September 24, 2016 • 44 mins
20 years ago, Gregor lent some CDs to a musician friend. The CDs helped make him a famous rockstar. Now, Gregor would like some recognition. But mostly, he wants his CDs back.
Credits
Heavyweight is hosted and produced by Jonathan Goldstein, along with Wendy Dorr, Chris Neary, and Kalila Holt.
Editing by Alex Blumberg & Peter Clowney.
Special thanks to Emily Condon, Jackie Cohen, Paul Tough, Stevie Lane, Michelle Harris, Dimitri Erlich, Sean Cole and Jorge Just.
The show was mixed by Haley Shaw.
Music for this episode by Christine Fellows, with additional music by Talk-star, The Eastern Watershed Klezmer Quartet, Hew Time, Michael Smith, Farnell Newton, and Haley Shaw, who also did our ad music. Our theme song is by The Weakerthans courtesy of Epitaph Records.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin bad time. I was just stepping out. I was
just you enjoy music, right, Yeah. This week's show kind
of deals with music, and it got me thinking. I
have a confession to make. You know how, sometimes, like
(00:35):
you have dinner parties and they're great. I wanted to say,
sometimes how you sometimes play music? Yeah, sometimes I'm a
little hesitant to come over for dinner.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You're always hesitant to come over for dinner.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, it's not including Mary Club's forty fifth birthday. Do
you remember that? I do you know that Bumballeo song?
I can't find my Gypsy King CD because your husband
hit it. It's killing me, killing everybody. The reason sometimes
I have some difficulty with my digestion these dinner parties
is it's the Bumballeo song. It's the Gypsy Kings. Oh
this is great. You know what bumble bambalaya translates as
(01:11):
what wobble wobble? All right, we'll speak to you one
thing before we go. Okay, I'm going to say bumbalao
and then you say bumbalaya. Okay, I do, and then I.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Bomb bye bye.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
From Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight
today's episode, Gregor.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
This guy's gonna ram you from behind because you're going
eleven miles left, although you usually don't do it from
the right line.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Okay, let's not give killed. Do you have a driver's license?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
This is Gregor and me on our way to lunch,
and what you're hearing is typical. When I'm driving, Gregor
comments on my speed. When I eat, he comments on
my table manners, and when I eat yogurt, he comments
on the way I lick the inside lid, calling it
both lecherous and unmanly. Some might say that Gregor is
overly critical, possibly even prickly, but I would not. I
(02:24):
love Gregor for many reasons. His loyalty, his generosity, his
being the kind of person will pick you up at
the airport at four in the morning without even complaining.
But it's perhaps his courage to say the things that
were all not exactly thinking, but maybe thinking about thinking,
that is most thrilling. And so when he showed up
(02:46):
at my office mocking himself instead of me and speaking
in biblical parables, I was concerned.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Was it the Pharaoh and the Joseph story who said
the seven lean years and seven fat years?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I had this insight today that the fat years are
about to end.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Would these have been the fat years?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's what I realized Literally this morning. I woke up
and I was like, wait, those were the fat years?
You know, in every conceivable way, financially, stability, prestige, all
the job stuff, and like creative accomplishment stuff. I just
feel like it's like going up and I'm watching it
go up and smoke.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Gregor is forty eight years old and by profession he
makes marketing videos for a cleaning product usually found in
the bathroom. I can't tell you the name of this
product for fear Gregor will lose his job. In other words,
he's not the filmo tour he dreamt of being back
in his college days, underlining back issues of Kye to Cinema.
(03:41):
On top of that, he says that over the past
few years he's seen his career slowly sucked downward. Not
unlike Oh, I don't know, the spiraling waters of a
sink unclogged by a chemical drain opener designed to flush
pipes and attack clogs at their worst.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What's that children's game where everyone goes around the chairs
musical chairs, chairs, and everyone sits down, and you're like, oh,
that friend of mine became a CEO. These four friends
are like EVP SVP senior whatever.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
At their things.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That friend of mine wound up sitting in the president
of Estonia's chair, and then you're like the music stops
and you're left standing.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I've heard him reel off this list before, and Gregor
fully admits it. The success of anyone he knows, no
matter how thin, his connection to them, feels like a
reflection of his own shortcomings, including the ascension of his
elementary school's librarian son, who is now the president of Estonia.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The point of the story is where's my presidency of
my Estonia? My circumstances was. I was like, oh things
will you know, about to break through, about to change?
And now, like you could say, well, this is just
to setback, it's you know whatever, Soon your ship's going
to come in.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But it's just not you know. I mean, that's just
the simple truth, the uncomfortable truth.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Of all Gregor's stories about the success of his acquaintances
and friends, there's one story that he returns to most,
and not only is it the greatest success story of
them all, it's the one that touched his life the
most intimately. The story all begins about twenty years ago
in Manhattan, when Gregor was living in a small apartment
in Chinatown with his older brother Dimitri. One night, they
(05:24):
had a friend of theirs over for dinner, a techno
musician friend.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He was really poor at the time. He was living
in like I think, in like a basement in a
warehouse or something, for forty dollars a month. He was
an articulate smart guy, still an articular smart guy, but
he's sort of an unlikely rock star in that his
hair had mostly fallen out even when we were still
in our twenties. But I watched his ascent. He played
the bigger and bigger crowds during this techno kind of stuff.
(05:49):
And then eventually he got a record contract, and I
at the time got hold of a very obscure set
of CDs which were field.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Hollers oooh on troubles.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I thought it was really interesting stuff. I loaned him
this box set of CDs.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Oooh lone trouble.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So he then sampled it very heavily god and created
a record which got him very rich and very famous.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
This guy you're speaking of, This guy's Moby trouble. Moby
bald headed, bespectacled, castle dwelling, multi million records selling Moby.
(06:48):
But back then he was just Gregor's pal who spent
weekends at Gregor's family's place and attended family birthday parties too.
In bars and during long car rides, Gregor and Moby
had long, earnest conversations about God and the things they believed.
They were living their twenties together and those CDs Gregor
lent Moby. The Box. Sounds of the South was recorded
(07:11):
by the ethno musicologist Alan Lomax. Beginning in the nineteen thirties,
Lomax and his father John made thousands of field recordings,
mostly in the American South. These recordings are among the
most important in American music, preserving dozens of African American
songs from the early years of the twentieth century. Wait
(07:33):
some Time better know than Alas some Time. Another hit
on Moby's album is called Honey. It makes use of
the song sometimes sung by Bessie Smith Jones. Jones was
taught these songs by her grandfather, a former slave born
in Africa. This is Moby's version, So is everybody feeling alive?
(07:54):
Y I've here elected to play for you the live
version of the song with all of its foot stomping
and audience cheering. It's how I imagine Gregor hears it
echoing in his head during those sleepless nights when his
kishka's are slowly being corroded by battery ascid.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
When I discovered this CD set, I was like an evangelist.
I was like, this is amazing. You got to check
this out. He was over the house and I was like,
you got to take this home. This is amazing stuff.
This is the best CD I've heard. You know, I
don't know how long I've been listening to NonStop rotation.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I love the CD. So it wasn't just laying in
a pile. And he happened to put it in his
bag and walk out the door.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I said, I sold him on it.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And Moby makes use of several Lomax recordings on his
album Play, which went multi platinum. Play eventually became one
of the most commercially licensed albums ever recorded. At the time,
the songs were used to promote everything from luxury cars
(08:57):
to credit cards, and before Play, according to Rolling Stone Magazine,
Moby was quote bumbling around New York as it has been,
And then was there an intermediary step before or that?
And then hearing it on the CD where he said, hey,
by the way, thanks.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
No, I said, this is amazing thing. Next thing I
heard it's on the radio and I said, hey, can
I get that box setback?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And then years of not being friends.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
And according to Gregor, that was all he wanted to
get his CDs back. He was looking for neither riches
nor credit, just the CDs, which he claims were only alone.
And so this is how it went. He began leaving
Moby voice messages by Gregor's count, about a dozen that
all went unanswered. Then, in a final act of desperation,
(09:44):
Gregor penned a song called Moby give Me Back my CDs,
which he sang into Moby's answering machine with accompanying karaoke
music to the tune of Brian Adams Heaven. After much cajoling,
Gregor dug up his lyrics, which I will now perform
for you, Moby give me back my CDs. The recordings
(10:08):
from the yield the Alan Lomax box at CDs. I
think there were seven. Those discs are all that I need.
The ones I gave you from my house. I think
you'll be sure to see there were seven and that message,
(10:31):
Gregor says, was met with over a decade of silence.
