Fuck the game! What I meant to say is I hope everybody is having a pleasant and somewhat relaxing holiday, if that's possible. I am, because I'm on vacation. I am in my home state of Nuevo, Mexico.
I'm up in the Santa Fe area. I'll be heading to Albuquerque shortly. Go see my dad for a couple hours, try and make it through that. I'm here with the lady.
Sarah's on the couch. It's been good. It's been intimate already. It's only been a few days.
You know, I imagine this has been talked about by other people, but, you know, when you're in a place where there's nowhere to hide and you can hear and smell things, just right over there, and you just have to be... Here's my point. I think that a big moment in a relationship probably has to be when both people eat the same thing that's bad and it fucks them both up inside. So here you are in a situation where you're like, well, you know, there's no second room.
There's only one bathroom. And that stuff fucked me up, too, in my stomach. It's like, we're going to have to ride this out. Look, I'm telling you, man, intimacy is a broad, it's a big tent, all right, with a full range of sounds and smells ranging from the beautiful to the grotesque.
That is what love and relationship is about, engaging in all the sounds and smells of the person you're with. It's mostly me. Mostly me. I'm not going to throw her under the bus.
I'm stinky and I make noises. That's just, I'm just putting that out there, all right? Merry Christmas. Did I say that?
Merry Christmas. So I didn't even mention who's on the show today. Bob Forrest, musician and sober guy, rehab celebrity and coach and advisor. You might remember him from the Dr.
Drew business. What was that? Celebrity rehab. He was in the band Thelonious Monster.
Did a few records. And a notorious L.A. character, primarily defined back in the day by his heroin use. His most recent album is Survival Songs, which I like a lot.
I never really listened to Thelonious Monster. And I put a little research in. I did my homework. And it's just interesting.
You know, I'd heard about them for years. I'd heard about Bob for years. I'd even seen him around at the secret meetings. And I never talked to him, but this was a pretty amazing conversation.
I know a lot of you got sort of hung up with the idea of, you know, what's episode 666 going to be? What's that going to be, man? Are you going to interview Satan, dude? What's it going to be, 666?
What is that? Well, this is episode 666. We didn't plan it out. We didn't use that context to deliver you some ironic or non-ironic relative guest to 666.
So I'm going to bend this one into something that you sort of latent Satanists and people who are mystified by the triple number. I'm going to try to bend it into something for you. Like, for instance, quite honestly, on this planet and in this life, there's fewer things that can be honestly called demonic possession other than heroin. Heroin is as close as one can get, I think, to demonic possession because it robs you of your will and it takes over your life and it destroys you from the inside and the outside and it makes you do things that you would never do if you weren't under the spell and addiction to heroin.
Heroin is a fucking devil. Now, anything can be a devil, you know, if you let it go too far. That's what them sins are all about. You know what I mean?
Food. Food can do a number on you. Power, lust, envy, you know, seven deadlies, sloth. Those things get too far with you.
That's the work of the devil there, but heroin. Heroin, because we're so romanticized by so many people, is no doubt the devil. We're definitely a franchise. Heroin is a franchise of Satan.
If there is a Satan, if that's your thing. If, uh, if you, uh, you know, depends how you look at it, where your mystical parameters are, what those are. But Bob Forrest is a great example of somebody who fought that fucking devil, came out the other side with an amazing amount of self-awareness and creative energy and also helps a tremendous amount of other people. See, you know, you fight with the fucking devil and then maybe you come out with some good stories and a little bit of wisdom.
He's one of those cats. And I was excited to talk to him. And obviously we had a conversation that had a lot to do with that. And those of you out there on the holiday, I've been getting a lot of emails from people struggling with addiction, alcoholism, people wondering whether or not they're an alcoholic.
Generally, from where I'm sitting, in my experience, if you're asking other people if you might be an alcoholic, I would say you're probably an alcoholic. If the, if it comes into your head where like you're sitting there, you know, and you've just shit your bed or something, you're like, I wonder if I have a drinking problem. You probably do. I would say a couple of healthy red flags, peeing in your sleep, in your bed, shitting your bed.
Those are big red flags, uh, losing everything, uh, sitting in a room alone, uh, weeping, wondering where your life went, but still saying like, no, I need a drink. That might be bad. If a lot of people tell you, you might have a drinking problem. That's not easy for other people to say.
And it's not, I don't think it's said lightly usually. So you know who you are. And I, and I hope you take care of that. There's things you can do.
There's places you can call. I know there's some people that say, this important holiday message, depression too, get help. There's help out there. And I'm not gonna tell you what help to get.
You know, it's each to their own. If you think something's gonna work for you, try it. Just get off the shit. Get the devil out of you if you can, by any means necessary.
Just do it for a few days. See how you feel. You'll spin around. You'll freak out.
You'll get through it. People are built to adapt. Let's do a couple of corrections and then get on with it. I have a couple of corrections.
On the Brian Grazer episode, apparently a lot of people, rightfully so, uh, but folks, it's not so much that I'm getting old, but you know, I have brain farts and problems and you know, I use the wrong word. I'm not Norm Crosby level. It's not my act, but I'll fucking, I'm, you know, I use the wrong word. Like apparently the Brian Grazer episode, I use the word deliberate power, which I don't even know if it really makes any sense as opposed to delegate.
I've made note of that and I've, uh, rewired my brain to not use that word inappropriately anymore. It's not inappropriately wrong. It wasn't inappropriate. It was the wrong word.
In my conversation with Horatio Sanz, apparently we were both talking about different movies. He was talking about crank and I was talking about crank too. And we never really got resolution around that. That I was literally telling him he was wrong, but he was right and I was right.
They were just different movies. I couldn't imagine, I guess, that they would make a second one. So I thought I was seeing the only one that was pretty compelling. The other thing I'd like to direct you towards, um, you know, look, I'm not that self-serving or self-promoting really.
I do a podcast, but you know, it's usually a sort of fucked up internal wrestling match, but a guy by the name of James Parker wrote a piece on me and my show, this show for the Atlantic. The title of the piece is Mark Maron's brilliant mistakes. The star podcaster's success is rooted in his early career failure and despair. Of course, I'm going to read stuff about me, but look, I'll tell you this.
I don't Google search my name. Look, I'm not trying to appear humble or I have humility. I just don't have a Google search on my name and I don't do that shit. I wait till it gets me some other way.
So somebody sent me the link to this on Twitter the other day, and this is a well-written piece. It's like, it's got a point. It's got a context, a historical and stuff. I know it's about me, but I'm just saying that there are people that write criticism out there that are thoughtful writers and I'll take shit and I don't mind being characterized badly in a piece if there's a point to it.
And this guy, though, it's a very nice piece about me, the way he describes me, I think it was in another context or even if I was reading this wrong, I'd be like, why is he saying that about me? Like, am I really that guy? But you know what? I am the guy that he depicted here.
And I learned some things about myself and about the show because I don't think the way somebody outside of me thinks. And this guy wrote a very thoughtful, eloquent, pointed piece of criticism. See, a lot of people don't fucking understand in this culture, you know, what real criticism is and that there's a context and there's cultural relevance to it. But in order to keep their job, they write clickbait bullshit.
They write, you know, snarky reviews. There's a definite difference between a review and a piece of criticism. And real critics are real writers. Reviewers are generally any asshole.
