Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_giGqDqT4Y
Joe Rogan podcast check it out The Joe Rogan Experience Train by day Joe Rogan podcast by night all day um I go to see this dermatologist oh you little more skin yeah a little excision here because it had been bothering me a bit and a couple of years ago I had a bit of a cancer scare on my head yeah because I have uh I have a birthmark here that you don't really see and there was a mole there um and I kept as my hair got a little thinner I would I I would use a comb and it caught it one time and it opened it up and so I I I I I kind of kept picking at it when it became a scab and I kept picking over the course of like six months and then I went to see this dermatologist for the first time in LA and I said yeah I've got a little bit of a you know I been trying not to scratch it now but I'm a bit worried about it it's been like six months of me being an idiot cuz it just was really irritable and so she you know cut it out and sent it off and uh I was at a pretty serious meeting with a whole bunch of people and she called me up at the end of it and said listen I sorry to tell you this but it's it's cancerous you know oh we got a cut it out we could have get it and uh yeah I just went completely numb at that point and freaked out because I just thought what does this mean in its in the bigger picture uh and I you know a lot of friends that have passed from cancer various kinds over the years and so it really did freak me out anyway I got the all clear it was cleaned out and so just anything that just looks looks or feels a little old there was something I was I'd been scratching here a bit and something here as well so she just uh did a little cutting and uh no doubt I'll hear from her in a few days once she gets the results that's scary because it was in a spot that you don't check you know it's covered in hair you don't know what's going on back there yeah but it was because of the birth mark and you know I just uh I just kept in the thinning thinner hair and so I just kept you know brushing it with a comb and and it caught it and then it scabbed and then I it became itchy and so I Ste kept scratching it you know pulling pulling it off like a kid you know as you do is you just anyway I'm I'm I'm happy to be
here one piece for the moment you know I got one of those comprehensive blood panel screens for cancer recently and then you know you wait a while for the result and you're like jeez like what if I'm one of those people I yeah I I OB have anything but yeah I have the I have you know I go for a a proper checkup like twice a year you know just um on every front just to make sure I'm going to be around cuz I like living I I want to be around for a long time that's good for sure yeah it's uh a weird thing because you know how old do you know 61 yeah I'm 57 and we're getting up there fella I don't like to think about it I don't think about too much I'm completely in denial absolutely I refuse you know cuz I yeah I just remember seeing my uncles you know my on my mother's side what they were like in their 50s alone you know and they'd be sitting there with a big belly in front of the TV with you know couple of packets of cigarettes and drinking tea beer and watching the TV all day and that was their life in their 50s and 60s until they had a heart attack and died and I went no I'm not doing that one and uh I've just always been not that I'm a health freak in any way shape or form but I certainly you know uh my regime is try to eat as healthy as you can and do a bit of power walking couple of times a week that's good and that does the trick for me nothing wrong with that no walking is one of the best forms of of exercise and if you can get it in every day you'll be much healthier than if you don't absolutely AB it's not hard to do no it's not listen to a book on tape go for a stroll yeah exactly yeah great for the body y you don't have to [ __ ] kill yourself no and I I I've also in my time dealt with a fair amount of uh depression as well and anxiety I I get pretty anxious uh still even you know coming here today I was a bit breathe yeah yeah so I went for a nice little power walk around the whatever the lake is down there lady uh the one where the bats are yeah yeah lady I had no idea have you seen them come out no oh it's cool had no idea i' never even heard of it it's really cool the biggest bat population in the world that's that's what they're saying I don't know if that's true I think the biggest bad population in the world is
in Africa I would I believe or or the Amazon but yeah I think it's a really large population though and it's cool to see they come out what it looks like when they come out yeah no they they they claim there's there's signage down there oh really oh yeah that says it's the biggest bat population in the world H maybe it's a specific kind of bat I don't know goog where's the big definitely is this at Sunset that this happen yes yeah right at nighttime it's really cool it's very fun to watch and you hear them if you go on the bridge like if you walk on he yeah I was there today I you know I didn't hear that yeah you can hear me okay they're just chilling it's weird but they're responsible for keeping the mosquito population down is that what yeah they do a great job those little suckers fantastic they care take care of the mosquitoes mosquitoes yeah I don't what purpose do they have really um spreading horrible diseases and sucking your blood OB I don't understand the opin either well you know they tried to develop a genetically modified mosquito that was going to attack the other mosquitoes you know they but that's horror movie type [ __ ] you know like I hear about that I'm like okay and what happens then like whenever you start monkeying around with nature in that regard and so nothing came of it then I don't know what's been done with that I don't know it's like these people are doing these things and it can affect all of us and you you know just read about it on the internet and if it wasn't for the internet you wouldn't even know they were doing it it's like are you sure this is going to be okay in the long run like what's the potential chances for mutations like what would what happens if they carry a very unique disease that you know it's you know the scary thing is we have no idea what half of these people are up to no we don't Co covid being an example yeah perfect example did you see what happened in uh Australia yesterday there was a laboratory that lost track of oh I I put it on Twitter lost track of like a bunch of different like really serious diseases how does that happen someone left the door open I went once me and my friend Duncan uh we went once to the uh the lab in Galveston Texas they have a Center for
Disease Control I believe is the organization has this enormous bio laab down in Galveston where they take care of like some of the most danger ous and deadly viruses in the world so they have like this incredible filtration system and everybody's wearing space suits and they're walk and we're in there going what are you guys doing hundreds of vials of deadly viruses have gone missing from a laboratory and scientists warn they could be weaponized so what are 100 vials of Henda virus two vials of H virus 223 vials of Lysa virus all of which are extremely deadly for humans and of of I love it when the media says you know something along the lines of the of the end of that statement that could be weaponized so that's great now all the freaks are going to go and try and find that stuff yeah this episode is brought to you by the farmer's dog dogs are amazing they're loyal they're lovable like just having Marshall around can make my day 10 times better and I'm sure you love your dog just as much and you want to do your best to help them live longer healthier happier lives and a healthy life for your dog starts with healthy food just like it does for us there's a reason having a balanced diet is so important so how do you know if your dog's food is as healthy and as safe as it can be well Farmer's dog gives you that peace of mind by making fresh real food developed by board certified nutritionist to provide all the nutrients your dog needs and their food is human grade which means it's made to the same quality and safety standards as human food very few pet foods are made to this strict standard and let's be clear human grade food doesn't mean the food is fancy just means it's safe and healthy it's simple real food from people who care about what goes into your dog's body the farmer's dog makes it easy to help your dog live a long Healthy Life by sending you fresh food that's pre-portioned just for your dog's needs because every dog is different and I'm not just talking about breeds from their size to their personality to their health every dog is unique plus precise portions can help keep your dog at an ideal weight which is one of the proven predictors of a long life look no one dog or human should be eating highly processed foods for every meal it doesn't matter how old
your dog is it's always a great time to start investing in their health and happiness so try the farmer's dog today you can get 50% off your first box of fresh healthy food at thefarmersdog.com Rogan plus you gete free shipping just go to thefarmersdog.com Rogan tap the banner or visit this episode's page to learn more offer applicable for new customers only well it's you know we got into this mess in the first place because and this has now been confirmed that they were working on these viruses in this laboratory and it got released and that these viruses had been created through gain of function research so these goofballs are down there work on viruses making them more infectious to humans and you would say well why are they doing that well surely they're doing that so they can study them and they can cure them they make sure that we don't get sick is that the logic that's the logic but they didn't have a cure for it virus is rabies oh great list of virus are responsible for rabies which is AR arguably the deadliest enoic virus known a disease known the Prototype rabies Lys Lysa virus thought to be able to infect all terrestrial mammals yay yay God what a good thing to just have laying around I mean that's like the opening of 28 Days Later right yeah that yeah no there's a new one have you seen the the trailer for the new one there's a new one 28 years later come on yeah yeah San Murphy's back let's go yeah I'm I'm in C me in that's the greatest oh here it is it's the greatest zombie movie of all time for sure [Music] sit here atie what's going on sit still keep quiet and do not move from the [Music] [Applause] spot 7 6 11 5 9 and 20 miles today 4 11 1732 the day before boot boot boot boot moving up and down again there's no discharge in the war don't don't don't all shot on an iPhone look at what's in front of you they said I mean not with the lenses moving up and down again men men men men men go mad with watching them there's no discharge in the war if your eyes drop they will get the top of you boot boot boot boot moving up and down again there's no discharge in
the wall I was going to stop there okay sh jeez I I woke up relatively calm and peaceful this morning little bit of pre podcast anxiety and now you're worried about the end of the world gez welcome to the show thank you very much thank you I didn't know what to expect but now I I'm terrified of these Eggheads messing around with all these things I really am because it seems like what we know now is that there wasn't a ton of oversight they they shipped they they sort of went with the the so the NIH funds the Eco health Alliance the Eco Health Alliance funds the Wuhan lab the Wuhan lab which has had many safety violations including like I think a year before the the leak and then it gets out and then they all lie and then they all trade emails back and forth where they're talking about the lie and they go in front of Congress and they lie and now there's they're talking about giving fouchy a mass pardon a preemptive pardon so he doesn't get charged when the Trump it's the whole thing is and then there's another one today where the Biden Administration is keeping the emergency classification of covid to 2029 so that they can avoid being attacked for the Emergency use authorization act it's so creepy stuff because there's there's money it's all money right there's money involved in this there's the these people that are working on viruses well the way to get funding is you have to work on viruses so whether they're not I don't think they're evil people but I think these people this is what they studied in college this is what they went to University for and now they're studying it and what's the best way to study you got to actually have to have funding you have to have a lab and you start doing it and so who do you do it for well you do it for the defense department like because they want to work on weaponizing viruses and this is a real thing this is one of that's one of the scariest things [ __ ] terrifying I did a television show Once where we talked to this guy from Russia and uh from former Soviet Union where he was talking about how they had literally like giant Vats of Anthrax they had enough Anthrax to literally kill like every [ __ ] human being in America and that they were working on viruses and
all these deadly diseases to be honest with you I'm quite surprised we're still here yeah it's pretty shocking with what's already happened and what the potentials are it's uh staggering well if you think about all the things that we've gone through where we just barely missed a total disaster the Cuban Missile Crisis and then there was the one time where there was an they thought that the United States had launched a missile at Russia and they were very close to respond it was just a glitch and one guy just one clear-headed person decided not to launch yeah and this is in the 60s yeah right yeah yeah this is all it's so terrifying yeah we're we're so close all the time really that's why um one should just try and have a happy life wherever you can that's for sure the problem with that is if you don't speak up the and if no one reacted to any of this uh covid-19 stuff if no one reacted to the orwellian censorship complex that was established to try to silence people who are critical of the narrative that they were pushing sure we would all be [ __ ] like you kind of have to pay attention now unfortunately I don't want to age I want to just have fun and live my life and be with my family and my friends enjoy myself we all do but no it's uh it's good to be aware no question about that and uh but there that there's also this part of me that goes yeah but this is what the this is what the universe provides you with the universe provides you with this very unique balance of Good and Evil and the the evil exists to appreciate the good and to motivate the good no question and there's always going to be both it just seems like there's always going to until we reach some Enlightenment till Jesus comes back till the aliens land well it's that that thing called balance isn't it yeah trying to do the balancing act as best as you can yeah what do you do like what's your balancing routine like if you feel like you're getting a little sideways um I hate to say it but or but it's back to getting out into the fresh air and walking yeah I mean that really does or or even photography you know just being actually my number one go-to is I I'm a biker I've been a on motorcycles since I
was like in my early teens so to blow the to really blow the cobwebs out it's kind of getting on the bike and just riding somewhere I've never been before I'll just look at a map and go that looks interesting and I just go and that looks like so fun if I was bulletproof and made out of metal have you uh I'm scared of motorcycles really well it's the other people that's thing that's exactly right you know but you have to I I believe you have to have a heightened awareness to to be a biker and still most certainly uh do you have a loud bike so people could hear it at least yeah I've had a few loud ones in in my I I used to have Harley I at the moment I ride a Triumph a couple of triumphs oh nice uh one that looks like an old school but actually works and then I thought I was never going to be one of those guys that ever kind of rode one of those 50s U no the sort of Adventure bikes you know oh with like the Saddles with the boxes yeah kind of yeah but the relative half fairing but but um I I when I go for a ride and these random rides you know I can be gone up in the mountains for with no signal for um three and a half four hours you know and that there has been an occasion or several in the past where without a signal the bike has had problems and uh it gets pretty scary when you're in the wilderness and you've got no backup plan um I I had an oil leak with a with a with a brand new bike and no signal and I literally rolling down any Hill I could just to Sur Vive make it to whatever little village I could find in the middle of nowhere where were you I was in in in France oh wow so I I tend to go up in the Wilds back there and uh um so I I I decided also my backside after three and a half hours on one of the older style bikes is pretty painful um so I just happened to look at one of the triumph Adventure bikes and what do they look like can you tell us is that it so that's that's what my old bike looks like that's that's actually my old bike with my old friend writing it um and that's the one where your ass kills after a couple of hours um but so yeah those are the kind of views I get those are in the middle of nowhere are these your photographs yeah yeah yeah these are just quickies on on my phone uh just
