I never thought my Bluffton, Ohio deli girl era would come full circle like this—but here we are.
This week on The Keri Croft Show, I’m joined by the one-and-only Jeff Timmons. From his humble Ohio roots to global fame, Jeff shares what life in a boy band was really like: the mental toll, the money misconceptions, the pressure to keep climbing even when you’ve already “made it.”
We talked about:
- Why 98 Degrees almost didn’t make it
- The truth about the “boy band wars” with *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys
- His dream boy band Chip 'n’ Dales lineup (yes, you read that right)
- The one thing that keeps him mentally and physically strong today
This episode is equal parts hilarious and heartfelt—and if you’ve ever chased a dream, been blindsided by success, or just needed a reminder to get right with your own mind, you’ll take something from it.
💥 And if you’re local...
Jeff is performing LIVE with the Columbus Symphony on June 13 at Columbus Commons for A Boy Band Symphony—an epic night of nostalgia you do not want to miss.
🎟 Grab your tickets now:
👉 https://columbussymphony.com/event/a-boy-band-symphony/
Hit play. This one’s got range.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey there you beautiful badass.
Welcome to the Keri Croft Show.
I'm your host, keri Croft,delivering you stories that get
you pumped up and feeling likethe unstoppable savage that you
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Speaker 2 (01:20):
I like the vibe already.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You know, all I'm trying to do is get myself to a
cool status to be interviewingsomeone like you.
I'm like I've got to up my coolgame here.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I don't know Everything I've seen.
You look pretty cool.
You've got a pretty cool hat onthere.
The atmosphere looks prettycool in the background.
You've got a cool jacket on.
You've got the bling on.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Do you really like my hat?
I do.
I made this hat.
I'm going to send you one.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
It's pretty cool.
My wife would rock that hat.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, so I'll send you one and I'll send her one,
yeah, please do.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
She'd love that, but the thing is you have to.
This is Kate.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Hi Jeff, I'm Kate.
Hi there, how are you Good, howare you?
I just kind ofdo-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I know the routine, I know how it goes.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So I'm so excited about this, me too.
I mean, you're the man, themyth, the legend.
I don't know about all that andI'm just a little you know,
I'll go with the flow.
Just a little girl from Ohioover here, so we have that in
common.
Oh, baby, I know what.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Now are you in Columbus, I'm in Columbus, I'm
right in Grandview so I couldthrow a stone to Ohio Stadium.
I love it.
Are you from Columbus?
I'm from Lima.
Oh, lima, amazing.
So I you know, I know Lima.
My first college was Bluffton,which wasn't too far from from
Lima, ohio.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Dude, I used to work the deli counter in Bluffton.
Really, oh, fuck, fuck.
I used to light Bluffton up.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
It's a dry town, I remember that.
So we literally had to, had towhen we wanted to drink.
We had to drive to Van Wert toto go get booze or whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, dude, so yeah Lima, so Canton, I mean you're a
we got, we got, definitely gotthat going on the Ohio roots, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I love my Ohio route.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
No matter where you roam, you know whether you
become a pop star and you'reliving in LA.
You have this, this reallygrounded sense of reality.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Oh, there's no question about it.
I mean, I don't.
I think I don't know what I'dbe like if I came from somewhere
else.
I think you know the way wewere raised no-transcript LA to
(03:56):
pursue this.
That's what stood out in in LA.
We were just regular guys, wekind of.
It was the grunge era.
We looked like bums.
We were dressed in flannels andsweatpants and boots and
singing pop music.
It was people like.
This is weird.
This doesn't really fit withthe scene here in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
But we like it.
Yeah, you're.
You guys are kind of like thewhite version of bone thugs in a
way.
You know, you got these, yougot these.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Is that even pop?
I mean the bone thugs.
They have their own uniquestyle and certainly they're.
You know, the bone thugs are myguys.
I love those guys I didsomething with lazy bone on a
track.
It never came out, but I lovethe bone thugs.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
They're from cleveland, you know, yeah, I
have listened to bone thugssince I was 15 and my light blue
suzuki Sidekick with the whiteleather top, but you know they
have, like that, the Ohio roots.
They go out to LA with two leftfeet, they don't know what the
fuck they're doing, but they hadsomething so authentic that
people wanted it and that's.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
That's the similarity there between the two of you.
Yeah, I mean, and those guysare hard workers too, you know,
and uh, you know they did, theygot with easy and they had a
unique style and delivery.
That's still unique.
There are people that havetried to mimic it, but there's
really nobody like bone thugs.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So you guys, are like these wide-eyed good old boys
from ohio, like those early daysof like integrating into
hollywood and la, and it's sucha scene, you know, like what did
.
What was that?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
like it was weird.
I mean we, uh, you know, likewhat did what was that?
Like it was weird, I mean we.
You know what I really noticedwhen I first got to Hollywood my
brother had just graduated fromOhio state.
He went to Ohio state.
I didn't he.
He graduated from Ohio state.
He was living with another guythat was an Ohio guy and they
were struggling actors.
And so when I, you know, when Ifirst got to California, we were
Northern California, my fatherhad gotten transferred there.
(05:45):
So when we made the trip crosscountry, we kind of camped out
there until we made our way toLA for a couple of months.
And then we went to LA and whatI noticed, when we were getting
into the scene and all theseyoung actors were there and my
brother was talking to some ofthem and his roommate Eric was a
part of the scene I noticedthat nobody was going on
(06:05):
auditions.
All these actors were there tobe actors, but they weren't
going on auditions.
They were either going out toclubs, maxing out their parents'
credit cards, partying all thetime, or constantly just getting
new headshots, or going toacting class, and I'm like you
know, those are all great things, but don't you actually have to
(06:26):
go audition for stuff at somepoint, you know.
So I was like what I noticed wasour, our work ethic was
standing out there right away.
So I'm like you know what, ifwe work hard enough and just
keep going out there and singing, live one thing about us.
We could sing acapella anywhere.
So you know, if we just keepsinging for people, people are
going to we're going to getdiscovered and we're just going
to be consistent and persistentand that's what happened.
(06:49):
I mean, we started gettingpeople's attention and they were
like, oh, this is cool.
You know, this is different.
And again, at that time it wasjust grunge, just boys to men.
There was a group called AllFor One, who we're dear friends
with now.
They were kind of coming out,but there was no backstreet or
boy band or anything like that.
So you know, for us to go outthere and be a vocal group, uh,
(07:09):
from ohio was kind of stickingout, so it was a little bit
unique I was listening to aninterview you were doing.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I think you were talking to bradley, which we'll
get to, um, but uh, you said youguys, when you first started,
you like turned your back towardthe crowd because you were that
unsure.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Nervous.
We were nervous.
So I mean, like you know, likeI mentioned, the original group
I started with were some guysthat I went to high school with
and just ran into at my fourthcollege.
I was on my fourth college, Ihad been trying to play football
and bouncing place to place andthen, you know, I was like I'm
not going to be able to playfootball, I'm just not good
enough.
So then I went to Kent stateand literally wandered into this
(07:51):
club by myself, cause I didn'tknow anybody, and ran into some
guys I went to high school withand and then went to their
apartment and hung out with themand I never went back.
I had just gotten there.
I never went back.
(08:29):
No-transcript would go crazy,but we were so nervous we
couldn't, we didn't want to facethe crowd.
We literally walk up on stage,grab the microphones, turn our
backs to the crowd.
Here, you know, you have people, you know of all ages, drinking
(08:53):
and you know, are fearless,getting up and singing Sweet
Caroline or, you know,suspicious Minds by Elvis, and
here were four young guys,nervous to face even them.
And you know, at first weturned our backs to the crowd.
We were singing at this clubcalled Bumpers and you know the
owner kept coming up and guys,you guys are great.
But you know, at some point youknow you got to turn around and
face the crowd so they can seeyou and eventually I don't know
(09:14):
whether it was liquid courage ornot you know, the more beers we
had, the better we thought wesounded, that we ended up having
that confidence, but it was awork in progress.
I mean, certainly to your point,none of this was like just a
snap in an overnight or we weresome anomaly.
It was four guys with the kindof a harebrained idea and
thankfully, you know, I ended upconnecting with Nick after
(09:35):
those guys left, although theywere talented too, and you know,
and Nick had some experienceand his brother and Justin had
some experience in theperforming arts space.
But it wasn't like we justwalked off the plane into Motown
Records and signed amulti-million dollar record deal
and the rest was history.
It was a lot of grinding, a lotof ups and downs, mostly downs
(09:59):
for a long, long time.
But we wanted to do it.
We had the drive and dedicationand passion and self-belief and
determination to do it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
We just we had the drive and dedication and passion
and self-belief anddetermination to do it.
We should continue to do abetter job of being open, and
that's one of the things that Ido on my show is just, I want
people to feel seen, heard, lessalone and understood what in
(10:29):
whatever lane they're in.
So maybe talk about that alittle bit around when you're in
the thick of that and you'rejust getting just kicked in the
nuts left and right, like yeah,there's highs to it, right,
there's girls throwing theirunderwear on stage or whatever
the hell's going on your youknow fame, but there's gotta be
a lot of behind the scenes darkstuff happening.
(10:51):
How did you handle all that?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Like a guy from Ohio, well, it was hard because we
didn't know what to expect.
All you saw was that what's onTV.
I think you know the onlyexpose is you could, you could
see is when, like peoplemagazine, would do a deep dive
into some drama with somebody,or you know, at that time, I
think, bh1 started to havebehind the music.
So you go oh wow, billy Joelgot robbed.
(11:12):
Wow, that's crazy.
There wasn't.
Like.
You know, you couldn't justGoogle up or go on social media
and learn things behind thescenes like that.
You just had to figure it out.
It's going to get thrown to you.
You have to learn the business.
You know it's the musicbusiness, it's the entertainment
business.
It's a business.
People are making money from it.
It's competitive and everybodywants to do it.
