Hey, this is cool. Recently, I got to sit down with one of my heroes. As you may know about me, I'm 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 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. A guitarist did not lead big bands, but he did it. How Rockabilly spoke to him as it did to me at a very young age. Meeting George Harrison in Ringo, but never Paul. 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 Konan in the new Serious XM app, or you can listen to the conversation here and queue up the songs on your music streaming app of choice.

Check it out. Here's my conversation with Brian Setzer.

Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walking loose, climb the fence, books and pens, I can down The message of my career is dreams do come true.

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. I adore him. Over the years, I've had the pleasure of Brian coming on my shows and getting to perform live with Brian. 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's Words in music with my friend Jim Pitt. 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. Oh, you- Seriously, I'm just like... And I've told this to many people that I can do the hair. If I could play guitar like you and sing like you, no one would ever hear me tell a joke again. I'd be gone. I'd be out on the road because you're living the life that I would like to live. And then to find out, years ago, that you're also an incredibly nice person was this nice gift.

I remember being a afraid the first time you came on the show. What if he's an asshole? You never know. There's going to be a fight. Yeah, exactly. From your music, there's a lot of people fighting and switchblading. I thought he might pull a knife on me. Then you could not have been a nicer guy. 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. 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 loved the big band. I know you did. Yeah.

I remembered sitting. This is one of my favorite memories. I'm sitting in the audience and you play the set that you're going to to play what you're going to do for the late night show. Then you said, Hey, Konan, anything else you want to hear? I'm just sitting there in the audience, like with Jim Pitt, who's sitting with me and maybe a couple of other people. I said, Are you guys do the Hawaii 5:0 theme? You went, Guys, one, two, three. I know. You just did it. 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. We grew up with them. We're the same vintage, and we grew up with this stuff, Hawaii Five-O. I know you're a big... I've heard you talk about the Manix theme. Oh, God. I think about the Wild Wild West. There are all these incredible songs. Bananza. Bananza. Great orchestration. Yeah.

Great music. It was television themes.

Yeah. You know what happened? 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. We need something big and bold that sounds Wild West. It was four guys in New York City in the Brill building writing about the Wild West. It's the funniest thing, and it's the best stuff. They wrote Bananza, Hawaii 5:0, and all that. Just fantastic stuff. When I actually got the big band together and heard that back, it was my favorite stuff to play. It's amazing. I love playing that. James Bond. Who could do the James Bond theme? No, it's incredible.

That music is It was so iconic. 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. Top Cat. Top Cat It was this cartoon, like a Sergeant Billko who's a cat, and he's got his gang, and they always pull one over on somebody. It was very funny. I think it was a Hannah Barbera cartoon, that the Top Cat theme was an inspiration for you.

Top Cat theme because it was badass. They were mixing, 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. I had the idea, Why don't I lead a big band with a guitar? That's never been done. Everybody tried to talk me out of that one.

Then they were saying, Oh, it's going to be an embarrassment. No one's going to want to listen to this.

You just won't be able to pay them. Yeah, who's going to come see that? They said that was rockabilly, too. But I've always just done what I've wanted to do. That big band just kept taking off, taking off. It got higher and higher and higher. We did I paid the band out of pocket the first couple of shows. And then I remember all of a sudden is the Greek theater, the Greek, we just did the House of Blues. It caught on and it just stayed there at this point. So a lot of people, we ended up with the Hollywood Bowl, but a lot of people feel the way we do.

Well, that's the, I always call it the field of dreams phenomenon. If you build it, they will come, which is my whole career, I've thought, if this is something I really care about comedically, I'm just going to keep doubling down on it. If no one else cares, at least I did what I wanted to do, but I think other people are going to care. If you just keep putting that signal out. It's a little bit of almost a religious thing, spiritual. I'm going to double down on this and put this signal out.

I'll show them.

