Latest / Movie Meltdown / 263: Pleased to Meet John Doe

Transcript

263: Pleased to Meet John Doe · Movie Meltdown

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hey there, this is John Doe, and this is Movie Meltdown.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Very glad to have you along. We have lots of
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: exciting things to talk about tonight.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: 96 tears through 24 hours Sex once every hour.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: The following feature has been rated R by the Motion
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: and parental discretion is advised. It's showtime, folks.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: Enjoy the show.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Our nuclear reactor, pumping out one million kilowatts of power.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: I'm Brian and this week I'm bringing you a special
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: episode with a special guest co-host.
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: This week we have the legendary John Doe sitting in
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: with us. Yes, John Doe of X, one of the
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: most influential punk bands ever, really. But in addition to that,
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: as I'm sure many of you know, has become quite
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: an actor over the years and has turned up in
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: a lot of projects. Now, John is here in my hometown,
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: oddly enough, and he is here because we just had
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: the premiere of the independent film Pleased to Meet Me,
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: which is a movie they shot here in Louisville about
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: a year or more ago, and it's Odd and interesting
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: that it happened here and weird to have a movie
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: shot in your own backyard and actually technically right outside
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: my front door. But we'll get to that later. So, yes,
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: he was here in support of that film. But I
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: thought while he was here, I would take that chance
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: to sit down with him and sort of get a
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: feel for. where he comes from and how he got
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: into the business, both music and movies. And then we'll
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: get to Please Meet Me. And in addition, we'll actually
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: have the writer and director of the film sit in
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: with us at the end there and give us a
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: little more information on the specifics of that film. But first,
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: we're going to focus on John. So let's head over
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: there now and meet John Doe. Alright, well we are
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: here in the middle of the sealed back bar, hanging
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: out with none other than Mr. John Doe.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Hey man.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: Thank you for joining us. It, I guess, puts me
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: in a weird spot. The movie that we're going to
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: be discussing as we get into this, Pleased to Meet Me,
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: the running joke in it is, she gives the normal,
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: you know, how did you get into this, what were
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: you interested in, which is usually kind of where I start.
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: So I guess now, am I referencing the film when
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: I start, you know, throwing that out there, but I
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: think it is kind of interesting to go back and
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: look at people when they were kids and see sort
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: of where it comes from. It comes off kind of
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: cliche in the movie, but it's funny that I think
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: everybody sort of brings something different to it if you
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: go back that far. So I guess if we go back,
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: was it Illinois you were from?
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I was born in Illinois, but only stayed there in Decatur,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I think maybe six months, and then went to Tennessee, Kingsport,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: which is the Bristol... Knoxville, Kingsport, Tri-City area.
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: And I lived there for about four years and then
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: moved to Wisconsin for three. And then ended up in
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Baltimore for most of my childhood from third grade up
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: through part of college.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: It's a good mixture of locations there.
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: You know, it helps with the accents if I ever
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: have to say, oh, geez, you know. It's cold outside,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: don't you know?
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: And then down to Tennessee.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: And then I can say, well, no, I can't believe
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: that you would just say something like that, which helped
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: in the Jerry Lee movie. Definitely. It comes a little naturally. But, yeah,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've lived in California now for over half
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: my life. I get my AAA card, and it says, remember, Ferb.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: 38 years. Holy fuck. What? I did what? When did
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: that happen? It's good. I love California. California is still
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the land of dreams. California is epic. It's mythical and
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: it's wide open even though some people would like to
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: say that it's a liberal police state. It goes in
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: between that. All the Gun owners are pissed off because
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: they've just outlawed lead bullets. I don't know. I don't
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: have a gun.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: Just use titanium or something.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: That's okay. Who knows? Just the hollow point bullets that
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: split into a million. I don't know. I love California.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I live north of San Francisco. Definitely.
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: Well, and coming back to the kid thing, is it
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: something you were an artistic kid? Did you... early on
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: had that sort of inclination or is it something you
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: came to later?
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I always liked to sing. My mom sang. She sang
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: opera in college and by example she taught me how
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to sing and my dad played classical piano even though
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: he was a librarian by trade. And so, yeah, it
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: was artistic. You know, we didn't shoot guns. And, you know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I think I rubbed off. They were thoughtful and caring.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: And even though, like most middle-class parents, they laid their
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: own baggage of, oh, you don't talk about that sort
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: of stuff. We just didn't talk about it. I am
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: a child of the 50s. And 60s.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: It was a very different era.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, people forget that. But it's cool. I mean, yeah,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I love to sing. And they encouraged that. They had
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: art books and stuff like that.
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: Well, that's what I was going to say. Was it
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: singing first? Or I know you kind of started off
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: doing writing and poetry. Was that something that set in
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: that early? Or did that come later?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: No, that was later.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Later?
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was trying to write songs. And I
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: had quit school. I went to George Washington University for
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: about a year, for a year. And then I quit
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: for a couple and realized that I was not writing
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: to the level that the people I admired were, you know,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: like Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan or the band were
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the people that I loved then, still do like them.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: And so I went back to school at Antioch. But
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: it was in Baltimore. It was kind of a branch school.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: version of Antioch. And I was able to take some
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: classes at the Maryland Institute of Art. Friends of mine were,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: you know, I met people and another friend of mine
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: went to school there as artists. It was a great community.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: John Waters was around. I was just thinking.
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: I was trying to do the math as to what
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: he was into at that point. He was probably doing
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: his early experimental stuff at that point.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Well, no, he was fully realized. He was famous.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: Was he already? Okay.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. He had done... He'd done all of his shorts,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: like the Diane Linkletter story and Mondo Trasho and all
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: those things like that. But he had, by that point,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: he'd already done Pink Flamingos. He had done Female Trouble,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: which is probably my favorite, and Desperate Living.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: Desperate Living was right about the time that I left.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But, yeah, I got to hang out with Divine
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and Edie a little bit and hung out with John
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: a little bit. It was a good time because there
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: was no way of capitalizing on your artistic ability or
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: artistic pursuits. So people just did art for the hell
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: Definitely not the way he went about it. He came
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: about it at a point that was almost unmarketable. which
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: in a way is refreshing.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: He was just doing it for art's sake. He was
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: doing it because he thought Baltimore was hilarious, and it
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: still sort of is. Incredibly sarcastic and self-deprecating and stuff
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: You mentioned Divine. What was Divine, hanging out with Divine like?
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: Uh.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: well you know just a couple of parties so i
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: do you know today he at that point he would
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: you know be glenn units be glenn and then he'd
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: be you know just to have a good time and
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and uh... playing pool i remember washington people which was
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: sort of a character but uh... missing for you know
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: they were they were tight they were they were tight
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: good group uh... the other the other person who was
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: more available was uh... Bink Stoll, because she's kind of
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a mixer. And also Mary Vivian Pierce, although she she
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: really never spoke much because she's just so so beautiful
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and and and kind of um icy but uh yeah
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: it was it was great you know it was like
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: having your own um window into what andy warhol might
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: have been like because having a a company of players
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: that John had a collective group right you know and
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: you felt because Andy Warhol was always a you know
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: a hero of mine just his artistic sensibility and and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: recognizing pop art as being different than fine art I
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: like fine art too.
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: But equally as important yeah.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Ish but you you have well I mean it is
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: but you don't you don't take it as seriously.
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: No It doesn't take itself as serious.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: Well, then I guess, at what point did music get involved?
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, you always had that inclination, but at what
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: point did you start pursuing it in some way?
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: When I was about 15, 14, which was the... I mean,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I had listened to my brother's records. I have an
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: older brother. Listened to his records in the 60s.
• 11:12
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Was really blown away by the velvet underground and, um,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Joan Baez was one of my favorites. And, um, but
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: when I was coming into like just post puberty, that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: was the beginning of psychedelic music. So the doors and
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Janice Joplin, probably my favorites.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Um, I like Jimi Hendrix a lot and I got
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to see them. Um, you got to see them live
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: a few times and, It was amazing. So that was
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the point at which I was thinking, well, this looks
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: like a good job. Maybe I'll learn to play bass
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: because bass seems easier.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: And it is.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Bass is definitely easier than guitar. Are you kidding? Of
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: course it is. It's hard to be a good bass
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: player because you've got to be simple. Guitarist players don't
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: make good bass players, but bass players can make adequate
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: sort of guitar players.
