Sheryl Crow | Club Random Classics with Bill Maher

In this week’s Club Random Classics, Bill sits down with Sheryl Crow for a candid conversation about the insanity of becoming famous at a young age, why streaming has upended the music business, and the surprising things that still make him cry. They discuss the legendary artists who have championed Sheryl throughout her career—from Prince and Michael Jackson to Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger—as well as her songwriting, her secret to holding onto her money, a conversation with Kid Rock in the aftermath of a national tragedy, Bill’s personal Sheryl Crow playlist, and which artist he thinks is most like his dog, Chico. This episode originally aired on March 24, 2024 Subscribe to the Club Random YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/clubrandompodcast?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch episodes ad-free – subscribe to Bill Maher’s Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://billmaher.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you listen: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/ClubRandom⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Buy Club Random Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clubrandom.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices ABOUT CLUB RANDOM Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did in television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random. There’s a whole big world out there that isn’t about politics and Bill and his guests—from Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld to Jordan Peterson, Quentin Tarantino and Neil DeGrasse Tyson—talk about all of it. For advertising opportunities please email: [email protected] ABOUT BILL MAHER Bill Maher was the host of “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC) from 1993-2002, and for the last fourteen years on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 40 Emmy nominations. Maher won his first Emmy in 2014 as executive producer for the HBO series, “VICE.” In October of 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher’s uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous.” Maher has written five bestsellers: “True Story,” “Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? Politically Incorrect’s Greatest Hits,” “When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden,” “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer,” and most recently, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” FOLLOW CLUB RANDOM https://www.clubrandom.com https://www.facebook.com/Club-Random-101776489118185 https://twitter.com/clubrandom_ https://www.instagram.com/clubrandompodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@clubrandompodcast FOLLOW BILL MAHER https://www.billmaher.com https://twitter.com/billmaher https://www.instagram.com/billmaher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 1:00Bill Maher?

  I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of Green in all its forms. Get it? And for fellow lovers of, well, Green, the Club Random merch store has you covered. Grinders, papers, and Zippo lighters. All designed to support your relationship with Green, wink, wink, whatever. And whatever philosophy comes with that for you. Head to clubrandom.com and bring home some random. Well, this week on Club Random Classics, Sheryl Crow. Wow, 30 years in the music business usually leaves people either crazy, bitter, or both. No, Sheryl somehow avoided all of that. We talk about music, and fame, and relationships,

• 1:43Bill Maher?

  and kids, and cancer, and getting older, and how to survive in an industry designed to drive people nuts. She's amazing. I love her. Smart, funny, honest, everything you'd want. And exactly why this was such a good episode and a conversation. And if you haven't already, subscribe to Club Random. Wherever you get your podcasts, do so and watch full episodes on YouTube. New episodes every Monday, with Club Random Classics every third Thursday.

• 2:14Speaker 03

  So nice. I'm not, I didn't expect a suit.

• 2:16Bill Maher?

  For you. For you, well, it's not, it's not a suit.

• 2:19Speaker 03

  I know, but you know.

• 2:20Bill Maher?

  Uh, but I did that for you.

• 2:21Speaker 03

  I'm very impressed. I, I wore my rock tee for you.

• 2:24Bill Maher?

  Also, full disclosure, because it's kind of cold in here.

• 2:27Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 2:28Bill Maher?

  So I'm like, oh, I can, uh, but no. Are you kidding? You know, the coolest booking we ever had, don't ever say that to the other guests. Although, you know what? Every other guest I've ever had, and we've had some of the coolest people I've ever heard.

• 2:38Speaker 03

  You've had cool people in here.

• 2:39Bill Maher?

  They would still agree with that. No one would say, no, that's not the coolest booking. Really?

• 2:43Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 2:44Bill Maher?

  Well, I'm such a fan.

• 2:46Speaker 03

  I'm, I'm excited to hear that you are getting ready to have Kid Rock at the Ryman.

• 2:52Bill Maher?

  And you see that, that's, I compare my dog to Kid Rock.

• 2:56Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 2:57Bill Maher?

  Because he barks at nothing. So, my friend.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  I love that.

• 3:01Bill Maher?

  My genius friend.

• 3:02Speaker 03

  That is hilarious.

• 3:03Bill Maher?

  Made that. That, my dog has one eye, that is my dog, with the kid, isn't that awesome?

• 3:08Speaker 03

  I was hearing about your dogs. Are these their bams over here?

• 3:11Bill Maher?

  No, that's because this is a hippie, um, class.

• 3:14Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 3:14Bill Maher?

  Do you remember this show, Politically Incorrect?

• 3:17Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, of course.

• 3:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 3:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, of course.

• 3:19Bill Maher?

  So, like, I was thinking, because I watched your documentary.

• 3:23Speaker 03

  You didn't want to kill yourself afterwards?

• 3:24Bill Maher?

  Why? No, it brought me to tears, the ending. I thought, when it was like, like, 20 minutes to the end, like, then you, we'd meet your kids. Like, I'm not a kid person, so I was like, oh.

• 3:37Speaker 03

  You're like, wah, wah.

• 3:38Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but it was great.

• 3:39Speaker 03

  Not that kids.

• 3:40Bill Maher?

  Not the kids. But it was okay, you did it well. And then moved on, and the ending at, was it Bonnaroo? Bonnaroo, or what is it?

• 3:48Speaker 03

  Oh, Bonnaroo.

• 3:49Bill Maher?

  Bonnaroo. I mean, what a great ending for a documentary, which is, I did one, you know, you're always looking for an ending. And, um, that, you know, you think, you get out there, there's nobody there a half hour before the show. And you were like, oh, I'm a legacy act now, you know, and, and the kids are over me. And then it's this, in a half hour, the sea of people, and you said you were looking at your band like, can you guys believe?

• 4:14Speaker 03

  I know, literally, it's like, they let us out of the old folks home, and look, they've let all the kids come out into the parking lot.

• 4:19Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but, you know, you, I, I can't believe you ever thought you were ever out of style.

• 4:25Speaker 03

  It's weird, I mean, you know, you've been around for a long ti- I don't, I don't know if you feel this way, but now, listen. I, and I've said this a thousand times, my 13-year-old, when he was nine, he's like, mom. You know you were born in the 1870s. You do get to the point where you feel like, God, I'm aging out of this business, you know?

• 4:42Bill Maher?

  Well, you certainly-

• 4:44Speaker 03

  I did wear my leather pants specifically for Club Random. Just saying.

• 4:48Bill Maher?

  You look great. You always did. You know, you're a rock chick, so, you know, I mean, you were born to be one.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  Oh, my God. Thank you.

• 4:59Bill Maher?

  Really, don't you think? I mean, not just the great music, but also you had the look. And you also had the, what it takes to like, you know, I'm sure, I saw in the documentary, the harassment, which is not surprising, like, I've had girlfriends in this business. One of them said to me, and she's quite, she's quite successful. She said, "I've never met, I've never met a man in this industry who didn't try to have sex with me."

• 5:26Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, that, yeah, uh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know, do you want names, or do you-

• 5:33Bill Maher?

  No, no, but doesn't that just sum it up?

• 5:35Speaker 03

  It is, it is, it is a, it's, it's like a given. I mean, it's a weird business, you know? I was not, I will say, and I, I was older when I made it. Like, really made it. I had already been a schoolteacher. I had to have lots of jobs. Had I been young like they are now, there's no way.

• 5:57Bill Maher?

  If what?

• 5:57Speaker 03

  If I'd, if I'd been young like these kids are now, that are coming up and becoming huge, like Olivia Rodrigo, who's like 20 or 19, and Taylor, who made it when she-

• 6:08Bill Maher?

  And Billie Eilish.

• 6:09Speaker 03

  Billie, oh, there's just no way. I would not be able to deal with that.

• 6:14Bill Maher?

  Well, and you see that they sometimes fumble their way through it. I mean, they actually do better than you might expect, except that those kids, that, that generation, they're so used to, I mean, everyone is sort of famous now. They're so used to, you know, I mean, if anybody was ever prescient, it was Andy Warhol with "Everyone's Gonna Be Famous for 15 Minutes."

• 6:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:33Bill Maher?

  So I don't, I don't think it's that big dive and splash into the pool that it would be-

• 6:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:38Bill Maher?

  -for people in our generation, because they kind of like, were always like, social media, and it just got bigger.

• 6:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. And also, you, you as the artist manipulate it, like, you- You create your brand, you advertise yourself, you sell yourself. And then the music is just a byproduct of that. And you're selling yourself so that you can sell tickets and get advertisers. And just, that was not, that was never part of the way I came up. You know, there just was none of that. In fact, until Bob Dylan did the Victoria's Secret ad, nobody did advertisements or took money for anything, except for playing music and selling records. So it's a different thing.

• 7:20Bill Maher?

  But the main difference is that you can't make money.

• 7:23Speaker 03

  You cannot make money.

• 7:25Bill Maher?

  I mean, how insane is that?

• 7:27Speaker 03

  It makes me sad and sick.

• 7:28Bill Maher?

  I had a very serious relationship with someone who I say was quite success, is quite successful. But the money, I remember I had, I think it was kind of at the behest of her at the time. I did someone at the, at the top interview of my show to, you know, just get this Aloe Black, the artist. And talking about just this issue of like, who was it? Pharrell, I think, had one year had like the biggest song of the year and he made like $12,000.

• 8:00Speaker 03

  I know.

• 8:01Bill Maher?

  I mean, Spotify, would they pay, what, a millionth of a cent for? I mean, it's just, there's no-

• 8:06Speaker 03

  Yes, it makes me so mad.

• 8:07Bill Maher?

  There's no connection to like, oh, I go to the record shop and I gotta choose. I remember once I was standing in Tower Records and I was looking at like, I don't know, but some stranger who don't usually talk to me just said, "Get the Dylan." I was looking at like two albums and one was like the big, this is like 1985.

• 8:29Speaker 03

  I miss that. I miss, we went to the bookstore this morning, or this afternoon. My manager and I walked from the hotel to the bookstore on Sunset. Now, that bookstore, I used to live right down the street from there. And-

• 8:45Speaker 03

  I have so many memories from that bookstore on Sunset.

• 8:47Bill Maher?

  You're talking about book soup?

• 8:49Speaker 03

  Yes, right across from

• 8:50Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 8:50Speaker 03

  what used to be Tower Records. Where I played in the parking lot.

• 8:54Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 8:55Speaker 03

  When I was first

• 8:56Bill Maher?

  You played in the parking?

• 8:57Speaker 03

  newly signed. Oh, it was big, too. Big deal for me to play. I mean, there was probably thirty people there. And I was like, oh, my god.

• 9:04Bill Maher?

  What was the event, though?

• 9:05Speaker 03

  It was my record release.

• 9:07Bill Maher?

  Oh, I see. So they did it at the records?

• 9:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:09Bill Maher?

  It was like a book signing?

• 9:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:10Bill Maher?

  And thirty people showed up?

• 9:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, there was probably thirty or forty people there.

• 9:13Bill Maher?

  That's great that you have that. I mean, it's great.

• 9:15Speaker 03

  I know, but it's just like, for these kids now, it's like, I don't know. I mean, yes, I was born in the eighteen seventies. What can I say? I hate it because for me, when you sold records, you knew you had your people. They're people. They were like into what you're doing. How does it even work now, you know? We just went on TikTok, which I will say I called Tic Tac, and my thirteen-year-old was like,

• 9:44Bill Maher?

  Oh, god, yeah.

• 9:45Speaker 03

  Mom, you just, no.

• 9:47Bill Maher?

  Really, President Biden?

• 9:49Speaker 03

  Literally, literally, yes. They're like, that's so cringey, mom.

• 9:56Bill Maher?

  But we, like, they can do and know things about that phone and that device and that way of life that we don't even know about. We're like a submarine where we lost our sonar. We're flying blind. And so, I mean, I've read this many times. It's a common story that the parents, something happened, usually it's something tragic like a suicide. And the parents are like, oh, my god, we had no idea. And, you know, and then they said, we tried to look. Or they'll go, we looked through the phone. Yeah, they have ways to fool you.

• 10:31Speaker 03

  I know.

• 10:31Bill Maher?

  You are so, you are so basic on this.

• 10:33Speaker 03

  They have fake Snapchats, they have fake Instagrams. The good thing is, I have a young, so my, the young woman that I hired to go on the road with me with my kids when they were really little, is now my assistant. And she does all my social media. She's fantastic. And she's like my, she's like my investigator. Because I don't know how to work anything. And I don't really want to know how to work anything. I really don't want to know. I'm just like, I don't want to know. I like to read books. I like to listen to books, you know.

• 11:12Bill Maher?

  Someday I'm gonna do a show called My Five Wives. I thought of this for a long-

• 11:16Speaker 03

  Have you had five wives?

• 11:17Bill Maher?

  No, I've had no wives. And the reason why I don't have needed any is because I have five different... My assistant...

• 11:27Speaker 03

  I know. I'm honestly like, who needs a husband? I have a great assistant.

• 11:30Bill Maher?

  And then, my great friend who made this, this next door, he goes on the road with me and, you know, he does all the macho stuff. He's like, I have five wives and a husband. You know, like, I can't fix shit. He fixes all the shit, you know, because something's always broken.

• 11:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:48Bill Maher?

  That's a great record. They... You know how you could tell I'm such a fan of your... And not only of your music, but like, we have the same taste. Like, some of the songs you've picked to cover-

• 11:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:58Bill Maher?

  Are like, not obvious ones. Like, Beware of Darkness, I love that. And Everything is Broken, I'm not, I don't, I'm not someone who listens to everything-

• 12:08Speaker 03

  I love that you even know that song.

• 12:10Bill Maher?

  Well, that's what I'm saying.

• 12:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:11Bill Maher?

  You picked songs... Oh, another one, Sign My Name.

• 12:15Speaker 03

  Oh, yes.

• 12:15Bill Maher?

  One Hit Wonder, I remember that, right?

• 12:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 12:19Bill Maher?

  Wasn't Terence Trent D'Arby?

• 12:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 12:20Bill Maher?

  Great record, the whole record-

• 12:22Speaker 03

  That record was great.

• 12:23Bill Maher?

  Yes, and that was the single, I think.

• 12:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was. It was huge.

• 12:26Bill Maher?

  But that, you know, that was a cover that I'm sure most people did not know was a cover.

