Brian Setzer And The Songs That Inspired Him
2024-05-01 00:57:19
After 25 years at the Late Night desk, Conan realized that the only people at his holiday party are the men and women who work for him. Over the years and despite thousands of interviews, Conan has never made a real and lasting friendship with any of his celebrity guests. So, he started a podcast to do just that. Deeper, unboundedly playful, and free from FCC regulations, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend is a weekly opportunity for Conan to hang out with the people he enjoys most and perhaps find some real friendship along the way.
Hey, this is kind of cool. Recently, I got to sit down with one of my heroes. As you may know about me, I'm a kind of a rockabilly fanatic and I love Brian Setzer. Turns out he was in town and we got to sit down for an hour long conversation, which was just a blast for me.
We talked about a lot, Brian committing to always doing what he wanted to do as a musician. That guy has stuck to his guns and it's worked out beautifully for him. Having a guitar lead a big band was something he had never done before, which is massive. Guitarist did not lead big bands, but he did it. How rockabilly spoke to him, as it did to me at a very young age. Meeting George, Harrison and Ringo, but never. Paul and Brian and I talk a little bit about living on a tour bus and how it can drive one. Quite insane.
Anyway, it was a really fun conversation. If you want, you can listen to the episode with the songs included by searching Conan in the new Sirius XM app. Or you can listen to the conversation here and queue up the songs on your music streaming app of choice. Check it out Here's my conversation with Brian Setzer.
Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walk in blues, climb the fence, books and pens. I can tell that we are gonna be friends, I can tell that we are gonna be friends. The message of my career is dreams do come true. And I've been a massive fan and huge admirer of a gentleman known as Brian Setzer for many years. And he's been an influence on me in all kinds of ways, and I adore him. And over the years, I've had the pleasure of Brian coming on my shows and getting to perform live with Brian. We heard that there was a chance that he might be in town and might have a moment to sit down with us and appear on Conan O'Brien. Words in music with my friend Jim Pitt. And so we did everything we could to get him here. We kidnapped him about an hour ago and he's here with me now and I could not be happier. Brian, thanks for being here. Seriously, I'm just like, and I've told this to many people, that I can kind of do the hair. If I could play guitar like you and sing like you, no one would ever hear me tell a joke again. I'd be gone, I'd be out on the road because you're living the life that I would like to live.
And then to find out years ago that you're also an incredibly nice person, was this nice gift? I remember being afraid the first time you came on the show. What if he's an asshole? You never know there's gonna be a fight exactly from your music. There's a lot of people fighting and switchblades. And I thought he might pull a knife on me and then you could not have been a nicer guy. And so many of my favorite memories of doing a late night show over the years was when you would come by, when you would bring the Brian Setzer orchestra, and people knew on days when you're coming with your orchestra, don't bother me, meaning don't give me a lot of comedy that day that I have to rehearse. Don't try to have a lot of meetings with me, don't have the accountants in that day. Leave me alone so I can go downstairs and sit in the audience and watch.
You guys do your thing, always a joy.
Oh, yeah, you love the big band, I know you did.
One, two, three. Oh, I know, you just did it. And when it was over, my clothes had been blown off, I was completely naked. It was absolutely incredible. And first of all, I know this is one of the things I've heard about you and it's something I've thought about over the years. Which is some of the best music ever made in America is television theme songs.
Yeah.
And we grew up with them, we're the same vintage, and we grew up with this stuff. Hawaii five-o. I know you're a big. I've heard you talk about the Mannix theme.
Oh God, yeah.
I think about, you know, the wild wild West, Yeah, there are all these incredible songs, bonanza, great orchestration.
Yeah.
Great music, and it was television themes.
Yeah, you know what happened? So those were jazz guys, right? That once the big band dinosaurs went away, they became extinct. They had nowhere to go, and they started doing that for TV, you know, so we need, you know, we need something big and bold. That sounds out west, you know? And it was four guys in New York City in the Brill building. You know, writing about the wild West, right? You know, it's the funniest thing and it's the best stuff, you know, and you know. And they wrote Bonanza and they, you know, Hawaii, Five-o and all that, just fantastic stuff. So when I actually got the big band together and heard that back, it was my favorite stuff to play.
It's amazing.
I love playing that James Bond who could do the James Bond theme.
No, it's incredible that music is so iconic. And because it was a TV theme, it was easy for people to at the time probably dismiss it. Like, Oh, it's just some song on television. It's not the real thing until you go back and listen to it and realize this is some of the best music recorded. I was really. It didn't surprise me, but when I found out that, because when I was a kid, one of my favorite cartoons was Top Cat.
Yeah.
Top cat.
Top Cat And it was this cartoon, sort of like a sergeant Bilko, who's a cat and he's got his gang, and they always pull one over on somebody. It was very funny. I think it was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon that the Top Cat theme was an inspiration for you.
Top cat theme. Because it was badass. They were trying to mix rock and roll, but their roots were in that 50s big band stuff. It was just sweet, nobody had hit upon it, and I had the idea, why don't I lead a big band with a guitar?
That's never been done and everybody tried to talk me out of that one.
And they were saying, Oh, it's going to be an embarrassment, no one's going to want to listen to this.
You just won't be able to pay them. Yeah, who's going to come see that, right? They said that with Rockabilly, too.
Yeah, but I've always just done what I've wanted to do. And that big band just kind of kept taking off, taking off, it got higher and higher and higher.
