"Simon Le Bon"

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0:55Do you know that often, often, When I'm driving on Sunday night to our Sunday night dinner that we all do together with our fans and stuff. You'll rock out to Duran Duran? I'll rock out to Hungry Like the Wolf. You have to film that next time. As I'm driving through the hills. It makes me feel good. That's why you always walk in with a glow stick between your teeth.

1:19That's why I'm always wearing like pastels under a blazer with shoulder pads. Your Tonsor Tons jacket. Yeah. That's why you walk in with two hookers on either side of you. By the way, speaking of walk, my hamstring, I'm having major hamstring issues. Yeah, when did this start and why? I don't know. I think it's, I hate to say, I think it's golf related. It's a golf injury. That's up there with a sleeping injury. Well, Jason, you had your back golf injury last week. Right, but I usually hurt my back doing things like tying my shoes or toweling off after a shower. It's, we've come to that year. Toweling somebody off after a shower?

2:00Or just myself. Oh, okay. I don't know. Because I'm a little wet right now, if you want to just drive me off. Wait, Jake, how long do you have... Wait a second, we're going to clip that for sure. I'm a little wet right now? Well, I meant from the shower, from the shower, water. So, Jason, how long do you have to stop playing golf for your back to get better? It's been a week, and today I'm going to break the mold. It's been a week back. A week back. It's raining. No, it stopped. Take a look. I have a window in my room. No, it's going to be a shit day. You're going to have a terrible day, and you're going to re-break your back is my prediction.

2:37I'm doing prediction. How are your hamstrings, Angel? The hamstrings suck. How do you hurt your hamstrings playing golf? You know what? It's been a nagging thing that's been kind of, I've had it sort of strained a few times over the last two years. Is it a disc thing in your back that goes down your... I don't think so. I think it's an actual just hamstring thing. And I think that's probably a non-properly stretching thing. And I do a lot of, I do that hill. If we were smart, if we were smart, the three of us being of a certain age, right, north of 50, we would do the thing that we hate, which is yoga.

3:09If we did yoga, we would have such a more pleasant aging process, I think. I used to, one of the best, I did yoga a little bit, but Pilates, I did Pilates about 10 years ago for about six months. In addition to the regular sort of working out, I did that. I was stacking. Before stacking was a thing, I was stacking. And it was great. I felt so much better doing that. I know, but it takes a lot of discipline to... And also, I can't stand sweating because I'm stretching. It's like being stuck in a hot car with windows that won't come down and a door lock that is broken. It's like, can I? I'm sweating.

3:50I want to be doing something active. I feel the same. I feel the same way. Except not when you're in the sauna, you're sweating and you're not active. That's true. That's the sort of a contradiction that for some reason I'm okay with. But like if you're moving furniture or doing like a strenuous activity or something, you're sweating, I get really irritable fast. Yes. Yeah. I always feel like, and this is going to be controversial, but oftentimes it reminds me of like when I'm in England and it's cool out. and I feel like everywhere inside is very stuffy and hot. I always feel like I'm wearing a jacket and then I'm inside and I'm just, and it's stuffy inside.

4:24How about in Europe? The look on Jason's face. Every time you're in England, what the fuck? Do you work for the government? What are you talking about? When are you in England? I spend a lot of time in England. How about, wait, how about when you're in England or Europe or whatever and you ask for a Coca-Cola, they don't give you ice. And it's like 110 out. I don't know how they've never experimented with how things taste better with ice. Things. Carbonated beverages. It's true. I used to put ice in my beer. You've never experimented. I mean, like, it's indisputable that a room temperature Coca-Cola tastes world's worse.

5:01I was at a restaurant once, and it was in Italy, and it was quite warm out. And I said, can I get a Coke? And the guy brought me a warm Coke. And I looked at him, and I said, do you want me to barf? I mean Hey guy I know I don't understand it But anyway I don't know Anyway It's a long way from there From my hamstring But I do have it wrapped right now Okay Did you go to the doctor? No Doctor You wrapped it yourself? Yeah Well yeah I wrapped it myself Yeah it is He wraps I didn't have some I want to wrap right now My name is Will My name is Will with a W Before the X, Y, Z And after the T and U You know What?

