Bob Odenkirk’s favourite album of all time: “I can connect to that”
An actor’s face is far more important than the real soul beneath their hard exterior. That’s something which Bob Odenkirk had to learn pretty quickly, only in rare moments allowing the mask of toughness to fall.
Between the dramatic façade of roles like Saul Goodman to his quick stint in The Bear, it’s clear Odenkirk has range in his choice of projects, but they all similarly revolve around the idea of an impenetrable persona, a character hardened to the world, and often, someone to be feared. Of course, this is not to say that the man himself matches up to this at all in real life, but it does make the times in which he unveils his truest form all the more revealing.
Music is naturally one of the most incisive forms through which anyone can communicate the most vulnerable version of themselves, and it seems Odenkirk was almost clamouring for the opportunity to expose an unheard part of his life when it came to discussing his favourite album. Knowing the actor for his on-screen tendencies, you might expect a choice which is brazen and brash – and you would be right – but it also revealed a rather tender centre underneath.
For any child of the early 1980s, the musical crossroads of the world in that moment would have been an intoxicating elixir from which to take your first delicious tastes of music. Yet in many ways, The Replacements single-handedly took the listener through that journey of evolution, bridging the sonic gap between the scream of punk and the synth of the oncoming new wave. It was in this middle ground where Odenkirk felt his happiest as a fan.
To this end, the band’s debut album, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, proved to be a pivotal piece on the punk horizons, but also wormed its way into the heart of the actor as his favourite album of all time. Discussing this on a podcast in 2020, he admitted: “If you’re lucky, you get to see a lot of life. The fact that I can listen to an album like this and connect to a person I was for a good deal of my life, came out of the hardest things in my childhood, and a kind of anger and sadness that motivated me to try to be who I’ve become and pushed me, kept me from settling.”
That such a profound answer can be spun out of an album seemingly so flagrant may be enough to surprise many people, but Odenkirk based this on “The fact that I can connect to that so directly with an album like this, to the person I was so long ago, it’s like a time warp.” That was certainly true – as The Replacements’ only real foray into the punk rock realm, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash was a cannon of anger, frustration, and discontent. But looking back on it decades down the line, it also allowed Odenkirk to see just how far he’d come.
The next time you feel menaced or unnerved by Odenkirk’s performances in Better Call Saul, it’s worth remembering exactly where the real wrath of that character is embedded in. There’s a story and plot line to follow, of course, but he could never be brought to life without the stark grittiness of the man behind him. If you ever wonder how Odenkirk gears up to unleash his full pelt of irateness or aggression in whichever role he plays, you might just find that you hear The Replacements ringing in his ears.
