The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Weird Al Yankovic

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Weird Al Yankovic joins Andy Richter to discuss his Bigger & Weirder 2026 live tour, growing up in Southern California, getting the name “Weird Al” bestowed on him in college, accordion lessons, why he never wanted to do a “serious” album, and much more. Do you want to talk to Andy and his comedian friends live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Tell us your favorite dinner party story (about anything!) or ask a question - leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, welcome back to the three questions. I'm your host, Andy Richter, and today I'm talking to Weird Al. He sold more than 12 million albums and performed more than 2,000 live shows around the world. He's on the 90-city bigger and weirder tour across North America. Dates and locations can be found at Weird Al.com. Here's my conversation with one of my favorite people, Weird Al. Ooh, I like it. My radio, you know, in college, I was, I had a,

I was on campus radio station, but I was also on the local commercial radio station. Uh-huh. And it was the midnight shift. Uh-huh. And that was Al Matthews. Wow. Because Matthews is my middle name. So, you know, I couldn't be weird Al.

Sure, sure. I'm just like AOR station. Right, right, right. You should have thrown, I always feel like the DJ, like, at least the DJs of my, the FM DJs of my youth, a lot of them had Saint. And, like, like, Al St. Matthews. Ooh. You know, something like that would have been a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Al St. Matthews, I like it. I like doing the graveyard shape because you could back in the day, you could like put on a whole side of an out. Here's an in a guy to Tevita. I'm going to go home and take a shower. I'll be right back. Yes. Here's the almond brothers so I can go to the bathroom.

Well, hello. Thanks so much for being here. It's great to be here, man. It's great to see you. You too. Last time I was here, I was where I wasn't actually ever here before. I did Conan show, but that was during the pandemic. So that was a very Zoomy interview.

Yes, yes, exactly. Yeah. And did you, yeah, I don't think I was part of that. Was it early? You were in our minds, though. You're in our hearts and in our minds. Always, always, yes. You're here because you're, because I love you, Andy.

Well, that, but also you're hitting the road again. Oh, that's well. I want to get this out of the way right away because I've seen you live a couple of times. And it is such a hilarious, fantastic show. And I just want to make sure that we get that out of the way up front and tell people that because you're 90 cities. I think you're saying 90 years old. No, no, no, no.

You're not not yet. No, but 90 cities. And you are, and you are not a young, young man. I mean, you're very spry for your age. Thank you. But, you know, you are, you know, I mean, we're, what are we? You're a little older than me. Is this the farewell to her?

What are you saying? No, no, I'm not saying that at all. But I'm just saying like 90 cities is a lot. And I'm saying this too because I just got. Back from tour, I was on tour with Dancing with the Stars, like is the celebrity, thank you, thank you, celebrity host. So I know like tour life is, it can be kind of grueling, but are you just so used to it? It's a whole different headspace. It's so different from like normal reality at home with the wife, you know.

Exactly. Yeah, yeah. But like we finished last year's tour, we did 75 cities last year. We're flacking 75. Right, right. But at the end of it, we sat on and we thought, well, people are completely, are completely sick of us. yeah, let's just keep touring until they are. We're just going to beat that dead horse.

So, I mean, you sold the 75 cities sold well enough that you're like, yeah, let's go for 90. We sold out, I mean, it's crazy to say, but we saw it Madison Square Garden. We sold out the forum in L.A. We sold out pretty much everywhere. It's crazy because I haven't put out an actual album for like 12 years. Yeah, and why is that? I mean, we were talking about that here in the office, like, that you just do singles now. Yeah.

And why? Is that, is it just because the album is dead? It's, well, it's not dead. I mean, if you're Taylor Swift, you'll be fine. I killed the album. I killed the album, Al. No, a number of reasons. I mean, I was under contract, under a record contract for 14 albums, which took me from 1982 to 2014. It took a while. Yes. Yes. And then I just decided I didn't want to be under contract anymore. And also, you know, the album model is fine for some people, but for me, especially, you know, not all my stuff is super topical or timely, but I, but I didn't like having to wait around until I had 12 songs and then release them out once.

That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, because so much of what you do is in reaction to what's playing on the radio now. Yeah. That it's like in two years, people might be like, oh, yeah, I remember that. I remember that Nelly song or whomever. I mean, I don't even, that's Nelly. I don't even think has hits anymore. I'm so old, too.

But the, and I want to ask this because do you? thrive on tour? Like, do you enjoy? Because I will tell you that from coming back, because I did the tour, this dancing tour for like about a month and then a month. Yeah. You know, like a month and then three weeks or so. And I did find the first time I came back home, I was like, oh my God, right? When you're on tour, you don't have to worry about things. No, right. Exactly. I took my wife with me on the road when we did our European leg of a tour a few years ago. And she was. And she was. And, you know, loved it because we had a tour manager that made every decision for us. Like, okay, here's your plane tickets.

Here's your food. Here's your thing. And she was like the baby duck like everybody else. She was like walking around. Like this is great. I don't have to think about anything. Right. And all you got to do is you do the show and, you know, you go to wherever you're going to be next or go to the hotel.

Wake up. And then all you have to do is like do the show later that day, you know. And you've done it before. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. It's very groundhog day.

Yes. But still, it's, I love being on the road. Yeah. Do you, is it pretty much the same set list or do you try to change it up just for your own sanity? It depends on the tour. We've done a few of Vandageers, the unfortunate return to the ridiculously self-indulgent, ill-advised vanity tour. We did that a few times. And that is literally a different show every single night because it's like deep cuts from a catalog.

