Erik Michael Estrada (O-Town)

These are The Days… with Erik as he opens up about his tumultuous time on Making the Band!

Find out why he says his decision to audition was both serendipitous and gut-punching. He reveals behind the scenes manipulation and how he learned to overcome it. 

Plus, find out why he both credits NSYNC and BSB while also blaming them!  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass and iHeartRadio Podcast. Hello,
my little peanuts, it's me your host, Lance Bass. This
is Frosted Tips with Me Lance and my lovely beautiful
co host Michael Turkey Turk. Well, that was so nice
of you, Lance, I'm very nice. What are more.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Adjectives you could use to describe me?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Beautiful?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
You already said that.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Okay, what about pretty?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I mean, I'll take it, but it's worse than beautiful.
It just downgraded me.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm sorry, You're beautiful.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
That's it, beautiful. Listen, I'll take it all right, Guys.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I'm super excited to get into this next interview. We
have the third otown member joining us today, Eric Strata,
and I know we have a lot to talk about.
All right, let's get into this and see how much
of this intro is actually true. Let's go yeah, because
I'm sure we just pulled this from Wikipedia, and you
know Wikipedia is all always true, Oh, every single detail.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
If you pulled anything on me from Wikipedia, I could
tell you right now it's got It's probably eighty percent false.
And I've read it multiple times and every time I
go on, there's like something else wrong. So it's like,
am I really going to put energy into like trying
to fix this?

Speaker 4 (01:18):
I know?

Speaker 1 (01:18):
And now there's just all these assholes out there that
just purposely try to do stuff to you. I remember,
like when you Google imaged me forever, and it's just
changed recently. I mean, for since Google began. The main
picture that pops up is just this horrible picture of
me holding up like a woman's bra at some gifting suite.
I don't even know what it was, but it's just
it was just a horrendous picture. And that was my

(01:40):
go to picture that everyone would use if they, you know,
did an article on me. That was the picture that
they would.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
Go by, all because you wanted to get some free swag.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
I was shopping from my mom, y'all. Oh god, all right,
let's see Eric about your intro. Eric Michael Estrata. We good,
so far?

Speaker 5 (01:57):
Sure, all right?

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Bronx born musician actor, best known for his work as
lead vocalist and one fourth member of the multi platinum
pop group Oh Town, debuting at number one with the
hit single Liquid Dreams, which We're definitely gonna get into
that in two thousand. The band quickly followed with an
even stronger second single and one. I'm highly jealous of
all or Nothing. Shortly after the group's disbanded, Eric embrace

(02:18):
the opportunity to develop and redefine his abilities as an
actor and a writer. He moved to La developed a
solid body of independent film work and published music. Eric
is still with Otown and hanging around. That's all true.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
Yeah, as hanging around part.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Hanging around part is a little uh broad, y'all, He's
still hanging around.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
If you were to text your group text right now,
who would be the first to respond and do it
right now? I want to see if it's true.

Speaker 5 (02:44):
If I had group text.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, but it has to be an obscure thing because
now now these boy band members are catching on to
if people go on frosted tips that the group text
gets hit up. So you got to do something like
it sounds like you're like being arrested or something, or like, guys,
can we tues?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
We talk? Oh that's a good one. Sorry?

Speaker 5 (03:04):
Can I say that on here?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, I just had to put.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
A little E on it, you know, and we're gonna
get a one star review for it.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Oh shut guys, I screwed up. I'll put that Okay,
I can tell you who's gonna respond. But who do
you think is going to If Dan is not in
the middle of like a coaching.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
I would say Dan would be my number one.

Speaker 5 (03:23):
Now, if Dan is.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Not in the middle of a heavy coaching scenario, then
it's going to be Trevor with a question mark. Okay, okay,
because I just I just talked to Jacob, so he's
not gonna yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Like, what has happened in the last five minutes? Got
all right, We'll see who was? So let's talk like,
So born in the Bronx, I was. What was it
like growing up in the Bronx? Like, what what was
the family situation? And how did you get into music?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well?

Speaker 3 (03:50):
I grew up in the Bronx and the I'm an
eighties baby, so eighties nineties it wasn't the easiest place
to grow up, uh. I you know a lot of muggings,
a lot of fights going on around me the Bronx.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yes, did you run into j I didn't. I didn't,
only she was the one doing the mugging.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
No.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, Well I actually was watching Jlo in Living Color
and I was sneaking in Living color because my mom
wouldn't want me to watch anything like to adult. But
I was obsessed with sketch comedy, like my whole life,
I've been.

Speaker 5 (04:24):
Obsessed with sketch comedy, like Saturday.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Night Live, Ben Stiller Show. Had Ben Stiller had a
show for a while there that was really good, and
I would sneak and watch that. But no, I grew
up in the Bronx like j Lo, and it was
it was kind of a weird time. You know, there
was just uh it was pre Rudy Giuliani just you know,

(04:47):
Times Square hadn't been really cleaned up yet.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
Uh the Yankee sucked.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Late nineties.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
It was amazing, late nineties amazing, But yes, it was
it tough. I started on my musical journey through my
through my mom. She was a worship leader in church,
and so I started singing in church were you. We
grew up Pentecostal, Pentecostal Spanish Pentecostal, very music centric, the

(05:18):
entire the entire elder you know staff, you know, from
the pastor to the pastor's brother. He led keys. We
had sick bass guitarist Frankie oh Man. I remember he
was so good. But my mom was the female vocalist
for like this worship team, and it was sort of
like a concert all like every Sunday.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
And then my my.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
School was attached to that church, so I was in
church pretty much every day just growing up.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
One of the common denominators I see from especially boy
band members is starting in the church. I mean we all,
I mean I did. And that's where I learned harmonies.
That's how when I knew I wanted to be a
bass singer, you know, because I was so excited that
I was the first, like my voice changed, so I
was like, yes, I'm gonna be finally, because in junior high,
my teacher always made me, you know, sing with like

(06:10):
the girls. I'm like, no, I don't want to sing
one of the girls. And then once my voice like
change a little bit, I'm like no, I'm standing back there,
my five foot five self.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
You see, as I.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Got older, I kept getting pushed to the front right
next to the girls. Yeah, I like I was sort
of my whole life. When I was younger, I was
hitting Mariah Carey whistle notes, and like the girls would
always like ask me to do that. And then as
I got older, I sort of you know, obviously I
sing high in the group, you know, and you you've
performed enough. So a lot of false settle, a lot

(06:44):
of high stuff. So I was a tenor one, and
you know I could hit alto notes, So I was
sort of always like.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
I ran the borderline.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
They would stick me right at the corner where the
tenors would end and the altos would be getting.

Speaker 6 (07:06):
Hey dudes, this is Christine Taylor and this is David Lasher.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
You may remember us as teenage co stars on the
Nickelodeon show Hey Dude back in the day.

Speaker 6 (07:16):
Now decades later, we are together again as hosts of
the Hey Dude the Nineties called podcast, where we revisit
amazing nineties nostalgia.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
From music to movies, to television and comedy.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
We cover it all.

Speaker 6 (07:29):
And we get to do it with an array of
guests who made their mark in that magical era.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
Stars from Saved by the Bell, Married with Children, Blossom, Clueless,
Full House, Beverly Hills, nine oh two one zero.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
The list goes on, and.

Speaker 6 (07:41):
David, don't forget our number one fan, mister Ben Stiller.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
How could I forget Ben Stiller? I mean, it was
so nice for us to both meet him for the
first time. He was an amazing guest, We've also had
on other nineties megastars like Jason Priestley, Melissa Joan Hart,
Cal Mitchell, and Maam Biollick just the name a few,
and there's so much more to come.

