America's Funnyman

NH: These robots cost $15,000 each, but once you have it, you don’t have to pay again. Plus, he rents them out to all the other singers. They were developed by a company in New Hampshire. We didn’t do that, we had Rachel Haden, a great singer. She was in the Rentals and is currently working with Todd Rundgren. We didn’t get bogged down in this robot thing.

KV: Who are some of the other musicians on the record?

NH: Atom Ellis from the New Cars, Prairie Prince who’s the drummer for the Tubes, currently with Todd Rundgren, Dave Gleason who’s the foremost guitarist on the West Coast in the country vein. These were good musicians, much better than I deserved.

KV: Do you think this record will appeal more to comedy fans or country
music fans?

NH: Maybe a little bit of both. This isn’t a Weird Al record, these aren’t song parodies. It’s a little sad, honestly.

KV: I notice on the album you follow John Entwistle’s “Thinkin’ It Over” — which is a very sad song — with a song with a Who reference. You must be a fan, any chance we’ll get a Hamburger Sings the Who album?

NH: If that will sell, I’ll do it. We were gonna do a record of the collected speeches of Calvin Coolidge. What with the potential for a depression coming up, maybe people would want to hear the man who caused the last depression speak. We might learn something from him. But we talked to the sales guys and they said, ‘Neil, that album will be a four disc set and will sell a total of 28 copies.’ So maybe the Who cover record would do better.

KV: How’s the tour going so far?

NH: Well, I’ve been on tour since 1982, with only three days off in that time. So it’s going horrible! That’s too much, I need a day off. But with all the lawsuits pending, I can’t afford to take one.

KV: Can you tell us a joke, so people can get an idea of the type of comedy they might be hearing if they come to the show?

NH: Jeez, what if I give a joke and they don’t show up? Have you ever thought of that? It's happened. But let me put it this way, I played Madison Square Garden opening for Tenacious D. So if it’s good enough for those 17,000 people, it should be good enough for the seven people that are gonna come to the Knoxville show. But I have to admit, it wasn’t good enough for those people, 'cause I was booed for half an hour.

KV: Anything else we need to know?

NH: Well, we do get into some filthy humor sometimes, but nobody’s vomiting on stage like those shock-rock musicians. Have you ever seen this new band Green Day? Those guys vomit into plates on stage, it’s horrible! We just like to make people laugh, it should be a good night. I had a good time the last time I was there, five years ago.

KV: I remember you had some hecklers that night.

NH: We had a few but they’ve since passed away, so it should be a better night.