My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 269 - TRISH STRATUS/DAVID DASTMALCHIAN/GAVIN ROSSDALE

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

Robbie shows just how versatile the Basement could get when a wrestler, an actor, and a musician all join the podcast today! Trish Stratus kicks things off discussing her rivalry with Lita and who would play the legendary WWE Hall of Famers in a movie about their lives, then David Dastmalchian talks dealing with rejection and shares stories from the amazing sets he's been on, and finally - Gavin Rossdale hops down into the Basement and tells Robbie who the funniest rockstars he's ever met are! 3Chi: Use code BASEMENT15 for 15% off your complete order at 3Chi.com! HelloFresh: Use code FOX60 at HelloFresh.com/FOX60 for 60% OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER plus FREE SHIPPING! **************************************** My Mom's Basement is a weekly podcast hosted by Robbie Fox, started in March 2019, to discuss movies, music, comic books, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and more with his friends and idols alike! Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-moms-basement/id1457255205 Follow Robbie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatrobbiefox Follow Robbie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobbieBarstool My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello and welcome to My Mom's Basement, presented by 3G and Barstool Sports. I am your host, Robbie Fox, and today I am coming at you with a special interview-packed show. First up is Trish Stratus, possibly my first crush. It was either her or Padme Amidala. And then we'll get into an interview with David Desmalchen, who you know from The Suicide Squad as Polka Dot Man, from Prisoners, from The Dark Knight as one of the Joker's goons that Harvey Dent winds up interrogating. He's been in so much. He was in Dune. He's going to be in Oppenheimer. Truly inspiring guy. Great chat with him. And then lead singer and front man of Bush, Gavin Rossdale joins me to talk about his entire writing and recording process, the new Bush album,

the funniest rock star who he's ever met, which will surprise you and more. First, before we get into this, let me tell everyone about 3C. Of all the things in life, one of the best has to be getting high wherever you want, whenever you want, without the paranoia of consuming some sketchy black market stuff. What's the best way to do that? With 3Chi, of course. 3Chi has the highest quality cannabis products from their delicious Delta 9 edibles and their industry-leading Delta 8 products, which basically invented the industry, to their new line of Delta 9 ovapes and everything in between. Thank you. that they put into it because, oh my God, from the gummies to the root beer taffies to the eight balls candies to the cereal bar treats and everything in between, the cookies, the brownies, all of it. It tastes amazing.

It feels amazing. It's the best in the industry. My Mom's Basement listeners will get an exclusive 15% off discount on all of 3Chi's premium THC products by going to 3chi.com and using the promo code BASEMENT15 to take 15% off your order. So that is BASEMENT, all caps, 1-5. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Please use responsibly. Now let's get into this interview with Trish Stratus. Hello and welcome back to My Mom's Basement, ladies and gentlemen. It is Robbie Fox and I am here with wwe

hall of famer trish stratus ahead of wwe arrivals finally we're getting alita and trish stratus documentary almost not well it's the full rivals episode on a e not documentary it's a little bit of everything right thank you for doing this trish thank you for being here how are you i'm great thank you for having me on um yeah i'm excited about that that that uh especially the timing of this episode right so it's coming out right as we're rolling into wrestlemania on the road to wrestlemania um and so like i think you know i want to call us the ogs but some do oh absolutely uh so to be able to see you know the history unfold and really see the struggle the journey like you know what we did together um and then have us you know to history unfold and really see the struggle the journey like you know what we did

together um and then have us you know have this wrestlemania moment together is uh is really special and just the timing of it couldn't be any better yeah and with wwe rivals we just had freddie prince jr on our movie podcast here at barstool and we were asking him about what rivalries could actually make a cool cinematic movie and everything and this was the first one he brought up he was like trish and lita oh my god that was a rivalry for the ages it's one that I truly grew up with and I'm glad that we're gonna get this finally the rivals episode obviously I feel like the raw main event you probably get asked that all the time that's the big match that everyone talks about for good reason it was a historic iconic main event in raw history do you

have a favorite match that that's not that main event with lita oh gosh yeah our uh my my retirement match you know my i'll say retirement now because obviously but um uh no that to me was uh you know because it was like a perfect bookend to our career to our time together to our parallel to the rivalry you know it really was a perfect conclusion so to speak right um we began around the same time we ran parallel our entire careers uh with a rivalry that is still talked about today and even documentaries and on television now uh 23 years later um but like then it concluded with you know Lita and Trish facing off my retirement match in a women's championship match I mean you couldn't you couldn't write write a better ending for us and for the rivalry

itself. So yeah, that one, and it was, that was full of emotions, bittersweet moment because I was leaving the business I loved, but also leaving it for my friends and family who were also in attendance. Like it was just everything about that, that match had, it had all the, all the good stuff. Yeah. And we know that you guys obviously had a very bitter rivalry on screen for years, but we also know that behind the scenes, you guys are very close friends. Did you

guys form that friendship right away when you met, did you click right away? We did. I think it was because, you know, and we had, we had been connected by the phone before we both debuted. So, cause I was kind of like, so heavy, are you training? Like, what are you, what are you, they got you doing over there? What about, are you ahead of me? In other words, you know, she of course had the traditional, more traditional upbringing, you know, through the independence and in Mexico and of course ECW. And I was like, I had trained a few months at the gym in Toronto. That's all I had, you know? So obviously I learned my training was not traditional. It was learn as I went on television.

Yay. Yay for me. But we talked about like in the very beginning how we were both beginning. And we talked. Hi. Oh, my daughter's coming to say hi. We were talking about. Did you want to say hi to Robbie?

Robbie, this is Maddie. What's up, Maddie? She's been making some crafts. We have a unicorn. Oh, nice. Right? We've got a unicorn. We've got a bunny.

Come down. It's March break. Is it happening over there? Yeah. Right now, yeah. So thank you for fitting it in. This is part of the juggle, you know, coming back full-time wrestling, but also being a mom. Like, back in the day, I didn't have to juggle.

It was just me, right? But, yeah, we were, like, we hit it off, you know, because we're, like, oh, my God didn't have to juggle it was just me right um but yeah we we were like we we hit it off you know because we're like oh my god we have this neat opportunity we're we're starting the wwe soon right um and then we right away people were like there's this thing right there's this intangible between trish and lita when they get in the ring people are interested because they represent different things they look different they feel different they have a different vibe right and and at home there's the trish fan and there's a trish strata and then lita fan you know what i mean there's definitely a distinct fan yeah um and so um so i think we recognized that early on and and we weren't the only ones it was the fans recognized it but also like the boys right and we worked with you know like tna and hardy

hardys were like oh they are gonna wait for this moment that you guys get to each other let's make them wait for it or let's not make them wait. You know, whatever it was we were doing psychology wise. It definitely was something we, it was a tool that we had in our back pocket that we could use the Trish Lita moment. But then to see it play out, like as we kept going, you know, whatever point we're good guy, bad guy, different storylines, whenever we cross paths, there was a little something, something there.

And then the cool thing is, I think like, you know, you talked about how, and like, you know, Lita had the traditional upbringing right when she had the injury with her back that's when things started to kind of happen for the women right like you know I was there basically like I said learning as I went in a few with Molly and Jazz and Victoria and Mickey James and and really being able to hone my craft and like you know get to the point where now you have these two characters the Trish and Lita characters but what about now they can actually physically go in the ring and you know deliver the aspect of the product which is what the guys do so to speak and um now what we bring and so there was it was it added a different element to us what we could deliver as characters

on the show and then it played out the way it did. And it was it was magical. Speaking of training on the fly and learning on the fly in the business seemed like you got so so good at wrestling so quick, like it was like a year and a half from your debut to the match with Victoria Survivor Series that everyone loves talking about still to this day. What was that unseen work that you were putting in when you weren't on TV? Because we saw just you on TV get exponentially better very quickly. What was that work like? How were you getting training hours in when you're on the road? Yeah, it was, I mean, every opportunity,

whenever there was a ring up, I was in it. I would get to the bill and, you know, people read it and they've heard the stories, but like I would get to the ring as soon as the ring was put up in the building for TV days, I was in it for live events. I was in the ring before with anyone who would, anyone tv days i was in it for for live events i was in the ring before with anyone who would anyone want to can someone help help me help me you know and i had

you know amazing people working with me of course it really was one of them but i had regal he was a huge you know he was so great about like making me do a hundred hindu squats first by the way and then get in the ring you know and, and then Lance Storm, right, having his, bringing his brain into it was so amazing, right, and having to be like, okay, guys, I saw this thing on Mortal Kombat, so she went like this, and she flipped over, and then her feet, and like, it literally was a move, I saw Mortal Kombat, can I do that, is that possible to physically do that in the ring, and then, you know, I was able to to do that and helping me realize these things right and making them into real life um that was what it was I mean but you know also being paired with something you know being with Lita um and knowing that like she brought a certain something

she brought a level of excellence of what she did I never wanted to as we say shit the bed right so I wanted to go in and be able to if I couldn't match her in you know ringability let me bring the performance let me bring the character let me bring what I can bring to make this you know segment right to make this this is the moment we were given this is the amount of minutes we're being given let's make it amazing like memorable and so they'll give us more minutes is the ultimate goal right um but yeah um I just learned as I went and then there was that learning curve of like, you're being paired with Vince.

He is your boss. So you've got to do really good every time. So every time you go out, nail that segment. Next time, nail it. Do better than last time. Do better. That became my MO was do better the last time. Just do better the last time.

