Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Transcribed by Sherry
Chris Isaak and Silvertone's appearance on the Conan O'Brien show after the release of Baja Sessions (original air date believed to be early 1997 ~ exact date yet to be determined).
The band plays Dancin'. Fashion and set notes to follow transcript, for those interested.
At the conclusion of Dancin', Chris hand his guitar to Ross and walks over to the interview area and shakes hands with Andy.
Conan: (shaking hands with CI) Hey, Chris, that was great. Thank you very much. Chris Isaak, everybody! (Chris raises hand in a greeting to the audience)
Conan: Have a seat.
They both sit down.
Conan: Thank you, that was fantastic. Thanks for doing it.
Chris: Very fun!
CO': You know, I'm curious about something. Whenever ... and, you know, you've been out in L.A. and you've done some movie work and stuff like that ..... whenever something's working as well as you've got your career going ... are there people that try to change it? (Chris laughs) You know, they say like ... you know what I'm saying? "We want to add some style to this guy... we want to influence this guy." Did anyone ever come along and try that with you?
CI: Oh, they just told me little things --- don't throw water on stage, don't spit.
CO': Hm hmm, good things ~ we never learned that here.
CI: Actually, we went out and we opened.... We would open for other bands and they would come and see the act and they would say something like "We thought you were a more sedate act, or high-toned." And we've tried to become more high-toned but it's takin' a long time.
CO': It's an effort, yeah.
CI: We're knockin' the edges off.
CO': What was it like getting started? A lot of people say that's the hardest thing to do probably, is to get started in the music business when you're touring around ... spending time in ... was there a van that you guys drove around in?
CI: Well, I didn't drive the van ....
CO': So already you started a notch above some other people.
CI: Well, you know what it was .... I'm a really lousy driver. I drive my own car real slow and I drive rental cars really fast. I don't know why.
CO': You don't know why? Because it's not your car, that's why.
CI: Best all-terrain vehicle this year ~ any rental car. I've got a �64 Chevy Nova and I drive it about 25. On the freeway, about 50. I got stopped one time ... I was goin' 50. I was goin' back to my hometown. It's about 100 miles away from S.F. to Stockton, and I drive about 3 or 4 in the mornin' �cause I'm always up late. I wait �til you go off the air, then I get in the car and take off.
CO': Thanks for putting that little plug in. Thanks, pal.
CI: And I'm drivin' and there's just a little bit of rain and they pulled me over.. This cop pulls me over and he says �You been drinkin?' Cause I was driving 50. And I said �No, I'm not drinkin.' He's looking, here's a white trash guy in this kind of white trash car and I'm driving 50 miles an hour and I guess he thought, �It's 3:00 in the morning, he's probably been to a bar and he's tryin' to hide the fact that he's drunk,' you know. He said �You been drinkin?' I said �No.' He said �Smokin' any pot?' and I said �That's illegal.' (Conan cracks up.)
CI: You know, I don't do that!
CO': (laughing) He should KNOW better!
CI: I'm lookin' at him and I'm bein' serious ... I go �That's illegal.' And he goes .. he's lookin' at me and he just goes �OK, have a nice night.' And I see that he's backing up to his car. He gets in his car and he goes away. And the thing that I realize later is that I had a helmet on. And he never .. dig this ~ I had this surf helmet somebody gave me and I put it on in the car and it's like 4:00 in the morning or something and I'm screwin' around and I forgot about it. And when he's askin' me all this stuff, he never mentioned it. He never said �Why you got the helmet?' But I know he was dyin' to know, you know.
CO': (laughing) I would have cuffed you right then and there!
CI: He SHOULD have.
CO': Alright (holds up the cd) well, the Baja Sessions is available right now. Thanks so much for coming on.
CI: Thanks for havin' me. (They shake hands)
CO': Really good to have you. Chris Isaak, everybody! (Chris raises hand again in acknowledgment of audience's applause)
Guitarist from house band (The Max Weinberg 7) plays a blues tune for the fade out. (They should have let the Silvertones play a little Fade Away)
After commercial, the house band keyboardist plays.
CO': Alright everybody, that's our show for tonight. I do want to thank all my guests.
Chris does a boxer's victory gesture. (hands clasped, up in the air to one side, over his right ear)
Everybody was dressed in black. Additionally, Chris wore a muted yellow jacket (looks like leather) over a medium blue shirt with white buttons and had on a choker and his surfer's cross (I *think* that's what it was ~ it is a broad and square cross). Roly was extremely sharp looking in a long sleeved black shirt (and matching shades) with 2 horizontal stripes and sleeves pushed up. Kenney was suavely dressed in a black tee and long chain. Hershel wore a black jacket over a black shirt. Ross was in black, too, and played the keyboard.
Roly had a sparkly black and white guitar; Chris' guitar was brown and black with a white �Chris Isaak' on top and white flowers on the bottom; Hershel had an all-brown guitar with white flowers on a black display at the bottom ~ they matched Chris'.
The set was an over-sized moon sliver.
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