Episode 670: Father's Day w/ Stephen King & Joe Hill

Last Podcast On The Left

The Last Podcast on the Left celebrates Father's Day with a special episode featuring Joe Hill and his father, Stephen King. The hosts discuss their shared love for horror, King's influence, and the unique father-son creative dynamic, including writing collaborations and personal stories.

Key takeaways

• Stephen King's influence spans generations and genres.
• Father-son collaboration blends humor, fear, and creativity.
• Horror reflects societal anxieties, especially in turbulent times.

Transcript preview

There's no place to escape to. This is the last on the left. This is a victory for last podcast on the left. Validation. We got him the white unicorn. First of all, welcome the last podcast on the left, ladies gentlemen. My name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with Henry Zebrowski. Pink unicorn. The pink unicorn, Henry Zebrowsky. I'm filled with shrimp. And the hairy unicorn. I was going to say illiterate unicorn. you've been trimming? Yeah well yeah I have a person who trims. It looks great. Thank you I appreciate it because I was worried it was looking bad but now it gets another week like this. You really look good in that way like but the thing is the guy who trims your beard definitely. Wow, but he makes you look like an Iranian lord. You know what I mean? Yeah you do look like a lord of some kind. Hey you want to get through the strait you come talk to me. You're right? I get you through the straight. I'll get you through the straight. I'll get you through the game. I'll get you through the game. You're The big topic that we have today is that okay we interviewed Joe Hill author Joe Hill a few months ago Yeah, fantastic man it went so well and we never we didn't really even say anything about his dad Yeah, we said we said nothing about his dad We were so cool during that interview, but it went so well that he came back and he brought his father Stephen King with him Yeah, we said we said nothing about his dad We were so cool during that interview but it went so well that it went so well that he came back I got my dad here now. But then he did a whole thing. You'll see in the interview where he's like, my dad'll beat you all up. And Stephen King stood up and he was like, come here, you little F words. Yell that five or six times. You'll see. You'll see. You'll see it's all there. It's all there. But this is our Father's Day special. It is. Because in many ways, Stephen King raised us. He was definitely a big part of my childhood and a very big part of everything. and novels. Yeah, I mean, he's one of the cultural voices of the 20th century. He's one of the guys who created the 20th century is culturally. Yeah, it's unbelievable. I watched a documentary called King and Movies and I was like, oh, he's like, he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm very excited for this, but let's just get to it. Let's just get to it. Yeah, can I finally got to ask him about shitters. You should read it in the they tone it down in the movie a lot Oh yeah I look at that book on my shelf all the time Let's get to it How are you guys? We're doing fantastic. How are you all doing today? I'm good first question out the gate doing well? Wow. How are you guys? How are you guys? Our dads really wanted to meet you guys too and one of the hardest things was that I noticed that when I was bringing them over here the urn was really loose Yeah, and so I didn't want to spread him all over the stuff I didn't want to spread him all over my car Yeah, well the earned was loose because when you weren't paying attention I actually switched out my dad's ashes with your dad's ashes and so now I got your dad in my house and your dad's my dad's at your house How many ashes have you been presented with as a couple Oh, no one's given me their ashes yet. I, I, I, I, I have made an ash of myself once in a while. I was at a, I was at a signing at a library and like Boise. This was years and years ago, when a guy came up to me, he was one of the last guys in line, sort of a decrepit old fella, and he said, you know, I loved heart-shaped box so much. and I just wanted to give you something to express that how much those books meant to me and he lifted up this leather bag it looked like a doctor's bag and I accept I said thank you when I opened it in this stink just rolled out like there was you know I don't know like a rotten piece of meat in it or something like that and a chemical odor as well and I said what is this and he said my dad involved people for 40 years and that was his bag. That was the bag he did for his work. And I was like, boy, you should enough. Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, and I will say, I will say that I had him, I had him chuck it as soon as like I left the thing. I'm not bringing a fucking bag like that on an airplane. No, you can't even bring it to the Hilton. You can't. You know, it's always the last person in line when you're really tired and you just want to go back. You're back. We are hotel and pee. Somebody shows up with that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Stephen, what was something that sticks out in your mind that a fan brought to you that you were just immediately revolted by? Well, it wasn't so much that, but I was at a place one time signing books and this fat kid comes up to me and says, hey, kid, Where's the Nazi books? And so I took him to the Nazi book. I'll tell you what, you just can't tell what people are going to do. One guy came up to me and said, you know, about Salem's lot. He said, you know, you ought to write a squeal in that Jenner. And I said, yeah. What are you talking about? He said, a sequel in that genre. One thing, speaking of grotesque gifts, you know, disturbing gifts, John Wayne Gacy sent my dad some art back in the day from prison. And actually I found that so disturbing. That's in the first paragraph of Heart-shaped box. Yes. You know, that kind of hung in my mind. Because the other thing is, is, Gacy wasn't terrible. I mean, he was obviously terrible. I can't, I can't underline enough how terrible he was. Well, he was. We've already singled it out, you're screwed. Yeah, yeah, that's got to be the clip to sell this episode. John Wayne Gacy was pretty good. You know, what he did... A real mushroom, he was a fun guy. Yeah. Yeah. He could, he could do a passable, he could do a passable like Disney characters and stuff. Well, he used to do paint by numbers. He used to go and get the... like, he would have a whole system of other serial colors, including... the guys from the Chicago rippers and he also had the guy that killed everybody to avoid the earthquake in Southern California. Yeah, the Herbert Mullen. Herbert Mullen he had other serial killers working for him on an assembly line painting these paintings for him. That's not true. Yes, it is. Yes, because he's he literally was a job creator. He was a executive manager. He was a project runner. That's what he did. He was a