the places I find myself in in the middle of nowhere I mean I mean stunning stunning stunning places and they're not far from from where I am on the coast uh and that's beautiful and they're kind of on the border with Italy um so it's pretty unique stuff where do you live I I I officially live in Monaco oh wow um I was just there I was just there last summer yeah oh [ __ ] okay well it's really beautiful it's it's not a bad place to be a weird spot it's a weird what's going on here why is everybody stacked up in apartments right here it's very transient you know people come and go for whatever reason that they do and uh I mean most people like myself you know we have we have a kind of Summer House getaway uh so you can go breathe on the weekends isn't it kind of a tax shelter place too oh very much so yeah yeah no got a real Rich folks go there to yeah oh for sure their cash for sure but there's a few new places around the world that offer that kind of uh possibility oh really like where else um uh well Dubai's offering certain incentives now Portugal certain incentives yeah Dubai has like no income tax right I've never been there personally is that the fact is that a fact I think it is I'm not 100% sure but I have a friend who just moved to Dubai he's American and uh he's a filmmaker and he says I feel so safe yeah that well that's one element of it no crime long as you're not doing anything he said you could leave a Rolex on the ground and someone will pick it up and turn it into the police yeah I'm I'm sure UAE does not Levy income tax on individuals however it levies a 5% value added tax on the purchase of goods and that's pretty reasonable yeah Levi at each stage of the supply chain and ultimately Born To the End consumer wow fairly reasonable yeah yeah so although I I it's never inspired me so far anyway well there's a lot of like wild restrictions over there oh yeah and I and I I like a bit of character with where I am you know and uh I you know one of the one of the pleasures I find is number one I'm a biker so I get to ride around a lot um I'm not really a beach guy after 20 minutes I start twitching I need to do something it's true um but I'm also a foodie as well so you know Monaco's half an hour away from Italy and there's there's actually a big
crossover in the restaurants between French and Italian food and then you have places like um the island of Corsa which is French now it's been through the mill a few times it was English at one point it was Italian at one point it's uh I think a few other nations too um but I I and I could see it from where I was you can actually see the outline of Corsica from the south of France and from Monaco in certain locations and I'd seen it for 25 30 years and had never been and a couple of years ago I decided with a friend to hop in I've got a little mini convertible and that's my little runaround um and decided to get the ferry which is about 6 hours across and drive you know with no bookings no nothing and just see if there was a hotel available and and drove around the whole island in 10 days and it was the mo one of the most magical places I've ever ever been to it's like 10 countries on one Island the the the scenery is mindblowing um and the the south of it is very much like the Caribbean Crystal Clear turquoise Blues Blue Waters but the food again is this combination of it the best of Italian and the best of French wow and just the freshest of the freshest of the fresh um and I've only been down there about two or three times cuz this was only a few years ago and I couldn't believe that it's and here's the other thing okay the fair is 6 hours but you can get a on what they call a vomit Comet it's like a very short flight you know um uh you could be there in the south of Costa from from nce airport in 45 minutes and it's a different world it's an entirely stunning gorgeous different world with again again scenery unlike I've ever seen before um and and for for such a small island which you can yeah is it here oh oh wow I I mean it's just insanely insanely beautiful and that's Bona fesio yeah um they you know they're renowned for being they can be a bit of a you know tough nuts uh in what way you know if they don't like you if you piss him off excuse my French they'll blow up your house I mean there was a report a couple of years ago that this guy's house the he was causing some trouble and they didn't want him around and they blew up blew up his house they
set it on fire and blew it up I'm serious I guess if you live in a small place like that that's really amazing you're probably very protective of someone coming along and ruining they're exactly like that I I mean if you don't I get that if you don't respect them yeah I get that yeah no whenever people say like if you go to France they're very rude I get it I've gone to France I didn't think they were rude you know but I get how there's some Americans like hopping right off the cruise ship that are just fat and stupid that's just you know I think if you're not prepared to be warm and friendly on the approach and and treat them with the the respect that they deserve in their own country treat like you're a visitor don't order them around don't tell them what to do and and you know even though you know they think it's quite funny that you try and speak their language I mean yeah I I I can understand French pretty well and Italian and a few other things but uh you know God help me if I try and speak it because they'll just they don't laugh at you but they'll speak back to you in English you know right it's um that's the wonderful thing about English is it but at least make the effort is what I'm sure show them that you're that you're trying yeah and they they kind of go yeah just thank you alone you know yeah don't just order them around which I I've seen many people do and it's it's a bit shocking see you got to be able to say a few things just let them know that you're you're trying yeah absolutely I go to I try to go to Italy every year uh we me and my family we we go there every year and I love it it's just so do you instant my favorite place is rll where is that I don't rello is on the Amalfi Coast okay okay it's just so so beautiful but uh I've liked Rome too it's a little touristy the problem with Rome is it's overcrowded and there's a lot of touristy [ __ ] going on yeah Rome is not my favorite um the reason why it's so appealing to me is because my actually my first stepfather was Italian uh Roberto bassanini that's pretty Italian oh he was very Italian and he was the black sheep of the family he was the Naughty Boy and uh he was more like an older brother to me uh married to Mom after Dad after John and uh his family were involved in kind of
hotels and restaurants from also London in the Heyday of Italian restaurants it was like the ' 70s um and and uh and so they had a few small hotels in different areas and uh so whenever I wasn't at school in London at that you know or England at that time we'd take these little trips to you know CA or uh above Milan there's a little town called folo that I used to go uh Unknown by most tourists uh locals to go skiing in in the winter or uh pezo which was on the East Coast on the for for summer holidays so I you know I I spent a lot of time there growing up from the age of five six s she was only with him for about three or four years but uh we stayed in touch you know um and I used to go and visit him all the time because he was he was a laugh you know uh of course his uh sadly his lifestyle killed him um with a couple of heart attacks at the end of everything it's usually how it goes when you're having a good time yeah he was having too much of a good time time I'm afraid but I miss him dearly he certainly was you know one of those characters that you just yeah you admired when I go to Italy it feels like almost immediately you have like a decrease in blood pressure yes like almost immediately oh yeah it's like the vibe of the people and the way they live is just relax they can be a bit stressed sometimes so with the shouting at each other and the M you know yeah but even then it doesn't seem like shouting like American shouting leads to violence yes this is true I hear American shouting I'm like let's get the [ __ ] out of here yeah yeah I agree to agree I hear Italian Shou like what happened did someone in the kitchen [ __ ] up like what Happ what went wrong yeah I mean I I don't want to sound pompous but it does sound pompous that you know I if I have friends come over from the states or London and you know I'll say uh do you fancy it you know getting some Italian tonight and uh we'll get in the car and we'll be on the freeway or the motorway over there and they go they'll be saying where the f f are we going you know I'm going going for Italian and there's a little town about an hour away from Monaco kind tiny little medieval town called uh well I Won't Give It Away actually can't give it away um well I'll just go and get the best spaghetti
vongal on the planet made by a grandmother who's in a who's in a kitchen you know 10 by 10 at the best of times you you know with all and and it's it's down on the water and it's just you know it's Italy for me if you're not in the mountains if you're by the seat at its best and you know they all get dressed up at Sunset and you know they all love to walk the promenad and you know and their finest attire and uh you know sit there and watch the world go by and drink their coffee and chat and I you know I cuz I lived in La for I think it was about eight years and I went went back I the story of me going back actually was that I was I flew back to London see a premere of a film called BackBeat it's about the early Beatles uh I didn't know anything about it but I had an invite so I went to see it and uh I met this guy who said uh who's a line producer film producer and he said uh you know do you uh have you been to Monaco before I said no I've never even thought about it really and he said uh he said do you like Grand Prix I said uh not really a kind of Grand Prix kind of guy he said well listen if you got nothing to do this weekend after you know we saw the film and the premiere uh yeah why don't you come down I've got an apartment I've got an extra room I know the town inside out you know um and I was thinking oh what am I going to do go back to LA and be numb again and so I literally went down to Monaco that the next day and he he just showed me around and we went to this very famous restaurant and famous Corner called the rascas corner on the Grand Prix circuit and it's literally where you're having a prawn cocktail and there's a car coming at you at about 180 miles an hour with just a chicken wire fence in front of your face you're going away holy [ __ ] I mean directly in front of you I mean the the car could be so this is it right here yeah uh that's not the rascas corner that's the Lowe's corner rascas corner is very very famous little spot um there it is yeah that's it so you'd be behind the chicken wire fence this is a kind of modern version of it uh but that's even more protection than it used to have um and you'd have a bit of lunch there and they would and that became that was the hot spot in Monaco for years and years there were
three brothers that owned it real troublemakers and uh it it it was a blast but so you had the car so I went all right I'm into this uh and so I spent the summer down there and I used to have a little bungalow on M Holland and cold waterer and I had a caretaker there cuz I had a dog at the time uh uh and I just said hi Tim um pack it up sell the house I'm not coming back and I didn't I didn't go back did you take your dog uh the dog actually died before I I you yeah sadly it was uh getting on but uh but yes uh said [ __ ] it I'm moving toor yeah that that was it yeah I just I just put everything in storage I rented this kind of what could be seen as a Miami Vice kind of apartment on on the thir 30th floor um it just had marble and uh a mirrored wall with no furniture and so I bought a couch off of the floor of a store called habitat cuz it would take like 6 weeks to order and I had nothing and so I had bought like a couch I bought uh a TV even though there was no English TV back then this is 30 years ago and I just had a trunk to put the TV on occasionally you get American movies and a mattress on the floor and I lived like that for 10 years and just and just uh was really stupid did you enjoy it it was just stupid did you enjoy I had two i' I've had two well I've had three major no four uh it's like the Spanish Inquisition four major uh incidents now I I mean London back in the day used to be a great place to to party and enjoy and then I moved to New New York uh for a few years uh early in my career in my early 20s and but I almost I think I almost died there with the partying that went on and the clubs back in that that that that hey the Heyday then and it was celebrity Central you know um with the likes of at the Limelight with Alice Cooper and a few other fruit cakes um and then and then I I really did feel like I was you know I could have I could have uh gone off yeah yeah easily I was borderline uh I enjoyed it too much and then I went out to LA and a friend of mine uh had a convertible and we just drove across M Holland uh down to Malibu and I went [ __ ] this is gorgeous what the hell am I doing but so I moved to LA
I packed up and moved and that's I did it's exactly the same thing I found a place to to live and I just you know was there until I could get myself situated I think I Met You in LA are you serious in 1993 that's a good possibility that would have been middle mid to end of my term out there I was uh doing something for MTV and you were one of the first celebrities that I met you I met Rico Suave and a couple sh the front door yes yeah because yeah I was yeah early in on the M MTV stuff the the label I was with was pushing whatever you know throw me on whatever was available I was with this woman who was uh an executive at MTV and she was taking me around and showing me La you know I'd never been to La before and uh well I'd been in once for a martial arts competition when I was young here was and she took me to this nightclub and uh you were at the front door about to get in and I was like holy [ __ ] remember which one it was no I don't I remember very little about it was I with some fruit cakes I'm sure I was I don't remember I just remember like oh that's a famous guy John Lennon son crazy like because you know I was coming from New York I was of course 25 26 years old I didn't know anything and I was like this is so strange it was just strange to me to be in these like Hollywood parties with this MTV executive who's taking me around showing me all the stuff oh yeah she was just kind of like introducing like this is what it's like yeah this what everybody does they go out they go out to the clubs and it was just yeah yeah the SK well the scary thing about La was that you thought it was all over by 2:00 you know because they literally pull your drinks at 1:30 mhm but then they go to someone's house right and they continue Till Dawn you know so that was dangerous too so I was happy that I got away from that um fortunately I avoided all that yeah yeah lucky yeah I mean there was there was some fun to be had no no question about it but sure a lot of it was kind of dark too yes I'm sure well that's when you when you start adding cocaine to human beings you get Darkness oh yeah and a lot of Jack Daniels too they go hand in hand yes yeah I avoided all that luckily when moved to LA I I'm one of those people that's like I how long were you out there
