Do Go On - 426 - The Sixth Backstreet Boy, Lou Pearlman

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

This week we are joined by Josh Earl to tell us about wild life of Lou Pearlman; blimp salesman, scam artist and the founding manager of both the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 07:21 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodSupport the show on Apple podcasts and get bonus episodes in the app: http://apple.co/dogoon Listen to Josh's new podcast Four Burners: https://www.joshearl.com.au/ Live show tickets: https://dogoonpod.com/live-shows/ Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/Check out our merch: https://do-go-on-podcast.creator-spring.com/ Check out our AACTA nominated web series: http://bit.ly/DGOWebSeries​ Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present.  REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story (2019)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcCRs0Ic3FI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amana, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. And welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and as always I'm here with Jess Perkins.

Hello Jess. Hello, David. And this week we are very, very blessed to be joined by our very special guest, Josh Earl. Yeah. Hello, Joe plays one old man with another old man. And you said before, I mean, Matt is canonically as old as the wind. He's at least 400 years old on the Do Go On and you said you thought he was even older than that. Well, I just assumed he was older than I.

was. Yeah, right. Because he's so white. I look up to him. I'm like, he knows what he's talking about. He's just taller. Is that it? And he's got a bigger beard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll get there one day, George. One day. I'm just going to stop shaving it and keep growing. That's his big secret. Well, great to have you back, back in the pod studio. And I've got to say, it's amazing we found time because you are the man of a thousand podcasts. Yeah. Yes, I've got a couple going at the same time right now. So I've finished up 100% Hits Volume Pod. Both of you were guests on it, which I went through the entire 100% Hits compilation

series. So if you're in Australia, that was a big compilation. If you're anywhere else in the world, I think it was overseas, it was called, Now that's what I call music compilation. I love it. Wow. And we were like, we're just going to say 100% hits. Yeah.

And then we had another one, which was called Hit Machine. That was kind of like the Pepsi to Humstense Coke. And I'm going through all that as well on my Patreon. But that went for a lot longer and was a lot more successful. So I'm going to be doing that forever. You're locked in. Are they still doing it? They still have so freshes.

Oh, awesome. Do they still make so fresh? Yeah, because Hit Machine turned into So Fresh. Oh, I loved So fresh. Yeah, me too, actually. That were great. It ruled. It was, it's getting really good.

We just did one a few weeks ago now with Dave Callan. Hit Machine 25 could be the best collection of pop song. ever on a compilation. Wow. We're talking no scrubs by TLC. We're talking, live and Levita Loca. We're talking,

oops, I did it again. It's real good. It's real good stuff. That's really good. Rules. And I've heard you say many times I'm a big fan of the pod. I absolutely love it,

that you feel like it's sort of scrambled your brain a bit, having to listen to these. My brain is broken. You know when you listen to so much Eurodance? And you start going, this is actually really good music. Yeah. And then you realize,

no, no, you've just been listening to a lot of terrible music. And this one's got something that you're liking it. Well, that's part of what I love so much about is you get great guests on, but also like to listen to your sort of, maybe your ear change a little bit, because you, you know, you talk about how growing up you're a bit of a music snob and music was a big part of your life. Yeah. And a lot of these songs, these bands you had no time for, but now, now, you've come around. They are absolute bangers. Real bops. I still, and this upset a few

people in the early days, I still really detest the red hot chili peppers. Okay. But I will, I will admit they've got a couple of good songs, but I don't, I don't, I don't, And as guys, they might seem nice. Flea, every time I've seen an interview, seems funny. Seems fun. Okay. But the people who listen to Red O'T Chilly Peppers at my school were the bullies, and I still am going to hold the band responsible for that.

Yeah, it's just a bit of trauma. That's okay. That's all right. You know, like a lot of us go to therapy to work through trauma stuff. I say leave some of it. Yeah. It's fine. Leave it untouched.

Leave a bit of meat on that bond. It's all right. Little bit's fine. Moderation. So that's the part. It's, what, a couple of, a hundred episodes or so with that one out there? Yeah, yeah. So that one's out there.

So the 100% is finished. The Hit Machine one's still going on the Patreon. And then I've got a new one called Four Burners, where I sit down with a guest. And we go through this theory, which is like, say your life is a stovetop burner. Yep. Four burners on it. One is health. One is career.

One is family. One is friends. You can't have them all burning at the same time. You're going to burn out. So we go through, like, the idea is that you turn one off. Like, you just don't concentrate on that one for a bit. and then you can be really successful in the other ones. If you turn two off, you're super successful in the other two.

And so I sit down with a guest and we talk about their burners where they're at, and at the end we discuss which one they're going to turn off. And it doesn't mean you're going to turn them off forever. It just means at this point in your life, you might. Oh. Yeah. It's really interesting, isn't it? Yeah.

I love that and feel like I'm in a period of my life where a burner needs to turn off. That's so interesting. I love that theory. Great. I can't wait to listen to people talking about that. People smarter than me, you know, because then I can be like, ah, I can take notes. People better with guests than you. That's the thing.

I just want to do it to learn from people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's smart. And also, a podcast that doesn't require heaps of planning and research. All I've got to know is the guest's name. That's it. That's all I have to know. And if you forget it, you just say, mate.

Yeah. And sometimes if we do it on Zoom, their name's on there. Yeah, it's great. That's easy. Yeah. And you're not trying to get four guests at a time where inevitably somebody backs out. Yeah. It's one person.

Just one person. Oh, you've nailed it. I know. I think after doing podcast for seven years, I think I finally forget how to do it. We are so jealous of it. Yeah, thank you for coming on this podcast, which requires days of research and writing. I love it. We appreciate it.

So we've had you on before. We've talked about the malice in the palace. Yes. We've talked about the band that never was. Yes, the exploding hearts. Love that episode. Two great episodes. And I must admit, so I'm a big fan of 100% hits your podcast.

And you go through a lot of the history. of a lot of the bands and the artist what was going on in the world at that time. And you had a little, a short story about someone, which I won't reveal what it is yet, Jess. But, uh, okay. Amé is pricked up. And I said, that sounds like there's something in there. Oh. So I reached out to Josh and said, can we get you back to talk a little bit about that?

Because I love it. Okay. Now, as I ask you, yes. Who let the dogs out? No, that's me. Damn it, because I knew that one. So you know how they say? I'd say the Beatles, the fifth member was George Martin.

Yep. Who was the sixth member of the Backstreet Boys? Ooh. I have no idea. And I, unfortunately, wasn't that big into boy bands in the 90s when a lot of my friends were. I loved five. Oh, everybody get up. Yeah.

Slam dunk the funk. Loved Richie in particular. He was my favourite. He had great Hugh Grant style hair. They had a guy in the band called Ackxie. Abbs. They did have abs. Abbs was the guy I remember.

And I remember, so, abs, he had the, or one, I think it was abs. Maybe it was the one you're talking about. He had the spiky hair, but it was little twists of, like, wax bits. Oh, wow. And then that was what he's famous for. Yeah, yeah. And that was very big at the time. And then he shaved his head.

And everyone was like, it was like when Metallica cut the hair off. I was like, oh, my God, how can you do that? And the excuse they came up with was they perform under hot lights every night, and his head was starting to melt. And he had to have to have to short. Well, Ab's full name was Abbs Love, but Abbs, people think it's because of his torso. Now, he loved Matt's Abacus Love. Not true, but very good. Can you name the other Backstreet Boys members?

Can you name one? Nick. There you go. Surname. Carter. There you go, that's it. Nick Carter. He was the standout.

There was him and Brian. That were the two. Brian. Very sexy name. That was the two standouts. I think I get Backstreet Boys. always an instinct a bit mixed up. Well, you wouldn't be the only one.

Right, okay. And we're going to talk about both those bands. Oh, great. Okay. But the sixth member was a little man, or not that little, actually, called Lou Pearlman. Oh, that's a great name. It's a good name. There's a lot of really good names.

Last time we talked in the Mallas of the Palace, there was a lot of good names in that one. Absolutely. And when I was writing this, I'm thinking, Dave's going to love this. There's some real good names. I'm so excited. Great. All right. So here we go, listeners.

Lou Perlman. I'm excited. Born in Queens in New York, 1954. Hey, I'm walking here. The crack of the bat. And a third one. Set in the scene, loving it. Have you been in New York?

No. I've never been either. You've been dating? I went for the first time a few months ago. Oh, there you go. Yeah, there was some pretty wild people on the street. I've got to tell you. And very loud people, too.

Oh. Like, you're in an airport there, and then if someone's having a conversation 100 metres away, you better believe you can hear every single word of that conversation. See, okay. So I think you've just done. One thing that I see online a lot that annoys me is where people will be, you get it a lot with, like, Americans living in Australia, and they'll be like, here's five things I've noticed about Australia. And they'll say something like that, like, they're really loud. Or they all eat jam on toast. And you're sort of like, you've seen two people do that. There was one the other day, which was like, they make you bring your own alcohol to a party. And it's like, not everyone does. And not every party. Not every party. I had to say, yeah, my first boyfriend's mum, um, said she had weird ideas about Australians.

Yeah. Being an Australian herself, which is odd. But like she was first generation Italian. She was Italian. And so talking about just like, you know, classic fifth generation Australians, she was sort of, she talked about we ate everything out of cans. And, um... Like from the can?

I don't know. Just everything was canned. Okay. And she went to a wedding in the 70s where it was like a backyard wedding. you had to bring like meat. You had to bring your own chair and like some meat or something. And she thought that was every Australian wedding. My sister-in-law is English and she reckons Australians peel veggies wrong.

We peel them towards ourselves and not away from ourselves. And I'm like, you guys don't even feel your whole sink up to wash the dishes. You put a bucket in there to wash the... Don't tell us how we should... Anyway. Yeah, so I think... But they're all loud in New York. Honestly, it was the loudest of the year I've ever been to.

That's why it's a city that never sleep. Everyone's talking too much. Shut the fuck up. So Lou, the only child of High and Rennie. No, Rini, sorry. High owned his own dry cleaning business. And Rini worked in the school canteen. Please tell me it was called High and Dry Cleaning.

That's amazing. And it's spelled H-Y as well, not high. H-Y, okay, that was my question. How is it spelled? H-Y. Love it. High and dry, that's really good. As a child, Lou was a loner.

It's been a lot of times indoors. Other neighbourhood kids teased him about his weight. He was a little rotund. And he's constant lying. Lied all the time. That feels a bit more worthy of getting teased, to be honest. They're calling him out in that point. It's not teasing, they're just calling him out.

Yeah, I was very much on this side. Oh, he's lying. I live on the moon. No, you don't. Well, as a child, he lied so much that when he told his classmates that they should come to his bar mitzvah because his cousin, Art Garfunkel was going to be there, no one believed him. Wow.

But they were intrigued because Simon and Garfunkel at the time, they'd just released the Sound of Science. They were one of the biggest pop acts in the world. and they'll want, well, let's go to this bar mitzvah and see if Art Garfunkel is actually going to turn up. It's kind of win-win because if art does turn up, great, they get to see art. And if he doesn't, they get to all witness Lou lying again. And, you know, this is 1967. He's one of the biggest stars in the world.

Yeah. As if he's going to go to a 13-year-old bar mitzvah. Yeah. Well, you know what? Art is a great man because he turned up. He was actually Lou Perlman's cousin. That's incredible. He's actually

Yeah But finally he's not lying About something And it's really cool So he turns up Stays for half hour Take some photos Does this make Lou cool

Not at all They're still like You're still a loser You have a cool cousin That just make you cool We like Paul Simon Yeah Yeah

Especially if you know What Garf uncle looks like If he's the cool one in the family Yeah Oh Lou That's not a cool family But he did make one friend Another neighbourhood

Neighbourhood loner Another only child a man by the name of Alan Gross. That's a name. That's a good name. Now, Alan was obsessed with aircrafts, in particular, blimps. You loved the good year blimp. We loved the good year blimp at this podcast.

