Latest / DISGRACELAND / Special Episode: Reggie Watts and the Artists You Want to Hear in Disgraceland
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. Alright guys, cutting
- 0:09Speaker 1: into the Mellotron here to hit you with a special
- 0:12Speaker 1: episode of Disgraceland. It is that time of the year.
- 0:15Speaker 1: The season is changing. Summer is nearly over. Fall is
- 0:18Speaker 1: creeping up on us. And that all means that we've
- 0:21Speaker 1: got a new season of Disgraceland coming your way with
- 0:25Speaker 1: a ton of new episodes. Many of them on artists
- 0:28Speaker 1: you've recommended. So I'm Jake Brennan, and this is a
- 0:34Speaker 1: special preview episode of Disgraceland. All right, guys, welcome in.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Last time I did one of these previews for all
- 0:52Speaker 1: of you, it was back in the spring, right before
- 0:55Speaker 1: we launched our partnership with Exactly Right Media. Back then,
- 1:01Speaker 1: I wasn't only stoked about the new team we here
- 1:04Speaker 1: at Double Elvis were combining forces with. I was also excited,
- 1:08Speaker 1: of course, about the new batch of stories that we
- 1:11Speaker 1: were bringing you. Our story specifically on Patti Smith. I
- 1:14Speaker 1: remember being very excited about that. And our story on
- 1:17Speaker 1: Sonic Youth. And of course, our story on Foo Fighters. Now,
- 1:22Speaker 1: that Foo Fighters episode, it was different than most anything
- 1:25Speaker 1: that we ever attempted here in Disgraceland before. I didn't
- 1:30Speaker 1: plan on it being that way. It just kind of
- 1:33Speaker 1: happened that way. And if I think back to what
- 1:37Speaker 1: made me decide to tell that story, I can't really
- 1:42Speaker 1: remember the decision process. That story is a lot different,
- 1:45Speaker 1: the Foo Fighters story that we did, than the Patti
- 1:48Speaker 1: Smith episode or the Sonic Youth episode that I mentioned.
- 1:52Speaker 1: Those stories, Sonic Youth, Patti Smith, they're standard Disgraceland, meaning
- 1:57Speaker 1: In them, we take a look at the musician's story
- 1:59Speaker 1: through the lens of true crime. The Patti Smith episode
- 2:03Speaker 1: is about the ways in which Patti as an artist
- 2:05Speaker 1: was informed by her obsession, which is true crime, and
- 2:10Speaker 1: the way that the true crimes that she encountered growing
- 2:13Speaker 1: up affected her first, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, then the
- 2:16Speaker 1: Manson murders, and eventually the Son of Sam killings. The
- 2:20Speaker 1: Sonic Youth story is about how a savage true crime
- 2:23Speaker 1: from the early 60s influenced the artwork for their greatest
- 2:27Speaker 1: album's cover, a fact that the band wasn't even aware
- 2:32Speaker 1: of at the time that the record came out. And
- 2:34Speaker 1: that was really interesting to me. Of course, I'm talking
- 2:37Speaker 1: about here, the true crime that I'm talking about here
- 2:40Speaker 1: related to the Sonic Youth album cover is the Moores
- 2:42Speaker 1: murders and the band's history. We get into that as
- 2:46Speaker 1: well in the Sonic Youth story as it pertains at
- 2:49Speaker 1: least to this album in question, Goo. Now that Foo
- 2:52Speaker 1: Fighters episode was different. It was the first episode after
- 2:56Speaker 1: 200 Disgraceland episodes, many of which, and the majority of
- 3:01Speaker 1: which I should say I've written myself. It was the
- 3:03Speaker 1: first one where I went into the story with the
- 3:06Speaker 1: goal of answering a question that I honestly did not
- 3:10Speaker 1: know the answer to before I began researching. And that
- 3:13Speaker 1: question was, how did Taylor Hawkins die? Most of the
- 3:17Speaker 1: time we tell these stories, like I think back to
- 3:20Speaker 1: even the first episode of Disgraceland, the Jerry Lee Lewis episode,
- 3:24Speaker 1: I knew, I knew what was, I knew what the,
- 3:27Speaker 1: what the story was, you know? And I think back
- 3:30Speaker 1: to when I did that series dead and gone with pain,
- 3:33Speaker 1: Lindsay from up and vanished, that was a completely different
- 3:36Speaker 1: experience because we had no idea where that story was
- 3:40Speaker 1: taking us. Now that was over, I can't even remember
- 3:43Speaker 1: eight episodes or something. It turned into two seasons and
- 3:47Speaker 1: it wasn't really truly adjudicated at the end. You can
- 3:50Speaker 1: pretty much, you know, figure out who you think's guilty.
