In a delightful collision of music and comedy, Rob Brydon sits down with Duran Duran’s iconic frontman, Simon Le Bon, for a candid and surprisingly revealing conversation. This isn’t your typical celebrity interview; Brydon’s affable charm and genuine enthusiasm create a relaxed atmosphere where Le Bon opens up about everything from the band’s early days to their latest Halloween-themed album, “Danse Macabre.” Prepare for a mix of nostalgia, insightful musical discussions, and laugh-out-loud moments as these two personalities connect.

Beyond the expected reminiscing, the conversation delves into the band’s unique financial arrangement (spoiler: it’s the key to their longevity!), the quirky inspiration behind some of their most famous lyrics (just what is “The Union of the Snake”?), and the story behind Le Bon’s viral “Hungry Like the Wolf” singalong in Ibiza. Le Bon also discusses the challenges of putting together a Halloween album, his love for ELO’s “Evil Woman,” and even reveals the secret to posing for photos.

This podcast is a must-listen for Duran Duran fans and anyone who enjoys a good, insightful chat.

Transcript

[Music]

Rob: Hello, in my excitement, I’ve spilled my water. And I say excitement genuinely because, you know, we’ve interviewed zillions of people on this. I don’t really often get that excited, but I’m excited, genuinely, to talk to Simon Le Bon.

Simon: That’s a huge compliment. Thank you, Rob. And I’m and I’m and I’m very happy to be here. I’m excited too, as excited as I can be at this time in the morning.

Rob: Well, then let me put something to you that I wanted to ask for a long, long time. “The Reflex.” Quite often in that song you say, “To reflex,” “To reflex.” What’s that about? Yeah, what’s that about?

Simon: Oh, that’s an that’s that’s you. I’ve never thought about that before. That is a result. Nobody’s ever said that to you?

Rob: No, no, no. Everybody’s always said to me, “All right, Simon, come clean. What’s ‘The Reflex’ about?” And I always say, “I don’t explain lyrics. I write the lyric, that’s the explanation. You have to figure it out for yourself.”

Simon: Sometimes you say “The reflex,” but a lot of the time you go, “To reflex.” What are you, Northern all of a sudden? “To reflex.”

Rob: Exactly, that’s what it must be. Um, it’s funny. It’s funny now. I now you mention it, I it happens a lot in there. And I think it’s just… You’ve never noticed that?

Simon: No. You never noticed it. I think I think live I usually sing, “Du reflex,” “Du reflex.”

Rob: Well, that’s even stranger. Is “The reflex…” That’s when I’m feeling a bit American, you know? So, yeah, yeah.

Simon: D-boys. Yeah.

Rob: Well, listen, I’m I’m thrilled because, you know, we said earlier on that you get asked the same questions. You must. And that’s a new one. Absolutely. Absolutely fresh take on a massive Duran Duran song. I am, as we speak, uh, currently filming a new “Gavin and Stacey” special.

Simon: Oh, how wonderful.

Rob: In Cardiff. And this is my day off, really. Yeah, really. This is your day off. Yeah. And I, you know, I said to you, “Let’s go down the pub.” And we’ll go down, Simon, you and I will go to the pub. I’ll tell you for why. I would love to talk to you about your musical output over the years. That’s me doing Uncle Bryn. I told James Corden that I was going to be interviewing you, and he said, “Okay, here’s what you got to ask him.” He said, “Look, we’ve just seen the Oasis announcement. There’s a band that literally were not speaking to each other for years. How have you guys managed to be on good terms for so long?” Okay? And he has a follow-up question, but we’ll come on to that.

Simon: There’s the simple answer to that and and the most honest one is the fact that we split everything equally financially. Yeah, we split the pro… proceeds. There’s no there’s no there’s no Lennon and and McCartney in this group. There’s no Jon Bon Jovi who gets all the publishing. Yeah. Um, we split regardless of one’s input. Right. Because we figured out very early on that that’s the way to keep a band together.

Rob: And who contributes the least and you secretly resent?

Simon: Um, it it would be very easy to… I don’t… I actually don’t, to be honest with you. I don’t actually think about that. Um…

Rob: That’s why you’re still together.

