"Simon Le Bon"

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Speaker 1 it, do it, do it.

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 less

Speaker 1 smart

Speaker 1 less

Speaker 1 Do you know that often,

Speaker 1 often, when I'm driving on Sunday night to our Sunday night dinner that we all do together

Speaker 1 with our fans and stuff, I'll rock out to Duranda. I'll rock out to Hungry Like the Wolf.
You have to film that next time.

Speaker 1 As I'm driving through the hills, it makes me feel good.

Speaker 2 That's why you always walk in with a glow stick between your teeth.

Speaker 1 That's why I'm always wearing like pastels under a

Speaker 1 blazer with shoulder pads. Your tonsertawn jacket.
Yeah. That's why you walk in with two hookers on either side of you.
Nice. By the way, speaking of walk,

Speaker 1 my hamstring, I'm having major hamstring issues. Yeah, when did this start and why? I don't know.
I think it's, I hate to say,

Speaker 1 I think it's golf related. It's a golf injury.

Speaker 2 That's up there with a sleeping injury.

Speaker 1 Well, Jason, you had your back golf injury last week. Right, but I, I, right.

Speaker 2 But I usually hurt my back doing things like tying my shoes or toweling off after a shower.

Speaker 2 We've come to that year.

Speaker 1 Toweling somebody off after a shower? Or just myself.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 Because I'm a little wet right now, if you want to just drive me off.

Speaker 1 Wait, Jay, how long do you have to go? Wait a second. We're going to clip that for sure.
I'm a little wet right now. Well, I meant from the shower, from the shower, water.

Speaker 1 So, Jason, how long do you have to stop playing golf for your back to get better?

Speaker 2 It's been a week, and today I'm going to break the mold. It's a week.

Speaker 1 It's been a week back. Week back.
It's raining. No, it stopped.
Take a look. I have a window in my room.
No,

Speaker 1 it's going to be a shit day. You're going to have a terrible day, and you're going to re-break your back.
It's my prediction.

Speaker 1 I'm doing a prediction. But

Speaker 1 the hamstrings, Joel. The hamstrings suck.

Speaker 2 How do you hurt your hamstrings playing golf?

Speaker 1 You know what? It's been a nagging thing that's been kind of, I've had it sort of strained a few times over the last two years. Is it a disc thing in your back that goes down your...

Speaker 1 I don't think so. I think it's an actual just hamstring thing.
And I think that

Speaker 1 probably a non-properly stretching thing.

Speaker 1 And I do a lot of, I do that hill.

Speaker 2 If we were smart, if we were smart, the three of us being of a certain age, more to 50,

Speaker 2 we would do the thing that we hate, which is yoga. If we did yoga, we would have such a more pleasant aging process, I think.

Speaker 1 I used to, one of the best

Speaker 1 Pilates. I used to do yoga a little bit, but Pilates, I did Pilates about 10 10 years ago for about six months.

Speaker 1 In addition to the regular sort of working out, I did that.

Speaker 1 I was stacking before stacking was a thing. I was stacking.

Speaker 1 And it was great. I felt so much better doing that.

Speaker 2 I know, but it takes a lot of discipline to.

Speaker 2 And also, like, I can't stand sweating because I'm stretching. It's like being stuck in a hot car with windows that won't come down and a door lock that is broken.

Speaker 1 It's like, can I, I'm sweating?

Speaker 2 I want to be doing something active.

Speaker 1 I feel the same. I feel the same way.
Except not when you're in the sauna, you're sweating and you're not active.

Speaker 2 That's true.

Speaker 2 That's the sort of a contradiction that for some reason I'm okay with.

Speaker 1 But like if you're moving furniture or doing like a strenuous activity or something, you're sweating, I get really irritable fast. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 I always feel like, and this is going to be controversial, but oftentimes it reminds me of like when I'm in England and it's cool out and I feel like everywhere inside is very stuffy and hot.

Speaker 1 I always feel like I'm wearing a jacket and then I'm inside and I'm just and it's stuffy inside. How about in how about in Europe?

Speaker 1 Look at the look on Jason's face.

Speaker 2 I mean, what every time you're in England, what the fuck?

Speaker 1 You work for the government? What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 When are you in England?

Speaker 1 I spend a lot of time in England. How about, wait, how about when you're in England or Europe or whatever, and you ask for a Coca-Cola, they don't give you ice.
And it's like a hard time.

Speaker 2 I don't know how they've never experimented with how things taste better with ice.

Speaker 1 Things,

Speaker 2 carbonated beverages.

Speaker 1 I used to put put ice in my beverage.

Speaker 2 I mean, like,

Speaker 1 it's indisputable that a room-temperature Coca-Cola tastes world's worse.

Speaker 1 I was at a restaurant once, and it was in Italy, and it was quite warm out. And I said,

Speaker 1 Can I get a Coke? And the guy brought me a warm Coke, and I looked at him and I said, Do you want me to barf? Yeah, I mean, hey, guy.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 1 I don't understand it. But anyway, I don't know.
Anyway,

Speaker 1 it's a long way from there from my hamstring, hamstring, but I do have it wrapped right now. Okay.

Speaker 1 Did you go to the doctor? No, doctor. You wrapped it yourself.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, I wrapped it myself. Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 He raps. I didn't have some.
I want to rap right now. My name is Will.
My name is Will with the W before the XYZ and after the T and U.

Speaker 1 Oh, wait.

Speaker 2 Now, hang on a sec, Sean. I think what we've

Speaker 2 stumbled on here is a rap that Will has always had since he was a kid. And there's probably music that goes with it.
Oh, my God. Now, would you like us to do that?

Speaker 1 With a W, before the X, Y, Z, after the T and U. You hear my deaf rhyme.
It's coming prime time.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 2 How many times have the boys heard that on the way to school?

Speaker 1 What do you mean, write it? I just said it. It's not.

Speaker 2 He just grabs the microphone, too, like he's shaking a hand.

Speaker 1 But you put effort into that.

Speaker 1 No, I didn't. No, no, no.
I think I said it out loud once in the car, and then I just said it to myself. It's like a dumbest, you you know, freestyle of tea at the time.

