Weird Al Yankovic talks Colbert, Cobain, why he’s bigger than ever

The year is 2025 and there’s never been a better time to be Weird Al Yankovic. The comedy-music legend’s “Bigger & Weirder Tour,” a career spanning and big production performance of signature hits, recently sold-out Madison Square Garden. Billboard magazine profiled Yankovic in a great new cover story about the enduring appeal of his parodies of hit songs.

Yankovic’s career started in the late ’70s and exploded with MTV in the early ’80s. Over the decades he’s lampooned, among others: The Knack (“My Bologna”), Michael Jackson (“Eat It”), Madonna (“Like a Surgeon”), The Kinks (“Yoda”), Nirvana (“Smells Like Nirvana”), Coolio (“Amish Paradise”) and Chamillionaire (“White & Nerdy”).

A Southern California native, Yankovic has won five Grammys and sold millions of albums. His career’s been more successful than some of the stars he’s parodied. He’s also been an influence on comedy, particularly TV’s “Saturday Night Live” skits and actor Andy Sandberg’s Lonely Island videos.

On Sunday, the “Bigger & Weirder Tour” comes to Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, Alabama. Puddles Pity Party, with vocals supplied by a towering harlequin, opens the show, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets via axs.com.

On a recent afternoon, Yankovic is in the back of his tour bus, which parked in a parking lot somewhere in Raleigh, North Carolina. From there he beams in for a 15-minute videocall interview. Now 65, Yankovic has aged unfairly well. Instead of weird, during our chat he comes off very normal. Edited excerpts below.

Al, is it even sweeter now to have the career longevity, the Grammys, selling out Madison Square Garden and so on, than your initial ‘80s success?

“Weird” Al Yankovic: It’s hard to say because stuff like that never gets old. I mean, to have that kind of validation at any point in your life is mind blowing. But I guess it is particularly sweet this far into my career to know that people still care, and that I’m doing better than ever in terms of concert sales. And it’s really quite flattering to be able to sell out the most famous venue in the world at this point in my life.

Which songs do young fans at your concerts this tour respond to the most? I was a ’80s MTV kid and grew up watching videos for your songs like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon.” But getting ready to interview you, I noticed your top streaming songs on Spotify are from later, like “Amish Paradise” and “White & Nerdy.”

Well, you know, it’s really funny. They say that everybody’s favorite Weird Al album is whichever album came out when they were 12. That’s what’s nice about my shows is the concert audiences are really multi-generational. It’s young kids, it’s college age, it’s middle-aged and grandparents coming to the shows.

So there are people that were big fans of “Eat It” in the early ’80s, and people that were really into “Amish Paradise in the ’90s, and young kids that get excited when I play the “Captain Underpants Theme Song.” So, there’s a little something for everybody.

Rick Derringer, who played the Eddie Van Halen style guitar solo on “Eat It,” passed away this year. What was cool about making music with Rick? And maybe something you recall about making that track with him?

Well, it was a real honor to work with Rick Derringer. I was a big fan of his growing up. I loved, you know, “Hang On Sloopy” and “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Coo” and his “All American Boy “album.

And I was really flattered that he wanted to produce my first album, and wound up producing my first six albums actually. So it was great for me to learn at his feet, as it were. I watched him carefully during the ’80s, and after that I decided to start producing on my own. But Rick was a great guy, and I was really thrilled to work with him.

The one that I remember specifically about him doing the “Eat It” guitar solo was at that point Jim West was my guitarist. But Rick as producer decided that he wanted to take on that solo himself.

And I remember, the solo only lasts, I don’t know, what, 10 second? But hen he started playing he was completely dry and after the solo he was drenched. I’ve never seen anybody sweat that quickly.

A lot of artists I grew up with, I don’t if they’d be as big if came up now. But I think you would be even bigger, because of social media, viral videos and YouTube. If your career started now, how do you think you would approach things?

It’s hard to say for a number of reasons. One, if I was starting out now, I would be competing with literally every other person in the world because of YouTube and portals like that. Anybody can get their stuff out there. So I would be competing with a lot of other people.

Whereas in the 80s I was lucky enough to get a record deal and have my videos on MTV. And I sort of had the field to myself, so I had an unfair advantage, really. [Laughs]

And the other thing is, and I’ve talked about this a lot, in the ’80s there was more of a monoculture. Everybody kind of knew what the hits were. Top 40 radio was more of a thing. MTV had videos in heavy rotation.

