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This is later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews podcast war What You Hear Weekday

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Afternoon's on the Drive. He's known
as the king of the parodies. Weird

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Al Yankovic is now out with a
movie about his life in times called Weird

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The Al Yankovic Story. Daniel Radcliffe, of all people, is playing in

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it and it's out now. Joining
us Weird Al Yankovic. Good to have

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you along, sir, Thanks so
much. It all started for me catching

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you on the old Doctor Demento radio
show and the first song I heard you

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do was another one Rides the Bus. I memorized the song and sang it

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on my school bus. It was
a hit. I'm very happy to provide

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us some entertainment for the bus.
It was a very crowded school bus.

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Since she was oh probably yeah,
probably so probably so, so a'll start

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for you. You and the accordion, Well, I think my parents made

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that decision for me. I mean, I if you saw the movie,

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there's a scene where a door to
door salesman comes around of selling accordions,

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and the true story is very similar
to that. There was a guy that

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came to our door offering music lessons. And one of the things he was

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offering was accordion lessons. My parents
decided that their young child would love to

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learn the accordion, so they made
that decision for me. They warped my

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life at a very early age.
And you know, it's kind of hard

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to take yourself seriously when you play
the accordion, so I became Ridel.

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Well, you know, it seems
to be back in vogue. That and

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the ukulele seemed to be back in
vogue now and the kids are picking them

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up and starting to play them.
Yeah. You know, tiny Tim has

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been kind of like the specter of
my life. Yeah. We're both kind

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of goofy looking guys with long curly
hair that play unconventional instruments and rose to

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fame against all odds doing novelty music. Well, were you a frank Yankovic

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fan? Yeah, I mean everybody
assumes that I'm related to Frankie Yankovic.

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Some people think of my dad or
my uncle and no relation as far as

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we could tell. I got to
meet him in the in the late nineties

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and I did a TV show with
him where we did a segment called Frankie

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Goes to Hollywood and in a pool
fight interview. But yeah, we stayed

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in contact, we became friends.
But as far as I could tell,

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no relations. He still performed way
up until the end, didn't he.

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Yeah, I mean he loved performing. I mean he's been performing for so

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long and he made so many friends
and fans along the way that he told

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me he never stays in the hotel
he goes every city goes to. He

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just stays at a fans house.
Wow. Oh, that's the way to

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do it. I guess. Sure
save a lot of money, that's for

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sure. Daniel Radcliffe plays as Weird
Al Yankovic in the movie Weird, The

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Al Yankovic Story. It's now out
on four k U H D b R

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combo bonus features as well. Al. I don't know what all that means,

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but it sounds good. Hey,
you know, the movie looks better

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and it sounds better than it ever
has. It's a beautiful transfer, and

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I should point out it also is
chock full of special features of the director's

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commentary I'm on it as well,
deleted scenes and interviews and trailers, and

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it's a it's a really nice package. Yeah, Blu, ray, I

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know what that means. And the
two disc Blu ray and DVD edition as

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well. So just in time for
the holiday, just in time for maybe

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a late celebration of of Octoberfest,
Sure Arbor Day, Armistice Day, Attil

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Day, any any kind of celebration. Now, when you were starting to

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write parody songs, was it just
something I Yeah, I've been in the

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business long enough to where I have
listened to the same songs over and over

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and over and over again, to
the point where it kind of ruined me.

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I'll never forget every breath you take
by the Police. I probably played

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it every ninety minutes for the entire
summer of nineteen eighty four, I think,

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or eighty three, whenever it came
out, and so pretty soon you

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start singing different lyrics to it just
because you're so tired of it. Was

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that how it began for you?
Kind of? I mean, I think

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I was like every eight year old
in the world that would make fun of

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the songs on the radio. But
I think it really kicked into high gear.

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Actually, when I was a disc
jockey in college, I shift.

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I had a shift on the local
campus radio station KCPR San Luis Obispo,

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and I remember my Sharona was a
huge hit in the summer of nineteen seventy

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nine, and like every other you
know, call the request line for my

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Sharona, And at one point I
could take it no longer, and I

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took my accordion across the hall into
the bathroom where the acoustics were really good,

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and I recorded my Bologna And that's
how it all started. That became

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a hit on the Doctor Demento show
and changed my life. How did you

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did you just send a demo into
Doctor Demento or had you met him and

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thought, hey, this might be
something for you. I had met him

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already at that time. He'd already
played a couple of my other home recordings

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on the show, but My Bologne
was the first one that was a bona

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fide hit, and you know,
people other than myself and my friends would

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call to request it. And in
fact, it got so big on his

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show that when I went to see
the next and that played my college and

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I went backstage to meet the band
and the lead singer said, oh,

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you're the my Bologna guy, and
he already knew who I was, and

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he got me a meeting with the
with Capitol Records, and I actually put

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out my original bathroom recording. They
just put it out as is, and

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it told like twelve copies. But
still I was on Capital Records. I

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thought, wow, this is pretty
cool. Yeah, And now, did

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you I'm a geek for this kind
of stuff. Did you record it on

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a real reel at least? Or
was it on a cassette that was actually

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a real to real There was a
real to reel in the production studio of

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the radio station, and we ran
lines out the door and across the hall.

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There was a bathroom like thirty feet
away from the production room, so

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we used that for all of our
recording because of the nice, perfectly acoustic

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tile. It's the bathroom wall of
sound. As Phil Specker would say,

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yeah, yeah, exactly, oh, exactly weird. The Al Yankovic story

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out on Blu ray and DVD.
Now this is Al Yankovic also branching out

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into writing. I know you had
a children's book out, are you still

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working on anything else? I put
out two children's books. I'm giving that

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a little bit of a break.
I may come back to that at some

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point, and next year I'm not
touring. I've got several I can't talk

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about it, unfortunately, but I've
got several TV and feature film projects in

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various stages of development, so they
may or may not actually happen, but

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I'm working on them and hopefully i'll
be back. I'll be back on the

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road at some point, but next
year I'm taking off. Good Thank you

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for joining us The Weird, The
Al Yankovic Story and available everywhere you get

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your Blu rays and DVDs, and
thanks for joining us my pleagure. Thank

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you. Thanks for listening to Later
with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven

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and iHeartMedia Presentation.