Klein/Ally Show: The Podcast - Cage the Elephant in Studio!

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

About to get into a brand new episode of Klein Alley Show, but first let's tell you about our good friends at the finest airport that ever was and ever will be. The San Bernardino International Airport. Especially when there's summer travel plans, it can get expensive at these airports. That's why you got to go to this airport where parking is just five bucks a day. Plus you got those easy trips, San Francisco or Provo, Utah. Maybe you didn't plan anything this summer. See how easy it is. Don't be one of those people who has to pack your patience. Go to San Bernardino International Airport. Okay, enough shilling. Now it's time to get into a brand new episode of Klein Alley Show. Some damn fine cage the elephant on K-Rock.

And as we welcome the Schultz brothers back to the K-Rock studios, of course, let's just go over some of the many, many massive hits they've given us over the years. We've already got that montage ready to go, guys. Welcome back to K-Rock. Please say hi to Cage the Elephant. Welcome, guys. Hey, how's it going? Thanks for being here.

Hey, what's up? Nice to see you again. Last time we did this was downstairs. You played a nice little intimate show for some K-Rock listeners. Then I think we did a fun thing at the El Rey. And then you got tapped by a little band by the name of Oasis to co-headline with them, which must have been nice. How did that whole thing go down?

Was there a phone call, a text? We, like everyone else, just heard rumors about the tour on social media, and I started writing them letters immediately. Postcards. Obsessive with magazine cutouts and everything. Every truck stop that we stopped at, we got a postcard and sent it to them. I mean, backstage, though, I spent a little time. Did they really get along, or was it all an act?

I mean, you must have seen a little bit backstage. No, I think they're getting along. What would you even know about what it's like to tour constantly with a brother? That you secretly hate. We never see each other on tour. You're saying different wings. Yeah, exactly. But in the course of your career together, has there ever been a moment where there was friction and you said, oh no, I don't want to go the way of the Oasis brothers?

Has there ever been a moment where there's been friction between us? I actually threw a pizza at Matt one time, which actually I feel very, very bad about. It's a waste of a perfectly good pizza. Yeah. I don't remember that. Yeah. What was the reason? Yeah, I did.

I'm sorry to ask your question. Yes, you do. I don't remember that. Yes, you do. I remember the time he threw me through a glass table, though. Oh, God. As adults or children? That glass table was a pizza table.

Oh, man. Delicious. That had a pizza on it. Yeah, you guys are... I love the relationship because from a young, young age, back when you guys were young, bloodsuckers before you were the massive monsters you are today. You would fight a lot.

I believe, Brad, you said you would almost always win the fights. The physical fights, you would always win, right? Did I say that? Pretty easily. Yeah, so Brad used to do this thing that when my parents... First off, we have to let the audience know the bloodsuckers was our...

That was our neighborhood gang. Brad was the leader and I was his... Just like the outsiders? I was his faithful sidekick. Why did I just envision you as like... Brad, you want me to hit him with a stick? You want me to go hit him with a stick? So he would tell you what to do,

and you would go out and create the trouble. Yeah. Why am I being painted as very evil right now? We've got a lot of stories. We talked to Matt a half an hour before you guys came in to make sure to get all the stories right. Really get him good. So you guys would fight him.

What would Brad do, Matt? Oh, yeah, no, so when Mom and Dad would go to the grocery store, if they stepped out, as soon as the door shut and they locked the deadbolt, Brad would turn around and go, Torture time. Do you think your parents had a favorite? Do you think they have a favorite and they'll never admit it?

Yeah, it's our youngest brother. Really? No, no, no, not Daniel, Jeremy. Yeah, we used to call him the prince. Jeremy, yeah. Because, I mean, you have a couple of kids. Jeremy's great, though. We love our brothers.

There's two other brothers. Not musical. Oh, yeah, they're both musical. Just not as musical. They are, they are. They're actually better than us. That's the thing. You can stand and hold the tambourine in the corner.

They're not opening for a week. They've actually written every single song we've ever put out. He literally just took the joke out of my mouth. And this is why we get in fights. This is why I throw a pizza at you. I do find it interesting because you grew up, and we've talked about this before, but very religious.

