Almost Famous In Depth: Mike Johnson

Ben and Ashley go IN DEPTH with Bachelorette and Bachelor In Paradise star Mike Johnson for an unbelievably honest and intense episodes

We dive deep into the emotionally challenging moments that made Mike the man he is today and he shares extremely personal stories that no one has heard before.

Find out Mike’s real reaction to being passed over as the Bachelor and what this decision means for the franchise in terms of representation and impact.

And we address the elephant(S) in the room: Mike confronts Ashley about some comments she made about him...and then they discuss a certain Superstar Artist.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:41):
com Slash Stores Slash Events. If you live in the
Bay Area, I have fantastic news for you. Almost Famous
Live is coming your way. Ashley I Canetti, Ben Higgins
special guests and performances Saturday, January eleven that the Palace
of Fine Arts in San Francisco. You can get your
tickets right now ticket master dot com. All the most

(01:04):
famous live in San Francisco. This is Ben and Ashley
I Almost Famous in depth. It's been so long since
we've heard that intro video for this, and I can't
tell you how much I love it. This is honestly
one of my favorite times of any season, is what
we can do an in depth episode. I also love
the way that your tone is like so much more

(01:25):
like stop. I mean, I like in death because when
I'm a little nasily right now, I'm a little nasi
and my buddy has two kids and we shared like,
uh the same cup and I know I got sick
from him. Um, hey guys today, Uh the background, Yeah,

(01:45):
I don't know that was picture. I actually like the
gast photo was terrible. If you hear the man's voice,
it's uh sensual, I would say it's it's a great voice.
His name is Mike Johnson. We've promised that we would
have the an in depth episode. You've all asked for it,
and worry, we now have it. Mike Johnson. Uh, if
you don't know, um who he is, well you're not

(02:08):
a fan of the show. Um, but he's a thirty
one year old Air Force veteran from San Antonio who
now works as a financial portfolio manager. Contestant from season
fifteen of the Bachelorette with Hannah Brown describes himself as
a city boy who likes to getting down in dirty.
Allegedly allegedly that was in your first Q and A,
I guess allegedly is speaking to Demi Livada. But before

(02:32):
we speak to Mike Johnson, we gotta pause here to
say we're live from the planet of Hollywood and Las.
What is my life? Um, Mike Johnson, welcome to the
In Depth Podcast. Thank you, Thanks. Um. I want to

(02:54):
there there's a little bit of an elephant in the room,
and I think it is best to get it started
right away because here's a thing, Mike. I want to
preface this right now by saying, my co host thinks
you are amazing. She she no, no, no, this let
me this is this is my zone. She is a
huge she's a huge fan of you. She loves you.
But there had been and just like normal, like just

(03:17):
like this world happens, there was trolls that came out
and said, hey, Ashley doesn't like Mike, and then it
kind of blew up into this thing. It offended you,
Mike for some of the things that Ashley has said
in the past. And I think before we get started
and we can really trust each other here in this circle,
we have to talk about it, right, So if I
fall backwards and don't look you got me? I got you. Man.

(03:37):
I hear this stuff, Ashley, from your perspective, what was said,
what was the context of what was said, and what
happened to make this whole thing as something? Um, I
think that. Well. First off, I think when we do
these like podcasts and all the recaps I do, I
do have to criticize, you know, if I see something
sometimes I have to like not criticized. But I can't

(04:00):
just be butterflies and rainbows with every single thing that
happens on the show or whether it's in real life.
What to be rainbows and butterflies. Yeah, that's true. He's
the one that like always takes the easier out and
like he's like, surely said this, but this, and I'm like,
will sometimes be a little bit harder. I was harder

(04:20):
on Kaylin too, and like I did the same thing
on the podcast. I was like, look, I didn't have
the birst the best first impression of her, and then
I met her in real life. Well I met her
in real life a couple of times, but it was
when we actually broke the silence that I was like, Uh,
this is a completely different person than I thought she was.
I think with Mike, I saw you on the show

(04:43):
and you were like the warmest, friendliest person, and then
the thirty seconds and it was like thirty seconds that
I met you at the wedding. I felt like somebody
introduced me to you as like the Bachelor beat reporter,
and I was like there they were like, um, this
is actually she has like a whole bunch of recaps,
she does this and that, and then I said yeah,

(05:05):
and everybody is loving you like literally nobody can think
of a bad thing to say about you. And the
first thing you said to me, I don't care about
any of that, and I felt like I was kind
of discredited. I just felt like I was personally. I
took a little bit of offense to that because it
was almost like you're putting down what I do. Um,
I'm going off of what you're saying, because I don't

(05:26):
remember none of that. Um. I'm not saying that you're wrong,
but just going off what you're saying. Yeah, that's something
I would say, I don't care about nothing. If if
someone were to say to me, hey, everyone thinks you're amazing.
That's me saying, yeah, I don't care about none of that.
Let's have a conversation. So I think you took that
completely out of context. Okay, and that's probably very true,
probably very true. What is it that you felt like

(05:47):
you had an issue with me about? It's one. I
think we are making it bigger than I think we
are too. I do think we are too, because but
I think it has to be talked about because it
does get brought up every once in a while. Yeah,
I'm gonna talk about it if you're watch me in
the bachlordor I'm gonna come at you coming me, Damn sure,
I will come at you. And So from what people

(06:07):
had told me my d M and from what I
think you, I think the same. I think something crazy happened.
I think that people like literally took me being like
I didn't get the greatest first impression, and then people
really flip it like hardcore. I was like, I met
him for thirty seconds, Yeah, you married for thirty seconds,
exactly my point. So from what you had said from

(06:31):
just an article, I just right while sitting over there
to make sure I got my facts right. He said,
you know albeit it was only like thirty seconds that
we spoke, but you didn't get the best impression. He
won't be the bachelor cool stuff. Didn't say that we
wouldn't be the bachelor. That's what some article I just said.
That wasn't the quote fair enough? Cool? And my issue
is that you should damn sure coming me first. You
just talked to me because I'm a pretty damn good guy.

(06:54):
Oh and I know I'm gonna learn this this weekend
because we're gonna have a lot more time. And then
I probably should never have even spoken on the first impression.
I mean, my first impression of the band was damn,
he's tall. He's good too. Yeah, this guy is so awkward.
My first I pression was Michael was, well, I want
to talk to this guy. He's got big arms. Hey, Ben,
can you move out of the way for both of you?

(07:17):
I mean, I had never watched the show prior, and
so for one that my happiest time while being on
Batchelan Faradix was at the wedding, yeah for Chris and Crystal,
and because I just felt free and just was just
loving life right then. And so it was just a cluster.
It was, and the more I thought about it, the
more I was like, I was super overwhelmed. I feel

(07:37):
like everybody was overwhelmed because we had no idea what
we were going into and it was not the appropriate
time to make a judgment. I gotta ask you something, though,
I want to hear your opinion on this. So here's
the scenario is playing out right. We've we've we've talked
through this. We understand as a miscommunication. We understand that,
you know, tabloids and rumors are gonna get started, It's
gonna get blown up. Right. Here's where maybe I want

(07:58):
you to help me understand. This is a deep topic.
I am about that smiles coming out now to paint
the picture for your guys, actually says something like, hey,
Mike not might not be the best the next bachelor.
I didn't get at good first impression. Nothing about you personally, really.
I mean, yeah, you can ask her, Ashley, why do
you think? And then all of a sudden, here's what happens,
And this is where it hurts. She's called a racist.