• 12:31Speaker 03

  Yeah. Oh, well, that's a compliment.

• 12:33Bill Maher?

  Those are all ones that are in my iPod.

• 12:36Speaker 03

  That's... I know, I hear that you still use an iPod, and I love you for it. There I said it.

• 12:40Bill Maher?

  So much better. I mean, I can, first of all, I can edit on it.

• 12:45Speaker 03

  Can edit on it, okay.

• 12:46Bill Maher?

  Yes, you can cut off the beginning and the end. You can make the-

• 12:48Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 12:49Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 12:50Speaker 03

  See, I don't even know how to work an iPod.

• 12:52Bill Maher?

  You were around for the...

• 12:54Speaker 03

  I was, but I didn't know you can edit on it.

• 12:56Bill Maher?

  On your computer, because you do everything on the computer-

• 12:58Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 12:59Bill Maher?

  And then you sync it to the computer.

• 13:01Speaker 03

  Right, okay, you downloaded it to, right?

• 13:03Bill Maher?

  So I love that. I mean, I'm anal. So I like the... I can see exactly the song, and I don't... Streaming with this... You might like, I might not. I want my music, okay? Like, I download records, listen to them, keep the ones I love.

• 13:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:21Bill Maher?

  Discard the rest. There's nothing, there's no waste in there. When I put it on shuffle, it's my 4,000 favorite songs from going back to 1968.

• 13:30Speaker 03

  Now, how do you get turned on to new songs?

• 13:33Bill Maher?

  Anyway, you know, like, you can hear it. I could see it, you know, I'm like.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  So you would hear it and then you go on your computer and download it from like Apple Music, or do you?

• 13:42Bill Maher?

  No, no, no. Yes, iTunes, I pay for it.

• 13:45Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 13:46Bill Maher?

  If I like it.

• 13:46Speaker 03

  So you actually buy the record?

• 13:47Bill Maher?

  I put Pandora.

• 13:49Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 13:49Bill Maher?

  Is it Pandora? Yes, Pandora, which is stupid. I love you Pandora, but you are dumb. You can't do what I can do with playlists. You can only like play songs from like the same era.

• 14:03Speaker 03

  It's algorithms.

• 14:05Bill Maher?

  They don't really have, right. I can put a playlist together from like many different decades, but they all have the same vibe. Pandora, you can't do that, but you're dear to me anyway. Anyway, so I'll like put a station, you know, you pick a song you like. Okay, let's hear the whole station, songs that are like that.

• 14:23Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 14:23Bill Maher?

  That's how I often do it, and then you just hit thumbs up, and then you have a list of new stuff, and you like, usually if I like the song, I'll say, okay, I'm gonna buy, because I buy, like.

• 14:34Speaker 03

  You are committed.

• 14:35Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 14:36Speaker 03

  You are committed.

• 14:37Bill Maher?

  Well, first of all, I think artists should get what they have coming, I'm telling you. I know this intimately.

• 14:42Speaker 03

  I do too.

• 14:44Bill Maher?

  Okay, so I'm gonna do my part. So I buy the album, you can still do that.

• 14:49Speaker 03

  As Emily Lewis Harris says, that's your way of voting.

• 14:51Bill Maher?

  Exactly. And then, you know, sync the iPod. I usually buy three albums like at a time. So then, let's listen to those three, and I'll sync the iPod, and then I'll listen, you know. Listen, look, I know you have a new one. They sent it to me two days ago. First of all, I just don't have time. Second of all, I want to buy this the way, but I bought every one of your albums, and I bought them. They're all good.

• 15:20Speaker 03

  Not all of them.

• 15:23Bill Maher?

  Well, there's good stuff on all of them.

• 15:24Speaker 03

  Okay, thank you.

• 15:24Bill Maher?

  So I take out the ones I like, but your Sheryl Crow playlist is just fantastic. I mean, it's just, it's just one after another, great one.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Oh, thank you.

• 15:33Bill Maher?

  So, all of your hits are like.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 15:37Bill Maher?

  I also love, I don't even know what was a single at my age, you know, like was Abeline, was that a single?

• 15:42Speaker 03

  That was not a single.

• 15:43Bill Maher?

  Okay, that's a great one. I don't even know what it's about, and I love it.

• 15:47Speaker 03

  Thank you. My favorite record, not my favorite record, but the favorite record I've made in a long time. The funnest record I've made was a record called Be Myself.

• 15:58Bill Maher?

  Oh, I haven't, of course.

• 15:59Speaker 03

  I can't believe you have that record. I mean, literally, I think.

• 16:03Bill Maher?

  Was that Roller Skate, is that on that one?

• 16:04Speaker 03

  Yes, yes.

• 16:05Bill Maher?

  Oh, and Lifestyle?

• 16:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:07Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 16:08Speaker 03

  Oh, my God, I can't even believe you.

• 16:09Bill Maher?

  Always on My Side, is that that same record?

• 16:11Speaker 03

  Uh, that one was on.

• 16:12Bill Maher?

  That is a.

• 16:13Speaker 03

  I can't remember what song, what record that was on.

• 16:16Bill Maher?

  Okay, that one, I hate to tell you this. Like, nothing makes me cry, well, not in life, I'm not a crier, but movies can easily, I don't know why.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  You don't cry?

• 16:27Bill Maher?

  Not really over things in life, that's hard, but yes.

• 16:29Speaker 03

  What do you cry over?

• 16:30Bill Maher?

  Like, really, almost any movie that knows how to like hit that thing. I'm a really easy cryer.

• 16:35Speaker 03

  Okay, The Holdovers, I cried at the end of that.

• 16:38Bill Maher?

  The Holdovers.

• 16:38Speaker 03

  Yes, it was the one with, what's his name? About the school, the prep school boy who gets left for Christmas. What's the guy's name that plays in, plays it? Anyway, check it out, I cried at the end of it, it was so weird.

• 16:51Bill Maher?

  Yeah, it's very easy to do that to me. And, but musically, much less so.

• 16:57Speaker 03

  Music, no.

• 16:57Bill Maher?

  And I didn't even know why that song, oh, I guess I do. It's just beautiful, and it just, no, it really moves me to tears, and very few songs, you know what song?

• 17:08Speaker 03

  Which song was it?

• 17:09Bill Maher?

  Always on My Side.

• 17:10Speaker 03

  Always on My Side, oh, thank you.

• 17:12Bill Maher?

  And.

• 17:13Speaker 03

  The Sting version?

• 17:14Bill Maher?

  Both, I have them both, one after another.

• 17:18Speaker 03

  You're good.

• 17:19Bill Maher?

  Yeah, no, he's, it's a great duet. You know what song made me?

• 17:24Speaker 03

  You wanna hear something crazy about that?

• 17:25Bill Maher?

  What?

• 17:28Speaker 03

  We shot the video for that

• 17:33Speaker 03

  four days after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And I was supposed to present at the Grammys with Lance, and we had split a few days before that.

• 17:51Bill Maher?

  Oh, God.

• 17:52Speaker 03

  And Sting went with me to the Grammys.

• 17:55Bill Maher?

  Rough week, huh?

• 17:56Speaker 03

  It was surreal, but Sting was like.

• 18:00Speaker 03

  Literally like Knight in Shining Armor. He's like, "I'll, I'll present with you." And he was like, he, literally, I look at the artwork from that, from that song, and he's like, got his arms around me. I look like a freaking deer in headlights.

• 18:12Bill Maher?

  But you, you are the-

• 18:13Speaker 03

  And that song, you know?

• 18:15Bill Maher?

  You are the, um, teacher's pet for, like, every great male rock star over like thirty years. I mean, spanning the whole thing. I mean, Prince loved you.

• 18:30Speaker 03

  Loved him.

• 18:31Bill Maher?

  And Mick Jagger.

• 18:33Speaker 03

  Loved him.

• 18:34Bill Maher?

  And Dylan. And, you know, all these different, uh, everybody. Michael Jackson. That's great.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  I didn't really know if he even knew who I was. Like, I read into him at the Grammys after I toured with him for eighteen months. And I was just like, "Hey." And he's like, "Hello." And I was like, "I don't think he knows who I am."

• 18:52Bill Maher?

  Um, you weren't his type. Grown.

• 18:56Speaker 03

  But I don't know. I mean, I don't know.

• 18:58Bill Maher?

  Oh, I think we know.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:59Bill Maher?

  Look, I, I'm very, try to be very nonjudgmental. But, I mean, when Oprah threw her a lot in with the accusers, I was like, well, first of all, I believe the accusers, right? I mean, you could just tell. It's, it's not that hard sometimes to tell when people are lying. I just don't think there was enough in it and for these guys to, you know, there's always some money or some fame or something. But, you know, it's really hard

• 19:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:25Bill Maher?

  to go forward even like that, even beginning my, it's, it's, it's, it's an icky thing. But, but he, on stage, he certainly looked like he was a track.

• 19:35Speaker 03

  I would say he was, he was insane. You know, he's one of those people.

• 19:40Bill Maher?

  Well-

• 19:41Speaker 03

  He, I would say, in all the years of my being on the road and working with different artists, and I've been really lucky. But I was new then, didn't have a record deal. And it's the first time I ever started thinking about why some people can-

• 20:01Speaker 03

  Manipulate 60,000 people.

• 20:06Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 20:07Speaker 03

  Physically, like Carlos Santana says, you change the molecules.

• 20:12Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 20:13Speaker 03

  And there's total divinity in that. If you believe in God or you don't, it's an energy thing. I call it divinity because it is divine and it is not explicable. But then there was this whole other thing, this damage. And how a person can hold all of that, I can see why he... I always said he won't live very long. Because you can't be able to have that incredible energy, energetic power, and be that damaged and have that inform who you are in your living, everyday, normal life. It just was insane to watch.

• 20:54Speaker 03

  Because he'd go out and do these moves and sing these songs. And you were just like transported. Like, you were watching something that had never been done before. It's just incredible. I mean, I will never forget feeling how I felt watching him from backstage.

• 21:12Bill Maher?

  Yeah. I did not see that. But I did see the movie they put out posthumously, where he's doing rehearsals for the tour that never happened.

• 21:22Speaker 03

  Right.

• 21:23Bill Maher?

  You saw it.

• 21:23Speaker 03

  I did not see it.

• 21:24Bill Maher?

  You haven't seen that?

• 21:25Speaker 03

  I don't want to...

• 21:26Bill Maher?

  Okay, well, I'll try to make this brief, especially if you're not triggered.

• 21:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:31Bill Maher?

  You know, I mean, this is near the end.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 21:33Bill Maher?

  He's about to go... Remember, was it the O2 in London? He was gonna do...

• 21:36Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 21:37Bill Maher?

  Whoever was the manager, the promoter, who signed him for, what was it, 100 shows? Thinking Michael Jackson was gonna make it through it. And he made it through one.

• 21:47Speaker 03

  I know.

• 21:48Bill Maher?

  It was gonna be a victory.

• 21:49Speaker 03

  He was like Aaron Rodgers.

• 21:50Bill Maher?

  Not since the guy who turned down the Beatles.

• 21:53Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 21:53Bill Maher?

  Was there a worse decision than... Okay, anyway, so he's rehearsing. And, you know, it's intermittently with Dr. Conrad Murray, currently now my personal doctor.

• 22:04Speaker 03

  Is he really?

• 22:04Bill Maher?

  No.

• 22:05Speaker 03

  Oh, my God.

• 22:06Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 22:06Speaker 03

  I'm like, wow.

• 22:08Bill Maher?

  Yes, I have Dr. Conrad Murray, Dr. Eugene Landy, who treated Brian Wilson.

• 22:12Speaker 03

  Yes, no, I know.

• 22:13Bill Maher?

  And Dr. Benny Boombox. So that's my team.

• 22:15Speaker 03

  No wonder you look so good.

• 22:17Bill Maher?

  Thank you. I owe it all to clean liquor. But, so...

• 22:22Speaker 03

  Oh, my God.

• 22:23Bill Maher?

  What were we talking about?

• 22:24Speaker 03

  About the show. You watched the documentary.

• 22:26Bill Maher?

  Oh, yeah, so...

• 22:29Bill Maher?

  You know, a lot of it is, uh, and... But there was still moments where, in rehearsal, he would be the old Michael Jackson and would just go off, and the other dancers in the crew would just like slack-jawed, and then would burst into applause at the end.

• 22:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:48Bill Maher?

  So it was just like a flame that burned very bright consistently for a while.

• 22:55Speaker 04

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• 23:23Speaker 01

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• 23:54Bill Maher?

  And then it was just only a flicker, and then once in a while it would chew it up for a moment.

• 23:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:59Bill Maher?

  That was never gonna get through 100 shows.

• 24:02Speaker 03

  Never. Not even a healthy person would... I mean, he was already like 40. Or I don't know how old he was at the time, maybe closer to...

• 24:10Bill Maher?

  No, closer to 50.

• 24:11Speaker 03

  50? I mean, yeah, I don't know.

• 24:14Bill Maher?

  And no nose. You know, a noseless skeleton.

• 24:17Speaker 03

  That makes it tricky.

• 24:18Bill Maher?

  Who's going to perform 100 shows?

• 24:20Speaker 03

  Makes it tricky. It's hard to like.

• 24:24Bill Maher?

  But I must say, I mean, you said he's insane. Yes, that is a form of insanity. I think it's like.

• 24:31Speaker 03

  Insane in a good way, but also a conflicted way, a very conflicted way, you know?

• 24:37Bill Maher?

  No, I don't think really a great way. I think show business at that level, I mean, the thing you were just talking about where the magic, the Carlos Santana thing, that energy, the divinity, whatever you want to call it, that thing is so powerful that the person who is reflecting that ray off them back to the audience, that ray is transforming their mind. I mean, we see it now with Kanye West. You just see it with lots of people who, it's just like you're a normal person and then they can't handle this level of adulation and you can have anything you want. That's what warps their brain.

• 25:19Bill Maher?

  And you're allowed to pig out on whatever you want, drugs.

• 25:23Speaker 03

  I mean, it's like, it's like, you know, young athletes who become huge and get these massive salaries and then wind up, you know, having to claim bankruptcy. I mean, it's all too much. I think the, I don't know, I think money is, money is man.

• 25:44Bill Maher?

  It's not the money so much.

• 25:46Speaker 03

  But it's the power, right? And the ego and adoration.

• 25:49Bill Maher?

