Marcus Mumford

6:31Dax Shepard:No, I get a buzz from my first coffee. Yes, yes. And I've taken coffee much more seriously since I stopped drinking.

6:36Marcus Mumford:When did you stop drinking?

6:38Dax Shepard:19. Oh, wow. 2019? Seven years. Good job. No shit. Congrats.

6:44Marcus Mumford:I didn't know that we had that overlap. Yeah. What about you? I haven't drank in 21 years. Wow. But I had a nice little go around with opiates during COVID. Okay. Had a bad spell. Had to detox in the whole nine. A relapse. Yeah, yeah. We'll call it a relapse. Don't call it a relapse. I've been here for years. You're too young to know all that No, he knows You know you guys are the same age

7:10Dax Shepard:We are? I didn't know that It's a lovely age It's a good age I like it too About to hit 40 Coming into our prime That's right How do you feel about it? I feel fantastic Yeah, me too I like it We were just talking about it You know, occupying that space Between our kids and our parents Yeah It's kind of a nice place to be figuring stuff out in Don't you feel like it's the age, though, where time starts? It's 11-11. Everyone make a wish. Oh.

7:41Dax Shepard:So don't you feel like it's the age where you start really feeling the passage of time? That's true. Because your parents are aging and then you have your kids. I feel like a slight shift in authority. I feel like it's time to sort of know what I think a bit more. Interesting. Whereas before, you could kind of rely on the opinions of your elders a little bit. And I don't know, a lot of people go through phases in their 20s where they're like, really, this is definitely what I think. But like, I don't have many answers for a while. I've had lots of questions.

8:12Marcus Mumford:Wisdom seeping in is what you're feeling. Maybe. Yeah, maybe, yeah. But if I do the math now, then I think you and I are on nearly identical trajectories. Did you quit at 29?

8:21Dax Shepard:About 31, yeah. I don't actually know. I think it was 2019. Where are we now? 26. So that's six and a half years. And I am 38. My wife and I are so equally bad at maths that on my last birthday, she wrote me my birthday card and she said, happy 39th birthday. And it took me a full three hours before I went next door with my calculator. And the year, because I knew the year, minus the year I was born. Which I thought was quite a clever way to calculate it. That is good. And it turns out I was 38. Yes, that's right. And so actually for my birthday, There she got me an extra year. I mean, these parallels, will they stop?

9:04Marcus Mumford:January 2nd of this year, I walk into my bathroom and my lovely bride has handwritten me a beautiful card. And it says, happy 52nd birthday. And I thought, oh, she accidentally wrote a two on the inside. She'll get it straight. No, it doubles down on 52, three or four times.

9:19Dax Shepard:Actors make, can't count for shit. Oh, my God. Maybe it's actresses. They can't do it.

9:24Marcus Mumford:And then we'll get into other less fun parallels. But hey, you know, I think we got a lot of them. So I think strangely you were born in California.

9:34Dax Shepard:It was indeed strange. Yeah, I was born in Yorba Linda, Root and Toot in Irish County. Which is heavy, heavy Christian country. Yes, sir. Which is why I was born there, yeah. Yeah, so mom and dad worked for or were leaders in a church? Yeah, in a church called the Vineyard Church, which weirdly Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell went to with T-Bone Burnett in the 70s. Oh, wow. Really? Yeah, wild. And then my parents went out and worked there for a couple of years and got trained up by the guy who led it. called John Wimber, who's like a grandpa to me. Always used to bring me Quicksilver T-shirts when he used to come and stay.

10:04Dax Shepard:And sort of this large bearded American, very Californian kind of guy with Hawaiian shirts would show up in Southwest London at our house and be like a real fish out of water. And was this amazing guy. He was actually in the Righteous Brothers. Oh, he was? Yeah, and sort of gave up all that and then went West. Was it mega churchy style? No, well, it's a bit smaller than that. Very community-based. It's an amazing church. I mean, like all churches, it has its floors, but it was kind of a cool community to grow up in. We had a real open house. We always had people through. The church bought the house next door to us and knocked through the wall as a guest house.

10:39Dax Shepard:My mom loved hospitality, was always baking, cooking stuff. And so I'd sit in the kitchen with her, watch her and listen to music and talk.

10:47Marcus Mumford:But what makes me think your parents must be pretty unique in their own right is my very good friend from London was just here last week. British automotive journalist, Jethro, and we were in the hot tub chatting about religion. And he was really saying, you know, it's so different there than here. I mean, even the evangelical kind of strain is so dominant here. And he's really wrapping his head around it because he's married to an American woman with American parents from the Bible Belt. And he's trying to understand how deep it goes here. So because it's so not standard there,

11:21Dax Shepard:what took your parents there? My dad was working for the Church of England, which is very traditionalist and, you know, wearing a dog collar and doing lots of kind of last rites, births, weddings, and funerals. That was the jam. The big three. The big three. And then went and saw Wimber speak at Westminster Central Hall in like 85. Both of my parents felt like we've got to go to California and understand what this thing is about, which is a real risk at that point in their careers and their lives. They had one kid. Because the Church of England had to have frowned upon that. Absolutely. At that time particularly.

11:54Dax Shepard:And so it was a risk. And they went out and felt like that's what they're supposed to do with their lives. They felt like that's what God was telling them to do. And so they went out to Orange County to go spend time with Wimber and learn about how they did church. And then planted the first church of that kind outside of the U.S. In our little front room in Wimbledon.

12:12Marcus Mumford:Okay, which is Wimbledon the tennis venue we think of. Yeah, that's right. Southwest London, is that what it is?

12:19Dax Shepard:What kind of kid were you there? Do you have siblings? Yeah, I have an older brother who's six years older than me. My wife's a little sibling as well. And both of our older brothers, fiercely intelligent. Both went to Oxford University double first. And so we grew up as like the younger kids who had to like juggle in the corner for attention because we couldn't keep up with the conversation at the dinner table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that's part of that.

12:41Marcus Mumford:Okay, if you're smart, I'll sing.

12:43Dax Shepard:Yeah, exactly. It was a bit of that. Watch me play the drums on saucepans. It's my vibe. And then always had this kind of Californian streak culturally in my life. So I like peroxide blonde my hair when I'm 10. When I first met my wife, actually. Where did you guys meet? Bible camp. Bible camp. You met her when you were 10? Yeah, we were pen pals. What? Yeah, she was about a foot taller than me. She's an absolute giant at that time. And I was quite small. She's not a giant now. I love that you say she was a giant, not that you were small. No, yeah. She was massive. She was freakishly massive. And I would go on her shoulders in the swimming pool.

13:20Dax Shepard:No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She wrote in her journal, I met this boy called Marcus. He's two years younger than me, so definitely not underlined boyfriend material. Oh, my God. Like she was Bridget Jones' diary already. I got a nine out of ten. And my cousin, who was her age, got an eight and a half. Oh, shit. Really good.

13:40Marcus Mumford:Before we keep proceeding, you're married to Carrie Mulligan. I hate to say that. In case anyone doesn't know that. I always hate when people say that when I'm in an interview, But alas, I would be like, you're who there? Everyone's talking like we should know the why.

13:50Dax Shepard:Right. Now, that needs to be framed in your house. Yeah, we do have that. It's not framed. We used to fax each other. What kind of faxes? Pictures? Yeah, pictures and doodles and… Anything naughty? Nothing naughty. No, we were like 11, you know. Yeah. I know, but… I know.

14:09Marcus Mumford:Tell me everything. You know, just all my doodling generally. I found my way into penis and balls, cowboys.

14:15Dax Shepard:There was a lot of that, but I was trying not to be the meathead. I'm the meathead now. I can take the uniform off. Now that you got her. Okay, but suffice to say, you liked her. I don't remember feelings like that when I was 10. No, she was a friend. And we kept in touch until we were like 14 or something. Then we lost contact. We were both on Facebook for about a six-month window. I was in college, and she was somehow on Facebook. And we got in touch through that. But then we both quit and were out of touch. And then I saw her on a billboard for an education. Oh, yeah. And went and saw it. And then was in Los Angeles.

14:49Dax Shepard:Okay, now hold back up. Okay, sorry, I'm speeding. No, I love it.

14:52Marcus Mumford:No, I just want to know. Because I have this with this girl, Danielle Fox, who lived at the end of the street at my grandparents' house. And I would always spend the summer at my grandparents' house. And I was just wildly in love with her. If I had been driving around at some point and saw Danielle Fox on a billboard, and then I went to the movie, I would have been fucked up. I guess what I'm asking is, when you saw the movie, were you like, oh god damn a little bit

15:14Dax Shepard:well yeah of course yeah yeah obviously yeah my wife's one of the most beautiful women of all time yeah of course with respect I agree yeah yeah but also you were probably like but I know her but that's my buddy and then eventually when we reconnected it was like I know you you're exactly who I know yeah and it was cool we got married pretty quick right we did yeah and I think because of that because it was like yeah

15:37Marcus Mumford:you guys were both at a really interesting moment in time for yourselves professionally in that it's starting to work for you. And this whole new world, at least in my experience, was like, it's fun, but it's chaotic. And is it real? Maybe to find, at that moment, when life's getting a little hard to kind of comprehend, to plug back into somebody who is experiencing the same thing and from the same place.

15:57Dax Shepard:So she came down to Nashville. We were writing our second album. First album just come out. We'd toured it. It'd gone well. We were writing the second one in this rental home. We had lots of friends there. They'd come over and we'd do picking parties. and then we were playing in someone's basement, a room this size. A friend of mine in LA who I'd been staying with and talking with about Carrie had gone to New York, seen her, called me and was like, we're going to come to Nashville, see you play this basement show. And they arrived in Nashville at that time. I stood outside the Starbucks and I could see them come out and she runs down and jumps.

16:34Dax Shepard:I was like, game over. You're like, I'll be married in minutes. two days before that we got the call asking us to play at the grammys for the first time with bob dylan and so she entered stage left at a moment that was weird for me and she had just been nominated for an oscar and done the whole thing with an education so she was a couple years ahead or a year ahead whatever and was so helpful to me in that moment being like look you can be in control of this and you can say yes to this you can also say no to it and i was not in a phase in my life I'm not saying no to anything for sure so she was so helpful and you're absolutely right it was just at this moment you're getting untethered we left Nashville she flew to LA to be with me during rehearsals and this was like four days after we'd reconnected

17:25Marcus Mumford:wow

17:25Dax Shepard:yeah and then she had to leave again she was shooting Shane

17:28Marcus Mumford:but then somehow Inside Llewyn Davis

17:30Dax Shepard:Inside Llewyn Davis is that somehow part of this story no that comes a bit later when we played with Dylan at the Grammys that was the first time I met T-Bone Burnett who has become like a sort of fairy godfather to me in music. And he said, any time from now on that I'm doing something interesting or that you're doing something interesting, let's call each other. That's awesome. So then when the Coen brothers called him to do Inside Loon Davis, he called me and said, do you want to come and be my... Wow. The title was associate producer or something. And so I just was there and Kerry was in the movie.

17:56Dax Shepard:Do we start singing in church? Not really. When's music start? Music starts early, like pots and pans playing drums. And I was a drummer. And who was your bottom? Bonham, who is your god? Yeah, I was more Bonham than Star. You were one or the other, but became Star. Okay. While Ringo later. My guy was a guy called Terrione Gully. He was a jazz drummer, played for a guy called Christian McBride. And I went and saw him play with my skateboard. He signed my skateboard. Oh, wow. When I was like 13 at Pizza Express Soho with my mom. Was mom or dad super into music? They were all very into music. None of them played anything.

18:32Dax Shepard:They just played it in the house.

18:33Marcus Mumford:I'm just curious. Did they stick with the church? Still going? Life, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm retired. Because I do think we interview a lot of people, generally more R &B singers, females, who they grew up singing in church. It's such a great tradition. And I do worry as much as I have my reservations about religion. Most of all of R &B, it starts in church in America. And I just wonder, like, as that fragments, where's the next crop? Where do all these young kids start learning to sing like that?

18:58Dax Shepard:Yeah. And school choirs. I didn't get into the main school choir, so I was in the B team. Oh. And learned to sing harmony. Which is fun and very helpful. I was going to say, that's a good skill, probably. We wouldn't sing, what, tenor parts. We'd sing the alto parts. And my mom was an alto, too. So she always sang harmony in the kitchen, whatever we listened to. And what kit were you playing? Did you have the kit you wanted? Yes, I did get a Yamaha maple, which is what I wanted. And it was natural wood. Well, that's handsome. It was great. Very functional. It was a workhorse. Do you collect drum sets?

19:28Dax Shepard:I do. What's the coolest one you got? I have a red sparkle Ludwig 60s kit. Okay, great. And a champagne sparkle, 60s kit. And I really like these CNC kits that are new. And then what about guitar? When do we pick up guitar? Towards late teens. And so you were a skateboarder into jazz who was going to church. Yeah, with peroxide blonde hair. At a public school. Listening to Sublime. Because the Californian influence in my life, no one else was listening to Neil Young at home. No one else was listening to Sublime. So I always had that little extracultural lane.

20:02Marcus Mumford:Now, I was a skateboarder, punk rock, bleached hair, spiked the whole night. And really, I was just so insecure. I was rejecting the other style. I didn't think I could nail. But it read as incredible confidence to my peers, thank God. Did that happen with you? I got sent home from school. Okay. Because I wasn't allowed blonde hair.

20:20Dax Shepard:Which is an incredible role. So that was the kind of school I went to. Yeah. King's College. Or your research team. He is the research team. He does it on his own.

20:30Marcus Mumford:But it's a public school.

20:31Dax Shepard:I guess I thought maybe you would have gone to a religious school. No, we call it public, but it's private. So my parents spent all of their church salary on my education, which is why then when I left college, it was a responsibility. Yeah, you got to Edinburgh University. Yeah, because we had no other. They spent all of their money on my education. So you felt like you needed to pay them back. So I felt slightly. In terms of my rest development, I felt like I was on sabbatical from university for most of my career until now. I feel comfortable in my skin and this new record that we've made is my favorite thing we've ever done.

