#258 - Tenille Townes on Winning ACM Best New Female Artist + Tucker Beathard on Dedicating new album to his late brother + Lillian from ‘Presidential’ Reveals Shocking President Facts + Music Movie Review: Pop Star

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Speaker 1: Welcome to episode two. Every Friday, we're trying to get this out so you guys can know what new music is out, and we'll start with that, but we'll also talk to Tucker Beathard, who's got a new record out today, which we'll mention. Uh to Neil Towns. We'll talk to her because she won the Best New Female Artist, which is pretty awesome. I'm just a massive fan of hers. She used to open for me on tour, and the crazy thing with her was, she's so good and I'm gonna say, but she's so good that at times it would kind of hurt my vibe. Meaning she's a very emotional singer, and she would sing the saddest songs. And that's why I brought her on tour, because I liked her music so much, and I love the sad songs, and she would sing the saddest songs, but then she would sing them before I was supposed to go out and make everybody the opposite of sad, and so it would take me a few minutes to just kind of lift the back up to even so I can start to make them laugh with jokes. She played that song Jersey on the Wall about people that about that kid dying and never retiring his jersey. I love that song. But she she played this right before I come on to know kid. You put this earlier in the set. Put this song to give us some super califries and list to get the end. Let's get them up. But she's so good. I'm so happy for her. She just just a real treat. So we'll talk to her coming up in a little bit too. We'll also do our movie review of pop Star Never Stop Popping, Never Stop Stopping with it. Yeah, Andy Sandberg, we do a music movie. We try to do one a month. And then finally, if you love podcasts, I always like to bring on if I can a podcast that I love, and Lilyan Cunningham from Presidential is gonna be talking with us and we talk about some presidential stuff and cool facts about presidents and maybe it'll get you interested to go check out that podcast. So um, I feel like we have a pretty good show. Again. This is kind of a new format for us, because you know, back pre COVID, I just have someone come sit in here and we talked for an hour. Uh, and then occasion we put up something with new music. But you know, we've shifted a bit, but I think what's gonna be cool is whenever we get out of this, whenever it is that it'll be a kind of a mixture. I think we do a half hour with somebody long form, and then we also every Friday put up the new music inside of it. I'm pretty excited about that. We got a couple of two or three new shows about to come on. For sure. We don't announce them yet, not yet. Are they signed yet? Yeah, okay, so we actually they're on. They're on, no matter when they come out. M interesting. All right, thank you guys for listening. Let's let's get into the new music top five this week. Here are some songs that I think you'll like, and here are some albums I think you'll like. And number five this week, and we'll talk to him later. Tucker Bethred released his album King Now. He talked about this is his brother was killed last December, real tragic story, and King is his brother's middle name. So I made this record kind of an honor of him. And here's a song that we'll talk about later on called I Ain't without You verything to get met. Silvio Man Soul Ucky see you at number four this week on the New Music is Laura Elena. She released to Do It with John Party. Now. It's the title track the upcoming EP that'll be out soon. It's called Getting Over Him, but it's also the name of this song. So here's Laura Elena and John Party. You know, being able to sing with John Party. And I've been able to do that a couple of times. He came out and guested with us at the Rhemann as The Raging Idiots were playing, and also he opened for us once in Austin before he really blew up. He was kind of mid blow up. But just I'm a big fan of him as an artist. He's a friend of mine too. But I tell you he sings so violently. I've mentioned this before. It's exertion when he sings. I mean it is just loud and and right on. It's like he was singing in hockey talks. So people can hear him without a microphone, and now there's just a microphone in front of him. If you play that clip again, listen and again, you're hearing a studio recording, but you can well reminded me of I can hear I'm doing that in this song. Like listen to the four sphine his vocals when he sings. I mean that's not just him singing that. I mean he goes hard and I had no idea he's one of him and Luke Combs are the most violent singers I've been around. Luke Combs will startle you when he starts singing. First time he came in right when he moved to Nash Phil it was like he was like, yeah, man, I'm gonna do this song. All right, here we go. And I remember Amy going, Oh my God. But let's Lauren Atlanta's new song. At number four, getting over Him, Josh Turner released Country State of Mind. I love a good covers album. I love it and this is what this is. It's a covers album with guest appearances from a lot of the people that either were involved in the original song or new artists Chris Christofferson, Runaway June, Chris Jansen, John Anderson, Maddie and Tay, and Randy Travis on a duet of Forever and Ever Amen. Here's a cover of Josh Turner Forever and Ever Amen. God Baby. At number two, Tim mcgrawl released his Whole album Here on Earth. It's a sixteenth album, first album in five years. I haven't heard it yet, you know, as I do this here on Friday morning, I haven't spend any time with it whatsoever. Um. I know that they are a claiming this is about the best thing Tim's put out in twenty years. I don't know if that can be true, because he's put out some really amazing stuff. But just to hear the hype on this record, it is pretty rare. The amount of people that I trust saying how good it is. Is this song called Sherley Crow or Cheryl Carroll Crow? Okay, correct? Yeah? But he so he has a song called Sheryl Crow. What a cool thing if you're Cheryl Crow, unless it's like Cheryl Crow. So I haven't heard this yet. Here is a Tim O Graw. I'm excited about this. I put it a number two based on how much I loved Tim and how much that he's just been right over the years. Here you here's Chryl Crow. It's always a tough thing to take a person and put them somewhere that stays forever, like a song, Because what if Sheryl Crow goes to jail for something real bad. It's like naming the school after somebody you know. With me and my hometown. They have a sign that says Boyhood Home of Bobby Bones. If I do some stupid thing, rip that thing out easily, no problem. Dr Go would have some proclamation to change it. If Cheryl Crow ends up and I don't want to if like ends up on Epstein's jet and the logs, which is didn't happen. But I'm saying, you know, they're celebrities now that um they're claiming we're on Epstein's jet, Like, what do you do? You have to pull the whole song down. But as it's that's