Conor Oberst

0:06Pushkin.

0:10Today we're welcoming to the show Connor Oberst. Ahead of my interview with Conor, I spent two weeks catching up on albums of his that are perennial favorites, or albums that I missed, or albums and EPs I just haven't heard in a long time. And in that two weeks, I remember just how wonderful his catalog of music is. Often his music gets pegged as being maybe only sad. But Conor's music, whether it's with Bright Eyes, Desipar Citos, the Mystic Valley Band, Monsters of Folk, Commander Venus, his solo works, or his stuff with Phoebe Bridgers, is not one-dimensional. It's dynamic. It's deeply smart, captivating, funny, sometimes biting.

0:48And because it's a lovely blend of all these things, along with, yes, sometimes melancholy, it's above all joyful. His catalog is also deceptively large, especially when considering his age, which overwhelmed me a bit going into this conversation. Where do you start with someone who's been making music and writing songs at a high level since around 1995? And I guess the answer is you start at the beginning, which is what we did. But I hope longtime fans, new fans, and even people who've never given his music a shot get a lot out of this episode. Conor's a real force in music and at the risk of sounding trite.

1:21All the way from his earliest records to his latest, Five Dices, All Threes, he's done it his way on his terms. And there's a lot to respect in that. This is Broken Record. Line of notes for the digital age. I'm Justin Richmond. This is an iHeart Podcast. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at Ooclas Speedtest, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

2:09That's your business, Supercharged. Learn more at supermobile.com. Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S. where you can see the sky. Best network based on analysis by Ukla of Speedtest Intelligence Data 1H 2025. Every great music conversation goes beyond the surface. The influence that shaped an artist's sound. The moment that changed their creative direction. The story behind the story that fans never hear. Claude helps you discover those deeper connections. Upload interviews, liner notes, or music journalism, and Claude reveals patterns across an artist's entire journey, showing how influences become innovations.

2:50Whether you're a music journalist, passionate fan, or someone who loves understanding creative processes, Claude matches your curiosity about what really drives great artists. Try Claude for free at claude.ai slash brokenrecord. This episode of Broken Record is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve. Traveling is one of life's greatest joys. Honestly, can anything be more exhilarating? Well, actually, yeah, with Chase Sapphire Reserve. It's your gateway to the world's most captivating destinations. First, you will earn eight times points on all purchases through Chase Travel. And the card gets you into Sapphire Lounge by the club at select airports nationwide and access to one-of-a-kind experiences.

3:33Whether you are booking a once-in-a-lifetime trip or your next weekend escape, Discover more with Chase Sapphire Reserve at chase.com slash sapphire reserve. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval, terms apply. Here's my conversation with Connor Oberst. And to see the full video version of this episode, visit youtube.com slash brokenrecordpodcast or click the link in the episode description. You spend more time in LA these days or more in Omaha? or it's probably half and half because um we have the studio here you can't see but up through my backyard there's a a fence and uh michael moggis who's in bright eyes with me has his house and studio there so and how long have you guys had that arrangement oh i guess it was like 2006 okay yeah almost 20 years what was the first stuff you recorded there do you remember um yeah i think we recorded the tail end of casadaga which was the broad eyes record it yeah it came out i guess the next year 2007 yeah that's one of my favorite bright eyes records yeah i did see you on that tour though actually now that i now that i think about it i was the one we all had like the white suits and stuff and my friend was doing the old like hippie projection where you put the little colored water and big so yeah yeah yeah i was pseudo psychedelic stuff kind of felt like yeah these guys are up there kind of like you know the flying burrito brothers or something i love that you know i've been a fan of your output since i don't know around 2002 one or two or you know things come out piecemeal and you just kind of listen over time but you know it was interesting to be able to listen to like kind of like the whole catalog in one and like you know kind of over the course of like a week and a half and kind of like the enormity of it was like it slipped by me until until like we were about to have this conversation and i was like you know like jesus you know i'm impressed you got through i was like how old is this guy again like how does this like you know it's almost like a neil young level of output like we're just like i didn't just it escaped me how do you how do you hold that all in your your head these days i mean it's very much i wouldn't say it's a blur because i i have a lot of specific memories over the years but you know i started touring and presenting my music at like age I guess like 13 or 14 obviously like in high school we I kind of just toured in the summer and like when I could and then I went to college for like a year and so I guess like around fevers and mirrors I think I was like 19 and that's when I like I I kind of quit school and music became my full-time job and just never stopped.