Simon: It’s just not an issue. And I don’t think that I actually… It would be… It’s so hard to… It would be so hard to define it anyway. I mean, traditionally it would be Roger because in in the writing process, drummers are never recognized. And that is so wrong. Drummers are huge contributors to to to the writing process. We write together. We write in a room together. Even if I even if I managed to come up with something on a guitar at home, which I which I probably do about once every 15 years or something, you know, it’s it’s um… Even if I do that, it’s it’s still the band that turns it into a song. I came up with quite a few songs in the early days.

Rob: Which ones?

Simon: I came up with “The Chauffeur.” Um… “Waiting for the Night Boat,” “Careless Memories.” They were all songs that I brought with me to the band. Right.

Rob: I read that you arrived with a book of poetry.

Simon: Well, I had that as well. That was it was not… It was it was lyrics, not poetry. But they were they were lyrics to songs that were in my head which didn’t have tunes.

Rob: But a lot of your lyrics are peculiar. Yeah. What the hell is “The union of the snake?” We know it’s on the rise. What is it?

Simon: Well, that’s the whole point. It’s it’s that it’s that it’s the point of the song. Here’s a great example of it for me. The best example of it is “Hungry Like the Wolf.” Yes. Why “Hungry Like the Wolf?” Why not hungry like a wolf? Why is… Why do you think? Okay, okay. I’ll tell you why. Because hungry like… When when the song title is “Hungry Like the Wolf,” it raises a question in your mind. And that is, which wolf?

Simon: Yes, you know. Okay. And that’s that’s the simple answer. And I’ve always I’ve always liked lyrics that made you want to find out stuff.

Rob: I never questioned that in the same way you’d never questioned “To reflex.” I’ve always accepted the wolf. I’ I’ve never asked the question, which wolf?

Simon: Okay. I failed.

Rob: No, you haven’t failed. And speaking of that song, you’ve just been sort of rather viral singing it outside or at some lovely fancy restaurant. Are you not aware of this?

Simon: Oh, no. I… Or somewhere. There’s a guy playing it and you’re singing it.

Simon: Okay. So, yeah. This is this is the the fabulous Juan y Andrea on the island of Formentera, which is the the the boomerang-shaped island at the south end of Ibiza. Right. And we… I… It’s the most wonderful restaurant. You sit there with your feet in the sand eating salt-baked sea bass. And it is like being in heaven. If they’ve got… They’ve got just the just the location of it. It’s it’s surrounded by grasses. Um, they’ve got these this awning, this big tent awning. And it’s just one of my favorite restaurants anywhere ever. So we’re at this restaurant and um, there’s this guy playing music. And a waiter comes over, he says, “The um, the chap…” I can’t remember his name, actually. He said, “Um, he’s um, asked if you’d like to do a song with him.” I’ve gone, you know. And I and I said, “I’m just here with my family having lunch. I think, probably, I don’t want to embarrass myself. Um, but but thank you for the um, for the invitation anyway.”

Rob: Is your voice always ready to go, by the way?

Simon: Yeah, it is.

Simon: Get to the end of… Get to the end of um, of lunch, we’re walking out, and he starts playing “Hungry Like the Wolf.” But he doesn’t start playing “Hungry Like the Wolf” like… He plays… Playing the wrong chords. And that that triggered something in me. I thought, “I’ve got to put this right. I’ve got to tell him what to do.” I said, “Excuse me. Hold on, guys. I need to go have a have a quick chat with this guy.” I said, “If you’re going to play it, you’ve got to get the chords right. It’s not C, it’s G at that point.” And he went, “All right.” And he went like this. And I said, “Okay.” And I just started singing it with him. And then and then I then… And some some Russian holidaymaker with a with a camera phone videoed the whole thing, stuck in on YouTube.

Rob: I’ve seen it from two different angles. So a few people filming, really?

Simon: And my manager is not happy with it.

Rob: Why?

Simon: She doesn’t like… what I’m wearing.

Rob: You might be wearing that t-shirt. I’ve seen I’ve seen you wearing that t-shirt a lot, by the way. All right. If this is my… Well, yeah, I like this t-shirt. It’s a nice t-shirt. But I’ I’ve seen it a lot. It… A little bit more because… All right. It’s what I’ve got a few… Is that a ragged tiger or a leopard?