Sure, sure. The current tour is the high production tour. So it's with the props and the costumes. I love that stuff. I think you saw that like Planet Hollywood or wherever you came. Yeah, in Vegas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's that show.

So because that is the show, we can't be as Lucy Goosey on stage. You know, like, this song needs to lead it into this song because we have 14 seconds for the costume change. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And they're all video elements and props and things. Yeah, yeah. So is it, how long do you think you're going to keep on tour? I mean, you, I mean, A, you look incredible for your age. I won't even say your age.

Well, thank you. But I mean, do you feel like you can, like after 75, did you feel like, oh, should I feel it? You know, after last years? Not so much. Really? You know, it was actually one of the few times where I finished a big tour and I was like, oh, I could do more of these. Oh, wow. It wasn't like, oh, I'm so glad to be.

I was glad to be home. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. But at the same time, it's sort of like, no, I love doing this. Let's do some more. Yeah, yeah. Do you, are you somebody that has a hard time filling up a day when you, don't have anything to do. Oh, no. I'm a great slacker. I can do nothing easily all day. Yeah, I don't have like, was a type A personality. I'm just not a kind of person that's like,

what I'm going to do now? What I'm going to do now? What is, what do you do when you do nothing? It's so pathetic. It's, it's just, I can't wait. No, it's just normal. It's like hanging out with my wife, we'll go for walks. I've spent way too much time online. It's been way too much time watching TV or playing video games or whatever, just ridiculous way to waste my time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I actually, and I think it was from being on tour, I've developed tendonitis in my wrist. My wrist had started really hurting. And I was like, oh, man, my wrist really hurts and it's really, so I'm like wearing a brace on it stuff. I figured out it's from the phone. The phone? It's, it's Instagram reels wrist. I feel like, yeah, from because, you know,

it's like, that just sucks you in, doesn't it? Doing this. You know, And I, and especially from being on the tour and having days free and I being like, oh shit, two and three hours just went by looking at videos of Japanese joinery. You know, like just the way you're like an entire house built without nails. I love it. I could watch it forever or, you know, dogs. Like an hour and a half of just dogs. And I found myself just like just not even scrolling, just watching the same video four or five times in a row like, oh, I should watch something. else now. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know, I mean, it's not doom scrolling for me. It's all like

just corny interests of mine. It's distraction scrolling. Yeah, yeah, it is. It's time, yeah. It is. But I, it is the most embarrassing, like sort of injury ailment I've ever had in my life. Did you actually have that, went to a doctor? No, no, because I know what it's, what it is. You self-diagnosed. You're self-diagnosed. And now that I'm like, I've changed my scrolling, you know, set up. up. I like, I can't use this. I have, you know. You got to mix the fingers up. You know, I know. I know.

I'm going to start, you know, using my nose. There you go. Well, um, you, I, I, you're, you're, you're, you're, the movie. No, no, no, no. What are you trying to say? I'm trying to say, uh, you, you, you, famously, you have a movie about your life. Um, I don't feel it's that accurate. I feel like you said that. People have said that.

I feel like the depiction of your youth is probably not exactly. Maybe not. I don't think your dad was punching people like Toby H. You know, it started in a 1980-19-19-rated UHF, like, and I had my name above the title. Yeah. And I thought, if I ever make another movie, my name's got to be in the title or else, why bother? Why bother? Exactly.

Wow, you do have an ego. Yeah, the movie is not entirely, it starts out, I mean, there are little bits of bobs of truth sprinkled throughout. I mean, I did in fact start taking accordion lessons because a guy was coming door to door selling music lessons. Yeah. And accordion. So that is, that much is true. And I will clarify that my dad did not beat the crap out of it. Right, right. Well, and I've heard, too, that that was, that you were sort of, because your parents were very strict, very religious, that you were, you didn't leave the house much. Yeah, they're just very protective. You know, I was an only child. And actually, I still.

I'm an only child. Right. And they just, like, my grandmother lived half a block away. Yeah. And if I were to ever visit her, and this is, you know, I was fairly, not a small child, but like I would, I would, my grandmother was a stand outside on the sidewalk and my mother was down outside of the sidewalk. And they'd both watch me as I walked from point A to point B.

Is it, you grew up in Linwood, California, which is like one of those towns that people don't even know is there. Right. You know, they drive through and it's. just, it's like to say, like I, because I looked, I was like, where's Linwood? And I looked, I'm like, oh, it's right next to Cudahee, which is another one that I drive by. And I'm like, yeah, because my in-laws live in Long Beach. And we drive down there. And we'll be LBC. Yeah, we drive, we drive through Cudahee. And I'm like, who ever heard of Cudahee? And no one ever says,

I'm from Cudahee. Not many. It's like, it's like Linwood, Compton, Downey, Southgate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That kind of area. Actually, um, Shig Knight went to my high school. Oh, really? Yeah, not at the same time. No, no, no, yeah, yeah. Well, was it a rough neighborhood? I mean, it was, I mean, it was transitional. I think one of the buildings of the high school burned down the year after I graduated. Oh, wow.

So, I mean, it's, I think it was going through some, some changes at the time. And these are this, this is like mid seven, early mid-70s too. Yeah, I graduated in 76. Okay, yeah. So I guess they, there was cause. They weren't just, your parents weren't just like, you know, modern day Amish. No. You know, being, you know, like scared of.

