The Bachelor from A to Z(ach) with Zach Shallcross

Before the world follows Zach on his Bachelor journey, Ashley is sitting down with the man of the hour to get to know him better on the final days leading up to his premiere!

 

Find out some intimate details from his romantic life that will help you understand his search for love and maybe Ashley can get him to reveal WHO stole his heart from the cast!  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Benn and Ashley I almost Famous podcast
with I R Radio Zach. We're just jumping into this
because I didn't know how else to start, because I'm
truly nervous about interviewing you. It is. It's not very
often that I get nervous anymore, but I've been a
little bit dreading this today because we have railed on

(00:23):
you a lot. Okay, And I'm like, I don't know
whether he's heard this, but I feel like in general,
your fan feedback on becoming Bachelor has been, um, yeah, okay,
you said, not me, it is it is. Uh. It's

(00:46):
been a unique uh like reception, I guess, which I
completely understand. Funny enough, like no one really knows who
I am a lot of last season, like I'm just
kind of this big, tall dude with a deep voice,
and that's about it. Like who the hell is is
that guy? So I get it, and I've seen most

(01:06):
of it. Well. On your season, a lot of the
guys didn't get a ton of screen time because you know,
there are two bachelorretes to cover. Previously, we had Clayton,
who didn't have much screen time become the Bachelor, and
I think we were like, oh, well, we really know
nothing about this guy, so maybe he'll be a big surprise.
But I feel like the fandom felt like they knew

(01:28):
enough about you since you got to top three on
Rachel's side, that they could determine whether or not you'd
be a good Bachelor. But like, what are I say
this with all the sweetness in the world, what are
we all missing that casting saw from you that they
thought like this is the guy of everybody? That's a

(01:49):
good question. Um, I think it really came down to
it's really about with me. It's about finding an actual
forever person in not giving about you know, the fame
or the cloud or the social media stuff. Like to me,
I'm at that point in my life where I'm ready
to settle down and I'm a romantic guy and bring

(02:12):
it back to that now. You know, if if fans
want the just unnecessary drama, then yeah, I'm probably not
your guy. But if you want someone that takes it
serious and like leads everything I do with intention and honesty,
then it really brings it back to the core of
the show, right of the love and actually wanting this

(02:35):
to work because I know this whole you know, Bachelor
Nation there's been not a lot of successful relationships, and
that was my fear. And I was like, I'm not
gonna do it and unless it's taken seriously, and that's
that's what you know, fans can expect. But also, my
personality wasn't really shown last season at all, and uh,

(02:56):
there's a lot of I guess, like my sense of
humor was not brought up at all, and I think
I have a pretty good one. My dad jokes are
pretty pretty terrible. But just like everything in general, like,
it's like personalities will be shown and I think people
will be pleasantly surprised. Okay, well, I think that was
a really good answer, And now I want to actually

(03:18):
ask you some questions that I feel like could show
your personality and make the viewers a little bit more
excited for Monday night's premiere. Sure, are you ready give
us a weird interest of yours. A weird interest could
be anything. Um, I have a really weird food thing. Okay,

(03:45):
what's that? Grew up? Oh, god, grew up? You grew
up eating this on pancakes. That's really weird it is,
I know, how did you get to start that? I
don't know, I mean it started from my grandma. I
don't know like what her taste buds were telling her.

(04:07):
She did it like whenever she stayed with us, She's like,
wouldn't let us eat pancakes without And I was like,
isn't this supposed to go on hot dogs? And she's like, no,
pancakes better and I was like, all right, cool, And
actually it's really good. I'm assuming it tastes like a
kindish Have you had to kindish? I've not had to connect. Okay,
that's like a very like New York Jewish thing that

(04:28):
they haven't met. Giants games, and it's like a potato
It's like a potato pancake and you put you smother
it with with mustard and it's delicious, well if you
think about it, and it's mustard and then a carb, Yeah,
doesn't really have any flavor. And then boom, you're putting
syrup on it though, still which is a little weird.
Oh what you didn't now? This is interesting? Yes, Zach,

(04:51):
you're winning us over word, like each word that comes
out of your bath. Because I was like thinking that
mustard was very strange, but the one you just added,
the whole serrup thing. We all think you're a wacko now,
and we all love wackos extra syrup. So when girls
discover this, this taste of yours, what's the reaction? Usually

(05:14):
do you eat pancakes around women? It's a deal breaker
if they don't like it, I'm telling them that now. Uh,
it definitely gets mixed reactions. My thing is, try it once,
like you have nothing to lose. You might hate it
and maybe throw up who knows, but you probably won't.
And it's actually a weird combo of good flavors. Alright, alright,

