WEBVTT - Weezer: How a Dorky Rock Band Found Their Dark Side 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.440 This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:08.000 Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:23.919 a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Weezer are 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.240 not supposed to be this in singing. They involve a 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.400 bass player who predicted his own death, another bass player 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.519 whose wife got into a gunfight with the LAPD, a 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.120 front man who is obsessed with Kurt Cobain and who 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:43.600 maybe was Kirk Cobain. Wait a minute, what you'll see 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:47.000 this was a front man who wasn't your typical rock 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.519 and roll archetype, not a burnout or an outlaw or 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.640 some doomed rock and roll savage. Now Rivers Cuomo was 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.600 more of an analyst than an anarchist, the type of 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.880 rock and roller who studied songs like they were calculus, 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:07.240 and surprisingly, as a result, made great music. Unlike that 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:09.360 music I played for you at the top of the show. 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:11.160 That wasn't great music. 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.880 That was a preset loop for my melotron called Kurt 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.959 Cromo MK two. I played you that loop because I 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.560 can't afford the rights to Luther by Kendrick Lamar and Siza, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.880 And why would I play you that specific slice of 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:28.920 Velvet Voice adjacent cheese. 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:33.320 Could I afford it? Because that was the number one. 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:38.040 Song in America on April eighth, twenty twenty five, And 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.480 that was the day that Weezer got dragged closer to 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.320 a true crime scandal than they ever had been in 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:49.360 their thirty plus year history. On this episode, a death prediction, 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:55.400 a gunfight, burnouts, outlaws and savages, the anti rock star, 0:01:55.560 --> 0:02:26.919 rockstar rivers Cromo and Weezer. I'm Jake in This is Disgraceland. 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:31.160 Earlier this year, twenty twenty six, a so called peer 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.920 reviewed report by a team of private forensic scientists attempted 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.080 to disrupt the official narrative that Kurt Cobaine's death was 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:43.000 the result of suicide. The report argued that the evidence 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.720 supports not a single self inflicted gunshot wound to the head, 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:52.520 but instead a staged homicide. The report questioned whether Kurt's 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.960 body had been positioned or posed It raised the skeptical 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.960 eyebrow at a receipt for bullets found in his pocket, 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.520 and it noted the tidy condition of his works, the 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.240 stuff he used to shoot heroin, most notably the capped 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.840 needles that contained the heroin that he'd shot moments before 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:14.360 he died. But despite all of this, the report is 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:19.760 flimsy at best, not to mention, far from revelatory. No, 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:25.000 Kirk Cobain was not murdered. But this new report and 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:28.520 the coverage it received in the media did cause another 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.920 old internet theory to resurface, and that theory is that 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.080 Kurt Cobain did not die at all. 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:36.680 That's right. 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.680 The theory is that Kurt Cobain faked his own death. 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.000 Later on, the front man would laugh about how the 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:49.080 clues have been there all along, like how he dressed 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.240 in the music video for Nirvana's in Bloom, the horn 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:57.160 rimmed glasses, the button down dress shirt. That video foreshadowed 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.480 what came next. Kirk cut his long hair sh short, 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.400 and he shaved his face until it was smooth as 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.320 the bare bottom of that baby that was on the 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.280 cover of never Mind, and as smooth as the voice 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.440 he was now using to sing. It was a different voice. 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.000 Gone was his trademark punk rock howl. In its place 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:20.040 was a clearer, purer voice. It was the voice behind 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:23.360 his next hit song, a catchy tune inspired by that 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:27.520 all of drab cardigan he'd famously worn during Nirvana's appearance 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:32.440 on MTV Unplugged, and the song was called Undone the 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.640 Sweater Song, and it was the lead single Loft, the 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:40.240 debut album by Kurt's new band, a band that, like Nirvana, 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:44.440 had a one word name. That's right, Kirk Cobaine did 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.680 not die. In nineteen ninety four, Kirk Cobane secretly became 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:55.560 Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer. As music conspiracy theories go, 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.200 I gotta say this one is both pretty ridiculous and 0:04:58.320 --> 0:04:59.240 pretty hysterical. 