Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - John Stamos

Episode Date: November 5, 2023

On this week's episode, Willie sits down with John Stamos. They speak about his much-discussed new memoir, those early years as a "Soap Opera Hunk", and the shocking loss of his "Full House" co-star and best friend, Bob Saget. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got one for you this week that I think you're really going to enjoy with John Stamos. He is out with a new memoir called If You Would Have Told Me That Well, tells us about just about everything in his life and his career. He grew up in Orange County, California, dreaming of being famous. He was into magic and puppets and he loved going to Disneyland to see the shows and all that stuff, and he tried to figure out how to get there. So he started young. He played Blackie Parish, for those of you general hospital fans, going back to the 80s, a bad boy in a leather jacket, and then graduated to comedy in 1987, joined the cast of Full House with the man who would go on to become his best friend, the late Bob Sagitt. As you'll hear, John wasn't so sure about Full House, the show that really made him a household name when they started. With all the kids. He thought it was maybe corny and two family friendly. And then he began to see why it was going to succeed as it did over the course of eight seasons. Tons to talk about in here, the moment,

pivotal moment in his life in 2015 he opens the book with that opened his eyes and changed his life. There's a ton in there. He gets into some of these great Hollywood stories talking about his buddies, his upbringing. I think you're really going to enjoy the Sunday sit down right now with John Stamos. It's great to see you, man. Great to see you. I'm a fan. Likewise.

You're so smart. You're so good. You can do anything. I've seen you do everything. You can be funny and light and serious and political. You know, you definitely have your viewpoint on stuff. But you're not combative about it or something. You're so smart about it.

And you know, your own opinion's in there a little bit, but just enough to not go, not be like the other people that are so, you know, it's all about them and what they think. I figure there's plenty of that. There's a lot of hot takes out there. So you can just kind of provide information and ask the questions the audience is asking. I think that's a pretty good service. So thank you, you're great at that.

And where is that, like, I always want to show some of my other friends. This is that we've already started. But this is interesting. We enough about me already. Where's, like, here's what I need you to do, okay? I need you to do about five or ten minutes on the state of everything, but just tell the truth like you do. And non-partisan dude that we can find some nonpartisan dude that we can.

You can play the video. Huh? Yeah. And just explain it. But to explain it because you try to tell your friends or your family, in my case, too, and they don't believe it. I mean, he set a thing up where it's, you know, you don't have to believe it if you don't want to. But if there's facts, facts, facts, and it's not one side of the other, go, here it is. I know.

It's hard because there's an element of preaching to the choir wherever you are. So your audience wants to hear certain things. So even if it's the facts, it feels like their version of the facts where the other side can say, well, no, no, no, I heard this over here. These are the facts. We don't even agree on what's true, but that's the whole other conversation. Is it? Really?

Congratulations. Let's talk about you, man. Thank you. I'm so happy to have you at this table. I'm happy to have you. This book, which everybody's talking about, everybody's talking about. Everybody's talking about. You should go online, man.

It's huge. This book, as we sit here right now, came out about 24 hours ago. How does it feel to have it out in the world? Sometimes you're in a dark room writing a memoir. All that felt good. And now the whole world is reading every detail of your life. What's it feel like? Like, to be honest, I went to bed crying last night because it's, um, first of all, just having it

out there is, uh, it's scary. Yeah. You've written books on losing weight. Well, yeah, fascinated. Oh, you did? Yeah. Can't do that now. No, no. Right. Um, so it's a, it's a different thing. I know, I'm, I'm sort of stayed out of controversy as much as I can, I mean, I've had, you know, incidents that I, you know, I'm not proud of we can talk about, but I don't, you know, my dad was like that. Your dad wasn't. But my dad was like, no politics, no religion, keep it light, keep it funny. Yep. You know, um, be like, you know, and even, you know, in his good way, it wasn't, he wouldn't say it now, but he was like, be the coxman, you know, be like Warren Beatty and Dean Martin, you know, and that doesn't fly. But I was, I was, I held on to that a little too long,

but that was just, and my dad was, I don't know, you'd love your dad too much. My dad was a, I don't know, if you feel like this. My dad was a, you know, my hero. And, you know, he was like a, a, a, bigger than life always. And I never got to the point where you go, oh, he's just a human. He was always, you know, such a cool guy. And any room he walked into, he was the coolest. So the tears last night were because, why?

Well, I think some of the stuff that's come out or some of the, well, what they do is, you know, sometimes with this clickbait stuff, it's just, you know, the one sentence of it or a word or two. And some of us just, they just made it up. I mean, it's the essence of, you know, the thing. So that's why it's good to do. these interviews, especially long form interviews. It's so hard to get stuff out, even in, you know,

talk shows and stuff. You have to boom, boom, boom, boom. So it's nice to have a nice, long thing. You know, the first thing I read was the New York Times, which was, you know, spot on. I mean, it was all, you know, perfect. But even just seeing it in another place, you know, about, you know, I, I wanted to talk about as many human things as I could. I set up to write a hero story. I was like, this is not good. I got to be honest. And then it got, you know, and then it got real. And so I really want to spend time on the things that people could relate to, not just Beach Boys, you know, TV. So those things, you know, they're coming out now and it's hard. And I think, you know, there was some, I'm an ex-wife,

you know, when I talked about, and there's a celebrity. I didn't, I really try not to bad mouth anybody. I don't think I did. In fact, Howard listened to its turn. And he left me the nicest message, but he said, he said, you really didn't take anyone out in this, but yourself. And he said, that's a sign of maturity and intelligence. And I'm like, yeah, but, because I'm not used to controversy or, you know, people saying negative things about me for the most part, right? Because I've always sort of flown under the radar. This is out there. As you know, their elements of the media, they're going to just seize upon, oh, there's another famous name.

