June 5, 2023 • 91 mins
When it comes to music, Manager Johnny Wright has seen it all!
So who better to tell us the truth about the BSB/*NSYNC rivalry? Or *NSYNC’s rise to stardom... and first hand stories of Britney Spears!?
This episode is an audio tell-all!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello, my Little Peanuts, it's me your host, Lance Bass.
This is Frosted Tips with me and my lovely co host,
Slash Husband. Hello the Turkey. Yes, I got back from Miami.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I did.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm seeing the fam so sorry, grandma passed.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Yes, my last remaining grandparent. Yeah, has left this earth.
I don't know why I'm not laughing.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
This grandma was a carrock. She was a character.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
She had a great life though, So it was a
very happy funeral.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
It wasn't a happy funeral. I shouldn't say that, but
it was.
Speaker 6 (00:44):
It was a lively funeral. She's from New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
So they had a whole I mean it was catered,
like they spent a fortune on like this whole Yeah,
this whole thing at my grandma's house.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
It was like oyster bar and like a fried chicken bar,
this is gumbo bar. It was everything. And then they
had a whole band, the whole jazz band with a
blue singer.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That just sounds wretch.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Yeah it was, yeah, it was, it was, And it
was like a whole party.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Look that's how I want to go for sure.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Literally you've always had done.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And yeah music, I kind of see bagpipes too.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I feel like, if you know you're gonna die, like
if you're in hospice, you'd want to have the funeral
like when you were kind of I'll just will you
out into the room to watch it.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
You know, semi live, semi not alive, and you.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Can just kind of see party. Yeah, Yeah, we're gonna
have a pre funeral frequence. Don't suddenly you're gonna ruin
the surprise.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I think everyone should, yeah, throw their funeral years before
they passed, just so they.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Just in case.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
You can see. That's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
It's kind of a morbid conversation.
Speaker 6 (01:48):
Why not.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
We also just got back from Austin, Texas. All right, y'all.
Austin is a great city, so fun, five.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Music and food.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I feel like Austin is the perfect baby of New
Orleans and Nashville. Yeah, you know, it's got that live feel.
It's very just hip and cool, young, very young, really young.
But we kind of fell in love with it, and
you know, we've been kind of contemplating basing ourselves somewhere
back in the South so the kids can go to school,
(02:19):
you know, with a little more space. So we're looking
at Nashville, but now I think I like Austin. Austin
might be the place. And so many of our best
friends lived there. Jamielyn Sigler moved down there with like
a bunch of her friends, like a bunch of those
actresses kind of moved down there. And uh yeah, Haley,
Haley Duff and Kacey Keebler.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
It's a good.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Crew and everyone has kids like our kids would fit
in so well there.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
He could be the honorary gaze.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And you know, you know, I don't want to push
upon I don't want to push anything upon my kids.
But if there's anything I want to push onto, Panucci
or Violet, we call.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
My san Panucci.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Uh is baseball and it's such a baseball town. And
you know, Jamie Lynn's husband is, you know, professional baseball player.
And we went to go see uh, oh my god,
the little kids play while we were there. I love
watching t ball.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It is so fun.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
It was, Oh my god, it was so cute.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
I'm not gonna name names, but there was I don't
want to call this person out. There's an actor who
had who has moved who was in the you know,
back in a while ago during my teenage was like
in a real popular teen movie, Like it was like
The Pinnacle at the time time, and that nice guy
like so nice or you think, like what are you
(03:38):
gonna do to me?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It seems almost fake. You're like, what is why are
you this nice?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
But he is, you know, not does not have an accent.
He's not from Texas, but he moved to Austin a
few years ago. And when he and we were warned
you might be at this baseball game and if he started,
you're gonna see how he talks like this.
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Now it's been there for like five years.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I love.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
From there, I say, and we're like, it can't be.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
That bad, and he lo and behold, he just shows up.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
The kid wasn't even playing baseball. He literally shows up.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Hey guys, you know what. I just had to come
over Whilston game myself. I just love the atmosphere here.
It brings a launcher to watch Little League with his
wife and son. And his wife's like hey, no accent,
and his daughter and he was just like, well, gee golly,
oh my god, this is my little lady. And they're like, well,
you've adopted a new life. Good for you may be happy.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It was amazing. It was as as warned as we were.
It was even beyond that beyond. It felt like, was
that fog lorn? What was the foghorn foghorn leghorn or whatever?
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Whatever? The rooster? He was literally like, well I do declare.
I was like, what is going on? It was a trip.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I won't say the name, and we're coming for you
because yeah, I love it. I wish it was the
only problem about like in Nashville or Austin. I am
such a water person, so I want to be as
close to the beach as possible. I wish Austin was
on the beach.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
How great.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
They have great lakes, really great lakes.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
But yeah, but it's close enough.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
All right, that's enough of enough of this. Let's take
a little break and we'll come back. We have the
one and only Johnny Right on the show today. Lots
of questions, and we have a lot of fan questions
out there too, So.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
We come back. Johnny Right will be.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
With us, all right, Turkey, We do have some breaking
news to share our lovely listeners. Uh. We're changing the world,
(05:55):
is all I have to say.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
We're making dreams come true.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, Frosted Tips is really changing the world because of you, guys.
Because of you, guys, we have something very special to announce.
Remember when we had that interview with dream Street, how
could you not remember? And we convince them to, you know,
get back together and just give us another song. Yeah,
well it's happening. What that's right? Dream Street, Breaking News,
(06:19):
Breaking News is releasing their first single in a very
long time on the eleventh. It's going to be on Spotify.
And it's also Christian who Sale's birthday, so I have
you know, obviously this is you know, in memory of him,
but I am so I've not heard it yet, so
we're all gonna have.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
To wait for the eleventh.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
But uh yeah, we're making dreams come true with dream Street.
I'll cross to Tips.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Guys, you did this, You did this, all right? Who
else can we get to come back?
Speaker 6 (06:45):
I'll work on InSync?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Okay, well, okay, we'll work.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
On that one.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So congratulations dream Street. I'm so excited to hear it. Yay.
All right, guys, welcome back to the show. We have
a very special show today because we got the man
behind so many of your favorite artists. So he's got
the true tea on everything. But I know it's hard
(07:13):
to get some stories out of him. So let's let's see,
you know how much we can get him to reveal,
because he's pretty secretive.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Gentleman, Oh yeah, gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Here American talent agent, media proprietor. He has managed groups
all Right, New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, in Sync,
Jonas Brothers, Menudo, Triple Image, Janet Jackson, Justin Timerlake, Britney Spears,
Aaron Carter, Stevie Brock, Sierra.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah. I mean, come on, I've heard of a couple
of them.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I've heard a few of those. We're working in radio.
He befriend them, Restar who discovered New Edition and in
nineteen eighty eight, when Star was managing New Kids on
the Block, Starhard Right as a driver for the band.
I feel like everyone starts as a driver, and Right
became the group's road manager for four years. Right is
currently President CEO of Right Entertainment Group. The Right Entertainment
Group managers roster includes Justin Timber, Late ninety eight Degrees,
(08:01):
Agent MacLean and Incabus Johnny Right, Welcome.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
To the show.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Hey, thank you for having me excited. To have you
here because I have never interviewed you. Really no, I
mean only for that documentary, but I didn't even get to.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Interview you, that's true.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, But all right, so let's start at the beginning.
I don't know, Okay, where are you from? What was
little Johnny Wright.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Like as a kid?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Oh? He was a terror? Yeah? All right? How far
back you want to go?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Or where were you born?
Speaker 7 (08:32):
I was born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Diana's.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Homer of the Kennedys. Oh yes, so.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
But the bottom line is my mother was an organist
church and so music was always around me. She had
a record player that she played a lot of music
with and told me never to touch it.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
When she would leave.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
I'd play all of her records, see, And so I
got a fascination for music and song, you know. Flip
a few years later. Where we're from, there wasn't a
whole lot to do, So our Saturday night consist of
me and my cousin Cassandra, sitting home listening to the radio.
They had a show called Instant Request, and you could
call a station request a song and they would actually
(09:13):
tape you introing the song. So we'd sit there all night,
so we could hear ourselves on a radio. So that
was kind of cool with me. So in school I
kind of got a little behind because I was just
a dreamer and had other things other than schoolwork. So
I needed to make up some credits. So they offered
an after school program for two hours where you could
actually go and learn how to be a disc jockey
(09:35):
at a radio station. So I took that job. Or
I took that class, and it wasn't what I thought
it was. It wasn't about how to actually work the
board and play music. It was about the engineering aspects
of understanding the technical aspects of radio. So one day
I went to the bathroom and the biggest disc jockey
in Cape cod was in the bathroom. Also his name
(09:55):
is Tony Arden. He said, that's a pretty boring class.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Huh.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
I said absolutely. So he said, hey, if you really
want to learn how this is, come hang with me
on the weekend Saturday nights, I have to do six
to midnight. So I did, and I went and hung
with him and just went on for a couple of weeks,
and then he said, take some music into the production
studio and I want to hear what you would sound
like if you had to put a show together. So
back then, the rules of the FCC was no one
(10:22):
without an FCC license are supposed to be in the
radio station. So I'm sitting there making my tape and
all of a sudden, these lights start to come in
the driveway and he runs in the studio and he goes,
you got to get out. It could be my boss.
I'll get fired if you're hear your unlicense. So I
left the tape in the machine and jetted out the
back door. He calls me about four days later and
(10:43):
he says, my program director wants to speak to you.
And I said why. He said, he found your tape.
He was looking for a blank tape to do a
commercial on and he listened to what was on it.
He wants to talk to you. So I'm on my
way to the station, going like, oh no, I'm in
trouble and in trouble and in trouble. But then I
was like, but I don't work here, so how can
I be in?
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
What are I gonna do?
Speaker 7 (11:03):
So when I get there, he says to me, Hey,
I listened to your tape. He goes, I kind of
like what you're doing? He said, there's a big nightclub
coming into the Cape called Tingles. They want to buy
out two hours a night on Saturday night. You seem
to have a feel for what that music is. I
want to give you a gig, he said. But I
need you to come on the station at two o'clock
in the morning because back then, now I'm dating myself,
(11:25):
the stations used to shut off at midnight and go
blank till six o'clock in the morning. So he wanted
me to practice at two am when nobody quote unquote
was listening.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
So I go.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
I'm sixteen years old at this point, So I tell
my parents, Hey, I have to go out on Saturday's
at two o'clock. Not in my households or not. So
I actually had to move out and get my own
apartment at sixteen.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, did they think that you were lying about going
to the saven room.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
They really didn't care.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
It was just no son of mine that's going to
be out in the streets, you know, at two o'clock
in the morning, didn't matter what it was for. So
I had to go get it apartment and at sixteen,
at sixteen, I got this little efficiency place and anyway,
so I ended up doing that little test run and
I got the job. So the first night that I
(12:15):
was actually on the radio, I get a phone call
and it's this guy named Maurice Starr. And I had
known Maurice because you know, he had done shows around
the area that we were in. And he says, hey,
I want you to play my music. So I did,
and again, because I could program my own station then
I didn't have anyone telling me what to do. So
every week now Maurice would call me say I don't
(12:36):
forget to play my songs. So after about three or
four weeks, we started this conversation where he said, Hey,
I'm going to do a talent show in Boston. He said,
I'm looking for fifteen investors to invest one thousand dollars apiece,
and I'm going to use that money to record the
record on the person that won the talent show. And
back then thousand dollars for me being sixteen in high school,
(12:57):
I couldn't come up with it. So talent show went on.
The group that won was a new Adition and the
song was Candy Girl.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So you could have invested in new edition.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, I could have invested in a new edition. Back then, but.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Couldn't come up with it every start, because I mean,
I hear so many stories about him.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
What was he like?
Speaker 2 (13:17):
And during that time.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
Look, Marris was cool, like I've never had any problems
with him. You know, he was very talented, could play
just about every instrument, and you know he had it
in his mind. He tried to be an artist and
wasn't as successful. So again, having this talent show gave
him an opportunity to connect to young talent that he
could take his talents of being a writer and producer
and put some records out.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
What records was he trying to get you to spend?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Before New Edition?
Speaker 7 (13:44):
He had a song called about Time I Funked You Baby.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I'm sure he could play music on the.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
Album I'll Never Forget It called a Flaming Star, And
when you look at the cover, it looked like he
was a flaming No.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I don't mean that an a negative way.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
But he had an actual star where it was full
of flames and he was standing in the middle of
it with this crazy like.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Lance flaming It's a different flam yeah, not Lance flaming. No.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
I don't want to get myself in trouble with that,
but where did the roller skates come in?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Because this is what he's interested.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Bro, No, I'm interested because literally, as I'm getting out
of the car in the garage walking through the building,
Lance is like, again, this.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Could be one of the dreams I had.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
And I'm like, I don't know, this is one must
be a dream and if it's not, I'm going to
be shocked. He's like, yeah, you know, you like he's
like things with roller sakes. I was like, what does
that even mean? He was like, yeah, I'm pretty sure.
He like, you know, like he got to Florida. He
like roller bladed from Massachusetts to Florida. That's how he
got there.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And I was like, well that's kind of true.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Okay, wow, so that is amazing.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
So take a movie about that.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
So part of what I was doing is where on
a radio, I was also the disc jockey of a
roller skating rink, and so I just had a bunch
of buddies and we were sitting around one day and
we saw this movie called Roll Freddie Roll. I don't
know if you saw it was with Tim Conwell where
Conway where he had to keep roller skates on for
fourteen days to kind of set againness world record, So
we knew we couldn't do that, but we were like,
(15:19):
let's do something else. Let's roller skate somewhere. And Florida
was always the place that we'd love to go, So
I said, what would it be like if we rollerskated
to Florida? So we got the March of Dimes, which
was the charity that we were going to do it for.
A raised money and at the time, the radio station
that I was working with, they basically did an interview
every morning with us on our journey. And what the
(15:39):
interesting thing was is to find out some schools were
actually documenting where we were, so if we were in
New York today, they would do classroom routines on what's
New York? All about what are some of the famous things.
So it became cool like that, and took us fourteen
and a half days and we roller skated from or
excuse me, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Oh, I'm so much.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
It was just I mean, that is wild.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I mean you're just super creative. I mean coming up
with that idea. Were you always a creative kid?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah? I was.
Speaker 7 (16:16):
I was the only child, so I was a dreamer,
you know, and I could say and I wasn't afraid
back then, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
What did I have to lose?
Speaker 7 (16:24):
So I tried everything, and that's why the whole situation
with the after school thing for radio, and I just
must say to continue on that subject. Once new edition
won and I couldn't afford to put it together. As
you know, in this business, if you don't have your
contracts right, things happened. So Maury's really never had a
contract on the group. So these guys from New York
(16:45):
came in and basically stole to men. So at a revenge,
he put another group together who had an opportunity to
open up for three weeks for Tiffany, the big pop
singer the time, and he couldn't afford a tour bus,
so he asked me to drive around in a camper
and that was three weeks became four and a half
years in the group was new Kids on the book.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, it's been so fun seeing all the angles of
this story, the same story.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Donnie Wahlberg's been on the show. Jordan Knight, sorry, John
Knight's been in the show. Oh, Jordan has two Yeah,
we have god, so many shows like I can't even
remember which, and we've had so it's been so fun
seeing all these stories collide, you know, and everyone's angles
because we always heard okay, it's the classic story of
(17:32):
Tiffany and New Kids went on tour and the Mall tour,
and then all of a sudden, halfway through the tour,
the New Kids were the ones to watch, so they
kind of had to switch, which is I mean crazy,
and it kind of reminds me it's not exactly the same.
But when Brittany was with touring with his first tour
in Americas, that ain't no stopping us.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Maybe yeah, when she first started, you know, baby one
More Time had you know, come out, but it wasn't
doing that great, and so she comes on tour with
us and some of the fans do some of the songs,
but I remember her leaving stage crying sometimes because you know,
some girls will be booing her and I'm sure they
thought she was linked to Justin at that time. So
(18:09):
she didn't have a great experience the first part of
the tour, but then all of a sudden, that song
just hit and she was a superstar by the end
of that tour. I mean, it was so fun to
watch going back to that era. You know when you
met us, what did you what did you think when
you first saw us as a group, and how did
(18:32):
you I mean, obviously, Lou, I think came to you.
Speaker 7 (18:35):
And so was Jan Boltz, who was the president of
BMG Music in Germany. There was now going to be
a dissociation with Jive Records and BMG because they wanted
to start their own distribution. So Yan came to me
and he said, Hey, if you have any more artists
that you think are good that could work in Germany
in Florida, let me know. So I kept hearing while
(18:55):
I was there with the Backstreet Boys that Lou had
another group. So I called Lou and I said, you
know the group?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 7 (19:01):
But this guy Chris who Chris Kpatrick. You know, he
tried out for Backstreet Boys and he just didn't like
the vibe, so he started his own group.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And he never tried out for Backstreet Boys because how
he didn't tell him. This is another scoop. I'm like, oh,
I never knew that. I guess how he would be
in the middle of Chris and some other guy and
so they found out about the battery audition, how he's
going to do it, and he had to decide which
one to like tell about it, and so he told
the other guy Chris, I.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Know, and then like he was in the group, and
then he was I forgot. He was eating some restaurant
like Chili's or whatever, and Chris was his ben waiter.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
And I was like, oh, hey man, that was That
was Lo's way of saying, yeah, you know, I'm trying
to mentor and help Chris out. So I said to Lou,
I said, well, look, if you can find this band,
I think I can get him a record too. So
within an hour and a half he had me on
the phone with Justin's parents. I found him. I found him,
And so this whole thing was set up to come.
Yon Bolts and a couple other people were going to
(19:59):
come from Germany to watch you guys in that hot
as warehouse. Yes, and I had again, I had only
seen a picture. And the other thing was the video
that got sent to me was you guys doing a
song called tell Me that I'm Dreaming, and that was
the song the Backstreet.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Boys had done.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
Oh really yeah, So what I said to Lou I
was like, why are they doing Backstreet Boys record and
this is a song that Lou wrote, so he was
did he really write it?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Well, we don't.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The Joy Williams, Robbie and Gary barlow on and I
remember that first demo tape, Lou wrote a song called
I Want You Back for More or something.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, and it was it was the take, I take
that song that he just rewrote, wrote it well.
Speaker 7 (20:48):
But Lou's odds thing was all the guys are just
doing it as a as a tribute to Backstreet Boys
because they're so impressed with.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Their success that they know who they were.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
So then I fly in the day before you guys
are supposed to meet Yan and the team, and I'm.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Like, I hope these guys are good. I hope these
guys are good.
Speaker 7 (21:04):
And I walk in and you and Justin were the
first ones that came up to me and greeted me.
And so I'm sitting there and I'm watching the rehearsal
and I go, Wow, this can't be right.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
This is crazy.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
And so then John and those guys came and the
rest is history.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I remember that day vividly.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
It was so hot.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I remember this the blimp warehouse or whatever, I mean,
one hundred and ten degrees rehearsing. We'd been together for
just a few months at that point, so we still
were figuring out what we sounded like. I mean, we
didn't know, and we tried getting a record deal in America.
No one would sign us because like, yeah, I'm not
going to work here. And then yeah, you came in, introduced
(21:44):
us to Jan Boltz and being Jeriola Yan comes in,
sees us, looks at me and says, yeah, not with
that kid, though, he was like, I'll sign them, but you.
Speaker 7 (21:53):
Had to kick Glance out of the group. Yeah, there
was two conditions of that. You had to go. And
we had to change the name because he said, you know,
people of Germany wouldn't be able to pronounce it, and
we were like, well, first of all, once they get it,
they'll never forget it, so we're not changing. And Lance
appeals to the sensitive girl each one of the guys, right,
(22:19):
But let me tell you that I had absolutely no
crue clue at that point in time that that was
where you were. In fact, I'm truly honest, I never
knew until you did the People magazine. Really, y'all didn't
assume the only time that it registered somewhat to me
is we were in a dressing room and Chris said something,
you guys kind of got into a little thing. Yeah,
(22:41):
you told said something to you about it, and then
I was like.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
It scared the crap. It was it's gonna be me video.
And we were in the dressing room and it was
the first time anyone had just looked at me like
are you gay?
Speaker 6 (22:54):
I was like, hey, man, are you gay?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I I mean I wish I could go back to
that moment and be like yes, just like see what
would have happened. I mean, I don't know, but it was.
