Californian alt-rockers EELS have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing project of principal singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, aka ‘E’, EELS have released 10 studio albums since their 1996 debut, Beautiful Freak.

In May 2014 EELS embarked on an ambitious 53-show world tour. Starting in Phoenix, Arizona and crossing The United States and Canada before rolling through mainland Europe and Great Britain, the band performed throughout the US from LA’s Orpheum Theatre to The Montreux Jazz Festival and The Amsterdam Concert Hall.

Then on June 30 EELS returned to London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall for the first time in nine years to play a stunning show that was filmed and recorded for the concert film EELS Royal Albert Hall (out now via Mushroom/ EWorks). To celebrate its release, we chatted with Everett about some of the live moments that have changed his life (one of which includes hanging out with a Beatle!).

Hugging Audience Member At Royal Albert Hall

“Technically this isn’t really an onstage moment since I actually got down off the stage and went through the crowd to hug as many fans as I could without getting killed. This is all in the new ROYAL ALBERT HALL concert film. It was really fun, but also, really terrifying.

I don’t recommend any singer doing something this stupid. It’s incredibly dangerous. I’m glad I got away with it and lived to tell. I won’t be doing that again any time soon, though!”

Awkwardly Hugging Tom Waits

“Again, this is another technically off stage moment because it happened as I was stepping off the stage at the end of our show in San Francisco one year when I saw Tom Waits standing there. He is a God to me.

We had spoken on the phone but I had never met him face to face until this moment, and I surprised myself by instinctively going up to him and hugging him. It proved to be a bad instinct, as his body went rigid and he made a groaning noise like Frankenstein’s monster.

I try to make myself feel better by telling myself it probably happens to him all the time. Shit, did I forget to put this moment in my book? Maybe it’s in there, I can’t remember. Hmm, that’s two off-stage, hugging moments. I better change it up for the next one.”

Having A Beatle Pull Me In To Sing With Him

“Okay, this one actually happened on a stage. We played at a festival a few years ago that Ringo Starr also played at, on the same stage. I had never met a Beatle before and was stalking him all day. It was a big deal to me. I started out as a drummer and Ringo was the reason why. One could thus deduce that he’s responsible for me getting into music.

[include_post id=”435472″] I met hi m in the afternoon and he was so nice, making small talk with me. At one point he said “Well, I’m from England, and…” and I nervously and sarcastically said “OH. YOU’RE FROM ENGLAND. I DIDN’T KNOW THAT.” I don’t know what I was thinking. I thought it was funny because everyone knows everything about him. He didn’t seem to think it was as funny as I thought it was and moved on to go talk to someone else. I was crestfallen.
But a few hours later Ringo saw me on the side of the stage watching his show and he came up to me during a song and yelled in my ear “would you like to come and sing on the last song? it’s called ‘With a Little Help From My Friends,” it goes like this…” and he proceeded to sing the song to me as if I, or anyone, had never heard it. I stopped him and said “I know it, and yes.”

When he came up and put his arm around me to sing a line of it together on stage, it gave me shivers. It took me back to being a little kid playing the drums in my house in Virginia and learning everything I could about him and The Beatles. And here I was on stage with him. I never saw that coming in the crystal ball. Moved me to tears. Ringo has to live with the burden of effecting almost everyone he comes in contact with in some way probably similar to this. You have to consider what a pain in the ass it must be to be a Beatle. Just ask the ones who have been attacked or murdered. It was so kind of him to go out of his way to make my day like that.”