June 12, 2023 • 50 mins
Back For Good…or at the very least for this episode!
Robbie Williams from Take That joins Lance with some incredible stories. Find out why Robbie would go home crying after rehearsals, who Lance credits for *NSYNC, and what’s behind the rumors of song theft!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass, an iHeartRadio podcast. Hello,
my Little Peanuts, it's me your host, Lance Bass. This
is Frosted Tips Me and you have a very special
co host today. All Right, if you listen to my
old show, you're gonna know this one from New York.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Jay Dizzle's with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Jad Myers? For everyone else it doesn't know?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Put in the special and special guests.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, I'm excited to have you on.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Unfortunately Michael is in Florida this week we will be
missing him, but super excited to have you back on
the show because you know your fan favorite.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You know what it's been, it's been, it's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well and especially on this show because you have such
great boy band ties. So I think you're perfect for
this interview with Robbie Williams today.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah. I've been flirting with this whole like not quite
in a boy band, but like adjacent.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's like, uh, not yet a woman, not yet a
pop star.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You might recognize JD from making the band on ABC.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yes they shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Are you still salty that you do? Didn't make the
final five?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
No, no, you know what you get. You've got your
timeline confined, idea, give it to I did not come
into the Otown universe until season three of making the
band when switch MTV like the audition process, No no,
I came in late. They were looking, they were looking
for some storylines and they had just moved to MTV
(01:37):
and had a bunch of episodes to pill. Reality TV
had just like taken off. So I can imagine the
producers were like, let's do a talent search in Orlando
and let's help Otown find somebody they're going to get
help them, just like somebody helped them.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
All right, So you get on this show, but also
you sign with Johnny Wright, our manager, start a band
out of blue?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Which is you? And who was it?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
His name is Ricky Yeah, no, no, Ricky Dejeon, Ricky
Jean Yeah, like the mustard Yeah, sweet especial Ricky. These days,
I have no idea, you know what I've always wondered. No,
not at all. It was a little bit of a
you know, not so great breakup.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh what happened to give us.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
The scoo Oh, there's there's some it's you know, I
you know, I have a hard time keeping concise. I
was a replacement. It was originally a duo and it
was Ricky and this other guy. The other guy got
(02:42):
how do I say this, put in jail for statutory rate.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, yeah, all right.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I think he was like twenty three, twenty four, hooked
up with a younger than sixteen year old. All right,
got put in jail. And that was so I was
I was brought in to replace him. Did all that
for you and a half?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
How many songs did Joe end up recording without him?
Would you consider that a boy band or two guys
a boy band?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I mean I think so.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
We were rehearsing at one point to open for you
guys in Europe.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh really, I'm sorry we were never asked about that.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I know. No, you could talk to me Lindo about it.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
We would have accepted. Yeah, well, I'm glad you're on
the show today. Robbie's coming in now. I know you're
a big fan, big thing we all are. The fun
thing is, I don't really know much about Take That,
but Take That has a huge part of our career
because if it wasn't for those guys, we would have
never gotten signed to BMG, which is fascinating. Yeah, he
doesn't even know that. And I forgot to tell Gary
(03:41):
Barlow that too when he was on the show, Like.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
How did you remember that?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I don't know, I just forgot.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I don't know, but I know more Robbie after take
that because they were only together five years, you know,
ninety five when we got together is when they disbanded.
And then it was, you know, Robbie Williams the Solar Artist,
which went off to do made jah so many things, mate.
I was looking at all the stats. I'm like, damn,
we have royalty coming in.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
He's he's incredible.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I really don't know much about that, so you're gonna
have to fake well. They were to take off, I
mean so big in America. I had a couple of songs, right,
and it was like blowing up and then they broke up.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But over in Europe and the rest of the world
they were the Beatles.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
But then Robbie came in. I remember late nineties. I
was in that phase of like wanting to be British.
I think actually I just started watching BBC America and
I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. And
they kept showing videos and things and I'm like, who's
this guy, angels Man Angels Millennium, Millennium like so many.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Was someone was taking his face off. That was Millennium.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so good.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I mean he yeah, he led the way in the nineties,
and in fact he was he was awarded the best
artist of the decade of the nineties, the whole decade.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
That's wild because there were some really good I the
whole nineties.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
The whole nineties, well in Europe.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, so all right, we're gonna take a little break
right here as a Jay Dizzel here changes his pants
because he's getting real excited right now that Robbie just
got into the building. So when we come back, we're
gonna have the one and only Robbie Williams.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
He said, I love you and then picked someone else.
They haven't spoken in seven years. For the first time
since their television breakup, they are reunited. Bachelor Ben Higgins,
Bachelorette Joe, Joe Fletcher, and Jordan Rogers together for the
(05:52):
first time and you get to.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Hear it all.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
Join Ashley I and Ben Higgins, along with Jojo Fletcher
and Jordan Rodgers on the Almost Famous podcast available now
wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Please welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Robert Peter Williams, English singer songwriter found his fame as
a member of the group Take That from ninety to
ninety five, achieved commercial success after launching a huge solo
career in ninety six. Discography includes seven UK number one
singles and all but one of his fourteen studio albums
have reached number one in the UK. Six of his
albums among the top one hundred biggest selling albums in
(06:38):
the UK, with two of them in the top sixty.
Gained a Guinness World Record in two thousand and six
for selling one point six million tickets in a single
day during his Close Encounters tour. Williams has received a
record eighteen brit Awards, winning Best British Male Artists four times,
Outstanding Contribution to Music twice, an Icon Award for his
Lasting impact on British Alter, eight German Echo Awards, three
(07:02):
MTV European Music Awards, and in two thousand and four
was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after
being voted get this the greatest artist of the freaking nineties. Yeah,
that's a whole decade Robbie Williams, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Wow, was that all right?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Because if it is, that's insane?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
It is it is all right, and it is insane.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Is it overwhelming to just to hear that?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Now? Yeah, because I'm just you know, when people introduce
you and they they say your stats or they say
what you did, how it was, how big, blah blah blah,
what does it feel like to you in that moment
while that's happening.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It's a little embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I get like I kind of like, go uh okay,
but I don't really think about it too much. Like
I always pretend that I just it never really I
don't know. I just pretend no one really knows who
I am at all times.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Okay, now, just go with it. So that's that's what
it because I'm glad you said that. So, like, I
wonder what it's like, as a British person with British
sensibilities to be receiving such praise and incredible things that
have happened throughout my career that it's bizarre and you know,
overly fortunate, but it's a weird dichotomy that you feel
(08:20):
while those things are happening. Mainly like, yeah, I didn't
deserve any.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Of it, right, That's that's the biggest thing. And I
hear that from a lot of our guests too, Is
you feel like I don't deserve this?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, like why do I Why do I get this?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Yeah, it's it's it's it's it's all kinds of odd.
It's all kinds of odd. I it's it's beautiful that
it's happened to me, and I'm incredibly grateful. But also
at the same time, I suppose same with your relationship
to your career. It's it exists in gray areas. It's
(08:55):
not it's not what you think. It's not like, yes,
I'm incredible. I deserve all of this and I walk
around on a pink cloud all day because of everything
I've achieved. Life isn't like that. Yeah, you know, we
exist in gray areas.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
It's like you're told, oh, be confident, but also be humble.
It's like, well, where does it all? I mean, yeah, yeah,
you present yourself. I know, but I think you've been
doing a great job.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Let's start.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Hold on, hold on your voice, by the way, for
this sort of stuff is un freaking believable.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, I have a voice for radio right here? Yeah, yeah,
what what do you? What is your do?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Nothing?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Please?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Singer too.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So I've known Jay Dizzle here for whoa I mean
twenty five years Yeah, from Orlando. Uh was in a
group also under our arm management label.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So we kind of met through all of.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
That, right, it was like a baby pop star to
be that never actually.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Became Well, there was a lot of drama behind it.
There was, but you know, there're.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Only that so you were like in a I know,
I've seen the drama. I've seen the documentary, which is fascinating,
and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that all of that happened.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It taught me a lot.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Everybody's everybody's story from a gol band or a boy
band is roughly the same.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
It is.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
It's roughly the same. So how old were you when
you were a baby pop star?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Any one?
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Twenty one? I was fifteen, Yeah, I was fifteen, just
audition for take that, auditioned and then yeah, we started
when I was sixteen. So the thing is with that factory,
it's kind of like K poppy before the K pop
stuff happened.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, And I wonder because I think of the K
pop artist. Now, I'm like, God, I bet you they're
going through even worse problems than we ever did.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Absolutely unchecked one, unchecked militant military stuff that is going on,
high grade. And when the stories come out, and they will,
they will come out eventually. Can't do that to people forever.
They will come out. It's going to be massive.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Well, I'm hoping that they make some kind of money
out of it, at least. I mean, we didn't hardly
make anything. I don't know what your deal was.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I'll tell you, yeah, I tell you a bit. But
like with the with the K pop stuff and how
they perform, I watch it and I'm a little bit
in awe because it's unbelieveable. Believe it's there is no
there's no imperfection, you know. And with our bands and us,
(11:34):
there were imperfections because we were the the boys literally
the boys next door. But like with the K pop stuff,
it seems like they're the boys next door to God.
They're just immaculate of thought and body and mind and soul.
Of course we're not, because we're humans, but it is.