Speaker 1 Well, at some point, Sean, we're going to get into your pop career.

Speaker 1 Somebody's got to. Somebody's definitely got to, but I'm too hamstrung to

Speaker 1 this is a segue. This is a really good segue.
I feel like my segues are getting worse.

Speaker 1 I was going to say better, but now I now that I think about it, it seems like they're worse.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 I'm not hamstrung by

Speaker 1 the talent of our guest, and neither is he.

Speaker 1 This person is kind of known for his voice

Speaker 1 in a way, and he's been known for his voice for so long, in so many iconic ways. This is one of my

Speaker 1 bucket list

Speaker 1 guests

Speaker 1 who I have not stopped talking about and quoting and singing and listening to and talking for years and years and years. I've bored you guys with it.
And I've just always wanted to know.

Speaker 1 He has played such a huge part in my musical

Speaker 1 experience throughout my life in so many different ways and different incarnations. Bonnie Ver.

Speaker 1 Again, one of our guests who, once I start to list things off, you're just going to immediately know who it is, even though you guys already...

Speaker 1 He has done it all.

Speaker 1 He's an Englishman who, along with his buddies Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, decided to create a little band called Duran Duran at Sai Walpon.

Speaker 2 Will, how do you do it, Will?

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's so cool.

Speaker 1 You fellas. Nice to meet you.

Speaker 2 Simon, how do you know Will Arnett?

Speaker 1 He doesn't.

Speaker 2 Will, how do you know Simon? I mean, I know you're a fan of Simon.

Speaker 1 That's a great question. It's completely irrelevant because we don't know each other.
That's right.

Speaker 1 I just got a call from the production company offering me a huge, obscene amount of money to do your podcast.

Speaker 1 I thought, how come if they pay me that much, how can they possibly make

Speaker 1 it? It's out of my own pocket.

Speaker 1 I went out of my own pocket for this.

Speaker 1 Simon, I've been trying to get you on the podcast since we started.

Speaker 1 We've had to cut out clips of your music just because of publishing and royalties reasons. I would constantly come on to the show playing Drandrand.
I'm such a massive fan. We all are massive fans.

Speaker 1 It's such an honor to have you. I've seen you in concert concert like two or three times, and

Speaker 1 it just blows me away every time. So, Simon LeBon.
We're coming back. You know, we're back on tour in America this year.

Speaker 1 Right, well, don't push it.

Speaker 1 I'm not trying to flog it to you. I'm coming.
I'll come.

Speaker 2 Are you playing at the Tabasco Theater?

Speaker 1 Are we?

Speaker 1 Do you mean I've got to look at my itinerary?

Speaker 2 No, no. No, no, no.

Speaker 1 Sean is playing at the Belasco Theater. His new play, Good Night Oscar, opens in April at the Belasco Theater.
Oh, the Belasco. Oh, the Velasco, not the Tabasco.
On Broadway.

Speaker 1 Jason was just being cheeky, as you might say. We have played at the Belasco.
Have you?

Speaker 1 And it's next door to the Mayan, isn't it? I've never been there. I leave in a week.
I think it's next door. We've played at both the Belasco and the Mayan Theater, downtown L.A.

Speaker 1 Is it downtown or is it sort of? No, this is in New York. Oh, we played at the other Belasco.
Right, yeah. In Athens,

Speaker 1 Belasco 2.

Speaker 1 you played everywhere first of all you are you have a new record and you guys are going on tour last year you did some dates at uh did you do four shows at the Hollywood Bowl am I right about we did three three

Speaker 1 uh three amazing shows the first one it was absolutely pissing with rain really really and it was but but right rain shows are always special ones but in Los Angeles rain falls like chemicals from the sky for people in Los Angeles everybody scurries don't they don't know.

Speaker 1 Is that why everybody runs around with their tongue sticking out?

Speaker 2 People just don't know what to do with it.

Speaker 1 I always say that rain in LA is a chance for all the people on the west side to get out their fancy all-weather clothing.

Speaker 1 It starts to drizzle. People have their great boots.
Yeah. And their fucking hoodie coats.

Speaker 2 And the safari vehicle.

Speaker 1 And the snow tires. Just to make it the Trader Joe's.
And the Safari vehicle with the snow tires on the chains coming out. And a rhubar on the front.

Speaker 1 But so, Simon, and we're going to get into how you guys became, what you became, and who you became in terms of, you know, musically and what an influence you are.

Speaker 1 But I kind of want to, I want to get back to the start because I know so little about it. I want to know,

Speaker 1 first of all, so thrilling. It's such an unbelievable thrill.
You started as an actor. You went to drama school.
Is that right?

Speaker 1 I started as

Speaker 1 an acting student a student actor yeah i mean i had a few roles i did a few things i was i was more of an advert kid you know i did like personal adverts that's like a that's like washing powder yeah um i did a few commercials

Speaker 1 and um and i did a i did a tea i did a run at a theater in the west end when i was a when i was a teenager um and i but i was an aspirant actor and i went to i went to university and i studied um acting.

Speaker 1 That's amazing.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 at the same time, I met a bunch of guys called Juran Duran who were looking for, wait for it, a lead singer.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I had had my own punk band. Well, me and my three mates, we'd had a punk band back in Pinna, the little suburban town that I grew up in.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I fitted right into Duran Duran. But how did you know you could sing? Like, how did you audition? Well, because I was always a singer.
Oh, you were always a singer, too.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I was a I was singing from the cradle. Um, I sang in church choir, I used to do singing competitions, I got a guitar, and I started taught myself to play guitar.
Well, actually, no, Mr.

Speaker 1 Shuri, the folk, the folk guitarist who gave 10 lessons at the school I went to taught me how to play guitar,

Speaker 1 and I learned the rest of it. I learned to play slow down, you move too fast.
You gotta make the morning less just kicking down the cobblestones, looking for fun and feeling groovy.

Speaker 1 That's the reach right there. If you can hit that, that's it.
Yeah, well, you're one of those few singers, too, because of the training and stuff.

Speaker 1 And I said this to another friend of mine, a friend of mine that sings.