Going back is interesting because it's hard to explain. Time goes by and then people lose the context. But when Straycats 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. Nobody's got a three-piece playing stripped down rockabilly stand-up bass snare drum, '61, '20, gretsch guitar. No one's piling their hair up like that. It's the cars. I mean, we could go on and on about what it was, but it was not that. No. But I think it was just musically so undeniably amazing that it cut through and became a sensation. I think a lot of people were hungry for it when it came.

Yes, we found that out. But when we first started, first of all, the band was right. Me, Jim, and Lee, we had a chemistry. We're just three guys from almost the same block on Long Island. We just believed in this sound because without mentioning other band's names, we had had enough of the big pompous bands with the gongs and all that stuff. I said, You don't need all this stuff. You don't need the half a million dollar Les Paul. You don't need that.

I'm picturing the Straycats going out with just you guys and a gong. I'm on gong, and every now and then you signal me and a gong.

And a G-Stray.

I'd do it. But it was a reaction to what was happening. You did that. 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 what everybody wanted. That's right. Absolutely. 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, I learned how to read and write music. Johnny Carson asked, and he didn't have rock bands on yet, if we wanted to be on the show. We're like, What? Who just kids. Then he said, You want to use Doc's big band? That's where the idea started.

Did you do it?

They didn't have a song. No, it didn't work out.

Johnny did that a lot. Invite people on, they'd show up, and he wouldn't let them in. It was an old Johnny trick. Yeah.

That's pretty much how it happened. We didn't get the show, but they were talking about it, but that idea remained. What if I put that big band behind the Straycatch since I could write all that stuff? I wanted to hear because the two had never met. A guitar player had never led a big band. Like you said, we were influenced by all that '50s and '60s television theme stuff. I at least had to try it. Believe me, it was hard to get guys to do this, to write all that music out. People would yell out songs, and I would say, But we don't have the charts. What? Play Rock this town. I didn't have it written out yet for the big band. I hadn't reimagined it yet. It was an idea that I had to follow through with. But from the very first one, it was like, Wait, this is not like Sinatra. This is something different. It's a hybrid. Yeah. It was idea of rock and roll, but not a swing band. People thought it was swing as well. And the swing bands had three or four horns. This was a full big band.

So that's what started that idea, and then it caught fire pretty quick.

I have to say, for me personally, I think one of the reasons I grabbed on to you and what you were doing immediately is I had this experience. I was born in '63. I'm in college, and everyone's listening to what people are listening to in the '80s. I'm in my freshman year, soft sell is really big and tainted love. 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, or I started to hear early Elvis because I had 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 in the '70s, late '60s, '70s. I start to hear, I hear Baby, let's play house, and I can just feel something happened to me. It's so primal. I know. I'm listening to it, and you might go to college, you might go to school, You might drive a pink Cadillac, but you'd be nobody's. There's a real passion behind it. It's very simple. Then obviously, that's all right, Mama, and I'm listening to all this stuff. The next thing I know, my dorm room, I have an early Elvis poster, but I also have Jerry Lee Lewis from high school Confidential on the back of the truck playing the piano. He's on the back of a pickup truck. It was a still from the movie high school Confidential. 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 what I mean?

I could understand it because to me, I still explain it as, this is the music that still reaches right into my chest and grabs me. And for me, it's like for Buddy Holly, it's Rave on, the insistence of it. 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 made perfect sense to me because other stuff, I don't know. I love and admire a lot of the other stuff, but there's something so... I'll just go back to primal about what you're doing.

I know. You either get that or you I feel the same exact way I went through the same thing. I think the first I heard any of that real stuff was my dad was in Korea, and he came back with some records. This is what the guys were listening to. I like it. I put on Carl Perkins, and I couldn't tell him I liked it. But to me, it rivaled that energy that punk rock was just starting with, but the guys could really play. It just spoke right to me. That's the hardest thing to write is the simplest stuff with the direct lyrics, the direct cords. Because it's all been written. That's the hardest stuff to come up with. But I had the same exact feeling as you did. Isn't that funny? I didn't know everybody was going to do their hair like me. I thought that was for stage.

