Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S9 Ep 12: Josh Groban

Episode Date: April 22, 2020

This week we had our first guest zoom in from across the pond; American singer, songwriter, actor and record producer Josh Groban joins us on the podcast from sunny Los Angeles.Josh talks us through his musical journey, from starting in musical theatre, duetting with Celine Dion when he was only 16 to making a 4 year album with the master, Rick Rubin. Quarantine has awoken a new found passion for cooking; he makes a ‘mean’ beans on toast & has realised he enjoys singing in the shower, even with a puffer on. We talk about where to get the best sushi in LA, drinking mezcal & what he feeds his 15 yr old dog, Sweeney. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. My mother has gone mad. She says she's hearing music. There's no music, Mum. It might be Celestial. They're calling for you. Not, not, no. Not? Come in, come in. I'm crikey. We've been waiting for you. Anyway mum, how are you?

Going fucking mad by the sounds of it. Clearly bonkers darling. What's been going on? I have been working. I've had to field about three phone calls. Right. Your brother has frightened me to death so I'm definitely not moving from the house or even opening the front door. But I haven't done anything wrong, have I, Jess?

You honestly have been the most law-abiding citizen. I know. Everybody else is going to see their boyfriends and their grandchildren and I'm sitting here. Oh, I don't actually, to be fair, like, let's watch this space, but I don't feel too great today. I don't know if it's hay fever. Are people getting hay fever already? Yeah, I've had terrible hay fever it's tree pollen oh yeah it's really bad what have you had for dinner tonight I had just some butternut squash soup that I made for my best mate who had the baby and then because I felt slightly queasy I was like oh I

shouldn't really be delivering food to her so I had soup and I polished off my daughter's potato waffle that's what I did. It was not exciting. But I did get a lovely food delivery from Taylors of Maltby Street, a really wonderful green grocer. Where is Maltby Street, darling? It's in Bermondsey. They do that amazing food market.

Oh, wow. It's where Monty's started, Monty's Deli started on Maltby Street. It's an amazing food market. Great. Jessie, it's just gone eight. Are you excited about our guest tonight? I'm intrigued by him. Who's zooming in from LA. It's our first transatlantic guest. He doesn't have a mic, so it may be slightly different sound quality I have to

kind of add before this starts. So we apologise, but you you know we're just trying to make the most and get you the best people you raise me up when i could what's the next words is it so i can so i can stand on mountains so i can climb a mountain you raise i remember hearing that song at george best funeral and i sobbed were you at george best's funeral? No, I wasn't. I watched it on telly. He had like a Princess Diana funeral? Yeah, it was almost, it was a big funeral. But can I tell you something else? What?

This boy, this man, could have been my son-in-law. Can we, can we? I'm going to tell him, yeah. Yeah, good. He's very political. Is he? He also sung at Obama's inauguration.

Oh, wow. Yeah, I think I remember that. And so I want to know what that's like. Also, I love the story of how he became a singer. Did you know this story? Apparently he, what's his face? Andrea Bocelli. What's his name?

Is that his name? Bocelli. Bocelli was supposed to be singing with Celine Dion at the Grammys. And he couldn't do the rehearsal so David Foster who is like the OG producer did Celine Whitney produced me on this Disney song and I've never sounded so good and he's just the the best um he said go and stand in and Josh was like 19 oh wow and he has to go and sing with Celine Dion at a rehearsal he was in Ally McBeal mum do you remember he was Malcolm in Ally McBeal and he had to sing at the

prom because the girls stood him up and then he sings and nobody's listening and then he sings and everyone listens I don't remember all this oh here we go hi hello Hi. Hello. Josh Groban is Zooming in from New York. LA. I'm in Los Angeles. It is sunny and bright. It's infuriatingly sunny here in Los Angeles right now. But isn't it always like that?

Yeah, I grew up here and I got kind of sick of it, to be honest. Every day, just 72 degrees. Or what is it? Would that be in Celsius? I bet 22 degrees Celsius. Oh, you poor thing. Every day, every day. So I actually wound up moving to New York

about five or six years ago, just because I liked the energy. I have a tendency to kind of stay in if i'm not forced out so new york has a way of kind of pushing you out your front door and you turn left you turn right everything you could possibly want to eat every show you could possibly want to see it's all there so and seasons i do think it's important that people experience seasons together as like a as a as a city i think it builds character well listen Josh, it's such a pleasure to have you do this. Such a pleasure.

The pleasure is mine. Oh, please. But Josh, can I just tell you something? Yes, ma'am. You could have been my son-in-law. Could have, what could have been. Do you know the connection? No, tell me. This is not me.

It's not me, by the way. It's not Jessie. It's about my sister. Tell me, tell me. You know a girl called Hannah Ware. Oh my gosh, yes, of course. So that's Jessie's sister, my other daughter. Oh, I did not know that.

I did not know that. What a very, very small world. Did you meet on a plane? We meet on a plane. I think we might have. I remember Hannah saying that you were very funny. So I'm looking forward to hearing this wit. Well, I've prepared.