And yeah, and I was luckily given the opportunity to, I mean, that meant 300 days of the year was I working. Yes. Was I on every house show? Was I on live events? Was I on everything? I mean, I think Natty recently broke my record on the amount of raws I was on. And I'm like, and I did that in, you know, six years or something. Right. So it was intense, intense schedule, but like learning every second I was out there and just

like a sponge, you know, taking it all in and really maximizing as much as I could. Did you feel burnout in your career? Sure did. Yeah, I did. And I honestly, I feel like sometimes the universe was there for me, like when I was starting to feel it, an injury would happen. And is that a coincidence? I don't know. You know, your body is vulnerable at certain times because everything's not quite, you know, in place. And those injuries in a way saved me like, like, luckily, they weren't like career threatening. But to be able to step away for those couple months or whatever and a number of things right recover the body um i also love the fact that i could go back home and watch the product as a fan again that gave me because you know you get caught up in this frenetic pace and you're just it's like a white noise around you

constantly you're just go go go and you're seeing your stuff in front of you but like to go and watch the product again like a fan like what makes me resonate with a character what makes me feel you know emotion um and then being able to go back and then bring that it was nice to go back each time with and i can i can actually recall each injury like there was ankle injury with the jeff hardy you know there was the back injury with um viscera taking me out, you know, um, he broke my back, um, uh, to go back and, uh, with a fresh perspective and a new perspective and a new excitement really was helpful. And it really, it helped, I think, kind of like reignite my fire each time. You just mentioned a couple of injuries. If I say to you, what was the worst bump you ever took in your career? Does one come

to mind? Does one spring to mind? Hmm. I mean mean I was really lucky that I didn't I didn't get injured um mine was more like cumulative injury it was like you know like a degenerative disc damage over time what you're doing is gonna you know impact you and it did um I mean I had a dislocated shoulder um but that was like a fluky thing it wasn't like that bump did it you You know what I mean? I mean, going to the table, I don't know. One of the most exhilarating moments. It's such a weird thing to say when I went through the table, I was like, Oh, it was so cool. Right. So, um, yeah. So I don't know. I was, I, I loved all the bumps I took and I would do them all over again in a minute. I didn't lose any more teeth though. I don't, there was a one I got thrown over the top. Once I got hit with this, uh, steel chair and then when i went over the top rope and i one of my

teeth got knocked loose so i don't want to lose any more teeth but i would do every bump except with the tooth knocking bumps again for me you got chokeslammed by kane on raw once and that was pretty traumatizing for the young trish stratus fan in me was it yeah i didn't like that it was that was nuts because the so he's what how many feet is he seven feet we say we say seven yeah almost yeah ish right so then we add an arm we're talking almost eight feet at this point so as i'm taking i'm like where's the rate where am i gonna land this thing like it just felt like i was elevated for so long i'm like still falling still falling yeah um that was a lot of fun, especially to do that. Like the fun

thing for me was like Vince going, we're going to do this in Toronto. And I'm like, cool. I love it. Let's do it. I mean, so it was great. Oh my God. I know. I said it was traumatizing for me. I can't imagine for all the Toronto fans in the crowd, like you're the hometown hero and oh yeah, that's tough. Just a couple of weeks ago, you were out thereita and becky winning the women's tag titles and i tweeted after the moment that it was such a cool moment because it was probably so surreal for literally every single person involved in the segment was that true like what was it like in gorilla when you guys went right to the back after that oh it was i mean and i think that moment um now like it's like the moment we had backstage what it means is being is like interpreted in

wrestlemania like there's a multi-generational face-off right you have the past present and the future being represented you have mean lead as the past you have bailey and becky as the present and you have eo and dakota as the as the future um and so to see i got goosebumps just now i really actually did like it's it's really it's it's so unique and it's such an interesting dynamic so you know as a fan because i'm a fan first right to see as a fan to see that play out is going to be so cool. And, you know, to be in that moment when it happened and then, you know, for lead out, I'm going to say Amy, you know, Amy, to see my friend Amy. I'm going to say, you know, capturing that title and seeing how good like her and Becky look together. I'm like, oh, my God, like because, you know, when they faced off, that was like, this is so cool because they're kind of like,

they represent the same sort of thing. Um, and so to see them having that moment, um, and being a part of it myself as well was, it was, it was amazing, you know? And you know, like I, to be, to be a part of that in that moment at this stage of our career, me and Amir like what, 23 years later, and we're in this moment. That's crazy. Are the women's tag titles, something you guys would that's crazy are the women's tag titles something you guys would like talk about in the women's locker room back when you were wrestling full-time or is that something that was so far away as a pipe dream that you guys never even thought of it you nailed it it was not even part of our vocabulary like it was there's no way that

why would they they would never right we would never we never thought we'd have even more one title to compete for right we're just like we have a title there was a point we didn't have even a title right because china had taken the time that she was champion when she left the company so there wasn't at some point at one point there was no nothing to even fight for just nothing to fight for you know so we were just thankful to have one title uh no never did we think there'd be tag titles never did we think it'd be multi-titles to to to compete for um so knowing that there is that now knowing that's really what we were fighting for all along not no unknowingly right that we were fighting for these other things just opportunity the chance

to be seen the chance to be heard um there was definitely a point in our career where we saw like you know a rise in the female demographic We saw the autograph signings filled with women and girls that were like, oh my God, I love what you do. And you're inspiring. And you're like, oh, this is interesting. This is different than just you look hot in this bikini. Can you sign this? You know? And so it became about the bigger message about like, what are we doing? We're women making it in a male dominated world. I know for me personally, growing up, people say, did you know you wanted to be a wrestler when you grew up? Absolutely not. It wasn't an option. Right. There was nothing for me to see on my screen that I could say that I see myself in that. Right. Like, I mean, of course, there was one director and there was moments of women's wrestling in China, of course.

But there wasn't enough of it for me to say, like, that's a possible thing for me. And so we realized we had to become the voice and we had to be the representation. And we are suddenly female role models. And voice and we had to be the representation and we are suddenly female role models and it was really important to be that and so you know when we had that sort of that conscious moment of like there's a bigger picture to fight for out here um and you know I think this for me and Lita wasn't about um you know Rock and Austin I don't know if they had the Trish and Lita bond you know that we have were just like, I'm going to be the bigger star. I want to be the bigger star. I think Lita and Trish was about we can do this thing so that we as women have a place here.

It wasn't about I want to be the bigger star. You know what I mean? We knew together we had to do it together and we knew the opportunity together. And that's why that, you know, so I guess in a way, the rivalry we had is what made our bond so strong. Yeah. And I see you guys doing like comic cons and signings a lot together now. Is that such a rewarding experience? Because I would imagine now at every single signing you do, you hear from at least one or two women that are saying you inspired me and now I'm going to train and now I'm a wrestler, even the modern roster. I feel like everyone on the women's roster is like, yeah, Lita and Trish inspired us. Yeah. At least one or 200 actually.

Yeah. Yeah. No, there it's, it's super cool and inspiring. And like, you know, we at one point decided to do that. Like when, when Lita got inducted the hall of fame, I was like, let's, let's do this thing. Let's go on the road together. Cause my, my, my child was six months at the time and I was ready to like, okay, I'm going to get back into this now. Cause you know, I'd done the mom chapter and my kid was old enough for me to leave them.

And you know, we were like, okay, I'm like, let's do team bestie. We'll do this tour. And like, for the opportunity for like Trish Stratus fans and Lita fans, you can finally come together because we are besties, you know? And then those neat stories that come out of it, the moments we get fans sharing how, what, you know, what we did, how it influenced them. And there's always the Trish and Lita, because even if you were just a Trish fan, it was Trish with Lita that maybe that's what that moment is the one that inspired you, right? So to have us together and then, you know, the opportunity for

fans to take the pictures with us together and be together and chat with us together is super cool. And we just love it. And this, in this point in our career, in our lives to go back and still be doing this, you know, and getting these moments with not only the current landscape of women, but also the current fan base of women and men and everyone is is is it's a blessing. It's really awesome. Now, speaking of moments in Gorilla, like going right back to the curtain or even right before you're about to go out before your entrance. Do you have one that comes to mind as your favorite or most memorable? Oh gosh, that's interesting. You know, a big moment for me was probably when I came back after the back injury. It was, it was like a surprise moment. I teamed up with Ashley and it was like a lot of women in the ring. So that was like a good sign of things to come that there was lots of women in the ring that could be physical, you know? And,

and I just love the surprise of it all. I just, you know, there's nothing like that pop when they're not expecting it, you know? So that's always fun. And my Royal Rumble 2018, like, you know, my appearance in that, I think people were not expecting me. They were literally, literally expecting Rhonda. So that was, you know, I was there for it. We were, yeah. Yeah. right okay you know so uh that was cool um and that was and that was that was cool because that was the first taste i got of like getting in the ring with this generation that we influenced and and had an impact on so that was really cool and just to

get that little taste and to now to have it continue to play out is a man. It's great. Something I heard you say, I believe it was during the tough enough coaching days that has stuck with me and it has almost ruined matches for me because I can't unsee it now is that one of your biggest pet peeves is people adjusting their gear during matches. You said, I cannot stand you're in a fight. Why are you changing the way your clothes look? Right. And now I can't unsee that whenever someone adjusts their gear, I'm like, oh, why are you adjusting the gear? Cause it does, it takes you out of the moment. I guess whenever it took me out of the moment too many times, it just proceeds, just proceed, just let's go, you know? And yeah, I mean, unless your boobs are falling out. Well, yeah, that's different.

That's a wardrobe malfunction. Yeah. It's's totally different but in terms of like just slight adjustments here and there it almost looks like a nervous tick on some people it's like fixing your hair like before you like throw punches or something it's you're not doing that you're not doing that a real fight right i i believe in preserving the integrity of fight of the fight you know what i mean and i i like that and that's probably my upbringing from fit finley and from regal and like being in my ear about the integrity of fighting and what we do out there and and the stories that we're telling. Let's, you know, let's keep it real. You know, I did love you as a coach in those days, too. I thought you were great with all of the like, I don't know what you call them, competitors on the reality show with all the future wrestlers.

