Brian Setzer And The Songs That Inspired Him

Conan O'Brien
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Hey, this is kind of cool. Recently, I got to sit down with one of my heroes. As you may know about me, I'm a kind of a rockabilly fanatic and I love Brian Setzer. Turns out he was in town and we got to sit down for an hour long conversation, which was just a blast for me. We talked about a lot, Brian committing to always doing what he wanted to do as a musician.

That guy has stuck to his guns and it's worked out beautifully for him. Having a guitar lead a big band was something he had never done before, which is massive guitarists did not lead big bands, but he did it how rockabilly spoke to him, as it did to me at a very young age, meeting George Harrison in Ringo but never Paul and Brian and I talk a little bit about living on a tour bus and how it can drive one quite insane. Anyway, it was a really fun conversation. If you want, you can listen to the episode with the songs included by searching Conan in the new SiriusXM app, or you can listen to the conversation here and cue up the songs on your music streaming app of choice. Check it out.

Here's my conversation with Brian Setzer.

Fall is here. Hear the yell back to school, ring the bell brand new shoes? Walk and lose? Climb the fence books and pens. I can tell that we are gonna need friends.

I can tell that we are going to be friends. The message of my career is dreams do come true. And I've been a massive fan and huge admirer of a gentleman known as Brian Setzer for many years. And he's been an influence on me in all kinds of ways, and I adore him. And over the years, I've had the pleasure of Brian coming on my shows and getting to perform live with Brian.

And then we heard that there was a chance that he might be in town and might have a moment to sit down with us and appear on Conan O'Brien words in music with my friend Jim Pitt. And so we did everything we could to get him here. We kidnapped him about an hour ago, and he's here with me now, and I could not be happier. Brian, thanks for being here. Oh, seriously.

I'm just like. And I've told this to many people, that I can kind of do the hair. If I could play guitar like you and sing like you, no one would ever hear me tell a joke again. I'd be gone. I'd be out on the road.

Cause you're living the life that I would like to live, so. And then to find out years ago that you're also an incredibly nice person was this nice gift. I remember being afraid the first time you came on the show. What if he's an asshole? There's gonna be a fight.

Yeah, exactly. From your music, there's just, you know, there's a lot of people fighting and switchblades. He might pull a knife on me. And then you could not have been a nicer guy. And so many of my favorite memories of doing late night show over the years was when you would come by, when you would bring the Bryan Setzer orchestra, and people knew, on days when you're coming with your orchestra, don't bother me.

Meaning, don't give me a lot of comedy that day that I have to rehearse. Don't try to have a lot of meetings with me. Don't have the accountants in that day. Leave me alone so I can go downstairs and sit in the audience and watch you guys do your thing. Always a joy.

Brian Setzer
Oh, yeah. You loved the big band. I know you did. Yeah. And I remembered sitting.

Conan O'Brien
This is one of my favorite memories. I'm sitting in the audience, and you play the set that you're gonna play, what you're gonna do for the late night show, and then you said, hey, Conan, anything else you wanna hear? And I'm just sitting there in the audience, like, with Jim Pitt, who's sitting with me, and maybe a couple of other people. And I said, are you guys do the Hawaii five o theme? And you went, guys, one, two, three.

Brian Setzer
No, you just did it. And it. When it was over, my clothes had been blown off. I was completely naked. I was just.

Conan O'Brien
It was absolutely incredible. And how just. I mean, first of all, I know this is one of the things I've heard about you, and it's something I've thought about over the years, which is some of the best music ever made in America is television theme songs. Yeah. And we grew up with them.

We're the same vintage, and we grew up with this stuff. Hawaii five o. I know you're a big. I've heard you talk about the manics theme. Oh, God.

I think about the wild, wild west. There are all these incredible songs. Bonanza, great orchestration, great music. And it was television themes. Yeah.

Brian Setzer
You know what happened? So those were jazz guys, right, that once the big band dinosaurs went away, they became extinct. They had nowhere to go, and they started doing that for tv, you know. So we need. You know, we need something big and bold that sounds out west, you know.

And it was four guys in New York City in the brill building, you know, writing about the wild west, you know, it's the funniest thing, and it's the best stuff, you know, and, you know, and they wrote Bonanza and they, you know, Hawaii 50 and all that, and just fantastic stuff. So when I actually got the big band together and heard that back, it was my favorite stuff to play. It's amazing. I love playing that. James Bond.

Who could do the James Bond theme. No, it's incredible that music is so iconic. And because it was a tv theme, it was easy for people to, at the time, probably dismiss it, like, oh, it's just some song on television. It's not the real thing until you go back and listen to it and realize this is some of the best music recorded. I was really.

Conan O'Brien
It didn't surprise me, but when I found out that. Cause when I was a kid, one of my favorite cartoons was top cat. Top cat, da da da da da da da da da da top catadad. And it was this cartoon, sort of like a Sergeant Bilko who's a cat, and he's got his gang, and they always pull one over on somebody. It was very funny.

I think it was a Hanna Barbera cartoon that the top cat theme was an inspiration for you. Top cat theme. Cause it was badass, you know, they were mixing some, you know, trying to mix rock and roll, but their roots were in that fifties big band stuff. It was just sweet. Nobody had hit upon it.

Brian Setzer
And I had the idea, why don't I lead a big band with a guitar that's never been done? And everybody tried to talk me out. Of that one, and then they were saying, oh, it's gonna be an embarrassment. No one's gonna wanna listen to this. You just won't be able to pay them.

Yeah, who's gonna come see that? They said that with rockabilly, too. But I've always just done what I've wanted to do. And that big band just kinda kept taking off. Taking off.

It got higher and higher and higher. I paid the band out of pocket the first couple of shows. And then I remember all of a sudden, is the greek theater. Want you the greek. We just did the house of Blues.

It caught on and it just kind of stayed there at this point. So a lot of people, we ended up with the Hollywood bowl. A lot of people feel the way we do. Well, that's the kind of. I always call it the field of dreams phenomenon.