21:06Dax Shepard:And I feel like now is the moment where I get to really embrace being an artist. Wow. Whereas before I felt like I was kind of moonlighting. Proving yourself? Not so much that. It was just like I was on a track.

21:18Marcus Mumford:You have been feeling like you're supposed to return to university for 20 years and now you finally don't feel like you need to return. Yeah, and this record, this Prizefighter record is like it for me.

21:27Dax Shepard:That's great. That's amazing. It's wild.

21:29Marcus Mumford:But how is it going socially? These interests in this extreme look?

21:33Dax Shepard:It's going fine. I was always like a slight outsider. I wasn't the best at anything, but I tried everything.

21:39Marcus Mumford:Was it all boys? Yeah.

21:40Dax Shepard:And I went to school with Ben in the band from the age of eight. Were you guys best friends or just you ended up having mutual interest? Yeah, no, we were.

21:47Marcus Mumford:It must be so fun to be able to share it with this kid you've known since you were eight.

21:50Dax Shepard:And now the three of us, it's close to brotherhood or indeed marriage. Yeah, that's right. More marriage. Because it is more like marriage, really. because the only other person in the world who has experienced that is Ben and Ted. Yeah, exactly. Yes.

22:01Marcus Mumford:We also have to navigate stuff that normally I don't think you navigate with a co-worker.

22:06Dax Shepard:Or a friendship. There's something when you're both that it takes everything up to a different level of intimacy.

22:13Marcus Mumford:Because these natural things, there's highs and lows. The highs are great to share, but the lows are like no one involved has a clear head because everyone's suffering at that moment. It's not a great... You're communally going through something. Yeah.

22:25Dax Shepard:There's no outsider unaffected by the thing to be objective. Which is why when we're making records, I like to work with producers. Because some people are like, why don't you just self-produce? You guys know your way around a pro tour. And you produce things on your own. Yeah, you produce things for other people. But I like having the objectivity of someone else who hasn't looked at the tickets. Or got burned on a song you love. Exactly. This is like that other thing we did that we got fucked on. Yeah, exactly. So the objectivity of a producer. And then for us on this new one, on Prizefighter, we had Aaron Dessner, who's known us for 15 years or something.

22:54Dax Shepard:He helped us with the demos for our third record. He's been a friend of ours for a long time. Seen us go through lots. Also happens to be in one of my favorite bands of all time, The National. He's had this production career with people like Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams. He's gone crazy. And so to have him come in at this point and be that objective voice. He knows us all really well. We trust him. He trusts us. The dream.

23:14Marcus Mumford:You're also at a stage in your career that I too am at where it's like, all these kids that were trying were now all at these award shows, which is bonkers. It's like I look around the Golden Globes and I'm like, oh, Ben and Melissa, who we rented theaters and no one came. You're starting to see friends that are now producing for Taylor Swift

23:34Dax Shepard:or whatever the thing is happening. It's pretty wild. And London, when we first started as a band, it was amazing for music. People that really inspired us, like Laura Marling and The Whale, but also at that time it was Adele and Florence and these amazing artists that have obviously, so we've seen a lot of them go, Adele presented our album of the year, the Grammys. The only reason I think we got anywhere close to winning it was because she wasn't not, like she didn't know that. But for her to give that to us is so sweet. Our contemporaries, A, are some of our biggest inspirations, but also we've seen their success right the way through from very early on, which is kind of a unique thing.

24:11Marcus Mumford:Okay, so you're playing drums. When do you start playing, not just in your room, but with other people? What age?

24:16Dax Shepard:We'd play at weddings and bonnets and birthday parties from the age of like 12 to make pocket money. And then publicly, the first time I sang a song, I think it was for a music exam when I was 16. I did a version of All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan. What was the effect? It went down much better than I thought it would. Was that the first mini hit? Where you're like, oh shit, some people are looking at me a little differently. Yeah, and then I played a bit. I didn't really do very much until my year out between high school and college. I lived in Denver. Denver, Colorado. Yeah, because I had a U.S.

24:50Dax Shepard:passport so I could come and work. Dual citizenship. Soccer coach in Denver and would play open mics. Lots of clove cigarettes. And would do open mics and they went all right. And then I went to college and amongst my cynical British friends, when I dropped out to go and do music, they were all like, really, mate? Right. Because they've been at the open mics. We're not at dropout stage yet. We're not. So I had a friend who took me to one side and was like, I'm not sure this is a great decision. Wow. Is he still a friend? I hope you bought him a Range Rover. Exactly. Yeah. It was really at college that I started doing open mics.

25:28Dax Shepard:And then I quit to go play drums because I was a session musician to go play drums for Laura Marling. And then she invited me up to come and sing a song in her encore. at the end of her show was like a hootenanny moment and that's when her manager spotted me and was like, you should do this. So how do we assemble Mumford & Sons? 2007? Two weeks after that, I said to him, like, I think it's a band. I don't think it's a solo project. I've been doing writing and recording some demos at Ben's house. He lived with his parents still and they had an attic with a little studio in that you had to climb through the little cubby hole to get in.

26:02Dax Shepard:Carrying fucking equipment up there? Yeah, yeah. It was a nightmare. Very hot, no AC. and had been doing some demos and then inviting anyone I knew who was playing in other bands. We were all playing in other bands at that point to come play these songs with me. And at times there'd be like 14 of us on stage. But what we noticed was that at that time when the four of us sang together and played together, it felt different to when everyone else was in the room.

26:25Marcus Mumford:So I know how you know Ben, obviously. He's been a friend since you were a little kid. How do you meet the other two guys?

26:30Dax Shepard:Yeah, Winston, I'm at church when we were like 15. You've known him at that point too. And then Ted, we met in London when I quit college. And he was a bass player. He showed up with the coolest pair of boots and a leather jacket I'd ever seen in my life. And he could sing and play double bass. It was like, oh, this guy's a triple threat.

26:47Marcus Mumford:It's funny how often when I watch docs on bands, how much of it is that? Like so-and-so walked in and their hair was awesome. Yes. And it's like the music's kind of secondary to the vibe.

26:57Dax Shepard:But then when he opens his mouth to sing, it's like, oh, wow, he's got this really unusual voice. And he can sing harmony. And it was cool.

27:03Marcus Mumford:Did you watch a Mike It Loud, that drumming documentary? No. Fuck. No, I didn't. Oh, so great. Okay, then never mind that. And then there's another doc I want to know if you watched. Oh, did you watch the Zeppelin doc that was out last year? I haven't watched that yet. Okay. What is unbelievable about that band is they met, and I think six weeks later they played that first show we've all seen in Black and White, which might be still their best show they ever played.

27:27Dax Shepard:I've only inherited other people's views about this documentary, but it seems that they were all totally obsessed with Bonham. Yeah. And that it was like Jimmy's band.

27:36Marcus Mumford:I don't know that I focused on that as much as just, obviously they had all been working a lot, so it's not like they were green in that sense. But the notion that these strangers could have come together and played that show in six weeks, it's so mind-blowing. You just kind of got to believe in magic a tiny bit.

27:52Dax Shepard:Oh, I totally believe in magic. I think writing songs is like trying to catch fairies and nets. Noel Gallagher talks about it like, Like, everyone knows songs fall from the sky by magic. And you just have to have your hands out ready to catch them. Otherwise, fucking Bono or Chris Martin. Everyone just walking around with their hands up. Because these sons of bitches clearly have their hands up. Yeah, exactly. So I bumped into him in a bar in London a few years ago. And we'd just finished a tour. And he was like, what are you doing? I was like, I'm just chilling out. And he's like, what the fuck are you talking about?

28:19Dax Shepard:You're a songwriter. You've got to get to work. Write songs. You have no excuse not to write songs. It's your job. What are you doing? And I was like, oh, shit, he's right. I better go and write some songs.

28:28Marcus Mumford:How long before the four of you were playing that it was clicking, you were putting songs down that you thought had merit?

28:34Dax Shepard:Was that a quick process? It was quite quick. I had a collection of songs that I'd written at college, sort of naked on my dorm room floor. They're very raw. Too raw. Indulgent? Yeah. Okay, sure. Yeah, yeah. Trying to put T.S. Eliot to song, you know, it was that kind of indulgent. It was a nightmare. It's hard not to be pretentious. It is. You have to be. Oh, you'll never make it. But I had started honing my narcissism well enough to write songs, I think and then we started playing a couple shows and then we got asked to support other bands and that was helpful because it was like right well we need enough songs to fill that set so I remember the day I wrote Little Lion Man in my ex-girlfriend's kitchen which is probably a bit rough but then showed up at the rehearsal studio like three hours before soundcheck and was like lads I think I've got another one for the set and they were like phew because we only had like five at that point yeah what were you expected to play like 35 minutes or something yeah like half an hour that's six songs and you fill half an hour with a bit of chat Sometimes a bit more chat.

29:27Dax Shepard:Yeah.

29:28Marcus Mumford:Isn't it funny, too, how much of this stuff, there's no science to it, but there is like the infamous Beatles stuff. They're playing in Germany forever. They're just playing.

29:35Dax Shepard:They were honing there. Yes. I mean, that documentary is my favorite music documentary. The Peter. Yeah, Peter Jackson one. Yeah. And it's nine hours, which is shorter than your average day in the studio. Okay. But watching that documentary, I mean, it's the most beautiful. I think you get an idea of some of them hanging around. You know, you're watching like Ringo twiddling. Ringo's always on time. He's always ready to play. He's always sticks in hand waiting for the moment.

30:01Marcus Mumford:Very underrated drummer.

30:02Dax Shepard:He gets a different tone out of the drum set to any other drummer in history. And then Jim Keltner, who played on all the Beatles' solo records. He's now like 82. I recorded with him a couple years ago. He is one of the coolest cats of all time. And Bob Dylan's drummer, and you know, he gets a different kind of tone out of the drums to anyone else. And these great drummers, I think, are able to do things. and just hit a drum in a way that no one else can. Admittedly, I didn't like the Beatles.

30:28Marcus Mumford:My mom had positioned it as, this house is a Rolling Stones house. Really? We're not talking about I want to hold your hand. We're talking about I got a girl pregnant. Interesting. You were fucking gnarly. See, we were an Oasis house, not a Blur house.

30:38Dax Shepard:There you go. Yeah. You do have to pick a lane. Have you come to appreciate Blur ascent? Yeah, yeah, I have. Okay, great. But I'm still an Oasis guy. Yeah, yeah, right. And I'm a Stones guy. You can't change that, really. That's just nurture. Really? That's wild. It's the tribalism. Yeah. That is. But that comes from growing up in a house where your parents care. I didn't. You didn't. So I just like it all.

31:00Marcus Mumford:They didn't have their identity infused with what bands they liked. Exactly.

31:03Dax Shepard:There was no identity connected to it. So you were free. You're a free agent. Free. You can take it all. So what did it lead you to? Taylor Swift. You. Taylor. Yeah, I mean, Taylor. No, but as a kid, what did it lead you to? Yeah, exactly. Taylor was a little later. I'm top 40. Britney. Britney, yes. Spice Girls. Hanson like the big Hanson Hanson remember Hanson love Hanson oh my god I think I did a cover of that actually back in the day you did that was my first CD was it mine was Pure Shores by All Saints All Saints I loved All Saints as a single and then the first record I bought myself I bought two from the CD exchange on Wimbledon Broadway I bought Kind of Blue by Miles Davis under instruction from my drum teacher because he was like you'll play what you listen to you gotta play that and then for myself I bought Miss Education at Lauryn House oh amazing I mean that's advanced I was more in the You're an imbub But I'm just saying All Saints TLC I love TLC I loved All Saints Robin Yeah All of it Early Robin Yeah Sick

32:03Marcus Mumford:But Monica will be the first Most of her musical tastes Came from film and television If she saw something on TV She heard something rather

32:11Dax Shepard:If I heard a soundtrack I was like I want that song Like once it was into Buying songs Like Napster and stuff like that So what were the shows That led you to Like Grey's Anatomy One Tree Hill I was on a One Tree Hill No Okay, so Grey's Anatomy. But the OC, obviously. So when Garden State came out, did it change your life? Yeah, yeah, okay, cool. I get you. I know you. I know you. I see you. Listen, I've changed. I've become cool. But no, I was a sponge. Garden State, still cool. I was a sponge to all of that. The shins. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, but no, it was great. It was great. I was open to it all.

32:45Dax Shepard:That's cool.

32:48Marcus Mumford:Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert. if you dare. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Apple TV, the new U.S. home of Formula One. You can now watch complete all-access live coverage of every Grand Prix, including practice, qualifying, and sprints all in one place. I will be consuming all of those things, Monica.

33:08Dax Shepard:I know you will.

33:09Marcus Mumford:I kill for Friday to start watching Practice One, following in on a sprint weekend. Oh my gosh, two races. And this season brings a ton of new energy to the sport. New teams like Cadillac and Audi just joining the grid. New drivers stepping into major seats. Lando Norris defending his first World Drivers Championship. And all eyes on Lewis Hamilton in his second season with Ferrari and a brand new circuit in Madrid. Plus, a new U.S. home for Formula One. You can watch every race live only on Apple TV. Watch on Apple devices, Android devices, smart TVs, streaming devices, gaming consoles, or on the web at tv.apple.com.

33:46Marcus Mumford:All part of one Apple TV subscription alongside hundreds of exclusive shows and movies. Watch the Formula One Australian Grand Prix live on Saturday, March 7th at 11 p.m. Eastern or watch race replays on demand anytime only on Apple TV, the new U.S. home of F1. We are supported by Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. That's smart. Not checking your phone's battery before heading out. That'll get you every time. Of course, your phone dies on the way to meet someone, leaving you wandering around quietly panicking about being in the wrong spot. Yeah, checking first is smart.

