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CNN Larry King Live

Interview with Russell Brand

Aired November 19, 2010 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

LARRY KING, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, Russell Brand. The comic cuts up over his wife, Katy Perry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSSELL BRAND, COMEDIAN: I'm married now. She will smash my head in.

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KING: Fesses up about womanizing days.

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BRAND: I was almost an Olympian heterosexual.

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KING: And opens up about drugging and drinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAND: Watch out for drugs, they're terrible, kids. It's like reefer madness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He's got something to say about the royal wedding, too.

So, hold on, watch out, Russell Brand roars!

(MUSIC)

KING: Right now on LARRY KING LIVE.

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KING: Russell Brand, comedian, actor, and best-selling author. His new book is "Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal." He's also a newlywed.

We welcome him to LARRY KING LIVE. We must say it's an honor to have you have here, Sir Russell. Or you're not Sir Russell yet?

BRAND: Not yet, Larry, no. But I think there's an inevitably about that title. Just to want to hear you say "Sir Russell," I thought, yes, that will happen.

KING: Some day you will be.

BRAND: I think there's an inertia -- just there's a gravity pulling me towards a knighthood.

KING: "This Time It's Personal." What's the difference from this time to the first time?

BRAND: I was actually being born to write (ph) because my first autobiography was quite an intimate portrait of my troubled and difficult childhood, shattering, drug addiction, all manner of abuse and arrests and mild criminality and vagrancy and hullabaloo. So, I thought, it's the tag line on the sequel, "This Time It's Personal" rather undercuts the intimacy of the initial volume.

KING: I think I understand that.

BRAND: It's English.

KING: Was it difficult? Was it indeed cathartic to write this? You like that word?

BRAND: Yes, I did. I enjoyed it. There was an element of catharsis certainly in the first book because it was dealing with melancholy (ph), vulgarity, addiction and the pain. This book is more about celebrity and the nature of fame like how surprising it is when you become famous that it's not how it looks from the outside.

KING: Meaning?

BRAND: Well, what I think, Larry, is that we live in a culture that's spellbound and enchanted by fame and it's used as a distraction for more significant and important issues. When you're part of the spectacle, it's still fascinating. It's nice to have a lot of money and be on the LARRY KING show, that's brilliant. But a lot of the things, you think, well, that's really peculiar because there's so important things happening and we're used as kind of a diversion. It's interesting.

KING: You feel like a thing?

BRAND: I think you -- yes, I think you're objectified by fame. I think, particularly in the country I'm from, England. They simplify you and say, oh, right, his character, he's like a womanizer, or he's a cad, or he's a troublemaker. And they just use you and they don't -- they remove nuance.

Someone said to me, the brilliant filmmaker, Albert Mazors (ph), he said tyranny is the deliberate of removal of nuance. People simplify things. They take out away the gray areas. But it's complicated. It's not so simple as Democrat, Republican, good, evil. But like we live in a culture I think that reduces those things so that they can pack these ideas and make us passive consumers.

KING: Do you enjoy the fame?

BRAND: Some bits are, aren't they? I mean, when I was single, I really like to meet lots and lots of different girls.

KING: You were definitely heterosexual?

BRAND: I was so -- I was almost an Olympian heterosexual. I really committed to it. I was out there training. I was doing that 100-yard dash. Oh, it's the Jesse Owens of heterosexuality. I was standing there before Hitler proving that he was wrong.

(LAUGHTER)

BRAND: But with my trousers down, which Jesse Owens would never have done.

KING: How many women do you estimate you have bedded?

BRAND: I don't know, Larry, because I don't like to put a number on it because it makes me look like a sexist chauvinist pig. Also, I'm married now, and she would smash my head in. She's like, you know, you're married, aren't you?

KING: Yes.

BRAND: Shawn, your wife.

KING: Shawn, yes.

BRAND: I spoke to her on the phone before I came here. That's genuinely a fact. I did speak to Larry's wife on the phone. You must not have the kind of control you have in the program in your house because she's a strong woman, huh?

KING: Yes, very. Yours, too?

BRAND: I live under a thumb because I seek shelter --

KING: How did you meet Katy? How did you meet her?

BRAND: Well, there's an inevitably to meet her.

KING: What do you mean?

BRAND: Well, I don't know. Well, actually I'm so happy I met her. I think falling in love is the most spectacular and ordinary thing in the world. The people involved, oh, they stay fascinating to the rest of the world, yes, yes, we heard it. But, you know, it's a very normal romance.

KING: What happens to you, you know it.

BRAND: Yes. Yes. It was amazing.

KING: Have you ever been in love?

BRAND: Evidently not. Now, this feels like a very different for me because she's like a mate. She's like my friend.

KING: How did you meet?

BRAND: At the MTV awards. I was hosting the MTV awards in Radio City, New York. And I was the host and I was showing off, trying to impress people and being funny in that.

