This week on The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show, Jeff sits down with Jay Levey, Weird Al’s manager for over 30 years. In addition to managing one of the most unique and successful artists in pop music history Jay, atypically for a manager, collaborated with his client creatively. He has directed many of Al’s music videos including Eat It and cowrote/directed the stone-cold classic UHF.
In this episode Jay talks about how he discovered Al, the first time they had to approach an artist for permission to parody their song, and of course UHF.
If you are still a bit skeptical and think this all sounds too good to be true, here are a few select quotes from the episode to reassure you that it is in fact that good.
“I saw Al as the future of comedy. It wasn’t just, ‘Here’s an interesting act that could sell a few records.” – Jay Levey on why he wanted to be Weird Al’s manager
“A major station in LA was doing a countdown where they would play these songs that got sent in that was not on any records. We submitted I Love Rocky Road, the I Love Rock’n Roll parody, and it went crazy and was #1 instantly… It was enough attention to give us a deal with a small production company.” – Jay Levey on how Weird Al got his first record deal.
“Years went by without me watching UHF partly because it was a ‘commercial failure,’ but a couple of years ago the Alamo Drafthouse did a screening of it, and invited Weird Al and I to do a Q & A… I decided to watch it with the audience, and it was a cathartic experience. I genuinely laughed out loud, and I could feel that the laughter from the audience was fresh and spontaneous.” – Jay Levey on watching UHF at the Alamo Drafthouse.
Download now. (MP3)
On top of that you also get an audio preview, so don’t complain about me never giving you nice things:
