WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We're here again 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:05.820 to sift through the sources, the noise, and really 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:07.700 get to the heart of things. That's the plan. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.220 And today we are doing an exhaustive analysis, 00:00:11.560 --> 00:00:14.919 a real deep dive into someone whose life was 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:17.699 cut short, way too short, but whose voice just 00:00:17.699 --> 00:00:20.559 seems to get louder over time. William Melvin 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:23.160 Hicks. Yeah, Bill Hicks. And it's important, 00:00:23.260 --> 00:00:25.140 like you said, not to just label him a comic. 00:00:25.219 --> 00:00:27.160 I mean, he was a stand -up, obviously, but also 00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:29.839 a satirist. Just a philosopher, some would argue. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:32.240 Yes. Definitely provocative. Absolutely. He lived 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:35.539 from 61 to 94, died at just 32. But his work, 00:00:35.579 --> 00:00:38.960 wow, it really became this touchstone for counterculture 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:41.439 thinking, especially after he was gone. So our 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:43.479 mission today for you listening is to really 00:00:43.479 --> 00:00:46.100 unpack that. Go beyond the angry comic label. 00:00:46.219 --> 00:00:48.179 We need to look at the controversial stuff, the... 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:51.899 surprising spiritual side the censorship moments 00:00:51.899 --> 00:00:54.079 right and that powerful legacy that landed him 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:56.259 you know number four on channel four's big list 00:00:56.259 --> 00:00:59.420 of comics number 13 on rolling stones that doesn't 00:00:59.420 --> 00:01:02.159 just happen no way yeah okay so let's nail down 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:03.659 his identity because you didn't understand his 00:01:03.659 --> 00:01:05.719 tools right his comedy wasn't just telling jokes 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:09.359 not at all it was like ideological combat sometimes 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:13.260 yeah dark comedy political satire observational 00:01:13.260 --> 00:01:16.849 stuff But weaponized? What was he aiming at? 00:01:16.930 --> 00:01:19.069 Everything, pretty much. Mainstream American 00:01:19.069 --> 00:01:22.650 culture, politics, religion. Big target there. 00:01:23.150 --> 00:01:25.010 Consumerism, how we talk about drugs, conspiracy 00:01:25.010 --> 00:01:28.310 theories. He wasn't just after a chuckle. He 00:01:28.310 --> 00:01:31.510 seemed to want to, I don't know, detonate the 00:01:31.510 --> 00:01:34.329 whole accepted narrative, force you, the listener, 00:01:34.450 --> 00:01:36.709 to question what you thought was real. And what's 00:01:36.709 --> 00:01:39.030 really striking is how early that started. That 00:01:39.030 --> 00:01:41.969 rebellious streak, the iconoclasm. Born in Valdosta, 00:01:42.030 --> 00:01:44.030 Georgia, moved around, ended up in Houston when 00:01:44.030 --> 00:01:46.109 he was seven. And right away, he's into comedy. 00:01:46.189 --> 00:01:48.349 Yeah, obsessed. Writing routines with his friend 00:01:48.349 --> 00:01:50.689 Dwight Slade, trying to be like his heroes, Woody 00:01:50.689 --> 00:01:53.849 Allen, Richard Pryor. Big influences. And that 00:01:53.849 --> 00:01:56.349 impulse, that need to question, immediately puts 00:01:56.349 --> 00:01:58.010 him on a collision course with his family's beliefs. 00:01:58.150 --> 00:02:01.250 Right? Southern Baptist. Oh, yeah. Big time. 00:02:01.709 --> 00:02:03.629 This wasn't just typical teenage stuff. It was 00:02:03.629 --> 00:02:06.469 a fundamental clash of worldviews. And it really 00:02:06.469 --> 00:02:10.439 it fed his material his entire career. The sources 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:12.159 give us some great examples of that tension, 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:14.180 don't they? They really do. Like how he later 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:16.759 kind of jokingly called his family yuppie Baptists 00:02:16.759 --> 00:02:18.860 to the Houston Post. Right. Jokey. Their big 00:02:18.860 --> 00:02:20.879 concerns were like, should you leave a note if 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:22.939 you scratch your neighbor's Subaru? Exactly. 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:25.759 It just skewers that, you know, superficial middle 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:29.080 class religiosity he saw. But the real deep conflict, 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:31.960 Cynthia True writes about this in her biography. 00:02:32.219 --> 00:02:34.439 As father of the Bible. Yeah. An argument where 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:37.060 his dad insists the Bible is the literal word 00:02:37.060 --> 00:02:48.930 of God. And Hicks fires back. Wow. That distinction 00:02:48.930 --> 00:02:51.370 is key, isn't it? Between your personal belief 00:02:51.370 --> 00:02:54.810 and pushing it as the capital T Truth. Explains 00:02:54.810 --> 00:02:56.930 so much of his later attacks on organized religion. 