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March 1, 2025 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:20:33
Joe Rogan Experience #2282 - Bill Murray
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b
bill murray
01:31:36
j
joe rogan
41:06
Appearances
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johnny depp
01:32
Clips
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jamie vernon
00:06
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Speaker Time Text
joe rogan
The Joe Rogan experience train by day Joe Rogan podcast by night all day Thank you for doing this This is a huge honor for me.
I'm a giant fan.
Forever.
Like, since I was a kid.
bill murray
Well, are we going?
joe rogan
Yeah, we're live.
So for me, there's certain people I meet where it's like, whoa, okay.
And you're one of those.
bill murray
I have a very different experience.
I only know about you what I've heard.
I've never heard your show.
I had to ask you, are you Joe?
Because somehow I knew you were like in the fitness and everyone out there seems to be a weightlifter.
Even Danielle seems like she did lower body today.
So it's nice to meet you.
Some people are very, very excited that I've gotten to come down here to be on your show.
joe rogan
Well, you're an interesting guy.
bill murray
Other people are concerned for me.
joe rogan
Oh, really?
bill murray
Are they?
joe rogan
Legitimately?
bill murray
I don't know.
I don't know why it's the weightlifter thing because I have no predisposed.
I have no premonitions.
But when I walk in here and I see...
I've got to look at that.
What is that green neon?
joe rogan
Oh, that's the...
Local racetrack.
That's the Circuit of the Americas where Formula One races.
It's my friend's place, so he gave me that.
bill murray
Yeah, I walked in and I saw these Hunter Thompson things.
I felt automatically like, okay, well this guy can't be a complete disaster.
And then I walked down the hall and there's Hunter wearing a hat that I gave him.
joe rogan
Oh, that hat with the gun?
bill murray
Yeah, the one where he's in a cockpit it looks like.
That's a dog hair hat.
That's dog hair.
joe rogan
It's made out of dog hair?
unidentified
Yeah.
bill murray
And he got such a kick out of it because when it rains on you or snows on you like it would in Woody Creek, you come in the house and you smell like a wet dog.
And he loved doing that to people.
The people were like, what in the hell?
Oh, my dog.
That's the dog right there.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Are you filming this too?
This is whatever you do?
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Yeah, so.
Yeah, there he is.
There's that dog.
It had big tie things.
You could tie it under your chin.
joe rogan
What year was this?
bill murray
This is...
unidentified
Wow, look at that one.
joe rogan
Lawyers, guns, and money?
unidentified
Yes.
bill murray
Those are later ones.
unidentified
He didn't have scopes for a long time.
joe rogan
He had hearing protection then, too.
He was learning.
unidentified
86?
bill murray
No.
Really?
joe rogan
Maybe.
bill murray
What, that one there?
joe rogan
Is it 86?
bill murray
With the dog?
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Yeah, that's probably...
Yeah, it was earlier.
Blind Bat.
Blind Bat.
Where's that?
That's funny.
It's a historic piece, I guess.
joe rogan
When did you meet him?
bill murray
I met him...
Let me drink your magic coffee here.
Whose coffee is this?
joe rogan
Laird Hamilton's.
Laird Hamilton's Superfoods.
bill murray
I met him...
It was one of those years...
Maybe it was after my first...
Real year on Saturday Night Live, maybe it was 1977, like the spring, summer of 77. I was asked by Lorne Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live, if I would, I had to go to, our season was head-ended, I'd gone to California.
And he asked if I would drive his Volkswagen convertible bug back cross-country for him.
Yeah, sure.
Well, you know, a week or two later, I was like, where's my car?
I'm like, you didn't give me a time limit.
So I visited people on the way.
So I made some stops.
I visited my friend John Thompson in Reno, biggest little city in the world, and we threw our cups out the roof and stuff like that.
I had a really nice time there.
And then I wanted to go to Aspen.
I'd never been to Aspen before.
And so I went to Aspen and stayed at the Jerome Hotel.
I can talk like this because this show is like endless.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
bill murray
So, went to the Jerome Hotel, which was like the place to go back then.
And it was off-season, which is the best time of year to go to any resort town.
It's like when all the tourists are gone and the citizens regain control of their town for a while.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
So, the Jerome Hotel, which would have been full of like...
Knucklehead skiers from anywhere was only full of like the people that worked the town and lived in the town and they took over the bar and they took over the swimming pool which was outside so that's I was there and it was just I remember being there and they were like beautiful girls and this really funny guy and I didn't know who he was and we just had the most fun you know making girls laugh that's kind of what It may or may not have been the reason I was brought here.
So we just had the most fun doing it.
And then we had this sort of episode where we did an escape act and it had consequences.
We started talking about an escape act, underwater escape act, and I felt like I could do it.
You really think you could escape underwater?
joe rogan
Oh, no.
bill murray
And I said, yeah, I think I could do it.
I think I could do it because you just – so.
I agreed to be a subject.
And you have to know, I did not know who this guy was.
I just thought he was like a funny guy.
And we were like showing off for girls and stuff and being stupid.
And it was fun.
We were just having fun.
So I was tied with socks to a lawn chair and lowered into the pool.
But just before I went, I said, hey, just in case I want to take a breath while I'm untying my sock knots.
Move me over here to where it's like six feet, you know.
So if I have to stand up, you know, I can take a breath and go back down and continue by untying, you know.
So I went in and, you know, I was untying and a guy could tie some knots, you know, even with socks.
So after a little bit, I thought earlier, you know, maybe I'll just take a quick breath and go back down.
Well, I stood up.
Try it, Joe.
Lash yourself to a chair and try to stand up.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's hard.
bill murray
Well, I'm a little over six feet, but if you're tied to a chair, you don't get to fully extend your calves any more than that.
So tied to a chair, I'm only like 5'8 or something like that.
It was funny to see that camera shot of there are people up there and I can't reach them or speak to them because I'm still underwater.
That's when I started to work more feverishly on the knots.
And I kind of was going, hey, hey.
I'm kind of leaning with my head, like push me down to five feet instead of six feet.
But he was strong enough.
And because I was buoyant in the water, he just picked up the chair out of the water.
So I lived through it.
But it was...
It was a funny way to meet someone.
And the next day I found out that this was Hunter S. Thompson.
joe rogan
He never asked him his name?
bill murray
No.
He never asked me my name.
I don't know that he knew who I was either.
I think he thought I was just a funny guy and we were kind of like holding court and being funny.
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You'll get a welcome...
Well, that must be fun for you, though.
Like, I enjoy when people don't know who I am.
Like, it's very rare for you.
bill murray
Yeah, it's preferable.
joe rogan
Yeah, but you have figured out this way of navigating life where...
Like, you're not a cell phone guy.
You probably don't even have email, do you?
bill murray
No, I have these things now.
But if you have children, you have to get a cell phone.
joe rogan
Right.
bill murray
Because they will not answer a telephone, but they will answer a text.
So that's...
I had a breakdown.
joe rogan
Yeah.
But you've managed to stay blissfully detached in some sort of way.
bill murray
Yeah, my email is AOL.com.
unidentified
Is it really?
bill murray
Yeah.
So, that's...
That was my concession to it.
joe rogan
One of my favorite things you did with Hunter was when it was a filming of some sort of a documentary or something.
Or it was in a documentary, the footage is.
And you're going around trying to convince people that Nixon got a bad rap?
bill murray
Yeah, yeah.
That was good.
We were trying to write something funny.
I was with my friend Dick Blasucci on that one.
And I can't remember.
There were like two or three of us that were trying to write this thing.
And we rented like a Klieg light.
You know, like a big Hollywood premiere, kind of one of those giant lights that they flash up in the sky.
You know, you don't even see them very much anymore.
And we were just outside the Chateau Montmartre where Hunter had a room at that moment.
And we were doing, we were excited because Nixon's back, you know.
And we were interviewing alleged people on the street, men on the street, saying, what do you think about this?
Because it was after Watergate and Nixon had basically burrowed down.
Hunter had a powerful hatred of Nixon.
I really didn't like Nixon, of course.
I just remember Dick Blesucci saying, I'm excited.
He's tanned, he's rested, and he's ready.
I still say it all the time.
I say it about myself all the time because I think it's funny.
How are you, Bill?
I'm tanned, I'm rested, and I'm ready.
But saying it about Richard Nixon, I thought, was a really...
Brilliant thing to say.
joe rogan
Well, after that, it became a common phrase.
bill murray
Yeah.
joe rogan
People use it all the time to this day, probably not even knowing the origin.
bill murray
That's right.
Yeah.
And it's Dick Blasucci who did it.
And we weren't there for like 45 minutes before like...
unidentified
I work in the industry, and I know you have to have a permit to have that light on.
bill murray
I mean, there were people.
They came at us.
We were a going concern for about...
One hour tops.
And that was with, like, professional argumentative people like Hunter, myself, going, that is a fabulous watch you're wearing.
Where'd you get that?
You know, just anything to keep this thing going and to keep the cameras rolling on our super stuff.
But, and demands.
But, yeah, that was one of the things.
I had a lot of fun with the guy.
He really was a lot of fun.
He really could make a lot of fun.
joe rogan
I really wish I met him.
He's one of those people that just really wish I met him.
bill murray
Well, you can still read it.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
bill murray
There's still so much more stuff that I hadn't even read then.
It just keeps appearing.
There are things that are so beautiful that he wrote that are good.
And, you know, people text me things and say about what's going on, how sort of prescient he was about things a long time ago.
joe rogan
Yeah, dead on about so many things.
I mean, you could take a lot of his commentary on politics from 1976 and apply it easily to today.
You know, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail is one of the best books ever on the American political system, just like what it's like when people are running for office.
bill murray
Yeah, to me it's a better book than Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which is really fun.
But the Campaign Trail book is so insightful about America and about...
Americans.
It's great reading.
joe rogan
The movie was fun.
Fear and Loathing was fun.
It was a great introduction to a lot of people, maybe, that weren't aware of Hunter.
Maybe then you'll start reading his stuff.
It wasn't all chaos and acid and seeing lizard people in the bar.
There's moments in Fear and Loathing the movie where there's this one thing where Johnny Depp is at the typewriter.
Is that in the movie or is that in the documentary?
Where he's at the typewriter, he's talking about how the 1960s, there was this great wave of change.
bill murray
Yeah, the high water market.
You can see it on the mountains.
It's a beautiful piece of writing.
joe rogan
Oh, my God.
It's amazing.
And when Johnny Depp is saying it, the way he's saying it, it's so beautiful and melodic.
bill murray
Jamie, why don't you see it?
It's about the most famous line in the world.
unidentified
Let's take this in.
joe rogan
Grab the headphones.
unidentified
Let's take this in.
johnny depp
Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas.
Has it been five years?
unidentified
Six?
johnny depp
It seems like a lifetime.
The kind of peak that never comes again.
San Francisco in the middle 60s was a very special time and place to be a part of.
But no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time in the world.
Whatever it meant.
There was madness in any direction.
At any hour.
unidentified
You could strike sparks anywhere.
johnny depp
There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right.
That we were winning.
And that, I think, was the handle.
That sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil.
Not in any mean or military sense.
We didn't need that.
Our energy would simply prevail.
We had all the momentum.
We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west.
And with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the high watermark.
That place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
unidentified
God damn, that's good.
joe rogan
That is just an amazing piece of writing that so perfectly captured that very strange moment in time where the anti-war, the peace-love movement just got drowned out by the Nixon administration.
bill murray
It's a beautiful piece.
It glistens your eyes to see it.
Thinking of Hunter and the words that he said, but seeing Johnny and how close Johnny and Hunter became, how much they loved each other and how much they shared with each other.
It's really a beautiful piece.
Thank you.
joe rogan
Yeah, it is a beautiful piece.
And it's just so fucking perfect.
It just perfectly...
bill murray
Yeah, he got it.
He really got it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It just encapsulates that time.
You know, and it's just, thank God there was a guy like him around to document it from that perspective, to give you this, like, insight, and that the way he did it with Gonzo journalism, where he just would have real facts mixed in with fiction, and you couldn't tell what was what, and you had to be in on it to understand what he was doing.
bill murray
Yeah, you had to enter the event to comment on it.
You had to be a part of it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
You played him.
bill murray
I did play him.
joe rogan
Yeah, we were talking about it before.
I loved it.
We're in the Buffalo Room?
bill murray
Yeah, we're in the Buffalo Room.
joe rogan
Was that weird to play your friend?
bill murray
It was a lot of responsibility.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
It was any actor that has to play either a living person, especially a living person, or a famous person has a real responsibility to...
To that person, you know, you can't just be that person for 90 minutes.
You have to realize that person was that person for 60-some-odd years or 70 or however many years the person was.
You've got to try to get all that into your...
Hour and a half or two hours.
You've got to try to take in as much as you can so you're not lying.
At least you're giving the best you can to say, this is who I think he was.
This is who I think that person was.
She was.
He was.
joe rogan
Did you run any of it by him?
Did you try to talk to him as him?
bill murray
Well, he was living in the guest house.
joe rogan
So you were around him all the time?
bill murray
Yeah.
So I would go to work and I would come home and then we would stay up and sort of just an hour or so before, maybe an hour and a half before, two hours before dawn, he'd have a NyQuil and scotch in the hot tub and then go to sleep.
And then I had to get about 90 minutes and then...
The teamster was knocking on the window saying, Bill!
Billy!
And I'd have to go to work.
So that's what it was like while we were shooting the movie.
joe rogan
Wow.
bill murray
And he appears in the movie briefly.
He appears in the movie briefly.
I can't remember all of it, but he appears in the movie briefly.
And we did, together we wrote a scene.
I was always constantly changing.
John K. wrote the script, but I was always playing with it because I was always being informed more, you know.
And that's what I did anyway.
I just pretty much, you know, I felt the freedom to change anything.
But we did write a scene.
Hunter and I wrote a scene that was late in the movie.
Pardon me.
They gave me these beautiful, massive things.
joe rogan
Cough drops?
unidentified
Yeah.
Want one?
joe rogan
No, thank you.
bill murray
Yeah, so he was in on a lot of it and the editing of it, you know, we can secretly say that too.
and And the, you know, it was a lot of, he was really involved.
Very nice.
unidentified
So...
joe rogan
Good shot.
So you're saying he wrote a scene?
You guys wrote a scene together?
bill murray
Yeah, we wrote a scene together, yeah.
Which was encountering Nixon in a urinal.
Because he did have a moment with Nixon.
Yes.
joe rogan
In the limo.
bill murray
Remember, yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
And he was told he could not speak politics.
They could only talk NFL football.
Yeah.
Which Nixon was rather, you know, knowledgeable about.
unidentified
Yeah.
bill murray
And Hunter Copter was like, yeah, the guy really studied it.
And George Allen, it's in the book, you know.
Yeah.
Nixon even wrote, designed a play that he gave to George Allen, who was the coach of the Washington Redskins back then.
And...
