-Our first guest is one of our absolute favorites.
He's an Oscar-winning actor and the author of the number-one
"New York Times" best-selling book, "Greenlights."
He has a brand-new children's book, called "Just Because."
We're gonna talk to him about that.
Please welcome, Matthew McConaughey, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yes! Come on!
-Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, don't call me James!
-Matthew! -What's happening?
-You are on the show tonight because I begged you to come on
because I am so into this book.
And I know it's been out for -- is it a year?
-Almost two years now, I think.
-Oh, my God. [ Laughter ]
I'm so sorry. I'm so -- but I do love it.
But I -- I'm so into the book.
And I loved it, and I read everything.
It is -- It is charming, it is funny, it is personal.
You get in there. You tell every single story.
And I loved it.
And it's actually made me think.
It's just so fun. -Awesome.
-And then my friend said, "Get the audiobook.
And you gotta hear it. It's Matthew McConaughey
talking and reading the book."
I go, "This is gonna be unbelievable!"
[ Laughter ]
And it is unbelievable!
You are a fantastic storyteller.
Were you -- I have so many questions for you,
but were you -- first of all, were you reading the book
when you did the audiobook,
or did you just remember it from your head and go,
"I know these stories"? -No, no, no.
I was reading from the book. -Okay, good.
-I was reading from the book. But I had worked so long
on the book and the stories, that --
They told me that when I recorded the audio, they said,
"You're gonna need maybe 10 days."
And I was like, "Oh, that sounds like a long time.
I mean, I know all these stories."
And I hopped in the booth, and I think I knocked it out
in 8 1/2 hours.
So the total read's like 6:22, but I knocked it out in a day.
I kind of knew where the voices were, where the characters were,
and I just laid back and said, "Hey, if I'm sitting
next to a campfire with a beer with you hanging out,
my story's will be here."
-That's what it feels like, yeah.
And by the way, great Australian accent in the book.
-Thank you. -I like hearing you do accents.
It's good. There's so many stories.
I want you to just talk here for eight hours,
but I'm gonna try to get it down to my favorite parts.
One that really stuck in my head is when you're in high school
and you had your truck. -Yeah.
-And -- And having that truck, and what -- what did you --
What was the truck? What did you drive?
-The truck was a Dodge. It was only, like,
a 4-cylinder Dodge truck that was slightly lifted.
Good enough to go off-road, though.
And I lived in East Texas. So, after school, you know,
girls and friends, we'd hop in my truck and go muddin'.
You know what I mean? That was --
You threw everything in the back of the truck.
You didn't care if you spilled something in it.
I was a truck guy. It got muddy, you roll.
-And you had a CB radio in it, too, right?
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Had a CB -- had a speaker
in the -- that I mounted in the grille.
So I could pull up into the parking lot in the morning
before school, and, like, a friend of mine,
this girl Cathy Cook or something, I could get get
on my CB and like, go "Whoa! Look at Cathy Cook this morning.
She is looking..." [ Laughter and applause ]
That'd go across the whole parking lot.
Everybody, and she'd get embarrassed
wondering where it come from,
and then I'd hop up and get busted.
So it was -- it was a lot of fun.
The truck was a lot of fun. -Yeah, you were a rascal.
-I -- yeah, a fun rascal. -Yeah.
-Fun rascal. Here's what I did.
Here's where I snafu'd myself.
There was a beautiful cherry-red 300ZX, T-tops,
that went on sale across town, and I drove by it and went in.
And it was -- the guy said he would trade me the truck in
for the 300ZX. And I was like, "Ooh.
Candy red, T-tops, 300ZX. How 'bout that?"
And I said yes.
Big mistake.
Instead of being the guy in the front parking lot, talking,
having fun, being the rascal, and going mudding after school,
I started parking my 300ZX off in the back third parking lot,
away from all the cars 'cause I didn't want anyone
to open the door and dent it, right?
And I started, like, leaning against my red 300ZX.
Like, "Isn't my red 300ZX so cool?
So therefore I'm so cool?"
Well, I was no fun anymore. I went dry, man.
The girls didn't want to date me,
my buddies quit wanting to hang out with me, like,
"Dude. You're, like -- you're living off this 300ZX.
You're no fun anymore, dude." And I went back to that dealer,
pulled up and said, "This was a bad life decision for me.
Can I please have my truck back?
I'll give you the 300ZX back, and some money if you want."
He said, "Okay." I got the truck back.
I was back on the front lawn,
messing with Cathy Cook and going mudding after school.
-Yeah, exactly. "Greenlights."
[ Cheers and applause ] "Greenlights."
-Yeah. -I -- I like that you wrote down
bumper stickers that you think are clever and funny
throughout your life in a journal.
And then you just -- now and then you go, like,
"Hey, here's a cool bumper sticker I saw."
And you just talk about that.
I like the prescriptions -- prescribe!
-Yeah. Prescribe!
-Pre --oh, my gosh!
Hearing you say that, I'm telling you,
I spent 6 1/2 hours with you recently,
and it's amazing actually talking to you.
It's almost bizarre. It's almost like the metaverse.
I like that you talk about your mom and your dad and Rooster,
who I love and has been on the show.