pretty cool. Good for Cheryl Crow an Tim McGraw, did you have you seen the TikTok of people they're claiming were on Epsteins yet I've seen. Yeah, they're just not right there. I think they just make crap up and then it turns into a whole rumor and the person has to go on and deny it, and then if you're denying it, you look guilty, and then you don't want to not say anything because you feel like if you don't say anything, you look guilty. That sucks. Uh. Number one, this week. Brothers Osborne, they dropped the title track off their new album, It's one song. You know. I love these guys. Here is Skeleton's came to Jesus. You've gotta stream you know. So you know about workout music earlier this week and I had listen to some of the songs. It's tough to run a country music except Brothers Osbourne. About half their records are just I mean, it's just country rock. I love those guys, good dudes, and also just I love everything they do musically because they had did their own sound. You know, when they first came out and people are like, what the heck is this? But now people emulate this funny how that works. More new songs out today. I'll just run through some of these two. You can check it out. Eli Young Band have a new version of their song Saltwater Gospel with Jimmy Buffett. Didn't realize it was a new version. I was on the radio this morning and here's a new song. I didn't realize that that was a new there's already a song that there's added Jimmy Buffett. I'm an idiot there. Craig Campbell has a new song called Talk Country to me. Hardy has a new song out called Boyfriend, and Eastern Corman, while I'm heard about Easton in a While has a new song out called Don't Miss a Beat. All Right, I just got my verification code for my Corona tests for today. The thing is, I'm nervous. I'm always nervous pushing submit. The thing is I have to get tested twice a week from my new show that we're shooting right now on National Geographic Channel. And you spit in the tube and you send it off, they send you a code submit. Here we go. Dude. If it's positive, well, now the internet is not taking you can just spit. You spill. You feel it too, It's like you have no spit left, and give me some more, give me some more, and then you seal it, mail it off and the next day gets loaded into a system. But I hit it not loading yet. Maybe they send everybody this text at the same time that's getting results in the crashing. Or maybe I'm so positive it won't load. If it pops up, I'll let you guys know. Albums or EPs like collections of music. This week, Taylor Swift released Folklore, the Escapism chapter What So it's basically she took like six songs from the album and turn them into like EP to make them sound like she said, the way they intended them to be like little chapters, not new music though. She just to it to see if it was any different, and it's the same. That's why I was confused. So basically she just put a marker in between songs. Basically, this collection means this. Yeah, one song was new and then the rest was just from there was a new song, nice, nice, Nice Blush, the debut album from Maya Hawk. She's a daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawk. You know her from Stranger Things? Uh, I don't. I guess I didn't know her from that You she was in the last season, Okay, I didn't see. I didn't realize that was their daughter though, really yeah, do you know who she is now? That now? Yeah? Now I do know? This is her? Is this her? Yeah? What? I like her vibe? Or no? It's pretty mellow? Yeah, you know, I like sad and mellow, very mellow. Bright Eyes has a new album called Down in the Weed. Well, I Like bright Eyes, his first album since two thousand eleven. The Killers are still around. They have an album called Imploring the Mirage. It's their sixth album and their first without lead guitarist who left the band of twenty seventeen. Mm hmm The Neon by a Racer, Everything Means Nothing by Black Bear in a Dream and EP from Troy Siban seven don't know. Why do I know that name? Why do I the look of it? Like familiar? He's pretty popular in pop. Yah, don't know any of his songs. Uh, maybe my my my so far, I'm not recognize that they play, yeah, keep it up and from from us, songs from the general public from Limit Twigs. Let's see that. I think that's the restoration from Lacree the Christian hip hop artist. Is that too? Alright? Music news before we get over and talk to to Neil Towns bt S, the K pop band appears to a break the YouTube record of ten million views in twenty minutes. Holy crap, people just sitting there waiting. You can't even plant that many times over and over again in twenty minutes, meaning that had to be millions of people waiting to watch it first and second time, over and over. Wow. Taylor Swift signed a bunch of folklore CDs and set them out to indie music stores, so if you want to check your local shops. She also during a thirty thousand bucks to help women go to college, So good on Taylor Swift. Dave Grohl has a cameo as himself and Bill and Ted Faced the Music, which comes out next week. I can't wait. My favorite movie as a kid was Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It also taught me a lot about history. It made me want to go and figure out what happened with Soccrates, what happened with Billy the Kid, like the real stories of all the people they went back in time to to find and bring to their presentation at San Dimon's High And I wonder if that movie holds up at all. I was going to rewatch both of them. Yeah, yeah, I think they're on Amazon Day. Yeah. So he has a cameo and Bill and Ted Face the Music, which was gonna be a major theatrical release, but now they're just doing it beauty on demand. I love it. Ozzy Osborne is not a face not a fan of face tattoos. Uh sorry, post Malone. You know they worked together, but he didn't enjoy his face tattoos. Goes I'd never do it. Anything above. The callers should be stopped, to be honest, it makes you look dirty. Is this their song together? Yeah? Paul McCartney still uses an AMPI bot when he was fourteen years old, which is pretty cool. And I saw Parker McCollum on social media say that he tested positive for coronavirus. He was ready to do some shows in Texas and Kansas and it was like, I can't smell or taste anything. Tested positive and now he's got fourteen days quarantine day. All right, I feel pretty good about that. I hope you guys feel caught up. That's the deal. We're good. We're good, all right, friends, that's the new music. Go check something out. Let me know if you like it. Follow us on Instagram. At the body Cast, the Bobby kept thank you very much. I guess say there you know pretty good. But I'm I have a feeling that's a little better for you today. I was so excited. I was so excited to see that you want uh that best new artist. Nobody deserves it more than you, and we're kind of talking about it, and I just wanted to get you on and ask you a few questions and tell you how proud I was of you. Oh that's so nice, thank you for reaching out. It's always awesome to talk to you. And yeah, I'm just still