“Weird Al” Yankovic

Episode notes

(Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

“Weird Al” Yankovic is the undisputed king of parody music. He’s been recording music for over 40 years and sold millions of records. He’s got an iconic voice, the chops for pop and a sense of humor that’s both distinct and approachable.

After all this time, Weird Al is getting the biopic treatment. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was co-written by Al himself and debuts on the Roku channel on Friday, November 4th.

True to the biopic genre: Weird chronicles Al’s life from childhood to present day. But unlike most biopics, it is not probing, emotional and dark. It is not grounded or not realistic and there are no facades to be lifted.

What Weird Al does to popular music, he does here to biopics. It’s a very funny, joke-a-minute parody. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al, and Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna who’s Al’s main love interest in the film.

“Weird Al” Yankovic joins Bullseye to talk about Weird and the creation process behind the film. He also talks about how he got into making music and learning to play the accordion at a young age. Plus, he tells us about the time he decided he could make a living out of recording parody songs about food.

In this episode...

Jesse Thorn

Host

Kevin Ferguson

Senior Producer

Jesus Ambrosio

Producer

Richard Robey

Maximum Fun Producer

Daniel Huecias

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

Weird Al Yankovic

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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