Ed Robertson: Don’t Let Revenge Breed Resentment
Mayim Bialik's Breakdown
Mayim Bialik
4.8 • 5.9K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2023
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ed Robertson (Barenaked Ladies) breaks down his songwriting process for The Big Bang Theory and our very own MBB podcast theme songs! He opens up about his musical influences, his struggles with insecurities and imposter syndrome, and the shocking, fascinating story of how he came up with the TBBT theme. Ed reflects on growing up with an alcoholic father and how he learned to navigate their relationship. He explains why his career as a pilot means so much to him and details his frightening plane crash and the intense personal struggles it brought up for him. Ed also discusses what it has been like to avoid substance use and stay committed to his marriage in the midst of a rock-and-roll landscape, plus Jonathan schools Mayim on Canadian cowboy culture!
Barenaked Ladies' New Album, In Flight: https://bnl.lnk.to/In_Flight
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So when I got asked to write the theme song for the Big Bang Theory, it was on the heels of five or six massive disappointments in a row. They were really nice on the phone call but I just |
| 0:16.2 | never got around to writing the song so I'm just gonna call them and and tell them |
| 0:21.0 | hey thank you so much for thinking of me, but I just haven't had time to do this. |
| 0:26.4 | And I was going to suggest a few people that I thought would be really good. |
| 0:30.9 | And I said to my wife, I got this phone call she said who's it with and I said Chuck |
| 0:36.3 | Laura and she said do you mean Chuck Lori I said I don't know I guess so and she said you should Google him. |
| 0:44.3 | And so it was like less than 20 minutes to the phone call. |
| 0:50.7 | I got in the shower, the whole song came to me in the shower I called my wife in and said can you please write this down before I forget it |
| 0:58.9 | She wrote down all the lyrics for me. I got out of the shower, threw on a bathing suit, and I recorded the Big Bang |
| 1:06.4 | Theory into the built-in microphone in my laptop. I didn't even use any external gear. I used garage band and the built-in microphone and I |
| 1:16.2 | sent it five minutes before the conference call Chuck and Bill got on and said you know at the end where you tag the line, you go, it all started with a big bang, bang, it all started with a big bang. |
| 1:29.2 | I go, yeah, he goes, can we lose the tag and just do the line once? And I go, yeah? He goes, |
| 1:34.0 | great, we love it. |
| 1:35.0 | The biggest thing in my entire career. |
| 1:39.0 | It's eclipsed everything else I've ever done. |
| 1:43.0 | The most special thing about how you created that theme song was that |
| 1:48.0 | Bear Naked Ladies is the kind of music that the characters on the Big Bang Theory listen to. |
| 1:53.8 | You know, it's like meta upon meta. |
| 1:56.1 | So the reason that we would go to Comic Con's, the reason that we would fill that big, you know, |
| 2:01.3 | convention hall is because we were a show about the people who go to |
| 2:05.0 | Comic-Con. We were a show about the people who like are the bare naked ladies in terms of like the |
| 2:11.3 | Geek Rock, the Nerd Rock aspect and like you know you guys are the guys that like made it big |
... |
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