  That's what it is.

• 25:50Speaker 03

  The fame and.

• 25:51Bill Maher?

  It's no one ever saying anything but yes, and can I get you more?

• 25:58Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 25:58Bill Maher?

  Can I get you a better drug?

• 26:00Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 26:00Bill Maher?

  Can I get you more pussy?

• 26:02Speaker 03

  And also, you're dispensable, like whoever is serving you is also highly dispensable. So that person, and having been around artists that have people that are the yes people, they're terrified of getting replaced. So it's a vicious cycle, you know?

• 26:19Bill Maher?

  Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine doing it as a woman. It's not rock and roll, just in general, that lifestyle. It's not really, it doesn't jibe with maybe a modern women when we're all trans and we're all non-binary and we make no assumptions at birth. But like old school women, of which you are one and I love you for it. What's like women classic?

• 26:46Speaker 03

  Yes, I'm a classic woman, yes.

• 26:47Bill Maher?

  Woman classic?

• 26:48Speaker 03

  I'm a, what's the term? Something about a childbearing, you know, I have something or a menstruating person or whatever.

• 26:59Bill Maher?

  A menstruating person is what we now have to, yes, because we don't want to offend pregnant men or something, I don't know. That's the kind of shit that drives me crazy.

• 27:09Speaker 03

  And it doesn't really work if you've gone through menopause and then you, it's just, it's too complicated, Bill. It's just too complicated.

• 27:15Bill Maher?

  Well, you know, there's nothing wrong with teaching that there is a default setting to certain things. And also, we completely accept and respect when something is not the default setting. It's like most people are right-handed. That's the default setting. They used to actually discriminate against left-handed people. They thought it was like a sign of the devil or some shit, really. But we got over that.

• 27:42Speaker 03

  I'm thinking of the left-handed people that I know and not kidding.

• 27:45Bill Maher?

  Well, first of all, I know you don't have to do this. I can't tell you how appreciative I am, how flattering it is.

• 27:51Speaker 03

  I wanted to come do it.

• 27:53Bill Maher?

  I know, I know, that's why you're here, that's why I'm so flattered.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  And I love your show. I love the, how thought-provoking and how truth-telling and how conversational is. You know, it is interesting, talking about Bobby. You know, I've known Kid Rock for a lot of years and he and I are.

• 28:16Bill Maher?

  Picture.

• 28:16Speaker 03

  We're a great, I think, speaking of picture, I think we're a great illustration of two people who are very, on very different sides politically.

• 28:28Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  And we've had some, we've had some deep and hard conversations, like after the shooting in Nashville.

• 28:36Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 28:37Speaker 03

  I called him and said, I need to understand what is happening. You know, I reached out to a lot of different country artists and got nowhere. And he said, I want to come over and talk to you about it. And we sat and we talked about it and talked about his grandkids actually go to school where my kids go. And, or his granddaughter. And people can sit and talk about hard stuff.

• 29:02Bill Maher?

  This is my life. This is my quest to follow that song.

• 29:06Speaker 03

  I wish to.

• 29:07Bill Maher?

  No matter how hopeless, no matter how long. Yes, that's what I'm always trying to do.

• 29:14Speaker 03

  Well, I appreciate it.

• 29:16Bill Maher?

  Yeah, and I love.

• 29:17Speaker 03

  When this came up, I was like, yes.

• 29:19Bill Maher?

  You know, the people I fucking hate the most now. If you ask me, who do I think is the biggest threat to this country? It's not even close. It is the right wing. They don't believe in democracy anymore or the environment.

• 29:30Speaker 03

  I know, it's scary.

• 29:31Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  It's very scary.

• 29:32Bill Maher?

  Donald Trump still exists. He's still out there. We need a bigger boat, blah, blah, blah. But like who viscerally makes me want to punch them in the fucking face?

• 29:41Speaker 03

  Okay, who?

• 29:43Bill Maher?

  The kind of people who, like, if you were someone who, after doing picture with Kid Rock, wouldn't talk to him because he voted for Trump, I'd hate you.

• 29:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:54Bill Maher?

  That's the kind of person I fucking hate.

• 29:57Speaker 03

  Okay, so I grew up with a conservative and a liberal. And when I turned 18, my dad and my mom secretly were like, who are you going to vote for? Because they would always cancel each other out, their votes. And it was always a thing. I mean, in our household, there were heated conversations about what was going on politically. We had the nightly news and that was it. Nightly news and then 11 o'clock news, which nobody ever watched. So it wasn't like now, but people talked about shit, you know, and disagreed about it. And that's my only thing. I'm like, we gotta get, what's happening now is terrifying.

• 30:36Bill Maher?

  I keep saying it. You can hate Trump. You can't hate everyone who likes him. It's half the country.

• 30:41Speaker 03

  You can't.

• 30:42Bill Maher?

  Or at least vote for him. And as much as I would never do that and nobody's been harder on him. I get it. I get where different people are coming from. They didn't grow up like you. They don't think like you. And you can't make them, and you shouldn't try.

• 30:59Speaker 03

  Right.

• 31:00Bill Maher?

  Let's, you know, let's, uh, complete the circle and have our differences be our strength. That kind of stuff.

• 31:08Bill Maher?

  That they're always talking about. But it's true. I don't want to live in a country without the red states. I like going to the red states. There's something about that being there that I don't get.

• 31:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:21Bill Maher?

  Here. Like, a bad fucking attitude.

• 31:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:27Bill Maher?

  You know, just, just not as judgy.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  Sorry, I'm going in for my second. They told me there was free beer on this podcast. So I'm like, oh, yeah, all the...

• 31:36Bill Maher?

  I gotta say, beer comes up in your songs a lot.

• 31:39Speaker 03

  I am a beer drinker.

• 31:41Bill Maher?

  Oh, I can tell.

• 31:42Speaker 03

  Now, let me just tell you. My wild years were a little later, right?

• 31:45Bill Maher?

  What?

• 31:45Speaker 03

  My wilder years were, were a little later.

• 31:48Bill Maher?

  No, but beer...

• 31:49Speaker 03

  Pulled back to just, just the occasional, you know, beer.

• 31:53Bill Maher?

  But have you ever counted how many songs of yours have beer in the lyrics?

• 31:58Speaker 03

  Uh, what can I tell you? Just really hoping for that endorsement.

• 32:04Bill Maher?

  What did you think when he shot the Bud Light? Did you call him in?

• 32:09Speaker 03

  I'm gonna be honest with you. And I don't know if he'll see this or not. Um, that's why I called him and said, "I need to understand where the hell you're coming from." And we just had... And I said, "What? Is it, is it Budweiser? Is it the trans Dylan?" Because neither one of those have anything to do with how much money you make or your freedom.

• 32:31Bill Maher?

  He knows that.

• 32:32Speaker 03

  Yes, he did. And he, so I said, "I need to understand." And he's like, "I'm gonna come over." And I love him for...

• 32:38Bill Maher?

  Absolutely.

• 32:39Speaker 03

  For that.

• 32:40Bill Maher?

  Look.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  I mean, I don't, that's not the only reason I love him. But we are like family. Like, he told me when my boys came along.

• 32:46Bill Maher?

  Good.

• 32:47Speaker 03

  Anything ever happens, I'm there for your kids. So, and he came over. And you know what? Before he left, we hugged and told each other we loved each other.

• 32:56Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 32:57Speaker 03

  We hammered it out.

• 32:58Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 32:58Speaker 03

  You know?

• 32:59Bill Maher?

  I mean, I had Ann Coulter on the show a couple of weeks ago.

• 33:02Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 33:02Bill Maher?

  And I hadn't had her on for a while. But, I mean, I've been friends with her since 1994 or something.

• 33:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:08Bill Maher?

  And no one's gonna make me not be friends with her. She's a fun chick to hang out with. And we don't talk politics if we're not on the show. Because I know where she is and she knows where I am.

• 33:21Bill Maher?

  Don't tell me who my friends can be.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:24Bill Maher?

  Really obnoxious.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:26Bill Maher?

  That's the kind of shit I hate.

• 33:28Speaker 03

  I will say one thing.

• 33:29Bill Maher?

  Talk to them. Maybe you'll find something you don't know.

• 33:32Speaker 03

  That is exactly right. And for me, I'm a research junkie. Like, I need to understand. Like, whatever's happening in the world, I need to go back and find out what the history of it is. Because more than likely, what we know about it is not really the reality. But one of the things I'm learning is that people who have big platforms, that you do outlandish things in order to whip up your base. I mean, it's what politicians do, it's what people... And that is so ego-driven. Okay, that's fine. We all know that all of us have big egos. So, and Kid Rock is not exempt from that. It's fun to whip it up and see what happens. You know what I mean? And so, and that's kind of what he said. He's like, "Ah, it wasn't me, you know.

• 34:17Speaker 03

  It wasn't this, I wasn't that," you know?

• 34:19Bill Maher?

  He's a showman.

• 34:20Speaker 03

  It's all, that's what it is. But my thing is, I want to make sure that all the people out there that jump on the hate bandwagon, and it becomes dangerous, like, we hate Dylan, whoever, and we hate Budweiser and all that. Y'all are being played. Y'all are being whipped into this "us against them." This is, we're in this group of people that hate this and that. And that's the part I have the problem with. I don't like that.

• 34:45Bill Maher?

  What I see on the news is a lot of college kids saying things to people who support Israel, like, "You're Nazi scum." I mean, who have, who have everything so ass-backwards that...

• 34:59Bill Maher?

  That's when I need a joint, but I will never light one up. But can I hold one?

• 35:05Speaker 03

  Yes, you can. If I wasn't singing tomorrow, I'd say, "Light that bad boy up right now."

• 35:09Bill Maher?

  No, I know. I've never not, but like, for you, first of all, I would do, I would do this on standing on-

• 35:15Speaker 03

  Hold me.

• 35:15Bill Maher?

  I would do this standing on my head. But it is a little like running a marathon for the first time.

• 35:20Speaker 03

  I'm saying, I know, it's gotta be hard, it's difficult. First, you're wearing a suit jacket, and now you're, you're not smoking, and I just-

• 35:27Bill Maher?

  I feel better now.

• 35:27Speaker 03

  I tell you how much I appreciate that.

• 35:29Bill Maher?

  You know, I appreciate that. I, I feel better now. I'm almost like George Burns with a cigar. Remember George Burns?

• 35:34Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, of course.

• 35:35Bill Maher?

  He always had a fucking cigar in his-

• 35:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:37Bill Maher?

  It's like-

• 35:37Speaker 03

  Take my wife.

• 35:38Bill Maher?

  After the stage of show business I'm at, I need the prop cigar. Oh, God, just shoot me down, hit me over the head with this fucking-

• 35:44Speaker 03

  Say goodnight, Gracie.

• 35:45Bill Maher?

  Help guitar. Your boy Willie Nelson signed that.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  Oh, I love that man.

• 35:50Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 35:51Speaker 03

  I do.

• 35:51Bill Maher?

  Another one. Everybody, like, adopted you. Everybody wanted to get a little of your-

• 35:58Speaker 03

  I've been very-

• 35:59Bill Maher?

  Shine.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  Listen, I'm blessed, uh, beyond. I don't even know what to say. I'm just blessed. I know that sounds stupid.

• 36:07Bill Maher?

  Don Henley?

• 36:08Speaker 03

  Love Don.

• 36:08Bill Maher?

  He was in the news yesterday.

• 36:10Speaker 03

  What was Don in the news?

• 36:11Bill Maher?

  He's suing-

• 36:12Speaker 03

  Okay, I read the New York Times in the morning, and then I, I just wanna know that the world hasn't blown up, although it is blowing up. I can't even go near it now. It's so-

• 36:23Bill Maher?

  Oh, I agree.

• 36:24Speaker 03

  Toxic. But what's going on with Don? He's suing?

• 36:26Bill Maher?

  Well, he's suing, uh, they, somebody-

• 36:30Speaker 03

  About lyrics?

• 36:31Bill Maher?

  Lyrics, yeah.

• 36:32Speaker 03

  But that already, they-

• 36:33Bill Maher?

  Notebook came out that he, it has all their notes when they were doing their stuff, him and Glenn, and, um-

• 36:40Speaker 03

  And they lost, he lost, right? Didn't I see that? I think I looked at the news last night after we landed.

• 36:46Bill Maher?

  Probably. I mean, it's hard to-

• 36:47Speaker 03

  I think he didn't get it back.

• 36:48Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 36:49Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 36:50Bill Maher?

  But it said the Eagles, that's, that's their last tour, I guess, that they're on. That's-

• 36:54Speaker 03

  Really?

• 36:56Bill Maher?

  You're right, because they even had to call one. They even had to call their most recent incarnation, "The Hell Freezes Overtour", because he had said in 1980, "We'll get back together when hell freezes over", which is typical of their cheeky humor. They were, I love those guys. And that's one of the greatest bands and sounds of all time. And by the way, 60 Minutes, I saw you, your documentary opens that you're with whoever, Steve Croft or somebody.

• 37:25Speaker 03

  Oh, yes, Steve Croft, yes.

• 37:26Bill Maher?

  And I did it once, Joyful Experience, isn't it, 60 Minutes? But...

• 37:30Speaker 03

  I didn't even know what Joyful Experience was back then.

• 37:33Bill Maher?

  Oh, I know, we were thrilled, I was thrilled to be on it.

• 37:35Speaker 03

  I was like, hey.

• 37:36Bill Maher?

  Thrilled to be on it again, yeah.

• 37:37Speaker 03

  Nice to meet you, Mr. Croft.

• 37:38Bill Maher?

  Exactly, I mean, 60 Minutes. But they had The Eagles once, and they were putting, remember they put out an album, very good album, in 2007, they hadn't put out one in 28 years? And they put out one called "Long Road to Eden"?

• 37:52Speaker 03

  Yes, I do remember that.

• 37:54Bill Maher?

  And it's really good, it's a double album.

• 37:56Speaker 03

  Yes, I do remember it.

• 37:57Bill Maher?

  So they were promoting that, and Steve Croft or whoever says to Glenn Frey like, you know, 60 Minutes, like, "And what do you attribute to the success of the..." And he just, he just named the song titles. And I thought it was the most eloquent answer, and you could do the same thing. You just have to like, give your song titles. If somebody ever says, "What is your thing?", psychologically, how did you manipulate?