So if a song was a hit, people were aware of it and parodies were easily understood. Whereas now our culture has gotten a lot more niche, and it’s a little bit harder to do something that would be considered a parody of mainstream culture.

Speaking of mainstream culture, how rewarding is it to see your influence on things like “SNL” and Lonely Island and even, to me, the musical skits on “Chappelle’s Show”? People picking up on the kind of joy you spread, and putting their own twist on it, in a different lane.

It’s nice. That’s one of the benefits of hanging around for as long as I have is you can’t help but influence other people. And I can’t lay claim to a lot of these things. I mean, maybe I influenced them and maybe I didn’t.

But I’d like to think that some of my humor has rubbed off on the culture over the last several decades. You know, the same way that MAD Magazine and “SCTV” and things like that influenced me as a kid. “Monty Python.”

That inspires generations of new comedians and new comedy writers, and that’s just the way it works. If I’m a cog in that machine, that makes me very happy.

When you were growing up, who were some of the bands and artists who made you want to not just listen to music but make your own?

Well, the ones that really wanted me to start recording my own music were more the people I heard on “The Dr. Demento Show.” Spike Jones and Allan Sherman and Tom Lehrer and Stan Freberg, people like that.

Other than that, I was listening to a lot of rock and pop radio, so a lot of British invasion stuff. Big Beatles fan, obviously, The Stones, The Kinks, The Who. And huge Elton John fan. I had his posters all over my wall as a teenager.

What bands that aren’t known for comedy do you think have a good sense of humor? The Beatles come to mind. And The Stones, with songs like “Faraway Eyes” and “She’s So Cold.”

You mentioned the Beatles, they obviously had a great sense of humor. Sparks, They Might Be Giants, you know, Ween. Who else? that’s not to mention, of course, bands like Tenacious D or Lonely island, bands like that, which are obviously meant to be more comedic.

Loved your recent appearance with Lin-Manuel Miranda on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” poking fun at the Coldplay kiss-cam scandal, which included a moment with a cartoon Donald Trump getting caught in an embrace with the Paramount logo. What are your thoughts on Stephen’s show getting canceled and that whole thing?

Well, I try to stay out of the fray of politics, at least publicly. But I’m a big fan of Stephen Colbert and “The Late Show” and I wanted to be a part of that.

And it just so happened that Monday was my day off between shows. And I got the call that afternoon, like, do you want to be on with Colbert tonight? Which was a little crazy, but they put me on a jet and got me to New York and did the show and I flew back the same night.

So it was kind of a whirlwind day. But it was a thrill to be part of that whole thing with all those cameos and Lin Manuel, who’s an old friend of mine.

Have you ever been offered a TV talk show? Because I think you’d be a natural as a host.

I don’t think I was ever offered that. And I don’t think I’d really be so much interested in that. I don’t think I have the chops or the inclination really to do something like that. I’m happy to be a guest, but as a host there are so many other people that would be much better at it than me. So I’ll let them do that.

What’s most challenging for you performing the “Bigger & Weirder Tour” shows?

For this tour in particular, there are just a lot of logistics because it’s not just a concert, it’s a real show. It’s been compared to like a Broadway musical in that there’s so many moving pieces and there’s props and costumes. There’s a big LED screen. So there’s a lot of stuff to consider.

We do costume changes throughout the show and all the video pieces are timed specifically so there’s just enough time to make a costume change. So it’s a high energy show. A lot going on.

I’m there with an expanded band. It’s me and eight musicians, including my four original band members. And they’re all just so great. It sounds so wonderful onstage.

This is the best tour that I’ve ever put on. People are calling it my [version of Taylor Swift’s] “Eras Tour,” because it kind of goes through my whole catalog and career and touches on pretty much everything. It’s got the hits. It’s got some deep cuts for the fans. So we’re very happy with that. We’re halfway through the tour now, so we’re really in the groove.

When “Smells Like Nirvana,” your parody of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” came out, Kurt Cobain said in an interview the band was stoked and honored. Did you ever get to meet or hang with Kurt?

Well, I don’t know if you call it a hang. I talked to him once on the phone when he was at “Saturday Night Live,” and the only time I actually met him in person was at restaurant in West Hollywood.

We happened to be eating there at the same time, and I noticed him at a different table. I walked over, and I said hi and thanked him profusely for letting me do the parody. And I said, if there’s anything I can ever do, please let me know. And he extended his hand, and he said, “Polish my nails.”