Conan O'Brien
If you build it, they will come, which is if you. My whole career, I've thought, if this is something I really care about comedically, I'm just going to keep doubling down on it. And if no one else cares, at least I did what I wanted to do. But I think other people are going to care. Right?

And if you just keep putting a signal out and it's a little bit of. Almost a religious thing, spiritual. Like, I'm going to double down on this and put this signal out and I'll show them. Yeah, yeah. Going back, like, is interesting because it's hard to explain.

Time goes by and then people lose the context. But when stray cats first comes around, when you're first playing this music, 1981, it is the exact opposite. Late seventies, early eighties, it's the exact opposite of what the music scene is completely. It's diametrically opposed. Right?

Nobody's got a three piece playing, stripped down rockabilly, stand up bass, snare drum, 6120 Gretsch guitar. No one's piling their hair up like that. It's the cars. I mean, we could go on and on about what it was, but it was not that. No, but I think it was just musically so undeniably amazing that it cut through and became a sensation.

And I think a lot of people were hungry for it when it came. Yes, we found that out. But when we first started, first of all, the band was right. You know, me, Jim and Lee, we had a chemistry, you know, we're just three guys from almost the same block on Long island, and we just believed in this sound. Cause, oh, without mentioning other bands names, we had had enough of the big pompous bands with the gongs and all that stuff.

Brian Setzer
And I said, you don't need all this stuff, you know, you don't need the half a million dollar Les Paul. You don't need that. I'm picturing the stray cats going out with just you guys and a gong. And I'm on gong, and every now and then you signal me and I don't. And a g string.

Conan O'Brien
I do it, I do it. But, yeah, so you were. It was a reaction to what was happening and you did that. And then, of course, later in your career when you did the big band, that's a reaction, because I think when you came out with the big band, it was grunge was what everybody wanted. That's right.

And you're saying, absolutely. I've got this massive orchestra and I'm going to do Louie Prima and it's going to be huge. And it was. It did become huge. The idea for the big band, you know, I learned how to read and write music and Johnny Carson asked and he didn't have rock bands on yet, if we wanted to be on the show, we were like, what?

Brian Setzer
We're just kids. And then he said, do you want to use Doc's big band? And that's where the idea started. Did you do it? Did we.

They didn't have a song. No, it didn't work out. Johnny did that a lot. Invite people on. They'd show up and he wouldn't let them in.

Conan O'Brien
It was an old Johnny trick. Yeah, that's pretty much how it happened. We didn't get the show, but they were talking about it. But that idea remained. What if I put that big band behind the stray cast?

Brian Setzer
Since I could write all that stuff, I just. I wanted to hear, because the two had never met a guitar player, had never led a big band. And like you said, we were influenced by all that fifties and sixties television theme stuff. So I at least had to try it. And believe me, it was hard to get 17 guys, you know, to do this, to write all that music out, you know, people would yell out songs and I would say, well, but we don't have the.

We don't have the charts. What play, you know, rock this town. Well, I didn't have it written out yet for the big band. I hadn't reimagined it yet. Right, right.

You know, so it was just. It was an idea that I had to follow through with. But from the very first one, it was like, wait, this is not like Sinatra. This is something different. You know, this is.

Conan O'Brien
It's a hybrid. Yeah. Yeah. It was the idea of, like, a rock and roll with, like. But not a swing band.

Brian Setzer
People thought we were swing as well. And the swing bands had three or four horns. This was a full big band, you know. So that's what started that idea. And then it caught fire pretty quick.

Conan O'Brien
So I have to say, for me personally, I think one of the reasons, like, I grabbed onto you and what you were doing immediately is I had this experience. I was born in 63. So I'm in college, and everyone's listening to what people are listening to in the eighties. And, you know, soft. I mean, freshman year, soft sell is really big and tainted love.

And you've got all this stuff happening in the eighties. And I remembered it was fine, but I wasn't grabbed by any of it. Then I think they did some reissue of the sun session albums. Or I started to hear early Elvis. Cause I'd only known.

Sure, I had only known the Elvis hits that we were all the stuff. That your mom played. Right, exactly. The stuff that was on RCA or especially the stuff that came later on in the seventies, late sixties, seventies. And so I start to hear, like, I hear, baby, let's play house.

And I can just feel something happen to me. It's so primal. And I'm just. I'm listening to it, and it's. You might go to college, you might go to school.

You might drive a pink cadillac, but you'd be nobody. And there's a real passion behind it. It's very simple. And then obviously, that's all right, mama. And I'm listening to all this stuff.

And the next thing I know, my dorm room. I have an early Elvis poster. But I also have Jerry Lee Lewis from high school confidential on the back of the truck, playing the piano. He's on the back of, like, a pickup truck. It was a still from the movie high school confidential.

And I'm listening to Jerry Lee Lewis. And then I'm listening to Lil Richard. And that's the stuff I'm listening to. And my friends don't get it. They're like, what are you doing?

Why are you doing this? And of course you guys come around, and then suddenly it's cool. It feels like it's. Do you know what I mean? I could understand it because to me, I still explain it as this is the music that still reaches right into my chest and grabs me.

And for me, it's like, for Buddy Holly, it's Rayvon, the kind of insistence of it, and it's driving, and it's very simple. But that was why what you were doing and everything that you've done throughout your career has always kind of made perfect sense to me, because other stuff, I don't know. I love and admire a lot of the other stuff, but there's something so, like, I'll just go back to primal about. I know. You either get that or you don't.

Brian Setzer
I feel the same exact way. I went through the same thing, and I think the first I heard any of that real stuff was, my dad was in Korea. He was, you know, and he came back with some records. This is what the guys were listening to. You know, I like it, and I put on, you know, carl Perkins, and I couldn't tell him I liked it, but to me, it rivaled.