Did he ever explain, like, did he just ever come
out and tell you honestly what became of those CDs?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I think he was busy, like playing, like, you know,
a concert to ninety thousand people in Rykovic and drinking
champagne out of a prostitute shoe. Couldn't be bothered, Obviously,
I put an exaggerated value on the CDs. I'm sure
he could have sampled anything, and he had a plenty
big career before.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
That and after that.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I mean, I'm not insane, but it was more that
displaced feeling of like I had this thing go off
and bloom without me.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
M m.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I'll tell you an interesting detail in that. Yeah, whenever
Moby music comes on, I can't listen to it.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
But do you think if you get it back you
won't feel that way.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
I feel like I could work it through like therapy
where I could then listen to the music again.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
You know, there's a sense of what.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
About my you know, where's my gold album?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Gregor has theories about why nothing ever happened for him,
and they revolve around an aspect of his personality, an
aspect he refers to as a lack of affability.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Like a lot of times I'll say something completely earnestly
mm hmm, like past the water, and they're like, are
you being sarcastic?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Like that happened to me all the time?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
How could you ask for the water sarcastically?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I come across as being sarcastic when I'm not.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
So it's almost like a handicap of.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It's a huge handicap.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think it's fundamentally, as I understand my own life,
that is my cross to bear. That's what's wrecked my well.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I think you would even like you told me that
story about where you were in the conference room at work,
They're like complimenting you on your new glasses or something
and saying, hey, what does your wife think of those glasses?
And you were like, how the fuck do I know?
Why don't you ask my own wife to find out?
Do you remember?
Speaker 5 (12:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I mean, so.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
They said like, what is your wife think of that?
I was like, how do I know? Ask my wife?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Recently, Gregor and Moby have found themselves back in touch,
though in the most tangential impersonal way possible through group
emails and texts. Gregor's older brother Dimitri, remained friends with
Moby over the years, and Dmitri recently had a baby,
so he loops in Moby, Gregor, and one other old
friend on updates. This has evolved into a small group
(13:02):
of friends exchanging witticisms and fun facts like did you
know that the fatty flesh around the elbow is called
a weness? So while the new group email friendship isn't
the same as the old close one, it's still an
open door, and so I couldn't help asking the question,
now that that door has swung open again, do you
(13:23):
see this as an opportunity to ask for those CDs
once again?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I was thinking about it, were you just because it's
kind of a little symbolic of what I don't even
have a CD player anymore, right, But I was just thinking,
for talismonic purposes, it would be interesting to have.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Them back say more about that.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I think that it might soothe me.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Do you really think it would?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I'll actually give you the clarity which just came to me, now, okay,
it's not Instead of the money and the fame and
all that stuff. What it is is tangible evidence. Understand
you did this, you exist, you did it, you pulled
it off.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You want to be able to say, see these CDs
on the shelf, that's.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The ones that I gave to mommy, because for me,
this would just be a version of proof.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Wanting the CDs you lent someone decades ago and expecting
them back is of course insanity, but insanity's repeated often enough,
especially between friends, can begin to feel pacifying, lulling.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Even.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Excuse me, in a way, you just want your due.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Do you think you can articulate that in a way
that would make it understandable to him?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Do you think I'm pretty confident I can't, because he's
still pretty sensitive.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Okay, pretty sensitive, pretty sensitive. Like the time Moby seemed
to bristle when Gregor emailed him about something totally innocuous,
a condolence for the death of Moby's friend David Bowie.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You know, I said some witty thing about David Bowie dying,
he wrote, like texted back, like the picture of him
and David Bowie in the cover of Entertainment.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Let's back up for a moment, what was the witty
thing you said about David Bowie's death?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
You know that good night funny man?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
What does that even mean?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
That's usually what I say when people die.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
If this is a sampling of the hot takes Gregor
has in store, I fear that this newly opened door
between Moby and Gregor might not remain open forever. I
also knew that if he has any hope of ever
getting back those CDs, he'll need a middleman or interlocutor
or interlocutor. So perhaps, against my better judgment, I allow
(15:43):
myself to be swept up by the moment. I just
don't know if this is going to lead to anything
but heartbreak? But why don't we go after the CDs?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
All right?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And with that ringing call to arms, my path was
set and the mission begun. Say I'm Moby, Like, how
would you ask.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Hey, Moby, can I have back those CDs? I've never
understood approach other than a direct approach, So that's what
I would do.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
After the break the Hollywood Hills, a surprise encounter with
Rue Paul and maybe Moby. Maybe the airline tickets were purchased,
the hotel was booked, but a couple days before we
were set to leave for La, I got nervous. If
(16:37):
Gregor already was in a bad place, could my meddling
possibly make things worse?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Hello?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Hey Annika?
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Yeah, Jonathan.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I decided to reach out to the person who knows
Gregor best, his wife, Annika. So do you know about
this this little project that your husband and I are undertaking?
Speaker 5 (16:58):
So I think that the is a strategy to like
ambush Moby and try and get him to give back
the CDs that he lent Gregor thirty years ago or however,
well it was ago. Is that true?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
You make it sound like such a classy operation. Yeah.
Has Gregor brought this issue up to you before this
whole Alan Lomack CD issue?
Speaker 5 (17:23):
So I met him on November eleventh, two thousand, Yeah,
and it came up pretty early in our relationship, so.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
He yeah, like first date conversation, It was.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
Definitely early on. It's very hard for him to let
stuff go. And like, even like early on our relationship,
we went to Spain together and we bought a bottle
of olive oil in some town or something and we
left it by accident in the rental car and it
still bothers him.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Do you know. I think I actually know that Olive
Oil story.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Oh yeah, yeah. There is something that is in his
character that is very much like the Larry David character,
where it's like, you know, like obsessing about a very
small point. But you know, he's a very he's like
a very sensitive person. So it's just part of who
(18:23):
he is and part of his wonderful package.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Does this undertaking have your blessing or do you think
it's foolhardy?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
I don't. I sometimes I worry about Gregor's feelings because
he is very hurt, very easily, and I don't know
if Moby is really that sensitive to his feelings.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I Gregor flew in from San Francisco and I was
there to greet him at the Bob Hope International Airport
in Burbank.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
So this is the dream factory I've heard about.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
It's beautiful here. Even the underground parking lots smell like sentent.
We have four hours before our appointment with Moby, so
we set off in our economy sized Krrio or similar
to experience everything LA has to offer. Are you excited? Yeah,
you don't sound excited.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
No, I'm full of anxiety.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And let me tell you I feel an increasing sense
of dread about the futility of this undertaking.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
You can get those CDs back, my friend.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Okay, whatever you say in a.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Plastic bag, which he'll supply.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
You're gonna negotiate this look manage at which time of
my client's choosing the one plastic bag recycled acceptable plus
one coupon good for any flavor from basket in Robin's
ice cream or any substante there too.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
With just three hours and fifty nine minutes to go,
things were off to a rollicking start. It's like not moving.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
There's always traffic in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Look at the traffic. Are we gonna make it for movies?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, we're gonna be stuck in horrible traffic.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
We have until two, No, we have until one.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Oh really we'll never make it.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Oh look there's the big Hollywood sign. Wow, what a sight.
Huh used to say Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Land Actually before that it was called hollywood Landville.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Do you want Mexican food? Do you ever eat Mexican food?
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I love Mexican food. And to make U turn yeah,
go go go? This is like a four lane uie,
it's six really.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Go go go go?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yes, when you knew to someone before they were famous,
and you treat them like someone who's not famous. Sometimes
they don't like that. Sometimes they're used to the difference
and the rock star treatment from everyone.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Can you can you try to treat them with a
little more difference.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
That's what I'm gonna try to.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
But the mask always slips.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Insofar as me coming here with you, How do you
feel about me as an interlocutor?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm actually full of dread mostly because of that.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
But what is that supposed to me?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Because I recognize that I need an interlocutor. I did
say that, and I do believe it. I think that
you're going to be allows the interlocutor.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
What do you think I'm gonna embarrass you in front
of your yes, famous friends?
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yes, yes, that's.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
What you're afraid of. Yes? No, But seriously, you think
I'm gonna blow this?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I just feel like you don't get the vibe of
what it's like when you're in like a guy's house
and you're gonna.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Be like, say, nice toilets, what are he's made of?
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Porcelain?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Ay, I'm gonna be like Johnny please, and you'll be like, no,
I don't know what they're made up?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Is to me the final iroty of this whole thing
that you're concerned that I'm gonna embarrass you.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
I don't want you to trip me up in my game,
my stride, my cadence.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And what is it gonna be a part of your
game here to.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Try and relax and be myself. But I'm gonna be
made self conscious when you're like, do.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
You validate parking here?
Speaker 1 (22:09):
And I just need you to validate God, this is
so pretty, What a pretty place to live?