Simon: No, it’s um… It’s it’s a leopard. Yes. And it’s um… And was made by a very good friend of mine, Patty Palazzo, who has a company called Punk Masters. Um… And she and she’s just… She’s a one-woman t-shirt uh… factory. And she and she makes most of the t-shirt… Most of the printed t-shirts I wear. The ones that she makes…

Rob: Just tuned in, this is QVC. Our guest today is Simon Le Bon, and he’s selling this lovely range of t-shirts.

Simon: But I think she’s a fantastic… She’s… She’s… Her ideas are brilliant. T-shirts don’t have to make sense. (See more of Simon’s favorite things)

Rob: I think a lot of a lot of your lyrics…

Simon: Well, exactly. Well, there you go. That’s how I think. You’ve just… You’ve got to get people’s imaginations going. And and and people people get people to go, “Ah, I think I know what that’s about.” Yeah. If if I can get people doing that, I feel like I’ve done my job.

Rob: James Corden’s follow-up question, which would be, what’s the closest you’ve come to splitting up acrimoniously as opposed to just going off to pursue different things?

Simon: Oh, I… You know, it happens on a regular basis. Does it?

Rob: Yeah.

Simon: It’s very hard to pick one sort of… I mean, there’s there was early on pork pie throwing incidents in the in the back of a tour bus where there was arguments about which record company we were going to sign to. And then there be… There’s been countless countless musical differences. I mean, that’s what being in the band is all about.

Rob: With the record thing, that was before you’d done your first big deal. It was…

Simon: Well, yes, it was. It was about who we were going to do our big deal with. Whether you had all sorts of… Was it going to be… Was it going to be poor PolyGram or was it going to be EMI? Right. You know? And there was there was there was a there was a camp for one and a camp for the other. Weirdly, I was not in either camp. I was just like, “Yeah, whatever.”

Rob: Were you being the Derek Smalls of the band? The lukewarm water, keeping everybody happy?

Simon: No. I been… I really can’t be asked kind of person in the band because, to me, it was all the same anyway. Yeah. I didn’t I didn’t… They would just be… They were just big big institutions, and we had to pick one or the other.

Rob: Let’s talk about Halloween.

Simon: Uh, not yet.

Rob: No, come on. Simon’s noticed that the band, uh, are claiming Halloween as their own.

Simon: So we’ve spent no expense. We’re not claiming it as our own. That’s what Nick Rhodes claims it as his own. Let’s do the Halloween now. Is that a… Is that a Halloween pencil sharpener? It’s quite nice. It’s a jack-o’-lantern.

Rob: Now, Now, the reason for that is that “Danse Macabre,” which came out…

Simon: It’s not a pumpkin, it’s a jack-o’-lantern. I I love… I just love the words “jack-o’-lantern.” “Jack-o’-lantern.” It’s a great lyric. I’ve got a… It’s a great thing to put in a song. I’ve actually got a a line in a song which talks about our “Jack-o’-lantern hearts.”

Rob: I like that.

Simon: “Jack-o’-lantern…” I haven’t used it. I haven’t… Haven’t… The song’s never been released. It might… It might come out later. “A jack-o’-lantern hearts in need of some spare parts.” I’m not going to use it. You’ll you’ll you’ll you’ll want… You’ll want publishing.

Simon: Yeah. And in perpetuity.

Rob: Perpetuity. Yes. Oh, “Jack-o’-lantern…” I’m going to put in his head. Our “Jack-o’-lantern hearts in need of some spare parts.” The horse is before the carts. And let… I I think we should stop this rhyme scheme before we…

Rob: “Farts.” I apologize.

Simon: My “farts” was my next one.

Rob: Let’s address this pumpkin… Jack-o’-lantern in the room. Yeah. “Danse Macabre” came out last year. There’s a kind of bumped… Pumped-up version now with some new tracks.

Simon: Well, you’ve got a you’ve got a slight issue with the Halloween album. And that is, it’s it’s all good for October. But come November the 1st, it’s done.