Yeah, a big fan of blimps. Well, the two of them would watch the good year blimp take off from Flushing Meadows Airport, which was just opposite from where they grew up. And so, the two boys obsessed with blimps would go down there and try and get a job with the blimp. How many times can you apply for a job before the kid? They went every day, every day at the summer. Can I have a blimp job? Can I have a blimp job?

Can we clean the blimp? Can we pull the rope and get it into place? Eventually, the guys there went, all right, fine. You can have a job here pulling the blimp in. They'd be like, you can have a job here cleaning the toilet in the staff room on the ground. They just wanted to be around it. And the boys vowed that they would own their own blimp business one day. That's a noble goal.

Yeah. An achievable. Now, just an image for those listening at home who haven't already Googled what Lou Perlman looks like, imagine Philip Seymour Hoffman, the late, great actor. Yep. She's put on about 20, 30 kilos. Okay. That's what we're doing. That's what we're dealing with.

Okay. So during his first year as a student at Queens College, Perlman wrote a business plan for a class project based on the idea of a helicopter taxi service in New York City. So if you need a taxi, you can't go on the road, the subway's too full, don't like it, building a building on taxis. That's why it's so fucking loud. There's helicopters everywhere in that city. It's so loud. It's not that crazy an idea, is it?

If you think about how we have water taxis, you know, so is it crazy to just get a helicopter taxi? And by the late 70s, he had launched the business based on his business plan with his friend and aviation lover, Mr Gross. Wow. They started with one helicopter. And then he went to Germany and persuaded. a German businessman, Theodore Wallenkemper, to train him on blimps.

Just give him blimp training. Yep. I want blimp training. And they did it in Wollenkemper's facilities in West Germany. That's where he learned all about blimps, okay? But when he turned up, so Theodore was expecting, like, a proper adult. And this guy was only 22. Wow.

And he was like, I thought I was speaking to an adult. You own your own helicopter business? He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a mover. I'm a shaker. I'm Lou Pelham. Yeah. I don't know what I need to say.

I'm Lou Pelman. Art Gump uncle is my cousin. Oh, come on in. Yes. Blimp training begins now. I can get him on the phone. So Lou came back to America and attracted a big name client to advertise on the blimp. The gene company, Jordache.

A gene company. Jeans. You've heard of Levi's? Of course. Well, this is Jordaish or Jadashi or Jadaki. I don't know how to say it. Jordaish. Jodais

The only thing was He didn't own a blimp yet But he's got the advertiser He's got a client Yeah And he's got a kite So they paid him They paid him some money up front

And with that money He could afford To pay for a blimp Wow A cheap one But still It's a blimp A blimp's a blimp

A blimp is a blimp Yeah That's fun to say How just try It makes fun Shapes a blimp's a blimp A blimp Isn't that fun

That's fun The blub blub The double blur. It's really fun. Anyway, so he bought a cheap one, $10,000, which he adorned with gold for the logo, and it took off in the air, a magical site. Ten grand for a blimp.

Ten ground for a blimp. Dave, we could afford a blimp. In the, what, in the 70s? And this just geordaise, written on the side with gold, heavy gold paint. Oh, no. Too heavy for a blimp. No, no.

And that first blimp crashed. Yeah, so it says it seems that on the side of the blimp that faced the sun, the gold paint had absorbed the heat, causing the helium inside to expand unevenly. And the blimp started moving in circles and then slowly spiraled towards the ground, finally crashing into the trees just a few hundred yards from the site of the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. Okay, really salt on the wound. Don't take it off there. It's happening again.

The pilot, fine. Good. Yeah, it was a slow crash. Okay. Yeah. Which would be painful. Just going, we're hitting ground soon. Oh, no.

Brace yourself. Oh, no. Keep bracing. There's enough time to get embarrassed. Yeah. Which I usually isn't in a crash. Yeah. So, Alan Gross was devastated.

Their first blimp crashed. Lou, kind of upbeat about it. Took it all in his stride. Mainly because he had insured that $10,000 blimp. for $3 million. How is that possible? That's a bad insurance company. That's incredible.

Yeah. Alan questioned why it was insured for so much. And Lou told him to mind his own business if he knows what's good for him. It is his business. That's exactly what Alan said. Mind my business. This is my business.

This is my fucking business. And he said, for your own safety, keep your nose out of it and stop asking questions. So Alan stopped asking questions. Alan, don't stop asking questions when it's business, mate. You're liable for stuff. Yeah. So with this $3 million, Lou moved out of New York and went down to Orlando,

where he tried to attract bigger clients, and he started a new business called Airship International. I like it. Bought more blimps. What, 300 blimps? And this is the clients he got. He got SeaWorld. Oh, shit. We've heard of SeaWorld.

Yeah, I know it. MetLife. I don't know MetLife, but it seems pretty big. Yeah, that sounds like it'd be a thing. Yep. and a little company called McDonald's. I've heard of it. Yeah.

I know of it. Oh, is it grimace? The whole blimp is grimace. It's perfect thing. So, Airship International would also charter aeroplanes for people, which was pretty impressive for a company that didn't own any airplanes. He's really good. Yeah.

He's an entrepreneur. Yeah. So for their promotional material, people thought that had one, because on the poster was a massive plane taking off over Airship International headquarters. but it wasn't a real plane and through some photo trickery and some forced perspective, Lou held a model of the plane up

and took a photo of it so you couldn't see his fingers holding it. And it was Alan Grosser's model plane and Alan was disgusted that his model plane was used to trick people. Alan, can I just say, is the most innocent man I've ever seen. Oh, Alan, Alan.

I feel sorry for him. So the documentary where he's in called I won't get away, but it's out there on YouTube. You can watch it all. Alan lives in his little apartment in New York, does his model planes. There's thousands of blimp posters up on the walls. Oh, wow.

He just really, really liked blimps and model planes. He loves it. Okay, but one of these charter planes that he would charter, so he would charter the plane. So someone would hire him to charter his plane, and he would just charter someone else's plane and say, this is my plane. Yep. And so he was flying. The boy band, new kids on the block, and their manager.

And Lou was fascinated how could these young kids afford a plane, their own private charter plane. How can he afford to pay my stupid price? Because I have to buy another plane. So you're paying a premium. So we got talking to their record, or their manager, and the manager said, oh no, these guys have sold $200 million in record sales, but here's where the money is,

800 million in merging touring sales. Wow. And Lou decided he was in the wrong business and was determined to have his own boy band. Yeah, like that's, I mean, okay, I was. going to say like it's that easy to just have a really successful boy band. But Lou also has fairly easily had a blimp and aircraft business. Yeah, he kind of thinks of an idea and it actually happens. Yeah, so I think maybe he will, he will be able to make a boy band. I don't know.

You go to Germany, go back to that guy. Look, you know a lot about blimps. What do you know about boys and bands? Put them together. Lou were going to make some money. So he hired the new kids on the block manager and set up his own record label called Transcontinental Records. And in 1999, went on a talent search for the hottest singers in Orlando. Now Orlando, you might think, Orlando, Florida, but it's where Disney, is it Disney World? Yes, yeah. So a lot of people go down there trying to get jobs at Disney.

A lot of young singers trying to make it big. Yeah, it's too big. Let's go down Orlando. So he had a pick of who was there. Okay, so in the Orlando Sentinel, the newspaper, he placed an ad that said it was looking for a band with new kids on the block, look, and boys to men sound. Oh, okay.

I mean, it does sound a little bit racist when you put it like that. It does a little. Yes, it does. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yep, no, you're right. Yes, it does. As soon as you point that out, you can't. You can't unhear it.

You can't unhear it. And he held auditions in his blimp hanger, and there he signed Howie Dorrow, A.J. McLean, and Nick Carter. Oh, my God. Yeah. So they make three of a little bank with the Backstreet Boys. Wow. And then he would later sign Kevin Ruebush. Richardson and Brian LaTrell.

And on April 20, 1993, Lou Perlman, christened them, the Backstreet Boys. So that was the first name. That was their first name. Yeah, right, because you know how, like, so many bands all change their names a million times, especially like pop groups and stuff?

Yeah. But straight from the get-go, they're the Backstreet Boys. They are. I found this out the other day, Westlife, you know, the Irish boy band. Yes. Their initial band was called Six-on-One. And then they changed it to IOU.

but you, like, we're spelled Y-O-U, like I-O-Y-O-U. Okay. And Simon Cowell, so Louis Walsh went to sign them and took him to Simon Cow. So Louis Walsh is famous. He's on, like, X Factor, I think, in the UK. He's famously the one who turned down Harry Stiles, said, no, you don't have a kid. Whoops. Yeah, but he took him to Simon Cowell.

This is the six members of Westlife. And Simon Cow said, they can sing, but they are the ugliest band of ever seen. Fire three of them. And so they fire three of them. Pick any three. Yep, any three. It's just, it needs to be that percentage less ugly. And then get three hotties in.

And they got two. They got Brian McFadden and another. Oh, right. So Brian was the hot ring in. The hot ring in, yep. Oh, Brian. So the backstreet boys named after this place in Orlando where kids would hang out called the back street markets.

And so he was like, right. I never knew that. Yeah, the back street boys. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Kids that hang out of the market. All right.

Yeah. They then got them performing everywhere that would have them. shopping malls, restaurants, sea world, anywhere that would have them. A McDonald's blimp. They're performing for the dolphins, but the dolphins aren't hating it. They love AJ, but they do not like Howie. We keep Howie at the back to the dolphins. They recruited both a Kevin and O'Brien and did this thing,

and they're trying to be like these sex symbols is very funny to me. No offense to Kevin's O'Brien's listening, but you understand. You know, you know what you are. We're a Jess and a Dave, okay? We're in the same ballpark. Yeah, that's right. The hottest man on earth. Dave.

It's not happening. I don't know, David Beckham. True. He's pretty good looking. Yeah, that's right. But I think that he never. Jessica Alba. There you go.

Jessica Simpson. Come on, Jess. Oh, my God. You got her okay. But I feel like... Jessica Rabbit. What are you talking about? Oh, my God.

Yeah. Jess is a hot. Yeah, Jesus. But he was mostly a David, right? David Beckham. Yeah. Yeah. Same with, like, nothing in a David Bowie.

is there any hot Dave's. Dave Callan Dave Callan Beautiful man Dave Hughes Dave Hughes Beautiful man

To the hottest men in comedy Dave Thornton Oh yeah Dave Dave there he is Yeah there is Okay

So he's My character Dave All right So they almost got a Distribution deal With Mercury Records So we're quite a big record company

But their artist John Cougar Mellancamp said if you get into The Boy Band business I'm out of here Oh wow How odd

I know affect you at all, John Cougar Mellon Camp who are the other artists are? Do they make you do an annual festival with all the other artists or something? But this was 1993, so can you imagine like, John Cougar Mellon Camp did not have any hits after 1993.

Yeah. Whereas the Backstreet Boys went on to be the highest selling group boy band of all time. They backed Cougar Mellon Camp over the Backstreet Boys. Oh dear. Anyway. So, they missed out on the Backstreet Boys. Now, all the guys were living

together in the one house. They'd rehearse for six hours a day in the blimp hanger and call Lou, and he made them call him this, Big Papa. Big Papa. That's incredible. And Big Papa was paying for everything. Okay. With blimp money. Yeah. And he wanted to think of them as a father figure. Okay. And he would regale them with stories. One being how... How old is he at this point? So he was born in 54. So this is 19... So he's like almost 40. Yeah, he's sort of late 30s. Yeah. He's still young.

