377. - Nabil Ayers

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week, Jason. Does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcast. or watch on YouTube. How long gone? An overcast morning in money-making Manhattan. It's your fearless co-host Chris Black coming to you live. Jason, what's up, bro? Bestie, I don't know what is up. I'm almost potted out. I think I really am going to need this vacay. I mean, I wish I could feel the same way. I have just been reading an article about how we're just all, what are we racing towards, you know, Jason? Where can I find this article? The Guardian. And I quote, a bigger paycheck, I'd rather watch the sunset. Oh, no, that's too far. An interesting take. Is this the end of ambition? And I have to ask, Um, what? And the girl is laying on like a nasty green love seat with a little mangy dog, and it says, Mauve, a Generation Zer, who has a huge, huge, almost indignant desire to be happy. That's her claim to fame. Okay, so she has a huge desire to be happy. That should be sort of a base level thing, right? I guess, but I guess she's saying work. creates problems for that right all right so all the uh all the eggs are going in the happiness basket none of them are going in the the work basket or the and i'm not talking about work as in like your salesforce job i mean like what you're doing in the world how you will be remembered you know other than like yeah i remember that chick she was really fucking happy let's write a book yeah exactly yeah write a book about her

She died at 95 because she stopped working, and luckily she was on the dole and able to get some fresh produce, but she didn't leave much of a legacy. Yeah, you don't leave a legacy. You leave some fancy feast tins. I don't really understand this, but what's going to happen to Gen Z if none of them work? Does our society crumble? No, because we got the robots, bro. That's right. We got, Basil's got the robots, and they're going to do all the jobs. But, I mean, the jobs are only going to be... putting my fucking toms of maine in a cardboard box and shipping it to glendale like that's that's the job that's the job robot gonna do it are you saying that robots are better than gen z i'm not gonna hold you to that i just want to make sure i'm understanding kind of what you're saying because i would never say something like that obviously because i value human life it's such a such a high regard look better better is a tricky word chris you know people are always going to be bad employees they've always been bad employees since the dawn of time but they're really bad now and robot If I'm like a 57-year-old oligarch billionaire, robots are looking pretty good right about now. I agree. I would much rather have a robot. They don't look like a thrift store threw up on them. They don't complain about going to work. They don't spend their money on lattes and avocado toast. It seems like it could be a better setup. I mean, I think we need to get the robots we see in L.A. kind of roll around the streets. I think that sometimes the navigation isn't that good, but that's something I'm sure we're improving. Oh, they're always updating their firmware. I saw just yesterday we were in Pasadena, and we saw one of those robots driving around. And there was a pedestrian, and it waited for the pedestrian to walk by. It yielded. And we were like, oh, that's a nice robot. He's coming along. But I think in the same way that it's easier to have a robot do a job than train. That's a nice robot. That's a nice robot. Employees are tough, whatever business it is. If you're hiring, you know, everyone is.

is more entitled. Everyone believes they shouldn't be doing what they're doing. You know, they used to say like, oh, every waiter or server in LA, they're bad because they're just, you know, they're waiting for their time to be discovered as an actor or an actress. So it's going to be bad service. That thing that made LA shitty, whatever, 20 years ago is just the world now. No, that's a good point. Everybody's a CEO on their own Instagram account. So it does get confusing. Like the same way that robots are enough. It's not a human being, but it works technically, so it's enough. Also, being a fake CEO on Instagram for most people is enough. And watching a video game version of Blackpink perform instead of human beings is enough. And also, they won't fuck up. I mean, that's true. And if they do fuck up, you can just kind of, you know. cut some wires you know and you're kind of good to go and there's not even a murder charge yeah that's kind of a yeah you know how hard it is to fire a human being in 2022 it's too hard amount of red tape it's too hard to fire to fire a robot you just don't charge him you just you just take the bluetooth you know what and disable it you know we're disabling bluetooth and we're not going to charge you tonight because you were kind of mouthing off today in the in the all hands meeting So we have a little bit of a problem on our hands. You will not be booted up for Pizza Fridays, you dumbass robot. Have fun with your little friends. We are celebrating a birthday, and guess who's not getting a cupcake? I've noticed there's some more Beyonce discourse going on. I just want to make sure you're aware of her using spaz and not apologizing for it. Wait, she said spaz just like Lizzo? That's right, Jason. Do you know the context of it? Was it in lyrics in a song, or was this in an interview? Yes, yeah, yeah. Was she being interviewed by The Guardian? She says, I really don't fuck with spaz, motherfuckers, or something like that. It wasn't like that. No, no, no, no, no. It was a regular musical thing, but I think she's being pressured. I think she removed it, but she's not apologizing. Okay. That sounds like something that we would do, I guess. It looks like Lizzo took this one. Well, if they're competing over who can say spaz,

get away with it the best way lizzo is taking exactly and that's what that's kind of what i base talent on because neither neither of them make music i want to listen to necessarily so i think that we need to find other ways to judge our favorite artists you know like let's look past the music let's look past the songwriting uh i wish i could chris i mean it makes you want like because lizzo is not not she's not young you know she's like she's in her you know she's probably like 34 or something like that like she's I'm saying she's not like a 19-year-old Gen Z or anything like that. That's true. Whereas Beyonce is like a full, you know, she's in her 40s. She might have an excuse of being like, oh, I'm setting my ways. I didn't know you can't say that right now. They all have an excuse. They all have an excuse, and this is what they're skirting around, is that they didn't write the song to begin with. So that's what I'm trying to get at, is that they're apologizing for lyrics written by Swedish guys in a studio in West Hollywood. I mean, unfortunately, they are the ones to utter them, so I guess it is their bad. Yeah, I mean, if I go to Main Street, Huntington Beach, and start reading Mein Kampf on a loudspeaker, They'll be like, hey, guys, I didn't write this. No, that's a good point. But I think it would be cool if Beyonce was like, which one of you motherfuckers did this? You're apologizing. I ain't doing this shit. Jay, tell them. I mean, I feel like if you're singing the song, you should know it. You should know the words. You should be conscious of what you're saying. Yeah, I mean, no, I'm sure she knows the words. Bro, there's so many songs. It's like, you know, dude, you get lost. She just doesn't know that you can't say spaz. That's all it is. But it's really the label's fault because the song was probably written two and a half years ago. and then they saw Lizzo getting killed in the headlines, and like, maybe we should recut that one so it doesn't say the word that somebody just got in trouble for saying two weeks ago. They called Beyonce, and she's like, no, no, I'm on the yacht with Barry Diller in Sardinia, so I'm not going to be able to do that. You guys figure it out. She just said, have one of the robots re-record it. I ain't doing all that. Don't you have my name on file, and you can just pull it up and just...