6:54So I feel lucky to have the longevity. I mean, I've had older musicians sort of just tell me that there's always peaks and valleys when it comes to career things and creativity and really the ultimate triumph is just still doing it after. I'm 44 now and played too many shows to even count and made so many records with various people. So yeah, it's really been my entire life. So it's hard to know what life would be like without music. And sometimes people ask me that in the interviews. Like, if you didn't play music, what would you do? And it's like, I have no idea. I have no skills. After getting into the first couple of Bright Eyes records, I remember somehow, I don't remember how, someone burned it for me or found it at a record shop, like the Commander Venus.

8:04but the commander venus i didn't know you were 15 16 17 in that group yeah like that's crazy yeah we we made the first record there's like two commander venus records and the first one yeah i made it like when i was like 14 and tim casher's like the main guy in cursive was in that band at first and uh it was after uh valentine's day we went to like target or whatever and bought all these heart-shaped boxes and then we wrote like love letters to the record labels we liked so it was like your merch or my sweet merch my sweet man or whatever sub pop whatever we liked at the time and uh we sent it out and there was a record label long gone but called grass records from new york that put out like a lot of great records brainiac and the rins and yeah just a lot of they put out this band from omaha called mousetrap that's why they were kind of like on our radar but this woman camille who was kind of the a and r that signed bands i remember she called my parents' house.

9:19And it was like a landline. And my brother was like, Connor, you got a call. And I'm like, this is going to be on grass. I'm like, oh my God. They like listen to this. And she's talking to me. And I tell her that I'm like a 14-year-old boy. And she just like screams because she had thought that I was like a 20-year-old like female that's hilarious my voice hadn't changed

9:52yeah and that wind ends up being like wind up right yeah at a certain point which was kind of blooming mind i was looking at their catalog and it was like the same year they put out your guys second album was like there's a teddy pendergrass record a dr john record um a record from the wrens like you you'd mentioned they're on grass and then and then a creed like creed's first record came out like a month after your guys's second record it's like yeah the those like this guy alan melzer who was just a really rich guy bought the label bought grass and then like basically like got rid of most of the bands and and then obviously took it in a total different direction but he was always very sweet to me he's passed away now but i remember him showing me creed and his wife was very eccentric as well and uh they're just super new york he was like very overweight stout man and then his wife was like a you know model from the 70s that was still like anorexic they were just very crazy to look at but they would like fly me out they flew me and my girlfriend out there for like to new york for like my 18th birthday anyway they were sweet but i remember them showing me creed before it even came out and i was like i really liked them And I was like, you guys, it sounds like a really bad Pearl Jam.

11:15And I don't think it's not, you know. And the lady was like, Diana. She was like, no, he's like Jim Morrison. He's like new Jim Morrison. I was like, guys. And then sure enough, they put it out and it's like the biggest thing in the world. So another reason not to ever trust my crush. maybe not your commercial judgment but but your ears were kind of spot on and they were kind of like exactly like a bad girl jam but funny to imagine i bet yeah probably scott staff was probably telling her you know i'm the new jim morris yeah it's funny to imagine you know yeah i remember like on that trip you know just like i mean i'd been in new york but it was still So my 18th birthday, I'm with my girlfriend.

12:08They would drive around in limousines, smoking weed and stuff. And I don't know. It was just a surreal little period of time there. Where was your head at? I mean, I guess maybe even specifically on that trip, like 18, flown to New York on a label that could actually fly to New York and drive around in a limousine. What were your thoughts at that time? I mean, we, like my group of friends and all the bands that were associated with Saddle Creek, it was like all this was kind of happening at once. We had started Saddle Creek and the first record came out on that. And we were all trying to support each other and had this little scene.