Did coaching ever call to you after that? Did you ever think like, hey, I'd love to go coach the next generation or no? Not really. No, I guess I think when I left WB, I was just like focused on next chapter things, right? That was more like an opportunity to do the show and be that part of that. And it was cool to me to like, I was like, oh, this is neat. I can give back what I've learned, right? But I never, and you know, I talked to like someone like Matt Bloom, who's down at the performance center, like, and Hunter, I talked to many points, just like, you

know, it'd be cool if you came down to the performance center or you came down, you know, there was always a chat to come down and, and do that, but not on a full-time basis. And like, you know, just, I just, I guess when I left the business, I had other things to do. I went back in the capacity of like a show really, but I did love that. Like, I love that I was able to give back what I had learned and what I had done in my in my time there and then just you know pass it on maddie is uh telling a dog to sit it's just pretend so don't worry but um if you're wondering what that's no it's fine listen this is my mom's basement everyone's invited the imaginary dogs the real dogs maddie get everyone in the basement um and speaking of like imparting your wisdom on other people,

over the years, we've heard from so many wrestlers, male and female, that they hit you up for advice. What is like the best piece of advice that you were given in your career that maybe you could try to pass on to other wrestlers? Don't adjust your costume when you're performing. It's a good one. Yeah, it is, right?

Honestly, I just, it was about just being your authentic self. And that's something that, you know, and it sounds cliched now because, you know, we always say we're amped up versions of ourselves out there. But I think those are the characters that the fans really, because they detect that genuineness. They know when it's real and they, and it's a little bit of you, right? You're giving a lot of you actually at that point. But and people that resonates with people. Right. That hits. And I think that's why those are the characters that stay and become evergreen in our business. And so that's what I always try to say to people like character stuff, of course. But there's got to be a little element of authenticity, what you do and who you are out there.

Yeah. And when people hit you up for advice, do you feel like it's more about like how to navigate the business more about wrestling more about character work? Like when people reach out to Trish Stratus, what do you get the most? I get I get everything. It depends who's reaching out, right? There's, I've had male and females reach out, like, man, because because they're like, this is what's happening now, like in your day, how did you deal with this? You know what I mean? And things certainly have changed. But they've also remained the same. Right. So yeah, I've, I've, I've given advice on all aspects, you know, as about what character, what moves to do and borrowing my moves or whatever. There's been so many, you know, cool calls that I've got or cool texts that have been like, okay, you know, and much like, you know, words of encouragement. Like I do, I like to reach out

when I see something that's special or whatever. And I know it means a lot to like, for example, when Liv was having her main event match, like I just, it meant it, it was important for me to reach out to her to know how important that moment was. Right. And obviously she, um, she felt that importance as well. Like, well, you know, they meant a lot for her to hear from me, but, um, knowing that like when I had my unforgiven match, my retirement match, getting a text from Bret Hart, right. It was like doing the

sharpshooter in that match it meant so much and i did it as an homage to him right so and what he means to canada and and what he's contributed to the business so getting that and getting almost like that seal of approval or that like you know that nod from him it meant so much to me to always stick with me so if i can do that and knowing that you know i perhaps have that same effect or i can you know influence someone in a certain way or encourage someone in a certain way. You know, I just I think it's important for sure as a senior talent. I think it's so awesome that you do that. I interviewed Liv right before that main event, but it was after she had put it out that you texted her and everything. And she was so genuinely like fired up and happy about it. It was really cool to see. So it's awesome that you do that.

And then finally, what are your thoughts on Cardi B's tweets about you? Cardi B's had a couple over the years where she's like, I was a Trish Stratus girl growing up. I assume you've had to see them, right? Yeah, no, it's obviously because of our derriere, you know, is our backend. We've been talking about for decades now. No no there's much more i don't know i think it's cool uh you know i think she's she was looking at like a strong female badass that's what that's what cardi b is right so like that's what you know she grew up on that it's yeah did i influence cardi b maybe i don't know um but i think it's cool i get it yes yes you you're confirming that um you know to that you know the shout out and it's, it's, to me, it's just another successful woman in another industry, uplifting another woman and,

and, and giving that, you know, awareness is what it is. It's all about that, right? It's about supporting, uplifting other women, because that's what like a stronger as a group, like as a bus, all supporting each other and recognizing there's a space for everyone is super important. And what really makes, makes us continue to grow. Yeah, I see those tweets every now and then from her. And she tweets about Rey Mysterio, The Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero, all her favorites, right? And it's like we get too far into the forest to see the trees sometimes. And we think wrestling is like our own little niche thing.

And then the biggest stars in the world remind you that everyone grew up with it. Yeah, no, that's the thing, right? It's nostalgic, right? And it's funny because I actually said that to a friend I'm like I was like oh I mean did I fangirl about her tweet yes I did I thought that was cool you know and I showed a friend and she goes yeah of course remember what you represent that's the nostalgic thing that she grew up watching what you did right like a woman making it in a male-dominated world and she did that too how cool right did you influence it I don't know but you know that's what she saw and she had that representation she had that visibility um so yeah

it's it's really neat to be in that position and um do i fangirl yeah a little bit i do you deserve it and anyone who wants to continue fangirling or fanboying can watch wwe rivals on sunday the trish versus lita episode on a and e i can can't wait for it. I'll be tuned in. Obviously, Freddie Prince Jr. will be tuned in. Maybe a future movie in the works with him directing. Oh, Freddie B will be as well. Right. Oh, yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah, I was going to say, do you have someone? I mean, I have available. I've done some. Yeah, you can play yourself. You can play yourself. That's fine. I don't know if Lita is available.

You know, maybe we can we play ourselves or is that weird is it like yeah she's done some acting i think she she's had some acting aspirations but you know just to throw it out there who would play trish and lita in the uh made for tv special trish and lita who tell us tell me yours tell me yours that's that's uh you're putting me on the spot here tr Trish. This is really tough. I'm going to cast. OK, right now. I'm going to cast Margot Robbie as Trish. OK, I've said that before, too. I like Margot Robbie as Trish and I'll go kind of like an alternate girl like Cara Delevingne as Lita. OK, yeah, I like that. Maybe not looks wise, the same. You get the aura, the essence, the Okay. Yeah. I like that. Maybe not looks wise, the same, but you could get the aura, the essence, the personality. Yeah. I buy a ticket to that movie. Do you say like in the

comments below or is that not how you say it? Yeah, in the comments below. Let us know who would play Trish Stratus and who would play Lita in the comments below. And I hope you stratus find me with your answer or else I'm going to delete it or he'll delete it or whatever. Whatever. You're better at plugging this stuff than I am. I forgot about the comments. You got the people working. You're better at the comments.

Yeah, I know. I got you. Thank you so much, Trish. I appreciate the time and just thank you for all the entertainment over the years. You're welcome. And don't forget WrestleMania 29. What are we on?

39 now? My God. 39. You know, I'm going to be extremely stratified. You see what I did there? Nice. You're welcome. I loved it.

Thanks, Robbie. All right. Shout out to Trish Stratus for joining. That was awesome. Really great interview. Now let me tell everyone about HelloFresh and we'll get into our next interview right afterwards. Make mealtime easy with delicious recipes made with fresh, wholesome ingredients

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Big get for the basement, basically. I'm excited to have you here. How are you? I'm fantastic. What a great introduction. Thanks, man. Well, it could have been better. I could have listed down all of your whole resume, which is a lot.

No, but you think I'm a get. Oh, you're a big get. That's a great compliment. For the basement? I want a t-shirt that says get. I've been gotten. It's great to be here in the basement. You're in New York for South by Southwest? Is that right?

No, I'm in New York for the premiere of The Boston Strangler. I just left South by Southwest in Austin, Texas for the premiere of a different film called Late Night with the Devil. You just got the most stacked 2023 out there. It's like I'm a little bit on it. I have this mantra lately where I'm saying, I'm not on a roller coaster. I can take a step off whenever I need to. I can breathe as I need to. Because sometimes it does feel a little too

chaotic. I'm also a dad of two kids who have all the needs that kids have. I've got an incredible wife, but I have to nurture and tend to that relationship. And then I've got a production company where I'm putting together right now two feature films, three publishing deals and like a tv series so then doing the wonderful tour of promoting projects that i have worked on and i love like boston strangler or late night with the devil or we just wrapped up a bunch of work on ant-man and the wasp quantum mania getting ready for some more films it can get a little uh crazy to say the least and and the great thing about the way that my life is worked out is that i do have this incredible life partner in crime my wife eve and a really small tight circle of friends and family around me so at the end of the day when you know you've

been doing some crazy chaotic shit you can just go home and you know uh sit on the couch and listen to your kids complain about you for being boring or whatever grounds you right it's very grounding it's great it's great yeah and your 2023 like i said is so stacked with projects that are coming out are you like acting in a bunch of stuff this year as well are you like being in stuff or is this a year where you're like i'm just promoting stuff and putting things out interesting question for 2023 i've definitely recultivated back towards my projects and my stories that i uh want to tell that come from me yeah i'm lucky that a lot of the jobs that i've gotten to be a part of where other people have brought me onto their projects are stories that I love telling and want to tell, but launching my company, Good Fiend Films, uh,

which is a production company that, you know, specializes and focuses on wrestling with questions and big ideas that I care about through the lens of genre. So mostly science fiction, horror, superhero stories. Um, that's where I'm putting kind of all of my focused energy at the moment. Uh, that involves, you know, the, the writing and creation and publication of one comic book that's currently in publication, but then two more that are coming, which I'll be announcing soon. And then, yeah, I've got a TV show that I sold recently, which I'm writing and developing.

And then, oh, congrats. Thank you. Two feature films. So I'm putting a lot of that energy in there. I will be acting in almost all of those projects. But as far as other people's work, like people who have been kind of coming to me recently with like, would you like to do this?

