Los Angeles wildfire relief is quickly becoming a leading philanthropic cause as the damage caused by the natural disaster adds up. Now, Live Nation is getting in on it: Recently, they announced FireAid, a benefit concert set for Inglewood’s Intuit Dome on January 30.
Information on tickets and who’s performing hasn’t been officially shared yet, but TMZ claims to have an inside look at the show: Per “sources with direct knowledge,” Billie Eilish (who was spotted volunteering at a relief event recently), Lady Gaga (who was spotted at a Burger King recently), and Red Hot Chili Peppers (who, like Eilish and Gaga, have LA ties) are set to be among the 50-plus performers.
In other unofficial news, according to another TMZ report, the event is becoming larger than initially expected, so much so that it will also reportedly be held at The Forum nearby. The event is apparently also expected to be livestreamed.
As for getting official information as it arrives, there’s a sign-up page here.
In their announcement of the event, Live Nation says the show is “dedicated to rebuilding communities devastated by wildfires and supporting efforts to prevent future fire disasters throughout Southern California,” and that proceeds “will go towards a 501(c)(3) created for this event that will focus on rebuilding infrastructure, supporting displaced families, and advancing fire prevention technologies and strategies to ensure LA is better prepared for fire emergencies.”
HBO cannot quit the Westeros jam yet, but their upcoming slate is diversified to the Max. That’s where James Gunn’s Creature Commandos launched the DCU, where Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer followup will surface, and where Bill Skarsgård will get spooky again as Pennywise, but do not worry, one of the best shows on TV, Industry, will also return.
The sudsy financial drama will require substantial retooling after showrunners Mickey Down and Konrad Kay imploded Pierpoint in that game-changing season finale, which actually could have passed as a series finale. However, HBO enjoyed growing audience numbers with a press release noting that the third season was “pacing nearly 40% ahead of season two” and that “social conversations” were “growing by double-digits each week.” By popular demand, it seems, Industry (and the wreckage of Pierpoint) will be back, so let’s place bets on what will come next.
Cast
HBO
The way that the third season ended does leave the cast somewhat up in the air. Does Pierpoint’s fate signal the end of Ken Leung as Eric on this series? Surely not. Remember, the second season finale also threatened to blow up the key Harper-and-Eric dynamic, but after her firing, she rose even further on the finance ladder (with added corporate espionage), so there’s zero reason to believe that Eric is out of the game because of his golden parachute. He simply doesn’t seem like the retiring type. Will he work with Harper again, as he half requested in the third season finale? Please.
With that said, HBO hasn’t confirmed any casting tidbits, but we will likely see several usual suspects again, including Myha’la as Harper Stern (now alongside Roger Barclay as Otto Mostyn). Additionally, Marisa Abela’s new Yasmin incarnation as the “Thoroughly Modern Lady Muck” will hopefully be a focal point as she settles into marriage with Kit Harington’s Sir Henry Muck. Additionally, Sagar Radia should be back as Rishi Ramdani, and unless the show plans to go global (which could happen), it’s impossible to predict whether Harry Lawtey will continue onscreen as the pure-hearted Rob Spearing, who’s now in Silicon Valley for Little Labs.
Elsewhere, Jay Duplass could return after Jesse Bloom left prison, but we’re unlikely to see David Jonsson return as Gus. His movie career took off with Alien: Romulus, and he will soon be in the thick of Scandalous filming with Colman Domingo and Sydney Sweeney.
Plot
HBO
What little that has been revealed of the plot has been mostly speculative by the cast itself. Marisa Abela recently indicated to Deadline that she cannot wait to see where Yasmin is going after being betrayed by Harper and sort-of betraying Rob. The complicated heiress has built up so much armor that, in Abela’s words, “I think that the only people that know Yasmin … the real Yasmin, are the audience now, and that’s just a really exciting place to be.”