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Hey, well you're selling off CDs. You can live in
a place like this.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Worried about our being tardy, I decided to run down
the clock doing laps around Moby's very pretty block, little
tiny houses. They keep going straight. This is really pretty
nice view of the mountains.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
This is his house right here where all right here?
I want to drive by it.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
This house right there at the corner. We were passing
the gates of his home over and over when a
half hour before our appointed meeting.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
That's movie right there, is it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Oh Jesus, Moby emerges through the gates to get his newspaper.
Excited about seeing an honest to goodness famous person. I
instinctively slowed to a crawl and pulled over beside him.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Go say hi, no, no, come on, let him go
to keep going.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
We just turned around.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
He didn't see any Yes he did.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
He turned around and we made eye contact, like right
up to him, and he turned around and he seemed scared.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
That's exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
What did I do?
Speaker 4 (23:14):
You're creepy.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Creepy, they don't slide up to people and they're going
to get their.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Pretty That's true. I really, I really did slide up
to him.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, he did, like a creep You're gonna go another
pass through when he comes up for his milk.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
We walk off our nerves in a nearby park, where
Gregor dispenses life wisdom to a passing toddler.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Enjoy it, kid, best, It's going to be for the
rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Who says things like that to a child?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
His happy in love? His shirt said love. He's holding
a little.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Girls outside Moby's door. We do some last minute strategizing.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Am I supposed to be the good cop or the
bad cop? I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, I guess you were supposed to be the bad cop. No,
I'm the bad cop, you're the good cop.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I'll usually play the bad cop.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So fine, you're the bad cop.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
It's twelve to fifty seven. It's not really one yet.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Hall wait oh hello, Hi, I'm sorry, sorry, we're early.
It's twelve fifty seven. It's three minutes too early.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Moby's personal assistant, a terrifyingly fit woman in jeans and
T shirt, leads us towards Moby's home. By rockstar standards,
it's pretty modest.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Hello, Hello, Hi, Sharman, Moe, been far too long? Should
I take shoes off?
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Hi? I am Jonathan. Were led into a sunken foyer
where a couple of assistants are gathering equipment and making
themselves scarce. Standing at the top of the stairs looking
not unlike a bald headed gray hoodie Norma Desmond is Moby.
Gregor and he do not hug or even shake hands.
They don't even wave.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
It's been far too long, my friend where he's staying?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
And Gregor drops his bag and has a looxie.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Beautiful location, your beautiful assistant.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Everything.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
He's even brought along a thoughtful gift, something to cater
to Moby's strict veganism and clean, healthy lifestyle. Fancy all
natural lemonades.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Something disco with turmeric, WHOA something awful with probiotic cayenne peppers,
something horrifying with lemons.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
To our parched dismay, Moby takes the beverages and places
them in the fridge. Gregor and I are never to
see those beverages again. As we settle in and I
set up our recording gear, Gregor notices a pile of
video equipment.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Why do you have two C three hundreds here?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Remember that slippery mask? Gregor mentioned the one hiding is
rough Edges ten seconds in and it was already a slippin'
Why am.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I not involved that produce films all the time?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I can help you to which Moby, rather than saying
he's worked with David Lynch and David le Chappelle and
probably all set on that front, instead says, I mean
you live in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, but I'm here all the time, not literally in
your living room, in your kitchen, though I could be
more often.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Gregor can't help treating Moby like a nephew making his
first student film. That is, Gregor's treating Moby the way
he treats me. And this of course is concerning.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
First of all, before we even get that far, how would.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
You At this point, Moby has mostly no idea why
we're here. I made an appointment with his assistant, but
it was left vague. So Moby takes the direct approach.
Speaker 7 (26:28):
So what are you guys doing?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Well, this is an excellent question.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Well, let's begin at the beginning, around the time contemporaneous
with your recent autobiography, the mid nineties two thousands, and.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Like, after all of his braggadoccio about how he was
going to walk in there and demand the CDs back,
Gregor's nervous, being uncharacteristically mealy mouthed, unable to explain the
basics of our mission.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And so this conversation became down this kind of alleyway
of that facet of like I was kind of like,
what is me?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Moby had limited time, so at the risk of embarrassing
Gregor in front of his famous friend, I decided to
step in and explain. So and I tell my story
of you coming to last time I saw Gregor. He
came to visit me at work, and you were kind
of in this mood where you were feeling like maybe
those things that you were hopeful about achieving were not
(27:25):
going to be happening, and I think you were in Well,
Gregor looks on skeptically. I try to explain to Moby
Gregor's midlife malaise how everyone was passing him by. Can
you relate to the feeling of like, have you ever,
at different points in your life felt like like surpassed
by your friends? Or you know what I mean? Oh?
Speaker 7 (27:44):
Yeah, Like there's always going to be someone doing so
much better than you that if you spend the time
to look at it, you're going to feel bad about yourself.
Like my nemesis, well, according to him for a while,
was Eminem, So if he was my nemesis, I was
just being beaten publicly and badly because he was always
more successful, always selling more records, always more popular, always cooler,
(28:10):
And so depends on who I was comparing myself to.
Over time, like other people start selling more records, getting
better reviews, you start selling fewer tickets. And then as
the two thousands progressed, my career waned and other people's escalated,
you know, Like I would go to visit my record
(28:30):
company and they'd have my picture behind the receptionist desk,
and then one day I show up and it's Jack
White's picture behind the reception system.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Like wha what Yeah, I mean, I think the only
way to hear that, honestly is in the split screen
between totally head nodding, one hundred percent agree and totally
like easy for you to say, because you're looking down
from the mountain, looking up, you're like, fucking knock that.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Guy off the mountain because all I need is mind
billion dollars.
Speaker 7 (28:57):
Then I looked at But really, the kick in the
teeth of fame is that if you don't have it,
you beat yourself up that you don't have it, and
if you do have it, you're miserable and you kill yourself. Literally,
the most depressed I've ever been in my entire life
was the height of my professional success. And I remember
this one moment so clearly. I was at an MTV
(29:19):
Awards in Barcelona, and there's this hotel called the Arts
Hotel in Barcelona, and it's so beautiful and at the
tippity top of the hotel they have four three bedroom
apartments and I was in one. P Diddy was in one,
John bon Jovi was in one, and Madonna was in one.
And so you'd take like one elevator to get to
a certain floor, then another elevator to another floor, and
(29:42):
then a security guard would wave you through up to.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Our hallowed floor.
Speaker 7 (29:46):
And the first night I was there, I invited some
people over to like look at the view and drink,
and I kept drinking by myself, and I got more
and more despondent, and I literally, at the end of
the evening, before going to bed, was walking around this beautiful,
insane apartment crying, thinking about how I could get out
the window to kill myself. And the next day I
(30:10):
won an MTV award. So it's like, professionally, things couldn't
have been better.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
You know.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
The day before I'd played a huge concert, selling lots
of records. The day after won an award, played more
huge concerts, And I've never been more despondent.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I appreciate your making up that story just to make
me feel good.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
It's completely true, because I remember walking around this hotel
and these walls of glass only had these little bitty
like foldy open windows at the bottom, and I was
looking at that and I was like, fuck, if that
window opened more, I would just jump out and die
because I'm done. You think, when you get to where
you want to go. Finally you'll be happy. But then
you get to where you want to go and you're
(30:48):
just as miserable as you were. In fact, you're even
even more miserable because you no longer have anything to
aspire to, and you feel this hopelessness because everything like
what's left to aspire towards.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
It feels like Moby's trying to explain something to Gregor.
Moby grew up poor with a single mother and lived
on food stamps. When Moby was a kid, his dad
died in a car crash, and a few years ago
his mom passed away from lung cancer. He has no siblings,
so essentially he's alone.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
I look at.
Speaker 7 (31:22):
Gregor and I think of like, I know his family
very well, and from my perspective, like, first all, he
has a fel like I don't. Really I have some
aunts and uncles and cousins.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
You have some other.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
Siblings, I'm sure, and and to me that still makes
me feel like, oh, he's figured out things that I
don't understand.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Of course, I'm very successful that I have a beautiful
child and blah blah blah, two of them, actually I
won't say which one.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
I have two children. One is beautiful anyway, you know,
the like.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
A man's wealth is measured in family, you know, and
but it's not you.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
You turn every time these things come up, you will
to make them into light.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Well, that's what I'm saying is something that you hear
at the in the South Park, right.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
But what I'm saying is that that era when like
it still seemed like life had potential to go a
bunch of different ways. Now it seemed less. So it's
not even squandered potential. It's just like you could have
been somebody becomes like you didn't.