(11:55):
It is fascinating to watch it, you know, because like
I wouldn't have gotten in one of them bands. I
wouldn't have been that kind of talented, would you do
you do you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I know exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yes, there's no way I could have even even gotten
into that school.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
No, because that's that's that they've distilled it. And it's
like they're they're representing at the Olympics. It seems that
they're all Olympians.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, that's what.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
What was it?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
What was the Olympics in maybe Singapore?
Speaker 4 (12:26):
So it was a saul one of the.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Recent ones were the opening ceremonies was.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Oh no, it was China, China, China.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yah. Was ridiculous because that's what it was.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
It was the one where they had an unlimited budget.
So they had an unlimited budget and you know, I'm
guessing people were told, no, you will be you know,
you will be rehearsing twenty four hours a day and
you will be receiving no money. But then what what
what happened? Because like it was mind it was unnerving,
it was unnerving, and it was a sign all sent
(13:00):
to the rest of the world this is what exactly.
But then what happened was Britain had the Olympics the
next year and our budget was like twenty two million,
which is a fortune of money, but when you compare
it to zero, you know, like the budget of China,
which is like, let's spend a billion on it, you know.
So I was like, And then what happened was the
(13:25):
people that Kim Gavin that does that works on the
creative we take that for theirs. And our live tour
was put in charge of the Olympics and I was like,
good luck, mate, but they pulled it off and it
was great.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
It was I mean, London I think was one of
the most memorable openings for me, just because I mean
that everyone going in those cars around in a circle,
you know, Spice calls everyone.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
That was just a moment. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And you didn't even need to spend a budget on that,
just have people want to see. Yeah, yeah, all right,
let's take it back, all right, Rabbie, tell us where
you're from and what was it like growing up in
the town that you're from.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
So I'm from a place called Stoke on Trent, which is,
you know, it's the equivalent of a flyover state.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And you know who Trent is.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Trent, Stoke on Trent, Trent is it would be an
interesting video. But Trent is a river. Oh okay, okay,
so the river Trent. So we were stoke on Trent.
We're an industrial town that nobody really knows anything about.
We exist in between two TV regions and we live
right in the middle. So we're never represented on the
(14:39):
television because neither of them wan ers or neither. The
only time you know about where I'm from if there's
been an action, if there's been an accident on Junction
fifteen to sixteen on the motorway just next to us.
So you know, I come from a place that feels
as it doesn't exist. I live in a body it
(15:00):
feels as though I don't exist, and I wanted to
be known. And the only thing that I had really
was a little bit hutzpah. That was the That was
my talent. That was as far as it goes, is
like hutspur cheek a wink, and I don't know, you know,
(15:21):
some courage, I suppose, but it's where I'm from is
kind of.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Hood esque.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I wouldn't say it's the hood, but it's hood esque.
And not many people like me with jazz hands existed there,
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Well, I mean from, because I'm from kind of a
town like that too, where you know, you didn't really
want to let people know that you love music because
you know they would think, oh, you're gay.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I mean that was just like the worst thing you
could be called.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Back there was like, oh how did when did you know?
At what age did you know that you were musically talented?
And you wanted to go that route?
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Forty five?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah in two years?
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, bless you. No. So well, my father
was and he's retired now, but it was a comedian,
oh yeah. And he he won is round on the
equivalent of something like Star Search out Here and Britain's
Got Talent or wherever it was, and it was called
(16:29):
opportunity not And unfortunately he didn't have the drive that
I've got, and he was very happy resting on his
laurels and not having any money and and you know,
not having the huge success that I've enjoyed, much much
happier than I will ever be, and has been happier
(16:50):
his entire life than I will ever be. But he
was my mirror. He was my These people exist because
I'm actually genetic the same as one of these people
that goes and does this thing in front of other people.
So there wasn't a moment in my life that I
(17:10):
didn't think that's what I'm going to do. I think
that if my dad had been a policeman, I'd have
been a policeman.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Did your mom do any music or she?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
No?
Speaker 4 (17:20):
But she was she was the drive. Yeah, she was
the drive.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
She was.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, my father was the charisma and my mother has
the unbelievable ambition and drive and yeah, I'm a I'm
a mixture of both of them.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
When you started, and I don't know it was take
that the first big entertainment thing you did, or did
you do anything before that? Because I'm wondering, like, how
do your dad dealt with that? Knowing that he wanted
to be you know, the famous one on the stage.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Dude, there's been none of that. There's been zero any
of that stuff from my dad, sort of like you know,
could have should have been. You know, my father lives
in a world where he is Frank Sinatra anyway, so
why try harder? You know, that's is his lot in life.
You know, he's had, he's had, He's experienced an abundance
(18:14):
of things through life without having to experience the abundance
of things that I've experienced in life, if you if
you get what I mean. So I did theater when
I was a kid. Did you do theater?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I did?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, did you do theater? No, but you're kind of
from the same.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Very religious choirs and singing, and so I never did
until I moved to a town where it was acceptable.
I was lucky enough to move to this little town
called Clinton, and we just happened to have this incredible
show choir. Was the number one show choir in the world. So,
you know, even if you played sports, you were still
in adache. So if you're the star football quarterback, you
(18:53):
were still doing music.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Really yeah, so it was a cool.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Thing to do, and you didn't, you know. It was
just I was so happy to be able to do
what I truly loved and not feel like I was.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Getting beat up for it.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Seem very American, No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's very rare, very rare.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
It was just I was very like, especially in Mississippi
where I'm from, I was going to say it very rare.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, But because.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Of that, I mean it really it changed my life.
It was I was able to do what I really
at first I don't even know. I truly loved it
until I started doing it.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Is all of these slide intoor moments that make up
where and who we are.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
It's so true.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
And without that thing in your life, who or what
would you have become? Without the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
And I say that about well you guys, I don't
even know if you know this, but if it wasn't
for Take That and SYNC would not exist, Yeah, because
you were with BMG Aiola, right, So we couldn't get signed.
We got together in October ninety five and y'all were
just disbanding and we tried getting signed in America for
a year.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
No one wanted us.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
And then BMG Aiola called and said, hey, you know
we've lost Take That. They're like, we need to fill
these shoes just to give them something else. And that's
why we got signed to Germany because.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Well, you know, I'm wearing my New Kids on the Block.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Are your blackhead like myself?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Absolutely? Yeah? I love New Kids on the Block. And
you know I modeled myself on Donnie Wahlberg. Who did
you model yourself?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, I didn't really model my celf on anyone, but
my I mean Donnie and Danny were kind of like
my dudes in there. I mean I was really young
because my sister was the big fan, so I thought
I was cool because I liked whatever my sister liked.
But yeah, Donnie and Danny were always like my go
to like favorites.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Well they we only exist because they existed.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah. Well he was the bad boy and.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
You yeah bad boy, yeah yeah, and yeah I had
to keep my New Kids on the Block fandom a
secret at school.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So I remember they came over to the UK and
they did hanging tough on the TV and I was
just like, I want to do that that I'm in
you know. And then I remember going into school on
Monday and was just like, did you see the new
Kids on the Block, And like one of my friends
going it's for girls. I was like, yeah, I never
(21:15):
mentioned it ever again. But what happened was we had
a manager that was looking to rival the new Kids
on the Block, so we put us together and then
we went out to get signed by record companies and
nobody was interested. So what we did was we had
(21:35):
these cards with our pictures on the front and a
po box peo box in England is okay, yeah, yeah,
peo box to find out information about us, and we
send them a sheet and we do all of these gigs,
working all the hours that God sends gig in the morning,
gig in the afternoon, gig in the evening, gay club,
(21:57):
over eighteens, under eighteens, two schools.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Blah blah blah of to day after day of.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
To day, throwing these these cards out with the peer
box on the back. What the record company signed was
the database, not the band, because grunge was happening, and
there was you know, it's like boy bands and pop
was dead. So eventually I think we've got twenty five
(22:22):
thousand addresses, and they signed the they signed the database.
And what's interesting now is that the you know, data
is king.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Again every social media everything.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Did you know that each individual person's data is worth
or data it's worth twenty five to thirty dollars each person.
So if you think that we had twenty five thousand
people's addresses, we had twenty five quid thirty quids worth
each on those things. So that's why we got signed
(22:58):
another sliding door, another slide the door. If you know,
if it wasn't for the new kids, we wouldn't have existed.
If it wasn't for take that, then maybe you know,
you would have found another avenue.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And especially the nineties early nineties, like you said, grunge,
all these different genres were just melting together. And I
mean hip hop was just really exploding at that time,
and yes, pop was kind of fizzling out. Did you
think that it could ever be as big as y'all
got when y'all first started the band after seeing that, okay, yeah,
(23:28):
pop's kind of going well.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
It existed in gray area once again. You know it
existed for me. I've been given Willie Wonker's golden ticket
and it simply must work. At the same time, mixed
in there with feelings of you know, I don't know,
it just simply had to and I you can never account,
(23:55):
you can never dream what is actually going to happen.
You can never think no until you're experiencing, and.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
It's never going to go the way that you actually
dream anyway.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
No, No, it was did we think. We thought lots
of different things, but it simply had to because there
was nothing. There was literally I left school when I
was just turned sixteen, no qualifications. I've since found out
that I'm dyspraxic dyslexic dyscalculates. You know, I passed no
(24:32):
exams that.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You had to be an artist.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Oh, I had to exist on hutzpur.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Fortunately my hutzpur found a home.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yes it did. I mean I feel the same way.
I started sixteen and there was nothing else I could do.