It was scary, like you felt like your life would
be in danger if anyone found out this secret.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
It was, but then again, you were dating the hottest
girl in ABC, so it was like, you know, how
could that be?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
You know?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I mean, look, if I could fall in love with
a woman, it would have been her for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Danielle was like the one.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
And I thought, I thought that's what love was like.
I felt in love with her, but I had never
really been truly in love to know what that felt
like because I was so young. But I really did
think that, you know, this is one I can you
know I always knew I'd had to hide it. I
would never act on it. You know, you always tea
you know, treat your you know, you know, try to
get trick your brain into thinking that I will never
(23:47):
act on it.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I did.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
I went back.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, it was God's little joke to put me in
a band that's ninety nine percent women fans, right, because well,
at least it was safe. I wasn't distract accidental pregnancy out.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, I don't even know if I told you this story.
But when you were with New Kids, do you remember
(24:29):
doing the stadium in Jackson, Mississippi?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
No? You know?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Okay, so there was a y'all did a stadium tour?
Oh my god, that would have been ninety three or
Magic Summer Tour. Yeah, yeah, because maybe perfect gentleman opened up?
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah, okayck West was he on the show? The guy
that looked like.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, Well, I camped out for tickets with my sister
and somehow still got nosebleed back row seats. I had
to use binoculars this whole time. But looking back at that,
the amount of people that would be working on our
team that was on that stage, right, I mean I
think there was. I mean, I think Ibrahim might have.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Been on that and and.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Just yes, yeah, that's just that's such a full circle
moment for me, Like, oh my god, I can't believe
I was at the back of that stadium, you know,
not knowing that this would be my world at some point.
It was crazy when New Kids started to fade, because,
I mean music was weird at that time. I mean
(25:28):
pop was looked at as just kids music at that point,
and grunge was coming in. Hip hop was exploding at
that time. Did you see the writing on the wall
at the end of New Kids, like you did you
know that that was going to eventually end? And what
did you think you were going to parley into if
that were to happen.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
No, it's kind of one of the visionaries behind it.
You just again, our role hadn't stopped for me. Music
was changing, radio was playing something different, but the fans
were still coming out to the show. So as long
as they wanted to support the group, you know, I
was like, Okay, we can ride this out. I think
it was NWA came. Donnie got really into that group,
(26:11):
you know, and that's when he said to us, guys,
I don't know where this is, where we fit in
this anymore. But I think that the one thing that
caused them to take a break, and they did this.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
On their own.
Speaker 7 (26:21):
It wasn't a situation where the world said, hey, we
had enough of you. They got tired of seeing all
the merch. There were new kids on a block, toilet
paper and marbles and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Differently, it was remember but spread. My cousin had like
them all over bad. I remember it was so young,
and I annoyed you where they are, But I'm like, wow,
these guys are all over your room.
Speaker 7 (26:44):
Interesting and you could relate to this, you know, when
you're on a roll. Us mean managers, we just want
to keep pushing it so you're having all this success
and you're making money. In that case, they were making money,
and it's like when do I have a chance to
enjoy it. I'm just getting older and older and older.
So it was kind of like, we want to take
a year, year and a half off and let's just
see where things are. So at that point for me,
(27:06):
I was I was out of a job, you know.
And Dick Scott, who actually was the official manager for
the band, he said to me, he said, I have
this other act that's in Europe. He said, they're called Snap.
He goes, if you want to keep working, I'll send
you out. They need a tour manager, and I said, well,
what happened to their tour manager? And they were like, well,
the lead singer Turble put him in a hospital in Italy.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
So he's going to be there for eight weeks.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
But I was like, at first I thought he was joking.
I was I can't be that bad. So I fly
to London and consent.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
That we got the power. I got the power and
rhythm is a dancer.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
I mean that that is so Florida.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It's like so Orlando. It was just that era of.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
That, you know, it was so Miami, the radio, pump.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Up the jam. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:56):
So so anyways, I connected with him and the first
time I met Terbal, you know, he came into this
little loungerry in a hotel and he's like this three
hundred pound massive figure and he was wearing a leather
jacket with tassels and he just kind of had that
menacing look on me. And the guy Gary Carolla, who
was his music director, said to me, hey, don't don't
(28:16):
let Urbos see that you're scared or he's gonna try
to get you. So he stepped up to me and
he goes, are you my next victim? And I said, no,
you don't know who I am. You will probably be
my next victim, you know. And he looked at me
and he goes, I like this, MF this guy's pretty cool.
And from that point on we had a great relationship.
(28:38):
And then I got to travel. I mean we went
from everywhere from a lot, you know, Israel, to Lagos, Nigeria, Africa,
and I just saw the world and the fans and
the touring and experienced all that. So it was great
by the time we got to Backstreet Boys and then
you guys didn't sing that knowing all that market in
Germany was the biggest market.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
How did I mean? So you were introduced to like
the German market through Snap?
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
And is that how you met Jon Boltz and all
of BMG Ariola.
Speaker 7 (29:07):
No, Actually I met bernad Lingdinger from hand to hand,
who was the promoter. So Berner promoted all the Snap shows,
so we were connected there. Because Jive on the Backstreet
Boys for as single, it didn't work in the United States,
so I called Erner and I was like, look, and
boy bands were actually kind of big in Germany at
the time, so I said, I need to get these
(29:29):
guys over there and show the label that they can
actually work, even though it might not be any us,
otherwise they might get dropped. So there was this big
German band called boy band called Cottney Act and they
lip synced. So Vernon was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll
put them on a couple of shows.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Talk to the manager.
Speaker 7 (29:46):
The manager was like, yeah, I want these American boys
on my show so we can show the German fans
that were superior over there. So Backstreet Boys show up
and of course they wanted to run out on stage
and start dancing and high energy, and I said, no,
they lip sing. You guys sing for real, walk out
on stage and sing shy.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
If I ever exactly.
Speaker 7 (30:08):
So they did that and you watch fourteen thousand people
just miusdrop what and then from there go into your show.
So we were on tour for about two weeks with them,
and we got kicked off because the manager we were
starting to build and take their audience likes exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah. So then DJ Bobo.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
Our first tour, Yeah, he came in and said I'll
take the guys, and the record started happening, and then
the rest of this kind of history. They blew up
in Germany and then you guys came over and it's
so interesting because there was no social media, but yet
the fans put themself in a place where that take
a side.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
And you know, you.
Speaker 7 (30:49):
Guys had the first two singles that instantly exploded, So
there was this rivalry, but nobody really knew where it
came from. And so to kind of squash that. That's
when Verna had Hand in Hand for Children, which was
his charity, and we said, let's do a basketball game,
and we were going to put all the hats because
all the musicians from Germany was starting to get into
(31:10):
basketball and they wanted to play. So our thought was, okay,
when the teams are picked, they'll be nicked, so half
of inn Sync will be on BSB and the other way.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Around, and one it's done. Did you work out that way?
It was four backs, three guys, four in stinc guysing.
I think you were on I.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Was on the back and a was also one of
my favorite days ever because you know, at the beginning
of our career, we were the redhead of step child.
You know, we were not the boys, and the way
that we were treated compared to how they were treated
night and day. So as a battery boy for the day,
it fell great. I'm like, oh my god, this is
(31:47):
what it's like to have attention.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
But yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
It was great and that's what eventually led to our
challenge for the children event that we would do, which
I loved that weekend. That was such a fun weekend
for people that don't know that. We put on a
basketball game, which I hate basketball, but we did it anyway.
And uh and we did other events too, like I
don't know, we would do some kind of like relay
race stuff. I don't but we would take over Vegas
(32:11):
or Miami and it was so great and just a
hodgepodge of celebrities.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
Sure, yeah, you know, Brian McKnight, everybody came to play.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
And a lot of athletes. This is one thing I
I thought it was so interesting, was the athletes really
liked us.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Well, if you remember correctly, for the in Sync team,
Kobe was the coach.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yes, right, yeah, you know, so that was interesting. He
had Kobe as a coach that game on the team. No,
that's right, that's right.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
No, No, I don't.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Think Backstreet ever played in our challenge.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
No they didn't.
Speaker 7 (32:51):
But in the challenge for in the one in Germany,
the head referee was Dennis Rodman.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
God, I don't even remember that. Wow, I run into
him a.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Good bit old radio.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, he's a hard interview, but it's always interesting, really.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Interesting.
Speaker 7 (33:12):
So then you know, the Spice Girls Enhansoing oh exploded
on US radio, and so it was like, okay, guys,
it's time to go home.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
How did y'all know, Because of course Lou's telling us,
you know, because we knew being the first out in America,
the only the first band out in America is going
to win the rest, knowing like America is not going
to accept too boy bands like Europe does. I mean
Europe had five hundred. So Lou would always tell us, well,
you know, we're going to release you guys first. You
(33:42):
know Backstreet got Europe first, Well you're going to have
America first, Like yes, like we need this has to happen.
This is the only way that we'll ever be able
to catch the Backstree boys. That didn't happen, right, And
I can only imagine what the Backshee Boys are thinking
during all of this, you know our rise who took
(34:03):
it the worst of the Backstreet Boys, Brian.
Speaker 6 (34:09):
I was gonna say that, yeah.
Speaker 7 (34:11):
And you know again, like you know, I'm not telling
stories of our stories.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
But I think I had.
Speaker 7 (34:18):
A lot to do with them being upset because they
felt it was a betrayal that I was now working
with both of you.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
The lieu of it.
Speaker 7 (34:27):
They didn't really think about it that much, and I'll
tell the story. So with the Backstreet Boys, I used
to tell the.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Story to Brian.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
I said, when we was with New Kids, Donnie and
I used to go in the back of the bus
and listen to Albie Shore and that was our bond.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
So I'm sitting in.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
The back of the bus one time and Brian says,
guess what, and I said what. He goes, I got
Albe Shores straight. But I want to have that relationship
with you. So we did that and that was our thing.
So then when you guys came along, I think Brian
got it in his head that I was abandoning that
relationship with him and giving it to Justin. So I
(35:07):
think that was like, Okay, you know, he's forgotten about
me for the most part, but us, and he's more
paying more attention to you guys and sink.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
But as you.
Speaker 7 (35:17):
Remember, Doug Brown and Ibrahim were more out with you
guys at the early stages of that before you guys
actually came into the US. So I think that he
was the one that kind of, you know, he just
felt like, you know, we were just duplicating them and
it was all about a money play, and so it
really changed the focus of that relationship.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
And I always saw it as what I was hoping
was that you were creating this new motown in Orlando
where all these artists could like work together and have
fun and you know, there's four other bands, you know,
but it did not turn out that way.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Well, that was the idea that.
Speaker 7 (35:53):
Lew and I talked about. But again, when Barry Gordy
had the Temptations and the Four Tops and everybody else,
he created a family environment. So he nourished the fact
that everybody should go even sing on other songs and
go on tours together. The Motown review is one of
the biggest ways to take a look at that. But
I think again not talking out of school because he's
(36:13):
not here, but for some reason Lou wanted a divide
in you guys.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Yeah, so that was a plan. So I always thought
it might be just an accident that he stumbled upon it,
and know if it was like, Okay, I'm going to
make sure that the rivalry is there so the fans,
you know.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
No, it wasn't. Again, I never had any conversation like that.
Speaker 7 (36:31):
The thing that we thought about though, was is that look,
N Sync is out there. Someone's going to sign him,
so we might as well sign them so we can
control how that rivalry would take place if there was
to be one, so that you guys couldn't get ahead
of them. We could kind of like move you at
(36:51):
the same time, but have them come up and then
when they were coming down.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
You would come up. So that was really what was discussed.
Speaker 7 (37:00):
Boys changed that, you know, when they were scheduled to
do the Walt Disney World Music Special for for Disney
Channel and they had just finished doing the rolling Stone
thing came out and they were on a cover rolling Stone,
and their attitude at that point was just like, why
are we doing Disney. You know, we're on a cover
rolling Stone. We're in a different world right now, so
(37:22):
get us out of this show at Disney.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
So they wanted out of it because they didn't want
that younger market.
Speaker 7 (37:27):
They just they just felt like they were on a
different level at that point.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
They always heard us because Brian had have surgery or something.
I think who told me. He's like, oh, yeah, Ron
had have surgery or something, or I don't or maybe
that was a Super Bowl I forget.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (37:40):
All the stories did have the surgery, and that did
shut them down for a while. But the real of
it was is that with Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone
and Billboard Magazine all doing big stories on the guys,
they said, well, why are we doing Disney That's a
kids channel.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Because all you wanted to do was be respected and
it looked like an adult And yeah the cover Rolling Stone,
that's that's again like everyone just dreams of that moment.
So yeah, going back to Disney would feel like a
step back.
Speaker 7 (38:08):
And I had always said to them when they finally
found out that we were managing both acts, that I
would never pit them and you guys together. So when
we had to pull them out of the Disney special,
I never went to them and said, hey, I have
another band, because I promised esp I wouldn't do that.
It happened to be Elaine Chuck, who was working for
(38:29):
us at the time at RCA Records, who was friends
with the girl that was promoting the show, and she said,
we have a boy band that could fit right in
for this situation. And so I was like, ah, God,
it wasn't me. That's legal exactly, so obviously, so I'll
never forget. On the rehearsal night before the actual shooting,
(38:50):
I came in and I won't mention your name, but
the lady that was in charge Disney, she looked at
me and she goes, what are you doing here? And
I said, well, this is my band too, and she goes, well,
if I would have known that, I would have never
hired them.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
They better be good. Whoa wow.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
So we went out and we did the show, and
obviously you know what happened.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Like you guys, I made it. It started it all for us.
I mean that thing.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
We had no idea how big it would become because
of that special and they aired it every day for
two months, so you really got to know. It was
just a concert, but there was personal interviews and you
got to know each individual guy. So when you watch
that show, you're invested, and it was just the perfect timing.
I guess that was it.
Speaker 7 (39:32):
And then you guys were in sixty six on the
charts and went to forty four to twenty four to twelve.
Actually boys were sitting at number four, and then you
jumped them and went number two.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
We never had that number one spot with that first album.
Speaker 7 (39:47):
Well, you sold fifteen million copies, So yeah, I mean
one a time.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
I mean looking at that era in music compared to
now so different. I don't know if it's because my age,
but I think it was the last great era of music,
that late nineties, early two thousands, and especially in this business,
which is hellish at times. But now, the way you promote,
the way you release your music on all these different platforms,
(40:17):
how do you navigate that today with your artists, because
it's just not the whole You have to go to
every single radio station and tour it for like two years.
To get your music played. You just basically release a
press release on your Twitter. It's like and here it is.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
Yeah, well that's even difficult because you know it's funny. Well,
first of all, you find out now that everyone feels
it's so easy to be a star, yea.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Everyone feels like everyone's got fifteen minutes exactly.
Speaker 7 (40:43):
And the thing with dealing with new artists now is
if they get a million followers, they think they've made it,
you know, and sunglass company or this one pays them
twenty five thirty thousand dollars to do a post, so
in their mind they've made it. But then you put
them in a House of Blues with a thousand seats
and they sell seventy five tickets, you know, So that
(41:06):
there's a disconnect between your social media following and really
people that engage.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I found that. Yeah in television too.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
It's like all these TikTok stars and YouTube stars, they
were giving them everyone deals and shows just because of
the following exactly, and none of them worked because it's
just they didn't know how to television.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
It's actually a skill, like you I should actually be good.
I mean when they like hired, you know, like aggotiate
against hert Chloe Kardashian to host X Factory exactly, it
was like, yeah, she's a big following, but what is
she doing hosting X Factor?
Speaker 6 (41:38):
Like it doesn't didn't compute, And so yeah.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
There is a disconnect, and so that's where it's tough.
And unfortunately for me too, radio which was the big factor.
To me, it was always the place of discovery. You
hear something on the radio and you go to a
record store to buy it. The DSPs the streaming service
to me are the new record stores. But to get
a record successfully moved into radio right now, the thing
they're going to ask is like, well, how many streams.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Are you doing?
Speaker 7 (42:03):
So it's like, so how do you get And for
the most part, if you're not streaming four million streams
a week on the kickoff of your record, you're not
getting on big stations and radio and it's going to
be hard for you to build momentum. And so this
is the conversation you're having now with the social media
kids that want to be in music, because like you
(42:24):
kind of have to take a step back and go
to old school. So, yeah, now you have to go
from city to city, town to town. You have to
play three or four hundred seats if you can still
sell them, because it doesn't matter you have three or
four five million. You still have to get those kids
that want to take money out. And I did one
of these team tours with social media kids. And the
interesting thing was I sold a whole lot of VIP
(42:46):
upgrades where they got to meet the group and they
would go in and take the picture, but wouldn't stay
for the show. So their real interest was just being
able to take a picture so they could put it
on their Instagram, so to build their own numbers. So
that's where we are in the social media thing. Everybody
wants that edge to be their own successful stat That's
(43:09):
why TikTok it's so big.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah, you know, how important is radio now because a
lot of songs, you know, so don't TikTok, they blow
up and then they hit the radio. But how, yeah,
how powerful is radio these days?
Speaker 7 (43:21):
Well that's a debate between everybody. But for me, radio
is still a justifier that you're not just a social
media artist, that you're an actual artist. And if you again,
if this means anything to you, if you take a
look at the big shows American Music Awards or the Grammys,
there are hardly anybody on those stages performing that didn't have.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
A big radio hit that year.
Speaker 7 (43:43):
So for me, there's still a justification that radio certifies
the fact that you're a real artist. So I again,
I still believe that that's an important factor.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
To what we need to do.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
What's an artist right now that's just doing it right
like a new tailor swift I mean, you know, it's
hard to be superstars these days because there, you know,
it's definitely water down. You do, you will always have
people like Taylor swift Man, and I really want to
see her tour. I feel like I'm the only person
(44:15):
that's not seeing.
Speaker 6 (44:16):
The tour, both of those tours.
Speaker 7 (44:18):
Yeah, but she's one of the artists that started off
where radio and MTV were important, but understood the transition
to social media and how that works and staying engaged
with your fans and you know, so she tells great
stories because her life creates these moments where people want
to find out, Hey, what happened in that relationship, what
(44:39):
happened in this And she does a great job of
telling that. But she also stays connected. And I think
that's the thing nowadays, and for any artists that are
coming back from the era of MTV and radio, you
have to look at that and you say, look, you
know the things you might not have done then you
have to think about doing now. And social media is
(45:00):
super important. I don't think everyone has to get on
TikTok and dance, but how do you use that platform
and find something creative to do that cuts through and
it's unique to what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I love TikTok be as it really is kind of
so intimate with the fans, and you really get to
show your personality of any social media platform that one.
It really shows who you truly are. Let's talk about
some of your acts. Is I want to know how
you met the Jonas brothers because I remember meeting them
in your office when they were two years old, just
(45:32):
like very young. But how did the Jonah's brothers.
Speaker 7 (45:36):
So at the time, I had an assistant, Philly Mack
from mcntire, and he knew that I wanted to get
into contemporary Christian and gospel music. So Nick Jonas was
signed to a label called Word, which was a sony
music label.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
The Purity Ring days.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (45:51):
Well yeah, so they were doing he was doing Christian music.
So he had to perform or do a show CBS
Morning show at five thirty in the morning. So it
feels like, yeah, you should go see him. You know,
maybe this is someone that you can manage I was
like five thirty, no morning, really, but I went and
I did it. And when I saw him, his brothers
were his backup band. So Steve, Steve who had Hanson Greenberg,
(46:18):
took over Columbia Records and he called me and he said, Johnny,
I have this kid, Nick jonas Christian kiddy goes. Is
there any reason why I should keep him on the label?
And I said, well, if you're going to drop that
whole Christian thing, you should see him because he performs
with his brothers and if he wants to actually turn
this thing into a group, this could be the second
coming of Hanson here. So we went and we had
(46:39):
a conversation with Nick and the father and they were like, yeah,
we do it. And the caveat Nick was is that
at some point, if this is successful, I get to
go solo again.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
So we all.
Speaker 7 (46:48):
Agreed and they got signed and you know, Steve got
blown out unfortunately, and so the band sat there for
a while and then I went in and I said, look,
you got to let these guys go. We we left
and we went to Hollywood Records with the synergy to
everything that Disney had happening, and they ended up getting
(47:08):
guest spots on not Miley Cyrus's show. Yeah, so that
kind of launched them into that world, and then they
ended up doing some dates with Taylor and the RECTI
became history. But I met them, you know, when Nick
was trying to do a solo thing in a Christian world.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Yeah, I mean there's I mean there. I love their
latest comeback, I mean it really it's been great. They
know exactly how to do the social media. They still
make it look authentic and cool. It's they still seem
like a young band, although they're not much younger than us.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Five albums. Yeah, but I mean.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
They really have surpassed the test of time and they're
usually I think of all and gets great. So hopefully
we'll have those guys on this show at some point.
