Huey Lewis Weird Al Funny or Die

He has half dozen platinum records, 3 Grammy awards for inescapable spoofs similar "Fat" and "Consume It," and a perpetually sold-out live bear witness boasting more costume changes than Lady Gaga. But even later on 30 years of musical-comedy stardom, there are all the same things we didn't know virtually Alfred "Weird Al" Yankovic... until he told us.

Seth Olenick

1. His dad inspired his ear for language.
"When I was a kid, my dad bought a guitar at a garage sale for ten bucks, and never learned how to play it. Merely he would strum it and sing these Yugoslavian folk songs around the house, and I enjoyed singing forth even when I had no thought what they meant! I think that'due south also why I had an appreciation for Dr. Seuss, his made-up incredible words and bizarre creatures—really anything that sounded unusual or funny."

two. His parents enforced his accordion playing.
"I can't imagine I was begging for accordion lessons. It doesn't seem like any kid would. So, my parents must accept fabricated that life-altering decision on their own. I recall they just wanted me to exist really popular in loftier school."

3. He was going to be an architect until Dr. Demento came forth.
"Dr. Demento [a California radio personality] would play my stuff on the radio when I was 15, xvi years old—things I recorded in my bedroom on a little cassette tape recorder. If it hadn't been for his encouragement and early exposure, I would probably be an architect now, which is what I got my higher degree in."

iv. He doesn't intend to offend.
"I'1000 non the type of person people desire to beat up, thankfully. It comes in much subtler forms. Coolio contends he never gave permission for me to parody "Gangsta's Paradise" (as "Amish Paradise"), and his quote was something along the lines of, 'Weird Al amend just stay abroad from me.' That's one reason I take great pains to get permission for my parodies. Regardless of whether I can practice something legally, I don't desire to offend whatsoever artists. Specially rap stars. Being involved in a drive-by is just never fun."

5. He's a hoarder—his wife once threw away nearly 800 T-shirts.
"I used to but relieve literally everything. It really was kind of a sickness. I mean, I had shirts from loftier school and I was like, 'Why throw them abroad when somebody could use this someday? Maybe my canis familiaris could wear it!' And really, my wife did fit into some of the shirts I wore in high school, and she looked pretty nice. And then at that place."

half-dozen. He almost worked with the great Shel Silverstein.
"I ran into Shel accidentally at a Belfry Records down the street from my house. I'm a huge fan for both music and children's books, and so I offered him a job on my Saturday forenoon TV testify. He said, 'I won't be on your show, just I could be an advisor and requite yous ideas.' I kicking myself to this twenty-four hour period that I never took him up on that.  How great would that have been?"

7. He'southward a vegetarian. Yet people withal don't become the primary joke in his song, "Weasel Stomping Day."

"There's ever going to exist somebody who doesn't become the joke—but even my daughter, who was 4 at the time, got "Weasel Stomping Twenty-four hour period." I explained to her, 'Now Nina, you know you wouldn't really stomp on weasels,' and she kind of rolled her eyes like, 'Of form, Dad. I'thou not stupid.' And yet, there are still people that recollect I'm beingness hateful to animals! A lot of those people are certainly not vegetarian. My antiphon would exist: 'I'yard a big creature lover. I beloved them so much that I don't eat them.'"

viii. His job is harder than it looks.
"Any fourth dimension I get out in public people attempt to propose my next hit. Xc-eight percent of the fourth dimension they're pretty bad ideas, and the other ii percent of the time I've already idea of them. Whatever parody that I practice, I probably wrote a hundred really bad versions of it first."

9. His fans but might exist weirder than he is.
"Something a fan gave me just yesterday was a cute painting of my family, with my caput on my married woman's body, my daughter's head on my body, and my wife's caput on my girl's torso. It was flattering and disturbing at the aforementioned fourth dimension. I took a picture of information technology and sent it to my wife with the explanation, 'Can this be our Christmas card this year?!' She wrote dorsum, 'No.'"

eleven. His favorite word is…
"Ostensibly. I don't know why, but that give-and-take always seems to crop up in every interview. And now it's in this ane! How most that?"

12. He's the Martha Stewart of rock stars.
"Equally a touring musician, I can share i useful household hint: you can always use lemon juice to get the goat'due south blood out of the hotel drapes. …Also, when you dangle your kid out of a window, make sure to use both hands."

HarperCollins

13. He's the writer of two children's books. The newest is called My New Teacher and Me.
"It's sort of about the child I wish I'd been. I've always had a warped and overactive imagination, just I wasn't most as outgoing and confident as Billy, the primary character in my book. I kind of kept to myself a lot and was merely a weird kid on the playground. Only Billy really owns his weirdness. I didn't own my weirdness until much later. Ostensibly concluding Tuesday."

houstonbutiournin.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.rd.com/article/weird-al-yankovic-genius-hoarder-weasel-lover/

Share this post