. That's- yeah, isn't it so funny? Like, yeah, easy, but we're talking about art, man. Yeah, they're just following a formula. But yeah, he was like really put in the years of touring, recording, grinding it out.

And also played on so many cool bands work as well. And they obviously like working with him. I think he's just he seems like he's just a guy that would be great to hang out with and whatnot. Just a great hang. Great hang. I think that's the other part of the Q-test. What kind of hang would they be? Would you want to hang with them? I want to hang with Hengsi. Just a great hang. Great hang. I think that's the other part of the Q-test. Yeah. What kind of hang would they be? Would you want to hang with them? I don't want to hang with Hanksie.

Do you? Hang with Hanks? Yeah, you don't want to hang with Hanks? Uh, yeah, probably. Yeah. He seems all right, I guess. That's what I'm coming for. Who's the most all right person in America right now?

Oh, that's great. Because, you know, over the years, Matt and I have spoke a little bit, joked about Hugh Craig the third. That's such a fun name. I mean, that was the in. I'm like, yes, I want to know more about him. But also his life is so like, you hear the name Hugh Craig the third, you know, about the peak of Huey Lewis in the news and you go at prep school. Yes. And you draw a straight line through all of that and you think this guy was just a pretentious

sort of rich kid. Exactly. Always had everything you wanted. Yeah. Never really done anything interesting. Yeah. Yeah, you look into him and you're like, whoa, that's a cool life. Yeah. And if people want to hear more, we did do an episode of Listen Now, our least listened

to Do Go On podcast. That's how we rank them. About the album Sports, I did with my cousin Sam Tongan. So yeah, I think it was the first episode of season two. So yeah, season two, episode one, if you want to hear us, we go through track by track and I can't remember what we say, but I imagine I'd say some of these things and I say how much I love him. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I

love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love

you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I so many podcasts today that you've had enough. You've had your fill of David Warnocky. Yeah. Is that all right if you go? Cause I just want me and Jess to do everyone's favourite section of the show. Yeah, cause Jess and I, you know, we recently did it together with just the two of us. Sometimes it's nice to just have a bit of one-on-one time with your friend. And I get that, that I've been asked to fuck off. So, um.

Politely. Yeah, politely. So I won't be here for the Patreon section, but I do want the Patreon people to know that I love them. That's nice. Does that go for everyone I'm going to mention? Yes, all of them in advance. Okay. You're going to regret that. And you'll never guess what band I've booked for the Triptych Club.

Oh, do you want to put a slide of piece of paper over here? Slide it over to you. Oh, and you can announce it at the time. Yeah. Holy moly. Really? Yes. We got him. That is big. Based on what I've just said about how someone can't play music anymore.

This is big. Thank you so much, Dave. Thank you, N. Anything you want to plug before you go? Yeah, listen to my podcast, Jugalwan. Sometimes I'm on the whole episode, other times I get asked to leave. No, Dave's got to go to work. This- I promise that this episode wouldn't go as long as this, but in the end it did. But we've had a lot of fun today.

We've had a lot of fun. We've had our ups and downs. Yes, we've had our ins and outs. I wish I knew some more of the lyrics. My dad used to just go through the JB Hi-Fi discount bins and he'd bring home best of albums. So as a kid, he brought home the best of Huey Lewis at one point. And I, yeah, a few times just became obsessed with that album. Also it's funny.

It just had every track from sports on it. It was pretty sports heavy, sports and four. But yeah, it was, yeah, also like another classic. I think there was some funny line he said at some point, like self-deprecating as well. He's like someone about like the rolling. Yeah, he said because Rolling Stone never really liked him. I'd give him bad reviews and stuff. He said, I think we were Rolling Stone's favourite favourite band since Toto, which dad also had the best of.

But he also had like, you know, Neil Young and cool stuff as well. I promise. All right, Dave, fuck off, please. I'm trying to get out of here. You just do it. We'll start. Hey, Jess, are you ready for everyone's favorite part of the show? Yes. This is where we thank a few of our great patron supporters. If you want to get involved, go to patreon.com slash to go on pod. The first I mean, you get all sorts of things.