Using my dark web voice to recut this one? Are you saying the Beyonce bot wasn't charged for this? That's going to be a problem for me, Sony Music. We do have a guest today. Beyonce 3000, powering off. Nabil Ayers is not a robot. He is a writer who his new memoir, My Life in the Sunshine, came out in June. It's getting rave reviews. But he's also the president. of uh beggars group which is a a big chris label you know series family of labels uh grimes big thief saint vincent deer hunter uh the breeders the national to name a few um and he also is a record store co-owner or he was before he sold that of seattle sonic boom which is kind of like a legendary record store all right yeah so we're going to get into that there's a lot to talk about we got to give uh Let's give him a Zoom. I'm sure he has a professional in-ear monitor like Shakira's drummer, and we will cover that and so much more after the break. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How I'm Gone is brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung? TaskRabbit. You need a fucking... Something put together, a cabinet. Got to reach that cheese grater on the top shelf. TaskRabbit. Anything you need, TaskRabbit can take care of it for you. And, I mean, how it works, TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area. They can help you move. They can assemble furniture, repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a tasker based on cost, skill set, availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing because taskers have assembled. Over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs, handled 1.5 million moves, and the numbers are just going up, Jason. Yeah, throw a little money at the problem. It's not so expensive, and that job that you really don't want to do is something that another person out in the world is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money.

When life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app using promo code HOWLONG. Taskers book up faster, especially for same-day tasks. So book Trusted Home Help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code HOWLONG with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince. Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I need pieces that feel lighter, more breathable, and they're just easy, but still put together. I don't want to look like a slob. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on high-quality essentials that feel and look amazing. Breathable linen and soft organic cottons. Well-made basics, but without the luxury markups. That rare balance where everything feels elevated. but still effortless. Yeah, Chris, linen season is here. I wore a linen blazer to dinner a few nights ago in the warm California sun. But, you know, you got that Italy trip coming up this summer and quality European linen pants and shirts. Upgrade that look starting at just $34. You know, if you get a nice linen suit, a little t-shirt underneath it, some chill shoes, you're looking good, but you're staying cool. The inside of your special areas are nice and dry as you turn up with your besties. So elevate that summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com slash how long for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns, even on a nice holiday now available in Canada. That is Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash how long. That'll get you free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince punto com slash how long. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by a new podcast from The Guardian stateside with Kai and Carter. This is covering a lot of our bases, Jason. It's trying to slow down.

The news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world. And I know you particularly have quite a lot of questions. A lot of questions. But how often? Because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot. How many times do they do? Three times a week. And I have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do. That's just a guess. The Guardian is not some billionaire owned. They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside. But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? Especially when it's not from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. Nabeel, thanks for joining us on How Long Gone. Like Jason said, we've caught some of your previous press, and we noticed that you were wearing professional-style, custom-molded in-ear headphones. Is that what you're doing today, or are we not getting that same treatment? This is not pro. This is just like Amazon amateur in-ears. Okay, so it's a pro-am product. All right, good. I was going to ask you, because a lot of musicians kind of get a little picture. You know, printed on the outside like Drake famously had Aaliyah on his in-ears. Are drummers musicians? Drummers get more respect on this podcast than bass players. I would argue that a drummer is not a musician. What would you call them, Jason? They're just rhythmic people. What do you think? What do you think, Nabil? I mean, some drummers aren't musicians. I don't know. I used to have a slew of drummer jokes, and now I can't remember them. I can do a cute 20 on drummers. But you yourself slap the skins, do you not? I do slap the skins, yeah, so I'm allowed to talk shit. Exactly. I wanted to let people know before you kind of dug your own grave there that you do. Right, thank you. You can tune a snare with the best of me. You're the one who's making all that racket. As an adult man, do you have kids? No kids, no. But I am an adult man. Okay, no kids. Well, no, I'm just asking because.

As a successful – yeah, I mean you're a C-suite member. 50 is the new 30, Nabil. Published author, et cetera. I just – drums are a hard instrument to practice. So do you have a space that you go to? I hope you didn't get an electronic kit because we know that don't hit the same. This is pretty funny. I just got an electronic kit like a couple of weeks ago. No. Okay, so you are 50. Got it. Totally. It's a total midlife crisis thing. I played drums my whole life since I was a kid. My uncle bought me a drum set when I was two. And then I moved to New York, which is now like 14 years ago. I don't have a drum set here. I live in an apartment with my wife. Obviously, that doesn't really work. And I never play. I play like out of town when I'm with friends. Yeah, the electronic drums. You paid the cost. You earned your stripes. Right. Tom York is allowed to use his little iPad because he was really about his shit back in the day. That's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah, it's like when Jason switched from vinyl to Serato. He felt like he earned it as a DJ. He felt like it was his time. Right. I mean, that's a lot easier. Yeah, that's like the electronic drums of music. I agree, which is why I don't. use serato anymore no no shade to my serato homies listening right now yeah i i don't know anything about djing except from what i hear from jason and now i understand that it's it's frowned upon to use a laptop of any sort you're supposed to only show up with usb sticks and just be able to go crazy you know and not need the the crutch of a apple laptop it's why i do it's why i play a fretless bass you know what i mean like Fretts are kind of a crutch to me. Yeah, I also just got a five-string fretless. I don't know if I mentioned that for my 50th fret. He's on his little Les Claypool over here. Damn, you guys ever checked out Primus? It's pretty sick. No, I like all these. So you're still playing music in your spare time, or is it just practicing to keep the tools sharp? I mean, not even that. Just for fun now and then. I mean, I only play real drums out of town with friends.

twice a year or something like that like it's the tools are they're not sharp they're dull right now do you do you use it as like do you use it as like your your by myself meeting therapy session like i have something inside of me that needs to come out or is it just like I love music. I love to play it. The latter. I love music. I love to play it. I'll go over and play the electronic drums for like five minutes, you know, whatever, after dinner or sometime, and my wife will make fun of me. When you go, when Daddy goes to the study to slap the skins, are we hitting the backwoods, or is this of clear mind? Are you talking about jazz cigarettes? I am talking about a jazz cigarette XL, one could say. It's a jazz cigarette XL. That's a good point, JC. It's not a jazz cigarette black, but it's a jazz cigarette XL. There's a stand-up bass, stuff like that. It's a pretty clean process. There might be mezcal or gin involved, but no jazz cigarettes. You like a smoky flavor. I understand that. The use of marijuana to encourage creativity is maybe overblown. Wrong. I've never been good at smoking pot. It's not my drug. It's not my thing. Okay. Is music your drug? Is music my drug? It sounds like music is your drug, to be fair. Music is one of the dorkiest drugs you could smoke, bro. It's pretty dorky. I mean, I don't know. But also, but gin and mezcal might be my drug. I mean, they're not drugs, but you know. Get a couple mezcal Negronis and you fire up the Yamaha. Oh, baby. It's over. It is over. Now we're talking. I feel like, Jason, I feel like, unfortunately, music might be my drug. Oh, fuck. I don't want to. I'm just coming to this realization now. which is unfortunate for everybody here. But we can talk through it another time. But it's partly Nabeel's fault for kind of putting all this great music into the world for aging white guys like myself.

