Welcome to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that
takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
On tonight's episode, we are going to go back
a few years. Back to 2019, back to the Toon Styles
days, and back to one of the most interesting
interviews that I have ever been a part of. Back
in 2019, Jay Sweet and I had a chance to sit
down with Bill Manspeaker, who is the mastermind
behind Green Jello, a group that I'm sure you
remember for their Claymation music video in
the 1990s, Three Little Pigs. That is just the
tip of the iceberg that is the Bill Manspeaker
story. This interview, I will go on record immediately
and say it's not safe for work. Let me repeat.
It is not safe for work. So if you're at work
and you're listening on your speakers, my weekly
mixtape takes no responsibility on any repercussions
you have for not listening to the warning I'm
giving you right now. I would also not play this
one in front of the kids. But beyond all of that,
if you're just listening on your headphones,
this is a ridiculously. fascinating interview
that Jay and I were both bummed was one of the
ones that got nuked when Toon Styles ended its
run. So I'm so glad to be able to present this
to you. And I can also say this story goes up
to 2019. Obviously, we haven't talked about the
last six years of the band because it was recorded
prior to that. But I digress. This is an extremely
fun and fascinating sit down. So I'm really excited
to share it with everybody. But before I do that,
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and so much more. Once again, that's patreon
.com forward slash myweeklymixtape. And without
further ado, I bring you the TuneStyles 2019
interview with Bill Manspeaker of Green Jello.
Enjoy it. We are here with Bill Manspeaker, the
punk rock puppet master for Green Jello. Howdy
there, kids. Bill Manspeaker, punk rock puppet
master, Green Jello. And I'm here to say one
thing and one thing only. Be the laziest you
can possibly be in your entire life. Never get
a job and never own anything because the more
you own, the less shit you will do. What's up,
everybody? How are you doing? You are starting
with the knowledge. I'm loving this. Dropping
the truth. Right from the beginning. Oh, it's
the simplest ever, man. The more you own, the
less shit gets done. Well, I'm here to tell the
listeners right now that you guys are going to
be hit with a ton of surprises in this interview.
Oh, yes. The first being the fact that Green
Jello turns 38 years old this year. Holy shit.
Wow, that's crazy. I've been in my band longer
than I have not been in my band. So with that
being said, 38 years ago. How did Green Jello
begin? Oh, really, really super simple. I tried
my best to be a musician. I tried playing drums.
I failed. Tried bass, failed guitar, failed sing,
piano, you name it. Skin flute, I couldn't even
play it. Everything I did was complete failure
in music. In fact, I actually joined the choir
in fifth grade. And they told me that I could
still continue to be in the choir as long as
I pretend this thing because my vocals were throwing
the other children off. True story. High school
had absolutely nothing to do with my life except
for doing drugs and drinking alcohol. And there
we are with my 12th grader friends. We're doing
bongs. We're drinking beer. And it's a Wednesday
night and we're bored as hell. And my friend
comes in right after dinner and says, hey, I
have a great name for a punk rock band, Green
Jello. My mom just gave it to me for dessert
and it was the worst food in the world. It can
certainly be the worst band in the world. And
right then on January 18th, 1981. The world's
worst band was created before a member was even
in it. All with no musical ability. Zero. Zilch.
Nothing. And I'm not even kidding. It's not even
like this joke that I'm playing. And, you know,
saying, you know, well, Kiss is the hottest band
in the land. No. I have the world's worst band.
And a long time ago. When I wanted to be a musician,
and again, a long time ago, there was this huge
line. God, it was thousands of people long, everybody
wanting to be the best. Everybody sleeping out
for years and this ever -fucking -moving. And
I look over, and the line to be the worst? Not
one person. In fact, they had a sign of help
wanted. I went in there and I fucking employed
myself. I said, I am number one. And ever since
that day, I've had the shittiest band in the
world. And now 38 years later, there are over
900 Green Jello members throughout Canada, the
United States, Mexico, Bahamas, Alaska, England,
Scotland, Europe, Czech Republic, and of course,
900 band members. 900 I have. Guinness Book of
World Records for the world's largest band in
music history. Not only do I own, create, and
embrace being the world's worst band, but I'm
also the world's largest band in music history.
Many, many, many silly records to be broken with
a crappy band. So let me ask you this. Bands
with two members break up because of internal
conflicts. A bunch of fucking sissy ass motherfuckers.
How do you keep 900 band members getting along?
It becomes so less complicated. Every single
week I have a brand new band going on in Tennessee.
Luke doesn't give two shits that John's girlfriend
was sucking last week's Idaho. He doesn't care.
So whatever drama happens the week before, it
stays there. Whatever happens in Green Jell -O
stays in Green Jell -O because the next group
of people don't give a rat's ass. And what's
also great about it is every single band has
its own personality and they play the song a
completely different way. So every week, it's
like being in a band fresh again because you
have that excitement, you have that encouragement,
you have that willingness to succeed. And when
you're in a band with the same amount of people
for 39 years, all that enthusiasm probably leaves
about the first, second, or third month of any
sort of tour, and everybody hates each other.