And quickbait is cancer. Merry Christmas. Did I mention Merry Christmas? I want to make sure that's clear.
Hope you're having a good holiday. And be careful. We'll get this holiday season. Don't hurt yourself in one way or another.
Emotionally, physically. Don't hurt other people. Try. All right.
Just try. Try. Oh, wait. I just remembered something.
Before I forget, again, to promote my own thing, Marin Season 3, my IFC show, will be on Netflix starting December 28th. That's a little uplifting stuff you can have between Christmas and New Year's. You can binge watch Marin Season 3. I know some of you are waiting to get caught up.
Gets a little intense. Gets a little heavy this season. But enjoy. Marin Season 3, again, on Netflix starting December 28th.
All right. So that's, I did it. I promoted myself. I can do it.
I can do it. Right now, we're going to go to my conversation with Bob Forrest. As I said, his new album is a folk album, actually, called Survival Songs. And he is going to play a couple after our chat.
It's available now. Happy holidays. I'll talk to you after Bob. I picked up the new record today, the Survival Songs.
Yeah. It's fucking great, man. I got it yesterday, and I just started, you know, I just listened to it real close. And, like, I'm not a big lyrics guy, and I'm not necessarily, you know, I don't know how much new folk music I listen to, or whether you call it that.
Devander Barnard, you're not playing that stuff? No, man. But it really resonated with me. It seemed real honest, and some of the songs are just fucking great, man.
Well, thank you. If you look at this new record as, like, one of your best, I just want it to be in people's faces. I think that America's lost its storytelling. My dad used to tell stories, and he didn't know if half of them were true, or half of what he was telling you was true, but there's something about storytelling that, like, Suds Terkel and Gore Vidal and all these people, they used to just tell stories.
Yeah. And it's not around anymore. We don't have time. We don't have time, Bob.
We don't have time for stories. We don't have to wait until the end of this story? Yeah. Yeah.
Well, it was very compelling, so that's where it came from, is that you were writing, but it seemed like most of those things, I've talked to a lot of songwriters in here, where, you know, and I always assumed that everybody's writing from a first-person point of view. Those seem pretty personal to me. They're personal. Right.
They're my perspective of my life. So, storytelling was the inspiration. Well, it always has been. I wanted to be a poet in college, and it didn't go, you know, poetry wasn't too popular.
Yeah. That's where he turned around. But it was Mr. Bill Opportunity.
I should have stuck with that. I should have stuck with it, because I was up in San Francisco. They're going for it like crazy up there now. Well, where'd you grow up?
In here in L.A. Really? Palm Desert. Yeah.
Palm Desert. Yeah. Out there. I'm in the desert, just like you.
Desert guy. Yeah. Not like that desert. Albuquerque may be desert, but it sort of passes as a city.
I mean, Palm Desert's kind of desert. There was nothing. But that's how far is that from Desert Hot Springs? It was like 20, 30 miles.
It's fucking nuts out there. So, how the hell did you end out there? Well, I was an illegitimate child, and so my parents wanted to hide me. What?
Yeah, it was my sister's son. Really? So, your sister's how much older than you? 15 years.
So, they just... We had a vacation house down there, and I guess they just... Well, here's the sephorist story is. My dad had three daughters, and his middle daughter got pregnant at 14, and so they put her in St.
Anne's home for unwed mother's here in Silver Lake. Really? Yeah, Catholics. And my dad apparently said, because he's my dad, he's who raised me.
He said, if it's a boy, we'll adopt it. If it's a girl, it goes up to Catholic charities. Right. That's old school.
And he wanted his son, and he got one, and he spoiled me, and he was the greatest. So, do you know who your father is? I know his name, but... You never...
I've tried to track him down two or three times, and he doesn't want any contact. So, your sister's your mom? Yeah. Right.
Well, he's not in China-bound type of way, not like incest, but in a rock-and-rolly Elvis Presley way. Sure, I get it. Because she told me when she was, you know, she didn't really know about sex, but her boyfriend had a 45-player in the glove compartment of his truck. Right.
And so, you know, they park and pull that thing out, put Elvis and Jerry Lee on. They had a slide-in-the-dash 45-player? Yeah, it came out of the glove box, and a 45-player was just sitting there. So, he rigged it up.
Yeah, he rigged it up. Right. And that's how he seduced her? Yeah.
But I guess because that was... How much older are you than me? That was 0-61. So, I was early 60s, just coming out of 50s.
What she did was pretty bad news? Yeah. For the family and culturally? Well, what happened was, my family thought of themselves as some Los Angeles family, so they had a vacation house, so they just decided, you know, my mom who raised me and my three sisters and I would live in the desert house until I was like five, and then I would come back and everybody would just not notice, I guess.
Yeah, we just, you know, way to life, Jesus Christ. You know, we were on the rhythm method, we didn't know what happened. Yeah. What was your dad's business?
His thrifty supermarket. He owned them? No, he built them. Oh, he was a contractor?
Yeah. And they were famous here in L.A. because they had big T signs. Yeah?
Oh, really? He died when I was 15, but one of the great things that was touching for me is in Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays, which is one of the greatest novels written about L.A., when she's going to get her abortion. What's it called? Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion.
Okay. Right. When she's going to get an abortion, the character or whatever, they say, get on the Hollywood Freeway and go north and get off as soon as you see the big red T. That's my dad's signs.
Yeah. They're these 40-foot-tall neon signs. All gone? Yeah, they're all gone.
Wow. It's smart and final now. Not as exciting. So, all right, so you're out in the desert with your sisters and your mom, your dad's in town building shit, and what are you doing out there?
I can't, I can pick, that's not 29 Palms, Palme Desert. Palme Desert is, you know, well, years later when I went to Joshua Tree, it's very much like Joshua Tree. Right. It was very rural, there was nothing, just desert and bait trees, and we rode motorcycles and, you know, hot lizards.
You thought you had a pretty good childhood? It was great. Yeah? Yeah.
And you had some friends, because I know Josh Ami comes from that desert, what is that, desert hot spring? Yeah, those guys are much younger. No, I know. It was a city by the time they were born.
No, it was crazy out there. There's still something about desert rides and desert life. Oh, yeah, there's desert people. Yeah, right?
Yeah, I have a house out in Pioneer Town, and there's desert people. They just, they're their own breed. So weird things like drifters and eccentrics and meth heads? Yeah, antisocial, but idealists.
Right. They build shit out there? Yeah, they build art? Big ideas?
Yeah. There's guys out there, they build these huge art, like, installations with the intention of nobody seeing them. Like, out of bottles, that kind of shit. Yeah.
It's wild, man. There's something to say. Did you ever go over that Integratron thing? Yeah.
Yeah. I was living in a cave Well, he was kind of talking to aliens, I think. Right. He was trying to start some sort of commune.
Yeah. Well, everybody was back then. Yeah. Hell, yeah.