5:41Oh, wait. Hang on a sec, Sean. I think what we've just stumbled on here is a rap that Will has always had since he was a kid. And there's probably music that goes with it. Oh, my God. Now, would you like us to do the beat? My name is Will with a W before the X, Y, Z, after the T in you. You hear my deaf rhyme. It's coming prime time. No. How many times have the boys heard that on the way to school? What do you mean write it? I just said it. He grabs the microphone, too, like he's shaking a hand. But you put effort into that. No, I didn't. No, no, no. I said it out loud once in the car, and then I just said it to myself as like a dumbest, you know, freestyle of all the time.

6:24Well, at some point, Sean, we're going to get into your pop career. Somebody's got to. Somebody's definitely got to, but I'm too hamstrung to do it. I tell you who's not hamstrung. I tell you who's not hamstrung. This is a segue. This is a really good segue. I feel like my segues are getting worse. I was going to say better, but now that I think about it, it seems like they're worse. You know, our... I'm not hamstrung by the talent of our guest, and neither is he. Oh. This person is kind of known for his voice. Oh. In a way, and he's been known for his voice for so long, in so many iconic ways.

7:09This is one of my bucket list guests. Paul Rubens. Paul Rubens. Who I have not stopped talking about and quoting and singing and listening to and talking for years and years and years. I've bored you guys with it. And I've just always wanted to know. They played, he has played such a huge part in my musical experience throughout my life in so many different ways and different incarnations. Bon Iver. Again, one of our guests who, once I start to list things off, you're just going to immediately know who it is, even though you guys already... He has done it all. He's an Englishman who, along with his buddies Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, decided to create a little band called Duran Duran.

7:51It's Simon LeBron. Simon LeBron! Will, how do you do it, Will? Oh, my God. Oh, that's so cool. How are you, fellas? Nice to meet you. Wait, Simon, how do you know Will Arnett? He doesn't. Will, how do you know Simon? I mean, I know you're a fan of Simon. That's a great question. It's completely irrelevant because we don't know each other. That's right. I just got a call from the production company offering me a huge obscene amount of money to do your podcast. If they pay me that much, how can they possibly make a tweet? It's out of my own pocket. I went out of my own pocket for this. Simon, I've been trying to get you on the podcast since we started we've had to cut out clips of your music just because of publishing and royalties reasons I would constantly come on to the show playing Dren Dren I'm such a massive fan we all are massive fans it's such an honor to have you here I've seen you in concert like two or three times and it just blows me away every time so Simon Le Bon we're coming back we're back on tour in America this year Right, well, don't push it.

9:02I'm not trying to flog it to you. I'm coming. I'll come. Are you playing at the Tabasco Theatre? Aren't we? No, that's where Sean is. Do you mean I've got to look at my itinerary? No, no, no. Sean is playing at the Belasco Theatre. His new play, Goodnight Oscar, opens in April at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway. Oh, the Belasco, not the Tabasco. Not the Tabasco. On Broadway. Jason was just being cheeky, as you might say. We have played at the Belasco. Have you? And New York? And it's next door to the Mayan, isn't it? I've never been there. I leave in a week. I think it's next door. We've played at both the Belasco and the Mayan Theatre.

9:41So downtown LA. Or is it downtown? No, this is in New York. Oh, we played at the other Belasco. Right, yeah. Belasco 2. Belasco 2. You've played everywhere. First of all, you have a new record, and you guys are going on tour. Last year, you did some dates at... Did you do four shows at the Hollywood Bowl? Am I right about that? We did three. Three. Three amazing shows. The first one, it was absolutely pissing with rain. Really? Oh, really? And it was, but rain shows are always special ones. But in Los Angeles, rain falls like chemicals from the sky for people in Los Angeles. Everybody scurries.

10:21Is that why everybody runs around with their tongue sticking out? Oh, it's just... People just don't know what to do with it. I always say that rain in L.A. is a chance for all the people on the west side to get out their fancy all-weather clothing. Get to accessorize. It starts to drizzle and people have their great boots. Yeah. Fucking hooded coats. And the safari vehicle. And the snow tires. Just to make it to Trader Joe's. And the safari vehicle with the snow tires on them. The chains come out. and a rhubarb on the front. So, Simon, we're going to get into how you guys became what you became and who you became in terms of, you know, musically and what an influence you are.