project manager. It was kind of like a chain gang. Like literally he'd kind of force them to do stuff and then they would bring in There's a whole story about how John Wayne Gacy was sort of gamed by this young man that called him and pretended to be really into him and So this young man sort of arriving to visit with John Wayne Gacy and then the two of them would talk to the other serial killers like they were his little like crew like it was like his little brothers So don't feel that honored about the art. Is it like that like that? art. Yes, yes. Do you find that in speaking of terms of collaboration because you guys worked together because John Wayne Gacy can really run that type of collaboration. I'm sure you guys really you guys put some really good stuff together like because in the tall grass was a great thing like how do you guys feel like when you're together working? We've only done it twice. We've only done it twice we wrote in the tall grass and we wrote throttle and you know I mean you know I mean I feel like when I the times I've written with that you ever seen like the the Warner Brothers cartoons when whyy coyote climbs on an acme rocket and lights the fuse and then suddenly it takes off under him yeah that's what it's like right with my dad I feel like I'm just kind of hanging on for dear life you know I I'd sort of like sweat and pull my hair out over like three pages or something and then I'd email it to him and like 45 minutes later he'd be like it was great Here's five more pages. Jesus Christ. I wrote five. I wrote five and keep it up. Well, you know, there was a time when I was chemically assisted by some of those things and the books with Peter Straub in the early days, but those days are behind me now. Yeah, now it's just what Cialis, a lot of snapples. That's what I do. right into the right and I just do it I do it line by line each day just to get me going to do podcast yeah and under the lid of those snapples they got funny little things you can just slide right into the book you know if you want it to for a while uh... sevesta stalone was talking about doing throttle behind the scenes and like as a guy who grew up and then you know i mean me and dad went to go see all those rocky films and everything together and well what a blast that would have been but it didn't happen i just want to say right now sevestre stalone as the gun slinger can it just like let's just do it make it expendables i don't think that would really work i don't think that would really work Chuck Norris could have done it. I mean Chuck Norris could have just wiped that shit out entirely. No guns at all. He could have just used his hands. I always saw Daniel Day. Daniel Day Lewis was my gunslinger in my mind. Who do you have a gunslinger that you wish, I mean I loved Idris, but you got a gunslinger in your mind that you wish you could see walking around? Clint Eastwood back in it. Yeah. Back in the day it would have been great. idea for those books in a large part because of those Sergio Leone Westerns. You know, I saw them in the theater because I'm, you know, I'm old and, you know, they were just widespread men and it was, you know, Eastwood was so quiet in those movies, you know, he wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful. And, and it was, and it was, Eastwood was so quiet in those movies, you know, he wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful. great. Yeah, they didn't even give him a name. The man, he was literally the man with no name, that's right. How did you respond, Jola? Do you, are you as big of a fan of the Dark Tower or is the rest of us? I'm sorry, Marcus. I'll get you your questions. I'm just sorry. I just started on the Dark Tower. It means, it actually means the whole world to me, but you've seen a lot of fat guys and say this to you. So I'm doing this at you. So I'm just. So I'm just. I'm just. I'm just, I'm a big Stephen King fan. I'm books is, I always think of them as the Gunslinger books, not the Dark Tower books. You know, and they're kind of like the unified theory of the Stephen King, of Stephen King world, you know, and, because it picks up so many threads from all the other books and, and it's almost like a nervous system running through the whole body of Dad's work. And they're just such great reads, they're just so much fun and such a terrific cast of characters. And it is a little bit, and it is a little bit, and it is a little bit, in some little bit, in some little bit, in some little bit, in some little bit, in some little bit, in some there haven't been at a you know well there was no no there was the interest there was the interest film but it didn't do very well it's because it needs to be 25 hours long. I think it's good either I want to do it too but they talked for a while about habeir bardam doing that's sexy that's sexy that would have been good I mean I think there is an attempt right now to try to make it five seasons you know to try to make it five seasons you know to try to do a TV thing but I'm not sure how far along it's gotten. Have any of you guys seen Cape Fear, the new one where Javier Bartem plays the bad guy? Not yet, not yet. I'm very excited for it though. I am too. Is that great? It looks really cool. Harvey Abraham's scary as hell, man. Stephen, earlier you mentioned that, you know, the spaghetti Westerns were a big influence on the Dark Tower series. iconic works. How much inspiration did you take from other mediums and other genres for your own stories? Well, I mean I was a big fan of Western movies period and I tried to get in a lot of the things that those books and movies were based on you know, the things that those books and movies were based on you know, that the idea that those books and movies were based on you know, that the idea that the idea that The guy has to be alone and he has to be a hero and although in the early books Roland isn't very much of a hero He's he's actually kind of a bad guy. Yeah He is he is and then he changes Yeah go then there are other worlds in these I think about that's I'm so happy that you brought that back. I'm so happy for the next book. I'm so excited mr. King I'm gonna go I'm gonna show up at your house I'm sorry I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry sir I won't I'm sorry. Um a joke I've been watching a lot of interviews to prep for this between between you and your day and I gotta say one thing I'm so sorry yeah I you know it's I'm I'm getting a taste for them but Joe my question is you you're you seem like your father seems so proud of you what's that like? You know, um, just pretend I'm not here, Joe. Yeah. I know, right. I mean, I hardly know how to talk about it. I have a great relationship with my dad. We love a lot of the same things. You know, Owen and dad and myself, my brother, Owen is a wonderful writer. He wrote, Sleeping Beauty's with that. And, and, and, uh, and, uh, and, uh, last novel, the curator is an absolute, you know, stunner. The first two pages of the You know, and the three of