-Welcome to the show. Welcome back to the show.
And I do want to say a sincere thank you so much.
'Cause during the pandemic,
we were doing the show from my home,
and you were nice enough to do a whole video
and performance for us, and I really appreciate that.
I'll never forget it.
-My wife directed that. -Yeah.
-And I think my children were shouting in the ba--
We were all figuring out what it was like.
-We didn't know what it was, but you set the tone,
and I appreciate you being there when we needed you.
Thank you. I won't forget that. -You're looking very grown-up.
-Yeah. Am I? Yeah. [ Laughter ]
I'm still not, though. I'm still not.
-It's a good start. -I appreciate it, yeah.
I want to talk to you about "Self-Titled."
But I also want to talk to you about "Ted Lasso."
Because you do the theme and all the music for "Ted Lasso."
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah.
I spent like six months of my life...
-Yeah. -...doing that first season.
And I scored the whole thing,
which is a nightmare, complete nightmare.
-Especially during -- It was during the pandemic?
-It was awful, yeah, and I had to learn how
all the buttons in my studio work because my --
Obviously I wasn't allowed to have an engineer
in the same room and stuff. -Of course.
-And it was just a complete nightmare.
Uploading files, not my jam.
-No. -And all that anyone
really knows about it is like...
[Imitates song intro] ♪ Yeah ♪
And then "skip intro."
[ Laughter ]
And they're not really -- That's it.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-That's very funny.
So you can perform that at your show if you want to.
-Yeah, yeah. I do every night. I just...
[Imitates song intro] ♪ Yea-- ♪
-There you go. Right. That's it. Then leave.
"Good night, everybody!" -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-The shortest concert.
-They got their money's worth, yeah.
-How did you get involved with that?
-I met Jason Sudeikis upstairs doing "SNL."
-Is that right? -Yeah, first time we did "SNL,"
we met and we did a Beatles sketch together.
It was very fun. -Yeah.
-And then we stayed in touch, and then I knew about
his little bits as Lasso that he did as ads early on.
And I'm a big soccer fan, as you would say. Football.
-Yeah. Soccer. -Football.
-Soccer. -No, it's football.
And then he told me he was doing the show, and I loved it.
And then he left me like 400 hours' worth of voice memos.
He loves -- He loves the voice memos.
-He really loves the voice memos. That's how we talk.
-Gotta wade through all them. -That's how he communicates.
-It's a nightmare. Yeah. -Yeah.
I wanted to ask you about this
because I think this is a very cool opportunity.
But you were invited to the Vatican...
-I was, yeah. -...to meet the Pope.
-To meet the -- Papa. -Yeah.
-Yeah. -I mean, that's a big deal.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Is it -- Is there rules you have to follow?
Is it nerve-racking? Is it...?
-Yeah, it was -- No, it wasn't nerve-racking.
I'd had zero responsibilities, so I was up for it.
-Yeah.
-I didn't have to do anything or say anything.
I just wanted to kind of hear him.
You know? He's got a tough gig. -Yeah, he does. I'd say.
-And, you know, I think as popes go, I --
He seems like a good one.
But the bar is pretty low, you know?
-Yeah, no, he's -- -Just historically speaking,
the bar's pretty -- -Yes.
-He's nice -- He's a nice fellow.
-He's a good pope, yeah, as far as Popes go.
And you didn't say much? -I didn't say much, no.
But I did -- You know, you have your, like,
private moment with him at the end.
And I was in line.
And I get that he's sitting down,
and so I knelt down.
I think he thought I was taking a knee, which I wasn't.
But he was like, "No, stand up."
And then I had to sort of crouch over.
It was really uncomfortable. Anyway, and then he --
The only thing he said to me was like, "Will you pray for me?"
And where I'm from, you know, I'm like, "Yeah, love to, yes."
Slap an arm on his shoulder and say a quick prayer for him.
And what I didn't realize was my friend was filming it.
And I'm praying -- I've got my eyes closed.
It lasts about eight seconds.
And as he's sat there, holding my hand, and my arm's like --
And he just does a little cheeky check of the watch.
[ Laughter ]
-The Pope?! -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just a quick -- And then, "Thank you very much."
-No.
-It was great. It was great. It was lovely.
-Oh, my gosh. -Yeah. He was very sweet.
-You actually brought us the video from that moment.
[ Audience cheering ] -Let's show the video.
-I've not seen it. I've not seen it yet.
-Have you not seen it yet? -No, no.
Please. Let's -- Let's take a look.
-Yeah, I'll do -- I'll do the commentary.
I'll do the highlight reel. Ready?
There we go. "Oh, will you pray for me?"
"Yeah, sure, mate. Yeah, Lord bless him.
You know, he's got a tough gig."