00:02:57.250 --> 00:02:59.930 Totally. But, and this is crucial, it wasn't 00:02:59.930 --> 00:03:02.129 necessarily an attack on spirituality itself. 00:03:02.530 --> 00:03:05.009 He seemed to be looking for something more genuine 00:03:05.009 --> 00:03:07.949 than just dogma. Which you see signs of early 00:03:07.949 --> 00:03:10.639 on too, right? He wasn't just rebelling against 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:13.879 something. Exactly. He was curious. His friend 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:16.340 Kevin Slade got him into Transcendental Meditation, 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:19.560 TM. And he didn't just dabble. He took a full 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:22.340 TM residence course in Galveston one Thanksgiving. 00:03:22.659 --> 00:03:25.780 He was searching. Trying to find some kind of 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:28.280 vision, maybe, beyond just buying stuff and going 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:31.020 to church. I think so. Something authentic. So 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:33.500 you've got this teenager, full of intellectual 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:36.719 fire, hating societal norms. Must have been fun 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.219 for his parents. Huh. Yeah, they were worried, 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:41.520 understandably. There's that great story from 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:43.560 when he was 17, they drag him off to a psychoanalyst. 00:03:43.659 --> 00:03:45.620 And Hicks loved telling this. After the first 00:03:45.620 --> 00:03:47.280 group session, the analyst pulls him aside and 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:49.300 basically says, look, you can keep coming if 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:52.699 you want, but it's them, not you. Oh my god, 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:55.280 that's like the ultimate validation for a kid 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:57.759 like that. Confirmation he's the sane one in 00:03:57.759 --> 00:04:00.319 an insane world. Pretty much. And you can imagine 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:02.460 that just pouring fuel on his stand -up fire. 00:04:03.129 --> 00:04:05.509 He had already started performing at 16 at the 00:04:05.509 --> 00:04:07.969 comedy workshop in Houston, still in high school, 00:04:08.110 --> 00:04:10.389 then University of Houston for a bit. And that 00:04:10.389 --> 00:04:12.710 Houston scene had a specific vibe, didn't it? 00:04:12.789 --> 00:04:15.409 It did. He fell in with the Texas Outlaw comics. 00:04:15.669 --> 00:04:18.250 Right. What was their deal? Basically, a group 00:04:18.250 --> 00:04:21.509 of comics who shared this aggressive, no -compromise, 00:04:21.509 --> 00:04:24.209 anti -establishment approach. They saw themselves 00:04:24.209 --> 00:04:27.009 as boundary pushers. rejecting the safer mainstream 00:04:27.009 --> 00:04:30.389 clubs. Being an outlaw was part of the identity, 00:04:30.589 --> 00:04:33.029 the performance. But being an outlaw doesn't 00:04:33.029 --> 00:04:35.269 always pay the bills, especially back then. The 00:04:35.269 --> 00:04:37.910 mid -80s sound like a tough period. Yeah. The 00:04:37.910 --> 00:04:41.050 sources say by 86, he was really struggling financially 00:04:41.050 --> 00:04:44.310 and using a lot of recreational drugs pretty 00:04:44.310 --> 00:04:47.129 heavily, burning out a bit. But then 87 hits. 00:04:47.389 --> 00:04:50.399 Things start looking up. Big time. That was the 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:52.759 year he got on Rodney Dangerfield's Young Comedian 00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:55.259 special. Huge exposure. That was a big deal back 00:04:55.259 --> 00:04:57.819 then. Massive. And critically, that same year, 00:04:57.860 --> 00:05:00.300 he makes the move in New York City. And that 00:05:00.300 --> 00:05:02.319 just shifts everything into high gear. Totally. 00:05:02.379 --> 00:05:04.439 For the next five years, he's basically living 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:07.500 on stage. Performing something like 300 times 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:09.939 a year. Just relentless. And the whole substance 00:05:09.939 --> 00:05:11.920 use thing becomes part of the act itself. Yeah. 00:05:12.829 --> 00:05:15.350 But it changes over time. It does. You hear it 00:05:15.350 --> 00:05:17.170 evolve. There's that famous bit from Relentless 00:05:17.170 --> 00:05:20.069 about quitting drugs because what was the line? 00:05:20.269 --> 00:05:21.930 Once you've been taken aboard a UFO, it's kind 00:05:21.930 --> 00:05:24.610 of hard to top that. Classic Hicks. Perfect. 00:05:25.170 --> 00:05:28.350 But it's important to differentiate. He quit 00:05:28.350 --> 00:05:30.889 drinking alcohol completely in 88. He talks about 00:05:30.889 --> 00:05:33.209 it on the Dangerous album. Said it dulled the 00:05:33.209 --> 00:05:36.230 mind. But other stuff. Other stuff, yeah. He 00:05:36.230 --> 00:05:41.439 kept praising LSD. marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:45.740 not just for kicks, but as tools, tools for insight, 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:48.660 for breaking down consensus reality, as he saw 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:50.800 it. So ditching the destructive stuff for the 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:54.000 mind -expanding stuff, but one thing stayed constant, 00:05:54.060 --> 00:05:56.579 became almost iconic visually. The chain smoking. 