Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is gast podcast, Maybe You're like me. You first
saw Leslie Jordan's on Will and Grace in the late
nineties early two thousand's. He was the character Beverly Leslie
on the show So Good. Even in the remake, he
comes back and makes a triumphant return to Will and Grace.
(00:22):
He's also been known for several characters in American Horror
Story and in a brand new Fox show called Call
Me Cat and the last year, during the pandemic, he
started posting really funny little Instagram posts and stories and
America just fell in love. He went from five thousand
followers to now five point seven million followers. All right,
(00:46):
so we got him on the zoom here Leslie Jordan's.
How you doing. I'm good. I wanted to do this
on my laptop. Do I look okay? On my phone?
You look great? In fact, I think he looked better
on your phone. Okay. Good? And if you we get
a lot of ceilings, so you can probably move it
down just a little bit if you want. Yeah, there
(01:06):
we go, or let's say us how less? This is
probably better with that's great. I feel like I know
my way around your house from watching all your Instagram stories.
And I live in Hollywood, California, and this is the
only place that I get internet in my in one
corner of my bedroom. It's terrible, I think because we
(01:28):
got the Hollywood heels here. I don't know why. Well,
it's the hunker down of life we're living right now.
It's stun Well, you are like the head of the
hunker downers. Um, so no one expected this, but you
were like a silver lining to come out of the pandemic.
(01:49):
And I mean I knew who you were before that
from all your acting and stuff, but just to see
like the star that you've blossomed to in the last
year has been awesome. Well, you know what it unexpected.
I thought it sixty or five years of age, I
would become an internet success. My business pricious That wasn't
on the last when I got off the bus, and
how they would not Oh yeah, and then I'll end
(02:12):
it all with being a big Internet six I mean seriously, um,
social influencer. Now you're an influencer, Well I am. And
you know I decided when I started posting that I
wouldn't touch on politics or religion or I wouldn't try
to sell anything, and I'm sort of rethinking that third part.
(02:34):
You know that I'm not gonna I think the money, Yeah,
let it rake it in while you can. What's the saying, Uh,
make hay while the sunshines exact and you're making music,
which I think it's so cool. And that's the song
you have out with Brandy Carlisle first of all is
(02:55):
so great. And then Companies Coming, which is a great
name for an album, the whole project. So tell us
what you do with music, Leslie. Well, my dear friend
Travis Howard and I used to go on his Instagram.
He had a little show, a little I don't know
if you call it a pod. Well, no, it's on Instagram.
I don't know what you call those. You have a
(03:15):
little show. You know, everybody has one little podcast, little something,
And uh, his numbers went way up when I we
sang a hymn because we're both grew up. He grew
up Pentecostal, very strict. I grew up in the Baptist Church,
which was not that strict. I mean it was, but
not like compared to his. And so we revisited some
(03:37):
of these hymns from when we were kids growing up,
and the response was overwhelming. So we decided um that
we would do an album, and we put together a
little wish list who could sing with me? As the
Rolling Stone said, Mr Jordan's voice is capable. I don't
(03:59):
love that. What's that mean? At least I myself with
people that sing a little bit better better than capably.
But I'm capable and I can keep up. And I
was taught in church you're singing for the Lord, so
just saying, I sing as loud as you want for that.
And so we uh started recording. We went back to
(04:23):
Nige full and picked up the best musicians in the world,
because that's where you go to get the best musicians
in the world. And uh, I learned so much about
it all because once again that was not on my
list when I got to Hollywood, not two to make
an album. And so the musicians worked off chords and
(04:44):
they would give a song and give them about four
or five chords and this each whether it be the
banjo or the dope, the doebo, which I learned, but
all the terms, whatever it was, uh, they would just
make it was just magical of course. Then back out
to Los Angeles and I um laid down my tracks. Now.
(05:04):
I'm not sure if this is because of COVID or
it's the way it's gone. But you know, people just
don't get in the studio together. You just don't do
that anymore. And it can be achieved outside of that.
And then uh, Tanya Tucker would lay hers, you know down,
And actually Tanya is the one person that was in
Nashville with me. We did get to get in the
(05:24):
studio together. We're completely surrounded by mask well we didn't
sing with our masks, but our glass boot this nap
I kept telling I want to hug I want to
hug you, Svan, and you can't hug any about his
neck or anything. And so anyway, it just came together
and all of a sudden, I've got an album with
everybody from Dolly to uh, Chris Stipe, Chris and Morgan
(05:48):
stifled him. What a catch that was, Uh everybody, Brandy,
carlosle Own and on and own and jt. Osborne's got
the most beautiful version of in the Sweet By and By.
That's probably my favorite it because that's one way staying,
you know, growing up. So I grew up Southern Baptist
as well, were you Southern Baptist. Okay, that's what I was.
