Most artists would be worried about reaching the end of a lengthy recording contract, but not "Weird Al" Yankovic. The parody singer's last album, Mandatory Fun, marked the end of his 32-year agreement with RCA. Yankovic sees it as an opportunity to work on some of his other passions, like "authentic American folk music," he told guest host Thomas Lennon on The Late Late Show last night (Feb. 16). He showed off his chops with a Woody Guthrie parody about his upcoming tour, Consequence of Sound reports.
Weird Al shared the cover of April's Mad Magazine during the appearance, telling Lennon that he had served as the guest editor for the publication. It was the singer's dream job when he was younger, but a guidance counselor advised against it.
"So I graduated from college with a degree in architecture," he said, "which of course I use that degree everyday now. But fast forward to 2015, and I'm guest editing Mad Magazine, and my guidance counselor has been dead for 30 years, so who won?"
Check out the full episode below. Weird Al comes in at the 15:20 mark.
Mandatory Fun, which was released in July, became Weird Al's first number one album on the Billboard 200. In a superb marketing move, the artist shared a new video every day leading up to the album's release. Tunes included parodies of Pharrall Williams's "Happy" ("Tacky"), Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" ("Handy") and Lorde's "Royals" ("Foil").
"Mandatory Fun is a good, humorous album that shows that Yankovic is not slowing down in the slightest," Paste wrote. "He's still creative, the band still prove themselves to be shrewd mimics, and there will always be new pop songs to parody, or to play as rockin' polka ditties. The fun may be mandatory, but Weird Al still earns it."