They lost like 10 yards or something on the play, but Allen actually ran the play.
Wow.
joe rogan
That's crazy.
It's just also insane that they would let Hunter get in a limousine with the president.
Just that alone.
You know, who greenlit that?
Who thought that was a good idea?
bill murray
I mean, he was on the campaign trail.
He also, for whatever he was, the people who knew, and you know, like Secret Service guys, you ever run into them, they like read people for a living.
This is what they do, you know?
They read people.
And they can really burn a hole through your head and your body just looking at you.
And they'll give you this one, you know?
They'll just really burn you.
And, you know, he'd been on the tour, the tour.
He'd been on the road with them.
They knew who he was.
They knew what he was after hours and they knew what he was during hours where the people who were really smart knew this guy's really smart.
This guy's really smart.
He knows politics.
And you can't try to dumb down.
You can't try to, like, big time him because he'll kill you.
He'll chop you.
He's got the words to answer and he has the intelligence.
So he was...
He was a force.
People knew who he was.
To get information, you've got to go into the people who work for the guy.
So the people that work for the guy know who he is, and they've already established that they have a relationship with him.
They can speak with him.
He's talking a certain way.
There's a reality check.
If you're running someone's political campaign, you have the best jokes about the campaign.
You know, not Hunter Thompson, maybe.
You have the best jokes because you've seen it all.
You know how stupid things get.
And, you know, if you can be realistic and savvy about those things, then people trust you.
joe rogan
Well, it's still pretty extraordinary that they also got him to agree, or at least thought he would agree, that he would only talk about football.
bill murray
Well, he knew if he blew it, that was it.
And that was going to be the end of it.
And it was only, you know, I don't know what month it was.
joe rogan
There's more coffee in this, I feel like.
bill murray
Oh, is that your stuff?
joe rogan
No, that's everybody's.
bill murray
Okay, well, we'll try to finish it all off.
joe rogan
I just feel like yours is probably just sitting there for a while.
bill murray
It doesn't have to be super.
I keep coffee for days.
At least two days.
If it's not hot, it's got ice in it.
joe rogan
You just keep drinking?
bill murray
I just keep drinking it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
That smells good.
What kind is that?
joe rogan
Black Rifle Coffee.
bill murray
Where does that come from?
joe rogan
It's an American company, veteran-owned company, made by Real Coffee Nuts.
Travel around the world and find different blends and different...
bill murray
It smells good.
There's a lot of coffee you can't even smell.
unidentified
It's excellent.
joe rogan
It's very good coffee.
Yeah.
It's just that meeting in the limousine is like one of my favorite meetings because it just...
You could feel how weird it must have been for Hunter to be sitting in a limo getting a ride with Nixon and they're just talking about football and then they can find common ground.
bill murray
Well, it's very much like this is happening...
This has been happening in my life anyway, and I'm sure it's happening in everyone's life for the last, got to be 10 years, where you meet people, we have something in common, we've got something we've got to get done, you know.
But if we talk politics, we're leaving the rails, you know.
All hell's going to, you know, we're not going to get anything done.
We're never going to be friends.
And, you know, it could be worse than that.
We could be adversaries or even enemies or, you know, so that, I mean, it's, you mentioned it, it's like, I go places where, and I'm sure you do too, where you just can't talk, you just don't want to talk politics with people because there are people that are,
you know, whose politics can be the exact opposite of yours, completely 12 to 6. And yet there are people that have lived lives that are so extraordinary and so enormous in terms of what they give to the world and the planet.
And you think, why would I ever want to get...
It's a mystery.
It's kind of a mystery.
But if you don't value that first instead of your kind of political...
You know, handkerchief.
You know, you're making more of a mess, you know.
That's kind of what's, you know, that's what I feel a lot about what's going on anywhere, everywhere, you know, that people are leading with their handkerchief and not with their whole self, you know, what they understand about what living is.
joe rogan
I agree 100%.
I think that we're just too tribally divided, and people look at it like it's us versus them.
They enjoy the comfort of being a part of a tribe.
They lock on to whatever ideologies the tribe support, and then anybody who opposes that is somehow or another the enemy.
And it's just a division tactic that's been used by the people that actually run the government, the actual world itself.
People of this world, especially the people of this country, mostly share the same common core needs.
You want to be healthy.
You want to have a good family.
You want to be able to make a living.
You want to live in a safe place.
You want your kids to be able to go to a good school.
You want everybody to prosper and have a good time.
That's most of what life is.
All this other shit that people get so goddamn caught up in, most of it has very little to do with you.
And you get locked into it like it's 100% of your identity, and the next thing you know, anybody who opposes you is Hitler.
And it just gets...
bill murray
That's true.
joe rogan
It gets so toxic.
bill murray
His name gets bandied about a lot lately, doesn't it?
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a good one.
bill murray
But you sort of started it by saying, by bringing up that quotation of hunters, which is so...
And I think about that all the time.
I can not...
But I think about it regularly.
Like, what was that force?
That that movement had, that anti-war movement, whatever that was, you know, it wasn't perfect.
You know, it wasn't perfect.
I think the thing that if I had to regret anything or anyone regrets anything about it was the sort of hostility that was shown towards the actual servicemen, most of whom were drafted, you know, to fight, you know.
So those service people had an experience that I will never have.
I was in a military movie.
That's as good as it ever got for me.
But the thing about being in war together with people is everybody hates war.
And who could hate it more than someone that was there?
But the sort of camaraderie that you had is an experience.
I'll never have that.
I'll never have that thing that Rambo had.
I'll never have that thing.
And I don't think that – I think that the sort of – there could have been more vision about who we're talking to or who we're talking to about whatever kind of change you want to make.
And so that the agents of it are not necessarily the architects like you say.
The people who are making this tribal thing.
They're not the agents of it.
They're the architects of it.
And how do you jump over or how do you excuse or not excuse isn't the word but how do you Unite?
Miss the people that are the agents who are just people that have a job or whatever it is.
They're doing their work to survive and live, whatever it is.
How do you get to the architects with whatever you feel is what could be a shared experience and get them to sort of dissolve the creation of the tribal world?
I think you ask a great question.
You have people on here, I guess, that...
Know, you know, or think about those things and have the ability to do something about it.
I don't think I have the ability to do anything more than something for myself mostly.
joe rogan
But you do because you have the ability to express yourself and you're an example.
And a lot of times when someone is a very reasonable, intelligent person like you and you express yourself, other people get inspired to maybe re-examine the way they're looking at things.
bill murray
Well, that's a nice hope.
I hope that maybe that'll happen.
joe rogan
I think that's maybe one of the only things.
bill murray
Well, right back at you then.
unidentified
Okay.
Thank you.
joe rogan
Because part of our problem in this country is that we're in competition every two years.
Every two years you have midterms.
bill murray
It is crazy, isn't it?
joe rogan
Elections every four years.
bill murray
We don't get a break.
joe rogan
No, we don't get a break.
bill murray
We don't get a break from these people.
joe rogan
No, we don't get a break.
We don't get a break from division.
unidentified
We don't get a break.
joe rogan
We don't get a break from propaganda.
We don't get a break from new threats.
We don't get a break.
It's like every day it's a new thing.
And it keeps us completely in this...
It's a constant state of stress and anxiety and also this fear of being overcome, like your side's going to lose.
bill murray
Yeah, if I fall asleep too early tonight, I'm supposed to be on watch or something.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's a very...
Very stressful, and it's not healthy for human beings to be constantly in this state of competition and stress.
It's bad for...
And then on top of that, you have...
Most people are addicted to social media, so you're constantly getting inundated with the worst fucking things in the world all day long, and you're freaking out.
It's terrible for you.
It's fucking terrible for you.
bill murray
I mean, that footage made me cry.
Now you're going to make me cry.
Okay, no, it's...
But it's true.
It's...
Someone's got a...
There has to be some sort of a new, I don't know if it has to be a club, but there's got to be some sort of new music.
You know, it used to be music.
I think music played such a big part of whatever that movement was, whatever you call the peace movement or the hippies or, you know, whatever it was.
It was an extraordinary moment in time.
And the music was part of the experience and part of the, it brought the message.
It crashed through everybody's brain.
There wasn't a side to it.
It's like, what were the soldiers listening to in Vietnam?
Jimi Hendrix.
We were all listening to the same stuff no matter where you were.
No matter where you were, you were listening to the same music, no matter what your politic thing was.
The music sort of told a story and sort of suggested a possibility.
joe rogan
And the music was so much different than the music of the past.
bill murray
Yeah.
joe rogan
And it was like, you go from 1959 to 1969, you're dealing with a completely different dimension.
And it's because it was all psychedelically inspired.
And that was another thing that the Nixon administration did.
They passed that sweeping Schedule I Psychedelics Act, made everything illegal, and just threw water on the whole movement.
And then everything changes.
Then you have the 70s, music starts getting weird.
The 80s, it completely falls apart.
Cars start looking like shit.
People start dressing stupid.
bill murray
Now you're talking.
It's a real language.
I never tied it all to that sweeping thing, but when you revisit that, you realize how much harm that did, that kind of lawmaking.
Let's all agree that the cars don't look as good as they used to.
Who are those people that say they're the really good problem solvers?
I see them every once in a while, and they go like, how does he do it?
He says, well, first I say, what can we agree on?
Okay, so we can agree that cars don't look so good no more.
joe rogan
Well, they look good now.
bill murray
It used to be that every single year, every single car looked different.
unidentified
Yes.
bill murray
Than it looked the year before.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
And that's mind-boggling nowadays to think about that.
And even now, the cars are made of, I don't know, plastic?
What are they made of?
joe rogan
Yeah, they're made of shit.
bill murray
They're made of nothing.
They're not made of steel.
They did it with steel back then.
joe rogan
Right.
bill murray
And now they're made with, I don't know, some sort of carbon something or other.
And you would think they would be able to, like, I don't know what a 3D printer is.
I have to confess.
I have no idea.
joe rogan
We actually talked about it yesterday.
bill murray
I have no idea.
joe rogan
The biggest one's four feet long.
bill murray
The biggest one is four feet long?
joe rogan
Yeah, that's what Elon was saying.
So can you make a table out of this?
bill murray
You can't make anything bigger than four feet?
joe rogan
I don't think so.
I mean, maybe there's some super...
bill murray
Car parts now are...
I mean, if you have a car, if you have a fender bender, there's like seven parts that you have to replace now.
Panels and panels and panels.
joe rogan
But that's also because they're better structurally to withstand impact.
They have these crumpled layers and they're designed in a way that makes it safer for you.
They're a lot safer than old cars.
I fucking love old cars.
bill murray
And the sound systems are better.
Yeah.
joe rogan
But new cars look great.
New cars are awesome.
There's a lot of really good-looking American cars, a lot of really good-looking German cars.
What happened in the 1970s and the 1980s was a drop-off, a significant drop-off from the 60s.
The 60s cars were some of the best-looking cars.
I think a lot of that had to do with just the way creativity was...
Encouraged in the 1960s.
It was more free-flowing.
The music was completely radical and different.
Politics was radical and different.
And that's why they passed those laws.
They passed those laws to stop the anti-war movement.
It was the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement.
bill murray
And the guy they put in charge was a man who had absolutely no qualifications.
Who had no qualifications to do any of it.
No.
I've got someone, a friend, that's been trying to get me to...
Do a movie about it, but the person responsible for making all the laws was someone who had absolutely no background in any of the fields, no knowledge whatsoever, just a total huckster that got himself out in front.
joe rogan
Well, they probably had a mandate.
They gave him a mandate.
This is what we're going to do.
This is the plan.
We're going to lock up all these hippies.
bill murray
I'll carry the flag.
I'll carry the flag, whatever it is.
I'll run up the hill.
joe rogan
Exactly.
unidentified
Yeah.
bill murray
Well, I heard...
That Buick is going to make a car, and this could be wrong, but I heard they're going to make a car next year that's not going to look like any car, ever.
It's going to be like a brand new, whatever the hell, 25 or 26 Buick.
And it's not going to look like the 24 or 5. It's going to look like its own individual thing, that they're going to try to re...
To recommence the idea of making a new car every year.
You didn't hear this?
joe rogan
No, like a completely new kind of model?
bill murray
Yeah, like the idea that you would make a car that didn't look like every...
I mean, you can look at a car and go like, that's a Volvo, but that part of it looks like a Mercedes.
That part of it looks like an Infiniti.
That part of the car looks like, you know, a Toyota.
You've heard probably the story about the...
What's that car called?
The Ford that's got a...
Animal name?
joe rogan
Mustang?
bill murray
Taurus.
joe rogan
Taurus.
bill murray
Now, there's a story.
Now, it could be apocryphal.
That the Ford Taurus.
You never heard this one?
joe rogan
No.
bill murray
I thought you were like this guy.
joe rogan
Taurus is a piece of shit.
I don't care about Tauruses.
bill murray
Well, the Taurus, yeah.
The Taurus is like, it's not the most beautiful car in the world.
But it was a huge seller for Ford.
They sold a lot of them.
And the story is that these guys at Ford designed a car and they took, The rear quarter panel from this automobile, the fender from this, the back fender from this, the rear windows from this, and just did a composite of all these different cars.
And the car was, this car's bullshit.
And we'll call it the Taurus.
And they presented it to Ford, who went, we love it.
And then proceeded to sell hundreds of thousands of them.
And this is a story.
Where's your phone calls here?
Faye, caller number one, you heard about this?
No one's ever heard this story?
You've never heard this one?
joe rogan
No, I've never heard that, no.
bill murray
But I believe it.
joe rogan
It makes sense.
bill murray
You can believe it if you look at the cars that are built now, that they are absolutely like, look at that damn Volvo.
It looks exactly like a three-year-ago Mercedes or something like that.
They just really just steal.
joe rogan
Jamie, pull up 2024 Shelby Mustang Super Snake.
So there's still some cars.
bill murray
Roll it in here.
joe rogan
Just check out what this looks like.
There's cars that they make today that are unique-looking and look badass.
bill murray
I wish I'd bought a Shelby back when I first had a paycheck.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
bill murray
They're such beautiful cars.
joe rogan
Look at that.
Come on.
bill murray
Well, that's kind of funny.
When I first look at it, it looks a little Chevy to me.
joe rogan
It does a little bit.
It could be like a Camaro.
bill murray
I mean, look at that.
That looks like Chevy.
joe rogan
I mean, that's a beautiful car, though, right?
bill murray
Well...
You know, you could photograph either of us from a certain angle.
joe rogan
No, no, I've seen that one in real life.
That's a beautiful car.
That's a beautiful car.
bill murray
That's better.
joe rogan
Oh, and it sounds amazing.
bill murray
But I'd hate to hit anything with that thing.
joe rogan
In what way?
bill murray
I would hate to bump into anything.
It looks like I'd have to...
Yeah, you'd have to replace a lot of shit.
joe rogan
That's true.
bill murray
Can you pick up that picture there?
