December 17, 2025 • 8 mins
Join Intern John as he talks with Nelly backstage at our HOT 99.5 Jingle Ball about everything from his legacy in music, becoming an entrepreneur beyond music, and what it’s been like seeing fans react to his music 25 years later versus new listeners discovering him now. All that and more in our interview with Nelly!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back sage and Mercedes Ben's Heavy Lounge, Hot ninety drink
about with Nelly?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
How are you? I'm doing well.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I got a question, Timid West guys, Minnesota, Missouri. We
gotta be honest about our hometowns. Saint Louis Pizza, your thoughts.
I love, I love our pizza, man, but I understand.
You know my wife gives me about that pizza too.
But oh can I say that well edited out? It's
about You're Nelly, all right. My brother just moved there.
I had to email us for the first time, and
nobody told me, y'all have your own pizza after the
(00:27):
first bite, and I was like, this is different.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah it is, but well, I'm not a I don't
eat red meat, but when I did, terrorized the meat industry.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Pause. But I used to get a lot.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
They got a pizza called meat Lovers, and it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It's like all of it, but uh my wife she
sees it is like cheese and crackers.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It kind of it.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Is though, unless I'm not trying to hate, you might
be like the first real entrepreneur in hip hop.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And let's go down the line.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Apple bottom jeans Yo, Hymn Juice Yo obviously had the
first double album with Sweatsuit, and now you got the
Moonshine as well, right, I mean moonshine.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah, but that listen, I don't get a chance to
do any of this without the people that laid all
of that foundation before me.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And everything that you've named is are businesses that other
people in hip hop, in this business has had before me.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Sure, and I just what'xcept the moonshine.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I don't know any rapper with no moon shine nothing
like that, but yeah, that was probably be the first.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But you talk when you're talking clothing lines.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Obviously you got food bool and you know, you had
Sean John and you had fat Forms and things like that.
But yeah, Apple Bottoms is back now, so I get
a chance to rebirth that.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Hell yeah, and white moonshine. You drink that growing up
at all? Yes? And no, okay, I don't won't say
too much. Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
In Minnesota, like we had a guy we call him
Big Deck. He was a big guy be called and
that was always awkward to be like we're getting yeah,
I'm lett it, have it, Yeah, let it you ever
knew if you were a drink and see sound. I mean,
that's the problem, Moonshine. At least you got the legit stuff.
We're never going to go.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I don't know to compress it, but you might be
had the most eclectic to a collection of music. I
mean a song for everything, just a dream, great breakup song, dilemma,
love song, hot in her first song, I ever touched your
girls butt too in her thank you for that permission?
Oh yeah, I mean Nelly, we got a good Catholic
boy from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Absolutely, do you want to
say It's hot ninety nine toy five and here on
(02:31):
stage night, there we go drop that.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I got you. But you got a bunch of country
songs too. Though.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You got the two Foura Georgia Lion songs, you covered
the Thomas rhet song, you have the Tim McGrath song.
Could we see a Nelly country album?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
One day? And now we had a country grammar? You
can see country country well.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Two years ago I dropped my first country I called
it a country inspired album, Heartland, which I want to
send a shout out to everybody that that did support
that working on Heartland too, as well, yeah, brought back
fgl and a bunch of other people. Man shout out
to my man Blanco Brown breathing and yeah man the
host of people. So I did one, but hopefully we
(03:09):
get a chance to put this second one out real soon.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I mean, it's crazy. Country grammar is twenty five years old. Like,
that's crazy. What's the core thing?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
As n artists?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
When you have a song that the first comes out,
you know, twenty five years ago, people react to it,
or now playing it twenty five years later, and people
still getting crazy when they hear the first beat.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Of one of your records, Well, twenty five years later,
you just thankful they still listening. Yeah, you know what
I mean. In the beginning, it was all surprising. You
don't really understand the severity of it. Sure, but your
fingers are crossed and you just keep working and you
keep thanking people as you go. So yeah, to be
here celebrating that part is amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Back in the day, MTV used to have the rock
and Jock games, whereas versus athletes, you used to tear
that ish up.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
My dude, can you still do my mind?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Can I say I don't know if my legs move
like that anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
But yeah, man, I missed those games. Man, I don't.
