Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend

Yeah, my parents found it in a book. It was Napoleon Bonaparte's sister's name or something.

My dad got liquored up and came back with a joke book, an Irish joke book, and there was a Conan in there.

I found out that that was a near direct quote from a book that he'd read about a guy who had this sensory experience of the world that was abnormal.

Most babies smell like butter.

I remember reading Hammer of the Gods years and years and years ago, and they described how Jimmy Page had ideas about, I'm going to get a sound from John Bonham's drum by moving the mic.

Now he has a new album titled Autumn Variations.

This album is a little bit different though because this was not that it's very much something that I can't I was saying it to you in the dressing room it sort of happened by accident it was very much Yeah because you came out with an album quite recently and then you follow it up with this album and I was listening to it today and I really love it and you said yeah it actually it was sort of forming while the other album was forming which kind of blew my mind

Yeah so I had this idea well I say I had this idea my dad has my dad's full of great ideas sometimes not so great but his idea he said to me like there's this composer called Elgar and Elgar did this thing called Enigma Variations which is 14 compositions about 14 of his friends and he never told anyone who it was about and it was an enigma and he said there's never been a modern version of it wouldn't it be cool if you did a variations record so I was like oh that's fascinating actually and I was talking to Aaron who I made the record with and I was like we should do this record base it around a season and it will be variations of the season with my friends and then whilst we were making the record I had my best friend die my wife got diagnosed with a tumor and then I went into a court case and I wrote loads of songs about that in the space of that month and then because all of those songs were finished quite quickly that album was done which became Subtract but actually we were in making Variations so after all of that we went back and finished it and it was done but like songs like on if you know my album Subtract like the opening two songs were meant to be on Autumn Variations they were meant to be the first two of Autumn Variations and it just came the two sonics are very different one's quite a sad album and one's quite a sort of hopeful joyous fall album

I'm sorry I have a new album coming out I'm really excited about I'm sorry it's called it's called Autumn Variations

I'm kind of got to manage my expectations on this record though because you know there's not a single that goes to radio or like a big major label push but it's basically just it's an album that I made that it is what it is and I've just got to be like I listened to it today it's really beautiful I loved it and like I say this will lead you to the next level

who released his sixth album, Subtract, earlier this year.

Yeah so I had this idea well I say I had this idea my dad has my dad's full of great ideas sometimes not so great but his idea he said to me like there's this composer called Elgar and Elgar did this thing called Enigma Variations which is 14 compositions about 14 of his friends and he never told anyone who it was about and it was an enigma and he said there's never been a modern version of it wouldn't it be cool if you did a variations record so I was like oh that's fascinating actually and I was talking to Aaron who I made the record with and I was like we should do this record base it around a season and it will be variations of the season with my friends and then whilst we were making the record I had my best friend die my wife got diagnosed with a tumor and then I went into a court case and I wrote loads of songs about that in the space of that month and then because all of those songs were finished quite quickly that album was done which became Subtract but actually we were in making Variations so after all of that we went back and finished it and it was done but like songs like on if you know my album Subtract like the opening two songs were meant to be on Autumn Variations they were meant to be the first two of Autumn Variations and it just came the two sonics are very different one's quite a sad album and one's quite a sort of hopeful joyous fall album

and one's quite a sad album and one's quite a sort of hopeful joyous fall album

Subtract is pretty much all just doom and gloom and depression and you know being sad we were going through a lot of very intense stuff there wasn't much happy moments

I wanted to invite some friends over to my house for brunch to listen to Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette the whole way through.

It was like the 20 year... It was about eight years ago, the 20 year anniversary.

And then basically the guest list got a bit big and I called a friend who has a pub and said, you know, let's... Why don't we just do it in the pub?

Now he has a new novel, Flipping Boxcars, available September 12th.

It's a book of fiction.

It takes place in 1948.

And it really feels like, you know, this world, you really know these people and the language.

So this is the story, uh, about loosely based on my grandfather who I'd never met.

And in class we read the book Death Be Not Proud which is a true story of the author's son's battle with brain cancer.

It was the writer who wrote Travels of Europe and Travels of USA?

And he, Gunther?

John Gunther.

And it's the story of his son battling brain cancer and I remember reading that book and being jealous of and the kid loses the battle he dies and I read the book and I remember thinking that guy got so much attention.

I read this review of a there's a book by Ted Koppel called Blackout about what happens when the grid goes down, what skills you're going to need.

There was an NBC did a special about it.

I can't believe it was the bees. They've always been our friends.

Paul and Conan sit down for a live conversation about the incredible photographs chronicling The Beatles' first transatlantic trip featured in Paul's new book 1964: Eyes of the Storm.

We're going to be talking about and going through a book of photos never before seen, 1964, The Eyes of the Storm.

I looked through the book and I adore this book and I've been through it many times and the photos take me in different directions. They really are spectacular.

It's a fascinating document.

I'm going to end on the photo that's on the cover.

Al Pacino sent me a phone he called me after watching Before Night Falls but it was 2 o'clock in the morning in Spain and it was a time where there was a tape a answering machine with tape do you remember? so I was sleeping I was like who's calling and then hi Javier it's Al Pacino and they were like and I couldn't get the phone like Al Pacino is calling my home and I was like I liked it a lot and congratulations and then I went and I played and I played again and I have the tape.

I'm more drawn to the movies that I think have more of a European bent where, I don't know, it's interesting. There are people who seem like the bad guy and people who seem like the good guy but the lines get blurred and you feel like everybody's just trying to do their own thing and havoc ensues.

I think that's like the purpose of art really is to just like find humanity in people. I mean, I think my favorite shows are shows like The Sopranos or where you're rooting, you feel conflicted because you're rooting for a murder and I think it puts everything into perspective.

I just re-watched all The Sopranos. I made it a mission and I watched all of them in like a month on my own and there's a terrific book about The Sopranos by two writers, I think, from the Star Ledger, I wanna say and it's just a great essay about each episode.

Jeff Tweedy actually has this really great book called How to Write One Song.

It's like this little inspiration guidebook.

And I was preparing to do a story of a hillbilly Illiterate woman Based on a book called The Dollmaker

we had the author Frank McCord on, who's this great Irish writer who wrote Angela's Ashes and he talks about his terrible upbringing and literally being impoverished and he'd written these amazing works about his really tough childhood in Ireland in like the 1930s and 40s.

And then all of a sudden my high school wanted to do a production of this kind of obscure musical called the Cotton Patch Gospel, which is a gospel story, but as a bluegrass musical.

Now you can see her in the new Netflix movie, Luckiest Girl Alive.

This was a book, it was a New York Times bestseller.

Well, I'm super proud of it. I think it's a really, it's an amazing fun story.

it's a fun ride. I mean, I know it sounds, it's a heavy topic.

I read Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.