Hey, everyone. The Nostalgia Critic's The Wall.

Okay, I apologize. I should have started this video off with a trigger warning.

But yes, this infamous, strange, weird little album is miraculously turning seven years old this year, and I don't know if you've noticed, but it's attained and maintained legend status in the bad music world, with numerous YouTubers and content creators still developing video content, essays, and critiques of it. And the album itself, believe it or not, still pulls in thousands of streams every year, with a lot of non-fans pulling up to gawk in awe at its... all the stuff that makes it special. And even my review of the album has gone down as one of my bigger videos as well.

So I thought now was as good a time as any to revisit Nostalgia Critic's The Wall a little bit and get some insight on the whole thing from somebody who was involved with the project: Mr. Rob Scallon, a super talented songwriter, guitarist, video game developer, based out of Chicago, legendary YouTube dude who we have had on the channel before, good friend of The Needle Drop. But for a really long time, he has been very low-key about his involvement with this project, which is understandable given how negative the blowback for it has been over the years.

However, Rob has been gracious enough to give to me his first post The Wall interview, going into basically, again, his involvement, his thoughts on it, and the surprising amount of streaming royalties he makes off the record every year. With that, let's go into the conversation.

A: Everyone, as I said, we have here with us the one, the only, the multi-talented YouTuber veteran. Love this guy, greatly inspired by this guy. One of my GOATS, one of my OGs. It is none other than Rob Scallon. Thank you for being here, man.

Rob Scallon: Thank you. Thank you. Proud to be here. Happy to be here. We've both been doing YouTube a while now, man.

For a long time. I mean, it's been years since our last conversation together.

RS: Yeah. I think I don't remember when you started, but I decided to be a professional YouTuber in January 2008.

Right. So that- Which was even before me.

RS: Oh, really?

Oh, I thought you were- It wasn't really full-time until 2011, 2012. I was on YouTube before that, but it definitely was not full-time.

RS: Yeah. I wasn't able to pay all my bills with it. I mean, in 2008, I was in high school, so I didn't have bills to pay.

But in 2008, you decided you were going to be.

RS: I did. And then it became my job.

You made the decision.

RS: Yeah. And it became my job, but it was like I was making more than I was making at my minimum-wage skate park job. But for me, when I went full-time, full-time was... It was 2013. So you beat me there when I was actually full-time.

Okay, well, in the spirit of what we're talking about here, when you are a creative online and you're making your way, going through different projects and things like that, you'll find yourself maybe making some money doing the oddest and most peculiar things, which is how we arrive at this point where you have taken part in recording and creating, at least the music and everything, for the legendary Nostalgia Critic The Wall parody album. Now, I'll say from my own perspective, I know there's a lot of people that know you've had involvement in this record, and you know that at the time the album dropped, I was aware of that, and I reviewed it and I talked about it. But I can't remember this was immediately after I talked about it or if it was just before I had talked about it, but I know when the album originally came out, and the reactions to it were very quick and were very fast. Very negative. If I remember correctly, your name was very clearly attached to the project from the get-go when it came out. And then once the reception started to come through, I remember you said to me in some form or capacity, you were like, "Okay, don't mention me, and the same name as... when this comes up, don't say my name, okay? I know that you know that I did music for it, and so on and so forth. But if any of this comes out or whatever, just don't bring me up, okay?" And then I remember making that promise to you. I was like, I get it. You had a supportive role here. I'm not putting this on you, but I won't bring you up, man, if I'm talking about this record for sure.

RS: Oh, I don't remember that. I don't remember that.

I remember you at the time being a little shocked and taken aback by-

RS: I was, yeah. I don't remember that. And maybe that's not cool of me because I definitely made the music for it.