He's still young. And he's sort of like, call me dad. Call me big papa. I'm not my big papa. So he would tell them story about how he made his money and he's like kind of entrepreneurial brain. And so he said, he told them one story. When he was a kid, another kid in his like street had a paper route. And Lou wanted the paper out.

Sure. And so the kid said, I'll sell it to you for $500. There's a lot of money. Heaps. In 1967. And so Lou slept on it and went, you know what? I can make this. work. So he agreed to buy it off him, but he said, I'll pay you back over weeks and you'll get you.

And so what he did then was he then hired a bunch of other kids in the neighborhood to work for him and they would go off and then this way they can deliver way more papers. But what he also did was went to the Dunkin Donuts and said, people would like to read their newspaper and eat a donut. You guys don't deliver donuts. I've got an army of kids who can deliver the paper and a donut. So if you sell me the donuts cheaper, I'll give you your money back and then I'll I'll take the profit off of that. And he paid the guy back really, really quickly. Wow.

He just has one of those business minds. Yeah. This was a lie. So the guy, the guy he said, he did it. He said, as if I'd pay, if I'd sell for 500 bucks a paper, if I had, like, he goes, 500 bucks back there with so much money. Like, that would have been more money than my dad was making. He goes, this didn't happen.

Oh, man, I was like, God, this is impressive stuff. This kid, he just has one of those brains. Yeah. So we're falling for it Because essentially what he is is a con artist Yeah He's just a he's charming and he's confident Like him saying yeah I had a blimp business sounds too insane

He's got to like dumb it down for the Yeah To be more appealing to these young men I think he just wants to be liked Right that's his main thing I trust the newspaper guy story over I owned a blimp business Yeah totally yeah Okay

Yeah yeah Right you sound like you know what you're doing I bought a blimp. I crashed it. And then I bought 10 more blimps. So in 1994, I performed at a school, they put him to school, there was someone from Jive Records at the school. So Lou obviously invited them to come along and look at this school gig.

And obviously the kids were going crazy for it. And I'm like, this is the sound of the future. Saw them, sign them. And then they set them up. They flew them to Sweden to work with two men called Max Martin and Dennis Pop. So if anyone who knows anything about music, Max Martin has, I think, behind Paul McCartney and John Lendon, and has the most number one singles ever.

Yep. Has written for so many big names. Yes. You read the list of, I can't even think of examples now, but you read the list of songs that he's written, and you're like, oh, yep, yep. So this is very early on in his career. Okay, so Dennis Pop, he'd or had hits.

He was the producer of Ace of Bass. Yep. The sign is a great story about how he's, like, they sent him their, like, demo, and this was back in the day where it was on CAC, asset. And so he put it in his car and it got stuck in the car stereo. So every time he drove, he just had to listen to Ace of Bass. And at first he said, I don't really like it. And then after a week, he's like, I love this song. This is amazing. The same thing has happened with me,

my seatbelt in the front. The sensor is broken. So it doesn't think I'm wearing a seatbelt. So for the first four minutes of any drive, it's just going, beep, beep, beep. I hated it. Now, I love that sound. I can't get enough. That's, that I would, I would be driving the car off a clip. It's very annoying. I'm getting a replace later than the week, but it's been four weeks. That is so annoying. So Dennis has had hits with Dr. Albin.

He's the dentist, right? Yes, yes. He was a dentist. Hallelujah. Oh, yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah. Ace of Base and Michael Jackson's nephew's 3T.

Wow. Yeah. Just in Germany and Sweden and in Europe and so like. And Max, just starting out as a producer, but was about to change pop music forever. Okay. So in these sessions, these first sessions, they record their first single, We've Got It Going On, which was a hit in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and the Netherlands. Wow.

It was not released in their home country until way after, because a Montreal DJ heard it while he's travelling through Europe and played it on his show and on radio show in Montreal. Then it made its way down south to the US, and it peaked on the Billboard charts at number 69. Nice. A great debut. Great.

So can I ask, Before they went and caught up with Max and Dennis. Dennis with a Z. That's good stuff. But like they were signed from that high school. So who was writing their music then? Or are they doing covers? I guess they're doing covers. Yeah, right. Cool.

Yeah. There you go. But they kept getting bigger in Europe, in particular Germany, the home of blimps. And when they released their song, I'll Never Break Your Heart. It sold 250,000 copies in Germany alone. band were voted international band of the year at their music awards and their debut album sold half a million copies. Wow.

Whoa. But the boys not seeing any of this in their bank accounts. Oh. They were just on per diems, $35 a week. And Big Papa was paying for everything else. So flights, hotels, food, rent, rent if they all agree to live in Luz apartment, he organized it all for them. And they're making $35 a week.

$35 a week. $5 a day. I know it's the 90s, but that's still not much money. Oh, yeah, I guess you could say it's not much money. Yeah. $5.000. I'm going to go out in a limb. Sorry, guys, and just say, that's not very much money.

So eventually, the label decided, you know what, these guys, I think they're ready for America. And so they released the Max Martin Penn song that I'll never break out. A song that recorded on June of 1995 when Nick Carter couldn't actually sing on it because he was 15 and he was going through puberty and could no longer hit the high notes. So on the actual recording, the first recording, he's not on it. He's now since they've re-recorded it and he's on it, but at 15, he couldn't hit those high notes. Whoa. I guess I didn't realize that how young they were as well, yeah. He was the youngest, yeah.

So, 1997, that already worked on their second album, and the band were more excited about the new songs and really wanted the song, Everybody Back Streets Back to be their first American single, to which Barry Weiss, the head of Jive, quite smartly said, your debut can't be saying you're back. That's a great point. They tried to argue it. They could be like, we're back from a holiday, back from the shop.

We could be back. Yeah, doesn't it? The opening line is, oh my God, we're back again. Who the hell are you? We're so good. Big fan of that song.

Big fan. Love it. It is a good song. So good. One of the great pop songs. All right. So all of this was happening. And Lou,

he was getting dissatisfied with how slow everything was taking. Takes a long time to write and record. Takes a long time to release. Takes a long time all this kind of stuff. Oh my God. Dude, they've just sold half a million copies in Germany. He's like straight up. You're only paying him with 35 bucks a week. You're fine. This doesn't happen to most bands. But he decided he's going to do something about this. What he was going to do, he's going to form another boy band. Perfect. Yes. He was thinking, Coke had Pepsi. McDonald's has Burger King. Pizza had his dominoes. There's always a competitor. So why not him just make his own competitor? And so,

For the back street boys, he was going to do this. So this time, he met with a young performer called Chris Fitzpatrick, who had just missed out on a spot in the backstreet boys. But Lou had kept in contact with him and said, if you get a band together, I'll have a look at it, and if I think it's good enough, I'll finance it.

So Chris got his friends, Jay Cshaise, Lance Bass, Joey Fetoni, and Justin Timberlake. Do you know that band? Yes. Know the band? I know this band. So that originally had a guy called Jason Galasso,

but he was replaced by Lance. So do you know how their name came about, NSYNC? No. It's the last letter of their first name. The last letter of it. Ah. Yeah. So just tin.

Just 10. J.C. Joey is the Y. Yep. Chris is the S. And then Jason Galasso was the other end. But he got kicked out and Lance Bass came in. So they should have really been ESync.

Oh, yeah. But there isn't an asterix before the end. So I'm wondering if that's what the asterix is for. Oh. Lance. In case you're looking into it, Lance is represented by this. I didn't look this up. Maybe it is. Maybe that's what the asterisk is for. But that's, yeah, anyway. They auditioned for Lou. Lou loved it. He loved the harmonies. He loved how good they were dancing. And he said, you know what? You're good enough for the hangar. So he got them all to move to Orlando and live in a house he organized for them.

Lance's mom came down. She was a teacher. So she tutored the boys, okay, when they had time. They too were on per diems of $35 a week. Oh, my God. But Lou didn't tell the Backstreet Boys about it. Sure. He kept it secret. And on official documents, the Transcontinental Records, they were just down as T5, as in Transcontinental 5, didn't have anything to do with NSYN. That's all they were just there.

So he followed the blueprint he had with the Backstreet Boys, flew them to Sweden, worked with Dennis Pop and Max Martin in Sharon Studios. And when the Backstreet Boys found out about NSYNC, furious. Okay? And Lou decided to feed on this by telling each band that they were his favorite band. Of course, yes. Yeah. Healthy.

This worked for Lou, as both bands would work harder and try and beat the other ones. And also, at the time, it was, they were pitched as, are you a Backstreet Boys fan or you're an Insync fan? You can't be both. It was the blur orasis of the, uh, the pop boy band world. Okay, so two years into this, only been pay per diems, performing huge venues, getting songs in the top ten internationally selling over 10 million albums, Lou invited NSYNC to a sit-down dinner with the parents and declared it,

check day. They're finally, after two years, 10 million albums, getting checks. Okay. Not just per diems. They're bringing in a few suitcases. Can we guess? Do you, like, is there an amount? There is an amount. So just think they've been on TV. They've sold up theaters. Yeah. Millions of albums. The merch must be through the roof because you said new kids on the block. They're 800 million dollars of merchandise. Okay. So there's five members of the band. So how much do you think They got paid for two years work. Because I think, because he's paying them a $35 a day. He's pocketing everything.

I'm doubtful it's going to be a big number or a number that they should be making. It should be like a couple of million, few million each. Yeah. Like two million, three million each. That's what it should be, right? I'm even thinking like 25K and I think that's too much. It's got to be more than that. I think he's going to give them each like 10 grand and it'll be like, hey, you know?

And then he goes, but entrees are on me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. I think he's going to be tired. Get dessert, come on, big papa's paying. Share, though, they're big desserts. Whoa, yeah. You can't eat all that. Hey, Joey Fetone.

I know your surname's fat one, but come on. Only one dessert. So what do you reckon, Dave? I'm hoping it's a million dollars. Yeah, I'd love it to be, but I think it's lower. How lower? I'm going to say 100 grand. You did say it.

$10,000 each $10,000 each. Everyone, furious. 10 million records. 10 million records. And they're always 10 grand each. Huh? Two years work?

Go buy yourself something special. $5,000 a year. Like, the parents, furious. So it's a bonus $100 a week that he's like, there you go. Yeah. So. So, Lou couldn't understand why. He goes, what are you talking about?

Guys, you're running check day. I've paid for everything for two years. Where do you think that money's coming from? This meal is coming from, like, he's like, this comes out of the earnings. Like, you don't just get to fly private jets and you think no one's paying for it. You're paying for it. So he couldn't understand why they were upset at making only $10,000 for two years, being like one of the biggest bands in the world.

Like global superstars. Yeah. Yeah. So a few weeks later, Justin Tim Blake was playing in a celebrity basketball game in Orlando, alongside Nick Carter. And so after the game, he went up and spoke to him and said, hey, check your books, because I think Lou is stealing from us. So Nick Carter went back and got the books checked and found out, yes, they were, in fact, stealing from him. So apparently, Lou had stolen 50% of their earnings, but in the contract, Lou had placed himself as the sixth member of each group. Oh, so great.

So he was... I'm also living on $5 a day, kids. It's fine. I'm doing great. Yeah, so NSYN sued Perlman and his record company Transcontinental for defrauding the group of more than 50% of their earnings rather than his promise of only receiving one sixth of the profits, of the profits, similar to his promise of one sixth of the profits with the Backstreet Boys.

They threatened to leave and sign with Jive Records, which prompted Perlman and RCA to counter sue Ensign for 150, $50 million. We have no money. Yeah. We have no money, man. Okay. Are you paying for that?

