‘Weird Al’ Yankovic having good year with new album, children’s book

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"Weird Al" Yankovic has outlived a graveyard of stars he has parodied — Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain, Princess Di, Freddie Mercury, James Brown, Robert Palmer, Falco, Michael Hutchence and half of Milli Vanilli.

"I don’t think there’s a Weird Al curse," Weird Al, 51, tells me when I inform him of the curse.

No, I’m just kidding. There’s no Weird Al Yankovic curse. But it is weird.

He says he never was close friends with any of those stars, but he met them and became acquaintances with a few.

"It was a huge impact on me when Kurt Cobain died, and Michael Jackson," he says.

He met MJ twice.

"I went to one of his video shoots and presented him a gold album" of a Weird Al record.

"He was nice enough to pretend it was a nice gift — like he wasn’t going to throw it on the pile of gold albums when he got home."

It has been reported for years that Cobain and the guys of Nirvana laughed hard the first time they saw Weird Al’s video for "Smells Like Nirvana." They said they knew they had "made it" once he mimicked them.

Weird Al got the chance to thank Cobain in person for granting permission to parody "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

"He was having dinner with a bunch of friends in a restaurant. I went up to him and … I tried not to grovel at his feet."

Weird Al told Cobain, "Thanks for letting me do the parody. If you need me to do anything for you, I’m happy to do it."

Cobain’s reply?

"I think he told me he’d like me to mow his lawn," Weird Al says and laughs.

This year, Weird Al parodied Lady Gaga in his song "Perform This Way" for his new album, "Alpocalypse." In the music video, he dresses up as her various personalities.

I told him he looks better in drag than she does as a woman.

"Oh, I wouldn’t say that! She speaks highly of you," he joked.

Weird Al’s having a good year. "Alpocalypse" broke into Billboard’s Top 10 chart for album sales. He released a children’s book called "When I Grow Up," which hit a New York Times best-seller list.

On Oct. 1, he gets an hour concert on Comedy Central, which will be released on DVD/Blu-ray, along with a Nov. 8 DVD featuring a video for every song on "Alpocalypse."

"It’s a big product year for me!"

And he’s living the high life. He, his wife and daughter just spent a month in their home in Maui. I asked if I could time-share there.

"We can talk about it," he said.

Isn’t that nice of him? I’m thinking you’ll find me at the Weird Al Maui residence in December. I’ll send you all an invite for a comically destructive house party.

Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Contact him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.