LadyGang - JC CHASEZ

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

JC Chasez joins the LadyGang podcast as the latest guest, bringing his signature charm and insight into his latest project, the Broadway (hopefully) musical Playing with Fire. The conversation delves into the creative process behind the show, as JC opens up about his transition from pop superstar to theater innovator, sharing what it’s been like to explore a new artistic avenue. Of course, the topic quickly turns to *NSYNC, and JC reflects on the band's legacy, their reunion at the 2023 VMAs, and what it’s like to see the continued love for their music. And naturally, no LadyGang episode would be complete without a little nostalgia, so the ladies can’t resist asking about JC’s iconic *NSYNC wardrobe choices, particularly his famous turtlenecks. JC gives a playful and candid explanation behind those signature fashion statements, making this episode a perfect mix of Broadway buzz, pop culture reminiscing, and plenty of laughs. Check out our holiday sponsors!!! Farmacy: Drench your skin in Honey Hydration! Visit FarmacyBeauty.com and use code LADYGANG for 20% off your order! LandRover: Build your Range Rover Evoque at LandRoverUSA.com  Peloton: Stay motivated! Find your push at OnePeloton.com  Progressive: Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

well what is this welcome to the lady gang that's amazing say that again the lady gang things are about to change around here each week we catch up with hollywood's hottest girl posse kelty knight becca tobin and jack vanik hello hello hello welcome to lady gang i'm becca tobin here with jack vanik and kelty night and ladies the basements are flooding we're in the basement and the basement is flooding i truly didn't think this day would ever come i want to okay so you guys have already seen who's on the podcast right yes we're not spoiling anything we just recorded that's that portion of the podcast i had the beautiful beautiful vantage point yes first of all i got to sit

next to JC. Yeah. I'm jealous. I hope he didn't smell the airplane on me. Oh, it's all like, it's like, you smell like Southwest. Yeah. How dare you Delta. And then, but I was able to look at both of your faces. It was absolutely, I know. I was just like, it's astounding. Like Jack's never been, she's never looked more pleased in her life. Well, okay. Also, by the way, it's just because where I was sitting, but he was looking at me the most. I thought he was looking at me the most oh he was the whole time i was like making eye contact i hope he looks at jack sooner or else she's gonna feel jealous that's what i was thinking while we were recording literally staring at me but not because he was staring at me just because i think i was just in

the quickest vantage point of him right and i got like some over the shoulder um whenever he talked about people being successful in show business he looked at you yeah and he's like you know like a successful musician too yeah i was like you know just um i get it i totally i see you you're in for a treat there's big news coming we have huge things that you're gonna get his show NSYNC update turtlenecks so much just so many things um okay well but I don't want to delay this anymore because I know you don't really care what's happening to our good week bad week but you're gonna hear it we'll make it quick yep it's time for good week yes it is bad week oh no um i'll make mine quick my bad week is i have officially waited too long to potty train

my son according to the experts oh no you haven't started yet no sorry he's two and a half i don't know well apparently any between this is the most boys take longer though allegedly no it's that's a myth i'm reading a book right now it's called oh crap it's harder to train a boy with a penis yeah it's actually easier she said but um because there are equipments on the outside but I this is the most annoying part about being a parent suddenly you have to know how many months your child is all the time even when they're past the age

of two which is just so stupid and annoying apparently between something and 30 months is when you're the sweet spot to do it and I looked at Zach yesterday and I go how many months is Ford and he goes 33 he's past the point and it's going to be

apparently three months is a huge well I guess that's Yeah, because they've already asserted their independence by this point. Does he have an interest in that? Like, does he realize, I mean, he could use that when he uses his diaper, it like is just next to him. Yeah, he does it at school. So the thing is, is that we're like dabbling in it and we have been so school will let

him go and pull down his pull up and sit on the toilet and do the thing. Yeah, he'll do it occasionally at home also. but according to the experts we should have done our boot camp already where it's like we're throwing the diapers away and you're getting your underwear so we have to find a week of our lives that we have to potty train a human and we've already can't even honestly we're not even potty trained so i don't know how speak for yourself you're going to jack and i are not why are you talking about kelty if jc listens to this i'm gonna be so upset well actually that brings me that brings me to a good week which is quite upsetting if jc is listening jc just nothing

good happens in this segment of the show go to yourself just get forward um my good week is it has taken me 38 years to realize that sometimes a men's hair trimmer is the greatest thing to combat a bush interesting i i so i am not a maintenance girly i am really bad i let things get really far away until I take care of them. I don't have my standing six week waxing appointment and it's now colder out. So I'm even less focused on what's happening below my belt. You don't get itchy when it grows out? No. Cause I, this is so upsetting. This is so upsetting. I had laser hair removal. So mine is quite patchy. Mine too. So is mine. But if I let it grow, I get, well, I'm itchy.

