April 22, 2025 • 18 mins
✨ Josh Groban stopped by the Ellen K Morning Show and yes, he brought all the GEMS! 💎🎶 His new album is out May 2nd 2025! 🙌 We also got into:
⚾ His love for the Dodgers!
💬 How he gives positive feedback to encourage people.
📦 Selling baseball cards on eBay (yep, really!)
🎵 And of course, the magic behind Gems! 💫
⚾ His love for the Dodgers!
💬 How he gives positive feedback to encourage people.
📦 Selling baseball cards on eBay (yep, really!)
🎵 And of course, the magic behind Gems! 💫
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are a jem Josh Grobin is here.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello, Oh my goodness, it's so good to see you,
to welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Thank you for I always have coming in here. You
guys are you guys are a blast?
Speaker 4 (00:09):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Thank you? Well?
Speaker 4 (00:10):
You were so great on idol that you were in Hawaii.
Looked amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Oh my gosh, I was.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Honestly, when you have something work to do where you're
in paradise for that work, it's almost harder than when
you're at like a cold sound stage or like something
where because it's it's you know, your your your your
paradise relaxation brain is fighting you tooth and nail to
like please just lay by the pool and like so
getting your voice warmed up and like getting into performance
stress mode is hard also because really it's just wonderful
(00:38):
to lay out in the sun. And I obviously need
a tan. I told I had to like tell myself
your your performances in two days, like don't burn s.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
We have five hundred.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You don't have Like I get the red on the nose,
I get like the ear lobes will get red.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
And I'm thinking and then the peeling, feeling, the healing.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I for somebody who grew up in Los Angeles. I
could use some tanning tips. But I was just I
was just son kissed for the performance.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So good. That was great. And Jelly rolls, So the
two me together. Had you met.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Before, No, And so you know, it's always first of all,
it's always great to just meet another artist you admire
as much as I admire Jelly, And you always hope
that they're going to be as cool, you know, off
stage as they are on. And man, what a nice
guy like truly, uh, you know, does it all, just
does all the right things for all the right reasons.
And you know, you can also tell somebody's character because
(01:29):
that show, you're doing a lot of takes with a
lot of finalists, and some of it is on camera,
but there's a lot of hanging off camera. And you know,
he was right there with me trying to give as
much advice as we could, even when the cameras weren't rolling.
He really cares and we both really shared that. And
so No, we made a new you know, made a
new friend.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You guys exchange numbers and texts and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We we did.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Although you know, he's he's got like an email like
he does email for everything. Oh, and like and so
he's he's I think he's got like, uh you know,
he's got like a contact with his wife. Yeah, and
then otherwise he like he's like work life balance, and
so we like we've been like just text emailing to
each other.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
He's so happy all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That yeah, absolutely, because I'm so attached to my phone.
And that was that was a great lesson to learn
in Hawaii from.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Jo in Hawaii from Josh.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
When you're in that mentor role, how do you because
you're such a nice guy, like, if there's something that
you don't like, how do you handle kind of how
do you do that?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
It's a fine balance and it's one of the things
that I really love. And and as somebody who had
to take a lot of advice and take a lot
of criticism when I was their age, I always have
to be a little bit careful because on the one hand,
positivity was everything to me. I had been overly critical
to me, I probably would have shut it down because
I'm I'm you know, I don't need a critical and
I'm you know, I've been always been pretty sensitive and
(02:49):
you know, but at the same time, the right advice
has changed my life, and so trying to it's it's
a you know, it is kind of a skill to
like really say the thing that you think is going
to give them the best chance to stay in the competition,
and you're actually not doing any of them any favors
to just give them what they want to hear and
know that America is not going to vote because of that,
because of it, and so you know, you want to
(03:10):
be positive.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Look, they're all finalists.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
They're there because they're all super talent, and this was
an amazing group of finalists. But yeah, if I can
find that thing that's going to give each one of
them the edge that I think maybe might be their
blind spot that they don't know they're doing, because singing
is so we're crazy, we're inside ourselves.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
We don't know something.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
You feel a vibration up here and you don't know
it's coming out that way, you know, So you know
it's there's nothing more valuable than.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
A set of ears outside of yourself. I'll tell you
when you're kind of doing something a little weird.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, I loved what you said.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Also at the end, you said and for those of
you who won't go all the way you're here, You're amazing,
and you'll have bright futures.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You know, even with that kind of send off.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
There's no time limit to your greatness.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And you know, as somebody who had like talent at
sixteen seventeen, but my light bulb wasn't cranked as high
as it needed to be, I know that sometimes you
find yourself on a stage that is too big for
where you're.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
At at that month. It doesn't mean it's going to
be too big forever.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And if you don't make it through, you go back
and you just keep keep learning, keep growing.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But let's talk about greatness.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
You at the Dodgers, all right, So the national anthem,
you're the good luck charm. How did this all develop?
