Denis Leary

But you produced Blow? I produced Blow, yeah, yeah. That's crazy, that's like one of the, that's such a fucking classic. I know, but- What a classic. He's from the characters from Boston. So, that's where I'm from. So, I knew of him, and then he, right when I became famous, he got out from his first stretch in prison and he wrote the book. And I got a copy of the book and I said, I'm buying this, I'm gonna make it into a movie. I was making the ref with Ted. What a cool- I know. A cool story. I know. Fucking, he was an amazing character. He just- Did you like talk to him, hang out with him? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, how? I used to go to visit him in prison. We took Johnny, he was back in prison by the time we were getting ready to shoot. So, we had to take Johnny Depp into prison because he got out, he wrote the book, he's free. And then he tried to do, like in the movie, he tried to do, I'm gonna do this big marijuana deal, set a coke, I won't get- It'll be okay. And he got caught and went away. Oh my God. I mean, yeah, what a story. I don't have bad times, I don't wanna have bad. How old are your kids? My kids are, my daughter's turning 18 on Sunday. Shit. So, my daughter's 18 and my son is 16. Oh, wow, fuck, I thought they were younger than that. You would think, but- Crazy, wow. Man, they grow up fast. Yeah, my kids are all growing up. How old are your kids? My, we had our kids young, my son's 35, my daughter's 33. My son is a producer, he runs my production company now. That's cool. He took it over a few years ago and he actually, this show that I'm pushing here today, The Going Dutch Show. Yeah, Going Dutch. That was a project he developed. So, this is his first, Going Dutch is your son's first real swing at creating, producing- It's his first executive producer gig where that I'm in. Wow. So, he's my boss. Wow. Unset. How's that? It's actually great, because I trust his taste. He's a talented kid. So, I was my daughter. My daughter's a TV writer. She's, she works with so many other people. She started on John Stewart's show. Oh, wow. The Daily Show, yeah. That's cool. I know. That's about the coolest gig. It's like, it's, I trust both the kids, right? Because first of all, I'm getting old, right? So, I have to go to them and go like, is this cool? Is this not cool? They're like, it's not cool. Do you fuck with this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So, on the set, he's got a great sense of humor. He's a funny guy. He'll just, and we do a lot of improv, you know, from the pages. And we have multiple cameras going, because when we start improvising, everybody's on camera. He'll just come in and go like, that was great guys, Dennis, that sucked. Yeah. I don't know what you're doing. They're trying something else. Or he'll come in and go, hey, Dennis, that was funny. Let's stay on that. So, he'll pull me aside. Does he have to call you Dennis in front of people? Or does he call you dad? He calls me Dennis. Oh my God. That's awesome. So, he's so pro about it. I didn't tell him that. He's a professional. He fucking pulls me aside sometimes when he goes like, listen, motherfucker, you can't say motherfucker to her. I just, I don't think, I'm just like, that's just the way I talk. Yeah. He's like, you can't say fucking cunt to those people. Yes. I said, but I didn't even know what I was saying. He's like, I know it's in between takes, but they're getting offended. And I'm like, fuck. Why are they offended by cunt? He's like, because they're young. All right. So, I'm like, I'll fuck it. It's a generational thing. It's a generational thing. That's so funny. That kid's taste of music is so good that when I did rescue me, and we came to do the title sequence, and we were trying to find a song. And like famous artists were sending us songs, you know, to try to use as the theme song. And my son was 14 at the time. And he came to me, I said, I need something fucking energetic that sounds like you're driving to a fire. Yeah. And we were looking and looking and people like fucking David Crosby, people were sending him fucking songs they wrote. Yeah. Or had just recently written that they, and they didn't click. And he goes, listen, there's a fucking band called the Von Bondes. You don't even know who they are. They're brand new. And they have a song called Come On, Come On. That's the theme song. And I was like, this is fucking, he's 14. I'm like, let me see. That's cool as shit. I hear the first eight bars and I go, this is the fucking theme song. That's really cool. I have the same experience with my kids. They just are up on the shit that's happening and what's going on. Also, I think because they are growing up around the makers of entertainment and art, they're like pretty cultured. Like they're up on shit and they have tastes. Like they have opinions on like what's good, what's not on a pretty high level, I actually think. So I always listen when my kids like, yo. Well listen, it's a, well, you probably know this now from your kids, right? And from, it's not like when we were coming up or when you were coming up and I'm fucking, I'm way older than you. I'm 68, how old are you? I'm 46. Okay, I can't believe you're 46. Fuck, damn. I can't believe I'm 68. But 68 is great. I know it is great. It's fucking great. Let me tell you something. It's fucking great. I feel like it's great. It's fucking great. Apparently 82 and 84 are great looking at McCartney and fucking Mick Jagger. I mean, he's Christ. I saw a guy who was 80 the other day playing golf and he's a fucking really good golfer and he's like, he'll kick your ass. And I'm not a lifelong golfer. I just started the last couple of years and I really enjoy it. But I was like, God damn, 80 looks fucking nice. I know, but here's the thing. You got, you have to, you gotta fucking just stay alive. I sing in my fucking truck when I'm driving every fucking day. I sing, I go to a playlist, I fucking love, I love music or whatever. I'm always finding out if my kids is or a new thing. You gotta stay alive. You gotta move forward. What's your playlist like on a normal day? It's so crazy. It depends on if I'm, if I have to sing cause I still do a couple of concerts every year for charity, stand-up concerts. And I have to do the asshole song cause my fans, right? Classic. We were just talking about that. Yeah, yeah. So like if I'm, and I'm mostly acting, that's what I've been doing. I haven't done a stand-up tour in like 15 years cause my schedule's so crazy, but I have to be able to sing at least that song. And then if I have somebody on like Conan one of my charity gigs or, you know, one of the ones I do is from Michael J. Fox's foundation for Parkinson's and it's heavy rock and roll. So it's a couple of, it's me hosting couple of comedian friends and then like a big fucking surprise rock guest like fucking the who or Stevie Nicks or whoever, right? And usually we have to sing a fucking song with them or they sing, they sing along to, you know, whatever. So I have to be able to fucking sing. So I keep my, I warm up my voice by a certain playlist of songs that match me. I can sing in Jagger's register. That's kind of my fucking wheelhouse. So those songs are good for me to drive around and sing to, but I also just like to fucking, you know, but it's not like the old days where you found out like you don't find out from the sources you did when we were coming up on TV or the radio. It doesn't work anymore. So it's all streaming. And that's what film doesn't exist anymore. And the movies, it doesn't happen. It's four movies a year, get business in the theaters. It's all streaming. And music now is all fucking. All streaming. All streaming. So that's how you find out or you from Instagram or your kids go, you got to listen to this song, right? Or your musician friends go, you got to fucking check out this new band or artist. So that's basically how we find out everything. But you're a rock guy. I'm everything. A little bit everything. Basically rock. Yeah. But I'm mostly rock, but I like, I grew up where I grew up a lot of country was. Yes. So I rejected country most of my life. And then as I got older, I found myself listening to country. And I was like, God, I, from the fucking listening to what my dad listened to when I was a kid. What are you listening to from a country that you like? Everything from old stuff. I love like the highwaymen. And I love Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain. Yeah. Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash. Fucking Chris Christopherson. Chris Christopherson. But then I love Wailing Jennings. Wailing Jennings. Wailing Jennings. But then I love Luke Combs. So I got to know Luke and I was a fan of his music. And I met him. And now obviously he's become the. What about fucking Chris Stapleton's voice? Love Chris Stapleton. I'm crazy. Tyler Childers. Fucking Brad Paisley. But I love country. I know this. Listen, I've always loved, I didn't grow up with country music. My dad was a musician, even though he came to this country and he was a mechanic by trade. He played. Where'd he come from? My parents come from Ireland from the same village. My dad was very musical. It was genetically in his family. And so he played in Irish bands on the weekend for weddings and dances and stuff. In Boston? Yeah. And in Worcester. From Worcester. And in New York. Cause I had cousins in New York. So I ever, almost every weekend when I was a kid, he was playing in bands. That's how I saw show business. And then he would play in the apartment. They would, after a wedding or whatever, people would come back to the apartment. He would play and there was always lots of music. My dad loved the Beatles and Bing Crosby. He loved Dean Martin and, you know. So one of my, my baby sister became a fiddle player. So she played Irish music with him. And so we were always exposed to that. I got exposed to so much music through them. Like just what they were playing in the house cause they always had music going. And then, you know, as a kid, it wasn't really the Beatles for me. I was a little too young for that, but it was fucking Rolling Stones first. And then my life changed the day, the first time I saw David Bowie. Oh yeah. I was like, what the Aladdin saying? I was like, my brother and I were like, what the fuck is this? This is fucking cool. That completely changed my fucking world. Yeah. I was like, holy fuck. First of all, great fucking songs, but the fucking, the way he reinvented himself, that took me right from Rolling Stones right into another world, you know? Yeah. Well, I think Bowie was one of the first ones to create, to kind of show the theatrical creative side on stage with rock music that was like, he was wearing crazy stuff and he was the makeup and stuff. I think it was like a, without Bowie, there wouldn't be a Lady Gaga. No. You know what I mean? People completely underestimate like his voice. He was a fucking great singer. Incredible. He had a fucking amazing voice. Incredible. Yeah. Incredible voice. Yeah. In the songs. It's what he did on that last album. And I know to this day, there are certain people that say, he wasn't writing about his own death. He was writing about it. He knew he was dying. Right. He might die. The fucking songs and the videos to those songs from that fucking album, are you fucking kidding me? It's really truly to me like the highest level of art when someone's expressing that. You know what I mean? Dude. And I met him once. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I imagine you've met everybody. I've met so many of my heroes. A lot of cool people. I went on tour with the Stones in 94. No way. Yeah. In 94, it was the Voodoo Lounge tour. And you remember Ted Demi? Yeah. Ted Demi was a famous director at MTV. He did my MTV spots. He was the guy who created Yo! MTV Raps, which was the first introduction of hip hop on MTV. But great guy. One of the funniest human beings ever. We worked together. We did the ref together, the movie. He did No Cure for Cancer and my MTV spots. We ended up doing Blow. I produced Blow. He directed it. You know, so he was my partner in crime, right? I look crazy, dude. I know. So I was at home and like the song, and again, I love the Stones. But you produced Blow? I produced Blow. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. That's like one of the, that's such a fucking classic. I know. What a classic. He's from the characters from Boston. So I'm, that's where I'm from. So, you know, I knew of him. And then he, right when I became famous, he got out from his first stretch in prison and he wrote the book. And I got a copy of the book and I said, I'm buying this. I'm gonna make it into a movie. I was making the ref with Ted. What a cool. I know. A cool story. I know. Fucking, he was an amazing character. He just reached you. Did you like talk to him, hang out with him? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, how? I used to go to visit him in prison. We took Johnny, he was back in prison by the time we were getting ready to shoot. So we had to take Johnny Depp into prison because he got out, he wrote the book, he's free. And then he tried to do, like in the movie, he tried to do, I'm gonna do this big marijuana deal, set a coke. I won't get it. It'll be okay. And he got caught and went away. Oh my God. I mean, yeah, what a story. But Depp did such a fucking great job playing. Yeah, he was great in that movie. Anyways, I got a phone call at my house and my agent goes, listen, five minutes, Mick Jagger's gonna call you and I go, fuck off. He goes, I just got a phone call. It sounds like Mick Jagger and I gave him your number. So I'm like, dude, somebody's fucking with you. Like I have so many friends who are voiceover guys and cartoon animation guys, one of my best friends from growing up. He was a voice, so I wait, the phone rings and I hear it. And I literally, my friend Chris Phillips is a famous voiceover guy. He does such a great Mick. It sounded just like him. So he said, I can't do a British accent. And he's like, hey man, this is Mick Jagger. And I was like, Chris, go fuck yourself and I hung up. Right? And then it fucking rang again a couple minutes later. And that's when I went up and he was like, listen, dude, you know, we're gonna go on tour. We don't wanna do a regular documentary. So I'm gonna invite a couple of different people to pitch me an idea. I wanna do a documentary combined with some kind of a storyline, but so that the band doesn't feel like it's just a story about us on stage again. So he had different people come in and pitch. So John Apichow and Ben Stiller went in. I went in with Ted. I don't know what happened. We got the job. Wow. So the idea was we were gonna travel with them that summer because we were both off, me and Ted. Yeah. And hang around with them and see what we would do. So the first time we met Mick Jagger, it was just fucking crazy. It was crazy. It's Mick Jagger. And then he's like, they weren't getting along him and Keith at the time. Oh wow, that's great. So it was at rehearsal. What's that like? It was, when we talked to him for like 10 minutes, he's like, listen, I want you guys to know, you know, whatever you need, blah, blah, blah, and everything. And he was so cool. Yeah. And we were nervous. Mick doesn't like the idea. So you have to go, you have to go pitch the idea to him. And we were like, what do you mean? With you? And he's like, no, no, I'm not with Mick. He's in his dressing room right now, waiting to talk to you guys. So we're like, we have, so we're walking down the hallway going like, they're not talking to each other. How are we gonna do this? How are we gonna do this? So we go in there. I love Keith walking. Man, this is so crazy. Keith and Ron are in the same dressing room. And as I'm coming in, some guy told him we're coming in, right? They're playing the opening chords to the asshole song. Yeah. They're just like, I'm fucked. And he literally goes like, man, how did you write that song? What is the, what are the chord changes? Do we have it? And I'm like, I can't believe I'm fucking talking. That was a, that. What the fuck? Are you kidding me? Yeah. So, and then he said, flat out, he goes, listen, I'm not fucking doing, I don't do any acting. I'm not doing any fucking acting. You guys want to make this documentary. And he wants to do some fucking behind the scenes shit with some scenes. I'm not doing that. Shoot me all you want on camera. You want to interview me, whatever. I'm not, I'm not a fucking actor. I'm not doing it. Do you tell him, like, so now we realize we have to, we're going to be going back, which we did the whole fucking summer. We'd go back and forth. We go and tell Keith. No, I'm not doing that. Wow. It was so crazy. But here's the craziest thing. Later on the tour, they said when we were going to Washington because they were going to open in Washington. So the opening week, we're going to rehearse at RFK stadium, as it was called at the time. Yeah. And they said, they're so cool. They said, we're taking over this whole hotel. So you tell your family members, any friends or family members that want to come down for the opening night, they can stay at the hotel, hang out with us, you know, back at the hotel. We were like, how many people? How many ever will you want? So we flew in like, I've got my brother to come. I got my fucking wife to come. And my friend Chris Phillips, I just mentioned, I brought him because he's Stone's freak. And the first night of rehearsal, we went back to eat at the hotel with the band. And I walk in, I tell my brother, like, do not fucking bother. Fuck it. He's the biggest Stones fan. I'm like, don't fucking bother Mick Jagger or fucking Keith. Just be cool. Like don't fucking corner people. Chill. Yeah. And don't ask for shit to be signed. Be cool. Don't get anything. Yeah, be cool. And I'm with my brother and we're talking to Mick. And he's literally, this is why they're so great. He walks up and he goes, do you guys watch the whole rehearsal? My brother's like, oh yeah. And I was like, what did you guys think about? Should we switch the Sam cover at the top and maybe do? And my brother's, I'm like, I can't believe he goes, because I don't think we should open necessarily with it. It's only a rock and roll. What did you think? And my brother goes, oh, well, I don't know. And I go, I thought it was great. He goes, yeah, but I mean, think about it. Like he really was, he