Would you like to do that? It hasn't been the right alignment yet. I'm open to it. I know, you know, of course, it'll be fantastic when the right thing presents itself. But I'm, I'd say energetically kind of focusing on creating my own projects right now. Was that always the end goal for you creating your own projects? Or did it come from being in the film industry and like falling in love with it? I don't think there's an end. It's not the end goal the end goal for me is this this desire to tell stories that i would love to hear but also tell the stories that i feel like i need to tell and um so ultimately as i started my career i was

a chicago theater actor i started making a little bit of money doing television commercials i got got my first big break, was able to be a part of Chris Nolan's The Dark Night, one of the greatest films ever made. I have this really cool, juicy little role that really propelled me, if not financially, at least it was a door opener. And I used that opportunity because my dream and my goal was ultimately to always work in film and television, but mostly in movies. I really was like, that was always a dream of mine. Came to New York in 2009 because I was doing commercials and I had been guided by some people I was working with at the time, agents that they thought this would be the right place for me to start. And although it didn't work out that way, because I couldn't even get an audition to save my life when I was in New York, I did meet the love of my life. I met Eve, fell in love.

And because I wasn't getting any auditions for anything, I was like, I was in a Chris Nolan movie. Like, come on, guys. Like, there should be something. I started to realize that for me, the journey was going to be creating opportunities by making my own shit. And I started writing and producing short films, web series, developing scripts for plays because I'm also from the theater and I love theater. I was just writing, creating, trying to develop relationships with people who I felt could elevate my work as a storyteller and just spending as much time as I could making my own stuff. I just felt like that was the path and it was so rewarding for me and it felt so good. And although I don't have the desire or the fire in my belly to direct, I do have an aching desire and my heart to write. And I love producing. I love the magic

of starting to sort out and understand the chemistry of a story and a project and what it could look and feel like and putting together all the magic of like assembling a team around it. So as the years progressed and I started to develop my voice as a writer and I started to really figure out what it was that I wanted out of writing and storytelling. And I had some success, small success, but I had success and not a success in the financial sense of success, but success in the sense of having a dream, executing it and being very proud of what had been created. I wrote and produced and acted in a film called Animals, which came out about 10 years ago now. And then another film that followed that called All Creatures Here Below. And since then have been just loving that part of my journey. And so starting Good Fiend Films was important to me because a lot of these seeds that I'd been planting and these little trees, these little things that I'd been cultivating and ideas and stories, worlds that I wanted to build were starting to really take root and grow.

And I was – I've been really enlivened by that. It's exciting. And it's challenging. It's scary. It's hard because there's nobody. It's scary. It's hard because there's nobody paying me to do that stuff. That's me making my own stuff and creating. But I have, again, goes back of this wonderful, supportive, loving support system around me. I've been able to build such incredible relationships with people who are so much

better at or know so much more than I do about this stuff. And I learn from them, you know, I get to go spend six months on set with someone like James Gunn, who also happens to be a dear friend of mine. And I just, I watch and I take note and I learn and I observe and I know that I could be better and better and better at this stuff. So that's where we're at right now. And, uh, I'm having a good time. That's really cool. Like the story of being able to find your own lane and make your own lane when there wasn't one for you

is super inspiring. I hope people take that and realize how, you know, happy you are now and realize that that is a path that would be good for anyone to follow in any industry. It's important. No matter what, yeah, whatever it is that you're doing, whatever it is that you're sitting there going, fuck, I can't get the break that I'm hoping'm hoping for i haven't gotten the uh interview for the thing i haven't gotten the chance to show my stuff the way that

i want to show my stuff every day i was waking up you know i moved to los angeles in 2010 i had no agent i had no manager i had no representation i met really, looking back on it now, kind of like questionable. There's one manager I met with. She was renting space in like a storage unit and she's standing at a table with her cigarettes like they all passed on me, man. I'd been in the dark night. I had had a cool role in a Christopher Nolan film. Nobody saw it when they met me. That's crazy.

They were just like, eh, thanks. And like some smaller like kind of, you know, agencies that you go like, you know, what? But I couldn't allow that to diminish what it was that I knew I needed to be doing. And I hope if you're watching this and you're thinking and you're feeling that way about yourself right now when you're going, really? Like that job said no to me, that job said no to me. Thank your lucky stars that that job said no to you, that that opportunity said no to you. Because if you had taken it, God knows where that path would have gone. If I had gone with that woman who really was renting an office space in a, in a, in a

storage unit and had no pooches. She rolled up her door for you. She really did. I'm not exaggerating. It was like that. It was so bizarre. And I was nervous. I was pitching myself like, can I please? No, no.

I would get up every morning. I'd get my cup of coffee. And I would go through all the breakdowns. I would sign up for these services. I was basically collecting unemployment and just scraping together whatever jobs I could in between. And I was looking at and submitting myself for music videos, short films, student films, and I would spend hours and hours cross-referencing and doing all the detail work of, well, this person is the casting director for

this USC short film project. And then I would Google that person. I go, oh, she actually has been an assistant at this office. So she actually probably knows people. This is a good opportunity for me to go in. And usually the compensation that you were being offered if you booked these, by the way, which I rarely did. Even those things, you know, people are like, oh, you're a successful actor. You work with all these great directors. You've done all this cool stuff. And I'm like, even those things, you know, people are like, Oh, you're a successful actor. You work with all these great directors.

You've done all this cool stuff. And I'm like, thank you. There was 4,000 crappy things that I auditioned for that said nah to me, you know? And I just kept being crazy enough to keep showing up. But some of those relationships I built early on submitting myself and pitching myself to these things, um, led to, or I've got a great story. I'll tell you later, but like led to that. So it's like, keep saying yes to yourself. Uh, keep being great, grateful and gracious with the nose that you get. Um, if you can't handle the nose, if it hurts your soul too much, if you're too broken by the rejection, then please do the work to try and understand too much, if you're too broken by the rejection, then please

do the work to try and understand what it is that you're seeking from this journey that you're on, whether it's as an architect or as a pediatrician or as a vet or as an actor or as a musician or as a blogger or as a whatever. Try and understand what it is that crushes your soul so much in the rejection. It's very natural to have your feelings hurt in being told no. That's something we all have to learn to live with. But if it's insurmountable, then maybe there's some questions you want to ask yourself and think about what it is.

How much value are you putting on other people's acceptance of you, other people's acceptance of you other people's opinions of you and can you find a place where your acceptance of how lovable you are as a person and how much value you have as a person really kind of supersedes that so that it doesn't break your soul to wake up the next morning having just been dumped by whatever the life circumstances and go okay going, going back. Yeah. I've heard Kevin Smith talk a lot about that actually, like with a similar mindset and on a similar wavelength there.

And I know you've worked with him in the past. Have you ever spoken about that with him? Absolutely. I was just sitting in Kevin's office at his house probably two weeks ago. He's a dear friend of mine. I love him. We've talked a lot about that, the journey, the mental health journey of being in this really – I mean every industry, every business has its share of what makes it hard. In ours, it's super tricky because you're constantly conflated with who you are as a person and who you are as an artist or whatever word you want to use, you know. And it can be quite easy to get caught up in believing or thinking that, you know, that critique, that criticism of you as a person, as a storyteller, you know, is some kind of, you know, evaluation of you as a human being. And yeah, Kevin and I, we talk about that a ton and how important it is to keep surrounding yourself

with the people who truly love you just for who you are, that you're not a human doing. You're a human being. And if you don't hear that, listen again. You are a human being. You are not a human doing. What you do is important. Of course, what we do with our lives, our work, it is a way that we navigate this human experience and it helps us come up with answers and figure out the answers to questions we're trying to

wrestle with and figure out what we're doing with this life but it is not your value as a person just being me doing absolutely nothing bringing nothing to the table other than just myself is uh is enough and kevin and i we've talked about that a lot because god knows we've been you know told that's a piece of crap that you just made or you're a part of this thing that's terrible or people are like and you got to go okay all right man yeah moving on put your head down keep moving that's right keep making keep creating yeah yeah now i know the dark knight was your big breakout role where a lot of people first saw you but did you know that it's actually not the first credit you have on imdb i bet the first credit I have on IMDb is called Everybody's at Rick's, an episode of the TV show called – hold on. Don't tell me. Early Edition.

You're correct. Is that right? You're correct about that. So Early Edition was a TV series that was filming in Chicago. It starred the very talented Kyle Chandler. Okay. Amazing actor who has gone on to have an incredible career, right? Yes.

That guy is amazing. So it was about a guy who would get the newspaper the day before, a day early. It was kind of like a time travel-y, you know, sci-fi conceit. And he would get the newspaper the day before and then try and help, you know, prevent whatever tragedy was actually not not a bad concept. Cool idea. Cool idea. So I was in theater school in Chicago. We were not supposed to audition for anything professionally outside of school, but I did it anyway. I got like a one line roll where I, I think I carried a, a, a, a, a cocktail across the bar and, and you don't even see me on camera, but I was like, you know, but that was my

first time ever. Like, and it was so quick and it was such a, it did say on IMDb uncredited, uncredited. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. So I was surprised it was even on there if it be uncredited. Uncredited. There you go. Yeah, yeah. So. I was surprised it was even on there if it was uncredited. I guess you must have told the story

in an interview before someone probably like went and updated it for you. Maybe, maybe. Or maybe the person who made it is just trying to be like, we had them first. Maybe.

Taking some pride in you now. Yeah, sure. Grateful for them hiring me. I think, you know, you made like 600 bucks or something and got to be on an episode of a TV show. That was sadly a very dark time in my life as well. You know, I was at that point so deep in the throes of my

addiction. I was a heroin addict and I was coming out of a really successful journey through theater training in Chicago and one of the hardest, most intensive acting kind of, um, you know, training grounds you can imagine. And I was doing well, like people were like really responding to my work. And I was definitely like on a path of probably going to do some interesting work as an actor, but my addiction was so crippling, and it was so hard. Soon after that episode was kind of when I walked away from everything. I left acting for about five years the first,

oh God, maybe longer than that. I was going to say, this this was 2000 it said on your eye yeah yeah yeah dark nights not till 2008 2008 so i was homeless for the most part from 2000 late 2000 through 2002 um you know you burn the candle at both ends addiction a lot of people who've suffered with addiction understand this. Everything feels manageable. Everything feels like it's possible. You're going to live the rest of your life figuring out how you can drink all day or shoot up all day or smoke all day or do whatever it is that you have to do to get through because you're an addict. And the bottom just dropped out one day.