00:05:56.740 --> 00:05:58.939 Yeah. The cigarette was always there, became 00:05:58.939 --> 00:06:01.079 part of the persona, didn't it? The weary prophet 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:03.639 always lighting the next one. A lifelong habit. 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:05.920 That's a real layer of tragedy looking back. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:08.379 Okay, so that sets the stage. Let's pivot now. 00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:12.120 From the backstory to the actual act, the style, 00:06:12.220 --> 00:06:16.079 the philosophy, that relentless challenging of 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:19.779 the audience. Yeah, his style was something else 00:06:19.779 --> 00:06:21.360 for the time. He wasn't trying to make the audience 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:24.110 comfortable. At all. Quite the opposite sometimes. 00:06:24.329 --> 00:06:26.629 Right. He'd deliberately play on their emotions, 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:30.649 anger, disgust, apathy, but somehow try to channel 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:32.769 it, make it cathartic. But he did it with this 00:06:32.769 --> 00:06:36.149 weirdly casual, intimate manner, like he was 00:06:36.149 --> 00:06:38.430 just talking to friends, sharing some awful truth. 00:06:38.709 --> 00:06:40.790 Using the stage as a platform, not just for punchlines. 00:06:40.930 --> 00:06:43.829 Exactly. Challenging authority, questioning everything. 00:06:44.009 --> 00:06:47.649 His core message really was an invitation. Reject 00:06:47.649 --> 00:06:49.850 the default settings. Question what everyone 00:06:49.850 --> 00:06:52.430 tells you is truth. But bringing deep thoughts 00:06:52.430 --> 00:06:54.850 to a comedy club. Yeah. Probably didn't always 00:06:54.850 --> 00:06:58.730 go over smoothly. Ha ha. Understatement. There's 00:06:58.730 --> 00:07:00.829 that famous story he told on the BBC show Funny 00:07:00.829 --> 00:07:03.350 Business in 92. Some audience member yells out, 00:07:03.389 --> 00:07:05.350 we don't come to comedy to think. Dan Hicks' 00:07:05.389 --> 00:07:08.269 reply. Pure Hicks exasperation. Gee, where do 00:07:08.269 --> 00:07:10.829 you go to think? I'll meet you there. When did 00:07:10.829 --> 00:07:13.689 thinking not become entertaining? That nails 00:07:13.689 --> 00:07:15.509 his whole philosophy. He thought just giving 00:07:15.509 --> 00:07:17.689 people easy laughs was condescending. He definitely 00:07:17.689 --> 00:07:19.649 wasn't worried about offending. And he had a 00:07:19.649 --> 00:07:22.029 particular dislike for political correctness, 00:07:22.050 --> 00:07:24.550 didn't he? Oh, he hated it. Saw it as another 00:07:24.550 --> 00:07:27.389 form of thought control, stifling real conversation. 00:07:27.649 --> 00:07:30.149 Made that joke about how the politically correct 00:07:30.149 --> 00:07:32.910 should be hunted down and killed. Obviously satire, 00:07:32.910 --> 00:07:35.649 but intense. He just saw it as another set of 00:07:35.649 --> 00:07:37.750 rules getting in the way of raw truth, I guess. 00:07:38.220 --> 00:07:40.360 Especially in the early 90s culture wars. Yeah, 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:43.160 another layer of censorship, basically. And for 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:46.420 him, anything that blocked truth was the enemy. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:48.399 Let's get deeper into the really philosophical 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:50.879 stuff, the psychedelic material. This is what 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:53.199 really set him apart, made him this counterculture 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:55.459 figure. This is where he took these really complex, 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:58.500 kind of fringe ideas and dragged them onto the 00:07:58.500 --> 00:08:01.800 comedy stage. That famous routine about the psychedelic 00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:04.459 epiphany. It's brilliant. The News Report 1. 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:07.620 Yeah. He delivers this profound realization, 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:10.259 you know, the whole all matters, energy, we're 00:08:10.259 --> 00:08:12.879 all one consciousness thing you might get from 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:15.180 psychedelics. Life is only a dream and we're 00:08:15.180 --> 00:08:18.060 the imagination of ourselves. Right. But he delivers 00:08:18.060 --> 00:08:20.459 it in the deadpan, completely detached voice 00:08:20.459 --> 00:08:23.660 of a local news anchor. Here's Tom with the weather. 00:08:23.879 --> 00:08:28.399 Exactly. It's genius because it mocks the media's 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:32.440 total inability to grasp or report anything genuinely 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:35.379 profound or, you know, countercultural. And that 00:08:35.379 --> 00:08:37.860 depth wasn't just pulled out of thin air. He 00:08:37.860 --> 00:08:40.159 was reading people like Terrence McKenna, right? 