Speaker 1: What do you do when life doesn't go according to
Speaker 1: plan that moment you lose a job, or a loved one,
Speaker 1: or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this
Speaker 1: is now What, a podcast about pivotal moments as told
Speaker 1: by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down
Speaker 1: with a guest to talk about the times they were
Speaker 1: knocked off course and what they did to move forward.
Speaker 1: Some stories are funny, others are gut wrenching, but all
Speaker 1: are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and
Speaker 1: every setback is accompanied by a choice, and that choice
Speaker 1: answers one question, now.
Speaker 2: What I'm a father because I straightened up like I
Speaker 2: couldn't have it, you know, it was better for me
Speaker 2: to be older and be established and be clear and
Speaker 2: clean and be able to give him everything that he deserved. Well,
Speaker 2: he woke up this morning, he was slepting me welcome.
Speaker 3: This morning, and it was really close.
Speaker 4: How old is he now?
Speaker 3: Five and a half And his face was right next
Speaker 3: to my dad. Yeah, you smell like the bathroom in
Speaker 3: my school.
Speaker 4: Than thank you, thank thank, thank you for that very much,
Speaker 4: thank you.
Speaker 2: But we were in Paris over August, my birthday. We
Speaker 2: were in Greece first, and we were there two days.
Speaker 2: And the first day we had this guide who's a
Speaker 2: nice older French woman, you know, just a normal and
Speaker 2: he didn't really pay to it. Next day, this beautiful
Speaker 2: thirty year old French guide shows up and he's like,
Speaker 2: he's five and a half and he's wait, you know,
Speaker 2: I was never like this, but he was so and
Speaker 2: his his move is he says, my goes, so, what's
Speaker 2: my favorite color? What's my favorite like he you know,
Speaker 2: you got to he's quizzing it, and so I overhear
Speaker 2: him talking to this woman and he's saying, so, I
Speaker 2: have this girlfriend back at Homer names now.
Speaker 3: Just as she gets out of earshot, I swear to you.
Speaker 3: He looks at me and goes, why did I tell
Speaker 3: her I had a girlfriend? Oh my god, you had
Speaker 3: a shot at her.
Speaker 1: Kid.
Speaker 4: My guest today is one of a kind.
Speaker 1: John Stamos is an actor, a musician, and author, and,
Speaker 1: as it turns out an excellent interview. He and I
Speaker 1: met as teenagers and we grew up in this industry,
Speaker 1: occasionally crossing paths.
Speaker 4: On TV and in the theater.
Speaker 1: His reputation is a heart throb and America's dreamiest uncle
Speaker 1: is easy to understand, but he's also a phenomenal actor,
Speaker 1: a drummer for the Beach Boys, a husband and a father,
Speaker 1: and an excellent friend. His memoir, If You would Have
Speaker 1: Told Me, was one I couldn't put down. I so
Speaker 1: appreciated his introspection and his honesty, and I loved reading
Speaker 1: more about his journey, the one I had witnessed from Afar. So,
Speaker 1: without further ado, here is John Stamos.
Speaker 4: John Stamos, hiber Welcome. I'm so happy you decided to
Speaker 4: talk to me.
Speaker 2: I love you, and I'm so excited that you asked
Speaker 2: me to be on here. I was obsessed with your documentary,
Speaker 2: the Hulu one that came out a six months ago.
Speaker 3: I can't believe.
Speaker 2: I mean, I knew you went through a lot, but
Speaker 2: just watching that was like, oh my god, you know,
Speaker 2: and then it just made me more proud to know
Speaker 2: you and.
Speaker 3: Watch the way you've lived your life.
Speaker 2: After when I first met you, up until about right now,
Speaker 2: I've had the biggest crush on you.
Speaker 3: You were the.
Speaker 2: First superstar girl that I had a crusher that I
Speaker 2: ever met.
Speaker 3: And you know where it was.
Speaker 2: It was at a Circus of the Stars, and it's
Speaker 2: so crazy. And I had another picture, but I just
Speaker 2: found this one.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. That was in the hotel room in Vegas.
Speaker 3: No, we weren't in any hotel rooms, all of.
Speaker 2: Us thinks on not being creepy. This was at the
Speaker 2: forum here in Los Angeles. And were you dating Ted
Speaker 2: McGinley or was he just there?
Speaker 4: We were dating?
Speaker 1: He went a problem with me? I sweet, yeah, never
Speaker 1: slept with them very you know, well it's not too
Speaker 1: you're married.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I just love you and I'm I'm just
Speaker 2: grateful that you have me on here today.
