Digital Social Hour - Why Authenticity Wins in Business & Social Media | James Maslow DSH #1334

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Authenticity is your ultimate superpower in today’s business and social media world! 📈 Join Sean Kelly on this episode of the Digital Social Hour as he sits down with James Maslow for an unfiltered and inspiring conversation about why staying true to yourself wins—both online and offline. From navigating hard conversations to building a career rooted in values, this episode is packed with valuable insights you don’t want to miss. 💡 Discover how [Guest Name] balances an incredible career in music, acting, and business while staying authentic in a world that often rewards conformity. 🌟 Hear firsthand stories about overcoming challenges, the power of honest marketing, and why connecting with your audience matters more than ever. Plus, they dive into the evolving dynamics of social media, cancel culture, and creating meaningful content that truly resonates. 🎶 Whether you’re an artist, entrepreneur, or simply looking for inspiration, this episode will leave you feeling motivated to embrace your true self and take bold steps toward success. Don’t miss out—watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:27 - Catching up with James 04:58 - Airest 05:52 - Conversations with the Majority 07:31 - Billionaires' Insights on Conversations 11:22 - First Experience with Antisemitism 13:09 - Importance of Authenticity 16:52 - Staying Grounded in Early Fame 18:05 - Upcoming Projects 24:00 - Reasons for Stopping Partying 27:30 - Big Time Rush's Rock Bottom Moments 31:21 - Marketing's Role in Music Industry 32:35 - TikTok's Impact on Virality 33:54 - Solo Music Projects APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: James Maslow https://www.instagram.com/jamesmaslow/ SPONSORS: AIRES TECH:  https://airestech.com/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ The views and opinions expressed by guests on Digital Social Hour are solely those of the individuals appearing on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the host, Sean Kelly, or the Digital Social Hour team. While we encourage open and honest conversations, Sean Kelly is not legally responsible for any statements, claims, or opinions made by guests during the show. Listeners are encouraged to form their own opinions and consult professionals for advice where appropriate. Content on this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, financial, or professional advice. #leadgeneration #smsmarketing #digitalmarketing #linkedinmarketing #marketingfunnel

So I come to tables quite literally and figuratively like this. And if I speak to someone, they go, hey, cool. But what about this? Dude, I'm more than happy to learn. I just, you know, if I'm not learning and growing every single day, I'm not as happy. And that's attracted people like David Meltzer, who's attracted people like these billionaires to this table.

So many amazing people have been attracted into my life because of hard conversation. All right, guys God, James here. We're trying to make this happen for a while. Good to see you, man. You too, brother. Hey, Ben busy. You've been busy.

Yeah. You're doing almost 700 podcasts a year right now. That's your goal. It's a lot, man. No, that's beyond a lot. That's fucking crazy, but commendable. That's awesome. I like what you're doing.

You're spending nine months on the road. Well, 700 shows a year, I bet. Not 700 shows. I'm just lucky that I can spend nine months on the road. I've been, I remember when I couldn't do that as a musician and an actor. And that's the dream to have enough people care, have enough people want to show up

that I get to spend nine months on the road. And you're balancing two really hard professions. It's impressive, music and acting. So I keep hearing 20 years later. Yeah. Yeah. They truly balance me out, you know? And I think that this day and age, people are far more understanding

that performers are performers. You know, the idea of a double or triple threat. Back in the day when I started, you know, say 20 years ago at this point, was shunned, was frowned upon. I remember agents at CAA telling me like, no, no, no, pick one or the other people won't understand. And me going, fuck that.

And feeling like the black sheep, cause I wanted to do more than one thing. But you look at the biggest stars of today, you know, The Rock, Kevin Hart, Mark Wahlberg. I mean, they're doing so many things and that's cause they're good at it and they don't stop working and they're artists. So yeah, dude, that's true.

Yeah, I think times have changed. I mean, Elon's running $3 billion companies right now. More than three, right? Does he have seven at this point? Who knows? Yeah, with the AI stuff, I can't even keep track with the Neuralink and with the- Exactly, I mean, the boring company, Neuralink, SpaceX,

Tesla, I mean, it just, it keeps going. I think he's got seven or eight multi-billion dollar companies, hardworking man right there. They're very exposing a lot of stuff right now in the government. Yeah, that's wild. And I have to take that information with a grain of salt. I do my best to try and see the other side of things. Or somebody pointed out, Fred, he was speaking with recently and they threw out there like, that is such a fraction of a fraction of the spend. So then I questioned, well, is this really doing enough? But you know what?

