The last time the Beastie Boys attended South By Southwest, it was in 2006, when the group was promoting their fan-sourced concert film Awesome; I Fuckin Shot That! A lot has changed in the last 13 years.
When the Beastie Boys stopped by to deliver a keynote address at the Austin Convention Center Friday morning a full week into the 2019 edition of SXSW the group consisted of two surviving members: Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz. Adam Yauch, their third partner in crime, died of cancer in 2012, and Horowitz and Diamond wrote 2018sBeastie Boys Book in celebration of both his memory and what the group achieved during their years together.
Beastie Boys Book is why Horovitz and Diamond were invited to give a SXSW keynote moderated by Nathan Brackett, the head of Amazon Music. The former Rolling Stone editor has a long history with the group, living in the same neighborhood as Yauch did when they were children. This close connection allowed Brackett and the Beasties to engage in a lively, free-flowing talk, filled with dumb jokes and profound insights a blend that was not only the Beasties signature on record, but helps distinguish their memoir, which is revealing in ways rock autobiographies often arent. Even if Beastie Boys Book offered revelations of the groups inner workings, there was plenty of material left to explore, which is precisely what Diamond and Horovitz did with Brackett this Friday morning. Here are the biggest takeaways from their often uproarious discussion.
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1. There Will Be Live Shows (Theyre Just Not Concerts)
Diamond and Horovitz dropped the big news at the end of the keynote: The pair are giving a handful of speaking events in Philadelphia and New York City in April. These dates are inspired by their book tour, at the conclusion of which the duo wondered why they didnt just film their appearances. Thats exactly what will happen next month: Spike Jonze will film the shows that will be released at a later date.
2. A Different Relationship With Reality
Brackett opened up the keynote by admitting that, in a conventional sense, the Beasties are difficult interviews. What that means is that they arent couched the way so many artists are, intent on delivering talking points with aplomb. Horovitz questions that whole approach, asking what do you really want to know? Why not just be funny? Diamond concurs, stressing that journalists did not realize the quality stuff they had on the tape and the keynote proves their point. The Beasties dont avoid deeper topics but theyre quick to digress and crack jokes about Mike Ds socks (for the record, they sported the rapper Camron) the kind of thing that kills in front of a live audience. But the skewed relationship with reality extends to the Beastie Boys Book itself, where the band passes off whats almost certainly a faked negative review of Ill Communication. Brackett cornered the band and Horovitz countered Syncopation magazine? Youre not buying that?
3. Writing the Book Was a Real Struggle
Look at me, Im a man whos seen real struggle. Thats how Diamond addresses a question about writing Beastie Boys Book, a process that was not easy. Collaborating long distance Horovitz lives in New York, Diamond resides in Los Angeles carries its pitfalls, including Mike D waking up early to discover Ad-Rock was on a caffeine-fueled rampage, firing off email after email. Despite these hiccups, the two found the process gratifying. As Horovitz put it, Were not playing shows so the book kept me in the band that I love to be in, in a different way.
4. Funny to Us
Appropriately enough for a book that was written in part as a tribute to how the Beasties made each other laugh, the group had wound up with enough material for a second book, all consisting of in-jokes. Horovitz claims this is called Funny to Us and it recounts nothing but the weird moments on the road that would never make sense to anybody who wasnt part of the group. Diamond asserts theres literally 150 pages for this potential sequel.
5. Chris Rock and Queen Latifah Said No to the Beasties
The audiobook for Beastie Boys Book boasts an impressive cast of friends, collaborators and fellow stars. Horovitz admits the pair made a list of whos the funniest people for the project and were surprised so many people agreed to participate but they received two hard passes. Diamond says Chris Rock was the first direct no, claiming I did my own audiobook and it sucked. Horovitz chimed in that most people dont get back to you but Queen Latifah was no.
6. Adam Yauch Still Awes His Friends
A key theme toBeastie Boys Book is how Horovitz and Diamond remain mystified by the depths of Adam Yauchs knowledge and resourcefulness. Ad-Rock maintains he just instinctively knew all of these details of life. We were together everyday, I didnt know it, how did he? Much of Yauchs vision is familiar to Beasties fans hes the one who knew how to shoot the cover to Pauls Boutique or how to flip an 808 beat backwards, so the group could rhyme to that but even if their friend came up with the loop for Rhymin and Stealin by running a Led Zeppelin reel to reel tape through his kitchen, the duo is quick to credit the influence of Rick Rubin on Licensed to Ill. As Diamond says, he was suburban, he was into metalif we had mixed the record, it wouldve sounded like a rap group on Rough Trade records.
7. The Beasties Wrote Lyrics Together
Expanding on a point made in Beastie Boys Book, Horovitz and Diamond emphasized that the Beasties always wrote lyrics together, scribbling away as the music played on a loop. Usually, this resulted in a barrage of jokes as Diamond cracked, we are not that elevated in our thinking but Yauch pushed the group forward in terms of spirituality and consciousness. Horovitz said, this dude is into heavy shit, but we are into moving forward as people, a point underscored by Diamonds contention that the group was a place where you put what you learn to use.
8. Albums Are Moments in Time
Brackett pressed Horovitz to admit in public that Hello Nasty is Adams favorite Beastie record, a claim supported by Ad-Rocks contention that by the time we were working on Hello Nasty we were in the zone. There, the band had figured out how to execute their ideas individually and collectively, capturing a point when they reached maturity. Diamond doesnt have a favorite: Its not like we listen to our own records, theyre moments in time. One of those moments in time was Make Some Noise, a song Horovitz calls one of his favorites since it has all the things I love about his band, yet they never played it live because it arrived at the end of the groups tenure, when Yauch was too sick to tour.
9. Fake Samples on Hot Sauce Committee
Not everyone is going to read all of it. Diamond directed this observation toward Brackett, who pointed out one of the big revelations of Beastie Boys Book: that the group created fake samples for the source material on their last album Hot Sauce Committee, Vol 2. The group were taken with this idea but nobody noticed or cared upon the albums release. The pair argued that even Yauch was a bit nonplussed by the idea, stopping by the studio on a break from his Oscilloscope film duties to discover Horovitz and Diamond gleefully headed down this rabbit hole, then letting them run wild while he turned his attention back to movies.
10. Fried Chicken Trumps Texas BBQ
In perhaps their most controversial statement, Diamond reveals that the last time the Beasties were in town, the two Adams headed outside of Austin to sample some local BBQ and that they decided it wasnt worth the drive. While the exact location wasnt specified if it was a drive, it couldve been Salt Lick or the clutch of BBQ places in Lockhart it was clear that the Beasties were disappointed in Hill Country cuisine. The same cant be said of their dinner at local staple Lucys Fried Chicken, which the pair enthused about at the start of their keynote.