Speaker 1 You have the proper training to know how to use it so you can tour and you can do night after night and you can sing properly, as they say, where other people who don't scream, lose their voice, and they don't know how to take care of it.

Speaker 1 Isn't that true? Well, I make no mistake I used to go out on tour and scream and lose my voice

Speaker 1 I think we all did we all a lot of us did in in the early days and mainly because

Speaker 1 Because because we didn't have ear monitors so we were competing with the guitar You know, you can only turn the vocal monitors up so loud before they start feeding back.

Speaker 1 So there's a there's a there's a a point at which you can't amplify the the voice on the stage any any higher

Speaker 1 and of course the guitar can just get louder and louder and louder and louder

Speaker 1 until the only way you can hear yourself singing is if you shriek your head off.

Speaker 1 We were also,

Speaker 1 don't forget, in a lot of places, we were competing with

Speaker 1 you know, tens of thousands of screaming teenagers, many of them female, with very loud, high

Speaker 2 back, and then there was Sean. And one bloke.

Speaker 1 That was you, was it? And one one young

Speaker 1 I bet you had a great time.

Speaker 2 With a smoky eye.

Speaker 1 He was a little just come from behind the soda machine

Speaker 1 for the makeout session with another guy.

Speaker 1 But wait, so Simon, so by the way, were you always like kidding? It was true, by the way. He is true.

Speaker 1 Were you giving sort of shitty glances over to the, you know, to the guy, like, who was it, Andy Taylor on guitar at that point? Were you kind of like, hey, man, tone it down?

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, I mean, I knew that it wouldn't make any difference what I said to him.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 I mean, honestly,

Speaker 1 you know.

Speaker 2 I love learning

Speaker 2 what the ear monitor is for because I feel like

Speaker 2 that's a recent thing, those ones that are formed right to your ear. Like, that's over the last like 10 years.

Speaker 1 Well, the first time, no, no, they're older than that. You'd be surprised.
The first time we went out on tour and I had ear monitors was 1993.

Speaker 2 1993?

Speaker 1 It was 1993. So we've had them for 30 years.

Speaker 1 When you first got it, were you like, oh, man, this is

Speaker 1 it was extraordinary. And I could just turn, I could, I could turn the guitar down.
So there was none of it at all in my ears.

Speaker 1 And then, of course, you know, if you turn, if you take all the other instruments out, you sing out of tune. So that's no good.

Speaker 1 But I found, you know, you've learned to make a really good balance of the things that are in your head. And

Speaker 1 it works. And it is much easier to save your voice.

Speaker 2 What's more satisfying when a huge crowd starts singing the words

Speaker 2 that you're singing, like they know the song, they love the song, or when they're completely silent and they're just totally engaged and you have them in the palm of your hand and they're listening to you doing your great singing?

Speaker 2 Like, I've always wondered that.

Speaker 1 Well, the way you put it makes it sound a little egotistical. Me listening to them refrains myself.
This is a safe zone. This is a safe zone.

Speaker 1 It's not really like that.

Speaker 1 See,

Speaker 1 what they do, really,

Speaker 1 is that they sing along with the big old favorite songs. Songs like Hungry Like the Wolf, Planet Earth, Come Undone, Hungry World.
I mean, and the list, and the list does go on. It does, man.

Speaker 1 They sing along with those ones. But when we play new music, especially sort of like the new ballads and things, so off our latest album, which by the way is entitled Future Past, Future Past.

Speaker 1 That's when they listen because they're not so familiar with the songs. So you get that chance

Speaker 1 with the new album, with the new material, you get that chance to just, for them to hear it the way you want them to hear it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And we will be right back.

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Speaker 1 and now back to the show

Speaker 2 can i ask a dumb question um durand duran means what

Speaker 1 well it's like smith smith it's duran is the most is the most common name in uh france well it's the second most common name actually because the most common one is dupont

Speaker 1 but we didn't like the sound of dupont dupont Right.

Speaker 1 Duran Duran, Duran Duran. I'm looking for Duran Duran from Planet Earth.

Speaker 1 So you, but, but, look, that was Jane Fonda. I'm looking for Duran Duran from Planet Earth.
Duran Duran from Planet Earth? Yes, Duran Duran from Planet Earth.

Speaker 1 From which we got the band name and the name of our first single. Gotcha.
Huh. And you, and the name of your first record, Duran Duran, obviously.
And your...

Speaker 1 Was Planet Earth the first single from yeah, yeah, yeah, we didn't we I didn't actually take that from the from the the Roger Vadim film Barbarola you did not no I it was only afterwards when we when we watched the film again that we would realize that the the title was of the of our first single was in it it was a wonderful coincidence

Speaker 1 yeah because that right that's the character's name in the film right so Milo O'Shea played a character called Duran Duran and he had done, he'd done a bit of a, he was a scientist, but he'd done a naughty bunk with some kind of pleasure machine, and also this deadly weapon called the positronic ray.

Speaker 1 Anyway, this old pervert back on

Speaker 1 back in the Earth Foundation got the youngest, most attractive

Speaker 1 astronaut, which was Jane Fonda, as Barbarella,

Speaker 1 to go out and find her. I've got to see this movie.

Speaker 2 I've heard about it.

Speaker 1 It's a wonderful film. If you haven't watched it recently, watch it.
Jason hasn't seen it. What's the name of the movie? Barbarella.
Barbara. Barbarella.
Yeah. You've heard it.

Speaker 1 It's a very famous film. Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1 And then Sam Anderson remade it, I think. Did she really? Did she? I think.
Maybe I got that wrong. Maybe it was a different girl's name.
Chances are high. Chances are high.

Speaker 1 Sean just likes to throw things out there.

Speaker 1 So, Simon, so you do, so Duranda, and the character's name was Drend Durand, right? If I'm not mistaken, with the D on the other side. Was it? I think so.
Anyway, which gives you even more.

Speaker 1 What a disappointment. No, no, I'm sorry to.
Oh, my my gosh,

Speaker 1 you know, because John and Nick was sitting there see in their Birmingham living room watching the movie, and all they could hear was Duran Durancy.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 that was the name of the band at the time.