(48:15):
Tell us a little bit about Aaron Carter. How did
y'ard meet because he must have been seven when you guys, he.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
Was nine when I met him.
Speaker 7 (48:24):
And Lou had a party for aj which is his birthday,
at his house and the doorbell rang and I happened
to be standing in the doorbell, so I opened the
door and Jane and Aaron are standing there, and Aaron
was in a three piece suit, this little nine year
old all dressed up, and I was like, who's this
cool kid? And he goes, Hi, I'm Aaron. And so
if you remember loose his old house, you walked straight
(48:46):
through the front door and through the formal straight to
the pool.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
So I watched him.
Speaker 7 (48:51):
He walked through, he went to the pool and jumped in,
and when he did that, I was like, I like
this kid, he's cool. So Back the Street was scheduled
to play Germany all summer, and I knew what the
relationship between Nick and Aaron was, and Aaron was kind
of upset because he wasn't going to see Nick for
the summer. So I went to Gary Corolla, one of
(49:12):
my producers, and I said, can Aaron sing? And he goes,
I don't know, Let's test him. So he did some
test on him. He said, kids got a pretty good voice.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
He goes, what are you thinking?
Speaker 7 (49:20):
And I said, I always want to recreate this song
by the Jets call Crush on You. I said, so
cut this record and see what we get. So they did,
and I was amazed by it. So I said to Jane,
let me go and talk. Because at that time Werner
was the producer promoter in Germany. I called Verner and
I said, look, I need you to let Aaron open
up for Backstreet Boys, so Nick and Aaron can spend
(49:41):
the summer together. He said, I don't have any money,
but if you want to bring him out, so be it.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
So we did.
Speaker 7 (49:46):
Aaron put two twin brothers behind him as the dancers,
and the first shows, with three shows, sold out nights
in Berlin. The first show we introduced Aaron, sixteen thousand
people lost their mind, and they did that the next
three nights, and all of a sudden, we got four
record offers for him, and we ended up signing him
to a company in Germany called Edel, and they sold
(50:08):
a million and a half records in twenty weeks.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Yeah, so I remember I don't know if I don't
know if I was talking to you or someone, but
I just remember Aaron saying the only reason he got
into music was because he liked the stuffed animals.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
Like he just woll the stuffed animals. Yeah, yeah, that's
all the stages.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
Yeah what is that?
Speaker 3 (50:26):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (50:27):
So Germany is the only country that I remember they
just throw tons of stuffed animals at your whole show.
By the end of the show, there's hundreds of stuffed animals,
which can get dangerous, by the way, but no other
country did that. Germany has ye that.
Speaker 7 (50:43):
But and when we had the Jonas Brothers in Russia,
I don't know where they got this from, but there's
a lyric in one of their songs that talk about planes,
and all of a sudden, when they started doing this song,
hundreds of people at paper airplanes started flying on stage.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
That's kind of crazy. I love that.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Why didn't we ever go to Australia? That was one
place we'd never really touched, and I know our albument
number one there, but we just never went.
Speaker 7 (51:09):
Over The money was too good in the cost for
us to actually bring the all the stage equipment to
Australia was huge, so when we took a look at
it from a business perspective, we just didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Yeah, once we came to America, we it's like we
never left the country. It's such a big territory that
you're caught. And again, back in the day you had
to go to every radio station, you had to you know,
every little city you were there. So yeah, twenty four
to seven, you're just traveling and it took you, and
then by the time you do everything, you have to
do it all over again because you have a new
album to promote.
Speaker 7 (51:41):
And it moved so quickly from doing arenas, then we
stepped up and we did the stadiums.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
And one thing I love about your management style is
you're so creative. And it was so fun too when
we just got in your office, like, okay, new tour,
what's going to go on? Okay, what's song as we
want to play?
Speaker 3 (52:00):
What can we do?
Speaker 2 (52:01):
And just everyone's spinning out all these ideas, and especially
when we got to the stadium tour, you know, all
the bells and whistles, which, if I hindsight, I'm like,
why don't we spend that much on that?
Speaker 3 (52:11):
I said that to you.
Speaker 7 (52:13):
Thousands a piece for these mechanical bulls. You really want
to do that?
Speaker 3 (52:17):
I know it's.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
I donated it to a bar in Texas in the
hard rock Oh yeah, we saw his ye in storage
and storage, but yeah, it was you know, we were
stupid kids, but we also thought. You know, when you're
when you're that big, you never think it's going to end,
like you never You're just like, well, of course we're
gonna have five of these tours, right, so fine not
(52:42):
knowing that. Okay, things could be a little finite.
Speaker 7 (52:44):
Uh but but you gave every bell and whistle for
that tour and it was fun from the big wheels
to the you know, the the walkways that moved and
stuff like that. Everyone goes back and watch that show.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
It's epic.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Yeah, and you know, we grew up on Janet and
Michael Madonna, like those are the shows that we idolized,
and we wanted to give the fans that because when
I go to a show, you better entertain me. Like
I kind of get bored at show sometimes, but I
need a Broadway like style show to keep me entertained.
So yeah, we that's what we wanted to give you.
(53:19):
And I think we did. You did, I think we did.
I love that I hadn't even stuck to one question.
Speaker 6 (53:24):
Still a question number one interview.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
So for people that don't know, what are the responsibilities
and role of a manager of the band, Like what
does your day to day look like?
Speaker 3 (53:37):
It depends.
Speaker 7 (53:38):
It's different for every artist, But I say, I'm like
a traffic cop, so I direct traffic around the band
or artists, and it could be you know, there was
an artist that didn't get as grass cut or a
car washed unless I scheduled that and made sure that
people did it. Obviously, we talked to the record companies
and make sure that we have an understanding of what
(53:59):
the release dates are, the marketing, who's going to shoot
the video, what the cost of those videos are. Come
back at your creative ideas and in fight with the
label necessary on your behalf to make sure certain things
are done. Once the records are done and we're ready
to put them out, then it's the conversations with radio
to make sure that we can get the spins and
back then in your time MTV to figure out the
(54:20):
ultimate goal was the MTV Music Awards. To make sure
that we're pushing those videos so that you guys can
be nominated and have an opportunity find sponsors to help
pay for a lot of these things that we're doing.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Especially Yeah, you know.
Speaker 7 (54:35):
Some of the ideas for the videos that like, you know,
what was it, uh, which would the car one with
the train bye bye bye bye bye bye. You know,
people don't realize that was two point seven million dollars
and people.
Speaker 2 (54:49):
Would I mean, it's insane, Like the average will be
like a million dollars a video. Yeah, I mean, and
again I'll look back like because that we paid for.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
That, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
That's when we learned the word rep recovable. Yeah, tell
me while know what that meant? Negotiating Because you're such
a calm person, do you ever get upset and yell?
Speaker 7 (55:11):
I think if you push the right button, I will.
But back in the Snap days, I was that way
because Turbo was that way, so.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
I mimicked him.
Speaker 7 (55:18):
So every time I did business for him, I was
the screamer, and I'll never forget. We agreed to do
a radio show in New York and I wasn't thinking
about the fact that if I do that radio station,
then I'm gonna, you know, get another radio station.
Speaker 3 (55:32):
Mad.
Speaker 7 (55:33):
So the radio person from Arista Records called me and
he goes, how dare you you know? Book that show
with out talking to me? And he started.
Speaker 3 (55:41):
Screaming at me.
Speaker 7 (55:43):
And when I hung up the phone, I was like,
I didn't like that, and so I was like, you
know what, that's what I do to other people. And
so at that moment, I said, I'm just gonna find
a different way to talk to people. And I did,
and That's what it became because it came back at me,
you know, And when he did that to me, I
didn't care. I still went ahead and did the show.
So his screaming at me didn't change.
Speaker 3 (56:05):
If he had.
Speaker 7 (56:06):
Talked to me, we would have done something different, you know,
be that easy.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
This is a story. I don't know. The vevel Rope
tour with Janet Jackson was our first tour to open
up for in America before the Disney special thing. Yeah,
or somewhere right right around. And I think it was
Usher that had to leave the tour and we replaced.
How did that all go down?
Speaker 4 (56:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (56:27):
How did we get that offer?
Speaker 3 (56:28):
She was she had ten days?
Speaker 7 (56:30):
That option couldn't do it actually came from David's Edica,
who was our agent, you know. And one thing I
love about David, you know, as you know, some agents
just say here's an you know, do you want to
do it? This is what the money is, let me
connect my commission. David was always a thinker with us,
like what can we do to enhance this anetio? So
(56:51):
he said hey, and it was kind of a joke.
He was like, yeah, Janet needs someone for ten days,
you know, well and sink do it and we kind
of laughed and anyway, We're like, Janet, it has a
whole different audience. And this was you know, for me,
I was always trying to find ways to really elevate
you guys in different audiences, to make sure that.
Speaker 3 (57:11):
What you guys were were real.
Speaker 7 (57:13):
So the discussion started with MTV about you guys doing
that's the way love goes for the award.
Speaker 3 (57:20):
Things that she said.
Speaker 7 (57:21):
So I was like, yeah, two and two will work,
so we'll end up doing these ten dates. Then when
you guys actually do that, that moment for her for icons,
I think, you know, I said, it all connects together
and it was a beautiful thing. And the interesting thing
was that the merchandisers told us that you sold more
merch on her tour than she did.
Speaker 3 (57:39):
Really yeah wow.
Speaker 7 (57:42):
So that was when we were and as you talk
about the gatekeepers and the cred people in the industry,
guys got a lot of credibility, not only for doing
that tour, because people were showing up, you know, the
hip hop and R and B community for those shows
and seeing you and going like wow, really good.
Speaker 2 (58:01):
Janet made us cool. Yeah. I just remember meeting her
for the first time, and she knew our names, and
I'm like, oh, what, Like Janet Jackson knows our names
like I know the group, like individually knows our names
just such. And it was such a good learning experience
for me because we had been on tours before, but
nothing like that, and just to see how all that worked.
(58:21):
I was so intrigued, and I watched every single show.
After we'd get off stage, I'd go right to the audience.
I would watch every single show. I was just fascinated
with the way that she performed and the stage that
she would build, and that would eventually be how we
would put on a show.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
So yeah, she was a huge, huge today.
Speaker 7 (58:40):
That connection with her is what Michael saw, which then
wanted him you guys, yeah to do the thirtieth anniversary special.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
Yeah, what what a show that thirdy. I mean, definitely
one of the highlights of my life was being there,
And unfortunately it was the week of nine to eleven,
so it was just it just kind of got a race.
But that show, I've never seen so many artists come
together and I didn't even know half the people that
were going to be there. That was when you know,
Whitney wasn't looking great. I mean that's you know, she
(59:11):
was real skinny. I remember, also, who's the actor that
sat in the chair and just yelled at everyone. I
don't remember that, Marlon Brando, So I think it's just
he had kind of snapped at that point and he
was just sitting in a chair and just started like
yelling at the crowd, like because they were too loud
or so.
Speaker 3 (59:29):
I don't know, it was. It was weird.
Speaker 2 (59:30):
A lot of weird moments there. Brittany doing that.
Speaker 6 (59:37):
Just iconic.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
And we did not know that Michael was going to perform,
like we were just all performing for him. And then
he does a show and I've never seen him live before,
and now I get why people cry. It's just the
weirdest thing. Like I got goosebumps and I teared up
watching him perform, and I don't know why, but now
I got it.
Speaker 3 (59:56):
I got it. It was what a time, What a time.
Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
I do feel there's a lot of lessons that I
think all of us in the entertainment industry has learned
from people like Michael Jackson, mc Hammer, people that you
know gone through it. And I always call it the
Michael Jackson syndrome, for like kids where they don't mentally
get past a certain age because everyone is basically telling
them yes, yes, yes, yes yes yes yes yes, and
they have no reality anymore. Are there any artists that
(01:00:23):
you've worked with that you also found that there's just
too many yeses around them and they just didn't know
what reality was because I'd imagine Brittany was kind of
like that way too, because I don't think anyone was
going to tell her no, especially her family.
Speaker 7 (01:00:37):
Yeah, with Britney, it was interesting because she didn't dictate
a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
She listened.
Speaker 7 (01:00:42):
She loved a lot of creative people that were around her,
and they bounced ideas back and forth.
Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
You know.
Speaker 7 (01:00:50):
I think it was the dream within the dream tour,
which is where Brittany started to change a little bit
about who she listened to and who she tried. I
think became a trust factor.
Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
I think that was where.
Speaker 7 (01:01:02):
Britney started to think about, oh, am I just a product.
Is everybody around me now just because they can get
a paycheck for me?
Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
And are they not really into me?
Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
For me?
Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
And I think that.
Speaker 7 (01:01:14):
Insecurity probably happens with a lot of artists, you know,
and so you do things in a different way or
you confide in certain people that might not have your
best interest in heart, who you really think, you know,
they got my back, and when you really find out
it's the circle of people that have been around you
forever they really have your back, and it's those that
(01:01:35):
just came into the circle that are trying to find
how they're going to use you for their next step up.
The last time I saw I don't even remember the date,
but it was the first time that the Jonas brothers
actually went to the MTV Music Awards and.
Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
They were liked Johnny.
Speaker 7 (01:01:51):
You know, Brittany sitting over there and she was dating
the guy that was an agent at that point.
Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
So I was like, oh, introduce you.
Speaker 7 (01:02:00):
So I get them up to go walk over to her,
and all of a sudden security which wasn't the security
that I put around her, kind of circle of her.
And then she looks at me and she goes Johnny,
and so I said, I just want to introduce you
to these guys their fans, and so she did.
Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
We hugged, and that was kind of it.
Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
You know, so well, we wish her well, for sure,
I know we uh, she has reached out through her
people wanting to come meet the kids and all.
Speaker 4 (01:02:27):
That, you know, but like then it just but then
the people then come follow through and refused to put
you in contact.
Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
So yeah, I talk through people. It's very strange. We
know we're cousins.
Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
I told you.
Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
I found out we're cousins.
Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Really, yeah, we have fifth six cousins we share. We
share a great great great great great great grandfather bass.
Oh wow, yeah, so she is a bass which makes
sense because we were born about forty five minutes from
each other. So everyone's related down in Mississippi.
Speaker 7 (01:02:59):
Well, I wish are nothing but the best I know.
There's all these rumors now that she's never gonna tour again.
Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
I know the rumors are just crazy at this point,
but I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
I don't know what to believe because I just don't
know how she is. I mean, I mean, maybe she
is completely overperforming, but I just know how much she
loves it, and I know she's a competitive person also,
so I would I mean, I just can't. I can't
imagine her never performing again.
Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Well.
Speaker 7 (01:03:25):
Look, my thing was, and I think I said this
to somebody about a year ago, it was like when
she did Lady Marmae Marma Lade with Pink Christina Aguilera,
and I think Mayo was.
Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
A part of that situation.
Speaker 7 (01:03:38):
Is something there, you know, those ladies coming back together
and doing a series of shows. Maybe it's Vegas, maybe
it's something like that.
Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
But then the.
Speaker 7 (01:03:46):
Pressure is not on her entire shoulders. They have to
do a full show. She can have fun with them,
she can get back up because once a performer is
you know, it's always in your blood.
Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Yeah, of course, I mean she's been doing this, she
was years old. How important was it back in the
day for all of us artists to have that clean image?
Was that something specifically that y'all made sure would happen,
and behind the scenes, maybe talking to magazines being like
you're not printing that, Like did y'all have that power
to tell the media what to say?
Speaker 7 (01:04:16):
Yeah, because yeah, uh, you know the teen magazines, Entertainment
Weekly or any of those.
Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
They could say or do what they want.
Speaker 7 (01:04:24):
And that's why we were constantly negative on them because
they were always having something negative say. The clean cut
image was not so much that we wanted you to
be clean cut. We just wanted you not to be attached.
So that was the whole real big thing about girlfriends
to a certain point, because we felt like if the fans,
who are going to be ninety nine percent female, felt
(01:04:46):
like you were involved with somebody else, then they would
move past you, and we wanted you always to be obtainable.
Speaker 6 (01:04:53):
We're probably like, thank god, I.
Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
I you made in my part. Yeah, but you know
what's fun do you like?
Speaker 7 (01:05:00):
The mentality of teen girls.
Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Now is not like that?
Speaker 7 (01:05:03):
In fact, if you're attached, that just makes it a
bigger challenge for them to pull that.
Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
Girl away and become closer to you.
Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Know, I mean, the fandoms are amazing out there and
you've seen so many different pockets of all these fans.
What do you think what's the most common denominator that
these fan groups have for Incubus and in Sync and
Brittany and Janet. You know, they're all diverse and different,
but what is the one thing that they're just it's
(01:05:29):
all the same, yo, Every artist has that.
Speaker 7 (01:05:32):
Well, you know it's funny that you say that, because
I think that they feel like like the Beehive. So
if you're a fan of Beyonce and you feel you're
a member of the Beehigh, you're part of a family. Yeah,
you know, everyone be part of a club, the swifties,
so and your artist is acknowledging you know, these groups.
(01:05:54):
So it's kind of like a love fest where they
feel like, yeah, we're all in this together, We're part
of the family where, you know, so it stays strong.
And you watch artists that don't have that kind of
I don't know, you know thing for their fans and
they just put out music. The devotion is not as strong,
(01:06:14):
you know. So and again, like I say, a lot
of it has to do with social media now because
people really getting inside the worlds and lives of these
artists now. So if they like what they see, then
they become a stronger bond.
Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
You know.
Speaker 7 (01:06:28):
We live in that world of reality where if you're
not giving good parts of you to the fans s,
they'll just move on to the next person. Yeah, and again,
that's why I keep saying Taylor Swift is a genius.
She knows how to do it.
Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
For aspiring musicians listening right now, what advice would you
give them in order to break it? Like, how how
do you break today? Do you do you focus on
social media?
Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
First?
Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
Do you go you know, go to all the radio
stations and force them to listen to you like we did,
like back in the day, Like how how would you
suggest some one right now in this day and age.
Speaker 7 (01:07:02):
Well, I think the first thing is what is success
to you?
Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
Now?
Speaker 7 (01:07:05):
If you chase chart position, you're lost. You know, I'll
never forget when Justin had Suit and Tie out and
Drake had the record that he had out, and my
son was a big Drake fan, and we were on
the iTunes charts and Suit and Tie went number one,
and I went and kind of gloated to my son
Drake's number two, and he said, ah, wait four.
Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
Hours, that's going to change, you know. And it did.
Speaker 7 (01:07:31):
Within the course of the day, Drake came up and
took the number one spot. But ultimately it didn't mean
anything where your chart position was. It's whether or not
I like you and I like the song. So my
advice to artists now is if you're chasing that thing
where you have to be number one or you have
to be on the charts, then you're already lost. Build
a foundation of fan base. I say this about the
(01:07:53):
Backstreet Boys. They're probably having their biggest run on shows
arena shows across the world in places they probably never
played Heyday, And it has nothing to do with a record.
It has to do with the fact that the fans remember,
loved them, stayed connected to them, and understood that every
time they stepped on that stage they were going to
(01:08:13):
have a moment that everybody could be a part of.
And so that's my thing to an artist. Now, don't
worry about chart position a song. I don't even look
at singles anymore. It's to me, it's you put out music,
and you should be dropping music every four to six
weeks so that people are constantly being bombarded with music
from you, so that they can stay connected to you.
Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Because that's very different from our I mean, because it
was such a formula of you release a single first,
you wait a couple of months to do the album
with the second you know, the second single, and you
really had to spread them out. Now, yeah, it's now
you can have six songs in the top ten. It's
so unheard of back in the day.
Speaker 7 (01:08:54):
And for that, you know, the the DSPs, the Spotify's
and Apple music is about the algorithm, and that's how
you get put in different kind of playlists, which decides
how successful, how many people actually get to hear your records.