34:26Marcus Mumford:So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary. Subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate, North America Insurance Co. and affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. We are supported by Intuit TurboTax. April 15th is coming up fast. And if you're like most people, you're probably dreading the whole tax thing. You know the old way, sitting in some waiting room for hours or sending over your tax docs and waiting and waiting for any kind of update. You want something modern and tech forward, but you also want that human connection.

34:59Marcus Mumford:And this year brings a major upgrade. Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can walk into a tech-enabled TurboTax location near you and meet face-to-face with a real tax expert. Drop off your documents in the store and see them uploaded to your TurboTax app instantly. Just like that, you're done. Your new TurboTax expert stays back and works tirelessly to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real-time notifications as you go about your day. Honestly, it feels like someone finally figured out what we've all been wanting. It's not some sterile tax office from 1987, and it's not just an app where you're on your own.

35:36Marcus Mumford:It's both. The human expertise with smart modern tech. You drop off your stuff, go about your day, and get real-time updates as your expert works through everything. That's the upgrade. Head to TurboTax.com to find a store location near you and get matched with a TurboTax expert with real-time updates and iOS app. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Apple TV, the new U.S. home of Formula One. You can now watch complete all-access live coverage of every Grand Prix, including practice, qualifying, and sprints all in one place. I will be consuming all of those things, Monica.

36:12Dax Shepard:I know you will.

36:13Marcus Mumford:I kill for Friday to start watching practice one following in on a sprint weekend. Oh, my gosh. Two races. And this season brings a ton of new energy to the sport. New teams like Cadillac and Audi just joining the grid. New drivers stepping into major seats. Lando Norris defending his first World Drivers Championship. and all eyes on Lewis Hamilton in his second season with Ferrari and a brand new circuit in Madrid. Plus, a new U.S. home for Formula One. You can watch every race live only on Apple TV. Watch on Apple devices, Android devices, smart TVs, streaming devices, gaming consoles, or on the web at tv.apple.com.

36:48Marcus Mumford:All part of one Apple TV subscription alongside hundreds of exclusive shows and movies. Watch the Formula One Australian Grand Prix live on Saturday, March 7th at 11 p.m. Eastern or watch race replays on demand anytime only on Apple TV, the new U.S. home of F1.

37:13Marcus Mumford:Mine was I Have to Like Punk Rock. I'm going to these shows. None of them are melodic. I hate it all, but I'm pretending I love it. And then I'm just looking for anything with some melody. So I'm just following. So did Blink-182 like change your life? Well, I'm so much older. I saw Exploited when I was 11 years old with my brother. I saw Black Flag.

37:31Dax Shepard:And they're trashy. As a teenager, I went through post-sublime probably. I went through like Papa Roach and Blink-182. I love Blink-182. Let me be clear. And then I was starting to go off at some 41 when that started. I loved it. And then I was like, that was the end of my… I'm going to get off the train here. I'm at my stop. Yeah. This is actually interesting now that we're talking about it because I think that the reason there are clubs is I wanted to be like everybody else.

37:56Marcus Mumford:You wanted to conform.

37:57Dax Shepard:Exactly. Interesting. So I'm picking top 40. I'm picking what's on TRL. You want to be able to talk with your friends about what's popular. I want to be normal, regular. That's interesting because I get to like 18. I want to do something no one else has done. Yeah, you want to be different. This is our freedom of being white.

38:13Marcus Mumford:Right. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, yeah. Like I'm like, wait, you guys are nerdy and I want to be the opposite. That's interesting. And she's like, I'm brown. Please don't notice I'm brown. I do all the same shit you do.

38:23Dax Shepard:Yeah, isn't that weird?

38:24Marcus Mumford:If you were white, I wonder what your fucking musical taste would be. Well, the truth is you probably still like Taylor Swift.

38:29Dax Shepard:Of course. Yeah. Wow. That's the great unifier.

38:32Marcus Mumford:Exactly. 10 million tickets sold.

38:34Dax Shepard:That's why she is who she is.

38:35Marcus Mumford:Yeah. Okay. So I want to jump to you record Sing No More. It comes out in 2009 and it's a monster. I mean, you get nominated for two Grammys. Little Lion Man is enormous. How do you take that? We just play shows. That's the only answer we had.

38:52Dax Shepard:Just keep your head down and play shows. Just play shows. We were probably a bit dismissive of the world's reaction to our music for a long time. Because we were like blinkers on, head down, just play shows. That's the thing we can understand. I can't understand how our song suddenly got big in Australia on the radio. Yeah. I can't get my head around that. But I can get my head around playing a show in Melbourne. And so still now, I don't look at streaming numbers. I don't look at social responses. I don't look at radio plays. Are you like healthy and you didn't care about money? I care about money so much.

39:26Dax Shepard:No, yeah. Our household didn't have expendable money, but my parents instilled in us a spirit of generosity. We were taught to tithe as kids. Give away 10 % of everything you ever get. I mean, the belief system is like, it's not ours anyway. Right. It's closest to a sort of Native American view of ownership and stewardship. But it was like, picket sales is what we can understand. Right. You can see that the venues are getting bigger. Yeah, and we climbed all the rungs on the ladder. We didn't skip any, but we only did them all once. And most bands do them 10 times.

39:54Marcus Mumford:How are you making peace with the tension of, I'm an outsider, I'm not with you guys, and this is my art, and uh-oh. No, it's for everyone. Everyone likes it. There's a little bit of tension there, no?

40:06Dax Shepard:Well, I think I probably responded to that by driving my negative narrative and finding the negatives. In any review I would read, which I did at the beginning, I'd always read them, I'd pick out the one line that hurt the most, and I'd dwell on that.

40:18Marcus Mumford:I knew you didn't really accept me. You were acting like you accepted me, but I have the proof I'm not really. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Everyone thinks I'm actually a cunt.

40:25Dax Shepard:God, so brutal.

40:28Marcus Mumford:And you miss so much.

40:30Dax Shepard:I mean, we had fun, but I was not present to a lot of the early success of our band. Because I was either in the negative narrative or I was like, let's move on quickly. Because this isn't going to last, so we have to build for the next thing.

40:42Marcus Mumford:You can have this paradox of actively hating parts of it and then maybe fearful the next one's not going to be as good. You can also still want to keep it, right?

40:50Dax Shepard:Yeah. I haven't felt this level of a sense of pride in our work, honestly, ever, till this record. It's really freeing. I just fucking love it. And I don't really care if other people like it or not for the first time. That's huge. That's everything, really. I think it's a lot of personal growth and all that boring stuff, but I really don't care what people think. I love it. And I'm excited to play it every night. If people come along for the ride, then great. But if not genuinely for the first time, I don't think it'll hurt my feelings. Wow. To that same extent of like the rawness. And I think that's the vulnerability of artists and that's fine.

41:20Dax Shepard:Your job is to feel things.

41:21Marcus Mumford:I just think this is cool because we just had Stapleton on and Luke Combs had this moment. A lot of these musicians now that we're interviewing have had these moments where you performed at the Grammys and then the album went up 99 % in sales. There's very few moments that are that make it or break it.

41:37Dax Shepard:I don't think I was aware to that extent what the Grammys could do in terms of moving them. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but I was still shitting myself. I was still very nervous. But like I had that feeling with the first TV appearance we did. Did you love Letterman? We did Letterman and it was like, where's your drummer? I was like, I think he plays drums maybe. Does he? Maybe that's why he asked. But no, our first TV appearance was here in LA with Craig Ferguson. Oh, I love Craig. And I broke two strings and forgot all the words. Oh. And it was a fucking disaster. Oh no. still makes me feel like that's horrifying that was awful and so they were like we have to move on sorry we had to play a different song wow it was a disaster it was horrible I'm so sorry but was Craig great at helping you?

42:19Dax Shepard:yeah he was sweet no one could really help me in that one yeah yeah yeah well Jack Daniels could have helped there was no help but no the Grammys was made fun by the fact that Dylan was so weird and wonderful that first one we'd rehearsed for two days we'd done all the camera rehearsals we were aware that it was going out to 50 million people or whatever it is. And we play a song. We come back behind the curtain. Avett Brothers play a song. And then we were all supposed to go on together and play Maggie's Farm. So we play a cave. Avett Brothers go on. We walk behind the curtain. Bob's there. And he goes, play that again.

42:51Dax Shepard:And I went, what? And I'm still holding my guitar. And he goes, play that again. And it was the cave. So I started playing. He went to start playing banjo. And he was like, I can sing on that. And we went, what? And he went, I want to sing on that. I'll sing Maggie's Farm on that. And we're like, we'll do what you want. because you're fucking Bob Dylan. But you've already played it? We just rehearsed it. And we've already played the game. And he wants to change the whole arrangement right there. Luckily, Tony, his bass player, who's the Bob Whisperer, comes over and is like, calm down, Bob. We're going to do it

43:18Marcus Mumford:like we rehearsed it.

43:19Dax Shepard:Okay.

43:20Marcus Mumford:Did you watch The Greatest Night in Music? It's about the recording of We Are the World. Oh, no, I didn't see that, no. You'll tell. I don't really watch music documentaries. I'm learning that. And I get it. Do you listen to other people's podcasts? No, and I wouldn't watch a comedy doc, but of course I watch music docs. What is cool about the doc I think you would appreciate is we have everyone. Who do you want? They're all there, right? You have Michael Jackson. You've got Hall & Oates. You've got fucking Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan. Everyone's there. So to see them all, it's a really wild thing to observe.

43:50Marcus Mumford:But Bob can't sing like the other folks. That's not what he does, right? And he is struggling. And there's a moment where Stevie Wonder, who can do everybody, he's a crazy mimic. He says, you want to sing it like this? and he does Bob Dylan and it's on film and you can't tell it's not Bob Dylan and he uses his voice and his range to show him how he should do it and then Bob's like, okay, and then he does it. That's such a cool moment. That's really cool. All right, you're not going to watch it. You hate music. Do you think you don't like him because it's intimidating or it's just boring

44:20Dax Shepard:because that's what you do? It's boring because that's what I do. I got you. Okay. I think unless it's Get Back, unless it's the Beatles. Movies about musicians don't really do that. I didn't watch Springsteen movie yet even though I'm obsessed with Bruce Springsteen. I get that. Star is Born, I thought, depicted tour life the most accurately out of any of them.

44:37Marcus Mumford:Although you don't know because you've only seen one or two. Yeah. That's not a great... Look at the one I sampled. That's true. You went to Baskin Robbins, you tried one flavor. You know the best flavor of the 31 flavors is vanilla. That's true. That's true to be fair. Okay, tell me about going to India in 2010.

44:54Dax Shepard:Or don't, if it's not interesting. No, we just didn't really have an audience in India. Sure. We went anyway. Got told to go back to our own country at our last show in Kolkata.

45:02Marcus Mumford:Really?

45:03Dax Shepard:Yeah, which I think was fair because given, you know, the innate racism in England the other way around, it's like, yeah, fair enough. We probably earned that historically. But it was amazing. We like touring in weird ways and doing things that feel scary. We just done this train tour for a second time. Yeah, so India was awesome. It was really fun. I mean, it was very hectic. It was stupid, but fun. Did you have in the back of your mind, though, that the Beatles went there? A little bit. And it was just an adventure. We'd done a tour on a narrow boat at four miles an hour. That was really fun.

45:37Dax Shepard:And we were like, let's go to India and do that.

45:38Marcus Mumford:Yeah, so the thing I loved about reading about your history is I too love when you can take this thing that you do that's your job and you can figure out a way to leverage it into a bunch of other crazy experiences that kind of have nothing to do with it. Because otherwise, you can miss it. It can all go by. I read about this railroad tour. Yeah. You guys had vintage railroad cars you were in?

45:59Dax Shepard:Yeah, we did one with Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, an old Cromedson show in 2011 or 12 or something like that. 11. Thank you. Yeah. And we were like, let's do that again. Now, the train thing is fun for the artists. Yes. The audience doesn't really get involved in that because you can only fit like 100 people on it. Tell me about your car. A bunch of vintage rail cars all linked together that go around the country. So the first one went from Oakland down the West Coast across to, we ended up in New Orleans. And the second one, we started in New Orleans and ended in Burlington, Vermont.

46:29Dax Shepard:And for us, a lot of it is seeing places we wouldn't otherwise see. Like I've seen more of this country than most of my friends who live here. Sure.

46:36Marcus Mumford:And I'll argue on a train, you're seeing the backyard of everything.

46:39Dax Shepard:Exactly. On a highway, you're seeing the front yard.

46:40Marcus Mumford:Totally.

46:41Dax Shepard:It's amazing. And I like to stay up in the middle of the night and sit in the front of the bus and watch the world go by, particularly in North America. Yeah. I just find it fascinating. Like being stuck in an electrical storm in Kansas in the middle of the night. Any tornadoes? I've seen some tornadoes. Yeah. Nothing like it, right? Yellowstone's always really fun.

46:58Marcus Mumford:But was the car itself, did you have your own car? No, we had our own room. And was it from the 40s, 50s, 60s? Do you know? Was it wood paneled? This one was wood paneled in, I would say, 50s, I think. And was there like a cocktail? Like, was there a little bar and shit? Yeah, and like the people running the train all in outfits.

47:13Dax Shepard:Oh, how fun. It's fun. I love that. I'm so jealous. And then we'd rehearse every day because we had these guests come and join us. And so we'd learn their songs on the train on our way to soundcheck. And then when we get there, we'd play it. We should do that. I know. You should do a live show train experience. It would be a net loss tour, but we'll do it. No, no, you don't do it to make any money. You're not going to make any money. Yeah, not for that. We had this conversation with our management company. We're like, look, we're not going to make any money. You're definitely not going to make any money.

47:40Dax Shepard:For this one, we had a house ban, and we paid everyone the same amount of money, like a flat fee, including ourselves. We're like, look, it's an experience. This is like a five-day vacation where we're working. Did you take psychedelics on the train? No, you don't need to. Okay. I would think that would have enhanced it. I went on this trip down the Grand Canyon with a bunch of people I didn't know. And we get to the bottom and it's like eight days of rafting and staying on the beach. Unbelievable. And at the end of it, we find out they would all been on acid the whole time. I was like, this is the one place in the world you definitely don't need acid, man.

