ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Each week, a well-known guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. For more than four decades, Weird Al Yankovic has been a hero to weirdos everywhere, and his favorite part of his job is going on tour and getting to meet those fans.
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WEIRD AL YANKOVIC: When I took on the name Weird Al, that was sort of an empowering thing. And a lot of kids have also come up to me and said how important it was to be represented in that way because, you know, in school they might be considered a freak or a dork or a weirdo or somebody who just didn't fit in. And to have somebody like me to look up to basically saying it's OK to be that way, that's meant a lot to some people.
SHAPIRO: Well, Weird Al is now heading off on his new Bigger & Weirder Tour this summer, and ahead of that, he drew a card and talked with Wild Card host Rachel Martin about one of his nonmusical pursuits - being a dad.
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RACHEL MARTIN: What period of your life do you often daydream about?
YANKOVIC: I would say my daughter's childhood. She's 22 now. She's just about to graduate from college. And I have to be careful talking about this because I - old pictures come up on your phone or your desktop, and you go, oh, remember when you were 8? Remember when you were 5? And she goes, yeah, Dad, I remember. I mean, we still love you now. We love you now.
MARTIN: I know.
YANKOVIC: But...
MARTIN: But that person's...
YANKOVIC: ...You know...
MARTIN: ...Gone.
YANKOVIC: Yeah. You know...
MARTIN: And you dump her. Yeah.
YANKOVIC: My wife and I talk about this all the time. It would be great - my daughter's name is Nina - and we always used to say, it would be great if we had a Nina at every age living in our house, just 1 through 22 - 22 Ninas.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
YANKOVIC: 'Cause each one is so special and so beautiful and lovely, and something just unique about every age, and I just...
MARTIN: It's true.
YANKOVIC: It's such a sense of loss when that person becomes something else - equally good - but you're missing the other person. You know what I mean?
MARTIN: I do. I know exactly what you mean. I have two kids, two boys who are 10 and 12. And same thing, except my time horizon for the nostalgia is much shorter than yours 'cause they're younger. And also, being the parent of very young children I found to be very difficult. I love them so much. They were so, so cute, but I was so, so tired all the time.
YANKOVIC: Yes.
MARTIN: So I like to look at a picture that just - of their cute, little, cherubic faces...
YANKOVIC: (Laughter).
MARTIN: ...And then I don't remember all the sleep deprivation.
YANKOVIC: Yes (laughter).
MARTIN: So the algorithm works...
YANKOVIC: Just the good stuff.
MARTIN: ...In that it feeds me the good stuff. Right, exactly.
YANKOVIC: (Laughter).
MARTIN: But no, I completely - I know. When you sit and you daydream about that, all those moments, and you're like, this is now a different person I get to know. And it just keeps going.
YANKOVIC: Yeah.
MARTIN: Did you always know you wanted to be a parent?
YANKOVIC: I don't know that I did, if I'm being totally honest. I hope she doesn't hear this.
MARTIN: Yeah.
YANKOVIC: But no, I don't know. I mean, I always thought it was a possibility, but it wasn't like I was in my 20s going, oh, I can't wait to have a kid, you know?
MARTIN: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
YANKOVIC: But...
MARTIN: You had a lot going on.
YANKOVIC: But, you know, it's sort of like I've always been happy with my life. I've never been, like, lonely or felt somebody was missing. And I married late in life. So I went through, you know, up to my late 30s being a single man and being very happy. And then I got married and my life got exponentially better. And then I had a child, and my life got even better yet. So it's all been very positive for me, and, you know, I certainly wouldn't have it any other way.
SHAPIRO: Weird Al Yankovic's Bigger & Weirder Tour kicks off this summer. You can watch that full interview by searching for Wild Card With Rachel Martin on YouTube. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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