949. - Kevin Morby

Episode summary: Our friend Kevin Morby returns to How Long Gone. His critically acclaimed new record, Little Wide Open, is out now. We spoke with Kevin from his hotel room in Phoenix about life on the road in the desert, crushing his sleep score at the Holiday Inn Express, the game of “Odds,” getting sweaty on TikTok, just playing Kimmel and getting autotune put on his voice without being told, proposing a modern-day Traveling Wilburys with Morby as Dylan, which older bands make new fans and which don’t, his Pitchfork score starts with an eight, we update the famous people in Kansas City list, and a temp check on whether he’s reading the reviews.

com/kevinmorby com/donetodeath com/themjeans com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit fm/adchoices All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week. Jason, does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that.

We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcast. or watch on YouTube. How long gone? The stars and bars are up in my house. It's Memorial Day. The sun is finally shining in New York City. I don't see any grills. I know that Jason has a six-pack of Japanese beer to stand with our enemies. Have you had a hot dog, a hamburger? What have we had today so far?

Today I had protein. I had a coffee. I had a glass of milk. I had some carrot orange juice. I did a oatmeal that had some dates and walnuts. This is not what I'm looking for. Do you have anything more nut-hanging style food at all? No, even the edibles I took were gay. Fuck. All right, do we have anything else coming later? Do we have anything, you know, grill? related coming later i'm not talking about a kebab you already know that's off the menu for today oh wow okay you know i'm talking about no kebab no carne asada this is going to be a tough one for me no i don't know what we're going to do because i i did some grilling a couple days ago actually i grilled up okay okay fine ass steaks from our friends over at mccall's i did a little dude hell yeah brother and a little hell yeah brother but you're not gonna like this i i grilled them over expensive baller ass charcoal no and then wait wait for it brought it inside and i chopped it up with my my german steel blade and then i made some nice carne asada tacos out of it so oh my god oh my god dude it's a real race trader meal that's crazy you're mixing too many races with that meal i don't even i can't even follow that i don't even know mexicans could eat steak but here we are all right let me see

say this then if you're not gonna if you don't want to grill which i understand there's a lot of mess involved i'm sure charcoal is running low at at your local ralph's because it's you know it's such a holiday thanks saudi arabia yeah i know the straight is still closed so the the charcoal stuff to get but what what about What about maybe then, what about maybe going to a local sort of, you know, going to In-N-Out where they got the Bible verse in the cup? In-N-Out. You know what I mean?

Or even Chick-fil-A is open today because it's a Monday. I'm going to guess. I'm not sure. I haven't checked my Chick-fil-A surf cam yet to see what the line's looking like over there. Two to three and fair over there at Chickies. The Burbank location is beautiful. You know that. I know that the Burbank... location it looks more like a like a low security prison in in arizona or new mexico all this sort of square chick-fil-a locations but you know that my body the chemistry the soul the chi of my body does not agree with chick-fil-a as well as mcdonald's it rejects both as being soulless food oh i didn't know mcdonald's had made that list okay well look then in that case You know, there's a hotel in the Hamptons.

They're doing a Popeyes collaboration for the summer, which Popeyes in New York feels spiritually Asian. Feels wrong for the property value. But I know it's a delicious treat from what I understand. I love Popeyes. Popeyes is delicious. I'm not America Maxing either today. I had a Lenwich, you know what I mean, because I was treating myself on a Monday. I went to the gym. It was quiet. But it was raining until about an hour ago. So now it's beautiful outside. The people are outside hooping. The guys are doing muscle-ups. Everything's right with the world.

But I haven't seen any flags. I haven't heard any fire. You know what I mean? I think to really experience Memorial Day, you got to be down south. You got to be on the pontoon at Oconee. You got to have American beer in your hand. You got to have the swimsuit from Walmart. I feel like in the near future, if sort of the general opinion of... america and its government continue to get worse and worse over time memorial day is going to be one of the only kind of national holidays that we really celebrate you know we're very anti chris columbus we're very anti you know fourth of july we're anti you know everything is this and that indigenous people's day takeover but the memorials of you know the people who died that's going to be the last one to go down, because it's still the one where you can be like, a bunch of people died, so we can't really joke on it too much.

Christmas is clearly first on my list. The guy's fake, first of all. Christmas is a global holiday. It's not only in America, and it's not only... But it's a global holiday based on a lie, is what I'm trying to say. Memorial Day is based on real events, whether you like them or not. The quiet part out loud, finally. Whether you like them or not, it ain't based on fake... bullshit made up by big corporations. We all hate corporations. You know, Bezos is saying, you know, don't tax the nurses in Queens.

You know what I'm saying? What about getting rid of these holidays that perpetuate money spending when we don't have it? You know what I mean? Gas price. I was paying $7 a gallon in LA. You know what I mean? The eggs, who knows how much they cost. I can't even look at the price. I'll get sick. But nonetheless, we're buying presents we don't need. I'm paying $9 a gallon just so I don't have to look at some people. We're giving gifts to people we don't like. you know that we can't afford it just it doesn't that that's the first holiday my brother a pepper mill pepper grinder he said i can't memorial day july 4th these holidays you go you go buy some cheap meat at costco and you're outside with your shirt off and everything's good with the world think about it it's it's one of the cheaper holidays except for unless you did buy the boat that people are on then obviously you're kind of underwater on it uh no pun intended no pun intended you know what i mean you know what i mean it's interesting that the you know the more kind of global cuts you know our oxtails our Korean short ribs all these yes yes those food the cost of those we're going up we're going high oh you want Wagyu Japanese beef oh yeah 60 bucks a pound 70 bucks a pound you want oxtail that used to be what we feed the you know what we feed the pigs and the and the poor the poorest of the poor now that shit costs you know

$30 a pound, something like that? Dude, I don't even know where to get it. My oxtail dealer is not even responding to me right now, so I couldn't even get it. I can't even get it if I want to. But then go over to Costco. You want a fucking tube of ground beef? It costs $4. Exactly. I would like 1,100 hot dogs, please. All right, cool. Bring the truck around. That'll be $65.99. Exactly. I'm saying it, Jason. Even Boca Burgers, the inflation hasn't touched that. Not to bring it back to me, but maybe I thought you were going over to your brothers or something.

You guys would get something. and Boca burgers going, those are still dirt fucking cheap. Beans are cheap. I'm not even going to get into the cost of abalone. Thank you. Thank you for sparing the listeners. But I'm just saying, it's something to think about. Trump wouldn't even eat that in China. As we reevaluate all of our holidays based on our new political leanings and what offends us and what doesn't, I'm saying that the pro-America ones are the cheapest and sometimes the least offensive when you really think about it. You know what I mean?

I'm more offended by Christmas and what it's asking of us and the religious beliefs than I am. of a few fireworks on a hot summer's day in New York City. Yeah, it gives you something to celebrate. Blowing stuff up, getting drunk, that's good. What am I celebrating on Christmas? A headache. As soon as you turn this many, I'm holding up nine fingers. As soon as you turn this many... Christmas is a bitch. Dude, it's unbelievable. You have to rap something? Are you crazy? That's crazy. Unless your parents are going to get you a car for your 60th birthday.

It ain't fun. It ain't fun. And then your birthday comes around and it's like, oh, what happened? You got a little older. You got a little uglier. You got a little fatter. You got a little less hair. Exactly. And your brain doesn't work quite as good. And then next year. More of the same, but kind of compounded over time. What are we celebrating? Exactly. What are we celebrating? Look, we're knocking on, you and I both are knocking on the door of big birthdays where you got to, at that point, you got to go to a foreign country to try to forget how old you are.

You got to spend as much money as you can to bury your emotions. You know what I mean? When those birthdays start getting up there. But not with sex tourism, of course. Well, no, that's different. I know you're going to Thailand for your 50th, but I was thinking something. I was thinking something more. You know, for me, I'm not really looking into that, but I know that's more your thing. if we had to point fingers. The scooter culture fascinates me. I want to go check it out. Chris, you know I famously live life on two wheels.