48:10Dax Shepard:And those rapids, we're doing them on kayaks. They're pretty dangerous. But no better way to drown. Oh, God.

48:16Marcus Mumford:You got to drown, man. You think you're drowning in like Willy Wonka's chocolate river? No, I'm too much of a control freak for that.

48:25Dax Shepard:is everyone in the band on the same page for the most part even when we're talking about you guys coming up you're like tunnel vision, head down are you all like that? yeah we are Ted our bass player is a bit more chill we need that Ben and I are like in it on everything our manager recently said to us most artists kind of ask to just know where they need to be when they go to this level of detail we're quite details oriented we care about it

48:50Marcus Mumford:I need to say though that I Will Wait came out that was enormous You won the Grammy, fastest selling album of the year. Things are fucking cranking. Yeah, that's what I'm told. 600 ,000 in the first week. That's bonkers. And in the UK, I think 400 is also the fastest selling album that year in the UK. You can't go anywhere without Mumford & Sons at this point. I want to go to your solo album, which is 2022, self-titled. I want to bond with you on this experience, which is I have for years on here been acknowledging that I have been molested. And that was its own hurdle to just say that. And I got quite comfortable being able to say that.

49:28Marcus Mumford:That was fine. And now I'm writing a memoir. And last year, really, the whole year was about, do I have the balls to write down the details of this? Because the details were always going to be mine. I didn't want anyone to be envisioning me. It's weird that that was still some wall between my shame. Interesting. Like, I can say that happened, but I don't need you to know anything that actually happened. And I bet it took me four months to tell that story. And when I'm writing it, just I cannot help but thinking of people knowing this about me and how still exposed that feels. And I was pretty emotional during the few months.

50:08Marcus Mumford:I was having really weird kind of spikes of emotions and moodiness. And I would forget that's why I was having that. But I finished it, and something about it existing there feels like a lot of weight is off my shoulders. But for me, there's still the hurdle of like, and also I've not put that out. Yeah, that wasn't going to be my question.

50:28Dax Shepard:I was like, did you put that out? And I didn't hear that.

50:29Marcus Mumford:Right, so I can understand writing Cannibal because it's about his sexual abuse. There's details. Yeah. Dude. I was like, fuck me. That sounds pretty intense. what's the gap between writing it and then knowing okay now i'm gonna put it in the world and people

50:46Dax Shepard:will know all this about me i mean i was pretty scared honestly yeah yeah and yeah it's pretty detailed i mean i played it to a few people who are very helpful played it to elton john but it's brandy carl are elton was like i've never heard anything like this and i'll do anything to help you if you want to put out and brandy had said exactly the same thing like i'm with you it's It's been fucking shocking how many of us. Yeah. And part of the exhausting process of putting out is hearing other people's stories. Yeah, sure. Because you need to comfort them. Yeah. Yeah. And it's an absolute privilege.

51:20Dax Shepard:And my general view on it has been, all right, I'm going to have boundaries around this. I'm going to say like, thank you so much for sharing that. I hope you have what you need. Yeah. Because I'm not your guy. It'd be fucked up, wouldn't it? Like, I'm not going to be your guy on this. Yeah, I can't. Yeah, I can't. And that wouldn't serve you. Obviously, it wouldn't serve me. And putting out was straight. And then the rest of the record is not really about that. But because that was the first song, it got a lot of attention. I feel grateful that I put it out. I honestly feel glad I have also been able to move on.

51:47Dax Shepard:And I think without it, I wouldn't have come back to the band as energized or as joyful or as free. And I think that's a big part of the freedom that I now feel in the band. It's like, I got that. I moved on. It's out there. I toured it. It was great musically. I'm very proud of it. The whole record. and it helped my songwriting and it certainly helped my ability to accept myself. Well, my body keeps betraying me is a line.

52:14Marcus Mumford:Yeah. The body betraying me, putting that out of your body to there, has that helped in any of that?

52:20Dax Shepard:Yeah. Like I've been on a real journey the last few years and part of that was not feeling like a victim, I think. And being like, I've got control of this. I can drive this train. I'm not just a passenger and I won't just be a passive.

52:34Marcus Mumford:My thing is, I can intellectually know how ridiculous the statement is, but emotionally I don't know it in my body, which is I grew up in such a homophobic environment in Detroit in the 80s. You lived all day long in fear that someone might think you were gay. Yeah. And now I've done this thing that does make me gay in my mind. And now I have this fucking secret that I know if it were to be revealed on the playground, I'm just fucking dead. I'm a pariah. I know intellectually that's insane at 51 with a family and all these things. But that fear of the whole world going back to elementary is still alive in me in this crazy way.

53:13Marcus Mumford:It's shocking to me. And so what's your process now having written it? I felt that wave of relief that you're talking about. And then I have fear of people reading it. And then even more, I have the fear of what I'm doing to you right now, which is like, I want to be able to put it out. And I don't ever want to have to talk to you about it. Yeah, right. That's funny. That's not going to happen.

53:34Dax Shepard:You've done baby steps. Like, was this the first time anyone's ever known about that? Yeah, yeah. And the second song on the record is about the process of playing my mother the first song. Wow. Well, how should we proceed without this getting too heavy? Is the first line of the second song on the record. Wow, yeah. Yeah. But we talk about it on here. You are very open. I mean, not with the details, but with that something you've gone through.

53:57Marcus Mumford:But I'm in control of it, right? Like you're not going, well, why didn't you blank? Or why didn't you tell your mom?

54:03Dax Shepard:You're worried about the types of questions.

54:05Marcus Mumford:So yeah, it's just the loss of control of me being able to say exactly how. So wow, man, you waited 30 years. What happened to me, I got really lucky in a sense, which is I was in high school. I've been carrying it for, I guess, 10 years or whatever. And I was talking with a girl I went to school to who I liked so much. I was just a friend. Is this Danielle again? It's not. No, not Danielle Fox. I would have never risked her thinking I was gay. But this girl was vulnerable enough to tell me that she had been raped the year before. Wow. And I'm kind of sitting there with that really special trust that she just extended to me in my lap.

54:42Marcus Mumford:And I just kind of felt myself saying it out loud. Honest to God, as stupid as this is, to look at her face and the fact she didn't say, oh, so you're gay. I went, oh, my God, this whole story I think I'm telling myself might be wrong. She doesn't think I'm damaged.

54:59Dax Shepard:I mean, that's certainly my experience as women led me through. Of course. You know, it's so interesting and probably quite common that as a man, if you allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to a woman, often you'll find that can lead you to the promised land. Yeah. And that's certainly my experience as people like my wife and Brandy and Phoebe Bridges. Yeah, it's powerful, man. It's pretty life-changing. I mean, it was also quite funny playing my mom that song.

55:25Marcus Mumford:Like how long did it take her to put together What the song was Was it immediate for her

55:30Dax Shepard:Yeah And painful for her Of course You have children Yeah And just the sense that like She spent all this time Not being able to support me In something else Exactly But fucked up to tell your mom Christmas So I'm playing you a new thing Tell me what you think You want to hear a demo It's quite funny Bless her She's a legend Love my parents

55:51Marcus Mumford:Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.

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57:18Marcus Mumford:This episode has been brought to you by Anthropic. So I've been using this AI called Claude and I have to tell you, I'm kind of obsessed. I use it for guest research, obviously, but also for working through bigger questions like when I'm trying to understand patterns and how people think or why certain conversations land differently than others. I can spend time going back and forth with Claude exploring different angles. It doesn't just give me some surface-level answer. It asks me questions and pushes back on my assumptions. What I appreciate is that it feels like I'm expanding my thinking in every conversation and actually learning.

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59:22Marcus Mumford:Why the gap? I mean, obviously you did your solo album in there, but why the seven-year gap? COVID. Winston left the band. I made a solo record.

59:30Dax Shepard:Then we were in the studio for two years. And now, really quick, because last year, March… Yeah, so we got back in together in the studio like January 20th. In fact, I was on my solo tour. I was playing at the Ryman in Nashville and the boys. Ted and Ben came out for that show. And I said, lads, should we sing a song together? We sang I'll Wait together for the first time in a few years. And it felt magic. Just a guitar and them two and three of us singing together. This very special place to us. And that was the moment where we were like, let's do this. And I think healthily, everyone had a bit of a break, a bit of a reset.

1:00:03Dax Shepard:Was there any sense that you would not come back together? No, I don't think so. It's just a matter of timing. But then January 23, we were here in Los Angeles, actually. We met up, the three of us, at my house down the road when we had it. And we played a few ideas that had been kicking around. They turned into Rushmere, but then we felt like we weren't done. While we were mixing Rushmere, Aaron Destner was next door working and came in and played us a couple of things he'd been working on that didn't have lyrics or melody yet. And we responded to it and started making Prizefire right there. Oh, wow.

1:00:34Dax Shepard:And I think the freeing experience for me of getting Solo Record, then Rushmere out meant that when we came to sit down to do Prizefighter with Aaron, this long-term friend, we were just ready. My hands were out, ready to catch the songs. We were in shape and the muscles were all working. There were no injuries. And we were in like our prime. And that's why we called it Prizefighter. We felt like we were just ready. We'd also spent a summer with Pharrell Williams in Paris writing songs and hanging out. And he's like a therapist. He was like, sit us down. And certainly me gave me a lot of pep talks, which was super helpful.

1:01:06Dax Shepard:So by the time we came to Aaron, and we were just in a good spot. And so these songs just pulled out of us. And they're the closest to source in terms of the writing and the recording we've ever done. We'd like to write it in the morning and record it in the afternoon and be done and walk away. It's a very live feel. The feeling you get as a vocalist, for sure. The closer you can record a vocal to when you wrote it, the better. On the first record, we did a demo at Ben's house that I played and recorded at his house in his parents' attic. And then when we came to record Sino Moore, 18 months later, we couldn't get the same emotion in that vocal.

1:01:38Dax Shepard:So we just used the demo eventually. Ah, yeah. On White Plane Page, that song, the Crashing Out song. Boy, acting's so similar. You've got to grab the emotion while it's there.

1:01:45Marcus Mumford:And then when it's gone, it's catching fairies, man. Better actors, it's no problem. My wife being like, oh, yeah, I do that. It's no fucking problem. I could have done that on the back of a spaceship if you needed me to.

1:01:52Dax Shepard:That's how you can really tell when someone can just show up and be perfect every time. Acting-wise, we call them acting robots. It's like, yeah, I don't know how they're doing this.

1:02:01Marcus Mumford:Yeah, it's really annoying, isn't it?

1:02:02Dax Shepard:It is annoying. I don't like them.

1:02:04Marcus Mumford:Fuck them. Okay, no, I want to extend a compliment and ask you if you feel it. When we had Seth Rogen on and we were talking about the studio. Did you watch the studio? I did, yeah. Okay, great. You've seen one thing together. We want first overlap.

1:02:16Dax Shepard:Well, that's not a music documentary. Yeah, it's not music. It's not movies.

1:02:18Marcus Mumford:That's fine. But what I see is not just an incredible show. I see the results of an incredibly generous life that every one of these people would have shown up to party in this thing. There's a lot of successful actors. They couldn't assemble five other ex-co-stars. Yeah, right.

1:02:37Dax Shepard:So you think his humanity and the way he walks through the world has had a real effect.

1:02:42Marcus Mumford:Yeah, that show is a result of who he is as a spirit. It's really on display and it's really cool. And I would argue that Pricefighter, do you feel that at all? The fact that you can call Chris Stapleton or however that works?

1:02:54Dax Shepard:I do feel that. You know, our band has always loved music and being at shows and watching our contemporaries and being inspired by them. We spent a lot of time investing into the community. And it's not just so that we can name drop. It's a bit of that as well.

1:03:06Marcus Mumford:Are you friends with the Avets? I'm really good friends with Seth. Yeah, we love those guys. They're such inspiration for us. They're bad motherfuckers if you haven't seen the Avets play. Yeah, they're amazing.

1:03:14Dax Shepard:I'm doing a thing for them on Monday. The Muppets? Yeah, the Muppets thing. That's great. Yeah, I'm excited. So we've invested a lot into musical relationships, you know, stayed in touch with people. And then weirdly as a headliner, you go out and you do your shows and you're a bit insulated from the community. Festivals are always fun because you bump into other people. and sometimes those awardee things can be cool because you see people you wouldn't otherwise see. But on this record, we've never opened the door. Our band basically has always been collaborative and we've never really represented it on record.

1:03:40Dax Shepard:And so on this record, we were like, we want to call in our friends. And actually, Gracie Abrams has been like the fairy godmother of this record. She's been behind the scenes with her magic wand. She heard the demo of Banjo Song before I'd written anything on it and was like, you've got to fucking write something on that. So I text her lyrics as we were going and voice memos and be like, what do you think of this? What do you think of this? And she was always behind the scenes, just cheerleading. Oh, that's awesome. In a way like Brandy was for my solo record, Gracie has been for Prizefighter.

1:04:08Dax Shepard:And so then we called her up and said, will you sing on Badlands? And I thought she was going to just do some harmonies. She turned that song into a duet. It's like my favorite song on the record. It's amazing. And the same with Gigi, who we'd done some shows with, Gigi Perez. Josia, we've known for a really long time.

1:04:23Marcus Mumford:Like, I don't need to know you to look at the list and go like, oh yeah, this is a guy who's clearly been benevolent and generous with his peers because they show up. I feel deeply honored by the people that said yes.

1:04:32Dax Shepard:And Chris, I didn't know. Chris, I just called. Cold call. Hey, bud. Big fat. I think he's a generational talent. He's like my favorite voice, male voice in America.

1:04:44Marcus Mumford:Do you know Heaven Sent by Steel Drivers? No. I cannot stop listening to this fucking song since I interviewed him. That was his first band. It's my inflection. No, I don't know. Heaven Sent. Heaven Sent. I listened to it on the way home. I listened to it probably 40 times the day after. If I'm not working, I'm listening to that song.

