Season 2 of Ted Lasso just dropped on Apple TV+ last Friday, and Jason Sudeikis opened up in a new interview about how a Foo Fighters song influenced the show’s new episodes.
Stopping by After School Radio with Mark Hoppus on Apple Music Hits, the actor and Ted Lasso co-creator told the Blink-182 member/host that music has long influenced his writing. In particular, the Foo Fighters’ 1998 single “My Hero” impacted his life long before he was collecting awards trophies for his role as a preternaturally optimistic American soccer coach with a heart of gold. As Sudeikis explained,
“‘My Hero’ was the first time that I heard a song and I felt I saw a whole movie about that song. At least my interpretation of it. I’ve never spoken to Gus [Brandt] nor Dave [Grohl] or any of the guys in the band about what that song is about. But I knew what it was about for me, and some of those themes are literally being used in Season 2 of Ted Lasso, which I hadn’t put together until I put together this list. Just the idea of false prophets or don’t meet your heroes or the idea of all statues have clay feet, I think is another example of that. People are human.”
“I pay attention when a song becomes a muse, whether you end up using the tune or not. I saw a beginning, middle and end to a story in that song for me. That was really profound at 21-years-old, 22-years-old, having just moved to Chicago to try this acting out.”
Sudeikis went on to explain how writing to music “changed my life…,” and noted that he regularly wrote sketches revolving around songs during his eight-year stint on Saturday Night Live. As an example, we all have Sudeikis to thank for the classic bar song sketch on the late-night comedy program, which reappeared most recently to show off the universal appeal of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” with some help from Regé-Jean Page.
For his work on the heart-warming first season of Ted Lasso, the actor took home both a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for his titular role, and the show currently leads the pack in this year’s Emmy Awards race with a whopping 13 nominations — including another for Sudeikis for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.
