Yank Blog

All right! Time for some content around here! Today we bring to you a really nice in-depth interview with Al from all the back to September 1999. Around this time, Al and the band were traveling by bus, bringing top-quality live entertainment and promoting his latest album Running with Scissors to fans across the country.

Ink 19 :: Weird Al Yankovic

The interviewer, Julio Diaz, really goes beyond the typical “Who inspires you?” and “Is that your real hair?” questions to give the readers an excellent look into the artist’s mind. Learn how Al went about writing the lyrics to “Albuquerque”, HOW he gets permissions for his parodies (and not just asking IF he gets them), discuss his style parodies like “Everything You Know Is Wrong” and TMBG’s comments, who was the first person to hear the completed polka for the album, his take on raunchy comedy, and much much more.

[Julio:] On the same topic, it obviously takes a very talented band to play such a wide variety of diverse styles. Do you think you and your band get the respect you deserve musically?

[Al:] I definitely think my band is underrated. I think that because what we do is comedy that it’s maybe not looked upon as highly as some angst-ridden rock group [laughs], but my band, I think, is one of the greatest bands in the world, just because they’re able to pull off so many different things, and do it all so well. They’re all extremely well-skilled musicians, and you’re right, they probably don’t get the respect they deserve.