What's the rear look like?
Oh, it's got a spoiler?
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Come on.
How do you feel about spoilers?
joe rogan
Fucking badass.
That thing looks awesome.
That looks amazing.
bill murray
Well, I think the original one is like the super coolest car in all.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
Oh, no doubt.
I mean, if you go back and look at, like, pull up a Boss 429, 1969, Boss 429. This, to me, is the pinnacle of muscle car design, is the Boss 429. Like, that is just spectacular.
bill murray
That's pretty good.
joe rogan
Look at that.
bill murray
Well, that's pretty close.
Well, that's got that scoop in the front.
That's pretty close to the bullet year, right?
The bullet card?
joe rogan
68. Yeah, bullet was 68. I actually have a recreation of that.
bill murray
I was watching it.
They found the original bullet card.
joe rogan
Did you know that?
Yes.
bill murray
I was reading about that this week.
It was on TV last week.
And I've watched it a lot of times, that movie, because I think Steve McQueen's pretty damn good.
But when you watch the movie, it's...
It's obviously the roaring through San Francisco and all that sort of stuff it's famous for.
And then there's the ending where there's – the sort of story ends with kind of a flaming crash.
It's kind of – not really kind of an ending in a way.
But watching it this particular time, it was all the moments in between all that that really make the movie.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
All the quiet in between where he's in the grocery store, he's with the groceries, the mailbox.
He's seeing these people and these people.
And he has this very quiet inner self that's dealing with people very respectfully.
And his blood pressure only moves, the needle only starts to move when he gets with the bad guy, Chalmers, who's obviously a fraud of some sort.
And he's got him like, you see him like, not just as a...
with like a person he knows is trying to use him.
And just watching that part of the performance and that part of the story was much more interesting.
The first time I saw all that as its own weave through it. - Yes. - That the car stuff had very little to do with what I was getting from the people.
The car stuff was nothing.
And his boss was a great actor, Simon Oakland, I think his name is.
He was great as his boss who said, I'm going to hold this till Monday morning.
You know, that kind of guy.
There was some great acting in that.
It's a really beautiful American movie like that.
joe rogan
I'm so glad you brought that up because it's one of the things that I love about that movie and Le Mans, another great Steve McQueen movie, is that he had these Moments, and you could do that in a movie back then, where no one was talking for minutes and minutes at a time.
bill murray
There's a lot of quiet in Bullet.
A lot of quiet music.
joe rogan
It's just, you're taking in this story, but it's very compelling.
And sometimes there's not even any music, right?
Like in Le Mans, the whole first part of it, there's no talking at all for quite a while.
It's just like you're getting the sounds and the feeling of being this race car driver and he's driving his 911 down this country road.
Yeah, and it engrosses you in a different way.
It pulls you into the story.
bill murray
Is that bullet where he's writing...
What movie is he driving like a dune buggy?
Is that bullet too?
No, that's the other one.
The one in Boston.
That's a pretty good movie, too.
joe rogan
Which one's that?
bill murray
Oh, come on.
They remade it.
joe rogan
Thomas Crown Affair?
bill murray
Thomas Crown Affair.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
And obviously he's having time.
You know, it's like, how about we shoot some stuff in a dune buggy?
And basically they had like a whole day.
Yeah, this.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
And he's having a time.
And meanwhile, he's got Faye Dunaway in there going, I hope that's Faye Dunaway anyway.
Roaring around.
And he could really drive, right?
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
Like, really drive.
Like, you could really flip one of these fucking things if you're driving like him and you don't know what you're doing.
bill murray
For sure.
joe rogan
Yeah, he's going sideways.
bill murray
And she is having the time of her life.
Look at that.
Spinning it out in the water.
joe rogan
With a movie star who doesn't even have a seatbelt on, probably.
bill murray
No, they didn't have seatbelts back then.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ.
bill murray
Well, she might have a seatbelt.
She looks like she's belted.
But that was cool.
joe rogan
He was like the archetypal movie star.
He was a movie star.
That guy was a movie star.
There was something about him that was compelling.
He lived his life in this sort of wild, renegade way and drove race cars and he was a man's man.
And when you saw him in a movie, you believed it.
bill murray
Well, I've been watching...
I've come to be watching all the old cowboy shows on a satellite.
I watch all the old cowboy shows.
And Wanted Dead or Alive was always a super cool show.
And I've been watching it just to say, what the hell is he up to?
Man, he is just...
No one was getting away with that.
No one was doing what he was doing, which was so small and so slight.
He was really preparing himself to be a movie actor.
Because his performances...
He's so controlled.
He's so in his skin.
And he's always got a piece of business to do.
He always had a piece of business to do.
Like something to do.
Like the way he strapped on his goofy sawed-off rifle and stuff.
You keep thinking it's a sawed-off shotgun.
It's a sawed-off rifle.
All his moves were very little.
His face gave very, very little away.
He would pout and do a half pout.
Kind of stuff.
And it's just fun to watch him see how little he could do and get it done.
unidentified
Yeah.
bill murray
Get it across.
I like that about him.
But he always had, like, he kind of challenged himself to do something physical.
Like, so if he'd be talking to you, he'd have just, even that, even something like that to be like, you know, come in here.
You know, he would just, the way he did it was a guy who had a real natural way with his body.
It was fun.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, he would just draw you in.
In all of his films.
In a way, it was just different.
It was a different presence on screen.
bill murray
There's that guy.
joe rogan
Sawed-off rifle.
bill murray
See, it's a sawed-off.
It's not a shotgun.
It's a rifle.
See that little shtick?
He's got it so it locks in and then swings back.
So he could actually, if he wished to, you better hope he better not wish to against you two.
He could just sort of swivel it and fire it while it's still attached to his waistband.
joe rogan
I never saw this show.
I didn't even know it existed.
unidentified
You never saw this show?
joe rogan
I didn't know it existed until right now.
bill murray
What kind of a citizen are you?
joe rogan
I'm a little younger.
That's all it is.
bill murray
That's all it is.
Well, you can find this.
There's these new cowboy shows channels.
There's like four channels.
I have DirecTV, and so you can go and watch.
God, that's a famous guy.
Oh, God.
Oh, who's that?
unidentified
Oh.
bill murray
Oh, that's killing me.
I know who this guy is.
Well, I don't know who he is, but I recognize him.
Help me, somebody.
Who's that guy?
joe rogan
Jamie will find it.
bill murray
Anyway, there's a few channels.
There's one called INSP. There's also the Cowboy Channel.
There's also channel 364, 304, 323, 81. Is this DirecTV?
joe rogan
What is this?
bill murray
DirecTV.
And they're all, and you can, and I just go through going like, what have I got to find?
So I can see the rifleman.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
I remember that.
unidentified
That was a great show.
bill murray
Also a rifle guy, but he had a full-length rifle.
And that was Chuck Connors, who once upon a time was a Chicago Cub.
He was a baseball player.
joe rogan
Oh, really?
unidentified
Yes.
bill murray
And allegedly did some art films.
But also, he was good, too.
Chuck Connors was good.
The Lone Ranger.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
bill murray
Sure.
And that was...
God, come on.
Why can't I not remember his name?
But there were some Lone Rangers.
The Lone Ranger came on and then the guy...
I didn't realize it because there's some Lone Rangers where it's not our Lone Ranger being the Lone Ranger.
And who wasn't as good as our Lone Ranger.
And then our Lone Ranger comes back.
And it turns out, I finally figured out that he sort of went on strike.
He said he wanted a contract raise after the first season or something.
And they, like, said no.
They went ahead and made a season with this other guy.
And people went, when are you going to kill off the Lone Ranger?
No offense to that man's family.
I'm sure it paid for somebody's college.
unidentified
But, oh, come on.
bill murray
I almost had it.
joe rogan
The guy's name?
bill murray
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Jamie will find it.
bill murray
Jamie, you've got a lot on your plate.
jamie vernon
I switched over to the Lone Ranger.
I was looking at people that were listed here.
unidentified
I'll give you this one that are a lot.
jamie vernon
There's a few people listed here as guest cards.
bill murray
I actually saw him someplace.
Is he one of these names?
joe rogan
Michael Landon?
unidentified
Landon, Warren Oates.
joe rogan
Warren Oates.
It's definitely not Coburn.
bill murray
No, it's none of those guys.
Lon Chaney's misspelled.
But it's not those guys.
Coburn's in there twice.
joe rogan
Lone Ranger here.
unidentified
One of these guys, maybe?
bill murray
No.
See, it started on radio first.
That's what you're getting.
You're pulling up radio.
That's how fair back you're going.
unidentified
Clayton Moore?
bill murray
Clayton Moore, thank you.
I saw Clayton Moore.
He came to a jewel food store near us.
The Lone Ranger was going to appear.
But he was not allowed to wear the mask for, like, contraction, whatever the hell.
So there he was, and I'm like...
Mom, that's not the Lone Ranger.
You know, whatever the hell it was.
It was funny to see Clayton wear without a mask on.
joe rogan
Imagine a contract saying you can't do personal appearances.
bill murray
Well, no, it was like he was, the Lone Ranger was copyrighted, you know, nine days from Sundays, you know, so he could go and be right on an elephant.
I think I may have seen him riding on an elephant in a parade once, but also without the mask on.
But I should talk about movies because I'm supposed to be talking about movies.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
Since we started talking about movies.
joe rogan
Tell me about your movie.
bill murray
I got two movies.
I have three movies.
I'll work backwards from the one which is least, which is farthest away.
I did one with Wes Anderson called The Phoenician something.
That's the title.
You know, I'm sorry, Wes.
The Phoenician, you know what it is?
The Phoenician Scheme.
And I have a lot of trouble with names nowadays.
But the guy who did the set design, can you figure that out?
This guy is the most famous.
He's the best there is now.
These are the most beautiful sets I've ever seen in any movie.
Come on.
It's coming.
I'm sorry, everybody, but I just haven't been getting enough sleep.
joe rogan
No worries.
bill murray
Anyway, that's a great movie.
We shot that in Berlin, and there's great people in it.
It's got, I want to say Toshiro Mifune, but it's not.
It's the guy who played Che.
unidentified
Come on.
bill murray
Come on, help me out here.
All right, you look it up, Jim.
You get back to us with this.
Anyway, that movie's coming in a bit.
unidentified
Who?
bill murray
Benito.
Yeah.
Benito's really good.
He's really good and he's really cool.
And Michael Cera, right?
Is he the third?
joe rogan
Did you say Benicio?
bill murray
Benicio Del Toro.
unidentified
Benicio Del Toro.
bill murray
Yeah.
I said Benito.
You said Benito.
He's great.
joe rogan
Fear and Loathing as well.
He was awesome in that.
bill murray
He's great.
He's great in everything.
We get on good.
And then the daughter, whose name is Kate Winslet, who is really wonderful.
So the three of them are extraordinary in the movie together.
And her name is like Cupid or Eve or something that's crazy.
joe rogan
What's it about?
bill murray
I have no idea.
unidentified
Huh?
bill murray
What's her name?
Mia.
Thank you.
See, I told you.
Cupid.
Something.
Mia.
I have no idea what it's about.
You're going to have to pay the money.
There she is, right there.
joe rogan
A dark tale of espionage followed a strained father-daughter relationship with a family business.
bill murray
Yeah, Willem's got a good part, but it's really those...
Keep going, keep going.
joe rogan
Benedict Cumberbatch?
bill murray
Yeah, they're all swell and fine.
Michael Cera.
Michael Cera is huge in it.
He's fantastic.
Yeah, he's a really good guy.
Michael Cera, Benicio, and Mia are really the muscles.
joe rogan
Brian Cranston?
bill murray
And they're great.
Anyway, that's going to be...
Really good.
All his movies are like they are.
They're all great.
That one's going to be very good.
That one's going to be funny, too.
Then I made a movie called The Friend, which stars Naomi Watts and a dog.
There's a huge dog.
Are you a dog guy?
joe rogan
I love dogs.
bill murray
Okay, so there's a massive, really big dog.
I mean, it's pretty much as big.
There it is.
There's Naomi.
And there's the dog.
The dog is that big.
See how big it is?
joe rogan
It's fucking huge.
bill murray
Yeah, that's the words for it.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's a Great Dane.
unidentified
Isn't it?
bill murray
It's an amazing dog.
And the script is great.
It's from a book written by a woman named Sigrid Nunez.
And can you pop up on the titles there, maybe?
No, the other thing.
Yeah, these guys directed it.
These guys.
Scott McGehee and David Siegel.
And they wrote the script from this book.
And it's a great script.
joe rogan
Nobody can hear you over there, unfortunately.
Nobody can hear you over there.
We're going to have to come back.
bill murray
Scott McGehee and David Siegel wrote the script and directed it.
And they're great.
I love those guys.
They made a few good movies.
And this one's really good.
And this Sigrid Nunez is kind of a big deal author.
People know who she is that read lots of books.
joe rogan
And what is The Friend?
What is it about?
bill murray
The friend.
Well, yeah, there you go.
So that's the question.
Well, that's sort of the puzzle, a little bit of the puzzle of it.
So who is the friend?
Is the friend the friend or is the friend the dog?
The dog represents something.
So it's a little deeper than a lot of the ones we get to.
But it's really good.
It's really good.
I like it.
It's been to film festivals and people laugh and cry and the whole thing.
joe rogan
How do you pick?
Things to do now.
Like, you've done so much.
You've had this insane career.
bill murray
I'm going to tell you that, but let me finish the last one, because today...
Now, is your show live?
joe rogan
No.
No, it comes out tomorrow.
bill murray
Tomorrow.
Okay, so that's why I wanted to ask, because this movie, the third movie, opens today, which is yesterday, and it's called Riff Raff, and this is a movie that you have to see.
You have to see this.
This is really something.
This is a movie you should take.
Ten of your friends, too, and go see Riff Raff.
It will be, I guarantee you, this one's a party.
joe rogan
Tell me what it is.
bill murray
Um, well, there's a trailer for it up there.
See, there's...
joe rogan
Let's play the trailer.
unidentified
Okay, you can do it.
joe rogan
Put the headphones on.
We'll play the trailer.
bill murray
I wasn't...
There you go.
joe rogan
Slap some headphones on.
bill murray
Oh.
No Slim Jims.
unidentified
Past two hours, you've been passing gas like a very sick infant.
bill murray
I gotta breathe all day.
unidentified
Sorry, Lefty.
I had a lot of coffee, okay?
Sorry.
bill murray
And then you use my name?
Jesus Christ, Lonnie.
He just said my name.
You catch our names by any chance?
Yeah, he called you Lefty and you called him Lonnie.
Well, I overreacted.
unidentified
Okay.
bill murray
Son, we gotta talk about Lefty.
unidentified
What did you do?
Logan!
Logan!
bill murray
You killed his son.
unidentified
You're gonna kill us.
What are you doing?
I get horny when I'm scared.
I'm married.
Who cares?
