Late Night with Conan O'Brien

"I Don't Wanna Know"

Conan (goes up to band): Great, thank you (shakes hands with Julian). Hey! Thank you very much Julian. Julian Lennon everybody. We'll take a break. We'll be right back (shakes hands with the rest of the band).

Commercial Break

Conan: Alright everybody! Uh, we are back. I am sitting here with Julian Lennon. Thank you very much. That sounded great. That sounded fantastic.

Julian: Thank you. (Conan and Julian laugh)

Conan: Yeah, you always think it could be better, right?

Julian: I always do.

Conan: Yeah.

Julian: I always do think it can be better, yeah.

Conan: There is a . . .

Julian: It, it, it is a sickness.

Conan: Yeah, yeah, it's an illness. Uh, there is a, um, I never feel that way about anything, uh . . .

Julian: I'm sure (laughs).

Conan: Always content with crap, yeah, uh. You uh, there's a bit of a theme show going here because you actually wanted Mike Myers to direct the video for that song ("I Don't Wanna Know"), really?

Julian: Absolutely, yeah, but the bugger didn't write back to me or call me! I huh, I huh ...

Conan: (laughs) Is he still here or did he get away?

Julian: Where is he?

Conan: Stay that way.

Julian: Yeah um, uh after I, after I saw the, the, the first, the first Austin Powers movie. . .

Conan: Yeah.

Julian: . . . which I-I thought was fantastic and I, it was hysterical, and the idea behind this video was to go back to the sort of Rutles, uh.

Conan: Right, right.

Julian: . . . version of having a bit of fun with this sort of Beatlesque characters. And uh, I, I actually did approach The Rutles, and uh, unfortunately, they were all working. Well there was one or two available, but others were working on . . .

Conan: Other than that, yeah.

Julian: On their own projects and so . . .

Conan: They were busy.

Julian: So I had to put my own, uh, my own uh, group together called The Butlers. And I, and uh, I uh, I did, I did write a long letter to Mike saying uh, because after seeing that film, it would have been, it would . . .

Conan: To do with that sixties style.

Julian: A-A Absolutely, absolutely. But uh, alas, I never heard back from him.

Conan: Yeah, we'll try and trace him, uh.

Julian: Absolutely.

Conan: The uh, you know I was, I'm fascinated to learn that you as a songwriter, as a musician, you feel you're more influenced by Paul McCartney than by your father. Is that the case?

Julian: Uh. . . uh, uh, well, i-in, in a sense, yeah. I-I mean, Dad's work is uh, I-I mean I love it, but uh it's, it's a lot more aggressive uh, and uh, m-much more rock-based whereas Paul's work is much more melodic.

Conan: Mmm-hmm.

Julian: You know, and I've always, I've always been much more interested in that. In, in the melodic side of things. And so yeah, it does, it does hint towards his writing style more than Dad's, I would say.

Conan: Have you hung out with, with Paul McCartney at all? Have you bonded with him?

Julian: I, yeah, uh sort of. I, I was invited um, about a year ago to go down to his house and his studio. And he showed me around his studio and it was a lil, little tense, a little cold. Um. We hadn't broken the ice yet and uh, and he showed me around the studio and he had tons of all of his memorabilia, and all the instruments they used in some of the tracks in The Beatles. And he sat down and played a lot of them, which I, blew me away.

Conan: Mmm-hmm.

Julian: Uh, but I think, I think the thing that truly broke the ice is, is when we decided to sit down in the kitchen, have a cup of tea and a sandwich, and the thing that broke the ice was telling stories about Yoko.

Conan: Yeah (laughs). You found some common ground there. Yeah (laughs).

Julian: We certainly did, we certainly did. Yeah.

Conan: Hours and hours and hours, yeah.

Julian: Endless amounts of fun.

Conan: It's uh and it, it is, it is Paul McCartney's birthday today actually.

Julian: It is his birthday, yes, yes. Happy Birthday Paul! Absolutely.

Conan: He's, if he's watching.

Julian: If he's, well, we'll get a tape to him.

Conan: Yeah, we'll get him a tape, yeah, for that. Uh, Photograph Smile is uh, is the album. And I really like that song, and uh . . .

Julian: Thank you, thank you very much.

Conan: The album is very good. Why don't you uh, come back sometime? We'd love to have you.

Julian: I would absolutely love to. Thank you, you're very kind.

Conan: Yes, very cool to meet you. Always wanted to meet you.

Julian: Thank you, thank you.

Conan: Julian Lennon everybody. Our thanks to Mike Myers for being here on the program. That's our show for the evening. Stay tuned for Friday Night. We'll see you on Monday. Bye bye.