Brad Fischetti (LFO)

Your Heart is Safe with Me Brad Fischetti! Which is a good thing because Brad really opens up in this episode. He shares everything from starting LFO, to their one and a million chance of being discovered, to the grief of losing his bandmates. 

Plus, even more amazing stories you won’t believe…like when Brad was a limo driver and got lost with Lance’s parents in the back! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass and my Heart
Radio podcast. Hello, my Little Peanuts sits me your host
Lance Bass. This is Frosted Tips with me Lance Bass
and my lovely co host Michael Dirks and Dirky Durtson
right here. Sorry, I thought you were going to say
my name? Should Should I wait for you to answer?

(00:25):
Or should I introduce you? I don't know what is
that rude not to say your name? No? Yeah, maybe
you should say that beautiful voice? Well I would I
will acknow dark Chin. Congratulations on your LA Art Show showing.
Thank you. Um, that's why you're Michael Church and Art.
That's all right. A lot of people think my last

(00:45):
name is church and Art, Church and Arts, and I'm like, nope,
but no. He is a pop artist just like me,
but in a different realm Oh god, you're funny. So
your LA Art show was a major success. You sold
out of everything, which was crazy, and I like the
new stuff that you did because you've got into this well,
I have a love hate relationship. Very month you found Glitter.

(01:08):
I know now. His stuff is amazing. It's pop art,
it is it's incredible, and tons of people by your stuff.
I mean all. You know, big, big celebrities have them
in their homes. Yes you're you're, Yes, celebrities seek you out.
But you found glitter. I did find glitter, and it's
really cool because I like things that sparkle. And when

(01:29):
it's on a wall and you put right lighting in it,
it is just gorgeous. But it's my paintings are They're
not even painting, they're glittering exactly. Well, it's just glitter.
I used just glitter through the whole entire now. But
you do paint an outline first, No, just literally I
draw a pencil, I draw out what I'm gonna do,

(01:50):
and then I paint with glue and them poor glitter,
and I just everything twice, mixing colors, y'all. He does
all this in the kitchen. I don't have a designated area. Okay.
This has been the crux of my whole art career. Um,
Like they say, glitter is the herpies of the art world,
and it is the herpies of our home. Our babies

(02:12):
have it all in their head and good, I'm like,
this get in their eyes. This is gonna cut their eyeballs. Yeah,
it's everywhere. It's every little baby sparkle. In fact, I mean,
I see it on your face right now. You can't
it will not go away. Don't try to dull my shine,
that's right. So yeah, if you come to our house,
you're gonna leave with glitter. And I thought I gotten
rid of that with Giggles because Giggles used to wear glitter.

(02:35):
First started talking together almost sixteen years ago, seventeen years ago,
and she just covers. She would like put body glitter,
ont like do the groceries, like you run an errand,
and it would just jump on to me. Just it
was always on me. They're like, oh, if you've been
around Lisa, that's what I'm here for. Yeah, and then
she stopped think goodness, and then you fall into this glitter. Listen,

(02:58):
listen art it's it's it's it looks good and we
keep doing it. Yeah, it looks really good. It's worth it,
especially when you sell out the La R Show. Yeah,
all right. We have Brad Faschetti on the show today.
I'm excited to have an Lafoe member on because we
went on the Pop two thousand tour together. He's still
on the Pop two thousand tour. Um. But I mean,
as if you don't know the other two members of

(03:20):
the band have passed away, very sad story and and
his his tribute to them in the in the concert
is just very moving. And I don't see how he
does it every night because he comes off that stage
just worn out, like just really drained from this. It
takes him a moment to kind of get his composure again.
And that's every night, I can imagine. I mean, you're

(03:42):
I mean, I mean your whole your whole band is
passed away. And then a matter of within a decade too.
And Rich was a long time coming anywhe It took
him five years and I think he went to remission
one time and whatever. But Devin was just felt like
it was overnight. I don't even know what kind of
cancer it was. I'm going to learn that for the
first time. I'm was interested to hear because like I've

(04:03):
heard so many stories about Brad from you, but like
you're never really sure if it's the right story, Like
he started off with lou BroMans Limo drivers. What I
always hear were like, how did that even come about? Exactly? Yeah,
I'm just yeah, I believe I'm never really known the
true origins. No Brad was there from the very beginning.
His brother was the vice president of trans Con. You know,

(04:25):
he knew Lou before us, so he kind of saw.
He had the front row view to the creation of
the backsty boys watching us to get together. Didn't get
in a group. We all went to Germany together. Um,
I knew his girlfriend very well from mister president, there
was you know, there was a lot we've we've lived
a lot of life together, but yet not didn't really

(04:46):
get to know each other that well. Yeah, because you know,
they were hip hop group. We were like a real
boy band, so you know there if they were hanging
with us, Oh yeah, you'll you would definitely ruin their
street cred. H I'm but I do. Mister rich Rich
was such a character. What I'm good, dude. It was
so funny, so funny. Um, all right, before we get

(05:09):
Brad on the show, what happened this way? Oh you
know what we're doing? This is really fun. We what
are we doing? We like design? We do we love
like we're going through a whole house design because of COVID.
We actually ended up loving our house. So we're like,
you know what, let's redo this, create a place we
enjoy to live in um. So we've been doing a
note our house. But uh, we're having fun with our

(05:32):
club Heart and Rocos because it needs a little jian
the club itself, especially Heart. I mean it's news I'm
talking about, yes, But but the green room, that's what
we're talking about with Mary. There's a whole green room
that's yeah. Heart has this you know, gorgeous green room.
So we have performers come in. That's where we had
the tribute concert with actually Boys and everyone. We've had Lizzo,

(05:55):
Cardi b Little nas x Um Patras, Sam Smith, everyone
has hit that stage. But the dressing room is so yeah.
And I go in there and like, this bathroom is horrible.
It's everything's just not good. So as an artist, like
I have to create something that these artists want to

(06:16):
come back to. I know, And I walked into it
like the other day. I haven't even actually seen the
bathroom and I'm like why there's like dirt footprints all
over the floor and there's a shower from the nineteen
seventies that just takes up most of the bathroom that
no one showers in. No one showers in, but it's
very dirty inside it's a nasty, disgusting, disgusting, and dressing
rooms are disgusting. They just are backstage just just disgusting.

(06:38):
But I'm not going to feed that beast anymore. Don't
gonna make it nice. I'm gonna make it Who says
that make it nice? So we're gonna make it nice.
So it's been fun because now we're picking out wallpaper.
There's this really what's the wallpaper as Aztech. It's amazing
the company we love. Okay, if you go into our house,

(07:00):
we kind of went wallpaper crazy. It's a bit psychoic.
It's a little psychotics because we did in like different
we did three months. We do this the next three months,
and then at the end we're like, crap, we've all
papered every single wall in our house. True, and we
don't really like look at the wallpaper we have. When
we picked other wallpaper, we're gonna get being blue. So
yea all that kind of the same color, but like
none of them go no, but like it works somehow.

(07:23):
I'm just yeah, that's our esthetic. Yeah, it were just
we're that crazy house. Let's get to our guests, Yeah,
because wants to hear us talk. We want to hear
from Brad Vashetti, which I'm super excited me too, because again,
I don't really know the full story of Allaphoe. I
met Brian and Rich the original two when they came
down to Orlando. Forget there was an original Yeah, I

(07:43):
only know they were best friends. Yeah, I mean then
and for years they were together, as you know. Devon
came later on. Yeah, but Carrie Setler's our girl. Carry's
my my roommate, and she started with us, but then
Sync October one, nineteen ninety five. This is her friends.
I don't even remember how they were friends, but you
brought down and I think they stayed in our house.
They totally crashed with us just to get to meet

(08:05):
Louke Perroman to see if they would he would sign them,
and we were champion. We're like, yes, like sign these guys.
They're so fun. Heard them saying that you started career.
I am one hundred percent saying that I started Elfo's career. Wow.
That is going to be on my tombstone. Wow. Yeah, okay,
so I know that's gonna be a word. So right,
all right, id that to Wikipedia? Now? I would hate

(08:27):
to read my Wikipedia page. I'm sure it's real true.
We'll do that in another show. I'm gonna go through.
We should, you know what, We should do that with
all the guests because Wikipedia's wrong a lot sometimes. Yeah,
and we should go through because you know, I'd do
an opening of you know, the little bio that we
find probably on Wikipedia. And half the time the guests like, no, no, no,

(08:48):
that's not that. That didn't happen. That didn't happen. All right,
let's get to Pratt, all right, Turkey, So let's get
to it. Brad Faschetti born in New York City, New York.

