Tim Heidecker talks Bob Dylan, songwriting, and Pittsburgh ahead of Spirit show

Tim Heidecker got more out of the recent Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown than he assumed he would. Its exploration of Dylan, an inspiration for him, moved him to reflect upon his bullishly independent and varied, multi-hyphenate career that he approaches with on-and-off sincerity.

“In those days, the first five or six years of my career, when I felt like, you could look to Bob and say, ‘I have to shift now. I want to shift. I want to change and do different things, and keep people guessing, and follow my heart when it comes to creative things, and not worry about what people think.’ And that’s all he did,” Heidecker tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “He was always doing that. He was always ahead of it, and I think he was purely doing it because he was following his heart creatively.” 

The comedic actor, whose film and TV credits range from the cult Adult Swim series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! to Jordan Peele’s sophomore horror effort Us, will appear at Spirit on Thu., Feb. 6 during a tour for his latest music album Slipping Away.  The show will include his original songs along with a brief comedy segment. 

Now 48, Heidecker still acts and performs, including appearances on the Netflix sketch show  I Think You Should Leave and the vampire mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows. He also hosts the silly, sometimes political podcast Office Hours Live (on which he does a great impression of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance) and tours with serious, genuine music. 

Slipping Away, a tight 34-minute album, addresses his current career trajectory and place in life.

“Every year, there’s still that mission of making certain things and continuing to express myself while trying to live and support my family and work and bring an income from all of it,” Heidecker says. “It stresses me out in the middle of the night. It’s one of those things.” 

Originally from Allentown, Pa., Heidecker has long known Pittsburgh primarily as that distant, other city on the other side of Pennsylvania. He first visited Pittsburgh while on tour with Eric Wareheim, the other half of Tim and Eric. 

“Every time I go there, I’m just blown away by how beautiful it is,” Heidecker says. “The hills, the mountains, the bridges, the river. I think it’s quite a charming place.” 

Press materials, reviews from critics, and pages on streaming services offer varying labels to describe Heidecker’s music, including country, indie, alternative, folk, rock, and Americana, the last of which Heidecker has come to interpret as “country music for non-MAGA people.” His newest songs are about finding validation from his family rather than the press, struggling to write as he ages, and feeling insecure about his singing voice. 

When playing music live, Heidecker says he most enjoys watching the crowd sing or mouth the lyrics with him. 

“It’s a very surreal thing,” Heidecker says. “I don’t know how to exactly explain why that’s cool for me. I think because this music is so personal to me. The writing, the lyrics in the songs I’m writing, it’s almost like giving people my diary entries. And to see them singing it back to me is very trippy.” 

The upcoming show will include a comedy segment with a PowerPoint about YouTube comments (Heidecker doesn’t divulge any other details). Because of this, the show will likely scratch an itch for audience members regardless of what kind of work brought them to Heidecker. He also hopes the songs sound different than they would on another night. 

“I’m looking for them to evolve,” he says. “Mix up arrangements and tempos and make it feel like, when you’re seeing it, it’s a very unique experience. It’s not like we’re just trying to replicate the album.” 

Heidecker says tours tend to get more enjoyable after the first few shows.

“The first couple shows, my brain is working overtime to try to stay on top of things,” he explains. “I will drop lyrics or play the wrong parts or something. And then, by the third or fourth show, it becomes muscle memory, and it becomes sort of easy and fun and loose, and all the hard things, the memorizing of the guitar playing and the singing, becomes second nature, and then you can have fun and play with the audience and mix things up.”

This means Pittsburghers will likely catch him at a good time. 

“I’m looking forward to getting to, let’s say, Minneapolis on this tour,” Heidecker says, laughing. “No offense to the West Coast, but by the time we get to Pittsburgh, I’ll be very happy.”

This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2025.