John Carpenter

Questlove sat down with director and composer John Carpenter in Hollywood to discuss Cathedral, a graphic novel and heavy metal album inspired by a single dream. Carpenter tells how a bongo lesson from his father led to the iconic Halloween theme. He also talks about casting Kurt Russell after their Elvis TV movie, why The Thing was his hardest shoot, and says The Exorcist remains the scariest movie ever made. Along the way, Carpenter turns the tables and interviews Questlove, sparking a lively debate about The Beatles and whether music has reached “creative diminished returns.” It’s a funny, engaging conversation between two directors who work in different worlds but share a love of making music. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:06Speaker 00

  The Questlove Show is a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:26Speaker 00

  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Questlove Show. We are taping live in Los Angeles in the iHeart Studios. So the feedback that we've gotten for the Jamie Lee Curtis episode sparked a few ideas. And when she mentioned our esteemed guest today, we decided to go full circle. And it goes without saying that, of course, he is without a doubt a legendary filmmaker, actor, music composer, a Cannes Film Golden Coach recipient, which is none to slouch at. And of course, native of Bowling Green, whose star sits really, literally just down the street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• 2:07Speaker 00

  Of course, his iconic filmography includes, of course, the Halloween series, The Thing, Christine, Escape from New York. My personal favorite star man, that doesn't get mentioned enough. And now he's going into a new foray into literature. We love pivoteered QLS, and he remains an incomparable force in horror and sci-fi. And he joins us today to discuss his first graphic novel and the companion album with it called Cathedral, which is published by Storm King's Comics, incidentally founded by his wife Sandy King. And what else can I say? Thank you very much, John Carpenter, for coming to the Questlove Show.

• 2:51Speaker 03

  Good to see you, man. Good to see you. How did Jamie Lee's episode go?

• 2:54Speaker 00

  She's very epic.

• 2:56Speaker 03

  How does that mean?

• 2:57Speaker 00

  You know, she comes with the giant bowl of wisdom, a lot of stories. You know, she talked about her beginnings. It's good to see her realize in real time that she's realizing she's Jamie Lee Curtis. I mean, oftentimes, we tend to duck our light to not make people feel bad when you're shining. But no, she was great.

• 3:20Speaker 03

  Did you have anybody with her to verify these stories?

• 3:24Speaker 00

  No.

• 3:25Speaker 03

  They may not be well.

• 3:26Speaker 00

  Oh, embellished?

• 3:27Speaker 03

  They may be slightly embellished. I don't know.

• 3:30Speaker 00

  No, no, no, no. I have to ask you, people, of course, often ask you about your films. But first of all, why did you feel the need to make your first graphic novel?

• 3:40Speaker 03

  Well, the album comes first.

• 3:43Speaker 00

  Right.

• 3:44Speaker 03

  I had this dream, and it was the plot of Cathedral.

• 3:47Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 3:48Speaker 03

  And I told my godson and my son, we have a band together. I said, why don't we do something that I don't know anybody has done, which is we'll score the graphic novel? So we came out with this album, which is coming out this year.

• 4:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:04Speaker 03

  And my wife and her comic minions are putting out the comic book. And I'm sitting and playing video games while they do that.

• 4:15Speaker 00

  Are you what they call a head? Are you a video game head?

• 4:19Speaker 03

  Huge.

• 4:20Speaker 00

  Really?

• 4:21Speaker 03

  For years.

• 4:22Speaker 00

  When did this first start?

• 4:23Speaker 03

  Ninety-two. I was up in Inverness, California, and I was playing for the first time Sonic the Hedgehog. And I didn't know you needed a save car, a way to save it. So I kept repeating it over and over. And that's how I kind of learned how to play.

• 4:41Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 4:42Speaker 03

  And my son would beat me. He was, hand-eye coordination is incredible. And I picked up a little bit from him. So, yeah.

• 4:51Speaker 00

  Okay. What did your relationship with, like, comics and illustration begin?

• 4:55Speaker 03

  Comics, well, way back, way, way back, before you were born, before everybody in this room was born.

• 5:02Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  And way back to the early Marvel days, DC. Oh, great stuff, great stuff.

• 5:09Speaker 00

  How big is your collection?

• 5:11Speaker 03

  I don't have a really a collection.

• 5:13Speaker 00

  Really?

• 5:14Speaker 03

  I have discarded things over the years.

• 5:16Speaker 00

  So you're not sentimental at all? I mean, minus your, hopefully, you've kept mementos of your own.

• 5:21Speaker 03

  I have, I have.

• 5:23Speaker 00

  Do you still have the mask, the original?

• 5:24Speaker 03

  I'm not gonna tell you.

• 5:26Speaker 00

  Why not?

• 5:28Speaker 03

  I don't know. I'm just not gonna tell you.

• 5:30Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 5:31Speaker 03

  But I've got a lot of the stuff from early movies, and I do keep that.

• 5:37Speaker 00

  So as a filmmaker, do you enjoy the storyboarding process at all? Or is it just?

• 5:42Speaker 03

  Enjoy?

• 5:44Speaker 00

  Well, that's what I mean. Is it a means to an end? Or do you enjoy like the process that leads up to?

• 5:49Speaker 03

  Well.

• 5:50Speaker 00

  The journey that leads to the destination?

• 5:52Speaker 03

  I hear you. I used to storyboard in the beginning, but then after a while, I kind of know how to do it now. You don't need a storyboard. I can, I can see it by, you know, visualize it from the script. I've directed a lot of movies, so.

• 6:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:06Speaker 03

  Directing is a crushing emotional experience on you. You're responsible for all these people all day long. It's 150,000 bucks a day that you're spending to get the story done. So it's a huge responsibility. And then at the end of the day, when you go to show it, there's only one person that everybody looks at and blames, or whatever. And that's the director at the end of the hallway with his film cans in his hand.

• 6:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  And that was me.

• 6:39Speaker 00

  I know now, the way that we document things, like, get an idea, we could say into our phones or everything. But, you know, in the late 70s, early 80s, could you just walk me through what your creative process was when you are, when you first get a spark for an idea? Like, how do you mold what was a spark into the final product?

• 7:00Speaker 03

  Interesting. I was told to write my way into the movie business. So I started in the early 70s, and I had a pretty good scheme going. I would get a deal to write a first draft, and I would do nothing for three months. And then in one night, I'd do an outline, and the next night, I'd write it.

• 7:19Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 7:20Speaker 03

  And turn it in. And a bunch of movies came out of that. It was a great way of doing it. And I was just a guy for hire. And along comes this low-budget horror movie. And they wanted to do it in 20 days and so forth. So that was Halloween. And I did that, and then I was off and running. So it kind of, it's hard to say. It's a combination of being practical and imagining things in your head. And I had practice from when I was little.

