0:01

With Maria a little bit. It's

0:03

up yar on mar Lopez joining me now in studio,

0:05

Amy winning actor, our buddy Darren

0:07

Chris. How are you man Lo? Guys back,

0:10

I'm back. Everyone's exactly where I

0:12

left them. I just wait.

0:15

We love to assume the position and you come in. Before we

0:17

get into anything, I gotta tell you, dude, you'r

0:19

Taco Bell Ndro Fries commercial

0:22

might be the most epic commercial I've ever Have

0:24

you guys seen this in the production

0:26

It is next level. I better have the

0:28

budget of like a studio film. It

0:30

looked. I want to see a movie.

0:32

I want to see what that whole movie is so

0:34

funny, it was so good it would but

0:37

that must have been a fun One

0:39

of the most ideal situations I've ever

0:41

had professionally was something where I got a call saying,

0:44

hey, do you like talk about them like you're hitting You're kidding

0:46

right, Like if only my college shelf could

0:48

know that I was going to get this call, And then they

0:50

sent me the creative on it also hilarious,

0:53

very cool, And I've seen the other two because they had one with Josh

0:55

Dumel uh Webb of Fries

0:57

and all these sort of like Fox trailers with really

0:59

high product and value. So I knew what the gag

1:02

was. Um, the song was great, everything

1:04

about was great. I got to go to Mexico City

1:06

for like a week, which is I love Mexico

1:08

City. Everything about it was amazing and

1:10

and like it all happened within I don't like a month. I

1:13

got the call, went to Mexico City, and then I saw it

1:15

on TV and it was insane. So I love it.

1:17

I think it's so great that people love it. And

1:20

uh yeah they did. They towed that really great

1:22

line between sort of taking the piss and

1:24

also you know, like doing something cool.

1:26

You know, they nailed it. Was probably I was laughing

1:28

out because the only thing about Mexican spices. Yeah,

1:31

I can thing about what I love. Thought

1:33

that's great. Anyway, Uh, forgive

1:35

me for not congratulating you on the wedding earlier this

1:38

year. First, I

1:40

mean, we'll Taco Bell

1:42

my wife. Yeah we know where places

1:45

fries are pretty amazing, right, I mean it's all priorities

1:47

here. Um, I was Maird life so far it's

1:49

great, you know, just so it's just the more paperwork,

1:52

I gotta say, like the hundreds of years

1:54

of patriarchy has not made it easy for the

1:56

ladies. I told my wife, was like, I don't care about

1:58

the name change, don't worry about it. Whatever you want.

2:00

And she, well, she's so

2:03

you took her name. Yeah exactly. I mean, hey, it

2:05

would make no difference to me. But I I just felt bad,

2:07

like on the passport thing, on the

2:09

driver's license, everywhere we go, they just they

2:11

don't make it easy, man, Yeah, they don't. Win. Is her

2:13

maiden name? Uh swear sweet

2:16

sweet s w I E R. So she wanted

2:18

to change anyway, Yeah, it's just a sweet Then

2:20

I'm Chris is a cool last name. Yeah, I think she wanted

2:22

to change it. That's on her. But still, I just I couldn't believe

2:25

how rough it was. So when people ask how married

2:27

life is, I just think of the paperwork and just it's

2:30

just so tedious. But obviously, you know, things are

2:32

good. The business last time it is so

2:35

you know, we own the bar together and we've kind of

2:37

created a whole life together. And uh, the

2:39

wedding was like, I guess our our launch party

2:41

one of the greatest launch parties of my life.

2:44

That's awesome in the bar that I still have yet

2:46

to visit, but very waiting for you, maybe too. I

2:48

very much want to. The last time you were here, I said, I wanted

2:50

That's what happen when you started having kids. You'll see. Oh

2:52

yeah, the bedtime start coming

2:54

earlier, totally. Yeah. Yeah, the closing

2:56

hours are a little earlier. Yeah, but I'm a weekend

2:58

warrior. I'll get I'll get out there. We're waiting for

3:00

you, man, We'll wait, we'll we'll I'll hold the pianet on

3:02

some chorus line for you. Thanks,

3:05

brother, And this is very cool. We've been talking

3:07

about you joining the line up for the I Heart Radio

3:09

Music Festival. Um, what do you have in store?

3:11

Dude? Um, I've been going to that since day

3:14

one. I mean the Heart sort of family has been

3:16

personally and professionally a big part of my life for the past.

3:18

However many years I've sort of lost track. And

3:20

uh, I was there at the first one. I think I've only missed one

3:22

in the past several years, So I think they it's

3:24

like having my punch card at like a cafe.

3:27

I've done enough times. Right now, I got a free smoothie,

3:30

like I got a free they they're letting me perform there.