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: If they're really, I mean, listen, that's, that's one of
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: those things. Like it was almost not till after he died,
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: but now going back and listening to the who. He's
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: playing the most complicated stuff in the song.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, John Entwistle.
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God. I couldn't play that if you put
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: a gun to my head.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: Pete gets all the attention because he's jumping around, but
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: he was playing so much amazing.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Even on My Generation. Yeah.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: And he said that. Later, he was like, I was
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: covering for Pete because he wasn't kind of holding his
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: own on the rhythm, so I had to hold down.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Both ends of it. I was a musician first, and
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: then I went back to school because they had a
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: writing program. to learn how to write better and be
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: truer and be more economical. I had a couple of
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: great teachers, and they encouraged us just to read new things,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: things that were in a language that we understood and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: beat poets and forward. So, yeah.
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: Do you feel that the schooling end of it works
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: better versus somebody just starting out in the garage? I mean,
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: it's obviously a different way to go about it, but it's.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: You know, I think yes to both. Everyone has their
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: own path. And one time I asked Elliot Smith what
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: kind of poets he read. He goes, I don't read poets,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I just read lyrics. And I thought, well, you're a
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: good lyricist, so I guess it worked for you. It
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: helped me because just deeper, stranger influences rather than just...
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: and it showed me how to tell a story without
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: it being linear just telling a story through whether it's
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Johnny Hit and Run Pauline or something off a last
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: record that I did which is similar to character development
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: in a movie you take certain images you take certain
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: feelings and you put them together and then you create
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a fabrication of some sort.
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: Well then, as you get into the music, is that
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: specifically what led you to L.A.? Was it looking to
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: get into music or find a band or something to
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: that effect?
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, my parents lived in Brooklyn, so I had access
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to a lot of the New York bands. I'd been
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: to CBGB's and Max's Kansas City in 74, 75. I
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: saw Talking Heads and The Heartbreakers and David Johansson was
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: doing a solo. I don't think it was the New
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: York Dolls. And I realized that seeing posters for television
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and Blondie and the Ramones, I realized that New York
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: was really set. I mean, it was already pretty happening.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: And at that point, I just hated the East Coast.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: It was full of ghosts, and I hated the weather.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: It's too hot and sticky in the summer, and it's
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: too fucking cold. I loved L.A. more for the writers
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: than anything else, like Nathaniel West or Jim Thompson or
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Charles Bukowski, Diane Wachowski, and Gary Snyder and all the
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: beat poets that continued, not just Allen Ginsberg. Even though
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Allen Ginsberg was really... inspirational and that whole freedom his
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: literary freedom was just liberating for everybody I don't have
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: to rhyme I'm just going to throw all this shit
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: out there and he was a big supporter of punk
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: rock music and he corresponded a bit so yeah that
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I I went to L.A. more for, to be part,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I knew there was something happening in music. It wasn't
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: happening in L.A. at the time. This was the end
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: of 76. Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: They really didn't have that kind of scene yet. It
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: really was sort of before that. You know, New York
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: had it, but L.A.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Really, it was before that. Well, New York started it all.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: And then it went to England and then it came
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: back and started in San Francisco and there were good
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: bands out there. And we were very fortunate that there
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't there weren't record companies snooping around and, but I
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: was more, uh, inspired by the wide openness, the, the,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the actual Vista and light that there was in LA. Um,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: David Hockney was getting pretty popular then. And, uh, yeah, this, uh,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: you know, it's still, like I say, mythical and, and it's,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I love the movies, and I didn't have any intention
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: of getting into the movie business, but through a few
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: different people and having some kind of a name in music,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: then I was able to parlay that into getting a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: few parts. And Alison Anders would be the person I'd
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: lay the most blame on for inviting me into the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: movie business.
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: Well, it is interesting to hear that you still had that,
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: you felt that allure to go to L.A., which now,
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: I mean, people are so hardened to it and there's
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: so many horror stories that come with it that it's,
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: that's sort of refreshing that somebody still had that going
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: into it and still seem to have that now. That's
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: kind of cool.
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. At that point, you know, Hollywood was in decline.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: The Hollywood sign, actually the O, the second O of Hollywood, no,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: maybe it was the first O. The first cell of
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Hollywood in the Hollywood sign had actually fallen down. And
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: there were visible holes, even from the flatlands, in the
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: rest of the sign. So it was like a, this
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: is a Tennessee Williams, you know.
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: It's literally a decaying system right there in front of you.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Exactly. So that was, I mean, but Hollywood Boulevard, even today,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: is still really fucked up. It's a really fucked up place.
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: It's what it's supposed to be, isn't it?
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: It is, but I mean, Times Square isn't. Times Square
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: is all cleaned up. It's true. I think they just
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: don't want to clean it.
• 18:36
  Speaker 7: It's like a ball. Yeah, that's true.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: Well, then I guess as you find the band and
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: you start getting together, I mean, it is a very
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: different sound. You guys put together something that was wholly
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: your own. Was that something you could tell at the time,
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: or is it only now, kind of in retrospect, you
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: see the difference?
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: But it's just.
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: One of those listening to that, and even everything else
• 18:59
  Speaker 5: that was going on at the time, it's very different.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Um, I, we had a sense that it was different. Yeah.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: We knew that other people weren't as, um, good a
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: player as Billy was.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: And DJ and I had played in a number of bands.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: So at least we had a little more technical, um, ability.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe Robert Quine from, uh, Richard Hell's band, uh, played
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: similar to Billy, not quite as fast and flashy, but, uh,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: At that point, everybody tried to carve out their own sound.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: You know, talking about the New York bands, Blondie and
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the Ramones and Talking Heads all sounded very different from
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: each other. And there was in LA there were the
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Screamers and the Germs Weirdos and us and we all
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: had and Fear and the Go-Go's and we all had
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: a little bit different sound and back then even Tom
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Petty was considered a little bit punk rock because he
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: wasn't just playing the game and he didn't sound like
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the Eagles or Linda Ronstadt or something.
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: It's funny now how much it's sort of become this
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: cookie cutter thing and everybody wants it to fit into
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: this little... But I guess when you're in the middle
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: of the scene and you're sort of creating it, it's
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: very different and it doesn't have that 20, 30 years
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: of people putting together greatest hits albums to sort of
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: define what they think it is.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:32
  Speaker 7: I don't know.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Punk rock, I think, has become more.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Of what it was designed to be, which is for
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: younger people.
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: And even though the sound may not be as eclectic,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: but it may be. I'm not in on the inside.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: But now it's a lot of bands for a cheap price,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and they're early 20-somethings or 18 to 20-somethings, and they're
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: going down there, and it's freedom, and that's what it
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: was designed for, and that's cool. I can, you know.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I can give Green Day that kind of credit because
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I think they really did bring it to a bigger audience.
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: Sort of rebooted it and brought it to that new generation.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: And, you know, Billy Joe, I think, would cop to
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: the fact that if Joe Strummer wasn't around, he wouldn't
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: have his singing style. And if the... You know, they
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: learned their lessons. They learned them well and they have grand...
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: They had enough... foresight and and ambition to put together
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: that american idiot so this is a they've almost pretty
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: pretty amazing almost.
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: Graduated out of the system as well like now they're
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: so huge they're doing broadway musicals and now there's some
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: other kid that's taken over.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: So totally well it's it's it's more of a there
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: there are two different types of punk rock now yeah
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: there's an on there's the underground scene which is which
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: is very healthy you know there'll be four five hundred
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: kids that go to a a Some place. Some designed.
• 22:05
  Speaker 7: Concrete structure somewhere that nobody knows about.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Where they can do very little damage. And just damage
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: to themselves.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: Which is fine.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Which is just fine.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: As long as everybody's willing.
• 22:15
  Speaker 7: Exactly.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: And then there's, you know, the more popular and... Yeah.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: Definitely.
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: Mainstream. Or stuff that record companies have latched onto and
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: found a way to market now. Well, then, as you said,
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: you were sort of lured out of the music industry
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: and towards the movie scene. So I guess, is it
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: something you were comfortable with, that idea? I mean, you
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: said they were offering these things just because you were recognizable,
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: but was it something you.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: No, I pursued it, and I still will do auditions
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: now and then. If it's something that seems worth auditioning for. Yeah.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: But Allison Anders is still a friend, and we worked
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: together on three different projects. Border Radio was the first,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: and then we did a movie called Sugartown, which was
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: really a statement or a representation of what it's like
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: being in L.A. and being in the entertainment business. And
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: then the last thing we did was called Ring of Fire,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: where Jewel played June Carter. And I got to play A.P. Carter,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: kind of the godfather of country music, part of the
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: original Carter family and stuff. Yeah, I took it seriously.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: It was an opportunity, and I took it really seriously.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I still do, whenever I have the chance.