So what I've found is the perfect formula. You
can tolerate somebody for three days in a band,
and then that's it. And then after that, you're
pushing your luck. So I just tour with the band
three days a week, 125 times a year, 1 ,250 times
every decade, nonstop, a quarter million miles
traveled per year, all because I found the correct
formula. Never have the same people in your band
more than three days. Sir, you're a genius. You
have solved the mysteries of touring. There you
have it. It was easy. And at that point, it didn't
matter if I had any talent or not. I had enough
band members to have like 87 bands going. So
it really doesn't matter. Quantity. Not quality.
Quantity. So how do you weed through 900 band
members to find the true rock stars here? You
know, it's really not that hard. You can see
everybody's potential by the third day. You know,
if they're drinking, doing drugs, and chasing
the fat chick, you know, this guy's not going
to go anywhere in life. But if he's focused,
learns the song, and he's embracing every single
moment, then you take them everywhere you go.
You take them on the trip to Sweden. You play
in front of 7 ,000 people. You take them to Mexico
City. You play in front of 12 ,000 people. It's
not about... playing in front of 20 of your friends.
It's about living to your full potential. And
I don't care if there's one person in the audience
or a thousand. If I see that you're living to
your full potential, I'm going to bring you to
every show that I got that's amazing. And if
I see you're just fucking off, well, we're just
going to play the fuck off shows all together
and nobody will remember. Green Jell -O sucks
has always been the band's mantra. And you've
said it yourself. you call yourselves the quote
-unquote worst band ever. Correct. How do you
uphold that reputation? Well, it's really easy
when you have absolutely no musical talent whatsoever.
You know, like music baffles me as algebra would
baffle a gamer kid. So to continue to be the
worst band is easy when you really still have
no musical knowledge. You would think that after
39 years that accidentally I would figure it
out. Nope. It's like accidentally figuring out
how to calculate the direction to the moon. You
can't just stumble on this equation. You got
to have some sort of knowledge. And my musical
knowledge is zero. So, you know, I can proudly
claim that not only do I have the world's worst
band, but I was the first one to actually have
one. I was the first one to be proud of it. I
was the first one to say, hey, I'm number one
in this line. You're number fucking two. Get
behind me. I am the worst. And let me see what
you can do to prove that you're the worst. Because
what I have is I have documented proof on CBS
television, the Colombian broadcasting system.
In 1987, I got in my car and I drove 3 ,000 miles.
to be on this game show called the Gong Show.
You can look this up on YouTube, Green Jello
Gong Show, 1987. It was a game show that you
went on, and it was kind of like America's Got
Talent, but you went on there to make an ass
out of yourself, and you won some stupid prize.
Well, I'm the only one that actually wanted to
win the stupid prize. I was the only one to actually
want to be a jackass. So I got in my car, drove
3 ,000 miles. I got gonged on national television.
I won a year's supply of Lee Press on nails,
which, by the way, is a box. Okay? I told all
my friends they had Lee Press on nails for the
rest of their life. Big truck show. I'm thinking,
here's my payout by Lee Press on nails. UPS guy
comes out with one little box with six pairs
of nails. All right? You want to talk about being
ripped off? Wait until you get your prize for
being the worst band in the world and you get
gypped on Lee Presson now. Let me tell you something.
That is very hard to top. It is. I have the Lee
Presson now still to prove it. And I defy anyone
that's out there to prove that their band has
been the worst band in the world before 1987.
I've been saying this for 22 years. So the next
question I have to ask, Joey Ramone singled the
band out as well. Went on public record saying
that we were the worst band to ever play with
the Ramones. How did you make that happen? Well,
my friend, there's many ways to piss off the
Ramones. So it's the year 1985. I'm doing lots
of drugs. I'm doing a lot of alcohol at the Punk
Rock Club in Buffalo, New York. And I'm passing
out flyers for my next show. And I decided they
were having all this food for Africa stuff. So
I decided that I was going to throw a concert
to have desserts for the children of Africa.
So after they ate their food, they could at least
have some sort of dessert. So I'm passing out
flyers for my Jell -O for Africa show. And if
I'm going to say, man, can I go? And I said,
no. He goes, I'll let you open up for the Ramones.
And I said, sure, here you go. Literally traded
him to sing on this stupid song about giving
desserts to children for Africa. I actually traded
him a position to play with the Ramones. And
then later on, I made him my roommate. And then
he let me open all the good shows. So again,
here it goes. You don't have to be in a good
band to open for these giant bands. All you got
to do is get a roommate who's the promoter and
he'll let you do it for free. So now the logical
question, Bill, is are any of your former fifth
grade choir members now members of the 900 strong?
No, they are not. I don't think any of those
people from my choir class have any idea what
I do for a living. In fact, I'm sure they would
be appalled. That's what I was just going to
say. I'm sure they would. That would be comedy
in and of itself, though, right there, wouldn't
it? Oh, yeah. Nothing like choir class at Catholic
school in 1972. So another interesting fact about
Green Jell -O that the writers might not know
is that you guys hold the record for the biggest
selling debut record in England's chart history.
Yeah, isn't that stupid? That's insane. Given
the state of the music industry now, do you ever
expect that to be toppled? Oh, no, no. In fact,
when the United States record company was promoting
it to the overseas record company, they actually
flew the president of the record company out,
you know, for the weekend, partied them up in
frigging Beverly Hills, gave them drugs, gave
them hookers. And, you know, really tried to
get him to push the record. And on the way to
the airport, the president of the record company
from the United States asked the president of
the record company from England if he was going
to start promoting that record. And the cassette
was in the cassette player of the car rental.