Oh, they were married. Here's the thing we're going to talk about. Yes, yeah. Do you now regret writing anything that you put in this book? That's a good question. You're good at this. I don't know yet. I don't want anyone to be hurt, but I didn't, I told the truth,

and I could have told more truth in some areas than I did. And I think, like, in a few areas, people are like, oh, you went easy on her. You went easy on it, you know. Most of this stuff came from a place of pain, you know, some of these issues, you know, my first heart, break. I walked in and caught her in bed with somebody. I don't think they ever, now that I'm thinking about two, I don't think they ever knew, well, they knew, but all I saw was like four feet. It was like

like a sitcom or something. And I was madly in love with it. It was the first girl that I was really madly in love with ever. And it was during a time when I, I was on general hospital then, but not long before that. I was a, you know, still gawky, dorky, you know, growing into myself. So she was one of the first, you know, girlfriends. It was definitely the first time I ever said, I love you to someone. And then to walk in on, you know, on her. And at first I saw the guy, I was like, I'm going to kick his. And it kind of rolled over.

I saw his abs. I'm like, I'm going to run. And I remember thinking, too, like, don't cry, John, don't cry. I was a very immature 19, 20-year-old. And I was running, I could see him running down her driving. Tuesday. I discovered, I set out, like I said, to write this hero story that became human. I didn't think I had a story, but as I was writing it, I discovered my story along the way, I guess.

Did you find that in any of your story? Yeah, for sure. You think your dad, I mean, that's beautiful, huh? Yeah, yeah, and it's a gift to be able to sit. To me, that book I wrote my dad was just here in a bound volume, it's a story of our life together. It can be passed down and shared with people. So to me, that was the beauty of it. And you do.

And you do. And that's, they know the story of their grandfather. That's what this is. It's a love letter to my parents. You know, my son will have this to look at someday. He looks at it now, but he said this morning, he goes, I'm just going to read the pages about me. You're okay? Got some good photos in there, too. You can peruse and check out your old haircuts and stuff like that.

It's so funny to hear you say you were a gawky teenager. Yeah. Because most people with you sitting here and the guy they know would not believe that. But as you write in the book, you were a magic and theme parks guy. Puppets, too. You forgot puppets. And puppets. Sorry, the trifecta. Yeah.

So what were your early years like? You say, I wanted to be famous, whatever that took. Maybe I'll play the drums. Maybe I'll get into magic, whatever it is. Yeah. I always say that because I still, I love it. Do you like people recognizing you and saying, hey, I have a fan of yours. You're great?

It's nice that you're reaching people. But I mean, yeah. But don't you like it? Yeah. Oh, you're saying yes. Yeah. For sure. So I never had, but as I, again, as I started to write this, it was like, yeah, I want to be famous, but I wanted to be liked and admired and, you know, thought of it, you know, attractive, you know, people that were attractive.

And, you know, I wasn't. But I was trying to really think about that moment from, because people say that, well, you didn't have caterpillar to the butterfly, you know. And I, as I'm just coming out of it. And I remember, well, one of the first things I talk about is this, I'm in marching band. Your son's in marching band? He's a drummer. He's a drummer, yeah. He's in a band.

He's a future stamos. It's too cool. He plays in a band. They do bar gigs. Really? Oh, his own band? Oh, that's so cool. How old is 16?

14. 14. 14. He's an eighth grade. Will you show me some video of him later? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I've got a bunch of them.

Okay, good. I want to see it because what's beautiful about that and it really helped me too was I had an identity, right? Right. And I had some, a goal. And my dad said, I had a crappy little drum set, and said, you practice all summer, and if you get good, I'll buy you a real kid. Exactly. And I did.

I practiced. And, but it gave me an identity where you see the kids waffling here and there. They don't know what they're going to do. They don't, you know, they get into, you know, bad stuff earlier on because they don't have a, you know, this is who. So as soon as I became, you know, a band geek even, that's, boom, that's just who I was. You know, it gave me purpose, I guess. And you had bands. Destiny was my favorite.

Crosswinds was the second favorite. Yeah, I know, yeah. You had some... I got the fan letters from me still. And I thought it was weird. It's a little late. They were disbanded 45 years ago. No, I got one for me recently.

Remember? I know. I'm sorry. I thought that'd be held up by your security, but apparently got to you. I called my dad Willie, too. Did you really? Yeah, called him Willie.

Yeah, his name was going to. So the music was one thing. But I was in Marching fan, which is not cool. And this kid behind me who has no rhythms, it does the symbols, that's why he's always off too. Come on, you got two symbols through the whole song. But he said, hey, there's a girl,

and she was the most beautiful girl in time. She went to a Catholic school. She said, so-and-so thinks you're cute and wants to go out with you. I stopped. My track, two of a guy, you know, crashes into me. I said, what? I know her sister. And she said, she did you cute?