for um I guess 30 well no not quite 30 years uh 26 years cuz I've been here for four that's a stretch okay the most yeah the most of my life the most I've ever lived anywhere I lived there but uh I only went to parties like a handful very small handful of times it was like I was dragged to them yeah you know like the last one I was dragged to was Naomi Campbell birthday party which was I'm sure that was uh it was insane yeah it was with Dave Chappelle so Dave and I were at The Comedy Store and you know Dave knows everybody Dave's like hey man there's a party up in the hills you want to go and I was like I don't want to go to any [ __ ] parties yeah he's like come on man I want to go alone so I said okay so me and Dave we drove all the way up into it was like a scene in a movie yeah because like here's me and my super famous friend and we're my Porsche and we're my race car of a GT3 so right we're driving up in the hills and then we have to stop at this place and then you have to get on a shuttle and then you get to the house and then you get on an elevator an outside elevator that takes you from the main house to the party house so they had a party house on the top of this hill so we're up in this elevator with deore which is weird as it is I'm like hi you know it's [ __ ] weird I famous lady and then we get to the top of this hill and it's just everybody famous it's Lenny Kravitz and all these different people and so Naomi Campbell there's a photograph of her on the the side of the Hill that's literally 50 feet tall this enormous naked photograph of her of course you know cuz it's her birthday well of course she's unbelievably beautiful still as old as she is I don't know how old she is but she looks Sensational so we get to the top of this place we're hanging out it's very weird it's very weird and then Dave pulls me inside he goes man I wouldn't want to be this famous I go hey man you're the most famous [ __ ] here he goes really oh yeah because we're a little high he goes really I go 100% you're the most famous person here sure sure we're just laughing like this is so crazy and then we got out of there and went right back to The Comedy Store and like oh I can't do this yeah it's just too strange the the scenes are pretty weird out there
that's for sure well also these celebrities they don't they can't hang out with regular people I think they feel too weird so I think they try to get together yeah and so we were in like that's that absolutely you're spot on a vampire den of famous people you are absolutely spot on they called it like he said it was like an Eyes Wide Shut party I'm like that's what it feels like it feels like you're in a secret fraternity no there yeah there's a few that I've left that I felt very uncomfortable being at that like I I mean I can't couldn't tell you exactly where and when but certainly U some weird ones up in the hills so I just went nah this just doesn't feel good there's something about the ACT of going up into the hills like you're going to the lair the Dragon's Lair well the the one of the things was the fact that well I mean now you've got Ubers all over the place but you know back in my day um there was no taxis around either so you'd get trapped oh and then you'd figure well I'm here anyway you know yeah you can't get might as well have another drink and that's what would happen more often than not but uh yeah so it's it's uh yeah kind of better not to definitely better not to but maybe go a couple times yeah so you real go and check it out yeah go and see what that's all about yeah yeah many people have lost messy though oh yeah they've lost their time to those places it's very messy it becomes a part of your life and your lifestyle it's deeply unhealthy both it's physically unhealthy but it's also like spiritually unhealthy yeah it's a weird way to spend your time been there done that thank you very much you look fine you got through it no I did I did get through it don't you think it's good to just know though oh yeah yeah not the way to do it no if I I think if you don't know you know you you can't you can't talk about it you can't you can't understand right that weird Journey that you go through um I think you have to do certain things sometimes just to realize what it's all about well la it's that balance thing it's the light and the dark you know La so particularly odd too because everyone's chasing this very specific goal of notoriety like it's success but success is it's Quantified by notoriety like the
more famous you are the more popular the bigger your song is even now you know all you've got to have is a bloody iPhone or whatever Tik Tok an account and that's it I mean very strange yeah really really odd you know I I I can't quite get to grips with all of that to be honest with you I don't think anybody can and I think it it's essentially being captured by a form of technology that has leveraged our desire for this Attention our desire for this notoriety and but it's also being known for nothing right you know that's the scary thing and and and having this element of of what seems to be the latest generation of this privilege right you know uh right where they believe that uh you know um everything is owed to them right and I that entitled yeah and I find that shocking you know well that comes along with the the quest right if the quest is just notoriety like if you're an artist and you happen to get famous because everybody loves your music or loves your photography or loves your your books or whatever it is that's a different sort of an relationship because people love you for what you've made what you've produced yeah there's a purpose to it yeah and I love people like that because I'm fascinated by people that are able to create things that resonate with everybody or resonate with an enormous amount of people it's it's fascinating to be around them and to like to kind of just you know I know a lot of famous people now and I know some of them are just fantastic people they're just really interesting people that have well you you have very interesting people on your show that's for sure I mean that's what intrigued me you know from you know Professor Brian Cox you know who I'm an AB absolute fan of I had meeting him such a nice guy lovely guy mindblowing mind blowing too much information for for for my good it's so funny I was talking about him with a friend of mine the other day and my friend uh wasn't aware of him and I I had just done a podcast with him and so and i' had gone to the club from the podcast I'm like oh my God I had the greatest podcast this guy blew my mind I've had him on several times and he's always amazing and and my friend looks at the photo he goes what does he look like I pull up he's like is
that guy in a [ __ ] band or something I go yeah he was in a band he's like no way he's in a successful band he's an actual brilliant scientist who was in a successful band yeah yeah mindboggling mind I mean I doesn't comprehend because he looks like a rock star he does he does he's yeah he's not changed his look since the beginning and he's such a great science communicator well that's the thing see I love science but I get lost in it sometimes but he is probably probably the closest I'll ever get to really trying to have an insight into what it's all about you know as best as he can describe it he's really good at explaining to people that don't have the proper understanding of all all the terminology and all the ways they discover he can lay it out for the lay person yeah which which is why he's so fascinating which is why everybody should know him yeah his show is wonderful too have you ever seen a show they do a live perform enormous screens and they show you like history of the universe and Stellar nurseries and all this wild stuff it's really incredible stuff no fantastic fantastic stuff yeah I've I've been very fortunate in that way that I've had a chance to talk to so many extraordinary people and it's great but it makes talking to boring people almost painful like like like you're just holding your breath I I don't know which category I'm in so you're not in the boring kind no no well I can be I think we all can be I guess at some stage but well just the fact that you're willing to do what you've done just to take these trips and just move to a place I think that's great I think people need more of that in their life I think you could see the world from your neighborhood and from where you live and get a really distorted sense of this experience this very unique experience of these bizarre thinking creatures interacting with each other on this isolated Planet that's hurling through the universe yeah and you could think that you kind of understand the experience until you go to other places well I see I see you're a big fan of uh Bourdain as well and I loved his shows I still watch them all the time because it's just what he discovered and how he entrenched himself with the people that you he went to meet and the and uh the Sation and the food are just that's my
cup of tea right there you know I think how can you not want to do that learn and love that experience you know well he had such a like infectious passion for different cultures and their food and the Art of food like he was the first guy that made me consider that cooking is actually an art form like I kind of knew it but I didn't think of it I kind of just said oh delicious food awesome oh this guy's a really great chef awesome and then I watched his first Show No Reservations like oh okay duh it's art it's art that you eat oh yeah yeah oh that's why they're all weird and they all tattoos and [ __ ] weird earrings okay they're artists okay that makes so much sense and I was like oh you ignorant [ __ ] you like you had never put it in that category for I just like decided no that's just food but no there's there's an art to food it's another level yeah like that place you were talking about Linguini with clams vong which is my favorite dish of all time spaghetti vong when it's done right I promise that if you ever come back to Monty as we call it uh I'll drive you oh I'll go we we'll go for spaghetti vongal and hope the dear grandmother's still alive it also makes me angry because when I eat uh pasta and pizza over in Italy I don't feel like [ __ ] and then I come to America and I eat the same supposed things and I I can eat a fraking salad here and put on weight I don't know what's going on I'm serious though yeah seed oils seed oils in the salad dressing and sugar and yep all of that all of that I yeah I I agree I live uh it's a much healthier lifestyle over there without question oh yeah food hasn't been violated yeah yeah that's true it's generally organic you can eat pizza every day and pasta every day just and also that I think the other real big thing here is the portion control as well yeah we're Glutton I mean you could you can have one plate full of food here and it'll serve four people in Europe yeah literally oh yeah that's a fact I think um you know I was poor when I was young and I think because of that I'm even more of a glutton cuz I just want more food I want all the food yeah yeah and then I work out a lot so I'm always hungry so then I I I have a real yeah I mean the only thing that keeps me from being as my exercise
routine and discipline CU if I was just giving into my whims I'd be 500 lb [ __ ] just love food yeah it's it's you know it's especially when you go to a different culture you know if you go to somewhere like you can go to Thailand and eat authentic Thai food in Thailand it's like oh man oh yeah there something special about it and it's great when you got friends who have that same appreciation that you know while you're eating lunch you're talking about dinner yeah you know yeah yeah it's uh that's how excited you are about food and it's also it just Reigns your priorities like what are what really are you trying to get out of life you're trying to get out of life memorable experiences with people you care about those are like the best moments in life no question no question about it yeah yeah I I long for that you know um because also I I go in these very long working uh time periods and I don't get to see a lot of friends quite often you know M and so I I I I really try and work out and look at the my schedule these days to go I I'm taking some time out here for a couple of days I I want to see my friends I want to say hello I want to share some time and stories and food with them you know so it's become a key thing to have that included in running around like a headless chicken all the time you know is that what inspired your photography because this book is really excellent your photography is great thank you um uh I you know it was a dear friend Timothy White who's a celebrity photographer and um he' done my second and third album and we were doing a charity single called Lucy which was about Lucy voden who was the Lucy in the Sky with diamond that I grew up with who died from lupus and then I became the lupus uh um um the Ambassador for the um Lupus Foundation of America and we were doing a single to raise money called Lucy and we were doing uh with a another great artist called James Scott Cook and we were doing a photo shoot and he'd sent me some pictures and I started screwing around with his pictures and he said to me and you don't you actually don't do that with another photographer's work you know he said what what what the [ __ ] are you doing with my pictures I said he said where did you learn how to do this I said well I I didn't I just you know I
I'm intuitively inspired to to play around with stuff you know it's I'm still a big kid so and he said well do you have any other do you have other phot do you actually have photos yourself that you've taken and worked on I I've got bits and Bobs but nothing so he he and I sat down and looked through all the photos I had and he and uh I think there was maybe a thousand at that time which isn't much at all I'm now over 120,000 photos uh it's mindboggling um um that's why this was difficult but um yeah so he he said uh Jules why don't you do something with this stuff and I said what what what am I going to do he said listen you should do an exhibition you've got some really beautiful things here and I said I said listen I'll do I'll do it if if if if you Mentor me through the whole process which he did and um and I I was probably more petrified at the first exhibition that I did which was in New York at the old uh cbgbs um um which turned into the Morrison Hotel gallery and uh that was in 2010 I think and uh I I was more petrified the three days leading up to that than I was ever going on stage well prob probably my first ever stage performance which I did in Dallas at uh at rehearsal space that was down here for the first ever tour um no I again the anxiety you know it's the unknown I don't know what you know the worry of what people are going to think because you know not just being you but John Lennon's son you know being the second John so to was always an issue for me you know it's feeling like you have to doubly prove yourself so um and and literally an hour or two before the opening as well there was the most horrendous storm and downpour in New York and I thought well that's it no nobody's coming um but my to my utter Delight I had uh reviews from fine art photography uh magazines etc etc that gave me nothing but praise and I was shocked wow absolutely shocked um so I just I just continued uh doing that I I'm now over I think 42 exhibitions worldwide and I just finished my biggest one in Venice at a museum uh over the last three months and the book in fact uh uh it I had approached other Publications before but been pretty much
turned down by everybody and then out of the blue the earlier this year this company out of Berlin called Tano um said listen do you want to do a Photography book and I said hell yeah and they said why haven't you done one before I said because nobody gave me the ort Unity excuse my French do you think that's because you're John Lennon son like there's a burden that is very unique to you I listen I certainly recognize that there's walls up without question what what is that like like what are the walls like do do you think it's just they dismiss you something's going on I mean I've discussed this with Rebecca who you met my manager and a few other people you know there's there's occasions where I'll I'll be totally blanked like with the last album I came out with Jude uh which took uh you know in between five and 30 years to write and record it was old songs and new songs that I wanted to balance the sound um and it was it was at a time when um I'd gone through a lot of changes myself and I I had decided to finally call be Julian I'd been John Charles Julian Lennon all my life but everybody had always known me as Julian even my mom and dad called me Julian so I'm like you know what I want to be I want to be me finally so by deed pole in 2020 I said right I'm going to be Julian now and the album's going to be called Jude and the the reason I called it Jude was it was finally uh uh not only an acceptance but uh but actually uh what's the terminology um it's I'm I'm actually taking ownership should I say of the name Jude and and what that represented for all these years um to other people and to me so anyway so I I you know that was the album was a biggie for me calling the album Jude for a starters inciting right hopefully positive things of um um but the weird thing was you know I did uh I put this whole band together and I I I wanted to as an as a starter to go on all the the the TV shows that I'd always ever wanted to appear on um for instance uh in England like uh uh Jules Holland uh late later with Jules Holland which is the only live music show that I've watched all my life literally um um uh there's Graham Norton
