Pablo Torre Finds Out - Just Danced: How the Young Lady Gaga Dominated My High-School Cafeteria

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

We all have that person from our childhood we just knew was gonna be a star. And more than 20 years before she was a 13-time Grammy winner and a star of the new Joker movie, there was a girl visiting ...Pablo's all-boys high school named Stefani Germanotta, playing third-wave grunge songs in the corner. His classmate Patrick Wolf — from the band Goodnight, Texas — even asked her to sophomore semi-formal. And while Pablo was preparing for a debate tournament instead, Lady Gaga (and the Plastic Gaga Band) was born. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre. And today we're going to find out what this sound is. And he said, hey, Pat. I said, hey, John. He said, you should ask Stephanie to the semi-formal. And I said, what? Right after this ad. You're listening to Giraff Kings Network. Dude, I thank you for coming in. I send lots of texts these days. I'm like the Booker of the show as well as a host of it. But this one in specific, I actually didn't know how you would respond when I asked you to do this. Really? Hey, do you want to relive high school together in a way that may just embarrass, not just you, but like one of the biggest musicians, celebrities in
Starting point is 00:01:01 American history? Listen, I had a little bit of trouble going to sleep last night, but if we, if we go through this together, I think it could be great. Okay, so that is the sleepless voice. of Patrick Wolf, who is a protagonist in a pretty bat-sh-ch-core memory that I've had lodged in my brain, and this is not an exaggeration, for more than 20 years now. Ever since Pat and I were classmates at Regis High School, and all-boys school, crucially, here in New York City. Now, I haven't seen Pat in person more than a couple times, over the last couple decades, typically always at Regis reunions. But we here at PTFO started this week with an episode about pop stardom, effectively,
Starting point is 00:01:51 and the journalism of Netflix's unreleased Prince documentary. And so what I figured I should do was fact-check my own set of hazy recollections here. With a primary source who has been a musician since we were teenagers. The rehearsals would take place after school in the, cafeteria downstairs. And on one such rehearsal day, I was coming downstairs. You know, I had gotten rid of my books, everything in the locker rooms, and I was coming around the hallway there in the basement. And I saw that, oh, no, there was a band already playing in there. As I opened the cafeteria doors, I can hear that, oh, wow, there's a girl singer. And as I walk into the full view of the cafeteria,
Starting point is 00:02:40 I remember this. I walk down, so I'm like walking down Broadway, the chairs around the sides and like it's just like a framed thing and i see you know a petite girl on vocals and then three regis guys behind her backing her up and she is just crushing it a 14 year old ready for prime time is really how i can describe it you know i would see her a few times here and there coming and going I think she ended up being in like the plays. She had a certain confidence or swagger about her. I mean, it seemed like she was aware of her talent maybe. Not to, you know, not in a bad way, but I think like she knew what was up.
Starting point is 00:03:51 And then she was coming in here to this school, like with just sitting ducks. Like, just mowing guys down with whatever she was doing. It was ridiculous. It's so true. Myself included, like anyone, in like a 500-foot radius. When I think of, like, the idea that, oh, she was like a knockout,
Starting point is 00:04:09 I mean that in, like, every possible sense. Yeah. It's like a girl who is talented in ways that were honestly difficult to comprehend. At that age, especially. At that age. And someone who also just hormonally, I was like, who is...
Starting point is 00:04:22 What? Yeah. Who is this creature? Well, her name was and is Stephanie Germanata. So what should I call you? I mean, do I call you lady? Do I call you Gaga? Lady Gaga?
Starting point is 00:04:35 Call me Gaga. Gaga. Yeah. Does anyone call you Stephanie? Yeah, some people do. Especially in bed. In bed? I prefer Stephanie in bed.
Starting point is 00:04:43 You don't want someone yelling out Lady Gaga? No, especially not. No. At the time, I was like, oh, this high school, what a prospect. I wonder what this is going to be. This is an episode about that person we all grew up with, or went to school with, or just kind of randomly encountered when we were younger, a lot younger maybe. in real life, who then went on to become something that made you want to claim them,
Starting point is 00:05:34 as if you knew all along that they were going to be a star. Someone who might perform at the opening ceremony of this year's Olympics, for instance. Or famously where a dress made entirely of raw meat to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010. Or win 13 Grammys, and also an Oscar. for a star is bored, appropriately enough, let alone star in a, you know, weird Joker sequel. That just came out last week. But my memory of Lady Gaga began at Regis High School.
