The first song I remember hearing
Geoffrey O’Hara – ‘K-K-K-Katy’
“It’s an old [1918] song which went ‘K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy/You’re the only g-g-g-girl that I adore/When the m-m-m-moon shines over the cow shed/I’ll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door’. My mum used to sing it to my sister Katie when we were young. I’ve never heard it outside of my mum’s voice. I didn’t expect to be transported to a place that would well me up within the first 45 seconds of our conversation! It’s a great memory.”
The first album I ever owned
Bon Jovi – ‘Slippery When Wet’
“We had a record player and my dad would always play The Beatles, so I grew up thinking there was only one band in the world. My cousin said: ‘no, hold on a second, there’s another band – the greatest in the world, and it’s Bon Jovi.’ And he bought me ‘Slippery When Wet’. I was nine.”
The first gig I went to
Beastie Boys, early 1990s, Philadelphia
“I went to see the Beastie Boys in Philadelphia and The Roots – who were just taking off and are a local Philly band – opened for them. I went with my friends and it was a pretty great gig! I always have been, and continue to be, a Beastie Boys fan. I’ve seen them in concert a number of times, and I’m sad that we can’t go to Beastie Boys gigs anymore.”
The album that changed my life
Rage Against The Machine – ‘Rage Against The Machine’
“Along with The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ and N.W.A.’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’, it changed the course of my life, and impacted me the most when it came to personal curiosity and education. When I listened to it all the way through, it completely shifted my perspective and showed me the power of music and voices to change the world.”
The song that reminds me of home
The Beatles – ‘Golden Slumbers’
“‘Our House’ by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reminds me of the current family home I have, but the songs that remind me of my childhood home are ‘Golden Slumbers’ and ‘Blackbird’ from a little-known band from the 1960s and 1970!”
Ever encounter a Beatle?
“One of the craziest nights of my life was when Danny [DeVito, his Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-star] invited me to a Willie Nelson concert for Rhea Perlman’s birthday. We went backstage afterwards, and I immediately saw Willie Nelson and Woody Harrelson; you can imagine what they were doing! And the guy who opened the door was Quincy Jones! Paul McCartney sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Rhea, then noticed that my wife [Kaitlin Olson] was pregnant – with my first son – and put his hands on her stomach and sang a little tune, blessing my child.”
The song I wish I’d written
Johnny Cash – ‘The Beast In Me’
“He’s writing about something that’s inside of him that he’s not necessarily proud of or wants to celebrate, but he accepts that it’s there and that life is a journey of navigating the world with that thing inside of you every day and making sure the beast inside of you – we all have a version of that – doesn’t win the day.”
The song I can’t get out of my head
‘Fly, Eagles Fly’ [AKA ‘The Eagles’ Victory Song’]
“Probably no one outside of the city of Philadelphia is aware of it, but I’ve been listening to it on loop for the last 16 weeks. The Philadelphia Eagles just won the NFC Championship and are on their way to the Super Bowl. In the US, sports anthems aren’t as popular as they are in the UK – in Wrexham [the club he co-owns with Ryan Reynolds], there’s so many football chants and songs which are a fun way for the crowd to interact – but the Eagles’ fight song is Number One for me right now!”
The song I can no longer listen to
Idina Menzel – ‘Let It Go’
“This is cruel, because I know the writers of the song and love them dearly, but it’s an earworm that hasn’t left my brain in 10 years. I have PTSD even just thinking about it! My kids were at the age where you couldn’t escape Frozen. I wish I could get that song out of my head and never hear it again.”
The song that makes me want to dance
2Pac featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman – ‘California Love’
“I’m a terrible dancer. This is a holdover from the late ‘90s where I worked in a bar. The popular songs would come on six times over the course of a night, but I never got sick of this one, it was always fun, and it drew me towards the dancefloor. It’s not even that great of a dancing song, but because I can’t dance, it’s more about nodding and watching other people move!”
The song that makes me cry
‘Air’ – from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3.
“I’m not particularly religious per se, but I hear that song played and I can’t believe a human was able to create something like that – it feels like it came from another source. It’s otherworldly, uplifting, beautiful, heartbreaking, and it reminds me there’s something larger than myself, larger than us, and a force for good in the universe.”
The song I do at karaoke
Bon Jovi – ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’
I hate to go back to Bon Jovi, but ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ plays really well because everybody knows the lyrics and it gets people amped. Bon Jovi – twice! I guess he’s looming larger in my life than I originally thought.”
Ever sung karaoke with any of your peers?
“Glenn Howerton from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia loves karaoke and has a beautiful voice, so he’ll just start doing karaoke on set or in his trailer – he’ll bring a microphone and an amp and just start singing. I’m more of a listener than a participant but that’s because I’m around people who can really sing.”
The song I want played at my funeral
Bill Conti – ‘Going the Distance’ (from ‘Rocky: Original Motion Picture Score’)
“It’s not the most famous song in the film Rocky, which is ‘Gonna Fly Now’, but it represents what the movie is about – which is not winning. You ask nine out of 10 people what happens at the end of Rocky, they’ll say he wins, but he doesn’t – Rocky loses. All he had to prove was that he could go the distance with the champ, and that would mean he mattered. So that song is about getting up every time you get knocked down and I like the inspirational side of that. I did not expect my funeral choice to go this way, but that’s the power of music!”
The first two episodes of series four of ‘Mythic Quest’ are available now on Apple TV+, with new episodes released every Wednesday
The post Soundtrack of my life: Rob McElhenney appeared first on NME.