which and I've and i' done their radio shows which is really really weird and we got on like a house on fire and I performed live and that all went down well and then it was kind of like see you on the real show producers turn me down and you know and and same with a lot of the Late Night American shows got got just didn't they weren't interested and I you know I had I had you know I'd done the name change I'd been away for 10 years I'd I'd called the album Jude um you know there was there was a lot to talk about you know um and a great deal more than I'm presenting right now that uh anyway I I was I was turned down and still and that still happens to me um which which uh saddens me because just when you feel feel like you want to open up you know um and answer any question you can throw at me I I you know I've I've not been allowed to not it's that's what it's felt like that I've not been allowed to speak my piece whatever that is you know on on whatever subject matter it's weird it's like uh the the gatekeeper aspect of it is weird but it's also weird like why not like what what would be the hesitance I don't understand it's this the idea of the son of a great man you know and there's this weird we have a dismissal and I'm very guilty of it myself the son of a great man I always seem like that guy's [ __ ] he's [ __ ] like the burden is too high your dad was John Lennon like iconic well and you and I think with a lot of people they don't want anybody to interfere with that you know I mean how dare the you know the Sun come along and even try and right be better in any way shape or form or be as good as or whatever or whatever yeah you're immediately dismissed which is why which is why you know to a certain degree photography really appealed to me number one cuz and the reality is I prefer it behind the camera you know I don't mind being a goofball once in a while doing in front of the camera things but I'm not really comfortable there uh but behind the camera um and you know traveling is what I've I have a foundation called the white feather foundation and uh you know we we try to help people all over the world and it started uh I know that you have interests in indigenous uh
cultures and uh I don't know if you know the backstory to this to the white feather Foundation at all I don't okay so here we go okay um I was on tour with probably my most at least outside of America most well-known song it was a number one and top 10 in the countries all over the world except for America um and it was called saltwater and saltwater is about environmental and humanitarian issues and I was number one in Australia I was doing all kinds of shows I was doing promo and and tour as well and I found myself in uh Adelaide and I got this call from the hotel management saying uh excuse me Mr Lennon but there's uh an Aboriginal tribe down here with TV Crews who want to say hi and I thought it was like an on the road prank I said yeah sure sure why would they be coming to see me you know and they called back and they said no no no no this is serious um Can can you come down please and so I think TV Crews Aboriginal tribe what's this about and so I kind of D get DED up a little bit because I don't know what the TV shows are or cameras yeah so I go down and in in the lobby there's a little platform and about 30 people half of them indigenous TV Crews bunch of other stuff and I I honestly have no idea what it's about and this this woman who was the Elder of this particular tribe called the mning people uh walked up to me uh and presented me with a male Swan's white feather which is about yay big and said you know can you help us you have you have a voice can you help us and I just kind of went well you know do I just continue being the Rock and roller or do I step up to the plate whatever that means and so I said Al did they want help with well I I'll I'll tell you initially you know um I I didn't know what the what their problems were I I imagined that it would be the same as most other indigenous tribes around the world that have had issues you know um and they said they said you know can you help us and I said I'll you know I'll do it for the children uh so I I I guess what I was
saying is the next Generation I can you know try and anyway so I I that this woman was called Irish she was the Elder she's since passed in the last year or so um um but I I spent 10 years making a documentary with a best friend Kim K Kindersley who who initiated this whole thing and we made a documentary called whale dreamers uh independent we had no money really behind it no sponsorship uh we w about eight International independent film Awards which was great um and but the backstory to this is that um is that Dad had said to me uh and I couldn't tell you when orware just was one of those times that we were together he just said that you know if something ever happens to me that I'll let you know that that that to let you know that I'm okay or that we're all going to be okay will be in the form of a white feather whoa so when I when that woman presented me with a white F feather sorry um you know the goose the Goosebumps came on heavy I get them now every time I talk about the story I'm getting them right now so yeah there she is there's Iris and there's bunner who's uh one of the other guys um that is so crazy I still have that that's I still have that in the original envelope that she gave it to me and it's you know it's a in a in a very special place at home I mean you can talk all about coincidences oh no listen that that for me I'm sorry that was undeniable regardless of where my faith or spirituality or religion was to me that was uh this is real this is as real as as it gets it's funny because people would people love to dismiss these things like oh hogwash oh it's just coincidence oh it's it could have been variety of different things and but the reality is mathematically like what are the odds just what are the odds that you would be contacted by an indigenous tribe and they would bring you the very thing that your father said he would provide you as proof yeah and I was in Australia number one at the time with salt water the the most environmental humanitarian song I've ever written and performed you know right uh yeah so so I said yeah I'll do what I can so we did made the film and then with the Advent of um of course um the internet I
I thought okay let's we we'll put a website together to to sell the film make some you know and and um and also said to my business manager I said if we make anything on this I said I want everything to go back to the the the moing people and and he said the only way that that can happen is if you have a foundation so initially the foundation was just a vehicle just to pass money along but I started the white feather Foundation to have again a vehicle to sell the um um the film and then slowly but surely I would start getting these emails from people over the years you know over time sorry um saying well you know can you help us and I'm going well I'm not really a foundation I'm just I did this project and I thought that was it anyway there were a few other there was lots of emails and I finally said well you know all right this is a platform let me see if I can okay what am I interested in what can I do what I you know there's plenty of other Charities out there there's plenty of other people doing other things but what can I do what's most important to me indigenous tribes were the first so the moaning people and then in fact in the film itself in Wale dream is the Kim the my director friend and director had already done um a segment of a film where he grouped 80 of the Elders of the world world's uh indigenous tribes 80 from around the world around a fire and just film them to to talk about their plight and what they had in common and the fact that their cultures and land were being taken away from them being destroyed etc etc so that were that became one of the first orders of the day protect the mning protect indigenous tribes around the world try to buy back their lands and protect their cultures and their people and try and support them in whatever way we can which is what we continue to do and I was in Kenya going to uh different uh schools and health clinics mostly girl schools uh I set up um um a scholarship in my mom's name the Cynthia Lennon scholarship for girls and so we send them to college and universities where they go great to learn how to protect their their people and their their families and cultures um
um and so we support you know we build health clinics and dormitories and we do because I mean the stories that I heard from these girls about having to walk to and from schools that took 3 to 6 hours and uh they'd be exhausted by the time they got to to home or to school and that they in order to you know get ahead they had to pass you know certain exams but they had the threat pretty much every day of being either raped or murdered um and they would literally stay in their own schools sleep in in the classrooms and convert them to dormitories at night so that they felt protected I mean it was and when they went home they were doing you know three hours of chores every night before they could do any homework and then go to sleep and then walk to school again so you'd hear these incredible stories that you just you just realize how lucky you are and so we we try to help again the indigenous we do help with health and education as far as uh young kids young girls across Africa uh Kenya and Ethiopia and also uh my last trip was uh to Colombia to South America to visit the the Koji tribe who were these insane uh people that chewed the cocoa leaves oh uh but they used to be fishermen years ago before the Spanish arrived in the 1600s and chased them off into the Sierra Nevada mountain is it C or cat yeah it's coces c yeah yeah and they they chew it and and um mix it with spit and then yeah they're they're all off their heads really but um but they still have this beautiful culture and I was only there for a few days and we were up in the mountains with them and we there there's another group um there's an NGO another group called The Amazon conservation team who the white feather Foundation worked with and we went down there and B was able to buy back some of their land land and we did a couple of Ceremonies with them um which were very very beautiful but one of the most uh I probably one of the happiest moments of my life and I've only mentioned this once or twice was that we came back down from the mountains and we came to the Sea where the we were staying in huts and uh and the coji tribe came down with us um it lit a fire on the beach St sun was was
just going down and there was no phones no computers no nothing and we're just sitting on the beach and the fire is between myself and the coji tribe and the sun's just going down and the waves are right in front and it's just very beautiful nobody on the beach old beautiful beaten up tree trunks that have washed up on the shore and just a little haze from the from the the the the the w water uh and the sand being blown and there was a piece that I can't explain that that I it was I looked over at them um and Through the Fire you know the the the Flames of the fire and we just smiled there was no words it was just some level of peace that had been found just living in that moment that Pres present moment and then the sun going down and then because there's no street lights or anything else around you saw every star in the sky possible and so with that transition hanging out with this one of the oldest tribes in South America um uh with the fire with the sea with the sky and the stars there was I can't even describe it it was one of the most loving and most peaceful moments of my entire life Wow the Simplicity of it it was actually the Simplicity of it all and just the human heart and the appreciation for the world that we live in and it's like well that's partly why I do what I do you know even with the photography is capturing those moments those once in the lifetime moments and the other thing was is that how I started doing photography is when I was on the road a lot you do these real long haul flights you know to to America or to to Asia or wherever and back in the day you only had one movie on a projector that was it you know you didn't have TV screens or the iPhones or or anything to watch anything you know so once the movie was done and you'd had a bit you know a bit of food or whatever that was it most people would go to sleep I would always be twitching of course so I'd be looking out the window and staring at the clouds and and I would I I realized that you know what I was seeing was literally just moments and they would never be again they would be gone fleeting that's it
whatever that cloud that light that shade that shadow the color the beauty of that the enormity of it as well was so I started taking pictures of clouds and I just thought that at these moments while everybody else was asleep on the plane I'd be sitting there looking out either thinking about everything that was on my mind in the world yeah or I'd be thinking of i' I'd be thinking of nothing at all and I'd just be at peace and again like that moment in in Colombia just uh absorbing everything that I found to be beautiful that was surrounded me you know so so clouds were my thing at first uh that was my moment to either get away or think about everything you know but mostly the that kind of element of freedom and space and just am I the onlyone seeing this everybody else is asleep distracted yeah so I started taking pictures of clouds and then you know I knew knew a few rock and rollers so I started taking pictures of those too and then one thing led to another because I'd go on these trips to Ethiopia with their great organizations like uh charity water um um and uh and again Kenya and South America and a number of other places I I just would take a camera with me because for the I and I have to confess and I've said this a few times I have the worst memory of anybody I know absolute terrible absolutely terrible um and uh so in a way this was taking a camera with me was to catalog what was going on and it was only when I got back home I put them on the screen and I go oh that's quite a nice picture oh that's not so bad what if I just did this that and the other and so I started making collections of my Journeys which eventually became my webs it and my photography um you know I've never done a paid gig as such and I've never used nothing that wasn't natural light or present light so I've never set anything up I've always tried to again get that moment whatever it was um and then you know I had the opportunity I I know I've gotone in a bit of a roundabout Circle but that you know they the the Publishers came to me earlier this year saying do you want to do a book and I'm thinking well yes and how do I do this and and because a lot of people don't know I'm a photographer
in any way shape or form I I I thought okay can I can I make it a retrospective can I can I make it all the stuff that I'm interested in you know because often as a photographer or even a musician you get or what is your favorite thing what do you take pictures of what do your songs about they're about everything why do they you know that's that you know the idea of being pigeon holded in any way shape or form horri horrifies me me too um so this was a a a way for me to show my work and it was a bit of a nightmare too because I had decided with the onset of this exhibition I'd been offered in in in Venice at this Museum alongside helmet Newton no less um uh uh why don't I try and marry the two so I have the book come out the same time as the exhibition now that meant working on the book like an absolute fruit cake madman on crack I mean we were doing 9 to 12 hours a day virtually because they he was based in the the uh the guy who I was working with from the Publishers um was based in Berlin and I was where I was so this would be virtual back and forth trying to figure out what makes a Photography book great um uh it was some it was something else we did it in a couple of weeks it was insane and the hardest job of it all was uh cuz I used to shoot anywhere between aund and 50 and 100 pictures for a collection I was never one of those that had like a limited edition of four or 10 pictures like you know again this was just a catalog of the work of what I'd seen and the the charity stuff um but then I had to you know in those moments I had to learn how to make a collection of 50 pictures five pictures I'm going well how the hell do I do that how am I going to do that so it's being able to tell the same story of 50 pictures in five pictures the problem is you know about the other 90 pictures well of course and as I keep saying they're all my babies so you know it's what it makes you realize is okay what's the truth what's the really really really important message I'm trying to get across here what am I trying to say what am I trying to express here you know cuz half the time I just feel like a you know a messenger really I'm just I'm capturing something and I'm sharing it and the reason I say