I stuck with it for the longest period. When I was his writer. You still got a good head of hair there. When I was a writer on The Simpsons, I had this giant pile on my head, and I had side burns, and people were just like, You're a comedy writer. Why?

Yeah, but that's how you feel comfortable. Yeah.

You showed up earlier than I thought you were coming in, and I wander around my... Because it's my building, I get to wander around with a guitar around me all the time. You will attest that this is true. That goes back a long way. That goes back a long way, and I always have a guitar.

Yeah, you always have a guitar.

I heard all this commotion downstairs because they were having a birthday party for Sarah Federovitch. I come down just to join in, and of course, I just have a Gretsch, a duo jet, around my neck The first person I run into is you, Ryan, and I feel like an ass because it's like walking up to Tiger Woods holding a golf club. I feel stupid now.

Look what I've got.

I know how to It's not a coincidence. Yeah, exactly. Who knew? But I'm glad it made it into the studio. One of the things we like to do occasionally on this show is we ask our guests to pick a couple of songs, and the first one you picked is Something else by Eddie Cochrane, which is 1958. I got into Eddie Cochrane, 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. A friend of mine, Randy Clempert and I, who were in improv class together, he could play Serious Rockabilly Licks, and that's what I wanted to do. He said, You got to know Eddie Cochrane. He was the one that got me into Eddie Cochrane. Eddie Cochrane was the guy who had a big orange Gretsch 612. That was the guitar that you had to have if you were going to do what you wanted to do.

Well, can I tell you how I discovered him?

There's no time. We're out. All right, goodbye, everybody. No, I'm kidding.

I'll see you then.

Go ahead. Yes, that's why you're here.

But the funny thing about Eddie was. Nobody knew who... My folks didn't know who Eddie Cochrane was. He had Summertime Blues. But we had a record store called Whirling Disk, and it was a cheap little place. The guy had the album covers hanging from Fish and Line. I don't know how old I was. Well, early '70s, right? Just, T, early teens, 14. I didn't like anything I was hearing. I banged into this one record. I go, Who's this I didn't know what he sounded like. I go, This guy just looks cool. That look made me feel right, too. I couldn't relate to the '70s rock and roll look, but I was a rock and roller. I saw a picture of Eddie with the baggy pants, the slick back, How is this cat's cool? He could be in a motorcycle gang. He could be a guitar player. Then when I went home and put the record on, it was all over. Why doesn't everybody know he is. 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 boot off. But we came up on stage and I said, Hey, hello, Minnesota, home of Eddie Cochrane.

People just gave me a what? Quizzical look. They had no idea. They didn't know who he was. The second time I came back, they had signs saying, Home of Eddie Cochrane.

Well, tragically for the listeners that don't know, Eddie Cochrane, 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. Not everybody Not everybody, but some guys just funked out rhythm. But Eddie Cochrane could really play. His trademark was 612, which you all know it when you see it. It's big orange guitar that was a country-western-themed 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. I remember when you first started started playing seeing that you had a 612, but you would put dice on for the knobs. I thought that was the coolest thing. I still think it's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I'm seeing a lot of cool stuff, but I still think that is the guitar. But he went to England and was touring and was in a car accident, was killed. I've always heard that George Harrison, this is pre-Beetles, followed that tour. George Harrison, of course, was a young kid, teenager who loved Eddie Cochrane.

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 Cochrane and see him. Tragically, he passed away on that tour. He was killed.

On that tour, yeah.