Starting point is 00:06:13 The aforementioned all scholarship, Roman Catholic institution on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which was real gossip girl adjacent, I would say. If most of the students in Gossip Girl commuted into the city and also never really had sex. As just one look through our Class of 2003 yearbook would suggest. This is me looking cool, like just putting in some earbuds, like badass, wearing a blazer and a tie. I wrote this entry myself, and I call myself Pablo, quote, El Hefei, end quote, Torre,
Starting point is 00:06:53 which means captain of the varsity. Lincoln Dugs the Bay Team, state champions, no big deal. I want to show Patrick Wolf's yearbook photo because... Oh, boy. Can you zoom in? You getting the spiky hair there? Yeah, short hair, academic honors, Order of the Owl won, got AIDS as a freshman.
Starting point is 00:07:11 Not two or three or four, which is just... This is one, the sports ate your brain. But you were General Excellence 3. General Excellence was my favorite award. What does that mean? Exactly. It was just entirely subjective. It was like, who's here is generally excellent?
Starting point is 00:07:24 It's like, for the people who didn't get it, but like had good vibes, I think. You're cool. And Pat Wolf, just for the record here, was actually cool, at least relatively speaking. I was president of the Hearn, our speech and debate team,
Starting point is 00:07:39 aforementioned, but Pat, on top of being in a band, was captain of the varsity soccer team, which meant that teenage Pat Wolf actively was talking to girls at Regis High School dances. An institution unto itself, which I asked Pat to describe,
Starting point is 00:07:55 for you in just one word. Can I do more than one? Please. Awkward. Yeah. I mean, that's obvious. I'll go with, we can do a snake draft of adjectives. Okay.
Starting point is 00:08:07 I'm going to go chaste. Chaste is a good one. At least for me, in my mind, I'm like, this was like a 98% male experience. You were, okay, you were going over 90. I was going to say in the 20s percentage of girls, but, you know, I'd have to check if my sources, Because the setup was that there are several girls schools nearby.
Starting point is 00:08:29 Yes, I mean, Dominican Academy, Sacred Heart. Is Dalton? Dalton was co-ed, but had girls in it. Even the way I'm describing which schools had girls reminds me of the fact that I didn't talk to any of them at this point of my life. Let me just say that I was also extremely intimidated. So I would commute in from New Jersey, as many of my brethren did, as I did this morning to come here. and I would get into Port Authority, just the armpit of the universe, and I would, from sophomore year on, I would get on the C-Train going uptown,
Starting point is 00:09:04 and then I would get onto the M-86 cross-town bus, which when you got onto the bus, was just chock-full of many of these students, of these girls' students who were going to all these schools on the east side of the park. Yes. And I was just intimidated to the point of like, I don't know how to arrange my limbs or exist for this like five to 30 minute trip across the park. Right. I mean, thank you for your flattery earlier, but I think we were probably very kindred in our relationship to this whole experience.
Starting point is 00:09:39 Yeah, riding the same metaphorical bus. Yes. And when the dances happened, it would be like some of those people might show up. Right. But largely, it was me in the basement because I didn't have to dance down there. So why did you go? To dances? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:57 Because I liked hanging out with my bros. I sort of got introduced to Stephanie by my friend Slat. He wasn't my official mentor, my Jasper. Yes. But he sort of became my de facto Jasper. So this was like a junior assigned to a freshman who would like show you the ropes or whatever. And mine unofficial one was Arthur Sproges. I don't know if you remember this name.
Starting point is 00:10:24 Of course I do. You do? I do. Great. He was friendly with Stephanie via these various people and just the situation of it all. Yeah. I sort of like got to know her a little bit. I would see her at the dances.
