David Letterman on Jimmy Hosting the Oscars, Being in LA and Bono & The Edge Writing a Song for Him

nobody on television means more to methan our first guest and nobody hateshearing that more either he is a 40 foottall giant among men who joins twolegendary musicians in Ireland just intime for St Patrick's Day Bono and theedge A Sort of Homecoming with DaveLetterman premieres Friday on Disneyplus please welcome David Letterman[Applause][Music][Applause]thank you[Applause][Applause]oh wow that was very very nice thank youvery muchthank you and and James thank you andit's just great to see your mother andfather that's delightful yeah my motherand father my mother actually when I was16 for my birthday she made me a latenight with David Letterman cake yes Ithink I've heard that story yeah yeah sothis is that's where the trouble beganuh so I'm walking into this fabulous uhis is this the old Tommy Lasorda theaterit'sbeautifuland on either side of the wall uh mustbe a hundred photos of myself and youyeah and and at first I thought oh wellthat's that's very nice I I'm touchedand the more I saw it and the more Iunderstood what was going on I actuallywas sickenedit just seemed like there's pathology atwork here and it all started with thecake on the city it all started with thecake yep I thought I know how you loveto see pictures of yourself and I knowhow you love attention very unpleasantbut this facility is the nicest forexample the the dressing room I havenever been in a dressing room that nightuh if you were on any of my Productionsthe dressing rooms were all built as WPAprojects yeah after the Depression but Icould live back there you're welcome todo that I mean it'sand by the way you're totally rightthe dressing rooms I mean everybody Imeet is a family member so I would fitright in because as you know I've alwaysthought of you as Dave Jroh boy don't don't just say that becauseoh every hair on my body is standing upright now oh I don't want to know thatI know you love Hollywood I spent theday Googling symptoms did you are youokayaccording to the internet I am listenyeah uh a good friend of mine okay Ithink you know him George Miller yespassed away one of my very close friendswhen I first came to California Georgetook me aside and he said Dave I wantyou to know something in HollywoodOscar is Kingand and truer words have never beenspoken and so now you hosting theAcademy Awards for a third time and thiswas a sensational moment for the countryand the network and yourself you knowwhat this makes you don't you no you arethe prince of HollywoodI mean that's very kind to me to say butif you're uh but I'm not giving up DaveJr I'm sticking with thathere's how a lot of people ask me Davehow do you feel about uh well here's howI feel about award shows generally yeahyeahum yeah fine but if I'm not gonna if I'mnot gonna win somethingum I I don't really not that interestedyou know what I mean it makes sense yesit does make sense now let's get into itokay yes first of all congratulationsbecause you resurrected this carcassuh and and the network and the academyought to be very grateful nice going foryouI meanundeserved but I will take this Earthbecause when I hosted it and I don'teven know how long ago it's been but itwas such a bomb the the Academy Ithought maybe it had been terroriststhat's not true absolutely true it isnot true so now the the cocaine Bearyeah oh yeah yeahhere here was one of my moments that Itruly enjoyed Malala yeah and thecocaine Bear yeah and you and you haveto caution cocaine bear cocaine bearleave Malala aloneit's not nice yeah and and then I hearthat oh let's wait and find out who isin the cocaine bear suit and then wefind out and I know for a fact thatthat's a lieI I know it wasn't Jazzy Jeff it was noit wasn't it was DJ Jazzy Jeff it wasn'tdid you see him you did but it couldhave been me why wasn't it me it couldhave been youcould have been yeahyou interviewed Moana some time ago Ilove watching your interviews I reallyoh you're very kind I I really do and Ilove do you enjoy doing what we mightcall a serious interview more than youwould say interviewing a Richard SimmonsI want to tell you something everyinterview I had with Richard Simmons wasdeadly serious[Applause]it's like talking to a people I findthat uh I'm ignorant on most topics andas a result I have great curiosity andthat's why I want to talk to you aboutyour experience hosting the academy okayand I know sure all right at a certainpoint in time you'll get tired of thisokay uh but like parties did you go toparties afterward uh we did we wentwho's we my wife and I we had theGovernor's Ball which is now that's notthe