(08:20):
What do we what do you do with that? Like
we go from hey, maybe this person just say isn't
gonna be the next bachelor to all of a sudden,
she's a racist. That's a big jump and incredibly offensive
to I think both sides. Um So I heard that,
I heard, I mean, I thought that was absolutely insane
how people would go from that too. I want to
hear what you think of that though, because it isn't

(08:42):
This isn't a one off thing. I mean, it's gonna happen,
and later on the podcast, I want to talk about
you not being chosen the next Bachelor and how you
feel about that and what the show is gonna do
and what is your response. But this isn't We've talked
to Rachel lindsay about this before you are. You're blazing
a trail and batchelor nation one that should be blazed.
But why then, is this the conclusion to every criticism,

(09:05):
big or small. So you have a couple of points.
One I did see that people hit me on my
demons about that I never knew of you in the past,
not saying nothing negative about you, right, not just like
if you don't know a baseball, you just don't know
a baseball, right. And I heard about that. I didn't
response to it because I didn't know of YouTube be
that way towards me. Right, So people can say things,
but I'm gonna treat you the way you treated me

(09:26):
at that point in time. You don't treat me to
be a racist at all. I'm saying on there, if
you are, I don't think that you are. Of course
I'm not. I don't think that you are. So people
have said that I don't know your past, right, Um,
the way I feel about what you said been quite honestly,
it shouldn't even be in the question. Um. The reason
I feel like it isn't questions because there is it

(09:48):
extremely underrepresented people of color within this nation. That's just facts, right,
And so therefore, when I'm in a room of like
twenty beautiful people, I'm the only black guy in this
form him that may come up more times than if
it were if we was twenty black guys. And then
you guys, the only white guy that comes up more
so because that's a it's an easy thing to talk about, Oh,

(10:10):
Ben is the only white guy in here? Right, Maybe
that may be the case, may not be the case.
But then also in Bachelor Nation, I don't know the
demographics of how everything works out, but there, I mean,
I would like to see that one day from in
regards to I'm just gonna talk on it. In regards
to me not being the Bachelor because of my race,
I will say that, yes, Peter is half Cuban, He's white, right,

(10:38):
I'm gonna say, and I think his family is beautiful.
But there's that meme going around not I mean there's
a picture going around of all the Bachelor's, right, bachelors,
they could have maybe more white. Yeah, let's be honest,
looking at the presidents, right, looking at the presidents, you know,
until we got the Obama president. Um, if there was

(11:04):
a diverse cast that represented in America as far as
a bachelor, I don't think racism would ever be in question.
But since all four bachelors have been predominantly white, then
I feel like it is a fair thing to bring up.
Let's take one step deeper than because I know Ashley
wants to follow up here a little bit. My apologies. No, no,
I'm glad you did know that that, Like, there's no

(11:25):
apologies here because I want to step one step deeper.
Then here's the question, Mike, So, Rachel Lindsay, I think
was one of the best batchelors we've ever had, just
ass in terms of season of drama, all that stuff.
She has about half the followers of most bachelottes, so
calling it out well, no, and and so my question
do you, Mike, is if we look at the list,

(11:47):
and we look at the pictures and we say, yeah,
that needs to change, then how does it change when nobody,
nobody comes out for support. There's a problem there way
beyond the show. So my point is, yes, the show
to do something to fix that. Right, they couldn't name
you the Bachelor, But even beyond the show, the viewers.
The viewers don't respond, which makes me go, there's a

(12:09):
bigger issue here than what any of us want to
point out. There's three things that you hit on. One,
Like I said, back to demographics, I think that people
gravitate to what they are used to write. So I've
asked tons of times. I was in the Air Force,
being overseas and I said to my white friends, Hed,
can you imagine being the only white guy in an airport?

(12:32):
Can you imagine that? Ben? Can you imagine that? Actually
that's happened to me tons of times. I'm talking about
thousands of people in an airport and I'm the only
black guy. Right if I was if I saw another
black person, I'm gonna gravitate towards that person first. Is
that racist or is that just relatability? Right? And so
therefore I'm not going to call out a Batchelor Nation
fans at all if the majority of a Bastel Nation

(12:54):
fans are Caucasians. So therefore, for the ones that may
not be open to it, they're gonna gravitate to what's
natural for them. Literally. And so I always think about
the airport's scenario because most of the people don't here,
probably none of you'll have felt that. I'll call you
all that, right, it's a crazy thing. Yeah, there's twenty
white people in the room, by the way, and that's
the scenario we're talking about, Like you're black, right, and

(13:19):
so yeah, so like for the most part, like you're
we're looking at the room, there's people watching, these people
sitting around. That's the scenario we're sitting in here playing
on Hollywood. It's like it's like if I were to
go to if The Bachelor and Bachelor in Bachelor in
Paradise was not on ABC but on BT. I'll be
right now, right, you may not, you know, I think
you're I was telling there just a second I think

(13:41):
you're awesome. I was saying that behind your back, and
I'm glad it's that. Say nothing negative. I'm gonna call
you guys out. I think that it's just simply what
we gravitate towards naturally. I don't think there's nothing wrong
with that. I am in so in love with the
people that are open to different things, right, and this

(14:03):
goes so far beyond the Bachelor. But at the same time,
we damn sure it should have had a black Bachelor.
And I'm not saying that it should have been me.
I think I'm a phenomenal man. I said that yesterday
and my mam wad tell me and I know it
to be true. And I don't think that ABC is
wrong for not choosing me at all. I truly don't
feel that way. I think they chose the right person

(14:24):
for what they wanted, right. And I will say, and
I've said this to my homies, I never said it
is publicly. I said that I felt that if I
were to be the Bachelor, the ratings would go down
a little bit, but then the next year they will
go up even more because they would have captured new
audience with me. And then I had an old audience
as well, And so I don't I'm not gonna I'm
gonna disagree with you, but I don't think it's on

(14:44):
the fans to do that. I think as media rerun America. Yeah,
I also think that the fans were more in supportive
Mike than Peter. I really do. I think this came
down to the electoral college versus a popular vote. That
was Larry. That's a perfect similary for this. If we
didn't if we did a nationwide popular vote, which I'm

(15:08):
still sometimes confused, No, it wouldn't. I don't think it
would have been Tyler anymore. Sure, Yeah, okay, but I
think that if it were just between you and Peter
for a Bachelor, I think you would have won the
popular vote. But you know, there is that being they
have a storyline that they want to focus on, and
I'm not mad at that at all. Yeah, but I

(15:30):
do want to go back to just the racist thing
for just a second. I think it's insane how people
can like take me criticizing someone in which we criticize Ben,
you know, it's part of the podcast. It would be
really really boring if we were just positive all the time.