It wasn't a war zone. It was fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. But did you, did that affect the way you parent? Like, did you, or did you parent in reaction to that? I think everybody does. I mean, I just didn't, as much as my impulse was to be very, you know, you know, restrictive.

Yeah. Yeah. I just said, well, what would my parents do? And what should the opposite of that be? Yeah, yeah. And I didn't do the opposite. Of course, we're still, you know, kept good tabs on her, but I just gave her a little bit more rope.

Yeah, yeah. At the time, did you bridle or, you know, like push against the sort of restrictions that your parents put on you? Oh, yeah. I mean, not in any, like, major way. But I always, you know, I guess I was always a little bitter about it when I was a teenager because, like, they wouldn't let me do hardly anything. I think my grad night, everybody at the high school, everybody else went to Disneyland. and I just spent the night with my friend Mike because I was never allowed to stay

to somebody else's house overnight. For me, that was more exciting than going to Disneyland. Wow. Wow. Yeah, yeah. I remember, and I told this before, but when I went to college, we had two cars, and I drove the Plymouth Belvedere

all the way to San Luis Obispo, four-hour drive, and my parents drove behind me because they wanted to make sure I got there okay, I guess. And by the time we hit the 101 freeway, I gunned it and lost them. Were they pissed when they got there? They were fine.

They were happy I was okay. But there's a metaphor from my childhood. Sure, sure, sure, absolutely. Can't you tell my loves to call? Did you, I mean, and when you got to college, were you, did you, and San Luis Obispo too is a beautiful place to go to school. Yeah. Did you kind of like, you know, sprawing owing like come undone because you weren't under their thumb anymore or? I didn't go nuts.

But it was, again, a big transition. That's where I first started calling myself Al, because I was Alfred all the way up through high school. And I figured I can't, like, I can't change myself now. Yeah. But when I go to San Luis Obispo, nobody knows me. So I can just be, I thought Al was a cool name, you know, because Alfred to me sounded like poindexter. It sounded like, you know. So you didn't go nuts, obviously.

No, no, not really. I mean, I was, I guess people thought I was weird because freshman years where I first got coined with Weird Al. Yeah. And did that bother you at the time? Not so much. I mean, I just thought, oh, yeah, well, that fits. I'm not going to deny that. Like, where do you get this idea from?

Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, did you dress different? I mean, what was so weird that they would tag you with that? I don't know my inner essence. I don't know what it is. Like, they'd see me walking down in the halls and go, oh, they're going, it was freaking a weird out, you know? Oh, wow.

But, I mean, were you, you were already doing songs? You were already doing music, right? Well, I mean, I was contributing to the Dr. De Mano show. I would send him tapes in the mail. So it's not like I was like, people would think, oh, there's that musician, weird Alliancovig. It was just like, you know. Right, right. Because that started when you were in high school.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, first few songs, yeah, was what I was still in high school. And I kept sending him stuff in college. In fact, my first real single, My Bologna was recorded in the bathroom, you know, my senior year in college. Wow. Was it always parody songs? Like was that kind of where did you and and was it doctor or was it Dr. de Meno?

Which by the way, just tell because there's people probably that don't know what Dr. de Meno is. So describe what and who doc because Dr. Domeno was a big part of my childhood too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My life would be completely different if Dr. Meno never existed. Yeah.

His real name is Barry Hanson. And he, he's got a master's in blues music. He was on the radio from I think around 19. 70 until I think last year when he finally decided to stop doing his show. He was syndicated. Syndicated, yeah. He started off at KM 18 in Los Angeles

when they were a big rock station, and they were syndicated through Westwood One, which is where I had my day job before I got my record deal. Oh, wow. And yeah, and he started out playing sort of like normal music on the radio, but then whenever he played something that was a little weird or demented, the

request lights would light up. So he just started leaning into that. Yeah. And then, it became the Dr. Domeno show, or it was like, depending on where you were listening, it was either two hours or four hours of, like, the most bizarre music you ever heard. Yes. And that's, that just kind of warped my DNA. And it wasn't, it was, it wasn't, you know, just parody songs. It was just, you know, like the, I always felt like the archetypal one was the song,

Fishheads. Oh, yeah. Fishheads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads. It's just really, really weird music. And it was so much fun to listen to. One of the guys in Barnes and Barnes, Bill Moomy, is the guy that introduced me to my wife. Oh, right. So we have that connection to him.

And is that Bill Moomy from Lost in Space? Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Well, it's a small, it's a small weird world. Yeah, small demented weird world. Is that the, is, when you discovered Dr. demeno, I mean, your parents, were they okay with you? I mean, in the, in the, in the movie weird, it's a big deal.

But, I mean, you know, did they care? There was a little bit of truth in the movie and that my mother was very much against me listening to the show because she would walk in and hear some off-color song lyrics. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those 50s parties records with Rusty Warren, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah. She's like, no, no, you can't listen to this anymore.

Right. Which is when I actually did start listening to my AMF on the long clock radio under the covers at night, you know. And when did you? How did accordion align with the timing in terms of Dr. Domeno entering your life? Well, I grew up playing the accordion. I took lessons from ages 6 to 10, I think it was. And then I stopped.

