Al Yankovic
Al Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer, songwriter, parodist, record producer, satirist, actor, voice actor, music video director, film producer, and author. He is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts, original songs that are style pastiches of the work of other acts, and polka medleys of several popular songs, featuring his favored instrument, the accordion...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth23 October 1959
CountryUnited States of America
At this point I've got a bit of a track record. So people realize that when 'Weird Al' wants to go parody, it's not meant to make them look bad... it's meant to be a tribute.
I think I'm equally as abusive as the editors normally are for the "Letters and Tomatoes" column, which is the fan mail part of MAD Magazine and an ongoing feature.
You still have Top 40 radio now, but it's 40 different stations. There aren't many hits that everybody knows, and there aren't many real superstars.
There are probably a few library fines I haven't paid yet, but I'm a pretty clean-cut guy overall.
I like the guitar-driven music of Nirvana at its peak. At that point, I thought there was a lot of really exciting music coming out.
Not any specific one, but I was a huge fan of Frank Jacobs, I guess he wrote the plurality of the song parodies for MAD, Sam Hart, a few others, but that was also where I was first exposed to the art form of song parodies.
I know now that everything I write, I'm going to put out, and I'll have to live with it for the rest of my life.
I have a long-standing history of respecting artists' wishes.
I don't think there are any new media I'd like to cover.
I can't get too offended when somebody parodies me.
By the time I'm in the studio recording my parody, 10,000 parodies of that song are on YouTube.
As much as people are griping about the Internet taking sales away from artists, it's been a huge promotional tool for me.
As a kid, I certainly never thought I would get to spend my life doing something fun.
A lot of rap songs don't usually have a lot of melody per se.