It's just us and the shitty wildlife, you know?
bill murray
This is our son.
unidentified
We're too young to be grandparents.
All because your son couldn't pull out in time.
We've got house guests.
I would categorize these as a must kill.
What are we?
Family.
Oh my god.
Can I get you anything?
I'd sell my left tit for an Advil and a cup of coffee.
You said what?
bill murray
Who was first?
johnny depp
There was this food incident.
Rocco put pubes in my wonton soup.
unidentified
If it's okay, I would just really like to torture him a little bit if it's okay.
bill murray
Shouldn't have done that, Rocco.
Yeah, knock yourself out.
unidentified
Oh my god.
bill murray
We're all gonna die.
You don't have all night?
unidentified
Wait for me before you two start hitting each other.
You know, once you start killing it, it sort of becomes your de facto solution for every problem.
What?
Get off of me.
bill murray
I'm not gonna.
I'm not gonna, Ruth.
unidentified
What's that?
Shame!
We're gonna put something that hard to waste.
Huh?
joe rogan
That looks fun.
bill murray
Uh, yeah.
unidentified
Well...
bill murray
Yeah, that's...
They gave you too much, as far as I'm concerned, but, um...
joe rogan
They always do, though, right?
bill murray
I don't know.
unidentified
Sometimes...
bill murray
Not always.
joe rogan
Not always.
bill murray
But it's...
joe rogan
It's common.
bill murray
It's kind of nicer to see as a surprise, so...
joe rogan
Oh, should we not have seen the trailer?
bill murray
It's okay.
I mean, what are you going to do?
But some people will think, I must see that.
But I guarantee you this movie is really, really funny.
joe rogan
I love a movie where I don't get to see the trailer.
I really do.
bill murray
I have no idea how it goes down.
Yeah, you could not show the trailer.
That would be okay.
I saw one that was just the first part of that.
And I was hoping that was what it was.
This kind of makes it seem like a little bit...
You know, it's just a little bit too much stuff in it.
A little bit too much stuff for me.
Maybe.
Let's think about it.
But anyway, it's good.
It looks great.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
So Jennifer Coolidge has got some unbelievable things to say in the movie.
She's got some amazing things to say.
And Ed Harris is really, really good in the movie.
Pete Davidson, who I had no idea about.
We were sidekicks in the movie, and we had a very good time.
Did some good stuff.
This Louis Pullman, who's Bill Pullman's son, is really good.
I mean, and Emanuela, she got an Italian, Pustakini, like that.
She's just wonderful and beautiful.
And Gabby Union, I call her Gabby, Gabrielle Union.
And Miles, whose last name I can't remember because I just want to call him Miles Davis, but that little kid in there.
He plays the voice of the Electric Junior Bunny show or something like that on Nickelodeon or something like that.
He does weird cartoon voices.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah?
bill murray
So, if you watch a lot of Nickelodeon cartoons...
joe rogan
I don't anymore.
My kids are teenagers now.
bill murray
Oh, really?
joe rogan
I used to.
I used to.
I could tell you all about Ni Hao Kai Lan.
bill murray
Oh, see, I don't know that one.
I guess I... I guess Spongebob.
My brother plays the Flying Dutchman on Spongebob.
unidentified
Oh, wow.
bill murray
So I watched a lot of that, but that's about it.
unidentified
I don't know.
bill murray
I'm way behind.
joe rogan
How do you decide what projects to pick?
bill murray
It's really just what, well, there are certain people, like with people that I've worked with before, there's some, like Wes Anderson is one, and Jim Jarmusch.
And Sofia Coppola are others.
And those three people call and say, I got something.
I just say, okay, when?
Because I know that they're...
I know they know what I can do, and they know they look out for me, and they treat people well.
I love them as people, and I love them as artists.
So that's just a thing.
But the other ones are more like...
You have to read the script, because people, you know, the script is pretty much, if the script's not there, I mean, you know, I can always help improve a script, but if the basic thing isn't there, it's like, I was scratching at one the other day, and I'm writing, and I'm going, what the hell am I doing this for?
This is just terrible.
Every page is like, so, but if it's not good, and usually, you know, you know in like five pages.
Whether or not to even continue reading the script at all.
joe rogan
So a lot of it's based on relationships and people that you trust and know.
bill murray
Those are very few.
There's only very few people that I have those kinds of relationships with.
And I've done multiple jobs with them.
And they kill every time.
They're good.
They're really good.
So when they call, it's like, you don't have to waste my time telling me the story.
Just send me the thing, you know?
unidentified
Right.
bill murray
You don't have to waste any time I'm in.
You can count on me.
joe rogan
That's awesome.
bill murray
So that's it.
joe rogan
I love that.
bill murray
Yeah, I do too.
joe rogan
God, that's such a great feeling when you trust someone that much and you're so enthusiastic about working with them.
bill murray
Yeah, it means, like, great.
And, you know, like, people make the living, the making of a movie part of their living, you know?
Like, Wes is probably the...
The most extreme example in that, like, we all live in a quasi-dormitory.
You know, we take over a small hotel in some city, and all the actors and, like, the key crew live in the hotel.
And you come down for breakfast in the morning, and people pad down in their slippers and their jammies, and they have coffee and stuff, and they look at the newspaper and say, what are we doing today?
And then they, like, pad back up the stairs and get on their clothes, and they go to work.
That's cool.
It's really nice.
It really is like what you always thought it would be.
Like in the old days, like, what if we all lived in a dorm and we were just being funny all day?
You know, like that.
joe rogan
Yeah.
What was it like working on Kingpin?
bill murray
Well, those guys have more fun making movies than anyone.
They really make it fun.
Like, I remember, like, in between shots on Kingpin, we'd be on the side of a road somewhere.
And it would be like, everybody's got to pick up a rock and we got to throw it at that telephone pole.
You know, who's going to hit the telephone pole with a rock?
So we would sit there and like, I don't know, a dollar, ten dollars, a hundred dollars, whatever it was, we're throwing and somebody's got to hit the rock.
You know, and then people like pull out cash and pay.
Because it's just like, we just got to keep this thing going.
You know, we're not going to let the energy of this thing drop.
joe rogan
Just fun.
Keep the fun rolling.
bill murray
Fun, yeah.
And just creativity and always...
Being loose and always being physical, always being connected, attached, not just attached but connected, and entertaining, entertaining each other, really making this fun.
God damn it, we are going to have fun or else.
If you don't have fun making a comedy, you've just made a bad movie that's not funny.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, it comes off in the film.
The film is so fucking funny.
It's so good.
And it's one of those films, like, if you tried making that today, it would be an uphill trudge.
bill murray
Well, you know, and that's, like, one of those things.
They had a moment on Saturday Night Live, an in-memoriam thing.
They said, oh, I was there the week of the thing, and they said, yeah, so-and-so's working on the in-memoriam, and I'm thinking, well, who's gone?
Which reminds me.
Who's gone, you know?
And, no, it's not.
Who's passed away?
It's what we can't do anymore to be funny.
So it was like all these kinds of jokes.
And so it was just a whole clip.
I didn't even see it, but I saw a little bit of it being assembled, but it could be 40 minutes long.
Just all the sketches that people would get, like, you know, internet responses like, we're going to burn down the city in New York.
joe rogan
It could be hours long today.
bill murray
Yeah.
joe rogan
Hours long.
bill murray
Yeah, I'm sure it was 45. But some of the funniest things ever done, you know.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
Like Head Wound Harry, you know, which was one that not many people think about.
But how, you know, like somebody would object to a dog eating a brain wound, you know, like licking the blood coming out of someone's skeletal wound, you know.
But someone told me on the way here, a friend of mine, a musician named Mike Zito.
Who said he listens to your show.
He said that you knew Phil Hartman.
joe rogan
Yeah, very well.
bill murray
What did you do with Phil Hartman?
joe rogan
Newsradio.
It was a sitcom we did together.
unidentified
Okay.
bill murray
I didn't really watch much in newsradio.
joe rogan
It was 94 to 99. I played the maintenance guy in this radio station and Phil was the lead anchor.
bill murray
Did you resent him because you were doing maintenance and he was the lead anchor?
What do you mean?
No, I'm just joking.
And where was it?
Was it on CBS? NBC. NBC, of course.
joe rogan
Yeah.
In the 90s.
bill murray
And he was the news anchor.
Yes.
Well, he's got that crazy voice, right?
joe rogan
Oh, he was great.
bill murray
Yeah.
joe rogan
We became really good friends.
He was a wonderful guy.
We actually played one of his clips the other day.
We had to take it out of the show, but it was a clip from SNL that you could never play today about a doctor who decided that every child was female and he had to do operations on all of them.
And we were like, holy shit!
Holy shit!
And it's like, you know, 90% of his births involved an operation that turned into a girl.
They were all girls.
bill murray
That's funny.
joe rogan
It was insane.
He was great.
bill murray
Yeah, he was really good.
I worked with him.
I mean, I did Saturday Night Live, I guess, when he was there.
But he was in the movie we made called Quick Change.
And he was like sterling silver.
It was like every single take was just like...
Perfect.
unidentified
Yeah.
bill murray
And it was so much fun.
And you just go, Phil, that was so great.
And you go like, he was so kind of modestly proud of like, yeah, I felt pretty good about that too.
unidentified
Yeah.
bill murray
It was really nice.
He had real, real modesty.
joe rogan
Yes, he did.
Well, he was a guy who made it late in his career, you know, late in his life.
So he was, before he was an artist, we have one of his albums out there in the other room.
bill murray
He was a musician?
joe rogan
No, an artist artist.
bill murray
Oh, I'm sorry.
joe rogan
Well, he was a musician as well.
He did music as well.
bill murray
Why did I say musician?
Oh, you said one of his albums.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
I was looking at vinyl today, so that's why it went into my head.
joe rogan
It was a cover of an album that he drew.
bill murray
Oh.
joe rogan
Yeah.
He was an illustrator.
He was brilliant.
Like, really, really good.
bill murray
Oh, I'd love to see that.
joe rogan
And then he was on Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Yeah.
bill murray
May he rest in peace.
May he rest in peace.
joe rogan
That guy was fucking great, too.
bill murray
And the lady, I didn't really watch a lot of Pee-wee's Playhouse, but he was a funny guy, that guy.
And his lady sidekick died this week or something.
Who was his lady sidekick?
I don't know.
joe rogan
On Pee-wee's Playhouse?
unidentified
I'm not up to date on anything.
Oh, I didn't see that.
Who?
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
All right.
joe rogan
Lynn Murray Stewart.
Lynn Marie Stewart.
bill murray
Lynn Marie.
See, I didn't...
Oh, I guess I'd recognize her if her face were a bigger head.
joe rogan
So I think Phil, because of the fact that he made it late in life, like, he was just so happy to be there.
bill murray
He had perspective.
joe rogan
Yeah.
He had...
I mean, I think he was like 37 or something when he got SNL. You know?
So it's like...
It's the point where a lot of people start thinking, hey, this is never going to happen for me.
bill murray
And then he was, you know, he was a hero.
He could do a lot of things.
He had a lot of chops.
He had a great voice and he could play straight and, you know, playing, doing comedy is the ability to play straight and he could really do it.
He could really do it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Well, I miss that guy.
He was good.
He was a good guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, I miss him terribly.
That was a crazy one because I knew the whole family.
I knew the wife.
I knew the whole situation.
He had tried to divorce her a few times.
He tried to leave a few times and always went back.
bill murray
Yeah, and that's also the guy.
He would go back and keep trying to make things work.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I mean, he was a very unusual guy.
And what a fucking professional.
Like, he would make me feel like I wasn't doing enough.
Like, he'd have, like, all of his scripts would have tabs for all the scenes that he was in, and then he'd have notes underneath each thing, and everything would be organized.
He had a three-ring binder he would put the script in.
bill murray
Well, that's going too far.
joe rogan
He would hole-punch the moment he got the script.
bill murray
What?
joe rogan
Put it in the three-ring binder.
Oh, yeah.
bill murray
See, I didn't have that much faith in the scripts.
I knew they were going to change a lot from Wednesday to Friday.
If it was a big scene, I knew they would rewrite it the next two days.
No, there was a lot.
Because it's hard to unlearn.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
So I would not learn.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Because unlearning is really hard.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Like if you have a sketch that's this long and all of a sudden it's this long, you've got problems.
joe rogan
Have you ever met Dave Foley?
bill murray
I think so.
He was one of the guys from...
Yeah, I saw him.
He goes out with my brother, Joel.
And he sings, they do like an improv thing called Whose Line Is It Anyway?
joe rogan
Oh, okay.
bill murray
So I only met him recently.
I met him recently.
I finally saw my brother's show that he goes out with Whose Line Is It Anyway?
joe rogan
Right.
With Greg Proops and all those guys.
bill murray
And they kill.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
I mean, there's, you know, I knew they were going to kill because I know how good my brother is who's an improviser.
He can, you know, if you get good at it, and my brother is really good at it, far better than I. I ever was or could hope to be.
Because he's really kept at it.
And so he really goes and goes hard at it.
He's really good at it.
I knew that they would kill it.
I didn't realize how much fun the show would be from an audience perspective.
Like, they drag a lot of people up on the stage.
And I think, well, that can go any way at all.
And they managed to get...
I mean, the show I saw, they had people in the audience that probably should have...
And hired.
That was funny.
But there's something about the uncertainty of bringing up someone from the audience that raises the energy level and the expectation and the possibility.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
And the crowd goes crazy for it.
Actors, the performers go crazy, too, because it's like, God damn, they just killed us.
They just came up here and murdered us.
And that's where the real fun is.
So they're enjoying themselves.
joe rogan
Well, it's a tight show.
They've been doing that show for so long.
Their muscles are very developed.
They're comedy improvisation muscles.
They're just so sharp.
When you do a show like that on the road constantly, you develop a sort of feel for how to improvise and how things can go.
bill murray
Well, you're fearless, and, you know, you're certainly—anyone that's ever been in that racket knows you can't be afraid of dying.
joe rogan
Right.
bill murray
So if you're not afraid of dying, let's go.
Here we go.
And anything—and there's a handful of you, so it's like the Magnificent Seven.
If I don't kill you, he will.
joe rogan
Right, right, right, right, right.
bill murray
So if I don't kill you, he will.
Yeah.
So it's fun to watch.
It was really fun to watch, finally see it live.
I'd only seen it on television.
To see the live show was cool.
I recommend it, too.
They're coming to a town near you if you're living in the United States of America.
joe rogan
It's a great show.
You should definitely go see it if they're coming to you.
Dave Foley, who was on Kids in the Hall, he was also on NewsRadio.
unidentified
Oh!
bill murray
Okay.
joe rogan
He played the manager of the station who was in charge of reigning in film.
Stephen Root from Office Space and a million other things.
Andy Dick, Maura Tierney, Vicki Lewis, Candy Alexander.
bill murray
I know a lot of those people.
joe rogan
Yeah.