that is because once I studied getting into this a lot of the earlier emails I had were from disabled people or people that didn't have money that couldn't travel around the world and they would say well you're bringing this to us you know by taking these photos you're showing us your journey and where you've been and these indigenous tribes and this and that I'm going that's pretty that's really quite special that's really you know really quite special because you're taking on another role um because I try not to I've in whatever profession I've done whether it's documentary work or books or children's books or music I I never try and shove things down people's throats I just present things and you take what you want from them so the idea was to put a book together that just showed the world as I'd see it through those Journeys that I've been on um and what happened was that when we got to go ahead for this exhibition which was only earlier this year I was thinking how am I going to do that and that was going to I decided to make that a retrospective too but how do I then chop that many pictures down to that of this exhibition uh again I funnily enough the book became my guideline so what I'd learned in the editing process of putting the book together I now looked to that and the book to see how I could present the work on the in the larger scale in a museum and which was Bonkers you know and this this all happened this year so it's like okay all right I you know I'm going for the ride whether a you know I obviously want it but but you know when it all hits you at once it's it's quite something else um it's it's been a fullon full-on busy busy year and there's been music involved too and other other um documentary film Pro projects which you uh you'll probably hear about next year so it's it's it's probably been one of weirdly one of my busiest years even though it seems like you're enjoying yourself though I'm alive you know that's I think that's for me that's you know people say how are you I'm alive um and I I have always gone with things that have been presented to me organically uh anytime I've ever thought
that or or or or been pushed into situations uh never generally never works out I think for everybody that's true yeah so I you know I I I feel fortunate in that these things have come along and have have been in the right head space thankfully to go yes I want to I want to do this you know when you started shooting did you did you take classes and the technical aspects of photography I don't have a clue so did you what what kind of cameras are you using how did you learn how to use them I I I didn't I didn't I just like figured out how focus them same same with music I play by ear not a clue how to read or write music really yeah um and this I tell you this is one of my fears is that and I'll come back to this but um I because I'm not a practicing musician well I haven't been for years anyway because of all the other work that I do so um if I'm not on the road and I'm not practicing and I've got a terrible memory I forget and so you know I've been cored a few times and people say come on pick up the guitar or play the piano give a song I couldn't I couldn't even if you gave me a million bucks tomorrow I couldn't do it um my memory just doesn't work that way um and so if I and this is why my manager and I Rebecca we keep having chats about going on the road I said listen that if we're going to do this then this is this is a lot of work for me this is I have to relearn how to play my own songs and my lyrics and I kid you not wow um so so but you also have to relearn self-taught yeah yeah right so what would you do like have you done that in the past where you had to relearn yeah well what I yeah I mean the last tour I did with the album everything changes how do you scale it like how do you get going you just have to get in the room so you just get in the room and start get in the room with the guys you know the the the band that you put together generally I'll have one or two friends in the band you know and uh and I have generally played you know rhythm guitar uh uh or or a bit of piano for a couple of songs but I I have to relearn everything I mean it's it's it's uh and and then how long lyrics how long it take to relearn how to play well when
we were we we were we were actually setting up as I said to do a bunch of TV shows to promote the album um and I I was quite surprised about how quickly because the band was so good I walked into the room they had the songs down already and I just went oh [ __ ] [ __ ] I'm screwed um so that means again I have to step up to the plate um and it was just a question of being in there every day remembering learning the chords going over over over again and of course when I'm all this stuff that we were going to perform was all new material because when I write a song you know if if I've written the basics of a song in an hour or two you know and it's all there and then written the lyrics and then produced it recorded it and it's done that's the one and only or couple of times that I'll have ever played it m so it's it's almost a new song to me every time I come back to it it it's it's a real weird one so for the photography you I just took along basically a really good quality automatic camera that you know took the shots did you know what you were buying or did you just go buy one did someone help you no I'd ask a few friends like Timothy White say you know what could I use if I'm running around and uh and uh so I took their advice and uh I started with a very simple camera that was autofocus and all Compact and I didn't have to change lenses and that's one I did for a trip around the uh South China Seas on a boat trip I just took this one camera in my backpack and hope for the best and that wow I had a a show here at Leica in LA because it was a Leica camera uh which was about 50 images of the trip that I did um so um but I I I think where my strength lies in photography is uh weirdly not on the technical side obviously but uh capturing that moment um I tell you the one thing about the woman that's on the cover of the book so that's she is now the uh princess of Monaco Charlene originally Charlene wittock and I'd met her a couple of times and I'd met Prince Albert a couple of times and I got this call literally the day before they were getting married from a mutual friend saying uh Charlene loves your photography uh she wants you to come and
shoot the show what to yeah she wants you to come down to her where she is getting ready for the the Civil wedding tomorrow and she wants you to take pictures wow I mean you want to talk about anxiety and crapping yourself um so I excuse me I arrive at the hotel where she and all the maids of honors are I'm sitting sitting in the lobby and uh I've got a backpack and one one camera and I've tried to dress myself up a little bit I don't know what's going to happen I had to go through several layers of security you know road blocks and all this to get there which was uh nerve-wracking to say the least anyway and then the likes of Patrick deel you know one of the best photographers in the world walks in with you know um the suitcase trolleys you know those ones at the hotel on the big ones on Wheels with all his equipment on three or four trolleys and there's I've got a backpack you know um anyway I go upstairs I'm placed in front of her in a room probably about similar to this size and she's sitting there completely blanked out in front of the mirror with the hairdresser the hairdresser's assistant and their assistant the makeup artist the makeup artist assistant is that you yeah that's me yeah oh wow yeah so I I'm in the book a few times that'll be a qu questionnaire at one that'll be a quiz at one point how many times am I in the book um I don't even know myself to be honest um but I so I I sit next to her and you got all these people 20 people in the room this sign doing things trying to get her ready 10 minutes before she's getting married and they put me on this little poof next to her I'm sitting next to her and she's and I'm saying are you okay you know should I just take pictur she said Jules um I'm not sure what to do I don't know what to do I'm going what do you mean you don't know what to do about the marriage or me taking pictures I can't you know she said she said no no Jules I you know the the photos I I I said listen this is historic this is a once Ina lifetime opportunity to record what's going to happen to you you know and exciting for me too to be a part of
that as a photographer and so I said listen I'll keep out the way I'm fly on the wall you know I I won't be anywhere on and I was thinking how am I going to do this how do I do this and so I just start I just let people get on and I'm taking pictures and I get a um a message from Vogue vogue.com who want a photo from me the moment she's married and I'm thinking H okay um I'll just keep snapping away at whatever I do and I watch the Civil wedding and then I get get on my bik go home and I start putting things up on my on the screen and I'm looking at the pictures going I've got [ __ ] all I've got [ __ ] I can't th this looks like crap to me and this happens to me every time every [ __ ] time and I'm looking at the pictures going they look terrible they really really look ter blurred and [ __ ] and this and that and badly positioned and I'm cursing myself and um uh the one thing that I remembered that she said to me is that look whatever you do don't let any picture have me uh drinking or smoking in it and I went oh okay and the one thing that Vogue said to me is we want to see her smiling and the one picture where she was smiling and uh uh she had champagne uh in her hand and she had a cigarette and I'm going [ __ ] sake so okay I was not a Photoshop kind of guy but I managed to get rid of the cigarette and I'm thinking okay how do I get deal with the champagne [ __ ] and then the one thing occurred to me I I thought okay I I'll do it I'll I'll I I'll desaturate it not black and white but it'll have an there'll be elements of tones I'll make it you know so you can't see that it's champagne and I did that and I cropped it in a certain way and I I went that's it why didn't I think of this before you know 1930s 40s 50s Princess Grace black and white old school so then I turned every picture I had black and white uh well desaturated version similar to black and white of of the whole collection I had of her and it and cropped it in a way that it was like 1950s magazines you know it's just certain angles and a different look and a different feel was she okay with the champagne being in the photo well it was it didn't look like champagne it just
look like uh fizzy water and because they on the side there had been bottles of fizzy water and still water so that's that's cool uh she had to give me the uh the okay to do that you know when we decided that should be the cover of this book you know she I had to get her approval I mean I already had approval for you know having her pictures in a collection or a box set but not on the front cover of a book that may do well you know um have you ever been to Disneyland yeah oh God do you know uh all the pictures of Walt Disney have his cigarette photoshopped out of his hand no I did not in every picture you see him like this is that so yeah see if you can find some of those pictures because it's really interesting once you know that they photo shopped it um there's a guy that we've had as a tour there shout out to Flander awesome guy who works there and he gave us this sort of history of Walt Disney Walt Disney died of lung cancer right which you would think it would be probably a good thing to have the cigarette so people could know oh that poor guy that's what killed him but instead they've decided to whitewash it Photoshop so all of his photographs see that's too funny look at his fingers are always in a position where he would have a cigarette all of them that's so funny those those real moments of him having a cigarette are lost forever whose idea was it to get rid of the cigarettes Disneyland you know Disneyland did not yeah I mean let's see if there's a person it says there it says the action seemingly innocuous at first but it's apparently a murky tribute to Walt Disney's smoking habits with the company Sid stepping around the reason as to why the icon pointed that way writes huff post it's been long speculated about the anonymous employee was informed by a lead that the strange gesture from the cast members Disney park is actually based on Walt's old smoking habit so people do that two-finger gesture to each other yeah that's crazy alleged began training employees to do the same thing part tribute to the great man part rewriting history so they tried to pretend that that thing that he was doing like Tom Hanks when he played him he did that thing with his finger but it's all [ __ ] he was a cigarette smoker like like a constant cigarette
smoker oh yeah I was one of those is there any photos of him with a cigarette you're talking about it in 2014 oh that's me that's funny well that's when I found out about it that's when uh Flander gave us they stopped doing it then right around then oh God gotcha I got you [ __ ] I got them all to stop doing it cuz it's [ __ ] stupid like the guy Smoked Cigarettes yeah smoking cigarettes is bad for you he died from smoking cigarettes probably let people know it's you're doing a disservice to the whole world you know sure and also it's you know it's a part of history and the fact that so many people were unaware of the dangers of smoking cigarettes all day and it's so insanely used to be an insane smoker yeah how'd you quit cold turkey wow yeah I'd be one of those guys that would wake up at 4: in the morning and light up a cigarette and then go back to sleep um wow or I take uh uh took about two or three packs out with me of an evening really oh yeah because I knew half of the people would Nick half of my cigarettes so I wanted to have backup um boy no I when the whole no smoking law came in you know Italy was one of the first and Ireland yeah it was I think it was California that initiated it mhm and then Europe took it on board and it was actually Italy and Ireland and I was in both of those places and it was extremely weird to go into any especially in Italy and island in the pubs mhm and for it to be a smokefree environment and that was just so weird because it was part of the norm of back in the day that you'd be in a cloud of stinky cigarette smoke in any of those locations Norm at comedy clubs yeah yeah I would go home from comedy clubs every night smelling like cigarettes always the whole audience would be smoking and as a smoker you don't think you're not conscious of how other people how you stink as well right which you know um because it was funny I when when I quit cold turkey I I did it I did it because um I didn't want anybody to tell me I couldn't smoke I was such a brat that's why you quit called turkey I quit called turkey because I wanted to be a I wanted to tell myself I couldn't smoke not for you to tell me I couldn't [Music] smoke how rough was it uh that's what uh brought me down into a depression for a
couple of years oh yeah because I I I listen I started smoking at the age of probably 11 or 12 as part of my local gang you know that I used to be in as a kid um that's what you did you know you nicked Sig Sig siggies from your parents and you found the back of the school and that was part of the initiation you know the part of growing up so um and I loved it because for me when I became uh noticed uh as uh as a a musician you I again with my anxiety and I was a very shy kid very very shy kid still can be at times depending on how I feel that day but um um I would uh yeah I would cigarette for me was my best friend you know I'd go to a bar and I'd be able to I'd be the you know not the cool guy at the bar but certainly that would be my way of not having to interact with people right you know I'd just sit there and you know be a rocker and smoke my Siggy and down my Jack Daniels and it's like leave me the [ __ ] alone you know right uh unless I you know wanted wanted to talk so that was the groove back then and then when I gave that up you know instantly it was like what do I do how do I F in that void wow I actually had to speak to people um is that what caused the depression well no no no it was actually I feel it was definitely a chemical thing because again that I I was I was smoking couple of packs a day you know I loved smoking um and the the weird did you consider going back just to alleviate the depression I I was actually uh a business manager friend of mine at the time said saw me at one stage and said Jules pick up a [ __ ] cigarette please seriously he said you're you're you're going to you're going to die the way you're going wow pick up a cigarette cuz you're going to die without it yeah that was literally his sentiment wow and it was a few years where it was very very dark and it was the cigarettes no question about C did you try patches or gum yeah I did all of that stuff did it help um not really you know I I loved that deep inhale and it's the delivery method it's different than anything else and the thing was I would still challenge most good singing friends of mine um that I could um hold my breath or do um lengths in a swimming pool underwater and hold my breath better than anybody