As for where Rishi is at following the murder of Diana, Sagar Radia declared (also to Deadline), “I think the great thing about that scene is that it’s not in turn with the show at all, so therefore the shock factor is sort of tenfold … it wasn’t anything that I anticipated was going to happen.” Diana’s death is actually a punch that nearly got pulled during production, but if y’all were wondering whether Rishi’s destructive actions can somehow lead to redemption? Mickey Down doesn’t think that’s possible: “My instinct as a nice person, obviously, is to give Rishi a nice ending, but my instinct as a writer of Industry is to give Rishi a slightly less nice ending.”
The above musings aside, co-creators Konrad Kay and Mickey Down opened up the writers’ room last fall, and they addressed the possibility of going international with settings rather than remaining in London. Harper did, after all, mention that she wouldn’t mind working from New York, but Mickey Down seems to be intent upon keeping the show focused in England:
“It’s very hard to answer that. I mean without giving it too much away. It’s an American-effected show because we grew up watching those shows and obviously it follows several American characters. There is something about London and, especially in the last season, our exploration of London, and in particular London high society, which I think is unique to this show and I would hate to lose. And I think there are other shows that have done similar things in the US, but there is nothing in the UK which feels real and authentic and is actually giving you a sort of a firsthand, I would say, insight into that world. And I think that’s probably what you do for season four.”
Release Date
The series has been favoring two year gaps, so it’s likely that we will see the fourth season in Summer 2026.
Trailer
Forget the financial sector trapping for the moment, and enjoy this mutual-wingman-type conversation between Harper and Rob. The relationships are where it’s at on Industry.
A new Lucy Dacus era is upon us. After tending to Boygenius matters, Dacus has a new solo album, Forever Is A Feeling, on the way. She announced the project yesterday, and later that day, she gave one of the two new singles, “Ankles,” its live debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
It was an artistic affair: Dacus, wearing the same opulent red dress from the song’s video, performed in front of a golden frame and was even accompanied by a string section.
Fallon himself even got in on the fun, not during the performance itself, but by posing with Dacus for a fantastic photo off stage.
Dacus previously said of the album, “I got kicked in the head with emotions. Falling in love, falling out of love. […] You have to destroy things in order to create things. And I did destroy a really beautiful life. […] You can’t actually capture forever, but I think we feel forever in moments. I don’t know how much time I’ve spent in forever, but I know I’ve visited.”
Watch Dacus’ Tonight Show performance of Forever Is A Feeling single “Ankles” above.
Forever Is A Feeling is out 3/28 via Geffen Records. Find more information here.
Each week our staff of film and television experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
In Black Doves, the always wonderful Keira Knightley plays Helen, an undercover professional spy who has been passing on her politician husband’s secrets to the shadowy organisation she works for: the titular Black Doves. But when her secret lover Jason is assassinated, an old friend (Paddington’s Ben Whishaw!) is tasked with keeping her safe. Together, they set off on a mission to investigate who killed Jason, which, as often happens with these kinds of shows, leads them into a vast conspiracy. Pepe Silvia will be watching.
Discover what all the fuss over the vaping cardinal is about. Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), Conclave is about the messy drama behind selecting a new pope. Per the official synopsis: “Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.” Such drama queens.
The Dark Passenger-verse expands with Dexter: Original Sin, a prequel to the original series and Dexter: New Blood. This one is set in 1991 and follows Dexter Morgan (played by Patrick Gibson) as he transitions from student to serial killer with guidance from his father Harry (Christian Slater). Michael C. Hall will reprise his role, sort of, as the voice of young Dexter’s inner monologue. Will there be a treadmill? Find out!
Stephanie Hsu, who really should have won the Oscar over her Everything Everywhere All at Once co-star, is joined by Zosia Mamet in the new series Laid. The “f*cked up rom-com” is about a woman who finds out that her former lovers are dying in unusual ways, and must go back through her “sex timeline” to figure out what the heck is going on.
Netflix’s most-watched show ever is back. Squid Game season 2 sees the return of Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), a.k.a. Player 456, who has only one goal: to end the horrifying competition for good. This time, Gi-hun finds himself “locked in a tense battle” with the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), as well as trying to survive against the other competitors. Squid Game is the rare water-cooler show in the “death of the monoculture” era. Keep up if you want to know what your co-workers are talking about.
10. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix)
netflix
War is, generally speaking, bad… but I would not oppose a second Revolutionary War on the U.K. for getting Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl before the U.S. did. Just saying. Feathers McGraw returns in the new claymation masterpiece from Aardman. This time, the evil penguin aims to enact revenge on our cheese-loving heroes for getting him locked up in prison by reprogramming Wallace’s robotic garden gnome.
Written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters), Asura is a family drama set in 1979 about about four sisters — Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa), Makiko (Machiko Ono), Takiko (Yu Aoi), and Sakiko (Suzu Hirose) — who discover that their dad is having an affair. It’s being called 2025’s “first great new TV show.”
Black Box Diaries is one of 15 films to make the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Oscars. It follows Japanese journalist Shiori Itō, who accused a prominent media executive of rape in 2017. She published a memoir about the case, Black Box, which is “credited with sparking the #MeToo movement in Japan,” according to a synopsis. The documentary is told through video diaries (shot on Itō’s iPhone), audio recordings, and courtroom footage. Black Box Diaries is a tough but essential watch.
Noah Wyle? As a doctor? It’s crazy enough to work. This time, the ER star works in a hospital in Pittsburgh, and the show is “a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes.” The entire 15-episode first season takes place over the course of one 15-hour emergency room shift, not unlike 24.
For a while there, Taylor Kitsch was everywhere. He went from playing hunk with a heart of gold Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights to starring in two big-budget films, John Carter and Battleship, as well as a prominent role in Oliver Stone’s Savages, all released in 2012. But when all three films underperformed and/or were met with scorn from critics (justice for John Carter!), Kitsch stopped being The Next Best Thing. But now he’s back with his biggest part in years: American Primeval, a gritty, gloomy limited series set in the American frontier during the 1800s. The cast also includes the great Betty Gilpin, Kim Coates, and character actor favorite Shea Whigham.
Now in its fifth season, Harley Quinn shakes things up by moving the action from Gotham to Metropolis, which means the introductions of characters like Lena Luthor, Brainiac, and Red X. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the excellent voice cast, including Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn, Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Alan Tudyk as Joker and Clayface, Ron Funches as King Shark, J.B. Smoove as Frank, and James Adomian as scene stealer Bane.
Sebastian Stan received career-best reviews for his performance in A Different Man, in which he plays Edward, an inspiring actor who undergoes a radical medical procedure to transform his appearance. But his dream turns into a nightmare when he loses out on the role he was born to play to the uber-confident Oswald (Adam Pearson), who has the same genetic condition he once had. A Different Man is a surreal, thought provoking, and inventive film.
A Real Pain — which appeared on numerous Best Movies of 2024 lists — finds cousins David (played by Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Golden Globes winner Kieran Culkin) reuniting for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. But the journey takes a turn when old tensions resurface.
No, it’s not a live-action remake of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, although it is also about spies. (We all remember the spy plot in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, right?) Netflix’s Back in Action is Cameron Diaz’s first starring role in a film since 2014’s Annie. She plays Emily, a former CIA spy who, along with her husband Matt (Jamie Foxx), find themselves dragged back into the world of espionage when their cover is blown.
After a long, long break, one of the best shows on TV is back. Severance picks up where season 1 left off, with Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Helly Riggs), Dylan (Dylan), and Irving (Irving Bailiff) trifling with the severance barrier, “leading them further down a path of woe,” according to the cryptic Apple TV Plus synopsis. There are so many mysteries left to answer: what’s the deal with Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman)? What’s the deal with Seth Milchick (series MVP Tramell Tillman)? And seriously, what’s the deal with the goats?
The NFL Playoffs began in mixed fashion during Wild Card weekend. While there were some lofty highs including Sunday night’s game between Washington and Tampa Bay, many of the games were lopsided with five home teams advancing by an average of 17.6 points per game. Moving forward, however, that is not necessarily a bad thing for the postseason, as the best teams in the league are still alive and the quality of competition projects to improve.
In this space, we had a winning week in the Wild Card round, making three straight positive weeks overall. Does that make up for a disastrous stretch over the first 17 weeks? Certainly not, but we’re perhaps righting the ship at a good time, even if I will rehash the 18-point fourth quarter from the Chargers-Texans game for a long time.