(06:10):
I grew up in South Carolina, and uh, I think
I probably relate to you on so many levels because
also being gay, I never knew how to deal with
any of it um within the confines of the south
and religion. And so I admire you so much for
the kind of role model that you are. But at
(06:31):
what point did you sort of like say, I I
think I need to be who I am. Was it
young young in life or was it as you get older?
Because I got as I got older, that's when I
started realizing I couldn't go on. Yeah, I kind of
fell out of the women, landed in MoMA's haw heyl
sell there I was, um. My dad was a lieutenant
colonel in the army, and you know I was on
(06:53):
a feminine child. But I was a joy for child.
You know. I was fun and I was so funny.
Learned that to keep the bullies at bay, you know.
So I've I've told people, oh, I was bullied, And
friends of mine that grew up with me said, you
were the most popular kids to school. What do you mean?
You know what it's like you have a secret, and
especially in the few of a church where you just
(07:14):
kind of know it's wrong. I do not remember ever
in the Babby's Church then saying that is wrong. Worst
it just when talked about period in the fifties and sixties,
Oh my god. You know we had an organist that,
you know, just kind of gay is Christmas you could
tell you do you know what I mean? All the
life loved him, the you know, little old lady just
(07:36):
loved him and baking cast the rolls and everything. And
I would think to Myselphile, I'm gonna end up like that,
which you know I didn't. It wasn't a bad thing
to end up, but I was aspiring a little higher.
But anyway, um, I but when I was about seventeen,
I think it's when I I hate to say that
I turned my back on the church. But if you work,
(07:59):
you do think one of this isn't working here. And
the wonderful party is that from the time of seventeen
until now to sixty five, which has been a lot
of twenty two years of sobriety, getting sober from drugs
and alcohol and um and all of that, and all
the work that I've done on myself, you know, because
(08:20):
what happened was I got sober at forty two, and
there were still so much internal homophobia, you know, just
you'd realize it more when you're you know, don't have
your medicine. So I um, I went to work on
all that, and here I am at sixty five, revisited
these hymns from my childhood with no acts to grind. No,
(08:42):
I'm perfectly comfortable with who I am, what I am,
and and uh, what a great place to be. Of course,
you know some people say, oh you so well, No,
that's barely beginning, reatly sixty five, I'm barely out of
high school. I got so much I gotta do the Instagram,
uh story and or post? You did? I think it
(09:05):
was Blessed Assurance, which is one of my favorites growing up.
This is my story, This is my song. Oh so good?
Is that one you included on the album? Blessed Assurance
is not on the album? Let me Graham. I can't
even remember I Blessed Assurance. I know we we recorded it,
(09:26):
but then you know, look I've sent it to me.
Oh wow, that's awesome. It's so pretty. The cover this is, uh,
this little lot of mine, Blessed assurance is not on
the album. I can't remember. I know that Travis and
(09:46):
I have signed. But like you said, there's so many
Baptist Hams that seem to have you know, a wink
wink to him, like my story, this is my son,
just as I am. People can take comfort in these songs.
You know, these are Oh I went through this, Oh,
Baptist hayminal, the other not looking some of them. Couldn't
(10:07):
even find the Baptist caymnal. There's so but I couldn't.
I couldn't find farther along in the Babtist him well
where it's farther along. But yeah, they're old, old and
they really they're meaningful, you know, no matter what, whether
you rise, Jewish, Muslim, whatever, And it's good music. That's
(10:28):
what I want people to do. Whatever they take away
with it, I have nothing to do with really, I
just want them to listen to it. I'm anxious for
people to hear and we'll get the good word out
about the music. And um, you know, country music obviously
has great gospel roots to it, and it just makes
good sense to have you honest as much as we can.
I am in Naville by the way. So I'm sorry
(10:49):
you came to town. I didn't get to say hi. Oh, well,
I'm going I'm coming back. I'm not sure. In April,
I'm gonna go see Mama and damn, I've got to
go see I have centical twins. This person where about
the only ones left now are they now? They're all
in Chaddanoga Mama and uh and uh my twin sisters.
(11:11):
When you go back to Chaddannooga. I know you love
fried chicken, and so do I. Again, it's a like
a staple when you grow up in the South. Everything
is fried anyway, but fried chicken is. So what's the
fried chicken you'd like to get back to when you
come back to the seat or is there a place
in l A? Oh, there's all kinds of places. The
best fried chicken right now in l A. You can't
get near it. It's on mail Rose and it's called oh,
(11:34):
it just says hot chicken, that may be the name
of it. It's on mel Rose Avenue near Um and
you can't get near it. People line up on the street.
