Kenny Chesney | Club Random with Bill Maher

Bill Maher welcomes country music superstar Kenny Chesney to Club Random for a conversation that starts with sold-out stadiums and ends somewhere much deeper. Kenny reflects on his ""hillbilly rock star"" glory days, why he's never canceled a show in nearly three decades, and the bus-ride epiphany that convinced him to stop drinking before performances. He also pulls back the curtain on creating the visuals for his record-breaking Sphere residency. Kenny gushes over Religulous, while Bill tells stories about Larry Flynt's gold wheelchair and Bill Clinton's legendary charm. Then one simple question about legacy cracks the whole conversation wide open: what happens to everything you've built when you don't have kids? Support our Advertisers: -Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://www.quo.com/random -Try Claude for free at https://www.claude.ai/clubrandom 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

  Low energy, unfocused, foggy? You might be dehydrated. Whether it's hot yoga, over 100-degree weather, or too much sun. Gator Light, with a specialized blend of five electrolytes, was scientifically designed to help move fluids into the body faster for rapid rehydration. Shop now at retailers nationwide. Gator Light: Hydrates Faster Than Water. Is it in you? Symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration. Consult a healthcare professional if symptoms persist.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  When you shop Kroger Delivery, you can expect the savings you love and fresh groceries delivered right to your door. From delicious produce to everyday essentials, enjoy the convenience of delivery and the trusted selection you've come to know from Kroger. Because bringing you fresh, quality groceries is what we do best. Right now, enjoy free delivery on orders of $50 or more with your digital coupon. Restrictions apply. See site for details. Kroger: Fresh for Everyone.

• 1:01Speaker 02

  Now at Lowe's. Faster quotes start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Got a material list handwritten on a sticky note you've saved as a photo? Perfect. Bring it to us and get a quote in minutes. And if you don't see what you need on the shelf, we'll help you get it. You can access thousands of products beyond what's available in-store or on Lowe's.com, right from the Lowe's Pro Desk. Build quotes faster and source the materials you need to keep your jobs moving. Just like that, at Lowe's.

• 1:29Bill Maher?

  Well, folks, if you're gonna spend money on something and it might as well be something you actually like, that's what I always say. That's where the Club Random merch store comes in. That's right, get yourself a cozy hoodie. Look at this. This is really well-designed. That's right, get yourself a cozy hoodie to snuggle away your sorrows or some new Club Random shirts. Look at all this shit I have. To attract a partner with similar interests and live happily ever after. I've seen crazy rom-coms, so head over to clubrandom.com and bring home some random.

• 2:10Bill Maher?

  Oh, that's right. They don't get media.

• 2:13Speaker 04

  We didn't get that in Alex's mouth.

• 2:17Bill Maher?

  Well, you just don't trust them.

• 2:19Speaker 04

  Don't tru- I've never trusted them. What are you talking about?

• 2:27Bill Maher?

  Oh, my gosh. It's Brad Pitt's brother.

• 2:33Speaker 04

  How you doing, man?

• 2:33Bill Maher?

  That's a funny song.

• 2:34Speaker 04

  Good to see you.

• 2:36Bill Maher?

  That's a funny song, by the way.

• 2:38Speaker 04

  It's a true story.

• 2:39Bill Maher?

  What?

• 2:39Speaker 04

  Other than Brad Pitt's brother.

• 2:42Bill Maher?

  Sounds like it was many stories.

• 2:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was.

• 2:44Bill Maher?

  Many days in your life.

• 2:45Speaker 04

  That, well, that was actually about... Me and my friend Brett James wrote that song.

• 2:52Speaker 04

  Because when you're single, you know, Christmas is a weird time, you know? So, I was... I called my buddy Brett James, and he was a great songwriter. I said, "What are you doing the day after Christmas?" Because he had a family and everything. So, we went down to my house in the Virgin Islands and stayed out all night. And literally, I woke up around 2:30 in the afternoon.

• 3:15Speaker 04

  And Brett was out there playing guitar, and he had this riff, you know? Started, and it was that riff. And basically, that song was written about our night before.

• 3:25Bill Maher?

  You out all night?

• 3:26Speaker 04

  We were out all night.

• 3:27Bill Maher?

  That's the riff part?

• 3:28Speaker 04

  Yeah. That was, yeah, back in the day.

• 3:30Bill Maher?

  Well, it's funny you say that because this very room... I used to have a party, Christmas night. Christmas day, but night.

• 3:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:40Bill Maher?

  It was very popular. Because everybody's doing something in the day. They don't really want to do...

• 3:47Speaker 04

  Nope.

• 3:47Bill Maher?

  Relatives, family, kids around. It's like, even as a kid, I sort of had enough by the end of it, you know?

• 3:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 3:53Bill Maher?

  It wasn't like Halloween. Uh, we would do stuff with candy, and you were bouncing off the walls from the Sugar Rush. You were just kind of like, "Ugh."

• 4:00Speaker 04

  So, you guys were into Christmas or not?

• 4:02Bill Maher?

  Totally, of course.

• 4:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, our family really was, too.

• 4:05Bill Maher?

  Yeah, we're Americans.

• 4:06Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 4:06Bill Maher?

  We're into Christmas. Yeah, no, don't fucking... And of course, kids, you're getting presents. Of course, we're fucking into Christmas. But like, when you're an adult, you know, this is... I used to go when my father was alive. Go back to New Jersey and and see my family at Christmas. Then, you know, years later, and then my mother was gone. So there was no, you know, I would see my sister, but not at Christmas time because neither of us really cared. When we were older, we were both atheists at this point. So, but we had great memories of it. But I would have a party Christmas night. This was the party house, always has been. And boy, did people love it. They were so ready for.

• 4:44Speaker 04

  I bet they came early, too.

• 4:46Bill Maher?

  Came early, stayed late. But they were ready for something adult. And it was only the same very day. That's how much it annoys people that I can't even wait for the next. You say your party was the next day.

• 4:58Speaker 04

  The next day.

• 4:59Bill Maher?

  This was Christmas night.

• 5:00Speaker 04

  So, so is this still going on?

• 5:02Bill Maher?

  No.

• 5:02Speaker 04

  No.

• 5:03Bill Maher?

  No, but I could revive it. It's a really good idea.

• 5:06Speaker 04

  But there was a moment that it that.

• 5:08Bill Maher?

  It was years. Why did it years for years? I mean.

• 5:11Speaker 04

  Yeah, but what made it stop?

• 5:12Bill Maher?

  What made it stop was I had a girlfriend in Canada. And I went there for three Christmases. I mean, I was, I was there.

• 5:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 5:23Bill Maher?

  I mean, what I did for love. Because I don't like to travel in the to cold weather places in the cold. You know, I just quit touring after like forty two years of it. But even when I, all the years I was doing it, my agent knew, don't book him in Minneapolis in February. Yeah, I mean, I'd fire them if they even tried it, you know. But.

• 5:43Speaker 04

  My manager Clint did that one time. So back before I could decide when I was gonna tour. I didn't mean to interrupt you, but.

• 5:49Bill Maher?

  No.

• 5:50Speaker 04

  But back when I could decide when I, you know, when we were out there all the time. Like I would pack to come home for years. So we were out there all the time. Well, we were in this, we were in this place in Upper Michigan called Sioux St. Marie. And it was so cold that the inside of the bus windows were frosted over.

• 6:10Bill Maher?

  I think I played there.

• 6:11Speaker 04

  It's a casino up there.

• 6:12Bill Maher?

  Yeah, it's a casino, right.

• 6:14Speaker 04

  So back in the day I played there. And my manager and agent's name was is Clint, Clint Hyam. And I took my finger, the frost was inside the window, and I took my finger and I went, fuck you, Clint.

• 6:30Speaker 04

  Send him a picture of it.

• 6:32Bill Maher?

  But you're, I mean, like, you're old school, I think, like me, when it comes to show business. I mean, there's that story about you, like, having your foot crushed or some shit, and you still did the show. And I always think about it when, like, not to, like, always be shitting on the younger generation, but, you know, where shit is due, I will shit. And the way they cancel shows, because it's not even to be something physical. It's just, I just, I'm not feeling it. So all you people who, like, came out here and rearranged your life and your days and your weeks and your babysitter to come see me, I'm sorry, I just, I got, I got, I've got sinus headache.

• 7:10Speaker 04

  I know people that, um, that canceled shows before they went on. That people were already there, and they just said, "I'm not going on." And then, and then, and now, the, now the thing, now the thing is, is they're not mentally fit.

• 7:26Bill Maher?

  Right. Or, or they, or they show up three hours late.

• 7:30Speaker 04

  Yeah. There's a certain thing, like, I, I think that, and how I came up and, and all the clubs and the casinos, whatever it is I played, and then getting to the next level, um, there's a certain, um, I don't know, there's a certain gratitude, and I, I think it's the way, the way I was brought up also, but you just didn't cancel. I mean, it's show business.

• 7:55Bill Maher?

  There's no business like.

• 7:57Speaker 04

  Show business.

• 7:58Bill Maher?

  Yeah. They smile when they are low.

• 8:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 8:02Bill Maher?

  They smile when they are low. They don't cancel the show when they are low.

• 8:06Speaker 04

  No, and.

• 8:07Bill Maher?

  We should redo the song. Redo the song for the Chappell Rone fans.

• 8:14Speaker 04

  Have you ever canceled?

• 8:15Bill Maher?

  No, never, never canceled. Also, never missed a show in over forty years, about forty years on the road, um, except for two times, and both times it was because the plane couldn't get there. The plane physically couldn't. Once it broke, and once it was weather. Never missed one episode of Politically Incorrect, which was like two thousand episodes or something. Probably eight hundred real times. Never missed any of those shows, except for the two they made me when I had Covid, wink, wink. So I could have died. I felt way worse other times when I did the show. Pre-Covid, you know, if I had just the flu or something. But back then, you know, it was just like, that's the heroic thing to go on there.

• 8:58Bill Maher?

  Don't get anybody sick, but you know, you could do, I'm not kissing them. You know, we're not making euphoria here. I'm just talking to them across the table.

• 9:07Speaker 04

  But it is interesting to see the, like, there is a difference. And everybody's different, whatever, but I know the way that you, how hard you worked. Coming up and doing what you did, and you had a dream and you were meeting people and you were, like, it was, the work was a part of the process, right?

• 9:28Bill Maher?

  Same as you.

• 9:28Speaker 04

  So same as me. But it is a little different today. I'm not saying that people don't work hard because they do.

• 9:35Bill Maher?

  Well.

• 9:35Speaker 04

  But when people ask me for advice and they say, this is what they say. And there's this internal voice telling me as soon as they say this. They'll say, well, how do you, you have any advice on how to make it? And

• 9:51Speaker 04

  there's this, then look, I wanted to make it too, right? But still, you don't, there's this internal voice inside of me thinking that person's never gonna make it. Telling myself, not, I wouldn't tell them that. But.

• 10:03Bill Maher?

  Well, maybe it's the kind thing to do.

• 10:05Speaker 04

  Maybe it is.

• 10:06Bill Maher?

  But no, you never know.

• 10:07Speaker 04

  It ain't up to me to tell them.

• 10:08Bill Maher?

  Yeah, yeah, you never know.

• 10:09Speaker 04

  But you don't do it to make it. You don't, you, you, you do it because it's what you do. You got up every night and did your thing because it's what you do.

• 10:17Bill Maher?

  And a lot of times, you, I, I can't speak for other comedians, but I'm pretty sure this is how they felt too at that stage. You have to really psych yourself up to keep going and to do it. Because the last experience you had with it sucked so bad. Really, way worse, I bet than, I mean, when you, I've seen it in smaller venues, even in larger ones sometimes, when the audience isn't listening to the band, and the band knows it, right?

• 10:46Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 10:47Bill Maher?

  You're, okay, but you're in the middle of a song, you know, you have each other to like, okay, you know what, fuck you people, we're gonna just enjoy playing this for each other, and it's still a great song, and we're proud, whatever. Comedians don't have that latitude.

• 11:02Speaker 04

  Oh no, you're so exposed. You're so exposed.

• 11:05Bill Maher?

  Exactly.

• 11:06Speaker 04

  You're more exposed than we are. Like, I have this, I have this mentality of going, okay, the worse the audience, the more we're gonna give them. They're gonna like it whether they like it or not.

• 11:15Bill Maher?

  That is the attitude you should also have as a comedian. I did not. That's the bad thing when I was young and stupid. Is, that is exactly the attitude that would have served me well, and it was the precise attitude I lacked.

• 11:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, but there had to have been a moment where, I mean, I remember, I would, me and the band were, um, it was in some arena, maybe it was Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, somewhere, or something like that, where we knew that it just changed. Something was changing. It was not like it was yesterday. It's not, it's something I can just tell.

• 11:49Bill Maher?

  In your popularity.

• 11:50Speaker 04

  Yes, but in the connection with the audience.

• 11:52Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 11:52Speaker 04

  And so there had to have been a moment for you like that.

• 11:54Bill Maher?

  Oh, yes, it's perhaps even more obvious with me, because laughter is very measurable.

• 12:00Speaker 04

  Right.

• 12:00Bill Maher?

  You know, you either hear it or you don't, you know, and they're either laughing all the way through your set, or maybe sporadically, but I remember literally the date, the first time I did 20 Minutes, and it was like, from beginning to end, it was solid. Like, there was, there was no genius, but for 20 minutes, I could actually make strangers laugh continually. And that, to me, was like, one of the watershed moments.

• 12:28Speaker 04

  It's, it's such an incredible talent. And I, I do, I think you are born to do that.

• 12:33Bill Maher?

  Partly, yes, you absolutely.

• 12:35Speaker 04

  You have to have the gift of gab, but you are born to do that.

• 12:38Bill Maher?

  Well, what, you know what you really need for it? Timing.

• 12:43Speaker 04

  That's exactly right.