I want to start one now. and you kind of have one don't you you have a recovery commune oh the super secret society yeah that's what I like to call it secret society meetings we're not so secret on this show we keep I don't use the name I don't utter the name it's always been a problem for me I mean it'll be tricky I mean it's weird I often wonder because I miss a lot of that generation of music that you come from with the Thelonious Monster and Bicycle Thief and some of that LA music I didn't get into it until later because I wasn't out here and I was really mainstream oriented but I was wondering before you came over what would you like like Steely Dan no fuck no I love Steely Dan I'm not Steely Dan you put the one band the one band drink scotch whiskey all night long and die behind the wheel I get it I don't feel like that guy's dying and he hasn't there's not enough menace in those tunes bro there's something about it that it's so slick and jazzy and cool and the lyrics are so depressing and so on I have the records I try every so often to engage in and it's not unlike me too I do engage do you like Skinner of course I love Skinner I love Skinner I had all the records me too I liked the Stones early on in the late 70s I got a box of records with some shit in it from the record store next door to where I work as a high school kid they were like R&B focused and they had this big box of rock records they gave me like I had Elvis Costello's first record in there and what else sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking when I hear them silly things that you say that one was a gut puncher really was but other than that it's a fairly standard townie fair I had some inspiration there was a little bit of Fog Out a little bit of Fog Out a little bit of my time but certainly on the radio I had all the Skinner records I had a few Dead records I had the Stones records I had the Beatles records a lot of Bowie a lot of Bowie a lot of Bowie pretty important to me and then there was a guy at that record store who was an art rock dude turned me on to the Residence turned me on to Fred Frith Brian Eno my five year old's favorite song is Constantinople oh yeah he calls them the eyeball people and his name is Elvis after Elvis Costello oh after that Elvis good you make a differentiation oh he now he's five and he tells people oh after Elvis Costello he says no Elvis Costello yeah he was sitting right there last week Elvis Costello yeah he's got the book out yeah so that was sort of where I came from if it weren't for that guy to turn me on to the Residence and that stuff I don't know if my mind ever would have been was it Bow Wow Records no Bow Wow Records came much later we used to play there sure we used to play there with the Dalmatian spots on it yeah up on Central yeah that guy was sort of kind of dickish but he was alright he let you play there yeah no back when I was a kid it was Natural Sound next to the General Store which was a head shop oh yeah yeah it was all wooden across the street from the university I remember that play yep yep because you know I started touring in 83 Rodian for the Chili Peppers was that their first album yeah party planter oh no no no the first one was called Red Hot Chili Peppers it was only like 28 minutes long or something oh really yeah and that was with who was guitar playing was Israel no Hillel never made the first record he came back they got a guitar player named Jack Sherman he played on that record on that tour but he's insane no the wrong kind of player so how do you get from so Palm Desert did they make you go to Catholic school oh of course so you're real shit you real fucking died in the world Catholic oh yeah I'm a God-fearing atheist yeah but still God-fearing I don't believe in him but just in case I'm in a world of shit you're making up for it man I am trying to break even that's what I always say but you were brought up with a real fear of hell oh yeah for sure if you masturbate really and you went to confession and you had a priest catholicism sort of fascinates me I mean in retrospect what are your feelings about it it's changed a lot but to me it was like child cruelty you know what I mean but I tell you the funniest thing ever happened I was an altar boy and my job was to hold the tray in case the host might fall out of the mouth of one of my students because they have a mask every morning so I'm 13 12 maybe 12 and the girls always went on one side and the boys on the other side of the church that kept them all separate but in the same room of course and so I'm doing the tray and I remember like it was yesterday all of a sudden looking at these girls like that and me holding the tray I got a hard one and the priest knew it and he was like holy shit this is the greatest job ever the priest knew it of course he knew it and so you went to Catholic school and all your sisters any of them turned out to be nuns any of them no my sister mom's been married like five times your sister mom has been married five times it's like a Mormon thing what about the other sisters my one younger sister the younger of the three died from Lou Gehrig's disease two years ago it's crushing oh my god how long did that go on for like three years how old was she she was only in her early 50s that's when it came on huh yeah wow and you know when I first we were trying to find out what it is and I was standing in the nurse's station at our rehab years ago and I wrote this you know the long term thing and Dr. Drew was standing over to my right and he looked down and he goes who has that and I said my sister he goes oh fuck and I was like what is it and he goes it's known as Lou Gehrig's disease and so you know you know you're going to get sick that's the torture of it and it's one of those ones where you lose complete muscular control eventually you're just inside your body and it's not working oh my god how fucked up is that well you were sober and there for it right I was trying where was she in Huntington Beach oh she's close yeah you were trying well I was like a black sheep of the family my brother-in-laws have never really quite taken to me oh yeah and plus I know now because I've been married a few times too and that thing with girls and their brothers I fucking I don't understand it but I what is it do you know what I'm talking about they just love their brothers no matter how big of fuck-ups they are and I've been to fuck-ups for decades but the husbands didn't go for it oh they were not and it just couldn't seem to no matter how long I stayed sober did the right thing it didn't matter were they stiffs were they what do you call them they're like republicans if that's what you mean I'm trying to use an old term that sort of covers a lot I grew up in a republican land and I've been a liberal or whatever you call it what do you call it these days progressive or whatever you want progressive liberal I like when they call this commie yeah so it's a little specific now yeah broaden it out with big ten progressive progressive in thought so I remember I was watching you know my dad was watching the news and it was the Vietnam War and I was like eight or seven and I went up to the TV and it was right when they were starting to show and Cronkite wanted to show the blood of the war and so I said to my dad that's not real blood is it and he said Bobby get out of here it's none of your god damn business and I was like the real kids are getting killed this is fucked up at seven or eight I knew it was wrong now 54 I know it's wrong right you know when we feel it it's strange how obsessed and kind of you know this obsessed with war the world is and particularly the American perspective of war well after that war American got you know pretty cynical about it once they sort of started to see the truth of it and the confusing you needed a better enemy you needed a better enemy now we've got the greatest enemy of all yeah ourselves but was your dad that guy was he a monster no he was a fun guy he was a larger than life guy that kind of post-war guy golfer hunter fun dodger games did you want to play golf yeah oh yeah it was pretty good yeah what the fuck are you going to do out there I bet golf is so I was like three do you golf now no I can't do it what happened was I played in high school and college and then of course you know I found all kinds of other things more interesting things not drugs predominantly but girls yeah and about golf golf wasn't too cool I guess golf is not going to get you too popular well I guess at the time you were growing up which is a little ahead of me I mean there were two paths you know what I mean if you're going to choose the golf path it's not as cool as slog then the chicks are certainly different than the rock and roll path yeah the rock and roll thing well it was really Lenny Bruce there's the book I read it when I was 13 years old ladies and gentlemen Goldman's book I read that I went and saw Lenny at the movies did that come out in 74? that sounds about right I was 13 I went and saw it and I just became obsessed with him I always have been so wait so you go to high school you do the Catholic thing where do you go to college?
