Rad Matters hosted by Mike Ranquet

Adam Yauch, The Dalai Lama & Me

November 25, 2021 Mike Ranquet Episode 10
Rad Matters hosted by Mike Ranquet
Adam Yauch, The Dalai Lama & Me
Show Notes Transcript

RM010 Here’s my story of how I Inadvertently made the Dalai Lama laugh by way of pranking Adam Yauch. Besides a chance for total consciousness on my death-bed, this is one of the fun things that can happen when your buddy is down with ‘the Lama’. RIP Adam, I miss you man. Telos Snowboards
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Thanks for enduring Rad Matters Podcast Hosted by Mike Ranquet. Donate to see me go down swinging while taking the snowboard industry to where it ought to be.

Hey, what's up? It's Mike with red matters. Not sure if I've shared part of this story or some good or all of it with maybe some of you out there, but I don't think I've done it on this yet. And this is the story of how I made inadvertently, I might have inadvertently made the Dalai Lama laugh. So let's see. 1995 ish. I was a Seattle, Beastie Boys came through town on a spring tour. And Adam, who I was friends with, asked, asked me to stay at my house for a couple days. He was like, you know, what are you gonna be doing this summer this spring? And I looked at this, I want to go somewhere crazy. Like, I don't know, just somewhere with different smells different, you know, no snow. No, yeah, I've been traveling a lot at that point. But um, rarely was it, you know, for for my own or, like, you know, kind of like, no boards involved. You know, yeah, you bring a skateboard, but you're not going there to skate, which was a different type of trip than I'd really taken. So, Adam was like, you know, sort of, said, Thailand. We should go to Vietnam. And I was like, Yeah, I was like, What the fuck? And this is 1995 I think it was six or eight months after a 25 year, travel embargo, or all sorts of embargoes was lifted. So yeah, here's a country that had been at war for like, frickin decades, not just with us, but, you know, the French the fucking, I mean, they, he just fought for fucking decades. And so, you know, kind of going there just months after this travel embargo was or embargo was lifted was a trip in that. It really was like, being in Vietnam in the 19th century, you know, it was like it was a trip. The first big trip out I had was waking up in think, Saigon the first morning and looking out and feeling as though I was in the Alps, like in a in the French Alps, because the shutters on the windows and the room styles and the smell of coffee and baguettes, was like wafting up through our room. That was fucking like, whoa, okay. Well, the front, I don't know, I don't know if they surrendered, or just gave up. But, uh, leucine planted the coffee seed and the baguette seed there because it's fucking amazing. Anywho we're on this trip. I know. We're in Vietnam for like five weeks, almost six weeks. And then we went to Thailand afterwards. And while we're in Vietnam, it was like, almost every night, especially towards the end of the trip was like, Adam would just kind of like just, I don't know. Just throwing mud at the wall trying to find ideas that would stick in Yeah, it was based around raising awareness for the Dalai Lama that Tibet, to the Tibetan people. Tibet, blah, blah, blah. And so, yeah, he was really into it. In fact, the whole kind of premise of our trip in Vietnam was we're just going going to check out different temples, different Buddhist temples. And now that was fucking cool. You know, I'm at one point just looking at him going. No, no, anytime I'd kind of look at him said we like to look like you're doing a shoot for the Beastie Boys cover what the fuck? Just the way he look, you know, this is funny. And but one point I'm ever looking at, I'm like, How the fuck do you meditate? What do you what do you do here? And he was as I look at the look at the Buddha. Look out, look how fucking chill he is. Just just be stoked on how chill he is. And I was like, Dude, that that just made sense. It was like, right on. Okay, I can do that. And so, you know, we're trotting along our merry way. In Vietnam, or, we were offered multiple times, men offered their frickin, you know, 18 to 30 year old daughters up to be our wives all sorts of crazy shit. And Adam wasn't like a partier by any stretch. So it wasn't like, we were having like crazy nights, and this shit was going down. It was pretty mellow. I think we smoked opium once or twice in that trip together. But he wasn't like, you know, let's go get a beer at five or something, you know, not not at all. And so we are pretty much in a lot of innocent situations to be kind of thrown the that that ball indoor court. It was pretty wild. But anywho we get to Thailand? Couple, I don't know, six weeks later, I guess. And by that point, he like, you know, kind of fortified. What do you want to do you want to do a freedom Tibet concert. And then a tour of which he did both, like, say, I think in 96 and SanFran was the first one. But it was it was