Speaker 1 So, so you guys formed Duran Duran,

Speaker 1 Planet Earth, a big, big hit. And then,

Speaker 1 if I'm not mistaken, was Girls on Film also on that first record? I think it was. Yeah.
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 And you guys, that was one of, that video, and I don't know if you guys remember, that video was like really too hot for American audiences. Yes, I remember that.
Right? Walk us through that.

Speaker 1 What we did was we made two versions of that video.

Speaker 1 And it was Kevin Godley and Lol Kareem were the video directors.

Speaker 1 We made one version, which was quite tame, and you could put it on MTV during sort of, you know, sort of family hours.

Speaker 1 And then the other version, the night version, which was a longer, it was a longer video, and we actually wrote an extended piece of music for it.

Speaker 1 That was own, you could only see that on video jukeboxes.

Speaker 1 Rock America video jukeboxes in nightclubs around the United States.

Speaker 1 And speaking of which night versions, you guys actually, and I found this out just

Speaker 1 you guys went and remixed all your own songs and did night versions so that they

Speaker 1 am i right about that we no we didn't remix them we re-recorded them you re-comed them so we actually recorded longer versions we didn't just we didn't just um cut and paste the um which you didn't couldn't do that anyway right um because it was all it was all on tape it was all on it was all on magnetic tape um we didn't we didn't try to kind of copy anything and and and and stick it on later we we wrote 12-minute versions of the song with of all the songs that we did night version so that it would lend itself better to sort of dance clubs and whatnot, as opposed to.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because that was the only way we could do it. That was the only way we knew how to make long versions, 12-inch records, was to go back in and record them as 12-inches.
Isn't that amazing?

Speaker 1 And so they have this whole, you can go and you can look it up, and they've got all the release of all these night versions of these extended versions that I did not know that you rewrote and re-recorded, which is pretty heavy lifting.

Speaker 1 I know, but

Speaker 1 that was just the job that was

Speaker 1 the job that there was to do. And if you listen to the girls on film version, the girls on film night version, it has a completely different last verse.
Oh, really?

Speaker 1 Yeah. It goes, how's it go? God,

Speaker 1 take one last glimpse into the night. I'm touching close.
I'm holding bright. Shudders in a whisper.
I'm coming closer. Take me high till I'm shooting a star.

Speaker 1 Only it's more like shooting a star.

Speaker 1 That's the backup sound. Oh, sorry, mom.
Am I going on a bit too long?

Speaker 1 Did you? I've always wanted to know whose laugh is at the beginning of Hungry Like the Wolf, which is one of my favorite intros to a song.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That actually was, it was a girlfriend.

Speaker 1 Her name was Cheryl.

Speaker 1 She was my girlfriend. And then funny things that happened in this life, she became Nick's girlfriend.
No way. No way.
How did that happen?

Speaker 2 I would imagine that's not the only time that happened. You guys have been together.
Really?

Speaker 1 Okay, we're going to move right along now.

Speaker 2 Speaking of being together for a long, long time, you guys have been making music for so long and been relevant for so long and been able to do what it is you want to do for so long for such a great big audience.

Speaker 2 What is the process of staying true to where you guys want to go, changing your musical sound and having that kind of progress, and then also trying to stay as aware of and as in touch with as possible

Speaker 2 what the changing of music

Speaker 2 is in

Speaker 2 popular music.

Speaker 2 You know, like there was a time when it was all the music, the instruments were plugged in, and then they were not plugged in, and then there was more like, you know, how does that, how does that go?

Speaker 2 Or do you guys just make music for you and hope that it catches on?

Speaker 1 I think you've got to, there's a couple of ground rules here. Number one is

Speaker 1 you can't follow trends.

Speaker 1 You can't be following a trend as your major

Speaker 1 kind of writing inspiration. That cannot be your major inspiration.

Speaker 1 You have to make music that you like, that you enjoy. Otherwise, there will be no passion in it.

Speaker 1 And people can hear. They can hear the difference between something that you really mean and something that you're just going through the motions with.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I, but also, I think you've got to be aware of where music is at the moment. I mean, and I think, and we all are, and we always have been.

Speaker 1 We, you know, there's stuff that we did in the 1980s we'd never dream of doing now because it just wouldn't be relevant to us. Right.

Speaker 2 What do you do when your taste in where things have gone is not aligned with your bandmates? What is that kind of creative negotiation like as you guys are starting to work out a new song

Speaker 1 well you know there has been times when somebody's gone in the studio laid down some parts and somebody's come in after them and laid down completely contradicting parts that don't work with the ones that went down before right um the strong usually survives the um that'd be the strong strong music or the strong personality yeah the strong the strong oh the music definitely the music and what are the politics of that like like sort of navigating that within well nobody's nobody's got any, there's nobody who's more, whose opinion is more important than anybody else's.

Speaker 1 You know, we don't know. It's got to be hard, though.

Speaker 1 And, you know, when you went off and did, went solo on projects, I've always wondered, what is that dynamic?

Speaker 1 How do you have that conversation like, guys, I love you, but I'm going to go do this for a second? Do they have any animosity? Well, none of us have really gone solo.

Speaker 1 Oh, I thought you had solo stuff. No, not really.
I mean,

Speaker 1 I've done a couple of things. Nick and I did the Arcadia project.
Oh, wow. John and Andy did the Power Station.
Power Station. That's right.

Speaker 1 Roger,

Speaker 1 God bless him, he did drums on both projects. Oh, wow.
Okay. So he's the only guy who was in both PowerStation and Arcadia.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 By the way, the fact that you guys weren't named the Taylors is incredible, considering it's Roger, Andy, and John

Speaker 1 in the band. All unrelated.
All unrelated. Unrelated, yeah.
That is my Taylor Taylor. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So you guys do, you guys do you and nick do the arcadia thing uh those guys go and do power station yeah uh and then that and then sort of five years later you guys you do the wedding album is that right no it wasn't quite like that so in the last we did we did seven a ragged tiger went on tour throughout sort of 84 then we Then we got back together and we did View to a Kill.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes.

Speaker 1 And that was the last recording that the original five members made before the hiatus and the Power Station and Arcadia. Then Power Station and Arcadia happened.
And then

Speaker 1 we got back together.