(09:11):
He has a singer, guitarist, actor, best known for being
a founding member of the pop hip hop band LFO
since nineteen ninety five. What a good year ninety five?
Do you remember what you were doing in ninety five? Yeah?
How old are you two? I was eight years old?
Eight years old? I was eight years old. Oh my goodness. Well.
The band hit the scene at nineteen ninety nine with
a smash hit Summer Girls, which is Turkey's favorite, from

(09:34):
their debut album, self titled album. The band went on
hiatus in two thousand and two, and in two thousand nine,
LFO they regrouped for a reunion tour, and although it
was short, Brad said it was perhaps the closest they
have ever been as a group. So please welcome to
the show, mister Brad Fischetti from ELFO. Welcome to Frosted
Tips w Man. How are you good, brother? How you doing?
I'm doing good. It's good to be able to see you,

(09:55):
and we're gonna be able to catch up because a
lot of things I don't really remember from the Lafo days.
My brain is so I don't remember ship anymore. So
I'm excited to have you on the show because there's
so much I don't know about your band, So we're
all going to learn together. But let's start from the beginning.
Mister Bradshetty, you were born in New York City. Where

(10:18):
in New York did you grow up? So? I was
born in New York City, Ling Hospital in Manhattan and
grew up in starting in Queens until I was about
seven or eight, and then we moved back to New
Jersey and to the suburbs of New Jersey a town
called Mala, which most people think it's not like a
real town, right name, But I like it, so, you know, yeah,

(10:40):
I grew up like in a very suburban New Jersey
town through the time I was eight til I was eighteen.
M nice. Now, when you were in school, did you
know that you wanted to be a performer? Like what
was what was a little brad doing? No, a little
brad want to be a baseball player? Oh yeah, yeah,
you know. And you know, I know a lot of kids,

(11:01):
um you know, are singing in the church choir or
the school choir or trying not for the school plays
like my mom would have to, like she had to
force me to try out for the school plays and
the musicals and things like that. It just wasn't I
love music, you know, specifically I was into raps as
a kid, but baseball was really like my focused baseball

(11:22):
and basketball and football. But and then, you know, growing
up in a small town like that, I don't know
about you. I think, I know you're kind of from
a small town too, you know, you don't there's not
a lot of back then, there wasn't a lot of
people like trying to be in a music group. You know.
It was like, you know, I think there was one
guy I knew that that id ever like recorded something,

(11:45):
you know, in the town, Whereas I think if you
grew up in like Boston or New York City, there's
a lot of that going around. But in a small
town in New Jersey just didn't even seem like something
that was even possible. I know. I feel like growing
up in a small town, especially back then, you weren't
even really allowed to dream because it just it just
didn't seem possible at all. But yeah, all these other
cities where you had examples of people that have made

(12:07):
it from Boston, made it from you know, Memphis, whatever. Uh,
it was just I felt like it was as easier
for someone in a bigger city. No one was looking
at a small time. I mean, it's true. I grew
up in Miami Beach and I had friends that were
like in movies, and I was like in you know,
like fifth grade and I had like friends going on
to do stuff, so like it was always like on
the periphery, right. I remember there was this one kid

(12:29):
in my class, Denman Anderson, and he, uh he booked
a movie, and this is I'm like, how do you
know how to book a movie? Like I didn't know
where do you where do you learn that there's an
audition for something? Happening. And I remember every sixth or
seventh grade and I don't know, Uh, he got what
was the Huckleberry Finn movie with Elijah Wood, and I

(12:51):
was like, that's so cool. And I thought he was
gonna become the biggest actor ever because he was the
only one in our town that did anything. I mean,
he's gonna be a huge movie star. But he did
his acting career at that point. Um, you know in
my town. I think in my town, the biggest deal
was a girl who was like she was like in
the Sunday circler for like a toys ad, you know
what I mean, a huge deal, you know, I mean

(13:13):
she did like a commercial and you know, yeah, and
even like Joey Fatone, you know he's from Bensonhurst. Uh,
he was you know, he could easily just be an extra.
I forget what movie he first did Once upon a
time in America. I think he did that movie, but
he was just you know, an extra in the background.
But they had all these opportunities for kids to you know,
see how a movie's made. Uh that you know, no

(13:35):
one was filming in Ellisville, Mississippi, just wasn't gonna hopen
wasn't happening to my one New Jersey. Yeah, so tell
us about the family. How many brothers and sisters? Like,
what was it like growing up in your household? You know,
my family is kind of interesting because between my mom
and my dad, I'm the only one. But when my

(13:57):
mom married my dad, he had two kids ready, So
I had two older brothers. Yeah that are like twelve
years older one, which you know about it. And then
after they got divorced, my mom got remarried and had
my little brother when I was like, whoa, So I
have three three brothers, but it was never like, you know,
four guys growing up in the same house, if that

(14:17):
makes sense. Yeah. And yeah, your brother, Bob was I
don't know what was his official title at transport was
the vice president. I don't even know. You know, it's
like he you know, it started when he, Bobby was
working for Lose Blimp Company up in New York, Okay,
and then you know when they moved, when lou moved
to company down to Florida. I guess we'll jump in

(14:38):
the head here, but yeah, that's kind of how that's
kind of how part of how my story story happens.
But yeah, so I don't even know what his title was,
you know, before trans kind of went down, but maybe
vice president of something around I'm not really sure. Yeah,
I always loved your brother. He was just so fun.

(14:59):
He was one of the first people I met in
Orlando when we signed with Transcontinental because we were kind
of hidden from the label, you know, because the backsh
you boys couldn't know about us, so we were called
five on the records. But your brother, Bob and Lou
were pretty much the only ones that we could talk
to you about it. But I remember, I remember being

(15:19):
in meetings with with Lou and Johnny when that whole
thing was going down. It was very, very interesting. But yeah, again, no,
I want to talk about this because your perspective is
so interesting to me because, yeah, you were there at
trans Con when all this was happening. You had moved
to Orlando, you know, Lou Hills. Yeah, let's let's back
up a little bit, because there's a couple of interesting

(15:39):
stories between you and me that you might not even
know about. Oh tell me so so so, you know,
I'm a teenager and I would come down to Florida
and visit my brother, right my brother worked for Lou
started with the Bloom Company. Then h Lou moved to
the offices to Florida, and then Lou went to New
Kids on the Block concert and I think, you know,

(16:00):
he just saw dollar signs everywhere and he decided, I'm
going to start a boy Then. Now meanwhile, you know,
I'd come down and visit at the time, and he
just started Backstreet Boys. So you know, we're all fifteen,
sixteen years old, swimming in loose pool. You know, the
things you did back then, right, We go to the house,
swimming the pool, you go to the movies, go to dinner,

(16:21):
you play put putt, all that kind of stuff, you know.
And then when I was eighteen, my mom told me
we were moving to Texas. And that was like a
massive culture shock from going from you know, suburban New
Jersey to Dallas, Texas. And so I went because I
had a little brother and I was helping to take
care of him, but I really wasn't happy. I was

(16:43):
interested in pursuing a career in the entertainment business, and
my brother knew that. He was always fascinated with the
fact that I could rap, you know, and back then,
you know, in the early nineties, rap was not mained throom,
you know, and certainly wasn't in the suburbs very much.
And so at one point he said, hey, why don't

