Josh Radnor and Ben Lee on New Album ‘Golden State,’ How Lee’s Bar Mitzvah Changed Him

Radnor & Lee is the musical project of Josh Radnor (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Happythankyoumoreplease,” “Hunters”) and singer/songwriter Ben Lee (Noise Addict). In June 2020, the duo released its sophomore album “Golden State” via Flower Moon Records, as run by Azure Ray’s Maria Taylor. “Golden State” was written and recorded by Radnor & Lee, and produced by Justin Stanley (Beck, Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow).

Last month “Gimme Your Mess” from the new album was premiered via PopMatters, while the album’s previous singles “Outside In” and “Simple Harmony” had hit Spotify prior to the release of “Golden State.” In addition, the official music video for “Simple Harmony” was directed by Sam Fragoso and in May was premiered via American Songwriter.

I had the pleasure of speaking with both Josh Radnor and Ben Lee by phone about “Golden State” and plenty more on June 30 as embedded below. The full chat will also be appearing on a future edition of the “Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz” podcast.

Within our chat, I asked Ben Lee if it was true that he – as someone who first found international success in music as a teenager – got a guitar as his bar mitzvah present. He kindly answered this one, as exclusively transcribed for the Jewish Journal:

“I was playing guitar since I was 10 and I just wanted to be in a band… It’s funny because my music, the acoustic guitar ended up being my tool of choice, but the vision in my mind there was a barrier for entry into rock & roll. That involved having an electric guitar.

When I was 12 1/2 and had my bar mitzvah and got that electric guitar, that was I suppose when I went, ‘Okay, there’s nothing stopping me now. I have the same thing Slash has.’ I don’t know how to play it as well, but it seemed like we were all systems go.”

More on Radnor & Lee can be found here, here and here.