Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Kelsey Grammer (Re-Release)

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

This week we’re revisiting Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson’s conversation with Kelsey Grammer, aka Dr. Frasier Crane. They reminisce about Kelsey’s partying days with Woody, on-set dynamics at �...�Cheers,” and more. Kelsey also talks to the guys about his late sister, the subject of his new memoir. To help those affected by the Southern California wildfires, make a donation to World Central Kitchen today. Like watching your podcasts? Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes. 

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 I certainly used to love partying with you. Oh yeah. We had some fun. I was way too addicted. Oh my God. Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. As some of you know, we're going to be revisiting some of our favorite episodes from last year before coming back in a few weeks with all new
Starting point is 00:00:29 interviews. This week we wanted to share our conversation with Kelsey Grammer, aka Dr. Fraser Crane. Kelsey is such a wise, deep soul who's seen both sides of life and he's written a memoir about his late sister Karen, who comes up in this conversation. It's called Karen, That Brother Remembers. And it comes out on May 6th. Without further ado, Kelsey Grammer. It's so strange. Here we are.
Starting point is 00:01:01 The three of us spent, what, eight, at least eight years together. Yeah, I was on a show for nine. Nine, Woody came. Which came in the third year, right? Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah. And every day making each other giggle, laugh,
Starting point is 00:01:13 sharing our lives. And I know what about you really. Well. I mean, no, I mean. But I know what you mean, yeah, yeah. Compared to the body of your work is just astounding. Thank you. Theater, films, books.
Starting point is 00:01:29 Yeah, books, yeah. Anyway, we should reminisce first. Yeah, we should. I mean, I remember, well, you were a theater guy. No. Weren't you? I tried to be a theater guy. Yeah, wasn't, didn't Cathy McGrath do Cheers once and weren't you in a production with her previously?
Starting point is 00:01:42 I remember that, because I'd done some Shakespeare with her. So we were old pals when she came and did Cheers. It was just so funny. We had a bit of a relationship on and off again. Just recently we watched the rerun and Kate said, you know, how do you know her? Here we go again. You know, indictment of You know, 35 years before. It just never goes away.
Starting point is 00:02:08 And my go-to is to immediately get embarrassed and lie. Well, I just realized I wasn't gonna do me any good. You know, it just never does. Oh, I'm just riffing now. It's the same, it's a similar story. You know, I used to have a sailboat. I used to have it during cheers and then definitely during
Starting point is 00:02:26 Frasier and went sailing all the time. I'd go twice a week when we were in the beginning years of Frasier and when I met Kate, I finally said, you gotta come see the boat. It's my pride and joy. And so I took her down to the marina and stepped aboard and I said, come on, babe, you know, step on board. And I helped her up. I went and pulled the hatch open and stepped aboard. I said, come on, babe, you know, step on board. I helped her up.
Starting point is 00:02:45 I went and pulled the hatch open, slid it forward, and went down the ladder, stepped into the cockpit, or down below in the galley, and from behind me, I hear a voice that says, have you ever had sex on this boat? I just froze, and I thought, what could I possibly say? I had the boat for 25 years. So I just bit it and turned around and looked her in the eye and I said, yes.
Starting point is 00:03:19 And she said, well, then I'm not going out on it. Hey. So I sold the boat. But you know, more power to her. Hey, I sold the boat. But you know, more power to her. Yeah. It was the right thing. You guys are together and having many kids for a good reason. Yes, exactly.
Starting point is 00:03:33 She's that's inbound. No, no, she's not. She's the sacred relationship I was looking for. No, it's it. It is great. I will say about Kate, it's like, it's like finding the Holy Grail, just like Teddy, just like Jimmy, like you guys, you know, you had some...
Starting point is 00:03:52 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes as well. And then you just hit the jackpots, you know, Debbie and Mary and... Thanks buddy. Hey, let's throw Laura in there. And Laura too. We watched Back to the Future 3 last night
Starting point is 00:04:06 at home with the kids. Yeah, saw Mary of course. Yeah. You know, hanging off of a steam engine. She was so proud of that moment because she did all of the stunt right up until the transfer. Right.
Starting point is 00:04:20 Smart. Yeah, smart. It's like, you know, that would have been foolish. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's good, she know, that would have been foolish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good, she's lovely in it. She's so good in it. They're wonderful in that movie. You know, the two of them, the love is really something.
Starting point is 00:04:34 It's really wonderful to see. Yeah, and just because you didn't say his name, I just totally blanked on his name. Lloyd, Lloyd. Christopher Lloyd. Christopher, of course. Christopher Lloyd. Yeah. That's so funny.
Starting point is 00:04:48 We should just talk about co-stars and see if all three of us have worked with them. Well, you know what? Actually, that's not a bad idea. I bet we crossed in quite a few places. But Christopher Lloyd and I are actually related. Oh, did you do a follow your roots? Well, you know what? Kate punches in him once in a while. actually related. It's like, well, you know what?
Starting point is 00:05:05 Kate punches in once in a while, people who are related to other people, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And because I did do that show, who do you think you are? Right, with Lisa. Yeah. They got my 23, you know, they got them.
Starting point is 00:05:20 So it keeps coming up. It goes all the way back. I have Christopher Lloyds in there've got Christopher Lloyd's in there, Meghan Markle's in there, Henry VIII is in there. It's pretty funny. It goes way back. Yeah. You and I, once you connect into either church or royalty,
Starting point is 00:05:37 the paper trail goes forever. Yeah, it's huge, yeah. Yeah. That's our latest. If you're like Mary, who's, she did Find your roots and her big thing wasn't God. I hope we don't have slavery in our family Which was at that time was a people were ducking that like crazy, you know, and hers was oh dear God Don't let me be boring The first thing pretty first thing came out was did you know what your great grandfather did?
Starting point is 00:06:07 No. And you're on camera, so you have to get excited. No, what? He was a woodchopper. Ah! That's about it. She's going, shoot me now! That's pretty good.
Starting point is 00:06:20 It got better. It got better. That's funny. Yeah, slavery's been a very popular thing for a long time. You know, it's pretty hard to avoid something in the past. You know, hundreds and hundreds of years of it. And we're still working at it, obviously.
Starting point is 00:06:34 Clearly. Yeah. Wow. Okay, as we take a pause, wondering how deep to go. Yeah. Woody, what are you eating, buddy? You're on camera, you know, we can see you. Oh, just, oh, see that I'll, buddy? You're on camera, you know, we can see you. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:45 Oh, I'll stop right now, stopping right now, Teddy. So, do you enjoy paprikash over there? You enjoying the paprika? I mean, the Hungarians are really good at it. The paprika? Yeah. You know, Hungarian paprika is, you know, it's paprika. Yeah, but it's mostly on meat, right?
Starting point is 00:07:02 Yeah, mostly on meat. Oh, that's right, he's doing the raw. Well, you should still use the spice, buddy. You know but it's mostly on meat, right? Red pepper, yeah, mostly on meat. Oh, that's right, he's doing the raw. Well, you should still use the spice, buddy. You know, it's local spices. No, I can't wait to get some of that. Um, yeah, no, straight away. Straight away. Paprika, okay.