yeah no it's not and i have very fine hair it's not coarse wow which is awkward even on your bikini yeah it's awkward it's a very awkward texture to have on it's like hair on your head it's like having bangs a little thin wispies no sorry jc so upsetting so i was in the shower and i was thinking it's time i have to just battle this and i'll just get my razor and i'll just go to town but then zach's manscaped thing was sitting there you have was sitting on the on the like ledge and i thought this could be dangerous because i've always thought it looks very intimidating yeah but i'm gonna give it a shot you guys is it amazing i was a dolphin in three minutes maybe less it is the easiest way to remove pubic hair and it's probably safer with like the

vibrations and stuff my again this is this is a terrible choice if your like inner labia is like even remotely it's such like don't do it in like you can really you can really get it can be risky yeah if your inner labia is like if you're like getting into the lips right because you kind of have to like yeah because there's hair everywhere okay you're digging this you're digging this he's gonna be like trans-cyborian what the cyborg okay anyways manscaped i love them they should be a sponsor of the lady i love that um my good week is i just filmed an interview for a myspace documentary and you looked so hot this is my time to shine yeah i'm so excited about it you're basically the jc chazay of myspace i i am and what was so funny so i got contacted about it

like probably like nine months ago and i've just been in conversations with with the guy the producer and i didn't really like understand i'm like i don't know how big this is going to be i don't know like what the vibe is i'm like am i the most famous person on this documentary if so like that's really depressing we're really great um when i got there he like told me everybody else that's gonna be a part of it i can't say but it's like big people noteworthy people noteworthy celebrity status people that got their start on my space too. So I'm just very honored. Cause I'm like, this is, it was my world. I do feel like I was like a pioneer of the my space age. Um, and I did look good. Well, I was kind of wondering, I'm like, when you went, you did it at

when we were young fest, which was just a few weeks ago. Right. Okay. So then here's my thought process. The week before, when we were young is the week that we were like in lady world craziness. Like we, you were like literally building the website. Like it was, it was so nuts. And then I saw your, you're like, here's my outfit for when we were young. And you like self-made a whole blazer with like a million safety pins. I was like, when did she have time to do this? Because we've literally been on the phone for 14 hours.

But then now I realize you knew the MySpace interview. So you had to have a Jack Vanek. I know. Well, Mike, it only makes sense to have like a DIY. You need to have a Jack. I've thought of that before. selling. Cause I used to like sell those army jackets. Yeah. Yeah. And my friend's like, Ooh, they're jackets. Okay. That's a good pun. Um, okay. So my bad week is this isn't even really

a bad week, but I'm going to throw it in here. So I'm now part of the mission Viejo Facebook group. You know how great kind of my apartment one was. Yeah. Like someone left the trash out. Yeah. I mean, there's always drama between like any Facebook group, but there is something that i have realized recently with this facebook group so anytime anybody asks for a recommendation for a restaurant whether that's like fast food fancy date night like the most expensive restaurant ever there is this guy john who always recommends olive garden it's i was gonna say is it like a small business owner recommending their restaurant but no it's the olive garden that's what he looks like okay that's what he looks like don't say his full name we have to

bleep that out whatever he um doesn't work for olive garden i've looked into him and it's every single recommendation the the latest one was suggestions for thanksgiving dinner takeout olive garden for the win we do it every year and some person was like oh my god is that not a traditional dinner he goes not a traditional dinner at all you just have to pick it up the day before but it's so good and so let's with him and be like i'm looking for catering for my dog's memorial service oh no who has the best cater no there was somebody that did ask for catering for something like that looking for catering ideas other than tacos we usually do a taco cart for 30th birthday party for 60 people and he says all of garden caters and the price is right we love it

i'm not kidding there's so many this is why imagine your whole personality is all of garden it would be kind of dynamic in my opinion so i started like replying to some of his comments because i was like this is oh here we always have a fantastic time at ogs it's like a pizza place so this person's no oh geez is olive garden oh is it all yeah oh that's why he commented olive garden on it okay well that makes no no because he commented back he goes that looks good but olive garden is even better well he's an idiot and didn't realize it was oh geez well is there a restaurant called oh geez okay i'm gonna make this um i'm gonna i'm more information about about him um he did recommend panda express once oh it was olive garden 50 times and then panda

