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I mean, today is a big one. I'm just going to say it. Today, Rev Run of Run DMC, the legend. Just a little tour. The first hip-hop act to make a video appearance on MTV. One of the first hip-hop acts to receive a Grammy nomination.
the first hip hop act to appear on the cover of the Rolling Stone. These guys invented hip hop. They really, really did. I mean, look, Sugar Hill Gang was around, but these are the guys that did it. This is the OG and Rev Run is just a super, super interesting guy. And it's rare that we get a legend like this on the show. So this is a great conversation. The Rev, it's so good to have you on, man. This is
I was going through your life doing a little background stuff, and it's—what an amazing—I mean, I don't even know where to begin, man. I mean, tell me a little bit about your father. He seems like a really interesting dude. Wow, that's deep. I was just looking at a picture of him just now at 18 years old in the Army. My father is the reason I am the way I am. He's poetic.
He writes poetry, or he wrote poetry before he passed. He wrote Proud to be Black on our album. He wrote 30 Days. He was in the movie Crush Group. He was in Tougher Than Leather. He was a black history professor. He was a family man. I think I get most of what I am from my dad because he's comedic and he's personable and
when I realized how many poems he had wrote, so much rhyme. See, if you find that you don't like my ways, you could send me back in 30 days. I mean, my father wrote records for Run DMC. That's how cool he was as far as being a creative. So with that being said, I believe that most of what I am doing
came from him, the way he rocks.
And what was his back? He worked in the public school system, right? Like, what was his background? He was an attendance officer. He also was a black history professor at Pace College. That's in the day, man. That's in the day. Yeah, he was a black history professor at Pace College, and he was an attendance officer. He was a man of extreme integrity. He was a proud man, and he was stylish.
He had a lot of fly clothes. He was a dresser. So no doubt the way Run DMC have this fashion thing that happens because of this hat. He always had a broken down hat. He always had his blazers and his shoes and the way he did things was always stylish. So I believe that's a part of me too. When you started your career,
and you're just breaking out, was he must have been over the moon. I mean, my dad's still alive. I have a story. Right? I walked into Rebel Knox on Jamaica Avenue. This is a true story. And I would get in there,
I don't know how they would just say to me, your father was just here. Like, how do you know who my father is? Yes. I mean, I'm here to buy a hat for the night for the show. That's because my father was so proud. He'd walk in there and say, you know, Ron is my son. Yes. Right. And then I'd get on a bus coming home from Jamaica Avenue and the bus driver would say,
Your father was raising hell on this bus today because they were letting too many people on the bus. I didn't know it was my father. You know, I remember playing basketball and seeing him getting off the bus coming from work. And I'm like, Dad, Dad, look. And I shot a jump shot way far away. It had to be God. I had to be further than Steph Curry. Shit.
straight through. And then I remember my friends laughing and we were playing football and it was raining out. There was puddles of water everywhere. And he's like, Joey! Joey, do not run in that water! I heard him in one ear and went out the other ear and he was like, hi!
And the quarterback went to throw the ball. And there I go. And they just start laughing, splashing through the water. He just told me, Joey, do not run through that water. And I'm splash, splash, splash. And I catch it. And I'm smiling, looking at him. He's like, I just told him not to run in the water. But I wanted to catch the ball so bad.
that I didn't remember that two seconds ago he said, do not run in that water. Sure. Directly in the water I ran. Absolutely. Those are the days, man. Mud ball. How great was it? Like the days get, get your guys together and touch. Oh, two and a touch in, in like the shittier, the weather, the better, the more fun. I mean, I was so good at two hand touch. I was a wide receiver and I would be, I remember telling the quarterback, uh,
When he throws you the ball, just throw it because I'll beat it. I'm out there. The ball's already up. I'm chasing the ball because the ball left before damn near before height. Yeah. And I'm catching it. So those were the days. And I would just score after score after score. I love playing two hand touch. Two hand touch was great. I remember even like in the day.