The fact that it is happening and it's starting, that's only in a few months time. I look at that and go, man, we've been wasting more than we were ever possibly told, we could have ever understood. And if somebody's going after bureaucracy, I'm a fan of that. And it looks like that's what's happening.

So I hope that more stuff gets uncovered and I hope that we get to save more and we start getting out of debt as a country. Absolutely. How could you not want that? Absolutely. How often are you on X? Cause there's a lot of wildness on that platform.

X is wild, man. I find that there's a lot more hate on X and TikTok, unfortunately, especially since I've been outspoken, you know, against terrorism. Right. Again, something that I thought we all should be on board with this, right?

Terrorists, terrorism, probably a bad thing. And apparently that's not the popular or common narrative, especially on TikTok and to some degree on X. So I look at it and go, hey, I value that you have the freedom to be an asshole on here, as do I. And I really do think that's important, but do I enjoy the experience as much?

Not always. You know? I didn't know TikTok was like, I knew X was like that, cause I see. Oh, I stopped, I stopped posting content, even just regular content, community content, TikTok, because it completely squashes your engagement. They have hated on it so much.

I mean, it's really a bummer. Like it's sad for me to say that, that I don't post some of my most valuable and important and personal and meaningful content on such a large platform, but I just don't bother anymore. Because they wouldn't show it to anybody. They actually canceled my account or whatever they call it, blacklisted my account for a little bit. Oh, shadow banned.

Shadow banned, you know, and it was absolute bullshit, but it was directly tied to all of the content I was putting out on my experiences in Israel and as a... So... That sucks. It does suck. I remember feeling shame growing up being Asian, like people took being racist towards me.

So I can relate a little bit, but yeah, towards the right now, it's extreme for sure. Yeah, there's been versions of it for the last, what, three or 4,000 years, I think, but I try and come at this with a little bit of jest, you know, and try and, and it's a very serious topic. But the reality is like, we have to find ways to look at it and not just be offended by everything and try and have an intelligent, passionate and respectful conversation. And that I guess is if I

have any frustrations over it, it's well, of course, racism towards Asians towards, towards, towards, that's where to say towards is going to exist. And that's what we're gonna say, towards, is going to exist and that's shitty, but that's just the reality of the world we live. But the fact that we can't have a conversation about it anymore, whether it's politics or racism, or just about anything these days, that is what drives me the most crazy, right?

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this is the only way or and fuck you and there's no other way like that. That's just that's my biggest frustration with all of that shit. Yeah, when I watch shows like Piers Morgan, it's almost like entertainment. It's not even an intellectual conversation anymore. You know what, but a lot of them, a lot of them are forced to create content that is more entertaining than simply factual

and intellectual because that's what most people wanna watch, right? So how do you bridge that gap? That's what I've tried to do specifically on, you know, the Israeli content that I've created, bring some levity to it, even, you know, the Israeli content that I've created, bring some levity to it, even, you know, make some of it into a bit of a comedy sketch, though it's a very important topic, to try and get more people to listen, because the reality is,

on any topic, 90% of people, or I'm going to say 80% of people are going to be in the middle, right? 10% of people are going to totally agree with you 100%, got your back, you're right all the time, love you. 10% of people, the opposite, hate you, never gonna like you, never gonna listen, so why even try and change their mind. 80% of people kind of don't really even know you're talking about it or care or have much information or just have even an opinion. And so when speaking to those 80%, creating content that is going to get them engaged in the first place, whether it's through, you know, a hook that's comedy or something outlandish,

that is a way to get people listening. And then maybe they're gonna pay attention to whatever your message is. And that's the way we live in. Sometimes it's frustrating, but instead of just being mad at it and doing what I think I should do and what's right and having nobody pay attention,

I'm trying to find a way to, you know, do stuff that does hook in the 80% that may just not know what's going on. Then feed them with a little bit of information. Try and be as unbiased as possible. And sometimes it's received well and sometimes it is certainly not. Yeah. You asked some billionaires for advice on this issue, right?