floating that I do don't even I don't even know. It's so crazy. So you obviously think that something's about to happen to you, meaning you get up and you know everybody's doing Zoom interviews constantly, and who do you think you're about to talk to? Um? I thought it was a radio interview of via Zoom, and we've been doing so many of them in this time. I really wasn't thinking twice about it, and so I just was sitting there, ready to the next interview, and then the screen. I thought it was weird because the screen was dark, like it hadn't. I was like, hello, like who's on the other end? And then Keith Urban's face popped up and I lost my mind. So did you lose your mind because you saw Keith Urban because you knew what it meant since Keith Urban was on and didn't know I It took me a second to catch up in my brain as to what this could mean. I definitely was losing my mind because it was Keith Urban and and also just because it just it's kind of scared me. I kind of have a bit of a tendency to scare easy. And he said boom in his Australian accident, which kind of sounded a lot like boo, and it just like it terrified me. And it was Keith Urban all at the same time. So no one tipped you off even that the announcement was coming that day, honestly, honestly, nobody tipped me off that it was coming that day. Nope, my manager kept it a secret a whole week. I don't know how. I it was crazy that. I'm so glad it worked out to be a surprise. Is so much more fun that way. But I knew that they were I thought in my mind it was August twenty that that was the date that I had in my mind that they were announcing. So I definitely was not expecting that the a c m s were delayed from April to September because of Corona and the voting had already closed, but you had to wait an extra five months to find out how things turned out. So you're just sitting for five months, going, wait, we're delaying. Yeah, can you at least let us know. Yeah, it was a long time. It was like, okay, so the show. We were so, I'm so glad that the show is still happening. And then when they announced that it got moved to September, I was like, that's awesome, but what does that mean. It's a long time from now, and you wanted a really great group I mean Ingrid, Gabby Barrett. Yeah, it's just a great group of people that Yeah, and I love that everybody put has put out records and like that. There's all of these songs that from amazing few artists that are being heard. It's awesome. Well well, well, I'm just telling you it's a real treat for me. I wonder are you going to perform at the A c M s Now since you're the best new female artist I am, which really I hadn't put that together either, and keep said that on the Zoom call and I was like, oh right, that's really cool. So where are you going to play? I think I'm gonna do Somebody's Daughter. I I've I'm pretty stoked we get to do this part from the Rheman. So um, I'm pretty I love that place so much. I'm excited to sing a bit of that song in there. Yeah, I was gonna ask you because they're doing it from three locations, The Bluebird, the Opery House, and the Rheman you know, and all three you're great, but which one? And you're saying you're playing at the Rheman, I'm doing the Rhyman Spot, yes, and any of those. I'm like, these are all my favorite places in Nashville. But um, but yeah, the Rayman's feels pretty special to me. I'm excited for that. I don't know if this is accurate or not, but obviously I follow you on social media, but are you nominated for the c c M A Entertainer of the Year. I am, Yeah, that's freaking awesome. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's very very cool, like when home recognizes you. Yeah, I mean it's and obviously you and I compare it to it's not the same, but me from Arkansas in my home state does something for me. Even though it's not America, even though it's not the biggest thing, it means as much, if not more, because those are are my roots. And with you coming from Canada, obviously you love them so much, but you came down to the States to pursue a country's a career in Nashville. But when they recognize you and go, hey, entertainer of the year, you're up for that. That's gotta be awesome, right, You're so right. There's something different when it comes from home. Um, it is really awesome, And it's kind of like, I'm just grateful that they're still excited and up for the adventure too, because it's I did come here to Nashville, and um, it just means a lot that the place where I started off is like still cheering and in for the ride. It's pretty awesome. What tours did you not get to go on because of Corona so opening for Alan Jackson? We only did I think we did maybe six of those shows, so that one was cut short, and then the sugar Land tour this summer too. Dang. However, however, you now get to play at the A c M S and you want new female artist. I'm so promped for you. And you know, I didn't have a big elaborate interview plan. I just wanted to talk to you and um kind of highlighted and let everybody know how cool I think you are. And I'm just just so proud for you, and hopefully I'll see you around soon. Okay, I know I look forward to that. Thanks for chatting today and sending a hug your way. I hope you're doing good. All right, I'll talk to you later. Thanks, Bobby, Bye. All right, Chucky bethur is on right now. Talker. What's up? Man? What's the how are you doing? Hey? Good to talk to you, man, it's been a little busince we've been able to hang out and talk. Yeah, no, kid, you're doing good. Yeah, man, I'm alright, I'm all right. I was. I was pumped at your music is coming out today because this is gonna air on Friday. So um, I was pumped at your music's out today. Always been a big fan of yours. I think you know that. So I think I want to spend a few minutes with you just kind of talk about the new project, if you're cool with that. Yeah, of course. Hey where are you right now? By the way, I'm in a food lot? Are you grocery shopping before or going after? Well? I was gonna go down like we in this parking lot before I go because UH got a little so I'm just kind of waiting it out in the food lot of parking lot. What are you gonna go? Like, what's on the list video grocery shop today? I would think the toasters food, but I don't really know. So you're a guy that goes in and just kind of grabs what grabs you more than having a list, dude. The the worst idea anyone can do is go grocery stopping when they're hungry. You know, it's like everything looks good. Literally, God, tell him what I'm gonna come out with? All right, all right, okay, So Tucker Bethords on right now, um man, let's let's check out some of these tracks here. So, uh, the record is called King, um Let's do better than Me. I'm gonna play a clip of this is his track one on King. Here you go you sing no No tell me about this one? Why did you piget to start off the whole the whole project here? Tucker and I just thought it's the most kind of just it's a perfect one to just really get your attention with. I mean, the drums and heavy and everything about the song. It's