So these algorithms are all based on consistency of music. So,
like you said, if you put a song out once
(01:09:16):
every ninety days, there's no consistency. But if you're dropping
music every four to six weeks, those algorithms are seeing
that there's a consistency. And maybe that first record or
even the second record that you put out doesn't expand,
but the third or fourth one, all of a sudden
could be the big records. And because you're not looking
at them in singles, as you're looking at him as music,
(01:09:36):
it really doesn't matter any other thing. Is Back in
the day, if you put out an album and it
went to Target or one of the music stores, it
was there for ninety days. If it didn't sell, it
got put in the bargain bin, and after thirty days
of that it was gone. No one could buy it again.
Once you put a song up on the DSPs, now it's.
Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
There for life.
Speaker 7 (01:09:55):
So if your third song as a new artist is
the one that actually blows you up, fans are gonna
come back and listen to the first and second one
and you're still going to get.
Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
Success with those.
Speaker 7 (01:10:06):
And that's a hard conversation actually to have with artists
from the nineties era because they're still thinking about it
in the way that we released music in the past.
Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Do people do album filler songs anymore? Is that even
a thing?
Speaker 3 (01:10:22):
Well, there's no such thing really.
Speaker 7 (01:10:24):
I mean, there are certain artists like Adele and a
few people that put out albums, but it's all a
playlist because the home of all this music is on Spotify,
Apple and Title in those places.
Speaker 3 (01:10:37):
So what's a filler? I can skip?
Speaker 7 (01:10:40):
If you put ten songs out as an album today,
I might like track one and track four and track
ten I might not like the rest of it, so
I don't have to listen to the whole thing. I
can just skip around.
Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
You know, why the hell did the Grammars never give
us one? We performed at that damn show, how many
(01:11:13):
times nominated, eight nine times? Those little biachas would never
give us one, and now today they would like, okay,
give it to the young ones. Now.
Speaker 7 (01:11:23):
Well, I think that you know, as you explore the
Grammy situation over the years, because you really never understand
truly how the nomination factor happens, and then you find
out that you know, it's your peers, it's writers and
producers and other artists that are part of that committee,
and there's a standard of what they think about when
(01:11:45):
they're listening and who's getting those Grammys. And so if
you're an act that doesn't really write or produce your
own music and someone else is doing that for you
and you're just the voice of it doesn't matter if
you go number one or so twenty million records that year.
It's the criteria of what is the standard of a
true artist at that moment. So if you got Steely Dan,
(01:12:09):
who have been that way for twenty years, and they
put an album out against you, and they might have
sold five hundred thousand and you sold five million, it
doesn't matter. It's the fact that Steely Dan actually wrote
and produced the.
Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
What about Milli Vanilli? They won a Grammy and they.
Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
Had to give it back.
Speaker 7 (01:12:30):
Yeah, I mean again that that's you know again, we
can go back and forth on that and who was there.
Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
Do you think they used us though? I mean because
I think it was a little because usually the people
that perform we end up winning a Grammy.
Speaker 7 (01:12:44):
You know, Britt didn't win one, she lost to Christina Aguilera.
Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Well, she was in the same boat with us. I think,
you know, pop music, especially then was looked down upon.
Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
Yeah, so, I mean the American music War is MTV.
Speaker 7 (01:12:57):
We won all those but and I don't think it
was used because we all knew that the Grammys is
the biggest stages you could possibly be on the credibility
of the fact that you're actually one of the performers
and the bumps.
Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
On your albums go crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
Yeah, exactly, So I'll take that.
Speaker 7 (01:13:11):
You know again, everybody wants that achievement that's still look
real good off them now that the tides have changed
over there, time to put.
Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
Out an album.
Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
All right, let's do it. Let's do it all right.
So what does life look like for you today? I
know you're newly married, seem super super happy. How do
you balance your work and personal life and still managing
the biggest stars right now?
Speaker 3 (01:13:40):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (01:13:41):
Well, for the most part is because the I've limited
the number of artists that I'm are involved at number one.
Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
Number two.
Speaker 7 (01:13:47):
Most of the artists that I'm involved with have families
now too, so they understand that dynamics. I do have
a great new wife and my kids are older now,
so it's not like I have to be at their
baseball games every day oritols. So they're off in college
doing their things. So it allows me a little bit
more time to be free to do the things that
I need to do for.
Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
The artists that I have no So, yeah, so what
do you think you're the most proud of in your career?
Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
My kids?
Speaker 7 (01:14:16):
Yeah, my kids. From a business standpoint, well, you know,
I'm coming up on thirty years of being in this
game this year. So and when I look back at
my life and who I've been involved, whether I'm still
involved with them or not, I've been blessed.
Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
Man.
Speaker 7 (01:14:36):
I've been blessed with so many great talented people. And
I always make this joke that I probably made more
musical teen millionaires than anybody.
Speaker 3 (01:14:50):
In the world. I agree with that. Now, I don't
know what they've all done with their money, because.
Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
Yeah, we can tell you a little bit about that.
But yeah, I mean, I think you've been so great
with us. I really appreciate your guidance through the whole
and SYNC run. It's it was just I think we
really had a good bond, you know, during that, and
I was it was always so fun to just be
able to bounce anything off of you and you would
(01:15:18):
get the truth back. You know, a lot of people
were just not you know yeah sure, yeah, yeah, but
like you would always give us the hard truth.
Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (01:15:24):
For me, it's like better to tell you the truth
if the sky's fun. But this is how we're going
to get out the way so it doesn't fall on us,
you know. And you guys took it well, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
And it's hard to manage a group, I mean, all
the different personalities. That's like hurting cats. Yeah, that's a skill.
Speaker 7 (01:15:42):
Well again, but I had I had, you know, the
Backstreet Boys and New Kids before that. So by the
time we got together, it was like, okay, I can all.
Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
Right, we have to have a frosted tip before I
let you go here. So for someone starting the business
now and wants to work behind the scenes, what are
some tips she would give them.
Speaker 7 (01:16:04):
If you understand that you're not going to have a life,
you have to be patient because artists, for the most part,
don't understand the business. They understand what they want and
when they want something that you feel is not realistic,
you can't be mad at them. You just have to
kind of educate and guide and go forward. For anyone
(01:16:27):
wants to be a manager. Now, don't join a management company.
Find an artist and build that relationship with that artist,
and then sign up with a bigger management company. So
they're kind of like their support system, but that relationship
is between you and that artist.
Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
Is that the advice you gave Scooter Brawn? Because I
feel like that's exactly what he did.
Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
Well, I didn't have. I didn't give Scooter anything.
Speaker 7 (01:16:50):
I mean, he did this on his own, and like,
you know, look, that's one of those guys that I
had absolutely nothing to do with his career other than
the fact that he was a party promoter for us
and some of the shows. But he's a genius and
how he's parlayed that into you know, the company that
he has that went out and bought half of you know,
the k pop situation that's happening.
Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
So I was speaking of k pop, what do you
think they're really going through? Because from the outside, it
looks like they're being taken advantage of more than we
were back in the day. I mean, there's no way
that they're going through this whole process and winning.
Speaker 3 (01:17:25):
Do you think, Well, I don't know about that.
Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
You know, again, are they actually making money?
Speaker 7 (01:17:30):
Are the well I can only speak for what I've
heard from BTS and not being in the middle of it,
I can't say that's one hundred percent. But there's a
billion dollar valuation on the business, and from what I understand,
they were partners in the business, so they got a
piece of it.
Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
Now, all the sixty five.
Speaker 7 (01:17:45):
Other bands that are out there being popped every week,
I don't know, but I think the culture of that
is they understood that going into it is the production
company is is the boss, and you guys are like
going to Disney. You're going to get hired in and
you're going to be a character in the Kingdom, and this.
Speaker 3 (01:18:04):
Is what we're going to pay you.
Speaker 7 (01:18:05):
And it doesn't matter how many people attend the park today,
this is what you're gonna get. And at some point
in time, when you're not happy with that, you'll move
on and we'll either replace you or we'll put another
set of characters together that will be part of the group.
Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
So, and I do think South Korea has the boy
band crown right now. It was always going back from
UK to America, UK to America, but now South Korea
has the Crown. Do you think UK or America will
ever get that back. Will there ever be a band
that can break through to be the next backstreeter in
Sync or take that group?
Speaker 7 (01:18:38):
I have an Orlando right now called No Lonely Hearts,
So I mean, live talented guys. You're working on the
music and building and the same thing. They're going through
the boot camp that you guys went through right now,
and it's like anything else, you know, it's just finding
that one song and that one opportunity that breaks through.
Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
Is it hard to find the right song for a
new band these days? Because we were lucky that you
hooked us up with Max Martin and Dennis Pop. I
mean that started our career. But I could imagine new
artists today because all these writers are booked two years
in advance. How hard is it to find that that
hit for a new artist?
Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
Well?
Speaker 7 (01:19:18):
Yeah, I mean I mean again, even back then, you know,
I think Max had the formula for the world at
that point in time, so you could go to I
don't know if there's one producer now that has that.
And then again with the boy band, do you stay
in that young, youthful, pop clean thing when so much
of the music is in a different, you know, taste,
(01:19:41):
And then you have. There are a couple other boy
bands out there and from the United States that have
taken on more of an R and B hip hop
type of vibe and.
Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
They haven't broken through yet.
Speaker 7 (01:19:50):
So I don't know, man. I mean, this is one
of those those challenges for me and I think for
them in the boy band world, this is my last hurrah.
I would want to make this my final legacy. Same
thing would sign a ninety eight degrees. You know, back
in the nineties, I had you guys in Backstreet, but
ninety eight was there. So when they came into with
(01:20:10):
me two years ago, that was my trilogy. So now
I had all the nineties boy bands. But I think
for me, I just want to because I love these guys,
no lonelyhearts and dedicated and work hard like you guys
did to have that moment and again they have to
cut through that situation of social media and then we
have to get the bigger platforms like radio to embrace.
(01:20:32):
We have a song coming call Me Back that I think.
Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
Could be that.
Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
When is that coming out?
Speaker 7 (01:20:38):
June twenty Okay, yes, a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
I love it all right.
Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
A couple fan questions from real Shannon Black. What is
your favorite Aaron Carter's story.
Speaker 7 (01:20:49):
I think the day that I met him was my
favorite story, and then I think the second one is
probably we had this song created called I Think I
Can Beat Shack. Oh yeah, yeah, and we just never
thought we were gonna do the song. We were gonna
have a Shack look alike kind of like, and then
the real Shack showed up.
Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
Was he recorded at Shack's house like we did?
Speaker 3 (01:21:09):
Uh No, he did that at the compound.
Speaker 7 (01:21:11):
Yeah, but when Shacks agreed to do it, it was
like it was a great thing. You could see Aaron
beaming from from side to side. But I think that's
between the first time I met him in that Shack
video some of the best times.
Speaker 2 (01:21:25):
Yeah. I think a lot of people don't know that.
Our first songs we ever recorded were in Shaquille O'Neill's
house in his studio. Some of my favorite songs that
we ever recorded are a cappella, My God, what's the
name of it? When Robin Riley wrote, I thought you knew?
Why did I forget that name? I remember recording I
thought she knew in that studio and just knowing at
(01:21:46):
that moment this was magic Robin Wiley was a genius. Genius, genius, Jesus,
what's your favorite memory? This is from Corey and nineteen.
What's your favorite memory within sync?
Speaker 3 (01:22:01):
So many? Wow, that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
Because things that stand out for me, It's Super Bowl
for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:22:08):
Yeah, that was a good time.
Speaker 7 (01:22:10):
But I think us sitting down and talking about the
huge puppets and how we wanted and we foresaw the
opening of the tour with the no strings attached and
the puppets and everything like that, and then going to
Sid and Marty Kraft to get them built. And to me,
that was a moment because it all came together.
Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
You know, did we get sued by Sid and Marty Kraft?
Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
Yeah, Well that was a Joey thing.
Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
That was a Joey thing.
Speaker 7 (01:22:37):
Well yeah, because Joey went out to lunch with them
and they had this thing called the Buggaboos and they
asked Joey, hey, you know, would you want to be
in the new episode of the Buggle Boozs And He's like,
of course, I'm a fan, blah blah blah. And in Hollywood,
that conversation to them was that it's an agreement.
Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
We have a verbal agreement.
Speaker 7 (01:22:56):
So when they sent the script and the timing and
was like, well, we're on tour weekend, do it, so
it became something else.
Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
I don't Yeah, see, I never knew that. Yeah, I
just thought I had to do something with the puppet
or likeness of a puppet, or.
Speaker 7 (01:23:09):
They wanted us to do the bugaboos.
Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
Yeah, bug a boo, bugaboo?
Speaker 3 (01:23:13):
All right?
Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
Which boy band was the hardest manage by Laura Lyn
seventy nine.
Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
You can say us.
Speaker 7 (01:23:21):
That's a hard question because each one of you had
your own personality, so the challenges were equally the same. No,
I I guess because of the outcome of everything. I
have to say it was the Backstreet Boys because at
the end of the whole situation, we couldn't see eye
(01:23:42):
to eye on something, so that.
Speaker 3 (01:23:44):
There's a lot more layers there for sure to have
to And.
Speaker 7 (01:23:46):
Then I had to, you know, like I told them,
I said, look, if I'm not managing you and I'm
only managing them, then I'm going to turn all my
attention to them to beat you. And that's not place
that I ever wanted to be in, because I loved
at that point where we were all successful together. But
it just didn't end up that way, so I think
(01:24:08):
they probably were towards the end time.
Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
Yeah, all right. We always like to ask everyone, what
are you binging right now? What are you listening to?
Speaker 3 (01:24:18):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
So do you watch do you get to watch TV?
Speaker 5 (01:24:21):
All right?
Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
What do you what do you like on? Give us
a suggestion, Beef, Yes, we need to walk the one
keep saying how great that is? God, we have to
add that to our list.
Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
That was great.
Speaker 7 (01:24:33):
Uh, you know Power, Uh, A few other shows for that. Musically,
I'm I reverted back to the old school.
Speaker 2 (01:24:43):
Yes, but I like because you have such great taste
in music, especially music. I you know, I didn't know
Johnny Kevin tell you you know, so like give us
some good recommendation to go back. Let's go to our
Apple music and uh, and what songs we need to
know and have in our.
Speaker 3 (01:24:57):
Lives old schools?
Speaker 7 (01:24:59):
Yeah, anything from Earth Went and Fire, Because if you
think about it, they're a band, but if you listen
to their vocals, they're vocally as strong as you guys
were the boy band sounds, but the harmonies and everything
like that. You know, anything that knew Jack Swing back
in those days, Teddy Riley, stuff that he did with
(01:25:23):
you know guy or.
Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
You know, just got paid or any of that stuff.
Speaker 7 (01:25:28):
I'm saying anything out of the seventies, you know, it's
just great to do.
Speaker 3 (01:25:32):
You think that was the best decade of music?
Speaker 7 (01:25:33):
Yeah, even if I listened to a group like Three
Dog Night, you know, you know, just listen to the
words and the lyrics. Chicago is another, you know, So
it's so again. Yeah, I'm truly dating myself. But if
I had to say, and I'm you know, I'm a
fan today of post Malone.
Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
You know what you changed his name now?
Speaker 3 (01:25:55):
Yeah? Oh no, the Weekend? The weekend? Sorry yeah, yeah,
wait what are the weekend? James name to his real
name Abel? Yeah, so yeah, he dropped it. No longer
the Weekend.
Speaker 7 (01:26:07):
But I like how the Weekend kind of reminds me
of a younger version of Montel Jordan.
Speaker 3 (01:26:15):
How We do it?
Speaker 7 (01:26:16):
Because his his his songs have a great beat in
there pop but they're also R and B and they're
a little bit of hip hop and he has that
ability to kind of rap sing through them, and his
storyline is a great So I'm a fan of post Malone.
Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
Yeah, no, he's He's great And I think the weekend
is what I feel like. That's what Michael Jackson's music
would have evolved to. Yeah, like a lot of his
songs like, oh, that's been a great Michael song. Uh well, Johnny,
it's been nice catching up. That's that was easy, right, Yeah,
that's the next time you read that. But yeah, I mean,
(01:26:52):
thank you so much for coming on. Is there anything
you would like to tell all these fandoms out there
that have all come together. I'm doing uh, the world
a favor by you know, bringing everyone together. No more
fighting amongst all the groups and all the fans. We're
all one happy family now, that's it. So what would
you like to tell them?
Speaker 3 (01:27:09):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (01:27:10):
God, just like, you know, support all the music that's
out there, you know, I guess for those that are
nineties boy band fans, don't forget about the up and
coming boy bands.
Speaker 3 (01:27:21):
And again and if you have kids, support them, supporting those.
Speaker 2 (01:27:25):
Yeah, there will always be tweens. It will always be tweens.
Let's go, Well, it's been great doing this and uh yeah,
we're gonna turn the tables on me. So yeah, you
get me some questions.
Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
Remember, be nice being now, Actually you can do whatever
you want.
Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
All right, guys, that is all the show I have
for you. Thank you so much for listening. You can
always subscribe and all that kind of good stuff. And
remember to go listen to my other podcasts, our script
the ones we have Ingle Side in which has been great.
It is now number ten in the world Killing and then, uh,
what's the other work? Got Babel Soviet? So this is
also in the top is that Last Soviet is a
(01:28:05):
true story about Sergei Krkolev. He's a cosmonaut that got
stuck up in space for three hundred and thirteen days
as communism fell in Russia. So he's literally the last Soviet.
It's just a fascinating story, fascinating your adventures to well
it does it weaves it all in Okay, Yeah, you'll
see why they asked me to host it, because we
(01:28:26):
do weave our stories and the parallels we both had
are just it's it's crazy like I got to live
what he lived, We had the same professors, we've had everything.
So yeah, it was it was fun to do that one.
Speaker 7 (01:28:37):
So before you sign off, if you had that opportunity
to do it again, now, would.
Speaker 3 (01:28:42):
You do it with going to space? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
Yes, one hundred I refuse. I know now, you know,
I don't have to really think about it, because like
this is just like hopeful thinking. But like now that
I have kids, I would have to really like, Okay,
do I really want to do this. My thing is
I would want to still go on the Soyas with
Russia because that's what I'm trained on, that's what I trust.
(01:29:07):
They have a way better you know, track record, They've
been doing it for decades. I want to get to
the ISS and do my experiments, and I want to
like really do what I was going to do. It's
not just to go up and float around of space
and come back down. For you to say that, So
Jeff Bezos, if he gave me a free ticket, sure,
they've all offered me one to pay for. I'm like,
and they're like, oh, yeah, it's only twenty million dollar,
(01:29:27):
like twenty million dollars just into space for forty five minutes.
Hell no, should be giving me a free ticket because
I'm the one to help start the space. Yeah, give
me the space, But yeah, I would like to get
to the ISS that That's that's my goal. And you
know that's a hard one now because there's a huge
(01:29:48):
line of people trying to get up there, so it
would have to be a sponsored you know, you'd have
to go with a medical company or something like that,
you know, to do their experiments. But maybe one day
before I'm too old. Bucket list, Yeah, like a list.
Speaker 5 (01:30:01):
Yeah, we'll put you up in space, like during that
week before you.
Speaker 4 (01:30:04):
Die when you're when you're old.
Speaker 6 (01:30:08):
Actually send you off into space.
Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
Yeah, if I if I'm in hospital, yeah, just send
me up and just let just keep let you just
keep me going.
Speaker 6 (01:30:16):
Yeah, I bet you'd love to just flow.
Speaker 7 (01:30:18):
You know what, going up there under hospice. You might
be cured.
Speaker 5 (01:30:21):
Yeah, you might come back like.
Speaker 2 (01:30:23):
Wait, we can't get you back now I'm heading to Mars.
But yeah, okay, I need this to happen.
Speaker 6 (01:30:32):
Okay, I'll call the lawyers.
Speaker 3 (01:30:33):
I put it in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:30:34):
Now you're getting to go fund me to send me
to space when I'm in the hospice.
Speaker 3 (01:30:38):
Guys. Thank you, guys, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
Be good witch other don't drink and drive out there.
Take care of those animals, and we will see you
next time on frosted tips and remember stay frosted. Hey,
thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at Frosted tips
with Lance and Michael turchanar and at Lance Beast for
all your pop culture needs, and
Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Make sure to write his review and leave us five
stars six if you can see you next time.
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello, my Little Peanuts, it's me your host, Lance Bass.
This is Frosted Tips with me and my lovely co host,
Slash Husband. Hello the Turkey. Yes, I got back from Miami.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I did.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm seeing the fam so sorry, grandma passed.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Yes, my last remaining grandparent. Yeah, has left this earth.
I don't know why I'm not laughing.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
This grandma was a carrock. She was a character.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
She had a great life though, So it was a
very happy funeral.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
It wasn't a happy funeral. I shouldn't say that, but
it was.