It was. It rivaled that energy that punk rock was just starting with. But the guys could really play. Yeah. You know, and it just spoke right to me, you know?

And that's the hardest thing to write, is the simplest stuff, you know, with the direct lyrics, the direct chords. I mean. Cause it's all been written, you know, that's the hardest stuff to come up with. But I had the same exact feeling as you did. Isn't that funny?

I didn't know everybody was gonna do their hair like me. I thought that was for stage. Yeah, but I stuck with it for the longest period. And people, when I was writing, oh. You still got a good head of hair.

Conan O'Brien
When I was on the. When I was a writer on the Simpsons, I had this giant pile on my head, and, you know, I had sideburns, and people were just like, you're a comedy writer.

Brian Setzer
Yeah, but that. But that's how you feel comfortable, you know? Yeah.

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You showed up earlier than I thought you were coming in. And I wander around my. Because it's my building, I get to wander around with a guitar around me all the time. You will attest that this is true. I'm back a long way.

That goes back a long way. And I always have a guitar. Yeah, you always have a guitar. So I have. I heard all this commotion downstairs because they were having a birthday party for Sarah Fedorovich.

And I come down just to join in. And of course, I just have a Gretsch duo jet around my neck. And who do I. The first person I run into is you, Ryan. And I feel like an ass.

Cause it's like walking up to Tiger woods holding a golf club. I feel stupid. Now look what I've got. I know how to play. Coincidence?

Yeah, exactly. Who knew? But I'm glad it made it into the studio. We were gonna. One of the things we like to do occasionally on this show is we ask our guest to pick a couple songs.

And the first one you picked is something else by Eddie Cochran, which is 1958. And I got into Eddie Cochran, I think after college I'm out here in LA and I'm really trying to start to learn. I had been a shitty drummer and I decided it's time to be a shitty guitar player. And a friend of mine, Randy Klempert and I, who were in improv class together, he could play serious rockabilly licks, and that's what I wanted to do. And he said, you got to know about Eddie Cochran.

So he was the one that got me into Eddie Cochran. And Eddie Cochran was the guy who had a big orange Gretch 6120. And that was the guitar that you had to have. Yeah. If you were gonna do what you wanted to do.

Brian Setzer
Well, can I tell you how I discovered him? There's no time. We're out. Oh, all right. Goodbye, everybody.

Conan O'Brien
No, I'm kidding. Oh, I'll see you there. Go ahead. Yes. That's why you're here.

Brian Setzer
But the funny thing about Eddie was, nobody knew who, like, you know, my folks didn't know who Eddie Cochran was. He had summertime blues. But we had. We had a record store called whirling disc, and it was a cheap little place. And the guy had the album covers hanging from fishing line.

I don't know how old I was. Well, early seventies, right? You know, just. Just, you know, teens, early teens, 14. And I didn't like anything I was hearing.

And I banged into this one record, I go, who's this guy? I didn't know what he sounded like. I go, this guy just looks cool. I just. That look made me feel right, too, you know, I couldn't relate to the seventies kind of rock and roll look, but I was a rock and roller.

Yep. So I saw a picture of Eddie with the baggy pants, the slick back. This cat's cool, you know, he could be in a motorcycle gang. He could be a guitar player. And then when I went home to put the record on, it was all over.

Why doesn't everybody know who he is? They do in England and places like that. But we opened up for the Stones here in 1980, and I'm just glad we didn't get booed off. But we came up on stage and I said, hey, hello, Minnesota, home of Eddie Cochran. People just gave me what quizzical look.

Conan O'Brien
No idea. They didn't know who he was. Second time I came back, they had signs saying, home of Eddie Cochran. Well, tragically, for the listeners that don't know Eddie Cochran, brilliant, fantastic. He wrote and he sang and he looked like a million bucks.

But he could also play. He was a real player. Yes. And, you know, not everybody was. Some guys just funked out rhythm, but Eddie Cochran could really play.

And his trademark was 6120, which you all know it when you see it. It's big orange guitar. That was kind of a country western themed guitar, and they would put a cattle brand on it of the Gretz G. And some of the ones, I've never had one, but some of them have all this inlay of little cactus and little. And I remember when you first started playing, seeing that you had a 6120, but you would put dice on for the knobs.

And I thought that was the coolest thing. I still think it's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of cool stuff, but I still think that is the guitar. But he went to England and was touring and was in a car accident and was killed. And I've always heard that George Harrison, this is pre beatles, followed that tour.

George Harrison, of course, was like a young kid teenager who loved Eddie Cochran. They didn't get access to these stars cause very few of them came over. But that George was really interested in following that concert and trying to get a chance to look at Eddie Cochran and see him. And tragically, he passed away on that tour. He was killed on that tour.

Brian Setzer
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have a song. Cause we asked you to supply three songs and the first you said was something else by Eddie Cochran. And I. I love that song.

He goes, what's all this? What's all this? It's just all swagger. Oh, it's all swagger. But, you know, it's also nice.

Conan O'Brien
There's a sweetness to it, which is, you know, the punker version, or you'd think would be, you know, I want that girl. I gotta get that car. I'm gonna go fucking steal that car. Yeah, yeah. No, he's working.

I'm gonna work real hard and save my dad. I never thought of that. And it's kind of like. It's nice. There's almost this.

There's this almost, like, work ethic message in there. I never thought of that. I'm not gonna go steal it, but you can tell he's got swagger and everything, but he's gonna do this the legit way. How did they get that sound? What is happening there?

Do you know? Do you have any idea? Good gosh. We have tried to capture all those sounds and it's. I'm telling you, it's in the air.

Brian Setzer
Because even if you use the old flat wound strings, even if you go back and use all the tube stuff, you can't catch it. It was just in the air. I was going to say, it's funny, when I was living back in the UK, you know, there was a big division amongst groups, right? The punks didn't like the rockers and they didn't like the mods and they didn't like. Right.

All that stuff. They all agreed on Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent. Yes. Oh, Gene Vincent. All right.