He pressed eject and threw it out the side view
window. So the answer was no. Yes, and it wound
up being the biggest selling single in England's
music history. Wow. Or a debut single. That means
like a band that's never been on the charts.
Of course, of course, yeah. In which it appeared
at number five, and it actually went to being
the number one selling single in the UK and,
of course, in America. So everything in the Green
Jell -O universe is... Stupid. Well, that too.
Just pure stupidity. That's it. When you guys
were originally signed to Zoo Records, that even
happened in an untraditional manner, meaning
the rep never even frigging heard you guys. Let's
talk about this for a second. Never heard my
band, never saw my band, had absolutely no knowledge
whatsoever of what I did. And I'm sure inquiring
minds want to know how exactly did that happen?
I would say aliens. When I first got to town,
I was working at a record store, and I told my
friends that I drove across America to be on
a gang show to be humiliated to win these lead
press annals to prove I had the world's worst
band. Of course, everybody thought I was insane
and I was making it up, except for one guy, who
later on got a job at a record company. About
two years later, he messages me and says, Bill,
I'm having lunch at the corner of Sunset and
Vine with the president of the record company
and the staff. Come by like you haven't seen
me, and I'll introduce you to everyone. Hop on
my bike and zoom down there. Oh, my God, Kevin,
I haven't seen you since the record show. Oh,
my God, how are you? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh,
this is Lou Molly, the president of the record
company. Hi, Lou, how are you doing? Ah, Kevin
tells me. that you have some band. I said, yeah,
I got Green Jello, the world's worst band. People
throw food at me. I dress up in costumes. People
yell that we suck. I drove all the way out from
Buffalo, New York to be on the gong show. I got
gonged to be humiliated to prove I'm the world's
worst band. He looked at me in complete amazement.
He said, ah, I want you to do your project. And
I said, uh, I need $60 ,000. And I just blurted
out this price because my cousin happened to
be selling her house for 60 grand at this point
in time. And so I said, 60 ,000 bucks. He picks
up his phone and says, Chris, write Manspeaker
a check for 60 grand. We just signed Green Jump.
And I got a record deal before they ever heard
my band, saw my band, knew anything about my
band. On my first handshake, I walked, I left,
I came home with $60 ,000. A year later, I sold
14 million songs. Well, obviously, the gentleman
at the record label knew something. He said,
we're either going to sell one or one million.
We also have to talk about the casual music listeners
out there, the people that don't dive into music
nerdery like Jay and myself do, might not know
this next information, but to fans of Green Jello,
this is going to be common knowledge, so I apologize
in advance about that. But there is a big connection
between Green Jell -O and Tool. Oh, of course,
yeah. And I kind of want to talk about that.
Sure. Talk all the way. All you want. Danny was
in Green Jell -O for years and years and years.
I had a good friend named Adam who used to come
to all my Green Jell -O shows. And he was a special
effects artist that was working at Stan Winston.
He was trying to get me a job over there. and
Adam would come over all the time, help me make
costumes. One day, his friend from Michigan moved
to town, Jim. He brought Jim over and said, Hey,
Jim, this is Bill. Bill, this is Jim. He needs
a place to live. I was the guy that always gave
somebody a place to live, and he immediately
moved in, joined our band, and we had a big giant
loft in Hollywood where everybody came over,
and we played music, and we made art, and we
had parties. And Jim had lived at the loft for
a couple months, and he had joined Green Jello,
and he was singing along, playing drums with
Maynard and making costumes with Adam, his friend.
And one day I came home with this check for $60
,000 from a record company, and Maynard and Adam
were home at the loft, and they immediately said,
hey, let's start our own band. And Maynard and
Adam immediately started a band called Tool.
And the first song that they wrote was called
Maynard's Dick, which they wrote right then in
front of me. And I was going to throw a big party
with all the money that I made. And Maynard said,
OK, can my band play at the party? I said, you
don't have a band. He says, well, I'm going to
make up one for the party. And I said, sure.
So we got Danny to play drums and this guy, Paul,
the more was over playing video games and he
got him to play bass. And next thing you know,
they're playing my party, you know, the week
after. And the record company saw them and signed
them also. So all of a sudden, all my friends
had about a quarter million dollars and we were
signed to these major record deals. And we. Did
the best that we could and we focused and we
put all of our effort into one area and both
of our bands won. And now, whatever it is, 20,
30 years later, they're probably one of the biggest
bands in the world. Also, if you go back to the
beginnings of Tool, didn't they record their
debut EP at your loft or your apartment? Yes,
at the Green Jell -O Loft, the live songs for
Opiate were recorded there on New Year's Eve.
In fact, all those songs off of Opiate and Undertow
were all written at the Green Jell -O Loft during
a period of time where we all lived together.
So I know what most of the songs are talking
about and who they're based upon. And pretty
much the third record, too. But that was kind
of broken up into a little piece that was wrote.
But yeah, all those songs, those beginning tool
songs were all written at the Green Jello Loft,
all with the same group amount of people. And
then the last fact that the music nerds like
me and the Green Jello fans obviously know, but
the average music listener might not. Maynard
plays. a role in Three Little Pigs. Yes, he sings
the not by the hair of my chinny chin chin part.