No pressure, Josh. I've prepared a few vegetable jokes for you tonight. I hope you enjoy it. Are you dating, Josh? I am, yes. Yes, I'm in a wonderful, wonderful two-and-a-half-year relationship. Oh, really? It's muscle tough.

Thank you. Mum's really upset about it now. Yeah. She's really happy for you. Yeah, we could have been in-laws, you know. Thank you. Well, it's very, very sweet. It's very, very kind.

You know, food is a good way to pass the time when you're with somebody, too. This has come at a really opportune time to talk about this because I've just this kind of during this quarantine picked up a real passion for cooking. And I think probably a lot of people have done the same thing. But yeah, it's been it's been a lot of fun. What have you been cooking? Well, let's see. I make I make I make, I make a mean, uh, beans on toast. I don't know if that qualifies as cooking. Uh, what I do is I cut out the hole in the toast and then I plop the egg in the hole and put all of that on the, on the griddle. And so it kind of, the egg kind of, kind of, I guess, cooks in the, in the bread. And then I'll

slice some fresh avocado and I'll put some baked beans on that and a little bit of chili flakes. What do you call that dish? I do think there is a name for it, but Groban's Brekkie Hodgepodge. I have no idea. What happens to the bit of bread in the middle? Does it get discarded? Is this a low-carb breakfast?

Is it a very L.A. thing? Or do you put it on the top like a McMuffin? I want to know. I should say that I use the circular middle of the bread to make croutons or something fancy for later. But I just eat it as soon as I cut it. I just eat a circular piece of regular, just bread when I do it. Who taught, I mean, I love,

this feels like slightly oak cuisine. Like I like the presentation. I feel like you're really making the effort. You're really trying to impress your loved one. Who showed you this recipe? She won't eat it. Just so we're clear. Of course she won't.

Just so we're clear, This is purely for me. She's eating oatmeal or whatever else. She's like, okay, I'll just microwave something. But no, this is, but my goal is to make as many things that she will enjoy. I made my first vegetable soup last night. Well done. That was really, really good. Thank you.

I don't know. I've been baking. I've been. Have you done a banana bread like the rest of the world oh man my mom just made a great banana bread and she's she um you know we're doing the you know put on latex gloves and drop things on each other's porch and then leaving and waving through the window thing which is just so heartbreaking but you know then then you get to you know eat the food and you feel connected through the food which is just so heartbreaking but you know then then you get to you know eat the food and you feel connected through the food which is really really nice and she makes a mean she makes a lot of great

things but the banana bread was was awesome it's a dessert her banana bread has a lot of chocolate in it so uh so i'm i'm usually eating her banana bread after dinner and not before starting my day otherwise i would feel but i guess it's healthier to eat it in the morning oh I mean it's one of those things that if it's there it just like gets sliced away little by little there's no wrong time you try to do the kind of the guilt-free smallest slice possible and then but when you just wind up eating yes exactly whoops where did my banana bread go so um how is life on the inside in lockdown in los angeles you know i mean in in the uk it's quite bleak at the moment i think we're just about well we're just about peaking aren't we no yeah mom would you say we're peaking no no i think another couple of

weeks they say there's less people going into hospital here but there's still it's very very high number of fatalities i think that just psychologically we're all trying to kind of make sense of how we're supposed to feel right now about it we're all doing our part i think most of us at least if we're being responsible we're staying in we're facetiming our families we're we're doing what we can where we can to kind of separate but still connect with people like your wonderful podcast. But also you're right. The news is a little confusing right now, as far as where we're at, have we hit the peak? Are we over the peak in America? You know, this is such a massive country and every governor, every mayor, I think is approaching this in a different way, which makes it also a little bit complicated. We also have somebody in charge who I, you know,

would probably get in trouble for saying this, but is not leading us in a way that is helpful, to say the least. And so I think we're all kind of left to kind of decide for ourselves how to have us to feel this, not to mention just, you know, how much sadness this has caused around the country. Just so many people, I've known people who have already been through this, have had really hard symptoms. Some have had very minor symptoms. Some have lost loved ones. And a couple of friends of mine that I've met and worked with throughout the years have actually passed away from this. So we all now have those degrees of separation from this. Los Angeles is spread out. So I think we all have

kind of a way of, you know, siloing here that doesn't feel so separate. You know, we, you know, are usually in our apartments or our cars and then our offices and then back. New York, I can see why it's harder there because one of the things I love about New York is the very thing that's making it hard as the epicenter of this virus is that you want to be shoulder to shoulder in New York. You want your souls to be bouncing off of each other. That's why people are drawn to New York is because of that physical, you know, connectivity to everybody. So it's hard, but we're, you know, we're staying put. Thankfully, everybody in my family is doing well. And just try not to go too crazy.

