Tim Heidecker is a bit of a Renaissance man. He’s mostly known as a comedian. The absurdist humor of “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim was influential to so many people when it was on the air. He currently hosts a popular comedy call-in show and podcast called Office Hours, and a web series called On Cinema. But also, he’s an Americana musician, who has a new album out called Slipping Away, and he will be at the Basement East this Friday.
Justin Barney: I’ve been on a big Bob Dylan kick since watching A Complete Unknown and was wondering what you thought of that movie.
Tim Heidecker: I’m a huge Bob Dylan freak. I love it all. I love the good stuff. I love the stuff that people don’t think is the good stuff. You know, big, big hero for me. I saw the trailer and I was like, “This is not for me. This feels way too much like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”
And then I just had some free time and I went to go see it. And I was so pleasantly surprised and sort of shocked that I really liked it. I found it very moving. Any biopic that decides to focus on a specific period of time is a key component to success. Like I’d love to see a movie about like John Lennon, but just The Lost Weekend or something. Just a period of someone’s life is better for a movie.
JB: If you could do the movie on Dylan being a Dylan-head, what’s a different period that you would think would make for a good biopic?
TH: I’d love to see the period of time around the early 2000s. He got sick because he got a heart infection from bird droppings in his barn. I think that would be an interesting place to dip in.
You’re talking to a guy who knows a little bit too much about Bob Dylan.
There’s a lot of dark periods. That would be, I think, an interesting, uh, place to dip in.
JB: What do you think drives him?
TH: Oh. You know, there is a Van Morrison line I say all the time which is, “It’s too late to stop now.” He knows no other way. There’s no other way to be.
JB: I feel like that Is similar to your career, too.
TH: Yeah.
JB: have a question about the album. In “Something Somewhere,” there’s a sample at the end of it. What is that?
TH: This is like, I find this to be a great story. You tell me.
I was looking for a transition piece to go from that song to the next song, which was very abrupt on the album. And I was looking for stuff or looking for like rain and storm sounds and stuff like that. And then on my YouTube, that song came up, it’s from Tracy Newman and it was just a performance from that A Complete Unknown period. The mid-sixties folk boom era.
I knew the song. It was a song that Simon and Garfunkel did on their first album. I looked up Tracy Newman and never heard of her. She is Laraine Newman‘s sister. Laraine Newman was in the original cast of Saturday Night Live.
And I happened to know Laraine from various parties and premieres and things and in the comedy world. And I reached out to her. I said, “Hey, I just found your sister on YouTube. And what’s the deal with this?” She’s like, “Oh” and she CC’ed Tracy Newman, her sister, who’s still around. And she said, “We’d be happy to let you use it!” Yeah, wild
JB: How fun and connected to comedy, too. So you come to Nashville on Valentine’s Day, what have your experiences been in Nashville? Have you had any memorable times here?
TH: This is corny, but every time I go, I do the pilgrimage to Robert’s Western World because I think it’s legitimately the best. I don’t know if it’s considered lame or touristy or whatever, but great music, good cheap food and beer.
I’m sure I’ll be doing that after the show at The Basement East. And calling my wife and apologizing for missing Valentine’s Day.