3:32

I have a song with Stevie Oki which

3:34

is just a cover, not just it is

3:37

a cover of um. Well, let

3:39

me give you the backstory really quickly. So

3:41

I forever because I'm a nineties

3:43

kid and I and I've've been in many

3:45

nineties cover bands. I've always jokes,

3:47

by the way, I love oh yeah, I'm a

3:50

big cover band. It's it's

3:52

a blast, especially if you're a musician. It's it's always

3:54

fun playing other people's songs because

3:56

then they're already good. There's no worry of like sometimes

3:59

better by the way, Well, so that was kind of the idea.

4:01

I'm not gonna say we do it better than Dave. We just do a little

4:03

different. Um. But I've always joked

4:06

that man if I was an E D M d J, I

4:08

would just take Dave matthews Seminal Crash

4:11

into Me, which is a six minute sort of unconventional

4:14

ballad with odd bars and sort of it's

4:16

it's a strange song that people love

4:18

and have a lot of nostalgia attached

4:20

to it. I was like, I would chop it into like a

4:22

three minute banger, and I know exactly where I put the

4:25

drop. Um and uh

4:27

just like this guitar party goes didn't dent it, and

4:29

I always thought, like CEO two

4:31

cannons and like

4:33

like, I always thought that would be funny.

4:36

And I gave this exact same pitch to um

4:38

Steve Yoki when I got a chance to meet him, and he looks at me

4:41

seriously, was like, that's amazing. We have to do it, and then

4:43

we recorded it immediately. So it

4:45

was just born from just having fun and this

4:47

mutual love of Dave Matthews and I think

4:49

we both love fusing two styles that people wouldn't

4:51

necessarily know. And the great thing is for people

4:53

that know that song, like my age, like and

4:56

and and beyond, people go, oh my god within

4:58

two seconds like holy grab is this is this

5:00

crashing to me? Oh man, this is nuts. This

5:02

is a song you wouldn't usually hear in a club. And I've

5:05

played for kids like under twenty seven and

5:07

then and they have no idea. I

5:10

just think it's a cool song. But yeah, I think

5:12

re contextualizing popular songs is like

5:14

a tradition of music for like decades

5:17

and decades. I mean there's so many songs that I can mention that

5:19

I heard as a kid. I didn't know we're covers, you know, until

5:21

later in life. So I'm kind of adding

5:24

to that zeitgeist a little bit, and um

5:27

forgiving me if I'm wrong. But isn't Steve is he the

5:29

one that throws the cake in the face? Thrown

5:32

cakes? Are you thro own cakes? Come on that? Some

5:35

cakes will come crashing into somebody

5:37

if not me. That's

5:40

a good set to check out. Congrats on that, Thank you very

5:42

much. It'll be fun. By the way, cover bands, you'll

5:44

you'll appreciate this. I'm into this one. I has had him

5:46

in my golf tournament. They're called yacht Lee Crew. Oh

5:49

yeah, that's all yacht rock. Yeah. I love it.

5:51

They nail it and they they're good. Right, these guys

5:53

are all about it. I'm all about the cover

5:56

band names. Uh, there's

5:58

a there's a great band called m

6:00

Springsteen. Just do the math, right?

6:03

There was there was another one that I saw recently,

6:05

the No Doubt one? What was it called? Alright?

6:07

Told you the one forget

6:09

the name and a funny name. Though this

6:11

will be the first time I ever talked about this publicly. But the band

6:13

that I have with my with one of my best friends,

6:15

we we always throw these big nineties parties. We

6:18

have this band that we called Jumper

6:20

Wall and it's because we always begin with Thirday

6:22

Blinds Jumper and we end with wonder

6:24

Wall, even though the set has changed in between.

6:27

So that's kind of it's not it's not as good as Yacht

6:29

Crew, but you know it's it's it's sort of

6:32

echoing the same flavor a little bit. I'm

6:34

down to check that show. No duh,

6:36

No, that's

6:39

so much better. No dud

6:42

is no yachtley Crew or Jumper I'm

6:44

sure. Um. And obviously

6:47

with all in your plate, you're still acting very

6:49

much, and you're also part of this upcoming movie Midway

6:53

that's happening to gosh. I mean, well that's

6:55

a big old role in Emeric

6:57

if you know who he is, Independence Day and the Page,

6:59

just these big action blockbusters.

7:02

It was wild to be part of that. I've never done anything like that

7:04

before. I mean, if your history

7:07

buff, especially with World War two, Uh,

7:09

these things are very complicated and there's a lot going

7:11

on. It's you know, the battle Midway isn't just like one thing.

7:14

Um, there's several people and a lot of different

7:16

moving pieces. So having said that, I'm I'm

7:19

just a little teeny tiny cog in a much larger machine.