I didn't know how his name came from -- 'cause he would just --
no matter how long everyone partied,
he was the first one up.
-Always up at sunrise.
No matter if he partied till 5:00 a.m.
Sun rose, Rooster's up. -Yeah.
Talking about your dad and the way that they parented you,
I know one of the things is they want you to be honest.
And one of the things is they don't want you to get --
they don't want you to get caught.
So, there's a couple things. -Yeah.
-You stole a pizza once, and then your dad's like,
"I'm not even mad that you stole the pizza.
But then you lied to me about it, and you got caught.
Don't -- My boy doesn't get caught."
-Like, "Son, if you're gonna try to get away with that
and be that rascal and get away with that mischief.
I don't give a damn about the stolen pizza,
but you've got to get better at getting away with it, man."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And that's when I got in trouble.
And then there's parts of it where you're laughing,
and then there's parts where it's just beautiful.
But I think the treehouse one stuck in my brain, too,
because you always just wanted a treehouse.
I mean, I think every kid wants a treehouse,
if you have a backyard, if you're lucky enough to have one.
-That was my dream. You know, and as you know
in that story, when you're a kid,
I think a treehouse is a -- is a sort of great metaphor
for all of our dreams when you're a kid.
It's a place to explore. You know, it's a place to
go have some privacy, some adventure.
It's about freedom, it's about youth.
And for me, that was my dream. And I happened to come across
a lumberyard, where I got some lumber
and built a 13-story treehouse that was --
I don't know how damn tall, but it looked 100 feet tall to me
when I was done. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. And you would go up in the treehouse and just look out.
-Well, I'd go -- I remember I'd make my lunch in the morning,
and I'd take it to the base of the tree.
And I had this pulley with a bucket at the bottom.
And I put my lunch in.
I could have easily carried my lunch up with me.
But then I put it in the bucket, and I'd climb all the way
to the 13th story and then just have such a good time seeing --
"Look at this. I can use a pulley to bring
my lunch all the way up." [ Laughter ]
-A good invention. -And I'd sit there by myself
and overlook -- it's the only place I could see
all of Longview, where I lived,
and it's the place where I could see the horizon.
And it's actually where I learned to even have
more dreams than just a treehouse.
That was -- That was in the top --
on the top floor of that treehouse
is where I learned to dream. -I love that.
-Aww. -I know. Isn't that amazing?
I just -- [ Cheers and applause ]
Let's talk about this children's book and then look at the --
Look at cover.
It's the treehouse! -There's a treehouse.
-It's a treehouse! [ Applause ]
Stop it! Just stop it!
It's a treehouse! -It showed up again!
It's not 13 stories, but, hey, I think, again,
that iconic image speaks to the kid in all of us.
You know, as I said, for me, it was a symbol of my youth,
freedom, exploration, privacy.
And it was my first big dream,
and where I learned to dream bigger,
at the top of my own treehouse. So, yeah, it made it to the --
to the cover of "Just Because," my new children's book
that I got coming out. -Look at you.
You're crushing it now. And I love it, 'cause it's
kind of a -- it's -- it's very "Greenlights,"
but it's for kids. It's giving advice.
-Yeah. -You know what it
reminded me of? And -- I don't want to say --
Obviously, it's the best, but "The Giving Tree" almost,
where it's like -- -Uh-huh.
-You know, you're reading these lines, and you're like, "Oh."
And it just hits you. And it's -- it's funny.
It's great, it's smart, it's emotional, it's everything.
And it's almost like a -- like a this-or-that book,
which is what I like with kids books 'cause it's simple.
Everyone can read it. Fathers can read it,
mothers can read it -- everyone can read it.
And you get it and you go, like,
"Just because I'm finished doesn't mean that I'm done."
Like, I love that. That is a great one.
[ Applause ]
-Just because you got the goal doesn't mean that you have won.
-Yeah. -Just because you wrote it
doesn't mean that I read it.
Just because I did it again doesn't mean I don't regret it.
[ Laughter ]
-Come on, bud. Come on.
That's what I'm talking about. -Things like that, you know?
-I could talk to you for eight hours.
I love that you came back and did this for me.
I appreciate this. I also want to talk
to you quickly -- I don't even know --
Can we talk about other projects that you're doing?
But there's one out there that everyone's talking about.
Are you playing Elvis?
-Yeah, "Agent Elvis." -Agent Elvis?
-Agent Elvis. -Yes.
-Yeah, I get to voice the global rock 'n' roll icon, Elvis,
by day, who, in "Agent Elvis,"
is an ass-kicking vigilante by night.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And I've got a chimpanzee as my crime-fighting sidekick.
-Yeah! That's what I'm talking about.
Why would you not do that? Only you could --
Come on, only you could pull that off.
It's always great to see you, bud.
-It's out in March on Netflix.
-I appreciate you coming on, and best to the family.
And thank you, thank you so much for this book and for this book.
Really kind of changed my life, pal.
I appreciate it. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thanks, Jimmy, and thanks for sharing that with me.
Look forward to it. Always a pleasure to be on with you.
-Thank you, bud. "Greenlights" and "Just Because."
[ Cheers and applause ]
Evangeline Lilly joins us after the break.
Stick around, everybody. Come on back.