“Weird Al” Yankovic has parodied just about every iconic artist and anthem over the last four decades, but he’s never taken a swing at Bruce Springsteen.
“It’s just never worked out for me to do a straight-on Springsteen parody,” Yankovic told ScreenCrush in 2014. “Either the timing wasn’t right, or he didn’t have a big enough single at the time my album was coming out, or I just flat out couldn’t think of a clever enough idea for one of his songs… but it’s not because he doesn’t have a good sense of humor. He’s got a great sense of humor.”
He certainly does. In fact, Bruce and Al share a certain silly sensibility, and that’s probably why they’ve developed an improbable friendship dating all the way back to their teens–a fact Bruce divulged in a surprisingly provocative and wide-ranging 1985 interview on ALTV.
In the clip below, Al poses a series of questions I’ve never seen any other interviewer ask, and to his credit, Bruce gamely answers every one of them. This is essential viewing for any Springsteen fan.
Bruce and Al are such good friends that Bruce invited Al to the set a couple of years later for the filming of the video for “Brilliant Disguise.” Of course, with Yankovic on the scene, hilarity was bound to ensue. In the rarely seen alternate and unreleased cut of Bruce’s famously somber video, we see the artist doing his best to keep a straight face while his buddy does his best to make him laugh. (It also includes what is to my knowledge their one and only musical performance together.)
Bruce and Al may be besties, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t also rivals. When Bruce’s Human Touch and Lucky Town albums failed to hold their spots on the album charts, Springsteen enviously but good-naturedly name-checked his friend from the stage in his 1992 rehearsal show and radio broadcast.
It’s been years since Bruce and Al have been seen in public together, but a friendship like theirs was built to stand the test of time. Both artists are still remarkably prolific and relevant, and both are still active stage performers. It’s only a matter of time before we’re treated to their next collaboration.
Hoot!
You… know that isn’t REALLY him interviewing Weird Al, right? That’s an interview with someone else and Al just added himself in.
You mean, “You know that isn’t really him interviewing Springsteen, right? That’s the joke, just as the Brilliant Disguise video isn’t an alternate cut with Al trying to put Bruce off.
Oh wow, I’d heard about that clip of Bruce mentioning Al, but I’d never actually heard the clip itself until now. Al brought it up during his 1992 Arsenio Hall appearance, and fired back “Bruce should take accordion lessons, he’s gotta get in touch with the 90s!” https://youtu.be/q74guetitTk?t=336
VERY minor nitpick though: that interview originally comes from Al’s 1986 special Weird Al’s Guide to the Grammys, not the 1985 AL-TV special.