It's Gonna Be...Chris Kirkpatrick!

*NSYNC founder Chris Kirkpatrick is 'Tearin' Up Our Hearts' in this awesome episode of Hey Dude the 90s Called!Chris looks back at his 'boy band' days...but make no mistake about it, there are more 5-part harmonies on the horizon!Plus, a look at the band's rise to fame on TRL, the tragic fall of MTV, and how they worked with legends like Michael Jackson, Phil Collins and even got a surprise bathroom cameo from Paul Simon!!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Dude the nineties called with Christine Taylor and David Lasher,
Hi everybody, and welcome back to Hey Dude the nineties called.
I am Christine, one of your co hosts.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi everybody, I'm David, your other co hosts. How's it going.
I've just had a day, man. Yeah. I had a
lot of things rescheduled today. I was late for a
very important meeting, which drives me crazy. I was getting
out of the shower and I was getting texts, We're
on the zoom, We're on the zoom.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh no, no, no, no, did you just have it
wrong on your calendar? No, it was it was my birthday,
your calendar that never lies to.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
You, your birthday. I will never get wrong again. But no,
I had it was a meeting schedule for Friday. They
got called into an emergency production meeting, so they rescheduled
for Tuesday, and I didn't update my calendar, and then
our interview today that's coming up got rescheduled Wednesday. Today. Today,
I was just I'm in a mishmatch. And then I

(01:03):
had like, whatever, how a short circuit that gives me
anxiety and stress and I'm sweating thinking about it because
it's so stressful.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
You know I did. It's funny. I did a zoom
reading for a friend's script over the weekend. Same thing
happened to one of the other actors in it. They
were texting because we were getting ready to start, and
they were texting the guy and saying, we're all on,
are you here, and he texted it that goes, I'll
be right there, and then he comes on the zoom
and he's driving and he goes, I'm sorry, I was
at two o'clock. You guys, I'll be home in twenty minutes.

(01:35):
Start without me and I'll log in. It's like those
nightmares you have night Yeah. Yeah, it's a total nightmare.
But we our guest is in the waiting room, so
I mean, this is this is so exciting. So we
have Chris Kirkpatrick in the waiting room, another in syncer,
and I'm so excited to talk to him. And here,

(01:57):
you know, because we got Lance's side of things, I'd loved.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Chris is the founder. He put the band together, I know,
which I didn't know I would know. So let's let's
invite Chris in. Yeah, Chris, you're welcome. Hey, buddy, how's
it going.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
How's it going.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
We are so excited, like, you know, we we had
Lance on a little bit ago, and so we got
to hear a little bit from from Lance's point of view.
But you know, I was reading up you're sort of
like you're the origin of all of this og. You're
the og, Like you're you're the madman, which is insane.

(02:40):
So we have to hear it from your lips.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, what do you want to know?

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well, first of all, you're a Pennsylvania boy, I saw, Yes, correct,
that's I grew up in Pennsylvania myself, just outside of Allentown, Yes, exactly.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
Know it's a big west side are up in the
mountains with the hillbillies, where all hillbillies up there.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
But tell just tell us a little bit of your
story of how you you know, you know, I know
I've read a lot about your your upbringing, but a
little bit about how you how, how it all, what
those steps were getting you to where you're at today.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Yeah, So it started, you know, I was always in
music groups. I was always doing musical stuff, arranging, putting
together quartets, quintets. Uh. You know, it wasn't until probably
high school that I realized quartets were kind of where
it's at. Like, it was fun to sing four part harmonies,

(03:43):
and the girls liked it, and it was a way
for girls to notice me because I was too small.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
It's always the girls.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Always about.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
But yeah, I was too small on the football field
to make a difference. So you know, I tried to
make a difference singing, and you know, it basically came
about I moved to Orlando.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
I was in a bunch of quartets, you know.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Again, I'd arrange them, put guys together, and you know,
we'd perform at different coffee shops or whatever. And got
introduced to Lou Perlman, who said, hey, I just put
together this group, the Battery Boys, and I'm willing to
take your group on, you know, as a second group.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
And I was like cool.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
So we took my group on, and you know, my
group kind of dissipated and guys would leave and different
guys would come in, and and then finally it was
me justin JC and Joey and we had a group
for a long time, and you know it seemed like
everything was working out great, but we always were missing
that bass sound.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
And a few years.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
That's when we finally got and found Lance and brought
Lance into the group and the rest is you know,
in sync.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Justin was on that. I remember meeting him on the
Mickey Mouse I think I was a guess of it.
So on the Mickey Mouse Club, Yeah, I think I
must have been on the show Blossom at the time,
the early nineties. I flew to Orlando and there was
I can't remember that that show launched a lot of
great singers that.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
I mean. I was so lucky to find Justin, you know,
from that show. I actually it had come down to
where it was just me left in the group, and
I was like, you know what, I.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Was going to karaoke places.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
I was going everywhere, Yeah, trying to find guys that
I knew it wanted to sing, you know, a cappella
and you know, do that kind of music.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
And I called a bunch of agents.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
I mean I was looking at everything, and I had
one guy call me back, and you know, he basically said,
I've got this kid, but whatever, and you know, threw
me a Manilla envelope and I found That's how I
found Justin. Justin brought in JC and and and like
you said that that Mickey Mouse group. I mean I
was just thinking about that today because my wife was

(06:03):
watching a movie and Carrie Russell was on and I
was like, oh my god, there's another one. You know.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
It was like Carrie.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Russell's on there, Dan, Christina, Brittany, Justin, Tony Luca, Jen McGill,
you know they Ryan, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Ros Gosin.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh my goodness, who was casting that show? I have
a Lifetime Achievement Award Billions.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
I remember Ryan when you know, when Justin first got
into the group, he would tell all these Mickey Mouse
stories about how little him and Ryan would run around
and He's like, oh, we.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Were crazy, Like we would drink coke instead of diet coke.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
You know, it's like we were rebels.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
They're rebels inspired.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yesterday Disney style rebels.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
As Disney fighted as you can be.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
But how Chris, how did you get from Pennsylvania to Ordo?
And was it the music? I mean, was that what
took you there? Or did you was there a family
move or how did that transition happen?

