Daniel Robert Epstein: Weird Al Yankovic

DANIEL ROBERT EPSTEIN: Weird Al Yankovic

No one was more surprised than Weird Al Yankovic himself when his new album, Straight Outta Lynwood, jumped onto the Billboard Top 10--a first for the prolific artist. Straight Outta Lynwood is powered by the hit single White and Nerdy. I spoke with Weird Al about his recent promotional tour for the album.

Buy Straight Outta Lynwood

Daniel Robert Epstein: So do you want people to download or not?

Weird Al Yankovic: I’m just full of ironies aren’t I?

DRE: You’re a very complex man.

Al:...

Very Nice Interview. I've been a fan of his since the 80's. Stuff like this is why I love this site. Great Interviews, Interesting News Articles, Beautiful Women, and A Wonderful Community. It's like I always say, "SuicideGirls.com, Come for the Nudity, Stay for the Community."

He is always very down to earth and a matter of fact!

That is nice.

Wee! I like Al. but i wouldn't mind seeing him get away from the super g-rated stuff a bit, finally. Maybe some black metal covers would be good, too. But no one tells Al what to do, dammit. NO ONE!

Instead of suing people or spending money to make better anti-piracy protection for the CD I thought the best way to combat it is just to make the CD package so great that people really want to buy it.... I just think that the best way to battle it is to give them something that they just can't not buy.
Someone in the recording world gets it. This guy is smarter than most bands and record labels. Music has gone from big, artistic, fun 12-inch record sleeves to tiny, boring CD covers with unsatifactory artistic effort put into them.

I'm glad Coolio seems to have... cooled off. "Amish Paradise" is one of the best videos ever made, so really nothing to have a grudge over.

Now I'll be trying to figure out what ideas Al has had for Prince songs....


ps - UHF is great. It's actually the other thing besides Seinfeld that directly came to my mind after the Michael Richards incident this week. Richards is great in it, fwiw....

hell yeah!

Sweet. Weird Al is great... As a matter of fact, he was the very first person I ever saw live in concert. Just the fact that he would make the effort to come out to my hometown in bumblefuck Alaska earned him a *lot* of respect in my book. I went to the autograph signing thing he did prior to the show and he just seemed so genuinely happy to interact with his fans. And UHF...? Brilliant. My VHS copy got played into oblivion. It's high time I go get a DVD copy.

Thanks DRE!

-T

(p.s. Mr. Yankovic, if you're out there reading this, you should seriously consider hanging out here more often. )

I love Wierd Al! I wonder what his member name is?

He was my first show too; he did a free one at the Marathon County Fair in Wausau, WI a few years back and my folks took me to see him. I got out of his music for many years, but recently picked up the new CD and it got me going again Also, it turns out that my principle used to be a huge fan back in the day, so I bought him a new copy of UHF on DVD

coolest vegan ever

I met him at the Beehive Coffee Shop in Pittsburgh...extremely nice guy. Anyone who could stand listening to me ramble on about UHF for that amount of time has to be a saint

Genius.

i'd love to hear him cover a prince song.

Al's my hero. I keep waiting for him to hit that wall and be unable to do it anymore. But he keeps us his high standards. I'm always afraid, because I hate mainsteream music these days, that he'll run out of worthwhile material to do, but he makes even songs I don't know sound awesome. What with marriage and fatherhood and all, I thought it may rob him of his "gift."

Rock on, Weird Al.

I don't know... if you listen to "Don't Download This Song" at the end where they say go out and buy it, this is during the fade out, you can just hear Al say "You cheap bastard!" That just didn't feel right hearing him say it. I think he has matured over the years yet retained that kind of inner childish humor we all love. If he did anything hard it would be a polka, just have to be.

the new album was actually quite good. i dont want to admit how much i would walk around singing Dont Download This Song.

*Hearts all over*

This man is worth buying, every time.

Christmas at ground zero is still my favorite.

love love LOVE this man. pure genius and puts on a fantastic live show. here's to hoping he'll come around my parts with this next tour. it's been too long, al. ya hear me?! too long dammit.

He's a genius if there ever was one.

First thing I thought of, as well... I mean, I watched Seinfeld as well... but when all this crap went down, I was like... Not Stanley Spadowski!

I actually saw Al back during the Amish Paradise tour. It was a fun show. I remember thinking the amounts of costume changes he did during it was insane!

Let's face it. Al rocks. Or polkas, at the very least.

I've been a Weird Al fan ever since I first heard my uncle's cassettes of Even Worse and Dare to Be Stupid. Glad to see an interview w/him on SG.

And UHF is one of my favorite movies ever. For those of you that have yet to, get the DVD and listen to the commentary. Great stuff.

-TM

I never listen to Weird Al anymore, and I have no idea why. I'll have to add him to the list of musicians that vanishes from my mind the second I walk into a record store. Stupid brain. I used to have a great box set of his stuff and I don't know where it went. I think "Alapalooza" was the first CD I ever bought.

Bloody brilliant!!!

Thanks for this interview. Top notch

I have been a fan of weird al since back in the 80's. Amazing stuff!

Weird Al in 3-D, best album ever!!!!