Speaker 1 But in the getting back together, it turned out that ultimately we would only have, well, not ultimately, but when we tried to get back together to reconvene the original Juan Juan, we weren't able to get Andy Taylor back in the band, really, and definitely weren't able to get Roger Taylor back.

Speaker 1 So, Andy was kind of in it and kind of out of it. Roger was definitely out of it.
And sort of after a while, we realized that it would be, you know, it would be me and Nick and John.

Speaker 1 Andy wasn't going to be a guitarist, and Roger was not going to be a drummer. So, we looked for other guys to work with.
And quite happily, we

Speaker 1 really

Speaker 1 kind of developed our friendship and working relationship with Niall Rogers at that time. And that's when we kind of had the

Speaker 1 Notorious album. That's when that's

Speaker 1 what made that.

Speaker 2 Is there a story you can share that you're comfortable sharing about why those two guys weren't able to come back in that new incarnation?

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 Roger, he really had...

Speaker 1 It all became a bit too much for Roger.

Speaker 1 I don't know the exact term for the

Speaker 1 the psychological problem that he was having.

Speaker 1 It wasn't a nervous breakdown.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 something happened to him and the anxiety was too much for him. And he wasn't able to carry on with the band.

Speaker 1 And Andy just wanted to be a rock and roller. And he just didn't think that Duranda was the right vehicle for the kind of music he wanted to make at that time.

Speaker 1 You know, he went off and he recorded the band Thunder and he did some of his own rock records, heavy sort of American style rock record.

Speaker 1 Whereas we wanted to be Juran, the rest of us wanted to be Juran Duran. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I have a question about touring, like,

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 1 I think when people go see a live show, they're, you know, and they go nuts for you guys. And then the show's over, they go home, and they're like, what an incredible show.

Speaker 1 Not realizing you have to do it night after night after night after night, sometimes with just a little break in between. What do you do to get ready for a tour?

Speaker 1 Because I can't imagine how grueling that is on your voice, on your body, on your sleep schedule and like the food that you have to eat. Like you just have to maintain all of that.

Speaker 1 And second part is, you know, I live for horrific live stories. Like what's the worst

Speaker 1 that a fan did? Like, did they rush the stage and something happened? Or I love those kinds of stories if you have any.

Speaker 1 Right. Just let me just try and

Speaker 2 put two in there. Just go ahead and take the first one.

Speaker 1 Let's do the first one, which is with the first part of that question was, what do you have to do to kind of get ready for a tour? Well, we rehearse. But I think, but, you know, we made it.

Speaker 1 Like physically and mentally.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, physically, we try not to leave it too long between shows. So we had a performance, even though it was a little one, we had a performance at New Year in Times Square.
And that kind of just

Speaker 1 keeps you

Speaker 1 nudging your personal fitness up. And we're going back out again in April.
So we'll be rehearsing before that and we'll we'll all be physically capable of

Speaker 1 the job of doing the job properly um psychologically i mean just

Speaker 1 once you get to a certain kind of state in your career and you and you and you know that that the the hard the the more you try the harder it is so you need to just go up there and just do it and not and not and not try too hard it's a bit like hitting a tennis ball or a golf ball or a cricket ball or even a baseball, let's say.

Speaker 1 It's that relaxed swing that

Speaker 1 gives you the best results.

Speaker 1 And performing is a bit like that. You've got to be relaxed,

Speaker 1 but accurate. And to do that, you've got to be confident.
You've got to really believe in yourself and believe that you can do it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because you're going from just, you know,

Speaker 1 not running around the stage for a year or whatever to mounting a tour to all of a sudden I have to run around the stage and you have to keep that endurance up. It's just got to be, I can't.

Speaker 1 You had to do it. And when you were on Broadway, you did it.
You did a couple musicals. Yes.
And it's, yeah, that's why I ask is because, well, I'm gearing up to do it again.

Speaker 1 And it's, you know, mentally, you just have to.

Speaker 2 I'm going to go to Tabasco.

Speaker 1 Mentally, do you, can I ask you a question? Do you suffer from nerves? Oh, God, yeah. So I have something for you.
I have something for you. This is my gift to you.

Speaker 1 It's my litany against nerves. And it goes like this.

Speaker 1 It's not fear. It's adrenaline.
It's just your mind and your body preparing you to do something extraordinary. And you will do something extraordinary.
Yeah. I love that.
Amen.

Speaker 1 God, if you're at home, record that and pay that back for yourself. I love that too.

Speaker 1 Honestly, it makes such a difference when

Speaker 1 you realize I'm not frightened.

Speaker 1 It's just the butterflies. It's just the side effect of me sharpening up.

Speaker 1 Did you have those butterflies? When you guys, when you started, you released Duran Duran sort of in the early 80s.

Speaker 1 Those first, I don't know, five years of the 80s, 80 through 85,

Speaker 1 maybe the most in-demand band in the world. It must have been like...

Speaker 1 You just rocketed up. All your records were top of the pops.
You had so many singles and you're on tour all the time. Did you have time in that?

Speaker 1 Were you young enough to not be nervous and just to be fucking fucking cocky and just

Speaker 1 well, I mean, I was, I, I, I got nerves. I've, I've been nervous with every single performance I've done, but I've learned to cope with it.

Speaker 1 And I've always, and also when, when the music starts and you walk on stage, the nerves becomes, it's almost, it's more like that little shower that you go through on the way to the swimming pool, you know, the

Speaker 1 hygiene shower that

Speaker 1 where they spray you with sulfuric acid. That's what they do in this country.

Speaker 1 You walk through it.

Speaker 1 It's like a shower bath that you walk through and you come out and you walk on stage and the music starts and the nerves just

Speaker 1 they just recede into the darker back part of your brain. And suddenly you're there with the music and the audience.
And that's in a way that.

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Speaker 1 The importance of that overcomes all the rest of it.

Speaker 1 We'll be right back.

Speaker 2 All All right. Back to the show.

Speaker 2 One of the other things I would think that you would need and want is the desire to be out there and to be playing the same set every night. Could get monotonous.