Is that your Billy Jean King relationship? It's just that
you're an LA boy Dodger fan? Like, how how did
this come to be?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Been going to games since I was a kid.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You know, I think that you know, there is so
much amazing nostalgia to baseball. I think it's it's maybe
any sport, but for me, it's going to going to
those games with my dad and going to Dodger Stadium.
And you know, I have been lucky enough to have
gone to a lot of games and been able to,
you know, meet a lot of cool people there. And
I reached out to Lon Rosen, who's an amazing exec
(04:44):
over over there at the Dodgers, and I did it
last year, and I said, hey, if you need an
opening day singer, let me here. You know, it just
kind of just I threw my hat in the ring
and they said.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yes, Well they win the World Series.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And I got to watch and go all the way
in the World Series and texted me, you know, a
few weeks before the first game, they and they're probably
not going to want me back for another one, and
he says, you know, you sang first last year we
went to the World Series, so why don't you come
on back again and do it against I'd be honored. Yeah,
I had. I had to sing through a lot of
blue smoke this year. There was when when you're when
you're a returning champion, there's way more fireworks on opening days.
(05:16):
So I'm standing on the sidelines going like, is it
is it gleaming or streaming? Hang on a minute, and
I'm inhaling like all this ice cube blue smoke from
from that was awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
That love came, so it was quite the party. It
was really fun.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
We hear that Decoy has his own suite at Dodger
Stadium that is just for Decoy the dog.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
As he should have. You met Pops, No God star
Truck Coy as a dog lover.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Like the fact that, I mean show he's such a
legend already, but the fact that he's a dog lover
and that he does things on the field with his dogs.
It was exactly what I would do with my dog
if I had the chance, if I was a pro
baseball player. I love to bring when I have a dog,
like on stage. You know, it shows and so uh yeah,
Decoys Decoy's legend.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Tops has already made like a decoy baseball card. I'm
really hoping to rip at some point.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
And uh yeah, it's it's I did not get to
meet deec.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah one day you will.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I will.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But I did adopt a new puppy two days ago.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
We rescued a little.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
A golden mix and her name is Stevie. You haven't
even said this online yet. We've even showed a picture
that you're the exclusive. I know because I've got a
Westhighland Terrier named George, who's awesome, but he's a dog's dog.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Like some dogs love people, yes, some dogs love dogs.
He does. He loves his people, but he's not a
party animal.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
But when dogs are in the room, when dogs are
in the room, it's like he's that guy at the park.
And even dogs that are like snarling at him if
we like hike, you know, Griffith Park or whatever, and
there's like a pit bull that's just like I'm gonna
eat you for Liken.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
He's like, no, you're not.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Work cool and he's like, yeah, Jedi mind trick truly.
Okay did I say you?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I mean we're gonna play now.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So we had a friend of ours that said, you know,
George would really love a pal.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
He did well with a pal.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So we had a friend who told us about this
place called Purposeful Rescue and they said, we have a
puppy just came in and see if your dog vibes
and and so we took her named Stevie, and she's
you know, she's awesome and they're gonna be great pals.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And she's a people she's a people dog.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
She is she's a people dog so much so that
she can't be in a room alone without absolutely going bananas.
So that's what we're gonna work on a little separation anxiety.
But Steevie is Stevie named after Stevie, Aftertevie Nicks, so
nerd alert. George was named after Sunday in the Park
with George because a Sondheim geek. And my girlfriend really
loves seventies rock and loves Fleetwood Mac and loves Stevie Nicks,
(07:31):
And so I said, you get the name this time.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Stevie's a sweetie California.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That's so great.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Well let's talk about be all right. You're here, you've
got new music. Be all right, I hear. I mean
it's a positive song. It's beautiful, it's big and rich,
but it's also gospely like.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
That big sometimes I go there with me, yeah, and
I think that like you raised me up, was kind
of the first time I was introduced to kind of
singing in that style a little bit. And whenever I
get to work with artists who bring out a little
bit more of soulfulness in me, it's always a lot
of fun. And certainly when you write a song like that.