• 12:44Bill Maher?

  You are either born with timing or you're not. It's innate, I guess.

• 12:48Speaker 04

  And there's something to be said, like, my friend John McGinley was telling me, I forgot who he was talking about.

• 12:53Bill Maher?

  The actor?

• 12:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, the actor. We're dear friends with him.

• 12:56Bill Maher?

  Oh, yeah.

• 12:56Speaker 04

  So.

• 12:57Bill Maher?

  Platoon?

• 12:57Speaker 04

  He was talking about when you're onstage, either as a comedian or an actor or what, the gift of pausing. There's something that brings them in.

• 13:07Bill Maher?

  That's timing.

• 13:08Speaker 04

  And then you, yeah, it's timing.

• 13:09Bill Maher?

  And you, you have to feel it. You can't teach it. You cannot. You really can't. I mean, you also need material. You could get writers to do material, but I feel like material is always best done by the person who writes it because they hear it exactly the way it's supposed to be done.

• 13:25Speaker 04

  The pacing and everything of it, yeah.

• 13:27Bill Maher?

  That's why it's always painful when they portray comedians in movies about comedians and they're doing... It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's one level removed from reality and to a comedian, it's just nails on a chalkboard.

• 13:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 13:45Bill Maher?

  It just is. You know, it's, I mean, you must see people sometimes in movies portraying musicians and...

• 13:52Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, all the time. Yeah.

• 13:54Bill Maher?

  I mean, sometimes it's...

• 13:55Speaker 04

  Sometimes it seems authentic.

• 13:57Bill Maher?

  Yeah, and they do it way better than they used to. I mean, in the old days, you know, a guy would go to play the piano. They would just cut to his face, you know, and they wouldn't even attempt. And now they seem to be able to do it. I mean, they have tricks that I don't get it, but where you just see the person sit down and start to play and pan up, so you never cut away, and yet it's definitely not that person playing the piano at that level. Somehow they, but, you know, that show business.

• 14:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, I went in, I went to the bathroom before I came in here and it reminded me of something, that there's a poster on the wall. And I had no idea I was gonna talk about this today and, and, um, it reminded me of this film you did that just blew my mind.

• 14:42Bill Maher?

  What?

• 14:43Speaker 04

  The one on religion.

• 14:44Bill Maher?

  Oh, religious.

• 14:46Bill Maher?

  Yeah, those posters are gay posters. They don't, I mean, that was my career in the eighties. Doing things like B-movies like that. One of my writers makes those, they're hysterical. But religious, yes.

• 14:59Speaker 04

  I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. Like, and I forgot about it.

• 15:02Bill Maher?

  That means a lot to me.

• 15:03Speaker 04

  Because, here's why. Is because I grew up, a lot of that movie spoke to me. It really did. Because I do believe, you know, I grew up very Southern Baptist. Right, and after I saw, after I saw that film, the girl I was dating at the time, she and I drove around just about a 10-mile radius of where we lived, and we counted 32 churches.

• 15:29Bill Maher?

  So. Yeah, I've been to places like that. Memphis is like.

• 15:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:32Bill Maher?

  I remember driving through, wow. And, well, that means a lot to me. Because, you know, that movie, I'm sure, did not play in the theater there. Because I remember when we.

• 15:42Speaker 04

  Probably not.

• 15:43Bill Maher?

  When we released it. And it was financially one of the biggest documentaries ever. Now, the numbers are way lower for documentaries. But for, I think when it came out, it was the seventh biggest one ever. And it didn't play in most of the country. Because in most of the country, Bible Belt, they were not gonna show religious.

• 16:00Speaker 04

  But look, I can tell you, it really spoke to me. Because I grew up Southern Baptist.

• 16:04Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I hear this all the time from people like that, yeah.

• 16:06Speaker 04

  And I went to church with my grandmother and my mother. And then she was a very godly woman. And, and I was, I was taught that this is the way, or if you don't do it this way, it's wrong. Or you're gonna, you know, they literally scare the hell out of you. Right?

• 16:22Bill Maher?

  Well, as a Catholic who went through the system, you know, and my mother was culturally Jewish. I don't think she ever went to church. But we'll say she's Jewish, yes. People always say, "Oh, Bill, if your mother's Jewish, you're Jewish." I'm like, okay, first of all, religion is an opinion. Okay, it's not an ethnicity, it's an opinion. It's just an opinion that I think Muhammad is God, or Jesus is God. I don't have an opinion. I was forced into having an opinion that was Catholic when I was young. Now my opinion is neither one of them. So don't tell me what I am. What I am is a Catholic-raised atheist.

• 17:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:01Bill Maher?

  Okay, that's what I am. And I put in time with the Catholic Church, and I want credit.

• 17:09Bill Maher?

  I want the credit because it was painful.

• 17:11Speaker 04

  I think for me, like, I've been on stage so much and I've seen music like change people. And I think there's, there's gotta be something in there. I, I, I.

• 17:20Bill Maher?

  Something that we don't understand? Of course.

• 17:23Speaker 04

  Like, I think there's something much bigger than all of us.

• 17:25Bill Maher?

  Well, of course.

• 17:26Speaker 04

  That's full of love, light, and positive energy, and connectivity that we don't understand.

• 17:32Bill Maher?

  Well, I, I can only go halfway there with you. Once you start describing what it likes about the world or us, love and light and.

• 17:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, I mean.

• 17:41Bill Maher?

  I don't know about that. I mean, I, because there's a lot of stuff that's dark and not.

• 17:46Speaker 04

  No question.

• 17:46Bill Maher?

  And not lovely. So, so like.

• 17:48Speaker 04

  I understand that.

• 17:49Bill Maher?

  Yeah. So, I don't, my thing is, people think there's some big difference between atheists and agnostics. It's the same thing. Even atheists don't say, we are sure of what it is and it's not God. No, we just go, we don't know and we don't care.

• 18:04Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:05Bill Maher?

  We're never going to know, so we don't put a lot of energy into it. But we definitely don't think, with all the fucked up shit on earth, I could start a list, but let's not get depressed.

• 18:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:15Bill Maher?

  But you know what I'm talking about. With all that shit, either God is incompetent or cruel or, I mean, there's just no reason for a lot of the suffering. And so, like, I'd rather not, if I think about it too, in terms too much of like, he did this, I'll start not to like him. And I, I wanna like him if he, if he, it exists, no, and it's just.

• 18:38Speaker 04

  And maybe it's my messed up sense of humor, but I probably wasn't supposed to laugh at this moment. I didn't, I, again, I didn't think we were going to be talking about this, but it's my messed up sense of humor. You were talking to this guy in, in this, this religious bookstore. And he said, he said that no matter what, if it's, you know.

• 18:56Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 18:57Speaker 04

  I'll be in a better place, whatever. And you said, well, why don't you kill yourself?

• 19:00Bill Maher?

  Why don't you hang yourself tomorrow then? I know I'll be in a better place.

• 19:04Speaker 04

  I like spit my water out in the bus. I was laughing so hard. So, anyway.

• 19:09Bill Maher?

  Poor guy, yeah.

• 19:09Speaker 04

  I saw that poster in there and I just haven't been bringing it up.

• 19:12Bill Maher?

  Thank you, yeah. No, that was in Boston. You know, the ones I really, I mean, I loved all the ones we did, but I, especially. Like the ones in the south. There was the.

• 19:21Speaker 04

  The truck stop.

• 19:22Bill Maher?

  The truck stop in Raleigh.

• 19:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:24Bill Maher?

  Was and you know, I do have an affection, not just for that part of the country because I played it my whole life and.

• 19:34Speaker 04

  Those are my people.

• 19:35Bill Maher?

  Those are your people and I love your people and I hate it that America and and the kind of snobby people that I rub shoulders with a lot out here. I'm sorry, but that is a lot of what Los Angeles is very uber woke, snobby types who just. And I think I used to be more of them. Uh, I'm glad I'm not, and I think traveling the country and being in those places just gave me a very different perspective than people who just stay here because, you know, uh, I always have more fun there. I like the audience better usually because they were generally liberal, but not stick up their ass.

• 20:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 20:14Bill Maher?

  Woke like anti because political in politically.

• 20:17Speaker 04

  You can't say anything to them.

• 20:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah, that's great, you know, so I would always have a better time in Huntsville, Alabama.

• 20:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 20:24Bill Maher?

  Or where NASA is, you know.

• 20:27Speaker 04

  Did you ever play Knoxville? I'm from Knoxville, Tennessee. Did you ever go there?

• 20:30Bill Maher?

  Of course, I played them all.

• 20:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:32Bill Maher?

  Yeah, no, I mean, I and I I've done this editorial on my show a couple of times about country music.

• 20:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:41Bill Maher?

  Which, you know, I feel like country music and me, we truly met in the middle. I mean, when I was a kid and I grew up with the with the late sixties, seventies radio, that's my formative years. I was 12 in 1968 when what topped the charts was the Beatles somewhat. They were a little on the they had Hey Jude that year, so they had the biggest one, but. But you know, Tommy James and the Chandels and the Rascals and we're still in in that era, the Rolling Stones. I mean, great bands and Aretha Franklin and, you know, um, and.

• 21:16Bill Maher?

  So, oh, I forgot what I was gonna say.

• 21:19Speaker 04

  No, you were talking about you met country in the middle.

• 21:21Bill Maher?

  Oh, yes. So, back then, country was picking and grinning. You know, it was just, to somebody in the New York, I was in Jersey, the New York

• 21:30Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 21:31Bill Maher?

  media market, it was, it total heck, it was Hee Haw was on in the

• 21:36Speaker 04

  Well, and they presented it that way, in a lot of ways.

• 21:39Bill Maher?

  Well, I don't think, excuse me, I love you, bro, but I don't think they were misrepresenting

• 21:43Speaker 04

  No, they were. I'm just saying.

• 21:45Bill Maher?

  They were not like, they're, oh, look, he's playing a hick.

• 21:47Speaker 04

  You know what's crazy, though, if you go back and watch some of that, I mean, as hunky as it is, if you go back and watch some of those old, um, versions of Hee Haw that was out, it is, it is, some of that stuff is, like,

• 22:00Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 22:01Speaker 04

  It's pretty funny.

• 22:01Bill Maher?

  It is funny.

• 22:02Speaker 04

  They, they, the writers on that show, I mean,

• 22:05Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 22:05Speaker 04

  they knew who they were and they wrote to those, it was great.

• 22:08Bill Maher?

  You know what it was, really, it was, it was hick laugh-in.

• 22:13Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 22:13Bill Maher?

  There was a show, Laugh-In.

• 22:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, I know Laugh-In.

• 22:15Bill Maher?

  Right. Okay, and it was kind of, let's do that, but for, you know, like, the three fifths of the country that sound like you. Not the people who sound like me, which is perfect English.

• 22:27Speaker 04

  Oh, you, oh, my God, if you went, if you went to, um, like, my mom has a twin, and I grew up in a family of women, and, wow, you would have a hard time listening to them at a family function.

• 22:42Bill Maher?

  Boy.

• 22:43Speaker 04

  I mean, it was just because of the accent, what you're talking about.

• 22:46Bill Maher?

  I know, I like the accent.

• 22:48Speaker 04

  Oh, no, I, I, I talk the way I talk, but, I mean, like, I would take girls home with me for, you know, Easter or Christmas or whatever, and they would have, they'd almost need a, like, a Rosetta Stone book, you know, or whatever to get to follow along.

• 23:05Bill Maher?

  Girls who didn't have a southern accent like you.

• 23:09Bill Maher?

  I imagine you took a lot of girls out for a lot of holidays.

• 23:13Speaker 04

  Well, I took one girl home. Like, my, my family, they, I mean, I don't know, how many, how many siblings did you have?

• 23:20Bill Maher?

  One.

• 23:21Speaker 04

  One. Okay, so I had a sister, but I also had an Aunt Missy that was my same age, my mother's sister. My mom and my grandmother were in the hospital at the same time having us. Swear to God. This is a me, sent a C shit here, I don't got to tell anyone.

• 23:38Speaker 04

  What were we talking about? I can't even remember.

• 23:40Bill Maher?

  No, no, let's go, let's go back to it.

• 23:41Speaker 04

  What was it, though? What was?

• 23:42Bill Maher?

  It was something important.

• 23:43Speaker 04

  So, I, I, I took a girl home, and it's a family full of women, and they dissect everybody that you bring there, right? Every girlfriend I ever brought there, they were just talking behind her back or whatever. And I took this girl home one time.

• 23:58Bill Maher?

  Because they thought that she wasn't good enough for you?

• 24:01Speaker 04

  Well, possibly, but I took her home for some holiday. The next day, I called my sister. I said, okay, what did everybody think? And she goes, well, she was fine and all, but she had the wrong bra on with that shirt.

• 24:13Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 24:13Speaker 04

  It was that detailed.

• 24:15Bill Maher?

  See, we never do that.

• 24:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:16Bill Maher?

  I know men are, I know men are, no, I'm talking about men and women.

• 24:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, oh, no, we don't do that. We don't know.

• 24:21Bill Maher?

  We don't, we never say, oh, oh, Kenny, he was wearing the wrong bra.

• 24:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, or he is, yeah.

• 24:28Bill Maher?

  It's just like.

• 24:29Speaker 04

  We don't even think it.

• 24:29Bill Maher?

  Yeah. We're plainly better.

• 24:31Speaker 04

  So, yeah.

• 24:35Bill Maher?

  But, I mean, you know, okay, let me broaden this out since we're on this subject. But like, I feel like the biggest change, like, big overarching change in music as far as lyrically, when most music is, is love song music of one kind or another. Now, of course, there's protest. Songs about everything. And there's songs we don't even know what they're about. "Rum is in Clover," over and over. Okay, if you say so, Tommy. But, okay, so, but like.

• 25:07Bill Maher?