Speaker 7 (32:28):
Every year you lose a little bit of potential, you know,
Like at this point, like I'm fifty and I'm like, oh,
most of my life I thought at some point I
could be a father. I'm like, well probably not. And
(32:50):
I have one issue. Yeah, don't really have to peek.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Go ahead and think, well, movie was conveniently indisposed. I
took the opportunity to reiterate our mission getting back the
CDs as much as it behooves you, like, just try
to keep it toout the CDs.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I don't think we only have about ten minutes to
get to it. Do you want me to wrestle onto
the ground and know you have something, particularly money, you
want to say.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Moby emerges from the bathroom, cutting our conversation short, and
Gregor steps up to the plate and begins in the middle.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, I still listen to Sounds of the South on YouTube.
They have the full set. And as far as that
actual desset, did you hang.
Speaker 7 (33:37):
On to that or that is the CD? The box,
that's the actual stuff. Yeah, they're somewhere. Most of it's
in storage and Queens is like this medium sized storage locker.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
It's just like packed to the rafters with stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Finally, it's my moment to be the interlocutor. I think
Gregor sort of wanted those CDs back, if only to
put them on a mantle, to feel like I was
a part of something, like I mattered, I existed.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I mean I view this more like I handed you
the pen and then you wrote, you know, the great
book with it.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
It's not that I had some role in.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
But like the guy who introduced Andy Warhol to the
can of Campbell's soup or whatever.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I mean, this is not like a legal deposition where
it's like who said it.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
I mean it was fucking twenty five years ago.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
As Gregor and I Parry. It's almost like we forget
that Mobe's even there when suddenly he pipes up one thing.
Speaker 7 (34:34):
Just to be super clear from the album play, two
of the most remarkably iconic songs on the record would
never have been written or existed had I not been
given those CDs. Like I didn't know who Alan Lomax was,
and that the box set called Sounds of the South,
I didn't know it existed, and I certainly like it
(34:55):
was an expensive box set. And there's no way I
was going to walk into Tower Records and spend sixty
five dollars or however much it was going to be
on a box set I knew nothing about from an
archivist I'd never heard of. So like, those are one
hundred percent the result of me being given those CDs.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Wait, so we're saying you're not Gregor's not getting the
CDs back. Okay, here's the story.
Speaker 7 (35:22):
Friend of mine, her mother died in a very very sad,
tragic way, and she came to me and she started crying,
and she said that at the funeral they played the
song Natural Blues and everyone in the church was crying,
and it was one of the most powerful emotional moments
of her life that wouldn't have ever existed if you
(35:43):
hadn't given me those CDs. So to me, that's more
priceless and precious than any sort of like objective, quantifiable metric.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
How does that make you feel?
Speaker 4 (35:58):
I mean it makes me feel like.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Thinking about, you know, getting a pair of bolt cutters
and breaking into a steady storage in Queens is not
what I'm going to do.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
That was my plan.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And so Gregor doesn't get what he came for. But
maybe not getting everything you want in the grander scheme
isn't so bad.
Speaker 7 (36:30):
One practical issue. So I have two podcast interviews to
do today. You guys are the first and a second.
You're in good company. It's with Rue Paul nice crazy.
I mean, if you wanted to, we could always drive there.
Like if you guys want to get in the car
(36:50):
with me, My girlfriend is coming here. She's gonna go
with me because she's an obsessive Rue Paul fan.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Oh wow, Moby, his girlfriend, Gregor and I pile into
Moby's Preas seen from the outside, Gregor seems happy to
be a part of Moby's life again. He's even feeling
comfortable enough to favor us with his famous John Travolta imitation.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
I could drink tea?
Speaker 1 (37:12):
What do you think I could drink tea?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
John Travolta When she says, he says, watch your coffee
with me.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
Sometimes she's like, in Manhattan, we don't drink coffee.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
We drink tea.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
And he's like, so what I could drink tea?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
And then, for whatever reason, Moby takes over my role
of interlocutor and begins explaining Gregor's style to his girlfriend.
Speaker 7 (37:33):
And Gregor is funny and at times like would maybe
be here. It comes honest in a way that people
might be take offense too or.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
At Or, as Moby's learning firsthand, interlocketing for Gregor isn't
so easy.
Speaker 7 (38:01):
Hi, I'm here for RuPaul's podcast.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
At the hotel. We're shown into a conference room where
we're green Rue Paul and his co host Michelle As
I trail behind Moby. For the first time in my life,
I feel a part of a bona fide Hollywood entourage.
Speaker 7 (38:21):
So we've been doing an interesting podcast because Gregor and
I have known each other for twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Years at all. Yeah, We watch as RuPaul interviews Moby
and when Moby says interesting things like my mom was
born in San Diego.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Was born in San Diego.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
RuPaul responds with engaged interest. And when Moby off handedly
mentions a song, RuPaul and Michelle sing it, and as
they do, I find myself thinking only one thing, now,
this is how you run a podcast.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
When Moby and Gregor say their goodbyes, Moby tells him
that he'll be coming to San Francisco soon and he'll
be sure to give Gregor a call, and Gregor says
he'd like that. But before parting, Gregor can't help giving
it just one last nudge.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I have one more question for you. Can you just
tell me the name of the storage facility where the
CD is. No, it's for a friend. They need to
store something in Queens. No, there was one place. I'm
just saying, Hey, it's the same place.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Gregor's comfortable enough to joke around about something that had
once plagued him, and Moby's comfortable enough to uncomfortably laugh
along with him. All around it feels pretty nice. So
(39:50):
how did you feel about how that went? I think
it was cathartic, No, really, seriously. With some time to
kill before a flight, Gregor and I decide to hike
up to the observatory. Do you feel like he screwed
you out of your CDs? Yet? Again?
Speaker 2 (40:04):
The honest truth is he did give me a good
long song and dance about how we all learned the
and I didn't get the thing that I set out
to get. But in seriousness, I honestly feel, in a
funny sort of way, I got what I came for.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Which was what you didn't get your CDs.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
You see, you're a petty person.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
What you just saw and apparently were deaf you couldn't
hear was a reconciliation with two guys after twenty five
years of slight estrangement.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
So you guys did get to be friends.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, I think we just buried the hatchets. This CD thing, Yeah,
that is a symbol. I mean, who cares about the CD?
Speaker 1 (40:40):
But you one' who cared about the CD.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Look, it's hard to come together and just hug it out.
What you just witnessed was a version of hugging it out,
two men having a good cry.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
That's about the closest that I come.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Well, then, I think that was great. I think this
was a success. I agree, still would have been nice
to get your CDs back.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Of course, I don't know if the rental car you
got there had a CD player, but it doesn't. It
would have been no better ending to this day than
to drive out of the parking lot cranking that CD.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, but the cars don't have Nobody has CD players anymore.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
And let me tell you something, if some of the
Mobi's song comes on the radio right now, I'd let
it play.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
I'd even sing along if you I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Find it out my phone and play.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
That's okay?
Speaker 1 (41:32):
You sure? Because I actually downloaded it it specially boys.
Three days later, and much to his surprise, Gregor received
an email from MOBI. This might sound odd, the email read,
but I realized I never said a true, heartfelt thank
you for giving me those CDs, So, in all sincerity,
(41:55):
thank you. I'm sorry it's taken so long to say
thank you. Gregor said he was happier that the thank
you came three days later. This way, he knew it
wasn't just out of politeness, that it must have been
quote boring a hole through his head for days after
receiving movies thank you, Gregor immediately wrote back a thank
you of his own in the form of a joke,
(42:17):
which if you didn't know Gregor, could also be taken
as an insult. But Moby did know Gregor, and so
for Gregor, it was back to being a normal friendship.
(42:59):
Now that the Fernitures returned to its goodwill home, the
last month's rand is scheming with the damage to Poz.
Take this moment to do so if we imagine and
(43:21):
we talk felt around from.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Far to from things at accident.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Lee to Heavyweight is hosted and produced by me Jonathan
Goldstein along with Wendy Dore, Chris Neary, and Khalila Holt.
Editing by Alex Bloomberg and Peter Clowney. Special thanks to
Emily Condon, Paul Tuff, Stevie Lane, Michelle Harris, Dimitri Erlik,
Sean Cole, and Jorgehus and a very special thank you
(43:53):
to my dear friend Jackie Cohen. The show was mixed
by Hailey Shaw. Music for this episode by Christine Fellows,
with additional music by Talk Star, the Eastern Watershed, Klesmer Quartet,
and Hailey Shaw, who also did our ad music. Our
theme music is by the Weaker Thands, courtesy of Epitaph Records.