Speaker 4 (07:09):
So? I graduated high school in Ohio actually, and when
I graduated at the age of eighteen, I was like, man,
I got to get out of this town and go
somewhere different. And my dad at the time lived in Orlando,
and he said I used to go spend the summers
with him in Orlando. And finally I was like, you
know what, I'm going to move down with him and

(07:30):
I'm going to start school, you know, thinking I was
going to get into some amazing school and you know whatever,
do stage.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Work, whatever.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
And you know, I came down and couldn't get any
into anywhere. But I got into a community college because
my grades are so bad, and you know, ended up
that's how I met the guy that introduced me to
lou And that's how Howie and I actually were in
choir together. And there was a crazy rumor going around
that I auditioned for Backstreet Boys and didn't get it,

(08:00):
and that always urged me because it's not true.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
You know, I never auditioned.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
He didn't. I didn't even get to the audition phase.
Like how he came in and when they were auditioning
guys for the group, he auditioned one of the guys
in my quartet because he didn't need another dark haired
or as he called, asshole, obnoxious guy.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Wait, how we put the Backstreet Boys together?

Speaker 4 (08:24):
No, Luke put the Backstreet Boys together but how he
was when they were having auditions for the Backstreet Boys.
He came in and told one of the guys that
was in one of my quartets he should go audition
for the Backstreet Boys. I said, good luck with that.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
You must have been excited when you saw how the
Backstreet Boys exploded because what you were working on was
right in their wheelhouse, right, and you were right about
what you thought was hot.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I mean that's that's very true in a lot
of ways.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
But they weren't. They hadn't exploded yet like they were.
They had just started doing like some high school tour
around the United States, you know, and they didn't have
a single yet. So but I saw that Lou was
putting money into it and they could actually do it
as a living.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
So to me, that was the draw. It was like,
I can see the Battery.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
Boys are now, you know, they don't have to do
work at the outback like I do. They can go
out and gig and you know, make money doing it.
So you know, that's how I got with Lou. And
you know, we we just got so so lucky and
timing and the perfect storm and you know the way
pop music was coming into time coming in at the time,

(09:42):
but we started in Europe, so you know, that perfect
wave kind of started a basis in Europe and you know,
getting our chops ready over there and our feet wet,
and you know, we just kind of learned a lot
about the business and a lot about performing and each
other because you know, here we were, you know, five

(10:02):
American kids thrown into all these different countries in Europe
and having to do TV shows that our friends and
families had never seen or you know, things like that.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
But it made for it made us better as a group.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
I think.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, you were all so young, like I mean really
to just to sort of be thrown into like leaving
the United States and now you're like, okay, we're working,
we're you know. I mean Lance explained a little bit
of the intensity of it, you know, and that you
were so young that it was sort of like you
just did everything, it didn't matter. It was like you

(10:39):
were so excited and so into it. But just how
it snowballed and how you just started to never get
days off and never you know, you guys were with
each other twenty four seven, right.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
Oh see, I was I was a little older, you know,
because I moved down when I was eighteen, and the
group didn't start happening for another five years, so I
was like twenty two, twenty three years old, So I
had already had a head on my shoulders.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
You know, I'd been to college.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
I've been been to school, and you know the other
guys were a little younger, but mentally, you know, coming
from such a small town and not understanding you know,
jac and Justin have been on the Mickey Mouse Club,
They've done award shows, They've done all these other things already.
You know, Justin was on Star Search, I think, and
you know, all these other things. So it's like with

(11:25):
that aspect, I was kind of behind because I was
from such a small town that never got out, never
really experienced the world like like some of them had.
Which was funny that here I was the oldest, going, wow,
so this is what is like to fly on an airplane?
You know type of deal.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, No, for sure, I feel like that coming from
small towns like that is really true. You do we
I mean even for me growing up, we didn't take
trips to Europe as a family. We did, you know,
we went to Maine, we did, you know, Like I
was on the swing team and the diving team, and
you know, you have a very I'm not I'm not
saying for everybody, but in some cases, yeah, you really

(12:03):
don't get to experience those things. But even I look
at you, like I look at all of us now,
and you're saying you had a great year, but you're
like I was twenty two to twenty three. It's still
so young. It's still like I look back on that
period of time for all of us, we all sort
of felt like we knew what we were doing. But man, but.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
That wasn't like that wasn't a little vacation to Europe.
I mean, last told us he came to audition for
you and they're like, are you're moving to Germany for
a year or something?

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah. Basically, basically we were over there for a.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
Really long time because that type of music was blowing
up at the time. I mean, that's where I think
the term boy band actually was. We first even ever
heard it when we were over there, because they were
throwing out all these different bands. And I think the
what separated us was that we were American and you know,

(12:52):
when you go over there and you're in Germany, we're
mostly in Germany, but Germany, Austria, Switzerland area. You know,
we went all up through the skin countries. We went
to Spain, we went to France, we went to you know,
all these different areas. But everywhere we went had their
own kind of version of what they thought a boy
band was.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
And we'd go in and and these.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Places were like, well we got four or five good
looking guys that don't sing and don't dance, but you know,
there they are. And then someplaces, yeah, no, we did,
we did. I'm saying yes.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Over there.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
We'd go in and some of these other bands were
like like, I remember one band and I know they're
a big band, or they were pretty big. They were
I think they were in one of the Korea original
Korean bands named h OT, And these guys came out
and I mean they were break dancing, they were doing
all this crazy stuff, and we looked at them, going all, right,

(13:50):
now we got to match that. So, you know, so
we'd go out and we'd have to sing and then
try to match their intensity with their dancing and all
this stuff. So everybody we went was kind of a
challenge with you know, that country's band that we had
to kind of compete against and try to be better.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Then it's so cool though, What a training ground for
you guys before you launched in America to have those
you took influences from different countries. You got to work
your stuff out and find out who you are as
a band before. I mean, listen, I'm not going to
say it, but the original boy band, right is the
Beagles Beatles, and they they found themselves in Europe and

(14:29):
then when they arrived in America, it was like, oh,
game on.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, it just it really did.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
And you know, not to say that every show was
great or not say that every show was bad, but
every show we took something from.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
What we did and we said, all right, we can
make this better.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
Or you know, going into Korea and seeing these kids
doing this breakdance and we're like, all right, well we
have to we have to compete with that and then
also stop and do five part harmonies. So you know,
there was really really fun and we got to experience
every aspect and that's kind of what you know, made

(15:06):
us who we are. And we brought in all the
aspects of fashion, of style, of vocals, of dancing, of
all these different things and kind of formed that into
what we thought would be the perfect band.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, you could take all of those influences and really
shape it to suit all of your strengths. Right, Lance
told us he wasn't really a dancer, So talk to
us a little bit about the dance, because you talked
so much about the singing, But like, did you know
straight off that the dancing needed to be an element
or was it going over there and seeing what other
bands were doing?