(15:51):
We criticized so many contestants, but I criticized Mike, and
all of a sudden, it's different than when I criticized
Kalen or it's friend than when I criticize Peter being
vanilla but then it's but then it's racist when it's
towards Mike. Yeah, I mean, I think that's the point
I was trying to make, was like, how can you
possibly jump to that conclusions? Like you guys know that

(16:13):
I'm friends with Tasia and Rachel and that's just insane. Man. Yeah.
So again, I think that goes back to that's the
easiest thing to do, right. If we're all white in
this room, we would go to something else. Because I'm
the one black guy in this room. That's something easy
to talk on. And like I said, I don't know
your past. I'm hoping here not a racist. I'm not
saying that you are, right, um, but that is something

(16:36):
easy to speak on. It's easy, something easy to go to.
What you said been earlier was the i G follower
account and Rachel for y'all, I haven't seen Rachel in person, Brian,
I know that's she lay. She's a cutie, like straight
up like Rachel she's really cutie, and i've I am sadly,

(16:57):
sadly I know this that I'm the highest, I the
most followers from Batchel Nation as far as a black
male because tastious, significantly lower than people that have had
as much screen time. I've had some interesting conversations about it.
I'm called yeah, I'm sorry, mom, No, you're fine. I
wanted to bring up one point that I would love
to have you guys discussed, and and this is to

(17:19):
essentially defend Ashley. Even Tyler spoke about that yesterday when
I was in New York with him. He Tyler is
sexy by far. I don't he twisted, but he was.
We were talking about something. He was like, um, it's
just racism. You know. He's uh, he has two point
one million. The average black contestant probably has what hundred? Yeah?

(17:40):
If that, yeah, if that went further than a lot
of handful of you with over half a million. But
one thing I wanted to talk about is that if
I think it's just too I think which is very close.
So one thing is when Ashley criticized you or gave
her opinion of you, I actually think it would have

(18:02):
been more of a disservice if you did not give
your opinion because Mike is black, like if you censored
your thoughts, like everyone on the show should be loved
or criticized for their whatever their behavior is on the show.
If you're acting like an as cloon, you're an ask clown,
which he never has been, right, I know you're not

(18:23):
an ask Did you call her luke? Luke? Yeah? We
call that all day long. So therefore, and I'm missing
me helping you out. Yeah, no, I understand. Give it
to her now a people, so many white guys, so
many girls. You got to because you want to, you

(18:49):
know you guys, you know what I mean. It's it's
just like insane that you'd blame the color of somebody's
skin for the reason of that. Here's the thing, Uh, Mike,
thanks for coming on, Thanks for talking about We have
a lot to talk about with you. Uh. Last than that, Also,
if there were more black representation, as far as the
lead may not stick out, this will not stick out out.
And I want to talk to you about that coming

(19:10):
up after this break, because we're blazing new trails and
bastel nation year by year by year now and I
think somebody like you is going to be like be
a game changer if it's on the show or outside
of it for a lot of people. But before we
do that, let's take one break. We'll come back with
Mike Johnson on the in depth Jared and my Place

(19:31):
is almost done. We can't wait to show you guys
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(20:36):
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(20:58):
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(23:06):
slash ben Zipp recruiter the smartest way to hire. We
got Mike Johnson in Depth podcast. Ashley and Mike have
led into a really an incredible conversation about who I mean,
I think at the essence, who we are as humans
and how we gain support and how we feel accepted

(23:27):
and how we relate. Mike, I want to and I
know you have more to say, and I want to
give you just sometimes just to speak without any any
interruptions here. This year, we've seen some huge changes in
Batch nation. We've seen sex openly talked about. Uh. We've
seen Demmi uh come out in a in a same
sex relationship. And we've seen you more than ever really
pushed to be the Batchel and have a legitimate reason

(23:49):
to be the bachelor. He's his eyes are going, I mean,
this is something you talked about as well. I don't
I don't think I ever tried to be a bachelor. No, No,
I'm saying, like you should. Like you were right there,
like you're pushing to be the Bachelor. You're in the
convert station the whole time. Mike, you said something that
is incredibly brilliant to me, something I've never even thought of.
You said this this If you were the Bachelor this
next season, ratings may have dropped for that season you

(24:11):
think they might have, but the next season it would
have been even greater because of who they would have gained.
How do we get an audience or how do we
just get people in general to rally around new ideas
and evolve in the way that Batchel Nation needs to
evolve or just wants to evolve. But there's things restricting it.
I think that the people that are in the hands

(24:32):
that you need to be representative of the people that
you're trying to ascertain. It's just like the Oscars. They
the people that were writing movies were all like, oh,
white guys, and they're going to gravitate towards West Nashville
to them. Right, if you have a diverse group of
people that choose who the next lead should be, I
think you would get more of a diverse outcome. I

(24:57):
think you said something and I don't want to go
back that. It's just it's a powerful, powerful idea that
you would blaze that trail, that the show would have
to sacrifice this season of ratings for. It's just my hypothesis, right,
I don't think you're wrong. Like, this's the crazy part. Well,
we've seen in the Bachelrette. What's happened since Rachel. Ratings
have never been better. What's happened in the Bachelor since then,

(25:19):
ratings have never been better. Here's the deal. You told me.
You just said something before the break. You said if
I went to Atlanta, nobody would know me. I was
in Atlanta last week. Here's the crazy part and what
I love about the show. If I'm in Atlanta, which
I was last week, people do know. Not everybody. Well,
that might be different, but I was at the Marriott
Downtown and people didn't know. And I don't think that happens.

(25:44):
Ten years ago. I will say that m no one
and my family knew what this show was prior to
me being on the show. I have friends of every race.
They knew that what the show was. Um, we have

(26:04):
to have representation. It's just that simple. I mean, Rachel
was a huge push in that. I think I'll be
I would have been a great push in that as well.
But in order to be representative of America, we have
to have a huge push. When I had conversations with
Um the Hands that Be in regards to being the Bachelor,
I spoke on Eminem, right. I was like, Eminem was

(26:25):
the you know, he wasn't the first white rapper, but
he was like the biggest white rapper, right, And guess
what that did for hip hop? He made it even bigger.
You know what is Serena Williams do for tennis? And
it made it even bigger? Right, what a tiger would
do for golf. These are things I spoke about when
I was in that meeting. Um, it made I never
thought this way. No, No, you're blowing my mind. I've
never thought in the way that you're explaining things. And

(26:49):
it's and it's not your fault. I mean, it's just
we gravitate to what we know, right, Um, I remember
I was watching this one podcast. I wish I can
call him out because he did such a wonderful job.
He said, in order for us to intermingle, we have
to make sure white people are not scared of us.
And so that's why it was so big of me
just to beat me. I'm wearing my dow ragna. I'm

(27:11):
gonna say homie instead of friend. I'm gonna use my colloquialism.
I'm gonna be me when on what you've been, when
on what you actually as when. I want my homies
back home, right. I want you to know me for
me instead of me trying to act how I perceive
you to act right. And I feel like when that happens,
we feel like we can bond better. And I think
that's a big thing as well. I feel like today

(27:35):
we are going to get to know you better. That's
the whole point of the in depth podcast. I want
to start, like back from where you're from. I know
you talked a lot about what'd you call it on
the Bachelorette. It was your mom, your grandma, your sister.
Would you call them your queen's So? Yeah, that's cute,
that's cute. Tell us a little bit about your childhood. Um,

(27:57):
did you grow up in Santancan Antonio? No, I just
I've been living there since right out there. Left the military,
I moved to San Antonio. I didn't want to move
back to Dallas. I'm from Grand Prairie, South Grand Paride specifically. UM,
I didn't want to move back there, soonly because I
know the tell you, man, I want to be and
I feel that personally, and this is like you know,
this is a message. Um, if you graduate high school

(28:18):
and you stay in your saying neighborhood, I don't think
that you will amount to the success that you can
if you were to move out. That's just my person
with you. And I didn't want to move back to
Grand Prairie after I left the military, and so I
chose San Antonio, came financial advisor, did some Boston you know,
tell us about your time in the military. Um, I
was cybersecurity, which is just a nerd job. Um, I

(28:40):
prevented hacker from hacking into our network. I was stationed
over in Portugal, and I would stationed over in England
where I met my ex prior to being on TV delay.
That broke my heart, you know, all that stuff, and
we move, man, and it broke my heart bad. Y'all.
People said I didn't cry a matter of fact, wells
sit out and cry, and so therefore that's so ignorant.