12:56but then we also realized like oh we we maybe we should get on real labels was like the thinking so some of the bands started signing to other labels and then eventually we kind of like sort of i guess shortly after that came back together and decided just to like really put out our own records like um mostly i'm talking about bright eyes cursive with faint um they were kind of weird that was kind of the big three bands and yeah and then yeah it just got weird like we just we you know we grew up like there was a record store here called the antiquarium and it was like like right out of the movies like you know the old guy smoking cigarettes behind the desk like making fun of what you're trying to buy you know it was so like militant like punk rock indie rock and so you know we loved discord and we were like trying to like fight the power and stuff i'm like yeah gotta do it on our own so i actually all that stuff with like grass and wind up i was kind of like it's like i was almost like i was in enjoying it in the sense of like observing this is crazy but i was you know a little like too cool for school you know like and that was our vibe like all of our friends we were like i don't know we just thought we were like such badasses and we're like changing the world like make you know like little little engine that could from nebraska and all that stuff so i mean you kind of not wrong though you guys did have a pretty strong scene going i mean think about those three i mean the faint and uh cursive and bright eyes and you know it's like that's a pretty that's a pretty strong core you know and you as a ray and you just kind of on and on you're like wow it's like a whole yeah yeah and like the you know the bands didn't really sound like each other which i think is interesting with a lot of like scenes you know from certain areas like north carolina or washington dc you know there's like a vibe that like holds music together but i felt like what held us together was just that we were all like friends and we all were like we all realized at an early age like you know the whatever diy stuff was like that wasn't really a choice we you know we knew like no one was gonna like come find us you know so we like got in vans and drove everywhere and played you know living rooms and basements and all this like back when like you know south by still mattered and like uh what was the one college music the cnj festival in new york all that stuff like i mean it was we're talking the 90s yeah so yeah long ago how were you aware of all like the sort of industry was it just through reading magazines or like how did you know where to go to kind of be seen um i guess like we were big fans of music so it was always kind of like those labels i was mentioning before you know we listened to all those records so it was like oh i don't know like spoons playing this thing like it must be cool we gotta try to play that or you know like so it was mostly just like kind of network and then once we started traveling like you meet just a lot of musicians in different cities and so i mean for a long time we kind of booked our own things and it was like easier back then and even though it seems like it'll be easier now with the internet it was actually i think easier for us because there wasn't as much things happening or at least you didn't know about it and you know you could like if there was like a cool like you know punk rock venue in some city you could like send a cassette tape or send a cd and like someone would actually like listen to it and call you back and be you know yeah a lot a word of mouth basically and then eventually we got you know real booking agents and then that kind of changed everything because then you're playing clubs and you have guarantees and you're on you know real tour so yeah we were talking about like the immense amount of kind of stuff you've done over the years in hindsight do you think having saddle creek as kind of like a home base this kind of independent thing that you know you guys sort of all created was that to your benefit over the years like being able to work with independently as long as you did yeah i mean i think that that kind of those kind of golden years i would say between like yeah you know 1999 up through probably like sadaga and stuff it was like everyone was unified and it really felt like a collective and then like anything money and personality the label kind of ended up belonging to like this guy rob mansell who was in he was actually in commander venus um but he was kind of the one that was like organized and business minded and the rest of us were just more into making the music so at a certain point it started to feel like it didn't belong to all of us anymore and i think that's when things started to fray like i made my first solo record like on merge because i was kind of like i don't know i just didn't feel like connected to it and then been on a lot of other labels since with different projects and you know i mean i fondly look back at those times but i mean who's who's to say but i think that we missed out on some opportunities again because we are so like uh militantly independent like i remember the past of like tons of money and they were like primed to be because they were a little ahead of the dance electronic dance yeah like before killers and before like oh it's like a lot of that stuff it got really huge and and they like said no to these major labels to stay on the our label and same with me and same with him same with cursive to a certain degree so maybe we made a mistake maybe we should have like struck while the iron was hot but you know that's all i inside now i remember talking to rick rubin one time and like basically talking we were talking about the faint like how much we love the faint and he was like i tried to sign the fame i was kind of i remember being kind of shocked by that you know because i do like remember i mean listening to them when they're out it was like i didn't assume anyone i was listening to was on any major labels radar or i mean i guess it wasn't like a major major but you had like major distribution etc you know um so it's just kind of wild to hear that even at that time i was you know it was new and everyone was listening to it into underground records it was like oh shit this was on the radar of like other other people were trying to to swoop in you know Yeah, Rick's always been super cool.