I wrote that song with a great neck guy named
pil Lawrence, whos written a lot of songs with bru Mars,
among others, and.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
We sat on it for a bit and.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It just felt like this was the right time, This
was the right you know, to do a best of
and to release a song with positive energy into the
world right now. Sometimes you sing what you need to
hear before you believe it yourself.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Okay, how long did you sit on it?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
About three years?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Oh? Really? Yeah, it like a thing in the back
of your mind. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, because if you know when you write, you know,
writers will always tell you like, no, this is the
thing I wrote yesterday, It's my freshest, newest thing. Writers,
you write all the time, and sometimes you write something
that feels absolutely great and just doesn't feel like the
right time to give it to the world. There's I've
got fifty of those, you know, I've got realized and
tons of songs that, depending on what I do for
(08:49):
the next album, some of them might be on that,
some of them might be on the album five years
from now. But every album that I've done has had
songs that I've written the day before and songs that
I've written five years ago.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Okay, I don't know why I thought this by Tupperware
and lids. I think I organized them in my cabinet. Yeah,
but it has to do it has to do a songwriting.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Great story.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Our show is brought to you by Perfect Time to
say thank you to Tupperware. Tupperware the official sponsor of the.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Okay you have fifty fifty Groven songs I filed. I
think I have fifty pieces that I file them and
organize them.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Where do you keep your songs and what are they on?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Are they their own cassettes in my tupperware? Yeah? There, yeah,
there that a shell.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I roll them with a pencil.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And put them in a digital library. Actually, this is
a good question.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I actually and I think it's.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
A beautiful analogy.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I love this analogy.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And I actually what's so funny is that I'm getting
mental injury because my tiny little pivot is that one
of my big hobbies is like collecting and buying and
selling baseball cards. I'm super into it and it's a
lot of fun. And the cards that I'm selling on
eBay are into a giant Tupperware container. So I have
actually been like opening like like you know, the every
time I get a sale, there's nothing like nobody on
(10:03):
evay that I sell them?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Who knows that it's me selling them?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But nothing makes me happier than sending off like a
three dollars card to Marfa Texas and like printing out
the label and it just gets me.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
It's good for my brain.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Is this awesome? An exclusive?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I get this is an exclusive? I'm on eBay, but
you'll never know which one I am.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
If we're getting all the secrets.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Oh man, But no, I stay the songs digitally, yeah, okay,
and are not techno svy, but I I do. I
do have them all in logic, which is a composing part.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
And then do you ever like pull them up and think, hmm,
I mean I want to look through these.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I want to see yeah, airplane when I'm around on
a flight, okay, it's like I leave, leave the ground
and uh and I just have nothing to do. That's
a great time to kind of you know, have your tomato.
I don't know why you love tomato juice on flights,
but you do, you too. My one time I'll sip
a tomato juice and listen to my and listen to
my tupperware.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, spicy, it's gotta be a spicy tomato.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Spicy, that's the only way to go.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
All right, let's talk about let's talk about your Vegas.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, residence, right up?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Are you going to be the fly and fly out
guy to sleep in your own bed, because I here's
some artists do that.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
You stay there. Okay, you're gonna move in.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I'm gonna move in. Yeah, I am no. I just
you know, why, why why go through the travel hassle.
I'm happy to just kind of spend some time there.
I've been spending a lot of time at home. I've
been lucky since coming off Broadway that I've been able
to just be in the studio and be home a lot.
So honestly, like and like I said, having a puppy
that's climbing the walls, It'll be nice to just kind
of be in Vegas for a week.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
And just kind of sill there.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
And that is nice.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Go see some stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There's a lot of like cool stuff in old Vegas,
like the Neon Signed Graveyard is really fun.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I like to go to the old
old spots. I do too. I like all the retro absolutely.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Yeah. When you get a residency, when you're doing extended
nights at a place, do you get to almost customize,
like like I want to pick the temperature for the
next four nights, Like do you get to decide what
the venue kind of feels like?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, I think I think that I'm like, I'm five
shows is kind of like a limited engagement.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Would you say that?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I think if I go past limited engagement and graduate
to residency, then I can like ask for the humidity
that I want, So then you get the exactly then
your rider like goes beyond like apple Juice to like
you know, you know, airtemp. But the good news about
you know, being on a stage like that that has
had people like Selene and Adele and there they that's
(12:18):
the stage they built and so it is already.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Super singer friendly. Yeah, the erin there is great.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
The vibe is really good, and they're just walking the
stage with the creatives over there. It's it's an amazing
venue and it's one that I feel really privileged to to,
you know, pour it out on and it's gonna be
unlike anything I've ever done and anything I ever will do.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Be all right on radio now, that's why you're here.
We love your new song be all right, it's so good,
Josh Groban. Then your ten year anniversary of your album
Stage is coming up on the twenty eighth of this month.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
My goodness, let's jump to May.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
On the second, your album Gems is being released, and
you are a Gem.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
We always say that.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
It's also my mom's birthday on the second, on her birthday.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I wasn't playing that way, but it just came out
that way.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So then you're going to be at the Callum at
Caesar's Palace the ninth through the fifteenth, and then you
go on tour. Well, no, you're the I'm sorry. Then
you're going to be at Caesar's from the ninth through
the seventeenth.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
It's really cool with that, with a karaoke.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Night with I guess, a karaoke night see all their
pick your favorite songs.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And then in June you've got the Gem's clear vinyl release.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I love you the vinyl release.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Man, it sounds so good. Honestly, it sounds better than
anything digital. It is.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
It is so it is so great to release.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Something you know that is forever, something can have in
their collection, and you know, you do get to I
couldn't pick the Humidity, but I can pick the color
of my vinyl, and I was like Jim's diamond.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I wanted to be clear sense. So yeah, it's gonna
be awesome.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
They need to invent a car for you where you
can play the vinyl in your car on your speakers.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Oh wow, I think that's called a CD, but I
don't know. Yeah, they made a tiny vinyl player in
the car.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I know, I don't think hitting a bump with I love.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
How everybody has just gone past this CD and said
we should put record players in cars like.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah, I would do that, truly. That would be fun.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
We're gonna jump ahead to September.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Hollywood Bowling going playing two nights with the La Phil,
which is like dream come true for me. I love
playing the Hollywood bol It's been a while since I
played my own show there, and so to team up with,
you know, Tom, a great maestro Thomas Wilkins in the
La Phil is going to be great again. Like be
able to revisit a lot of those songs with that symphony.