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (15:42):
I think I think straight off we were a vocal group,
you know, and that's what we and that's why, you know,
we you have to accept it.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
You know, we're old now.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
It's like, yeah, we were a boy band, but the
term boy band us was this thing that we weren't.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Like, we weren't.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
Trying to sell bedspreads and trying to just be you know,
a team team Maximbals. Yeah, I mean obviously this is
not like it's hard to be just good looking all
the time, you know, it just it really it was
one of those things that we we understood that part

(16:20):
of it, but that wasn't who we were. You know.
We started as a vocal group and again I used
to arrange his stuff and then as guys would come
and go depending on who was in the band at
the time. You know, when we finally got the Five
of Us, a key part of that band was a
woman named Robin Wilie, and she was actually worked on

(16:42):
The Mickey Mouse Club. She was the music director for
the Mickey Mouse Club and she came on board with us.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
And so it all comes back to the Mickey mouse
comes back to the Mickey right.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
Choreographer, Our first choreographer was from the Mickey Mouse Club.
We had a lot our first show we ever did,
Justin's mom put out this big pamphlet like spray to
all the Mickey Mouse Club fans, and we did it
at Disney, so we had, you know, a couple of
hundred Mickey Mouse Club kids coming in to watch this,

(17:16):
Oh what's this new band that JC and Justin are in,
which made me sick to my stomach because I was like,
you don't care about me.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
They're here to see the two Mouseketeers.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
But it helps your cause, man, you know it definitely well,
you all do well exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (17:32):
We're a band first, and that's you know, and again
that goes back to we started The reason Lance was
we found Lance was.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Because we knew we needed a base.

Speaker 4 (17:42):
So we had this kid, Jason, which is how we
got the name because he took the last letter of
all of our first names and it spelled in sync.
And then when Jason quit, we were like, all right,
we have to get another Jason. Which is funny because
I know a couple of people that now I could
have asked. I have a joke with Jason Alden because he, uh,

(18:02):
he knew Robin at that time and was working with Robin,
And I was like, can you imagine if Robin would
have said, hey, come join this band, we'd have Jason
Alden as our bass, but he's not really a bass,
but yeah, it was it was it was a sound first,
and then once we realized that, you know, we we
were more than just the sound. Like we didn't want
to stand there and just sing a cappella and just

(18:25):
kind of you know, snap our fingers and do mic
stand tricks.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
It was like we wanted to flip, We wanted to you.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Know, run around, jump as high as we could, break bones,
do whatever we could on stage.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
And wasn't did that come easy for you? I mean,
had you had anyat training in dance or or was
it like a crash course.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
I mean I like to go to clubs.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
There you go, that's that's dancing.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
You know, it was It wasn't the music I listened to.

Speaker 4 (18:51):
I listened to a lot of like punk and you know,
rock and roll type stuff. So it's like my dancing
was a little different.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Than during that time. I mean, Eddie Vedder was jumping
off speakers into the crowd, right. It was a grunt scene.
And then you guys brought this pop music back in
that exact same time, so you maybe like had some
influence from that.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Well. It's funny, though, how if you look at the
you know, the way time and history works, that that
grun scene took over from that rock scene, that hair hairband,
you know rock scene that was huge and that was
what everybody listened to. And then suddenly there was kind
of a backlash towards that. So that's when grunge came
out and guys were like, you know what, I'm not

(19:34):
going to take three hours to get ready for a show.
I'm going to run out on stage and do my
show with a beer in my hand and a flannel
shirt on and and just see. And then there was
a backlash towards that when it just became all this
bubblegum pop and all this giant pop hit with Us
in Backstreet, ninety Degrees in Brittany, Christina Pink. You know,

(19:55):
all these acts were coming out that were just total
step away from what the grunge was.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
It's like a pendulum that swings. Yeah, totally. You did
a lot of the arrangements. But I want to get into,
like what was the songwriting process like and what was
it like when you broke in America? But you know,

(20:22):
Lance talked about the recording, the rehearsal, the tour, rinse,
repeat over and over and over, and you got into
the cycle for years. But how was the songwriting, the recording,
the rehearsal for the tour and the touring That sounds
grueling to me?

Speaker 4 (20:40):
Well, well and it was. But you know, looking back
on it, thank god we were as young as we were. Like,
if you would have given me that schedule now, I
would have been like, you know, where you can stick
that like an afternoon old man naps. You know. It
was it was I'd worked so hard on getting that

(21:01):
band to where it was and to who it was
that I was like, you're not going to be able
to stop me now, like you give me the tools now,
you know, sleep is just something that's going to get
in the way of getting this done. So we had,
you know, months and months on the road. Then we'd
come home and he's they're like, okay, you have two
weeks off, and those two weeks you're like, well, we

(21:23):
got to get together new songs. So I'd get together
with different writers and you know, you'd start writing and
you'd be in the studio for two weeks, and then
that two weeks is over and okay, now we have
to go do promotion. You go do promotion, and now
all you have to go do a record, and go
do the record, and when the record's finished, then it's
more promotion. Then the next promotion is okay, we're going
back out on tour again till the following year, til
you get those two weeks off. And those two weeks

(21:45):
off were you know, basically to write and arrange and
the promotion.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
When you talk about promotion, like just for our listeners
to be clear, this was a period of time where
you had to go to radio stations, yeah, across the country.
This was not like doing zooms or showing up at
one talk show. I mean you had to real you
were in the trenches.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
Yeah, you had you had to be seen. You had
to do radio shows, a lot of radio shows. And
by that I mean not just going to the radio stations,
but each individual station would put on a big jam
session where they'd have all these bands come in and
and they'd be like, hey, we want you guys, you know,
to come play this, and we're like, you know, forget it.