else which I was able to um and it's because I was such a deep deep smoker when I inhaled I really really inhaled so it was like lung exercises it literally literally and I you know I went I remember going for my certain yeah seriously I'm I consider myself a shallow breather now in comparison except for when I go on these kind of power walks you know wow trying to trying to get it all in anymore but yeah I know I bought a little apparatus which I've I still haven't I've been procrastinating about it but it's it's an exerciser that's like I one of those yeah to expand trainer yeah there you go so I haven't done it yet you put like little lenses on it or little you just change the inhalation uh volume l back and forth so you just train to my friend boss rotin created one very good I I I mean I I know that they work I just haven't gotten around to it but you know that's well just breathing exercises alone are great yeah you you can achieve some very bizarre Altered States Of Consciousness through breathing exercises well when I was I mean I um you know the the covid experience was very very different for very many people and where I was in the in Monaco in France uh you weren't allowed to leave your house without written paperwork to the police that you're going out for one hour and you could only go within one kilometer unless you were going to get groceries where you could only go out for I don't know limited amount of time um if you didn't have the paperwork with you you'd be fined and so I you know um I I started started doing using quite a few apps to calm myself and and take on deep breath and a deep focus because I I felt trapped especially as someone who loved walking Who Loved biking who loved exploring all of that stuff and I couldn't move and the the here's the really annoying thing was that uh where I was was quite close to the Sea um couple hundred yards away um but as I said I could only be in a 1 kilometer circle from where I was but that half of that was in the sea and and so I could walk left and right to try and get 5K in back and forth you know at least 5K to try and get a good Walkin but you weren't allowed on the beach
which was the most to sit there and contemplate and breathe and just you know try and relax one of the healthiest things you can do yeah you couldn't you weren't allowed to do that everyone lost their [ __ ] mind and it was really strange in California they were arresting people the Coast Guard was arresting people for surfing like I know it's the insane I I remember going on my first power walk along a peninsula that's about 15 minutes out of Monaco and it's somewhere I go every once in a while and it was a really quite blustery day and it's right along the coastline rocks high winds the whole thing and I'm walking power walking along thinking I'm finally free I'm finally free good anyway so along the path ahead of me about quarter of a mile see the number of bobbing heads so okay and I wasn't wearing a mask you had to wear a mask even when you're at Power walking on your own because of Science of course genius well you know let's not get into that but um yeah and um so over the ridge they come and and I noticed that one of the person at the front is wearing a a police hat oh great and so oh [ __ ] so I'm trying to scramble putting my mask on and he's taking out going for a run with a bunch of trainers trainees you know um about eight eight other people from the police force and they're all gunned up and truned and everything else and the GU is going off on me in French saying where your [ __ ] mask you know you and I'm going and I'm and he says to me you know I understand a little bit good amount of French and I can speak a little bit but I he said who are you with and I'm I'm looking around there's nobody for half a mile anywhere near me and he's asking me who am I with and I'm thinking what's that about this is the weirdest scenario I'm in the middle of nowhere yeah on a rocky Peninsula and he's asking me who I'm with and there's no and you know if to put my mask back on otherwise I'd be in trouble and it was just the most Sur Real peculiar yeah circumstance to be you know well you could have never imagined it before the pandemic you could have never imagined a scenario where people would be that illogical wearing a mask outside illogical not
being able to go to the beach illogical I still love the fact that you see people sitting on their own in cars today wearing a mask yeah well if you go to Los Angeles my friend just went to a party and uh he sent me a photograph he's like I'm at a Hollywood party everyone's wearing a [ __ ] mask these people are in a cult like it's very it first of all if you haven't read the house the 500 page um synopsis on how what all went wrong with Co there the everyone should read it just understand the whole six feet distance all that stuff is all made up it's all [ __ ] but masks don't work they don't work unless you have like a face fitting mass and even that you're getting oxygen in the the particle like viral particles in the oxygen are smaller than Vape particles right like if you vape with one of those things on then put it out and then or you take a big deep breath put the mask on The Vape will come right through the [ __ ] mask so will the virus right like this is not real you're you're pretending and its forced compliance illogical forced compliance which was very disturbing it was very disturbing to for me to see how many people were reinforcing that too how many people were yelling at other people it gave people a a wonderful opportunity to be [ __ ] where they could yell at people for not having a mask on but outside like really the logic uh it was out the window but it was also really fascinating to watch human nature the human nature of uh first of all that people really do enjoy controlling people they really do enjoy telling people what the rules are and punishing people who disobey the rules even if they don't make any sense and then also watching people comply knowing it's illogical and and being upset at everyone that points out that it's illogical that just doesn't make any sense like you're the enemy because you're not going along with it you're making it harder for us we have to get through this like how are is this real yeah yeah strange range yeah no I yeah stay away from everybody that's the the only only solution or go to a place well I came here well they didn't Embrace any of that like I was in Los Angeles which is like the the most compliant Place everybody was all in all in on the the the public narrative that was being
expressed through the mainstream media all in on you know everybody who denies it is a anti-science person and you're anti- this and anti that and just get that vaccine and just get on board with this beautiful little thing we're going to do we're going to get through this together as long as everyone complies and if you don't comply and if your neighbors aren't complying here's a number you can call people started ratting out their neighbors nasty it was like a it was a program that they the mayor of Los Angeles ran like normally snitches get stitches but this way snitches get rewards like they were giving them money giving people money to rat out their neighbors for having parties yeah it's be all messed up oh so strange and it doesn't seem real like my friend people are eager as well to join that club eager so happy they're part of it my friend Assan um found a pair of pants that he was in his apartment and he pulled out a mask out of the pocket it's like [ __ ] what was the last time I wore these yeah there's a mask and when you see a mask like and you realize like I had a mask that was in my truck that was in like one of the back little little compartments on the side just happened to be sitting there and I was cleaning the truck off I'm like look at this [ __ ] stupid thing but just this was just two years ago yeah you had to have these things you wanted to get on a plane seems like a bad dream it does it's like Disney and the [ __ ] the cigarettes like are they going to photoshop out all these people's masks the sural I mean so strange it really is it's all a bit odd well hopefully I I still don't get it I don't get any of it you shouldn't hopefully these viruses that they especially those released don't wind up becoming the next one I used to think there's no way that people would want that to happen I'm not so sure anymore no after this last go around I'm like boy there might be like Sinister factors at work here that I don't yeah I'm sure of sure of that and I was unwilling to ever think that way before I was like come on that's stupid no one's that evil oh yeah no one would do that just for profit and now I'm like I don't know they probably would they would yeah they would no question so strange it's so strange and then you know that I think the frustration of the
over complicated over regulated overcontrolled world is probably what accentuates the experience of you being in South America with a fire looking at the stars yeah you know because there's a purity to that that especially no phones no computer no screens no nothing just human beings enying an experience on the planet it's funny because I'm in the process of moving I mean I still have my base in Monaco but the the place little place I had outside I I'm a lot of my later teenage years were uh mom uh remarried a couple of times but we were we were in the North Wales I don't know if you're familiar with North Wales or Wales in general no it's mountains you know sheep and mountains and uh so um yeah I I we lived in Farmland on farmland and uh I used to work on a farm too so I I loved and that's where I actually learned how to ride a motorbike you know on farmland and Through Rivers and Enduro and stuff like that and uh so I've always loved that element of of country side I always like the the excitement of a city and the people and the energy but there's also that that other side of peace and quiet and bird song and running water yeah yeah so I the keys like a little bit of New York City little bit of mountains that's that's the key to life yeah so I I'm in the process of uh I've just and I hate this terminology forever home but I I I I certainly think it's a place that I'll be for a while because you hate the terminology of home no the forever the this is going to be my forever home just so yeah um I like moving I really enjoyed moving here I like getting up and just being in a new place yeah I think it's good for the brain I think I i' I'd been at the same place for over 26 years through some very good things but some pretty dark moments as well whether that's relationships or friendships and things like that and I I finally decided a few years to go I need to change where you going I I'm I'm very close by I mean I'm literally 15 minutes away but it's just a different environment up in the mountains okay uh surrounded by you know um beautiful old oak trees and uh walking PS and I mean I know I sound like I'm going turning old all of a
sudden no you sound like someone who appreciates beautiful things I just want I you know and the funny thing is when I went to see this place for the first time my shoulders just dropped I just and it was I don't want to leave here you know I I I I you know and the rest of the world seemed very alien after walking onto this prop I just went okay a couple of acres of land surrounded by beautiful old trees and uh peace and quiet and I have thoughts on that I think that nature is a vitamin that we don't know we need absolutely no question about it yeah you get it and then you're filled up and you're like oh this is what I was missing I mean that also the whole you know tree hugging earthing thing you know I I believe absolutely 100% it's real it's real feel better I mean scient scientifically proven that it uh yeah we have a connection to Earth that's been muted by our shoes correct this is very very true yeah it's weird it's weird to think that way but it's absolutely correct you know you can I I'm and I I have done this too that you can get earthing sheets yeah that you can sleep on I I don't know I you know I I sleep on one I don't know if it works or not it probably does something yeah but what that's I don't know just get outside yeah I think get outside's the move and if you can get outside barefoot it's even better this is very very true I was the other day I was playing with my dog in the backyard and I was throwing the ball for him and he just decid some sometimes he's kind of lazy sometimes he just decides to lay down so I just sat down with him and it was this this amazing moment of him just wagging his tail you know me petting him and just sitting in the yard just trees and birds and just beautiful that's it ATI beautiful peaceful moment that I just experienced with my dog that's it two of us chilling that's it really really it was a beautiful moment I was thinking in that in that time like this is so simple it's just a simple beautiful moment and you know if you try to explain it to people most people are probably not going to get it okay yeah you and your dog you love your dog like no it's not it no it's like it was just life it was just like this moment of life just recognizing and also not
thinking about anything else which is also beautiful not thinking about Gaza not thinking about it's about that little moment of appreciation here and now thank you very much and how how that can be Beyond beneficial to you on but then like even explaining that unfortunately has been co-opted by the term mindfulness which is so often used by grifters and like fake gurus and dorks and just it's one of those words say it you're like mindfulness I hate saying it I'm a spiritual person oh shut the [ __ ] up shut the [ __ ] up I can't take it you know it's like I get it but those terms are valuable it's like the term God it's like it's a valuable term love is a valuable term yes but so often they just get ruined just by insincerity or just by people who use it as a way to define themselves hijacked is they've been hijacked yeah that's it for yeah which is very sad actually because it just yeah we could take it back probably we can take it back from those hijackers [ __ ] them I'm in I'm in yeah I mean um there's uh do you know who Alex Gray is no Alex Gray is a Visionary artist he does a lot of like very very intricate psychedelic pieces that are like iconic he's very famous in like the psych World his his stuff is really I've seen I'm sure you have he's very very famous oh yeah but um we were talking about this and he said that he took the the the term God back because he's like I think the term God has been co-opted by this idea of these totalitarian religions that impose very strict rules and Dogma on people he's like I don't think we should stop using that word just because of that I think we can kind of take that word back it would be good too yeah well I think he kind of has he actually has a church really now yeah yeah yeah he and it's like he had to go through a whole thing to acquire you know tax exempt status but his church is this insane building that is all 3D printed with his type of psychedelic artwork so it looks like some insane like magical spiritual Retreat that you would find somewhere like see if we can find it's called a chapel of sacred mirrors where is this Upstate New York Upstate New York really so it's not that far from the city you