11:04But I kind of want to get back to the start because I know so little about it. I want to know... This is so thrilling. It's such an unbelievable thrill. You started as an actor. You went to drama school. Is that right? I started as an acting student. as a student actor. I mean, I had a few roles. I did a few things. I was more of an advert kid. You know, I did like personal adverts. That's like washing powder. I did a few commercials and I did a run at a theater in the West End when I was a teenager. But I was an aspirant actor and I went to university and I studied acting That's so crazy, I never knew that.

11:53And at the same time, I met a bunch of guys called Duran Duran who were looking for, wait for it, a lead singer. And I had had my own punk band. Well, me and my three mates, we'd had a punk band. Back in Pinner, the little suburban town that I grew up in. Yeah. And I fitted right into Duran Duran. Well, how did you know you could sing? Did you audition for it? Well, because I was always a singer. Oh, you were always a singer too. Yeah, I was singing from the cradle. I sang in church choir. I used to do singing competitions. I got a guitar and I started to talk myself to play guitar. Well, actually, no, Mr.

12:38Shuri, the folk guitarist who gave 10 lessons at the school I went to taught me how to play guitar. And I learned the rest of it. I learned to play. Slow down, you move too fast. You gotta make the morning lustrous Kicking down the cobblestones Looking for fun and feeling groovy That's the reach right there. If you can hit that, then you can sing. You pick the right octave, right? You're one of those few singers, too, because of the training and stuff. And I said this to another friend of mine that sings. You have the proper training to know how to use it so you can tour and you can do night after night and you can sing properly, as they say, where other people who don't scream, lose their voice, and they don't know how to take care of it.

13:20Isn't that true? Well, I make no mistake, I used to go out on tour and scream and lose my voice. I think we all did. A lot of us did in the early days. Mainly because we didn't have ear monitors, so we were competing with the guitar. You know, you can only turn the vocal monitors up so loud before they start feeding back. So there's a point at which you can't amplify the voice on the stage any higher. And of course, the guitar can just get louder and louder and louder and louder until the only way you can hear yourself singing is if you shriek your head off. We were also, don't forget, in a lot of places, we were competing with tens of thousands of screaming teenagers, many of them female, with very loud, high voices.

14:16And one in the way back. And then there was Sean. And one bloke. That was you, was it? And one young... I bet you had a great time. With a smoky eye. He was ready. Who had just come from behind the soda machine from a make-out session with another guy. But wait, so Simon... By the way, were you always like... True, by the way. It was true. Were you giving sort of shitty glances over to the guy who was it, Andy Taylor on guitar at that point? Were you kind of like, hey, man, tone it down? Yeah, well, I mean, I knew that it wouldn't make any difference what I said to him. So, I mean, honestly, you know.

14:54I love learning what the ear monitor is for because I feel like that's a recent thing, those ones that are formed right to your ear, like that's over the last like 10 years. Well, the first time, no, no, they're older than that. You'd be surprised. The first time we went on tour and I had ear monitors was 1993. 1993. 1993. 1993, so we've had them for 30 years. When you first got it, were you like, oh, man, this is... It was extraordinary. I could just turn the guitar down, so there was none of it at all in my ears. And then, of course, if you take all the other instruments out, you sing out of tune, so that's no good.

15:35But I found, you know, you learn to make a really good balance of the things that are in your head. And it works. And it is much easier to save your voice. what's more satisfying when when a huge crowd uh starts singing the words that that that you're singing like they know the song they love the song or when they're completely silent and they're just totally engaged and uh you have them in the palm of your hand and they're listening to you doing your great singing like i've always wondered that um well the way you put it makes it sound a little egotistical. Me listening, them listening to my great singing.

16:15This is a safe zone. This is a safe zone. So it's not really like that. See, what they do, really, is that they sing along with the big old favourite songs, songs like Hungry Like the Wolf, Planet Earth, Come Undone, World. And the list does go on. It does, man. they sing along with those ones. But when we play new music, especially sort of like the new ballads and things, so off our latest album, which, by the way, is entitled Future Past. Future Past. That's when they listen because they're not so familiar with the songs. So you get that chance with the new album, with the new material, you get that chance to just, for them to hear it the way you want them to hear it.