Before diving into a juicy Divisional Round slate, let’s take stock.
Wild Card Weekend: 3-2
2025 Season: 39-54-2
Come get these winners.
Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans UNDER 21 points in the first half — Caesars
The Texans are playing quite well on defense, and the Chiefs are quite good on that side of the ball. The full game under here would also be appetizing, but there’s a chance Mahomes and company get loose late in the game or the Texans start heaving to try and make a comeback. Let’s get off to a slow start on the scoreboard and a hot start in the column.
TEASER: Kansas City Chiefs (-2.5) over Houston Texans AND Buffalo Bills (+7.5) over Baltimore Ravens — FanDuel, DraftKings
With all due respect to Houston’s defense, the Chiefs as part of a Wong teaser through two key numbers was pretty much an auto-play for me. I wouldn’t want to lay 8.5, but that’s a valuable leg. The other side is trickier because, in full transparency, I was ready to take the Ravens up to +7.5 early in the week when Buffalo was favored. I honestly would’ve found value in either side as long as it was up to 7.5 or higher, and Buffalo getting more than a touchdown at home is appetizing.
Washington Commanders (+9.5) over Detroit Lions — Widely Available
Candidly, I am not over-the-moon about the Commanders in a vacuum, but this number has broken contain. The Lions are the better team and standing in front of that offense is terrifying. However, this is a big number, and Detroit’s defense was struggling quite badly before Week 18. I tend to think those problems aren’t fixed yet. Maybe Jayden Daniels can get us in the backdoor if needed.
Los Angeles Rams (+6.5) over Philadelphia Eagles — FanDuel, ESPN Bet
I’ve thought the Rams were at least slightly undervalued all season, as long as Stafford was upright and their weapons were relatively intact. That is the case here, and I’m certainly less firm on Philadelphia’s offense than most seem to be. Granted, the Eagles are the better team and should be favored, but I don’t mean leaning on Stafford and company to put together a big late drive if we need it.
Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams UNDER 22.5 points in the first half — FanDuel, BetRivers
Like the first game of the weekend, I like the full game as well, but lean to the first half. I do trust the Eagles on defense, and the Rams have been plucky or better on that side of the ball. I’m expecting a feeling-out period of some kind in the early going, and I like this number available in a few spots. Bring me all the field goals and punts.
Basketball fans were treated to something special during the Summer Olympics in 2024: Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James all played on the same team. The trio was instrumental in the United States winning a gold medal in the men’s competition, and even beyond that, just seeing all three of them suit up alongside one another was a joy to watch.
No three players have come to define this era of basketball like Curry, Durant, and James, all of whom should head to Springfield the day after they announce their retirements from the NBA. And on Wednesday, the NBA treated fans to something special: A sit down conversation with the three legends of the game. It touched on a lot, but at one point (the 16:03 mark of the video at the top of this post), the trio were asked about continuing to play at a high level and not wanting to give up the torch to the next generation of players yet. James was quick to say it’s not about a desire to never pass that torch, but instead, they’re just committed to doing their craft at the highest level.
“We’re just naturally born hoopers who love the game and refuse to cheat the game while we’re playing,” James said, before pointing out some of the younger players that all three of them respect and want to see do great things when their time in the league comes to an end.
Curry then looked back on his conversations with guys like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and his father, Dell, about how guys want to leave the league in a better place than how they found it. He also cited the relationship that Durant has with Anthony Edwards, the latter of whom has never been shy about admitting that Durant is his favorite player, then mentioned that there’s a balance between keeping themselves at a high level, knowing that there’s young talent that has caused the league to evolve since their runs to the NBA Finals, and keeping the perspective that their careers will end sooner rather than later.
“It just reminds you that this is not gonna be around forever, and to enjoy every minute of it,” Curry said. “Cause, soon we’re gonna be — we’re not gonna be the bitter old heads, can we all agree on that? We’re not gonna be the bitter old heads that come back hating on the younger generation. But, definitely an appreciation and admiration for what they’re able to do, too.”