(11:34):
I mean, everybody wants to bein a band or an actor or be
famous.
I don't care, people will saythat, but you know, secretly
everybody has said well, I usedto play guitar in this local
band.
Or, you know, I used to docommunity theater.
So you don't know what toexpect in a highly, highly
competitive and cut throatbusiness.
Until you're in the thick ofthings, you're going oh okay, so
I'm not making any money off ofany records I sell.
(11:56):
Oh, I got to pay back that limoyou picked me up in, or those
cool clothes you got me.
Or you know that restaurant youbought us all those steaks.
We pay back all that before wemake anything off of our record.
You don't learn that until youknow you're.
You're about a year into it,right?
No one's going to tell youabout it, right?
They want you to grind and workand just get up on stage or get
(12:17):
in the photos and perform.
So you know, a lot of that canbe overwhelming, especially when
you're you're thrown into it soquickly.
Although it wasn't an overnightsuccess, the success did come
overnight.
We grinded for a while and thenall of a sudden shot out of a
cannon right Once we were on TRLand an MTV and embraced us, and
television embraced us.
You know, all of a sudden, youknow we're, we're, we're the
(12:40):
hottest thing since sliced bread.
And you know all these peopleare coming at you and you have
these opportunities and thisperson's supposed to be on your
team.
Oh well, you need a businessmanager, oh, and you need a
lawyer, oh, and you need amanager.
And then you need a PR firm.
And then all of a sudden youhave all these people on your
payroll.
Well, wait a second.
We were just driving an RVaround with our pictures on it,
(13:02):
driving it ourselves, worriedabout gas money, singing for
food, and now I take care of allthese people, not to mention
all the people that were therekind of staking claim and how
they were a part of your successor certain friends or family.
Hey man, you got an extracouple bucks.
I'm like.
Well, I know I'm supposed to bea millionaire.
I haven't seen any paychecksyet.
Maybe when I get off the roadin six months it'll be sitting
(13:23):
in a bank account with this newbusiness manager that I have,
you know.
So I don't know.
It just gets suddenly crazy.
And then and it's so busy thatthere's no time to take a breath
Literally like you get to ahotel and you go.
Well, it's midnight now or oneo'clock in the morning.
Now I got to be up at threeo'clock to start doing
interviews with people overseas,and then we're going to get in
(13:45):
the car or the plane and go tothe next venue and do the
in-store.
So it was a grind.
There's no time to really kindof wrap your head around it.
You're depending on all this,these people, that on your newly
assembled team to be takingcare of things for you.
But you know, when money startsto flow it starts to kind of
cloud people's judgment and theymay be not as qualified to do
the things that they're supposedto do.
(14:06):
So it was a bit overwhelming.
And then you start to lose youridentity in the process.
You go, wait a second, I amfrom Ohio and I'm not really
this major superstar, or am I?
I wanted to do it, or am Isupposed to talk like this?
Or what are people expecting?
So it's a lot for a youngperson.
I mean, we weren't kids, wewere in our early 20s, but it's.
It's a lot for anybody at anyage to to have to decipher.
(14:29):
But ultimately, you know we hadeach corny be mindful and
self-aware.
(14:50):
But you know that took a littlewhile for me to get to that
point.
But you know you get depressedand you start to wonder if
you've made the right decisionin your life and if it's real
and people start to changearound you that you've been
around your whole life andyou're not necessarily changing.
They are because they expectyou to.
It was a, it was a whirlwindand it's still.
It still is that way today.
(15:11):
You know you still have peoplecoming in and coming out of your
life.
You just you've been around somany people in so many different
places.
At this point you can kind ofintuitively read a room oh,
that's the guy that's theloudest, that's the guy that's
the quietest, or the girl that'sthe quietest, so she's probably
the smartest.
This one needs to floss, thisone wants to steal.
You know you kind of get in alittle bit of this.
(15:32):
One wants to go home with you.
This one's husband wants to gohome with you.
You know you start to you startto really start to assess the
assess the room.
Just by being around you don'treally get smart.
You've just kind of been aroundso many people.
You can get a pace reallyquickly.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Speaking of people wanting to go home with you.
I'm fascinated with thatcomponent.
So I know you're marriedhappily now and you were married
then got divorced, so you'vebeen locked down for quite a
while.
But back when you were single,coming up and you have these
groupies that are just I mean,you could have your pick of the
(16:08):
lot, like any you know, and Iknow that probably makes it less
attractive for you.
So it's like, um, like my boyTupac would say, like I don't
want it if it's that easy.
But how, how did that work?
Like so you have like all thesewomen's like swooning and
you're like, oh, I think you'recute.
Like what did the group?
What was groupie life like?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
It was crazy, as you can imagine.
And look, and originally you go.
You know we were trying, wewere, we sang to impress, of
course you're a young guy.
At college we were singing toimpress the girls at first.
You know you want to impressgirls, you want to have an you
know, some sort of a connectionwith with the girls, right,
that's every guy at that ageloves women, right, and they
want to meet girls.
(16:48):
And so when that part comes,you're like yeah, wow, this is
crazy.
But it's about 30 seconds in andyou're right, it gets really
boring and overwhelming andpredictable and too easy.
And it also you know lots ofsound corny.
But you know you grow up andyou know you buy your, you're
trying to, you're trying toswoon girls or you're trying to
enamor girls with with.
(17:08):
You know you buy yourgirlfriend flowers or gifts or
you know you write them poems orwrite them songs or you try to.
You know people would have beenin executive positions that are
(17:31):
in relationships or girlfriendsthat are yelling at their
husbands who are at homewatching their kid while they're
out at girls night out tryingto get with you or try to get in
your hotel room.
It's pretty disappointing, youknow not to sound corny, but
you're like, man, this is kindof you get.
You get to peek behind thecurtain of what it's really like
and you almost wish you didn'thave that opportunity.
(17:54):
It sounds really crazy and anyguy will be like, oh, shut up,
man.
That must have been amazing.
Of course it was for, like, likeI said, about 30 seconds and
then, by the way, you're busy,you got a job.
You're actually trying toconnect with someone.
You know at that point, someonereal.
Connect with someone.
You know, at that point,someone real.
So none of this stuff is realto you.
(18:14):
You know it's not real becauseyou know two months before that
we were at, you know, calabasas,cantina in Northern, you know,
in outside of LA, and none ofthose girls would talk to us
because we weren't famous,weren't rich, didn't have any
money, weren't dressed the rightway.
And then you know you walk inthere, oh my God, they shut the
place down and give you aprivate table and give you
bottle service and surround youby the most beautiful people in
(18:36):
there.
You'd have to be an idiot tonot really to be absorbed into
that and think it's real.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Well, and that's the thing it's like.
That's where I feel like a lotof people probably struggle with
mental health and maybe turn toaddiction of some sort, because
that life would feel, you know,while it seems so glamorous, it
would just feel so fake.
You're like wait, none of thesepeople would even be around me
if I didn't hit all these boxesLike where's Ohio, where's
(19:01):
where's the real shit happeningLike that.
That balance of that had to bewild and continue to be wild for
you.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, it is, and it's just you know you, ultimately,
at the end of the day, you canhave.
I have a wonderful family, mywife is amazing, but you're in
this journey pretty much byyourself.
You know what I mean.
I'm on the road a lot right,and they get.
I'm very fortunate we're in aposition I don't have to be on
the road like I used to and theyjoin me all the time, which is
great.
But this is an experience evenwith the group.
(19:29):
You're an individual andeverybody in their lives
experience their own life withthemselves.
So, you know, trying to get anunderstanding of the reality of
it and humanity, and if you're athinker and a lot of
entertainers are deep thinkersand overthinkers and obsessive
thinkers for whatever reason,you know you want to find some
meaning into it at some point.
Of course, there are amazingperks.
(19:52):
I wouldn't trade anything I'vegotten to do and continue to get
to do, I think, things thatmaybe less than 1% of the people
get to do I'm about to go tothe Philippines again and go to
perform it for 20,000 people ina different country or a tour of
the world and see exotic places, and they treat you like a king
there and you know you get tosee these beautiful things and
(20:14):
get to experience wonderfulthings, but ultimately you want
to share a connection withsomebody at the end of the day,
right, and so this stuff is cool, but it's also a job, right.
It's also certainly blown outof proportion.
The, the, the high highs of itand the glamor is is, uh, is
(20:34):
certainly, you know, looked uponand people covet that and they
want to be like like that untilyou get it and then you go okay,
now, okay, what's next, youknow, and there, and then when
you're at the top, there is noreally the next one.
You've got to like, keepincrementally, try to stay there
, and it's a difficult sort ofthing, but so really it's
(20:55):
important to to really get toknow yourself.
You need to make friends withyour mind and a lot of people,
when you're talking aboutaddiction or you're talking
about substance abuse oralcoholism, and a lot of people
are trying to escape fromthemselves, not just the scene
they don't want to be friendswith their brain.
So you know you ultimately haveto become confident enough that
(21:16):
you accept yourself for who youare, you make friends with your
mind and you can get away andstay, keep your truth the whole
entire time and if you can dothat, you can be put into any
situation and then come out ofit unscathed, because you know
you're going to be you when youcome out of it, no matter what
happens in that situation.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
So you look like you're pretty fit.
You're holding it down overthere.
What's your?
Give me your like daily, weeklyvibe here.
What are you doing to like lookso good?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, look, I've tried to stay in shape for a
long time.
It kind of started with justplaying sports in high school
and college and then we, just alot of people we were talking
about this the other day doingan interview in New York we're
on a press run and they're likewell, what made you guys decide
to be the muscular boy band?
I mean it's can you imaginelike we, we, we all just walked
in the room.
We're like, well, we can'tdance.
We kind of all have a littlebit of muscle.
(22:09):
Maybe we should just lift more.
None of us thought consciouslydid that.
We were all just athletic guys.
And then, you know, once theywere you know the labels or the
teen magazine photographers theywere like, oh, put this tank
top on or take your shirt off.
