Beastie Boys Tell Conan O’Brien The Truth About Gold Records
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Surviving Beastie Boys Ad-Rock and Mike D were guests on Conan O’Brien’s podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend on Tuesday, ostensibly to promote their new 30th anniversary reissue of Ill Communication. During the interview, the music legends revealed the truth about gold records.
When a musical artist’s song or album has sold 500,000 units, or the equivalent in streaming, the RIAA grants them a gold record, a golden slab of vinyl that comes encased under glass in a frame. Presumably, these records contain the actual music that’s being commemorated — they are labeled as such — but as the Beasties tell it, that’s not always the case. They told a story about hanging out smoking weed in their Los Angeles recording studio one time many years ago and noticing that their Paul’s Boutique gold record did not have the right amount of tracks listed on Side A. They decided to investigate, breaking the glass and putting the record on a turntable. What they heard was… not Beastie Boys music.
Watch them tell the story below.