Exclusive: Weird Al Yankovic Interview
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Weird Al, but were too apathetic to look up on Wikipedia!
 By Jeremy Azevedo |
If there was any one person that I’ve always wanted to interview, it’d probably be… Hulk Hogan! But since Hulk wasn’t available, my next pick would have to be Weird Al Yankovic. (J/K, Al!) Weird Al was one of my earliest comedy influences, and is one of very few people (if any) that has managed to make a life-long career out of musical comedy. |
And so it was with great pleasure that I had the opportunity to talk with Weird Al about everything from his recent “Essential Al” collection and James Blunt being named “one-hit wonder of the decade”, to the number 27 and whether or not Kanye West is a “soft target”. We even spoke briefly about whether or not he’d ever make anther movie like the cult classic “UHF”. (Spoiler: Not only would he, but maybe he already is?) Seriously, if there’s anything you’ve ever wanted to know about Weird Al, we probably cover it in this interview!
Are the songs on the “Internet Leaks” EP indicative of a new distribution model for your more time-sensitive parody songs?
Weird Al: Well, its kind of an experiment, you know? I haven’t really, until recently, taken advantage of the power of the Internet; at least in terms of being able to be more topical. My material, a lot of it, is timely and topical. And it would behoove of me to get it to the marketplace in a timely manner. And certainly the infrastructure exists in portals like iTunes to do that. I just wanted to see, to prove to myself that I could do that. When I did my T.I. parody, whenever it was, last October 2008, I was able to get my parody on and out while the T.I. song was still #1 on the charts. Which was something that I was never able to accomplish under the old model of, you know, write it and record it and then wait around several months until they actually could physically manufacture albums on discs. So its just something I’m playing around with. And as far as the originals this last summer, I had recorded them and I figured, you know, why just let them sit around, gathering dust on a hard drive for another year while I finish the album? Why not just get it out there and let people enjoy it now, and then it’ll be on a CD some time in the future.
For all the “Polkamaniacs” out there…
Plus then you can sell it twice, too.
Weird Al: Well, yeah.
Can you tell us anything about the next album that you’re working on?
Weird Al: Well, not a lot. I mean, 5/12ths of it is already out, and as far as the rest of it, I really tend not give away any secrets or surprises. So it’s not any radical departure from anything I’ve done in the past. It’s more parodies and originals and the kind of humor that you’d expect from a guy like me.
Can we expect a polka medley, then, maybe a song about food, and a song about television?
Weird Al: Ha ha! Well a polka medley almost definitely, for sure. As far as food and television, I try to… I haven’t stopped entirely writing songs about food, but I always think twice before doing it just because I’ve got so many already in my catalogue. It’s sort of like a running joke, so I tryyyyyyyyy not to write songs about food, but I cant promise that I wont.
Tell us about “The Essential Weird Al”. What prompted you to release a greatest hits compilation and how did you choose the songs for it?
Weird Al: I was approached by Sony Legacy to do the collection, and I thought it was a good idea… Number one, because I hadn’t had any hits compilations for about 15 years or so and I thought, you know, it was about time. For the longest time I had sort of a knee-jerk reaction against greatest hits collections because my old label, Scotty Brothers, sort of released one every time they were having a bad financial quarter. Like, “Oh, were having a tough time balancing the books, lets put out another Weird Al compilation.”
Yeah, I feel like there was a period of time were there were two or three comps that came one after the other…
Weird Al: Yeah, it was a little silly. And at that point, I just really had a bad taste in my mouth for the whole thing. But you know, a lot of time has gone by and it just felt like it was a good time for it. My previous box set had gone out of print and there wasn’t any kind of collection of, you know, a definitive sort of “greatest hits” collection out in the market and I thought, well, this really does kinda make sense. And the people at Legacy just couldn’t have been nicer. They let me pick all the songs; they let me jam-pack the CDs, which is something that that I normally cant do, because I have a royalty ceiling. I usually cant put more than 12 songs on the album because otherwise, it eats into the profits and, you know… But they said, “go ahead and fill up the CDs as much as you can and we’ll take care of it”. So I was able to pick what I thought were, you know, 2 ½ hours of my best material over my career. There are obviously some omissions… It was a tough decision because I left off some fairly obvious things like “My Bologna”. Which historically is very important to my career, but I just felt like it wasn’t… If you look at it really critically, it really isn’t, like, one of my best songs, you know?