I remember, lemme saying, oh, Gene Vincent, mate. You know, it takes ten of you to make one of him, you know. Yeah. Everybody agreed that those were the guys. There was no fighting amongst that.

Conan O'Brien
Here's a weird thing too, again, not to be morbid, but I think Gene Vincent was in the car. Gene Vincent was in the cab, yes. With Eddie Cochran and Eddie Cochran's girlfriend when the car crashed in England when they were doing that tour. And as a side note, Gene Vincent was injured, Eddie Cochran was killed, but his girlfriend, Sharon Shealy, co wrote something else with him. Yeah, she was a writer and they were a great.

I've heard her interview talking about Eddie and talking about them working together. Have you? Yeah, man, I've been on that little curve where they smashed. It's pretty wicked, even on a nice night, you know, raining and all sorts of, you know, come on, we want to go home. That kind of jazz, it's the I.

Had a chance because I'm a buddy Holly fanatic. We had. The crickets came by once and they performed on late night. And afterwards we're just hanging out and I couldn't believe I was getting to talk to the crickets. And then I just said, you know, I kind of just said, I don't know where, like, why did Buddy get on that plane?

It's snowing and why do you do that? And I think it was Jerry Allison or someone said, ah, gee, buddy, he had get there itis always did, you know, like he just, I gotta get there, you know, I'm sick of this bus. Oh, I'll go ahead, I'll take the laundry with me. We'll take this little plane. And I always think about that.

Cause every now and then I'm in a situation, I'm doing a travel show somewhere, I'm doing something. People say, you know, this guy can take you in a helicopter and we'll get there a little faster. And I always say, I'm all right. That helicopter doesn't. Looks like it was built in World War One as an experiment.

I think I'm good. I'll just be a little late. It's okay to be late. I'm getting worse. That too, as I get older, because we, you know, I live in Minnesota, in the tundra, and we took a 25 hours bus ride, even though we have the dogs and, you know, we want to come like that.

Brian Setzer
But I took that over a flight. Cause I just gotta go my way at this point, you know. Can you sleep on a bus? Cause I did some bus time. Could never sleep on a bus.

Conan O'Brien
And so what I would do is I'd be too wound up from the show, so I would sit up front with the bus driver and jabber while everyone else was sleeping and just talk and talk and talk. That's the thing. People who've never been on one of those things, I can. Yeah, but people have never been on those think that any time off is just like, you know, no big deal. You can go do this and go do that.

Brian Setzer
You know. You know, when they said, well, Conan wants you to come on, I said, conan, I'll make time for. But, you know, I was told you. Got on a bus, and it was 25 hours just for this interview, and you're. You're turning around and coming, and you're going straight back.

That might have been an exaggeration.

Conan O'Brien
I'm going to stick with my story. Conan wants me. Get up the bus. Get out that bus. Yeah.

Gene Vincent was a guy that I got really into also around the same time as Eddie Cochran. And what I knew about Gene Vincent was obviously, he had great style and he had a great voice, but he had this guitar player. And at the time, when I first heard it, I thought, is that Gene Vincent playing that? I didn't know anything. And it turned out to be kids guitar players.

One of the great guitar players in rock and roll history. I know. Maybe one of the all time, you know, like, if you're gonna make a list of ten cliff Gallup, everybody has. To agree on Cliff Gallup. I heard Cliff gallop for the first time again.

Brian Setzer
You know, we're about the same age. How would you hear that? And I was in Maxis, Kansas City in Manhattan, and shooting pool, and all the punk was on there, you know, screaming out of the jukebox, and all of a sudden, well, be. And it was like a hand came across the pool table and pulled me into that jukebox, and that guitar solo came on, and it was the sexiest thing I'd ever heard. I go, what's this guy doing?

Really? That's how I started using a pick and my fingers. Gallup used finger picks and a thumb pick. I just use my fingers and a guitar pick, but I pick like that, and then I go back down with the pick, and I just did it because I wasn't getting. I wanted to finger pick, you know, I wanted to you know, do some stuff that Scotty Moore did.

Conan O'Brien
Yeah. So I just invented that. I never saw anyone do it, but when I heard that song, I just went, wow, it was. It was sexy, you know, just had it. We had Scotty Moore sit in.

Scotty. And DJ. And DJ Fontana, his drummer, they sat in with Max Weinberg. I mean, I used that late night show. So much of it was.

Conan works out his quiet perversions, and America has to come along whether they want to or not. But he came, and then the show was over, and I asked him, could you just. Scotty, I can play the solo, too. That's all right, mama. I can do it, kinda, but anyone.

Oh, no, it's not that hard. Let me show you, son. And then he did it in front of me. And to see the hands, this is where it gets weird. You see the hands make the shapes and do it, and you realize these are the same hands that did it in 1954.

Sun studio. And that changed the world. And I'm looking at the same fingers. I know. And then I think, okay, it's time for me to go have a drink, take a pill, something you got to get out of that head.

But it's interesting to go there for. A lot of people that think that way. Yeah, but so Gene Vincent, he comes along, and what's interesting about Gene Vincent is Elvis hits, and he's huge, and it's a phenomenon. So everyone's looking for the next Elvis. We got to get one of those.

RCA has Elvis. They buy the colonel's contract. So Capitol Records says we got to find someone. And I had always heard that Gene Vincent had won, like, a contest, right? Like, sound like Elvis contest.

And so capital signed him because they thought, this guy will be the next. He'll be our Elvis, right. Which kind of makes sense because he's. You know, every guy from down south was trying to be the next Elvis. Yeah, but Gene had.

Brian Setzer
I think Gene lived those lyrics. You know, he was. He was a bad boy, but he had that sweet. What is it? Ian dury said?

Sweet Virginia whisper, right? He had that thing and he had the band, right. You know that when they came in to record, they had student Chet Atkins was there in case the band wasn't any good. They heard the band, they went, oh, well, we could send them studio guys home. Band's amazing.