I mean, this was this was my life, and I
couldn't imagine. I cannot imagine what else I would be
wanting to do besides music and entertainment. It would suck
when y'all started. Because I'm always wondering where this term
boy band came from. We can't figure it out. I
(25:05):
don't know if it's a German term or a British term,
but one of those countries did it. When you first
started out and new kids on the block, were they
called boy bands then? Because in America there was just
pop group. There was no such word as boy band
until no, they actually boys came through.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Yeah, well, there wasn't an abundance of boy bands girl
bands before take that. There was a boy band which
was new kids on the block, and then there was
Balbiv Devot, which I'm massive fan of. To love bal
Biv Devot, but I can't, off the top of my
head think of anybody else that existed, and New Kids
(25:44):
on the Block and Balbiv Devot weren't called boy bands.
And then there was another bad creation, and then there
was Bobby Brown's.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
One Yeah, what new Edition, New Audition, new Addition.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
But I don't believe that they were called that. I
don't believe they were called boy bands.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I may, and they weren't even really called boy bands
until recent time. Now that the word kind of encompasses
so many different groups and everyone's kind of because I
think every group started like, don't call my boy band
leaving us. We're like, oh, that term just seems so negative,
especially when you spent so much time over in Germany
and there's five hundred of these manufactured bands that lip
sync and you're like, but we really sing and we
(26:24):
really like to write stuff, and you just felt they
were just degrading you by using that word.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
I don't know. I think that when you're in a
when there is, when you're in a pop group like
we are and we were, there's a lot to sort
of feel bad about because you're just on that level
because all of your peers are into something else. Yeah,
(26:50):
and you are your peers, you know. So I'm I
was into Onyx and Have Some Pain and Public Enemy,
and I didn't look like any of that. Those people
we weren't singing those songs.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
As I mean, I was like silver Chair was my favorite.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
There you go. So there is a there is a
there is a shame attached to being in a boy
band where it's sort of like enforced from naive and young,
where we where our references, our influences on our sleeve.
(27:26):
And if you're not part of this tribe, then you know,
there was there was an embarrassment about being in a
boy band because the big boys didn't like it.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Well, I mean you well, I think your mom's the
one who heard about the audition first for Take That,
and she's the one who said, go do this. What
did you think when your mom was telling you about
this band? Were you immediately like, yes, this is exactly
what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Yeah, I've done a few auditions for TV stuff without
any success. I heard your East I was only Stenders,
but I was only Stenders after I left Take That.
Oh yeah my Wilderness years yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, And
so I had a few auditions unsuccessful. I was doing
(28:14):
amateur stuff in Stoke and I was enjoying that, and
then this audition came up, and of course it sounded
like the dream and it sounded thrilling, and you know
that there may be a chance that there might be
a spot for me and it who knows, I don't know,
(28:36):
but yeah, it was. It was thrilling. Was it the
same for you? It was?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I mean it was weird because it won an audition
process for in Sync. Chris koh Patrick and our group
wanted to put a group together, and so he just
kind of called all of us and said, hey, you
want to you want to sing together like an a
cappella group. And I'm like, sure, I'll come down to
Orlando and give up my life and.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Quit school to do this. But it just felt right.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
It just I don't know, I just felt the first
time we sang together, it was just magic. I'm like, Okay,
there's there's something here.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
And of course were the songs any good at that point.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
No, because we didn't have money to even have a song,
so we were just sang a cappella stuff and if you.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Or any so yeah, yeah, yeah, as yet.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
But you know, we did do a demo and I
remember one of our songs was one of your songs,
Gosh I forget because Lou Pelman pretended he wrote it
and he changed the lyrics to uh, I want you
back for more Wow, And it was on a B
side of our demo, and I remember playing it for
someone They're like, well, that's a take that song, Like, no,
it's not. It's an original song. Luke Proman wrote it.
(29:44):
They're like, now, and then they play your song wow,
Well like what a liar? So yeah, so we we
totally ripped off one of y'all songs and that was
a B side of Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
Well I don't know the publishing, so that so fine. Yeah,
how how interesting to be put in with a fantasist.
It's such a vulnerable age where you know, you're you're
looking to the elders for guidance and mentorship and full
and trust.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
So many people at that age.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yeah, fantasists can often be very charismatic and charming and lovable,
you know, and yeah, I'm really sorry that happened to you.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, you know, look, a lot of negativity happened, but
also a lot of positive things.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Came out of that.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, you know, I wouldn't be sitting here today if
I didn't have to go through all that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
And I'm glad I went through it young.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
You know, we kind of learned our lessons very young,
and I was able to kind of, you know, learn
this and and go forward in life with one eye open.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I do you.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Do you or do any of the other boys harbor
resentments for what happened?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (30:54):
No?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I mean I used to. For sure.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
It took me a lot of therapy to find forgiveness
and a lot of areas. But now I just look
back just happy about everything that has.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I remember watching the documentary and seeing you talk about
it and just thinking he's so pleasant about it.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Well, that documentary is what kind of changed it for me. Okay,
it was cathartic to do that.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
I was. I was looking at you and thinking, yeah,
you looked so at ease. You look and you looked painfree,
and I think that, my my, what what happened to
me and how I was treated? There's still I mean,
(31:39):
like I harbor, I harbor resentments, you know, like I'm
taking care of a frank.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah. Still, you know you hold this inside.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Well, less than it was. But I'm not. I'm not
at a place that you seem to.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Be, you know, Like I said, lots of therapy and
and I think doing that dark just really.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Let me use those tools that I learned.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
And yeah, I just I just forgiveness is a big tool.
It's amazing when you can truly get to that that level.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Yeah, forgive. Forgiveness is the key, you know, And I'm not.
I'm not very good at it. Yeah, and it makes
me sad, you know, And I just I relate it
to so many things in my life, not just that period.
Those people be it the everything. It's like I I
walk around and people have nine acres in my mind
(32:31):
and I'm better at it than I was, but I
should be a bit further down the line than I
than I actually am.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Do you think that stems from like family experiences or
just being in this crazy business at a young age.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
I think family experiences being in this crazy business also
using it as fuel, because you know, anger and resentment
is addictive, and you know, and self righteous indignation can
fuel can hit some spots up in your brain somewhere.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
But feel a lot of great art too, but feels.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
A lot of great art. You know, I guess that
some of me, a lot of me, must enjoy being
angry in some part. But I also know how it
feels too unload resentments, and I know that what a
gift that is. I just wish that I could give
myself that gift more often. And congratulations to you being
(33:33):
able to unburden yourself with the wreckage of the past
created by fantasists and monsters.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, no, I mean it's it's I feel definitely lighter
for sure, because I didn't realize how heavy.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
It was waiting on me for the last two decades.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, and then yeah, finally I was like, no, I've
been holding onto this way too long our times, just like,
move on.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Do you know what we should do with me? And
you do a documentary where we go and explore all
the boy bands, all the girl bands and get their stock,
because like, you know, it's for me. It's fascinating that
all of our stories are basically the same.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
That's what we realize on the show.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I've been doing this as January, and almost every interview
I'm like, yeah, that's that's exactly what we went through.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
And what it was as opposed to what people think
it is is fascinating, and like, I want to see
that documentary. So if I'm not in it or we're not,
we'll carry on. How we make it.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
We just put in the universe it happens.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
This is also oh my god, oh god, what can
you imagine if we're sort of like we we go
and sort of just like as boy band and you know,
father figures representatives go and expose the whole thing that's
happening over there with that lot.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
That would be well, that would be like a season two.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
We'll probably be shot. But season two you're thinking of
a streamer, you think so professionally, I'm just like documentary
a movie.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
No, it's all about the docuseries these days. You know,
you got to give them stretching flowers exactly.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Michael, Michael, something is full many.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
But imagine taking all these iconic band members right and
going back and having these therapy sessions with them and
confronting the people like the Loo Promans of the world
and sitting in front of them and like you know
what I forgive you, and getting them back on the
same page and getting people to apology.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Yeah, he died, what's making AI version?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah? Lou I'm sorry or whatever I did.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Have you got anything to apologize to Lou for?
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I mean, I don't think so. Maybe I don't as
your friend, I'm gonna say. I mean, I don't know.
Maybe I did do something. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
I don't know why he would do that to us,
But no, I'm I mean something in that though. Yeah,
I'm excited. Okay, Okay, we're talking after this, all right. See,
Donna Wahlberg was on and I guess.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
I'm oh, you weren't on the show.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I'm hosting one of his spinoff shows apparently because of
our interview, and now we're going to be doing documentary together.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
See that's how we get things done.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Guys, when you got in the band, what was the
dynamic like with the group, because especially when you know
(36:38):
you auditioned for a group, you're kind of forced to
be friends, and sometimes people personalities don't get you know,
you're I don't understand how a lot of these groups
serve like last that long when you just don't even
know if you like each other. And you guys were
only together five years, so I'm sure that the personalities
were clashed. I know you and Gary definitely clashed towards
(36:59):
the end there because we had Gary on. We talked
about the whole thing. You're good now, apparently we're good.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
So what was it like those like first couple of
years getting along with the guys. Did you know immediately like, oh,
I don't know if this is gonna last too long?
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Well, I was. I was very naive to what the
adult world was because you were the young young Yeah. Yeah,
And I was at school and I wasn't unpopular, you know,
we don't. We don't have the thing in the UK
really like the the nerds and the jocks and the
(37:33):
unpopular and the popular clicks. Yeah, there's a bullying that
happens at school, but none of it was like that
where the school that I.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Was in, Were you the class clown? Were you like
the do you know?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
We were all the class clos all of us were,
but like, yeah, I was one of the class clowns.