I go to college lots of different places like for years and years LACC Golden West College in Huntington Beach I faked my way into Cornell for a semester how did you do that? because it was before computers and I got financial isn't that in upstate New York? yeah yeah I had an aunt that lived up there I had to get out of LA black beauties were killing me see I remember those open them up and snort them and those yellow jackets I don't everybody talks about those I don't know what those are they have black beauties here and you can open them up and snort them and the white crosses yeah I don't remember snorting out of that I want to hear an interesting story about the Super Secret Society when I was a senior in high school I used to drink Bacardi and Coke in class I lived on my own I lived in my own apartment yeah and I'll talk about them and so my teacher my English teacher who I really liked said can I talk to you after school Bobby? and I was like okay so I came and she said do you think you have a drinking problem?
and I was like no and she goes would you be interested because I used to have a drinking problem and I don't drink anymore would you want to come and meet some people that I I forget how she phrased them and she was a lesbian so I knew she's asking me to go somewhere with her I didn't really know what lesbians were but I wanted to go where lesbians were so I went with her it was a 12-year-old meeting in Laguna Beach Chuck C was probably there I was 17 I remember thinking this is for old people you just started drinking I don't know how these people got here I like the stories and I like that old people got together and didn't drink that's another interesting thing that you bring up stories because the narrative of an AA pitch is at times the most moving thing it kills me every time I think it taught me how to feel properly me too you too? because I find an identification you get it and in that moment where AA reaches out or they find it I start getting weepy it's like there's this natural turn where this life is saved life is changed so that story thing is really cathartic but now Southern California has been perverted by rehab there's 3,000 rehabs around here so the 12-step thing nowadays those stories now become the solution I'm going to tell you how to do it which is a real problem for me I'll ask somebody I like to tell me how to do it I don't need your opinion of how to do it let me find somebody who has what I want who I identify and so it's become so solution oriented and telling people do the steps that's the sort of thing about but rehabs AA for profit so you know well I think this is an interesting point of view for someone that helped commercialize it in a way publicly and media wise and I will pay for that after I'm gone you feel that? all the things? that's what you're going to go to hell for?
so every rehab that's right you're going to die they're going to go you put celebrities on television suffering from disease of alcoholism and I was like yep how many seasons? five now you're going to hell everything else we can forgive you for stealing money out of my mom's purse no problem exploiting sick celebrities one of the worst thing I ever did I used to steal from a friend of mine that lived in Los Felis because I felt that he had a lot of things and I didn't have any so when Laserdisc first came out he had a bunch of them and they were very valuable if you remember because no one had a machine it was like a very rare thing so I'd grab like three or four and put them by the front door and take them and go sell them and get dope and one time I was selling them and it was the Lion King they had like a seven year old daughter and I was like oh and they were going through it at Rockaway over there and so they were like I go no no I don't want to sell that one because I knew it was his daughter and I was like and he says Disney it's 20 bucks I said oh okay and in the okay the rationalization of the junkie is I'm going to sell it right now I'm going to come back when things are buy it back yeah buy it back and sneak it back in so right now that's two bags right yeah so that's what you know it was the worst thing I ever did and you're fucking nodding off and there's some 70 year old girl crying where's the Lion King downtown going sorry kid priorities priorities so alright so you're drinking at 17 but like when you're how long did you fake it Cornell just like four months until they caught me well what the thing was I got both social security because my dad had died and I got financial aid how'd he die he died of suicide actually yeah was he sick yeah he was sick oh so like he took himself out yeah he had one of the first he couldn't golf he couldn't do much he couldn't eat the way he wanted he couldn't smoke he couldn't drink and he just felt like his life was over then his best friend shot himself before he killed you yeah a couple weeks before oh my god and you knew that guy too yeah Curly Einbowden one of the greatest guys ever my dad's best friend why'd he kill himself because he was having health issues too really yeah and it's still going on too proud to go through it you can drink and drug yourself crazy if you know what you're doing let's say but you hit mid 50s late 50s you're going to implode yeah right I've watched my friends in this generation I'm 54 I've watched the people that didn't go to rehab get sober because they just drink or they do dope on the weekends or whatever or do some coke and then they put coke behind them they just physically implode right around now really yeah liver can't take it heart can't take it isn't that wild it's fucked up you want it to last longer well no because I've got 16 years so I stopped when I was like what 35 or something 35 me too 35 and I've gotten enough I didn't go as hard as you but like there have been guys you know the price of dope $10 yeah well yeah I knew that that's the guy that knows that was not my thing no how did you know it was $10 I tried a couple times but it didn't stick I was lucky really you like it no I left going up and I never was a needle guy so it was all coke and weed and drinking for me and what time was it mostly going on here or in New York it was mostly I guess it would have been mostly in New York I started in college a lot of coke and then when I got out here I got fucked up on coke and I got psychotic and I had to leave I was here for a year at the comedy store hanging out with Kenison I lost my mind from coke and sleep deprivation and then I cleaned up the first time I went back to Boston where I went to school and sort of started over I get a year and a half here a year and a half there never locked into the program and I'd always pick up with the coke and booze again coke really yeah yeah I don't know it was always my thing I never knew enough about drug guys to get fucking downers like I was always a guy up all night next to a sleeping chick who was just like not on coke thinking I was going to die never had a goddamn valium connection never got into dope to come down I imagine if somebody had said like this dope if you snort this it'll take you back down it would have been a different life for me or it might have been over yeah but you know the thing about coke I had a lot of friends that were on coke just like it calmed hyper people down that's what I did to me you know you kind of lock into a weird kind of peaceful conference yeah peaceful yeah it makes me agitate I need heroin but I do that all the time so alright so you go to Cornell for four months and then you come back and your dad commits suicide that was when you were 15 so we're jumping around but I guess I'm trying to focus in on where the torture comes from well no where does it start where did you get turned on to Lenny Bruce what were you doing that sort of threw the switch well I was a lonely kind of isolated kid so the desert when you grow up in the desert there's nobody you know nobody around it's just a bunch of retired people really and so really my room was always my sanctuary that's where I'd listen to Bowie's that he started I used to the Beach Boys I loved the Beach Boys weird almost like bottomless pain I had a funny thing where he Bob Dylan played the Greek theater and I was walking in that guest thing this is in the late 80s or something and I happened to be right behind Brian Wilson and his Dr. Eugene Landy walking in that backstage area mm-hmm and Bob Dylan was standing there and I just happened to be like three feet away from Bob Dylan I'd seen Bob Dylan play and I was just at a backstage pass and Brian Wilson comes up and Bob Dylan goes hey Brian and Brian Wilson's like looking confused and he goes it's Bob it's Bob and Bob Dylan explains how they know each other really it was the weirdest thing and I think when you watch the movie that came out I think that Eugene Landy had him so doped up on medicine I don't think that's really he was that disconnected from reality it was medicine probably you know Thorazine and all kinds of crazy psychics who he was and how they knew each other and I was just sitting there like privy to this really weird rock and roll moment and that doctor right next to him so you're out of the desert you're listening to Ziggy's and where's Lenny coming Lenny came in because I saw the movie I loved movies movies is what you could do you could go see the world right down at the and you're playing Lenny Bob Foxy's Lenny and you're like who the fuck is this guy I saw Chinatown Lenny Godfather 2 those are the greatest era of movies I just watched both Godfathers back to back great Michael Corleone great man I mean like just those two generations of method guys acting the fuck out of that movie going right out I know it's crazy it's really something so I saw Lenny and just that whole world like how Lenny Bruce did with a briefcase full of magazines and books cassettes ghetto blaster tinfoil tinfoil up the windows really? every hotel that's what he would do that was your model well everybody rock and roll is a very kind of imitating thing you know what I mean and what's funny is so many people imitating Keith Richards and David Bowie you know David Bowie and his cocaine arrow when he's so thin or whatever oh yeah young Americans yeah and so a lot of it feeds off itself nowadays kids are doing it like they think John Fashante did it I've seen him look pretty bad sometimes yeah yeah he was there he was out there as far as you can go I got a record that came out not too long ago and I did not get what he was doing oh the techno stuff yeah maybe just the last record what's the last record yeah it's called Venetian Snares it's all techno where is his hat man where is he at he's at I know exactly where he's at he's at but he doesn't want to have to you know Rockett's so big and it's just like theater you have to stand in this place because the lights are programmed you play this song that way you know what I mean and he's just not that type of guy he's a hell of a guitar player he's the best and when he played with the Chili Peppers you guys go way back right way back until when John was 16 he wasn't the only sponsor for a minute yeah and then the Chili Peppers on play so you're getting into any breweries when do you first find drugs in Palm Desert how the fuck does that happen well alcohol we used to break into vacation houses you know what I mean nice yeah oh yeah oh it was like the Rivers not the Rivers Edge over the edge remember that Matt Dillon movie that's what my life was like we like you know we'd take steel golf carts because people would just park their golf carts in the breezeways they were called we didn't have garages they had breezeways we'd just unplug them and go drive around with them but the cops must have known you well yeah Bobby Forrest Tommy Paletti David Vaughan Scott Simms one of my gang was the principal's son Scott Simms so we were like a gang of hoodlums and we started really getting more and more daring like we were like 14, 15 and it was in the newspaper this vandalism stuff and one of them brought it to school they're like dude we're going to get caught and I go why'd you get that because I was the tough guy I was like dude don't fucking say a word what are you doing you know I was holding our gang together don't crumble right now and who read it anyone read?
