Interview With Tully… A Faux Possessor of Millions

You’ve mentioned Carson Daly a lot. Could you elaborate on what you did? Was it his TRL show or his Late Night show? Was it during his peak of stardom?

Neither. I wrote a syndicated daily hour-long Top 40 radio countdown show called “Carson Daly Most Requested.” It was on over a hundred stations, so if you have a Top 40 channel in your area, they probably carried it.

This was a tiny bit after Carson’s peak – I was around for third album “Toxic” Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake going solo. Carson had his NBC show by then.

There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, so very little of what I wrote made it on the air. Other than just learning a lot about radio (in which I had zero training or schooling), the best part was the interviews. Sometimes Carson wasn’t available at the same time as a guest, so occasionally I would do the interview, and then Carson would dub in the questions. One time I did that with Ludacris, and afterward, another guy who had a show with my company, named Big Tigger (from BET), came and found me to tell me he thought I should have my own show one day. That was really encouraging. I had never really considered anything like that before he said that.

[By the way, Wade, I've noticed your anti-farting stance online. I'd like you to know I've been audibly farting the entire time I've been typing. I'd like your readers to imagine a bunch of tangy farts interspersed among my answers.]

You say your favorite band is a little known band. Who is it?

The Auteurs. From the early-to-mid 90′s. Absolute nobodies that carried themselves like they were the biggest band in the world. Rolling Stone hit the nail on the head with one of their album reviews: “The Auteurs have achieved a kind of twilight status as underground superstars, but they’re at the top of the charts in some other lucky dimension.“

Here are two links that represent them pretty well:

“How Could I Be Wrong” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BFDa3O-fAs
“Lenny Valentino” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B5es1l9pk4

Elton John did some recording for SiriusXM with you if I’m correct. What is he like?

I expected the biggest prima donna ever, and couldn’t have been more wrong. When I showed up there were a bunch of photographers and similarly grizzled entertainment biz grunts hanging around, bullshitting. It took me like five minutes to notice that Elton was hanging out among them. He was dressed down casually and he was very professional. He was drinking tea, and I noticed that every time he put his mug down, he did it extremely carefully, so the noise didn’t get picked up by the radio mikes.

The one time I talked to him – I had recorded a session with Neil Diamond the day before, and was passing along Neil’s regards (true story) – he did not seem offended in the least to be approached by a commoner.

What does an American sports fan [specifically baseball] do at Oxford for 6 months to keep up with the season?

That was right when the internet really started to exist, so I was on ESPN.com a lot. You do miss a lot, though. Somehow I only found out last year that Malik Sealy died.

In England they would show Monday Night Football a day late, at like 2 in the morning. Only they would only take commercial breaks at the quarters. I think that’s why I Tivo football now – it’s astounding how much time you can waste hearing about how this or that truck is built Ford tough.

You are pretty good on the guitar. Self taught?

Thanks. I took lessons for a year or two. The guy made me nail the basics (and learn a bit of sight-reading) which helps immensely in the long run. But there were 5-10 years where the guitar was just attached to me. It’s like smoking a cigarette – I just do it to have something to do with my hands. I’ve been playing for twenty years now. I guess the knowledge and ability accumulate without you even realizing.

Where do you see the show in 3 years?

No idea. I think we’re in a really good place right now. (How many shows could pull off Ellismania?) So I try to live in the moment. But hopefully we’ll either have slow, steady growth, or explosive, exponential growth. As long as we don’t go backward, I’m happy.

Have you been receptive to the idea of an entire channel for the Ellis Show and friends?

Absolutely. Why not? I’m all for building a bigger sandbox. Whether or not that’s going to happen anytime soon is a different story (and totally out of our hands).

If Sirius/XM gave you $1 million dollars in budget for the show, but you weren’t allowed to consult with any other people on the show on what to buy, what would it go to. [It can't go to an individual].

Wow – a million is a lot. This is like the old Wheel of Fortune. Let’s see: Hiring a publicist and a talent booker. Getting a new studio. Parking. A solid internet connection. Contests and remote broadcasts. That’s everything I can think of, and I don’t think I’ve spent anywhere near a million.

With fatherhood on its way, do you see yourself being away from the show for a while?

Five days max. Probably less. It depends on what day of the week she goes into labor. Can’t wait, though.

In regards to the book, was their any recommendations by the publisher to remove controversial topics that occurred in Ellis’ life?

None. If anything, I was afraid they would push for MORE controversy (and push us to dish dirt on other people in action sports) but they were amazing. You hear so many horror stories of editors/bosses getting their hands in everything and destroying your work, but their notes and feedback have made the book immeasurably better. They just functioned as an objective second set of eyes, which you need. It was definitely a learning experience to see how much rewriting really needs to happen to get a quality finished project.

How far does the book go in time? Ellis has had some recent life changing events that would shape the story differently then say 3 months ago.

We felt like Jason’s MMA fight tied up many themes and threads in his life, so all along the book was going to end there. We’ve tweaked a few things, but generally the song remains the same.