  Love songs. Here's the problem in the old days. When people were very, uh, shall we say, prudish about, you know, the Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." I mean, that's as good. It was just about love. It just didn't know, nothing was sexually explicit.

• 25:23Speaker 04

  Oh, no, no.

• 25:23Bill Maher?

  Okay. I feel like, like somebody like you are so much, so much more elegant about the way you, you are communicating this.

• 25:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 25:33Bill Maher?

  But it's, it's, uh, it's just, I don't know. Maybe it's my age, but to me, it's so classy. You know, like, I love guilty pleasure.

• 25:41Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 25:42Bill Maher?

  Because I feel like there was quite a few years when I felt that way. I mean, you have a line.

• 25:48Speaker 04

  Live in the middle, you know.

• 25:50Bill Maher?

  Well, you're like, "Don't Tell Your Mama About Us."

• 25:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 25:54Bill Maher?

  "I feel like it's better if we kept it that way."

• 25:56Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 25:57Bill Maher?

  That is something I've said. I mean, if I had a nickel for every time.

• 26:01Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 26:02Bill Maher?

  I'd probably have at least $2.

• 26:04Speaker 04

  And that is a very authentic song for me, right? I mean, it's very authentic.

• 26:08Bill Maher?

  But.

• 26:08Speaker 04

  But.

• 26:09Bill Maher?

  It's, when I was a kid growing up and like, looking up to men and, you know, you know, I was a red-blooded American heterosexual boy. I liked the guys who were like attractive to women, whether it was Joe Namath or,

• 26:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 26:21Bill Maher?

  you know, somebody like that.

• 26:24Speaker 05

  Low energy, unfocused, foggy, you might be dehydrated. Gatorade Zero powders have been scientifically designed to help improve hydration balance in the body. With a clinically proven electrolyte blend and no artificial colors or flavors. Great tasting hydration, no matter where you're going. Shop now online or at retailers nationwide. Gatorade, hydrates better than water. Is it in you? Symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration. Consult a healthcare professional if symptoms persist.

• 26:53Speaker 01

  When you shop Kroger delivery, you can expect the savings you love and fresh groceries delivered right to your door. From delicious produce to everyday essentials. Enjoy the convenience of delivery and the trusted selection you've come to know from Kroger. Because bringing you fresh, quality groceries is what we do best. Right now, enjoy free delivery on orders of $50 or more with your digital coupon. Restrictions apply, see site for details. Kroger, fresh for everyone.

• 27:22Bill Maher?

  And that was a very attractive thing to me, that like somebody would would be able to like attract women on the level of, look, I'm gonna be your guilty pleasure, okay? You know, you can have Poindexter over there, but when you just wanna fuck somebody, like, I'm your boy.

• 27:44Speaker 04

  And you don't have to feel guilty about it.

• 27:46Bill Maher?

  Like, to me, that was the highest pinnacle to get in life, to be that guy.

• 27:51Speaker 04

  To be that guy.

• 27:52Bill Maher?

  Because I certainly was the other guy, I think, when I was on your show. It's like, somebody who was like...

• 27:57Speaker 04

  I don't know, maybe we've all been that guy and didn't know it.

• 28:00Bill Maher?

  The guy who, no.

• 28:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 28:02Bill Maher?

  Oh, the guy who was getting shafted, or the...

• 28:06Speaker 04

  Yes, the guy that's getting shafted, too.

• 28:08Bill Maher?

  Yes, but...

• 28:09Speaker 04

  We've all been that guy, probably.

• 28:10Bill Maher?

  I definitely, I definitely know I was that guy.

• 28:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was that guy. I like being the other guy better.

• 28:15Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean, like, I'm sure you know the great classic Eagles song, Lion Eyes. That's kind of in that area, because, you know, in the song, you know, she's given to a man with hands as cold as ice.

• 28:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 28:29Bill Maher?

  Right?

• 28:30Speaker 04

  Right.

• 28:30Bill Maher?

  I mean...

• 28:32Speaker 04

  So, being, I'm gonna assume that, um, being from Jersey, I mean, were you a big Bruce guy?

• 28:43Bill Maher?

  Bruce Springsteen?

• 28:43Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 28:44Bill Maher?

  I am a Bruce guy.

• 28:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, me too.

• 28:47Bill Maher?

  I mean, I don't know how giant, um, I, you know, I don't know, it's, now that starts to get to be, it's so funny. Everything has to be political now.

• 28:57Speaker 04

  See, I just, I just refused to do it. Like, I was very thankful, and, um, when I came on your show in November, that you knew I didn't wanna talk about that, because I've never, ever...

• 29:08Bill Maher?

  I didn't wanna talk about it.

• 29:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, you didn't want, yeah, yeah, that's your show.

• 29:11Bill Maher?

  I don't wanna, I mean, I don't wanna talk about it all the time. I wanna talk about it in the places I do wanna talk about. But, like, I'm multi-dimensional, hello? You know, so, like, yes, in the, on the show, have the governor of California, Governor Newsom, could be our next president. Am I gonna just shoot the shit with him? No. No, we're gonna talk about real shit.

• 29:31Speaker 04

  I just never felt like it was my place.

• 29:33Bill Maher?

  It's, it's not always everybody's place, you're right.

• 29:37Speaker 04

  There's a certain ego, I think, that lives in there, and a certain box inside your head and your soul that you have to check, for some reason, to think that you can make a difference. And I...

• 29:51Bill Maher?

  Well, you can make a difference by speaking out and it doesn't. It just, you're just, I mean, I think they've actually studied this. When celebrities talk, I think it has the opposite effect.

• 30:02Speaker 04

  I agree.

• 30:02Bill Maher?

  They were all waiting, by the way, for Taylor Swift in 2024. They were, if Kamala just had Taylor's, it didn't help and they think it hurt. You know, people, the real, regular people, you know, like us.

• 30:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 30:17Bill Maher?

  The Baptist bro, you know, like us when we were behind the hay. Remember the hay?

• 30:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 30:22Bill Maher?

  We have, okay. And we're just being real and drinking moonshine.

• 30:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've never had that, once, but anyway.

• 30:31Bill Maher?

  Oh, you've never had moonshine?

• 30:33Speaker 04

  Once.

• 30:34Bill Maher?

  I've had it. You know who gave it to me? I still have two jars of it, if you want some.

• 30:39Speaker 04

  No, I don't want any.

• 30:40Bill Maher?

  Larry Flynt.

• 30:42Speaker 04

  Oh, God, see, that's great.

• 30:45Bill Maher?

  I don't know if it's great.

• 30:46Speaker 04

  I think it's great.

• 30:48Bill Maher?

  It is kind of great.

• 30:49Speaker 04

  It's great.

• 30:49Bill Maher?

  Why am I denying it?

• 30:50Speaker 04

  No, it's great.

• 30:51Bill Maher?

  Larry Flynt.

• 30:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, take it, it's great.

• 30:53Bill Maher?

  Came over in his gold wheelchair. Every time he came to a party at my house, when I used to have parties at my house. And in his gold wheelchair.

• 31:01Speaker 04

  Woody did such a great job in that film.

• 31:03Bill Maher?

  Woody Harrelson has, oh, yeah.

• 31:05Speaker 04

  And the people versus Larry Flynt, it was great. By the way, I saw a thing with you and him and it was just a gas. It was the funniest thing.

• 31:12Bill Maher?

  I know, we did that on 420.

• 31:14Speaker 04

  I looked, yes, and I looked, I said, Woody, like Woody's in his pajamas.

• 31:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah, that's what I see, we're very insulted because, you know, Laura told me he spent a long time in the day picking out what he thought was a great outfit. Which is so fun, which shows absolutely how different we think, but.

• 31:33Speaker 04

  Anyway, did you see how we got all politics?

• 31:34Bill Maher?

  Well, yeah, and I just want to say, I love Larry Flynt. I don't want anybody to hear this and think, oh, I'm slagging on it. No, I loved Larry and I would, he was a fan like way before I was famous. He just had seen me like on The Tonight Show and I know, and I mean, he would always wanted to, I could never have a conversation for three minutes without him saying, Bill, why don't you have me on your air show more? Why don't you, because you. Sound like that, Larry. I love you, but you're like, I'm not trying to scare the horses in this street, if you know what I'm saying. I know you do.

• 32:08Speaker 04

  Well, but anyway, like, anyway, like, I've never saw it, saw it to be my place to, to use my stage or platform, no matter where I'm playing, to tell people how to think or how to vote. Like, they hear that, they get that everywhere else, everywhere, on every device.

• 32:21Bill Maher?

  Exactly.

• 32:22Speaker 04

  On every network. They're there as an escape from all that stuff.

• 32:26Bill Maher?

  I didn't see, I don't see, I mean, in my world, like, I don't watch a lot of comedies. Comedy, comedy, uh, stand-ups, because it was like, well, that's what I do. I don't wanna see something and think, oh, you know, that's kind of like a joke I do. I wanna, I don't wanna know. You know what I mean? I want, so I can be more pure.

• 32:45Speaker 04

  I will tell you, though, used to, when I first got started, I was so competitive and wanted to get to the next level. I, I would be that person going, you know, why, why them and not me? And then I just, I don't know, it was, I, I would have to.

• 32:57Bill Maher?

  Okay, you're playing this fear now.

• 33:00Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 33:00Bill Maher?

  So you won.

• 33:02Speaker 04

  Right.

• 33:02Bill Maher?

  Because that is, you know, to be the first country.

• 33:05Speaker 04

  But I mean, early on, I would, I would, I would be that competitive. Now, I'm just, you know, whatever happens, happens.

• 33:11Bill Maher?

  One of the great things about aging is you become so much more mellow because you did it. You don't, a lot of my anxiety when I was younger was always about, am I gonna make it? Am I, you know, am I?

• 33:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:25Bill Maher?

  And, and once you do, it's like the biggest off your show, especially for guys like us who are single. You know, we're lone wolves. We don't have that, like.

• 33:37Speaker 04

  No, you're a chaser.

• 33:38Bill Maher?

  I like it.

• 33:39Speaker 04

  You are.

• 33:40Bill Maher?

  Oh, I don't know what you're talking about. All, Kenny, all my energy goes to healing America. I don't have time. I would love to, uh, but I can't. It's, the country needs me, and that gets all my attention. And, and, and, you know, uh, and you, you don't, uh?

• 33:58Speaker 04

  No.

• 33:59Bill Maher?

  You ever did?

• 34:00Speaker 04

  Nope.

• 34:01Bill Maher?

  Not even in your fucking island paradise?

• 34:03Speaker 04

  I used to, yeah.

• 34:05Bill Maher?

  That's right.

• 34:06Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 34:06Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 34:07Speaker 04

  But I have learned, uh, that I do, uh, to help me sleep, I do like a, a weed gummy every now and then. To help me sleep.

• 34:14Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 34:14Speaker 04

  But then I had to learn my dosing. Because I didn't, when I first did that a couple of times, I didn't know my dosing and all of a sudden, I lost my motor skills. And I was like, this is not fun.

• 34:23Bill Maher?

  You never perform, huh?

• 34:25Speaker 04

  Never.

• 34:25Bill Maher?

  That would be crazy.

• 34:26Speaker 04

  That'd be crazy.

• 34:26Bill Maher?

  And you don't drink, huh?

• 34:27Speaker 04

  But I mean, like, like last year, we did 12 shows at the Sphere last year. We're gonna do another 11 or 12 this year. And that's like, to see what's going on up there and behind us, I mean, I can only think about the people that are high out there watching it. You know, because it's, it's a completely different, it's, it's, let's just say for people that have lived with and experienced my music for a long time. They come to that space and it's almost like they experience it in a completely different state of consciousness. And, so I, I, um, yeah, I don't get high doing that. I, you know, I, I just, um, I used to drink on stage, but I don't do that anymore.

• 35:07Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I did too.

• 35:09Speaker 04

  I always thought it gave me some sort of edge or something, or I was having more fun. But then I realized that was just, that was, that was, that was a falsehood.

• 35:17Bill Maher?

  Yeah, well, I don't know. I don't think it's always a falsehood. I think liquor really is a good time.

• 35:25Speaker 04

  No, oh, no.

• 35:26Bill Maher?

  You know, but, so I don't.

• 35:28Speaker 04

  But for me to get up there and do, the older that I've gotten, the more I realize that. Because there was a moment of my life where I wanted to be one of them. They were getting drunk, I was getting drunk, and there was this, this common synergy on stage. And then the older that I've gotten, and the more I really, um, am, I don't know, very particular about what I put into my body.

• 35:49Bill Maher?

  Me too. You have to be when you're older.

• 35:51Speaker 04

  So I can do that.

• 35:52Bill Maher?

  Of course.

• 35:53Speaker 04

  Continue to do it, so. So no, I don't get high on stage. I don't really drink on stage.

• 35:57Bill Maher?

  Let's not kid ourselves. Liquor and drugs have improved my record collection.

• 36:03Speaker 04

  No, no, mine too.

• 36:04Bill Maher?

  Yeah, of course. I mean, drugs do, I mean, you know the group The Doors?

• 36:09Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 36:09Bill Maher?

  They're named after the Aldous Huxley book, The Doors of Perception, which is what he referred, yeah. It's what he referred to drugs as. So the, you know, it does open doors. It, it can make you better at what you're doing artistically. The diff, the problem is that, at some point, it makes you then do way worse. And, and you have to know where that is. And it's always moving, like a clitoris. You just can't quite keep licking the same spot.

• 36:35Speaker 04

  I really, well.

• 36:36Bill Maher?

  Metaphoric.

• 36:38Speaker 04

  I realized though that there was um, um. After a while of being out there and acting like that, I realized there was a fine line between um, a groove and a rut. So.

• 36:52Bill Maher?

  And. That's perfect.

• 36:53Speaker 04

  You see what I'm saying?

• 36:54Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 36:54Speaker 04

  Like.

• 36:55Bill Maher?