I might be mistake. Yesterday was uh Sunday, well a
couple of days ago and Sunday. Oh my god, you
couldn't get near it now in in Chadd Nugget's Champions
and it's actually on uh by some friends of mine.
(11:55):
I get freed chicken. I go down there. That's become
of that, semsr Jard. We're gonna load you up some
chicken there, and we're gonna put in some passa. Well
there you go. Well I hope they give you some
veggies too, because my mom and grandma, whenever they made
fried chicken, that would always kind of justify eating bad
foods by saying, oh, we're gonna put vegetables around it, though,
(12:18):
in which they fried like the okra they fried it,
or they put pork back in it. You know, man,
it's so good though. Um, I love you on the
new show too on Fox Call Me Cat, which is
a great little show. Uh. It looks like you having
the time of your life making that too. It's so fun.
We are Everybody always says, oh, the cast is like family,
(12:39):
or we bonded. Listen, we really bonded. I mean we're
in it because we we we had all of COVID.
We were supposed to start the day the lockdown started
with our first day for our pilot. So we were
just heartbroken. So we started, you know, texting one another
and instagramming one another, and all of us, you know,
(12:59):
myne M, Cheyenne, Julian, Kyla, Slusy, we all got we bonded.
And now we're over there chattering and they'll say, you, guys,
we've got to shoot this show. We're like, uh, we're busy.
We're over here just harry On and we love each other.
We tell each other, I love I love you. I
noticed that, I said, I've never been on TV show
so much hugging and kissing. And at the end of
(13:23):
one day, I think, oh, oh, I love you. I
love you so much. I'll think you tomorrow. I know
you have people coming up to you all the time.
I want to meet you and chat. And so what
do people usually say when they when they come up, Well,
she hey, y'all do and but mostly people just holler
(13:47):
out my name. You know, all these years in Hollywood,
Will and Grit and American Horror Story and all that,
people I didn't have nine recognition, you know, people didn't
know my nine. They'd go, oh my god, you you're
so funny, or you know that little guy you know
of that look on that show, but people know my
name now, and I started not putting down my convertible.
I have a pretty little bm W convertible works so
(14:08):
hard for us, my proud and joy, and I put
that top down and you know, welcome to Hollywood. What's
your what's your dream? Dripping all around? And now I
feel like I'm bragging or I don't know what I
feel like, cause people Mr Jordan, Mr Jordan, Hello, It's
like I'm beauty quainting a in a on a flow.
You know, I can't get down the streets. So I
(14:29):
I was thinking that day if I got another car
and might get my wind as Black. You really know
you made it when you got your wind, that's all Black.
Well I'm still trying to make it. Uh so uh
we'll we'll make sure that you get some clips of
all this interview that you can post it. And I
just want to be as Instagram famous as you are.
(14:52):
I'm gonna put you up. You can ride in on
my coattail. Um real quick before I let you go. Um,
do you have a track on the album that is
uh not necessarily a favorite, but like you can't believe
you actually pulled it together and pulled it off. I
would think maybe Dolly is always kind of hard and
(15:14):
elusive to get, but was she easy to get on
the album? He was the easiest one, only because I
met her and I just you know, said to her,
I'm gonna do an album of him. She said, I
was sting with you, and I said, oh good. And
then was in the middle of all the record and everything,
she said, can my family staying with me? And I thought,
oh my God, like IM say no, Miss Barton, I'm sorry,
You're the only one to lie. You can tell your
(15:36):
family go away. But I I still I still circle
back in the swa By and By with J. T Osborne,
something just mystical happened. I don't know. In the very
end of that. You know, I lost my daddy when
I was twelve, to a horrendous plane crash. He was
in the Army. And at the very end, without thinking,
(15:59):
it says it who all we're going to see in
the sweight By and By, and I looked over Grabbs.
I said, I'm must say my daddy and he can't
get and source now my mother listened to that and
folls apart. Everybody falls apartment right here. Gosh. I remember
growing up as a kid again uh and having a
lot of religious influence, including my grandpa who was he
(16:21):
would sing and make cassettes uh and he since passed away,
but we still have all those cassettes, our whole family does.
And it's just so warm and wonderful to hear his
voice again seeing those songs and so many of them
also on your brand new album. That's why I just
can't wait to put it all together. So thank you
very much for for bringing the music and being on
(16:42):
our show. Well you're a wonderful interview or you really are,
and thank you very handsome. Thank you. Well, I'm riding
your coattails all the way, and all I ask is
that maybe me and you do a little blessed assurance
on volume teer. Thanks for listening to Cody Cast. Follow
Cody right now at Cody Allen on Twitter, Instagram, m
and Facebook. Care Cody on hundreds of radio stations every day,
(17:03):
and watch Cody on Hawks twenty this weekend Saturday and
Sunday at n a M. Eight Central on CMT. Bye
for now,