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The Beastie Boys smashed their own gold-record plaque and made a weird, hilarious discovery

"We need a recall."

beastie boys, gold record, ad-rock, mike-d, conan o'brien

The Beastie Boys smashed their own gold-record plaque and found something strange.

Photo credit: YouTube screenshot from Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend podcast / Photo credit: Canva (graphics)
Ryan Reed
By Ryan ReedJul 15, 2025
Ryan Reed
Ryan Reed is a contributing writer for GOOD residing in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has contributed to Rolling Stone, Relix, Revolver, SPIN and The New York Times.
See Full Bio

The Beastie Boys were musical detectives in many ways, rummaging through pop-culture history in their zig-zagging quest to meld genres (rap, funk, punk, psychedelia, jazz), performance styles (rapping, singing, playing, sampling), and obscure lyrical references that probably only a fraction of their fanbase understood. But in one case, they were sleuths of a different variety—making a strange and hilarious discovery about the nature of gold-record plaques.

During a 2024 episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, surviving members Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and Michael "Mike-D" Diamond casually dropped their knowledge, flashing back to a scene "a long time ago" at their L.A. recording studio. "I was smoking the pot," Horovitz recalled. "We had a gold record on the wall. It was our [second album, 1989’s] Paul’s Boutique. And I was looking at it, and it has our label, and I could see that it has, whatever, like nine songs on the one side. [The LP’s A side has eight songs.] I was looking at the actual gold record, and it only had four songs on it. I was like, 'Wait, wait, you guys!'"

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

Diamond interjected, noting that they "broke the glass" and put the vinyl on the player, eager to solve this physical-media mystery. They were perplexed by what they heard: "It was someone doing piano versions of, like, Barry Manilow," Horovitz said. "Some other shit." As O’Brien erupted in laughter, Diamond speculated about whether or not this was a standard industry practice, adding, "I’d like to think, [for artists like] Barbara Streisand [or] Donna Summer, that it was actually their record [inside]."

This idea, no pun intended, seemed to shatter O’Brien’s grand gold-record illusion. If the LPs in these plaques, with all their rock-star status symbolism, are merely recycled, what other lies have we been duped into believing? "This should lead to a Quiz Show kind of investigation," the comedian joked, alluding to the 1950s Twenty-One scandals. "I think all gold records need to be examined. They all need to be recalled, and you should check them out because it’s probably not [the artists’ records]." Diamond agreed, playfully calling for a "recall of all gold and platinum plaques" and urging O’Brien to wield his influence in taking that step.

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

It may have been a pitiful discovery, but at least The Beasties can rest easy knowing they were brave enough to speak out. "We were the sleuths," Diamond said, "that uncovered this incredible crime."

As they’ve proved so many times over the years, including in their 2020 documentary Beastie Boys Story, these guys are founts of incredible tales. They included one in the bonus materials for that film, with Horovitz sharing a sinister prank pulled off by their late bandmate, Adam "MCA" Yauch. The yarn begins in 1992, during their Check Your Head tour, when a "super creepy dude" approached Horovitz backstage after a show in San Francisco and gave him a ring. For reasons we won’t spoil here, he came to believe the item had a "hex" on it, and Yauch helped keep that paranoia brewing for 15 years—only making the big reveal at the perfect time.

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

beastie boysconan obriengold recordsad-rockmike dpodcastmusic historyrecording studiomusic industrymusic

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