You know, it wasn't like wemade that decision.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
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Speaker 2 (24:19):
You know, but I've tried to stay in shape since
then.
You know, early on I wassuffering from some mental
health problems and it was basedon my diet.
I went to see a psychiatristright when we got signed and
I've talked about this quite abit.
For some reason I was depressedwe were about to come out with
an album.
It was probably the pressure ofit and pressure from the label
(24:40):
and certainly wasn't healthywith the way I was eating and I
got on the Atkins diet, which isa low carb diet.
I immediately lost whatever fatI had and and my had some
mental clarity there and I'vejust stayed on a diet or a
variation of it.
So I'm on the keto diet, soit's mostly what I eat.
But I also I like to get up veryearly in the morning.
(25:00):
I like to be regimented with mystuff and I get up early in the
morning 536 o'clock, you know,depending and I'll do some
cardio in the morning, get aworkout in, and that just sets
the day mentally for me.
Physically that's a, that's aside effect of it.
Right, it gets my, gets mychemicals in my brain, kind of
set for the day and and I startthen and then I'll maybe do some
(25:23):
cardio at night before I go tobed, just to just to kind of
unwind a little bit.
I do, I meditate a little bit,you know, 20 minutes a night, uh
, before I go to bed or early inthe morning, just to kind of
get your brain, you know, getthe chaos out of the way early
so you can be set and focusedfor the day.
And all that stuff results inyou looking a lot better and
feeling a lot better.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Where's your?
Do you have like a space whereyou meditate, like a, like a
separate room, or what's yourmeditation?
Well, you see this room here.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I have a cool house, but this is where I do
everything.
I do my music, I do mymeditating in here.
I do interviews, because theydon't let me in the rest of the
I'm not allowed to.
My family doesn't allow me outof this room.
If I meander into the hallway,my kids and my wife are like oh,
what are you doing?
Get back into, go back intoyour hole.
So I've learned to doeverything in this room.
This is where I get it all done.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I love that.
So you're I mean, you arekeeping busy.
So you guys, just you releaseda new album too, and you're
doing this boy band, symphony,which we I need to hear more
about this.
I love, I love that conceptWell thanks for bringing that up
.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I appreciate you giving it the plug.
Yeah, it's our first album along time.
It's called full circle.
We, we did our, we pulled thetaylor swift and did our
re-record so we could own ourmaterial.
So the songs sound nearlyexactly like they did when we
recorded them, which was achallenge.
But we went in there and reallydissected, dissected them and
and really wanted to.
You know, we knew that the fanslike them that way, so we
(26:45):
wanted them to sound just likethat.
And then we have five new oneswhich are really, really great.
We're we're proud of and youknow we were fortunate.
Last week it debuted number oneon the pop charts on iTunes.
You know, I don't know.
You know those charts fluctuate, but to be even after all these
years, that's our first numberone album.
We've had number two, numberthree.
We've never had a number onealbum.
So we're proud of that andthat's out now.
(27:06):
And then, yeah, the boy bandsymphony thing is something that
I really wanted to do for awhile.
I did a boy band Christmas toura couple of years ago and then
arranged with a friend of minewho is a conductor at a symphony
oh, holy night with anorchestra and got with Eric
Estrada who was on that tourEric's from O-Town and we were
like man, maybe we should do awhole tour with an orchestra
(27:28):
with all the boy band songs andsee what they sound like.
So we connected with Chris,who's a dear friend of mine,
chris from NSYNC, kirkpatrickfrom NSYNC and we've been doing
this boy band symphony thing andit's been really really well
received.
I mean, those songs with anorchestra and the orchestras
we've been performing with sound, it sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, I love that.
That's so great.
So, speaking of him, you guysbeing good friends, what was the
when you guys were all at yourpeak, like when you guys first
hit the scene?
So backstreet boys were likethe thing.
And then you guys pop up andthey're like, oh shit, got some
west side story shit going on.
Like how did you, how did thebackstreet boys 98 degrees and
(28:07):
in sync Boys, 98 Degrees andNSYNC How'd you guys handle like
being this trifecta of like hottestosterone boy band Awesome?
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I well, thank you, I guess, but anyway you just got
your social clip.
I love it.
I love it though.
So we, we started off like Isaid.
We were like we wanted to belike boys to men.
There were no boy bands.
The only boy band we kind ofheard of was back in the day,
was new kids and was new edition, and those groups were put
(28:40):
together and we were like andyou know what they get knocked
for, being assembled andmanufactured.
So we didn't want to beassociated with anything like
that.
We wanted to be a vocal groupthat was inspired by, you know,
four-part harmony, like boys tomen and and all that stuff and
groups like that.
So when we came onto the scenewe came onto the scene at the
same time Backstreet wasbreaking and we didn't consider
(29:02):
ourselves in the same genre atall.
The difference was their labelput them on stuff and our label
took us off stuff.
They wanted people to think wewere an urban group, so they
didn't promote us.
They want people people tothink we were a black group, and
so what happened with that is,you know, urban radio.
People in that, in the, in thatgenre.
They thought they didn't likethat.
(29:22):
The label was trying to fool us.
They thought we were trying topull a fast one.
Here we were just doing what,what, what, uh, what.
The label told us go, go, showup and sing right.
And so that didn't work.
And meanwhile we watchedBackstreet Boys just skyrocket
through the atmosphere.
We were literally going intomusic stores and seeing these
displays that pretty much werean entire storefront of the
(29:43):
Backstreet Boys, and then we'dhave to go fishing through the
bins and find our CD one if itwas there and buy it ourselves.
You know, and and and we werewondering what was going on with
all that and and.
Then, you know, ultimately ourfirst album was not a success
and we just went up into Canadaand and started doing renegade
promotion and then went toEurope and started promoting
(30:04):
there in Southeast Asia, and wemet in sync there, and and we
became fast friends with thoseguys and we also were like man,
if these guys come into theStates, it's a wrap.
I mean, these guys are amazing,they sing, they dance, and, you
know, backstreet Boys alsosuper talented, but we hadn't
considered ourselves in thatgenre, and so both of those guys
(30:25):
actually exploded before us inthe US, both of those groups,
and you know, we we ended upgetting a new label head at
Motown, george Jackson came in.
He was amazing to us.
They pretty much gutted theentire roster.
They fired Andre Harrell, whowas president of Motown, who
signed us, and George just keptus and he was like, well, look,
(30:46):
we have our own version ofBackstreet and NSYNC.
Maybe we should put them ontelevision and put them on teen
magazines.
And so once that happened, youknow, we were considered this
trifecta, although we resistedit.
We were like no, they dance andwe were trying to be too cool.
But as far as the groups areconcerned, we always had a
mutual respect for everybody.
We would do stuff at the sameradio shows as those guys.
(31:08):
Ultimately we're on some of thesame, you know, big packages
and bills as those guys and weloved them.
I mean, we were, we werefriends with all those guys.
The media wanted to sort of piteverybody against each other,
but you know, ultimately, youknow, we, we, we became very,
very good friends and now we, weall kind of mix and match and
do different projects together.
(31:29):
I've done stuff with Chris andAJ and now Chris and Eric and
we've toured together withO-Town and we were supposed to
do a big show with Backstreet inOklahoma City but there was
like a big hurricane or no,there was like a tornado or
something like that whichcanceled the show.
But we all have a ton ofrespect for each other.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Hypothetical, okay, and I don't want to hear a bunch
of like don't give me a bunchof run around and try to be
political.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I got you.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I'm going to you have a little van, little sprinter
van we're going to give you.
You get to travel acrosscountry, okay, non-stop.
You can stop to like, pee andget some snacks at the Speedway
or something, but you can onlybring three other people with
you.
You can only pick one from 98degrees.
Oh so you have.
(32:15):
You have to choose the mostperfect road trip right now with
members from either backstreetboys in sync, 98 degrees, you
have 20 seconds.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
I can't just pick one of my members from my group.
You're gonna get me in troublewell, there has to be okay.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But okay, how about this?
Like is one better withdirections?
Is one more laid back?
Like it doesn't mean cause, I'mgoing to ask you another
hypothetical.
You may include somebody elsein on that one, all right, so?
I can only.
I have three people to pickfrom Yep.
And you have to choose from theother groups too.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Okay, what would make the best?
Speaker 1 (32:45):
well-rounded experience.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
I would take AJ from from backstreet, cause I've
worked with him before.
He's a ton of fun, althoughNick's really cool too, but AJ I
spent more time with, so I'lltake AJ from Backstreet he's
awesome.
And then I take Chris fromNSYNC.
Love the guys like one of mybest friends in the world, so
that part's easy.
Choosing one from my group isreally tough.
I mean, my goodness.
I mean uh, you know Nick's bestwith directions, drew's best
(33:11):
with organization and Justin'sthe most laid back.
So I probably Justin and I werealways rooming together and
always got stuck together onstuff.
So I'll take Justin with mebecause I know him the most.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
You're going to start an empire, okay.
Okay, you're going to startsome fucking amazing hybrid.
You're going to go into AI andbe like hybrid.
You're going to like go into AIand be like AI.
What's this amazing empire?
I can start spit it out.
You can only pick two peoplefrom any of those three.
I don't care if you pick zerofrom your band.
You can pick all of them fromyour band.
(33:45):
Who would be if you had to puta flag in the ground?
Who would you start an empirewith today?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And I have to pick someone from my group.
I can only pick two.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
No, no, you can pick whomever is going to get you to
the promised land An empire.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Wow, as far as boy band guys go, that's a tough one
I would take to start an empire.
I'll take Nick along with me onthat, one from my group and hmm
.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Situation yeah, dude.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
He's been very successful outside of the group
Genius, so I'll take him with me, and then I probably would take
, you know, howie.