Rob: And you’ve mentioned to me before we began recording that this is more of a Nick Rhodes thing than a Simon…

Simon: Nick… He’s he’s very… His… Into the dark side. He’s he’s, you know, he’s nighttime. I’m daytime. Um, so we we’re very we’re very… We’re polar opposites on on on this one. And and I I realized that we… This came out of a Halloween show that we did in Las Vegas three years ago. And and then Nick and John, “Oh, it’d be great to do a Halloween album.” I thought, “Yeah, here we go.” Um, so he picked all the dark… All the all the all the darkly themed Duran Duran tunes that could possibly be fit into the… Under this umbrella. Things like “Waiting for the Night Boat.” Why? “Because night…” It’s got the word “night” in it. Anyway. Um… And we put it together. And and I have to say, I am quite impressed by how it’s turned out. More… I was very… I’ve been very cynical about it and and very sitting on the fence about it, but it’s turned out a lot better than I had imagined.

Rob: It’s quite hard for you, though, ’cause you’re the guy that’s got to sing them.

Simon: I do. And I and there were some songs that I just said, “I’m not doing that. Right. I’m not…” You know? And for different… For for various different reasons. I mainly because I knew that I wasn’t able to do the the right job with that song. It wasn’t the right song for me, and it should be for somebody else. So… And that has happened. So this year, there’s there’s this kind of repackaged version with some new tracks. And my favorite is a cover of a classic ELO track. I mean, and then that’s what brought it to life for me as well. “Evil Woman.” I am so excited about this song. This is… I mean, I I couldn’t I couldn’t believe that nobody’s done a… That there hasn’t been a successful cover version of this song since the orig… Not many successful covers of of any ELO songs that I can think of. And it’s such a catalog.

Rob: Have you heard the remix of “That Was Your Mother” by Paul Simon from “Graceland”?

Simon: …Graceland? I’m not sure I have. There’s an album of remixes. Yeah. Oh, and this again, because it keeps the melody and everything, it’s recognizable.

Rob: Tune. Oh, check it out anyway.

Simon: I will, but I was going to say, I’ve got a theory that if you’re doing a cover, you can only move 10% of sort of melodically from the original. Any more than that and people go, “Nah.” Yeah, we love work. We, and making a new record is such an important part for us of the whole keeping the band’s fire, keeping that span’s fire stoked. If we if we let that fire go out, the writing one, then when when you go when you go out on tour and you just play a load of old songs, it it doesn’t feel so good. And I can imagine what if that if you hadn’t written an album for five, 10 years maybe, and we will be going for the next 10 years if we can stay alive, obviously, obviously, um, that if it’s 10 years since your last new music, you’re going to feel even a little bit more sort of it’s a it’s a feeling we don’t like. We like to have something new when we go when we go on stage.

Rob: I can vividly remember, I think I was on holiday in……Torquay. And I can vividly remember opening Smash Hits, yeah, and there was a picture just of you on one whole side page, yeah, and you were wearing a jacket that had some kind of different colored stripes, quite warm colors stripes, yeah, and you had a look, and I’m going to compliment you here, and it doesn’t come easy to me, you had the look of a young Elvis. Oh yes. And I remember looking at that picture and going, “I would love to look like that.” Why can’t I look ’cause I didn’t? Why can’t I look like that? That’s the kind of thing, it means a lot to me, but you must go, “Yeah, whatever.”

Simon: Well, I it I I kind of I have sympathy for you because it’s it’s not that I thought I look so great and that you should think that you you you could look like that. It’s wanting to look like anybody else ’cause you must have had that yourself when you were… Of course, I wanted to be David Bowie. Bowie. I mean, I I did everything I possibly could to look as much like David Bowie as possible, and I never did. I’m too broad. My face is too wide. My hair wouldn’t quite stick up in the… I love the width of your face because I have an equine, horse-like face. I yearned for a face with the face the width of Le Bon. That’s so funny. I did. I genuinely really did that Elvis look. Yeah, it’s what Garrod Manovich, the photographer, he called it that, “Spoiled mean look.” Huh? Simon, you’ve Simon, you’ve got that spoiled mean look that Elvis had. I’m going to bring that out. So you were aware of that ¹ kind? I think the hair was kind of up this kind of thing, yeah, we Duran Duran and the band two learn to smile and at the same time sucking the cheeks in. You’ve got to you’ve got to know that. What were the poses that you would when you started to do sessions? You, I don’t remember you smiling that much. I remember you kind ² of never kind of no,

Rob: …smoldering.