Follow us on Twitter. At heavyweight or email us at
heavyweight at gimlimedia dot com. We'll have a new episode
(44:15):
next week.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I should go back and ring his doorbell now and
ask for that Lenaide book.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
It was kind of expensive.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Doesn't seem like you're gonna drink it.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Gotta feel thirsty, And you know what, I don't. I
don't want to show up twenty years from now asking
for those lemonades because they're gonna tell me it's in
a storage locker in Queen's.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah, what'd you do with that?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Seriously? Like when someone brings you beverages, like you put
them out on the table. Maybe bring out a glass
for a person or a straw.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
What kind of a monster is he
Pushkin bad time. I was just stepping out. I was
just you enjoy music, right, Yeah. This week's show kind
of deals with music, and it got me thinking. I
have a confession to make. You know how, sometimes, like
(00:35):
you have dinner parties and they're great. I wanted to say,
sometimes how you sometimes play music? Yeah, sometimes I'm a
little hesitant to come over for dinner.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You're always hesitant to come over for dinner.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Well, it's not including Mary Club's forty fifth birthday. Do
you remember that? I do you know that Bumballeo song?
I can't find my Gypsy King CD because your husband
hit it. It's killing me, killing everybody. The reason sometimes
I have some difficulty with my digestion these dinner parties
is it's the Bumballeo song. It's the Gypsy Kings. Oh
this is great. You know what bumble bambalaya translates as
(01:11):
what wobble wobble? All right, we'll speak to you one
thing before we go. Okay, I'm going to say bumbalao
and then you say bumbalaya. Okay, I do, and then I.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Bomb bye bye.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
From Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight
today's episode, Gregor.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
This guy's gonna ram you from behind because you're going
eleven miles left, although you usually don't do it from
the right line.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Okay, let's not give killed. Do you have a driver's license?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
This is Gregor and me on our way to lunch,
and what you're hearing is typical. When I'm driving, Gregor
comments on my speed. When I eat, he comments on
my table manners, and when I eat yogurt, he comments
on the way I lick the inside lid, calling it
both lecherous and unmanly. Some might say that Gregor is
overly critical, possibly even prickly, but I would not. I
(02:24):
love Gregor for many reasons. His loyalty, his generosity, his
being the kind of person will pick you up at
the airport at four in the morning without even complaining.
But it's perhaps his courage to say the things that
were all not exactly thinking, but maybe thinking about thinking,
that is most thrilling. And so when he showed up
(02:46):
at my office mocking himself instead of me and speaking
in biblical parables, I was concerned.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Was it the Pharaoh and the Joseph story who said
the seven lean years and seven fat years?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I had this insight today that the fat years are
about to end.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Would these have been the fat years?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's what I realized Literally this morning. I woke up
and I was like, wait, those were the fat years?
You know, in every conceivable way, financially, stability, prestige, all
the job stuff, and like creative accomplishment stuff. I just
feel like it's like going up and I'm watching it
go up and smoke.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Gregor is forty eight years old and by profession he
makes marketing videos for a cleaning product usually found in
the bathroom. I can't tell you the name of this
product for fear Gregor will lose his job. In other words,
he's not the filmo tour he dreamt of being back
in his college days, underlining back issues of Kye to Cinema.
(03:41):
On top of that, he says that over the past
few years he's seen his career slowly sucked downward. Not
unlike Oh, I don't know, the spiraling waters of a
sink unclogged by a chemical drain opener designed to flush
pipes and attack clogs at their worst.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What's that children's game where everyone goes around the chairs
musical chairs, chairs, and everyone sits down, and you're like, oh,
that friend of mine became a CEO. These four friends
are like EVP SVP senior whatever.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
At their things.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That friend of mine wound up sitting in the president
of Estonia's chair, and then you're like the music stops
and you're left standing.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I've heard him reel off this list before, and Gregor
fully admits it. The success of anyone he knows, no
matter how thin, his connection to them, feels like a
reflection of his own shortcomings, including the ascension of his
elementary school's librarian son, who is now the president of Estonia.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The point of the story is where's my presidency of
my Estonia? My circumstances was. I was like, oh things
will you know, about to break through, about to change?
And now, like you could say, well, this is just
to setback, it's you know whatever, Soon your ship's going
to come in.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But it's just not you know. I mean, that's just
the simple truth, the uncomfortable truth.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Of all Gregor's stories about the success of his acquaintances
and friends, there's one story that he returns to most,
and not only is it the greatest success story of
them all, it's the one that touched his life the
most intimately. The story all begins about twenty years ago
in Manhattan, when Gregor was living in a small apartment
in Chinatown with his older brother Dimitri. One night, they
(05:24):
had a friend of theirs over for dinner, a techno
musician friend.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He was really poor at the time. He was living
in like I think, in like a basement in a
warehouse or something, for forty dollars a month. He was
an articulate smart guy, still an articular smart guy, but
he's sort of an unlikely rock star in that his
hair had mostly fallen out even when we were still
in our twenties. But I watched his ascent. He played
the bigger and bigger crowds during this techno kind of stuff.
(05:49):
And then eventually he got a record contract, and I
at the time got hold of a very obscure set
of CDs which were field.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Hollers oooh on troubles.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I thought it was really interesting stuff. I loaned him
this box set of CDs.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Oooh lone trouble.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So he then sampled it very heavily god and created
a record which got him very rich and very famous.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
This guy you're speaking of, This guy's Moby trouble. Moby
bald headed, bespectacled, castle dwelling, multi million records selling Moby.
(06:48):
But back then he was just Gregor's pal who spent
weekends at Gregor's family's place and attended family birthday parties too.
In bars and during long car rides, Gregor and Moby
had long, earnest conversations about God and the things they believed.
They were living their twenties together and those CDs Gregor
lent Moby. The Box. Sounds of the South was recorded
(07:11):
by the ethno musicologist Alan Lomax. Beginning in the nineteen thirties,
Lomax and his father John made thousands of field recordings,
mostly in the American South. These recordings are among the
most important in American music, preserving dozens of African American
songs from the early years of the twentieth century. Wait
(07:33):
some Time better know than Alas some Time. Another hit
on Moby's album is called Honey. It makes use of
the song sometimes sung by Bessie Smith Jones. Jones was
taught these songs by her grandfather, a former slave born
in Africa. This is Moby's version, So is everybody feeling alive?
(07:54):
Y I've here elected to play for you the live
version of the song with all of its foot stomping
and audience cheering. It's how I imagine Gregor hears it
echoing in his head during those sleepless nights when his
kishka's are slowly being corroded by battery ascid.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
When I discovered this CD set, I was like an evangelist.
I was like, this is amazing. You got to check
this out. He was over the house and I was like,
you got to take this home. This is amazing stuff.
This is the best CD I've heard. You know, I
don't know how long I've been listening to NonStop rotation.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I love the CD. So it wasn't just laying in
a pile. And he happened to put it in his
bag and walk out the door.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I said, I sold him on it.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And Moby makes use of several Lomax recordings on his
album Play, which went multi platinum. Play eventually became one
of the most commercially licensed albums ever recorded. At the time,
the songs were used to promote everything from luxury cars
(08:57):
to credit cards, and before Play, according to Rolling Stone Magazine,
Moby was quote bumbling around New York as it has been,
And then was there an intermediary step before or that?
And then hearing it on the CD where he said, hey,
by the way, thanks.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
No, I said, this is amazing thing. Next thing I
heard it's on the radio and I said, hey, can
I get that box setback?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And then years of not being friends.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
And according to Gregor, that was all he wanted to
get his CDs back. He was looking for neither riches
nor credit, just the CDs, which he claims were only alone.
And so this is how it went. He began leaving
Moby voice messages by Gregor's count, about a dozen that
all went unanswered. Then, in a final act of desperation,
(09:44):
Gregor penned a song called Moby give Me Back my CDs,
which he sang into Moby's answering machine with accompanying karaoke
music to the tune of Brian Adams Heaven. After much cajoling,
Gregor dug up his lyrics, which I will now perform
for you, Moby give me back my CDs. The recordings
(10:08):
from the yield the Alan Lomax box at CDs. I
think there were seven. Those discs are all that I need.
The ones I gave you from my house. I think
you'll be sure to see there were seven and that message,
(10:31):
Gregor says, was met with over a decade of silence.
Did he ever explain, like, did he just ever come
out and tell you honestly what became of those CDs?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
No?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I think he was busy, like playing, like, you know,
a concert to ninety thousand people in Rykovic and drinking
champagne out of a prostitute shoe. Couldn't be bothered, Obviously,
I put an exaggerated value on the CDs. I'm sure
he could have sampled anything, and he had a plenty
big career before.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
That and after that.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I mean, I'm not insane, but it was more that
displaced feeling of like I had this thing go off
and bloom without me.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
M m.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I'll tell you an interesting detail in that. Yeah, whenever
Moby music comes on, I can't listen to it.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
But do you think if you get it back you
won't feel that way.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
I feel like I could work it through like therapy
where I could then listen to the music again.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
You know, there's a sense of what.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
About my you know, where's my gold album?