- 3:55Speaker 1: This one, though, again, the Foo Fighters story, I really
- 3:58Speaker 1: was just shocked as a fan. I was just shocked
- 4:02Speaker 1: that we still don't have an official cause of death
- 4:05Speaker 1: for Taylor Hawkins. And I thought, wow, wouldn't it be
- 4:08Speaker 1: interesting to just ask this question and then try to
- 4:11Speaker 1: dive into the research and see what I come up with?
- 4:14Speaker 1: And I think I answered it pretty well. If you
- 4:17Speaker 1: haven't listened to that episode and are curious, you can
- 4:20Speaker 1: find Disgraceland. You know where to find Disgraceland. The easiest
- 4:22Speaker 1: way I find these days when I'm looking for an
- 4:24Speaker 1: episode that we've done, I don't even go to my website.
- 4:26Speaker 1: I just pump in Foo Fighters and Disgraceland and whatever
- 4:29Speaker 1: browser I'm using, and it just sends me links. So
- 4:33Speaker 1: there we go. That's a way. But anyways, attacking an
- 4:36Speaker 1: artist this way, a subject this way, try to find
- 4:39Speaker 1: an answer that doesn't yet exist, specifically an answer to
- 4:42Speaker 1: a question that the artist doesn't necessarily want us to
- 4:45Speaker 1: know about, As a writer, that's creatively kind of scary.
- 4:51Speaker 1: And what if you don't find an answer? And what
- 4:53Speaker 1: if you do find an answer and the answer is boring?
- 4:56Speaker 1: I mean, shit, in that Foo Fighters thing, I ended
- 4:59Speaker 1: up having to explain insurance policies. How the fuck do
- 5:03Speaker 1: you make that not boring? I think I figured it out. Anyhow,
- 5:09Speaker 1: I was going to say I haven't really run into
- 5:10Speaker 1: this problem yet, but I guess I did in that
- 5:12Speaker 1: first episode. And I think what I ended up doing
- 5:16Speaker 1: was finding a way to make the, the sort of boringness,
- 5:19Speaker 1: not boring. I know boringness isn't a word, but you
- 5:22Speaker 1: know what I mean? And I think we got to
- 5:24Speaker 1: an answer. I really do. Some people disagree and that's fine.
- 5:28Speaker 1: And I have no way of knowing if my hypothesis,
- 5:32Speaker 1: my theory is right, but I'm, I'm pretty convinced it is.
- 5:36Speaker 1: And I know people have other theories and they're connected
- 5:38Speaker 1: to a lot of things that are going on in
- 5:40Speaker 1: the world elsewhere. And that's fine. You Obviously, I put
- 5:44Speaker 1: forth what I think is what happened. My point, all
- 5:49Speaker 1: of this tactic, to me, creatively, right now, after writing,
- 5:56Speaker 1: like I said, over 200 episodes, is pretty damn thrilling.
- 6:02Speaker 1: I'm invigorated artistically, creatively, as a writer. And since I
- 6:09Speaker 1: wrote that Foo Fighters episode, I was like, oh, I'm
- 6:12Speaker 1: going to do this again. And I really, really wanted
- 6:15Speaker 1: to know the truth about Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist
- 6:17Speaker 1: John Frusciante and River Phoenix's death, particularly because I'm such
- 6:21Speaker 1: a massive fan of John's and I didn't want to
- 6:23Speaker 1: believe what the internet was saying. And now, as you've
- 6:27Speaker 1: likely heard in that story, I don't have to believe it.
- 6:30Speaker 1: I like this approach and I'm going to take this
- 6:33Speaker 1: approach with future episodes. Not all of them, not all
- 6:36Speaker 1: of them. Not every subject lends itself to this approach,
- 6:41Speaker 1: but a lot of them do. especially when we're talking
- 6:44Speaker 1: about a subject like Bobby Fuller. Bobby Fuller is one
- 6:48Speaker 1: of the great rock and rollers that never really was. Avi,
- 6:54Speaker 1: I've said this before, Avi who does our illustrations has
- 6:56Speaker 1: been lobbying for a Bobby Fuller episode since I met
- 7:00Speaker 1: him eight years ago. And I've always kind of resisted
- 7:04Speaker 1: because I didn't have a way in my mind to
- 7:07Speaker 1: frame the episode. And when I came upon this tactic,
- 7:11Speaker 1: I was like, okay, now I can do this. Now
- 7:13Speaker 1: I can try and I can answer this question. Because
- 7:16Speaker 1: you start to tell the story. I always think of
- 7:18Speaker 1: the test of how would I tell this story to
- 7:21Speaker 1: a guy I didn't know that I was sitting next
- 7:23Speaker 1: to at a bar? And can I make it interesting
- 7:27Speaker 1: in a paragraph? And if I can, if there's enough
- 7:31Speaker 1: there to articulate it really concisely and in a really
- 7:34Speaker 1: compelling way, then I'm kind of ready to dig in
- 7:39Speaker 1: and research. And I've always run into this problem with
- 7:45Speaker 1: the Bobby Fuller story. We bring his name up, people go, well,
- 7:47Speaker 1: who's Bobby Fuller? And that's a really good question. But
- 7:50Speaker 1: there's a better question, and that's how did Bobby Fuller die?