00:08:40.220 --> 00:08:42.159 Oh, yeah. Heavily influenced by McKenna, the 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:44.440 philosopher, the ethnomycologist, guy who studied 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:46.379 psychoactive mushrooms and culture. I have no 00:08:46.379 --> 00:08:49.320 mycologist. Yeah. Okay. What specific McKenna 00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:52.200 ideas did Hicks use? He got really into McKenna 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:54.220 stuff. In his later shows, he'd even act out 00:08:54.220 --> 00:08:56.679 a version of the stoned ape theory. The stoned 00:08:56.679 --> 00:08:58.639 ape. Explain that. Okay. So McKenna's theory 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:01.139 basically is that early humans eating psychedelic 00:09:01.139 --> 00:09:03.500 mushrooms was the catalyst. That it kickstarted 00:09:03.500 --> 00:09:05.620 our cognitive evolution, self -awareness, language, 00:09:05.740 --> 00:09:07.679 art, religion. A huge leap forward triggered 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:11.289 by fungi. Wow. Okay. And Hicks saw that as... 00:09:11.289 --> 00:09:14.269 As the ultimate satirical weapon against creationism 00:09:14.269 --> 00:09:17.309 and dull institutionalized religion. It fit his 00:09:17.309 --> 00:09:20.509 worldview perfectly. Nature providing the spark, 00:09:20.710 --> 00:09:23.850 not some dusty book. That willingness to embrace 00:09:23.850 --> 00:09:27.529 really provocative ideas also led to some darker 00:09:27.529 --> 00:09:30.309 moments, though. That infamous Heckler incident 00:09:30.309 --> 00:09:33.710 in Chicago. 89, was it? Yeah, the Hitler outburst. 00:09:33.750 --> 00:09:37.299 It's on the bootleg. I'm sorry, folks. It's pretty 00:09:37.299 --> 00:09:39.539 chilling, actually. What happened? Some guy just 00:09:39.539 --> 00:09:42.080 kept shouting, free bird, relentlessly during 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:45.039 his set, trying to derail him. And Hicks just 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:47.159 snapped, screamed back, Hitler had the right 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:49.659 idea, he was just an underachiever. Whoa. Yeah. 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:52.419 And he didn't stop there. He went off on this 00:09:52.419 --> 00:09:55.559 intense, misanthropic rant about human stupidity, 00:09:55.559 --> 00:09:57.789 calling for... Well, basically calling for wiping 00:09:57.789 --> 00:09:59.570 the slate clean. It was shocking, but it showed 00:09:59.570 --> 00:10:01.669 the depth of his frustration with the idiocy 00:10:01.669 --> 00:10:03.769 he felt surrounded by. And beyond just general 00:10:03.769 --> 00:10:06.009 anger at stupidity, he consistently targeted 00:10:06.009 --> 00:10:08.590 authority. Conspiracy theories became a big part 00:10:08.590 --> 00:10:10.690 of his act. Absolutely. Not always saying this 00:10:10.690 --> 00:10:12.870 is the absolute truth, but using them to show 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.309 how broken our trust in official stories was. 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:17.919 Like the JFK assassination stuff. Yeah, spent 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:20.080 a lot of time mocking the Warren report, the 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:23.100 whole Lee Harvey Oswald lone nut narrative. The 00:10:23.100 --> 00:10:25.879 humor came from pointing out the logical gaps, 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:28.460 saying basically if you just accept the official 00:10:28.460 --> 00:10:30.980 story without question, you're being intellectually 00:10:30.980 --> 00:10:33.700 lazy. And he applied that same skepticism to 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:35.879 current events too, right? Like Waco. Mm -hmm. 00:10:36.710 --> 00:10:39.909 During the Waco siege in 93, he questioned the 00:10:39.909 --> 00:10:42.509 official portrayal of David Koresh, always framing 00:10:42.509 --> 00:10:44.870 the government's version as suspect, potentially 00:10:44.870 --> 00:10:48.009 manipulative. Question everything. And that theme, 00:10:48.169 --> 00:10:50.809 the truth teller being silenced, he even acted 00:10:50.809 --> 00:10:53.450 it out sometimes. Yeah, literally. Closing some 00:10:53.450 --> 00:10:55.610 shows, including ones recorded for albums, with 00:10:55.610 --> 00:10:57.789 a mock assassination. He'd make gunshot sounds 00:10:57.789 --> 00:11:00.350 into the mic, collapse on stage, playing the 00:11:00.350 --> 00:11:03.000 martyr for truth. Heavy stuff. You say. Which 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:05.700 leads us right into his peak fame, that international 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:08.639 acclaim and the big censorship moment that really 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:11.200 solidified that tragic profit image in the U 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.779 .S. Right. The early 90s were incredibly productive. 00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:16.659 Sane Man video in 89, Dangerous Album in 90, 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:19.419 HBO's One Night Stand. He was building momentum 00:11:19.419 --> 00:11:22.600 in the States. But overseas, different story. 