So, you know, I don't know who to blame here, bro. If you're responsible for the National, it's your fucking fault. You know what I'm saying? He's the, yeah, yeah. You've got blood on your hands, bro. I'm not responsible. I mean, the National's responsible for the National. But yeah, I mean, I've worked with those guys for a long time. You'll take a little, look, take a little credit. You know what I mean? They've done well. Look, Nabil, you didn't, yeah, you didn't invent the National. You simply perfected that. Exactly, exactly. You were the master at the board. Before you exist, I saw a photo of the National. You know how many Grammys they had in their hands? It wasn't plenty. It sure wasn't plenty after you. Who's the doctor that told you to go see? You're literally like, actually, that is true now that I think about it. Damn, that is true. Are you coming to us live from New York? Live from Brooklyn, New York. Clinton Hill. Clinton Hill. Interesting. What's the appeal there? The parking? Actually, that's a good one. No, we don't have a car. The appeal is it's close to friends. It's easy to get to the city. It's a nice, quiet neighborhood. Is friends the name of a wine bar, or what is that? It's really, it's really, I mean, honestly, Clinton Hill, we like to make fun of it, but it is beautiful. I mean, there's no, there's no, it's, it's truly some like leafy wide streets type shit. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a Brooklyn movie. Yes, it is. It is. It is a Greta Gerwig film. Did you do, did you do hella time in Manhattan or were you always a Brooklyn guy? Only as a kid. In my adult tour of New York, it's all been Brooklyn, Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights and Clinton Hill, which is all kind of in the same. Yeah, that's the same. Yeah, but I was born in Manhattan and lived in Manhattan a lot when I was much younger, way back when Manhattan was crazy. So are you hitting tunnel in middle school, like that kind of vibe, or did you leave before this? I was kind of back and forth. The last time I actually lived here as a kid was when I was 10 in fifth grade. We lived in Greenwich Village, and then we moved to Salt Lake City, but I came back every summer, so that was a wild several years. Ooh, summer in the city. I love this. This sounds like you were- Salt Lake to New York.

We call that a culture shift, and I don't even... You went to Salt Lake... You summered in Utah, is that what you said? No, no, I lived there. Oh, you lived in Utah and you summered in New York. Summered in Chelsea. You might be the only person to have ever said the sentence that you just said. Yeah, I just spent most of my time in Utah and then I would summer in Chelsea. You're the only guy that's ever said that. No, because that reminds me when I was in middle school and there would be kids that would kind of do the same thing, but I grew up in Orange County. and then they'd be like, oh, someone's visiting from New York. You know, someone's cousin is staying with them for two weeks. Right. And you would look at them like a museum piece to be studied. Like everything about them is like, bro, like where'd you get that belt? How do you talk like that? Hair can be like that? How do you talk like that, right? That's the thing. And they were like, wow, why do your oranges taste so good? And the lemons and like the sun and all this blonde hair. Sublime, no doubt. Where'd you get that Sublime hat? When you would come back to Chelsea after beasting in Utah, after blowing it down in Provo, did people look at you like, damn, bro, where'd you get that Columbia Mountain Gear coverall? That's a pretty good one. Yeah, it was so like Patagonia, REI, whatever. I'm saying, did Chelsea turn... turn their eyes and look at you and be like, who is that? You know, I think what was fun about going to New York is no one in New York gave a fuck about who I was or what I looked like or anything. I don't think anyone was asking any questions. I think I was just one of the 8 million people doing my thing. But when I would go to New York and then come back to Salt Lake, that was always the light. Yeah, where'd you get that t-shirt? I was going to ask, what were the threads looking like? Because I'm sure you were importing some triple five soul back to Utah. I was a pretty preppy teenager. I mean, I went to like a big preppy public high school and this is like graduated in 89. So like late 80s, like, you know, whatever, Ferris Bueller, all those movies are like my high school movies. And so Salt Lake, yeah, my world is pretty preppy there. And in New York.

I don't remember getting any wild clothes. I mean, I had an Afro then, but I never came back with a smokestack or anything like that. I should have. I wish I had. To confirm, that's like a kid in play style haircut for our listeners who might not know. We're smokestacks planning. listeners who may not know. We have a young audience who might not be familiar with that terminology. We're also very popular in places like Denmark and Australia, and you know what that means. Everyone knows Kitten Play as soon as you say that. Kitten Play, to be fair, is a universal theme I think that we all can recognize. I've actually never been to beautiful Salt Lake, but it seems... really freaky but also beautiful is that fair to say it yeah yeah that's fair to say i mean as a kid it wasn't that weird because you know people want to talk about whatever the bars and the drinking laws and those things but like that didn't matter as a kid and it was actually my high school was really crazy there's like tons of drugs and drinking and like i think kids rebel a lot in places like that so it was a lot crazier i think than other places but i mean when i go back now it just feels like a small town i was just there i did a book tour in june and went to salt lake and it just felt the same as it did 20 years ago, which is funny. That's kind of feel good, coming back home for the book tour, right? Yeah, yeah. What kind of independent booksellers? Are we talking Barnes & Noble? No, no, we're talking the King's English Super Indie. Oh, the King's English is the name of the bookstore. That's very nice. That's sexy. Did you hit all of the countries? Because, first of all, book tours... These aren't happening that much anymore. Viking must have shelled out the big bucks or did you have to supplement this with some of that beggar's income? It was kind of a combo of the two where, you know, yeah, a lot of people aren't doing, especially with the pandemic. I really, really wanted to do it. I mean, this comes from being in bands for years. Yeah.

