Foster Brooks Drunk Act That Broke Johnny Carson Every Single Time on The Tonight Show – Hww
And with that, the gorilla grabbed a couple of the bars and pulled them far apart, reached out and grabbed my sister-in-law and pulled her in the cage and started pulling her clothes off of her and hugging her and kept kissing her. She screamed to her husband, “What am I What am I supposed to do?” He said, “Tell him you got a headache.
” [applause] High trapeze artists. And I I used to catch my wife in the act two or three times a night. I’m sorry. I can’t I can’t think of any other way to phrase that. Many performers try to act intoxicated, but his unique style of slow, polite confusion completely redefined late-night comedy.
Let’s see how this legendary persona easily disarms his lies in maintaining absolute composure while delivering the most shocking personal statements on live television. However, Mr. Heckler, you and I do have an indirect real relationship. You see, I’m fooling around with your wife. Political figures and high society events are never safe when a professional roaster takes the podium with such wonderful slurred confidence.
Our wonderful president just as he made a wonderful vice president. Vice Vice President. And did you know that he was the most active vice president we ever had? He used to get up at 6:00 every morning so he could run down and collect his unemployment insurance. Mixing deep, nostalgic affection with sudden, devastating insults is the ultimate trademark of his brilliant performance style.
I still remember the first time I laid I laid eyes on Dimples here. We went out on a blind date. She was out dated and I was blind. His incredible ability to turn ordinary life struggles into beautifully timed chaotic masterpieces always keeps the audience guessing. Our deep dive into Foster Brooks comedy world begins right now.
One, the art of being loaded. When Foster Brooks is lovable drunk totally broke Johnny Carson. Nothing is more iconic than the legendary 1975 drunk act on Carson’s show. Let us see how this lovable guest makes the host struggle. I bet I bet you’re probably I haven’t gotten to my blue mark yet. Well, friends it’s been what that’s I don’t really not getting it.
Did anybody say something? Setting up an absurd premise with such polite confidence is the key to his unique comedic charm. A few not just a very few weeks ago a sister sister-in-law of mine who happens to come from my wife comes from Buffalo. [applause] My son is gone. I I thought I got the last one. Extreme physical commitment to a ridiculous story always triggers the loudest laughter in late night television.
And with that the gorilla grabbed a couple of the bars and pulled them far apart, reached out and grabbed my sister-in-law and pulled her in the cage and started pulling her clothes off her and hugging her and kissing her. She screamed at her, “Honey, what am I what am I supposed to do?” He said, “Tell him you got a headache.
” [applause] A subtle slip of the tongue during childhood recollections quickly changes the energy of the conversation. But um And that as I say it takes me back to my childhood and that now as I stand before you here tonight in my adulthood just wonderful memories I have back there when the early or late spring morning or early summer morning when they’d have the parade, you know, all seven of my brothers would Transforming a chaotic public event into a brilliant joke is the ultimate sign of a genius performer.
Just Just as last elephant got on the track, the fastest train that ever came through Louisville came through at that same time and you never saw such a mess in all your life. Cost that railway company four four million three hundred thousand dollars. They only killed one elephant, but they they pulled the tail off of 18 other ones.
The host’s absolute bewilderment is often the best reaction when a guest’s story gets incredibly bizarre. He said, “Do Do tails?” And she said, “Yes.” And he’s he’s pulling out my cabbages with one of them. And he said, “Well, what in the world is he doing with them?” She said, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
” [applause] [applause] Using professional metaphors to joke about marital relationships always delivers a highly entertaining moment. high trapeze artists and I I used to catch my wife in the act two or three times a night. I’m sorry. I can’t I can’t think of any other way to phrase that.
The transition from the chaotic character to the sober reality of show business reveals his brilliant artistic dedication. He’s not trying to act like a drunk and my character is not trying to act like a drunk. And he knows the people are laughing, he doesn’t know necessarily why or particularly care.
You ask him to come out and say something and he’s he’s out there. Right. So that and then while they were introducing me I had to sort of that and I said I believe I’ll try this and I did and people laughed embarrassingly embarrassingly at me, you know, they were laughing like this and looking like they were, you know, at home.