20:13So actually when we were making Casadega, I was in LA before I lived there. But yeah, he sent a car down to LA and I went up to his Malibu house and did the whole thing, like playing him songs on acoustic guitar. And obviously we didn't end up working with him. but I remember I was like, we had a lot of songs recorded and he actually helped pick the ones that were going to, that were going to be on Casadega. I was like, really? Yeah. I was like, Rick, like what, you know, it's Rick Rubin. I was like, what do you think the songs? So he actually did like help pick songs for that record, which is, I hadn't thought about that till now, but, and then he's always been really cool.

20:57Like when I did some solo records at Shangri-La and when, uh, actually we made the monsters at Shangri-La, before he owned it but then i went back solo record and he cut me a good deal and he's very sweet very nice about that very nice about that was that around because i remember going to see you right after i'm wide awake it's morning came out and it was like the vibe was you know going to see bright eyes before that was like is everyone was like my age at the time or maybe a little older and then going then it was like there's like 60 year old dudes and i was like what the fuck is this you know um so i have to imagine it was maybe and you were like on the cover of rolling stone i think if i remember correctly like it was yeah that whole time with that record was you know that was obviously like the kind of commercial peak to i guess my music in general i learned a lot about kind of the way the real industry worked and yeah we were every label was trying to sign us and yeah it was like i remember the kind of fucked up thing is we you know we put out those two records on the same day so we went on the wide awake tour first playing all the songs and it was like you know felt like the beatles or something and we'd walk on stage and be like like flash flash flash flash flash craziness and then like like you know six months later we come back to these towns and like i remember in between those tours there wasn't a lot of time and the faint became our band for the digital ass shit and i remember i took all the clothes i had and threw them into a bucket and deposed one of the guys in the faint helped me dye them all black.