  He should put this that in his book.

• 36:57Speaker 04

  So. And, and, and it's really bad when you think you're in a groove, but you're really in a rut.

• 37:02Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 37:02Speaker 04

  And so I just kinda have, had to have more clarity up there.

• 37:06Bill Maher?

  Yeah, no, I, I, me too. And, look, I, I don't, I don't, I don't regret, I regret many things in life, but I don't regret the things that apparently were necessary as a passageway to where you get to.

• 37:23Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 37:23Bill Maher?

  It's still, it's still easy to beat yourself up, uh, now that you're a butterfly for when you were a worm. You had to be a worm before you were a butterfly.

• 37:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:32Bill Maher?

  I mean, you in particular.

• 37:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:35Bill Maher?

  No, it's true, uh, and.

• 37:37Speaker 04

  No, there was a lot of rite of passages to do what we did.

• 37:40Bill Maher?

  It's paid.

• 37:40Speaker 04

  I mean, you had to, it's called paying your dues.

• 37:43Bill Maher?

  And it's, for me, it's painful to look back. I had occasion because I had getting this award and so I have to put a clip package together of like.

• 37:53Speaker 04

  Oh, so you had to go and.

• 37:54Bill Maher?

  Career stuff.

• 37:55Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:55Bill Maher?

  So I was looking at like some early stand-up on TV and it's like, all I could think of is, make it stop, please make it stop. I'm doing this set on the Tonight Show. And it's not, it's, it's not horrible. I'm sure the people are laughing, Johnny's laughing, I'm not laughing. I mean, I'm just, because.

• 38:13Speaker 04

  Were you nervous?

• 38:13Bill Maher?

  Well, no, I actually wasn't. I was very confident.

• 38:16Speaker 04

  Were you high?

• 38:17Bill Maher?

  I was not high.

• 38:18Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 38:19Bill Maher?

  But I did look like I belonged. I just, the material just embarrasses me now, some of it.

• 38:24Speaker 04

  Was this the first time you did the Tonight Show?

• 38:26Bill Maher?

  Well, there's the one, the first one, yes. And then there's, I was watching one of the, one of the early ones, you know, we're talking about the mid 1980s and the jokes. Oh, and by the way, a lot of it you couldn't do today because.

• 38:40Speaker 04

  Oh, you couldn't do today.

• 38:41Bill Maher?

  It would be so politically.

• 38:41Speaker 04

  Somebody would be triggered or offended.

• 38:43Bill Maher?

  Yeah, very much so. I mean, if you were a teacher, I'm talking about primitive people.

• 38:50Bill Maher?

  Primitive people.

• 38:52Speaker 04

  Oh, you can't say anything anymore.

• 38:53Bill Maher?

  Chopped my head off today.

• 38:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 38:55Bill Maher?

  Primitive people.

• 38:58Bill Maher?

  And the audience, and everybody, you know, and I always say, if everyone was in on it, how can you blame? You know, if everyone was in on it. Nobody seemed to be objecting and.

• 39:08Speaker 04

  Well, you know, you can get lost. I mean, I, I, like, when you're on a bus a lot or in a hotel room a lot, you can kind of get lost on, on YouTube and whatever. But some of the stuff that Rodney Dangerfield said and all these people, and everybody was laughing. It was great.

• 39:24Bill Maher?

  Don Rickles.

• 39:25Speaker 04

  Oh, God.

• 39:25Bill Maher?

  Remember Don Rickles?

• 39:26Speaker 04

  Oh, God, it's great.

• 39:27Bill Maher?

  Yeah. I mean, he, he also could be corny. I saw him open for Sinatra, near the end of Sinatra's career in 95. Took my mother to see him at Radio City Music Hall and he was still doing the ethnic jokes and it was a little cringey.

• 39:45Speaker 04

  Then?

• 39:46Bill Maher?

  Then, 1995. The, the black guys in the band behind him, you could see him going like,

• 39:53Bill Maher?

  don't, don't trip on it. You know, it's, it is what it is. He'll be dead soon.

• 39:57Speaker 04

  Okay, well, look, so when, when you were growing up, like, who, who did you see?

• 40:04Speaker 04

  And however you saw them, however they came into your life, that made you want to be you? That made you want to do?

• 40:09Bill Maher?

  Johnny Carson.

• 40:10Speaker 04

  Johnny Carson?

• 40:10Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 40:11Speaker 04

  So doing his show the first time must have been a huge deal.

• 40:13Bill Maher?

  Yeah, it was. And even if there hasn't, hadn't been that personal element, it just was a huge deal because back then, if you did good on your first time, you were like officially in show business, even at the very bottom of the barrel, but officially in and you, they'd invite you back and then it looked like, oh, well, Johnny liked him. That, that, that was a huge thing.

• 40:32Speaker 04

  And then you all of a sudden had 20 day, you could go and do stuff.

• 40:35Bill Maher?

  Well, I wouldn't. I, I did get hired by Diana Ross to open for her in Las Vegas. Yes. Which was a big thing. But, you know.

• 40:43Speaker 04

  Well, how did that go? Cause I, I hired a comedian once. I hired a comedian once to open a New Year's Eve show for me. I don't know if you know, speaking of really, uh, country comedians, there was a guy named James Gregory that I became friends with and he was really great and I loved him. And he did the circuit in the south and everything, you know, sold his T-shirts after the show and every, all that kinda stuff.

• 41:04Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 41:05Speaker 04

  Well, I hired him to open for us on New Year's Eve one night, and he said he would never do that again.

• 41:11Bill Maher?

  I don't blame him. First of all, New Year's Eve is the worst night of the year for the comedian because-

• 41:15Speaker 04

  But it's a music crowd, listening to a-

• 41:18Bill Maher?

  At the time when they're very drunk.

• 41:21Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 41:21Bill Maher?

  It's like, it is a perfect storm of everything a comedian-

• 41:24Speaker 04

  So you did that with Diana Ross.

• 41:26Bill Maher?

  It was not New Year's Eve, but I-

• 41:28Speaker 04

  But still, though, it was-

• 41:29Bill Maher?

  Oh, yeah, I, yes, absolutely. And it was, it was really painful. First of all, this was 1982, which I call the dead ball era in Las Vegas, post Rat Pack. So it wasn't Sinatra, or maybe the last years of him or something, but it wasn't that crowd. And it wasn't the, they finally found a way, after like wandering in the wilderness for, I think, the whole eighties, maybe the nineties. Yeah, in the nineties, they tried to go family. They were like, oh, fuck, this is stupid, it's Las Vegas. Then they finally found a way, and they did, they attracted the young crowd back to Las Vegas. Like, it's a whole new thing and it's fun, and we can go to clubs and do ecstasy and-

• 42:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 42:07Bill Maher?

  And, you know, but, and when I opened for her, it was just like, the whole town was very, um, old. You know, just everything was, was-

• 42:18Speaker 04

  You and I was-

• 42:19Bill Maher?

  I was 26 and they weren't.

• 42:20Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, it was a much bigger gap at the time, right?

• 42:23Bill Maher?

  It, it just was a, um-

• 42:25Speaker 04

  26 in Vegas, gosh.

• 42:27Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 42:28Speaker 04

  That's great.

• 42:28Bill Maher?

  And the, you know, it was just a painful, the audience was, it was a tough audience anyway, Vegas. Terrible rooms for comedy because it was plush, whereas comedy, you want this kinda shit so the laughs bounce.

• 42:41Speaker 04

  You think they were jaded at all?

• 42:43Bill Maher?

  Not, not by me, because they didn't, they didn't know who I fucking was. They were definitely not-

• 42:48Speaker 04

  I think you and I would have fit in and go with the Rat Pack, though. I would like to, I would like to think we would.

• 42:54Bill Maher?

  Kenny, you, you, I'm telling you, a lot of your songs make me think, you know, that actually at seventy, I should be even more depressed than I am about not being able to live the way all your songs remind me I used to live. I used to be the guy who was the guilty conscious guy. I used to stay out, you know, what we did last night. You know, I used to tell girls, don't tell your mother. All these things that made life wonderful, you know, wonderful. I was living on fast forward, all this kind of shit. Like my friend, what do you call yourself, hillbilly rock star?

• 43:33Speaker 04

  Hillbilly rock star out of control.

• 43:34Bill Maher?

  And, you know, like, friends are worried about you.

• 43:36Speaker 04

  You should have been out there then, when it was, it was awesome. Anyway, go ahead.

• 43:40Bill Maher?

  Out where?

• 43:41Speaker 04

  When we were hillbilly rock stars out of control.

• 43:43Bill Maher?

  Oh, I'm sure.

• 43:44Speaker 04

  Before social media, before, it's like.

• 43:46Bill Maher?

  Comedian in Hollywood out of control.

• 43:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's great.

• 43:49Bill Maher?

  I mean, I always say.

• 43:51Speaker 04

  But you made it through.

• 43:52Bill Maher?

  There's an old saying that, um, somebody said it, when you get to be a star, a celebrity, whatever, you get a year to act like an asshole. And I may have taken two.

• 44:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 44:03Bill Maher?

  You know, and you may have taken.

• 44:06Speaker 04

  Well, look, you know, when, when, when you get a record deal, I feel like, you know, the business gives you one big lemon to squeeze. And we squeezed every bit of that, and that lemon is fun, you know, and we squeezed every single drop out of that lemon. We had a lot of fun.

• 44:21Bill Maher?

  What year did the last drop ooze?

• 44:23Speaker 04

  Oh, no, we're still squeezing it, but, but it's, it's a much different fun now. I mean, it's, it's, it's almost the kind of fun we had from nineteen ninety-four till around two thousand and ten.

• 44:43Bill Maher?

  Do you think you?

• 44:44Speaker 04

  We had a lot of years, a lot of years. Then, then I was like, just tired of it. I woke up one day and I went, mm, I think I'm. I think I'm tired of this. I wanna do what I do, cuz I woke up on the bus one day and I went.

• 44:58Bill Maher?

  Oh, you take a bus?

• 44:59Speaker 04

  Well, I went back in the, yeah, I still have a bus. I fly to the first show. And then I'll kinda ride the bus here and there and then I'll fly home.

• 45:06Bill Maher?

  How long's the bus ride usually? Six hours?

• 45:09Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. Six hours, six hours.

• 45:11Bill Maher?

  And that don't bother you?

• 45:12Speaker 04

  Not, no. I sleep better on the bus than most I do anywhere in my life.

• 45:16Bill Maher?

  You sleep on the bus?

• 45:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 45:17Bill Maher?

  I went on a bus once. I rode with the band when I was opening with somebody else. To Wolf Trap. You must have played Wolf Trap outside DC?

• 45:25Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 45:26Bill Maher?

  Outside venue, very big in the summer.

• 45:28Speaker 04

  Yeah. Like amphitheater.

• 45:31Bill Maher?

  Yeah, but like people on the lawn.

• 45:33Speaker 04

  On the lawn, yeah.

• 45:33Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I mean, lawn people, I call them if you can't even get close to where their seats, okay. But, but it's lovely, beautiful, starry night. But like, that night driving.

• 45:46Speaker 04

  It's hard on you.

• 45:47Bill Maher?

  To, going from Charleston, West Virginia, I'm sure you've played there.

• 45:51Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. But look, the interstates in this, it's worse now because the, we haven't fixed the infrastructure. So the buses just do this more than they ever used to. Right? So it's harder now. But I remember waking up on the bus one day. I was forty something. And I went, okay, you acting the way you're acting out here is not why you wanted to do this. Like, this, so I, that's when I kinda started to change a little bit. And now, I'm so focused on what I do. I love being up there and I love feeling good up there. And so, but not to say we don't have any fun, but, um.

• 46:27Bill Maher?

  I'm not really getting this from the songs. I'm getting a guy who really does like to be carousing.

• 46:34Speaker 04

  No, no, I'm not, I'm saying.

• 46:36Bill Maher?

  And being very popular with women.

• 46:38Speaker 04

  That's ever gonna leave me.

• 46:39Bill Maher?

  That's what that is.

• 46:40Speaker 04

  I think it's ever gonna leave us.

• 46:41Bill Maher?

  Just as a fan.

• 46:42Speaker 04

  No, I'm just saying, it's never gonna leave me, or us. But I can tell you.

• 46:46Bill Maher?

  No, no, it's our bodies. You know, look, you know what?

• 46:51Speaker 04

  And we didn't invent it. It was given to us.

• 46:54Bill Maher?

  Bodies are to individuals what geography is to countries. Your geography ultimately is much of your destiny. We do have oceans on either side to protect us. Poland is between Germany and Russia. You know, we, when, when your body allows you to act crazy, you do. And when it doesn't, you don't because the, you know, of course, you can wake up with a hangover when you're 25, but you get over it. When that tips, when the, when the pain is wor- is so much worse than the pleasure it gave you.

• 47:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 47:32Bill Maher?

  Now, there are some people who can't help themselves. And they just, they just keep going until they die because it does kill you.

• 47:39Speaker 04

  Yes, and they're on a slippery slope and will never come back. But that's kind of the epiphany that I had on the bus that morning. I went, mm, I felt like shit. And I was like, mm, this is not why I wanted to do this. And if I keep doing this, ah, then it could be over.

• 47:53Bill Maher?

  And was that sudden? I mean, you use the word.

• 47:55Speaker 04

  It was kind of that sudden.

• 47:56Bill Maher?

  Epiphany, I know.

• 47:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was like an epiphany.

• 47:58Bill Maher?

  As a Southern Baptist, I'm sure you know what, what the original epiphany was.

• 48:04Bill Maher?

  The burning bush.

• 48:04Speaker 04

  Oh, the.

• 48:05Bill Maher?

  That's where we get the word.

• 48:07Speaker 04

  I did not know that.

• 48:09Bill Maher?

  I think.

• 48:11Bill Maher?

  No, that, that is my memory, but again.

• 48:14Speaker 04

  That's what you were told anyway.