(17:03):
you just move to Orlando and you can pursue your
career here. You know, Loo's got this backshe boys and
are starting to make waves and this this would be
a better place for you to pursue your career. So
I told my mom Onda, listen, I'm moving to Florida
to be a wrapper. How do you take that? Yeah,
you can imagine how that one day? Yeah, you know,

(17:26):
what's what's funny, lances Um. I was. I was still
working at this restaurant in Dallas, and I had a
pager at the time, and back then it was like
mostly drug dealers. I had a pagers. Yeah, but you know,
but I had a pager for legitimate reasons and and
I got a page from loose number, right. So I

(17:47):
remember I was, I was serving a table and I
was already getting ready to move there. But I moved, yeah,
and I was I was waiting on a table. My
pager starts going off. I'm like, all, guys, I promise
you I'm not a drug dealer, right, So I go
to pay when I pop in a quarter right, and
and this was this was the early days of when
when and sync was put together. And he goes, you know,

(18:09):
he picks up the phone, was hey Red, I go,
what's up? Can you sing bass? And I go, I don't.
I'm a rapper, like, I have no idea. So he goes,
hold on. He puts Robin on the phone, you're the
old folks trying to take my job. And she goes,
all right, let's let's hear it. And I had no

(18:30):
idea what to do, so I go, I go, yeah,
my gosh, that was so funny man. So I guess
in a way I tried offer and sink. Yeah. I
never knew that because yeah, Joey's friend had dropped out
the bass singer. They were looking for a bass Definitely

(18:52):
makes sense that he would be coming to you. Robin Wiley,
for those that don't know, was our our everything, our
vocal coach. I mean, she's the one who gave us
our harmonies are sound um and you do you don't
want to know what my audition song was with Robin
old Man River, That old man River. Think of a

(19:13):
little sixteen year old skinny kid singing an old man
River for an audition. Oh my gosh, it was good time.
You know, it's funny. So so you know I moved
down there, right, here's another funny story about our connection. Um.
When I first moved there, I just my job. I
was just like working for Louhile. I was trying to
figure out what to do. Right. So I'm driving his

(19:33):
limo like twenty years old, never driven, filling his refrigerator.
I remember, Like his refrigerator. I had to have certain
things Martinelli's apple juice in the glass bottle, Zephyr Hill's
bottle of water, you who, And there had to be
at least one hundred of each of them. Refrigerator and organized, yes, organized,
the same same thing went with like his uh even

(19:54):
like his toiletries, Like if you liked this one cologne,
he had to have eight or nine of them, you know,
like I can, I can still smell. Is it go
to a? What was it John Paul or something? I
don't I think I don't know, But every time I
passed by somebod, I'm like WHOA anyway, So so so
you know, you know I'm picking out his clothes for

(20:16):
him too, because you know he's colored blind and just whatever,
you know, go, I'm just I'm just driving his lemon,
I'm just learning. I'm just there. And so one day
he goes, I need you to go to the airport
and pick up Lance's parents. And I had just moved
to Florida, you know what I mean. So I go on,
I pick up your parents. I guess you must have
been already here. I picked them up. They flew from Mississippi, right,

(20:38):
and I'm driving, and you know, for anybody does in
the Orlando the airports maybe twenty thirty minutes from where
love is right, So I'm driving, I'm driving, I'm driving,
and I'm like driving forty minutes. I'm like, oh my gosh.
And then I see as I see a Sciences Daytona
beach to right, so you're I know if you remember.

(21:00):
But he had that car phone in my emo. So
I picked up the car phone. I still remember the
phone number, and I called my brothers and hey, man,
I think I'm lost, you know, And dude, it took
like probably two hours to get back. But your parents
had no idea because they had never been there before.
So I don't think they suspected that that. You know,
that is so funny because I know this story, but

(21:23):
I had no idea you were the driver, because my
parents did notice that they got lost, Like, I don't
think it takes this long to you know, get to Orlando. Uh,
but I thought y'all might have. You might have gone
to Tampa instead of Orlando, just taken you know, the
West Way. But that's so funny. You know. It was
those early days when I was kind of like just

(21:43):
driving Lou and shadowing Lou that you know, I kind
of got an early glimpse to that whole drama that
you mentioned where you know, you guys were started. You
guys had the house, Johnny was involved, and it was
just the whole like you know, And I think back then,
two nuts, like, there was so much like drama that
was created as opposed to like I guess, you know,

(22:06):
it's like these days, we're all like, hey, what's up.
There's plenty of love to go around, but back then
it didn't seem that way. And so I remember being
in being in meetings where they like, what do we
do that? The hand of this and that? But but um,
and I remember I think it was it might have
been you guys did some sort of it wasn't like
a show show, but it was like a filming over

(22:27):
there that was called a Pleasure Island Pleasure out. Yeah,
we did it at the Beach Club. That was our Yeah.
They were putting a big ePK package together and that's why. Yeah,
yeah that was cool. And then um, you know I remember,
you know, as far as how like the music started
for for for from my part for ALFO, you know,

(22:49):
like I told you I'm down there just working for
Loot and I'm at his house one day and the
doorbell rings and it was Rich and Brian, the guy
who used to be U. The phone. I think Carrie
Sellers had connected them. Um, they had heard about what
was doing. I had no idea that we're coming. And
you know, Lou brings us into the game and remember

(23:11):
the game room with like C three PO and R
two D two Star Trek and the laser disc player,
you know, and he's like, hey, guys, you know you're
all you're three of you are doing the same kind
of music. Why don't you just come together as one
and I'll signing. So we're like, you know, okay, it
sounds good. And I remember he he had to sit
down on that couch. You remember the couch that had

(23:32):
like the laser disc player in front of it. And
he goes, I'll drank back, and he comes back with
a guitar, acoustic guitar because you know, Lou was a
decent guitar player, and he starts playing. He goes, all right, guys,
three rappers, I want you to sing this one. You know.
He starts playing La Bamba, and so we're like, we're
sitting there in the gaming room, la la la, what

(23:55):
on earth is going on? But that was that was
shortly after you came down. And I remember, you know,
we didn't have a lot of experience doing choreography. I
don't think you did either at the time, and they
or maybe in Sync was just the other guys were
way more advanced, so they would send you to our
choreography lessons. I started in that karate student karate studio studio, Yeah,

(24:20):
and they give us pencils from microphones and it was like,
you know, but then we you know, we graduated to
the to the Blimp warehouse and uh, I remember we
had a chance to go overseas and play a few
shows backing up Trey D. And I remember coming back
and being at rehearsaling and and you guys, I think

(24:41):
you guys were just finishing and I don't know if
I think it was justin but what you guys were like,
oh my gosh, I heard you guys played a show
and like fans were screaming for you. Well that's coming
up soon for you guys. Man, that was awesome. It

(25:08):
was such a fun time. I'm glad you got to
experience the whole. Yeah, the blimp hanger one hundred and
fifty degree you know, temperature perform. I had no water,
like we we were tortured. Basically, we were tortured. But
one thing I remember, yeah, Carrie Seller too. I think
we have we heard carry on the show before. She
was she's David Archielletta's manager now. But anyway, she was

(25:30):
probably the first person I met in Orlando. So she
was at the house when I met the guys. Um.
She was working with trans Con and kind of I
don't know what her official job was, but she was
kind of I don't know, maybe hurting us. She was
the cats. Yeah, she was the babysitter. Um. But I
remember Carrie Seller's told me about Rich and Brian and
She's like I have these friends, you know, I think

(25:51):
they're super talented. They want to, you know, come down
here and meet Lou, and you know, I would love
them to get signed to trans Con. So they brought
them to our house that we lived in, and I
want to say Broun and Rich stayed with us. I
think they spent the night at our house. Um. And
we're the ones who told Lou, We're like, lud, you've
got to listen to these guys. These guys are awesome,
Like you got to sign these guys, you know, just

(26:12):
because we love to carry so much, because we didn't
really even I don't think we even heard them rap yet,
but we're like, we got to sign these guys. And
then I guess that's when they went over to Lose
house and met you y'all saying Obama, I guess he
was thinking maybe a Spanish hip hop act. Got lots
of ideas, had lots of ideas, lots of ideas. Um,
so when did Brian drop out? Because this is this