governor of California not thegovernor of California governor ofShowbiz many people think it is thegovernor of California but no thisgoverning board of the academy they havea dinner next door so we went to that westayed for that was a child uh I had apot pie that Wolfgang Puck made and itwas pretty good I'll tell you that nowsee let's find out if everybody agreeswith me pot pie without a doubt 100 ofthe time you burn the roof of your mouthcorrectI was good I was okayand um then we went to uh my wife and Iwent to the Olive Garden afterwards andwe had a ravioli Alfredo over there anduh we headed right homeI worked the next day so there wasn't alot of going you are I mean good Lord uhthe the preparation for that show isendless and then you come right back andyou do your nightly program and this isnot an easy show to do unless everybodyin the audience is a family memberI'm kind of the opposite really did youon the night after you hosted the Oscarsdid you go back to New York and do yourshow the next night no uh we got on aplane and flew back to New York out onanother plane and flew to Londonpreparing for a week of shows we were todo in in London now see that's too muchyeah it was too much so the whole thingwas too much yeah that's that's a lotyeah they had to shut down the show wasso bad that the academy got together andthey said we can never let this happenagain and so they shut down the filmindustry for one year they did one yearhe said the whole industry downeverything ruining them Oscars thatfollowed as well that's right yeahum did you have fun at the party peopleit must have been all over no no it'sterrible it's uh yeah it's terrible it'sa lot of people asking for my phonenumber yeah did Meryl Streep winsomething she did not she wasn'tnominated this year was not nominated nobut I thought she was winning evenwithout the nomination sometimes theyjust give them they just toss one ontoher lawn as they drive by[Laughter]this van Drives By there's a van here'sone piece now here's something that maybe a little sensitive okay Tom Cruiseyeahwhere was Tom Cruise we don't know whereTom Cruise was we heard uh productionissues which usually what does that meanexactly that's not it's verynon-specific but we have no idea whathappened but Tom Cruise should have beenthere well yeah operating is a bigjet pack Maverick show that timeMaverick yeahit seems like you should have been therebut he was not there and like well likeyou were saying before maybe he didn'tfeel like he was going to win so hedidn't want to come yes but it's uhbetween you and me he should have beenthere right yeah of course yeah he's thebig he's the prince of Hollywood butmore to the power of your success if Mrbig shot is not there and still the showhas never been more successful nice goon JimmyDavid Letterman is here we'll be rightback[Applause]so here we have the edge yeah Bono thenwe have Adam and we have Larry when youhear what their original Village nameswere you would understand why theydidn't run with him Larry's was he wasknown as The Jam Jar the Jam Jar Adamwas Mrs Burnsout of controlthat is one on the edge of straight ofhomecoming with Dave Letterman it is onDisney plus premiering Friday StPatrick's Day that's fun well I don'tknow maybe that isn't fun it's hard totell if you have fun or not do you havefun did you have fun well it's it's workuh and luckily usually with this kind ofwork you do have fun I I can't speak foryou tonight but I'm having fun good I'mglad um but but I will say having seenthis uh it's turned into a film and it'slike an hour and a half long and reallythere's so much going on but the bestpart is is the music and uh that'sreally the the reason to enjoy the musicis great and the stories are great andjust you being in Dublin where you'dnever been before never been to Dublinhave you been to Ireland I have not noI'd love to go but I've not been and tobe there with these guys who are reallyvery special people Bono I want to tellyou something uh there's a lot of peoplein rock and roll music and a lot ofpeople writing rock and roll music andthe definition rock and roll musicpretty broad it's along the horizon it'sendless these guys uh are existing andPerforming and creating at a a differentlevel and when you spend time with themyou get to appreciate that they're notjust another song that you may behearing somewhere this is somethingdifferent and to me that was a thrilland also intimidating and Bono and theedgeuhwildly Smart Guys very smart guys andreally you spend time with them wellwe've had them here on the show yeah anduh I love them I really do I mean thisfor me that you and them is like it's asif you made this