And while I was showing off in front of my mate, a bottle arched the room struck on the head from distance, I looked at the trajectory using my knowledge of geometry, I looked out, it must have come from Katy Perry's impressive right arm. I thought that's very good that she threw that bottle that accurately from that distance. And a woman with an arm that strong, I have to have in marriage.

KING: She threw a bottle at you? For what purpose?

BRAND: I think it was attention speaking. It was like a romantic riot. There was a civil rights protest between two people.

KING: What did she say? Did you ask her, why did you throw that bottle at me? You didn't?

BRAND: No, I tried to assimilate it in everyday life, Larry. I wanted to act like, oh, I've been ruffled, kerfuffled, undermined by this act. So, I just went, a bottle striking me on the head, reminds me of the old days back in (INAUDIBLE), England, Albany, Arabian, the queen's country where the riots are relentless, where they're campaigning to something, normally more socialism.

KING: So, you never said to her, why did you strike me with the bottle?

BRAND: I've never asked her why she did that because I think it was evident that she was using it to punctuate the slew of ordinary encounters that I was having, giggling, chuckling women, the sweet scent of them, the pinkness of their cheeks, or their rich coffee color depending on the hue of the day. But not in (INAUDIBLE) me before.

KING: When did you fall in love?

BRAND: Immediately, I think.

KING: Her too?

BRAND: Yes. Well --

KING: I mean, so, when it happens like it's -- you can't believe it, can you? BRAND: I think it's a phenomenal thing.

KING: It's always a shock.

BRAND: Always a shock. And what I like, Larry, is the acknowledgment of love between two people registers the capacity for all of us to love one another. It makes me feel more abundant love for all people.

And I think that this is the kind -- this is what we should be building our culture around. Now, I know that it's very difficult to build an economic system around love, but it's better than building one around greed.

KING: Why did you named it "Booky Wook"?

BRAND: I'm childish. Also -- also, though --

KING: I could be a children's book.

BRAND: Yes. Sort of alluring (ph) children. Shepard Fairey did the cover of this book. Shepard Fairey, the great artist of the Obama "Hope" campaign. He'd done that, ain't he brilliant?

The reason I call it "Booky Wook" because -- well, for two reasons, one is, it's childish and (INAUDIBLE), and the first book has lots of -- like it was kind of (INAUDIBLE), you know, I had a difficult childhood, a junkie with that madness, if I call it my "Booky Wook" to undercut it and make it sound so childish.

Also, the great writer, Anthony Burgess, who wrote the novel "Clockwork Orange," the protagonist, Alex, speaks, he talks like, oh, my booky wooks and eggy weggs.

KING: And the bard (ph), he speaks of the bard.

BRAND: Yes. Because like a language, I think it becomes like it is going to be the way that people speak with the language on TV. It becomes like a white noise, you don't really listen, whether it's an oil spill or a murder or what else, someone being given a lifetime achievement award or whatever it is -- just this white noise of language.

So, I think if you disrupt language by --

KING: "Booky Wook."

BRAND: "Booky Wook," it's silly and childish. And it sorts of like it interrupts your thinking.

KING: How early did addiction begin for you?

BRAND: I think initially, some people believe their addiction is inherent within people. When I was a kid, I used to eat too much chocolate or get involved in self-harming, and then like, as soon as I found drug, it was a medicinal relief, immediately an anesthetic. KING: How old were you?

BRAND: I think (INAUDIBLE) into drugs 15, 16, and I was like a junkie by 19. It got much worse. It sort of came in episodes really and was terrifyingly lucky the government issued leaflet. It starts with marijuana and ends in cocaine and crack and heroin. They're exactly like it would. It was like watch out for drugs, they're terrible, kids. It's like reefer madness, you know? It's like a warming from the government. And I'm a quite liberal-minded gentleman.

KING: But you didn't lose, obviously -- well, let's ask you this way. How did you get off of them?

BRAND: I went into rehabilitation facility. And there are many, thank God, fellowships now where people --

KING: In Britain?

BRAND: Everywhere in the world.

KING: Where did you go?

BRAND: My rehabilitation facility, yes, was in Great Britain. They pack you off there for three months, not allowed any drugs, any at all. And it's very tricky there, Larry. They give you -- they're not joking around. At the beginning, they have sleeping pills because when you come off of heroin, it's ever so difficult to get to sleep. You lay in bed, your (INAUDIBLE) cold, your legs go kicky -- that's where the phrase "kick the habit" comes from because your legs go kicky.

And they have a sleeping pill to give you. Because I was a junky, I stop taking the sleeping pill at 3:00 in the afternoon. If you stay awake on the sleeping pill, it's quite -- you feel drowsy.

KING: And you beat it, though?

BRAND: One day at a time.

KING: And every temptation to go back?

BRAND: No. Well, of course, I think addiction is something you have to be very, very careful of.

KING: Daily?

BRAND: Yes, every day, one day at a time. That's the only way to beat addiction, it's one day at a time. For me, it's about me not taking drugs or drinking alcohol today. I've got my three delicious Larry King beverages here. But none of them is booze or drugs, unless your team have lied to me.