• 48:15Bill Maher?

  College, it was 50 years ago, I smoked pot. But no, the burning bush, I think, I think that is true.

• 48:21Speaker 04

  I did not know that.

• 48:21Bill Maher?

  Yeah, because it was an epiphany. You know, it was like something that, but that's why I asked the question because like an epiphany connotes something that's very sudden, like a moment, like the aha moment or whatever, but that it sort of sneaks up upon you. You're not really thinking that way. And then suddenly you have an epiphany, you go, oh, whoa, I, the cloud looks like Jesus. I, I, I, now I know what to do with my life. You know, that's an epiphany.

• 48:48Speaker 04

  Well, it was, I think it was more of a gradual time for me of realizing that, okay, if I want to continue to do what I'm doing for a long time, and if I want to do it the way that I do it on stage, I'm gonna have, I can't act like. All this anymore. I can do it some of the time, but not all the time. We were having fun out there. It was a lot of fun for a long time. So.

• 49:14Speaker 04

  And but in a crazy way, it fed the creativity.

• 49:17Bill Maher?

  The Eagles used to call the after party the third encore.

• 49:20Speaker 04

  Oh, I love that.

• 49:22Bill Maher?

  Because.

• 49:22Speaker 04

  Yeah. And now it's different, though, because it's.

• 49:26Bill Maher?

  I think you're similar to me, probably a lot of. Former would say the same thing.

• 49:32Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 49:33Bill Maher?

  Like, what if you really dig down, what does it do for you? Well, certainly when you start, you need the money. Okay, so let's not say money isn't important. Money is very important. At a certain point, you have enough where you're not really, it's not the prime way. You're not turning it down. I like money. But, you know, you're not, that's, I don't need it. So, okay. What is it really? I think it's like, I like to be a hero. Uh, and there's an audience that likes what I do, like, very particularly. Like, I can do something that they, I think, or they wouldn't buy tickets. Uh, or be such loyal fans. I do something they think nobody else quite does. And to get to scratch that itch, they need me to do it.

• 50:16Speaker 04

  And they, you speak to them.

• 50:18Bill Maher?

  And I so want to, like, give them that gift then, you know, I really want to be their hero at that moment. We want you to, like, analyze the news this week in this funny way and say the right thing, the thing, okay, good. I want to, and I feel like you're probably doing the same thing.

• 50:33Speaker 04

  No question.

• 50:34Bill Maher?

  I just, I just love that I can be their hero for two hours. This is what they wanted me to do, and I did it. You know, I didn't fuck it up. I didn't not show up. I didn't half-ass it.

• 50:45Speaker 04

  Didn't, didn't.

• 50:46Bill Maher?

  You know, I didn't play the deep cuts that, you know.

• 50:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 50:50Bill Maher?

  I.

• 50:51Speaker 04

  And I've never done that, by the way. Like, have you ever been to shows where someone, like, you go see one of your favorite acts and they play, like, four or five deep cuts? Like, I, I, I've never done that, ever, because it took me years to get them here. And I don't want, I don't want to let them off the hook, right?

• 51:08Bill Maher?

  And, and they vote, they've already voted. I mean, what is a hit record?

• 51:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 51:12Bill Maher?

  It means they voted.

• 51:14Speaker 04

  They voted.

• 51:14Bill Maher?

  We voted. The people voted.

• 51:16Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 51:16Bill Maher?

  This is what we like.

• 51:17Speaker 04

  We like it.

• 51:18Bill Maher?

  And, you know, no matter how much, I'm sure every musician has ones they go, I can't believe this one didn't catch on. I mean, Phil Spector, they say, I mean, we know he went crazy.

• 51:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 51:32Bill Maher?

  Okay. What put him over the edge? A lot of people say it was, he made this record River Deep, Mountain High. I can Tina Turner did it. He thought it was like his greatest opus yet. And he had done some real great opuses. You know, like just that wall of sound shit that was going on in the early 60s with, you know, you've lost that loving feeling. He just had his, I mean, really some great stuff.

• 52:04Speaker 05

  Low energy, unfocused, foggy? You might be dehydrated. Gatorade Zero powders have been scientifically designed to help improve hydration balance in the body. With a clinically proven electrolyte blend and no artificial colors or flavors. Great tasting hydration, no matter where you're going. Shop now online or at retailers nationwide. Gatorade hydrates better than water. Is it in you? Symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration. Consult a healthcare professional if symptoms persist.

• 52:33Speaker 01

  Now at Kroger, your points add up to more ways to save every trip. Use them your way to take dollars off groceries at checkout or save at the pump. You can even save up to $35 on your next fill-up. Same points, more choices. And with low prices on fresh, quality food, plus digital and personalized offers tailored to how you shop, your dollar goes further. Redeem your points online or in the app. Kroger, fresh for everyone. Restrictions apply. See site or store for details.

• 53:05Speaker 02

  Now at Lowe's, faster quotes start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Got a material list handwritten on a sticky note or saved as a photo? Perfect. Bring it to us and get a quote in minutes. And if you don't see what you need on the shelf, we'll help you get it. You can access thousands of products beyond what's available in-store or on Lowe's.com, right from the Lowe's Pro Desk. Build quotes faster and source the materials you need to keep your jobs moving. Just like that, at Lowe's.

• 53:33Bill Maher?

  And then this one just didn't click.

• 53:36Speaker 04

  But I think making music, though, I mean, for me, I think what makes a hit record is spontaneity. And so if you think that, okay, if you go into it and you're done, you're listening to it and this is the best thing I've ever done. That kind of thing. I think you're setting yourself up because it may feed you, but who knows if it's feeding anyone else? And we all have our own reasons for lacking what we do in the studio. But I think some of the best records that you have in your life and the stuff that I have in my life are things that were just magic, that happened and not planned. And I think that's where the best records are made, honestly.

• 54:17Bill Maher?

  I know some writers have said that the hits come fast. I know Sting has said that. A few other people, I feel like I've heard that before. Like, they just seem to come.

• 54:30Speaker 04

  And I've always said that simplicity is one of the hardest, is one of the hardest things to do.

• 54:37Bill Maher?

  But it's entirely unquantifiable why someone likes a song. I'll just speak for myself, why I like a song. Like, I could try to describe it to you, but at the end of the day, I either like it or I don't. And it has a lot to do with the melody because, or the way the chords come after each other, whatever it is. Some of it, it just delights me to no end.

• 55:02Speaker 04

  See, I don't like minor chords, like dun, dun, dun, dun. I don't like that. I don't record them. Well, I mean, you can have a few, but I tend to shy away from, like especially going into the chorus.

• 55:16Bill Maher?

  What's a song with a lot of minor chords?

• 55:18Speaker 04

  Oh, well, I don't know. I mean, like, there's a bunch. I mean, but those that are pitched to me, and I never write.

• 55:25Bill Maher?

  Like, what's one I would know? A famous song that has a lot of minor chords?

• 55:33Speaker 04

  I mean, doesn't, see, the Jeff Buckley, isn't "Hallelujah", isn't it full, it's full of minor chords?

• 55:40Bill Maher?

  What song?

• 55:41Speaker 04

  "Hallelujah".

• 55:42Bill Maher?

  "Hallelujah"?

• 55:43Speaker 04

  "Hallelujah".

• 55:45Bill Maher?

  Oh, isn't that Leonard Cohen?

• 55:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, but Jeff Buckley recorded it, and it's one of the more famous, like.

• 55:52Bill Maher?

  I hate that song.

• 55:53Speaker 04

  You do?

• 55:54Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 55:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, of course you do.

• 55:56Bill Maher?

  I feel like, first of all, I feel like it was forced upon me.

• 56:00Speaker 04

  On several occasions.

• 56:01Bill Maher?

  It was.

• 56:02Speaker 04

  Well, that's why.

• 56:02Bill Maher?

  Like, and it's like, I don't know, it's like one of those songs that is just like, oh, you know what? You have to be just as mad about this as we are.

• 56:11Speaker 04

  No, it's true.

• 56:11Bill Maher?

  I don't even know what you're talking about sometimes. And there's just, there's something about it that, uh, yeah, I just think people.

• 56:19Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 56:20Bill Maher?

  Like I was saying a million years ago, before I forgot what we were saying.

• 56:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 56:23Bill Maher?

  Like, I feel me and country music like met in the middle. When I was a kid and it was all about hee-haw, that's what got us distracted, hee-haw. When I, when I was a kid.

• 56:33Speaker 04

  Finally back to there.

• 56:33Bill Maher?

  Right, we're back to that. It was all, it was just, it was just way too corny and it was like.

• 56:38Speaker 04

  You didn't identify with it at all.

• 56:39Bill Maher?

  And it didn't sound anything like rock music. Occasionally, there would be a song, you know, it broke through in the, in the late sixties, I think sixty-eight, sixty-nine, that I still love, still play to this day, that was absolutely a country song, Rose Garden.

• 56:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 56:56Bill Maher?

  I beg your pardon.

• 56:58Speaker 04

  Who sang that? That was a song.

• 56:59Bill Maher?

  I promise you a rose garden.

• 57:03Speaker 04

  That identified, that broke through to you.

• 57:05Bill Maher?

  It broke through the charts and to me.

• 57:08Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 57:08Bill Maher?

  But it didn't make me want to like, oh, great, now I'm gonna like really get into country music. But country music became like, it's just, is your music country music? Yeah, cause it's.

• 57:19Speaker 04

  A version.

• 57:20Bill Maher?

  It's rock, it's, it's.

• 57:22Speaker 04

  Here's what happened to me.

• 57:22Bill Maher?

  Pop music, it's pop music at its best. That's me.

• 57:27Speaker 04

  I grew up, uh, obviously in East Tennessee in the country and I had country music in my grandmother's house cause I lived with my grand, I lived with my grandmother for three or four years while my stepfather was in Vietnam. Okay, and then.

• 57:41Bill Maher?

  Where, and your mother?

• 57:42Speaker 04

  And my mom, me and my mom, and we lived with my, my grandparents. So, so I heard country music there.

• 57:49Bill Maher?

  Wow.

• 57:49Speaker 04

  And I heard, I heard country music on the way to school, but when, and on the way to the ball, on the ballpark. But when I was in school and at practice and everything, I heard rock music. And then my road manager, still to this day, we grew up together, David Farmer, in his, in his garage, I heard Van Halen. I heard Sammy Hagar, I heard ACDC and I still, I love that music so much. So, I think that, and this is the best way I can explain me and, and the music that, that I've made. I, I think when you become an adult and you get to make a record and you go on the road. The music that you make as an adult is a direct reflection of everything you consumed

• 58:33Speaker 04

  as a child. And so, it wasn't just hee-haw, which that was there. But it wasn't just these things, but it was, it was, it was the Eagles, it was Tom Petty, it was, it was Joe Walsh, it was...

• 58:48Bill Maher?

  And the Eagles themselves are a mixture of country and...

• 58:51Speaker 04

  If the Eagles came out today, they would be considered country.

• 58:54Bill Maher?

  Right. Especially with their early stuff.

• 58:56Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 58:56Bill Maher?

  Because you had Glenn Frye from Detroit, Michigan, not country at all, mixed with Don Henley from Texas.

• 59:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 59:03Bill Maher?

  And you know, people are just like music. It usually comes out better when they're mixed.

• 59:09Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 59:10Bill Maher?

  Elvis was a mixture.

• 59:12Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 59:12Bill Maher?

  Gospel, country, that he certainly grew up with, and rhythm and blues, you know, what they call race music.

• 59:19Speaker 04

  People ask me all the time, well, you know, you, you kind of make, in ways, I mean, you, you, you have a lot of layered loud drums and guitars, layered guitars, but I, I talk the way I talk and I sing the way I sing. So I could never make a record, how do I say this? Like, there are some people out there that make country records as a vanity project. Right? I couldn't make a rock record or a, a, a rap record. I could, I could make one of those records, but I, it would be a vanity project. That wouldn't be authentic. And it'd be a waste of my time, actually. So, I, I make the records that I make, but it is, it is a complete mixture of the music

• 1:00:02Speaker 04

  that I soaked up like a sponge growing up. And, that's just the way it is, you know?

• 1:00:08Bill Maher?

  Well, as a fan, and I think I speak for all fans, not just to you, but to all people in show business, we appreciate whenever any of you don't do vanity projects.

• 1:00:19Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:00:20Bill Maher?

  This has been a message from Bill Maher. To you, my fellow celebrities, and the bullshit that you try to pass on to us. Don't do vanity projects, okay?

• 1:00:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:00:32Bill Maher?

  You are privileged to be working in this wonderful industry where we don't really work. I mean, we work, but we enjoy our work. That is the difference between a job and a career. I've had jobs. A job is something I don't like to do, but I do because I need money to eat food. A career is something that, yes, I, you know, put my shoulder to the grindstone, but it's a very, a very feathery velvet grindstone.

• 1:00:59Speaker 04

  You get to make people happy and laugh, and you get to

• 1:01:02Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 1:01:03Speaker 04

  have this man cave down here that's unbelievable.

• 1:01:05Bill Maher?

  Be their hero.

• 1:01:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:01:06Bill Maher?

  We get to be the hero if you do what you do and stick to what you do. Don't do the vanity project.

• 1:01:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's just

• 1:01:14Bill Maher?

  You know.

• 1:01:15Speaker 04

  We see it all the time, and I cringe.

• 1:01:17Bill Maher?

  You know, if you're an actor and you also want to sing, you better sing awesome.

• 1:01:25Bill Maher?

  You know.

• 1:01:25Speaker 04

  And the pendulum swings the other way on that. If you're a singer and you want to be an actor, you better be pretty good.

• 1:01:31Bill Maher?

  That's an easy, I feel like that's an easier

• 1:01:33Speaker 04

  You think that's easier?

• 1:01:33Bill Maher?