(05:46):
next question, when was it time that you got in
big trouble? So? Growing up, I was actually a kid
that had a really bad guilty conscience. Um so most
of the time I would wrap myself out. So there's
several instances. Now, I had a friend take a test

(06:07):
for me on like the online book thing, and I
went to my parents room that night, and he was
just like crying and saying, well, it's my fault. And
my parents said, I was actually a pretty easy kid
to raise. But it wasn't untill high school that I
was at um a party and uh, one of the
kids decided to take a picture of our beer pyramid

(06:28):
and send it to our math teacher, right, so so
intelligent of you all, like, obviously a great idea, and
and I, you know, it was I had a football
scholarship at the time, and I was about to graduate,
and I was like, dude, why the hell did you
sent it to the teacher? And he's like, don't worry,
he's one of the cool ones. And that next day

(06:49):
I was brought into you know, the president and the
principal's office for a conversation. And the punishment, uh, ended
up being since I had a few beers at a party,
I had to go to UM a few a a
meetings requirement through the school. I had to meet with

(07:09):
a priest weekly and I had my own super advisor
following me around school to make sure I wouldn't leave
campus to go I guess, I don't know, get a drink.
And I'm like, guys, some like seventeen, take a break.
Was it a Catholic school of a Christian school? Yeah?
It was a Catholic school first. Yeah, just ridiculous. Um,

(07:29):
So I went to A a few times as a kid. Wow, Okay,
that's a good story. Good story. Give us a dating
catastrophe off camera. Oh, okay, I did have a very
unique day. Uh. Actually out in Austin, I had met
someone I think it was in line at like a

(07:50):
taco shop, and we set up a first date and
we went to this like nice Italian restaurant and conversation
is pretty normal, nothing crazy, getting to know each other,
and all of a sudden, she starts talking about psychedelics
and shrims. And I was like, okay, cool, like you're
in a day. She's like yeah, like I'm actually you know,

(08:13):
all like all of my friends shaman's and I was like,
oh shaman, Like what it like. She's like, oh, I
helped my friends trip on psychedelics. And I'm like, okay,
this is not what I expected on a first date.
And then I'm like okay, so like you were really
into it. She's like, I'm so into it. I'm actually
on shrims right now, tripping now. I'm like, wait, what

(08:35):
are you? Uh? I am? I do I look funny?
Is everything? She's like, oh, no, You're good. But I'm
like kind of freaking out right now. And I'm like,
let's just eat our spaghetti ago No could she eat? Oh?
She was yeah, she was eating. I think like I

(08:55):
was just so in disbelief. I'm like choosing a first
date and doing rooms like hell of a combo. There
was no second date. Never want to see that again.
What year was this? Probably two years ago? Okay, so
relatively recently. Yeah, yeah, what's the most embarrassing moment of

(09:17):
your life? The most embarrassing moment of my life? Um,
you know, for recent memory, it was the announcement of
me being the bachelor and yeah, having the five women
come on stage and me forgetting all their names, and
I remember just like blabbering to Jesse during the announcement,

(09:41):
so much so that I think he had to cut
me off to go to a commercial break. And when
I tell you, like I left that stage, I was
in just pure disbelief. I was like, like I just
botched it, Like I am about to be the bachelor,
I'm just now announced the bachelor. And it never really
settled in because I was literally told day of that

(10:02):
it was going to be really me, and I thought
it looked like a complete idiot on stage and I
was so embarrassed for so long about that. To make
you feel better, I don't remember that at all. And
I think a lot of that in your head, because
I think people tend to be smoother on TV than
they actually feel like they are. I feel like everybody
gives gets off stage and doubts themselves. I think you're

(10:25):
I think you're fine in that moment. So then do
you want to talk about Like you got off stage
and then you're going through Twitter and Instagram and seeing
the fan feedback? How did that feel? Did you just
feel like you had the coolest moment of your life
getting called the Bachelor and then you were just like
feeling miserable. So that was interesting because I think at
that point I did not have my phone, but because

(10:48):
we were like we went pretty much straight to filming
right after that. But it was pretty shocking because throughout filming,
you know, I'd see or hear a little bit about
the feedback of okay is the boring Bachelor? Or like
who is this guy? Like this is gonna be like
this is gonna be a terrible season, And initially like, oh,
like that's a gut punch because it's like these people

(11:08):
don't know who I am yet they're making assumptions about me,
and that I'm like, this is like really hurts, Like
people have to really go out of their way to
be able to do that. But then it kind of
circled back to me in like a calming sense of
like two things like they don't know what they don't
know and this the show is going to come out