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, that's what I was going to ask.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: Because especially, even now, you kind of mentioned this the
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: other night when you were talking about the movie, that there's...
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: there's a use of bringing in a musician almost as
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: like a stunt casting kind of thing that like, especially
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: in a movie that features a lot of the music
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: or works in the music. And so was it something
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: you felt like you had to prove yourself to, to
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: sort of overcome that you weren't just there because you
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: were named that you actually were going to bring something
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: to the acting role? Is it something you felt people,
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: you know, you needed to prove yourself to them?
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Cause I didn't want to make an ass of myself.
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Like, Most people would rather not. Sometimes. Yeah, you never know.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I think you have to, you can't
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: be cavalier about, and I see that sometimes, and it
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: makes me mad that someone thinks that they're just there
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: to be a pretty face, which obviously I wasn't brought
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: in for, but some people will just take that, oh, just,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: you know, come in and like, I'll figure it out, man.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and i did some classes i did some improv and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: i did some some uh... scene study and things like
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: that but that was only after i got in a
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: couple of jobs was working with harry dean stanton on
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: this movie called slam dance and uh... a kentuckian we
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: have been i know there's a lexington festival there's a.
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: Harry now lucy we will not matter she's on.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: The local and i was yeah i was working in
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: in a movie and i realized holy shit i'm getting
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: left in the dust This guy is acting circles around me,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and I don't even know what the fuck he's doing.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: So I think I'm going to go find out.
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: And he still does now in his 80s. I know.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go find out.
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: Definitely.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go figure out what... So I did
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: a little bit. You can always do more, but... I
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: was going to hit a couple individual ones.
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: That's definitely... It was an odd one, even at the time.
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: People didn't know what to do with Slamdance. And then
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: since then, it's sort of found its own little pocket
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: of people that really appreciate it.
• 25:47
  Speaker 7: But I don't know.
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: What was it like?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: It was hard. It was really difficult because it seemed
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: like they were telling several different stories at the same time.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: And the director, Wayne Wang, was very specific and I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: think sometimes got lost in the technique of his filmmaking.
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: And the DP had his ear a little bit too
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: strongly because they would do a lot of tricky shots
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: through broken glass, through broken mirrors and, and, you know,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: very ambitious. And I'm, I have no problem with that.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: But, um, there was one scene towards the end where
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I had just killed somebody and was supposed to be
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: reacting to that, but I couldn't move more than like
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: a quarter of an inch either way, or I went
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: out of focus or it was, they were shooting through
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: this broken mirror and it's like, holy fuck, can I
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: just try to figure out how to, how to be
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: in this place at this time? It's like, oh no, no, no. Like, no,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: you have to do it again because you were like,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh my God, that was hard. But, and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the Tom Hulse and Mary Elizabeth Mastro Antonio's was very
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: separate from what Harry Dean and I were doing, which
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: was all the cop stuff. We got to hang out
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: with some LAPD detectives and that was fun and, I mean,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I'm fairly, I don't mind saying I'm a little bit
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: mercenary about movies. I want to get paid. I want
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: to get paid whatever I can squeeze.
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: Out of them.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: It's part of the system. You know, but I mean,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I can do, I can starve on my own. I
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: can starve in music, no problem. But I also want
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to do some things that are interesting and I want
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: to hang out with interesting people. And so in that way,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: it's a little mercenary. I'm not, defining myself as, uh,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: like what my work, you know, in quotes work is.
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: Well, it's finding, especially those directors that you have to
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: find that balance of, you want it to be artistic,
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: but it still needs to be functional as a story and,
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: and to be able to work with your actors, which
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: some of them don't really want to do.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I guess I've been, I've been pretty fortunate working with,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: with good people. Um, Ula Grossbard was certainly one of my,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: one of my favorites, uh, Georgia. Yeah. Yeah. Because he
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: really allowed you and helped you to believe in yourself
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: without ever feeling like he was blowing smoke up your ass.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: That's a movie you're just immersed in the performances. It's
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: almost all right there.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Jennifer Jason Leigh was so amazing in that. And I
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: could not believe that some fairly well-known and respected critics
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: were saying, oh my God, I can't even sit through
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: that five-minute Van Morrison song. she doesn't sing that well.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: And I was like, that's the whole point is that
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: she's not her sister.
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: But the fact that the, the, in that scene, Jennifer
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Jason Lee was, you could see her entire life, past,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: present and future.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: In that one performance. And it was like, I felt
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: so fortunate to be able to watch that and see her.
• 29:02
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Deliver like that. So that's amazing.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: Well, then I guess, cinematically, 180 degrees, Roadhouse.
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Talk about getting paid, brother.
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: That's a huge following now. It's one of those, again,
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: it took it a while, but now.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: It's amazing how many people... Oh, yeah.
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: They love that now. So I guess I had to
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: at least hit on it. I guess, did you... I mean,
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: was that one of those they came to you because
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: they knew who you were?
• 29:30
  Speaker 7: Or did you go.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: No, I went and auditioned. and the point at which
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: I had to fake getting my nose broken and screamed
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: and like a like a little teenager and put my
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: hand over my face the guy Rowdy Harrington the director
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: said yep that's the guy but it was so much
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: fun hanging out with Terry Funk and the wrestler and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Patrick Swayze was totally one of the boys and And, yeah,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of testosterone on that. I would
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: just step back and let all the cocks of the
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: walk literally parade around.
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: There was a lot of fight scenes. I mean, how
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: much coordination and planning.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, luckily I didn't have to do a whole lot
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: of the stunt stuff. There was a whole team of
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: stunt people. And, again, Patrick Swayze was right in there.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: He did all of his shit.
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: He was hardcore on that stuff. Yeah.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: He was pretty great. The guy, his main nemesis was
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: an ex-Navy SEAL. Was he? And he had some of that,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you know, ex-Navy SEAL from Vietnam.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: Oh, God.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: And had some of that, like, scary, dark Vietnam juju
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: still going on. You see it in his eyes. Yeah.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: No shit. He was the real business.
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: He really could take down anybody in that room.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: That's crazy.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they kept going over budget, so we were
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: all hired on for maybe six or seven weeks, and
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: we ended up working 10 or 12 weeks, and it
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: was like, it's awesome. Yeah, definitely. Keep calling me into work, baby.
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: As long as you don't end up actually getting your
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: nose broken.
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: In that movie, I guess you never know.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: There was a, yeah, actually one of the stunt, the
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: guys that doubled me falling off the balcony broke his
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: ankle in several places because he over-rotated. And didn't land
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: on the boxes that were supposed to break his fall. Yeah,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: it was weird seeing this guy who's dressed like you
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: and has a wig on like you and a mustache
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: like you screaming in pain as they take him on
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: a stretcher off the set.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: Thank God that's not me.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, thank God. I'm so glad I didn't. Because, you know,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: your ego starts kicking in and you start thinking, well,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: maybe I could do this and then... think now i
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: can't do that i can do mails but i didn't
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: know i had no interest and and there was a
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: sub coordinator on that uh... charlie passerni who was pretty
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: famous uh... did i think he did bunch of smoking
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: the bandit stuff and and he said they don't pay
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: you to do shit don't do it just don't no
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: one's gonna take any less of you you're there to
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: act And that's why they hired you.
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: Well, those guys, that's their job.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: You don't have to prove anything. Yeah, give somebody else
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: their paycheck. Don't take their paycheck. And I thought, cool,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I'll do that. I did have a stunt where I
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: got stabbed with a knife that was in the chest
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: before that balcony falling off thing. And they hooked up
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: a wire under a piece of wood, which was over
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: a big plastic... chest plate thing and then they then
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: they had this this knife that had a a barrel
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: like a piece of um tubing uh welded to the
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: to the top of the knife but then it was
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: stuck inside this wire that had a bunch of gun
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: bluing on it so it would disappear and then they
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: had this guy they had this guy who was like
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: 15 25 feet away from me just winging this knife
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: on a wire, like straight the fuck at me. It
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: was a real fucking knife coming at your chest. You
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: were like, ha, ha, ha. Mother.
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: Please don't mess this up. Please don't mess this up.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: No, it was going into a spot that was all
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: padded out. That's cool. But it was thunk. It's like,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: no problem. I can react.