So but I got on with everybody, you know, everybody.
So I just assumed that when you start in a
boy band, it's going to be another gang where you
get on with everybody. This is going to be so
much fun. The fraternity, yes, yes, And what actually happened
(38:07):
was my role in the band instantly became runt. You
know because at those years sixteen seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty,
the other boys were I was sixteen, they were.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Twenty sixteen eighteen is huge, huge.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
Huge, and you're, you know, you're all young books, buying
for position in life, in show business, amongst each other,
with your with your own family, with your own circle
of friends, and you're just trying to figure out who
you are. My role became He's lazy, he's annoying, and
(38:43):
I just got the feeling that I was unliked and.
Speaker 7 (38:49):
The annoying little brother, the annoying little brother, so much
so that I used to we used to rehearse, and
then I used to go home and then I used
to cry to my mom, and then it was like
I went to see my and I was like, I
can't do this.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
They hate me. And you know, on management at the
time were difficult and to this day very litigious, So
they're just difficult, and you know, I was, I was
in pain from a very early part of the band,
(39:23):
very early stage. And I went to see my dad
and I was like, my dad worked on holiday camps,
which you don't have here in America. But he was
a compare loads of trailers basically where people would rent
them for the week and then there'd be an entertainment.
And I was like, Dad, I'm leaving the band, and
you're going to get me a job on the holiday camps.
(39:45):
And he was like, well, you're not working where I'm working,
and you'll make seventy five quit a week. You have
to do your own dishes, you have to do your
own food, you have to do your own clothes. And
I was like, and he said, do you know, He said,
you'll shoot yourself when they're number one, And I was like,
I think I'll stick this out. Yeah, and I'm glad
(40:10):
I did. But our relationship at the beginning formed, I
suppose the next thirty thirty two years. And it's the
It's the weirdest thing, you know, because I rejoined in
two thy and eleven or whatever it was, and you
just fall back in, You fall back into your roles
(40:32):
and who you were, like not a second has passed.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
It's crazy how you are kind of putting a box
of who you are when you're in a band like that.
And I think the fans do it to the media
does it to you. But I was kind of the
same boat with you, where I wasn't the youngest in
the group, but they treated me like the youngest in
the group because I was not experienced at all, like
I I mean, I came from like a small town,
(40:56):
not in the business, and they would alway make fun
of me because of my accent. So they're always picking
on me, just always poking and picking on me, which
made me very introverted and like shy. And I became
the shy guy because I was always just picked on.
And I'm like, I don't know if these guys like me,
like I feel like they don't like me, so I
understand that, Like I get.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
That, well, I didn't. I didn't introvert.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
I pushed back, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
You know, I I'm I'm from you know, Stabbington. You
have to knife your way out to get out of
where I'm from, you know. And my reaction was to
be more annoying, to be more lazy, to be more you.
I will be up the latest, I will be up
the longest. You won't be able to find me.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
See, we were suppressure feelings. Suppressure feelings, you know, don't
talk about anything just keep it all in zat. Oh.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
Yeah, there was no talking about anything. But like I
wasn't I wasn't therapizing what was going on for me.
I was just going right, I'm going to take threes
and do tons of coke and drink lots of and
you can't control me.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
And you started? When did you start your abuse with alcohol?
And was that immediately? Like at sixteen?
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Dude? You know, like in the UK, the school gates
closed and the pub doors open. You know, you are
drinking at fourteen, you know, the minute that you develop
bumfluff on your face and you can you have a
tall friend, you're in a pub, you're in an off
license and you're boozing. So we are we are a
(42:36):
you know, a nation of alcoholics or function functioning alcoholics.
You know the the It's so normal alcohol in the UK,
It's like breathing. So when do you say, when did
it start? It's just been It was ever present. It's
just part of it for everybody.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah, because my hometown also was just alcohol and at
fourteen when you start really kind of drinking and it's
the only thing to do on the weekends. But I
never really saw drugs until like probably after in sync,
like even on the road, did not, was never privy
to any of that. Never saw cocaine never. I mean
marijuana every once in a while, but I just I
(43:16):
never smoked it. But yeah, I just never it was
never around really yeah, even in our town. It's just
maybe it's just because we were such a poor town
that drugs didn't even get there, so you just relied
on alcohol. But like I just never saw it. So yeah,
we just were basically alcoholics.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
Wow. Yeah, we we were surrounded. There was like the
outside of my door there was the guy selling marijuana
weed draw we used to call it just over there.
And then you could get acid from the guy just
down there, and then speed from the guy just you know,
(43:52):
it was like speed acid just within touching distance.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
What was your you you were cocaine?
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Right?
Speaker 4 (43:59):
No, My big one, like my first soire into nightclubs
and drugs was acid and speed. And then because the
Summer of Love musically for house music happened in nineteen
eighty nine and that was my last year at school,
(44:23):
and then ecstasy just came in and it was just
just phenomenal, like taking the first one and just going
I think I want to feel like this forever. Yeah,
and so it was. Yeah, ecstasy was massive, and then
you know, I suppose that you want to keep the
(44:44):
party going and then out of nowhere when you're eighteen,
somebody's got some coke and oh, you come down off
this and then carry on doing this, and then coke
too cold, and coke was the very quick journey, one
way ticket into Hell's heaven.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah, and you've been sober twenty years now, right.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
I haven't had a drink for twenty three years. I
you know, I've tried loopholes all the way through that.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
No.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Alcohol's been the constant, even though I'm an alcoholic and
I loved alcohol what it did to me when in
the good times. But I am an addict in its
truest sense, and I seek no. When I was drinking,
it was like, I'm not drinking anymore. I'm just having
white wine spritzer. That was my loophole there. I was drinking,
(45:39):
but I was thinking that I wasn't drinking and fly
on your face.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
And then I was California and sober for quite a while.
And for those that don't know at home, is California
Sober is everything apart from weed. Yes, and you know
that the weed might as well be acid out here.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
It's gotten so strong.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
Oh dude, it's crackville, you know. So you know, and
I was doing that for a long time, and then
you know, you sort of you get expressive with pill
cabinets and whatever it's knocking about. Eventually I will take
but I've cut down all the loopholes. Four kids. I've
(46:22):
got four kids, and the loopholes have all closed now
because I'm not saying that I'm above relapsing even with
the four kids. My addiction doesn't know I've got four kids.
It just wants what it wants. But I'm on the
straightest and narrowest path that I've ever been on, and
(46:45):
life is good.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Kids can give you a good motivation to do that.
Is there a good tip out there for our listeners
that are addicts. I mean, you haven't had a drink
in twenty three years? What is your tip on being
able to do that? Is it the people you surround
yourself with?
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Is it? It's all the above, you know, it's the
seeking help and wanted to be better, wanted to be
a better person. I wanted to be a better person,
you know, I.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Do you have to hit right bottom in order to
dude feel that.
Speaker 4 (47:15):
I hit rock bottom and then got a spade out
and tried to dig a basement and then like put levels,
I dug a multi story car park underneath the basement.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
You by yourself, by myself?
Speaker 4 (47:28):
What? No? No, because like you know, you say rock
bottom because you know, twenty three years ago my last
drink wasn't a rock bottom. You know. It was embarrassing
and it was shameful. And what happened was I was
on my way somewhere and in my mind I went,
(47:53):
I've got enough money to drink myself to death. And
that was like a moment of yeah, just I'll just
become a lush and I'll drink myself to death. And
that was simply, you know, it felt as sane as
saying the Krispy Queen lights on, let's go get some
hot donuts, you know. And and the next day I
(48:16):
woke up after ease coke booze, and when, oh, that's
not sane. That what I thought last night is not saying.
When I took my feet to an AA meeting, did
ninety meetings in ninety days, and I've been I've been sober.
I've been sober ever since. What what tip would I
give to anybody? Oh? Man, bless you anybody that's going
(48:42):
through that out there. It's it's so unbelievably hallish and painful,
and you know, the isolation is desolate and despair cannot
be any more greater or any more found. And you
feel as though you have always lived this way and
(49:04):
you will live this way for the rest of your life.
And what's the point I can tell you on behalf
of all the other people that have put things down
a day at a time that your brain and your
mind is not telling you the truth. There is a
different life out of there, and all you have to
do is take action. Google is your friend. Yeah, I
think I'm drinking too much? What do I do? And
(49:25):
then read? And then do you know?
Speaker 2 (49:28):
You know that you know you're not You're not alone
in it.
Speaker 4 (49:31):
No, you're not alone in it. You don't have to
be alone in it. And it's you know, it's jack
Can I swear on this or yes you can. Yeah,
it's giant fockery. It's fockery of the the highest chiss
housery that you will ever go through, unfortunately, and it's
a it's a day to day thing, you know. But
(49:52):
here's the great thing about being This makes you an
X man. It makes you You've got you've got some
superpowers that you I don't know about, you know. And
if you plug into the other plug, your life will
give you abundance. And if you figure out who and
(50:13):
what you are, what your dealer is, and what you're
capable of, you can't be stopped.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, all right, stay tuned, guys, because we're gonna have
the second part of this interview come out tomorrow. I know,
I know, but good things come to those who wait,
So we'll continue then.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
So remember stay frosted.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Hey, thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at Frosted
Tips with Lance and Michael Turchinard and at lance Best
for all your pop culture needs
Speaker 3 (50:42):
And make sure to write a review and leave us
five stars six if you can see you next time.