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:01.760 Cuomo himself thought that it. 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.640 Was funny enough to actually entertain the concept a few 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.240 years back on Rick Rubin's podcast, even playing along as 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.520 if it were true and as if he were Kurt 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.799 Cobain for real. But still though it's good for a lathanol. 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.920 Imagine that you're Kurt Cobain, a bona fide rock star, 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.479 badass to your core, and then further imagine that you 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:25.880 are beset on all sides by rubberneckers who want everything 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.760 from you, your blood, your sweat, your tears. 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:31.400 Would it not be in line with. 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.080 Your badass rockstar character? Would it not be the ultimate 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.919 fuck you to all of these culture vultures? If you 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.960 were to fake your own death and then live in 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:48.520 secrecy as a nerd, now imagine the reverse. Imagine the 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:53.919 tame nerd becoming the feral rock star. Imagine Rivers Cuomo 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.880 becoming Kurt Cobain. That seems like a more unbelievable proposition, 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:06.720 but that's exactly what Rivers Cuomo wanted to do. Rivers 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.440 Cmo wanted it so badly to become Kurt Cobain that 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:13.000 he kept a three ring binder full of mathematical deconstructions 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:14.440 of every Nirvana song. 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:16.039 He studied them. 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.040 He needed to understand how they were made, and by 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.599 doing so he could then write his own songs. 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:23.719 It would be just as impactful and beloved. 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.960 But rivers Cuomo wanted much more than to simply crack 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.960 Kurt Cobain's code. I seriously thought we were the next Nirvana, 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.520 Rivers told Rolling Stone in twenty nineteen, on the twenty 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.280 fifth anniversary of Weezer's debut. 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:38.680 And I thought the world was going to perceive us 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:39.760 that way, like a. 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.159 Super important, super powerful, heartbreaking heavy rock. 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:44.839 Band, and as serious artists. 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.120 In May of nineteen ninety four, one month after Kirk 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.880 Cobain's death, When Weser released their self titled debut album, 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.279 or the Blue Album as it's now known, the quartette 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.919 of Rivers Cuomo on guitar and vocals and Matt Shark 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.360 on bass, Brian on guitar and Patrick Wilson on drums 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:07.000 were not seen as a super important, super powerful, heartbreaking 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:12.240 heavy rock band, nor were they seen as serious artists. Instead, 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.000 they were seen as four lovable dorks. 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.120 With a couple catchy songs. 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.080 Not that there's anything wrong with that, and this isn't 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.160 to say that they weren't commercially successful either, because they 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:27.080 absolutely were. After a slow burn on the charts nine months, 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.400 to be exact, their debut album reached number sixteen on 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.160 the Billboard two hundred and it's three excellent singles undone 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.880 the Sweater Song, Buddy Hawlly and Say it Ain't So 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.920 All cracked the top ten on the Modern Rock Churn. 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.080 It wasn't the charts that didn't take Weezer seriously, though, 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:48.000 it was the world. That same world had now turned 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.400 and left Rivers right here with his bowl cut and 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.040 his thick black glasses, looking far younger than his twenty 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.840 three years strumming a powder blue stratocaster and a goofy 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.280 Spike Jones directed video that recreated the set of the 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.120 Let's Be Honest, Pretty Lame TV show Happy Days. 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.680 Rivers saw how the world saw him, and it hurt 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:10.360 him deeply. 