Posted on 07/26/2014 12:41:28 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The massive "Weird Al" Yankovic cult knew it was only a matter of time until the rest of the world joined their ranks, but few people could have foreseen what happened this past week when his new album Mandatory Fun became the first Number One comedy album on the Billboard charts since 1963's My Son, the Nut by Allan Sherman.
That was back when JFK was president and few people in America had heard of a new Liverpool band called the Beatles. There were still new episodes of The Twilight Zone on television. It was a long, long, long time ago.
We happened to be visiting Yankovic at his house in the Hollywood hills for an upcoming story for Rolling Stone when his longtime manager Jay Levey told him the album was likely to debut on top of the charts. Tears welled up in Yankovic's eyes and his wife Suzanne comforted him. "Sweetie," she said. "It's just people loving you like they always have."
Over the course of four hours, we spoke to "Weird Al" about his long career and took a tour of his entire house, down to his impressive collection of Hawaiian shirts in the basement. Here are 16 things we learned that day.
1. He's never taken illegal drugs.
"A couple of times I’ve had Morphine because I’ve been in extreme pain," he says. "But I've never done drugs recreationally. I've been around people that smoked dope, pot, Mary Jane, reefer. I enjoyed being around those people in college because it was very easy to make them laugh. But it was never my thing and my parents drilled into me not to ever take drugs, so out of respect for them I never did."
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
Met him at a resort in California in the 90’s. He was doing a concert that night and was out riding a jet ski on the lake. Very gracious and posed for a picture with my kids. He seemed like a very good guy.
This was his first album in which he fully exploited digital media. He made a video of every song before the album was even released and they quickly got hundreds of millions of views on sites like YouTube. Yes, I said hundreds of millions.
He's always been a favorite with the geek crowd but after this release, he is now a major international superstar and he is now more famous than most of the artists he has parodied over the years.
I think he could be bigger than The Beatles. I'm not kidding.
I'm buying some Hawaiian shirts and growing my hair long.
The video is subtitled: http://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzwQofyOp30
A few months back he was on twitter assuring people that he was not the president of the Ukraine and hand no intent of stepping down.
COME ON Paul McCartney everybody know Brit sense of humor what stick in the mud
I hear one of the member of Nivarda said oh man I hope to God Weird Al spoof us
Look, I’m no fashion consultant but he definitely needs to ditch the haircut; he’s looking like Tiny Tim.
Loved Weird Al ever since I heard him on Dr. Demento.
I think my favorite all-time not-a-romantic song of his is “One More Minute.” A classic in its own right.
I really have to give props to the band, my GOSH, the ability to mimic the music of other musicians, and sound just AS GOOD, is just fantastic! I mean Jim West on guitar!! Wow!
DEVO members said it was brilliant. They said it was better than anything they did, that he out-DEVO'd DEVO.
To me, I always use "Dare To Be Stupid" whenever I'm debating a Leftist Regressive on Facebook or some message board.
Nothing says “I love you” like the gift of a spatula.
Seems like only yesterday
I can’t believe that Coolio didn’t like it
That was funny
One of his best songs is “Christmas At Ground Zero.”
A hoot.
Not familiar with that one, as with most of those post 80s.
His earliest ones mostly dealt with food.
Another one rides the bus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZkouut-9RQ
” first Number One comedy album on the Billboard charts since 1963”
WOW!
I'm pretty sure I've posted this before, but "Eat It" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI) is a favorite of mine.
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