You may not know this, but with the publication of his book, Weird Al: The Book (working title: Weird Al: The Movie), Weird Al Yankovic's domination of the world is now complete. But being the incredibly nice guy that he is, Al stands as an invisible ruler, allowing us and our governments to relish the illusion of control.
Weird Al stopped by the UGO office to discuss this wonderful tome of Weird Al information co-written by The AV Club's Nathan Rabin. According to Al, the book is not a straight biography, but something a bit more interesting. "I had no interest in writing an autobiography," Al said. "I've been doing interviews and podcasts and whatnot for thirty years and I was just kind of tired of hearing the sound my own voice."
Al also touched on what it was like to put his life story into the hands of a fan, particular after being personally in charge of so much of his work: "I let him (Nathan Rabin) do whatever he wanted, but at the same time, I knew that it wasn't going to be a scathing diatribe because I knew he was a fan." Weird Al also casually alluded to the tragic death of Nathan Rabin since the book's creation, but it's possible he was joking.
Discussing the book's origins, Al told us, "The idea of doing a coffee table retrospective was just something that had been floating around for a long time. It just seemed like the time had come."
This isn't Al's first attempt at an autobiography, just his first try at a real one. In the 1980s Al put out The Authorized Al, which -- as Al tells us here -- is now a collectors' item that actually appeared once on reality show Pawn Stars, the true measure of any cultural artifact. Contrasting to the two books, Al told us, "[The Authorized Al] was mostly fake. There were a couple true facts mixed in. I didn't have a real career at that point to write about, so the whole thing was kind of a joke. But now at this point, it feels like I've been around for long enough there actually are some things people probably care to hear about."
With that, Al's domination over us is now complete, and he
can go home to shower and take a nap. Weird Al: The Book is in
stores now. You can look forward to its flip-book sequel sometime in the
future. Probably never. Most likely never, in fact.