(14:31):
It's gonna be too very very.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Special nights for me.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I could just I have a friend who has a
house up on the lip.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You know, and so hear me say, hey, guys, come
on over and some nights will go over there, like
I watch Gwen Stefani one night with the orchestra. But
to have the orchestra with in that bowl, and then
now to have Josh Grobin's.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Voice, like I mean, I will, I will, I will
go do the show.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
But also just to hear you like bellowing through the hills.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It's so cool.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Your dog will be able to hear.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And my dog will probably be there. My two dogs
now will probably be there. She'll be old enough to
go to the show by then.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
It's as fun of you from the stage as it
is for the audience when you're at the ball. It's
one of those places where you just you're looking out
at the hills. You're looking at all those people, and
you know it's hometown. So you got to make it special.
We're gonna add a few surprises.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, that's so good. All right, well we love be
all right. I'm so happy that you put it. I'm
so happy that you decided to.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
This is the two time I opened it up and
opened up my tupperwaar and took it out and said,
you know, I did. I listened to it again and
I was like, Oh, this is what I want to
hear right now, this is what I want to hear.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So it was not it was just written.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It wasn't produced four years ago. So I had the
demo of it that I listened to and then and
then went to my friend Bernie Herms, who's just produced
so many amazing things for me, and he's in Nashville
and he's like, he knows all the best musicians and
he's very much in the gospel world as well, and
he says, I know what to do with this, give
it to me. And then we started recording it, and yeah,
it was just.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
So for you. It's an unfolding, just like it is room.
You're building it, you build it.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
That is so cool because most of the demos that
I have that I've held on to are just piano vocals,
and you know, you got to know that something is right,
when something is great, just in those bare bones, and
you can always add the stuff around it. You always
know you can add so much color to it. But yeah,
it was it was something that I listened to and
I was kind of going through, you know, just like
(16:18):
I think everybody's just feeling it in their own ways,
you know. And sometimes the comments that I've gotten about
the song are like, oh my god, I love this song,
thank you for releasing me.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
All right.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I'm not sure I believe that I will be right now,
but I need to hear it. Yes, And it's like
just taking those little steps. Sometimes music can be healing
in ways where you're not trying to reinvent the wheel.
You're not trying to, you know, heal the world. You
just want to give somebody a smile and give somebody
a positive boost for that moment. And that's what the
song is all about.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
There is one more cool thing that you did recently
that I don't know anything about. I didn't know anything
about it until you You did something with the musical
or instrument repair shop.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Oh yes, yeah, so what is that? Oh man?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So, I don't know if anybody saw the Oscar winning
documentary The Last Repair, Yes, it was all about the
LAUSD Music Instrument Repair Shop in downtown LA. And they
have an enormous facility that their whole job is to
make sure that music students throughout all across Los Angeles.
They're instruments that are given to them by these schools,
and these programs continue to play well.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yeah, because these instruments are old, A lot of them
are old.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
They're donated, and they're a tool for these young students
to unlock their voice for the first time, their potential
who they are. Most of them don't go into it professionally,
but to have that instrument in their hands, to be
part of an orchestra, to be part of a band,
it changes the person they are for the rest of
their lives. So the unsung heroes of that world are
people like these great repair repair men and women who
(17:37):
are in this shop and they make sure that the
trumpet keys still work, and the reads and the clarinets
are still there, and the cellos, you know, don't stay chipped,
and they're they're in the hands where they belong, in
those students' hands.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I'm so happy that film was made because I had
no idea and.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
They had their first gallus. So I went there and
yo Yo Ma was there and played one of the
student cellos.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
With the and it was just such.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
A quintessentially LA arts moment. I'm a product of an
LA public arts education and so to be able to
support programs like that just mean everything to me.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, thanks for bringing it up.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah yeah, Well we end every show with the quote
in a kiss, and so this quote is by.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, it was a I think it was a response
that I had in the comment section. But like, there's
this young singer who's just like, man, I'm training every
day and I want to be just like you, want
to sing just like you. And this is kind of
I think is what I wrote, like in response, and
I said, don't try to be like me, try to
be like yourself. Try to be very good at being yourself.