Starting point is 00:10:38 I don't know. Do you remember seeing her? Yes. Yeah. I said yes too quickly. Yes. I mean dot dot dot dot dot dot. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:46 And I remember her, you know, she was friendly or friends with a lot of Regis kids. Yep. Like the theater kids. Yeah. Specifically, I remember. And certainly the people who like, yeah, were musical. Right. Yeah, she was around. And so the thing that I was, I keep on thinking about is how I was under and overwhelmed at the same time. Overwhelmed in the sense of like the classic, like it is as if I'm in like a teen movie where I like walk down the stairs of the basement. And it's almost like in my memory, of course, like the very fluorescent lighting has dimmed except for where the band plays right in the middle on like the linoleum.
Starting point is 00:11:25 And there's a spread of plastic chairs and there's a stereo where you normally listen to music during like lunch over there the seniors control the stereo. And in the middle, it's just like spotlight Stephanie Germanata
Starting point is 00:11:34 and she is just f***ing wailing. No question. As if like I'm walking down the stairs and I'm like, this feels like a movie? But I'm the kind of kid
Starting point is 00:11:45 at age 13, 14. I'm trying to be self-aware about like, I know I'm not living in a movie but why does this feel like a movie. And that's the overwhelmed part. The underwhelmed part is that in retrospect, I'm also like, I don't think I appreciated that
Starting point is 00:11:59 enough. Yeah. What kind of music did they play? Do you remember? What kind of like songs they did? You mean her band? Yeah. Well, I have distinct memories of them playing songs by the band Fuel. They were sort of like a third wave grunge revival band of the late 90s.
Starting point is 00:12:16 If I played you a song, you'd be like, oh, yeah. Leave love bleeding in my hands. Or like, Had a bad day again. I think that was a song they sang. I said you would not understand. I'm sorry about a town, town. It's like fourth generation Yarling,
Starting point is 00:12:41 but it was her singing, so it was delightful. I think they played 25 or 6 to 4. Who's that? Chicago. But you're like a musician. You actually sing, you play guitar, your guitar. Is that that is your guitar? That's my guitar. I guess we should say that for context.
Starting point is 00:13:03 Yes. If you didn't know by Pat's fuel, karaoke that he just did, actually accomplished musician, Goodnight, Texas, is your band. That is your guitar, right in the corner of the studio that you brought in
Starting point is 00:13:15 because you're on your way to actually like doing professional music at some point after this. Always have it on me. And I wanted to know your scouting report, like the honest scouting report of your memory,
Starting point is 00:13:27 hazy as it is with everything, time, hormones, literal, whatever, sound speaker quality of the Reitch's High School cafeteria. Like, what was it like in your mind to process this? Like, how did you grade Stephanie Germanata as a prospect? I don't want to end up sounding like a fool and starting, you know, starting to go toe to toe to on sports. But, like, I'm trying to think of, like, who is the most touted prospect of the last, like, generation or two? Like, you thought she was LeBron. In my experience up to that point, She was the LeBron. I had never seen, like, not even close.
Starting point is 00:14:05 This is the talent that we've been waiting for. It's talent combined with presence, I guess. Like, as I said before, like, some sort of, like, self-awareness and confidence in a way that's not, like, I don't mean to disparage her by saying this. But she, like, had already figured out what she was able to do at that age. This is, so I'm going to jump on this, LeBron, 30 for 30, testimony that are now. going to start to give. I do feel like she was older than everybody else, even though she wasn't.
Starting point is 00:14:36 Yes, and shorter. No offense. True. True. There was this very dissonant package of, like, small, teenage girl, but bigger in, like, just every psychological impression.
Starting point is 00:14:50 Yes. Like, again, with LeBron, it's like, is it maturity? Well, kind of. But it is, I think, more like a sense of what you're fucking amazing at. Mm-hmm. And everybody around sort of bending around that gravitational field as if it's palpable.
Starting point is 00:15:07 Like, that's what you feel. Except I never raised my hand, Pat, and was like, we're watching history, guys. We didn't buy low. No. No. I was mostly just like, again, not perverse to say this, mostly just like, wow, this sacred heart student is just making me feel things in a way that like is the most cliched, cinematic response to, like, attractive girl spotlit in a band. Cinematic is the word, yeah. The sequence for me, I'm going to jump around in the timeline a little bit.