Speaker 6 (00:44):
It was a lively funeral. She's from New Orleans.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
So they had a whole I mean it was catered,
like they spent a fortune on like this whole Yeah,
this whole thing at my grandma's house.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
It was like oyster bar and like a fried chicken bar,
this is gumbo bar. It was everything. And then they
had a whole band, the whole jazz band with a
blue singer.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
That just sounds wretch.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Yeah it was, yeah, it was, it was, And it
was like a whole party.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Look that's how I want to go for sure.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Literally you've always had done.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And yeah music, I kind of see bagpipes too.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I feel like, if you know you're gonna die, like
if you're in hospice, you'd want to have the funeral
like when you were kind of I'll just will you
out into the room to watch it.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
You know, semi live, semi not alive, and you.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Can just kind of see party. Yeah, Yeah, we're gonna
have a pre funeral frequence. Don't suddenly you're gonna ruin
the surprise.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I think everyone should, yeah, throw their funeral years before
they passed, just so they.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Just in case.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
You can see. That's a good idea.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
It's kind of a morbid conversation.
Speaker 6 (01:48):
Why not.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
We also just got back from Austin, Texas. All right, y'all.
Austin is a great city, so fun, five.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Music and food.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I feel like Austin is the perfect baby of New
Orleans and Nashville. Yeah, you know, it's got that live feel.
It's very just hip and cool, young, very young, really young.
But we kind of fell in love with it, and
you know, we've been kind of contemplating basing ourselves somewhere
back in the South so the kids can go to school,
(02:19):
you know, with a little more space. So we're looking
at Nashville, but now I think I like Austin. Austin
might be the place. And so many of our best
friends lived there. Jamielyn Sigler moved down there with like
a bunch of her friends, like a bunch of those
actresses kind of moved down there. And uh yeah, Haley,
Haley Duff and Kacey Keebler.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
It's a good.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Crew and everyone has kids like our kids would fit
in so well there.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
He could be the honorary gaze.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And you know, you know, I don't want to push
upon I don't want to push anything upon my kids.
But if there's anything I want to push onto, Panucci
or Violet, we call.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
My san Panucci.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Uh is baseball and it's such a baseball town. And
you know, Jamie Lynn's husband is, you know, professional baseball player.
And we went to go see uh, oh my god,
the little kids play while we were there. I love
watching t ball.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
It is so fun.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
It was, Oh my god, it was so cute.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
I'm not gonna name names, but there was I don't
want to call this person out. There's an actor who
had who has moved who was in the you know,
back in a while ago during my teenage was like
in a real popular teen movie, Like it was like
The Pinnacle at the time time, and that nice guy
like so nice or you think, like what are you
(03:38):
gonna do to me?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It seems almost fake. You're like, what is why are
you this nice?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
But he is, you know, not does not have an accent.
He's not from Texas, but he moved to Austin a
few years ago. And when he and we were warned
you might be at this baseball game and if he started,
you're gonna see how he talks like this.
Speaker 6 (03:55):
Now it's been there for like five years.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I love.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
From there, I say, and we're like, it can't be.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
That bad, and he lo and behold, he just shows up.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
The kid wasn't even playing baseball. He literally shows up.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Hey guys, you know what. I just had to come
over Whilston game myself. I just love the atmosphere here.
It brings a launcher to watch Little League with his
wife and son. And his wife's like hey, no accent,
and his daughter and he was just like, well, gee golly,
oh my god, this is my little lady. And they're like, well,
you've adopted a new life. Good for you may be happy.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
It was amazing. It was as as warned as we were.
It was even beyond that beyond. It felt like, was
that fog lorn? What was the foghorn foghorn leghorn or whatever?
Speaker 6 (04:46):
Whatever? The rooster? He was literally like, well I do declare.
I was like, what is going on? It was a trip.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I won't say the name, and we're coming for you
because yeah, I love it. I wish it was the
only problem about like in Nashville or Austin. I am
such a water person, so I want to be as
close to the beach as possible. I wish Austin was
on the beach.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
How great.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
They have great lakes, really great lakes.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
But yeah, but it's close enough.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
All right, that's enough of enough of this. Let's take
a little break and we'll come back. We have the
one and only Johnny Right on the show today. Lots
of questions, and we have a lot of fan questions
out there too, So.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
We come back. Johnny Right will be.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
With us, all right, Turkey, We do have some breaking
news to share our lovely listeners. Uh. We're changing the world,
(05:55):
is all I have to say.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
We're making dreams come true.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, Frosted Tips is really changing the world because of you, guys.
Because of you, guys, we have something very special to announce.
Remember when we had that interview with dream Street, how
could you not remember? And we convince them to, you know,
get back together and just give us another song. Yeah,
well it's happening. What that's right? Dream Street, Breaking News,
(06:19):
Breaking News is releasing their first single in a very
long time on the eleventh. It's going to be on Spotify.
And it's also Christian who Sale's birthday, so I have
you know, obviously this is you know, in memory of him,
but I am so I've not heard it yet, so
we're all gonna have.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
To wait for the eleventh.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
But uh yeah, we're making dreams come true with dream Street.
I'll cross to Tips.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Guys, you did this, You did this, all right? Who
else can we get to come back?
Speaker 6 (06:45):
I'll work on InSync?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Okay, well, okay, we'll work.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
On that one.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
So congratulations dream Street. I'm so excited to hear it. Yay.
All right, guys, welcome back to the show. We have
a very special show today because we got the man
behind so many of your favorite artists. So he's got
the true tea on everything. But I know it's hard
(07:13):
to get some stories out of him. So let's let's see,
you know how much we can get him to reveal,
because he's pretty secretive.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Gentleman, Oh yeah, gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Here American talent agent, media proprietor. He has managed groups
all Right, New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, in Sync,
Jonas Brothers, Menudo, Triple Image, Janet Jackson, Justin Timerlake, Britney Spears,
Aaron Carter, Stevie Brock, Sierra.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah. I mean, come on, I've heard of a couple
of them.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I've heard a few of those. We're working in radio.
He befriend them, Restar who discovered New Edition and in
nineteen eighty eight, when Star was managing New Kids on
the Block, Starhard Right as a driver for the band.
I feel like everyone starts as a driver, and Right
became the group's road manager for four years. Right is
currently President CEO of Right Entertainment Group. The Right Entertainment
Group managers roster includes Justin Timber, Late ninety eight Degrees,
(08:01):
Agent MacLean and Incabus Johnny Right, Welcome.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
To the show.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Hey, thank you for having me excited. To have you
here because I have never interviewed you. Really no, I
mean only for that documentary, but I didn't even get to.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Interview you, that's true.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, But all right, so let's start at the beginning.
I don't know, Okay, where are you from? What was
little Johnny Wright.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Like as a kid?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Oh? He was a terror? Yeah? All right? How far
back you want to go?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Or where were you born?
Speaker 7 (08:32):
I was born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Diana's.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Homer of the Kennedys. Oh yes, so.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
But the bottom line is my mother was an organist
church and so music was always around me. She had
a record player that she played a lot of music
with and told me never to touch it.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
When she would leave.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
I'd play all of her records, see, And so I
got a fascination for music and song, you know. Flip
a few years later. Where we're from, there wasn't a
whole lot to do, So our Saturday night consist of
me and my cousin Cassandra, sitting home listening to the radio.
They had a show called Instant Request, and you could
call a station request a song and they would actually
(09:13):
tape you introing the song. So we'd sit there all night,
so we could hear ourselves on a radio. So that
was kind of cool with me. So in school I
kind of got a little behind because I was just
a dreamer and had other things other than schoolwork. So
I needed to make up some credits. So they offered
an after school program for two hours where you could
actually go and learn how to be a disc jockey
(09:35):
at a radio station. So I took that job. Or
I took that class, and it wasn't what I thought
it was. It wasn't about how to actually work the
board and play music. It was about the engineering aspects
of understanding the technical aspects of radio. So one day
I went to the bathroom and the biggest disc jockey
in Cape cod was in the bathroom. Also his name
(09:55):
is Tony Arden. He said, that's a pretty boring class.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Huh.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
I said absolutely. So he said, hey, if you really
want to learn how this is, come hang with me
on the weekend Saturday nights, I have to do six
to midnight. So I did, and I went and hung
with him and just went on for a couple of weeks,
and then he said, take some music into the production
studio and I want to hear what you would sound
like if you had to put a show together. So
back then, the rules of the FCC was no one
(10:22):
without an FCC license are supposed to be in the
radio station. So I'm sitting there making my tape and
all of a sudden, these lights start to come in
the driveway and he runs in the studio and he goes,
you got to get out. It could be my boss.
I'll get fired if you're hear your unlicense. So I
left the tape in the machine and jetted out the
back door. He calls me about four days later and
(10:43):
he says, my program director wants to speak to you.
And I said why. He said, he found your tape.
He was looking for a blank tape to do a
commercial on and he listened to what was on it.
He wants to talk to you. So I'm on my
way to the station, going like, oh no, I'm in
trouble and in trouble and in trouble. But then I
was like, but I don't work here, so how can
I be in?
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
What are I gonna do?
Speaker 7 (11:03):
So when I get there, he says to me, Hey,
I listened to your tape. He goes, I kind of
like what you're doing? He said, there's a big nightclub
coming into the Cape called Tingles. They want to buy
out two hours a night on Saturday night. You seem
to have a feel for what that music is. I
want to give you a gig, he said. But I
need you to come on the station at two o'clock
in the morning because back then, now I'm dating myself,
(11:25):
the stations used to shut off at midnight and go
blank till six o'clock in the morning. So he wanted
me to practice at two am when nobody quote unquote
was listening.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
So I go.
Speaker 7 (11:35):
I'm sixteen years old at this point, So I tell
my parents, Hey, I have to go out on Saturday's
at two o'clock. Not in my households or not. So
I actually had to move out and get my own
apartment at sixteen.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, did they think that you were lying about going
to the saven room.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
They really didn't care.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
It was just no son of mine that's going to
be out in the streets, you know, at two o'clock
in the morning, didn't matter what it was for. So
I had to go get it apartment and at sixteen,
at sixteen, I got this little efficiency place and anyway,
so I ended up doing that little test run and
I got the job. So the first night that I
(12:15):
was actually on the radio, I get a phone call
and it's this guy named Maurice Starr. And I had
known Maurice because you know, he had done shows around
the area that we were in. And he says, hey,
I want you to play my music. So I did,
and again, because I could program my own station then
I didn't have anyone telling me what to do. So
every week now Maurice would call me say I don't
(12:36):
forget to play my songs. So after about three or
four weeks, we started this conversation where he said, Hey,
I'm going to do a talent show in Boston. He said,
I'm looking for fifteen investors to invest one thousand dollars apiece,
and I'm going to use that money to record the
record on the person that won the talent show. And
back then thousand dollars for me being sixteen in high school,
(12:57):
I couldn't come up with it. So talent show went on.
The group that won was a new Adition and the
song was Candy Girl.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So you could have invested in new edition.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, I could have invested in a new edition. Back then, but.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Couldn't come up with it every start, because I mean,
I hear so many stories about him.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
What was he like?
Speaker 2 (13:17):
And during that time.
Speaker 7 (13:20):
Look, Marris was cool, like I've never had any problems
with him. You know, he was very talented, could play
just about every instrument, and you know he had it
in his mind. He tried to be an artist and
wasn't as successful. So again, having this talent show gave
him an opportunity to connect to young talent that he
could take his talents of being a writer and producer
and put some records out.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
What records was he trying to get you to spend?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Before New Edition?
Speaker 7 (13:44):
He had a song called about Time I Funked You Baby.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I'm sure he could play music on the.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
Album I'll Never Forget It called a Flaming Star, And
when you look at the cover, it looked like he
was a flaming No.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I don't mean that an a negative way.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
But he had an actual star where it was full
of flames and he was standing in the middle of
it with this crazy like.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Lance flaming It's a different flam yeah, not Lance flaming. No.
Speaker 7 (14:14):
I don't want to get myself in trouble with that,
but where did the roller skates come in?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Because this is what he's interested.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Bro, No, I'm interested because literally, as I'm getting out
of the car in the garage walking through the building,
Lance is like, again, this.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Could be one of the dreams I had.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
And I'm like, I don't know, this is one must
be a dream and if it's not, I'm going to
be shocked. He's like, yeah, you know, you like he's
like things with roller sakes. I was like, what does
that even mean? He was like, yeah, I'm pretty sure.
He like, you know, like he got to Florida. He
like roller bladed from Massachusetts to Florida. That's how he
got there.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And I was like, well that's kind of true.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Okay, wow, so that is amazing.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
So take a movie about that.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
So part of what I was doing is where on
a radio, I was also the disc jockey of a
roller skating rink, and so I just had a bunch
of buddies and we were sitting around one day and
we saw this movie called Roll Freddie Roll. I don't
know if you saw it was with Tim Conwell where
Conway where he had to keep roller skates on for
fourteen days to kind of set againness world record, So
we knew we couldn't do that, but we were like,
(15:19):
let's do something else. Let's roller skate somewhere. And Florida
was always the place that we'd love to go, So
I said, what would it be like if we rollerskated
to Florida? So we got the March of Dimes, which
was the charity that we were going to do it for.
A raised money and at the time, the radio station
that I was working with, they basically did an interview
every morning with us on our journey. And what the
(15:39):
interesting thing was is to find out some schools were
actually documenting where we were, so if we were in
New York today, they would do classroom routines on what's
New York? All about what are some of the famous things.
So it became cool like that, and took us fourteen
and a half days and we roller skated from or
excuse me, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Oh, I'm so much.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
It was just I mean, that is wild.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I mean you're just super creative. I mean coming up
with that idea. Were you always a creative kid?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Yeah? I was.
Speaker 7 (16:16):
I was the only child, so I was a dreamer,
you know, and I could say and I wasn't afraid
back then, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
What did I have to lose?
Speaker 7 (16:24):
So I tried everything, and that's why the whole situation
with the after school thing for radio, and I just
must say to continue on that subject. Once new edition
won and I couldn't afford to put it together. As
you know, in this business, if you don't have your
contracts right, things happened. So Maury's really never had a
contract on the group. So these guys from New York
(16:45):
came in and basically stole to men. So at a revenge,
he put another group together who had an opportunity to
open up for three weeks for Tiffany, the big pop
singer the time, and he couldn't afford a tour bus,
so he asked me to drive around in a camper
and that was three weeks became four and a half
years in the group was new Kids on the book.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, it's been so fun seeing all the angles of
this story, the same story.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Donnie Wahlberg's been on the show. Jordan Knight, sorry, John
Knight's been in the show. Oh, Jordan has two Yeah,
we have god, so many shows like I can't even
remember which, and we've had so it's been so fun
seeing all these stories collide, you know, and everyone's angles
because we always heard okay, it's the classic story of
(17:32):
Tiffany and New Kids went on tour and the Mall tour,
and then all of a sudden, halfway through the tour,
the New Kids were the ones to watch, so they
kind of had to switch, which is I mean crazy,
and it kind of reminds me it's not exactly the same.
But when Brittany was with touring with his first tour
in Americas, that ain't no stopping us.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Maybe yeah, when she first started, you know, baby one
More Time had you know, come out, but it wasn't
doing that great, and so she comes on tour with
us and some of the fans do some of the songs,
but I remember her leaving stage crying sometimes because you know,
some girls will be booing her and I'm sure they
thought she was linked to Justin at that time. So
(18:09):
she didn't have a great experience the first part of
the tour, but then all of a sudden, that song
just hit and she was a superstar by the end
of that tour. I mean, it was so fun to
watch going back to that era. You know when you
met us, what did you what did you think when
you first saw us as a group, and how did
(18:32):
you I mean, obviously, Lou, I think came to you.
Speaker 7 (18:35):
And so was Jan Boltz, who was the president of
BMG Music in Germany. There was now going to be
a dissociation with Jive Records and BMG because they wanted
to start their own distribution. So Yan came to me
and he said, Hey, if you have any more artists
that you think are good that could work in Germany
in Florida, let me know. So I kept hearing while
(18:55):
I was there with the Backstreet Boys that Lou had
another group. So I called Lou and I said, you
know the group?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 7 (19:01):
But this guy Chris who Chris Kpatrick. You know, he
tried out for Backstreet Boys and he just didn't like
the vibe, so he started his own group.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And he never tried out for Backstreet Boys because how
he didn't tell him. This is another scoop. I'm like, oh,
I never knew that. I guess how he would be
in the middle of Chris and some other guy and
so they found out about the battery audition, how he's
going to do it, and he had to decide which
one to like tell about it, and so he told
the other guy Chris, I.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Know, and then like he was in the group, and
then he was I forgot. He was eating some restaurant
like Chili's or whatever, and Chris was his ben waiter.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
And I was like, oh, hey man, that was That
was Lo's way of saying, yeah, you know, I'm trying
to mentor and help Chris out. So I said to Lou,
I said, well, look, if you can find this band,
I think I can get him a record too. So
within an hour and a half he had me on
the phone with Justin's parents. I found him. I found him,
And so this whole thing was set up to come.
Yon Bolts and a couple other people were going to
(19:59):
come from Germany to watch you guys in that hot
as warehouse. Yes, and I had again, I had only
seen a picture. And the other thing was the video
that got sent to me was you guys doing a
song called tell Me that I'm Dreaming, and that was
the song the Backstreet.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Boys had done.
Speaker 7 (20:15):
Oh really yeah, So what I said to Lou I
was like, why are they doing Backstreet Boys record and
this is a song that Lou wrote, so he was
did he really write it?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Well, we don't.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The Joy Williams, Robbie and Gary barlow on and I
remember that first demo tape, Lou wrote a song called
I Want You Back for More or something.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, and it was it was the take, I take
that song that he just rewrote, wrote it well.
Speaker 7 (20:48):
But Lou's odds thing was all the guys are just
doing it as a as a tribute to Backstreet Boys
because they're so impressed with.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Their success that they know who they were.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
So then I fly in the day before you guys
are supposed to meet Yan and the team, and I'm.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Like, I hope these guys are good. I hope these
guys are good.
Speaker 7 (21:04):
And I walk in and you and Justin were the
first ones that came up to me and greeted me.
And so I'm sitting there and I'm watching the rehearsal
and I go, Wow, this can't be right.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
This is crazy.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
And so then John and those guys came and the
rest is history.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I remember that day vividly.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
It was so hot.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I remember this the blimp warehouse or whatever, I mean,
one hundred and ten degrees rehearsing. We'd been together for
just a few months at that point, so we still
were figuring out what we sounded like. I mean, we
didn't know, and we tried getting a record deal in America.
No one would sign us because like, yeah, I'm not
going to work here. And then yeah, you came in, introduced
(21:44):
us to Jan Boltz and being Jeriola Yan comes in,
sees us, looks at me and says, yeah, not with
that kid, though, he was like, I'll sign them, but you.
Speaker 7 (21:53):
Had to kick Glance out of the group. Yeah, there
was two conditions of that. You had to go. And
we had to change the name because he said, you know,
people of Germany wouldn't be able to pronounce it, and
we were like, well, first of all, once they get it,
they'll never forget it, so we're not changing. And Lance
appeals to the sensitive girl each one of the guys, right,
(22:19):
But let me tell you that I had absolutely no
crue clue at that point in time that that was
where you were. In fact, I'm truly honest, I never
knew until you did the People magazine. Really, y'all didn't
assume the only time that it registered somewhat to me
is we were in a dressing room and Chris said something,
you guys kind of got into a little thing. Yeah,
(22:41):
you told said something to you about it, and then
I was like.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
It scared the crap. It was it's gonna be me video.
And we were in the dressing room and it was
the first time anyone had just looked at me like
are you gay?
Speaker 6 (22:54):
I was like, hey, man, are you gay?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I I mean I wish I could go back to
that moment and be like yes, just like see what
would have happened. I mean, I don't know, but it was.
It was scary, like you felt like your life would
be in danger if anyone found out this secret.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
It was, but then again, you were dating the hottest
girl in ABC, so it was like, you know, how
could that be?
Speaker 3 (23:18):
You know?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
I mean, look, if I could fall in love with
a woman, it would have been her for sure.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Danielle was like the one.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
And I thought, I thought that's what love was like.