And all of a sudden, there was no rent. There was no nothing. There was nothing except for getting my next fix. then I yeah lived in a car and it was pretty dark times uh for quite a while when I finally did get into recovery and started to you know make the journey of wellness and you know learning how to live my life without drugs and alcohol but also learning how to start the process of, you know, finding some mental wellness, which was the other big part of it.

It wasn't just getting clean and sober for me. It was also like, okay, we got to deal with this fucking depression. We've got to deal with this anxiety. We've got to deal with, you know, trauma,

blah, blah, blah. It took a long time. Yeah. And I didn't know if I'd ever act again. I was a telemarketer. I was working in a movie

theater i was grateful because i was able to you know wake up every day without needing a hit i was just living life in uptown in chicago and getting a totino's pizza at night and watching, renting movies from my blockbuster and living and grateful. And then all of a sudden, one day, a friend of mine was like, I'm directing a play. You should be in it. I said, I don't think that's a good idea. And she encouraged me to another friend of mine. He was making a play and he said, you know, I think this is a, you really should do this. And I thought, I don't know if this is a good idea. And he was like, don't worry if it doesn't go well, there's no stress, no foul. And it ended up being the best experience. I found out that not only did I not need drugs to be the actor that I thought, you know, I needed them for before I was much

better. And, um, and I had a lot of stories left to tell so then yeah there's a big chunk of my life that i missed acting but i'm grateful for that chunk yeah because a i learned how to live without you know drugs and alcohol b i learned a lot about myself which informs the work as an actor um and see interesting anyone out there who feels like they're behind the eight ball i was getting back into acting professionally and and then when i decided oh shit this is it like i'm really doing this now hell or high water i'm going to hollywood i'm gonna work in movies i'm gonna be an actor i'm gonna write i'm gonna make stories i'm going to hollywood i'm going to work in movies i'm going to be an actor i'm going to write i'm going to make stories i'm going to make this shit happen whether all i ever do is shoot short films on my cell phone i am going to make stuff and tell stories this is what i'm going to do i had lost these years and it lit this crazy fire under my ass that was just like

it's a good thing because i every day would wake up and be like i lost lost years, man. I got to be doing my thing. I got to be figuring out how to make this happen because I'm so behind everybody else. And it's funny. I've never stopped feeling that way. Even to this day, I'm always, where I would always do that extra hour of work or wake up that extra hour earlier to make sure I was out there trying to get ahead of the pack. Yeah, I'm grateful for those years as well, because you've made a lot of entertaining stuff for all of us since. Thanks, man.

Thank you. The Dark Knight is my favorite movie of all time. It's so good. It's so good. It's the day I saw it, July 18th, 2008. Still have my ticket stub somewhere in my house for the dark night. That being your first major role like that, dealing with depression, anxiety, all of that, were you on set feeling crazy anxiety or was that a good experience for you?

I was. I was just at that point I was like five years into being clean, but I was just scratching the surface of the work that I was doing with the therapist and psychiatrist to start really treating and working with the anxiety and depression that I was struggling with and I had it was a first time being on a real film set so coming to work the first time not knowing what I was doing because they were so secretive they really hadn't told me exactly what the character was or what I was going to be doing. I just had created this character based on knowing that I was going to be working for the Joker, thinking about all my lifetime. By the way,

I've been collecting comics since I was in third grade, so I'm a deep appreciation of the mythology of the Joker. And I feel like I have a lot of opinions about what that looks and feels like. So I came in as prepared as I could possibly be, not knowing what I was actually doing. And I'm this, you know, theater actor from Chicago, who's mostly performed in front of 25 to 100 people in folding chairs and storefront theaters. And I'm in hair and makeup trailer sitting next to Gary Oldman and Heath Ledger and Christian Bale and all these actors that I'm like, holy shit, what am I doing here? I don't belong. And I started to shake kind of uncontrollably. I was feeling so, so much anxiety that my body was genuinely like losing control of itself a bit.

And I was sweating and I was shaking. And I always be so grateful for the director because he seemed to recognize that I was struggling and he was very kind to me and he is a very serious, focused, incredibly confident visionary who can orchestrate and lead a massive armada, which is what he was doing. I was watching this legendary director standing in the middle of La Salle Avenue in Chicago, surrounded by a crew of hundreds with thousands of extras and cameras everywhere. And he just was so focused and serious and confident and knew what he needed. And it was very intimidating for me because I didn't want to disappoint him. And I felt like I didn't even know if I'd be able to perform.

And in spite of how serious he is and how focused he is and how acutely aware he is of everything that's happening around him, he seemed to kind of hone in, I think, on the fact that I was struggling, and I felt like he just kind of set me at ease. He gave me a kind of assurance. I don't know how to describe it. It's that gift that a great director has, that they know how to communicate with actors. And he made some little jokes to me, set me at ease, and he was just so disarming.

It was really lovely, and he was kind of side-coaching me as I was performing. The first scene we shot was me in the back of the ambulance where Harvey Dent comes in and wants me to tell him what I know, and like I said, I'd made this choice about this character. And when I finally saw what the scene was, I thought, oh, that's a good choice because I'm not tough or intimidating, and I'm not physically intimidating,

and Aaron Eckhart can be pretty physically intimidating so the thought of how am I going to intimidate him back when he's asking me questions is going to be tricky and I thought well there's nothing I think more intimidating than if someone threatens you and you just smile at them so I went with that with this choice that even though I'm smiling or maybe giggling, there's something misfiring in my brain and I'm actually trying to maybe tell him what's really going on. Like maybe what I really am trying to communicate is like, this guy's about to kill a bunch of people.

He's, you know, he made me do this thing, but how terrifying if I can't do anything but smile and giggle. And I started thinking about the gas and I was thinking about the clown prince and thinking about the history of that and how he could manipulate people. And it was great. And at that time, I was going through a really terrible breakup. I was with someone who had gone back into using.

And so you add that to the stress of, now I'm gonna go we went to london to shoot the sequence uh where harvey dent kidnaps me and he's flipping the coin in the alleyway that we shot in the battersea power station um and i was in london for almost a month like three weeks because i was on weather cover so that meant if it started raining, they were going to shoot my scene and it didn't rain. So I just got to keep hanging out in London and waiting to work. Oh, just waiting for it to rain? Just waiting to work.

Yeah. Wow. And then it finally, they shot my scene towards the end of their time in London. But the anxiety was building and the tension was building. And then we shot that scene. And again, I just didn't know. I was like, am I terrible? Am I any good? What's happening? The anxiety was getting so bad. Anybody who has wrestled with or struggled with anxiety can relate to this. On the flight back from the UK

to the US, I was living in Chicago at the time. I became unquestionably convinced that I was having a cardiac situation. Oh, yeah. I've been there. Yeah. So I went to the ER as soon as I got off the plane. And they ran a bunch of tests. And they, you know, you say things like, oh, I have a history with shooting up. Or I have a history with, you know, I used to smoke cigarettes like crazy. So it's not unquestionably it's possible

and anybody who says i think i'm having a heart attack they're gonna listen you know and they're gonna run all the tests and they're gonna do all the stuff and they came back and they said you're fine man you're okay go see your general you know practitioner see what's going on but as far as we can tell everything looks good it's okay probably two weeks later i'm back in the er you know no this is no bullshit i am dying i am dying i am dying i will be dead tonight if you don't do whatever you got to do do i need a stint i don't know is this open heart surgery time i don't know yeah i don't want to tell your job doc but you don't know what the fuck you're talking about i'm dying and this wonderful doctor i'll never forget you know they run all the tests and he's like i see you've been in here but this is a third i actually went in three times to the er and they goes i see you've been in here before

what do you know about like general anxiety disorder what do you know about that and i was so offended really yeah i was like i'm not one of those anxiety people. I was like, this is real. This isn't psychosomatic. I'm not crazy. Huh? Am I? And he's like, what are you talking about?

You got to get over that bullshit. That has nothing to do with being crazy or – psychosomatic is not a pejorative. We've come to think of the term psychosomatic as some kind of insult like you're making shit up your body and your brain are so in intricately linked together that when you're experiencing stress strain trauma you know incredible fatigue your brain it it is so obviously it's operating the ship parts of your body will start to falter. Yeah. It's just a fact. So thus began the journey of therapy, psychiatry, working with professionals, and so grateful for that. Yeah. Put you on a great journey ahead. Great journey.

A lot of superhero stuff to follow. As a comic book fan, you have lived an amazing life in terms of, oh, my God, The Flash, Gotham. You've been in Ant-Man movies as multiple roles. One of the only people with multiple roles in the MCU. That's crazy. And then Polka Dot Man, possibly my favorite in the Suicide Squad. Just a tremendous role. I loved also seeing how many pieces of fan art you reposted after that movie came out.

Why we – I mean it was – I had to. They were great. Every single time I was getting – I'm like, this person deserves to have their work seen. They're so talented. I can't believe people spend so much time. But I do believe it. You know why? Because I'm a fan.

Yeah. I'm a geek. I grew up, like I said, reading comics. And I would do my own fan art. And I'm a terrible drawer. Yeah, me too. I used to take – I've always believed that DC had the best villains and Marvel had the best superheroes. So I used to like do tracing paper and I would try and create battles between, you know, you name it, like Solomon Grundy versus Moon Knight.

Or Wins. Yeah. Well, Moon Knight would triumph but never wins because there's always like something that takes place. But I loved that or Morbius versus the Scarecrow. That's a good one. Yeah. I used to love doing that shit. Someone fund a Dave just fantasy matchup show.

I want to see this TV series now. Let's do it. All right. And I love the idea of the DC Marvel crossover stuff because they've done it before. Anybody who's collected comics for a long time knows there's been times like the JLA Avengers crossover 10, 12 years ago. It was pretty cool.

I was going to say like not too long ago, like fairly recently. In the 2000s it happened, right? Yeah. It was rad. Yeah. It looked really cool. I mean, who knows?

