WEBVTT - Book tour bonus with Leslie Jordan 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:06.080 Hi everyone, I'm back with another book to our bonus 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:10.320 episode of Next Question. Today we are headed to the 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:13.720 Golden State, San Francisco, where I got to talk to 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:18.800 everyone's favorite Instagram buddy, Leslie Jordan's. We had a blast 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:23.240 and I think you will too. My next guest really 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.360 needs no introduction, with all due respect to David Letterman. 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.000 So we all got to know him during the early 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:34.240 days of the pandemic. I thought his Instagram was so 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:37.520 damn funny. I just had to meet him, albeit virtually, 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:40.480 and let's just say we took a liking to each other. 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:45.400 I've since learned about his incredible, unique life story and 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.440 just how talented he really is. I mean, he can 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.120 do it all. I am so excited for you all 0:00:53.200 --> 0:01:00.320 to get to know the wonderful Leslie Alan Jordan's. Thank 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:04.240 you for having me. You are welcome. I am so 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.920 happy you're here. Is it hot? In? Hearers at me? 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.560 What is the deal with this theater? I am like, 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.880 I've already gone through menopause. What the hell is happening? 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:19.720 So I talk to us, Mr tell us what's going on? Well, 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:24.120 what is going on? I'm doing a television show called 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:29.679 Call Me Cat with my Ambiollic who you may know 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.880 from how you know her from everything? She was blossom 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:39.640 and she had the uh what's that with? Um? Jim 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.640 Parsons the Big Bang Theory? She was amy on the 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.240 Big Bang Theory for years. So I've got that going on. 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.080 I'm gonna be um. I've got this whole other career 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.920 that I just fell into. I'm gonna be a rock 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.520 singer or like a hymn singer. I don't know what 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.080 you're gonna call. I've got an album called Company's Coming, 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:03.440 and I make a list and I'm not a singer, 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:09.000 but for some reason, hymns, just old Southern hymns I 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:12.880 can sing. Oh, you wouldn't believe. In the church, they said, 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:16.520 just sing out for the Lord, and so I would sing. 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.320 But I came up with a list of everybody I 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.839 thought I'd like to sing a hymn with and put 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.840 together and every one of them said, yes, Dolly, pardon 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:35.040 um uh oh everybody, yeah, everybody. And that's so exciting. 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.040 And you well, we're going to talk about the better. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.359 We're gonna talk about that in a minute. Got no, no, no, 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.320 it's totally fine. I got a clip because I want 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:44.960 to show everyone how cute you look in your country outfit. 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.239 I like your classes. Where did I get them? You 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.480 got them in the lobby. I got them from you. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.640 Those are your Catius glasses from the going their tour. 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.399 But let's talk Leslie. Let's talk first about this whole 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:04.560 phenomenon that you created on Instagram. You during the pandemic, 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.399 you started posting. You moved back to Chattanooga where you're from, 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.160 stayed with your mama, and you started posting things on Instagram. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:14.919 We're going to take a look at one of them, 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.840 and it's so random but so adorable. Let's let's watch 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:28.079 Why are ship? What are you all day? It is awful? 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:38.240 It's still March, many days in March. When is I 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:44.800 We're gonna fucking get well? My mother holding up the steps? 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:49.520 Ask me who I'm talking to? I'm talking come, my friend, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:56.680 mama bothering me? How much more were this gonna take? 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:02.440 So you just did the sort of funny stream of 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.920 consciousness videos and you ended up you you started, you 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.920 had kind of maxed out at eighty thousand followers, and 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:14.360 then you're You're like, you have six million followers now, Leslie, 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.200 So why do you think why do you think so 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.680 many people gravitated to your feed during the pandemic? What 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.960 was going on there? Well, you know, my mother said 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.920 to me, why why would you talk like that? In 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.320 all those people you weren't raced to talk like that? 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:37.760 Because I said, and I said, I bought you a condo. 