I paid the band out of pocket the first couple of shows, and then I remember all of a sudden the Greek theater won the Greek. We just did the House of Blues, it caught on and it just kind of stayed there at this point. So a lot of people, we ended up with the Hollywood Bowl.
But a lot of people feel the way we do.
Well, that's the kind of I always call it, the field of dreams phenomenon. If you build it, they will come, which is my whole career. I've thought, if it's something I really care about, comedically, I'm just going to keep doubling down on it. And if no one else cares, at least I did what I wanted to do, but I think other people are going to care.
Right, and if you just keep putting that signal out and it's a little bit of almost a religious thing, spiritual. I'm going to double down on this and put this signal out here.
And I'll show them, yeah.
Yeah, and going back is interesting because it's hard to explain, time goes by and then people lose the context. But when Stray Cats first comes around, when you're first playing this music 1980 81, it is the exact opposite late 70s, early 80s.
It's the exact opposite of what the music scene is completely, it's diametrically opposed, right? Nobody's got a three-piece playing, stripped down, rockabilly stand-up bass, snare drum, 6120 gretsch guitar.
No one's piling their hair up like that. It's the cars. I mean, we could go on and on about what it was, but it was not that.
But I think it was just musically so undeniably amazing that it cut through and became a sensation. And I think a lot of people were hungry for it when it came.
Yes, we found that out, but when we first started, first of all, the band was right. Me, Jim and Lee, we had a chemistry. We're just three guys from almost the same block on Long Island.
And we just believed in the sound because, without mentioning other bands names, we'd had enough of the big, pompous bands with the gongs and all that stuff. And I said, You don't need all this stuff, you don't need the half a million dollar, Les Paul, you don't need that.
I'm picturing the stray cats going out with just you guys and a gong, and I'm on gong, and every now and then you signal me and a gong.
And a G string.
I'd do it, I'd do it, but yes, it was a reaction to what was happening. And you did that, and then, of course, later in your career, when you did the big band, that's a reaction.
Because I think when you came out with the big band, it was grunge, it was what everybody wanted, that's right.
Absolutely.
And you're saying, I've got this massive orchestra and I'm going to do Louis Prima, and it's going to be huge, and it was.
It did become huge the idea for the big band. You know, I learned how to read and write music. And Johnny Carson asked. And he didn't have rock bands on yet. If we wanted to be on the show, we're like, what, we're just kids.
And then he said, Do you want to use Doc's big band? And that's where the idea started.
Did you do it?
They didn't have a song, no, it didn't work out.
Johnny did that a lot, invite people on, they'd show up and he wouldn't let them in. It was an old Johnny trick, yeah.
That's pretty much how it happened. We didn't get the show, but they were talking about it. But that idea remained. What if I put that big band behind the Stray Cats? Sure.
Since I could write all that stuff, I just I wanted to hear. Because the two had never met a guitar player, had never led a big band. And like you said, we were influenced by all that 50s and 60s television theme stuff.
So I at least had to try it and believe me. It was hard to get 17 guys to do this. To write all that music out, people would yell out songs and I would say, but we don't have the charts. What play rock this town?
I didn't have it written out yet for the big band, I hadn't reimagined it yet, so it was an idea that I had to follow through with. But from the very first one, it was like, Wait, this is not like Sinatra, this is something different.
It's a hybrid.
Yeah, it was my idea of rock and roll, but not a swing band. People thought it was swing as well, and the swing bands had three or four horns. This was a full big band.
So that's what started that idea, and then it caught fire pretty quick.
I have to say, for me personally, I think one of the reasons I grabbed onto you and what you were doing immediately is I had this experience. I was born in 63, so I'm in college and everyone's listening to what people are listening to in the 80s, and I'm in freshman year. Soft cell is really big and pertained love.
Right, and you've got all this stuff happening in the 80s, and I remembered it was fine, but I wasn't grabbed by any of it. Then. I think they did some reissue of the Sun Session albums I started to hear early, Elvis.
Sure, I had only known the Elvis hits that we were all.
The stuff that your mom played, right?
Exactly the stuff that was on RCA, or especially the stuff that came later on, you know, 70s, late 60s, 70s. And so I start to hear, like, I hear, Baby, let's play house.
And I can just feel something happen to me, it's so primal and I'm just, I'm listening to it. And it's, you might go to college, you might go to school.
You might drive a pink Cadillac. And there's a real passion behind it. It's very simple. And then obviously that's all right, mama, and I'm listening to all this stuff.
And the next thing, I know, my dorm room. I have an early Elvis poster. But I also have Jerry Lee Lewis from high school. Confidential, on the back of the truck, playing the piano, he's on the back of, like a pickup truck. It was a still from the movie high school, confidential, and I'm listening to Jerry Lee Lewis.
And then I'm listening to Lil Richard and that's the stuff I'm listening to. And my friends don't get it. They're like, What are you doing? why are you doing this?
And of course, you guys come around and then suddenly it's cool, it feels like it's, you know, do you know what? I mean? I could understand it because, to me, it was. I still explain it, as this is the music that still reaches right into my chest and grabs me.
And for me, it's like, for buddy Holly, it's Ravon, like the kind of insistence of it, you know, and it's driving, and it's very simple. But that was why what you were doing and everything that you've done throughout your career has always kind of made perfect sense to me.
Because other stuff I don't know, I love and admire a lot of the other stuff, but there's something so.
Like, I would just go back to primal about what you're doing.
You either get that or you don't. I feel the same exact way. I went through the same thing. And I think the first I heard any of that real stuff was my dad was in Korea and he came back with some records.