wanted us to give an opinion. And I look over and my friend Chris is sitting at a table where where Keith and Ron are eating together. And I'm like, I gotta go fucking tell this guy not to bother. I gotta go. Yeah. So I walk over and I go, hey, what's going on guys? And Keith goes, I was just asking him about how you guys wrote asshole. And he was telling me about the night and his court changes. And I was like, what the fuck? Where am I? Where am I right now? They were so fucking cool. And then we shot some stuff with Mick and Mick was fucking great. Really funny shit behind the scenes. Right. He was really cool. I did this thing with them making fun of how much their merchandise was going to cost and how much they had. They had fucking tons of merchants. He wouldn't do any of that stuff. We shot some fucking concert stuff. And we went from like June into September into the beginning of the tour. Long ass time. Long ass time came out to LA for the LA tours, the gigs. And out here, I think it was Mick's birthday. He has birthday when we went to a birthday party. And we had to say like, listen, dude, it's it's not going to work because Keith will not do anything. And so it's just me and you in a scene. And I don't know what we're going to do. And he's like, yeah, I know what you mean. Is I don't think unless we're just going to make a straight documentary. So what happened on the footage? Some of the footage is on YouTube. If you look it up, you'll see some of the scenes of me and Mick doing the merchandise and stuff like that. But, uh, yeah, it just got kind of abandoned. But the funny part was that they're such nice guys. They were like, do you want to come and see us on this part of the tour? And we were like, yeah, so we kept going to some of the gigs. And then I just I ran I run into Mick every once in a while. And it's so funny. It's like it's so weird to me when people like that like come up to me at something and go like, hey, Dennis, or you're on a red carpet and Mick goes, hey, Dennis, this is. And I'm like, this is so fucking weird to me. That's funny, because when I hear you talk, I think you're likely more interested in making things and how they're made. And yes. And then as a function of making the thing, you got to go and play a role in it sometimes, right? Like you got to get on stage and do it to actually execute the whole thing, which is what you're probably interested in is how's this whole thing work? You'd probably be just as happy. Do you do some show running? Yes. OK, so you know how shit's made because you've just been making it. Yeah. And you write. Yep. And you could direct, obviously. I have directed. Yeah. And so you direct and you know, also think about this. Oh, that's a good book. We should make that. Yes. That's how a maker thinks. Yeah. Not just, oh, that's a good book. I want to read it again or I'm going to give it to my friend. A maker thinks, look, what else could that be? That could be a movie or that could be a TV show or so. That's how a maker thinks. Yeah. But then a maker who's got talent can go on stage and help execute because it's hard to find talent. Yeah. But it's also it is the creative process. It's like mutual respect, too, like as a because I'm I'm I'm an actor and a comedian, right? And and I can sing. But I'm just telling you, like the guys in my band, the women in my band, they're professional musicians. Right. So that's and, you know, a couple of my friends that are rock stars that, you know, like, I have so much respect for that process because I can get up and stage and sing a song with you, but I can't really fucking sing. I'm not a proper singer. I'm more of a yeller, right? Yeah. And I'm a comedian, right? So I'm still daunted and amazed. And I think music is actually it's it's funny. I have this theory, but I don't think it's a theory. I think it's a fact because now I'm old enough. Generational and you're getting there. Generational, you're starting to see like what lives and lasts because as you go from one generation to the next, people aren't famous anymore. Actors, they're not famous anymore. Evil people or presidents shit like that. Right. Yeah. Those people get statues made. Their names carry out. Everybody. Everybody, even kids today know who Hitler was famous. My kids do not know who John Wayne was. They they they have no idea. They don't. Bing Crosby, they know because the White Christmas song. They know the Rolling Stones. They found that out themselves or through they like some of their songs, right? Music is the one thing that if you have a great song or last, it's emotionally connects to people. And or events in their lives and it lives forever. That's why my kids know Bing Crosby. Other they didn't even know he was an actor. My kids thought fucking Paul Newman was a chef. Because all they did was eat popcorn. That's and salad dressing. And then one night my wife and I were watching this thing and my son came in to ask us a question when he was like 12. And he was like, hey, is that the chef in this thing? Hilarious. What? He's like, that's the chef. No, no, no, no, that's Paul Newman. He didn't know fucking Paul Newman was the guy who made the popcorn. Yeah, right. Yeah. But my kids knew who fucking I mean, the Godfather occasional films travel through generationally. But my kids know Dinear and Puccino because of what they did now. And the Godfather, that's it. Yeah. They don't fucking know what he on doesn't mean shit to them. Well, you know, like, you know, so I've seen it now. I've seen friends of mine, you know, fade away, but the music doesn't, you know, it's like that's a fucking that truly lives on. Yeah, you know, so that's the thing that's really emotionally. No, nothing connects like music does. It really doesn't. It does. It strikes you in moments and it lives forever. Once it's like, if you had that moment in your life and that song was on or you had that, it lives with you forever. Yeah. When that song comes on, it takes you right back to that place. You can smell the air or you can feel the moment you were in. There's nothing else that does it. Yeah. There's no art form that does it. And what would TV and films be without music? What would those moments, how would they hit if they didn't have that perfectly married forms of art? Perfectly especially since Scorsese, because he was the first guy to really do it, right? Maybe the graduate, because Mike Nichols used Simon and Garfunkel as the soundtrack to that movie. But by the time you get to Mean Streets, which is 74, where songs from Rock and Roll are the emotional soundtrack of the movie. Now songs, great songs can help other forms of art. Yeah. But it's truly amazing. Like I've I've seen it happen where I'm famous to some younger people because of Diego from Ice Age or from some most recent movie I did, right? Or a TV show. Yeah. But the asshole song. Well, they know your voice and then they know you're you're actually what I would say is when I think about you, because I grew up with you. Yes. So you're very famous to me. Yeah. Right. So I grew up, I saw that. I think I grew up in the MTV like generation of like it was a new it was. Yeah. Yeah. It was a new form of we digested it. Yeah. And you also have had so many moments that were so important like the Sandlot. Oh, yeah. I think about this. Yeah. When I think about the dad character, you nail so many. You nail an archetype of a guy that to me represents a little bit of what I know. Yeah. So like there was a guy on the East Coast that was very much like it was like you were portraying a guy we all knew. Yeah. And there was something about it that was like very comforting and very like, I don't know is like so that it was these iconic moments. If you think about it and then maybe to some kid, it's the it's the Ice Age voice. Yeah. Maybe also when we think about rescue me and then to where you're at now with going Dutch, when I think about the legacy across decades of someone who's been working. Yeah. And I go like I'm a little analytical sometimes and I go like, I wonder how that guy thinks or how that guy makes decisions or and I just feel like I see some guys and I relate to what they're doing in the world and in life because I wanted to meet a nice girl and have a family. And my dad was a butcher and he painted houses on the weekends. When I was a kid, I thought it was the coolest thing. And he worked his ass off and he was like grumpy and he was like, he had a lot on his core kids. He was. Yeah. Yeah. But he barely made the and he had a drinking problem. And then, you know, he had a lot of problems. But when I was from zero to like seven, eight, nine, like that was my hero. And that was like to me, that was the model of a man. Yeah. And then and that's what we do. We look for our model and we just kind of want to grow up and try and. What's really interesting in that what you're saying about that is that your brother and you listen, this is not I'm not demeaning anybody. No, no, yeah, you can't. You can't. We both know as artists, right? I picked it up on it. And obviously, you and your brother did, which is early on when I when I when things clicked and it happened for me, Ted Demi and I were very lucky because his uncle, Jonathan, was already a famous