So that was the show.
bill murray
So it ran five years.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, around four years, and then Phil got killed.
bill murray
Oh, that's what ended it?
joe rogan
John Lovitz, who was a good friend of his, took his place.
Well, not take it over, necessarily.
It was a real ensemble.
I mean, Dave was really the main star, Dave Foley was.
But it was...
It just, you know, for whatever reason, I think the John Lovitz ones were really funny.
They were really good, but it was just...
bill murray
It's just different and funny.
joe rogan
It was just the end of the line.
The show was over, and it got canceled after the fifth year.
bill murray
Yeah, there's something about...
It was like that.
It was Saturday Night Live.
The fifth year, it's like, wait a second.
High school is only five years.
Why should this show be?
joe rogan
Five years is a long time.
It's a long time.
bill murray
I know.
It's amazing to think.
We thought, like, five years, this is it.
We're done.
Goodbye, everybody.
That was 45 years ago?
Who the hell thought that would happen?
joe rogan
Is it the longest-running show ever on television?
bill murray
I think the Today Show is the longest-running show.
joe rogan
Oh, is it really?
bill murray
Well, if I had to guess.
joe rogan
Certainly the longest-running show that's actually entertaining.
I mean, SNL's been around for so long.
unidentified
Don't tell Al Roker that, buddy.
bill murray
Can I take a break for a second?
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
I'll be right back.
joe rogan
Take a leak.
Be right back.
bill murray
You're in charge.
Okay.
joe rogan
I'll do a little bit.
See you in a bit.
bill murray
You have so much cool stuff on the walls.
joe rogan
A lot of art.
bill murray
Do you do shows where you walk around and show all the stuff?
joe rogan
No, no.
bill murray
Really?
joe rogan
No, no, no, no.
It's personal.
For us and the guests.
bill murray
Well, there is a photograph in the men's room.
joe rogan
Which one?
bill murray
It's Presley.
And it looks like it's a mugshot.
joe rogan
It's a fake mugshot.
So what it is is he went to the White House and he met with Nixon.
bill murray
Okay, the gun thing where Nixon gives him a revolver.
He gives him an automatic pistol.
joe rogan
Yeah, what did he give him?
bill murray
And Nixon gives him a drug badge to be a drug agent.
You don't know that part?
That's right, I forgot about that part.
He gave Presley a gun badge.
joe rogan
Because Presley would talk shit about all these guys who were doing drugs.
Meanwhile, he was high as fuck.
bill murray
Well...
He was in pain, you know?
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
He was in pain.
He had physical pain.
joe rogan
What was the physical pain?
What was wrong with him?
bill murray
I think he did the splits a lot of times.
You know, like Chevy's, you know, Chevy hurt himself falling, you know?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
bill murray
People have pain.
Presley had, I don't know, I don't remember all the facts, but Presley had physical pain.
I don't know what his back or something like this, sacchiliac or whatever the hell.
joe rogan
And they got him hooked.
bill murray
And so he had like painkillers.
joe rogan
Right, but it's just hilarious that he was the drug guy.
bill murray
It is hilarious.
Yeah, it's like good fun.
It's like a great American story.
And like, you just see the picture.
There's a photograph that exists of Nixon handing him the badge.
And, you know, you can laugh looking at it going, right.
That's exactly right.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
But yeah, there it is.
And there's the damn badge.
Special assistant.
Special assistant.
You know what I did see the other night?
Did you ever see Frost and Nixon?
joe rogan
No.
bill murray
It's a movie that was made.
And back in the day, after Watergate...
Is his name David Frost?
He was a British interviewer cat.
And he staged...
He had this idea to, he was trying to like, he sort of lost his place in the universe of England anyway, or the world.
And he came up with this idea somehow to, if he could somehow get an interview with Richard Nixon.
And it's a pretty well-made movie.
It's a very well-made movie about it.
And they paint Frost pretty much as like...
Maybe what he was like, sort of what the perception, my perception is kind of what he was like.
Not a perfect person, but certainly not, you know, but certainly got some juice, certainly has some sort of idea of something going on.
That sounds very small, but he was a little complicated.
That's the cheating word.
And Nixon too.
And I just want to say that Frank Langella, who I only know from like doing – he was kind of like a Broadway guy and he did some horror movies.
He's really good as Nixon.
Very, very, very, very good as Nixon.
And it's just a really well-made movie.
And I was up in New York and I thought, you know, I'm going to find Frank Langella.
joe rogan
There it is right there.
bill murray
And tell him so.
There's the guy.
I don't know what this man's name is who plays for us.
I can't recall anything.
But he's good.
And there's Langella playing Nixon.
And Langella is really good as Nixon.
And Nixon's not easy to do.
joe rogan
Does he do the voice well?
bill murray
He does them well.
And, you know, when you try too hard...
joe rogan
Let me hear those.
unidentified
Your personal lawyer came to Washington.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
There you go.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Pretty fucking good.
bill murray
It's good.
Yeah, he's really good.
So I never got around to finding out where Frank Langell lived in New York or calling him up.
But maybe someone who knows him, listens to your show, will say, hey, Frank, you got a shout out today in Texas.
joe rogan
That guy's great.
He was great as Dracula, too.
bill murray
Yeah.
joe rogan
That whole Nixon Watergate story, I used to think about it very differently until Tucker Carlson broke it down for me.
Bob Woodward was an intelligence agent, and the first time he ever gets a job as a journalist, he's covering Watergate.
All the people that were involved in the break-in, FBI people, it was a complete intelligence operation.
Nixon definitely did the things they accused him of, but the whole thing was sort of coordinated by the intelligence agents to get Nixon out of office.
Apparently, what the story was, according to—I can play you the Tucker thing if you'd like to see it.
unidentified
But apparently what the story was, it sounds crazy.
joe rogan
But the story was that Nixon was digging into who killed JFK. One of the things that they wanted to set up when he was running for president is to make sure that Gerald Ford was his vice president.
Gerald Ford was also on the Warren Commission.
He was digging into it, and they wanted to remove him from office.
They set this up.
They framed him.
He did it.
They got him out of office.
Gerald Ford gets in.
bill murray
Okay, I got a shorter version.
Okay.
You're going to take me down to the Kennedy Road.
Where are we going there with that one?
I got Richard Belzer tapes I can play for you.
joe rogan
Oh, I'm a fan of Belzer.
I've met Belzer.
Belzer and I talked UFOs.
bill murray
The new guy is going to bring out all the warrant commission stuff.
Supposedly release all this stuff.
unidentified
Allegedly.
joe rogan
But my question is, what the fuck is going to be in there?
bill murray
Good call on allegedly.
I like that.
joe rogan
It's not going to be, hey, this guy did it.
Here it is.
bill murray
No.
Here's the way I see the Bob Woodward story.
See, you said, I don't know, what did you say first about Nixon, about your way of looking at Nixon?
The way I look at Nixon, and part of it is, seeing this, I like this way that, I love the way Langella did this.
I thought it was really well done and made a character of him, you know, a person of him.
But to me, I feel, here's what I feel about Nixon.
It's like, you know, he was hard to care for.
He ran against JFK, who was everybody's, you know, my hero.
And my father actually pushed me into John F. Kennedy in 1960. You know, just pushed me into the crowd and just pushed me up so I'd bounce up against him.
Now I'd have been wrestled to the ground.
But back then, you could do that.
Anyway, I felt like Nixon was – and certainly knowing Hunter and knowing all of the history of Nixon and whatever, Nixon wasn't my guy.
joe rogan
Oh, agreed.
bill murray
He was not my guy.
joe rogan
No, I'm not defending Nixon in any way, shape, or form.
bill murray
In fact, I talked about Nixon before that I think he's the problem with the whole psychedelics, drug, legalization act of 1970. But however, when I read Wired, the book written by, what's his name, Woodward, About Belushi.
I read like five pages of Wired and I went, oh my God.
They framed Nixon.
All of a sudden I went, oh my God, if this is what he writes about my friend that I've known for half of my adult life, which is completely inaccurate, talking to the people of the outer, outer circle getting the story, what the hell could they have done to Nixon?
I just felt like If he did this to my friend like this, and I acknowledge I only read five pages, but the five pages I read made me want to set fire to the whole thing.
Those five pages, I went...
If he did this to Belushi, what he did to Nixon is probably soiled for me, too.
I can't take it.
And I know you say, well, you could have two sources and everything like that.
But the two sources that he had, if he had them for the Wired book...
We're so far outside the inner circle that it was criminal, cruel.
And the reasoning for it is that the most famous person ever to come from Wheaton, Illinois, is John Belushi.
The second most famous person to come from Wheaton, Illinois, is Harold Red Grange, the football player.
And the third most famous person to come from Wheaton, Illinois.
It's Bob Woodward.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
Wow.
bill murray
So, there's all my controversy for today.
That's all I got.
I got a bone about that one.
You know, I got a bone for Woodward ever since I read that.
joe rogan
Well, once you see it from something that you know, you know, once you see propaganda or bullshit from someone that you know, and you see a distorted perception, it really, it opens your eyes to the fact that a lot of the things you read are horseshit.
bill murray
I mean, Belushi made people's careers possible.
He made people's careers possible.
Mine would be one of them.
All the people that he dragged to New York.
He went to New York first.
He broke into New York.
He took over New York.
And he dragged all of us from the second city to New York.
He's the one that got everyone there.
And there are musicians and lots of them.
That will thank Belushi for the creation of, you know, the revivification of the blues.
And for, like, the fact that there's, like, a House of Blues chain that blues players can go and play.
And there are all these venues that wouldn't have existed without Belushi.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
You know, he did a lot of things for people.
He did a lot of...
There's a lot of people that slept on John Belushi's couch.
There's a lot of people that stayed for free at his house until they made it in New York.
And I'm one, and...
And any, you know, he died in an unfortunate way.
But the man, when he was, he was still the best stage actor I ever saw.
He was absolutely magnetic.
You couldn't take your eyes off him.
And he did a lot of wonderful things for each other.
He was a short hitter.
Guy could only drink like four beers and he was drunk.
So the idea that he died of an overdose is hilarious.
Like, that's what my brother said.
He said, what, do you have four beers?
You know, he's John Stead.
What, do you have four beers?
He was not really much of a drinker, but...
joe rogan
But it was drugs, right?
It was drugs, yeah.
bill murray
It was a speedball.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
And it was this, I believe, to my knowledge, it was like the first speedball he ever had.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ.
So what was the Woodward interpretation?
What was his version?
bill murray
Oh, it was just, he was talking to people like, wait a minute, you're telling me that that guy over there...
That guy who's that far away from the center of things is telling you the facts about John Belushi?
That guy way the fuck over there is telling you who John Belushi is?
It's like, wait a minute.
joe rogan
And he didn't contact any of you guys?
bill murray
I didn't want to have anything to do with it.
I would have nothing to do with it.
It smelled funny from day one.
Judy wanted people to talk.
I was like, sorry.
I know where this is going.
And it wasn't exactly where I thought it was going.
Even worse than where I thought it was going.
Even just the title alone.
It was cold.
joe rogan
So it was just exploitation of his death.
bill murray
You know, you'd have to hold me down and burn my feet to make me read more of it.
So I couldn't say that it's exploitation of his death.
But, you know, guys that write books come up with, you know.
Bob Woodward's got a new title every 45 minutes for another book.
Yeah.
So, you know.
unidentified
It's a very disturbing thing.
It's just tough.
bill murray
In those five pages I read, he tore down my friend.
I didn't see any.
There was no compensation.
There was no balance in the five I read.
And maybe I was unlucky, but...
If that much was, to me, was disturbingly ugly and, like, irresponsible to report, then I can't imagine that I got so that I only found five.
Yeah.
You know, and I'm sure he's done, Wilbert does other things.
I've seen him on TV, and he can be smart and everything, but, you know, he's going to have to answer for that sometime for something, you know, I think.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
You know, it's just like you don't get a free ride for, not with my friend.
joe rogan
No.
Well, you can get away with things a lot more back then when he wrote that book as well, you know, so.
There's no other venues for people to express themselves.
Back then, it was like he writes the book.
He does the interviews for the book.
This is the narrative.
bill murray
Yeah.
And Bob Woodward, like one of the squarest guys in the world, gets to tell the story of what it was like to live in New York City in the 70s.
Yeah.
unidentified
Really?
bill murray
In the late 70s and 80s?
Like he knew what the story was?
Come on.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That must have been a magical time.
bill murray
It was cool.
It was really fun.
You know, it was a smaller city in a funny way.
There was a lot more freedom.
And it was, when I got there, you know, the town was broke, you know.
You know, the town was falling apart and, you know, the subways were rough and, you know, people, you know, to me it was exciting.
I didn't, what the hell, I know I came from Illinois, from Chicago, from the suburbs of the city in Chicago.
Chicago was pretty, It was a city, and it had its own hazards.
You know, there was some more hazard.
Where I lived in Chicago was more dangerous than where I lived in New York ever.
But the city was, you know, the economic part of it and the infrastructure was, you know, like the subways were, you know, people complain about the subways now.
I was like, wait a second.
These subways are air-conditioned and the windows close.
Those windows were open.
Summer and winter, and you either froze or you had, like, metal shavings dust flying through in the summer with no heat, with no air conditioning.
And, you know, if it's 97 degrees out, it's even hotter inside a crowded subway car, you know?
joe rogan
That was also back when Times Square was Times Square.
bill murray
And it was cool.
Yeah, Times Square is just as weird now, but it's just a different weird.
They sort of tried to sanitize it, you know, and it's...
It's kind of stupid.
I mean, now there's a lot more lights and everything.
There's more signs.
But the signs were always cool.
When they were neon, they were cool.
Now there's just these glow lights and they just keep moving and dancing.
And, you know, people with, like, vision problems shouldn't be out.
And people, you know, who are the people that are supposed to watch out for strobe lights?
joe rogan
Yeah, epileptics.
bill murray
Yeah, epileptics.
Can't walk through Times Square.
And 42nd Street is blah.
It's, like, dull, you know?
joe rogan
It's an Applebee's.
bill murray
Back then it was like, wow.
joe rogan
It's a giant Applebee's.
It's a giant Applebee's with huge ads.
Giant LCD ads.
bill murray
But it was cool back then.
You could see stuff.
There was real stuff to see.
Not that it's still real, but it's just a different real.
There's a lot more...
It's a whole international world now, which it wasn't back then.
Back then it was just like the street survivors of the city at the very physical center of it.
You saw some amazing things.
And it was alive, certainly alive.
Now there's, you know, you're crashing into, not exactly debutante, or not exactly like bridesmaid parties, but like, you know, there's people with flags and dragging people around and stuff.
joe rogan
Well, there's always a lot.
bill murray
There's a lot to see.
There's still a lot to see.
It's still New York City, New York.
joe rogan
But back then, having that experience, being in that wild New York of the 1970s, and then getting on SNL, how old were you?
bill murray
26. Wow.
joe rogan
That had to have been a fucking bizarre experience.
bill murray
Yes, it was.
