Name: Joe Rogan Experience #780 - Sturgill Simpson
Uploaded: 2016-04-05T01:33:29.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #780 - Sturgill Simpson' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-04-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #780 - Sturgill Simpson' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2016-04-05. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #780 - Sturgill Simpson

Yes!
What's up?
Sturgill motherfucking Samson
Dude, you've been on a ride. This is the last time I talked to you. When was it?
Well, last time I talked to you wasn't that long ago, but last time you've been
here
I'm hearing things kind of... Is it something wonky? It was boomy almost. I
feel like it. Is there something wrong with that?
Something wrong with the headphones? Might be just me.
It might be the weed. It's not fucking weed. Did it just change?
Yeah, that sounds better. Thank you. What'd you do, Jamie? Put some fucking
effects on that bitch?
He didn't touch anything. He's just asking is it better?
So, um...
Yeah, I mean...
You're blowing the fuck up, dude.
I have to get this out of the way before we even start talking. It's
fascinating to watch.
Why is that?
Well, because, well, it's always fascinating to watch someone who you think is
very talented get it recognized and I think you're very talented.
So, uh, then and then becoming friends with you. It's interesting, you know, to
talk to you and to see what it's like and see...
See me, see me process it all in real-time.
Well, to see you, you know...
Probably got some interesting insight, I would imagine.
Yeah, I guess so. For me, it was a slow one. It was a slow burn.
Took a long time and a lot of different shows until it started getting really
weird. It was pretty manageable.
News radio, was that... How long were you out here before that happened?
Oh, I came out here for a show right before that. I was on another show called
Hardball. There was this baseball show.
So, that was like, uh, maybe like six months before news radio.
So, it wasn't out here very long. I came out here specifically for that hardball
show.
And things just sort of... Opportunities turn into other things?
Yeah, you know, it ebbs and flows and comes and goes. But, uh, the news radio
fame was, like, non-existent.
Like, nobody ever recognized me. Ever will. But you're getting recognized now.
Not too much, man.
No?
I mean, in specific towns where we do better, yeah. But it's...
Most, you know, 99% of the time, people are really cool.
Yeah. Isn't that the fact?
Yeah.
That's really what's up. 99% of the time, people are really cool.
And even the 1% are still cool. It's just...
It lasts a little too long.
I don't know.
It's the outliers, you know, the extreme cases that aren't, you know, the 1% of
the 1% that could be issues.
I mean, it's not even that.
In the grand scheme of things, I don't feel like I've really blown up that big.
You know what I mean? Like, it's...
I feel like I've clawed my way to the beginning, as it were.
That's a good way to look at it. But it's some... Well, I mean, what's the
beginning? What's the, you know, what's the top? I don't know.
Exactly.
What I do know is that there's a lot of people that, like, will text me, dude,
have you heard of Sturgill Simpson? Holy shit.
You know, like...
Even now?
Yeah.
Really?
Even now.
Man, it's...
Although, I guess, transitionally, it's been in the last couple years, three
years, but I've been doing this my whole life.
To various levels of thanklessness, but yeah, a lot of years in honky-tonks and
just dive bars where you were background noise.
So, and now that I'm older, I think that's been the best part of it is I'm
clear and focused enough and I have enough responsibilities in my life to where
I'm not taking it for granted.
Does that make sense?
A hundred percent.
Trying to, like, really use it as the opportunity that it is to do something
hopefully bigger than just myself.
Hmm.
So.
Well, being a famous singer, you know, you affect people in a singer and a songwriter,
you affect people in a very strange way.
You know, there's, like, an intense emotion that's connected to a song that,
like, really moves you.
You know, there's this intense connection.
And so, I think for someone like you, like, it's great that you've got all this
life experience.
I think that helps so much, man.
I think if you're a fucking Justin Bieber type character, boy, you're almost
guaranteed to be fucked.
Like, that kind of scrutiny, I don't...
How old was he when that all started?
He's a baby.
I mean, I know who he is, but I couldn't tell you a single song that a kid
sings.
Not a single one.
But yet I know who he is.
Why is that?
Well, he's famous as fuck.
He's famous as fuck.
But, yeah, the poor guy.
I mean, I don't want to...
Well...
Yeah, the poor guy.
Nobody could...
Nobody.
It's easy to judge and sit back and be like, oh, he's such a fuck-up.
Like, the kid has a very rare and unique perspective on the life experience,
you know?
Yeah.
Look, that kid is doing a splendid job.
He's fucking up just enough.
Yeah, he's fucking up a little bit, but, you know, he's fine.
In comparison to what a normal person would be with that kind of insane reach,
like that...
Just what it must be like for him to just try to go through a group of girls.
He gets attacked like dogs.
They'll fight for him.
They'll claw at him.
What the fuck, man?
He's only like 19 or something, right?
Is he 19?
That's insane.
That's insane.
It's got to be so hard to keep your shit together and to have a balanced
perspective.
Because his only perspective is one of fame.
See, you talking about the honky-tonks and, you know, when you were here last
time, you
talked about crazy jobs you had.
Like, you worked on a train, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, think about that kind of shit.
Go from that, that kind of shit, to where you are now.
You have an earned perspective, an earned perspective, whereas a guy...
It's still hard to feel like, when you say earned, I'm like, my life's pretty
cool now, man.
Like, I get to go out and make art for a living and support my family and play
music.
Yeah, no, it's awesome.
It's kind of dope.
For sure.
But even that said, as long as it took to get here, and even the last three
years, like,
we toured our asses off, man, like, going in circles to kind of build it organically.