We have $50,000. Oh my God. We can't even get through day one of court proceedings. So Transcontinental, along with RCA's parent, BMG Entertainment, went to federal court and filed said 150 million suit in an effort to stop Insink for the moving to Jive Records. He said, if you do move, you can't have the name NSYNC. We own the masters, so you can't play any of your songs. And they had their second album that they were.

so you won't be able to release this second album. Okay. The suit also claims that Jive executives induced the group into breaking its transcontinental contract and Perlman's request for a preliminary injunction against the band was denied. In December 1999, Ensign and Perlman reached an undisclosed settlement out of court freeing the group to release future albums on Jive records. Now, there's a couple of things that won the case for NSYNC.

The first one, the judge, she was great. Her daughter, huge fan of NSYNC. And when Lou tried to argue that he was the sixth member, she said, hang on. So if I go home tonight and look at the posters of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys on my daughter's wall, will I see a man in his 40s who's bald in any of those pictures? And you try to argue, no, no, no, but behind the answer, and she goes, you're not in the band, okay?

You're not in the band. Look closely. I'm in the background. The background, thumbs up. But what, so that got NSYNC on her side. But what actually won the case? Because in the contracts, he said that he would sign them to a US label first. And he didn't. He signed them to a German label first.

So the actual contract was null and void. So the judge was flabby against her. He thought he would be able to own 90% of their earnings. And so she ruled for the band and the implosion of Perlman's empire began. Wow. He thought, well, I should have 90%. 90% of everything that both these bands make. I've done all the work.

Yep. I'm the one on stage singing. Who's hangar? Are you hanging out? I provided the hangar. I paid the, like, I think it's like 20 cents a word for the Orlando Sentinel ad. Like, that's me. I did that.

Biggest band in the world selling huge amounts of records and stuff. Their manager should be also quite wealthy. Yeah, I don't think anyone would argue against, you could do quite well from this. You should be doing well. You're managing two gigantic boy bands who are doing incredibly well. And you've put in a lot of work. Yes, you should be living very comfortably. Yep.

So should they. Yep. So should they. They should all just be millionaires and be really happy. You should all be millionaires because also they're the ones in the public spotlight, which ruins your life. Yep. Whereas he just gets to go about his day, although he'd probably love the spotlight.

Yeah, you should be, you should be wealthy. They should be very wealthy. Well, incredibly, this didn't stop bands still wanting to sign with Transcontinental Records. That thing of young people going, well, it worked for these guys. Yeah. We can sign. It worked for them, like, in terms of being. famous, not financially.

No. So he signed a band called O-Town. Okay. I never heard. C-note, I never heard of these. Nick Carter's younger brother, Aaron Carter, was also a sign with them. Love Darren Carter. This is after the Backstreet Boys left as well.

Still signed. And the younger brother still went, yeah, I'll go with this. He had girl group Solid Harmony and a band called Innocense, spelled I-N-O-S-E, which for a short time, Brittany Spears was a member. Oh. Yeah, but then she left to go solo. he's something weird about. So on her first national tour,

she had, in a sense, as a support act, which I'm not sure is, is it nice or is it, hey, look at me now. Yeah, hard to say. I was you for a while. Yeah. I saw these tickets. Yeah.

You guys can support me. Like, yeah. I'm doing you a favour. It's like Beyonce having Kelly Rowland as a support act. Yeah. Would Kelly say yes or would she go, oh, no, I don't want to do that. Yeah, I don't know. That is tricky.

Yeah. Depends on, you know, the relationship. but probably feels a bit yuck. Well, speaking of yuck, we're about to get into some murky territory. Okay, great. So we've had fun with the blimps. Haven't we had fun?

Remember the blimps? All right. Lou was a bit lecherous with some of the members of the bands, okay? So he constantly asked to see the guy's abs, arguing that as their manager, and he's selling them on their sex appeal,

he needs to make sure that they are still fit and healthy. All right, boys, line up, app check. Oh, wow, that's so odd, isn't it? Really gross. He would also offer to massage the boys. And according to O-Town member, Ashley Parker Angel, he would massage him into shape. He said, because he had a degree in remedial massage. No, he didn't.

No, he didn't. No, he didn't. And these are young boys, too. Young, young boys. They're all over 18. I should put that out there. Just in case. Yeah, okay.

Yep. And he said he knew exactly what muscles to press to get him to pop without even having to work out. No, he didn't. Yeah. So Ashley led him. but luckily, not long into it, Lou got a phone call and actually he ran out of the room. So if this isn't creepy enough,

ugh. This happened to a man called Rich Cronin of the band LFO. So LFO was one of his other bands, and he told this story on Howard Stern. So he was living in Lou's house. Lou came into the room, all worked up, excited and said, I've just got this massive deal for your band in Germany, okay?

They love the band. The only thing is for them to sign you, the head of the label, just wants to touch your penis. That's what he's going to do. Just touch it. It's a pretty normal deal. Happens all the time.

So Rich outraged and Lou saying, I understand, but we've got to think about the band here. Okay? You've got to think about the whole band. And you know what? How about you let me practice on you first? Oh my God.

Because I have a minor degree in psychology so I can get you through this mentally. Guess what? He didn't have a minor degree in psychology. You don't say. No, no. Rich did not do it. Okay, great.

Yeah, he's like, no. Yuck. He's the third yucky thing. He had cameras all over his house. So this is the house that he made them live in. So there was cameras in every room. And the control room where all the TVs were was his bedroom. Oh, gross.

So he also had a sunbed, a tanning bed in his house. Yeah. And he'd invite the members of Innocence, one of the one of the two girl groups he had to come over and use it. And then he would offer the boys in the other bands, hey, do you want to see the girls strip off and use this? None of them did. None of them did.

None of them said. And then they actually told the girls from Innocence and they were like outraged. Wow. Wow. I'm happy to hear that. Just statistically, that's a lot of young boys. And it is impressive that nobody, even young and dumb, you know, your brain's not fully formed?

Yeah. That nobody was like, yeah, okay. I'm going to be a star. Yeah. So, in a sense, member, Nikki DeLocch. She had already had her lawyer tell her not to sign with Lou as the worst contract he'd ever seen. Wow.

But this lure of being a star, she was, I'm going to sign it anyway. I think this is my only chance to be a star. When the band wanted to leave, because I realized he was awful, he'd only allowed him to leave if on the release form made him the sixth member of the group for the remainder of their career. So he just keeps profiting. He's just going to keep getting money. She decided not to sign it because the six member clause

and also of a confidentiality clause, meaning she was never allowed to speak about him publicly, ever. And when she told him this, that she's not going to sign that, he said to her that he had life insurance out on her and said, okay, well, if you're flying or whatever, I have insurance. So just, you know, keep that in mind. Whoa. And for a guy with, like, a history in the aviation industry,

that's a very scary threat. Yeah. A history of tanking blimps. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And cashing the check afterwards. Wow.

Yeah. It's funny because pretty early on, we were pretty sure he's a bit weird and crook. And now you're like, yeah. Well, it gets even worse. Oh, good. So bands are leaving low, but he's still cashing in on being a talent breaker.

And he purchased a talent agency where young people would pay money to get their headshots and put on a database and he would promise them to get work. Although no one ever got work. Of course. So there's just like thousands of people paying him money and it's just collecting checks and using a photographer that he said, no, you have to use this one.

Yeah. And so, yeah. And anytime they would get bad reviews or people would look into it and go, don't trust this company, that just changed the name. Great. From Transcontinental Talent Talent to Willamina Talent Scouting, web style network, fashion rock, and then talent rock. Wow.

Yeah. And so the FBI was investigating in this. And the Attorney General was a man called Charlie Christ, who, Lou. Charlie Christ. Christ, get in here. It could be, it could be Christ. C-R-I-S-T. Would you say Christ or Christ? I'd say Christ.

Yeah. Chris. Maybe Christ, but let's call him Christ. Charlie Christ. It's so good. Well, Lou and him became friends. And rumours are that Lou paid him out, and one investigator on the case believed this, because they went to the transcontinental offices to investigate.

And she said, every single person in the office didn't look up from their computer while they're working. And she said, look, I've been in offices when the FBI come in, and people are freaking out because they know, what's going on, what's going on here? Yeah, you're fascinated by, surely. Even when, like, to someone, when in an office comes in a suit and you don't recognize them, you're like, who the heck's that? Yeah.

She said, no one looked up, no one said, oh, excuse me, what are you doing? Yeah. And she is convinced that they were all paid actors. So maybe he'd got some people, some acting work. Wow, they were all, they all had their shirts off and their abs were incredible. But none of them looked at it. Yeah, it's like, cops walk into a cafe and you're like, are they just here for lunch or something happened? Yeah, totally.

It's just fascinating. Oh, they're just here for lunch. Even if you haven't done anything dodgy, like, what's going on? Yeah. So her belief is that Charlie, Chris, tipped Lou off. He said, all right, here's what's going on. Okay. But now it gets worse for Lou, okay,

because not only was he defrauding young people with big dreams and making millions, he also had been defrauding old people in the longest running Ponzi scheme in American history. What? Yeah. So he'd been defrauding investors out of more than a billion dollars. What? Out of which 300 million is still missing. For more than 20 years, he would entice individuals to bank and banks to invest in transcontinental

Airlines, Transcon Records, and both companies' parents, Transcon International Artists Inc, incorporated. Wow. And so all three companies were not real companies. They only existed on paper. And so what, and that's at least until the boy bands took off. And then it was like, all right, but at the start, he got all these investment from people just by paper.

Just, I've got the paperwork. He's just obsessed with money, isn't he? Yeah, yep. And any way to get it? What's he's spending it on? Yeah. Cameras. He's got so much.

So a lot of people invested all their finances. He really prayed on people who had just retired and got this lump sum and he'd go, right, this is a safe bet, okay? And in the documentary, I watched the boy band con. Lots of people are like going, he seemed like you'd go into his room and he'd have all the gold records on the wall. And he'd go, hang on, a very important person just walked in. And then he'd go, oh, sorry, that was just Justin Timberlake.

Anyway, what can I do for you? You guys are the most important. And he'd just charm them. Yeah. and get them to hand over their entire life savings. And I don't, I mean, you can't pity people like this because they're awful. Yeah. Yeah.

But also there's a part of me that is like, how are you existing day to day when surely you are in some version of fight or flight constantly? The strain on your body. Yeah. Must be. Because you can't possibly be that ignorant to it. You know what you're doing. Yeah. And you know you're scamming.

people and you know you're full of shit, you know you're going to get caught. That adrenaline constantly would be killing you. Yeah, there's so many balls to keep in the air at all times. It would be awful. You can't relax. Yeah. So he got his loans from banks by creating a fictitious accounting firm called Cohen and Siegel. And he'd go, oh yeah, this is my accountants.

It sounds legit. It does sound legit. So in February 2007, Florida regulators announced that Perlman's Transcontinental Savings Program was indeed a massive fraud and the state took possession of the company. Most of the at least $95 million, which had been collected from investors, was gone. Orange County Circuit Judge René Roche ordered Perlman and two of his associates, Robert Fischetti and Michael Crudell, to bring back to the United States any assets taken abroad which were derived from illegal transactions. So Lou disappeared. He went on the run.

Wow. Wow. He's taken off. In a blimp? Oh, so that's big. A slow blimp, chase. There had been sightings of him in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Israel, but I've been sightings of him in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Israel, but I'm. It wasn't until he was spotted in Bali by a German couple on holiday.

Because, you know, the Backstreet Boys, huge in Germany. Yeah, yeah. Lou, would have been famous in Germany. Yeah, he's the guy. He's the guy. He's been on their poster in their bedroom wall. Wow. He's the sixth member.