• 38:23Speaker 03

  Well, it's funny you should ask, because really, all I want to do is have some fun. But you know what, if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad. But sometimes a change would do you good.

• 38:33Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean, that's really, at the end of the day, to me, and that's again, why I love the iPod, because I can just have, that's how I can know exactly how great an artist is, just one after another. And you can do that, you know, there are, look, in this, your business, if you have one hit, you can work forever, somewhere.

• 38:52Speaker 03

  I have to say, funny story, though.

• 38:53Bill Maher?

  But if to do a whole show of hits,

• 38:57Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 38:57Bill Maher?

  That's, you're that kind of act, and that's why they'll always come out.

• 39:01Speaker 03

  So I wound up on a gig with Lana Richie in... Billy Joel in Atlanta. And, which was, I have to say, really, really fun. I was, I was the first one on. And, and in the backstage area, I come back and Lionel's like, Cheryl, come in here. And he pulls me into Billy's dressing room. He's like, the three of us, we have hits. We've got to go on a world tour. We got to take this thing on a world tour. Hits all night long, just nothing but hits. And then he turns around to me, it was like borscht belt. Cheryl, you know when you play new songs? I was like, no, never. You never play them. He's like, they don't want to hear new songs. They just want to hear the hits. And now every time I play, I'm like, um, been told never play new songs, but I'm going to play a new song. But, and now I have a new record, so it's like, I guess I never play new songs, but.

• 39:45Bill Maher?

  Well, but it won't be, you know.

• 39:47Speaker 03

  You sneak one in here, or, you know, you sneak them in.

• 39:50Bill Maher?

  I know how they do it.

• 39:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. And then they go to the bathroom while you're playing it, or hopefully buy a T-shirt.

• 39:58Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but in five years, that record will be, there will be songs from that record that will be feathered in. And they'll probably like those, you know, too, you know.

• 40:08Speaker 03

  Maybe.

• 40:08Bill Maher?

  I mean.

• 40:10Speaker 03

  Sort of aged out of having, you know, hits, so.

• 40:15Bill Maher?

  Well, who knows even what makes a hit? Yeah, I get, I get what you're saying. Yeah, it's hard to, I remember McCartney put out a really great album in 1989, Flowers in the Dirt.

• 40:27Speaker 03

  I loved that record.

• 40:29Bill Maher?

  And I thought it was like, it was, he did it with Elvis Costello.

• 40:32Speaker 03

  Yes, I remember.

• 40:33Bill Maher?

  It was like, one of the, it could have stood as a Beatle record.

• 40:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 40:38Bill Maher?

  It was that good. And that Beatle-esque sound. And of course, he was 47 at the time, so it just, you know, that generation is just going to say, no, I'm sorry. You had your moment. I don't care how good it is, you know, dispassionately.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  Try being 62 and a woman, you know.

• 40:58Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 40:58Speaker 03

  So, although, I mean, it is fun.

• 41:02Bill Maher?

  Well.

• 41:02Speaker 03

  I would not, I, I wouldn't stop making records. I don't know about albums. I did make this an album because I had so many songs, but, um, it's weird to put music out and know that a song is going to turn up maybe on a playlist with like. Ice Spice. I mean, it's just, it's so antithetical, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're on New Music Friday and you're like blocked between, if you're lucky.

• 41:31Bill Maher?

  But you go to football games with her, right?

• 41:33Speaker 03

  Um, actually, yes, I was at a ballgame with her.

• 41:36Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 41:36Speaker 03

  Yes. About twenty sections away.

• 41:40Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 41:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:41Bill Maher?

  But wasn't she at the Super Bowl with Taylor Swift?

• 41:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:44Bill Maher?

  Boy, if Taylor Swift thinks that she invented the breakup song. Oh, I said this to somebody recently. First of all, she's gotta listen to "You're So Vain," Carly Simon. That kind of like.

• 41:55Speaker 03

  There's not a better one than that.

• 41:57Bill Maher?

  Well, there is not a better one but "Alone in the Dark" by Sheryl Crow.

• 42:01Speaker 03

  Oh, my God.

• 42:02Bill Maher?

  Was that a single?

• 42:03Speaker 03

  I love, I don't know.

• 42:05Bill Maher?

  No, really? Oh, that's a real shiv in the guy.

• 42:08Speaker 03

  Are you wearing like an earpiece?

• 42:11Bill Maher?

  Why, you think I'm so old I can't hear?

• 42:13Speaker 03

  Alone in the dark.

• 42:15Bill Maher?

  No, no.

• 42:16Speaker 03

  You're so, I can't believe you know all these like deep cuts.

• 42:19Bill Maher?

  Well, anybody who works here will tell you, I'm a very big music fan. So I just, I know what I know. Now, do I know, could I name every song on every album? No, but I have stuff from every album.

• 42:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:31Bill Maher?

  I have the ones that I really adore. Steve McQueen, which one is that? Is that, that was a single.

• 42:38Speaker 03

  That was a single, yeah, that was on the third record, fourth record.

• 42:41Bill Maher?

  That's in the, that's in the, the tradition of the cool chick who's too cool to get tied down genre.

• 42:49Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, that was me.

• 42:51Bill Maher?

  Which is so sexy.

• 42:52Speaker 03

  Oh, my God, on that video, I got on my dirt bike, I mean, God.

• 42:59Bill Maher?

  Oh, really? See, I don't remember the video.

• 43:01Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, in fact, I was hanging out with Dale Earnhardt in that video and never getting married.

• 43:09Bill Maher?

  Right, 'cause Steve McQueen, "Well, I need is a fast machine," right?

• 43:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:13Bill Maher?

  But do you remember the Stone Ponies, Linda Ronstadt?

• 43:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, of course.

• 43:18Bill Maher?

  Doing, um, "Different Drum"?

• 43:20Speaker 03

  Yes, of course, yeah.

• 43:21Bill Maher?

  Do you remember that song?

• 43:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:23Bill Maher?

  That's that same. "We travel to a different drum, can't you see the way I run? Every time you make eyes at me, don't get me wrong. It's not that I knock it, it's just that I'm not in the market." What a great rhyme.

• 43:39Speaker 03

  Knock it and market.

• 43:40Bill Maher?

  For someone who wants to love just only me.

• 43:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:43Bill Maher?

  I ain't saying you ain't pretty. All I'm saying is, I'm not ready for any person's laser thing that tries to put the reins in on me. Bitch.

• 43:55Speaker 03

  Damn.

• 43:55Bill Maher?

  So that kind of song, I think we should do a whole album of just those.

• 44:01Speaker 03

  I could probably write an album of those.

• 44:02Bill Maher?

  Free Bird, Get Off My...

• 44:05Bill Maher?

  You don't know me like that. Get Up Off Of Me songs.

• 44:08Speaker 03

  You know, I've had this longstanding introduction to Strong Enough To Be My Man. About how I never got married.

• 44:17Bill Maher?

  I never got married.

• 44:18Speaker 03

  Got engaged three times.

• 44:20Bill Maher?

  What, you did?

• 44:21Speaker 03

  Still have all my money. Never got divorced.

• 44:23Bill Maher?

  You engaged to Lance Armstrong?

• 44:23Speaker 03

  I was.

• 44:24Bill Maher?

  You know, he sat right there a few months ago?

• 44:26Speaker 03

  I actually caught the very beginning of that.

• 44:28Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 44:28Speaker 03

  And I saw Bobby Kidd. I've seen, actually, quite a few of them.

• 44:31Bill Maher?

  Wow, what an intense guy.

• 44:33Speaker 03

  Is he?

• 44:34Bill Maher?

  Lance Armstrong?

• 44:35Speaker 03

  Well, yeah.

• 44:35Bill Maher?

  Who would know better than you?

• 44:37Speaker 03

  I don't know him now, in this incarnation, because he's...

• 44:40Bill Maher?

  Wasn't he then?

• 44:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, he was then.

• 44:42Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 44:43Speaker 03

  He was racing then, and you know.

• 44:44Bill Maher?

  I know, but like...

• 44:45Speaker 03

  He was intense, yeah.

• 44:46Bill Maher?

  Just to pick that as a profession, riding a bike. Of course you got it intense.

• 44:53Speaker 03

  I will say, my 16-year-old is on a bass fishing team, which I didn't know was actually a sport. So when I met Lance, I was like, "Bike riding? That's a sport?"

• 45:01Bill Maher?

  It's not.

• 45:02Speaker 03

  So, yeah, I didn't realize...

• 45:04Bill Maher?

  No, bass fishing is not a sport. It is running around the block. But they may be in the Olympics.

• 45:09Speaker 03

  I'm gonna have to dispute that with you, just... As long as I know my kid might be watching this. It is a sport. And the damn bass boat costs 70 grand, okay? It's not like buying a baseball bat, okay? Baseball bat's 350, honey. Oh my God.

• 45:29Bill Maher?

  But so, but you still drink beer? You still drink beer?

• 45:33Speaker 03

  I do.

• 45:33Bill Maher?

  What did you, what drugs did you do back in the day?

• 45:35Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 45:36Bill Maher?

  That's what I'm saying, like, the rock star...

• 45:38Speaker 03

  My wilder days were drinking, smoking weed, you know, smoking cigarettes, because I was I was super cool when I was drunk.

• 45:51Bill Maher?

  Me too.

• 45:51Speaker 03

  And...

• 45:53Bill Maher?

  Cigarettes, that's the one I regret.

• 45:56Speaker 04

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• 47:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't have the addict gene, so I could just like not smoke for, you know. Then I would have three glasses of red wine and be like bumming cigarettes, you know.

• 47:36Bill Maher?

  Wow, very few people don't have the addict gene for nicotine.

• 47:41Speaker 03

  I do not have it. I didn't ever start the habit of like smoking when I was not drinking. So I don't know if I would have been, but I don't know. Just did a guided mushroom tour recently, or guided mushroom journey. Which I don't call that, I call it a tour. It was a tour through my very effed up brain, if you know what I'm saying.

• 48:06Bill Maher?

  What do you mean? What was, what are we talking about?

• 48:08Speaker 03

  If you ever, a guided psilocybin.

• 48:11Bill Maher?

  Oh, cool.

• 48:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:13Bill Maher?

  Guided, though?

• 48:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, through Johns Hopkins.

• 48:16Bill Maher?

  How bougie. To have a guided fucking drug.

• 48:19Speaker 03

  I know, see the thing is, you can do mushrooms, I'm like.

• 48:22Bill Maher?

  But what do you mean guided?

• 48:23Speaker 03

  So you do, you do it.

• 48:25Bill Maher?

  Well, you've done mushrooms before, no?

• 48:27Speaker 03

  Yes, but not like medicinal, like, uh, full powered.

• 48:34Bill Maher?

  You mean it was.

• 48:34Speaker 03

  A two and a half hour or three hour. Where they give you some and then you take more and you do it with a, like a playlist.

• 48:44Bill Maher?

  We're not talking about ayahuasca here, we're talking about mushrooms?

• 48:47Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 48:48Bill Maher?

  Because mushrooms I've done many times.

• 48:50Speaker 03

  So.

• 48:50Bill Maher?

  And I, you know, it's, yeah, it's a trip.

• 48:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:53Bill Maher?

  I don't, I don't, I mean.

• 48:54Speaker 03

  So.

• 48:55Bill Maher?

  What's the, what does the guide do?

• 48:57Speaker 03

  The guide.

• 48:58Bill Maher?

  On your left.

• 48:59Speaker 03

  They say, if you look to the cerebellum, try not to look over to the. I think more than anything, what they, what they do is make sure that you're not, if you're not a person who like does recreational drugs.

• 49:16Speaker 03

  It's more from a scientific standpoint for people who struggle with manic depression or depression or. Whatever it is.

• 49:24Bill Maher?

  Right, and I think it's very helpful.

• 49:26Speaker 03

  It was.

• 49:27Bill Maher?

  I mean.

• 49:28Speaker 03

  It was helpful.

• 49:28Bill Maher?

  LSD started out as that.

• 49:31Speaker 03

  Till Timothy Leary got a hold of it.

• 49:33Bill Maher?

  You know, that, that chair over there is his chair.

• 49:36Speaker 03

  Seriously? Did you, did you watch, or did you ever listen to, um, uh, the Michael Pollan stuff?

• 49:43Bill Maher?

  Yeah, the food guy?

• 49:45Speaker 03

  So interesting, yes.

• 49:46Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 49:47Speaker 03

  No, no, yeah, but he did all this psilocybin.

• 49:49Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 49:49Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 49:49Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 49:51Speaker 03

  And then, what fantastic fungi or fungi, that documentary?

• 49:57Bill Maher?

  Well, don't get me started on fungus, no seriously.

• 50:00Speaker 03

  Really?

• 50:01Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean, I'm a big believer that, um, it's. Something that we don't pay the kind of attention to we should. I think Western medicine sees everything as bacterial.

• 50:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:13Bill Maher?

  And they misdiagnose stuff and fungus is, I think, responsible for stuff that that. Even the CDC a few years ago finally said, if you don't know what something is, look to fungus.

• 50:24Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 50:25Bill Maher?

  And that was like many years late. So, like I said, don't get me started.

• 50:30Speaker 03

  I know, I agree. This is a whole different podcast.

• 50:33Bill Maher?

  I mean, but for those who want to look more.

• 50:34Speaker 03

  I'm so with you.

• 50:36Bill Maher?

  On fungus?

• 50:37Speaker 03

  I'm so with you on fungus. Yeah, man. I want to be in the fungus club.

• 50:41Bill Maher?

  Fuck fungus. When HBO did that show, just they did some, they had a show, it was a huge hit.

• 50:47Speaker 03

  What was it?

• 50:47Bill Maher?

  It was called.

• 50:49Speaker 03

  How to Change Your Mind?

• 50:50Bill Maher?

  Last of Us, I think.

• 50:51Speaker 03

  Oh, oh, yeah, I didn't see it.

• 50:53Bill Maher?

  And it was about the villain and it was fungus.

• 50:55Speaker 03

  Oh, shut up.

• 50:56Bill Maher?

  And I said, finally, somebody's getting on the fungus thing.

• 51:00Speaker 03

  Oh, the villain, like not the saving device. Okay.

• 51:04Bill Maher?

  Well, this whatever was taking over people and turning them into zombies. Everything has to, you have to be either a zombie or a Dracula. Come on, this is TV. But the thing that was behind it was fungus. I was like, yes, that's much more likely than, you know.