• 7:55Speaker 00

  Because of the way that a particular genre works, and I know that every script worth its grain of salt has to start with a good story, no matter what effects you put into it. But in terms of horror films, like, are you thinking more, less ways of inventive ways for your character or protagonist to frighten or?

• 8:17Speaker 03

  No.

• 8:18Speaker 00

  To do things to people?

• 8:19Speaker 03

  It has to come out of the story.

• 8:20Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 8:21Speaker 03

  It has to come out of the story. If you don't care about the characters in the story, if you're not involved, you're dead. You have to get the audience involved with the characters. They have to identify with somebody that they want to survive, or whatever, or meet the quest. And you go from there. But it's, you know, there's a screenplay is generally 120 pages, three acts. First act, you set the problem. Second act, you complicate it. Third act, you resolve it. And that's generally, generally true for every movie.

• 8:56Speaker 00

  Okay. All right. So you co-wrote Cathedral with your wife Sandy.

• 9:00Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, no, I wrote the original outline, the story, the dream. It's my dream.

• 9:06Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 9:07Speaker 03

  And I wrote it and then I handed that to Sandy and said, hey, how about a comic? And so she's been working on that.

• 9:14Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 9:15Speaker 03

  That's a hard, hard damn job.

• 9:17Speaker 00

  Well, I was gonna say, someone who's not married yet, how do you balance this, like, high stakes work life at a home with someone that you're collaborating with so closely, like in terms of church and state or?

• 9:30Speaker 03

  We've been at it for over forty years. So it's second nature and it's somebody, you gotta have somebody you trust. It's all about, that's what it's all about. Somebody to tell you the truth. She'll tell me the truth. So.

• 9:43Speaker 00

  Got you.

• 9:44Speaker 03

  By the way, I understand you did documentaries.

• 9:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:48Speaker 03

  On the Summer of Soul. Was that it? Now, I was a teenager. I grew up with Motown. Are you familiar with Motown?

• 9:55Speaker 00

  Of course.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  I'm not sure, but I'm just, you know, you're a young man.

• 9:58Speaker 00

  I'm flattered you think so. Go ahead.

• 10:00Speaker 03

  When I grew up, I wanted to sing like Levi Stubbs. Do you know?

• 10:03Speaker 00

  The Four Tops. Yep. I inherit his record collection.

• 10:06Speaker 03

  You did?

• 10:08Speaker 00

  My partner in the roots is good friends with his daughter and.

• 10:11Speaker 03

  Oh, is that right?

• 10:12Speaker 00

  So when he passed, I often get the record collections.

• 10:15Speaker 03

  I see, I see.

• 10:16Speaker 00

  Of people who pass away, we don't know the do these. So.

• 10:20Speaker 03

  I give them the, oh, his voice. Oh, I couldn't believe it. And then Holland Dozer, Holland, songwriters.

• 10:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:28Speaker 03

  You don't get better than that. And then it went away. It all went away.

• 10:32Speaker 00

  I know you started out as a musician first. Like, what is your true passion? And then what is?

• 10:38Speaker 03

  Well, my muse is the movies. That, in nineteen fifty-six, I was eight years old. I saw a movie and I decided I'm gonna be a movie director.

• 10:47Speaker 00

  What was the movie that?

• 10:48Speaker 03

  A Forbidden Planet.

• 10:49Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  It's a science fiction film.

• 10:50Speaker 00

  What was it? What was it about it that called you?

• 10:52Speaker 03

  Everything. It was in color, widescreen, had an invisible monster, had a beautiful girl. I mean, it had everything you want. And, you know, from then on, movies was my drive. But I grew up, my dad was a music teacher. So I grew up around music and it's second nature to me. So I got to film school and we don't have any money in film school. Just no, no money at all. So I would do music for others and myself because I, you know, I was cheap and, and I could play on a synthesizer. That's how it started.

• 11:31Speaker 00

  So in Cathedral, this takes place at an abandoned church in Los Angeles. Did you go out to source churches or explore them at all?

• 11:40Speaker 03

  No, God, no. Well, down near S C, there's a huge, huge cathedral down there. It's beautiful. And I've always noticed it, walking by it.

• 11:51Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 11:52Speaker 03

  And I kind of in my head, I dreamt about that. But it's a, it's a ridiculously convoluted. It's not convoluted. It's a cop goes and investigates her father's death and discovers an underworld and a demon and all sorts of dark things.

• 12:11Speaker 00

  You said the word dream a lot. So I have to ask you because I would say that you've done your fair share of using your creativity to invade people's dreams. Are you a person that has the same recurring dream over and over again?

• 12:26Speaker 03

  Sometimes, yeah.

• 12:27Speaker 00

  What is the dream that recurs over, over again?

• 12:30Speaker 03

  Well, there are two of them. Well, I'm in a big city and I'm looking for the movie district where the movie theaters are.

• 12:36Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 12:36Speaker 03

  But I can't find it. And then I do, but they're all closed down because they, you know, it's not working anymore out there. The cinema's dying and.

• 12:47Speaker 00

  That's a nightmare.

• 12:48Speaker 03

  I know. Well, no, but you know, this is what, what I dream. And then I, sometimes I dream I'm in a big city that, that I get lost in and that kind of thing.

• 12:58Speaker 00

  You know, I'm just getting into the world of film right now. And of course, I mean, we're in Los Angeles. And pretty much everyone that I've talked to, you know, the film business is basically telling me like, they keep calling it like the idea of Hollywood.

• 13:13Speaker 03

  Wait a minute. Now, are you getting in the film business?

• 13:15Speaker 00

  Well, not.

• 13:16Speaker 03

  What are you doing?

• 13:17Speaker 00

  No, no, no. I.

• 13:18Speaker 03

  Tell me all about it.

• 13:20Speaker 00

  Well, you know, half the people shoot in Atlanta or any part of Canada.

• 13:25Speaker 03

  Cheap, yeah.

• 13:26Speaker 00

  Right. But for you, I mean, a lot of your films are set in Southern California for like past five decades. So like, how has the version of LA that you started with in terms of shooting changed since then? Like, do you still see this town as a good resource of material to shoot the things that you want to?

• 13:50Speaker 03

  Absolutely. You know, I got here was in nineteen sixty-eight. So it was, you'd walk down Sunset Boulevard and guys would be in the shadows saying acid, acid, you know, trying to sell you.

• 14:05Speaker 00

  Right.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  Now it's, I don't know, it's Disneyland kind of now. It's all friendly and it's not dangerous anymore. Kinda.