Listen, I don't think it was not cool of you. I don't think any type of way of you for saying that or whatever. I think that at the time, you were maybe concerned that your level of intent in the project would be misattributed. Because obviously, and again, just to start off this conversation, I think that given how vitriolic a lot of some of the criticisms of The Wall are on the album, there was probably full presumption from anybody watching it like, "Oh, everyone involved in this must feel the same way" because this is a pretty big opinion to go fully in on. It seems like there's a lot of effort going into making this happen just for people to be taking part and thinking like, "Whatever. It's just The Wall. Fuck it." But with all that being said, take us back to the time because, again, the purpose of this conversation is to finally bring some context to this project, because since it's come out, it's become pretty infamous. People still, to this day, as much hate as the album has gotten, they still talk about it. There's still a lot of talk and discussion about the album.

RS: Yeah, which is really surprising to me and also surreal in a lot of different ways. But yeah, people still make long essays about how terrible it is. I don't watch them, but I do see them come up. And there was even quite a few this year, and people are still streaming the album in this hate-listen type of way. But yeah, the story of it is pretty interesting. I want to give a lot of credit to my wife, Samara, because when I was deciding whether or not to do the project, she was like, "I don't think you should do it."

Off the bat, shout out to Tamara. Shout out to her.

RS: Shout out to my wife, Tamara. She was like, I don't think you should do it.

Behind every bad decision is some guy's wife who is advising him not to do it is the moral of the story.

RS: Yeah, she was right because she was an actor on Nostalgia Critic for 10 years. She fully understood... I'm new. I'm not in that world. I'm not like you, where I'm putting out these sometimes scathing critiques of things or making fun of things that people love or whatever. But she was very used to being in that world, being in this Nostalgia Critic world, and knowing the backlash when there would be an episode where Doug would really rip into things that people like or just make parodies or doing this scathing critique in this Nostalgia Critic character. And she knew that to be really, really stressful. I knew that that was new. That was new to me. My place on the internet is overwhelmingly just light-hearted fun music times. And that's more when I was on YouTube. But she was like, "I don't think that you should do it because it's going to have a huge backlash." And boy did it ever.

But yeah, my involvement was interesting because it was, I don't know where to start, but originally, it was just like, he had this idea. Doug's also from Chicago and had this idea to make this video on The Wall and to really go all out with it. And he asked me if I wanted to do the music. And originally... And another thing about it was I remember being really stressful because the timeline was so ridiculous. But I think another part, it was cool for me to analyze those songs because it's such a classic album, and going recreating the songs pretty much as fast as I could, but then I get an understanding of how those songs were created, or just from a songwriting standpoint. I'm not really sure where to start, but it was-

Ironically, I do want to ask-

RS: Ask me anything you want about it. I haven't ever talked on the internet about this.

No, I know. And that's part of the reason that we're having this conversation. Before we continue on that point, and I just want to know if there's an irony here to this, you're taking part in this anti-Wall project because you were asked to create all the music for it from the ground up? Obviously, you're basing it on off of what another artist has made, but you still have to learn it and commit it to memory and analyze it and pull it apart and reverse engineer it. Did taking part in this anti-Wall project give you an appreciation for how the music was made?

RS: Oh, absolutely. I love The Wall. I love it.

Well, many of us do. But through this, you've learned this in and outs in a way that a lot of people don't necessarily ever get the chance to.

RS: Yeah. And that was something that was exciting about it for me. And I wasn't... I didn't... Again, this is probably just ignorance on my side, but I was like, "Oh, this is just a silly thing. I'm not actually going out and being like, I'm anti The Wall. I'm anti-Pink Floyd. I want to get in a fight with Roger Waters or something." I never interpreted it that way, which is maybe an ignorance on my side. I think that's something I learned, too, is when you go aboard someone else's project, you inherit the culture around it.

Yeah, or the messaging, however it's being received.

RS: It seems like you're co-signing on that, when for me, it was just a gig. I had worked with Doug before in the past, especially in my early career. Again, Tamara has been working with him, was working for him for 10 years on the show. And so I was around, and I love the skits and putting on costumes and doing silly shit online. Anyway, where was I even going?