just fun, you know, and you know, have a catchy, aggressive um song with the guitar riff and stuff just kind of in my opinion, there's a good way to kind of just captivating get your attention. I was rolling through some of the tracks. You're just looking at the the songwriting credits, and you have written every song, which I think is important to you co wrote all the songs, you recorded all the vocals, drums and guitars yourself. I mean, that's a lot of work. So why in the world would you feel like you needed to do all that. I mean, I think I'm just a really like particular artists. I kind of here the stuff in my head and and you know, the players in Nashville are you know, the hands done the best in the world. But but there are certain like unique um things that that you can only get with with me playing not you know, and and many songs you just it it's just as me as as I can make them. And there's certain unique just ways of in certain riffs or drums that you know you can't get with. And sometimes you gotta have like make it sound not as perfect as you know the cliche they would say, it's perfect, um, just for the character aspect. And I don't know, it's have fun building the songs and and produces putting the pieces together by myself. Really, I'll play some of the track that I really liked. It stood out to me was track five on the project called Papertown. Here's the clip of that and wis little Well feel let paint dr Pa. So tell me about that. You walked into the writing room, you Phillow, Donald, Monty, Chris Waller sitting around, how in the world is Papertown come up as a concept? And tell me about that? Then Monty Criswell, Um, I mean Phil too, But Monty Teoswell was one of those guys that that he just he just has like titles that I do, like just titles that that are so unique and just so good. And then so he's just and I'm usually the one who who will always have like music for for when for and and he just said that title and then man, that's kind of a cool, that's cool idea. And I had that roots in that field, that kind of shuffle feeling. We just really wanted to write it around there couse, that's just just just wanting to you know, kind of just dits the town and and have something to prove them and that just kind of have that young love attitude and um as a as a soul. That's that's that's one of my favorite ones too. We because it's only one on the album that has that stuffle like field, which was kind of is good addition to the whole project. I want to walk to a couple more tracks real quick, and I'll do I ain't without you. Um, you wrote this one of the person you can tell me about who you wrote it with and tell me what the song is about that. Yeah, yeah, go ahead, we got you. Oh sorry, yeah, Now, I mean that that's the that's the one that really, um, that's all right there is the one that really finally made me feel like the whole project came full and was in was complete. I mean it's um, it's it's written after UM from the experience of my little brother passing Aron and just the idea of the strength that I said in my face in the Lord and I was the only one that you could really I could really take that idea too and write that with. And I wanted to write it with. Was was about that because we're both going through the same thing. And and that's the that's really the song that that to me put a put the cap on the album and it finally felt like he was ready. One more track, this is called Faithful. This is track eleven. Love this one to check this one out? What have beens? Just too hot? Yeah? All right, this is the last track. I'm gonna have a comment on Tucker tell me about Faithful here. Yeah, it's uh, it's that's kind of the song that's set tone for from a lot of my career. I mean, aside from from rock on obviously, but but that song was one in like put out on YouTube cousty like just so um live perform with the and and it kind of just took off and and um, everybody's been following me is familiar with it and been waiting for it, and and it's kind of a cool. It's cool because this project is is such a special project for me, and it's like a timeline and a journey, it's really flexible, a journey that I've had so far as an artist, and that song it's kind of where a lot of it started. And so it's cool to have songs like I Hate with that You're in face Um on the same project because they're both just marked they significant times in my life and career. It's cool to finally have have be able to put out this album because this is my first album released with the record label, which is which is crazy, but it's it's sets. It's called King, you know. I know in December, the whole town was hurting for you. Man, Um, you know when your brother passed away and you actually named the record after your brother. It's his middle it was his middle name, right, and that decision, yeah, who who? Who? Did you kind of walk through that decision with your dad? Brothers? No, Man, it was really just kind of telling my own say. I mean, because a whole project just started feeling because a lot of this projects was recorded at some time. I've incinditely released that my previous records, that Nobody's Everything. I still had this whole half and it was gonna be like a part two thing. But then I just started to write new songs and experience and new things, and and it just kind of grew started feeling like it just grew into its own project and it's own separate thing. And specifically when that happened, Um, it was like, yeah, man, this is a totally different chapter for me and and my brother played since been rolling and and including me as as a person and as an artist. Um with his time on earth and and is continuing his legacy continue and could do that to me while he's in heaven. And you know, I just wanted a piece of him forefront of this project because special to me, and I know he's he's if anyone which is happy for me more than never, he's he's the one. He's only my biggest support. So I've got three questions. I'm gonna let you go. They're all pretty suret Questions. Number one is I was looking at uh as I was finding some of these tracks to be able to listen to fully, not just you know, to hear the samples that the label sends me. And I was looking for rock on the song from back in the day, it's not on it. I couldn't find on a streaming service. Do you pull you pull? I didn't do that. That that's a that's um um previous record label. When I think they kind of got offended when what I decided I wanted just sept split ways with him, and and so they kind of took down the five songs that are released with them, which you know, to be honest, I was pretty I was pretty happy about it. I'm not gonna lie just because, like man if if I now I probably finally got the freedom that I want as an artist, Like this is how I want to start now. So it's like a whole clean slate. So alright. The second thing I was online and just as a personal story, I tried to you know, we have the B Team now, which is a bunch of our listeners that come together to do good things for others. Um, before it was the B Team, I