The publisher is like, you don't have to do this. You can do things virtually now. That's my publisher voice, I guess. You're like, yeah, I know, bitch. I don't want to do that. You can virtually suck my dick from the back. I don't want to do that at all. I want to go places and see people and have drinks with them and have fun. I want to have a layover in Denver, motherfucker, and I'm going to get it. Yeah, I mean, I think that I would obviously do it for the mileage, thanks to our friends at Delta. But there's other reasons to do it. It sells books, I imagine. Exactly. I like going places and meeting people. And also to reconnect. I used to live in Seattle for a long time, Salt Lake, places where I used to spend a lot of time. It's fun to go back there. It gives you a reason to do a thing that you already wanted to do. Totally. I'm glad you made it out of those tertiary markets. There's three days in a row in September that's in Lawrence, Kansas, Iowa City. and champagne illinois damn bro talk about some tersh bro you're saying there's p you're saying there's people there that are gonna buy your book i mean this is funny this is turning into the thing now where these are like two of those are college things where it's like sort of you know speaking things with built-in audiences, which will be interesting. I've got to figure out what I'm going to say. Yeah, people really want to learn from you. You know what I mean? Maybe you guys could just come and we could just do this and then... Yeah, if you want to open for us or something, we could figure it out. It'll be like a little joke. We'll do the jokey stuff and you'll be like entrepreneurial swag, like motivational speaking. I was just going to bring my electronic drums. Oh, now we're talking. That's a little easier to load in and load out. I can kind of do some cutting and scratching over your You know, improvise. It's like jazz kind of, you know. I would say that the best music is improvisational, you know, if you look back historically. But, I mean, the book tour, because we've had a handful of authors on that have done them. And then I think we told the story on the podcast before, but we were having dinner with Brett Easton Ellis, and he was talking about TV appearances and how he did Tucker Carlson and sold a shitload of books.

Like a shitload. A number that would slap you in the face. Nothing moves a needle like Tucker. He's like, they don't think. He's like, and I did Bill Maher, and that sells some books. But Tucker was the one. Because people are locked into that garbage. They're like, this is my source. Our source is the internet. You know what I mean? We get everything from the internet, and it's pretty insular. It's basically like our friends, their friends, and the circle continues. Yeah, exactly. shared internet i'm in the silo that was that just blew my fucking mind because i am a big legacy i'm always like tv matters radio still matters like all that shit matters right and like obviously most people are not going to do tucker carlson for the obvious reasons right but knowing that it actually works makes it both scarier and validates it It's on some wild level. That's wild. Do you wear a bow tie? I wonder if that's why it's sold a bunch of books. If I were on Tucker Carlson, I would probably wear a bow tie. I think that would be, I think it would be really cool to go on Tucker Carlson and dress like him and just not say anything about it. Oh, Tuck. This is just my everyday vibe. I wear my vineyard vines every day. What of it, sir? No, what do you mean, dude? I think we might have gone to high school together, Tuck. I don't know where you grew up. Yeah, Tuck was dressing like you back in the day, huh? Yeah, I'm sure I have some prom photos where I'm wearing a bow tie. Yeah, I could bring that in. You can safely tweet, Tucker Carlson stole my swag. Yeah, exactly. I mean, is that, so are you doing any of the TV? Are you going on Watch What Happens Live with Andy? I did CBS Saturday morning, which was pretty intense because that's not live. Oh, wow, bro. That's big league shit. Yeah, it was like a long, like, you know, like a 45-minute interview, and the interview was intense. It was me and the host seated, I would say, exactly six feet apart from each other, facing each other, you know, cameras hiding everywhere, and, like, 45 minutes of, like, very intense questions. And that's what's, you know, my book is, I suppose, relatively serious, but... It's a lot more fun to be here talking shit than it is talking about all I've done so many very serious interviews. That's no, I can imagine that. And I, you know, CBS Saturday morning is is also like a great music show that I think because of the time slot, people don't necessarily see it unless it's on YouTube or whatever.

But, I mean, yeah, the Big Thief episode was a classic. It looked like they just rolled out of the co-op, you know what I mean, right onto the soundstage. Chewing on a carrot. Yeah, literally picked some dirt out of their hair and just broke into song and just absolutely killed it. Like, I can't even imagine what the staff at CBS is like. A CBS president watching that? Like, what in the flying fuck? Yeah, and that's what's so fun. That's one of my favorite things about Big Thief. They just are who they are, and they roll up, and they play. It's so real and so great. It's going to smell crazy in there, and that's okay. It's going to smell crazy. They do not need a room with a shower. It's going to be totally fine. You were mentioning that because the sort of serious subject matter of your book, growing up with a father who was a famous person that was also not in your life. We have not read the book, but we pretty much know what it's about. We weren't offered a copy, just FYI. It's not personal. No one offered a copy, and we don't do that well on this show, so kind of the hardback is a little out of our price range. It's a lot to add. No, I mean, it's a lot to ask that you read a book before a podcast is what I mean by that. No one agrees more than... We agree wholeheartedly, and we wish that some of our guests agreed with that as well. We want the organic discovery of it to happen live on the show. We don't want to come in with any preconceived stuff. But because of that reason, because of the serious subject matter of the book, I'm sure you've had to do a lot of serious interviews, podcasts with people that sort of... I don't know. I never liked the vibe where the podcast host is sort of like trying to get a pound of flesh out of you. You have to do the work of explaining your life story and then they just kind of go like, man, that's so crazy. And now tell me more. That's really interesting. Do another 45 minutes about the serious part of your life. And I feel like I asked for it because I wrote this book and put it out in the world. It is. It is. But I mean.