It hits deep with you. I did, man. Yeah. I was actually sitting at a dinner not too long ago with David Meltzer, who you know. Yeah, he was one of my good friends, extremely intelligent, hardworking, compassionate. He's a good human being as well, which I think is important, just making money. It doesn't really mean much to me, but being consistently successful and making money

and for a purpose beyond yourself to help other people, I think is commendable. And I look up to those people and beyond him, he has introduced me to so many amazing circles. I don't know as many singers and actors that get to sit down at these dinners with literal billionaires. And a huge part of the reason I'm invited is because of David Meltzer and the conversations we've had. And long story short, this was a little while ago. This was after October 7th. I had gone to Israel in November of 23

and just seen a lot that wasn't being reported. And a lot of which debunked a lot of the narrative that was being put out there that would, you know, it's very much these days clearly propaganda, but at the time was just a confusing narrative. And so a lot of people think still is. And I'm sitting down going, man, even me just explaining my experience, you know,

of going into Janine and seeing my friends in the West Bank and watching that 47 minute video, which I'm sure you've heard about, that I had to sign away and go to an IDF base to even watch, because it's one of the most grotesque, gruesome videos that ever existed. It's corroborated, it's Hamas GoPro footage and phone footage they took on October 7th.

Holy crap. That they posted celebrating the atrocities they committed. So this is literally them telling us what they did. And then since then I've said, oh no, we didn't do that or never happened. Oh, and then the next day say, yes, we did do that. We're proud of it. We're going to do it again. So I can understand why it's confusing for people, but they did it. They celebrated it. They posted it. And even just talking about that, I'm sure there are people that are gonna comment that I'm a terrible person or somehow I am a baby killer,

though the fact that they beheaded 40 babies in Israel. And they just flip it, they just make it the opposite. And I'm sitting there going, this doesn't make any sense. I'm looking at my friends going in to an area protecting civilians, doing their best to get their hostages back. A war was started and they're gonna engage in fight the war, but they're doing everything they can.

Like I'd hope the US military would, right? We're gonna go in, somebody launches one missile, one at the United States. You think we're not going in all guns blazing, you kidnap one American, you think we're not going to get that person back? I digress, obviously passionate about it. And so the point is even talking about it and talking about it now,

people are going to jump to conclusions, jump to hate, which is my biggest frustration, not jumping to have a conversation or questioning or showing me another perspective, which I respect. Would love to listen to, would love to talk about, but just jump to hate. And so I sat around this table with people going, hey, you have even more responsibility to business partners, fiduciary responsibility, moral responsibility.

You make a lot of people money, a lot of money. I make a decent amount of people, a decent amount of money. I have partners as well. I have friends, I have family, I have my girlfriend. I have a lot of people I care about that are getting a lot of hate because of me being outspoken on this.

How would you handle it? And I asked them essentially, about that are getting a lot of hate because of me being outspoken on this. How would you handle it? Is like, and I asked them essentially, is it your opinion that I really should keep my opinion to myself because business comes first and all of these other things are more important or is it your opinion that I should be doing what I'm doing and I believe that's the right thing to do, but I'm worried about the repercussions. And the responses in so many different ways were essentially so long as you've thought about the potential repercussions and you're good with them, you still believe that this

is something that's important, then you absolutely should do it. And pertaining to speaking about my experiences as in my experiences in Israel, my experiences with terrorism. My girlfriend and I actually were there in Israel just visiting three years ago now. And we were on Gizendorf, which is like Sunset Boulevard in Tel Aviv, which is an amazing city. People go and drink and party. It's like first world, the coolest and you know, what the coolest place is in the world. And we were a block away when a Palestinian kid, you know, 18, 19, adult, let's say kid, came across from the West Bank, found a gun illegally,

you know, however he got it, and went and shot and killed a bunch of kids, 18, 19, similar thing, at a bar we were at the night before, and we were about a block away when it happened. And that was actually my first experience with antisemitism, where when we got, we were jumping on bird scooters to go down to Jaffa, which like 20 minutes away. Remember something strange happening

with cop cars going by us, the police horses. I've never seen those things gallop and they have them on the beach and such. They were galloping by us. And I remember thinking that's weird. And we finally get to where we're going to dinner, my girlfriend and I, and get ushered in, then understand the situation that there was a terrorist attack,

hasn't happened in 10 years. It's like something happening in LA in Sunset Boulevard, or right here on Broadway in Nashville. It was a huge deal. That's not commonplace in Tel Aviv for all places. And it had been so safe for so long. And I remember posting about that on Twitter at the time, I think this was pre-X, or was it X?

I think it was still Twitter three years ago. Three years ago, yeah. And just going like, man, it's wild that the rest of the world hasn't spoken about this. It's like the next day and it'd been, you know, 24 hours or whatever. And I was like, dude, why is nobody talking about this? This is an ally of the United States.

It's a first world country. There's tons of Americans here at the time. There's tons of people from all over the world. Why are people not talking about it? And immediately the responses are, you should die. Go to hell. Because I'm saying anything at all. So, I digress.