Starting point is 00:15:42 When I was in freshman year of college, I got a shiny new Facebook invite. Do you, I mean, you went to one of the early adopters. That was the 199th person to ever join Facebook. NBD. No big deal. Who's counting? Yeah. Me. Clearly. These are the two stories I tell, by the way. Lady Gaga story, which I'm fact-checking now, and the one about how I was number 199. This is the pinnacle of your journalistic career right here. Unfortunate and true. So I got a Facebook invite to go to a show at, I think it was the bitter end in New York City featuring Lady Gaga and the Plastic Gaga band.
Starting point is 00:16:21 You know, I looked at it the first time and I was like, what is that? This is spam. And then I was checking my email again, trying to be thorough. You know, I didn't want to miss anything. I was a freshman in college. Right, this is like 03. Oh, three. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:34 And I looked at it again, I clicked on it, opened it. I saw a picture in the invite. And I looked a little bit closer, and I saw that plainly that is Stephanie Germanata, really having worked on her look, not that she hadn't had a look before, but she really, like, really had a session and was like, I'm going to go for it with my look, got a good photo shoot. and apparently named her band Lady Gaga and the Plastic Gaga band and I, my reaction was sort of like, that's weird. Ha ha. See ya, never or later, like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:17:14 That's never gonna work. Yeah. I wouldn't have gone with that one. Right. I have some notes on that. Who told you to do that? Right, Gaga, what the fuck does that mean? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:22 But like not wishing ill, you know. Yeah, yeah. I'm in Connecticut. You're in the throbbing heart. of New York City. Right. Trying to make it as a musician. Cool.
Starting point is 00:17:32 Yeah. I'm not going to go to that show. I'm not going to ride a Peter Pan bus to Port Authority to go to that show. I'm not going to Fungwa bus ride my way to the bitter end to see what is this lady gaga and the plastic. What the fuck's like? Yeah. Not for me.
Starting point is 00:17:45 Right. I mean, not necessarily not for me, but just like not whatever. It's not going to happen logistically. Yeah. Cool, comma, whatever as you like move it into the rest of your inbox. Yeah. Right. One vignette.
Starting point is 00:17:57 Next vignette. I guess it's Just Dance. Just Dance came out. 2008. Would that be the moment? I'm going to Google this. April 8th, 2008. Okay, so that's where we're out of college.
Starting point is 00:18:21 Yeah. Just Dance drops, along with her album, I guess, soon after, The Fame. That's right. Which, to call your first album, The Fame, is quite a thing. It's kind of like having chosen one tattooed on your back. A little bit. But again, it goes back to like, that's a confidence.
Starting point is 00:18:40 That's a swagger. Right. You could look at it from a few angles like, what is she saying about the fame? I don't know. Like, is it good? Is it bad? It's both.
Starting point is 00:18:50 It's like, it's many things. But I have it. Or I'm looking at it or I don't know. Or I'm it. I'm it. It's like a power wielding, but potentially a commentary. This is where I should,
Starting point is 00:19:01 name what is on this album. Okay. Track number one on the fame is Just Dance. Obviously. Yeah. Number two is Love Game. Number three is paparazzi. Number four is Poker Face, which is a ridiculous run
Starting point is 00:19:17 to begin your first album. A.A. Oh my God. A.A. Nothing else I can say. Another song that I know the beats of. Then Beautiful Dirty Rich. The Fame, Money, Honey, Starstruck. Boys, boys, boys, paper gangster, brown eyes. I like it rough. Summer boy, disco heaven. That's, that's a rookie season. For real. So in that moment, like, for me, I feel like all of us who were in this vague situation have this sort of similar trajectory where it's like we had the seed planted like, ha ha, here's this girl. She's cool. And then later, like, oh, wait, that was her. And then there's sort of like, you know, I don't know what the cinematographic technique is
Starting point is 00:20:06 where you're like zooming in in your face and the background is coming closer or going for your way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That moment where it's like, okay, I have to reevaluate everything, even not related to this in my life so far. And that was that moment for me
Starting point is 00:20:20 when, you know, this song and album came out and I was like, I need to go back and think about things. Now I'm going to jump back to one of the dances, which is where we started. This isn't just a normal dance, actually. This is the sophomore semi-formal. Oh, my God. Did you go to that?