That was advice that I got early on. Don't listen
at the door. You're the only one who does you.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's amazing. Okay, kiss on three, kiss on me one
two three,
You are a jem Josh Grobin is here.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello, Oh my goodness, it's so good to see you,
to welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Thank you for I always have coming in here. You
guys are you guys are a blast?
Speaker 4 (00:09):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Thank you? Well?
Speaker 4 (00:10):
You were so great on idol that you were in Hawaii.
Looked amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Oh my gosh, I was.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Honestly, when you have something work to do where you're
in paradise for that work, it's almost harder than when
you're at like a cold sound stage or like something
where because it's it's you know, your your your your
paradise relaxation brain is fighting you tooth and nail to
like please just lay by the pool and like so
getting your voice warmed up and like getting into performance
stress mode is hard also because really it's just wonderful
(00:38):
to lay out in the sun. And I obviously need
a tan. I told I had to like tell myself
your your performances in two days, like don't burn s.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
We have five hundred.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You don't have Like I get the red on the nose,
I get like the ear lobes will get red.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
And I'm thinking and then the peeling, feeling, the healing.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I for somebody who grew up in Los Angeles. I
could use some tanning tips. But I was just I
was just son kissed for the performance.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So good. That was great. And Jelly rolls, So the
two me together. Had you met.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Before, No, And so you know, it's always first of all,
it's always great to just meet another artist you admire
as much as I admire Jelly, And you always hope
that they're going to be as cool, you know, off
stage as they are on. And man, what a nice
guy like truly, uh, you know, does it all, just
does all the right things for all the right reasons.
And you know, you can also tell somebody's character because
(01:29):
that show, you're doing a lot of takes with a
lot of finalists, and some of it is on camera,
but there's a lot of hanging off camera. And you know,
he was right there with me trying to give as
much advice as we could, even when the cameras weren't rolling.
He really cares and we both really shared that. And
so No, we made a new you know, made a
new friend.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You guys exchange numbers and texts and stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We we did.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Although you know, he's he's got like an email like
he does email for everything. Oh, and like and so
he's he's I think he's got like, uh you know,
he's got like a contact with his wife. Yeah, and
then otherwise he like he's like work life balance, and
so we like we've been like just text emailing to
each other.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
He's so happy all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That yeah, absolutely, because I'm so attached to my phone.
And that was that was a great lesson to learn
in Hawaii from.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Jo in Hawaii from Josh.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
When you're in that mentor role, how do you because
you're such a nice guy, like, if there's something that
you don't like, how do you handle kind of how
do you do that?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
It's a fine balance and it's one of the things
that I really love. And and as somebody who had
to take a lot of advice and take a lot
of criticism when I was their age, I always have
to be a little bit careful because on the one hand,
positivity was everything to me. I had been overly critical
to me, I probably would have shut it down because
I'm I'm you know, I don't need a critical and
I'm you know, I've been always been pretty sensitive and
(02:49):
you know, but at the same time, the right advice
has changed my life, and so trying to it's it's
a you know, it is kind of a skill to
like really say the thing that you think is going
to give them the best chance to stay in the competition,
and you're actually not doing any of them any favors
to just give them what they want to hear and
know that America is not going to vote because of that,
because of it, and so you know, you want to
(03:10):
be positive.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Look, they're all finalists.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
They're there because they're all super talent, and this was
an amazing group of finalists. But yeah, if I can
find that thing that's going to give each one of
them the edge that I think maybe might be their
blind spot that they don't know they're doing, because singing
is so we're crazy, we're inside ourselves.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
We don't know something.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
You feel a vibration up here and you don't know
it's coming out that way, you know, So you know
it's there's nothing more valuable than.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
A set of ears outside of yourself. I'll tell you
when you're kind of doing something a little weird.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, I loved what you said.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Also at the end, you said and for those of
you who won't go all the way you're here, You're amazing,
and you'll have bright futures.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You know, even with that kind of send off.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
There's no time limit to your greatness.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And you know, as somebody who had like talent at
sixteen seventeen, but my light bulb wasn't cranked as high
as it needed to be, I know that sometimes you
find yourself on a stage that is too big for
where you're.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
At at that month. It doesn't mean it's going to
be too big forever.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And if you don't make it through, you go back
and you just keep keep learning, keep growing.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But let's talk about greatness.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
You at the Dodgers, all right, So the national anthem,
you're the good luck charm. How did this all develop?
Is that your Billy Jean King relationship? It's just that
you're an LA boy Dodger fan? Like, how how did
this come to be?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Been going to games since I was a kid.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You know, I think that you know, there is so
much amazing nostalgia to baseball. I think it's it's maybe
any sport, but for me, it's going to going to
those games with my dad and going to Dodger Stadium.
