Original Publication: Visions of Gray VOG1995@aol.com Original Date: February 1995 Volume 4, Number 6. Original Interviewer: Jeff Elbel Transcribed by: Marty Lick martyl@emsphone.com Weird names such as Spike Jones, Allan Sherman, and Stan Freeberg are familiar to fans of the odd and the ridiculed. They haven't ever been numerous, but they have always been there: music's societal jesters, with their barking dogs, their ding-a-lings, they're coming to take me away... Another name that is sure to be included on that list in future generations is "Weird Al" Yankovic, author of "Like a Surgeon," "Eat It," "Smells Like Nirvana," "Fat," and many other spoofs of things ripe for such abuse. Now there are movies, boxed sets of CDs, collector's items, music videos... all because he could rag someone particularly hard. Leech? Maybe. Abuse? Yeah. Just? Absolutely. Al's plans for a career in architecture took turn in 1979, when he dragged a microphone and his accordion into the acoustically tiled bathroom across the hall from the Cal Poly radio station where he worked as a disc jockey. "My Bologna," a parody of The Knack's hit single, "My Sharona," became a big favorite on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento radio show. It wouldn't be Al's last "big favorite" to air on the program. Fifteen years later, the tireless and prolific entertainer has released a four-CD collection of those favorites. "Permanent Record: Al in the Box" includes all of Al's popular parodies, and many of his whimsical and warped original numbers. And now here we are in 1995, with "Jurassic Park" and a fifteen-year retrospective. In an attempt to get a comedian to be somewhat retrospective himself, VOG's Jeff Elbel cornered Yankovic with an arsenal of Barbara Walters question. -ed. JE: Is there any potential for someone else to come along and have a career similar to yours at this point? Al: Gee, I hope not (laughs)! I enjoy having the genre pretty much to myself at this point. I don't want to discourage people from doing parodies but I think that there are only so many satirists and parody artists that a given generation can support. If there were five Weird Al's out there doing parodies of songs, I think there would be a lot of redundancy. There are people who do similar things. A lot of radio stations have morning DJs making parodies. In fact, there are several national comedy services that supply those DJs with their material. I guess I'm the only one that's taking it to this scale, though, with big budget videos and albums on a major label. JE: After fifteen years of being essentially the one person that people recognize in parody and music comedy, does it still seem like a lot of fun, and blasted lucky, to be doing this? Has it ever become "the job?" Al: It's always been fun. I don't take it lightly; I'm serious about what I do, and I pay a lot of attention to detail, but it's absolutely still fun. Every day, I consider myself lucky that I'm able to be Weird Al for a living. I'm able to do comedy. I'm able to do music. I'm able to do everything that I would be doing anyway, just for fun. JE: Except that it would be balanced against the rigors and time constraints of, say, life as an architect. Al: I consider myself extremely fortunate, especially when I look at things from that context. I could be designing buildings right now, which is something I actually grew to despise (laughs). JE: Do you ever feel the need to take a break from what you do? Al: I kind of build vacations into my touring and promotional schedule. As an odd example, I was just asked to be a judge on Star Search with Ed McMahon. They flew me to Florida and put me up for the weekend. I got to hang out at Disneyworld. That was my vacation, but I didn't go to have a vacation. I _make_ things into vacations. It's actually a pretty cool show. Ed is a really sweet guy. It kind of blew my mind, having had a certain image of Ed McMahon over all the years of the Johnny Carson show, and all of the "Ed jokes". He and his wife gave me this gift package just for showing up in Orlando, and they invited us all out for dinner after the show; stuff he didn't have to do, obviously. JE: I saw your show in October at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. In addition to being extremely versatile musically, your band does a great job supporting your comic images. I still recall seeing your guitarist, Jim West, in his cowboy outfit from the "Dare to be Stupid" video years ago. Somehow, that struck me as really funny and yet very cool at the time. He seemed to be having fun. Al: I like to make him dress up. He wears a cowboy outfit now when we do "Achy Breaky Song." JE: I noticed he wasn't onstage at the House of Blues wearing one of the giant cone bras during "Like a Surgeon." Was he afraid Madonna might rush the stage? Al: He wore one up until that night. Finally, he said, "Al, you know, I've got friends coming to the show." I'm not going to wear the cones, I'm sorry.: He had another friend get onstage and wear them! JE: That's hilarious! After ten years in the band, being forced into various ridiculous or semi-humiliating situations, he finally drew the line. Al: (laughs) Yeah, that was the first time. He's put up with quite a lot. I ask my band to do a lot of ridiculous things, and I guess that was finally too much for him. JE: Jim's mega-brasierred substitute was your harmonica player, wasn't it? Al: That was Bob Ebersole. He doesn't really go out on the road with us. He works in my manager's office, coordinates travel with the band, get equipment loaded, and so forth. He also happens to be an excellent drummer and harmonica player. Since it was a local show, we invited him on stage to play harp on "Generic Blues," and since he was coming anyway, we figured, "We'll make him wear the cone bra!" JE: Your press info says that "Off the Deep End" has sold over 800,00 copies. It has a breakaway hit single to parody with Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Alapalooza has done very well, too, even though you lead off with "Jurassic Park," a parody of Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park" from the 70s. How risky did that seem at the time? Al: I didn't think I had a home run on that album, but I felt like we had a couple of triples. I thought that doing the Jimmy Webb song was a risk because it's not an MTV friendly song, which we found out when we submitted it to MTV! They played it a few times, and then just yanked it, because it wasn't really part of their sound. The Box played it incessantly, and MuchMusic in Canada played it all the time. "Jurassic Park" was a top five song in Canada. Alapalooza went platinum in Canada. Then, we