(29:04):
And therefore I wasn't the Bachelor because I didn't show
emotion like that. From where I'm from, we don't. It's not.
I have shown emotion, but it's not. It's not it's
gonna say more than two months for me to show
that emotion. So you're a slow grower when it comes
to fall in love. I told hint of that, definitely,
and I think that it's perfectly fine that not everyone

(29:25):
is the exact same when it comes to how they
feel emotionally. So do you think the process would have
been okay for you having to in two months if
you were a bachelor? I think Jojo and Jordan's he
just reproposed, right, Yeah, Yeah, that's how things work. I mean,
you find your person. If if you're able to find
your person, then you can leave the show together. Colton

(29:46):
and Cassie aren't married, So you think you would have proposed.
I know I'm getting back into that, but you don't
know that. Do you think that you would have proposed
if you're the bachelor? If I were to be the Bechel? Yeah,
I'm I mean, I'm thirty two years old almost, I legit.
I love love. I really I really want my thunderbuddy.

(30:06):
I really want you know, the sexiest thing. The coolest
thing to me is like on a Friday Saturday night
when I got my like tibit. I love sleeping naked.
I love being naked in my house. Dean happened to
the friend here, Dean, he doesn't believe in underwear. Neither
do I. I'm with it, so I just rather be
naked all day. But that's another story, another podcast. But

(30:26):
the coolest and the sexiest thing to me is like
on a Friday Saturday night, you know, being with your
mate and like my girl head on my chest, playing
a little chest hairs. I love stuff like that. That's
like legit. I want that. Mike, you you're a man
who obviously feels like I can tell right now if

(30:47):
you could. You are what we want in depth podcast,
the man to sit down and talk about some real stuff,
dig deep with us and share your heart and your emotions. So,
what has been the biggest disap wint Mint in the
last five months of this process for you? Because really
you've seen your season air in Paradise air all within
the last sit five to six months. How how has

(31:10):
it changed you in a good way? And then also
how is it how is it kind of pool? I
think it always changes. Just let me let me put
this in the context. I think it always changes this
in a in a good way if we're willing to
let it. But I also think it really hurts at times,
and there's also some massive disappointments, and it's not always
the most healthy, but it's still changes us because we
learn more about ourselves. What has this last six months

(31:30):
been like for you as a human. Well, I'm not
a tennion unemployee no more. Yeah, that's happening. I'm definitely
on my phone more often. Um, you know, I had
to lead hi my I g for a long time.
Definitely got that back. Um. I think I'll say the

(31:52):
one cool thing, the positive thing, which is wells your
fiance actually said this and I thought it was really awesome.
She said, going on this show, it's like a relationship
boot camp. It's something of that nature. And I think
it's true. Like I am and have been a very
slow two open up because when I opened up, I'm like,

(32:12):
I'm really attached. I mean I've had one I brought
one woman home in a decade. And it's not because
I can't, No, you can find a girl because of that.
It's just because I'm I'm really I care right, and
if I open my heart to you, I take that
stuff incredibly serious. And so I think the positive thing

(32:34):
is that I'm able to open up quicker, a whole
lot quicker, like on the first day of my baby.
That's what it is. If you ain't with it, you
know bye. And I'm gonna listen to you as well.
Of course, I'm sorry, I'm like staring at you and
not you as well. And she doesn't better than you.
I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.
You gotta man um. But I think that's the biggest

(32:57):
thing is that what well well is your fiance said
going on this process definitely is a boot camp for relationships,
and I'm so much quicker to open up and be vulnerable. Um,
I'm not wanting to cry. That's just doesn't have me.
My ex um, the only love, the only woman I've
ever said, I love you too. I didn't cry when

(33:17):
we broke up. I cried two and a half years
later when she said, I'm sorry, can we talk about
her for a little bit? You were together for how long?
Just like almost three years and then you guys, you
lost a baby together. What she talked about let's break
it down. Yeah, let's talk about it. Okay, here's what happened.
I think I want to I want to give you

(33:38):
the freedom do this. But our listeners, it's actually what
I want to, um to put it out there. Emails
have been Actually I heard in dot com if you
hear my story, you relate with my story, you want
you want to follow up whatever? When when we do
these in depths, it's actually kind of crazy. We had
chumped booth On after his break up with Kalin, and uh,
it was it was hard, like it was like brutal.
He was emotional to the whole thing. But and I

(33:59):
think you'll appreciate this. What the follow up from that
was incredible, Like the listeners going, I relate, I can
feel I'm not alone, And that's what these are really
meant to do, Like they're not meant for anything else. Um, Mike,
before we start talking here, I want you to give
you a second for a break, and let's take a
break ourselves. Um. It will come back with Mike Johnson
talking about some some real stuff. You've all heard me

(34:25):
talk about it before. You know that I've slept on
it and with it for years. I'm talking about sleep
number fall is now upon us because it seems like
in cold weather, I like to sleep on something just
a little softer. That's why my sleep number right now
is just sitting around, you know, the seventies, seventy seventy

(34:46):
five and the summer. I like to rock. And that's
a good thing about sleep number, though. I can customize
it whenever I want. Hey, I love my sleep number bed.
It's been my favorite bed that I've ever had. It.
It's actually been my only adult bed well because I
love it so much. Why would I change from sleep

(35:07):
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(35:28):
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(36:37):
com slash ben. That's sleep number dot com slash Ben.
We're back with Mike Johnson. Mike, before I kind of
rudely interrupted you, but needed to UM just for the
sake of the podcast. You're gonna share some stuff that

(36:58):
I think our listeners UM will relate with and want
to hear. UM. I want to give you the freedom,
just do it. You're you're on your way. The question
that actually asked was, Hey, you had a pass face
of the middle lot to you. UM. During that UH,
there was a child that was lost and you talked
about on The Bachelor at and you're gonna talk about
it now. Well, I thank you, uh some my X

(37:19):
and I met over. I just came from a deployment
and I was stationed at r F leg heath Over
in England. And it was the day at the fourth
of July two thousand and thirteen, and I I had UM.
I went out that night to the club and I
spoke to this lady and at like thirty minutes talking

