>> [Music: Flaming Lips “She Don’t Use
Jelly”]
>> Wayne Coyne: You know we've always said that
as long as we can make more money being in the band
than we could, say, working at McDonald's or Target,
then we'll choose being in the band.
>> Jennifer Van Evra: Right.
>> Wayne Coyne: Only because that's what would
be left for us if we weren't doing this.
That's the kind of skill level of any contribution
to society that we would have.
Simply because we've spent our whole adult
lives pursuing this.
>> [Music]
>> Wayne Coyne: I worked at this fast food
restaurant in Oklahoma City, Long John Silver's.
Fried fish and french fries and stuff. I worked there for 11 years
from the time I was 16 to the time I was 27 or so.
I'd be working late at night and it was a
reasonably bad area of town
and we got robbed a couple of times. Especially
in the late 1970's
because the economy and everything really got horrible.
The first time we got robbed I was the only... I'm not saying this because I'm racist or anything
I'm just being pragmatic about it. I was the
only white guy.
I was working with a bunch of black women.
The guys who came in were black
and they were pissed off and they had biggest
gun I've ever seen in my life.
Only because it's pointed at me did it seem
so big. We all laid on the ground.
I thought, “fuck, this is… this is it.
Here I am, I'm 17 and this is how it ends.”
“You’re just working one second and the
next second you're laying on the ground”
“and some guy puts a bullet in your head.”
Obviously they robbed us and left and didn't
kill me. But I remember the elation of just...
We all cried. We couldn't stop crying and
laughing and jumping up and down.
We were celebrating like we had just won a
million dollars.
The idea of we are alive and isn't it a fucking
great thing? I think it changed me.
>> [MUSIC]
Wayne Coyne: I think the idea of sort of confronting
this always present idea
that people around you are going to die or
you're going to die or...
I think it makes living better, it really does.
To me, I hate this notion that I would ever
forget of how temporary this whole thing is.
You know life is worth celebrating and worth living
even though we're all headed to the same hole
at the end of the day.
Without sort of coming to terms with it you're
not coming to terms with
some of the joys of life at the same time.
>> [MUSIC]
Wayne Coyne: I don’t know. I think somewhere along the way
music allows you to sing and talk and think
about those things,
and it can be beautiful instead of being horrible.
I remember when my father was dying,
I remember listening to Bjork, and listening
to John Coltrane, and these things,
and I don't know why but music has the power
to transcend your physical being
and take you up just a little bit. Because
music has a metaphysical quality
it gets up there in these things and it really
makes your life beautiful.
>> [Music]
>> Wayne Coyne: It's the same thing for virtually
every human that's ever going to be alive.
Things that make them sad are going to be
love, loss of love, death, fear of isolation.
It's a really small little corner. So I think
any time you sing about those
you're probably going to have a crowd that
knows exactly what you're talking about.
But when you're sing about things that make
you happy, which I like to do that as well,
you know, you never know if you're going to
hit the mark.
That's why when I sing a song like She Don't
Use Jelly,
people go, “oh that's crazy, what are you
talking about.”
Even though they enjoy it, they don't understand it.
[Music: The Flaming Lips "Spoonful Weighs a Ton"]
Stuff like when I sing about the Spoonful
Weighs a Ton
and people understand this is about death
and meaning that you put into in your life.
They go, “oh, I know what you're talking
about.”
>> [Music: The Flaming Lips “A Spoonful
Weighs a Ton”]
>> Wayne Coyne: So when I go in there and I’m singing about things that seem to be personal,
they can be my own exact personal experience,
yet if I'm doing the job right
I can make it seem like it's your story at
the same time.
I'm not just simply pouring my guts out.
I'm pouring my guts out so they can feel like
your guts at the same time.
>> [Music: Flaming Lips “Do You Realize”]
>> Jennifer Van Evra: Well I should let you
go.
>> Wayne Coyne: All right, well thanks a bunch.
I'm sitting in the lobby where the elevators
come out.
People have all been looking at me in my bare
feet,
talking existential bullshit with you as they
get in and out of the elevators.
>> Jennifer Van Evra: Hilarious. That was
the odd ding I was hearing in the background.
>> Wayne Coyne: Yeah.
>> Jennifer Van Evra: Well thanks again and I really appreciate you taking out the time on a Saturday.
>> Wayne Coyne: Well I'm glad you called.
Okay.
>> Jennifer Van Evra: Okay, cheers.
>> Wayne Coyne: Alright, bye.
>> Jennifer Van Evra: Bye.
>> [Music: Flaming Lips “Do You Realize”]
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