Scott got caught the principal's son he threw everyone in the bus I played innocent like mom I don't know what they're talking about I wasn't involved in any of that so I learned yeah my parents were older they didn't know okay sonny I know Bobby you would never do that it's alright so you're drinking you're breaking into houses when's rock and roll start? well when I start playing it not playing it but I moved to LA in 1980 and I had an apartment going to LA City College and the thing that fueled me was my dad's money and social security as long as I went to college I had money to live right like you had to trust? yeah and social security and all these school loans you could just keep rolling I went to college from 79 to like 85 I think I probably had like 6 months of credits but I started you knew what you had to do yeah I started going to the clubs in Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard and then I started DJ and I told them I was a DJ and they didn't know I had a fake idea I had to create a record I played Michael Jackson a little defunct remember that band defunct? that time I met Anthony Flea because I was like a DJ on Hollywood Boulevard at the Cafe De Grande and at the Club Lingerie 1980 so what band were you seeing?
I was seeing Dream Syndicate that was the greatest band what's his name Steve Wynn? yeah with Carl Pakoda and Dennis Back what was Wynn's first name? Steve it was Steve yeah they were so great yeah Days of Wine and Roses and I like Medicine Show too yeah me too John Coltrane on the stereo baby yeah and Daddy's Girl yeah they were so good and that's Salvation Army and then Black Flag Circle Jerks that was their time yeah but I wasn't a punk rocker I never liked it that was like second wave right? yeah X Blasters yeah those slowbos right that was the greatest era did you work to me in the Rhythm Pigs?
have you ever heard of them? oh man so did you gravitate more towards that Americana stuff? yeah always rock and roll anything honest and earnest but not punk rock I didn't like the beating up people I didn't get it I like public image a lot yeah yeah but he's like a clown yeah nowadays an old clown he's got a National Geographic show doesn't he? I don't know yeah he's like a traveler they've offered him to interview and I'm just like I don't know if I can put up with it like I don't know where he's at with talking but like you watch every internet guy you know what's interesting about him?
I know a little bit about him because we have the same magic he's actually a really interesting good renaissance guy but he puts on the Johnny Rotten thing yeah it's like he raised his wife's daughter's children yeah right as his own his wife's daughter's kid yeah I'm sure he's a good guy I don't have time to try to beat down a wall of Johnny Rotten and get to the good guy I've heard you beat things down I've been a little nervous coming here I was like what is he going to get at you? well you're pretty wide open I try to be we speak the same language I don't beat too many people down sometimes I've got to push a little because you don't want the bullshit right? well yeah it's just sort of like I've got a new album out well there's some of that but also people who talk a lot publicly have a public narrative and it's not necessarily that it's a lie or that it's bullshit but they don't need me to do it so it's just a matter of engaging you know what I mean? sometimes some guys just see it as prompting prompting this and we all do it you do it I do it but there has to be a moment where we're just talking yeah that's what I think that's special about your show and the idea that you're not going to come in here and just railroad like I have a new album new movie you know I get offered a lot of people but we don't do junk interviews sometimes they'll line shit up in order to get the guests but we always sort of pretty clear it's like well this is the way we do the show so can they do this for an hour and most of the time it works out but there's no muscle you know obviously I mean you must have a bribe I always think there's a corruptibility to this town once you get on your spot here's the biggest bribe that happens my old manager Dave Becky says we interview Bob I'm like yeah fuck yeah we interview Bob Becky Becky my biggest advocate he's a great guy he's really something but that's a friend thing but there's no the weird thing is I operate in this odd space where for some reason not everybody wants to do this so there's no real move there's nothing they can gain from it other than letting me talk to people well here's my thing is that the whole world is focused on how many Twitter followers somebody has that's fading it's bullshit it was a good run for a little while but before that it was pay-per-clicks because I'm a rehab guy I know marketing it doesn't mean shit actually what gets down to it is word of mouth sure and people liking the show with a show like this where you're doing audio and you do it consistently people build a relationship with the show with me with the types of conversations we have and there's nothing to really own it's a pretty beautiful moment in media right now that if you can find your niche or you can find your area and hold your audience you can kind of run your own ship I mean there's no gates to close you know what I mean no one's going to come down I've just watched every comedian for the last 30 years fight for Johnny Carson Slott fight for this fight for Letterman fight for all that shit and all it does is it just gets more and more watered down to me it's unwatchable and these are funny people Mark you know that well that's because it's a context and they think that's they've got to honor that context and no one even gives a fuck about it anymore you know what I mean I don't know who watches pay a lot for it yeah but I mean that's starting to slow down a little bit some people believe I'm going to tell you why celebrity rehab exists you want to know because of Jay Leno I've been an advocate for drug addicts I'm a drug addict I love drug addicts I love the whole process of using and sobriety and how you get there it's my life as important to me as who played bass on Walk in the Wild Side which was my obsession in my younger life who played bass on Walk in the Wild Herbie Flowers do you know that want me to name all five members of Angel this is what Becky is so impressed by he loves the shit he loves Angel you know that band The White Kiss yes Barry Brant was the drummer Frank Amino was the singer Punky Meadows was the guitar player remember that do you remember Punky Meadows Greg Jafria the only one that went on to have a career Jafria and the bass player was Mick Jones the third Mick Jones so as obsessed as I was about music I became obsessed about addiction and drug addicts and how they get better that's where you heard out I just became obsessed with it so I really hold it in high high regard sobriety how people find it the storytelling of it so every night about 8-9 years ago the punchline on Letterman on Leno and everything was these two little girls that were obviously one was mentally ill and drug dependent and one was just a straight up drug addict little girls 19 and 17 years old Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and I was watching Leno one night and the punchline again was Lindsay Lohan and I just got so fucking pissed and I went into work the next day and I said Drew you know what America is so stupid it doesn't believe anything it doesn't see on television we need to humanize addicts on television we need to have a TV show that shows them how painful the process is how haunted they are and what it is that we do so we should just have cameras here and let a bunch of people get free treatment and have a TV show and that's what led to Celebrity Rehab I didn't want it to be Celebrity I wanted the humanness of addicts that we all know because when I used to watch Intervention I'd just be bawling because as somebody in recovery you sort of get that thing like I don't know if he's going to make it you know what I mean how about the girl remember the girl the Huffer girl I loved that episode and she would put two things of Huffer in her mouth at Walmart and shoot them and then she'd go I'm walking on sunshine she got sober she did I just loved her I remember watching it and I was single and I said I would marry that girl because I'm co-dependent too right I just learned about my co-dependent pretty recently it's a hard one to fucking hit bottom with so alright so you're listening to the music you're being a DJ and what happens you meet Flea and you meet Anthony I'm Anthony and Anthony and I saw a band called The Replacements and that you're hating oh shit that was a mess huh yeah it was a train wreck and I thought see because Anthony and Flea already had a band it was called Tony Flo and the Majestic Mayhems of Funk masters of mayhem so Flea always liked that he was a genius since he was born with music so they had this thing where Anthony rapped and a band called What is This which was Flea, Hillel and Jack Irons played behind Anthony rapping and they were all like cool great musicians and Anthony's super handsome and cool and so it was just like well people like me don't play music but then when I saw The Replacements I was like hey hey hey people like me play music and you play more the kind of music you like yeah and so so that was very inspiring I went home that night and I called a bunch of friends I said well I want to form a band and slowly you know The Lonely's Monster was born out of seeing The Replacements and when did The Dope start?