(37:41):
to her, and she said, hey, you speak to my daughter.
But come to find out, I had already gotten her
daughter's phone number. Um. And so I fellas get the
moms approval first, got you and U uh. The young
lady and I we scheduled a date and I no call,
no showed on the date. Not good, not good at

(38:02):
her at all. Um. And it's funny because I remember writing, Uh,
I wrote a letter to God, per se and I said,
I want the hard road up. I wrote a poem,
that's what it was. And it was to no one
but God. Because I was twenty five and I had
been acting as if I was a rock star, you know,

(38:24):
from like a young child to about twenty five years old.
And I was like, I'm just done with that. I
want the sweet things in life. White, you know, put
your head on my chest and let's just chill out.
You know, you burped my face and eat ice cream
and let's you know, I like it. You seven tones?
What's up? Um? And so after I know called her

(38:46):
no shoulder on the date, you know, we started talking
or whatever. And then I was supposed to go. I
was supposed to leave the military and go back to America.
And she's very, very prideful, and she is extremely independent.
And I remember putting like the money in it for
a ticket inside of her shoe, and she says she
wanted to go to America with me. I didn't ask

(39:08):
her to because that's like a huge to say, hey Ben,
leave your life and come live with me in Texas, right,
And so she came with me. We had two separate
departments just because we had only known each other for
three months, and she moved to America with me, and
I wanted to like marry this woman, so I felt
that we didn't need to be living together even thought
want to marry her, but I wanted to like do

(39:28):
with what I felt was the right way. And so
then like there's something called tech school. I'm not als
every leadership school. I went to that and we moved
in together and everything is beautiful, blissful. I got a
damn cat. I don't even like cats. Sacrificing Sumo Sumo

(39:49):
Cinnamon Toast. Did you end up loving the cat? Oh?
He the cat, Sumo, that's his name. He loves me
more than her like de serious. I wish you can
call him right now. She'll tell the truth. His name
is Sumo Cinnamon Toast. He has Mr. Toast is his surname.
And yes, I love Sumo, and we had um we

(40:10):
became pregnant, and on the show, I told the truth.
I told Hannah that I wasn't there for the miscarriage,
but people kind of went off on me. But I
didn't have I didn't get to elaborate because quite honestly,
that's between me my ex. But I'll say, so my
ex and I had a miscarriage, and and I ain't

(40:39):
gonna do it. So my ex and I had a miscarriage.
And I really try to keep my pinky promises. So actually,
if I keep it pinky promise with you, I'm gonna
keep it, and I'll keep you pinky pinky promise with you,
I'll keep it. The only pinky problems I've never kept
my entire thirty one years of life is to my
exes mom when she said can I get her some
jalapeno poppers from the store. I didn't pick him up.
And I still remember that like to this day. Like

(41:00):
I was like eight years ago almost and my best
friend who lives in England, he was coming to Houston
and we lived in San Antonio at the time, and
I asked my ex fellas message right here about to
give it to you. I asked my ex baby, can
I go to Houston for a day and she said yes, Fellas.

(41:21):
When your ladies say yes, she means no, guy. And
I didn't know that lesson at the time, and so
I left. I literally was gone for maybe maybe thirty hours.
He came back and I wasn't there for That's what
I mean by that. The show made it seemed like

(41:41):
you weren't there for her, like emotionally. No, She'll tell
you I was there for emotionally and that you just
said like I wasn't there currently physically in that moment, Yeah,
we lost our we lost our child. I was there
for when we lost our child, but like through the
grieving process, which is it. It's a very serious thing.
And I literally was gone left on a Saturday, came
back on a Sunday. What Yeah, Mike, I know we're

(42:05):
gonna have listeners that relate with this, like this is
a hunt from a from a supporter's perspective, like your perspective,
and then also from a woman carrying the child. What
was the grieving process? Like, if you if you don't
mind trying to explain it so that people out there
listening to go, yeah, they're there with me. Um, So
I'm like kind of shaking. I think that, for one,

(42:29):
the grieving process is different for everyone. It doesn't matter
your gender. I think it's different for everyone. Um. From
my ex I feel that everyone knows I want children,
Like my ultimately go in life is to build my
future children at treehouse. Um, more than money, more than
it is anything. That's what I want to do. That's

(42:50):
that's for damn sure gonna happen. And she knew that
and she didn't want to have children, but then we
got together. She said, I'll be a great father, and
so she wanted to have kids. And I think that
The biggest thing was her not she didn't feel like
she was a woman, you know, because she I'm like shaking.

(43:11):
The biggest thing was she didn't feel like she was
good enough for me because she felt as if she
couldn't have children. And I want to tell her and
everyone else out there that your man loves you, like
if you have a miscarriage, I love you, like it's
it's okay, right, just communicate. And my ex really didn't

(43:34):
communicate that to me at all. But also I was
an ignorant guy. Guys, we are stupid, sorry then and uh,
at the time, I wasn't experiencing relationships, and so I
didn't truly know how to communicate with her either. I
literally became a perfect gentleman like and it's annoying. When
you become a perfect gentleman like, it really is annoying.

(43:55):
And that's what I did. And because I didn't know
what else to do. I mean, I'm asking my mom,
her mom, my grandma, my sister, you know, um, what
to do um. And it just didn't work. But what
she told me two and a half years later, and
that's when I cried. I broke up with her after
like maybe eleven months after, eleve months after Yeah, let's
before you get there. I just want to say, what

(44:15):
did it? What was the relation like between the time
that the miscarriage happened in the end, was that was
that a fact of that affected things? So I think,
first of all, communications the beast thing. I don't let's
let's disagree. That's okay, right, let me. I remember telling

(44:36):
my ex, um, I said, let's do it feel me. So,
my ex and I've spoken since the show. Eric. She
watched the show and it was a very hard time.
When that episode aired, I called her, um tone knows
this except for the homie, so y'all know this, um So.
I definitely called it and reached out to her, and
it was a sad moment for us. And basically what

(45:01):
she told me was she didn't know how to She
didn't she know how to talk to me because she
felt like she had failed almost And I just looked
at her and was like, everything that you go through,
I just wanted to be there with you. I don't
care if you went through the toughest in the world.
I want to be right there with you. And I
think so many people need to know that. In a relationship.