I'll take Howie from Backstreet.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Howie's supposed to be a big entrepreneur in the
real estate space and a goodbusinessman, so I'll take Howie
and Nick from my group yourprevious interaction with them
that they have offered you guystoo much money to say no to
(34:55):
actually be the Chippendales,and there can only be four of
you Are you talking from the boy?
bands, but you guys are theChippendale, you are the guys
with the ties and the bananahammocks.
So it's you and three otherguys and you can pick up any
three who who's gonna make thisthe most successful?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
make the right I, I for chippendales.
I would take aj again becausehe can dance and he's a great
performer.
I would take nick, because he'sstill jacked from my group.
I'll take nick, he's in goodshape.
Gotta have gotta have muscles alittle bit.
And then, you know, for comicrelief, uh, because he's got a
(35:36):
ton of personality, I wouldbring Joey Fatone in.
That would be my, my dream teamof of the uh, the boy band
version of Chippendales, this,this, by the way, these guys are
all just going to love me afterthis interview.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Well, you know, the truth is what it is.
Don't hate the player, hate thegame guys, they don't care.
Okay, back to Boyz II Men.
What is your if you had to pickyour favorite and don't
overthink this, but like thefavorite Boyz II Men song that
comes to mind right now, becauseI've got mine and it's now
playing on repeat in my head.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Man man, I love so many so I'll probably say
Unbended Knee, but it can changeat any time.
I mean I love all their songs.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
I'm a massive Boyz II Men fan.
But, when they go 10, 9, 8,.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Uh, ah, so we did a medley.
That's what got us signed, sowe did a Boyz II Men medley.
And it started with thatcountdown and we did a little
bit of uh, and then did I'llmake love to you.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
End of the road.
That's what we did.
That's how we got signed, youknow, and I was just watching,
um, I stumbled upon your, yourlittle uh.
What did you guys?
You were singing god, it's themichael.
Oh, she's out of my life.
Oh, yeah, we love that.
No, I love like that is one ofmy all.
I mean, that's that songprobably is my favorite Michael
Jackson song.
That maybe like human nature.
But wow, what are you guyssounded like little angels.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Thank you, I appreciate it.
You know we, I love Mike, weall love Michael Jackson too.
I have a big, huge MichaelJackson fan and we, we, we did
that song and it was on our demotape.
It was originally on our demotapes and it was arranged by
this guy named Devin Bierre whowent to school with the other
guys.
This guy just came.
We wanted to do it.
We wanted to put somethingdifferent and unique on the demo
(37:21):
tape, because it was a tape.
Remember tapes?
You know what a tape is A tape?
It goes into a cassette.
It's called a cassette.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
All right, the pencil remember the pencil you've like
.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
that's what we had to do after we listened to the
demo too much we had to fix it,wind the tape back in.
But that was on our demo anddevin did a great arrangement
and they loved it.
We sang that one live too whata song.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
And it cuts like a knife, like I keep singing it.
Let me hear the end.
It's so.
She's out of my life so good, Iremember being like God.
How old was I?
I was young, but I remember itbrought me to tears when I was
like a little kid.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, I mean he cries at the end he sounds like he's
crying.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
It's so crazy.
It's the best I wasn't about tocry on the demo.
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I cried when I was trying to learn the arrangement.
I was like damn, we're nevergoing to get this shit.
It's too hard.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Are you a crier?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, oh, I'm an emotional guy, of course.
Yeah, I'm not afraid of that.
I'm not afraid of emotion.
I mean, I'm a person that likesto be alive.
(38:43):
So how'd you get hooked up withBradley?
He wanted me.
He was working with BraunStudios, so he was talking about
me doing some music supervisionfor that.
Long story short, he hit me upout of the blue.
He's like you gotta, you gottameet my guy, brad Leah, and do
his podcast.
So I went in and met Brad anddid that.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Oh, you met him All right.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
He's a, he's a, he's a character with him.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
He has no idea who I am, okay, but but somehow, some
way I was getting served up hiscontent and he is the only I I
am.
I never comment.
I am not somebody to ever, andif I ever comment, it's positive
.
Yeah, he pissed me off for thelast time.
I'm like this guy with women,and so I remember one day I was
like you fucking son of a bitch,and I sent it it and I was like
God, this guy gets to me.
Well then, when I wasresearching for you, I'm like
(39:33):
wait, this is the guy.
So I start watching thisinterview because I'm like I
didn't realize that Brad Lee wasjust doing.
Maybe this was like a one-offbecause of your relationship,
but I just have one question foryou.
Sure, go ahead.
Did he have an extra?
Speaker 2 (39:51):
chair there and microphone for his ego.
I thought he was great.
Yeah, I know, in the beginning Ididn't know what to expect,
honestly, because you know, alot of times I don't really like
.
I'm the opposite.
If I'm having a meeting withsomebody for business, I will
Google, stalk them, learneverything about them, right?
So I have a background on theperson I'm meeting.
I want to know that.
No, let them know that, I knowthem.
(40:16):
But when it comes to the podcast, I don't like to look at what
people do in advance so thequestions can be answered more
naturally and I don't want to beprepared for it.
So with him I didn't preparefor it at all and I went in.
Really he had a really niceplace and in the beginning there
it was all about how youtouched upon the groupies.
He was really trying to get meinto this groupie thing, which
is kind of the low-hanging fruitwhich is, like I said, it's
(40:37):
actually boring to talk about.
You want me to go into myentire Rolodex and resume of
groupies.
It's going to get prettyredundant, right.
So he was really kind ofangling on that.
But after about 20 minutes ofthat we started to talk about a
(40:58):
little more in-depth stuff.
His show is called DroppingBombs.
So if you ultimately give him akernel of knowledge or
something that's profound, he'llhit the dropping bomb sound.
So he started doing that.
We were getting into a littlemore things that were in-depth,
but it didn't start that way.
I actually found him aninteresting guy and I enjoyed
the podcast.
But you know, look, we'veencountered every type of person
.
You know people are trying toget us on gotcha stuff still and
(41:20):
you know we know how to handlethat and I know that's people's
gimmicks and stuff like that.
But I found him to believe itor not, not, to dispel your
preconceived ideas about him, Iended up enjoying the podcast.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I'm going to know.
My goal is to be in like astreet fight somehow with him in
some way.
He's a pretty big guy.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
He's in shape too.
Yeah, he's in pretty good shape.
That doesn't mean you can fight, though you look like you're a
pretty big scrapper over there,especially with that savage hat
on.
You can't wear a savage hatwithout being sad.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, he needs to keep his head on a swivel around
me.
Keep his head on yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
I, I do see his.
You know I follow him now, so II see his his content, the
cartoons and all the stuff aboutwomen.
It actually cracks me up.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
And I also am not I'm not some hardcore feminist Like
can't take it.
I mean, I find a lot of thingslike the whole be a man stuff,
like I think some of that shithim.
On the other hand, he tips it alittle bit over to like the
male chauvinist side where it'sa little too real, and so that's
where I was like I startedtrolling his ass.
Well, look, you know causethat's, that's a.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
that's a niche.
Now, it's always been a niche,but because, because of the all
the me too stuff and it and howfar left everything went that
there are these guys that aretrying to identify themselves as
masculine and so they look atthese guys who are way on the
other side of it and they, theykind of identify with that, or
(42:44):
at least they're trying toidentify with that, as opposed
to them kind of just figuringout who they are.
You know that that's why he'sgot a massive following.
It's like that andrew tate, thetate brothers stuff, I mean the
, that's the same kind of, and Idon't want to insult him by
saying he's that hyper masculine, because I didn't get that from
him, but his content is notworry about.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Let's not worry about hurting that guy's feelings.
He's fine, he's fine beinghonest about it so let me, let
me, um, you're coming tocolumbus on the 14th of june.
How, how long do you guys stayaround like?
How long are you here?
Speaker 2 (43:18):
well, we're coming in a day early because we're doing
some local press there.
Traditionally we come in, dothe show because all three of us
have pretty crazy schedules.
So we're going in a day earlydoing some local media there
promoting the show, and then wehave the show the next day and
then we're out.
But you know, chris, chris'sgirl, chris's wife, is from
there, so he's a bit.
She's a big Ohio State, so Idon't know whether he's he's
(43:39):
sticking around or not.
I know that my wife is talkingabout coming in with a couple of
my kids, so I don't know howlong I'm going to stay.
I don't.
My schedule is not that.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
I think I might have something after that but I was
really hoping to get you guys inhere because the studio is so
cool and it's such a great,especially to do like social
clips and promo and all that,and I just didn't know if you
guys had any time to stop byhere.
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
I'll talk to.
I'll put the the um.
I'll let them know that youwant us there.
I'll put it in the group email.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
See what they say I mean, I've got a really good
community here.
I feel like it'd be worth yourtime and I just think it'd be
cool and fun and there's nothinglike this in the Midwest.
Truly, this is more ofsomething you would see in the
big city, so it's cool when Ihave people like you.
Stop in.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Oh my gosh, we would love it.
Yeah, I mean, if they don'thave us too crazy booked already
, I'm sure the guys we're gonnabe there.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
So yeah, it'll be fun .
It's right, it's like right ingrandview, in a really cool spot
, I'm gonna send you, I'm gonnasend you two hats um okay, shoot
.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Okay las vegas, nevada, you're in vegas, yeah,
yeah, I don't live in la hell,no do you like vega living in?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
vegas, I love it, love it even in the summer, when
it gets real hot.
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (44:50):
uh, you know, going in an air-cond, go in a
restaurant, stay in my house, goin the pool.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
It's not like.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I'm crawling in a desert.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Well, no, but isn't it kind of like winter here,
where you really are?
It's like really hard to beoutside.
No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Look, I'm from Ohio, the heat there at 80 degrees,
with the humidity, is 50 timesworse than the dry heat here.
I remember playing football inthat heat in the past two days.
It was crazy.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Yeah, but I love it here.
I don't leave my house, I don'tgo down to the Strip.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
I don't do any of that shit.
I stay in my house.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Well, I figure, yeah, you wouldn't go down to the
Strip unless you had to.