Conan O'Brien
These guys are great. Yeah. Gene Vincent and the blue caps and the studio photos. I've always seen all his amazing band. They're all wearing blue caps.

And Gene always has this arch top guitar that looks like it has a hole in it. You know, like this beat up the big hole. Yeah. Bubba told me they used to light off cherry bombs on stage to get the audience going.

I could have used that. There are plenty of times I could have. Yeah, me, too. All of us. Plenty of nights we had a flat crowd.

Brian Setzer
They used to throw cherry bombs around and blew up on the gene's guitar. That's what he told me about that whole. So Gene Vincent, he really shoots to the top because he does a song called Bebopaloola. And that was the second song that you chose. It's from 1956, I believe.

Conan O'Brien
So this is around the time the Elvis fuse gets lit in 54. It's really starting to burn in 55. And then 56 is when Elvis just becomes. He's everywhere. And he is the king of shows business.

And it's a huge revolution. King of rock and roll. And then Gene Vincent comes up with Bebop Alula, which is a massive hit. And so let's give that a listen, and then we can discuss. Yeah.

Spin it or push the button. Spin it sounds better.

You know, it's interesting because the guitar is amazing. But you pointed out something about Gene Vincent's voice, which is. It sounds like. It does sound like cool spring water. There's something very liquid about it.

Do you know what I mean? Oh, man. Yeah, it's just kind of perfect. And you can't. It's sexy.

Yeah, it's very. Yeah, very sexy. Yeah. And what is Cliff Gallup playing there? Is he playing a telecaster?

Brian Setzer
He's playing that guitar in the corner there. Is he playing a duo, Jack? Yeah. Okay, so he's playing a Gretsch. All right.

Gretch duo jet. Yeah. It is so funny. Cause Gretches, which. It's funny.

Conan O'Brien
You single handedly drove up the price of Gretches, you asshole. But when you come along and you're playing the 6121. Gretsches weren't thought of. They weren't valued that way. Especially 6120s duo jets.

And then you come along, and after the stray cats, they're worth thousands and thousands of dollars. And you can't have one. My first ever electric guitar was a Tennessean with the single cutaway. And it had the painted f holes, which I didn't really know. Why would you paint f holes on?

I didn't understand why. And someone explained to me it's because of the feedback. They hadn't quite figured out yet. How to keep guitars from feeding back through the f hole. Yeah, that's pretty much it, yeah.

Brian Setzer
You know, I'm convinced, you know, after all these years of playing them, if one person says something, they'll change it. Like, I just bought this new guitar from Gretch, and I've had. My son is having problems, and I had to save up a lot of money. Oh, we'd better change it. And then they'll do something like that.

Conan O'Brien
Yeah. You know, honestly, I use the feedback. That's why I need. Yeah, right. So people that don't play guitar, I'll explain to them.

Brian Setzer
Like, a solid body guitar doesn't feed back because there's nothing coming out of the guitar except the pickups are pulling the sound from the strings. But when you play an arch top. Guitar, which is more like, if you imagine a violin or an acoustic guitar, it's hollow. It's got big holes for the sound to. It resonates.

Conan O'Brien
It's not a solid block of wood. Picture me playing a cello with pickups. Yeah. If you stand in the right spot, it doesn't go. Because we rock them.

Brian Setzer
Those guys in the fifties, jet Atkins, he sat down and played it like a. Like a gentleman. Country gentleman. We started just rocking out with him, you know? So we had to figure out how to get him to play right.

Conan O'Brien
You know, we had Chet Atkins come by the show. Yeah, we did. You did? Yeah, yeah. Yep.

And then, so, of course, being the nerd, I. You guys had everybody. We had everybody. Les Paul was on, like, the first week. Les Paul came on the first week, gave me a Les Paul and signed it to me.

Brian Setzer
Oh, yeah, yeah. I wish I hadn't thrown it out, but. But I don't want to be a hoarder. But, no. Chet Atkins came by, and so I showed him my Chet Atkins Gretch 6120.

Conan O'Brien
And he takes it out of my hand and he looks at it. But he looks at it very technically, like, let's see. Yeah. Cause it's his. It's one that was put up with his name on it.

So he's looking at it, and he goes, like, hmm, yes. Well, they did a good job with this. And then he did a really cool thing. He just put his initials on the back of the headstock rather than sign a big thing up front. He was like, well, that would mar the guitar.

So I'll just do with a little Sharpie. And you. I mean, I have that guitar. You can't even see it, barely, right? But it's back there.

And it was his way of saying, like, well, we mustn't damage the product, right? You know, it's not as cool. I only met him once, too, and he invited me over, and he goes, why don't you look me up before, boy? And I said, I thought it'd be like meeting the pope. I didn't think I could just come in and meet you.

Brian Setzer
So we sat down and played and. Hold on 1 second. Let me show you something. Yeah. So I don't know how well you can hear it.

So he goes, can I show you something? And I go, yeah. Yes, you can. Cheddar. Yes, exactly.

He goes, what do you want to know? I go, do you have anything in B flat? And he goes, what are you doing up there, son? I go, I got this big bear with all these horns. So he gave me this really cool riff.

And it's cool, right? It's beautiful. I love that. And it's not. What is it?

Conan O'Brien
I mean, it's not blues. It's not. What is that? It's kind of. It almost sounds a little like Dixieland or something.

I don't know. It does.

Brian Setzer
It does. It sounds like. Yes. You know, it sounds like you had to have like a. You could have like a straw boater hat on playing that.

Yeah. I said, so I wrote a song around, you know, let's live it up. Let's live it up. I wrote a song and I said, can I give you credit for that or something? He goes, oh, hell, I just stole it from Jerry Reid.

Conan O'Brien
Everybody stole from somebody. That's true. Or they nicked. They nicked it. As the Beatles would say.

