Eric Idle entertainingly drops so many names, it’s a surprise health and safety experts haven’t demanded a yellow ‘trip hazard’ sign be placed around him. Each week, comedians and musicians gather at the comedy legend’s Californian abode for a jamming session. “We have a ding dong where everyone sings and plays,” he proudly tells NME. “It’s a great craic. I was playing with a Beach Boy the other week,” he adds, with Al Jardine one of the many famous faces on the guestlist.
Rock stars and Idle have close links. Monty Python – the iconoclastic troupe he formed in 1969 alongside John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam – are frequently dubbed ‘The Beatles Of Comedy’ and musicians funded their many movies. Among the original investors for 1975’s Monty Python And The Holy Grail were Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, while George Harrison remortgaged his house to finance 1979’s Life Of Brian. Predating This Is Spinal Tap as the first rock mockumentary by six years, the Idle-created The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash is a 1978 spoof of The Beatles career, featuring cameos from Mick Jagger, Paul Simon and, yes, even the quiet Beatle himself.
Now 82, Idle is returning for his first UK tour in 52 years. Named after his Panglossian funeral-favourite song, ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, Live!’ is billed as a one-man musical with “comedy, music, philosophy and one fart joke.”
NME caught up with Idle to talk holidaying with David Bowie, how (following various Twitter back-and-forths) relations with the Pythons have turned venomous and why he fears President Trump will deport him.
Hi, Eric! You pay tribute to your late mate George Harrison during your tour. What are your memories of him?
Eric Idle: “He was philosophical. He’d always remind you, ‘You’re going to die’. That cheered me up! I may have already had ‘Always Look On The Bright Side of Life’ in mind but that was his motto. I was with him on his deathbed – he was still cheerful. It didn’t worry him, and he was Hindu in his beliefs so he believed he’d escape being reborn. I talk a lot about him in the show because he made The Life Of Brian possible. I sing ‘I Miss You George’, a song I wrote recently, because he’s still in my heart.”
Stranger Things actor Joseph Quinn is set to play George in one of four upcoming Beatles biopics. Any tips for him?
“I don’t know but Peter Jackson [who directed The Beatles: Get Back] came to one of my shows in Australia and he was a huge Python fan. As a child, he remade all our films on a Super 8 [camera]. The Beatles is a fantastic story. I did it myself with The Rutles, which is one of my favourite projects.”
Any chance of a third Rutles film?
“When I made The Rutles, none of them had died – how you’d deal with that, I don’t know. I play a new eight-minute cut of The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch in my show, featuring Salman Rushdie and David Bowie talking about the effect of The Rutles. I say it’s by Peter Jackson but it isn’t really.”
Speaking of Bowie, he asked you to collaborate with him in making a Ziggy Stardust musical in the 1970s. Ever regret turning him down?
“No, but I loved him. He was the most extraordinary intellectual – he turned me onto Richard Strauss’ ‘Four Last Songs’. On holiday together, we’d constantly do a comedy routine where we’d pretend to be northern dressers. He’d say [adopts a camp northern accent]: ‘Well, you shouldn’t wear green with that…’ The Americans couldn’t stand it and would tell us to shut up! Early on, he gave me a tape of ‘Diamond Dogs’ and I didn’t know how to make it work as a musical. When he asked me what I thought of it, all I could respond was, ‘It’s very loud’.
“We never jammed because his music was so different from what I do. I could jam with everyone else I met, whether it was the Stones or The Beatles, but when I went on cruises with David and Iggy Pop, they’d go off and start making these sounds with computers and I couldn’t contribute to that.”
Bowie asked you to give a speech at his wedding to Iman in 1992…
“I’m embarrassed at the things I said in that wedding toast! I still blush! But it was very sweet and I’m the godfather to his son, Duncan Jones, who’s a gifted filmmaker. I used to play chess with him when he was eight years old. David was kind, generous and encouraging to other people, which isn’t common in rock ‘n’ roll. Bands are competitive and mob each other like birds – I used to watch the Stones mobbing The Who.”
On the subject of The Who, Keith Moon was set to play the role of a mad prophet in Life Of Brian but died before he could film it. Was he excited about the part?
“I actually saw Keith on the night he died [in 1978] at the premiere of Paul McCartney’s The Buddy Holly Story. He hugged me and launched into his speech from the movie: “And there shall at that time be monstrous things…” I said: ‘Save it for when I see you next week in Tunisia!’ He went out afterwards, had a glass of champagne and died in Harry Nilsson’s flat where Mama Cass had choked to death – in the same fucking bed… so don’t stay with Harry!”
We’re in a year of unexpected reunions with Oasis burying the hatchet. Any likelihood of the surviving Pythons coming together for another project?
“We did it in 2014 with Monty Python Live (Mostly) which I wrote and directed. It was 10 nights at the O2 and fabulous. It happened just in time because Terry [Jones] was having difficulty remembering things and his mind was going. We’d say, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you through this’. I don’t think this lot will get together and be funny. I don’t think it’s possible. If I’m going to be funny, I want to be funny with new or different people or jam with other wonderful musicians.”
Have you been jamming with any upcoming artists?
“I don’t know any new music [pauses for comedic effect]. I don’t know anything from the ‘70s.”
What’s your relationship like with the other Pythons now?
“I would say from poor to terrible. They don’t talk to me. I haven’t seen them for 10 years so it doesn’t really matter. Apparently they say rude and nasty things but I don’t read them. I survived [pancreatic] cancer. Every day is a gift and I’m not going to waste my time bickering with people who have things to say that I don’t read. I’d say it’s a spat but I’m not doing any spitting. And if I have to turn any more cheeks, my pants will fall down! I move on. If you get old and bitter, that’s bad. You have to get older and better. Why waste your life grumbling and complaining? I try and rise below it.”
John Cleese recently complained that he’d been working on a stage adaption of The Life Of Brian where actors were “objecting to a scene from the film in which Eric Idle’s character says he’s going to become a woman”. He went on to say “no one was offended until a couple of years ago.” Are comedy audiences now more prone to taking offence?
“No change there – he complains all the fucking time! He has no idea what he’s doing. After [Idle’s hit 2004 musical] Spamalot, [composer] John Du Prez and I wrote a musical version of The Life Of Brian and we had Mike Nichols directing it – but John vetoed it. I have no idea what he is doing and not much interest [either]. I don’t read what he says ‘cause it’s unhealthy. I’m sure it will be a terrific success though.”
On a more positive note, after you spent an evening roasting Prince Charles at one of Billy Connolly’s parties in the ‘80s, he asked you to become his jester. Now he’s King, are you expecting a knighthood?
“No. I’m with the Americans – no Kings. I’m not fond of the monarchy. I liked Charles because he was terribly funny. At Cambridge [university], he did a Spike Milligan sketch in his comedy revue. Billy hosted the best parties at his castle, with the funniest wits such as Steve Martin and Eddie Izzard. A table of comedians, including Robin Williams, would rip Charles’ arse and he would love it.”
Would you be tempted to return to living in the UK due to Trump?
“I expect to be thrown out of America at any minute. I’m proud of that ‘cause the last English comedian to be thrown out of America was Charlie Chaplin during the [1950s] McCarthy period. I expect not to be let back in. I live in California, where we’re fighting to prevent our undocumented immigrants being hauled off the streets by the Gestapo he’s creating.”
‘The Always Look On The Bright Side of Life, Live!’ tour begins September 10 at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Full dates and tickets are available here.