I don't think I'm no, I'm probably trash.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now you always like the O these fools ever play
sports all growing up? Like now he's out here is
running circles around these Yeah, man, I grew up playing sports.
My mother taught me how to play sports.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Ironically.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, she was the baseball player in our family and
took me to my first baseball game, and she had
she had a house full of trophies before I did.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
So hell yeah, well, speaking of trophies, got Grammys, millions
of album sold?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You played two super Bowls? Yeah, what's that like? That
was cool?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And the last one little Nipplegate, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I got everybody forgets we were on that one. Yeah
yeah yeah, but uh now it was cool man.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
You know, the crowd is great.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
It's the biggest stage that you can possibly be on,
and it's honored to do it.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Did they have a lot of rehearsals for that? Because
now we talked months and months and months we.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Did, but no we didn't. We didn't pretty much do months.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I mean, and my first one was probably like all
of forty two seconds. Sure, I probably think and then
the second one, I probably got about a minute and
a half, so that was cool.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
But we probably rehearsed like two weeks like that. Not
too bad.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Growing up TRL one of six and Park always looked
like such a party. Was it like that when you
were there or is it like commercial?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Nobody talking? So I think we need that type of
energy back.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Absolutely, that type of energy was genuine and it was
It was a blessing to be in it because you know,
people stood out in.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Line to get your records.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Sure, you know now people don't even leave the bed,
you know, yeah, they buy your things, and you know,
we got a chance to put posters on the walls
and things like that, so you kind of truly bought
into artists. So now if you can be an artist nowadays,
that's why I give artists that come along now a
lot of credit when they can make that impact what
people are buying into who they are, because that's that's
(05:46):
what it really takes right now. And that's a tough
thing to do because you get a lot of singles.
People are selling singles and people are selling moments.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
But to be able to sell a career right now,
it's tough.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You mentioned your wife running the household for the single
fellas out there, one piece of advice they can have
to like sweep the grow up the dreams out their feet.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Besides Melli and.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Well, I don't know, you know, I just try to
tell just take your time and make sure you're ready,
you know, don't let anybody, don't let anybody rush you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
That's that's the key.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Everybody has their own opinion about what they think a
relationship should be, how they think it should go, when
they think it should start. But that's truly between you
and the person that you know you want to be with,
and sometimes it takes others longer to find it than
they do. Because I would rather die married than to
have been married and got divorced.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Just know that that's he I love that. You see
in more movies anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
The Longest Yard Burt Reynolds, but I mean looking with
legend of work man god man.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Bert was the man. Yeah, my grandmama loved Bert.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I gotta love hate relationship with mentioning Burt around like that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
No, he's a great guy.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
But you know, I've never seen too many men with
my granny raised up and her eyes raised up, you know,
and for a black woman growing up in Side Louis
Eyes to raise a white man was eyes shocking.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Forget Chris rock Reynolds. Did she ever get to set
to see? I know she never, she never got a chance.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Never. I wish I wish that was a little bit
but early.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
If the phones would have been the way that they
are now, I could have could have got a good FaceTime.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
She would have loved that.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I I'd have been the man i'd been. That must
have been one of the coolest sets to be on too.
Is Sandler and Stunk Cold and very very funny, very
very funny, all of them. You know, you got too
many comedians on set.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
They're all trying to ware up each other until Bert
talks and everybody shuts the hell up. Yeah, yeah, listen
to these stories and he's got a bunch of them.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
At this point your career, man, is there anything you
haven't done? Haven't had a chance? You go to space? Maybe?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
No, No, I'm staying I'm good right here. I'm good
right here. I ain't with all the space trips. They
just started getting me to fly maybe a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You're doing the buses.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
That's the very first thing I bought soon as I
got somebody.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It was my own tour bus. Yeah, so no poop
on the bus, start right that. It's always the rule
with you just.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Got to pay the money to get the right toilet.
When I'm Japanese boys pushed it down, all right. You
gotta get the right one.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Baby. That that that that nine two thousand, Hell yeah,
that's that power.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
But the DSL flush, we know it's not it's gonna
flush every Nay.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I never thought I'd be talk with Nelly jingle Ball
about toilets, but here we are. There you go, you
never know. You know what I'm saying. It's Christmas.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's a players to have your Nelly hot ninety Fi
jingle ball lazy. You remember if the head right, I'm.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
There, well I used to be there going home now amen? Amen,
Nelly Man appreciates you Hot ninety
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Fi jingle Ball John in your morning show on iHeartRadio.