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: Oh, God. Ow.
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: Just relieved that it's got that padding.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed. Roadhouse was fun. It was real fun.
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: I guess getting one that works in a good amount
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: of music, not necessarily with you, but I was a
• 33:47
  Speaker 5: huge Great Balls of Fire fan. I think it hit
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: right at that point where I was discovering Jerry Lee
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: and I became a huge Jerry Lee fan. So was
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: that one of those you had been a fan of
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: him coming in?
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: That was after the fact that we had a show
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: when X had become popular enough to play the Universal
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Amphitheater in L.A., which is 5,000 to 6,000, 7,000 people,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: and it was our show. We sold a bunch of tickets,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: and it was 85, 84, probably 84. And we put
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the bill was the Minutemen and Jerry Lee Lewis and X.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: And we had to pay Jerry Lee like 10 grand.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Which is a lot.
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: To tell people Jerry Lee opened for you?
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: No.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: No, no, no. It wasn't something to be proud of.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: It wasn't, you know, I... Yeah, it wasn't a bragging right.
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: Just to be able to play the same venue.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: To play with him, number one. And also to put
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: this eclectic, cool build together. The Minutemen, Jerry Lee, and X.
• 34:55
  Speaker 7: That's crazy.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: And it totally worked. Jerry Lee had a great band.
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: He can hold his own with anybody.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 35:03
  Speaker 7: He's amazing.
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: And.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: But the musicianship with Jimmy Vaughn and Mojo and Dennis
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Quaid and myself, I mean, everybody really played music. And
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: we jammed at Sun Records prior to try to put
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: the band together. Because at first, Dennis wanted to sing
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: and play.
• 35:28
  Speaker 7: He wanted to do all of it.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: He wanted to do it all. But he clearly didn't
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: have the vocal range, which nobody has, that Jerry Lee did. So,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: or does. But especially Jerry Lee from that period. And
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: that was a total pinch me moment.
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Because we're just hanging out, getting drunk at Sun Studios,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: playing Jerry Lee songs. It's like, and there's no cameras.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: We're just there, you know, we just showed up four
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: or five days prior to shooting to try to put
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the band together, try to meet each other and try
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: to get some sort of relationship going. And we're, But
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: we're doing it. It's at Sun Records. We're at the place.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: We're living this. So that was pretty cool.
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: So, I mean, that was a lot of those biopics
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: they don't make until after the person's gone. But, I mean,
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: that one, he was, is still around.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: So, it's like, how.
• 36:21
  Speaker 5: Involved was he as far as when you guys were shooting?
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: He was there. Was he?
• 36:25
  Speaker 5: Was he there a lot of the time?
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And the fact that it was based on Myra's book,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: his ex-wife.
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: I always thought that was weird, too.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: It was totally weird.
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: Because I read the book, and she's got some weird
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: stories that don't necessarily make it in the movie. Reasons
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: that she... ended up being okay getting into that relationship
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: and why she was such a damaged person anyway to
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: coming into that situation so.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah he put a few wrenches in the in
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: the works yeah and and jerry lee pays for for
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: his genius yeah he's a he's a pretty can be
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: a pretty dark um person and and he Did carry
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: a Derringer in the back of his suitcase, and he
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: did shoot a couple of drummers.
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: He did shoot at least.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: He did shoot a couple of drummers.
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: He shot somebody in.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: A bar at some point. For slowing down.
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: Just for, they all got drunk, and he decided it'd
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: be funny. He didn't even kill him. It's just a
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: bar story now. Like, remember that time I shot you?
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I didn't know how intimidating was that, trying
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: to recreate his life while he's actually standing there. Can
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: you do it justice?
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: The first time that I met him, he mentioned the
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: fact that he played with us, and I was sweating
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: bullets because it could go either way. And he goes, yeah,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: I remember that time that I played with y'all in
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles. You all did a version of Breathless, I remember.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: You all did a great version of that. I was like, oh,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: thank you, Jesus. I will go back to church. And
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: then I said, I think it was Dennis Quaid said,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: you know, Jerry, this is the guy who's going to
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: play J.W. Brown. nico cox's head back dennis had a
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: had him down i was at all this is so
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: cartoony i don't know if he's he's actually playing it
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: down in a minute and you've been around jerry lee's
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: just as uh... crazy is that burris wild not crazy
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: is just as wild as.
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: That if flamboyant at times very much a showman even
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: offstage totally and um.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: anybody cox's head back jw brown jw brown's a fucking
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: asshole oh boy you guys you might make a good
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: jw brown and it's like did you just call me
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: a fucking asshole i'm not but you're jerry lee so
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: okay guess.
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: What it's not you're jerry lee you can.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Do whatever you want but he and you know he
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: and jw had a long you know married history uh
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: you know he was his manager jw was his manager
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: for a little while and he was his bass player
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: and You know, whatever.
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: It was great.
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: Family things happened.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: It was great. And Winona Ryder was just, you know,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: so sweet and then became a convicted felon. And I thought,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: this is awesome. I'm not a convicted felon.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: Between the two of you.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Who would have thought?
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: You're badass.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: You're badass.
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that was right at that point with her.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: No, she was 16. She was 16 at that point.
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: But just that whole point in her career, looking back,
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: she owned that decade. She honed some of the best.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Teenage performances ever. She's a great actor. Onward, and I
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: think that we have not seen the last of... Miss
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Winona Ryder.
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: She's still turning up and I hope she gets that
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: second wind and starts delivering those performances.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: She's pretty damn, I can remember moments during that shooting
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: where her emotions were so on the surface and so
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: available to her that I was just as jealous as
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: could be because it was transparent and beautiful and soulful
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: and Damn.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Look at you.
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: You needed that. I mean, in that movie, it's like
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: you've got, you know, you've got to have something. And
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: someone so likable to balance out, Jerry Lee's doing some
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: questionable things and being very ridiculous at times.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: And you needed that heart. And that movie was, the
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: reason I think people didn't respond to that movie as
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: much as they could have is because they wanted to
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: see Jerry Lee the killer.
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: You know, because that article, whether it's right or wrong,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: had just come out in Rolling Stone.
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: About a mysterious death of one of his wives. And
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: they want to see Jerry Lee the killer, the mean motherfucker.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: And at that point, Jerry Lee was like a big kid.
• 40:58
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: And bless his heart.
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: And still probably continues to be.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: He has a lot of turmoil.
• 41:09
  Speaker 6: I've been the whole world over ¶ A lot of
• 41:14
  Speaker 6: places I have seen ¶ ¶ I've met a million.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: People ¶ ¶ But.
• 41:20
  Speaker 6: Still nobody knows old Jerry Lee ¶ ¶ Yeah, I've
• 41:25
  Speaker 6: been a lot of everything, folks ¶ ¶ From good
• 41:28
  Speaker 6: to bad to what you see ¶ ¶ But I'm
• 41:32
  Speaker 6: here to tell the world ¶ ¶ Nobody knows old
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: Jerry Lee ¶ Yeah, I've known a thousand women, but
• 41:44
  Speaker 6: not one took time for me. From Maine to California,
• 41:51
  Speaker 6: they only wanted what they could see. Why can't there
• 41:56
  Speaker 6: be somebody somewhere who just wants.
• 42:00
  Speaker 8: The heart in me?
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: But I'm here to tell the world nobody knows old
• 42:07
  Speaker 6: Jerry Lee.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: Good evening.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: It's intermission time. Our service is friendly and quick. You'll
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: find hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, your favorite candies, hot and
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: cold beverages, and other delicious snacks. So add to your
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: fun of watching the movie. Visit our refreshment stand right now.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: We're glad to have you with us tonight. We hope
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: you'll come to see us often. It's great to get
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: out to the movies. Rock and roll high school, the
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: school where the students rule. The new principal hates the students,
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: but the kids take over and rock the roof off
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: the school.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: Tweet Audio, your source for high performance.
• 42:56
  Speaker 8: Noise reducing earbuds.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: Available in three styles and seven colors.
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: Durable and designed to sound great for both music and
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: those chatty podcasts, like the one you're listening to now.
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: Tweaked Audio earbuds come with a one-year warranty, and now
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: there's a special deal for Movie Meltdown listeners. Just go
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: to tweakedaudio.com, and when you check out, enter the discount
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: code MELTDOWN. Then you'll get 33% off and free shipping.