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass, an iHeartRadio podcast. Hello,
my Little Peanuts, it's me your host, Lance Bass. This
is Frosted Tips Me and you have a very special
co host today. All Right, if you listen to my
old show, you're gonna know this one from New York.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Jay Dizzle's with us today.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Jad Myers? For everyone else it doesn't know?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Put in the special and special guests.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, I'm excited to have you on.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Unfortunately Michael is in Florida this week we will be
missing him, but super excited to have you back on
the show because you know your fan favorite.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
You know what it's been, it's been, it's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well and especially on this show because you have such
great boy band ties. So I think you're perfect for
this interview with Robbie Williams today.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah. I've been flirting with this whole like not quite
in a boy band, but like adjacent.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's like, uh, not yet a woman, not yet a
pop star.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You might recognize JD from making the band on ABC.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Yes they shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Are you still salty that you do? Didn't make the
final five?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
No, no, you know what you get. You've got your
timeline confined, idea, give it to I did not come
into the Otown universe until season three of making the
band when switch MTV like the audition process, No no,
I came in late. They were looking, they were looking
for some storylines and they had just moved to MTV
(01:37):
and had a bunch of episodes to pill. Reality TV
had just like taken off. So I can imagine the
producers were like, let's do a talent search in Orlando
and let's help Otown find somebody they're going to get
help them, just like somebody helped them.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
All right, So you get on this show, but also
you sign with Johnny Wright, our manager, start a band
out of blue?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Which is you? And who was it?
Speaker 3 (02:03):
His name is Ricky Yeah, no, no, Ricky Dejeon, Ricky
Jean Yeah, like the mustard Yeah, sweet especial Ricky. These days,
I have no idea, you know what I've always wondered. No,
not at all. It was a little bit of a
you know, not so great breakup.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh what happened to give us.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
The scoo Oh, there's there's some it's you know, I
you know, I have a hard time keeping concise. I
was a replacement. It was originally a duo and it
was Ricky and this other guy. The other guy got
(02:42):
how do I say this, put in jail for statutory rate.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, yeah, all right.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I think he was like twenty three, twenty four, hooked
up with a younger than sixteen year old. All right,
got put in jail. And that was so I was
I was brought in to replace him. Did all that
for you and a half?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
How many songs did Joe end up recording without him?
Would you consider that a boy band or two guys
a boy band?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I mean I think so.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
We were rehearsing at one point to open for you
guys in Europe.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh really, I'm sorry we were never asked about that.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I know. No, you could talk to me Lindo about it.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
We would have accepted. Yeah, well, I'm glad you're on
the show today. Robbie's coming in now. I know you're
a big fan, big thing we all are. The fun
thing is, I don't really know much about Take That,
but Take That has a huge part of our career
because if it wasn't for those guys, we would have
never gotten signed to BMG, which is fascinating. Yeah, he
doesn't even know that. And I forgot to tell Gary
(03:41):
Barlow that too when he was on the show, Like.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
How did you remember that?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I don't know, I just forgot.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I don't know, but I know more Robbie after take
that because they were only together five years, you know,
ninety five when we got together is when they disbanded.
And then it was, you know, Robbie Williams the Solar Artist,
which went off to do made jah so many things, mate.
I was looking at all the stats. I'm like, damn,
we have royalty coming in.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
He's he's incredible.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I really don't know much about that, so you're gonna
have to fake well. They were to take off, I
mean so big in America. I had a couple of songs, right,
and it was like blowing up and then they broke up.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
But over in Europe and the rest of the world
they were the Beatles.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
But then Robbie came in. I remember late nineties. I
was in that phase of like wanting to be British.
I think actually I just started watching BBC America and
I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. And
they kept showing videos and things and I'm like, who's
this guy, angels Man Angels Millennium, Millennium like so many.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Was someone was taking his face off. That was Millennium.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so good.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I mean he yeah, he led the way in the nineties,
and in fact he was he was awarded the best
artist of the decade of the nineties, the whole decade.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
That's wild because there were some really good I the
whole nineties.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
The whole nineties, well in Europe.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah, so all right, we're gonna take a little break
right here as a Jay Dizzel here changes his pants
because he's getting real excited right now that Robbie just
got into the building. So when we come back, we're
gonna have the one and only Robbie Williams.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
He said, I love you and then picked someone else.
They haven't spoken in seven years. For the first time
since their television breakup, they are reunited. Bachelor Ben Higgins,
Bachelorette Joe, Joe Fletcher, and Jordan Rogers together for the
(05:52):
first time and you get to.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Hear it all.
Speaker 6 (05:58):
Join Ashley I and Ben Higgins, along with Jojo Fletcher
and Jordan Rodgers on the Almost Famous podcast available now
wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Please welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Robert Peter Williams, English singer songwriter found his fame as
a member of the group Take That from ninety to
ninety five, achieved commercial success after launching a huge solo
career in ninety six. Discography includes seven UK number one
singles and all but one of his fourteen studio albums
have reached number one in the UK. Six of his
albums among the top one hundred biggest selling albums in
(06:38):
the UK, with two of them in the top sixty.
Gained a Guinness World Record in two thousand and six
for selling one point six million tickets in a single
day during his Close Encounters tour. Williams has received a
record eighteen brit Awards, winning Best British Male Artists four times,
Outstanding Contribution to Music twice, an Icon Award for his
Lasting impact on British Alter, eight German Echo Awards, three
(07:02):
MTV European Music Awards, and in two thousand and four
was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after
being voted get this the greatest artist of the freaking nineties. Yeah,
that's a whole decade Robbie Williams, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Wow, was that all right?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Because if it is, that's insane?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
It is it is all right, and it is insane.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Is it overwhelming to just to hear that?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Now? Yeah, because I'm just you know, when people introduce
you and they they say your stats or they say
what you did, how it was, how big, blah blah blah,
what does it feel like to you in that moment
while that's happening.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It's a little embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I get like I kind of like, go uh okay,
but I don't really think about it too much. Like
I always pretend that I just it never really I
don't know. I just pretend no one really knows who
I am at all times.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Okay, now, just go with it. So that's that's what
it because I'm glad you said that. So, like, I
wonder what it's like, as a British person with British
sensibilities to be receiving such praise and incredible things that
have happened throughout my career that it's bizarre and you know,
overly fortunate, but it's a weird dichotomy that you feel
(08:20):
while those things are happening. Mainly like, yeah, I didn't
deserve any.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Of it, right, That's that's the biggest thing. And I
hear that from a lot of our guests too, Is
you feel like I don't deserve this?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, like why do I Why do I get this?
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Yeah, it's it's it's it's it's all kinds of odd.
It's all kinds of odd. I it's it's beautiful that
it's happened to me, and I'm incredibly grateful. But also
at the same time, I suppose same with your relationship
to your career. It's it exists in gray areas. It's
(08:55):
not it's not what you think. It's not like, yes,
I'm incredible. I deserve all of this and I walk
around on a pink cloud all day because of everything
I've achieved. Life isn't like that. Yeah, you know, we
exist in gray areas.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
It's like you're told, oh, be confident, but also be humble.
It's like, well, where does it all? I mean, yeah, yeah,
you present yourself. I know, but I think you've been
doing a great job.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Let's start.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Hold on, hold on your voice, by the way, for
this sort of stuff is un freaking believable.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, I have a voice for radio right here? Yeah, yeah,
what what do you? What is your do?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Nothing?
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Please?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Singer too.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So I've known Jay Dizzle here for whoa I mean
twenty five years Yeah, from Orlando. Uh was in a
group also under our arm management label.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So we kind of met through all of.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
That, right, it was like a baby pop star to
be that never actually.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Became Well, there was a lot of drama behind it.
There was, but you know, there're.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Only that so you were like in a I know,
I've seen the drama. I've seen the documentary, which is fascinating,
and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that all of that happened.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It taught me a lot.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Everybody's everybody's story from a gol band or a boy
band is roughly the same.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
It is.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
It's roughly the same. So how old were you when
you were a baby pop star?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Any one?
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Twenty one? I was fifteen, Yeah, I was fifteen, just
audition for take that, auditioned and then yeah, we started
when I was sixteen. So the thing is with that factory,
it's kind of like K poppy before the K pop
stuff happened.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, And I wonder because I think of the K
pop artist. Now, I'm like, God, I bet you they're
going through even worse problems than we ever did.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Absolutely unchecked one, unchecked militant military stuff that is going on,
high grade. And when the stories come out, and they will,
they will come out eventually. Can't do that to people forever.
They will come out. It's going to be massive.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Well, I'm hoping that they make some kind of money
out of it, at least. I mean, we didn't hardly
make anything. I don't know what your deal was.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I'll tell you, yeah, I tell you a bit. But
like with the with the K pop stuff and how
they perform, I watch it and I'm a little bit
in awe because it's unbelieveable. Believe it's there is no
there's no imperfection, you know. And with our bands and us,
(11:34):
there were imperfections because we were the the boys literally
the boys next door. But like with the K pop stuff,
it seems like they're the boys next door to God.
They're just immaculate of thought and body and mind and soul.
Of course we're not, because we're humans, but it is.
(11:55):
It is fascinating to watch it, you know, because like
I wouldn't have gotten in one of them bands. I
wouldn't have been that kind of talented, would you do
you do you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I know exactly what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yes, there's no way I could have even even gotten
into that school.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
No, because that's that's that they've distilled it. And it's
like they're they're representing at the Olympics. It seems that
they're all Olympians.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, that's what.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
What was it?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
What was the Olympics in maybe Singapore?