Starting point is 00:07:16 Yeah. All right, just for fun, because people. You guys are sitting there together. I wish I was there, man. I wish you were too. Hey, can I go back to, because, you know, I didn't know until I was researching that you went to this preparatory school in Fort Lauderdale and that's where you started singing and dancing.
Starting point is 00:07:37 That's right. Pinecrest, yeah. Pinecrest Preparatory School. At age, at age what? 14. Yeah, so tell me about it. How was it? I mean, was it like hard to get in and? Well, I don't, I don't actually know.
Starting point is 00:07:50 I was used to, I was a smart kid when I was little, you know, when I was younger. I, you know, put that to rest after I reached adulthood, but my grades were always good. I was always in the honor roll when I was a boy, so it was easy for me to get into those kind of places. And I had a pretty good record. In fact, when I came from New Jersey,
Starting point is 00:08:12 I went to sixth grade in New Jersey to a place called Rumson Country Day School. And that was a year ahead of Pinecrest. So when I got to seventh grade, I basically coasted for a year. And that may have been a mistake. But in eighth grade, a guy came to school, named Richard Mitten was his name. Fabulous guy, he's no longer with us.
Starting point is 00:08:32 But he walked into every classroom and he said, I want every boy in here to come and audition for choir. So we all thought, well, what the hell? OK. And went in and most of the boys sang, yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. And we'd come out and he said, what's your voice? And he said, oh, you're a lyric tenor or you're this.
Starting point is 00:08:51 And I was a bass baritone. So that was when I started singing. And we started a thing, there was a thing called the singing pines because of Pinecrest. So we wore tuxedos and roughly, you know, the frilly little shirts and stuff. At one point they, we rescinded the hair code because I was on the 10th grade student council and we got rid of the hair code. So we all grew our hair out. But then the next year a new guy came in and said the hair code was reinstated.
Starting point is 00:09:20 So I asked if they would mind if I wore a wig and they said, well, no, as long as the collar, you know, long as the hair doesn't go over the collar. So I bought, I went down and bought a Jane Fonda wig, which was basically the haircut from Barbarella. And I took it home and I cut off the back of it. And I wore it over my hair, I put it in a ponytail and put it on top of my head, I'd put it in a ponytail and put it on top of my head, stick the wig on top of that
Starting point is 00:09:47 and they weren't embarrassed to have me walking around looking like that, so I wasn't embarrassed either. It was pretty awful. You came from music, right? I mean, your mom was a singer. My mom and dad were musicians, yeah. And your father is a musician? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:02 So was that not foreign to you? Were you around that? Did you? Well, you know, my mom had us play, do some piano lessons when we were pretty young. Took us to tennis lessons, swimming. We used to swim a lot. Pinecrest was a big swimming school and I started swimming there and did the diving team for a while.
Starting point is 00:10:23 But it was a huge school. It was a school where the coach of the women's Olympic team was the coach there. And he was a big deal, Jack Nelson. We had a kid there, Andy Something, who was the first swimmer to prove that the butterfly was actually faster than the crawl, which was amazing. And he set, like, state and world records for a while. So it was a school of overachievers. It was a great place to go to school, honestly. And then I got, you know, I went to Juilliard out of there
Starting point is 00:10:54 and they were all very impressed at that. And of course I got thrown out and they were all very sad about that. Yeah, you got thrown out for a reason though. Can we back up just a little bit? Yeah. I know you're just a little bit? Yeah. I know you're writing a book about some of the tragedy and in your life, in your family,
Starting point is 00:11:14 which we can talk about or not later, but you had a lot going on as a kid in your family. Yeah. Do you think there's any sense of finding harbor in creativity because of having to deal with divorce and death and all of that? What's great is, I mean, I did finish the book on my sister. It's just called Karen and it'll be published pretty soon. We're working on the final draft and pictures now. Well, I mentioned it. Do you want to talk about it now or is that all right? Yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:11:48 So I stepped away from that right now, I just have to do some notes that they're going to try to give me, but I mean, I'm pretty, you know, recalcitrant, I'm not going to really change the book a lot at this point. But it does cover most of the stuff that you're asking about. So in the early days, yeah, my mom and dad divorced when I was two and a half, basically. I moved in with my grandfather, Gordon. He was my light. In the book, I actually discover, as I've never really quite enumerated it, I've never
Starting point is 00:12:15 really said that I actually came here, I think, for my grandfather to be his son. And I was. And that was great. But then, of course, he died when I was 12. And that was a big, big hit. That took the air right out of us. And then a couple of years later, that was the year we actually started at Pinecrest.
Starting point is 00:12:37 And then a couple of years later, my dad got shot. And I didn't really know him very well. I'd gotten to know him a little bit. As a young adult or when you were a kid? When I was 12. got shot and I didn't really know him very well. I'd gotten to know him a little bit. As a young adult or when you were a kid? When I was 12. When I was 12, just after Gordon died. Gordon's my granddad. My dad got... Was that political? That was a political? I always thought that... You know what it was, honestly?
Starting point is 00:12:58 He was an anti-Soviet government. Yeah, he was a bit of a loud mouth, I guess you could say. He had a radio show down in the Virgin Islands, and he taught a lot of fairly famous reggae guys and calypso music guys, gave him music lessons. But he was killed by a taxi cab driver, who, it was a couple days after Martin Luther King was shot. And so there was a political overtone to it.
Starting point is 00:13:28 It was kind of like, we'll get the white guy, you know, it was just one of those things. And he was a good target. Where are we? What city was that? St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. And, but I heard years later that they actually drew straws who was going to kill him. So it was that sort of a strange grouping there. I don't know the full story of it.
Starting point is 00:13:52 There's the Arawaks and the Caribs down in the Virgin Islands and in that Caribbean area. One side apparently was always very violent and the other side was always very peaceful. But so once in a while, every few years, there's kind of like a surge in whatever it is. I mean, maybe it's bigger than us. Maybe it's some sort of rhythmic tide that comes into people's beings and then they go on a bit of a rampage and maybe he got swept out of some of that. My buddy John Miller's dad was shot in St. Croix one year on a golf course. It was a famous incident, but they took a machine gun
Starting point is 00:14:26 and killed like three golfers. It was just, you know, it's just odd stuff. Right, wow. So you're with your mom at that point. Mom and Cam and Karen, yeah. Yeah, my three, the three women. And even though you had just kind of reunited with your dad?
Starting point is 00:14:41 Yeah, it was really only the one meeting. We saw him for one dinner just about six months before he was killed. Can you think back to that 12 year old, 13 year old? I mean, I put my adult brain and go, oh my God, what a hit to my life, who I am, or what does this mean about life? Was there, did you put weight other than the tragedy
Starting point is 00:15:04 of losing your father? Did it start to inform you in some way? No, no. What did happen was I was a math student. I was really good at math. And then the death of Gordon and the subsequent loss of my dad and stuff like that. It just seemed like those were the turning points for me to start moving toward art. I do think that happened as a result of that. Let me turn that off.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Is that another job? Yeah. No, it's bad news. More bad news. Right, never stop. But it was, that turned me toward art. Shakespeare turned me toward art the first time I read. Julius Caesar turned me toward the idea that, you you know there's a way to sort of endure the whips and scorns of time
Starting point is 00:15:49 you know and and do it with dignity and that was you know whatever dignity whatever dignity I've been able to muster. Tons my friend. Thank you. Woods knows. It just seemed like an unnatural amount of calamity, you know, between your dad and your half-brothers. Yeah, early death.