22:48Okay, here you go. So all my clothes are black. And we went and just basically played. I mean, we should have been smarter and played songs from both, but we were like, this is this tour. This is this tour. So we go back and people don't know. They're expecting us to play the Wide Awake stuff. Man, we had some upset ticket buyers on Digital Ash. so yeah I don't know was that the like did people feel more strongly about I'm Wide Awake than a Digital Ash oh yeah I mean as far as the general I mean that was the only record I feel like when we put well maybe lifted but when we put it out it was like I would consider like well received you know like everywhere yeah it's like all of our pretty much all my other records it seems like even to my fans like you know make these records and it's like 10 years later people are like oh my god i love like upside down mountains like one of my solo records i'm like man no one seemed to care when it came out and same with like i mean a lot of those records that's like this delayed effect to even like the fan base so i'll say i i'll be 100 honest i did not ever know about upside down mountain or listen to it until until um over the weekend yeah i think this might be my favorite album of yours that's fucking amazing yeah i mean how did i miss it 10 years ago how the fuck did i miss it yeah and i signed like none such which is like a big cool label part of warner brothers but yeah i mean that's that's sort of what i learned is like no matter i don't think i and i don't say this is like you know boohoo it's like i don't think uh my music was ever really meant to be to like achieve a certain like i've watched my friends bands and like people i know people i've toured with get way bigger than me or my bands have like as far as like where they play and how many records they sell or whatever like those sort of like um empirical data or whatever but i don't know i like that it's not it's like exists in sort of its own thing and and i've also seen a lot of bands like get real hot and then like fizzle away you know so just the fact that i'm still making records now and can go you know it's not always like tons of people but just you know to be able to play to like you know a couple thousand people in like most cities in like you know maybe not the whole world but you know a good amount i'm sure right i mean so that in itself i guess is like a achievement you know so that's well yeah i mean i don't know it would seem kind of sad if you only had like a few records and then kind of like everything else like the quality dropped off and and but i mean it's like like i said like listening to it was a real like mind fuck like jesus christ like you know it really is like listening to like neil's young's catalog or something like there's shit that's like wildly different but it's all kind of of a certain quality none of it's like there's like a baseline quality for everything nothing's like trash you know and then there's some stuff that's just like like upside down mountain it was just like a complete surprise like i just didn't know about it and i didn't know i don't know what single thing about jonathan wilson but i was just kind of checking him out this week and because i was just like that record blew me away yeah um yeah thank you very much that's uh yeah he's a he's a magical man he spent the last like few years playing in roger waters band and like the big crazy world tour and he uh he did uh david gilmore's like arts like sang the fucking like teenage dream come true for wilson he was like in pink floyd for like that's insane yeah did you check the show out or you know i i'm i've regret it to this day he like i had like a standing like come to any show but like i just i was never in like the right city when it was happening i should have just flown to do it because everyone that saw i was like oh my god it's like it's the craziest thing um but i kind of blew it but yeah i've i've heard a lot about stories about it so yeah i just saw david gilmore for the first time a week ago.

27:40And that really blew me away. I wasn't expecting it to be that incredible. Was it good? It was really good. It was like really, really good. Yeah, that's a strange thing that they both tour and kind of play the same songs. Yeah, and I think they hate each other. I mean, it's not like I take a side. I just, you know, he was around and actually had time. So I was like, let me go see what it's like. And it was incredible. But yeah, now I want to see Roger Waters and see what that you know because i know i don't even know if he's gonna do that anymore but he was like flying the pig out like over the crowd like the whole thing was i wanted to see that you know yeah they they were describing like the the well visual part and like even like this like the pa it was like something crazy like like the you know biggest like most like hi-fi like pa like ever like used kind of thing like he's like you know he's he's always been like i don't know i think into like technology and like the next thing so i think uh yeah now i'm just getting more sad that i didn't go but oh man sorry would you would you do another record with him or or oh for sure yeah he um we used to actually be roommates in la and then he he moved to Topanga and built like a cool studio out there so I want to it'd be great to go make a record there sometime that's cool the new record's really cool too I particularly love fell in love with the second half of it I kind of got stuck on a loop with the first half of it when it first came out then I graduated finally to the second half and I think like it just is like it's really good man thank you listening back you've collaborated with a lot of people i mean you have alex orange drink who you're co-writing a lot of this record with you haven't really done a full album where you're co-writing with someone on a bright eyes record before right yeah not on a not on a bright eyes record i mean other than sometimes musical stuff that nate and and mogis do but um yeah i mean i've been in obviously like just as part just parcido's and like the better oblivion community center with phoebe and monsters of folk so i've been in collaborations but yeah brad eyes for a long time was just i just would bring the songs completed and then we'd arrange them together and yeah this one just it was kind of just happenstance like alex was staying with me in LA and just I don't know I was kind of in a weird spot and wasn't really writing and he got the ball rolling and so yeah he's a big reason why the record got made you know so were you even thinking about writing or were you like trying to write and couldn't and that's how it wasn't really thinking about it I was just like I don't know I go sometimes I go through well a lot of you know mental whatever, ups and downs.