Speaker 6 (08:00):
So sit back, relax. You can even binge our episodes
and make sure to catch a new one each week.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
Listen to Hay Dude the Nineties called on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Now we spoke to Trevor and Ashley about how they
auditioned for making the band. Yeah, Trevor recorder a tape
with his friend and got called in. In fact, he
didn't really get called in, his friend did, but he
came anyway and made it. Ashley had a manager to
that sent him to the audition. What was your experience like,
because this is before because now people if you go

(08:43):
out for something like this, it makes sense. You have
American idy have all these reality shows. You're like, Okay,
I know what I'm getting into. But this was kind
of new ground. Yeah, oh yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
So this was sort of like the biggest thing, right
and this is not even not even this, Like we.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Didn't have phones.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
I didn't even have a computer. Yeah, in my in
my house, we didn't even have a computer.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Did We never had a computer.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
So I it was absolutely serendipitous how it happened. I
had just I had taken a semester off from college.
I had gone to college for a vocal scholar on
a vocal scholarship. I've been screwing around and and uh,
I needed to reassess. And so I went back home
and I said, I'm going to refocus. I'm going to

(09:24):
reharness this energy and and rechannel in the right directions,
starting with my family and then onward into into school.
And it was during that that two week three week
time period that I saw on E News that lou
the Infamous was doing auditions and a search all over

(09:47):
the country. Now this is like the first of its
type at this point. And I ended up seeing I
ended up walking into my mom's den. She's watching TV
and it comes on right when I walk in, and
I had sort of like it was more like a
It was more like a you know when your parents
do like a little flick in the back of the head.
And I saw that, and I was like, man, I

(10:08):
should be doing that. I had an r and B
group in high school. I was doing a vocal scholarship.
I was like, this is what I was meant to do,
at least in my mind, and so I saw that,
really didn't react to that or do anything post seeing that.
The next morning, same room, a different time, I walk

(10:30):
into the same room, the TV happens to be on,
and at the time, National Inquirer had their own news
magazine show on and happened to be on, and this set,
the same segment was on National Choir and it went
from a flick in the head to a gut punch
and I meet the universe right there.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Killed it.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
It was absolutely and I remember getting on the phone
immediately calling my mom. She had a computer at work.
I was like, you need to find out where this
audition is being held. I kind of feel like I need.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
To do this.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
My mom has never been one to if I need.
I'm the ambitious dreamer in my life.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
My mom's a more practical so the idea of going
off for an audition for anything.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
And she's a realist.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
She's a realist. You know.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
It wasn't in she didn't really grasp that I was.
I had a girlfriend who lived down the street at
the time. I went over to her place search on
the computer. Didn't even know what to search for because
I didn't know it was a TV show. I didn't
know ABC was involved. I didn't know you and Murray
was involved anything. This story is getting long winded, but
the next uh. This happened over the course of two

(11:35):
days and then the on the on the third day
I was I called my mom said I really need
you to find this information if you can. I'm heading
back over to my ex's house and I'm gonna go
find this information. About to walk out the door, I couldn't.
I'm as far as I am from Michael to the door,
and the.

Speaker 5 (11:54):
House phone rings, mind you the house line, yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
With the curly cord, with the curly cort. Right, you
don't miss those calls, right, you don't let those calls.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
I don't know who's on the other end.

Speaker 7 (12:05):
It could be anyone, could be your one chancewer the States.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
You never know, right, So I was conflicted. I had
likely my door. My hand was like on the way
to the doorknob. I could I could film a perfect
version of this and it wouldn't be an exaggeration. And
I like went to grab the doorknob, and I was
like deciding whether or not to pick up the phone.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
Decided to pick up the phone.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
And it's a guy that I had met three weeks
prior through one of my fellow singers in college. She
had connected us and said, hey, listen, you have to
meet this guy. He's a singer. You guys should do
a group together or something. And everyone around me was
always really promoting me going and doing following this dream
of and so he calls me up and he's like, hey.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
This is Dave.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
I don't know if you remember me, but I met
you a few weeks ago. I'm going to this audition
tomorrow morning at six in the morning. Have you ever
heard of lou Perlman? And my jaw drops? And I
was like, are you serious? I was just about to
leave to go find this information on this audition. He's like, well,
it's tomorrow in Orlando. Mind rom living in Florida at
the time. So it was wake up at six, be
there by eight. And and so I went without a

(13:13):
without a video, without.

Speaker 5 (13:16):
An audition tape.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
I was a walk on. He had a videotape. He
went in, he was done around noon. He didn't get
called back unfortunately, and like a true, a true friend,
he stayed there with me until nine o'clock at night
when I had my audition and and I walk in
to UH to a room with a huge table, A

(13:39):
big room with a huge table. Jamie Rose Rose, So
Jamie Rose. So Jamie Rose is there. He becomes my
contact throughout the day, throughout their audition process, and.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
We created quite a quite a rapport.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
And he walks into the audition room and says, this
is this is this guy you've been waiting for all day.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
And I had no idea he said this. This is
like afterwards, So I walk.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
In and there's two people in there and the big table,
and they were like, I was there so long that
this is good.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
This.

Speaker 5 (14:17):
I was there so long.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
They wanted a choreography and in a song to track
in an a cappella. But I was there so long
that I had actually learned tearing up my heart the choreography.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Like everyone's saying, terrible my heart for this audition.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
Well, because it was the only thing that was actually
signed off on, so you could actually that's right.

Speaker 5 (14:37):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
So I'm like, I asked, I didn't know this was
like this really helped me at the time. But I'm like, hey,
can I do the choreography and sing at the same
time for the track because I had sort of gotten
used to doing it both while I was waiting the
entire day. They're like, yeah, sure, so I did that.
They're like great, there's a lot of callback sheet and
I'm like, oh, what sheet? I had no idea what

(14:59):
this back? You know where it meant go outside for
a lot of callback sheet. Next thing you know, Jay
comes back up to me and he goes, hey, listen,
they want to see you again. And at this point
I start getting really nervous and I'm like, oh, man,
yeah they didn't. There's something that they're gonna They're gonna
turn me down. I walk in and I walk into
a light a super lea, a super superly uh A

(15:21):
big lely lit room with with Keno lights everywhere. Two
camera men uh in their filming, lou Pelman sitting at
the at the center next to Lynn Harless and all
the girls of Innocence and everyone from MTV and everyone
from ABC. I guess everyone had broke for dinner and
they had called everyone back from dinner to come back

(15:42):
down to see my performance. In my audition and the
rest is history.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
So Lynn Harles were like judges at that time.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
I owe a lot to Lynn Harless.

Speaker 5 (15:55):
Crazy they were in Orlando, so I guess Lou invited
them down.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
You know, for listen that on Lynn Harlest is justin
Turnerlake's mom Innocence was the group that she put together
and managed that had Britney Spears in it originally. So yeah,
little background for are you knew bees out there? You
know exactly? You know exactly, don't you?

Speaker 2 (16:13):
All right?

Speaker 1 (16:14):
So yeah, tarn of Mahart, now I understand. Yeah, it's
a TV show, of course, licensing there's probably like ten
songs that you can sing yep, okay, and Lou Promman
owned that song. We sure didn't, all right. So at
this time, reality shows and competition shows didn't really exist.
We had the real world, which you worked with, Murray, So, uh,

(16:36):
what did you think about this added layer or of
not only trying to make it in the band, but
making it on this TV show because at that time
you weren't auditioning as an actor at all and doing television.
I mean, although it's music, it's still acting. The reality
is acting. So did that were you at all that
you had to have this television element on top of performing.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
By the way, beautem and Murray would shut down down
so quick if I ever said that reality is acting,
because their whole premise was docu style, fly on the Wall,
be you.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Just you look you right.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
It did it well because and we learned this because
a lot of the new methods were pioneered on our show.
And we only know this in hindsight because at first
it was very much like a reality show, a very
controlled environment inside of a house. You know, you wake up,
you start talking in the middle of the night, the

(17:30):
kenos go on, and a cameraman floats in. There's you know,
there's round the clock surveillance basically, which it works if
you're in a house.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yes, you do forget that you're being filmed.