Let's go out with you. Like, wow. He said, don't tell anybody. I won't. I go to a block party that night. I was at the, you know, there was the nerdy, you know, house. And then a couple of hours down was the jock cool party that I wasn't invited to. I told everybody, you know, that I could.

Because it was like, wow, somebody, that was the first time I heard that kind of stuff. And it was like a phone, gave a telephone. I went down the houses. And at the end was this jock guy who was her boyfriend. Oh, I didn't. He finds out. Say, oh, sir. He comes out.

I was in a car talking to another girl. And I rolled it down, bam, oh, punch me right, and by. It was the most, it was so, have you ever been hit part? Yes. Yeah. Terrible, right? I mean, it was like, I couldn't believe it.

And I was the, I'd never been hit, you know, and it was like, wow. And I try to fight back, but I love stunt work. But so I miss, I didn't know how to hit anybody. I was always missing. And there wasn't talk about bullying back. then or I didn't know how to talk to my dad or mom about it. So I just went to school. And this guy wanted to beat me up for the longest time. And I wanted to dedicate the book to him because

he gave me the energy to go for. Every milestone that I hit in my career is like, I'm going to show him, I'm going to get on TV. Really? I'm going to play with the beach boys. I'm going to invite him. He's going to come backstage and I'm going to have my bodyguards beat him up. And it really, I'll never forget, I saw this, I walked in the bathroom and he, he's going to he wrote, I'm going to kill you big nose. I saw my reflection. I saw this writing. I said, I have to do something drastic.

I got to become famous. And then I'll show him. Wow. And so that was that. So you walk around with that chip on your shoulder. I've let it go. You know, you got to let these things go. I know you have some chips against, you know, some people you work with.

You got to let it go. And that's what I've done. I would, if I saw him today, I say, hey, I thank you man bygones, bongons, I know we were young I get it, you know, you gave me some energy to, you know, go on my career trajectory, thank you.

Yeah. And I start to walk away. But it's like a phantom limb, you know. I dated that girl for a couple years, you know, and she told me you were hung like a finch. So, fuck off. But I'm not bitter anymore about it. And that's our out cue. I think we got

what we needed here. Thanks for everything. Thank you. Thank you. Right? We're good, everybody? All right. No drums? I'm going to cut the drum. So, you know, it was that kind of stuff. That's amazing. That's amazing.

So in a way, this is not weird, but that was a gift because it gave you something. It gave you some motivation, some incentive, some drive. I mean, it did. It's a weird thing to call it a gift, but in some ways. No, I think you're right. But, you know, I'm not saying, go out and get punched. No. But it gave you something.

So that's the music side. When does the acting come in? Was that also in the pursuit of club fame, as you put it in the book? Yeah, I used to have my best friend. There was a show called Lucan, The Wolf Boy, on that. And I kind of looked like the guy from a distance. So I would make my friend run up, when the girls were out, run up and have me sign an eye.

Oh, I got your out. I'm going to. It didn't work, but it was a practice. You really wanted to be famous. I want to be famous. I still do. Someday. You are.

Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, you're good. You can stand down. I would go to Disneyland. You know, that was my show like my backyard, trying to pick up girls. my dad's a member's only jacket. Oh, yeah.

Did you wear, did your dad wear cologne? Did you ever? He had a little cologne. The member's only jacket for sure. Oh, really? A news flash, girls don't like those jackets very much.

We were told they did in the 80s. Turned out it matters who's in the jacket. Really? It's part of the problem. Yeah. So I was, but I was, you know,

it was that. Honestly, it was a, and then when it started to, you know, change was, you know, it was,

and then, you know what was wonderful as I was writing and I realized that because I was the guy in the quad like doing magic tricks like you said and I'd run across like trip over somebody a girl and roll over to do stunts and stuff and they thought I was a jerk off you know but then girls started to like me I was like I can't be I'm not I don't know how to be anything other than that guy and so it started that started to work but it but I was just like boom I'm going to be this it must be so difficult for your kids at 14 16 social media and oh yeah how do you what do you

Can you imagine if we had social? Can you imagine? No. I didn't have to read on Twitter. I saw it on a mirror, but yeah, it's too much pressure. How do you, can you keep off the stuff? You can't keep them off entirely. You keep an eye on it.

You have time for the phones, but there's no, it's where the world is. It's in there, you know, it's also, it's the self-judgment or the comparison of your life to others. And, oh, everybody's at that person's house and I wasn't invited or they're on this trip and we're here. You know what I mean? It's just that. It's exhausting. And you just got to, well, it's got to be, I mean, at least, you know, I mean, you guys seem like really good parents, so you can talk to them about that. Yeah.

And not that, you know, these days, both parents have to work and they're not thin and can control their friends and stuff. For sure. And you can turn over parenting to the phone because they're occupied and feels like they're safe. I mean they would never do that. Can't. Except, you have kids. Hear me out in the argument with my wife. If I put Billy in front of the TV and he watches full house for three hours and I have to go somewhere, it's like spending time with me, isn't it?

It's better because Jesse has better, you know, lessons and there's always a hug at the end of the thing. Doesn't it make sense? Yeah. Yeah, there's dad. Yeah, there he is. His hair is different. Yeah. But, yeah.

He watches Foss just to mock me, that kid. Wait, has he really seen it? About a year ago, I think it was. No. The original or Fuller? The original. Okay. Yeah.