Starting point is 00:16:14 Yeah, my half-brothers in a shark attack. That was strange, yeah. That was in the Virgin Islands, too. And they, of course, the city, they went and caught a bunch of sharks after that. And there was one of them they caught that actually fit the bite marks, fit the scarring on their diving equipment. And they didn't want to know about it, so they covered it up. You know, because it's tourism.
Starting point is 00:16:35 But I've got a letter about that. And were you close with them? No. No. I hardly knew them. I got to know them a little bit when Gordon died after we went on that visit. And then they came up and visited once after dad was gone.
Starting point is 00:16:49 And I was the oldest child, so I sort of filled in a little bit of a male presence thing for them a little bit, but not really. And your sister was alive when you're... Right. When you're- Right. When you're- Yeah, she died just before she turned 19. And you were how old?
Starting point is 00:17:10 I was 20. So you were a Juilliard or- I've been a Juilliard, just got thrown out. No, but, all right, before we get to Karen, if that's okay. Yeah, that's fine. Let's, you say that with a good laugh. So why did you get thrown out? Well, I'm still trying to figure it out. If that's okay. Yeah, that's fine. Let's, you say that with a good laugh.
Starting point is 00:17:25 So why did you get thrown out? Well, I'm still trying to figure it out. I think it was because I wasn't going to acting class. Ha ha ha ha. Being in acting school, that might do it. Maybe that. Why, why were you? I didn't really like the guy that was teaching the class
Starting point is 00:17:44 because it seemed to me he was a lot more interested in the girls in the class than the boys. And I thought, well, you know what? Okay. I'm not going to cast his versions past that. I've actually talked about this in the book some. He taught me a couple of things, quite by chance, that stayed with me, which is kind of fascinating.
Starting point is 00:18:01 And I've written about that in the book. So the book about Karen is basically about me as well. Our time, sort of our corresponding time together and in the same lane and in our different lanes until of course she was taken. And how I have carried her ever since. That's really what the book is about. I discovered a lot of things I didn't know about.
Starting point is 00:18:22 What do you mean, say more about carried her? Carried her with me. She's been with me in my heart ever since then. You know, always. All things were about Karen in a lot of ways. My ability to move on in life was hindered by the loss of her, but also my sense of sticking with things was also colored by the fact that Karen had been taken and that I wasn't going to quit. That was, and due in large part to some of her, some of our story together. We were really close. We were a close brother and sister.
Starting point is 00:18:56 Maybe made closer by the fact that Gordon died so young. Half the things I got to discover in writing the book was, and it was a great, it's been two and a half years I wrote, I worked on it, was how connected she was to other people in the family. And I'd actually had the arrogance of my own story, you know, was always like, oh, I lost Gordon. And I realized for the first time, well, so did she. And that was a great discovery for me. Because they were closer than any two people I've ever seen in my life.
Starting point is 00:19:22 And that was a beautiful thing to see. And then it was also beautiful to understand that it must have really, really broken her too. And that was a hard time for both of us. What's the name of the book? Karen. Karen. And that's, I don't know, months before it came out.
Starting point is 00:19:39 It's ready to publish, honestly. I don't know what they're waiting for. Yeah. Wow. Good for you for writing. It's like, it's really cool that you've taken this journey because I know for myself, I tend to anything that's too hot an issue, I just try to avoid it at all costs. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:06 I admire you for... Thanks buddy. Thanks man. Just doing this dude. It's amazing. Thanks man. Thanks. It was a great experience for me.
Starting point is 00:20:16 It was really wonderful. And my wife is really supportive of it. I'd walk in, I mean for a while I was like not available, I mean, through some of it. And she'd say, what are you doing? I said, you know, and she'd say, okay, do what you got to do. But I could always pull myself out a couple hours a day, was what I was doing. And then I'd be with the kids and working some.
Starting point is 00:20:41 Right. Well, you amaze me because not everybody gets hit in life with as many really earth-shattering stuff that you have. And I know you went through a period where we all knew you, where I guess it was you could say, or is it trite to say, self-medicating? Yeah, I think that's probably right. I think it's just a self, it was, I was engineering escape is really what it was. I mean, medicating, yeah, it was more,
Starting point is 00:21:12 it was more radical than medicating. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was rad. And listen, some of the stories are great stories. I mean, I had a wonderful time in the midst of it, which is kind of extraordinary because that sort of lust for life thing
Starting point is 00:21:27 is part of what drove it as well. But then you realize, well, there's only so many of these you can keep doing without just finally just collapsing. And yeah, I got pretty close on it a couple times. That's how we grew to know and love you. Partly during that period, which when you say it wasn't all bad or whatever, it was magnificent from my vantage point.
Starting point is 00:21:56 I certainly used to love partying with you. Oh yeah, we had some fun. I was way too addicted. Oh my God. But you know, I remember, do you remember that time we went to Idaho? Absolutely, I was just thinking about it now because I was in, I relieved myself just before I came in. And honestly, as I was sitting there, I thought to myself, I remember that time in the men's room in McCall, Idaho, with Woody. And I was talking about how beautiful America is and how wonderful Americans are and how they embrace the extraordinary.
Starting point is 00:22:27 We are a group of people that love exceptional behavior and that's who we are. I remember talking about Olga Corbett, this little kid from Romania, wherever she was from, comes in and blows people away. She gets the first ten in the history of the Olympics in gymnastics and America loved her. What was her name? Nadia Kamenich. Oh Kamenich. Was Kamenich was first? Yeah. Okay. But anyway.
Starting point is 00:22:52 I was the first one to get the 10th. But it was just amazing. And I realized this sort of monologue that I delivered from the throne on this day with Woods. We were in some club somewhere and it was just a magnificent memory for me. And then, you know, you, I mean, just the greatest time. It was so fun. Yeah. We were actually gone, Teddy, I don't know if you remember, because there
Starting point is 00:23:19 was someone connected to Cheers. The sound guy. The sound guy. Cheers. Yeah. And he was doing a radio station and he said, we come do an interview Someone connected to Cheers. The sound guy. The sound guy at Cheers, yeah. And he was doing a radio station and he said, we come do an interview and blah blah blah. Of course, we come guns blazing.
Starting point is 00:23:33 Yeah, we barreled into Idaho. We were going hard. And they know how to go hard in Idaho. They do. But I do remember that in the bathroom so well, because I remember at the time I was so upset about America and all the, I mean, you gotta, you gotta separate America, the people from America, the government, which the government's properties, they never cease to amaze me.
Starting point is 00:24:01 But, but then, you know, when we were when we were there, I was conflating everything and you were like, no, America, Americans, and that speech had a huge impact on me. You get- I still believe that about us, I really do. Me too. I just, I follow the goodness. I've been doing this,
Starting point is 00:24:24 he's called an angel healer, this guy, and just recently in one of our sessions he said, well, I asked the angels one time, I asked him, you know, what's the ratio? And of really, really crappy people to really good people. And he said, honestly, it's about 70-30, which is, you know, 70 is good. And I thought, well, that sounds about right. And we both sort of laughed a little bit and said, I've spent a lot of time with the 30s. It's because 30s are drawn to people of great passion
Starting point is 00:24:56 and success and, you know, then we arguably have all sustained that, you know, or achieved that. And the 30s are around these areas. And, uh, and they're often, you know, very questionable. I had a good batch. Remember? Yeah. I had a good batch.