Speaker 4 (12:26):
So it was a saul one of the.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Recent ones were the opening ceremonies was.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Oh no, it was China, China, China.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yah. Was ridiculous because that's what it was.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
It was the one where they had an unlimited budget.
So they had an unlimited budget and you know, I'm
guessing people were told, no, you will be you know,
you will be rehearsing twenty four hours a day and
you will be receiving no money. But then what what
what happened? Because like it was mind it was unnerving,
it was unnerving, and it was a sign all sent
(13:00):
to the rest of the world this is what exactly.
But then what happened was Britain had the Olympics the
next year and our budget was like twenty two million,
which is a fortune of money, but when you compare
it to zero, you know, like the budget of China,
which is like, let's spend a billion on it, you know.
So I was like, And then what happened was the
(13:25):
people that Kim Gavin that does that works on the
creative we take that for theirs. And our live tour
was put in charge of the Olympics and I was like,
good luck, mate, but they pulled it off and it
was great.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
It was I mean, London I think was one of
the most memorable openings for me, just because I mean
that everyone going in those cars around in a circle,
you know, Spice calls everyone.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
That was just a moment. I loved it.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
And you didn't even need to spend a budget on that,
just have people want to see. Yeah, yeah, all right,
let's take it back, all right, Rabbie, tell us where
you're from and what was it like growing up in
the town that you're from.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
So I'm from a place called Stoke on Trent, which is,
you know, it's the equivalent of a flyover state.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And you know who Trent is.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Trent, Stoke on Trent, Trent is it would be an
interesting video. But Trent is a river. Oh okay, okay,
so the river Trent. So we were stoke on Trent.
We're an industrial town that nobody really knows anything about.
We exist in between two TV regions and we live
right in the middle. So we're never represented on the
(14:39):
television because neither of them wan ers or neither. The
only time you know about where I'm from if there's
been an action, if there's been an accident on Junction
fifteen to sixteen on the motorway just next to us.
So you know, I come from a place that feels
as it doesn't exist. I live in a body it
(15:00):
feels as though I don't exist, and I wanted to
be known. And the only thing that I had really
was a little bit hutzpah. That was the That was
my talent. That was as far as it goes, is
like hutspur cheek a wink, and I don't know, you know,
(15:21):
some courage, I suppose, but it's where I'm from is
kind of.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Hood esque.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I wouldn't say it's the hood, but it's hood esque.
And not many people like me with jazz hands existed there,
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Well, I mean from, because I'm from kind of a
town like that too, where you know, you didn't really
want to let people know that you love music because
you know they would think, oh, you're gay.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I mean that was just like the worst thing you
could be called.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Back there was like, oh how did when did you know?
At what age did you know that you were musically talented?
And you wanted to go that route?
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Forty five?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah in two years?
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, bless you. No. So well, my father
was and he's retired now, but it was a comedian,
oh yeah. And he he won is round on the
equivalent of something like Star Search out Here and Britain's
Got Talent or wherever it was, and it was called
(16:29):
opportunity not And unfortunately he didn't have the drive that
I've got, and he was very happy resting on his
laurels and not having any money and and you know,
not having the huge success that I've enjoyed, much much
happier than I will ever be, and has been happier
(16:50):
his entire life than I will ever be. But he
was my mirror. He was my These people exist because
I'm actually genetic the same as one of these people
that goes and does this thing in front of other people.
So there wasn't a moment in my life that I
(17:10):
didn't think that's what I'm going to do. I think
that if my dad had been a policeman, I'd have
been a policeman.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Did your mom do any music or she?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
No?
Speaker 4 (17:20):
But she was she was the drive. Yeah, she was
the drive.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
She was.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Yeah, my father was the charisma and my mother has
the unbelievable ambition and drive and yeah, I'm a I'm
a mixture of both of them.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
When you started, and I don't know it was take
that the first big entertainment thing you did, or did
you do anything before that? Because I'm wondering, like, how
do your dad dealt with that? Knowing that he wanted
to be you know, the famous one on the stage.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Dude, there's been none of that. There's been zero any
of that stuff from my dad, sort of like you know,
could have should have been. You know, my father lives
in a world where he is Frank Sinatra anyway, so
why try harder? You know, that's is his lot in life.
You know, he's had, he's had, He's experienced an abundance
(18:14):
of things through life without having to experience the abundance
of things that I've experienced in life, if you if
you get what I mean. So I did theater when
I was a kid. Did you do theater?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
I did?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, did you do theater? No, but you're kind of
from the same.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Very religious choirs and singing, and so I never did
until I moved to a town where it was acceptable.
I was lucky enough to move to this little town
called Clinton, and we just happened to have this incredible
show choir. Was the number one show choir in the world. So,
you know, even if you played sports, you were still
in adache. So if you're the star football quarterback, you
(18:53):
were still doing music.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Really yeah, so it was a cool.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Thing to do, and you didn't, you know. It was
just I was so happy to be able to do
what I truly loved and not feel like I was.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Getting beat up for it.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Seem very American, No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It's very rare, very rare.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
It was just I was very like, especially in Mississippi
where I'm from, I was going to say it very rare.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, But because.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Of that, I mean it really it changed my life.
It was I was able to do what I really
at first I don't even know. I truly loved it
until I started doing it.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Is all of these slide intoor moments that make up
where and who we are.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
It's so true.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
And without that thing in your life, who or what
would you have become? Without the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
And I say that about well you guys, I don't
even know if you know this, but if it wasn't
for Take That and SYNC would not exist, Yeah, because
you were with BMG Aiola, right, So we couldn't get signed.
We got together in October ninety five and y'all were
just disbanding and we tried getting signed in America for
a year.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
No one wanted us.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
And then BMG Aiola called and said, hey, you know
we've lost Take That. They're like, we need to fill
these shoes just to give them something else. And that's
why we got signed to Germany because.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Well, you know, I'm wearing my New Kids on the Block.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Are your blackhead like myself?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Absolutely? Yeah? I love New Kids on the Block. And
you know I modeled myself on Donnie Wahlberg. Who did
you model yourself?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, I didn't really model my celf on anyone, but
my I mean Donnie and Danny were kind of like
my dudes in there. I mean I was really young
because my sister was the big fan, so I thought
I was cool because I liked whatever my sister liked.
But yeah, Donnie and Danny were always like my go
to like favorites.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Well they we only exist because they existed.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah. Well he was the bad boy and.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
You yeah bad boy, yeah yeah, and yeah I had
to keep my New Kids on the Block fandom a
secret at school.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So I remember they came over to the UK and
they did hanging tough on the TV and I was
just like, I want to do that that I'm in
you know. And then I remember going into school on
Monday and was just like, did you see the new
Kids on the Block, And like one of my friends
going it's for girls. I was like, yeah, I never
(21:15):
mentioned it ever again. But what happened was we had
a manager that was looking to rival the new Kids
on the Block, so we put us together and then
we went out to get signed by record companies and
nobody was interested. So what we did was we had
(21:35):
these cards with our pictures on the front and a
po box peo box in England is okay, yeah, yeah,
peo box to find out information about us, and we
send them a sheet and we do all of these gigs,
working all the hours that God sends gig in the morning,
gig in the afternoon, gig in the evening, gay club,
(21:57):
over eighteens, under eighteens, two schools.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Blah blah blah of to day after day of.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
To day, throwing these these cards out with the peer
box on the back. What the record company signed was
the database, not the band, because grunge was happening, and
there was you know, it's like boy bands and pop
was dead. So eventually I think we've got twenty five
(22:22):
thousand addresses, and they signed the they signed the database.
And what's interesting now is that the you know, data
is king.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Again every social media everything.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Did you know that each individual person's data is worth
or data it's worth twenty five to thirty dollars each person.
So if you think that we had twenty five thousand
people's addresses, we had twenty five quid thirty quids worth
each on those things. So that's why we got signed
(22:58):
another sliding door, another slide the door. If you know,
if it wasn't for the new kids, we wouldn't have existed.
If it wasn't for take that, then maybe you know,
you would have found another avenue.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And especially the nineties early nineties, like you said, grunge,
all these different genres were just melting together. And I
mean hip hop was just really exploding at that time,
and yes, pop was kind of fizzling out. Did you
think that it could ever be as big as y'all
got when y'all first started the band after seeing that, okay, yeah,
(23:28):
pop's kind of going well.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
It existed in gray area once again. You know it
existed for me. I've been given Willie Wonker's golden ticket
and it simply must work. At the same time, mixed
in there with feelings of you know, I don't know,
it just simply had to and I you can never account,
(23:55):
you can never dream what is actually going to happen.
You can never think no until you're experiencing, and.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
It's never going to go the way that you actually
dream anyway.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
No, No, it was did we think. We thought lots
of different things, but it simply had to because there
was nothing. There was literally I left school when I
was just turned sixteen, no qualifications. I've since found out
that I'm dyspraxic dyslexic dyscalculates. You know, I passed no
(24:32):
exams that.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You had to be an artist.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Oh, I had to exist on hutzpur.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Fortunately my hutzpur found a home.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Yes it did. I mean I feel the same way.
I started sixteen and there was nothing else I could do.