I felt in love with her, but I had never
really been truly in love to know what that felt
like because I was so young. But I really did
think that, you know, this is one I can you
know I always knew I'd had to hide it. I
would never act on it. You know, you always tea
you know, treat your you know, you know, try to
get trick your brain into thinking that I will never
(23:47):
act on it.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I did.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
I went back.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, it was God's little joke to put me in
a band that's ninety nine percent women fans, right, because well,
at least it was safe. I wasn't distract accidental pregnancy out.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, I don't even know if I told you this story.
But when you were with New Kids, do you remember
(24:29):
doing the stadium in Jackson, Mississippi?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
No? You know?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Okay, so there was a y'all did a stadium tour?
Oh my god, that would have been ninety three or
Magic Summer Tour. Yeah, yeah, because maybe perfect gentleman opened up?
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yeah, okayck West was he on the show? The guy
that looked like.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah, Well, I camped out for tickets with my sister
and somehow still got nosebleed back row seats. I had
to use binoculars this whole time. But looking back at that,
the amount of people that would be working on our
team that was on that stage, right, I mean I
think there was. I mean, I think Ibrahim might have.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Been on that and and.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Just yes, yeah, that's just that's such a full circle
moment for me, Like, oh my god, I can't believe
I was at the back of that stadium, you know,
not knowing that this would be my world at some point.
It was crazy when New Kids started to fade, because,
I mean music was weird at that time. I mean
(25:28):
pop was looked at as just kids music at that point,
and grunge was coming in. Hip hop was exploding at
that time. Did you see the writing on the wall
at the end of New Kids, like you did you
know that that was going to eventually end? And what
did you think you were going to parley into if
that were to happen.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
No, it's kind of one of the visionaries behind it.
You just again, our role hadn't stopped for me. Music
was changing, radio was playing something different, but the fans
were still coming out to the show. So as long
as they wanted to support the group, you know, I
was like, Okay, we can ride this out. I think
it was NWA came. Donnie got really into that group,
(26:11):
you know, and that's when he said to us, guys,
I don't know where this is, where we fit in
this anymore. But I think that the one thing that
caused them to take a break, and they did this.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
On their own.
Speaker 7 (26:21):
It wasn't a situation where the world said, hey, we
had enough of you. They got tired of seeing all
the merch. There were new kids on a block, toilet
paper and marbles and stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
Differently, it was remember but spread. My cousin had like
them all over bad. I remember it was so young,
and I annoyed you where they are, But I'm like, wow,
these guys are all over your room.
Speaker 7 (26:44):
Interesting and you could relate to this, you know, when
you're on a roll. Us mean managers, we just want
to keep pushing it so you're having all this success
and you're making money. In that case, they were making money,
and it's like when do I have a chance to
enjoy it. I'm just getting older and older and older.
So it was kind of like, we want to take
a year, year and a half off and let's just
see where things are. So at that point for me,
(27:06):
I was I was out of a job, you know.
And Dick Scott, who actually was the official manager for
the band, he said to me, he said, I have
this other act that's in Europe. He said, they're called Snap.
He goes, if you want to keep working, I'll send
you out. They need a tour manager, and I said, well,
what happened to their tour manager? And they were like, well,
the lead singer Turble put him in a hospital in Italy.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
So he's going to be there for eight weeks.
Speaker 7 (27:31):
But I was like, at first I thought he was joking.
I was I can't be that bad. So I fly
to London and consent.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
That we got the power. I got the power and
rhythm is a dancer.
Speaker 6 (27:41):
I mean that that is so Florida.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
It's like so Orlando. It was just that era of.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
That, you know, it was so Miami, the radio, pump.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Up the jam. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:56):
So so anyways, I connected with him and the first
time I met Terbal, you know, he came into this
little loungerry in a hotel and he's like this three
hundred pound massive figure and he was wearing a leather
jacket with tassels and he just kind of had that
menacing look on me. And the guy Gary Carolla, who
was his music director, said to me, hey, don't don't
(28:16):
let Urbos see that you're scared or he's gonna try
to get you. So he stepped up to me and
he goes, are you my next victim? And I said, no,
you don't know who I am. You will probably be
my next victim, you know. And he looked at me
and he goes, I like this, MF this guy's pretty cool.
And from that point on we had a great relationship.
(28:38):
And then I got to travel. I mean we went
from everywhere from a lot, you know, Israel, to Lagos, Nigeria, Africa,
and I just saw the world and the fans and
the touring and experienced all that. So it was great
by the time we got to Backstreet Boys and then
you guys didn't sing that knowing all that market in
Germany was the biggest market.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
How did I mean? So you were introduced to like
the German market through Snap?
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
And is that how you met Jon Boltz and all
of BMG Ariola.
Speaker 7 (29:07):
No, Actually I met bernad Lingdinger from hand to hand,
who was the promoter. So Berner promoted all the Snap shows,
so we were connected there. Because Jive on the Backstreet
Boys for as single, it didn't work in the United States,
so I called Erner and I was like, look, and
boy bands were actually kind of big in Germany at
the time, so I said, I need to get these
(29:29):
guys over there and show the label that they can
actually work, even though it might not be any us,
otherwise they might get dropped. So there was this big
German band called boy band called Cottney Act and they
lip synced. So Vernon was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll
put them on a couple of shows.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Talk to the manager.
Speaker 7 (29:46):
The manager was like, yeah, I want these American boys
on my show so we can show the German fans
that were superior over there. So Backstreet Boys show up
and of course they wanted to run out on stage
and start dancing and high energy, and I said, no,
they lip sing. You guys sing for real, walk out
on stage and sing shy.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
If I ever exactly.
Speaker 7 (30:08):
So they did that and you watch fourteen thousand people
just miusdrop what and then from there go into your show.
So we were on tour for about two weeks with them,
and we got kicked off because the manager we were
starting to build and take their audience likes exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah. So then DJ Bobo.
Speaker 7 (30:28):
Our first tour, Yeah, he came in and said I'll
take the guys, and the record started happening, and then
the rest of this kind of history. They blew up
in Germany and then you guys came over and it's
so interesting because there was no social media, but yet
the fans put themself in a place where that take
a side.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
And you know, you.
Speaker 7 (30:49):
Guys had the first two singles that instantly exploded, So
there was this rivalry, but nobody really knew where it
came from. And so to kind of squash that. That's
when Verna had Hand in Hand for Children, which was
his charity, and we said, let's do a basketball game,
and we were going to put all the hats because
all the musicians from Germany was starting to get into
(31:10):
basketball and they wanted to play. So our thought was, okay,
when the teams are picked, they'll be nicked, so half
of inn Sync will be on BSB and the other way.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Around, and one it's done. Did you work out that way?
It was four backs, three guys, four in stinc guysing.
I think you were on I.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Was on the back and a was also one of
my favorite days ever because you know, at the beginning
of our career, we were the redhead of step child.
You know, we were not the boys, and the way
that we were treated compared to how they were treated
night and day. So as a battery boy for the day,
it fell great. I'm like, oh my god, this is
(31:47):
what it's like to have attention.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
But yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
It was great and that's what eventually led to our
challenge for the children event that we would do, which
I loved that weekend. That was such a fun weekend
for people that don't know that. We put on a
basketball game, which I hate basketball, but we did it anyway.
And uh and we did other events too, like I
don't know, we would do some kind of like relay
race stuff. I don't but we would take over Vegas
(32:11):
or Miami and it was so great and just a
hodgepodge of celebrities.
Speaker 7 (32:17):
Sure, yeah, you know, Brian McKnight, everybody came to play.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
And a lot of athletes. This is one thing I
I thought it was so interesting, was the athletes really
liked us.
Speaker 7 (32:30):
Well, if you remember correctly, for the in Sync team,
Kobe was the coach.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Yes, right, yeah, you know, so that was interesting. He
had Kobe as a coach that game on the team. No,
that's right, that's right.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
No, No, I don't.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Think Backstreet ever played in our challenge.
Speaker 6 (32:50):
No they didn't.
Speaker 7 (32:51):
But in the challenge for in the one in Germany,
the head referee was Dennis Rodman.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
God, I don't even remember that. Wow, I run into
him a.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Good bit old radio.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, he's a hard interview, but it's always interesting, really.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Interesting.
Speaker 7 (33:12):
So then you know, the Spice Girls Enhansoing oh exploded
on US radio, and so it was like, okay, guys,
it's time to go home.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
How did y'all know, Because of course Lou's telling us,
you know, because we knew being the first out in America,
the only the first band out in America is going
to win the rest, knowing like America is not going
to accept too boy bands like Europe does. I mean
Europe had five hundred. So Lou would always tell us, well,
you know, we're going to release you guys first. You
(33:42):
know Backstreet got Europe first, Well you're going to have
America first, Like yes, like we need this has to happen.
This is the only way that we'll ever be able
to catch the Backstree boys. That didn't happen, right, And
I can only imagine what the Backshee Boys are thinking
during all of this, you know our rise who took
(34:03):
it the worst of the Backstreet Boys, Brian.
Speaker 6 (34:09):
I was gonna say that, yeah.
Speaker 7 (34:11):
And you know again, like you know, I'm not telling
stories of our stories.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
But I think I had.
Speaker 7 (34:18):
A lot to do with them being upset because they
felt it was a betrayal that I was now working
with both of you.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
The lieu of it.
Speaker 7 (34:27):
They didn't really think about it that much, and I'll
tell the story. So with the Backstreet Boys, I used
to tell the.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Story to Brian.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
I said, when we was with New Kids, Donnie and
I used to go in the back of the bus
and listen to Albie Shore and that was our bond.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
So I'm sitting in.
Speaker 7 (34:46):
The back of the bus one time and Brian says,
guess what, and I said what. He goes, I got
Albe Shores straight. But I want to have that relationship
with you. So we did that and that was our thing.
So then when you guys came along, I think Brian
got it in his head that I was abandoning that
relationship with him and giving it to Justin. So I
(35:07):
think that was like, Okay, you know, he's forgotten about
me for the most part, but us, and he's more
paying more attention to you guys and sink.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
But as you.
Speaker 7 (35:17):
Remember, Doug Brown and Ibrahim were more out with you
guys at the early stages of that before you guys
actually came into the US. So I think that he
was the one that kind of, you know, he just
felt like, you know, we were just duplicating them and
it was all about a money play, and so it
really changed the focus of that relationship.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
And I always saw it as what I was hoping
was that you were creating this new motown in Orlando
where all these artists could like work together and have
fun and you know, there's four other bands, you know,
but it did not turn out that way.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Well, that was the idea that.
Speaker 7 (35:53):
Lew and I talked about. But again, when Barry Gordy
had the Temptations and the Four Tops and everybody else,
he created a family environment. So he nourished the fact
that everybody should go even sing on other songs and
go on tours together. The Motown review is one of
the biggest ways to take a look at that. But
I think again not talking out of school because he's
(36:13):
not here, but for some reason Lou wanted a divide
in you guys.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Yeah, so that was a plan. So I always thought
it might be just an accident that he stumbled upon it,
and know if it was like, Okay, I'm going to
make sure that the rivalry is there so the fans,
you know.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
No, it wasn't. Again, I never had any conversation like that.
Speaker 7 (36:31):
The thing that we thought about though, was is that look,
N Sync is out there. Someone's going to sign him,
so we might as well sign them so we can
control how that rivalry would take place if there was
to be one, so that you guys couldn't get ahead
of them. We could kind of like move you at
(36:51):
the same time, but have them come up and then
when they were coming down.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
You would come up. So that was really what was discussed.
Speaker 7 (37:00):
Boys changed that, you know, when they were scheduled to
do the Walt Disney World Music Special for for Disney
Channel and they had just finished doing the rolling Stone
thing came out and they were on a cover rolling Stone,
and their attitude at that point was just like, why
are we doing Disney. You know, we're on a cover
rolling Stone. We're in a different world right now, so
(37:22):
get us out of this show at Disney.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
So they wanted out of it because they didn't want
that younger market.
Speaker 7 (37:27):
They just they just felt like they were on a
different level at that point.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
They always heard us because Brian had have surgery or something.
I think who told me. He's like, oh, yeah, Ron
had have surgery or something, or I don't or maybe
that was a Super Bowl I forget.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (37:40):
All the stories did have the surgery, and that did
shut them down for a while. But the real of
it was is that with Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone
and Billboard Magazine all doing big stories on the guys,
they said, well, why are we doing Disney That's a
kids channel.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Because all you wanted to do was be respected and
it looked like an adult And yeah the cover Rolling Stone,
that's that's again like everyone just dreams of that moment.
So yeah, going back to Disney would feel like a
step back.
Speaker 7 (38:08):
And I had always said to them when they finally
found out that we were managing both acts, that I
would never pit them and you guys together. So when
we had to pull them out of the Disney special,
I never went to them and said, hey, I have
another band, because I promised esp I wouldn't do that.
It happened to be Elaine Chuck, who was working for
(38:29):
us at the time at RCA Records, who was friends
with the girl that was promoting the show, and she said,
we have a boy band that could fit right in
for this situation. And so I was like, ah, God,
it wasn't me. That's legal exactly, so obviously, so I'll
never forget. On the rehearsal night before the actual shooting,
(38:50):
I came in and I won't mention your name, but
the lady that was in charge Disney, she looked at
me and she goes, what are you doing here? And
I said, well, this is my band too, and she goes, well,
if I would have known that, I would have never
hired them.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
They better be good. Whoa wow.
Speaker 7 (39:05):
So we went out and we did the show, and
obviously you know what happened.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Like you guys, I made it. It started it all for us.
I mean that thing.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
We had no idea how big it would become because
of that special and they aired it every day for
two months, so you really got to know. It was
just a concert, but there was personal interviews and you
got to know each individual guy. So when you watch
that show, you're invested, and it was just the perfect timing.
I guess that was it.
Speaker 7 (39:32):
And then you guys were in sixty six on the
charts and went to forty four to twenty four to twelve.
Actually boys were sitting at number four, and then you
jumped them and went number two.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
We never had that number one spot with that first album.
Speaker 7 (39:47):
Well, you sold fifteen million copies, So yeah, I mean
one a time.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
I mean looking at that era in music compared to
now so different. I don't know if it's because my age,
but I think it was the last great era of music,
that late nineties, early two thousands, and especially in this business,
which is hellish at times. But now, the way you promote,
the way you release your music on all these different platforms,
(40:17):
how do you navigate that today with your artists, because
it's just not the whole You have to go to
every single radio station and tour it for like two years.
To get your music played. You just basically release a
press release on your Twitter. It's like and here it is.
Speaker 7 (40:32):
Yeah, well that's even difficult because you know it's funny. Well,
first of all, you find out now that everyone feels
it's so easy to be a star, yea.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Everyone feels like everyone's got fifteen minutes exactly.
Speaker 7 (40:43):
And the thing with dealing with new artists now is
if they get a million followers, they think they've made it,
you know, and sunglass company or this one pays them
twenty five thirty thousand dollars to do a post, so
in their mind they've made it. But then you put
them in a House of Blues with a thousand seats
and they sell seventy five tickets, you know, So that
(41:06):
there's a disconnect between your social media following and really
people that engage.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I found that. Yeah in television too.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
It's like all these TikTok stars and YouTube stars, they
were giving them everyone deals and shows just because of
the following exactly, and none of them worked because it's
just they didn't know how to television.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
It's actually a skill, like you I should actually be good.
I mean when they like hired, you know, like aggotiate
against hert Chloe Kardashian to host X Factory exactly, it
was like, yeah, she's a big following, but what is
she doing hosting X Factor?
Speaker 6 (41:38):
Like it doesn't didn't compute, And so yeah.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
There is a disconnect, and so that's where it's tough.
And unfortunately for me too, radio which was the big factor.
To me, it was always the place of discovery. You
hear something on the radio and you go to a
record store to buy it. The DSPs the streaming service
to me are the new record stores. But to get
a record successfully moved into radio right now, the thing
they're going to ask is like, well, how many streams.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Are you doing?
Speaker 7 (42:03):
So it's like, so how do you get And for
the most part, if you're not streaming four million streams
a week on the kickoff of your record, you're not
getting on big stations and radio and it's going to
be hard for you to build momentum. And so this
is the conversation you're having now with the social media
kids that want to be in music, because like you
(42:24):
kind of have to take a step back and go
to old school. So, yeah, now you have to go
from city to city, town to town. You have to
play three or four hundred seats if you can still
sell them, because it doesn't matter you have three or
four five million. You still have to get those kids
that want to take money out. And I did one
of these team tours with social media kids. And the
interesting thing was I sold a whole lot of VIP
(42:46):
upgrades where they got to meet the group and they
would go in and take the picture, but wouldn't stay
for the show. So their real interest was just being
able to take a picture so they could put it
on their Instagram, so to build their own numbers. So
that's where we are in the social media thing. Everybody
wants that edge to be their own successful stat That's
(43:09):
why TikTok it's so big.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah, you know, how important is radio now because a
lot of songs, you know, so don't TikTok, they blow
up and then they hit the radio. But how, yeah,
how powerful is radio these days?
Speaker 7 (43:21):
Well that's a debate between everybody. But for me, radio
is still a justifier that you're not just a social
media artist, that you're an actual artist. And if you again,
if this means anything to you, if you take a
look at the big shows American Music Awards or the Grammys,
there are hardly anybody on those stages performing that didn't have.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
A big radio hit that year.
Speaker 7 (43:43):
So for me, there's still a justification that radio certifies
the fact that you're a real artist. So I again,
I still believe that that's an important factor.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
To what we need to do.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
What's an artist right now that's just doing it right
like a new tailor swift I mean, you know, it's
hard to be superstars these days because there, you know,
it's definitely water down. You do, you will always have
people like Taylor swift Man, and I really want to
see her tour. I feel like I'm the only person
(44:15):
that's not seeing.
Speaker 6 (44:16):
The tour, both of those tours.
Speaker 7 (44:18):
Yeah, but she's one of the artists that started off
where radio and MTV were important, but understood the transition
to social media and how that works and staying engaged
with your fans and you know, so she tells great
stories because her life creates these moments where people want
to find out, Hey, what happened in that relationship, what
(44:39):
happened in this And she does a great job of
telling that. But she also stays connected. And I think
that's the thing nowadays, and for any artists that are
coming back from the era of MTV and radio, you
have to look at that and you say, look, you
know the things you might not have done then you
have to think about doing now. And social media is
(45:00):
super important. I don't think everyone has to get on
TikTok and dance, but how do you use that platform
and find something creative to do that cuts through and
it's unique to what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I love TikTok be as it really is kind of
so intimate with the fans, and you really get to
show your personality of any social media platform that one.
It really shows who you truly are. Let's talk about
some of your acts. Is I want to know how
you met the Jonas brothers because I remember meeting them
in your office when they were two years old, just
(45:32):
like very young. But how did the Jonah's brothers.
Speaker 7 (45:36):
So at the time, I had an assistant, Philly Mack
from mcntire, and he knew that I wanted to get
into contemporary Christian and gospel music. So Nick Jonas was
signed to a label called Word, which was a sony
music label.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
The Purity Ring days.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (45:51):
Well yeah, so they were doing he was doing Christian music.
So he had to perform or do a show CBS
Morning show at five thirty in the morning. So it
feels like, yeah, you should go see him. You know,
maybe this is someone that you can manage I was
like five thirty, no morning, really, but I went and
I did it. And when I saw him, his brothers
were his backup band. So Steve, Steve who had Hanson Greenberg,
(46:18):
took over Columbia Records and he called me and he said, Johnny,
I have this kid, Nick jonas Christian kiddy goes. Is
there any reason why I should keep him on the label?
And I said, well, if you're going to drop that
whole Christian thing, you should see him because he performs
with his brothers and if he wants to actually turn
this thing into a group, this could be the second
coming of Hanson here. So we went and we had
(46:39):
a conversation with Nick and the father and they were like, yeah,
we do it. And the caveat Nick was is that
at some point, if this is successful, I get to
go solo again.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
So we all.
Speaker 7 (46:48):
Agreed and they got signed and you know, Steve got
blown out unfortunately, and so the band sat there for
a while and then I went in and I said, look,
you got to let these guys go. We we left
and we went to Hollywood Records with the synergy to
everything that Disney had happening, and they ended up getting
(47:08):
guest spots on not Miley Cyrus's show. Yeah, so that
kind of launched them into that world, and then they
ended up doing some dates with Taylor and the RECTI
became history. But I met them, you know, when Nick
was trying to do a solo thing in a Christian world.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Yeah, I mean there's I mean there. I love their
latest comeback, I mean it really it's been great. They
know exactly how to do the social media. They still
make it look authentic and cool. It's they still seem
like a young band, although they're not much younger than us.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Five albums. Yeah, but I mean.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
They really have surpassed the test of time and they're
usually I think of all and gets great. So hopefully
we'll have those guys on this show at some point.