(26:33):
is where it gets fuzzy for me, because this is when,
you know, we did the whole German thing, and then
we came to America. Y'all started in Germany. Also when
did Brian fizzle out and when did Devon come into plan? Yeah, so,
like you guys, you know, we started in Germany and
you remember the fans in Germany Man they were rabid, right,
you didn't have to even you didn't you know, in

(26:55):
our case, they didn't buy our records, but they would
camp out in the hotel lobbies, you know what I mean.
So it's like we had no money, but we couldn't
leave out really kind of you know, that's exactly what
you want. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But you know, we played,
we toured back shore. He told you guys, we had
modest success, you know, you know, enough to where you
couldn't leave your hotel room. But like I said, nobody

(27:16):
was buying the records. And by the end of ninety seven,
it was like, okay, you know, it seemed like we
were we were kind of done. Like it just didn't
it wasn't gonna work. And at the time the States
were still like the MECA, like, oh my gosh, imagine
being released in the States. I think Backstreet had maybe
just started, you guys are getting ready to start being
released in the States. And then early ninety eight, small

(27:39):
label under BMG decided they wanted to release us in
the States, and we were like holy cow. Like it
was like we couldn't believe it, you know. So I flew,
you know, flew back to to the States, and I
remember we played some shows of you guys remember playing
like a put put or something, but it was like
thirty people in nineteen ninety eight. We did those. We
would do those little little club gigs where they'd have

(28:02):
like four mics, not five or either, like one of
the mics would have a chord and all the rest
would be, you know, chordless. So you had to really,
you know, kind of work around a lot of those
video Well what about the European team clubs where none
of them worked? Oh yeah, like I know, Well they
were so confused when we would come to Europe because
you know, we like to, you know, sing live, and
they're not used to people singing live. It was always

(28:24):
lip syncing, true. Yeah, yeah, so when we would it
was like you could not sing live. I don't think
they can have no work. They weren't capable. I remember
one time we four Stars. I think Vetten Doss is
the only show that we could actually sing live. But
all the other shows, you know, MTV everything. We're like, no,
we're singing live. We have to prove ourselves. And then
the first time that we did and it sounded like

(28:45):
crap because they're just not prepared for it. We're like, okay,
we'll lip sync from now and we're good. We're good
anything exactly. Yeah, yeah, um, so how did you find Devin?
Y'all did an open audition? Right, No, we did, so,
you know, we started touring in the States and ninety
eight and again we started making some waves, like there
was you know, we're we're in the team magazine, were

(29:07):
with a little cool jail. We played some shoulder to
you guys. But you know, it's like we always kind
of look, you know, I think one of the tough
parts about being part of the camp and was like
we look at the other artists and see like where
they're at, what kind of videos they're shooting, and I mean,
and you want you want the same, you know, But
you guys in Backsheet are really kind of taken off

(29:29):
huge and we were still on a small label. And
so I remember one time we were with lou remember
the stage Delhi in New York City. Yes, yeah, so
we're sitting there, sitting there at the stage, the three
of us, and and I took like, I don't know,
like a catchup bottle and said this is ourca and

(29:50):
Mayo and said this is this is Arista and Mustard,
and said this is Sony. Man. It took like three
sugar packets. I said either we go here, we go here,
we go here, and then I spread the sugar pack
as far as it overdone, Like basically like you got
to get us a bigger deal. We've gone as far
as we can go in the small label. So he
wound up setting up a showcase for us with Clive Davis.

(30:13):
It was out at some convention in San Diego, and
they set up a whole live performance set up in
a conference room out there, and it was just like
Clive and a couple of his and one of the
guys from Germany, like five or six people to car.
You know, we put on like a half an hour
show for Clive. This is towards the end of and

(30:35):
and he liked it. And very early part of ninety nine,
I think January we toured. We had a tour over
in England. I don't know if you remember any of
those tours where they would like lure you over there
with you're gonna have a luxury minibus, ak minivan, you
know what I mean. So, yeah, we did this horrible

(30:57):
tour of like literally we played like kindergarten libraries, team
clubs with keen clubs, with fake mikes, and we're and
we're doing like three shows a day and they have us.
We're thinking, like we're going to London. They say you're
gonna stay in London. They had to stay in Wimbledon.
But during the wintertime there's nobody in Wimbledon. I mean,
so it was just we were miserable. But I was like,

(31:20):
the first time they took us to New York and
it is my first time, like to go New York City, Manhattan,
Oh my gosh, this is gonna be amazing, my first trip. Um.
And then he put us like deep into Queens somewhere
like just there was nothing around, like nothing. I'm like, well,
this is fun. But of course us teenagers sneak out
of the hotel at midnight, walking around Queens like idiots

(31:44):
and found an arcade somewhere played games. It could have
been dangerous, it could have been, but we were done. Yeah, Anyhow,
towards the end of Night eight, early night and night
we uh, we experienced which and I experienced the separation
with Brian. And in the meantime, UM, a guy named
Mike Kaputo, who's like a Boston base manager, was still

(32:06):
like to me, he's one of my best friends and
really like the fourth member of La Phoe. But he um,
he was managing Devon at the time, and and I
think through Dacari, he brought Devon into the mix, and um,
you know, the long story short is Devon joined and

(32:27):
and then Clive Davis decided to sign us. That's great
to explain who Dacari is to everyone. Dacari for he's
a music producer for Alfoe. Um, he was one of
the most important people in our world. He really helped
us to find our sound. He really helped us to

(32:47):
develop our show. Um, and you know he was he
really instilled a lot of confidence in us. And I still,
you know, I still keep up with him. Yeah, in
a way, he was, man, I mean, he you know,
we we weren't you know. We obviously our show was
a lot different than yours. You were not singing in harmony,

(33:09):
and but he you know, he helped us to really
find our you know, our basis was in hip hop,
you know, and he really helped us to find our sound,
to develop a show, and he just kind of he
just instill a lot of confidence. You know. It's a
very positive guy, you know. Um, and you know, some
producers they were just driving you crazy in the studio.

(33:30):
You know, it's like, you know, just you didn't feel
great while you're recording. But you know, with the car
he was just like always positive, always positive, and just
a really important part of the LFO story. And so,
um yeah, man. So we got signed to Arista Records
with with Clive Davis, and things got interesting from there

(33:52):
because I think the initial plan, you know, because you remember,
right when when you first get signed to the major,
it's like you'll sing any song makes tell you to sing, right,
it was like you're just happy to be sad. We
would have saying happy birthday if Clide said saying happy birthday,
you know, and they started and back then to remember,
they would always want to connect you with these big
producers as big songwriters. Um. And so they had these

(34:15):
different songs for us, but not really what necessary we
would really like. But hey, it's Clide Davis. We'll do
whatever he wants. But we had a couple of songs
that we really wanted Clyde to listen to, and one
of them was Summer Girls. And I remember we had
a meeting with Clive one day in his office and
I told rich before the meeting, said we have to
play him Summer Girls. And he goes, no, man, and

(34:38):
where did you find Summer Girls? How did y'all come
across that song? Well, we wrote it? Yeah, yea rich
rich Road rich lyrics, what Bob. And so we're sitting
in his office and we're just meeting. You know, he's
talking about Rudy Houston, Carlos Santan or whatever else you
know is Butler's bringing him his line and uh, I said, hey,

(35:02):
claud we have a song I want to play for you.
And Richard yeah, oh my. So he pops it in
the I don't know if it was a paid player
or CD player, and he listens to it. He goes, Okay,
that's that's a nice song. We can put that on
the album. We can put it on the album. And
so we started like freaking out because you know, back
then it was it was unusual for a boy band
to get a song on the album, and so um,

(35:25):
and so we're really excited. We go back to studio
recording some more. Meanwhile, do you remember, obviously your number
Z one hundred and one of the characters on the
morning show is do Great Tea that you called them
Great Tea the frat boy. You would have them do
all sports or crazy things like break into Martha Stewart's
house and just crazy stuff. So um, there was a