But it was because I played the accordion that Dr. Domeno even played my stuff on the radio because he would get tapes from people now and then, like people playing their guitar and doing something silly. And he got this tape from a 14-year-old playing the accordion. you handed him, didn't you? I did. I did that once, but initially, I think I was just sending him stuff in the mail. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, he started just playing on the radio because he thought it was such a novel concept that this like teenage kid thought he was like being cool with accordion. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well, did you think it was, I mean, I imagine what was it like

when you played accordion for other people as a teenager? Like, especially for other kids, did they, were they accepting of it? Or, um, I don't, I don't, I don't think. they were repulsed by it, but it wasn't like I was ever going to be popular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that when I was in my early teens, I was trying to start rock bands and nobody wanted to be in my rock band. An accordion rock band. You could have done like a deep purple kind of thing, probably.

I know I could have done that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what you should have done, like some kind of deep purple cover band. I just still do that. You're standing up. I'm still young enough to know the purple cover band. Right. And when you're learning accordion and when you're listening, are you thinking I'm going to do music?

That's going to be my life? No. I never really thought that that was what my adult life would be. I thought I was going to be, you know, some kind of a respectable adult. I went to college and got my degree in architecture. And I thought, oh, that's, you know, that's what adults do. Did you think you'd be an architect? I did at some point in my life.

But about my junior year in college, I realized it wasn't my passion. I didn't love it. There are people in my class that just were really excited about it, and I was not. Yeah. And I was, I loved doing the college radio show. I love music and comedy and all that. And I thought, well, am I going to make a living at that? I don't know.

So it was very, you know, kind of odd time in my life because I was about to graduate with a degree that I knew I just was not going to use. Right. And how did you, how did you get into the commercial radio station in San Luis Obispo? Oh, you know, I had been doing college radio and I, you know, I guess they needed somebody for overnight. So I just to apply to me. Just did it. Yeah. And that didn't make you think I'm going to be a DJ.

Well, you know, I, it was always kind of in the back of my mind. Like, that would be kind of fun. But then I met a number of DJs and a lot of them have sad lives. Yes. Cut right to the chase. No, I've always, you know, I've always felt like, and especially now, the radio business is just nothing. Right. But I always, it always did seem like, oh, my.

Because there's somebody, you know, that talks for. a living and, you know, it was like something that would pass through my head. And especially growing up in Chicago, there were a lot of personality, you know, they call them shock jock. Sure. They were like guys that did, yeah, Steve Dole exactly. And Kevin Matthews and Jonathan Brandmeyer was there. There were people that did comedy and then they did radio shows that was mostly just comedy. So I did think, oh yeah, that's something. And I mean, I do a radio show now on serious XM that's just answering funny phone calls. But it was something that I thought about. And then, but everything I could see about it was like, oh, my God.

Yeah. You know, early on when I was doing like interviews in the early 80s, I would just kind of like, bend their ears. Like, tell me what your life is like. Yeah, yeah. Because it seemed like, oh, what a fun thing to do. And then they tell me these horror stories. Right, right, right. I make $12,000 a year. And I, you know, I live in a shack. It just sounded awful. I've been divorced five times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, did you ever, did you think, like, I'm going to be, you know, like an accordionist in some sort of classical sense, you know, in a polka band?

I mean, you know. I mean, not as a full-time thing. I mean, I played for my cousin's wedding when I was eight. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if that makes me a pro. Yeah. No, I never really, you know, until I started, like, sending out tapes upon graduation. And I was like, oh, let me give this a shot and, like, throw the basketball up in the air, see if it lands on a hoop, you know, that kind of thing.

Yeah, yeah. But I'm not, you know, it was a pipe dream, I suppose, but I never really, you know, thought that realistically I was going to have a career. Right, right, right. Does the accordion transition easily into piano and to other keyboard playing? The right hand part does. So, like, the right hand part is literally like a piano keyboard. Right, right. The left hand is all buttons that do various things. Right. But I can play one hand on a piano really well. My left hand, theoretically. theoretically knows how to play the piano. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And yet, you're not used to doing that. So I can play very bad piano with my left hand. Right, right. And you never, like, decided, like, I'm going to power through it and become a good pianist. No. Why bother? Yeah, sometimes I think, like, I should have learned how to play guitar. Like, why?

I've got a great guitar playing my band, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So as a result of that, every single time you see me in a music video with a guitar, it's really bad faking. Oh, really? It's like, people look at and then go, you have no idea, do you? No, I do not. I do not.

Well, why would I? I love the accordion. And I think I told you this number of years ago, my daughter, who's 20 now, took a accordion lessons for a while. I remember that. Yeah, at Dave's accordion. That's right, yeah. And Atwater Village, which is no longer there.

He's still there, right? He's still somewhere. I think he's somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure. But they, he had a storefront on, on Los Felis Boulevard, or is that what? Yeah, yeah. And but even while my daughter was still taking classes, the landlord, I think the landlord died and the landlord's children pushed him to the back of the building. Those evil children. And then I don't know, like a nail salon went into the front.

But so you had to go kind of around the alley to get into Dave's accordion. That makes it even cooler, though, in a way. Yeah, it was. It's like clandestin. Like, what are you guys doing back there? What's the password? accordion. But I really loved it when my daughter would do it because she'd go back and have her lesson

and I would just sit and absorb the environment of Dave's accordion. And there was always the best old weirdos bringing in like their accordions to get repaired. And I, and he had all these, they're a beautiful, a beautiful instrument. Yeah. And to just see them sitting out and, you know, And then like my favorite was, and I saw him there a number of times, some old German man that plays accordion in Orange County at a German restaurant would come in and he had like an accordion with a built-in, you know, amplifier preamp inside it. And it was always problems with it. But he had a huge necklace that was a scorpion in amber.