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.800 So but what hapever was I started? I was a 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.760 marketing genius and I didn't even know it because I 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.480 knew I didn't want to talk about politics, I didn't 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:54.760 want to talk about religion, and I didn't want to 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:59.200 sell anybody anything. So for I didn't even know what content. 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.120 You know, the wake up in the morning now and 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.120 I think I gotta come up with some content, you know, 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:07.920 I got to post something back then. I posted twice 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.560 a day for eighty days, just whatever, you know? And 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.840 what and how did people react? And you must have 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.680 gotten so many d m since as you as I said, 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.680 so many followers. What were they saying to you? You 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.359 know they were they were wonderful because they were saying, 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.920 you know, it's so tough right now. You know, people 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:28.680 would come up to me in the grocery store and saying, 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.440 I'm stuck at I was stuck at home with my 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.520 husband and my kids, and I would just I just 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.760 needed a dose of you every day. And I realized 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.760 the power of comedy, you know, just pure comedy, just 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.560 you know. And as I said, I didn't try to 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:51.640 sell anybody. I'm rethinking that board. But it was you know, 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:56.400 and and and stuck in Tennessee. And my phone rang 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:00.480 early on because it jumped from like you said, twenty, 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.920 I had twenty or thirty forty and then um, Megan 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:09.560 Malally from my will and Grace day, Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:16.120 back to me. Sorry that bit stole my thunder for 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:23.279 eight years. So she's a dear friend about it. But anyway, 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.200 Megan Malally reposted and I jumped to about you know, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.760 I guess I don't know eighty thousand, and I thought wow. 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.560 And then I don't know what happened, you know, I 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:38.559 don't know how that works. But my friend called and said, Leslie, honey, 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.720 you have gone viral. And I said, no, I'm in Tennessee. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:48.040 I don't have COVID, I'm he said, no, Internet viral. 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:53.280 And it just well, people, I mean, you just spread 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:57.040 so much joy and you do make people smile and laugh. 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.120 And you know, I was talking to Orally Brown. I 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.280 don't know if you heard our conversation, but she's just 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.880 an amazing woman. Grew up in Mississippi, one of twelve kids, 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.640 the daughter of sharecroppers, and I wanted to talk. I'm 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.680 fascinated about people's childhoods and what makes them tick. You 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.360 were you were born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. You 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:19.600 have twin sisters, and sisters twenty two months. They're twins 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:21.920 and twenty two months younger than me. So tell us 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.880 a little bit about your childhood, Leslie. Well, you know, 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:30.960 my my mother was nineteen when I was born. Daddy 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.680 was twenty two. You think back, you think, my God, 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:38.400 just babies raising babies. But we were never at home, 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.920 you know. We were always on the go. Um My, 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:50.480 uh my, my mother and my maternal grandmother, her mother, 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.160 I think took one look at a little Leslie and 0:07:54.280 --> 0:08:00.160 thought he's gonna need some help because you know, I 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:02.800 wasn't like the other boys. I didn't play I didn't 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.360 like sports, you know, and they created they circle the wagons, 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:11.080 as only good Southern mothers can do. They circle those 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.360 wagons and created this amazing little secret garden where I 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:19.080 could play with dolls. You know, I could twirl a baton, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.560 you know, I could do whatever I wanted to do. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:27.680 But then, you know, you just knew you don't tell daddy, 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.520 you know, because I would. I was so doll close. 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.640 I said, i'mnna show daddy. No, no, don't show daddy. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:35.880 It's just don't show daddy. And then, you know, my 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.079 dad would come home. He was a lieutenant colonel in 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.160 the army. I was not exactly the sun he envisioned, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.760 and so he would and I would be twirling a 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.240 baton in the front yard, you know. And then but 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:51.760 he adored me. He adored me, and and you lost 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.960 him when you were just eleven years eleven. When he happened, 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.760 he was flying, he was in the Army reserves by 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.280 the end, and he was flying to Hattisburg, Mrs Hippy 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.800 from Chattanooga, Tennessee. And this plane, there were ten men 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.319 on it just undershot the runway. It was just but 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.720 you know, a terrible time for a kid to lose 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.400 his dad, you know, and especially and it's so funny 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.640 because I thought that maybe I had been somewhat of 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:20.079 a disappointment to him, and um, I mentioned that to 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.199 my mother and she was a bergasted. She said, you're 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:28.480 daddy adored you, you know, but it's just I don't know, 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.079 you know, I felt like because I wasn't good. And 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.319 then she told me this crazy story. She said, you know, 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.079 when you were little, we took you to a wedding 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.360 and uh Alan, my dad kept saying, Peggy, he's not 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:47.160 gonna sit still. I'm a very excitable boy. And they 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.960 were right. I was up. I was down, and mother thought, well, 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.040 I'm gonna have to take him out. And mother said, 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.320 all of a sudden, the bride swept down the aisle, 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.680 and she said, I just froze like a pointer dog 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:03.120 like and I couldn't get that bright, and all I 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.400 could talk about when I got home, and I made 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.000 up a game called Bright and Gun, and I was 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:13.839 the bright and I had an angel food cake pan 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:19.280 on my head, and I'd taken mother's white tearcloth bathrobe 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:22.439 and slipped it on backwards. It was Empire ways, it 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.240 was beautiful, it was, and I had and I bank. 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.839 My cousin Karen walked me around. She made her be 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.199 the goon and walked me all around my house. And 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.760 then for Christmas, I wanted a bride doll. That's what 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.360 I wanted. And my daddy said to my mother, I'm 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.079 not gonna get him a bride doll, Piggy. I'm just not. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.319 You know, you're trying. We're talking the fifties, you know, 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.040 we're talking the Rank ten fifties, and I'm wanting a 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.040 bride doll. And so mother said, well, let's just don't 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.679 mention again and maybe he'll forget about it, you know. 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:56.920 But it's all I could talk about Christmas Eve. So 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.480 mother said, well, I don't. I don't know what you're 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:03.280 gonna say to him in the morning, Allen. But and 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.160 so she heard the front door shut and my daddy 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:10.199 went out. This would have been nineteen. Well, I was 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:15.199 whatever and bought his twelve, his three year old son, 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.319 the most beautiful bride doll. Mother said it was. It 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.840 was in a box of cellophane. And she said, when 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:24.719 I came down the steps and I saw her under 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.520 the tree, I squatted in the floor and pee. I 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:33.599 just paid all over the Thanks for sharing. So you 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.080 have talked about the fact that if you hadn't lost 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.240 your dad when you were eleven years old as a 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.920 as a gay teenager, it you might not have come 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.679 out or how would that affected sort of your journey 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:52.959 and being open about your sexuality. You know, I don't know. 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.120 I told my mother. You know, people say, well, when 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.800 did you come out? I sort of fell out of 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:05.040 the womb and to her high heels. So you have 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.120 to have been in and come out. And I don't 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.400 know how I negotiated that, but I just you know, 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:13.520 I remember in high school, i'd sit people down. I 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.760 would say, listen, I have a secret. I need to 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:20.360 tell you I'm gay. And they'd go and I was 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:25.160 the secret, you're gay and you murdered somebody. It sounds 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.160 like it sounds like your father was very supportive of 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.520 He was supportive, and I just wonder, you know, I 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.719 just wonder what it would have been like. You know, 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.719 who knows he loved me, So I cannot imagine, you know, 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.440 someone who bought their three year old son of bride doll, 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.880 you know, being upset. You know, yeah, you're the one 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.079 that bought me the bride dog. You made me this 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:52.160 way more with the one and only Leslie Jordan's right 0:12:52.240 --> 0:13:05.440 after this, Well, let's talk about so it's so fascinating 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.280 you grow up grow up in in Chattanooga and then 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.360 you go to ut Knoxville and you take an acting 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.319 class or you know, just kind of to fulfill some 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.480 kind of requirement. And then I know you said it 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.680 performing hit you like a drug. It was just I couldn't. 