KING: Our guest is Russell Brand. The book is "Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal." And I hope he has defeated the habit. It has not, it appeared at this point, to be true. We'll be right back. (LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Russell Brand, the comedian, actor, best- selling author of the new book "Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal," and almost guaranteed bestseller. It's a joy to have him with us on LARRY KING LIVE.

We're on our last month of this doing this program, and it's an honor that you would be on this last month.

BRAND: It's a great privilege, anytime.

KING: Our privilege to have you.

BRAND: Really, we're both privilege. Remember I'm English, and any situation where politeness comes up, I have to be most polite. So, if you're polite to me, I have to be so --

KING: I am polite.

BRAND: Well, I'm going to be more polite. I love your set and I recognize your country is no longer a colony, sir. I tip my hat. Well done with the Boston Tea Party. But these new Tea Parties, I'm not so sure of.

KING: All right. Tell me about Katy Perry. First, what is she really like?

BRAND: She likes to laugh. She's a normal person, really, really smart, very determined, clever, shoots from the hip and from the heart.

KING: Are you an admirer of her talent?

BRAND: Yes, when I saw her at the performance at the AMAs the other day, she's phenomenal. But that's exciting about maybe fame or showmen or show women, that when she's performing, oh, my word, she's word, she's phenomenal, an incredible gift, her voice. The songs are brilliant, her dancing, she's a great entertainer.

But aside from that being, she likes to just laugh, a normal person, easy to hang out with. The most normal relationship I've ever had probably because there's just one of her.

KING: How did you propose?

BRAND: It was midnight, New Year's Eve, in (INAUDIBLE) India. The blue moon hung low in the sky.

KING: You're giving me --

BRAND: No, this is serious. Romance and comedy are serious things. It was a blue moon, once in a blue moon. We ate together in a garlanded tent like floral garlands hung. KING: What were you doing there?

BRAND: I went there to ask her to marry me.

KING: You took her to India?

BRAND: I took her to India to ask her.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Why didn't you ask her in Britain or Hollywood?

BRAND: Why would you do that? Go to a country like India vibrant with spirituality where you can see God in people's eyes.

KING: Did she ask you why we're going to India?

BRAND: She asked a lot of question. But eventually, I just got the chloroform over her mouth, got her in the suitcase, and off we go.

KING: Good thinking, Russell.

BRAND: Like pirates, vagabonds.

KING: OK, now you're in India -- then what? It's midnight, New Year's Eve.

BRAND: Midnight, New Year's Eve. Everything sounds like news when you do it. Everything sounds like current affairs. Your story must sound wonderful. Even just you cooking eggs would have gravitas.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: New Year's Eve?

BRAND: You know, the thing was, it was full of all sort of, you know -- I made it -- I wanted it to be all grand and flowers and lit torches where we walked down the pathway at night. Gentlemen in turbans holding lit torches. Suddenly we're before -- as midnight struck, we mount an elephant, gone the elephant, it took us off to a clearing.

Midnight, New Year's Eve, there's a lot of fireworks going off. And we were on the back of the elephant. Elephants do not like fireworks, Larry.

KING: I didn't know that.

BRAND: It was a learning experience in a way.

KING: What they do?

BRAND: They go (INAUDIBLE) like that, they recoil in horror.

KING: Did you fall off? BRAND: No, I have to sort of -- because I didn't want to undermine the romance situation. Don't worry, dear, it's all part of the experience. Just relax, just held her hand tightly.

KING: So, you're both on the same elephant.

BRAND: Absolutely.

KING: Side-by-side.

BRAND: No, no. We're there, we're on one elephant, like an emblem of (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Does she think at this point you're a little weird?

BRAND: I imagine so. Yes, I imagine so.

KING: But she's in love?

BRAND: She's in love. There's a blue moon, there's an elephant. There's a lot going on. It's difficult to think.

KING: How did you say it? What did you say?

BRAND: We get off of the elephant (INAUDIBLE) because things are going wrong. So, like, then we walked into a clearing and suddenly all the grandiosity and all of the gestures and the magic melted away into the simplicity of a moment between the two people when you realize there's a kind of -- I got -- it was very, very emotional.

So, really, in a way, asking someone to marry you is just saying a thing -- it's sort of like saying a thing like at school when you have to apologize or when you have to be arrested and you have to go, you know, it was him, they weren't my drugs, just saying words. But there was a sincerity and it was -- it felt like an oath. That's why I take the institution of marriage very seriously and the presence of God very seriously. Some things are very profound --

KING: Did you say will you marry me?

BRAND: Yes, I said it all quiet. But my voice went strange.

KING: Say it again.

BRAND: I can't say it to you, Larry. What if it's legally binding?

What a way to go off? Your last month, Larry King, a civil rights partnership with former junky mad man, Russell Brand. Although, all right. Let's try it.

KING: That would be a story. Let's see your ring.

BRAND: This is -- this is the ring, Larry, my wedding ring, as a matter of fact.

Let me see your wedding ring if I may.