The whole conversation is, as you can guess, pretty incredible, but hearing them talk about leaving the league in a great place when they retire and the pride they have in some of the up-and-coming stars in the NBA really is special. Anyway, here’s hoping we can get all three of them a podcast or something at some point down the road.
Visionary director David Lynch has died. He was 78 years old.
The sad news was revealed by Lynch’s family on his official Facebook account. “It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” the post reads. “We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
Lynch revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with emphysema. “Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco – the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them – but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema,” he wrote on X. “I have now quit smoking for over two years. Recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema. I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire.”
Where to even begin with David Lynch? His accomplishments as a filmmaker include cult favorite Eraserhead; surprise box office hit Blue Velvet; the Oscar nominatedThe Elephant Man and The Straight Story; and Mulholland Drive, one of only two films released since 2000 to appear in the top 10 of Sight and Sound‘s “Greatest Films of All Time” list. He also was an accomplished musician, advocate for transcendental meditation, and co-created Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return, which turned out to be his final project. It was yet another creative triumph in career full of them.
Last year, in response to a clip of Dua Lipa performing at a private McDonald’s event, the official X (formerly Twitter) account of Burger King UK joked, “Well we are going to bring out Lady Gaga at our next event.”
No word yet on if Gaga made out it out to that next event, but she has at least visited a Burger King location since then.
On X today (January 16), a Lady Gaga fan account shared a security video of Gaga at a BK, supposedly filmed in King City, California yesterday. In the video, Gaga does some classic waiting in the seemingly empty restaurant, sipping from one of the two drinks she’s holding, wandering around the ordering area, and generally meandering. After about 25 seconds, a man (Gaga’s fiancé Michael Polansky, the fan account says) emerges from what would seem to be the bathroom, and the two leave the fast food eatery together.
As they head out, another customer enters and seems to get a bit of a look at Gaga as she passes by the pop icon. She then keeps walking before doing a triple-take, as if wondering if that actually was Lady Gaga she just saw at a random Burger King on a Wednesday.
Devo‘s biggest hit by far is “Whip It.” The track, from 1980’s Freedom Of Choice, is the influential new wave group’s only top-20 hit, and it’s appeared in everything from The Simpsons to Stranger Things to So You Think You Can Dance. But over the past decade, it hasn’t been Devo’s most profitable song. That distinction belongs to “Uncontrollable Urge,” which was never released as a single, and it “only” has 30 million streams on Spotify compared to over 174 million for “Whip It.” So, how is it such a money maker?
A cover of “Uncontrollable Urge” is the theme song for the Rob Dyrdek-hosted MTV series, which is pretty much all MTV plays. Tomorrow alone, the channel will air 20 episodes of Ridiculousness, which is actually down from a few years ago. Anita Greenspan, the manager and wife of Devo co-founder and “Uncontrollable Urge” writer Mark Mothersbaugh, told Rolling Stone that she estimates performance royalties bring in “around $1 million” every year.
“I’ve written so many other songs for films and television shows,” Mothersbaugh said. “I would’ve been shocked [years ago] if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income.” Greenspan added, “It’s ironic and kind of funny. In the beginning of MTV, you saw a lot of Devo because they were early to make videos, but MTV started questioning the videos Devo were making. [The videos] were subversive, they didn’t like them, and wouldn’t play them anymore. Now ‘Uncontrollable Urge’ is easily the most-played song on MTV, so [Devo] wins.”
You can listen to “Uncontrollable Urge” below, or, y’know, just wait 30 minutes for the next episode of Ridiculousness.
Throw a rock in Nashville and you will hit an earnest singer-songwriter who claims to be influenced by the country-folk greats of the 1970s: John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, etc. But almost nobody feels like they could have come out of the 1970s. Not only because they lack the writing chops, but they also don’t quite have the attitude or the gravitas.
Todd Snider is the rare exception.