This is what the guys were listening to. I like it and I put on Carl Perkins and I couldn't tell him. I liked it. But to me, it rivaled that energy that punk rock was just starting with.
But the guys could really play and it just spoke right to me. And that's the hardest thing to write is the simplest stuff, with the direct lyrics, the direct chords.
I mean, because it's all been written, that's the hardest stuff to come up with. But I had the same exact feeling as you did, isn't that funny? I didn't know everybody was going to do their hair like me.
I thought that was for stage.
I stuck with it for the longest period.
When I was a writer on the Simpsons, I had this giant pile on my head. I had sideburns and people were just like, you're a comedy writer. Yeah, but that's how you feel comfortable, you know, yeah.
You showed up earlier than I thought you were coming in. And I wander around my, because it's my building, I get to wander around with a guitar around me all the time. You will attest that this is true. That goes back a long way, that goes back a long way.
And I always have a guitar.
Yeah, you always have a guitar.
So I heard all this commotion downstairs because they were having a birthday party for Sara Federovich. And I come down just to join in. And, of course, I just have a gretsch, a duo jet around my neck, and who do I? The first person I run into is you, Ryan, and I feel like an ass.
Because it's like walking up to Tiger Woods, holding a golf club.
I feel stupid now, look what I've got.
I know how to play.
Yeah, exactly, who knew? But I'm glad it made it into the studio, you know, we were going to. One of the things we like to do occasionally on this show is we ask our guest to pick a couple songs. And the first one you picked is Something Else by Eddie Cochran, which is 1958..
And I got into Eddie Cochran. I think after college, I'm out here in L..A. and I'm really trying to start to learn. I had been a shitty drummer and I decided it's time to be a shitty guitar player.
And a friend of mine, Randy Klempert and I, who were in improv class together. He could play serious, rockabilly licks, and that's what I wanted to do. And he said, You got to know about Eddie Cochran, so he was the one that got me into Eddie Cochran. And Eddie Cochran was the guy who had a big orange gretsch. 6120..
And that was the guitar that you had to have if you were going to do what you wanted to do.
Well, can I tell you how I discovered him?
There's no time, we're out, all right. Goodbye everybody.
No, I'm kidding, I'll see you then.
Go ahead, yes, that's why you're here.
But the funny thing about Eddie was nobody knew who, like, you know, my folks didn't know who Eddie Cochran was. He had summertime blues. But we had a record store called Whirlin Disc and it was a cheap little place, and the guy had the album covers hanging from Fishing Line.
I don't know how old I was. well, early 70s, right? you know, just, you know, teens, early teens, 14, and I didn't like anything else, and I banged into this one record.
I go, Who's this guy? I didn't know what he sounded like. I go, this guy just looks cool. I just that look made me feel right, too, you know, I couldn't relate to the 70s kind of rock and roll look.
But I was a rock and roller, so I saw a picture of Eddie with the baggy pants, the slick back hair. I went, This cat's cool, you know? He could be in a motorcycle gang, he could be a guitar player.
And then when I went home to put the record on, it was all over. Why doesn't everybody know who he is? Yeah, they do in England and places like that, but we opened up for the Stones here in 1980..
And you know, I'm just glad we didn't get booed off. But we came up on stage and I said, Hey, hello, Minnesota, home of Eddie Cochran. People just gave me a quizzical look, I had no idea.
You know, they didn't know who he was. The second time I came back, they had signs saying Home of Eddie Cochran.
You know, well, tragically, for the listeners that don't know, Eddie Cochran, Brilliant, fantastic. He wrote and he sang. And he looked like a million bucks. But he could also play, he was a real player.
Yes.
And, you know, not everybody. Some guys just funked out rhythm, but Eddie Cochran could really play and his trademark was 6120, which you all know it. When you see it, it's a big orange guitar that was kind of a country Western themed guitar, and they would put a cattle brand on it.
Right of the gretsch G. And some of the ones I've never had one, but some of them have all this inlay of, like, little cactus and little. And I remember when you first started playing, seeing that you had a 6120, but you would put like dice on for the knobs, yeah.
And I thought that was the coolest thing. I still think it's the coolest thing I've ever seen. You know, I'm seeing a lot of cool stuff, but I have not. I still think that is the guitar, you know? But he went to England and was touring and was in a car accident, was killed.
Yeah.
And I've always heard that George Harrison, this is pre Beatles followed that tour. George Harrison, of course, was like a young kid, yeah, teenager, who loved Eddie Cochran. They didn't get access to these stars because very few of them came over.
But that George was really interested in following that concert and trying to get a chance to look at Eddie Cochran and see him. And tragically, he passed away on that tour, he was killed.
On that tour, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we have a song because we asked you to supply three songs, and the first you said was Something else by Eddie Cochran, and I love that song.
He goes, What's all this? what's all this? It's just all swagger.
Oh, it's all swagger, but, you know what's also nice? There's a sweetness to it, which is, you know, the punker version you'd think would be. You know, I want that girl, I got to get that car, I'm going to go fucking steal that car.
Yeah, you know, no.
He's working.
I'm going to work real hard and save my dough.
I never thought of that.
And it's kind of like, it's nice, there's almost this, there's this almost like work ethic message in there.
I never thought of that.
I'm not going to go steal it, but you can tell he's he's got swagger and everything, but he's going to do this the legit way. How did they get that sound? What is happening there, do you know?
Do you have any idea?
Good gosh, we have tried to capture all those sounds, and it's, I'm telling you, it's in the air. Because even if you use the old flat wound strings, even if you go back and use all the tube stuff, you can't catch it. It was just in the air.
