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>> [Music: Flaming Lips “She Don’t Use
Jelly”]

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>> Wayne Coyne: You know we've always said that

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as long as we can make more money being in the band

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than we could, say, working at McDonald's or Target,

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then we'll choose being in the band.

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>> Jennifer Van Evra: Right.

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>> Wayne Coyne: Only because that's what would
be left for us if we weren't doing this.

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That's the kind of skill level of any contribution
to society that we would have.

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Simply because we've spent our whole adult
lives pursuing this.

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>> [Music]

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>> Wayne Coyne: I worked at this fast food
restaurant in Oklahoma City, Long John Silver's.

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Fried fish and french fries and stuff. I worked there for 11 years

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from the time I was 16 to the time I was 27 or so.

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I'd be working late at night and it was a
reasonably bad area of town

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and we got robbed a couple of times. Especially
in the late 1970's

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because the economy and everything really got horrible.

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The first time we got robbed I was the only... I'm not saying this because I'm racist or anything

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I'm just being pragmatic about it. I was the
only white guy.

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I was working with a bunch of black women.
The guys who came in were black

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and they were pissed off and they had biggest
gun I've ever seen in my life.

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Only because it's pointed at me did it seem
so big. We all laid on the ground.

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I thought, “fuck, this is… this is it.
Here I am, I'm 17 and this is how it ends.”

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“You’re just working one second and the
next second you're laying on the ground”

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“and some guy puts a bullet in your head.”

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Obviously they robbed us and left and didn't
kill me. But I remember the elation of just...

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We all cried. We couldn't stop crying and
laughing and jumping up and down.

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We were celebrating like we had just won a
million dollars.

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The idea of we are alive and isn't it a fucking
great thing? I think it changed me.

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>> [MUSIC]

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Wayne Coyne: I think the idea of sort of confronting
this always present idea

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that people around you are going to die or
you're going to die or...

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I think it makes living better, it really does.

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To me, I hate this notion that I would ever
forget of how temporary this whole thing is.

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You know life is worth celebrating and worth living

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even though we're all headed to the same hole
at the end of the day.

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Without sort of coming to terms with it you're
not coming to terms with

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some of the joys of life at the same time.

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>> [MUSIC]

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Wayne Coyne: I don’t know. I think somewhere along the way

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music allows you to sing and talk and think
about those things,

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and it can be beautiful instead of being horrible.

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I remember when my father was dying,

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I remember listening to Bjork, and listening
to John Coltrane, and these things,

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and I don't know why but music has the power
to transcend your physical being

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and take you up just a little bit. Because
music has a metaphysical quality

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it gets up there in these things and it really
makes your life beautiful.

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>> [Music]

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>> Wayne Coyne: It's the same thing for virtually
every human that's ever going to be alive.

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Things that make them sad are going to be
love, loss of love, death, fear of isolation.

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It's a really small little corner. So I think
any time you sing about those

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you're probably going to have a crowd that
knows exactly what you're talking about.

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But when you're sing about things that make
you happy, which I like to do that as well,

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you know, you never know if you're going to
hit the mark.

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That's why when I sing a song like She Don't
Use Jelly,

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people go, “oh that's crazy, what are you
talking about.”

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Even though they enjoy it, they don't understand it.

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[Music: The Flaming Lips "Spoonful Weighs a Ton"]

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Stuff like when I sing about the Spoonful
Weighs a Ton

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and people understand this is about death
and meaning that you put into in your life.

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They go, “oh, I know what you're talking
about.”

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>> [Music: The Flaming Lips “A Spoonful
Weighs a Ton”]

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>> Wayne Coyne: So when I go in there and I’m singing about things that seem to be personal,

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they can be my own exact personal experience,
yet if I'm doing the job right

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I can make it seem like it's your story at
the same time.

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I'm not just simply pouring my guts out.

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I'm pouring my guts out so they can feel like
your guts at the same time.

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>> [Music: Flaming Lips “Do You Realize”]

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>> Jennifer Van Evra: Well I should let you
go.

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>> Wayne Coyne: All right, well thanks a bunch.

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I'm sitting in the lobby where the elevators
come out.

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People have all been looking at me in my bare
feet,

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talking existential bullshit with you as they
get in and out of the elevators.

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>> Jennifer Van Evra: Hilarious. That was
the odd ding I was hearing in the background.

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>> Wayne Coyne: Yeah.

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>> Jennifer Van Evra: Well thanks again and I really appreciate you taking out the time on a Saturday.

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>> Wayne Coyne: Well I'm glad you called.
Okay.

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>> Jennifer Van Evra: Okay, cheers.

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>> Wayne Coyne: Alright, bye.

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>> Jennifer Van Evra: Bye.

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>> [Music: Flaming Lips “Do You Realize”]