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:25.360 Oh, yeah. He exploded in the UK and Ireland. 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:28.080 He was filling big venues on his 91 tour there. 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:31.500 Recorded revelations for Channel 4 in 92. They 00:11:31.500 --> 00:11:33.620 just seemed to get his whole cynical, spiritual, 00:11:33.820 --> 00:11:36.919 angry thing much faster than American audiences 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:39.299 did. Why do you think that was? Maybe a longer 00:11:39.299 --> 00:11:43.039 tradition of satire. Less reverence for mainstream 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:45.740 optimism. Hard to say, but they clearly connected 00:11:45.740 --> 00:11:48.159 with the philosophical anger. And it was in the 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:51.059 UK he recorded that famous... closing bit it's 00:11:51.059 --> 00:11:54.519 just a ride just a ride yeah such a perfect distillation 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:57.480 of his worldview relax don't worry it's all temporary 00:11:57.480 --> 00:12:00.940 cosmic theater great antidote to fear okay let's 00:12:00.940 --> 00:12:03.860 talk about a huge crossover moment for him his 00:12:03.860 --> 00:12:06.620 connection with the band tool that was significant 00:12:06.620 --> 00:12:09.500 hugely significant it took him from being a sort 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:11.840 of cult comic figure to being embraced by the 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:14.799 alternative rock world Tool saw a kindred spirit, 00:12:15.100 --> 00:12:17.200 you know, anti -establishment complex ideas. 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:19.600 And they invited him on tour. Yeah, to open for 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:21.840 them during their Lollapalooza dates in 93. And 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:23.679 the connection was real. Remember that story? 00:12:23.820 --> 00:12:26.600 The contact lens. Yeah. He tells the massive 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:29.320 crowd he lost a contact lens, asks them to look 00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:32.440 for it, and thousands of people actually get 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:35.580 down on their hands and knees in the dirt. That's 00:12:35.580 --> 00:12:38.440 rapport. That's command. Incredible. And Tool's 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:41.720 dedication of Anima to him in 96 after he died, 00:12:41.860 --> 00:12:44.919 calling him another dead hero. That album was 00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:47.799 huge. Triple platinum. Huge. And the dedication 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:50.820 wasn't just a name in the liner notes. Hicks' 00:12:50.899 --> 00:12:54.039 ideas are baked into that album. How so? Well, 00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:56.440 the chorus of the title track, Anima, that whole 00:12:56.440 --> 00:12:59.299 idea of L .A. falling into the ocean, that comes 00:12:59.299 --> 00:13:01.840 directly from Hicks' Arizona Bay routine. Where 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:04.159 he fantasizes about California sinking. Exactly. 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:06.919 Washing away all the superficiality. The album's 00:13:06.919 --> 00:13:09.340 packaging, that weird shifting cover art, also 00:13:09.340 --> 00:13:11.659 references it. He literally gave them the central 00:13:11.659 --> 00:13:14.440 concept for one of their biggest songs. Amazing. 00:13:14.580 --> 00:13:16.779 And even more directly, the last track on the 00:13:16.779 --> 00:13:19.179 album, Third Eye, it actually samples Hicks' 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:22.000 voice, takes bits from his dangerous and relentless 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.049 albums. part of the fabric of that record, cemented 00:13:26.049 --> 00:13:29.350 in rock history. Wow. OK, let's shift to the 00:13:29.350 --> 00:13:32.909 incident that maybe more than anything, cemented 00:13:32.909 --> 00:13:35.850 his reputation in America as this sort of silenced 00:13:35.850 --> 00:13:38.850 truth teller, the Letterman censorship. But the 00:13:38.850 --> 00:13:41.049 story starts earlier than 93, doesn't it? It 00:13:41.049 --> 00:13:43.860 does. There was a precedent. Back in 1984, his 00:13:43.860 --> 00:13:46.100 very first time booked on Letterman's NBC show, 00:13:46.220 --> 00:13:50.080 Late Night, NBC had this policy against jokes 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:53.019 about handicapped people. And Hicks had a routine. 00:13:53.220 --> 00:13:55.639 Yeah, about causing an accident where a classmate 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:58.000 ended up in a wheelchair. He talked later about 00:13:58.000 --> 00:13:59.779 how the network made him jump through hoops, 00:13:59.779 --> 00:14:02.909 avoiding specific words like wheelchair. It made 00:14:02.909 --> 00:14:04.950 the routine almost impossible to do, showed him 00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:06.950 early how sensitive the powers that be could 00:14:06.950 --> 00:14:09.830 be. But the big one, the infamous one, was October 00:14:09.830 --> 00:14:13.009 1st, 1993, his 12th appearance on a Letterman 00:14:13.009 --> 00:14:16.049 show, now on CBS. And they just cut him entirely. 