I don't know. I feel bad when you have the serious podcast with the serious subject. You can see through the opportunistic nature of it, and I'm just trying to get some sort of tear-jerking clicks and ad sales out of this. Right, right, right. You know what's fun? It hasn't aired yet, but I did Totally Blanking, dude from Blink-182. Travis Barker has a podcast now? No, that would be great. You did Mark Hoppus. Mark Hoppus, which is really fun. I didn't know Hoppus had a podcast. These celebrities keep coming for our fucking job. Yeah, it's hard. Bro, you're already rich. We talked about alt-rock hits from the 90s and 2000s. It was super fun. Very little about the father stuff. Do you consider yourself an expert on that subject? That feels like a challenge, but I'm going to say yes. Oh, I wouldn't say a challenge. I mean, I puffed my chest out. It was a comfortability thing. Talk your shit, Nabil. Talk your shit. I'm comfortable in that world. I graduated from college in 1993, immediately got a job at a record store and started playing in bands. That's my zone. I think he might have your card on this one, Chris. Yeah, just because he's older. You know what I'm saying? It ain't nothing else, bro. He just got more years in this shit. No, I read that you own that. I'm actually, I love Seattle. I was being facetious. Actually, we did a show there, and it was one of the best of our tour last year. It was really great, and I've always liked it there. And I'm not a vinyl guy because it's a waste of money and space. I think it's bad for the environment. That's just me personally. Jason, it's more of a carbon footprint thing. The shipping from Jack White's house is like, it's crazy. But I saw that you co-owned a record store. Yeah, Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom, which I've been to and I'm familiar with. And I just think that that is a... Very interesting thing to do. Now, is this a path to money or is this purely a passion project? It was a passion project. I mean, my business partner and I, Jason, we were both [redacted address], another store in Seattle, and really just were kind of like, let's open a record store and did it. I think it cost $30,000. We put a lot of it on credit cards. Speaking of Easy Street, so 30 grand. Jason, quickly, Jason, did you have 30 grand when you were 25 or even a credit card? No.

Of course not. That's because, and that's why we're not CEOs, bro. That's why we don't have books. That's the difference. Nowadays, 30 grand can't even buy you a goddamn Volkswagen Jetta. It can't, can it? I mean, they all knew Jetta is nice. Was there a lot of sweat equity that went into this? Did you have to kind of redo the floors yourself kind of shit? Yeah, it was pretty, I mean, it was like a shitty, not shitty, but like, yeah, like a weird first floor of a house in kind of a residential building. We built all the racks from scratch. We did everything on the cheap and with friends. For the first two and a half years, we made no money. We were splitting lunches and would sit there for hours and nobody would come in. Those were also the funnest times by far. Of course. You said two and a half years. What happened at that point? We moved. We got the opportunity to move around the corner to a bigger space two blocks away. That was right in the center of the neighborhood. And then people were like, wow, we always needed a record store here. And we were like, fuck you, we've been around the corner, asshole. It's like splitting Thai food lunches. We've had these Temple of the Dog CDs on the shelf for months now, and none of you people have done anything about it. I was literally about to ask, I was going to ask, how many copies of Nevermind on vinyl did you sell to kind of upgrade to your own lunch? Because I feel like that has to be the number one. This is late 90s, so this is way more. Death Cab, Modest Mouse, Sleater Kinney. This is Seattle indie rock days that we're talking about. I'm sorry. I always go legacy with Seattle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, did you guys have a lot of fantastic in-store performances? Yeah, tons. I mean, that was a huge part of the thing. Death Cab played there a lot. I'm trying to think who else back then. I mean, Supergrass. I mean... I can't remember. MIA did an in-store there. I would love to see an MIA in-store. What is that? Is that her with a tape deck? She can't bring the whole band out. It was probably just her and Wes. I think she had a band. I think it was. Was it her and Diplo? It would have been, right? Probably. The early days. Her and Big Dippy on the ones and twos. I think that...

I want to congratulate you on owning an independent business. I know that's very challenging. And I myself flirt with the idea of opening a magazine store because that's my passion. But unfortunately, I'm over the age of 25. I know I don't look it. And I know now that there's not a lot of profit to be made. And I think that it's nice to be able to do – it's like a nice part of your legacy to have done that because that's like some real OG, like I can touch that shit. But once you know too much, you just can't. take risks. You just know it's not going to work. That only worked because we were 25 and we were paying $300 a month rent and had roommates. It was like post-college. We just did it and built it and got lucky and it did well. We sold it several years later. Who'd you sell it to? To a customer who still owns it, who's great. Some of the same people work there. It's turning 25 in September, which is nuts. Damn, that's really sick, though, that you sold it to a customer and it's still open and thriving. That's very cool. We're glad somebody didn't turn into a Subway sandwich shop or something, which was totally possible. Yeah, well, I was going to say, at least you didn't lose your ass in a restaurant. You invested in a restaurant before? I have. How much did you lose? I'm trying to think. There's one in New York where I lost like $20,000 on. Okay. Yeah, all of it. And only ate there a couple of times. It wasn't that great. Which is probably why it didn't work. Okay, so you're saying you did the classic $20,000 investment so you can have kind of an owner VIP table, and then you only went to the restaurant twice. Right, so it's like $10,000 a dinner if you do the math, right? Okay, I know that Four Horsemen is still open. I wish it was Four Horsemen. I know that Four Horsemen is still open, so I'm racking my brain trying to think about what other restaurant it could be, but I'll let you keep that to yourself. I don't want to rag out any independent chefs. Jason's a part of the food community. In Brooklyn, it could be thousands, you know? Really? I mean, okay. So you learned your lesson. You got any other, what's your portfolio looking like today? It's not, there's not, I mean, my wife is in finance and she's just like super conservative, super steady. Like, okay. No, no Bitcoin, no, no crypto. She, none of that. That's smart. She's not into it. And I, Jason, we should look into chicks that are in finance, bro. Cause we, that's like, what about, how about chicks that spend finances? That's more kind of our, our.

Yeah, that's a little more our thing over here at How Long Gone. It sounds like you've chosen a better path. I mean, does she take care of the household accounting, or do you do that because she does it at work? You know what I mean? We kind of both do. That's nice. It's a combo. You tag team the finances. You seem handy, though. How do you do with stuff around the house? You got some elbow grease? I'm not that good. I like to paint because I painted. houses in college for a summer. So that's my weird thing, my skill. You're more of a trim guy or a roller guy? You only choose one. I'm a roller guy. I like the big picture. You can change that shit in five minutes, but then you have to spend two hours doing the... There's a lot of psychology in there. Is that like a life metaphor? There is a lot of psychology in there. You're saying that you like the quick hit of seeing the change happen, but then you know you're going to have to spend two hours going around the corners. I love the meticulous detail of trim work myself, Nabil. After our college tour, we should do... some panting jobs together. Get a little extra spending cash this summer. I want to talk to you about the touring business, you know, because we're obviously in that market. We're going to be announcing some shows soon. Oh, nice. I'm just hearing some, I'm hearing all kinds of different things, man. I'm hearing, you know, this guy ain't selling, this shit ain't selling, like, oh, but this is selling, you know, and I'm like, like, I hear that the weekend didn't sell. But like it looks pretty good to me. Right, right. But then I see Phoebe Bridger sell out every show she's ever played. Right. And do you think it's like a difference in the kind of fan and like how dedicated they are? Or do you think it's just people being pussies about COVID? It's probably all of the above, right? I mean, there's so much going on. There's more than there ever happened because everything stopped for a while. So everyone's out there. So there's so much competition, so much happening every night. I mean, I hear.