• 14:15Speaker 00

  So you like the grit?

• 14:16Speaker 03

  I love Los Angeles. I got here and I said, this is home. This is my home.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  And you still love it?

• 14:23Speaker 03

  Love it at Levitt's, dude. Love it at Levitt's.

• 14:26Speaker 00

  Wait, wait a minute. What do you know about Levitt at Levitt's? Objects are a thing that play a vital part in all, most of your films. For instance, The Perfect Church or A Car Like Christine. What is it about in terms of your storyline having a particular object? Like in the case of Christine, like, how did you decide that the car was going to be that particular object?

• 14:49Speaker 03

  Well, it was based on a story by Stephen King. He wrote Christine. So I was just a director for hire on that baby. It wasn't mine.

• 14:59Speaker 00

  So that wasn't a collaboration with you too?

• 15:01Speaker 03

  No.

• 15:01Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 15:02Speaker 03

  It was written by somebody and really talented screenwriter. But let's get back to you now. Are you, what are you doing?

• 15:09Speaker 00

  You can't deflect. I'm here to get wisdom from you.

• 15:12Speaker 03

  I wanna know.

• 15:13Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 15:13Speaker 03

  What are you doing in the movie business? What role? Are you playing music?

• 15:18Speaker 00

  No, I'm directing.

• 15:19Speaker 03

  You're directing?

• 15:20Speaker 00

  I'm directing.

• 15:21Speaker 03

  Toledo, mama.

• 15:22Speaker 00

  Yes. No, right now.

• 15:25Speaker 03

  Tell me all about it, young man.

• 15:27Speaker 00

  I see what you're doing here.

• 15:28Speaker 03

  No, no, no. No, no. I wanna know.

• 15:33Speaker 00

  You don't wanna talk about yourself. No, I mean, right now I feel like I have a duty, which is, I guess around twenty eighteen, these gentlemen approached me about doing a documentary for a music film. And of course, as with everything I do in my life, I try to talk myself out of it because I didn't think I was worthy enough or had the.

• 15:55Speaker 03

  I hear you.

• 15:56Speaker 00

  Had the know-how, but you know, a lot of people told me that a lot of people learn just by getting thrown in the, the lake and you gotta swim your way out of it.

• 16:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:04Speaker 00

  And once it worked, then became the challenge of, do I continue? Or was that a one and done? I thought it was gonna be a one and done.

• 16:12Speaker 03

  You did another one, right?

• 16:14Speaker 00

  I did three more. I did.

• 16:15Speaker 03

  Well, now each one has been celebrated, right?

• 16:18Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  Okay. Are you gonna do documentaries? Is that what you're talking about or drama?

• 16:23Speaker 00

  No, no. Well, I've, I've done four documentaries. I just finished the Earth, Wind and Fire story.

• 16:29Speaker 03

  Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.

• 16:31Speaker 00

  I already did the Sly and the Family Stone story. But for me, I'm, I'm trying to figure out a way. I mean, there, there's a term they use called edutainment. Education, edutainment. I know it seems somewhat.

• 16:44Speaker 03

  That's okay.

• 16:45Speaker 00

  But for me, it's important. I am one of those people that wags their fingers at young people occasionally for just having discontent for history and that sort of thing. So.

• 16:54Speaker 03

  Do they? See, I don't know. I bet cause I, I have no idea what they have contempt for.

• 16:59Speaker 00

  I feel as though, well, I mean, maybe I'm coming from an envious place. I think, I, I think I'm the last generation that was forced to learn the entire history of the past, like growing up in music. You know, my dad made me, I saw it as, you know, my first punishment was listening to a John Coltrane record.

• 17:22Speaker 03

  Punishment?

• 17:23Speaker 00

  Punishment.

• 17:24Speaker 03

  You hated that, huh?

• 17:25Speaker 00

  I mean, when you're twelve years old and you wanna listen to Prince and your father's like, no.

• 17:31Speaker 03

  Oh, come on, man.

• 17:34Speaker 00

  Yeah. So I, I saw jazz as punishment when I was eleven, twelve.

• 17:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I hear you. I hear you.

• 17:40Speaker 00

  But of course, when I got older, I was, I was grateful for that education.

• 17:43Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 17:45Speaker 00

  But I wanna do it in a way that seems appealing and not like, you know, someone trying to force their art and their lifestyle and their point of view.

• 17:54Speaker 03

  Edutainment? Is that it?

• 17:56Speaker 00

  Edutainment, yes.

• 17:57Speaker 03

  I got you. Okay. Makes sense. Makes sense now.

• 18:00Speaker 00

  Yeah. So basically, I'll, I'll say it this way. Summer of Soul, of course, attracts people because it's a festival, but I'm trying to teach people the value of joy. Kind of an emotion that most human beings, especially in twenty twenty, were trying to avoid. With the Sly and the Family Stone documentary, I wanted to focus on self sabotage. Why do certain people?

• 18:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:26Speaker 00

  Get to a plateau and then they sabotage it. And Earth, Wind and Fire, I'm very interested in how metaphysics works. The idea of not talking to a higher source, but meditating and getting ideas in silence. How silence can be something that saves you. So.

• 18:46Speaker 03

  That's kind of Eastern philosophy type deal, isn't it?

• 18:49Speaker 00

  Eh, maybe. Somewhat. I mean, it's, it's not under the, sort of the westernized.

• 18:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:55Speaker 00

  Spiritual practice that we do here. So now can I finish asking?

• 18:58Speaker 03

  Absolutely. I'm sorry.

• 19:00Speaker 00

  A back and forth? No, I, I like, I like having a conversation, but my people already know about me. So this is where they start rolling their eyes and, you know.

• 19:14Speaker 01

  Hey, it's Nile Rodgers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by Miguel.

• 19:32Speaker 04

  That last year, finishing that record was the hardest experience of my life. To find your creativity and to believe in yourself, because somewhere in the midst of it, I stopped believing that my voice mattered and that I could find it again. That's a challenge. I was not feeling very confident creatively, only, again, defiant in my belief that what this is about is express something honest. Say something honest.

• 20:08Speaker 01

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 20:17Speaker 00

  Behind every chart-topping hit, you know by heart there's an original. Writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Some basement, some bedroom, somebody with headphones on at three in the morning, chasing a thing they couldn't even name yet. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original. Already moving, already shaking things up, already looping that one bar, already off-tempo, on purpose, because on purpose was the point. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first. Not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling. What's yours?

• 21:02Speaker 00

  Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 21:13Speaker 00

  What was your first musical memory?

• 21:15Speaker 03

  Musical memory? Oh, my God.