The nanny, our nanny was showing it to him one day, and then I fired her. No, she hates me. telling you. She loved the show. And he was watching it, but he, but he, I said, okay, Billy, go, you know, go clean your room. You got it, dude. He's doing it to mock me. Wow. He's already there at five? Five and a half. He's a trouble. He was, he's a, he's a, he's, he's. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from John

Stamos right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with John Stamos. So we were talking about acting, how you jumped in. Audition for General Hospital. I think you wore your mom's leather jacket to that to be the bad boy. Is that true? Well, I'd never been to New York. And the guy, it was, it was, it was a New York street urchin. I had to go to the library.

I see what that is. It was like an orphan kind of guy. Okay. And I grew up in Orange County, which is by Disneyland. And I grew up in the Disneyland, I was like a backyard. And New York was, you know, I didn't. So for the audition, I remember, I, so, yeah, I borrowed my mom's jacket. voluminous, puffy, you know,

which is not really a cool guy jacket. My hair was, I wore sun in. You know, I had, do you know what that is? Sure, oh, yeah. Did you have ever, do you have a long hair? I did. I did highlights over here. Did you ever have long hair? Did you ever?

It's good. Yeah, I didn't know how to use it. Did you have a mullet ever or a longer hair? No, my hair was like this? Yeah, do you have the photos? Can we have a clip? No. So you had the hair.

I had the hair, and there was feathered. I remember my mom, like, it was put back, just curl, you know, back like this. And I said, I got to come over the walk. So before the audition, I was driving around Hollywood, and I was always lost. Still him, but parallel parking, I can't do it. But I found

the street that I thought, this seems like the area, it was Santa Monica Boulevard. And there were a lot of bars, like outdoor bars, and mostly filled men, you know, actually all men, you know, and all the bars coming out. It was, you know, this area.

And there was a club called Rage. I said, I'll park there because I need to have rage. And I got out, it took me up like 10 minutes to parallel. And there's like a big bar of people watching. Yeah, parallel. And I get out. Yeah, I didn't see him. I get out and my mom's, and I'm just working on my walk.

You know, I do faster and tighten. You get it, girl. I'm like, girl, okay, I'll take the, you know. Sure. And I was like, okay, I think I got the walk. I love Travolta. I love Trowalton. I said my feet.

Yeah. But I need just in New York. Chachi. Happy days. He's a New York kid. And he always wore a bandana around his thigh. Right? Do you ever see that?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. So I said, I need a bandana. A lot of bandana stores on that street. I walk in. Oh, can I have that yellow? Okay, thank you. And the guy goes, hey, you're in luck.

Today's free massage day with every bandana. I said, oh, thank you, sir. I have an auditioned back. Maybe I'd come back. So I'd run. Now, my wife. I'm walking, energy, and I go into the casting, bashing there, and I'm walking.

All right, it's about two guys, Weber, baseball bats, I want to stop, stop, stop. Stop moving around. Don't walk. Just say there and say, the line. After all that practice. All that practice, yeah. Oh, for nothing.

Which you got the part anyway. Well, but almost. I almost didn't. I started off again, and the guy stops me. He says, oh, you like to be peed on, huh? I'm like, what? Well, the yellow bandana means, you know, water sports. And I go, oh, wow.

hate Hollywood. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I was terrible. You know, I thought, oh, I tank this thing. And I walk out and just like, okay, come on Hollywood. You know, piss on, man. And then, and then I got the roll. I called home, and as I used to do, and everybody was around the phone. And I was fake. It's like, I got bad news. I got it. And you can hear him screaming. And you can hear my dad in the back. I'm sure your dad was like, don't make sure you don't shoot on Sundays. You're my Sunday guy. I worked at my dad's restaurant on Sundays. I love that. I love that. Even as you became more and more famous and people knew you and you were like this sex symbol and this heartthrob and all that stuff, you know the terms. And people were coming into the restaurant while you were flipping burgers in your apron.

He didn't let me quit for a while. And I shot this, audition a month, Tuesday or Wednesday, shot at that next day. And two weeks later, it starts airing. 35 million people, you know, a day were watching that soap opera. And so yeah. So it was that. And people were coming in. and I'll be cheese, but aren't you the guy? And then girls started coming around. I said, Dad, I'm famous. Can I quit? He said, no. I said, come on, man.

And to this day, and I was writing, I was thinking, like, did he keep me there to keep me humble? Was it good for business? Did he think that it wasn't going to be a real thing, maybe? But also, he built that business for me. And that was kind of heartbreaking to think about that. Had you considered that before you wrote the book? Did you just get there while you're writing this? No, I've got so.

I discovered all this stuff as I was writing it. And he would treat the bus boy the same way he would treat his best customer. And I watched him do that. He came down on the set with me for the first time at General Hospital and saw the way I interacted with people. He says, you can quit now. That's beautiful. Because I'm sure it's hard for it.

So they were second generation, right? Which is my dad, yeah. Yeah, your dad. That like, you got to run the, restaurant your acting's not gonna get you where you want to go right you gotta have a real job i'm sure they felt that way they did and they were but then you know then it just became just the pride that they had and the fact that i could share my career with them that was another thing we're talking about but i want to ask you a very serious question oh i've been following a few years

they've written books you're on the best seller list of times as you're about to be yeah i don't know about that um great journalists important schools you have a lot of things that are Very admirably watching, but I'll tell you what I like best about you. Sexiest Man Alive. Oh, my God. Twice. Twice this guy was in the People magazine, Sexiest Man Alive. Am I right?