Finding massive national success later in life proves that true comedic talent is completely timeless. Yeah, I was Well, you’re super. 59 years old that night I was on your show and that was 3 years ago. So uh That’s incredible. really gone sky high for me. I’ve played with nothing but the best.
Perry Como That’s right. uh three three nights ago uh Bob Goulet uh uh two nights ago uh Wayne Newton and last night uh Roy Clark. Shared family memories and clever storytelling often blur the line between reality and pure imagination. And he held a watch down like this, you know, and that’s where any dog would come over and look, smell, whatever, you know. He said, “It’s 11:00.
Get upstairs and go to bed.” So he did that for a while until finally all he had to say was Buster and Buster come look at the watch and go to bed. So now the man the man next door was over one night and and Roy Fisher was over home and he said, “Roy, you know, that’s the smartest dog that ever lived.
” He said, “What are you talking about?” He said, A sudden hilarious twist in the final punchline completely catches the presenter off guard. And Roy Fisher said, “By George, that’s really something. I never saw anything like that.” And Dad said thought he’d go one better, you know, he said uh “That’s not all that dog does and I’ll I’ll I’ll show you that later uh some other time.
” He said, “What’s that?” He said, “He also talks.” Now Roy Fisher said, “Oh, well, I know about that.” Now Dad didn’t know where to go from there, you know. And he says, “Well, how do you happen to know about that?” He said, “My dog came home this morning and told me.” Acting so convincingly intoxicated while remaining incredibly charming is a masterpiece only he could deliver.
Two, the shoestring trap. Foster Brooks’ savage audience revelations on Johnny Carson. Don’t Three, the ultimate Thanksgiving insult. Foster Brooks’ savage roasting of Don Rickles. As the important ladies and gentlemen just told you, I have never met Don Rickles. In fact, he’s probably wondering what I’m doing here.
Let’s pause the Carson stories for a moment because Brooks targeted many other celebrities, and even the legendary insult comic Don Rickles could not escape this lovable drunk. He has never heard heard of me, and our paths have never crossed. However, Mr. Rickles, you and I do have an indirect relationship.
You see, I’m fooling around with your wife. A shocking declaration of personal intimacy instantly turns the traditional roasting event into an incredibly tense family drama. Don, I really must compliment you on your spouse, Mrs. Mrs. Pickles. I say that because she’s a real dilly.
And I must also admit you have a very a very lovely home. Incidentally, you’re out of scotch. The guest’s bold criticism of his host’s hospitality continues to blur the boundaries of basic social politeness. Do you know what darling what your wife and I love to do most? Watching you while you’re on TV while you’re on TV. TV.
When you’re on we just laugh and chuck chuckle and giggle. Sometimes we even turn the sound on. A seemingly innocent habit shared by two conspirators delivers another painful blow to the presenter’s professional pride. She tells me that since she’s been Mrs. Nichols Nichols She says every day with you is Thanksgiving.
But then again that’s what she gets for marrying a turkey. A brutally honest description of their married life finally delivers the ultimate comedic insult of the entire evening for my old broad, the most hilariously awkward tribute to Betty White ever recorded.
Welcome to one of late night’s most legendary roasts where the master of simulated intoxication Foster Brooks takes the podium to completely disarm the beloved Betty White. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Betty White’s former fiance. [applause] Thank you very much. Get well. Uh The host’s formal presentation of a surprise guest immediately shifts the energy of the room preparing the audience for a chaotic reunion.
The old broad I used to mess around with. [applause] Now, this Larry Csonka and I go go way back. Bold, highly questionable declarations about their past relationship continue to test the boundaries of public politeness. I laid eyes on Dimples here. We went out on a blind date.
She was out dated and I was blind. A clever play on words regarding their very first meeting highlights the performer’s incredible mastery of deadpan delivery. 2:00 in the morning doing the same old Same old thing. Throw the stick in the water and I’d fetch it. A brilliant, self-deprecating final punchline leaves the star and the entire guest panel in absolute stitches, cementing his legendary status.