  I do, because I've long held a theory that anyone can act. I mean, not anyone, but it's like, please, children do it, former wrestlers do it.

• 1:01:41Speaker 04

  I mean, there are a few, yeah, former wrestlers.

• 1:01:43Bill Maher?

  I did it, it's just not that hard. What is reality TV? It's people acting their lives. It's just that we're all

• 1:01:52Speaker 04

  And there's a lot of ways for people to get jobs these days.

• 1:01:54Bill Maher?

  Here's how to think of it. We're all liars, and acting is lying. It's just, and people are just very good at it, especially Americans in this era. They're just a bunch of fucking phonies, so they're acting all the time about every fucking thing.

• 1:02:08Speaker 04

  Well, now, more than ever, on these phones and stuff, it's all just a bunch of posing. Yeah. It is. And, and I'm trying to think of singers that became good actors. Dwight Yoakam, I think, is a good actor.

• 1:02:21Bill Maher?

  Yes, oh, no, quite a few.

• 1:02:23Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:02:23Bill Maher?

  Um, Frank Sinatra.

• 1:02:26Speaker 04

  I didn't know he acted, I didn't know he was, he was an actor. What was he in?

• 1:02:29Bill Maher?

  Frank did fifty-four movies.

• 1:02:31Speaker 04

  I had no idea.

• 1:02:34Bill Maher?

  Oh, that's right. They don't get media.

• 1:02:37Speaker 04

  We didn't get that in Knoxville.

• 1:02:38Bill Maher?

  Yeah, you're you're out by the hay. You know, The Manchurian Candidate?

• 1:02:45Speaker 04

  I didn't know idea he was in that.

• 1:02:47Bill Maher?

  He not only was he in it, he got it made.

• 1:02:50Speaker 04

  Wow. I got some digging to do.

• 1:02:52Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:53Speaker 04

  I do.

• 1:02:53Bill Maher?

  You know.

• 1:02:54Speaker 04

  I got this whole new world opened up to me.

• 1:02:56Bill Maher?

  Yeah, Frank did a lot of movies. I mean, he, you know, I don't think it was, uh, there was The Manchurian Candidate probably is the most important one he ever did, but The Man with the Golden Arm. That was pretty.

• 1:03:07Speaker 04

  Never.

• 1:03:09Bill Maher?

  About heroin, the golden arm, you know?

• 1:03:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:03:12Bill Maher?

  The old white horse. You know what I'm talking about. Kenny, you're a musician. You do heroin.

• 1:03:18Bill Maher?

  You know, so, uh, but yeah.

• 1:03:21Speaker 04

  Who else? Who else was a singer that really like, I think Dwight was really is a really good actor.

• 1:03:26Bill Maher?

  Um, Elvis.

• 1:03:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:03:29Bill Maher?

  It's a shame that what what happened to him. I mean, the first movies they put him in were not what he later called The Travelogues. You know, he did, uh, the 29 pictures, that way. Yeah, he did 29 pictures. Like 25 of them were the exact same script.

• 1:03:43Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:03:44Bill Maher?

  They were fun in Acapulco and, you know, it was all a clam bake, clam bake. And, you know, like 12 forgettable songs, the same script where he's like Deke Rivers and, you know, he's in love with this girl. Mr. Rivers only sings at 8 o'clock at the Riverboat Theater. I'm happy to leave this table, you know? You know, gets into fight, you know, just oh, it's just terrible. Or he's running from apartment to apartment because there's one girl in one and one girl the other. He's switching. He's wearing a mustache. It's just like bullshit. But the first four that they put, I think the first four, were good. Well, he was good. He had, I mean, Elvis, no one had more charisma pouring out of his body just naturally. And also great looking. So Flaming Star, I mean, that had a racial element to it.

• 1:04:29Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 1:04:30Bill Maher?

  Yeah, yeah. The one that Pearl Harbor ripped off of, um, what's the name of that one? Um, Love Me Tender. Uh, yeah, the movie Pearl Harbor, I loved it. People shit on it. Michael Bay's movie. I loved it. But it's the same. Plot, he ripped it off from this.

• 1:04:45Speaker 04

  Oh, they're like the more recent.

• 1:04:47Bill Maher?

  The plot is Elvis and his older brother and they're living in it's in the prairie. You know, you would know they're on the prairie. Bear with me, okay, they're in the hay. And the civil war comes and the older brother is engaged to this attractive girl like it's the prairie. Like the only hot chick in town. Okay, so he goes off to the civil war. They think he gets killed in the war. So then the younger brother Elvis, he gets with the girl. And then the guy comes home from the war.

• 1:05:17Speaker 04

  Oh, so it is the same plot.

• 1:05:18Bill Maher?

  It's the exact same plot, right. Oh, you thought I was dead? And you used that as an excuse to fuck my girl? Well, bro, I thought you were dead.

• 1:05:26Speaker 04

  It's like Homeland, did you ever see Homeland?

• 1:05:28Bill Maher?

  Love Homeland.

• 1:05:29Speaker 04

  I loved it.

• 1:05:30Bill Maher?

  Homeland.

• 1:05:30Speaker 04

  But it's kind of the same plot. He comes back from, they thought he was dead, he comes back.

• 1:05:34Bill Maher?

  You're right, you're right.

• 1:05:37Speaker 04

  I've watched a lot of Homeland over the years.

• 1:05:38Bill Maher?

  I did too. Homeland was shit. Especially that year and that the year where they were in Pakistan.

• 1:05:45Speaker 04

  Yes, I, I, I, everything about it, I loved.

• 1:05:48Bill Maher?

  She was brilliant in that.

• 1:05:50Speaker 04

  And she, I've never seen anybody play a character with such anxiety and pull it off, it was unbelievable.

• 1:05:54Bill Maher?

  And it makes sense for that character. I mean, if you're the type who wants to be in the CIA and do that for a living. You're not going to be the normal nine to fiver. You know, you're going to be the person with the red strings connecting the pictures on the wall.

• 1:06:09Bill Maher?

  And that's just to find the remote.

• 1:06:11Speaker 04

  That's one of my favorite, that is one of my favorite.

• 1:06:14Bill Maher?

  Me too.

• 1:06:14Speaker 04

  Things on any, still to this day on any of the streaming services.

• 1:06:16Bill Maher?

  I agree.

• 1:06:17Speaker 04

  Like I've watched it, the whole thing, like several times.

• 1:06:21Bill Maher?

  I wish HBO had had that show. It should have been an HBO show. And. You can get them all.

• 1:06:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, anyway. But I like Succession too.

• 1:06:31Bill Maher?

  Me too.

• 1:06:31Speaker 04

  I loved Succession.

• 1:06:33Bill Maher?

  Me too, that's another.

• 1:06:34Speaker 04

  See, we got something in common.

• 1:06:36Bill Maher?

  We have a lot in common, I'm telling you.

• 1:06:39Speaker 04

  You know John C. Mcginnity, I know John C. Mcginnity.

• 1:06:42Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I don't, I don't know him, but I've been.

• 1:06:44Speaker 04

  Oh, you don't.

• 1:06:44Bill Maher?

  Always been a fan.

• 1:06:45Speaker 04

  Oh, God, you would, he's fantastic.

• 1:06:47Bill Maher?

  Why is he an old friend of yours?

• 1:06:49Speaker 04

  I met him in two thousand seven. I was exhausted after our tour in two thousand seven and I rented a house in Malibu. Well, it's called, it was called then Trancas Market or whatever it's called. It's this supermarket out there and I rented a house past that. And.

• 1:07:08Speaker 04

  Rick Rubin introduced me and Johnny.

• 1:07:11Bill Maher?

  Has he produced your records?

• 1:07:12Speaker 04

  No, no, but um.

• 1:07:14Bill Maher?

  No?

• 1:07:15Speaker 04

  No, we've never worked together. We've been friends for almost 20 years now. But that's who introduced me to John McGinnity. And John and I have been, and we couldn't be any different. It was a lot like me and you growing up.

• 1:07:27Bill Maher?

  So there's no awkwardness about that? Like, like?

• 1:07:29Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:07:30Bill Maher?

  Why didn't you ever produce me?

• 1:07:32Speaker 04

  Oh, no, not at all. Uh-uh. No, because I've worked with the same producer since 1997. I've kind of been in the, I'm not saying never, we might one day. We better hurry. But, but we might. I mean, Rick made a lot of really great records on a lot of people and.

• 1:07:50Bill Maher?

  Well, he goes all, I mean, you know, he, there's no like genre and also.

• 1:07:55Speaker 04

  He's a musical, he's just, he has.

• 1:07:57Bill Maher?

  Yeah, he's not like a musical savant. He's quite, almost the opposite. Doesn't play an instrument or, you know, I mean, I saw the piece I did on him on 60 Minutes and.

• 1:08:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:08:07Bill Maher?

  It's interesting because it's just sort of like what a fan feels. And sort of his method, which is pretty amazing.

• 1:08:16Speaker 04

  His energy and everything is just, is wonderful and a great energy in the studio. But that's how I'm, that's how I met John McGinnity and he, John and I were a lot like you and I. Like, he grew up, he grew up in New York, Jersey, like that. And, and, and I go to his house every, every time that I'm in, uh, in LA or in Malibu, I go to his house and we sit in the sauna and ice and all that kind of stuff and work out. He's one of my, he's really one of my best friends that, in the last 20 years of my life.

• 1:08:44Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I didn't need to picture you two guys in the sauna, quite frankly. I don't know why I needed to know.

• 1:08:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, you didn't need to.

• 1:08:50Bill Maher?

  Like, okay, it's a friend, I got it, my great producer introduced us, and suddenly we're sitting there with our dicks hanging out. I don't know why. Why, why did it go there?

• 1:09:01Speaker 04

  I'm surprised you don't know him.

• 1:09:03Bill Maher?

  Well, how would I run into him?

• 1:09:05Speaker 04

  I don't know. How do people run into people?

• 1:09:06Bill Maher?

  Well, you know, and people.

• 1:09:09Speaker 04

  How do we, how did you run into me? I mean, how do we know each other?

• 1:09:11Bill Maher?

  Because you had a great book.

• 1:09:12Speaker 04

  That's why I did, I did the show. That's how we met. I'm not even drinking.

• 1:09:16Bill Maher?

  I assume that's why you wanted to.

• 1:09:17Speaker 04

  That's how I.

• 1:09:18Bill Maher?

  I assume that's why you wanted to come here.

• 1:09:20Speaker 04

  Yeah, no question.

• 1:09:21Bill Maher?

  I'm so, by the way, I just, I'm so appreciative of that because I know, I mean, you are the biggest star. One of the biggest stars in all of music and you know, you need any promotion like a hole in the head. I mean, one guy in this world doesn't need anything to sell tickets, even though I'm going to read where you.

• 1:09:41Speaker 04

  To St. Marie, Michigan?

• 1:09:42Bill Maher?

  No, that's where that, that's where that liquor went. I was saying, didn't I have a shot for it? I did, it's just I poured it into my crotch.

• 1:09:50Speaker 04

  You do it?

• 1:09:52Bill Maher?

  Well, I do, but it's done. June 19th to July 11th, that's at the, the Sphere. I mean, the Sphere is such a big deal.

• 1:10:02Speaker 04

  It's a lot of fun.

• 1:10:03Bill Maher?

  I gotta go to the Sphere.

• 1:10:05Speaker 04

  You should come, you should definitely come there. You don't have to come to the Virgin Islands, but you should come to the Sphere. We'll take care, I got a suite, nobody will mess with you.

• 1:10:11Bill Maher?

  You know, I used to.

• 1:10:12Speaker 04

  You can be home early.

• 1:10:13Bill Maher?

  I used to, you know, I went to, I used to play Vegas like six times a year. I just have been to Vegas a lot.

• 1:10:19Speaker 04

  I know, it's just a thing, you're still probably so sick of Vegas.

• 1:10:22Bill Maher?

  Well, I, I get, it's been a year, so I'm ready to go back.

• 1:10:25Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:10:25Bill Maher?

  I like Vegas, I love Vegas, but I had enough of Vegas for a while.

• 1:10:29Speaker 04

  We would have been good in Rat Pack though, we would have. We would have had fun.

• 1:10:33Bill Maher?

  We would have been good anywhere where our livers allowed us to keep drinking.

• 1:10:37Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:10:37Bill Maher?

  That's the difference, it's not really, I mean, yes, would I have loved to have been with Sammy Davis Jr. for any reason and Dean and Frank, yes, and even Joey Bishop. But it really is about our liver mostly.

• 1:10:48Speaker 04

  I know.

• 1:10:49Bill Maher?

  Like when your liver allows you, you can be your own Rat Pack.

• 1:10:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:10:53Bill Maher?

  I mean, I'd rather, you know, start my own.

• 1:10:58Bill Maher?

  You can be, you can be Frank, I'm perfectly happy being Dean.

• 1:11:02Speaker 04

  You'll be Dean.

• 1:11:03Bill Maher?

  I'm perfectly happy.

• 1:11:03Speaker 04

  Who's gonna be Sammy?

• 1:11:04Bill Maher?

  Dean has actually the cooler one.

• 1:11:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:11:07Bill Maher?

  June 19th, 20th, 24th, 26th, 27th, oh, this is still the Sphere. July, these are the dates, July 1st, 8th, tattoo this on yourself, people, so you're, July 1st, 8th, 10th, 11th. More may be listed there. All shows are at 8 o'clock at the Sphere. Don't be late for the Sphere.

• 1:11:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's pretty, it's, it's pretty incredible to, to play in that space. So it's been good for me because I, you know, we didn't have to go to city to city.

• 1:11:40Bill Maher?

  Did you have a lot to say about what plays behind you?

• 1:11:44Speaker 04

  All of it. Before I came here today.

• 1:11:46Bill Maher?

  How much of, of your life was that dominating for a while? Were you having to like, because obviously it's this multi-dimensional experience.

• 1:11:54Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:11:54Bill Maher?