(22:27):
We've only got one day in between traveling from here
to Europe. And they're like, well, if you don't come
play it, then we won't play your record. We're like, hey,
how you doing, Bob. Yeah, So you know, there was
there was a lot of uh, you know, schmoozing the
labels and definitely having to be around and and throwing
in there you know, magazines and and you know the

(22:50):
radio interviews where you have to go into each radio station.
There's no call in, there's no zoom calls. You know,
it was it was in person and you showed up
to the station and the wall or did some wacky
bit that they wanted to do for the morning show
or whatever it was.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Did their teasers, did their you know, all of it,
all of it.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
So you'd fly into each city for like what one night.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
Well it would depend like like if especially if we
were on tour. If we were on tour, you know,
say we're playing Kansas City, well then they'd have all
the radio stations that day lined up in Kansas City
and we'd to each radio station that day. If it
were for a record, it was usually flying to New
York or LA and then hitting all the big ones there,

(23:34):
the big syndicated you know TV shows or radio shows
or whatever, or up to Boston or when you're on
the East Coast, it's like we're doing Philly, you're doing
New York, we're doing Boston. They were coming back and
doing Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, you know, and they'd try to
make them all, you know, close to each other so
we could get as many in as we could.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
We had a Carson Dally who's a good friend of
Christine in mine, and he was on here talking about
the TRL days and just how really magical it was.
But like, what was it like when you when did
you realize that you guys had made it in America?
And what was that frenzy like at that time?

Speaker 4 (24:14):
Man I'll tell you it's funny because Carson, Carson Daily
was you know, at the time, I don't think he
knew what he was wrapping his head around or what he.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Was the doorman for all the fans that wanted to
get to you guys.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Yeah, but I mean, I mean as him as the host.
And it was great because we've always had a great
relationship with Carson, so much so that, you know, a
few years ago, we just got a star on the
Walk of Fame and we had Carson come in, you know,
some of our guest speakers, because he really meant.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
So much to the band in that time.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
And it's funny enough because there was another MTV VJ
that was being groomed right behind Carson, a guy by
the name of Brian mcphaden, who I actually have a
podcast with now, and so him and I do this
podcast together and every day we talk about the old
TRL days and you know how crazy he was, and

(25:12):
he said, his very first interview he ever got to
do was us, and he was, you know, scared to
death because they're like thrown him to the wolves, and
it's like, okay, here's in sync, and we you know,
we were clouds we were, you know, we wanted to
act up and he's trying to get through it just
like Okay, I got asked this. He's got people in
his ear.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And I remember Brian very well.

Speaker 4 (25:31):
Yeah, Brian's Brian's a good guy. I mean they're all
and and I've made I have a lot of friends
that used to be you know, MTV VJs and and
you know, you we it was such a fraternity, it
really was. It was TRL created this whole like college
life almost to where each.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
Sorority would come in.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
You know, you'd have the Backstreet Sorority, you'd have the
n Sync sorority, You'd have Corn, you'd have Limp Biscuit,
you'd have all these like all over the place, Eminem
you know, all these guys would come in, but they
were their own sorority type thing, but yet at the
same school. You know, That's the only way I could
really describe it.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, it was really this sort of universal like you know,
we talked about remembering like seeing and some of our
guests that we've had on too those moments where when
it went from hey, we're just on you know, we're
doing our thing, to pull and having watched TRL to
pulling up seeing the crowd there and realizing, holy crap,

(26:30):
that yeah, they're here for us, like that sort of
right of passage of like, I mean, that had to
have been insane for you guys at the peak of
it all.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
Well, there were a lot of moments, you know like that,
where you know, you would see things like TRL or
One of the big ones for us was the Disney
special that we did. And when we got asked to
do this Disney special, apparently you know, the it goes
that Backstreet had turned it down, so they're like, oh,
so we'll get in sync to do it. So we

(27:02):
did this Disney special and you know, we couldn't get
arrested in the United States.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
Nobody had a clue who we were. We wouldn't do anything.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
That Disney special dropped and suddenly we were a household
name and it.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
Just became the biggest thing.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
So after that, bands were dying to get on to
do this Disney special. You know, here they were like, stretched,
who can we get who can we get? Oh, get
in sync? And now it was like, oh my god,
we're gonna make it. We're actually doing a Disney special.
Same with TRL. You know, it was like TRL starts
and it's like, oh, this little afternoon program where they
hoping they can get some eyes on it, you know,

(27:34):
to watch a countdown excuse.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Me of your favorite videos or whatever.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
And it became this whole you know, a'm TRL mecha
where they I think they even had an awards or
something like that.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
You know, it was it became its own entity.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
But there was there was a lot of different things
that should whether it was a tour, whether it was
shows that we would do.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
And then you would see it start to blow up,
which was awesome.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, but once people got to look at you guys
and saw you on TRL or Disney.

Speaker 4 (28:06):
We wouldn't sell bedspreads.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
But listen. Part of the reason we talked to Carson
about this, part of the reason we're doing this podcast
and why we think nineties nostalgia is so strong right
now is the last time before all the fractured distractions
of you know, at the time, TRL on MTV was
like Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok all in one. If a

(28:31):
teenager wanted to see you guys, everyone watched it at
the same time. Yeah, now you got to do I
don't know, all this different stuff, but it was the
last time that a show like that could have such
a universal impact and help a band's career in one interview.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, and we have discussed it a lot, you know,
we even joke about it to this day. One of
our major steps that we took was we made away website.
You know, it's like, oh, in sync dot com. We
have a website now, So now we have a place
that people can go and you know, hear new music
or buy merch or whatever. And you know, other than that,

(29:12):
the phones were just those little flip phones where you
could make a phone call to somebody or unless you
had a little Skytel pager and play ah, you know,
battleship or whatever it was with your friends. But there
was no you know, like you said, there was no
social media. There was no other opportunities for people to
get out there and go, well, what's my band doing now?

(29:33):
Like how do I find out? Do I got to
read it in the newspaper? Do I have to watch
like an update on MTV or whatever? And it's really
sad that, you know, MTV was such a part of
our culture like it was, you know, to see what
it is now is is.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Tough because it's you know.

Speaker 4 (29:50):
Now, it's like, if you want to watch music videos,
you're going to watch them on your phone or you know,
on your tablet or on your computer.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
You know, you're looking up YouTube, right, you youtubing everything now, right.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
It's basically made for you.

