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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. Guitarists 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 in 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 SiriusXM 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, here they come
Back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walking blues, climb the fence, books and pens. I can tell that we are gonna be friends. Yes, 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. And then...
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 and 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. So, 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. Yeah, exactly. From your music, there's just, you know, there's a lot of people fighting and switchblades. Yeah, drinking. 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. Oh, yeah.
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. Yeah. And I remembered sitting, this is one of my favorite memories. I'm sitting in the audience and,
And you play the set that you're going to play, what you're going to do for the late night show. And then you said, hey, Conan, anything else you want to hear? And I'm just sitting there in the audience, like with Jim Pitt, who's sitting with me and maybe a couple of other people.
And I said, are you guys do the Hawaii Five-0 theme? And you went, guys, 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. 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. Right. Hawaii Five-0. 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, 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, 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 Oh, 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.
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. 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 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 then they were saying, oh, it's going to be a embarrassment. You get, no one's going to want to listen to this. You just won't be able to pay them. Who's yeah. Who's going to come see that. Right. You know, they said that was 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, take it off. It got higher and higher and higher. You know, I, we did, I paid the band out of pocket the first couple of shows. And then, uh,
I remember all of a sudden is the Greek theater one. The Greek, we just did the House of Blues. It caught on and it just kind of, it kind of, you know, stayed there at this point. So a lot of people, you know, we ended up with the Hollywood Bowl, but a lot of people feel the way we do, you know. Well, that's the kind of, I always call it the field of dreams phenomenon, right?
If you build it, they will come, which is, you know, if you, you know, my whole career, I've thought if this is 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, like I, I'm going to double down on this and put this signal out and I'll show them. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh,
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 record.
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. We could go on and on about what it was, but it was not that. No. 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. You know, me, Jim and Lee, we had a chemistry. You know, we're just three guys from almost the same block on Long Island. And we just believed in this sound because we
Oh, 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 know? You don't need the...
half a million dollar Les Paul. You don't, 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 do it. I do it. Um, but yeah, so you were, you were, 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 was
was what everybody wanted. That's right. 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, 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. 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, you know, to do this, to write all that music out, you know. People would yell out songs and I would say, well, but we don't have the charts. What? Play, you know, rock this town. Well, I didn't have it written out yet for the big band. I hadn't reimagined it yet. Right, right. You know, so it was just, 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. You know, this is... It's a hybrid. Yeah, yeah. It was my idea of like, of rock and roll with like, but not...
Not a swing band. People thought we were swing as well. And the swing bands had three or four horns. This was a full big band, you know? Right. 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, you know, soft, I mean, freshman year, soft sell is really big and tainted 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 because I'd only known. 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. Yeah.
I can just feel something happen to me. It's so primal. I know. 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, but you'd be nobody's. 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 is,
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 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, 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 like reaches right into my chest and grabs me. And for me, it's like for Buddy Holly, it's Rave On. Like the kind of insistence of it, you know, that, 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 when I, I love and admire a lot of the other stuff, but there's something so, um, like I would just go back to primal about. I know it is. You either get that or you don't. I feel the same exact way. I went through the same thing. And, uh,
I think the first I heard any of that real stuff was my dad was in Korea. He was, you know, and he came back with some records. This is what the guys were listening to. You know, I like it. And I put on, you know, Carl Perkins and I couldn't tell him I liked it. But to me, it rivaled
It was the, it rivaled that energy that punk rock was just starting with, but, but the guys could really play, you know, and it just spoke right to me, you know, that that's the hardest thing to write is the, the, the simplest stuff.
you know, with the direct lyrics, the direct chords. I mean, cause it's all been written, you know, that that's the hardest stuff to come up with. Yeah. 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. Yeah. But I stuck with it for the longest period. And people, when I was just writing, when I was on there, when I was a writer on the Simpsons, I had this giant pile on my head and, you know, I had sideburns and, and,
And people were just like, you're a comedy writer. Yeah, but that's how you feel comfortable, you know? Yeah, yeah. Be warned that once you pick up a refreshingly cold drink from McDonald's and
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You showed up earlier than I thought you were coming in and I wandered 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 Sarah 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,
is you, Ryan, and I feel like an ass, 'cause 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! Coincidence? Yeah, exactly. Who knew? But I'm glad it made it into the studio. You know, we were gonna, one of the things we like to do occasionally on this show is we ask our guests 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 LA 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 I...
