Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Why Peter Andre was naked with the backstreet boys?!

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Peter Andre joins us to discuss How he regrets not knowing he sat next to Jay Z, Why he was in swimming jeans in the mysterious girl's video How he found himself to be naked with the backstreet boys!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You too guys. Now, Peter, we always enjoy catching up with you. How have you been? How's life been? It's fair. It feels like about a year since we spoke. Have you just recently had another kid? Is that right?

Yeah, literally this house is so full and it was just had a newborn. She's 10, 11 weeks old. Literally. I thought I'm ready for this 51. I feel young, got the energy. I go in the gym nothing prepared me for lack of sleep you you feel bad saying it because obviously no matter how tired I am my wife's going to be a lot tired because she's breastfeeding so I can't even complain listen

well you can complain to us this is a safe space we won't say a word we're all the way on the other side of the world you're right no one will hear it this won't get back to your lovely wife what do they think what do they think uh you know have they seen side of the world, you're right. No one will hear it. This won't get back to your lovely wife. What do they think? What do they think? Have they seen some of the kids, the older ones, seen Dad on the beach in Thailand in his jeans, swimming in the Mysterious Girl music video? I mean, they're as confused as I am,

and most people ask why the hell I wore jeans in the water. I still don't have an answer for that. That was nearly 30 years ago now. Gee, was that 30 years? Way to make us an answer for that. That was nearly 30 years ago now. Gee, was that 30? Way to make us feel old with that. Water Safety New Zealand did not approve of those jeans and that beach either, by the way. And did you have to wander around in soggy jeans

for the remainder of the day? Because I imagine there weren't spare piers lying around. You know, I'm going to be honest with you. This is the most in-depth I've ever been in this subject. This was a real thing, you know. I walked around my jeans. Have you ever had that thing where you're walking around all day and you're kind of just, you're muggy and there's sand?

Chafing. Chafing would have come into play there. Yeah, well, yeah, it did. I don't feel comfortable with you muddying the image of that music video with chafing, Jono. Yeah, I don't want to think about chafing. Well, here's something about that video. The girl in the video, her name was Champagne. So her name was Champagne and she was a model in Thailand and she was half Swiss and half Thai. And I met her three days before the video. Literally, I was like a lost puppy. We just started dating before the video. Like literally,

it was instant. We just started dating instantly, which was crazy. And we stayed together about a year and a half after that video. Did you? Wow. That's a quick turnaround. Three days, boom, you're dating, you're filming music videos, you're chafing. It's all gone.

Where is Champagne nowadays? Well, I don't know. Apparently she's still, I mean, she was one of the big models in Thailand back then. I don't know. I've never, I should look her up actually. Can we look her up? I don't know if you should. Is your wife around?

Yeah, mate, you said your fifth kid. She's tired. Don't poke that beer. Don't be catching up with X's now, Peter Andre. Well, so looking back, as you say, the 90s, you became a megastar around the world. You know, the song was massive. And, you know, in New Zealand, it was huge. But then you kind of, you know, it was quite a lot for you, which I imagine to go through.

You sort of went through a sort of breakdown mentally. Is that right? Yeah. So I'll tell you what happened. Like in the 90s. This song was huge. But what that actually did was that set me on this great path where I worked with Montel Jordan, Coolio, the Fugees. Literally, talk about names dropping. Montel Jordan was the one that saw the video

and he said, I need you out in America. And I went out there and I worked with all these incredible artists. And then I got in the studio with the Fugees. I'm getting to the point of what you're asking, but I'm going to name a couple of people. I love it. Keep going. And I I got in the studio with the Fugees. I'm getting to the point of what you're asking, but I'm going to name a couple of people. I love it. Keep going. And I'm sitting in the studio. This is how it was back then in New York with the Fugees. And they stopped the session halfway through because this guy walks in. I'm like really keen to get this session done. And he comes in and we stop the session. He hugs us all. And then he sits there right next to me and

we listened to his whole entire album. And I didn't know who he was. I didn't know anything. And this was an album that was about to drop. Every time he looked at me, I was nodding my head as if, yeah, I'm loving this. And every time he was looking away, I'm thinking, come on, you know, I want to get the session. Now, how much I regret this, because if I had known who was sitting next to me, cut a long story short, we finished the session.

He was a lovely guy, gave us all a hug. We talked for ages. He left, got on with the session. Two months later, I'm driving in the car in Los Angeles, roof down, and his song comes on the radio. And it was It's a Hard Knock Life. It was Jay-Z that was in that studio with us. It's one of my biggest regrets, that.

Whatever happened to that Jay-Z guy, do you know? And I thought to myself, that's the kind of thing we were doing. We were amongst everybody. But what with that came is sort of, I don't know, the pressure wasn't that. That was a joy. That was me feeling on top of the world. The pressure would have come from way back. I can only blame myself.

I wanted it so bad. But I think at 16, when you're made to go into college and you're made to go into university and you're thrown in an industry that's amazing, but it's the most eyeopening experience doing everything I could have ever dreamed of. But something happened later on. I think all this stuff that bottled up has been bullied as a kid. Um, cause we moved to this part of Australia on the Gold Coast. There was literally, I don't think there were any other ethnics at the time. I remember being the only Greek family.

