-Look at how much fun
he's having already. Oh, my gosh.
He's having the most fun. Look at this.
I've never seen him like this. He's having so much fun. -Why did you say
Mike's name first? -It's alphabetical,
like, you know, as authors. -Yeah.
-No, but you said, "Mickey..." -Mickey.
I didn't say "Mickey." -You said "Mickey." Why is he calling him "Mickey"?
His name is Mike. -'Cause -- Guys, hi!
-Hey! [ Cheers and applause ] -We have a lot to talk about. I want to say, before I start
this off that I know -- I'm sad that Yauch
is not with us anymore. And I loved him so much.
I know you loved him so much. And I wish I had a chance
to tell him how much I loved him
when he was around. So I just want to tell you guys
I love you and I love you. -Thank you very much, Jimmy.
Love you, too. [ Cheers and applause ] -Did you have any idea?
I love this book. I'm checking out. I didn't want
to it end. It was so good. Did you have any idea that you guys were gonna
have this much chemistry? Did you know
that you were gonna be -- know each other
for 40 years, almost? -When you're -- I think when you're a teenager,
you're barely -- Like, weeks ahead of you is --
-You're not thinking tomorrow. -That's not --
You can't even see that. -Yeah. Could you have done it
with anyone else, you think? -Oh, definitely. [ Laughter ] -No, you got to
think about that. That was a -- I didn't want
a answer really that fast. Yeah. You definitely could have
done it with someone else. -Yeah, might have even been
more successful, actually. -I think,
after reading the book, one of the things
that we all like as fans is that, I think
it's his sense of humor that kind of
motivated this group. And you guys always make
each other laugh. Can you tell everyone
the ring story? The story about the ring?
-Oh, okay. So, well, it's in this book. There's a story called
"The Ring." -I know.
-Available in the marketplace. -Yeah, yeah. But tell the story.
-All right. I got to do it real quick,
'cause we got -- -No, we got time. We got
a cocktail party after this. -We still got an after after --
-It's packed. It's packed. There's people there already. -So, in 1992,
we played a regular show. We were in San Francisco.
It was just a regular show. And we're in the dressing room
afterwards, backstage. We're hanging out. And then
this guy kind of cornered me. But he was like -- He just
looked odd. I don't know. He had, like, big, huge teeth
that looked like -- And he had really long arms.
And I don't know. -You said that his arms
were longer than --
It went past his kneecap. -He was -- Yeah.
-That's impossible. -It's no big deal, but it was
just kind of really startling. -Okay, okay. Startling
when you first meet him. -And he cornered me,
and he was like, "I really want you
to have my ring." And I was like, "No,
I don't really wear jewelry, but thanks anyway,"
but he was like, "No, no, no. I really want you to have it,"
and so he'd like -- So I was like,
"Okay, man. Whatever." And then I went home,
you know, whenever that was, and I put the ring on my shelf,
and I was like, "Forget it." And then we were on a train
to a show in D.C., and then I looked in my bag,
and there was the ring again. And I didn't understand because
I thought I put it in the -- At any rate...
-It's back. -Cut to -- That was in '92.
And then cut to 2007. I'm on tour. We're on tour. And I go to my backpack.
And the ring's in there. And so -- Okay, so,
I was freaking out. Then I told everybody.
I was like, "I got the ring." Everybody's like --
-Really freaking out. We were all like,
"What's wrong with that?" -I was like -- Well, I was going
to curse but not on television. -Thank you. -I was like, "What the
[bleep] is up with this?" -You were "going to" curse.
Gonna edit there. -And -- And -- And, so, anyway,
I was freaking out. And then, like,
about a week later, Yauch pulled me aside on tour and was like, "Hey, man.
I put that ring in your bag." [ Laughter ] But it was 15 years later. [ Laughter ] -Who does that?!
-Who does that? -Who does that?
-Yeah. -So, if you read the book,
you saw that you guys started out in the punk scene. You're New Yorkers. Going to clubs
when you were like 14, 13? -Yeah. We were young --
We were children. -Yeah.
-Yeah. Young teens. -New York was different. You could do that sort of thing
as a child. -No one would check your ID
or anything? -Well, actually, no.
That was the weird thing.
The drinking age was 18 -- When the drinking age in
New York was 18, it was like -- -No one cared. -And, like, fake IDs was --
You know what I mean. Like, nobody checked
that it was a real or fake ID. "Oh, you have this card." -"That seems about right." -"It must be real.
He had a card." -I think if it was laminated,
that was good enough. -That works.
-Yeah. -You formed the group
Beastie Boys, right? -Well, yeah, myself and Yauch and John Berry
and Kate Schellenbach. -And Beastie --
It was called Beastie Boys because it stood -- It was -- Yeah. What did it stand for? -I've only recently learned
to say this properly, 'cause we had to do these shows. It's an acronym.
-That's correct. Wow. -'Cause I used to say
"anacronym," and
then I was corrected. Like, that's not
actually a word. -"Anacronym" could be a new --
But it is an acronym. -It's -- Yeah.
It is a...acronym. -An acronym.
-An acronym. -Yes, that too.