Were you afraid that stuff like “My Bologna” wouldn’t resonate with younger listeners hearing Weird Al for the first time?
Weird Al: No, not really… It’s just that, from a pure songwriting standpoint, from the craft of it, if I were to release a song like “My Bologna” now, it might seem a little juvenile or it might not seem that clever. And I wanted the collection to be more than a “greatest hits” compilation, so there are certainly the biggest hits, the biggest hits are on there, but I wanted it to be a true “best of”. Every fan is going to be upset that I left one of their favorites off of there, but for my money I think this is the best of Weird Al.
Will there be a tour to support?
Weird Al: Well, no, but there will be a tour next summer. It’s not necessarily a tour to support “The Essentials Collection”, it’s basically because it’s time to tour. There may in fact even be another studio album out by that time; I really don’t know when the next studio album is coming out, but we will be touring. No dates have been set yet, but the plan is to tour probably starting in June next year.
Not even photoshopped. I’m dead serious.
Has it becoming increasingly difficult to parody music that is already pretty ridiculous to begin with? Such as R. Kelly’s “Get U Pregnant” or anything by the Black Eyed Peas for instance?
Weird Al: Yeah, you know, pop music has always been pretty ridiculous so I don’t think that ‘s a major shift from the way it’s been. The one thing that makes it more difficult for me to parody these days is YouTube and the proliferation of places like that. I shouldn’t say that it makes it more difficult for me to parody, but it makes it a lot harder for me to be original or unique because any new song that comes out there, there will already be hundreds of people doing parodies of it in their living rooms and putting them up online.
So you have to sort of put your blinders on to that, correct?
Weird Al: Exactly. You know, I will probably never again be the first person to parody a particular song or even have a particular idea for a particular song that’s unique.. I’ll just hopefully be the best, but I won’t be the first or the only one.
Is there anybody out there that you’d consider a “soft target”, and maybe feel bad for making fun of? Like maybe Kanye, who seems like maybe he has Asperger’s?
Weird Al: Haha! I don’t think there’s anybody that’s beyond being parodied. I think anybody’s a potential “target”. There’s no one that I would treat with kid gloves unless perhaps they were going through a personal crises or something like that. You have to show a modicum of taste when you’re making those choices. But by and large, I don’t think there’s anybody that I’d just say, “this person is above being parodied or is too delicate to withstand being parodied”.
“UHF” was one of my favorite movies of all time. Given the enormous cult success of that film, do you think you’ll ever make another movie?
Weird Al: Uh, yeah, actually I’m not allowed to talk about it but I just finished writing a screenplay and… there’s really not much else I can say about it! Haha! I’m pretty sworn to secrecy but I’ll just say the plan is, in fact, for me to be making another movie.
Oh my god. That’s awesome!
Weird Al: Thank you.
Have you done any music video directing recently or do you have any plans to?
Weird Al: Oh for other people? Yeah, I’m always up for it. I’m not actively soliciting that, but if one of my musical friends comes to me and asks for my assistance, I’m glad to help out. I guess that hasn’t happened in the last several months, but if that occasion comes up, I’m certainly willing to give it a shot.
What do you think your chances that we’ll see Weird Al in the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”?
Weird Al: Uh, I think pretty slim. I know that there’s a big movement with certain fans of mine to get me into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And that’s wonderful, and I’m very deeply touched that they’re willing to extend the time and effort but, looking at it as a realist, I don’t think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has too much of a sense of humor. I just can’t foresee them putting me in that group.
Why do you suppose that is? Why do you think that there is this stigma surrounding novelty music?