KING: I can't take mine off. But yours looks like -- forgive me, it's a beautiful ring but it looks like on the female side.

BRAND: Because we got the same rings, me and the wife. She chose this, right, you can't say to a woman, I don't like your wedding ring. It's too feminine. I'll get smack in the mouth. So, I just went it.

Look at your -- anyway, yours like --

KING: Mine bends (ph).

BRAND: -- it's like Houdini's foreskin. Look --

KING: Houdini's foreskin. That's sick.

BRAND: That's sick.

KING: OK, I'll wear this -- the rest of the show, we wear this and then we exchange.

BRAND: And we go back to each other's wives and live double wives. I'm with your wife, you're with mine. Will anyone notice? They'll notice. That's for damn sure as mustard.

KING: Yes. Our guest is Russell Brand. The book is it "Booky Wook 2," I can't wait to read it. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAND: Screw you, Russell. Stick to U.K. politics and keep out of U.S. politics.

I like that he seems to think that I'm kind of like a political TV broadcaster. But I'm Larry King running amok.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: If you just joined us, we're wearing each others rings for some preposterous reason.

BRAND: And who dare judge us?

KING: That's right.

BRAND: If we choose to wear it, Larry.

KING: Damn by (ph).

BRAND: Damn them all.

KING: OK. Russell Brand is our guest. If you tune in, right away you sized up it was not Bill Clinton. The book is "Booky Wook 2: This Time It's Personal."

Here's what Katy --

BRAND: I admit when I do it.

KING: Katy described your looks as a combination of Charles Manson --

BRAND: Yes.

KING: -- Jesus --

BRAND: Yes.

KING: -- Jim Morrison, plus a little bit of Elvis.

BRAND: I'm happy with that. Except Charles Manson.

KING: That's a little rough. I knew Jim Morrison. You do look like Jim Morrison.

BRAND: Thanks.

KING: I did. Jim Morrison was maybe the handsomest man ever.

BRAND: Well, hold there in a minute. Let's just run this here. This is breaking news.

KING: You're a good looking man.

BRAND: You're saying I look like the handsomest man ever. Well, my, God, if I wasn't already wearing your wedding ring, I'd be requesting it now. That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.

KING: When did this you got married in India --

BRAND: Yes.

KING: -- came from India --

BRAND: Yes.

KING: -- and found a dwelling --

BRAND: Found a dwelling

KING: Where?

BRAND: New York.

KING: You live in New York?

BRAND: Yes.

KING: Now, how do you combine juggling careers? You, actor, comedian. She, a singer, a fame renown. Why am I talking like this?

BRAND: I like it. It's brilliant.

KING: OK.

BRAND: Well, (INAUDIBLE) because she works a lot. I work a lot. We're all over the place. We have to try and combine our schedules, not try to leave each other apart for too long. It's nice.

Sometimes, we have a week apart, or 10 days apart, but we work it out so we can see each other. See her this morning. I see her tomorrow. It works out.

KING: Do you want children?

BRAND: Yes, I do actually. I'm going to trying to be cool about it and say, oh, no, I don't want children because they make me weak, like in a film, people go weak when they got children. They kidnap their kids, didn't they? A Mel Gibson film, my kids would be gone at in time at all.

So, but actually, I love them, the little fellas, all wry, full of innocence, beauty.

KING: Do you think you would be a good father?

BRAND: I think so, mate, because I really like fun and I engage with other people's children very well. But I'm sure I know about that discipline and telling them to do that. When I see children doing stuff, I always saying, all right, that looks like a laugh.

KING: So, you would not be a disciplinarian.

BRAND: I would prevent them from doing things that might harm them or be potentially illegal.

KING: Potentially illegal?

BRAND: Yes, I would look at -- I would always carry with me a copy of the Constitution of the United States. I'd say, the right to bear arms, yes, that's there. Carry on.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: So, now, what are you now, Russell? Writer? Standup comedian? Actor? All of the above?

BRAND: Comedian I think primarily. Whatever I do, I try to infuse it with some comedy.

KING: Do you do a standup act?

BRAND: Yes, yes, that's my favorite thing, stand up. You're directly there with the audience. You look into their eyes, you can hear them laughing. Plus, you get away with saying crazy stuff. You can slowly build consensus. KING: Are you a little bit like a British Robin Williams, like a stream of consciousness?

BRAND: I love that Robin Williams, he's a genius. So, yes. So, now, Jim Morrison and Robin Williams. This is a good combination.

KING: Very good.

BRAND: Unless I got Robin Williams, his body hair, and Jim Morrison's drug habit.

KING: That would not be good.

BRAND: Who needs that? And the Charles Manson (INAUDIBLE)

KING: Are you doing a remake of "Arthur"?

BRAND: I've done it. I've done it here in New York City. Shaved and everything.

KING: Did you see the Dudley Moore film?

BRAND: Well, of course. I love that. I'm from like 10 miles away from where he's from.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: -- is that alcohol is the theme of that film.

