I asked Billy what inspired him to write about Massholes, and we took it from there.

I was driving my kids to school, and a text popped up from my friend Nick Haney, and it just said, "History of Masshole." And I- it was on my dashboard [laughs] and I couldn't open it.

And I was like, "What?" And I knew it was a dare.

It was like, "You need to look into the history of Masshole." And then when I could pull over, I opened it, and there was a clip to a, uh, a segment from Chronicle of a guy giving a tour of, uh, a exhibit about the Big Dig at the West End Museum.

And as he's giving the tour, he- he's pointing to this interchange and he says, "This here is the origin of the word Masshole." And I was like, "Wait, what? The Masshole has a Big Dig origin story? Like, how do I not know that?" I was a little mad, I'm calling up my friend, I'm like, "What? The Masshole comes from Big Dig?"

Right.

They have its first appearance in print in a book that a British journalist wrote in 1989 about the Dukakis campaign in 1988, and he said he heard it in New Hampshire to refer to people from Massachusetts that moved to New Hampshire.

So I was curious about, like, how far back it went, 'cause that puts us at 1988.

You're gone.

Tell me you're sorry, you're not ready You got things you gotta figure out You tell me you need me, then you leave me Take my heart while you're walking down And I'm sick of chasing you like a hot pursuit With no signs of slowing down Cause I ain't gonna miss you when you leave If you ain't ever coming back to me And I ain't gonna hold you in my arms If it ain't where you really wanna be And I can't stand to see my heart break down From wanting what did me wrong If this ain't something you can do Take that record, take that t-shirt Take that picture from Mexico All your makeup and all your reasons Took you one way, fly to the other side of the world where I don't go.

And leave no traces of your face cause I don't wanna see it when you go.

Cause I ain't gonna miss you when you leave if you ain't ever coming back to me.

And I don't wanna hold you in my arms if it ain't where you really wanna be.

I can't stand to see my heart break down from wanting what did me wrong If this ain't something you can't lay on without for long Then I ain't gonna miss you when you're gone I ain't gonna miss you when you're gone And I ain't gonna miss you anyway If you ain't ever coming back to me And I ain't gonna hold you in my arms If it ain't where you really wanna be And I can't stand to see my heart break down from one more deadly wrong If this ain't something you can't live without for long Then I ain't gonna miss you when you're gone I ain't gonna miss you when you're gone

Breathe.

You tell me you're sorry.

I have a toddler and a full-time job and a dog who [laughs] needs to be walked, and I think a lot of us in these kind of like busy middle-of-the-life times, uh, are like, "Of course I have friends." But then when you, like, really stop to think about it, you're like, "Wait, one of my best friends from high school still hasn't met my daughter, because we haven't seen each other in that long." So like, I think part of the process you were going through is a process that many of us go through when we really stop to think about, like, wait, when did we last, like, hang out with people just for fun?

Yeah, I think your story is every story, right? We were never taught to prioritize friendship, and I think what I did, the gift I gave myself, is to put friendship on the to-do list every day alongside eating well, taking care of the family, taking out the trash, all those things.

Like, it needs to be a part of our daily life if you really are going to reap the benefits, and having a toddler is no joke, right? [chuckles] Like, that's a full-time job.

It is no joke.

But you need to m- make time for your friends, and like...

You know, so when I wrote the book, I really went on this journey to try and figure out how to have a functional friend life, and I made a mistake initially, which is I thought that meant getting the band back together.

You know, most people, especially men, if you ask them who your best friend is or your best friends, they're going to go back in the past.

Mm-hmm

What did you learn as you were first writing this article and then later your book about, like, why is friendship so important?

Well, so the, the jumping-off point for the article was about how negative the health consequences were if you don't have a, a robust friendship circle in your life.

And for me, like, loneliness kinda clears the room, right? Like, no one really wants to talk about loneliness.

I didn't really wanna talk about loneliness.

But friendship, I mean, you say that word a- and everybody lights up, right? Like, you're, you're, you're going into your memory banks and remembering all these wonderful times you've had with your friends.

So the article dealt with the negative and me kind of raising my hand and saying, "I need to do something about this." When I was asked to write a book, I was like, "I don't wanna write a book about loneliness.

I wanna write a book about how we incorporate friendship into our lives." At the time, I was, I had just turned 40, which seems to be the age when it hits a lot of people, where you kinda look around and you're like, "Wait a minute, you know, I, I've been doing everything right in my life, but I, I don't have anyone that I'm actively hanging out with," so...

And I think a lot of us in these kinda, like, busy, middle of the life times, uh, are like, "Of course, I have friends." But then when you, like, really stop to think about it, you're like, "Wait, one of my best friends from high school still hasn't met my daughter because we haven't seen each other in that long." So, like, I think part of the process you were going through is a process that many of us go through when we really stop to think about, like, "Wait, when did we last, like, hang out with people just for fun?"