Speaker 5 (17:42):
Of course, what you.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
What ends up happening in the second and third season
is we end up getting signed and end up traveling
the world and they have little to no control over
like our day and our nights. So we have to
sort of start this very new, very fresh, soft scripting
process where we are contributing ideas to producers directly to
directors and finding moments and times where we can have

(18:08):
conversations about these topics so that they can get their
coverage exactly.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
And not talk about it until then exactly. And I'm
sure there were scenes you'd have to retake because sound
was bad. You're like, really, we have to have that
serious conversation again and pretend that it's like the first time. Yes,
And that's what I always say. With reality. What people
don't understand is it's edited, you know, after the fact,
So you do your part and then they can edit

(18:33):
any way they want you to. Look. Oh, you know,
it's like they write the story after the fact, scripted.
You're it's there, you know what the story is, you
know how it's gonna end. Reality, they write it after
you're done shooting. It's all in that end.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Because they don't know what's happening until they see it all.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
And so I it's very that's a very That's a
perfect segue to my character. In the first season, we
touched on the fact that it was from New York.
So being raised in New York, you kind of are
raised with this sort of defensive.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
Wall bravado of we are New.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yorkers and everyone else is just doesn't understand us. And
so I have that aspect to my personality. But for
most people who know New Yorkers, they have big hearts
and they love hard and I really love the guys
and I love the process that we were going through.
But they really needed to create more of my character.
So in the first season you see a very edited

(19:28):
version of who I am. They sort of made me
out to be this guy who didn't really care as much,
who was out partying, who got sick because he was partying,
and that wasn't necessarily the case, but they needed to
figure out how to get you know, it's about commercial
breaks at the end of the day. You know, it's

(19:49):
about figuring out, like, how do we get people back
to take interest in this? And so that was my
character at first, And as I learned the process, I
learned the more I contribute of my myself and the
more I open up of myself, the less they have
the power of editing a storyline around yeah, you know,
based on their own script ideas. So in the second

(20:13):
and third season, I took far more of an initiative
to give making the band a lot more of.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Who I was, right And you know, doing that first season,
you didn't know but watching the first season back, what
did you see of yourself? You're like, oh, I need
to change that so much? Yeah, so much, like like
give me, I can only imagine I could, Yeah if
I That's why I could never do reality. I couldn't
watch myself. I could never go back and watch myself
because I would just pick apart every little thing. Why

(20:40):
do I say, like so much? Why am I doing this?
I'm picking my nose? Oh my god, I sound like that.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, I can only so much.

Speaker 5 (20:46):
I mean the list is it's a myriad of.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Because you see that with the Housewives too. The first
season they kind of just do their thing whatever. Then
second season you see a little you know, nip tuck done,
Like oh I saw that I and my cheeks need
to be a little.

Speaker 7 (20:59):
Full of physically, the decide that they needed to say less,
do more like you you see yourself and how you
want to be portrayed.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
You kind of create your gars and.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
You have the fans also kind of contributing that, putting
things in your head.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Well, especially now with back then there.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Was no social media. So what was the reaction from
the making the band fans?

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah, I mean the first season there was those that
could see themselves in me, which I think a lot
of reality TV you get that, right, You find that
in boy bands in general. You find those characters that
you can relate to. So like a lot of New
Yorkers would get me, but a lot of Midwesterns they
just didn't really understand.

Speaker 5 (21:34):
And so it was a mixed bag. You know, everyone
you know.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Loved who they had, They had their they had the
you know, their favorites all the way down. And and
for me, that was tough. That was tough. It was tough,
and I didn't realize how much it had affected me
because at the same time, you're trying to compete to
make it into this group, and that's really all I
cared about. Like, I just really wanted to be in
a group. I didn't want to be in a reality show.
I didn't want to be a spectacle and and be

(21:58):
you know, the puck at the time was like the guy, right,
So I didn't want to be Puck. I wanted I
just wanted to earn my role and find and define it.
You know, I'm twenty years old, you know, I don't
even know who I am yet. And then you see
yourself back on camera and you start to realize, oh,
that's how people react, and then you see other people's

(22:19):
interviews on me, and then you're like, oh, that's how.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
I'm coming off to them.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
And so it's like it's it was therapy every Friday night. Oh,
I'm sure it was therapy every Friday.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Can't imagine well, being twenty years old from the Bronx,
I'm sure not cool to be boy band fan at
all at that age. What did your friends think when
you when you made this band? You're like, wait, what
you listen like you listen to this music?

Speaker 3 (22:41):
Yeah, I think I think that was far less of
a surprise. I think the surprise was we all thought
he can do this, and oh shit, he is doing
And there was that when my parents moved me from
New York City down to Florida. We live in a
very small beach community, like very just very tight. What

(23:03):
town was that, Melbourne, Palm Bay area? Okay, so it was.
It was very small. Not a lot of you know,
notable people had emerged from there. So the idea that
I can actually get to that point was was sort
of far fetched as most people who I think that
come from small places, smaller towns.

Speaker 5 (23:24):
And then becoming big. I think they almost have that
bigger dreamer like motivation.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
They're like, I gotta get out of this town, you know,
And so I kind of felt I kind of felt that,
you know, I felt that in the Bronx looking at
on Manhattan.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
I always wanted to work in Manhattan.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
I always want to be a part of that Manhattan
lifestyle because I was always on the outskirts and the boroughs,
and they want to move to Florida. I felt even
more detached, and I just felt like I want to
be there.

Speaker 5 (23:49):
I need to be there.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
I have so much more to give, I have so
much more to learn, and so yeah, yeah, I mean
I think that was sort of more the reaction. And
then you start to see like where the loyals or
the loyalty lives for people.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Oh, of course, because then I'll find out quickly.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
When the group was finally formed, I think it started
like eight of you went onto the show, or how many.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Started from twenty five down to eight eight, okay, and
then the eight got ween down to five, and then
obviously it moved from five to four.

Speaker 5 (24:20):
And then that's when we added Dan right.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Right, because we had some friends like JD. Myers was
like one of those Jadie Myers, remember, yeah, and Paul Martin,
Like I went to high school with Paul.

Speaker 5 (24:30):
Oh you went, Oh that's right.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah yeah, Like so I had a lot of connections.
Like I forget I know JD.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
I know.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
What's weird is that, Like we saw him after he
came on the show and did that and he became
friends with you guys, and I was like, it was
just it was cool to see him.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
I forget about Paul.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Paul.

Speaker 5 (24:47):
Paul was such a really great character for the show.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
And Paul went on to do Lose Country band. Correct,
I forget the name of it, but yeah, yeah, he
started a country boy band, which is a great idea
because Rascal Flatch, like all those were killing it. I
just don't know why it didn't. I think maybe the
guys didn't get along or something. Marshall, Dylan Marshall did that?
Did I just pull that out of my head?

Speaker 2 (25:10):
You remember, Wow, this is shocking.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
I can tell you why it didn't work out. I
can tell you why most boy bands didn't work out
after us.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Okay, tell yeah, tell us what what what in the formula?

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Because you guys were so gosh darn big. I said, Gosh, Darne.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
We're not getting any on this episode.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
You guys were so big.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
It was so much of you, so much of Backstreet,
so much of ninety eight degrees. There was no meat
left on the bone for anyone at that time. And
if it wasn't for the television show and the exposure
and the connectivity that happened with the audience, a broad
audience at that point, not only like young girls, but
like their parents because it was Friday night television, we

(25:57):
would never ever have seen a set season, and honestly,
the second season wouldn't have happened if we didn't get
signed by Clive Davis and then essentially having a song
that was already set for us. You know, we are
very thankful for all or nothing, but we wouldn't have
existed if it wasn't for that. So I really feel
for all of the other boy bands that came out

(26:18):
at that time, with those deluded with.