17:09Yeah. And we will be right back. Smartless listener, we get support from ZipRecruiter. And now back to the show. Can I ask a dumb question? Duran Duran means what? Well, it's like Smith Smith. Duran is the most common name in France. Well, it's the second most common name actually because the most common one is Dupont. But we didn't like the sound of Dupont, Dupont. Right. Duran, Duran, Duran. I'm looking for Duran, Duran from Planet Earth. Remember that? That was Jane Fonda. I'm looking for Duran, Duran from Planet Earth. Duran, Duran from Planet Earth. Yes, Duran, Duran from Planet Earth. from which we got the band name and the name of our first single.

18:04Gotcha. And the name of your first record, Duran Duran, obviously, and was Planet Earth the first single from... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't actually take that from the Roger Vadim film, Barbarola. You did not? No. No, it was only afterwards when we watched the film again that we realized that the title of our first single was in it. It was a wonderful coincidence. Yeah, because that's the character's name in the film, right? So Milo O'Shea played a character called Duran Duran. And he had done a bit of a... He was a scientist, but he'd done a naughty bunk with some kind of pleasure machine. And also this deadly weapon called the positronic ray.

18:55Anyway, this old pervert back in the Earth Foundation got the youngest, most attractive astronaut, which is Jane Fonda, as Barbarella, to go out and find it. I've got to see this movie. I've heard about it for years. It's a wonderful film. If you haven't watched it recently, watch it. Jason hasn't seen it. What's the name of the movie? Barbarella. It's called Barbarella. You've heard of that, right, Sean? It's a very famous film. Yeah, of course. And then Pam Anderson remade it, I think. Did she really? Did she? Maybe I got that wrong. Maybe it was a different girl's name. Chances are high. Chances are high.

19:29Sean just likes to throw things out there. So Simon, so you do, so Dren, and the character's name, it was Drennd Drennd, right? If I'm not mistaken, with the D on the end? Is it? I think so. Anyway, which gives you even more. What a disappointment. No, no, I'm sorry to, oh my gosh, I can't believe I just broke that to Simon LeBron. You know, because John and Nick were sitting there, see, in their Birmingham living room watching the movie, and all I could hear was Duran Duran C. Right. That was the name of the band at the time. So you guys formed Duran Duran, Planet Earth a big hit and then if I'm not mistaken, was Girls on Film also on that first record?

20:11I think it was, yeah? Yeah, it was, yeah. And you guys, that was one of, that video and I don't know if you guys remember, that video was like really too hot for American audiences. Yes, I remember that. Right? Walk us through that a little bit. What we did was we made two versions of that video. And it was Kevin Godley and Lowell Kareem were the video directors. We made one version which was quite tame and you could put it on MTV during sort of family hours. And then the other version, the night version, which was a longer video and we actually wrote an extended piece of music for it. That was, you could only see that on video jukeboxes.

20:56Oh, wow. Rock America video jukeboxes in nightclubs around the United States. And speaking of which, night versions, you guys actually, and I found this out just, you guys went and remixed all your own songs and did night versions so that they, am I right about that? No, we didn't remix them. We re-recorded them. So we actually recorded longer versions. We didn't just cut and paste the, which you couldn't do that anyway. Right. Because it was all on tape. It was all on magnetic tape. We didn't try to kind of copy anything and stick it on later. We wrote 12-minute versions of the song, of all the songs that we did like versions to.

21:42So that it would lend itself better to sort of dance clubs and whatnot, as opposed to... Yeah, because that was the only way we could do it. That was the only way we knew how to make long versions, 12-inch records, was to go back in and record them as 12 inches. Isn't that amazing? And so they have this whole, you can go and you can look it up, and they've got all the release of all these night versions of these extended versions that I did not know that you rewrote and re-recorded, which is pretty heavy lifting. I know, but that was just the job that there was to do. And if you listen to the Girls on Film version, the Girls on Film night version, it has a completely different last verse.

22:24Oh, really? Yeah. It goes, how's it go? God. Take one last glimpse into the night. I'm touching close, I'm holding right. Shudders in a whisper, I'm coming closer. Take me high till I'm shooting a star. Only it was more like, shooting a star! That's the backup section. Oh, sorry, Mom. Am I going on a bit too long? Did you, did you, I've always wanted to know, whose laugh is at the beginning of Hungry Like the Wolf, which is one of my favorite intros to a song ever. Yeah. That actually was, it was a girlfriend. Her name was Cheryl. She was my girlfriend. and then funny things that happened in this life, she became Nick's girlfriend.