That's what I meant. They're doing a lot of filming there lately. I'm sure there's a back pages and you can read it in Thai. They have a burgeoning film scene. Of course. There's a lot of underground filmmakers. There's a lot of Adam phases over there in Thailand getting stuff made. Really quick, I want to give a quick plug for my... Myself, I appeared on a podcast called Proxy that came out last week where somebody, they had an issue that their husband's best friend was like a bro and she doesn't know how to speak bro.

So she consulted with me and I sort of told her, you know, give her a crash course on how to speak and understand the bro in her life. Give it a listen. It's called Proxy. You can search it on wherever you get podcasts, I assume. Wherever you get a podcast, Apple, Spotify, the list goes on. And shout out to the Enhanced Games, which really came and went so quickly yesterday. They decided to... Is it over? Is it over? It was only one day? I think it was only one day. They broadcast it during an NBA Finals game.

Smart. You know what I mean? Like, I'm watching fucking the Spurs beat Oklahoma, and it's on at the same, you know, starts at 5 o'clock PT, same as the Enhanced Games. I think one world record was made and then many of the duels or the face-offs, the person who won the sporting event. was not even juicing. They were just like, oh, I'm just the best runner. God damn it. So like a guy who's like, oh, I'm not on anything. I'm just way better at running than you guys. And because they're handing out big prizes, I'll just take my little 250 real quick.

Oh, it's a cash prize, the way the Olympics should be. Instead, they give you a medal that you can't even melt down. Yeah. Okay. So I know that we have, you know, it's cool that somebody was like, the Olympics is broken. It needs to be fixed. I agree with that. And, you know, they made the first step of a long journey. Unfortunately, the people involved with the enhanced games, you know, they're hiring Brian Johnson, who's broadcasting with an umbrella over his head. It looks like a MIA umbrella. I mean, like, it looks like a fucking freak show fest.

There's nothing cool about it. It's janky. The people attached to it. I mean, look, this is the Jason. Look, they make all this like the swimmers coming out and doing a WW. It looks like. Erica Kirk coming out. There's a little broke boy fireworks. Stop, stop, stop, stop. This is the first year, okay? I know, I know, I know. I shouldn't poo-poo it. Do you remember the first year of the X Games? It wasn't the best, okay? The SLS Street League Championship. Ragtag operation. It's a ragtag operation. I'm just saying, give these guys some time.

They're going to get their sponsors up, and we're going to be good to go. Every journey begins with a single step, and on that note, let's welcome our beautiful guest today. He's going to not talk while we introduce him, though, okay? Our guest, our friend. of the show, friend of the program, Kevin Morby is joining us from his worldwide tour that just started a couple weeks ago. He could be using this time wisely by grabbing a pair of headphones while Chris introduces him beautifully. Keep going. Yeah, you could grab some headphones.

You're a professional musician. His new album, Little Wide Open, is in stores everywhere. It's a Chris classic. It's already hanging in the Hall of Fame. People loved it. Love it currently. I think the tour is selling well. Kevin can play 14 shows in France alone, famously. He could sell out $500. tickets in belarus yeah he's got white dot fever no blues no blues no blues over at morby headquarters no blues and stop all right let's give him a call this episode of how long gone is brought to you by a new podcast from the guardian stateside with kai and carter this is covering a lot of our bases jason it's a it's trying to slow down The news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world.

And I know you particularly have quite a lot of questions. A lot of questions, but how often? Because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot. How many times do they do? Three times a week. And I have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do. That's just a guess. The Guardian is not some billionaire owned. They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside.

But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? Especially when it's not from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How I'm Gone. It was brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung? TaskRabbit. You need something put together? A cabinet?

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So book trusted home help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code how long with the TaskRabbit app or at com. All right, Kevin Morby, thanks for joining us here in Arizona. And I have to say it's Memorial Day and I'm a little jealous that you're in Arizona Memorial Day. It feels like a great place to celebrate. The things I do for you guys. The things I do for you guys. First of all, you were doing a Reddit AMA 30 minutes ago, so don't act like you're doing it just for us.

Yeah, what did you do for us? You went on vacation, and then you get to talk to two awesome guys. Wow, thanks so much. I was texting with my publicist because I've been on tour, and I'm so tired. My publicist, he had a kid like a year ago, and I'm getting ready to have a kid, and I was like, dude, there's no way having a kid can be more exhausting than tour. And then he was like, Yeah, man. He's like having a kid. It's just like doing a Reddit AMA. I mean, exactly.

Exactly. It lasts for two hours. Then you're done. Did you get any weird questions on the AMA or people pretty respectful? Well, no, there weren't like any weird questions. I guess some people ask me like what flavor ice cream I like or something. I was expecting like weirder stuff. I feel like, I feel like people took the day off from AMA because of Memorial Day. They're out celebrating. Oh yeah. You do have a, you do have a famously patriotic audience. That's one thing I always say. Also, all of your listeners, they would be at their office job on a typical Monday hitting the Reddit hard.

So they're off their devices today. They're at the boat. They're on the creek. They're doing Midwestern activities right now. Yeah, they're at the creek. I mean, let me just paint you a picture. I'm in Arizona. This is the first. proper day off that doesn't involve because you know there's these stopover days on tour where you like you just stop for the day and then you get back on the bus at night and then it travels but this is the first time where i'm gonna sleep not on the bus like we're we have an off day in a hotel room and we sleep here overnight and then wake up and play a show tomorrow in phoenix which is um really amazing to be uh to not have to sleep on the bus for the night It's 100 degrees outside.

I had to turn the air conditioning off for this podcast. It's going to get real steamy in here real quick. Okay, okay. I don't know when the rest of my bandmates are doing it. I think this is like, it's been like two weeks, like a promo week in New York, and then like two weeks on the road, we're exhausted. So I feel like everyone's just gone into their little holes. No one's going to emerge until tomorrow. Hey, Kev. Kev, I'm just happy that you're doing well enough where you got your own room, man.

You can walk around there, you know, nuts hanging, post-shower. You ain't got to hear Cole tuning a banjo. You know what I mean? This is good for you. And nothing makes you appreciate a... Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona hotel room more than sleeping on a bus for some time. Gratitude exercise. Yeah, it's true. Kevin, we talk about this. Well, I've learned about this from you. And then Katie and I also talk about it. But you have a particular... preference for a certain kind of a man hotel is what it's described as which is yes what most people would describe as a shithole but because of years and years of touring you're like well it's better it's better than the bus it's better than the van that frilly bottled water stuff yeah things like that okay it's sort of stockholm syndrome of like well number one when you when you cut your teeth out there on the road like sleeping like i remember like literally playing shows in like vancouver and you know going back to some loft afterwards and you basically sleep in a pile of cocaine and you're like you're like is there like a bed for us to sleep and they're like no there's just the mountain of cocaine that we're all going to be snorting all night and you can lay on top of it sweep all the little baggies into one pile you can probably use that as a pillow yeah it'll work at least the left ear could rest on that baggy pillow the classic baggy pillow yeah yeah which for the record i feel like i've talked about this a lot i've never done cocaine but i do really literally remember so many times in my life like or like columbus ohio like like going to a party like hey so you said we could like sleep here and then like where do we sleep and they're like oh just wherever and you're like but there's only a hardwood floor and they're like well yeah anywhere on the hardwood floor so when you cut your teeth doing that by the time you make it to a hotel room that you can even share with another bandmate it doesn't matter if the hotel room is like one star and it's you know there's like there's like uh like blood splatter from where people were shooting up or something you don't care you're like as long as the blood is splattered on a door that has a lock on it you're happy exactly so beggars can't be choosers at this point at this point you know i will say today we're in like a sort of like like kind of like hipster like kind of like austin motel vibes like kind of okay sure it's very hipstery um which is which is nice um but the corporate standard i actually just had this experience because i've stayed at the chelsea hotel and i love the chelsea hotel that's like my preferred hotel in new york city i was there while i was doing press but then the band came into town we all went to the fairfield inn and suites i saw you while you were doing this and i scolded you for moving

because you're the star. You're the star, and you need to kind of show some dominance occasionally. You know what I mean? Be like, fellas, I'm staying here. You guys go to the Fairfield. You've got to start. I'm telling you, man, they'll understand. Yeah, they'll like it. I mean, I don't want my boss around all day, you know, getting in my shit. Yeah, exactly, exactly. As much as I love the Chelsea Hotel and hotels like that, there is a sense of ease that washes over your body when suddenly you're staying at like a Fairfield Inn and Suites.

corporate three-star hotel standard in Gowanus, where you're just anonymous. Nothing, you could be in Madison, Wisconsin. You wouldn't know the difference by the way the room is shaped or looks. And so you get out there and suddenly you get the best sleep of your life. So these hotels, unlike the one that I'm in right now, because yeah, this is like a hip street hotel, but the sort of Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inn and Sweet, Double Street, those hotels, like if there's a conference going on of like, people like uh you know like a corporate a conference sure i'm at that's happening in the lobby like someone's meeting their like second wife you know what i mean at like a conference you're you know what i mean you feel good that's the warm hug morby needs to get get it over the line okay so so chris feels that when he's in airports i know yeah i do just like seeing that slice of life and then you you're in like the 2.8 star review on trip advisor ohio corporate Courtyard Marriott.