Starting point is 00:20:44 No. That hurt me to say out loud. It's better that it's better this way. I didn't go to the sophomore semi-formal. I'm going to shrink into myself for a second here, and you continue to tell me the story. Okay. Okay. What happened in the days, the weeks leading up to the sophomore semi-formal, was that, you know, the guitar club was in full swing.
Starting point is 00:21:05 All of the aforementioned rehearsal and interaction was happening. By the way, if I didn't make it clear earlier, my band was terrible. Specifically me. Those other guys did great. I was terrible. I just listened to the CD in the car because I have a 2016 Honda Fit and it still has a CD player. I'm really borderline on whether I'm going to let you see it. What happened was,
Starting point is 00:21:31 John Davis, the leader of the band that Stephanie was in. I don't know if he was the leader. He seemed like the leader. Yep. Came up to me. We knew each other. And he said, hey, Pat. Said, hey, John.
Starting point is 00:21:47 He said, you should ask Stephanie to the semi-formal. And I said, what? I don't know where the story is ended and I am tingling. And I didn't really know what to say. because like this really seemed like somebody's pulling strings that I'm not aware of and how should I behave in this situation. This was like punked era also or just like what is what's going on here? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:15 Like is Ashton Kutcher going to pop out? What the, what are you guys doing? Yeah. And so I was like, really? You think you think I should ask, like me, you think I should ask Stephanie to the dance? I should ask LeBron James, the LeBron James of high school music to the sophomore semi-for. Right. You should ask me.
Starting point is 00:22:34 Brett Gardner in a cross sports just to highlight how like in different worlds we were but I you know in a burst of like faux confidence did you ever have those at the time where you're like
Starting point is 00:22:48 I don't have this confidence but I'm just going to go for it I know I didn't but I can imagine it now I didn't have a lot of them but I guess this was one of them because I ended up going to the sophomore semi-formal with Stephanie
Starting point is 00:23:00 we didn't arrive at the same time but she was my date if you're if you're not watching on YouTube of the Jeffneys Network I'm doing that thing where that guy in that meme is like what the fuck I'm that meme
Starting point is 00:23:14 how did you ask her I feel like I've a little bit blocked it like it was almost like a trauma I a little bit I've blocked it out of my memory that I can relate to I can't relate to faux confidence I can relate to blackout zones in my high school memory due to trauma
Starting point is 00:23:50 yeah Did you do it in person? Yeah. So, okay. Pat, I appreciate you, I appreciate you putting yourself back in sophomore year. I appreciate you ostensibly having my best interest at heart.
Starting point is 00:24:09 This is a little bit like memento for me too. I'm like trying to go back. I also spoke to her on the phone a few times. There was one time where we were discussing the music camps we were going to go to that summer at Berkeley College of Music in Boston. And I was going for a weekend, like a five-day songwriting workshop.
Starting point is 00:24:33 And she was like going like for the summer. She was going to teach. In some way, we got it done where we were like, okay, we're going to go to this dance together. And like keep in mind, you know, we're still like I was 14, Was I 15 at that point? She's still 14.
Starting point is 00:24:52 We didn't know what the hell we were doing. So, like, we show up at different times. She's got her friends there. Her friends were equally, if not more, intimidating. Like, they were tall. Like, not that short people aren't intimidating in certain ways, but, like, these were, like, more, like, confident Catholic high school girls. And I was just like, ha, ha, ha.
Starting point is 00:25:13 I'm just glad you clarified. For all the short people listening, you too can be terrifying. You can. She just had a wide variety of intimidating friends from my perspective. What are you wearing to the sophomore semiformal? Do you remember generally what you would have worn? What she was wearing? Just like paint the picture, Pat.