Oscar winning director. OK, we had a mentor who was like, this is what you need to do. Start companies, start production companies, hills and valleys. Yeah, work. You know, it's like, like that's work is going to go up and down. You need to self generate. That's right. So thank God we had that because I already had two kids by the time my my son was two and my daughter had just been born when I got famous when I hit. And so I was already forming a ready to form a company. I had the information in my head. So that what made me see the long term, right? So you go, OK, I'm learning this stuff and then looking. How can I get longevity out of it? How can you stay in business? Yeah, how can I continue to work? Right. And raise a family. Like, yeah, right. So look at what you and your brother have here, right? So you did that because how many friends do we know? I know as actors and comedians and you know, as musicians, who didn't do that. And then the phone stops ringing or the gigs dry up like, you know, and the live audience is dissipating your songs out on the radio. And what do you do now? And you're going to have periods of time where like we did with the band 2011, 12, it went. And you're like from 2000 to 2011, it was like you couldn't couldn't do all the work. Right. And then all of a sudden music, physical stuff goes away. Everyone's getting stuff off the Internet before streaming. Yeah, it was MP3s. They'd rip offline. There was everyone's. So the music is closed. Everything's closing. You're done. The music is done. Yeah. You'll never make money again. And then obviously now musicians and artists make more than they ever had. I don't care what anyone says. It's like looking at basketball now versus in the 90s. Yeah. What the players are paid. It's just a different world. It's a different world. But we always this is why I like you. And I thought, oh, you know what? I was excited to talk to you one because I grew up with you. But also there's a working class approach to you can have a working class approach to an entertainment art career. Fuck yeah. You know, like I was raised in and I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but like prancing around on stage is not what a man does. Like no, not at all. You go right to job. Yeah. And so like being in a band was not looked at as like, where are you? What are you doing? What are you going to do? Yeah. And so I think we always said, well, we're not artists. We're just we just work here. We just work here. Right. We just work here. Yeah. And so later on, I kind of embraced that I am an artist and I create things. Yeah. I like it. But we looked at it as a job. We looked at it as a job. It's a profession. Right. It's not a fantasy. It's not a magic trick. It's actually a career you can choose. So the get whatever the gift comes from, right? Right. Whatever the the spark is that you get from your parents or whatever. Right. Right. That's that's the gift. Right. Everything else is fucking work. It's work. It's work. And luck happens because it's that famous saying, right? You know, luck is like, you know, opportunity. You're not going to write whatever the chance that time comes. You're ready because it is a business. That's the other thing we have to remember. The audience has to hear the song or see the thing. Yeah. Right. Otherwise, it doesn't exist. That's right. Right. But I also think it's also being smart. Like you said, I'm a guy that always and I and I you're I may get an argument. I don't know you well enough. Like I don't give a fuck about vinyl as soon as fucking digital came. I'm like, I grew up with records. Records sucked. Yeah. And then I fucking warping. Eventually the fucking they got scratchy. Yeah, I'm not offended by that. And I love Neil Young. Fuck that fucking thing he built. They fucking it doesn't sound like Mark Maron, who I fucking love. Like a brother, the fucking guy. His house is full of fucking his garage is full of vinyl. Fuck vinyl. Yeah, it's like you take some space. My fucking brother, you know, my older brother, who's like the biggest fucking Rock and Roll fan. And I've introduced them to some of his heroes. I like the Stones. He fucking is still doing records. I'm like, dude, every song you want is in your fucking hand. And it sounds fucking better. There's great sound systems, too. Like you're using fucking. You can buy it literally best by this little speaker. Now sounds like on top of this fucking amp. It sounds better than the old record. I like every time. And like I shot rescue me on digital at the time, people. Nobody was shooting. Everybody was still shooting television. So like we said, we're going digital. Right. Yeah. And and Jonathan Demme shortly after did his first movie in digital. And I remember watching him at a Q&A in New York, some film Q&A. And he said it was 19, 2004, 2005. And he made the press. He said, film is dead, y'all. That's 20 fucking years ago. Right. Yeah. And he got fucking shit for it. But he was right. Yeah. And so fucking music. I've never known a time when music sounded better and was more available. It was easier. Yeah. I want to buy my fucking song. Poof. I got it. You don't have to buy it. Just subscribe. Unbelievable, man. Subscribe. It's fucking. My brother is still with the fucking record cleaner in the back. It's it's crazy. He still has these giant fucking speakers from like 30 years ago in the living room. It's like a fancy coffee machine. It's like it's a long time to get a cup of coffee. And I also I had to tell you fucking my brother is one of those guys, too. Like, go fucking music, the best music that I do. There's fucking great music happening now every fucking week. There's new fucking bands. They really play him a song. He's like, who's that? Somebody you fucking don't know about, you know, the first time you heard Billie Eilish, she was like, where? Who is that? I was like, dude, just fucking. It's this kid. Have one of your kids fucking look into it. She's great. Yeah, I know she's great. You fucking idiot. I'm in the same boat. You got to roll with it. You got to roll the times change. The world turns. Yeah, I fucking read like a motherfucker. Right. Yeah. I don't physically. There's physical books in my house. My wife is a fucking author, right? OK, I buy her books on digital, right? I have my books are fucking on my fucking phone. I'm digital. I agree with that. I'm not carrying a bag of books around anymore when I go on vacation. We what my brother opens up a newspaper. I'm like, what the fuck are you doing reading that fucking thing? We have the same conversation. My wife reads like a she reads a book or two a week. She is crazy. She reads every morning and every night. It's like, if you want to find her in the morning, she's reading somewhere. Yeah, right. First two hours. Crazy. She's crazy. And I don't read at all. I read fucking two lines on a on my phone. You read lyric sheets. I listen to you. Tell me a really maybe. I'll listen to a book on tape if I really want to. OK, I'll listen. What if you listen to the last book I listened to was what to be honest with you, my father-in-law, who is Lionel Ritchie. Oh, right. Right. Right. Interesting. Talk about fucking. Interesting little. Same. Same. Yeah. Interesting little thing I can say. I listened to his book because he put a book out. Yes, I have read his book. I wanted to listen to it. Yeah. So I listened to it. I heard it's actually good. It's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had a great fucking music book that I missed when it first came out, but somebody gifted it to me recently is Mike Campbell, Petty's guitar player. That's a fucking great book because there's a lot of stuff in there. I didn't know about their creative process. I read a lot of music books. Cool. That's fucking wings book that Paul McCartney put out, which is huge. It's like 700 pages. It's fucking great. And I didn't even like wings. I didn't think you read it on your tablet. Yeah. Am I and my phone on your phone? Yeah, I actually read it. That wings book is I didn't. It's so crazy. Like it really is fucking amazing. It's very emotional because at the beginning, he's all fucked up from the breakup of the Beatles. Yeah. And he's writing songs saying, fuck you to Lenin. And Lenin's writing songs, fuck you back to him. That's crazy. So that it's so crazy. I love a great story. I know. So fucking that's talking about brothers, man. Yeah, two of the best. The best duo, one of the best duos of all time. When you think about songs, this is great songs of all time. Now, just just just something I don't know. Maybe your fans do like you and your brother fighting all the time. No, no, you get along. We get along. That's so. Best friends. We talk all day, every day. We text, I love you or like good night. I love you never like on a song like no, fuck you. My thing we did in our 20s in the band. But here's the thing. We had a lot of work to do on ourselves. We came from a very kind of tough environment growing up. Listen, me and my dad and I can say this about him now because we we reconciled and we had a great relationship the last 10 years of his life. But he was a horrible alcoholic. He had a lot of demons. He my granddad was a World War Two vet. There was a