But Kevin, but Kevin, but Kevin. Look, bro. Look, I'm not trying to be a pocket checker, but you're doing pretty well. You know what I'm saying? Look, I know you're an indie landlord. You're doing pretty well. And I'm just saying every once in a while, I think that you should let yourself. Because I know you've done this man hotel thing unnecessarily, I would say. You've done it in times where maybe you didn't need to do it because you like the way it feels. Dumping money in Pokemon? What's up, brother? But I also indulge.

in the nice hotels. I mean, the headline here is that I stayed at the... I went to go do promos. I stayed at the Chelsea for a week. But Kevin, but Kevin, who was paying for that? Me. Secretly. You paid. Of course I paid. Okay. I just didn't know if it was coming out of somebody else's pocket. Secretly pays, but it's going to come out of my royalties. Sure, sure, sure, sure. You're like, I'm always paying. At the end of the day, I'm always paying. We're secretly going to charge you the whole amount.

And the words of Jeffrey Lewis, each sip of soup has to be recouped. That's a nice little rhyme. I like that. That is nice. Okay, so you feel like you've gotten your fill, though, and now that you're on the road, it's like, Phoenix, what are you going to do? You know what I mean? Which I do understand that in that case. Go on Reddit all day, but now for a different reason. But now for a different reason. This is great. Reddit, it's hard because you're just looking at words on a screen.

This is way better. Yeah, books are also kind of boring like that. Tough. Books are great. It's tough. It is a collection of words mostly, though. Yeah, but it's on paper. It's different. Tangible vibes only. It's way different. It's way different. I get it. I get that. Reddit's like AI version of books. It's fucking bullshit. I want to say, too, though, the Chelsea, again, favorite fucking hotel. But there was a point where I went into the bathroom and the bathroom door was closed. I was in there alone. And I went to open the...

door to get out of the bathroom and the handle came off which is part of the chelsea's charm but i also feel like that sort of stuff happened slapstick hotel it's always up to something okay were you stuck in the bathroom i was stuck in the bathroom but i got myself out of there okay you went lockpick mode did you kick the door down did you call downstairs from your mobile phone I was going to call. Luckily, I had my phone on me. But I was going to call. But then I was like, I bet I can get out of here.

And the credit card trick got me right out. Don't sleep on the fundamental move. Wow. I didn't. Okay. So you pick the lock in the bathroom. I pick the lock in the bathroom. I've been locked in a couple of rooms in my day. And recently, a couple of times. In France, I was locked in a bathroom. I'm not going to lie. Your boys had to escape a lot lately in the last 18 months. I'm always escaping, dude. I'm always looking for an exit route. I'm always looking for an escape alley.

Not like that, Katie. Not like that, Katie. Okay, so for our listeners at home. You mentioned the Chelsea Hotel. It's a legendary New York spot, you know, velvet underground rock and roll vibes back in the day. And then it turned into kind of a druggie flop house, and then they redid it, and now it's like a boutique-y hotel. Now, I haven't stayed there, but can you explain what the vibe is like? The vibe is wonderful. Yeah, it's sort of like a velvety, like sort of, I don't know, it smells really good in there, but there's...

It's kind of like Manhattan itself. There's always something going on, you know? It's like, that's what I mean about these three-star Inguanis, Fairfield Inn and Suites. It's like, you know, the Chelsea, you're always tempted by the bar. You're like, am I going to go down and have a $50 Negroni? Yeah, I'll go. I will. It's like, yeah, I think I will. It's not the most restful place, but it's fun where you get to the Fairfield and be like. what can i possibly i guess i'll go down and maybe buy some like ben and jerry's from the yeah i'm gonna get an electro lit for the morning i'm gonna get electro lit for the morning at the bodega see if they have the blue talkies down in the canteen tonight gonna watch workaholics so okay are you guys aware of the game odds no i don't think so no we're not aware of any games we're adults what what is odds i got odds on the knicks tonight but it's like a dare game so like and it's really fun to play on tour so you have to say like you know, odds are that you have to like stand up on a table and scream, scream at the top of your lungs.

And someone will assess how much they do or don't want to do that by giving you odds. And they'll say, uh, one in 30, and then you'll count to three. You'll say one, two, three. And you both have to say a number at the same time. That's between one and 30. And if you say the same number, they have to do it. Oh, okay. Okay. That's, I mean, that's a pretty, that's okay. How often, how often though are you guessing the same number? That seems pretty rare. It happens every once in a while, but I bring it up because Liam, who plays guitar in my band,

I got him with one. I was like, odds are we played the show at Levon Helm's barn and then we drove back down in the middle of the night and we didn't get into like two in the morning. I said to him, like, odds are when we get back there, you have to go to the clerk who's working and say, Fairfield Inn and Sweets. I'm not surprised with all these sweets you guys are selling. Oh, wait, it's sweets spelled a different way. I'm always doing shit like that. That was the dare.

You're an idiot. You're an idiot. And he got it. This is some delusional. So he had to do it? And he had to do it, and we watched him do it. I wish I got that dare. That's the type of shit I would do unprovoked. How did the attendant handle it? Yeah, this is how Jason speaks to everyone. How did the attendant handle it? Zero, zero, zero reaction. Well, look, the overnight attendant at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Gowanus probably isn't working on their comedy career. You know what I'm saying?

He just smoked his seventh Percocet for that hour, and he's kind of on autopilot. pilot mode he's also watching american dad on his phone he had the vibe of like he had just killed the actual attendant in the back and was like somehow somehow figured out the computer because liam also needed a new key so he worked it into that whole spiel and so the guy he was wearing gloves he had like he had like rubber gloves on the whole time i was like i think this guy just killed someone in the back and he's pretending to work here He's melting the body down, yeah.

I recently had an experience at a hotel where the key card stopped working every single day for eight days in a row. That happened to me. And I kept going down and they're like, are you keeping it close to your phone? I'm like, no, guys. They tried to blame it on the demagnetization. I've stayed at a fucking hotel before. I know not to put my key next to my phone. This is happening every day. There has to be a solution to this. There was never any. No one ever gave me the information I was looking for.

This happened to me, the same exact thing happened to me last year, but it was at my friend's hotel. He owns it, so I don't. want to shout him out because it's a great hotel but it happened to me every day and i was getting locked out of the pool and shit like there was one day where i went to the pool and it was locked out of my room like in a towel and i had to go to the front desk and i was like please no bro no no that's the worst that's the worst how was uh how was because you guys played in the at pappy and harriet's last night two nights ago super super fun really fun night why do people can you explain why people like it there so much Is it a cosmic vibe that I'm not able to tap into?