It was Maynard's first gold record of probably
about 20 now. That was his first official hit
was Three Little Pigs that he sang of. And that's
something that not everybody knows. I think that's
a fantastic little nugget there of musical knowledge.
Yeah, it's hilarious, isn't it? That can end
up on Jeopardy one day and that'd be one of the
only questions I got right. The guy who sings
in the greatest band in the world is also the
singer in the worst band in the world. Is the
Tool Green Jell -O connection still strong? I
played with them about maybe three years ago.
They did a show here in Hollywood, a few shows
at a place called the Greek Theater, and I came
out and I did the encore song with Maynard, and
we did Three Little Pigs for two nights in a
row in front of 14 ,000 people. And then I just
saw them a couple of weeks ago in Prague, the
Czech Republic. I saw a tool on June 5th. They
were playing a concert there and we were living
in Prague doing a bunch of touring. And I saw
on Facebook that they were playing and I messaged
Danny and he sent me a message back for me to
just meet him outside around 830. But, you know,
the last time I saw a tool was like, you know,
God, 2000. 2005 2003 I don't know really super
long time ago so I show up at this freaking arena
with 20 ,000 people trying to find Danny and
like oh fuck things have changed since the last
time I saw him where they played in front of
you know a thousand people so I'm wandering this
gigantic arena trying to find him and some strange
man came up to me and said are you Bill Mann's
speaker and I looked up did you know he goes
Danny said, look for the guy with the alien tattooed
on his head wearing the boots and the glasses.
He goes, and you are the only one. And then he
immediately grabbed me and brought me directly
backstage where there was Tool just sitting there
hanging out with her kids. And the next thing
I know, I was drinking their Red Bulls. So going
back to Three Little Pigs, that's the song that
really propelled the band into the mainstream
eye. That video is an iconic MTV music video,
something that the claymation, everything that
was put together. Talk about how that all came
together, because you did a lot of the production
work on that video. Oh, yeah. I produced and
I directed all the videos. That particular video,
at the time, I was working at this place called
E! Entertainment Television. And I was looking
for a film camera that would take one frame at
a time. And I was asking my cameraman friend.
And he said, oh, my next door neighbor has one.
I could introduce you to him. I said, oh, great.
So I go over to his house and the kid's in 12th
grade. He's in high school. He's got a one frame
camera. And I said, hey, I want to do this claymation
video. Here's the storyboard. Do you think you
could pull it off? And he's like, yeah, yeah,
sure I can. And I gave him $2 ,000. And over
the next couple of weekends, he just pulled his
dad's car out of the garage and he filmed it
in the garage of the car as a high school student.
So when he finally handed in a couple of weeks
later, he only had about like a minute and a
half of footage and it was a six minute video.
So I had to slow things down and double up some
stuff and patch it up a little bit. But in the
end, I made the minute and a half video, you
know, fill in a six and a half minute, you know,
hole. And he wound up being a big famous director
just literally out of high school. And that was
his first music video he ever did. And then he
did Cool Sober right after that. And then he
did a Danzig video and a Sepultura video and
things happened. That's quite the roster of videos
to come in right out of high school with. Yeah,
right. You know, some kids don't even know what
class they want to take in college. Yeah, this
guy gets it stumbled on him because. You know,
his next door neighbor, you know, is at work
and somebody needs a one frame camera and he
just happened to have it. Talk about right place
at the right time, right? Yeah, there you go.
So Serial Killer, the VHS quote unquote movie
that inspired the Serial Killer soundtrack, which
is what all the songs are from, included videos
for each of the album's tracks. Being your first.
major label release because you did have some
eps and other albums that were done before being
signed to zoo what was that creative process
like and what was the challenge of doing that
being your first major label effort well the
challenge was actually doing it because you know
lying about doing it was really easy i just simply
told this gigantic fish story where Not only
did I have the world's worst, crappiest band,
but that I could also make 11 music videos for
a super cheap price of 60 grand. And the reality
was, is I was just talking out my ass. I didn't
know how to make any videos. I worked at E! Entertainment
Television, you know, as a runner. You know,
hey, somebody needed coffee or a donut, I was
the guy that got it. But somehow I elaborated
on my job and made it sound like I was some sort
of... video producer, director, whatever it was
to get the money. And then all of a sudden I
got the money and I'm like, realizing like, oh
fuck, I got to do this shit now. And so I went
and, you know, I got 11 music videos to do. The
first one I start off is a song called Serial
Killer. And it literally took me two months,
two months of filming, two months of lighting,
two months of editing, two months of stress.
By the end of it, I thought I was going to. fucking
die and i still had 10 more to go i was like
oh fuck my life what was i doing why did i tell
these people that i could do this i hate this
oh my god and so finally it just came to this
choice is like i could no longer hopefully just
make all these music videos on the weekend with
my friends that i would have to actually quit
my job and focus and actually do this so on march
17th 1992 I quit my job, and every day, all I
did, every day, nonstop, was I shot videos, I
lit videos, I edited videos, I directed videos,
I produced videos. By the end of June, I had
made 11 music videos, and the last one that I
made, I shot it in the morning, and I edited
it in the afternoon, and it was done by the end
of the day, and that was called Electric Carly
House of Love. So now I had all my videos. except
for one, Three Little Pigs was missing because
they were still animating it. So I hand them
all in, record company president calls the whole
office in, like 50 people, forces them to watch
50 minutes of shit, man, and cow guides are tripping
on ecstasies. And after it was all done and over,
it was complete fucking silence, not a clap,
not a laugh, not a you who, nothing. And I proudly
and I boldly said, I got one more. I got one
more. One more to be ready in a couple days.