• 51:19Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, so many cancers are diagnosed as cancer when they're fungal.

• 51:23Bill Maher?

  Well.

• 51:24Speaker 03

  My dog, case in point.

• 51:26Bill Maher?

  Well, um, do you know when they want to, what they do when they want to give mice cancer? In the lab?

• 51:34Speaker 03

  They saute some mushrooms and.

• 51:36Bill Maher?

  Basically.

• 51:37Speaker 03

  Really?

• 51:38Bill Maher?

  They give them mycotoxins. That's a, that's a, you know, fungus toxin. Penicillin.

• 51:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:46Bill Maher?

  Antibiotics are sometimes, are often.

• 51:50Speaker 03

  Weren't they derived from the fungus that grew on?

• 51:52Bill Maher?

  Moldy bread.

• 51:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, moldy bread.

• 51:53Bill Maher?

  Okay, so the connection, I'm not, I'm not saying I know the connection, but I've certainly read about the subject and people have their theories. And it looks like there, I think there is quite a connection. Between cancer and fungal infection and, you know.

• 52:08Speaker 03

  But the crazy thing about it is, is that when they do studies about like forestry, how fungus or mushrooms create their own.

• 52:17Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 52:18Speaker 03

  The way they can actually go in and save some trees by creating their own antibiotics. I mean, I think there's so many amazing possibilities, not just for humans, but also for the planet. I mean, at this moment when we're asleep at the wheel and nobody seems to give a shit about the planet because we're too worried about making sure. I mean, it drives me crazy how we're turning a blind eye to this or a blind eye. But anyway, the fact that mushrooms could be a huge answer to what's happening. To at least preserve it.

• 52:53Bill Maher?

  Or a huge problem. I mean, they can kill us. I mean, you don't want to breathe in mold.

• 52:58Speaker 03

  No, not mold, yeah.

• 53:00Bill Maher?

  Well, but I mean fungus is really strong. Almost every plant in nature is antifungal because it needs to be. Because plants don't have legs, they can't run away.

• 53:10Speaker 03

  Right.

• 53:10Bill Maher?

  The only way they can repel it. But take a lemon, like the most antifungal thing, it's pure citrus.

• 53:18Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 53:18Bill Maher?

  You leave it on the counter long enough, what does it look like?

• 53:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:22Bill Maher?

  Has mold all over it.

• 53:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, and it'll eat through a marble countertop.

• 53:26Bill Maher?

  Fungus is unrelenting. I'm a hawk on fungus.

• 53:30Speaker 03

  Fungus is unrelenting, the name of our new podcast.

• 53:35Bill Maher?

  Extremism and the fight against fungus is no vice. And moderation is no virtue. I'm a one-issue candidate, I'm a hawk on fungus, and I'm going to attack anyone who's to my left on this issue. But it is true. I mean fungus, you should, you know, people should think about fungus more like sinus infections, I don't want to get started on it.

• 53:54Speaker 03

  But I will say, for people who have struggled with depression, people who have, you know, mental challenges that the studies they've done, at Johns Hopkins for years, it was shut down, they saw great outcomes for people with PTSD, you know. I think at least people are starting to get back to the place where they can look at some of these natural holistic.

• 54:19Bill Maher?

  Oh, yeah.

• 54:19Speaker 03

  As being at least.

• 54:23Speaker 03

  Worth, you know, legalizing.

• 54:26Bill Maher?

  Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't think the amount of mushrooms that you took for psychological reasons would be the kind that would be bad for you. And by the way, if you don't, if you don't have a fungal infection, it's not, you can eat mushrooms and, you know, your body has in it fungus that is natural, that you need some good bacteria, some bad bacteria, and some fungus. It's when you get the proportions out of whack. Antibiotics kill the good bacteria, which fight with the fungus for food. That's how we kill bacteria. But unfortunately, when they kill the bad bacteria, they kill the good bacteria.

• 55:01Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 55:02Bill Maher?

  And then the fungus proliferate.

• 55:04Speaker 03

  Right.

• 55:04Bill Maher?

  Anybody who's had antibiotics probably has some level of a fungal infection.

• 55:08Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 55:09Bill Maher?

  Right. And fungus live on one thing, sugar. So you always feed them when you're eating the kind of things that are in the American diet, syrups and sugar and carbohydrates. That kind of stuff feeds, when you're hungry like that, it's the fungus calling out for food.

• 55:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:28Bill Maher?

  I told you not to get me started on fungus.

• 55:32Speaker 03

  I know, I didn't know. You knew so much about mushrooms.

• 55:36Bill Maher?

  Fungus.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  No one told me.

• 55:38Bill Maher?

  Fungus. I'm telling you, we could own it.

• 55:42Speaker 03

  I know. This is gonna be a three-hour podcast, okay?

• 55:46Bill Maher?

  Only about fungus.

• 55:47Speaker 03

  Only about fungus.

• 55:48Bill Maher?

  And every week, but only about fungus. It's like those stores that say like, only lamps, you know?

• 55:57Bill Maher?

  Excuse me, do you have shades? I'm sure that happens once a day.

• 56:00Speaker 03

  Dude, no. Only lamps.

• 56:01Bill Maher?

  What do I have to fucking put in the title? It says only lamps. What do I have to do to get?

• 56:08Speaker 03

  Not lazy boys.

• 56:10Bill Maher?

  But, no, I mean, you could do a, you know, morning talk show if that's something you, you could be on The View. What do you think about that, Cheryl?

• 56:22Speaker 03

  No, and no.

• 56:24Bill Maher?

  Come on.

• 56:25Speaker 03

  Unequivocally. And what does it pay?

• 56:27Bill Maher?

  The ratings would be through the roof. I swear to God. First of all, you're from Missouri?

• 56:31Speaker 03

  Here's my thing. I don't really like people. No, kidding. I'm from Missouri, yes.

• 56:37Bill Maher?

  Okay, so like you have that accent, you know?

• 56:41Speaker 03

  I have an accent?

• 56:42Bill Maher?

  Yeah, you still, yeah, you still sound country.

• 56:44Speaker 03

  Well, I live in Nashville now.

• 56:46Bill Maher?

  Okay, but it's also in your roots.

• 56:47Speaker 03

  And I don't know what you're talking about. No, I'm kidding.

• 56:51Bill Maher?

  That's good. Because everything is tilted toward the coastal elites and their people.

• 56:58Speaker 03

  The entire coast has moved to Nashville.

• 57:01Bill Maher?

  That's true, too.

• 57:02Speaker 03

  Yes, it is. And, uh, yeah. We'll see how that plays out in politics. You know, most of LA lives in Nashville now.

• 57:11Bill Maher?

  Well, Nashville and Austin seem to be the kind of places.

• 57:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:15Bill Maher?

  And I get it. To a degree, Miami, but Miami's too crazy.

• 57:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:21Bill Maher?

  But like, places where people want to go where, no, I don't want to live in the sticks with a bunch of hicks. But I also don't want to live, uh, you know, at the park in Beverly Hills where you can't throw a frisbee.

• 57:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:35Bill Maher?

  Because of that kind of asshole. Is there a place in America where I can, like, get away from those extremes? That's-

• 57:44Speaker 03

  Where I can work from home.

• 57:45Bill Maher?

  Yeah, where I can like-

• 57:47Speaker 03

  And I can buy a really nice house for about a tenth of the price.

• 57:51Bill Maher?

  And the money.

• 57:51Speaker 03

  And have a giant yard.

• 57:53Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 57:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know, we're getting along.

• 57:56Bill Maher?

  But also, I'm sure, you know, Nashville's not a hick town.

• 57:59Speaker 03

  It isn't.

• 58:00Bill Maher?

  It's where all the musicians are.

• 58:01Speaker 03

  It's like a little, I would say it's-

• 58:04Bill Maher?

  There's places-

• 58:05Speaker 03

  I can't say it's like Austin where it's like a blue oasis. I mean, I think it's-

• 58:10Bill Maher?

  And doesn't need-

• 58:10Speaker 03

  It's probably the bluest in all of Tennessee.

• 58:12Bill Maher?

  And it doesn't need to be.

• 58:14Speaker 03

  No.

• 58:14Bill Maher?

  Well, I'm just-

• 58:14Speaker 03

  We have a mix.

• 58:15Bill Maher?

  Having a place where we can get a nice dinner.

• 58:18Speaker 03

  You can get a nice dinner.

• 58:19Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 58:19Speaker 03

  You can go see the- You can see Kings of Leon, or you can go see-

• 58:22Bill Maher?

  Exactly.

• 58:23Speaker 03

  Vince Gill, or, you know.

• 58:25Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean-

• 58:26Speaker 03

  Jack White.

• 58:27Bill Maher?

  Right. It doesn't have the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but I never went there anyway.

• 58:32Speaker 03

  Who goes to those places?

• 58:34Bill Maher?

  Eggheads, that's who. I mean, everybody in New York is always like, the museums. Like, how often do you go to a museum, you fucker?

• 58:40Speaker 03

  You go there once a year.

• 58:41Bill Maher?

  Well, I mean, I was never a culture vulture. I mean, I like culture-

• 58:45Speaker 03

  Culture vulture, I like that.

• 58:46Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 58:47Speaker 03

  See, that's the thing, though.

• 58:48Bill Maher?

  Good song title.

• 58:49Speaker 03

  You find a culture vulture.

• 58:50Bill Maher?

  Are you always looking?

• 58:52Speaker 03

  Unique New York, unique New York, unique Unork. Um, sorry, I have kids. It's what we do.

• 58:58Bill Maher?

  But like, are you always doing that? Like, you're like a blue jay who's always finding little scraps, you know, blue jays for the nest? Because, you know, oh, this could go, this is a, could go in a song, this could be a title.

• 59:12Speaker 03

  Oh, you mean like, am I collecting constantly?

• 59:14Bill Maher?

  You should be.

• 59:15Speaker 03

  Like fodder, like yes?

• 59:17Bill Maher?

  Yeah, aren't you?

• 59:17Speaker 03

  Uh, oh my god. I used to, when I would be making a record, or getting ready to make a record. Like, we'd have a record out, and we'd have success. We'd tour, I'd come home, I'd start writing, and it would be like, "Okay, um, what am I writing about?" You know, lots frantic, like, checking, "What have I, what notes have I written?" Now, my kids leave for school, I go to my screen and porch, notepad, guitar, cup of tea, and I write my freaking brains out.

• 59:51Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 59:53Speaker 03

  There's so much to write about right now.

• 59:54Bill Maher?

  A cup of tea, you mean, literally a cup of tea, or?

• 59:57Speaker 03

  Literally, no, coffee, in the morning, yeah. But I mean, I'm talking about 6:30 in the morning.

• 1:00:01Bill Maher?

  No, I get done, a lot done on coffee.

• 1:00:03Speaker 03

  6:30, yeah.

• 1:00:04Bill Maher?

  I really value that time, like, because it's only once a day.

• 1:00:07Speaker 03

  Me too.

• 1:00:08Bill Maher?

  You know.

• 1:00:09Speaker 03

  I have three cups of coffee in the morning.

• 1:00:10Bill Maher?

  Yeah, right, you can't, how about once a day, first thing, and then by the time you sleep, it's...

• 1:00:14Speaker 03

  Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee. My kids know it, they're like, "Don't talk to her, I'm lost."

• 1:00:20Bill Maher?

  And they abide by that?

• 1:00:21Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, yes, in fact, my 13-year-old is the exact same way, we're just like...

• 1:00:28Bill Maher?

  So it's you and the kids in a house outside of Nashville?

• 1:00:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're kind of, yeah, we're, I can't, we're not in downtown Nashville, we're in Nashville.

• 1:00:37Bill Maher?

  And then you have a studio, I'm guessing, in your house, of course?

• 1:00:40Speaker 03

  Over the barn, I have horses.

• 1:00:41Bill Maher?

  Over the barn?

• 1:00:42Speaker 03

  Yes. It's ideal.

• 1:00:44Bill Maher?

  It's, oh, come on.

• 1:00:45Speaker 03

  Who lives like me? Me.

• 1:00:47Bill Maher?

  Yeah. And you, can you like, you have like a fireman's pole, you can go right down into the barn?

• 1:00:52Speaker 03

  Like one of these?

• 1:00:53Bill Maher?

  When you want it, when you...

• 1:00:54Speaker 03

  Uh, no.

• 1:00:55Bill Maher?

  No, that's a stripper pole.

• 1:00:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I know, I recognize it from Kid Rock's house, okay?

• 1:00:59Bill Maher?

  It was here when I bought the house.

• 1:01:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:01:04Bill Maher?

  It's necessary for wiring.

• 1:01:06Speaker 03

  Oh, yes. No, I don't have a fireman's pole. Actually, I don't even go down there unless I'm, like, gonna record, and I didn't, I didn't do any recording on this record. I sent it to my friend and said, "These are my mini screenplays, and I want you to Martin Scorsese the shit out of them." And it was the most glorious experience I've ever had.

• 1:01:29Bill Maher?

  I don't understand.

• 1:01:30Speaker 03

  Okay, so I usually produce myself, and I usually am like, from the beginning to the, to the end, and playing, and writing... And this bunch of songs, because you know, the last record I put out, I said, I'm not making records anymore. No more albums.

• 1:01:45Bill Maher?

  Be Myself, was that it?

• 1:01:47Speaker 03

  No, it was Threads.

• 1:01:48Bill Maher?

  Threads? With everybody, yes.

• 1:01:50Speaker 03

  Yes, with lots of people.

• 1:01:52Bill Maher?

  Again, you pick these songs that are like.

• 1:01:54Speaker 03

  Oh, man, I'll tell you what, the song though with Johnny Cash and having him in my ear. I just had this weird like.

• 1:02:01Bill Maher?

  Because he was dead.

• 1:02:02Speaker 03

  Eleven thirty at night, dead, but I, just all the conversations I'd had with him before he recorded it. I, I don't know, I just, I came out of there, I was like, I'm not gonna make albums anymore. This is, it's done.

• 1:02:16Bill Maher?

  Well, maybe just not duets with dead people. Maybe that's the issue.

• 1:02:20Speaker 03

  I actually prefer duets with, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

• 1:02:23Bill Maher?

  They can't complain, it's true.

• 1:02:24Speaker 03

  That is not true, that is not true.

• 1:02:26Bill Maher?