And when you wanted to listen to Nirvana, When you wanted to listen to Pearl Jam, you had to do this in hiding. The same way that people will hide cigarettes and then put scope in their mouth before they go home so the parents don't realize they were smoking, you would have to listen to this music in secrecy, correct? We actually did all four. We would put scope, smoke a cigarette, and listen to the music, all in secrecy. And if you got busted, like, humming a Nirvana, like, all of a sudden you're singing, like, a Nirvana song, like, your dad's like, what is that noise?

It wasn't so much Nirvana. It was more or less Green Day. Oh, really? My dad caught us with the Green Day tape. it was going to get snapped, you know, because all the cuss words. You couldn't have cuss words. That is the devil. I mean, that makes sense.

That's actually the truth. He did snap a Green Day CD in half with the torn pliers. Which one was it? And I'm like, did you have to use the pliers? You couldn't just snap it with your hand? You weren't strong enough to do that? Torch your tongue. Really let it sink in. Drive it

home. Like, you made me use the pliers. Get the needle nose. I wonder what other great albums of yours they've ruined over the years to prove a point. My dad used to snap all our albums in front of us. Oh, I know, I know. We'd get our first record, Cage the Elephant.

He'd be like, I wrote that song. But it's like throwing someone's cigarettes down the toilet. It's like, you're just going to get more cigarettes. Thank you, happy birthday on our birthday. Snapped it. Well, you had a lot of six to your albums. In my dad's defense, he was just trying to protect

us from Satan. I get it. Well, we have a new song. We're excited because we're going to play a new song, Beaches in Tennessee. And before we play this on KROQ, because it has been two years since you've released new music. The last one that we chatted about was Neon Pill and obviously all the stuff that you were dealing with when you wrote that song. But this is kind of picks up where that left off, right? Because this was mental health based as well. Well, you know, with the whole album Neon Pill, we had written most of that material when I was very sick.

and just for the audience which most people know this or a lot of people do I went through a mental crisis a couple years back and it honestly saved my life so being arrested saved my life which I was hospitalized for three months

but we wrote a lot of that material while I was very unwell so finishing the record was kind of like trying to decipher this weird psychosis induced narrative And this album is the first material that I've been able to look back on it from a very stable place and a healthy place and kind of heal and move on and move towards the future. Was there ever a moment that it felt a little conflicted, where you felt conflicted about whether to share this personal experience?

You know, I mean, obviously being vulnerable in that way can be difficult and you're sharing such an intimate part of your personal life. No, I mean, honestly, it's, I enjoy the pain. Or you just feel like your life is, you know, I think you also are, you guys are so connected to your fans where you may feel like you have to share. This is part of your life and part of your life is sharing what your personal life entails. I feel like the only, personally, I feel like the only way to get to material that's real and that resonates is to be transparent in your own writing. So, yeah. So we have a single, but we also have new music, more new music on the way. Yeah.

We're kind of putting on the finishing touches on the album right now. We're going to play every song right now. Oh, wow. Great. What a treat. Back to back to back to back. No instruments? We are going to play Beaches in Tennessee.

And I will say already, I think the sound is so, it sounds so uplifting. It sounds happy. I know it came from the mental health stuff, the other side of it. But it sounds like this is maybe you're talking about just the surviving part of it, getting through on the other side. And it's pretty, it's a great, I mean, it's a great rock song, which some people have not yet heard. So let's go ahead and give this a play on camera. Anything you want to say before we hit play? Yeah, it's just like, I feel like this song for us was reclaiming that ability to write about turbulent times in life in a very kind of, like you said, lighthearted way and have fun with it.

Beaches in Tennessee, Cage the Elephant on KROQ. Come back more with the Schultz Brothers next on KROQ. Oh, man, with a live cough at the end of your song, it sounded great. Beaches in Tennessee, KG Elephant on KROQ in the studio right now. Brad Schultz, Matt Schultz, and you guys have given us so many great opportunities to spend with our listeners,

and they always want to say they appreciate you. Hey, Klein and Ali Schultz, thank you so much for letting me come to watch KG Elephant at the bounce base. Had a great time. Love you guys. Ali and I were having this conversation before you came in here, but we agree on not a lot.

one of our favorite live bands to watch is always you and I think a lot of it had to do at the beginning Matt with the fact that you would pretty much put your life at risk every show you didn't care broken bones broken body parts do you plan on as you're now releasing new music I would imagine there's an

album perhaps to follow and then more touring do you plan on taking care of your body more now or no do you continue to want to go ahead and prove that you are unbreakable I don't know we'll leave that up to the future