Speaker 5 (26:22):
Sorry, I'm sorry being big.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
Uh there's uh, there was there was There was little
room for that at that point that the world was
over it, the world was over. We were ready to
see we were ready to see justin Cry Cry Rivers
all over.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
What was the dynamic light when you finally got to
those five Dan joins the group, What was the dynamic
between you five were There's some that you just really
related to immediately, and some are like, I don't know
about this guy.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Yeah, we never knew about a Kaika where that was
the guy who ended up like quitting quit, so we
never really formed a bond with him. The bond was
really formed between us four Jacob actually, myself and Trevor
very much off the bat, and we knew immediately like
they're gonna have to like pry us away from each
other because we have now galvanized and we know each

(27:10):
other's strengths. We knew each other's roles. And that's another
thing with boy bands too. It's like there's five guys,
you know usually in a band, like what is everyone's role?
You know, and you got to figure it out and
like you're diving up parts. I mean, luckily we've learned,
we've learned the chemistry now on how to do that
in the current iteration of Otown. But back then, you know,
we're always trying to you know, we have like young

(27:33):
twenty year old egos, I want to sing that like
I should be the lead, you know, and everyone had
that feeling.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
We never had that. We were told and putting our
place exactly what we were going to be. So and
it just works. It worked for us. Yeah, we all
knew our roles from day one, and I don't know,
I guess that's why. And we didn't fight much over
We never fought over leads or any parts at all
because it was just known that justin JC and me
the leads, and we're doing all the harmonies done.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
We'll see.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
That's that's interesting because for us, we wanted to we
wanted to be like you guys, but we also we
wanted to be the.

Speaker 5 (28:12):
Gout, the the the uh.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
The sort of amalgamation of both back Street and and Sync.
At the time, you guys were our big brothers, right,
We're like the We're like the kid that an older bamp,
like an older you know, couple has after they send
their they're too off to college, then they find out
that they're pregnant.

Speaker 5 (28:30):
Again, that's us.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, and so I gotta make it work.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah, and so and so we had to figure out,
like how how do we identify with you know, them
being so big? So we need to dance just as
much as in sync, and we all need to sing
like most of the Backstreet guys do. And so like
we started to figure that that's what we wanted to
sort of become our DNA and it and.

Speaker 5 (28:52):
It did, it did.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
It did create issues at times. But one thing about
guys in the group, maybe similar to you guys, is
that we were really competitive. And we learned really early
on that it didn't do us any good to be
super competitive with one another as much as it did
competitive for the greater goal. And so the greater goal

(29:16):
was we need to be successful. We need to maximize
this television show, We need to maximize our opportunity. And
so the idea of us coming together as a team
that became that became paramount for us, which is becoming
a team.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, it's great. And I love the brotherhood that you form.
You can never get rid of. And that's one thing
I love about being a part of a group. Even
if you hate the guy this day, you love them,
You love them anyway, and you're just your brother. You're
always going to come back to that, just that family.

(30:02):
And I love how y'all have you know made this
big comeback with the four of you guys, you're killing
it right now on the Pop two thousand tour. Y'all
started that how many years ago?

Speaker 5 (30:13):
About four now?

Speaker 1 (30:14):
I mean, how many days do you think you were
actually gonna do When you first came up with that tour,
You're like, it's gonna be a summer.

Speaker 5 (30:22):
No, sum Yeah, it was a summer. It was you
know when I mettually in the summer, you know, that
was really what it was.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
It was like it was, hey, let's get together because
like UK would love to see a revival of all
the boy bands, and like, you know, we did really
well over there, so let's go and do that. And
then we had no idea the States was gonna we're
gonna take to us. Yeah, and then we didn't have
we didn't at the time nostalgia. I think there's like
a moment where like acts have to realize that you

(30:52):
have now crossed the threshold of being current and cool
and new to nostalgia.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
And we're a.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
Legacy ban officially, and luckily we have a legacy that
we can lean on with great tunes and yeah, they're
not a lot, but we are leaving money on the table.
We are leaving these fans empty you know, you know,
empty handed, Let's give them something.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
And so no, yeah, we didn't. We had no clue.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
And honestly, we were going to be done in the
first year, even after touring and seeing like success until
ninety eight degrees was like, hey, well, actually Jeff and
I ended up having like a conversation and saying, hey, like,
it would be dope if like we went on tour.
And then we met at Roosevelt and then saw one

(31:39):
of the girls from Dream who was working at the Roosevelt,
and we were like, hey, wait a second, we're on
a meeting about this tour that we're going to be
on that we're thinking about doing.

Speaker 5 (31:47):
I want to be on it.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
And Diana from Dream and she was like yeah, she
was like working, she was like the manager at the Roosevelt. Yeah,
and so she was like she was like, yeah, I
would totally do it. I mean, me and the girls
aren't together, but we totally consider it. And and and
that led to the My two K tour and then
and it was because of the My two K tour
that we're still here today because it gave us this

(32:10):
like forty city tour exposure that oh my gosh, these
guys are back and it's a high energy show and
it's not what you expect.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
You guys can perform like you were saying earlier that
you know, you wanted to dance like us, you wanted
to sing like backshit like y'all did that. I mean,
it's I mean I would watch your show every night
and it was it's so good. And and you're so
lucky because, like you said, you get into that legacy
era and a lot of bands aren't able to do
that because they might have one hit, right, But you

(32:39):
guys have several hits to be able to work with,
so you'll be able to tour as long as you
want to. And and that's that's what's so great, you know,
And and hard in this career is to have those
those type of hits that people will always cherish and
always remember. And you got to do that many.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
Times over, many times over.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
And I'll say this, like, there's a lot a lot
of groups out there, a lot of acts that have
really great songs. One thing that our group doesn't lack,
which a lot of those other artists do, is we
don't lack the lazy gene you have to get out
there you have to perform.

Speaker 5 (33:13):
It's a grind. There is nothing glamorous about what we do.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
You've been there, you know, you know, like for us,
you know, like we we grind it out.

Speaker 5 (33:22):
We're weekend warriors.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
We grind it out for four days with two days
of travel and each one of those days in between.
But we know that the gratification that comes from that,
you know, ninety minutes of performing and we see those
faces and we see how happy those our fans are
that we get, we get to be a part of
their escapism. Like it's just such an enormous gift, something

(33:44):
that in between the time that me and the guys
were together, I sort of wanted to forget. I sort
of wanted to forget that I was in Otown at
one point in my life.

Speaker 5 (33:52):
And I'm so glad that.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
That we had the courage to do it again despite
so many people saying that it was going to fail,
so many people that you and I both know, people
managers and everyone like. Still to this day, people can't
believe that Pop two thousand is actually a viable brand
that can go around and tour the country.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
They just don't think it has legs. And you know, sorry, Like, I.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Mean, it's been years that it's been one strong.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
When it did just halt at the end of the
show and you decided, you know, to take a break.
What did you in your head? Where did you think
you belonged in the business? Where did you want to
go after Otown?

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Yeah, so that Wikipedia wherever you pull that from, was
actually right.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
I actually had.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
I actually had an agent who who poached me from
the group at the time, towards the weaning hours of
the group's twilight, and he was like, hey, listen, I
think you're an actor. I believe that you need to
be on screen. I believe you have a lot to offer.
I would like for I need for you to move
down la. I was doing a lot of uh tape,

(35:00):
doing a lot of submitting tape, and he was like,
now you just need to be here and get on
a grind and start and start doing the acting thing.
And it was always a part of my life, like
I always did music and theater. I always did like plays,
and whether it be in church or in school or
in college, it was always a part of it.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Did you have a favorite player musical you did growing up?