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: Tweaked Audio. Sounds better.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's the repeater from Tower of Technobabble, and
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: we're getting ready to do our next show, and I
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: thought it might be cool for you to look behind
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: the scenes and see how the magic happens.
• 44:00
  Speaker 8: In fact, Conduit is getting Towerbot ready.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Right now, as we speak. That. Religions.
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: Needed.
• 44:23
  Speaker 6: Science.
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: Got it.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Sci-fi. Do you mean sci-fi? Space probes.
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: Got it.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Sports. Screw that.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: Star Wars.
• 44:28
  Speaker 7: Got it. Star Wars prequels. Oh God, no. Superman.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Got it.
• 44:31
  Speaker 7: Transformers.
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: Got it.
• 44:32
  Speaker 7: Troll Hunter.
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: Got it.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Twilight. That.
• 44:34
  Speaker 8: UFOs.
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: Got it.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Urban legends.
• 44:35
  Speaker 7: That's weird tales.
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: Got it.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: Weirdos.
• 44:37
  Speaker 6: Got it.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Tune in at www.toweroftechnobattle.com and see what happens.
• 44:46
  Speaker 6: We was hitchhiking down a long and lonesome road.
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: All of a sudden, there shined a shiny demon.
• 44:58
  Speaker 7: In the middle of the road.
• 45:02
  Speaker 8: And he said.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is KG of Tenacious D, and you're listening
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: to Movie Meltdown with Brian.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: It's part of your problem, you know, you haven't seen
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: enough movies All of life's riddles are answered in the movies.
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: And now, on with the show.
• 45:53
  Speaker 8: My smokestack stuck up in the sky I worked this
• 46:02
  Speaker 8: job until the day I died Never had kids, lost my.
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: Wife All.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: I got left is this damn motorcycle.
• 46:25
  Speaker 8: Well, then.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: I guess the.
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: Only other one I specifically, and I've actually watched it recently,
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: I went back and was watching roadside profits and that's, that's,
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: almost such a signature movie for you at that point
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: i don't know how was how did you get involved
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: in that and was it something that.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Uh abby wool who had co-written uh sid and nancy
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: with alex cox got an idea from this other guy
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: david swenson about doing a road movie and his his
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: idea of it was very loose and very you know
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: just a maybe a paragraph of this is what's going
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: to happen Then she wrote the whole script, and then
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: she took it to, I guess it was New Line
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: at that point.
• 47:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think so.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: Before it broke up into Fine Line.
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: Before everything merged and got taken over.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It wasn't merger. It was more like separating.
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: They were all kind of doing it. That's when Touchstone
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: came up. They all started fracturing.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Fine Line broke off from New Line. At any rate,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: she went into some meeting and said they liked the script,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: and they were giving it a go. green light and
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: she said oh and i'd like to direct and they
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: said sure wow she went holy shit i've never directed
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: anything and i mean and then she got all of
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: her the people that had they that had gone to
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: like film school together yeah uh tom richmond who's a
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: terrific he and i worked on salvador he's a cameraman
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: and dp and was uh tom richmond was uh what's
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: his name Bob Richardson's second camera guy on Salvador and
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: then there were several other people they had all gone
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: to school together and it was that is one movie
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: I wish I could do again because I was in
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: a really bad place my parents had just died I
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: was literally the first day that we started I was
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: finishing a tour of Meet John Doe which was a
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: grueling heavy drinking God two-month tour, and I was flying
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: back and forth from the last five tour dates to
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: learn better how to ride a motorcycle to begin the
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: filming of this. And I guess they had offered it
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: to Frederick Forrest. He was the chef in Apocalypse Now. Okay.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: His guy said, it's a fucking tiger. Don't get off
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: the boat. It's a fucking tiger. That guy. And he
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: sort of wanted to do it, but he couldn't. And
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: then they had also offered it to Max Perlick, and
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: he couldn't do it. And so Adam Horowitz could, and
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I could. And then we just did it. But I
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: had no time to really focus and get prepared for it.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: But it was still really fun. It was such... Abbey
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Wall was.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: Totally generous and said, let's do it again. If you
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: want to do another take, let's do another take. And, and, um,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: John Cusack is hilarious in that. And, and, you know,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: I got to meet Tim, Timothy Leary and, and, uh, um,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: there's a, there were a number of people that have,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: that have since surfaced.
• 49:59
  Speaker 5: So I was going to say, um, uh, what's his name?
• 50:02
  Speaker 5: Don Cheadle. I was, was the guy in the diner.
• 50:05
  Speaker 5: He has like two lines and it took, you see
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: him from the side. Like I didn't recognize him for
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: a second. I'm like, he's like a teenager. Like, yeah,
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: that was, I was just like all the people that
• 50:15
  Speaker 5: kept turning up in it. But that one, I was
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: just like, nobody knew who that guy was then.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: And they, they, I think they bit off a little
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: more than they, than we could chew because they tried
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: to make some social commentary in addition to, to being
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: just a road, a road movie and a buddy movie.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: But Adam and I had an amazing time, and I
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: still miss him.
• 50:36
  Speaker 5: How far away removed is he from his character?
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, he's so much cooler than that character. He really
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: dug deep to find his inner Jerry Lewis. A little dorky. Yeah, no,
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: he's very far from that. He's totally, he's Ad-Rock. Yeah.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: Ad-Rock is much more of his real personality.
• 50:59
  Speaker 5: Interesting. But I don't know. I think, I think some
• 51:02
  Speaker 5: of it, again, I don't even know if the politics
• 51:05
  Speaker 5: or the, it's almost more philosophy that comes into it
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: as you watch it. Like, I don't know that it,
• 51:11
  Speaker 5: some of it does hold up, but it's more interesting now. Again,
• 51:14
  Speaker 5: it's weird that it's been so long because now you
• 51:16
  Speaker 5: look back and there's such a, there is such a
• 51:19
  Speaker 5: nineties vibe that like you, you don't think there should
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: be one for it yet, but there is a very
• 51:23
  Speaker 5: like feeling of like everything that was going on in
• 51:26
  Speaker 5: the world and everything that everybody's worried about is like,
• 51:29
  Speaker 5: ingrained in every scene, and it really does speak to
• 51:32
  Speaker 5: that time period.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, did I mention the first day we started shooting
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: is my second daughter was born that day. One more
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: thing to throw away. And I tried to start the motorcycle,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: and I completely missed the whole cycle, and I blew
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: my knee out.
• 51:46
  Speaker 5: That was the first day.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: That was the very first day, where they were coming
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: out of the factory, and they had gotten a location
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: for some power plant down in in El Segundo or
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: who knows where. It was a great experience, though. Really
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: terrific experience.
• 52:05
  Speaker 5: I think it's interesting looking at it now, yeah.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: I'll have to watch it again. Maybe I'll watch it again.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: It has a different vibe now. But I tell you that,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: you know, I did see Border Radio, Alison and Kurt,
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: Alison Anders and Kurt Voss and Dean Lentz's first movie
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: was right after they got out of UCLA Film School.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: It was all that classic... 16 millimeter black and white
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: footage and it looks so beautiful and it's actually a
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: pretty fucking good movie for the first thing that any
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: of us ever did with a bunch of non-actors damn
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: and Allison would call me up and say oh bring
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: that because there would be weeks between shooting between you
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: know shoots when you have to do it that way
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: right and she would say oh bring that blue and
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: white plaid shirt you have and I'd look in my
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: closet and I'm like Well, there's like three of them. Okay,
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: I'll bring this one. And if you look, there's one
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: scene where I'm supposed to go to sleep at night
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: and then wake up with the same shirt. It's a
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: completely different shirt.
• 53:08
  Speaker 5: You got up and changed in the middle of the night. Oh,
• 53:12
  Speaker 5: fuck it. I guess just to get into Pleased to
• 53:16
  Speaker 5: Meet Me, how did you get involved?
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: I was recommended by Joe, Henry's wife. Melanie Ciccone. Yeah.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: And because Dave Henry and Archie wrote the script many
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: different drafts.
• 53:35
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: David came on to sort of polish it up because
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: they thought they could put their money, you know, get
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: the financing together. And they originally wanted Joe to play
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: the part of Pete Jones.
• 53:48
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: And Joe said, no, I can't do that. I won't
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: do that. It's too much. I don't feel prepared or qualified.