Back sage and Mercedes Ben's Heavy Lounge, Hot ninety drink
about with Nelly?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
How are you? I'm doing well.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I got a question, Timid West guys, Minnesota, Missouri. We
gotta be honest about our hometowns. Saint Louis Pizza, your thoughts.
I love, I love our pizza, man, but I understand.
You know my wife gives me about that pizza too.
But oh can I say that well edited out? It's
about You're Nelly, all right. My brother just moved there.
I had to email us for the first time, and
nobody told me, y'all have your own pizza after the
(00:27):
first bite, and I was like, this is different.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yeah it is, but well, I'm not a I don't
eat red meat, but when I did, terrorized the meat industry.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Pause. But I used to get a lot.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
They got a pizza called meat Lovers, and it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It's like all of it, but uh my wife she
sees it is like cheese and crackers.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It kind of it.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Is though, unless I'm not trying to hate, you might
be like the first real entrepreneur in hip hop.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And let's go down the line.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Apple bottom jeans Yo, Hymn Juice Yo obviously had the
first double album with Sweatsuit, and now you got the
Moonshine as well, right, I mean moonshine.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yeah, but that listen, I don't get a chance to
do any of this without the people that laid all
of that foundation before me.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And everything that you've named is are businesses that other
people in hip hop, in this business has had before me.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Sure, and I just what'xcept the moonshine.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I don't know any rapper with no moon shine nothing
like that, but yeah, that was probably be the first.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But you talk when you're talking clothing lines.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Obviously you got food bool and you know, you had
Sean John and you had fat Forms and things like that.
But yeah, Apple Bottoms is back now, so I get
a chance to rebirth that.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Hell yeah, and white moonshine. You drink that growing up
at all? Yes? And no, okay, I don't won't say
too much. Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
In Minnesota, like we had a guy we call him
Big Deck. He was a big guy be called and
that was always awkward to be like we're getting yeah,
I'm lett it, have it, Yeah, let it you ever
knew if you were a drink and see sound. I mean,
that's the problem, Moonshine. At least you got the legit stuff.
We're never going to go.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I don't know to compress it, but you might be
had the most eclectic to a collection of music. I
mean a song for everything, just a dream, great breakup song, dilemma,
love song, hot in her first song, I ever touched your
girls butt too in her thank you for that permission?
Oh yeah, I mean Nelly, we got a good Catholic
boy from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Absolutely, do you want to
say It's hot ninety nine toy five and here on
(02:31):
stage night, there we go drop that.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I got you. But you got a bunch of country
songs too. Though.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You got the two Foura Georgia Lion songs, you covered
the Thomas rhet song, you have the Tim McGrath song.
Could we see a Nelly country album?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
One day? And now we had a country grammar? You
can see country country well.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Two years ago I dropped my first country I called
it a country inspired album, Heartland, which I want to
send a shout out to everybody that that did support
that working on Heartland too, as well, yeah, brought back
fgl and a bunch of other people. Man shout out
to my man Blanco Brown breathing and yeah man the
host of people. So I did one, but hopefully we
(03:09):
get a chance to put this second one out real soon.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I mean, it's crazy. Country grammar is twenty five years old. Like,
that's crazy. What's the core thing?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
As n artists?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
When you have a song that the first comes out,
you know, twenty five years ago, people react to it,
or now playing it twenty five years later, and people
still getting crazy when they hear the first beat.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Of one of your records, Well, twenty five years later,
you just thankful they still listening. Yeah, you know what
I mean. In the beginning, it was all surprising. You
don't really understand the severity of it. Sure, but your
fingers are crossed and you just keep working and you
keep thanking people as you go. So yeah, to be
here celebrating that part is amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Back in the day, MTV used to have the rock
and Jock games, whereas versus athletes, you used to tear
that ish up.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
My dude, can you still do my mind?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Can I say I don't know if my legs move
like that anymore.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
But yeah, man, I missed those games. Man, I don't.
I don't think I'm no, I'm probably trash.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now you always like the O these fools ever play
sports all growing up? Like now he's out here is
running circles around these Yeah, man, I grew up playing sports.