7:21

I mean I saw the trailer and I was like, wow, I

7:23

can't believe that. Persons in it, Like, I never met

7:25

that. So go

7:28

your do your thing. But that's a cool thing to your part. It's a really

7:30

cool thing to be a part of. So yes, it's I won't

7:32

go too much into it, but yes, it's about the Battle Midway

7:34

sort of the events directly after the attack on

7:36

Pearl Harbor and uh yeah, I play a

7:39

uh lieutenant commander. I'm I'm flying

7:42

a torpedo bomber in that movie.

7:44

Yeah, well look forward to and this was

7:46

just announced. You're writing and starting in a musical

7:48

series called Royalties. Yeah,

7:50

this is this is something I've been working on for gosh,

7:53

it seems like almost a decade because I've been

7:55

you know, another thing that a lot of people don't know about me

7:57

is uh in Los Angeles, New York. I've lived

8:00

of life is as a songwriter, and songwriting was my

8:02

sort of big splash into the entertainment

8:04

industry, and then from there I got a lot

8:06

of other kind of wacky gigs. But it's

8:08

about school in Michigan, right, Yeah, exactly a

8:11

good memory. Yeah, that's like one of the biggest. I like

8:13

it tattooed to my face essentially, like you have M

8:15

Go blue. That's just I'm a broken

8:17

record about it. So it's about my life

8:19

as a songwriter, and it's sort of an ode

8:21

to a lot of the the silly

8:24

grind of what it is to be a

8:26

pro songwriter. It's not all glitz

8:29

and glam. It's kind of like an office nine to five when

8:31

you're trying to create sentiment for people,

8:33

um, and the hilarious things that come up when that

8:35

happened. So, yeah, I'm writing it, I'm

8:38

producing it, I'm writing the songs for it, I'm

8:40

in it. There's It's something I've been trying to get off its

8:42

feet for a long long time, and I'm so glad that it's finally.

8:45

It's awesome out there to see that and created as a project.

8:47

It is. Yeah, it's ironic that now the project itself

8:49

is about the process. It is exactly. It's

8:52

it's a show called Royalties, and I literally had to like

8:54

discuss like royalties with like the people

8:56

that I was doing exactly.

8:59

The snake is just eating itself and this is for the

9:01

streaming service Quimby. Um, how

9:03

did that? Cloud? Quimby is a whole thing. I mean, I

9:05

don't want to get too into unless you know the inside baseball

9:07

of Hollywood. But it's Jeffrey Katzenberg. You can wikipedia

9:10

him if you don't know who he is. He's the k of sk DreamWorks

9:13

SKG. He's doing okay,

9:15

he's sort of a you know, an entertainment juggernaut.

9:17

But it's his new thing. Um. I won't

9:19

get too into it because I'll bore everybody, but it's

9:22

his new platform that launches in April twenty

9:24

and so being a part of that pedigree of people

9:26

that he has lined up is is pretty flattering. I'm

9:28

really excited. Yeah, I know, he's got a pretty impressive slate.

9:31

I'm familiar with it. It's funny because not

9:33

to digress, I was just I was

9:36

just talking to Jeremy Renner, who

9:38

is a big songwriter. Yeah. People know that Jeremy

9:40

is an excellent pianist and a great Yeah. Would

9:42

wouldn't think Hawkeye, you know what I mean. So it's neat

9:44

when you get legit. That's a man of

9:46

many many towns. You know. He started

9:49

acting because he was making so much money flipping houses.

9:52

Really wait, I didn't even know that

9:54

what. It's insane. He's a house flipping

9:56

piano playing MF that

9:59

acts and that excellent side. It's

10:01

it's insane. Look up Jeremy Renner. I always

10:03

blows them because he's an extraordinary actor, like every

10:05

like Jeremy right right, But but but I'm

10:07

now I'm now a bigger fan just because he was flipping houses.

10:11

We'll get the houses that he's made. It's like insane.

10:13

He's like a full on carpenter. It's insane.

10:16

That's pretty awesome. I was just rad. I don't know why

10:18

I think about that. And man, I don't

10:21

think I've had the chance to congratulate

10:23

you on air, but I was so happy and proud of

10:25

your any win, um because you're

10:27

so great American crime story and I was chearing you on

10:29

on the red carpet there. But I know it's always

10:32

nice to see you guys on the way and where I'm like all the

10:34

homies are here. I feel feel I feel at easy. Yeah,

10:36

I mean that must have been so gratifying.

10:39

You do something obviously hope it's received well.

10:41

But then to finally get an award for

10:43

it and recognize on that level. I

10:45

think the nice thing is um is that

10:48

the accolade is representative

10:50

of a lot more than than whatever

10:53

I had to do. And I wish I could say I was just

10:55

trying to be charming and making it about other people,

10:57

but it's like whatever I got to is

11:00

an amalgam of so many other people

11:02

that worked their asses off, solid

11:05

cast exactly actors and produces

11:07

people that like, we're in the trenches with you for hours

11:09

and hours and hours away from their families and stressed now

11:11

through being sick and all this stuff. So it's something

11:13

like that happens. It's sort of like, hey, guys,

11:15

look like we did it. This is for you, and so

11:17

that's like a I think that's probably one of the greatest

11:19

feelings about it. It's like the validation and encouragement

11:22

for them, like as personified

11:24

through like a moment that you get to experience. But

11:26

it really is like this huge like team like victory.