Oh, yeah. And then you would hear him talking about, you know, I've got to get my, my amplifier isn't willing. looking and I got to get a treaks, you know, and I just sit there and just eavesdrop, and it was the best, you know. So my daughter actually, I'm trying to give her accordion lessons right now. She every now and then, she'll say, I should learn to play accordion. So she went through a stage when she was, I don't know, nine or ten years old. Yeah.

And then after she graduated college, she was like, I want to learn accordion. Yeah. So I got her accordion and I give her lessons over Zoom now. Oh, really? And is she enjoying it? Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, I really think it's a beautiful instrument.

And I think, you know, it's, you know, aside from Polka and Lady of Spain, there ought to be, you know, and you. And deep purple. Yeah, yeah, and deep purple. Yeah. Honestly, I think that's a pretty good idea. Okay. I'll get right on that. Deep purple accordions.

Let's do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you started to get notoriety, you know, and first of all, what's it like to hear Dr. de Meno play your song? It was like every single bad Hollywood movie were, like, in the, you know, and, you, first of all, you were, you. where like you hear your song on the radio for the first time. It was like, what? Yeah, yeah. And then you go running around the house screaming your head off.

And it was exactly that. And we were at the point where you could tell your mom, hey, I just heard my song on the radio show you disapprove of? Yeah. I guess that was okay. And you didn't know it was coming either, did you? Oh, no, no. That's amazing.

No, in fact, the first time I heard it on the radio, my brain was thinking like, oh, did my eight-track player just go on accidentally? I thought I was like listening to one of my old tapes and I realized, no, this is actually coming out. Other people are hearing this. Yeah, I know. I was on when I was on late night, the first, you know, Conan late night with Conan O'Brien in the early 90s, it took like two years for me to not be out somewhere like, you know, like at a bar in the evening and then seeing the show on the TV and going like, what the fuck am I doing up there? Like two years. And I don't know what in my mind I thought I was doing every day.

I felt like, no, no, this show is like on a closed circuit to my house. Like, no, no, it's everywhere, you know. It was so strange. Can't you tell my loves it grows? Well, when it starts to build, I mean, do you start to think, okay, I'm going to get my stuff together and I'm going to, this is going to be my career? Or does Dr. de Meno, you just, this relationship starts to sort of blossom and then it just, just it happens organically and there isn't like a tremendous drive on your part to do it. Well, after, after I, you know, had graduated college and I was like working for my,

working in the mail room, I was thinking like, yeah, I'm young. I graduated at like 20, I think. And I was trying to, I got a couple years. Let's see if I can make something out of this, you know, rock and roll career. Right. And it was just matter of knocking on doors. I got a, got a manager who I'm still with to this day. Oh, wow. And, and, you know, we just kind of, put my demo tapes out there and, and we finally got a record deal with Scotty Brothers Records. Oh, wow. But it was just sort of like, I think it was just kind of a lark for them because of the 20 Scottie, the president of the company, played accordion when he was a kid.

Oh, wow. And it was like sentimental for him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get this skank of a guy a shot. Right, right, right. Spend a few bucks on him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll give him a draconian recording time direct and see what happens.

Well, own him in perpetuity. Yeah. Well, was playing in front of people daunting at first, like when you started to do concerts? Because, you know, so many performers are driven by, I got to, you know, that audience and I just love them so much. And was that a part of your early makeup? I mean, a part, but I wasn't so driven. Like, I hear interviews with Patrick Stewart. Yeah.

Who's wonderful. But he had a quote about how I only feel comfortable when I'm on stage. Like, oh, that's like. That's psychotic, I think. It's tragic. Yeah, yeah. And that's not me. I mean, you know, I still, to this day, get very nervous before I walk out.

Yeah. Not so much when I'm actually on stage, but like I still get the jitters, like, you know, going into it. So it's nothing, you know, I don't like feeling stressed and it's, but I do enjoy performance. And that's certainly what's, you know, help get me into it playing the coffee houses when I was in college. They had Thursday night, like a talent show. And everybody else would come with their acoustic guitars and play like, you know, Dan Fogelberg or whatever it was. I'd come out with my friend who played the bongos, and we'd play also Sprox Zarathustra on the accordion or whatever it was.

Right, right. People, their jaws would drop and I'd get a kick out of that. Do you, why do you think that it was, what, or what is it about you that made you so sort of sure of being so different? Ah, I think I just, I don't know, I didn't know enough to know that I couldn't do it. Oh, really? It was just sort of like I had nothing to lose. Yeah.

And that gives you a lot of freedom. Yeah, yeah. To like, I don't care if I look like an idiot. Like, you know, who cares? Nobody knows me. I'll just, you'll try this and see what happens. Yeah. But where does that come from?