Starting point is 00:25:32 Well, you know, I have the only real picture, the only real evidence. I will say that as you've been recalling this, I'm like, is Pat hallucinating? That's also possible. But I have, this is the only real evidence. Hold on. This is... Oh, man. So this is, I guess,
Starting point is 00:26:01 it's an important artifact that reminds me that digital cameras... Was this a digital camera? Was this a scan? It looks like a scan of a printed photograph. It does. It might have been a disposable camera that somebody took to CVS,
Starting point is 00:26:14 printed, gave to me. I kept the four-by-sixes. And my dad scanned it and emailed it to me at college in 2008 when I was like, can you email me that photo. Everybody's asking. Everybody's asking.
Starting point is 00:26:28 They've been asking, what did it look like when Pat and Lady Gaga went to the sophomore semiformal? And the smile on your face, how would you describe that? Apart from just like how mortified I am right now in this moment?
Starting point is 00:26:43 Yes. Aspirational? Hiding deep terror? Yeah. I would almost go for disoriented. Disoriented is. probably more accurate. Yes, that's correct. She's smiling like a normal person. Yes. Like just innocently not thinking there's going to be a podcast that comes out one day where this photo
Starting point is 00:27:05 will wind up. Right. At the time, you're wearing a shirt and tie and she's wearing like a nice, you know, formal dress style cocktail attire thing. I'm probably wearing what you might have worn to do a tournament for the her. Yes. You were dressed like a high school debater. Yes. Yes. Yes. I am not seeing khakis in the photo, but it feels like there are khakis in the photo. They're down there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where was the sophomore semiformal?
Starting point is 00:27:31 It was in the auditorium. This is even sadder for me. It was really no different other than the attire. It was a home game. It was a home game. Yeah. How to go? It was sort of awkward in the sense that I didn't know how to triangulate myself to her or anyone.
Starting point is 00:27:49 And my head was in a little bit of a spin because she kind of had her posse as I described. I mean, I had my posse, but they sort of dispersed in a way. This could be a whole other podcast, but boys are not very good at like emotions or emotional support. I think people listening to this
Starting point is 00:28:11 have gotten that sense so far. If not from this episode, then maybe others. Yeah, perhaps all of them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was very, you know, not maliciously, but in real terms unsupported. And I felt that she was very, at least outwardly, in a comfort zone
Starting point is 00:28:30 from just like being so friendly with all the people that we talked about and like having this gaggle of friends and just like owning the space that she was in. It was a home game for you only technically. Right. I was in New York Jet in MetLife Stadium. And she had, yeah, she had the confidence of Tom Brady, you know. Yes. Outwardly, I don't know how she was feeling, honestly. That's what, that's the other thing that I wanted to say was I don't know anything about her emotional life.
Starting point is 00:29:07 I want to be very clear again. This is not a conversation about how she was actually thinking or feeling about anything. Right. This is the story of the other guys, literally the other guy in the picture. This is one angle of the fame. What a thing. we have, you know, fame. This, genuinely.
Starting point is 00:29:26 Yeah. It is something that is deeply meaningful to me and also embarrassing because it is meaningful to me. Right. Exactly. Same. So I don't want to get lewd here. But of course, everyone left room for the Holy Ghost.
Starting point is 00:29:40 Everybody knows that. That's right. Some of us did it without any sort of agency in the matter. Some of us had a choice. But you're there largely a free-body flow. loading diagram, unmoored from the setting you've arrived in, and there is the future Lady Gaga with her friends. And so, did you guys just dance? Are we going to cut to commercial right there? Right now in the Draftings Network, if you want to bet a super boost, did Pat Wolf grind on Lady Gaga?
Starting point is 00:30:19 We're offering those odds, currently a plus nine million. So I'm going to be perfectly honest and tell you that. This is the pinnacle of our physical connection right here. She's literally above you. She's taller than you in this photograph somehow. She's like... Well, she decided in that moment that she was going to sit on my leg. Yep.
Starting point is 00:30:41 That's why she looks taller than me. We're both sitting. Yeah. Against the power move. It's a power move. It was brief. That was the pinnacle, as I said, of our physical connection. I cannot be any more honest than that.
Starting point is 00:30:54 We believe you. Yes. Yes. So at the end, of the night, how do things resolve? It's sort of like, the night sort of ended like a, like a, like a wisp of cold wind going out the door. Like, did that just happen? Like, did I totally screw that up?