(35:48):
programming director in the DC area that had received a
copy of Some Girls from our old label if He
was just kind of sending it around to get, you know,
to get some feedback. And this one particular day, he
was just looking for a summer song to play and
was like rifling through some CDs and listen to it,
liked it, put it on the air. This guy Great

(36:11):
Tea from ZE one hundred was driving through see at
the time on his way home from a trip with
his girlfriend. His girl, they hear the song. His girlfriend
starts freaking out how much he loves the song. He
calls the radio station asks what song it is? He
said he literally heard the guy like rifling through CDs
to try to figure it out. He got the name
of the song, he tracked it down and he brought

(36:32):
it to ZE one hundred and told told the PD
and told the morning. So like, you guys got to
hear this song. And one Friday morning they devoted their
entire morning to Summer Girls. And then it started exploding
on ZE one hundreds, which is like the biggest radio
station in the country. Meanwhile, Harriston wasn't ready for that,
and they actually try to stop it, and then Zeven andrews,

(36:55):
I listen, we're not stopping. And then other radio stations followed,
and so it was like, Okay, this is real. We
gotta we gotta finish getting the album together. And the
other thing that did for us is it gave them
the confidence in us to write more songs for the
record and so to follow up to that girl on
TV something that that we wrote and west Side Story

(37:15):
if you wrote the songs. So, but that's that's that's
how Summer Girls. You know, you know, I think I
would I love stories like that because it's in true.
Back then, radio made you, like, I mean, you could
not be anything without radio. They made and broke artists, right,
But how often did a radio station play a song
without being solicited by an independent promoter. Never man, It's like, yeah, Greg,

(37:41):
Greg T and I were talking about that the other day.
I did his podcast a couple of weeks ago, and
it's such an unusual story because it's just not the
way radio happens. It does not happen that way. And
so um, yeah, that's obviously set things off. And Summer
Girls was you know, a number one hit, follow a
Girl on TV? It was a big hit. What was
your favorite Turkey? I think girl on TV was your

(38:03):
favorite girl on TV? Yeah, and that was about Jennifer
Love Hewett, right or is that a rumor? If? Girl
on TV? In one way it helped us sell a
lot more records, and in another way, I think it
costs us a lot of records. So we had the
same publicist as Jennifer of Hewett, and Rich was really
infatuated with her, and we were getting ready to do

(38:28):
I don't know, one of the award shows in California
could have been like Kid's Choice or you know, one
of the many award shows, and she was going to
be there, and you know, I don't know, I don't
know how well you knew Rich, but he would get
really nervous for big things. You know, his face would
turn red and he would just you know, he just
was he get kind of angry. And so we're in

(38:49):
a limo driving to the show and he's drinking out.
You remember how the limos had like these glass bottles
of VA and stuff like that. You know, he's drinking
and he's like, goes, Brad, he goes, stay away from her.
What are you talking about? He goes, don't go bad
in those eye lactes at her. I said, I said, dude,
I said, I was. I had no plan to like,
he goes, listen, you stay away from her. I'll give

(39:10):
you my publishing for Summer Girls and a cool you
could have the girl anyways. So so they needed this
award show and um and she she really inspired him
and we had the track for Girl on TV already,

(39:31):
and I think that night he went back and wrote
most of Girl on TV about her. And the problem was, um,
she was either still was or just had finished being
Carson Bailey's girlfriend. Yeah, And so we were on we

(39:52):
were on TRL one time and with Carson remember TRL,
like he had the glass wall and all the fans
are out in the street going crazy, and so you know,
he he's we're just talking. I remember exactly what we
were talking about, maybe the new album is coming out,
and then he goes, this is off script. He goes,

(40:12):
so I hear you have a new song, and we're
like what. He goes, girl on TV? He goes, who's
that about? And Rich was like not a word even
and even myself, which I do pretty well under pressure,
I didn't know what to say. And Devin the guy
never really speaks at all. He just sings and riffs.

(40:34):
He comes in and says to Day like, oh, you
know any girl you like in the movies? Whatever, But
that kind of okay, we kind of got the hint,
like okay, Carson's islence of this thing. And then we
had the audacity could put Jennifer love Hewitt in the
video and yeah that that you know, that was cool
because it made the video actually cool. But when the

(40:57):
guy who hosts the biggest show on MTV to play
your video, so you remember back then, like the big
thing was to have the TRL world premiere, right, that's
where you wanted your video to premiere. So initially that's
where it was going to be, and then they said no,
we're not doing that. It was just going to be
a world premiere some other time slot, which was like, okay,
not so bad, and then it was we're just adding

(41:20):
it to rotation, and so that's a big problem, you
know what I mean. I think obviously the song still
did really well and still sold a lot of copies
and was it was a pretty big hit. But I
don't know man the drama Carson because because Richard Love,
they did date after that, right, I mean, weren't they. Yeah? Yeah,

(41:42):
while now we you know, we we made a man's
with Carson and we wound up going back on Remember
they did TRL down Yst I think it was two
thousand and one and went down there with him and
but yes, I remember that and they found terror read
oh Dinny, Yeah, did Carson day Tara? Yes, I don't

(42:05):
remember research. I think Carsons. Yeah. Someone someone said this
and I can't confirm if it's true, but apparently on
the last episode of tr um on one of the
last things Carson said it was some sort of some
sort of dig at LFO. I don't know if that's
true or not, but I hope it is because I

(42:26):
making a good story. But you get free rent in
his brain. That's what they say, Yeah, what does how
did you come up with light funky Ones? Like what
who came up with it? You know, in our minds
it doesn't stand for life Ones, it's you know, it
started with Rich as this blonde haired, green eyed rapper

(42:47):
in Boston, you know, a teenager, and they just nicknamed
in the life Funky One because Rich was literally he
was one of the greatest rappers who ever lived. Wouldn't
you wouldn't necessarily hear it, you know, in our music,
but if you gave him like a beat and a microphone,
his freestyle was crazy. Man. He was so creative, and
so they would call him a light funky one. And
then when he met Brian, they just decided to be

(43:10):
like funky ones. And then when you know, when when
I got at him, we got signed and we just
went by like Funky Ones LFO, and then we dropped
the Life Funky Ones apart because we realized at some point,
maybe when twenty that it was whack so but over
over a journey. There still there's like a techno group

(43:30):
called Lefo, and so they still had the trademark. So
in the Europe you'll see us as Lefo and underneath
it by Funky Ones. But at this point, I don't
even care. Just like back then, we hated being called
boy band exactly, I don't care. And I was gonna
say that because we all hated being called boy bands.
But even like the most boy bandy of boy bands,

(43:51):
we hated being called boy band because when we all
started in the nineties, there was no such thing. We
just wanted to be respected and I'm a man, yeah,
And well, the term boy band, especially over in Europe,
it just became like we were talking about earlier lip syncing.
It was you know, it was manufactured by a label.
It just wasn't very authentic at all. So you didn't
want to be associated with that because you wanted people

(44:12):
to see that you were talented and you you know,
we wanted to stand out. So anytime you call boy band,
you're like cringe. But I would imagine with your group,
because you aren't the typical boy band. You know, you're
not doing the crazy choreography um and doing all the harmonies.
I mean, y'all were like rapping, right, Um, how did
y'all deal with I mean, did they immediately start calling

(44:33):
you a boyband? Just because you were three guys in
a group or did they have like how did they
market you at first? Yeah? Yeah, for sure, Well they
definitely did. And you know remember in Germany, dude, like
we were we all like I know you do too.
There's so many pictures of those days that I wish
would disappear forever. Ye like name Max Martins literally just

(44:57):
posted a picture of us because I Want You back,
just twenty six years old and twenty six and he
put a picture when I first landed in Sweden and
we were recording I Want You Back, our very first song,
and you know, I'm still I think I just turned seventeen.
I don't know, maybe I don't know how old I
was seventeen, but I was on acutane because you know,
you had a few pimples. But you know, I was