We have a song because we asked you to supply three songs, and the first, you said, was something else. By Eddie Cochrane. 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 this sweetness to it, which is the punker version, you'd think would be, I want that girl. I got to get that car. I'm going to go fucking steal that car. Yeah. No. He's working. I'm going to work real hard and save my dough. I never thought of that. It's nice. There's almost this work ethic message in there. I never thought of that. I'm not going to go steal it. But you can tell he's got swagger and everything, but he's going to do this the legit 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. 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. 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 Cochrane and Jean Vincent. Oh, Jean Vincent. All right. I remember Lemmy said, Oh, Jean Vincent. It takes 10 of you to make one of him. 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 Jean Vincent was in the car. He was. Jean Vincent was in the cab with Eddie Cochrane and Eddie Cochrane's girlfriend when the car crashed in England when they were doing that tour. As a side note, Jean Vincent was injured, Eddie Cochrane was killed. But his girlfriend, Sharon Shealey, co-wrote something else with him. Yeah. Yeah, she was a writer, and they were a great... I've heard her interview talking about Eddie and talking about them working together. Have you? Yeah.

Now, I've been on that little curve where they smashed. It's pretty wicked, even on a nice night. It was raining and all sorts of, Come on, we want to go home, that jazz.

I had a chance because I'm a Buddy Holly fanatic. The Crickets came by once, and they performed on late night, and afterwards, we just hang out and I couldn't believe I was getting to talk to the Crickets. And then I just said, I just said, Out of nowhere, Why did Buddy get on that plane? It's snowing. Why did he do that? And I think it was the Jerry Allison or someone said, Gee, buddy, he I'd get there, I just always did. I got to get there. I'm sick of this bus. I'll go ahead. I'll take the laundry with me. We'll take this little plane. I always think about that because every now and then I'm in a situation. If I'm doing a travel show somewhere, I'm doing something, people say, This guy can take you in a helicopter and we'll get there a little faster. I always say, I'm all right. That helicopter doesn't... It looks like it was built in World War 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, that, too, as I get older, because I live in Minnesota, in the Tundra, and we took a 25-hour bus ride, even though we have the dogs and we want to come like that. But I took that over a flight because I just got to go my way at this point.

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 things think that any time off is just like, no big deal. You can go do this and go do that. When they said, well, Konan wants you to come on, I said, Konan, 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 going straight back. That might have been an exaggeration.

I'm going to stick with my story. Konan walks me, get up the bus.

Get out that bus.

Yeah, Jean Vincent was a guy that I got really into also around the same time as Eddie Cochrane. What I knew about Jean Vincent was, obviously, he had great style and he had a great voice, but he had this guitar player. At the time, when I first heard it, I thought, Is that Jean Vincent playing that? I didn't know anything. It turned out to be, he had this guitar player, one of the great guitar players in rock and roll history. I know. Maybe one of the all-time, if you're going to make a list of 10, Cliff Gallup.

Everybody has to agree on Cliff Gallup. I heard Cliff Gallup for the first time. Again, we're about the same age. How would you hear that? I was I was in Maxis, Kansas City in Manhattan, and shooting pool, and all the punk was on there, screaming out of the jukebox. All of a sudden, Well, be Babalula. 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. Gallup used finger pics and a thumb pick. I just use my fingers and a guitar pick, but I picked like that, and then I go back down with the pick. I just did it because I wanted to finger pick. I wanted to do some stuff that Scottie Moore did. I just invented that. I never saw anyone do it. But when I heard that song, I just went, wow, it was sexy. I just had it.

We had Scottie Moore or sit in with Scottie and DJ Fontana, his drummer. They sat him with Max Weinberg. I used that late night show. So much of it was, Konan 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, too. That's all right, mama. I can do it, but he went, Oh, no, it's not that hard. Let me show you, son. Then he did it in front of me. 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. I'm looking at the same fingers.

I know.

Then I think, Okay, it's time for me to go have a drink, take a pill, something. He I 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, Jean Vincent, he comes along, and what's interesting about Jean 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 Capital Records says, We got to find someone. And I had always heard that Jean Vincent had won like a contest, like Sound Like Elvis contest. Sure. Capital signed him because they thought, This guy will be the next. He'll be our Elvis. Which makes sense because he's...