Starting point is 00:31:12 Like, what is happening to me now? Like, what should I have done before? I don't, I don't understand who I am. What is the feeling of what you were experiencing if you were to, uh, choose a musical reference to convey? That scene in the movie, what is it? What's the opposite of a crescendo? Yeah. Oh, well, technically it's a day crescendo.
Starting point is 00:31:36 It's a... I'm nodding along. I can't... Yeah, it's almost like... It's almost like, you know, it was sort of rising to a fever pitch and, like, the band was building or the orchestra was building,
Starting point is 00:31:50 and then all of a sudden there's silence, and then there's just a guy standing alone, like strumming a guitar, like being emo. It's sort of... Yes. From my perspective. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Would it be too much for me to imagine also just like a, almost like a whoopee cushion, just like exhaling as well?
Starting point is 00:32:07 Yeah, we could throw that in there. So my band that I now play in, in my adult life, that's very good in a real band. That's nice of you to say. It is. It's all of that's true. I'm still in a band, however impractical that is. It's called Goodnight, Texas, which, by the way, none of us are from Texas. I lived in North Carolina where my wife Mary grew up and where she was going to med school.
Starting point is 00:32:46 Shout out to Mary, by the way. Absolutely. I'm sorry that this has been embarrassing for your husband and for his classmate, but clearly he made the right choice eventually. Proceed. I love her so much. We were going to have a nice day together today
Starting point is 00:33:00 because she's off and I squandered it all on a podcast. So the first record that I did with Avi before we had Good Night Texas. It was just the two of us as a folk duo. That record was called Coat Tales. The last track on that is called Coatails, is a song that I wrote. And the lyrics are,
Starting point is 00:33:21 I knew you once when I was young. I could sing it for you. That's why I brought my guitar. Are you serious? I mean, yeah. Could you do that? Sure. Is that weird?
Starting point is 00:33:31 I mean, I could read more of my yearbook or you could actually play the song that I feel like encapsulates the reason that I brought you here without even knowing that reason. I would maybe feel remiss if I didn't do it. Can we do that? I would love that. Please.
Starting point is 00:33:49 Please indulge. Okay. Tell me logistically what I need to do here. I think you just got to take off your headphones and unzip the sword in the sheath. We're going to get one more mic in here. Okay. We're going to tiny desk this. I knew that was.
Starting point is 00:34:14 admit I dreamed of you didn't even recognize me I felt like such a fool my brain's been fried by the internet maybe yours has too now all the can't but leave they oh someday i'll get that i'm so glad i didn't grab wants to get dragged in the mud. Okay, so, man, this is where I feel obligated to jump in and point out that we did, in fact, reach out to Lady Gaga, Stephanie Germanada herself, through her representatives. But we have not yet heard back.
Starting point is 00:36:04 Which is, to be very clear, extremely understandable, given that, you know, I have never reached out to her before and would never presume that she would want to participate in what we just gave to you. But I also should point out that the song you're hearing right now underneath this very voiceover is another song from Pat Wolf.
Starting point is 00:36:26 It's called Runaways. It's the sort of music that he's playing with Goodnight Texas in the present tense, and this one features Kirk Hammett from Metallica, by the way, somebody else who knows quite a bit about rock stardom. You can find this song on Good Night Texas'
Starting point is 00:36:44 most recent album, titled Signals, which they released in July, and hopefully when you listen to it, you get a sense of where this all started, maybe. Which leaves me with just one more thing that I should probably tell, Pat Wolf. Pat, I don't think we've ever had a crescendo. Quite like that.
Starting point is 00:37:11 Thank you for helping me find out what actually happened in my brain. and everywhere else, I guess, inside the Reitas High School cafeteria, approximately 20 to 25 years ago. It's been my pleasure. I just want to say that it's like a real honor to be here with you, Pablo. I've been, you know, I've been listening to your work for years now, watching your work, and it's a real pleasure to be here despite all of the terrible, terrible emotions that got churned up earlier. It's like I'm commuting to Rita's high school all over again. This has been Pablo Torre finds out, a Metal Arc Media production.
Starting point is 00:37:59 And I'll talk to you next time.

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