specifically for mewhich I know you didn't but one of thethings that I thought just we know wedid greatwas uh after the show after the concertit introduced me in front of their hometown crowd which is great you guys go toa bar a pub as they call them andeverybody is singing along in the pubexcept for one there was one person notsinging out see if you can guessI was so worried about this because Iknew that you go to a pub and everybodyis full of Guinness and sing alongbecause you've got Bono on the edge andthen like a half a dozen really greattalented Irish musicians performing in away you're not going to hear themperform yeah so sing along and and a lotof this and I just at one point I foundmyself with a camera like about here andI thought oh[Music]so I just started doing this[Laughter][Applause]do you ever sing along do you ever seeno it was something I can remember goingto church with my parents and you knowanybody go to church yeah yeah surea lot of it is hymns and uh I would fakesinging and and periodically uh a womanmy mother's age not my mother but awoman my mother's age who should haveknown better and should have minded herown business would say well you're notsinging at all young manand then we would we would have to cuther tires yeahthat doesn't doesn't come uh naturallybut God what an experience that nightwas what about sitting there with theBono and with Edge and there they'vewritten a song for you oh my god aboutyou yeah somewhat although I read thelyrics it doesn't seem to really beabout you I'm going to be honest butthere's thank you for being honestthey're singing to youand I can't imagine any situation hasanyone ever written a song for youum no no yeah no nor I yeah and we're inthis place called the March Library it'slike from the 16th century and there'sthere's books the size of this chair andit's huge it's a well-regardedacademically and it's freezing it wasvery very cold in there so the enginebutton and they come in and Edge saysyou know I was up until three o'clocklast night writing this song and Ithought oh I'll be darned hoping thatthat'd be the end of itand start getting out sheet music andthe the band everybody's got anarrangement and and they're now they'resinging this song that the night beforethey have created and I'm thinking twothings I hope this goes awayand and secondly I'm thinking oh my Godthis is not badso it turns out to be a real deal and ifyou're going to have and these guysaren't kidding around writing songs doyou think if you had people sing to youmore you would become more comfortablewith it like yes I do Jim you know let'sdo thatI've got my guitar herehow are you when people sing to you hateit don't like it at all it doesn'tmatter how nice it is or how beautifulit sounds it just makes me want to crawlunder the that's right same with me andI don't like it when people sort ofcoerce you into everybody I don't knowyeah I know yeah I'm I'm not everybodyhave you looked into this why you areunable to enjoy moments like that haveyou do I seem like I have anyself-introspections yes[Laughter]when you're here in uh in Hollywood aswe call it do you ever get the urge todrive down the block to The Comedy Storewhere you work for so long as a youngman where you did stand up with yourfriends and get up on stage there and doa set no no no no I was never really astand-up comedian I I did stand upcomedy because I knew to be on TheTonight Show which was my reason forleaving Indiana was to you'd had to dosome stand-up comedy because they're notgoing to put you on because hey Iunderstand this kid just moved fromIndiana here he isuh so that's all I could do and when Iwould go on the road I did you you havedone yeah I found that every afternoonyou'd be in any Town any college town inthe United States I remember one timethey'd always send the guy the presidentof the student body to pick you up atthe airportso you fly all night and you're halfGrog to get off the plane the guy picksyou upand he wants he wants to talk and Idon't want to talk and I'm in the backseat and I and I look in the rearviewmirror and I see the guy drivingyeah because he's been up drinking allnight and he gets to go pick up[Laughter]pull over and I had to drive myself fromthe airport to the gig so a little ofthat goes a long way well it is uh athrill to have you here I'm not gonnathank you very much I know uh I had toask to be on this show and that'simpolite it's not this man uh in hislifetime in his career that I've knownhim has been so kind to me and thepeople who work with him are equallykind if not perhaps a little moreuh and and I love being on TV so wellthank you very much[Applause]all right