It was a great experience for sure.
And, you know, you saw, you know, your life just changed dramatically from being, you know, unable to – barely able to pay your rent or afford, you know, a car, a telephone, anything unable to – barely able to pay your rent or afford, you know, a to having a credit card.
Like, that was a big thing, you know, a credit card and a credit card.
You know, we had to, because they wanted a safe, we had this sort of cab account with a thing called Skulls Angels.
There was a sort of company within the Yellow Cab Company called Skulls Angels.
And you could call them, and they would pick you up anywhere in the city and take you wherever.
And it was just, you just signed your name.
You didn't have to have any money.
And I had a credit card and that account, and that's all.
And I just went, lived for...
A couple of years like that.
Basically, all you were doing was going to work and going to sleep.
And then in between, when you'd have 12 or 15 hours where you didn't have to do anything, you'd go like, okay, let's go.
And then you'd go like, anything could happen.
Anything could happen.
And you could go anywhere in the city and you sort of had a sort of a thumbprint of okay.
You could go into any place and people would be like...
Come on in, you know.
And you got to, you know, really, you know, I mean, I probably could have done, you know, gotten more out of it, but I certainly got a lot, I put a lot into it, you know.
I got a lot, an amazing kind of education, you know.
I got an amazing education, but I guess that gets back to, you know.
I got to put my education to use, is what I should say.
I mean, in this kind of new challenging environment, I got to put what my education to that point had been to use.
joe rogan
What was the adjustment like going from being broke to all of a sudden having money, being famous, living in New York City, trying to make sense of this new reality that you live in?
bill murray
Well, I'll try to do them in order.
Well, being broke was, oh, I should tell you.
I'm here in Austin, Texas.
This is a William Murray golf shirt I brought you.
Somehow I got involved with these clothes.
The clothes got involved with me.
And that's me.
That is I and that person right there.
And I brought you a pair of shorts.
joe rogan
Oh, thank you.
bill murray
I also brought licorice, which you don't want.
joe rogan
He's a licorice dealer.
bill murray
I don't know what to make of you.
joe rogan
You don't want licorice.
bill murray
Anyway.
So anyway, the shorts are very...
You're not too chubby, but the shorts are very forgiving.
Are these golf shorts?
I've been traveling.
Yeah, they're kind of golf.
So are you gray?
Are you a gray guy?
I can wear gray.
joe rogan
Yeah, sure, I'll wear that.
bill murray
That's what I thought.
I thought you'd be a gray guy.
Those are for you.
joe rogan
Thank you very much.
bill murray
I've got my name on them, so if they get lost, they'll be returned to me.
joe rogan
Nice.
Thank you very much.
I'm excited.
bill murray
And wait, I got your shirt.
I thought you might like this shirt because this kind of has the range of possibility on it.
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
bill murray
That kind of has sort of a studious look for you.
joe rogan
There's a lot going on in that.
bill murray
There's a lot going on.
joe rogan
Thank you.
bill murray
There you go.
joe rogan
Thank you very much.
bill murray
Yeah, you're welcome.
I have long pants, too, if you want some long pants.
unidentified
No, I'm good.
bill murray
But I think you're more of a shorts guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, I'm good.
Thank you, though.
Jamie's a gigantic golfer.
bill murray
Oh, yeah?
Are you a long...
You're tall.
How tall are you?
unidentified
6'1"?
bill murray
Well, it's not that tall.
Let's see.
So we're the same, sort of.
And so you like white?
Blue?
Sure.
Or black?
Those are shorts.
Hold on.
Are you a shorts guy or a long pants guy?
I like it all.
unidentified
It's usually hot in Texas.
bill murray
You love it all, huh?
jamie vernon
It's hot out here to play golf in Texas.
bill murray
It's hot?
joe rogan
Texas gets hot when you're playing golf.
Usually.
bill murray
I bet.
Well...
unidentified
But you can play all year here.
bill murray
How chubby are you?
unidentified
I'm not.
I don't think it is.
bill murray
Okay, well the pants are pretty good.
You want the shorts?
joe rogan
Yeah, give them the shorts.
bill murray
These are black.
joe rogan
Nice.
bill murray
And that's the Murray Tartan right there.
That's the family Tartan there.
There you go.
joe rogan
Is that like from your family seal?
bill murray
Huh?
joe rogan
The Tartan is a special to your family?
bill murray
Yeah, that's the Murray Tartan.
joe rogan
Really?
bill murray
Yeah.
joe rogan
Nice.
bill murray
Yeah.
Okay.
And then so here.
And then so you want a shirt?
Sure.
I should show off this shirt.
This is a shirt because my brother has something to do with this one.
This has got all this stuff from Chicago on it.
joe rogan
Oh, nice.
bill murray
I haven't even looked at this yet.
joe rogan
Guitars.
Looks like a pizza place.
bill murray
I don't know why there's tambourines and stuff on it.
I have no idea.
There's always a glass of beer for some reason.
joe rogan
There's a drum.
bill murray
But there's a bunch of references to people we know and things we did in Chicago.
I see there's, like, the names of some character in a movie I played.
And then there's Slew's Place.
That's my friend Jeff Slewman, who's a golfer.
I think you're going to like this shirt here, Jamie.
How's that for you?
joe rogan
Oh, that's perfect.
That's Jamie.
bill murray
Okay.
What color pants did I throw at you?
joe rogan
Well, I got some black shorts over here.
Perfect.
Black shorts, dark blue shirt.
You're in.
bill murray
You can pull that off.
There you go.
Way to go high for that one.
unidentified
Thanks.
joe rogan
When you stomp Tony Hinchcliffe in this inevitable match, you'll wear that.
It'll be perfect.
bill murray
There's that.
joe rogan
How long have you been golfing for?
bill murray
Well, the question is how long have I been caddying for?
So I started caddying when I was very young.
Our eldest brother, Edward, started caddying.
joe rogan
So Caddyshack must have been a lot of fun for you then.
bill murray
Yeah, well, Caddyshack came, you know, my brother Brian was the, wrote the, Brian wrote it with Doug Kenny, one of the really great funny guys from National Lampoon, and Harold Ramis, who ended up directing the movie.
But all the golf stuff is all Brian's memories of caddying.
The whole golf story comes from Brian, sort of.
I mean, they all write jokes, but...
Doug was in charge of all the fancy lad stuff.
His dad was some sort of tennis pro sometime or other in Ohio.
And Harold wrote the jokes that were left and shaped it and directed it.
joe rogan
So you started off caddying?
bill murray
Yeah, yeah.
I started as a shag boy, which doesn't even exist anymore.
unidentified
What is that?
bill murray
There's a thing called a jam boy, which I don't know if it really exists.
My friend Duff insists that back in the day there was a thing called a jam boy who walked around, I think it was a slave or something like it, who walked around covered with jam to draw the insects away from the golfers.
Now, I don't know if that's true or not.
We should ask your listeners.
But I didn't have it that bad, of course, but a shag boy was...
Golfers had what they called a shag bag, which was like a small bag of golf balls, like 100 golf balls or something like that.
And they would dump them out on the practice tee, and you would run out there with the bag, and you would be the target.
Okay, go out about 70 yards, 60 yards, you know, and then they'd start hitting...
See?
No, but see, that would be safer than what I was wearing.
We didn't have that.
But I was just out there.
But I was definitely out there, and they would aim at you.
And the thing was, it would last for an hour or so.
And, you know, I was 10 when I started doing this.
So your mind would wander, and occasionally you'd hear like a ball land next to you or really close.
I never got conked exactly on the head, but I definitely got hit on one bounce any number of times.
You were just a target.
And then he'd wave in the next club and you'd go like, seven iron.
So he'd have to back up a little farther and then farther.
And the bigger the club, the wider the dispersion of the ball.
So you had to run back.
You really had to run to catch up to where this bad golfer was hitting the golf balls.
So that was when I was 10. And then like a year or so later, I became like a caddy.
And then I caddied all the way through high school.
Paid my way through high school.
joe rogan
When did you start playing?
bill murray
Well, if you showed up to Caddy on Sunday, you were allowed to play golf on Monday morning.
So probably I didn't really play golf-golf like that until really 12 maybe.
Maybe a little sooner.
But we used to play golf across the street from our house.
There was like a line of telephone poles planted in grass, you know.
And we would play from phone pole to phone pole.
And that was the pin.
So that's it.
And then I didn't really play.
I mean, once I sort of, you know, made it through high school, I didn't play for a long time until I made some money.
And then all of a sudden you can play golf again.
Because golf, if you're not catting, it takes money to play.
You've got to at least play and be organized and have a set of clubs and stuff.
So I picked it up then.
And now I like it, you know.
I was going to give it up a few years ago, but then...
You know, all of a sudden my son started playing golf.
I was like, well, that's what you got to do, you know.
So now I'm having more fun playing, and I've gotten smarter.
Do you ever play golf?
joe rogan
No.
bill murray
Never?
joe rogan
No, never.
No, I'm scared of it.
Because I think it'll eat up all my time.
Because I get addicted to games.
bill murray
Oh.
joe rogan
Yeah.
I play pool a lot.
bill murray
Do you have a pool table here?
joe rogan
I got a couple pool tables here.
unidentified
Oh.
joe rogan
I got one at home.
Yeah.
bill murray
And what games do you play?
Do you play, like, straight pool?
Nine ball, ten ball.
You know, I should work on nine ball.
I have a pool table.
I mostly play with...
joe rogan
The thing about it is I know everybody who plays golf gets fully addicted to it and loves it to death.
And I just don't have the time to get fully addicted to another thing.
And, you know, just being friends with Jamie and seeing Jamie's addiction...
bill murray
See what's happened to him.
joe rogan
...over the last few years.
He's become a maniac.
He's got a golfing simulator in the back and...
bill murray
Really?
joe rogan
...drives balls and...
Oh, yeah.
bill murray
A trackman?
It's in here?
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Wow.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's set up in the garage.
bill murray
Do you live here?
Do you guys live in this building?
joe rogan
No, it's a big building, but we don't live here.
We could.
We definitely could.
Maybe that's the next one.
Maybe the next one will set up dorms.
bill murray
Maybe.
Yeah, because there's always the rooftop.
Yeah.
Well, I don't want you to get addicted.
joe rogan
I've heard you're a very good golfer.
That's why I'm asking.
bill murray
Well, just keep that light going.
But I can play okay.
I've hit a lot of golf shots.
joe rogan
What's your handicap?
Jamie will know what that means.
bill murray
Now it's about 12. The lowest I ever was was about 7. It means I can play a little bit.
And now it's actually, what's the word?
Diminishing?
It's going lower.
Because I've figured something out.
There's a great book, these ladies.
Pia Nielsen and Lynn.
Pia Nilsson is an easy one to remember, but Linz, whatever Linz last time, they wrote a great book called Every Shot Must Have a Purpose.
Did you ever read that one?
Well, I should talk about them because they really are on to something, and it's about quieting your brain when you play, which I always thought I'd get better as my brain softened.
It seemed to be happening.
My brain was softening.
It was maybe getting better, but not fast enough for me.
And then I started following what these ladies had to write.
They were Annika's teachers at one time.
Annika Sorenstam.
She's a famous golfer.
joe rogan
Okay.
bill murray
Swedish.
joe rogan
Every shot must have a purpose.
unidentified
There it is.
bill murray
And there's the forward by Annika.
Anyway, Lynn Marriott.
How can...
See, I'm blocking that because it's a hotel name.
And I... I didn't used to be a member of the Marriott Club, but okay, so that's a great book, and they've written a bunch of stuff.
They know some stuff.
You should try that one, Jamie.
joe rogan
What does it change?
bill murray
It made me enjoy.
I enjoy golf.
I've always had a lot of fun, but that made me enjoy golf even more.
joe rogan
How so?
Like, what is it?
bill murray
You know, it just, it's decluttering, you know?
It's like when you do it in your life, and you...
You know, you mentioned distractions at the very beginning.
You know, you think about all the things that can catch you, you know, to distract you.
And if you're trying to do something that's pretty straightforward, whether it's stir grits or sew a line whether it's stir grits or sew a line of something or...
Or play a game of golf, which ideally you only have to swing, hit the ball like 75 times.
Everything that distracts you from that is a problem.
So it's the ability to sort of just pull the weeds out of your head, as I read a Japanese man say once, and attend to it when you attend to it.
You know, it's a few hours to play a round of golf.
Like you say, it takes a whole time.
But the actual playing of the game is only minutes.
The actual hitting of the ball is only minutes.
Like an NFL game can take like three hours on TV, but it's like 20 minutes of action.
joe rogan
Right, right.
bill murray
So it's similar to that in golf or anything that you have to sort of return to yourself to hit the ball.
You've got to come back.
Get it back together to hit the ball or do anything.
And so you have the freedom in between the shots to move and to speak and tell jokes and smoke cigars and whatever you want to do.
But when you want to hit the ball, this is about you're going to think, make a little plan, and you separate that.
You sort of inculcate that.
You take it in and then...
You separate that and you step up and you hit the thing.
And hitting the thing is only hitting the thing.
And if you can do that, then you start having real success with the actual hitting.
And the sort of joy of the sort of mind-body connection and all this sort of aesthetic, all the kind of like, you know, almost spiritual things about a mind-body exercise, a game, come to you, you know?
You know, when you hear great athletes say they're in a zone, they're not in a zone.
They're really conscious.
They're really connected.
They're really aware.
It's more than a zone.
It's like the ideal place to be.
joe rogan
Right, right.
And what is it about their writing that helped you?
Like, what is their philosophy that helped, like, steer you more towards being able to do that?
bill murray
Well, for an example, it's like something that can keep you in your body because you have to stay in your body.
I believe that anyway.
I'd already believe that.
So you've got this dreidel here, right?
So imagine it's a golf ball.
One thing that they sort of say was like you would just, in between shots, you would just take your golf ball, if you're on a putting green or if you have a spear in your pocket, and you just toss it up and catch it.
Toss it up and catch it.
That keeps you physically aware of, I've got to do this.
And this and that.
I've got to do these two things, so I've got to have my attention in my body.
I've got to stay home, you know?
So if you can stay in your body, it all begins in the body.
Everything we are, everything we hope to be, everything we dream about, it's all within the skin.
So you've got to stay within the skin.
So if you can make yourself come back, if you can get yourself back inside, you don't have so far to go.
To achieve your intended goal.
unidentified
Right.
bill murray
You don't have to drag yourself back from outer space.
You're not dreaming over there.
I'm in my body already.
So I'm close.
Does that make sense, Jamie?
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
So, and, you know, I've had some discussions with Pia, and she says, well, that's what the great golfers are doing.
They are pulling themselves back into this thing.
That's why they hit so many good shots.
It's because they're home.
You know, they're home.
So that's sort of what I got out of her.