It's a long story to say, I respect these billionaires. Their whole point was, you stand up for what you believe in. You will piss some people off. You're never going to make everybody happy anyways. That's impossible and you should stop trying. But all the people that decide to unfollow you, to no longer like you, respect you, maybe hate you, the value of the people who come to the board

and go, I'm actually aligned with you. I respect you. I love you. I'm going to become a new fan. The value of that is 10X. And I've actually seen that happen. It was very scary at the beginning. I lost hundreds of thousands of followers across platform. Oh yeah.

But I've gained hundreds of thousands back. Now we're still probably net down several hundred thousand, frankly, but that's okay. They were never really real fans anyways, if they don't like me because of the way I was born. Fuck off, truly. Now, if you don't like me because of the things I'm saying, I'm far more okay with that so long as again,

you have a different opinion that's based on history or fact or experience and you wanna talk about it. But if you just want to yell and scream at me I also don't respect that and I love the fucking fans that come to me now going to James My favorite ones are hey, man, I don't fully agree with that, but I appreciate your perspective. This is mine still a fan I love that even more than the ones that go like thank you so much I love you know because that to me is like such an intelligent Thank you so much. I love you. You know, because that to me is like such an intelligent,

respectful way of saying, I respect you for taking a stance for your position while I have a slightly different one. Man, still a fan. And I think that's a beautiful way to look at the world. Like, let's still be fans of actors and musicians. We like their music, we just don't like their politics. Like, that's totally fine. That's very respectful, because a lot of actors and musicians

won't take these stances. They're scared, right? Most of them won't, including the ones too, which is also, you know, a little bit of a bummer. But I, I get it. I get from a business point of view. Again, yes and no. I get it from the initial fear of, oh, I've just lost an opportunity or I've lost followers, but the long-term effect of it, I truly believe is going to be beneficial for anybody who's authentically and truly themselves. In a day and age where we have conversations, people are gonna see in fucking minutes from now, whether it's social media live or podcasts, we live in a world where everybody

can see through the bullshit, right? So the days of being an actor where I can have this opinion just in quiet, just in my, you know, and only be an actor and never engage outside of that are just, man, good on you if you can do that. I love the concept of anonymity outside of doing my job. I do, I just, I believe that we're living

in a different world, and I would rather be authentic and honest to my fans than try and put on a face and some bullshit just for the cameras. Yeah, I truly hope as a podcast host, it gets to that point, because I want to have some of these guys on the show, but they got PR agents up their ass, telling them what to say, what not to say.

And it's like, damn, they can't even be themselves. Here's my solve, just hire PR agents. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't feel for them, but hopefully it gets to that point. I think people like you are at the forefront of that movement. So, you know, I hope that I'm a good example of it though. Cause David Meltzer is a good example of that, right?

You know, part of why we connected was because he's seen me be outspoken. Now this is well before October 7th and well before, um, this kind of conversation, but I've always gone on podcasts and been myself. I've always been open to having a conversation that might be a little bit tricky because I'm intrigued by it and I want to learn. So I come to tables quite literally and figuratively like this. And if I speak to someone, they go, hey, cool. But what about this, dude? I'm more than happy to learn. I just, you know, if I'm not learning and growing every single day,

I'm not as happy. And that's attracted people like David Meltzer, who's attracted people like these billionaires to this table. So many amazing people have been attracted into my life because of hard conversations. Nobody of value has come into my life by shutting the fuck up and being afraid. I love that. How did you keep a good head on your shoulders? Because you had a lot of attention at a very young age, right? Yeah. I like you see a lot of these child stars eventually just fall off or... It's a strange thing, man. It's a strange thing to be of an impressionable age. Having said that, though, I'm grateful that my, quote-unquote, fame

didn't start until, you know, 17, 18. Like, I was a young adult, but I was an adult. I had gone to high school parties, you know, and done my keg stands and stupid shit and snuck out and had, you know, had enough of an experience, like a real child's kids experience that I didn't feel like I was lacking and missing that. I do have a lot of sympathy for kids who are actors and go on sets when they're like 10 and never get to experience that stuff.