Yeah. Excuse me, are you the sixth member of the Backstreet Boys? So he was arrested on June 14, 2007 in Bali, after being spotted by the tourist couple on holiday. He was living in a hotel called the Nusadua in Bali, and he'd been seen in Orlando in late January in 2007, in early February in Germany, including appearance on German TV on February 1. You're really laying low there, Ron. Yeah, Lou. He'd also been seen in Russia, Belarus, Israel, Spain, Panama and Brazil.

So he's having a terrible time. Yeah, and in early February, the attorney in Florida had received a letter from him sent from Bali. So they knew he was around there. Yeah. They just didn't know exactly where. So he was finally indicted by a federal grand jury on June 27, 2007, and he was charged with conspiracy, money laundering. money laundering and filing false bankruptcy. Wow.

But he wasn't done hustling. Even though he was sentenced to jail, one of his plans, he said, look, how's this for an idea? I get special phone and internet privileges in jail and I can make and sell a boy band from jail, and this can pay back my debts. The judge said, no. I can put together the jail boys. The guy to sell next to me, he's got a great job. How stupid do you think I am?

He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but he only served eight years. Of course. Because he suffered a heart attack. Okay. And he died August 19, 2016, while Can't Stop Them Feeling by Justin Timberlake, was number four on the Billboard charts. I really wanted to be number one. I wanted to be number one. It would have been so nice.

It's in one of the gnome movies or Smurse movies. Trolls. Yeah. Which is why NSYN are back because they got a song on the new Trolls one. Okay, great. Yeah, they're back. Anyway, that is the story of the sixth member of the Backstreet Boys and NSYN. That is an amazing story.

That is so wild. What a wild. But, okay, I was thinking this recently. What movie was I watching? Champions. It's relatively new. Woody Harrelson. Oh, yes, he's a basketball coach.

Basketball coach has a DIY and instead of prison, he's offered prison or he has to coach a community basketball team. I coach two basketball teams. I coach an under 10s and under 14s. To say it's a punishment, I don't know if this movie stands up. Well, it's because he thinks he should be in the NBA. So it is.

It's a big downgrade. But it's that or prison. And he thinks about prison instead. Josh, have you thought about prison instead of coaching? I don't think I'd do very well in prison. But when does that happen? I'm sick. I don't understand that.

in movies where it's like, you can go to prison or go train at this gymnastics gym. That's stick it. That's a great film. It's nothing in the rules that say dogs can't play basketball. I always go back to that when you're like, do movies actually hold up in reality? That's true. That is an amazing story. I knew none of that. I don't think I even knew that NSYN and Backstreet Boys were like purposefully made to be competitors for each other. And it's so funny. So they had such a like a mark.

on the culture because MTV set up their total request live, TRL, just because of these boy bands, because every day that have like just teenage girls out the front of the windows, MTV just wanted to see if anyone was there. So they set up their whole, like, this is the boy band, or the pop songs, and they would get just hundreds of girls every day screaming and going, sometimes they were just screaming at windows. There was no one here.

We didn't interview anyone. They're screaming at windows. I was about to say that sometimes I feel like I missed out on a quite an pivotal part of being a teenage girl at that time. But I didn't scream at any windows. I feel too bad about it. But yeah, I missed a lot of that, which is a little disappointing, but whatever. You missed out because this guy is obviously a creep, a bad guy. Yes.

But we have him to thank for the Backstreet Boys. I know. And that's something. And NSYNC. And NSYNC, who I wasn't as in. But Justin Timbley, obviously, an incredible influential career on Pohl. Yes. So I think Justin Tim Blake, I think things turning on him.

I think there's a lot of stuff. So Britney Spears released her memoir. There's a lot of bad stuff about him being not the nicest of boyfriends. Send her a text to dump her, like, just said it's over with like three exclamation marks. Yep. I mean, in the memoir, she did cheat on him with her choreographer, but apparently he had cheated on her with Nicole Appleton from the All Saints. Oh, wow.

Yeah, no, he doesn't seem like the great. greatest person, but a huge career. Yep, huge, very influential. He also bought Myspace when no one cared. That's true. I forgot about that. He bought Myspace. What do you?

Does he still own it? I don't, I reckon you could own it if you wanted. I'd put an offer in, $5 a day. I also, I looked up Max Martin's. This is Billboard 100 number one singles. Yep. So, Baby One More Time by Britney Spears. Wow.

It's going to be me by Insink. Kissed a girl. Say it right. Can you say? It's going to be May. May. This is my thing. I found this out with my podcast.

The reason that says May is Justin Tim Blake record, it's got to be me. And Max Martin's like, no, no, you've got to say May. And he goes, well, and he goes, it just sounds, but trust me. Because English is not Max's first language. And he's like, no, this is how it works scientifically. This would be a hit. And there's a couple other songs that he's written where it's like got a weird like, May instead of me.

And now it's just, now it's a meme. Yeah. All because of. I mean, if it's number one, you can't argue with it. Yeah. There you go. I Kiss a Girl by Katie Perry. Yep. So what?

By Pink. My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson. California Girls by Katie Perry, featuring Snoop Dog. Another Katie Perry, Teenage Dreams. Raise Your Glass by Pink. There's so many. Last Friday night by Katie Perry. Wow, he did all the case.

He's done a lot. Raw by Katie Perry. Shake it off by Taylor Swift. Blank Space by Taylor Swift. Wow. Bad Blood by Taylor Swift. Can't Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake. Blinding lights by the weekend and save your tears by the weekend.

That's the most play song ever on Spotify, I think is that. Yeah, huge. Absolutely. And like, that's just, that's just the ones that have made the number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. He's getting paid $45 a day. That's his per d'ams. That's how it's successful. He's doing really well.

He's really good. Isn't that crazy though? But yeah, he's behind so much pop music. Yeah. Incredible stuff. What a story. I loved that too. So I heard like the very short summary that Josh

did when he was talking about the Backstroy Boys at NSYN one time. And I was like, that is an incredible story. And he spoke about the bit where... The blimp's. And the Blimps? And the judge. And the judge with the poster on the well, being like, so if I go home tonight, are you going to be there? Really? Oh, you're a six member. Yeah. So good. So yeah, but there's so many great tidbits that you've brought up on 100% hits about pop music over the last, you know, 30 plus years. So definitely worth checking out that back catalog. And for Burners, the new podcast. Yeah. Check that out everywhere you get podcasts from. It's up there. And you,

You can see some of them on YouTube as well if you want. Fantastic. Well, Josh, Earl, thank you so much. And can we find you anywhere else online? Just on Instagram at Mr. Josh Earl and Twitter, if anyone ever uses that,

but no. But yeah, Instagram mainly. Yeah, Mr. Josh. Right, we'll say thank you so much to Josh

and then we'll move on to our Patreon section, but Josh, one absolute pleasure. Thanks, everyone. It's pleasure. It's pleasure. What a pleasure.

We got so close that I said the last word wrong. Bye, Josh. Bye. Well, that brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show. Yes, that's right. It's me, Matt Stewart.

I came out of nowhere. Yes. Was I dead at the south of this episode? Probably. You recorded a little while ago while I was... That was a sneeze slash elbow fart? I was trying to stifle the sneeze and it was more powerful than I thought it was. That was just tongue.

It was like that. Anyway, welcome back, Matt. Welcome back. Great to have you here again. I'm so going to be back. We missed you. This was a great episode. So what was it about?

You missed the great man, Joshua. You know he always smashes his report. I love you. He's good, yeah. He came in and told us about the wild life and story of Lou Pearlman, who was the founding manager of both the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. Oh, my God. And he started out by being a blimp salesman.

Yeah, this guy had a bit of a wildlife. It was really, really wild and funny and then pretty crook. Yeah, he really robbed them of a lot of money, and then they successfully sued him. But his claim was, no, I'm a member of the band. Yeah. He just believed he was one of them. Wait, you didn't know? He's just been adding his recordings to the back all time.

Yeah, in the contract, apparently he was the sixth boy. And he was not a boy. He was not a boy. But yeah, I'm very well told by Josh as it always is. And we should say, at the time, because we recorded it a few weeks ago, Josh was about to start releasing Four Burness, his new podcast. It is out now. He's got a few episodes up.

I listened to the first one just a couple of days ago with the great Jillian Cosgriff. A lot of fun. He just has a great interview where he talks about elements of their life, the four burners, life, work, employment and health. And just goes through them all and then talks about like, you know, if you had to turn a couple off to make the others really explode, what would you pick? And it's fascinating. It's hard.

Yeah. I'm talking to him, I'm like, oh, obviously you'd turn off. And I'm like, oh, hang on. Yeah, you turn off family, who needs it? Health, who can't? Well, health is the one I was put into the back, and then I'm like, oh, hang on, everything sucks if you don't have health. So, ooh, that's actually tricky. Yep.

Oh, that's cool. Turn off work. Oh, no, now I have no money. Now I can't afford health. Yeah. Turn off work. We'll turn off the money. Turn off the money.

Did, Jess, with all that blimp talk, I imagine there was a few good year moments in there. No. You've moved on, really, haven't you? I have no fun without you. I refuse. I sit silently. And every now and then I lean forward and I go, huh, and that's it. So, yeah, a bit of a boring episode in terms of, like if you're a big Jess fan,

which I imagine there are a lot of people who are really only tuning in for Jess's fun quips. I know I definitely listen back and go, God, I'm fun. And you skip through the bits where you're silent. Yeah. Well, Jess, you know, most people only listen to this back end of the show anyway. Yes. And now that I'm here, you're probably going to be a whole lot of fun. Oh, I'm feeling like.

lively. And this is the section of the show where we thank some of our fantastic supporters who support us on Patreon.com slash do go on pod. And once you're on there, you can get all sorts of things by supporting us, Jess. What are some of those? You can get access to bonus episodes. We do three bonus episodes a month. You get early access and discounts on tickets to live shows and live streams and all sorts

of fun things that we do. You get access to our Facebook group, which is the friendly. corner of the internet and you can vote on on the topics that we do as well so you can really impact the show so much stuff yeah it's not it's honestly too much yeah it's almost too good value yeah that that would be the one knock on it i think i'd be looking at i'd be like fuck i get all that for like 10 bucks uh it doesn't feel right doesn't feel right doesn't feel right i'm gonna i'm gonna double yeah i'm gonna give them 20 bucks and even then i'm like i'm coming out on top still i'm this is grand theft auto

Yeah. Yep. What does that mean? You've stolen a car. I've stolen a car. That's what this feels like. I've stolen a car. Dave was doing something else and he came back into that point and I could see in in his eyes

that he wanted to jump in, but he's like, what's going on? I don't know what's happening. I looked away for one second and now they're looking at me. I don't know what to do. Sorry, everyone. I've just been in my email. I was booking a band for the Trip Ditch Club later on. Just confirm they're confirmed.

So I've got them. Okay. They're good. We've got them. Dave, do you want to explain the Sydney-Shymburg thing? or do I do that? So the Sydney-Shaunberg thing, if you're on that level or above. I was happy to jump in.

You get to give us a fact, a quota or question. In a section of the show that we actually call fact-quoted question, which has a jingle go to something like this. Fact-quote or question. D-Ding. He always remembers the ding. Huh. She always remembers the sing.

And the way this works is if you're on the Sydney-Shan-Berg level or above, you get to give us a fact-quoted question or a brag or a suggestion or really, whatever you like. And you also get to give yourself a title. I don't read these out until I'll read. them out on the show. Yes. Yesopies.

Yesopies. They've given it. Yeah, it can be anything you want to tell us. Jokes is one, yeah. Corrections. Corrections. No, I don't welcome those. Suggestions.

I keep myself awake at night as it is. I don't need corrections. Please be kind. Compliments would be welcome, I guess. Not creepy ones, you know. Not of our value. It's just, you know. But it wouldn't have.