tried the Boners and they didn't like that. Um, but you have the Mother Tuckers now was there? What did your folks say about when you said, hey, we're gonna do the Mother Tuckers. I mean I think I was surprised, surprised, and I think everybody was kind of bored with it. I mean I remember me, me and my brothers growing up. We had a little band and we were always thinking of names, and I always wanted mother mother Tucker and and they obviously like it that's too much as just you you know, um, and how that's got my own It's like, of course I'm finally got to name Alright, final question, what flavor of toaster Strudel? Will you be pursuing? Man, You know, whatever catches my hold, but I usually gravitate towards the straw the blueberry. Yeah, the berries. I'm a big red guy. Cherry strawberry. If it's red, it all takes the same to me anyway, So red makes me feel better. All right. There he is, Tucker be I love the guy. I love loves music. Um at Tucker Bethard on Instagram. It's thirteen tracks. It's called King. Go check it out, go go sample. I find a few tracks. We went through some of them here today, but there there's a lot. The guy definitely has a voice. He says something specific. You may love it, you may hate it, but you're you're gonna understand what he's saying. Um And I can always appreciate that from an artist, Tucker. So it's good to talk to you, and hopefully i'll see uh see you around pretty soon. Yeah, man, good talk to you. Thanks for having me, all right, see Tucker. Alright, So we all had the homework assignment to watch that movie pop Star with Andy Sandburr. As about once a month will watch a music movie and review it. What was the last one we did? Wrd uh This one pop Star is just m When I watched it, I just thought it was the kind of a mockumentary on two things, one the Justin Bieber documentary, because I think that happened around that time, and then to just boy bands and pop music in general. I think it was a mix of those two. Mike, how do you feel about about that description? Pretty good? Yeah? Um, First of all, before we get into anything about it, did you like Pop Star, Mike? I liked it. I thought it was funny. I liked the parody genre, and I just like Andy Samberg a lot. The parody gen remain in the movie. Yeah, the parody movie. So yes, Eddie, what do you think? Look? Man, it was stupid, Like it was truly a stupid, dumb movie. But I laughed probably the entire time. The songs were great. I think just the funny storyline was I do. I laughed at L O L and then after I would laugh, I would say this is so dumb. I mean, I thought it was a pretty smart movie on how it parodied a lot of the dumb things in pop music that we just take and go, yep, this is the greatest thing ever. Um. I loved it. I was one of the best mocumentaries I've ever seen. I mean also because I grew up in that era of boy bands and they were making fun of that. I mean I I thought it was so good, not just because it was stupid. I thought it was just a really good, um sample of how dumb we were in that whole late nineties early two thousands period. Um, So I really loved. I didn't think I was gonna like it as much as I did, but about a third of the way through it, I was like, oh, yeah, this is a contender for one of my favorites so as far as like a funny mockumentary movies go. And then I like just all the other things they the other things they parried outside from like the boy band stuff of like the Tyler the Creator thing of Hunter the Hungary that like the biggest thing, and like, okay, we'll bring him on this tour. Like I don't know, I like that aspect of it too, And even like the un the Hungry was playing clubs, like they go into this he's the Tyler of the Creator, but he's doing all right, yeah, and then they they're like vff's on stage. And then even the uh you know, the helmet with the dead mouse. But you know, but his buddy who used to be in the band now is just his DJ, and he puts the helmet on him with the light to cover him up. They were just there were a lot of those that I think you probably got a lot of them a watching, but if you watch it again, I bet you would catch even more of them. And then the with him putting his music inside the appliances. That was like the UTU thing where they put everybody's their album on iTunes. They opened the fridge and at midnight whenever it comes out, people are chunking their fridges out the door because they're so upset by the fact that his music is in their fridge. Um. I thought the songs were so funny. I don't have a list of the song, but the one that pulls up is my mind has the been laden one. He's America, he's on stage and he's doing his little in sync thing whatever, and then this girl where she's dressed sexy, the all of a sudden she's gotta be in long Beard. Then the next he's gotta be the full thing. Here's some of that. You don't have that one? Oh yeah, that one was funny? Is that because that was too bad? Yeah? Pretty bad, But I mean I'm so humbles funny. Yeah, I am the most humble in the song I do with Michael Bolton. Yeah this is the in song right yeah yeah yeah. Um again. And when you start talking about a funny movie, you appreciate it even more because you laugh again at the parts um that maybe you didn't spend enough time with. I think to me a really funny part was they're having this real awkward conversation about how terrible his records doing and his manager, who is uh Tim Meadows again, yeah that's all right, and so Tim Meadows is in it, and he's like, hey man, it's not gonna be good it. So Andy Sambral looks over with the camera and goes, hey, can do you guys just top with the cameras, and so they put the cameras down, and then all of a sudden they're getting attacked by a bee and there's a blow too and all this stuff, but the cameras aren't up, and you're just hearing him screamed the whole time, and and all this stuff. It's like, oh my god, the bee's wearing and so, and then it finishes and he kills whatever. It's crazy and he goes, hey, you guys got on a camera right, and they're like, no, dude, you turn to turn it off, Like come on, that's so funny. There's like explosions, World War three And what was a part of it that you loved? I mean, the part I really laughed was the wardrobe malfunction, I mean, the whole tough thing situation. And then it messes up and he's got nothing there and he's like, I promise, and then he goes over to Hunter the Hungry or Hunry the Hungry. He's like, did you do it? Because they were playing jokes? Did you do it? He goes nah, or did I? No? No, no I didn't, but maybe I did, And it just doesn't stop. It was kind of that family guy humor where it's funny but and then it starts to get old, but if you just keep beating it, it it gets funnier again. Listen. I loved it. I love music documentaries. I love really funny parodies on on documentaries. I just for me, I loved it. I would give it. I'm gonna say at five out of five, I was gonna go. I went four and a half on the show, but I was thinking about it last night. I felt like I was just doing that because I don't want to get judged. But five out of