It's the little wide open out there, brother. You wouldn't get it. It's the little wide open for sure. You're playing beneath the moon, brother. It's great, man. It's awesome. You know, I will say, like, we played and it was amazing. And then inside, they have that cool indoor stage, which I used to play back in the day. And there was this amazing jazz band in there. So then, like, we hung out. I don't know, just one of those things. It's like, it reminds me of Austin. You know, what I like about Austin, where it's just, like, kind of just full throttle.

all music all the time and so like we played this great show and then got to go in and like watch a sick jazz band and i don't know it's fun how many people come see you out there are they all from la you know i actually asked from stage i was like who's from san diego who's from san francisco and it was kind of a kind of a good thing there's there's around a thousand people there man it was an awesome show wow that does seem like a lot so you played the outdoor area which is a bigger area and then indoors you'll have you know local bands and people will come sit in and play while you're watching the jazz band Does Kevin Morby have his own section where it's like Prince is going to come down to Soho House and watch somebody?

You have a little roped off area. What kind of bottles do you get? No, I was interacting with the fans. I was interacting with the people who had just seen my show. I think we're having a similar experience. They're like, oh, now this other thing is happening. And so then I was just in there amongst the people, man. I was in a hoodie. Does it count as getting recognized when it's at the actual venue that you just played? I don't think you can get recognized at your own concert now. I think it's recognized with an asterisk.

Yeah. Okay, we have to put a little... Damn, I was getting recognized like crazy when I went to Pappy and Harriet's. It's like, wow, what was happening there? Oh, it was my show. It was a Kevin Morby concert, and everyone there was coming. Okay, well, you said you were interacting with the people, but sometimes after you just played a show for a thousand people, you might not want them to interact with you quite as much as the other. You have a limit of what you want, or were you wide open?

off a pill geeked out ready to socialize yeah i was open to it a little bit you know people were respectful i was also with my band and like you know i had my i had my band with me they're running interference i'm sure i mean you know are people more chill knowing that you're with child your wife is pregnant and they're like we're just gonna be chill right now like yeah less fan less fan freak outs yeah less fan freaks outs then they know i'm yeah i'm sure you've had had some freaks over the years.

But, like, you know, I feel like people who like Kevin Morby are pretty normal, unfortunately. We talk about this. Katie and I talk about this and other people. Like, because I do have some friends. Who's got the most serial killer fans? You or me, babe? Well, yeah. And, like, luckily, I mean, we know some people who have some, like, pretty intense fans. But also, you know, like, I'm friends with some people who they have a lot of younger fans. And I think that's the thing. If your fans are, like, above, if they're not teenagers, they usually have some a pretty good sense of decorum especially in their 20s or 30s but like Yeah, I think, you know, when you get like 15-year-old fans.

Speak for yourself, bro. You put me in the same room with fucking, you know, I'm going to go crazy. I can't control myself, you know, with certain adults. You know what I mean? You put me in the room with, you know, Robert Smith or something. I'm going to fucking start, you know, grabbing onto his leg like a child. His dad doesn't want to leave for work. You know what I mean? Chris just sat next to Michael Stipe from REM at a dinner, and I didn't see you barking or wiping, dragging your ass.

cross the floor or anything no i'm joking i know how to behave but you're a cool guy but but i mean stipe is pretty cool and like luckily we've met before so it wasn't too crazy but i mean it is pretty interesting when it's truly your all-timer you know what i mean there's like that's amazing there's five guys that no burger there's five guys you know what i mean at the top it's just us and i'm hungry yeah i can't even imagine all my top five are dead except for one which would be the only living is bob dylan and I would keep my cool around him, but it would, yeah, like you around Michael Stipe, it would be insane.

Who are the dead ones, bro? Damn, that's a lot of dead guys. Yeah, four dead goats. Let's get into it. Yeah, who are your top four dead guys? Bob's basically there. Yeah, Bob. Jesus Christ. Okay. It was his birthday yesterday. Bury me in my Arcteric shell. His birthday today? Lou Reed, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, and Towns Van Zandt. Oh, yeah, they are. They're dead as hell, too. Dead as hell. That's a nice collection. Thank you. That is a nice collection. You can tell you really do this, Kevin. You know what I'm saying?

You're really about this shit. Yeah. And now that inspires me, you mentioned the Dylan, you mentioned all these goats. Now that you're still a very young man, but you've been in the game for a minute. I want a traveling Wilburys-esque super group that you are sort of the Bob Dylan of. You know, get the Roy Orbisons over and get everyone. I would love to. Who would be in your traveling Wilburys? That's the real question. That's a great question. I don't know. Do you have to put Dessner in just because right now, you know what I'm saying?

Dessner would be perfect in there. It would be great in there. Can Dessner, can he play every instrument? Yes, very well. too very very well okay instead of george harrison mgk off top you're bob dylan because that's your goat machine gun telly you know ironically bob dylan loves machine gun i don't know young i like young blood for this i like young blood i was with bleach the hair he's there jake linderman and i went to um see patterson and craig finn patterson hood from drive by truckers and craig finn from hold steady play a show recently

And someone took a photo of the four of us. And that was funny, you know, just the different generations, I guess, of like, you know, certain sect of indie rock or whatever. And... Jake kept saying that I had early onset unk disease, which is funny. You are suffering from early onset unk. That's cold. I mean, you are the age somewhere in between him and the hold steady. So, I mean, the shoe fits. But then you got, they released my track star today and Kurt Vile did his track star and he was like, I know Kevin since he was a child.

And I'm like, yeah, Kurt is in between like me or Patterson or me and Craig. So then like, you know, like him or like Adam from War on Drugs, like that's, you know, those guys are in their 40s. So, you know, man. How old are you? What are you, 35? You're 38. Oh, you're getting up there. Okay. I knew it. You're a true millennial ass. I'm a true millennial ass. You got a great head of hair, so it's tough to say. What is the, okay, how did you do on Trackstar?

Did our boy Jack put you through the ringer or was it easy? I did good. He gave me a lot of contemporary stuff. Okay, so it was like your peers. It was like my peers. And then like the one that kind of stumped me early on was Jesus and Mary Chain, which of course I know who they are. And I just watched Lost in Translation, but it threw me. I was like, who the hell is this song? But I did pretty good. Yeah, it was, you know, he gives you a lot more than what is on Instagram, but I got most of them.

I had a tough time, bro. I had a tough time. I was like, bro. Really? I wasn't prepared. I don't know. I just think I don't, I don't, I don't know. I just wasn't, it was not my thing. I was not good at it. It was fine. I was fine. It's nerve wracking. It is scary. Like you think like, oh man, you watch other people do and you're like, oh, I would slay this. And you get on the streets in New York, some people are watching you, some strangers. Well, it was also Kevin in my case, and I don't mean to, I'm not making excuses, obviously, because the edit looks great, but I was, I was, it was hot.

I was sweating. It was very warm outside. And I think that really, I think that fucked in my head a little bit. Dude. And you're sweating knowing that all these people are watching, you know, like Courtney Love is on the toilet watching you fuck up this Jesus and Mary Jane song. You know what I mean? Dude, I, you know, I did a view from the bridge recently. I don't know if you saw that, but you know that one? When you pick up the red phone on the bridge and you tell a secret, is that what you do?

You tell like a story and I just did that. And like they aired mine. And when I was doing that, man, I, similar thing, I was jet lagged. I'd flown to London the day before. And, you know, it's London. It's like overcast. I wore this raincoat and raincoats, you know, it's like they'll make you if it's hot at all, it like traps that heat in there. And it was like the moment they were like, OK, in action, like tell your story. I got so hot in the jet lag hit me all at once.

And I was like, dude, I am struggling. I'm like, I don't know how to do this. And I was like, it's humbling because you watch those. You're like, oh, man, I tell the best story in the world if I was ever asked to be on this thing. And then you get there and you're like. I'm fucking sweating, man. It's hot. You're particularly confident about stuff like this, I will say. You think you're going to tell a great story. I think I'm middle of the road. But also, I think it's easy to do the little Instagram video where the stakes aren't as insane as like, oh, I'm going to go on Letterman for the first time.