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 uh eddie cochran
was the guy who had a big orange Gretsch 6120. Yeah. And that was the guitar that you had to have. Yeah. 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. Oh. 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 Fish and 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 I was hearing. 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, like I couldn't relate to the seventies kind of rock and roll look, but I was a rock and roller. Yeah. So I saw a picture of Eddie with the baggy pants, the slick back. How about 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 and 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 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. They had no idea. They didn't know who he was. Second time I came back, they had signs saying, Home of Eddie Cochran. 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 not everybody...
Not everybody would have, some guys just funked out rhythm, but Eddie Cochran could really play. His trademark was 6120, which you all know it when you see it. It's big orange guitar that was a country western theme guitar and they would put a cattle brand on it of the Gretsch G. Some of the ones, I've never had one, but some of them have all this inlay of 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. 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 still think that is the guitar, you know. But he went to England and was touring and was in a car accident, was killed. And I've always heard that George Harrison died
This is pre-Beatles, followed that tour. George Harrison, of course, was like a young kid, 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 punk 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. No, he's working to work real hard and save my. 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 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, 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. Yes. Oh, Gene Vincent. All right. I remember Lemmy saying, oh, Gene Vincent, you know, it takes 10 of you to make one of him. You know? Yeah. 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. He was. Gene Vincent was in the cab. Yes. With.
Eddie Cochran and Eddie Cochran's girlfriend when the car crashed in England on when they were doing that tour. And as a side note, uh, Gene Vincent was injured. Eddie Cochran was killed, but his girlfriend, Sharon Shealy, right. Uh, co-wrote,
Something else with him. Yeah. Yeah. She was a, she was a writer and they were, they were a great, uh, 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, you know, it was raining and all sorts of,
"Come on, we wanna go home," that kind of jazz. I had a chance 'cause I'm a Buddy Holly fanatic. 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 out of nowhere, 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, 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. Um, we'll take this little plane. And, uh, I always think about that because every now and then I'm in a situation from 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 would 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 at that 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. But I took that over a flight because I just, uh,
I just got to go my way at this point, you know? Can you sleep on a bus? Because I did some bus time, 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've never been on one of those things, I can, yeah.
But people who've never been on those 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. 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 walks 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. And it turned out to be kids guitar players, one of the great guitar players in rock and roll history. I know.
I know. Maybe one of the all-time, you know, like if you're going to make a list of 10, but Cliff Gallop. 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 Max's Kansas City in Manhattan and shooting pool. And all the punk was on there, you know, screaming out of the jukebox. And all of a sudden, well.
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? That's how I started using a pick.
And my fingers, he, uh, uh, Gallop used finger picks and a thumb pick. I just use my fingers and a guitar pick, but I, I picked like that. And then I go back down with the pick and I just did it because I, I wasn't getting, I wanted to finger pick, you know, I wanted to, you know, do some stuff that Scotty 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. Yeah.
you know just had it we had scotty moore sit in scotty and dj and dj fontana his drummer they sat in you did 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 just
Scotty, I can play the solo to That's All Right Mama. I can do it, kind of. And he went, 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 1954 in Sun Studio, and that changed the world. And I'm looking at the same fingers. I know. And then I think, okay, 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. 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. And 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. He was a bad boy. But he had that sweet, what is it that Ian Dury said? Sweet Virginia whisper, right? He had that thing.
And he had the band, right? You know that when they came in to record, they had studio, like Chet Atkins was there in case the band wasn't any good. They heard the band. They went, oh, well, we could send them the studio guys home. Right. The band'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. 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 Gene's guitar. That's what he told me about that hole. So Gene Vincent, he really shoots to the top because he does a song called
called Bebopalula 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, 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 Bebopalula, 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. Spin it sounds better. I know. 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? Oh, man, 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 there? 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. Gretsch Duo Jet, yeah. It is so funny because...