I was going to say, it's funny. When I was living back in the UK, you know, there was a big division amongst groups, right? The punks didn't like the rockers, and they didn't like the Mods, and they didn't like all that stuff. They all agreed on Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.
Like, Oh, Gene Vincent, all right, I remember. Lemmy said, Oh, Gene Vincent, you know, it takes 10 of you to make one of him, you know?
Everybody agreed that those were the guys, there was no fighting amongst that.
Here's a weird thing, too. Again, not to be morbid, but I think Gene Vincent was in the car. Gene Vincent was in the cab. Yes, with Eddie Cochran and Eddie Cochran's girlfriend when the car crashed.
Yeah, in England when they were doing that tour. And as a side note, Gene Vincent was injured. Eddie Cochran was killed, but his girlfriend, Sharon Sheely.
Right?
Co-wrote something else with him? Yeah, yeah, she was a writer and they were a great. I've heard her interviewed, talking about Eddie and talking about them working together.
Have you?
Yeah.
Now I've been on that little curve where they smashed. It's pretty wicked, even on a nice night, it was raining and all sorts of. You know, come on, we want to go home, that kind of jazz.
It's the I had a chance because I'm a buddy Holly fanatic. We had the crickets came by once and they performed on late night and afterwards we'd just hang out. And I couldn't believe I was getting to talk to the crickets. And then I just said, you know, I kind of just said, I don't know where. Like, why did buddy get on that plane? it's snowing? and why did he do that?
And I think it was the Jerry Allison. Or someone said, Ah, gee, buddy, he had get there.-itis always did you know, like, he just I got to get there. You know, I'm sick of this bus, oh.
I'll go ahead, I'll take the laundry with me, we'll take this little plane. And I always think about that, because every now and then I'm in a situation I'm doing a travel show somewhere.
I'm doing something people say, you know, this guy can take you in a helicopter and we'll get there a little faster. And I always say, I'm all right.
That helicopter doesn't looks like it was built in World War I as an experiment. I think I'm good, I'll just be a little late, it's okay to be late.
I'm getting worse, too, as I get older. Because we, you know, I live in Minnesota, in the Tundra, and we took a 25 hour bus ride. Even though we have the dogs. And, you know, we want to come like that. Yeah, but I took that over a flight because I just, I just got to go my way at this point, you know?
Can you sleep on a bus? because I did some bus time, couldn't, could never sleep on a bus. And so what I would do is I'd be too wound up from the show. So I would sit up front with the bus driver and jabber while everyone else was sleeping and just talk and talk and talk.
That's the thing people who'd never been on one of those things, I can, yeah, but people never been on those things.
Think that any time off is just like, you know, no big deal, you can go do this and go do that, you know, you know. When they said, Well, Conan wants you to come on, I said, Conan, I'll make time for.
But, you know, I was told you got on a bus and it was 25 hours just for this interview, and you're turning around and coming and going straight back.
That might have been an exaggeration.
I'm going to stick with my story. Conan wants me get up the bus.
Get out that bus.
Yeah, Gene Vincent was a guy that I got really into, also around the same time as Eddie Cochran. And what I knew about Gene Vincent was obviously, you know, he had great style and he had a great voice, but he had this guitar player. And at the time when I first heard it, I thought, is that Gene Vincent playing that? I didn't know anything?
Right? And it turned out to be kids guitar players, one of the great guitar players in rock and roll history, I know. Maybe one of the all time, you know, like, if you're going to make a list of 10..
Everybody has to agree. On Cliff Gallop, I heard Cliff Gallop for the first time again. You know, we're about the same age. How would you hear that? And I was in.
I was in Max's Kansas City in Manhattan and shoot and pool and all the punk was on there. You know, screaming out of the jukebox and all of a sudden, well be. And it was like a hand came across the pool table and pulled me into that jukebox. And that guitar solo came on, and it was the sexiest thing I'd ever heard.
I go, What's this guy doing really here? That's that's how I started using a pick.
And my fingers, he gallop used finger picks and thumb pick. I just use my fingers and a guitar pick. But I, I pick like that. And then I go back down with the pick. And I just did it because I wasn't getting, I wanted to finger pick.
You know, I wanted to, you know, do some stuff that Scottie Moore did. Yeah, so I just invented that. I never saw anyone do it, but when I heard that song, I just went, Wow, it was, it was sexy.
You know, just had it.
We had Scottie Moore sit in, Scottie and DJ and DJ Fontana his drummer, they sat in with Max Weinberg. And I mean, I used that late night show, so much of it was Conan works out his quiet perversions.
And America has to come along, whether they want to or not. But he came and then the show was over and I asked him, Could you, Scottie? I? I? I can play the solo too, that's all right, mama, but boom, boom, boom, boom down, down, down.
I can do it kind of, but anyone? Oh, no, it's not that hard. Let me show you, son. And then he did it in front of me.
And to see the hands, this is where it gets weird. You see the hands make the shapes and do it, and you realize these are the same hands. That did it in Nineteen Fifty Four. Yeah, studio.
And that changed the world. And I'm looking at the same fingers.
I know.
And then I think, OK, it's time for me to go have a drink, take a pill, something you got to get out of that head. But it's interesting to go there for a lot of people.
I think that way.
Yeah, but so Gene Vincent, he comes along, and what's interesting about Gene Vincent is Elvis hits and he's huge and it's a phenomenon.