- 7:55Speaker 1: And we fully explore that in the coming season of
- 7:58Speaker 1: Disgracing with our Bobby Fuller episode. And by the time
- 8:01Speaker 1: you get done listening to it, you are going to
- 8:03Speaker 1: know exactly how Bobby Fuller died. You're going to know
- 8:07Speaker 1: who killed him, and you're going to know why. Here's
- 8:09Speaker 1: a short clip. Bobby Fuller grew up in West Texas
- 8:14Speaker 1: in the 1950s in the shadow of Buddy Holly. To
- 8:18Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller, Buddy Holly, the rock star from Lubbock, Texas,
- 8:22Speaker 1: was a god. But after Buddy Holly's plane went down
- 8:25Speaker 1: in that Iowa cornfield and they found Buddy's body scattered
- 8:29Speaker 1: among the remains of fellow rock stars, Richie Valens and
- 8:32Speaker 1: the Big Bopper, there would be no resurrection. Yet there
- 8:36Speaker 1: would be a continuation of Buddy Holly's Texas rock stardom.
- 8:41Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller from El Paso saw himself as Buddy Holly's
- 8:45Speaker 1: rightful heir, and for good reason. Bobby's talent was off
- 8:50Speaker 1: the charts. He could sing, play guitar, play drums, write, arrange,
- 8:55Speaker 1: and engineer. He was also a star attraction. He looked
- 8:59Speaker 1: the part, handsome enough for rock and roll, with endless
- 9:03Speaker 1: charisma on stage. Bobby Fuller was a Southwest Pied Piper.
- 9:09Speaker 1: As a teenager and a young adult in Texas, not
- 9:12Speaker 1: only did Bobby Fuller write and perform his own songs,
- 9:15Speaker 1: he recorded those songs in a studio he built and
- 9:19Speaker 1: released them on wax on a record label he founded.
- 9:23Speaker 1: Then he and his band would put on DIY shows
- 9:25Speaker 1: in an underage club that he owned and operated. Bobby
- 9:30Speaker 1: Fuller was everything. The singer, the songwriter, the studio, the label,
- 9:35Speaker 1: and the promoter all wrapped into one. But he was
- 9:39Speaker 1: in Texas. And outside of Bobby Fuller, there really was
- 9:43Speaker 1: no music industry to speak of in Texas. There were
- 9:47Speaker 1: no real distributors or promoters or the type of industry
- 9:51Speaker 1: muscle needed to take Bobby Fuller to the next level.
- 9:55Speaker 1: It was 1963. Bobby Fuller had regional hits, but he
- 9:59Speaker 1: wasn't breaking news. through. Farther west in California, Dick Dale's
- 10:03Speaker 1: surf guitar had created a wave of excitement that the
- 10:06Speaker 1: Beach Boys' Brian Wilson was riding to pop music heights
- 10:11Speaker 1: that Bobby had never dreamed possible. Back east, Phil Spector
- 10:15Speaker 1: was creating new sounds with girl groups that sounded like
- 10:18Speaker 1: orchestral teenage riots. And up north in Detroit, Barry Gordy
- 10:23Speaker 1: was producing an entirely new American soundtrack in his Motown studio.
- 10:29Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller knew that he had his own take on
- 10:32Speaker 1: rock and roll. A Texas take, rooted in Buddy Holly,
- 10:35Speaker 1: but wholly his own. A new type of rock and roll,
- 10:39Speaker 1: souped up for the 60s. Switchblade serenades and rebel-rousing rave-ups,
- 10:44Speaker 1: all swaggering with drag-strip courage. Bobby Fuller, from down by
- 10:48Speaker 1: the border, built for speed. But if Bobby wanted to
- 10:53Speaker 1: take Texas to the charts to compete with the likes
- 10:55Speaker 1: of Brian Wilson, Phil Spector, and Barry Gordy, well... In
- 10:59Speaker 1: order to put Texas on the pop music map, Bobby
- 11:03Speaker 1: Fuller needed to leave Texas. All right, that is a
- 11:08Speaker 1: little taste of our upcoming Bobby Fuller episode that is
- 11:11Speaker 1: still in production. Coming up right after this, the full
- 11:15Speaker 1: list of our episode subjects for the next season, including
- 11:18Speaker 1: my thoughts on Reggie Watts. and whether or not we'll
- 11:21Speaker 1: be covering him in our next batch of episodes, plus
- 11:25Speaker 1: news on how you can be directly involved in the
- 11:28Speaker 1: choosing of which artists we cover in Disgraceland back in
- 11:32Speaker 1: a flash. All right. Welcome back. So after asking these questions,
- 11:55Speaker 1: how did Taylor Hawkins die? Who killed Bobby Fuller? I
- 11:59Speaker 1: realized I had some other questions like what the hell
- 12:04Speaker 1: was Quincy Jones smoking when he gave those interviews in
- 12:07Speaker 1: the last years of his life? You know, the ones,
- 12:11Speaker 1: the ones to GQ and to Vulture, where he made
- 12:14Speaker 1: a series of batshit crazy claims about dating Ivanka Trump,
- 12:18Speaker 1: about The men that his friend Marlon Brando slept with
- 12:22Speaker 1: about jamming with Mussolini's son. He also made some crazy
- 12:25Speaker 1: statements involving music and thievery, fraud and murder. I've wanted
- 12:31Speaker 1: to tell this story since the beginning of this podcast,
- 12:34Speaker 1: and I just didn't know how to do it because
- 12:35Speaker 1: what was already on the page was so fucking good.