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.640 He had thought he'd been betrayed by his own arm 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:19.400 and it wouldn't be the first time Rivers thought of 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.960 meditation to take his mind off of things. He closed 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.480 his eyes and hoped the process would come back to 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:30.920 him like riding a bicycle, the breathing, the focus. Years earlier, 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:34.080 in the mid seventies, he was made to perform meditation 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:38.240 daily at Yogaville, a Hindu ashram in Connecticut where he 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.120 lived with his family. But silence and stillness were not 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.240 for Rivers Cuomo. He knew this as young as a 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.560 seven year old when he heard real rock and roll 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:53.080 for the first time. The girl was a stranger, a 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:57.880 fleeting visitor to the otherwise insulated Yogaville community. Under her arm, 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.280 she carried an album rock and Roll Over by a 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.520 band called Kiss. She passed the album to Rivers Cmo 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.000 as though it was a secret. If he gazed shyly 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.960 at the cover art lost in the dizzy and cartoon 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:15.439 collage of Paul, Jean, Peter and Ace. The face paint, 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.719 the curled devil's tongue, the X ray eyes. It all 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:25.160 felt forbidden and dangerous, primal and animalistic. One of the 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:26.560 guys in the band even looked. 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.680 Like a cat. It was the coolest. 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:36.320 Thing young Rivers Cuomo had ever seen. And when they 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.840 put the record on the turntable and the needle hit 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.840 the groove, all Rivers wanted to do was run around 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:45.040 the room in circles. The music took possession of his 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.360 mind and body. It consumed him. By high school, he 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.440 was fronting his own metal band, and at age nineteen, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.559 Rivers CMO and his band made the move from Connecticut 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.839 to Los Angeles to hit the big time. But even 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.600 though Rivers had long ago and switched on by Kiss, 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.880 he was no face paint wearing, tongue wagging showmen. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:07.640 Instead, he remained. 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:11.240 The shy wallflower ashroom kid at heart. The LA scene, 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.160 on the other hand, was run by rock and roll animals, 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:16.600 the deviants, the savages. 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.360 It was no place for the meek and mild. 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.600 When Rivers CMO's high school band was quickly chewed up 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:27.600 and spit out, still Rivers remained determined he would follow 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:30.840 the path of the true artists, the path forged by 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.960 the Beach Boys Brian Wilson, who Rivers learned about while 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.480 working at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard, the same path 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.720 later trampled by Kurt Cobaine, whose songs Rivers cmos studied 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:46.200 like they were fourth period algebra. With Weezer, Rivers played 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.400 a ton of shows. He gigged hard, He worked harder 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:53.240 than most to plant his own mild mannered flag and 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.720 a scene full of unruly animals. 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:58.920 Now, finally it looked. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:03.200 As though success come, but it was success on someone 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:12.800 else's terms. Spring nineteen ninety five, Rivers Cuomo reclimbed in 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.559 his seat as Weezer's tour bus rumbled down the highway. 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:18.960 A mischievous grin crept across his face as he thought 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.280 about the previous night, not about the show itself, but 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:28.440 the after party his hotel room. Ten maybe fifteen women, attractive, excitable, 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:30.520 all of them. They're not so much because he was 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.800 Rivers Cuomo, but just because he was a rock star. 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:35.360 For months, Rivers hadn't been able to work up the 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.520 courage to do what he thought a true rock star 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.440 would do to engage in some wild and debauched orgy 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.840 hammer the gods type stuff, which left these female fans 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.200 milling around, raiding the mini bar and talking about how 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.440 much they loved Green Day or whatever. Because you know, 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:54.079 normally Rivers wasn't all about that, but last night was different. 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.440 Last night, Rivers even surprised himself when he boldly made 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.920 the announcement who wanted. 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.160 To stay had to get naked. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.680 In the room cleared out, almost four women stayed behind it, 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.040 four women who proceeded to remove every article of their clothing, 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.800 just as Rivers had instructed them. 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:16.360 But anything goes. 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.079 Encounters with fans of the opposite sex wasn't enough to 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.040 keep Rivers Cromo on the hamster wheel. He'd been out 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.320 on the road with Weezer for a year straight, and 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.600 already the monotony was crushing his soul, playing the same 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.880 ten songs from your one record every single night, giving 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.839 the same dumb responses to a different dumb journalist every 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.560 single day. And he wondered if Kirk Kobein had felt 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.240 this way, like he was slowly watching his own life 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:43.600 waste away. Actually, he didn't have to wonder because he 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:48.439 knew the answer. So, like Kurt, Rivers decided to do 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.440 something about it. But unlike kurk Rivers didn't turn a 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.960 shotgun on himself and pulled the trigger. Because Rivers Cromo 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:57.320 was a different. 