Every guy from down south was trying to be the next Elvis. Yeah, but Jean had... I think Jean lived those lyrics. He was a bad boy, but he had that sweet... What is it? Ian Dury said, Sweet Virginia New Whisper. He had that thing, and he had the band, right? You know that when they came in to record, they had... Chad Atkins was there in case the band wasn't any good. They heard the band, they went, Oh, Well, we could send them studio guys home. That's amazing.

These guys are great. Yeah. Jean Vincent and the Blue Caps. The studio photos I've always seen. All his amazing band, they're all wearing blue caps. And Jean always has this arched top guitar that looks like it has a hole in it, like this beat-up.

The big hole. Yeah. Bumper told me they used to light off cherry bombs on stage to get the audience going.

I could have used that. There are plenty of times I could have. Yeah, me too. All of us. Plenty of nights we had a flat crowd.

He told me they used to throw cherry bombs around and it blew up on the Jean's guitar. That's what he told me about that hole.

So Jean Vincent, he really shoots to the because he does a song called Biba Balula, and that was the second song that you chose. It's from 1956, I believe. This is around the time the Elvis Fuse gets lit in '54. It's really started to burn in '55. 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. Then Jean Vincent comes up with Biba Balula, which is a massive hit. Let's give that a listen, and then we can discuss.

Yeah, spin it.

Or push the button. No one spin it.

Spin it, it sounds better.

I know. It's interesting because the guitar is amazing, but you pointed out something about Jean 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. It's just Perfect, and you can't...

It's sexy. Yeah, it's very sexy. What is Cliff Gallup playing? Is he playing a telecaster?

He's playing the guitar in the corner there.

Is he playing a duo jet? Yeah. Okay, so he's playing a Gretsch.

All right. Gretsch duo jet, yeah.

It is so funny because gretches, which... It's funny, you single-handedly drove up the price of gretches. You But when you come along and you're playing the 6121, Gretsches weren't thought of. They weren't valued that way, especially 6121s duojets. Then you come along and after the Strait Hats, there were thousands and thousands of dollars, and you can't have one. My first ever electric guitar was a Tennesseean with the single cutaway, and it had the painted F holes, which I didn't know why would you paint F holes on? I didn't understand why, and someone explained to me it's because of the feedback. They hadn't quite figured out yet how to keep guitars from feeding back through the F hole.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. I'm convinced after all these years of playing them, if one person says something, they'll change it. I just bought this new guitar from Gretsch, and my son is having problems, and I had to save up a lot of money. Oh, we'd better change it. Then they'll do something like that. Yeah. Honestly, I use the feedback. That's why I need. People that don't play guitar, I'll explain to them, 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, if you imagine a violin or an acoustic guitar, it's hollow, it's got big holes for the sound.

It resonates. It's not a solid block of wood.

Picture me playing a cello with pickups. If you stand in the right spot, it doesn't go… Because we rock them. Those guys in the '50s, Chad Atkins, he sat down and played it like a gentleman, country gentleman. We started just rocking out with them. We had to figure out how to get them to play right.

We had Chad Atkins come by the show. Yeah, we did. You did? Yeah. Then so, of course, being the nerd I am. You guys had everybody. We had everybody. It was fun. Les Paul was on the first week. Les Paul came on the first week, gave me a Les Paul, and signed it to me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I wish I hadn't thrown it out. But I don't want to be a hoarder. But no, Chet Atkins came by, and so I showed him my Chet Atkins, Gretsch '61, '20, and he takes it out of my hand and he looks at it, but he looks at it very technically. Let's see. Because it's one that was put up with his name on it. He was looking at it and he goes like, Yes, well, they did a good with this. 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 it with a little Sherpie. I have that guitar. You can't even see it barely, but it's back there.

It was his way of saying, Well, we mustn't damage the product. That is cool.

I only met him once, too, and he invited me over and he goes, Why don't you look me up before, boy? I said, I thought it'd be like meeting the Pope. I didn't think I could just come in and meet you. We sat down and played. Hold on one second. Let me show you something cool.

Sure, yeah.