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Gregor has theories about why nothing ever happened for him,
and they revolve around an aspect of his personality, an
aspect he refers to as a lack of affability.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Like a lot of times I'll say something completely earnestly
mm hmm, like past the water, and they're like, are
you being sarcastic?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Like that happened to me all the time?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
How could you ask for the water sarcastically?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
I come across as being sarcastic when I'm not.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
So it's almost like a handicap of.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It's a huge handicap.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I think it's fundamentally, as I understand my own life,
that is my cross to bear. That's what's wrecked my well.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I think you would even like you told me that
story about where you were in the conference room at work,
They're like complimenting you on your new glasses or something
and saying, hey, what does your wife think of those glasses?
And you were like, how the fuck do I know?
Why don't you ask my own wife to find out?
Do you remember?
Speaker 5 (12:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I mean, so.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
They said like, what is your wife think of that?
I was like, how do I know? Ask my wife?
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Recently, Gregor and Moby have found themselves back in touch,
though in the most tangential impersonal way possible through group
emails and texts. Gregor's older brother Dimitri, remained friends with
Moby over the years, and Dmitri recently had a baby,
so he loops in Moby, Gregor, and one other old
friend on updates. This has evolved into a small group
(13:02):
of friends exchanging witticisms and fun facts like did you
know that the fatty flesh around the elbow is called
a weness? So while the new group email friendship isn't
the same as the old close one, it's still an
open door, and so I couldn't help asking the question,
now that that door has swung open again, do you
(13:23):
see this as an opportunity to ask for those CDs
once again?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
I was thinking about it, were you just because it's
kind of a little symbolic of what I don't even
have a CD player anymore, right, But I was just thinking,
for talismonic purposes, it would be interesting to have.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Them back say more about that.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I think that it might soothe me.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Do you really think it would?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I'll actually give you the clarity which just came to me, now, okay,
it's not Instead of the money and the fame and
all that stuff. What it is is tangible evidence. Understand
you did this, you exist, you did it, you pulled
it off.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
You want to be able to say, see these CDs
on the shelf, that's.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The ones that I gave to mommy, because for me,
this would just be a version of proof.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Wanting the CDs you lent someone decades ago and expecting
them back is of course insanity, but insanity's repeated often enough,
especially between friends, can begin to feel pacifying, lulling.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Even.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Excuse me, in a way, you just want your due.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Do you think you can articulate that in a way
that would make it understandable to him?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Do you think I'm pretty confident I can't, because he's
still pretty sensitive.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Okay, pretty sensitive, pretty sensitive. Like the time Moby seemed
to bristle when Gregor emailed him about something totally innocuous,
a condolence for the death of Moby's friend David Bowie.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You know, I said some witty thing about David Bowie dying,
he wrote, like texted back, like the picture of him
and David Bowie in the cover of Entertainment.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Let's back up for a moment, what was the witty
thing you said about David Bowie's death?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
You know that good night funny man?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
What does that even mean?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
That's usually what I say when people die.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
If this is a sampling of the hot takes Gregor
has in store, I fear that this newly opened door
between Moby and Gregor might not remain open forever. I
also knew that if he has any hope of ever
getting back those CDs, he'll need a middleman or interlocutor
or interlocutor. So perhaps, against my better judgment, I allow
(15:43):
myself to be swept up by the moment. I just
don't know if this is going to lead to anything
but heartbreak? But why don't we go after the CDs?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
All right?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And with that ringing call to arms, my path was
set and the mission begun. Say I'm Moby, Like, how
would you ask.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Hey, Moby, can I have back those CDs? I've never
understood approach other than a direct approach, So that's what
I would do.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
After the break the Hollywood Hills, a surprise encounter with
Rue Paul and maybe Moby. Maybe the airline tickets were purchased,
the hotel was booked, but a couple days before we
were set to leave for La, I got nervous. If
(16:37):
Gregor already was in a bad place, could my meddling
possibly make things worse?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Hello?
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Hey Annika?
Speaker 5 (16:44):
Yeah, Jonathan.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I decided to reach out to the person who knows
Gregor best, his wife, Annika. So do you know about
this this little project that your husband and I are undertaking?
Speaker 5 (16:58):
So I think that the is a strategy to like
ambush Moby and try and get him to give back
the CDs that he lent Gregor thirty years ago or however,
well it was ago. Is that true?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
You make it sound like such a classy operation. Yeah.
Has Gregor brought this issue up to you before this
whole Alan Lomack CD issue?
Speaker 5 (17:23):
So I met him on November eleventh, two thousand, Yeah,
and it came up pretty early in our relationship, so.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
He yeah, like first date conversation, It was.
Speaker 5 (17:39):
Definitely early on. It's very hard for him to let
stuff go. And like, even like early on our relationship,
we went to Spain together and we bought a bottle
of olive oil in some town or something and we
left it by accident in the rental car and it
still bothers him.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Do you know. I think I actually know that Olive
Oil story.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
Oh yeah, yeah. There is something that is in his
character that is very much like the Larry David character,
where it's like, you know, like obsessing about a very
small point. But you know, he's a very he's like
a very sensitive person. So it's just part of who
(18:23):
he is and part of his wonderful package.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Does this undertaking have your blessing or do you think
it's foolhardy?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
I don't. I sometimes I worry about Gregor's feelings because
he is very hurt, very easily, and I don't know
if Moby is really that sensitive to his feelings.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I Gregor flew in from San Francisco and I was
there to greet him at the Bob Hope International Airport
in Burbank.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
So this is the dream factory I've heard about.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
It's beautiful here. Even the underground parking lots smell like sentent.
We have four hours before our appointment with Moby, so
we set off in our economy sized Krrio or similar
to experience everything LA has to offer. Are you excited? Yeah,
you don't sound excited.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
No, I'm full of anxiety.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And let me tell you I feel an increasing sense
of dread about the futility of this undertaking.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
You can get those CDs back, my friend.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Okay, whatever you say in a.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Plastic bag, which he'll supply.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
You're gonna negotiate this look manage at which time of
my client's choosing the one plastic bag recycled acceptable plus
one coupon good for any flavor from basket in Robin's
ice cream or any substante there too.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
With just three hours and fifty nine minutes to go,
things were off to a rollicking start. It's like not moving.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
There's always traffic in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Look at the traffic. Are we gonna make it for movies?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, we're gonna be stuck in horrible traffic.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
We have until two, No, we have until one.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Oh really we'll never make it.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Oh look there's the big Hollywood sign. Wow, what a sight.
Huh used to say Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Land Actually before that it was called hollywood Landville.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Do you want Mexican food? Do you ever eat Mexican food?
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I love Mexican food. And to make U turn yeah,
go go go? This is like a four lane uie,
it's six really.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Go go go go?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yes, when you knew to someone before they were famous,
and you treat them like someone who's not famous. Sometimes
they don't like that. Sometimes they're used to the difference
and the rock star treatment from everyone.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Can you can you try to treat them with a
little more difference.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
That's what I'm gonna try to.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
But the mask always slips.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Insofar as me coming here with you, How do you
feel about me as an interlocutor?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I'm actually full of dread mostly because of that.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
But what is that supposed to me?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Because I recognize that I need an interlocutor. I did
say that, and I do believe it. I think that
you're going to be allows the interlocutor.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
What do you think I'm gonna embarrass you in front
of your yes, famous friends?
Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yes, yes, that's.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
What you're afraid of. Yes? No, But seriously, you think
I'm gonna blow this?
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I just feel like you don't get the vibe of
what it's like when you're in like a guy's house
and you're gonna.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Be like, say, nice toilets, what are he's made of?
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Porcelain?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Ay, I'm gonna be like Johnny please, and you'll be like, no,
I don't know what they're made up?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Is to me the final iroty of this whole thing
that you're concerned that I'm gonna embarrass you.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
I don't want you to trip me up in my game,
my stride, my cadence.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And what is it gonna be a part of your
game here to.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Try and relax and be myself. But I'm gonna be
made self conscious when you're like, do.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
You validate parking here?
Speaker 1 (22:09):
And I just need you to validate God, this is
so pretty, What a pretty place to live?
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Hey, well you're selling off CDs. You can live in
a place like this.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Worried about our being tardy, I decided to run down
the clock doing laps around Moby's very pretty block, little
tiny houses. They keep going straight. This is really pretty
nice view of the mountains.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
This is his house right here where all right here?
I want to drive by it.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
This house right there at the corner. We were passing
the gates of his home over and over when a
half hour before our appointed meeting.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
That's movie right there, is it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Oh Jesus, Moby emerges through the gates to get his newspaper.