Starting point is 00:25:15 You're just about two steps ahead of the law. And, you know, I'm listening to you and I feel like people can see that I'm actually wearing a nun's habit because I am so, I am so safe in my world. I go, oh no, no, no, no, thanks. I'll catch up with you later. I'll meet you in Idaho, but I won't actually get on the plane.
Starting point is 00:25:37 Yeah. I always thought you should have been on the plane once in a while. I know, I should have. I've heard some good things in the world, you know? Good stuff, you know, I should have. I've heard some good things in the world, good stuff, you know? And met great people too. But that's, I always believed in the 70.
Starting point is 00:25:52 I always thought the 70 were, that's who we are. Because who you are is, a flood comes through. No, you're having an argument about whether there's climate change or not. And then a flood comes through and everybody drops their point of view and rescues each other and has so human their bounty of love and caring and nurturing and they pull people out of the water. Don't ask each other what your politics are, what your belief system is.
Starting point is 00:26:20 Not at that time. But you know, just- Maybe we're getting there. Maybe we're getting to where like, excuse me before I pull you out of there. Who'd you vote for? Oops, sorry. Let them go. You know, one of my first, going back a little bit to reminisce about Shears, you showed up full blown as, you know, Fraser Crane.
Starting point is 00:26:49 And you were just magnificent. Always were. But you walked in kind of like Woody. You both walked in and hit a home run the first time we saw you. You know, first time in the audience. But my personal memory of that time, those first, we were basketball players or so we thought. Perhaps Woody was, but we all thought of ourselves. And we would play vicious basketball with each other
Starting point is 00:27:15 right before we were supposed to run and start performing. But you, on this asphalt, plain basketball court, were barefoot. You played barefoot. I grew up in Florida. With the flattest shoes, feet I've ever seen in my life. I still have them, yeah. Dead flat.
Starting point is 00:27:33 Dead flat. Suction on wet floors. How did you do that? I don't know, you know what, I was just saying. It's your beachcomber days, right? That beachcomber thing, yeah. I mean, my feet were really tough back then. I mean, I'm talking to a guy on Monday
Starting point is 00:27:49 about getting my feet fixed finally. Here's another example of you two renegades. Renegades is your motorcycles. Oh yeah. Both of you. Woody, who I saved his life the other day, came in wounded from a very serious motor. I heard something about this.
Starting point is 00:28:03 Yeah, very serious. I thought, what the hell. But you. The last vestige of a. Oh, there it is. So did you land on your hand? Is that what happened? Did you just.
Starting point is 00:28:14 I landed on this hand, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shit, sorry man, that's tough. It would have been much worse. No, no, no. I tell ya, I ended up very, very lucky. So. Yeah, I got it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:25 But speaking of luck, you used to jump on your motorcycle, if I remember correctly, in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops. Absolutely. No helmet and roar off to work, where we were always about 15 minutes late. About 15, yeah. But didn't you get run off the road once by somebody who was pissed off? Oh, God, yeah, in New York City that happened. It happened a couple times around the country.
Starting point is 00:28:47 I mean, across the country a couple of times. There was one trucker I was drafting off of him. He didn't like me doing that, so he would drive off into the shoulder a little bit and spray pebbles on my face. You know, 100 miles an hour, I thought, oh, this is fun. I actually saw him pull into a truck stop. I followed him. I walked up to him at the counter where he was having breakfast and said, excuse me,
Starting point is 00:29:09 I understand that you have an issue about this. I said, honestly, I'm trying to make the next couple hundred miles in as little stress as possible. Drafting off of you was really helping me. Would you mind if maybe we arranged this so we're both happy about it? And he said, no said no okay I'd be I'd be glad to help you damn yeah that's that good part about Americans that's what's in it yeah that's good part about Americans if you was an
Starting point is 00:29:36 American like you know me I just would have walked up and guy, you know, or worse. You know, like, I love how you can, it's amazing how you can do that. Well, I love people a lot and I love Americans, you know, this is the thing I really do love. That's the right way. I don't think maybe Woody's is the right way. And mine certainly is. I would have gone up and apologized
Starting point is 00:29:59 for getting in the way of his gravel. You know, or something, you know. Yeah. One time, Woody and I, Woody and I were in London. We went to some club. What was it called? Was it called the Palladium? No, it was the Hippodrome.
Starting point is 00:30:12 Hippodrome, okay, so the Hippodrome. So Woods and I are kind of trying to get in and this girl says something about, I don't know what happened to sort of lit her off a little bit, but you know, English people and Americans, we're still having trouble with that. But she looked at Woody and said, well, that's rude.
Starting point is 00:30:28 And he said, oh yeah, how's this for rude? And he grabs a handful of candies right in front of her and sort of throws them. I said, oh shit. And I saw these two huge like cockney guys start moving toward Woods. And I said, we're out of here, let's go. We gotta get out of here.
Starting point is 00:30:44 So Dave just sort of just decked them. What you didn't know is I was there and I came in after you guys and picked up all the candy and bought them some more and apologized profusely. That was lovely. I'm so fine. Well, we had fun there too. I mean, it was true.
Starting point is 00:31:03 All right, here's another, this is all things Kels. Okay. Here's one of the things about you that I hope is not as incredible as it used to be, cause it would still piss me off. Your photographic memory of you would walk through rehearsals at cheers with a script in your hand, because you genuinely didn't know the lines, up until then you would go have dinner and you'd come back and we'd start performing
Starting point is 00:31:30 and it would be word, comma, perfect. And we all kind of marvel, how the fuck did you do that? And you would do it also when, if I might say, under the influence during that period. And you look like you couldn't possibly get through a performance, you turn around and come back and be astoundingly brilliant. Oh, thank you.
Starting point is 00:31:55 What is that brain thing? Are you photographic memory? It's probably just a muscle that approximates photographic, but it's not. It's, if I have to, I can get it in there. I still do it. I do it at Frasier now because, you know, you play the same character for so long, like I have, and I just find it kind of more exciting to not be on book, to not know it,
Starting point is 00:32:22 to sort of have a general idea. And because I played the role for so long now, I mean, I pick better words than most of the guys can. to not be on book, to not know it, to sort of have a general idea. And because I played the role for so long now, I mean, I pick better words than most the guys can. And I trust that the process is going to actually spill out the best result. If it's a really good joke and it's written really well, I'll remember it. If it's one that is, I can trust to approximation and then sort of wait for the creative spirit to strike in the midst of it, I do that.
Starting point is 00:32:50 So it's a kind of improvisational memorization, but it does unnerve people. My definition of a well-written joke is one that I can totally fuck up and it's still funny. It's still funny. That's actually good. That's about it. It's a funny. But that's good. That's about it. Yeah. That's a good definition. It was wild. How, I mean, I guess it's okay.
Starting point is 00:33:08 We broached the subject, but like you used to be under the influence of all these things and still, and, and, you know, you know, how it would kind of get you in a high state of, and, and, and then to see you just nail it. Yeah, energize. Yeah, let's say energize. And then to see you nail it was like, what he just did was actually impossible. Like I don't understand how he could do that, you know?
