-Let's talk about "Broken Record"...
-Yes. -...coming back for
a second season.
Why do a podcast about music?
-Well, Rick Rubin... -Yes.
-Legend, world's -- you know, world's greatest producer.
-Oh, I love -- Yeah.
-He wanted to do a podcast about music.
And so, who would say no to Rick Rubin?
He's basically -- one of the greatest producers living
calls you up and says, "Do you want to hang out with me
and famous musicians?" -Yeah.
-And I couldn't come up with a reason to say no to that.
-Do you have any musical talent?
-No, I --
[ laughter ]
I have written some songs, but only for weddings.
So the bar is significantly lower.
[ Laughter ]
-Like for your friends weddings? Or higher?
-I've written several.
One was a success, and one was not.
So, after the one that was not a success, I hung up my --
[ laughter ] -It wasn't a hit at the wedding?
-Well, it -- it's a long story. But the --
-When did you realize it was not working?
-When the wedding ended at the point our song ended.
That was the first clue that things hadn't gone well.
It was to the tune of "My Way"
which is a, kind of, standard. And, yeah, it went badly.
[ Laughter ]
-Well, good. How about -- Did you ever do karaoke?
Does Malcolm Gladwell do karaoke?
-No. I --
[ laughter ]
I don't -- I think it's too risky.
But I saw -- -Risky?
-I do have a karaoke moment which I'll always --
I think this is the ultimate meta karaoke story.
Which is, I was -- they used to do karaoke at Cipriani downtown.
-Okay, yeah. -I'm walking past Cipriani.
-Yeah. -And I hear them inside
Cipriani. They're doing karaoke.
They're doing "Sweet Child o' Mine."
And I look up.
And I see Axl Rose get out of an SUV
as they're playing -- someone's doing the karaoke version
of "Sweet Child o' Mine," and he starts singing
"Sweet Child o' Mine" on the sidewalk.
-No! -Yeah.
He heard the person singing? -He heard him.
And he was like -- I don't know whether his reaction was,
"I should join in,"
or "This is terrible, I should try and drown them out."
But I got Axl -- So, it's just me and Axl
and the karaoke people making all this noise.
-Wow! That's a great New York story.
-It's a great -- I was sort of so flabbergasted.
But he's so distinctive. I mean, you can't --
Once you hear that voice --
-Who do you have as guests on the show, on this podcast?
-We have -- well we have -- We open with Questlove.
-Questlove is the first? He's the debut episode?
[ Cheers and applause ] -He is the debut.
-When is it out? Next Tuesday?
Next Tuesday is when it comes out, and Questlove is your --
-He's -- we're doing two shows with him.
Because, you know, normally people come on,
and after about an hour, things start to peter out.
-Yeah. -But it doesn't happen
with Questlove. -No.
-You realize about -- in hour two,
that things are just -- he's just getting warmed up.
-Yeah. He's a great storyteller. -And he's a great --
and I was -- I didn't know this about him.
So, I was - you know, I was planning on going to dinner.
And then I was like, "Oh, that first hour was fantastic.
Surely he'll, kind of, want to wind things down a bit."
No, no, no, he then gets up a notch.
And then in hour three... -Three hours?
-In hour three, he tells the Obama story,
which I think you know.
-Oh, the Obama story is unbelievable.
-It's one of the great -- I say this, you know,
as someone who is a connoisseur of stories --
-Yeah, obviously. -I analyze them for a living.
If I was going to diagram -- you know how they
do those things in the NBA where they diagram the plays?
-Yes. -If I was going to diagram
a story, like, how to do it perfectly,
that would be the one I would use.
It was just -- as I'm telling it,
when I was in -- on the floor laughing,
I was, kind of, doing a technical analysis of it.
And I couldn't. There's no flaws in the story.
It's a perfect story. -Yeah, wow. The perfect story.
-It's the perfect story. -When he told me about it --
-Yeah. -I almost couldn't believe him.
-I had the same thing. It had to be true.
You can't make up this kind of --
-You can't make up where it goes.
-Know where it goes. -It's fantastically great.
-It's fantastic. -And that will air
in the first episode?
-Oh, I'm going to make people wait for it the same way
I had to wait for it.
You don't get it in the first hour.
'Cause if I had to wait until the third hour...
-Yeah, exactly. Yeah. -It's the second.
It's the payoff. -Guys, check it out either way.
Malcolm Gladwell, his podcast, "Broken Record."