I would think, no, well, I'vereally enjoyed this conversation
, thank you.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
You were great.
I appreciate you taking thetime.
You got a great vibe andcertainly we'll talk to the guys
see if we can come back inthere when we're in town.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah, yeah, just send me a DM or something.
It would be really cool.
If not, no worries, but I wouldlove to see you in person.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Well Continued success.
Yes, thanks, gary.
Yeah, you too.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Okay, stay in touch.
Hopefully we'll see you in acouple weeks.
I would love it.
I would love it.
Thanks, okay, bye, three, two,one.
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Don't say I've never doneanything for you.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I like the vibe already.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You know, all I'm trying to do is get myself to a
cool status to be interviewingsomeone like you.
I'm like I've got to up my coolgame here.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I don't know Everything I've seen.
You look pretty cool.
You've got a pretty cool hat onthere.
The atmosphere looks prettycool in the background.
You've got a cool jacket on.
You've got the bling on.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Do you really like my hat?
I do.
I made this hat.
I'm going to send you one.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
It's pretty cool.
My wife would rock that hat.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, so I'll send you one and I'll send her one,
yeah, please do.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
She'd love that, but the thing is you have to.
This is Kate.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Hi Jeff, I'm Kate.
Hi there, how are you Good, howare you?
I just kind ofdo-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I know the routine, I know how it goes.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So I'm so excited about this, me too.
I mean, you're the man, themyth, the legend.
I don't know about all that andI'm just a little you know,
I'll go with the flow.
Just a little girl from Ohioover here, so we have that in
common.
Oh, baby, I know what.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Now are you in Columbus, I'm in Columbus, I'm
right in Grandview so I couldthrow a stone to Ohio Stadium.
I love it.
Are you from Columbus?
I'm from Lima.
Oh, lima, amazing.
So I you know, I know Lima.
My first college was Bluffton,which wasn't too far from from
Lima, ohio.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Dude, I used to work the deli counter in Bluffton.
Really, oh, fuck, fuck.
I used to light Bluffton up.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
It's a dry town, I remember that.
So we literally had to, had towhen we wanted to drink.
We had to drive to Van Wert toto go get booze or whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, dude, so yeah Lima, so Canton, I mean you're a
we got, we got, definitely gotthat going on the Ohio roots, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I love my Ohio route.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
No matter where you roam, you know whether you
become a pop star and you'reliving in LA.
You have this, this reallygrounded sense of reality.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Oh, there's no question about it.
I mean, I don't.
I think I don't know what I'dbe like if I came from somewhere
else.
I think you know the way wewere raised no-transcript LA to
(03:56):
pursue this.
That's what stood out in in LA.
We were just regular guys, wekind of.
It was the grunge era.
We looked like bums.
We were dressed in flannels andsweatpants and boots and
singing pop music.
It was people like.
This is weird.
This doesn't really fit withthe scene here in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
But we like it.
Yeah, you're.
You guys are kind of like thewhite version of bone thugs in a
way.
You know, you got these, yougot these.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Is that even pop?
I mean the bone thugs.
They have their own uniquestyle and certainly they're.
You know, the bone thugs are myguys.
I love those guys I didsomething with lazy bone on a
track.
It never came out, but I lovethe bone thugs.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
They're from cleveland, you know, yeah, I
have listened to bone thugssince I was 15 and my light blue
suzuki Sidekick with the whiteleather top, but you know they
have, like that, the Ohio roots.
They go out to LA with two leftfeet, they don't know what the
fuck they're doing, but they hadsomething so authentic that
people wanted it and that's.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
That's the similarity there between the two of you.
Yeah, I mean, and those guysare hard workers too, you know,
and uh, you know they did, theygot with easy and they had a
unique style and delivery.
That's still unique.
There are people that havetried to mimic it, but there's
really nobody like bone thugs.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
So you guys, are like these wide-eyed good old boys
from ohio, like those early daysof like integrating into
hollywood and la, and it's sucha scene, you know, like what did
.
What was that?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
like it was weird.
I mean we, uh, you know, likewhat did what was that?
Like it was weird, I mean we.
You know what I really noticedwhen I first got to Hollywood my
brother had just graduated fromOhio state.
He went to Ohio state.
I didn't he.
He graduated from Ohio state.
He was living with another guythat was an Ohio guy and they
were struggling actors.
And so when I, you know, when Ifirst got to California, we were
Northern California, my fatherhad gotten transferred there.
(05:45):
So when we made the trip crosscountry, we kind of camped out
there until we made our way toLA for a couple of months.
And then we went to LA and whatI noticed, when we were getting
into the scene and all theseyoung actors were there and my
brother was talking to some ofthem and his roommate Eric was a
part of the scene I noticedthat nobody was going on
(06:05):
auditions.
All these actors were there tobe actors, but they weren't
going on auditions.
They were either going out toclubs, maxing out their parents'
credit cards, partying all thetime, or constantly just getting
new headshots, or going toacting class, and I'm like you
know, those are all great things, but don't you actually have to
(06:26):
go audition for stuff at somepoint, you know.
So I was like what I noticed wasour, our work ethic was
standing out there right away.
So I'm like you know what, ifwe work hard enough and just
keep going out there and singing, live one thing about us.
We could sing acapella anywhere.
So you know, if we just keepsinging for people, people are
going to we're going to getdiscovered and we're just going
to be consistent and persistentand that's what happened.
(06:49):
I mean, we started gettingpeople's attention and they were
like, oh, this is cool.
You know, this is different.
And again, at that time it wasjust grunge, just boys to men.
There was a group called AllFor One, who we're dear friends
with now.
They were kind of coming out,but there was no backstreet or
boy band or anything like that.
So you know, for us to go outthere and be a vocal group, uh,
(07:09):
from ohio was kind of stickingout, so it was a little bit
unique I was listening to aninterview you were doing.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I think you were talking to bradley, which we'll
get to, um, but uh, you said youguys, when you first started,
you like turned your back towardthe crowd because you were that
unsure.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Nervous.
We were nervous.
So I mean, like you know, likeI mentioned, the original group
I started with were some guysthat I went to high school with
and just ran into at my fourthcollege.
I was on my fourth college, Ihad been trying to play football
and bouncing place to place andthen, you know, I was like I'm
not going to be able to playfootball, I'm just not good
enough.
So then I went to Kent stateand literally wandered into this
(07:51):
club by myself, cause I didn'tknow anybody, and ran into some
guys I went to high school withand and then went to their
apartment and hung out with themand I never went back.
I had just gotten there.
I never went back.
(08:29):
No-transcript would go crazy,but we were so nervous we
couldn't, we didn't want to facethe crowd.
We literally walk up on stage,grab the microphones, turn our
backs to the crowd.
Here, you know, you have people, you know of all ages, drinking
(08:53):
and you know, are fearless,getting up and singing Sweet
Caroline or, you know,suspicious Minds by Elvis, and
here were four young guys,nervous to face even them.
And you know, at first weturned our backs to the crowd.
We were singing at this clubcalled Bumpers and you know the
owner kept coming up and guys,you guys are great.
But you know, at some point youknow you got to turn around and
face the crowd so they can seeyou and eventually I don't know
(09:14):
whether it was liquid courage ornot you know, the more beers we
had, the better we thought wesounded, that we ended up having
that confidence, but it was awork in progress.
I mean, certainly to your point,none of this was like just a
snap in an overnight or we weresome anomaly.
It was four guys with the kindof a harebrained idea and
thankfully, you know, I ended upconnecting with Nick after
(09:35):
those guys left, although theywere talented too, and you know,
and Nick had some experienceand his brother and Justin had
some experience in theperforming arts space.
But it wasn't like we justwalked off the plane into Motown
Records and signed amulti-million dollar record deal
and the rest was history.
It was a lot of grinding, a lotof ups and downs, mostly downs
(09:59):
for a long, long time.
But we wanted to do it.
We had the drive and dedicationand passion and self-belief and
determination to do it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
We just we had the drive and dedication and passion
and self-belief anddetermination to do it.
We should continue to do abetter job of being open, and
that's one of the things that Ido on my show is just, I want
people to feel seen, heard, lessalone and understood what in
(10:29):
whatever lane they're in.
So maybe talk about that alittle bit around when you're in
the thick of that and you'rejust getting just kicked in the
nuts left and right, like yeah,there's highs to it, right,
there's girls throwing theirunderwear on stage or whatever
the hell's going on your youknow fame, but there's gotta be
a lot of behind the scenes darkstuff happening.
(10:51):
How did you handle all that?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Like a guy from Ohio, well, it was hard because we
didn't know what to expect.
All you saw was that what's onTV.
I think you know the onlyexpose is you could, you could
see is when, like peoplemagazine, would do a deep dive
into some drama with somebody,or you know, at that time, I
think, bh1 started to havebehind the music.
So you go oh wow, billy Joelgot robbed.
(11:12):
Wow, that's crazy.
There wasn't.
Like.
You know, you couldn't justGoogle up or go on social media
and learn things behind thescenes like that.
You just had to figure it out.
It's going to get thrown to you.
You have to learn the business.
You know it's the musicbusiness, it's the entertainment
business.
It's a business.
People are making money from it.
It's competitive and everybodywants to do it.
(11:34):
I mean, everybody wants to bein a band or an actor or be
famous.
I don't care, people will saythat, but you know, secretly
everybody has said well, I usedto play guitar in this local
band.
Or, you know, I used to docommunity theater.
So you don't know what toexpect in a highly, highly
competitive and cut throatbusiness.
Until you're in the thick ofthings, you're going oh okay, so
I'm not making any money off ofany records I sell.
(11:56):
Oh, I got to pay back that limoyou picked me up in, or those
cool clothes you got me.
Or you know that restaurant youbought us all those steaks.
We pay back all that before wemake anything off of our record.
You don't learn that until youknow you're.
You're about a year into it,right?
No one's going to tell youabout it, right?