(45:22):
When someone loves you, I don't care what it is.
I don't care if you I remember joking about this
to my friends that like when I fall in love,
if you cheated on me, I'm still donna love you.
I don't fall in love easily, so I'm still gonna
love you. Now your has been not cheating on me,
but like, I'm still in love you. And so I
think that was a big learning lesson for us. For

(45:45):
me because I need to know how to make a
good environment for you to feel that comfortable, right, And
I think for her it needed to be that she
can be open and communicated with me and know that
I'm gonna love her even more because we went through
a traumatic experience together in comparison to going through a
traumatic experience separately, but the exact same experience. And so

(46:11):
that's that's kind of what happened. We live in We
stayed in two separate rooms for a while. Like I said,
I'll sleep naked. That's like the only rule in my house.
You feel me and no sleep naked, And so we will.
We will be sleeping naked in bed, but like we
want to, I'm gonna cuddle. I'm like I like to cuddle.
You know, we wouldn't hold each other. That sounds so corny,

(46:33):
but it's true. We wouldn't hold each other, and we
want to have sex. Um. And it wasn't because of religion.
It wasn't because of we're upstaining from sex. I think
she just felt as if it could happen again, that
she could become pregnant again, even though she was on
birth control. And it was just a lot of mental
things going on. And I've learned so much and I

(46:55):
love her so much for helping me to grow in
that area. And m I actually took classes, like since
I've been single, like I legit want to be a
phenomenal husband, and I've taken classes on how to communicate
because communication is different than effective communication. Right. Um, I

(47:15):
can say, Ben, I think you're tall. That's a terrible example.
I'm not gonna go further, um, but just communication different
than effective communication. And while I was on the bachelorte,
I wasn't there for her going back to that for
like thirty hours max. During that grieving period and uh,
like shaking, this don't happen to me, feel me, um,

(47:38):
But yeah, that's what happened. I broke up with her
because communication was nolan void and there will be months
where we didn't have sex. And I don't cheat. I
refused cheat, and I desired communication and I desired sex
quite honestly, So you came back, um man, thanks for

(48:03):
sharing that. By the way, thank you just for us here,
but for the people listening. You've just totally opened your heart.
Ben Are you crying? Yeah, I know, it's just like
so emotional. So the thing is, then you get off
the show, you call her. You guys talked this through
and you said you cried once in your life when
she said she was sorry. What lever that? Now? So
I've cried three times? Right, You've cried three times in
your whole life this morning, you know, outside of getting

(48:31):
whoopings with my grandma's. So like, as an adult, you've
cried three times altogether. I'll cried once when Selena died, Selena.
When Selena died, it's four or something. I cried. I
cried on Selena, and then I cried the other two
times with my ex. The first time was when I
cried tears of joy, Like I don't know if y'all

(48:53):
felt that tears of happiness happened. I was with my
homeboy in England and he was making us like some
sun days, right, and it was me and my ex
and she was sitting on my lap. Um, and I
just broke down just because I was happy. I just
felt love. I had my best homie with me, my brother,
and I had my the woman I wanted to marry,

(49:13):
and there was nothing else more one in life. And
so I cried. And then the second time I cried
was when of two and a half years after we
broke up. Um, you know how you try to rekindle
things like I was going to ask, right, So we've
been broken up like five years now or whatever, almost
like two and a half years after she would seeming

(49:33):
like one text like four months straight. Oh man, she triffic.
So I go to visit her. I want to visit
her like five times. Um. The first time I want
to go visit her, we watched a girls trip. She's
still living in the States. Yeah, she lives in Arizona. Now.
In my first off, my grandma, my queen, she pissed
me off. It's good for people. My grandma had my

(49:56):
exes back, my ex tell my grandma my exlide in
my face, I said. She said she talked about doing
a job interview, and I said, oh, um, like awesome.
She's like, I gotta fly to Arizona and like I
watered up, and I'm like, you're moving to Arizona and
she's like, no, just the job interviews in Arizona. I
knew she was lying, but you know, when you love someone,

(50:20):
you just like you become stupid, right, And my grandma
she told my grandma, and my grandma kept that secret
from me. So whoever, my future wife is just no,
you can trust my grandma for sure. And um, what
was she played there? Is? What? What? What was the count?
Took a job? She took a job? Yeah, because like
you know, when you break up with somebody, let's say
you meet you and I are together being in uh,

(50:42):
you know, I'll be the sexy one of our relationship.
You know, we break check yourself. If we met in
Vegas and like broke him in Vegas, you know, it
maybe hard for whatever, so you might leave that city
or whatever. So she decided, you know, I feel it.
I agree with her, and so she moved to Arizona.
But when I was in Arizona, we had watched girls trip.

(51:04):
We had a fantastic evening and we're literally on a
ride home. I never forget this. We were driving her
Mini Cooper, which people to have Mini Coopers. I love,
y'all because it's like a it's like a cult, like
Mini Cooper Colt and they go fast to it's the
nerd cult. Hey, it's a dope quote, but disagree anyway.

(51:26):
I don't have a Mini Cooper, but we were. We
were just driving. It was perfectly quiet, and then all
of a sudden, she just said, I'm sorry, and I
could cry now, like tears, just I've never cried so
profusely my entire life. And we pulled over on the
side of the road and I don't know how long
we embraced, but the police came first off, talking about racism. Right,

(51:49):
thank god I was in the passenger seat. Thank god
she was. She was crying too, And I mean, just
think about that context, right, two people in the car crying.
It's like one in the morning, two in the morning
or whatever. I could have been taken totally different, right,
But I own a passenger seat, and it please come
up and they're like, is everything okay? And she's like, yeah, whatever.
So they left, but like it was, I cried, like

(52:12):
straight up crazy tears. I mean, never before ever felt that.
And I am an emotional person. But I'm sorry that.
I'm not sorry because I'm not gonna just fall for anybody.
My love is deep. He felt what. I don't think
it's get sick of it, you said. I just felt that.
So I cried, But I don't know what it is

(52:32):
that I felt closure. Okay, I felt that. You know,
I'm not I'm not trying to. I don't care. I
was a damn good dude in that relationship, and I
was like when we broke up. When I broke up
with her, I didn't work for ten months, Like I

(52:52):
didn't leave my house except for one day a week
two get groceries, like I grew my hair out, like
my hair was long. Um, I didn't leave my house.
I got super skinny. Um. I think two people came
to visit me in that ten months frame. Literally, I
I was a prisoner of like this. I never said
this to anybody outside of Holmies. Right. Um, when we

(53:16):
broke up, I legit ten months was in my apartment
and I was financially blessed, and so I just paid
my bills came out and I just my TV was
not on. I wake up, going the living room and
sit on the couch and just be, Um, you broke
up with her. I'm not following. Yeah, but I broke
up with her. I think that she ain't gonna happy.

(53:36):
I said this, but I think that she wanted me
to break up with her. Um. But I'm gonna take
the blame and just say I broke over her on
my own volition. Um for the reason I spoke up earlier,
which were we weren't having sex months only at a time,
and there was absolutely zero communication. And she said I
was perfect, and I'm like, I'm not perfect. So she
was say, you're really good. I'm like, what the hell
is the problem? And she couldn't answer, So I kinda

(53:57):
I gave her ultimatum, which is the terrible thing to do.
Learn that lesson as well. And but yeah, so when
we broke up, I had I was at Malley lower
her like, she's the only woman in a decade, bro
that's met my mom, right in a decade, and you know,
I'm about to be thirty two. Hasn't no one other know,
other woman's met my mom since I was twenty years old,

(54:19):
and so for whoever you know, I'm in a relationship.
Next and you mean my mom. That's when I take
that very seriously. My sister and my grandma as well,
and my father too, And so yeah, I didn't. I
literally was growing out my hair and my hair was nappy.
I was like grizzly faced. Um didn't work when I
went back to the when I went back to the workforce,

(54:42):
I after the interview, I ran outside and threw up
because I hadn't been around people like you see my
personal I don't give a damn right, but like I
hadn't been around people, so I was that I was
like isolated from life. I was basically a prisoner of
my own depression. How concerned were the queens during this time? Um?
So I text, right, I'm not I don't really, this