lot of stuff. Yeah. And it was a tough place to grow up in that house. And then he left when I was probably 13 and then I didn't talk to him till I. Oh, fuck. So my first kid. He took off. Yeah. And my mother by the time of the first kid. No, he never got so. We never got sober. Oh, shit. In the end, it killed him. That was that was how. What was he when he died? He was 68. Damn, my age. He was young. Yeah. Fuck. And that was. That was seven years ago. Shit. Yeah. Yeah. So what we had an amazing friendship. We reconciled when I had my first into my first. My I think of my son was born. He was a great guy. He just didn't have any tools. He didn't have. They didn't. That generation didn't have. You're not talking to anyone. You know, alcohol is self-medication. Yes. That was. Listen, I'm fucking Irish. You know, yeah. I'm Irish, too. Yeah. So, you know, like my 23 and me says I'm 85 percent Irish. Yeah. So. Oh, the other 15. My mother said this to me and it didn't. And just it's so true. Even to this day with my Irish relatives, she just she died this past year. She was 98. Oh, I'm sorry. She never drank a drop in her life. Wow. OK. But I'd go, ma, so and so is coming over. Like some of the guys I grew up with. And I'm like, he can't fucking drink anymore. He got fucking busted on a DUI. He's fucking he had to quit drinking. She's like, OK, soon as he walks in the door, she hands him a beer. I go, what are you doing? She's like, well, he's he's an alcoholic. He still have beer. I go, no, I was he can have Guinness right now. Fuck no. Yeah. Yeah. Beer wasn't even drinking the heavy stuff was. It was nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Beer is like how you start the day. And my dad was crazy. He would buy 11 if he didn't have a beer or something. Something was wrong with him. Right. It was shaking if he didn't have it. Like he was. Drink now. I was lucky. I didn't have an addiction to anything substance wise. I think my addiction is poured into work. So I have to be careful with being too obsessive over the like whatever I'm working on, because and my wife's great because we've been together 19 years. So we have a great checks and balances with like she'll pull me out of something if I'm too obsessive. But I never got addicted to drinking, never no drugs. You're lucky. Never did cocaine. Never did cocaine. No. What's wrong with you? I don't know. I was. Did you want to try it? See what it was like? I tried it for 10 years. I was fucking great. Let me tell you something. I was on the front line of the drug wars in the eighties. You were. You were. I was. And I helped win that war because me and a bunch of my comedian friends and and musician friends at Boston. We as a rock star, we took all the drugs, the cocaine and Boston and just did it. So the other people didn't have to. And we did a service to the people of Massachusetts. You saved a lot of life. We saved a lot of life. I have to say. Yeah, man, it was a you know what? It was a great drug. The first when you didn't know it was so bad. Yeah, the first six times you did it, it was it was fun. The good thing for me was chemically and I started smoking and drinking when I was like fucking 12. I smoked and that was probably OK. I was addicted to nicotine. I still chew. Nicker. When did you quit? I quit when I was 40. OK. I quit. I quit five years ago. I smoked for 50 something years. Wow. I know. Crazy. Like pretty cool. I know what's even crazier is I fucking six months later, I go to the fucking doctor and get the full lungs scan on the heart thing and everything else. He goes, I don't even want to say this to you. I go, what? He goes, it's like you never smoked. And my wife was with me and who had been trying to get. I've been with my wife for 44 years. And so she's been wanting me to quit forever. Well, I think it was all the cocaine. The cocaine cured my fucking lungs. It's crazy. And I quit cold turkey. I just fucking went. And I don't even know I quit drinking cold turkey to 20s years ago. Oh, so you don't drink. I stopped drinking. I stopped. That's that's healthy. Yeah. Well, I did that. Well, you look very healthy. Well, I mean, I'm glad I did. I think because I can't believe that I don't look worse because of the smoke because I kept smoking, you know. Yeah, the drinking is probably, I will say, I think the drinking is worse than the smoking, even though I know smoking is bad and people would argue with me. But just for everybody out there, let's let's rate it. So the way this is what we're saying now, booze is the worst. It really like smoking is second. Cocaine's like third. You can do cocaine is if you're out there. Yeah. No, cocaine was fucking cocaine was the worst drug because for me, chemically, it actually like it didn't. I could do it and go to bed. Yeah, if we'd made me speed up. Oh, wow. But dude, there was cocaine was the stupidest drug because after after the first two times you did it, it was you never got the benefit of it. Right. And it just made you want more, which is like, what that's the fucking stupidest idea ever. Right. And made people just talk forever, like assholes to begin with. Yeah. And then you give them cocaine. Yeah. Shut the fuck up. Do you feel like it? But do you feel like not just the cocaine, but there was a time in culture where it was romantic. It was and like the turn of like MTV, all this stuff before. The way we got here was all that. Yeah. Yeah. The beginning of media and culture blending. It's certainly rock and roll. Right. Yeah. And so it was almost expected and hip hop, you know, all of it. It was almost expected of you. If you were successful in entertainment, you're going to do this. It's well, also, I think and I'm not saying it was wrong because I have musician friends that that that are clean now. But they they'd creatively whatever it was, alcohol, cocaine, weed, combined, some pill, it at least they thought it did. They thought it helped them. Right. It was like a rocket fuel. When I was young as a comedian, the first time I saw came Sam Kiernan, said he wasn't famous yet, but he came to Boston because he was friends with Lenny Clark. It was a big Boston comedian who wasn't famous yet either. He said, I got this guy from Houston. You guys got to see him. He's fucking outrageous. He came and we were we were on a show. Me and a couple of the young comedians in in Boston, like Wednesday night, but a full house, like 300 people. And they said, Sam's coming with Lenny now from the airport. And he walked in and it's getting late in the show. He goes in the dressing room. He he puts down a half of Coke, a half a gram and fucking while he's being introduced, he's going, hey, yeah, hey, man, I've heard about. Does the half. Then they go, Sam, you're on. He goes up murders for like he got a standing ovation and all that famous first round of Sam Kinnison stuff about Jesus and move to where the food is. And and then I'm with this other young comic. We look at each other and goes, is that what you're supposed to do? Like we didn't know. Right. And we went into the dressing room and he literally said, like, guys, don't do what you saw me do. Like that's like I'm like one of the only people that can do that. And then Lenny Clark afterwards is like, don't do what he just did. Because there's no way I could have done that. I talked fast anyway. Yeah. But that's people forget towards the end of Sam's life before. Right before he got killed. He had cleaned up. He was a brilliant comedian. Yeah, he was. But his his stuff, he was working on right before he got killed. He stopped doing blow. He straightened up. His was really brilliant. Yeah. So but some of the greatest songs we know some of, you know, and some of the greatest comedic performances, Richard Pryor, who's I love. I think he's the greatest comedian who ever lived. Yeah, he was great. My dad loved him. Yeah. He was a he was a great comedian. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of blow. There was a lot of drugs and a lot of alcohol. That's the thing. I don't sit here and go like I figured it out because I don't think I did in the sense of like, I know what I know how what I need to live and be healthy. And I want to know my kids. That's what I in my mind. I was like, I just want to know my kids want to have a relationship with them. And that's what I get a lot of joy from is like, I'm connected to my kids. I'm connected to my wife. But I don't act like I don't pretend to sell some way of life. No. Right. Like I don't have like this is what you should do. I don't know that everyone should be married. I don't know that everyone should have kids. I don't know that everything. But for me, my idea was want to meet a nice girl. I want to have a couple of kids. I want to live in a house I like and go, life's pretty good. That's like happiness to me. They have a cup of coffee in the morning and go, this is nice. Yeah. And then go to work, make an honest living. Do my best. Some years better than others. If we never had another hit song again, I could live with it. We do great. Yeah. It's a good year or whatever. Yeah. But I'm not trying to profess to anyone that there's one way to live. No, there isn't. But yeah, I mean, you certainly live longer without all that stuff. That's what that's where you go. There's a bit of darkness when I see someone. It's not about experimentation, because I've seen that every band makes their drug record or their this record or whatever. But there's addictions, dark, because I saw it destroy not just my family, because it was all around me growing up. That's probably why I never had a problem with it. Because I grew up around all these addicts. One guy's that he's a heroin addict. He's a meth addict. He's an alcoholic. He's an alcoholic. Yeah. They're all alcoholics. Yeah. And then you see the dysfunction of the life and you go, I don't want that. I just want to have a nice life. Well, and here's the other truth. Again, I'm one of those guys like you. Like I was raised. I went to the same Catholic school, the same nun, same priest, 12 years. Yeah. Right. Same kids. Yeah. Right. Like, you know, I don't believe in that fucking shit. And then I fuck it and made me funny because I just all I wanted to do is make the kids in the back of the room laugh and piss off the nuns, which I did really successfully. But, you know, you also learn like it's what you do, like music or what I do or as a stand up comedian, take the alcohol and the drugs out of it. That's not you think that was part of your it's not. The shit is if it's coming from a true place, it's coming from inside emotionally from your experience. That's right. You're anger, you're rage, your butt. It's it's that's being expressed, creative. You don't need alcohol. And I'm still when I get up on stage, I'm still fucking angry and pissed off. And I talk really fucking fast because I'm still angry about a lot of shit. That's just my nature. I didn't need nicotine and booze and drugs to do it. I just did that because I grew up in the seventies, man. I was a teenager in the seventies. Everybody was doing everything. And I think you guys were the generation that learned it kills you. We all see. Yeah. Well, the two big ones, Belushi, dropping dead. Yeah. And, you know, some some I was young enough. I didn't realize it until I was a teenager, but like Hendricks and all. Also, look at all the the bands that have lasted like the guys in the who. Those guys are all straight. So everybody gets clean at some point. Yeah. I mean, Keith Richards doesn't drink or, you know, get a higher. Or I saw a Christmas Instagram video where he was smoking something. It looked like weed. Yeah. Weeds, not a drug. It's just a. I mean, that's I wasn't a big weed guy, but creatively, the shit's going to come out of you. You don't need the stuff to bring it out. Yeah. I mean, so I love I love on stage being on stage as a comedian. I was always I had maybe one beer with me on stage. I didn't drink anything or take anything or smoke anything before I went on stage. I was engaged because I kind of wrote on stage, right? And I still do that. I fucking still love it. I love when I do my charity concerts. I love it. You say you're always going to be a comedian first. Always. Yeah. Always. I mean, that's cool. It's so funny because I only work twice a year, maybe three times a year. And then like I'll go on a talk like I'm doing Kimmel tonight. Like I got some shit in my head that I'm angry about that. I'll probably end up. Yeah. Well, you have a way of saying things that we think that we don't feel like we can say. You have a way of delivering things where I wish I could fucking say that. I wish I could. But when you're going to express yourself and you're, you know, like your opinion on that or this, you kind of you can't give a fuck what anyone thinks when you say it, which is edgy, which is which to me is is cool. But it takes a lot of not giving a fuck. Well, the thing I learned was when I was a young acting student, you know, Emerson College, but I was in a comedy group, right? Comedy workshop. And I loved prior. I loved Carl and and I was trying to interview with Richard Pryor. And he said the original Richard Pryor, who used to be on the Ed Sullivan show, but I don't remember that because I was too young, was a very clean cut guy. And then he went through it. So was George Carlin. And then they went through a transformation going out of the sixties into the seventies and became their real selves. And Pryor said what happened was he realized he wanted to be instead of being this guy that he thought he should be, he wanted to be the Richard Pryor in the living room who was saying stuff out loud to his friends. Right. And that's what I heard that. And I went like, well, if I want to try stand up, I'm just going to do what I do with my friends, which are or in the street corner. I used to hang out with my friends in the street corner in the neighborhood because I was always funny or in the back of the room when I was telling. Yeah, you got laughs. Yeah. So that's what I did. And I just did it with the language that I would that I would normally use. And but it also is like there there needs to be a guy in the group that says something we all think or that has the balls to say something like to a bully or to do it in any situation in life. Someone's got to say something right about something. If something's like bullshit, you're like, what the fuck is that? Yeah, I grew up and my parents were both my mom, especially because she was always around. My dad was working a lot, but they were both funny. And it was Irish, so they were it was sarcasm. We're literally sarcastic. All of us were like, you could not walk in the house wearing something that knew without your brother, your sister and your mother going like, the fuck did you get those shoes? You know what I mean? Like, who the fuck do you think you are? Like and the whole neighborhood was full of everybody was like that. You know what I mean? So it's like, you know, it was like the dozens. You literally would stand on the street corner and guy you cut each other down. And the girls were fucking funny too. Yeah, the girls were funnier and tougher than the guys. Yeah, you know, my sisters are fucking funny as shit. My girlfriends were always funny. They're funny, tough Boston girls. The Boston. The Boston thing is really charming because it's a tough group of people, but they understand each other. So there's a there's a Nick's from Boston. So it's Ryan. Oh, yeah. Yeah, where are you guys from? New Bedford. Oh, fuck. New Bedford. Taunton. Yeah, Taunton. Taunton, Fall River. Yeah, I'm from Maine, South Worcester. Yeah. And then and then Charlestown. Yeah. Where are you from? Oh, fucking Bellingham. Holy shit, you know, you don't hear Bellingham enough. No, we lived in the North End for like seven years. That is really black, man. The girls are tougher. That's the thing. And yeah, and it's still true to this day because my my sisters are still my sister, my sister, Amri, is still in basically the old neighborhood. Like they will fought. You you think you and I start fucking to our girlfriends or wives are going to step in and go, hey, fuck you. Yeah, fuck you. Who do you think you are? Yeah. And they'll fucking they'll grab each other and they'll fight before we will. Yeah. And or they'll throw a punch at you. It's crazy. And it's still it's still that way. Like I get Instagram feeds because I'm a hockey nut. I'm sports nut. You love hockey. I love hockey like the. I still play and you still play. Yeah, I still play. That's cool. I'm crazy. I'm so fucking stupid. So stupid. But I just do it because it's such great exercise. But I love it. I fucking love it. But I get these Instagram feeds like like two nights ago, these two guys at a girls hockey game, two dads at a girls hockey game in fucking Massachusetts. They start going like, well, fuck you, fuck you and somebody's filming it, right? And and then one guy goes, you want to you want to go outside? You want to do it here? And he goes, let's do it right. And all of a sudden this one guy's wife comes in and goes to the other guy and says, you shut the fuck up and leave him alone. You sit out, sit out. You shut and she fucking slaps the guy and he goes, OK, OK. Worst thing that ever happened to people at Boston was camera funds. I know, man. It's fucking they in Boston. Boston. John Stewart said this once because he used to come up to work the clubs and he's like, Boston is the drinkest fight in this town. Like people literally. It is crazy. They will fight like just a drop of a hat. Still still still. It was like a year or we in there. Like people like barfights. I used to love to like I did some charity gigs with Aerosmith back in the day. And and those guys were such nice guys because they they literally just like don't give us a dime and they would come. But watching Joe Perry and Steve right before they would go on stage fighting about which the set list, right? Like literally you're about to introduce them and you look over and there's some wings there like that. And then the wives are like that or the girlfriend like, you know, I remember being at one charity gig with Steven, he was solo. And I forget which girlfriend he was with at the time. And his girlfriend was like this. This girl from Massachusetts who was just like literally I'm talking to him about something and his girlfriend walks up and goes, will you come over here and tell him that? And I'm like, it's