In the future, I always say in 20, 30 years, who knows what the movie landscape looks like? James Gunn is now running DC and he's like, let's do it. He's like, I want to mash everything up. Can you imagine how fucking cool it would be to see James Gunn get to take DC Marvel and have that like, you know, secret wars meets, you know, crisis like kind of event like that would be. Nerds all over the country just had nerdgasm. Yeah. I just got chills. That's when we all transcend a nerd Vano and James does that.

Like, I could see it. I could totally see it how lucky are we that he's about to unleash a whole new chapter of dc i know on all of our minds what he's already announced i'm like are you kidding me and what he's accomplished robin i love that his like entree into dc was a movie as you know uh bonkers and rad and funny and risky as The Suicide Squad. It was just like it's what this shit needs. You've got to inject it with that. And he knows exactly what he's doing.

It's so cool. Was that Suicide Squad set as fun as it looked from the outside? Yes. And more so. More fun. We had such a killer time. Margot is a hero to me. She is such a great leader on set in the sense that she just works so hard, but she's so funny.

Idris is fucking hilarious. I never realized what a great sense of humor he has because I always have admired him so much as a serious actor. But then i was like he was fucking great on the office and he's done some funny shit before such a cool down-to-earth guy joel i've always thought like oh that guy's cool badass he's probably like maybe too cool you know or something nope sweet as hell played with my kids was a blast steve agey's one of my best friends in the world he was the you know the the on set king shark so he was there improvising and creating and being this character um as well as economos although i didn't have any scenes with economos um daniella has become

a lifelong friend of mine her rat catcher 2 is perfect she is a she's a becoming a big movie star right now she's in the new fast and furious and she's in tons of new stuff but like we would laugh so hard we would cry sometimes i mean peter as thinker peter i've been a fan for a long time a doctor who fan you know i just was like we would just sit and talk about hammer horror and monster movies and all this stuff together. John Cena running around in his tighty-whities. That guy is so funny. And he's so, he's such an oddball.

He fit perfectly with all the weirdos. And I thought, again, he was another guy. I kind of thought, oh, is he going to be, is he too cool i don't know i just didn't have a sense of what he was gonna be like and then we're there and he's ridiculous he's so funny he's so fun to be around so positive such a just a good guy you know um yeah that was a really special time. I'll never forget that. The family, James' family to me. He's like a brother to me. And I was there. The kids were running around set.

I found my cat, who's a part of my family now. We were making that movie. Yeah, we were in Panama, Cologne, Panama, shooting the big battle against Starro sequence. And it was so crazy. This beautiful cat kept coming up to set and wanting love. And she was hungry and tiny and scared. And I fell in love with her. And I got her home.

She lives at my house now. Bubblegum. Oh, nice cat name. I wanted to call her abner bubble gum polka dot cat so that's her full name that's her birth certificate name abner bubble gum polka dot cat but she became a bit of an internet celebrity if you google it it was crazy because judy had a a costume designer um is a big pet lover and they were really helping rescue a lot of the animals down there as was james james is a huge animal lover and he they were really helping rescue a lot of the animals down there, as was James.

James is a huge animal lover, and he was big into rescuing critters while we were on location. And the costume team had made this polka dot man costume that fit Bubblegum perfectly. And so I took some pictures of her and it went viral. It went crazy. And all of a sudden my cat became like a internet celebrity. It was pretty rad. A nepo cat?

Yeah. Yeah, a nepo cat all the way. She's such a nepo baby. Man, that was a good experience. I love that movie so much. That's awesome. I just got one more question for you because I know we're going much. That's awesome. I just got one more question for you. Cause I know we're going long.

I feel bad. I could get to all of your movies, but prisoners is another one that I absolutely adore. Yeah. And I just actually, I was late on prisoners. I just watched it for the first time over the last year. Yeah.

They just put it on Netflix around the holidays and all these people were coming out of the woodwork being like, Oh my God, dude, prisoners. And I was like, you slept on that shit. That was 2013. I know, I can't

believe I'm saying this, but I'm one of those people and I was blown away by it. When you're playing a sick fuck like the person you're playing in that movie and the director yells, cut, are you trying to stay in like kind of a sick fuck mindset for the next take? Or are you going right to like, let me think about

SpongeBob so I can get that out of my brain. Well, I think about SpongeBob all the time no matter what. But who doesn't love SpongeBob? Can we go? Let's do a show about SpongeBob. I'm a big SpongeBob fan. SpongeBob is very important. Yeah.

But no, I will disagree with you on a certain point. I don't believe Bob Taylor was a sick fuck. I believe Bob Taylor was a victim. Damaged. Damaged. He had been abducted as a child by those people. He had been tortured as a child by those people. He'd never been given the resources or the support that he needed as a grownup processing that trauma. So what Bob Taylor was doing, he had no interest in harming anybody. He was trying to help. He was trying

in his own weird fucked up way to solve the mystery of the maze so that he could ultimately help rescue these kids who've been kidnapped so for me playing that intention just meant being so scared but he was so scared that at any second um somebody was going to grab him again so i and when when i was helping to create the character and thinking about what he looked and moved and operated like, I decided as opposed to – the screenplay described him as a very bushy, big, kind of reclusive, hermetical guy. And I thought, no, because he's got to pay bills. He's got to live a life. He must have to go to work. And I think he tries his best to just blend in like wallpaper he kind of wants to just be like

beige wallpaper that kind of moves around and you'd never notice him anywhere because he's so afraid of if he is noticed being caught or captured while he's still trying to work through the clues that live in his subconscious and trying to understand the snakes and the the horror and the mazes and all of this like so to be quite honest in between takes to me it's really important to reset to think about um what do i need to do to make sure blocking wise i'm getting the director what he needs am i doing you know what i need to do to help my scene partner am i you know performing in a way that's beneficial to helping the camera team get there i'm a very technical actor i'm not like a method actor uh but it doesn't mean that sometimes your body doesn't get tricked into believing the circumstances are real

so most of the time i try to pride myself on being able to do something that's demanding emotionally, psychologically. And then when they yell cut, and I've observed this in heroes of mine, like Heath Ledger, like on The Dark Knight. They yell cut, you're back to your first mark. You shake it off. You're ready to reset. You've got to get to seven this time. You're going to go to a six. You're a computer in a way.

You're kind of like, okay, what do I got to do to make this work so that that sees what it needs to see? How do I manufacture all of this stuff to give that what the director is going to need it to do? There was one moment in Prisoners, though, when we were shooting the sequence where I take the gun from the cop and I blow my brains out, where I do feel like I kind of came untethered for just a second. It's happened to me a couple of times as an actor where my body gets so caught up in the circumstances of what's happening that my brain starts to really believe it in a way that's probably not healthy. And I kind of came apart for a minute. And then when I came back to reality, it was lovely because Gyllenhaal was there.

He had his hand on my chest, which was helping me get my breath. Director Denis, who's a dear friend of mine, was right there to say, are you okay? What do you need? Just give me a few seconds. Let me do some breathing, some mindfulness, and then we can get back into it. But yeah, I really think that's important for actors to be able to do because sometimes you have to do something 47 times or 147 times. And it's counterintuitive to the process of filmmaking to go, I'm crazy.

I can't do it. I've got to go. I'm playing, you know, I'm the living vampire. Now I'm going to climb the wall because I'm in character. No, fucker. You need to get back to your mark so we can make sure you're lit right does the makeup need to be fixed is your costume okay

it's a job it is still a job but I'm there to service someone else's vision I'm an actor not a director it's not my job to make everything operate around me you'd be surprised some people seem to have a different opinion oh no we see it sometimes you see stories trickle out sometimes with someone on set and you're like oh maybe they're going a little crazy with the method and sometimes you're like is there is it

is the how good how much better could the performance have been if they were able to take their ego out of the way and go what do you need you're running this show what do you need this is your show what is it that i can help? How can I help bring your vision to life as opposed to how can I make you do what I want to do? It takes a lot of vulnerability. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. And trust. Yeah.

And I'm so lucky. I've worked with so many directors whom I can trust implicitly. So if they say, jump on one leg and bark like a dog, I'm going to do it because I trust them. You'll know the end product will come out the way that they envisioned it. Damn right. Yeah. All right. Well, that was very fascinating hearing you break down that whole process,

even just the process of what your characters were thinking in those movies that I love so much. So I really appreciate you coming in and doing this. This is awesome. This is awesome. Thanks, everybody. And, yeah, make sure and go check out my comic book, Count Crowley, Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter. The new volume is in stores now.

If you guys like comics and monsters, check that out. Go to your local comic book store, pick it up. Yes, if you are struggling today and you feel alone in the world and you feel like there's nobody that understands you and you just feel like giving up, I promise you there are people who can listen.