• 53:54
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: And then Melanie said, hey, what about John? He's done
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: some stuff. And I don't get that many opportunities, to
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: be honest. I don't really have an agent. I keep
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: meaning to. I'm usually too busy playing music and touring
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So given the opportunity to be
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the main character in a movie is, yeah, definitely. And
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: I liked the story. I liked Archie. I liked the
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: back story to it, this American life part of it.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: And then when Joe was going to be the engineer
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: and Amy, at first we talked about trying to have
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: an actor rather than Amy doing it. And then we
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: did a read-through with Joe and Amy and I, and
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: I realized our relationship, because we know each other, we're
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: not close. We've known each other for a long time,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: and that relationship is deep, and that plays through the
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: whole movie well.
• 55:00
  Speaker 5: It fits their relationship, yeah.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: You can't, people say that you can fake that. People
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: say that you can develop that quickly, and you sort
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: of can, but there's something that is a little deeper.
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: If it's really there, I think that comes through more
• 55:15
  Speaker 5: than anything. Well, then what was your take on shooting here?
• 55:20
  Speaker 5: It's actually shot in Louisville. What was your take on
• 55:23
  Speaker 5: being in this.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: It's good to be out if you're going to play
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: a different person if you're going to play a character
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: it's great to be out of your own environment yeah
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: it's really hard to to be traveling to and from
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: your home to work because yeah i was staying in
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: a in a place in the in uh highland the
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: highlands yeah so i could feel like i was pete
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: jones coming back to to louisville for the hell of
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: it yeah you know because because he had another uh
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: smackdown in his career uh i wish that i could
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: have been a little more um a little less available
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: as as the character but um you have to be
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: true to yourself so yeah yeah yeah that's the way
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: it goes.
• 56:12
  Speaker 5: Well, it was an odd experience for me because I
• 56:16
  Speaker 5: think the first I found out about you guys, maybe
• 56:18
  Speaker 5: I'd heard that they were doing something, but I was
• 56:21
  Speaker 5: standing there. I'm probably opening the door to get the
• 56:23
  Speaker 5: mail or something. I look outside and I'm like, there's
• 56:26
  Speaker 5: some lady standing in front of my house. Is that
• 56:28
  Speaker 5: Amy Mann?
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: And she was.
• 56:31
  Speaker 5: She was on her phone in front of my house.
• 56:33
  Speaker 5: And then there was a car across the street and
• 56:36
  Speaker 5: the door opened up and I'm like, There's John Doe. Huh.
• 56:40
  Speaker 5: So I'm like, why?
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: What are they doing in town?
• 56:42
  Speaker 5: Why are you guys loitering around in my house?
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: What are you doing around my place?
• 56:45
  Speaker 5: You kids get out of the yard.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: You kids get off my lawn. Get out of my.
• 56:50
  Speaker 5: So that's... But it's actually... And then watching it the
• 56:54
  Speaker 5: other day, it's almost surreal because that actually is my street.
• 56:58
  Speaker 5: That whole thing where the story takes place on and
• 57:01
  Speaker 5: where the studio is and where they go to the little...
• 57:04
  Speaker 5: convenience store and all that i'd live on that street
• 57:07
  Speaker 5: so it was very odd it was like surreal watching
• 57:10
  Speaker 5: that movie because i'm like i walk up and down
• 57:12
  Speaker 5: that street every day of my life and i'm like
• 57:14
  Speaker 5: that's so strange watching it in the theater it's very strange.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: I think that i think that the advantage of doing
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: indie movies like this in a place like louisville is
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: that everybody's behind it a lot of people got just
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: experience they didn't get paid And they worked their ass off.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: And what they lacked in experience, they totally made up
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: for in intent and willingness and attention to their job.
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: We did the whole thing in 15 days. I was
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: maybe in.
• 57:53
  Speaker 7: Louisville for 18.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah, and that's the way.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: It's nice when you can take your time and do
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: longer productions like Roadhouse or Great Balls of Fire, but
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: you can tell a simple story in three weeks. Archie
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: and David and Mike Fitzgerald, they were all very organized.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: They weren't so didactic or rigid about how things had
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: to be shot yeah but they didn't have room for
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: experimentation they didn't have room for oh hey since we're
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: here what if we la la la yeah and and
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: that's the way that i love to work in music
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: which is very much the same as you have a
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: you have a song probably all written you have the
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: you have you've casted the the characters the the musicians
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: yeah But you don't know exactly what they're going to play.
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: And maybe you have 20% that's unfinished. 20% of the
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: melody that you have a bunch of different choices. Just
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: sort of let, let shit rip and, and see, see
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: where you go. And, and the same thing with the,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: with scenes, you know, some of the scenes that Loudon
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: and I did, we let rip a whole bunch of
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: stuff that didn't end up in the movie. And it
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: was pretty aggressive. I'm kind of sad that, that some
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: of that wasn't in there.
• 59:21
  Speaker 5: Cause I think that would have, he has some great scenes.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: So, um, and, and I was so impressed with, um,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Katie O'Brien as the drummer, the way that she changed
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: her speech and the way that she spoke too fast
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: because she was nervous, she, to me, was one of
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: the MVPs of it. I mean, of course, Amy, man,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: goes without saying, because she took it very seriously. She
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: knew her line. She knew she had her intent, but
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: she also was willing to play, and she listened, which
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: is the most important thing.
• 59:55
  Speaker 5: Well, and I guess just how did you... approaches I
• 59:58
  Speaker 5: mean again knowing the music industry as much as you
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 5: do and then coming at it sort of from a
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 5: different angle was it was it something that you it
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 5: was a very.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: Similar angle was it and I I like I said
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: before I did try to watch some some other younger
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: contemporary people like Paul Westerberg or or some of the
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: guys from Oasis some people that were a little more
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: cantankerous and, and combative with their public and their, and their, uh,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: interviewers and stuff. Because I think, really, the character I played,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Pete Jones, was, was a little bit more like that. And, uh,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: but I, I wasn't afraid for the first time to
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: rely on, on what I've done. Because, because Pete Jones
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: and myself were very similar. Yeah. Um, not that I
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: came from a small town, or a, you know, smaller town, like, uh, Louisville, but, um, Yeah,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was a little bit of a big
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: fish in a medium pond in L.A. Medium pond meaning
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: like the punk rock world, not the big music world
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: of Bon Jovi or Van Halen or something like that.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 5: You're still hoping to get to those heights, is that
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 5: what you're saying? No.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: I'm so relieved that I don't even have to think
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: about those heights anymore.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 5: No stadiums for you.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: No. Although we played with Pearl Jam, and it's real
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: fun to play big places like that. In the past,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: when I've had to play musicians, like in the George
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: Strait movie and also Georgia, I've had to think like, well,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: who am I going to pattern myself after? Because I
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: don't want to pattern myself after myself. I want to
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: pattern this character after myself. But at this point, I
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: felt like, okay, I'll just draw on all the stuff
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: that I know. Because it's very similar, being either a
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: punk rock icon or an indie music icon.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 5: You come from the same place, it's just a different
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 5: set of specifics, I guess.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 5: Well, do you have anything other than this you need
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 5: to tell people about?