five, uh popsicles. Since it's pop Star, Um, I thought it was great. I don't think that it's for everybody, and I think you can watch it and be like, well, this is so dumb, and it is dumb, but I think it's done in a way that it's doing dumb things because we believe they were real and smart, and that it's just making us like, hey, if you love this back in the day, you're dumb, like we're doing right now. Um. But yeah, yeah, he leaves a boy band. The story is I kind of set it up real quick. Andy Sandberg's in a trio, like a boy band trio, and he's gotta go solo. This was their big song. It's funny too when ushers like, my only goal was to be able to do the donkey roll with the The Lord of the Names the Boys style boys, and then they're all doing the donkey roll on the stage. Um. And then he leaves in does a solo record, and it's how successful a solo record gonna be and he's doing a documentary about how big and massive it's going to be except things go wildly wrong, and um, I gave it five out of five. Mike, I gave it four out of five. I kind of ranked it as far as my favorite Andy Samberg movies, so I put it right up there. What what um is better? Hot Rod? I've never seen it. That's a good one. And then I just watched his movie Palm Springs on Hulu. That one's really good. Anyway you rate this, man, I would go with a solid music mockumentary. I would give it four poppies out of five. But again, again, dude, the whole time like this is so dumb, But like you said, it's so, it's really good and it's smart. I feel like it didn't do that well in theaters, but I think that it's kind of developed a call following, Um, what's the next movie we should do? Think about that before the I just saw Rocket Man. Well you can't yell one out that you've already seen. Yeah, No, I'm just saying that. Last time we talked about it is like I hadn't watched it yet. So I watched Rocket Man. Um, Yeah, ohh yeah, it was fine. It was fine. But I also watched straight at Compton too. And this is all during quarantine. You know, a lot of a lot of stuff to movies to watch. Let me look and find something. It will have a month to watch it, and then we'll come back and talk about it. All right, Bones, It's funny you said the Justin Bieber on this because I felt a lot like it was the Jonas Brothers documentary, because since it's three of them, and then you know, like Kevin goes to raise his family and in this case, this guy goes to the farm. But like it's almost and then you know who is it. Joe and Nick kind of stayed together a little bit, so I saw a little more similarities to Jonas than I did Bieber. Well, the Bieber documentary was out at that point, Like I think that's what the documentary part of it was, like, we're going to because this is such a wild success, let's do a pop star documentary. So the documentary style was based on the Bieber one. And then it was just boy bands in general, you know, about all the dumb stuff. And he's like, I stand for gay rights, but I'm not gay, but if it was okay, but I'm not good. I'm not gay, And he's like, if you want to make out, what the dude, that's okay, but I'm not gay. In the movie, he just says, like, you know that that song was not politically correct, like you know, it was my best song, but my did you say? He even referenced the Anne Frank thing that, oh, Justin Bieber, that's right, she'd be a believer. Yeah. So again, a lot of these nuggets I forgot about that he's in the Anne Frank house, and Justin Bieber actually signed I think he signed the book. I know he said she'd be a believer, but there was an Anne Frank. But then Andy Sandberg uses the bathroom in the Frank toilet. Yeah, yeah, okay, anyway, watch it. We love it. That's our review of Uh the Pop Star. Never Stop Popping popping, or it might never stop stopping, never stop stopping. All right, there you go. You know, I listened to a lot of podcasts, and for me, it's the ones that I feel like I'm learning, because if I'm listening to something i'm not reading something, I feel like I'm wasting time. But I did start listening to the Presidential Podcast and Lilian Cunninghamazon who actually, Lillian, did you create this yourself, this idea of this podcast? I did. Yeah, Um, I created it, I produced it, taught myself how to mix sound for it. Yeah, that's great. Listen. I love it. And I'm a podcast nerd and obviously a broadcasting nerd, And you know, I fell in love with the idea that every single president had a summer, not an hour. You know. There are presidents that popped into off with quick and died pretty quick, and they get thirty minutes, you know. But I love the fact that I could kind of sit down and learn about what other folks who have studied them actually thought about them, meaning what they were like as kids, what they were like in office, what they sucked out, what they were good at. And so before I ask you some questions, just know, for me love the podcast. I just I know it was recorded a couple of years ago, but I just got into it and thought it was for me such a great listening experience, especially in the time that we're in right now. Thank you so much. That really means so much to me. Is it weird to the people are just now discovering it and you had you done this a couple of years ago. Yeah, I mean it's really cool, right, that's kind of the journey. And uh yes, I created it in two thousands sixteen, the last time we had a presidential election. But um, even then, I mean I had no idea so many people would go on to listen to it, But I was hoping to create something that was ever green, you know. That was part of the point, was like to cut through just the noise and the headlines of the day and to offer people something just like enriches their understanding of the world around them. Um. So it's cool to see that, you know, it didn't state itself and it still feels really fresh and valuable to people. Lilian is Washington Post journalist and podcaster. And so I just had some stuff before we talk into what the new episodes are, because I think a lot of my listeners on this podcast on my radio show aren't gonna even know what the old episodes aren't quite yet. So I just want to kind of start from the beginning and ask you some general president questions that you may have picked up some answers during the time. Is that cool? Cool? Yeah? Great, Um, when you started this, were you a big president buff? Like, did you have a ton of presidential like knowledge? Uh? I know that I didn't. Um those kind of the funny thing is, I think people expect, like, oh, you created this podcast about presidential history, you must have been, like, you know, one of those people who've read a biography of every president, um, And I was kind of the opposite. I mean, I'm someone like you, Bobby, Like I'm someone who's just really curious. I love learning new things. Um, But I always kind of felt like I have this gap in mine knowledge about presidential history, like beyond just Lincoln and tr and like the presidents who you learned about in school. So yeah, So for me, doing the podcast is in some ways like a personal quest to