It. Jeez, you give mixed messages on that one. Just getting the balance right. So I'm going to give out, I'm going to read out four of them right now. Okay. Don't read a minute, I read them out. So if I muck it up, that's why, okay? I'm actually a really good reader.

He's one of the best reasons. He's one. Yeah, yeah. First up, this one comes from Claire Norris. Man, I like Norris as a surname. Norris, Norris, Norris. Do you think Chuck has something to do with that? Chuck's done a lot of heavy lifting for the Norris clan.

I would say, yeah, I'd say no. Okay. I'd say, if anything, he's a negative, negative norie. Yeah, wow. But Claire is a positive, Nora. Claire Norris, aka curator of dog facts. Ooh, I wonder if we were going to get a dog fact here. I hope so.

Or if this is a fake out. I don't think I can handle that. Imagine if the camera's rolling here, Dave. Imagine how viral this bit could have gone. You couldn't just push a button, could you, Dave? We've started putting out videos. Yeah, little clips. You can see on Instagram and on TikTok, give it a look.

And the most popular one, only popular on so far, was when we talked about Keith the sausage dog. People love dog, dog chat. Oh, they love it. We've put out quite a few clips now. I would argue way funnier and a better insight into what this podcast is, but the Dashan clip is just going gangbusters. Yes, unfortunately, I think we've got a few new followers too,

waiting for the dog riffs. Yeah. I mean, we're about to do one, but unfortunately the cameras are not rolling because Dave wouldn't push a freaking button. Do I want to push it right now just in case? This better be good, guys. No pressure. Dave, Dave, oh, don't roll your chair over and push the button, Dave.

We can't delete it once we start. Yeah, Dave, don't do it. So this better be good, Matt. I'm firing up the cameras. Oh, my God. Okay, here we go. V-mix control. I think that's it.

All right. I'm hitting record. Oh, God. Oh, boy. We are rolling. This is Dog Chat 101. Hit me with a fact, baby. Okay. Hey, you say Dashhand and originally it was Daxand.

Isn't that interesting? Wow. Do you think that could go viral? We've also got a podcast. Check it out. So that was for the video, not for the podcast we're actually doing. All right. So Claire Norris has a fact for us.

She writes, it's a dog fact. It's just a new segment of the show. Dog fact. Hi, Alp. Having a young child who watches bluey regularly, so much so, he started adding Australian vernacular into his language like grey nomads and boot. It's grey nomads an Australian term. Right, is boot in Australian?

Yeah, trunk. Oh, but I thought. Shoes. I went straight to shoe. Wow, they don't have shoes in North America. They don't have them. They call them there. They got cold tutsis.

They call them G strings over there. Or thongs, I forget. She goes on. I thought I'd bring you a blue-inspired fact, although not directly about the cartoon. Bluey, an Australian cattle. An Australian cattle. Blue. I should say, reading isn't my forte.

Bluey. An Australian cattle was the previous Guinness World Record holder for Longest Live Dog. I think there's, I think just the word dog is missing there. Yeah, it's a cattle dog. And that's got me. I've added it in now I'm going to have another go There could have been some sort of

misunderstanding where they thought that this cow was a dog and they thought maybe cows live longer than dogs and that's what happened to you they're like this dog is so

this is the biggest dog in the world Yeah well that's what They were also confused by longest lived dog They just meant longest in length and it's also a dog that lived Yes This cow's the longest

lived dog Surely if it was the longest dog It would be a dash out Yes that's true Or a dachshund. Oh, dachshund. Yes. Hashtag daxand.

Are we viral yet? We're trying so hard. So it lived an impressive, 29 years. Oh. That's long for a dog? Yeah. That's so long. How long have your dogs lived for?

Three so far. Four for Humphrey. Yeah. Yeah. So this is straight. 10 is old for a dog. Yeah, like we had a mutt growing up. Yeah.

That was 17 when it passed. and people were like, 17 is insane. Right, so 29 is incredible. Yeah, that's freakish. What's, seven is dog years? Yeah. So what's that, Dave?

297s? 203. How's he do that? You could say any number and I'd be like, yep, that's probably right. You could say six and I'd be like, that makes sense. So that is really old. It's very old. I don't even think a human since like the Bible has lived that long.

I know, and me, of course. Yeah, yeah. But you're obviously an exception. Anyway, Bluey was just passed this fall by a Portuguese dog, Bobby, who lived 31 years and is now the record holder. Wow. But I believe that there's been some controversy around Bobby. Some people saying, is it really that old?

But I believe, I'm a Bobby. I'm not a Bobby Truth. I'm a Bobby Bolivia. I'm with Dave. Dave said this earlier when he was talking about Bobby, and I agree with him. We should cut. Start off one of its leg, count the rings.

Yes. And, you know, we need to find out. It's the only way to know. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I think Bobby would... 31 years. Agreed to do that.

Don't you think Bobby would be like, I want the truth out there as much as you do? I honestly don't think Goose would want to live for 31 years. Okay. I don't think so. I mean, French bulldogs are so inbred that they can't live that long. No, absolutely not. If we get like eight to 10 out of him, it'll be a real miracle. Yeah.

Every day is a bonus. Blessing, yeah. But a great three years so far. 31 years. That's crazy. You've lived that long. Yeah, and I've hated every second of it. After about three years, I've hated it.

You like the first three. Well, I reckon maybe first six or seven. That all seemed pretty good. Yeah. Went to Disneyland when I was eight. Holy shit. Maybe eight. I forget how privileged you were growing up.

Yeah, somebody died and we had some inheritance. You lucky bastard. My parents went to Disneyland. Was it a dog? Great choice. It wasn't a dog. It was a very old dog, actually. And your parents at that time, I'm guessing, were what, 17, 18?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. They must have been pretty young. Probably younger than you are now. Yes. Isn't that wild to think? That your parents were once younger than you are now. It's crazy.

I don't understand. I don't get it at all. Anything. We've got to get a fact check on that. Yeah, that one's not going viral. All right. Was that worth hitting the cameras for? No.

No. We put too much. pressure on it. I have to just let things happen organically. Yeah. But if people want to start submitting dog stuff to the fat quota question, we've got to get the dogs under the podcast somehow, because that's our niche for some reason. Yeah.

Yeah. We've developed now. Eventually we're going to be dog gone. Oh, maybe they're getting confused. That's why. It's dog on. Dog on. Is what they're thinking.

Yeah. It's doggoon, actually, so they can't read. Yeah. Because they're dogs. Yeah. They can't see, they can only seem black and white, right? and our logo is in blue and yellow. I'll tell you a dog fact.

Okay. This, well, this made Michelle Brosey a laugh the other day. Sorry, just before you do it, Dave, sing the dog fact jingle. A dog, dog, wolf fact. Roof! Thank you. Always remember as the wolf. I had to leave the house the other day to drop off my car to get serviced.

And I was gone for like 15 minutes. and I came back and Goose had weed and pooed on a on a doormat by the balcony door. On a door man. Door mat. A door mat. And I. Matt, he is Matt and he thinks of a man because he is mad. Door me.

Door me? But then I. Did your dog poo on me? But then in talking to people about this, I said, but here's the thing. I told him. I was only going to be 15 minutes. But, mate. I told him.

And then I got back and I said. I said, guess I told you, I was only going to be 15 minutes. And I was, be sure? 15 minutes. Like, I looked at the clock and went, I've been gone 15 minutes. See that, see that small hand? See that long hand? And I told him.

But sorry, Jess, that's an hour and 45 in dog years. Dog minutes. And he had to go. It was 8 o'clock in the morning. It was time. So that's on me. That's my bad. You know, he has his routine.

I just can't reason with him. He's three now. Yeah. You know? What is the age of dog reason? I don't know if there is. I think it's about seven in humans, so he's past bad. Yeah, come on, mate.

Come on, mate. You're a bit old to be pooping on the floor. Get a job. Goose! It's about time. Goose my name. Tell you what. It suits him.

He's a bloody, this girl's a bloody goose. Let me tell you. Next one comes from Alex Dunhill, and I can only hope this is another dog fact. Let's see. Alex has got the title of Cheese Suggester. Ooh, I think I might know what Alex is going to do with the rest of their fact-quot a question. That would be. Like, if I was really, really, really, really rich.

Like, I'm talking the top ten richest people on Earth. And, you know, you can have assistants. You can have chefs. I would employ someone who would be my official cheese suggestor. I think they would have to work quite closely with your sommelier. Yes. Oh, Dave, before I get into this, can you do the cheese suggestion jingle? Would you like gooda?

I'd like Bree. Cheese. She always remembers the cheese All right, Alex So you get to When you submit these There's a drop-down menu If it's a fact quote of question or whatever

Or you can fill in your own And in that one They've written cheese Good, yeah If their submission isn't about cheese I'll actually think this might be the funniest thing That's ever happened Okay, well I'm afraid

It is about cheese. It is about cheese. Alex writes, Bree. Next one. Love a Bree. That's it. Love it.

I love Bree too. Great suggestion, Alex. Great. You've given yourself a fantastic role and you have got endless things to submit to the fact, quite a question, which is fantastic. I look forward to next month's suggestion. Yeah, can't wait.

Alex, if I can request a service. suggestion. I'd love something in the hard cheese family. Okay. I'm not much of a soft man. You're the hard of the better. You're a hard man. I'm a hard cheese man. I'm a hard man to be around. Yeah. You are a hard man to be around. Thank you, Alex. Too much testosterone. Constantly hard this guy. So masculine. Rock hard. Just like my cheese. I like my cheese. Yeah, okay. We'd love to have know where that was going. I was I like myself like I like my cheese. Hard. I think I'd be funny if I said it

Like I love my cheese How I like my men Hard Yeah That works That works real good That works so well That makes me

Cheese Cheese Next one comes from Chris Torres A.k.a official North Carolina Living in Ohio With family and Gary Indiana

Of the podcast Wow You are living the dream And Chris is offering us a fact writing, oh, hang on, what's the, what's the jingle for North Carolina and living in Ohio with family and Gary Indiana? North Carolina, Golden Mile, Gary Indiana. She always remembers the jing?

Honestly, like ticking off possibly, with the possible exception of Vermont, our three favorite places in America in one life. The Golden Mile, can you believe it? with a hint of golden fact from North Carolina. And I finally ticked off one on that list. I've been to Gary, but I haven't still yet to head to God's Country, Ohio, and shorts country, North Carolina.

So, Chris has a fact writing, Hey, gang, I'm back with another North Carolina fact. This one, Christmas themed. When's this episode coming out? It's a bit back. Boxing day. Oh, my God, perfect timing. Is that right?

Which would be Christmas for Northern Hemisphere listeners. Yeah, true, true. I believe this one is being released on the 20th is five days to go, everyone. Merry Christmas. I thought this one was coming out, boxing day. Fantastic. So. Perfect timing then. Hopefully Jess finds this one fun.

We'll wait and see. I'll decide. So, fact, the city of Road and the North Carolina with a soft, Oh, hang on. So I'm just getting pronunciation notes. Rodanthi with a soft the sound like the beginning of thought and made famous by the film Nights in Rodanth. There you go. The city of Rodanth, North Carolina, celebrates two Christmases.

Oh, I like this town already. Save some for the rest of it. It's a tradition dating back to 1752 when Brits switched from the Julian to the Greek. Gaurian, my preferred calendar. It's the only one I know. Which caused 11 days to be dropped from each year. Hopefully this makes it in time for the Christmas episode. Didn't quite but it made it in time for Christmas.

Yeah, this is actually closer to the Christmas than the actual Christmas episode. Yeah. And he says their second Christmas, which is called Old Christmas, is on January the 6th. Oh, old Christmas. Old Christmas. Great. It's a weird, so there's like a couple of weeks in between. That's interesting.