1:04:59Dax Shepard:It's unreal. Well, I think he's amazing. And of course, he completely killed the assignment because I sent him the song. I sent him here. We all felt in the band that he would be perfect on it because it's like a kind of cowboy suicide. Yeah. He is perfect for that.

1:05:13Marcus Mumford:And again, he's a dude who does not need to answer the phone and doesn't need to show up for people. And he does it like endlessly. Yeah. I found that out.

1:05:21Dax Shepard:And then I texted him and said, this is our brokeback moment as well, by the way.

1:05:26Marcus Mumford:Don't wait for the video. Okay, so you're going on tour and you kind of just nodded at it. You're doing a lot of festivals. Is that by choice? Those are the ones that have been announced.

1:05:33Dax Shepard:Oh, okay. Big gaps in that diary that aren't going to stay gaps, but we haven't announced them yet. But Hyde Park on July 4th, actually, important day for you guys and half of me.

1:05:43Marcus Mumford:I bet you're really conflicted on July 4th.

1:05:46Dax Shepard:July 4th at Hyde Park is the one that I'm looking forward to the most. Because it's been a decade since you guys played. It's been 10 years and that's like hometown show.

1:05:53Marcus Mumford:It's massive. two seconds on Nashville and then I want to hear you sing if you'll oblige us now that I've ruined your voice in two hours of chat

1:06:03Dax Shepard:Nashville very special place, no? yeah, it really is we spent a lot of time there and we were invited there when we first went to Telluride Bluegrass Festival up in Colorado we knew that Alison Krauss and Robert Plant were on the bill we knew that people like Ocho Medicine Show would be kicking around Jerry Douglas who's the greatest slide guitar player of all time well, dobro player of all time And we walked in and they all were there and all stoked that we were there. And coming in as these kind of like nerdy kids with more Americana instrumentation, they were just amazing. And Jerry became a really amazing friend to our band.

1:06:39Dax Shepard:We felt invited in and then they invited us to Nashville and they were all around and we've spent a lot of time in Nashville. I love it.

1:06:45Marcus Mumford:I've been shocked to be in that town, which is also a creative town, and just hear story after story of how available everyone is for each other.

1:06:53Dax Shepard:Yeah, Lainey Wilson has become a friend of ours. And I'm just obsessed with her. She's so generous. She's so down. Yeah. We invite her on the train tour. She's like, yeah, cool. I'll be there.

1:07:01Marcus Mumford:It's like they haven't forgotten that they love the art form.

1:07:04Dax Shepard:Yeah, a lot of them, I think. Chris is like that. Noah Kahn is there now. And he's like that. Super generous people. There's a real sense of community there, which I think still exists. And it's cool.

1:07:14Marcus Mumford:One of our closest friends is this young artist, Hannah Anderson. She's a musician. She's lived in Portland and in LA and from Houston. and they just went to Nashville a year and a half ago, and they've just never been happy. So even if you're not successful and thriving, at every level there, she's like, oh my gosh, I've been here my whole life.

1:07:34Dax Shepard:I lived in West Hollywood, and it drove my shame narrative crazy. It did. Yeah, because I'd look around and be like, look at all these amazingly beautiful, successful people. I'm not doing any of that.

1:07:45Marcus Mumford:Billboards. You underestimate the impact of these billboards that are every five feet.

1:07:49Dax Shepard:You really do. They have an impact on you, especially if you have a competitive spirit or an artistic one, like a slightly vulnerable. And if you have both, it's tough. Yeah, you're fucked. It's really tough. And even if you're not like competitive

1:07:59Marcus Mumford:where I'm envious, but you're ambitious. Yes. You just have ambition and see that you're not there is a bad reminder. Yeah, it is. Every time you walk out the door.

1:08:09Dax Shepard:And you walk out of a restaurant and there's paparazzi there and they just like put their cameras down when you walk out. It's like, oh God. It's a wild mindfuck.

1:08:19Marcus Mumford:Oh, I gotta tell you, one of my funniest moments in life, the first time I did Letterman, which I was so excited to do. He's my hero. Yeah, because he for comics is like the ultimate. He's number one. Him and Bill Murray. Those are our gods. So I couldn't be more excited. I'm in the back of an SUV and Tom Cruise is also the guest that night. So he's first and I'm second. And I pull up to the theater. They've got the whole street shut down and there are saw horses so that the crowd doesn't move in. And as my SUV pulls up, they believe Tom Cruise is about to get out. And this audience of people is like, the jammers are all like, And I step out and you just hear this collective, like literally 1 ,500 people like, save your film.

1:08:58Marcus Mumford:I said, put your cameras away. I was like, oh, man. What a way to walk into this theater. For my dream come true. Started with save your film. Maybe that should be the talk to the other. Save your film. So with so much gratitude, you've agreed to sing and I cannot wait to see that. So if we may. I try. You're a party. I like you a ton. Thanks for coming.

1:09:24Dax Shepard:Well, you guys make this quite weird thing feel non-weird at all. Oh, good. That's the goal. Very comfortable. Do you know Mark Ronson? I assume you do. I do. You guys have a similar vibe. Oh, really? I'll take that. He's a generous-spirited man. He's a wonderful collaborator. Yeah, yeah. You know, some of those people like Pharrell is like that and Aaron Destin's like that. They just get joy in seeing other people shine. Pharrell's definitely like that. He's in his happiest place when he's helping elevate someone up to their true self. It's really cool. It's a cool spirit. Mark's like that too.

1:09:53Marcus Mumford:I had a therapist tell me that as a man, your journey is you try to conquer and you try to get yours. And then if you're a healthy man, the next phase of your life is to try to give that to as many people as you can. And I have entered that phase of my life where it's like, you got to now do that.

1:10:11Dax Shepard:And that's the spirit of generosity rather than the spirit of poverty. Yeah. It's not like this has got to be mine. and I can't give it away. It's like, I do better when you do better.

1:10:18Marcus Mumford:Yeah. The scarcity mentality. Yeah, exactly. Forged in. All right, let's do it. All right, let's party.

1:10:27Marcus Mumford:Roll Dogs is our compromise.

1:10:29Dax Shepard:We went to Georgia. Roll Dogs. Can you hold on my secrets? That's our line. Can you hold on my secrets? Can we swear that we'll forget? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:10:41Marcus Mumford:I'm going to tell you this and then I don't ever want to hear about it.

1:10:45Dax Shepard:Yeah. Exactly.

1:10:47Marcus Mumford:I'm going to get this off my chest just for me. I can't carry this anymore by myself, but also we shan't ever speak of it again. Well, if that's you diminished, you know, fuck you, I guess.

1:10:58Dax Shepard:Yeah, I agree. I'm mad.

1:11:02Marcus Mumford:Yeah, that's you at 70%.

1:11:04Dax Shepard:Yeah, Taylor was doing that in the dark.

1:11:06Marcus Mumford:You won't make him tell us now.

1:11:07Dax Shepard:Yeah, later. All right, then.

1:11:10Marcus Mumford:Fucking. There it is. Should we?

1:11:12Dax Shepard:Yeah.

1:11:12Marcus Mumford:Ready? Yeah.

1:11:25Dax Shepard:Here's my final serenade Here's the gun and here's the blade Here's the picture that I saved for too long Here's my credit card and keys And the reason I won't find peace Here's a song I could not complete for too long Here's my pride and here's my shame Here's the trophy that bears my name Here's all the mistakes I made for too long Here's the answers I never gave Here's the calls I should have made Here's the substance that I crave All along

1:12:21Dax Shepard:Here's my vision Here's my aim Here's my suspect And the ones I blame Whilst you're sitting Taking names I just want to belong Here's my lonely serenade Here's the gun And here's the blade Here's the picture That I saved before you were gone Here's my pride and here's my shame Here's the trophy that bears my name Here's all the mistakes I made for too long Here's the answers I never gave Here's the calls I should have made Here's the substance that I crave All alone

1:13:16Dax Shepard:Can you hold All my secrets Can we swear We can't forget I had lies Like you wouldn't believe

1:13:40Dax Shepard:But you might need

1:13:49Dax Shepard:That's kind of it.

1:13:53Marcus Mumford:No wonder Carrie's horny for you. You're so hot. Incredible. I know. I almost flew into the bookshelf a couple times. Wow, beautiful. That was like the Memorex moment. My watch always said we're quite a shouty band, and that one does get quite a shouty. Oh, man, that's quite a shouty. That's powerful. The privilege of being in a room this tiny with him letting it rip.

1:14:15Dax Shepard:The whole time I was like, how is this our job?

1:14:18Marcus Mumford:Yeah. We're so lucky. Thank you, guys. That was really, really special.

1:14:21Dax Shepard:People normally come play some.

1:14:22Marcus Mumford:Well, Nora sang for us, Nora Jones.

1:14:25Dax Shepard:Ava Brothers of Plays. Yeah, dude.

1:14:27Marcus Mumford:Which one did they do? They did Trussell.

1:14:30Dax Shepard:They did a few.

1:14:31Marcus Mumford:As you know, when those two fucking lock spirits, like there's something those two, well, they call it blood harmony. Yeah, right. There's something real about blood harmony. It's like two brothers playing soccer together as well.

1:14:43Dax Shepard:Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This was so special.

1:14:47Marcus Mumford:Thanks, guys. Well, Marcus, this is a delight.

1:14:51Dax Shepard:Thank you so much.

1:14:52Marcus Mumford:We'll come back.

1:14:53Dax Shepard:Yes, please.

1:14:54Marcus Mumford:Also, I really want to double date maybe. Yeah, lovely. Yeah, okay, great. I'm going to give you my fax number.

1:15:00Dax Shepard:That would be dope, wouldn't it? Only to fax. Like Sheeran with his iPad. I'm not sure about that. But fax only.

1:15:06Marcus Mumford:I'll get a lay on mine. I'll draw you some cock and balls pictures. And we'll get this thing going. All right. Be well. Thank you, guys. Stay tuned for the fax check so you can hear all the facts that were wrong.

1:15:23Dax Shepard:Hi.

1:15:24Marcus Mumford:Hi.

1:15:25Dax Shepard:Sup?

1:15:25Marcus Mumford:How are you?

1:15:27Dax Shepard:Good. I have a headache. It's going to go away.

1:15:29Marcus Mumford:It's going to go away. Did you take Advil or something?

1:15:32Dax Shepard:No, through the power of thinking. I'm just kidding. No, I will, but should I?

1:15:36Marcus Mumford:Yeah, come on.

1:15:37Dax Shepard:Yeah, I guess if people want to see my pharmacy real.

1:15:40Marcus Mumford:Traveling pharmacy.

1:15:42Dax Shepard:It's here.

1:15:47Dax Shepard:This is it. Oh, it's like in one of those videos, like a what's in my bag. Oh, sure. Like a Vogue.

1:15:53Marcus Mumford:Exactly. Yeah, this is great. What's in my pharmacy? You've always wanted to do this.

1:15:57Dax Shepard:I'm Advil. What will you select? What won't I? Oh, this is a hand sanny I really like.

1:16:12Dax Shepard:This one's vulnerable.

1:16:14Marcus Mumford:Pepto, poopy problems. If I have muscle and or joint issues, in order I prefer an elite.

1:16:22Dax Shepard:I know. And then an ibuprofen.

1:16:25Marcus Mumford:Never Tylenol for body pain. Right. But if I have a headache.

1:16:28Dax Shepard:I know.

1:16:29Marcus Mumford:I love a Tylenol.

1:16:30Dax Shepard:I know.

1:16:31Marcus Mumford:You know what I have not tried, though? Have you tried? Because it's so old fashioned. I bet it works the best. You ever fuck with an aspirin?

1:16:37Dax Shepard:No. Look. Aspirin. Oh, my God. You know why I got this?

1:16:42Marcus Mumford:Why? An accident?

1:16:43Dax Shepard:No.

1:16:43Marcus Mumford:An aspirin?

1:16:44Dax Shepard:I got it on purpose. When I thought my finger was going to explode on the plane.

1:16:50Marcus Mumford:Okay.

1:16:51Dax Shepard:I forget why. Probably a Google or maybe I asked someone and they said, take an aspirin. I think maybe for the sweat, like to make sure my heart didn't explode on the plane.

1:17:04Marcus Mumford:Did you take an aspirin?

1:17:05Dax Shepard:I'm sure. I took everything they told me to take. So, yeah, I've got some aspirin in here for the plane.

1:17:11Marcus Mumford:Someone should correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the difference between all these, aspirin actually thins your blood.

1:17:19Dax Shepard:Yeah, it does. That's why, because that's why on planes it's good for instead of clotting.

1:17:23Marcus Mumford:Yeah, so when you have pressure, you have your blood moving through a constricted area. And you can either attack the blood side, aspirin, or the constriction side, which is the other options.

1:17:35Dax Shepard:That's right.

1:17:36Marcus Mumford:Why can't you take both is my question. Oh, why?

1:17:40Dax Shepard:Just you always want to take both. Yeah.

1:17:42Marcus Mumford:If one's good, two's better.

1:17:44Dax Shepard:I have two kinds of D. I have Aleve D, ding, ding, ding, Aleve, and I have Zyrtec D.

1:17:48Marcus Mumford:Ah, wow.

1:17:49Dax Shepard:So I just have a lot of stuff. You've really got it going on in there.

1:17:52Marcus Mumford:I do. Do you need that box still? Or do you get rid of that box?

1:17:55Dax Shepard:No, I like it. Don't you know? My Tide stinks. Okay.

1:17:59Marcus Mumford:I'm now carrying one of those. Yeah. In my backpack. Yeah.

1:18:02Dax Shepard:They're very helpful.

1:18:03Marcus Mumford:Well, there's a lot of good free ads for all those companies. I know.

1:18:08Dax Shepard:It's true. Can you hear? Oh, there's like not much left, but that's okay.

1:18:13Marcus Mumford:There's enough to get.

1:18:13Dax Shepard:There's probably enough. I'm taking three.

1:18:17Marcus Mumford:Take them all at once. God, you would have never been a good drug addict. You would have sucked at being a drug addict.

