This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews podcast war What You Hear Weekday
Afternoon's on the Drive. He's known as the king of the parodies. Weird
Al Yankovic is now out with a movie about his life in times called Weird
The Al Yankovic Story. Daniel Radcliffe, of all people, is playing in
it and it's out now. Joining us Weird Al Yankovic. Good to have
you along, sir, Thanks so much. It all started for me catching
you on the old Doctor Demento radio show and the first song I heard you
do was another one Rides the Bus. I memorized the song and sang it
on my school bus. It was a hit. I'm very happy to provide
us some entertainment for the bus. It was a very crowded school bus.
Since she was oh probably yeah, probably so probably so, so a'll start
for you. You and the accordion, Well, I think my parents made
that decision for me. I mean, I if you saw the movie,
there's a scene where a door to door salesman comes around of selling accordions,
and the true story is very similar to that. There was a guy that
came to our door offering music lessons. And one of the things he was
offering was accordion lessons. My parents decided that their young child would love to
learn the accordion, so they made that decision for me. They warped my
life at a very early age. And you know, it's kind of hard
to take yourself seriously when you play the accordion, so I became Ridel.
Well, you know, it seems to be back in vogue. That and
the ukulele seemed to be back in vogue now and the kids are picking them
up and starting to play them. Yeah. You know, tiny Tim has
been kind of like the specter of my life. Yeah. We're both kind
of goofy looking guys with long curly hair that play unconventional instruments and rose to
fame against all odds doing novelty music. Well, were you a frank Yankovic
fan? Yeah, I mean everybody assumes that I'm related to Frankie Yankovic.
Some people think of my dad or my uncle and no relation as far as
we could tell. I got to meet him in the in the late nineties
and I did a TV show with him where we did a segment called Frankie
Goes to Hollywood and in a pool fight interview. But yeah, we stayed
in contact, we became friends. But as far as I could tell,
no relations. He still performed way up until the end, didn't he.
Yeah, I mean he loved performing. I mean he's been performing for so
long and he made so many friends and fans along the way that he told
me he never stays in the hotel he goes every city goes to. He
just stays at a fans house. Wow. Oh, that's the way to
do it. I guess. Sure save a lot of money, that's for
sure. Daniel Radcliffe plays as Weird Al Yankovic in the movie Weird, The
Al Yankovic Story. It's now out on four k U H D b R
combo bonus features as well. Al. I don't know what all that means,
but it sounds good. Hey, you know, the movie looks better
and it sounds better than it ever has. It's a beautiful transfer, and
I should point out it also is chock full of special features of the director's
commentary I'm on it as well, deleted scenes and interviews and trailers, and
it's a it's a really nice package. Yeah, Blu, ray, I
know what that means. And the two disc Blu ray and DVD edition as
well. So just in time for the holiday, just in time for maybe
a late celebration of of Octoberfest, Sure Arbor Day, Armistice Day, Attil
Day, any any kind of celebration. Now, when you were starting to
write parody songs, was it just something I Yeah, I've been in the
business long enough to where I have listened to the same songs over and over
and over and over again, to the point where it kind of ruined me.
I'll never forget every breath you take by the Police. I probably played
it every ninety minutes for the entire summer of nineteen eighty four, I think,
or eighty three, whenever it came out, and so pretty soon you
start singing different lyrics to it just because you're so tired of it. Was
that how it began for you? Kind of? I mean, I think
I was like every eight year old in the world that would make fun of
the songs on the radio. But I think it really kicked into high gear.
Actually, when I was a disc jockey in college, I shift.
I had a shift on the local campus radio station KCPR San Luis Obispo,
and I remember my Sharona was a huge hit in the summer of nineteen seventy
nine, and like every other you know, call the request line for my
Sharona, And at one point I could take it no longer, and I
took my accordion across the hall into the bathroom where the acoustics were really good,
and I recorded my Bologna And that's how it all started. That became
a hit on the Doctor Demento show and changed my life. How did you
did you just send a demo into Doctor Demento or had you met him and
thought, hey, this might be something for you. I had met him
already at that time. He'd already played a couple of my other home recordings
on the show, but My Bologne was the first one that was a bona
fide hit, and you know, people other than myself and my friends would
call to request it. And in fact, it got so big on his
show that when I went to see the next and that played my college and
I went backstage to meet the band and the lead singer said, oh,
you're the my Bologna guy, and he already knew who I was, and
he got me a meeting with the with Capitol Records, and I actually put
out my original bathroom recording. They just put it out as is, and
it told like twelve copies. But still I was on Capital Records. I
thought, wow, this is pretty cool. Yeah, And now, did
you I'm a geek for this kind of stuff. Did you record it on
a real reel at least? Or was it on a cassette that was actually
a real to real There was a real to reel in the production studio of
the radio station, and we ran lines out the door and across the hall.
There was a bathroom like thirty feet away from the production room, so
we used that for all of our recording because of the nice, perfectly acoustic
tile. It's the bathroom wall of sound. As Phil Specker would say,
yeah, yeah, exactly, oh, exactly weird. The Al Yankovic story
out on Blu ray and DVD. Now this is Al Yankovic also branching out
into writing. I know you had a children's book out, are you still
working on anything else? I put out two children's books. I'm giving that
a little bit of a break. I may come back to that at some
point, and next year I'm not touring. I've got several I can't talk
about it, unfortunately, but I've got several TV and feature film projects in
various stages of development, so they may or may not actually happen, but
I'm working on them and hopefully i'll be back. I'll be back on the
road at some point, but next year I'm taking off. Good Thank you
for joining us The Weird, The Al Yankovic Story and available everywhere you get
your Blu rays and DVDs, and thanks for joining us my pleagure. Thank
you. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven
and iHeartMedia Presentation.