And that was it. And it just went brrrr. Like
there was no hoorah. And they didn't care I had
one more. So I called up the guy. I said, dude,
man. He was fucking blue. This is it. We're at
the last one, man. You got it ready? He's like,
no, I'm nowhere near ready. How much more did
you got? minute and a half a minute and a fucking
half fuck my life so I took that minute and a
half and I stretched that motherfucker so long
so hard and I brought it into the record company
and I threw it in there and I said this is it
this is it this is the one totally looked at
me like I was completely nuts press play and
by the end of it he was like ah that's your motherfucking
hit song Willie This is your million. You fucking
get it. And within months, $14 million generated
over $25 million within one year. And I can say
that my money's part of that bunch, so you're
welcome. Thank you. Thank you for me not having
a job since 1992. Well, there you go. For me...
Being the music nerd that I was all the way growing
up, Serial Killer was one of those redefining
musical moments because it was my sense of humor
at the time based with heavy music that I loved.
One of the tracks on there was a cover of my
favorite Sex Pistols song, Anarchy in the UK.
I still play that song. As you should. And as
I was growing up, I enjoyed the hell out of the
Flintstones. We've been doing that song since
1984. So I have to ask, I've read articles about
the band over the years, and I've heard a story
that there was an episode of the Flintstones
that inspired the band to become a band. Kind
of. I mean, I was very much influenced by the
Flintstones to have a band, correct. But I would
say it was more of... The Sex Pistols plus Kiss
plus the Flintstones. And that, dear writers,
is where the musical mashup was born. Yeah, yeah.
It was just everything that I was exposed to
as a child in the 60s and the 70s all farted
out into the 80s. So got a couple of serious
topics to talk about here, believe it or not.
Sure. Obviously, the music industry is a business.
Now, in the middle of three little pigs blowing
up, you guys received a cease and desist because
of the name Green Jello. Correct. Forcing you
to change it to Green Jelly, even though with
the unlot over the Y, it's still Jello, but I'm
going to digress there. What was it like dealing
with that kind of controversy at the height of...
this song blowing up it was everything that i
had hoped it to be my ultimate plan was not only
to be the worst band in the world but to also
disturb the jello company that they would come
after me and then that would just push me up
into the stratosphere you know level just like
you know the underdog being attacked by you know
the big brother so you know it was something
that i had hope to happen and of course it fell
right into my plan and it was kind of humorous
how it all came to be we had just gotten signed
we had just handed in the record and uh you know
they knew they had something with the three little
pigs and there was this thing going on in new
york city at the time called the new music seminar
it was a big convention where all the record
companies all flew to new york city and all these
bands played and everybody did blah blah blah
blah So the record company sent us to the new
music seminar to get some press, to get some
TV, to get some sort of action. So they put us
out to be in the schedule to play, and of course
they didn't want us to play. And then they put
us out for interviews. Nobody wanted to interview
us. Nobody wanted to be bothered with us. It
was the 90s. It was grunge. It was Nirvana. It
was Stone Temple Pilots. There was no room for
jackass jello. So completely disturbed and no
luck at all. The only place that's going to have
us is this public access channel called Screw
Magazine Show. And it's a porn show on the porn
channel. The only place that's going to have
us, and only because one of my friends as a childhood
friend works there, and she got us a nerve. So
we go on there and I'm dressed up as shit, man.
And they're interviewing us, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. Things over, complete failure. We're
all leaving discouraged. As it's airing, as the
story goes, according to the newsletter that
we got, or the notice that we got, a lawyer for
the Kraft General Foods company was channel surfing.
And he happened to stop off. At the porn channel
where a figure named Shitman was representing
the Jell -O brand product. And for us to immediately
cease and desist any action of any sort of Shitman
being associated with their product. And whatever
it is, decades later, the emoji Shitman is a
billion dollar thing. And, of course, you know,
Bill Cosby got in all kinds of trouble. So they
were just wasting their time with me. But they
fell into my trap and I got all that free publicity
and I sold 14 million records. So, ha, ha, ha.
Yeah, so it definitely goes to prove that no
publicity is bad publicity. Right, exactly. And
you know what? And on that same day, as we left
discouraged. From the porn magazine show, the
only interview we had. And we're walking down
freaking Madison Avenue in New York City with
our costumes. What building do we pass? Marvel
Comics. No, you didn't. So in our never break
spirit, we said, fuck it. Put on the costumes.
Let's walk on in. See what's going to happen.
And of course, they thought we were supposed
to be there. So they fucking. Then it's right
up on the elevator. And next thing I know, I'm
in the main comic book room where they're fucking
writing Spider -Man. What? And I mean, Stan Lee
and all the fucking artists there. Oh, my God.