I was scared of The Dope I did it one time with Top Jimmy and then I was scared of it you shot it? yeah first time I was like 19, 1980 and I was just scared of it and I stayed clear of it and then Anthony and Flea were really into coke and we didn't come down we came down two or three days later and we'd eat watermelon because I thought watermelon is like saline solution it'll purify you you have the weird hangover cures yeah watermelon and sleeping and listening to Graham Parsons Grievous Angel that was our process that's a hard come down we play cribbage me and Anthony play cribbage we eat watermelon and listen to Graham Parsons that's how we came down you guys have been up for a few days make note of that system and then get to a meeting and then you know slowly about 85, 86 is where dope starts coming I had a girlfriend that did dope and I was like I was scared clear of it and that was the first album yeah when our first album came out is when I just started doing it in 85 we made it and so you know and it was just like a weekend warrior type thing I didn't do it all the time mostly drinking was my primary problem always has been really and the first record like unlike which was the first one Baby You're Bumming My Life Out in a Supreme Fashion so that record was a little all over the place stylistically right yeah we were trying to be lounge lizards but we weren't good enough so it came out this hybrid hodgepodge of blues and I don't know what and so slowly because our live show was pretty dangerous because I was kind of obsessed with Darby Crash oh you were but you didn't like punk but you were obsessed with him I liked him I liked his lyrics were you able to see him no I saw the Darby Crash band but not the germs like right before he died yeah right before he died a couple weeks a couple months before yeah so you liked his performance chops yeah I just liked his whole loose floppy yeah spontaneously aggressive like Jim Morrison it was more like Jim Morrison than what it was like anything else well he's definitely in his own time zone yeah he's definitely yeah and he couldn't sing and he couldn't really keep time oh you could sing I learned how to sing you know I sang in choir in Catholic school and you listened to David Bowie that's all you need that's all you need Elvis Costello people ask me all the time how do you really learn how to sing and I say get like the first four Elvis Costello records and play them in your car and sing along and eventually you'll know how it works Imperial Bedroom Imperial Bedroom it's unbelievable yeah he's a hell of a singer so then you do I guess most people know you for Beautiful Mess that was the big record Tom Waits song on there is that on that one yeah but how do you know Waits because that's Waits in what is it that's 92 so that's where's Waits at in his journey he's about to make Bone Machine because he called me I became acquaintance with him or friends I don't know why I saw him at Keith Richards show so it's right after Heart Attack and Vine when everything breaks apart no he made Rain Dogs oh he did Rain Dogs okay and he had done and then he was trying to reinvent that's when it really got weird he thought Rain Dogs was wearing Swordfish Trombone Waits at your Bone Machine so he called me one day and I pick up the landline and I go hello and he goes Bone Machine and I was like Tom and he goes Bone Machine and I was like what what's going on and he goes what's the first thing that comes to your mind and I was like because you always want to answer right for Tom Waits and I was like I don't know like a car made out of bones and he goes oh shit and then Kathleen was there his wife and she said what did he say and I heard her say that and I was like I knew I said the wrong answer he thinks a Bone Machine is a human body it's a Bone Machine you know I tried to answer it right it was like his version of Meat Puppet I got the sense that he wanted to call you a Bone Machine and she did not let's call Bob you know a cross section of their acquaintances to see what the reaction was I guess I got enough on the percentage for Kathleen to lose that one he was over at my house here in Mount Washington one time and I bought that record that he got ripped off by so bad by that company he got ripped off really bad early on in his career and Island released or not Island Asylum released some greatest hits thing and I just bought it and it was in my house and he came in and he goes what's this and I said it's got Martha on it and he opened my front door and threw it out the front door so he came into my life for like a year and a half two years and then he just disappeared to Roseville but I went up there and recorded with him are you guys still friends yeah I mean I see him he's very reclusive I know I know I was a huge weights fan man in high school that's another guy I didn't mention in that box of records I told you about was Nighthawks at the Dyer and I was like holy fuck what is this I used to wear that hat like he had on the cover I'd wear shirts like his I dressed like weights probably my sophomore year of high school there you go man yeah he was my guy for a while I was like how can you be this fucking funny and this fucking cool and playing this old style music so great it was fucking amazing it was amazing so I was peeing next to him at the Keith Richards show at the Palladium and I looked over and I was kind of drunk and I said oh my god Tom Waits and he goes oh my god Bob Forrest and I go how the fuck do you know who I am and I almost peed on him and I was like I almost fainted and he goes I go see Thelonious all the time and then we were in the bathroom and I was like what I would hear that if you were at our show and he goes let me tell you something I was at a show a couple months ago and you and the drummer just went at it physically physically you decked him and he knocked you over and then you just walked back to your places and continued on is that real hostility or is that some sort of stage thing and I said no I fucking hate him and he goes that's what I thought and that's when you met Tom Waits it was so cool he called me one time he said you want to go to the Wilton and see this bald chick and I was like what so now you're doing dope your first record's out you're finding your groove because by the time Beautiful Mess comes out you definitely have a style it's not punk rock it's sort of like pop Americana but good right time yeah so when did you get strung out bad bad was a little before Beautiful Mess I got this solo deal with RCA and they gave me back in the day they used to give you a lot of money and they thought you could be a star even the sweating guy look at the sweating guy a couple hundred thousand dollars it was crazy the guy with no pupils let's give him some money I literally went from like you know living in this one bedroom house on Fountain to like living in the Hollywood Hills and doing whatever the fuck I wanted and it was crazy that's bad that's a bad deal and that was the deal for Beautiful Mess no well no it was for the solo deal that never came out I made the most horrible record ever made do you have the tapes yes I do how are they my mom has my sister mom I sometimes listen to them when I'm in Oklahoma that's where she is now she's in the witness protection program that's a whole nother story really yeah she went there she married a coke dealer and then he turns evidence against the Bonanno family and they had to get out is she still married to him no they divorced but she stayed out there she likes it she's got to stay in the program huh she's got to stay in the witness protection program no no it was just to get away high lay low but that's why she went out there 20 years ago and she stays out there she's born in LA what happened to the dude he's still around he's a good guy he's married to somebody else has a bunch of kids so the curse is off him though yeah the curse is off him wow holy shit alright so you make a shitty solo album you're all fucked up on heroin you're living up in Texas that's why I go to my first rehab because the girl I was dating's dad was sober and he was like what's that 87 88 87 yeah and so I went to Hazelden I remember they did this kind of intervention on me but I knew it was coming because I'd been working on an album for a year and I had nothing and so you know I went to this restaurant that's why I went to my first rehab I went to Hazelden but they said they wanted me to go to this one in LA and I said I'm not going to one in LA I'll just leave I know myself and I said listen I read in the National Enquirer that Elizabeth Taylor went to some rehab in Minnesota I want to go to that one that's why I chose my first rehab the National Enquirer yeah because I was so much like Liz sure maybe you can hang out maybe you can come up there so that was a great experience that's when rehab really worked I knew when I walked out of Hazelden 33 days later I knew what the problem was I knew that I had it I knew it was a disease I knew what to do about it I just didn't want to do anything about it how long did you take over? about 8 months yeah what pulled you back? I'm an atheist so it's kind of hard I go to meetings every day but you got hung up on you got hung up on the God thing that's so much the mental ticket out for guys who get it I get it yeah yeah yeah and so nowadays I just regardless of what people believe we're all doing the same thing we just keep doing the same thing I have a two step program if you'd like to join it more sure what is it?