Starting point is 00:33:37 Because you didn't have the slow- We used the smart one, huh, Teddy? Woody and I had the slow dumb joke. We were the slow dumb funny joke. Oh yeah, that's true. It was a lot easier. No, Frazier had to have the, yeah. You were saying paragraphs of complicated shit
Starting point is 00:33:50 and nailing it. You really were amazing. Well, I like language. You know, that was always a strong point for me. So yeah, I guess, I mean, honestly, I did cocaine and booze. Those are the two things I did. I never did anything else really.
Starting point is 00:34:02 I mean, I was never into marijuana or some of the other stuff. So cocaine with Jackie, I was boozing slow, you know. Somewhere in the middle was where I'd end up. But I always would go to bed. There were a couple of times when I stayed up, oh, a couple nights. But mostly I had, there was some sort of a governor that was saying, you got to go to bed now.
Starting point is 00:34:22 You got to go to sleep. You got to catch up. You got to see these people. I was still working out most of the time. So I stayed fairly robust, even during a time of great sort of self-destruction. I have to- In fairness, when you say you had this governor inside you saying go to bed, you gotta bed at 6.30 in the morning. Yeah, get a couple hours and go.
Starting point is 00:34:46 You get a couple hours in and boom. Yeah, it's funny. A lot of people who can get away with what you did have the constitution of an ox. Yeah. I mean, your body, I know you had a moment where your body went, yo, no more. Yeah, right, right, yeah. But by and large, how old are you now?
Starting point is 00:35:08 Strong, 69. I mean, you're a magnificent beast. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yeah, you really are. Do you think it also had to do with, because I've always credited the way you would eat, like you would, it would take you, you know, you'd just still be on your first, uh, first morsel when we were done with our food.
Starting point is 00:35:34 Yeah. And even that day, I do, I do. I always savored food. He used to eat so slow, no rush. And I just felt like that kind of helped your- It probably did. ... institution as well. It's a very good, very observant.
Starting point is 00:35:52 I think that may actually be something, maybe onto something there. Yeah. I mean, I've gone up and down with weight a little bit, but I think mostly that was probably booze. Actually, I think that was probably, when my weight would balloon a little bit, it was like during a, I was on a traveling kind of spree. I was going to New York City a lot or whatever. I was in Manhattan, a little bit of debauchery,
Starting point is 00:36:12 a little bit of food, maybe a little overindulgence in that kind of stuff as well. And then I picked up some weight and then I finally thought, no, I'm gonna, so I weigh around 210 most of the time now. That's about where I like to be, so. Whatever it is, it's working. Thanks buddy.
Starting point is 00:36:28 Yeah. I wish, you know, I, I make jokes and I swore to myself that I would not be the self deprecating guy, which is a problem I have. And I notice it on podcasts. It's like, I, they spend hours trying to cut it out. But this isn't self-deprecating, but it's, I wish, I feel like I got stuck a little bit with you during the cheers years. I have a memory of getting angry at you once. You came and told me that one day.
Starting point is 00:36:59 And it's stuck in both of our memories. But I feel like, fuck, I don't know. I feel like I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer and I feel like it's my bad, my doing. And I almost feel like apologizing to you. I know I don't feel like I apologize. Thank you. To you and me.
Starting point is 00:37:22 I wish we'd spent more time together. That I sat back and didn't. And I wish we'd spent more time together. That I sat back, you know, and didn't, and I really do apologize. Thanks. Yeah. You said something wonderful to me though, too, that I've always, I quote to other people. When I turned 40, you came up and you said,
Starting point is 00:37:35 you know what it means, don't you? Now that you're 40, it means you're finally worth having a conversation with. Oh, that was fucking brilliant. I always loved that. And I've repeated it. And my love for you has always been as easy as the day. As easy as the sunrise. Mine too, you.
Starting point is 00:37:51 So, whatever. What an amazing thing that time we all spent together. You can go off in different directions. You can have different lives. But that bond, that love of making something really funny and really good and cracking each other up and going through life and still showing up. You know, like Jimmy said,
Starting point is 00:38:15 I don't care what you crazy people do during the week, just show up on shoot night and be funny. You know, just once, that's all I need. He recently said, you know, we were doing an interview together and he said, I always had the, you gotta have an oar in the water. I'd never heard him express this before. He said, yeah, as long as everybody's got their oar
Starting point is 00:38:35 in the water and they're pulling, then I'm happy. I thought, yeah, makes a lot of sense. And that's, we're still working together. I mean, he's done, you know, he does four shows of the last bunch and it's been great working with him. Yeah. He's like my daddy in show business, really. Probably all of ours to some extent.
Starting point is 00:38:54 Yeah, yeah. Good question. Well, my God, what a man. What a fucking guy. Yeah, amazing. Yeah, so how many, have you started on your second season? We finished the second, so we've got 20 shows. I mean, it's so weird, this new sort of model of the streaming thing.
Starting point is 00:39:12 10 shows is all they kind of do. Oh, you already did. Yeah, we're finished, yeah. We finished last season. Second season, they're just 10 shows. Yeah, yeah. It's a little odd. On the Paramount Plus.
Starting point is 00:39:22 So it's kind of like finishing the first season. So what's been fun about it is I've gotten to stand back and watch a little bit, and that cast is really coming together. They're really fun to watch. We've hit some stuff that I thought we might hit, but it happened faster than I anticipated, and the shows have been as good as anything I've ever done. What's that like?
Starting point is 00:39:43 I mean, you have this template, two or three different templates for Frasier. Is it hard to let go of your expectations or memories of what it, you know, and compare it to others and let it be what it is? No, it's been easy for me. Oh, good. Yeah, cause this one, you know, I was in the birthing room for this one.
Starting point is 00:40:04 I was pulling the baby out of the, you know. So literally in the writer's room. Yeah, yeah. So it's been really good. It's been really, really fun. And I still leave the writers mostly alone, but in the very first draft of the pilot, but we did a lot of back and forth for that.
Starting point is 00:40:20 Speaking of kids, Spencer. Spencer, yeah. We all met Spencer early on. 41 years old now. Kate, you remember my daughter Kate? Of course. She's 44. Same boat, right?
Starting point is 00:40:31 Yeah, yeah, fantastic. About to have a baby. Oh good. Yeah, it's very cool. Oh good for her. Is this the first one? Yeah. Oh no kidding, wow.
Starting point is 00:40:38 Very exciting. Oh, that's great. Well, it's great that people can have babies, you know, a little bit further along now. Yeah, yeah. It's really lovely. And we had, we, I mean, honestly, Kate and I, we were pregnant three times before we had a baby. It was natural.
Starting point is 00:40:54 We started to lose, we lost a couple of babies, and we thought, boy, this is tough. This is not good. But then God smiled on us, and we had a beautiful girl named Faith, which is what did it. Fantastic. And then the two boys came along. And the second boy came along. We were twins originally with Faith, and then we lost the boy when he was like 14 weeks.
Starting point is 00:41:20 And we had to do some stuff that was not a good thing for us. But when Kate was pregnant the second time, I was kind of proud, I kind of got her, you know. I thought, yeah. And you know, I said, so what do you think we're having? And she said, if we're not having a boy, then everything I believe is bullshit. We had a boy.