Speaker 3: And what a great smart idea. Now what thank you?
Speaker 1: And also I mean, I feel like after reading your book,
Speaker 1: I have a totally new appreciation.
Speaker 4: For everything that you've done.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Speaker 4: What was the process like, Well, it's very difficult.
Speaker 2: I never thought you had a story to tell. I
Speaker 2: didn't think I have had one until I started writing
Speaker 2: it and being sort of immature about it all, I thought,
Speaker 2: like all people want to read about was my sexual conquests,
Speaker 2: which aren't that many, and I'm not going to tell
Speaker 2: this or that, which was such bullshit.
Speaker 3: And so I was.
Speaker 2: I became a father in my mid fifties, and then
Speaker 2: Bob died and I wrote this. I wrote this obituary
Speaker 2: type story about him in the La Times, and then
Speaker 2: agents saw it and said, oh, you got to write
Speaker 2: a book. Like no, I don't, And I just could.
Speaker 2: I just couldn't fathom. I couldn't imagine.
Speaker 3: You're you know, you went to college. I could.
Speaker 2: I went to that little room where you sign up
Speaker 2: to go to the college, but I couldn't find I
Speaker 2: couldn't find the room. As a local culture, I went
Speaker 2: to knox Berry Farm.
Speaker 3: Then I came home. That was my school.
Speaker 2: But as I started, I realized, oh, I just discovered
Speaker 2: what my story was. I started off with my mom
Speaker 2: wrote these beautiful notes.
Speaker 1: They're so sweet and her handwriting is so beautiful.
Speaker 2: I cherished these notes and so that was really a
Speaker 2: starting point too, and I could start of put them
Speaker 2: together and find a map. And then I started with
Speaker 2: that first chapter, which was getting a Dui. And you know,
Speaker 2: it turned out like the first sentence was like, pull
Speaker 2: over our uncle Jesse, You're fucked up. I was like,
Speaker 2: oh man, and that was so hard. And it was
Speaker 2: the five stages of grief. Them were booze and sex,
Speaker 2: and you know, just everything terrible. And then then I
Speaker 2: wrote this the would turn out to be the last chapter.
Speaker 2: It was the day I found out about Bob, and
Speaker 2: you know, the five stages of grief. There were therapy
Speaker 2: and family and exercise and taking care of myself.
Speaker 3: So then I just had to figure out how to
Speaker 3: get there.
Speaker 2: But I don't know about you, but like when you
Speaker 2: start telling your story, you you go like, wow, it
Speaker 2: was pretty extraordinary.
Speaker 3: You were forthcoming pretty fast.
Speaker 2: It took me, you know, to be honest, the way
Speaker 2: you were, and it took me a minute to get there.
Speaker 3: And then I was like, oh, what my mom, I'm
Speaker 3: going to do this. I got to, you know, just
Speaker 3: do it for real.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, first of all, you you do have
Speaker 1: a story. You did have a story, and it's quite evident.
Speaker 1: I think we get very comfortable in these industries with
Speaker 1: what other people's narrative is of of us, and it
Speaker 1: and it's comfortable and it works, and we get approved
Speaker 1: of and we get applauded and we get stuff for it,
Speaker 1: and you know, and so there's all these little seductive
Speaker 1: pieces that allow your ego, I believe, to feel like
Speaker 1: it matters. And then when you sit with the honesty
Speaker 1: and sweetness of your mother's notes. And you see you
Speaker 1: open the book with that duy, the embarrassment, the fear,
Speaker 1: the the and and you know you your reaction was
Speaker 1: to brink drink an entire bottle of wine and you
Speaker 1: kind of go like, see that's the real shit.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: So I think that having difficulty at first just means
Speaker 1: that you were getting away from your ego. You were
Speaker 1: getting in touch with yourself as a father, yourself as
Speaker 1: a friend.
Speaker 2: And also playing into what you think people want to hear,
Speaker 2: what they think of you. And I went, that's probably
Speaker 2: one of the main reasons why I didn't get married
Speaker 2: sooner or remarried soon.
Speaker 3: I thought I had to be this playboy.
Speaker 2: I thought that I was the guy that people got
Speaker 2: to live vicariously through. Now it's my fault because I
Speaker 2: play into one hundred because like you said, it was
Speaker 2: it's company.
Speaker 3: I think I'm a good looking guy.
Speaker 2: I got to keep this I wasn't you know, I was,
Speaker 2: you know, in bed early, and I stayed away from nobody.