They want you to grind and workand just get up on stage or get
(12:17):
in the photos and perform.
So you know, a lot of that canbe overwhelming, especially when
you're you're thrown into it soquickly.
Although it wasn't an overnightsuccess, the success did come
overnight.
We grinded for a while and thenall of a sudden shot out of a
cannon right Once we were on TRLand an MTV and embraced us, and
television embraced us.
You know, all of a sudden, youknow we're, we're, we're the
(12:40):
hottest thing since sliced bread.
And you know all these peopleare coming at you and you have
these opportunities and thisperson's supposed to be on your
team.
Oh well, you need a businessmanager, oh, and you need a
lawyer, oh, and you need amanager.
And then you need a PR firm.
And then all of a sudden youhave all these people on your
payroll.
Well, wait a second.
We were just driving an RVaround with our pictures on it,
(13:02):
driving it ourselves, worriedabout gas money, singing for
food, and now I take care of allthese people, not to mention
all the people that were therekind of staking claim and how
they were a part of your successor certain friends or family.
Hey man, you got an extracouple bucks.
I'm like.
Well, I know I'm supposed to bea millionaire.
I haven't seen any paychecksyet.
Maybe when I get off the roadin six months it'll be sitting
(13:23):
in a bank account with this newbusiness manager that I have,
you know.
So I don't know.
It just gets suddenly crazy.
And then and it's so busy thatthere's no time to take a breath
Literally like you get to ahotel and you go.
Well, it's midnight now or oneo'clock in the morning.
Now I got to be up at threeo'clock to start doing
interviews with people overseas,and then we're going to get in
(13:45):
the car or the plane and go tothe next venue and do the
in-store.
So it was a grind.
There's no time to really kindof wrap your head around it.
You're depending on all this,these people, that on your newly
assembled team to be takingcare of things for you.
But you know, when money startsto flow it starts to kind of
cloud people's judgment and theymay be not as qualified to do
the things that they're supposedto do.
(14:06):
So it was a bit overwhelming.
And then you start to lose youridentity in the process.
You go, wait a second, I amfrom Ohio and I'm not really
this major superstar, or am I?
I wanted to do it, or am Isupposed to talk like this?
Or what are people expecting?
So it's a lot for a youngperson.
I mean, we weren't kids, wewere in our early 20s, but it's.
It's a lot for anybody at anyage to to have to decipher.
(14:29):
But ultimately, you know we hadeach corny be mindful and
self-aware.
(14:50):
But you know that took a littlewhile for me to get to that
point.
But you know you get depressedand you start to wonder if
you've made the right decisionin your life and if it's real
and people start to changearound you that you've been
around your whole life andyou're not necessarily changing.
They are because they expectyou to.
It was a, it was a whirlwindand it's still.
It still is that way today.
(15:11):
You know you still have peoplecoming in and coming out of your
life.
You just you've been around somany people in so many different
places.
At this point you can kind ofintuitively read a room oh,
that's the guy that's theloudest, that's the guy that's
the quietest, or the girl that'sthe quietest, so she's probably
the smartest.
This one needs to floss, thisone wants to steal.
You know you kind of get in alittle bit of this.
(15:32):
One wants to go home with you.
This one's husband wants to gohome with you.
You know you start to you startto really start to assess the
assess the room.
Just by being around you don'treally get smart.
You've just kind of been aroundso many people.
You can get a pace reallyquickly.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Speaking of people wanting to go home with you.
I'm fascinated with thatcomponent.
So I know you're marriedhappily now and you were married
then got divorced, so you'vebeen locked down for quite a
while.
But back when you were single,coming up and you have these
groupies that are just I mean,you could have your pick of the
(16:08):
lot, like any you know, and Iknow that probably makes it less
attractive for you.
So it's like, um, like my boyTupac would say, like I don't
want it if it's that easy.
But how, how did that work?
Like so you have like all thesewomen's like swooning and
you're like, oh, I think you'recute.
Like what did the group?
What was groupie life like?
Speaker 2 (16:28):
It was crazy, as you can imagine.
And look, and originally you go.
You know we were trying, wewere, we sang to impress, of
course you're a young guy.
At college we were singing toimpress the girls at first.
You know you want to impressgirls, you want to have an you
know, some sort of a connectionwith with the girls, right,
that's every guy at that ageloves women, right, and they
want to meet girls.
(16:48):
And so when that part comes,you're like yeah, wow, this is
crazy.
But it's about 30 seconds in andyou're right, it gets really
boring and overwhelming andpredictable and too easy.
And it also you know lots ofsound corny.
But you know you grow up andyou know you buy your, you're
trying to, you're trying toswoon girls or you're trying to
enamor girls with with.
(17:08):
You know you buy yourgirlfriend flowers or gifts or
you know you write them poems orwrite them songs or you try to.
You know people would have beenin executive positions that are
(17:31):
in relationships or girlfriendsthat are yelling at their
husbands who are at homewatching their kid while they're
out at girls night out tryingto get with you or try to get in
your hotel room.
It's pretty disappointing, youknow not to sound corny, but
you're like, man, this is kindof you get.
You get to peek behind thecurtain of what it's really like
and you almost wish you didn'thave that opportunity.
(17:54):
It sounds really crazy and anyguy will be like, oh, shut up,
man.
That must have been amazing.
Of course it was for, like, likeI said, about 30 seconds and
then, by the way, you're busy,you got a job.
You're actually trying toconnect with someone.
You know at that point, someonereal.
Connect with someone.
You know, at that point,someone real.
So none of this stuff is realto you.
(18:14):
You know it's not real becauseyou know two months before that
we were at, you know, calabasas,cantina in Northern, you know,
in outside of LA, and none ofthose girls would talk to us
because we weren't famous,weren't rich, didn't have any
money, weren't dressed the rightway.
And then you know you walk inthere, oh my God, they shut the
place down and give you aprivate table and give you
bottle service and surround youby the most beautiful people in
(18:36):
there.
You'd have to be an idiot tonot really to be absorbed into
that and think it's real.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Well, and that's the thing it's like.
That's where I feel like a lotof people probably struggle with
mental health and maybe turn toaddiction of some sort, because
that life would feel, you know,while it seems so glamorous, it
would just feel so fake.
You're like wait, none of thesepeople would even be around me
if I didn't hit all these boxesLike where's Ohio, where's
(19:01):
where's the real shit happeningLike that.
That balance of that had to bewild and continue to be wild for
you.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, it is, and it's just you know you, ultimately,
at the end of the day, you canhave.
I have a wonderful family, mywife is amazing, but you're in
this journey pretty much byyourself.
You know what I mean.
I'm on the road a lot right,and they get.
I'm very fortunate we're in aposition I don't have to be on
the road like I used to and theyjoin me all the time, which is
great.
But this is an experience evenwith the group.
(19:29):
You're an individual andeverybody in their lives
experience their own life withthemselves.
So, you know, trying to get anunderstanding of the reality of
it and humanity, and if you're athinker and a lot of
entertainers are deep thinkersand overthinkers and obsessive
thinkers for whatever reason,you know you want to find some
meaning into it at some point.
Of course, there are amazingperks.
(19:52):
I wouldn't trade anything I'vegotten to do and continue to get
to do, I think, things thatmaybe less than 1% of the people
get to do I'm about to go tothe Philippines again and go to
perform it for 20,000 people ina different country or a tour of
the world and see exotic places, and they treat you like a king
there and you know you get tosee these beautiful things and
(20:14):
get to experience wonderfulthings, but ultimately you want
to share a connection withsomebody at the end of the day,
right, and so this stuff is cool, but it's also a job, right.
It's also certainly blown outof proportion.
The, the, the high highs of itand the glamor is is, uh, is
(20:34):
certainly, you know, looked uponand people covet that and they
want to be like like that untilyou get it and then you go okay,
now, okay, what's next, youknow, and there, and then when
you're at the top, there is noreally the next one.
You've got to like, keepincrementally, try to stay there
, and it's a difficult sort ofthing, but so really it's
(20:55):
important to to really get toknow yourself.
You need to make friends withyour mind and a lot of people,
when you're talking aboutaddiction or you're talking
about substance abuse oralcoholism, and a lot of people
are trying to escape fromthemselves, not just the scene
they don't want to be friendswith their brain.
So you know you ultimately haveto become confident enough that
(21:16):
you accept yourself for who youare, you make friends with your
mind and you can get away andstay, keep your truth the whole
entire time and if you can dothat, you can be put into any
situation and then come out ofit unscathed, because you know
you're going to be you when youcome out of it, no matter what
happens in that situation.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
So you look like you're pretty fit.
You're holding it down overthere.
What's your?
Give me your like daily, weeklyvibe here.
What are you doing to like lookso good?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Well, look, I've tried to stay in shape for a
long time.
It kind of started with justplaying sports in high school
and college and then we, just alot of people we were talking
about this the other day doingan interview in New York we're
on a press run and they're likewell, what made you guys decide
to be the muscular boy band?
I mean it's can you imaginelike we, we, we all just walked
in the room.
We're like, well, we can'tdance.
We kind of all have a littlebit of muscle.
(22:09):
Maybe we should just lift more.
None of us thought consciouslydid that.
We were all just athletic guys.
And then, you know, once theywere you know the labels or the
teen magazine photographers theywere like, oh, put this tank
top on or take your shirt off.
You know, it wasn't like wemade that decision.
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Speaker 2 (24:19):
You know, but I've tried to stay in shape since
then.
You know, early on I wassuffering from some mental
health problems and it was basedon my diet.
I went to see a psychiatristright when we got signed and
I've talked about this quite abit.
For some reason I was depressedwe were about to come out with
an album.
It was probably the pressure ofit and pressure from the label
(24:40):
and certainly wasn't healthywith the way I was eating and I
got on the Atkins diet, which isa low carb diet.
I immediately lost whatever fatI had and and my had some
mental clarity there and I'vejust stayed on a diet or a
variation of it.