Starting point is 00:41:40 Nice! So, and that's Gabriel. You had seven kids, right? Seven total. So really lockdown was just like normal life. Yeah, pretty much. You had so many people around. Yeah, yeah, pretty much it was.
Starting point is 00:41:52 Yeah, you know, some were coming and going. But yeah, our house is still full of kids. I mean, I got my second child, Greer, is in the home with us. Jude's with us some of the time. He's 19. He's going off to Emerson College in a couple of weeks. I'm going to drive him up. Mason's now here, my 23 year old, I think she's 23.
Starting point is 00:42:10 I always add a year, they always get pissed off at me. But I think she's 23. And she's starting to work at the company now. So it's kind of like an apprentice kind of stuff, doing production. I love that you said when you were describing your life, the ups and downs, but you're never happier than when you have all of your kids in the same room. And it's the truth.
Starting point is 00:42:32 When we're surrounded by, we're 13 to table when you count spouses and grandkids and everything. It's the best. I don't do so well with the ex-spouse thing. We haven't really tried to curry that. Oh, we nailed it. You guys did great. We nailed it.
Starting point is 00:42:47 Well, I remember your vows with Mary. I mean, we're like, everybody's involved. I was so impressed by that. I really loved it. Yeah, you're our family too. I thought, wow, that's great. Were you part of the chairlift that Jimmy Burroughs started for us?
Starting point is 00:43:03 Yeah. Both you guys were there. I remember it was one of the best moments Mary said in the entire wedding was when, I guess it's a Jewish tradition. It's a Jewish tradition, yeah, where they lift you up in a chair. But it was so tangibly being supported literally
Starting point is 00:43:21 by people you love and who love you in that moment was so symbolic. Yeah it's a wonderful thing. Yeah it was a great event Martha's Vineyard. It was a lovely lovely event. Yeah. You guys put on. And it worked. Yeah I know. I know it was fantastic. We met on a movie. It could be rare you get the president as your best man or whatever. Well yeah there was all that going on. It cut down on paparazzi. Yeah, it did, didn't it? Cruise missiles around. Right.
Starting point is 00:43:48 Yeah. Pretty amazing. Yeah, that was a good weekend. Where'd you meet Kate? Are you guys living in Nashville? No, used to have a place there. Ah, got it. Because Mary's writing music a lot.
Starting point is 00:44:00 That's what I thought, yeah, yeah. That's great stuff. How'd you meet Kate? We met on a flight to England. She was a flight crew for Virgin Atlantic. Did you make the move? Yeah, let me tell you. It went pretty great.
Starting point is 00:44:15 Then what? Well, we were talking and we just ended up sort of chatting. She made me a drink, you know, and I thought, boy, I'm in the mood for a B-52. Do you guys ever remember a B-52? Well, they didn't have those ingredients on the plane, but they did have Benedictine and brandy and I thought, well, okay, that's a B&B, they call it, and I thought, yeah, put a little cream in that, a little bit of Kahlua, I think that's going to be a great drink.
Starting point is 00:44:38 So we started with that and then we started talking. I got up to the, went to the bar on the plane and we talked through the night and arranged to, you know, have a coffee maybe a few days after I got there because I was going to see if I wanted to do La Casha Fall on Broadway, take the production from London to New York. And I had to rehearse a little bit. We were going to do kind of a weird little commercial thing that was, of course, I never saw it. It just seemed like a very odd thing to do.
Starting point is 00:45:06 But so I was busy for a couple of days and then I got a message at the hotel, give Kate a call. So I gave her a call. And what year is this? This is 2009. Wow. Yeah, I think so. I think I was 54.
Starting point is 00:45:17 It was great. It was just great. And, you know, I was in my previous relationship had gone kind of belly up, you know, I was in my previous relationship, it got kind of belly up, you know. There were some issues, there was some stuff going on that wasn't really fun or good. And I knew that it was probably going to have to end. I'd had a heart attack. That was not a great experience, but it was actually a very positive experience in the end because it made me realize what I wanted. And I was doing a show called Hank at the time,
Starting point is 00:45:48 not very funny, and I knew it. And so we'd finished shooting the, I think I even directed it, I thought it was the ninth episode. And it just wasn't funny. No, a terrific writer named Collie had come from everybody loves Raymond. His rhythms and stuff like that were not mine.
Starting point is 00:46:08 And there was just no way for us to gel. I couldn't make his stuff funny. He couldn't write funny for me. So that's what happened. And I called Peter over at Warner Brothers. We were at Warner Brothers at the time. And I said, Peter, you got to put a bullet in this show. I mean, I'm sorry, man. It's not funny. We got to end this.
Starting point is 00:46:24 He says, I have obligations. I gotta shoot at least the first 13 and then see what happens, because I've got Farron I've sold it to and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he says, I'm sorry, I wish I could help you out. Literally the next morning, the head of ABC at the time called and put a bullet in it.
Starting point is 00:46:39 Wow. And one hour later, I got a call from Barry Weiser in New York City. He says, what are you doing? Are you busy? I said, as it turns out, I'm not busy. And he said, I want you to fly to London and see this as this production for me.
Starting point is 00:46:53 So in about eight hours, my whole life was gonna change and I knew it was. And I knew when I got on that plane that I was going to a new life and I met Kate. Wow. Yeah. I love that and I met Cain. Wow. Yeah. I love that. It was pretty cool.
Starting point is 00:47:08 I love love stories. Yeah, it was pretty great. Oh, and I'll go even further. This is fantastic. So what happened was we go for this cup of coffee and I'm in a bar. I mean, I'm in a hotel that at the time it used to be the, it was the Mandarin Oriental.
Starting point is 00:47:24 It had been the something, the Hyde Park or something before that. And it used to have a great restaurant. That was gone. All that was over. It had been shifted into a kind of a new kind of Mandarin hipster kind of place. I walked in and I checked in. The concierge looks at me and there's about a six foot eight Russian girl with hardly any clothing on.
Starting point is 00:47:46 And he looked at me and said, Mr. Krammer, you know, anything you'd like, anything at all. I was like, oh dear, this is not going to go well if I accept this guy's offer. So I said, thank you very much. That's very kind of you. No, thank you. And I just headed up to my little room. So as I came down to meet Kate for our drink, I looked in the bar and it was just loaded with what clearly was a professional group. Hard working. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:18 I thought there is no way I'm going to meet this girl here. So I walked down to the street and I just waited for her. I knew she'd be getting out of the tube stop right below Harvey Nichols. So I'm sitting there, or standing there rather, in the little median between the hotel and Harvey Nichols and sure enough she comes up and I see her and she stops and re-applies her lipstick.
Starting point is 00:48:42 Then she's doing that, she notices I'm there standing there. And she's like, oh, shit. And I said, listen, I don't want to take you for a drink in there. Let's go take a walk. And it was just before Christmas, so they had the winter wonderland thing that they do in Hyde Park. And we started walking toward the park. And the snow started to fall.
Starting point is 00:49:02 I looked at her and I said, this is just, this is too perfect. And we had our first kiss and we got together a while later. I don't really know her, but she looks beautiful. I love her smile. She's a great girl. She's a great girl. That's so cool. Well done.