- 12:38Speaker 1: I thought, man, how do I add anything to this?
- 12:41Speaker 1: But again, this new framing, this sort of posing a
- 12:45Speaker 1: question and trying to answer, it's so simple and obvious.
- 12:48Speaker 1: It's really kind of opened up this story to me
- 12:50Speaker 1: in particular. So what I'm going to do is I'm
- 12:53Speaker 1: going to read you guys an excerpt from the Quincy
- 12:55Speaker 1: Jones episode from the script as it's coming together this week.
- 12:59Speaker 1: I'm writing it right now this week. By the way,
- 13:01Speaker 1: you may have seen on Instagram, I shared a bunch
- 13:03Speaker 1: of images and videos documenting my research and outlining process
- 13:06Speaker 1: for this story in particular. This script excerpt is the
- 13:10Speaker 1: beginning culmination of that work and it tees up the
- 13:12Speaker 1: thesis of that episode plus the question that we're trying
- 13:15Speaker 1: to answer about Quincy and frames this story pretty nicely.
- 13:19Speaker 1: So here goes. During the last years of his life,
- 13:22Speaker 1: Quincy Jones, arguably the greatest music producer in the history
- 13:26Speaker 1: of popular music, made some truly outrageous claims, some involving crimes,
- 13:31Speaker 1: musical and otherwise. Number one, that Michael Jackson, quote, stole
- 13:36Speaker 1: a lot of songs. Number two, that the Beatles didn't
- 13:39Speaker 1: play their instruments. Number three, that Frank Sinatra was how he,
- 13:44Speaker 1: Quincy Jones, knew who killed Kennedy. Quincy Jones, at the
- 13:49Speaker 1: age of 84, when he gave these interviews, was clearly
- 13:52Speaker 1: out of fucks to give. He also told interviewers that
- 13:55Speaker 1: he once dated Ivanka Trump, a woman 48 years younger
- 13:59Speaker 1: than him, and more outrageously, the president's daughter. Quincy claimed
- 14:03Speaker 1: that Malcolm X sold drugs. and said about his friend
- 14:07Speaker 1: Marlon Brando's sexual appetite that in addition to sleeping with
- 14:11Speaker 1: Richard Pryor and Marvin Gaye, that Brando would, quote, fuck
- 14:16Speaker 1: a mailbox. These claims, regardless of whether they're true or not,
- 14:20Speaker 1: are hysterical, especially when you hear Quincy, or Q as
- 14:24Speaker 1: he was called, tell these stories in his unmistakable voice.
- 14:28Speaker 1: But these stories aren't directly related to figures from music history,
- 14:31Speaker 1: aside from Q's involvement. So I'm less interested in in
- 14:36Speaker 1: them than I am the claims about Sinatra, The Beatles,
- 14:38Speaker 1: and MJ. It should be noted that after Quincy Jones
- 14:42Speaker 1: made these claims about Michael Jackson that he was a
- 14:44Speaker 1: musical thief, the Jackson family pushed back strongly. Joe Jackson
- 14:48Speaker 1: said Quincy was jealous of Michael's talent, and an anonymous
- 14:52Speaker 1: member of the Jackson clan claimed that Quincy Jones was
- 14:55Speaker 1: in the first stages of dementia. Was he? Quincy Jones
- 14:59Speaker 1: was a lot of things. He rose himself up from
- 15:01Speaker 1: a childhood of poverty, through an oftentimes violent and racist
- 15:06Speaker 1: music industry to create music that not only sounded like
- 15:10Speaker 1: what America really sounded like, but that also changed the
- 15:14Speaker 1: way America sounded more on that later. And he became,
- 15:18Speaker 1: as I said before, arguably the greatest music producer of
- 15:23Speaker 1: all time, a music producer who said that all I
- 15:27Speaker 1: ever did was tell the truth. So was he lying
- 15:32Speaker 1: about Michael about the Beatles, about Sinatra, was Quincy Jones
- 15:37Speaker 1: telling the truth. All right, that's from our upcoming episode
- 15:42Speaker 1: on the greatest music producer of all time, Quincy Jones.