So everyone's looking for the next Elvis. We got to get one of those. RCA has elvis. They buy the colonel's contract, so Capitol Records says we got to find someone.
And I had always heard that Gene Vincent had won like a contest, right like, sound like Elvis contest, sure. So Capitol signed him because they thought this guy will be the next.
He'll be our Elvis, right? Which kind of makes sense, because he's, you know?
Every guy from down south was trying to be the next. Elvis. Yeah, but Gene had, I think Gene lived those lyrics, you know, he was.
He was a bad boy, but he had that sweet. What is it? Ian Dury said. Sweet Virginia whisper, right?
He, he, he had that thing, and he had the band, right. You know that that when they came in to record, they had students like Chad Atkins was there. In case the band wasn't any good, they heard the band.
They went, Oh, well, we could send them a studio, guys home, right? That's amazing.
These guys are great. Yeah, Gene Vincent and the blue caps and the studio photos. I've always seen all his amazing band, they're all wearing blue caps.
And Gene always has this archtop guitar that looks like it has a hole in it, you know, like this beat up.
The big hole?
Yeah.
Bubba told me they used to light off cherry bombs on stage to get the audience going.
I could have used that there are plenty of times I could have.
Yeah, me too.
Plenty of nights, we had a flat crowd.
He told me they used to throw cherry bombs around and blew up on the jeans guitar. That's what he told me about that, that hole.
So Gene Vincent, he really shoots to the top because he does a song called Bebop Lula, and that was the second song that you chose. It's from 1956, I believe so. This is around the time the Elvis fuse gets lit in 54, it's really started to burn in 55..
And then 56 is when Elvis just becomes, you know, it's. He's everywhere, and he is the king of show business, and it's a huge revolution, king of rock and roll. And then Gene Vincent comes up with Bebop Lula, which is a massive hit and so let's give that a listen.
And then we can discuss.
Yeah.
Spin it or push the button.
You know, it's interesting because the guitar is amazing. But you pointed out something about Gene Vincent's voice, which is it sounds like it does sound like cool spring water. There's something very liquid about it. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, it's just kind of perfect.
And you can't. It's sexy. yeah, it's very, yeah, very sexy.
Yeah.
And what is Cliff Gallop playing? Is he playing a telecaster?
He's playing the guitar in the corner there.
Is he playing a duo jet?
Yeah.
Okay, so he's playing a gretsch, all right?
Gretsch Duo Jet, Yeah.
It is so funny because Gretsch's.
Which, it's funny, you single-handedly drove up the price of Gretsch's, you asshole. But when you come along and you're playing the 6120 when Gretsch's weren't thought of, they weren't valued that way, especially 6120s duo Jets. And then you come along. And after the Stray Cats, there were thousands and thousands of dollars and you can't have one.
My first ever electric guitar was a Tennessean. Yeah, with the single cutaway. And it had the painted F holes, which I didn't really know. why would you paint f holes on? I didn't understand why.
And someone explained to me it's because of the feedback that they hadn't quite figured out yet how to keep guitars from feeding back through the f hole.
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Yeah.
I'm convinced after all these years of playing them, if one person says something, they'll change it. Like, I just bought this new guitar from Gretsch and my son is having problems and I had to save up a lot of money. Oh, we'd better change it and then they'll do something like that.
Yeah, you know, honestly, I use the feedback, that's why I need, yeah, right?
So people that don't play guitar, I'll explain to them like, a solid body guitar doesn't feed back. Because there's nothing coming out of the guitar except the pickups are pulling the sound from the strings. But when you play an arch top guitar?
Which is more like a if you imagine a violin or an acoustic guitar, it's hollow, it's got big holes for the sound to it resonates. Yeah, it's not a solid block of wood.
Picture me playing a cello with pickups.
Yeah.
If you stand in the right spot.
Yeah.
It doesn't go.
Yeah.
Because we rock them, those guys in the fifties, you know, Chad Atkins, he sat down and played it like a like, a gentleman, country gentleman. Yeah, we started just rocking out with them, you know, so we had to figure out how to get them to play.
Right, you know?
We had said Atkins, come by the show, we did, Yeah, yup, and then so, of course, being the nerd I am.
You guys had everybody.
We had everybody. Les Paul was on like the first week, Les Paul came on, the first week, gave me a Les Paul and signed it to me.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, I wish I hadn't thrown it out, but but.
You know, I don't want to be a hoarder.
But no, Chad Atkins came by, and so I gave, I showed him my Chad Atkins Gretsch 6120. And he takes it out of my hand. And he looks at it. But he looks at it very technically, like, let's see, yeah, cause it's his, it's one that was put up with his name on it.
So he's looking at it and he's goes like, Hmm, yes, well, they did a good job with this. And then he did a really cool thing he just put his initials on the back of the headstock.
Rather than sign a big thing up front, he was like, Well, that would mar the guitar, so I'll just do a little sharpie and you, I mean, I have that guitar, you. You can't even see it barely, but it's back there.
And it was his way of saying, like, Well, we, we mustn't damage the product, right? You know? It's kind of cool.
I, I, I only met him once, too, and he invited me over and I and he goes, Why don't you look me up before, boy? And I said, I thought it'd be like meeting the pope. I didn't think I could just come in and meet you. So we sat down and played and hold on one second.
Let me, let me, let me show you something.
Yeah.
So I don't know how well you can hear it. So he goes, Can I show you something? and I go, Yeah.
Yes, you can shut out. Yes, exactly.
He goes, What do you want to know? I go, Do you have anything in B flat? and he goes, What are you doing up there, son?