And next thing you know, we're all taking pictures
and blah, blah, blah. And I'm inside fucking
Stan Lee's office. And I'm pitching him, hey,
we can make this song for your new Spider -Man
character, Carnage. We'll call it Carnage Rules.
And next thing you know, I'm fucking writing
a Marvel song with... Stan Lee for the new Spider
-Man comic. I did not know that. We were just
walking down the street because nobody would
talk to us. And we happened to pass Marvel Comics
with the costumes. Like, fuck it. Let's go in
and try. That is a hell of a story. And I guess
the moral of that story is you'll never know
unless you pick up the phone and try. You know,
the more you do, the more chances you have of
succeeding. You know, you're just going to sit
around. and contemplate all the odds of failing,
I can tell you 99 reasons why I cannot sell a
record. But I'll give you one reason how I can
sell 15 million records. I'm waiting. Because
I stayed focused. at the 1 % chance of winning,
and I did not allow the 99 reasons of why not
to enter the arena to discourage me from the
goal that I was set out to do. Bill, can you
come work for me for a little while and kind
of inspire my crew to do the same thing? It works
for me. You know, I've used this attitude since
I quit my job in 92. I don't work. And on planes,
I fly to exotic places. I play amazing concerts.
I meet amazing musicians. You know, I have a
wonderful family life. I don't waste my life
going to a place that I hate. And the only reason
I don't do that is because I didn't listen to
all those naysayers. Oh, you don't have any musical
talent? Come on. If you're going to be in a band,
you've got to leave. be able to say, you know,
that there was common sense stuff that I wasn't
even listening to. This is reality stuff. Again,
I'm not making the part up about me having no
musical ability. I don't know how the fuck I
pulled this off. But somehow I'm on a jukebox.
Somehow I'm on the Billboard Hot 100 list. Somehow
I'm on the Grammy list. I don't know. I blame
the aliens. You were also on Kellogg's list because
they were pretty pissed off about the Toucan
Sam snack Crackle Pop and Lucky Leprechaun murders.
All that had happened was the first one to come.
You know, Jello and then the rest of them all
came and then all of a sudden everybody was ripping
apart my video picture. I mean, you know, just
being complete jackasses. And the only people
that were really cool about it was... Hannah
Barbera, who controls Flintstones. And I'll make
a couple of minor adjustments on the Anarchy
and Bedrock video, a couple of questionable sees
of the puppets. And of course, I said yes. And
they said, you know, you help us, we'll help
you. And next thing you know, I'm pitching cartoons
to the president of Hannah Barbera. They're calling
me in for secret meetings. You know, I'm doing
other soundtracks for other, you know, cartoon
projects. I'm doing editing production stuff
for them. So, you know, not all, you know, is
aggressive. Not all of it was change your name
or take your money. You know, some of it was,
you know, maybe if you fix this, you know, you
help us, we'll help you. So, you know, a lot
of good things came out of, you know, having
taken a lot of, you know, risks, you know. Yeah,
of course. Without risk, there's no reward. Yeah,
that's true. And you would think that these two
instances could be considered parody and satire.
Isn't that accurate? Well, yeah, that's correct.
You know, back in 1993, the parody law was just
being passed literally in the summer of 1993.
So this was something that we were all debating.
But even though the law had just passed, nobody
had gone against it and, you know, made the restraints
or the limitations or, you know, made a case
against it. And so it was decided that we took
that route, you know, and went with the parody
thing that it was just really going to cost us
a lot of money. It was all pocket. You know,
the record company was willing to put up all
the money that I needed to fight it. But mathematically,
I would have just wound up with nothing. And
I'd be working at the Walmart right now. And
pick and choose your battles, right? Yeah, so
I would much rather call it jelly and not have
a job and call it jello and Be working at Walmart.
There you go. There you go. So there was one
other instance with that album because it did
bring with it a lot of controversy. I'm going
to go back to a band that I'm sure you've heard
of. They're called Scatterbrain. They had an
album out that had a song on it called Down With
The Ship. And that song included tons of riffs
done in a satirical nature. The first time I
heard Electric Harley House of Love, I assumed.
the same thing went for Enter Sandman, and it
would have fallen under the same category based
on the lyrics you sang immediately after the
solo section. Right. So I have to ask, what brought
up that instance with Elektra and Metallica and
the whole Nine Yards with that song? Well, it
came to be like, you know, we had the hit song
and they were looking for a second single. And
we had, you know, stolen the Metallica riff.
And so the record company actually... contacted
metallica and asked them if they wanted to be
in the video and they said oh sure you know we
like green gel we'd love to be in the video send
us the song and they sent the song and then they
heard the riff that we stole and then they told
us no and that we owed them money oh oh wow so
they never showed up in the video and i had to
pay him 10 grand oh geez but then on subsequent
releases It was edited very well, let me tell
you. For the new releases, you wouldn't know.