I think that's even more difficult to then navigate who you are and how you see the world and how you're supposed to respond and react. And you take someone that had never been to a party and then made millions of dollars and all of a sudden goes out to the first club and what's going to happen? Like they're going to overdo it most likely. So I have a lot of sympathy for this world because nobody's really taught not to do something. once you start making it and you're making other people money, you're gaining fans, you're your your star is rising, so to speak. Everybody around you says, yes,

you could do no wrong to some degree. And I'm very grateful that my first manager, Billy Huffsey, he was an actor and dancer on that show, Fame. Back in the day, He was a huge star himself We got into management. He's still like like an uncle to me these days and he was my first Acting like manager and I'm grateful I had him because he literally would fucking knock my head off if I became a little shit

He was that kind of guy. It was a little old-, but you know, he would just be like, all right kid You got your first series Remember this do your job. Shut the fuck up. Go home. One of my favorite quotes from Billy Huffsey and I think there was a tremendous amount of experience and insight and Value that comes from that because he was in the world and to his points like look Show up be prepared. It's a job. You have an opportunity now to build a freaking career.

Am I telling you not to have fun? Of course not. But don't be the last person at the party. It's absurd. And so it just, I got so many other good Huffsy quotes for you, but he really instilled a lot of discipline and a lot of reality into my life. He wasn't always nice about it, but-

Times when you thought- But I'm grateful, man. It's the hardest experiences in my life. He wasn't always nice about it, but I'm grateful, man. It's the hardest experiences in my life, much like the hardest conversation I have today that shaped who I am. Yeah. He helped keep your ego in check, right? Oh yeah. Cause at that age, you know, 17, 18, and you're getting millions of views or whatever, all this- It was before views, my friend, getting old, seeing some grays come out here.

Television shows. I guess. Well, that's when TV was at its peak, I feel like. Yeah. You know? Yeah, I was there, I remember watching TV back in the day, but now I don't. Yeah.

I guess you're right, views, our views were not on social media, our views were literally the network every Friday. We'd get the rating every Monday, whatever it was. How did the episode do when it aired? And it's like, man, you know, if you got, I remember something like, if you got over 10 million people to watch an episode,

and maybe that's still the same today. It's been a while since I've been in a Q rating meeting, but it was just phenomenal. And then you think about, you know, YouTubers these days, and it's like hundreds of millions, billions of views. MrBeast is out doing the Super Bowl now. Yeah, wild, insane. Good on him.

One of the hardest working people, I think. I've yet to- Did you watch Beast Games? I've seen bits of it. I've seen bits of it. That was a hell of a show, man. I mean, just, I saw the first episode or two and I was just, this is wild.

I'd love to finish that up. Yeah, yeah. I won't spoil it for you, but that was a good show. You got any shows coming up? Television shows or movies? Yeah, so man, between, you know, because of how lucky we've been, how busy we've been on the road,

it has made it a little difficult to be on set so much, but I'm good with that because I have plenty of time. I was able to work on Blue Ridge last year. Nice. Which is a series. The first season just came out. I'm on the second season. So that'll be a lot of fun.

Um, my friend Jonathan check leaves it and it's like a modern Walker, Texas range here. It's really fun. We are working on a Paramount plus movie for the band. I hate to tease things, but that's, that's already out there guys. So I'm not saying anything new. Um, I will tell you that. We're either going to make it happen or it won't happen in the very near future.

And I'm knocking on wood and hoping that we can make it happen because it'll be a lot of fun. I think our fans will really love it. This is where the scripts are right now. It's good. I love that. So if we can make that happen, we'll be filming between probably the US and Europe this year.

So it'll be coming up pretty soon. Oh yeah. And then I'm working on several other projects. I've been developing film and TV projects for about a decade now. Hard to get funding for things in this industry, as we know, but the one I will mention is called Model Life.

It's a beautiful story about an influencer model living in LA who has everything going on for her. You know, perceived to be living the perfect life, the model life. You know, gorgeous friends, invited all the parties, makes plenty of money, tons of followers, blah, blah, blah. And then she gets cancer. And her whole entire world changes.

She realizes that the majority of her friends are vapid and shallow. And I lived a version of this in my experience living in LA had a lot of fun and also realize when I wanted to stop partying and going out so much. Oh, that's what those friends are for. And that's all they really cared about. And ends up meeting we'd be my character is going to be a rancher comes out to LA happens to be out there for some convention. And to some degree, and we're still writing this story, talks her off the ledge, figuratively and you know, in some ways literally invites her out to his ranch, goes, hey you ever want to

put your phone down, get your hands dirty, do some work, come do it and series events leads to that, they fall in love, all all the notebook and I'm not gonna spoil the ending or anymore but I'm excited about the story because it's so I believe it's such an important message to get out there. Now, I don't think every movie needs to have a fucking message to be clear. It can also just be entertaining

and this movie is gonna be brilliantly entertaining. But the backdrop of it is just a reminder of like, what's important in life. And why I bring this one up is because now we're creating the screenplay, you know, and hopefully shooting a movie out of Model Life. We're creating an entire novel. So I partnered with Level 4 Films.