Having a dog helps too. Oh, you've got a dog. I have a 15 and a half year old soft coated Wheaton Terrier. He's actually today, he's getting his first treatment. He has a little benign brain tumor that they think they can shrink. So this has gotten ble bleak I'm so sorry I brought here you're like you know oh Josh come bring us your witticisms tell us about your failed Swiss chard uh dish uh and and here I'm just like well you know there is that brain tumor but I'm I'm now cooking for me for my girlfriend and and for my dog as well. What does he eat, your dog? He likes a really nice plain grilled chicken breast

with a little white rice and maybe a little chicken broth on top of that if he's been particularly good, which he has been. What's his name? Sweeney. Sweeney. Named after who? Yeah.

Not the demon barber? The demon puppy of Fleet Street. Oh, wow, it is. Yes, that's right. Yes. I was a musical theater student in high school and college. And so that's trickled into, I won't name my actual kids after musical theater characters, though.

Don't worry. Oh, my God. I want to know which parts you played in musical theater at school. Were you a theater kid growing up? Yeah. Yeah. god I want to know which parts you played in musical theater at school were you were you a theater kid growing up yeah yeah I mean it was like because I so when I'm not doing the podcast I'm actually a singer yeah and so I um but yeah so when I was singing at school it was all just musical theater but I loved um Gershwin and oh yeah um but yeah I'd always get a good part just because of my voice not because I was particularly brilliant in acting but it worked out well for me so my first ever singing in front of an audience was a Gershwin song so I was um I was in seventh grade life was hell because life is hell in seventh grade I was you know I

was shy I had a hard time making friends and um and I and also like I was a late bloomer vocally so I've got this kind of big baritone voice now but when I um when I was in you know seventh grade I was maybe 13 and my voice was just kind of hadn't started changing yet so I was still a boy soprano and I had a choir teacher and he said hey um you know you've got a nice you've got a nice uh vibrato why don't you sing a solo you can pick anything you want. And he said, actually, you know what, have you ever heard of scat singing? I said, well, yeah, my dad sings around the house. My dad was kind of a jazz trumpet player through college. And so he would sing and stuff around the house. He said, great, I'm going to give you a song called Swonderful, George Griffin's song called Swonderful. And I sang this for my class. And my parents had never

heard me sing before. So they were the back row and uh and that was my that was my i got a standing ovation and that changed my whole life that's why i got into the arts that's why i now have a foundation that's why i started you know signing up for the school plays it's because of that one music teacher that pulled me to the front and uh oh it was gershwin but then after that i auditioned for anything goes i I was, I was sailor, like number eight in Anything Goes. Oh, I did. I was Reno Sweeney.

Oh man, of course you were. Your, your voice was probably way more accomplished than mine was at that age. Yeah, but it was only because I was in the like top year

at school. And so you had to get the main parts then. So you were probably like, you know, you were probably too young to get the big part in your school.

I don't know. I was pretty, I was young. I was, I was young. I was, that's, thank you.

Yes. You've done okay since, Josh, it's okay. I don't know. I was pretty, I was young. I was, I was young. I was, that's, thank you. Yes. You've done okay since Josh, it's okay. I can't, I can't complain, but I always think back to that audition and the crushing disappointment, but, um, but it was fun because the great thing about doing theater when you're younger, and especially, I think if you don't get a lead role is that you learn about just what a community it is to just be part of a show. And so when you're not, when you're not singing, you're sitting on the sidelines and you're, you're hoping for a great show. You're rooting for your fellow cast. You're, you know, if you're in high school, you're also like working the lights and like pulling the curtains and you're put on, you know, painting duty when you're not, you know, singing your, uh, your parts. But yeah,

it was, uh, it was anything goes. And then it then it was fame the musical which was oh yeah i went to an arts high school uh which was great and we did fame the musical and then i worked my way up eventually to tevye in fiddler on the roof by senior year i was tevye oh mazel tov thank you thank you so i want to know like because i i know about the story about you going to the Grammy rehearsal and singing with Celine and David Foster, who is like the OG, bloody amazing. But did you know, please forgive me because I'm sure you've told this story a lot, but I just, I find it so interesting. So you went to the art school, you were obviously singing and then were you already doing your own solo stuff at that point? Or were you kind of like a bit of a reluctant kind of uh front man yeah you know I was still very it was still very reluctant for me

I mean I I knew I could sing but I was really lacking a lot of self-confidence back then and I was taking voice lessons so it wasn't like I was putting myself out there for those opportunities I was just taking lessons on the side. I was studying with a voice teacher who lived down the street from me. He happened to know David Foster. David Foster called him and said, hey, I'm in a clinch. Do you have any students that could come in and sing for free at this event that I'm doing? And he said, yeah, I've got three or four that might be right.

And so I was one of the three or four that sent in a tape thinking I would just do a fun thing I didn't know who David Foster was because I didn't read the credits on these albums like I would just listen to the bodyguard and you know Whitney and Celine and all this stuff and I just thought well those are incredible albums I didn't I wasn't wasn't as kind of in tune back then about the ins and outs of how that stuff was made so yeah and also it would have probably seemed really showbiz for a 19 year old guy to maybe like know that the producer writer you know I get it I didn't come from a showbiz family like like I said my dad was a jazz trumpet player but then his mom said to him oh no that's no way to make a living so he went into business and he's been in business ever since then my mom was an art teacher public arts art teacher

and then once she had kids she kind of decided she just wanted to kind of to do that. And now she helps run my foundation. But but, you know, but I didn't I didn't have show busy parents, but they were very artistic. So I was taking these lessons. David Foster calls. He's he he calls me out of nowhere. He says, hey, I heard you tape. I really like you.