23:15No way. No way. How did that happen? I would imagine that's not the only time that happened. You guys have been together for quite some time. Really? Okay, we're going to move right along now. Speaking of being together for a long, long time, you guys have been making music for so long and been relevant for so long and been able to do what it is you want to do for so long for such a great big audience. what is the process of staying true to where you guys want to go changing your musical sound and and and having that kind of progress and then also trying to stay as aware of and is in touch with as possible what the what the what the the changing of music uh is in in popular music you know like there was a time when it was all the music the instruments were plugged in and then they were not plugged in and then there was more like you know how does that how does that go or guys just make music for you and hope that it catches on i think you've got to there's a couple of ground rules here number one is you can't you can't follow trends yeah um you can't make you can't be following a trend as your major um kind of writing um inspiration that cannot be your major inspiration um you have to make music that you like that you enjoy otherwise there will be no passion in it and and people can hear they can hear the difference between something that you really mean and something you're just that you're just going through the motions with and i but also i think you've got to be aware of where music is at the moment i mean and and i think and we all are and we always have been we you know there's stuff that we did in the 1980s we never dream of doing now because it just wouldn't be relevant to us now.

25:04What do you do when your taste in where things have gone is not aligned with your bandmates? What is that kind of creative negotiation like as you guys are starting to work out a new song? Well, you know, there has been times when somebody's gone in the studio, laid down some parts and somebody's come in after them and laid down completely contradicting parts that don't work with the ones that went down before. Right. The strong usually survives. That'd be the strong music or the strong personality? Yeah, the strong, oh, the music. Definitely the music. And what are the politics of that like? Like sort of navigating that within the band?

25:43Well, nobody's got any, there's nobody whose opinion is more important than anybody else's. You know, we don't have that. It's got to be hard, though. And, you know, when you went off and went solo on projects, I've always wondered, what is that dynamic? How do you have that conversation? Like, guys, I love you, but I'm going to go do this for a second. Do they have any animosity? Well, none of us have really gone solo. Oh, I thought you had solo stuff. No, not really. I've done a couple of things. Nick and I did the Arcadia project. Oh, yeah. John and Andy did the Power Station project. That's right, Power Station.

26:18And Roger, God bless him, he did drums on both projects. Oh, wow. Okay. So he's the only guy who was in both Power Station and Arcadia. Yeah, I love both. By the way, the fact that you guys weren't named the Taylors is incredible, considering it's Roger, Andy, and John in the band. All unrelated. All unrelated. Unrelated, yeah. That is one. Taylor, John. Yeah. So you guys do, you and Nick do the Arcadia thing. Those guys go and do Power Station. Yeah. And then sort of five years later, you guys, you do the wedding album, is that right? No, it wasn't quite like that. So we did Seven of Ragged Tiger, went on tour throughout sort of 84.

27:05Then we got back together and we did View to a Kill. Oh, yes. And that was the last recording that the original five members made before the hiatus and Power Station and Arcadia. Then Power Station and Arcadia happened and then we got back together, but in the getting back together, it turned out that ultimately we would only have, well, not ultimately, but when we tried to get back together to reconvene the original Juran Juran, we weren't able to get Andy Taylor back in the band really and definitely weren't able to get Roger Taylor back. So Andy was kind of in it and kind of out of it. Roger was definitely out of it.

27:52And sort of after a while we realised that it would be, you know, it would be me and Nick and John. Andy wasn't going to be a guitarist and Roger was not going to be our drummer. So we looked for other guys to work with. and quite happily we really kind of developed our friendship and working relationship with Niall Rogers at that time and that's when we kind of had the Notorious album. That's what made that. Is there a story you can share that you're comfortable sharing about why those two guys weren't able to come back in that new incarnation? Well, yeah, sure. Roger, he really had... It all became a bit too much for Roger.

28:39I don't know the exact term for the psychological problem that he was having. It wasn't a nervous breakdown. But something happened to him and the anxiety was too much for him. And he wasn't able to carry on with the band. and Andy just wanted to be a rock and roller and he just didn't think that Duran Duran was the right vehicle for the kind of music he wanted to make at that time. You know, he went off and he recorded the band Thunder and he did some of his own rock records, heavy sort of American style rock record, whereas we wanted to be Duran, the rest of us wanted to be Duran Duran. Yeah.