BRAND: Yes, but the thing is he's an idiot man child Savant. Alcoholism in the film "Arthur" is not tragedy. It's more, well, if he didn't have a job and he was rich, why not get drunk.

KING: But the guy drinks through the whole movie.

BRAND: Yes, because he's got nothing else to do. I mean, I think if you're not addicted to alcohol and you haven't got a job, and you are a billionaire, you might as well get drunk all day -- right, Bill Gates?

KING: Now, since you're sober, was it hard to play drunk?

BRAND: What I've done, right, Larry, is that I have bottles of booze and I smell them all the time to get myself in the mood. All right, this is a tequila scene. So, I would have a smell of tequila or a smell scotch or whatever. And it's just like -- it's easy if you drink all the time. It's easy to remember. I used to drink a lot of stuff, so I got a lot of memory for being drunk. I spent I think 15 years drunk.

KING: Fifteen years.

BRAND: I was ever so drunk -- drunk, crack, heroin, the works.

KING: I'll talk about the womanizing in a minute.

BRAND: OK.

KING: The book is it "Booky Wook 2," Russell Brand who is married to the wonderful Katy, Katy Perry.

BRAND: Yes. Well, a lovely woman.

KING: A lovely woman. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAND: This is no fish. But an island of lately suffered by a thunder bolt -- and that's the storm that's come again. But this way is to creep. There is no other warrior about. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We're back with Russell Brand. The book is "Booky Wook 2," I'll get back to the wedding later.

But let's go pre- the wedding.

BRAND: OK.

KING: As a womanizer, did you collect them? I mean, what was it like to? Have you ever been in love?

BRAND: I think I use to like -- I get emotionally affected by things, but I think love has an element of duty and commitment to it, doesn't it? So, I used to get infatuated or excited by people, but never anyone I could be mate with her for ages and ages. So, no, I think there was something very, very distinct about Katy and I think I was very -- and I think (INAUDIBLE) I was ready to meet someone.

KING: In the book you say --

BRAND: Don't quote --

(CROSSTALK)

KING: No, you say that you --

BRAND: This isn't even plugged in. What about that? This is just the robot's ice cream!

(LAUGHTER)

KING: Our staff psychiatrist Dr. Haldanish (ph) is on call today.

BRAND: Get him here. I'm ready for the couch.

KING: You're an Olympian under the sheets. You were fantastic, right? You were a good lover. BRAND: I really, really tried hard, Larry. It requires chemistry, proper good love making. Doesn't it? You can't do it really good with a table, unless it's a hell of a table. But I really was committed to it, because of this ferocious, deep love of femininity and of women and anatomy.

I love the curves of their body, the aroma of a woman, the scent of a woman, to quote dear Al Pacino. I love them. I love them. I love the variety. But in the end, it got a bit much. If you were loose in a candy store for too long, eventually you get diabetes.

KING: Did you ever wake up in the morning and not know who you were with?

BRAND: Yes often, because sometimes you can't remember all their names. If you put name tags on them, that's offensive.

KING: Yeah, it is.

BRAND: Often there was not just one, Larry, of course.

KING: There were two?

BRAND: I was looking for the one. I was very thorough in my search. To save time, sometimes I would audition three or four at once. So occasionally, it was difficult to remember everybody's names. In the end it would become a bit impolite. You can't just say see you later, sun shine, sunny Jim, me old pat, me old brute, ta-ta there. You run out of euphemisms and catch phrases.

KING: When you're that way, you couldn't have a type, could you? You couldn't say I liked tall blonds.

BRAND: Though they are nice. I think I was very, very inclusive because I think -- because this is what made it different. Of course there was the element of if it was a bit yuck. But there also -- because it was rapacious and lusty. But there was an element -- I see beauty in people. At that time especially women.

Now -- now that I've found someone that I'm very, very happy with -- to be in a relationship -- I still have this awareness of duty in women, but also in men. and I've got a ring on it. So it's like I'm aware of people's beauty. So there was one element of this womanizing that was just an appetite for life and an appreciation --

KING: It was insatiable in your case?

BRAND: It was somewhat insatiable, though it's been satiated now.

KING: Somewhat. Where was the marriage? Where did the actual wedding take place? Not on an elephant?

BRAND: Good lord, no. I'm not going to involve them ever again. They're unreliable. If a fire book goes off, they start causing a light scene. KING: So were where were you married?

BRAND: On the ground in India.

KING: You got married in India.

BRAND: Yes, we went back there because it's such a beautiful place.

KING: Describe the wedding.

BRAND: I was trying to find it on your map, which I have recently learned is just coloring in. But when you're watching this on your tele at home, that looks like it's this glowing map of the Earth. But when you look at it up close, it's like you and possible your wife, Shawn, have colored it in with pencils. What's going on, Larry?

KING: Why are you doing this to us?

BRAND: This is our Watergate. Why are you doing this?

KING: Where did you get married? A synagogue in India or where?

BRAND: No, neither of us are Jewish.