Come sing at this event. It was for the governor of California. And then two weeks later, he said, hey, come to the Grammys. Andrea Bocelli can't make it. I love your voice. Why don't you come and sing with Celine until Andrea gets here? And no, 19. Shoot, I already had an album by 19.

This was 16. And so, yeah, I was really thrown into the lion's den. And, and so and look, if I was, my voice hadn't changed at 13 during that Gershwin concert. And so really, by 16, I'd only had like a good two and a half, three years of really understanding what singing felt like. So I have to be kind of a student and a professional at the same time. And they say fake it it till you make it. But inside I was absolutely dying. And on stage, I'm, you know, I'm standing there with Celine and having to kind of pretend like I know what I'm doing. And I would say that feeling kind of permeated through the first five years of my career.

And then I started to feel like, okay, all right, my experience now has matched the faking of confidence. And now I can put them together and I can actually be confident. That's a, that's a fun time to feel that way. But most of my successful first few years were,

were just pure anxiety, pure anxiety. Can I just, I've got to go and check a pan. I've turned the pan. My God. I don't know what she's cooking. So this is,

you know, this is really professional. I bet you're like, right, cool. One of the fucking interviews is fucked off now. But carry on. This is how I know to take a hint that I've become long-winded. No way! This is the, oh, you're going to check the pan?

Sure, yes. Can that be the new jump the shark? You know, if somebody talks too long, I guess it's time to check the pan. I don't know what she's fucking cooking, though. She knew that there was a podcast at this time. Nothing. Nothing.

She's not cooking anything. She's not cooking anything. She's said her hello. She's done her part. She'll edit herself back in later. She's going to go water the plants. That's what she's doing. I heard. Pardon, what have you done? Have you burnt something?

No, I hadn't left anything on. But I thought I could smell something. You're just in time to talk about acid reflux. Josh, do you come from a big family? I come from actually a really small family. You know, I have one younger brother. We have the same birthday four years apart. Oh, that's me. How annoying for him when you arrived on the scene

and then he had to share his birthday with you. Oh, my God. Well, no. He's the older one, darling. He arrived on my birthday. Oh, I'm sorry, Josh. So, you know, I was... He's the older one, darling. He arrived on my birthday. Oh, I'm sorry, Josh. So, you know, I was very shy in high school, but I was a really show-offy kid, like, at home.

So I went from show-offy to shy to show-offy again. So, but, like, you know, at home, I was, like, singing around the house and stuff. So, you know, for me, birthdays were really, really important. At four years old, I had a cowboy clown party, all ready to go. I was going to come to the house balloon animals the whole spiel and i get you know woken up by my dad saying oh we're you know we're going to the hospital you gotta you got a baby brother on the way um we're like best friends now but you know 10 and 14 so that that's a that's a

an age gap that's you don't have a lot in common. But yeah, but then it's just my mom and my dad, they were both only children. And I had two grandmas that lived into their 90s. Both of my grandfathers died when I was very, very young. And we've been a very kind of close-knit family. And so I don't have any kids yet. My brother doesn't have any kids yet. So it's just us. And what was food like when you were growing up?

Did your mom cook? Did your dad cook? She's a great cook, we've heard. My mom is a great cook. She has, you know, she has some recipes that are just kind of go-tos that, you know, for me, you know, they say like smell is like the most kind of emotional sense that we have for nostalgia and things like that. nostalgia and things like that. And, you know, during holidays or just, just special things that we've loved, there are certain dishes that she makes where just like walking down the stairs and smelling it, it doesn't matter if I'm 39 years old or two years, you know, two years old, it's the same feeling. And I'm also lucky that I, they still live in the house that I grew up in.

So like when I, when I come over for holidays and stuff and my mom is cooking that stuff, it's like, it just absolutely transports you. That's an incredible thing about family recipes and the tradition of passing those down. Now that I'm a beans on toast and vegetable soup aficionado, I'm basically Thomas Keller now, I'm going to ask my mom to really walk me through those recipes this year, whereas in the past, I've just been happy to just kind of dice carrots and help clean afterwards. I really want to learn those now,

really learn them from top to bottom because they're really special. What's her best dish? Her best dish is she does like a brunch eggs that we do every Christmas morning that's like a baked egg dish that's got like a brunch eggs that we do every Christmas morning. That's like a baked egg dish. That's got like a sweetness to it. It has like a sweet corn and it has some,

some cheese in it and it's really fluffy and it's cut into like cubes. So it's got the, you know, it's got the shape. Like a frittata. Yeah. But, but very, very thick. Exactly. Like thick, like a quiche, but with, with the density of a frittata, exactly. And then you put like salsa on top of it to kind of balance out the sweetness of the eggs and the corn. And it's awesome. It's really, really good.

