Story Credit: SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Needs a friend
This week on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Conan is joined by Ad-Rock and Mike D of Beastie Boys, who share:
- How they learned their gold record for Paul’s Boutique was a fake: we had a gold record on the wall. It was our record “Paul’s Boutique” and I was looking at it and I could see it has our label and I could see that it has, whatever, like nine songs on the one side and I was looking at the actual gold record. It only had four songs on it and I was like, “Wait, wait. You guys,” and so we opened it and we put the record on a record player… and it was somebody doing piano versions of Barry Manilow
- How they feel listening to Adam Yauch in their older music: I think enough time has gone, there was definitely a period of time where it just, I couldn’t even open up a computer music file, something that we are working on, because I would just get too sad the process would bring me right back to making, ’cause we really worked with Adam up to very close to the very, very end because that’s what made him happy
How Beastie Boys learned their gold record for Paul’s Boutique was a fake.
CLIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
TRANSCRIPT:
Ad-Rock: So, we were at our studio here in California and I was smoking the pot. This was a long time ago.
Conan O’Brien: Oh gosh. Trying to discourage kids from doing this.
Ad-Rock: And we had a gold record on the wall. It was our record “Paul’s Boutique” and I was looking at it and I could see it has our label and I could see that it has, whatever, like nine songs on the one side and I was looking at the actual gold record. It only had four songs on it and I was like, “Wait, wait. You guys,” and so we opened it and we put the record on a record player.
Conan O’Brien: A gold record.
Mike D: Well, open like broke the glass and took the record out of the thing.
Ad-Rock: Broke the glass and put the record right on there and it was somebody doing piano versions of Barry Manilow, like feelings and yeah. Just some other shit.
Conan O’Brien: So, when someone just has a gold record, they just take any record and spray paint it?
Mike D: Apparently. I’d like to think that for, you know, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, like a star that it was actually their record, but in our case it was some, like somebody that-
Ad-Rock: This is a documentary. Whoever’s record that was, I’m just talking.
Conan O’Brien: This should lead to a quiz show kind of investigation ’cause I think all gold records need to be examined. They all need to be recalled and you need to go to every, you know, and you should check them out because it’s probably not their record and if it’s not on a massive scale, recount. It’s a recount.
Mike D: Yeah. We need a recall of all gold and platinum plaques from-
Conan O’Brien: This is maybe the most important thing facing America right now at least for the next couple of months. All our energy should go into it.
Mike D: Yeah. Well, I think Conan, you can be a big part of this. Next time, you know, say Lady Gaga’s here, you could, you know, really urge her to do the same flavor.
Conan O’Brien: You guys have come to the right place. I have incredible power in the music industry.
Sona Movsesian: I didn’t know you could play those. I just thought they were decorative. I thought they were-
Ad-Rock: I didn’t know either. I didn’t know. I hadn’t thought about it.
Mike D: Yeah. Well, it turned out, it basically seemed like it was somebody’s record that was spray painted gold or something. I don’t know.
Conan O’Brien: Because who would? Who would break the glass and put it on a turntable. They weren’t counting on you guys. You were the X-Factor.
Mike D: We were the sleuths that uncovered this incredible crime.
Ad-Rock: This could be an action movie with John Cena. I’m just saying.
Mike D: Yeah. No, John Cena and The Rock?
Conan O’Brien: We can’t afford The Rock. We can’t do both. Just stick to John Cena. We can get John Cena because he does commercials.
Mike D: Jason Momoa?
Conan O’Brien: Too much.
Mike D: But how about this? Jason Statham is the bad guy who makes the plaques.
Ad-Rock: This is way too hot for me right now.
Ad-Rock & Mike D On Listening To Adam Yauch In Their Older Music
CLIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
TRANSCRIPT:
Conan O’Brien: When you go back and listen to the music, one of you is not here. Is it a joyous thing for you to hear Adam when you’re listening to that music now? Is it ever rough to listen to him or has enough time gone by where it’s all good?
Ad-Rock: It’s definitely not, oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Mike D: Well, I’d say A, we probably, neither of us listen to, not to burst the bubble, but we don’t listen to our, we’re not gonna listen to, I mean, do you go back and watch a old episode of your show or “The Simpsons” or-
Conan O’Brien: That’s all I do. At night, I wear a tattered wedding dress and just watch in my mansion. No, I don’t. I don’t.
Mike D: Yeah. Shocking. We’re not the audience for our own music, but no. I don’t know. I think it’s all of the above. I think enough time has gone, there was definitely a period of time where it just, I couldn’t even open up a computer music file, something that we are working on, because I would just get too sad the process would bring me right back to making, ’cause we really worked with Adam up to very close to the very, very end because that’s what made him happy, so anyway, and I feel like that time has sort of worked its way through, and then there’s times like I’ll hear something and be like, “Oh yeah. Oh.” You know, the rest is like when you, because now I think once in a while like everything will get licensed to like, we’ll give a sync license to like Mario Brothers or something, so you’ll be on an airplane or something, and that will, you’ll have forgotten or at least at my point of aging, I’ll have forgotten that we’ve licensed that song, and then the thing will come on in the airplane. I’m like, “Oh, yeah. Oh.” You know, it’s sort of actually nice.
Conan O’Brien: Beastie Boys music, in a good way, it’s out there. You’re gonna hear it. You know, it’s not, you don’t have to go looking for it to hear it in the best way, so I’m just curious if that, you know, when you hear your own music, is it evocative of anything or do you just think like, “Yep, that was then this is now.”
Ad-Rock: Well, two things. For me, I feel very similar. It was very hard at first because not only, you know, did we record all the music together with Adam, but we were also, you know, best friends for decades, and so we were together every day, and so when you lose a friend like that, it’s really, really hard and, you know, not everybody has a friend who’s a musician whose voice you hear every day. It was hard. It’s definitely less shitty now. Right? But the thing about us hearing our music, like for me, hearing the music, the whole thing is weird. Do you know what I mean? That anybody likes our band, that we’ve played at Madison Square Garden, or that we have platinum records that people want to listen to. The whole-
Mike D: Platinum records that are not our records.
Ad-Rock: Multiple platinum records. The whole thing is weird. Do you know what I mean? So, when you hear it in a movie or you hear it from a car or something, it’s very weird still. I think it’ll always be weird.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conan-obrien-needs-a-friend/id1438054347?i=1000664994426