I mean, I recently learned the term drop count, which you probably know as touring performers, but that's, you know, whatever. If a show is sold out, there's a thousand tickets. Oh, okay. I haven't heard the term. 700 people show up. So that's a 30% drop count, which, so I mean, I've been to shows that are sold out that do not feel sold out. So as the performer though, I'm like, if my check is clearing for sold out, I don't give a shit. How many of you losers show up? Right. But you're going to sell a lot less merch. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Luckily, we do have a web shop. It's just at HowLongOn.com. So if you don't catch us on the road, the merch is available 24 hours. Sorry, what is that? HowLongOn.com. HowLongOn.com. That's right. It's just like an internet web store for clothing. It's powered by our friends at Shopify. It's pretty straightforward. You got a bonus commercial on this episode. Yeah, no, everything's a commercial. No, but I think that's a fair. Honestly, I hadn't thought about the merch drop-off part, and that would hit you below the belt. And the venue sells 30% less alcohol at the bar. But it is really interesting. The first thought is comparing it to restaurants that survived COVID and which ones didn't. Um, and there's, you know, a lot of it seems like luck of the draw, but with an artist, it really seems like, you know, is your fandom, like how rabid is your fandom? And are they going to your concert because they like your music or are they going to your concert because they need your music? Right. Have you created a social community that is so cool and fun that, you know, like, uh, like blade or like drain gang, like that, that whole world. Like, I don't know if. the music, when you see him perform live, I don't know if that's going to sound amazing, but I think everyone wants to go there because you want to, like, see all the other freaks who are just like you and show off your outfits. Like, it's more like a Comic-Con kind of vibe than an actual, like, I want to go enjoy music, you know? And I think that's where, that's kind of, like, the main difference is, like, are you creating a social experience instead of, like...

did you do a good job playing your music? Right. And I guess you have to be more of a super fan. You know, if a super fan would have gone to see their 10 favorite bands in a year in a normal year, but now 30 bands they love are touring this year, they're going to have to choose and they're not going to go to all of them. Wow. It sounds nice to love 30 bands. Jesus Christ. No, that's true. And also now festivals are starting to create like a little bit more bespoke lineups where they're taking 30. bands that sort of have nothing to do with each other and putting them all in the same lineup and suddenly you're like oh this is amazing this is the one show i need to go to all year And that's it. Because if I'm going to risk getting monkeypox, I'm just going to get it done in one day versus over 30 shows for the whole calendar year. I need to see. If I would have gotten monkeypox at Phoebe Bridgers and the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, I'm willing to die. You know what I mean? That's fine. You can't get monkeypox outdoors, right? Monkeypox is an indoor. That's right. Good point. Good point. Thank you, Nabil. Thank you. Actually, I don't know much about monkeypox. Me neither. It doesn't sound like it. But as somebody who music is their drug, do you ever get exhausted of music? All the time, yeah. I've been to plenty of shows, even if it's a band I love. I just can't watch this much, this loud. Thank God you found podcasts, right? Podcasts are my drug. It's like you have a friend in your ear. I actually heard a Depeche Mode story. last night a friend who's a big because i i interviewed dave gone for this stuff and like a friend of mine was like bro i can't believe you met dave he's my shit like this guy loves depeche mode i didn't really realize it he told me last night he was at uh an unnamed uh restaurant in downtown manhattan that was very popular in the 80s in the tribeca neighborhood and he saw dave gone and was like freaking out didn't want to approach him took a sneaky photo as he was leaving. Maitre D caught him, made him delete the photo in front of her. And he was like, look, I'll delete the photo and I'll show you the empty folder, but I'm not going to show you the other stuff in the deleted folder. And she was like...

She was like, all right, that's fine. You know, that's fine. And so he didn't get his blurry picture of Dave gone, but he did get that story, which I'm telling for him, obviously. And was Dave even aware of any of this, or this is all just the maitre d'? Dave just strolled out in his St. Laurent heeled boots right into the waiting escalade, I'm sure, and was swept off to his apartment. Now I want to know what restaurant that is, because that level of service and dedication to your high-end clientele, I feel like is something you don't see too much nowadays, right? We should be going there. It's a safe place for guys like us. Safe place for guys like us. I went there yesterday for lunch. So it's funny that you say that. I literally went there yesterday for lunch and had a great meal. What did you have? What's the restaurant? What's the restaurant? Odeon. They had a great – yeah, of course. No, they have a great scrambled eggs, Jason. You know what they do, Jason, that you might like? They offer three different levels of scramble. You want soft, medium, or hard, almost like you're getting a steak cooked. Because I don't like my eggs too soft. It tastes like baby food. But won't every restaurant, if you say like scrambled hard or scrambled soft, won't they just... Yeah, but I don't want to say it. I want to be offered the choice. Right. Just like you don't want to say, put away that camera, don't take a photo of me. You want to know that the restaurant's got your back. Exactly. Exactly. This man brought it all the way back. You know, we talk about this a lot, but every restaurant now is just like a hamburger and french fries and a martini. At the smashed burger. Yeah, exactly. And if Jason isn't going to like... someone's G Ma's house in the valley to have like noodles that light his ass on fire. He only wants. a smash burger and a martini and odeon arguably does that better than anybody i would say you know right for the vibe and espresso martini in an emergency only and number what is your what is your go-to manhattan dinner if you're looking to flex if you're taking let's say you're trying to sign we're already obviously we're already in the secretly family so i'm aware i'm aware let's just get out of the way but if you were trying to kind of lure us over