11:29

Yeah no exactly, and I should

11:31

have asked you earlier too, but what what are

11:33

the plans as far as you and your wife? Are you wanting

11:35

to start a family right away? Later on? We own

11:37

a bar, dude, that's that's like, that's like having

11:39

a baby. That's like having twenty babies that

11:42

never grow up. Yeah, equal amounts

11:44

of pee and poop that you gotta deal with. They're

11:47

grown as adults. It's crazy. Um

11:50

yeah, it's probably not for a long time.

11:52

A man good smart, enjoy marriage for a

11:54

while. Yeah. The game change when you

11:56

come to the bar, we'll be like, yeah, I get it. Yeah,

11:59

oh no, I know, yeah, you know you know what

12:01

I'm talking all right, Before I let you go down, I'm gonna

12:03

put you on the spot quick questions, go answers. Yes,

12:06

song that's currently stuck in your head of

12:10

gosh, I don't know Sunflower? Okay,

12:13

Oh my god at my house both

12:15

the Vampire Weekend one and the

12:17

post Malone. What's his name? Oh

12:20

my god, I hear it every tame Sorry

12:23

not I'm

12:28

gonna run into many I'll hear this. And do

12:30

you not remember my name exactly?

12:33

Sorry, dude, last show you binged watched?

12:36

Uh well, I mean so I'm in the middle of Stranger

12:38

Things because it's summertime and that just came out, So I'm

12:40

enjoined the hell out of that. I love the music, right, it's

12:42

the best celebrity

12:44

crush growing up. Um uh

12:48

gosh, I mean, who who doesn't

12:51

love herbacka Romaine who ended up

12:53

being the first actress I would ever work with On my very first

12:55

TV show, that was That's Funny How

12:57

Life Is? Would you hear in first? Oh,

12:59

I don't know victorious secret catalogs

13:02

Okay, okay, yeah, because I because there's a

13:04

lot of acting, and I was just yeah,

13:07

that was the first thing that came to mind. But I think that

13:09

was more of just like that was also what I

13:11

was told to like as a kid. It's like this

13:13

girl's hot, So that was like the collective understood

13:16

like chick that I had a crush on. But I honestly

13:18

I loved like, um, I was

13:20

in love with like movie stars that I didn't know

13:22

we're older. So like I remember

13:24

seeing like Susan Sarandon,

13:27

No I would I'm not gonna. I'd like see like Bridget part

13:29

Don't like there's people wow, Like I would

13:31

see, but I didn't realize that they were

13:33

now older women, like they were

13:35

just forever that young. And then I

13:37

see pictures like that's not that's

13:41

uh yeah, I remember old movies, so I thought, really, because I

13:43

was willing like James Bond movies as a kids, like I always

13:45

wrong at all

13:47

about it all time favorite musical that

13:51

man, you can't ask a top three that we don't

13:53

get time for that right, top three? I

13:55

mean, I'll say these are all contextual

13:57

because I will say because people like people make fun

13:59

of certain musicals. But if that was the first

14:01

show you ever saw as a kid, it's like bullets, Okay,

14:04

you know the first show I ever

14:06

saw. I was probably a miss so that was my first

14:08

show. Yeah, so there you go, like that the whole a special place.

14:10

Um, I'll say my favorite. That's not like going

14:12

to be a shamed. I was just saying because

14:14

like, my wife's obsessed with cats, and she everybody makes fun

14:16

of her for she's like, listen, I was a kid and I saw that

14:19

that show, and that blew my mind. I'm like, I can't.

14:21

I can't throw a rock at that. That's unfair. Um,

14:23

my favorite. Those other people I

14:26

love, I'll say Assassin's

14:30

Cabaret and uh

14:32

just I'll give it a throw because these are all my homies from Michigan.

14:34

But Dear of a Hanson, why not, I'll just say

14:36

that Okay, okay, what

14:38

should get rebooted next? Uh?

14:42

Nothing. Let's just try and

14:44

keep thinking of new stuff, guys, says

14:46

the guy that covered David.

14:51

Keep it original, kind of kind

14:54

of original. That's it. Well. Almore dot com

14:56

slash Festival to get your tickets to see

14:58

Darren at the I Heart Radio Music Festival

15:00

September twenty and twenty one

15:03

in Vegas. You can follow him on Instagram

15:05

at Darren Chris. Thanks for stopping by. Thank

15:07

you, guys. Work on with Mario Lopez.