And it's one of my favorite things. We go back for a third. What do you call it? Lindy's Christmas brunch eggs. I don't know. Okay. That sounds really nice so where do you like to go and eat out then like in la what are you really missing right now which

restaurants are you really really missing not being able to eat at uh well there's a um i first of all i love sushi so we've got some incredible sushi restaurants in um in los angeles there's a, first of all, I love sushi. So we've got some incredible sushi restaurants in Los Angeles. There's one called Matsuhisa. So Nobu, which is now very popular, his full name is Nobu Matsuhisa. And so his first restaurant was in Beverly Hills, and it's called Matsuhisa. And he still cooks there, and it's very small. Yeah, it's amazing. It's tiny.

And you just sit at the bar. It's one of those sit at the bar and just feed me kind of places. There's also, and this is really, really sad. There is a place like a health, it's healthy though, but it's a diner in LA that I've been going to since I was in junior high school called Swingers. And it is a landmark in Los Angeles. I get their veggie burger, and they got great sweet potato fries. There are very few restaurants that I think of in my life where I can think back to 100 meetings, friend hangouts, dates, solo time on a laptop just writing. That was my place, and it was a casualty of the

coronavirus. It's now shut, shuttered for, for good. It's now, it's now closed permanently. And the food industry, it's, it's a reminder just of what the food industry is going through right now. We always kind of assumed when this all started, well, this will be really hard. And then they'll say, you can go back and then it will like spring it will the flowers will bloom and the the restaurants will reopen and it's of course sadly not that simple and so even a place that's been that famous we have a another diner i i love i do love diners i love a sort of thing i love about new york we have another diner called nate nows that's been there for 60 70 years and they've got you know they're just the perfect kind of,

the crotchety waiters and waitresses just go, what do you want? What can I get you? That kind of thing. And it's just so awesome. And you see every walk of life there. And that's now closed for good. So we're getting,

yes, there are restaurants that I miss, but there are also restaurants now that I'm gonna miss forever because they're not coming back. And so it's important. You mentioned stuff that I miss, but there are also restaurants now that I'm going to miss forever because they're not coming back. And so, you know, it's important. You mentioned stuff that I was cooking. I've been really trying to order produce and things like that from markets and farms and stuff that need the help right now. I think it's a really fun thing to do to find what the delivery services are that are supporting those places.

It's a really fun thing to do to find what the service, the delivery services are that are supporting those places. And so, you know, I've just been trying to get like vegetable boxes from places that are growing and things like that. Just seeing what I can do with those. How is work looking for you at the moment? You know, did you have plans? I mean, you tour a lot. Have things had to be changed? Are you what are you doing?

How are you spending your days? Are you working? Are you just trying to take this time as, you know, time out? Yeah, it's actually, it's kind of, it's been hard in some ways and it's actually forced some good habits in other ways, which I think there's a silver lining for anybody out there that sometimes some, you know, it's been very, very hard, but it's given me some time to reflect, to meditate on things, to balance, to just kind of write without any expectation, to listen to music,

which is something that, you know, as a musician, sometimes you're just moving so fast. You don't like take the time to just say, I'm going to unplug my phone and just get into an album and just listen for a whole hour without stopping. We're in a very fast paced world in the music business, as you know, is just, you're constantly bouncing around and wishing you could be five places at once. And so I guess if there was one small server lining, it's that I'm really starting to just take this time to be a real fan again, and just like, like really listen to a lot of things that I love. As far as work goes, I was one of the luckier ones. I was actually at the tail end of a tour. So I only had to cancel four shows as opposed to 50. And I had and have, hopefully in the future, a residency at Radio City Music Hall in New York that we were doing

every month or every two months. And we've moved those to the fall but we'll we'll see um so in the meantime i've set up like a little mini recording studio in my house i have just a laptop and a midi cable and a keyboard and i'm just kind of trying to trying to write as many as many things as i can don't you sing in your shower as well oh yes i've just started doing the silly thing where i'm yes i want to know about this and i want to know why you're wearing a fucking massive north face like puffer jacket it's you're saying it's so in LA, but you look like you're freezing cold in your shower. Yeah. I've gotten a lot of shit for that. And it's because, so my dog, I mentioned my Wheaton Terrier, he gets hot very easily. So, and especially now that he's on, he's on a

prednisone for the swelling from the treatment that he's getting. And that apparently causes hot flashes in dogs. And so he was panting up a storm. He was really, really having a hard time. And so the doctor said, look, just try if you don't, if you can bear it, try and like get your temperature in your house to a place you can handle, but will be cool for him so he'll calm down. So that particular day, I had the temperature really, really down in my house so that he wouldn't get overheated. And then on top of that, it was really actually a very cold and gloomy, rainy day, one of our very few in Los Angeles. So next thing you know, I'm wearing a puffy North Face jacket in my shower, singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