31:03I definitely suffer from what's the point of all this. Not just music, but everything. Of all of life? Yeah, basically. I've always been like that, so it's not really anything new. Sometimes, yeah, I get a little paralyzed. and you gotta it's why it's good to have friends to shake you out of it you know get back at it yeah yeah does it still take you by surprise like when when that happens like that feeling yeah yeah I mean I think music is a to me it's still like a mystery because it's like if I could sit down and write a great song that I was proud of like every day I'd be doing it you know but I just it's not it doesn't work that way it's kind of you gotta like wait for like the tide to come in and like it's all like waves and you know a lot of it I find that like I don't really write if I'm having like a sort of heightened emotional or like mental experience good or bad i don't really i don't feel like writing it's more like in like the ordinary times when i have the ability to like look back at things and see it from a more like objective state of mind i like i like to write lyrics from that place because well I just think they're better um I mean I have written songs like when in the height of whatever being in despair or like being in love or something you know but I feel like I always end up like worse than the ones that are a little more like I mean not like clinical, but just like have like a perspective that, you know, I don't know.

33:09A little after the fact. Yeah, exactly. Are there songs that have made records that have been written at the highest highs or lowest lows? Sure. I'm trying to think like, well, I mean, one kind of obvious example is that when the president talks to God, I just wrote that as like, I was pissed off and it was like a commercial for like a way of thinking. It's not a good song at all. But it was like, I was booked on Jay Leno and I was like, I want to do something. I don't want to just like play first day of my life. You know what I mean? and I was like, I thought things mattered in the political world.

33:59So yeah, I got my tour manager at the time. I did the sound check for that, just in my hoodie, normal, me. And then in between that and the show, I was like, Bill, this guy Bill Sullivan was my tour manager at the time. I was like, Bill, man, I don't know about this. Can you get me a cowboy suit? And he's like, we were in LA, so he's like, you know, it's easy to get. Easy order. Yeah, so I put on rhinestones and went out there. And my theory was like, I'm singing this song. It's like anti-Bush song. And there'll be like some guy in like the Midwest or the South, like kind of half-washing Jay Leno.

34:43It's like, you know, real quiet. And be like, hey, honey. And like, this guy looks all right. turn this up so I don't know do you remember what the reception to that was? I mean it was just like you'd expect the people that were on that side of the political divide thought it was great and everyone that wasn't just tried their best to make fun of It was me and me and all that stuff, you know. And that was like, I mean, that was right in the middle of kind of like wide awake. So it was pretty, it was a lot of whatever, I guess, people with opinions around that time. We'll be right back with more from Connor Oberst after the break.

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38:19The standard Lexus has set for themselves is to experience amazing. Lexus measures success by the feeling and emotions evoked in a driver, like exhilaration and joy. Amazing can only be achieved by knowing people on a deeper level. The standard of amazing results in a feeling in drivers that their car was built in anticipation of them. Machines that make you feel more human. Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. Experience amazing at your Lexus dealer. We're back with more from Connor Oberst. do you remember people saying you're like the second coming of bob dylan

39:00um uh yes and you know obviously we all know that that's like a ridiculous thing to to say about anyone and then said about a lot of people actually my booking agent who's been my booking agent for like 20 years he gave me this it was like from the new york post and it was like around at the same time it was like a framed article or you put it in a frame like article it just said picture of me and it said dylan wannabe so i got that like framed there's a lot of those too so that's cool but yeah um that guy is one of a kind so i don't think there's any worry about that yeah i guess i mean i remember even just thinking like wow how do you you know like getting like the attention the record was getting the critical and sort of the polarizing opinion of like when the president talks to god and then like yeah just being called like the new it was just like wow that is fucking nuts you know yeah it was it was definitely like you know a mind fuck for sure and just like i mean i'm kind of lucky i feel like because what happened to me was like every stage is it was very gradual from like you know commander venus high school all the way everything kind of kept building and so it wasn't like it was an overnight thing because i think that's what really makes people go crazy like i just every record we put out like sold a little more and the two the shows got a little bigger so i guess by the time that was happening i was somewhat prepared for it already but it was still still very surreal and um you know also like that realization at some point that it's like this is my livelihood and it's like also like you know to some degree it's a business like a lot of people you know count on me to make music because i make money that they need you know yeah yeah i'm like it's like a weird you know you lose a lot of innocence and so you it's like you gotta i try to like replenish that somehow how much do you think about that like the the i guess just the way that people might depend on you the way people would depend on a corporation for a But, you know, it's like not that they depend on you in a bad way, but how often do you think about that?