  Well, that's a great, because Tony Bennett just called. No.

• 1:02:29Speaker 03

  Okay, all right, okay, get me. No, so, this record, I, there's just, like, the AI thing is what started it. Reading about the Beatles, and I don't fault them, but I was conflicted about that.

• 1:02:45Bill Maher?

  I do fault them.

• 1:02:46Speaker 03

  And then the George Carlin thing sent me.

• 1:02:49Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 1:02:50Speaker 03

  I mean, it sent me.

• 1:02:51Bill Maher?

  No, we're.

• 1:02:52Speaker 03

  I paced, literally, my kids would leave for school, and I'm like, what the, what are we doing here?

• 1:02:58Bill Maher?

  Have you seen the Billy Joel, the new Billy Joel song video?

• 1:03:02Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:03:03Bill Maher?

  Okay.

• 1:03:04Speaker 03

  Am I gonna like, wanna like, go hang myself and then?

• 1:03:07Bill Maher?

  Why? Because you're bad?

• 1:03:09Speaker 03

  No, what are we doing now with AI?

• 1:03:10Bill Maher?

  They, you know, Billy Joel came out with his first song in thirty years.

• 1:03:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:14Bill Maher?

  He debuted at the Grammys and.

• 1:03:15Speaker 03

  And that wasn't really him, that was AI?

• 1:03:18Bill Maher?

  No, no, but for the video, they have him singing it as himself now, but also as him, singing this new song, but he only wrote now, when he's twenty-eight and thirty-five and forty-two and.

• 1:03:34Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:03:35Bill Maher?

  So, and it's.

• 1:03:36Speaker 03

  Here's my thing about that.

• 1:03:37Bill Maher?

  It's terrible.

• 1:03:38Speaker 03

  He's alive.

• 1:03:39Bill Maher?

  He's.

• 1:03:40Speaker 03

  Okay, and, and here, I mean, he is. Harrison Ford did that whole latest.

• 1:03:47Bill Maher?

  I saw it, yeah.

• 1:03:48Speaker 03

  Where he, they've manipulated his face to make him look younger, right?

• 1:03:51Bill Maher?

  And the Irishman, De Niro and they de-aged him.

• 1:03:54Speaker 03

  Yes, and of course, me on social media with lots of filters, same thing, no, I'm kidding. It's one thing if you're alive and you're controlling the image that you're putting out and you can actually address, yeah, we use AI. But if you're using somebody else and manipulating, I mean, it's, we're getting, it's beyond deep fakes where it's like, I don't know. I mean, I actually called my attorney and was like, this is a weird thing. It's like negotiating real estate in space, which I know our countries are doing, where they're deciding who's owning what parts of space, which I find to be like, for me, I'm just like, I don't want anything to do, I don't want my image coming out, I don't want my voice coming out, I don't want any of my old demos coming out.

• 1:04:39Speaker 03

  I want it in writing for posterity. And I want it locked in something where AI can't get in there and change my words.

• 1:04:46Bill Maher?

  What I think is scariest is that when you look at the history of like, when the technology comes along and does something horrible, they, their reaction seems to be, what are you gonna do, it's technology, we can't do anything about it.

• 1:05:00Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:05:01Bill Maher?

  Think about, remember Napster?

• 1:05:02Speaker 03

  Napster.

• 1:05:03Bill Maher?

  Okay.

• 1:05:03Speaker 03

  Perfect.

• 1:05:04Bill Maher?

  So first the technology comes along, uh, yeah, we're gonna steal it now.

• 1:05:09Speaker 03

  Except for me and Don Henley, who are on Capitol Hill every ten, like, we're there every Tuesday, like, trying to fight for stuff. And, and, and the Senate subcommittees are all saying, well, it's already here.

• 1:05:19Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:05:20Speaker 03

  Well, you can't do anything about it now.

• 1:05:21Bill Maher?

  So they gave up on that. Then Spotify streaming comes in and they gave up on, like, the basic model of business.

• 1:05:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:05:30Bill Maher?

  So why would I think now that this technology, they're not going to give up again on somehow guard railing this shit because?

• 1:05:40Speaker 03

  Well, they can't do it now. And for one thing, we're frogs in a pot. Because, you know that phrase?

• 1:05:47Bill Maher?

  Yeah, of course.

• 1:05:48Speaker 03

  Yes. So I was talking to my kids about it. I worked with this amazing young songwriter recently, who's written on tons of shit.

• 1:05:57Speaker 03

  And she played me a demo. It was a demo that she had written with a couple of people and she sang it and she's like, I needed a guy to sing it. So I paid five dollars and got John Mayer's voice. And she played me the demo and it's John Mayer singing.

• 1:06:13Bill Maher?

  What's the five dollars for?

• 1:06:14Speaker 03

  She paid a service. It's like ChatGPT. But instead you insert somebody's voice and it replicates his voice, like not only his voice, but his inflections, his style. There's, I started crying. I was just like, I know John. There's no way I would not know this was him. And

• 1:06:37Bill Maher?

  For five dollars?

• 1:06:38Speaker 03

  But, and I said, and she was talking about the ChatGPT thing and how she could put stuff in and it's not always good, but it gets your brain started and there's always a couple of good lines and I just was like, you're 21. I know this is, this is what you're growing up in. I know this is normal for you.

• 1:06:56Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:06:56Speaker 03

  But what is not normal about it, which you will never know, is that the thing that creates art is like, it's, it's the human experience. It's not a computer's experience.

• 1:07:08Bill Maher?

  And that's why I think we will survive to a degree because the audience at some level, they don't know how to read anymore. They don't, they, it's a joke to think they would get through a whole book. They actually make jokes about that, a book.

• 1:07:23Speaker 03

  Or a whole song. We don't get paid unless they listen to it for more than 30 seconds.

• 1:07:27Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but they, people do still listen to whole songs.

• 1:07:30Speaker 03

  Bill Maher does.

• 1:07:31Bill Maher?

  Most, no, even the kids listen to songs. I mean, I don't think their attention span is so short that they can't get through a song if they like it.

• 1:07:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:07:40Bill Maher?

  Okay.

• 1:07:41Speaker 03

  They'll listen to a Zach Bryan song all the way through.

• 1:07:43Bill Maher?

  Who? Yeah, I don't know who that is. Zach Bryan?

• 1:07:47Speaker 03

  Zach Bryan? Where do you live in the, yeah.

• 1:07:50Bill Maher?

  No, I don't. I just don't, I've been caught up to him.

• 1:07:52Speaker 03

  I mean, I can't explain it to you. He was in the military, young kid. Started posting songs on TikTok and became massive and we went out and opened up for him and it was like The Beatles. I've never seen anything like it. I've never, not since The Beatles have I ever seen anything like it. Seriously.

• 1:08:09Bill Maher?

  Well, we didn't see The Beatles. We were too young, even us.

• 1:08:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, but I mean, like the footage, there, 30,000, 40,000 kids with no hits.

• 1:08:20Speaker 03

  Singing every word, hanging on his every... I have to say, from TikTok.

• 1:08:25Bill Maher?

  Well, we'll see in 10 years if he's like the Beatles.

• 1:08:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:08:28Bill Maher?

  Because...

• 1:08:28Speaker 03

  From your mouth to God's ears.

• 1:08:30Bill Maher?

  Well, I mean, everybody... Look, music is like you were just saying, it's so primal.

• 1:08:35Speaker 03

  I know.

• 1:08:36Bill Maher?

  So, like, he's not the first one to come out and look like the Beatles for 10 minutes. You know, they are who they are because

• 1:08:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:08:45Bill Maher?

  They grew, they were always one step ahead of the audience. Can this... maybe he can, maybe he's a genius. What do you think of the music? I mean, you described the crowd reaction, but what about the music itself?

• 1:08:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, I mean, it's a taste thing. It's a taste thing.

• 1:09:00Bill Maher?

  Well, there's a dodge. Yeah, right, okay, so you don't think he's some musical genius?

• 1:09:05Speaker 03

  No, I... no, no, no, it's not that. It's, I mean, he... actually, I mean, truth be told, there's a whole, a whole lane of music now that sort of falls into the Americana, but actually, it's sort of like old school country, like Tyler Childress, Zac Brown, and they're writing songs about hard-living people with real struggles.

• 1:09:28Bill Maher?

  Yeah, the guy...

• 1:09:29Speaker 03

  And it's three chords, four chords, and it's good. It's good, it really is good.

• 1:09:34Bill Maher?

  Yeah, it can be.

• 1:09:35Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, for whatever reason, it's resonating with 16-year-olds, and 20-year-olds, and 30-year-olds. And I'm down with it, I'm here for it. They're writing stories. It's not six-second, um, six-second attention span. We're gonna, you know, we gotta keep, keep the listener in it. It's like old-school verse, chorus that only changes a tiny bit, you know, it's, it's like Americana.

• 1:10:05Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean, I, look, again, no, I'm just saying, like, I don't put any labels on things. A good song is a good song. I mean, you, like, I remember you did some album, I have it, I have them all.

• 1:10:14Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:10:15Bill Maher?

  And, um, it's like, they said it was your country album.

• 1:10:18Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:10:18Bill Maher?

  And I was like, yeah, I see what they were saying because it's, they always want to glom on and get some sort of story, so they could make a story. But it was just a good album, it was just a Sheryl Crow album. Yeah, there were some songs...

• 1:10:30Speaker 03

  They were geared more towards that.

• 1:10:31Bill Maher?

  Well, there was the, oh, I love it. The one about the mascara running.

• 1:10:35Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:10:36Bill Maher?

  Which is like so.

• 1:10:37Speaker 03

  That's why we're waterproof mascara.

• 1:10:42Bill Maher?

  But what's the next line? Because it don't run like.

• 1:10:45Speaker 03

  Because it won't run like.

• 1:10:47Bill Maher?

  Like his daddy did.

• 1:10:48Speaker 03

  Like his daddy.

• 1:10:49Bill Maher?

  Which is like so close to parody.

• 1:10:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:10:52Bill Maher?

  Like, that's so close.

• 1:10:53Speaker 03

  You know who I wrote that with? Brad Paisley.

• 1:10:57Bill Maher?

  Brad, he was sitting here.

• 1:10:58Speaker 03

  He was?

• 1:10:59Bill Maher?

  Yes, loved him. He's quite a great guy.

• 1:11:02Speaker 03

  He's one of my favorite people.

• 1:11:03Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 1:11:03Speaker 03

  He is funny.

• 1:11:05Bill Maher?

  Yes, funny.

• 1:11:06Speaker 03

  But also, he's not what you think. He doesn't live in that, like.

• 1:11:09Bill Maher?

  No, but he's also a guy who's from that, from that part of the country. You know, believe me, there are things that the woke could find to hate about him.

• 1:11:20Speaker 03

  I love that word, woke.

• 1:11:22Bill Maher?

  I don't.

• 1:11:23Speaker 03

  Okay, here's my thing. That is a funny thing that came out of my conversation with Kid Rock. I had to call him Bobby. About being woke. Because he says, "You're so woke." And I was like, "First of all, you can't quit calling me names." And secondly, maybe I'm woke? I don't, I mean, that's, that was an old term that was derived from like.

• 1:11:46Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:11:46Speaker 03

  Slavery and.

• 1:11:48Bill Maher?

  Well, after that, I think, but it meant being alert to injustice.

• 1:11:51Speaker 03

  Alert to injustice.

• 1:11:52Bill Maher?

  Yes, all down, I'm all down with that.

• 1:11:54Speaker 03

  I know, I'm like.

• 1:11:54Bill Maher?

  It just morphed into something that was an eye roll. I didn't, I didn't do that, they did that.

• 1:12:00Speaker 03

  Yes, I know. And I told him, I was like, "I'm so down with being woke if it means like wanting this country to run for all of us."

• 1:12:07Bill Maher?

  Here's a story that was in the news this week. Somebody wrote in The Atlantic. He used to work at The New York Times, talked about New York Times.

• 1:12:16Speaker 03

  I love The Atlantic. I don't know how you feel about it, but that's one of my go-tos.

• 1:12:19Bill Maher?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Write some.

• 1:12:21Speaker 03

  It's hard to find, it's hard to find fair pieces written more.

• 1:12:25Bill Maher?

  Exactly, you only get one side of every story.

• 1:12:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, anyway, go ahead.

• 1:12:28Bill Maher?

  So, he's at the orientation, like for the new people at The New York Times, I think it was.

• 1:12:34Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:12:34Bill Maher?

  And for some reason, they ask, they're asking, going around the room or something, and what do you want for lunch? And he says, "Chick-fil-A." And they go, the, like, head of the thing said, "No, we don't do that here. They hate gay people."

• 1:12:50Bill Maher?

  And then they, all the people, all the people in the room start snapping their fingers like they're beatniks in 1950. Like, you know, "Yeah, man."

• 1:12:59Speaker 03

  It's like West Side Story. Or like, um...

• 1:13:01Bill Maher?

  It's like stupid side story.

• 1:13:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:13:04Bill Maher?

  Like, "Fuck you, we can't eat Chick-fil-A." You know what? I will eat Chick-fil-A and Bud Light. I'll put them together in a beer can chicken if I fucking want...

• 1:13:12Speaker 03

  You can't get me started on this.

• 1:13:13Bill Maher?

  This, this kind of... That kind of attitude is just so obnoxious.

• 1:13:18Speaker 03

  I know. And honestly, if you get me started, my predecessor will run in here in a minute and like, she's gotta go. I mean, it's, it drives, it drives me...

• 1:13:27Bill Maher?

  Why, I said it.

• 1:13:28Speaker 03

  It drives...

• 1:13:29Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I know. It drives us all crazy.

• 1:13:31Speaker 03

  Crazy.

• 1:13:31Bill Maher?

  And by the way, the people, the good people in this country are with us. It was in the paper today. Like, the number one concern most people have is extremism. They fucking hate it. They fucking hate...

• 1:13:42Speaker 03

  Well, and this is what worries me, um, between you and I. Is that a pot leaf on that guitar? At the, on the headstock?

• 1:13:50Bill Maher?

  This is made of hemp.

• 1:13:51Speaker 03

  It is?

• 1:13:52Bill Maher?

  Yeah. This was a gift.

• 1:13:53Speaker 03

  Okay, you can totally tell I'm ADD, right? Because it's like, squirrel, pot leaf.

• 1:13:58Bill Maher?