can get there fairly quickly and it's you know a completely different world and he's got this church up there that's filled with his insane artwork but this church itself is a piece of artwork like the outside of it the way you know he has a lot of these images of these faces that are like multiple like multiple sides of faces all connected together and this is like this oh wow yeah so this is the outside of his building it's really incredible that's the building W isn't that amazing so the building is very very much like his type of tryptamine inspired art where like you know you all these third eyes like in a fractal form of this geometric pattern on the roof and everything is like that it's really amazing phenomenal and you know he been working on it forever what is is he professing anything I don't know what his keep is there an order as such I mean that's Alex when he was very young yeah um but he's been you know in the sort of psychedelic space and psychedelic art space forever and he had this uh incredible place in New York City and then he decided to do this whole church just click it right there and just like play it out I don't really know what the video is okay it's 20 minutes long I see so a lot of his so that's his wife is this derived from yeah yeah like acid and magic magic mushrooms it says it right there it comes out of the Psychedelic experience okay yeah yeah he's been a longtime proponent of psychedelics just a very very interesting guy and his artwork is just incredible like really but like probably the most accurate encapsulation of these experiences in you know in an artistic form really wild stuff and again this is you know he's the way he's got it set up now he's in the woods so he's in this beautiful like rural area and then he's got this incedible Chapel that's up there so it's pretty [ __ ] cool well I'm I'm certainly a believer in other Realms that we don't see on a daily B basis yeah I mean I've had I've had a few experiences that would whether whether that's a Dream Within a dream or whether it's reality I don't actually know well one of the things that I've talked to about uh with with uh some
pretty insanely brilliant people is quantum Computing oh yes and this new Google quantum computer that can do essentially the way a quantum computer works a a a problem that would take thousands of years for every computer on Earth to solve it can solve in a second something that can take more years than you literally can understand it could be solved in 15 minutes yeah I read that it's insane and this is where it gets really weird the way it was explained to me and we should have to Google how quantum computers work and why people connect them to the Multiverse so I don't [ __ ] this up but the idea is that they're pulling answers from different universes simultaneously they don't even completely understand how this is working but the amount of power in Computing is incomprehensible incomprehensible yeah like you're only looking at it and there's numbers you could write all those numbers out but your brain's not capable of grasping really what's going on and it's probably the biggest breakthrough technologically in human history by a long stretch and it's all happening without most people even being aware of what the implications are so see if you can Google an explanation of how quantum computers work was it Mark andrion that was explaining to us that it's pulling from different universes no no that is being talked about in the wording of the willow description right um but I also just to add when I was reading about this they said that these Benchmark numbers are coming off of Google's own data um like they're the ones that set like the scale of mhm what some of the quantum are youal is that what you're saying I'm I'm just no you call [ __ ] on Google no not at all not at all not at all no no I'm just a grain of salt like just to say that like it I think they use tillan is the number or something like that that no one even can grasp that yeah that's just based but that's a number based off of their formula too right that's all right what is the the definition of how it works the way it pulls from multi multi- univers I think the I'm trying to find it uh but I think the understanding I got from it was it's just too powerful
to from our universe alone you'd have to have more more than one and I like that's just like what does that mean exactly what does that mean right what what is that thing that they have and if you ever seen the chip itself the chip itself is very small yeah it's like the size of a Saltine cracker yeah and then this entire mechanism around it is just the insane amount of cooling Okay Google's Quantum AI founder said the performance gains Le lead lend excuse me performance gains lends Credence to the idea that we live in a Multiverse the idea is that Willow might be communicating with parallel universes to finish calculations faster like what what does that mean the announcement LED Google's already high stock price to Surge which isn't that shocking but perhaps most surprising for us lay people that Google's Quantum AI founder and Lead harmit Nevan said that the Chip's performance lends Credence to the notion that Quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes in line with the idea that we live in a Multiverse and then it says excuse me the this obviously has caused a bit of a stir and isn't and it isn't exactly clear on how he made that leap it sounds a bit like something out of a sci-fi movie and I'm definitely not going to pretend I'm an expert but it's worth pointing out that Google is very much still in the theoretical research phase of this journey this is very weird stuff an evolving scientific field that even people working on it don't fully understand what okay here here's what is a quantum computer let's explain this yeah the computer we use every day and have been uh iterating on for the past several decades are known are what is known as a classical computer essentially a classical computer utilizes binary as its language of choice a bit in the smallest unit unit of of data that a computer can store and process is like a light switch each bit can only be in a single state at a time on or off which is represented by zero or one computers track data based on the language of bits literally anything our computers do is based on a network of onoff switches sending a particular signal a quantum computer is a bit different if you're familiar with the concept of superposition or
Schrodinger's cat this won't be too far of a stretch but a Quantum bit or Cubit is capable of representing the potential of multiple States at once rather than only recording a one or a zero it records both because it can be both this allows a chip like Willow which has 105 cubits to perform incredibly complicated analytics in a fraction of a time a classical computer could and how does it work so let's boil it down to a very small example if you have two bits which can return a value of one or zero there are four potential states that it can be recorded 0 0 0 1 1 1 and 1 0 if each of these states takes 1 second to record it' take a classical computer 4 seconds to record every position permutation every possible permutation a quantum computer made up of two cubits however would be able to send to record the potential of each Cubit at once meaning it could record all four positions all four possible States in 1 second the real power here is is achieved when you add a much higher number of cubits together and try to record every possible State once again something that would take a classical computer far longer can be achieved quickly because a quantum computer can record a number of potential States at once rather than one of a time okay we basically don't know what the [ __ ] we're saying here this is just too weird that's okay so this is what it is one of the world's most advanced classical computers um okay here it is with the this this this problem so ai's founder and Lead uh harut nean said that the new chip had performed a purposefully complicated exercise called a random circuit sampling Benchmark in 5 minutes one of the world's most advanced classical supercomputers on the other hand it would take 10 and then three Z three Z three Z three Z three Z three Z three Z three zos three zos years to perform the same exercise that's 10 septian years which exceeds known time scales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe so it can do more time than vastly exceeds the entire age of the universe and it can do it in five minutes the reason it could achieve such a Monumental Improvement in calculating capacity is because Willow is made up of 105 cubits and contract the potential of each of those at once
allowing it to record potential data much faster and come to the right answer sooner so like what is happening that's too much information what is what what do you mean I get it but I don't get it what I I don't get how does that prove the Multiverse or provide evidence that the Multiverse is real like and that it's getting it from parallel universes like what are we even saying here but it couldn't come up with those answers within the allotted times span that's yeah what [ __ ] I can't even I can't even explain I mean funnily enough this is that my brother's into all of this stuff Sean he's in simpler language he he would he would probably be able to explain it to you Sean he's like well he would give it a shot he would certainly I think he was the one that was probably explaining it to us in simpler language Willow is doing one calculation while an unknown number of willows in other universes parallel to our own are doing their own calculations and they are sharing that data to avoid needing to individually do every possible calculation to finish the equation what the [ __ ] does that mean how are they sharing data between universes I don't know ask Nevin remember this is all theoretical and doesn't prove anything but Nevan is saying that the fact that chip can outperform outperform our best supercomputers by such a wide margin means that it might have broken Newton's Theory of physics yo what does it say under that Jamie what does this mean for me keep that going keep put that back on scroll up a little bit right here okay this is what I wanted to look at at this point uh it's an exciting look what Computing might take one day but it isn't something you're going to see in your next pixel phone Quantum chips need be isolated incredibly specific Chambers yeah this is the thing it's cooler than it has to be cooled to a point where it's colder than outer space sealed away from any possible signals such as microwaves radiation radio signals etc for fear of that noise leading to potential mistakes and have specific signals delivered by purpose-built wires who figured this out where are those egg heads Jesus CH how did they even come up with that if that has to be the case I
don't how did they figure out that you have to do that all of it that's that's just brain damage that's one of the most humbling things that I've found about doing this podcast is realizing how genuinely dumb we are in comparison to the amount of information that's available no question and and dumb and I'm saying is like not just uninformed but incapable even if given the information of grasping exactly what these Apex minds are thinking and working on right now along with at the same time people just living in rello just having an espresso and a cigarette and getting a slice of pizza maybe they realize and they just just say [ __ ] it yeah but it seems like the human race desires all things the human race desires people like yourself who are enjoy photography and travel and this beautiful experience of life but it also sort of requires people to be at this bizarre Cutting Edge of science where it seems to be violating the known laws of physics like all those things I it it hurts my brain I um I I mean I'd love to know more well just think about what we're doing right now just think about what we're doing how a TV works or the radio I'm still not I'm still back there what what makes this louder what makes the microphone carry our voice what how is this being encoded into uh like a form that's going to be instantaneously delivered to millions of people so millions of people are hearing this right now like as it gets to them not right right now but once it gets released the millions of people that are hearing this are getting it through the sky on their phone I [Laughter] resign I truly resign on that level I can't I can't doesn't no I can't either but it's pretty amazing it's pretty it's amazing time to be alive fascinated by every day and that that's why with subjects that are happening with AI right now I find in massive intriguing because there is an element to that that may allow me to understand a great deal more you know before it's too late I think we're the last of the regular people it's quite possible I think this this experience that we we're having this experience that you're having like on a motorcycle with no signal just
driving through the countryside like just being alive I think we're the last of those people I think what's next even that sounds like a dream though I know you know I mean just the whole concept of that is dreamworthy um yeah I I mean I I have a number of theories on who we are and where we came from and what are theor UFOs what do you think well I you know to some degree I'd always felt even as a as a young kid that that UFOs Were Us coming back for history lessons um basically and that the the the V were driven by uh our minds anyway um uh but I I mean I've I've seen as dad had also seen a UFO I've clearly seen a UFO what' you say I was actually here's the weird thing I was actually on my way to I think visit dad in New York I think it was New York which is where he'd seen one on the um Upper East Side in an apartment that I visit Ed I went to see him at um he's standing on the roof of this apartment where he he was living at the time and um you know he he it's on film he clearly says this thing came along I can tell you exactly what it looked like went up the Hudson went under the bridge and then Zapped off my exper I've had two experiences but the the most profound was funnily enough was one of those flights on good old tww um and I was in the front part of the plane and I'd I was had been given cuz I was quite young maybe anywhere between 8 and 10 I don't know 11: maybe and I was going to see Dad for one of the first times in the US and the guy that was escorting me over uh gave me a one of those first time i' D seen them one of those books that had blank pages I thought wow those are weird you know I quite unusual I'd never seen them over in England before just these hardback black covered books with nothing inside so I had one of those and a coloring set so I was I guess relatively young everybody had watched the movie everybody had gone to sleep I was staring out the bloody window as I normally do and I was in front of the wing on the right hand side and I'm just staring out at the stars literally and I kid you not um all of a sudden I I I I I see your archetypal UFO
with the lights around uh light on top it was silver uh or you know have a reflective uh metal um with white lights all the way P pulsating white lights all the way around it stayed there I can't tell you how long how far away from the plane was it was right there it was uh 50 ft 50 ft from the wing of the plane yeah yeah in front of the wing of the plane did anybody else notice it nobody else was there everybody else was asleep um uh there was no stewardesses there was no nobody was around what about the pilots I don't that that I don't know all I know is what I saw God I would have want to asked them I I just I guess I was kind of freaked out or just okay with it I don't I can't even how old were you at the D any you know 8 9 10 11 something like that and how big do you think it was I I would say it seemed about the radius would be about the width of this room wow but what happened was uh so I watched it for a few seconds but I I knew we were going along like somewhere in between 3 and 500 miles an hour I think the old big old uh 747s used to reach that kind of speed and um it just started doing this going up at at the same speed and and I'm watching it through the window going up and over and there was nobody in the in the seats on the other side and so I ran to the other side and and was at the window like this and it was I was at a seat or two in front of where I actually was in here and it came down the other side uh this is on my mother's life I came down on the other side uh and and and sort of pitched itself there for a few seconds proceeded to move forward like Rel what looked like relatively quite slow and then literally just went and disappeared it forward and that was there and I and that was at sunrise literally just turning to Sunrise cuz I actually the book I had I drew the whole thing and the light and what it looked like you still have those drawings [ __ ] no damn tell me about it I I don't know what happened to that but uh as clear as they as clear as they uh on my life my mother's life I I did you and this going to sound crazy did you