Speaker 4 (30:04):
It's not I had to sit through three videos of
this band that I don't like to hopefully see the
band that I do like. It's Oh, the band that
I like. I'm just going to google all of their videos,
see what else is like that band? Oh, now I
found discovered a new band that I like because it's
like that band, you know, and you just don't get
that anymore. And you know, it's it's the old back

(30:25):
in the day when everything was vinyl. You know, take
getting the vinyl, getting it home, opening it up, reading
the notes, reading the lyrics, whatever it was, the thank you.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
You like, blowing off this dust and just like the tangent,
the feeling.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Of that way. Ye I remember buying Billy Joel Glasshouses
and going home with my buddy and we did we
opened it, we read all that we played it from
first song to the end of the album.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
Yeah, and that's and that's what you do, you know,
because it's tangible because it's right there. And then when
you're done, you put it up on the shelf and
you're like, wow, that's cool. Now I have Billy Joel,
you know, right, which is an awesome album by the way.
But you know, and and I learned that way too.
You know. It started with albums, then went to cassettes,
and then you know, finally.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
CDs, and it was all about getting that CD.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
And you see the jokes now all the time about
how we all have those little car carriers with all
your favorite CDs in it.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
And notebook right yeah.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
And it was all over the place, you know whatever,
logic right case. It's funny.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
I have like five of them here.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
I'm going through my upstairs right now and found like
five of them that I'm throwing out because I'm like,
when am I ever going to use these again? Like
it's like, you got to get rid of CDs. Everything's
on your phone.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
I saw somebody posted something saying you think driving and
texting is dangerous. You should have seen me in the
nineties going through my giant notebook while I'm driving.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
My case logic trying to figure out what CD I
was putting in next.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Oh, God, that's so funny. It's really you're so You're
so right though about it about how like we just
I don't know if you guys saw, but we just
watched the making of the It was a documentary on
Netflix about the making of We Are the World. When
they did oh yeah, amazing.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
Good Waylon Jennings was just like, I don't saw, Healey.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
That was hilarious, Like I I mean, we were glued
to the screen watching that. But it made me think
of that period of time. I mean that was eighties obviously,
but like the late eighties when you know, when you
would literally like like wait for the thriller video to drop,
like it you were just like everybody was gathered around

(32:43):
the TV or We Are the World or whatever like
it was. You know, it was like it it was
just a huge moment. And you know, these these huge
moments which our generation don't have those because everything is
just so accessible. There's no like waiting for that, you know,
even waiting on movie lines. And I remember you know

(33:03):
where we'd do that with a big movie.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
But it's when shopping malls were really cool because you
had to go in and you had to buy the
new CD or Peaches or all those places where you
get you know, CDs from. But it's funny you brought
that up, because that that to me. When I watched that,
you know, I was thinking to myself, you know, here's
all these amazing bands and artists, mostly all these amazing artists,

(33:28):
and each one, you know, more iconic than the next.
From Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, you know your look, Bob Dylan,
who felt so out of plate.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Right, it was just he was so out of place, right.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
It was this thing that I looked at like, holy cow.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
Like we had some of those moments, you know, we
had those times where you would go in and I'm
looking at them and going, I know exactly what's going
through their heads right now. They're like, well, I just
happened to be in town for the awards, for the Grammys,
and afterwards, I guess we're all going to go back
and do this song. Who knows what it's going to be.
We know now hindsight's twenty twenty. But at the time

(34:08):
they're just, hey, let's just go do this and see
what happens. And some of them are like, I don't
know if I really have time for this and can
you imagine like if you were asked to do that
and then you missed it, you were just like, oh,
I was too busy for we are the world.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
I will say this, when Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and
Lionel Richie asked you to show up for somebody, who
the hell would say no to that?

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Yeah? For sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
But Lionel first of all, like hosting that show that
night which where he's winning all of his own awards,
and backstage talking about how Cindy Lapper is like, oh,
my boyfriend doesn't love the song. I don't know if
I'm going to come back to the show, and then
and hearing her on the on the song, like you
can't even imagine that song without her.

Speaker 4 (34:50):
You know though Madonna and Whitney Houston were not on that.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Right, but I do remember someone saying like it was
between Madonna and Cindy Lapper. I was like, you know,
did Madonna get asked? And I know somebody fought for
Cindy Lauper, but I thought of that too. I was like,
Madonna was huge then.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
That's and and you know that's like saying, you know,
I don't know, I couldn't compare to other amazing people,
Like you're gonna if you don't get Madonna, you get
Cyndy Lapper. You know, Cindy Lapper is absolutely incredible. You know,
it's like you've got this whole amazing cast. But I
always wonder if Whitney and Madonna were ever thinking that. God,

(35:28):
I wish I would have been there.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
I should have gone yeah, because it was huge.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
And then I just we felt so bad for Shila Ye,
who like was clearly there because they wanted Prince to
come in and they had carved out that's a blot
for Prince. And then it ended up being Huey Lewis
who killed it.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Killed to actually.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
You know, when you watch it, you're like, oh, come on,
you got this, and then when he does it, you
can't imagine any other way totally.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Were you guest performers on other tours or did you
have guest performers on your tour? There was there collaborations
that you've made with other great artists.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
We made a lot of collaborations, whether or not, very
very few would come on tour, but we did songs
with We did a song with Phil Collins, We did
a song with Gloria Stefan. We you know, we had Nelly,
we had Lisa Left Eye on our tracks.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
You know, we interviewed Richard Marx and his wife. Richard says, uh,
that song is probably the favorite thing he's ever written.

Speaker 4 (36:35):
I would I would agree with him because and and
that guy is like like I I actually after the band,
went and wrote myself with with him, and it was
so hard to write with him because the whole time
it's just like, you know, you're looking at Richard Mark.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
So my big joke was, even when we were recording.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
With him, I always called him Sir Richard Marx. So
it was like, I mean, yeah, he was. He was
an icon, amazing, amazing writer, amazing singer, amazing performer.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Like you know, I know in the scheme of.

Speaker 4 (37:11):
Things, Richard Mark is gonna is going to have his place,
but I don't think he's going to get his due
diligence and where he really deserves because he's.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
He's an absolute talent.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
And we had Stevie Wonder play harmonica on one of
our songs, you know. So yeah, we did a song
with Michael Jackson, you know, so it's like we got
to do we got to meet these people and do
these songs. I mean, you know, I think the most
surreal of anything was when we recorded with Phil Collins,
and that was for the Tarzan soundtrack and he had

(37:44):
the whole thing together and they were just looking They
had this one song called Trash in the camp and
they were looking to re do it and He's like
kind of want to, you know, get an up tempo
kind of vibe to it and get a new sound
on it. So he asked us to come in and
do it. And there was a part where I always
do the harmonies, like Justin and JC usually do the leads,
and I'll do their harmonies on verses or whatever. And

(38:06):
Phil was like, all right, so I'll grab Chris to
do the harmonies of this verse that I'm going to
start singing. So I'm thinking, okay, cool, he's going to
go in, then I'm going to go in whatever. He's like, no,
come in, and I'm like right now with you. And
it was like, you know, that moment of singing into
a microphone and realizing Phil Collins is standing there singing
into the microphone next to you. I mean, I'm growing

(38:28):
up the way I grew up. And no, Jack Required
being the first cassette that I ever so those those
were moments, Thriller being the first album that i'd ever bought,
and you know, getting to do these things with Michael
and actually shaking, giving him a hug and looking at
him and you know, hearing him cough or whatever it is.
You know, it's like random thing. He's just sitting there.