  What do you, uh, I mean, Willie and...

• 1:14:00Speaker 03

  No, I was just saying something really astute.

• 1:14:01Bill Maher?

  It's like...

• 1:14:02Speaker 03

  Oh, that's amazing.

• 1:14:03Bill Maher?

  It's a, it's an amazing thing. Can you really play it now?

• 1:14:07Speaker 03

  That sounds really bad.

• 1:14:08Bill Maher?

  Well, it's not tuned. It's made out of hemp.

• 1:14:11Speaker 03

  Can you smoke it?

• 1:14:12Bill Maher?

  The guitar? It would be, it would be an odd way to re-gift it, but you know, yeah, I guess I... No, you can't smoke hemp. Hemp doesn't get you high.

• 1:14:21Speaker 03

  No, you can't smoke hemp. You can wear it, though. No, what I was gonna say is my kids come home with the most unbelievable questions, right? So, I grew up in a really small town, three stoplights, cornfields, but we were close to the Blyville Air Force Base.

• 1:14:34Bill Maher?

  The what?

• 1:14:34Speaker 03

  Blyville, Arkansas, Air Force Base. Which was the biggest Air Force Base in America. And this is at the end of, this is like 72, I was 10 years old. I think I'm older than you. How old are you?

• 1:14:44Bill Maher?

  No, I'm 68.

• 1:14:46Speaker 03

  Okay, I'm 62. So, but I'm a super young, like, 36-year-old, 62.

• 1:14:51Bill Maher?

  Yes, you are. True that.

• 1:14:53Speaker 03

  But I remember, I don't know if I came home from school and some kid had said, "Yeah, the first place they'll bomb in America will be Blyville and we'll all be, you know, incinerated." Well, that's the only time in my childhood I remember ever being afraid of my parents saying... Ridiculous, right? Which probably wasn't, but my kids now come home with crazy questions. Well, they go to a Christian school, and they come home with bizarre questions that...

• 1:15:25Bill Maher?

  They do?

• 1:15:26Speaker 03

  Yes, they come home with questions that, you know, their friends are coming into school with, from hearing their parents. You know, and this religious support that Trump has is very perplexing, that

• 1:15:48Speaker 03

  people in the Christian world believe that he's chosen.

• 1:15:52Bill Maher?

  Literally chosen by God.

• 1:15:54Speaker 03

  Yes, and...

• 1:15:56Bill Maher?

  Who better?

• 1:15:56Speaker 03

  Meanwhile, because we have many gay people in our lives and in our family that we love. And they come home and they just, you know, they're funny, things that are supposed to be funny jokes, like, about gender, because, you know, it's, this is, these are the things that Trump's fighting against is...

• 1:16:20Speaker 03

  It's, it's it's confounding, and it's also, as a parent, it's very...

• 1:16:28Speaker 03

  All I can say is, when my kid was in eighth grade, we toured Arlington Cemetery, his eighth grade class. And I walked there and I was just thinking, man, these people that fought for what the country's supposed to stand for, for all people, are rolling right now. I mean, I

• 1:16:48Speaker 03

  I just, I'm scratching my head going, we can all live here.

• 1:16:53Bill Maher?

  I mean, first of all, I don't think Trump is specifically fighting gender stuff. I think he's, has no, you know, compass at all, so...

• 1:17:03Speaker 03

  I agree.

• 1:17:03Bill Maher?

  If people he needs say something anti-gender that's inappropriate, like, he probably won't slap them down for it. But I don't think, you know, he's a libertarian, a libertarian, a libertine from New York. That's not his thing. I mean, you know, he's a... He just got out of a rape trial, for God's sake. He grabs pussies, you know, the Melania thing, whatever the fuck that is. So I just don't think that's where people are. I'm not most worried about him there. He just came out with his abortion proposal, which is 16 weeks, which is about what they have in Europe.

• 1:17:43Speaker 03

  Okay, I have not seen that.

• 1:17:45Bill Maher?

  Yeah, sometimes it's even less than that. Oh, the Republicans are in, they know they're in real trouble because they finally caught the car, the dog caught the car, they got rid of abortion rights, and Americans fucking hate it. Men hate it, women hate it, everybody fucking hates kids, I understand. And they don't want kids they don't want to have. And they really, this is the Democrats' best issue by far. Their worst, Biden's age, that's their worst issue. Their best is this. People want someone to fight for, now they're going after the embryos. Did you see that in Alabama?

• 1:18:21Speaker 03

  Oh yeah, I've seen it.

• 1:18:21Bill Maher?

  I mean, embryos, like, just like the goo in the Petri dish is an eight-year-old.

• 1:18:28Speaker 03

  We should give, if embryos are alive, we should give them the right to vote.

• 1:18:32Bill Maher?

  Well, we don't give eight-year-olds the right to vote, but we give them a lot of rights that they shouldn't have. Were you a runaway bride all these three times that you didn't get married, that you were engaged?

• 1:18:43Speaker 03

  My first engagement, I was 21. I was engaged to a born again Christian who partied like it was the end of the world and then repented the next day. And he broke it off, which was really good. And then my second one, I was engaged to a lovely person I'm still good friends with, but we actually, by the time we were getting ready to be married, we were so platonic that it seemed like, blech.

• 1:19:08Bill Maher?

  Why I never did it?

• 1:19:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, most people I know that are married are not that happy, so I'm like... But I'm also 62, I mean... I want to just be what people are like.

• 1:19:18Bill Maher?

  Exactly.

• 1:19:19Speaker 03

  You know, I want to laugh. Sex would be great, but, you know, only if it's something that makes me laugh.

• 1:19:27Bill Maher?

  Right, I mean, it's trickier for women. You know, you gotta have your, you know.

• 1:19:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't want to get pregnant.

• 1:19:33Bill Maher?

  Well.

• 1:19:33Speaker 03

  Especially in a state where I can't get an abortion.

• 1:19:35Bill Maher?

  But also emotionally, psychologically, men can, you know, I think, have sex without, you know, you know, something being all that serious, easier.

• 1:19:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:19:45Bill Maher?

  And especially as you get older.

• 1:19:46Speaker 03

  I can have sex and not care about the person.

• 1:19:48Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I guess you can.

• 1:19:49Speaker 03

  I'm kidding.

• 1:19:50Bill Maher?

  I forgot what I was talking about.

• 1:19:51Speaker 03

  I'm saying, I'm kidding, in case my kids are watching.

• 1:19:53Bill Maher?

  I'm talking to rock and roll.

• 1:19:55Speaker 03

  I'm a rock star, okay?

• 1:19:56Bill Maher?

  What do you think is, like, the most rock and roll thing you ever did? Like, because.

• 1:20:02Speaker 03

  I wouldn't tell you.

• 1:20:03Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 1:20:04Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, no, probably not. I mean, I've made out with a few people.

• 1:20:11Bill Maher?

  Well, that's not even that. I'm talking about, when I think of rock.

• 1:20:14Speaker 03

  Let me just put it to you like this, Bill. There is a book in here, but some people are gonna have to die first. So.

• 1:20:26Speaker 03

  And it might be me, so I might write the book and then.

• 1:20:29Bill Maher?

  Let me put you together.

• 1:20:30Speaker 03

  Like Ron Hudson, you know, just put it out.

• 1:20:32Bill Maher?

  Together with my publisher.

• 1:20:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:20:34Bill Maher?

  He'll take care of the deaths.

• 1:20:35Speaker 03

  I think my publicist is all over it. She's like, dee, lee, lee, dee, lee, lee, lee, dee. You know, take this down.

• 1:20:41Bill Maher?

  You're, uh, I think you're past the point where anyone will ever get mad at you, unless you're.

• 1:20:46Speaker 03

  I have to do it quick, though, before I start forgetting all of it. It does start to get.

• 1:20:51Bill Maher?

  Your mind moves the furniture. I've, I've, I've known this because, well, yeah, because, like, I've known this, in, in a way that's undeniable, by reading over, like, notebooks or some diary of something I had. And I, I rem, in my mind, I had a, like, one example. I had a memory of, like, this incident, which I would have sworn, I would have sold the house on it, that it took place in Washington, DC, and it took place in London. I wish that that was the incident, but when I read over, and somewhere along the way, over the years, my mind moved that from London.

• 1:21:25Speaker 03

  Do you take notes? Like, did you?

• 1:21:26Bill Maher?

  Well, at the time, I, this was, I mean, this happened thirty years ago. And it was, at the time, I was like, take, I did keep like a journal, like one, like every one few months, I would write down like, what happened in the last three months. I don't know why I was doing it.

• 1:21:39Speaker 03

  I wish I would have done that.

• 1:21:41Bill Maher?

  Yeah, no, I was a pretty good caveman. I've saved a lot of, I mean, look, like, see that Diana Ross?

• 1:21:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:21:48Bill Maher?

  In The Supremes?

• 1:21:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:21:49Bill Maher?

  That's from an album, like when they put posters in albums.

• 1:21:52Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 1:21:53Bill Maher?

  Like, I saved that, like that Elvis, see that Elvis one? That was a poster in an album.

• 1:21:59Speaker 03

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:22:00Bill Maher?

  You just have them framed, and they're like, that means so much more than my Mad Magazine.

• 1:22:05Speaker 03

  Yes, oh, Mad Magazine.

• 1:22:08Bill Maher?

  You know.

• 1:22:08Speaker 03

  Yes, yes. That was so off limits when I was a kid. That, and what was the, what was the precursor, Vanity Fair, what was the?

• 1:22:21Bill Maher?

  Lampoon.

• 1:22:23Speaker 03

  No, I feel like Graydon Carter was part.

• 1:22:27Bill Maher?

  Oh, Spy.

• 1:22:27Speaker 03

  Spy magazine.

• 1:22:29Bill Maher?

  Spy, yeah, Spy.

• 1:22:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:22:31Bill Maher?

  Yeah, Spy was not, like, Mad was like broad.

• 1:22:34Speaker 03

  Mad was broad.

• 1:22:35Bill Maher?

  Lampoon was the best. That Lampoon was truly a brilliant satirical magazine.

• 1:22:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:22:40Bill Maher?

  And then Spy was arch. It wasn't that laugh out loud funny.

• 1:22:43Speaker 03

  No, it wasn't.

• 1:22:44Bill Maher?

  It was very.

• 1:22:45Speaker 03

  Much more sardonic, and much more sort of literate, not literate, but more intellectual.

• 1:22:49Bill Maher?

  It was for, it was for mostly Upper East Side New Yorkers. You know, it was pretty rarefied air, but they did some great stuff.

• 1:22:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:22:59Bill Maher?

  And then, yeah, Vanity Fair.

• 1:23:01Speaker 03

  I, people ask me, like, what's the, like, what's a regret or whatever. There's one thing I wish I would have done was to write one sentence at least every day, because journaling to me meant writing, like with a project or a song, and it just felt like work to me, so I never journaled. I mean, on the odd occasion, I would journal, but I would journal in the context of, oh, I got a record coming out, you know, or a record coming up, I need to start thinking about what I'm writing about. But I went, because I can't remember, and my tour manager or my manager will bring up stuff, and I'll go, shit, I didn't even remember that, you know? Just crazy, weird little things along the way. Makes me mad.

• 1:23:42Bill Maher?

  No, I, I'm always fascinated by what the mind remembers, because it seems to be.

• 1:23:49Bill Maher?

  Just absolutely no rhyme or reason to what like you'll have whole swaths of time will have disappeared. But one little thing that happened one night and it wasn't even significant.

• 1:24:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:24:03Bill Maher?

  You'll remember.

• 1:24:04Speaker 03

  Yeah. My mom has dementia right now and that is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. I mean, I've known people, but not somebody as close to me as my mom is.

• 1:24:17Bill Maher?

  Because they don't know you?

• 1:24:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, this is, I mean, it's just weird between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But what happens is, is she is stuck in a moment where she talks a ton. But it is, it relates to a specific time that none of us really understand. She talks about the people in the group and the group is going to be. We think it has something to do maybe with her relationship to who she was in our church. But it's weird, but it always comes out in that context. And her language, her vocabulary is really limited to that specific story. Now, I'm sure it's not that way with all people who have dementia. But the brain, it's terrifying.

• 1:24:57Bill Maher?

  Well, you know, Glen Campbell.

• 1:24:59Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:25:00Bill Maher?

  Before.

• 1:25:01Speaker 03

  Did you know Glen? Oh, no.

• 1:25:04Bill Maher?

  No, I mean, no, I did not.

• 1:25:07Speaker 03

  He started laughing. I'm like, oh, my God, were you guys like to?

• 1:25:10Bill Maher?

  No, no, I mean, our paths were very far from crossing. He was on TV when I was a kid.

• 1:25:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:25:17Bill Maher?

  He had a like.

• 1:25:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, a TV show.

• 1:25:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah, back in the day when they gave singers like variety hours and you had to do sketches.

• 1:25:22Speaker 03

  No, I was born in the wrong period.

• 1:25:25Bill Maher?

  Like a Wichita lineman.

• 1:25:27Speaker 03

  And here comes Avon de Carlyle.

• 1:25:29Bill Maher?

  Yes. Yeah, stuff like that.

• 1:25:32Speaker 03

  Welcome, Nipsey Russell.

• 1:25:33Bill Maher?

  So he was already, you know, Rhinestone Cowboy.

• 1:25:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:25:37Bill Maher?

  Some, I love those. That was when I was first listening to the radio. Galveston.

• 1:25:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:25:42Bill Maher?

  Wichita lineman. Gentle on my mind.

• 1:25:45Speaker 03

  Oh, Gentle on my mind. Which song, I mean, that was just one of the greatest of all time.

• 1:25:49Bill Maher?

  Gentle on my mind, lyrically, what a, what a, what a song.

• 1:25:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:25:53Bill Maher?

  I mean, that one is a killer, right? Poetry, that was Jim Webb.

• 1:25:58Speaker 03

  Jim Webb, yeah, he also did, um.

• 1:25:59Bill Maher?

  A lot of great stuff.

• 1:26:01Speaker 03

  I got to meet him.

• 1:26:02Bill Maher?

  Yeah, what? It was the same.

• 1:26:05Speaker 03

  Amazing.

• 1:26:06Bill Maher?

  Oh, I thought you were gonna say another guy who tried to.

• 1:26:08Speaker 03

  Just, you know, just try to pick me up. No, not at all.