I don't know how well you can hear it. 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 learn? I go, Do you have anything in B flat? And he goes, What are you doing up there, son? I go, I got this big bear with all these horns. He gave me this really cool rip. It's cool, right?

That's beautiful. I love that. What is it? I mean, it's not blues. What is that? It almost sounds a little like Dixieland or something. I don't know.

It does. It does. It sounds like... Yeah.

It Yes. It's something you had to have a... You could have a straw boat or hat on playing that. Yeah.

I said, So I wrote a song around that. Let's live it up, let's live it up. I wrote a song. I said, Can I give you credit for that or something? He goes, Oh, hell, I just stole it from Jerry Reid.

Everybody stole it from somebody. That's true. Or they nicked it, as the Beatles would say. I'm curious. You said you didn't think you could just go talk to Chet Atkins, and I love that attitude. I've always had that attitude. I don't want to bother people. Who am I to... I don't know. I'm always... It's probably better to go at it from that angle than this person is going to love meeting me. You know what I mean? It's a good- Do I look you up on the phone book?

I would have no idea, and I wouldn't even pursue it because he's Chet Atkins. But he reached out. He had the whole building there in Music Row. He was, Why don't you call me a boy? Why don't you look me up? I thought it'd be like calling up the Pope. 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 rat. I think one of the things I listen to that you've done the most is your version of Jump Jive & Whale. 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. But I'm just like, What? Why? So many cool things are in B flat, and I don't know what that's all about.

It's cool on guitar when you play in a horn key. That's a horn key. That's a horn key, okay. Yeah, because it has three flats.

Chuck Berry is a lot of time.

Is it three flats, Julie? B flat? Oh, it is two flats.

B and E, they're both flat.

Anyway, it sounds better for those guys when you're playing those keys. There's a lot of tricks on guitar that you wouldn't normally do in that key. Once you discover them, you're one of the few people that do them. Because everybody does the A and G and C. But B flat, something a little different.

Isn't Chuck Berry in 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. Then it changed some time and, Oh, you're going to play guitar keys now. D, G.

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, Nope, I'm just going to do big band now. You appreciate everything. You have big ears for country. You just like music.

And then what can I do? Well, thanks. I do. And so many people, they're just down. They've got those blinders on. It's like, do you only have one record in your collection? I do like all different types of music. That's why I mix it all up. That's why it's not pure rockabilly what I play or it's not pure big band. 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 Look, because I'm a Beatles fanatic as well. She Loves You, The Beatles. How did this make it on your, Brian Setzer, Pick Three Songs and something else, Be Bopalula, 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. Should I talk about it after we spin it?

Sure. Let's give these Beatles a chance. We're going to hear from that group again. I know. What was it about that song that made it onto your list?

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 think, five when it came out.

I was born in '59. Okay, so I probably heard it later. But you had to go grocery shopping. We called it back east, grocery shopping. I don't think they do all over with mom. There was a little pizza place across the way, and that came out of the jukebox. It's like yesterday. I walked up to the pizza guy, Who's that on the jukebox? I don't know. Ask those girls. I went up to these girls, Who's that? She goes, Oh, it's a new band called The Beatles. The only thing in my young ears was that guitar. I heard the guitar. It was just new and fresh. I I couldn't have heard something like Eddie Cochrane yet. 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. It was like that. I go, The guitar is what makes that sound. It's the guitar. I wanted that sound. That's why I couldn't get it out of my head. I didn't want a B.

B. Gun. I wanted a guitar. What? A guitar? Nobody plays guitar. We don't know anybody who plays guitar. That's what I wanted.

It wasn't your first instrument, was it, the guitar?

Well, in school, they stuck me with this thing called the euphonium.

Sounds like an iron lung. Poor Brian, can't breathe on his own. We got him a euphonium.

Yeah. Oh, jeez, you're right. It does. So picture this skinny little a kid from Long Island with the euphonium, which is like a mini tuba. You're right. But that's what they had in school. My parents had to have any money. Actually, I learned how to read the bass clef with that thing, but I really wanted the guitar to play. But That's what I played in the school band. That music. Then my brothers and I were cadets, and we had the hats and we could march with that thing.