Gretchen's, which it's funny, you single-handedly drove up the price of Gretchen's, you asshole. But when you come along and you're playing the 6120, when Gretchen's weren't thought of, they weren't valued that way, especially 6120's 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, you know, that they didn't, 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. You know, I, I, I'm convinced, you know, 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 I've had, my son is having problems and I had to save up a lot of money. Oh, we, we'd better change it. And then they'll do something like that. Yeah. You know, I,
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. Yeah.
If you stand in the right spot, it doesn't go...
Because we rock them. Those guys in the 50s, you know, Chet Atkins, he sat down and played it like a gentleman, country gentleman. 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 Chet Atkins come by the show. Yeah, we did. You did? Yeah, yeah. Yep. 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.
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, Chet Atkins came by. And so I showed him my Chet 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 let's see yeah because it's his it's one that was put up with his name on it so he's looking at it and he goes like 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 yes with a little sharpie and you i mean i have that guitar you you
You can't even see it barely. Right. 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 not as 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. Sure. Yeah. 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, Chet Atkins. 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 band with all these horns. So he gave me this really cool riff.
And it's cool, right? That's beautiful. I love that. Isn't that nice? 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... Yeah. Yes. You know, it's something you had to have like a... You could have like a strawboater 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. Ha!
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 a good. 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, you know, he reached out.
He had the whole building there in Music Row. Yep. He goes, why don't you call me, 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 play.
Why is B flat so cool? B flat is a cool key. You like B flat? Well, okay, the other day, I know you're coming on and you're on my rap. I think one of the things I listen 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 I'm guessing and I'm like, yep, that's B flat going up into B, you know? But I'm just like, what? 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 play in a horn key. That's a horn key. That's a horn key. Yeah, because it has three flats. And Chuck Berry's a lot of times. Is it three flats, Julie? B flat? Oh, it is two flats. Yeah.
But it's B and E. They're both flat. Anyway, so it sounds better for those guys when you're playing those keys. Yeah. So 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. Right. Because everybody does the A and G and C. Right. But B flat's something a little different. Yeah. Isn't Chuck Berry in 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. And then it changed some time when, oh, you're going to play guitar keys now. A, D, G. Right. 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 years 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 just, 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 Loves You, because 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 something else, Bebopalula, and then She Loves You. What's going on here? What's going on is that was so influential and just me liking music, it was so early. And shall I talk about it after we spin it? Sure. Yeah. Let's give these Beatles a chance. Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!
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We're going to hear from that group again, I know. So what was it about that song that made it onto your list? So that song, you have to understand when I was, well, I don't know 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 when it came out. I was born in 59. Okay, so I probably heard it later, 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 the, 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. Ask those girls.
So I went up to these girls, who's that? She goes, oh, it's a new band called The Beatles. And the only thing in my young years was that guitar. I heard the guitar. And it was just new and fresh. I mean, I couldn't have heard something like Eddie Cochran yet. 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. And I go, the guitar is what makes that sound. It's the guitar. I wanted that sound. Cool. 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, what, what a guitar. Nobody plays good. So 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. It 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, the,
that's what they had in school my parents didn't have any money yeah 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 like you know that kind of music and then my brothers then 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 was up to my dad, I'd be in the Coast Guard playing euphonium.
Um, so you of the Beatles, you got, you kind of got to meet George a few times. Yeah. Yeah. Can you talk about that at all a little bit? Because he would have, I imagine, loved what you were doing. He told me he did. Yeah. Yeah. He was, he was very dry, you know, very sarcastic, you know, like, you know, like no, no bullshit way, you know, but, uh, yeah. Yeah.
uh, what can I say about him? Really? He was, um, you're always in such awe when you meet someone like that, you know, when you met Paul or when I met George, uh, but that's, that's, 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, it was unbelievable. He must have... And I didn't know many of those bands' songs because I listen to rockabilly music. 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. Which, by the way, strangely enough, they had been listening to or they had been listening to earlier and then they had gone on to that stuff. 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 are the ones that later on, when I got to meet them, when I got to meet Don Knotts, I couldn't believe I was meeting Don Knotts. Yeah, right. Now, so many incredibly talented genius performers today who are in their 30s and 40s, when I meet them, and 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...