Speaker 2: I mean, like the the bon vivante, you know guy,
Speaker 2: because I really all I wanted was true love. All
Speaker 2: I wanted was what my family my mom and dad had.
Speaker 2: All they wanted was a family like that, and thank god,
Speaker 2: by the skin of my teeth, I ended up with it.
Speaker 1: Well, need a starter marriage because I had one of
Speaker 1: those too, So yeah, you need one of those.
Speaker 4: Do you think that you would have you? Again?
Speaker 1: You opened the book with with the d u I
Speaker 1: and it's very it's just like, you know, you really
Speaker 1: catch catch people. But do you think that you would
Speaker 1: have been able to get truly sober? And I say
Speaker 1: that meaning I know the continuity of having to be that.
Speaker 1: Do you think you would have been able to had
Speaker 1: it had that event not happened?
Speaker 3: No, I probably would have died. I didn't want to.
Speaker 3: I didn't I didn't want to kill myself.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever felt like this, but
Speaker 2: if I died, I was like, Okay, I've done it.
Speaker 2: I had a TV show, met Brooke Shields. You know
Speaker 2: I could I could die of the Stars Stars what else?
Speaker 2: But you know, like, learn from me, people, if you're
Speaker 2: if you're listening or watching, like, don't I could have
Speaker 2: killed somebody.
Speaker 3: Brook. I was fuck it.
Speaker 2: I mean to even just talk about now is it
Speaker 2: just makes me so sick to my stomach. What a
Speaker 2: and a what a failure? I was, you know, to
Speaker 2: the universe, Like I was confusing the universe at that moment.
Speaker 2: Because I was brought up a certain way. I didn't
Speaker 2: have the obstacles that you had. I had both parents,
Speaker 2: and my parents were you know, were loving and cool.
Speaker 2: You know, they were alcoholic, but they dealt with it
Speaker 2: a little better I think than your mom did. I
Speaker 2: don't know, but so I had no excuse. And here
Speaker 2: I was being the gigantic fuck up that I was
Speaker 2: at that moment. So I probably wouldn't have. But I
Speaker 2: you know, before I wrote this book, I used to say,
Speaker 2: I have regrets. Yeah I wish I didn't do this.
Speaker 2: I wish that didn't that, but I should have taken
Speaker 2: that role. I didn't do it, And after writing I
Speaker 2: was like, no, everything was the way it was supposed
Speaker 2: to be because I learned from each of those moments
Speaker 2: in my life, and I smart enough to kind of
Speaker 2: do better or learn from them and not make the
Speaker 2: same mistake.
Speaker 3: Hopefully.
Speaker 1: I want to kind of jump back a little bit
Speaker 1: to you as a as a younger John, you talk
Speaker 1: about being a dorky kid, You talk about being the
Speaker 1: marching band and loving puppets and magic and Disney.
Speaker 4: Who was little? Who is little? Were you Johnny?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Johnny, who is a little Johnny pretty gawky dorky.
Speaker 2: In the book, I have a picture of me with
Speaker 2: puppets and there's a girl standing next to me going,
Speaker 2: you know, like it was not impressive, And then the
Speaker 2: next picture is me playing drunk like I went to
Speaker 2: that thinking that, but I remember, you were always beautiful.
Speaker 2: I was a caterpillar and then into the butterfly, and
Speaker 2: it's all I wanted. I say that I wanted to
Speaker 2: be famous, and I did, but I'm more I just
Speaker 2: wanted to be liked.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be admired or whatever. I was bullied.
Speaker 3: You know, A guy punched me and the I had a
Speaker 3: black eye, and I had to deal with that. But
Speaker 3: then girls started.
Speaker 2: His girl in particular, I wanted to go out with me,
Speaker 2: and I ended up going out with her for a
Speaker 2: couple of years.
Speaker 4: But then I realized his name a protected name.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I changed it.
Speaker 2: I wanted to dedicate he knows who he is. I
Speaker 2: wanted to dedicate the whole book to him, but you know,
Speaker 2: they wouldn't have me anyway. I'm kidding but I did.
Speaker 2: I do remember every milestone was like, I'm going to
Speaker 2: show him. I'm going to play with the beach sports.
Speaker 2: I went to invite the show and I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: my bodyguards give him a black eye, and no, I'm going.
Speaker 1: To But those kinds of relationships, though, are important in
Speaker 1: a driving force, you know. I mean I've had them
Speaker 1: in different different ways.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: Mine was my you know, my revenge was like I'm
Speaker 1: going to get an education to improve all you wrong.