Starting point is 00:49:20 Thank you. And I love the stepping on the boat story. I know that's what the boat was. And you know what? It's nice to have your mate care that much about you. Yeah, right. No, I don't want to lose you. So, here are the rules.
Starting point is 00:49:34 It was great. Yeah, that was really great. I ran into you then, Kels, and you were just about ready to start that. I remember, I was in London, right But I I had a sense that I met Kate man. You might have you might have said hello then Yeah, I think did we go have we had a martini at the American bar, right? Yeah
Starting point is 00:50:04 Yeah, she probably I didn't know I didn she's with you. Yeah, she probably was. But I didn't know she, I didn't know you guys had just started that. Well, we actually, that was the prologue. And then we actually waited about seven or eight months, almost a full year before things really shifted. But by then, my previous wife had gone off to, you know, she was involved with somebody else.
Starting point is 00:50:28 And that was fine, you know. That's what happened. That's okay. But I needed to make sure we did it as best as I could because as I said to Kate when I first met her, I said, you're too important to be somebody's secret. And I don't want to do that to you, so we're going to have to play this above board and take our time.
Starting point is 00:50:49 So we did. It was a long time before we got, you know, actually, I guess the best word is consummated. But when we did it was finally, that was a good thing. You know, it wasn't anything we had to like hang our heads about or even dodge, you know, it wasn't anything we had to like hang our heads about or even dodge in a weird way, yeah. So you like, you had this discipline about this, you wanted to make sure.
Starting point is 00:51:14 Yeah, the other head. The other, the other. A man of few minds. I never would have guessed that that happened that way. I mean, maybe you're just now telling it this way because you have to officially, I don't know. I've had that. I remember, I think it was Robin Williams who said-
Starting point is 00:51:30 You're dancing on the street and the snow is coming down. It was amazing, that was amazing. But that's where it ended that night. I think Robin Williams is one who said, a man doesn't have enough blood flow for two heads at the same time. Yeah, that's exactly right.
Starting point is 00:51:49 The nun over here is blushing. Well, I remember some stories that weren't so nun-like. I'm trying to push the nun story. Okay. They're bad nuns. They're bad nuns. Sure. Nuns who go wrong. Bad habit.
Starting point is 00:52:14 Hey, you, uh, I, this, we're talking about all those things that you, you know, you're not supposed to talk about. We did a little bit of politics, not much, but you, uh, I notice, credit, not credit, but religion as part of what enabled you to put it all together or move on or heal yourself. Is that anything to talk about? I was having an abiding sense of faith that it was an interesting thing. It was a sort of a wrestling match, you know, that was like, oh, I still hear you over there. But I grew up in Christian science. As a little boy.
Starting point is 00:52:51 As a little boy, yeah, Sunday school. And maintained it. And my grandmother or her aunt, my grandmother's aunt actually kind of knew Mary Baker Eddy, who was, you know, the progenitor of that discipline of examining the miracles of Jesus through this lens of science and faith at the same time, which is pretty fascinating and very metaphysical and the kind of stuff that appeals to my head anyway. And so I was brought up in that. I hung on to it.
Starting point is 00:53:22 I mean, I read it every day, almost even through the bad times. Sin, disease and death are not real. All is infinite mind and it's infinite manifestations. Stuff like that just kept me alive. It kept me connected. It was very empowering. Yeah, it really was. And so I maintained that.
Starting point is 00:53:40 Now, my active faith, my relationship with Jesus, if you will, was not something I was even comfortable declaring. It wasn't something we did. That's not the way we talk, basically, the Christian scientists. And so it always seemed a little odd to me. And then when I was writing the book about Karen, I had this wild moment on a plane where Jesus is sitting down right next to me and talking to me.
Starting point is 00:54:09 And it was undeniably true and real and reassuring and uplifting. And I got to surrender. I started to tears were just dripping down my face on a plane all by myself. Well, I mean, there's people around, but it was an extraordinary moment. And it just was that thing, that thing that happens, you know. And suddenly it was revealed to me and there I was. And I guess I was saved. But he'd been there all along. Right. And that was the real trick. Because I'd been fighting the fight of like, well, I've got this.
Starting point is 00:54:46 I got this. And then of course, he was basically saying, no, I got it. Because I can. And that was great. It was fantastic. And at the same time, I did that movie, Jesus Revolution, which got a lot of response and a lot of good feedback. But I was having a kind of a meditative evening in my home one night in my living room about 3 a.m.
Starting point is 00:55:17 and I thought to myself, I want to do something that's important, something important. I don't know what it is, but I just sort of just gave up and said, you know, guide me. This is before I had the sort of the moment with Jesus on the plane and the next morning the Jesus Revolution script came to the door. I sat down, read it and said, yeah, I'm doing it. And it was a big thing for me. Wow, I have to see that. It's good. It's a good movie.
Starting point is 00:55:44 Yeah. And it's actually what's funny is that at the time in our lives that we would, you'd probably remember because it was 72. And I remember in Florida there were these girls, I just came off the beach. I'm just standing there, I'm just watching the waves because I was surfing then. And these two magnificent women come out off the beach and say, hi, have you met Jesus? Well, I'm ready.
Starting point is 00:56:10 I'd like to. Where are we going? Which one of you is she? Who's close here? But what was funny was because I had that sort of ongoing relationship with Christian science at the time, and I was always still reading it, I said to them, well honestly I think I have.
Starting point is 00:56:29 And they said, well we're going to go to a service right now, we're going to just praise the Lord, blah, blah, blah, we're born again. And I thought, well good for you, that's great. But I said, honestly I'm okay, I sure was tempted. But that was what it was about, that whole movement. All those young people getting baptized and looking for meaning in a world where everything had sort of taken a spiral into hallucinogenics
Starting point is 00:56:55 and stuff like that. That was pretty popular then. I don't think I use the same words, but who does, as you? But I have the same exact feeling. One of my moments that was really kind of quite lovely for me was being on a small aircraft. It was a twin prop, Cape Air, you know, those little things. And they were expanding into Indiana and we were campaigning and we got the VIP treatment where the pilot came running out and said, we're gonna beat the storm, come on Ted, come on Mary.
Starting point is 00:57:34 And so the VIP treatment always sucks. Little questionable. Yeah, don't do it. Don't be making mistakes. And we got on the plane and it was a massive storm system that was sweeping the entire north south of the United States. And we flew smack dab into it.
Starting point is 00:57:53 And it was, you couldn't see out the airplane. It was pure white. It was thunderous from the rain. Mary cracked two ribs from the turbulence and the bouncing. You had to hold on as if you were riding a, you know, I've never ridden one, but a bull, you know, it was that kind of bouncy.
Starting point is 00:58:14 And usually when you're with your mate, one of you will be in fear and maybe the other one isn't. So the one who isn't can go, it's okay. We're gonna make it. That's right. We looked at each other and neither one of us could say, we're gonna make it. And I remember, it's not that I only pray
Starting point is 00:58:33 in scary situations, but we tend to. Turbulence brings out Jesus very quickly. But I remember saying, putting myself in your hands, Lord. Right. And, you know, and, you know, our please watch after, and then our whatever, how I phrase it in my head. And then the next thought was, you've always been in his hands, her hands, whatever.
