Sometimes there's these little accidents of fate
that come up in my life,
you know, you have those dejavu moments,
or there's something in the air.
Yesterday, my wife has no idea
that you're coming on the show, none at all.
And we're trying to think of a funny,
really great funny movie to show my son who's 16.
And we're constantly trying to think of,
you've probably had this,
where you wanna watch a good movie,
you wanna show someone a good movie,
and you're faced with all the movies in the world.
And you're trying to think of what's the funny one.
And my wife and I are trying,
we've shown him so many good movies,
and then my wife
out of the blue just said, "Bottle Rocket."
And I was like, "Yeah, 'Bottle Rocket.'"
And then I said, "You know, I'm talking to Luke tomorrow."
And she was like, "On the podcast?"
And I said, "No, I'm just going to his house
"to talk to him through his window."
(cast laughing) I was a real wise ass,
which I don't often do with my wife.
And I'm like, "No, I'm gonna go to his house
"and talk to him through his window."
And she was like, "Fuck off."
And I said, "I want a divorce."
And so, that's ending.
(Sona and Luke laughing)
But we brought up "Bottle Rocket" yesterday.
And then I realized,
that's the first time I heard of you, Owen, Wes Anderson.
Was I think in, would've been '96 or '95
when my late night show was still really new,
there was this movie
everyone was talking about "Bottle Rocket."
And that's kind of,
I mean, I knew you guys were making shorts before that,
but this was your first-
Yeah, that was the first movie we made, "Bottle Rocket,"
and yeah, I think it was about,
I think we might have made it in about '94 or '95.
And then they wanted to sit on it for a year
because they could feel that it was
such a groundbreaking film.
(cast laughing) And it was really gonna
take the town by storm.
(cast laughing)
But no, I think it wound up coming out in about '97.
But yeah, that would've been-
I don't think- When I first met you
as on that show. Yeah, and I know that,
I wasn't sure,
did you come on the show then for "Bottle Rocket"?
I know that Owen did.
And I remember thinking,
"Does this guy have a brother I would prefer?"
(cast laughing)
Is there an alternate?
Is there a younger, preferable brother?
And sure enough, because you ended up,
you and I, you've been on the show a lot
and I've always clicked with you,
but that's the first time I saw you guys,
which in that movie, which I really loved.
And then another thing
that's been in the atmosphere lately
is James Caan just passed,
and he's in that movie and he's terrific.
'Cause I saw him, I mean, how amazing
that you're these two young guys,
these punks who make this movie,
and you got the great James Caan to be in it.
Yeah, he was so great on that movie.
And I think probably what got him into it
was the fact that James L. Brooks was producing it.
Right, right.
Because yeah, we were,
you know, it was Wes Anderson,
and then Owen, and Andrew, and myself.
And yeah, I think he probably would've just done it
on the strength of James L. Brooks.
I don't know that the script maybe
would've appealed to him that much.
But yeah, he couldn't have been nicer.
I actually went to the,
in Santa Monica they were showing
"The Wild Bunch" last night on 70 millimeter,
and went to see it.
And a guy named Paul Seydor,
a Peckinpah scholar and writer,
gave a little speech before it,
but he mentioned James Caan and David Warner
and two other guys from kind of the Peckinpah stable.
And then he had a little moment
of silence for those guys, which was really nice.
He had it in the movie theater.
But yeah, James Caan, you know, he was,
"El Dorado" has been on lately,
and just incredible to think
that that guy would've been connected back
to Robert Mitchum and John Wayne.
And he couldn't have been nicer to us on the movie.
I think there were definitely,
you know, when he died,
I was kind of talking with Owen about it.
Just saying, those first couple of days,
you could definitely see in his eyes,
like, "Okay, well what am I doing here?
"I'm in a trailer, in a parking lot in Dallas.
"These guys are very odd."
(Conan laughs)
But then he really kinda warmed up to us.
Yeah.
You know, was one of those people
that was really fun to talk to
about different movies he'd worked on,
we were asking him about Brando.
And he was like, "Yeah, you know, Brando,
it was like you guys with me."
(cast laughing)
And that really was kind of how we were.
Isn't that crazy when someone like that
can drop a name like Brando,
and then somehow liken it to you and you think, "No."
I mean, yeah, but it's just so amazing to be,
because I know you guys are incredible film buffs,
you and your brother.
Just like, really, as kids growing up in Dallas,
you were really into film, right?
Yeah, really into movies.
And I got to be friends
with Harry Dean Stanton over the years
and got to work with him a couple times.