Well, just for context, the Nostalgia Critic isn't everyone's cup of tea as far as content creators go. But prior to all of this, he had a pretty established brand and website, and people knew what he was all about and broadly understood the Nostalgia Critic character. But simultaneously, this record blew up so huge that it's creating this influx of people that don't have a context for any of that and might not necessarily see what he's doing. There's genuine behind what he does on his platform, but might not see there being maybe an element of hyperbole or something there to begin with. It doesn't mean the album's good to listen to or that all the criticisms are salient of The Wall that he's making. But it's bringing a lot of people in that have no context for this other than, this guy hates The Wall for the craziest reasons imaginable and made this almost unlistenable album just in service of his feelings around this project. And yet, again, that doesn't necessarily come through in the music all the time because you played the instrumentals pretty straight. I would imagine on some level, if maybe you felt the same level of vitriol for the album that Doug did, I don't know, maybe you'd be playing the guitars really shitty or something, or the solos would all suck or whatever. It'd be something like, goofy or warped, or out of place about the instrumentals. But again, it really seems like you paid clear attention to how they were put together and redesigned them faithfully.

RS: Yeah, that was my goal. I just wanted to... In some parts, for the solo, for example, I think I remember I did some of this. I improvised some of the solos on my own, just for fun. But yeah, I was just doing The Wall as closely as I could and analyzing it and getting it done in a really short amount of time. I think it was two weeks or something like that. I remember that being stressful because it was so quick.

But yeah, some context. I had worked with Doug in the past, particularly in my early career. I remember the first time he asked me for a song. He's like, "Could you create this song for me?" And he was like, "I'll use it in my video, and then you can just get all the iTunes and streaming royalties for it." And I think that was Batman v. Superman, maybe, or maybe it was I Fucking Love Christmas or something like that. And then we did the video early on in my career when money was really tight. Maybe it was like 2014 or something about that, right when I went full-time. And then you put it out, you shout it out on iTunes. And I remember it made three grand in that month, which was huge for me, and particularly at that time. And so this was just the same old. He's like, "Do you want to do this again? But it's a whole album." And I think he was expecting me to just strum a guitar for the whole thing. This was done so quickly. But I was a lot more interested in doing the full songs and learning the full songs. I grew up with The Wall. I was one of those kids who, when I was 12, would watch The Wall with my friends and be like, "What does it all mean?" It was just this mythical album.

Were you playing the album to the Wizard of Oz and stuff like that?

RS: I never did that. Were you one of those guys?

You weren't one of those guys?

RS: No, I never did that.

That's totally fine.

RS: Yeah. You were definitely one of those kids.

No, I was not one of those guys.

RS: Yeah, but that was my interest. And I think he was surprised when I was like, "Yeah, no, I'm doing the whole thing." And then I remember I put it together really quick. And then I think he came over once to do all the vocals, and then I got paid a little bit for my production time, which I used all of that to hire a producer. So I just wrote. I didn't write any of it, except for some of the solos. So I just created all the music and then handed it off to a producer, handed off everything, the vocals, all the instruments, and everything. And it was a pretty quick turnaround. So I used that money to hire the producer, and then it was done. And then, just like the other ones, then I just got... I make the money from it, which is weird that it's six years later and people are still listening to it in this hate as a joke or something. I don't know. It's just weird what it has become.

Yeah. You texted me out of the blue to say that the amount that it was streaming per year was surprising. You were like, it's racking up some decent dough for the fact that people hate it and people are listening to it all the way through and really committing to the bit and hearing the whole thing.

RS: Yeah. And when it came out, it was honestly a punch to the gut. I knew when I made it, it was like, I'm just making the instrumentals. This is just something I'm being hired to do.

Before you describe this part, are you... So once it was done, wrapped, I mean, obviously you're there, and you're involved to some degree for the final assembly to it. But was there ever a point between Point A and Point B, B being when it's out into the world, where you got a chance to sit down and really listen to it and think about what was happening? Or was this just you were just going through the process?

RS: I was just going through the process. I didn't really give Doug's lyrics much thought. And I was like, that's Doug doing his thing. His audience loves it.