So I'm on the keto diet, soit's mostly what I eat.
But I also I like to get up veryearly in the morning.
(25:00):
I like to be regimented with mystuff and I get up early in the
morning 536 o'clock, you know,depending and I'll do some
cardio in the morning, get aworkout in, and that just sets
the day mentally for me.
Physically that's a, that's aside effect of it.
Right, it gets my, gets mychemicals in my brain, kind of
set for the day and and I startthen and then I'll maybe do some
(25:23):
cardio at night before I go tobed, just to just to kind of
unwind a little bit.
I do, I meditate a little bit,you know, 20 minutes a night, uh
, before I go to bed or early inthe morning, just to kind of
get your brain, you know, getthe chaos out of the way early
so you can be set and focusedfor the day.
And all that stuff results inyou looking a lot better and
feeling a lot better.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Where's your?
Do you have like a space whereyou meditate, like a, like a
separate room, or what's yourmeditation?
Well, you see this room here.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I have a cool house, but this is where I do
everything.
I do my music, I do mymeditating in here.
I do interviews, because theydon't let me in the rest of the
I'm not allowed to.
My family doesn't allow me outof this room.
If I meander into the hallway,my kids and my wife are like oh,
what are you doing?
Get back into, go back intoyour hole.
So I've learned to doeverything in this room.
This is where I get it all done.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I love that.
So you're I mean, you arekeeping busy.
So you guys, just you releaseda new album too, and you're
doing this boy band, symphony,which we I need to hear more
about this.
I love, I love that conceptWell thanks for bringing that up
.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I appreciate you giving it the plug.
Yeah, it's our first album along time.
It's called full circle.
We, we did our, we pulled thetaylor swift and did our
re-record so we could own ourmaterial.
So the songs sound nearlyexactly like they did when we
recorded them, which was achallenge.
But we went in there and reallydissected, dissected them and
and really wanted to.
You know, we knew that the fanslike them that way, so we
(26:45):
wanted them to sound just likethat.
And then we have five new oneswhich are really, really great.
We're we're proud of and youknow we were fortunate.
Last week it debuted number oneon the pop charts on iTunes.
You know, I don't know.
You know those charts fluctuate, but to be even after all these
years, that's our first numberone album.
We've had number two, numberthree.
We've never had a number onealbum.
So we're proud of that andthat's out now.
(27:06):
And then, yeah, the boy bandsymphony thing is something that
I really wanted to do for awhile.
I did a boy band Christmas toura couple of years ago and then
arranged with a friend of minewho is a conductor at a symphony
oh, holy night with anorchestra and got with Eric
Estrada who was on that tourEric's from O-Town and we were
like man, maybe we should do awhole tour with an orchestra
(27:28):
with all the boy band songs andsee what they sound like.
So we connected with Chris,who's a dear friend of mine,
chris from NSYNC, kirkpatrickfrom NSYNC and we've been doing
this boy band symphony thing andit's been really really well
received.
I mean, those songs with anorchestra and the orchestras
we've been performing with sound, it sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, I love that.
That's so great.
So, speaking of him, you guysbeing good friends, what was the
when you guys were all at yourpeak, like when you guys first
hit the scene?
So backstreet boys were likethe thing.
And then you guys pop up andthey're like, oh shit, got some
west side story shit going on.
Like how did you, how did thebackstreet boys 98 degrees and
(28:07):
in sync Boys, 98 Degrees andNSYNC How'd you guys handle like
being this trifecta of like hottestosterone boy band Awesome?
Speaker 2 (28:17):
I well, thank you, I guess, but anyway you just got
your social clip.
I love it.
I love it though.
So we, we started off like Isaid.
We were like we wanted to belike boys to men.
There were no boy bands.
The only boy band we kind ofheard of was back in the day,
was new kids and was new edition, and those groups were put
(28:40):
together and we were like andyou know what they get knocked
for, being assembled andmanufactured.
So we didn't want to beassociated with anything like
that.
We wanted to be a vocal groupthat was inspired by, you know,
four-part harmony, like boys tomen and and all that stuff and
groups like that.
So when we came onto the scenewe came onto the scene at the
same time Backstreet wasbreaking and we didn't consider
(29:02):
ourselves in the same genre atall.
The difference was their labelput them on stuff and our label
took us off stuff.
They wanted people to think wewere an urban group, so they
didn't promote us.
They want people people tothink we were a black group, and
so what happened with that is,you know, urban radio.
People in that, in the, in thatgenre.
They thought they didn't likethat.
(29:22):
The label was trying to fool us.
They thought we were trying topull a fast one.
Here we were just doing what,what, what, uh, what.
The label told us go, go, showup and sing right.
And so that didn't work.
And meanwhile we watchedBackstreet Boys just skyrocket
through the atmosphere.
We were literally going intomusic stores and seeing these
displays that pretty much werean entire storefront of the
(29:43):
Backstreet Boys, and then we'dhave to go fishing through the
bins and find our CD one if itwas there and buy it ourselves.
You know, and and and we werewondering what was going on with
all that and and.
Then, you know, ultimately ourfirst album was not a success
and we just went up into Canadaand and started doing renegade
promotion and then went toEurope and started promoting
(30:04):
there in Southeast Asia, and wemet in sync there, and and we
became fast friends with thoseguys and we also were like man,
if these guys come into theStates, it's a wrap.
I mean, these guys are amazing,they sing, they dance, and, you
know, backstreet Boys alsosuper talented, but we hadn't
considered ourselves in thatgenre, and so both of those guys
(30:25):
actually exploded before us inthe US, both of those groups,
and you know, we we ended upgetting a new label head at
Motown, george Jackson came in.
He was amazing to us.
They pretty much gutted theentire roster.
They fired Andre Harrell, whowas president of Motown, who
signed us, and George just keptus and he was like, well, look,
(30:46):
we have our own version ofBackstreet and NSYNC.
Maybe we should put them ontelevision and put them on teen
magazines.
And so once that happened, youknow, we were considered this
trifecta, although we resistedit.
We were like no, they dance andwe were trying to be too cool.
But as far as the groups areconcerned, we always had a
mutual respect for everybody.
We would do stuff at the sameradio shows as those guys.
(31:08):
Ultimately we're on some of thesame, you know, big packages
and bills as those guys and weloved them.
I mean, we were, we werefriends with all those guys.
The media wanted to sort of piteverybody against each other,
but you know, ultimately, youknow, we, we, we became very,
very good friends and now we, weall kind of mix and match and
do different projects together.
(31:29):
I've done stuff with Chris andAJ and now Chris and Eric and
we've toured together withO-Town and we were supposed to
do a big show with Backstreet inOklahoma City but there was
like a big hurricane or no,there was like a tornado or
something like that whichcanceled the show.
But we all have a ton ofrespect for each other.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Hypothetical, okay, and I don't want to hear a bunch
of like don't give me a bunchof run around and try to be
political.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
I got you.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I'm going to you have a little van, little sprinter
van we're going to give you.
You get to travel acrosscountry, okay, non-stop.
You can stop to like, pee andget some snacks at the Speedway
or something, but you can onlybring three other people with
you.
You can only pick one from 98degrees.
Oh so you have.
(32:15):
You have to choose the mostperfect road trip right now with
members from either backstreetboys in sync, 98 degrees, you
have 20 seconds.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
I can't just pick one of my members from my group.
You're gonna get me in troublewell, there has to be okay.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But okay, how about this?
Like is one better withdirections?
Is one more laid back?
Like it doesn't mean cause, I'mgoing to ask you another
hypothetical.
You may include somebody elsein on that one, all right, so?
I can only.
I have three people to pickfrom Yep.
And you have to choose from theother groups too.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Okay, what would make the best?
Speaker 1 (32:45):
well-rounded experience.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
I would take AJ from from backstreet, cause I've
worked with him before.
He's a ton of fun, althoughNick's really cool too, but AJ I
spent more time with, so I'lltake AJ from Backstreet he's
awesome.
And then I take Chris fromNSYNC.
Love the guys like one of mybest friends in the world, so
that part's easy.
Choosing one from my group isreally tough.
I mean, my goodness.
I mean uh, you know Nick's bestwith directions, drew's best
(33:11):
with organization and Justin'sthe most laid back.
So I probably Justin and I werealways rooming together and
always got stuck together onstuff.
So I'll take Justin with mebecause I know him the most.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
You're going to start an empire, okay.
Okay, you're going to startsome fucking amazing hybrid.
You're going to go into AI andbe like hybrid.
You're going to like go into AIand be like AI.
What's this amazing empire?
I can start spit it out.
You can only pick two peoplefrom any of those three.
I don't care if you pick zerofrom your band.
You can pick all of them fromyour band.
(33:45):
Who would be if you had to puta flag in the ground?
Who would you start an empirewith today?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And I have to pick someone from my group.
I can only pick two.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
No, no, you can pick whomever is going to get you to
the promised land An empire.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Wow, as far as boy band guys go, that's a tough one
I would take to start an empire.
I'll take Nick along with me onthat, one from my group and hmm
.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Situation yeah, dude.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
He's been very successful outside of the group
Genius, so I'll take him with me, and then I probably would take
, you know, howie.
I'll take Howie from Backstreet.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Howie's supposed to be a big entrepreneur in the
real estate space and a goodbusinessman, so I'll take Howie
and Nick from my group yourprevious interaction with them
that they have offered you guystoo much money to say no to
(34:55):
actually be the Chippendales,and there can only be four of
you Are you talking from the boy?
bands, but you guys are theChippendale, you are the guys
with the ties and the bananahammocks.
So it's you and three otherguys and you can pick up any
three who who's gonna make thisthe most successful?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
make the right I, I for chippendales.
I would take aj again becausehe can dance and he's a great
performer.
I would take nick, because he'sstill jacked from my group.
I'll take nick, he's in goodshape.
Gotta have gotta have muscles alittle bit.