But knowing that it is Enter Sam, you can go
back and listen and be like, I see where they
cut the guitar there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
10 grand and fix the song now. Oh, man. I know
we're not beating your video. So you didn't get
a duet with Metallica, but you did get one with
an unlikely duet, if I might say, with Hulk Hogan
on a cover of Gary Glitter's I'm the Leader of
the Gang. That is correct. That was a top 40
hit in the UK. Yeah, it was. It was my third
hit song in Europe. Third. There's got to be
some interesting Hulkamania stories you have
from the Green Jello universe. How did all that
go? Well, it was real simple. We were selling,
again, the whole story about the president of
America trying to get the England president to
put out the record. He said, no, see the record
out the window. They released it. It wound up
being the biggest selling thing, blah, blah,
blah. Oh, they're surprised. So they flew me
over there. And for like a month, I was just
living in London. And I was on TV shows and radio
stations. And I just did all this press every
single day. So one day, I'm literally just sitting
in the hotel. And I get this call. Hello? Oh,
Bill Manspeaker there. That's me. Hi, Bill. This
here is Paul Colgan. I'm like, all right. Hi,
Hulk. I'm in town doing a wrestling show. Real
big fan of your band. I don't know if you've
known, but I used to play bass and was in a band
a long time ago. Anyways, I want to record a
new song with you. I'm going to send out a limo,
pick you up, bring you to the show. We're going
to party afterwards. We'll talk about it after
the show. Like, Hulk Hogan, you're sending the
limo, you're picking me up, and we're going to
party, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, sure. So
I hang up the phone, you know, and I've been
in England for a month. I've seen these candid
camera shows where they set up people and make
them look like asses. They're fine. You want
to put me on one of these shows? I'll play. I'll
play hard. No problem. Hulk Hogan's coming to
get me. Yeah. So I'm waiting, and I'm waiting.
All of a sudden, ring. Mr. Man Speaker, your
limo's downstairs. I'm like, fuck, all right.
Let's do this. Get in the limo. No Hulk Hogan.
I was like, all right, I got you, fucker. I know
what's going on. Ain't no Hulk Hogan in this
limo. All of a sudden, we pull up to Wimbledon
Stadium. Door's open. We go inside. There's 100
,000 fucking people. Oh, Kieran. Door opens up.
Fucking Hulk Hogan's on the other side. I'm like,
what the fuck? And his hand's out. Like, you
know, shake my hand. Let me get you out of the
limo. So I shook his hand. He pulls me out. All
right, Bill, this is what's going to happen.
I'm going to go out in the mat, go to a party.
We're going to get back here. We're going to
go to Planet Hollywood. We're going to party
like fucking Mad Men. All right, cool. Boom,
he goes out of the mat. He wins. The whole place
erupts. Tops in the limo. Now I'm sitting in
the limo with fucking, you know, Hulk Hogan and
The Undertaker and, you know, all these fucking
wrestling legends that were zooming off to Planet
Hollywood in fucking London. And next thing I
know, I'm at this big giant buffet. We're eating
and drinking and doing drugs and partying. And
next thing I know, Simon Cowell from American
Isle fucking appears. He's like, I'm going to
be producing your new record with Hulk. How are
you doing? All right. And next thing you know,
I'm in the recording studio with Hulk Hogan.
Simon Cowell from American Idol and my dumb ass.
We're recording some new hit song in a video.
And there you go. Actually, I would have never
put Simon Cowell in that picture. Right? Even
crazier, right? Simon Cowell. Simon Cowell and
me. Okay? All right, Bill, let's do that again
one more time. Come on, come on, let's see it.
All right, here we go. Three, two, one, go. Come
on, come on, come on. No, Bill. Hang on, Bill.
Try to sing it on key. What's on key? All right,
here we go. Come on, come on. Come on, come on.
Stop, stop, stop. So the big question here, is
Hulk Hogan or Simon Cowell two of the 900 current
band members? Yes, they are. Of course they are.
You don't escape being in green jello. Once you're
in, you're in, right? You're in, man. You're
in. It's like Lay's potato chip. So outside of
the green jello universe, you've also done a
lot of stuff within music videos, including Weird
Al's Jurassic Park claymation video. Oh, my God.
Yes, I did. That's amazing. Good for you. You
also did some stuff with Manson. Tupac. How did
all those things come out of the green jello
kind of stratosphere there? Well, all of a sudden
I literally had millions of dollars. So I went
out and I spent $946 ,000 on video production
equipment one day. And I bought editing bays
and television cameras and lights and sound stages
and everything that you can imagine. Animation
studios, graphics. And I opened up my own production
company. And for five years in a row, all I did
was make music videos for bands and commercials
and television shows. And I was working at E!
Entertainment Television until March 17, 1992,
and I was making $300 a week. Now my job that
was paying me $1 ,200 a month is now paying me
$6 ,000 a month. to come over and rent my facility.
I'm doing nothing. I just got a pay increase
five times the amount and I'm doing nothing.
So for five years, all I did was make other people's
music videos in their production stuff and just
a lot of like TV commercials, TV shows and music
just for Hollywood in general. And then. following
that and then and then you're i'm telling you
man this story is so interesting to me in so
many levels in 1997 You met the legendary Doc
McGee, who, to people that saw Motley Crue's
movie The Dirt on Netflix, knows who we're talking
about. But beyond managing Motley Crue, he managed
Bon Jovi, Skid Row, and The Scorpions, a lot
of the big 80s bands. Yeah, all the 80s bands.
Yeah. Somehow meeting him connected Green Jello
and Kiss for their 1997 reunion tour? Oh, yeah.
Doc was one of my partners in my production company.
I met him through Lou Malia, the president of
my record company, and we instantly became friends.