Speaker 2: But how do you do you feel like? I don't know,
Speaker 2: but do you feel like you've made it? Like you've
Speaker 2: you're a pretty close to a complete human going through
Speaker 2: all the stuff that you've gone through.
Speaker 1: And I have finally just started doing things for myself
Speaker 1: on my own.
Speaker 4: Terms, like what like what not giving a ship?
Speaker 1: Like yesterday, I was on the plane and there was
Speaker 1: a woman and she was sitting across the aisle from me,
Speaker 1: and I was talking to this other lady.
Speaker 4: I was flying five.
Speaker 1: Different cities in like two days, and and uh, they
Speaker 1: do the sneaky thing when they picked up the camera
Speaker 1: and they and they think you're blind and it's right
Speaker 1: there and you know, and you're and I had a tequila.
Speaker 4: So I was like, all right.
Speaker 1: I was like, lady, guys, I was like, don't say it,
Speaker 1: don't say it, don't do it, don't do it.
Speaker 4: And I just said, I said, hey, excuse me.
Speaker 1: I said, you know, if you had asked, I would
Speaker 1: have said yes, but it's the sneaking that I just
Speaker 1: can't take. And the woman got so embarrassed, to which
Speaker 1: then I felt bad. And then I was I was going,
Speaker 1: do you want to meet me in the galley and
Speaker 1: I'll take a picture with you? And I'm sorry, I've
Speaker 1: had a tequila and maybe i'm you know, edgie, I'm tired.
Speaker 1: And then she's like, no, no, no, I don't want a picture.
Speaker 1: And then I'm going, well, are you sure you don't
Speaker 1: want a picture? Why don't we just why don't we
Speaker 1: just stand by the bathroom and get a picture. And
Speaker 1: then I became insane and the whole thing was a mess.
Speaker 1: But it was a moment where I thought like I
Speaker 1: would have never said anything.
Speaker 4: I would have just kept my mouth shut.
Speaker 1: And I've gotten to this place where I don't want
Speaker 1: to give it all away anymore. I'm proud of my kids,
Speaker 1: proud of my twenty five year relationship. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: proud of the fact that I'm still able to work.
Speaker 1: I'm castable. It wasn't until Broadway that I realized I
Speaker 1: had talent, I had balls.
Speaker 4: I was a triple threat.
Speaker 2: Cabaret was the greatest thing I ever did. Did you
Speaker 2: have the best? Was it your favorite all time?
Speaker 4: It was? It was a revelation to me.
Speaker 1: A wonderful town was more so of a personal.
Speaker 3: I saw you in that.
Speaker 4: That was just personally my personal best.
Speaker 1: Cabaret was a struggle the whole time, but it was
Speaker 1: one of the first times I really understood myself as
Speaker 1: an actress.
Speaker 3: Yeah, me too, as an actor.
Speaker 2: For me, I had to like, you know, in the beginning,
Speaker 2: you know, I was afraid to really go to that
Speaker 2: place where you had to go to play the mc or.
Speaker 3: And people were walking out and I'm like, oh shit,
Speaker 3: what am I doing? Really said, no, you do it.
Speaker 3: That's the good.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: That was a time too, As I write as if
Speaker 2: she was writing, I found myself in the middle back
Speaker 2: then and before general hospital stuff, in the middle of
Speaker 2: the cultural issues that were going on. Cabaret was my
Speaker 2: first publicist was gay and he was dying of AIDS.
Speaker 2: And you know, and his parents didn't accept it. I
Speaker 2: was going through, you know, that whole thing. So there's
Speaker 2: all these things as I wrote the book that it
Speaker 2: came to. But but I'd never been I'd never been
Speaker 2: on I never done the theater and I and you know,
Speaker 2: I worked with Jack Klugman before Full House and he
Speaker 2: was like, get to the data, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I never did it before.
Speaker 3: But like everything in my life, like writing a book,
Speaker 3: it was like I can't write a book, but you
Speaker 3: do it. But I worked really hard at it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've worked constantly since your start. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you've also done the thing that I think people don't
Speaker 1: they don't really realize is so important, is that in
Speaker 1: order to have longevity in any capacity, you have to
Speaker 1: keep working. But this business doesn't design. It is not
Speaker 1: design to.
Speaker 4: Allow you to keep working. Right now, you said you
Speaker 4: didn't want to be on Full House at first. When
Speaker 4: did you change her? Why?
Speaker 2: Well, well, because look it was it was pitched to
Speaker 2: me as Bosom Buddies.
Speaker 3: I love that show with Tom Hanks, just Glory and I.