And then, you know, for comicrelief, uh, because he's got a
(35:36):
ton of personality, I wouldbring Joey Fatone in.
That would be my, my dream teamof of the uh, the boy band
version of Chippendales, this,this, by the way, these guys are
all just going to love me afterthis interview.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Well, you know, the truth is what it is.
Don't hate the player, hate thegame guys, they don't care.
Okay, back to Boyz II Men.
What is your if you had to pickyour favorite and don't
overthink this, but like thefavorite Boyz II Men song that
comes to mind right now, becauseI've got mine and it's now
playing on repeat in my head.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Man man, I love so many so I'll probably say
Unbended Knee, but it can changeat any time.
I mean I love all their songs.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
I'm a massive Boyz II Men fan.
But, when they go 10, 9, 8,.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Uh, ah, so we did a medley.
That's what got us signed, sowe did a Boyz II Men medley.
And it started with thatcountdown and we did a little
bit of uh, and then did I'llmake love to you.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
End of the road.
That's what we did.
That's how we got signed, youknow, and I was just watching,
um, I stumbled upon your, yourlittle uh.
What did you guys?
You were singing god, it's themichael.
Oh, she's out of my life.
Oh, yeah, we love that.
No, I love like that is one ofmy all.
I mean, that's that songprobably is my favorite Michael
Jackson song.
That maybe like human nature.
But wow, what are you guyssounded like little angels.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Thank you, I appreciate it.
You know we, I love Mike, weall love Michael Jackson too.
I have a big, huge MichaelJackson fan and we, we, we did
that song and it was on our demotape.
It was originally on our demotapes and it was arranged by
this guy named Devin Bierre whowent to school with the other
guys.
This guy just came.
We wanted to do it.
We wanted to put somethingdifferent and unique on the demo
(37:21):
tape, because it was a tape.
Remember tapes?
You know what a tape is A tape?
It goes into a cassette.
It's called a cassette.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
All right, the pencil remember the pencil you've like
.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
that's what we had to do after we listened to the
demo too much we had to fix it,wind the tape back in.
But that was on our demo anddevin did a great arrangement
and they loved it.
We sang that one live too whata song.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
And it cuts like a knife, like I keep singing it.
Let me hear the end.
It's so.
She's out of my life so good, Iremember being like God.
How old was I?
I was young, but I remember itbrought me to tears when I was
like a little kid.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, I mean he cries at the end he sounds like he's
crying.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
It's so crazy.
It's the best I wasn't about tocry on the demo.
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I cried when I was trying to learn the arrangement.
I was like damn, we're nevergoing to get this shit.
It's too hard.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Are you a crier?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, oh, I'm an emotional guy, of course.
Yeah, I'm not afraid of that.
I'm not afraid of emotion.
I mean, I'm a person that likesto be alive.
(38:43):
So how'd you get hooked up withBradley?
He wanted me.
He was working with BraunStudios, so he was talking about
me doing some music supervisionfor that.
Long story short, he hit me upout of the blue.
He's like you gotta, you gottameet my guy, brad Leah, and do
his podcast.
So I went in and met Brad anddid that.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Oh, you met him All right.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
He's a, he's a, he's a character with him.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
He has no idea who I am, okay, but but somehow, some
way I was getting served up hiscontent and he is the only I I
am.
I never comment.
I am not somebody to ever, andif I ever comment, it's positive
.
Yeah, he pissed me off for thelast time.
I'm like this guy with women,and so I remember one day I was
like you fucking son of a bitch,and I sent it it and I was like
God, this guy gets to me.
Well then, when I wasresearching for you, I'm like
(39:33):
wait, this is the guy.
So I start watching thisinterview because I'm like I
didn't realize that Brad Lee wasjust doing.
Maybe this was like a one-offbecause of your relationship,
but I just have one question foryou.
Sure, go ahead.
Did he have an extra?
Speaker 2 (39:51):
chair there and microphone for his ego.
I thought he was great.
Yeah, I know, in the beginning Ididn't know what to expect,
honestly, because you know, alot of times I don't really like
.
I'm the opposite.
If I'm having a meeting withsomebody for business, I will
Google, stalk them, learneverything about them, right?
So I have a background on theperson I'm meeting.
I want to know that.
No, let them know that, I knowthem.
(40:16):
But when it comes to the podcast, I don't like to look at what
people do in advance so thequestions can be answered more
naturally and I don't want to beprepared for it.
So with him I didn't preparefor it at all and I went in.
Really he had a really niceplace and in the beginning there
it was all about how youtouched upon the groupies.
He was really trying to get meinto this groupie thing, which
is kind of the low-hanging fruitwhich is, like I said, it's
(40:37):
actually boring to talk about.
You want me to go into myentire Rolodex and resume of
groupies.
It's going to get prettyredundant, right.
So he was really kind ofangling on that.
But after about 20 minutes ofthat we started to talk about a
(40:58):
little more in-depth stuff.
His show is called DroppingBombs.
So if you ultimately give him akernel of knowledge or
something that's profound, he'llhit the dropping bomb sound.
So he started doing that.
We were getting into a littlemore things that were in-depth,
but it didn't start that way.
I actually found him aninteresting guy and I enjoyed
the podcast.
But you know, look, we'veencountered every type of person
.
You know people are trying toget us on gotcha stuff still and
(41:20):
you know we know how to handlethat and I know that's people's
gimmicks and stuff like that.
But I found him to believe itor not, not, to dispel your
preconceived ideas about him, Iended up enjoying the podcast.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
I'm going to know.
My goal is to be in like astreet fight somehow with him in
some way.
He's a pretty big guy.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
He's in shape too.
Yeah, he's in pretty good shape.
That doesn't mean you can fight, though you look like you're a
pretty big scrapper over there,especially with that savage hat
on.
You can't wear a savage hatwithout being sad.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Yeah, he needs to keep his head on a swivel around
me.
Keep his head on yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
I, I do see his.
You know I follow him now, so II see his his content, the
cartoons and all the stuff aboutwomen.
It actually cracks me up.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
And I also am not I'm not some hardcore feminist Like
can't take it.
I mean, I find a lot of thingslike the whole be a man stuff,
like I think some of that shithim.
On the other hand, he tips it alittle bit over to like the
male chauvinist side where it'sa little too real, and so that's
where I was like I startedtrolling his ass.
Well, look, you know causethat's, that's a.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
that's a niche.
Now, it's always been a niche,but because, because of the all
the me too stuff and it and howfar left everything went that
there are these guys that aretrying to identify themselves as
masculine and so they look atthese guys who are way on the
other side of it and they, theykind of identify with that, or
(42:44):
at least they're trying toidentify with that, as opposed
to them kind of just figuringout who they are.
You know that that's why he'sgot a massive following.
It's like that andrew tate, thetate brothers stuff, I mean the
, that's the same kind of, and Idon't want to insult him by
saying he's that hyper masculine, because I didn't get that from
him, but his content is notworry about.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Let's not worry about hurting that guy's feelings.
He's fine, he's fine beinghonest about it so let me, let
me, um, you're coming tocolumbus on the 14th of june.
How, how long do you guys stayaround like?
How long are you here?
Speaker 2 (43:18):
well, we're coming in a day early because we're doing
some local press there.
Traditionally we come in, dothe show because all three of us
have pretty crazy schedules.
So we're going in a day earlydoing some local media there
promoting the show, and then wehave the show the next day and
then we're out.
But you know, chris, chris'sgirl, chris's wife, is from
there, so he's a bit.
She's a big Ohio State, so Idon't know whether he's he's
(43:39):
sticking around or not.
I know that my wife is talkingabout coming in with a couple of
my kids, so I don't know howlong I'm going to stay.
I don't.
My schedule is not that.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
I think I might have something after that but I was
really hoping to get you guys inhere because the studio is so
cool and it's such a great,especially to do like social
clips and promo and all that,and I just didn't know if you
guys had any time to stop byhere.
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
I'll talk to.
I'll put the the um.
I'll let them know that youwant us there.
I'll put it in the group email.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
See what they say I mean, I've got a really good
community here.
I feel like it'd be worth yourtime and I just think it'd be
cool and fun and there's nothinglike this in the Midwest.
Truly, this is more ofsomething you would see in the
big city, so it's cool when Ihave people like you.
Stop in.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Oh my gosh, we would love it.
Yeah, I mean, if they don'thave us too crazy booked already
, I'm sure the guys we're gonnabe there.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
So yeah, it'll be fun .
It's right, it's like right ingrandview, in a really cool spot
, I'm gonna send you, I'm gonnasend you two hats um okay, shoot
.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Okay las vegas, nevada, you're in vegas, yeah,
yeah, I don't live in la hell,no do you like vega living in?
Speaker 1 (44:46):
vegas, I love it, love it even in the summer, when
it gets real hot.
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (44:50):
uh, you know, going in an air-cond, go in a
restaurant, stay in my house, goin the pool.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
It's not like.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I'm crawling in a desert.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Well, no, but isn't it kind of like winter here,
where you really are?
It's like really hard to beoutside.
No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Look, I'm from Ohio, the heat there at 80 degrees,
with the humidity, is 50 timesworse than the dry heat here.
I remember playing football inthat heat in the past two days.
It was crazy.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Yeah, but I love it here.
I don't leave my house, I don'tgo down to the Strip.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
I don't do any of that shit.
I stay in my house.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Well, I figure, yeah, you wouldn't go down to the
Strip unless you had to.
I would think, no, well, I'vereally enjoyed this conversation
, thank you.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
You were great.
I appreciate you taking thetime.
You got a great vibe andcertainly we'll talk to the guys
see if we can come back inthere when we're in town.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah, yeah, just send me a DM or something.
It would be really cool.
If not, no worries, but I wouldlove to see you in person.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Well Continued success.
Yes, thanks, gary.
Yeah, you too.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Okay, stay in touch.
Hopefully we'll see you in acouple weeks.
I would love it.
I would love it.
Thanks, okay, bye, three, two,one.
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