And Harry Dean was one of those guys,
you know, wouldn't text so you'd have to call him,
call and have these kind of funny, long conversations.
And then he'd click off and take a call,
and couple times he'd click back over and say,
"I gotta go, that's Marlon." (exhales)
Oh my God. (cast laughing)
Yeah, so. Isn't that crazy?
Yeah, just unbelievable.
And then those guys would chat
about how they were both nothing and nothing mattered.
Yeah.
No, it's just, I was at a party once,
and I'm a huge Beatles fanatic and Paul McCartney's there,
and I walk into a room and he's there playing a guitar,
but he's playing it, because he's lefthanded,
he's playing it upside down and backwards
because it's strung for righty.
And I just said, "Wow, I don't know how you do that."
And he's like,
"Oh, you know, when I was grow up in Liverpool,
"I'd nick John's guitar,
"and if I'd play it this way it was the only way I could,
"'cause I'm lefty.
"But if I had restrung it, he'd have crippled me."
And I'm like, "You can't just talk about John like that."
You know what I mean?
It's the same thing.
Like, "Well, Brando's on the line, I gotta go."
And then I just think I'm not in this reality.
Well, I mean, it is incredible to me.
And, I mean, I think about it now
when people like James Caan dies,
that we're kind of the same age,
but we were lucky enough to know people like that,
you know, from the '50s and stuff like that.
Oh my God, I think about that
all the time. And then to think
that Paul, kind of, first generation,
or maybe the second generation of rock and roll,
you know, these guys who were really were pioneers.
So pretty incredible, the chance you get to talk
to someone like that. Anytime I'm even
in the room,
even I don't get to talk to them,
if I'm just in the room.
On our late night show once, we had Scotty Moore was on,
who was Elvis's original guitarist,
and he's in the room in "Sun Session" at Sun Studios,
when they just accidentally are messing around
and they cut "That's All Right Mama,"
and he's with Bill Black
and it's part of the original lineup.
And he was on the show
and he was messing around with the band.
And I just said, "Excuse me, Mr. Moore,
"could you show me how you play
"the solo in 'That's All Right Mama'?
"You know,"
♪ Bah, dum, boom, boom, boom ♪
♪ Ba, Ba, Ba, Bah, dah ♪
♪ Boom, boom, boom, boom ♪
And he said, "Oh yeah, sure, it goes like this."
And he does it, and his hands are doing
the same thing they did in 1954
when he and this very strange kid
changed the world. Yeah, truck driver.
Yeah, a truck driver, changed the world.
And I always have the same feeling,
which is, I don't deserve to be here seeing this.
It's just an immediate,
but then I think, "Well just be here, shut up,
"take those negative thoughts away and just be here."
Yeah, I got to, one time, know the guy Steve Wertheimer
that runs the Continental Club in Austin,
that little, tiny, kind of famous blues club.
And I'd run into him,
and he'd said that James Burton
was gonna be doing a little sound check
one afternoon. Wow, okay.
So I got to go listen to an hour and a half sound check.
And it was just kind of the same thing.
To think about, he was kind of
the next iteration of Scotty Moore.
Yeah, he's Elvis's guitar player in the Vegas years.
Right, and then played with Ricky Nelson
and all those guys. Yep, yep, yep.
But did you read the Guralnick book about Sam Phillips?
You must have read that. Yep, yes I did.
In fact, I saw you do that great interview
with you and Peter Guralnick where you were so funny,
you were kind of an incorrigible student
where you were like,
you started kidding around about something
but he wouldn't quite start laughing.
He was like, "Yeah, well yes, Conan.
"Let's stay on the subject here."
(Conan laughing) (cast laughing)
I've never been able to stay on the subject.
You kind of kept going at it and going at it.
Yeah, so you saw me fail.
(cast laughing) Well, no, no.
No, you didn't fail in your knowledge.
Maybe just, you got a little immature for Peter, I think.
I think I did. He just kind of
rode it out. (laughs)
He's such a great,
yeah, that happens sometimes where I'm,
I can, sometimes I'm, I mean Peter Guralnick is just
one of the great scholars- He's incredible.
of rock and roll of all time, an amazing writer.
And just one of those people
that's elevated rock and roll to,
you know, great writers should be writing
about rock and roll and blues.
And so he's just a genius.
And I was interviewing him
and then of course my natural Conan came out
and he just had to forge ahead. (laughs)
(cast laughing) He really did.
You could see it kind of physically
kind of hit him in interview. (cast laughs)
It just kinda go through his body
kind of an electric shock you're-
(Conan laughing)