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Yeah, yeah, I have. If anything, I have or regret.
I regret that I didn't follow through with West Side Story.
My best friend at the time got the lead over me,
and I decided to pull out. And I and I
and I really regret that. I really wish I would
have done West Side Story.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Westside Story is what changed my life. It did when
I did that musical. That's when I realized I want
to be on this stage, like this is incredible. And
then I had dreams of Broadway after that. But that
that musical just really stuck with me.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
So that's funny because it was the the opposite effect.
I didn't do that show, and I never wanted to
feel that you're missing out, that missing out, that fomo
that I quit because of essentially my ego, and I
can I can say that honestly now, like it was
my ego. They did it, you know, and uh, I

(36:17):
just that was that was the one. But yeah, So
I moved to LA and I started I started going
on the grind and it was not easy. Sarah Finn
and Randy Hiller are really big. They're really big casting directors.
Sarah Finn does like a lot of all every show

(36:37):
now and I had I remember I had gone out
for a few I had made really great relationships with
casting directors in town, a lot of auditions right around
the corner here. And she we had met at a
party once, and this is after I screen tested for
a really legendary movie.

Speaker 5 (36:53):
Now, but I had.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Screen tested for it, and she, yeah, Coach Carter.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
I know that I was.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
I had screen tested for for one of the characters,
one of the leads, and it was supposed to be
opposite Samuel L. Jackson, and I had done everything. I've
given everything to that role. I had taken basketball lessons
to help my game.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
That's why I didn't make it. That's why I didn't
even audition.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
And so I had, I had gone, I had gone
down to the last final screen test and they ended
up calling me, and it was really bad news for me.
I was like really bummed about it. And I had
met up with one of them, one of the casting directors,
at a party just shortly after that, and she had said, Hey, listen,
you know you're incredible actor. You have a lot to offer.

(37:47):
You don't ever stop acting because of this, but know
this that the fact that you were from this group
will bline you to the front of the audition. Room,
but it will at times be the thing that stops
you from It'll be.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
The thorn in your ass. Yeah, because I mean, I've
had so many cashing directors to two reasons why many
cashing director says I can't give you this part because one,
you're gay, Like now they know you. It's like they
know you too well as being gay and they can't
get past that. This was years ago. No cash director
would ever say that to your face these days. And
the other was yeah, like again, they know you too

(38:25):
well as Lance Bashlman Sync. They can't get past that.
So there was just many things I just kind of
gave up, like, Okay, then if no one's going to
hire me, because they just want me to be Lance Bass,
and that's what I play in every single role I
do in the last ten years is like this version
of Lance Fast, this crazy version.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Of I think you were Lance back so so far
this you're like four.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
I don't even know if I play Lance Bass well,
but I do it.

Speaker 2 (38:47):
We don't even know who lands.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
I don't even know who I am anymore. There's too
many versions of me out there, no idea who I am.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
That's next, That's that's next on the slate, who is
Lance Lance Back?

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Played by Lance Bass, Produced by Lance Mass, directed by
Lance Bass. I'm going to be beyond beyond.

Speaker 5 (39:06):
Yeah, man.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
So that became a thing, like the type casting became
a thing, and and I, Uh, I realized that I
didn't really want to like just wait for people to
give me a role. I didn't want to wait for
uh to be a part of a shitty movie. I
wanted to be you know, control my own destiny. So
I started writing, and I started, I started creating what
I thought would be great opportunities for myself with you know,

(39:31):
illusions of granted that I can write a script and
sell it and be a part of the big machine,
which is really tough to do.

Speaker 5 (39:38):
But I had I had these thoughts.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
And what I learned in the process was I didn't
care about the acting process.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
I cared about the creative process.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
I love being on ZET, I love being a part
of like the team. I love the idea that we
get together every morning at six in the morning and
we do a twelve hour shift sometimes into overtime, you know,
and we are part of making a bigger thing happen.
And so I just started. I decided I was going
to go down that direction. I was like, I'm going

(40:09):
to go behind the scenes and I'm going to write,
I'm going to produce, and I'm going to see this
This dream not the same way I had it when
I was young, because being in a boy band was
sort of like a thirteen fourteen year old dream, you know,
but utilizing the skill sets that I developed over the
course of being in the group, how do I apply
those and how do I create something else for me?

Speaker 5 (40:30):
Moving into my.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Third year process with writing, because I love writing. I
love creating. I mean, me and you were kind of
like the same in the whole like film, television, just
we just like to create. I can't write a script
for the life of me, Like, I don't know the
rules of script writing, right, So I have to have
someone that joins me in that, Like I'll give the story,
the characters, what they're going to say, all this, but

(40:53):
I can't put it into a script form. Are you
able to do that or do you have like a
partner that you love to work with? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (40:58):
I do. I do have some.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
I've had several partners that I've worked with, and I
take everything from them and I try to apply that
to myself. But my first my first go at screenwriting
was I got a couple of books and I just
started putting scenes together, the scenes that I knew in
my head.

Speaker 5 (41:14):
I just put them down and they were long winded.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
A f Yeah, they are just not You can never
make a page count with the way I was putting
my putting my pages together, like it would be, that's
what I would be.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
The first time I did a beat sheet, which took
me like three months for this TV show, I was like,
and then didn't sell the TV show. I'm like, not again,
never again. This was too much work for absolutely nothing.
And I was like, oh, I'm gonna do this myself. Oh,
I've read a book on writing a beat sheet. It
was great. But then nope, not sold. I'm like, I'm
not wasting my time ever again. Someone else is bullshit.

(41:50):
It sounds accurate.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yeah, Well, when when I started, I didn't have a clue.

Speaker 5 (41:57):
I just had the ambition.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
And so it's the same as like maybe when I
was young in singing, or even like in the beginning
process of otown recording, you go into the studio and
it seems like that room which is really small and
tight and soundproof seems enormous and scary and overwhelming. But
the more you go into that booth and the more
you start singing over these tracks, and the more you
start creating, it starts to become shorthand and you start.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
To create.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Habits that now help you QC help equality control. And
at the end of the day, that's that's sort of
like what my older version of myself has probably adapted
more to is the quality control aspect of well, I'm
not gonna go down this scene because like where's it
gonna happen, Where's.

Speaker 5 (42:42):
It gonna go?

Speaker 3 (42:43):
Or I'm not gonna I'm not gonna start on these
verses or this top line even for a song, because
where how do we how do we make this viable?

Speaker 5 (42:53):
How do we make this syllable?

Speaker 3 (42:54):
So those sort of things just become a part of
like the head. You know that you're just part of
like your process. And I'm still developing every day every
time I get in front. If I take time away
from like not writing, it's sometimes it's like, oh, I
get that initial feeling of like, oh my gosh, I'm
not gonna be able to do this. Yeah, and then like
and once you start going it starts to you know,

(43:16):
I'm like, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
And I can like because I'm sure your note section,
like mine is just full of ideas, you know. And
my my manager a couple of years ago is like,
because I have too many ideas, right, and then I
have so many projects that I can't really focus and
then just most never get done because they're just spread
out everywhere. So it's like, just take three or four
and just work on that and don't create anything else.
Do not create anything else. I can't not do that.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
I know.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
I'll be sitting in bed. I'm like, okay, I'm yesterday.
Every day every day I put the phone, I'm like, no, no, no,
I no, I'm not nope, not going to create anything else.
But then I'm like, no, I have to. It's just
it's in us, like we have to do it. Is
there a film or show that you've developed or want
to develop that you just really want to be your

(44:01):
next project? Like can you say that? Because I feel
like sometimes when you put in the universe, it kind
of comes to you. I've sold a few films that way,
I just said, and they came to me.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
I have I have, well, I have three projects right now.
That I wrote and developed, and I have script I
have in a future form.

Speaker 5 (44:17):
I have it in a four part mini series.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
I developed it with UH with a with a major
cable company channel.

Speaker 5 (44:25):
Those need to happen.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Yeah, it sounds like you're like right there.

Speaker 5 (44:28):
We were right there.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
We were developing it for nine months, and then there
was a merger, and then the merger whatever.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
Always real covid or like just there's so many excuses this.