(45:18):
just talking about acutaine that the same doctor's office two
days ago, because I was there with my kids. I
was there with my kids, and I still go to
the same doctor's office that you and I went to
and she's like, well, did you ever take accudine? So
I said, yeah, said said doctor Krody put me in
Lance on acutaine back in nineteen ninety six. Yeah, I
mean because Justin had Donna and it, you know, worked

(45:38):
for him, and they're like, you know, you have a
few pimples, kid, you know, a kid, you're seventeen. But
if you take acutanine, we'll get rid of all that.
So I did that. But accutane, you know, pushes everything
out for a good six months. So these pictures of
when we do I want you back. I look like
someone had just like hit me across the face with
the baseball bat. It was just hard. And so yeah,
he posted that picture this week and like, goodlord, us

(46:00):
a filtered back smartin seriously, man, and just how about
like the team magazines and make you dress up in
where the skunk costume? Especially you guys, especially you guys.
Oh my god, you guys dressed up as like Easter
bunnies or something like that, and they painted us gold
for a cover. Like we would do anything, because you know,

(46:21):
we had to do everything. We were trying to catch
up to the Battery Boys. So if a magazine even
wanted to interview us, like yes, it's like, oh you
want to put us in dresses, Sure we'll do it.
I mean, it's just whatever they asked we did well
and always trying to take your shirt off. Oh, take
your shirt off, kids, take your shirt off. Oh yeah,
I mean I was. I think that's really the only
reason people like me back then. But yeah, so so

(46:46):
you know, it's like so so yeah they were. They
consider us a boy band, and you know back then
saying you know, you got the hair, they load a
bunch of makeup on you. And but we it was
such a negative connotation back then, like like you, we
did not want to be considered that. And I remember
one time we were doing a live TV show in
Germany and we had the bright idea of writing across

(47:09):
my chest with a sharpie we ain't no boy band
and at the end of our step and the other
side that pulled up my shirt or a live TV
we ain't no boy band. Oh that did not go
down very very good. Well, that could have gone either way.
But yeah, because the fans are I mean, look, we
love our fandoms out there, but you don't mess with
the boy band fandoms. They will cut you. All right, All,

(47:31):
let's take a little break and we come back. I
have some fan questions for you, so don't go anywhere.
We're back with Brad Faschetti. All Right, so, um, I

(47:52):
have some fan questions for you, and let's see what
do you think. Okay, Kitty trash Panda, which is a
great name. Kitty trash Panda, It's a great name. Um.
Oh we already answered this one. Is it true you
were Lou Proman's limo driver? Yes, indeed and got my
parents lost. Uh what is your It wasn't It wasn't

(48:12):
your future. It just wasn't. Um. What's your favorite LEFO song?
By moon Child thirty five? My favorite Lefo song is
from the first record, a song called Baby Be Mine,
Baby Be Mine. Okay, to carry produce and nice. Okay,
I'll check that one out. What is one thing not
a lot of people know about Rich and Devon? This

(48:35):
is from Sarahl Sarah Iggy. All right, yeah, I know,
I know, I know that. Oh yeah, by recognize some
of the screen names you recognize from past. Um, I
guess some people know that Rich was When he was
on it was like literally the funniest person on the planet.
He commanded a room like like nobody else, especially when

(48:58):
he had a drink forget about it. Well, he had
a name for I think he called it personality or something, Yeah,
a little personality, yeah yeah, but he was just the
funniest guy on the planet. Um. And you know Devin,
you know, Devin really grew to be an extraordinary musician

(49:18):
and really like a philosopher. Like when when we met Devin,
he just sang, you know. I mean he barely spoke.
When he would wake up in the morning, would like,
you know, he'd stand over the toilet. You hear him going,
like he just sang, you know. And when we took
our hiatus, when band worder broke up, Um, he spent

(49:40):
like five years in his house just like studying music, Um,
studying instruments, reading a lot. He read the entire dictionary
and he came out of that, like and then he
started getting into meditation. Like he literally meditated for like
a year or two straight. Like he just you couldn't
get a word out of him, but he just became
this really amazing sort of philosopher and he just I

(50:02):
don't people are didn't get a chance to see that
that side of him. Yeah, no, we didn't. And you know,
and to get into you know, the sad part of
all this, you know, you do an amazing tribute on
the Pop two thousand tour. Um, you know, for your
for your brothers in the band, Um, that has to
take a lot of energy out of you every single
night you hit that stage. When you when you do that,

(50:24):
you know, tribute to them. So how do you stay positive?
You know with such sadness around your group? You know,
at some point when your face with that adversity, you
have to choose lighter darkness, you know, and when you know,
like you mentioned, Rich passed away in two thousand and
ten after battling the kemia for five years. Um, we

(50:48):
were devastated, as were a lot of the fans, but
you know I had still had Devon thankfully. He was
not only my bandmate but my best friend. And you
lived in town and after my garage for a couple
of years. And um, and we brought Lefo back on
the road. And in twenty seventeen U in see two

(51:12):
thousand and sixteen, Jeff Timmans from Randy Degrees and I
were texting back and forth and he mentioned that they
attributed Lephoe during their My two K tour, and kind
of half joking, I said, hey man, but if you
ever want us to do a cameo let me know,
and he goes, all right, pick a date, and you know,
I looked at the calendar and they were playing Coney
Islands and that's that's where we shot the Summer Girls video.

(51:34):
So we flew up there. We did our part. I
was like, you know, thirty seconds long, but the crowd
you know, really kind of went crazy. And three days
later I got a call from an agent ask me
if we'd bring Lefo back on the road. And that
wasn't something that Devin and I ever really considered, um,
but I prayed about it a lot. U tried to

(51:55):
like zem and where my heart was my where were
my attentions? You know, as were clear in my heart
was pure. Like it was like, how can we honor rich?
How can we bring the fans back to a simple
old time? And then obviously there's an opportunity to help
support your family. And so we did that tour in seventeen. Man,
it was really um. We we brought the whole band out.

(52:18):
I drove the tour bus, we slept at truck stops,
you know, and a month after the tour, Devin got sick.
You know. For those who don't know Devon, he was
like the most fit dude you could ever meet, kind
of like the guy sitting right next to you, like
just Diesel, you know what I mean, what about me?
What about me? What about Lance? I mean, you're you know,

(52:40):
you've gotten more handsome as the years have gone out.
But that guy next years, the guy next to you,
is real fit. But but you know, Devin was strong
and he ate good, had very little stress, and then
he just felt his weird pain and his stomach and
turned out he had the tumor on the side of
the football primary and general cancer. So the Adriano glance,

(53:01):
it's on top of the kidney and it's like a
one in a million cancer, which I guess is appropriate
for one in a million kind of guy. And he
had a surgery that we thought would be curative. You know,
I took out a tumor and kidney and um, but
it had spread to his bonds and his blood. And yeah,
I just I was so out of the blue for sure,

(53:23):
because with Rich, you know Rich did he go into
remission at one point? Yeah? He you know, Rich battle
for five years, he had you know, he um he
had chemo and then I think he learned too remission
and then he had a stem cell transplant, right, because
with that stem cell, does it like it changed like
the look of his face too. Well, what happened was

(53:45):
when the stem cells, I don't know the scientific way
to stays, but when they don't match up perfectly, yeah,
you can get a disease called graph versus host disease.
And the graph versus host disease is really what did
him in um and he suffered me. At one point
during treatment, he had a stroke. He just was really even.

(54:06):
We actually brought Lefa back on the road in two
thousand and nine and we did one last tour and
he was really sick at the time, but but we'd
let him remember the back lounge of the tour buff
he gave a whole lounge to him. That was his domain.
During the day, he would sleep like Devin and I
would do the press, we would do the sound checks,
and then we'd we'd help him get dressed, help him

(54:28):
get to the stage. And as soon as he was
like you know, on the stage with his mic stand,
he was good. He would rot the shows. And then
you know, a few months after the tour, I'd heard
that he was having trouble walking. So I texted him like, hey, man,
I hear you're having trouble walking. I figured there's no
better way to get you out of bed than the tour.
So what do you think Let's let's sched him on
the tour. And he didn't respond. And a couple of

(54:49):
weeks after that was his birthday, texted on no response,
and then like a week after that I found out
that that he had passed away. But with Devin, it
happened quick. Man. It was like he got diagnosed in
the fall of seventeen and he was gone a year later. Man,
he really you know, cancer is cancer does not discriminated.