It is like, listen to Bill Bryson's book about the secret history of Christmas. It does talk about how around the sixth of Christmas used to be the big celebration day, because that was the day that the... Did you mean the 6th of January? The 6th of January? Oh my God, I'm so glad you're here. Because if you were strangers, they would just be sitting there going, what the fuck is this Christmas?

We'll call you a fuckhead to your face. Thank God for that. Oh, that's bad. But it used to be celebrated a lot. Well, it used to be celebrated more. Christmas Day wasn't as celebrated as January the 6th. That was the 12th night. Right.

So there were 12 days of Christmas. Yes, sure. And I think the 12th night, I think that was when the kings arrived with the frankincense and meurs and the gifts. So that used to be like the big, but it's, you know, it's evolved over time. You probably have you skipped over gold there. Mer and frankincense. You know the good stuff. So, and this is, to the 6th of January, that is, what, 11 days after Christmas.

So the maths checks out because it's. They cut 11 days. Yeah, that's right. Ah. Fun. Great fact, Chris. Thank you. Sorry, you just said fun.

No, I said, I said fun. Full stop. Yep. Great fact, Chris. Did Chris write fun? No. So you said fun. I said that.

I was saying that was fun. I didn't say it was a fact. I haven't looked it up. Do you think that was a fun fact? It was okay. Actually, the math doesn't check out. It's 12 days after Christmas. Oh my God.

12th night. What are they, what are we let to believe that they've accidentally cut an extra day? Huh. I don't understand maths. No, yeah, don't. Those things are always confused me when it could be one day different. I'm like, I'll just accept whatever they say.

Yeah. Because I always end up, like, if I ask and I explain, I'll be like, oh, yeah. I forgot to count zero or something like that. All right. The last one this week comes from Mark Wann right now. And Mark's got the title of Tower Guard. Oh, that's great. we've had that that tower spot with a loaded gun sitting there

yeah honestly what's the point of a watch tower if no one's there yeah to watch otherwise it's a tower yeah what are they watching me twirling in a paddock just having a good time with a gun trained on you they're watching you through a sight yeah and they're like look at go she's having so much fun uh we got a question here um do we do quickly dave i guess we got to complete the list what's the tower guard jingle Tower guard, we need one. Apply now. Bang! Sure as you remember this is the bang.

And our tower guard, Mark Wen, has a question writing. What's an event that you know where you were when it happened? Oh, this podcast. I think you might mean big world event. He does answer his own question writing. For me, I remember being at my summer job in high school roofing when over the radio I heard Robin Williams had died. Oh.

Oh, interesting. I remember being in a niece backpacker hostel in Italy when Steve Irwin died. Right. I mean, we were in a year 10 maths class. We all found out. Yeah. About Steve Irwin. Dave and I were both in maths.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I said we. I was with some chums. I imagine you mean you're class, mate. Yeah. Some school charms. Some school charms.

Oh, that reminds me, Dave. I forgot to say, at the end of. of that great North Carolina fact signs off by saying Merry Christmas and Books Forever. Oh, that's nice. Warm's my heart. Books forever.

Yeah, I know where I was when Steve Irwin died, also in a year 10 classroom. Yep. What was the subject? No, I was in like a home room. It was the end of the day and people were just checking their phones and stuff and were like, oh, Steve Evan died

and I was like, bullshit. I didn't believe them. Fake news. I didn't want to believe it. Do you believe them now? I'm still not sure. Okay. I remember 9-11.

I was, doing bench press with my mate James Lamont. It's just the weirdest brag of all time. Yeah, one had about 9-11. I was bench pressing like 250 kilos. The time it doesn't even work out. That's what I remember being aware of it. But it happened like early in the morning here and that was after school.

I'm like, did we just not get discussed all day? Did you just want to mention he went to the gym? One time? This is last week You didn't know James Lamont until last week I introduced you That's incredible I did think it was going to be funny

But I didn't think it was going to hurt so much The laughter Yeah so So not 11 I was pumping I Yeah but it wasn't even like I was at the gym It was bench pressing It's so specific

It was at his house as well You know Oh my God That's funny I thought of one before Now I can't remember, oh, they must have mentioned it at school, though. I imagine it came up. Yeah, yeah.

We didn't watch TV in the morning, so I don't know. I might have missed it until. Well, it was a noteworthy day to me because my parents were watching TV in the morning and we didn't do that either. And I walked into their room and I was like, what's going on? You've got the TV on. TV in their room? Yeah.

Oh, my God. Disney trips, TV in their room. It was so tiny. What is this laugh you lived? I was in Queensland on a grade five choir camp. with my school chums. And, yeah, it was actually... Yeah, I think that pretty much tells the difference between me and Dave.

I was pushing, what, like 10, 15 kilos? Yeah. And he was going, oh, I've been to see. It was... And I'm talking about 15 kilos, each arm. Wow. And we also, because we were... I know, it's not a lot.

That's the joke. Fucking hell. I get mad at me. I'm the gym rat at the pod. One thing I do remember is... You're the rat of the pod. A weird one is remembering, finding out about the death of Princess Diana.

This was a few days after our birthdays, Jess. Right. This is the 31st of August, 1997, and I turned seven on the 28th. I just had a party. Obviously, I'd got a few gifts, and I remember I was playing with my new Mr. Freeze toy for the Batman and Robin movie.

And that was the moment you regretted making that wish blowing out of the candles. You didn't think it'd come true. That's grim. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, but, you know, you should be. held accountable for your seven-year-old actions. I remember where I was.

I was watching the Saints beat Port Adelaide to finish top of the ladder. Why are yours always Braggs? Braggs? I was watching. Yeah, my team had just obviously just topped the ladder. I was, I was bench dressing heaps. I was like dating like so many women. I was driving my Lamborghini when I heard about the Hindenburg going down.

Yeah. I haven't yet. Have I talked to that one before? I don't remember that one. I remember where I was for the. Sydney 2000 Olympics. Because I wasn't in Sydney because I had chicken pox. I forgot they don't have to all be grim.

Yeah. It can be nice stuff. It was grim because I got chicken pox and didn't get to go. I was staying in Anglesey at the caravan park or one of the caravan parks there. Remember, we went to the pub as a family to watch, was it Perkins versus Hackett? And Hackett, was that the one that Hackett beat Perkins? Or did Perkins was at his last win? Always bragging over here.

An Australian one, we get it. You are ridiculous. He's talking about two. Two Australians. Family. Oh, my God. I watched the opening. I'm sure I mentioned this on the opening ceremony episode,

but I was a head in a bucket vomiting from extreme gastro for the whole opening ceremony. Oh. So I remember that? My mum put little, we had like, like a platter of like nibbles and stuff. and she had like little mini sausage rolls and she put little Australian flags in them. It was very cute. Your mom's a patriot.

I've always said that. It's very nice. That's very cute. That's a good question, isn't it? I'm going to keep thinking about that. Yeah, what's another big thing that's happened? Oh, I think that's it. Nothing else has happened.

What about when the marriage equality result came through in Australia? Oh, yeah. We were doing a shoot at the old stupid old studios and we're all, yeah. checking our phones. I don't remember. I don't remember where I was. Probably not that important to you. No.

No. I was like, take it or leave it for me personally. Doesn't affect me personally. I've decided to be straight. Or anyone I care about. That's right. Yeah. That's right.

I'm a monster. Dave, you remember? Also doesn't remember. Oh, yeah. Actually, I can't remember where I was for that one. No. Okay. Well.

there you go. Not all of us changed our Facebook profile pictures. Well, I saw it as my victory. Because I think the thing is now... I started the campaign there. I don't know if this makes things less, like, significant in your minds now, but a lot of it now is like, you remember looking it on your phone and going, oh. Yeah, yeah.

Like, seeing it on Instagram or something. Sometimes, I do remember some things from our group chat when Shane Warn died. Oh, yep. Yeah, I learned that from Jess. Yeah, Jess messes. saying, oh my God, Shane Warn died. And it pops up and you go, like, it hits you because you go, what do you mean? Yeah.

We've had a couple. There's someone else, another famous international, like, very famous person, passed. And the first person to tell me was you, Jess. You've got your finger on the pulse, man. Yeah, I'm on my phone too much. Dave brought her back to Grim Things. I'm on social media too much. We were trying to move on to positive things with Dave.

Always goes back to death with you, Dave. Yeah. It's always death. Yeah, sorry about that. Live a little, mate. Come on, man. Come on, man. Well, Jess isn't giving us positive news in the group chat.

Yeah, that's true. I remember where I was when Jess messaged that she got hit by a car. Where were you? I was driving my car. That's right. Over a pedic. Over a bicycle. The cycle continues.

I think that. Not my cycle. Absolutely not. That must be true, right? Because, like, I remember the marriage equality thing because I was with other people and we're all checking it together. Exactly. That makes it more of a moment. But if I was at home one afternoon.

Yeah. On the couch. Or it's the first thing you wake up and see on ABCNews.com, you go, it's less significant. There's a big correlation between, like, memories and novelty. So that's why, like, I can't remember what I did through the day, like, through all of our lockdowns and stuff, especially those early ones where you couldn't leave the house at all. I can't remember any of those days. I remember what I was done.

I was on the bench press. I was getting swall. For those who don't know what I look like, I'm a very skinny man. I'm very skinny man. Well, they're our facts, quotes and questions from this week. Thank you so much to Mark, Chris, Alex and Claire. I should say I'm also quite fat in the guts. That's a great combo.

Fat in the guts. Skinny alms, chunky gut. So it's a pretty hot combo. It's just true. All right. The next thing we like to do is thank you guys of fantastic supporters. Jess normally comes up with a game based on the topic at hand. Yes, and you won't believe it.

But I, because I thought this has been about a couple of like big bands, but with potentially strange names, you know, NSYNC is an odd kind of band name. I have found a band name generator. Right. She's done it again. You know I love a generator. So I'm going to give these people a band name. I'm so stoked for that.

Is that okay? All right, Dave, let's go one for one then. Yeah, mono and mono. All right. Well, I'll kick us off, if I may. And I'd love to thank from Canberra. Oh, beautiful Canberra. Australia's capital city.

I love to thank Anastasia Paris. Wow. Wow. Good luck beating that, Jess. Anastasia is the bassist for Globule Between Addiction. I think, yeah. I'm not sure if you're, is your generated doing okay? Yeah.

That sounds like it's tripping out. No, I think it's great. Yeah, that's great. Globule. Globule between addiction. You know, we've all. All band names sound silly when you're not used to them. Yeah, yeah.

But then you showed it to GBA. Exactly. If I was on Triple J and I was like, hey, that was global between the addiction, here's Flume, you know, you wouldn't think anything of it. Yeah, true. Just because it's the first time you're hearing it, it seems silly, but actually it's a very cool band, and Anastasia's a very cool basis. Very cool. Very cool. Always the coolest member of the band. Yeah. Don't you reckon Dave? Absolutely.

Yeah. Bum, bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Penny ones? Yeah, basically. Basically, was that a pun, your pun master? God, I'm good. I would like to thank for their support. Thank you so much from Johnson City in Tennessee. God, I love that.

Tennessee. From Johnson City, it's Jordan Dijong. Ooh. Jordan Dejong, go Titans. Jordan is the drummer in Luminary of the Freaky. That sounds like a real 90s sort of alternative, maybe a rap rock band. A bit of fun. Yeah, yeah.

Luminary of the Freaky. Yeah. I am the luminary of the freaky. That is so good and bad. I love it. Incredible. Well played, Jess. Thank you.