(55:04):
is something I'm working. This is one of my goals
in life, just to be a better at calling. Like
I text my mom like a few days ago, I
was like, Mom, I'm in l A. I'm gonna go
to New York time. I want to Vegas. So she
knows where I'm at, Like, but my my family knows.
I'm not one to I mean, I was in the military,
I was living overseas for like five years. I'm I'm
not want to call you every day, Unles, You're my girl.
That's just my personality. So my Queen's I would text him,

(55:27):
but I would probably I probably lied and said I'm good,
you know, prideful, stupid. Two things here. One is it
amazes me every time. Here's here's another part of why
In Depth started. Because when you hear somebody's stories, you
can't help but love them, right. I mean, it's just
that's that's a universal statement that I think everybody could

(55:48):
take the heart. Once you know somebody's stories, you can't
help but love them because you know them. Um, it's
makes sense to me more than ever. I liked you
because you were the good looking, offinite dude who was
himself on the Bachelorette. I love you now because of
the pain and shared suffering that we've had together on

(56:10):
this podcast. The things that you said that I can
relate with, the things that you said that I can't
relate with yet it can. It can teach me, And
I think it makes more sense and ever why Bachelor
Nation is so drawn to you as just a human black,
white male female, just as a human man. You've been
through some stuff that's led you to this point now,
and the difference you're gonna make in this world is

(56:32):
something that I'm so pumped to follow and be watch
and watch. Um, Mike, I want to just thank you
from the depths of my heart, like the as best
I can to say thanks for sharing yourself and and
on behalf of the listeners out there thank you as well,
because I know somebody's gonna listen to this to be
like that's me. Um. I want to switch gears here
if that's okay with you, and talk about your current

(56:53):
dating life. And then Ashley always does this thing at
the end of every in depth podcast, which is a
rapid fire fun questions that she loved. But before we do,
I want to sit in this moment for a second, Mike,
because I don't want to just overpass it and say
thank you. Yeah, man, thank you. And can I just
say that from first impression to a very deep impression,

(57:16):
I mean, I am now very I don't want to
offend Peter, but like it's upsetting that we don't get
to see more of you on the show because we
have just gotten to know you so well and like
you're so soulful and you're such a romantic and I've
just been captivated by you today. Hey, the Bachelor is
not the last last thing I know, but like now

(57:37):
it's like we all get it. If if this was
aired and we had fans listening to this before, they decided,
like they'd be getting very angry emails, like more than
they are right now. All right again, if you're listening
and you just want a friend uh to hear you
out emails have been Ashley, I heard me dot com,
hashtag almost famous podcast, um, or just hit up Mike

(58:01):
Johnson on some social media platform and say thank you
because we know you're listening. Uh, I can't say something
so like, um, I learned about self love and the
power of that because and winning a relationship. I can't
help you with your loving of yourself, and so I
learned that in previous relationships. And so for all the listeners.

(58:22):
If you're having anything in regards to body positivity or
just loving yourself or just growing your confidence, or why
does Mike always smile out of goddamn time? I want
to do that more often. Hit me up. I got you.
I'm working on something for that too. You got it, buddy. Hey,
thanks Mike. We'll be back with Mike after the break. UM,
lightening up a bit talking about current name relationships and
some wild rapid fire questions UM that I don't think

(58:45):
will cause controversy, but they will cause laughs. Take a break.
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(59:06):
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(01:00:36):
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even though I do believe that our listeners are going

(01:01:41):
to eat up every single word that you've said, and
you know, just let it go and sink to their hearts,
I do think in the back of their minds somewhere
they're like, I cannot believe that they have teased the
Demilovano thing, and they've waited, We've waited this long to
get the answer. But it would be so inappurpose to ask,
like in the midst of all that seriousness, Um, okay,

(01:02:04):
so you are pretty honest with entertainment tonight recently that
you did you have gone on a date with Demi.
I think you've hung out multiple times. You got on
one day, we've gone on one day o um. And
it all started with d M S right um, which
is totally fine. We're so supportive of this. We've been talked. Yeah,

(01:02:26):
we've talked, you know, racism, we talk we've talked, we've
talked sex, and now we talked about bad Yeah. Maybe
well open here you said, Demi and I want a date.
That woman is quite astounding and amazing, and that's all
I'll say. You're getting to know each other, you say,

(01:02:47):
and that you think she's incredibly humble, and when Demi
and I are together, it's laughter. And we talked real like.
She's a down to earth woman and I respected so much.
And she's just really humble and really cool and really
on and really down to earth. Is there anything to
add to that list of compliments. I like her tattoos.

(01:03:11):
We both have a lot of tattoos. Dean has more
than me. And she kisses really well. Thanks for giving
us that has she put her head on your chest
and play with the little hairs. I'm not gonna say that,
you're going I'm gonna catch it. Keep coming out up

(01:03:37):
so I mean, no matter what, like that Me's a
great girl. In fact she is. I'm getting to know
her for her. How did you like the way that
she was so um she was kind of the aggressor
in a in a nice way on Instagram she was
all about going after you. How did you feel about
the girl making the first move like that for one
of them? All about her too? And uh, she definitely

(01:04:00):
was the aggressor, you know. I find it incredibly sexy.
I love that, like, come at me, you want me,
come at me. If I want you, I'm come at you,
and I'm coming at her as well. I really liked
this coupling. I really really do you call this? I
learned this shipping shipping. We definitely shipped this shipping. I
don't know what shipping was until like this, I'm learning

(01:04:23):
and shipping. We're shipping this thing, all right. So I'm
gonna go into our rapid fire questioning from there because
I got some Demi related ones. So actually pull that
up real quick, Mike. I want to ask you a
question that I told you. I want to get try
to get deep again, but I do think it's weird.
So you are in the Demi Demi you. You're dating.
It's great, you're both in the public eye, you're both

(01:04:43):
beloved by America. Mike, what is the feeling to have
everybody asked about it then like it was and we're
one of those people, like I want to know about
this because of the rumors and the taboys everything going off.
What does it feel like to you? Because it's real
for you? Astounding question. Um, be quite honest, I personally

(01:05:06):
don't like it. I I am very private with my relationships,
like straight up, but I mean I'm in this. She's
been in this light and that's why I said, she's
so humble and I think the world of her because
like she's been able to have to deal with this
crap like I can't even imagine from her perspective, from

(01:05:29):
your fiancee's perspective as well. Just put crazy you're putting
out else. Um, I personally don't care to talk about
you know what I do behind closed doors. I'm a gentleman.
I'm not gonna kiss until I might not be a
gentleman of her always. But actually said earlier, Mike's is

(01:05:50):
sexy when and I'm not well that forms like that
that I made that I can't imagine could we go
out of your mouth? It? Yeah? What what it scares
me honestly, and what scares me about it is that

(01:06:12):
if de Me and I were not to become boyfriend girlfriend, right, Um,
how people perceive that, which, honestly I shouldn't give two
about it, right, Um, no dispect to my you know
people that follow us, Um, but that it scared me
for that reason, being quite transparent. She's a woman that

(01:06:32):
I treat like a regular individual. I'm a man and
she treats like a regular man. And we do like
each other and we are getting to know each other.
But what if it were not meant to be? Then
like people are going to speculate, Oh this is that
in the third right, and so I would rather not
have that. But at the same time, I'm gonna be
smooth criminal when I walk through this path and we