Speaker 2 Same thing with theater, right, Sean, where you're doing the same material every night.

Speaker 2 How do you find the excitement to do it as good as, or if not better, than last night?

Speaker 1 It's a good question. It's a really good question.

Speaker 2 What is that question?

Speaker 2 Are you channeling into the audience?

Speaker 1 There's more to it. No, no.

Speaker 1 No, I think what it is, is I think this, it's

Speaker 1 so you have to, the audience is part of it, I think.

Speaker 1 Because that's the audience's one time to see you on that tour. Maybe they won't come.

Speaker 1 Maybe some of them will come back next tour.

Speaker 1 A few of them will come and see more shows on that tour. But for most of the people in that room, it's their one time seeing Juran Juran, maybe for two or three years, four years, five years.

Speaker 1 Maybe the only time in their lives they can see Juran Juran. And

Speaker 1 you just remember that they are, they deserve the best show they can get. And then you start to, then you, then you let the music, you just have to give yourself to the music.

Speaker 1 I've got another, another, I've got a little mantra before I go on stage as well, and that is let the songs do the work. I don't have to go out there and give a performance.

Speaker 1 I have to let the, I just have to serve the songs. And then everything else about the performance falls in into place.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 1 And when you do that, and the music is, the music has got a great way of putting you right in the moment and you're not thinking about what you're going to go and have for dinner in a restaurant after the show and you're not thinking about what somebody said to you back in the back in the hotel or

Speaker 1 something else. You become very much in the moment.

Speaker 1 And when you're in the moment, you can't be bored because every little thing that you're doing is so important that it's, you, you, you're, as I said, you're serving the songs.

Speaker 1 You're doing the best you can to deliver these really good songs in the best way they could be possible. I'm the opposite.

Speaker 1 When I'm on stage and doing a player or musical and it's performance, you know, 135, I'm completely thinking about what I'm having for dinner later. All right.

Speaker 1 I know it does happen. I know it does happen.
And

Speaker 1 we call that autopilot, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. You just go on to auto.
That's when it's time to move on and to make a difference.

Speaker 2 How involved are you in another part of the shows that I always love in any rock show?

Speaker 2 Is the show around it, the lighting, the stage work?

Speaker 1 Well, I was going to get to that, Jason. Do you know that these guys, I mean, Simon, you guys were one of the first acts to really incorporate the video aspect of the show, right? You guys were.

Speaker 1 Video wall.

Speaker 1 We were the first actor to use a video wall behind us. Yeah.
Wow.

Speaker 1 We're very involved in it. We work with the designer.

Speaker 1 We've got a fantastic guy called Vince, who he's an amazing designer, i mean amazing sets and lighting and he he does that but we're sitting with him all on in all the way up to the um the production rehearsals looking at the stuff he's doing because he's always redoing it and and and developing it and the imagery the the actual images um oh yeah absolutely that's another thing the synchronization of that with the music with the when you're gonna go with the the upbeat or the out or whatever the heck all that's Jay do you remember do you remember the reflex that the video for that was was like from a concert and used the video wall and then it like the and had that sort of that image of the wave, yeah, Simon?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, right.
The wave that came out of the top of the video screen and the one guy in the audience who got a bucket of water thrown in his face. Yeah, yeah.
I remember that. But it worked.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 It worked. Yeah.
And people, people came up to me. People were coming up to me in,

Speaker 1 you know, in the street or in shops.

Speaker 1 I'd go out to like record shops in Toronto and somebody come and say, hey, that screen, how did you make the water come out of the video screen?

Speaker 1 Because they were so taken in by the effect that they really thought it was real. Yeah, of course they did.
And of course, now we watch it and it looks so, you know, compared to modern CGI,

Speaker 1 it's obviously very fake. But people are like, that was me.
I was the guy in Toronto. Oh, that was you.
Yeah, who came up to you. I was living in.
I grew up in Toronto.

Speaker 1 I thought I recognized you. Yeah.
Yeah. And God, I remember that so vividly.
That video was so huge. And

Speaker 1 the other thing I want to know in that time,

Speaker 1 so you do all these great things, and then walk me through a little bit getting the phone, the call from Bob Geldof to appear, because I played it a little bit in our intro.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's all you're playing.

Speaker 1 In Do They Know It's Christmas? Yeah. One of my favorite.
I have tried to.

Speaker 1 I bastardized what you do, but I love your solo at the beginning of that. It's so fucking good.

Speaker 2 It's he has literally sung that a thousand times

Speaker 1 on the LSA. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 What was that like, that process of getting Bob? Well,

Speaker 1 I was at home and I got a phone call and Bob goes, Simon, did you see it last night? I said, what, Bob? He says, the African thing. I said, no, I didn't see it, Bob.
He says, it's terrible.

Speaker 1 He says, in Africa, in Ethiopia, they're starving. They're dying.

Speaker 1 I want to do something about it. And I thought we could make a record.
We could all make a record together.

Speaker 1 Would you be up for being on that record? I said, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 And then, and Bob later told me that he called two people, he called me and he called Sting.

Speaker 1 And he reckoned that if he got the two of us on it, then everybody else would say yes to it.

Speaker 1 And this was, you know, he had it all planned. He had the whole thing planned.
I went and did the demo.

Speaker 1 I went to a little studio, I can't remember where, in London, and worked with Midge Ewer and Bob and did the demo. So when we all arrived at the studio,

Speaker 1 Sam West, I I thought I was singing all of the verses. Oh my God.

Speaker 1 What's that Bono guy doing here? I thought I'm singing that bitch. Well, it's funny because it's you and Stinger singing, and then all of a sudden, when they cut back, Bono's between you and Sting.

Speaker 1 Yes, that's right. Yes.
And then you see, like, oh, my, God, I remember at the time, too, I was such a fan of the jam as well. And I see Paul Weller was just making the move to Style Council.

Speaker 1 And I was like, oh, my God, fucking Simon LeBon and Paul Weller and Bono and Sting. And they're all in the same frame.
Nobody had ever seen anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it was wild.

Speaker 1 Did you guys, did you feel in the moment how that it was really, could you, did you recognize in that moment, wow, this is something amazing?