I mean the amount of scaffolding he's climbed, speaker it's almost like when you are performing you have no control it looks to us like you've lost complete control yeah pretty much yes I have I am unhinged

it's funny though because now like now that I'm a father so my son's one years old and I want to take care of myself these days so no no no definitely still still be going out there and going hard for sure did you uh for the first birthday party do all the traditional smash cake and all that kind of stuff yeah it's like some of that stuff i i was like no i'm not gonna do any of that and then first

birthday rolls around you're like well i have to get the smash cake i have to do all the things we've been so strict on like on like making sure that he that we do all the things that um our doctor is telling us and all that stuff which i know that's what you're supposed to do but anyways so he hadn't had any sugar and when he had his first bite of cake he's like throwing up in his mouth he's like as long as you see their eyes dialing

like whoa this is a crazy experience that junky look in their eyes you've been holding this for me for a year you're like it gets way better than that dude yeah but he's definitely he takes after me he's like already

you know the little play pins and he's like doing flips over it so we're like bro come on he takes after you Brad, is there a time frame? I know that this song, we're letting it, marinating in it now, but there are other songs that have been written, recorded yet? Yeah, we're pretty much finished with the record. We have some, like, there's a couple songs that we're finishing up right now, but for the most part, the album's done.

Well, 562 said, I have seen Cage three times. You guys are badass, always memorable, and saw you guys at the El Rey, and remember Brad breaking his guitars on stage. It was crazy. How many guitars do you think you've lost that you've either given away, broken, or otherwise? Oh, my gosh. I don't know. Actually, I had the most awkward guitar giveaway of all times about three days ago. There was a kid that was, like, holding a sign saying, Brad, you know, can I have your guitar?

Oh, my God. Balls on that kid. Entitled. I start running down the stairs of the stage, and I don't know why, But I was like, yeah, I'm going to jump the last four stairs. I jumped off the last four stairs. And as soon as I hit the ground, my knees went to jail. Oh, no.

And I literally was like, I looked like Gumby. He pulls up a sign and says, never mind. And everything just slowed down. And I was like, no, your knees aren't going to give out. And then I was like, no, your knees aren't going to give out. and then I went head first and seal slid and stopped right at the kid's feet.

And I looked up at him like I was terrified. I was like, you can keep your guitar, sir. I know. Did you still give it to him? No, he said, I don't want it anymore.

He just helped you up. He said, you're not as cool as I thought you were, buddy. You keep your guitar, you loser. As always, we... Vinny spit on me.

We wrap up every interview here at KROQ with not one, but two epic questions for KG Elephant. Two, two, two epic, epic questions. Brad Schultz, Matt Schultz, KG Elephant. MK Rock in the studio right now. Epic question number one.

Allie, give it to him. Which state makes the best barbecue and why? Of all the barbecue you've ever eaten in, I'm sure it's been a lot. I'm going to go with, I think, Texas, Austin, Texas. I know Austin's not a state, but I said Texas first. It's a simple question, Brad. Texas, specifically Austin.

In the spirit of our new single, I'm going to say Tennessee. Smart, smart. Epic question number two. National Tennessee. Epic question number two. Is Austin considered a state? I don't think they're going to get this one. It's a toughie.

This is the real question, though. When you're in Los Angeles, as you are right now, what is one thing you must do? Is there a thing you do when you're here that you go, at least we're going to get to do that? I used to go to, and I should do this, it's been a minute, but I used to, every time I came to LA,

I would go to the Electric Banana and get a tattoo. Oh. What was the last tattoo you got there, do you remember? I think the last one I got was this little knife guy. Oh, cool. Running after the tiger. He's going to stop him, you know? And do you say,

can I just have a little knife guy, you make it up? Yeah, yeah. a little clown that's holding a dagger running towards the tiger you make up the rest go ahead his name is austin yeah choose your own adventure well guys congratulations on the new music thank you for coming here to share with us thank you so we look forward to hearing more when the album comes out and uh when we uh when we return we will get you into a festival that sadly cage is not playing out but it's happening in santa monica on the beach and You will see one of the people from this band there, Jack White, will be at this show.

So if you want your tickets, call her 20 right now. We get you into the Beach Alley. What is this thing called? Ocean Way. Ocean Way. That's what it's called. It's a new festival. We can't keep track of it all.

We'll give away your tickets next on KRO.