1:18:25Dax Shepard:So I never did it. I only do things I'm good at.

1:18:27Marcus Mumford:My character in chips is very much how I chew them all up and swallow them just to get over it.

1:18:33Dax Shepard:Chew them all up is disgusting. I remember the first time I had to swallow a pill.

1:18:38Marcus Mumford:You remember the first time?

1:18:40Dax Shepard:Yeah, because I couldn't do it. And my parents were trying to help me.

1:18:44Marcus Mumford:You currently look 15, I'm mad.

1:18:47Dax Shepard:Really? Yeah. Because my hair's up? I guess. I was probably nine or ten. I lived in my pants.

1:18:55Marcus Mumford:How could you have made it all the way to nine before you took a pill? Oh, we didn't have those in my day.

1:19:01Dax Shepard:Oh, really?

1:19:02Marcus Mumford:No.

1:19:03Dax Shepard:I wasn't taking Advil, I guess. I was taking chewable, those Flintstone vitamins, ding, ding, ding, from last week. Uh-huh. I was taking those. And they worked. They kept me healthy. But then I had to take some sort of pill, probably an antibiotic or something. And in my head, it was this big, you know, enormous.

1:19:24Marcus Mumford:Well, relative to your head, it might have been.

1:19:26Dax Shepard:True. Anyway, my parents were trying to help me, and then they were getting frustrated, obviously, because I couldn't do it. Sure.

1:19:33Marcus Mumford:And you needed to take it.

1:19:34Dax Shepard:I had to take it. And I don't, I think eventually, we probably cut it up into like teeny tiny pieces.

1:19:40Marcus Mumford:Yeah.

1:19:41Dax Shepard:Made it dust of it.

1:19:42Marcus Mumford:Turned it into a milkshake. Mom.

1:19:44Dax Shepard:Yeah, we should have done that.

1:19:46Marcus Mumford:Yeah, why not? Mortar pestle.

1:19:48Dax Shepard:Yeah, could have done that. Anyway, so that was a hard day for me.

1:19:54Marcus Mumford:I'm sorry that happened. I had wanted last week, I forgot to bring it up, but I had attended a concert that I wanted to talk about that was quite special.

1:20:04Dax Shepard:Okay, let's hear about it.

1:20:05Marcus Mumford:You know, I attack social media so much, but I need to also acknowledge I have discovered so many interesting things via Instagram. One of them is Alfredo Rodriguez, who is a Cuban pianist. he makes these so exciting these songs he does he'll do like thriller but he puts it through the latin conversion yeah and just tackle he did star wars as like what it would sound like if it had been written in cuba yeah and he's an insane piano player and he's on stage with just a percussionist who he's been making music with for like 15 years and these two are like they're sharing a brain They're like the Ava brothers.

1:20:49Marcus Mumford:Yeah. And this percussionist is only using his hands, but he is making so much sound. He's got the bongos. He's got everything you could imagine. And his story, which was so great, was he was living in Cuba and he got invited to this fancy jazz festival in Switzerland.

1:21:08Dax Shepard:Okay.

1:21:08Marcus Mumford:And he went there and there was like all these legends there, like George Benson and all these different incredible people. So he plays piano on stage. and Quincy Jones is in the audience. He goes back to Cuba. Quincy Jones comes home and Quincy Jones calls his manager and he said, I just saw the best pianist of this generation. I have to work with him. You've got to figure out how I can work with him. So this management team spends the next few months trying to find him.

1:21:38Dax Shepard:He's in Cuba 18 years ago. Yeah, not the easiest.

1:21:43Marcus Mumford:They start this process of trying to get him to be able to come record. He ends up having to go to Mexico and defect and come over the border. And he then starts working with Quincy Jones.

1:21:56Dax Shepard:Oh, that's so cool.

1:21:57Marcus Mumford:Nonstop does three albums with Quincy Jones. They become like, you know, mentore, mentee. It's so beautiful.

1:22:04Dax Shepard:I love that.

1:22:05Marcus Mumford:He's now a citizen. He lives in Miami. He's got a family. It's just a wonderful story. I love that. And I've never seen someone play the piano with this kind of speed and pizzazz. I mean, it's kind of mind-bending to watch someone play like that.

1:22:21Dax Shepard:That's fun.

1:22:22Marcus Mumford:So I encourage everyone, if you could see Alfredo Rodriguez, I know that they're having a jazz festival in Miami right now-ish, I think. Oh, okay. And I think John Batiste is also playing at that festival. Oh, you guys go to this. I want to go so bad, but I was just there in the DM flight. I really still have my complaints about the length of the flight, okay? It's too long. It's a three-day commitment to go see anything, okay? Uh... So, yeah, check him out.

1:22:44Dax Shepard:Yeah, that's awesome. We also, we went to another, I guess we're already now, because we went to a play, a theater play.

1:22:52Marcus Mumford:Oh, we did. We did. We went to a theater production, a musical.

1:22:56Dax Shepard:Three months later that Kristen was in, started. And it was great.

1:23:01Marcus Mumford:It was so great. It was impossibly good, given the fact that those people had come together a couple weeks before.

1:23:07Dax Shepard:To do rehearsals and stuff.

1:23:08Marcus Mumford:Start from scratch.

1:23:09Dax Shepard:It was so, so funny and sweet and great. Life affirming. I loved it.

1:23:15Marcus Mumford:Yeah. I loved it.

1:23:16Dax Shepard:And it was extra fun for me. Because? It was a lot of worlds colliding for me. Okay. Obviously, Kristen. And then two very wonderful people who wrote the play are UCB Peeps.

1:23:31Marcus Mumford:Oh, you knew them?

1:23:32Dax Shepard:Yes.

1:23:33Marcus Mumford:I thought they were terrific. Not only had they written this incredible thing, but they as performers were fantastic.

1:23:39Dax Shepard:Yes. And one of my very good friends who I did improv with, we run an improv team together. Zeke was in it as well.

1:23:52Marcus Mumford:Which one was he?

1:23:53Dax Shepard:He played the flight attendant, the co-pilot.

1:23:57Marcus Mumford:Oh, OK. Wonderful. Yes, yes, yes. I met him. The tall gentleman.

1:24:02Dax Shepard:He's fantastic. And he was so good in it. And it was so fun because I hadn't seen him in so long. And it's one of those really fun things where like, you know, in this world, like you, you, especially in the comedy world, you have these people and these teams and you're around them nonstop. And they're your family and you're making things together. And it's like such a beautiful time. And then your life, sometimes your life goes into another direction as mine did. And I don't see any of those people anymore. And it was so like, it made me feel so happy to see him up there.

1:24:45Marcus Mumford:Warm and fuzzy.

1:24:46Dax Shepard:Made me feel warm and fuzzy. And we were talking after the show and he said rightly, he was like, I feel like that team was, He was like, I just have such strong memories of practicing at your house, in my apartment. It was like right before we all sort of became adults.

1:25:05Marcus Mumford:Like we were adults, but like everyone's lives started taking off right after that. And so it's kind of like the last, the last phase of innocence. Okay, now I want to take this moment to discuss something that I think was potentially awkward.

1:25:25Dax Shepard:Oh, sure.

1:25:26Marcus Mumford:That we haven't debriefed on.

1:25:28Dax Shepard:Oh, okay.

1:25:29Marcus Mumford:And this likely was all from my own perspective, and I imagined all this.

1:25:33Dax Shepard:Okay.

1:25:34Marcus Mumford:But here's what happened. We're watching this play. Three of the characters are gamers. They're young boys, and they're gamers. So funny. And they have matching outfits, and they're in a gaming troupe and whatever. Mind you, I've not seen the play. I have no idea. I'm seeing it for the very first time. But these three boys start dancing and singing and it's so adorable. I just have this moment where I'm certain this is going to be making you smile so much.

1:25:59Dax Shepard:Oh.

1:26:00Marcus Mumford:I'm thinking like she must love these boys right now. And so I turn around and you were with her whole pod.

1:26:06Dax Shepard:Yeah.

1:26:06Marcus Mumford:And so I turn around and I look at you directly to see if like I'm right. Like, are you are you just be smiling ear to ear watching these boys being expressive and dancing and singing?

1:26:17Dax Shepard:I did love it. Yeah.

1:26:18Marcus Mumford:But it's very obvious. I turn around and I look at you and then you like you look at me and you're just like, I'm sure you're like, was he? Do you remember this moment? No. Oh, my God.

1:26:27Dax Shepard:Not at all.

1:26:28Marcus Mumford:Well, then I see like I see Molly and Eric and then they they've seen me turn around and like lock eyes with you. And then I turn back around. You weren't smiling ear to ear or something like, oh, she's not as tickled by these boys as I was thinking. you were you just weren't showing it oh that's not the point don't even worry that's that has nothing to do with where i'm going with the story okay so i made this big show of turning around and everyone's behind me so they just saw me turn around and like lock eyes with you and then then the song takes off right after that moment and the whole song is about them loving double d's and the princess with big titties and the whole song becomes about titties and double d's and then I started panicking, thinking, does everyone just see that when I turned around and stared at Monica, they think I've already seen this.

1:27:12Dax Shepard:Oh my God, you're just in your head. No one thought that, I don't think.

1:27:16Marcus Mumford:You can see the math of that, no?

1:27:19Dax Shepard:I guess.

1:27:19Marcus Mumford:Like, hey, Monica, check this out. And then the whole song right after I do that turns into a whole song about double Ds.

1:27:25Dax Shepard:Well, that is something you would do.

1:27:27Marcus Mumford:Well, I don't think I would.

1:27:29Dax Shepard:You literally said double Ds last week on the fact check.

1:27:32Marcus Mumford:because you had what ADHD? What was the thing? I don't remember, but you said it. I didn't say that. I just said there was double D in the acronym. It was the meth medicine, right?

1:27:44Dax Shepard:What was it?

1:27:45Marcus Mumford:The medicine you were taking, the meth? Your two doses, double D? Yes. Is that what it was? Maybe.

1:27:50Dax Shepard:And then you said, are you conflating it? Yeah, you made a reference to my boobs. You do this. We do this. So I don't know.

1:27:58Marcus Mumford:Well, anyways, I felt really pervy all of a sudden. I guess let's say this. If I turned around like, oh, Monica, look, they're about to sing about big boobs. That's not me.

1:28:06Dax Shepard:Right.

1:28:06Marcus Mumford:OK, I'm pervy. Whatever the line is, that's not me. I'm not turning around like, oh, Monica, they're about to sing about boobs. That's crazy. I wouldn't do that.

1:28:14Dax Shepard:You don't do that noise.

1:28:15Marcus Mumford:But that was what I was afraid the Bible sudden was like, oh, my God, do they think?

1:28:20Dax Shepard:I don't think that.

1:28:21Marcus Mumford:But I would just turn around to see like, oh, my God, I bet she loves these cute boys dancing.

1:28:25Dax Shepard:You were right.

1:28:26Marcus Mumford:But then they immediately were letting her rip about boobs. I'm like, oh, boy, they think. I don't think Monica.

1:28:33Dax Shepard:Yeah, I don't think anyone thought that. Is that why you kept looking at your kids, too? Because you were like trying to like combat it. Like, I'm not a perv. I'm here with my sweet children.

1:28:44Marcus Mumford:Of course not. I was looking at my kids to see how excited they were. Their mom was so cute.

1:28:48Dax Shepard:Yeah, yeah, I know.

1:28:49Marcus Mumford:It's really cute. They had friends with them. The girls. Yeah. I was just trying to imagine if I was 12 and I took Aaron and my dad was like, to make it one for one. And if my dad was doing backflips on motorcycles, like they're all into musical theater and their mom is like crushing it on stage. And I was like, I wonder if they're feeling pride for their mom.

1:29:14Dax Shepard:God, I hope so.

1:29:16Marcus Mumford:I hope so. Yeah. That's what I was trying to check in on.

1:29:18Dax Shepard:Yeah. I love it.

1:29:20Marcus Mumford:Yeah. Delta had too much on her plate. Probably.

1:29:22Dax Shepard:She was on the crew.

1:29:23Marcus Mumford:She was on the crew.

1:29:24Dax Shepard:So she was all stressed out.

1:29:25Marcus Mumford:She worked so hard. Shout out to D-Money. She did costumes. She was an usher. She filled in for some of the cast members when they weren't there. She was a PA and called everyone to set. She worked at least 45 hours last week on that play. She said that she gave actors notes. She saw every single rehearsal and then she would film the whole show on her iPad and then come home after the show. She's been at the theater at that point for eight hours that day. Right. Watch the entire show all over again and take notes.

1:29:59Dax Shepard:Wow.

1:30:00Marcus Mumford:And she had of her 20 or 30 notes over the course of the five shows, 10 of them were legit and got implemented. That's good. Yeah. She's like, I don't think the mics are on for the boys when they say this line. It's a funnier line in rehearsal. It's not landing here. I don't think the mics are on. And they weren't.

1:30:17Dax Shepard:Oh, weird. Well, good for her. Yes. I love that. She's an industrious gal.

1:30:21Marcus Mumford:Oh, I was so proud of her.

1:30:23Dax Shepard:And she.

1:30:24Marcus Mumford:I couldn't have been proud.

1:30:26Dax Shepard:I waited, you know, I requested her as my usher. Uh-huh. I had to wait because. So busy. She is a lot. She had a lot to do. Yeah. And yeah, it was very, very, very cute. And hopefully they do more. I hope they do more. And I hope more people can see it because it was very cute.

1:30:45Marcus Mumford:Me too.

1:30:45Dax Shepard:And sweet and funny. Yeah. And to remind people, musical theater, not my fave. Not your fave, not my fave.

1:30:56Marcus Mumford:Not my fave.

1:30:57Dax Shepard:But it was great.

1:30:58Marcus Mumford:It was great. It was so entertaining.

1:31:01Dax Shepard:Yeah.

1:31:01Marcus Mumford:And of course, seeing Kristen sing is always so fun. Yeah, she's so good. You know what I was thinking of? I had so many waves of happiness for her, which was like, A, she looked 12 years old.