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 deco label i'm gonna do this and i'll be doing that and so george just looks at him goes well see you on the telly then and he walks away i can just see him doing that too and i was just wanted to 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 play with Ringo. Yeah. And Ringo is such a lovely guy. But I remembered it's the first time he was on the show and he's back. 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,
um i'm so sorry to bother you you know if they want to they want you to sign something i'm gonna bother you yeah and and what 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 like cameramen said so sorry to bother anyone no you're not but then 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 a
These Liverpool guys 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. Well, just call him up. He's not the Pope. Actually, he is 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, is
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. And you just, it's... 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 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. 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.
You know, I know what I want to play. I know where I want to do it. I have it figured out. The singing, the singing thing is, uh, it takes longer, but I'm glad you like the new record. I used, uh,
a Gretsch Duo Jet on most of it, which I never used. And it just seemed to fit for it. It just cut through. And again, this is the Gretsch Duo Jet 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.
Right. 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 Duo Jet. It was a Gretsch Duo Jet. And Danny let me hold it once. Danny Harrison had it.
And Danny's got it. And yeah, Danny has, he has all the guitars and he handed it to me. I'm glad they're not some showcase somewhere. No, no, no. Danny has them all. And, um, I mean, he's got the 12 string Rickenbacker from hard days night. Oh, he's got the acoustic. He's got all of them. Yeah. He's got all of them. Psychedelic. Uh, he's got Rocky, which is the, the, the one that George hand painted, uh,
psychedelics. But he handed that one to me and I'm
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. 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. 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 like 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 he's this this 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 like local band in a dance hall somewhere in the Midwest. Yeah.
And they, the other kids are like, yeah, he's pretty good. And then he says, well, you know, I'll be seeing you. It was nice to see you all, you know, goodbye sister. And he gets back on the plane and goes and then returns and they, with his friends and conquers America. So I would always thinking there's somewhere, there's a great documentary of what was that like, you
You know, that's the, that's a great idea. So I don't know, but maybe it already exists. And if it does, I got to see it. But, uh, it's a funny place that, 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 of English? Oh, maybe you're, I thought you were Welsh or something. Well, what does a Welshman even sound like? Yeah.
Yeah, I'm from Boston. God knows what they think I am. Yeah, The Devil Always Collects is fantastic. Thanks, brother. As good as anything you've ever done. Oh, thanks. And it's got a different guitar sound that I love because you're
I think you're playing not just this different guitar, but you're playing it. Is it using a different amp or you're 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. Right.
But isn't it funny? Like, I really appreciate that, of course, but everyone's telling me, you know, this is one of the best ones you've ever made. Why is that? I have absolutely no idea. Yeah. I don't know. Right. I wrote the songs. I recorded them. I changed the guitar on some of them, but I, you know, it's just what comes out. Well, I think it's not your job to know. Like your job is to, it's serious. It's your job is to make it and, and, and then let other people ponder what it means. You know what I mean? I really believe that. Um,
This has been like, again, this is a holiday for me. I said, when you came in the door, I always suspect when like 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, okay, Conan, he's very gravely ill, but we can't tell him get Brian in. Yeah.
Have Brian talk to him and tell him he's a good guy, you know. 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 to sleep. I did completely understand. There's a reason if you give, if you go insane on a stage for two hours or something or 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. I know. Unless you have...
you know, a giant rhino tranquilizer, I'm not going to sleep. I know it's, it's tough. I got almost 13 years, no beers and it's, it doesn't make it easier on the bus, you know? Right. Right. It's just, yeah, it's that, 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. Right. Oh, that's true. That's a good way to look at it. Uh, but I,
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. Yeah. Like, yeah, like a jazz room. Sure. Yeah. Wow. Look at that. You know, so that was, that was kind of, 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, you're just a child, but you're playing and it's this very eighties 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 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. You're like, 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. All right.
Take it away, Jimmy. Take it away, Jimmy.
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