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: Or anything else coming up that you want to put
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: the word out on? I'm doing the best of John Doe.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: It's called This Far. The best of John Doe, This Far.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: Because after my last solo record in 2011... I realized
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: I'd put out more solo records the next put out.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: So through a few people's urging and the willingness of
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: the record company, that's going to be out in May.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: And it's hard to go from 100 songs to 22.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: It's not that easy. So I just kind of picked
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: favorites and picked ones that I thought people requested or
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: were accessible. And I'm going to tour in England and
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: Europe in May with Nick Lowe, which is cool.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: He's smart and fun. And then I'll do a U.S.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: tour in June. And X is always touring. I think
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: we'll probably tour in probably later part of the summer
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: and the fall again.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 5: I think I saw, I think the first time you
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 5: guys got back together in these last, this last run,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 5: I saw that one. I actually saw the, John Doe
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 5: thing when you were with, uh, Julian Hatfield touring.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 5: That was like 95, five, somewhere in there.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah. She's a great show.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: Both of you.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 5: She was, yeah, she was very talented.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: Um, I hope that she continues to, to do stuff, but, uh, yeah,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: you know, working on new stuff with, uh, how Gelb
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: is produced. Uh, we did a session down in Tucson, uh,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: and how's, um, really talented and, and has a, a
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: sound working at, at this studio wave lab, lots of reverb,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: lots of distance, just like the desert. And, um, yeah,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: more records, more movies, hopefully.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 5: Of all the times I've seen you, you've always put
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 5: on a great show. So yeah, I will tell people
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 5: definitely go out there and find you and see you
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 5: wherever you're playing it and whichever incarnation.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: Of you you're with.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 5: So it's, it's, yeah, you do, you do good work. And, uh,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 5: Always good to see you on the screen, too.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: Pleasure.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 5: We'll work for all of that.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 5: Well, thank you. All right. I thought we would round
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 5: things out. A little more information on Pleased to Meet
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 5: Me with the director himself, Mr. Archie Borders. Hey, how's
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 5: it going? told this story a million times now but
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 5: i guess tell people how this came about it's a
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 5: very specific way that it came to you.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 7: So sure uh just the basics are it was originally
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 7: a uh npr story by starley kine called everyone speaks
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 7: elton john we bought the rights and it was about
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 7: john langford from the mecons and starley kine who both
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 7: cameo in the movie um but they put together a
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 7: band uh made up from musicians from the classifieds, and
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 7: the whole concept was let's put them together for one day,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 7: one day only. They've never met. They could never have
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 7: played together before, and we're going to record a song.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 7: In this case, it was, in the radio show's case,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 7: it was Elton John's Rocket Man. And in our movie,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 7: it's not.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 5: I kind of like that story. You were discussing that
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 5: the other night, and that is something that I guess
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 5: we'll throw at a lot of indie fans situations here,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 5: because you guys definitely come from a very independent film
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 5: kind of world and are fighting the fight every day. So,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 5: I mean, you got into that situation that a lot
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 5: of independent films do, where you're like, okay, you want
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 5: to work in music, but then you hit that recognizable thing,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 5: and there's a little bit of a price tag involved
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 5: in that one.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 7: Sure, of course, there is. I mean, you know, the
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 7: decision not to use Milton Johns Rockman was completely financial initially,
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 7: and like all... indie projects when you don't have the
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 7: money you figure out another way to do it and
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 7: in our case it was like okay we don't have
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 7: Rocketman so we still reference the piece we reference Elton
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 7: John but we had Joe Henry and he's got a
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 7: whole library of songs so we went back and we
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 7: found a couple of songs that we really liked of
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 7: Joe's decided which song it was and then we used
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 7: that song to develop a backstory for one of the characters.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 7: And the reason he wrote that song and the reason
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 7: he puts the song in the piece in it, it
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 7: was like, well, we couldn't have done that if we
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 7: stayed with the original concept.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 5: I don't know if I like the song better. It's
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 5: hard to compare things to Elton John. But I really
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 5: like that song, and I think it adds so much
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 5: more to the story. I like that that's where you
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 5: ended up, actually.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it was fun.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 5: I guess, you know, I was asking John what his
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 5: thoughts were in being in Louisville. As far as shooting here,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 5: you've shot a good amount of stuff here. Is it
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 5: something that happens out of convenience or is it something
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 5: that you feel like adds to the stories as you
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 5: set them here?
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 7: Maybe a little of both. I mean, I live here.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 7: I have family here. I've had to work out of
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 7: Louisville a lot just because of the nature of the
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 7: movie business. But overall... Being able to shoot a film
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 7: in your hometown is great because there is a familiarity.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 7: There's a comfort level. You know more people to call
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 7: for things.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: Favors.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 7: Yeah, but it does inform... I like to look at
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 7: the writers from the south, the Flannery O'Connors. I'm certainly
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 7: not comparing myself to them, but they were a product.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 7: Their writings were a product of the place where they were.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: And I think....
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 7: This movie is definitely a product of this you know
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 7: this town and we reference it as much as we
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 7: can and I think it does inform just the.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 5: Feel of the movie definitely yeah I think most places
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 5: that you come from and definitely once you start shooting
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 5: something there it does add to that sort of flavor
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 5: of it and almost the you sort of get a
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 5: vibe of where you are and how it plays with
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 5: the characters.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah, and that adds to the experience. I mean, if you're,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 7: you know, you're making a movie in Kansas City and
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 7: you feel some of the landmarks of that or St.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 7: Louis or, you know, that's the great thing. There's New
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 7: York and L.A. and they're represented in movies beautifully.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 5: And constantly.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and constantly.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 7: But, you know, there's huge chunks of the country where vibrant,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 7: good things are going on and they've always been represented
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 7: in literature and papers and things like that, but Movies
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 7: are a little slower to it, so if we can
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 7: add to that, then fantastic.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 5: Definitely, definitely. I guess, was it a specific thing you felt?
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 5: I mean, you end up having everyone play music, but
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 5: was it something you felt had to have musicians coming
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 5: in to cast in these? You did?
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 7: Yes, this one I did. And nothing against, you know,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 7: a Joaquin Phoenix playing John. You know, that's great. That's
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 7: a terrific performance, but at no time do you go, well,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 7: he's really... In this movie, we wanted to go, is
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 7: it a musician or is it an actor? And we
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 7: were able to kind of blur that line and When
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 7: they pick up a guitar, you've got to believe that
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 7: it's them playing. In this movie, it is these guys
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 7: playing those instruments. There's no faking. I think there's an
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 7: authenticity you can't get from.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 7: One of my favorite films is Amadeus. I think it's
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 7: a brilliant film. But Thomas Hulse, he's playing a few
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 7: of the things, but it's not him doing that stuff.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 7: And you know that on some level. And it's different.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 7: And when you know John Doe's picking up a guitar
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 7: and playing, it's John Doe.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 5: That was a good moment there. Just as he came
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 5: out of the studio and picked up the guitar, I
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 5: was like, okay, here we go. This is what we
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 5: really want to see. We got John on screen. Let's
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 5: do that. Well, then I guess you... I think you've
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 5: even mentioned you worked with young filmmakers. So I guess
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 5: as someone who's worked in the independent film scene for
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 5: years now, what do you want to tell people out
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 5: there that are trying to get into it or that
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 5: have been doing it for years? And I guess is
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 5: there some approach that you have that you could throw
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 5: out there to people?
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 7: I always look at filmmaking, especially in Kentucky, two ways.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 7: One is that you separate the creative from the business.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 7: And the creative is where you go in and you're
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 7: excited about something and you You're passionate about something. You
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 7: want to write about it. And, you know, it's like
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 7: I think you've had Lucy Jones on your show before.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 5: Yes, quite a few times.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 7: Lucy is one of these people who's incredibly informed about movies.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 7: And she knows me. She just gets it. And that's great.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 7: That's your artistic personality. And then you go home and
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 7: you write your script. And you're like, I'm going to
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 7: tell a story. And you're going to tell that story
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 7: with all the... stuff that infuses you, your movie knowledge
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 7: and all that. And that's a wonderful, exciting thing. Then
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 7: there's the business. How do you make that vision come
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 7: to life? And it's budgets and it's scheduling and it's
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 7: this and this and how much money can you realistically raise?
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 7: And if you raise it, is it a responsible use
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 7: of that money? Those are two hats that I never
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 7: used to know how to do. And as an instructor,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 7: I feel like You know, when I grew up, when
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 7: I went to film school, nobody taught you the business
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 7: side of it.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 7: I know the business side of it. I'm doing a
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 7: disservice if my kid comes to me and says, you know,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 7: I'm going to shoot this thing and I want the
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 7: Roman legions coming over the hill. My first thing is,
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 7: how are you going to pay for that?
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 7: And I don't want to stifle that creativity, but you
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 7: really want to do this. Here's the hoops you're going
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 7: to have to jump through to make that. Otherwise, you're
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 7: doing a disservice to that vision. So, you know, it's...
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 7: But it's great.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 5: It's working with your limitations and finding a way to
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 5: be creative within your limitations. You can't afford the.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 4: Elton John song?
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 7: Elton John would love it.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: Didn't happen.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 7: So let's circumvent it and find something else.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 5: Find a way to make it better. I think that's
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 5: what it always seems to be. When you have limitations,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 5: it makes you more creative. Because you watch directors.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 7: That have just.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 5: millions and millions of dollars to blow and sometimes it
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 5: seems like they're just kind of resting on their laurels
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 5: and phoning it in and you don't see a lot
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 5: of creative stuff coming out of them after a while.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 7: Like uh and i'm not making a comment on their
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 7: ability but you know you got a michael bay who
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 7: has 100 millions and a computer cga you have a
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 7: sam fuller who you know did a movie like the
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 7: big red one or something like that don't have much
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 7: money but his battle scenes are I mean, there's a
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 7: story there. You're worried about those guys. You don't need
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 7: the Roman legions coming over the hill. You've got these
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 7: guys on a hill, and are they going to make it?
