Both of us did phone-in interviews, so we never crossed paths. Tim informed me that he did tell Al about our recent parody, “You Can Call Weird Al” during the interview. Al knows who we are, but I don’t think he was aware of the parody, although his drummer, Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, was. Tim played it during the last portion of the show when he was interviewing me. 

It’s been 10 years since Al’s last album, Mandatory Fun. In an article published yesterday, Al told Spin magazine the following: "I wanted to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of my last album by doing a medley of what I thought were a dozen of the biggest songs of the last 10 years. I just kind of went through the charts. Every song in the medley is a No. 1 song and pretty iconic. And they just seem like the likeliest candidates to me.”

Ironically, and this was totally unplanned on our part, one of the songs on the upcoming ApologetiX single is a remake of our “‘80s Medley (Octagon but Not Forgotten),” which was originally released in 2011 on our Wise Up and Rock CD. ApX mixer David Michael put the medley together for us five months ago, based on the new recordings we did of the 10 songs on it for our Unchained Medley CD. He did a great job.

We have been saving it for a time when we needed an extra song for a single. Unfortunately, ApX drummer Jimmy “Vegas” Tanner got sick last Saturday with a headache, cough, and fever (but tested negative for COVID) and was unable to record me on vocals this week, so we decided it was finally time for the medley. It didn’t hit me until I was midway through writing this article that we were releasing a medley the same week as Al. The other song on the single is an all-new parody. 

Please pray that Jimmy gets completely better soon! Some symptoms were still lingering as of Saturday. 

My family and I were at an indoor water park in Erie PA yesterday with ApX bassist Keith Haynie and his family. I had to excuse myself and go outside to do the interview, so I was standing in front of the building, still semi-wet, in my swim trunks and bare feet. That sounds like something Al would approve of, although he’d probably also wear goggles, flippers, and a lucky, lucky snorkel.