[ Laughter ] -Boys Entering Anarchistic
States Towards Inner Excellence. And, yes, it was a stupid name. [ Laughter ] -No, what's funny,
here we are.... -We're supposed to be
grown-ass men, and it's still
the name of the band. -Yeah, Beastie -- yeah. So, Beastie Boys. And then, so,
you're in the punk scene. Then you started liking hip-hop.
-Yeah. -And what song triggered you, like,
"Oh, I want to be like that"? Is there one...? -I feel like each of us
individually have, like, the song that was, like,
the song. For you, if you don't mind me
outing you, Ad-Rock? -Go ahead.
I'm sorry. -You're gonna out --
You're gonna out him? -Go ahead.
-My moment -- -Big, big,
politically charged moment. -My first big rap song for me
was a rap song called "The Adventures of Super
Rhymes," by Jimmy Spicer. That was my first one of those.
I knew all the words. My brother played it for me,
and I just -- I don't know. We just loved that song.
-Yeah. And I want to say shout-out,
Yauch was definitely, like, a master of memorizing
every word, cadence, and style of the rapper
Spoonie Gee. -Yeah.
-So he had Spoonie Gee. For me, I was a little more
Treacherous Three, "Body Rock." But then Treacherous Three
and Spoonie Gee had a song together called
"Super Rappin'." So we could all meet --
-But how did "Cooky Puss" -- What was that based off of? [ Laughter ] Sorry, they had a first song
that was called "Cooky Puss." -Yeah, so that --
-I thought we were gonna -- -We doing a lot of jumping over. -I thought you were gonna talk
about "Buffalo Gals." -Yeah, I'll get to that.
-Okay, cool. -A couple years later, there was
a song called "Buffalo Gals" that Malcolm McLaren did. And it was a big song, and since
we were, like, city kids, like, you know, we kind of -- You know, we just
make fun of everything. That's just like a stupid thing. Like, 'cause kids in New York
or big cities, you can't really like anything. You got to sort of
be cool about everything. You can't really get
fully into something. -You can't like something if
you're a New York City kid? -You're not allowed
to like something, yeah. -Like, you can't say,
"Oh, I love that." You got to be like,
"Oh, yeah. That's cool." -You'll be like,
"Ice cream's cool. Whatever." [ Laughter ] -"Whatever."
-"Cake tastes good." -Yeah,
"I guess cake tastes good." Yeah.
-Yeah. -And so, Adam Yauch parents
had a friend that had a recording studio,
and he let us record one night. And so we made
all this crazy stuff, and we made a song
called "Cooky Puss," and then we put it out. -But "Cooky Puss" is based on -- if you're from New York, I think
it's an East coast thing, right? -Yeah, I always wondered that, but I feel like
it's definitely -- -It's Carvel. And I got a story about it, too. Exclusive.
Not in here. -What?
-It's not that exciting. -What are you talking about?
This is not -- I got to call TMZ
and "The Daily Mail." -We used to go
to this club called -- -Hello?
Sorry. Hello? Oh, why would you call me?
I told you I was gonna call you. -Do you need a phone?
[ Laughter ] -So, we used to go to this -- -You can sell this
on Groupon, you know. The stellar story on Groupon.
-Exclusive story? -Oh, it can be on
the bonus audiobook. -Forget it, then.
-No, no! We want to hear it! [ Laughter ]
-Oh. No, no. We used to go
to this club called Danceteria all the time, and it was when
"Cooky Puss" came out. And there was this kid
that was kind of hanging around. And he came up to us one night
and he was like, "Hey, man, you know,
I'm gonna talk to my uncle. And everything is gonna be cool
about 'Cooky Puss.'" And I was like, "Okay, cool.
What are you talking about?" And he was like,
"Well, my uncle's Tom Carvel." And we were like,
"Wait. What?" And he's like, "Yeah.
I'm gonna talk to him, make sure there's no, like,
legal problems with, you know, your guys' song about,
you know, his cake." [ Laughter ] And we're like,
"Oh, man, that'd be cool. Great."
And then we kept singing. He's like,
"Yeah, I talked to my uncle. Everything's fine."
We're like, "I didn't -- One, I don't think it's true
at all." -Yeah.
-"And I don't think -- I think you can just call -- You can sing a song
about a cake, right? I don't know if it's legal --"
-I don't know. But he didn't sue you, though. -Can you make a quick call
on that and find out? [ Laughter ] -Sorry about that.
-Yep. -I'm sorry.
I got, like, no bars right now. [ Laughter ] -We're doing bits. -I got to tell you --
Speaking of doing bits... That story is in the book,
by the way. -No, it's not.
-Yeah, it is. -Is it?
-Yeah. -Is it?
-Yeah. [ Laughter ] It's not an exclusive at all. You didn't give us
an exclusive at all. -You got to read your damn book! [ Cheers and applause ] That story is in the book. And how nice
Carvel was to you. Yeah, anyway.
I'm like -- -I can't be expected
to remember -- -It's a lot of pages. -Don't start reading now!
What are you doing? -I don't --
I don't see it in here. -Oh, my God!
Fun fact: My best friend body slammed a drunken MCA outside the Paramount theater in Seattle back in '87.