Sure, yeah.

That was in B-Flat, the euphonium.

I'm glad you gave it up. I think he went a lot- Rockabilly euphonium.

Yeah, exactly. Well, if it was up to my dad, I'd be in the Coast Guard playing euphonium.

Of the Beatles, you got to meet George a few times?

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. He was very dry. I very sarcastic, like in a no bullshit way. But yeah, what can I say about him, really? He was... You're always in such awe when you meet someone like that, when you met Paul or when I met George. But that's the stuff they all love. They all love the Rockabilly stuff. Like I said, the biggest stars that people that I grew up with, they wanted to to meet Freddie Mercury or the latest, Jethroats Hall and all that. All these guys wanted to meet the Straycats. Isn't that cool? It was unbelievable. He must have- I didn't know many of those bands songs because I listen to Rockabilly music. When we opened for the Stones, I could have song maybe Satisfaction and a couple. I didn't know their music 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. 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 Nots, I couldn't believe I was meeting Don Nott. Yeah, right. Now, so many incredibly talented genius performers today who are in their 30s and 40s, when I meet them, they're younger than me, I'm really excited to meet them, and I really love their work, and I think they're brilliant, but it's never going to have the same effect on me as seeing those people that came through my TV set or on my record player when I was a kid. You No one can get to you the same way.

I never thought of that, but it's yes. It's because that's what you're growing up with. That's what shaped you. 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 No. He didn't last too long, the poor guy.

No.

But he said, oh, just a quick funny story. We went to a party and there was George and my brother did. 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. He goes, Oh, hi, Mr. Harrison. I've got a band. We're on the deck of label. I'm going to do this and I'll be doing that. George just looks at him and goes, Well, see you on the telly then. And he walked away.

I could just see him doing that, too.

I was just, Why did you do that? We were just kids, and If somebody did that to me, I'd be understanding.

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'd play with Ringo. Ringo is such a lovely guy, but I remembered, it was the first time he was on the show, and he's Bax, he's out in the hall outside 6A, and iconic 6A Studio. He's outside, and someone comes up and says the line that people always says, which is, I'm so sorry to bother you. If they want you to sign something. I'm going to bother you. Yeah. What they always say is, I'm so sorry to bother you. Ringo, just a matter of fact, he's been saying it since 1963. It was one of the camermen said, So sorry to bother you. He went, No, you're not. But then signed it anyway. But as he was signing it, just saying, If you were really sorry, you wouldn't do it. I just thought like, Oh, that's these Liverpool guys, they know how to give it. They know how to dish it out.

Each city seems to have that wise guy thing going.

Yeah. Well, I'm glad. You said you haven't met Paul, which I find hard to believe. No. Well, just call him up. He's not the Pope. Actually, he's the Pope, I guess, isn't he? I want to make sure I mention a couple of things. Your latest album, which I've been listening to, The Devil Always Collects from 2023. I love it. You're playing and singing as well as ever. 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... When did you know that you could sing like that? You're a crooner. You can really belt.

I never wanted to sing. I wanted to be Scottie Moore. I I think I just maybe got better. For me, being a singer, I just had to... 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. 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 takes longer. But I'm glad you like the new record. I used a Gretsch duo jet on most of it, which I never used, and it just seemed to fit. It just cut through.

Again, this is the Gretsch duo jet for you real freaks out there who care. It's like Gretsch's answer to a Les Paul. It's a solid body. We were talking about how there's the '61, '20s 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. Danny let me hold it once. Danny Harrison had it. Danny's got it. Yeah, Danny has. He has all the guitars. Danny handed it to me.

I'm glad they're not in some showcase somewhere.

No, Danny has them all. He's got the 12- string Rickenbacker from Hard Day's Night. He's got- He's got the acoustic. He's got all of them. Yeah, he's got all of them. The psychedelic one. He's got Rocky, which is the one that George handpainted, 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 gratch. 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. That was 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. There was three of them, it was their first time in America. George had been the previous winter because his sister was living out in the Midwest, like Minnesota, Minneapolis, someplace like that.