- 15:44Speaker 1: I actually, before I wrote that, I was thinking, is
- 15:49Speaker 1: he the greatest pop music producer of all time? Is
- 15:51Speaker 1: he the greatest producer of all time? And I think
- 15:54Speaker 1: he is. I don't know who comes close. Like, for real.
- 15:59Speaker 1: Of course, Phil Spector, Dr. Dre, Barry Gordy. But I mean,
- 16:05Speaker 1: Barry Gordy was more of a businessman. Wasn't as hands-on.
- 16:09Speaker 1: Rick Rubin. But to me, it's Quincy Jones. He just really...
- 16:18Speaker 1: You will hear what I mean when I explain how
- 16:21Speaker 1: he changed what America sounded like. It's truly remarkable. He
- 16:26Speaker 1: had his hands in so much across, obviously, not just music,
- 16:31Speaker 1: but also... Film, just one of the all-time greats, if
- 16:35Speaker 1: not the all-time great. All right. Anyways, that's from our
- 16:38Speaker 1: upcoming episode on Quincy Jones. Still to come, the full
- 16:40Speaker 1: reveal of all the artists that we're covering throughout 2026. Plus,
- 16:45Speaker 1: as promised, news on how you can help choose the
- 16:48Speaker 1: next batch of artists that we cover coming up after this.
- 16:53Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this word, word, word. Okay,
- 16:59Speaker 1: speaking of Michael Jackson, his biopic Michael is the highest
- 17:02Speaker 1: grossing music biopic of all time. It has grossed over
- 17:07Speaker 1: a billion dollars and has supplanted the 2018 Queen biopic
- 17:11Speaker 1: Bohemian Rhapsody as the biggest cash cow in this category. Now,
- 17:17Speaker 1: if you think I'm doing a Michael Jackson episode, you're
- 17:19Speaker 1: out of your flipping tree. Not yet. Someday. I haven't
- 17:23Speaker 1: quite figured out how I'm going to do it because honestly,
- 17:25Speaker 1: I don't know what I think about Michael Jackson and
- 17:27Speaker 1: I don't know what I think about the allegations is
- 17:29Speaker 1: what I should say. I know what I think about
- 17:30Speaker 1: him as an artist. He's one of the, he's just
- 17:32Speaker 1: incredible and I love him and I listen to him
- 17:34Speaker 1: all the time. And that probably won't change even if
- 17:38Speaker 1: I dive into the research and I find out that
- 17:40Speaker 1: he was the horrible human being that many have accused
- 17:43Speaker 1: him of being. I don't know if those allegations are true. Obviously,
- 17:46Speaker 1: the movie doesn't touch on it at all. I do
- 17:48Speaker 1: know this. Whenever I mention even this question publicly, on
- 17:54Speaker 1: social media, people lose their fucking minds. People are so quick,
- 17:59Speaker 1: so quick to dismiss the question. And I don't think
- 18:05Speaker 1: it's a question that's easily dismissed. I could be wrong.
- 18:10Speaker 1: I could have missed the evidence that came out that
- 18:12Speaker 1: completely exonerated Michael Jackson. But I don't think I did. Anyhow,
- 18:18Speaker 1: more on Michael later. I bring this up because, like
- 18:20Speaker 1: I said, Michael is the highest-grossing music biopic of all time.
- 18:24Speaker 1: It's grossed over a billion bucks and supplanted the Queen biopic,
- 18:27Speaker 1: Bohemian Rhapsody. And just as none of these allegations, obviously,
- 18:32Speaker 1: are in the Michael biopic, there's a lot that's not
- 18:35Speaker 1: in the Queen movie. A lot of the band's actual history,
- 18:38Speaker 1: specifically Freddie Mercury's history, and the history portrayed in the
- 18:42Speaker 1: film of what stories, what anecdotes, facts... et cetera, that
- 18:47Speaker 1: may have been omitted. There's a lot of it that
- 18:50Speaker 1: didn't make it up onto that screen. And basically we
- 18:54Speaker 1: decided we're going to dedicate an entire episode to figuring
- 18:59Speaker 1: out what the real story of Queen was, particularly as
- 19:03Speaker 1: it relates to the more, shall we say, excessive ways
- 19:07Speaker 1: of living. What was left out? How did they futz
- 19:11Speaker 1: with the facts? Okay. That's the angle we took in
- 19:15Speaker 1: our Queen episode. That's coming up next, right after this,
- 19:17Speaker 1: by the way, next week. Matt, give them a clip
- 19:20Speaker 1: from the Queen episode. Does Bohemian Rhapsody accurately represent the
- 19:26Speaker 1: career of one of the best-selling rock bands of all time?