KING: You'd be so different, you'd get married in synagogue.

BRAND: Synagogue or a mosque or anywhere. It doesn't make any difference. There's only one God. A dog recognizes his master in any clothes. God is God, huh? So we got married just outside.

KING: Outside. Describe it.

BRAND: My wife will kill me. She says we're not spilling anymore information about the wedding. Am I going to say Larry King asked me?

KING: All right, who married you?

BRAND: It was a very traditional wedding other than taking place in India. It was -- Katy's background is of course Christian. So we were very respectful.

KING: A minister?

BRAND: I believe so. I don't know much about the old religion myself. I know much about God. But I'm sure he wasn't a chef or a butler or a passer by or a tiger.

KING: Is it hard if you're not religious and she is?

BRAND: No, because I'm very respectful of all religions and I think they're ultimately the same. That's that thing that I said, a dog will recognize his master in any clothing.

KING: You believe in God.

BRAND: Yes, yes, I believe very strongly in the presence of God in all of us.

KING: He watches over you?

BRAND: I think he's present within us. I believe that strongly.

KING: What do you think happens when you die?

BRAND: I would hope when I die, there would be a big party and a statue will be made and they will put it next to Abraham Lincoln.

KING: In India?

BRAND: In India.

KING: What's your father do?

BRAND: My dad -- I didn't grow up with my dad.

KING: No? You grew up with your mother?

BRAND: Just me and my mom. She was sick a lot when I was a kid. She had cancer. I'm an only child of a single mother. So I have got a lot of attention. She's a brilliant woman, still alive, still very healthy, brilliant.

KING: What does she make of her son's success?

BRAND: She's really, really proud of me. Let's be honest, she would be proud of me -- she was proud of me when I stopped taking drugs and getting arrested all the time. That was a massive breakthrough. Now that I'm on Larry King and doing well, she's well proud.

KING: Russell Brand, the book, "Booky Wook 2," We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Russell Brand. The book is "Booky Wook 2." Are there any photos of your wedding, by the way? This is the control room asking this.

BRAND: No. We never -- they offered us money to sell the photos.

KING: "People Magazine?"

BRAND: Yes, all of them. But once you have sold the photos of the wedding, how can you then go, hey, give us privacy. Makes you look bad. So no, we kept it private and normal, as much as possible.

KING: That's well. I salute you.

BRAND: Thanks, Larry.

KING: This was posted to our Facebook page.

BRAND: Nice.

KING: In your first book, you mentioned that you were diagnosed with bipolar disorder? How did you cope with that?

BRAND: At first, I was really angry, but then really happy, then furious, then really cheered up.

KING: I'm so glad you're cured.

BRAND: I was fed up. The thing is I was just trying to bob me off with some new drug. That was when I was in a treatment center for another condition.

KING: You think it was a misdiagnosis?

BRAND: Well, I mean -- yeah, I feel all right now. I was taking 70 drugs and stuff.

KING: How did you straighten out?

BRAND: I went for three months to a drug rehabilitation facility.

KING: What straightened you out mentally?

BRAND: I had -- I think you have to work on yourself. You have to take your life one day at a time. You have to find contact with a higher power. You have to realize that other people are more important than yourself. And you have to devote your life to something meaningful. Once you start to do that, and one day at a time, don't take drugs, don't take alcohol, you start to develop a program for living. And I have a lot of support around me. So I've been very, very fortunate.

KING: Do you still need that support every day?

BRAND: I think so. I like it. It gives me the opportunity to provide support for others. I'm very glad to have that opportunity. It's good to belong to those fellowships. I think it could succeed in other areas of life. I think we all need to acknowledge the fraternity and similarities between us and forget the differences.

KING: How many movies have you made now?

BRAND: About five, six. Some of them are cartoon, so you can't remember the animated movies. One coming out Easter, I'm the Easter Bunny. Imagine that, a symbol of fertility, me. The only animated character. It was made by the people who made "Alvin and the Chipmunks," but me as the Easter Bunny.

KING: What's the concept of the movie. BRAND: Like the Easter Bunny doesn't want to be the Easter Bunny anymore. He goes to Hollywood to becomes a star and meets up with another slacker and they bum around. It's like a buddy movie, pretty funny. In fact, Jimmy Marsden's in it. He's a lovely actor. He's really funny. And Hugh Laurie, him in "House." He's in it. I love him from England. That's good.

"Arthur," that's coming out with Helen Mirren. That's really, really good. And, of course, I've done them Jud Apatow movies of which I'm proud and movies with the great Adam Sandler.

KING: Adam Sandler is genius.

BRAND: Yes, I love him. He's a really good bloke. He's straight up. He's a nice fellow and incredibly talented.

KING: But your standup is your favorite.

BRAND: Yes, because you're directly in contact with the audience.

KING: When you do a movie, is it hard to control you?

BRAND: Yes. I don't like saying the same things over and over again.

KING: That's what I mean. So how do you deal with a script?