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.560 Type of rock star. He was the opposite of Kurt Cobaine. 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:33.080 So Rivers Cuomo quit his own band and went to college. 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.360 The Elizarov technique, developed in the nineteen fifties by a 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:42.160 professor in the former Soviet Union, is a surgical procedure 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.840 that uses an external device to help reconstruct, reshape, or 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:53.160 lengthen bones, usually in the limbs, following surgery. The Elizarov apparatus, 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.280 or a fixator, as it's also known, is attached to 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.960 the exterior of the body with a series of rings, raws, 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.959 adjustable nuts, and wires. It basically looks like metal scaffolding 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:09.640 around your body. The thing works via distraction osteogenesis, which 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.240 is a fancy way of saying that this gnarly looking 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:17.720 apparatus gradually separates a surgically cut segment of the bone 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.160 in order to allow new bone to grow and fill 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.680 the gap. Though it may seem like an archaic process, 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.800 the Elizarov technique is still used to this day in 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.560 orthopedic surgery when someone has, for instance, legs that are 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:34.720 two different lengths, which is exactly the problem that Rivers 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.360 Cuomo faced when he put his rockstar career on hold 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.800 to enroll at Harvard University in the fall of. 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:41.840 Nineteen ninety five. 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.880 A jolt of pain shot up Rivers's leg as he 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.840 twisted the screw of the metal cage apparatus that enveloped 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.640 his right leg. He winced alone in his small dorm room, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:56.960 and then prepared to do the same with the next 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:02.840 screw forest screws in total. Every day he was excruciating. 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.800 Rivers's right leg was almost two inches shorter than his 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.800 left almost two inches, and after doctors cut his femur 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.160 in half, they set him up with an E. Lizarev fixator. 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.520 Over time, the painful daily ritual of turning the screws 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.720 would pull the two halves of his femur apart and 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.160 allow for new bone to develop, until both of his 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:33.480 legs were roughly the same length. The whole thing was 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:39.120 conspicuous and embarrassing. Rivers limped across Harvard Yard from one 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:43.320 class to the next, his apparatus rattling the cane in 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.840 his hand to keep him upright. He looked like an 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.840 old man, and the beard he was growing only added 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.720 to the picture of frailty, but it also made him 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.840 unseen in a different way. The kid in the Weezer 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.160 shirt sitting next to him on the tee had no 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:58.400 idea who Rivers was. 0:15:58.960 --> 0:15:59.600 Neither did his. 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.440 Classman or the girl, the one he pined for from afar. 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.280 She had no idea he existed, not as a musician 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.880 or a celebrity, or even as another student, a pitiful 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.920 one at that, popped up on pain meds with this 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:20.120 janky piece of medieval steel protruding from his leg. The unknown, 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:26.040 unrequited love, the isolation, the pain. It all dovetailed with 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.920 a swift disillusionment in academia, or at least when it 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.960 came to his chosen major classical music composition. What was 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:38.480 he trying to prove that a quote unquote serious artists 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:40.840 belonged not on the road but in a classroom. 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.320 He didn't have to be here at Harvard. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.120 He could be in the studio doing what he'd always 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.320 wanted to do since he held that kiss record in 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:52.080 his hands. This time there was an opportunity to cease. 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.040 It was staring him in the face. Put Harvard on hold, 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.600 get Weezer back together, and record a batch of new songs, 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.400 transformative songs, songs that were nothing like the songs on the. 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.840 Blue album, Songs that would prove once and. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.640 For all that he was a serious artist, that he 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.760 was deep and tortured, that he really wasn't all that 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.359 different from Kurt Kobein after all. It was this line 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.000 of thinking that led to a decision that Rivers Cuomo 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.520 would later see as one of the greatest mistakes of 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:32.480 his professional life. Weezer's sophomore studio album, Pinkerton, was released 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.720 in September of nineteen ninety six. Musically and lyrically, the 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.600 record came as a shock. The Blue album's sonic template 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.360 was in part defined by their producer, Ricoques of the Cars, 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.120 who turned the gain on their amplifiers all the way 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.040 up but turned the volume all the way down, thus 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.639 capturing a crunching guitar sound that wasn't noisy and didn't 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.840 feed back. But on the self produced Pinkerton, the guitars 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:02.080 routinely squelched out of control. The bass and the drums 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:06.720 were pushed into the red. Rivers, still in his Elizarov apparatus, 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:11.960 still in physical and emotional pain, delivered raw, physical and 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:17.520 emotional vocal performances of lyrics that were extremely personal and 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.399 nakedly documented this current state of alienation. 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:22.000 It was an. 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:28.720 Abrasive about face for Wezer, and honestly, Pinkerton is fucking awesome. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:30.359 This record is great. 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.679 It's so much better than the so called blue album. 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.520 I don't care what anybody says. However, the intention for 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:42.480 Rivers was to prove Weezer's biggest critics wrong. The critics 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:46.679 hated Pinkerton, so did many of the fans. It was 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.760 voted the third worst album of nineteen ninety six in 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.320 a Rolling Stone reader's poll, right behind Bush's Razor Blade 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:57.560 Suitcase and DJ Spooky's Songs of a Dead Dreamer. And 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:01.480 while Pinkerton did have his cohort of diehard fans, Rivers 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.840 started to believe what the detractors were saying about Pinkerton. 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.440 He bared it all, ripped his heart out and put 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.399 it on his sleeve, beating and bloody, and no one. 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:13.680 Cared at all. It seemed. 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:19.359 The Rivers Cuomo needed a distraction, something deeper than meditation. 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:22.480 He needed to get back to the good life, the 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.720 life of the road, shaking booty and making sweet love 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:27.800 every night. You know how the song goes. The life 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.040 that once bored him to tears would now dull the 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.959 heartache that he was feeling as he tried to escape 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:41.679 that life. Make that makes sense. The Pinkerton Tour of 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.960 nineteen ninety six In nineteen ninety seven was happening just 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:50.399 as the Internet was evolving at move fast and breakshit speed. Soon, 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:54.320 word of the Weezer front man's sexual conquest spread to 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:59.640 a Geocity's website with the unfortunate title Rivers l Pervo. 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:05.520 Now on the website Rivers el Pervo fans or former fans, 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.480 I don't know. They detailed both Rivers's alleged methods to 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:13.000 select and lure women backstage like he was David Lee 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.399 Roth or something, and also his again alleged interactions with 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:22.560 girls who were barely of legal age. Rivers freaked out 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.560 when he came face to face with Rivers el Pervo. 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.280 He no doubt immediately thought of the lyrics to the 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:33.000 Pinkerton song Across the Sea. It's a song he wrote 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:35.399 in response to an actual letter that he received from 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:39.119 an eighteen year old female Japanese fan. The lyrics to 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.480 the song layout his moral quandary in how or if 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.560 he should respond to this barely legal fan, and he 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.200 even wondered aloud in the song quote I wonder how 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:54.679 you touch yourself on quote. Not that he'd done anything wrong, 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.399 not legally anyways, certainly every word out of his mouth. 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.760 Now with this Rivers l Pervo website was going to 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:09.560 be scrutinized and worse documented online. So rivers Cuomo stopped 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.240 with the naked hotel room Shenanigan's. He stopped having assistant 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.800 scoured the audience for women who were, you know, looking 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:18.480 like they wanted to hang out with a rock star. 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:24.399 Yet rivers Cuomo's libido raged on, which is how Rivers 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:29.560 Cromo began visiting massage parlors every show in every city 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:34.639 now with a guaranteed happy and hush hush ending. The 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:39.119 massage parlors offered a discrete location, offered a discrete solution. 