Starting point is 00:59:01 Whatever you want to call it. Whatever you want to call it. Father, mother, brother. And it relaxed me so much. It's brilliant. That it wasn't, you hands, whatever. Whatever you want to call it. Whatever you want to call it. Mother, mother. And it relaxed me so much. It's brilliant. That it wasn't, you know, anyway. Yeah. No, it's, you know.
Starting point is 00:59:11 There's that thing again, you know, there it is. Mortality is not a bad thing. Yeah. Gravity is not a bad thing. If it weren't for gravity and mortality, we'd all be partying like crazy and we wouldn't have a spiritual thought in our head. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:59:26 But yeah, are we lucky? Are we lucky, really? Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I grew up quite, you know, religious and quite, quite, you know, I was Christian and then. But you even trained, sorry, Woody, I don't know if Kelsey knows this, but you trained to be a priest.
Starting point is 00:59:52 Is that not right? Or started it? I was thinking about becoming a minister, yeah. Oh, I can see that. We weren't Catholic. Right. we weren't Catholic. But you know, I had given some, a couple of sermons and up to when I was in my early 20s. And, but then just before I moved to New York,
Starting point is 01:00:25 I suddenly found a new religion, hedonism. And, uh, it was just right on time. And, uh, but anyway, I, I, I had a long time where I just wasn't sure. You know, we got, I don't know that I've ever talked with you guys about religion or Christianity, but, but I, I really, I had a long time where I was just know that I've ever talked with you guys about religion or Christianity, but I had a long time where I was just like, I don't know what the situation is. So I'm just going to say I don't know. I'm going to back off from my whole rather, you know, religious, uh, mentality.
Starting point is 01:01:07 And then I read, ironically, I read autobiography of a yogi and I was like, okay, Paramahansa Yogananda is either a fraud and a, and a total fate. Or he's exactly what he appears to me, deeply spiritual man who is telling the truth, which means there is a God. And so that's why I don't discount what you're saying, like, but to say you were sitting on a plane and then Jesus was next to you, I really need you to kind of, did, I mean, you felt like you physically saw Him sitting in the seat next to you. No, no, no.
Starting point is 01:01:52 No, I guess I could have, but you know, that wasn't what I needed at the time. It was clearly in my head, but it was unmistakably the voice of something other than in my head or me. Right. And that was the energy. You were hearing the voice is something other than in my head or me. And that was the energy. You're hearing the voice. Yeah. It was a conversation that was not being dictated by me. Right.
Starting point is 01:02:15 Yeah. It was just there. Wow. To let me have it. That seemed. Yeah. It was remarkable. And then of course, I look back to all the other things that have happened in my life and recognize it. I see the footsteps, the fingerprints. And I go, oh, okay.
Starting point is 01:02:32 Because it is a miracle that all three of us are here. Yeah, absolutely. Truly, I mean, then it's silly way. It's a miracle. Yeah, no, no. I remember what my- Especially Kels. Yeah, especially Kels.
Starting point is 01:02:43 Thanks. Bless you. We're still working on you, Woody. what my mother came home to to die she had a choice of going to the hospital she had really bad pneumonia and she went no no you know one to come home good for her and for two weeks she had the the most, she had the passing the last weeks of her, this is how she wanted to go. There were nuns that she knew from Colorado who came down and sang evening prayers every night with her and hung out with her. People hoping Navajo would come say goodbye to her,
Starting point is 01:03:24 who knew her. It was like the perfect passing for her. And I remember I had the night shift, my sister did the days and she lived next door and I would be there after she had really kind of, could no longer be really present, but her body was still going. And I remember looking at her and realizing that that moment of, I don't know,
Starting point is 01:03:55 all of my readings, my teachings, my philosophy, all the things that mentors have told me, all the things that I've used to heal over the years went flying out the window. And I went, I don't know, she may or she may be about to, but I don't, I really truly don't know. And it boiled down for me to kind of try to do the best you can in every moment. Cause you do know what the best choice is in every moment.
Starting point is 01:04:30 Yeah, you do. You really do. And if you just, you know, slow down and listen and try to do the best thing, that's as much as I know. Try to be a little better every day, you know. That's good. And that to me, I can wrap my brain about. Yeah. Around. Oh, bless you. But that to me, I can wrap my brain around.
Starting point is 01:04:46 But I know there's something. You try to explain how this planet and this universe could possibly be if you didn't put something higher than ourselves. It's really funny. Bless your mom. I was just thinking about your mom. That's a beautiful story, actually. But even the most advanced string theory guys that exist
Starting point is 01:05:14 say, oh, no, there's something. Yeah, of course there is. Here's why I love that we're all kind of in the business of making people laugh, you know, or find something witty or, you know, ironic or something in life, that we all, hearing that story, and then I walk out the door and I think,
Starting point is 01:05:35 I'm in control of my day and I actually know, you know? It's so, no! Right, right. But I do think we're meant to enjoy the ride and we're supposed to have free will. We are definitely here for free will. And then, so we get to make a choice. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:52 Some of us are maybe not gonna choose wisely. You know? And some of us are lucky to turn around and make. To be around long enough to get to make the right choice. Yeah, that's my story. What a great life you have, Kelsey Grammer, really. Thank you, you too. Yeah, yeah, us too.
Starting point is 01:06:10 What a wonderful thing to be, just to spend time with you, Kelsey. I don't get to see you enough, man. Every time I see you is great. It's always a real occasion when we get together. I always love it, I love seeing you. You always got something going on, your brain's always thinking some way when we get together. I always love it. I love seeing you. You always got something going on. Your brain's always thinking some way
Starting point is 01:06:27 that most people's don't. It is a joy to know you. And it always has been. And the feeling is mutual. Yeah, you too, Kelce. You too, I love you very much. I love you too. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:06:38 I love you. That's good. You know what? We should just do a little moment of thank you, Jimmy, Les, and Glenn. Yeah, absolutely. You know, we've should just do a little moment of, thank you, Jimmy, Les and Glenn. Yeah, absolutely. We've all gone on and done many other amazing things and our life isn't only cheers, but without cheers,
Starting point is 01:06:53 I would not be sitting here talking to you guys. I would not be pretty much doing anything in my career. It was such an amazing platform for us to jump off of. That's what the everybody knows your name thing. They burnt our careers. Yeah, they did. They did, yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:07:09 Yeah. Yeah. Kelsey Grammer, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed it. I had the best hour and a half that I've had in weeks. It was just so sweet. Cheers gave us such a platform to jump off into life and it was fun to reminisce. Anyway, that's it for this
Starting point is 01:07:30 week's show. Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco. If you enjoyed this episode, please send it to a friend, subscribe, rate, and if you're in a good mood, review. And you can always watch full episodes of this podcast on team Coco's YouTube channel if that's your thing I'll be right back here next week everybody knows your name you've been listening to where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson Woody Harrelson sometimes the show is produced by me Nick Liao executive producers are Adam Sachs, Colin Anderson, Jeff Ross, and myself. Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer.
Starting point is 01:08:11 Our senior producer is Matt Apodaca. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grahl. Talent cooking by Paula Davis and Gina Battista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antony Genn, Mary Steenburgen, and John Osborne. Special thanks to Willie Navarra. We'll have more for you next time, where everybody knows your name.

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