Weird Al: I think humor always gets denigrated. It’s always looked at as second class. And it’s not just in music, it’s in movies, and you know, it’s pretty much pervasive in our culture. People think that if it’s funny, it can’t be deserving of as much respect. That’s just sort of the way it is. And you know, parody in particular is pretty low on the comedy totem pole. A lot of the people that want to derogate me often say that, “oh, all he does is switch around the words to other people’s music”. Which, if anybody actually follows my career, they know that’s blatantly untrue. In fact, half of my catalogue is completely original music. But there’s a lot of stigmas attached to being Weird Al, and even though a lot of my fans think otherwise and certainly I’d be delighted to be included, I think that a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame isn’t in my future.
It’s funny how many people that aren’t intimately familiar with your records don’t know about your original material. Are there any of your own songs that you are particularly fond of? I think my own personal favorite has always been “Melanie” or maybe “One More Minute”…
Weird Al: Oh thanks! Well, I mean, I put pretty much all of my favorites on the “Essentials” collection. And obviously, just because I didn’t put it on that collection doesn’t mean that I don’t like it; it’s just that, it was a tough call to narrow it down to that group. But those would be among my favorites, too.
Will the collected “Al TV” ever be available on DVD?
Weird Al: I seriously doubt it. That’s something, legally, where we were barely able to even air those once.
Damn straight it’s an “Al TV” t-shirt!
It’s a hell of a legal minefield then, I’m guessing.
Weird Al: Oh man. It’d be impossible to get legal clearance to actually put those out for retail sale. The reason that I was able to do a lot of those fake interviews was, the artists that I’m quote-unquote “interviewing” had signed releases with MTV or VH1 or Much Music saying their interviews could be used for whatever programming their station was running. And when their programming just happened to be “Al TV”, that meant that legally I could take their interviews, and take them apart and re-splice them and make them look sort of ridiculous. But I don’t think the license extended to me selling those interviews on a DVD!
I loved your cameo on “Know Your Meme”. Have you thought about just doing Al TV as an ongoing Internet show?
Weird Al: Well, that’s a thought that would be a big… that’d involve a lot of time, which I don’t really have right now. But I mean, yeah, certainly there’s ways that I could exploit Al TV if I had the time in my life! Haha.
How does it feel to watch huge bands come and go? Some of your earlier parodies are of bands that haven’t existed for more than a decade.
Weird Al: Yeah, I mean, all I can say is that, its kind of ironic, you know what I mean? I was never supposed to have a career at all. People, record labels didn’t want to sign me when I was starting out in the early 80s. They just thought, “Oh, novelty music guy, if you’re lucky you’ll maybe have a hit single, but there’s no career there. We’re not gonna, you know, you’re not gonna be around six months from now”. And meanwhile, as you’ve pointed out, a lot of the acts that I’ve parodied, you know, major acts, have come and gone in the time I’ve been around.
Does anyone ever think that the original songs are themselves parodies of your own songs?
Weird Al: That has happened a couple times! I think the best example was when I did Don McLean’s “American Pie”, which was a big hit I think in like 1972-73… But my parody, which was about “Star Wars: The Saga Begins” was a big hit on Radio Disney. And most of the people that listen to Radio Disney…
Best Weird Al fanart, ever.
…They’d never heard the song.
Weird Al: …Yeah, they weren’t alive then, they were not aware of the Don McLean song at all. And what was even funnier was, a year or two after I did my parody, Madonna came out and did just a straight cover version of “American Pie”. And all these kids were going “How come Madonna’s doing an unfunny version of a Weird Al song?”
Does anyone ever parody you directly?
Weird Al: Yeah. I’ve seen a few things like that. I’ve seen some fan videos where they’ve done their own parodies of some of my original tunes. Which is very flattering. Some of them were quite good!
What is the significance of the number 27?
Weird Al: You know, it doesn’t have any real significance… Some fans have attached some significance to it because, I guess, early on I had some songs or some videos where the number 27 cropped up. And at the time I didn’t really give much thought to it. I think maybe at the time it was a funny sounding number, or maybe had the right number of syllables, but for whatever reason I guess I used it a few times. And then one fan started noticing it and it became sort of a cultish kind of fascination with the number. At that point, when I realized they were doing that, then I started fanning the flames and putting 27s into my material on purpose just so that they ‘d have something to get excited about.