I mean, this was this was my life, and I
couldn't imagine. I cannot imagine what else I would be
wanting to do besides music and entertainment. It would suck
when y'all started. Because I'm always wondering where this term
boy band came from. We can't figure it out. I
(25:05):
don't know if it's a German term or a British term,
but one of those countries did it. When you first
started out and new kids on the block, were they
called boy bands then? Because in America there was just
pop group. There was no such word as boy band
until no, they actually boys came through.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Yeah, well, there wasn't an abundance of boy bands girl
bands before take that. There was a boy band which
was new kids on the block, and then there was
Balbiv Devot, which I'm massive fan of. To love bal
Biv Devot, but I can't, off the top of my
head think of anybody else that existed, and New Kids
(25:44):
on the Block and Balbiv Devot weren't called boy bands.
And then there was another bad creation, and then there
was Bobby Brown's.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
One Yeah, what new Edition, New Audition, new Addition.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
But I don't believe that they were called that. I
don't believe they were called boy bands.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I may, and they weren't even really called boy bands
until recent time. Now that the word kind of encompasses
so many different groups and everyone's kind of because I
think every group started like, don't call my boy band
leaving us. We're like, oh, that term just seems so negative,
especially when you spent so much time over in Germany
and there's five hundred of these manufactured bands that lip
sync and you're like, but we really sing and we
(26:24):
really like to write stuff, and you just felt they
were just degrading you by using that word.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
I don't know. I think that when you're in a
when there is, when you're in a pop group like
we are and we were, there's a lot to sort
of feel bad about because you're just on that level
because all of your peers are into something else. Yeah,
(26:50):
and you are your peers, you know. So I'm I
was into Onyx and Have Some Pain and Public Enemy,
and I didn't look like any of that. Those people
we weren't singing those songs.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
As I mean, I was like silver Chair was my favorite.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
There you go. So there is a there is a
there is a shame attached to being in a boy
band where it's sort of like enforced from naive and young,
where we where our references, our influences on our sleeve.
(27:26):
And if you're not part of this tribe, then you know,
there was there was an embarrassment about being in a
boy band because the big boys didn't like it.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Well, I mean you well, I think your mom's the
one who heard about the audition first for Take That,
and she's the one who said, go do this. What
did you think when your mom was telling you about
this band? Were you immediately like, yes, this is exactly
what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Yeah, I've done a few auditions for TV stuff without
any success. I heard your East I was only Stenders,
but I was only Stenders after I left Take That.
Oh yeah my Wilderness years yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, And
so I had a few auditions unsuccessful. I was doing
(28:14):
amateur stuff in Stoke and I was enjoying that, and
then this audition came up, and of course it sounded
like the dream and it sounded thrilling, and you know
that there may be a chance that there might be
a spot for me and it who knows, I don't know,
(28:36):
but yeah, it was. It was thrilling. Was it the
same for you? It was?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I mean it was weird because it won an audition
process for in Sync. Chris koh Patrick and our group
wanted to put a group together, and so he just
kind of called all of us and said, hey, you
want to you want to sing together like an a
cappella group. And I'm like, sure, I'll come down to
Orlando and give up my life and.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Quit school to do this. But it just felt right.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
It just I don't know, I just felt the first
time we sang together, it was just magic. I'm like, Okay,
there's there's something here.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
And of course were the songs any good at that point.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
No, because we didn't have money to even have a song,
so we were just sang a cappella stuff and if you.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Or any so yeah, yeah, yeah, as yet.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
But you know, we did do a demo and I
remember one of our songs was one of your songs,
Gosh I forget because Lou Pelman pretended he wrote it
and he changed the lyrics to uh, I want you
back for more Wow, And it was on a B
side of our demo, and I remember playing it for
someone They're like, well, that's a take that song, Like, no,
it's not. It's an original song. Luke Proman wrote it.
(29:44):
They're like, now, and then they play your song wow,
Well like what a liar? So yeah, so we we
totally ripped off one of y'all songs and that was
a B side of Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
Well I don't know the publishing, so that so fine. Yeah,
how how interesting to be put in with a fantasist.
It's such a vulnerable age where you know, you're you're
looking to the elders for guidance and mentorship and full
and trust.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
So many people at that age.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Yeah, fantasists can often be very charismatic and charming and lovable,
you know, and yeah, I'm really sorry that happened to you.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, you know, look, a lot of negativity happened, but
also a lot of positive things.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Came out of that.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah, you know, I wouldn't be sitting here today if
I didn't have to go through all that.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
And I'm glad I went through it young.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
You know, we kind of learned our lessons very young,
and I was able to kind of, you know, learn
this and and go forward in life with one eye open.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I do you.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Do you or do any of the other boys harbor
resentments for what happened?
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (30:54):
No?
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I mean I used to. For sure.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
It took me a lot of therapy to find forgiveness
and a lot of areas. But now I just look
back just happy about everything that has.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I remember watching the documentary and seeing you talk about
it and just thinking he's so pleasant about it.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Well, that documentary is what kind of changed it for me. Okay,
it was cathartic to do that.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
I was. I was looking at you and thinking, yeah,
you looked so at ease. You look and you looked painfree,
and I think that, my my, what what happened to
me and how I was treated? There's still I mean,
(31:39):
like I harbor, I harbor resentments, you know, like I'm
taking care of a frank.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah. Still, you know you hold this inside.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
Well, less than it was. But I'm not. I'm not
at a place that you seem to.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Be, you know, Like I said, lots of therapy and
and I think doing that dark just really.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Let me use those tools that I learned.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
And yeah, I just I just forgiveness is a big tool.
It's amazing when you can truly get to that that level.
Speaker 4 (32:10):
Yeah, forgive. Forgiveness is the key, you know, And I'm not.
I'm not very good at it. Yeah, and it makes
me sad, you know, And I just I relate it
to so many things in my life, not just that period.
Those people be it the everything. It's like I I
walk around and people have nine acres in my mind
(32:31):
and I'm better at it than I was, but I
should be a bit further down the line than I
than I actually am.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Do you think that stems from like family experiences or
just being in this crazy business at a young age.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
I think family experiences being in this crazy business also
using it as fuel, because you know, anger and resentment
is addictive, and you know, and self righteous indignation can
fuel can hit some spots up in your brain somewhere.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
But feel a lot of great art too, but feels.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
A lot of great art. You know, I guess that
some of me, a lot of me, must enjoy being
angry in some part. But I also know how it
feels too unload resentments, and I know that what a
gift that is. I just wish that I could give
myself that gift more often. And congratulations to you being
(33:33):
able to unburden yourself with the wreckage of the past
created by fantasists and monsters.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, no, I mean it's it's I feel definitely lighter
for sure, because I didn't realize how heavy.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
It was waiting on me for the last two decades.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, and then yeah, finally I was like, no, I've
been holding onto this way too long our times, just like,
move on.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Do you know what we should do with me? And
you do a documentary where we go and explore all
the boy bands, all the girl bands and get their stock,
because like, you know, it's for me. It's fascinating that
all of our stories are basically the same.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
That's what we realize on the show.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I've been doing this as January, and almost every interview
I'm like, yeah, that's that's exactly what we went through.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
And what it was as opposed to what people think
it is is fascinating, and like, I want to see
that documentary. So if I'm not in it or we're not,
we'll carry on. How we make it.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
We just put in the universe it happens.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
This is also oh my god, oh god, what can
you imagine if we're sort of like we we go
and sort of just like as boy band and you know,
father figures representatives go and expose the whole thing that's
happening over there with that lot.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
That would be well, that would be like a season two.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
We'll probably be shot. But season two you're thinking of
a streamer, you think so professionally, I'm just like documentary
a movie.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
No, it's all about the docuseries these days. You know,
you got to give them stretching flowers exactly.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Michael, Michael, something is full many.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
But imagine taking all these iconic band members right and
going back and having these therapy sessions with them and
confronting the people like the Loo Promans of the world
and sitting in front of them and like you know
what I forgive you, and getting them back on the
same page and getting people to apology.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Yeah, he died, what's making AI version?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah? Lou I'm sorry or whatever I did.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Have you got anything to apologize to Lou for?
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I mean, I don't think so. Maybe I don't as
your friend, I'm gonna say. I mean, I don't know.
Maybe I did do something. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
I don't know why he would do that to us,
But no, I'm I mean something in that though. Yeah,
I'm excited. Okay, Okay, we're talking after this, all right. See,
Donna Wahlberg was on and I guess.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
I'm oh, you weren't on the show.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I'm hosting one of his spinoff shows apparently because of
our interview, and now we're going to be doing documentary together.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
See that's how we get things done.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Guys, when you got in the band, what was the
dynamic like with the group, because especially when you know
(36:38):
you auditioned for a group, you're kind of forced to
be friends, and sometimes people personalities don't get you know,
you're I don't understand how a lot of these groups
serve like last that long when you just don't even
know if you like each other. And you guys were
only together five years, so I'm sure that the personalities
were clashed. I know you and Gary definitely clashed towards
(36:59):
the end there because we had Gary on. We talked
about the whole thing. You're good now, apparently we're good.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
So what was it like those like first couple of
years getting along with the guys. Did you know immediately like, oh,
I don't know if this is gonna last too long?
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Well, I was. I was very naive to what the
adult world was because you were the young young Yeah. Yeah,
And I was at school and I wasn't unpopular, you know,
we don't. We don't have the thing in the UK
really like the the nerds and the jocks and the
(37:33):
unpopular and the popular clicks. Yeah, there's a bullying that
happens at school, but none of it was like that
where the school that I.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Was in, Were you the class clown? Were you like
the do you know?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
We were all the class clos all of us were,
but like, yeah, I was one of the class clowns.
So but I got on with everybody, you know, everybody.
