He opens up to Katie about the death of his dear friend, how his son is similar to Saget, Lori Loughlin, and more.
My podcast Next Question is back for a brand new season, and I can’t wait for you to see what we’ve got in store! Our premiere episode is a riveting conversation with John Stamos (more on that below), but first, I wanted to share how we’re shaking things up to make the show better than ever.
This season is all about being even more conversational, so I’m bringing a few notable plus-ones along for the ride. I’ll still be doing one-on-one interviews, too, but when it feels right, I’ve invited some of my favorite people to join me and add a fresh perspective to these chats. I think you’ll love the new voices and the supercharged energy they bring to these three-way conversations.
That begins this week: Kelly Rizzo, wife of the late Bob Saget, stopped by to help unpack John Stamos’s new memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, with the author himself. We discussed the legacy of Full House, John’s upbringing, how he’s raising a family of his own now, and much more. Catch the full interview in the video below, and read on for a few of our favorite highlights.
John Stamos on how Bob Saget’s death inspired him to write his memoir
“I never thought about writing a book. It wasn’t a goal of mine. And then Bob died, and I wrote an obituary for him in The Los Angeles Times. It just poured out of me. A bunch of agents saw that and told me I should write a book. And I still said no for a long time. I didn’t know where to start. Then I remembered my mom’s letters that she wrote me over the years. I put them together and thought that was a good starting point. Those letters made me want to write a love letter to all the people who have been so beautiful in my life — which made me think of Bob.
“From there, I decided to write about the two hardest things that I could write about. One was this horrific day, where I was going to meet Bob at the Palm and I got a DUI. It was the lowest point of my life, and I wrote about all the stages of grief I went through after it took place. Then the second chapter that I wrote was the day I found out that Bob died. Once more, I wrote about all the stages of grief I went through. That’s how the book slowly came together.”
John Stamos talks about Full House: “It wasn’t just for one kind of person”
“It wasn’t until I wrote the book that I realized how much that show meant to people. It wasn’t just for one kind of person. It wasn’t just for the latchkey kid coming home and turning on the TV. It was for her family, too. It was for the widow who turned it up a little louder in her empty home. The central character on that show was love. It was representing the best of who we could be.
“For years, the critics for the show used to just drive me nuts. While I was writing my book, I finally let go of all of that resentment. Because the show wasn’t for the critics.”
How his father’s early death impacted him
“My father was 65 years old when he died. He wasn’t a very emotional guy. My mom would say, ‘I love you,’ every other word. And my father would say to her, ‘God dammit, Loretta, you’re wearing it out.’
“In the 90s, he came to Yugoslavia to visit me while I was filming a movie. After the visit, he went home and wrote me this beautiful letter. And in the letter, he said, ‘I love you, Dad.’ My heart stopped when I read it. And the way he laid it out was, ‘You know, being on the set, seeing the way you handle people, it really made me proud… a man doesn’t have many great moments. But you have given me many. I love you, Dad.'”
John Stamos on his son’s potty humor and interest in Full House
“Billy’s funny, and his humor is a lot closer to Bob’s than mine — sometimes I really get bummed out when I remember that Bob isn’t here [for that]. Recently he said, ‘Dad, if you have to pee and you hold it long, the pee-ness goes away,’ or something like that, and I said, ‘That’s something Uncle Bob would have talked about.’
“I walked by a couple of weeks after Bob passed away and the nanny was showing him Full House. And most of the time he watches it just to get enough ammo to goof on me. I’ll say, ‘Billy, go clean up your toys.’ And he says, ‘You got it, dude.’ But this particular episode had The Beach Boys. And it was this the scene where Danny was telling Uncle Jesse he wishes had his life, with all the rock ‘n’ roll. And Jesse was saying, I wish I had your life, a family and stuff. And in truth, that was the real us. It wasn’t the characters. And I just lost it. And Billy could see me…and he let me have that moment. I was just choked up.”
John Stamos shares thoughts on Lori Loughlin’s college admissions scandal
“When I submitted an early draft of my book to my publisher, they kept saying, where’s Lori? So I talked to Lori about it. And she said, ‘Go ahead and say anything you want.’ And I sort of wrote it out…from my point of view, the way she went through it. I think everybody makes mistakes big and small. And by the way, she’s the last person from Full House you’d think would go to jail. First would be me, maybe Jodi, or both of us together.
“But it was a study in resilience, the way she got up every day and took care of a family and a marriage amidst everything. I mean, I would have crumbled. So it was interesting to be able to just write about her from my perspective, and have that conversation with her. Not picking sides.
“And she she was accountable. And a lot of people don’t know that during that time she was going and helping underprivileged kids. She’s a saint and she made a big mistake. In typical Lori fashion, when she got out of jail, I asked how it was and she goes, ‘It wasn’t so bad, I met a couple of really nice ladies. We’re in a book club now.'”
Kelly Rizzo shares her thoughts on John Stamos’ book: “John told Bob’s story so beautifully”
“The other day, I finished reading John’s book, and I called him and let him know how much the book meant to me — not only as Bob’s wife, and as John’s friend, but also just as somebody in the public who’s going to read this. It just meant so much to me that John told Bob’s story so beautifully. People who read the book are just going to get such an incredible picture of who he truly was as a person. It was also so wonderful to read through so many memories, and to get them from John’s perspective. Because I had really only heard Bob’s perspective of those moments. I think John did such a beautiful, wonderful tribute to him. I know Bob would be so proud.”
There’s a lot more wonderful conversation coming up later this season on Next Question! Two episodes that I’m especially excited about feature guests with a lot in common: They’re both named David, and they both have new books coming out Oct. 24.
One of them is David Leonhardt, who talks about his book, Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream. It’s a fascinating history of the modern American economy, and we’ve got a preview of our chat in which he explains the evolution of union leadership (including a fascinating story about Mitt Romney’s father).
The second is David Brooks, whose latest is How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. I’ll talk with him about his recommendations for how to deepen our connections at home and at work in an upcoming episode. Stay tuned!