Wow, I go.
I got this big bear with all these horns, so he gave me this really cool riff.
And it's cool, right? I love that.
And it's not what is it? I mean, it's not blues, It's not what is that? It's kind of. It almost sounds a little like Dixieland or something, I don't know.
It does.
It does, it sounds like.
You know, it's something you had to have, like a you could have, like a straw boat or hat on playing that.
Yeah, I said, so I wrote a song around that, you know, let's live it up, let's live it up, I wrote a song.
And I said, Can I give you credit for that or something? He goes, Oh, hell, I just stole it from Jerry Reed.
Everybody stole from somebody, that's true, or they nicked, they nicked it, yeah, as the Beatles would say.
I'm curious, you said, like you didn't think you could just go talk to Chet Atkins? And I love that attitude, I've always had that attitude like I don't want to bother people.
And who am I to? I don't know, I'm always. It's probably better to go at it from that angle, then this person is going to love meeting me, you know what I mean, it's.
Yeah.
Do I look you up in the phone book? I would have no idea, and I wouldn't even pursue it, right? Cause he's Chet Atkins, but he put it, you know, he reached out.
He had the whole building there. They're in music row. Yep, he goes, Why don't you call me a boy? Why don't you look me up?
I thought it'd be like calling up the Pope, yeah, and then he was just happy to sit down and just just play, you know?
Um, why is B flat so cool ah?
B flat is a cool key.
Because, you know, well, I've okay the other day, I know you're coming on and and you're on my rap. I think the one of the things I listened to that you've done the most is your version of Jump, jive and whale. You know? And I'm listening to it and I get out my guitar and every. And I'm guessing, and I'm like, yep, that's B flat going up into B, you know? But I'm just like, what?
Why so many cool things are in B flat and I don't know what that's all about.
It's cool on guitar when you when you play in a horn key, that's a horn key, that's a horn key. Yeah, cause it has three flats.
And and uh, and Chuck Berry is a lot of time.
Is it three flats? Julie B flat or two? Oh, it is two flats, yeah.
But it's B and e.
They're both flat anyway, so, uh, it sounds better for those guys when you're playing those keys.
Yeah.
So, uh, there's a lot of tricks on guitar that you wouldn't normally do in that key. And once you discover them, you're one of the few people that do them. Cause everybody that does the A and G and C, right? But B flat, something a little different.
Yeah, isn't Chuck Berry and sort of B flat territory a lot, I think.
I don't know if you got a sax player in those days. You probably converted to their key, you had to know those keys. Yeah, and then it changed sometime when, Oh, you're going to play guitar keys now.
A, D, g.
Right, it's it's. What comes across to me when you look at all of your work is that you're interested in all music. You're not thinking, nope, I'm rockabilly, or, you know, nope, I'm just going to do big band.
Now it's you appreciate everything, like you have big ears for country, I mean, if there's you just like music, and then what can I do?
I do, and so many people that they're, they're just now, they've, they've got those blinders on. You know, it's like, Do you only have one record in your collection? I do like all different types of music, you know, that's why I kind of mix it all up. That's why it's not pure rockabilly what I play, or it's not pure big band.
I, I just, that's, that's what sounds good in my head, and that's what comes out.
The third song, this, is a little bit of a departure, which I didn't expect, by the way, but thrilled that it's on the list. Which is, she looks. I'm a Beatles fanatic as well. She loves you 1963 The Beatles.
How did this make it on your? Brian sets her, pick three songs and and something else be Bop Lula, and then she loves you. What's going on here?
What's going on is that was so influential and just be liking music. It was so early. And shall I talk about it after? After we spin it, sure.
Yeah, let's let's give these beatles a chance.
We're going to hear from that group again, I know. So. So what was it about that song that that made it onto your list?
So that song, you have to understand when I was, well, I don't know when that, how old I was, maybe it was just when I heard it.
You would have been, I mean, you would have been, I think, five.
I was born in 59.
Okay, so I probably heard it later. Yeah, right.
But you had to go grocery shopping, we called it back East grocery shopping. I don't think they do all over, uh, with mom, and there was a little pizza place across across the way.
And that came out of the jukebox, you know, it's like yesterday, and, uh, I walked up to the pizza guy, Who's that on the jukebox? I don't know.
That's those girls, so I went up to these girls, who's that? she goes. Oh, it's a new band called the Beatles, right?
And the only thing in my young years was that guitar, I heard the guitar right, and it was just new and fresh. I mean, I couldn't have heard something like Eddie Cochran yet.
Right, and that's where you have to be open-minded when people like different sorts of music. Then we went across the street and in another record store. It was a picture of the Beatles. And George had the neck of his guitar like goofing around across the other Beatles necks. Like that, yeah, and I go, The guitar is what makes that sound.
It's the guitar I wanted, that sound, you know, yeah, and that's why they I couldn't get it out of my head.
You know, I didn't want, you know, a BB gun. I wanted a guitar. You know, I went. what a guitar. Nobody plays guitar. we don't know anybody who plays guitar.
That's what I wanted, you know?
And wasn't your first instrument, was it the guitar?
Well, in school, they stuck me with this thing called the euphonium.
Sounds like an iron lung. Poor Brian can't breathe on his own. We got him a euphonium.
Yeah.
Oh, geez, you're right, it does so. Picture the skinny little kid from Long Island with the euphonium, which is like a mini tuba, You're right.