Excited about seeing an honest to goodness famous person. I
instinctively slowed to a crawl and pulled over beside him.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Go say hi, no, no, come on, let him go
to keep going.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
We just turned around.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
He didn't see any Yes he did.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
He turned around and we made eye contact, like right
up to him, and he turned around and he seemed scared.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
That's exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
What did I do?
Speaker 4 (23:14):
You're creepy.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Creepy, they don't slide up to people and they're going
to get their.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Pretty That's true. I really, I really did slide up
to him.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, he did, like a creep You're gonna go another
pass through when he comes up for his milk.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
We walk off our nerves in a nearby park, where
Gregor dispenses life wisdom to a passing toddler.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Enjoy it, kid, best, It's going to be for the
rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Who says things like that to a child?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
His happy in love? His shirt said love. He's holding
a little.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Girls outside Moby's door. We do some last minute strategizing.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Am I supposed to be the good cop or the
bad cop? I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, I guess you were supposed to be the bad cop. No,
I'm the bad cop, you're the good cop.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I'll usually play the bad cop.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So fine, you're the bad cop.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
It's twelve to fifty seven. It's not really one yet.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Hall wait oh hello, Hi, I'm sorry, sorry, we're early.
It's twelve fifty seven. It's three minutes too early.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Moby's personal assistant, a terrifyingly fit woman in jeans and
T shirt, leads us towards Moby's home. By rockstar standards,
it's pretty modest.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Hello, Hello, Hi, Sharman, Moe, been far too long? Should
I take shoes off?
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Hi? I am Jonathan. Were led into a sunken foyer
where a couple of assistants are gathering equipment and making
themselves scarce. Standing at the top of the stairs looking
not unlike a bald headed gray hoodie Norma Desmond is Moby.
Gregor and he do not hug or even shake hands.
They don't even wave.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
It's been far too long, my friend where he's staying?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
And Gregor drops his bag and has a looxie.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Beautiful location, your beautiful assistant.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Everything.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
He's even brought along a thoughtful gift, something to cater
to Moby's strict veganism and clean, healthy lifestyle. Fancy all
natural lemonades.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Something disco with turmeric, WHOA something awful with probiotic cayenne peppers,
something horrifying with lemons.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
To our parched dismay, Moby takes the beverages and places
them in the fridge. Gregor and I are never to
see those beverages again. As we settle in and I
set up our recording gear, Gregor notices a pile of
video equipment.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Why do you have two C three hundreds here?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Remember that slippery mask? Gregor mentioned the one hiding is
rough Edges ten seconds in and it was already a slippin'
Why am.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
I not involved that produce films all the time?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I can help you to which Moby, rather than saying
he's worked with David Lynch and David le Chappelle and
probably all set on that front, instead says, I mean
you live in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, but I'm here all the time, not literally in
your living room, in your kitchen, though I could be
more often.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Gregor can't help treating Moby like a nephew making his
first student film. That is, Gregor's treating Moby the way
he treats me. And this of course is concerning.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
First of all, before we even get that far, how would.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
You At this point, Moby has mostly no idea why
we're here. I made an appointment with his assistant, but
it was left vague. So Moby takes the direct approach.
Speaker 7 (26:28):
So what are you guys doing?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Well, this is an excellent question.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Well, let's begin at the beginning, around the time contemporaneous
with your recent autobiography, the mid nineties two thousands, and.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Like, after all of his braggadoccio about how he was
going to walk in there and demand the CDs back,
Gregor's nervous, being uncharacteristically mealy mouthed, unable to explain the
basics of our mission.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And so this conversation became down this kind of alleyway
of that facet of like I was kind of like,
what is me?
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Moby had limited time, so at the risk of embarrassing
Gregor in front of his famous friend, I decided to
step in and explain. So and I tell my story
of you coming to last time I saw Gregor. He
came to visit me at work, and you were kind
of in this mood where you were feeling like maybe
those things that you were hopeful about achieving were not
(27:25):
going to be happening, and I think you were in Well,
Gregor looks on skeptically. I try to explain to Moby
Gregor's midlife malaise how everyone was passing him by. Can
you relate to the feeling of like, have you ever,
at different points in your life felt like like surpassed
by your friends? Or you know what I mean? Oh?
Speaker 7 (27:44):
Yeah, Like there's always going to be someone doing so
much better than you that if you spend the time
to look at it, you're going to feel bad about yourself.
Like my nemesis, well, according to him for a while,
was Eminem, So if he was my nemesis, I was
just being beaten publicly and badly because he was always
more successful, always selling more records, always more popular, always cooler,
(28:10):
And so depends on who I was comparing myself to.
Over time, like other people start selling more records, getting
better reviews, you start selling fewer tickets. And then as
the two thousands progressed, my career waned and other people's escalated,
you know, Like I would go to visit my record
(28:30):
company and they'd have my picture behind the receptionist desk,
and then one day I show up and it's Jack
White's picture behind the reception system.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Like wha what Yeah, I mean, I think the only
way to hear that, honestly is in the split screen
between totally head nodding, one hundred percent agree and totally
like easy for you to say, because you're looking down
from the mountain, looking up, you're like, fucking knock that.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Guy off the mountain because all I need is mind
billion dollars.
Speaker 7 (28:57):
Then I looked at But really, the kick in the
teeth of fame is that if you don't have it,
you beat yourself up that you don't have it, and
if you do have it, you're miserable and you kill yourself. Literally,
the most depressed I've ever been in my entire life
was the height of my professional success. And I remember
this one moment so clearly. I was at an MTV
(29:19):
Awards in Barcelona, and there's this hotel called the Arts
Hotel in Barcelona, and it's so beautiful and at the
tippity top of the hotel they have four three bedroom
apartments and I was in one. P Diddy was in one,
John bon Jovi was in one, and Madonna was in one.
And so you'd take like one elevator to get to
a certain floor, then another elevator to another floor, and
(29:42):
then a security guard would wave you through up to.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Our hallowed floor.
Speaker 7 (29:46):
And the first night I was there, I invited some
people over to like look at the view and drink,
and I kept drinking by myself, and I got more
and more despondent, and I literally, at the end of
the evening, before going to bed, was walking around this beautiful,
insane apartment crying, thinking about how I could get out
the window to kill myself. And the next day I
(30:10):
won an MTV award. So it's like, professionally, things couldn't
have been better.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
You know.
Speaker 7 (30:14):
The day before I'd played a huge concert, selling lots
of records. The day after won an award, played more
huge concerts, And I've never been more despondent.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I appreciate your making up that story just to make
me feel good.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
It's completely true, because I remember walking around this hotel
and these walls of glass only had these little bitty
like foldy open windows at the bottom, and I was
looking at that and I was like, fuck, if that
window opened more, I would just jump out and die
because I'm done. You think, when you get to where
you want to go. Finally you'll be happy. But then
you get to where you want to go and you're
(30:48):
just as miserable as you were. In fact, you're even
even more miserable because you no longer have anything to
aspire to, and you feel this hopelessness because everything like
what's left to aspire towards.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
It feels like Moby's trying to explain something to Gregor.
Moby grew up poor with a single mother and lived
on food stamps. When Moby was a kid, his dad
died in a car crash, and a few years ago
his mom passed away from lung cancer. He has no siblings,
so essentially he's alone.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
I look at.
Speaker 7 (31:22):
Gregor and I think of like, I know his family
very well, and from my perspective, like, first all, he
has a fel like I don't. Really I have some
aunts and uncles and cousins.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
You have some other.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
Siblings, I'm sure, and and to me that still makes
me feel like, oh, he's figured out things that I
don't understand.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Of course, I'm very successful that I have a beautiful
child and blah blah blah, two of them, actually I
won't say which one.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
I have two children. One is beautiful anyway, you know,
the like.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
A man's wealth is measured in family, you know, and
but it's not you.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
You turn every time these things come up, you will
to make them into light.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Well, that's what I'm saying is something that you hear
at the in the South Park, right.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
But what I'm saying is that that era when like
it still seemed like life had potential to go a
bunch of different ways. Now it seemed less. So it's
not even squandered potential. It's just like you could have
been somebody becomes like you didn't.
Speaker 7 (32:28):
Every year you lose a little bit of potential, you know,
Like at this point, like I'm fifty and I'm like, oh,
most of my life I thought at some point I
could be a father. I'm like, well probably not. And
(32:50):
I have one issue. Yeah, don't really have to peek.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Go ahead and think, well, movie was conveniently indisposed. I
took the opportunity to reiterate our mission getting back the
CDs as much as it behooves you, like, just try
to keep it toout the CDs.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I don't think we only have about ten minutes to
get to it. Do you want me to wrestle onto
the ground and know you have something, particularly money, you
want to say.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Moby emerges from the bathroom, cutting our conversation short, and
Gregor steps up to the plate and begins in the middle.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Yeah, I still listen to Sounds of the South on YouTube.
