Joe Rogan Experience #2123 - Gary Clark Jr.

Gary Clark Jr. joins Joe Rogan after locking himself in his studio to finish his new album, which drops the day the episode airs. They talk about his addictive personality, his swerve into nature photography, fly fishing, and learning new skills, and how flow-state activities like music and archery quiet the mind. The conversation roams through Austin's explosive growth and comedy scene, the Mothership club, the music business and TikTok pressure, fame's toll on child stars like Michael Jackson, and a shared obsession with the forgotten 1969 song 'I'm Alive' by Johnny Thunder. It closes with Joe gifting Gary a mammoth-ivory guitar pick and Gary teaching Joe an E chord while performing an acoustic version of his song 'Habits' for the first time.

• Gary credits guitar at age 14 with keeping him out of serious trouble, paralleling Joe crediting martial arts.
  00:30:46
• Joe and Gary geek out over Johnny Thunder's obscure 1969 song 'I'm Alive', calling it transcendent and one of the most powerful records ever.
  01:14:14
• Joe recounts Tommy Lee asking him to help train to fight Kid Rock over Pamela Anderson.
  01:43:25
• Gary explains he avoided the music business until his late 20s out of fear of being exploited, with his mom managing him early on.
  01:50:09
• Gary reveals he's touring South America with Eric Clapton in front of 60,000-70,000 crowds.
  01:59:28
• Joe describes how Ron White, then Gary, post Malone and comedians all fled LA for Austin, seeding the Austin comedy scene.
  02:24:24
• Joe gifts Gary a guitar pick made from roughly 10,000-year-old mammoth ivory from his friend John Reeves' Alaska boneyard.
  02:25:27
• Gary performs an acoustic version of his new song 'Habits' for the first time live on the show.
  02:29:40

• Gary says he was advised to avoid falsetto and singing to please his core fans, and ignored it during the album made in COVID.
  00:04:40
• Gary has gotten obsessed with photographing crested caracaras (Mexican eagles) in his backyard with expensive camera gear.
  00:08:21
• Gary owns bagpipes 'just in case' he gets bored and wants a new skill to learn.
  00:25:01
• Joe notes Google built a giant tower on Cesar Chavez in Austin then laid off ~15,000 people, leaving it mostly vacant.
  01:00:31
• Pat from The Black Keys told Gary a late-night TV appearance can cost an artist around $50,000 to do.
  01:07:53
• A Bob Dylan quote praising 'I'm Alive' to Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner is referenced; Johnny Thunder (Gil Hamilton) is said to be 91 and still touring cruise ships.
  01:16:18
• Joe watched Francis Ngannou knock out Stipe Miocic at the empty UFC Apex during the pandemic with only ~20 people present.
  01:55:22
• Gary says he's never taken acid because an uncle of his dad's 'never came back' from it, but is fine with psilocybin.
  02:14:28
• Joe relays that drug-testing partiers found tabs sold as acid were actually mescaline with zero LSD in them.
  02:15:31
• Joe and Gary recall a near-decade-old midnight Midnight Rider cover Gary did with Suzanne Santo (honey honey) at an LA bar.
  02:39:58

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