You get to vote on episodes. My very next topic will be go on pod the first I mean you get all sorts of things you have to vote on episodes. My very next topic will be voted on by the great patreon supporters. Yeah, votes. What else you get? Tickets, access early, you get discount codes, all these sorts of things. But if you're on the Sydney Schomburg level, you get to give us a thing called a fat quota question, which actually has a jingle go something like this. Fact, quota question, which actually has a jingle go something like this. Fact quota question. Dave.

Ding. Oh, he just snuck in the ding. Yeah. Which he never forgets, and Jess always remembers the thing. The way this works is people on the Sydney Schomburg level get to give us a fact or quota question, or a braggart suggestion, and I'll read them out. I've just got a couple in today, I guess.

Yeah. People who are on that level, feel free to get them in because we're running a little low. So, but we'll get through a couple today. First one comes from, see Dave, the first one comes from Daniel Headley, AKA, you also get to give yourself a title, Director of Detector Inspector and Trispection,

Reflection on whether Detector Inspector is really fucking necessary. Why are they always coming back to my house? Fuck. Wow. Let's control that one early. We've got a question here. Why do these stranger men keep coming into my house for five minutes every six months

to press a button on my smoke alarms. I can do that. Leave me alone. A detector inspector is a thing, or just an Australian thing. They make me irrationally annoyed. What's something that makes you irrationally annoyed or angry? Is that? I've never heard of that.

You haven't had any, you haven't had detector inspector come to your house? No. They, it's, their property manager sends them out every, yep, probably twice a year. I've never had that. And they just come, they bring their little ladder. They, we only have one smoke detector in our entire apartment cause it's small and they bring it in, they check it and they leave. I, I wonder if I'm just not home when they do it or something.

Well, yeah, maybe. I've lived in so many houses over the years and it's never happened. You know, I'm quite an old man. I know, but I'm saying like- It's never happened. The property manager would let you know. Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, so it hasn't happened. Yeah, I wonder why. Maybe it only happens in affluent suburbs? That has to be it. That must be it. affluent suburbs? That has to be it. That must be it. Nanny state, but only in the East. Yep. Yeah. What, anything, I mean, so many things, anything irrationally annoy you? So

many things. Is one of them, someone doing half hour longer on their report than they said they would? No, I just don't feel well. Daniel, that is a fantastic question. And you really, you got me on that tongue twister. Yeah, that was a good one. Irrationally, I think I don't like it when people don't indicate a change lanes. Oh my God. Yeah. I hate it when people stop in the middle of a footpath to text. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Pull over. Or you have a group of people who just spread.

Oh, fuck you. Covering the hole. I've started to loudly complain about that. Oh, really? Like real passive aggressive. It's bulls- it's awful. It happened the other day. I was walking along and there was a group of four. Four abreast.

You can't be four abreast. I was like, why am I going single file? Move the fuck over. And this isn't like cyclists, I get it, because they're trying to protect each other from cars knocking them down. But when it's walkers v walkers. Move over. Bunch up. Shut the fuck up.

I hate you. The people on each wing. Go behind. Can they can't talk to each other. So is there any point for being... You'd be better off. The point is just being an asshole. Bad people.

Bad people. Yes, maybe that's... Yeah, that probably answers your question, I guess. And they probably Bad people. Yeah, so maybe that's- Yeah, it probably answers your question, I guess. And they probably said irrational. I think that's quite rational. No, I get, but the level of anger I get to is not, it's not justified. Okay.

The second and final one this week comes from Mr. Justin McCain, but lays a silly game. And his title is insert Matt singing here. Interesting title. Justin has your number number doesn't he? And Justin's asking a question writing, if you could eat one entree only for the rest of the time, what would it be? For me, it would be a cheese pizza.

Never thought of a cheese pizza as an entree. Yeah. I don't know what, I guess a garlic, like a little garlic bread, garlic pizza cheese. I'd have that for sure. Yeah. Great answer, Justin. How can you stretch entree? Could I just have assorted cheeses? Yeah, maybe.

A chacuterie. Oh my God, can I have a chacuterie? For entree every time. Yeah, I'd go like a garlic bread or like a garlic pizza type thing. Yeah, that's always going to hit the spot. What else? Yeah, I don't can't think of what else would you suggest soup? No, I'm not having soup. Not in this kitchen that we're in.