I'm sure there were other Greek families, but in our school, we were the only ethnics. And it was pretty brutal back then. But obviously now Australia is so multicultural, right at the peak, when everything was at the absolute peak, I just had this horrific breakdown. Didn't know where it came from. But years and years of therapy and medication kind of got to a lot of the root of the problem. And it was to do with a lot of things when I was really young. So you know what? Loads of millions of people go through this all the time. So I was nobody special. It's just that it just happened at the worst time because I was riding so high at the time you know when people sort of disappear for a while and you think okay they've disappeared because no one's buying their music anymore or whatever but I left

at a time when we were selling out arenas selling out it was huge and I don't regret it because going through that breakdown meant I could come out the other end and. And I don't regret it because going through that breakdown meant I could come out the other end and now be, you know, look at it through a different lens and be so grateful and so happy with everything I've got and everything I've ever had. But they were, they were incredible days, mate. Really incredible days. So, so you, you bowed out at the peak of your career. Is that what you're saying? I think you didn't even know. So I had a manager in the UK and I said,

I just want to go home and see mum and dad because I was about 26, 27. And I said, look, I've been going since 16. And it was nonstop. Once you start in that industry, it's go, go, go, go, go. But really I was having a breakdown, but I didn't tell her. And she said, how long are you going to go back for? I said, three months. And that three months turned to three and a half years.

Meanwhile, I'd check myself in psychiatric wards in New York. I just didn't know what was wrong with me. It's not like now you can talk about mental health. That's kind of the same, I think, even these days. Like Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes have cancelled tours and stuff. And I think people find it really hard to understand because from the outside, super famous, rich, like everyone thinks you've got it all, but it's just not the case.

You know, I've realised this and it's taken me a long time to realise this. And now I'll never forget it. If you do not have the right frame of mind, if you're not happy mentally, nothing, nothing will make you happy. None of it can make you happy if you're not feeling right mentally. You know, to get that back, to get that feeling, you know, life kind of back on track meant that I just, everything else was a bonus. You know, now when I tour, now when I do things, it's a bonus. I don't look at it like, now when I do things, it's a bonus.

I don't look at it like, I need to be number one. I need to do this. It's much more like, thank God, I've still got my legs and I can still do shows, you know? It's crazy. What's, well, you've just told us a crazy story. Do you want to hear a crazy story? Mate, he's just told you a crazy story.

It was a crazy story. That's crazier. Do you want to hear another one story? Mate, he's just told you a crazy story. It was a crazy story. Yeah. That's crazier. Do you want to hear another one? Yeah. You've got a crazier story. I'm sorry, I'll take it back.

This one's a different kind of crazy. Backstreet Boys, right? Now, back in the day, in the 90s, when they came to England, they were unknown and they would turn up

with these really cool leather jackets with Backstreet Boys on there and they looked the part and we end up we're in the same hotel and because we're mates we say oh yeah let's go let's go do the gym let's go to the gym and we'll go to the steam room and whatever but in Europe I don't know if you know this it's

not guys and girls separated everyone's together and everyone's naked oh we walked in and we're all wearing towels and shorts and everybody's naked and it's massive it was a steam room but we're all looking at each other going they're all looking at us like we're straight right so come on i'm getting rid of the towel shorts are gone everything's gone some of the boys did some of the boys didn't i can't say who didn't we put the steam room outside we'd open the door my brother danny had opened the door we'd run out in the snow because it was proper snow so we'd go from the steam room to the snow naked me and the backstreet boys and but that's i think that kind of tops a little bit the other story. That's video.

Oh, hey, a naked steam room with the Backstreet Boys in Europe, in free-loving Europe. That's a crazier story. 90s person's dream, isn't it? Now if you come back and say Jay-Z was naked on the couch next to you, then that's the only thing that'll top it. I'll put it back to my hotel at Jay-Z's there. Oh, Peter, we love catching up with you.

Look, we'd love to one time you, because I know you've got family in Australia. When you come back to Australia, we'd love to try and get you from Australia to New Zealand because we'd love to hang out with you. We'd love to do something with you. It's kind of like a dream of the show. Because you and David Williams, the comedian from the UK,

they seem to be our celebrity friends. You know what? I will say my dream is to come back and tour New Zealand and I'm going to do it because it nearly happened five years ago. I'm going to so make it happen. Our new film comes out and in the film, I've written a song for the film. So that's going to be my first single back.

I haven't done it for years and years and years. Hopefully it'll be liked, but what I'll do is come back and do the old stuff because I would love that. Awesome. Well, listen, we can be your tour promoters. We're a shaky pair of hands. But we're happy to get naked in the steam room, so, you know, that's it. Actually, to be honest, no, I don't think I can.

I do apologize for age-talking, but it was too good an option. Oh, so good. I love it. It's been a wonderful chat, Peter. Always great catching up with you. And you keep safe over there with your huge football team of children. Thank you, guys, man. Lovely to talk to you always.