• 21:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  My dad playing music in our house, that's what I remember. And classics. I remember the classic Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, that kind of stuff. And I fell in love with Bach. And unfortunately, my dad had an idea that I should learn to play the violin at eight years old. Now, he was a violinist. I was not. I had no talent. And unfortunately, he made me try. It didn't work out. So I went on from there to pick up various instruments. I have mid-level chops.

• 22:01Speaker 00

  Right.

• 22:01Speaker 03

  My son has incredible chops. He can play anything. But I don't have that. So, but I have, I don't know, imagination. I can write songs, so.

• 22:12Speaker 00

  So you said for this particular project that it started out first as a music project, then?

• 22:19Speaker 03

  Cathedral you're talking now?

• 22:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, Cathedral.

• 22:21Speaker 03

  I tried this dream. I told the dream to my kids, my son and godson, and they said, well, let's do this. It came out very heavy metal album and a lot of guitars. And we just followed the story, wrote the story out and followed it musically. We're trying that now. Another album coming up next year. Same thing, same idea.

• 22:46Speaker 00

  You're one of the few people I know that not only takes the helm as far as developing your movies, but you also wound up scoring your films as well. Most notably, you probably created the most iconic. Most people think of your Halloween score in terms of what does Halloween sound like? Can you talk about just the process of how you created those three notes on piano and two?

• 23:13Speaker 03

  Halloween. Thirteen years old, my dad gave me a pair of bongos for Christmas. And he said, let me teach you five-four time. Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Halloween. So I took that and sat down at the piano and da, da, da, da, da, da. And that's how it was born.

• 23:35Speaker 00

  So just without thinking, you just chose those two particular notes?

• 23:39Speaker 03

  Yeah. But my dad had to teach me five-four. I didn't know what he was talking about. But that's where it came from.

• 23:46Speaker 00

  Okay, so especially in my world and the sort of the age of sampling and 90s hip-hop. I mean, Ice-T used it, Dr. Dre used it, like a lot of people use that. Were you yourself, like, were you clearing these?

• 24:00Speaker 03

  No, and they owe me money.

• 24:04Speaker 00

  Wait, you've never cleared the?

• 24:05Speaker 03

  No.

• 24:08Speaker 03

  Do you believe that?

• 24:09Speaker 00

  Oh, boy.

• 24:10Speaker 03

  Well, no one asked me.

• 24:11Speaker 00

  Okay. Yeah, it, look, it was a gold rush Wild Wild West period in the early 90s.

• 24:16Speaker 03

  It was, and there wasn't a lot of permission asking about it. It was about a lot of doing and a lot of stealing going on. And I just sat there like a dummy. But, you know, what am I gonna do?

• 24:28Speaker 00

  Okay, I'll change the subject.

• 24:31Speaker 03

  It's okay. We can continue to talk about that if you want.

• 24:34Speaker 00

  No, no, no, I'm good, I'm good. Can you tell me about the Coupe de Ville?

• 24:38Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 24:39Speaker 00

  Your project with Tommy Lee Wallace and Nick?

• 24:42Speaker 03

  Nick Castle.

• 24:43Speaker 00

  Yes, of course.

• 24:43Speaker 03

  Nick Castle is the shape, by the way, in Halloween. He is the original shape, Nick Castle.

• 24:50Speaker 00

  Really?

• 24:50Speaker 03

  And a director, too. He directed Last Starfighter. You might know that movie.

• 24:54Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 24:55Speaker 03

  Well, we started singing together in film school and we made an album. It's not very good, but it's our album. And we still can sing together. And that's what it is. It's a little amateur group. But if you wanna own your own Coupe de Ville album, you can send me money.

• 25:17Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 25:18Speaker 03

  And I'll give you a post office box where the money can come in and we can take care of you.

• 25:25Speaker 00

  Okay, then. All right, the one thing that Jamie Lee did talk about was just the environment of what independent films were compared to the big budget.

• 25:37Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 25:37Speaker 00

  Now, in the music world, I happen to believe that the best thing for any artist is to have limitations in terms of budget.

• 25:48Speaker 03

  You think so? Oh, wow.

• 25:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, cuz I've heard many an artist that, you know, that has become a god and they got that way, you know, making bedroom demos or stuff on subpar equipment.

• 26:02Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  And the second you put them in a very professional studio sound, then it becomes, it's not special anymore. It's not unique. So what is the stress level? That, what is the stress level you feel when you are, you said that, you know, you're dealing with like 150,000 a day. Like when you're writing, do you have to sometimes limit your imagination because you know that you won't be able to afford a particular?

• 26:32Speaker 03

  Don't do it then. Do it later.

• 26:34Speaker 00

  Do you limit yourself when you write the script?

• 26:36Speaker 03

  Nope, nope, nope. Go for it. Just do it. Write it. And then later, when we're budgeting, we can say, well, we may not want that scene or we may change it, you see?

• 26:48Speaker 00

  Have you ever had to lie to a producer because of a shot that you really believed in and that you knew would be very costly?

• 26:55Speaker 03

  Well, no, I was in pretty much in charge of all my movies, except for a couple. So, you know, I was the boss, so I wouldn't have to ask anybody. But I would use my knowledge or my whatever, my instincts to figure out, well, that may be too much for us to try. You know, that may be something we can't do. I remember we were doing Escape from L.A. and I had a surfing scene. And everybody said, oh, that won't be in the final movie. And I said, well, why not? We can do that. So we did. Depends.

• 27:32Speaker 00

  Which film would you say was probably the most stressful to, from soup to nuts, to like get completed in?

• 27:40Speaker 03

  Well, the hardest was The Thing, because we shot, we shot on glaciers up in northern, near the Arctic. So that was rough. It was rough on everybody. And, but every movie's a stressful film. Every movie. And the more, the longer you make movies, the more stress it is. So, anyway, I don't wanna complain. I wanna be happy.

• 28:12Speaker 00

  Well, no, no, no. I mean, you're allowed to complain, but, you know.

• 28:15Speaker 03

  Realistically.

• 28:16Speaker 00

  I need to know these things for?

• 28:18Speaker 03

  No, if you make a, if you make a drama with actors, oh, my God. Because that just complicates everything. You gotta get these people in costume and makeup every morning. You get them on the set and you rehearse. And they may have, they have a little issue with you. I don't wanna come in that door. I wanna come in this door over here, get in.

• 28:41Speaker 00

  You give them agency to?

• 28:43Speaker 03

  No.

• 28:44Speaker 00

  Offer their?

• 28:44Speaker 03

  No, no, no, I don't.

• 28:45Speaker 00

  I was like?