No, I've got a guy's coming to look at it, but I don't it's not looking good. Oh, my God. Do you have the detector inspector, the soup detector inspector? Yeah, the soup detector inspector is coming and he's going to be very mad at me because this soup is far too hot. Oh, I think we're, I think we're all happy to just share the cheese pizza. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine by me. Thanks Justin.

Thanks for ordering for the table. I love that. Thank you so much. Takes the pressure off. Justin McCain and Daniel Headley. The next thing we like to do is a shout out to a few of our other supporters. That accent changed and. I liked it. Yeah, it was sort of South African, but also that.

Bit French. Bit French. A bit, almost en français. Yeah. So the way this works, Jess, you normally come up with a bit of a game? Yeah, I think we are obviously naming their band. So it's the some on someones and the some things. Yeah. Great. You are obviously naming their band. So it's the someone someone's and the something. Yeah. Great.

You want to start before me. I reckon just for efficiency. Yes. Do you want to either read names or give band names? I'll read names. Okay. My brain's working pretty slow. Great.

I'll just say, because I think this is, this suits me well. Yes. Very quick mind. I'll just, you know, smash through whatever comes to mind. All right, great. Let's give it a go a couple of times and if you need it, we can get up the horse name generator. OK, great. OK, so first and foremost, we'd love to thank from Laylaw Park in New South Wales, Jack

Townsend and the gongs. Love it. OK, yeah, we can we can smash through these. All right, great. Jack Townsend, thank thanks so much for your support and your band the Gongs who support you from Montana South in Victoria, where I grew up as a child. Oh, Mitchell Wooton and the Dim Sims. Fantastic. OK, Mitchell Wooton and the Dim Sims.

Yeah, also good entree. Maybe that's fun. Cheers, cheers Mitchell. From Virginia Beach in I assume Virginia, uh, VA, it's tea cup tofu and the pebbles. Oh, that's cute. I don't mind that. I think that. Tea cup tofu and the pebbles. Yeah. That's cute as shit. That's real good. Tea cup tofu. Yeah. And Yeah. And their fans could call themselves Pebbleheads. Yeah. We're Pebbleheads. That's really cute.

We love Teacup Tofu. I follow Teacup Tofu and the Pebbleheads and the Pebbles around on their national tour. Next from Slidel in Los Angeles. No, LA. Louisiana? Louisiana. Yeah, it's got to be. I was like, no, Los Angeles is a place from Slidel or Sledell.

Josh Fay. And the Fallen Leaves. Oh, that's poetic. That's nice. I like that one very much. From Warwick in Great Britain, it's Hannah Albone. And the Greeks. Hannah Albone and the Greeks. Hannah Albone and the Greeks.

That's sick. Good stuff. OK, from Wentworth Falls in New South Wales, Haley, Xena, Pointon and the- Jailbirds. Oh, you are so good at this! Like we were joking that you were going to be dog shit because sometimes you have to think of a word you go, buh-buy, guh-buh. But you're really doing really well.

It's been strange. You're closing your eyes. They're just coming to you. It's... I don't know how I feel about it. Oh my God. OK, a few more from Silver Spring in MD. Is that Maryland?

No. Yeah, we do this all the time. I think it is Maryland. Yeah. I'll look that up in a sec. It's Tyler Robertson and the... Icebergs. Oh my goodness gracious me.

Very good stuff. Maryland is correct. OK, next we have from Camperdown in New South Wales, Brenna Dowling and the. Refreshing drinks. Oh my God, I mean, he just took a sip, so that one felt a little more in the room, but that's not bad. And finally, from Dallas, Texas, Marissa Kurtz and the. Mystery gunman.

No bullshit. That was impressive. That was really impressive. Thank you so much to Marissa, Branagh, Tyler, Hayley, Hannah, Josh, Teacup, Mitchell and Jack and the last thing we need to do, Bob, need to do, is welcome in a few new members of the Triptych Club. Actually, three members to the Triptych Club. Wow.

So that's fitting. Yeah, this works really well. You're behind the bar. Have you got any drinks on or? I've got a drink, especially it's a cocktail. It's called Huey Lewis and the Blue and it's just all blue stuff. Oh yeah? Yeah.