be cool and don't use be cool is a big damn thing there's a lot of things driving in a meeting occasionally that's being cool helping out driving people to meetings to pick them up at rehab the God thing some guy said something that just sort of works for me God doesn't wake up and think he's you alright that's a good one that's enough you haven't heard that one how often do you hear one you haven't heard after that one 19 years holy fuck alright so you get it over the first time but you were able to what you were in and out I knew that it was the solution I just wasn't you know I met a great counselor her name was Gloria Scott years later in rehab and I said why is it so hard for me to catch on to this simple shit that's a good one pride's a fucking bitch I was scared of what it is and I also thought sobriety was going to be boring you know that's what a lot of young people think these days it turns out it's fucking insane it's really hard to go through a month or a year if you think in terms of what using is I talked to a guy it was an interesting moment I've tried to explain it a couple times but it doesn't quite resonate I know a guy's on medicine and he's on bipolar medication they gave him some Klonopins to self-medicate when shit got out of hand in case the Lamicto wasn't working so you know basically the prescription was when you need to feel better take one of these if you're going either way I need to feel better all the time that's what he said he said you take one and it's like of course this feels better that's going to feel better always here's my thing is when Lenny Bruce was doing dope there was probably one tenth of one percent of the population was doing dope nowadays a third of the population is doing dope it's not outlaw it's not outside the norm is mainstream your mom and your grandma are on drugs addictive deadly destructive drugs they may be coming from Walgreens instead of Chewy but they're the same thing so when you roadied first for the Chewy Pepper and they were just your buddies I started as a manager then I became the road manager then I became the roadie then I was fired completely by my best friends you guys are all still friends everybody's sober it's weird right it's amazing the funny thing is we used to talk about it a lot and talk about it less now and gone round and round about it whether it helps or hinders one of the things I think was 16 and 19 I think that discourages people to think they could be sober and live a happy fun life not on drugs a lot's been made about my sobriety it's like the first 7-8 years felt so purposeful and I felt so connected to new people and as the years have rolled on I try to be there and present with them but it's a big distance I don't know lately I guess we can just talk freely about it I get to a point where I get pretty dry and I can see it and I can feel it no matter how many good things are going on like there's that weird thing like I just become relatively successful in the last few years and I'm still uncomfortable and I still get angry and I still have very little patience so my gratitude situation is not in a good place and then I get that weird dry aggravated oh why don't I have something and then I'll go to a meeting and I'll talk to a new guy I just started talking to a new guy and I'm like holy shit I know how this works and it feels pretty good to tell someone else how I did it or to be present with them that's what I like when I really connect with somebody and it's a couple of years process really where you really like become this closeness you know it's not every sponsee but it's once in a while it's pretty magical and I always say there's three states of being in relation to AA you're entering into it you're fully engaged in it or you're leaving it what's great about it is if a new person has somebody who's leaving and they really connect they both immediately become fully engaged in it that to me that saves me time and time again then that lays the foundation here's the weird thing that I always tell these guys it's like just fucking make it your own don't get hung up on who's doing it right or whether you're doing it right or which guy's like shoving what down your throat and how to do it and when to do it you're speaking my language because I was always the aggravated guy at every year at every juncture to this day I'm not comfortable I'm grateful to be sober and I don't want to live any other way the woman who brought me in used to say this thing where she'd be like the only step you have to work perfectly is the first one and I believe that and I believe meetings will keep you sober but I also know that I can't play this thing by the rules I understand how to make these steps my own and also how to integrate them into my life so I can own them you gotta own that shit you wanna get really technical about it there's a sentence in the book that says this is a design for living a bridge back to the real world that suggests that AA is not the real world that we're supposed to go out and practice this shit with the people down the street here with you know that's like the old Buddha saying easy to be spiritual on a mountaintop hard down in the village right right right that's where and also I get very defensive when these articles start coming out about why AA is a cult or why it's like no it's not but yeah but no one's making any money it's a benign cult it's a benign cult nobody's in charge of it doesn't make any money I had a guy say this yeah exactly but the thing is don't fucking tear it down if you offer nothing in return don't go if you don't have the bug and it's not for you he's a concierge or something it's not a priest but it's something and he's all into that like fine it's dope anymore good for him some guy used to tell the story about how he told his sponsor early in sobriety he's like yeah I don't want to fucking get brainwashed and his sponsor said your brain needs washed Gloria Scott said that that's the other thing there used to be champions of storytelling you know what I mean I went to try and drink a six pack of beer in the AMI and see what happened you know what happened nothing then I'm walking out there's a third garden at the old I'm walking out about a hundred people said keep coming back I'm going to get thrown out it's not so bad they absorb everything and the showboats who have a new way or a different way there was a while there in New York in San Francisco there was this subgroup coming around called the transmitters and they would sit there and they would inventory constantly it was like every five minutes they were inventorying and they thought they were going to do a branch off group and people were kind of panicking at first and it's just like it's like democracy in a way it's like they'll go away just come and go yeah they'll filter out but okay so when did you get sober for real and how did Beautiful Mess what was the thing that leveled your career in the band well the band ended they got tired of me but did the record company fuck you no no no it was all good we were actually doing the best we had done when we kind of broke up it was in Europe and I'd ruin this big tour because you were fucked up yeah really fucked up was that where there's stuff on YouTube yeah yeah yeah well that's one show but it was just a one time I didn't even go to our show I went and saw Guns N' Roses at another place and I forgot that we were playing did you shoot up right before you went on no I mostly smoked crack I was always pretty high from heroin so I needed something to pick me up and I'd play and I'd drink while I play and then I'd do dope when I got back to the hotel oh yeah it's a constant self-medicating but it's interesting because I have to assume that I watch some of this stuff and it seems to me that you must have informed Cobain a little bit just thinking stylistically and it felt that did anyone say that yeah you know I feel sad because we were a generation that was very positive about celebrating you know debauchery and then I think the casualties came in that next generation which were Kurt and Shannon Hoon and Brad Knoll from Sublime I think they looked up to us they were like five I think