On the latest episode of Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz of the Beastie Boys sit down with Conan to discuss the neighborhood and pop culture influences that went into their early work, the 30th anniversary of their multi-platinum album Ill Communication, and more.
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“I don't think our story is unique, you know, that unique," Ad-Rock noted, of how Bestie Boys first formed. "That's sort of how things, especially bands start, you know, you're into this thing, you’re hearing things, and you find friends that are into the same sort of thing, and you move along that way."
“But something special about being in New York is that you do hear it,” referring to being surrounded by music everywhere you go. “Like you walk down the street just getting…. from here to there, you’re hearing music from the pizza place… somebody drives by with the radio or whatever. Like you're hearing all this music, And I feel like our time was an interesting time to grow up in… The mid seventies… it was a great time for radio, right?”
He continued, “It’d be like everything would be playing. So all of those influences, coming from radios, all these different sounds it formed us as kids growing up. And so we took that with us. And I think us as friends, and like we all do as friends… it's not just about the one thing,” noting how “we all talk about TV shows.” So in their case, “we write rap lyrics. So of course we're gonna talk about Chef Boyardee, and we're gonna talk about 'The Odd Couple,' and we're gonna talk about all this dumb stuff.”
Mike D and Ad-Rock also went on to discuss the shocking truth about gold records, striving to make each other laugh with their music, and remembering bassist Adam Yauch as their Ill Communication anniversary approaches.
To catch it all, listen to the entire episode above.
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