And you know, I have been lucky enough to have
gone to a lot of games and been able to,
you know, meet a lot of cool people there. And
I reached out to Lon Rosen, who's an amazing exec
(04:44):
over over there at the Dodgers, and I did it
last year, and I said, hey, if you need an
opening day singer, let me here. You know, it just
kind of just I threw my hat in the ring
and they said.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Yes, Well they win the World Series.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And I got to watch and go all the way
in the World Series and texted me, you know, a
few weeks before the first game, they and they're probably
not going to want me back for another one, and
he says, you know, you sang first last year we
went to the World Series, so why don't you come
on back again and do it against I'd be honored. Yeah,
I had. I had to sing through a lot of
blue smoke this year. There was when when you're when
you're a returning champion, there's way more fireworks on opening days.
(05:16):
So I'm standing on the sidelines going like, is it
is it gleaming or streaming? Hang on a minute, and
I'm inhaling like all this ice cube blue smoke from
from that was awesome.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
That love came, so it was quite the party. It
was really fun.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
We hear that Decoy has his own suite at Dodger
Stadium that is just for Decoy the dog.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
As he should have. You met Pops, No God star
Truck Coy as a dog lover.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Like the fact that, I mean show he's such a
legend already, but the fact that he's a dog lover
and that he does things on the field with his dogs.
It was exactly what I would do with my dog
if I had the chance, if I was a pro
baseball player. I love to bring when I have a dog,
like on stage. You know, it shows and so uh yeah,
Decoys Decoy's legend.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Tops has already made like a decoy baseball card. I'm
really hoping to rip at some point.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
And uh yeah, it's it's I did not get to
meet deec.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah one day you will.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
I will.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But I did adopt a new puppy two days ago.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
We rescued a little.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
A golden mix and her name is Stevie. You haven't
even said this online yet. We've even showed a picture
that you're the exclusive. I know because I've got a
Westhighland Terrier named George, who's awesome, but he's a dog's dog.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Like some dogs love people, yes, some dogs love dogs.
He does. He loves his people, but he's not a
party animal.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
But when dogs are in the room, when dogs are
in the room, it's like he's that guy at the park.
And even dogs that are like snarling at him if
we like hike, you know, Griffith Park or whatever, and
there's like a pit bull that's just like I'm gonna
eat you for Liken.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
He's like, no, you're not.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Work cool and he's like, yeah, Jedi mind trick truly.
Okay did I say you?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I mean we're gonna play now.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
So we had a friend of ours that said, you know,
George would really love a pal.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
He did well with a pal.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So we had a friend who told us about this
place called Purposeful Rescue and they said, we have a
puppy just came in and see if your dog vibes
and and so we took her named Stevie, and she's
you know, she's awesome and they're gonna be great pals.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And she's a people she's a people dog.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
She is she's a people dog so much so that
she can't be in a room alone without absolutely going bananas.
So that's what we're gonna work on a little separation anxiety.
But Steevie is Stevie named after Stevie, Aftertevie Nicks, so
nerd alert. George was named after Sunday in the Park
with George because a Sondheim geek. And my girlfriend really
loves seventies rock and loves Fleetwood Mac and loves Stevie Nicks,
(07:31):
And so I said, you get the name this time.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Stevie's a sweetie California.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
That's so great.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Well let's talk about be all right. You're here, you've
got new music. Be all right, I hear. I mean
it's a positive song. It's beautiful, it's big and rich,
but it's also gospely like.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
That big sometimes I go there with me, yeah, and
I think that like you raised me up, was kind
of the first time I was introduced to kind of
singing in that style a little bit. And whenever I
get to work with artists who bring out a little
bit more of soulfulness in me, it's always a lot
of fun. And certainly when you write a song like that.