So then once it comes out, what happens then? How quickly does this turn into an oh shit moment?

RS: Pretty immediately. Also shooting the video. Initially, I was just going to do the music, and then I was going to be the one that put it out under Doug's name. And then they're like, "Oh, Corey Taylor is showing up. Do you want to film with him?"

Which is still to this day, maybe the most insane thing about the whole project. Because Corey Taylor is in it, which is honestly a claim to fame that I feel like a lot of the project's biggest haters could never have to themselves. It's like, "Well, at least Corey Taylor is in it." You know what I mean? It's like, you don't have a project with Corey Taylor in it.

RS: Yeah, that's something about it, too. That's so odd.

You were on a project with Corey Taylor. That's sick as hell.

RS: Yeah, I'm on an album with Corey Taylor. A lot of people online say it's the worst album ever made.

But a lot of people can never say that. A lot of musicians could never claim that.

RS: Yeah. I've got to film a few times with Corey. I love filming with Corey. But yeah, and so then I ended up in the video, which was also fun, and I'm not really giving it much thought. As you know, being a YouTuber, you're working on a million bajillion projects all at once. And this one is like, I got done with the stuff I was doing for my own channel, maybe during the day at seven, and then I'll spend seven to nine creating the next two songs or whatever.

But yeah, when it came out, there was this like, "Oh, I've never been on this side of the Internet before." I've never had something blow up or have videos with millions of views that are talking about how terrible it is. It was concerning. Is this now going to be something I hear about all the time for the rest of my life? And kind of. I still hear about it, but I feel a little bit... I feel differently about it now, but it was surreal. I saw your video, and I think the title or even the thumbnail was not good, or zero out of 10. And I watched it, and I remember that conversation I had with Tamra where I was like, "Yeah, but that's... I remember, it's a good opportunity. I want to make these songs. And I think it's... The criticism will happen, but that's just what Doug does. He makes videos about movies and tears them apart, and fans of that movie hate it, and then everyone argues. It's just a light-hearted thing."

But then, when it actually started happening and seeing your video, it was a punch to the gut, honestly. It hurt. But the further it goes, the more of a... I don't know how I would have reacted initially. I just felt like I wasn't going to... I won't say anything online about it because there's so much hype around it that anything I say would then end up in a bunch of essays about it. And maybe I would say the wrong thing. Even now, I wonder, "Am I saying the wrong thing right now?" But I think, given the time frame and when I had to make those songs, I think I did a pretty good job. The music is there, and it's not a masterpiece.

I will say, anybody watching this, do not attack Rob. I will take any bullets that you might throw in Rob's direction as a result of this interview. I will. Shoot at me. There's nothing wrong with Rob here.

RS: Yeah. Well, now I feel a lot differently about it. I remember there was some people online that were like, "Shame, how could you do this?" Or I see there's also a respectful jest about it where people were like, "Hope you got paid for this. Sell your soul." And now, a little bit later, I was telling you, it's been out six years, and somehow people are still making videos about it, and people are still streaming it. In 2025, the streaming revenue for that was $1,400 about that. So now, six years later, that it's been essentially paying my phone bill for six years, I feel a little bit differently about it. It's like that helps.

Yeah. You trade trauma for a phone bill. I feel like that's a fair trade-off.

RS: Yeah. And again, what we were talking about earlier, being a YouTuber constantly making stuff for 18 years now, 12, 13 as a full-time job, you're going to have some stuff that ends up in this category where it's talked about because it's bad.

Where it haunts you.

RS: Yeah, it did haunt me for a little bit, but especially right after, I was like, "Oh, I think maybe I shouldn't have done this." And I remember seeing Doug at a wedding a month after, and he came up to me really like, "Hey, man, I'm sorry. Could I get you a drink?"

I'm sorry for what I put you through.

RS: Yeah, I think him and the Nostalgia Critic crew are just so used to that type of thing. It was just new to me to have such intense criticism on something I had a part in.