they were like five or seven years younger than us we were already bands that had records when I say we I'm looking at Anthony Perry and me we were pretty obvious he's great he's like Mr. Husband oh yeah we've seen him with his wife and kids it's really weird he and I were at the what was it called the Tony Hawk Foundation luncheon the other day with our kids and like that's just so weird well yeah you're lucky you got older you had kids late right yeah well I have a five year old and a 28 year old where did the 28 year old come from from you know that era oh yeah from the old vagina yeah that's how it happened but you know I tried to be a dad and wasn't very good at it and then when I got sober he was eight and he moved in with me we got a good relationship yeah he lives in Baltimore yeah he wanted to get out of LA oh that's smart it was weird he's a musician and all of us tried to help me he didn't want our help is he still a musician? oh yeah he makes a lot of records kids nowadays they make records every six months what's his band? he's called The Terrors and well he doesn't like you to say the because here's an interesting thing so we always say the terrors but it's just terrors so Anthony talks about him in Rolling Stone magazine I say did you see Anthony he talks about you in Rolling Stone and he's like I don't know who he was talking about he was talking about the terrors I don't know who that is I was like you are such a prick tell your friend to get it right dad so after Beautiful Mess and everything you did a couple solo albums and mostly focused on sobriety yeah I just started working I made the Bicycle Thief record and I toured that and it was just kind of ran its course and then I thought I'm like 40 years old what the fuck am I going to do hopefully I'll live 30 more years there wasn't a lot of roadmaps of musicians like what do you do?
were you bitter? no no I was pretty content the Bicycle Thief did pretty well so I was financially sound and I was just like wondering but wondering what the fuck am I going to do? am I just going to go to Tropical and wear rock and roll t-shirts and be 50 years old? be the legendary sober guy?
yeah and so Anthony said why don't you go down and volunteer at MAP and so that's what I did and that's how I got into the racket you know there was this thing called Musician's Assistance Program and it was just the greatest thing paid for hundreds and thousands of musicians to go to treatment and it was this brother and sisterhood and it just was a magnificent thing it became Music Cares which is kind of a corporate kind of thing and your relationship with Drew started how? I took some of my clients I started working at this place the first fundraising and then running groups and I really liked it and I went they needed extras for this Bill Madden Science guy show about addiction and Drew was the host of it and I'd known him from the 80s being on the radio and he kept looking at me and afterwards he said what's your name? and I said I heard that you died and I said well I certainly did not and he said you need to come and work with me so then about a year later when math dissolved into music and I went and worked with him and history is made well you know I learned a lot from that I mean he helped me grow up a lot if it wasn't for him and this other doctor Dr. Blum they gave me a dictionary and said there are other words in the English language than fuck and so they challenged me you know and they mentored me and I kind of but you got out without the hep?
I get the hep oh you did? yeah you know I've been in remission or like low bio counts I don't qualify for the medicine oh because I got a medicine now I heard I heard Blue Cross PPO doesn't have the same criteria as mine so I might switch when the next Obamacare thing comes around yeah yeah just in case but I'll switch to Blue Cross PPO and they'll say we don't pay for that anymore if you're healthy so you've been alright with it I've been alright when I go in to get sonograms or viral counts they just like they can't believe how low it is you know I've been told a long time I try to eat right I don't smoke but eventually it'll catch up with you I just couldn't do the interference you know I was so yeah Well I knocked my friend Harold out And then it didn't cure him And I thought fuck He had six months of that shit And then it doesn't work Now this new drug Is so magical But it costs so much Right Well maybe eventually It'll lower a little bit Yeah I've got you So do you have your own Rehab center? Yeah I got this place out In Malibu called Acadia It's all insurance driven But I used to own it And I kind of sold it To my partners I'm trying to play music Well yeah well this new record It's good You want to play some? Yeah I'll play Okay What are you going to play?
I figured I was going to play Two songs Play the first song And the last song What about the serial song? You want to play that And good Keith Richards And Lanny Bruce And all of them Well I give up now Yeah But sometimes I'll get sad Or I'll get mad About where I should be now And where I am And I want to go back to them But what has it gotten me? Just some teeth I can't chew My favorite serial with Yeah where has it gotten me? 35 years old now Wash dishes in a restaurant Well my friend Robert Well he can't stop And his knees are falling out He's living at his mom's And it's no fun I guess it's lucky I'm alive They say it's lucky I'm alive Cause I should be dead Well I have been dead But I'm not no more And what did you get me?
Just some teeth I can't chew My favorite serial with Yeah where has it gotten me? 35 years old now Wash dishes in a restaurant Well hell Oh hell And cocaine And cocaine I love them both Yeah I love that one That worked? Yeah it sounds great Oh thanks That was fun What other one do you do? I've been trying to do them all I play them You know but uh The one I really like is You know people always ask you Don't they ask you like What have you learned From being sober all this time What's the wisdom I'm like fuck I'm just barely Getting through the day today Totally real Don't use Be cool You guys on?
It's like when I was in my best state Of like thinking I knew something There'll be peace in the valley When there's peace in my heart But the road gets so winding That you just get lost My friends let me tell you As dumb as it sounds Well kindness is everything And love is all there is Well kindness is everything And love is all there is Truth Chaos and beauty Truth Chaos and beauty Religion and philosophy Can't teach you to hate But the sun's coming up again Another baby gets born Kindness is everything And love is all there is Well kindness is everything Love is all there is Truth Chaos and beauty There'll be peace in the valley When there's peace in my heart But the road gets so winding That you just get lost But kindness is everything And love is all there is Well kindness is everything And love is all there is Water That sounded great man It's crackly but it's alright It's alright What do you want to do? You good? Yeah I'm good Thanks for having me Yeah man it was great to see you Glad you're doing well And I love your record Glad to be here Did we cover it all? Oh yeah I think so So a podcast right They say well yeah that was good And then we'll tighten it up Where does tightening it up come from?
It's got to be a sexual term Well it used to mean I think getting tight And getting high At some point But tighten it up means You know just Because I think Archie Do the tighten up Tighten up y'all I guess it's been used A lot of different ways But I think it just means We'll tighten it up Alright man Tighten it up I hope that was exciting And interesting and inspiring And again Don't be afraid to ask for help There's help out there Save your life if it needs to be saved And you have the will To at least pick up a phone Or go get some help If you need help Or whatever it is There's no shame in it Merry Christmas I love you all Most of you Some of you I don't Some of you I tolerate But that's mature Tolerance is a mature And decent thing to do I love you all right now It's fading though Now I'll stick in I'll stay in Happy holidays Boomer lives