Right. We got to talk to Kevin about fucking Auto-Tune Gate. I forgot. Oh, yeah. Because we spoke about it. But, Jason, if you're not familiar, it was Kimmel, right, Kevin? Mm-hmm. Kevin and the band played on Kimball, and then he was watching it on the plane that night or whenever it aired, and they had auto-tuned his voice without out-asking him. They just gave you a little love. What percentage of zhuzhing do you think they did on your voice? 60%. 60% or 70%. Okay, so a noticeable amount. Noticeable to where it's like an aesthetic choice.

The Strokes have their new single, and it's like... the aesthetic choice julian castellblanc is an amazing singer but he's like i want to have autotune that's the sound it's like one of the word one of the worst stroke songs i've ever heard so maybe they should try something else let him get it out of his system there's gonna be other songs yeah exactly he's just he's he's just bored and trying to switch things up or something but like it was such a surreal experience because you know, all this time and money and energy goes into those things.

And, you know, we rehearsed the band, you pay for this rental space and then you like go and do it. It's a really cool experience. And everyone there is wonderful. And like, I played that show before and I love it. And you do the thing and you, it's nervous, you know, it's nerve wracking. You're like, oh, we killed it. We got it. You know, we did great. And everyone who works there is wonderful. And then, well, except, except Jimmy, but we'll get into that later. Oh my God. Well, I watched, I watched.

it on the plane. I was flying home the next day when it aired and I was like, oh my God, they've got live TV on the plane and Kimmel's about to start. I get to watch myself on the screen. That's a pretty amazing, that's a pretty amazing twisted experience. Did you look around like the guy with the t-shirt that I voted for the criminal? It's me on the boob tube. All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince. Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there.

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Quince punto com slash how long. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Squarespace. Obviously, Jason, you and I spend a lot of time on the World Wide Web, sort of our peers, our listeners, our friends, our colleagues, maybe even your parents if they're freaky. And if you're doing anything in the world. writing, taking pictures. I do topless boxing. You need a website. Exactly. A website that works, that does what it's supposed to do, that allows you to be creative, but also business-minded. Jason, there's one place to go for that, Squarespace.

Yeah, Chris, I'm over here. I'm modifying calculators and putting Claude inside of them so you could cheat at school. And I just want a place where I could have everything all in one place. I can have the SEO tools. So those future graduates can find me and, you know, I'm able to accept quote unquote donations for my services that might be gray area. You know what I mean? And then email campaigns. Hey, I got a new, you know, 2.3 version upgrade. Boom, boom, boom. Get the analytics going. Raise some money.

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You long hairs all look the same to me. I'm sorry. I didn't know. He's like, bro, I've been playing solitaire for eight hours. I don't even notice human beings. I'm kind of in the zone. Yeah, I'm locked in. He's like, Josh Groban's back on Kimmel. Okay, so you watched it on the plane, and then how far into the performance did you start realizing that this was fucked? Well, I'm watching on the shitty earphones that they give you, which are really bad. which are really bad sound quality. So I honestly did not notice.

I'm just hearing like the white noise of the plane more than anything. But I'm like, man, we look at this. I can tell the performance is good. And then like, then the tech start rolling in. Hey man, did you mean to auto tune your voice? Like, is that a new thing? And I was like, what? Digging the new direction. Was this, was this from like friends? Was this from fellow musicians? Was this management? Like who, who was, who was the first flag? Friends and my publicist. So. Then walking through the airport when we landed, watching it on my phone, like no headphones, just watching it on my phone.

It was like two in the morning. We landed really late. And two in the morning watching it and I was like, oh my God. But to be honest with you, I was so tired from the trip and it was two in the morning and this flight had been delayed a bunch of times. And so I was like, what? I just have to get home. It's like a [redacted address] to get home. When I got home, I literally just passed out. I was like, I just got into bed and went straight to sleep.

in the morning i woke up to all these texts you know a lot of people saying like good good job on camel but a lot of people like what's up with this auto tune then i addressed it and it was this one day that i had home before I was at Kimmel, and then I had to fly to go do this, like, crazy promo week in New York. So this one day off that then just turned into this long day of, like, having them fix this auto-tune thing that they do.

So how do you tell them to, how do you, who gets in touch with Jimmy Kimmel's people and says, hey, you illegally auto-tuned me, and I'm a nice guy, so I'm just going to let you fix it, and you're going to walk away scot-free, but we need to have that conversation. Look, Chris is getting in his manager bag right now. He's getting a little tingle. I would have loved to call. I would have called Kim out and said, I'm coming down there right now. I'm going to fucking slash. I'm going to slash the Tesla tires.

You don't get the shit fixed in an hour. It was a thing. It was a thing that like, well, you know, first and foremost, like you're so like you're, you're, you're honored to be on these shows. Right. And you're, you're happy that they like selected you. And so you don't want to like kick the hornet's nest or something, but at the same time, you're like, well, that's not what it would be like putting a face filter on somebody without. Well, I'm personally fine with that, but I know in your case, you also, you, you can, you can like, you can sing.

but it's like your thing. You know what I mean? You're not Adele. Like you're doing it a certain way that you want to do it. Right. Exactly. And it's, yeah, it's all my favorite singers couldn't sing. It's like, it would like be putting like a filter on, you know, yeah. I'm like, I'm like Connor Oberst or something. You know what I mean? It's like the character is what makes it great. But like, in his i'm not saying that's what makes me great i don't want to toot my own heart but like it's what makes someone like you know uh there's probably some there's probably some moments where connor wouldn't mind that a face filter but he's looking great now i saw him last night oh he's a beautiful man he's a beautiful man looks good he's crushing it he's crushing it right now um but like you know they just that sort of thing like you know it's it's the rough around the edges it's what makes us us guys with our guitars it's what makes the whole thing uh work perfectly imperfect bro perfectly imperfect so anyways I told my publicist and he reached out to the booker, who's this really great guy.

And the booker was like, oh, no, you know, we wouldn't have done that. But then the booker asked the audio engineer and he was like, I did put it on there. I thought he would have wanted it because there's he's a little pitchy in a couple of places, which then you're like, dude, like I almost took it as a compliment because I literally think maybe this guy looked up the producer, saw it's Aaron Desner, saw that he works with like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift and stuff. And maybe he was like, I took it as a compliment in a way of like.

oh, this song is kind of like a pop song. If you can't, look, he said if he can't have Gracie Abrams' abs, we can at least give him the pitch. If nothing else, we can give him the pitch. Like a guy on this level deserves to have production quality with the likes of the Ed Sheerans of the world. Ed Sheeran kind of thing. And so I was like, okay. And so it became this thing where I was like, okay, well, we need to get this fixed. How quickly can they fix it?

And then you're in this funny conversation because it's like, well, they have Duran Duran in there today, so they're not going to have time. And like, And then it's like, well, maybe in a week they can re-upload a thing. But as the hours slowly eked on, it became a thing of like, no, you know what? Like they need to fix this as soon as possible. Like, thank you for having us on the show, but you can't do this to my voice. And like, this is my, this is my integrity. And we all sort of quickly came to that, you know, and I was talking to Amelia from Sylvanessa, who's on the track, who's, you know, did the show with us.

And like Jacob, my publicist and like himself was like, no, yeah, we need to fix this like as soon as possible. And then it's a bummer thing because like, the numbers will be different and it won't make a, like, whatever. But you're like, well. I didn't even, okay. It kind of shoots you in the foot with those first numbers for your total engagement. But yeah, it's gotta be done. It's gotta be done as soon as possible because two weeks later. Yeah. And, you know, the world has moved on away from your Kimmel performance.

Exactly. Do we think this is, like, something they often do? Like, do we think they put the sauce on other, and other people, I mean, certain people are probably fine with it, certain people aren't, I would imagine. They did say they're used to it with pop artists. So again, I think they just, in me for whatever reason. That is a compliment, Kev. They saw your little, y'all motherfuckers up there looking like the Muppets. Oh, my glasses on. Is that Zara Larson up there? Anyways, I better turn the squelch up to 11, man.