A songwriter’s songwriter, the 58-year-old has been recording and performing for more than 30 years. His first notoriety arrived in the mid-nineties when he scored a smart-ass novelty hit called “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues,” in which he posited silence as “music’s original alternative.” At the time, he was a folk singer stranded in a sea of grunge bands and big-hatted Garth Brooks wannabes. He didn’t fit in, and he was still finding himself. Snider didn’t really hit his stride until a decade later, when he put out a series of gloriously ragged records — including 2004’s East Nashville Skyline and 2006’s The Devil You Know — that reimagined John Prine’s iconic 1971 debut as if it had been recorded in one night with the Rolling Stones in the south of France during the Exile On Main St. sessions. The music rocked, but the words — a mix of sly one-liners and closely observed daily minutia from an outsider perspective — were what stuck in your head.
Snider’s specialty is storytelling songs about down-and-out losers who just might be hitting rock bottom, rendered with a mix of gallows humor and nonchalant pathos. One of my favorites is “Tillamook County Jail,” from East Nashville Skyline, in which a guy wonders if his girl will pick him up after an unnamed skirmish. At one point the cops beat him up, which he calls “the Tillamook County lie detector test.” (“It’s a tough test not to fail,” he adds.) And then there’s “The Highland Street Incident,” which plays like a gritty seventies crime film condensed into a three-minute song. Snider portrays the song’s narrator, who is recounting a robbery that clearly went awry:
Did we get arrested? No we did not
We didn’t shoot anyone, we didn’t get shot
We didn’t hurt anyone, at least not a lot
And we got what we wanted
As good as these songs are on record, there are even better in concert. You get that sense from his excellent live records — 2003’s Near Truths And Hotel Rooms, 2011’s Todd Snider Live: The Storyteller, and 2022’s Live: The Return Of The Storyteller — but seeing him in person is a singularly charming experience. As those album titles suggest, the live show revolves around Snider’s rambling stage patter as much as it does the songs. Sometimes Snider’s stories go on longer than the music. (I have described his live records as comedy albums that happen to have some songs on them.)
Snider also has the requisite troubled back story for a singer-songwriter of this type — the trips in and out of rehab, a divorce, and health problems, including a debilitating back condition that has kept him off the road the past two years. He’s also lost some of his closest friends in recent years, many of whom were mentors and father figures: Prine, Kristofferson, Jimmy Buffett, and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Richard Lewis, who he calls his best friend.
In recent interviews, Snider has struck a pessimistic posture when asked about whether he will ever tour again. A note of finality about his career, at times, was alarmingly discernible. Frankly, I was worried about him. But when we spoke by phone last week, I was pleasantly surprised by his upbeat mood. He plans to record a new album, he says, and to play some shows in the fall.
“I’ve been really lucky,” he said. “I just took two years off and I’m being reflective, because my dad died when he was 54. And I’m four years past that now.”
Snider’s demeanor was buoyed in part by a new box set released last month of solo acoustic recordings. Titled Best Of All My Songs, it’s culled from online broadcasts from the pandemic era, and includes 50 tracks along with plenty of side stories. Along with Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 — a 2019 effort laid down at Johnny Cash’s Tennessee cabin with guest stars like Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires — it represents a retrenchment to his signature folk style after various sonic detours into garage rock (2016’s Eastside Bulldog), jam-band music (his band Hard Working Americans), and backwoods funk (2021’s First Agnostic Church Of Hope And Wonder).
He says the process of revisiting these hilarious and heartbreaking tunes has changed his perspective on his body of work. “I like them better than I thought I would,” he says, I imagine, with a crooked grin.
This box set derives from your online All My Songs series. How did that come about?
I have a studio in East Nashville. And me and my buddy, my tour manager, he and I had been gathering gear down there. All of a sudden, we got interested in cameras and lights and those types of things and started collecting them. We didn’t even know what we were going to do with them. Then right when the pandemic hit, we were like, “Well, we could use all this stuff.” He sat down and figured if we bought this thing and that thing, we could be on the computer like it’s television and do a show on Sunday.
After that show, Fiona Prine called and said John was gone. So I drove back down to the studio and we said, “We’re going live and I’m going to start playing Prine songs.” And I played all of them. And it was so healing. And that day, I was like, “I love this.” I felt like a DJ. It was a new art form.
Bob Dylan always says that the best versions of his songs are almost never on the records.