1:31:12Dax Shepard:well part of the character she's wearing a wig with bangs and she does look so young she looks

1:31:19Marcus Mumford:so young but her spirit was like she was on a stage playing yeah she's having she's like she could not do that ever again she could just act in movies and get paid a lot and act in tv shows

1:31:30Dax Shepard:but she's doing this thing for free yeah and i'm watching how happy it makes her and i was like

1:31:36Marcus Mumford:Like, oh, she did it. She has held on to being 12. Like she has protected this part of herself that's from childhood and still getting to do it.

1:31:51Dax Shepard:Yeah, very pure. It's so pure. Yeah, it's beautiful.

1:31:54Marcus Mumford:So I had that round of happiness for her. And then I was looking around and there were just so many people that had come that are friends of hers and people she's worked with.

1:32:05Dax Shepard:Yes.

1:32:06Marcus Mumford:And I was like, look at this group of people that love her. I know, it's great. Oh, I was so happy for her.

1:32:12Dax Shepard:Yeah, it was beautiful. Yeah. Well, great show. Three months later, check it out if you can, if it comes to your city.

1:32:20Marcus Mumford:Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.

1:32:33Dax Shepard:I fell down yesterday.

1:32:36Marcus Mumford:I had a big tumble. So you were being 15 and 12. Yeah. Who would have thought moving much closer to work would up your danger? Yeah. Explain it to me because when you explain it to me, it's felt like absent of a banana peel, what you described couldn't have happened.

1:32:54Dax Shepard:I don't know what's happening. I walk, it's a little downhill. I'm in these shoes, loafers for people who aren't watching. and my front foot just goes straight out, slips and just goes straight out. And it's also kind of slow. Like I like know it's happening.

1:33:14Marcus Mumford:I now know what's going on. Yeah, you were going downhill steep enough that you're putting your front foot out.

1:33:21Dax Shepard:Yeah, my foot was out.

1:33:21Marcus Mumford:It's the opposite of walking in essence. You're lowering yourself down the hill. Exactly. And so you put one foot out and put all your weight on it and it lost traction. I guess. And then you hit the fucking deck. That now makes sense.

1:33:32Dax Shepard:I guess.

1:33:32Marcus Mumford:I was underestimating the decline of it all.

1:33:35Dax Shepard:I think it might have to do with the slippery bottom. Is there a slippery? Does it look slippery?

1:33:39Marcus Mumford:Sure. It's not a great shoe, but I think had you been just walking forward, you would have like spun out as you tried to accelerate off your back foot. It would have spun out. But you're landing with all your weight to decelerate. And so if you lose that footing, out you go.

1:33:56Dax Shepard:Yeah. But it was like slow enough that I knew I was falling, which was weird. We got bored in the middle of it. Yeah, I was like, why am I falling? Why? Why? And by then, I scraped my knee like a little kid and broke my jeans. You ripped a hole in your jeans. I did. I ripped a hole in my jeans and I had a teeny bit of blood. A scrape. It was a scrape.

1:34:18Marcus Mumford:That part's still a mystery to me. So I understand the physics of putting your weight down. That slips out. Oh, I guess maybe then the knee that didn't slip is the one that ripped. Okay, so then you went right down on your knee.

1:34:28Dax Shepard:Yes. And I just felt.

1:34:31Marcus Mumford:Thank God you only weigh five pounds. I could have shattered my patella at 200 pounds.

1:34:36Dax Shepard:I felt like such a child. It was really, and you know how I am with embarrassment. Yeah. I, of course, you know, I pop up so fast and I'm looking around to make sure nobody's seen this. And you kind of, and you laugh. You always have to laugh. That's right. Even if no one's there. You laugh. Yeah. Like I.

1:34:55Marcus Mumford:That was so fun.

1:34:56Dax Shepard:That was really funny. I'm fine. I'm fine. Yeah. And but really on the inside, tears are bubbling up out of embarrassment. Yeah. And being like, why? How am I this age? And I'm a child still like vulnerable. Yeah, I was so vulnerable. I hated it.

1:35:15Marcus Mumford:Well, I saw you in the driveway and you were like, I fell. And I was like, OK, well, that's not a whoop. Then I saw that your knee was torn. And then I did. I felt bad for you. I said, oh, I'm sorry. This is the difference. Okay. This is the difference between mothers and fathers.

1:35:31Dax Shepard:First, I walk straight into the house and Anna and Kristen are there like doing some designs. And I walk straight in and I walk up and I said, I fell down. And I fell down and I scraped my knee like a little five year old. And Kristen says, oh, no. You know, she immediately is like, oh, no. And then and she was like, well, what are those jeans? She liked my jeans. And she was distracted for a second by my loss of the jeans. I was like, they ripped. She was like, well, that's OK. And then she got out the Tide stain stick and she was helping my pants. And and that was all very nurturing. And then I walked around aimlessly for a little bit.

1:36:16Dax Shepard:And then I'm trying to gather yourself. and then I ran into you coming out of the gym and you were like don't go up in my clubhouse and then I was like I fell and then you kind of laughed and then you said oh your pants are ripped oh you did fall as if I was like lying or something

1:36:39Marcus Mumford:no just a fall

1:36:42Dax Shepard:I understand a fall could mean so many things

1:36:45Marcus Mumford:there's bad falls and there's inconsequential falls and you were kind of peppy when you were telling me. So I was like, well, she didn't fall off her roof.

1:36:53Dax Shepard:No, no, no. It actually was an inconsequential fall. It just felt like I just felt so childish. Sometimes I fall, I've fallen. Sometimes you take a fall, but it's an adult fall.

1:37:08Marcus Mumford:Right.

1:37:08Dax Shepard:This one was not.

1:37:11Marcus Mumford:This is a silly fall.

1:37:12Dax Shepard:This is a silly childish fall. And I felt like a kid and I had to tell my parents that I had fallen down. No, my parents.

1:37:22Marcus Mumford:You even called your folks afterwards.

1:37:24Dax Shepard:My mom would be like.

1:37:26Marcus Mumford:Did you go on an x-ray?

1:37:27Dax Shepard:Yeah, exactly. No, did you clean it? Make sure you cleaned it. Yeah.

1:37:31Marcus Mumford:I asked if you tore the skin.

1:37:33Dax Shepard:Yeah, you said, is it bleeding? Yesterday was a weird day in the atmosphere. Okay. Because I fell. And then Anna fell too later.

1:37:44Marcus Mumford:Really?

1:37:45Dax Shepard:She fell over like Mona or something. And same situation. Like.

1:37:49Marcus Mumford:Tore her knee?

1:37:49Dax Shepard:Yeah, she hurt her knee.

1:37:51Marcus Mumford:Wow.

1:37:52Dax Shepard:And then we were walking later and she got hooped on by a bird.

1:37:57Marcus Mumford:Whoa. Yeah. Yikes.

1:38:00Dax Shepard:It was yikes. And then Mona started to eat a condom.

1:38:04Marcus Mumford:Me too. I've been pooped on and I hate it.

1:38:06Dax Shepard:And I didn't want to make like too. Of course, I was like, oh, no.

1:38:12Marcus Mumford:Did you get on your tine stack?

1:38:13Dax Shepard:But I. No.

1:38:14Marcus Mumford:You need a napkin.

1:38:15Dax Shepard:I'm not giving the tide stick for that.

1:38:18Marcus Mumford:Just keep it.

1:38:19Dax Shepard:She has to keep it.

1:38:20Marcus Mumford:Oh, no, keep it. Keep it. You'll want to use it later. Yeah, you need paper towel.

1:38:25Dax Shepard:You know, it was, you need paper towel or a cloth. Or really, I was like, I said, do you have another shirt? Like, for me, I'm like, you throw that shirt in the garbage. That shirt's done. But she just cleaned it in the bathroom. But I, you know, there's ways to handle things in life. And I'm often impressed by people. you know because i was like in my in my head i was like this is disgust like this and to me i was like oh my god this is disgusting this is horrible it looked really disgusting yeah and it was on her

1:38:59Marcus Mumford:shoulder and it was a white t-shirt oh fuck it's brown at first right like it turns white but it comes out brownie green it was diarrhea they only diarrhea i know they don't have solid oops so i guess they're eating cigarette butts and stuff yeah think about what they're eating

1:39:18Dax Shepard:and so i yeah i was like well i tried to put a positive spin on it i was like oh no i was like

1:39:24Marcus Mumford:well you know they do say that's good luck that's right and i think they do they do okay yeah what

1:39:30Dax Shepard:else are they gonna say exactly she said or bad luck i said no they don't say that they say it's

1:39:34Marcus Mumford:good what's funny is it's clearly objectively bad luck you got shit on yeah yeah it's never good

1:39:39Dax Shepard:like to get shit on but we say so well yeah positive spins so so anyway but i just knew if it was me i would have it would have ruined my i was like i fell and this happened yeah what kind of day is this this hurt my feelings yeah like my feelings i'm sensitive but she was just like like she was just a little annoyed by it she didn't let it get her she grew up in venezuela

1:40:07Marcus Mumford:You know, she has a different beginning.

1:40:09Dax Shepard:You're right. Yeah. And Mona then was starting to eat a condom on the street. And I was like, we got, what is happening?

1:40:16Marcus Mumford:Where were you guys at? Venice?

1:40:18Dax Shepard:No, right here.

1:40:19Marcus Mumford:Oh, okay. Fuck, there was a used condom on the ground?

1:40:22Dax Shepard:Yeah. There were some tents that had popped up. They're probably gone by today.

1:40:26Marcus Mumford:I'm shocked they're using safe sex. That's incredible. It's true. Yeah, I guess we should be happy.

1:40:31Dax Shepard:It's true.

1:40:32Marcus Mumford:Speaking of health.

1:40:33Dax Shepard:Okay, health update.

1:40:34Marcus Mumford:I'm a little worried and I don't ever get worried. Not about my health. Not about my health. Tell me. I make a lot of jokes about smoking and stuff.

1:40:42Dax Shepard:Sure.

1:40:42Marcus Mumford:I don't like smoking's coming back. Smoking seems to be coming back.

1:40:46Dax Shepard:No, it's definitely back. I know. I know. You got to be careful what you're saying.

1:40:48Marcus Mumford:And I was thinking about like how it's so predictable. We suffer from the absence of problems. So like polio. Like for anyone who grew up in the 30s and 40s, you saw tons of kids. I know. in wheelchairs and with crutches and huge deformities. So when they came out with a vaccine for polio, people were like, yes, 100 % of people were like, absolutely. But then it got eradicated.

1:41:17Dax Shepard:Exactly.

1:41:17Marcus Mumford:And now you have knuckleheads that are like, no, I'm not going to get a polio vaccine. It's like, because you haven't seen it.

1:41:23Dax Shepard:I know. You don't know how bad it is.

1:41:24Marcus Mumford:You don't want to fucking see it.

1:41:26Dax Shepard:Exactly. Same with measles.

1:41:28Marcus Mumford:I think what's unfortunate right now is like, we were growing up, people were dying of cancer left and right. my dad died of lung cancer you're seeing people fucking you know and now that it's curbed a bit I don't think people realize like

1:41:40Dax Shepard:you can't get lung cancer man and you will

1:41:44Marcus Mumford:yeah I mean yeah very high likelihood yeah like it's not

1:41:51Dax Shepard:one of those like roll the dice like if you're smoking enough you're getting it

1:41:56Marcus Mumford:it's not like drinking exactly

1:41:58Dax Shepard:thank god

1:42:01Marcus Mumford:so anyways I just wish people would Choose. I'm pro nicotine. Pick another delivery device.

1:42:07Dax Shepard:Ding, ding, ding. That's going to be a fact.

1:42:09Marcus Mumford:Oh, OK. I get one. Your nicotine. Let's get your nicotine. But that's not a good source.

1:42:15Dax Shepard:And not in vaping, too. Don't do that either. I'm glad you said that because you're a smoker. And I cool one, too. And I, you know, notoriously, I've never smoked a cigarette. so I feel a little like I can't say that

1:42:33Marcus Mumford:you're not in a position

1:42:34Dax Shepard:but actually I kind of am in a position so my guys it's actually not that hard to just not do it it's not

1:42:40Marcus Mumford:yeah I started noticing like I think whereas people like they smoke for sure but they did they would never post a picture of themselves smoking and now every I see so many posts of people banging darts

1:42:50Dax Shepard:it's back like people think it's cool yeah

1:42:54Marcus Mumford:I get it I get it

1:42:56Dax Shepard:it looks cool I will be it looks cool

1:43:00Marcus Mumford:Yeah, sexy.

1:43:01Dax Shepard:On TV.

1:43:02Marcus Mumford:Until you kiss someone. Exactly. And then you can taste the cigarette.

1:43:07Dax Shepard:That's what I'm like. Guys, in practice. Prioritize kissing, guys. That's my campaign. Oh, that's a good one. Pick kissing.

1:43:12Marcus Mumford:It's called pick kissing.

1:43:14Dax Shepard:Okay. Okay.

1:43:15Marcus Mumford:Yeah.

1:43:16Dax Shepard:Pick kissing. APK, always pick kissing. No, you don't.

1:43:19Marcus Mumford:More than we need. Just pick kissing.

1:43:22Dax Shepard:Okay. Yeah, I just, I, in practice, it's not the same as how it looks.

1:43:29Marcus Mumford:Yeah.

1:43:29Dax Shepard:And you guys are all coughing and stuff and like making those noises. And it's like, it's not cute.

1:43:35Marcus Mumford:Can you even imagine what I sounded like when I smoked? No. I would have these fucking fits. Actually, I had a question for you.

1:43:43Dax Shepard:I didn't want to ask.

1:43:45Marcus Mumford:You can hear me coughing from your house? I feel like that. I thought that was inevitable.

1:43:50Dax Shepard:I mean, I hope one day I do. You will. I'm sure I will.