I think, too, you know, in like... you know, Amelia is like, she's a pop, like she's, you know, Sylvan F. So it was like a pop. I think he did the audio engineer probably did a little bit of research and was like, Oh, I think this is like a pop thing. That's pretty cool. Cause if I looked at the, the fucking 80 all up there, I'd have been like, this ain't okay. I know what this is. And that ain't that. Yeah. Yeah. This is, this is. undoubtedly indie rock this guy grew up listening he's he loves he loves isaac brock and uh you know he's not he's not trying he's not in an edm duo yeah it's it's such a crazy thing that did a lot of people reach out i'm sure a lot of people other artists got in touch with you i'm sure because i feel like maybe other this has happened to other people yeah i think it was a good lesson to learn and i also think it's a thing where like maybe worth taking my own like person there just to like i don't know a clear the audio that they use or whatever but and i'll i'll love that they were really accommodating with fixing it it was just a mistake and in the end is one of those things because i wrote about it and became a thing i think it you know it had its reach of people understanding it wasn't like the guy that also was like he was definitely like his he was not ill intent it was like he was definitely not ill intent no yeah but he but it but it's his fuck up because that's a big decision to make without consulting with you yes totally totally totally that is a thing he should have ran by us for sure i'm just saying he wasn't he wasn't trying to make it sound worse i guess is what i'm trying to say totally totally he's like i'm trying to say this guy can't sing man i gotta fuck an album out it's like a doctor like you know he put you under for a root canal he's like by the way we took your balls out while you're under you know i didn't want to wake you up Your nose was a little big, so we just trimmed it down a little bit.

It wouldn't be taking the balls out. It would be like, we put you under for the root canal, and we also put a gem. We bleached your asshole while we took your tonsils out? A yin-yang tooth gem. Hope you don't mind. We gave you a yin yang symbol tooth gem. Now, it's not permanent, but it's 18 months usually, and then it falls off. We thought it looked quite cool. So, you know, I don't know. It's your decision, I guess, once you wake up. So you're not into yin yang? I don't know.

It was a big thing, though. I have to say, because I did watch it, but I don't know if I, you know, I hate to say it. I don't know if I watched it before or after it was fixed. Do you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I definitely watched it. A lot of people didn't know. A lot of people, like my parents, I explained to my parents, it's like there's no way they could ever understand. A lot of people didn't know, but it's like if you know, like if you make records, you'll know, basically.

It's like feeding caviar to a pig. It just goes right above their head. They can't appreciate the nuance. What I'm saying to you, Kevin, is I think I should be able to tell, and the reality is I can't, and I'm coming to terms with that myself. Chris is a numbers guy when it comes to music. It was really on the word javelin. It'd be like, like a... It is like... Oh, yeah. He went for a 12-octave run on a single word. Exactly. Damn, Kevin's been practicing. I guess that Mariah Carey vocal coach really helped him.

Minor 7th to the D12th. Okay. Exactly. Exactly. Go off, bro. I don't know why I said D12. Sorry. That's okay. They're a great group, Jason. Don't put them down. Okay, so you're going, but you're on the road now for a while. It's a classic, like, three-monther. Yeah, well, when's the baby coming? When's the baby coming? In August, so. I'm kind of touring up until being a dad, so I'm just signing up for zero sleep. In a way, it's good because tour is just boot camp of not sleeping. I think having a kid is going to be that as well.

That's what you've been telling yourself? You know what the difference is, Kevin? Every night you walk out on that stage, people cheer for you. They're screaming. They're buying your merch. When you wake up in the middle of the night to take care of a baby, you get nothing. They hate you. That's true. You get feces. As a man, you can't do shit anyway. Not dry. You can't do shit. At least I'll be home. tour is so amazing these shows have been going off it's been great right but every night you wake up and you know i remember this is one time like like you just wake up in a coffin at four in the morning the other day i banged my head i thought i was in like a regular room and i like went to sit up and like hit my head really hard and like that's my that's i fear i would do that every single night on the bus there's just these half drink bottles water around you.

I'm still traumatized from my one night on the bus with Katie. You wake up, you thought your phone was plugged in, but it wasn't charging at all the whole night. Exactly. There's like half-eaten granola bars, and it's just... There's mustard on my leg. Okay. There's times where I'm like, there's no way having a kid can be this exhausting, though I'm sure I'll eat those words. It's just a different type of exhaustion. Which singer-songwriter are we naming the baby after? That's the question. Towns. Towns Morby? Towns Morby. No, not Towns. Not Towns.

I was thinking of the little Towns in the other night. Fergie? There's too many Townses out there, actually. Fergie, if it's a girl. Fergie. We got a name, but I can't say it on the hot mic. No, of course. I understand that. I understand that. We can bleep it. Yeah, we'll bleep it. Scout's honor. We'll bleep it. All right. Well, then the child's name is bleep. Wow, you cracked the code. You beat the system, you son of a bitch. I think Fergie Morby does have a nice ring to it. Yeah, Fergie Morby is quite nice, and we don't want to, you know, I'm sure you and Katie had a nice pinky swear on we're not going to tell anyone the names kind of thing, and we want to respect that, just to let you know.

We're going to name him Fatboy Slim. Fatboy Slim Morby is good. Well, Slim if it's a girl, Fatboy if it's a boy. Naturally. This is Eve. This is Eve. He's named after Eve Six. It's really funny. Ever and clear. Yeah, it's really funny to think about modern band names as just, yeah, Everclear. This is Everclear Morby. And Miss Siguros Morby III. There's always those 90s, like, one-hit wonders where you're like, that was the name. Like, I'm trying to even think, like, oh, you know, this is Duncan Sheik named after Duncan Sheik.

Duncan Sheik. Duncan Sheik, I think, is a government name, too. I think that's his real name, which is a blessing, I would have to say, overall. That's sick. I was reading. today about local h which i'm sure you remember which was oh yeah of course which is a that is a distinctly 90s name i think like that's very distinct because i could i could see it on like a work shirt patch you know what i'm saying like that's how i imagine it totally show how i imagine showing up the person in front of house uh on this tour uh this woman ollie who's amazing she's she's in her 20s and like we we've all been referencing dumb and dumber constantly Because we played in Aspen and we're all just obsessed with that movie.

We're all, you know, at least 10 years older than her. And she said she'd never seen it. And so we watched it with her last night. And I only bring it up because the soundtrack is so good on that. And it's full of bands like that where you're like, who did that? Like, who sang Mary Moe? You know what I mean? Well, seven, a little seven, Mary three in the credits, something light, you know, something light for the heads. This happened to me actually with REM that these producers on a shoot where they were like, who's Michael Stipe?

And I was like, um, he's in a band called rem and they're like i don't dude it's mind-blowing when that happens i'm like vaguely familiar with that and i was like that's i mean i guess sure but that seemed it just seems so big to me but i guess it is 10 20 years old at this point i think what's tripping me out now is that like like i remember when like lindsey from snail mail like maybe didn't know who like some band was like like breeders or something i don't want to get it wrong yeah because you know she'll call in she'll call in she'll call in shout out to lindsey i just saw her but like it was a thing where like like i i don't know like lindsey didn't know who someone was or something who i was like oh really like i i grew up with them but now i feel like there's people like i don't know now there's kids starting bands who are like in their late teens who might not know who like mac de marco is or something you know what i'm saying like they definitely definitely definitely i think just young people they know a lot about certain music and then certain you know like

Everyone, every kid knows Slow Dive and, you know, these more obscure bands and they're more celebrated. And REM, they just, like, the younger generation hasn't really grasped onto them with the same level. They need a TikTok. They need a TikTok thing to happen. That's the only way to really cross over. Stand video? That's the first TikTok dance, I would say. It's crazy. Yeah, some of these bands are, like, having this big moment because of TikTok. It's really, these, you know, renaissance moments and it's really interesting to watch. But it's mind-blowing when bands, like Green Day is the perfect...

example and also strokes they keep getting younger generations of fans where like some bands just become nostalgia acts like blink 182 i went to see them at uh msg and there wasn't like a person there who was under 30 but like you know someone like green day like there's a 15 year old out there right now who's discovering dookie and they're like this is my favorite album it's it's amazing like you know you know what i hate george bush too fuck this man i was i was in montrose yesterday which is a little suburban neighborhood in glendale it's like the very any town usa kind of middle of america vibe yeah and there was a group of you know maybe 12 year old kids all on you know mountain bikes and one of them was wearing a brand new blink 182 t-shirt with like a modern logo on it like just got it at a show this week oh that's cool it's crazy how some of them are like you're a legacy act and then you you just keep going you just keep going i it's really interesting i have this whole theory where i'm like like billy joe from green day He reminds me a lot of Jeff Tweedy in a way, because I feel like those guys, they're always doing something.