She married an American guy.

She married an American guy, and they were living out there. George visits her. Oh, really? The Beatles are starting to click in England, but no one knows who they are in America. He comes out and he visits. There are pictures of him visiting New York. I think he's in New York maybe first, and he's just 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, My brother's pretty good. They're like, Where's he from? He sounds funny. Oh, he's from Liverpool, England. All right. Then he gets up and he plays with this local band in a dance hall somewhere in the Midwest, and the other kids are like, Yeah, he's pretty good. Then he says, Well, I'll be seeing you. It's nice to see you all. Goodbye, sister. He gets back on the plane and goes and then returns with his friends and conquers America. Oh, really? I would always think, somewhere there's a great documentary of What was that like?

Yeah, that's a great idea.

I don't know. But maybe it already exists. If it does, I got to see it.

That's a funny place, that Midwest. People think I'm English there because I don't sound like them. I go, I'm from New York. How could you think I'm English? Oh, maybe you're a Welsh or something. Welsh? What does a Welshman even sound like?

Yeah, I'm from Boston. God knows what they think I am. Yeah, The Devil Always Collects is fantastic. Thanks, brother. And as good as anything you've ever done. Oh, thanks. It's got a different guitar sound that I love because I think you're playing not just this different guitar, but you're playing it. Is it using a different amp or are you using a different setup or is it the same setup?

It's the same setup. I got to bring my guitar to that amp. I use a Fender basement amp. If I trade the amp because it has reverb or something, I lose the sound. But Isn't it funny? I really appreciate that, of course, but everyone's telling me, This is one of the best ones you've ever made. Why is that? I have absolutely no idea. I don't know. I wrote the songs, I recorded them, I changed the guitar on some of them, but it's just what comes out.

Well, I think it's not your job to know. It's serious. It's your job is to make it and then let other people ponder what it means. I hope so. You know what I mean? I really believe that. This has been Again, this is a holiday for me. I said when you came in the door, I always suspect when a Brian Setzer walks in and he's here to talk to me, I think it's a make a wish and no one's told me that I'm dying. They're like, Okay, Konan, he's very gravely ill, but we can't tell him. Get Brian in. Have Brian talk to him and tell him he's a good guy. Tell him some stories. But it's a huge deal for me, and I'm so glad that you were able to do this. 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 busses, I tell you.

It's those busses. Those goddamn busses. I 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 go insane on a stage for two hours or something or hour, 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 a giant rhino tranquilizer, I'm not going to sleep.

I know. It's tough. I got almost 13 years of no beers, and it doesn't make it easier on the bus. That's the hardest part. The hardest part is the travel. I think Joe Walsh said, The gig is free. You're paying me to get there.

Right? That's true. That's a good way to look at it.

But I've noticed something different this tour, which is funny. It's like I've got the guitar guys out now listening to the solos and getting applause after the solos. Yeah, like jazz room. Sure. Wow, look at that. That was different.

I remember it being, I think it was Stray Cat Strut, but you were playing on the video. You're just a child, but you're playing, and it's this very '80s video that was hugely popular, but being mad that they kept cutting away to the cat and stuff when you're playing the solo. Oh, really? I'm like, I want to see what his hands are doing. I don't want to see a fucking cat or a lady looking out a window throwing a bucket. Where's his hands? Anyway, Brian, God bless. God bless you. Thank you so much for being here, and I'll see you at the show tomorrow night. Make it a good one or I'm walking out.

All right. All right.

Conan O'Brien needs a friend. With Conan O'Brien, Sonam Ofsessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, nick Gleow, and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at EarWolf. Theme song by the White Stripes. In Dental Music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and Mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brenda Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Brit Kohn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Konan? Call the Team Coco Hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It, too, could be featured on a future episode. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Konan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.