• 28:46Speaker 03

  No, no, no. But I'm just telling you, sometimes, and some.

• 28:50Speaker 00

  But have you had a situation where someone might give you unsolicited two cents, like?

• 28:55Speaker 03

  Sure, I have.

• 28:56Speaker 00

  How do you Jedi mind-trick them out of it?

• 28:58Speaker 03

  I don't Jedi mind-trick them. I'm really hard on them.

• 29:02Speaker 00

  Okay, so they know?

• 29:04Speaker 03

  You direct it. Go ahead, right now. You direct it. I'm doing my movie. And you just, I just stop it.

• 29:12Speaker 00

  Okay. What, uh, I'll use the word cheap right now, but what cheap filmmaking tool do you?

• 29:18Speaker 03

  Cheap, I love cheap.

• 29:19Speaker 00

  Well, what do you, what cheap filmmaking tool do you most admire in terms of like thinking quick on your feet to make something happen?

• 29:28Speaker 03

  I admire the, one thing that Steven Spielberg does that I really admire is he understands how to, how to compose master shots so that you don't have to do a lot of closeups. It's unbelievable. I wish I had his talent at doing that.

• 29:48Speaker 00

  In terms of like aerial shots?

• 29:50Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, just if you have two or three people talking, he has a way of, you do the whole scene and you'll watch it because it's just really well done. That's something that's cheap because you're done. Hey, hey, let's move on.

• 30:04Speaker 00

  I'm familiar with the story, but can you tell the story of, of the William Shatner mask, like how that came to be?

• 30:11Speaker 03

  William Shatner.

• 30:13Speaker 00

  Was it the William Shatner mask?

• 30:15Speaker 03

  Sure, of course it was. Uh, we, we didn't know what we're gonna do with this Michael Myers character, so Tommy Lee Wallace, my, uh, art director, went down to Burt Wheeler's Magic Shop, right up the street from us here, and bought two masks, clown mask and a Shatner mask. But he painted the Shatner mask and he, and he screwed around with the hair.

• 30:38Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 30:39Speaker 03

  And, uh, he said, which one do we lie? Well, there's no question. So the Shatner mask is eerie, it looks like a ghost of some sort.

• 30:46Speaker 00

  Did Shatner eventually find out that?

• 30:48Speaker 03

  Oh yeah, he knows. What, you know?

• 30:50Speaker 00

  What was his reaction?

• 30:51Speaker 03

  I have no clue.

• 30:52Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 30:54Speaker 03

  I met Shatner, I went up to him in Orlando at a convention. He said, Mr. Shatner, I'm John Carpenter. And he was looking at his phone and did not look up, did not look up at me. It said, pleasure, and just kept going. And I thought, you know what, F you, pal.

• 31:11Speaker 00

  No.

• 31:12Speaker 03

  Yes, I'm telling you the truth.

• 31:14Speaker 00

  That is your, it's so to this day.

• 31:17Speaker 03

  Forget it.

• 31:18Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 31:18Speaker 03

  I don't care what you think. Why did I tell that story? It's a terrible story. Shatner's a wonderful human being.

• 31:25Speaker 00

  There you go.

• 31:26Speaker 03

  See, there you go. I'm gonna be a Hollywood about this.

• 31:29Speaker 00

  All right, so when you get a budget, what was your greatest extravagance? Well, you spoke of the thing, which I think is.

• 31:36Speaker 03

  They made, that was 15 million at the time, but I've.

• 31:40Speaker 00

  Was it scary to have that much?

• 31:42Speaker 03

  No, it's not scary. No, you just have more tools. You don't suddenly get a magic carpet or a red carpet that you walk in on. You don't get driven to the set in a limo. It's not like that. It's the same, except you have more tools at your disposal, more time. Filmmaking is time, a lot of it is. How much time do I have in this scene? Can I get this scene done in one day? Five days? A week? Some movies take almost a year to make, you know, and you just imagine the, of that movie that Russell Crowe made, uh, Gladiator.

• 32:22Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 32:23Speaker 03

  Almost a year. And that was huge. And to do that is, uh, I don't have the patience for it anymore.

• 32:33Speaker 00

  I was gonna say, if, if presented with, I mean, I'm not saying Lawrence of Arabia style or size, but if presented with that, would you wanna handle that sort of, would you see that as a headache or a burden?

• 32:46Speaker 03

  Headache, big headache, I would get somebody I trust and say, you direct it, you know?

• 32:52Speaker 00

  All right, so what is it about those big budget epic films that would sort of give you pause?

• 33:01Speaker 03

  If you have a line in the script, a famous, the Russian army comes over the hill.

• 33:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:07Speaker 03

  Well, you have to get the Russian army out there and bring them over the hill. And that is insane to do, you know? And if you have a script filled with that, it's horrifying. I wanna get back to your documentaries now. What's the new one you're gonna make? What are you thinking?

• 33:25Speaker 00

  My HBO Earth, Wind & Fire film comes out in July.

• 33:30Speaker 03

  You've done that, I wanna know in the future.

• 33:32Speaker 00

  I technically cannot say what the next project is.

• 33:36Speaker 03

  Yes, you can.

• 33:37Speaker 00

  No, I can't.

• 33:38Speaker 03

  I know you can.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  I've signed many in India.

• 33:40Speaker 03

  You can tell me.

• 33:41Speaker 00

  I'll tell you off, uh, off camera.

• 33:43Speaker 03

  No, no, tell me now, I won't tell anybody.

• 33:45Speaker 00

  This next one will be a four parter.

• 33:48Speaker 03

  Oh, great.

• 33:49Speaker 00

  And it's going to take a study into 40 years of music. The evolution of music told within a four decade. Well, okay, so the way that I see music, what I don't wanna do is, I don't wanna be the grumpy person that my dad wound up being. So my dad buys.

• 34:10Speaker 03

  Why was he grumpy?

• 34:12Speaker 00

  There's a Stevie Wonder record, okay, do you know what a departure album is?

• 34:16Speaker 03

  A departure album?

• 34:17Speaker 00

  A departure album, okay. So when someone makes an epic album or an epic statement, and sometimes the, the, the fear or the pressure of following up seeps in.

• 34:28Speaker 03

  Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure.

• 34:29Speaker 00

  Subconsciously, they'll make the art record or the classic, like they'll make the album that they're not known for, kind of as a way to, you know, I'll quit before you fire me. Probably the best example, the very first departure album was Sergeant Pepper's. We're tired of being, we're tired of being the Beatles, so let's do a bunch of Tin Pan Alley show tunes, and then it backfires and becomes more successful.