Simon: …smoldering. Trying to smolder. I’m not going to do it now. Yes, you are. What’s the WR with camera over there? There we had our what’s his name, the photographer? He did the he did the cover of I forget his name. Anton Corbijn? No, no, no, no, no. He’s he’s um he was he did the cover of the “Something I Should Know” record. You remember that yellow, blue, and white cover, me in a yellow shirt with a pair of Ray Bans on my… I had that single, right? So he took that photograph, and I can’t remember his name. It’s really annoying me, but he taught us our angles, and this to that camera was my angle. It was that like that, and I still use it.

Rob: I always smile in photos. If I don’t smile, I look simple, honestly. I honestly I look I look either clinically depressed or there’s something not right. Well, you see that the reason we we we didn’t smile a lot was ’cause we were sucking our cheeks in for all our photographs, and and and until we learn to be able to smile and suck our cheeks in at the same time…

Simon: I’m not doing it. I’m not no, I’m not doing it.

Rob: Yes, you are. Come on. You didn’t want to do the the the smolder, and then you… I’m not I’m not doing I’m not going to give up Duran Duran’s greatest trade secret away. No way. I’ve never ever done this before with any of my guests, but I want to do it with you because this is my original copy, bought when when when it came out. Oh, that’s the original one. I know, I know it is. I can tell because it’s got this this dimpled um paper which was which was only the first, is that right? Yeah, the more recent ones, they’re flat, opaque. All right, so this has got the coined paper, and that was amongst my downstairs albums, which means it has a higher status than my upstairs albums which are sort of stored away. This is in a collection of albums about this wide. Simon, no, you there’s there’s there’s a little Sharpie sort of you can guess where this is going, can’t you? Yes, well, I you don’t even but before you start, put something that has a bit of meaning. Okay, I once gave a beautiful print to Tom Jones with whom I have worked several times, and I said, “Write something nice,” and I left it with him at his house for a few days. Okay, when it came back, it said, “To Rob, all the best, Tom.” Yes, I get it. I get it. I want more than that.

Simon: Okay, okay, I got a good one.

Rob: If you’ve just joined us, Simon is signing the original copy of the Rio album purchased by myself probably at Woolworth’s in Porthcawl when as a teenager I would envy his wider face as opposed to my own horse-like features which regrettably did not extend beyond the face. Le Bon still in the act of signing, he’s finished now. See if you can make sense of that. He passes the record to Welshman Rob from the Welshman in me. That’s lovely.

Simon: Did you know that my grandmother’s name isn’t it? So my grandmother, yeah, my grandmother’s name was Eva Philia Elton Jones. Seriously? Yeah, the hell did Elton Jones? That was her surname. That’s the Welsh Elton John tribute, isn’t it really? Well, can you she was she actually spent most of her time in Manchester. Um, I could I do remember a conversation with her, “Have you heard this terrible man? He’s stolen my name, Mr. Elton Jones, I think is called.” Yeah, because of course he would have come up while he she thought his name was Elon Jones. Simon, what a delight to talk to you. I was excited about it, and you have not disappointed. Good. And yet I feel the interview is we could go on for hours, really, could we? I’ve got someone else coming. Okay, I’ve got a lovely story. We had this amazing um bass player, Wes Weiller, who this was in the days when John wasn’t in the band in in one one of our sort of one of his hiatuses from Duran Duran. Wes Weiller was this lovely American guy. He’s not he’s not around any longer, but anyway, he’d um he told us a story. He’d been driving down Pacific Coast Pacific Coast Highway, and then suddenly he hears the siren and sees the lights in his mirror, pulls over, policeman walk gets out of the car, taps on the window where Wes, he winds down the window, and uh the policeman leans in and says, “I’ve been waiting all day for an like you to come along,” and Wes says to him, “Well, I got here as quick as I could.” Oh, what a line. What a save. Didn’t save him. It should have done. If that policeman had any integrity, he said sense of humor, yeah, he he would have given him a high five and said, “Be on your way.”

Rob: Yeah, I like that. Um, Simon, thank you so much. Um, Danse Macabre, this this is our Halloween special, by the way.

Simon: Fantastic. Yeah, well, think how happy Nick will be. He will he’ll love it. He’ll love he he love it.

Rob: Real pleasure. Um and uh I I don’t want it to end, but it has to. When he arrived, Simon said, “Yasmin sends her love.” Just think…