Yeah, but, uh, that's what they had in school. My parents didn't have any money, you know? And um, actually. I learned how to read the bass clef with that thing, but I really wanted the guitar to play. Yeah, but that's what I played in the school band.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. My brothers and I were cadets, you know, and we had the hats and we could march with that thing.
Sure, yeah.
That was in B-flat, yeah, the Euphonium.
I'm glad you gave it up. I think he went rockabilly. Euphonium Yeah, exactly.
Well, if it wasn't for my dad, I'd be in the Coast Guard playing Euphonium.
So, of the Beatles, you kind of got to meet George a few times.
Yeah, yeah.
Can you talk about that at all? A little bit sure, because he would have, I imagine, loved what you were doing.
He told me he did, yeah, yeah, he was very dry, you know, very sarcastic, you know, like in no bullshit way. mm-hmm.
But yeah, what can I say about him, really? He was. You're always in such awe when you meet someone like that. You know when you met Paul or when I met George, but that's the stuff they all love, they all love the rockabilly stuff.
Like I said, you know the biggest stars that people that I grew up with, they wanted to meet, you know Freddie Mercury, or you know the latest, you know Jethro Tull and all that you know. And all these guys wanted to meet the stray cats.
Isn't that cool?
Yeah, oh, it was unbelievable, you know?
He must have.
And I didn't know many of those band songs because I listened to rockabilly music. You know, right, right. When we opened for the Stones, I could have sung, maybe Satisfaction and a couple I didn't know their music, right?
Because I was listening to Carl Perkins, you know?
Which, by the way, strangely enough, they had been listening to, or they had been listening to, you know, earlier, and then they had gone on to that stuff. You know, what's so fascinating is that I have found this to be true people you idolize. It's the stuff that you heard when you were a kid. So it's just you talking about hearing some of this music when you were much younger. And that's what grabbed hold of you. I'm that way about comedians.
I idolized the people that were on TV when I was a kid, those were the ones that later on, when I got to meet them. You know, when I got to meet Don Knotts, I couldn't believe I was meeting Don Knotts.
Yeah, right.
You know so many incredibly talented, genius performers today who are in their 30s and 40s. When I meet them, they're younger than me. I'm really excited to meet them and I really love their work and I think they're brilliant. But it's never going to have the same effect on me as seeing those people that came through my TV set or on my record player when I was a kid. Like, it's just you can't get, no one can get to you the same way.
I never thought of that, but it's, yes, yeah, and it's because that's what you're growing up with. You know, that's what shaped you. Yeah, you know, you get older, I guess, and it doesn't have that same effect.
Did you get to play at all with George or just chat?
I don't think I did. I played with Keith and with Bill a lot, Bill Wyman, but I don't think I ever. No, he didn't last too long. The poor guy.
No.
But he said, Oh, just a quick, funny story. Yeah, we went to a party and there was George and my brother. Did you know, have you ever brought a family member to meet somebody that they're going to flip out over?
Sure, okay.
So he does the thing, Oh, don't do this, you know? goes, Oh, hi, Mr. Harrison. I've got a band, we're on the Decca label, I'm going to do this and I'll be doing that. And so George just looks at him and goes, Well, see you on the telly then.
And he walks away.
I can just see him doing that, too.
And I was just, Why did you do that? Yeah, we were just kids, and if somebody did that to me, I'd be understanding, you know?
Yeah, it was so funny because we had Ringo on the show once, and I'll never forget it was the first time Ringo was on the show.
I played with Ringo.
Yeah, and Ringo is such a lovely guy, but I remember it was the first time he was on the show and he's out in the hall outside.
6A and iconic 6A Studio. And he's outside and someone comes up and says the line that people always says, which is, I'm so sorry to bother you, you know, if they want you to sign something.
I'm going to bother you.
Yeah, and what they always say is, I'm so sorry to bother you and Ringo with just matter of fact, like he's been saying it since 1963. It was one of the cameramen said, So sorry to bother you, and he went, No, you're not.
But then signed it anyway. But as he was signing it, just saying, if you were really sorry, you wouldn't do it. I just thought like, Oh, that's kind of these Liverpool guys, yeah, they know how to give it.
They know how to dish it out.
Each city seems to have that wise guy thing going, you know?
Yeah, well, I'm glad, and you said you haven't met Paul, which I find hard to believe. No, no.
Yeah, well, just call him up, he's not the Pope.
Actually, he's kind of the pope, I guess, isn't he? Yeah, I want to make sure I mention a couple of things. Your latest album, which I've been listening to, The Devil Always Collects from 2023, I love it.
You're playing and singing as well as ever, and this is something that Jim and I were talking about earlier, that it's crazy. We've talked this much about your playing. You're a great fucking singer.
When did you know that you could sing like that? You're a crooner, you can really belt.
I never wanted to sing, I just wanted to be Scotty Moore. Yeah, and I think I just maybe got better for me being a singer. You've got to let all your inhibitions go.
It's hard, it's hard for me to do that, just to let it all out, because sometimes you feel like you're being a fool. You know, why don't I just sing? But that's what really it takes for me to be a good singer.
The guitar thing. I know what I want to do, I know what I want to play, I know where I want to do it. I have it figured out, the singing thing. It takes longer.
But I'm glad you like the new record. I used a gretsch duojet on most of it, which I never used, and it just seemed to fit it, just cut through.
And again, this is the Gretsch duojet for you real freaks out there who care? It's kind of like Gretsch's answer to a Les Paul, sort of. It's a solid body.
And we were talking about how there's the 6120s and everything else we were talking about are these hollow bodies. But that's the guitar that George played in the cavern with the Beatles, that was his first real guitar.