I've got a great team on this. And as of last week or two weeks ago, we officially have hired the novelist and the screenplay writer to start working off of, you know, we created our 50 page Bible for basically. And so simultaneously developing, you know, dual IP. And it's exciting. I hope that the world gets to read this

and see this film in the next year or two years. That's cool, man. I've never heard of that approach, a book and a movie at the same time. You've heard a lot of people taking books, you know, and licensing them and finding them and making movies out of them. But in lieu of having just a fund of millions of dollars

to go and buy good IP, which is what it takes, we were like, why don't we create our own if we have a good enough story and we have a team to do it? And so that's kind of the concept. We want the, why don't we, uh, why don't we create our own? If we have a good enough story and we have a team to do it. And so that's kind of the concept. We want the book to come out first, have people go and read it and hopefully develop some sort of cult following love and then go and do the movie. Um, hopefully do our own project justice that way. So that story is relatable, man. Cause I used to throw parties growing up. Yeah. Like promote parties. No, like throw them in my mom's basement,

shout out to my mom. Okay, so like a low key promoter, like an unpaid promoter. Pretty much, yeah. But then when I stopped, I realized I had no friends. They were all just using me for my house. So I'm definitely gonna check that one out. Why'd you stop partying?

Was it a specific moment in your life? I gotta give my girlfriend, Caitlin, a lot of love for this when she came into my life about six years ago. She kind of made me look around and realize a lot of the people I spent a lot of time with were really just there for one reason. And I defended them to a degree and for a while and, you know, kind of, kind of always knew to.

I've always been the guy that still woke up and still got my shit done. So no matter how much I drank the night before, had fun or went out, I would still get up and do my shit. And so to me, I'm always like, well, that's just part of being in your 20s. Like I kind of justify it like I would look around the people in L.A. was around and go, well, I drink less than them. I go out less than them. But it's still just too much.

And so meeting her and then, quite frankly, having bigger and bigger goals. The more that I accomplish what I want in life, the more I get excited to swing for the fences bigger next time, because the more I realize the possibility of what I can do, we can do. Every little thing that works gets me more excited to get the next little thing.

And the truth is I just don't have the time, the energy, the want to be hung over anymore. Like that was directly correlated to slowing me down and then no world conducive to actually helping me. So instead of, again, instead of complaining about, you know, not being in the shape I want, not being as focused as I want, things not working out, I'm like, well, I can control that.

I know that doesn't help, so fuck off. And it went from taking off, you know, several months to last year, seven months to this year, I'm doing a full year. Wow. Because literally there's no reason why I need to have that. I'm an adult, one day I wanna go to a vineyard in Italy with my girlfriend and have some wine.

I mean, yeah, probably, but then again, maybe not. I'm committed to a full year. We'll see how I feel after that. It's all done, man. Yeah, I will say as I've gotten older, I start to feel hangovers. I used to be completely immune. Yeah, I mean, everybody is in their 20,

but I don't know if it's that we're immune or we simply don't have as much shit to do. Good point. So you're good with feeling groggy and being less focused, right? But as soon as you got to, if you had to come in and knock out freaking three, four, five, 10 episodes today, whatever you're doing,

and you weren't clear, like, I don't know about you, I get frustrated myself. Oh, I'd be wrecked. Yeah, it sucks. It just makes life too hard. Yeah. And it's so much more fun to be clear headed to, I guess one of the worst things I can think of

is somebody asks you a question and you're like fighting for the words to respond. I feel like an idiot. I hate feeling slow. I love feeling sharp. I love that, man. Yeah, cause you're juggling a lot of stuff, man. You got businesses, you got the acting, got the music.

Yeah, well, and to that point, one last thing, God, don't you love how short my answers are? One last thing I'll add to that is it helps so much, the lack of, not drinking, not drinking, not partying, helps me emotionally and spiritually be able to deal with problems, with the inevitable problems that come with business. So it just allows me to be a better bandmate,

better boyfriend, better friend, better business partner, all my other businesses, because I can manage everything else. When I'm like hung over and then dealing with problems, it's inevitable that I'm gonna be a little bit shittier to deal with. I'm gonna be a little bit shorter, a little bit more of a temper, a little bit,

and I don't wanna be that way. You know, I've done enough of that. Not a ton of it, but enough of it to go, man, I didn't like how I was in that situation. I don't want to be that way. You know, I've done enough of that. Not a ton of it, but enough of it to go, man, I didn't like how it was in that situation. I don't want to be remembered that way. Yeah. I don't know the exact percentage, but I'm assuming a lot of bands break up or fail, right?