I mean, you know, you're a fairly sheltered kid. You know, people are calling you weird. But, or it's just being called weird. Does that give you the bravery to be like, all right, well, fine, all right. I guess, you know, and I think I leaned into it too much because I look at some interviews that I did in the 80s nowadays. really cringe because I think part of me was like trying to live up to the nickname. I see. You know, sort of like, oh, every answer has got to be a big gag answer, you know, and I'm sure

people got sick of that very quickly. Yeah, yeah. So I try to, you know, back off on that, you know, and just try to, people, people, people know, people know, people know, people know, I think people were like, also when they met me, they felt like they had arrived to the occasion, like, hey, weird out, hey! Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now people realize, no, he's pretty as human, more less. Pretty much. Pretty much. Yeah. Was there ever a point while you were, you know, in your career where you're like, I'm going to do a serious album? Never.

Never. That never appealed to me. I never, never, ever want, there's enough people to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, my brain is a little twisted. In fact, anytime I try to write something, you know, serious, it always comes out a little warped. In fact, I was John Gurley from Portugal a man as a friend of mine. And he was like, oh, we should write a song together.

Here's a song. why don't you write the bridge? And I'm like, oh, like, like earnest lyrics that, you know, vulnerable. And it was just like a short circuit in my brain because I couldn't do it. Yeah, yeah. Do you think is vulnerability a problem for you at times? Well, nobody's ever asked me that specifically. I don't know.

What do you think? I don't know. I mean, but I mean, well, because some people, I mean, I'm a blabber mouth. And I also, too, over time with lots of talking and having tons of therapy. And I feel, I don't feel like I have much to be ashamed of. So I'm going to talk about, you know, the particulars of my personality and things like that or difficult things. But I know, I mean, I sit here across from people that you just tell like, oh,

No, they do not. That had no interest in opening up that cabinet. Yeah. And sharing it. I don't really have a need to do that. Yeah. You know, most of my songs are a unreliable narrator, like Brandy Newmoot who say they're not me, you know, singing. Nothing's really autobiographical in my music.

So in a way, I guess I am kind of guarded. I don't feel like a need to like make myself that available to everybody. Yeah, yeah. You know, I put out on the social media just what I'm comfortable putting out. They don't need to know every detail of my life. Sure. You know, that feels healthy to me. Is that something that bleeds over into your private life or are you forthcoming and,

you know, like with your loved ones? Well, with my loved ones, I like to think that I'm vulnerable and sharing and open up as much as I possibly can. Well, good. All right then. I'm going to send you out of here with a good report. What was like, what was like? some of the moments because you did, you know, you can't you, this was not there's, well,

first of all, there's no other weird Al Yankovic. That we know of. That we know of. But I mean, but there's nobody that has made such an impact doing what you do or even something really similar to what you do. And I'm wondering like, were there moments where you couldn't believe what you were doing, you know, like shooting the eat it video. Yeah.

You know, it's like, that's, this big budget production and, and medium budget. But yeah. Oh, okay. Well, it's a pretty impressive video, you know. At the time, at the time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, what was the first part of the question again? Just like, were there moments where you're like, you couldn't believe, you know, pinch me moments that, you know.

To this day, to this day, I wake up and I can't believe I'm talking to Andy Richter today. But no, but no, but no, it's, you know, especially considering, you know, my, my, my, my skills. Yeah. And my limitation, certainly. I can't believe that I've been able to eke out a career for all these years. And I feel very fortunate to have, I, you know, had a lot of albums. I've had a couple movies. I've done some TV.

It's like, this is far beyond my wildest dream. So I'm still amazed. Yeah, yeah. If it hadn't worked out, do you, what do you think? Do you ever think about that? Like if, you know. I try not to think about that because it's a very sad thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I really honestly don't know. I mean, if things never actually. worked out. I don't know if I'd be able to, you know, go, you know, go back to architecture or be a draftsman in some building somewhere. I don't, I really honestly don't know. I'd like to think I would have found my niche somewhere, but yeah, yeah, I just don't know. Did your parents understand your career and what you did? Somewhat. Yeah. They kind of got it. They gleaned mostly. I don't know if they got it entirely, but they were able to see me in concert a number of times and, you know, they'd obviously listen to the records. And I don't, they certainly didn't get it.

get all the pop culture references I was making in the music. But they were very proud of me. My dad in particular, he would like, you know, in the checkout line at the grocery store, he would whip out his wallet and show my senior picture from high school. You know this guy? Weird Al Yankovic, that's my son. They're very proud. Yeah, yeah.

That's great. That's great. What religion were they were? Christian? Just a regular genet. The garden variety nominomination. Yeah, yeah. But very religious and very, yeah, yeah.

Well, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And have you maintained faith in your life in that way? I still go to church when I'm in town. You do? Okay. And you also, too, I mean, I guess they didn't have to worry about a rock and roll lifestyle for you because you're sober and, you know. I don't think they're worried about me too much.

Yeah. They just, you know, they just told me to stay away from dogs. Right, right, right. All right. And you said, okay. All right. Anything else? And you're, I also, I'm married to.

a vegetarian and you're a vegetarian? I am. How long have you been a vegetarian? Since around 92-ish? And what was the motivator? It was a book that a friend gave to me a diet for New America, which made a very compelling case for veganism and, you know, for social political and health reasons and everything else.

And it just, okay, fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it wasn't difficult. You didn't really. I thought I'd miss it. I didn't so much. I'm not like a hardcore vegan. Yeah.

They'd take away my vegan card because I like cheese pizza and ice cream too much. But strict vegetarian leaning towards vegan, but not really. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And my wife is vegetarian, but vegan we can't. It's tough. Too much dairy and eggs. Sorry, yeah, yeah.