My mother taught me how to play sports.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Ironically.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, she was the baseball player in our family and
took me to my first baseball game, and she had
she had a house full of trophies before I did.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
So hell yeah, well, speaking of trophies, got Grammys, millions
of album sold?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You played two super Bowls? Yeah, what's that like? That
was cool?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
And the last one little Nipplegate, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I got everybody forgets we were on that one. Yeah
yeah yeah, but uh now it was cool man.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
You know, the crowd is great.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
It's the biggest stage that you can possibly be on,
and it's honored to do it.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Did they have a lot of rehearsals for that? Because
now we talked months and months and months we.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Did, but no we didn't. We didn't pretty much do months.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I mean, and my first one was probably like all
of forty two seconds. Sure, I probably think and then
the second one, I probably got about a minute and
a half, so that was cool.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
But we probably rehearsed like two weeks like that. Not
too bad.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Growing up TRL one of six and Park always looked
like such a party. Was it like that when you
were there or is it like commercial?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Nobody talking? So I think we need that type of
energy back.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Absolutely, that type of energy was genuine and it was
It was a blessing to be in it because you know,
people stood out in.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Line to get your records.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Sure, you know now people don't even leave the bed,
you know, yeah, they buy your things, and you know,
we got a chance to put posters on the walls
and things like that, so you kind of truly bought
into artists. So now if you can be an artist nowadays,
that's why I give artists that come along now a
lot of credit when they can make that impact what
people are buying into who they are, because that's that's
(05:46):
what it really takes right now. And that's a tough
thing to do because you get a lot of singles.
People are selling singles and people are selling moments.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
But to be able to sell a career right now,
it's tough.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You mentioned your wife running the household for the single
fellas out there, one piece of advice they can have
to like sweep the grow up the dreams out their feet.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Besides Melli and.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Well, I don't know, you know, I just try to
tell just take your time and make sure you're ready,
you know, don't let anybody, don't let anybody rush you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
That's that's the key.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Everybody has their own opinion about what they think a
relationship should be, how they think it should go, when
they think it should start. But that's truly between you
and the person that you know you want to be with,
and sometimes it takes others longer to find it than
they do. Because I would rather die married than to
have been married and got divorced.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Just know that that's he I love that. You see
in more movies anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
The Longest Yard Burt Reynolds, but I mean looking with
legend of work man god man.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Bert was the man. Yeah, my grandmama loved Bert.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I gotta love hate relationship with mentioning Burt around like that. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
No, he's a great guy.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
But you know, I've never seen too many men with
my granny raised up and her eyes raised up, you know,
and for a black woman growing up in Side Louis
Eyes to raise a white man was eyes shocking.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Forget Chris rock Reynolds. Did she ever get to set
to see? I know she never, she never got a chance.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Never. I wish I wish that was a little bit
but early.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
If the phones would have been the way that they
are now, I could have could have got a good FaceTime.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
She would have loved that.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I I'd have been the man i'd been. That must
have been one of the coolest sets to be on too.
Is Sandler and Stunk Cold and very very funny, very
very funny, all of them. You know, you got too
many comedians on set.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
They're all trying to ware up each other until Bert
talks and everybody shuts the hell up. Yeah, yeah, listen
to these stories and he's got a bunch of them.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
At this point your career, man, is there anything you
haven't done? Haven't had a chance? You go to space? Maybe?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
No, No, I'm staying I'm good right here. I'm good
right here. I ain't with all the space trips. They
just started getting me to fly maybe a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
You're doing the buses.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
That's the very first thing I bought soon as I
got somebody.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It was my own tour bus. Yeah, so no poop
on the bus, start right that. It's always the rule
with you just.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Got to pay the money to get the right toilet.
When I'm Japanese boys pushed it down, all right. You
gotta get the right one.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Baby. That that that that nine two thousand, Hell yeah,
that's that power.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
But the DSL flush, we know it's not it's gonna
flush every Nay.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I never thought I'd be talk with Nelly jingle Ball
about toilets, but here we are. There you go, you
never know. You know what I'm saying. It's Christmas.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's a players to have your Nelly hot ninety Fi
jingle ball lazy. You remember if the head right, I'm.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
There, well I used to be there going home now amen? Amen,
Nelly Man appreciates you Hot ninety
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Fi jingle Ball John in your morning show on iHeartRadio.
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