#1100 - Liz Phair

Joe Rogan (0:00)

I could keep joints in it, but it's not quite big enough. The whole is not quite joint height.

Liz Phair (0:04)

Oh yeah, because they come out all bent and sad.

Joe Rogan (0:07)

Oh, we're live, yeah. I tried to keep joints in there, but it didn't.

They all kind of were like, it was half on, half smushed.

Liz Phair (0:14)

You need one of those bubblegum brains. You're just sticking it in there.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

Yeah, I didn't want to fanboy out when I met you, but I'm a huge fan. Thank you very much. I really love your music. I think Dave Cross is the first guy who turned me on to you.

Yeah, I don't remember how. I just remember him telling me about Exile and Guyville.

Liz Phair (0:33)

Do you mean Mr. Show?

Joe Rogan (0:34)

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's the one.

Liz Phair (0:36)

He was a big, Mr. Show was in my happiest touring iteration.

That was what we watched every night after the show. We'd hit the bus, and everyone would watch Mr. Show till we passed out.

Joe Rogan (0:47)

That's a genius show. I think it's like for Bob, Bob did great on Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, and he's done a lot of other stuff that's awesome too, but there's something about the two of those guys together.

Very unusual combination, and their writing is just so bizarre and weird, but they did a Netflix thing for a while. I don't know if they're, are they still doing that? Do you know?

SPEAKER_3 (1:07)

I think he's doing those other shows now.

Joe Rogan (1:11)

Too bad. Anyway, Dave Cross introduced me to Liz Phair.

Liz Phair (1:17)

Well, that's a nice touchstone since it was part of my touring life.

Joe Rogan (1:20)

There you go.

Liz Phair (1:20)

I feel very good about that.

Joe Rogan (1:22)

So you got, what do you have now? You have a box set out coming up, a compilation?

Liz Phair (1:26)

Yeah, it's kind of like a, it's a reissue of my first record, Exile and Guyville, with the original Girly Sound tapes that I made on a four track in, God, late 80s, early 90s.

Joe Rogan (1:42)

Was that when you were living at home?

Liz Phair (1:44)

Yeah, that was when I was recalled back from San Francisco having not gotten a job and run out of money and grifted my way across like the Bay Area. I mean, I had a place, I was rooming. Everyone from my college class moved out to San Francisco, basically from Oberlin. So I went too. And I made these little cassettes that I forwarded to two friends, and one of them got super busy making copies of these cassettes and sent them to every fanzine in America with this like glowing recommendation. And all of a sudden, I was getting, I was living at home, still didn't have a job.

And I would get these envelopes coming to me saying like, please make me a cassette copy. Here's $10.

And can you imagine what happened to the $10? Like, how awful is that? I truly just like, I was like, great, thanks. I wasn't making the, yeah, yeah. Like there's about like 100 people that didn't get their cassette, but I wasn't making the cassettes. But anyway, that's sort of, Taewon Yoo is actually the person who made lots of cassettes and sent them around. So I have him to thank.

Joe Rogan (2:58)

Did you have a thought that you were going to eventually make it or be a big singer? Was that even an idea?

Liz Phair (3:07)

Not a clue. I hated being in front of people. Like I would not wanna, I loved being in the studio. I loved recording. But I didn't, I was super stage frightened.

And I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do less than get up in front of people and play music or do anything.

Joe Rogan (3:25)

Really?

Liz Phair (3:25)

Yeah, absolutely.

Joe Rogan (3:27)

Wow.

Liz Phair (3:28)

It was hard.

Joe Rogan (3:29)

But you obviously have a love of music.

Liz Phair (3:31)

I love playing music. I just, I get very self-conscious with a crowd.

Joe Rogan (3:35)

You gotta pull this sucker up to you, otherwise we're not gonna.

Liz Phair (3:37)

I get very self-conscious in front of a crowd.

Joe Rogan (3:40)

Still?

Liz Phair (3:41)

Not so much anymore. I do, about two weeks before I hit the stage, I will stop sleeping. And then.

Yeah, and I'll work myself into this kind of cold sweat when I think about it, you know what I'm like? I'll be like, can I leave the country? And then, like, I get on the stage, and it all comes back to me, and I'm like, I've done this a million times, this is the best job in the world. And it just, I can't psych myself into that feeling until I'm actually on stage.