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 7: It's a lot cheaper to shoot that.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you're worried about their relationships and their story versus
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 5: a million dollars worth of CG that nobody cares about anyway.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 3: Definitely.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 5: Well, I guess tell people where to find it and
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 5: what's the best way to... go looking for it out there.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 7: Well, we, we just finished up our, uh, Kentucky run,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 7: although popular demands looking like we're going to have to
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 7: come back. We're, we're getting a lot of calls from
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 7: please show the movie some more. So we, I think
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 7: we're going to, we're setting that up now. We're also
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 7: going to play Cincinnati, Columbus, Chicago, already played New York
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 7: or that, but the film goes wide, um, on video
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 7: on demand in April from virtual films. Um, And we're
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 7: going to try to cram in as many theatrical screens
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 7: as we can between now and then. Because, you know,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 7: just from a personal standpoint, watching it on the big
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 7: screen is so different than seeing it on your home TV.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 7: It's great, but it's just a difference between being in
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 7: the room and being watching, you know, peeking.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 5: Well, those lines were really blurred. That's what I was
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 5: just telling John. You guys were on my street, you know.
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 5: I'm across the street from where the studio is.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 5: That's great.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 7: I didn't know that.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 7: That's a great area.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 5: So that, like, it was so surreal watching it because
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 5: I'm like, that's where I walk out and get in
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 5: my car on that street every day and I'm watching
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 5: you shoot and I'm like, this is strange.
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 7: You know, it's fun because, you know, I've done three
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 7: movies here, you know, as a writer, director, and I've
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 7: been able to showcase little bits of Louisville now and over,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 7: I'm hoping, before I finally kick it, you know, I've,
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 7: covered my Louisville.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 7: And that kind of goes back to your question about,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 7: you know, does the place where you live, you know,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 7: inform that? And it does, you know. I'm a Highlands
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 7: guy and, you know, that's, that's, that's right there.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: It's great.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 5: But then there's a little technical. I didn't get up
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 5: in the theater and start yelling, that convenience store is
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 5: never open at night.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 7: This is all a lie.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 5: It's bold, man.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 7: This is so bogus. Yeah, no, that was great.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's an interesting... Well.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 7: It's like a cab. There's a big cab scene. Who
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 7: the hell gets in a cab in Louisville?
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 5: Would you stop in front of my house? He stops
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 5: and I'm like, there's my house.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 7: In fact, there's me in a bathroom.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 5: While I was waiting, I was like, am I parked
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 5: over there? it's a different game I was playing than
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 5: everyone else in the theater. But, but yeah, it's, it's,
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 5: it's an interesting, it's an interesting neighborhood and it's, it's
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 5: kind of interesting to watch you guys play with it
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 5: and use it for what? Cause again, there are those
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 5: weird little things. I'm like, that's, Like, making use of
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 5: the situation. It's like, well, they're going this way on
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 5: the street, but it's like everyone else in the world
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 5: doesn't know they're driving the wrong direction.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 7: There's reality, and then there's movie reality.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 5: There's within the... It's like Stripes.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 7: Remember when Stripes.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 7: You go, why is Bill Murray going the wrong way?
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 5: Across the bridge to the airport?
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: Wait, wait.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 5: That's not right at all.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: He's taking the wrong way.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 5: He's just running up the tab now. Exactly. So, yeah,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 5: that's kind of interesting, just knowing, again, as a filmmaker
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 5: and as, like, you get into this you're like well
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 5: no one else knows this like i can use this
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 5: for my story and like you know the people sitting
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 5: in the audience watching at home whenever it's like they're
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 5: not gonna know i how i manipulate the real world
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 5: to make my fictional.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 7: World exactly well they're driving down east washington and the
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 7: scene's four minutes you can drive down east washington in
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 7: 10 seconds it's one it's a long version of it's
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 7: a it's a hyper realized.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 5: Version of east washington Yeah, it's fun.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 7: It's movie realism. It's like Silence of the Lambs. I
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 7: like to teach that movie in my classes where Claire
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 7: East comes down and starts talking to Jack Crawford.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 7: He's like, so, and he basically reads her her resume.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 7: Nobody reads you their resume. That's movie talk. You know,
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 7: I understand you want to do this, this, this, this, this.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, I do.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 7: You know, it's... it works in the film, but it
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 7: doesn't matter. You're watching the movie. You're like, okay, I'm there.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 4: I believe it.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 5: They have their own reality and their own weird little
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 5: cliches that we've almost come to expect. So we do
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 5: kind of like fall right into it and be like, oh, okay,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 5: well now I know where the story's going.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 5: We use it as like a shorthand to be like,
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 5: let's move the story along.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 3: Exactly. Exactly.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 5: It is interesting, but yeah. Alright, so did we throw
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 5: out the website or is there anything else to go
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 5: look for?
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 7: PleasedToMeetMeMovie.com and here's the other thing. We're a low budget film.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 7: It's not a huge budget and it's super important. I
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 7: love superhero movies as I said but I don't want
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 7: to just see superhero movies and we're seeing less and
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 7: less indie films in the theaters these days. If people
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 7: want to support filmmaking and I'm talking about anything you
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 7: know Seek them out, rent them, download them. That's how
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 7: we make our money. That's how we get to make
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 7: more movies. And, you know, so, yeah, go to the website.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 7: Follow the film on Facebook. Follow the film on Twitter.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 7: Do all those things. But support them. And not just mine, but,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 7: you know, everybody else. There's so many good little films
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 7: out there that are trying for distribution. We're beating the odds.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 7: I mean, we got a nice deal. We're thrilled for that.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 7: There's 144 movies at Sundance every year. Five or six
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 7: get a big deal. What the hell happens to the
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 7: rest of them?
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 5: Seek those films out. There's more people making films now
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 5: than ever. It's all the indie world. They're making less
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 5: and less of the big budget stuff. It's everybody else
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 5: that's just picking up a camera and making their own films.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 7: So don't complain about only seeing superhero films because if
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 7: you're not watching other films, then you're part of the problem.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 5: You have to seek out what you want to find.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, again.
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 5: Well, thank you for talking to us. Thanks for bringing
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 5: John in here.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 7: Absolutely. We will look for more stuff from you.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: In the future.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 7: All right.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 5: That about rounds it out this week. I do want
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 5: to say once again, thank you to Archie for coming
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 5: in at the end there to not only tell us
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 5: about pleased to meet me, but also independent filmmaking in general.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 5: I also wanted to give a big thanks to Michael Fitzer,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 5: who was mentioned briefly in there, but he's not only
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 5: the cinematographer on the film, but has actually been an
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 5: instrumental part in putting this episode together. We've been talking
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 5: about putting this together for about a year or more now,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 5: and Michael stuck with me every step of the way,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 5: so I do want to say a big thanks to
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 5: him for helping put this episode together. And of course,
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 5: thank you to John Doe for coming on and giving
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 5: us not only his take on being brought into the
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 5: film world, but also his amazing stories about getting started
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 5: in music and his early days in Los Angeles. And
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 5: like I said, go support John in everything he does.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 5: He's great to see live, and look for him in
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 5: the movies as well. In particular, look for him in
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 5: Pleased to Meet Me. So now, for the man who
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 5: still seems to have a love for the mythical lure
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 5: of Los Angeles, as well as its gritty reality, I
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 5: thought we'd go out with this one. Otherwise, that about
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 5: does it. We will return next week. Same geek time,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 5: same geek feed. Thanks for listening.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: All the toys were.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 8: Round and black and the boys had two.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: She's got a head of a nigger and two. Every
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: Mexican they gave her a lot of shit. Every homo.
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: I know the deadline. Oh, it's a risk. But the
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 2: day is changing night. Changing is done. But it's changing night.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 8: She found it hard to say goodbye to her own
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 8: best friend.
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 2: She bought a clock on Hollywood for the money that
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: she loved. It felt sad. It felt sad.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: It felt sad.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: Here we are, not in the Rathskeller.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: No Al Capone's escape hatch in Louisville, Kentucky. 2014.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 5: There's nothing in his secret vaults, by the way.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 5: As we found out, some of us ruined our careers
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 5: with it.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: Yes. Good old Jerry Rivers.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 5: Had a problem with that.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 4: This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 4: edited by The Oddity Studios, with opening music performed by
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 4: The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or support
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 4: the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 7: Talk hard!