Five, the 6:00 a.m. alarm. Foster Brooks exposes the Vice President’s true work ethic. Just when you thought the roasts were over, the master of simulated intoxication takes things even further, putting none other than the former Vice President of the United States on the hot seat. Hi, Hubie. I just I still can’t figure out how I can’t figure out how how the heck we lost.
A sudden, brilliant excuse about political timing quickly captures the attention of the high society crowd. The same day Nixon was One one day either way. The guest’s questionable mathematical logic regarding the election results continues to keep the audience guessing. Had had VOTED FOR HUMPHREY.
HAD VOTED FOR HUMPHREY HUMPHREY. BY THE SAME TOKEN. WE WOULD HAVE WON. THAT’S ALL. Just Bold declarations about his students’ early political ignorance immediately spark waves of laughter across the room. My friends, I taught I taught him everything he knows about politics. Before I got a hold of him, he thought Hubert Humphrey Lodge WAS A MOTEL.
[applause] A DIRECT JAB AT THE politician’s famous work ethic delivers another highly entertaining moment for the listeners. A wonderful president just as he made a wonderful vice president. Vice vice president. And did you know that he was the most active vice president we ever had? He used to get up at 6:00 every morning so he could run down and collect his unemployment insurance.
A playful comparison with other scandal-plagued politicians serves as the perfect build-up to his final punchline. And unlike other other politicians, you never hear any stories about Humphrey and and broad. AND I DON’T KNOW CUZ I’M THE ONE THAT PAID THEM all off. His unparalleled ability to bring warmth and relentless humor to the most serious political settings solidified his genius.
Six, when a lovable drunk ruined a live music award show. Taking his famous simulated intoxication to the prestigious stage of the 14th annual Academy of Country Music Awards in 1979, [snorts] the legendary Foster Brooks completely rewrote the rules of live television broadcasting. Thank you very much, Mr. McCloud.
McCloud. It’s truly an honor to be here tonight to It’s nice being here tonight tonight among such presti- prest- among such pre- big shots. A sudden shift from polite formal greetings to complete the absurd instructions instantly leaves the star-studded audience questioning what they are actually witnessing.
Well, Forbes has G-string. If anyone pick pick pick pick pick If anyone pick pick pick male or female has a 7-10 split in the 10th frame, uh that person must pick up His incredible ability to weave popular gossip with bizarre sports metaphors continues to push the boundaries of live award show decorum.
award of the year, and there have been a few bets made also. And uh Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn Lynn, uh a whole bunch of them. But, I’m not making any bets cuz nobody told me the point spread on Even when interrupted by a highly professional disembodied voice, the persistent performer refuses to let go of his chaotic playful control.
Well, actually, I knew I knew all that. And as a true lover of country music, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank the Academy for asking me to be a part of tonight’s festivities, and good luck to all the nominees, with the exceptions of those I don’t like. Seven, behind the red nose, the unbelievable real life of Foster Brooks.
Good evening, everyone. I’m Milton Metz, and I’m very pleased to be your host here in Louisville, Kentucky this evening for Bywords. Very pleased for many reasons. One, because I got a chance to interview one of my my favorite comedians, but also one of my very dear friends. He’s Louisville’s favorite son in show business, and that’s Foster Brooks.
Beyond his loud, public persona, the legendary Foster Brooks sits down for a highly personal, extended interview in 1984 to reveal his true self. Well, she laughs at everything I do, as as I say, and uh That’s one reason we don’t have any children. You’re starting off with me, right? Oh, we have children.
She didn’t laugh twice. Does she think you’re a funny man? A candid confession about his domestic life instantly changes the tone from professional respect to light-hearted humor. And when I tell it on the stage, when I started out there with Perry Como 13 years ago in Las Vegas, I it took me 3 minutes to tell it.
It was gradual. I embellish it. I know all of it, and it just makes for a better story. Get in that character that I portray, the lush, why uh the lush enables me to get more laughs out of a joke on the way to the big blast off, you know. It’s tough, though. True artistic perfection often requires transforming a simple comedic idea into a meticulously developed, beautifully paced narrative.