(38:51):
He's not this I can't. I mean he is, but
he's not like this godlike dude, you know. And it
was that was so weird to actually take some of
these artists then and go, wow, they're just human. I
mean they're amazing humans, but they're just human.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
And we're we are like like I can't even imagine
that moment of getting pulled in with Phil Collins where
it's just like.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
It's so cool that you can all appreciate each other's talent, right, yeah,
you're all just you're all just people. But I'm sure
Phil was like these boys seeing harmony like on off
the charts, right, so like and you're you're feeling the
same way about him, but you know there's a mutual
respect for the talent. That's so cool.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
That's what Richard Mark said too about you like he
could not say enough amazing things about that experience, like
he just thought you guys were I mean, it was
amazing to hear like generationally too, you know, like when
people know good, they know good like you're these guys
are good.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
It's funny because we learned, you know, our acapella that
we do. You know. That's how again I started was
with these acapella bands. So even in the beginning when
they're like, Okay, here's a song, We're going to do
it to a track, and I'm like, what, why are
we doing it to a track? Like, let's do with
a cappella that's you know what I love and and
you know, to know that that was.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Our bread and butter. And we'd sit.

Speaker 4 (40:12):
For hours and hours and and the reason I love
the guys so much, and the reason the group got
along so well was because we were We would be
in a stairwell and walking up the stairs and suddenly
we're like, hey, there's a little bit of reverb right.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Here, and stop what we were doing.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
And the five of us just sit in the stairwell
and start doing like some harmonies and some songs. And
I remember we were doing an award show and we
were in the bathroom because the bathroom was like one
of those big, you know, locker room type bathrooms and
had great acoustics. So we were doing, you know, rehearsing
in this bathroom, but it was kind of shared by
a lot of people, and suddenly the door cracks open

(40:49):
and we're in the middle of the song and I
look and it's freaking Paul Simon, and Paul Simon just stopped.
He goes, you know, he's talking about our harmonies, and
that to me, you know, it was much arranging and
everything that I did, that to me blew me away
because I used to love like Afrikaan music, like Lady
Smith Black Mambaso, and that's a lot of my arrangements
for these really cool African you know chants of these

(41:13):
where they would sing like twenty part harmonies.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
I mean, it was like in Graceland type vibe.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
And Graceland was one favorite albums Lady Smith was on that.
And when he said that, like that was almost like
a I'm not I'm cool. I'm not going to tear
up or anything like that, like no.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Big deals, I'm not quite appreciating our harmonies in the bathroom.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
In a bathroom of wherever we were.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
I just loved that as a as a group and
just like as a brotherhood, how much you all loved
each other. Like I when you just said I could
actually picture it when you just said, like going up
the staircase and we're just stop and just start singing
like that. That's that's very disney to me. That's very
kind of like a perfect moment of this like talented

(42:03):
group of people who like are in the moment and
love each other. It's just cool.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
It's cool to you. Like I said it all.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
You know, it all starts, you know, from the beginning.

Speaker 4 (42:13):
It starts with that you know friendship and that that
brotherhood that we had. And you know, and I will
tell you, you know, we are not the perfect group. There's
been you know, knockdown, drag them out fights and arguments
and you know all these things. But in the end,
you know, one one big thing, especially with myself, you know,

(42:33):
I can call some of the other guys any name
I want to call them and you know, say that
they're a jerk or whatever like, but if somebody else
does it, you know, we're going We're going fists. You know,
That's what it is. We were we were brothers, and
we we fought like brothers and we played like brothers.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Yeah, I've always heard the expression like if you if
families that don't fight, you'd have to worry about because
that means like there's a lot of like people are
not talking about what's really going on. You're human, like
you've got to let it out. And we know the negatives.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
We know the negatives about each and everyone. You know,
I'm sure you know Lance can tell you what an
asshole I can be sometimes and impatient, you know, we
can all you know, Oh yeah, well we're no, we're
gonna have problems in today with this person or this
person because here we were starting in Europe and you know,
you think that we go over to Europe for say

(43:26):
six months. We traveled to Spain for a day, so
they'd have every newspaper, every magazine, whoever coming to interview us.
We'd sit in a room for you know, thirteen hours
in a day and just do interview after interview after interview.
So there's no question that any of us haven't been
asked that we don't know what the answer.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Is for each other, right, I don't know I could.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Tell you each one of their favorite foods.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
I'm sure it's changed. I mean, especially now that we
get jeritol in our diets and everything. Certain things you
can't eat all the oreos anymore. We look like we
still do, but you know it's changed a bit. But
when we get back together and you know, those the
songs we just did together and the promo we did

(44:14):
for it and everything, it was it was the weirdest
feeling in the world because it's almost like twenty years
had just disappeared, and you know, we were right back
to where we started.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
And yeah, how did that song come about? Better place?
It's on the Trolls soundtrack. I love the song, and
Lance came on right before it dropped, and me and
my youngest daughter were just obsessed with it.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
You know, Justin just finished a new album and he'd
been working on all these songs and he had that
song and a couple other songs, and he was like,
you know, these are in sync songs, like he wrote it,
and he was like, this is an in sync song.
I can't you know, I couldn't do this song with
a clean conscious knowing that this is the guys, this
is all of us. So he came to us and said,

(45:00):
you know, I've got this song for trolls. And I
thought to myself, man, I got a six year old, like,
this is right down, this is right in my wheelhouse.
And you know, he came with the song and we
heard the song and I was like, dude, first of all,
the song's amazing, and then you know, we went in
one at a time. Jac went in, I went in,
Joey went in, Lance went in, and everybody that went in.

(45:21):
It was like sounded more and more. It was so
weird because you know, the best way I could describe
it was like hauntingly familiar. You know, it was like
this brand new song where you're like, wow, I really
like this new song. But it's it's like when you know,
a band that hadn't been together forever finds us off
track or something like that and releases it. You're like, wow,

(45:44):
this sounds like a track written today, but by this
band that I loved back then. So it was very
haunting that. Oh man, I hear all the sounds, I
hear the parts.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Chris, I feel like he wrote that song about you guys. Yeah,
exactly what he says. I've already up you bring me higher.
Whatever we do, we do it better together. Like it's
almost like a full circle moment. It felt to me
like the song was written about your band, well, and that's.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
You know, that's what he said.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
And the other songs you know that we have are
even more like that and more where you know, you're like,
there's no way anybody else could have done this record
but us, and it's just you know, it's it was time.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
It was it was time for the five of us
to get back in.