kind of cool. Just being there. Like on the just watching this plan come into fruition, you know, watching it, like have many different aspects, layers, angles, and then, you know, the final was this, you know, for a while, I was like, Oh, should we should we tour in Asia with you know, get the red hots, you know, his his name and all these bands. You know, he did this. And then he just kind of finally concluded on on what he did. And so he got to Thailand. After Vietnam, we were just, you know, we're crashing anywhere. We had one bag each with us the whole trip. They weren't huge, strapping backpack. So it was like, I remember at the airport, we weighed each other's bags to see whose bag like weighed less for like, 50 bucks or something like dude, I bet 50 bucks or whatever. But, um, so we get to we're flying to Thailand, from Vietnam. And he was like, kind of like, I don't know what your plan is. But I'm gonna post up at the Four Seasons here. And I was like, he's like, Yeah, I'll, you know, no problem. Just get another room, if you want to stay or if you want to stay in the street. It was like, four seasons so. And so let's see. Yeah, so here we were in Tallinn. And this is where like, the story got. So there's some details, you know, so every, every day, we were there about a week, week and a half maybe. And every day he would start the day by or not start the day but one thing I picked up on was just like he would always check his messages if he had something to do at five you know, some? I don't know. He would always just check his shit right before he was to go do something I just picked up on that. And then I he said it was like a new answering service or machine or something. So the the, he didn't like it because the last message left was the first one he got instead of the reverse order. And this all plays in and so anyways, he he had this woman Aaron fly out from San Fran like an assistant of his and the Beastie Boys for the record company. I can't remember who she worked for. But she came out to just help him fortify this whole idea. And part of that was traveling to India to like north, north western India to meet the Dalai Lama. He was you know, he'd been to Tibet once or twice at that point at least once. And yeah, so he, you know, he was hell bent on the Dalai Lama sensor head. So he offered kind of, like, obligatory really offered me to come with him on that trip. And I was like, No, yeah, kind of like you're on your own. You know, this is your trip, like, I don't need to all button on some ship. I don't need to button on some religious world leadership, you know. And so, blah, blah, blah. I believe I was on the way to the airport fly back to Seattle. And he just was like, here, I'll just go with you. I'm gonna I was gonna fly out. I don't have a flight yet. And he just went to the airport. Bangkok got his fucking flight to wherever India. And so you know, we kind of like, left each other wasn't checked in and shit hooked back up. And yeah, he was just kind of telling me the details like, okay, so yeah, I'm actually you meet the Dalai Lama on. Let's just say it was Friday, the third, you know, 5pm or something. And, again, I just kind of logged all this stuff and but one thing we shared was our love of fucking Caddyshack and Bill Murray's lines in there. And so anytime in the whole preceding six weeks in Vietnam, he would bring up anything about Tibet, the Dalai Lama, I just surfing like, oh, 12 sort of Allameh the flowing robes, Grace, bald, striking. I just throw something in and he laughed his ass off. And so leading up to let's see. So I flew home, got home, and I just kind of realized I got home, I was all jetlag probably up late. And I was like, Oh, wow, man. I just kind of looked at the time, because when you're traveling like that, you just kind of like, you know, what time is it there? What time is it? And it's got that word times that were fucking Adams that. And so I looked and it was like, four. And I was like, oh, that's sick. You know? 24 hours or 25 hours. Technically, he's, uh, he's gonna be meet the Dalai Lama. That's fucking crazy. And I was just with him. That's fucking that's kind of a trip. Yeah. So he see. Yeah, he got to India. He had his own little What do you call it? Issues, something with Visa that he didn't have. But you know, he had the power of one of the biggest record companies in the world at the time. And at the time, that shit still mattered. So somebody pulled strings for him whatever he gets in. I believe he called me in the time like discount, like, oh, he made it home. Cool. Alright, dude, later, I'm in India, you know, it was a quick call. But again, I just logged, you know, the time is gonna be with the Dalai Lama. So the next night, at about the same time, I was up, I was jetlag, I was like, Oh, I'm gonna leave a message on this machine. of fucking Bill Murray. You know, this. This wasn't cued up with cell phones and shit. I had to get actual VCR remotes rewind tape, he would have have it ready to go. And so when he