Speaker 2: So it was and it was the same producers and
Speaker 2: it was like it's Bosom Buddies, but you know, there's
Speaker 2: three guys and there's some kids, but they're in the background.
Speaker 2: And then I was like, okay, you know, and I'm
Speaker 2: you know, I said yes, and then we got it
Speaker 2: together and I'll never forget the table read. I went
Speaker 2: in thinking like I was the big you know, I
Speaker 2: was the star. I came off you know shows, and
Speaker 2: the mothers and the.
Speaker 3: Sisters were like, oh, Johnson wasn't.
Speaker 2: And I sat down at the table and Jody Sweeten
Speaker 2: blew the roof off the page and every joke that
Speaker 2: she they were laughing so hard that you couldn't even
Speaker 2: hear it. And then when it was over, I ran
Speaker 2: it was paid phone, So I ran out to the payphone.
Speaker 2: I jammed a corner and I was like, get me
Speaker 2: off as fucking show.
Speaker 3: It's roper room. I didn't sign up for this. So
Speaker 3: I went in kicking his steaming.
Speaker 4: Were you just threat by someone else getting a better
Speaker 4: your lack horse?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was no yes until I learned to
Speaker 2: you know, there was quite an evolution.
Speaker 3: I'll get too.
Speaker 2: But I just thought it was a kiddie show and
Speaker 2: it wasn't for me, and it wasn't sophisticated, and it
Speaker 2: wasn't Seinfeld, it wasn't this one. So then we get
Speaker 2: into it, and after the first year was I started
Speaker 2: to like it a little bit and I had to
Speaker 2: give into it because there it was every day. And
Speaker 2: I remember some a father coming up to me saying,
Speaker 2: you know, this showed me so much to me because
Speaker 2: I'm a single dad and I got two daughters, and
Speaker 2: your family on there is not the traditional family, but
Speaker 2: you're still family.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: So the agents called and said, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 2: We're probably not gonna make it, and I said, well, really,
Speaker 2: I mean, I said, you hated the show, and I said, well,
Speaker 2: I'm starting to now to back up, and here's something
Speaker 2: I discovered.
Speaker 3: I was already I was madly in love.
Speaker 2: My first love was this actress named Terry Copley, and
Speaker 2: I fell mad in love. She was a little older, sophistication,
Speaker 2: had a daughter, and I said, I'm a married or
Speaker 2: be a stepdad, it's gonna be great.
Speaker 3: I caught her in bed with Tony.
Speaker 2: Dance and Brooks jaw just hit the the not just
Speaker 2: the desks at the floor and just it's perfect. I
Speaker 2: haven't talked about this, but it's in the book, but Anyway,
Speaker 2: My point was what happened, and it was the look.
Speaker 3: It was horrible. I don't know if you've been heartbroke.
Speaker 3: You probably haven't because you're a heartbreaker, not a heart
Speaker 3: no I have.
Speaker 1: That's another show, Jackson who no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: Liam Neeson broke.
Speaker 3: I heard you talking about that on Stern right right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Liam, Well so but you know what that felt like, right,
Speaker 2: and so I was going to took me years to
Speaker 2: get over it. Then I'm doing full House. Then it's
Speaker 2: it's on the bubble, not gonna get picked up. And
Speaker 2: they said, well, we're gonna They're.
Speaker 3: Gonna try, John.
Speaker 2: They have an idea to put it on one of
Speaker 2: their hits during the summer, and they put us on
Speaker 2: after one of their hit shows. We find an audience.
Speaker 2: We go back in second season, We've become a hit.
Speaker 2: That show was Who's the Boss with Tony Danzer.
Speaker 3: So it all equal.
Speaker 1: Well, Time was surprised to hear that you and learned
Speaker 1: that you and Bob did not get.
Speaker 4: Along famously at first. What do you think that was about.
Speaker 2: Bob was a comic and he was addicted, like a
Speaker 2: drug addict to laughs, and if he didn't get them.
Speaker 2: He would go make the crew laugh, and that was
Speaker 2: terribly distracting if I came in approaching every scene with
Speaker 2: story and why character and why would I say this?
Speaker 2: And I wouldn't move over there, you know, and Bob
Speaker 2: was just trying to make everyone laugh, and it was
Speaker 2: very distracting to me, and I probably was, you know,
Speaker 2: dampened his process too. But we finally came around, truthfully
Speaker 2: when his sister, Sclaire Durham, Dave's sister had a terrible
Speaker 2: cancer and my sister had a brain tumor, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden we became brothers. You know, that we
Speaker 2: that we're going to lose their sisters. Fortunately my sister
Speaker 2: made it out there didn't And it was the moment
Speaker 2: where we put everything aside and really bonded. And but
Speaker 2: I didn't. Jeff Franklin was over here the other day.