Speaker 4 (46:33):
And you know the problem is you've got five individuals
now who have been apart for god twenty three years,
and you know, even though we are brothers and come
back together like nothing's happened, you come back together, and
it's oh, Justin's managers over there, a Lance's managers over there,
Chris's managers over there.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
You know, it's not we come back as a band.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
We come back as you know Chris Kirkpatrick from in
Sync for the last twenty years, and and that that
makes it a little bit more daunting than just five
guys who wanted to you know, bust their butts and
be a music group.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Yeah, there's it's like that the stakes are a little
bit higher, there's more teams, and you know, it's it's
it's sort of like the blessing and the curse of
it all. But it must have felt like has it
sit And like you said, you know, you're a dad
now and everyone's you know, older, and does it feel
like you can when you are together and you can

(47:33):
put the rest of that sort of riff rap aside
that it is like, whoa, how cool that we are
still here in doing this like you.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
To get into a bathroom or a stairwell everybody else.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
The only the only thing about that is there is
a there is a difference now that when we do
do that, it's not my son, say do do.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
You're so the dat of a six year old?

Speaker 4 (48:03):
A six year old, But it's not that you know,
we wouldn't want to go back and just be who
we were, because you've got to remember that band that
everybody saw back then was fearless. You know that band
had had no fear. We did everything, we tried everything.
I mean, we were if you look at most of
the videos, I've got a broken hand and almost every

(48:27):
show we ever did because I've broken my hands so
many times doing backflips or or all this, this crazy
stuff we did because we're fearless. And now, not that
I'm saying about the backflip part, obviously, but you know
now that that fearlessness is gone, because now there's a
there's a a being behind us, There's there's this insynct

(48:47):
entity that's out there, there's this you know, we could fail,
you know, and mess up everything we had, whereas when
we were young, we weren't afraid to fail because we
didn't care nothing. Nothing like chris Ter Packer from Pennsylvania anymore.
Oh well, you know, that's.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
The beauty of youth man in any day, whatever business
you're in, or athletics or whatever, it's the beauty of
being young.

Speaker 4 (49:09):
Yeah, fearless, fearlessness. And and I think we get that
back a little bit, you know, when I know my
feelings and the few little things we've done we did
the only performance we really did was when Justin got
a Lifetime achievement from MTV. We came out and did, like,
you know, a couple of little songs with them. And

(49:29):
I can tell you, you know, if I'm doing a song
by myself in front of twenty people, I'm probably more
afraid than if I'm doing a song with those four
guys in front of half of the world.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Will there be more music from your from in Sync
and possibly a reunion tour, anything that you could tell us.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
Anything's possible. You know, there's there's definitely you know, we
didn't record just one song together, and yeah, we did
a little more, and you know, there's We've definitely been
kicking the tires on each other and on where we
are at in our lives because you know, one thing
we don't want to do is we don't want to
all get together and go, oh, well, we're doing this

(50:12):
for a money grab. You know, we're doing this because
you know everybody's making us do it or whatever. You know,
we want to do it because we want to do it,
and we want to do it because we miss it
and we miss each other. We miss the fans, we
miss the love of performing. You know, we all do
it in different ways. I'm doing like Pop two K
and all these other tours where I'll host and perform songs,

(50:35):
and Joey and I just the other night A did
a set at some you know, private function, and you know,
so we do it in little, tiny spurts, but the
five of us together you know, haven't done it in
a long time, and it's a way different beast when
you get the five of us out there rather than

(50:55):
just one or two here and there.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
I would say, yeah, do it for the right reasons.
But it would bring a lot of people a lot
of joy.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
Well, and that's that's one of the right reasons to us.
One of the things that we've talked about is, you know,
we've had fans that have been there through thick and
thin and twenty three years of not doing anything together,
of having to go see me by myself or having
to go see Joey by himself.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
Or whatever it is.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
And you know, they definitely play a big role in
all of our decision making and what we would want
to do, you know, mostly for them and mostly you know,
for the five of us to have fun.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
I have to I know we can't keep you much longer,
but I do have to ask you. I have to
kind of I'm always fascinated.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
I don't know where this is going with this, I
don't know where this is going. I know it doesn't
know either.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
No, I really have to ask you about the Masked Singer,
like I want to know. I'm dying because I'm fascinated
by that show. I'm fascinated by what the behind the
scenes of it is the fact that to me, like
William Shatner did that show and he's in his nineties,
Like it always seems like it's so cia secret operative,

(52:20):
Like how you keep it so secret? And was it fun?
Are you happy you did it? Was it scary?

Speaker 4 (52:26):
I'm ecstatic I did it. It was it was so
much fun.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
I was.

Speaker 4 (52:30):
I was kind of nervous about it. I'm like, I
didn't know what to expect. But the people, the production,
everything about that show was top notch and they were
so good and it was really really secretive. I mean
it was it was like, you know, all jokes aside,
Like it wasn't one of those things where you're like, oh, man,

(52:50):
tell all my friends, Hey, I'm on this. You know,
you sign things saying you don't say anything about it anywhere,
and then even when you get there, like as soon
as we get into the car, they would have a sweatshirt,
one of those big shield masks that was like, you know,
you two way, and they even put gloves on just

(53:10):
in case you had hand tattoos or whatever.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
And any time you were either out of your trailer
or out of that car.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
You know, you had all that stuff on until you
put the costume on, and it was but they, you know,
they really the.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
People that run that were absolutely amazing.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
And I've done a lot of shows, a lot of
different things where everybody's great, but on that one especially,
they were really top notch. And they took care of
the artists and they made you feel comfortable because they
know it's a very uncomfortable show.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
You know.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
I was singing with a it looked like I was
like seven feet tall, and I had this giant beak
and these huge wings strapped in my chest, so every
time I took in a breath it almost like constricted myself.
And singing through a little piece of plexiciclass with holes
in it.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
It looks so hard, That's what I mean. And when
the reveals happened, and it's always sort of like you
feel so heartbroken for the person because they're just dripping
in sweat. Because they costume, you.