Which also says a lot about him in a way, the fact that he would care about the way the certain blowback has come upon you for all of Doug's flaws and criticism of him over the years.

RS: Yeah, he felt very bad about it. But yeah, now it's just a funny side note. I don't know how many hours I spent on that thing, but definitely a learning experience, for sure.

To the point you were saying earlier with the nerve that you struck, in my own personal experience, and you know as a musician yourself, certain records are people's bibles. And I just finally, as recently as, was it last year, the year before? I think it was last year. I finally got out a video I've been promising for years and years and years, and that was my Pink Floyd Worst to Best. And on a few occasions of bringing up the potential of a Pink Floyd Worst to Best, people just asking me, preliminarily, what might you say in it, or where would certain things fall? Even just very flippantly, and I do feel this way, even very flippantly, just saying, "Guys, honestly, I don't know if Dark Side of the Moon is going to be my top-3. I think the album is okay in comparison with some of their other records." Even that, people were like, "What? Are you kidding me?" That opinion spread like wildfire. For years afterwards, people were like, "Yeah, but you don't even think Dark Side of the Moon is good." I was like, "Okay, I didn't say that." For some Pink Floyd fans, I don't know, I would think I have even more egregious opinions. I'm not a big Piper guy, for example, but Animals rank super high for me. Wall ranks super high. Wish You Were Here ranks super high for me.

RS: What was your number one if it doesn't give away?

It was Animals. But still, people take those kinds of opinions super seriously. And that was with me going a fraction of as hard as Doug went upon one of the most beloved albums of all time. When you're talking about-

RS: Is that the main reason for all the hate?

What? Toward me? Toward you?

RS: No, not towards you. Towards The Wall. I watched yours, and then I don't really like it. I haven't watched any after. Is that the main reason? I'm surprised that people are still talking about it and still streaming it, too, which is even more surprising to me.

The hate for the album that Doug did?

RS: Yeah.

Yeah, because Pink Floyd, for some people, is like their religion. Not only did they make great music, but I mean, in addition to that, there's this understanding of what they did within their lane, being rock's answer to high art, especially given the film and the concept and so on and so forth. The idea that they're saying something significant with the music as well, that speaks to topics that are deeper than maybe what you hear in your average rock song. All of these things contribute to a sense about these albums that are like, when you go against them, and you call them mediocre or underwhelming or maybe just not that good, you're also attacking the premise of the music itself. Maybe even to a degree, what Roger Waters was saying about fascism and so on and so forth, which I mean, obviously, Doug also had criticisms of. He very much, at least in his video, didn't take the record's commentary on those topics very seriously. So I mean, another reason for people to be angry about it.

RS: Maybe that sounded stupid of me, but it's weird in the context. I didn't really give much thought to the lyrics or the criticism, which is dumb of me because that's the whole thing.

It's the whole thing. But honestly, on top of it, you're not somebody who professionally does that. You're not listening to that part of it and thinking like, "Oh, yeah, I'm really invested in what's being communicated here." Because, again, that's not a side of the internet that you really deal in for the most part.

RS: No, which is definitely a fault of me on this. But I always just took what he was saying as just pure goofing.

So when we talk about the fallout and how quick it came, you got a broad sense of it when you saw the reaction. But aside from maybe what you were referencing earlier in terms of like, "I hope you got paid for this," how much of what you saw was directly coming your way? And was that arriving through comment sections or people messaging you out of anger or concern over the whole project?

RS: No, not really. And honestly, it really wasn't that bad. I think initially, I just took it really hard because it was new for me. And it was a whirlwind, too, because it was just something that I got offered a gig to make music, and I did it really quickly without too much thought into the outside perspective of it, other than, I'm just going to make sure this organ sounds sick or whatever I was doing. And just pass it off and let it live in Doug's world. So it was weird. I think I probably took it harder than I should have, initially. But now, in retrospect, I feel actually quite positive about it in a weird way. It's just a part of the wild ups and downs of being a YouTuber or being a public figure or whatever for so long. I don't know.

