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May 15, 2026 14 mins

Before Joe King from The Fray hops back on his Cable Car, we’re hearing more about the real life experiences that inspired his songs, and Joe gets real about the band’s hiatus and his own personal struggles during the break. 

Plus, we hear a listener’s tale of how a long first kiss isn’t always a good thing.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:16):
That brings all that's okay becaus no one here is.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
So I ask my listeners to send in their own
embarrassing stories from childhood and hopes that we can all
connect spiritually and understand that shame is the center of
our universe. And so this week we hear from Jeannette,
who has a story all about her first kiss and
the misjudgment she made about it.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Hi, Danielle, this is Jeanette from Baltimore, and this is
the story of my first kiss. So just just at
the stage, I'm fourteen. I had never been kissed before,
but boy was I excited and ready. And I had
this inkling that a boy at my church and my
Sunday school class had maybe was interested in me because

(01:11):
he had started to brush his foot up against mine,
and I kind of knew that it wasn't accidental. It
was like almost like playing fuzzy. So I had an
idea and we had this big, like celebratory event at
church and everybody got dressed up and the teenagers we
were supposed to be helping, but basically that just meant

(01:34):
we were like supposed to be directing people into the celebration.
But we just kind of stood there and talked like
teenagers do, and somehow it wound up just being the
two of us. We were sitting in this alcove and.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
He kissed me.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
However, he came at me with his mouth open, wide open,
and proceeded to keep his mouth open for the whole time.
And it was probably the most uncomfortable five minutes of
my life. But I was excited because I had my

(02:11):
first kiss, and in my mind that meant I had
my first boyfriend, and so I was excited. Everything seemed
great the next day, because this was a Saturday. The
next day we went to church and he ignored me,
pretended I wasn't there, but I still in my mind,
I was very confused because in my mind we had kissed,

(02:33):
so we were boyfriend and girlfriend. So a couple of
days went by, and me, being confused, I decided to
call him. We did not have cell phones, so I
called him on his landline, asked for him because I
had to talk to his mother first, and then asked
him what was happening, and he told me we were not,

(02:54):
in fact boyfriend and girlfriend. So that was the story
of my married, disappointing first kiss. Thankfully, I've had many
many much better kisses since then, but that one was
certainly memorable. I hope you guys have a great day.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
She was trying to make him jealous right there. She's like,
you may have been first, but you were not my last.
So good, so good since then.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
And their mouths were closed, closed mouth kisses.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Oh boy, I mean, this guy sounds like a big jerk,
not gonna Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well the open mouth thing, this doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
It's nice. No, you also don't go at.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Someone even if you have banaka spray. You know.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Did you ever write a song about Britney Baxter?

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Oh? Every song is about Britney Baxter, I just be honest.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Never gotten over it, never moved on.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah, that's that's why I didn't want to be in
a Christian babe. There's there's no girls I feel about
Britney Baxter.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Did you ever write a song about a girlfriend? Or
is that how it works? I've never written a song,
so I assume they're like, hey, this is about this
very specific thing. But I sense that that's probably not
what it's like.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
You know, I mean, certainly life influences, you know, art
and songs, you know, it's not necessarily usually about a
specific person. Although it can inspire things, so certainly, you know,
because it's true, you know, But there's also lyrics in
there that just want to be that lyric. So at

(04:34):
the end of the day, while it's inspired maybe by
a relationship or a loss of somebody, it's about serving
the song at the end of the day, and it
needs to be the lyric that that it wants to
be taking I want to. Yeah, So when I forced
my stuff on it, it usually doesn't doesn't work. It's
just like the song has to be like this is

(04:56):
what it is.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
What were your first few songs about question You've talked
about questioning?

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, the first song I wrote was called what was
it called? The chorus was uh about like psychics, shrinks,
and hypocrites, and it was about hypocrites in the church. Okay,
when the only way to change is to turn your

(05:24):
life around? Is is it was the hook?

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah? Yeah, like I think, yeah it was, Okay, now
it's coming back. It's like many many asked for answers,
answers from psychic, shrinks and hypocrites, but when the only
way to change is to turn your life around. So
I was still a little bit confused with the with
the like the Christian thing, yes, and also like not
like needing to provide an answer or something. But I

(05:51):
was also starting to question.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Like started young hypocrites.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Like he says something, he's saying this, but he's living differently,
like what like this saint real? And so yeah, that
was that was the first time I wrote when I wrote.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
When So I was raised Catholic until I was about
ten and we stopped going to the Catholic church when uh, well,
for one thing, both my parents were raised Catholic, so
they then when they had my brother and I, they
were like, this is what you have to do. But
neither of them really loved being in the church either,
but they felt like, you know, you have to otherwise

(06:28):
I don't know, bad things happen, and so they were
forcing us to go. And my brother and I would
complain every single week why we don't have to do this,
and they're like, yes, I have to. It's there's donuts after.
And that at least got me through at least my youth.
But then when I had my first Holy communion, and
after you take your communion, you have to go confess.
And I had been through catechism I'd been to CCD

(06:50):
class every Wednesday, and then I go in there and
they're like, what do you have to confess? And I said,
I don't have anything to confess. They said, well, of
course you do, because we all sin, and so of course,
what what do you What have you sinned? And I
was like, uh, I did I made up that I

(07:11):
had been mean to my brother?

Speaker 1 (07:13):
And did you confess that you just lied? No?

Speaker 2 (07:15):
But they suspected I had made it up, So they
said did you just make that up? And I said yes?
And they said why don't you? Why are Why would
you not confess? And I said because I've already confessed
to God. And they were furious. That goes against every
what you've been in class? What what is? How did

(07:38):
you just get your first Holy Communion when you think
you can bypass us? And so my parents got a
pretty angry phone call and my mom was like, that's it.
We are not going anymore for sure. So that questions
start young they do. They're like, I do, why do.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
I have to do? This?