This is a question you probably get asked a lot, but who are the most difficult artists to get permission to parody from? I’m guessing alt least one of them has got to be Prince…
Weird Al: Well, he’s the only one that s consistently said “no” over the years. Most artists have a pretty good sense of humor about it and at this point, look at it sort of as an homage. Prince is like the one guy that’s just, across the board said no…
He’s sort of that way about everything as I understand it.
Weird Al: Yeah he’s never even given a reason, so it’s hard to say.
Do you even need their permission, legally?
Weird Al: Well, as I always say, it’s a grey area. I mean, I could get away with it, but historically that’s not the way I’ve done business. I like to get permission from the songwriter and/or the artist because I want them to be on board, and I don’t want them to think that I’m stepping on their toes. Its all meant to be in good fun.
So it’s really more of an act of goodwill.
Weird Al: Well, we have to work out the songwriting split and things like that and its just better to be above-board about the whole thing and make sure they’re with you and it doesn’t become a thing where they start bad mouthing me in the press like, “I cant believe Al did that”. If they don’t want me to do it, I just wont do it.
Weird Al: Strictly hip-hop.
You’re a lot like a hip-hop artist in that respect, in a way. The way they sample music, I’m sure they often need to sort it out in a similar way.
Weird Al: Right. I think a lot of the hip-hop artists understand me, haha, because they have to go through the same thing!
How much influence does your band have on the songwriting process?
Weird Al: As far as the actual songwriting goes, really not so much. I mean, I present them with the demos, and they learn them. Certainly they ad their own touches to them… I mean, I don’t write out guitar solos note for note or anything like that. I basically, you know, I give them the demo, and it’s not necessarily so developed that there’s no room for ad-libbing or improvisation. I try to give them as much freedom musically as possible but in terms of, like, writing lyrics, that’s nothing really that they are actively involved in.
Are there any newer artists that you feel are worthy of a dedicated “style parody”?
Weird Al: Oh yeah, there are artists that come up all the time. I don’t want to give away my ideas or potential ideas but, you know, pop culture is always changing and there’s always new acts coming up and, yeah, that’s certainly a possibility. A lot of times when I do my style parodies I kind of go for more…
…Iconic bands?
Weird Al: …Yeah I tend to do that, but, if a new act comes up that I think is worthy… if it’s a brand new act I sometimes feel that their style hasn’t gelled enough or maybe people aren’t familiar with it enough for it to warrant doing a parody. So I generally pick artists or bands that have a bit of a back catalogue. But that’s not to say that there aren’t any new bands that would be deserving of it.
What are your current comedy influences?
Weird Al: I don’t want to start giving a laundry list of stand up comedians that I’m a fan of, but I’m a big fan of comedy in general. I support the whole “Comedy Death Ray” kind of group. I’m good friends with Thomas Lennon and Patton Oswalt, all those people. Emo Philips and Judy Tenuta are two of my oldest friends. You know, I’ve got a lot of roots in that brand of comedy as well. And that also informs my comedy. A lot of that sensibility creeps into my music, I think.
Have you ever, even once, recorded a song that was 100% serious?
Weird Al: I don’t think so… In terms of lyrics, I tend not to; my mind doesn’t really work that way. I think maybe when I was 13 years old I may have tried to write a serious song, and I just realized how horrible it was. And I realized, you know, my brain is warped; I may as well just go with that!
Is there a lot of pressure to live up to the name “Weird” Al? Have you ever wished that you could just be “Regular Al”?
Weird Al: Um… you know, whenever I’m not actively performing, it is just “Al Yankovic”. I mean, if you see a writer or a director or a producing credit, its just Al Yankovic. “Weird Al” has always been a good handle I think. I don’t know if it’s, in some cases, resulted in situations where people may respect me less or give me less credibility. That may, in fact, have happened at some point down the line. You know, I don’t regret it though, it think that it’s, you know, a name that people remember and it, I suppose, comes with a bit of baggage. But I think I can handle it.
“Regular Al”?
Who, outside of yourself, is your favorite celebrity “Al”?
Weird Al: Oh, favorite celebrity Al? Boy that’s a good question, let me think… Hmm, I guess Alfred E. Nueman (Mad magazine’s mascot).
Excellent choice sir!