Speaker 1 Yeah, because

Speaker 1 at no other time had all those,

Speaker 1 that variety and that number of hugely successful rock stars been in the same room together doing something like that.

Speaker 1 Not even on Saturday morning TV shows. Yeah.
You wanted to know, I remember the story, the absolute worst thing that happened on stage. Yes.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, there's been a few, a few mishaps, but there was one.

Speaker 1 I don't know if you know this, but I went Commando for 20 years.

Speaker 1 Mainly because

Speaker 1 I was not up to date on that. No.

Speaker 1 I'd mentioned throwing a pair of underpants behind the headboard of this hotel that all the bands you sustain and going back there two months later and finding them still there behind the bed.

Speaker 1 And this, I was telling this to

Speaker 1 another rock star, and he says, Oh my god, I'm shocked. I said, Yeah, it's disgusting.
He says, Not that. You're a rock star.
Rock stars don't wear underwear.

Speaker 1 That was in 1983.

Speaker 1 And I went commando for the next 20 years because

Speaker 1 yeah, absolutely. Anyway, at some point in that, I was on stage in the

Speaker 1 Ahoy Theatre in Rotterdam. You remember those, do you remember Madonna's pointy bra, Jean-Paul Gautier bra with the like the cone thing on them?

Speaker 1 Well, he'd made the same sort of corresponding pants for guys with the kind of cones

Speaker 1 on the butt cheeks.

Speaker 1 And they had, and these two, instead of having one zip up the middle like normal trousers do, they had two zips, like one coming down from each hip, which meant they had a seam down the front.

Speaker 1 And so in between, right in between your legs was this kind of cross seam seam where all were four bits of material joined up.

Speaker 1 Anyway, I came running across to do my star jump in Hungary like the Wolf, where I jump off the rise and put my arms out like that.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I'd never worn these pants before, and the sweat on my knees kind of grabbed hold of the jeans material. I did the star, and this seam in the middle of the crotch opened like a flower.

Speaker 1 And there's me

Speaker 1 and my junk flying towards the audience at velocity.

Speaker 1 And I'm thinking, holy shit.

Speaker 1 And all the girls are thinking, finally, this is what we've wanted forever. The horror.

Speaker 1 And I hit the stage and

Speaker 1 I actually managed to kind of cover up my modesty or cover myself modestly

Speaker 1 just as the first flashbulb went off.

Speaker 1 Wow. Wow.

Speaker 2 Running backstage, grabbing a towel, and coming back out.

Speaker 1 And I did. Yes, I did.

Speaker 1 We had these little bar towels, these kind of like tartan bar towels on the stage. And I shoved one of those down the front of my waistband.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 then I was very, very coy and very fae.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm totally naked under here, everybody.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 Guess what I've got under here?

Speaker 1 Sean, do you have any of your pops? You know, Simon, you don't know this, but Sean

Speaker 1 at one point decided he was going to be a pop star, and he wrote a bunch of pop songs. Yes, I did, yes.
And Sean, you don't have any of those handy, do you? Are you serious?

Speaker 1 Sean, just sing, Sean, just sing, just for Simon, because he's one of the great rock stars of all time. I love this.
Ready? Well, the lyrics are: I'll do, isn't it rough enough

Speaker 1 without feeling the torture of love?

Speaker 1 Wow,

Speaker 1 there's music that could go to that when she was five years old. My daughter Tallulah came up with this one: oh my

Speaker 1 god i don't know what to do anymore

Speaker 1 and i have to say i prefer my daughters yeah yeah no i get it i get it i get it but that wasn't bad i'm being well i'm not singing i'm not doing it's so embarrassing these guys will hear it but i nobody anywhere ever ever has heard these songs and now the world will and now the world's gonna hear yeah i'm honored

Speaker 1 simon i know that you we've kept you too long and you've got to go i i again

Speaker 1 what an unbelievable thrill to have you. Yeah, this is amazing.
It's just so great to meet you. Such a massive fan of everything you've done all the way along.

Speaker 1 We didn't even get to the future past. To the boat crash.
We didn't even get to the

Speaker 1 next time. The nautical disaster.
I'll come back and I'll tell you all about the boat disaster

Speaker 1 if you want me back. I would love it to be a good time.

Speaker 1 I want you back repeatedly. Thank you.
Part two. Part two with Simon LeBon is coming sometime soon, and and we're going to talk about the nautical disaster.

Speaker 1 In the meantime, we've just enjoyed having you so much, man.

Speaker 1 Thanks for stopping by. Oh, my gosh.
It's been a huge pleasure. Thank you, fellas.
I've really enjoyed it. Thank you.
See you soon. Come and see us on tour.
We're really good. On tour, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 We will.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Bye.
Bye. Bye, bye.
Bye. We're really good.

Speaker 1 Sean,

Speaker 1 you know, again, as an aspiring pop star, can you imagine young Sean Hayes, who had written, he's got a handful of songs written on the backs of what I'm guessing are napkins.

Speaker 1 It's so, these songs are so big. By the way, I wrote these songs with Jordan Roseman, who's known as DJ Earworm now.
No way. Yeah.
Do you know DJ Earworm? Of course, he did the mashups.

Speaker 1 He did all those mashups. Oh, yeah.
So I wrote all these songs with him.

Speaker 1 But they're so, I said,

Speaker 1 by the way, this is so bizarre. I sent these songs to Bennett and Rob last night just to have, like, right? Just so I could play them for you guys.

Speaker 1 I didn't know Simon LeBond obviously was gonna be on today. No, and I didn't know that you had sent them to Bennett and Robb.
I did not connect with them. Oh, really? This is not a setup.

Speaker 1 No, I thought maybe you heard that. But I remember when you were saying that you had them, you called me after we talked about it one time and you said I found all those songs.

Speaker 2 Can we just hear a little bit, please?

Speaker 1 Okay, so

Speaker 1 we'll play like a little bit of the song.

Speaker 1 No, this is terrible. Hang on.
Listen to my chipmunk. Listen to my chipmunk vibrato.

Speaker 1 Why did it sound like the fashion? Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1 I felt like a goat getting hammered. Wait a second.
Wait a second.