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:25.000 I wanted to be a journal journalist. I was a 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.320 journalism major, and I took intro to theater for from 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:32.240 my arts elective. And that afternoon I went to the 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.040 head of the department. I said, what do I this? 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.680 What what do I do? He said, well, first let's 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:47.200 learn how to pronounce he's because it was I was saying, uh, theater. Yeah, 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.040 I'm gonna get a green theater. He goes, it's theater. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:56.079 I won't get me a degrade theater. And but but 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.319 you obviously fell in love with acting. Got on a 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:04.559 bus twelve hundred dollars that my mother sewed into my underpants. 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.120 I had no fear. I had no fear back then. 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:10.560 I just think back on it just makes me tired. 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:15.320 I got on a bus pinning my underpants, my degree 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.040 in theater, and a tiny suitcase, and I got off 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.200 at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, which so you're 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:25.520 twenty two years old at the time. No, I was 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.440 older than that by then, I think, yeah, and you 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:31.600 got there, you got to Hollywood, and I know your 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.120 mom said, if it doesn't work out, you can come home, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.520 she said, and you'll have a standing ovation. That's so sweet. 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:40.840 And and so what was it like when you first 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.000 got to Hollywood trying to break into the business, because 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:49.360 you know, well, it was interesting because it was very 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.480 wink wink, because you would go out at night to 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:54.640 the gay bars and you would dance and this and that, 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.640 and you would see everybody would see producers, you would 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:01.160 see actors and this and that. But in the daytime, 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:08.400 you know, very wink wink, you know. And I had representation, 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:13.720 uh that were gay. My agent was gay. Everybody was gay. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.520 They told me. Now. They would call me up and say, now, listen, 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.400 feed on the ground. Put your voice in your lower register. 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.160 You know, la la la, don't go in there. Take 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.480 it down, you know, take it down a not right. 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:31.640 I wore cowboy boots and I had a mustache. And 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:38.480 you're mazing you. My friend looked back, because who does 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:44.400 she think she's fooling? But that you also had you 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.720 struggled back in those days, Leslie, you had some pretty 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:52.440 dark days. You had problems with substance abuse, you ended 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:56.200 up in jail. Um, I mean, what do you think 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.440 major life unravel once you got to Hollywood. I don't know. 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.920 I just think I really I've I've always you know, 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.960 around the rooms of recovery, they talk of this gene, 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.600 you know, that addictive people have. And I think I 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.600 used to think, oh, bullshit, you're infantile. Is I'm just 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.600 need to grow up? No, there's something, as I see 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.400 it in my family, you know, with one twin who 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.680 who we've had the dark twin. You know, she's had props. 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.440 And I think I don't know, I don't know what 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:29.840 it was. I do think that once I got sober, 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:35.080 I was forty two years old, and I remember thinking, 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.040 my friends said to me, you're a and this is 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:40.600 a terrible thing to say, but he said, you're a 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.680 fag hating fag honey. And I said, what do you mean? 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:48.920 And he said, you you have so much self hatred, 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.480 you know. So a lot of that was internal homophobia, 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:55.360 That's just what it was. It was the shame, you know, 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.440 having been brought up in the church. Also, I've been 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.520 baptized forteen times. We're not gonna go down that road. 