And why not? But that's been fun the reverb is great the reverb is really really good in there and you know i'll just i'll do like one a week we'll see i love that you appreciate reverb because i i live for reverb like i live for it i'm obsessed i would have my whole voice washed by like all my pop producer friends are like let's make it really dry and i'm like no i want to sound like fucking Enya sailing away you want to be in an Irish cavern yeah man absolutely you've made me think that maybe if I have to do a live performance for this bloody album I may have to go in the shower room it's quite a good idea I've actually well especially now that you know I'm not very

tech savvy so you know I've just been recording things into my iPhone mic. And so oftentimes that can be a little unforgiving. And so actually bringing it into the shower has given me a nice natural Enya-esque verbiage. And no, it's true. And different producers like to record different ways. I did an album with Rick Rubin. Rick Rubin likes to do things, likes to do things very dry. Like he's all about authentic, how it sounds in the room. There's very little bells and whistles

he puts on things. But, you know, but at the same time, you're still singing through a microphone. So you're still at the mercy of what that mic, how that mic is taking in your voice. So that's not exactly 100% natural either. And, and so, you know, I had my many of my much of my back and forth with Rick Rubin was please just give me just a little please just give me a little reverb. Please just please Rick, I know. I know you just did Johnny Cash. I know the whole thing. But please just give me a little bit of reverb. Oh, my sorry, my husband's being really noisy. And this is the thing when you're trying to run a professional outfit, and then your husband's like chatting to his mate about zelda or something zelda i don't know oh do you

like zelda oh boy does he have a nintendo switch yes he does do you want to play him later okay oh wow josh i was thinking you're so cool and now i realize you're a fucking geek his eyes lit up more for the fucking nintendo switch than bloody rick rubin i could tell you that or gershwin listen rick rick played sudoku uh almost entirely through the recording session so um so he likes the games too is your husband uh is he playing animal crossing as well as he into the animal crossing oh what is that and should i tell him about this because he's nearly finished Zelda. He's got another boss to complete.

I don't know. Animal Crossing. Let him have this. You know, we need to escape any way we can. Look, he certainly needs to escape from me and our two children. So, yeah, absolutely. Got it. Got it.

Understood. But I want to know, Rick Rubin, did you record in Shangri-La? We did. Yeah, we did. We did a lot of recording in Shangri-La, which is, I believe, got burned down from the fires, the Malibu fires. Oh, no. That was just an incredible studio. Yeah, that just swept through that whole area. And the experience with Rick was such a beautiful one. He, you know, the lack of bells and whistles teaches you a lot.

I mean, it's not so different from, you know, having all this time by myself here to reflect and to have hindsight and to really listen and to really prepare before you decide to sing something. That's kind of the way Rick approaches things. You know, you're not just making noise just to make noise. You're, like, trying out a verse. And're not just making noise just to make noise. You're trying out a verse, and then he'll give you poems to read. And he'll say, that reminds me of this Rumi poem that I heard. Why don't you sit on that for a minute, and then come back next month? And even though it takes a really long time, there's a method to his madness, where he's really just, I think, training you to take that to take that, you know, much more space. He's into

transcendental meditation. I've now been doing a lot of transcendental meditation. Finding like peace with that stillness is something, especially when you're signed into the business very young and you're, it's like ingrained in you at a very young age that if you stop moving, you're dead. So, you know, working with Rick is really, is really wonderful because he really teaches the artists that he works with about that power of stillness, about just like sit, listen, read. You don't need to change this today. Change it when it's ready. And so it took four years.

It was four years to process the work with him and to finally get all those songs where they needed to be. That's a long time. That's a longer time than I generally like to take. But it taught me a tremendous amount it made me a better writer um it made me a better artist and um and I love the guy to death he's just such a cool friend and such a such an amazing soul we ask everybody what their last supper would be or desert island supper so you've got a starter main dessert and a drink of choice oh yes okay so for my starter uh let's see i would do a a a small appetizer portion of the brunch eggs, my mom's brunch eggs as the starter,

because, uh, cause that's, it's gotta be, it's gonna be my last meal. A little heavy is the main course, but, uh,

but as a, as a nice little, as an amuse bouche, uh, bite, um, I would start with that as my main course I would do, uh,

Oh, this is, so when I go to sushi restaurants, sometimes they have this on the menu and sometimes they don't. Something called a chirashi. Are you familiar with the chirashi? No, tell us. So chirashi is basically like all the sushi fish in a bowl over rice. And so it's kind of like, it's a rice bowl with all the sushi fish on top, as opposed to separate pieces. So you can kind of

control like what you eat with what, and you're just kind of mixing it around and there's like an art form to uh chirashi and um and so i would have like an incredible bowl uh chirashi bowl for my main course uh i would uh name it the chirashi joshi um it would be a toss-up between the chirashi and um and uh like a so when my when i was going to summer camp as a kid i'd go to the east coast and my dad and i would drive through maine oh yeah and you could get like a 20 lobster in maine you can it's incredible they have lobster at the mcdonald's in maine that's how common lobster is in the state of maine yeah you can get a lobster fish filet would be a lobster filet. Oh my God, that sounds amazing. Jesse, when this is over, we're going to Maine. Go to Maine. Let's

all go to Maine. So I'm actually going to change my answer because the chirashi is something that I can get a lot in Los Angeles. I'm going to get my, if I can get my final meal, I would say a Maine lobster boil with corn on the cob and potatoes and like some, maybe some steamed mussels or clams and a, and a nice, like simply steamed Maine lobster for 20 bucks with like a plastic bib and just shells all over yourself. I've had, I haven't had that in Maine.

