During an interview shortly before the release of latest album Smoke + Mirrors, members of Imagine Dragons were asked when they fully accepted they’d become rock stars. “I’m stealing this one,” drummer Daniel Platzman said, waving off his bandmates. “It was when ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic did a parody of ‘Radioactive.’
Yankovic’s take is called “Inactive,” and its release and accompanying video fired up the band. The song opens with, “I’m waking up, in Cheeto dust/My belly’s covered with pizza crust,” and he borrowed freely from the band’s studio and video acrobatics to make the whole package at once realistic and surreal.
“It’s long, long been felt in the Platzman family that you know you’ve made it when ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic parodies your song,” Platzman said in an interview in Vegas magazine. “I called and said, ‘Everyone get on the phone at once!’ I told them, and they freaked out more than they did when we were on the Grammys. It was the biggest Platzman family freak-out of them all.”
Earlier this month, that story was relayed to Yankovic. “Amazing,” he said while seated at a dining table in a suite at Planet Hollywood, where he headlines a five-show spree at the Showroom at Planet Hollywood from May 12-16. “They are absolutely the hottest rock band around, so it’s amazing. It’s very touching and very gratifying, and kind of hard to comprehend.”
Imagine Dragons are among those on the list to visit Yankovic during his run on the Strip. He has already met at least one band member. “I met [bassist] Ben [McKee] a long time ago, because he posted a picture of he and I together when he was like, 12 years old, back in the day,” Yankovic recalled.
The PH show will be classic Yankovic, replete with slickly assembled production numbers drawing from all across his 30-plus years as contemporary music’s leading satirist. Many of the songs rolled out are from his latest album, 2014’s Mandatory Fun, the first novelty album in 50 years to debut No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Aside from “Inactive,” the release features send-ups of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” (“Tacky”), Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” (“Word Crimes”), Lorde’s “Royals” (“Foil”), and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (“Handy”).
“I think my show is perfect for Vegas,” Yankovic said. “It’s very theatrical, highly produced and people have likened it to a Broadway production more than a rock show. There are a lot of costume changes. I get in the fat suit for ‘Fat,’ I dress like Kurt Cobain for ‘Smells Like Nirvana.’ We dress in Amish costumes for ‘Amish Paradise.’ We all get in our Jedi robes for the Star Wars songs.
“It’s not just five guys playing instruments. The whole thing is really like a traveling circus.”
Cirque du Yankovic? “Yeah, yeah!” he said. “That’s it!”
Yankovic’s introduction to Las Vegas came at age 5 or 6, watching his father yank the handle on a slot machine. “I don’t know why this is burned into my memory, but I have a real memory of my father playing the penny slot machine—it was a single penny he dropped into the machine,” he said. “I don’t remember which casino, I don’t even know how I was allowed to watch him. But I remember him just throwing those pennies away. Then he hit a jackpot, which was maybe like 34 cents. He struck it big!”
Sadly, the elder Yankovic played it all back. “I was going, ‘Noooo! What are you doing!? You had it all!’” Yankovic said. “It was like that old Twilight Zone episode, where the slot machine was telling the guy, ‘Franklin! Franklin!’ as he kept pulling the lever … That’s how I remember Vegas as a kid.”
The weirdness of Yankovic’s act could conceivably work in Las Vegas for the familiarity of his songs, and also because he crosses so many demographics. “This kind of surprises me, that this is the first time I’m doing an extended run in Vegas,” he said. “What could be a better Vegas show than this? It’s family-friendly, it’s funny, it’s musical and my audience spans every demographic imaginable. You’d think this would be the Vegas show.”
Yankovic attributes his longevity to hard work and a healthy complement of professional good fortune. “It’s totally unexpected, and quite ironic that I have a career that has lasted this long,” said Yankovic, who has released 14 albums over 34 years. “Nobody expected it. Certainly, I didn’t expect it. It’s against all odds. Everybody I approached back in the beginning said, ‘Oh, you do comedy music? You’re going to be around for two weeks. It’s a novelty. Here today, gone tomorrow.’”
As it is, Yankovic has outlasted and even outlived many of the superstars he parodied in the 1980s. “One thing is I’ve surrounded myself with very talented people, and I have the same band I’ve had since the early ’80s,” he said. “They are all great, extremely talented guys, very grounded. We’ve never had any Behind the Music kind of drama on the road or elsewhere. That would make for a great story, but this is a more civilized existence.”
Yankovic won’t start writing new material until later this year, saving his energy and voice for the stage. He flashed his familiar grin as he spoke of his career. “I’ve got a fanbase that’s supportive and loving. I’m doing exactly what I want to do for a living,” he said. “I feel passionate about comedy and music, and the fact that I get to do both for a living and people actually care about it, that’s mind blowing to me. I never anticipated this train rolling for this long.”
"Weird Al" Yankovic May 12-16, 8 p.m., $65-$95. Planet Hollywood, 702-785-5555.