I definitely feel like that. When I listened to this box set a couple days ago, I was like, “I finally made this album that I wanted to make.” It’s got way too many songs on it, but that’s what it took. And then I think everything before was pre-production. I finally figured out if I film myself so there’s an audience, but they’re not there, that could do it.
I read this recent quote from you that I thought was really interesting. You were talking about John Prine and the influence that he had on you and your music. You said, “He healed my memories and turned them into medicine for others. My songs grew from words meant to win arguments and get back at girls who rejected me, to opening up my heart and showing people what was in there.” I was wondering if you could talk about that.
That was right after my third record, and that was the kindest thing that anybody had ever done for me. And he stayed with it. I still can’t believe I got to have that. I know that he knew how important he was to me already when he made that move.
Was that something he said to you explicitly?
Yeah. We met when he was making The Missing Years. He just treated me like his friend. He came to a bar and saw me play. And then a friend of his in Memphis had been helping me and got me a record contract, and as soon as I got one, John asked me to open some shows. And so I did that. And then I think after the second record came out, I asked John’s manager to manage me. Even though the guy who was managing me at the time, he didn’t stop or anything. He just stopped getting money. His name was Bob Mercer. He just loved me like his kid.
I had never really understood what I was doing that was sort of pure or whatever. I just was letting it all hang out. And then, if you get a record deal, usually it makes you kind of mad eventually because it gets picked at by everybody. And so on my third record, I settled a lot of scores, bragged a little bit. All I knew was, “What’s wrong with my songs, man?” It’s not even that people don’t like them. When I’m singing them, I just can’t wait for them to get over. And then that’s when he spoke up and said, “I can help.”
I had 13 songs that I gave him and his manager a CD. I came back the next day and they said one of them was really good. The song was called “Missing You.” And I said, “What about the others?” And John was like, “Ain’t nothing going on with any of them.” And then he said, “There’s this other song about DB Cooper that’s kind of going somewhere. I just don’t get why you’re the one telling me that. And then there’s this other one called “Harder To Listen” where you’re telling some story about the girl going to AA and how dumb they are. And I think it’s about you going to AA and being intimidated.” And then he was like, “If that wasn’t about a girl who thought everyone was stupid and it was about a guy who was afraid of everybody, you might have a song.”
I worked on “DB Cooper” until I realized that my dad was wanting them to catch him and I was wanting them not to. And when I put that in the song, John’s like, “That’s why you remember it. That might’ve been the first time you disagreed with your dad.” I’m going to get choked up now.
I made the record. It’s called Happy to Be Here. Then my best friend got cancer, and I fell into super hard dope with him. I felt like that’s when I had my back to the wall and I just had to do something. And I made a record called East Nashville Skyline with my friends and didn’t allow any grown-ups around. And when I was done, John was like, “Man, here’s the keys, son.” That’s it. He talked to me different after that, from that day forward. And it wasn’t like it was a success. It was just like, “That’s kind of original and honest and heartfelt and no crap in there.”
That’s when I got on board with your music.
I love that one. It means so much to me. The label was John. I had a feeling it would be cool, so I just said, “Look, I want to make the record and give it to him.” That means if they don’t like it, I’m mowing everybody’s yard for years. So, we made it for nothing on the gamble that they’d like it.
I thought about “DB Cooper” when that health insurance CEO got murdered. The killer has some DB Cooper-esque qualities.
Yeah, that’s right. I hadn’t thought about that. He killed a guy, but he was a dick.
Have you been writing songs lately?
I have, would you believe? I’ve been home for two years and it’s not going to be a better album than any before. Might possibly be worse, but I’ve been able to work on the songs. I love to rewrite. I can do it for hours every day. I’ve had 10 or 12 songs going now for a few years. And there’s a young guy named Aaron Lee Tasjan, who’s a recording artist, but also a producer. And another guy named Robbie Crowell who plays piano for Sturgill Simpson, but he’s also a producer and has played with me.
Yeah. That tour was amazing. Robbie and Aaron, when they first got to town, they were in my Bulldogs band. It’s been fun watching them grow. And I learned from them. So those two are like soul brothers. And then I have this kid, Sterling Finlay, he’s like a brother and he lives in Texas and has been playing with bands forever and he’s coming too. And those four, we’re going to set up in my house.