Speaker 2: He's writing a book. He was asking he's the creator
Speaker 2: full hub.
Speaker 3: He said, when did you When did you just.
Speaker 2: Let go and like the show? And I said, not
Speaker 2: until I wrote this book. The critics got to me
Speaker 2: right and and now I go, you know what, guys,
Speaker 2: you're smarter than me.
Speaker 3: I know it's fascial. I know it's silly at times.
Speaker 2: I know it was, you know whatever, But what you
Speaker 2: missed is right below all that is heard and it
Speaker 2: and and and that's when the brain steps aside and
Speaker 2: lets you fully feel something. And you they weren't incapable
Speaker 2: of doing that. I guess what the show wasn't meant
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 1: But listen also, you know people that that reach any
Speaker 1: level of success in any of these shows and then
Speaker 1: decide they're going to like shit on the show and
Speaker 1: and be like look down upon it. I've I lou I.
Speaker 1: It just irks me so much because you know what,
Speaker 1: then don't do it right, don't do it. And the
Speaker 1: critics are critics because that's what they do. They they
Speaker 1: are critics, and that it doesn't behoove them.
Speaker 2: But see I had all the same side in art,
Speaker 2: but but that is that's it, like we did. We
Speaker 2: had that same thing. And did you feel like you're
Speaker 2: trying so hard to prove to prove and then when
Speaker 2: you finally let it go, you know I was doing
Speaker 2: I did The Best Man with James Earl Jones and
Speaker 2: it was hands down the greatest. You know, he's who
Speaker 2: was the greatest living I don't know if you've met him,
Speaker 2: but he's just a powerful genius. And to be on
Speaker 2: stage with him two night after night it was a
Speaker 2: three hours Gorbidal show, very real, very serious. And the
Speaker 2: last night he liked to go work on pieces of
Speaker 2: bits and scenes and stuff. And it was closing the
Speaker 2: next day, and the night before he wanted to work
Speaker 2: on something. But the last they were walking across the
Speaker 2: stage and the show was done, and the guys were
Speaker 2: ticking stuff down, and I think people knew it was
Speaker 2: the last time that the two of us would have
Speaker 2: be alone, so people got away from us.
Speaker 3: And I said, James, I used to.
Speaker 2: Call hi big Dad, big Daddy, And yeah, little John,
Speaker 2: I said, you gave me something that no one.
Speaker 3: You gave me legitimacy.
Speaker 2: Standing on that stage with you, I finally feel that
Speaker 2: the people out there in this world will look at
Speaker 2: me and say, John stain Was.
Speaker 3: You're a real actor. We walk out and open the
Speaker 3: stage door and all the people are out there. I
Speaker 3: got Jessey, Uncle Jessey, say.
Speaker 2: Max, and I wanted to I couldn't look at him,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to find a way to crawl in
Speaker 2: between some legs and run on Broadway and just as
Speaker 2: I was feeling the most embarrassed, I look over and
Speaker 2: somebody has a phone out James, Joe, could you say, Luke,
Speaker 2: I am your father?
Speaker 3: Could you say, Luke, I am your father? And we
Speaker 3: looked at each other.
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, yeah, fuck it, I don't care
Speaker 2: call me uncle, you know, And that was a big
Speaker 2: relief to me, a revelation.
Speaker 1: We call this show now What because it is about
Speaker 1: those times in our lives when something happens. It could
Speaker 1: be good, it can be bad, and we're left thinking like.
Speaker 4: Oh shit, what do I do now?
Speaker 1: You know, if you had to pick one moment that
Speaker 1: really changed you, what would it be?
Speaker 2: You know? I was trying to think of that because
Speaker 2: of because that's the theme of your show. But I
Speaker 2: think maybe turning sixty, I have every thing I want,
Speaker 2: like I really want it rightly. You know what happened
Speaker 2: to the kid who got everything he wanted? He lived
Speaker 2: happily around here.
Speaker 3: I'm at that point.
Speaker 2: But I have to you know, I have to respect it,
Speaker 2: and I have to be the best father and the
Speaker 2: best husband and the best human. When things really clicked
Speaker 2: for me is when I turn it on the gratitude,
Speaker 2: when the gratitude just pouring out of me.
Speaker 3: Gratitude, gratitude.
Speaker 2: Thank God I'm still alive, thank God I have a family,
Speaker 2: thank God, I'm so grateful.
Speaker 3: Every day.