Speaker 5 (44:38):
And that's why I've learned.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
You need a lot of ideas, because sometimes people put
all of their eggs into one idea and then they
can't sell it, or they refuse to sell it, or
they like wait for the perfect deal to happen, and
that perfect deal may not happen. I've sort of learned
how to like attach myself from the creative brain that
I used to have and now say, okay, like there's

(45:04):
I need to sell this, and I'm willing to sell
it as long as someone's willing to buy it, because
I have like twenty in the clip ready to go
out whenever that.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
And every year regime does change, and there's so many
shows that I worked on for years developing and we
pitch it and now my agents are like, well, it's
already been pitched, you can't pitch it again. I'm like,
why not, Yeah, like it's still relative today and there's
a whole new there's a new president now, like no
one's even heard this pitch. But they won't let me
take some of these out. They're like, yeah, it's dead
in the water, you can't pitch it again. And I

(45:34):
think that's so stupid because there's one show I just
sold a CBS that have literally been developing for twelve years,
and I've pitched four different versions of it over the
last twelve years, so every network's heard it, every different
version of it, and then finally just last summer, CBS
bought it. Like, so you can repitch something.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
Well one, congratulations.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Well we'll see if it actually goes man rrect.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
But what happens, I think, and this is from my perspective,
is that there's you know, twelve years allows for there
to be that clickover, that sick local clickover where we
kind of start back to like where, oh this is
new again, like it's our sort like boy bands, uh,
you know, like where it's like now we've kind of
got past this part where like this is not passe

(46:17):
and we can move forward. And I've seen honestly, this
is not this, this is the truth. There are three
shows on air right now that I totally came.

Speaker 5 (46:29):
Up with, Oh yeah, this is totally came up with.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
And then and and so that that brings and that
brings me to my next theory.

Speaker 5 (46:39):
That we are just conduits. We're conduits.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
We're energy conduits right where like we're tuned in, you know,
And the more you open yourself up to an idea
or a concept or a belief, the more you can
sort of attract that that that.

Speaker 5 (46:53):
That frequency to you.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
And you know, I believe that like I might have
picked up a frequency. I might have picked up an
idea in the you know, in the in the radio,
in the radio waves, and that became something that I
thought worked. I like to check off boxes before I
get started on something. You know, is this sellable? Like
does it hit what where we are as a you know,
a society? And then if they and if I don't.

(47:16):
Some of my projects didn't have that, and I've gone
back to retool them to say, Okay, we're going to
make this personal female and we're gonna make this person
you know, really have like an understanding, make this person
a certain ethnic background, and whatever the case may be,
you kind of go back and retool these things and
it becomes a brand new project.

Speaker 5 (47:33):
So again, I have total.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
Faith that like the the ideas and the projects that
I've worked on as hard as I have will find
a home in the home that they're supposed to be in.
Because not all money is good money, not every partner
is a great partner, not every network's a great network
to partner up with.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
So I just truly believe that there was.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
A divine calling on these stories and they will find
their way where they're supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Yeah, but it still sucks when you see your idea
on screen and then you then you read the credits like,
oh yeah I pitched that to that guy. Yeah, yeah
you have done.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
I have one perfect for you.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
But now that I know you have so many ideas,
I fear like I should ever like tell you, because
then you're going to be like then you're gonna get
pissed and you're going to be like, what.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Do you do?

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Oh please? Yeah, I mean we have two kids. I can,
I can.

Speaker 5 (48:23):
I'll tell you, I'll tell you off air.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Okay, you're good because my mine that I always see.
I'm not saying I created American Idol, but they might
have gotten the idea for me because I did my
freelance search two thousand, so we know the year was
two thousand and look at this little premise. So three judges,
Pink Promick Knight, Robin Wiley, our vocal coach what's his

(48:47):
name hosted it. MTV ti L Dave Holmes hosted you
show the Bad Auditions because they're just funny, like people
never seen bad auditions before, love them right, and it's like,
oh my god, these poor people are telling this kid
that they said good and they're horribly Yeah, we narrow
it down. America votes for their your favorite American Idol

(49:08):
and there you go. Ryan Tedder won it. It was great, awesome.
Next year Pop Idol comes out in England. Yeah, I like,
and I told way more so at the time, like, guys,
that's that's my format, Like, that's my exact format. No, no, no,
that will never work. We're not. I'm like, so they
didn't let me do anything about it, and of course
it goes up to blow out to be the biggest

(49:29):
show on television. I'm like, guys, why didn't you have
my back? Literally the same format it aired. It wasn't
even a pitch it aired, it aired, It was the
same format.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's tough the way they find the way they find
the legal the legal loopholes there, Like.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
There's nothing proprietary about it.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Yeah, they try.

Speaker 3 (49:46):
They pull that with me with you know, with the
boy the very boy band holiday.

Speaker 5 (49:50):
You know it's not a proprietary Oh god, yeah, you know.
It's just an idea, just an idea.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
By the way, did you get a text back? Because
I don't want them to think you're actually in trouble?
See who went tice back yet?

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Like? Are you okay?

Speaker 5 (50:04):
What does it say you're dead?

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Question Mark from I don't know who did it first though,
damn it. It's Jacob and Trevor, both of them, question
Mark And then Trevor followed up with what happened?

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Question Mark?

Speaker 1 (50:18):
So we'll give that to Trevor. Since I've had a
follow up, I kind of knew.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Yeah, Dan, Dan was definitely arrive for in the middle
of the middle of coaching. Just the FYI for your
pop idol thing, just a little tidbit of information when
we auditioned for Clive Davis. There were a few people
in that audition. One of those people was Simon Kyle.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Oh yeah, that ran INTOM a couple of times. I
remember it was Simon who God, what was his first show? Well,
I guess it was American Idol.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
Yeah, yeah, I was.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
I don't know why I was talking to him, And
I remember it was before it was before I knew
that Ensync wasn't doing anything else right, and so I
was kind of the hiatus. It's already been two years.
I'm like, okay, guys, you know, I'm ready to get
back in the stud And I remember Simon telling me,
he goes, Lance, it's not happening, like you're never gonna
make music within sync again. And I looked at him

(51:08):
like he was crazy. I'm like, what the hell do
you know? He was so right, like he just he
just knew. He's like, it's it's over.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
I think you didn't know.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
I don't know what he was talking to, but yeah,
he was like the first that I remember saying, Lance,
it's it's over, like it's not happening.

Speaker 5 (51:22):
It's very sad. Yeah, it's sad for me.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yeah, that for me too.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
I know, I'm serious, Like I I mean, I know,
we joke about it. We do a little bit in
the Pop two thousand show where you come out and
you know, we do our dance and then we do
bring back and sing and I started that little chant
and it's very sad for us. It's very sad for
for those that came.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
We're just waiting until we're ninety because we really want
to come back. Like you know, it's like, Wow, they're
really doing it in ninety guys.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Yeah, you like Abbo.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Yeah, And actually no one will know who we are.
It'll be our only chance to win a Grammy. Anology
we finally get that Grammy.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
What was that pop grip that ended up doing that
like the like everyone does.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Actually Abba was trying but then covid happened. They were
really going to do something, but I forget yeah, and
then it turned into hologram. Now.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
Yeah, So I just I just want to say before
we segue, it would make so many people happy. And

(52:43):
I think at the end of the day, at the
end of the day, it's great to make money, but
there's some there is that joy, there is that gift
that comes from what you guys can do to people
and bring people back to a simpler time I experience it,
and you guys have on such a grander scale. There

(53:03):
are so many times where I'm like this, there's if
there was a behind the music, this, this is behind
the music happening in my opinion of something that is,
we're living through a tragedy. In my opinion, I just believe.
I believe in you guys so much. I love you
guys together so much. I obviously I know each one
of you individually over the years, and I just really hope.