I think probably most of them. Yeah. And that's probably any business. You got a bunch of people with different opinions trying to run something, and especially out in the arts and the egos. And it's very well known that it's a tough thing right being in a band so has there been like a rock bottom moment for the band where

you guys didn't know if it would work out well we stopped we took a good eight years off yeah and i certainly didn't didn't know that we were going to come back together for the first several years of that in fact for the majority of that time um it was not super fun at back together for the first several years of that. In fact, for the majority of that time. It was not super fun at the end of the first round of BTR. And I can say that, because any of the guys would say that. It's frankly not even anything personal. We hadn't had more than a couple of days off a year

for several times. We had to then eventually fight for like Sundays or one a week. It just, we were so burnt out that it's inevitable. You know, you spend that much time around anybody, you get that burnt out. It just, it becomes, you know, untenable to some degree. Coming back though, taking that time off,

everybody having their own opportunities to go and some start families. Some of us go off and do a bunch more film and TV projects. Travel, make other friends, live a little bit of life, right? That allowed us when we got back together, which now been four or five years ago, to come to the table as adults. We were children thrown into this situation. And we came back as adults.

And furthermore, we came back, found the brand Big Time Rush, Dormant. Our manager who I asked to be our manager, Jared Paul, who is very much the glue that keeps a lot of this together as well. I asked him three questions before I brought it to the guys. I'm like, hey, I think this might be the right time. I think this might be the right team. Is there any demand in the market for us? He said, no, let me go ask and checked.

Would you want to manage us? Fastest yes I've ever heard from that man's mouth. And he is a very analytical and very smart and it was a huge compliment. And the last one was how do we own it? And he just, you know, said, I don't know, but let's figure it out. And we did, we found an amazing team.

As the guys and myself found an amazing team. They were able to go and essentially license the brand and give us a shot to bring it back. Little did we know it would grow to be larger now that it was back then. Wow. So coming to the table after that much time was the best thing that could have happened to us.

Working together now as adults and co-owners and business owners, business partners. Yeah, there's, you know, there's struggles there as well, but it's much more respectful and it's much more clear headed. And best thing ever happened to us was taking an eight year break. Yeah. I didn't know you guys were larger now than back then. That's, that's impressive. And it's much more clear-headed and best thing ever happened to us was taking an eight-year break.

Yeah, I didn't know you guys were larger now than back then. That's that's impressive. We never sold out the garden back then We never did the forum. We're playing the Intuit dome in LA this summer. Like it's it's it's crazy So it's like your old fans mixed with a new era of fans. Exactly. Right? there's a lot of people that obviously come because of nostalgia because of The TV show and what man had grew up with them. But we, I can say this with full confidence and humility, we put on one hell of a show. We pride ourselves. Those guys on stage with me, I mean, the four of us on stage,

that's where we're the most comfortable. Every time we go out to a tour, we go, look, obviously we want to make money, but we're not going to sacrifice the quality of the show. And every time we go out, we spend more, do more, build a bigger set, bring more people, Obviously we wanna make money, but we're not going to sacrifice the quality of the show. And every time we go out, we spend more, do more, build a bigger set, bring more people, more production, change it up, new choreography,

because we really care. And I think it's fair to say that there's still a lot of people for the nostalgia, but there's also a lot of people coming back, so I went, dude, that's one of the most entertaining shows I've ever seen. Wow. And to us, that was always the thing.

It's like, we wanna build a business. We want this to grow from where it's at, not just do a couple of tours and cash in on a nostalgia check. Yeah. And now four years later, still touring, still selling out the Z-Go Dome in places they're just insane to think about. I think that we can fairly say, we've done that. Yeah.

We want to keep doing it too. I know you take pride in your marketing. I saw a clip on your Instagram saying how if you're an artist, you need to have a marketing background these days. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree with that because there's so many talented artists being in Nashville. As soon as you land, there's some talented artists in the airport. The airport, dude, I've heard some of the best singers ever just playing cover songs

to the airport. And you would never know who it is. Hopefully one day you will. But yeah, it's not not like the old days and I hate saying it, but that's the truth. Even 10 years ago, 15 years ago, it was the old days, things move so fast, where labels and networks would invest into development. A lot of labels and networks these days

wanna limit their liability, and they wanna make sure that you got things going on, that you kinda take the first step and figure it out, then they'll come in. So if you don't understand the basis of marketing, you're going to be amongst the many, many, many more talented people that people never know of, than the few talented people that people end up knowing it. And I just marketing is a big part of that. And within marketing, like anything else, there's no guarantee that just because you understand it, it's gonna work.

