Interviewing FFFFest: Weird Al! Weird Al! Weird Al! [Part 2]

Oh, I saw something on twitter. Somebody was saying they were boycotting Glee until they do the all Al Yankovic episode. So I wouldn’t go that far. I love Jane Lynch [who plays the show’s sinister Sue Sylvester]. My wife watches the show all the time and it’s a lot of fun.

I can only imagine all those Broadway stars lining up to sing “Eat It”.

(Laughs) That’d be fun.

So this new screenplay that you wrote—it’s gone through some stuff and got pushed back—I was wondering if there’s anything you can say about that, or if there’s progress there?

There’s been very little progress, and very little to say. It went into turnaround [Ed. Note: the script had been picked up by Cartoon Network, but their full-length film department folded], which means basically “good luck start over.” So now I am like every person in Los Angeles with an unproduced screenplay in their drawer.

It’s in the hands of my manager, and hopefully he’ll find another place for it to exist, and if not, I’ve got other stuff going on. I’m keeping busy, I’m finishing the album, I’m getting geared up for the release of the kids book. You know, I’m sad I’m not in the middle of shooting a movie right now, but I’ve got so much other stuff going on in addition to a very wonderful family life that I don’t regret it a whole lot, and I’m kind of grateful for the free time.

You’ve got that children’s book, “When I Grow Up” coming out with Harper-Collins, which is huge. Are you planning on doing a book tour for that that doesn’t feature much music?

I would assume that they’re gonna put me on some kind of promotional tour, I don’t know what that would be. We haven’t really discussed that, but we’re quite serious about promoting the book and for people to be aware of it and for it to do well so I would assume that would involve T.V. appearances of some sort and certainly some kind of string of interviews, but we haven’t gotten into specifics so I can’t really speak to what that would be. Hopefully there will be some sort of promo tour along with that.

On your twitter you said you recorded audio for those people who couldn’t handle the heavy labor of a 32 page children’s picture book.

(Laughs) It seemed kind of silly at first when they brought that up to me, but they used snippets of that for an online trailer and for all sorts of other promotional purposes, so I kind of see where they were coming from in requesting that. So yeah I’m actually in the process now of editing my audio book, as it were (laughs).

Has being a parent changed your career ambitions, what you hope for, what your goals are to accomplish?

My daughter’s 7 and I have to tell you, every single age has just been great and you wish you could freeze dry your kid at every single age because there’s just certain moments you’ll never get again 3 months from then, but we’ve enjoyed every single step of the way. As for my career, I don’t think it’s really changed me career-wise. I mean it certainly has changed my priorities and my personal life, but I don’t think it’s changed the kind of music that I do, or what I put out to the world. I mean I’ve always been fairly family-friendly, I’ve been always aware that I’ve had a sizable—my fan base has got a lot of kids, so I don’t think that what I do, reproducing has really changed that too much.

In fact, I think the first album I put out after my daughter was born was maybe even a little edgier than normal because I had a chip on my shoulder—thought people would think I’d gotten soft and I wanted to come back strong and say “No, no, I’m edgy!” But overall, I would say even though it’s had an overwhelming effect on me personally, I don’t really think it’s had that much affect on my music.

This is sort of one of those big nebulous life questions, but you excelled when you were in high school and you got a degree in architecture and all that, so I was wondering if at this stage of your life, after you’ve had all these years, if you can even conceive at all of maybe an alternate world in which the whole “Weird Al” thing hadn’t worked out?

Every morning when I wake up I wonder if the whole thing has been a dream and I’m just about ready to go work in an architecture firm. It’s hard for me to conceive of that because I just feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to make a living doing what I love to do. I have a couple—looking back on it I guess there were a couple really scary years because I had just graduated from college with a degree that I, really, in my heart of hearts didn’t ever want to use and I was trying to a get a record deal, but the chances of that really are pretty slim. So yeah, it certainly could’ve gone either way if MTV, and Dr. Demento and Michael Jackson, and a number of cosmic tumblers hadn’t clicked into place, I really don’t know what I’d be doing right now. I’m just glad everything worked out for me.

Regarding your upcoming performance in Austin, it’s an isolated performance on your tour. Do you plan to hang out in Austin for a day or two, or are you jetting back to other projects?

I wish I could stick around in Austin. When I came out the last time, I came out with my family and we did make a little bit of an extended trip that time and that was a lot of fun. But this time I’m coming by myself so it’s pretty much in and out. I wish I could stick around for all of Fun Fun Fun Fest because I would dearly love to see a few other bands the following night, but I’ve got plans back in L.A. so I need to come on back.

But I love Austin and I was really sorry that Austin wasn’t included on our summer tour list, so that’s the reason why I jumped at the chance to do Fun Fun Fun Fest. Normally I would never do a one-off gig like that, because it’s a whole lot of effort to get the whole band and crew and equipment, and everything needed to do a show together for one show and then pack it all back up again. We just don’t do that. But we did it because we love Austin.

Okay, one last question. What hair products do you use?

(Laughs) I use whatever is in the hotel shower. I could look in the shower and tell you what the last thing I put in my hair was? Hmm, something in an orange bottle I think.

Orange bottle…

If it’s in an orange bottle, you know it’s got to be good!

Haha, you should get an endorsement deal for that.

(Laughs) I should!

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"Weird Al" Yankovic: [MySpace] [Official] [Twitter]

"Weird Al" Yankovic will be playing the Orange Stage on Friday, November 5th at 7:45 at Fun Fun Fun Fest.