Blue Caracao, whatever you say it. And lemonade. Is it Blue Caracao is in that she's an actor in The Big Bang Theory. Is that right? Kaylee Cuoco. Blue Caracayo. Yes, correct. But it was worth the long, long run out.

And she works at the Cheesecake Factory and they serve drinks. Right. My brain is back to normal speed. Yeah. I figured. But that was a beautiful run and we got it recorded for posterity. Oh my god. That was the day that I got tripped up by the tongue twister too.

Yeah. So, you know, God works in mysterious ways, doesn't he? And Dave told you or she told you the band he booked. Yeah. He wouldn't show me the piece of paper. So it was wild clover. No way. But I'd already said here we can't play harmonica anymore. So I just don't know. What are the chances? It's all sound.

Sure, but we've had dead people play, so I reckon he's going to be able to play. And they're being actually in a headline by Huey Lewis on the news. No way. So he's pulling double shift. Dave, what the fuck? How does he do it? And then Lizzie with Huey Lewis. No.

Bluezy Huey Lewis. Oh my god, this is too much. I'm going to have to get way more blue karaoke. People are going to be going crazy. Jimmy Barnes is playing with Huey Lewis. No. Bluezy Huey Lewis. Oh my God. This is too much. Yeah. I'm going to have to get way more blue karaoke. People are going to be going crazy. Jimmy Barnes is playing with Huey Lewis as a support. Nah, that's crazy. And also that guy who's saying, that's just the way it is. Diddle-dee, diddle-dee, diddle-dee.

Did we explain what the triptych club is? Uh, no. It's where you tell them. Where people who have supported us for three consecutive years are welcomed into the club. It's a special, exclusive, really fun club. As we mentioned, there's a band, there's drinks and food and anything you can possibly imagine. The air hockey is off limits, that's for me. And Matt is at the door, he lifts up the velvet rope, he welcomes you in.

Normally Dave hypes them up, I then hype Dave up. How are we going to do it this week? How do you feel? You want to play the Dave role or do you want to play the me role? I'd like to play the you role. All right, you play the me role, I'll play the Dave role, you play the you role. Fantastic. Okay.

So first and foremost, are you ready? Yep. You'll be right. From, even if you want to just give him band names this time, I think, because you're really on a roll with that. how you go from London, please welcome in Tina Tina wouldn't turn you around you come right on in London have a grunt on Come right London in yes from Bristol also in Great Britain, I would love to bring in Anna Wang. Bristol, I will not be charging you any Bristol's tonight.

Yes. Anna Wang, Anna come hang. Yes, isn't that Phil Wang's sister? I believe it is. I believe. Thank you, Anna. Thank you, Anna Wang. For three years of beautiful support, we love you.

And finally, from Albuquerque in New Mexico, please welcome in Nathan Swapp. I tell you what, if I had my option of changing you over, Nathan, I never would. Welcome in Nathan Swapp. Thank you, Nathan, Anna, Tina. Welcome into the triptych club. Please make yourself at home. But again, do not touch my air hockey table. I swear to fucking God, Nathan, do not touch it. The velvet rope is not just at the front door. It's also at the door for the ice hockey table. Air hockey.

Oh, oh no. Have you put ice on it again? I didn't realise. Matt! I'm like, oh, the ice hockey table's thawed out again. No, it's air hockey. Oh my God. I'm so sorry. Oh my God. the ice hockey table's thawed out again. No, it's air hockey. Oh my god.

I'm so sorry. Oh my god. You've ruined my- I'll scrape it off and make margaritas, what do you think? Okay, now I'm back in. Okay. Anything else we need to tell people before we go? That they can suggest a topic.

Anybody can do it over at, it's on our website, which is Do Go On Pod. There's also a link in the show notes. You can find us on social media at do go on pod across Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter, et cetera. And finally remember to wash your butt. Oh, that is such great advice. Thank you so much. I recently smuggled some butter in mine. It's a cross pod call back that's probably in the future.

It's been a long day. Okay. But until next week, I'll say thank you and goodbye. Later. Bye. Oh. Later. Cursed Mike.