To get some further context on an element of this that you and I were talking about that I thought was interesting. You're making anything off of this record in terms of the streaming and the residuals and so on and so forth. In part, you're able to do that because the album is considered to be, even though it is obviously based off of Pink Floyd's work, it's parody. So as a result of that, it's just all hunky dory. So, because it's in the spirit of critique and in the spirit of fair use, as it were, it just is allowed to exist commercially in the fashion that it is right now.

RS: Yeah. And I'm not an expert in this. I just don't from personal experience.

Yeah, there's some gray areas for sure.

RS: Yeah. And I'm not an expert. I just have a lot of experience dealing with it as a musician. But if it's a cover, then the... And I've done a lot of covers. They used to be my most popular videos. I haven't done a really long time, but a cover.

You're legendary for the covers.

RS: Thanks, man. The banjo covers were so much fun.

So good. And obviously making the shovels Djent and so on and so forth. It's a lot of legendary moments.

RS: Thanks, man. Yeah. But with the cover, when I do those, which I haven't done in a long time, but you have to make sure that the original artist gets 15% about. I think it's something like that. You can do a cover. But then something that is a critique is fair use. And that's pretty unique to my understanding in the US. If you're making a creative work to critique something, that's fair use. You own it, or even a parody. That's something that American law takes really seriously, which is different elsewhere in the world. But yeah, so those songs are just out.

Would you produce a My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy parody for me to record my critiques over, and then we can upload it to the internet? Oh, man.

RS: I've been through this before. I don't know. I also am not familiar with that.

Would you live this trauma twice?

RS: I don't know. I think I'm maybe in a different position now.

Okay. I'll find someone else to do it.

RS: Maybe. I don't know enough about that song.

Oh, no. The whole album. It's got to be the whole album.

RS: The whole album? Oh, I definitely can't do the whole album. No, I'm making my own albums and videos.

Okay. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm joking. Yeah. Rob, I appreciate you taking the time to be an open book about this. This has been a fun deep dive into a memory for a notorious record that has gone down in history, in a history.

RS: Yeah, and that's very, very bad. Yeah. Thanks, man. It's been fun to talk about it. I didn't know earlier on; I just didn't know what to say about it. And even now, I'm bewildered by the whole thing. As I've said a lot, it's just something, a gig that I got on the side. And then it just had a life of its own. And I'm not even that familiar with so much. I saw your video, but I think that's the only critique I saw, and I only saw it right when it came out.

Yeah. Watching the others, does it create a gut reaction? You're just like, "Oh, no."

RS: A little. There's a gut reaction when I see myself represented online, and that's the first thing they say. Then there's a little bit of like, okay, well, I've done a lot of other things.

Yeah. Has this created a sense of... And again, I've experienced this to some degree myself, but has this created a series of moments where maybe for a lot of people, this is like their first exposure to you, and then you're having to worry about whether or not this is painting their image of you?

RS: No, I don't think there's a lot of people that initially heard about me from The Wall.

Okay, good.

RS: And I think it's mostly when I hear about it, I think it's mostly in jest. I saw somewhere recently, I think it was about the video game we made, actually. There was a review about Fretless, the game, and then there was a comment in jest. And it was like, "Oh, is that the guy from Nostalgia Critic's The Wall, and 'Never Meant' N64 version's comment section?" And it was something like that, and it was funny. But I don't know, a little bit. But the punch to the gut has gotten only less and less and less over the years. And now it's something that I like trying to laugh about.

Okay. All right.

RS: I feel good about it.

I'm glad that we could check in this way. And you're showing me that you're happy and stable.

RS: Yes. Yes. I am. I've been doing really good recently. Things have been real good on my side.

All right. Well, we're going to link to everything Rob down below. And we're going to link to Nostalgia Critic's The Wall down there, too. Stream that shit. Stream it up. Stream that shit. Put it on a playlist. Listen to it while you go to sleep. Thank you again, Rob, for coming through. You're the man.

RS: My pleasure, Anthony. Thanks so much for having me.