00:14:16.309 --> 00:14:18.190 Yep, taped the whole set, five minutes long, 00:14:18.350 --> 00:14:20.250 and then just completely axed it from the broadcast, 00:14:20.490 --> 00:14:22.549 which was incredibly rare for an established 00:14:22.549 --> 00:14:24.470 comedian. What was the material they objected 00:14:24.470 --> 00:14:26.850 to? Jokes about religion, specifically targeting 00:14:26.850 --> 00:14:28.789 the anti -abortion movement. You can trace it 00:14:28.789 --> 00:14:31.110 right back to that lifelong conflict we talked 00:14:31.110 --> 00:14:33.110 about, railing against people, forcing their 00:14:33.110 --> 00:14:35.470 beliefs on others. Who made the call? Well, Hicks 00:14:35.470 --> 00:14:37.750 said the producers told him it was just unsuitable 00:14:37.750 --> 00:14:40.250 for network TV. The producer, Robert Morton, 00:14:40.269 --> 00:14:42.809 kind of tried to blame CBS standards at first, 00:14:42.950 --> 00:14:44.870 but eventually admitted he made the final decision. 00:14:45.250 --> 00:14:47.330 And Hicks never went back on the show. Never 00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:49.610 again. Which is just heartbreaking when you know 00:14:49.610 --> 00:14:52.250 the context. The context being? Unbeknownst to 00:14:52.250 --> 00:14:54.129 Letterman, to the audience, probably to more. 00:14:54.659 --> 00:14:57.720 Hicks was undergoing weekly chemo for pancreatic 00:14:57.720 --> 00:14:59.960 cancer when he taped that set. He was literally 00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:03.779 dying. Oh man. Fighting for his life and fighting 00:15:03.779 --> 00:15:06.419 to get his jokes on air. He died just over four 00:15:06.419 --> 00:15:10.230 months later. Brutal. But the story has this 00:15:10.230 --> 00:15:12.549 really incredible postscript years later. It 00:15:12.549 --> 00:15:16.809 does. January 30th, 2009, 14 years after Hicks 00:15:16.809 --> 00:15:20.629 died, Letterman brings Hicks' mother, Mary, onto 00:15:20.629 --> 00:15:23.230 The Late Show. As a guest. As a guest. And he 00:15:23.230 --> 00:15:25.769 plays the entire censored routine from 1993. 00:15:25.990 --> 00:15:29.279 The whole thing. And Letterman gives this very 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:32.399 direct, very personal apology. He said, and this 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:34.500 is a quote, it says more about me as a guy than 00:15:34.500 --> 00:15:36.399 it says about Bill because there was absolutely 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:39.370 nothing wrong with that. That's huge. A major 00:15:39.370 --> 00:15:41.929 public maya cult. And massive. It was this huge 00:15:41.929 --> 00:15:44.690 institutional validation years too late, but 00:15:44.690 --> 00:15:47.549 still powerful, saying, yeah, the comic was right. 00:15:47.590 --> 00:15:49.870 The censors were wrong. Before we get to his 00:15:49.870 --> 00:15:52.610 final days, we have to touch on a really painful 00:15:52.610 --> 00:15:55.350 conflict from his last year. The whole Dennis 00:15:55.350 --> 00:15:58.289 Leary thing. Yeah. The plagiarism accusation. 00:15:58.289 --> 00:16:00.330 This wasn't just professional rivalry. It was 00:16:00.330 --> 00:16:02.950 the bitter end of a friendship in 93. Hicks was 00:16:02.950 --> 00:16:05.629 furious, right? About Leary's album No Cure for 00:16:05.629 --> 00:16:08.149 Cancer? Absolutely livid. Because Leary's whole 00:16:08.149 --> 00:16:11.490 persona on that album, the chain -smoking, angry, 00:16:11.690 --> 00:16:14.330 ranting comic in specific lines, specific bits, 00:16:14.490 --> 00:16:17.149 felt incredibly similar to what Hicks had already 00:16:17.149 --> 00:16:19.889 been doing for years. His biographer, Cynthia 00:16:19.889 --> 00:16:23.429 True, put it bluntly, said Leary had practically 00:16:23.429 --> 00:16:26.210 taken line for line huge chunks of Bill's act 00:16:26.210 --> 00:16:29.230 and recorded it. That's a heavy accusation. It 00:16:29.230 --> 00:16:31.669 is. And people point to specific examples like 00:16:31.669 --> 00:16:34.850 the structure of the gym fix joke. Fix was the 00:16:34.850 --> 00:16:37.350 running guru who died jogging. Right. And Hicks 00:16:37.350 --> 00:16:39.830 used it to mock the health craze, comparing him 00:16:39.830 --> 00:16:42.169 to Keith Richards surviving everything. Exactly. 00:16:42.169 --> 00:16:45.230 And Leary had a bit with a very, very similar 00:16:45.230 --> 00:16:48.309 setup and punchline hitting that same irony Hicks 00:16:48.309 --> 00:16:51.789 sought as outright theft. And Hicks being Hicks 00:16:51.789 --> 00:16:54.710 hit back with satire. Dark, personal satire. 