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:06.680 But anyway, but just accepting something that I knew, you know, 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.760 was me. I was born this way, and so anyway. 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.400 It took years and years and years of UM. I'm 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.879 glad I got into recovery because they you don't go 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.200 over your problems. You don't go under your problems. You 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.760 go through and and um, and you're doing well. Now. 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:25.400 I'll tell a really funny story that when I first 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:30.760 got into recovery, my spiritual advisor said, your greatest fearlessly 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.320 and fear is what drives us to drink and drug. 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:38.840 Your greatest fear is heterosexual men. I said, well, no, ship, 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.200 it wasn't exactly a picnic on the playground, you know. 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.639 And he said, well, I want you to join a 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:52.159 stag recovery group all men. And I said, I was 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:54.439 scared to death. I don't know why. So I went 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.240 and joined this recovery group. There were fifty of the 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:02.080 butchers men you've ever seen. And my, my, my buser 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:03.920 said I want you to walk right up to the 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.560 podium and I want you to tell them I am 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.080 scared to death of you man. And so right before 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.200 the meeting started I called him and I said, do 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.359 you think I should just tell him that I'm gay, 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.520 just right off the bat, he goes, Honey, you got 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:31.879 to walk to the podium. They're gonna know you. You 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.000 know what, what I think is so interested to that, 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.800 while you're in the throes of some of your really 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:44.560 tough days, you were ministering to to AIDS victims because 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.760 you were in California at the height of the crisis. 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.240 And I'm curious what motivated you to do that and 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.600 what you learned from that experience. You know what happened 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:59.119 was and it's it's when when the pandemic started, I 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:04.000 remember thinking of myself, I've been through this on some scale. 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:08.280 I kept thinking, and it hit me like ino, here 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:12.359 we were gay men were dropping like flies. We couldn't 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.399 get help from anyone. The government was not really helping us, 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.320 and we had I remember looking at one another and saying, 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:19.920 we're going to have to take care of our own. 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:25.520 And so all these you know, groups started, and UM, 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.359 I got very involved with an organization called Project night Light, 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:35.040 which was all we did was sit with men who 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:40.560 were in hospice near the end and UM and so 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.000 all of that was happening. On top of it was 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.359 a very tumultuous time. But I look back and I 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:48.639 don't I'm not. It wasn't a sad time for me. 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.480 You know, we galvanized. And I'm hoping kind of that 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:54.600 the same thing is going to happen as we come 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.920 through this pandemic, because what happened was after it was 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.520 all over the gay community, were we were strong, we 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.560 were more apt to reach out to one another, to 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.600 help another. We've all been through it together. I'm hoping 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.600 maybe with this pandemic that will come out the other 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.960 end and as because this doesn't know, you know, gay, straight, white, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.000 black all over the world. You know, maybe we can 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:22.920 come through this and uh be kinder, you know, be 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:30.960 more willing to wouldn't that be nice? Then the pulpit. 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:33.520 I mean, you know, I write in my book about 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:36.320 how you know, first of all, your big break came 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.720 in Will and Grace when you played Beverly Leslie. And 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.520 it was a role originally for Joan Collins, but it 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.440 landed in your lap somehow, Leslie. I mean, and and 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.240 and I write a lot in my book about how 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.200 much change we've actually witnessed when it comes to gay rights. 