- 19:29Speaker 1: And does it give an accurate portrayal of the personal
- 19:32Speaker 1: life of its iconic frontman? Not exactly. First of all,
- 19:38Speaker 1: Bohemian Rhapsody's narrative is framed by Queen's performance at Live
- 19:42Speaker 1: Aid in 1985. The film does not tell you that
- 19:45Speaker 1: only months before this show, Queen were seen as pariahs
- 19:49Speaker 1: in the music industry. having been fined by the British
- 19:52Speaker 1: Musicians Union for playing Sun City in apartheid South Africa. Instead,
- 19:58Speaker 1: the film makes Live Aid out to be this emotionally
- 20:00Speaker 1: redemptive moment in which Freddie Mercury returns to and reconciles
- 20:05Speaker 1: with his bandmates after having left to make a solo album.
- 20:09Speaker 1: But Freddie never claims quit the band. And his solo
- 20:12Speaker 1: album was not a point of contention with the rest
- 20:14Speaker 1: of Queen. In fact, Queen's drummer Roger Taylor had already
- 20:18Speaker 1: released two solo albums of his own by this point.
- 20:21Speaker 1: Was Queen's Live Aid performance absolutely riveting? Yes. Was it
- 20:25Speaker 1: a kick in the ass to their career? Yes. But
- 20:28Speaker 1: any notion of an emotional comeback is simply a dramatic
- 20:32Speaker 1: plot device. The film also wants us to think that
- 20:35Speaker 1: Freddie Mercury used the Live Aid moment to reveal to
- 20:38Speaker 1: the rest of the band that he was HIV positive. Again,
- 20:42Speaker 1: Live Aid was in 1985. According to Jim Hutton, Freddie's
- 20:45Speaker 1: partner near the end of his life, Freddie did not
- 20:48Speaker 1: discover he was sick until later in 1987. And even then,
- 20:53Speaker 1: it's unclear how much he actually revealed to his bandmates.
- 20:56Speaker 1: And then there's that great scene with Mike Myers as
- 21:00Speaker 1: the pompous EMI Records executive who doesn't want to release
- 21:03Speaker 1: the song Bohemian Rhapsody as a single on account of
- 21:05Speaker 1: it being nearly six minutes long. That EMI executive did
- 21:10Speaker 1: not exist. You know who did tell the band that
- 21:13Speaker 1: the song Bohemian Rhapsody would never get played on the
- 21:15Speaker 1: radio because it was too long? Elton John. All these
- 21:19Speaker 1: factual quibbles aside, the biggest dramatic license that the movie
- 21:23Speaker 1: takes is with Freddie Mercury himself. Sacha Baron Cohen was
- 21:28Speaker 1: originally cast to play Freddy in the film, but he
- 21:31Speaker 1: left before production started because he wanted to tell some
- 21:34Speaker 1: of the stories that I'm about to tell you. Stories
- 21:37Speaker 1: that the film ultimately could not and would not tell.
- 21:41Speaker 1: All right, that Queen episode is coming up, like I said,
- 21:47Speaker 1: next in your feed right after this. Actually, there's a
- 21:49Speaker 1: Rewind episode coming in the next week. You'll get the
- 21:51Speaker 1: Queen episode, all right? After that, coming soon, an artist
- 21:58Speaker 1: who was cuffed by the FBI right down the street
- 22:00Speaker 1: from where I'm recording this episode right now, David Crosby,
- 22:04Speaker 1: one of rock and roll's most notorious lunatics. As much
- 22:08Speaker 1: as I dislike David Crosby, both as a person and
- 22:12Speaker 1: as an artist, I love his story because the version
- 22:15Speaker 1: of him that was real versus the version of him
- 22:18Speaker 1: that showed up on record, they stand in such contrast
- 22:22Speaker 1: to each other that it just makes for great storytelling.
- 22:25Speaker 1: Let's do another clip here. Matt, give them a little
- 22:27Speaker 1: bit of the crack that Crosby was smoking. Just a taste.
- 22:32Speaker 1: David Crosby was holding. He figured no one here would
- 22:36Speaker 1: be the wiser. But that was just the twisted logic
- 22:39Speaker 1: of a junkie talking. Because here was Fair Oaks Hospital,
- 22:44Speaker 1: a drug rehabilitation center located in Summit, New Jersey, where
- 22:47Speaker 1: a judge had ordered Crosby to go after numerous run-ins
- 22:50Speaker 1: with the law. First, there was that incident on the
- 22:54Speaker 1: 405 Crosby and his red Ford Granada on the way
- 22:58Speaker 1: to perform a set with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash
- 23:00Speaker 1: at a no-nukes rally in Orange County. Crosby's knees hugging
- 23:04Speaker 1: the wheel so that he could use both hands to
- 23:06Speaker 1: freebase while doing 65 miles per hour. And the seizure
- 23:10Speaker 1: hit him hard and fast and out of nowhere as usual.