Are these political songs? Love songs?
Let’s see. [Starts reading song titles.] “The Phone Call,” “While We Still Have a Chance,” “The Temptation To Exist.” “Another Likely Story.” “High Lonesome And Then Some.” “Stoner Yodel No. 2.”” Petey Wheatstraw Blues,” or it’s also known as “Sockdologizing Old Man Trap.” “If You’re Happy And You Know It, Keep It Down.” Then there’s another one called “60,000 Miles An Hour.” One called “The Counts Of Saint Germain,” but that might be called “Psych”. And another one called “Nobody Makes a Memory Like You.”
Wow.
I’ve had them on blocks the whole time. I have to finish two. I have like three verses to make up.
Do you see yourself touring in the future?
I do, but part of that is I’m thinking really positive. It’s the part of my life I love the most. And I didn’t know the last time that it might be the last time. I have this disease called stenosis. It doesn’t get better. It just gets worse. And so, if I’m going to do it, I got to do it now.
How does the disease affect you?
At first, my stomach was way up in my diaphragm, and I thought I was done. But now it’s back where it should be. My bones hurt though, and it’s hard for me to stand up sometimes. At times I go on tour and just take pain pills towards the end, but the last year I didn’t do it. I’m not 60 yet, and I love drugs. I always loved drugs, but I don’t want to have to take them. I love pain pills when I don’t need them. So, I turned into one of them “stretching all the time and meditating” people. I’m in okay shape, I walk a lot and stuff. But I think I’m going to have to start swimming. I have to get stronger.
It seems like you’re in a relatively good place.
I am. I am. I’m looking forward to recording these songs. For some reason, I don’t know when it happened — about two weeks ago or something — it was like, “All right, let’s get this going again.”
Before I let you go, I wanted to ask you about the late Richard Lewis. I didn’t know how close you were.
Jim Keltner introduced me to him years ago. We’d get on the phone a bunch during the day and he was involved in everything I did to the nth detail. When I’d record or when he’d be on the set of Curb, he’d call me during the breaks. I was always recording and calling him, running lyrics by him. I hadn’t made decisions without him in a decade. I made a management switch right before he passed, and that was the last thing we did together. It was his idea, and he held my hand through that.
We were, I guess, best friends. He was the funniest person, but also insanely thoughtful. And yeah, we just got caught up in the minutiae of each other’s lives. It was like, “I gotta race home, I gotta hear what kind of shoes Richard ended up getting.” I loved him so much, and his wife Joyce.
He had been having heart trouble. And he’s exactly like the character, so if his heart felt weird, he was on his way to the ambulance. And then one night, to me and Joyce, he was like, “My heart feels a little weird tonight, but it’s fine.” Oh really? You don’t want to shut the government down? He was like, “Nah, I’m just going to go to bed.” In a way, I think it was his way of saying, “I’ve had it.” His last two years were pretty painful. He was getting some leaves out of the gutter and fell, broke his shoulder. I remember that day. And then he never recovered. Two years later, he was gone of a heart attack.
One more story and then I’ll let you go: He talked me into booking a show with him in a really teeny club so that he could try out new material. He was going to go first and it was a set-up. He went out there and did his best 40 minutes and there was nothing left to do when I went up there. People left during my shit. He was in the balcony. I called him Mussolini. He was in the Mussolini seats up there laughing his ass off. It was very much like a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.
It was a spite set!
[Laughs.] It was!
I wonder if Richard saw you in a way as a stand-up comedian. I’ve described your live albums as comedy records with songs put between the stories.
Well, he definitely thought that I was really funny, and I could crack him up. But when people around us would say, “He could do stand-up,” he’d be like, “No, he’s doing this thing Will Rogers used to do. It’s different. It’s way easier.” And then he’d say, “Write a joke.” And I would write jokes and he’d be like, “No, no, no, no.” And then I wrote one joke he said that was really good. He’s like, “Now that is a joke, and yet, you can’t ever tell it.”
[Todd tells me the joke but makes me promise not to put it in this column. It’s very funny, though.]
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