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Wild Card with Rachel Martin

'Weird Al' Yankovic is the most normal person in show business

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6991 Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Weird Al's debut single, "My Bologna," came out, there wasn't really a model for how a parody artist could have any longevity in their career. Yet Al's figured out how to stay popular for over four decades. Ahead of his summer "Bigger and Weirder" tour, he talks with Rachel about staying weird as he ages, parenthood, and his devoted (some might say obsessive) fans.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

0:05.4

RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.

0:12.1

Learn more at RWJF.org.

0:15.5

Was there a moment when the career you wanted felt in reach?

0:19.7

So I was still working literally for minimum wage

0:22.2

in a mailroom, and my first album had come out. And sticking out of the top of the mailbag was

0:26.8

the latest issue of Billboard magazine. So I opened it up to the Hot 100 chart, and there I am on

0:31.4

the charts. Son, I thought, you know, I should probably give notice at work and maybe get serious

0:35.9

about this weird helping.

0:42.4

I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard, the game where cards control the conversation.

0:47.8

Each week, my guest answers questions about their life.

0:50.0

Questions pulled from a deck of cards.

0:54.5

They're allowed to skip one question and to flip one question back on me.

0:57.4

My guest this week is Weird Al Yankovic.

1:03.2

I think people realize, you know, I am who I am, and, you know, Weird Al is almost ironic because I'm like one of the more normal people in Shogu's, I think.

1:08.2

So I usually have to finish a conversation with a guest before I can draw some big conclusion,

1:12.8

but I'm going to go out on a limb and say this about Weird Al.

1:16.5

I think that more than the perfect rhyming scheme, more than the most ridiculous pun,

1:21.7

more than music itself, what Weird Al loves most in the world is making people happy.

1:28.0

Maybe I'm wrong.

1:28.8

Maybe he fell hard for the accordion as a kid.

1:31.4

And realized a few years later, he was really good at making up fake lyrics to real songs.

...

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