You guys can clap. They don't like you to crew. You know, one guy, clap, no. You've been on Wikipedia. No, no, I haven't. And here's the, here's the thing. Were you in a magazine? It's not like a John Stamos Sexiest Man Alive.

It's a, here's a list of 100 journalists of every age, age, you know. And you're one of them. So it was a big asterisk next to that. Twice. Yeah. I had pinned up on my wall. Right next to the letters I wrote you. Yeah.

Leave that in. If I don't see that in this interview, you walk. I walk. Yeah. Now. Yeah. Let's talk about your book. Come on.

No one cares about the asterisk sexiest list. So I'm curious how when this thing blew up for you. The book? On General Hospital. Oh, okay. And you're parlaying that into other things. Full House comes along. Well, right?

That show, again, was so successful. But I wanted to be on a, I wanted to be funny. I grew watching Gary Marshall. She was happy days. And I would sneak into Paramount Studios, too. I took a class from the casting director there. And during the week, though, I would, I'd pull up to the gate and things were, you know, a lot less secure then. And I'd say, I'm here to see Bobby Hopper.

What's your name? I don't see you on the list. Okay, go park over there. and we'll call. I park over there, get out of my car, you know, run. And I would spend the day walking around the studio, Paramount, and on one lane down there, it was Leverna Shirley, Happy Days, Minky, Bousin Bousin Busson Bodies, taxi, you know, it was all one, and I would just go in and sneak and hide behind the bleachers. I had a drama teacher, too. Did you have great teachers? Did you have one or two? I had this great guy, Mike McGinnis, and he would take us up

to watch TV tapings in Hollywood. And I would always just run off. And he'd Go ahead, just be back at the bus. I don't see anything. And one time we were at it taping. We finally got to happy days. It was a bunch of weird shows. It was like, Fernwood Tonight and stuff like that I didn't get. We finally got to happy days.

And there was a wiry hyper guy in the audience. And McGuinness says, that guy's going to be a big star someday. Go get his autograph. Okay. Hello, sir. Can I have your autograph? Dear Money, send mom, Robin Williams. No.

Is that right? And there it goes. And years, years, years, years, years. later, I was doing a play with Bill Irwin, a music by by Birdie, and Bill his friends with Robbott. He said, you want to go to, okay, we want to meet a friend. Who? Rob William. Oh, wow. It's fascinating. It wasn't, wasn't, that was only about, say, 10 years ago. And to see him how different, he was, you know, quiet and frail. No, Captain. Yeah. Did you have to tell him that story? I did. And then he, then he's shriveled back down to that,

not Rodman. Someone that big is. Yeah. And you'd expect him. to, it was, you know, towards the end, I think he was having issues. And he was, you expect him to be in the corner, like, holding court and stuff. He was, you know, he was very, you know, he's very, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's true, though, sometimes the biggest personalities on a screen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, or not that in real life. Yeah. Yeah, very, very shy. So I'm sorry. So we're talking to full house. So you wanted to be on a comedy. Yeah. You get your comedy.

There was this great, wonderful woman named Gloria Monti who ran the soap opera. Am I getting too many details? No, it's great. You can. Gloria Monti, she changed the face at the daytime. And when I said, I was there of two years and I was super popular. And there was fan mail at the front desk

when we walked by. And I thought it was Rick Springfields. You know, and one day I, because I just never looked at it. It wasn't my business. And one day I took a peek. Blackie, Blackie, Johnson. 10,000 letters of wheat. Wow. And my mom used to answer him. No, really.

And she, but the thing that she would do is that she would pull out all the kids with special leads and handicapped. She said, you write them. personal note. You know, that stayed with me, too, as far as, you know,

the charity work and the work that I do with children. And she had, and beautiful notes from her mom in the book, too, which is so moving.

The, I wanted to leave general hospital, and she took me to lunch at, like Don'tche Vito, which is a famous type. Dean Martin

is sitting over there. No. And she, it was like a moth, it was like a total mob thing to play, and I sit down and she's saying,

so, dear you, you want to leave, I said, yeah, Gloria, I want to be funny. I want to be, like an idiot. Like, no one would leave this show. And I was getting $400 an episode. And then they offered me, you know, a lot of money to stay.

I said, no, you know, I said, I just want to be funny. I said, oh, you want to be funny, dude. Very, you know, strong. I said, Gloria, you've done so much. Thank you. She says, you know, dude, you'll never work in this town again. And I said, I probably, no, I think I will. You know, I want.

And my naivete is really a big part of my success, I think, because I just did it. Parents never put obstacles in the way. They said, go for it. You know, just do it. I said, okay, work hard, be a good person. Go for it. And was full house when you got there, it wasn't exactly the comedy you had dreamed of, right?

It turned out to be the most extraordinary professional thing in your career, but it took a while. Is that fair to say? Yeah, well, right before that, I did a sitcom with Jack Klugman, who was my first, you know, OG mentor. I was always gravitating towards these older, Gentlemen, like me with you.

