Joe Rogan on the Tragedy of Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, & Jimi Hendrix

in your personality, in your life, that can either help you or hurt you in this process. Some people's music sort of represents the torment of their life and some people's music represents the purity of their vision, but it all has different effects on people in some sort of strange and bizarre way. Yeah, I like to say that the songs, I was talking about the, I forgot what I was talking about this, but I like songs that allow you to take ownership of them and make them personal to you. Does that make sense? Yeah. And I like listening, and I think that's probably what we all like about songs eventually is our ability to relate to them, but also they, and they become, like, I can write a song and I can play a song on a stage, but it doesn't really mean anything until somebody listens to it, and then their perception of what that song is about in relation to them comes back at us on a stage or it lives in the world that way, and that's so cool to me. That's the thing that makes a song complete. I don't feel like they're even done until somebody listens to it and attaches to it. That's the thing that I love so much about songs. Yeah, and everybody's thing is different too, right? It's like you could have two songs that are the exact same song, but they're sung by different people and they have a completely different feeling. Like, certain covers, you listen to certain covers, you're just like, whoa, it just hits you in a totally different way. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And then the other side of that is, you know, two different people can listen to the same version of a song and it means totally different things to them because they attach the pieces of their life to it in a way that is unique to them. And that's the coolest thing in the world. Yeah, it's interactive in some sort of a weird way, right? Yeah, absolutely. And if it's not, it's nothing that exists. What I mean by like sometimes people's music represents sort of the torment that's going on their own personal... What I was thinking specifically, I was Amy Winehouse. Like, I was a big Amy Winehouse fan and there's something about that. She was great. Fucking phenomenal. And something about that rehab song, because she put that rehab song out when everyone knew she was a mess. And then she still, you know, try to make me go to rehab. I said no. She made it sound happy. Yeah. She's like, fucking, I'm riding this thing right into the beach. I'm not stopping for the rocks. I'm hitting the throttle. I'm going to see where this goes. It was tragic, but it produced some phenomenal music, no doubt. Yeah, there was something to it that was like almost a fatalistic acceptance of her own fate or something. Well, and we can listen to it in that perspective now that she's not with us anymore. But at the time, it was a lot of teenage angst. Yeah, almost celebratory. Yeah, it felt celebratory at the time. On the other side of the tragedy of it, it has a little more weight, I think. Yeah, for sure. But I mean, man, if you stop and think about how many tortured souls put out unbelievable music. To some degree, some of the greats, it's almost like a requirement that they are a little bit out there. And so, which is a horrible thing for them, but it's a beautiful thing for the rest of us who get to listen to it. Yeah, right? Man, just to be an artist in any form requires all this vulnerability and just trying to find whatever it is when you're trying to create something. Where is that coming from? The ether, the muse, just trying to just find that thing. And then when you're dealing with your own personal demons, especially the deep drug demons seem to produce some of the most insane music ever. You know, you think Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. Absolutely. And you keep going down that list forever, really. Yeah. I have a songwriter friend who is convinced that you can't really produce something that is really noteworthy unless you have some kind of an addiction issue. Really? Yeah. But I don't know if that's true, but you're saying that very thing. You look back at history of rock and roll and music in general, there's a lot of heavy drugs and a lot of getting out there on the edge that has in fact produced some of the greatest music that we've ever heard. You also can hear it in the music. Like Stevie Ray Vaughan is a great example. You hear the getting out there on the edge in the music. Absolutely. You hear it with every ounce of everything in it. It's like there's no safety net in that kind of music. It's just all raw. Yep. Absolutely. You've got a crazy life, man. It's a crazy way to make a living. It is a crazy way to make a living. Must be super happy. Well, I don't have any of those issues. I don't know what you're talking about. I know, but you don't have to have any of those issues. I don't think you have to have an addiction issue to be great. I just think you just have to pursue it. Yeah. Well, maybe the addiction. There can be healthy addictions. That's true. I think everybody... Let's give Wade a look at it. Most people that I meet that are successful in one way or another, they have... At the very least, obsessive tendencies about something. Right. And generally, it's some part of the work. Yeah. And focus. I see a lot of focus, this super focused thing. When you see certain people, you're like, oh, that's why he can do that. Yeah. Or she can do that. They have this ability to focus. Yeah. I've always been amazed, too, when someone can take an instrument and make that instrument sound very specific to them. Gary Clark Jr. is another good example of that. See if you can find that video that I put up on my Instagram way back when with Honey Honey. Honey Honey and Gary Clark Jr. performed this really tiny place in downtown LA about maybe a year ago. And they did a midnight set on a Wednesday night or some shit. And Gary Clark is up there doing the Allman Brothers Midnight Rydor. Like, listen to this. And it's... That's him. You know what I'm saying? Like, that sound? That's him. I mean, come on. He's mean, man. That's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Like, that is him. Well, that is him, but it's also everybody that's before him. Oh, yeah. He's probably the one guy that we have in modern times that really can carry that torch for the blues and all those great guitar players that we don't have a lot of them left. He can do that, and that's a real kind of BB King approach, just playing some real straight line stuff. But then he can do Hendrix and all you could be crazy and psychedelic, too. He can do any of that. And that guy shines when you step on a stage with him. We played, he and I and Bonnie Raitt played a BB King tribute on the Grammys a few years back, and that was intimidating because, you know, Bonnie Raitt's excellent in her own way. You know, like, she has that thing just like he has where it's just like those people are special people. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And there's something about them that, like what Hunter was saying, that they're fuel. Like, I saw that, and I ran home, and I wrote. I wrote for like three hours. Yeah. So it just was pumped up. I just felt like I'd seen something. You know, like I just touched some new dimension. You listen to the Lawler Freddie King? You ever listen to Freddie King? No. Oh, no, man. You gotta write this down, too. I'm gonna start writing down. You gotta get on Freddie King. Freddie King. What kind of shit is he? He's Blues. Yeah? Yeah. He's not with us anymore, but, you know, there's BB King, Albert King, and Freddie King. I've never heard of Freddie. Well, you've probably seen that show, Eastbound and Down. Yeah. You know, the theme song at the front of that? Yeah. That's Freddie King. Oh, okay. But there's- Well, I love Freddie King. Yeah, there's a wealth of fuel, if you want some, in Freddie King. That's a pretty standard staple of listening for me. If I want to turn something on and let it make me feel right, Freddie King. Freddie King. I got a John Lee Hooker problem. When I start thinking about Blues, I just listen to John Lee Hooker. I have so much John Lee Hooker on my phone, I have no room for other people. You gotta get Freddie King in there. All right. I'll get some Freddie King in there, but when I'm tired and I don't feel like working out, I put Boom Boom Boom on. All right. And whoa, here we go. We're off to the races. There's just something about those types of songs, you know, that deep Blues. It's just got this extra special soul to it, you know. There's just a- you're sort of immersed in the feeling of those people, you know. Yeah, it's heavy duty stuff, man.