00:16:54.870 --> 00:16:57.169 When someone asked him why he'd quit smoking, 00:16:57.450 --> 00:17:00.110 he reportedly deadpanned, I just wanted to see 00:17:00.110 --> 00:17:03.570 if Dennis would too. And his ultimate sarcastic 00:17:03.570 --> 00:17:07.160 take was the mock confession. I stole Leary's 00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:09.839 act. I camouflaged it with punchlines. And to 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:12.119 really throw people off, I did it before he did, 00:17:12.259 --> 00:17:15.059 just dripping with bitterness. That tension lingered 00:17:15.059 --> 00:17:16.900 for years too, didn't it? Even after Hicks was 00:17:16.900 --> 00:17:18.859 gone. Yeah, apparently there was a joke written 00:17:18.859 --> 00:17:22.099 for Leary's Comedy Central roast in 2003 from 00:17:22.099 --> 00:17:24.339 Lenny Clark. Something about getting Leary a 00:17:24.339 --> 00:17:26.700 carton of cigarettes from Hicks with a note saying, 00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:28.920 wish I had gotten these to you sooner, but they 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:31.819 cut the joke from the broadcast. Still too raw, 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.349 I guess. It's important, though, especially when 00:17:34.349 --> 00:17:37.529 someone becomes almost mythic like Hicks, to 00:17:37.529 --> 00:17:39.710 bring in some balance. Not everyone saw him as 00:17:39.710 --> 00:17:42.869 flawless. Absolutely. We have to avoid the hagiography, 00:17:43.089 --> 00:17:45.390 you know, treating him like a saint. There were 00:17:45.390 --> 00:17:49.230 and are valid criticisms of his work. From other 00:17:49.230 --> 00:17:52.230 comedians, too. Yeah. Jimmy Carr, for instance, 00:17:52.450 --> 00:17:55.529 wrote that Hicks sometimes missed his mark. that 00:17:55.529 --> 00:17:57.490 some of the philosophical stuff ended up neither 00:17:57.490 --> 00:18:00.250 funny nor moving, suggesting it didn't always 00:18:00.250 --> 00:18:03.869 connect. Stuart Lee had critiques, too. Lee argued 00:18:03.869 --> 00:18:06.789 that Hicks' first two albums have dated badly, 00:18:06.990 --> 00:18:10.130 calling some of it adolescent potshots at inoffensive 00:18:10.130 --> 00:18:13.009 figures, basically saying some of the early targets 00:18:13.009 --> 00:18:16.119 were maybe too easy or haven't aged well. And 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:18.240 Dara O 'Brien made an interesting point about 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:20.420 the whole angry comedy thing. Yeah. O 'Brien 00:18:20.420 --> 00:18:22.740 specifically criticized the hagiography that 00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:25.119 surrounds Bill Hicks, arguing he became this 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:27.640 sort of cliche, a poster boy for angry comedy, 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:30.400 maybe overshadowing other styles. It makes you 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:32.599 ask, are people celebrating the anger itself 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:35.839 or the actual comedic genius behind the anger? 00:18:35.980 --> 00:18:38.380 It's a fair question. Interesting points. But 00:18:38.380 --> 00:18:41.400 regardless of those critiques, his final year, 00:18:41.619 --> 00:18:44.529 knowing what we know now. It's just a story of 00:18:44.529 --> 00:18:47.509 incredible artistic will. Absolutely. June 16th, 00:18:47.509 --> 00:18:51.750 1993, he gets the devastating diagnosis, pancreatic 00:18:51.750 --> 00:18:54.549 cancer already spread to his liver. And he tells 00:18:54.549 --> 00:18:56.849 almost no one. Keeps it incredibly quiet, just 00:18:56.849 --> 00:18:59.509 close friends, family, and he keeps working, 00:18:59.710 --> 00:19:02.910 touring, doing chemo every week, recording the 00:19:02.910 --> 00:19:05.130 Arizona Bay album, pouring it all out. He was 00:19:05.130 --> 00:19:07.670 literally joking on stage about this might be 00:19:07.670 --> 00:19:10.450 my last show without anyone knowing it was possibly 00:19:10.450 --> 00:19:13.579 true. Yeah. His last public performance was at 00:19:13.579 --> 00:19:15.859 Caroline's Comedy Club in New York, January 6, 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:18.380 1994. Then he went home. Back to his parents' 00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:20.819 place in Little Rock, Arkansas. The sources mention 00:19:20.819 --> 00:19:23.140 this really poignant detail. He spent his last 00:19:23.140 --> 00:19:25.279 weeks just re -reading Tolkien's The Lord of 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:28.539 the Rings. Wow. He stopped speaking around Valentine's 00:19:28.539 --> 00:19:32.160 Day, February 14th, and died February 26, 1994. 00:19:32.940 --> 00:19:35.880 32 years old. But he left something behind, a 00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:38.200 final essay written just weeks before he died, 00:19:38.299 --> 00:19:40.920 February 7th. And it really lays out his final 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:43.279 thoughts, his vision. What did it say? He talked 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:45.859 about all his creative outlets, writing, acting, 00:19:46.039 --> 00:19:49.099 music, comedy, and said, this is the coin of 00:19:49.099 --> 00:19:52.160 the realm I use in my words, vision. He framed 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.640 everything he did, even the harshest satire, 00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:57.279 as trying to share a vision for something better. 00:19:57.500 --> 00:20:00.759 A new hope, a new happiness. Connecting the cynicism 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:03.420 directly to hope. That's powerful. And the ending. 