I wrote that song with a great neck guy named
pil Lawrence, whos written a lot of songs with bru Mars,
among others, and.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
We sat on it for a bit and.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It just felt like this was the right time, This
was the right you know, to do a best of
and to release a song with positive energy into the
world right now. Sometimes you sing what you need to
hear before you believe it yourself.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Okay, how long did you sit on it?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
About three years?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Oh? Really? Yeah, it like a thing in the back
of your mind. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, because if you know when you write, you know,
writers will always tell you like, no, this is the
thing I wrote yesterday, It's my freshest, newest thing. Writers,
you write all the time, and sometimes you write something
that feels absolutely great and just doesn't feel like the
right time to give it to the world. There's I've
got fifty of those, you know, I've got realized and
tons of songs that, depending on what I do for
(08:49):
the next album, some of them might be on that,
some of them might be on the album five years
from now. But every album that I've done has had
songs that I've written the day before and songs that
I've written five years ago.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Okay, I don't know why I thought this by Tupperware
and lids. I think I organized them in my cabinet. Yeah,
but it has to do it has to do a songwriting.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Great story.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Our show is brought to you by Perfect Time to
say thank you to Tupperware. Tupperware the official sponsor of the.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Okay you have fifty fifty Groven songs I filed. I
think I have fifty pieces that I file them and
organize them.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Where do you keep your songs and what are they on?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Are they their own cassettes in my tupperware? Yeah? There, yeah,
there that a shell.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
I roll them with a pencil.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And put them in a digital library. Actually, this is
a good question.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I actually and I think it's.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
A beautiful analogy.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I love this analogy.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And I actually what's so funny is that I'm getting
mental injury because my tiny little pivot is that one
of my big hobbies is like collecting and buying and
selling baseball cards. I'm super into it and it's a
lot of fun. And the cards that I'm selling on
eBay are into a giant Tupperware container. So I have
actually been like opening like like you know, the every
time I get a sale, there's nothing like nobody on
(10:03):
evay that I sell them?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Who knows that it's me selling them?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But nothing makes me happier than sending off like a
three dollars card to Marfa Texas and like printing out
the label and it just gets me.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
It's good for my brain.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Is this awesome? An exclusive?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I get this is an exclusive? I'm on eBay, but
you'll never know which one I am.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
If we're getting all the secrets.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Oh man, But no, I stay the songs digitally, yeah, okay,
and are not techno svy, but I I do. I
do have them all in logic, which is a composing part.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
And then do you ever like pull them up and think, hmm,
I mean I want to look through these.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I want to see yeah, airplane when I'm around on
a flight, okay, it's like I leave, leave the ground
and uh and I just have nothing to do. That's
a great time to kind of you know, have your tomato.
I don't know why you love tomato juice on flights,
but you do, you too. My one time I'll sip
a tomato juice and listen to my and listen to
my tupperware.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, spicy, it's gotta be a spicy tomato.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Spicy, that's the only way to go.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
All right, let's talk about let's talk about your Vegas.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, residence, right up?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Are you going to be the fly and fly out
guy to sleep in your own bed, because I here's
some artists do that.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
You stay there. Okay, you're gonna move in.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I'm gonna move in. Yeah, I am no. I just
you know, why, why why go through the travel hassle.
I'm happy to just kind of spend some time there.
I've been spending a lot of time at home. I've
been lucky since coming off Broadway that I've been able
to just be in the studio and be home a lot.
So honestly, like and like I said, having a puppy
that's climbing the walls, It'll be nice to just kind
of be in Vegas for a week.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
And just kind of sill there.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
And that is nice.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Go see some stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There's a lot of like cool stuff in old Vegas,
like the Neon Signed Graveyard is really fun.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I like to go to the old
old spots. I do too. I like all the retro absolutely.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Yeah. When you get a residency, when you're doing extended
nights at a place, do you get to almost customize,
like like I want to pick the temperature for the
next four nights, Like do you get to decide what
the venue kind of feels like?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, I think I think that I'm like, I'm five
shows is kind of like a limited engagement.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Would you say that?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I think if I go past limited engagement and graduate
to residency, then I can like ask for the humidity
that I want, So then you get the exactly then
your rider like goes beyond like apple Juice to like
you know, you know, airtemp. But the good news about
you know, being on a stage like that that has
had people like Selene and Adele and there they that's
(12:18):
the stage they built and so it is already.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Super singer friendly. Yeah, the erin there is great.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
The vibe is really good, and they're just walking the
stage with the creatives over there. It's it's an amazing
venue and it's one that I feel really privileged to to,
you know, pour it out on and it's gonna be
unlike anything I've ever done and anything I ever will do.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Be all right on radio now, that's why you're here.
We love your new song be all right, it's so good,
Josh Groban. Then your ten year anniversary of your album
Stage is coming up on the twenty eighth of this month.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
My goodness, let's jump to May.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
On the second, your album Gems is being released, and
you are a Gem.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
We always say that.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
It's also my mom's birthday on the second, on her birthday.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I wasn't playing that way, but it just came out
that way.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So then you're going to be at the Callum at
Caesar's Palace the ninth through the fifteenth, and then you
go on tour. Well, no, you're the I'm sorry. Then
you're going to be at Caesar's from the ninth through
the seventeenth.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
It's really cool with that, with a karaoke.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Night with I guess, a karaoke night see all their
pick your favorite songs.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
And then in June you've got the Gem's clear vinyl release.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I love you the vinyl release.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Man, it sounds so good. Honestly, it sounds better than
anything digital. It is.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
It is so it is so great to release.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Something you know that is forever, something can have in
their collection, and you know, you do get to I
couldn't pick the Humidity, but I can pick the color
of my vinyl, and I was like Jim's diamond.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I wanted to be clear sense. So yeah, it's gonna
be awesome.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
They need to invent a car for you where you
can play the vinyl in your car on your speakers.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Oh wow, I think that's called a CD, but I
don't know. Yeah, they made a tiny vinyl player in
the car.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I know, I don't think hitting a bump with I love.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
How everybody has just gone past this CD and said
we should put record players in cars like.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah, I would do that, truly. That would be fun.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
We're gonna jump ahead to September.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Hollywood Bowling going playing two nights with the La Phil,
which is like dream come true for me. I love
playing the Hollywood bol It's been a while since I
played my own show there, and so to team up with,
you know, Tom, a great maestro Thomas Wilkins in the
La Phil is going to be great again. Like be
able to revisit a lot of those songs with that symphony.