They have the full set. And as far as that
actual desset, did you hang.
Speaker 7 (33:37):
On to that or that is the CD? The box,
that's the actual stuff. Yeah, they're somewhere. Most of it's
in storage and Queens is like this medium sized storage locker.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
It's just like packed to the rafters with stuff.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Finally, it's my moment to be the interlocutor. I think
Gregor sort of wanted those CDs back, if only to
put them on a mantle, to feel like I was
a part of something, like I mattered, I existed.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
I mean I view this more like I handed you
the pen and then you wrote, you know, the great
book with it.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
It's not that I had some role in.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
But like the guy who introduced Andy Warhol to the
can of Campbell's soup or whatever.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
I mean, this is not like a legal deposition where
it's like who said it.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
I mean it was fucking twenty five years ago.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
As Gregor and I Parry. It's almost like we forget
that Mobe's even there when suddenly he pipes up one thing.
Speaker 7 (34:34):
Just to be super clear from the album play, two
of the most remarkably iconic songs on the record would
never have been written or existed had I not been
given those CDs. Like I didn't know who Alan Lomax was,
and that the box set called Sounds of the South,
I didn't know it existed, and I certainly like it
(34:55):
was an expensive box set. And there's no way I
was going to walk into Tower Records and spend sixty
five dollars or however much it was going to be
on a box set I knew nothing about from an
archivist I'd never heard of. So like, those are one
hundred percent the result of me being given those CDs.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Wait, so we're saying you're not Gregor's not getting the
CDs back. Okay, here's the story.
Speaker 7 (35:22):
Friend of mine, her mother died in a very very sad,
tragic way, and she came to me and she started crying,
and she said that at the funeral they played the
song Natural Blues and everyone in the church was crying,
and it was one of the most powerful emotional moments
of her life that wouldn't have ever existed if you
(35:43):
hadn't given me those CDs. So to me, that's more
priceless and precious than any sort of like objective, quantifiable metric.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
How does that make you feel?
Speaker 4 (35:58):
I mean it makes me feel like.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Thinking about, you know, getting a pair of bolt cutters
and breaking into a steady storage in Queens is not
what I'm going to do.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
That was my plan.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And so Gregor doesn't get what he came for. But
maybe not getting everything you want in the grander scheme
isn't so bad.
Speaker 7 (36:30):
One practical issue. So I have two podcast interviews to
do today. You guys are the first and a second.
You're in good company. It's with Rue Paul nice crazy.
I mean, if you wanted to, we could always drive there.
Like if you guys want to get in the car
(36:50):
with me, My girlfriend is coming here. She's gonna go
with me because she's an obsessive Rue Paul fan.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Oh wow, Moby, his girlfriend, Gregor and I pile into
Moby's Preas seen from the outside, Gregor seems happy to
be a part of Moby's life again. He's even feeling
comfortable enough to favor us with his famous John Travolta imitation.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
I could drink tea?
Speaker 1 (37:12):
What do you think I could drink tea?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
John Travolta When she says, he says, watch your coffee
with me.
Speaker 3 (37:18):
Sometimes she's like, in Manhattan, we don't drink coffee.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
We drink tea.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
And he's like, so what I could drink tea?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
And then, for whatever reason, Moby takes over my role
of interlocutor and begins explaining Gregor's style to his girlfriend.
Speaker 7 (37:33):
And Gregor is funny and at times like would maybe
be here. It comes honest in a way that people
might be take offense too or.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
At Or, as Moby's learning firsthand, interlocketing for Gregor isn't
so easy.
Speaker 7 (38:01):
Hi, I'm here for RuPaul's podcast.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
At the hotel. We're shown into a conference room where
we're green Rue Paul and his co host Michelle As
I trail behind Moby. For the first time in my life,
I feel a part of a bona fide Hollywood entourage.
Speaker 7 (38:21):
So we've been doing an interesting podcast because Gregor and
I have known each other for twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Years at all. Yeah, We watch as RuPaul interviews Moby
and when Moby says interesting things like my mom was
born in San Diego.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Was born in San Diego.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
RuPaul responds with engaged interest. And when Moby off handedly
mentions a song, RuPaul and Michelle sing it, and as
they do, I find myself thinking only one thing, now,
this is how you run a podcast.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
When Moby and Gregor say their goodbyes, Moby tells him
that he'll be coming to San Francisco soon and he'll
be sure to give Gregor a call, and Gregor says
he'd like that. But before parting, Gregor can't help giving
it just one last nudge.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I have one more question for you. Can you just
tell me the name of the storage facility where the
CD is. No, it's for a friend. They need to
store something in Queens. No, there was one place. I'm
just saying, Hey, it's the same place.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Gregor's comfortable enough to joke around about something that had
once plagued him, and Moby's comfortable enough to uncomfortably laugh
along with him. All around it feels pretty nice. So
(39:50):
how did you feel about how that went? I think
it was cathartic, No, really, seriously. With some time to
kill before a flight, Gregor and I decide to hike
up to the observatory. Do you feel like he screwed
you out of your CDs? Yet? Again?
Speaker 2 (40:04):
The honest truth is he did give me a good
long song and dance about how we all learned the
and I didn't get the thing that I set out
to get. But in seriousness, I honestly feel, in a
funny sort of way, I got what I came for.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Which was what you didn't get your CDs.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
You see, you're a petty person.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
What you just saw and apparently were deaf you couldn't
hear was a reconciliation with two guys after twenty five
years of slight estrangement.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
So you guys did get to be friends.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah, I think we just buried the hatchets. This CD thing, Yeah,
that is a symbol. I mean, who cares about the CD?
Speaker 1 (40:40):
But you one' who cared about the CD.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Look, it's hard to come together and just hug it out.
What you just witnessed was a version of hugging it out,
two men having a good cry.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
That's about the closest that I come.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Well, then, I think that was great. I think this
was a success. I agree, still would have been nice
to get your CDs back.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Of course, I don't know if the rental car you
got there had a CD player, but it doesn't. It
would have been no better ending to this day than
to drive out of the parking lot cranking that CD.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, but the cars don't have Nobody has CD players anymore.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
And let me tell you something, if some of the
Mobi's song comes on the radio right now, I'd let
it play.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
I'd even sing along if you I'm going to.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Find it out my phone and play.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
That's okay?
Speaker 1 (41:32):
You sure? Because I actually downloaded it it specially boys.
Three days later, and much to his surprise, Gregor received
an email from MOBI. This might sound odd, the email read,
but I realized I never said a true, heartfelt thank
you for giving me those CDs, So, in all sincerity,
(41:55):
thank you. I'm sorry it's taken so long to say
thank you. Gregor said he was happier that the thank
you came three days later. This way, he knew it
wasn't just out of politeness, that it must have been
quote boring a hole through his head for days after
receiving movies thank you, Gregor immediately wrote back a thank
you of his own in the form of a joke,
(42:17):
which if you didn't know Gregor, could also be taken
as an insult. But Moby did know Gregor, and so
for Gregor, it was back to being a normal friendship.
(42:59):
Now that the Fernitures returned to its goodwill home, the
last month's rand is scheming with the damage to Poz.
Take this moment to do so if we imagine and
(43:21):
we talk felt around from.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Far to from things at accident.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Lee to Heavyweight is hosted and produced by me Jonathan
Goldstein along with Wendy Dore, Chris Neary, and Khalila Holt.
Editing by Alex Bloomberg and Peter Clowney. Special thanks to
Emily Condon, Paul Tuff, Stevie Lane, Michelle Harris, Dimitri Erlik,
Sean Cole, and Jorgehus and a very special thank you
(43:53):
to my dear friend Jackie Cohen. The show was mixed
by Hailey Shaw. Music for this episode by Christine Fellows,
with additional music by Talk Star, the Eastern Watershed, Klesmer Quartet,
and Hailey Shaw, who also did our ad music. Our
theme music is by the Weaker Thands, courtesy of Epitaph Records.
Follow us on Twitter. At heavyweight or email us at
heavyweight at gimlimedia dot com. We'll have a new episode
(44:15):
next week.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
I should go back and ring his doorbell now and
ask for that Lenaide book.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
It was kind of expensive.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Doesn't seem like you're gonna drink it.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Gotta feel thirsty, And you know what, I don't. I
don't want to show up twenty years from now asking
for those lemonades because they're gonna tell me it's in
a storage locker in Queen's.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah, what'd you do with that?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Seriously? Like when someone brings you beverages, like you put
them out on the table. Maybe bring out a glass
for a person or a straw.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
What kind of a monster is he
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