I had it in Seattle. Yeah. Probably not such high standard, but like, you know, you go and they pour it out on the bucket and like, love it. Yeah.

It is really fun. And you're working with your hands and you're like hitting things with a hammer and like, it's in the bucket. Yeah, great seafood in Seattle. Love it. Yeah, it is really fun. So great. And you're working with your hands, and you're hitting things with a hammer. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. They say, you know, rage, rage into the burning of the light,

or whatever. Do not go calmly into this night. Hammer, hammer your lobster shells until... What is that? Who said that? What is that old poem? Jesse will find it. Rage, rage. I'm sure that your listeners will

correct me. Do not go gently into that. Good night. Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas. Thank you. Good Welshman. Yes. So what's for pudding? What's for dessert? Do they call it pudding or dessert there jess well i think it is we do oh is is pudding dessert across the board we call it like pudding is dessert for us but you pudding for you is a different thing pudding a bit of

puddle a little bit of pud yeah well i i my pud is an actual pud uh i like a bread pudding. I like a, I love a good kind of like a thick bread pudding, like a brioche bread pudding maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With like a whiskey glaze or a whiskey creme glaze on it and a scoop of coffee ice cream oh we love coffee ice cream josh we need to send you our cookbook mate we've got a cappuccino ice cream in there and a panettone bread and butter bread and butter pudding i'm sending it to you it's done you're sorted and i'm gonna send you a frozen maine lobster in the mail oh good and what's your drink of choice? My drink of choice. Do you drink? I don't think you drink, Josh.

Do you drink? Listen, I drink. Well, you mentioned vocals. You mentioned having to sing. I love wine. I love wine. I love going. One of the great things about being in L.A.

Opera singers can sing that. Yeah. With that. And, you know, I'll drive to Napa. I'll drive to, you know, Northern California and just kind of go winery hopping and just taste a bunch of things. I've recently gotten into mezcal, which I didn't normally like. I generally kind of kept to...

How's that for the vocal cords, Josh? It's an off-tour drink. I'm not going to lie. it's it's an off tour drink i'm gonna not gonna lie it's a it's a you finished your your final concert and uh and now it's time for a little smoky bev and uh i i was i was always kind of a um a brown liquor drinker i would drink like whiskey and i liked rum and i liked you know those kind of you know after dinner cognac or something like that with a nice cigar or something. And lately, because I'm not a tequila guy, I actually don't drink tequila. But I like mezcal just on its own.

I like a really good mezcal on the rocks with a slice of orange. Which mezcal? There's one called Madre, which is my favorite. Yeah, it's a really, really good one. That would be a good entry point because it's just a really high quality. And they have really cool bottles. Have you had your lunch yet? I haven't. I haven't had my lunch yet. What are you having for lunch? boxes and things like that. And so I have, I'm just kind of now at the end of my produce box. I used up all of the, what do we have? We have potatoes, we had garlic, we had Swiss chard,

which I'd never really cooked with Swiss chard. It's really good. And it's kind of a versatile leaf. You can kind of put it in a lot of different things. And so I put it in an omelet. I put it in my soup last night. I'm going to be doing a Swiss chard kale salad today with Persian cucumbers, diced beefsteak tomato, avocado, and sliced hard-boiled egg will be my lunch. Oh, yes. Are you on a diet? No, I'm not on a diet. It's not very carpy. There's no carbs, but I've been eating so much bread. I've been eating so much bread. I've been making, I've been doing pasta. I've been doing, you know, a couple of frozen pizzas

have made their way out of my refrigerator. So I'm trying to, trying to make use of the greens in this produce box. I want to know, do you think you've got good table manners? I think, I think I do. I've had to sit at enough fancy dinners, but I will say though, that like when you go to really fancy, like hoity-toity events, they're generally really terrible table manners from the people that you would assume would have great table manners. Come on, who's got terrible table manners? Come on.

Is it Trump? Have you been at a dinner with Trump and has he got shit table manners? Thankfully not. No. Has Obama got good table manners? Of course he has. He's perfect. I'm sure he has impeccable table manners. Thankfully not. No. Has Obama got good table manners? Of course he has. He's perfect. I'm sure he has impeccable table manners. But no, there's this I mean, you know, sometimes you go to you go to things and, you know, wealthy people sometimes behave very badly. You know, they're

just it's a food fight sometimes. Josh, are you are you political? Are you getting involved in the election? I think it's at some point i will inevitably find myself in it i think right now i've been i've been i've been very vocal about saying we need to be away from trump uh but i i think that because the race for the democratic side of things was so enormous there were so many many people in it. I've kind of waited to see what transpired, what the kind of the voices were going to be that stuck out. And so it's because it's been really confusing. It's been hard to decipher it all.

