Watch Wayne Coyne Sing About Musical Heroes Witness Protection Stint

Wayne Coyne recounted his myriad musical influences, and some stories from his peculiar past, in a web exclusive video for The Late Show, which arrived ahead of the Flaming Lips' tribute to David Bowie tonight, April 19th.

"I asked Stephen about perhaps making separate appearances on the show for every band that I like — he gave a hard no," Coyne cracks in the clip. "So, I crammed all these influences into one catchy little tune."

Accompanied by an acoustic guitar player picking a jaunty melody, Coyne is able to squeeze an outrageous number of bands and syllables into the song. Some charming lyrical highlights include, "I shook my booty when I cranked the Brothers Doobie," "I hit the bricks when I rocked Jimi Hendrix" and "I nearly spilled my seed when I listened to Roger and the boys at Leeds."

But the tune also takes some darkly funny turns. Coyne spills an odd story about hitting a deer with his car and being forever haunted by its gaze, and an even stranger yarn about the time he got in bad with some drug dealers, ratted them out to the feds and joined the witness protection program where he became Wayne Coyne.

"I know they could find me at any time," he sings nervously near the end, "I'm a very public figure and I'm doing this on camera and / I also listened to a lot of Jethro Tull / and it's made me the man than I am today."