I'm curious. You said you didn't think you could just go talk to Chet Atkins, and I love that attitude. I've always had that attitude, like, I don't want to bother people. And who am I to. I don't know.

I'm always. I think it's probably better to go at it from that angle than this person's gonna love meeting me. You know what I mean? It's a good. Do I look you up in the phone book?

Brian Setzer
I would have no idea, and I wouldn't even pursue it. Right. Cause he's Chet Atkins. But he put, you know, he reached out. He had the whole building down there in music row.

Conan O'Brien
Yep. He goes, why don't you call me, boy? Why don't you look me up? I thought it'd be like calling up the pope. Yeah.

Brian Setzer
And then he was just happy to sit down and just play, you know. Why is B flat so cool? B flat is a cool key because, you know. Well, I. Okay.

Conan O'Brien
The other day, I know you're coming on and you're on. On my rat. I think one of the things I listen to that you've done the most is your version of jump, jive and whale, you know, and I'm listening to it and I get out my guitar and I'm guessing and I'm like, yep, that's b flat going up into b, you know, but I'm just like, what? Why? So many cool things are in b flat?

And I don't know what that's all about. It's cool on guitar, when you play in a horn key. That's a horn key. That's a horn key, yeah. Cause it has three flats and Chuck Berry's.

Brian Setzer
A lot of times it's a three flat, b flat. Oh, it is two flats. Yeah. But it's b and e. They're both flat anyway, so it sounds better for those guys when you're playing those keys.

Conan O'Brien
Yeah. So there's a lot of tricks on guitar that you wouldn't normally do in that key. And once you discover them, you're one of the few people that do them. Cause everybody that does the a and g and c, right. But b flat, something a little different.

Yeah. Isn't Chuck Berry in sort of b flat territory a lot? I think. I don't know. If you got a sax player in those days, you probably converted to their key.

Brian Setzer
You had to know those keys. And then it changed some time when, oh, you're going to play guitar keys now. A, d, g. It's what comes across to me when you look at all of your work is that you're interested in all music. You're not thinking, nope, I'm rockabilly or, no, I'm just going to do big band now.

Conan O'Brien
You appreciate everything. Like, you have big ears for country. I mean, if there's. You just like music, and then what can I do? I do.

Brian Setzer
And so many people, they're just. Now they've got those blinders on, you know, it's like, do you only have one record in your collection? I do like all different types of music, you know, that's why I kind of mix it all up. That's why it's not pure rockabilly, what I play, or it's not pure big band. I just.

That's what sounds good in my head, and that's what comes out. The third song, this is a little bit of a departure, which I didn't expect, by the way, but thrilled that it's on the list, which is she loves because I'm a Beatles fanatic as well. She loves you. 1963, the Beatles. How did this make it on your Brian Setzer picked three songs and something else.

Conan O'Brien
Be Bapaloola and then she loves you. What's going on here? What's going on is that was so influential and just me liking music. It was so early and. Should I talk about it after we spin it?

Brian Setzer
Sure. Yeah. Okay. Let's give these Beatles a chance.

Conan O'Brien
You know, it's incredible to have the flexibility to work in all sorts of places, whether it's taking video calls from the park or emailing large files while you're grocery shopping. So now this is good for you, is it? Cause you're always doing whatever work you do for me from fun locations. But I like blaming it on not having reception. I know, but you can't do that here.

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We're gonna hear from that group again. I know. So what was it about that song that made it onto your list? So that song, you have to understand, when I was. Well, I don't know how old I was.

Brian Setzer
Maybe it was just when I heard it. I mean, you would have been, I think, five. I was born in 59. Okay, so I probably heard it later. Yeah, right, but you had to go grocery shopping.

We called it back east, grocery shopping. I don't think they do all over with mom. And there was a little pizza place across the way, and that came out of the jukebox. You know, it's like yesterday. And I walked up to the pizza guy.

Who's that on the jukebox? I don't know. Ask those girls. So I went up to these girls. Who's that?

She goes, oh, it's a new band called the Beatles, right? And the only thing in my young years was that guitar. I heard the guitar, right? And it was just new and fresh. I mean, I couldn't have heard something like Eddie Cochran yet.

And that's where you have to be open minded when people like different sorts of music. Then we went across the street, and in another record store, it was a picture of the Beatles, and George had the neck of his guitar, like, goofing around across the other Beatles necks like that. And I go, the guitar is what makes that sound. It's the guitar. I wanted that sound cool, you know?

Yeah. And that's why? They. I couldn't get it out of my head, you know. I didn't want, you know, a bb gun.

I wanted a guitar. You know? What guitar? Nobody plays guitar. We don't know anybody who plays guitar.

That's what I wanted, you know. And wasn't your first instrument, was it, the guitar? Well, in school, they stuck me with this thing called the euphonium. Sounds like an iron lung. Poor Brian.

Conan O'Brien
Can't breathe on his own. We got him a euphonium. Yeah. Oh, geez. You're right, it does.

Brian Setzer
So picture the skinny little kid from Long island with the euphonium, which is like a mini tuba. You're right. Yeah, but that's what they had in school. My parents didn't have any money, you know, and actually, I learned how to read the bass clef with that thing. But I really wanted the guitar to play.

Yeah, but that's what I played at the school band, you know, that kind of music. And then my brothers and I were cadets, you know, and we had the hats and we could march with that thing. Sure, yeah. That was in b flat. Yeah.

The euphonium. I'm glad you gave it up. I think he went rock, Billy. Euphonium never work. Well, if it was up to my dad, I'd be in the Coast Guard playing euphonium.

Conan O'Brien
So. Of the Beatles, you kind of got to meet George a few times. Yeah, yeah. Can you talk about that at all a little bit? Because he would have, I imagine, loved what you were doing.

Brian Setzer
He told me. He did? Yeah, yeah. He was very dry, very sarcastic. There's no bullshit way, you know.

But, yeah, what can I say about him, really? He was. You're always in such awe when you meet someone like that, you know, when you met Paul or when I met George. But that's. That's.

