Transcription
That's all right. No, he's here. He's here. He's just walking in now. That's all right. I'll introduce him now. Fine. Okay. Now there you are. He's here. Very good. Now ladies and gentlemen, last year, sometime on a Sunday night, I went to the Olympia Theatre. And I'd heard about the guy who was performing there that night, but I'd never seen him in person. And I found the Olympia packed to capacity with absolutely adoring fans for a guy who's a songwriter and a performer who has become very much a cult figure in America, in Britain, and especially here in Ireland—the whole sort of world which I suppose most of our viewers probably wouldn't know about because they probably wouldn't have heard of him, but I think is a fabulous performer. He is most unusual. So ladies and gentlemen, would you welcome, please, Mr. Tom Waits?
[Music]
[Applause]
Because the boys run away from—well, the world just keeps getting bigger once you cut out all the little boys. Son takes you miss sleeping with woman.
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So climb up through that button.
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Let me show you the short dogs on the nickel.
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Welcome to the Late Show, and welcome to Ireland.
And all your remnants, all your songs, Tom, seems to be about a seedy way of life. How come?
I try to write about a wide variety of types of things. This particular song just deals with downtown Los Angeles.
I've heard that before, though. Yeah. Nice little setup here. Nothing gay. Not a bad—instead of—I—I note—I noticed that when you're on stage, or if you're—you bring relaxation to a fine art. I mean there's—and you don't go in very much for production and—right—like you just—you just sit down and get on with it.
Well, you do the same thing here on your program.
I guess not—not exactly. Tell me something about yourself. Where are you from, Tom? How'd you get into the business?
I was born in Pomona, California. I buy the fairgrounds there. It's a small little community and kind of a subsidiary of Los Angeles. And I moved to Whittier. I lived there for a while. My dad was teaching school in Montebello, and my folks split up. I was about 11, and we moved to San Diego. That there for a while. You know what was the question? They say how you get into the business? To begin to have any business. Well, I kind of looked around. It wasn't really anything that I thought was interesting. Most of my friends had boring jobs. I guess I just kind of narrowed it down from there. The only thing left seemed to be entertainment. It's not a very good story. It's a game. That's the way it happened. It to do. And you—when did you start writing your songs then?
Well, I was born at a very young age. Actually, I didn't start writing until I was in my teens. I had a lot of problems in my teens, and so I started dealing with that. I worked jobs before I started playing nightclubs as well.
What sort of problems did you have in your teens?
Or skin problems, eruptions and acne, pimples. Yes, those. I'm just—like you know—you give them—you give the impression to a lot of people that, in fact, you lead the life of a whole ball, and—and you—you mix a lot with the people that you write songs about, and you—and the joints that you write songs about. Do you—in fact, I've heard that before—to have some very happily married man.
I don't go out much at all. I used to stay out late.
What is your wife's maiden name?
My wife's name is Kathleen Brennan.
Kathleen Brennan. Yeah. Can I go over and sing a little? I'm going to anyway, whether you say I can't or not, because I got it—I got to get to the root of this.
Kathleen Brennan. How do you do, Mrs. Tom Waits? How are you then? No, you must be—I mean, how far back Irish are you?
With it as far back as I can remember. Third generation, my family is.
And where are you from?
I am from originally Illinois, and in New Jersey.
And how did you meet this guy in the—accidentally? Where—what—actually?
I was a nun, and he fell asleep in the church, and I woke him up.
[Music]
Now that's not true. It depends. No, we were both—I was working for Coppola studio—so Trope Studios—and he was there writing music for Coppola's next film, and that's how I met him. I was a reader there. I'm a story analyst. And—and did you see—you saw him perform musically several times presumably?
And never—never had no idea who or what he was. And in fact, he frightened me to begin with.
Yes. Ashamed I could believe that. That's right. The time I saw him, he was unstable.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. This is only two days. It was about six when I met him.
Mmm-hmm. Does he ever take the hat off?
Uh, yes, he does. I was hoping you were. Now have you been to Ireland before?
Yes, I was when I was 16. I was hit in Shannon. My plane was breaking down from Italy, so they picked the next broken-down place.
And that's how you ended up in jail?
You haven't been around the country since then. I mean—no—no, not at all. Yeah. Is—be people been good to you? Not to you?
Oh, wonderful. Especially—truly—especially true. White relieved. Oh, we have two great friends, Lionel and Dave, was just shown us all around, and Carrie. It's beautiful. Yeah. And he's been writing a bit of music down there house. It. Yes, at the Valley City Castle. Not a bad place. A long way from the hobos who live—right. Listen, Tom, it's lovely to meet you, Kathy. Tom, will you—will you do one particularly number for me, which I remember you doing before, and that's about the piano being drunk, and it's not your fault. That's sort of—do that one. Is it? This is a nice little number. I shift—I shift the—for you in the matches, just to give you a room. Okay? Kyong has been drunk. All right, do that one for me.
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The piano has been drinking. My necktie is asleep, and the combo went back to New York. The jukebox has to take a leak.
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White man's blind in one eye, and he can't see out of the other.
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I know has been drinking. I know has been drinking heavily, and you can't find your waitress even with a Geiger counter, and then she hates you and all your friends, but you just can't get served. With outer Lord has been drinking. He's on the hard stuff tonight. Drinking heavily has been breaking.
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And a bouncer is a sumo wrestle creampuff Kasper Milquetoast, and the owner is the mental—me feel IQ of a fence post.
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The box office is drooling, and the barstools are on fire. All the newspapers fooling the ice trays every time.
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Well, what I always say is it makes a change from trial mangas. A term doesn't.