And Doc set up his whole agency right inside
Green Jello. And one day he said, I just got
a call from Gene Simmons. He wants me to go meet
him and Paul. And they want to talk about this
Kiss reunion thing. And so he went and had lunch
with them. He came back with Gene and Paul and
brought them to Green Jell -O. I showed him around.
And then from that moment in time, Peter, Gene,
Ace, Paul, the entire KISS crew and Doc McGee
were at my building every single day for at least
eight months. And all I did every day is I produced
KISS videos. photo shoots and we set up tours
and rehearsals and the entire launch of the kiss
reunion tour in the mid 90s was all done at green
jello 100 and obviously that was a massive uh
tool oh yeah by any stretch of the imagination
oh yeah yeah non -stop i was supposed to be part
of that whole thing i was supposed to be the
director to the live video but at that point
in time my 24 year old son it Now, he was just
born, so I didn't want to be that dad, so I just
passed on the Kiss thing, and I just stuck with
the production company thing. But yeah, they've
been on tour since the day they left my office
in 1997. Well, after that, there was a bit of
a hiatus for Green Jell -O, and you went and
owned and operated the Cutopia Hollywood Nightclub,
and you did other ventures for several years.
Right, so from 95 to 2000, I owned the production
company. 2000 to 2005, I owned the largest rave
club in Los Angeles. I had the very first legal
electronic dance club. That was back when it
used to be done in warehouses and stuff and all
legally. I spent $2 million and I got permits
in a building and I started the first electronic
music scene in Los Angeles. which is now the
biggest music scene that there is in Hollywood.
Yeah, that's definitely true. Now, moving from
that, what I also thought was interesting was
that your son, of all people, was what led you
back to the Green Jell -O machine. Right, yeah.
When he was 13 years old, which was 2008, I asked
him what he wanted to do for his summer vacation,
and he said, let's put the band back together
and go out on tour. So from 2008 till now, which
is 11 years, I've been doing it nonstop. He's
now 24 and he lives in China and he is a teacher.
He teaches theater in China to little children.
Awesome. Awesome. So fast forwarding into the
2010 area here, you guys did a bunch of shows.
with the Insane Clown Posse, including several
of the Gathering of the Juggalos events. I'm
curious, how did the Juggalo crowd embrace the
band? And was there any pause on your part, given
the negative press that ICP received over the
last 10 years? All I got to say is the Juggalos
are an amazing group of people. Whatever hype
that there is out about them, it's just a bunch
of bullshit. It's just a bunch of... Kids and
young adults dressed up in clown makeup, you
know, having a good time singing songs. It's
really nothing like they make it seem to be like
anything else. And the whole Juggalo community
just really embraces our band. We've always had
an amazing experience with the Juggalos. And
the Insane Clown Posse is one of the greatest
bands that I ever hated in my entire life. So
we talk a lot about streaming music versus the
physical medium. And Green Jello really started
with the physical medium, the VHS tapes, the
cassettes. I mean, we're going all the way back
with your original demos. And now on your Facebook
page, you guys list that between 2010 and present,
you've sold over a million songs on iTunes. So
I'm curious, from someone who's been on both
sides of that spectrum, compared to the physical,
tangible CD and record sales to you, the artist?
Well, what I did and what everyone else did for
the last 80 years is we all signed these contracts.
Every single one of us signed these contracts
with this clause on it. It said, future technology
rights. Oh. And it gave us a really super low
percentage rate. Of course. And for the last
50, 60, 70 years, it was laughed upon. And because
all that was, there was records, there was consents,
there was 8 -tracks, you know, anything else
was a pipe dream. Right, right. And so now, you
don't have to press a record, you don't have
to ship a record, you don't have to do nothing.
You buy the record and it's digitally downloaded
for a dollar. They pay the artist one -tenth
of one penny. and then they keep the rest. So
of that million songs that I sold on iTunes,
I got 10 grand, while the record company got
$990 ,000. Wow. So every time that you hear that,
when you steal from the internet, you steal from
the artist, that is the greatest lie that was
ever created by the music industry to make you
feel guilty into buying. Their CD that they stole
from the artists. And they're going to keep all
that money. You weren't stealing from the artists.
You were stealing from their hooker and cocaine
account. The artists never get that money. They
had this technology in the 50s. They just didn't
have everybody in the world applying to it. And
they knew that someday they would. And so they
got all these chumps to sign away all their rights.
So now these record companies. They don't have
to pay nobody anything. And the fractions of
the money that they pay them is nothing. And
they don't got to manufacture. They don't got
to distribute. They don't have to do anything.
It's all a download. All right. Well, this has
been awesome. We got, I know you got the kids
around, you got a lot going on, but we do have
one very, very important, quite important question.
What do we have to do to be in green jello? How
do we get in on that? Oh, that's easy. Where
do you live? We're in New Jersey. Cool. I have
some shows in your area in August, and I will
make sure that you play them. Hell yeah. That's
what we're talking about, brother. It's really
that easy. Bill Mann Speaker. Yes, sir. Green
Jello. Thank you so much for joining us. This
has been a blast. Oh, you're welcome, my friend.
Thank you. I wasn't kidding when I said this
was a fascinating interview. I hope you guys
enjoyed it. And once again, if you like what
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until next time. Enjoy the tunes!