Sometime ago, I saw a young comedian uh I say young comedian, I think he’s maybe in his 40s, but uh for the first time, a young man by the name of Freddie Roman. Right. I saw him for for the first time, as I say, and uh he had me laughing. I mean, he had me People could hear me laughing because the man was extremely funny and uh delightful comedian, and especially I liked him especially because that he didn’t say one blue word in the whole whole routine that he had, and uh Showing deep appreciation for clean
comedy demonstrates his high standards and respect for the timeless traditions of the craft. It catapults you into the big time, you Well, I was 59 years old before it happened to me, and I I accidentally fell into the comedy, as you know me now, the the comedian, uh the the lush and this that and the other.
Uh somebody wanted me to do uh Achieving massive national success later in life proves that perseverance and undeniable talent are never restricted by age. Uh involving a German, a couple of German soldiers, something like that. I would talk with a German accent, you know, and and it was an Irishman, I’d go into the Irish or English, I’d go into the Irish or the English sound, and uh down-home sound, you know, a couple of country boys talking, you know, I I just use those voices to uh make it sound more real, you
Utilizing highly specific vocal techniques and regional speech patterns helps create a much more believable and engaging connection with listeners. I bought two new tuxedos, yeah, two of them. Do you remember what he paid you for the engagement? $2,500. Wow. Yeah. For just what, a week? For the week, yeah.
And soon you were making more than 10 times that. But that money must have been singularly Oh my goodness. They They didn’t take any of it. Transitioning to prestigious venues and securing historic paychecks reflects the true commercial value of his unique comedy. Was it when you went to England? Oh, well, I forgot about that.
Yeah, well, I went with Bob Hope over to London, England. It was just uh Were they more stunned Oh. than anybody? They they were they they were embarrassed for me and That’s the stage you go through first, right? They can’t believe their their eyes. They didn’t Bob just introduced me as a Oh, by the way, there’s in our audience we have Performing in front of highly conservative international crowds often creates an amusing, initially awkward atmosphere of cultural confusion.
I said, “Well, when I walk on the stage and start speaking, I will appear as though I’ve been drinking.” She says, “Oh.” Then hit me on the chest and said, “Oh, that.” Because she was half loaded at the time. Meeting prominent members of foreign royalty produces some of the most memorable physically expressive interactions of his career.
And they wanted me on November 9th, 2 years ago, November 19th, 2 years ago, uh to a first command performance before the royal family. And I said, “What date?” He told me and I said, “I’m sorry. I promised a friend of mine uh that I’d go fishing with him on that date and I won’t be able to make it.
” Well, a lot of people think, “My heavens, you pass up something like that, an honor like that?” But Prioritizing personal friendships and promises over historic career honors demonstrates the deep, admirable principles of his character. That’s far as that went. Did you not finish high school? Oh, no.
No, I failed every subject every month for a year. But I don’t know anybody who’s more meticulous about pronunciation than you. Well, I don’t know where it came from. I guess my experience in radio and I’m sure that I make errors in my grammar from time to time, but uh Despite his lack of formal education his strict, meticulous demands for linguistic perfection highlight an unexpected level of intellectual rigor.
From the station there and and uh tonight’s going to be uh let’s see what it’s going to tonight it will be dark uh turning to light light in the morning about 7:00. The sun will rise if it’s lucky. I don’t know what Listen, when people say don’t make These legendary, delightfully awkward late-night encounters showed the true magic of classic television comedy.
Which of these timeless moments made you laugh the hardest? Let us know below and subscribe for more classic gold.
QQ4 Bob Dylan and Keith Richards have been close friends for nearly 40 years. The friendship began on a live television program in November of 1986 in the 11 seconds after Bob Dylan called Keith Richards music derivative on camera. Keith Richard’s response to that assessment, one sentence said without anger, without performance, with the specific directness of a man who has nothing to prove and knows it made Bob Dylan laugh.
