Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - The Fray's Joe King Can't Remember the Last Time They Played New Zealand!

Episode Date: September 20, 2026

Joe King from The Fray joins the show ahead of the band's return to New Zealand and Australia. He shares his hazy memories of their last Auckland visit, reveals his plans to spend a week exploring New Zealand after the tour, talks about the incredible impact of How to Save a Life, and tells a hilarious story involving Paris Hilton's lip gloss! Join the Itty Bitty Hitty Committee HERE!Instagram:  @THEHITSBREAKFASTFacebook: The Hits Breakfast with Jono, Ben & Megan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How are you doing? Now, we're very excited about you coming back to New Zealand. Have you come to New Zealand? This is the thing. I was looking last night. And there was talk of the fray being at the power station in 2009. But then I could find no evidence of it. We definitely have been to New Zealand.

Okay, great. That's the only part of New Zealand we've been to. It's just Auckland. And it was not long enough. We got in. We had one night off. And Kings of Leon were in town as well. So we got to kick it with those guys after their show.

And it was pretty wild. And we can't remember much of our time in New Zealand. And I don't remember the next night, and that's when we played. Maybe that's why there's no evidence of it. So does that mean when you come back to New Zealand, you'll spend longer here? That's the thing, because we end the run in New Zealand. And I've been researching where I should go.

Oh, wow. I've told the team, like, I don't want to play any shows after New Zealand. And I just want to, like, take a week and just go somewhere in New Zealand. So where should I go? Oh wow, I think you've got to go. If you can do both islands in a week, you're probably doing well. Where would you go? You'd go, Queenstown and the South Island.

You can go top of the North Island, Cape Ranga, the very top of the country is beautiful. That's what I heard about. That's what I read about. The top of the island. What are you into? Are you an explorer? You're a daredevil? I'm a nature guy.

Yeah, Bay of Islands is beautiful. Yeah, the Bay of Islands up north. Top of the South Island, you can do the Able Tasman. Oof, yes. We're soldier. Send me. Send me, please send me, send me some links. If you got an Airbnb, if you got a side hustle, I'm looking for an Airbnb.

Do you want to see, we can get a rental van and we can drive you around all the host? He's like, oh God, this is a one Zoom turned to do a week trip with these guys. You know, I didn't want to see anyone. Can we ask, I mean, obviously, how to save a life is a song that's still, you know, hugely. We play it all the time on the Hits Radio Show, you know, like, and it was a massive song. Number two, I think the album in New Zealand. it was a huge.

Gray's Anatomy had a huge part to do with that, though, in a lot of ways. Using that for what was the biggest show on TV at the time. Jeez, and it's still on. It's wow. I think the show's been going for 25 years or something like that. Yeah, I think it had a lot of do with my mom because she was a nurse, like, growing up. And when I told her about this, like, request that we got for Grey's Anatomy, because I didn't watch the show. But she was just like, Joe, you have to.

We love this show. Like, my entire office loves the show. show you should definitely do this so i was like all right mom have you uh do you come across a lot of uh famous people that go man i like i really love your music like we're never we're i feel like we're outliers in some ways as as like as a band we're not like an industry like beloved industry band we didn't cut our teeth in la like we lost all the grimmies we were nominated for so it's just like we were never like the the cool thing um although you know we were never hanging out with paris Tilton, although I did, like, accidentally run into her and her lips at a club.

I didn't hang out with her. Didn't hang out with her. She was just like, I turned around to, like, point where the bathroom was to my brother, and I was like, oh, it's back there. And my finger went into her lips. Oh, really? And she was just like, oh, she was like, lip gloss. And there was, like, gold.

There was, like, 32 carrots of gold on my finger. 24 characters of kingdom. Now, your name. Now, I'm a dad. I love a dad pun and a dad joke. But the name, Joe King. I mean, that's a gift or is it a curse? Or what is it for you?

I mean, it's since kindergarten, right? It's like my first day, third day in school, you know, Miss Luce, she's like, Joe King. And everyone's like, oh, he's just, you know, so it's part of it. It's part of the deal. Your parents obviously knew, like going into it. Did they? Or did they not think about it? They didn't.

I mean, they named us all. like very biblical names. My dad was a pastor. So Matthew is my brother. Joseph. And Joseph is my full name. And my middle name is Aaron. So it's just so biblical. But I just, you know, I wanted, I rebelled. And I was just, call me Joe. Yeah, good on you. I'll live with it. It's kind of my fault. Oh, well, Joe, lovely hanging out with you. We can't wait for you and the freight to come to New Zealand next year. New Zealand and Australia, it's going to be huge. The Summer of Light Tour, get the tickets. because last time I think you were down this part of the world

it sold out really fast so we can't wait to have you back there it's been really fun hanging out with you man absolutely yeah thanks we'll see you all soon I'll book the rental car mate let us not if you need us to be a tool guy Airbnb