Are you mentoring me right now? Well, now, now I'm the, you know, I have to pay it forward. But Jack was my first one, and he was, he would sit me in the, in the writer's room on Wednesdays or whatever. It was Gary Marshall and Harvey Miller and Jerry Bell, anyway, a Jewish guy, funny. And I'd watch, and he'd say, sit there and watch. So I came into Full House with that, like, and Jack would tear apart. You say, why are we getting this? All right, we're a character.

What's the joke coming from? So, and then I go into Full House, and it was romper room compared to that. Yeah. They told me it was going to be, the same producers, Miller and Boyette were great, and they did all the shows that I love, all the Gary Marshall shows. And I'd become friends with Gary. It turns out that Gary suggested me for Full House. You play, can you play guitar?

I said, yeah, I got a show, my friend. And he was one of my great last man, but they said, but they said, bosom buddies and, oh, there's some kids. I go to the table reading, thinking that my show, the kid's mother's, oh, John, back here. And the kids blow me away. I mean, they're getting laughs. People can't even hear my dialogue.

People are still laughing at the kids. And I just started going like, slowly. And I never forget, we had a hotel. I ran to the lobby afterwards. I had a quarter. Jam the quarter. I was like, get me off that show. Really?

Yeah. And then Bob, which is, you know, the through line to this book pretty much. He, the two hardest chapters. I started with the DUI chapter, if we could talk about. And then I ended, and then the next chapter I wrote, which turned up to be the ending was the last, the day I found out that Bob passed away. So I thought those were going to be the hardest.

The full house chapters were the hardest. Because I know the show meant so much to people. For a long time, I didn't want to, you know, I wanted to distance myself from it as far as I could. So I wanted to do it right. So that's why it's difficult. But I start off with Bob and I. And what was hard was I came in looking at a scene.

Why are we doing this? Let's make this. You know, Bob was, he was addicted to laughs, like a drug at. He wasn't a drug at, but he had to get laughs. And if he wasn't getting him from the show, which he really wasn't in the beginning, you know, it would be all about making you guys laugh. I like you guys. They've been silent so far.

Yeah. Just, I guess we're no. Well, they laughed at you. At you. Yeah, it was an hat. But it was distracting and it was, you know, it was disruptive. Yeah. I mean, Bob would, you know, I would be trying to figure out a moment in a scene and he would

grab a fork and I hate my penis, like, you know, like this. I'm like, Bob. And I would talk to us, you have kids. Bring that into it. You don't want to hear that from me. Dave and I then became closer and we started to get all these thoughts. Because we worked, Dave came in and, you know, learned from me and I learned from him. But so that's where I started the full house stuff.

And eventually, you know, Bob and I came around to each other. Yeah, I was going to ask you, how did you get to that place? I mean, he's your brother. You write about it in the book. I think also a lot of people don't realize how devilishly funny he is because they do America's Funniest Home Videos into Full House. And then if you watch him to stand up or just privately, you're like, oh, this is the edgiest. Yeah.

Because you know, you must have. I've met him a couple times. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. One of the great gentlemen of, he, what happened was a couple years in, his sister got scleroderma. And he spent the rest of his life advocating for that horrible disease. Do you know about it? Yeah, yeah.

Skin. And then Dave's sister got a very bad cancer, pancreatic. And then my sister turns out my sister goes in and they find a brain team. So now we weren't just three guys on a show. we were three brothers so afraid of our sisters not being around much longer. Bob's sister died, Dave's sister died. Thank God, mine, I'm still alive, and she's doing well. It was an MS instead of a misdiagnosed.

So we bonded over that, and then it was a little weird actually because then my sister made it. But I think that's when we said, let's knock the bull off. Let's put our pettiness aside and let's learn from each other. I was always, it took me a while to admit that he was one of the greatest comics, you know, living. I would study these, I love comedy and I love stand-up comedy. And there's, you know, there's, it's very specific, right? There's, it's mathematics almost, very, and Bob was the best out of it. So we became close.

And then I had the critics in my ear for a long time. And the critics hated this show. I mean, they, one guy said it wouldn't last off Thanksgiving. Yeah. He didn't say which Thanksgiving. And there's, you know, and when Fuller House came on, I went on Seth. Myers and read some of the reviews. I mean, the one guy compared it to necrophilia.

I'm like, necrophilia? Come on, man. So, I always thought that it wasn't sophisticated enough. It wasn't smart enough. I want to be on. I want to be honest. And what I've realized, and you know what? I didn't, again, I didn't get this until I wrote the book. Jeff Franklin, who created the show, was over, and he's writing a book. He said, what did you come to terms of the philosophy? In the book. Wow.

And the critics thought they were smarter than me. I know what the show was. It was silly at times. It was fast. It was light. It was, but what they missed was, in lieu of sophistication, sweetness came in. And the brain moved aside, and it gave room for the heart to feel something. And if you didn't like the show, guess what?

It wasn't made for you. And over the years, what I realized, too, was it's the quintessential family show, but it's not the quintessential family, right? It's not the mother, father, 2.5 kids like your family, which is a family. But a lot of, you know, and especially over the years, divorce, same-sex marriage, family became something different. And so when I started to realize that, you know, people, kids and, you know, the latchkey kid coming home and watching it saying that's her family and, you know, the widow, you must turn up a little louder. And, you know, it became everybody's family. And then I was like, okay, I get it.