Then made Bob Dylan go quiet. then made Bob Dylan say two words that people who know Bob Dylan say he almost never said to anyone. This is the story of those 11 seconds and the 40 years that followed them. The program was a live music interview special broadcast on an American network on the evening of November 3rd, 1986. The format was simple.
Two musicians, a host, an hour of conversation about music and the state of it. The producers had assembled the pairing of Bob Dylan and Keith Richards with the specific calculation of television producers who understand that two people with equally strong and potentially incompatible views about what music is and what it should do will produce better television than two people who agree about everything.
The calculation was correct, though not in the way the producers had anticipated. Bob Dylan was 45 years old in November of 1986. Bob Dylan had released Empire Burlesque the previous year and had been on the road for most of the intervening period as part of the True Confessions tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Bob Dylan was in November of 1986 in one of the most prolific and restless phases of a career that had consisted almost entirely of prolific and restless phases. A career that had moved through folk, rock, country, gospel, and back again, that had been declared finished at least six times by the music press, and at each time continued with the serene indifference of a river to the opinions of people standing on its banks.
Bob Dylan had been redefining what music could be. Since 1962, Bob Dylan had invented and reinvented himself so many times that reinvention had become his defining characteristic, not in the superficial sense of a performer changing costumes, but in the deeper sense of a musician who had never allowed his work to settle into a form that could be anticipated or categorized from the outside.
Bob Dylan understood influence and originality and the relationship between them better than almost anyone alive in 1986. Bob Dylan had spent 24 years thinking carefully and specifically about where music came from and where music was going and what it meant that those two things were always in constant conversation with each other.
Keith Richards was 42 years old in November of 1986. Keith Richards had been playing guitar professionally since 1962. Keith Richards had built a career on a foundation of American blues and rhythm and blues. A foundation that Keith Richards had studied with the systematic devotion of someone who understood that the tradition he was building on was not incidental to the music he was making, but essential to it.
that you could not understand what Keith Richards did without understanding where Keith Richards had come from and what Keith Richards had been listening to since he was a teenager in Dartford with American Import Records and a secondhand guitar and no teacher except the recordings themselves. Keith Richards had never pretended otherwise. Keith Richards had in fact spent considerable energy across his career making the lineage explicit, naming the artists, citing the recordings, insisting on the acknowledgement of influence that the mainstream music
industry had a long history of suppressing or ignoring or crediting to the wrong people. If anything, Keith Richards was more transparent about his sources than most musicians of his generation. Keith Richards had always said openly that the Rolling Stones came directly from the blues, that Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson and the specific tradition of the Mississippi Delta were not background influences, but foundational ones.
The music Keith Richards made was in direct and sustained conversation with that tradition, something Keith Richards considered not a limitation, but a responsibility and a form of respect. The interview had been running for 8 minutes when the host asked Bob Dylan about the current state of rock and roll.
Bob Dylan answered with the density and the indirection that characterized Bob Dylan’s responses to direct questions, turning the question over, approaching it from an unexpected angle, finding his way to what he actually thought through a series of observations that moved like a river rather than a road. Bob Dylan was not a straightforward interview subject.
Bob Dylan had been asked about rock and roll in hundreds of interviews across 24 years and had developed the habit of treating the question as an invitation to think out loud rather than a request for a prepared position. The producer Gerald Sherman said afterward that in the first 8 minutes of the interview, he had been slightly anxious, not because anything was going wrong, but because nothing was going anywhere in particular yet.
The interview had the feeling of two conversations happening simultaneously. Bob Dylan’s internal one and the external one visible to the cameras. And Gerald Sherman was not certain in those first eight minutes that the two conversations would converge into something. Bob Dylan talked about influence. Bob Dylan talked about originality.
Bob Dylan talked about the difference between music that absorbed a tradition and transformed it and music that absorbed a tradition and reproduced it. And then Bob Dylan made his assessment. And then Bob Dylan said with the precision of a man making a musical assessment rather than a personal judgment that the Rolling Stones work, and Bob Dylan was specific, naming Keith Richards as the guitarist whose approach he was discussing was derivative in a way that Bob Dylan found limiting.