And I sort of learned and believed that from other venues.
But I never had it put in with practical applications like she gives, they give, for golf.
You know, you think of golf as like, oh, I can be willy-nilly out here.
I can be fun or I can be aggressive or I can be competitive or whatever the hell.
All that stuff is...
It's real.
That's emotion kind of thing.
But if you're not in the body, good luck.
Right.
And it's only luck then.
joe rogan
Well, there's...
There's a great joy in things that take you away from the rest of the world because they require so much of your attention.
That's what I get out of pool, and that's what I get out of archery too.
I practice archery, but there's things that require so much focus while you're doing them, and you have to be in your body.
You have to be synchronized.
bill murray
I would imagine archery would be one of the more challenging ones.
joe rogan
Very challenging.
It's very challenging because...
You're supposed to have as little movement as possible upon the execution of the shot.
So there's all these strategies.
bill murray
They started televising it lately.
It's really cool to watch.
It's very cool to watch.
Cameras are right on their face and just the torso, just like this.
And you're like...
God dang, that's beautiful.
That's as good a close-up as any Robin Hood movie ever had.
It's just great.
joe rogan
No, I love watching it.
I watch it on YouTube all the time.
There's these Las Vegas shootouts where they have three targets, and they have 30 different shots.
So they're trying to get an X 30 different times, and they're standing next to the best archers in the world.
Everyone's at probably like 20 meters, and they're all just focusing, like dead still, completely.
Really calm, focusing, focusing.
What's that?
bill murray
Where do you find that?
joe rogan
Oh, you can find it.
Like, go to Lancaster Archery, Vegas.
And they have what they call a Vegas face.
So a Vegas face is three targets.
unidentified
Do people watch that live?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
bill murray
But they've got to have like big screens because you can't see the faces from a distance, right?
joe rogan
No.
bill murray
And you don't want to get between the arrows, of course.
joe rogan
No, you definitely don't.
People bring binoculars.
bill murray
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
All the archers have binoculars and they all pull them up after each shot because they're looking for precise distances and then they'll make slight adjustments on their scope and their sight and move and then they'll take a breath.
But it's...
bill murray
So do you have one of those Massivo?
joe rogan
Yes, this is exactly what it's like.
bill murray
Yeah, those things don't even look fair.
joe rogan
So these guys are all on this line and they're all firing and the amount of pressure is insane.
Because, really, the guy who makes money out of this thing is the guy who wins first place.
Everything else is not so good.
There's not a lot of money in archery.
Look at the audience.
bill murray
That is like about 60 guys.
joe rogan
Yeah, not a lot of audience, right?
bill murray
Yeah, it's not a crowd-pleasing.
joe rogan
So this is just for real, complete archery fanatics who are absolutely lost in this connection between your mind, your body, and the flight of the arrow.
The mystical flight of the arrow.
bill murray
That's interesting.
Can you go back and freeze that?
There.
Can you lose the line on the bottom?
So that's just interesting to me to look at their weight balance.
Just to look at who's on half his front foot.
joe rogan
Mm-hmm.
bill murray
So it's interesting.
They have a little bit more weight on their back foot.
Is that right?
joe rogan
Well, we're catching this in mid-draw.
So he might settle.
Yeah, see that guy that you were looking at who was like that?
That's got Brazier on his back.
Watch.
He'll settle.
So he'll draw.
And as he draws, he arches back.
And now watch.
He'll settle forward.
See, he was settling as the angle changed of the camera shot.
But they want to ideally be about 50-50.
And you're just staying calm.
Keeping it as steady as possible.
bill murray
Is that guy in the wheelchair shooting too?
joe rogan
Yes, yes.
There's a guy that shoots with just his feet.
The guy who doesn't have arms.
And he's unbelievably accurate.
bill murray
I think I've seen that guy.
joe rogan
Yeah, he shoots with his toes.
So what these guys are doing is it's just a perfect balance of technique and focus and attention.
And they're actually trying to get what's called a surprise shot.
They're not...
executing the shot like you would like a rifle trigger most of these guys use what's called a hinge and so that's what they're going for they're looking for it so with a hinge you don't you don't You don't make the release go off like with a button, where you press a button.
It's just a rotation of the handle, and you don't know when it's going to go off.
So you draw it back like this.
bill murray
So you're not letting go with your fingers?
unidentified
No.
joe rogan
No.
You have a metal release in your hand that has a hook, and the hook is attached to a sear.
bill murray
By just twerking your wrist?
unidentified
By rotating it?
joe rogan
It breaks.
And so the hook breaks.
Or some of them use a thumb, like that guy with the yellow and black, that guy.
So he's got a thumb trigger.
So what he's doing is he's setting the trigger.
The barrel, the trigger, right where his thumb is, and he's just using the pulling of his arm to make it go off.
He's not executing it with his thumb.
Now, there's a small select group.
bill murray
So that's why they all look different on the release.
joe rogan
Yes, but their arms all fly backwards.
If you see how their arm moves backwards, that's indicative of a surprise shot.
That means they're executing it perfectly.
bill murray
So the surprise is that they don't know when it's going to go.
joe rogan
Exactly.
They're just executing the test.
Technique, which is the pull with the back muscles.
You're pulling with your rhomboids.
And then it slowly goes off.
See, like that guy with the hat, the black hat.
Watch.
See his fingers?
How it's curling?
See how it goes off?
So that's just from his hand curling that's making the shot go off.
bill murray
But they get it to the position or the area where it's going to go.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
And they've got to be right.
joe rogan
They've got to be...
Yes.
bill murray
Poised forward.
joe rogan
But the idea is if you think about it going off and you make it go off, there's some sort of a recoil.
So there's some sort of an anticipation of that recoil.
And when you're shooting that precisely, that anticipation of that recoil might make a difference of an inch or two left or right.
Yes, that tension.
bill murray
So you try to not anticipate.
joe rogan
Yes.
When you are doing that, you do not think about anything else.
It clears your mind.
When you are just concentrating on that target, you cannot think about your bills.
bill murray
And so you do it.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
And when a thought does come into your head, you don't hit the target.
joe rogan
Yes, but it doesn't come in your head.
It can't.
It's too hard.
The process of aiming is so engrossing when you lock in place and you're aiming and then you're pulling back with the shot.
Like, you're all in.
You're all there.
Especially if you're good.
If you're good, that is the only thing you're thinking of.
And there's a moving meditation aspect to it, a cleansing of your mind.
Your worries go away.
Your thoughts, the things that are bugging you, and I've got to do this, and I've got to call that guy back, and all of it goes away.
Because it's so engrossing.
It requires so much of you.
bill murray
So how do you affect that yourself?
How do you move that away from the incidental?
Thoughts that pop in.
joe rogan
Well, it's just the difficulty of it.
bill murray
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's the difficulty of it actually sort of facilitates your meditative mindset.
Because if you're going to do it right, there's no other way to do it.
You literally can't be thinking about other things while you're doing it.
bill murray
Well, it's not like golf.
Like if you're thinking about what you're going to pick up on the way home.
joe rogan
Exactly.
bill murray
You're not going to hit a good golf.
joe rogan
Same as pool.
When, you know, I play pool at a pretty high level, like, I bet that book would be very beneficial to me.
I bet there's some techniques and strategies of how to focus yourself and completely remove yourself from the rest of the world and just think about this mind-body connection and the execution of this thing that you're trying to do.
unidentified
Alright, I'm going to try to do that.
bill murray
I know I, you know, I don't play enough pool.
But I had to shoot some pools in Groundhog Day, so I got with a guy who's a pool expert, and he just gave me drills to do.
joe rogan
Do you remember his name?
bill murray
No.
But if he remembers, he should say hi.
Anyway, he taught me a bunch of things, and I'm still very disappointed because when we actually shot the scene, I think I made...
I think I sank...
I think I shot...
I think I sank like nine balls, seven balls, eight balls, and three shots.
And I went, we got that?
And the center of tower was like, let's set it up.
I'll set up a different shot.
I said, what are you talking about?
He had half of the table.
joe rogan
Oh, no.
bill murray
All right.
I'm going to take a leak again.
joe rogan
Okay.
You want to wrap it up?
We can wrap it up.
bill murray
No, that's okay.
joe rogan
Okay.
All right.
Take a leak and come back.
unidentified
All right.
bill murray
I keep asking them any suggestions.
They say, well, tell some stories.
joe rogan
You should never ask for suggestions.
bill murray
So where do you come from?
joe rogan
I was born in New Jersey.
Went to high school in Boston.
Lived all over the country.
Lived in San Francisco for a while when I was a kid.
Florida.
bill murray
Were you in the military or something?
joe rogan
No.
Mother got divorced.
Married my stepfather.
He was going to school.
Went to San Francisco for that.
Then Florida.
And then eventually Boston.
bill murray
Well, that's pretty good.
I mean, I think I always wanted to live in San Francisco.
joe rogan
Well, I was in San Francisco during the Vietnam War in the height of the hippie days when I was a little kid.
It was pretty wild.
It was a very interesting time to be there, you know?
It was a crazy place.
bill murray
Yeah, well, that's what Hunter was talking about, I think.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
Yeah, my brother was there, too.
He went to school out there at St. Mary's in Moraga.
Oh, okay.
But it turned out he was spending a lot of time in Berkeley.
Yeah.
He wasn't doing that much studying.
But what a life he had out there.
What a fantastic time to have been there.
And my other friend went to high school at that time, somewhere around there, and I envied that.
And I really like San Francisco, and I was there recently.
I saw Father Guido Sarducci.
joe rogan
Oh, wow.
bill murray
And had dinner with him and Roman Coppola, and we went to an old place called...
Like macaroni or something like that?
Old Italian place.
And it was really delightful.
I just love San Francisco.
And I have friends who were like, and we started talking about politics a long time ago.
Like, for political reasons, they say, oh, San Francisco, they've ruined San Francisco.
And so I was there.
And I know there's homeless people in San Francisco now, lots of them.
And there's homeless people in Los Angeles and Santa Monica and anywhere that is warm.
Yeah.
And California is the most popular state, but I don't think it's a political choice.
I mean, I think, isn't it, I don't know the stats, but these people don't, it's more of a mental health thing, I think.
joe rogan
It's definitely a mental health issue.
bill murray
So it's not anybody's politics that are making people crazy.
joe rogan
Well, it's...
bill murray
But it's not making people live on the street.
I'm sticking up for San Francisco.
San Francisco survived the beatniks.
It survived the hippies.
It survived the earthquake.
It survived AIDS. It survived everything.
It's like a resilient, extraordinary place.
joe rogan
It's still got a lot of extraordinary aspects to it.
The problem is they kind of encourage people to sleep on the streets and shit anywhere they want and they didn't do anything about it.
bill murray
Do you really think they encourage people?
joe rogan
Well, they definitely make it financially viable for them to do it.
They give them money to do it.
bill murray
Well, that sounds like they're paying them the shit on the street.
joe rogan
No, they're paying them so that they don't have to be poor or homeless.
I mean, they have a tent and they'll help them.
They'll subsidize this existence.
What they need is more mental health care.
It's a mental health issue.
It's drug addiction and mental health.
That's the real problem.
And when you don't address it and then you just allow people to camp any way that you want, you're almost sort of encouraging mental health.
Problems to be everywhere all throughout and just be throughout the entire city.
It's just a lack of empathy for the people.
If you're empathetic for them, you don't let them just camp out and shit on the street.
What you do is you try to say, obviously, a real problem.
This needs to be addressed for the greater good of the city and for these people.
They need mental health care.
They need addiction care.
It's a real problem that needs to be addressed.
You can't just...
Leave them out in the street and let them do whatever they want and become a hazard for everybody else, then it makes the city kind of fucked up.
bill murray
Well, I don't know what the...
I mean, you know, when you talk, when you speak, it sounds like more of a political choice.
joe rogan
No.
bill murray
Someone's saying, well, it sounds like you're saying they're being...
You know, paid to shit on the streets and become mentally ill.
joe rogan
No, I'm not saying they're being paid to shit on the streets.
They are mentally ill.
bill murray
I always felt like mental illness happened first before living on the street.
joe rogan
Unquestionably.
It's all during the Reagan administration when they opened up the mental health institutes and just let people out in the streets.
bill murray
Well, it started before that in New York.
And that was my experience in New York was like Rockefeller, way back when, and I could be wrong, but this is how it was attributed, sort of opened up the mental, closed up the mental health hospitals and pushed These many, many, many people out on the streets that had nowhere to go.
And it wasn't a poverty situation, although it looks like it when you look at it.
It's really a mental health situation.
And a great number of these people have no interest in going into a place.
They would just as soon live on the street.
Their life is like an interior monologue that they can't control.
And living in a home is no different than living on the street.
The thing is still going on.
The conversation is still going on inside the brain.
joe rogan
But there has to be a solution for it.
bill murray
Well, okay.
So I don't disagree that there has to be a solution.
But I don't think that people are...
This is sort of like where, you know, I'd like to think about, let's not talk politics.
Let's agree with what we can agree on.
So that solution is like, this is where the great minds...
Of California or the United States need to come together and say, okay, these are, why don't we solve these problems that are common to every state has a city that has X number of people living on the street, whether it's Yankton, you know, whether it's, you know, Minneapolis, whether it's, you know, Louisville, whatever.
Everyone's got like a street scene situation that's rough like that.
And it's hard to say let's – you know, you say there's got to be a solution.
Where is that going to come from and who's going to believe it if it comes from this direction or that direction or this side or that side?
How do you like evaporate the walls of separation and say like how do we get the right people with the right minds to solve these?
Questions.
You know, these are real things.
And people argue about them.
I mean, you and I are arguing, but we're talking about it.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
And neither one of us is sleeping on the street.
joe rogan
Right.
bill murray
We both feel compassion for it, you know, empathy for it.
But how do you get people that are far removed, and we could say we're far removed from it, to, like, allow...
The solution to take place.
joe rogan
From one side or the other.
bill murray
From one side, any side.
Who gives it to him?
Who's got it right?
joe rogan
Well, it has to be a completely bipartisan thing.
We have to look at it in terms of the health of human beings in our community.
This country is supposed to be our community.
These people that are on the street, they are sad, sick people in our community.
And some real effort has to be taken to try to change that instead of just enable them to keep doing it.
That's all I'm saying.
I just don't think that the solution is let them camp wherever they want.
bill murray
Let them shit in the streets.
joe rogan
There's no argument to what you're saying.
bill murray
There's no argument.
So you were in this situation.
You had this, people call it a platform or a place where you invite people to come here that can speak to lots of people.
How many people watch your show?
joe rogan
A lot.
bill murray
So there's lots of people watching your show.
When there's people that make sense, you hear it.
It rings a bell.
It sounds like that.
I wish I knew the answer to solving these things.
And occasionally, like I say, you see people who are these problem solvers.
And the problem solvers come.
But people want to choose their own problem solver.
joe rogan
There's also money in being a problem solver.