You've done it again. Thank you. Can I go again? Yes. Oh, thank God. Then I would love to thank from Watton Under Edge in GLS. Yeah, it's got to be Glasgow, right? I'm thinking in Great Britain.

I'd love to thank Charlie Lennel. Because it could be Gloucestershire or something. It's Gloucestershire. So sorry, everyone. Dave, I think, sorry, the English people are going to be furious. It's Gloucestershire. Sorry. Sorry, yes.

No, I did not say that very well. Who was it? Who was it from Gloucestershire? Please, of course. It was Charlie Lendon. Charlie Lendon. And Charlie is the actually lead singer of Mouthy Obsidian. That is, each one has been better than the last.

Mouthy obsidian. That's like, what, new metal? Yeah, I think that might be new metal. Yeah, yeah. Mouthi obsidian. Are they all bass players for these bands? No, I've literally said what instrument they play each time. Oh, what does this got to?

Lead singer. Okay. Sorry, do you want me to listen to the words you're saying? It wouldn't hurt, would it? Okay, I'll try. It wouldn't hurt as a feminist. All I'm hearing of, hmm, blah, blah. Yeah.

And that's on me and my enunciation. Yeah. Dave, how about you? I would like to think from a location unknown to us, probably deep within the fortress of the miles, Jenny Parmata. Wow, Jenny Parmiter. I have accidentally pressed a button. Okay. Jenny is a keyboard.

Oh yeah, I love the keyboards. In Gladiator till Clorox. Everyone has two, one or two real words and then one gibberish word, or probably a real word. or probably a real word that I just haven't heard before. You don't know Chlorox? Oh no, that's a cleaning product. Or you don't know gladiator. Or was it Till?

That was Till. Oh my God, he's so stupid. Gladiator Till Clorox. There's another heavy band. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of these feel quite heavy. That's a metal band.

Yeah, but with the beautiful like sort of synthesizer of strings. Yes, yeah. Which is what Jenny's role is. And their logo, you cannot understand what the words are. I love when you see a poster for a metal festival and you're like, I can't read any of these words. Well, I'm squinting, and it's not helping. Please match you guys.

Next up, I'd love to thank from Webster Groves. It could be a band name in itself. From M.O. in the United States. What's that, Missouri? Montana? Missouri? I think it's Missouri. Sarah Valdhusen-Steely.

Oh, my God. Good luck beating that name. Sarah Valhudsen-Steely. I can't believe it. Yeah, that's so good. And it is Missouri. This band has two sort of main singers. Sarah is one of them.

And the band is called Deviated Sidewalk. That's fun. That one, I can picture that. That seems to make some sense. Deviated sidewalk. What is that more like a 90s rock act? Yeah. Yeah.

Because I thought of pavement. That's why I'm thinking of. I thought a concrete blonde. Okay. Amon. Mamm. Is that them? No, that's four non-blond.

Non-blond. Another great act. Great act. But still, deviated sidewalk, I'd be buying their debut EP. Yeah, I'm pre-purchasing it right now on vinyl. Wow. Hey, I would like to think from Cork in Ireland, it's simply Becker. Bec, C-E-D-C-A, Becker.

Thank you so much. Becker is, plays the piano accordion. Great. An underrated instrument. In barely royalty with the sacred enthusiast. And I do not want any commentary on notes, please. I just can't believe that like AI is coming for our jobs. And it's clear to me today that I'm like, well, you know, when that, what can we do?

Yeah, how? Let's roll over and let them take it. Exactly. How do they do it? Isn't like post-Malone or someone like that, their name is just a random generator? That's how they got it. Like, how do they get it? Like, I guess that sounds.

I think they probably went through quite a few options. And that probably when he said it out loud, his friends went, that's dumb. It's just you just used to it. Okay. I wasn't going to say it's the best name, but it just seems slightly better than. Yeah. I never questioned that as a weird name. I reckon the first time I heard it.

I reckon the, I remember I was on the bench press. And I'm just like, that sounds a great name. It's pump and I. Time for another set. That's all I thought. But you're right. You're right. The more you hear the name, the more you go,

Okay. Is it up to me there, Dave? Absolutely. Well, I'd love to thank from Worcester in Great Britain. It's Jack Chamberlain. Jack Chamberlain. It's a name you could set your watch to. Another drummer.

And this one is Aero Emerald and the Observer. They're just going for too much, but somehow landing it. You know what I mean? You're like you're being so ambitious. You go, it's too much. Actually, it's just enough. You've nailed that. Yes.

For me, that sounds like that sounds like, a duo where the singer is Aero Emerald and then Jack Chamberlain is the observer. Yeah, right. Up the back, bashing away on the drums. Yeah. But there's just two of them. Yeah, I love that. And people, people always say when they say, they're like, can you believe that this two

piece is generating such a big sound? Yeah. So those people always say about two piece rock bands. How do they produce such a big sound? I've got a couple of shorter ones coming up for you, so if that helps. Okay, great. Well, I'd like to thank from Kill Kenny also in Ireland. And this is, this sounds like a band name.

Ginger Animator. Oh yeah. Ginger Animator is another bass player for shouting lump. Oh, that might be my favourite so far. Shouting lump. That's great. That's a punk band. Yeah.

That's a great. That's a punk band. Shouting lump. Yeah. I love the lump. One, two, three, four. Hey, you're going to see the lump on Friday? Oh my God.

And finally from me, I'd love to thank from Oni Hunger in Auckland, New Zealand. And it's Jenna Brochek. Jenna Brochek is, what instruments do you play? Sax. Sacks. Great instrument. In burned pee. P.E.A.

Burnt pee. Burned pee. Yeah. It's hard to burn a pee. Yeah. And you normally say burnt pee? Burnd. Burned pee.

Yeah. And easy. You just pull over a fire. It's a burned pee. It's easy. Yeah. Burned pee. I mean, I like a name that makes you think.

Yeah. Yeah. And it makes, you know. have a discussion. Yeah. That's right. It tells a story, but it also asks questions as well as making a statement. Yes, it does it all.

Yeah. And that's hard to do. In two short words? Yeah. Oh my goodness. It's crazy. All right. Well, thank you so much to Jenna, ginger, Jack, Becca, Sarah, Jenny, Jordan, Charlie,

and an Anna-Anna-na-na-na-na-na-na-a-na-na-a-na-na-a-na-na-na-a-na-na-on-a-on-a-on-a. Anastia-a-Paris. I mean, what a list of names today. I think we've... Oh, what a list of Ben. Oh, we've peaked again. The last thing we need to do this week, as we always do, is open up the Triptitch Club, just the one inductee this week.

Wow. Wow. They're a very, very IP. Yes. Sorry, we're running into time. I'm going to shorten that a little bit. So the way we, the way this works is there's a bit of theory of the mind. Dave, you are very funny.

Thank you. I don't give you enough credit. You say that fairly often, but like always in a surprise. Yeah. It's always surprise. It's like a backhander. Yeah, like, wow. You're quite funny.

You're quite cool. It's very similar to that. I can't believe how cool you are. So, yeah, a bit of theory of the mind. There's a club. And once you're inducted into it, you can't leave, which is a good thing. Yeah, you might want to. And, yeah, you can make yourselves at home.

To get in there, you just have to be on the shout-out level or above for three straight years. Then you're in the Triptitch Club. We know it's pronounced. strip-dick, but we have a funny little twist on it here. Obviously, this is the only way we were able to copyright and trademark the name. Yeah, even though we spell it the same. Yeah, that's right. It was a court case.

Jess is behind the bar. So if you want a drink, go to her. She's got a special new drink and all the other drinks she's ever come up with are still available. But what do you got this week, Jess? I've got beer. Beer, fantastic. Wow.

That's great. I love beer. A few different ones. Oh, yeah? There's like a cold one and a warm one. I've got the English ones. way too hot. Who has hot beer?

Jess, have you come up with a new thing? I thought it could be like a mulled wine type thing. Mald beer. But it's really bad, guys. Oh no. Don't drink and it's so bad. You weren't, please stop using that stove. It's scolding.

There's something wrong with that stove, Jess. Sorry. Just look, take it off the stove. It'll cool down. It won't. And Dave, you'd be book a bed for the after party? Yes, I've reached out to every. Every member of NSYNC, every member of Backstreet Boys, including Lou Perlman, their manager.

Wow. He didn't run back, surprisingly. Interesting. Did he die? Yes. Okay. But the only one to get back to me, and God bless them, Kevin Richardson from the Backstreet Boys is here. Oh, here's one of the unknown ones.

Kevin. Kevin. Kevin. The tall one. Man, I like Kevin the name. What's his full name? Kevin Richardson. If you just type in Kevin Backstreet Boys.

Is he the one who dated, did he date Britney Spears for a bit or something? No, that's... Oh, no. I recognise this guy. Yeah, no, that's a good get. He's got that great 90s heartthrob goatee. He loves that. He's also done a bit of modelling work, so good for him.

Not surprised at all. All right, Dave, you're on the stage. You're MC in this show. You're hyping everyone up. Absolutely. Every member of the Triptitch Club has been woken from their slumber. They're there, chanting along to the new inductee's name. Just one this week.

Chant, chant, chant. They're just warming up with a generic chant. That's what we said. And Jess also sort of. of hopped Dave up. I give him a little pat on the bum. I say, you're funny. Because he's, because he does quite weak wordplay. He's the pun master. Let's see what he does here. Here we go. Worming up the puns. Either based on the name or where they're from. Here we go. Sometimes neither.

From Orham in Utah. A lot to work with here. In the United States. It's Colin J. Wright. Look, I don't want to be Colin J. wrong. I want to be Colin J. R. Come on in, Cole. Jeez. How did he find that? You found a little diamond. in the rough there. I'm like, they're not a lot to work with here. But somehow you made the name right with a W into the word right with an R. How does he do it? Homophone king. All right, welcome in, Colin. Make yourself at home. Please grab a beer. Just be wary of that piping hot one.

Don't have the really hot one. Yeah. Sorry again. Is there anything else we need to tell people before we go, Jess? Just that we love them so much. We value them as people. And that if you come across the story and you think that'll make a good, do go on. Well, you can bloody suggest it. You don't have to be a Patreon to do so, anybody can. Can I just say that I suggested this week's one? Because I heard Josh mention a very small version of the Lou Perlman's

story, like a couple of sentences on his 100% hits volume pod podcast. And I saw him a couple of days later and I was like, dude, you've got to tell us about that in detail. So it's that easy. Anyone can suggest a topic. Did he say who was suggested by in the episode? He didn't mention me.

Oh, that's brutal. Though maybe I think I mentioned it. Yeah, of course you brought yourself up. Of course I did. Well, I'm the only, no one ever comments about how funny I am. Yeah. So even a strange little weirdo can suggest a topic. But my point is, if you hear someone talking about something, you go, that's interesting.

Let's get to go on to talk about. Let us know. I remember where I was when I heard that Joshua Lep episode, actually. I was actually on the leg press. Got to do leg day as well. Yeah, never skip leg day. And I'll lock it in for it once. Biannually, I have leg day.

Yeah. And I never skip it. Never skip it. Never skip it. That's important. Yeah. But yeah, you can suggest the topic. There's a link in the show notes and also on our website, which is do go onpod.

com. You can find us on social media at do go on pod or do go on podcast on TikTok. And that's it. That's all she wrote. That's it. That's it. All right, move on. I'm done.

Bye you. Dave. At Jave. Jave. That's what I call you to. Boot this baby home. Hey, second last episode of the year done. We've got one more coming, but don't worry.

We're not taking a break in January. the episode will keep coming but thank you so much for listening. Have a great Chris Mish if that's something you're celebrating this weekend. But until then, I'll say thank you so much for listening and goodbye. Cut of a second breath. Why? You go forever. Keep going.

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