kill these gaps in my own knowledge. Um, and hopefully along the way, you know, to be the same for people who were listening to it. Whenever I read Accidental Presidents, I was shocked that bad water was killing presidents. I was shot. I could not believe it. And so that talk about that for a second. How the taint of water supply killed a couple of presidents. Yeah, I mean this is something I had no idea about before I did the podcast. But you know, there are all these kind of tall tales about why some of the early presidents who died in office side, Like there was a story about how William Henry Harrison caught pneumonia giving his um you know, his speech and that's what killed him thirty days later. And Zachary Taylor like eight a bad cherry. But it turns out that for a lot of these guys, um, the water supply in the eighteen hundreds to the White House was totally contaminated. I mean it's gross. It's like there was a sewer behind the White House. And anyway, um, these like current day medical detectives have gone back through the records and their symptoms and realized like William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln's son, like all of all of these depths actually were caused by the contaminated water supply. Wild just sewer just basically they got killed by bad sewer as they're running our country. Yeah, yeah, it was wild to me. Was John Adams right, He's the only family father that doesn't have a monument. Yeah, And when you think back about and if I'm right again, I don't I didn't write a bunch of stuff down going from memory. Wasn't he the only founding father that didn't have slaves as well? Yeah, I mean he is the only yea, you know, early one of our presidents who didn't. Um, really incredible guy. And uh yeah, it's funny I've seen so that John Adams episode I did focused a lot on you know, both those great parts about his legacy and you know, speaking out against slavery, um, but then also the fact that he doesn't have a huge monument in d C like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington do. And it's been fun Like in the past four years, tons of people who've listened to the podcast have written to me to say, like, how do we start some sort of effort to get Adams a monument um? So I don't know that it will ever happen. Monuments are I think we're kind of moving away from monuments these days that you know, put individuals up on pedestals. But um, but it is cool that you know, people are paying attention to things like that and thinking about, like, what are the legacies we actually should be celebrating here. But when I hear you talk about Thomas Jefferson. Again, I had read kind of the the the macro version of Thomas Jefferson's story, and he seemed like a fine enough guy. However, when you dig down into Thomas Jefferson not a guy I would have liked hanging out with. Just does not seem like a good dude. Yeah, I mean, that's was I remember talking to one of the guests on the podcast about that, and I had this question, I'm you know, I'm sure you've run into listening to the episodes there for every president, I asked historians and biographers, like what it would be like on a blind date with one of the presidents? Um And I do it partly to like throw the historians off their game a little bit, but also just because I think it gives really interesting insight who these people are. UM And I remember of the person I asked about Thomas Stefferson was like, you might go on a first date with him, but you would not go on a second date with him. Like he's just not He's just not a guy you'd really find you wanted to spend a lot of time around. And all men aren't created equal. If you still have slaves, Thomas Jefferson you know. Yeah, I mean that was so we know him for saying, yeah, he's still had hundreds of slaves. Um. Let's talk about Warren Harding for a second. So, yeah, some crazy scandals kind of walk over some of the Warren Harding scandals that if it happened today, well, I don't know what's happened today is pretty crazy, don't get me wrong. But let's say if it happened four years ago, the place would have went berserk. Yeah, I mean, weren't Harding, um a hundred years ago? Yeah, twenty Um, he was elected And I knew nothing about Warren Harding before I did his episode. And I did all of these like week to week in real time, and I remember the Warn't hard and Harding week approaching and thinking like, oh my god, what am I going to do about this guy? It turns out like there is so much to cover with him. Um. I'm still hoping I'll get a call to like create a whole Netflix special about him, because I think he's just insane. Uh. Hell, let's see the highlights. I mean, he died in office under sort of mysterious circumstances. Um, he had this long running affair with a woman who um, the US government thought was a spy for Germany. He impregnated a young girl while he was president and she had his child, and um, his one of his good friends bought the Hope Diamond and like tragedy but fell like the family and all the friends most like several of his cabinet secretaries commits suicide in these really like shady ways. So yeah, there's a doubt. Like he uh, he was just like a crazy, crazy tale from start to finish. How is it not a series on him? Like that? Right? There is so compelling, We don't know. I would watch that, I would read that book. I would watch that Netflix show. Um, I do think actually parts of Boardwalk Empire, but that show that used to be on UM had some had some stuff about like the suicides in his cabinet. But yeah, I mean it's like it's just a really dark, interesting chapter of American history that like none of us learn about in school. You know, we just totally glaze over people like that. Um, But there were tons of stories that came across, not all as wild as that, but a lot of these presidents we don't learn anything about had really interesting stories. A lot of these guys have daddy is either dads who died before they were born or dads who were absent or were alcoholics. What's what's what's the correlation here? You know? I I mean I was so struck by that doing the podcast, because, as you said, I mean, part of these episodes, you know, we're largely about their time in office, but there was a good chunk of every episode that talked about their upbringing and sort of what led them to the presidency. And so inevitably I learned about the childhoods of all of these future presidents, and I would say more often than not, they had some sort of rough childhood, some you know, difficult upbringing with like a single mother. I mean, the historians I talked to all had sort of different thoughts about it, but a lot of them, you know, in sort of psychoanalyzing it says like they sort of felt the need from a young age to be able to like step in and like fill up a gap in the family. Right like either their father had died and so they were responsible from a young age um from being more of like an adult in the family and then the otherwise live or they in some cases with alcoholic fathers, like they learned skills really early on about how