Stick around for more of my conversation with John Stamos. right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with John Stamos. I want to ask you about that last dinner you had with Bob Sagitt, because for me, of all the amazing stories that are in here, I'm going to take away order the cake. I really am. Good.

Because, boy, is that good advice. Tell us what that means. Well, we're always in a hurry to go somewhere next. It was the last dinner. And you never think it was the last time I'm going to say. see my best friend. Oh, this was going to be the last picture we were able to. But he was, really, he was somehow,

he was everything that I wanted Bob to be at that moment. You know, he was calm and he listened and he didn't talk about himself that much. You know, and believe me, I was, you know, just a much pain in a s' he was in different ways. And I, and I'd realize that I'd grown too that night because usually he would take, you know, if he took a picture, it was like,

slower, a hood on here, holding him my neck fat is here, 20 minutes to take it a picture. I just laughed at him that night, I remember. And then he wrote, something really nice the next day. But you're always in a hurry. He had a, he had a joke and he didn't beep the Saturday. But he, and he, and he, I asked him to host my dad's funeral. And he said, hello, right. He said, today's specials are cake and we're out of cake.

My mom went, oh, Jesus. So when we go to the restaurant that night, we're with, we're with our wives. And we were both, they were talking about something. And we were like, how did two saps like us get lucky enough to have these two beautiful inside and out women? And we were just like, wow, We were just talking about that. And I was thinking, we've got to go. And then he said, well, let's order the cake because we were doing the cake and thing, Joe. And I was going to get, yeah, we'll have dessert and some coffee. You know, I realized, like, when you're with someone that you love, that you care about, slow down.

Take it easy. Isn't that order the cake, you know? In hindsight, isn't that extraordinary that that was your last dinner and that you had, something was telling you to order the cake? Yes. Yeah, it was one of those interesting moments. And then, you know, when we lost them, it's just been still very difficult. And before this book of you, it's said, do I have any regrets? I'd say, yeah, I got this.

And I don't now. But, you know, if you look back at your life and you go, well, should I, I wish I, I, I wish that didn't happen. I wish he didn't die. But all this stuff, divorce, this DUI, all these things got me ready for the next part of my life. And hopefully maybe people will see it go, okay, I'm going to avoid that chapter. you know, stay mostly. But he never left anything on the table. If he loved you, he told you, I love you, I care about you, I'm proud of you.

And that's a good lesson to it. That's what I took from that, too. Just say it. You don't know how long we're going to be here. Just say it. Put yourself out there. Tomorrow is never promised. Before we go play the drum.

It is for us. Oh, I don't know. You're pretty healthy. Quickly, I was in Jersey a couple nights ago. It was 1500 people. It was so wonderful to see these people. Isn't that cool? Yeah, because it's so.

There was no social media in the early days. You had to go to the mall to see who's watching here. But it was nice to see all these people. They'd grown up with me over 30th and 50 days. And the range in age, I think, because of Fuller House, people like, you've got to... Yeah, for sure. Because they started when I was on General Hospital for 40 years. And then their kids watched.

But Full House, that's what it is. Like, every four years is a new generation. Totally. You didn't let your kids watch it, right? Oh, yeah. No, no. You know what they started with Fuller House. Oh, really?

And then they go backwards from there. Yeah. There's a great story. you tell in the book where, okay, now we're post Full House. Right. You're on Broadway. You've done some great work, cabaret. You're in a show with James Earl Jones.

And you're like, okay, I'm getting respect. Yeah. I've maybe shed that. And then you walk out the stage door with him and what happens? Well, yeah. I mean, when Full House ended, I was like, what do I call Jack Clark? What do I go? It's a theater.

I've never done. I'm not a good singer. I don't want to dance. But then it goes to my head, it was like, practice. If I thought, if I did something, 12, 15 hours a day, I could learn it and be good at it. And I did. So I got on the Broadway, which is, you know, and then I'm doing James. That was the last show I did.

Hands down, one of the greatest actors of our generation. Have you met him you interviewed him? I never have. It's a regret. Powerhouse. Yeah. He walked into a restaurant. Oh, I remember a lot.

Yeah. And he called me Little John. I called Big Daddy. And he was, to watch him work. See, before I sobered up, and that, I wasn't that. Well, I was pretty much, but I would give 50, 60%, you know, because I thought, well, that's good. If I give 100% and I fail, that's bad.

I could always say, I didn't try. But I watched him. We'd finish, we do a curtain call thing, a little job, let's go work on that. And they wait for the audience, they have a curtain, we'd go sit on the set and work on one little moment, one little thing. So it was a three-act, Gorghury to all play.

It was very serious, very political. Do you know that best man? man, yeah, yeah. And it was the last day we finished the show, and I was walking across the stage with them, they're pulling stuff down. And I think people knew probably the last time we would really get to sleep.

What was right? Is it James, Big Daddy? I said, you gave me something that nobody's legitimacy. I've been trying to get away from this full house thing for so long. What? For so long. And you did it, and I just, I love you for that.