unbelievable. It's like we're in a bar. Yeah. We're a charity gig. It's funny because I'm from Maryland. So we're not too far away. But that's with part of Maryland. So where I'm from is called it's just called Southern Maryland. It's part of the state because it's all counties. There's no the city, the closest city to us is DC. So my grandparents lived in DC and we were out in the country. There's some similarities, but Boston is its own. Baltimore is a lot like Boston. Baltimore is that's what I would say is Baltimore is very similar to the Boston. It really reminds me of Boston. And there's a lot of there's a lot of similarities to like Maryland folks. I always wonder, do Boston folks all find each other when you're out in the world? Like, is there like a, yeah, you do. I'm lottery. Well, there is like it's just weird. Like there's some people I don't I never met Affleck or Damon or come across him. But it's like I kind of know everybody else. Yeah. You know, so it's so funny. Yeah. You know, the Dunkin Donuts commercials are funny. They are fucking funny. They are funny as shit. His brother. Yeah, it's so funny. It's so fucking funny. I have to give him that credit, man. Also, there's fucking that there's a couple of bits that they have done on like Casey Affleck did this bit on SNL about. He's hilarious. Oh my God, dude. He nails it. The Dunkin. Yeah. With the oh my God, so fucking funny. They really nail it. They nail it. The thing with that shit. They nail it. That shit makes me laugh so hard. Affleck. And when he's when Affleck is in Boston mode, he really makes me fucking laugh. He's hilarious. It's hilarious. I love it. Yeah. It's really fucking funny. Also, those guys are such Boston guys. They really are. You know, him and Casey, especially, you know, like, and then throw Damon into the mix. Damon is so fucking funny, dude. Those guys, they're such a Boston thing to those guys. Because we're talking major fucking movie stars. Big stars. Big fucking movie stars. They've done comedy. They've done Ben's a fucking successful fucking, you know, award-winning director. Yeah. But they're so Boston guys. Like, I'm sure I don't know them, but I'm sure like they love doing the Dunkin commercials because it's like so fucking New England. I think there's something about we make it in this world and you have some you get some fame for that, you get some notoriety for that, or you have a hit with that. I never think, oh, it's me. So I'm never I'm never all the way connected to someone's idea of me as the singer of the band or the thing or this. So I think it keeps me a little separate from getting sucked all the way into the circus of yeah, yeah, fame and all that stuff. Yeah. And this whole thing is kind of a. I hate that I hate to be this guy. But we're talking about fame. And this is all I know. Be the guy. There was a famous quote I used in one of my books. Yeah. And I heard the story. You know, secondhand. I think the story was Robert Mitchum, a great fucking actor, fucking amazing. But a big Hollywood star from the forties into, you know, he was still a star when he died. He worked for like six decades and had been fucking done everything. And he was he was presenting at the Oscars one year. Nick Nolte, who was a great actor, was was nominated. And Nick Nolte was telling the story like he was really fucking nervous and he really wanted to win the thing, you know. So he went to the bar, you know, at some Oscar luncheon thing. Yeah, two days before the Oscars. And he was sitting at the bar and he was he was nervous about all the people around and everything and Mitchum was watching him and apparently was a fan of his work. And he walked over to him and he said, leaned in as he was leaving. And put his arm on him and he said, hey, kid, it's all bullshit. Right. And I remember when I heard that, I was like, as I got older and I went through I had my kids and I was starting a production company and everything. I started to realize like all the great the guys, the big guys that I was meeting and working with Clint Eastwood, then the arrow, like, you know, that's guys, a hero of mine. Yeah, you know, the bigger people I was working with, the more it was about the work and about they didn't they knew how famous they were. But it wasn't about the bullshit with them. It was about like, hey, in this fucking scene, but that's all they were. While we were at work, that's what it was all bullshit. And so I was like, oh, and they had families and they had multiple families and what and but there was no star bullshit. You know what I mean? Like they were literally about to work. That's right. And I was like, ah, that it's it is all bullshit. And when you talked about awards or shit with those guys and then I started then I started to get nominated from Rescue Me. I was Golden Globes and Emmys at like every year I was nominated and at those award things. And I realized like I met Peter Boyle at one of those things. And Peter Boyle was like what like a hero actor guy of mine, you know, at that point he was like he was more famous for being on Everybody Loves Raymond. Right. Those guys would just be like, yeah, it's all fucking bullshit. Right. I like if you win the thing, great. But it never goes to the guy that's supposed to. Like it's all bullshit. Yeah. So I was like, oh, yeah, it is all fucking bullshit. Right. Right. It's it helps your product. It pushes your product. But who gives a fuck who wins a game? I didn't even give in year. Who knows? Like I don't buy a record because it won Grammys. That's right. I buy the record because I hear the song and go, oh, fuck. Yeah, I get it. All right. I can dance to that. I can whatever. I favorite movies. It's not about which one the Oscars. Like what resonated with me? Yeah. You know. Yeah. And well, the other thing in my field, but it's also in your field now, which is. And I it's happened to me a million times. I'm not judging people. I'm just telling you. Yeah, it's my job. And our job, your face has to move. Right. Men and women. You go, you don't do. You don't work with somebody or see them for like, let's say two years. And then you like, hey, we're in the same movie. And you go, shit, their face isn't moving. Yeah. And like, if it's somebody you really know, you go like, hey, what'd you have done? What's going on? Like, I'm working with not just. I'm not. Listen, actresses is one thing, but I've worked with guys where you go. You haven't seen them in a while. Maybe you've never worked with them. But you go to work and you go like, fuck, dude, like you're. Your forehead doesn't move or your, you know, your mouth is weird. What's going on? Hey, me and my brother, we have our brother talk about all the time. Listen, I try to work out, try to stay in shape, try to be healthy. But to me, happiness sounds like a big old fucking beard up in Summerlin. Walking to get a cup of coffee and no one giving a fuck how I look. Yeah. Well, also as an actor, right? It's like it's part of your tool. That's right. Right. I mean, look at fucking DeNiro's face. There's no there's no work on that face. Look at fucking, you know, we're talking about Robin Mitchum towards you. I mean, great faces, Robert DeVall, Meryl Streep. Like, when you're looking at a person and they're getting older, because we're all getting older and we are in these lines. Yeah, we're the lines. Yeah, we look like she's lived a life. That's right. You know, fucking DeNiro looks like he's lived a fucking life. I'm not doing anything to this. I mean, I fucked up my nose and fucking got stitches and scars. Yeah, that's it, dude. I mean, it's like, what are you fucking? I worked with somebody recently who's my age, a guy. And I was like, I said, I just said to him, like, did you got work? He goes, yeah, I got everything pulled back. And I was like, why? Because this isn't moving anymore. I go, I know he was like proud of it. Like, stop moving. No bags either. I'm like, hey, what do you think you look like? Yeah, you look like a fucking. We look at I look like a lesbian now. OK, middle-aged, that's just because I'm Irish, right? But at some point we all will. I look like like Ellen DeGeneres' sister. But but that's just the way it goes, right? Maybe when my hair goes fully gray, I don't look like such a lesbian. But right now I look like a lesbian. That's fine. That's my vibe. Yeah. Yeah. But but like I'm supposed to look that way right now. Yeah, that's just, you know, I'm not trying to look like I'm fucking 40. Yeah, you know, the fuck's going on? Yeah, especially in comedy. What the fuck are you doing? You know, crazy, crazy. I literally have been talking about exactly what we're talking about this week because I don't know, it just came up and and me and my brother have been talking about like, yeah, we're fucking aging. We're not 20. The thing is, is I came out when I was fucking I started touring and I was 18, 19, 20 and people got to notice we were 21. Yeah. And then you get frozen in people's minds. Tough shit. And then they see now, they're like, oh, you're middle-aged. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm better too. Yeah. But I kind of like it. There's nothing you can do about it. I'm not fucking getting anything. I mean, I got my knees shot up because I fucked up. My knees are fucked from hockey, but I've been thinking about that too. Yeah. I mean, but I'm not going to get shit shot in my fucking face. What are you? Yeah. Yeah. The fuck you talking about? Yeah. Also, as an actor, I just think it's the elasticity is a bit. You got it. Your face has to move. And then just think about all the fucking rock stars. You look at him like, what the fuck is going on with this fucking shit? I love Mick Jagger, but fucking look at Keith. And you go, hey, Mick, so your hair, like, look at my this is I don't do anything to my hair. It's great hair. My dad died at at 60 with a full head of fucking strawberry blonde hair. My uncle, Jerry died at 83. He was just graying on the sides. I'm not. I've died my hair black to play Ray Romano's brother. And like for roles, you got to die blonde or whatever. I'm not going someplace to have shit done to me when I'm off. No, I'm fucking playing hockey. I'm fucking working on the next script, whatever. I don't need more appointments. Yeah. But I remember this fucking doctor of mine, the eye doctor said. He's I have to wear glasses now. Yeah, me too. So he was checking my eyes out and he was like talking about some laser surgery thing for the eye. I'm not doing that. I'm not either. I said, listen, I'm not shooting anything into my cock or into my fucking my cock and ball stay by themselves. That's right. And my eyes same thing. I'll just wear glasses. Yeah. And he was like, well, I have, you know, famous clients coming in here like, do not only do they get the laser, but, you know, I know a great plastic surgeon. I'm like, dude, this is it. This is it. This is it. I feel the same way. I'm not fine. And I'm not fucking with my balls and my cock. That's like, don't mess with the. Yeah. Don't mess with the guns. Yeah. OK. Don't need them. Yeah. So I still like them. Yeah. You know, I'm not fucking, you know, we're on the same page. It's like there's some kind of crazy fucking penis surgery that guys are getting now and fucking ball sack surgery. I haven't heard about that. What the fuck are you talking about? What's the purpose of that? Cosmetically make it look better. And as guys age, because everything's sad, right? And I'm like, I go, I can't remember which guy was telling me about it. And on some set, I'm like, wait, guys are actually going in. He's like, yeah, I'm like, dude, I'm not getting my fucking sack lifted. No way. There's a fucking touch of my balls with fucking shit. Well, I'm fucking knocked out. Go fuck yourself. Yeah. Yes. Those are the things that I feel like a where I come from. I feel like if I had any work done to my face, my dad would roll over. Forget about that. Your fans would go like, yeah. They'd be like, have you seen him? Yeah, no, you're not. You know, I don't think you guys are. He looks younger. You guys aren't in that club where you can get away with plastic surgery. No, no, no. Your fans would just go like, what is it? My tattoos, the older I get, look like they are going to just look like a newspaper. It is true. It's all blending together. It's only going to get worse. Yeah. And then nothing you can do about that. What are you going to do? You're just going to look like I just like thought about it before you got the fucking paint done. My dream is that when I'm all the looks, it's kind of like an old pirate or something. Well, you will. You will grow the beard. Keep growing it. And just like there's gray that's going to come in. Everything's coming in. And it's going to be cool to be like, keep getting tattooed. Maybe I'll just do my face or something. I don't know. But yeah, my dream is that's my plastic. My dream is like when I'm in between fucking shit, I grow my fucking hair along and I fucking, you know, I don't. I shave like maybe once a week. Yeah. Then when I go to work, I clean up. Yeah. Whatever I need for the character. Great hair. Yeah. And luck, genetic. You got gifted. Yeah. It's crazy. Head of hair. When Ray and I were doing that project together, because we're the same age. We've known each other before. So before we were famous and we were both like, look at our fucking heads of hair. This is and it's totally genetic. Yeah. And but then we had to do a fight scene and I'm in better shape than Ray. But we were both like, like I got bad knees. I got a busted fucking shoulder. We had to do a fight. Is that all from hockey? Yeah, it's all from hockey. Yeah. And and so and Ray's like and Ray's a pretty athletic guy. He's like, listen, I got a fucking bad back. What are we going to do? I go, we need to fucking stunt like they pay the stunt doubles for a reason. Yeah. You and I are going to fake the shit out of the first take. Then those guys are going to show our faces. We're going to sit with a fucking coke and watch them. So we fucking did the fight scene the first time. And we thought it looked really fucking cool. We did went through the whole thing with the fake punches and everything. And then we were like, fucking really hurting at the end. We were like, how did it look? And they this stunt the stunt director, this woman, she goes, it looked like it was in slow motion. So they showed us the playback and we were like, oh, that fucking looks terrible. She was, oh, it's great. Watch the and then the stunt guys did it. We were like, oh, fuck, yeah, that's way better. Yeah. So we're old. Yeah. You know, you think you look cool, but you don't look cool. Hey, I love it. Thank you, Dennis. Hey, man, thank you very much. I miss you. This is great. This is really on the show. Thank you, man. This is so cool. You're working with your son on. I know. That's really crazy. That's awesome. Yeah, it's crazy. Listen, man, I'm so glad because like it's just young eyes. Like I realized at one point when I was starting a new company, I need to get some young blood and him and his his creative partner guy were like, yeah, you know, we're getting people are interested in what we're doing. And I was like, why am I why am I going to go out to try to find like a 35 year old, whatever he was 33. The same thing. I know. I have a suspicion that both my kids will end up doing creative. Are they musically talented? They are. Yeah. Now, they would kill me for saying it because my daughter swear she's not, but she is because she's an incredible dancer. My son produces music. There you go. And it makes sense to me. Well, you've been around it your whole life. You've been around these incredible the musicians that he's been around and the songwriters have been around. Just like the way you talk, tell stories. He's been around insanely talented, successful. I mean, his his grandfather. Oh, my God, yeah. I mean, he grew up going to his shows. That guy has been writing songs and performing music since like when I was a kid. Yeah, it makes sense to me. Your son is in the same business because they grew up in it. And my son was very musically talented. Yeah. He could play any instrument, great guitar player and has a great voice. He just didn't want to do that as his job. Yeah. Yeah. The thing about your your your your wife's dad, like, did you see that documentary? Oh, my God. Yeah, what a great dude. What a great. That thing was unbelievable. It's like, thank God they filmed that. Even my kids watched that. Yeah. And they were like, this is what a what a crazy thing. They didn't they didn't know what it was. They they were aware they knew him more from television. So watching him run that room that night. And it's incredible. And when Stevie Wonder fucking you see that panic in Dylan's eyes when it because everybody can sing so well. Yeah. And then Stevie Wonder does the Bob Dylan impression at the piano to get him the note. Crazy. To fuck. Just seeing all those people in one room and yeah. And the different styles and the different styles. And when you think of well, we grew up with that song, but like my kids didn't know anything about it. But to see that and then get to go deeper and see what that night was like. It's incredible, man. So I knew Lionel Richie more. It wasn't like the big hit songs from his solo. I knew him from the Commodore. Yeah. You know, that's what like that's the the street music I heard as a teenager. So but I didn't until I saw I had heard about that. He was in charge and ran it and creatively and heard stories about him as a producer. Yeah, he wrote him in Quincy. And yeah, that was incredible. It was a great I couldn't my eyes. I don't think I blinked during that documentary. I was like, and then I watched it a second time to watch the details again. Yeah, it's crazy. It's pretty cool. What a legend. Yeah. You're a legend, too, man. Thanks for coming. A legend. Yeah, for all the wrong reasons. Yeah. Well, good. Well, thank you, man. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. Thank you, dude. Yeah. Appreciate it. Yeah. All right. I don't do a lot of podcasts. So yeah, I'm honored. Yeah. Well, this is really fucking fun. Thank you for watching Artists Friendly. If you like this episode, please make sure you hit the like button. You follow the channel and please share it with your friends. We appreciate the support. That is why this show exists, because you listen to it. Thank you guys. We'll see you next time.