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:44.040 The encounters were anonymous, and these were his secrets, the 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:46.919 secrets of a rock star, which, despite what the world 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:50.760 thought of him, was still what rivers Cuomo yearned to be, 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:57.879 that is, until a real rock star entered his life. 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:04.760 Boston the South End. Mikey Welsh walked confidently. 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:05.840 Into the Deluxe. 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:08.360 The collection of lights glowing from behind the bar made 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:10.359 it look like it was Christmas time, even though it 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:14.240 was spring. Mikey pushed past the collection of off duty 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:17.280 bike messengers who went by the name of the Boston Blackouts. 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:19.920 There were nursing bottles of high life over by the 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:24.240 Kitchie Elvis Lamb. Mikey caught the bartender's attention in order it, 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:28.200 as usual, a glass of red wine. At twenty seven 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:31.159 years old, Mikey Welsh was already a legend in the 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:34.040 Boston rock scene, a real, if you know you know 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:36.800 kind of dude, not to mention a hell of a 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:39.600 bass player for bands like Heretics and Jock o' bono 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:44.040 and Left Nut. But Mikey's notoriety was just regional again 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:44.720 if you know you. 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:45.760 Know that kind of thing. 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:50.800 So when Mikey Welsh saw the diminutive, bespectacled dude making 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:53.640 his way through the Deluxe, headed in his general direction 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:57.240 and then immediately clocked him as a River's Cuomo of Weezer, 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:00.399 one of the most badass rock dudes in Boston felt 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:02.240 something that he didn't feel every day. 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:07.959 Starstruck. Hey man, are you Mikey Mikey the bass player, 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:10.280 Rivers asked, when he was close enough. 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:12.439 The Bostones guy said that I should talk to you 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:20.119 the Bostones as in the Mighty Mighty Bostones. Later, Mikey 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.159 Welsh wouldn't remember exactly what he said. The words just 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:26.719 sort of nervously tumbled from his mouth. But whatever it was, 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:29.679 that must have been good enough, because Rivers Cromo Weezer 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:32.920 wasted no time and asked Mikey Wells to jam with him. 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:34.680 Mikey didn't know it at the time. 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:37.600 Many didn't, but by the end of the Pinkerton tour, 0:23:38.080 --> 0:23:39.920 Matt Sharp, Weezer's bass. 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:41.200 Player, would be out of the band. 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:44.960 It wasn't the first time that Weezer had experienced turnover. 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:48.320 During the making of the Blue Album, founding. 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:51.440 Guitarist Jason Cropper was fired and replaced with Brian Bell. 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:55.359 Matt Sharp later revealed that he was also fired like 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.600 Jason before him, although Rivers says that the real reason 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:01.159 Matt left was to focus on other band, the so 0:24:01.359 --> 0:24:05.920 called Friends of p The rentals, whatever the case, By 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:09.720 nineteen ninety eight, Matt Sharp was out and Mikey Welsh 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:14.080 was in. Mikey left Boston for la moving into an 0:24:14.119 --> 0:24:18.080 apartment with Rivers on Sepulvt Boulevard in Culver City, and 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:21.240 doing so, Rivers got a front row seat to a 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:26.840 true rock and roll animal because Mikey Welsh was the one. 0:24:27.359 --> 0:24:31.040 Mikey was the one mixing Klonopin, speed and red wine. 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:35.080 Mikey was the one dropping LSD right before Weezer's first 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:39.359 secret show, playing Nirvana covers under the name Goat Punishment. 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:42.119 Mikey was the one tripping his balls off on no 0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:45.680 Effects as tour bus, eating mushrooms while watching a Porno. 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:47.680 A Fat Mike in the Gang on a large screen TV. 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:51.040 Mikey was the one hanging around the kinds of people 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:53.680 your mother warned you about. Fuck Mikey was the type 0:24:53.720 --> 0:24:56.480 of person that your mother warned you about, but Mikey 0:24:56.560 --> 0:24:58.200 hung around with them because these are the types of 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:02.000 people who had drugs. And for a guy like Mikey Welsh, 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:04.640 not only did you play rock and roll, you got 0:25:04.720 --> 0:25:08.800 high and yet it was dark. But to a guy 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:12.439 like Mikey Welsh that's what rock and roll was, and 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:15.679 Mikey brought that darkness and the danger that went along 0:25:15.720 --> 0:25:18.600 with it to Weezer in a way that Rivers Cuomo 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:22.560 never could. And pretty soon all that darkness and danger 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:25.680