Sorry. No, and I mean, you know, there's just like we like eggs too much. And I always feel like the chickens are going to drop them anyway. How do you feel about honey? Screw the bees, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're making plenty of it. They got a surplus of it. Come on. They're just bees. No, I, no, I mean, you know, I mean, I try to do ethically sourced foods. Yes. But, you know, I just kind of feel like, no, I don't think, I don't think honey is a big sin. And I don't think eggs are a big sin.

And I don't think cheese is a sin. I was in some restaurant years ago. They've since gone out of business, but it was a vegetarian place. And I walked in and I said, are there any eggs in this? And the guy get really offended. No, there are not any aborted chicken embryos at all. You know, like, okay, fine, I'll just take the mashed potatoes. I know.

And it's like, you didn't, you're not responsible. I didn't do it. Yeah, yeah. The eggs are going to come no matter what. I mean, I heard Paul McCartney say that once, that he eats eggs because he's like, oh, that, you know, the chickens are going to drop them. What are you going to do? Right, right, right.

They're just going to leave them around, you know, it's so you might as well do something. with him. Oh, I want to ask about the development of weird, the Al Yankovic story. Okay, yeah. Like, how does that come into fruition? That came from a funnier die sketch that Erica Pell wrote and directed. And he got... Is he a Simpsons writer? I don't think he was... Okay, Because I know his name. I might just... He's done a lot of other TV, but I don't think he... Yeah, I might, it might be a weird Twitter name, you know, because there's so many comedy writers that I know because we were Twitter pals. Sure. And I'd follow him on Twitter like long before I even saw that video. Yeah. But when he first came up with the idea, he wanted to run it by me. I think Pat and

Oswald connected us. And we sat and had coffee and we just threw out some ideas and we watched the trailers for like Ray and all the other biopics that were out of the time. Yeah, yeah. And we came with a bunch of ideas and then Eric went away and he did it with Aaron and Paul playing me. And it was great. I loved it, and it went viral. And I would play it on the big screen at my concerts. And people would be like, oh, this is great. When is the movie coming out?

It's like, no, it's just a joke. It's just a bit. And that happened for about 10 years. And finally, like after Bohemian Rhapsody came out, and there was just so many inaccuracies in that and just flat out lies. I think the time is right for this. What if we just do a biopic and just like? throw all the facts out the window.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's going to happen now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would you, would you, well, like, I know the answer, I think. I was like, would you like an accurate telling of your life? No, not really. I mean, there's, like, there's no, like, big secrets or, like, skeletons in the closet or anything. It's like, people would be like, yeah, we know all those stuff.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right. Dr. de Venno, yeah, okay, sure, fine. was is UHF do people still is that still like do people still say like I love that movie is it like a cult favorite it is I mean if you look up a UHF tattoos online oh wow you'd be surprised there's one person that's got UHF scenes tattooed all over their back oh my god it's it's I mean how does that make you feel well it's it makes me feel good now because when it came out I was very depressed because it just bombed at the box office and over the years through being H.S and DVD and cable and everything else, people discovered it. No, it's definitely like, yeah, like one of those ones that, like, yeah, what you said. It's just people fell in love with that movie over the years. Yeah, yeah.

So the people that are into it are really into it. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. See, the tattoos, that's too much. Yeah. Do you have Andy Richter Katzzi? I haven't seen many, but I have seen some. And it's, I don't, I don't.

Does it creep you out? It's just too much responsibility. Well, yeah, now you can't do something horrible. Well, no, I don't, no, I mean, it's like you have marked your body with me, and that is not what my intention was when I, you know, started on Conan or whatever. Or like, you know, when I was on dancing with the stars, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Like there were people that were getting, because, you know, the thing is like text dance. And I think it was like 21523. Tattoos of text Andy to 21523.

And I was just like... That's a little short-sighted. But it's... Yeah, no, it's... I mean, it's in one way it's... They're still permanent, right? A lovely tribute. But it's also kind of like, yeah, just...

Wow. You're going to be explaining that 20 years from now. Yeah. People are going to be like, you know, like, oh, you man, the man that set fire to the White House. Yeah. And then they look at their tattoos like, oh, what did I do? That was a mistake. No boy.

Had I known. Well, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you, are, should people expect from the tour? I mean, uh, um, if they saw last year and they come back this year, it's, they should expect pretty much the same thing. Well, wait. It's a continuation of last year's tour. I see, I see.

Uh, but for the people that aren't, uh, uh, uh, privy to that knowledge, uh, it's, you know, me, it's a kind of a big tent show. It's like, we're doing all the hits. We're doing a few deep. deep cuts. Again, it's, you know, the full production with the costume changes and the props and the big screens and all that. We've doubled the size of the band, which is why it's bigger as well as weirder. So the same guys that I've been with since the early 80s and we've added four new players, so it's a much bigger sound. Yeah. And it's, you know, we're playing bigger

places than we've ever played before and we're still having a great time. Yeah, that's great. And is, is there, do you ever do, have you ever done a concert that kind of has like a concept over it? you know, like it's sort of a theatrical kind of thing. Like a tour, you mean? Yeah, yeah. Or, you know, like a live show that, you know, sort of. Well, they all have some sort of concept, I guess. Yeah, yeah.

I did, we talked about the Vanity Tour. Yeah. Oh, right. I also did the Strings Attached Tour in 2018, I think it was, where every single show we performed with a live symphony orchestra, which we didn't travel with. It was like we would get local orchestras in every single town. Yeah.