(53:26):
I know that we probably would never be on the
tour with you guys, but I want you guys back
together so bad.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
Look, it would be fun. And I've said it before.
I think we owe something to the fans. And you know,
like I said, never say never. Something could happen, But
you know, I don't know. The good thing is we're
all really close. It's not like we hate each other, right,
so you know, something something could happen. Speaking of Chris Kirkpatrick,
yes now on Pop two thousands. Yes, has he been

(53:53):
behaving himself? Dude, Chris at.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Better A lot?

Speaker 5 (54:02):
You got I. I We've known Chris for years.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
Chris was my neighbor in Orlando, for a long time,
and I have to tell you, fatherhood has done him
an enormous amount of good.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
It did him down a good bit.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
Yeah, I think that he has been such a pleasure
to work with. And you were obviously were a pleasure
to work with, and it was we're fortunate to have you.
And obviously because of the because of the kids and
the responsibilities that you have being a multimedia, multi media mogul,
you can't you can't do our little tour anymore. But

(54:39):
having Chris on there is has just been wonderful. He
not a lot of people know this, but Chris is
obviously you guys know this. But Chris is responsible for
in Sync being together. You know, I'm going to put
us together, want to put us together, put you guys together.
And I know that deep in his heart he wanted
to perform again. And you know, he never wanted that

(55:01):
thing to die, you know. And so the idea that
we have an opportunity to give him the opportunity to
live out this aspect of his life, his dream, this
thing that he built. I see it as an enormous
responsibility and gift also, and he sees it as such.
I mean, he comes backstage most of the time and

(55:21):
not I don't want to give up too much of
our private moments. But there have been several times where
he comes back and he's so gracious and grateful for
the opportunity.

Speaker 5 (55:32):
To be there with us.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
He needed to be back on stage.

Speaker 5 (55:35):
He does, He did, and and it's it's been fantastic.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
I if there was, if there was us moving on
from the Lance era of Pop two thousand, it has.
It was a nice transition with Chris and and I'm
glad that he treats it that way.

Speaker 5 (55:51):
And we've we're having a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Well, that tour was so much fun. We would go
to cities I don't think I've ever been to. That's
one of those. It takes you a whole day to
get there, then you do the show, then a whole
day to get back.

Speaker 5 (56:04):
We've eaten elephant ears in very random places.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
I love to stay fair. I do. Anytime we would
play a fair, I would eat my butt off. Oh
my gosh, now I want to go to a fair.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
I love you some food, I do.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
I do. All right, Let's get some frost tips before
I let you go. You were chosen to work with
strangers in Otown. Yes, and also worked in with supergroups
with holidays for a boy band Christmas.

Speaker 5 (56:27):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
What's a tip on how to work well with others
with different personalities?

Speaker 3 (56:36):
I like to be a person one that immediately identifies
everyone's strength and identifies them in the role and give
them that responsibility, even if that's me relinquishing certain level
of responsibilities that.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
I'm normally used to taking them. So that's one.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Two.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
I believe having mutual respect and admiration for everyone's journey.
Everyone has had a long path in his career, very
similar stories. But it's really important for me to say, hey, listen,
you are this person and I respect you and whatever

(57:24):
you want to contribute. I want to be an open
vessel for you to like feel like you're in a
safe space and like contribute that.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
If we could all think that way.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
Yeah, you know, and not a lot of people, not
everyone can, but you know, that's a part of I
guess my training because I was with strangers growing up,
like growing up in this business. And then you know, yeah,
I mean working on a very boy band holiday, obviously
creating it and have and being a part of the

(57:53):
actual filming of it, and being a performer on it.
But there were moments within the filming that I was like,
I can't believe this is happening, and just at having
the head to be I'm a peer, but at the
same time I'm a fan.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
Yeah, well, you gave my daughter her television debut.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
That's rights. The Christmas special that we did, I did a.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
Little cameo and and on cue cried. Really fit the
mood because you know, I'm supposed to be to shovel
because I literally have three week old babies. Yeah, so
I did a little cameo from my house like guys,
I can't right now.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
She brought us so.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Yeah, it was her first speaking role. So I thank
you so much for giving my daughter her first speaking
role on a major network.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
Oh well, the pleasures on my thank you.

Speaker 3 (58:44):
We'll look back at it and she maybe she'll, you know,
when she becomes a huge actress still say I.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Got my start, but did not get her SAG card
though for us she did. Cry is a cry is
a cry.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Yeah, we need to get her. Her baby needs insurance.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
Let's get to the fans, all right, Uh, Ritz MJ
as if you could release any song from your debut
album with twenty twenty three vocals. Yeah, which one would
it be?

Speaker 5 (59:09):
Oh but that's a good question, mm asked.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
I always wondered, like Justin, because you know, when we
started with Justin, he was fourteen, so his voice hadn't
really changed yet. So I want you back. Tearing to
my heart was when his voice was changing. I can
hear it, I can hear like this it is higher. Yeah.
I always like wondered that too, if you wanted to
go back and re record like what Taylor Swift does
these days, just like, okay, let me have a little
more chortmen.

Speaker 5 (59:33):
Sure look at this, yeah, and let me all my masters.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I think that's funny because like all
of the first album, because we were like in our twenties,
we weren't like, we weren't like super young. We had
already started to develop our voices that Clive made it
a point to make us sound younger, and so I
would venture to say the entire album I would release

(59:59):
really again because I hear you know the clamps, You
know the clamps, you know they are rubber bands down there, man,
Like I'm just like, man.

Speaker 5 (01:00:07):
Like, it's all here, man, everything is right here.

Speaker 7 (01:00:10):
Yeah, it's true, like back then they wanted you to remember.
Just watched a clip from The Newlyweds with Jessica Simpson
and they're like, they wanted her to re record an
entire song on the album was a big one. I
forgot what's one because they're like, no, you need to
sing down, you need to sound younger, and that's not
as good as a singer like you can't so, which
is why, if you noticed Jessica Simpson thought her career,
she started.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Like, oh, just like.

Speaker 7 (01:00:32):
The Celtic and big, and it became like yeah, yeah,
because they wanted her to sound like stupider and dumber
and just kind of more like team like yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:00:42):
That's exactly what.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Yeah, but we.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Had Wow, that's so sad thinking that, Like, give me
a break, all right, what is your least favorite Otown song?
This is from Lizabeth fifteen ash.

Speaker 5 (01:00:57):
I'm gonna get so much hate for this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
That's okay, we want to hear. Hey, they understand everyone. Look,
I'm here we go. That's mine, Here we go. One
more time out of my head. Every time I take
off on a flight, oh is that every single time?

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
Such a nineties flight song?

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Since the nineties, every flight I take off, it goes
here we go. That's all I hear.

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
When you finally get to space.

Speaker 7 (01:01:22):
That's what Yeah, Oh my god, that's what he sings
it every time he completes like an intimate moment with
his husband.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Wait to wait, Here we go and I go, okay,
we're ready.

Speaker 5 (01:01:35):
Five, Here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
What song is?

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
I'm going to get so much tay for this, but
this is the honest truth. It has been from the
moment I heard it till even I perform it now.

Speaker 5 (01:01:49):
Liquid Dreams is not my favorite song.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Liquidreams are surprising. So I want what's your take on it?
Give me what is the description of liquid?

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
What is about nocturnal emissions?

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
Okay, I like that Here we Go that might be
the best answer we've heard so far.

Speaker 5 (01:02:01):
Yeah, it's nocturnal emissions.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
It's it's weird because the song actually does something that
none of the other boy band songs actually did, which
was target fourteen thirteen to fourteen fifteen year old boys.

Speaker 5 (01:02:13):
Yeah right, Like it's really not to girls.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
It's really a song about reflecting on being like a
prepscent young man.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
You see your fandom just bust with boys after that song. Yeah,
there's more guys at this concert than girls.