He really took me in his wing, too, and help me. So I'm so grateful. Thank you. And he said, we walk out. out. And I was saying, like, now people get to look at me. D. Stages are open. Uncle Jesse, Uncle Jesse. Say, have mercy. I'm like, I couldn't even look at it. He was like, right here. I could see him. I want to crawl under the legs and just run out, away from Broadway. And just then, I catch my peripheral. Some guy has his phone. I said,

Jake, could you say, Luke, I'm your father in my phone? And we looked at each other and we go, okay, that's it. I'm never going to come. Call me Uncle Jesse. Call me, Uncle, Uncle, I don't care. So, and then, so yeah, so that was part of it. You hold on to stuff so people. It's not so bad, you know, and you try to change. It's like, just like, just like. And it feels like in this book, you've come to terms with all that. Like, this is all the stuff. Maybe I went there begrudgingly, or I didn't love it in the moment, but it all got me where I am now. Yes. I guess that is something, right? How old is your dad? My dad is 78 years old. That's great. Yeah. And they're still together? Yeah. And they live close enough by that I get to see him all the time. Can we go there for lunch today? Yes. Do you mom cook? That would be something.

If we knocked on the door that John Stamos was standing there. They'd be like, who are you? Call the police. Oh, no. Oh, no. General Hospital. Of course. Of course.

We will. Come on. Not right now. It'll be great. This is gold. I'm going to end at the beginning, which is where you start on June 12, 2015. Why did you start the book with that? And why was that such a pivotal moment in your life?

Well, because it changed everything. It was a, I got. I got in my car, like a fool, and I was not sober, and I got to do you, I was driving around Beverly Hillsworth. And looking back at it, I was, oh my God, I could have killed somebody. That came rushing back. In fact, one of my dearest friends,

who I talked to text every morning, Jamie Lee Curtis, she said, go just the other day, she heard me on talking, get a picture of that, of you in handcuffs, that whole horrible thing, blow it up, put it on your office. And I did. My five stages of brief there were sex, drugs, more of everything the same.

And then I went to rehab and I got my stuff together. And I realized that like everything that I wanted in life was not happening. You know, yes, I got the girl, I got the TV show, each boy, but I wanted a family. And I, I, too vain to have killed myself, but I remember thinking if I die, I got it all.

I did everything. I did everything. I didn't. The most importantly, I had to be. I was confusing the universe because my parents didn't raise that guy. You stayed pretty clean the whole time, huh? Most part. Yeah.

Well, you're a nerd. I did, and I was so far away from what my parents raised. You see these notes from my mom. Yeah. But then I got to the end, which was about Bob, and then my five stages group there were therapy. and meditation and prayer and my family. And I did it.

Thank God I did it right there. And look at what came out the other side of going to rehab. You go right into Fuller House. Right. The grandfathered. I had another show. Yeah, that took about a year. And then I met Caitlin.

And it just all, you know, it all just came around. I was like, oh, okay. Now I know. But I got to stay the path. In some ways, that was another one of those punches through the window. You're right. Right. That's a great analogy.

Sometimes you need those. That's, thank you. So much fun. My pleasure. This is great. We've scratched the surface only. I know. We didn't get any controversial stuff.

Would you like to? Sure. You do write about something that's not easy to go public with for anyone, and that is sexual abuse when you were a child. Why did you think it was important to include that here? I've been advocating for the abuse children for almost 40 years. I've been a spokesperson for child health, and it's a big organization around the country. There's a 1-800 number, 1-800-40 child that helps 24 hours ago. I was writing a speech about five years ago to say to a charity, and I had stuffed it.

It was a babysitter, you know, a girl who was, and it was, and it just came out. So I started crying, and I was shaking. My wife, my girlfriend at the time, her fiance, what's matter? I said, I just had this thing. Do I talk about it? I said, no, but the kids tonight. They pack it away. And I even forgot about it.

I'm writing the book, and I'm doing the audio of this. And I went, wait a minute. Do I, it came back? And I said, I talk to my family and talk to everybody. And it's just a page, page and a half. But I've had so many people, friends, 10, 12 friends now. Because, oh, my God, that happened to me. And I haven't been all the time.

The numbers, the stats are one out of every 25 boys. I'm molested by their time they're 18. and seven out of every 25 girls. Those numbers have to be low. Certainly for guys, because nobody talks about it. Mine, I don't, there's different levels, I think. Holding it in, it feels very good to get it up because I know I've helped a couple people.

But I know other people holding it in. It manifests in terrible relationships, disease, you know. So for that, I'm proud of that I got it. Is this something that felt wrong in the moment or something you realized later? You said, wait a minute. That wasn't right.

It felt wrong because it felt okay. But I knew then, I really know now that a 10 or 12-year-old, whatever it was, shouldn't be feeling those feelings at that moment, even if it was sort of felt good. Some of it was, I remember. But then I would sort of play possum and, you know, yeah. And I didn't have anybody to talk to them. I couldn't tell.

The thing, too, is like, these predators are not always, they're not like you think, like some trench coat with glasses and going around the school or something. It's an extra neighbor, a babysitter, an uncle, someone of the church, someone to appear, you know. And then it just becomes so hard to talk about it, I think. So, I'm scary

for a kid. You don't know who to tell. It's embarrassing. Yeah. Well, they can call that number. So that's one of the good things that have come out. Yeah. Yeah. Good for you for shining a light on it, man. Thank you. Great to see you. Great to see you. Fun. A lot of fun. My big thanks again to John for a great conversation. His memoir, if you would have told me, is available

now in hardcover on tablets and audiobook. However, you like to digest your literature. And my thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of these conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.