And they would rehearse. that afternoon. And sometimes they nailed it and sometimes, yeah, close enough. Yeah, yeah. And was that stressful for you, whether they nailed it or not,

or did you just have sort of a... You know, I didn't even have them in my in-ear monitors, so I wasn't even hearing them. Oh, wow. I was just hoping it sounded. Was that purposeful? Well, yeah, because when you, and you're in-your monitors,

basically, you just want to hear the things you absolutely need to hear. So vocals, the drums for timing, and either the keyboard or the guitar, so you can stay in tune. Yeah, yeah. And anything else is just like, you just want that, you know. Yeah, yeah.

Do you nowadays, because, I mean, it's a different world. Like it feels like pop music and radio, like it's not as, you know, there isn't the big radio station that every listens to. Everything's kind of its own isolated streaming thing. And do you feel like it's incumbent upon you to keep abreast of things because, you know, you've got to write parodies of, you know, I've, Pink Pony Club or something. I haven't written a straight-on parody for a long time. And that's one of the reasons.

I mean, there's a number of reasons why I kind of slowed down my workload. But you're talking about the monoculture, which is like, you know, when I first started out the 80s and the 90s, you know, there was, there were the big top 40 stations, MTV. If something went on heavy rotation and MTV, everybody knew it. Yeah. And now everything's very niche. Everything's, you know, kind of broken down at various segments. You can, it's video and music on demand, which is great.

You can, you know, focus on whatever little subsection of, you know, microgenre you want to. But I think a lot of people don't have a real sense of like what everybody else is listening to. Yeah. So it's a bit of a problem. And, you know, I'm an old guy, but I kind of miss those days because I kind of like being exposed to all these different, you know, genres and not just listening to music that I happen to be wanting to listen to. Right. You know. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I still like listening to the radio because I like that someone else is putting on the music. Yeah. You know, I, there is like something that like my kids don't get at all, my older kids. Or the same thing like with television. I will just put on the television and flip around. And they're like, why are you doing that? Like there's so many things that you could just click in and you know you want to see it. And I'm like, I don't know.

it's, I feel like, oh, that was in great, I remember the first time we got a remote control. Yes. Like my dad bought like an old TV from a hospital, which had the long cord. Yes. Button you'd push. My grandparents had that with a cord, yeah. And I just thought that was the greatest thing. And when it would turn, it would make this mechanical like clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk.

But that just changed my life. I thought, oh, I'm just going to watch 10 seconds of everything forever. I'm going to ruin my attention span. I'm preparing myself for Instagram. Yeah. No, but I mean, that is just like I do like to sort of just like see what's on. Yeah. And I just don't feel like people care about that anymore, you know.

Yeah. You keep clicking because you think one of them's going to be boobs. You just think one of them is someday. Oh, oh, no. There are so many places for me to get boobs, including the mirror. Well, the 90s city, bigger and weird a tour across North. America starts this month. Which date does it start?

And where do you start? I believe it. Check me on this, but I think it's May 26th, starting in Hollywood, Florida. Oh, wow. That sounds right. Okay. And are you, do you work your way like West? We, there's no rhyme or reason to any rock tour, so we're probably going to

circumvent the country several times. Oh, really? But we try not to, we try to, you know, have the shortest bus runs as possible, but it doesn't always work out that one. Yeah, yeah. How is bus, you like bus? You like bus? I actually do. Yeah, you know, I like it more than flying or anything else because I've got my own little room in the back. Yeah. And it's just like my little bachelor cave. I've got my internet and my TV. Yeah, yeah. That's all I need. You know, I think sleeping on a bus, once you get used to it, it's great. It's like you're being in a big cradle that's got full of white noise, you know.

I mean, it's not something I'd seek out. Yes, necessarily. No, no, I don't like, I don't need the magic fingers. Yeah, no. I'm not going to get to be a millionaire and be like, I don't. only sleep. I sleep in a bus. It just drives around town and I sleep. But I don't mind it because, like, you know, I actually stay on the bus because, like, the rest of the band checks into their hotel. And I don't have to, like, you know, roll out of bed at six on the morning. Okay, we're going to the Ramada Inn, you know. Right, right. Oh, you just stay. I just stay. Yeah, yeah. Wow. And do you ever get a hotel room or do you just kind of? Well, my wife is in town. Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, I like to live large. Right. So you bathe at the venues? Yeah. Oh, that's a, that's a, that's a roll. That's a roll.

of the dice. It is sometimes. Yeah. Definitely sometimes. Oh, boy. I have to call the manager or my road manager and say, oh, just FYI, there's like no water in the shower. Yeah, yeah. Could you bring four gallons of bleach to pour in this place? Well, I'm definitely going to come out and see you

on this tour, because it's been a little while since I've seen you live. Yeah, let me know. I know people in the weird old camp, so we can probably hook you up. Oh, good. Excellent. Yeah, because I do need seats close to the stage. Okay. My eyesight. not what it once was. But anyway, everybody go out buy tickets. And thank you so much, Al, for coming in.

It's always a joy to see you. My pleasure, man. Thank you. And I'll be back next week with more of this. The three questions with Andy Richter is a team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks, and Jeff Ross. talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Maddie Ogden.

Research by Alyssa Graal. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to the three questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my loves are growing? It's you're going. Oh, you must be a knowing.

This has been a team Coco production.