(11:29):
and like they can watch it or not. Um. But
the second thing is is like often if it's really
hurtful stuff, like I get like opinions, Like opinions are
like as souls, everyone has them. Um. The whole fact
of it's like a lot of the time if it's
really hurtful stuff, it just means that they're going through

(11:49):
their own ship or they feel like they need to
get that off, which I'm okay to bear that, like
as long as my family is not involved, great, But
like for me, like I can handle it sucks, but um,
it took time to get used to because it's like
no one likes to be told that you're you know,
you know, boring or you're less stand So it's like
it sucks, but I guess it's part of the territory

(12:12):
and I think people will be pleasantly surprised. Well, that's
the other upside is that you could only surprise people. Yeah,
I was starting at the bottom, I'll tell you that
you seem like a lovely, wonderful man. Though I feel
like nobody has that out against you. I think people
just think is he bachelor leading man? Not that like

(12:33):
you don't seem like a wonderful catch. I think people
definitely assume that with how you that you, how you
handled yourself on GAPI in Rachel season, well thank you,
And I think it comes down to, like, yeah, there's
there's the leading man title, like that means a lot
of different things to a lot of different people. I

(12:53):
think where it's like why are you watching the show?
Are you watching it for the absolute bullsh drama? Then yeah,
then I'm not your guy, like don't watch then, But
if you actually like the show because you like to
see actual romance and actual love occur, then I think
I'm your guy. And I think people will be surprised
that there's a bunch of other facets to me. But

(13:16):
I also think there's a lot worse comments than being
called boring. At least I'm not like or something like that.
So that's how I see. That's so true now. Jesse
Palmer did some interviews this week about the the season,
and he said that this is one of the honestly
like he for lack of like um for like me

(13:41):
and not having quotes in front of me. He basically said,
like this season is tame and not that dramatic. Do
you feel the same, and do you think that that
means that, like there's more love stories that are going
to be displayed, So there's definitely no shortage of drama.
But it's not like a shrimpgate type thing. There's no

(14:03):
dumb stuff. Everything like kind of has a reason. Yeah, yeah,
i'd say that, And yeah, there's certainly like a few
dumb instances that happen and things that could have been
handled differently or better. But I think really we're the
actual like show and the drama is centered around actual relationships.

(14:27):
And I don't want to say it's like real life
like issues because like the Bachelor's everything far from real life,
but like relationship drama, relatable issues that people have gone
through and stuff that might have never really been seen
on the Bachelor. But it's not like the you know,
throwing glasses at each other or people fighting over how

(14:49):
many how many pieces of shrimp they're eating, Like it's
not that because that's not what I care about like
because I wanted to be at the end of this,
like finding my best friend, not having a show to seven.

(15:12):
So I do this thing often where I say somebody's name,
I say the cast name, and then I try, because
we're on video, to get a reaction out of you.
And it's really like, if you if you give a
hint of a smile, we're gonna feel like this girl
might be one of your final ladies. Okay, I'm already

(15:33):
smiling thinking about it. So my mom says that I've
always I've been telling leads this for like three years now.
My mom says that you won't be able to keep
a straight face if you know the name of the
person that you really love comes up. I'm going to
say the girl's name, and then you have to repeat
her name without smiling. Alright, ready, Ali, Ali, Okay, a

(15:56):
little smile, Guys, definitely check out the instagram to see
his face. Okay, Anastasia, Anastasia, Oh, I think he wanted
to smile more there, Brianna, Brianna, that was more serious.
Cat Cat Gabby, Gabby. All Right, we're gonna go one more.

(16:23):
He's pretty good at this game, guys. He looks pretty
much the exact same every time he says a name, Uh, Catherine, Catherine. Yeah,
all right, he's effing good at this game. Guys, this
is annoying because everything you're sledding. Really, I was getting

(16:45):
a little nervous. Okay, well, let us wrap this up
with two questions. One I've been dying to ask you
for a while, But first was the experience overall, pausetive.
Are you happy now? Absolutely? Absolutely? Okay? Now that smile

(17:07):
was telling. So I do think that for the first
time in a while, we might have a happy ending
that actually remains happy for a while and there's no
drama of reunion. We'll see, we'll see. It would actually
kind of be nice. You know. As much as we
do love that drama at the live show, it's about
time we just get a happy couple that we can

(17:28):
feel good about. Yeah, we'll have to see, We'll have
to see. Okay. And finally, Zach, what the heck happened
between you and Rachel in the Fantasy Suite because we
feel like we're missing a lot. Yeah, I mean a
lot did happen um last season, especially with the Fantasy