• 34:52Speaker 03

  Tin Pan Alley show tunes. Tin Pan Alley show, are you kidding me?

• 34:56Speaker 00

  What do you think the benefit for Mr. Kite or, or when I'm 64 is?

• 35:01Speaker 03

  Drugs, dude. You weren't alive at that time, you don't know.

• 35:06Speaker 00

  Well, it was three years before I was born.

• 35:08Speaker 03

  Get out of here, I'm Tin Pan Alley, get out of here.

• 35:11Speaker 00

  Do you not hear Tin Pan Alley insider when I'm 64?

• 35:14Speaker 03

  No, no, nope, I don't hear that.

• 35:18Speaker 00

  So that's just LSD talking?

• 35:20Speaker 03

  Well, partially, or marijuana, there are other drugs that they started taking, experimenting.

• 35:26Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 35:27Speaker 03

  Tin Pan Alley. Can't believe you said that.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  Well, damn, you're just knocking my jingo to the floor all over the place.

• 35:34Speaker 03

  But no, you're, but you make something and it gets awards. I make something, it gets damned, so, you know, what am I talking about?

• 35:40Speaker 00

  You have a, a can in your house, I mean, a can, a can acknowledges you.

• 35:45Speaker 03

  That, yeah.

• 35:46Speaker 00

  Yes, that's nothing to scoff at.

• 35:48Speaker 03

  That was neat, that was neat.

• 35:49Speaker 00

  Well, the whole point was that Stevie Wonder made, uh, an art record after Songs in the Key of Life.

• 35:54Speaker 03

  Which was the art record?

• 35:56Speaker 00

  It's called Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants.

• 35:58Speaker 03

  Now, I know about that, yeah.

• 36:00Speaker 00

  It's, for me, as a nine year old, I thought was brilliant because I'd never had a dark side of the moon, uh, experience with music where you put headphones on and you imagine, you see things or whatever. I loved it. My dad was like, I don't hear no hits.

• 36:16Speaker 03

  I see, I see.

• 36:17Speaker 00

  And he decided, I'm no longer buying records, so he just stopped. He went from a bin shopper and then he just.

• 36:23Speaker 03

  I see.

• 36:24Speaker 00

  So I don't wanna be that person. And oftentimes, even though music is plentiful, the cost of finding good quality art, at least the kind that satisfies me, is a dawning task. And at my age, I mean, I'm in my mid 50s right now.

• 36:41Speaker 03

  Child.

• 36:42Speaker 00

  I'm, yes, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to hang on. Like, well, how do you feel right now, especially with how easy it is? Like, this phone is the same film capabilities of the first Star Wars movie. Like, how do you feel right now with the digital revolution for young filmmakers? Or, or it doesn't dismay you that anyone can pick up a camera or?

• 37:04Speaker 03

  It's all tools, adjust a tool. It's, depends on whether you have talent. And that's something you can't buy or learn, you have it or you don't. It's like an actor. You know, you could, you can train to be an actor, but believe me, those actors are unique human beings and they are born with this and they bring it. And it's really impossible to not talk about how talented they are.

• 37:41Speaker 05

  Hey, it's Niall Rogers, host of Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series. I'm driving across the country, meeting some of today's most fascinating artists. We're exploring the stories before the moment that changed everything. This week, I'm joined by breakout singer-songwriter Alex Warren.

• 38:01Speaker 06

  To this day, Ordinary would not have done anything and I would have not been able to put it out if, uh, if Book Talk didn't back it up and if my wife and her friend didn't back it up.

• 38:10Speaker 05

  Amazing.

• 38:10Speaker 06

  Pretty crazy how like, just one thing.

• 38:13Speaker 05

  Right.

• 38:13Speaker 06

  I mean, you, you, I bet you, we could point to nine different things in our careers where it's just one thing, all of a sudden, if that one thing didn't happen, then I wouldn't be here.

• 38:20Speaker 05

  What you're talking about right now is what I've been talking about since the beginning of my career. There's these things outside of you that make everything happen. These other forces somehow came into contact with each other and helped propel you to this place.

• 38:38Speaker 06

  It's just insane.

• 38:39Speaker 05

  Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 38:48Speaker 00

  Behind every chart topping hit, you know by heart there's an original. Writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Some basement, some bedroom, somebody with headphones on at three in the morning chasing a thing they couldn't even name yet. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original. Already moving, already shaking things up, already looping that one bar, already off tempo, on purpose, because on purpose was the point. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first. Not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling. What's yours?

• 39:33Speaker 00

  Behind every original, live in Levi's.

• 39:42Speaker 00

  You're also notable for kind of bringing to light a lot of the actors that are the standard now. Like, what was it about Kurt Russell or Jamie Lee or any of the actors that you've worked with that weren't household names then in terms of you choosing them?

• 40:00Speaker 03

  Kurt and I did a TV movie called Elvis, and he played Elvis.

• 40:06Speaker 00

  When was this done?

• 40:06Speaker 03

  Seventy-eight.

• 40:08Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 40:08Speaker 03

  He was brilliant in it, and I thought, my God, I want to work with this guy. He knows how to act in another key, in another gear. And Jamie Lee was just absolutely perfect for the role and exuberant and wonderful. And then we cast her.

• 40:27Speaker 00

  Was there lineage as far as horror film?

• 40:30Speaker 03

  Of course, you know, Psycho, yes, sir, absolutely.

• 40:34Speaker 00

  So you had that in mind with Halloween?

• 40:35Speaker 03

  Didn't have it in mind really, but I thought, oh, it's not gonna hurt us, you know?

• 40:39Speaker 00

  Got you. Are there any guerrilla tactics that you've done that I'm not aware of in terms of like shooting? When you're doing independent, especially in the early days, like, did you have to follow the rules as far as?

• 40:53Speaker 03

  Well, we can shoot without permits, and that's about as guerrilla as you can get.

• 40:58Speaker 00

  But would people come up and actually verify, like, can you shoot here? They would just assume that?

• 41:02Speaker 03

  Yes, hell, yes. Police will come and shut you down. It depends on how big a deal you make of it, you know?

• 41:09Speaker 00

  Okay. Would you have to figure out ways to talk them out of it?

• 41:13Speaker 03

  You know it, dude, you know it.

• 41:15Speaker 00

  Did you tell me once?

• 41:17Speaker 03

  I'm not gonna tell you, no, not gonna.

• 41:20Speaker 00

  Even in retrospect?

• 41:21Speaker 03

  I cannot share some of these things.

