Alpocalypse Now: ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Says ‘Twitter Saved My Album’

Professional parodist and curl enthusiast “Weird Al” Yankovic has made a career out of slaughtering (gently, mind you) pop music’s sacred cows. But his Lady Gaga parody “Perform This Way” would never have seen the light of day if not for the internet, according to Yankovic.

After finishing his spoof of Gaga’s “Born This Way,” Yankovic heard that the art-pop singer wouldn’t give him permission to release it. He shared the bad news with the internet, and fans lamented the “Weird Al” video that would never be. Within 24 hours, word got to Camp Gaga, the parody was approved and everyone agreed the whole thing was just a mix-up.

“Twitter saved my album,” Yankovic said in an interview with Wired.com. “It was just an amazing turn of events…. The byproduct was that people found I was doing the song and doing an album.”

The album, Alpocalypse, is his first full-length record of new material since 2006’s Straight Outta Lynwood. It comes out Tuesday and includes not only “Perform This Way” but also a polka medley named after another Lady Gaga tune, “Polka Face.” It’s also got a Doors-ish sendup of internet want ads called “Craigslist” and a covert-ops parody of Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” dubbed “Party in the C.I.A.” And that much-anticipated video (below) has also been unleashed onto the world. (Oh, and he’s also released an iPad and iPhone app of his children’s book When I Grow Up.)

On the heels of wrapping his album and in the midst of putting the final touches on the “Perform This Way” video, Wired.com got Yankovic on the phone to ask him about the record, making It Gets Better videos for nerds, winning over Lady Gaga and not being allowed to establish eye contact with Prince.

Wired.com: It’s been a while since we’ve had a new “Weird Al” album. Welcome back!

“Weird Al” Yankovic: I’m very happy to be able to put out something new. I think it’s been almost five years since the last album, which was Straight Outta Lynwood, and I don’t have any great excuses for why it took so long — I’m just getting a little slower as time goes by. I have been busy touring and working on other projects. I just take my time more. It becomes more important to me as time goes on to make every album the best thing I’ve ever done, so it’s a lot of self-imposed pressure that also kind of slows me down a bit.

Wired.com: Right, because surely you haven’t run out of pop culture sacred cows to slaughter.

“Weird Al”: That’s the best part about my job: I never run out of source material. There’s always something ridiculous to make fun of.

Wired.com: Tell us about the polka medley for Alpocalypse, “Polka Face.”

“Weird Al”: That’s certainly nothing new; I’ve done that on virtually every album. Probably 90 percent of my albums have polka medleys. It’s something I started doing even before I had a record deal. I used to do that in live shows and it’s just become something the fans expect. I think there are two albums that I’ve put out that didn’t have polka medleys and the fans were up in arms and rioting in the streets, so that’s how I found out that was something I just couldn’t get away with. It became requisite.

Wired.com: Are the medleys made up of odds and ends?

“Weird Al”: Yeah, the way it works out is that if there’s a song that I think is really ripe for parody but I just can’t think of a clever enough idea, sometimes it’ll end up in the polka medley.

Wired.com: You almost had to hold up the new album because Lady Gaga wasn’t going to give you permission to parody “Born This Way.” She’s since acquiesced and said that she found your parody “empowering.” What was that debacle like for you?

“Weird Al”: It was really a crazy day when everything went down. The blog post I wrote pretty much describes it in painstaking detail. It couldn’t have been resolved in a better way. I remember very clearly the morning that I uploaded the song thinking that my album was postponed indefinitely and that this song that I’d been working on for weeks and weeks was never going to see a proper release. And within a few hours everything had turned around and my fans had my back and Lady Gaga heard the song and all the sudden I had permission.

It was just an amazing turn of events. By the end of the day I had a release date for the album. The byproduct was that people found I was doing the song and doing an album. I never court controversy, I don’t like drama, but that’s just the way it happened.

Wired.com: Behold the power of the internet!

“Weird Al”: It’s amazing. Twitter saved my album. In the old days that wouldn’t have happened. I’m just thankful that people cared enough to help me out.

Wired.com: Are you still planning on donating the proceeds of “Perform This Way” to charity?

“Weird Al”: Oh absolutely. That was always my intention for the single and the video to donate my proceeds to the Human Rights Campaign. You know, I try not to do parodies that are in bad taste and the fact that “Born This Way” was a gay rights anthem, I just felt a little strange poking fun at it. There’s something a little wrong about that. The way I could justify it personally was by donating my proceeds.

Wired.com: Will we see a “Weird Al” It Gets Better video?

“Weird Al”: [Laughs] It’s funny you should mention that. First of all, sure I’d be happy to. Second, just last night somebody was talking to me about how I’d made the world a better and safer place for nerds. People that were a little nerdy in high school would look up to me and know it gets better.

Wired.com: But we’re definitely getting a video for “Perform This Way” right? I think I saw some meat shoes on Twitter.

“Weird Al”: I was editing the video and I came across that frame and I just thought, “I’m just going to throw that on Twitter.” I shot the video just before I left for a tour. In fact I was editing it on the plane. The first whole week of the tour I’d be like performing and then running backstage and doing edits. It’s at the post-house now getting the effects. It’s coming together.

Wired.com: Is it common that artists OK your parodies? There are some stories of Prince and Eminem turning you down; anyone else?

“Weird Al”: It’s actually pretty rare that an artist will say “no.” It’s like 2 or 3 percent. I’ve been doing this for a while now and I have a track record and most artists look at it as a badge of honor. And those two that you mention are probably the only ones. And Eminem let me do the song, he just didn’t want me to do a video for some reason. James Blunt was fine with it, but his record label had a problem with it. So there are a few weird cases where things haven’t gone smoothly, but by and large, most artists actually look forward to a “Weird Al” parody.

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