PHOTO: ROBERT TRACHTENBERG


A Weird Sunday With...


lfred Yankovic (he used the nickname Weird Al for college radio gigs, and it stuck) has had a career longer than many of the


musicians whose songs he’s paro- died, and that amazes him. “I never thought I’d be able to make a living doing exactly the things I love,” he says. Yankovic, 54, who lives in the Hollywood Hills with his wife and 11-year-old daugh- ter, tells Joel Keller, “It seems like with each album, a new genera- tion discovers me.”


PARADE: Your latest album, Mandatory Fun, was your first No. 1 on the Billboard 200. How did that feel? I never dreamed it was possible. There’s always been kind of a glass ceiling for comedy albums; the last No. 1 was Allan Sherman in 1963 [with My Son, the Nut]. People who were my fans in the ’80s are now bringing their kids along, so I’m both a nostalgia act and a contemporary act!


In 1979, you were in college listening to “My Sharona,” and you turned it into “My Bologna.” Where does an idea like that come from? It’s just the way my brain is wired. I mean, I can certainly listen to music without automatically changing the words around, but ever since I was a child, I’ve twisted lyrics to amuse my friends. It’s a phase I never grew out of.


What was one song parody you didn’t get to do?


12 | OCTOBER 5, 2014 © PARADE Publications 2014. All rights reserved Al


The master of music-video parodies on hair care and the Michael Jackson tune that got away


I was going back to the well of Michael Jackson a third time after doing “Eat It” and “Fat”; I was getting kind of desperate for a hit. I said, “How about I do a parody of ‘Black or White’ called ‘Snack All Night’?” Another food-related Michael Jackson song—that’s the very definition of desperation. And he said no, because “Black or White” was too close to him, or had too much social significance. But I like to think he was just pre- venting me from making a bad decision, because then I said,


“Okay, I’ll do a parody of this Nirvana group.” And “Smells Like Nirvana” wound up rein- vigorating my career.


Do you get song ideas from your daughter, Nina? Sometimes I ask her if a song is popular enough to parody. She gave me the thumbs up on Ig- gy Azalea. [Weird Al’s take on her hit “Fancy” is called


SEE HIS


CLASSIC PARODY VIDEOS AT


PARADE.COM /WEIRDAL.


“Handy.”] She lets us know ex- actly when things start going viral on the schoolyard.


How about re- leasing a mega- mix of all your polka medleys? I’ve seen that done online. It’s pretty overwhelming. I


don’t know if it’s healthy to listen to that much polka in one stretch.


What do you do on Sundays? Generally, I get up and pour my- self a bowl of cereal with some soy milk on it. I quickly check the Internet. I go to church, and then I might pick up a burrito or food for the whole family. Maybe we’ll go to the park, watch a movie on TV, or camp out in the backyard.


What’s the secret to your fan- tastic curly hair? I shampoo and condition it every once in a while. Mostly I just make sure to comb through it now and then, or else I’d have full-on dreadlocks in no time.


You have all your old Hawai- ian shirts and other memora- bilia. Have you ever thought of curating that stuff in a mu- seum? I don’t think that would fly with my wife. She’s al- ways trying to curb my hoarder ten- dencies. She says, “This isn’t going to work in your museum. Just get


rid of it.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16