to the beggars group, you know, where would... Oh, I like this role player. Where would you take us and how much would you be willing to spend? I tend to go sort of like real fun old New York, not necessarily great, meaning like Keen's, you know, Keen's Steakhouse. I'm like 30, 32nd, 33rd. Oh, yeah, this is smart. This is a great approach. You know, kind of madman, kind of gross, kind of feels like you could still smoke there. There we go. Real, real bar. All right, I'm ready to sign, Nabil. I'm ready to sign. I like... I like this impulse. Send over the deal memo. I like this impulse, but Jason and I are adults. We've seen it all. You know what I mean? We've been to these places. We're not some guys from Wichita with a new album that you just have to have. You have to think about all the factors that are going into this deal. Are you vegans? Is that an issue? No, we're not vegans, but we're picky. I'm sober. I don't eat meat. Jason's an alcoholic who eats anything. I mean, there's a cheesecake factory in Times Square that's kind of got everything. All right, Nibia. Now we're cooking with grease, brother. Yeah, it's something for everyone. It sounds like to me you're trying to sign Jason to a solo deal right in front of my fucking face. He's not ready for that yet. He's not ready for that yet. Frankly, I'm turned on by the audacity. I love the idea of you taking some cool guy band to the Cheesecake Factory because you know they'll have more fun there than Raoul's. You know what I mean? Raoul's, though, good call. I mean, look, if there's anything I would love to do in my life, because I did work in the music business, and it's the only thing that I romanticize. still want to do that I don't do professionally. What? Getting taken out or taking people out? No, no, no. Just being... I don't know. A&R isn't for me. I just think it's... I don't want to go to clubs. I want people to send me the link and then me send some money over and we do this thing. You know what I mean? I'm not trying to... So you want to start not in the mailroom, but in the president's desk. I feel like I've earned it. I don't know if you guys are hiring. I don't know if you guys are hiring, but it's...

I think I could be kind of a closer. For example, you don't want to go to this dinner, but you're like, Chris, we need to sign this band. Take the green MX over to Manhattan and make this thing happen. I'd show up and sprinkle some vibes. Exactly. I'm like Rick Rubin at the board. Bring some energy. I'm like Rick Rubin at the board. I just kind of do my thing. Nobody can really explain it, but it works. Nabeel, would you consider yourself to be a closer? Maybe. In and out of the boardroom. In and out of the boardroom. I mean, I've never called myself a closer, but I... That's smart. That's smart. I could be. Well, I mean, I would say you have to. I would say yes more than no. Yeah, I mean, based on the track record I've seen of successful artists, and we've all had some flops, of course, but based on the success, it seems like you must be a closer, or at least you have a team of shooters that you fan out. Right. To the Mercury Lounge when it's time to make it happen. Mercury Lounge. Maybe that's a good question. Who were you unable to close on? It keeps you up at night sometimes. That's interesting. to think about this. Take your time. I edit the show. Don't worry. Look, I know, look, everybody wanted Claro, but that second record, you would have lost your ass on it. So you're good. You're better off. I mean, a long, a long time ago, right when I started at 4AD in like 2009, we were trying to sign Beach House and that didn't happen. Beach House signed the sub-bop and I love that band and love those records. Would have been cool to work with them. That was a big one. That was a big one. I never fully got that. Jason loves Beach House. When Beach House was good, I mean, they're still pretty good. They're still good. But when they were cooking, it was a special thing. And also, they seem to have a second life or a bit of a resurgence on TikTok as well. Have you noticed that? Right. I think there is a TikTok thing happening. Oh, is that? Because they put out a new record too, didn't they? Yeah, they did. But I think it's an older song. just how songs will sort of take off on TikTok for whatever reason. Right, that's the classic TikTok thing. It conveys a certain emotion the same way an animated GIF might, and you just load that in. Often it'll be slowed and throwed or sped up and happy hardcore. Start dancing. But it's just like this perfect little, you know, there's a lot of ethereal moments in Beach House songs where if you just snag a little eight-second bit, it can be...

Quite cinematic if you want to use TikTok too and make your life appear to be a movie. Is there another reason to use it? That's the only reason. And that's why TikTok is popular. Your life doesn't have to actually be a movie. I'd love to hear, Nabeel, when you have to call some of your artists and tell them they have to kind of get on TikTok, how do you word that exactly? How do you do that? I pleasantly never had that call. Okay, so you have assistants and stuff. I definitely never had that call. No, his social media manager does that. You have a full staff for that. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disrespect your kind of level, but I didn't know sometimes if it was somebody big, you know what I mean, you've got to call them yourself because they expect a relationship with you. You're the guy who brought them in. You know what I mean? That hasn't happened, and I hope it never happens. I think you guys are probably in the clear, but I do feel like it's that kind of – like Beach House is a good example. I feel like this – tiktok thing is happening to bands like that more than any kind of time period right like it happened to cults it happened i can think of three or four like that era that it's happened to yeah there's a mountain goat song where thing happened with it damn bro what yeah yeah bro british sea power is blowing up on tiktok right now i mean look anything could happen any yeah anything could happen man anything could happen but i i do think that that I don't know if fans can tell when it's manufactured or not. Right. And supposedly they can, right? That's the whole thing is like, it has to be. Well, supposedly COVID is real, but, you know, I mean, I don't know. What are we supposed to, you know, supposedly there's a lot of things. I've heard it's touch and go, you know what I mean? If you dress like you shop, if you work at Brooks Brothers, I would believe you. Yeah, I mean, apparently Kurt Cobain killed himself, you know? Like, there's a lot of lies that people believe out there. Actually, that's a good question. As a Seattle head who was really there cooking it up at the time.

Who pulled the trigger? What are our thoughts on it? Let's get into it. Yeah, who did it? It's a real conversation. I remember all the like, maybe it wasn't. I remember at the time I was working at a temp agency. I was just out of college and I had like a pretty shitty job just like answering the phone and doing weird things. And I was driving before cell phones, came back to the office, walked in and the secretary was like, not in tears, but like looked like she was in shock. And she was like, oh my God, did you hear? Kurt Cobain just died and we were listening to the radio. This is like the olden days. Speaking of Mad Men, it's like when JFK got shot and people are weeping in their front yards. I don't know if JFK's death was reported on KEXP, but we can do what we can. It was like that for me when I was a kid. In Orange County, California, you know, people would like gather in the school. Wow. In the school quad and just like, you know, like people don't do that anymore. But like in the 90s, you know, a bunch of people wearing flannels would just like sit on the grass together and mourn. You know what I mean? Right. That's true. Wow. That's true. But yeah, I mean, I think it was a suicide, right? That's. That's what they say. I mean, look, what do you think about Elliot Smith? I know less about that. I mean, it's a stabbing, right? Which is brutal. Jason claims to have a connection to his murder. Really? Well, there was a little bit of a moment for a while where my friends and I thought that a person, one of our friends at the time, may be considered a person of interest. Loosely connected to the crime. Yeah, it was a perfect storm, you know? He was on drugs. He was a fan. It could have been easy to take it too far. And also, it's hard to stab yourself to death. I mean, I think Elliott Smith is... I don't know. It's so tough because I'm a Winehouse guy. But Elliott Smith and Winehouse might be tied for the top of my two favorite dits. Oh, wow. Favorite dits. Smith and Winehouse. You like that sad?