• 1:26:12Bill Maher?

  You can't blame them for that.

• 1:26:13Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, not at all, no, just amazing. Like, I literally was like a student, like, oh my God, I love you so much.

• 1:26:19Bill Maher?

  Wow, yeah, but anyway, Glenn Campbell would be like, he doesn't know where he is and who he's talking to, and then you get on stage and the song.

• 1:26:30Speaker 03

  Still in there.

• 1:26:30Bill Maher?

  Like a rhyme, still.

• 1:26:32Speaker 03

  Still in there, I know, and, yeah.

• 1:26:33Bill Maher?

  And there was, there's something, obviously, music, again, the primal thing, when you hear the song, it triggers something in the brain that it, he was able to, I mean, that's really amazing that somebody in that case could do a concert.

• 1:26:46Speaker 03

  Yes, and what's weird about it too is to have it be so rote and then to walk off and not know. My mom is an amazing singer and we grew up singing, always. And last time I was home, I got out the great book, which is a Reader's Digest great book, and played everything from Alfie to, um.

• 1:27:07Bill Maher?

  Alfie.

• 1:27:08Speaker 03

  And my mom, my mom doesn't really stand so much.

• 1:27:13Bill Maher?

  Why Alfie?

• 1:27:13Speaker 03

  So she's sitting next to the piano, sitting next to me on the piano bench, and she's singing, just like she always did, and then she grabs the piano and she stands up and starts really singing. And I'm just like, oh, there she is, that's my mom, that's my mom, she is.

• 1:27:29Bill Maher?

  Okay, but why Alfie?

• 1:27:31Speaker 03

  No, every song from that, like Burt Bacharach.

• 1:27:33Bill Maher?

  Right, such a great song.

• 1:27:36Speaker 03

  All the, all the stuff that.

• 1:27:38Bill Maher?

  Oh, Burt Bacharach.

• 1:27:39Speaker 03

  Oh, I mean, please.

• 1:27:42Bill Maher?

  That's when you, when people.

• 1:27:43Speaker 03

  Walk On By, I mean, she was singing, like, everything I played, she knew all the words. She even sang, moon river, you know, just. Just like our old self. It's weird, music just like.

• 1:27:55Bill Maher?

  Who wrote Moon River?

• 1:27:56Speaker 03

  Um, Mancini.

• 1:27:57Bill Maher?

  Mancini, Henry Mancini. Andy Williams, I think, had the best. That's even before my time.

• 1:28:02Speaker 03

  Yes, he did.

• 1:28:04Bill Maher?

  But when people say, you know, three chord rock and roll, I always think, yeah, I guess there's some songs that are good with three chords. I'm not good, but give me Burt Bacharach, who always has.

• 1:28:16Speaker 03

  Any Day of the Week.

• 1:28:17Bill Maher?

  Any Day Now, you mean?

• 1:28:18Speaker 03

  Any Day of the Week.

• 1:28:19Bill Maher?

  But the song Any Day Now?

• 1:28:21Speaker 03

  Oh, Any Day Now, no.

• 1:28:23Bill Maher?

  Yes, you just sang it.

• 1:28:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's Burt Bach.

• 1:28:25Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 1:28:25Speaker 03

  Any Day Now?

• 1:28:26Bill Maher?

  Yes, covered by Elvis, covered by Luther Vandross. Any Day Now.

• 1:28:32Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:28:34Speaker 03

  Okay, as soon as I walk out of here, I'm gonna go like, Shazam, or Spotify, play me Any Day Now.

• 1:28:40Bill Maher?

  That's Burt Bacharach, when he was early, I know.

• 1:28:45Bill Maher?

  Great song.

• 1:28:46Speaker 03

  Unbelievable.

• 1:28:47Bill Maher?

  But very, always very unpredictable. And again, I'm not a musician or anything like that, but I've seen the charts and it's not three chords.

• 1:28:56Speaker 03

  Do you wanna hear something funny?

• 1:28:57Bill Maher?

  Or any chord you ever heard of.

• 1:28:59Speaker 03

  I did a gig where I got to sing,

• 1:29:03Speaker 03

  I got to sing, one less bell to answer. Hold me.

• 1:29:08Bill Maher?

  One less egg to fry.

• 1:29:12Speaker 03

  We should take it on the road.

• 1:29:12Bill Maher?

  One less man to look up after. I should be happy, but all I do is cry. That's The Fifth Dimension.

• 1:29:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, yes, it was. Yes, it was.

• 1:29:28Bill Maher?

  They were so great.

• 1:29:29Speaker 03

  So I got to sing that and he was playing the piano, Burt was, and he stopped and he's like,

• 1:29:38Speaker 03

  you don't wanna backphrase. Let's just sing the melody as it is. And I was just like, yes, sir. I mean, he was very, not rude.

• 1:29:47Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:29:48Speaker 03

  Just this is the way, the arc of the melody is, was written that way, and this is how it works. And I got to sing with him after that, but I was like. He's Burt Bacharach.

• 1:29:58Bill Maher?

  Yeah, and he deserves that.

• 1:30:00Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:30:00Bill Maher?

  And, uh...

• 1:30:01Speaker 03

  Yeah. I literally was like,

• 1:30:03Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:04Speaker 03

  "I will not backphrase." I will say that.

• 1:30:06Bill Maher?

  I don't even know what that is, but I'm glad.

• 1:30:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, you can't go, "One less... ...to answer."

• 1:30:14Bill Maher?

  Well, I think he made a good call.

• 1:30:15Speaker 03

  "One less... ...to find."

• 1:30:19Bill Maher?

  I think he made a good call, I gotta say.

• 1:30:22Speaker 03

  I don't know, I was just trying to like Lady Gaga it.

• 1:30:24Bill Maher?

  I could see a whole video of that version if I could. That is really... But, uh...

• 1:30:31Speaker 03

  Crazy shit, man.

• 1:30:33Bill Maher?

  Who, what are some of the songs that, like, I know musicians all like, and of course you are a great coverer of songs. What are some of the other ones you cover? Oh, "Solitaire"? Why do I have that?

• 1:30:47Speaker 03

  Ah, that's a great song.

• 1:30:48Bill Maher?

  Yeah, the Carpenters. Oh, it must have been on the, uh...

• 1:30:51Speaker 03

  It was on the Carpenters Tribute. Who wrote that song?

• 1:30:55Bill Maher?

  I don't know.

• 1:30:55Speaker 03

  I wanna say Paul Williams, do you remember that guy?

• 1:30:58Bill Maher?

  He wrote a lot of them.

• 1:30:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:30:59Bill Maher?

  He, he wrote a couple of...

• 1:31:00Speaker 03

  I think he did write it, maybe.

• 1:31:01Bill Maher?

  Maybe, he wrote a couple of those, he was very...

• 1:31:04Speaker 03

  And I'll tell you another cover we did was,

• 1:31:08Speaker 03

  that Eric Carmen song.

• 1:31:11Bill Maher?

  Oh, I think I know what you mean.

• 1:31:13Speaker 03

  Eric Carmen.

• 1:31:14Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I know. It's, it's not, uh...

• 1:31:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, okay. It's in there, it's in there. This is what scares me. Do you know what I'm saying?

• 1:31:25Bill Maher?

  No, no.

• 1:31:25Speaker 03

  I mean, honestly, this is what scares me.

• 1:31:26Bill Maher?

  Disc full, disc full.

• 1:31:28Speaker 03

  Yes, I know, I know.

• 1:31:29Bill Maher?

  There's no, uh, there's no shame in not remembering Eric Carmen. Excuse me, Mr. Carmen, it was a great record, we loved it, that's why we remember it so fondly. But we don't, but we, we can't, yeah, I, I can blame marijuana. What's your excuse?

• 1:31:44Speaker 03

  No, I need to light it up so maybe I'll remember something.

• 1:31:46Bill Maher?

  No, but, uh, what were you gonna say about it? You, oh, you covered that?

• 1:31:50Speaker 03

  Covered it, and it was such a good song.

• 1:31:52Bill Maher?

  What else have you covered? Oh, you covered, uh, "I Want You Back"? Why do I have that? Was that on a soundtrack or something?

• 1:32:00Speaker 03

  No, that was on Hundred Miles to Memphis.

• 1:32:02Bill Maher?

  Oh, Hundred, right. Oh, really? Right, okay.

• 1:32:05Speaker 03

  Twice.

• 1:32:06Bill Maher?

  Hundred Miles to Memphis.

• 1:32:11Speaker 03

  I can remember being a kid and...

• 1:32:13Bill Maher?

  Did you do that as a tribute? I just...

• 1:32:15Speaker 03

  No, I just, I did it when we were getting ready to cut something. And the band was like, "Oh, my gosh, you've gotta put that on the record." I was like...

• 1:32:23Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 1:32:23Speaker 03

  And then I did it.

• 1:32:24Bill Maher?

  This guy, Kid Rock, I'm back to Kid Rock.

• 1:32:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:32:28Bill Maher?

  His version of Sugar Pie Honey Buns? Do you know it?

• 1:32:32Speaker 03

  Oh, really? No.

• 1:32:33Bill Maher?

  You don't?

• 1:32:34Speaker 03

  On what?

• 1:32:35Bill Maher?

  I don't know. His 21st century albums. Like, when he first came out, I was not into it. I mean, I was never into the brash personality, full on. Although, I love him. He was here also. Looks like everybody you know was here.

• 1:32:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know. My entire, like, Rolodex was here.

• 1:32:51Bill Maher?

  And he's a real, like, we both, okay, he is who he is. But just separate that from the music. If we can do it with Wagner, we can do it with Kid Rock.

• 1:32:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:33:00Bill Maher?

  Okay.

• 1:33:01Speaker 03

  Wagner, Kid Rock.

• 1:33:02Bill Maher?

  Yeah, it's just very similar. And I'm sure Kid Rock would take that as a compliment.

• 1:33:07Speaker 03

  He'd be like...

• 1:33:09Bill Maher?

  But just the music, like, there's no, I love his records. There's no music that, like, takes me back to being 16. That is his genius. Like, he has so many songs where, you know, your girlfriend's on your shoulders and, you know, you're listening to AC/DC or whatever the references are. And the first kiss, you know, that's... Like, he has so many songs that if you want to get back into that feeling good, like, that kinda good...

• 1:33:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:33:37Bill Maher?

  He is my boy.

• 1:33:39Speaker 03

  He does do that. He, when I worked with him on that song, Picture, I came home at Christmas time and I was telling my parents. Been working with this guy named Bobby Ritchie, Kid Rock. You got, he's such a nice person, got a great family, a lot like ours. He's very close to his family. And they were like, and I said, he's really, you know, huge. He had this song called Cowboy.

• 1:33:59Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:00Speaker 03

  I'm like, oh, well, play us some of his stuff. We'd love to hear some of it.

• 1:34:04Bill Maher?

  No, you wouldn't.

• 1:34:04Speaker 03

  So they, they had a, they, they bought the CD. And the very last song, we get almost to the last song. And I was like, no, we, that's good. That's all you need to hear. Cause the last song is called Black Pussy, I believe is what it was called.

• 1:34:18Bill Maher?

  Right, I'm sure it was.

• 1:34:19Speaker 03

  Yes. And so I did a couple of gigs with him. One of which was in St. Louis and my whole family came. And they watched me play and then they came backstage. And I was like, okay, well, y'all can go now. No, we want to stay for some Kid Rock. And I'm thinking, hey, dancing girls, you know, the whole, that, they enjoyed about four or five songs.

• 1:34:43Bill Maher?

  I've heard that his concerts are like Trump rallies. I mean, with the flags and everything. You know, look, again, not for me.

• 1:34:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:34:51Bill Maher?

  Don't get it. Can't ever convince you, Kid Rock, to come to my side. I know that would be futile and stupid. So let's just not talk about what we don't agree with.

• 1:35:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, you just do what you do with all of your relatives.

• 1:35:02Bill Maher?

  Exactly. That's why I'm always making that comparison. In your family, you would never ask someone to just not be.

• 1:35:10Speaker 03

  Take down their Confederate flag.

• 1:35:11Bill Maher?

  Not be who they are.

• 1:35:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, it's true.

• 1:35:14Bill Maher?

  And the, the three most important words in any relationship are not, I love you. They're, let it go.

• 1:35:22Speaker 03

  I, I, yeah, I agree with that.

• 1:35:24Bill Maher?

  Well, maybe I oversold that, but, but let it go is very important.

• 1:35:28Speaker 03

  Let it go or maybe four words, shut the fuck up. No, I'm kidding.

• 1:35:34Bill Maher?

  Well, if you, if you're at the place where you have to tell someone to shut the fuck up, you know, that's one good thing I feel about getting older that I learned along the way. It's like you don't waste time. You know, where you can tell where it's, you know.

• 1:35:50Speaker 03

  Where it's going.

• 1:35:50Bill Maher?

  Yeah, and what could possibly work and what couldn't. And there's no use throwing good love after bad. There's another title.

• 1:35:59Speaker 03

  I love it.

• 1:36:00Bill Maher?

  I'm telling you.

• 1:36:01Speaker 03

  You're good. You're really good.

• 1:36:02Bill Maher?

  Oh, I know you're a blue jay. You're gathering for your nest, culture vulture. You can have them all. It would be an honor. It would be an honor, and I guess I should let you go.

• 1:36:11Speaker 03

  Oh, God. So much fun. I love hanging out with you, man.

• 1:36:14Bill Maher?

  Thank you so much, Cyril Crowe, the rock star.

• 1:36:16Speaker 03

  We need to hang out when the cameras aren't on us, okay? Because we have many things to talk about.

• 1:36:21Bill Maher?

  And yet it would be no different, would it?

• 1:36:23Speaker 03

  Actually, no, it would not be any different.

• 1:36:24Bill Maher?

  That's what I'm trying to do with this show.

• 1:36:26Speaker 03

  A few more F bombs.

• 1:36:27Bill Maher?

  But I'll do it anytime.

• 1:36:29Speaker 03

  For me, maybe a little weed. If I'm not singing, you know, that's the thing, you know.

• 1:36:37Bill Maher?

  All right.

• 1:36:38Speaker 03

  So, anyway, that was fun. Thanks for having me.

• 1:36:40Bill Maher?

  A pleasure.

• 1:36:42Speaker 03

  You're a minch.

• 1:36:46Speaker 05

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