And then he's just, "Ah, thanks so much."
Just quickly -- Just -- Just gonna...
just gonna check the time.
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Sad tuba plays ]
Ah. I'm so happy.
[ Applause ]
-You can't write that. -It wasn't that long.
It's not like I was praying in tongues or something.
-It wasn't that long at all. He's like, "I think we --
I think we've kind of had enough here. Yeah, yeah, okay."
-"Yeah, just -- That's probably enough."
-That is classic.
-Bless him. He meets so many people.
-That is classic. -Must be rough.
-Oh, my gosh. No, please. Thank you for bringing that.
-That is unbelievable.
Marcus, let's talk about "Self-Titled."
Why did you call it "Self-Titled"?
Why didn't you call it "Marcus Mumford"?
-Just too much of my name.
-Too much -- -You know what I mean?
-"Marcus Mumford, Marcus Mumford." It's just too much.
-Too much. -Too much.
And I like the idea that other people
could kind of insert their own selves into it
and see some of their own story in it or whatever.
-Do you -- Is that the way you write your songs?
-No, but I think that's the magic of songs.
Like, you write them, you know,
in these personal, private moments,
and then the weirdest thing in the world,
you make them as public as possible.
Which is just strange. -Yeah, yeah.
-But there's some magic that happens
when people can sort of relate their own story
to whatever story you've written in your songs, and I like that.
-Yeah. The video for "Cannibal,"
by the way, was directed by --
-A little-known, up-and-coming.
-Yeah, up-and-coming director Steven Spielberg.
-Yeah.
I've always believed in fostering new talent.
-You are always -- -You know.
-You're always there helping out the new people.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's never done one before, so I was like --
-Yeah, he's never done one? -He's never done a music video.
-How did you get him involved with this?
-He and Kate Capshaw, his wife, were some of the first people
outside of my little circle to hear the record.
And Kate -- They sent me a video of them dancing
in their kitchen, which I didn't bring...
-Yeah. -...to one of the songs.
And so it was just last-minute basically
and, um, just did it on a phone. -Yeah.
But you did bring us a photo of -- of what Steven Spielberg
directing looks like.
And this is -- this is fantastic.
Just look at it.
He's in a rolling chair...
on an iPhone, and that's Kate, right?
-That does kind of sum it up.
Kate's the one doing all the work, right?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -He takes all the glory.
But it was this amazing teamwork thing,
where there's this zoom-in, so we used a wheelie chair.
I mean, this was the extent of the production.
-I mean, was he like -- Was he cool with it?
-I think my wife got -- my wife credited with "wardrobe."
Easiest gig she's ever had. -Did she really?
-I'm wearing black.
-You're just wearing a tee, yeah.
-And then -- And Kate did all the work.
And then -- And he just did it on his phone.
-And what's he like directing you?
Did -- Did you ask him for direction?
-Yeah, I did. I told him to tell me exactly what to do
and I'd just play the song.
And he started -- Actually, the first time we did it,
he shot, like -- I was playing guitar like this.
And he's here with his phone looking up.
And I was just insecure
about the number of chins I had that day.
But I was basically like, "Maybe we can start from above?"
And -- And so he tried it.
And then as we're looking back at it on his phone, he's like,
"Oh, that's cool. It's like "Indy 3."
Which is an "Indiana Jones" reference.
-What?! -And Steven Spielberg --
And it's the bit, you know, at the beginning
when Harrison Ford has his head down with the hat,
then he looks up and gets smacked in the face. I was like --
-You can't make an "Indiana Jones" --
-Spielberg just made that reference.
-Yes! -To me!
-You won! You won. You won the year.
-Have you been -- You were in --
I noticed this when I really re-watched "Band of Brothers."
-Oh, yeah.
-You were in one of those episodes.
-Oh, well, thank you. Hold your applause.
[ Laughter ]
-You are. You drive a Jeep. -Yes, I --
-I have not been prepped for this. This is not --
I recognized your face. -Yeah.
Did I take you out of the experience?
-No, you didn't. I -- I remember --
The first time I watched it was before I knew who you were.
-Yeah. And you said --
-And the second time I watched it, a vague recollection.
-You go, "That's guy's got something."
-And it's in the Battle of the -- one of the Battle --
one of the two Battle of the Bulge episodes.
-Yeah. And I didn't --
-But he didn't direct that one, right?
-No. He was -- -It's alright, mate.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Don't worry. It's nice to have goals.
-Yeah, it's cool. You know, even when you see this photo,
you can see him almost checking his watch as he's doing it.
[ Laughter ]
Marcus Mumford. "Self-Titled" is available now.
Marcus is performing for us with Monica Martin after the break.
Stick around, everybody. Come on back.