- 23:13Speaker 1: Next thing he knew, the blood was running down his
- 23:15Speaker 1: face and the Granada was up against the center divider
- 23:18Speaker 1: and a cop was confiscating his stash and his loaded. 45.
- 23:24Speaker 1: Just a few weeks later in a Dallas nightclub, backstage
- 23:27Speaker 1: in a shitty green room before a solo show, he
- 23:29Speaker 1: was busted again. This time by a couple of good
- 23:33Speaker 1: old boys who waltzed right in while he was freebasing,
- 23:36Speaker 1: and once again with that loaded. 45 by his side.
- 23:40Speaker 1: Why do you carry a loaded weapon at all times,
- 23:43Speaker 1: people wanted to know of David Crosby. And Crosby replied
- 23:46Speaker 1: with just two words. John Lennon. All right, so if
- 23:53Speaker 1: you're keeping count at home, that's Bobby Fuller, Quincy Jones, Queen,
- 23:56Speaker 1: David Crosby. We also have episodes coming on Screaming Jay Hawkins.
- 24:00Speaker 1: And yes, we know that he fathered something like 70 children.
- 24:04Speaker 1: But in our research, we recently discovered that some believe
- 24:08Speaker 1: that Jay was actually murdered. And we try to chase
- 24:10Speaker 1: this claim down in one of our Halloween episodes coming
- 24:14Speaker 1: this October. Also this October, we have episodes on As
- 24:18Speaker 1: I Lay Dying, Alice Cooper, Shannon Hoon from Blind Melon,
- 24:22Speaker 1: and Reggie Watts. Reggie fucking Watts. Have you heard about this?
- 24:30Speaker 1: Did you read that Rolling Stone article? Have you dipped
- 24:33Speaker 1: your toe into the internet on Mr. Watts and his
- 24:38Speaker 1: ketamine and his just deplorable behavior? toward his ex-girlfriend who
- 24:47Speaker 1: committed suicide. Have you read the accounts from the other
- 24:52Speaker 1: women in his life, from his ex-girlfriend's family? I'm actually
- 24:58Speaker 1: privy to some other information. People have reached out to me.
- 25:00Speaker 1: I have some direct info related to Mr. Watts. This
- 25:04Speaker 1: article pissed me off in a way that I haven't
- 25:07Speaker 1: been upset in a long time. And it was like,
- 25:12Speaker 1: you know, I'm wrapping this Quincy Jones episode this week,
- 25:15Speaker 1: the writing of it, and I got to move on
- 25:16Speaker 1: to research right away on, on Monday. And, you know,
- 25:20Speaker 1: I still, I want to get into this damn Courtney
- 25:22Speaker 1: love story so bad, but this fricking movie refuses to
- 25:25Speaker 1: be released. I don't know when it's coming out and
- 25:29Speaker 1: I know it's going to have things in it that
- 25:30Speaker 1: are going to, you know, make anything I write now seem, um,
- 25:35Speaker 1: dated or misinformed. So I just have to wait. I can't,
- 25:39Speaker 1: there's a major documentary coming on or I can't, I can't,
- 25:41Speaker 1: you know, finish my research until that's done so i
- 25:45Speaker 1: needed something i needed to pivot to another story in
- 25:48Speaker 1: this reggie watts thing just just was a gift if
- 25:52Speaker 1: i'm being honest sucks obviously for the people uh in
- 25:57Speaker 1: his life particularly his ex-girlfriend katherine mccullough and her family
- 26:01Speaker 1: again the story is so fucked up and so dark
- 26:07Speaker 1: and not unlike what i was saying about crosby where
- 26:11Speaker 1: the artist personality runs so counter to the behavior it's
- 26:17Speaker 1: one thing when it's jerry lee fucking lewis or uh
- 26:22Speaker 1: you know i don't know big lurch you know what
- 26:23Speaker 1: i mean i always go back to those guys gg
- 26:26Speaker 1: allen you know it's one thing when the artist wears
- 26:31Speaker 1: that asshole nature as a as a badge of honor
- 26:36Speaker 1: reggie watts is like a smiley fucking puppet, teddy bear,
- 26:41Speaker 1: oversized puppet, I should say, you know, lovable. And yeah,
- 26:45Speaker 1: there's plenty of people who have met Reggie Watts in
- 26:47Speaker 1: real life and have walked away going like, oh, that
- 26:52Speaker 1: guy's fucking awesome. Made him feel good, you know? But
- 26:57Speaker 1: my goodness, I don't want to burn it all here.
- 26:59Speaker 1: I'm very motivated to get into this story and I
- 27:01Speaker 1: can't wait for you to hear it. And that's coming
- 27:03Speaker 1: up next season as well. And I promise you, the
- 27:06Speaker 1: first thing I'm going to do after this Courtney Love
- 27:09Speaker 1: documentary is finally released and I get to watch it,
- 27:12Speaker 1: or if they decide they're never going to release it,
- 27:13Speaker 1: one or the other, I'm going to dive into writing
- 27:16Speaker 1: this story. I can't wait to do it. It's coming soon.