Like, when we were real little, because you couldn't really hurt anybody when you're so small, of playing tackle. Like, with no gear. Tackle with no, you ain't got no shoulder pads or no helmet. But when we were, like, really, really little, and then there's that moment when somebody blindsides the quarterback for the first time. I remember putting, I put a hit on my brother. I remember it to this day. He remembers it to this day. He wasn't ready. He was hitting his back to me. It was great. It was a fact.
I mean, I was like, I'm going to unload on him. We laugh about it still, but none of those kids are doing any of that today, I don't think. I remember playing Skelly. Remember Skelly? You take the top outside and you pluck it across the thing. We used to put wax inside our Skelly top in order to make it heavy enough to knock the other guy's top out the box. All that stuff from that. And Ringo Livio at night, where you play tag and it's dark out. And Ringo Livio, one, two, three, one, two, three, grab the guy's.
You remember Ring-O-Leading? Yeah, all that stuff. Nobody does any of the kick the can, all the good stuff. Everybody's in the house on the computer. So kids are not doing what I did as a kid. It was so much fun to wake up. I'd wake up, go to the park. My mother wouldn't see me to the end of the, if it's dark out. Yep. Going all day. Yep. Just going to play basketball, going to play football, going, walking around, walking
drinking people's water from off their lawn, you can grab their hose. Yeah, right. You did that, right? Yeah, of course. Put your mouth on it. I can still taste the steel of the front of the hose. Yes. I put them on my face and keep moving. Come in with a dirty face, but full of water and getting food from people's houses. And I saw this meme on Instagram. They had a picture of bikes all laying out in front of somebody's house. And it
And it said, this is how we knew where your friends were because you have five bikes laying in front of this guy's house. Oh, everybody's at this house because there's, you know, Doug's bike, Terry's bike. So everybody see, I throw my bike on the ground. She just dropped my bike. Drop it. No kickstand. Slamming. Like,
Like it's indestructible. I'm sure you did the same thing. Oh, 100%. I also remember when the weather got nice, like you couldn't wait to take your shoes off. And like, you'd just be like, I'd be like barefoot all the time. That's like, that's how you do it in the summer. All day long.
All day long, no cell phones. You got to have a dime if you're going to make a call, if you made a call at all. You ain't making no phone calls. And if you had to, you'd have to have a dime. Collect call. Remember that? I have a collect call. That's it. No cell phones or nothing like that. All that. But you wrote a book on raising kids, right? Yes. Take Your Kids Back. I remember that was years ago. And then we had a book called Old School Love with me and my wife.
and old school love and how it works. And I put out many books and I had a Word of Wisdom book, a book on raising kids. My TV show Runs House kind of showed, it was on MTV, showing people how I ran my life outside of being a rap star. So that was very unique for MTV because most of the shows were kind of ratchet. But this show, it didn't have a bone of ratchetness in it. It was just
a loving show, but yet the ratings were through the roof, which teaches you something that everything doesn't have to have a shock value in order for it to be wonderful. People tuned in every week that just see me loving my wife, playing with my kids and having a good time. So yeah, that's the way I live my life. You know, family is everything to me. For me, it's one thing to be able to go out and, you know,
quote unquote, be a star and do what I do. It's another thing to be home and working with your family and loving them.
Yeah, I'm blessed enough to work with both my sons. Wow. And it's, yeah, it's just the best. It's the absolute. It's a big blessing. Why do you think you and I were smart enough and lucky enough to get that message when so many people don't? What do you attribute it to? I think it's in your heart. You know, this is what I yearn for. When I finish this call with you, I'm going to go and connect with my children and call my wife. I don't know why.
certain people have roots that are different than other people. You know, it's, we're all built different. But for me, my heart is into my kids and into family.
And I guess we've been blessed enough to let that be in the cards for us, personality-wise. It is different personalities. Some people's like, I don't ever want to have kids. I don't ever want to have to deal with kids. So I think it has a lot to do with you have that personality and I have that personality. Yeah, and that's where we get our joy. It's like I have no desire to go. I go on the road because I have to go on the road. You have to go on the road because you have to go. But we just want to go. We want to go home and hang. Exactly.