That's the problem.
One of the big parts of the problem in...
California in particular is that there's an enormous budget to deal with the homeless.
So you have these people that work in these departments that are making quarter million dollars a year that are...
Just working on the homeless problem, which keeps getting worse every year.
There's no incentive to fix anything or change anything, and it's a bunch of bureaucracy.
There's a lot of bullshit that gets involved in the business.
A buddy of mine is a lawyer who went to San Francisco, and he was disturbed by it all.
He was like, this is so crazy.
What is missing?
Do we need more funding?
And they're like, no.
This guy explained to him, no.
They literally have an incentive to keep the homeless problem.
There's an enormous number of people that are making a fantastic living in dealing with the homeless issue.
bill murray
Who's making money on the homeless?
joe rogan
There's a giant list of people.
We could pull it up if you want to see.
We don't need to call them out, but there's a bunch of people.
bill murray
Just tell me, who makes money on the homeless?
joe rogan
The people that are involved in these organizations that are dealing with the homeless, whether it's in Los Angeles or in San Francisco.
bill murray
You mean, are they...
Like government?
joe rogan
Yes.
It's government jobs, yes.
It's all funded by the state.
And there's real jobs, like real money.
And nothing gets done, nothing changes.
In fact, it gets worse every year.
Something needs to be done that shows results.
What is that?
I think it's got to be compassionate.
It's got to be something that both the left and the right can agree to.
bill murray
So I'm trying to follow you.
God knows I'm trying.
joe rogan
Are you having a hard time?
bill murray
No, I think we were talking earlier about...
The agents versus the architects or something like that used a word that explained the people who are coming up with this sort of thing.
I was watching something, and I've really tried to avoid watching the news lately, but I saw someone talking about, and it was someone that works.
You say the word bureaucracy, and it's a loaded word.
We all hate bureaucracy.
There's just a word of it.
It gives you a creepy feeling.
joe rogan
Frustrating word.
bill murray
Yeah.
And so, you know, it's like being on hold for Amtrak or whatever the hell it is, you know?
You know, there's someone, you know...
Oh, please, God, come back.
Okay, so...
Please, God, come back.
So the idea that...
And so this person was talking about the cuts that are going to come and the talk about eliminating a bureaucracy.
And I don't know what...
joe rogan
No, that's not what this person was talking about.
Oh, you're talking about a different person.
bill murray
It's a different person.
I don't know what your person is.
This is my person.
My person is saying the bureaucracy gets sort of like fed from above somehow or other.
It's fed by these people that are the architects of one side or the other.
But the actual bureaucracy includes the people that can solve the problem.
Like, encased in this bureaucracy are people that can solve the problems.
And that if you just sort of – I'm not saying this is the case, but if you sort of just like zip a bunch of the bureaucracy out, you run the risk of zipping out some of the people that actually have the brains to do the solutions.
And what this person said was the solution to the bureaucracy is within the bureaucracy that is finding the people that know what can be done because they really do have the data.
They really do work.
They actually do show up for work.
And they actually have the data on how to do this thing.
But because it keeps being fed from above all the time, there's just all this extra debris and noise that keeps coming down that causes more clutter and more splitting and more something.
joe rogan
Yeah.
bill murray
So, you know, I'm not going to suggest that I could solve the question of bureaucracy today, but I think there's something about what we have.
We have the people.
You know, I'm going to go off on tangents now, but I always kind of had an objection to Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest Generation, because I thought, damn it, that's not my generation.
How do they get that?
You know, but I did start reading some of it recently.
His credit, he's finding people that are very singular in that generation.
joe rogan
Which generation is he referring to?
bill murray
Well, he's talking about the generation that won World War II. Okay.
And that generation was formed by the Great Depression.
That was part of what they had.
And then they had a world war that lasted five years.
And it's really hard for people of a certain age to understand.
You think you have problems with your relationship.
Have your lover go away for five years and see how well you're doing upon that person's return.
See what the hell that's like for five years.
And like, you didn't answer my letter?
You know, my letter?
Your letter?
What letter?
You know, your letter never came.
I was under fire.
Whatever it was.
joe rogan
And then they come back shell-shocked.
bill murray
And then you come back with shell-shocked on top of it.
And then back then, the sort of, kind of, I don't want to say a macho thing, but...
Back then, people just didn't want to talk about it, which to me is part of what created the hippie generation, was kids couldn't get their parents to talk about anything that they thought mattered.
What their parents were talking about was like, huh?
Wait, what's so wrong about peace, love, and understanding?
unidentified
Right.
bill murray
So and they couldn't get to that because even the idea of peace was a completely different concept to someone that lived through a world war.
unidentified
Yeah.
bill murray
Or lived through a depression.
So these kids were like, I don't even understand who these people are.
I know I'm their flesh and blood, but I don't know that.
I don't know what the hell they know and why they're this way.
But he chose people that lived a very intentional purpose during that very, very difficult, challenging time where they just went, I don't know what I don't know.
I don't know what all this is, but I do what I do know.
I do know what I do know and stay through that.
And that's, I guess that, I don't know how this relates me to this idea of bureaucracy, but people that do know the facts have got to stay with the facts, even in the face of, like, all the blunderbussing above about, you know, there's this and there's that.
You've got to be really dedicated to what you do know.
And realize that there's lots that you don't know.
But if you give up what you know in the name of jostling over here, then there's even more lost.
joe rogan
Yeah.
No, I agree.
And I think most people who get involved, particularly if they get involved in something like Homeless or any charitable organization, most of the people who get involved aren't doing it cynically.
They're not doing it to get that big paycheck.
Their initial reason for being involved in something like that is to help.
The problem is sometimes when they realize it's just a big clog and you're not going to be able to do any meaningful good, then things get weird.
And then you just sort of exist off of this system that's not doing anybody any good.
This is his argument about why so many people are working on this and nothing's getting better.
bill murray
So who's this one?
joe rogan
My friend Coleon Noir.
This is my friend who's a lawyer who went to San Francisco and saw this.
And had a conversation with someone who's actually in government in San Francisco and was explaining what the problem actually is.
bill murray
And the government, people say it's the government?
joe rogan
No, they just say there's no incentive.
There's no incentive for them to do a better job.
And there's a very compassionate perspective in the city.
They're very kind people, and they don't want to take these homeless people and remove them.
That sort of suicidal empathy that they have for the people in their city is causing this rash of tents everywhere and crime and, you know, you have to leave your fucking car unlocked otherwise they're going to smash your windows.
That's what his perspective is.
There's no real incentive to do anything different.
Because these people are still getting paid to keep it the way it is.
The amount of money they make is not based on how much good they do.
So if they're financially, if they're incentivized to, like, you get paid more if more people clean up, seek treatment, get on medication, get to a mental health institution, if you can show some sort of progress, it'll affect how much money you get.
And vice-a-verse.
If you have no progress and nothing gets done and the problem actually gets worse, perhaps you're not doing a good job.
bill murray
Well, that sort of makes sense, doesn't it?
joe rogan
It does.
bill murray
You get results.
joe rogan
Yes.
bill murray
You get encouraged by getting more money.
Yeah.
So does this remind you of anything?
joe rogan
It reminds me of everything.
It reminds me of the government itself.
What does it remind you of?
bill murray
Well, I feel like there's something hanging over our heads here that's like this situation, and maybe it's just a continuous situation of like a world that gets more and more people all the time, and more people want to have a voice, and there's just more people shouting all at once, and there's not quite the same kind of agreement.
We don't have like an ideal that we're all working for.
You know, I guess, not to like cheat, but...
You know, the greatest generation, they had to fight a war to maybe save the sort of structure of Western civilization.
joe rogan
Right.
bill murray
There is that argument, you know.
unidentified
Right.
bill murray
That if the Nazi Party had defeated England, you know, life would be different.
Life would have been different, you know.
And if that kind of dictatorship kind of world had gone further, you know.
It would have been a different world.
It wouldn't have grown the way it is.
But now it's grown.
There's this freedom.
The war was fought.
I believe there was a great quote in one of those books like there's no such thing as a bad piece or something like that.
There's all kinds of different.
But I feel like there's no sort of idea that people can agree on that's The source of like a reason for our being.
joe rogan
Well, it's a very uniting thing to be all together against a common enemy that is real, like World War II. Like there's a real purpose to life.
People understand that this is a very important mission.
This is something that, unfortunately, it's one of the best ways to unite people.
Is a threat from the outside.
bill murray
That's all we've come up with.
joe rogan
Well, that's what happened after 9-11.
Do you remember 9-11?
Everywhere in L.A., people were driving around with American flags on their car.
bill murray
I'll never forget 9-11.
What it was like to walk down the streets of New York after 9-11.
There was nothing like I've ever experienced in my whole life.
joe rogan
Right.
It was bizarre.
But it was also very united.
Like, people were together.
unidentified
It was.
bill murray
People looked.
Into each other's eyes.
You walk by someone on the street, and every person on the street looked right in your eyes.
And that lasted for weeks.
I mean, people in New York walk with their head down, they look like, they're reading a paper.
But people just looking by like, okay, we're in this.
joe rogan
Yeah, together.
And I think...
Some people actually obviously hated the act of what happened, but loved the way people reacted and how people felt with each other.
It did feel different.
New York City felt friendly.
It felt united.
It felt like people were proud to be American.
We were all together.
There's bad people out there.
They did this to us, but we're all together.
bill murray
Well, OK, so what we have here with the situation of like just using San Francisco as the idea is like it's just a gentler.
Version of something that we could all say, this is something that we have to go to war about.
joe rogan
Yeah, or it's a task.
bill murray
Any kind of a problem that we have as a group that we all are affected by or care about.
joe rogan
Well, it's too easy to ignore.
It's too easy to just say, oh, there's the tents, let's go this way.
The reality is the health of the community, it's dependent upon the health of the lowest members of the community on the social rung.
The lowest members are the people that are sick.
And if you don't take care of them, if you don't take care of the people that are mentally ill, that are homeless, that are addicted to drugs, that are on the street, that are desolate, that don't have friends, don't have love, don't have structure, don't have anything that they can call upon, horrible childhood, the whole deal.
If you don't...
If you don't look at them, then your society's sick.
Because the foundation of the society is the people.
If you've got a group of people that are part of your community and you're completely ignoring their plight, that's not good for anybody.
That's not good for big business.
That's not good for common folk.
That's not good for people in the neighborhood.
It's not good for anybody.
And it's gotten so far.
Because it's so big now, the problem is so enormous, it's almost too big to tackle.
It's almost like, okay, you're dealing with LA, you're dealing with 100,000 people living on the street.
That's so many fucking people.
That's the entire population of Boulder.
That's Boulder, Colorado, in tents on the street in LA. That's crazy.
It's almost too big.
And I talked to Mayor Adler, who was the mayor of Austin at the time when I first moved here, and he was...
He had a bunch of plans in place to help the homeless people, and they did an amazing job, because it got pretty bad here during the pandemic.
bill murray
I remember there being homeless here, yeah.
joe rogan
They got hotels, they put people up, they put together programs, they got people jobs.
There's a company that we've had, what is his name?
Alan, that we had in here?
Alan Graham?
From Loaves and Fishes, I went and visited his community that he set up.
He has this community where they build houses for these people.
They bought an enormous piece of land outside of Austin, and he sets up work programs for these people, gives them a sense of purpose.
It's an amazing place to be.
They're doing art and selling art.
bill murray
It's working?
joe rogan
Yes, it's working.
Yeah, I mean, it doesn't work with everybody, but it works with a lot of them.
And these people, they have a sense of community.
They all live in a safe area.
And we walked around.
I brought my kids.
We walked around there.
It was like the whole thing was really nice.
It was really wonderful.
It was really cool what he's doing.
bill murray
So that guy, his plan, his way of working needs to obviously get out there.
It's got to get around.
He lives there.
joe rogan
And this is a guy who has money.
He lives in the community with those people.
bill murray
This man must be deputized.
joe rogan
Well, he's a Christian, like a real Christian, like in the greatest sense of the word.
Like he's a guy who really believes in reaching out to people and helping people.
Yeah, this is Alan right here.
He's just a wonderful guy, like a really beautiful person, and lives with these people.
They're his neighbors, and they're constantly bringing people in, and he has all these different programs that people can sign up for to learn arts and crafts and learn how to sell things that you've made, and it's really cool.
And, you know, I mean, he's doing his part.
It's small in relation to, like, the problem of San Francisco.
But you need people like that that really dedicate themselves to it.
bill murray
I've heard of Loaves and Fishes.
I didn't know all of this about it.
joe rogan
It's pretty amazing.
It's a pretty amazing place that he's got.
And he's expanding it.
They're building new ones right now.
So there's these small houses that these people live in and they all have like a community kitchen where they can go and barbecue and grill outside.
And there's an arts and crafts center.
These people, they make cool chess pieces and they sell them.
They make paintings and they sell them jewelry.
They're doing all these different things and it gives them a sense of purpose.
bill murray
You've got to get this guy to San Francisco.
joe rogan
Yes.
Well, you need more people like him is what it is.
It's just he's a very unique guy.
bill murray
There must be people like him.
joe rogan
But, I mean, it's a lot.
I mean, he lives with them.
I mean, he's in the community.
He has one of those little houses in this, you know, giant area filled with people.
And he's with them for encouragement.
And, you know, it's a beautiful thing.
bill murray
It sounds really amazing.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It's beautiful.
bill murray
Okay.
joe rogan
Should we wrap it up, Bill Murray?
bill murray
Yeah, okay.
Sorry I'll keep you so long.
joe rogan
No!
It was amazing.
It's an honor to meet you.
I've really enjoyed it very much.
I appreciate talking to you.
Thank you, and thanks for the shirt, and thanks for the shorts.
bill murray
Yeah, well...
joe rogan
I'm going to wear those.
bill murray
Okay.
But, you know, I will just say that those shorts are very...
They're forgiving shorts.
So if you've had a big meal...
joe rogan
Good.
unidentified
Beautiful.
bill murray
Yeah, they still fit you.
joe rogan
I like that.
bill murray
They're good.
joe rogan
Can people buy these?
bill murray
Can they?
joe rogan
Are they available for sale?
bill murray
Yeah, yeah, they sell them.
joe rogan
Where do they go?
bill murray
It's called William Murray Golf.
They sell them online a lot, and I know they sell them in golf shops some places and some stores.
That's it.
Beautiful.
joe rogan
That's it.
bill murray
Look at that guy.
joe rogan
Look at that.
Look at that handsome fucking model.
bill murray
Yeah, that's a model.
joe rogan
That's a good-looking fella.
Let's get loud.
All right.
bill murray
That may be a model, too.
Yeah, he's definitely a model.
joe rogan
He's beautiful.
Well, thank you very much.
I really enjoyed it.
bill murray
Same here.
unidentified
Thank you.
Enjoyed it.
bill murray
Thanks for having me.
joe rogan
Bye, everybody.
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