Bob Dylan said it without hostility. Bob Dylan said it as a technical observation about the relationship between source material and the work that came from it. Bob Dylan said that Keith Richards played the blues the way the blues had already been played, rather than using the blues as a starting point for something that had not yet been played.
Keith Richards had been listening to this with the specific attention Keith Richards gave to things being said about music by people who knew music. Keith Richards did not interrupt. Keith Richards did not shift in his chair or display any of the visible signals of a person preparing a defensive response. Keith Richards listened to Bob Dylan’s complete observation all the way to its conclusion without interrupting and without displaying any visible signal of preparing a response.
Then Keith Richards said one sentence. The sentence was not a rebuttal. The sentence did not defend Keith Richards music or argue for its originality or challenge Bob Dylan’s characterization of what the blues meant in the context of rock and roll. The sentence was something else entirely, something that required a specific kind of confidence to say.
The confidence of a person who has spent long enough thinking about the same things as the person they are talking to that they can locate the exact point where their thinking diverges and say something useful about that point rather than simply defending their own position. The sentence acknowledged everything Bob Dylan had said, the assessment, the distinction Bob Dylan was drawing, the specific musical concern underlying the observation, and then turned it 90°.
Keith Richards took Bob Dylan’s own framework, the one Bob Dylan had used to analyze Keith Richards relationship to the blues tradition, and applied it back to Bob Dylan’s work with the same precision Bob Dylan had used to apply it to Keith Richards. Spare aimed. The sentence asked Bob Dylan something about Bob Dylan’s own music, about the relationship between Bob Dylan’s sources and Bob Dylan’s output that Bob Dylan had not been asked on television before.
The sentence did not attack. The sentence illuminated. Bob Dylan laughed. The laugh was not the polite laugh of someone responding to a joke. The laugh was the involuntary laugh of someone who has been genuinely surprised. The specific kind of surprise that a person of exceptional intelligence experiences when someone else’s intelligence exceeds their expectations.
Bob Dylan laughed for 4 seconds. Then Bob Dylan stopped laughing. Then Bob Dylan was quiet for 3 seconds in the way that Bob Dylan was quiet when Bob Dylan was thinking rather than performing thought. Then Bob Dylan said, “You’re right.” The producer in the booth, a man named Gerald Sherman, who had been working in television for 14 years, said afterward that in 14 years of live television production, he had never heard Bob Dylan say those two words in a public forum.
Gerald Sherman said he had worked with Bob Dylan on two previous occasions and had observed Bob Dylan in numerous other contexts and that you’re right was not a phrase that Bob Dylan deployed easily or often because Bob Dylan had spent 24 years being right about music in ways that other people eventually caught up with. And the experience of being right ahead of everyone else does not generally produce a man who says you’re right readily when someone else makes a point.
The host of the program, a journalist named Patricia Wells, who had been interviewing musicians for 12 years, said afterward that the 11 seconds between Bob Dylan’s assessment and Bob Dylan saying, “You’re right,” were the most extraordinary 11 seconds of television she had been present for. Patricia Wells said that what she witnessed in those 11 seconds was not a debate or a confrontation or a celebrity exchange of competing opinions.
Patricia Wells said what she witnessed was one musician recognizing another musician as an equal, which was in the specific context of Bob Dylan in 1986, not something that happened in public very often. The interview continued for another 42 minutes after those 11 seconds. The conversation between Bob Dylan and Keith Richards in the remaining 42 minutes was described by everyone who watched it as fundamentally different from the first 8 minutes.
The host, Patricia Wells, who had been conducting music interviews for 12 years and understood the difference between the performance of conversation and actual conversation, said that at approximately the 9-minute mark, something shifted in the studio. That the formal interview, architecture dissolved, and what replaced it was something less structured and more genuine.
Bob Dylan and Keith Richards talked about influence and originality and the blues and what it meant to build on a tradition without being consumed by it. They talked about specific recordings and specific musicians with the specificity of two people who had spent their entire adult lives thinking about these things and rarely found another person who had thought about them with equivalent care.