1:43:52Marcus Mumford:Because I'm out in the yard like I was changing all the wheels on the razor. And I was out there and I had a couple moments of clearing my throat. and I was like, if Monica's window's open, I bet she heard that. Yeah.

1:44:01Dax Shepard:No, I haven't. But I do wonder, when you're acting for long periods of time, like, you have a handle on not doing that.

1:44:12Marcus Mumford:For three minutes, yeah.

1:44:14Dax Shepard:And then do you, is it like right when they call cut, you clear?

1:44:17Marcus Mumford:Well, I clear before I start. Okay. And then, yeah, likely in between, I get going a little bit.

1:44:23Dax Shepard:Because sometimes we're sitting here, you know, and I'm like, it probably depends on if I'm like PMSing or something. Yeah, sure.

1:44:30Marcus Mumford:Just how you feel about me in general, probably. And I'm like, why?

1:44:37Dax Shepard:Like, I know when he's acting, he doesn't do this.

1:44:40Marcus Mumford:Yeah, and if our show was three minutes long, you would never experience it.

1:44:43Dax Shepard:I guess that's what I'm asking. Yeah, yeah. Okay, and like, you know how the older men...

1:44:49Marcus Mumford:We have respiratory things.

1:44:51Dax Shepard:Yeah, and you have like digestionals. Like all of you older men are starting... We get hair out of your ears. You're burping a lot, okay? You're burping through your talking.

1:45:00Marcus Mumford:Oh, sure, sure.

1:45:01Dax Shepard:And it's a common thing that men are doing. Yeah. And I.

1:45:05Marcus Mumford:Because we don't cry. We're keeping. Yeah. It's like burbling out. So much is bubbling.

1:45:09Dax Shepard:And it's like. Just. Okay. Yeah. Just cry. You know. Just cry.

1:45:14Marcus Mumford:That's a good. I have a great story. Funny enough.

1:45:17Dax Shepard:Okay. Well, anyway. I just. Sometimes when you're burping through your talks. And when you're throat clearing. I think like. is he doing this to me like is this about me because i mean you know that's if i'm really angry um because i know he i know he's not on set with i don't know if we're allowed to say um with on set and he's like burping through his talking he's not

1:45:46Marcus Mumford:i know he's not i mean you're you're you're ignoring so many factors it's crazy our duration together the fact that like i i research for two and a half hours and then i quickly eat so that i don't have i don't i don't have to eat for the next three hours we're recording food part so it's like i i leave myself six minutes to eat my full calories for the first half of the day so like i pound that oatmeal and then i come in here and like i'm dealing with

1:46:13Dax Shepard:that for the first 10 minutes i guess i didn't really think about the food that is interesting

1:46:19Marcus Mumford:Yeah, you see me right before. Every time right before we eat, I have pushed off eating right to the moment before we eat. I'm always finishing my own meal right before we start.

1:46:27Dax Shepard:Well, I would say just don't eat, but that's not a good solution. And I didn't eat today, and my stomach was growling during the interview, and I did. I was getting so self-conscious.

1:46:37Marcus Mumford:And you have a headache.

1:46:38Dax Shepard:And I have a headache.

1:46:40Marcus Mumford:And you're mad about my throat clearing just today.

1:46:43Dax Shepard:It's not a good solution. Listen, it's not a good solution. Okay. Go ahead. Keep burping.

1:46:48Marcus Mumford:All right.

1:46:48Dax Shepard:It's fine.

1:46:49Marcus Mumford:Burping, farting, coughing.

1:46:50Dax Shepard:Just do what you need to do.

1:46:52Marcus Mumford:I'm doing the best I can do.

1:46:53Dax Shepard:I know. Well.

1:46:54Marcus Mumford:I will say this. I have recently, and I just hate this observation, which is it's considerably worse when I eat cheese. And I fucking hate that. The burping is? No. Oh. I don't think my burping is as big of a deal as you do. Or at least I'm not concerned about it.

1:47:09Dax Shepard:I don't think you're noticing it.

1:47:11Marcus Mumford:Okay. My coughing is very disruptive to everyone in the house.

1:47:15Dax Shepard:Okay, yeah.

1:47:16Marcus Mumford:You can hear it throughout the house. You can't hear if I burp to myself in my bathroom.

1:47:19Dax Shepard:Yeah. It's just when we're on video, you know? Yeah.

1:47:23Marcus Mumford:So I have sadly.

1:47:25Dax Shepard:Cut out cheese?

1:47:26Marcus Mumford:Well, I've acknowledged, oh, yeah, if I eat pizza, I'm a mess the next day with my chest. Right. So I have been trying to not eat cheese. And I'm like, guys.

1:47:38Dax Shepard:What is a life without cheese?

1:47:39Marcus Mumford:Truly, what are we, why are we doing this?

1:47:43Dax Shepard:Well, can't you just cough? I mean, everyone's used to it.

1:47:46Marcus Mumford:I mean, I'm aiming higher for myself, but I don't enjoy coughing. I hate having stuff in my lungs. I hate it.

1:47:54Dax Shepard:I understand. But do you hate it more than you love cheese?

1:47:57Marcus Mumford:I think more and more I'm circling an idea of perhaps fucking quitting dairy.

1:48:04Dax Shepard:God, you keep adding things to quit.

1:48:08Marcus Mumford:I've just heard about my throat clearing from you.

1:48:10Dax Shepard:No, it's not the throat clearing. You're currently on burping.

1:48:13Marcus Mumford:Okay, this is all new. That's not what you've been complaining about over the years.

1:48:17Dax Shepard:No, I promise it's been a thing I've been not wanting to tell you.

1:48:20Marcus Mumford:Great. But for how many months?

1:48:22Dax Shepard:Like a long time. Okay. Since video. Since video. Okay. I never noticed it. I never noticed it before because.

1:48:29Marcus Mumford:I'm pretty good at keeping it inaudible. You never hear me burp.

1:48:33Dax Shepard:You never hear it. Well, no, you do, but not in the, no, not in when we're interviewing, but you often burp loudly just for fun. But not during the interview at all. it's very it's inaudible yeah but you can see it and so i am always cutting around it yeah and um that can get complex okay you know i'm just telling you but i want you to eat cheese

1:48:56Marcus Mumford:well i don't think i can um unless i want to deal with coughing i was like how long can i be coughing before i get cancer i mean the whole point of getting lung cancer is because you're putting all this shit in your lungs and then you're irritating them you're coughing a lot and then you have a ton of cell division and then you have mutation and that's why you get it so i'm I'm like, why? Just because I'm not putting that shit in there, I'm certainly still doing all the disruptive. I'm sure I'm damaging my lungs, getting the stuff out. And then I don't want an uptick in my odds of getting lung cancer.

1:49:24Marcus Mumford:So I got to quit eating cheese.

1:49:27Dax Shepard:Okay.

1:49:28Marcus Mumford:See you when I'm dead.

1:49:31Dax Shepard:I've had to knock this whole episode. Okay, now what's the story you wanted to tell?

1:49:36Marcus Mumford:Oh, it was just on that crying. So we had a very, very, very sweet meeting last night. About Eric. Kind of in memory of our friend.

1:49:44Dax Shepard:Yeah.

1:49:45Marcus Mumford:And we don't ever have women at the meeting. It's a stag meeting. And a woman joined and the woman was awesome. She goes, I don't know how all of you got through your shares without crying, but I'm going to be crying through my entire share and I'm going to cry for all of you. And we were like, well, thank you. Someone needs to. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, it was really great.

1:50:09Dax Shepard:Oh, man. Sad. Sad. Really sad. Okay, let's do some facts.

1:50:14Marcus Mumford:Okay.

1:50:15Dax Shepard:On Marcus. Yes. God, that song. I can't believe we got to hear it. It was so good.

1:50:22Marcus Mumford:He blasted us right through the bookshelf.

1:50:25Dax Shepard:I loved it. I really loved it. Yeah. The whole album. I loved him. I loved him too.

1:50:31Marcus Mumford:Yeah.

1:50:31Dax Shepard:He's great. Very charming.

1:50:34Marcus Mumford:I hadn't given him a fair shake when they were really popular. because I was surrounded by some people that I was judgmental of who were obsessed with it. And it prevented me from giving him a fair shake. And I really regret that.

1:50:47Dax Shepard:Yeah. And I fell in love with him. Mumford and Sons.

1:50:50Marcus Mumford:Well, they're so good. Yeah. They're objectively great.

1:50:53Dax Shepard:Yes. Huge, huge band.

1:50:54Marcus Mumford:So I didn't even deserve to get that performance we got, but I am now a lifetime fan.

1:50:59Dax Shepard:Yeah. Okay. Did Juno Temple go to Bedale's school or B-Dales or whatever? Yes. Yes. Yes. She attended. Well, she attended Enmore Primary School, boarded at King's College and later completed her A-levels at B-Dales School. Or B-Dales. Or B-Dales. So he nailed that. Okay. Ding, ding, ding. Nicotine is not bad for you. It comes up in the episode. There's, you know, yes, nicotine is not the part that gives you cancer. Yep. We all know that. Well, maybe we don't all know that, but it is not the part that gives you cancer. But it can have some negative side effects. It also has some positive side effects.

1:51:47Dax Shepard:Benefits, increased levels of alertness, euphoria and relaxation, improved concentration and memory due to increased activity of the.

1:51:57Marcus Mumford:Hypothalamus.

1:51:58Dax Shepard:No, two neurotransmitters. reduced anxiety due to the increased levels of beta endorphin which reduces anxiety okay so those are good things it says it can cause bad dreams and nightmares possible blood restriction irregular and disturbed sleep dizziness and lightheadedness that's not for everyone obviously there can be some gastrointestinal bing bing bing side effects. Diarrhea.

1:52:35Marcus Mumford:Don't have it.

1:52:38Dax Shepard:You have it.

1:52:39Marcus Mumford:No, I haven't had it since I quit gluten. I don't ever have diarrhea anymore.

1:52:42Dax Shepard:You sometimes have it.

1:52:43Marcus Mumford:I've had diarrhea probably, honestly, without having the flu.

1:52:47Dax Shepard:Right.

1:52:48Marcus Mumford:I've had it probably three times or four times in the last two years. Okay. I mean, it totally, you know this update. I've shared this. I had it five days a week when I ate gluten and now I don't ever have it.

1:53:01Dax Shepard:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Heartburn, peptic ulcers, indigestion.

1:53:07Marcus Mumford:None of these for me.

1:53:09Dax Shepard:Dry mouth, nausea and vomiting. You don't have that. Side effects on the heart, increased blood pressure, enlarged aorta, altered heart rate and rhythm. Those are potentials. it's person to person for that those things and what you already are dealing with what you already have um but it's good for you it's working great and for him i think he likes it as well oh does letterman play the drums does not play drums professionally but he is a well-known enthusiast who has played on air and famously admired questioned and tried to buy drum kits from his musical guests. He held drum week on the late show and has appeared in videos playing with professional drummers like Anton Figg.

1:53:57Dax Shepard:Okay. Now got a great answer for why these musicians blow into the water bottle with the straw.

1:54:07Marcus Mumford:Oh, great. Yeah. He was doing that. That was the first time we had seen that.

1:54:09Dax Shepard:But I saw it on the Taylor doc and I was like, what is that? What is she doing? Singers blow into a water bottle with the straw, a technique called straw phonation or SOVT, semi occluded vocal tract exercise to warm up, rehabilitate and strengthen their voices by creating back pressure that reduces vocal strain. This gentle therapeutic exercise helps relax the larynx, improves breathing and massages the vocal cords to reduce fatigue.

1:54:41Marcus Mumford:I thought it was like adding humidity to it. I was way off.

1:54:45Dax Shepard:Maybe you could try it before an interview. To see if I don't burp? Well, let's just see what it does. I mean, maybe you'll feel like so like, maybe it'll fix your coughing.

1:54:57Marcus Mumford:I'm blessed in that I have yet to really feel any vocal fatigue, even though we do have days where we'll talk for six hours straight.

1:55:04Dax Shepard:Yeah.

1:55:05Marcus Mumford:But I have yet to. So far so good. I'll lose my voice when I'm with Aaron like screaming a lot, but other than that I'm pretty good.

1:55:11Dax Shepard:That's probably because you're not breathing

1:55:12Marcus Mumford:through your diaphragm probably do a lot of stuff wrong just screaming for too long it's not yeah

1:55:17Dax Shepard:yeah your child was screaming in the backyard and you texted me can you hear them when i could

1:55:25Marcus Mumford:yeah yeah um and then you screaming with joy i'll add yeah yeah not screaming her and a friend

1:55:32Dax Shepard:we're having a lot of fun back there she has a friend they'd like to do some screaming together

1:55:35Marcus Mumford:it and you said you could relate yeah we didn't scream but we i can relate i can relate a lot yeah watching her and her friend together remind me a lot of aaron and i watching her and her friend

1:55:48Dax Shepard:together which they're such a cute duo so cute remind me that i used to be so hyper

1:55:56Marcus Mumford:when i was like that age with my friends yeah and that was like a quality assigned to me i was hyper

1:56:03Dax Shepard:And I like can't relate to that girl anymore.

1:56:07Marcus Mumford:Right. You're not hyper. At all. I know. You used to drive your grandma crazy, right? Yeah.

1:56:11Dax Shepard:And I would lick her arm.

1:56:12Marcus Mumford:Yeah. Impulse control. Yeah. And just like run around and be crazy.

1:56:17Dax Shepard:I would just be crazy and bounce around. Wow. I know. But I grew out of that. But it's cute to see.

1:56:24Marcus Mumford:I know. It's shocking to me. They're not exhausted after they've been together for two days. But they're not. No, it gives you energy. Yes. It energizes. Yeah. yes yes the thing that i relate to is that they are the rest of the world has melted away i know it has fallen away completely and i'm i just i'm so happy for her for that feeling there's nothing quite like when you have your little soulmate and there's like nothing else is relevant best

1:56:53Dax Shepard:it is the best i know they're so they're they're i'm so happy they have each other my ears sometimes well you know again cost benefit uh all right love you