So I just assumed that when you start in a
boy band, it's going to be another gang where you
get on with everybody. This is going to be so
much fun. The fraternity, yes, yes, And what actually happened
(38:07):
was my role in the band instantly became runt. You
know because at those years sixteen seventeen, eighteen, nineteen twenty,
the other boys were I was sixteen, they were.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Twenty sixteen eighteen is huge, huge.
Speaker 4 (38:21):
Huge, and you're, you know, you're all young books, buying
for position in life, in show business, amongst each other,
with your with your own family, with your own circle
of friends, and you're just trying to figure out who
you are. My role became He's lazy, he's annoying, and
(38:43):
I just got the feeling that I was unliked and.
Speaker 7 (38:49):
The annoying little brother, the annoying little brother, so much
so that I used to we used to rehearse, and
then I used to go home and then I used
to cry to my mom, and then it was like
I went to see my and I was like, I
can't do this.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
They hate me. And you know, on management at the
time were difficult and to this day very litigious, So
they're just difficult, and you know, I was, I was
in pain from a very early part of the band,
(39:23):
very early stage. And I went to see my dad
and I was like, my dad worked on holiday camps,
which you don't have here in America. But he was
a compare loads of trailers basically where people would rent
them for the week and then there'd be an entertainment.
And I was like, Dad, I'm leaving the band, and
you're going to get me a job on the holiday camps.
(39:45):
And he was like, well, you're not working where I'm working,
and you'll make seventy five quit a week. You have
to do your own dishes, you have to do your
own food, you have to do your own clothes. And
I was like, and he said, do you know, He said,
you'll shoot yourself when they're number one, And I was like,
I think I'll stick this out. Yeah, and I'm glad
(40:10):
I did. But our relationship at the beginning formed, I
suppose the next thirty thirty two years. And it's the
It's the weirdest thing, you know, because I rejoined in
two thy and eleven or whatever it was, and you
just fall back in, You fall back into your roles
(40:32):
and who you were, like not a second has passed.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
It's crazy how you are kind of putting a box
of who you are when you're in a band like that.
And I think the fans do it to the media
does it to you. But I was kind of the
same boat with you, where I wasn't the youngest in
the group, but they treated me like the youngest in
the group because I was not experienced at all, like
I I mean, I came from like a small town,
(40:56):
not in the business, and they would alway make fun
of me because of my accent. So they're always picking
on me, just always poking and picking on me, which
made me very introverted and like shy. And I became
the shy guy because I was always just picked on.
And I'm like, I don't know if these guys like me,
like I feel like they don't like me, so I
understand that, Like I get.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
That, well, I didn't. I didn't introvert.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
I pushed back, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
You know, I I'm I'm from you know, Stabbington. You
have to knife your way out to get out of
where I'm from, you know. And my reaction was to
be more annoying, to be more lazy, to be more you.
I will be up the latest, I will be up
the longest. You won't be able to find me.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
See, we were suppressure feelings. Suppressure feelings, you know, don't
talk about anything just keep it all in zat. Oh.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
Yeah, there was no talking about anything. But like I
wasn't I wasn't therapizing what was going on for me.
I was just going right, I'm going to take threes
and do tons of coke and drink lots of and
you can't control me.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
And you started? When did you start your abuse with alcohol?
And was that immediately? Like at sixteen?
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Dude? You know, like in the UK, the school gates
closed and the pub doors open. You know, you are
drinking at fourteen, you know, the minute that you develop
bumfluff on your face and you can you have a
tall friend, you're in a pub, you're in an off
license and you're boozing. So we are we are a
(42:36):
you know, a nation of alcoholics or function functioning alcoholics.
You know the the It's so normal alcohol in the UK,
It's like breathing. So when do you say, when did
it start? It's just been It was ever present. It's
just part of it for everybody.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah, because my hometown also was just alcohol and at
fourteen when you start really kind of drinking and it's
the only thing to do on the weekends. But I
never really saw drugs until like probably after in sync,
like even on the road, did not, was never privy
to any of that. Never saw cocaine never. I mean
marijuana every once in a while, but I just I
(43:16):
never smoked it. But yeah, I just never it was
never around really yeah, even in our town. It's just
maybe it's just because we were such a poor town
that drugs didn't even get there, so you just relied
on alcohol. But like I just never saw it. So yeah,
we just were basically alcoholics.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
Wow. Yeah, we we were surrounded. There was like the
outside of my door there was the guy selling marijuana
weed draw we used to call it just over there.
And then you could get acid from the guy just
down there, and then speed from the guy just you know,
(43:52):
it was like speed acid just within touching distance.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
What was your you you were cocaine?
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Right?
Speaker 4 (43:59):
No, My big one, like my first soire into nightclubs
and drugs was acid and speed. And then because the
Summer of Love musically for house music happened in nineteen
eighty nine and that was my last year at school,
(44:23):
and then ecstasy just came in and it was just
just phenomenal, like taking the first one and just going
I think I want to feel like this forever. Yeah,
and so it was. Yeah, ecstasy was massive, and then
you know, I suppose that you want to keep the
(44:44):
party going and then out of nowhere when you're eighteen,
somebody's got some coke and oh, you come down off
this and then carry on doing this, and then coke
too cold, and coke was the very quick journey, one
way ticket into Hell's heaven.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah, and you've been sober twenty years now, right.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
I haven't had a drink for twenty three years. I
you know, I've tried loopholes all the way through that.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
No.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Alcohol's been the constant, even though I'm an alcoholic and
I loved alcohol what it did to me when in
the good times. But I am an addict in its
truest sense, and I seek no. When I was drinking,
it was like, I'm not drinking anymore. I'm just having
white wine spritzer. That was my loophole there. I was drinking,
(45:39):
but I was thinking that I wasn't drinking and fly
on your face.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
And then I was California and sober for quite a while.
And for those that don't know at home, is California
Sober is everything apart from weed. Yes, and you know
that the weed might as well be acid out here.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
It's gotten so strong.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
Oh dude, it's crackville, you know. So you know, and
I was doing that for a long time, and then
you know, you sort of you get expressive with pill
cabinets and whatever it's knocking about. Eventually I will take
but I've cut down all the loopholes. Four kids. I've
(46:22):
got four kids, and the loopholes have all closed now
because I'm not saying that I'm above relapsing even with
the four kids. My addiction doesn't know I've got four kids.
It just wants what it wants. But I'm on the
straightest and narrowest path that I've ever been on, and
(46:45):
life is good.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Kids can give you a good motivation to do that.
Is there a good tip out there for our listeners
that are addicts. I mean, you haven't had a drink
in twenty three years? What is your tip on being
able to do that? Is it the people you surround
yourself with?
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Is it? It's all the above, you know, it's the
seeking help and wanted to be better, wanted to be
a better person. I wanted to be a better person,
you know, I.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
Do you have to hit right bottom in order to
dude feel that.
Speaker 4 (47:15):
I hit rock bottom and then got a spade out
and tried to dig a basement and then like put levels,
I dug a multi story car park underneath the basement.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
You by yourself, by myself?
Speaker 4 (47:28):
What? No? No, because like you know, you say rock
bottom because you know, twenty three years ago my last
drink wasn't a rock bottom. You know. It was embarrassing
and it was shameful. And what happened was I was
on my way somewhere and in my mind I went,
(47:53):
I've got enough money to drink myself to death. And
that was like a moment of yeah, just I'll just
become a lush and I'll drink myself to death. And
that was simply, you know, it felt as sane as
saying the Krispy Queen lights on, let's go get some
hot donuts, you know. And and the next day I
(48:16):
woke up after ease coke booze, and when, oh, that's
not sane. That what I thought last night is not saying.
When I took my feet to an AA meeting, did
ninety meetings in ninety days, and I've been I've been sober.
I've been sober ever since. What what tip would I
give to anybody? Oh? Man, bless you anybody that's going
(48:42):
through that out there. It's it's so unbelievably hallish and painful,
and you know, the isolation is desolate and despair cannot
be any more greater or any more found. And you
feel as though you have always lived this way and
(49:04):
you will live this way for the rest of your life.
And what's the point I can tell you on behalf
of all the other people that have put things down
a day at a time that your brain and your
mind is not telling you the truth. There is a
different life out of there, and all you have to
do is take action. Google is your friend. Yeah, I
think I'm drinking too much? What do I do? And
(49:25):
then read? And then do you know?
Speaker 2 (49:28):
You know that you know you're not You're not alone
in it.
Speaker 4 (49:31):
No, you're not alone in it. You don't have to
be alone in it. And it's you know, it's jack
Can I swear on this or yes you can. Yeah,
it's giant fockery. It's fockery of the the highest chiss
housery that you will ever go through, unfortunately, and it's
a it's a day to day thing, you know. But
(49:52):
here's the great thing about being This makes you an
X man. It makes you You've got you've got some
superpowers that you I don't know about, you know. And
if you plug into the other plug, your life will
give you abundance. And if you figure out who and
(50:13):
what you are, what your dealer is, and what you're
capable of, you can't be stopped.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, all right, stay tuned, guys, because we're gonna have
the second part of this interview come out tomorrow. I know,
I know, but good things come to those who wait,
So we'll continue then.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
So remember stay frosted.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Hey, thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at Frosted
Tips with Lance and Michael Turchinard and at lance Best
for all your pop culture needs
Speaker 3 (50:42):
And make sure to write a review and leave us
five stars six if you can see you next time.
Hosts And Creators
Lance Bass
Langston Kerman
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