Exactly. It's the thing that I love. Even Guy Fieri is like that. He's out doing the cooking and stuff, but yet he is with his kids and his wife. Nice guy. I love Guy and people like that. It's just family-oriented people, man. What's your dream day? Oh, I can't wait to tell you. Let me breathe this in. Yeah, I'm ready. Lay it on me, man. I just got my beach pass for when I go to the Georgia Beach in the Hamptons. Mm-hmm.
My dream day is taking one chair by myself unless some friends want to come, sit there, look at the water.
I'm a real beach guy. I'll probably drive there listening to some slow music, some smooth jazz, and get to the beach, have me some chips, something to drink, and just chill out. My dream day is being around good music and wonderful water. That's just me. Same. No, no.
You love to be? I'm in the water all the time. I mean. Oh, my gosh. That's what it's meant to be, this conversation. I've got hubs and waterfalls. Anything I can do to hear water calms me down. Calms me down, brings me joy. I try to get in the ocean. And it's easier for me because I live in California. But I get in the ocean on average probably once a day, even in the winter.
Wow, you love the water. Okay, so we're kindred spirits. You love the ocean. Man, I go to Miami sometimes. I'll be out there, all the way out there in the ocean, just floating and swimming and being. I could do it all day. I mean, I can't do it all day, but I could. Where do you get your... Do you have a place or a time where you feel like you've gotten your most inspiration for writing? The tongue. The tongue? Yeah.
Yeah, I write my words of wisdom from the top. I write hit songs from the top. I just came up with something the other day, this song, because I love mashing beats together, like the way I made Tricky or Mary Mary. These things pop into my mind. Once I get relaxed, warm water right around the side of my neck, all the worries, all the things, my responsibilities, I won't call them worries, and I'm free, my creativity starts to flow.
My creativity flows once water is on my body. And that's when I write my biggest hits. It's where I wrote some of the biggest songs that I've ever had. I just have to be in a relaxed mode. And then I can feel vibrations and pull up ideas. Do you ever get that in that sort of area right before you go to sleep? Because I've had that a lot with sleep. Yes.
Sleep is right before sleep is when the imagination begins to work and manifestation begins to happen. I think, first of all, if I get out to talk, if I take a bath at night, it's going to put me to sleep.
So when I wrote this song, it just popped into my head the other day. I can't wait to get to the studio with some producer or engineer. Yes, right before sleep, things pop into my head. It's the opposite with my wife. She's up at night because she doesn't, you know, I can fall asleep and I fall asleep in that state of mind. Yeah.
And during that time, the creative juices just happened. Sometimes I'd have to lean over and write something down or put it on my phone in the notes. And that's what happened. I was going to ask you, what do you do when you have that inspiration? When I discovered that I could just go, hey, Siri, and then just...
say whatever's like thought I'm having as opposed to having to wake up, grab a sheet of paper, grab a pen, made a huge difference for me. Yeah, it's easy for me. I just pull out my phone. I just wrote this song the other day called Dude Named Santa and it came out really dope. Um,
And I just wrote it all down. Everyone said, well, I didn't make it yet. I just, that ideas flow. And then after they flow, I just put them in my archives. And if I ever need something, I can just pull from that. I just, I was writing the other day. I was sitting right next to my wife. We were looking at some TV show on Netflix. And she went, why aren't you looking? I'm like, something just popped into my head. So I just started finishing up a song or a script or whatever. Yeah.
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All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.
Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. What comes first for you? Like a beat, a lyric, a hook? Let's think about it. Well, the new one that I just came up with came with a beat because I'm a DJ at heart. I'm a DJ before I'm a rapper. So sometimes...
I can do the lyric first, but this new thing that I just pulled together is a mashup of two songs. I can't tell you what it is, but it's so cool. I'm so waiting to find the right...
