#2564 - Chuck Lorre

Joe Rogan (0:01)

Joe Rogan Podcast, checking out The Joe Rogan Experience. Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. So explain that again, explain the show that you saw.

Chuck Lorre (0:16)

It was at the Singer Bowl in 1969 Jimi Hendrix was the headliner, the experience right off to Monterey, and Janis Joplin in The Holding Company, Big Brother in The Holding Company was the warm-up act.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

Wow. What was that like?

Chuck Lorre (0:35)

Well, for starters, we bribed a little security guard to get in, me and my friends. I think we gave him $2 apiece.

We walked right up to the stage.

Joe Rogan (0:46)

Wow.

Chuck Lorre (0:47)

And watched, like, right there. And that was my first... I first went, oh, I guess I gotta start drinking Southern Comfort.

Because she's making it look pretty good.

Joe Rogan (0:59)

When I worked with Phil Hartman on News Radio, one of his favorite stories was he was like a stagehand at the whiskey, and Hendrix performed. And it was his job to stand with his hand on the speaker because he was worried that Hendrix would knock the speaker into the crowd. And so I guess it was just not very stable. So he said he was literally standing there with his hands on the speaker with Hendrix, two feet away from him playing guitar.

Chuck Lorre (1:28)

Early on, he would destroy his equipment, like The Who would do as well. They'd tear up the amps. He'd set the guitar on fire.

You know, I'm 15, 16 years old going, oh man, don't set the, oh, give me the guitar, don't set it on fire.

Joe Rogan (1:44)

Don't smash the guitar. There was no smashing guitars back then.

Chuck Lorre (1:48)

Yeah, yeah, it was an expensive way to end the show, but that's what was happening.

Joe Rogan (1:55)

It just was a, I guess it was just a wild rock and roll thing. It was amazing. A rebellion thing.

Chuck Lorre (2:00)

It was an amazing time to be a kid watching that stuff.

Joe Rogan (2:03)

Well, it's such a crazy time in human history. I mean, it was one, it's one of the weirdest times in all of culture. If you take the difference in the culture of the 1950s to the culture of the late 1960s, it's like just an insane shift.

Like one of the most insane shifts, it was so radical and so big, it happened so fast.

Chuck Lorre (2:24)

I think it was a response to the 50s.

Joe Rogan (2:26)

Yeah, it was that and the Vietnam War and drugs, all the above, all of them, psychedelic drugs, everything all together.

Chuck Lorre (2:32)

And the birth control pill, that changed everything.

Joe Rogan (2:35)

Yes, yes, very good point.

Very good point, yeah. Gave women freedom.

Chuck Lorre (2:42)

And as well, it did the same for men.

Joe Rogan (2:44)

Oh yeah, yeah, everybody could just do whatever the fuck they wanted. And they're doing drugs at the same time, so everything just, boom!

Just all came together.

Your story is awesome. The book is great. It really is. It's very compelling. You know, one of the things that bums me out the most about the internet and streaming is that we've lost the multicam sitcoms.

It's a very weird thing. Like, the first thing that killed it, I think, was reality shows, right? That sort of took a lot of the wind out of its sails. But a few remained. And during COVID, me and my family watched Big Bang Theory. I had never watched it. Watched it from episode one. We just binged it all the way to the end. I fucking loved it. I felt like when I was like a comic in the clubs in LA., you never heard about Big Bang Theory. It didn't get, it was like there was other shows that people wanted to, you were cool if you liked. And the Big Bang Theory was like, you know, family sitcom, you know, just like real clean and it's a really well written show. It's very funny. It's a really good show, man.

Chuck Lorre (3:56)

Thank you. We worked hard.

Joe Rogan (3:58)

I bet you did.

Chuck Lorre (3:59)

We worked really hard.

It was a general attitude that every episode had a kick ass. Everyone.

Joe Rogan (4:07)

Well, it was also so unusual. You have this like super autistic genius guys, your head character.

Chuck Lorre (4:15)

Well, the way I entered the show, because I'm clearly not a physicist or by any means a genius, they were outliers. They were guys that couldn't figure out how to behave in the real world.