Beck Interviews Will Ferrell With Hilarious Results

Beck has posted the newest installment of his 'Irrelevant Topics' interview series on his official website. After launching the Q&A initiative last month with Tom Waits, the artistically savvy performer now sits down for an enlightening and hilarious phone phone interview with Will Ferrell.

"I met Will in 1997 when he was a new cast member on 'SNL' and I was a musical guest," writes Beck in the introduction. "Somehow during rehearsals I got asked to participate in a skit with him. Over the years I got to watch him work several more times during his tenure as a cast member, undeniably a comic genius. We got to perform together once again at a benefit for Tsunami Relief in 2005."

The interview ranges through a number of topics, including a section where Beck probes Ferrell about the red spandex unitard he wore onstage during their aforementioned Tsunami Relief benefit. "You gotta get the special skull cap edition," the comedian cracked. "They make them for speed skaters and stuff ... I still hold onto it because you never know when you might need a red unitard with matching cap."

Later, when Beck has a glitch with his old Radio Shack tape recorder, the two discuss how they both went through childhood phases of recording fake radio shows, which segues into the follow brilliant exchange about Muzak stations:

Beck: "They were really, really sedated, really relaxed. And there would be Muzak covers of the most inappropriate songs too.
Will: (Laughing) Like 'Hot Child in the City.'
Beck: And 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' but it would be an oboe doing (both simultaneously make sound of oboe playing 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot') And then all the typical power ballads...
Will: (laughing) A little Pat Benatar.
Beck: Some Juice Newton. We used to use the songs as a little musical bed for us to sing over.
Will: That's a great idea.
Beck: And our station was called "K-Mellow."
Will: (laughing) And you'd sing the lyrics?
Beck: We would make up lyrics over the music, which, unfortunately, I don't have any tapes of. But there were some good lyrics. You know, gratuitously obscene and mostly pretty random, but I think that was probably the founding of a lot of my songwriting right there.

Boy, what we would give to hear those recordings. When he's not interviewing intriguing celebrities, Beck is keeping himself remarkably busy with both his 'Planned Obsolescence' mixtape series and his much talked about covers projects. Speaking of the latter, his website's ongoing Record Club is up to 'There She Goes Again' in its song-by-song rendering of the influential 1967 album 'The Velvet Underground & Nico'.

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