Speaker 5 (01:02:30):
Now, Yeah, we had a really dreams. Yeah, we had
a we had a mix, a mix of folks.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
You know, our UK fans are gonna not like that idea,
that answer, because in the UK it was a really
cheeky you know, they love that sort of like take on.
You know, they have that kind of humor, which which
I appreciate and I totally get the humor also.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
But this is my career, folks, and Stephlynn eighty six
would like to know pursuing more acting. Do we have
anything that you're going to be in coming up?

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Nothing, I'm going to be in coming up on the slate.
Hopefully that's subject to change. You know, I really I
really miss it so much.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:03:14):
I missed the storytelling process, I missed the work, I
missed the I missed the notes on my script, I
missed subtext. I miss it all, honestly, And so yeah,
I really hope at some point that light shines again
and I get an opportunity to do it. I would
I would love to, you know, I I love I

(01:03:34):
just love all of it. I guess that's the thing, Like,
I just love all of it. And I know that
all of It takes a lot of work, and so
I've i've I fell in love with the work. And
when you fall in love with the work, that's the
hardest thing. It was never the result. Because I've been
on so many independent films, you know, I have like
six under my belt, and like they were never really
great films, but each one of those were the experience

(01:03:57):
of a lifetime, including Dead seven, which you you should
have been in, by the way, the movie with us
and Nick and Chris and then but that was even
that movie that was just such a joy to be
a part of the set, beyond and and and put
the work in. Even though all of my choreographed martial
arts scenes that I that I focused so hard on

(01:04:17):
and I studied so hard, and I did so much
off screen work, they never made the edit.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
You should make more of those, because we do have
a fun teen idle family, right, I mean, we have
a show Frost of tips all about it. I would
love to see more movies starring all of us characters.
Frankie Grande just came out with a horror which I
love horror. I would love to see a horror film
with boy band members. What's it called Okay, So there's

(01:04:43):
a there's a movie called Summoning Sylvia. It just came out.
It's on all platforms, and it's just it's Frankie Grande
and these three other just you know, gay guys, and
it's literally just them in the cast, right, and it's
this little camp such campy hard film.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
I loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
So it was so funny and it was great, like
I want them to see So I would love to
see you develop something like that, have us all in it.
Start with horror, because I would definitely do horror.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
You know that's interesting. I like, I like stepping out
of my comfort zone. Horror has never been my zone.
I always just wanted to like jump out of a window,
but that never happened.

Speaker 5 (01:05:23):
But I would totally do that. And and the idea of.

Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
I think it's a it's a I think it's a
shame that we haven't all done another thing together because
it's like it's cast specific right find. You know, a
buyer is gonna be hard pressed to say you don't
want all the all of their viewers, all that viewership
for sure, you know, So maybe it's happening right now.
Maybe this is like the start of it. And we
can look back at this.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
And put it in the universe.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
And I would love to start it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
I mean, it's gotta be fun.

Speaker 7 (01:05:51):
Yeah, you have to be on the joke that seven
was a B movie.

Speaker 3 (01:05:56):
Nick Carter wanted to make a B movie, and I
mean probably more like a G move.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
H long Shot was pretty that was a good one.

Speaker 5 (01:06:06):
Long Shot. Oh yeah, we have been in a film together.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
Yeah we have.

Speaker 5 (01:06:09):
Yeah, that's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
Still have never seen it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:11):
So, by the way, do you know you never saw it?

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
I saw my scene with Brittany, but that I didn't
see anything else.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
So just just a little bit of like boy band
trivia to like the beginning and end of Long Shot
are the bookends. Lou wanted us to be in the film,
but the film had already been cut like together, edited together,
so he was like, we want you to be in
this film.

Speaker 5 (01:06:31):
Well, we saw the film on New.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Year's lord Y two k New Year's Oh wow, you
know we thought that the world was going to die
and we watched it and we're like, Okay, this is
gonna be the last film we watched before the world dies.

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
This sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:06:44):
And so Lou was so pressed on us being in it.
He's like, can you do this? Can you be in it?

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
And we're like, well, only be in it if you
let me and Ashley write it. And so me and
ash went into like like our you know, into our
writing space and said, hey, what if we do this
because we were always doing sketches on the tour, do
we do this and this and then maybe like book
end it. So the beginning, in the middle, the beginning, middle,
and d there's like moments where we come in. Those

(01:07:08):
were totally added on at the end of the movie
and we sort.

Speaker 5 (01:07:11):
Of just attached ourselves to it. But we wrote that
whole like the entire thing.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
I need to see this.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
It's the idea was there right, Like we were saying, like,
use these fun people like and just random characters and
just make a movie around.

Speaker 5 (01:07:24):
Was that the Rocks first movie?

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
Maybe?

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
I don't know, it might have been Dwayne Johnson the
Rocks First movie.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
Might have been because you're in the movie wrestler at
the time.

Speaker 5 (01:07:36):
Yes, he is a burglar, he's he's a mugger.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
You've not Oh yeah, some major people, y'all major.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
That was my first house.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
You're so humble, I know, thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:46):
He was in the sea with Kenny Rogers.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Kenny Rogers. See it was Kenny because I was the
co pilot.

Speaker 5 (01:07:54):
Yeah, you were Kenny.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
And Brittany was a passenger or she was the flight attendant.
She was flight attendant. There's a lot of great puns
in it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure it was all pun great
puns they were there.

Speaker 5 (01:08:05):
There were puns.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
There were puns.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Yeah, there were fun We'll just say that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Yeah, there were puns.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
There were puns.

Speaker 5 (01:08:11):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:08:11):
And on that note, as we leave on a horrible
movie that you definitely don't need to go watch, everybody
go watch. Wait, Eric, it is so great to catch
up with you, man frosted tips. How can everyone stay
in touch with you? How can everyone go see the
Pop two thousand tour?

Speaker 3 (01:08:27):
Well, Pop two thousand is otonofficial dot com or Pop
two thousand Tour dot com. And then obviously if you
want to, you know, follow me. I am Eric with
a K estrata on Instagram.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Eric with a K. That's me, all right, buddy, Well,
we hope to see you soon.

Speaker 5 (01:08:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
I think now we have three O town members, we
still have to go. I like to spread all the
members out throughout the years. So that you don't you know,
you don't get everything all at once. It's called patience people.
That's right, all right, guys, that is all the show
I have for you. Thanks so much for listening. Subscribe
review again. Gosh, I forgot to uh read some of
the reviews here, but we'll do that another time because

(01:09:06):
they are good.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
My name and they're bad Sarah Beth from Maryland?

Speaker 5 (01:09:09):
Wait are the are there bad reviews? Like so hilarious?

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
It's kind of I mean, they're just ridiculous. Yeah, Like,
you know, if we have to put an E on
this and someone says, you know, damn or something, uh,
you know, if you'll give it one stars, like, oh,
I can't listen to this because.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
I love to show, but you said that's ship, so
put that on.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Two reviews. This episode wasn't long enough, you know. It's like,
oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
Leave me.

Speaker 5 (01:09:31):
I don't want to. I don't want to be a
part of that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
Yeah, I don't want to be.

Speaker 5 (01:09:35):
I don't want to contribute to like a one star.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
No, we enjoy well. I won't say that because I
don't want you to write one star reviews, but I
do secretly enjoy them.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
Well, I know. I want to like. I like to
see your issues. This is ridiculous. Good issue. Give us
five stars in a bad review.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
Yeah yeah, five stars and a bad reviews exactly perfect,
perfect deal. All right, guys, be good to each other,
don't drink and drive out there, take care of those animals,
and remember stay Hey, thanks for listening. Follow us on
Instagram at Frosted Tips.

Speaker 7 (01:10:06):
With Lance and Michael Turzenard and at lance Bast for
all your pop culture needs, and make sure to write
a review and leave us five stars six if you
can see you next time.