BRAND: You got to just do as you're told. Don't you? It's a bit boring. Then you have to go and sit in that caravan. Trailer, they call it. It's a caravan. You are in there for ages, waiting and stuff. It's good. It's better than selling ink cartridges refills for a photo copy, which is one of the jobs I did before, or telesaus (ph), or being a mailman. I was that for a while. That was bloody boring.

KING: You were a mailman in Britain?

BRAND: Yes, Britain, delivering letters. I thought there would be more sex involved. I thought knocking on people's doors at that time in the morning, the housewives would be vulnerable, I thought.

KING: It works?

BRAND: Do you want an extra delivery. No one picked up on it. It was innuendo laden. Would you like me to stamp that? I've got a heavy sack.

KING: You're a handsome young man. I think women open the door in the morning --

BRAND: Yes, in their dressing gowns, fag on -- cigarette in your -- just not interested. They just grabbed their letters and cleared off back in doors. I was on drugs then, so --

KING: Were you a good mailman? BRAND: Not really, mate. I used to nick the letters, steal the letters sometimes.

KING: You stole letters?

BRAND: Sometimes.

KING: For what purpose?

BRAND: Money. In case there was money. So for Christmas, people say -- sorry, sometimes people send money or maybe there's a package, I like that, pop that in there. That is morally reprehensible.

KING: Morally reprehensible and I think illegal.

BRAND: I don't know the law about that. Maybe nicking letters if you're a mailman is all right, once in a while, as a Christmas treat, keep your spirits, a morale boosting measure.

KING: Especially if the parties don't give you a little Christmas gift.

BRAND: Where's that Christmas tip? I'll take it myself. No Christmas cards for you. So, in a way, justice has been dealt here.

KING: I'm trying to picture you walking down the street with a bag.

BRAND: Like that, I was, but smoking a joint. I was skidding about in the snow.

KING: "Booky Wook 2" is now available everywhere. It's by Russell Brand. This time it's personal. We'll be right back. .

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRAND: Many questions about your hair posted on our Facebook page and Tweeted to King's things. So tell us everything. The secret of your hair style; how long does it take to do? What products do you use? These are things that fascinate the masses.

BRAND: Well, we are all one. I, too, am fascinated by my hair. Nikola (ph), my mate from England, she does it. She just scrunches it up, puts some nice ungulents (ph) in there, oils, potions, alchemy. She stands above me. She summons these extraterrestrial forces. And, bam, natural root lift.

KING: Daily?

BRAND: Whenever it's required, Larry. Sometimes three, four, five times a day. That women is ever present.

KING: Is your hair hard to manage?

BRAND: Very much. Sometimes it makes decisions for me. It starts wondering off on its own. It's got its own ambitions. It wants its own hairline.

I think it's quite easy to manage it. It's relatively lustrous.

KING: Are unshaven or growing a beard?

BRAND: Sometimes, I allow myself to grow a little facial hair, just for the virility and to look a little bit like Rasputin. Then my wife will remind me that I look like Charles Manson. I think, well --

KING: Manson did have his hair like that and a little -- not a beard, but that hair.

BRAND: But the main thing about Charles Manson was -- it wasn't like uh, Charles Manson, I hate how he looks. It was that murderous rampage and the way that he contributed to the ending of the '60s, along with the Vietnam War and Altamonte. The way he looked was actually not that bad. Except that Swastika on his head. What was he thinking? What a crazy thing to do.

KING: What do you make of your royalty getting engaged?

BRAND: Well, I don't know about all of this, Larry? What's going on? Is he ready? Has he rushed into it? Young William?

Yeah, I mean, just some posh people are exchanging jewelry. I mean, how many of us do care? I don't know if it makes people happy, if it makes him happy. I met some of the royals. The queen, I met.

KING: You met her?

BRAND: Yeah.

KING: In what circumstance?

BRAND: Kinky circumstances. No like, after a royal variety performance, she came past, oh, hello. And then off she went. Then Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, I met him about a week ago. After I think Pride of Britain, where courageous people are awarded in the presence of celebrities. After that, Prince Charles -- there's a bit where you're took off to a special room, Prince Charles with the Duchess, Camilla, bowl round. They like meet everyone.

I felt a bit shy and a bit compromised, not sure if everyone would agree with the concept of hierarchical power structures when I think everyone is equal. I think should I wait in line. Should I wait in line. And someone shoved me, go and meet Prince Charles. So I got pushed into it. And it was like a bang, like that, a collision.

And then he thrust out his hand, hello, and then I thrust out mine. And then like I saw the moment in his eyes, oh, that's that controversial comedian. I better move on. And he moved his eyes like that. But I kept hold of his hands and didn't let go. You stay here and meet me. And I hard his wrists click a bit. It made me feel bad. Went click, a little wrist click. Like that.

And then I felt all embarrassed and I jut ran away, because I felt, oh, no, I made the future king's writs click. What have done? Am I a good man?