41:40Like that there are people who. I mean, I think about it a lot. You know, when we tour, it's like there's obviously the band, but there's all kinds of people that work on the tours and the labels, too. You know, I'm not really like working for any kind of faceless thing that I can be like, I don't care what happens to them. you know yeah like all like intertwined with my actual life so yeah there's times when i would maybe not do something but it's like people need like people need the money mogis is always worried about me mogis has things going on though right yeah no he does those guys those guys can um i mean they don't need me but uh yeah it's like my dad's like been my business like he used to work at mutual home when i was a kid and then as soon as i got enough stuff going on because he already did my taxes just because he's like my dad you know yeah um but i like i was like i everyone was like you need a business manager and like you know there's people that'll do that for like five percent of your income that's what most people do and i don't know if i want a stranger like with all my bank passwords and all my stuff you know my mortgages and shit you know so i was like dad you you just i'll pay you salary you do this and so he quit his job i mean i was probably like yeah around then 2004 or five You know, and he'd been going to that same sad building for like my whole life.

43:29So that's the one thing I'm like proud of that he just got to like, you know, deal with my stuff and like have like more time to chill. And he likes being around, you know, he likes to know like what's up with the music. And, you know, were your parents music people? My dad was a musician. yeah he like played in like i mean i guess semi-professionally because it was like his side gig to his actual job but he would play like in like wedding bands and you know it's like cover bands and uh my mom was never a musician but there was always music at my house and my oldest brother played in bands so i was lucky i didn't have to like go you know search you know i didn't like get my first guitar there was just like guitars in my house like from when i was born so it was did everyone have different music like your three brothers and your mom and dad like did everyone have their own kind of thing they were listening to yeah i mean my mom and dad you know they were fully like right there like 70s full you know jackson brown joni mitchell neil young all that type of thing and dire straits and steely dan and my oldest brother maddie was like into like you know i guess 80s alternative you know rem smith's cure uh whatever all that kind of like 120 minutes like and that so but he was like six years older than me so and then my brother Justin who's real close in age we kind of liked all that stuff but then we sort of found like the North Carolina stuff like Super Chunk and like the DC stuff and I don't even remember all the things but that was like things we learned about at the record store and then also like older records like getting into like pounds van zandt and john prine and leonard cohen you know things that were of the time that my parents would listen to but they weren't really that hip you know they kind of knew commercial stuff but right i don't want to let this i want to go um i want to talk about some songs for the new record but i want to go back to i feel like i let it drop did you write when the president talks to god for like that was specifically for that I guess it wasn't for Leno, but it was after the election.

46:11I actually went to Europe to do press for the two records, Wide Awake and Visual Ash. It was a press tour, but I was playing little acoustic shows as part of the press stuff. I remember I wrote it on a ferry because I wanted to play something that acknowledged it because I don't know if you remember back then, but I guess it's a good lesson for right now. It felt like the end of the world. I had gone on tour with Springsteen and R.E.M., Vote for Change. We were calling hard for Carrie, if you can imagine that.

46:57But yeah, it was all anyone wanted to talk about. was like how crazy it was that Bush got reelected, you know? And now we've just, now you look back at Bush and you're like, oh, the good old days. I know. It's so quaint, man. It's like, what the fuck? Yeah. And then like when I was like, I'll be like right, you know, close to when I got back. It was definitely like the Wide Awake tour because I remember because they were like, really want me to play First Day of My Life. And I was like, no, I want to play this song. And they're like, it's not on record. And it kind of went up the chain of command.