to like cope with difficult people and difficult situation. And then also I think, you know, some of it is just like a desire for a better life or to get out of there, you know, like it bread people with ambition, um, and with a sense of wanting to sort of like escape and make something better for themselves. You're back with episodes, which I was shocked there would be more. I thought, well, we're pretty much out of presidents. But now the latest episode is actually the first time one was chosen as a vice presidential pick, which was so talk about that for a second and what actually inspired you to come back and throw some new episodes up. Yeah, I mean it's kind of a surprised to me too, write because the whole premise of the Presidential podcast was that I went in order from George Washington through present day. My last episode in was the morning after Trump was elected, I put out an episode. So it felt like, you know, for at least four years, Uh, it kind of reached the end of the line with the podcast. But I think, um, part of what happened, you know, there are people out there like you who discovered the podcast a year or two years, three years after I meet it. And the point of the podcast was always, you know, to explore his ree in service of better understanding the present and giving people some context to understand like what's precedented and unprecedented in what they're seeing happen around them and happened in the White House. So it felt like even though we couldn't make more episodes about new presidents, that there was still kind of, especially in another election year, there was a role, a sort of public service role that I could fill by coming back in and saying, you know, hey, there are plenty of other stories that relate to presidential history in some way that helps illuminate what's happening around us today. And so yeah, the most recent one was a look back at that election, the first time a woman was picked to be the vice presidential candidate for a major party. UM. And I mean it's fascinating both you know, you you appreciate sort of how far we've come, and you also appreciate, um, how history doesn't really move in straight lines. And you know, doors open and then years and years go by before they reopen. Um. Yeah, Gerald and Ferraro is a really interesting story too. And I had the chance to talk to Walter Mondale, who was the presidential candidate who kills her and the former vice president with candidate. He's maybe two years old, and he didn't a zoom call with me for the for the podcast to talk about why he picked her. And that's pretty cool. You know what challenges he faced though, Yeah, really cool to be able to do that. Well, let me ask you some we only have a couple of minutes left, some some pretty quick kind of questions and they may not be that easy to quick kip, but um, let's see what we can do here. This is a big one though. Why was Abraham Lincoln not a favored president while he was in office? I think that is true for a lot of presidents. I mean, I think I learned that, you know, the really great leaders in our country tend to see beyond their moment and beyond the politics of the president president. Um, so I think in a way it's sort of by definition, you know, if he was going to do something to dramatically improve the country and move it forward kind of goes hand in hand with you know, doing things that in the present moment don't necessarily make you the most popular. The biggest misconception that you learned is not not true about a president. We think something, but it's actually just the opposite. Oh jeez um, because for me, I'll give you a second to think about it. It's a big question to ask, is that I used to assume Lincoln was loved and then you know you really had to switch vice presidents. You really, I mean you start to go through all of you know, what was happening, uh within between the first election and second and obviously the Civil War, and you realize that nobody really loved Lincoln at the time because as I of his ideals, um. And also what was crazy about Lincoln too is that you know he and you can check me on this, but he was up for free in the slaves, but he wanted to take them and send them back to a place where they would be free, not keep them here. Do you know about that? Am I completely wrong? That? Did I read a wrong? But did I read the wrong his story? And telling me something about that one too? No, I mean I think there's that there's some of that in lincoln story. It also that reminds me a little bit of Monroe, who anyway, long story, but he he was. He was pro sending um, you know, plays in America back to Africa. But yeah, I mean I think, jeez, for me, like the this is a tiny thing. This is not as big as something like Lincoln not being loved in the moment. But I was really surprised to learn that Thomas Jefferson hated public speaking because I think in my head, Thomas Jefferson, you know, was one of those larger than life figures. He started the country, he would have had like a ton of confidence and you know, presence. Um. So I found it really interesting to learn that he was. But while he had a decent ego, um, he did not like being in front of a crowd. He did not like getting up and giving addresses. And I think these days it's a good reminder, like how much the job of the president has changed, because these days you can't see president without feeling okay speaking in front of crowds, or even loving speaking in front of crowds. But it was such a different office back then that you could get away with us not wanting to see anyone, right. I had a producer affect, had a person of fact check me. Here here's here is um the Abraham Lincoln Block. Lincoln desired to return former slaves to Africa or other tropical regions with their consent and the accord of the authorities of the country where they were to be settled. He repeated his support for colonization numerous times, including during the American Civil War. I want to make sure I wasn't wrong with that statement, because I would get fried if I was. Um Well, Lilian, I am a massive fan of the podcast, and I hope a lot of my listeners. I know a lot of my listeners were going over to it. I was getting tagged and stuff all the time with especially right now as we get into another election. It's always best to learn about what happened. It helps you at least not be surprised with what happens next. You know, history is a great indicator. So I encourage everyone to check out Presidential. She has some other podcasts too, if you like that. I have him Your Constitutional, which explores the Constitution, and Moon Rise, which is an audio mini series hosted by Lilian and it digs into the nuclear arms race of the Cold War and the transformation of American society and politics. You gotta admit haven't got into that one yet, but I'm such a fan of presidential I'm probably gonna jump into constitutional next. So Lilian, thank you very much. Oh, thank you so much, Boddy. It was really fun. Yeah, great to talk to you, and everybody. Check out Presidential by Lilium. I think hm hm