Then people went no, look, the duchess is back there. I had to rush back in to the line. I was so overwhelmed with all the wrist clickery and hullabaloo that she came I just went "a duchess," and shouted in her face what she was. She was so -- she was posh, it was indecipherable. It was like verbal hieroglyphs. It was like a John Cage sound poem. I couldn't understand what she was saying.

BRAND: He'll be with you momentarily, doctor. We'll be right back.

(NEWS BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: What do you think of royalty?

BRAND: I think that they're nice people and everything, but I just wonder, is it helpful to have a social structure that elevates certain individuals, whether it be royals or presidents or famous people.

KING: We fought a war against it.

BRAND: You did, didn't you, the Americans. You threw all that tea in the water. You kicked up a big, huge fuss.

KING: Yet we love royalty though.

BRAND: You love them. You come back. You buy your souvenirs in our country. I don't know. I think have a king, have a queen, have a president, have a shah, have whatever you want. But I think really we need to work out a social structure that has a bit more equality involved.

KING: Another Facebook -- several Facebook friends -- you have Facebook?

BRAND: I like that you're still wearing my wedding ring. And you've sort of forgotten about it. And you're wearing this incredibly glamorous pinky ring. We're just carrying about on our lives.

KING: Because it doesn't fit on my wedding finger, whatever they call this finger.

BRAND: That is the wedding finger. Index finger, pinky finger, wedding finger. And then there's this chicky guy. Don't let him out of the cage.

KING: OK. Several want to know, how do you feel when Katy makes out with other guys on music videos?

BRAND: Well, I think as long as the videos are good and artistically warranted -- no, I don't mind. It's her job, isn't it? She's a pop star.

KING: You're not jealous?

BRAND: No, because I get the privilege of being married to a pop star. So I was going to be bothered about that, I would marry someone who wasn't a pop star. You know ,she's a pop star.

KING: Do you say I'm with a pop star?

BRAND: Sometimes I sort of say. I try not to say it out loud in case she thinks I'm nuts. I'm married to a pop star. What? Nothing. Shut up. Pretend it's one of your videos.

KING: Were you an interviewer? Did you do an interview show?

BRAND: Yes, I had a show on MTV which is how I met the wonderful Adam Sandler. He gave me that job in films now. So, yeah.

KING: Who did you interview?

BRAND: Like movie stars. I've done Will Ferrell. I've done Christina Aguilera, Busta Rhymes, also Tom Cruise come on it once. Big stars from America, because they didn't know --.

KING: What kind of questioning tact did you take?

BRAND: Well, we used to try and say things that would freak them out a bit.

KING: Like.

BRAND: Like I said to Will Ferrell like say every time you got more successful, your wife's head got a bit bigger; would you still continue to pursue success. Not physically bigger, like --.

KING: That's a question you would ask, if her head got larger.

BRAND: Yes, larger, it grew it. He said he would. I said, what if this process caused her pain, would you still pursue it. And he went, damn you. And then he agreed that he would allow his wife's head to inflate as long as he achieved success. Made me happy to hear that from him.

KING: Why did that show go off?

BRAND: I think because it was stupid.

KING: We'll be back with our remaining moments with Russell Brand. The book is "Booky Wook 2." Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We have just a couple moments left. Our senior executive producer, Wendy Walker, author of the book "Producer."

BRAND: Yes.

KING: Of which you have a copy. BRAND: What a fine book it is by Wendy. And what a looker. Mighty fine, too. The centerfold's good.

KING: She handed you a note. Can you explain what that was?

BRAND: Yes. It's Friday today, Larry. It's your birthday. You're 77 years old. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Larry, happy birthday to you. Larry, yay, you're 77. Hooray for Larry. You gorgeous man, you icon of current affairs. You stand astride world news, a colossus. How can you be pursued or followed?

You are the news. If it hasn't been said in your voice, it didn't happen. Happy birthday to you.

KING: I want to say I never get personal on this show. But I want to say something, I've interviewed many types of people.

BRAND: I've seen the program --

KIGN: Authors, directors, presidents and kings, and different people and awkward people and ordinary people, people in stress, people in happiness. But you are the first truly insane person I have ever met.

BRAND: Truly insane in the membrane?

KING: Totally. And I love you for it. You are totally -- you are totally you.

BRAND: I appreciate this.

KING: There is nothing false about you. And yet you are in show business.

BRAND: How have I achieved this peculiar dichotomy?

KING: Yes. How?

BRAND: It's a paradox. I live in a world of plasticity and synthesis, and yet there is some authenticity.

KING: Correct.

BRAND: Unbelievable. What's next, Larry?

KING: Russell Brand, the book "Bookie Wook 2." Barbara Bush will be here, along with George H.W. on Monday, Dolly Parton Tuesday, Jack Hannah and the animals and my son Cannon will be with them, too, on Wednesday night, Thanksgiving eve.

BRAND: Happy birthday!

KING: Thank you! Why are we yelling? Time now for AC --Where did the ring go? Time now for "AC 360." I almost lost it.

BRAND: I know. My wife's going to kill me.

KING: Good night.