There's people that want to help if you're struggling with any feelings of self-harm. I want you to Google SAMHSA, S-A-M-H-S-A-A. There's a wonderful free resource for lots of opportunities for you to find ways, even if you don't have a penny to your name, to get the help that you need. But you are lovable and you deserve to be here. And I hope you can take that to heart. Beautiful message. Go get the help you deserve you deserve that help all right awesome chat with david dasmalch and thank you so

much for joining the podcast now let's get into our final interview of the night with gavin rossdale lead singer of bush welcome back to my mom's basement, ladies and gentlemen, it is Robbie Fox and I am here with Gavin Rossdale, lead singer of Bush. We're here to talk about the new album, The Art of Survival. It's not the newest, it's the latest album from Bush, but it came out in October. So you've gotten some time to actually play these songs on tour and everything. How has that been? Phenomenal. I don't know what's happening. And it's like, in my true traditional sense of doing everything the wrong way around,

we're better than ever and having a great time. And people that want to see us want new songs as much as the old songs. There's a really great kind of tension in the set between the older songs and new things and just trying to like, just be great at at every point what's the timeline for this album like from the beginning of writing to the release eight months nine ten months well that you know the beginning of the year and then they came up pretty fast and then we've done some another song that's coming out on the 20

something of april i think another song they're gonna to re-release the record i can make it deluxe um we got up we did a recording with amy from evanescence of a song called a thousand years which we have she came sang with me at the rhyming and so i think we're gonna release that it was too damn good she's so great yeah she is she's an amazing vocalist he um basically took the band uptown. You know what I mean? We're like a low-rent band, and she sings on it. I feel like we're right on the neck and neck. Right there was Celine Dion,

who's an amazing vocalist that's good as Celine Dion. Well, I can't wait to hear that. That sounds amazing. And I think this new album is so cool sonically. It just sounds great. What were the sonic influences for it whether it comes to guitar bass drums like the sound you were trying to emulate i just sat in my studio just trying to do really syrupy wide um oceanic kind of music so sort of detuned and then you

know all those kind of trippy keyboards and atmospheres and sort of wannabe Brian Eno plug-ins that I have and just sort of create atmosphere. And I like the music when it's really cinematic, you know, and really suggestive and wide. And it's so heavy, but yet I don't sing in a traditional heavy screamo kind of way so i think that's already a our own juxtaposition i think was was cool me trying to desperately find melodies on these massive riffs you know i'm gonna find that melody and then when you do it's like you

just it's like it's very um they're evasive those melodies you know the magic melodies are sort of in there in your dna but you gotta like you gotta charm them out so it's fun heavy is the ocean the first track on the album was that written to be the first track because it has that cinematic almost intro sound i'm a bass player myself so i love that bass intro and the way the album kicks off and everything did you have that written with it being the opener in mind it's so weird because generally things happen by chance and you end up if you get it right you look smart retrospectively um and things aren't normally like that but in this instance as soon as that when i was writing it was weird because i'd been writing

and working on music and I hadn't really begun to dive into the record, you know. And when I found that song, found that riff, I was like, I'd never had it before and probably wouldn't have it since, is I was like, this has to dictate the aesthetic of the record. This is what shows me, it's my own weather thing. I can't stray from that track because that track is really good i didn't you know i figured out apparently it's like harmonic

minus so suddenly i got really obsessed about the harmonic minor scale it's like i can't do anything else on harmonic mind because that's really like that and uh so and then you know then after that i had like um may your love be. And those tracks kind of went together. And it just formed the record. It's weird because you make all these plans that inevitably, as you get through the process, they change. I mean, the plans are just like placeholders, words. They don't mean anything anymore.

But I stuck to it. And it does. It opens the record and really sets people on their way and I know for instance I called the record The Art of Survival because I figured that everyone had been through so much shit

and everyone had their story and it wasn't like oh this is all about me and my trials and tribulations, it's like man, you know, ladies and gentlemen we went through it, did we not you know i mean it was really like this sort of open open question suggested you know and then like you're saying when i figured out to put um the uh heavy as the ocean is the opening track that's where i look smart where i'm not that smart it just looked smart because it's like the other survival here's

the first song so that was a happenstance, but because I didn't know what the album title would be. So, but that, so yeah, it just worked out. When it comes to your songwriting process at this point, has it changed a lot in your writing career?

Like, do you write songs differently than you wrote them on the first album? Or is it the same kind of stuff? Hell of different. Like, because now we're all,'re all wannabe producers right so we all got like little rigs little setups you'll be like i had this idea then like out comes this like crazy uh band of gavins you know and um and uh you know i just i get blown away

with i'm sort of really a basic person so So I find it staggering when I sit there and get the sounds up. I'm a very basic engineer. I can work Pro Tools. I do everything but record my voice. I don't record my voice. I record my voice into the voice recorder when I've got a riff going on. Because I don't want to be that guy in the studio just doing that. I just, there's something about it.

So I basically get some tracks together. don't want to be that guy the studio just doing that i just something about it so i like i have i basically get some tracks together but when i turn on you know i've got a beautiful uh you know p bass beautiful esp bass uh jazz bass and i i use my parallax plug-in i don't know if you've used that neural if you use that now you're gonna try it out you're a bass player yeah neural yeah the parallax is it's like oh my god so you're just like a king just when you play a note you're like and then if you've got detuned and the riff is working you put that bass with it or you just have a drum beat up i i like to find drum beats and then mess with a bit you know change them around and just make them my own but i like those ones where you get the feel of a real drummer when i program on start on my own

i'm always like somehow chasing my tail when i start with a drummer from programming that i just you know move his bass drum around here and there it feels somehow they get that whole energy to get that you know they feel right so i just so the way that i write tracks is um get drums first and then at every step i have to be sort of satisfied or turned on or inspired or whatever you said so sometimes it would be with the bass uh and sometimes with guitar and just sit there and wait till something comes and then just keep building it you know really basic i mean caveman neanderthal really there's nothing i don't know this is the way to do it i keep doing it until i like it and then when i like it i do the next bit and then and then when i when a guy comes in to record me it always sounds completely different than what i expect to just you know i'm like in the kids like the care so that work you know so then I just go through that process with him and I've worked with him forever

so since 2005 so there was no it's really easy not the job but the process in terms of okay just stay here until I get something good you know the poor used to be in there when I just would start with a riff you know hours and hours of playing stuff I'd be like I felt bad for me that she sat there and like looking online and stuff like that and I'd be like trying to find inspiration um and now I do all that dirty work where no one's around and I love it I just sort of you know play the music in my studio which is just a bedroom my house and like but it's tricked out so it looks like a studio, but it's a bedroom. And it's got Apollo with two outputs because I don't play with anyone,

so therefore it's one person at a time, so I need a laptop. But I have it on this Stephen Slate Apollo interface. It looks like these two big screens and a desk. It looks like fucking the TARDIS. It's not. It does two fucking like the TARDIS. It's not. It does two screens. That's two screens.

But it feels really good. I've got like panels on the ceiling that I painted red, you know, sound things. So it looks tricked out. It looks like Lenny Kravitz. It looks like a Lenny Kravitz offshoot. And it's a vibe. Got a little balcony, you know, so I'm in there. So I used to sit with a cassette recorder

drum machine and do things then go into rehearsal and be like okay you play this just keep playing this around and i'll sing this bit you know like even more neanderthal neanderthal man without a shame and uh and that was wild and then um now i just do it like that. And everyone else has a studio, so I can send ideas along. We have a producer, and then I take my session to him, and then he likes to do pre-production on that, and then everyone comes and plays on it, and we're done. That's it. Sometimes I might write on someone else's riff.

They might send me a riff. They might send me music. I like doing that, and i'll sing on that i can do top lines when i just do top lines it's like the dog like i shave three days off the process you know okay yeah great thank you for that yeah good and then i have to put it in and i cut it around how i want you know sections to be to suit the vocal top lines and that's it so it's changed a lot you know but at the end of the day it's still trying to find a common emotion um and expressed in a singular way so the people identify with it that's that's it and i think that in the first one you know if you if you like when i first began i saw no horizon you know I just thought I'm in a band

now I've got a bit of success I'm in a band forever I'm never going to die I'm always going to be on stage I'm always going to be number one and then you realise that you're wrong that's not the case

and everything's fleeting and you're fucked so you might as well really and everything's fleeting and you're fucked. Well, you might as well really not waste any time or any recordings. And there's times in my life creatively where I think I've let things slide because I felt I was better than I was. And I didn't confront myself about certain things creatively finish that section make it better is that lyric the best lyric come up with that the best arrangement I think a few times I just sort of was like now I feel good about that and and all this happened now is that a bit more humility

as you get older a bit more sort of appreciation and gratitude and you go well if i want the most out of this but make sure it's right so i feel more detailed and and more um i may make it harder to please myself before i'd be like ah he's going to put a great line on that oh that's been wicked i can cover that in feedback or you know doesn't that you know and and and the truth is everything matters so i think that's why we've managed to do these new records last few records where we really gain momentum and literally becoming just a better band as we learn more i mentioned i love the sound of this album like specifically just the way all of these songs crash in it sounds so great what is a perfect sounding album for you sonically uh white pony deftones uh sex pistols never mind the bollocks because it just holds up uh bone machine surf rosa pixies

um they they and the uh zeppelin yep in zeppelin it's remarkable you know they just hold up the clarity is just it's stunning and uh so those things um you know it's funny because i you know conversely you go back and check other things and you're like damn those hi-hats are high or wow that vocal was so loud people did make big choices you know they made big choices and songs we know and love um that when you i analyze them and you use it yourself you go i'm not having my hi-hats that loud that's really yeah i don't like hardware i like i like you have to have hardware to create excitement but it so many records have like louder hi-hats than the fucking you know the guitars or the voice or you know it's just like oh my god what are you thinking um you know i always think you listen to like um only on the subject i love the kings of leon but if you listen to that song uh well that's coldplay

um one of those major songs brilliant songs i'm saying because I love them. So I want to put it in the right context. I love them. And the whoa. When they had that massive record, Use Somebody, that whole record, right? When you listen to those mixes, those woes are so quiet. You can't believe they're in the studio going, that's fucking great. They must be like, turn the woes up. They're wicked. I mean, it didn't affect their

success but in terms of a record making level when you isolate listen that mix you're like well if you mixed it today i bet you'd turn those o's up that's always weird because you say that but i was like how did they get away with it and i loved that song and so what's weird is it didn't really matter to me it mattered more when i isolated listen to it because well i'd be like singing with it like a because i loved it but actually when i listened to it i was like because that's a great man that's a really what a singer fantastic now you've had the pleasure of being around a lot of great rock stars and musicians over the years i want to ask you does one come to mind as the funniest if i I asked you, who's the funniest rock star musician that you've met and dealt with and conversed with? Chris and my band is really funny.

And humor is the cornerstone of everything in our world. You know, we have like, we have some really good times in the band. But I think, oh my God, you know who? Who? James Blunt. Really? James Blunt. oh my god you know who who james blunt really james blunt the funniest fucker i sat next to him i was uh david furnish elton john's husband's birthday party and i sat next to him and uh uh he told me some great stories um he used to be uh in the queen's guard right he was a soldier going around in england we have a we have this thing called the royal family right and there's like the pomp and ceremony the world is beginning and a big tourist attraction. They're like Ben and Jerry's in England, right?