They're always doing a side project, or they're always... They just keep going, and they keep releasing good stuff. I'm going to do this tour. I'm going to produce this guy's album. I'm going to do this... Cruz. And I think it comes from the fact that they really are just like obsessed with music. Like I always hear that like Billy Joe's in town in LA with his cover band doing like three nights at the Troubadour. And you're like, man, that guy had sold out stadiums and he's choosing to do that. I think, you know, similar thing with Jeff, you know, where Jeff, you know, he can play these big theaters, but also he'll go into clubs and do solo shows.

And it's a cool thing. Cool thing to see. Yeah, but are you jealous when Billy Joe from Green Day plays a 67,000-person stadium and then goes straight to the bar to do covers with his friend? When you're watching the band at Pappy's, are you thinking, I should be up there too, like Billy? Or are you happy with where you're at? i'm i'm happy with where i'm at but you know you always you always want more you always want whatever you're at becomes like your new zero and then you say oh man you know only i could ever play to like 200 people and you play 200 people and there's 500 people there's a thousand then you're like oh if only it was like three three thousand every show okay you know but what if what if you hit the if only i could sleep tonight yeah you know what i mean that that comes for you eventually right that comes for you eventually there's that great scene in the wire where uh I always forget the character's name, but he's the guy who's always working on the little sailboats.

And he says to McNulty, it's not about the case at the end of the day. At the end of the day, you've got to go home and have a life. There's always going to be another case, and the case can't be your whole life. And it's the same way with music. I make it comfortable living my dream, and I built this thing, and it's so wonderful, and I've been doing it for so long. But there's times where you really have to zoom out and be like, hey, man, it's great out here.

I'm doing great. And I can't believe I'm still doing it. I've been doing these VIP packages, which is, I was worried about then going into it because I was like, okay, Chris Brown. I can't wait to see the pictures. What? Chris, your connection's kind of bad. He said, okay, Chris Brown, because he's known for his fan meet and greet experiences, charging several thousands of dollars to sit on a big girl's lap. Oh, wow. Several thousand dollars. And then maybe a thick woman would sit in his lap. Is there a photo of you of a woman wearing some big Bud Press overalls and you're sitting on her lap?

No, but a bunch of kids drove up from Mexico to the show in San Diego last night who were cool as hell. And one of them had this like sort of Bodie style, like embroidered shirt that his like girlfriend had made him. That was all my lyrics. It was sick. Commitment. These things, these meet greets again, back to the recognition, not being overwhelming. It's not, it's not too overwhelming or taxing. And it's, it's like, I was worried that it would sort of be exhausting, an exhausting thing to do before then having to play the show.

It's actually really rejuvenating and meeting these people and they come in. And you just hear their stories and like why they like your music and some of it's really casual. But some people are like, man, I got diagnosed with stage four cancer and they got me through my chemotherapy. And like you hear stuff like that and it's really just like, oh man, I'm really lucky to be doing this and that my work is connecting with people. They should pay extra for that. If you're going to get emotional on me, I got to charge a little extra.

That's a little, I got to hit you for extra 150 if you're getting emotional. No, that helps because sometimes you need to help with a little gas in the tank to get up on stage and all those stories will gas you up, right? little gas in the tank and like it's you know this record's been all my records you know uh generally you know reviewed very well and like you see some reviews i will say this is the first one in a while where there's the amount of reviews i've stopped reading them because i'll read some of the reviews and they've all been really um really great kevin you can't read the reviews you can't read yeah everyone says that but everyone kind of does everyone kind of does sure but you you were you know what i mean but you so pitchfork gave you a favorable review but you didn't get the you didn't get the um i didn't get the crown You didn't get the best new music.

That was an issue for you. You didn't get the BM, the best music. What number did you get, though? I don't know. It seems like Chris knows. Chris, why don't you enlighten us? I don't know. You told me about it, so I don't know. Eight something? Eight zero. Eight zero. It seemed like I was primed to get the best new music, but then it didn't happen. Eight zero? Eight zero. It was a great review. The guy was a great writer. It was a great review. Yeah, I mean, that's getting an eight.

on pitchfork in 2026 that is something to celebrate that's not something that you see too often unless it's just you and drake basically i feel like they also don't give that to like guitar music because they want to give it to like some freaky edm bullshit or something that like i don't understand you know what i mean they did the profile and then they like had my like pictures the lead review and i was like i think they might give it best music but You know, they're tricky. They're like coyotes, man.

They're tricksters. You never know. You never know. Like, literally going into it, it's like, okay, they gave me the profile. They might give me, like, a six. You know what I mean? And, like, you have to be prepared for that. It is crazy to get the full profile with photoshoot in a hometown that hits you with the 5.5. That does feel a little. That does feel a little. That sucks. It's happening, motherfuckers. It is coyote-like. That website in particular. uh i've been all over the spectrum with it but it's like but i guess just what i'm saying is you see reviews and they've been really favorable for this this album like overwhelmingly so honestly and like it's been really really wonderful but still reading stuff that's good about you is like eating processed sugar where it's not that's not healthy either and like reading bad stuff about yourself is certainly not healthy but then when you meet fans and you see like that's the real review when you you know a human being is coming to you and speak for yourself bro our fans hate us they like your ass that you're giving they hate us they would run us over with their rivians if they could so the the the good the good review that's a false sense of awesomeness and then meeting the people in in person that is a real sense that you are an awesome person and we do have fans chris some of them yeah your fans just have a different way of showing it it's like flirting they like to they think you guys they think you guys like the the jab you know it's like first graders on the playground like they punch us if they like to show to show their love and i'm not even saying that i gotta meet the fans to feel the love but just the people being at the shows and like seeing that they're singing the songs it's such an amazing well no it seems like i mean it seems like it's good i mean the record's really good and it seems like people are saying it's the you know Maybe the best Morby they've heard is what I'm...

It's your moon in Antarctica, people are saying. Exactly, exactly. That's what the streets are saying. But, I mean, can you feel a difference at the show? Like, do people know the songs already and shit, and it's pretty early on? Yeah, yeah. It feels a little bit like a level up, which is really exciting. What's the... Okay, what... Kansas City-wise, what is the... Do you think this has put you in a different power ranking? Like, is it you, Caleb? Travis Kelsey, Patrick Mahomes. Like, what's the ranking? Once you got an eight on Pitchfork, where do you move up on the KC rankings?

That has to bump you up above Sudeikis. No way. Sudeikis. Well, I think probably Rudd. Rudd and Sudeikis run that town. Oh, I forgot we got Rudd. Rudd's tough. You ain't touching Rudd. Yeah, I'm not getting close to Rudd. But those guys are great, and I've hung with them. But, yeah, then the select, you know. Well, actually, I mean, Rudd. Rudd is like grandfathered into running that town, but like Mahomes, Mahomes could blow up the town and no one would get fucking pissed at that guy. I'm going to set a bomb off and blow up everyone.

Thank you, Patrick. You know what? You guys will love this. Recently, I was driving down Word Parkway in Kansas City and I see this like kind of nice car. It wasn't the nicest car, but it was like this kind of nice convertible. It said Mahomes with a Z, and I was like, no fucking way. Is that Patrick? And I speed up to get next to him, and it was his brother. It was Jackson. And I was like, dude, this motherfucker. The one who's problematic. The problematic brother is trying to. The problematic brother with the vanity plate that says Mahomes.