And I feel really proud about that, because no matter what happens, up or down,
I can feel
like I've accomplished something with merit.
Yeah.
But it...
Well, it's a beautiful time.
It's a beautiful time for artists, you know?
Oh, we're definitely in a moment.
Yeah, right?
For sure.
It seems like a moment with music, a moment with...
It's definitely a moment with stand-up comedy.
We all talk about it.
It's like the best time ever for stand-up.
I think country music, too.
Dude, I'm still getting over Brian Holtzman, who was the guy that did the last
set that
night.
Dude, that fucking...
I was traumatized.
That was an experience, man.
I can't even tell you.
Because you guys, you motherfuckers didn't tell me what was coming.
We just like, oh, you gotta go see this guy's set.
I'm sitting there thinking, like, I'm watching this guy bomb harder than
anything I've ever
seen.
He's like telling people in the audience to just start fucking.
I mean, but he's like, I couldn't take my eyes off of it.
It was amazing.
It was awesome.
And then after the set, he's like, yeah, you know, holy shit, that was all just
genius.
Yeah, he's genius.
Brian Holtzman's genius, 100%.
And he does...
People were running out of the room, man.
Like, literally, this takes too much.
They ran out of the room to get away from this thing happening.
This is a vile expression of toxic masculinity on stage.
Yeah, Brian does the Kinnison spot, which is the last spot of the night.
So the last guy on the Comedy Store.
Most spots at the Comedy Store.
The nightcap.
Yeah.
Last spot at the Comedy Store just goes on from, like, I guess he gets on
probably somewhere
around 12, 30, maybe 1-ish, and then he might go until 2.
So he's got a long stretch.
He does whatever he wants.
Wow.
That's why it's the Kinnison spot.
How long has he been in that spot?
Well, he's the perfect guy for that spot.
And he does it on and off.
He's been there at the store as long as I have.
He's been there at the store since 94.
I met him in 94.
Is it always in that room?
No, he does the little room, too.
That's where I first met him.
When I first met him, he was, like, this promising up-and-coming guy that would
go on
in the smaller room.
And, you know, he was, like, one of the hot up-and-coming guys.
But he always kept, like, a real job.
But in my opinion, he's one of the best comics in the world.
He just doesn't get a chance to show it to people.
Right.
Like, we've tried to talk about, like, what would be the best way to let people
know.
And I think because he changes his stuff so much, I think just putting cameras
on him
every night, filming these Kinnison spots that he does every Friday and
Saturday night.
I tell everybody, if you want to see some comedy.
It's a tough one because to make people aware, you know, to let them know, you
kind of have
you almost, in a way, sort of have to give away what makes it what it...
I don't know, man.
It doesn't bother me.
I know.
I know.
And I think it's fucking genius.
I know he's a great guy.
Yeah.
But, I mean, we're kind of beating around the bush here.
He says, obviously, ridiculously offensive things that he doesn't really mean.
Oh, my God.
I fucking have always loved that style of comedy, you know, and he's, in my
opinion, like,
one of the best ever at it.
He's a monster.
Just people don't know for whatever...
But, they don't know because he never left.
Right.
He stayed at the store, and that's his spot.
He stayed in L.A., and he always kept a job.
He always had a job.
He was a meeterman at one point.
He's had a bunch of jobs like that.
Kind of a Bukowski type guy.
Exactly.
But, you know, you got to do it all for him.
Like, someone's got to come along and do it all for him.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Let's just take these off, man.
Let's be casual, bro.
Let's be casual.
But, yeah, man.
I can't wear them in the studio either, man.
Really?
They bug you?
Yeah, they fuck with me.
It's just not a natural...
You're responding to what you're hearing in your ears
as opposed to the...
You know.
It's good for some people
because some people don't realize
how goofy it sounds
when everybody talks over everybody.
Like, if you have three people,
and they don't have the ear things on...
That's what you were talking about
before you came about the fight podcast and stuff.
Yeah, so with the fight podcast,
we do four people,
and we made it mandatory.
Like, you got to wear earphones
because we're drunk and stoned,
and we're talking over each other.
People are chewing into the mic.
They don't know how bad it sounds.
People are eating pickles.
Potato chips and pickles
into the fucking microphone.
And it's just like, oh, my God.
I would get these screaming texts from people,
stop chewing into the fucking microphones.
So, we had to institute the headphones policy.
But for a gentle conversationalist like yourself,
it's very easy.
Put those aside.
Are you...
Like, when you were touring,
like, all those three years,
when you were going crazy
and touring like a maniac,
have you settled that down
to more manageable sort of a schedule?
Oh, absolutely.
Schedule?
Yeah.
It would have been fine.
Otherwise, I mean,
I've always lived out of a bag, really,
you know what I mean?
And wanted to be moving all the time.
So, like, in that regard,
it's kind of ideal.
But it's just...
The timing was a little bittersweet.
Right.
My son was born
about a month after
the last record came out.
Wow.
So, I was home for that.
And then, basically,
three or four days after he was born,
I had to go to Europe
for some shows.
And then,
press started rolling in
and word of mouth
and the record just started selling.
Dude, it's like a movie.
And my wife is
very supportive.
And I wouldn't have moved to Nashville
in the first place
to do anything
without her, like,
telling me you can do this.
You know what I mean?
I'd probably still be working
at the railroad.
So, when it all kind of came about,
you know,
she basically said,
you know,
we didn't come here
and, like,
you'd do everything up until this point
to not be able to go and...
Because you have to now.