(14:31):
It's gonna be too very very.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Special nights for me.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I could just I have a friend who has a
house up on the lip.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
You know, and so hear me say, hey, guys, come
on over and some nights will go over there, like
I watch Gwen Stefani one night with the orchestra. But
to have the orchestra with in that bowl, and then
now to have Josh Grobin's.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Voice, like I mean, I will, I will, I will
go do the show.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
But also just to hear you like bellowing through the hills.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It's so cool.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Your dog will be able to hear.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And my dog will probably be there. My two dogs
now will probably be there. She'll be old enough to
go to the show by then.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
It's as fun of you from the stage as it
is for the audience when you're at the ball. It's
one of those places where you just you're looking out
at the hills. You're looking at all those people, and
you know it's hometown. So you got to make it special.
We're gonna add a few surprises.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, that's so good. All right, well we love be
all right. I'm so happy that you put it. I'm
so happy that you decided to.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
This is the two time I opened it up and
opened up my tupperwaar and took it out and said,
you know, I did. I listened to it again and
I was like, Oh, this is what I want to
hear right now, this is what I want to hear.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So it was not it was just written.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It wasn't produced four years ago. So I had the
demo of it that I listened to and then and
then went to my friend Bernie Herms, who's just produced
so many amazing things for me, and he's in Nashville
and he's like, he knows all the best musicians and
he's very much in the gospel world as well, and
he says, I know what to do with this, give
it to me. And then we started recording it, and yeah,
it was just.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
So for you. It's an unfolding, just like it is room.
You're building it, you build it.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
That is so cool because most of the demos that
I have that I've held on to are just piano vocals,
and you know, you got to know that something is right,
when something is great, just in those bare bones, and
you can always add the stuff around it. You always
know you can add so much color to it. But yeah,
it was it was something that I listened to and
I was kind of going through, you know, just like
(16:18):
I think everybody's just feeling it in their own ways,
you know. And sometimes the comments that I've gotten about
the song are like, oh my god, I love this song,
thank you for releasing me.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
All right.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I'm not sure I believe that I will be right now,
but I need to hear it. Yes, And it's like
just taking those little steps. Sometimes music can be healing
in ways where you're not trying to reinvent the wheel.
You're not trying to, you know, heal the world. You
just want to give somebody a smile and give somebody
a positive boost for that moment. And that's what the
song is all about.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
There is one more cool thing that you did recently
that I don't know anything about. I didn't know anything
about it until you You did something with the musical
or instrument repair shop.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Oh yes, yeah, so what is that? Oh man?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So, I don't know if anybody saw the Oscar winning
documentary The Last Repair, Yes, it was all about the
LAUSD Music Instrument Repair Shop in downtown LA. And they
have an enormous facility that their whole job is to
make sure that music students throughout all across Los Angeles.
They're instruments that are given to them by these schools,
and these programs continue to play well.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yeah, because these instruments are old, A lot of them
are old.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
They're donated, and they're a tool for these young students
to unlock their voice for the first time, their potential
who they are. Most of them don't go into it professionally,
but to have that instrument in their hands, to be
part of an orchestra, to be part of a band,
it changes the person they are for the rest of
their lives. So the unsung heroes of that world are
people like these great repair repair men and women who
(17:37):
are in this shop and they make sure that the
trumpet keys still work, and the reads and the clarinets
are still there, and the cellos, you know, don't stay chipped,
and they're they're in the hands where they belong, in
those students' hands.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
I'm so happy that film was made because I had
no idea and.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
They had their first gallus. So I went there and
yo Yo Ma was there and played one of the
student cellos.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
With the and it was just such.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
A quintessentially LA arts moment. I'm a product of an
LA public arts education and so to be able to
support programs like that just mean everything to me.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, thanks for bringing it up.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah yeah, Well we end every show with the quote
in a kiss, and so this quote is by.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, it was a I think it was a response
that I had in the comment section. But like, there's
this young singer who's just like, man, I'm training every
day and I want to be just like you, want
to sing just like you. And this is kind of
I think is what I wrote, like in response, and
I said, don't try to be like me, try to
be like yourself. Try to be very good at being yourself.
That was advice that I got early on. Don't listen
at the door. You're the only one who does you.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
That's amazing. Okay, kiss on three, kiss on me one
two three,
Ellen K Morning Show On Demand News
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.