(17:50):
Suite um. Essentially, what it came down to was there
was a complete lack of communication. So with Rachel and I,
like you know it, you know, our relationship was was
you know, getting stronger and stronger through the show and
all of our dates, and it would completely like kind

(18:14):
of fall off when we wouldn't see each other and
we wouldn't talk and when we got to the actual
fantasy suite and um, you know I had that time
to like fully just talk and figure everything out before
the most important day of our lives. Possibly, Um, she
treated me like I was a complete stranger. Like how
so it was like think a bit like this, like, um,

(18:39):
you're you're with someone, like you're with a boyfriend or
a girlfriend or a husband or wife and you love
them and they start just interviewing you like it's like
your first interview at a job. Like they don't even
look at you, the saying they don't look at you
with any love or any feelings, and it's like just
like treating you like a stranger. And like it was

(19:03):
just like bam bam bam, like interview questions this and that,
and like there was no like comfort there and there
was like everything I can't, I don't I don't want
to divulgion to the actual details for respect for for
both Rachel and I. But it was just like everything
was like like just almost like a rapid fire, and

(19:24):
everything was never like a good answer, and I was
just never good enough. And then it's just like the
night was ending before going to bed of just like
we were just both sitting there next to each other
and just like this this can't be true, Like this
can't be like how like like we see each other,
how we spend time together, and like like does she

(19:46):
even care for me, like in the same way I
feel for her, or even at all. And you know,
after like having some time after everything and having to
make that tough move, was like looking back at it
as a whole in and to me, the only way
I could like really um like justify and like rationalize it.
And after talking with her at the show was you

(20:08):
know that her heart was with someone else at that
point and she couldn't communicate that to me the right way,
and she apologized for that, but it came down to
just like it just wasn't shared with me in like
the healthiest way, and it like let me to believe
and feel like I'm being blindsided. So it was It

(20:31):
was tough, but you know, I wish her nothing but
the best. Did that make you feel like she was
acting the entire time you guys were not behind closed doors? Well,
I mean my mind went so many different directions because
it was like, Okay, if this is you, then who
was I with on this entire journey? Like who was it? Was? It?

(20:54):
Like I my fear and this is my fear for
this season is like people putting it on for the
camera or not, Like are you here for like the
followers or Instagram and this and that are to be famous?
Or are you actually open at the idea of finding
love and like being open to that? And I went
through that with Rachel. Thinking about that afterwards it was like, wait,
which one was it? And for this season I carried

(21:17):
that on. I'm just being like, hey, we're communicating everything
good or bad, like let me know like who you
are or it's it's going to come out okay. Well,
I feel like that is definitely going to be something
that is part of the theme of this season and
it probably makes fantasy Suites a really big deal for you,
and not even in a sexual way, just in like

(21:38):
I gotta get to know these girls in a private
setting way. Yeah, of course, of course. And it's like
the last thing I want is any of the women
to be blindsided or to not feel like that they
know like where I stand or like where my heart
is that because it sucks, like when you have that
like heartbreak or when you're just so caught off guard

(21:59):
and you're like asking so many questions and you're confused.
Like I wanted to minimize that as much as possible.
All Right, well, guys, I feel like I have just
scratched the surface with Zach. We're about to get to
know him a lot more throughout this season, and we
personally are going to get to know him a lot
more because he is coming to Karma, California with us
about a week and a half. We're really excited. He's

(22:19):
going to be doing interviews with Bob Guinea on our
Crossover podcast and with Ben, So you guys are going
to feel like you know Zack so well after the
next couple episodes we have him and Zach thank you
so much for making the trip and like hanging out
with us there. We're excited. We're excited to get to
know you, you know, beyond the whatever the projection of

(22:43):
you is right now. I appreciate that, and it's so
nice meeting you, Ashley, and I'm excited to be at Karma.
I'll be funny, thank you. I've met Bachelor contestants, you know,
once I became part of the show and meeting them
in person, they were so much different than what I
thought they were on TV. And then when I was younger,
I used to go to all these American Idol concerts
and I meet the people who I couldn't stand on TV,

(23:05):
and they would be the nicest backstage, and then sometimes
my favorites wouldn't be the best um in person. So
I always would tell myself, like, don't judge the person
based on like what you've seen of them on TV
thus far. And I feel like that's kind of what
we need to take from you going forward, because I
think that people could be very pleasantly surprised with you
as the Bachelor lead. I hope so. And and thank

(23:28):
you for saying that, because that you bring up a
good point. It's like, until you meet someone, you never
really know, you really don't. Yeah, alright, Zack, thank you
so much, and I'll see you in a week and
have sounds good bye, good luck on Monday. Thank you,
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