Speaker 2: For a long time, I would write it by gratitude,
Speaker 2: you know, my list out what could be simple things.
Speaker 2: Then I just started to feel it. Now I have
Speaker 2: some friends you might know that. Every morning it's like,
Speaker 2: g what we're grateful for, what our fears are? And
Speaker 2: a what's our attribute today?
Speaker 3: What are we going to do?
Speaker 1: Is there a pivotal moment in your life, because you're
Speaker 1: clearly in a very healthy, different place now, was there
Speaker 1: a pivotal moment that made you really realize that you
Speaker 1: wanted to find gratitude and feel differently?
Speaker 3: I think sobering up was it for me?
Speaker 1: Was it a long process or was it did you
Speaker 1: fall off the wagon again?
Speaker 4: Did you go back and forth?
Speaker 3: Or when it? When it happened?
Speaker 2: And you know, we started this deal with talking about that,
Speaker 2: du I d like, you know, could I have straightened.
Speaker 3: Out with that or maybe not?
Speaker 2: But I think it once I could admit that I
Speaker 2: had an issue and it was, you know, preventing me
Speaker 2: from the life that I always dreamed about. Then it
Speaker 2: kind of all fell into place and I had I
Speaker 2: got out of I went to rehab and that was,
Speaker 2: you know, was it was expensive. So I said, I'm
Speaker 2: going to put all into this if it doesn't work,
Speaker 2: and it were and then I came out, you know,
Speaker 2: and I was very lucky. I had a television stuff
Speaker 2: waiting for me, and then I met Caitlyn about a
Speaker 2: year later, and it was just like I got to
Speaker 2: stay on this path.
Speaker 1: And and that's that's probably why now you're the father
Speaker 1: and husband fully realized or or or in the process
Speaker 1: always of being fully realized. To me, it's it's a
Speaker 1: lifelong endeavor. What kind of father do you feel you
Speaker 1: are because of your entire past?
Speaker 3: Right, Well, I'm a father because I straightened up, like
Speaker 3: I couldn't have it. You know, I was drinking and
Speaker 3: you know I couldn't.
Speaker 2: The great luckily for me, and it's it's hard for
Speaker 2: women obviously because of the time, you know, the time clock.
Speaker 2: But you know, it was better for me to be
Speaker 2: older and be established and be clear and clean and
Speaker 2: be able to give him everything that he you know, deserved.
Speaker 1: Well and as a as a parent, now you probably
Speaker 1: what do you appreciate about your parents that like you
Speaker 1: didn't before?
Speaker 3: Yeah, almost so much. I more than the you know,
Speaker 3: the kindness.
Speaker 2: My mom was so kind and she would she would
Speaker 2: look at someone and whatever, whatever their good part was,
Speaker 2: that's what defined them to her. And I would be
Speaker 2: like mom, like come on, Like would be in a restaurant.
Speaker 2: She would lather on these compliments and make someone feel
Speaker 2: really good, like come on, mother, And that's you know,
Speaker 2: that's me now. But I do wish that they were
Speaker 2: still around because I have you know, you have questions.
Speaker 3: Do you go like this, am I doing this right?
Speaker 3: What do I do about that?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: How was I when I was you know, five and
Speaker 3: a half. Stuff.
Speaker 1: It's weird to lose both parents and relatively young. You
Speaker 1: feel orphaned in a way. And the things that have
Speaker 1: made me the saddest is my girls not knowing my dad, Like.
Speaker 3: Did you know he was that at all? I can't remember.
Speaker 1: He's so so well the yeah I was the last
Speaker 1: call that was made.
Speaker 3: How old were you when he died?
Speaker 4: He was? He died at sixty two, and I was
Speaker 4: I was thirty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was right just before I had rowan, So
Speaker 1: I was thirty seven and then My mom died in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, but she had dementia her so I sort
Speaker 1: of just watched her for a few years, you know.
Speaker 4: But that's that.
Speaker 1: My dad was just so beautiful and so larger than
Speaker 1: life and so funny. My dad never saw any movie
Speaker 1: I was in. The Only thing that he saw me
Speaker 1: was in theater. He came to every Broadway show, and
Speaker 1: then when he was dying, he asked me for VHS
Speaker 1: tapes of all my suddenly susans.
Speaker 2: How did it feel your dad being in the theater
Speaker 2: like seeingior shows?
Speaker 3: To me, that was to look at me.