I need people to help me with my stuff. I come up with it. I know how to DJ it and put it together in mash records, like the way I put Mary, Mary, why you bugging? Bam, bam. But I put the weather tricky and beats. Sometimes it becomes beats first. Sometimes it comes right. I actually have a record called Beats to the Rhyme. Now, the record Beats to the Rhyme meant that I first made music
Some rhymes right and I recorded the rhymes out the pillow and then I told the producer I'm finished my job here is the rhymes and they were on a actual I went to the studio made a piece of wax like a vinyl and so now take those rhymes and Find a beat and that's why I named the song beats to the rhyme. Mm-hmm. It's Ron you're rhyming over and
a beat, right? You rhyme over a beat. I told a dude, I'm finished. My job is done. Here's the vocals. They're on this record. Scratch them over a beat. So it's all weird to me. I can do rhymes first or beats first. But that particular record is a massive breakthrough that I made the rhymes before the beat and put the rhymes on a record and scratched it on a beat. Crazy. Did you ever think that hip hop would...
Not even, I don't even want to say have the staying power because it's not going, I mean, it's like supplanted rock and roll. It's, I mean, when you look at it, I mean, it is music. And you guys took it from, you know, Sugarhill Gang where it was just the beginning and made it what it is today. I mean, that's a fact. Everybody knows that. So did you ever, ever in your wildest dreams?
think we'd be sitting here? How many years? Well, the Run DMC story is Kings from Queens based on what anniversary of you guys? Like the 40th or 40th? 50th year of hip hop. Jesus. 50 years! Half a century! Yeah, that's crazy. I won't be here after the next 50. I don't think. Let me see. I'm 59. I'd have to be 109. No, you're going to get some of those new injections. You and I are going to get those injections, man. We'll put them in our tub.
Good, that would be great. Just the notion that something as new as it was would be as vital as it is 50 years later. I didn't think of it like that. I had so much fun being a DJ, just in my bones, to be a creative. That nothing popped into my mind about how big it's going to be, how big I can make it. It was just...
can I get this record that I just made to the people so they can hear it? So it was never an ego. If it was ego, the only ego was, I think they're going to love this. You know what I mean? I can't wait. I used to make records.
and love them so much that I would throw them up my window. I said, I can't take it no more. They're going to go crazy when they hear Sucker MCs. They're going to lose it when they hear It's Like That or Walk This Way. They're not going to know what's going on. And that's the type of thing. I couldn't take the...
I couldn't hold on to records. I would actually open the window of my car and throw the tape. I can't listen to this no more because I'd be so excited for the people to hear it that it would just... I can't take it. I know it's like asking you which one of your kids you love the most, but...
You got to pick one. What's what? Okay, listen, I'm not going to say which is the one you like the most or whatever, but what is the one that moved the needle in your life the most if you had to pick one of the songs? Because I know what I think it is from my perspective, but I'm curious to know what you think. The record that moved...
I'll tell you this. I don't like saying this particular record, and I've been wanting to say it on all the interviews I've been doing, but the reason why I like this is because it's such a well-put-together, loving story. It was December 24th on "Hala Sabbath of the Dark" when I seen a man chilling with his dog at the park.
I approached him very slowly with my heart full of fear. Looked at his dog. Oh, my God. An ill reindeer. By then, I was illing because the man had a beard and a bag full of goodies 12 o'clock it neared.
That time I had a second and the man was gone, but he must have dropped his wallet smack dead on the lawn. I picked the wallet up, took a pause, look at the license in it, Cole said Santa Claus. A million dollars in it, Cole hundreds of Gs, enough to buy a boat, mansion car with ease. But I'd never steal from Santa, 'cause that ain't right. So I was going home to mail it back to him that night. But when I got home, I bugged, 'cause under the tree was a letter from Santa and the money was for me.
That is probably my favorite touching rhyme I ever wrote. People probably will beg to differ, but that song came from heaven. I don't know how I wrote it,
I just, Bill Adler had told me, you got to make a Christmas song for the Special Olympics. And everybody was doing over like, you know, Jingle Bells, you know, Spring Spring, it was singing songs, but I'm a rapper, so I couldn't sing over. It never entered my mind that I could do over, you know, Silent Night. So I had to pick up a pen. And I'm going to tell you something.