sad shit mcqueen as well of course early mcqueen yeah of course mcqueen r.i.p italics a genius a genius the way the clothes draped you know how it is um yeah i think that i think winehouse i don't know i'm a real winehouse pilled like fully pilled like i'm i'm concerned about this film they're making oh right making like a winehouse dramatic you know film which i just feel like oh not a documentary but like a like a biopic oh wow Who's playing her? I don't think it's confirmed. Yeah, it's like the Madonna thing where it's like you can't really win. Lady Gaga. Yeah, I mean, I wish. Scarlett Johansson's doing it. Scarlett Johansson's doing all of it. Yeah, well, Scarlett Johansson can play British. You know, I think that's reasonable. Yeah, yeah. Put a wig on her. I bet you Zan Hathaway would nail that role. Do you not call her Zan Hathaway? Come on, guys. Fuck Anne Hathaway, bro. I mean, Anne Hathaway is having a resurgence, but I'm not sure why. Is it because of that? Is it because of the Uber show? The WeWork thing? Was she in the WeWork thing? I think it's because she's still keeping it tight and right and still an iconic, beautiful queen who happens to be quite annoying to most people. Has she been on the show? Unfortunately, no. If she's listening now, if Zan Hathaway is listening now, which I'm sure she is. Zan could, I mean, I feel like, look, we're kind of inching up in the world. We had BJ Novak. We had you. It's looking good this week. Today, Conan O'Brien and I had the same guest on our show. That's something, right? I'm on Conan. Not so much you, but there was another person. You're an integral part of that. The BJ Conan episode and the BJ How Long Gone episode came out on the same day. I'm going to say we're going to out. outpace Conan. And that's no cap. I'm not kidding. Oh yeah, I think we'll do better. I mean, obviously we won't, but yeah, I think so, for sure. What's the metric? How do you measure that? I mean, I'm sure there is some place where you go. Great question. Well, the problem is Conan O'Brien, since he's been on TV for 30 years, you know, he could play a Burzum record or some Japanese noise. He could shit into a bucket for an hour and a half and it'll get more downloads than us. I mean, that's how it goes.

Since you've had to do a lot of virtual podcasts, press tour, book interviews and all that stuff, have you been bitten by the pod bug? Do you feel like you want to put the cans on and make this an official thing? You're like, I can do this. That's funny, right? Everyone gets that. Of course I've thought about it, but I don't want to actually do it. It feels like a lot of work. I don't know what my thing is. That's right. But it would be fun. Well, your thing is discovering. We don't want to discover yourself, find yourself, you know, use it as therapy. Right, right. Talk about the old ball and chain. Talk about these damn neighborhood, you know, parking spots in Clinton Hills, stuff like that. Right, the things we've just touched the surface on, but there's really, you know, we could go deep on parking. It seems inconsequential to the naked eye, but. What's up with you being on Marin? How's it going? I have not had the invitation yet, but I am anxiously awaiting it. That'd be great. You know that dork, don't you? I don't, no. Damn, I figured... Do you? Could you put in a word if he's listening now? Jason sees him at Ralph's. I don't think he likes other podcasters unless we were 25-year-old chicks that paint, you know? But, I mean... You're nipping at his heels, yeah. Jason sees him at Ralph's Fresh Fair, you know, doing his little thing, but I don't... We don't have any connection to him, and he does give off an extremely do-not-approach-me vibe. To be fair, you might as well, Chris. But you're a teddy bear at the end of the day once you roll over. Chris, if you ran into him, would you go up to him and say something? Definitely not. I don't like him enough. I don't think I've ever approached... anyone like that even people i like it's tough to do that like when i saw tom york at gelson's i was like a lot of grocery shopping going on it's la bro unless you have something that you've pre-rehearsed and orchestrated like if i ever run into right right right nas i'm gonna tell him this specific thing and he's gonna be like wow jason Do you want to, like, get coffee sometime? Like, I think you're my new best friend. I can't wait to hear more about that. Yeah, it has to be on that level versus just, otherwise you just have to say, like, bro, big fan, keep it moving. You can't do, like, your music changed me. Jason and I saw Billy Joel blasting a cig outside of Jelena years ago.

And I was like, I wonder if Jason and I saw Billy Joel blasting a cig outside. That's right. These are the things that we say. And not Billy Joe from Green Day. Billy Joel. Yeah, an actual legend. An actual legend. No, I would never expect Billy Joe to smoke. Long Island Zone. Yeah, exactly. And I thought maybe because it was just the three of us and Jason's quite tall and obviously Billy is not, that maybe an organic conversation would be struck up. but he's too much of a seasoned pro to participate in any tit-for-tat with us. There was a small chance that at some point he would have been like, what's up with you guys? And then we become best friends, but yeah, he knows better. He's been bitten by that snake too many times. Because Jason's height does lead to unnecessary conversations. Really? Like white people say like, whoa, man, you're tall? What happened? Yeah, that's basically it. It's like, hey, you're weird looking. Let's see where this goes. And it usually doesn't go anywhere, you know? They're opening a Jelena in New York, by the way. Breaking? There goes the neighborhood. Which neighborhood in Brooklyn Heights is it going in? Nolita. Thank God. Yeah. I saw today, actually, I don't know if you guys saw this, that Elon's dad said, I'm not proud of my son, and he needs to lose weight. That's not nice. It is not nice. It is not nice. It's so good. It's so good to be like, call your publicist and be like, I need to make a statement on my son. And then be like, you know what? I'm not proud of him. And he's fat. But also, Nabil, put yourself in the shoes of Elon Musk's dad, you know? I do all the time, yeah. What must that feel like, you know? Like, hey, my son is the wealthiest person in the world. Well, he's the wealthiest person and maybe the most hated. One of the top most hated. Him and Bezos are neck and neck for most disliked. Not me. Everyone like me. Less money. Nabil, thank you for joining us on How Long Gone. Jason does have less money than Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. I know you were wondering how these guys are doing. I mean, Jason can't even afford a webcam, apparently.

No, that's right. Well, he actually can afford a webcam, but you kind of have to pay $20 an hour to see it. It's a different business model. It's a different tier. Give it away, sweetheart. Thanks for having me. It's been fun talking to you guys. Of course. My Life in the Sunshine is in stores everywhere now. You can buy it from Jeff Bezos directly or any of these independent bookstores in Lawrence, Kansas. They're all open for business. Nabil, honestly, thank you for joining us. It was a blast. We're big fans of your work, and congratulations on the book. Thank you. Hopefully see you guys soon.