WEBVTT

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This Is Later with Lee Matthews,
The Lee Matthews Podcast More What You Hear

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Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. When
I last had him on to talk about

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his Weird Al Yankovic story starring Daniel
Radcliffe, I asked him, Hey,

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what do you got in the pipeline? He says He's got a whole new

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release. Will it is out today? Weird Al Yankovic celebrating the ten year

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anniversary of Mandatory Fun with his new
Polka medley pol Come maybe Weird Al Yankovic.

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Hello, Hayley, how are you? I'm good. You got a

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whole new list of parody songs for
us to consume. Well, they're Polka

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versions. Over the last ten years, I haven't really had a chance to

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take my shot out a lot of
big hits, and I thought, you

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know, someone need these songs.
Just sounds better than polka style, So

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I thought I would gift the world
with his Polka edley. I love it,

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you know I do that. Maybe
it's because I've been in radio so

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long and you're hearing the same songs
over and over and over again, so

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you just start singing different lyrics to
it, or thinking I like I like

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to take different versions of songs and
make them operatic. You know, yeah,

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I just I just I just think
Billie Eilish sounds better with a tube.

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But you know, yeah, that's
just me though. I'll do like

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Rusberry Brie the conjur fly that's from
the opera. That'll be Prince Prince the

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Opera, you see. Yeah,
So I know where you're coming from with

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this. What are some of the
songs on the new album polk Manbia.

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Well, it's not really an album. It's just a single, so I'm

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not really anymore. It's just a
one off. It's just I spent the

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last ten years working on this four
minute of songs, so I hope I

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appreciate it all right. So it
is a medley along the lines of yah,

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yeah, along the lines of Barry
Mannel, who used to do a

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very strange medley in his act where
he would sing all the jingles he wrote.

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That's right, and Barry Manilow's grew
up playing the accordion as well,

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so we're connected that way very well. Yeah, how did it all start

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for you? I mean I mentioned
hearing the same songs over and over again,

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and then just out of boredom,
having to sing different lyrics to it.

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Is that the way it worked for
you? Pretty much? Yeah?

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In fact, I did a college
radio That's where I first got the name

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weird Al. I needed some kind
of wacky air name, and honestly they

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are. They're already calling me weird
Al in the dorms in college, So

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it was it was a natural fit. And I played the accordion. I

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guess that that made me weird.
So but the parody songs, how did

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that all begin? Well, you
know, I think like every eight year

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old of the world, and maybe
I made fun of the songs on the

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radio, and it's just one of
those those habits I never grew out of.

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And uh, you know, doctor
Demetro started playing myself on the radio

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when I was in my early teens
actually, so I got encouragement there.

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And uh, you know, I
never I thought I'd be like doing this

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for a living. I didn't think. I thought I'd be an adult and

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grow up and get a real job
at some point. But never worked out

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that way. No, got you
right to the Grammy Awards and the Walk

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of Fame on the Hollywood. Yeah, this is polka mania. We're talking

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about. Whirred Al Yankovic, the
best selling comedy recording artist in history,

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and his new medley, So who
are you poking a little fun at?

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Who are you having fun with in
this medley? Oh, let's see it.

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It's we got Billie Eilish and Adele
and Taylor Swift and Little nas X

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and Cardi B and Meghan the Stallion
and Live here Rodrigo and how am I

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doing? Like a dozen of them? So it's like all the biggest hits

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of the last ten years. Is
it easier or harder to make fun of

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artists than it was, say in
the late seventies early eighties when you got

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when you began it's I mean,
in terms of figuring out what to do,

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it's a little harder because like back
in the eighties when I first started

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out, people were mesmerized by MTV
and if a video is in heavy irritation,

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everybody in the country was intimately familiar
with every frame of that video.

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So I think nowadays people their at
tension has been fractured. Everybody's into their

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own, you know, genre,
and there's not the monoculture there was in

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the eighties. And there's still big
hits and big artists, but it's a

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little bit harder to say, oh, this is a hit or this isn't

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a hit. Yeah, And I'm
starting to at least I feel like there's

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more formulaic because the production value is
anybody can make any sounds with anything.

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It's not like, oh, Gee, I want this certain sound, so

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I have to set up a certain
recording in a certain room so it'll have

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that certain sound. You can just
create it digitally, right right, Well,

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I still do it old school,
like you know, for the polka

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medley. I mean, we could
have done the synthesized clarinets and trumpets and

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tuba and all that, but no, it's old school. Man brought I

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brought in the same horn players I've
been using for forty years into the studio

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and got the gang back together.
Are these guys polka players on the side

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or or they've just studio musicians?
They're just a studio musician and my band.

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I mean, I've had the same
band since nineteen eighty two and those

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are the same guys that are with
me the studio and on the road,

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and they do everything from polka music
to gangster rap everything between. They're amazing.

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So will we see you making the
tourist circuit at German festivals, October

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festivals. Back on the road.
Yeah, I'm sure I'll be putting the

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leader hosing on and hitting the road
to at some point we have we haven't

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announced anything yet, but at some
point in the future. I think that's

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kind of a given. Polka Mania
it's weird Al Yankovic's newest release. It

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is out now. We're going to
take a listen to it here in just

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a minute, and you can get
it anywhere you get to your music or

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is there a specific place you want
to send people? Any place you want

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to find it, Amazon, on
Apple, you can go to weird al

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dot com if you're one stop weird
awl shop, but uh yeah, any

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anywhere that music is sold or streamed
or stolen. Tragically, I don't think

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it can go to Tower Records anymore, can you. Well, you can

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go there, but there's nobody hanging
out there here where now you Thankovic.

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Polkamania a medley of some of the
best hits by Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus,

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Billy Eilish, Adele, Olivia Rodrigo
and many many more out now.

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We thank you for the laughs and
for joining us. Today. Thank you

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appreciate it. Thanks for listening to
Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews

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Podcast, and remember to listen to
The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to

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seven and iHeartMedia presentation