Speaker 1: Like that, my mom not seeing my mom as much,
Speaker 1: because you know, she was just always there and always
Speaker 1: couldn't get you know, couldn't get enough of me. And
Speaker 1: but my dad, it was this was something he could see,
Speaker 1: and you know, doing cabaret and being that provocative in
Speaker 1: front of Daddy was a little bit of a a
Speaker 1: little bit of a blew my mind, just a little bit.
Speaker 2: He'd be like, Jesus Christ, you're wearing your underwear on
Speaker 2: that stage. But yeah, yeah, I don't think my dad
Speaker 2: could have saw me in cabaret sparkly nippleson, I don't think.
Speaker 2: But he saw me and how to succeed and that,
Speaker 2: and he told my mom that was the proudest moment
Speaker 2: life and any cry sweet, so you know. But yeah,
Speaker 2: and my mom saying like if she came to see
Speaker 2: me Cabaret, like if she was going to stay for
Speaker 2: three wheiks, she was at every single show, she wrote,
Speaker 2: you probably saw it, she wrote. She would write up
Speaker 2: something on the wall, good luck, good love you, mama,
Speaker 2: stamos and stuff.
Speaker 1: And so what would it feel like having them witnessed
Speaker 1: something that is so hard and and is so important
Speaker 1: and so difficult, And what was it like for them
Speaker 1: to witness that?
Speaker 3: Well? I always wanted to. I always wanted to make
Speaker 3: my dad proud of you, you know.
Speaker 2: And he was a tough greet not tough, but he
Speaker 2: was you know, he was you know, he used to
Speaker 2: he loved to cook and he would make you know,
Speaker 2: barbecue for all the TV shows and stuff, and they
Speaker 2: would people would come over and say, oh, we don't
Speaker 2: eat meat, we don't, you know.
Speaker 3: He got so they do cocaine, but they can't eat
Speaker 3: meat these Hollywood. But so he was the kind of
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 2: But to see him ever if he ever sort of
Speaker 2: got soft and cry, you know, so when he cried
Speaker 2: when he saw me and have succeed that man a lot.
Speaker 2: He you know, when he had a stroke in Vegas
Speaker 2: airport and didn't and they tried to get him, you know,
Speaker 2: pump them, and he didn't. His oxygen was too long.
Speaker 2: But he was in a coma for like six months,
Speaker 2: which was you know, I don't know if it was
Speaker 2: better or worse. But he lived at the house and
Speaker 2: I and I found this. I was did a movie
Speaker 2: in Yugoslavia and he they came over here there and
Speaker 2: when he got home, this was a long long time ago,
Speaker 2: and he wrote out this. He very didn't write very much,
Speaker 2: but he wrote very good handwriting, and he wrote this
Speaker 2: note and facts it to me. Okay, so I can
Speaker 2: sort of forgot about it. But when he was dying,
Speaker 2: I went into his room and he was a very humble,
Speaker 2: didn't have it. I was looking for a watch. He
Speaker 2: had some crappy time acts or something. But then I
Speaker 2: moved some shirts around. I saw the bottom of this
Speaker 2: letter that's up there, and it said I love you Dad,
Speaker 2: And I was like, my heart stopped, So what is this?
Speaker 2: And I pull and it was the original letter that
Speaker 2: he wrote in facts, and he lays out a B
Speaker 2: and c's a. You know, the way he treated people
Speaker 2: was really crowd you know. B My chest was swelling
Speaker 2: to sixty inches. And she says, man doesn't have many
Speaker 2: great moments in his life, but you have given me many.
Speaker 1: I love you. Oh oh yeah, God, okay, right well,
Speaker 1: she wanted to bring the room now one.
Speaker 3: God, I love talking to you.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having I love talking to you. Let's make
Speaker 4: a plan.
Speaker 3: I would I would love it.
Speaker 4: Let's have a double day to do it.
Speaker 3: Let's go to the theater together. I'm going to Let's
Speaker 3: go to the theater.
Speaker 4: Let's toast Bob.
Speaker 2: And all the wonderful people are heroes. Let me love you,
Speaker 2: mom My, mom my, mom and dad.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, Brook, I love you.
Speaker 3: I thank you.
Speaker 2: This was really a special time to talk to you,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: That was the wonderful John Stamos. And if you loved
Speaker 1: this interview as much as I did, go pick up
Speaker 1: a copy of his new book. If you would have
Speaker 1: told me, you'll be happy you did. That's it for
Speaker 1: us today. Talk to you next week.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: What with Burke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio. Our
Speaker 1: lead producer and Wonderful. Showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research
Speaker 1: and editing by Darby Masters and Abu zafar Our. Executive
Speaker 1: producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Baheed Fraser.