47:45But yeah, so it went up and they cleared it. And I remember that night before the show, or before the taping, Leno came and knocked on the door. And he was like, very nice. He's like, yeah, I heard the song you're going to play. He told me a story about him and stand-up comedians touring along the Canadian border during the Vietnam War and all this stuff. I was like, damn, all right, Jay. I always remember being surprised. I always heard that from people that played that show. And they would play Letterman. I was always a Letterman fan, but I always heard from people that played the shows. Letterman would drop in and talk to you and hang.

48:27and like it was like the opposite you know with letterman i guess you expect yeah i played letterman like many times and yeah you don't see him he's only like says hi to you on stage all those guys are you know different levels of like engagement i guess i mean conan's my favorite as like a person he's just cool yeah alan's really nice i mean they're all nice kim was like they're they're they're all good very political answer we like them all i like them but they like me you know yeah exactly what was it like hanging with springsteen on that vote for change tour it was amazing um same kind of thing in the first show we were super nervous and he came to our dressing room was just like so what happened to have you here and he would go out like because it was us REM and then fucking East Street bands pretty crazy and we were part of this vote for change so we were doing shows as like a three band thing but they were like Pearl Jam I think was like with like My Morning Jacket I mean it was like a whole thing like all the tours were like I mean it was really organized and people put a lot of like blood sweat and tears you know i mean like the iraq war and you know it was like it really did feel like we're making a stand but he came out and would introduce us like before we went on stage he would be like go because he usually doesn't only have a lot of opening people normally um he just plays for like four hours but like a special thing so but he's like talk to the audience he's like these are my friends from nebraska and this is a no brucing zone because i guess they yell bruce and it sounds like the booing that's like you're right bruce sounds like right um oh he yeah he was very very gracious that is like maybe the most gracious man in rock and roll you know did you get to talk about like like did he listen to your records and yeah i mean i i don't know how much she's listened to our records but i've seen him um you know since then like came through omaha once and like invited me down and like i sang a song with him and um like in omaha and then like what did you sing uh thunder road and i was like oh my he's like he's like look he showed me like their set list and he's like like you know I love Thunder Road but I'm like wow there's a lot of words you know I think it wasn't my finest hour I'm like I should have picked Dancing in the Dark Did your dad see that?

51:29Yeah I think so actually That's probably a pretty proud dad moment right there Yeah And we also got to play a couple times the bridge school the thing that Neil Young does shit that's right i saw monsters and folk at bridge school like yeah and you know that back then um i don't even know if they do it anymore um but uh since they passed they don't yeah they don't do that anymore sadly used to go on the tongue but yeah the thing is you would go on friday night we did it once friday and then did it with monster poke but you go on friday night to the ranch and everyone hangs out and then saturday and sunday you play the show as a way to kind of like deflate egos and everyone you know so you're also just like hanging out in neil young's house you know which is like pretty cool but one year i think it was the monsters of folk here like my parents came out and they gotta like go to neil's house and like kick it so that I got some some sun points for that one.

52:33Oh, yeah, yeah. It's kind of wild that, you know, I mean, Neil doesn't even tour that much anymore. It's just kind of, so it's like everyone's just kind of like going away. It's just like, eh. Seems like every day something else. Quincy, John. I mean, just like, I mean, I guess it makes sense. All that era is like getting into like 80s and 90s and stuff. I mean, the john prine one got me pretty hard because i'd done a bunch of shows with tan and he's like coolest guy wow like yeah it's like the whole pandemic there was they were everyone's dropping my flies i know how did you survive the pandemic i was well um took it very seriously i didn't At the time, I was, like, living with my girlfriend in L.A., and we just, we were, like, holed up at the house, you know, like, everyone ordering food and could go, like, drive, like, right before, like, grocery stores would close, you know?

53:41It's, like, you know, like, right at the end and, like, run in and grab stuff, and I mean, it was just, like, it was such a, yeah. I don't know. Times are, I guess, living in interesting times. I heard someone put it that way. It's like, for sure. After the break, we'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Connor Oberst. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at OOCLAS Speedtest, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

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