Weird Al: Hahaha!
One thing I’ve always been impressed by is your ability to mimic the voice and delivery of virtually any artist. Is there anyone you can’t do?
Weird Al: That’s very nice of you to say. I don’t really fancy myself an impressionist or an impersonator. I give it my best shot and I try to adjust my vocal cords accordingly…
Al’s favorite “Al”.
Some of the singers are very distinct. Sting, the guy from “Crash Test Dummies”…
Weird Al: Obviously, it’s difficult for me to emulate female singers. And a good percentage of pop songs are done by female artists. So that’s never gonna be a great match for me. In the past I’ve done parodies of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper and Avril Lavigne and others. And you know, obviously in those cases there’s nothing I can do to sound exactly like the original artist, haha! So I guess you could say that its my biggest shortcoming, is that I’m not a hermaphrodite.
Haha! Ok, but Can you still put one leg behind your head whilst standing on the other one like a stork?
Weird Al: You know I actually haven’t tried that in awhile, and I’d be afraid something would break if I did. At the moment.
What else are you working on that you’d like people to know about? I have heard about you working with the MST3K guys and also something about a children’s book…
Weird Al: Oh yeah that’s all true. I have written a children’s book for Harper Collins. And it will not be out, I’m told, until March 2011… Because apparently you have a huge lead time on these kinds of books. Which was not something that I was really aware of.
Is that for production or marketing? What takes so long?
Weird Al: They need like a year to set it up, promotionally I guess. And that’s just the way it works. Apparently. And the “Rifftrax” thing, is much more immediate. I come on for one short, that’s basically a musical about pork. So naturally they thought of me for that, and I’ll be making fun of this pork musical for them.
Weird Al in a previous “Rifftrax” appearance…
How scripted or freestyle is that show?
Weird Al: Its pretty well scripted actually. I think were gonna work it out in rehearsal but after that…
How do you get ready for something like that? Do you just watch the movie over and over and make up the jokes as you go?
Weird Al: Truth be told, it’s mostly them that come up with the jokes, and then they have me on just for some fresh blood.
What about when you’re writing an original song? Do you write the lyrics first and work the music in later? Or does the music come first?
Weird Al: Generally, if the lyrics don’t come spontaneously, I’ll sit for a week or so just jotting down ideas that I think relate to the topic of the song. Words, phrases, gags, anything that comes to mind. Then, when I have several pages of just raw ideas, I try to figure out which are the good ideas and then I try to see if there’s any kind of way that those would fit into an appropriate rhyme structure and just go about it like that. So it’s pretty methodical and analytical. It doesn’t just spontaneously spring out of my head. I wish it did!
An early illustration detailing Al’s creative process…
Do you cut a lot of stuff? Do you ever write whole songs and then not record them or record songs that don’t make it to the album?
Weird Al: Once the song is written, basically, I record it and put it out. I’m not one of these songwriters that will write 100 songs and record 40 of those and only like 20 make it onto the album. Basically, if I spend my time writing something, I record it and put it out. So there isn’t like a back catalogue or a vault full of “The Unreleased Al Recordings”. It’s just, I try to be efficient in that everything I write, I put out.
So what you’re saying is that there’s not going to be like a posthumous, Weird Al/Tupac kind of thing going on?
Weird Al: Haha ,I don’t think so. I’ve pretty much put out everything that I’ve written.
What do you think about James Blunt being named one-hit-wonder of the decade after his label cock-blocked you from including “You’re Pitiful” on “Straight Outta Lynwood”?
Weird Al: I don’t know, haha. I don’t really have a comment about that. I mean, it’s probably a nightmare because I know that at the time, his label was very concerned about him becoming a one hit wonder. Which was their logic behind them not letting me do the parody in the first place. So, this is probably not great news for him or his label. And James seems like a very nice guy and I’m sorry to hear that he’s now got that albatross around his neck.
My next favorite celebrity of my generation after yourself has got to be Pee-Wee Herman. What do you think about Pee-Wee’s big comeback?
Weird Al: I’m looking forward to it. I don’t have my tickets to the Nokia Theater yet, but maybe he’ll DM me on Twitter and offer me some passes!