• 41:24Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 41:24Speaker 03

  But, yes, I have been in a situation where I had to talk myself out of it. And, but you need the shot. We need to, we need to get this shot here in traffic. I'm sorry, we have to shut down Wilshire Boulevard. Ready? Uh-oh, here comes the police. What are you guys doing? You know, that kind of thing. I love this idea of four-parter.

• 41:48Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 41:48Speaker 03

  Footage exists, or do you go out and make it?

• 41:52Speaker 00

  I'll say that seventy percent of my footage is already existing.

• 41:56Speaker 03

  So you can do connecting material?

• 41:59Speaker 00

  Uh, it's connecting material. However, you know, as I said, I use what my subject is to attract people. But my, my sub-story will be the real, kind of what I feel the real story is. And in this particular case, you know, for music, at least for contemporary music, I felt like nineteen ninety-seven was really kind of the first year of a very, very slow and you blink and you might miss it decline.

• 42:29Speaker 03

  Decline of what?

• 42:30Speaker 00

  I, I hear myself saying this, and I don't want to sound elitist while saying it, because all of this is subjective.

• 42:36Speaker 03

  Decline of what?

• 42:38Speaker 00

  Well, I, I'm the, I'm the person that still believes that art and music in particular is a cathartic tool for emotions, as, as far as like-

• 42:50Speaker 03

  Of course it is, dude, you're right.

• 42:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, but, you know, trying to convince people. But starting in ninety-seven is where, what's led us to kind of where we are now.

• 43:03Speaker 03

  I don't know where we are now.

• 43:04Speaker 00

  Well, that's the point. It became a cash grab. And here's the thing.

• 43:09Speaker 03

  Cash grab, huh?

• 43:10Speaker 00

  I'm just as guilty, I mean, I'm just as guilty of the crimes that I'm pointing out in other people. So I'm trying to make a study of how music was once used as a tool for joy and expression, again, of, of a cathartic level. And now we've kind of lost that.

• 43:33Speaker 03

  You know, let me give you an example of Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the most famous composers.

• 43:40Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 43:41Speaker 03

  What he did was he would travel around Europe and play in various churches and cathedrals, play the organs, and he would write a piece for that organ. That's where his music comes from. It comes from a duty. It doesn't come from an inspiration from God. It comes because the church said, we want you to do this. So it, great art can come from anything. It does not have to be an inspiration from above. It can be anything. It can be a movie that you're assigned to. It can be a music that you're assigned to. Doesn't matter. It does not matter.

• 44:26Speaker 03

  He wrote some of the greatest pieces of music to test out organs. Come on now. Come on now, that's amazing.

• 44:36Speaker 00

  Where does the source come from?

• 44:37Speaker 03

  Inside of him, his talent.

• 44:39Speaker 00

  But that's the point. Like, when I talk about metaphysics and that, I'm talking about in terms of what's inside of it.

• 44:46Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 44:46Speaker 00

  Right, but I still feel that that's an energy source.

• 44:49Speaker 03

  But now, what you said, it's all sellout now. Is that what you're suggesting, kind of?

• 44:54Speaker 00

  Uh, I-

• 44:56Speaker 03

  Say it, just say it, be bold.

• 44:58Speaker 00

  No, I'm not.

• 45:01Speaker 00

  No, I don't believe it's sellout. However, I do believe that we are in creative diminished returns.

• 45:06Speaker 03

  Ooh.

• 45:07Speaker 00

  And-

• 45:08Speaker 03

  Why? What do you think happened?

• 45:10Speaker 00

  Either that or I've absolutely exhausted entertainment in terms of a soothing mechanism. I mean, okay, are you just as on fire about film or music as you were when you were seven or eight years old in the movie theater?

• 45:30Speaker 03

  No, no, but because I know the plumbing. See, that's the problem. And I didn't know the plumbing, and I was on fire. Wow, look at this. Listen to this.

• 45:40Speaker 00

  So should we discourage people from wanting to look inside the hood?

• 45:44Speaker 03

  But no, no, but sometimes a movie will come along and I'll forget it, the plumbing. It will, it captivate me so much. I'll watch something and it becomes greatness. Now, that's what you're looking for, something that goes beyond the knowledge that you have. Now, you know, I'm seventy-eight, I'm an old dude here. So I've been down the road. Yes, I have. You're the child here, pal, let me just tell you that. But something that gets through that, gets through my knowledge and touches me. Ah, that's great. Don't ask me what I've seen recently.

• 46:26Speaker 00

  I, dude, I, look, when I do interviews, I hate when people like, so who do you like now? Or what have you seen now? However, I will ask you, in the last twenty years.

• 46:36Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 46:37Speaker 00

  Have you been touched?

• 46:38Speaker 03

  Sure, many times, many times. Many times, uh, in odd movies. Uh, the, the last Mad Max movie was fantastic.

• 46:47Speaker 00

  Of course, yes.

• 46:48Speaker 03

  Unbelievable. And what an adventure. And what, the characters are sensational. You know, that, I'm telling you, I can watch that movie over and over again and learn things about it.

• 47:02Speaker 00

  This is what I always wanted to know. Do you call your own films the horror genre? Or I always feel like whenever something gets a tag, like, the music I'm known for, someone tagged it neo-soul, which I kind of, well, I'd say- I received it with an eye roll, but no one likes the genre that they're tagged with. Do you call the genre that you're known for horror?

• 47:25Speaker 03

  Yes, it's horror movies.

• 47:27Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 47:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I love horror movies.

• 47:29Speaker 00

  So in, in the age of it all, or just in the, especially during that time period, were there any other franchises or any other films that came out during that time period that?

• 47:42Speaker 03

  Which time period now, last?

• 47:43Speaker 00

  Well, I mean, I feel, at least of my era, between seventy-eight and eighty-eight, between, somewhere between Halloween and maybe Nightmare on Elm Street and all the stops in between.

• 47:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 47:56Speaker 00

  Well, first of all, did you feel a certain way about the Friday the Thirteenth franchise, basically?

• 48:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm, I'm, I was pissed off, sorry to use that word, yeah, don't steal from me.

• 48:06Speaker 00

  I would have been too.

• 48:07Speaker 03

  Don't steal from me.

• 48:08Speaker 00

  Right.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  But, but, you know, it's about money.

• 48:12Speaker 00

  Have they ever, has the franchise ever come to you to say, hey, why don't you?

• 48:16Speaker 03

  No more than Dr. Dre came to me about Halloween, stealing from-

• 48:20Speaker 00

  We don't know that, anyway.

• 48:21Speaker 03

  I do know that, I do know, he stole. He's a thief, thief.