Speaker 4 (54:08):
Don't see any of them come out like looking a
polish perfectly falls into place. Oh what I looked like,
And I was like, yeah, it's miserable.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
It's like a Disney character in the park at the
end of the day.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Oh exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
I know.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Thank you for talking about that, because it's always fascinated
me sort of how it works because it has to
be so secret, I mean, and that was really the
big question of like how are they shielding you when
you're getting in and out of a trailer or all
of those things. And also one last question too, were
you involved in the design of the costume or the
songs you did you come to them and say, these

(54:45):
are the songs I want to sing or do they
kind of lead you with the clues and all of
the what the show is.

Speaker 4 (54:52):
I found out I was doing the masked Singer on
a Tuesday, and I was home with my son that
following sun Day, so it was like I found out
on a Tuesday. I think I was a replacement or something,
and I went in left Wednesday, got there Thursday. They
showed me the costume Friday, and we figured out what

(55:15):
song I was going to do. That was kind of
It was really kind of tough because they have to
get the rights to the song, so it's like you
throw a bunch of songs at them and they came
back with no'se on everything, and then they said, well
what about this song? And I was like, all right,
I'll do that song. But the costume was already done.
In fact, I think it was for a girl because
when I saw it before the renderings had like a
little dress on it and stuff.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
So they put pants.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
On its, changed it up. But I had no say
in being a hummingbird because I don't think I would
have done it. If I knew I was gonna I'd
be a scorpion. That's what I wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
Oh, yeah, you're hot.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Yeah they made me. They made me a hummingbird.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Oh gosh, Well I love to hear. I love to
hear those stories when and when the shows are fun,
when you have a when it's a great experience.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
Definitely was fun.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Dude, Thank you for this interview. This was so cool man.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Yeah, thank you guys.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
Yeah, this was awesome. And oh is your is your
son into music? Is he a singer?

Speaker 2 (56:11):
He?

Speaker 4 (56:12):
Uh, he's in everything. He sings, he dances. Uh, he
really good at basketball, really good at baseball. He's you know,
he loves doing art. So there's nothing you know so far,
We're trying to throw a lot of stuff at him.
But there's nothing that he doesn't go. You know, oh man,

(56:32):
I'm not good at that. Like he's pretty good at everything.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
So that's the way to do it. Just like throw
it all at them and just see what sticks. Totally. Well,
thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
We're looking forward to, uh, maybe some of the new
tracks you guys recorded, and uh, what's the name of
your podcast?

Speaker 3 (56:51):
So we have a podcast.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
Brian and I have a podcast called name Drop, And
basically that's what it is is we sit there for
any where from thirty minutes to an hour with celebrities
and just want to hear stories. You know, it's like
tell us stories about who you've met, experiences that you
know normally wouldn't go in an interview section, just like

(57:13):
some random night you were out and Guy Fieri was
out drinking with you or whatever it is. And we've
got a lot of really cool guests and we've had
some amazing, amazing stories and stuff that you know, I
had no idea that paths had crossed like they did.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
That's such a great idea because those are the best stories.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
Well, Brian of course is really good because you know,
here Brian was on MTV for all those years as
a VJ, you know, and getting to know how to
ask the questions.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
He knows the timeline.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
It took us a while though, to get him off
of MTV time and into the podcast world to where
you know, he's like spitting like fifty million questions out
and I was like, hey, Brian might want to slow
it down, settle it down just a little bit. You
don't have to go to a quick commercial break here,
you know, you can let this we can let this
question breathe or whatever. It's been fun and like I said,

(58:06):
we've had some great, great stories about stuff that I
would have never you know, put two artists together. We
just had not too long ago, we had low Cash,
I don't know if you know them, their country band,
and they were telling these stories about the Beach Boys
because they've been working with the Beach Boys and just
mind blowing stuff.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
Was so it's fun.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
I can't wait. Yeah, we're going to follow keep following
all your stuff, man, And thank you so much for
joining us. This was awesome. Yeah, thank you, thanks Chris.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
I see you take care.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Another really great, interesting interview.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
Just so fascinating because I feel like, you know, I
feel like we've seen the faces of in sync, or
at least I say we, but I just mean me,
but like get knowing the stories and like piecing it
all together, and it really I swear it really wasn't
until I knew we were going to be interviewing Chris
and looked at you know, like his bio, and I

(59:03):
was like, wait, he started in sync right.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
It was interesting hearing Lance's point of view of being
like the last gout audition and the next day you're
going to Germany, whereas Chris spent years trying to find
these guys, and he was like, there was no time
for sleep. I had worked too hard to do this.
I was going to write it as long as I could,
And he felt I feel like he was very present

(59:27):
and has a lot of gratitude for all those moments,
like working with Michael Jackson or just you know, when
you build something, when you put something together yourself. I
feel like there's disappreciation, you know.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
So much, and just how much he cares about how
they move into this next chapter, like they're not just
diving in. Clearly they're trying to be deliberate about how
they do it and why they do it and when
they're doing it, and you know they sound so smart
that way, but it.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
Does sound like they are plenty of doing it.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
I always he didn't say never, say never. He said
anything is possible.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
And he said we didn't just record one song right exactly.
So we got that, I eat, that would be cool,
and we learned that you is there a reality show
or a talent show that you don't watch? Week Candice,
I'm Dancing with and now We're.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Dancing with the Stars is the one I watched more
the mass singer is. It has always sort of been that,
like I can't not watch it, but I'm totally freaked
out by it too. I don't watch it religiously. I
watch it like like I tap in or or my
or Quinn would show me like the YouTube videos of
like you know, I think Dennis Rodman did, like basket

(01:00:38):
x X NBA players would do it, and you see
them like coming out of this cup crazy and you know,
Chris is a singer. So that's the gift of like
when there's a good singer on a show like that,
but usually they.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Don't singer Dennis Rodman comes out and sings.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Like that's the point that's I think they like auto
tune a lot of their voices and stuff. When it's
a good singer, you really know, you know it's somebody
who's you know, a lot of musicians do it too.
But anyway, yeah, anytime I see a reality and I'm
also just fascinated by reality television, like what the thought
processes of doing it? Is it fun? Is it a nightmare?

(01:01:15):
To regret every second of it?

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
And so far I agree leaving your comfort zone that
whole thing, you know is interesting but great interview and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Yes, thanks everybody for joining us.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Yes, thank you for listening. We've got a great one
next week, and have a great week everybody, and you too, Christine,
you too, David, thank.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
You, thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe and give
us five stars.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
And please follow us on Instagram at Hey dude. The
nineties called see you next time.