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:58.520 You know, I covered Matthew Shepard, that darling boy who 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:02.800 was beaten to death and waoming, and talked about, you know, 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.920 all kinds of issues facing the gay community. Then I, 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.600 you know, fast forward seventeen years. I interviewed Jim oh 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:14.080 burgha fell, the plaintiff in the same sex marriage ruling 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.040 by the Supreme Court. And when you look at the 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.639 strides that have made been made and granted, not everywhere 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:25.320 in the country, but in general, do you feel heartened 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.119 by that? And and and did you ever think in 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.800 your lifetime, growing up as a little boy in Chattanooga, Tennessee, 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:37.280 that we would see a culture where there's much more acceptance. 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:40.159 I thought I was only queer on the planet. I 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:42.760 thought I was the only one. I mean, what would 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:45.200 I what would I know? I was in an elevator 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:48.119 in Denver one time and there was a lady, a 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:50.880 little lady there, and she said, I love your work. 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.440 I said, oh, thank you. You're not what really paying attention, 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.000 And she said, my name's Judy Shepard. And I burst 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.840 into tears, and we got off the elevator and talked 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.639 in depth about all that. But you know, to have 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.600 been on the forefront of all of this, you know, 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:11.280 um and I'm very proud. You know. Sometimes it's funny. 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:15.000 I saw two guys sitting side by side holding hands 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:17.560 not too long ago, and I walked by the table. 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:19.720 I said, I just love this. I said, I hope 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:22.360 you kids realize you know what we went through there, 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.840 like uh huh yeah anyway, And I thought, oh, I 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:27.800 don't want to be that one. You know that all 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:32.600 we red there the war. You have no idea. I 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:34.359 don't want to hear it. You know, they're gonna have 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:37.440 their own thing. And but you know, I'm proud. I'm 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.640 proud to have been a part of all that. We'll 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:50.440 be right back. You are got to have so much 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:52.240 going on, as you were talking about, You've got this 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:57.120 show with me, uh my embolic AND's just doing Jeopardy. 0:22:57.200 --> 0:22:59.880 She's doing a great job to anything. And you've got 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:04.000 this country album, which was you you write, You recorded 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:06.840 these songs that you were mentioning with all these famous 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.639 country artists, and you look so cute in your outfit. 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:14.040 I wanted to show a video of you singing with 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:16.520 Vince Gill. I think we cued that up, and you 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:25.119 guys rolled that. You put my life We're going to 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:48.840 We's it's a holy oh great, you're just having a ball. 0:23:50.200 --> 0:23:52.720 I am so it's so great. I mean, it's so 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:57.760 great to see you just being discovered by so many people, 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:00.880 and you're having so much fun less Lee doing all 0:24:00.960 --> 0:24:03.520 these things. You wrote a book, You've got an album, 0:24:03.640 --> 0:24:06.959 You've got this show. Do you sometimes say you want 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:09.359 to pinch yourself? Every night I lay in bed and 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:12.440 I just think, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:15.879 you know this was I'm a Tennessee boy, so to 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:20.000 be doing the Rheyman, you know, the Rheyman Theater, it 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:28.679 was just beyond anything. Yes, I've got a new one. 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:33.280 I from doing the Rheman again on the of November, 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:38.480 and I've got a brand new outfit. Good Before we go, 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:42.119 we got a quick lightning round Leslie Jordan's Can we 0:24:42.240 --> 0:24:46.520 do It? Okay, here we go. What's your favorite country 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:53.080 artists or who's your favorite country artist? Dolly Parton? Okay, okay, okay, 0:24:54.080 --> 0:24:57.399 mine are the chicks. Okay? What is your what is 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:02.000 your favorite home cook meal? Uh, beef stew, my mother's 0:25:02.280 --> 0:25:06.520 my mother's beef stew. Okay, I like a garden's chicken. Okay. 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:11.840 What's your go to karaoke song um um uh oh, 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:16.160 the one about I remember it all fancy. I remember 0:25:16.240 --> 0:25:19.000 it all very well just because I know the words 0:25:19.720 --> 0:25:22.680 with Rayba McIntyre. But say I was a big fan 0:25:22.920 --> 0:25:27.600 of um Bobby Gentry, who wrote I remember it all 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:30.960 very well looking back as a summer returned eighteen. It's 0:25:30.960 --> 0:25:35.199 a girl thing that any way, Mine is crazy by 0:25:35.280 --> 0:25:38.320 Patsy k Oh. I love that. Okay, what's the What 0:25:38.400 --> 0:25:40.639 would be your dream job if you weren't doing what 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:45.280 you're doing? Something to do with horses? Really? Yeah, I'm back. 0:25:45.720 --> 0:25:48.439 I rode my whole life and I'm back riding sixty 0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:51.520 six years old. And I went over to the Los 0:25:51.600 --> 0:25:55.080 Angeles Equestrian Center and I said, um, and I just 0:25:55.240 --> 0:25:58.200 walked into a barn. But it was a barn that 0:25:58.359 --> 0:26:02.639