• 48:27Speaker 00

  What is the magic of the horror film? Like, what is your goal? Like, when I complete a record, I'm imagining someone like receiving it. I have these visions in my head. For you, though, is the idea of a child running to his parents' bedroom to get under the cover? Maybe I'm self-admitting too much. Running for cover, is that the vision in your head that you want?

• 48:49Speaker 03

  We're all scared when we're little, we're born scared.

• 48:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:53Speaker 03

  We come out and somebody whacks our butt, we start crying. And sometimes we go through bumpy rides to get, be alive. So it can be a terrifying world to a child. It's a big old dangerous world, and I want to recreate that for everybody and scare the poop out of you. That's what my job is.

• 49:17Speaker 00

  In your mind, what do you consider success is?

• 49:21Speaker 03

  Well, the, the scariest movie of all time is The Exorcist. Oh, my God. What happened to that little girl? Come on now. You didn't want to walk down that hallway and open that door to see what happened, what was going on in that room. Scary stuff. Let's get back to you. I don't want to talk about me anymore.

• 49:42Speaker 00

  You're too legendary. Well, wait, answer my, at least answer my question.

• 49:45Speaker 03

  Which question?

• 49:45Speaker 00

  What does success mean to you?

• 49:48Speaker 03

  Money, money in the bank, basketball on television, and, but success is the Warriors win one more championship, I hope, but they're not gonna, I don't think.

• 49:59Speaker 00

  How many more do you need them to win?

• 50:03Speaker 03

  As many as they can.

• 50:05Speaker 00

  Got you.

• 50:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. Success to me is having a fun life. I want to have a happy life now. I've worked really hard in the past. I got where I wanted to be. I had to live my dream being a movie director. You know, I want to have a good time.

• 50:20Speaker 00

  So if feedback from cathedral is satisfactory, will you continue the line?

• 50:25Speaker 03

  Sure, I'll continue the line even if it isn't. I mean, I'll keep making music. I'll keep doing stuff.

• 50:30Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 50:31Speaker 03

  I can't stop creating. My dad turned to me once and said, create. Doesn't matter what. Write, direct, make music, whatever it is, create something. That was starting me on my little journey.

• 50:44Speaker 00

  That's what I definitely want to know. What do you do in the first like half hour of your day? Like, when does your creative process start?

• 50:51Speaker 03

  The first part of my day is playing a video game and just kind of getting my brain going.

• 50:58Speaker 00

  So you use video games as a way to exercise?

• 51:00Speaker 03

  And remember things.

• 51:02Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 51:02Speaker 03

  Because one's memory begins to play tricks on you when you get old. You'll find it out one day.

• 51:08Speaker 00

  Well, I'm in my New York Times crossword phase now.

• 51:11Speaker 03

  Are you really? Oh, wow.

• 51:12Speaker 00

  I'm a word old.

• 51:14Speaker 03

  Oh, that's really cool. That's hard. That's hard. Oh, hell no. Oh, no, it's too hard for me.

• 51:19Speaker 00

  Nah, you can do it.

• 51:21Speaker 03

  I could, huh?

• 51:21Speaker 00

  You could.

• 51:22Speaker 03

  Well.

• 51:23Speaker 00

  And you're a writer.

• 51:24Speaker 03

  Uh huh.

• 51:25Speaker 00

  Well, you know, I highly recommend it.

• 51:28Speaker 03

  All right.

• 51:28Speaker 00

  So do you start your process in the morning as far as like?

• 51:32Speaker 03

  Coffee, man. Come on, slow. Let's get up and see what the day is like.

• 51:37Speaker 00

  So when do you let work seep in?

• 51:39Speaker 03

  Well, it depends on if I have a job, something to do. If I don't, hopefully I don't. I can just put my feet back. That's what I want to do.

• 51:48Speaker 00

  All right. So my final question to you.

• 51:50Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 51:50Speaker 00

  What do you, well, it's actually two. Number one, what are your?

• 51:55Speaker 03

  Wait a minute, you just shoved another question in there?

• 51:57Speaker 00

  I just figured I'd.

• 51:58Speaker 03

  You said it was the last question.

• 52:00Speaker 00

  I changed my mind. I got two.

• 52:03Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 52:04Speaker 00

  Of your canon, what are your three favorite films of your canon? What three films mean the most to you?

• 52:09Speaker 03

  Halloween, The Thing, and They Live.

• 52:12Speaker 00

  Okay. Which one?

• 52:13Speaker 03

  I just made that up today. I don't know. You know, it'll change.

• 52:16Speaker 00

  All right. So each of your films is your favorite?

• 52:18Speaker 03

  It's fine. It's all good.

• 52:20Speaker 00

  Okay. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Making hit movies or the people that you helped start?

• 52:28Speaker 03

  That has nothing to do with it. I mean, I don't.

• 52:30Speaker 00

  You're not taking credit for starting these careers?

• 52:32Speaker 03

  No, hell no. They would have done it anyway.

• 52:36Speaker 00

  So you don't believe in the idea of self congratulatory flowers?

• 52:40Speaker 03

  No, hell no. My biggest deal is my son. You know, I created a great kid there. He's talented, smart.

• 52:48Speaker 00

  I'll take that.

• 52:49Speaker 03

  You'll take it. You'll take it. I say, thank you.

• 52:51Speaker 00

  That's a beautiful way to.

• 52:52Speaker 03

  Thank you so much.

• 52:55Speaker 00

  Is there anything else that you want to ask me?

• 52:57Speaker 03

  Yes, a bunch of things, but you won't answer me. You won't tell me what your project is. You won't tell me.

• 53:02Speaker 00

  I cannot name it. If I want to do this project, I still can't do it. Is there anything else you want to know?

• 53:07Speaker 03

  Not a thing.

• 53:08Speaker 00

  Well, thank you, John Carpenter. I appreciate it. Thank you.

• 53:12Speaker 03

  Fun deal.

• 53:17Speaker 00

  Questlove Show is hosted by me, Amir Questlove Thompson. The executive producers are Sean G., Brian Calhoun, and me. Produced by Brittany Benjamin and Jacob Payne. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown. Edited by Alex Conroy. iHeart video support by Mark Canton. Logos, graphics, and animation by Nick Alois. Additional support by Lance Coleman. Special thanks to Kathy Braun. Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandell. Please subscribe, rate, review, and share The Questlove Show wherever you stream your podcasts. Make sure you

• 54:01Speaker 00

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  Behind every chart topping hit, you know by heart there's an original, writing it someplace where nobody was listening. Behind the culture that marks a generation, there's an original, already moving, already shaking things up. Behind every night that changed the room, somebody had to walk in first, not knowing it would land, but doing it anyway. Originals are out there, living stories worth telling. What's yours? Behind every original, live in Levi's.

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