Do you think he pulls from that plate? Gets a little runoff from that license plate? Probably. He definitely gets some runoff. I mean, he probably caused a few accidents, if anything. But I say it's me and Katie, and then Caleb. Caleb's pretty fucking famous, man. Yeah, he is. He's pretty famous now. He is. All right, but I feel like you and Katie, I mean, it depends on if we're going as a package or we're separating on the power rankings. Because if we go in as a package, obviously that's bumping you up above a couple of mid-level Chiefs players.

Yeah, mid-level Chiefs players, sure. We're going in solo. Things can get weird. You know what I mean? Things can get weird. I don't want to do that. But, you know, there's some Chiefs players that are, you know, like, I don't know. Like, there's some, you know, nameless Chiefs players. Yeah. You know, like there's some baseball players. No one knows who the hell they are. Period. You know what I mean? But when you're, but when you're in Kansas city, look, when, when, you know, if I'm driving around with you and the ranger in Kansas city and we stopped to get a coffee, the, the, you know, the, they, them barista is going to know you and you got to tip a hundred percent.

There's like a, uh, there's, there's a, there's a meme account. There's a Kansas city meme account. And there's one that says, Oh baby. There's one that's a, there's like a picture of just like a nondescript, like white guy with facial hair, like myself. And it said like, uh, like, like average Joe, uh uses the name kevin morby on his resi account to get free drinks at the bar while he waits and so like that's kind of the vibe in kansas city you know what i mean Okay. So they like you, but they're willing to poke fun at you as well.

It's not. Yeah, like that. It's fine. That meme probably went like Kansas City viral, which is like maybe 400 likes or something like that. Kansas City. For this account, that's big numbers, man. Kansas City viral, good name for a song. I don't know. How did it go? Well, it was Kansas City viral. It didn't go crazy. You know what I mean? Me and Katie always say, you know, I'll be like, I'm like a Kansas City six. You know what I mean? Or no, sorry. Kansas City 10, but like a LA six.

Your words, not ours, brother. Yeah, the time split between LA, Kansas City feels like a real whiplash, but I feel like you like that. That feels too different to me. Hey, man, it brings it back to the yin-yang. It does bring it back to the yin-yang. Yeah, that is the yang. Back to that tooth. Which city, LA or KC, is the longer ride home from the airport? Dude, they're the same, which is like it shouldn't be that way. Kansas City shouldn't be as far away from the airport. as it is four miles one of them is 40 miles takes the same amount of time i didn't realize it was that far wow dude it's too far and howard hughes built that the original airport out there in the 60s and i think they thought it'd be a bigger town than it ended up being oh i see so it was wishful thinking yeah they gave it too much room to breathe let's say it's a little like downtown la right yeah exactly yeah but then they were like uh oh it turns out uh

uh culture and uh you know uh fun times didn't really take off in this town culture and fun time i'm gonna come back i found it i found it pretty charming but we had good weather and shit but i was only there for a day i was only there for a day he's great my whole thing with you know it's funny because like caleb's from chilla coffee missouri and small town of missouri and then katie's from i'm sorry what did you say that sounded racist what did you say cold brew coffee he's from cold brew coffee missouri and katie Katie's from Birmingham, Alabama.

And those two, those two, I'm always talking shit on Kansas City. And those two are always like, Kansas City's the best. I'm like, you're not from there, motherfucker. It's different. You can't talk. You want to go back to Chillicothe? And you want to go back to Birmingham? Cool water. It probably is pretty good. We see your point. And I'm like, dude. Your hometown is like your brother. It's like, I can talk as much shit on my brother. No one else can talk shit on my brother, but I can talk shit on my brother.

It's true. And all the things that make it hateable is exactly what I love about it as well. My wife hates it when I call it anacrime instead of anahom. She's like, yo, chill. That's good. Get that shit out of your mouth. Dude. I call it Kansas shitty misery, man. Kansas City, Missouri. Wow, I've never heard that. That's good. I prefer Nashville. What is it? Teneke? That's a cocaine reference, Kevin. Sorry, I don't mean to. Oh, that's funny. I believe that's a three. Is that 3-6 Mafia, Jason? I think it may be from the Gotta Stay Fly song by 3-6 Mafia.

Oh, okay. Well, Kevin's also, Kevin's an honorary Memphis. You know, he loves Memphis, so I thought I'd bring it back. Project Kev? Project Kev. What else? What else are we going to talk about? Okay, well, now that you're a Los Angelino part-time, of course, let's get into the mayoral race. Are you voting for Pratt or what, bro? I'm voting for Jessica Pratt. She's unfortunately not running this year from what I can tell. It's only Spencer Pratt from the hills. I don't talk politics outside of indie rock. Smart move. We know where your loyalties fall.

You live in fucking so far east. We already know what you're doing. I'm in El Serino. You guys know what I'm doing. You guys, someone goes to Mamdani's account and they see all my likes. Kevin Moore would be like Mamdani's post. That's a good way to throw him off the scent. I got to start liking more Mamdani posts so people will leave me alone. That's a good idea. Who liked this done-to-death project? Chris is down with the resistance. No, I actually heard that Chris supports him. I saw a like the other day.

I would have supported him if he came on the show. If he wouldn't have canceled, come on the show, I would have supported him. Chris liking three Mamdani posts is his version of doing the work. Yeah, that's his version. liked three mom donnie posts i might as well have canvassed bed stye that's the same that's like a full-time that's a full-time fucking job with how powerful you are that's true that's thank you kevin thank you for giving me that that show of support yeah all right kevin we love you bro we appreciate it Memorial Day.

Love you guys, too. I'm glad we did this. I'm glad we made it work. Thank you for being so flexible. We need a little bro time on the road in AZ, right? It's really nice. It's supposed to take vocal rest, and this is the opposite of that, but that's okay. It's now 2 m. I'm going to go eat a very late lunch. It's 100 degrees here. I think I'll go for a run later, like as the sun sets. Yeah, a nice sunset run after a burrito sounds great. Smart move. Yeah, what's your pre-sun run meal going to be?

I think I'll just get some tacos. Yeah. Also, speaking about looking stuff. i mean i'm looking i'm looking double chin right now but uh i i just my track star i saw one of the comments one of these comments is iconic it said like uh this guy looks italian by all means like uh features in his face and his hair and even the outfit he's also got a little extra pasta chub to his face Damn, bro, that's ruthless out here. I like that somebody took time out of their Memorial Day to let you know that they think your face is a little fat probably because you eat so much pasta.

Comments are incredible. I like, you know, I will say being on tour... You end up looking at your phone a lot. So you, you, you see the strays, but at this point, and I genuinely mean this, the comments don't bother me. I think they're hilarious. I think, I think like, so that's funny that like, I think that's really, that is funny laughing all the way to the bank. My favorite thing in the world is when I get like DMS or like a comment of just someone being like, it's, it's very sweet.

And it's very genuine when someone's like, Hey man, I see you have like an off day here. Like crazy. I'm just going to throw this out there, but me and my friends would love to have you over. Do you want to play some songs in our living room? I think shit like that's so endearing. I'm like, never, ever would I do that. But I love the ask, man. I respect the ask. Okay, what about when you get the ask of, hey, I'm a local up-and-coming photographer, and if you need some pics at your sold-out concert tonight, I would love to take some photos for you for free in exchange for a backstage passes.

Jason, don't reveal my DM that I sent Kevin. reveal the dm i sent kevin is it is it endearing when they try that little trick yeah on the festival i think all the hustle i respect the hustle and i respect you know like hey i see you have a day off in houston we live a few hours away in dallas we know an awesome cafe you could play you could be the headliner i can't guarantee any money but it would be really sick like if you came and like i think our projects would really go well and i i could promise you i can guarantee you a good crowd i love shit like that i respect it i can guarantee you a good crowd is like yeah that's as good as money for me at this stage two middle finger emojis and you say wow i love that spirit young hustler attitude i i don't respond but i just i guess now i just talk about on how long gone that's that's all we do too yeah if you live in dallas don't be don't be sad if we leave you on red don't be sad fort worth's only 45 if you got any cafes there we can think about it um all right kevin enjoy enjoy your time in phoenix and we'll the tacos congrats on the great new album and all the success brother love love the album kevin no joke and we'll see you we'll see you on the road for sure thank you guys so much

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