The pen in my hand was moving and I don't know how it happened. That's probably truly my favorite creation that heaven gave me, Christmas and Alice. It's amazing when that happens. It's like... Yes.
Somebody once described writing, and I'm fascinated with people's process. I could talk about other people's creative processes all day long because it's at once super different and super individual and also exactly the same. And somebody was saying that, you know, writing is sitting at a desk and you open the drawer and sometimes inspiration is in the drawer and sometimes it's not.
And you write as long as you can, you know? You're pulling from files in heaven. One of my favorite songs that I didn't write, I love. You got a friend in me. Randy Newman. That guy. Unbelievable. You got a friend in me. When the road gets tough ahead and you're miles and miles. And his voice, long on bed.
You got to remember what your old pal said. I think he's genius. And his voice, he just knows how to write and he knows how to sing and he's confident in the way he does it. Yeah. There's no one in the world that sounds like Randy Newman.
Nobody. And you know the family he comes from. His brothers, all the Newmans are insane. I think we both got a Grammy Award at the same time, or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I think we got inducted at the same time. He reminded me of that when I was with, talking to him on Zoom once, and
He's insanely talented. But you just have to know you're pulling from a file in the heavens. Pharrell said it best. We don't own any of this.
The ideas are out there. Either you grab them or you don't. There's a whole file from A to Z of beats, singing, songs, and they're in there and you just have to access them. And that's when your ego goes out the door. You know, Quincy Jones said it best. He said, well, let's get in the studio. Hopefully God walks through there. Yeah. Hopefully God walks through the studio. And that's Peter Piper. I wrote that.
after listening to a singing song about fairy tales. Now, Peter Piper picked Peppers for Run Rock Rhymes. Humpty Dumpty fell down. That's his hard times. Jackie Nimble was nimble and he was quick, but Jam Master's much faster than Jackson Jay's tip.
The little Bo Peepko lost a sheep and Rip Van Winkle fell a hell of sleep. Alice chilling somewhere in Wonderland, Jack serving Jill a bucket in his hand. Is Jam Master Jay Flaygin' had that sound? The turntables might wobble, but they don't fall down. I can't take credit for that. These things just
come inside me. They pop into my life. And there's a quote that I like that just says that sometimes we think we're doing, but we're actually being done. I think I got that from Wayne Dyer. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
You do what you do. I can't do it. The guy is a guy that built my house by himself. I can't do it. But he can't go on the stage and perform at the Grammy. Right. So we have some room, I believe. But there's a certain point that the Bible says that I have a plan for you. So there's this plan for Michael Jordan. There's a plan for Rob. There's a plan for Run. The plan for Randy Newman. And in that plan, God is in it.
And you kind of fall in line. You know, you're not... Don't let your ego get carried away. There's people that are before you and there'll be people after you. So I'm very grateful for the gift I've been given. And I couldn't build my house. I couldn't fix the sink. I can't hold a hammer in my hand. But yet I could write... It was December 24th on Holland's Day. So this is when I know that we're here for a purpose and our purpose is to serve...
and help each other. I entertain, you build houses, you play tennis. I'm going to look at a movie by this guy. I leave here, I think I'm going to look at Alexander the Great. There's a movie on Netflix. And we're all here to lend a helping hand for all to get through this world together. What do you think prevents people from knowing their purpose?
I know, it's probably an impossible question to answer. Good question. I like questions like that. Prevent is a good word. You say, what stops them? Yeah. Or prevents them from knowing. At some point, you knew DJing was your thing. At some point, I knew acting was my thing. At some point, the guy at your house went, hey, I'm good with a hammer. I'm going to do this. What prevents? You see it all over where people go, I'm trying this. I'm doing that. I don't know about this. And they just haven't found that yet.
You know, you've got to do what comes easiest to you. And some people don't want to do, like for me, when my manager asked me to do certain things, I don't want to do that. But it doesn't fit me. So I have to always, I turn down things constantly because my belief, and once I read it, is...