Oh, that's right.
It was a Gretsch duojet.
It was a Gretsch duojet.
And Danny, let me hold it once. Oh, really, Danny Harrison had it.
Danny's got it.
And yeah, Danny has all the guitars, oh good, and Danny handed it to me.
I'm glad they're not in some showcase somewhere.
No, no, no, Danny has them all, and he's got the 12-string rickenbacker from Hard Day's night. Oh wow, he's got the acoustic.
He's got all of them, yeah, he's got all of them, the psychedelic one, he's got Rocky, which is the one that George hand-painted psychedelics.
But he handed that one to me and that was the only one I wanted to hold because I knew that. First of all, it's a gretsch, second of all, it's the one that I knew they were playing when they played on that first album.
Right, because there was blood, sweat and tears on that guitar.
Yes, exactly.
Didn't he buy that guitar from an American Navy guy who was visiting? Maybe possibly he was stationed in Liverpool, and they couldn't afford American guitars?
There's a great story that no one's adequately told yet anyway, as far as I know, maybe they have, and I just haven't seen it. But everyone thinks of the Beatles. Coming to America for the first time in February of 64 and getting off the plane and doing Sullivan. Three of them, it was their first time in America.
George had been the previous winter because his sister was living out in the Midwest, like Minnesota, Minneapolis, someplace like that.
Oh, she married an American guy.
She married an American guy and they were living out there. George visits her.
Oh, really.
And the Beatles are starting to click in England, but no one knows who they are. In America. He comes out and he visits, and there are pictures of him visiting New York. I think he's in New York maybe first, and he's just kind of wandering around on his own, but then he goes to the Midwest.
He's hanging out with his older sister.
And then they go and they see a local rock and roll band play. And the sister says, You know, my brother's pretty good, yeah, and they're like, Where's he from? He sounds funny.
Oh, he's from Liverpool, England, all right. And then he gets up and he plays with this local band in a dance hall somewhere in the Midwest. And the other kids are like, Yeah, he's pretty good. And then he says, Well, it's nice to see you all.
Goodbye sister. And he gets back on the plane and then returns with his friends and conquers America. Oh, really. So I was always thinking, somewhere there's a great documentary of what was that like.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
So I don't know, but maybe it already exists, and if it does, I've got to see it.
It's a funny place that Midwest people think I'm English there because I don't sound like them. I go, I'm from New York. How could you think I'm English? Oh, maybe I thought you were Welsh or something.
Welsh.
What does a Welshman even sound like?
Yeah, I'm from Boston, God knows what they think I am.
Yeah, The Devil Always Collects is fantastic. Thanks, brother, and as good as anything you've ever done. Oh, thanks. And it's got a different guitar sound that I love.
Because I think you're playing not just this different guitar, but you're playing it. Is it using a different amp, are you using a different setup, or is it the same setup?
It's the same setup. I got to bring my guitars to that amp. I use a Fender Bassman amp. If I trade the amp because it has reverb or something, I lose the sound.
Isn't it funny? I really appreciate that, of course, but everyone's telling me this is one of the best ones you've ever made. Why is that? I have absolutely no idea.
I don't know. I wrote the songs, I recorded them, I changed the guitar on some of them, but it's just what comes out.
Well, I think it's not your job to know, your job is to make it and then let other people ponder what it means. I really believe that.
Again, this is a holiday for me, I said, when you came in the door, I always suspect when a Brian Setzer walks in and he's here to talk to me, I think it's a make-a-wish. And no one's told me that I'm dying. And they're like Conan, he's very gravely ill, but we can't tell him.
Get Brian in, have Brian talk to him and tell him he's a good guy, tell him some stories. But it's a huge deal for me and I'm so glad that you were able to do this.
And what I want you to do is go sleep because you've got a huge, you really give it everything you have when you perform, so you need to go sleep.
It's those buses, I tell you, it's those buses.
Those goddamn buses.
I did see in my brief time on a bus why someone would start taking recreational things. I did completely understand. There's a reason if you go insane on a stage for two hours or something.
Or an hour and 45 minutes, and then you get on a bus and someone says, go to sleep, no, fuck you, I'm not going to sleep unless you have a giant rhino tranquilizer.
I'm not going to sleep.
I know it's tough, I got almost 13 years, no beers, and it doesn't make it easier on the bus.
That's the hardest part, the hardest part is the travel, I think, Joe Walsh said. The gig is free, you're paying me to get there.
That's true, that's a good way to look at it.
But I've noticed something different this tour, which is funny. It's like I've got the guitar guys out now, listening to the solos and getting applause after the solos, like a jazz room.
Wow, look at that, that was kind of different.
I remember it being, I think it was stray cat strut, but you were playing on the video. This is, you know, you're like just a child, but you're playing, and it's this very 80s video that was hugely popular. But being mad that they kept cutting away to the cat and stuff when you're playing the solo.
Oh, really. I'm like, I don't want to see what his hands are doing. I don't want to see a fucking cat or a lady looking out a window, throwing a bucket.
Where's his hands, you know, anyway? Brian? God bless. thank you so much for being here and I'll see you at the show tomorrow night.
Make it a good one, or I'm walking out.
All right, all right.
Conan O'Brien needs a friend with Conan O'Brien. Sonam Ovsessian and Matt Gourley Produced by Me, Matt Gourley executive produced by Adam Sachs. Nick Liao and Jeff Ross at Team Coco and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf.
Theme song by the White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it Away, Jimmy.
Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer. Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista and Brit Kahn.
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