  Where stuff is on a screen. So you want, I mean, it's your show. You want with stuff on, you don't want to be like, surprise me.

• 1:12:02Speaker 04

  No, no, no. Like I was so hands-on, sometimes to a fault.

• 1:12:06Bill Maher?

  It's all dandelion.

• 1:12:07Speaker 04

  So, yeah, no, yeah, wait, wait.

• 1:12:09Bill Maher?

  Well, who said all dandelion? That's me?

• 1:12:13Speaker 04

  No, today, before I came here, I was, um, they have a smaller simulator, a Sphere simulator here. And I was, it's where you create the content and you approve it. We've been doing this.

• 1:12:24Bill Maher?

  So what is it? What was your idea for the content? What do we see when we, you're on stage?

• 1:12:28Speaker 04

  Oh, every song is different. Every song, every piece of content is completely different. It's tied to the song. It's tied to the song. So there's, there's 30 different things you're gonna see. So, and today I was down there all day just approving and saying what I hate, what I love. And there's a lot of my life in that content. Like, we've been, we've been creating this since we got done last year. So now it's all coming together. So it's, it's, it's, it's.

• 1:12:54Bill Maher?

  Amazing how much the human mind can really take in, in, in split seconds. You know, it may, some of that is probably not good. We're, we're forcing our minds to work too quickly or without taking in stuff in and social media, blah, blah, blah. But when you realize how different it is from a few hundred years ago when people would sit by a fire and just read a book, you know, I mean, this, I wish people still would do that. But your mind is capable of. Taking in a lot in a very short amount of time. And once we, you know, sort of crossed the Rubicon of where we knew we could do that to ourselves, it does become hard to go back.

• 1:13:36Bill Maher?

  I, I'm always looking at old movies because, oh, I heard this was a classic. And sometimes it's like, yeah, it just sucks. You know what? I'm sure it was great in 1950. It just is slow and obvious. And the acting is, is terrible. And, you know, I'm sure it was groundbreaking. And it's just, and some of them still hold up. But we're at the Sphere level, you know? There'll be, there'll be a moment not too far in the future when if you don't have some sort of Sphere experience, then it's like it's not even happening, this concert.

• 1:14:10Speaker 04

  And I, I will tell you, like, for people that are in there, like, you know, and you know what I'm talking about because you're up there very exposed and by yourself. Part of your, it makes you good at what you do is the connection that you hope with the audience.

• 1:14:24Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 1:14:24Speaker 04

  So for me, for years, I was like, okay, this is me, this is you. And we are.

• 1:14:29Bill Maher?

  Right, right, right.

• 1:14:31Speaker 04

  This is the way it's gonna be all night, us.

• 1:14:32Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:14:33Speaker 04

  Well.

• 1:14:33Bill Maher?

  Now you're.

• 1:14:34Speaker 04

  At the Sphere, I'm there.

• 1:14:36Bill Maher?

  Right.

• 1:14:36Speaker 04

  And, and most of them are going.

• 1:14:38Bill Maher?

  Yes, in, in a way, you're purposefully sabotaging your own show. You're purposely distracting the audience from.

• 1:14:47Speaker 04

  So it took me a minute to get, to get them, like, it's almost, most audiences, you know, they come across the fence anyway. Like, they're horny to be there, they're excited. But some, you know, especially the first couple, like, they were just.

• 1:14:59Bill Maher?

  Right, and they came to see you. It's sort of like a, a hot girl saying, hey, come on, my tits are down here.

• 1:15:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:15:10Bill Maher?

  But really, I appreciate you coming out. And I assumed it was just because, as I did, I wanted to get to know you better.

• 1:15:16Speaker 04

  You too.

• 1:15:16Bill Maher?

  Such a great venue for getting to know somebody. And it's like, it's great because when people, you know, who are, say, post 50.

• 1:15:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:15:24Bill Maher?

  But you're post 50.

• 1:15:25Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:15:25Bill Maher?

  Okay.

• 1:15:26Speaker 04

  Very post 50.

• 1:15:27Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 1:15:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm 58.

• 1:15:29Bill Maher?

  Oh, well, you could easily pass for 10 years younger.

• 1:15:32Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 1:15:32Bill Maher?

  Which is great. Um, but, you know, celebrity takes off 10 years.

• 1:15:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:15:38Bill Maher?

  The camera adds 10 pounds, it just works like that. But, uh, no, I mean, I do appreciate that because.

• 1:15:45Speaker 04

  No, when I did your show, when we, when I did your show, um. I remember being, um, getting ready to leave. And I got in the car with everybody and I went, I think it's, was that, like, what just happened? Like, that was, like, that was a lot of fun. You never know, you never know how those, whatever, four, five, 10 minutes we spent out there, whatever it was, will go when you first meet someone and it's on record. Right? It's just there. But I, I remember telling everybody in the car on the way back to the hotel, I said, I think me and Bill are gonna be friends.

• 1:16:16Bill Maher?

  I hope so.

• 1:16:17Speaker 04

  I hope so, dude.

• 1:16:18Bill Maher?

  And, and you know, you know what makes it so much easier to be friends? Like, we, we really never, other than the 10 minutes, we never sat down together.

• 1:16:25Speaker 04

  Never spoke to each other.

• 1:16:26Bill Maher?

  We were aware of each other through telegen, to, uh, telegenics, to electronics, I mean.

• 1:16:32Speaker 04

  And now the Christmas plan.

• 1:16:33Bill Maher?

  Telegenics. We were communicating telegenically. Okay, I, I revealed it. So what?

• 1:16:40Speaker 04

  I prayed for this, dude.

• 1:16:41Bill Maher?

  Yeah, okay. But you know, it's, it's so interesting because you lived a life for 58 years and I lived a life for almost, uh, well, 70 years now. I don't remember when the interview was, but probably I was already 70. So like, it's not like we knew each other those years, but we both knew life those years. And we knew because we're in the same generation and honestly, we're both white men in America. Uh, life was certainly a lot worse for, uh, people who weren't that when we were born. And we acknowledge that. Um, but we just had so many, so many similar experiences or so much common in our background that when we do get sit down to talk, it's not like I have to get to know you from like the get.

• 1:17:25Bill Maher?

  Whereas like somebody who's 22 or so, they just were born on Mars. As far as I'm concerned to them and also in, in reverse.

• 1:17:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:17:35Bill Maher?

  And, but with us, it's like, well, I kinda have known you all my life. Not you in particular.

• 1:17:40Speaker 04

  You know, when we started this journey, had, like we, you talked about earlier, you had to work very hard and there were true rites, true rites of passage to get to a different ti, a di, different level. And you know what? There's some commonality in that and I, I feel that and I respect it. Um, because, look, nothing, doing what you do and how you did it, nothing was given to you. Nothing.

• 1:18:04Bill Maher?

  Oh, nothing.

• 1:18:04Speaker 04

  And that's the way it was for me.

• 1:18:06Bill Maher?

  And we're not nepo, we're not nepo babies. That's in, well, really, not that, and look, I'm not putting down nepo babies. Everybody's gotta make a living.

• 1:18:15Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:18:15Bill Maher?

  Um, and some of them are extremely talented, and I'm not surprised, why? It is easier when you have it sort of in your blood and you're around it as a kid. You're not freaked out about it when you get on a set because daddy took you to this. Okay, I don't begrudge anybody that. Just don't ever tell me it was harder for you, which I've heard. It wasn't harder, it was easier. And I, I am, I, I just like it better that I wasn't a nepo baby. I'm like it better that I was, I am the first, and by the way, will be the last. Because I don't have children.

• 1:18:46Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:18:47Bill Maher?

  You don't have children, right?

• 1:18:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, not on children. And I think we talked about this. I never miss it.

• 1:18:52Bill Maher?

  No, me neither.

• 1:18:53Speaker 04

  I, I mean.

• 1:18:54Bill Maher?

  Now, that's rare, two guys our age who both didn't have children and also still say they didn't miss it.

• 1:19:00Speaker 04

  But.

• 1:19:00Bill Maher?

  We are in a small club, my friend.

• 1:19:02Speaker 04

  But, that's true, but I, I, I, but for me, music was always my baby.

• 1:19:09Bill Maher?

  Same with me and my show and comedy. Yes, absolutely.

• 1:19:12Speaker 04

  I, I saw, I never once, and still to this day, I don't, but I've never thought, I mean, my mom did. I would go home years ago, mom go, well, because my sister can't have a child. And then I'm not having a child, so my mom's now, you know, getting up there, I'm getting up there, so was my mother. But she doesn't have any grandbabies.

• 1:19:31Bill Maher?

  My, my sister did not have children either.

• 1:19:33Speaker 04

  So, we have, see, we got a lot in common.

• 1:19:36Bill Maher?

  I know, which is, our line is dying off.

• 1:19:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, no question, but I never missed it.

• 1:19:42Bill Maher?

  No, I haven't either, and I don't care if my line dies off, so what?

• 1:19:46Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:19:47Bill Maher?

  Like, what, what was gonna be next? And also, by the way, if we had kids, they'd be nepo babies.

• 1:19:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, right.

• 1:19:55Bill Maher?

  They'd be nepo babies. And, I, you know.

• 1:19:58Speaker 04

  I, I have thought about this, though, like.

• 1:20:04Speaker 04

  Only because I, when you get to a certain place in your life, you do your will.

• 1:20:09Bill Maher?

  Oh yeah, I've done it.

• 1:20:10Speaker 04

  And so, I'm sitting there going, it really hit me that I didn't have a child when I have to figure out where all this shit's going.

• 1:20:17Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:17Speaker 04

  If something happens to me. And I'm like, okay. And that was a hard thing to do.

• 1:20:22Bill Maher?

  Cause you accumulate a lot.

• 1:20:24Speaker 04

  You, I've got so much stuff.

• 1:20:25Bill Maher?

  Life, not just stuff, but friends, in the best way.

• 1:20:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:20:29Bill Maher?

  But you know, like, you, life is, among other things, it is a, an accumulation.

• 1:20:35Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:20:35Bill Maher?

  And when you write the will, it suddenly makes you have a, uh, need clarity on the value of it, where it, you know, it makes you think about.

• 1:20:45Speaker 04

  Who gets what? This of, of whatever, you know?

• 1:20:50Bill Maher?

  It does.

• 1:20:51Speaker 04

  And that's when, that's the first time, honestly, that I realized, I've been so busy and so creative and so moving forward. But when I sat down to do my will, I was like, hmm, okay. Who am I gonna give this stuff to?

• 1:21:08Bill Maher?

  And who do I wanna make sure I don't?

• 1:21:10Speaker 04

  Who do I trust with it? Who do I don't?

• 1:21:12Bill Maher?

  Yes. Who do I wanna let know after the fact, oh?

• 1:21:16Speaker 04

  So, so, let's just say, how do you like it, I mean, I, yes. Looking, looking back and saying, okay, if you had, let's just say you had four or five kids, and then you had a will. What's worse, not having kids and give, I assume you would give it to something that would make the world a better place?

• 1:21:35Bill Maher?

  Right. I mean, I feel, look, I never had.

• 1:21:38Speaker 04

  Or would you rather give it to kids that you didn't know that would take care of it?

• 1:21:41Bill Maher?

  Look, I never had kids. Because I use this. I was like, you know what? It's gonna hurt, but it's certainly better than having kids.

• 1:21:55Speaker 04

  You just pull that out of your pocket? Where'd you get those scissors?

• 1:21:57Bill Maher?

  I'm Harpro Marks, Kenny, I have, I have props everywhere.

• 1:22:03Bill Maher?

  Here's a lit candle I was carrying around under my coat. No, I, I, uh, now I forgot what it was, something about kids.

• 1:22:12Speaker 04

  Anyway, we don't have kids.

• 1:22:14Bill Maher?

  Well, we don't.

• 1:22:14Speaker 04

  And we don't have anybody to get into where we're going.

• 1:22:16Bill Maher?

  And we don't, we don't have, we don't have hostility toward people who have kids or to kids themselves. It's just not our preference. I feel like one of the attitudes that I, from the earliest days on Politically Incorrect, in the 90s, was trying to sort of pioneer on TV against the grain, was first of all, you're not weird if you're single and never get married. That shouldn't be a weirdness. This would be, it would just be people's choices. Same thing with kids. There's no moral dimension to it. Having kids doesn't make you a better person. If you have kids and raise them right, you have my full admiration.

• 1:22:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:22:55Bill Maher?

  But you can have kids and raise assholes, and then I think you're a huge asshole who should, just shouldn't have had kids. I don't think I would have been a good father.

• 1:23:04Speaker 04

  I, I think I would be a good father, but I, I, I don't know that I have the skill set at this point.

• 1:23:13Speaker 04

  But.

• 1:23:13Bill Maher?

  You don't.

• 1:23:14Speaker 04

  I don't.

• 1:23:16Speaker 04

  No, I mean.

• 1:23:16Bill Maher?

  They say he's your new friend.

• 1:23:19Speaker 04

  Right? Something to be honest.

• 1:23:20Bill Maher?

  We said we're friends now. Okay, so now I can just like, yeah.

• 1:23:24Speaker 04

  So, I mean, I don't know anything about, a lot about your, you know, early, were you ever married?

• 1:23:29Bill Maher?

  Your skin, your, your, your, your sperm is too old.

• 1:23:34Speaker 04

  It's too old.

• 1:23:35Bill Maher?

  It's not.

• 1:23:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's too.

• 1:23:36Bill Maher?

  It's not gone.

• 1:23:38Speaker 04

  It's just, well, there's less women around, probably.

• 1:23:40Bill Maher?

  Well, you just don't trust them.

• 1:23:43Speaker 04

  Don't trust, I've never trusted them. What are you talking about?

• 1:23:49Speaker 04

  I had no trust was an issue. I have never trusted them.

• 1:23:54Bill Maher?

  Another good song title.