- 27:19Speaker 1: Now we still have slots for stories toward the end
- 27:21Speaker 1: of 2026. We have a handful that I'm not going
- 27:25Speaker 1: to mention here because we're not a hundred percent sure
- 27:27Speaker 1: we're going to tell those stories and we got to
- 27:29Speaker 1: figure out very shortly what we're doing for stories, which
- 27:34Speaker 1: artists we're going to cover. There's a way that you can,
- 27:37Speaker 1: you can do this with us. I'm going to do
- 27:39Speaker 1: a zoom with as many of you as I can,
- 27:42Speaker 1: and it's just going to be a hang. We'll get
- 27:44Speaker 1: some drinks and we will just kind of spit ball.
- 27:49Speaker 1: We'll kind of take all the suggestions that you guys
- 27:52Speaker 1: have and want to make, and we'll just get into it.
- 27:54Speaker 1: And we'll talk about why I think stories, certain stories
- 27:58Speaker 1: make for good disgrace line episodes and why certain ones don't.
- 28:01Speaker 1: We'll put some criteria on together and we'll, we'll figure
- 28:04Speaker 1: out what we're going to cover and, going forward uh
- 28:08Speaker 1: this is a perk that we don't offer to everybody
- 28:11Speaker 1: we offer to our sound and fury members our patreon
- 28:14Speaker 1: all access members you want to get in on that
- 28:17Speaker 1: we're going to do this a couple times a year
- 28:20Speaker 1: the first one is coming up um i don't know
- 28:23Speaker 1: when but shortly we're going to announce a date soon
- 28:25Speaker 1: uh probably very soon after you you hear this and
- 28:30Speaker 1: like i said there'll be a zoom And we'll all
- 28:32Speaker 1: get into it. We'll figure it out. We'll have some fun.
- 28:34Speaker 1: It'll be good to see you guys. I haven't seen
- 28:36Speaker 1: you guys in a long time. I think the last
- 28:39Speaker 1: time we were doing those book clubs and a bunch
- 28:41Speaker 1: of us got to hang on Zoom. That was fun.
- 28:44Speaker 1: But this will be with a much larger group. And
- 28:47Speaker 1: I really need your input. I really value your input.
- 28:51Speaker 1: And oftentimes the artists that you guys suggest make for
- 28:55Speaker 1: the best episodes. A handful of the ones that I
- 28:58Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that we're covering, those come from you guys. And,
- 29:02Speaker 1: you know, if you've written in and we've talked about
- 29:04Speaker 1: this on the after party, certain musicians you want covered,
- 29:08Speaker 1: this is absolutely a way to get them to rock
- 29:10Speaker 1: it to the top. So if you want to be
- 29:12Speaker 1: part of our Disgraceland All Access crew and you want
- 29:14Speaker 1: to be part of the crew that jumps on that
- 29:16Speaker 1: Zoom and lets their voice be heard and helps shape
- 29:19Speaker 1: the next few episodes of Disgraceland, you can sign up
- 29:24Speaker 1: at DisgracelandPod.com. All right. Take a short break. We'll be
- 29:30Speaker 1: back after this. guys thanks so much for hanging with
- 29:44Speaker 1: us during this preview appreciate you all however you support
- 29:47Speaker 1: the show if you're just listening that's fantastic if you're
- 29:51Speaker 1: if you're an all access member on patreon or apple
- 29:54Speaker 1: subscriptions that's cool too If you're following along on Instagram
- 29:59Speaker 1: and all the madness that we got going on over there,
- 30:01Speaker 1: jump into the comments. Stir some shit up. And appreciate
- 30:05Speaker 1: you getting in there. I appreciate the emails, disgracelandpod at gmail.com.
- 30:10Speaker 1: The voicemail, 617-906-6638. The text, hit me up about anything.
- 30:18Speaker 1: You can always, even if you're not part of Sound
- 30:20Speaker 1: and Fury, you can always let your voice be heard.
- 30:22Speaker 1: Those are the ways to do it. We've got, what
- 30:25Speaker 1: do we got? We've got an after party coming up
- 30:27Speaker 1: after this on Thursday. And then we've got Queen. That's
- 30:30Speaker 1: the next new episode for you. That'll be hitting on
- 30:34Speaker 1: September 8th. And you'll be hearing from me in the
- 30:37Speaker 1: after party after that. All right. I'm going to get
- 30:40Speaker 1: out of here. Thanks for hanging out with me. Here
- 30:43Speaker 1: we go. We're moving into the 300th episodes of Disgraceland.
- 30:48Speaker 1: That's amazing. That's incredible. Thank you guys for listening along.
- 30:52Speaker 1: Appreciate you all. I'm going to take off. Rock and roll.