have a sense that that was for you that you weren't just seeing something but that maybe that was for you I could have taken that yeah angle like well I mean there's been moments in in my life certainly that I felt things have happened at a particular time for me to notice things um that it was related to my life experience I mean I half of the things I couldn't tell you what they were but I mean white feather was an example of that right uh where for me that was an that was a undoubtably a sign a relevant sign that made me certainly feel that and I'd had other experiences that that was uh a real connection a real message H um indirectly yeah well the white feather is so profound it's so it's so intensely on the nose that it's very difficult to dismiss and I know there's a lot of like hyper rational people that would like to dismiss it it's just it's a coincidence it's this um my question is are you sure are you sure you know I don't think we are I think this concept of the Divine this concept of being something else has existed throughout the entirety there's all kinds of stuff going on I mean I've I've seen I was invited to a location where I was staying um and I I had this uh experience where I saw uh quite clearly I was I was on my own again of course um and I was looking out to the Sea this was down in Mexico and and I was literally just kind of drifting off and I without question uh at least I believe so I saw to me what looked like Mayan Indians seethrough dancing around a fire and I went what the [ __ ] I mean I really uh kind of got a little scared I went what am I seeing how am I seeing this why anyway it was all a bit weird and at The Breakfast Table the next day and I'd never been to this place before I was invited down as a guest and I and the host Hostess said uh you know how did you sleep is everything all right did you I said well I don't want to say anything but um I think I saw some uh seethrough mine Indians last night oh now you didn't know that this was uh
built on a m Indian burial ground said shut the front door she said uh uh that freaked me out firstly then then of course she she comes back into the room with a tray of artifacts you know uh uh spearheads and a few other things and other tools that they use but then she came she did one better she came goes and brings in a book that's very very thick book with the generations of May and civilizations that have been there before and so she says you know have a look and I'm flipping through the books the book and I see the exact headdress and skirt that they were wearing and the exact colors of those headdresses it was two-tone it was like an earth color and a uh sky blue kind of that that color and that's uh in in a particular um Arrangement on their headdresses and on the on on the skirts and uh and I said that's them and they said oh yeah that would that was the particular era and that's uh where we got where the where the property was built on and uh and I just went well okay all right that just to me I'm sorry that just says between between the between that and the white feather um yeah and there's one or two other incidentes I just went yeah there's so much more [ __ ] that we don't know that lives and breathes and exists around and there was something written the other day also uh whether it's today or yesterday saying that you know our ears and our our eyes can only see so much right you know humans right that there exists so much more that we don't have a clue about right so I'm just going okay there's this this if only we have to go back to the idea that eyes didn't EX exist at one point in time they were single celled organisms yeah right and then they became multicell organisms and then they developed simultaneous eyesight in the ocean and on land and then this idea that your eyes allow you to see so therefore you're seeing everything is kind of silly because before the eyes existed there was no perception not using light there was no way you could see things yeah so why would we assume that this is all that the senses could potentially interact
with that maybe we just don't have them and maybe this is what I've said a lot about like psychic communication and telekinesis and all these different things yeah I think there are emerging emerging properties of human consciousness that haven't achieved like a fullblown integration yet yeah and my my real suspicion is that the biological evolution ution is not going to make it there in time and that the technological evolution is going to intervene and push us just like that UFO disappeared in space just took off I have a feeling that the next leap of change that's going to happen with human beings is going to be technologically driven and Monumental yeah in a way that you you won't be able to even imagine life without it it's scary but it's also it's like it's scary to not be a monkey anymore and to be in a taxi cab you know it's you know but that happened yeah you know it's scary to not you know have to walk everywhere and then all a sudden you're flying in a plane oh that is kind of I would love to be a you know a fly in the wall oh my God I would have the fly for me flying the wall would be like ancient Egypt I would love to see what was going on when they were making the pyramids yeah oh yeah that's my number one place in history the next would be what was it like when genghiskhan was running through Asia what was that like you know those those are two just yeah yeah there's there's a lot of unanswered things out there but uh I I I'm a um you know I I make the odd documentary so I'm I'm a documentary uh Watcher uh whenever I can really that's sometimes it's either Anthony Bourdain or a documentary that puts me to sleep most evenings um after after watching them not during right um but yeah no so I I'm I I I'm I thirst for information half the time whether I retain it or not it's another thing but I certainly am driven to absorb uh what I can as am I I I think that I I try to especially as I get older to be more open-minded and less dismissive of all this bizarre stuff like ghosts like the like I think essenti what's your what's your take I think certain memories are so potent and that the energy that's created by these moments is so potent that sometimes it lingers and sometimes it's available and
sometimes it's not and it depends on the state of the people the the the State of Consciousness that they've acquired the level of anxiety they're currently experiencing the level of stress where they are in the world the solar Cycles the [ __ ] I think all these factors come into play and occasionally people see Whispers of the past or maybe it's not even that it's the past maybe it's those things are happening they're just not happening in this level of the Multiverse and that all things that have ever happened are happening simultaneously all at once in this very bizarre structure that the universe is actually made out of but we're only capable of seeing 3D space what's currently available what's in front of me right now what am I going to eat for dinner you know like we have a very limited view of this thing that is impossible to grasp just like those numbers of septian whatever it's impossible you can't you can't grasp it I have a feeling that's everything I think everything like that that kung fu movie everything all at once I think that's there's probably a lot to that there's probably a lot to that this isn't a binary experience this is this probably is we get to understand some of it it's kind of fun to not and kind of fun to like speculate one day yeah but the qu question is once you do know would that be better would it be better or is is there I mean do you have to know everything you know just give us a hint well you might the problem is you might know everything you know you know problem they that's what many say that it's you're just remembering things well that's true too right that information is essentially you're pulling it out of the air you're like ideas you're pulling ideas out it's all in the who gets there first yeah well do you feel like that way with your music sometimes like that ideas just sort of come to you from the M absolutely yeah I think everybody does no question about it yeah um even with photography I think IDE like there's something that tells you to capture this thing it's going to resonate with no no question about it I I mean one of my my favorite pictures in the in the book is one called hope and it's of this little girl in Ethiopia that um I was actually there to take a photograph of this person who was
cutting the ribbon to open uh a new freshwater well and I just heard this noise behind me and I we were under a plastic cover it was sweltering out there and uh again because I'm shy and I don't set things up I maybe it's like a gorilla Street shot you know and I just I just had this feeling that I needed to turn around and and I did turn around and I just saw this young girl just kind of looking at me like the anything I can say is that again that that that everything's going to be all right that for this little girl there to kind of go it's okay we're going to be okay you know that's that's the impression I got from her it's it was just this look it's kind of like that n Geo moment you know yeah and I literally span around uh snapped the shot and turned around and never looked back again and when I did WOW she'd gone she was with a group of friends and I didn't actually know if I'd got the shot cuz cuz again my eyesight's not the best and and I certainly couldn't see it properly on the back of my camera in the middle of a bloody desert um so it was only when I got back to the hotel and put it into the uh the computer that I went oh but that but that face to me was just like this we're going to be okay yeah and I don't know those kind of moments give me some kind of as I called it hope you know that uh that uh we'll do okay at the end of the day you know but that's a very human element and very you know um warm embrace uh which I choose to you know kind of take on board as opposed to think that it's uh it's anything other than that really I I share that thought I think we're going to be okay but I think that there has to be the possibility that we're not going to be okay for us to appreciate that we're going to be okay correct yeah correct it's the yin and yang it's the balance thing again that the horrors of the world to recognize the beauty correct yeah yeah and I I think quite a few people are recognizing that too I mean there's there's obviously some horrible stuff going on right now but the at the other end of it there's also recognition that we we should take care of each other and we should look after
this place that we call home you know um and I don't mean in that soy hippie way either it's like genuine you know um concern and love and respect for where we are and this is we are so lucky I mean we're so so lucky you know I think I think it was actually uh Professor Brian Cox that just goes this is insane that we're here now having this experience it's try I mean if you can take that on board try to appreciate that and feel that Wonder of uh the fact that we exist in this time you know um if we do well I I think we do yeah I I think well at least in our experience we do you know whatever this is you know there's people that believe this is a simulation yes I that one it's also boy that's a when when it's explained to you by brilliant people it it becomes hard to ignore the possibility that maybe they're correct like Elon is he said that the odds of us not being in a simulation yes are in the billions yeah ouch that hurts but who you wouldn't you think that though if you're simultaneously running Tesla and a rocket company and [ __ ] I mean he's just he seems like he's in a simulation you know he and you're also the richest man of the world and you're also the number one Diablo player in the world he's in a simulation yeah well he's certainly thinking he's you want to talk about a Multiverse going on at the same time uh he's already there that's for sure yeah and if I was him I would think that this is a simulation too it's just cuz he's got a really good level of the simulation like that level's fun yeah yeah for sure yeah but it's also it's like what do you do with that information like if you know like in if you've decided this is a simulation what are what are you experiencing are these experiences real or is it it's still real so real feelings and real moments still do exist so does it cheapen it but does that change your purpose right also does it does it change how you feel does it change the people you love does it change you know but I mean he he certainly look at him and go well you want to talk about being a go-getter making things happen yeah he believes it's possible so he he does it yeah and you know I I think that's the same with a lot of people obviously not to that extreme uh but you know I think we do
make our own fortune in life you know in some weird way I think we are responsible partly for our destiny for our uh our paths in life it's you believe in Free Will it's a tricky one right [ __ ] is a tricky one H yeah um there's something there that is free will I believe in determinism as well you have the you have choices yeah you do have choices but how much of your choices are shaped by your past your biology life experiences genetics you know how much of it is you know there's that argument like spolski U makes the argument that that's going to be the one of the things that we look back on in the future as being one of the most properous Concepts that people attach themselves to is the concept of Free Will right and sski is like he's Fair pretty much a pure determinism guy and I don't know if that's really true I feel like it's both I feel like there's there are decisions that you can make and you make these decisions and change your life you can change the life of other people and you know that you can do it and you're doing it through will there's something about focusing your energy and your your desires and your your life goal your path to something that's a real thing yeah and things happening at a particular time and uh I I think it's very foolish to pretend that you know whether it's determinism or whether it's free will it's I think it's foolish I think also there's so many factors to take into consideration to dismiss any of them like to dismiss the concept of the simulation I think is silly but to dismiss the concept of the Multiverse also equally silly to dismiss to dismiss this idea that you have no free will it's like I'm not sure because there's something there's something you know guides you in a particular direction that you don't necessarily always go with with so what is that is that pure determinism if like sometimes you make mistakes and you recognize you made those mistakes and you recalibrate and re and then you get to that fork in the road again you go I've [ __ ] this up before this time I'm not going to this time I'm going to move forward is that free will because it C certainly seems like it to me and that's not discounting the impact of
determinism which is all the events of your life and your biology and all different shared it's a lot of different stuff going simultaneously yeah yeah I don't think I don't think you can say it's one or the other no I don't think so either but people love to do that though they want to put a stamp on something yeah well pigeon hauling yeah they just love to like I want to put this in a narrow window of understanding and dismiss all the other things that are contrary no open-mindedness is a something that is a necessity in this strange weird world that we live in it's fun though right yeah oh no absolutely AB absolutely I I I I certainly have enjoyed the process but it's funny that what you're saying how you're saying things because it makes it's I as you're discussing this I'm thinking about certain choices that I've made because of certain things that have happened and certain things in the past andh and where I believe I should be in the future yeah I mean that's you know quite uh I find quite an interesting one that this whole uh also concept of of um oh my mind's going blank not enough coffee today um that you're what what do you call it when you're putting it out there um I'm really brain dead right now um when you're visualizing mhm the future and the possibilities manifesting your manifesting your dreams but you know is there some truth to that I mean does it because that does seem to happen to a degree um just doesn't always happen no I think it's a fact I think it's a factor yeah that's a possibility I agree with you on that um but there's something definitely to that MH I definitely think I I certainly feel that I can relate certain things happening to me because of manifesting or the will to move things in a particular direction put your energy and your focus into something and the thing becomes real and you oh my God I'm I'm I manifested this thing yeah how did that happen without that you know but it's also work like this is people get this bizarre thing that if you just manifest something that it'll just occur no that's never the case there's no there's there's a ton of energy behind it that uh it's a weird process that comes into that for sure Julian I've really enjoyed talking to you this was a lot of fun thank you likewise back at
you and I really enjoy your photography and the book is available life's fragile moments it's an awesome coffee table sized it's colle photography uh let's do this again sometime man thank you my absolute pleasure my pleasure as well thank you very much all right great bye everybody byee [Applause] [Music]