• 1:23:55Speaker 04

  That's really good.

• 1:23:56Bill Maher?

  I never trusted them.

• 1:23:57Speaker 04

  I never trusted.

• 1:23:58Bill Maher?

  I never trusted them. Yeah, sing a whole song about your sperm.

• 1:24:02Speaker 04

  Yeah. Were you, I mean, did you ever get married?

• 1:24:05Bill Maher?

  Not to my knowledge. I, I, I wasn't engaged. And I saw, I was, I told you, I was looking through these old clips. It takes a lot to get me to look at myself. I'm only doing this because this is a big deal. So I have to, so, but it's just torture. And there I am on The Tonight Show and I do my little fucking dog and pony show out there, which is making me throw up in my mouth. And then I go and I sit down with Johnny, which was a big honor.

• 1:24:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:24:32Bill Maher?

  And I reveal, which I'd completely forgotten, there on the panel of The Tonight Show, that I'd just gotten engaged. He's, I'm, I, so I hear you just got engaged. That's very, very exciting. And I'm like, yeah, bro. It's like, what? And I don't, I, I remember getting engaged.

• 1:24:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:24:54Bill Maher?

  It never became a marriage, but I don't remember doing that on The Tonight Show.

• 1:24:58Speaker 04

  Oh, wow. And you saw it?

• 1:25:00Bill Maher?

  I just watched it on this clip. And, you know.

• 1:25:04Speaker 04

  How old were you?

• 1:25:05Bill Maher?

  I was 29.

• 1:25:07Speaker 04

  Oh, wow.

• 1:25:08Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:08Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:25:08Bill Maher?

  I mean, look, I know marriage works for so many people. And some people are just, you know, you, you could say it's, it's just sort of a case of, you know, in codependence. You know, it's just the tree, trees grow together and at some point the roots intermingle so much that.

• 1:25:28Speaker 04

  And untangling that would be a lot more work than.

• 1:25:31Bill Maher?

  Right. And a lot more.

• 1:25:32Speaker 04

  And I get that.

• 1:25:32Bill Maher?

  But there are some people where it's not about, it would be a lot of work or I'll lose all my money. It's really, I really love hanging out with her. I really love hanging out with him. Even Bill and Hillary, you know, I remember when they asked her after the scandal and everything, whether she would leave him and she was like, very honest, I thought, you know, and said basically, you know, I, I kind of thought about it and yes, he's a hard dog to keep on the porch, but at the end of the day, there's just no one else as interesting in this whole world or who I really want to talk to as much. So like, that's a lot. That to me was a very cool thing to say. I'm sure I didn't say it word for word, but that was the gist of it.

• 1:26:12Speaker 04

  I love Bill. I've been a cha, I've had an opportunity to meet him several times.

• 1:26:17Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:17Speaker 04

  And.

• 1:26:19Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 1:26:19Speaker 04

  Speaking, I mean, he, I don't know of anyone that's as. He is very charismatic and can just and can talk so well.

• 1:26:28Bill Maher?

  Oh.

• 1:26:28Speaker 04

  It's he can make you feel like.

• 1:26:31Bill Maher?

  Oh, absolutely.

• 1:26:31Speaker 04

  Like you're the only person.

• 1:26:33Bill Maher?

  Oh, absolutely.

• 1:26:34Speaker 04

  And that's a talent to that. It's really great.

• 1:26:37Bill Maher?

  Well, I may have told this story before, but I'm gonna tell it again.

• 1:26:39Speaker 04

  Hell, again.

• 1:26:40Bill Maher?

  So like in the 90s, I was like invited to a number of places where he was speaking, you know, chummy with the democratic side and I still am with a lot of them, I hope. And so I brought and of course, this is the 90s. I was out of my mind, so I brought a date everywhere. So I brought this hot blonde with me and you know, it's like a meeting of maybe the 80, 100 people. And at the end, there's a, you know, you get online so you can take a picture with the president. It moves along pretty quickly. With me, I got on one side, she got on the other side. And I asked, I said something very offhand about he was about to travel to a trade conference. And he spent the next five minutes like explaining trade to me.

• 1:27:24Bill Maher?

  And when I got off the line, I said to my girl, I said, wow, that's so awesome.

• 1:27:30Bill Maher?

  He spent five minutes just telling me about the intricacies of this trade deal. And she said, yeah, the whole time he was rubbing my back.

• 1:27:41Speaker 04

  So.

• 1:27:42Bill Maher?

  That's what I love about Bill Clinton. He was a player.

• 1:27:45Speaker 04

  Oh, my God, great.

• 1:27:46Bill Maher?

  Like, talk about a dog. Like, there's certain people, I could name certain athletes who were like this.

• 1:27:51Speaker 04

  Oh, no question.

• 1:27:51Bill Maher?

  One is the greatest basketball player of all time. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna mention names, but just like, you're either like, wow, Warren Beatty, another one. Like Warren Beatty, according to legend, used to just pull chicks over like on the road. Like, and then be like, aye.

• 1:28:07Speaker 04

  And there's a talent to that, too.

• 1:28:09Bill Maher?

  It's just again, I couldn't do it, but I can't deny I.

• 1:28:14Speaker 04

  Bill Clinton invited me to come to the Hollywood Bowl to sing. It was me and Bono and a couple of other people to sing for him. It was packed at the Hollywood Bowl.

• 1:28:25Bill Maher?

  Sure.

• 1:28:25Speaker 04

  So I was there and I had a song out with Grace Potter called You and Tequila.

• 1:28:30Bill Maher?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:31Speaker 04

  And Grace lived out here at the time and still does some of the time. So I said, Grace, I said, you should come sing your tequila with me for Bill Clinton.

• 1:28:39Bill Maher?

  Wow.

• 1:28:40Speaker 04

  And Bill knew I was coming, but he didn't know that Grace was coming. And so I came out there and I introduced Grace to come on stage. And she had this bedazzled dress and I swear to God, it was right here. And you could see, you know, Bill was sitting there, he was in the first row and everybody was... So, and then there's me that comes out and talks to Bill and I wish it was a pleasure to be here. Ladies and gentlemen, Grace Potter. And she walks out like Marilyn Monroe and you could see Bill go. This is it.

• 1:29:15Speaker 04

  He was unbelievable. How'd we get on Bill Clinton? I don't know.

• 1:29:18Bill Maher?

  I love.

• 1:29:19Speaker 04

  I love him.

• 1:29:20Bill Maher?

  I love him, you know, but, but, you know.

• 1:29:23Speaker 04

  But he got into all kinds of stuff.

• 1:29:25Bill Maher?

  You gotta own who you are.

• 1:29:26Speaker 04

  I know, but there's a talent to it. Like he got into all kinds of trouble, but every time come out smelling like a rose.

• 1:29:32Bill Maher?

  Well, I don't know. I don't know if he's smelling like a rose all the time because they used to have him at the Democratic Convention. They didn't the last one because there's too much. Well, Monica remembered. Monica remembered, then forgot, then remembered, then forgot. And I think she's back to remembering that she's a victim.

• 1:29:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:29:51Bill Maher?

  And that hurt him.

• 1:29:53Speaker 04

  But even after that, I mean, if we needed somebody to go negotiate, they would either send Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton.

• 1:29:59Bill Maher?

  Well, Jimmy's dead, so I wouldn't.

• 1:30:00Speaker 04

  I know that, but I mean, like back in the day.

• 1:30:03Bill Maher?

  Yeah. All right, I gotta go back to my real job. I could do this all night with you. This is so much fun and you didn't even drink.

• 1:30:12Speaker 04

  Oh, no.

• 1:30:14Bill Maher?

  Good for you.

• 1:30:14Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:30:15Bill Maher?

  You know what? Honestly, and I know this mostly from cigarettes, but I would say this to a degree because that's the dumbest drug I ever did. Smoking for 20 years. So glad I finally got rid of that.

• 1:30:26Speaker 04

  I don't smoke and I've never, I'll go ahead and finish.

• 1:30:28Bill Maher?

  No, well, I'm just gonna say, you know, as you strip away the drugs, cigarettes, heavy drinking, you know, you do realize.

• 1:30:38Bill Maher?

  They're not as needed as you think they are.

• 1:30:40Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:30:40Bill Maher?

  You know, you can actually have a good time as yourself.

• 1:30:44Speaker 04

  I'm learning.

• 1:30:45Bill Maher?

  You got in the habit of

• 1:30:46Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:30:47Bill Maher?

  of using a crutch, but it's still you in there. You are really what's still interesting and can be interested and, you know, you don't really need a lot. You know, a little, but not a lot.

• 1:30:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've never had, I've never even, believe it or not, a little fun fact. I'm fifty-eight years old and I've never had a cup of coffee.

• 1:31:07Bill Maher?

  Wow, I've, I've had a lot of them.

• 1:31:09Speaker 04

  And, and I, I, it was, it was a negative association with something as a child. And I, it was, so I never.

• 1:31:18Bill Maher?

  I, I can tell you why. Cause as a child, you don't need coffee, you're bouncing off the walls to be.

• 1:31:25Speaker 04

  Right, but I mean.

• 1:31:26Bill Maher?

  You need a downer. And so the adults are drinking this gross brown.

• 1:31:31Speaker 04

  Yes, it was off.

• 1:31:32Bill Maher?

  It's bitter.

• 1:31:32Speaker 04

  And everybody's smoking in the house, like, and I'm going, if I ever get out of here, I'm never coming back, ever. Ever. I had that, talk with myself as a child, I remember it.

• 1:31:41Bill Maher?

  Yes.

• 1:31:42Speaker 04

  And I've never been back.

• 1:31:43Bill Maher?

  Right. These people stink. Their breath stinks of coffee and cigarettes. Is there a worse breath stink than coffee and cigarettes? Yes.

• 1:31:53Speaker 04

  So.

• 1:31:53Bill Maher?

  But, you know, my mother was in World War Two.

• 1:31:57Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 1:31:57Bill Maher?

  She earned her coffee and cigarette breath.

• 1:32:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, sure did.

• 1:32:03Bill Maher?

  All right, pal.

• 1:32:04Speaker 04

  Great. Man, thanks for having me.

• 1:32:06Bill Maher?

  All right, we'll do this.

• 1:32:08Speaker 04

  Christmas.

• 1:32:08Bill Maher?

  Any.

• 1:32:11Speaker 04

  I have Christmas plans now.

• 1:32:12Bill Maher?

  You're in your island paradise in Christmas, I'm guessing?

• 1:32:15Speaker 04

  Um, I wasn't this year, but it's gotten busy down there during Christmas. It's in the Virgin Islands.

• 1:32:22Bill Maher?

  I mean, Virgin Islands.

• 1:32:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, St. John. I was just going down there for a long time, then it got really busy during Christmas. So it's like, okay. I don't know, I've been out here before.

• 1:32:31Bill Maher?

  But it's a US Virgin Islands.

• 1:32:32Speaker 04

  US Virgin Islands.

• 1:32:33Bill Maher?

  So you're American territory.

• 1:32:34Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:32:35Bill Maher?

  So, because, you know.

• 1:32:38Speaker 04

  If you're bored.

• 1:32:39Bill Maher?

  I might visit you there.

• 1:32:40Speaker 04

  I think you'd love it.

• 1:32:41Bill Maher?

  You know, I haven't really gone overseas. I mean, I'm not a great traveler. So I had three, I toured in 2015. That's the last time I went to Europe. I'm not.

• 1:32:54Speaker 04

  Wait, and you haven't been to Europe since 2015?

• 1:32:55Bill Maher?

  No, I'm not up for that. I'm just not.

• 1:32:58Speaker 04

  See, I love Italy too much.

• 1:33:00Bill Maher?

  Oh, really?

• 1:33:01Speaker 04

  I love Italy.

• 1:33:01Bill Maher?

  Italy?

• 1:33:02Speaker 04

  And when I was drinking a lot, I really loved Italy because I loved, you know, I loved, loved red wine, especially Italian red wine.

• 1:33:10Bill Maher?

  Like anywhere in Italy?

• 1:33:11Speaker 04

  No, I mean, I love Florence. I love the Amalfi Coast. I love Tuscany. I love, and I just went to Sicily three years ago and I.

• 1:33:18Bill Maher?

  Yeah, I bet it is awesome.

• 1:33:19Speaker 04

  It's awesome. And because I love the Godfather.

• 1:33:21Bill Maher?

  I'm not doing that. But I might come to the US. US territory, Virgin Islands.

• 1:33:29Speaker 04

  Not at Christmas. It's too, it's too, it's too crazy.

• 1:33:31Bill Maher?

  Really?

• 1:33:31Speaker 04

  But, yeah, come during hurricane season. Seriously, because it's beautiful. It's.

• 1:33:36Bill Maher?

  What, do you like the fall?

• 1:33:38Speaker 04

  You know, if a storm's coming with the weather channel and, and with all the.

• 1:33:41Bill Maher?

  All right, if I'm ever in New York, it's a flight from New York, right?

• 1:33:44Speaker 04

  Three hours. Or I'll come there and we'll just roll, roll me. How's that?

• 1:33:51Bill Maher?

  If I'm in New York during hurricane season.

• 1:33:54Speaker 04

  Right.

• 1:33:54Bill Maher?

  And the hurricane starts hitting New York, I am so.

• 1:33:58Speaker 04

  You can come down there.

• 1:34:00Bill Maher?

  Thank you.

• 1:34:00Speaker 04

  I think you'd love it.

• 1:34:06Speaker 04

  Oh, man, that's awesome.

• 1:34:08Bill Maher?

  Man, they're so easy.

• 1:34:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's great.

• 1:34:45Speaker 06

  Network freedom and flexibility, that's what you want in a health care plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals, no kidding. Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to bill Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and costs share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal. At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone, and including dental, vision, and hearing coverage in every plan.

• 1:35:28Speaker 06

  And the best part is, every plan has a $0 or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save, too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.