he checked his messages, as I knew that he would, at you know, say if he was eaten the llama at five. I left it the message at like 415. So I knew that he would do before leaving his hotel or leaving his whatever residence he was in. He was gonna check the messages. And as I found out, you know, a while later, he certainly did check his messages. And so, you know, the last message left was from me. And it was a it was Bill Murray. Just you know, mumbling the lines of Caddyshack into the answering machine in me laughing my ass off in the background. And so you know, that just just kind of I did that one night. and didn't think it ever went anywhere. And I didn't hear from him about it. But say, was it November ish? I think he came to Baker that year. And I picked him up at the airport in about an hour into going up to Baker. He was just like, Oh my God, dude, you have no fucking idea. And I was like, What is like you, like, left me a message in your would you call it jetlag state. And I was like, probably four in the morning for you. You left me a message of just Bill Murray. She is, you know, going off in the lines from from about the Dalai Lama from Caddyshack. And so let's see. He was like, Oh, you think that was an accident? I was like a sucking plan that why do you think it was? Why do you think you still remember it? He's just like, yeah, oh, you fucker, like, you know, just kind of foot me shit, whatever. But I really got the one over on him. So anywho probably a year later, six months later, eight months later. I see him again. And I think we're backstage at one of his shows or something like that. And he was just like, Oh, dude, you have no idea what, what you've fucking done. And I was like, What are you talking about? So he told me that the message that I left that when he first went and met the Dalai Lama, that it was so fresh in his mind that he just started bursting up laughing when whoever in the room said is the Dalai Lama. He just picture the fine Bill Murray lines and all this shit. And he was just like, just telling me he's like, Yeah, I was like, you know, pretty embarrassed. He was fucking laughing in front of the Dalai Lama as he walks out, you know? And okay, this was on the first round. This is when I picked up November. This is what he told me that. Yeah, the Dalai Lama was brought out and announced and he just started laughing. He felt all bad and shit. And then the next year, the one I'm kind of talking about now, you're later he was like, it was like, Oh, dude, you have no idea. Like what he said. So I saw the Dalai Lama again, a month ago or whatever it fuck it was. And they were having, you know, a sit down, whatever that means. And at some point, Dalai Lama just asked atomies like, you know, the first time we met in India, you were you were laughing. You're just laughing your head off. And apparently, if you know anything about the Dalai Lama, he loves to laugh and he loves people that laugh. He just like seeing laughter Well, whatever. So let's see. Yeah, so Adam, was like, Yeah, I was I was laughing. And Dalai Lama asked me was like, What? What made you laugh? I mean of all things right? When I walked in the kind of like, calling them out a little bit, but at the same time, saying he appreciated that like, what sparked this laughter and so Adam tells me he's like, you know, sit in front of the dolly fucking lamb I can't. I can't really bullshit him. You can't you know, you can't look at Jesus and bullshit and be like, what made you laugh? Oh, I thought of an old joke. So he just told me he's like, I just told the fucking Dalai Lama the truth. My friend Mike that I was traveling with. Left left a message. And it was a Bill Murray from Caddyshack talking about you and and so he tells me that Dalai Lama just fucking laughed and was like, Oh, I love those scenes. I love that movie. Love those. They did that. Just the fact that yeah, he acknowledged that Caddyshack exists, you know, up there with me. And so anywho Yeah, they got along. Everything went fine. But like, end of the day, it's like okay, this is it. He goes, was it? Yeah, he kind of press him on what made him laugh? Well, my friend like and it's like, Whoa, he's like, Well, he told me later that, you know, he planned this message and for me to get it right before I met you and all this. And he goes, I looked over the Dalai Lama was like, genuinely laughing. And he just turned to me said your friend Mike. He's a funny guy. And Yeah, so yeah, he told me that the second time after I saw him after that whole thing, and it was just too funny, it was like, Yeah, two years old a year and a half later, and I'm still getting like, killer. What do you call it? Just getting a lot of legs out of that prank was for that way. So that's a so I made the Dalai Lama laugh and apparently knows my name. I don't know if he knows me, like he knows, like, Caddyshack. But uh, I was always stoked on that. I was always a funny one. And, and that's it. That's my story of how I inadvertently made the Dalai Lama law