backed that up with "Bedrock Anthem," and of course the Chili Peppers are very MTV-friendly. That was in heavy rotation. The combination of the two songs made Alapalooza work commercially. JE: The new parody on your Permanent Record boxed retrospective, "Headline News," is the funniest thing I've heard in ages. The Crash Test Dummies song comes off well with the band, and the subject matter was just begging to be used this whole year. Al: Somebody had to do it, and I guess it was me! What happened was that I was writing originals for our next real studio album. We're actually about to start recording. In the meantime, my record label, as they are wont to do, said, "You know, we need a big fourth quarter Christmas release from you." I said, "I'd love to help you, but I don't think I can finish the album in time." So they said, "We're going to put out a boxed set." I know there are completists out there that will buy anything with my name on it even though they already have all the other stuff. I always feel kind of weird about that. That's the reason I also made sure "Headline News" would be available on CD single and cassette single, so if someone wants a complete collection they don't have to go out and spend fifty bucks or whatever on the set. JE: Originally, though, the single was planned for the next full-length Weird Al record? Al: "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" was one of two or three songs that I'd hear this year and thought, "This would be really good to do for the next album, and when the time is right, I'll think of something." At the same time, I wasnm't giving it too much thought, because we do the originals first, and we'll do the parodies later. Then, when we were halfway into the thick of production on the boxed set, the label said, "Oh, by the way, we do need a new single." I said, "Ah, well, you know, it doesn't really work that way. The time has to be right, you can't force this. You have to wait for the right phenomenon, and do this and do that," which is my normal speech. They were holding firm that we'd have to can the boxed set if I couldn't think of something. So, I was prepared to cancel it. Then, I was giving the Crash Test Dummies more thought, and it occurred to me that all the weird news stories that were going on this year would fit perfectly with the vignettes in the song. I figured that was great! If I do it now, it's topical; if I wait 'til next year when the next album comes out, it's not going to be as fresh. So it makes sense to do it now, and put it out with the boxed set. It's the best of all worlds. JE: Your new video for "Headline News" is a lot fun. I recognized Dr. Demento, and Judy Tenuta as Lorena Bobbit. I understand that you directed it. Al: It was a two day shoot; one long night in an ice rink for the Tonya and Nancy stuff, and one long day at an elementary school auditorium for everything else. We ran a little over time. It's a real expensive video, which blew my mind, because there's not much to it. You'd think it wouldn't be that much. Without giving you the actual number, I couldn't recorded two albums, probably, for what it cost to do that one video. That's the problem with music videos in general. It's mind boggling the amount of money you can spend in two days, because you have an army working for you. Everything adds up. JE: Can you give any hints about the new gags, or perhaps tell if there are any specific bands you're going after with a new style parody? Al: It's a little premature to say. The main comment from friends that I've run the lyrics by is that I'm getting more sick than I used to be! So, maybe I'm just going too far off the deep end or something. The new things are kind of out there. JE: Sickness aside, it's worth noting that while many comedians cash in with risque or off-color humor, you've worked "clean" over the years. It's allowed your fan base to encompass all ages, from adults to kids. Al:I don't use profanity or overt sexuality; it's pretty clean, but some of my humor does tend to be a little sick! I was a sick kid, you know? It's not like I'm talking about stuff they haven't thought about. JE: Your movie, _UHF_, has a pretty good underground following. Do you plan to do any more features in the near future? Al: Actually, I just finished writing a twenty-five page treatment for a movie for a cable network. Apparently, they're very interested in a low budget Weird Al feature, which I would write and star in, and possibly direct. It's still in the developmental stages, they haven't actually written me a check yet. JE: How low is low budget? Al: About half the budget of _UHF_, and _UHF_ was a very low budget movie to begin with. So, it's a pretty darn low budget! JE: Is there a possibility of taking over MTV again for another Al Tv segment? Al: I don't know when the next one's going to be. Those take a lot of time, because I write them all myself. I don't have a writing team or anything like that. We wanted to do an Al TV when Alapalooza came out, and MTV, for some reason, wasn't in to it. Maybe it was because "Jurassic Park" was the single, and they weren't behind that. It might be because of Beavis and Butthead. I think MTV considers them the official video commentators du jour. Hard to say, really. JE: Here's an obscure question on behalf of the magazine's editing staff. Once before, you mentioned that you liked Tonio K. What's your favorite of his? Al: Oh, I love Tonio K. Actually, I've listened to some of his newer stuff, and I like it all right, but his first two albums really just blew my mind. I think they were _Amerika_, and the other one might have just been called Tonio K. I don't remember. He was a lot more of an "angry young man" back then; really wild, weird stuff. JE: Listening to your boxed set reminded me of how much I enjoyed some of your less popular material that I hadn't heard in a while. I've always loved that great feel-bad line from "Generic Blues:" "I'd flush myself right down the toilet, but I'd just clog up the drain." Al: We played one of our best performances of that song at our House of Blues show. I was feeling really cool about playing that song at the House of Blues. JE: The "Blind Lemon Yankovic" routine, dark glasses, and accordion mad you guys look authentic. The band was really into that one. Al: They're a very, very good band. I wonder sometimes if they get less respect than they really deserve, because of the whole "Weird Al" novelty connection. Anybody that really listens to us know they're good, from the simple fact that their range is so wide. They play everything from polkas to punk to country to blues. They do it all, and they're good at what they do. They make me look good.