If you do understand it, you'll probably put more effort into it. You'll probably do more of it. You'll probably stay the course for longer. And then your chances of it working are a hell of a lot higher than if you didn't understand it in the first place. Absolutely. And I know we were talking negatively on TikTok earlier,

but when it comes to music, a lot of songs blow up because of TikTok. Hell yeah. Well, I was on, the only negative thing I have to say on TikTok is just the shit talkers that don't like that. They seem to promote and they seem to put down content. Otherwise, dude, I mean, I love the platform

because of its ability for virality, right? Everybody gets a shot and with music. And of course we have the band's music. I've also been writing for my own music. No set date on that, but I have a project I'm so proud of and so excited to bring to the world because it's just authentically me. And I want to do it with BTR because it's different, right?

I'm not trying to do that and leave the band. Not the goal, not the plan. I don't want that to happen. I would like us to live where they just, different fans can have different music. But I'm gonna, I'm looking at TikTok already in terms of strategy and like, hey, this is really cool. I get to create shit that, hey, maybe the first 10 or 20 or 100 videos

don't work, but it can take one video, where all of a sudden, millions, hundreds of millions of people can hear one of my pieces of art, one of my songs and otherwise, never would have that opportunity that the ability for that. So double edged sword like anything man, social media takes a lot of time sometimes it's annoying a lot of artists don't want to have to do it but you look at it as an opportunity and right now a free opportunity to get the entire world to know who you are then you should do it absolutely was that a tough conversation for you saying to your bandmates you want to do some solo stuff no because everybody's done it the tough

conversation is frankly like timing. You know, like how do we do it? Where everybody still feels that, you know, we're not doing it in place of the band. You know, how much time should I allot to writing my music before the band goes where you don't spend time writing band music? And I think I balance it pretty well. My solution to that is just write more music

and not even put a label on it. Like I'm going to go to a session and write something that feels good. And if it makes sense for the band, great. It makes sense for me, great. But every member of this band has put out their own music over the years. We got one member that's doing it right now. And it's just, you know, it's a conversation.

Everybody knows we're gonna do it. Everybody has the opportunity to do it. And I have always been a huge proponent in our group conversations of like, guys, when we do that, can we support each other more? Let's actually go in. I think that's the coolest way you could look at it. You know, Jonas Brothers, and good example of that.

Nick Jonas, Joe Jonas, they go off DNCE, his own stuff. They give each other love, they do that for a while and then decide, hey, let's come back. Let's do Jonas Brothers for a while. So a lot of respect for them, how they've done it. And I'd love to, in some ways, follow their footsteps and how this band operates. Yeah, I love them.

I grew up in Jersey, so Jonas Brothers are from there. Very cool. Yeah, I love them. I grew up in Jersey, so, Joyce Brothers are from there and- Very cool. Legends. Have you had discussions with those guys? You know, met them throughout the years very briefly. But it'd be cool if we did something together. That'd be legit. Showing us brother's BTR.

Well, dude, it's been cool. Anything else you wanna close off with here or promote? Well, when does this episode come out? It'll be about a month. Oh, well then we did something together. Yeah. Got it, so I'm so nervous to say things like this cause I don't want the band to be like James dropped,

spilled the beans and stuff, but we're definitely not coming out before this weekend, right? No, not this weekend. Okay, well then by now we've flown to JonasCon. They invited us to go and jump on stage and do a little random collab. They're gonna sing some of our songs.

We're gonna do a little show for their fans. Let's go. Which to us is such an honor because we grew up around the same time. They were in the Disney Channel for some bits. We were on Nickelodeon, of course, and they have just crushed it. They're insane musicians.

I haven't heard a bad thing about any of them in my entire career out here. So I'm real excited to get to go and hang with them this weekend and play some music together Yeah, I'm legendary can't wait to see that man. It's where you got if you post this before this weekend. I'm coming for you Yeah, your PR time. You don't be a lawsuit Well, we'll link your your stuff below man. This is coming on dude. Pleasure to see you. Thanks for having me Check them out guys. See you next time