The Sound of Young America is supported in part by Smith Micro Software,

makers of Stuff It Deluxe, designed to move files simply and securely wherever customers want

them to go, for Mac and PC, online at StuffIt.com, and Ask MetaFilter.

Thousands of life's little questions answered, online at Ask.Metafilter.com.

I'm Jesse Thorne, live on tape from My House in Los Angeles. It's the Sound of Young America

from MaximumFund.org and PRI, public radio, international.

Have you ever met one of your heroes? It can be a really transformative experience in a good way

or in a bad way or in just sort of a confusing way. Comedian Greg Barrett told us the story of the

time that he met one of his heroes, Diamond Dave, David Lee Roth, the frontman of Van Halen.

It turns out that the way that one evaluates one's heroes changes when you're 45 relative to

when you're 15. Here's Greg Barrett, recorded live at the Sound of Young America Presents

Laugh Night at Artshare in Los Angeles. So I liked Van Halen as a, like when I was young,

and my band was Van Halen, and this was PRI, everything that you all have. So you just had your

album covers, really, to look at the band and then at the handful of magazines. You didn't spend a

lot of time with them. And for me, Van Halen was transitioning from being a jock sort of into

this world where the leader of this particular group had the freedom to assume me. I could never

figure him out. I couldn't figure out David Lee Roth, because on one level there was a bravado

and the content of the song says, I like women, you know, but then the spandex, pants, and the furry

ski boots made you curious, hmm, really, like I'm not sure where you're coming from. I like the

progressive idea happening here. I love that you're challenging me with a furry boot, you know,

and a spandex pen. Oh, look at that. You've got a shap on with no back end. There's a bottom

showing in the, I think it was women and children first album came with a poster of David Lee Roth

...