So yeah, at some point I'll probably campaign. But I also think that we're in a place right now where unfortunately it's so divided that you're just kind of preaching to your own choir a little bit you're not as as an artist it's it's it's it's you don't feel like you're winning over somebody from the other side just because you sing a song at an event or or something else it's people are pretty set in their ways right now in a way that i think has been the most stubborn in

in our recent history and so all we can do right now is basically say that if you believe in a certain thing, go vote for that. Like I think the biggest thing that my generation and younger can do to make actual change, we don't necessarily need to sing the song that changes the world. We don't need to necessarily go and tweet about things or Instagram about things. We accept to say that we need to get off our butts and vote.

That's the thing that's going to kill us is if we're complacent because we're discouraged or we think, well, somebody else is going to do it. Or we become too cynical by kind of the insane circus of it all that we just don't actually go and do it. And it's not easy here. I don't know how it is there, but the lines are four hours long and it's always on a work day. But we got to vote. Everybody's got to get out and they've got to vote. They have to really take a hard look at what's going on and what they really want and go do that. On a less serious note, do you have a karaoke song that you sing? Karaoke, similarly to the shower, is a place where the reverb is just beyond anything you could possibly have in your wildest dreams. And therefore your confidence for your own vocal range expands past anything you should possibly be singing. So much like the shower, I'll go into karaoke and I'll sing stuff that I have no

right to be singing as a lyric baritone. So I'll do a lot of Steve Perry. I'll do some Journey. I'll do some Don't Stop Believing. I'll do Freddie Mercury. I'll do some Queen songs. I do a great Eddie Vedder.. I'll do some Queen songs. Oh, wow. I do a great Eddie Vedder. So I'll do some Pearl Jam. Oh, wow. You really like karaoke then, huh? Well, I say these are all the things I did the last time I did karaoke, which was about five and a half years ago.

So it was just so much fun. And it was in Japan that I remember it like it was yesterday. So generally, I don't karaoke much. I sing so much in my day to day life. I don't like I don't get the enjoyment from karaoke the way other people does. Jesse, sadly, it's not fun. It's a little unfair. And so I don't know, it just it's I like doing things that are that I'm really bad at at at the end of a day of doing something that I'm okay at, like cooking. But Josh, it's been such a pleasure to chat to you. You're brilliant.

And thank you so much. And just I hope you're all right. The pleasure's been all mine. Thank you so much for having me on. And thank you for being such a nice kind of beacon of light for people during this hard time. Thank you for continuing the podcast. We're all big fans here stateside and I'll keep you updated on my culinary adventures. By the way, Helena, how's that pot doing? The pot was never on. It's okay. I turned it on.

Suddenly she got more engaged in the conversation and the pot didn't need checking on. I don't know what's going on here. I love Josh Groban. I thought he was brilliant. I feel like maybe we were supposed to speak a bit more about music, but he was just so charming and funny and brilliant. He was very nice. Yeah.

I want to go to a show. And he loves his mother, Jessie. Mum, I love you. A boy that adores his mother. I adore you. Jessie, did you hear him talk? I think he's done quite well. He talked about his foundation.

Yeah. Mum, do you think we could have a table manners foundation yet? would what would our foundation be the wear foundation i don't know we could we could do cooking school no i'm not doing that fucking cooking school i'll do drinking school i'm gonna go home mum i'm i am home i'm fucking home all the time what am I talking about fucking hell get me out of here Boris right thank you so much for listening we hope you enjoyed that Josh what a what a mensch I'd say he's a mensch yeah Jessie let's send him our cookbook I think our cookbook have you seen all the things on Instagram about our cookbook the recipes are going down a tree. Yeah, I mean, people are cooking. Thank you so much for cooking. Thank you for buying the cookbook. I'm so glad that things are working out and they're sending us positive feedback. So I'm going to give this person a

shout out. I don't know what their name is. Hold on. Jonathan Sewell. Love you. All your songs are nostalgic through my 20s and now into my 30s wow you're making me feel really old um also i love lenny my boyfriend of 11 years and i are going all out tomorrow with the following menu from your book for sunday feast we are going all out and making starter hot artichoke and spinach dip butter bean hummus cold cut meats and pitta chips for the main roasted borsan chicken with leeks and potatoes for dessert homemade cappuccino ice cream homemade triple brownies um and champagne kisses is there oh that's very sweet they want it at their wedding and funeral and also i messaged lemmy a while ago for the chicken

soup recipe and she ghosted me so that's what oh i'm so sorry and then they said the meal turned out amazing in the cookbooks ace that's so sweet thanks Jonathan for making a whole whole like restaurant meal Jessie

I reply to everyone because I get so excited mum it's hard when you're a star you can't reply to everybody you just have to you know I can't

you can't yeah it's hard it's hard when you have so many fans. Thank you for listening. The music you've heard on Table Manners is by Peter Duffy and Pete Fraser. Table Manners is produced by Alice Williams.