(48:15):
Tell us a little bit about Aaron Carter. How did
y'ard meet because he must have been seven when you guys, he.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
Was nine when I met him.
Speaker 7 (48:24):
And Lou had a party for aj which is his birthday,
at his house and the doorbell rang and I happened
to be standing in the doorbell, so I opened the
door and Jane and Aaron are standing there, and Aaron
was in a three piece suit, this little nine year
old all dressed up, and I was like, who's this
cool kid? And he goes, Hi, I'm Aaron. And so
if you remember loose his old house, you walked straight
(48:46):
through the front door and through the formal straight to
the pool.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
So I watched him.
Speaker 7 (48:51):
He walked through, he went to the pool and jumped in,
and when he did that, I was like, I like
this kid, he's cool. So Back the Street was scheduled
to play Germany all summer, and I knew what the
relationship between Nick and Aaron was, and Aaron was kind
of upset because he wasn't going to see Nick for
the summer. So I went to Gary Corolla, one of
(49:12):
my producers, and I said, can Aaron sing? And he goes,
I don't know, Let's test him. So he did some
test on him. He said, kids got a pretty good voice.
Speaker 3 (49:19):
He goes, what are you thinking?
Speaker 7 (49:20):
And I said, I always want to recreate this song
by the Jets call Crush on You. I said, so
cut this record and see what we get. So they did,
and I was amazed by it. So I said to Jane,
let me go and talk. Because at that time Werner
was the producer promoter in Germany. I called Verner and
I said, look, I need you to let Aaron open
up for Backstreet Boys, so Nick and Aaron can spend
(49:41):
the summer together. He said, I don't have any money,
but if you want to bring him out, so be it.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
So we did.
Speaker 7 (49:46):
Aaron put two twin brothers behind him as the dancers,
and the first shows, with three shows, sold out nights
in Berlin. The first show we introduced Aaron, sixteen thousand
people lost their mind, and they did that the next
three nights, and all of a sudden, we got four
record offers for him, and we ended up signing him
to a company in Germany called Edel, and they sold
(50:08):
a million and a half records in twenty weeks.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Yeah, so I remember I don't know if I don't
know if I was talking to you or someone, but
I just remember Aaron saying the only reason he got
into music was because he liked the stuffed animals.
Speaker 3 (50:20):
Like he just woll the stuffed animals. Yeah, yeah, that's
all the stages.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
Yeah what is that?
Speaker 3 (50:26):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (50:27):
So Germany is the only country that I remember they
just throw tons of stuffed animals at your whole show.
By the end of the show, there's hundreds of stuffed animals,
which can get dangerous, by the way, but no other
country did that. Germany has ye that.
Speaker 7 (50:43):
But and when we had the Jonas Brothers in Russia,
I don't know where they got this from, but there's
a lyric in one of their songs that talk about planes,
and all of a sudden, when they started doing this song,
hundreds of people at paper airplanes started flying on stage.
Speaker 3 (51:00):
That's kind of crazy. I love that.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
Why didn't we ever go to Australia? That was one
place we'd never really touched, and I know our albument
number one there, but we just never went.
Speaker 7 (51:09):
Over The money was too good in the cost for
us to actually bring the all the stage equipment to
Australia was huge, so when we took a look at
it from a business perspective, we just didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
Yeah, once we came to America, we it's like we
never left the country. It's such a big territory that
you're caught. And again, back in the day you had
to go to every radio station, you had to you know,
every little city you were there. So yeah, twenty four
to seven, you're just traveling and it took you, and
then by the time you do everything, you have to
do it all over again because you have a new
album to promote.
Speaker 7 (51:41):
And it moved so quickly from doing arenas, then we
stepped up and we did the stadiums.
Speaker 2 (51:47):
And one thing I love about your management style is
you're so creative. And it was so fun too when
we just got in your office, like, okay, new tour,
what's going to go on? Okay, what's song as we
want to play?
Speaker 3 (52:00):
What can we do?
Speaker 2 (52:01):
And just everyone's spinning out all these ideas, and especially
when we got to the stadium tour, you know, all
the bells and whistles, which, if I hindsight, I'm like,
why don't we spend that much on that?
Speaker 3 (52:11):
I said that to you.
Speaker 7 (52:13):
Thousands a piece for these mechanical bulls. You really want
to do that?
Speaker 3 (52:17):
I know it's.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
I donated it to a bar in Texas in the
hard rock Oh yeah, we saw his ye in storage
and storage, but yeah, it was you know, we were
stupid kids, but we also thought. You know, when you're
when you're that big, you never think it's going to end,
like you never You're just like, well, of course we're
gonna have five of these tours, right, so fine not
(52:42):
knowing that. Okay, things could be a little finite.
Speaker 7 (52:44):
Uh but but you gave every bell and whistle for
that tour and it was fun from the big wheels
to the you know, the the walkways that moved and
stuff like that. Everyone goes back and watch that show.
Speaker 3 (52:55):
It's epic.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Yeah, and you know, we grew up on Janet and
Michael Madonna, like those are the shows that we idolized,
and we wanted to give the fans that because when
I go to a show, you better entertain me. Like
I kind of get bored at show sometimes, but I
need a Broadway like style show to keep me entertained.
So yeah, we that's what we wanted to give you.
(53:19):
And I think we did. You did, I think we did.
I love that I hadn't even stuck to one question.
Speaker 6 (53:24):
Still a question number one interview.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
So for people that don't know, what are the responsibilities
and role of a manager of the band, Like what
does your day to day look like?
Speaker 3 (53:37):
It depends.
Speaker 7 (53:38):
It's different for every artist, But I say, I'm like
a traffic cop, so I direct traffic around the band
or artists, and it could be you know, there was
an artist that didn't get as grass cut or a
car washed unless I scheduled that and made sure that
people did it. Obviously, we talked to the record companies
and make sure that we have an understanding of what
(53:59):
the release dates are, the marketing, who's going to shoot
the video, what the cost of those videos are. Come
back at your creative ideas and in fight with the
label necessary on your behalf to make sure certain things
are done. Once the records are done and we're ready
to put them out, then it's the conversations with radio
to make sure that we can get the spins and
back then in your time MTV to figure out the
(54:20):
ultimate goal was the MTV Music Awards. To make sure
that we're pushing those videos so that you guys can
be nominated and have an opportunity find sponsors to help
pay for a lot of these things that we're doing.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
Especially Yeah, you know.
Speaker 7 (54:35):
Some of the ideas for the videos that like, you know,
what was it, uh, which would the car one with
the train bye bye bye bye bye bye. You know,
people don't realize that was two point seven million dollars
and people.
Speaker 2 (54:49):
Would I mean, it's insane, Like the average will be
like a million dollars a video. Yeah, I mean, and
again I'll look back like because that we paid for.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
That, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
That's when we learned the word rep recovable. Yeah, tell
me while know what that meant? Negotiating Because you're such
a calm person, do you ever get upset and yell?
Speaker 7 (55:11):
I think if you push the right button, I will.
But back in the Snap days, I was that way
because Turbo was that way, so.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
I mimicked him.
Speaker 7 (55:18):
So every time I did business for him, I was
the screamer, and I'll never forget. We agreed to do
a radio show in New York and I wasn't thinking
about the fact that if I do that radio station,
then I'm gonna, you know, get another radio station.
Speaker 3 (55:32):
Mad.
Speaker 7 (55:33):
So the radio person from Arista Records called me and
he goes, how dare you you know? Book that show
with out talking to me? And he started.
Speaker 3 (55:41):
Screaming at me.
Speaker 7 (55:43):
And when I hung up the phone, I was like,
I didn't like that, and so I was like, you
know what, that's what I do to other people. And
so at that moment, I said, I'm just gonna find
a different way to talk to people. And I did,
and That's what it became because it came back at me,
you know, And when he did that to me, I
didn't care. I still went ahead and did the show.
So his screaming at me didn't change.
Speaker 3 (56:05):
If he had.
Speaker 7 (56:06):
Talked to me, we would have done something different, you know,
be that easy.
Speaker 2 (56:11):
This is a story. I don't know. The vevel Rope
tour with Janet Jackson was our first tour to open
up for in America before the Disney special thing. Yeah,
or somewhere right right around. And I think it was
Usher that had to leave the tour and we replaced.
How did that all go down?
Speaker 4 (56:27):
Like?
Speaker 2 (56:27):
How did we get that offer?
Speaker 3 (56:28):
She was she had ten days?
Speaker 7 (56:30):
That option couldn't do it actually came from David's Edica,
who was our agent, you know. And one thing I
love about David, you know, as you know, some agents
just say here's an you know, do you want to
do it? This is what the money is, let me
connect my commission. David was always a thinker with us,
like what can we do to enhance this anetio? So
(56:51):
he said hey, and it was kind of a joke.
He was like, yeah, Janet needs someone for ten days,
you know, well and sink do it and we kind
of laughed and anyway, We're like, Janet, it has a
whole different audience. And this was you know, for me,
I was always trying to find ways to really elevate
you guys in different audiences, to make sure that.
Speaker 3 (57:11):
What you guys were were real.
Speaker 7 (57:13):
So the discussion started with MTV about you guys doing
that's the way love goes for the award.
Speaker 3 (57:20):
Things that she said.
Speaker 7 (57:21):
So I was like, yeah, two and two will work,
so we'll end up doing these ten dates. Then when
you guys actually do that, that moment for her for icons,
I think, you know, I said, it all connects together
and it was a beautiful thing. And the interesting thing
was that the merchandisers told us that you sold more
merch on her tour than she did.
Speaker 3 (57:39):
Really yeah wow.
Speaker 7 (57:42):
So that was when we were and as you talk
about the gatekeepers and the cred people in the industry,
guys got a lot of credibility, not only for doing
that tour, because people were showing up, you know, the
hip hop and R and B community for those shows
and seeing you and going like wow, really good.
Speaker 2 (58:01):
Janet made us cool. Yeah. I just remember meeting her
for the first time, and she knew our names, and
I'm like, oh, what, Like Janet Jackson knows our names
like I know the group, like individually knows our names
just such. And it was such a good learning experience
for me because we had been on tours before, but
nothing like that, and just to see how all that worked.
(58:21):
I was so intrigued, and I watched every single show.
After we'd get off stage, I'd go right to the audience.
I would watch every single show. I was just fascinated
with the way that she performed and the stage that
she would build, and that would eventually be how we
would put on a show.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
So yeah, she was a huge, huge today.
Speaker 7 (58:40):
That connection with her is what Michael saw, which then
wanted him you guys, yeah to do the thirtieth anniversary special.
Speaker 2 (58:48):
Yeah, what what a show that thirdy. I mean, definitely
one of the highlights of my life was being there,
And unfortunately it was the week of nine to eleven,
so it was just it just kind of got a race.
But that show, I've never seen so many artists come
together and I didn't even know half the people that
were going to be there. That was when you know,
Whitney wasn't looking great. I mean that's you know, she
(59:11):
was real skinny. I remember, also, who's the actor that
sat in the chair and just yelled at everyone. I
don't remember that, Marlon Brando, So I think it's just
he had kind of snapped at that point and he
was just sitting in a chair and just started like
yelling at the crowd, like because they were too loud
or so.
Speaker 3 (59:29):
I don't know, it was. It was weird.
Speaker 2 (59:30):
A lot of weird moments there. Brittany doing that.
Speaker 6 (59:37):
Just iconic.
Speaker 2 (59:38):
And we did not know that Michael was going to perform,
like we were just all performing for him. And then
he does a show and I've never seen him live before,
and now I get why people cry. It's just the
weirdest thing. Like I got goosebumps and I teared up
watching him perform, and I don't know why, but now
I got it.
Speaker 3 (59:56):
I got it. It was what a time, What a time.
Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
I do feel there's a lot of lessons that I
think all of us in the entertainment industry has learned
from people like Michael Jackson, mc Hammer, people that you
know gone through it. And I always call it the
Michael Jackson syndrome, for like kids where they don't mentally
get past a certain age because everyone is basically telling
them yes, yes, yes, yes yes yes yes yes, and
they have no reality anymore. Are there any artists that
(01:00:23):
you've worked with that you also found that there's just
too many yeses around them and they just didn't know
what reality was because I'd imagine Brittany was kind of
like that way too, because I don't think anyone was
going to tell her no, especially her family.
Speaker 7 (01:00:37):
Yeah, with Britney, it was interesting because she didn't dictate
a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
She listened.
Speaker 7 (01:00:42):
She loved a lot of creative people that were around her,
and they bounced ideas back and forth.
Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
You know.
Speaker 7 (01:00:50):
I think it was the dream within the dream tour,
which is where Brittany started to change a little bit
about who she listened to and who she tried. I
think became a trust factor.
Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
I think that was where.
Speaker 7 (01:01:02):
Britney started to think about, oh, am I just a product.
Is everybody around me now just because they can get
a paycheck for me?
Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
And are they not really into me?
Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
For me?
Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
And I think that.
Speaker 7 (01:01:14):
Insecurity probably happens with a lot of artists, you know,
and so you do things in a different way or
you confide in certain people that might not have your
best interest in heart, who you really think, you know,
they got my back, and when you really find out
it's the circle of people that have been around you
forever they really have your back, and it's those that
(01:01:35):
just came into the circle that are trying to find
how they're going to use you for their next step up.
The last time I saw I don't even remember the date,
but it was the first time that the Jonas brothers
actually went to the MTV Music Awards and.
Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
They were liked Johnny.
Speaker 7 (01:01:51):
You know, Brittany sitting over there and she was dating
the guy that was an agent at that point.
Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
So I was like, oh, introduce you.
Speaker 7 (01:02:00):
So I get them up to go walk over to her,
and all of a sudden security which wasn't the security
that I put around her, kind of circle of her.
And then she looks at me and she goes Johnny,
and so I said, I just want to introduce you
to these guys their fans, and so she did.
Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
We hugged, and that was kind of it.
Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
You know, so well, we wish her well, for sure,
I know we uh, she has reached out through her
people wanting to come meet the kids and all.
Speaker 4 (01:02:27):
That, you know, but like then it just but then
the people then come follow through and refused to put
you in contact.
Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
So yeah, I talk through people. It's very strange. We
know we're cousins.
Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
I told you.
Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
I found out we're cousins.
Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Really, yeah, we have fifth six cousins we share. We
share a great great great great great great grandfather bass.
Oh wow, yeah, so she is a bass which makes
sense because we were born about forty five minutes from
each other. So everyone's related down in Mississippi.
Speaker 7 (01:02:59):
Well, I wish are nothing but the best I know.
There's all these rumors now that she's never gonna tour again.
Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
I know the rumors are just crazy at this point,
but I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
I don't know what to believe because I just don't
know how she is. I mean, I mean, maybe she
is completely overperforming, but I just know how much she
loves it, and I know she's a competitive person also,
so I would I mean, I just can't. I can't
imagine her never performing again.
Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Well.
Speaker 7 (01:03:25):
Look, my thing was, and I think I said this
to somebody about a year ago, it was like when
she did Lady Marmae Marma Lade with Pink Christina Aguilera,
and I think Mayo was.
Speaker 3 (01:03:36):
A part of that situation.
Speaker 7 (01:03:38):
Is something there, you know, those ladies coming back together
and doing a series of shows. Maybe it's Vegas, maybe
it's something like that.
Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
But then the.
Speaker 7 (01:03:46):
Pressure is not on her entire shoulders. They have to
do a full show. She can have fun with them,
she can get back up because once a performer is
you know, it's always in your blood.
Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Yeah, of course, I mean she's been doing this, she
was years old. How important was it back in the
day for all of us artists to have that clean image?
Was that something specifically that y'all made sure would happen,
and behind the scenes, maybe talking to magazines being like
you're not printing that, Like did y'all have that power
to tell the media what to say?
Speaker 7 (01:04:16):
Yeah, because yeah, uh, you know the teen magazines, Entertainment
Weekly or any of those.
Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
They could say or do what they want.
Speaker 7 (01:04:24):
And that's why we were constantly negative on them because
they were always having something negative say. The clean cut
image was not so much that we wanted you to
be clean cut. We just wanted you not to be attached.
So that was the whole real big thing about girlfriends
to a certain point, because we felt like if the fans,
who are going to be ninety nine percent female, felt
(01:04:46):
like you were involved with somebody else, then they would
move past you, and we wanted you always to be obtainable.
Speaker 6 (01:04:53):
We're probably like, thank god, I.
Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
I you made in my part. Yeah, but you know
what's fun do you like?
Speaker 7 (01:05:00):
The mentality of teen girls.
Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Now is not like that?
Speaker 7 (01:05:03):
In fact, if you're attached, that just makes it a
bigger challenge for them to pull that.
Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
Girl away and become closer to you.
Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Know, I mean, the fandoms are amazing out there and
you've seen so many different pockets of all these fans.
What do you think what's the most common denominator that
these fan groups have for Incubus and in Sync and
Brittany and Janet. You know, they're all diverse and different,
but what is the one thing that they're just it's
(01:05:29):
all the same, yo, Every artist has that.
Speaker 7 (01:05:32):
Well, you know it's funny that you say that, because
I think that they feel like like the Beehive. So
if you're a fan of Beyonce and you feel you're
a member of the Beehigh, you're part of a family. Yeah,
you know, everyone be part of a club, the swifties,
so and your artist is acknowledging you know, these groups.
(01:05:54):
So it's kind of like a love fest where they
feel like, yeah, we're all in this together, We're part
of the family where, you know, so it stays strong.
And you watch artists that don't have that kind of
I don't know, you know thing for their fans and
they just put out music. The devotion is not as strong,
(01:06:14):
you know. So and again, like I say, a lot
of it has to do with social media now because
people really getting inside the worlds and lives of these
artists now. So if they like what they see, then
they become a stronger bond.
Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
You know.
Speaker 7 (01:06:28):
We live in that world of reality where if you're
not giving good parts of you to the fans s,
they'll just move on to the next person. Yeah, and again,
that's why I keep saying Taylor Swift is a genius.
She knows how to do it.
Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
For aspiring musicians listening right now, what advice would you
give them in order to break it? Like, how how
do you break today? Do you do you focus on
social media?
Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
First?
Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
Do you go you know, go to all the radio
stations and force them to listen to you like we did,
like back in the day, Like how how would you
suggest some one right now in this day and age.
Speaker 7 (01:07:02):
Well, I think the first thing is what is success
to you?
Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
Now?
Speaker 7 (01:07:05):
If you chase chart position, you're lost. You know, I'll
never forget when Justin had Suit and Tie out and
Drake had the record that he had out, and my
son was a big Drake fan, and we were on
the iTunes charts and Suit and Tie went number one,
and I went and kind of gloated to my son
Drake's number two, and he said, ah, wait four.
Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
Hours, that's going to change, you know. And it did.
Speaker 7 (01:07:31):
Within the course of the day, Drake came up and
took the number one spot. But ultimately it didn't mean
anything where your chart position was. It's whether or not
I like you and I like the song. So my
advice to artists now is if you're chasing that thing
where you have to be number one or you have
to be on the charts, then you're already lost. Build
a foundation of fan base. I say this about the
(01:07:53):
Backstreet Boys. They're probably having their biggest run on shows
arena shows across the world in places they probably never
played Heyday, And it has nothing to do with a record.
It has to do with the fact that the fans remember,
loved them, stayed connected to them, and understood that every
time they stepped on that stage they were going to
(01:08:13):
have a moment that everybody could be a part of.
And so that's my thing to an artist. Now, don't
worry about chart position a song. I don't even look
at singles anymore. It's to me, it's you put out music,
and you should be dropping music every four to six
weeks so that people are constantly being bombarded with music
from you, so that they can stay connected to you.
Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Because that's very different from our I mean, because it
was such a formula of you release a single first,
you wait a couple of months to do the album
with the second you know, the second single, and you
really had to spread them out. Now, yeah, it's now
you can have six songs in the top ten. It's
so unheard of back in the day.
Speaker 7 (01:08:54):
And for that, you know, the the DSPs, the Spotify's
and Apple music is about the algorithm, and that's how
you get put in different kind of playlists, which decides
how successful, how many people actually get to hear your records.