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Can tell you anything? When do you think you really
started to connect as a songwriter? Was it after the
right after the guitar or do you think you really

(08:20):
connected as a songwriter a little later.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, it was after the guitar. Yeah, it was after
the guitar. Yeah, just because it became the tool in
order to write. Yeah, because I've never it was My
intention was I didn't want to. I didn't gravitate towards
becoming a shredder, yeah, or like I'm going to be
the best guitar player in the world. That wasn't my goal.

(08:44):
The guitar I love playing, but it was more in
service of a song. And and and musicians know this,
but you know, you can pick up you pick up
an instrument, say you're looking for a new instrument, and
you pick one up and you play, it's like it
doesn't feel right. And you pick up another one and
the play. And when you find that one that you

(09:05):
play and it just has this thing in it. Yeah,
you feel like there are songs, Like there are songs
in this right, oh yeah. And so the Franciscan had
songs in it totally.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Do you still have the Francisco I don't.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
And I'm so mad at myself that I like, I
don't know what happened to it. I think I standed
it to try to make it look cooler. And then
I think, like by the time I was an end
of high school, I had like a Talkamini and I
was like, oh, this one's so much cooler than than
my Franciscan and I got rid of it, and I'm

(09:39):
so wish I had that guitar.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah. Yeah, I wonder if there's any sort of identifiable track,
like if you could if you put out the word
like I gave this guitar away, if there's like some
identifying characteristic we could get it back for you. I
feel like, you know, TikTok can find anyone Franciscan. Yeah,
find the f.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Part of the body is sanded because I didn't finish
the standing job. I just did like half of it.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Okay. And where where were you when you like, where
did you get rid of it? In Denver?

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Denver? Kay? Yeah, we'll see. I mean, if we can
get that Franciscan, we have frey record number six in
about two weeks.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yes, I love it. Okay. My last question for you,
what are you looking forward to most for this upcoming tour?
Is it still really fun?

Speaker 1 (10:27):
It's a blast, it really is. I don't take it
for granted, you know, because we did go away for
a while, like it was over. We ended, and you know,
that was a whole journey in itself and felt lost
for years of just not knowing like who I was
and what I'm doing because you get tied into this
identity and and it really is your baby and it's

(10:48):
part of you and it's your story and so then
you're just wrestling with like what I guess I'm done
with that. And and then you know, when we decided that,
you know, the three of us decided like do we
love this, do we want to do this? Do we
believe in it? Do we have more to say? And
you know, once we answered those questions, it's like yep, okay,
let's go, let's let's jump in, and we just you know,

(11:09):
we started with an EP just to like almost prove
it to ourselves that we could we could do this. Yeah,
And that EP was more so like reconnecting us with
fans because we had been gone for six years, seven
years at that point, like not active, right, right, maybe
a couple shows a year, but not anything new. And

(11:31):
then you know, this record was was just like this
beautiful new harmony with the guys, the three of us,
just like this like new collaboration that had always been there. Yeah,
you know, like we were talking about the beginning, it had
always been there. We just didn't know it until twenty
years into it. Wow, that the three of us, we're

(11:51):
going to be writing the story. And it's so much fun.
And night after night these fans are are we have
the best fan it like, it is so fun and
they come out and they are like singing.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Then the sound systems, like our front of house guy
that controls the sound and mixes our sound he after shows,
it'd be like I couldn't anymore.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
I tried.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
They were louder than the sound system. We can't do it.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Nothing we can do when your bands are too loud.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
So they just want to sing it out and I
love it.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
That is so great. I like, I have one more question.
If you had to only listen to one band for
the rest of your life, you could only listen to
one band Radiohead? Okay, so easy for you, Yeah, Radiohead?

Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah, Creep was you know it was it was smells
like teen Spirit and then Creep Okay, you know when
I heard it was also just like I'm not.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Alone, right, he knows how I feel.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Right, I'm coming from my own skin right right. I
don't belong to the I don't fit in the church.
I don't like what's going on. So it was, you know,
it like helped me make sense of myself. Yeah, you know,
and I think that's what's beautiful about music. It just
like helps you feel less alone. Yep. It's like you know,

(13:14):
you can see yourself in it. And when you hear
a song, you know, for the first time, and it
grabs you, Yeah, that's the best. That's the best feelings.
That's what I guess what we live for. You don't
even know that you live for that, but when you
when it grabs you and it's just yours, like, and
that's what I hope for in this, In this this
new record is like, you know, if there's one song

(13:36):
or that you know, fans, if there's something in this
record that they can see themselves in, yeah, and they
they say, yes, that's that's me.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
That is beautiful. Thank you so much for being here.
The phrase newest album, A Light That Waits, is available now.
Go to the fray dot com to see all the
upcoming dates for their Summer of Light tour. Alongside Dashboard Confessional,
it will be coming to a town near you. Thank
you so much for spending your time with me today, Jo.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
It was a wonderful conversation.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
I really enjoyed talking with you. Thank you because I
have been a big fan for many many years. Come
I will and.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
I will talk to you.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Okay, perfect, because I'm great.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Because I'm anti social, I'll just wait.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Yeah, I'll go. I'll see you in Denver. Come to Denver.
I'm gonna because I'm still going to look for the Franciscan.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Come Denver, but pre tour we can if you want
to come in with Chris and I. We'll have a.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Nice early I like to eat around five five thirty.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Say thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Thank you for being here for sure. Teen Beat is
an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischl. Executive
producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of
production Danielle Romo, producer and editor Tara Suboch. The theme
song is by Mark Coppis Yes that Mark Coppas. Follow
us on Instagram at teen Beat pod.
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