They talked about where music came from and where music was going and whether those two questions were actually one question or two. Patricia Wells said afterward that she had asked approximately four questions in the remaining 42 minutes because Bob Dylan and Keith Richards did not require questions. They required only a room and a camera and the shared understanding that what they were saying together was worth recording carefully.
She said it was the best interview she had ever conducted and that she had conducted the smallest part of it. After the program, Bob Dylan and Keith Richards were in the corridor outside the studio when the host Patricia Wells passed them. Patricia Wells said she did not stop because she did not want to interrupt.
She observed them for approximately 30 seconds from a distance. She said they were talking with the ease of people who had known each other for years rather than people who had met for the first time 2 hours earlier. She said that something had shifted between them during the broadcast that the broadcast had made permanent rather than temporary.
She continued down the corridor and did not look back. She said in her account of that evening that she had decided in that moment not to interrupt the conversation because some conversations are more valuable than any question a journalist might ask and that the conversation she had observed for 30 seconds in the corridor outside the studio was one of them.
She had been a music journalist for 12 years. She recognized the difference. Bob Dylan and Keith Richards have maintained their friendship across four decades. They have appeared together at various events, most significantly at the concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, where people who were present described them as inseparable for most of the evening, occupying the same corner of the backstage area and talking with the concentrated attention of people who only have a limited amount of time together and intend to use it
well. Bob Dylan has spoken about Keith Richards in interviews with the specific thoughtful care that Bob Dylan reserves for musicians whose work Bob Dylan considers genuinely important rather than merely culturally prominent. Keith Richards has spoken about Bob Dylan in similar terms with the specific respect of someone who recognizes in another person a commitment to music that goes deeper than career.
Neither Bob Dylan nor Keith Richards has made a public statement specifically about how the friendship began or about the November 1986 interview. Bob Dylan has not mentioned the 11 seconds. Keith Richards has not mentioned the sentence. The interview exists in the archive. The 11 seconds are there. The laugh is there. The two words are there.
What is also there for anyone who watches the interview from its beginning and pays attention to the shift that happens at the 9-minute mark is the specific moment when two people who thought they were appearing on a television program discovered they were actually talking to each other. What Keith Richards said in that one sentence has never been officially reported.
The people who were in the studio that evening, Gerald Sherman, Patricia Wells, the floor crew, the two camera operators, the makeup artist who was watching from the side of the set, have described the sentence in consistent terms. They have described its effect. They have described Bob Dylan’s laugh and Bob Dylan’s silence and Bob Dylan’s two words.
They have not repeated the sentence itself in the specific understanding that the sentence was said between two musicians on a television program and that its power resided in the specific context of that exchange and would not survive removal from it intact. What can be said is this. Keith Richards said something to Bob Dylan about Bob Dylan’s music that used Bob Dylan’s own observation about Keith Richards as its starting point and arrived somewhere that Bob Dylan had not anticipated.
Keith Richards turned Bob Dylan’s assessment 90° and showed Bob Dylan something about the music they had both spent their lives making that Bob Dylan recognized immediately as true. And Bob Dylan said, “You’re right.” Two words said by Bob Dylan in public on live television in 1986 to Keith Richards in response to a single sentence Keith Richards had said about music.
Two words that Gerald Sherman, who had worked with Bob Dylan on two previous occasions, said he had never heard Bob Dylan say in a public forum. Two words that Patricia Wells, who had been interviewing musicians for 12 years, said were the most significant two words she had heard in those 12 years. Not because of their content, but because of who said them and what it cost to say them and what it meant that Keith Richards had produced them in 11 seconds from a conversation that began with Bob Dylan calling Keith Richards’s music derivative. And Keith Richards and
Bob Dylan have been close friends for nearly 40 years. The sentence did its work in 11 seconds on the evening of November 3rd, 1986. The work has been ongoing ever since. If this story moved you, subscribe and leave a comment below. Have you ever said something to someone that turned a potential disagreement into an unexpected and lasting connection? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Share this with someone who needs to be reminded that the right sentence said at the right moment can completely change the entire direction of a relationship. Ring the notification bell for more untold stories about the extraordinary human beings behind music’s greatest legends.