That's the stuff they all love. They all love the rockabilly stuff. Like I said, you know, the biggest stars that people that I grew up with, they wanted to meet, you know, Freddie Mercury or, you know, the latest, you know, Jethro Tull and all that, you know, and all these guys wanted to meet the stray cats. Isn't that cool? Yeah.

Oh, it was unbelievable. You know, he must have. And I didn't know many of. Many of those band songs because I listened to rockabilly music, you know, when we opened for the Stones, I could have sung maybe satisfaction and a couple. I didn't know their music, right.

Cause I was listening to Carl Perkins. You know, which, by the way, strangely enough, they had been listening to or they had been listening to earlier and then they had gone on to that stuff. What's so fascinating is that I have found this to be true people you idolize, it's the stuff that you heard when you were a kid. So it's just you talking about hearing some of this music when you were much younger and that's what grabbed hold of you. I'm that way about comedians.

Conan O'Brien
I idolized the people that were on tv when I was a kid those are the ones that later on when I got to meet them, when I got to meet Don Knotts, I couldnt believe I was meeting Don Knotts now. So many incredibly talented, genius performers today who were in their thirties and forties when I meet them and theyre younger than me, im really excited to meet them and I really love their work and I think theyre brilliant but it's never going to have the same effect on me as seeing those people that came through my tv set or on my record player when I was a kid. Like, it's just you can't get, no one can get to you the same. Way I never thought of that but it's yes, yeah, and it's because that's what you're growing up with that's what shaped you, you know, you get older I guess, and it doesn't have that same effect did you get to play. At all with George or just chat?

Brian Setzer
I don't think I did. I played with Keith and with Bill a lot. Bill Wyman? Yep, but I don't think I ever, no, he didn't last too long, the poor guy. No, but he said oh, just a quick funny story.

Yeah, we went to a party and there was George and my brother did you know, have you ever brought a family member to meet somebody that they're going to flip out over? Sure, okay, so he does the thing oh, don't do this, you know, he goes oh hi Mister Harrison, I've got a band, we're on the Decca label I'm going to do this and I'll be doing that. And so George just looks at him, goes well, see you on the telly then. And he walked away.

Conan O'Brien
I can just see him doing that too and I. Was just, why did you do that? Yeah, we were just kids and if somebody did that to me I'd be understanding, you know? Yeah it was so funny cause we had Ringo on the show once and I'll never forget it was the first time Ringo was on the show I play with Ringo yeah, and Ringo's such a lovely guy. But I remember it's the first time he was on the show.

And he's back. He's out in the hall outside six a and iconic six a studio. And he's outside and someone comes up and says the line that people always says, which is, I'm so sorry to bother you. If they want you to sign something. I'm going to bother you.

Yeah. And what they always say is, I'm so sorry to bother you and Ringo with. Just matter of fact, he's been saying it since 1963. One of the cameramen said, so sorry to bother you. And he went, no, you're not.

But then signed it anyway. But as he was signing it, just saying, if you were really sorry, you wouldn't do it. I just thought like, oh, that's kind of a. These Liverpool guys know how to give it. They know how to audition.

Brian Setzer
Out city seems to have that wise guy thing going, you know? Yeah, well, I'm glad. And you said you haven't met Paul, which I find hard to believe. No, no. Yeah, well, you just call him up.

Conan O'Brien
He's not the pope.

Actually. He's kind of the pope, I guess, isn't he? Yeah. I want to make sure I mention a couple things. Your latest album, which I've been listening to, the devil, always collects from 2023.

I love it. You're playing and singing as well as ever. And this is something that Jim and I were talking about earlier that it's crazy we've talked this much about your playing. You're a great fucking singer. And you just.

It's.

When did you know that you could sing like that? You're a crooner. You can really belt. I never wanted to sing. I just wanted to.

Brian Setzer
I wanted to be Scotty Moore. Yeah. And I think I just maybe got better for me, being a singer. I just had to, you know, you gotta let all your inhibitions go. It's hard, you know, it's hard for me to do that, just to let it all out, because sometimes you feel like you're being a fool, you know, why don't I just sing?

But that's what really it takes to be. For me to be a good singer. The guitar thing, I know what I want to do, you know, I know what I want to play. I know where I want to do it. I have it figured out.

The singing thing is it takes longer, but I'm glad you like the new record. I used a Gretsch duo jet on most of it, which I never used. And it just seemed to fit for it. Just cut through. And again, this is the Gretsch duo jet for you real freaks out there who care.

Conan O'Brien
It's kind of like Gretsch's answer to a Les Paul, sort of. It's a solid body. And we were talking about how there's the. Everything else we were talking about are these hollow bodies. But that's the guitar that George played in the cavern with the Beatles.

That was his first real guitar. Oh, that's right. It was a Gretsch duo. Jet was a Gretsch duo. And Danny let me hold it once.

Danny. Oh, really? Harrison had it and Danny's got it. And. Yeah, Danny has.

He has all the guitars. And Danny handed it to me. I'm glad they're not in some showcase somewhere. No, no, no. Danny has them all.

And I mean, he's got the twelve string Rickenbacker from hard day's night. Oh, he's got the acoustic. He's got all of them. Yeah, he's got all of them. Psychedelic.

He's got rocky, which is the one that George hand painted psychedelics. But he handed that one to me. And that was the only one I wanted to hold. Cause I knew that, first of all, it's a Gretch. Second of all, it's the one that I knew they were playing when they.

They played on that first album. Right. Cause there was blood, sweat and tears on that guitar. Yes, exactly. So that was.

Brian Setzer
Didn't he buy that guitar from like an american Navy guy who was visiting, maybe possibly stationed in Liverpool and they couldn't afford american guitars. There's a great story that no one's adequately told yet. Anyway, as far as I know, maybe they have and I just haven't seen it. But everyone thinks that the Beatles coming to America for the first time in February of 64. And getting off the plane and doing Sullivan.