And he, there was a coronation or some big event, right? And so the horseman, he was a horseman for the Queen, Queen's Cavalry. They're in Hyde Park in London. Any of your tourist listeners will know it, right? And they, for six months, they train these horses to go round around this track right so that when they go on the day with the queen on the tv with everyone in england watching and you know expats in jamaica or wherever the fuck um uh the horses behave you know like

they're in a formation and so he was doing this and he was in the formation like an like a like an arrow and he said um he was going and his horse got spooked you know so it just jutted out in front of the queen right on the big wall after six months of training and he looked at her all scared and she looked right at him and she goes will you get back he's funny guy anyway anyway so he's he's funny he's he's good lad he says some funny things about his audience which i can't repeat because it's not fair but it was yeah he was very funny he's funny guy that's a good answer. He lives in Ibiza. Oh, yeah?

He knows a good time, this guy. I'm sure. Yeah. I'm sure. Have you ever seen his tweets? Like, you know, what was it a couple of years ago? You know, if you thought this year was bad, I'm releasing a record next year. He does all the tweets.

He's that guy. He's super self-deprecating, really funny. He's a great guy. I really – I had'd one evening with it and i had so much fun a memorable one yeah so this show is called my mom's basement on the show we talk about some nerdy things some things that make us geek out from time to time and i wanted to bring up there's a great bush song on the soundtrack of the avengers movie into the blue came out about 10 years ago at this point over 10 years ago now you also have a uh song in the soundtrack of the crow 2 city of angels another comic book character any memories of those two songs well just that you're happy

they found a home i love that song it's the blue again i love i i really like that song don't know whether you put it behind you know when you put it into a film, you know, we had, you know, John Wick had bullet holes. So, you know, it's just, it's just like fun by association. I mean, you know, obviously with Brandly, that was an extreme tragedy. And so it was not a great memory of that because, you know, Brandly lost his life.

So that's pretty awful so thanks for that but uh it was the second movie he wasn't in that one it wasn't a good good good no no no no i was like terrible it was the sequel i'm sorry i didn't mean to bring up old wounds like that that's okay it's okay i had to i could not mention it right yeah yeah yeah yeah great songs though i think what i think thank you i think with those songs you know you just get um i love having songs and movies i want to have one song with amy to be a movie because it's so romantic i mean i'm just on it i just happen to be there she's one that makes it fucking crazy i'm just like it made me i i got she i asked her to sing with me right

i said hey you want to sing this song we're going to be in your hometown in a couple of weeks. She goes, well, I'm just flying back that day, so I don't know if we can do this song when I come to the show. I thought that was a really polite, classy no. You know what I mean? I thought that was really sweet. So I sent her the song anyway because I'm a salesman. And so I was like, fuck it, let's see if she likes it.

And she sent it and she sent it back with a vocal on it wow i mean honestly i i i got goosebumps tears in my eyes just couldn't believe that i was associated with something so good because it was like she gave us real class she's a powerhouse yeah she's unbelievable one of the best vocalists of her generation i would say so i saw your zane lowe interview recently where you talked about like kind of running to america away from brit pop when oasis and everything was going huge did you ever actually have like run-ins with that scene though at that time or were you guys yeah completely separated no 100 because where i live in london i live in America now with my kids, but I have to keep a little village. And there was a great recording studio there. And actually it wasn't great, but it was really fun studios.

And so there was always Blur, Primal Screen, Oasis, Suede. It was stupid. I mean, it was real, that was a real scene. And they'd go to that pub and everyone would be hanging out and everyone would end up at Noel's house up the road. I went to Noel's house a few times. I was like, I'm more of a sort of a, I have that lone wolf thing. So I kind of knew the scene. I knew everyone, but could have passed by and have a couple of evenings with them. But then I was always away on tour. So it wasn't like part of the scene, but I know it's like Nelly Hooper the English DJ you know produced you know

Bjork and Massive Attack and all that so that whole London scene that London crowd I just was part of it you know it wasn't the music I liked I liked I liked it too guitar-y I like sort of post-punk and I like punk music and I don't mean SoCal punk, I mean real punk music, I mean traditional punk music. So it was like, I couldn't find the, I like My Bloody Valentine. I liked throwing muses. I like Band on 4AD, The Pixies.

So they were the cool bands, you know, to me. And so, you know, I never never like i never got into the kinks that's the basis of all brit pop was the kinks i think yeah and and it's a certain sound um and some they do it really so so well i mean those those bands are amazing you know obviously no ridiculous songs i mean really incredible uh one of some of the best melodies of all time in pop music it's really really good and a lot better as oasis yeah yeah so like entities okay you're preaching to the choir you know i'm with you i think i'm with the rest of the world where i'm like, you guys are both crushing it out there.

You're both selling out. Right. Why don't you just get together and then we could sell out arenas and stadiums again. And I think I think I think I read it a few years ago. So it may have changed his tune a little bit because I saw the documentary. Yeah. The first bit of humility that I didn't know yet. But I did read that he would rather eat shit than tour with his brother again it's like what an image you know what though i just saw he did an interview it came out and he said never say never i was like oh softening up on that one maybe who knows well they'll go for

they'll get tremendous they'll they they could do a stadium tour they've they've played it so well it's like what are you two years away from a stadium tour and they just have the last laugh it's the same thing guns and roses did a couple years ago right they got gang back together and it went crazy this is a bit of a generic question i'm sure you've been asked this before but i am genuinely curious as to what your answer would be what are the first songs that come to mind when i ask you what's a song that you wish you would have written I mean I just read the Bono biography oh yeah so you know something like where the streets have no name or one with or without you it struck me how important a band are to me.

I think that I was honored to record Heroes with with David Bowie's piano player, Mike Garson. He did all that. I did it for a music charity for him. I did a vet for him. So any Bowie song I would take, you know, I'm Afraid of Americans I did for a Bowie tribute after he passed away. He had this whole thing where they had all Bowie alumni, all the people who played

on his records and guest vocalists come in and sing. Literally the most nerve-wracking gig I've ever done by a thousand miles. I mean, Amy ruined my day. Me going to see Amy, because I have a little solo in that song. So I was like, don't fuck up the solo. I'd been fine on solo all tour, then I'd fucked up a couple of times. And just me and tracks.

And so when I fuck up the solo, it's just like, oh, well, it is live let's say twice I just had two epic well one I came in off the one so I just sounded jazzy and one I just flumped the first phrase it was like

and then I got my shit together so it's just like so it makes me nervous performing with other people having a responsibility and having a responsibility to bowie into his band and he just yeah just i i it was two nights at the wilton and i was so traumatized by the first night like traumatized i couldn't speak traumatized that i did my song went great and then i just got in the car and went home and then i suddenly was at home at 9 20 going but what about everyone else's performing why did you leave

it's a complete anxious social anxiety breakdown and then so the next night we played and i watched everyone i hung out i relaxed i had a couple of drinks i was like fuck sake this is not you know enjoying life so the next night i i did it i did a 180 and had a really good time but the first night i left my own devices i i was very anxious so anything by bowie i actually got to see that mike garson he took a tribute on tour where in every city he would go to bring up new people and stuff and i went to the one in new york city brought up cory glover from live in color to do a couple things brought up sting's son to do a couple things it was a really tremendous concert and tour and everything like that mike garson knows how to

put on a good tribute you know yeah he's mainly we're talking about he's doing these um solo shows well duo shows yes piano bowie piano songs yeah he's had a group from the struts doing it he's done a couple of those so it's a hundred people and so he's asked me to do one next year or is it that would be this year she's the last one i gotta I need to figure out when to do that I absolutely adore Mike and I've done he's played on a song with Bush and I did a song for him for music cares both on the um the Kingdom Deluxe versions and like for me my voice next to Mike Garst's playing, it's like a mic drop. It's perfect.

Yeah, great combination. It's a bit like we're saying feeling with Amy. It's that sort of thing where you, you know, if you align yourself with people that are way better than you, some of your parts goes drastically up. You raise your you raise your value like what's up i got mike what's up i got amy you know i'm so sorry i'm in a hot air balloon i'm miles above you now exactly all right my final question i'm gonna wrap it back around to oasis noel gallagher once said that he summed up everything that he's ever wanted to say as a person with cigarettes and alcohol, rock and roll star, and live forever.

He says after that point, he's just repeating himself, rephrasing it. If you had to pick three songs that you've written that sum up everything you've wanted to say, which three would you select? I don't want to come back down from this cloud because I think it shows a desire to live a full, exciting life and always aim for the best. Heavy is the ocean. I mean, I've got so many words I can say, but these are the first things that come to mind. Yeah. Because a shared weight, a weight, a pressure that is shared is inevitably lessened, you know, and support is everything, you know. So heavy is the ocean. And then I got a line from a record a song that i wrote

was called bulletproof skin i wrote it for uh institute but i'm also going to redo some institute songs for bush because i realized i should yeah i have a line i'm really going to do that for the next record because i did that record and lots of people who know music love it and most people never heard it. So I was like, you see, I see people like Neil Young and Dylan would have a song that would appear on three or four records. And I was like, what the fuck? Why am I like slaving over a hot studio? Why don't I incorporate some of this? So in Bulletproof Spring spring I have this line to lose you is to never love again and I I just always really proud of that lyric you know um so there you go they're not necessarily like one's a big song and one album track and one

but it's just those words that first thing I thought i'll get off the phone and be like what's his number i got some fucking other ones no i love it those are three great answers and this has been a really great time to get down to sit down with you and pick your brain on this stuff uh like i said i really love the new album so make sure everyone goes checks it out bushofficial.com you can get all the dates and everything like that merch everything that you need to know about and gavin thank you very much for joining the show today. Thanks for your time. I enjoyed this a lot. I do a lot of these. I enjoyed it. Thank you. Appreciate it.