(55:12):
As you guys know, we've all experienced losses, but you know, Devin,
he really suffered and it was just it was devastating
And it really was like when when Devin died, it
was like the last straw for me. You know what
I mean? Now I know you are You're a man

(55:32):
of God for sure. And did this make you turn
to God even more after this? Or have you always
been a churchman? You know? I really wasn't a churchman.
I grew up going to church, okay, like I don't
know how often, but it wasn't like our weekends revolved
around church. We didn't create the dinner table anything like that. Um.

(55:53):
And then sort of, in the height of lfoe, actually
lost my faith altogether. Um. And you know that's a
whole noble story. But you know, I sort of came back,
came back to it after going through some really tough times.
So yeah, I'm definitely a believer, and I've learned to

(56:13):
stay for me personally, Like it's important that I really
stay tight to my my faith. I think it helps
keep me moving in the right direction. Now. When Devan died,
I didn't. I didn't go through like a crisis where
I didn't I didn't believe anymore. But I spent a
lot of time screaming begging God not to take him,

(56:36):
you know, when he was getting real sick, just like
please don't take him, you know. And but when he died,
you know, I honestly I just went into the darkness, man.
Like I mentioned it at the Aaron Carter thing. But
it's like it's like somebody pulled the hood over my eyes,
you know, and I just really went dark. I found

(56:56):
no joy in anything. I was sad, mad, And eventually
my wife's like, you gotta do something you can't live
this way at the time I had At the time,
I had five kids, and so you know, I just
decided to get some help. Man, It's like we get
to a point in our lives where we have to

(57:18):
make a choice light or darkness, and as men, we
have to be vulnerable enough to say I need some help.
You know, we're always so quick to make sure that
our bodies are in order and get other physicals and
working out. But I think with men especially, and things
don't feel so great in the brain, we're hesitant to
get hesitant to get some help. And so I did.
I went to my primary doctor, gave me a questionnaire,

(57:42):
sent me immediately to a psychiatrist, met with my therapist
my pastor, tried to eat better, try to work out more,
tried to spend some time with my friends, and you know, eventually,
eventually I got through the darkness. Now, there's there's certain
losses we experience in life that I don't think anybody
you just can't get over. And that's you know, Devin

(58:03):
is one of them. We were just our closeness was
just hard to describe um and it still blows my
mind that is gone. But we have a choice, And
so what am I going to do? Sit around and cry?
And so am I going to try to live like
they would want me to live? So? Yeah, and you
have a beautiful, beautiful life. I mean, one, you have

(58:24):
an incredible legacy that you're going to be leaving, just
you know, like Devin and Rich what is the legacy
that you would like to leave? Is it your family?
Because you have, you know, beautiful family. I mean, your
life is amazing right now. But what is what when
you when you leave this planet? What is the legacy
you'd like people to remember you? I guess the I
guess the greatest thing that someone can say of oppression

(58:46):
is that they were a good father, a good husband, honest, genuine, generous, right, um,
somebody who you know you think about, like like in
scripture talks about like you know, being the poor and
clothing the naked and visiting the in prison and people

(59:06):
who are in hospital. Those are important things in my life,
you know. And the musical legacy that I have the
unfortunate honor to and nurture at this point is a
beautiful thing. And I know a lot of folks will
remember me for that opportunity or that that that part
of my life. But but being my kids looking back

(59:26):
and saying, oh he was he was a good dad.
You know, I think, you know that's that's the thing
that would be most important to me, or my wife
staying on he was a good husband, or you know
people at church and I'm like, oh, you know, he
helped he helped me with this, or he did a
lot to feed the poor. Those are important things. But
you know, the legacy that Devin enriched up behind and

(59:48):
every day I pray and I thank them for for
that legacy. You know, I'm not the guy dude like like,
I never wanted to stand on stage by myself ever.
Enemy Um, it just that wasn't my aspiration. You know,
Rich and Devin wanted to do soloars. I never wanted that.
So the fact that I'm the guy staying there trying

(01:00:11):
to honor them, it's just I don't know what the
word is for it, but but I take it seriously.
And you know, when I'm on the Pop two thousand tour,
you know, I got the old time guys that are
up there with me and on stage, and you've been
you've been up there with me too. Saratoga Springs right,
And then I do a show called The Lefho Story

(01:00:31):
where I had my bands and I just tell the
whole story from nineteen seventy four and Richards born until today,
playing music at the time that inspired us our own music,
and then sharing some of these personal stories throughout the
concert as well. So it's a very interesting life. Man.
It's you know, the the lefol stories. It's definitely a tragedy.
But um, and what we all went through with Perlman,

(01:00:55):
which is you know everybody knows about It's like we
could all just go out and hell fit this is
a horrible story. But um, I don't know if that
really when we're facing the kind of the kind of
difficult things, it's like, well, don't don't let the negative
pull it down. Let's try to bring something positive about
out of what negative situation or tragic situation. It makes

(01:01:17):
you the person who you are today. And I know
a lot of people say, you know, people, it's not
what you do, it's how you made people feel. And
the way you make people feel is everyone does feel
your kindness. That's what I always hear about you. It's
like God, he's like the most kind person and just
wants to take care of others, um and that that
is a legacy right there. That is a beautiful thing
to leave everyone with. When when the whole thing went

(01:01:41):
down with Lou, Like, I don't even know how close
you were when he went to prison, Like we'd been
away from him for years, but I'm assuming he was
more like family to you than he was to us.
But when all that started going down, where we found
out about the Ponzi schemes and all this, were you
surprised at that? And were you in contact with him
at that point? I've been at a contact with him

(01:02:04):
for a few years. I don't, honestly don't. I don't remember.
I guess just maybe like two thousand and in five
or so when when I lost contact with him. I
don't remember what year things weren't down with him. But
you know, you know, as you know du Lou was.
He was a very, very troubled soul, and and there

(01:02:25):
was no real middle ground with him, right, Yeah, there
was parts of him that were great. I mean, he
was a lot of fun to hang around with. You
like to go to nice dinners, you'd like to go
to the movies. You know, he he invested a lot
of money into a bunch of kids that you know,
didn't have much of a history. Um. But then all

(01:02:49):
the bad stuff that he was involved as obviously came out.
That great will start eating at you, you know. And
I told him one time, mans, I told him one time.
I said, dude, you could have you could have had
an empire at Clay five days. All you had to
do was going, Okay, it's time to renegotiate these contracts.

(01:03:09):
Just be fair. Just be fair, because I don't know.
I mean, we had the same lawyer as you guys,
but you know, it costs us like two hundred thousand dollars.
And he knew what I came down to, you know,
the lawyer, remember the lawyers I don't talk to, don't talk.
I sat down with him at the Power Steakhouse in
Orlando at the end of it and said, here's the
five remaining issues. Let's work him out right now. And
we did what I mean. But if he would have

(01:03:32):
just renegotiated with all of us, we would all stay
loyal to him, and he would have been like you
said the next moltown. But like you said, greed, Greed
is one, I guess, a very deadly sin. And it's
unfortunate because he had he had good attributes, but he
was a very troubled, troubled soul, and I just think
he got in over his head where he needed all

(01:03:53):
this money, Like he knew he was stealing from us,
but he was, you know, creating a Ponzi scheme in
every single business that he had, so he had to
pay these people off. So he was using our money
to be able to do that. So I think he
was just way over his head his whole entire career.
That's crazy. Yeah, I mean, he definitely was a creative guy.
You know, he was very smart, you know, very smart

(01:04:13):
and creative. But it's a shame that that his legacy
is is what it is. But but on the good side,
it wasn't for him, you know, you and I wouldn't
be talking right exactly. I mean, we have to look
at the positive things like this. Everyone goes through, especially
in the entertainment industry. You hear this story over and
over and I'm pretty much I would say ninety percent

(01:04:33):
of artists go through someone like a loop Roman, so
it you know, and they always say, well you learn
something right, so and I think we did it really
taught me a lot about what to look out for
and really treat this like a business, because when you
get into this at a young age like we did,
it's you're not thinking of it as a business. This
is just fun. Like I can't believe I get to

(01:04:54):
do this. I mean, I'll pay you to be able
to do this, right for sure. But then you realize, wait,
wait a minut, this is a business and people are
making a lot of money off of us, and we're
not getting our fair share. So you know, you're mature
and you start to realize, you know, when you grow
up that wow, I need to take control of my
own business here. And we all did. We all did,
and we learned at an early age, which is nice

(01:05:15):
to have that lesson early on in life. All Right,
So I have a little questionnaire before I let you go.
I want to see if you can remember what you

(01:05:39):
answered in a nineteen ninety nine Bop magazine article. All right,
now think Brad Fischetti nineteen ninety nine, Get into that
that era. All right, okay, So what is your idea
of a good first date? What would Brad say in
ninety nine? Oh? Well, what did I say ninety nine?