00:20:03.980 --> 00:20:06.660 It's beautiful, especially from someone who battled 00:20:06.660 --> 00:20:09.319 so much with organized religion. He wrote, I 00:20:09.319 --> 00:20:12.059 left in love and laughter and in truth and wherever 00:20:12.059 --> 00:20:15.130 truth, love and laughter abide. I am there in 00:20:15.130 --> 00:20:18.589 spirit. It's just this perfect, almost transcendent 00:20:18.589 --> 00:20:20.789 sign off. And his death, ironically, just made 00:20:20.789 --> 00:20:23.170 his voice even louder, didn't it? Those posthumous 00:20:23.170 --> 00:20:26.650 albums, Arizona Bay, Rant in E minor in 97, they 00:20:26.650 --> 00:20:29.029 became essential listening. Solidified the cult 00:20:29.029 --> 00:20:32.069 status, definitely. Packaged that final raw energy. 00:20:32.309 --> 00:20:34.650 And like we mentioned with Tool, his words just 00:20:34.650 --> 00:20:36.849 started appearing everywhere. Sampled by bands 00:20:36.849 --> 00:20:39.049 like Super Furry Animals, Adam Freeland, Fila 00:20:39.049 --> 00:20:41.750 Brasilia, integrated into the soundscape. And 00:20:41.750 --> 00:20:43.829 the radio had dedication for the bends in 95. 00:20:44.430 --> 00:20:47.869 Huge album. Huge. And the influence on comedians 00:20:47.869 --> 00:20:50.869 is undeniable. You hear his name constantly from 00:20:50.869 --> 00:20:53.789 people like Louis Black, Joe Rogan, Patton Oswalt, 00:20:53.849 --> 00:20:56.789 Russell Brand, David Cross. A whole generation 00:20:56.789 --> 00:20:59.589 cites him. His influence even reached, bizarrely, 00:20:59.589 --> 00:21:02.809 the UK Parliament. Yeah. In 2004, a British MP 00:21:02.809 --> 00:21:05.069 named Stephen Pound tabled this thing called 00:21:05.069 --> 00:21:07.630 an early day motion. It's like a formal proposal 00:21:07.630 --> 00:21:11.630 for debate. And this motion, EDM 678, specifically 00:21:11.630 --> 00:21:14.950 quoted Hicks saying his words would be a bullet 00:21:14.950 --> 00:21:17.190 in the heart of consumerism, capitalism and the 00:21:17.190 --> 00:21:19.809 American dream. Seriously. Seriously. And it 00:21:19.809 --> 00:21:21.890 compared him directly to Lenny Bruce. That's. 00:21:22.190 --> 00:21:24.170 Pretty incredible recognition from a political 00:21:24.170 --> 00:21:25.930 body. And Hollywood keeps trying to tell his 00:21:25.930 --> 00:21:28.450 story. Always. There was that failed pilot for 00:21:28.450 --> 00:21:30.910 a talk show he co -created, Counts of the Netherworld. 00:21:31.049 --> 00:21:34.109 The documentary in 2010, American. The Bill Hicks 00:21:34.109 --> 00:21:36.849 story brought his life to many more people. And 00:21:36.849 --> 00:21:39.230 the biopics that keep getting announced. Right. 00:21:39.740 --> 00:21:41.839 Russell Crowe was attached to direct one back 00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:45.440 in 2012. Then in 2018, Richard Linklater, who 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:47.759 seems like a perfect fit, actually was announced 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:50.460 as directing one for Focus Features. That one's 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:52.839 apparently still in development as of late 2024. 00:21:53.299 --> 00:21:55.900 It just shows his story resonates as more than 00:21:55.900 --> 00:21:58.440 just a comedian's life. It's seen as important 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:02.190 cultural history. So wrapping this all up. What's 00:22:02.190 --> 00:22:04.609 the takeaway for us today? We've looked at this 00:22:04.609 --> 00:22:06.829 guy who was just full of contradictions, right? 00:22:06.910 --> 00:22:08.950 The dark cynic searching for spiritual truth, 00:22:09.089 --> 00:22:12.109 the misanthrope wanting unity, the comic demanding 00:22:12.109 --> 00:22:14.869 you think. He really did bridge that gap between 00:22:14.869 --> 00:22:16.869 a rock and roll attitude and deep philosophical 00:22:16.869 --> 00:22:19.769 questions. Always pushing back against authority, 00:22:19.930 --> 00:22:22.769 demanding authenticity. And his power seems to 00:22:22.769 --> 00:22:25.509 lie in that absolute refusal to compromise, even 00:22:25.509 --> 00:22:27.190 if it meant getting censored, even if it felt 00:22:27.190 --> 00:22:29.349 like martyrdom sometimes. That final thought 00:22:29.349 --> 00:22:31.170 for you listening, remember that line from the 00:22:31.170 --> 00:22:33.569 movie Human Traffic? Oh, yeah. The protagonist 00:22:33.569 --> 00:22:36.109 says he needs a daily injection of the late prophet 00:22:36.109 --> 00:22:38.690 Bill Hicks, just to remind me not to take life 00:22:38.690 --> 00:22:41.200 too seriously. It really makes you think, doesn't 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:44.119 it? What is it about an artist whose voice becomes 00:22:44.119 --> 00:22:46.740 more influential, more prophetic after they're 00:22:46.740 --> 00:22:49.119 gone? And what does it say about us, about our 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:51.099 culture, that the things Hicks was shouting about 00:22:51.099 --> 00:22:54.920 30 years ago are still so relevant, still being 00:22:54.920 --> 00:22:58.180 sampled, argued over, even feared today? Makes 00:22:58.180 --> 00:23:00.720 you wonder how much louder that voice, that vision 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:03.160 for truth, would be if he had had more time, 00:23:03.339 --> 00:23:05.880 if he were still here holding the mic. A powerful 00:23:05.880 --> 00:23:09.430 question indeed. About truth, vision. and what 00:23:09.430 --> 00:23:11.529 lasts. Thanks for diving deep with us today.