The thing that you do easiest is the thing that you were born to do. There you go. Like this conversation, I didn't know how it was going to go, but it's the easiest, calmest conversation. This is,
Probably my funnest interview because we're just kicking it. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I'm enjoying this immensely. So at the end of the day, I think people overthink it. You might be a mother and that's your job to take care of your kids, to hold down the fort while hubby's out. Or you might be a
a wife that works with the husband and y'all run businesses together. When people overthink things is when they get lost. Cause you'd be like, wow, you can do that. You didn't know. Like famous, famous. He makes the cookies. Look how old it was before Colonel Sandals made the chicken. No, seriously. You got to do what comes easiest to you. What feels good. If it feels good to you,
and it feels, and it's simple to you, you know, kiss, keep it simple, stupid. Oh yeah. It's a big one. Keep it, it's so true. And you know, it's funny in acting, there are great actors who are super, super great
in the early parts of their career. And then as they get older, they get broader and more cartoonish. And I think the reason is it's so, when they're in the zone, it's easy. It feels easy. And after enough time, you go, I'm not doing anything. I got to do something. This is just, there's not. And you push and push and push to feel effort. Or what would your beautiful gift be?
Bored with your beautiful gift. I like that, but that's probably what probably I like that you said they get cartoonish and again, it probably has to do with people being bored. Like for me, I'm back to the essence. Me and DMC did our last concert. I have some shows coming up as a DJ. It's heaven on the turntables back to 16 years old in my attic. Just me, two records, making things happen.
That's heaven for me. So for me, the more I can keep it simple, the happier I am. I have had competitive spirit over my life.
I have less and less lately. Lately, oh, I can't care less. You don't know what I do. I've had enough accolades. Thank you, God. I like to feel like, I like to say this to you too, because it's going to help me to make sure I stay here. Because I'll look at somebody doing something really grand and like, you can find a moment of, I won't say competitive, but you want to do good too. Like, you know what?
I'm fine. Peter Piper picked Pappas, man. I'm great with what I pulled off in this world. And I don't want to get into an egotistical battle with any human being. So I'm able to turn that, I have to tell my wife all the time, turn the volume down, turn the ambition down. Let's just go. We're going to Home Depot to pick up what you said. We're doing fine. And I have to constantly, I don't do it to my kids, but I try to do it to grownups that are around me. Chill out.
Chill out. Do you know how, do you ever have like where themes or words or phrases or ideas keep coming up in your life? You're like, what is that about? Like the notion that you just said, turn the ambition down.
I do it all the time. That's come up in my day-to-day life like a bunch in like the last 10 days. You're like the fourth person that's used that phrase. I got to do some meditating. Yeah, I got to use some... What's the only person that ever said that? Turn it down. Because it's ego. It doesn't make any sense. We're here. Make a good movie. People loved it. Great. I make something, music that people like. Great. But I don't want to get caught up in...
ego thing. I don't want to do it ever again. I mean, as a kid, it was cool. I'm competitive. You know, it was basketball. You know, like Michael Jordan, you want to dunk better than somebody. I want to make the best rap record. You know, when you get older, you're supposed to get wiser. And I know my limits now. So, you know, I want to do well, but I'm not going to drive myself crazy anymore to accomplish giving away my gift.
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All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.
I want to, as we wrap up, I want to ask you about your opinion on the state of the union of hip-hop. I love it. I love it. I've been telling this all day. Nas is still making records. Yeah.
That's a huge accomplishment. He sold out Madison Square Garden. Yeah. Cry. Nas is a gem. Nicki Minaj has been making records for so long. I mean, and now she has a record that just came out. She's so talented. So whatever I see that doesn't suit me, it's like I don't listen to it. Like,
I listen to Sade all the time. I'm a cool guy. You listen to Sade? Hell yeah, come on. Right. So for me, the state of hip hop is if I hear something good that Pharrell might make or somebody like Nas might make, then, or Nicki Minaj or...