(01:05:59):
I had no idea, did I stay like a beach
or movies or something. It is a movie. You go
to a house yours or hers and watch a movie
before you invented Netflix and chill look at you like
a psyche. Welcome, You're welcome, Thank you, thank you. Um?
All right, what's a bad first date? What would you

(01:06:20):
not do? The ballet? That's a good You said, don't
go skiing or Disney World. You said, don't do anything
that's gonna make you sweat or have body order or
spend a lot of money. Where okay? Um? And then
we have an interview from MTV Fanatic interview from the

(01:06:43):
year two thousand and two thousand and one, one of
those okay, So the question is, if you were on
the show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Which one
of the guys would you pick to be your lifeline
between between Rich and den Um. I mean, I guess
you can throw Brian in there too, if you want.
Back then, I probably would have said it Rich, but
these days I would I would say Devin because he

(01:07:04):
just became like this amazing philosopher, right right, good. If
you were on the show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Which one of the guys. Would you use he was
rich because he knows everything about history. Yeah, there you go. Yes,
look at that right and your last one from Bop
magazine in nineteen ninety nine. How do you get out

(01:07:25):
of a bad date? Brad? This is funny to be
maybe like food poisoning or diarrhea. No, you just said
you You said say something like, oh my god, I've
gotta go, and then don't answer any more phone goals,
Oh my god, I gotta go, Oh my god, I
gotta go, and then disappear. You invented ghosting too, Oh

(01:07:46):
my gosh, you ghosting guys? Just just say thank you.
Oh my god, I love it. I love it. You
can add this to your legacy. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, put
that in your book. Would you ever write a book?
Would you do an autobiography to tell your story? Um?
I don't know. People have said that to me before. Um.

(01:08:08):
Is there something that people don't know about you that
they would be surprised you put in a book? Is
there something that you've not let out yet? Well, you
can't tell us. Is to save it for the book?
I know you put it on my podcasting a book,
Joe Rogan? Yeah, just call me, Joe. You know, I

(01:08:29):
think some things are better on set. So yeah, you
know this, Yeah, well we'll see, you know. I mean
the story as it is. I've told a good part
of it already via interviews and stuff. Um, but if
you know, the right publisher came along, I'd like to
write books, but not necessarily an autobiography of what would

(01:08:50):
you like to write about? I'm more of like a
fiction guy. Yeah, you know. I like Steinbeck. He's my
favorite author, you know. So I listen to a lot
of that, do a lot of audio books. Yeah, I
love my audio But we're listening to the Stephen King
book right now. Used a new one. That's the brand

(01:09:10):
new one. It's called fairy Tale. It is. It's the say.
I love listen to audible books or you know anything.
It's like a podcast. When I go to sleep, you know,
I put the little timer on and put in like
for forty five minutes and I just kind of just
go to sleep listening. But it has to be a
good narrator, you know. It's like if you get a
bad book, but a bad narrator can't do it. But

(01:09:32):
Stephen King picks some really great actors to do it.
Stephen King books are scary. I think this one is
gonna get scary. It hasn't yet. We're about sixty chapters
in and he's still describing what he had for Brady.
He's a real descriptive, that Stephen King. But it's it's good.
It's a good one to put you to sleep. Yeah,
it's not boring, but it just, you know, rock shit

(01:09:52):
asleep a little bit untially get scary. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah,
then he had nightmares. Yeah, Um, Brad, how can everyone
stay in touch with you out there? The social media
handles are the great phone and that's you know, that's
where we're at. All right, sounds good, Well, we'll be
seeing you on tour. The Pop two thousand Tour is
going to every city near you. I mean this. I
remember when the Otown guys put this tour together. I

(01:10:15):
think it was supposed to be like six months and
now it's going on for years, so it's not going anywhere.
And of course my boy Chris kerp Patrick is hosting it.
So go check out the Pop two thousand Tour because
it is a really really really great show and a
very moving obviously part that you do in the show. Um,
it's a beautiful thing. But it was great to get

(01:10:36):
to know you so much better. Brad. I love having
you on the show. I hope to see you very soon.
Thanks for having me. It's good seeing you guys and
doing nice chatting with you. All right, man, we'll talk
to you later, all right, Brad Vachette, We love him.
What a great guy. It's yeah, it's you know, especially
having to deal with, you know, such devastation in your group.

(01:10:58):
I mean I couldn't imagine. I could not imagine because,
like he said, I never want to be a sole artist,
to be on the stage by myself. It's just not
my thing. But imagine if for four of the guys,
all of your members go and then I'm on stage
by myself having to do the InSync catalog, bawling my
eyes out, open up the song. It's like, well, I

(01:11:23):
got a song the octave, three octaves, and we're going
to do the whole. But I just could I couldn't
imagine because I mean, those are your brothers, um I
I mean, I know it. I don't even want to
imagine it right now. This is not good to talk about.
This a positive show, all right, Guys, that is all
the show I have for you. Who's coming up next week? Anyone? No,

(01:11:45):
no one? We don't know. We never know who's coming
up next week. But I'm glad you're listening. We love
your support out there. We love your DM so get
us at I crossed the tips with lance h DMUs there.
That's how we talk to you, um our ladies at
my Heart. Any questions, any remarks, any tips, we'll put
them on anything. Do you have any tips today? We
didn't have any tips. I did have this. This one

(01:12:06):
went long because we're trying to make these a lot
longer because I know I originally I wanted this to
be a thirty minute podcast. Oh no, They're like, if
it's not at least an hour, we don't even want it.
So wow, weird, we hear you. Yeah, and we're gonna
make them longer. I just thought you wanted bite sized stuff,
but you don't know. They want They want some media
and it keeps you on the treadmill for a lot longer. Exactly.

(01:12:29):
I love listening to podcast on treadmill. Yeah, you just
walk on that treadmore and just it flies by. You're like,
holy crap, you just driver on the block. For an hour. Um,
all right, well here's your tip. If you see a UFO,
take a picture of it. Why are we seeing any
pictures of these things? I know Alaska all the images
of things shooting down, like someone take a photo. Do
we not have great cameras in Alaska? They're coming to

(01:12:50):
you first? All right? I know you got to intercept
these things, Sarah Palin make yourself. Where are you girl?
But out the camera? See you a vose from your house?
I know, all right, I mean ring camera. Something's got
to catch these things, ring camera. Yeah, that'll bit. All right, guys,
that is all the show. I half of you, of course,

(01:13:11):
follow Turkey church and at Michael Church and Art and
me at Lance Bass of course boring, and we'll see
you next week on Frosted Tips with me, Lance Bass
and Turkey Churching. Hey, thanks for listening. Follow us on
Instagram at Frosted Tips with Lance and Michael Church in
art and at Lance Bass for all your pop culture needs,

(01:13:32):
and make sure to write us a review and leave
us five stars six If you can see you next time,