Conan O'Brien
There was three of them. It was their first time in America. George had been the previous winter. Cause his sister was living out in like the Midwest. Like Minnesota, Minneapolis, someplace like that.

Brian Setzer
Oh, she married an american guy. She married an american guy and they were living out there. George visits her. Oh, really? And the Beatles are starting to click in England.

Conan O'Brien
But no one knows who they are in America. He comes out and he visits and he's this. There are pictures of him visiting New York. I think he's in New York maybe first. And he's just kind of wandering around on his own.

But then he goes to the Midwest. He's hanging out with his older sister. And then they go and they see a local rock and roll band play and the sister says, you know, my brother's pretty good. And they're like, where's he from? He sounds funny.

Oh, he's from Liverpool, England. All right. And then he gets up and he plays with this, like, local band in a dance hall somewhere in the midwest. And the other kids are like, yeah, he's pretty good. And then he says, well, you know, I'll be seeing you.

It was nice to see you all, you know, goodbye, sister. And he gets back on the plane and goes. And then returns with his friends and conquers America, really. So I would always thinking, just somewhere there's a great documentary of what was that like? You know, that's the.

Brian Setzer
That's a great idea. So I don't know. But maybe it already exists. And if it does, I gotta see it. But it's a funny place, that midwest people think I'm english there because I don't sound like them.

I go, I'm from New York. How could you think of English? Oh, maybe we thought you were Welsh or something. Welsh? What does a welshman even sound like?

Conan O'Brien
Yeah, I'm from Boston. God knows what they think I am. Yeah, the devil always collects, is fantastic and as good as anything you've ever done. And it's got a different guitar sound that I love. Because I think you're playing not just this different guitar, but you're playing it.

You're using a different amp or you're using a different setup, or is it the same setup? It's the same setup. I gotta bring my guitars to that amplifier. I use a Fender basement amp. If I trade the amp because it has reverb or something, I lose the sound.

Right. But isn't it funny? Like, I really appreciate that. Of course. But everyone's telling me, you know, this is one of the best ones you've ever made.

Brian Setzer
Why is it. I have absolutely no idea. Yeah. I don't know. I wrote the songs, I recorded them.

I changed the guitar on some of them, but it's just what comes out. Well, I think it's not your job to know, like, your job is to. It's serious. Your job is to make it and then let other people ponder what it means. You know what I mean?

Conan O'Brien
I really believe that this has been, like, again, this is a holiday for me. I said when you came in the door, I always suspect when, like, a Brian Setzer walks in and he's here to talk to me, I think it's a make a wish and no one's told me that I'm dying. And they're like Conan. He's very gravely ill, but we can't tell him. Get Brian in.

Have Brian talk to him and tell him he's a good guy, you know, tell him some stories. But it's a huge deal for me, and I'm so glad that you were able to do this. And what I want you to do is go sleep. Cause you've got a huge. You really give it everything you have when you perform, so you need to go sleep.

Brian Setzer
It's those buses. I tell you, it's those buses. Those goddamn buses.

Conan O'Brien
I did see, in my brief time on a bus why someone would start taking recreational things to sleep. I did completely understand. There's a reason. If you go insane on a stage for 2 hours or something or hour and 45 minutes, and then you get on a bus and someone says, go to sleep, no, fuck you. I'm not going to sleep.

Brian Setzer
I know. Unless you have, you know, a giant rhino tranquilizer. I'm not going to sleep. I know it's tough. I got almost 13 years, no beers, and it doesn't make it easier on the bus, you know?

Conan O'Brien
Right, right. It's just. Yeah, it's that, that's the hardest part. The hardest part is the travel. I think Joe Walsh said the gig is free.

Brian Setzer
You're paying me to get there. Right, right. Oh, that's true. That's a good way to look at it. But I've noticed something different this tour, which is funny.

It's like I've got the guitar guys out now listening to the solos and getting applause after the solos. Yeah. Like jazz room. Sure. Wow, look at that.

So that was kind of, I remember. It being, I think it was stray cat strut. But you were playing on the video. This is, you know, you're like, you're just a child, but you're playing, and it's this very eighties video that was hugely popular. But being mad that they kept cutting away to the cat and stuff when you're playing the solo.

Oh, really? I'm like, I want to see what his hands are doing. I don't see a fucking cat or a lady looking out a window throwing a bucket. Where's his hands, you know? Anyway, Brian, God bless.

Conan O'Brien
Thank you. Bless. Thank you so much for being here. And I'll see you at the show tomorrow night. Make it a good one, or I'm walking out.

Brian Setzer
All right. All right.

Conan O'Brien needs a friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of session and Matt Gourley produced by me, Matt Gorley executive produced by Adam Sachs, Nick Liao and Jeff Ross at Team Coco and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf theme song by the White Stripes incidental music by Jimmy Vivino take it away, Jimmy.

Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer samples engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Bautista and Brit Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on. A future episode got a question for Conan? Call the team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message.

It, too could be featured on a future episode. And if you haven't already pleased, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien needs a friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

Brian Setzer
Emmy Award winning John Mulaney presents everybody's in LA, a special run of six live episodes created by and starring Mulaney that'll stream live on Netflix during the Netflix is a joke fest. The comically unconventional show will feature special guests where John Mulaney explores the city of Los Angeles during a week when every funny person is in it. Watch John Mulaney presents everybody's in LA, debuting May 3 live at 07:00 p.m. Pacific time. Only on Netflix.

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New cars, used cars, electric cars, maybe even flying cars. Okay, no flying cars. But as soon as they get invented, they'll be on autotrader. Just you wait. Auto trader.

Conan O'Brien
Auto trader.

Auto trader.

Brian Setzer And The Songs That Inspired Him

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Episode Chapters

1: Introduction

2: Musical Roots

3: Career Highlights

4: Reflections and Anecdotes

5: Closing Thoughts

Actionable Advice

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