(01:06:55):
start our rapid fire with what is your favorite Demi
of song? Um? Were you familiar with their music? Before
I'll say I'll say it straight up, Um, me and
my homies we have not listened to a lot of
Demi Levato songs. And it's not because of her, it's
just because of the genre that's not our go to genre. Okay,
well you can let her know that, um, I was

(01:07:17):
the creep that went to seven a Cambrock tour concerts.
I will tell you. I will tell you that I
have listened to obviously a lot more of her songs now,
and you gotta like, I'm not gonna go further. Sorry,
not sorry, I know, sorry, not sorry. You gotta like, like,
I mean, she's got no sorry not sorry. I could

(01:07:38):
sing it in my head right now that we could
power ballad. I need to hear Scott, but sorry, not sorry.
It brings about what Scott Scraper does it mean? I'll
be honest, and I think that's why we like each other,
because we treat each other like you know, and you're
learning about each other. It's all like you automatically know
all these things about it. You'll be kind of weird
if I was, like, you know, how cam is, how
he'd be knowing about everybody? If I always became yeah,

(01:08:01):
like if I knew everything about her, it would be
kind of creepy. It would never work. What is your
most meaningful tattoo? This whole left arm. Because it's going
to be just one piece, it means so many different things.
It basically representation of what life is to me. I
guess my most meaningful one would be brief life. That's
my motto. Brief life to me means, uh, I can
say a joke about it. Firstly, it's not done, bro

(01:08:23):
is what it's done. But it's as chilling, so it
looks ugly. But brief life to me means live like
to the fullest. Um, the only easy day was yesterday,
and uh, just go out there and get it. Shut up.
I don't want to like hammer at homes, but on
my list, I said, what is your favorite tattoo of demis?
But you don't have to respond. I'm not gonna respond.

(01:08:46):
I like to breathe life. That hit me, hit my soul.
I do know what my favorite tattoo of hers is
hers is, but I won't say it. That's sweet too.
We just like hearing that. Um, what's your favorite movie?
On the plane ride from San Antonio here, I just
watched Casino again, like old gangster movies. I love Yo

(01:09:09):
Appuccino Dude is like Robert de Niro. They're freaking terrific
that they're coming out with a new mode. Yes, and
I cannot wait come out later this year. Right, Yeah,
apparently they're like digitizing their faces like younger because they
do that with a Will Smith movie as well. Gemini
shout out the Gemini, you know, make sure you pay
them and almost famous for that shout out. We're gonna

(01:09:30):
have one more shout out if you're on the next
plane ride. Um, my favorite movie, because you asked, Mike,
and I should answer, because that's just I don't know
if I like I need to is the biggest little
farm on all Delta flights? Amazing movie. I've seen it.
I've seen it. Mike. You want to cry for the
fourth time in your life watching Fairy Show right now?

(01:09:52):
Power though Power favorite? Never heard of It wasn't on
Power is Amazing, It's on Showtime. Okay. Your favorite band
music artists? My favorite musical artist. So I asked this
question the other day. If you got to kill three
of these people, well we got to kill one, and
out of three of these, who would you kill Drake,
Kendrick Lamar or j Cole. That's easy for me, but

(01:10:14):
I can't answer. Can we say, like we see one
of them has to go out of the room. I
don't want to kill him. They have to go. Drake easy,
Drake easy easy. I think that. But Drake makes songs
bro like, he can make songs that never been bigger.
With J Cole is playing on my ear. You gotta
be deep when you wouldn't listen to J Cole. You

(01:10:35):
can't be like happy, go lucky all the time with
J Cole and Kendrick. Yeah, I think that Drake has more.
He's more versatile, even though in that list, Kendrick is
my favorite because he does like who who would you send? Yeah,
that's a hard one home. That's why the bottom line
is those are his three artists. No, no, my favorite
artists right now outside of Demi is going to be

(01:10:58):
uh Sabrina Claudio. I think she's amazing her, She's amazing. Um.
I like my girl named, I like like R and B,
like these new R and B artists like Janine and
the mixtape. She go hard, like I'll pull out my
phone right now. Alabama shakes, they go hard. You guys
add this to your Spotify. What was the most embarrassing

(01:11:19):
moment of your life? You don't have to get deep
here so many times, like I'm I just thought it
was the most embarrassing. My sister had um for me
put my my pants failed in Oh, I was on
a date. I'll say this. When I was on a
date and um, my car didn't started. Like we went

(01:11:42):
to a gas station and like my card and start up.
No more but see ID smooth though, So I was like,
I was like beaging my card and I told her.
I told her, unstroke the card and started. I was like,
let's let's go for a walk. That's cute. My last
question because I'm I'm being told that we need to
wrap it up. What is the first thing you notice
about a woman that draws you to her? Two different questions. Okay,

(01:12:05):
what is the first thing? There? They are, Okay, tell
them both. Okay, the first thing that the first thing
that I noticed about a woman. So like, when we're
in paradise, if you got your feet out, I'm gonna
look at your feet, your feet that I'm so glad
I asked this question because that is truly a unique answer, Like, yeah,
if you don't think it is, you've got a lot
of toast. No, I am not a toe sucker, I

(01:12:25):
be I am. I'm definitely a freaking in bedroom. But
toasucking I've never done. Okay, I don't know I do.
That's the thing. Oh god, I just think no, But
what drawing me to a woman is like what Demi did,
and that confidence and that sessionist and just speaking is wrong.
I knew. So this is what I love about Ashley.

(01:12:47):
I knew that she would know some Demilvado songs like
even without even copy for this, and that she could
literally prep them into the conversation like this, like I
love a confident woman, and she sings the Confidence song
by the bot She's confident. I love it. Actually, anything else, um,
I mean, the feat thing is really funny. My sister
was convinced that Jared um wasn't with me for two

(01:13:09):
and a half years because of my Bunnians. Wait till
you take a look at my feet tomorrow on the hills.
I'm good. Hey, Mike, we'd love you, man, Thank you
so much. I promise you, bud uh just we really
appreciate you and I want you to feel that. Tonight,
let's celebrate here at the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas
at I Heart Music Festival to That's nineteen Mike, Thanks

(01:13:31):
a lot, man, Let's do it. Everybody. Make sure you
make some smiles today. Honestly, what a wonderful experience. This
has been Hey, thank you playing on Hollywood, and thank
you shake shack for dinner. It's tasty. Oh yeah, actually
I had breakfast shake shack this morning at the airport.
It's a day of shake Shack. It's a day of
Planet Hollywood. Diana has his mustache back and just saying, hey,

(01:13:55):
make sure if you guys are interested, because everybody's freaking
out right now. If you want some shake shack, is
it a store or go to shake shack dot com
or the shaik You should you should like dance when
you say the shack out. I kind of feel like, hey, guys,
follow our lead, Mike. We do this every time I've
been I've been Ashley, I've been Mike Johnson. That's right, buddy,

(01:14:18):
See you guys. Follow the Benn and Ashley I Almost
Famous podcasts on I Heart Radio or subscribe wherever you
listen to podcasts.