So these algorithms are all based on consistency of music. So,
like you said, if you put a song out once
(01:09:16):
every ninety days, there's no consistency. But if you're dropping
music every four to six weeks, those algorithms are seeing
that there's a consistency. And maybe that first record or
even the second record that you put out doesn't expand,
but the third or fourth one, all of a sudden
could be the big records. And because you're not looking
at them in singles, as you're looking at him as music,
(01:09:36):
it really doesn't matter any other thing. Is Back in
the day, if you put out an album and it
went to Target or one of the music stores, it
was there for ninety days. If it didn't sell, it
got put in the bargain bin, and after thirty days
of that it was gone. No one could buy it again.
Once you put a song up on the DSPs, now it's.
Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
There for life.
Speaker 7 (01:09:55):
So if your third song as a new artist is
the one that actually blows you up, fans are gonna
come back and listen to the first and second one
and you're still going to get.
Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
Success with those.
Speaker 7 (01:10:06):
And that's a hard conversation actually to have with artists
from the nineties era because they're still thinking about it
in the way that we released music in the past.
Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Do people do album filler songs anymore? Is that even
a thing?
Speaker 3 (01:10:22):
Well, there's no such thing really.
Speaker 7 (01:10:24):
I mean, there are certain artists like Adele and a
few people that put out albums, but it's all a
playlist because the home of all this music is on Spotify,
Apple and Title in those places.
Speaker 3 (01:10:37):
So what's a filler? I can skip?
Speaker 7 (01:10:40):
If you put ten songs out as an album today,
I might like track one and track four and track
ten I might not like the rest of it, so
I don't have to listen to the whole thing. I
can just skip around.
Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
You know, why the hell did the Grammars never give
us one? We performed at that damn show, how many
(01:11:13):
times nominated, eight nine times? Those little biachas would never
give us one, and now today they would like, okay,
give it to the young ones. Now.
Speaker 7 (01:11:23):
Well, I think that you know, as you explore the
Grammy situation over the years, because you really never understand
truly how the nomination factor happens, and then you find
out that you know, it's your peers, it's writers and
producers and other artists that are part of that committee,
and there's a standard of what they think about when
(01:11:45):
they're listening and who's getting those Grammys. And so if
you're an act that doesn't really write or produce your
own music and someone else is doing that for you
and you're just the voice of it doesn't matter if
you go number one or so twenty million records that year.
It's the criteria of what is the standard of a
true artist at that moment. So if you got Steely Dan,
(01:12:09):
who have been that way for twenty years, and they
put an album out against you, and they might have
sold five hundred thousand and you sold five million, it
doesn't matter. It's the fact that Steely Dan actually wrote
and produced the.
Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
What about Milli Vanilli? They won a Grammy and they.
Speaker 3 (01:12:24):
Had to give it back.
Speaker 7 (01:12:30):
Yeah, I mean again that that's you know again, we
can go back and forth on that and who was there.
Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
Do you think they used us though? I mean because
I think it was a little because usually the people
that perform we end up winning a Grammy.
Speaker 7 (01:12:44):
You know, Britt didn't win one, she lost to Christina Aguilera.
Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
Well, she was in the same boat with us. I think,
you know, pop music, especially then was looked down upon.
Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
Yeah, so, I mean the American music War is MTV.
Speaker 7 (01:12:57):
We won all those but and I don't think it
was used because we all knew that the Grammys is
the biggest stages you could possibly be on the credibility
of the fact that you're actually one of the performers
and the bumps.
Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
On your albums go crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
Yeah, exactly, So I'll take that.
Speaker 7 (01:13:11):
You know again, everybody wants that achievement that's still look
real good off them now that the tides have changed
over there, time to put.
Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
Out an album.
Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
All right, let's do it. Let's do it all right.
So what does life look like for you today? I
know you're newly married, seem super super happy. How do
you balance your work and personal life and still managing
the biggest stars right now?
Speaker 3 (01:13:40):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (01:13:41):
Well, for the most part is because the I've limited
the number of artists that I'm are involved at number one.
Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
Number two.
Speaker 7 (01:13:47):
Most of the artists that I'm involved with have families
now too, so they understand that dynamics. I do have
a great new wife and my kids are older now,
so it's not like I have to be at their
baseball games every day oritols. So they're off in college
doing their things. So it allows me a little bit
more time to be free to do the things that
I need to do for.
Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
The artists that I have no So, yeah, so what
do you think you're the most proud of in your career?
Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
My kids?
Speaker 7 (01:14:16):
Yeah, my kids. From a business standpoint, well, you know,
I'm coming up on thirty years of being in this
game this year. So and when I look back at
my life and who I've been involved, whether I'm still
involved with them or not, I've been blessed.
Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
Man.
Speaker 7 (01:14:36):
I've been blessed with so many great talented people. And
I always make this joke that I probably made more
musical teen millionaires than anybody.
Speaker 3 (01:14:50):
In the world. I agree with that. Now, I don't
know what they've all done with their money, because.
Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
Yeah, we can tell you a little bit about that.
But yeah, I mean, I think you've been so great
with us. I really appreciate your guidance through the whole
and SYNC run. It's it was just I think we
really had a good bond, you know, during that, and
I was it was always so fun to just be
able to bounce anything off of you and you would
(01:15:18):
get the truth back. You know, a lot of people
were just not you know yeah sure, yeah, yeah, but
like you would always give us the hard truth.
Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (01:15:24):
For me, it's like better to tell you the truth
if the sky's fun. But this is how we're going
to get out the way so it doesn't fall on us,
you know. And you guys took it well, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
And it's hard to manage a group, I mean, all
the different personalities. That's like hurting cats. Yeah, that's a skill.
Speaker 7 (01:15:42):
Well again, but I had I had, you know, the
Backstreet Boys and New Kids before that. So by the
time we got together, it was like, okay, I can all.
Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
Right, we have to have a frosted tip before I
let you go here. So for someone starting the business
now and wants to work behind the scenes, what are
some tips she would give them.
Speaker 7 (01:16:04):
If you understand that you're not going to have a life,
you have to be patient because artists, for the most part,
don't understand the business. They understand what they want and
when they want something that you feel is not realistic,
you can't be mad at them. You just have to
kind of educate and guide and go forward. For anyone
(01:16:27):
wants to be a manager. Now, don't join a management company.
Find an artist and build that relationship with that artist,
and then sign up with a bigger management company. So
they're kind of like their support system, but that relationship
is between you and that artist.
Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
Is that the advice you gave Scooter Brawn? Because I
feel like that's exactly what he did.
Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
Well, I didn't have. I didn't give Scooter anything.
Speaker 7 (01:16:50):
I mean, he did this on his own, and like,
you know, look, that's one of those guys that I
had absolutely nothing to do with his career other than
the fact that he was a party promoter for us
and some of the shows. But he's a genius and
how he's parlayed that into you know, the company that
he has that went out and bought half of you know,
the k pop situation that's happening.
Speaker 2 (01:17:10):
So I was speaking of k pop, what do you
think they're really going through? Because from the outside, it
looks like they're being taken advantage of more than we
were back in the day. I mean, there's no way
that they're going through this whole process and winning.
Speaker 3 (01:17:25):
Do you think, Well, I don't know about that.
Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
You know, again, are they actually making money?
Speaker 7 (01:17:30):
Are the well I can only speak for what I've
heard from BTS and not being in the middle of it,
I can't say that's one hundred percent. But there's a
billion dollar valuation on the business, and from what I understand,
they were partners in the business, so they got a
piece of it.
Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
Now, all the sixty five.
Speaker 7 (01:17:45):
Other bands that are out there being popped every week,
I don't know, but I think the culture of that
is they understood that going into it is the production
company is is the boss, and you guys are like
going to Disney. You're going to get hired in and
you're going to be a character in the Kingdom, and this.
Speaker 3 (01:18:04):
Is what we're going to pay you.
Speaker 7 (01:18:05):
And it doesn't matter how many people attend the park today,
this is what you're gonna get. And at some point
in time, when you're not happy with that, you'll move
on and we'll either replace you or we'll put another
set of characters together that will be part of the group.
Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
So, and I do think South Korea has the boy
band crown right now. It was always going back from
UK to America, UK to America, but now South Korea
has the Crown. Do you think UK or America will
ever get that back. Will there ever be a band
that can break through to be the next backstreeter in
Sync or take that group?
Speaker 7 (01:18:38):
I have an Orlando right now called No Lonely Hearts,
So I mean, live talented guys. You're working on the
music and building and the same thing. They're going through
the boot camp that you guys went through right now,
and it's like anything else, you know, it's just finding
that one song and that one opportunity that breaks through.
Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
Is it hard to find the right song for a
new band these days? Because we were lucky that you
hooked us up with Max Martin and Dennis Pop. I
mean that started our career. But I could imagine new
artists today because all these writers are booked two years
in advance. How hard is it to find that that
hit for a new artist?
Speaker 3 (01:19:18):
Well?
Speaker 7 (01:19:18):
Yeah, I mean I mean again, even back then, you know,
I think Max had the formula for the world at
that point in time, so you could go to I
don't know if there's one producer now that has that.
And then again with the boy band, do you stay
in that young, youthful, pop clean thing when so much
of the music is in a different, you know, taste,
(01:19:41):
And then you have. There are a couple other boy
bands out there and from the United States that have
taken on more of an R and B hip hop
type of vibe and.
Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
They haven't broken through yet.
Speaker 7 (01:19:50):
So I don't know, man. I mean, this is one
of those those challenges for me and I think for
them in the boy band world, this is my last hurrah.
I would want to make this my final legacy. Same
thing would sign a ninety eight degrees. You know, back
in the nineties, I had you guys in Backstreet, but
ninety eight was there. So when they came into with
(01:20:10):
me two years ago, that was my trilogy. So now
I had all the nineties boy bands. But I think
for me, I just want to because I love these guys,
no lonelyhearts and dedicated and work hard like you guys
did to have that moment and again they have to
cut through that situation of social media and then we
have to get the bigger platforms like radio to embrace.
(01:20:32):
We have a song coming call Me Back that I think.
Speaker 3 (01:20:36):
Could be that.
Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
When is that coming out?
Speaker 7 (01:20:38):
June twenty Okay, yes, a couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
I love it all right.
Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
A couple fan questions from real Shannon Black. What is
your favorite Aaron Carter's story.
Speaker 7 (01:20:49):
I think the day that I met him was my
favorite story, and then I think the second one is
probably we had this song created called I Think I
Can Beat Shack. Oh yeah, yeah, and we just never
thought we were gonna do the song. We were gonna
have a Shack look alike kind of like, and then
the real Shack showed up.
Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
Was he recorded at Shack's house like we did?
Speaker 3 (01:21:09):
Uh No, he did that at the compound.
Speaker 7 (01:21:11):
Yeah, but when Shacks agreed to do it, it was
like it was a great thing. You could see Aaron
beaming from from side to side. But I think that's
between the first time I met him in that Shack
video some of the best times.
Speaker 2 (01:21:25):
Yeah. I think a lot of people don't know that.
Our first songs we ever recorded were in Shaquille O'Neill's
house in his studio. Some of my favorite songs that
we ever recorded are a cappella, My God, what's the
name of it? When Robin Riley wrote, I thought you knew?
Why did I forget that name? I remember recording I
thought she knew in that studio and just knowing at
(01:21:46):
that moment this was magic Robin Wiley was a genius. Genius, genius, Jesus,
what's your favorite memory? This is from Corey and nineteen.
What's your favorite memory within sync?
Speaker 3 (01:22:01):
So many? Wow, that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
Because things that stand out for me, It's Super Bowl
for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:22:08):
Yeah, that was a good time.
Speaker 7 (01:22:10):
But I think us sitting down and talking about the
huge puppets and how we wanted and we foresaw the
opening of the tour with the no strings attached and
the puppets and everything like that, and then going to
Sid and Marty Kraft to get them built. And to me,
that was a moment because it all came together.
Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
You know, did we get sued by Sid and Marty Kraft?
Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
Yeah, Well that was a Joey thing.
Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
That was a Joey thing.
Speaker 7 (01:22:37):
Well yeah, because Joey went out to lunch with them
and they had this thing called the Buggaboos and they
asked Joey, hey, you know, would you want to be
in the new episode of the Buggle Boozs And He's like,
of course, I'm a fan, blah blah blah. And in Hollywood,
that conversation to them was that it's an agreement.
Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
We have a verbal agreement.
Speaker 7 (01:22:56):
So when they sent the script and the timing and
was like, well, we're on tour weekend, do it, so
it became something else.
Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
I don't Yeah, see, I never knew that. Yeah, I
just thought I had to do something with the puppet
or likeness of a puppet, or.
Speaker 7 (01:23:09):
They wanted us to do the bugaboos.
Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
Yeah, bug a boo, bugaboo?
Speaker 3 (01:23:13):
All right?
Speaker 2 (01:23:13):
Which boy band was the hardest manage by Laura Lyn
seventy nine.
Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
You can say us.
Speaker 7 (01:23:21):
That's a hard question because each one of you had
your own personality, so the challenges were equally the same. No,
I I guess because of the outcome of everything. I
have to say it was the Backstreet Boys because at
the end of the whole situation, we couldn't see eye
(01:23:42):
to eye on something, so that.
Speaker 3 (01:23:44):
There's a lot more layers there for sure to have
to And.
Speaker 7 (01:23:46):
Then I had to, you know, like I told them,
I said, look, if I'm not managing you and I'm
only managing them, then I'm going to turn all my
attention to them to beat you. And that's not place
that I ever wanted to be in, because I loved
at that point where we were all successful together. But
it just didn't end up that way, so I think
(01:24:08):
they probably were towards the end time.
Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
Yeah, all right. We always like to ask everyone, what
are you binging right now? What are you listening to?
Speaker 3 (01:24:18):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
So do you watch do you get to watch TV?
Speaker 5 (01:24:21):
All right?
Speaker 2 (01:24:21):
What do you what do you like on? Give us
a suggestion, Beef, Yes, we need to walk the one
keep saying how great that is? God, we have to
add that to our list.
Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
That was great.
Speaker 7 (01:24:33):
Uh, you know Power, Uh, A few other shows for that. Musically,
I'm I reverted back to the old school.
Speaker 2 (01:24:43):
Yes, but I like because you have such great taste
in music, especially music. I you know, I didn't know
Johnny Kevin tell you you know, so like give us
some good recommendation to go back. Let's go to our
Apple music and uh, and what songs we need to
know and have in our.
Speaker 3 (01:24:57):
Lives old schools?
Speaker 7 (01:24:59):
Yeah, anything from Earth Went and Fire, Because if you
think about it, they're a band, but if you listen
to their vocals, they're vocally as strong as you guys
were the boy band sounds, but the harmonies and everything
like that. You know, anything that knew Jack Swing back
in those days, Teddy Riley, stuff that he did with
(01:25:23):
you know guy or.
Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
You know, just got paid or any of that stuff.
Speaker 7 (01:25:28):
I'm saying anything out of the seventies, you know, it's
just great to do.
Speaker 3 (01:25:32):
You think that was the best decade of music?
Speaker 7 (01:25:33):
Yeah, even if I listened to a group like Three
Dog Night, you know, you know, just listen to the
words and the lyrics. Chicago is another, you know, So
it's so again. Yeah, I'm truly dating myself. But if
I had to say, and I'm you know, I'm a
fan today of post Malone.
Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
You know what you changed his name now?
Speaker 3 (01:25:55):
Yeah? Oh no, the Weekend? The weekend? Sorry yeah, yeah,
wait what are the weekend? James name to his real
name Abel? Yeah, so yeah, he dropped it. No longer
the Weekend.
Speaker 7 (01:26:07):
But I like how the Weekend kind of reminds me
of a younger version of Montel Jordan.
Speaker 3 (01:26:15):
How We do it?
Speaker 7 (01:26:16):
Because his his his songs have a great beat in
there pop but they're also R and B and they're
a little bit of hip hop and he has that
ability to kind of rap sing through them, and his
storyline is a great So I'm a fan of post Malone.
Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
Yeah, no, he's He's great And I think the weekend
is what I feel like. That's what Michael Jackson's music
would have evolved to. Yeah, like a lot of his
songs like, oh, that's been a great Michael song. Uh well, Johnny,
it's been nice catching up. That's that was easy, right, Yeah,
that's the next time you read that. But yeah, I mean,
(01:26:52):
thank you so much for coming on. Is there anything
you would like to tell all these fandoms out there
that have all come together. I'm doing uh, the world
a favor by you know, bringing everyone together. No more
fighting amongst all the groups and all the fans. We're
all one happy family now, that's it. So what would
you like to tell them?
Speaker 3 (01:27:09):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (01:27:10):
God, just like, you know, support all the music that's
out there, you know, I guess for those that are
nineties boy band fans, don't forget about the up and
coming boy bands.
Speaker 3 (01:27:21):
And again and if you have kids, support them, supporting those.
Speaker 2 (01:27:25):
Yeah, there will always be tweens. It will always be tweens.
Let's go, Well, it's been great doing this and uh yeah,
we're gonna turn the tables on me. So yeah, you
get me some questions.
Speaker 3 (01:27:37):
Remember, be nice being now, Actually you can do whatever
you want.
Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
All right, guys, that is all the show I have
for you. Thank you so much for listening. You can
always subscribe and all that kind of good stuff. And
remember to go listen to my other podcasts, our script
the ones we have Ingle Side in which has been great.
It is now number ten in the world Killing and then, uh,
what's the other work? Got Babel Soviet? So this is
also in the top is that Last Soviet is a
(01:28:05):
true story about Sergei Krkolev. He's a cosmonaut that got
stuck up in space for three hundred and thirteen days
as communism fell in Russia. So he's literally the last Soviet.
It's just a fascinating story, fascinating your adventures to well
it does it weaves it all in Okay, Yeah, you'll
see why they asked me to host it, because we
(01:28:26):
do weave our stories and the parallels we both had
are just it's it's crazy like I got to live
what he lived, We had the same professors, we've had everything.
So yeah, it was it was fun to do that one.
Speaker 7 (01:28:37):
So before you sign off, if you had that opportunity
to do it again, now, would.
Speaker 3 (01:28:42):
You do it with going to space? Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
Yes, one hundred I refuse. I know now, you know,
I don't have to really think about it, because like
this is just like hopeful thinking. But like now that
I have kids, I would have to really like, Okay,
do I really want to do this. My thing is
I would want to still go on the Soyas with
Russia because that's what I'm trained on, that's what I trust.
(01:29:07):
They have a way better you know, track record, They've
been doing it for decades. I want to get to
the ISS and do my experiments, and I want to
like really do what I was going to do. It's
not just to go up and float around of space
and come back down. For you to say that, So
Jeff Bezos, if he gave me a free ticket, sure,
they've all offered me one to pay for. I'm like,
and they're like, oh, yeah, it's only twenty million dollar,
(01:29:27):
like twenty million dollars just into space for forty five minutes.
Hell no, should be giving me a free ticket because
I'm the one to help start the space. Yeah, give
me the space, But yeah, I would like to get
to the ISS that That's that's my goal. And you
know that's a hard one now because there's a huge
(01:29:48):
line of people trying to get up there, so it
would have to be a sponsored you know, you'd have
to go with a medical company or something like that,
you know, to do their experiments. But maybe one day
before I'm too old. Bucket list, Yeah, like a list.
Speaker 5 (01:30:01):
Yeah, we'll put you up in space, like during that
week before you.
Speaker 4 (01:30:04):
Die when you're when you're old.
Speaker 6 (01:30:08):
Actually send you off into space.
Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (01:30:10):
Yeah, if I if I'm in hospital, yeah, just send
me up and just let just keep let you just
keep me going.
Speaker 6 (01:30:16):
Yeah, I bet you'd love to just flow.
Speaker 7 (01:30:18):
You know what, going up there under hospice. You might
be cured.
Speaker 5 (01:30:21):
Yeah, you might come back like.
Speaker 2 (01:30:23):
Wait, we can't get you back now I'm heading to Mars.
But yeah, okay, I need this to happen.
Speaker 6 (01:30:32):
Okay, I'll call the lawyers.
Speaker 3 (01:30:33):
I put it in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:30:34):
Now you're getting to go fund me to send me
to space when I'm in the hospice.
Speaker 3 (01:30:38):
Guys. Thank you, guys, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
Be good witch other don't drink and drive out there.
Take care of those animals, and we will see you
next time on frosted tips and remember stay frosted. Hey,
thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at Frosted tips
with Lance and Michael turchanar and at Lance Beast for
all your pop culture needs, and
Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Make sure to write his review and leave us five
stars six if you can see you next time.
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