Speaker 2 Here comes the drop. Here comes the drop.

Speaker 1 That's right.

Speaker 1 And you're in shorts with suspenders, no shirt.

Speaker 1 Leader Hosen.

Speaker 1 There's a drop.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. It's so 80s.
Glow stick in the teeth. You didn't want to be the best mode.
You were trying to be Andy Bell. Let's be real.
You were trying to be 100%. I was totally trying to be Eraser.

Speaker 1 And we can cut that now. Wait, that sounds pretty great, Sean.
No, no, no, no, no. Now, what are you singing? What is the I want to walk? It's so bad.
The words are so bad. It's like, I walk the road.

Speaker 1 Wait, I walk the road. I walk the road.
I walk the road.

Speaker 1 Between my happiness and despair. Like, what?

Speaker 2 How old were you when you were writing this?

Speaker 1 23. There's

Speaker 2 some sort of a reward program for diehard smartless listeners that you get. How many songs are there? Three or four?

Speaker 1 There's two that are done, and then two that are kind of.

Speaker 2 They should be able to get those two songs.

Speaker 1 Now, if I'm not going to you. Well, hang on, no anyway.
No fucking anyway. Hang on a second.

Speaker 1 How happy would you be if we dropped your tunes, but we brought in, and here are some of the names who are going to come in and sing when we re-record them. You ready? Okay.

Speaker 1 It's going to be you, Andy Bell. Oh, my God.
I would fucking die. I would love that.
He's like my hero. Andy Bell.
Andy Bell's the lead singer of Erasure.

Speaker 1 And also, we're going to get, what's his name? We were just talking about

Speaker 1 from Erasure the other, who used to be

Speaker 1 Vince Clark, who's one of the founding members of the Pesh Mode and who founded Eraser. Yeah.
And Yazz, and also Yaz with Alison Moyer. So

Speaker 1 we're going to get Vince Clark. We're going to get Andy Bell.
So everybody from Eraser. We're going to get

Speaker 2 these people.

Speaker 1 Mark Door. We're going to get some of these people.
Okay, Mark's got Simon LeBond. Zave Gahan.
And we're going to have Simon. And we're going to have, what's his name?

Speaker 1 Is it Jimmy Somerville from Brosky Dead? Jimmy Somerville from Bronsky Dean. Who actually did Bandaid 2 when they did a second one in 1989?

Speaker 1 Jimmy Somerville was on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
I know all this.

Speaker 2 Will you be showing me a side of his Canadian youth?

Speaker 2 Did you have one of those mopeds with the raccoon tail and everything?

Speaker 1 No, I wasn't. Did I rode around like I was in quadraphinia, you know, with a long

Speaker 1 parka? No, I didn't have that. I was a huge Smiths fan, obviously.
Huge, yeah. Massive.

Speaker 1 We listened to the exact same music. I know.
I know. It's crazy.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wait, so yeah, no, but it was, I'm so glad we didn't play that while Simon was on. We waited until it's up.
I mean, Simon LeBon,

Speaker 1 when I remember seeing that video for like Hungry Like the Wolf and Riyan, he talks about nerves. He was so confident.
That was the other thing.

Speaker 1 Everybody in the band was so confident and cool and they were kind of doing like they were wearing mascara in their things and they were just kind of like, they were just, they were just like, it was also the start of MTV.

Speaker 2 It was really the first time our generation really got a look at rock stars. That's what they do and how they do it.

Speaker 1 But they weren't a boy band in the sense that like, and no, no offense, but they were actual musicians and they were actually really good and handsome.

Speaker 1 They weren't like a corporate transaction. Yeah.
No, those guys formed, I mean, they all kind of came together, like put ads out in,

Speaker 1 you know, Melody Maker magazine, and they met each other and at a bar and they formed the band and they worked at the bar. Like they really earned it and wrote all these great songs.

Speaker 1 But it's a testament that that's why they have longevity, I think, right? Because they're the real albums.

Speaker 2 I'd love to hear their new album and see how their musical styles have changed.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 they had hit records, hit records, hit records. Then they break up, do other things.
Then they come back and then like 10 years later have another huge smash hit record in the middle 90s

Speaker 1 with

Speaker 1 the wedding album.

Speaker 1 They just keep doing it. And yeah, it's a testimonial.

Speaker 2 You're going to their show when they come here, yeah?

Speaker 1 Guaranteed. Oh, for sure.
I didn't know that they were at the Hollywood Bowl last year. And somebody said to me, like, Will, you're definitely going to Duran Duran, right? I was like, what?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm going to that. I'm going to Depeche Mode in September.
I was out of town. Yeah, we're going to Depeche Mode together.
Yeah, Despache Mode is playing in September. I do really love it.

Speaker 1 I know every word. I love Depeche Mode.
And, you know, one of my biggest regrets, I have a lot, as you guys both know. I think I'm looking at one right now with that sweater.
Look at your hair.

Speaker 1 One of my biggest regrets. Boy, we didn't miss that.

Speaker 2 We both swung hard at that one show.

Speaker 1 You can't get a softball by us. Go ahead, Will.

Speaker 1 I mean, Jesus Christ. Thank God I'm batting cleanup in this crew.
You know what I mean? We're so eager.

Speaker 1 Is

Speaker 1 in 1995.

Speaker 1 God, I might have messed up on the date. I can't believe it.
But it's so hurtful still to this day.

Speaker 1 I had the ability to go see the Smiths play one of their only shows they ever did in Canada, and I couldn't go because I had to leave with my family.

Speaker 1 And I was like,

Speaker 1 can I just stay an extra day to see them? They were playing at Canada's Wonderland outside of Toronto.

Speaker 1 And I couldn't go see them.

Speaker 1 In 95? Yeah, 85. And then within.

Speaker 2 And go on a family vacation?

Speaker 1 Go out, yeah, go be with my family for the summer. And then,

Speaker 1 of course, you know, within two years, they release The Queen is Dead, and then they break up. Thanks, Jim.
Thanks, Alex.

Speaker 1 But anyway, I want to stay in the present because I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about bygons. Bygons.

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