quest love coming up with documentary stuff you know i'm happy i'm happy i don't have judgments about you're like oh there's no hip-hop oh you should it should be like one in the 80s when i started i i am not that guy yeah i don't ever want to be considered because when we came out people were like what is this yeah what's hip-hop so i don't do that to the kids because the kids look at me like
Go somewhere and sit down, old man. Right. I don't want to be in their business because they know something we don't know. Kids are always doing something you don't know that you might interest. That's not me. I look. If I enjoy it, I'll listen. If I don't,
Turn the radio station. That's my opinion about the state of hip-hop. There's some good stuff out there. Are you happy with Kings from Queens, the Run-DMC story? You psyched about it? It's about the history. It's the history of Run-DMC. My favorite thing is where I learned how to do it. I learned how to do it in Daryl's basement.
He had two turntables and a mixer. Like, how does this work, D? So me and my brother bought this. We sold my comic books. These are turntables and this is a Gemini mixer. And you take this record and you go from here and you go to there. So when I show that process in this documentary of where I come from,
I'm satisfied, brother. I'm satisfied. That's awesome. I can't wait to see it. Hey, thanks, man. This was so great. What a great, just vibey chat, right? It was cool. Very nice to meet you. Continue success and keep turning the ambition volume down. You got it. Have a good time. I'll see you in the next 50 years. Much love. Yeah, same to you. Thank you, man. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to get in a hot bath. I don't know about you.
Of all the things that I thought my takeaway would be from Rev Run, I did not think it would be get in a hot bath. But it is. And I'm gonna. And of course, Rev Run's amazing new documentary on Peacock, Kings from Queens, the Run DMC story is streaming now. Ring, ring, what's that? Ooh, it's the lowdown line. Hello, you've reached literally in our lowdown line.
where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep. Hey, Rob. This is Thomas from Texas. I was reading an oral history of David Lynch's Dude movie from the 80s,
And it mentioned that you turned down the lead role of Paul Atreides, which we eventually went to Kyle McLaughlin, as we all know. Is that true? And if so, why'd you turn it down? And did you ever meet David Lynch? Let me know. Thanks. Love the show. Wow. I'm going to have to look that up. That is 100% true. Very few people know it. I'm curious to know in what you read who told the story, because it's true.
Um, I vividly remember meeting Dino De Laurentiis who produced Dune and I had done the outsiders and that was pretty much it. Hadn't come out yet. And I went into the meeting with Dino who was pretending like he didn't speak English. Um, he was the, he was Dino De Laurentiis, legendary producer, produced all kinds of things. And, um, I couldn't show him anything from the outsiders cause it hadn't come out yet. But what I did have was, it was a cast photo.
to show him like, hey, I'm in this Francis Ford Coppola movie and it's really cool. And I slid it across the desk and he looked at it and he got really excited all of a sudden and he pointed at it and said, star, he's a star, a star. And I got really excited too until I realized he was pointing at Matt Dillon. But I did get the offer to do it. And this tells you how...
how different the business is now of entertainment. And there was a time, and it'll be shocking because you sound like you're youngish, where the notion of doing a sequel was beneath you. No one would dream to do a sequel of anything. It simply did not happen. Now, of course, everybody does sequels and then you only make a movie so you maybe can do 17 other versions of them. But there was a time when it was beneath you.
And to do Dune, you had to sign a contract that you would do, I want to say six sequels. And one of them, apparently that character ends up with his head on a sandworm. And I just remember my managers and agents going, you're not, you can't sign up in success. You're going to be on a worm. You can be a worm head. Do you want to be a worm head?
So I didn't want to be a worm head and I didn't do it. Um, I did end up meeting David Lynch, uh,
many years later. And I practiced TM, which is Transcendental Meditation. And he's one of the early advocates. The David Lynch Foundation is huge in advocating for people to try meditation. And I'm a huge supporter of David's and he's an amazing guy, but we have not yet worked together. So that's my very long-winded Dune story. That's a deep cut. Thank you for bringing it out.
And I will see you next week on Literally with me, Rob Lowe. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Sean Doherty, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar and research by Alyssa Growl. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Nick Liao, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant. Sports...
Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally.
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