Express. And I was like, John, you're really going off script right here. Wow. I love him. Well, guys, we're going to be able to afford a lot of Olive Garden because my good week is that I got us a new deal. Okay. I'm bringing you guys a deal. This is what I'm going to start doing is instead of emailing you being like, Hey, do you want to do this deal for this money? I'm just going to bring it right to Lady Gang so that you guys can see how it works. Um, I got, uh, a trio deal $50 each for foot pics on Instagram you know I'm down and here's what's normal

normally you get the hey I think you have really beautiful feet will you send me something I never respond I usually block but I got feisty and I wrote back and I said what are you thinking I have something to one up you what I had the exact same conversation with a gentleman recently

you had our foot conversation wait it's probably the same guy a trio how come I didn't get it who's it from no don't say his name say his name no i don't actually this might be me but i was basically like he said 50 bucks and i for all three of us i said 10k for one foot pick he said i don't suppose you might accept 500 what 500 is good you're a better one foot pick times are tough right now i'll do it right now all right she's like take your foot out actually you know what should i actually do it no no for 500 oh my god okay here's my bad week i did something so shady so it

has been a while since i went around the corners of lady gang and did something on our behalf that's super shady and i'm bringing it to you guys i was alerted by a member of the lady gang community that there is a vanderpump rules bravo podcast i will not name them because i don't want to give them the downloads like somebody from vanderpump no no it's it's like a fan it's a fan two girls it's a now i give it away it's two two girls and they're fans of everything and i listened to the episode and they were dragging lady world oh they were like this is this the name is so stupid and like why would you why are there no male female performers and they're like oh my god let's put them and send them an offer so what i did twenty dollars bitch so i heard this and i

was like you know what we've been working on this probably lightly for about over five years and then really like for two years we've been like and the amount of work it takes like even when we offered other podcasts that didn't accept the offer to come to lady world that their agent stuff would be like well why would they do your festival and they could do their own i'd like to see you fucking try like it is such an undertaking and we have partners doing most of the work exactly and so anyway i was like you know what you do it better you make your own anyway so what i did is I was at the airport. I sent them a voice memo DM. I said, Hey, it's guilty from lady gang. You know, this is crazy. I'm actually a fan of your podcast. And I heard you talking about lady world

this week and I was really disappointed, but also I want to change your mind. Oh, they were like very concerned about who the wants to go to a sound bath. And I was like, everyone, do they know what a sound bath is? One time I went to a sound bath and I cried and I felt like I like five years of stress came off me. It actually like messes with the, the water in your brain and read. anyway it's amazing they were like a sound bath and i was like sound bath sounds amazing but anyway i said um i'm gonna change your mind it's gonna be amazing um realize we have a lot of fans in common and i wanted to see if you could email me your rates because we'd like to take out some ads on your podcast for lady world oh my god did they get back they didn't write back

did they see it i have no idea i didn't even look again i don't care that much but anyway don't be shady can you check again your dms this thrills me okay there's so many reasons i'm so savage that i would have done something crazy i would have sent them a firm offer at like fifty thousand dollars to come and do their podcast oh they would have they would take it and then i would have blasted them on the internet and said these people have no integrity all they did was talk shit about they just want the bag and they just want the bag and see you bitches later do they write back i gotta find it i will report to you i okay i was gonna say there's so many things to talk shit seriously why our little tiny festival but it's not tiny even for us i mean

compared to like every other festival i've got to say the name lady world is iconic the name of the festival is amazing sound baths are amazing if that's the two things you're talking shit on also if you're a vanderpump podcast and you have stassi and ariana there like why would you want yeah why are they being so mean james kennedy might have him too i can't find it now this is like i'll report back so sorry i hate people people are such dicks i know sorry i need an update i'll get to the people that was actually an extremely anticlimactic no i will update you on the next episode when we come back jc's here in a mint sweater now back to the lady gang our guest today has been tearing up our hearts as long as we can remember the true voice and

star of n-sync this turtleneck king gives us humble hot and star on the hollywood walk of fame he's been in the lab creating his newest creation a broadway show concept album called playing with fire and today becca tobin will be singing three ballads and auditioning for when the show goes to the great white way please welcome to the lady gang i can't believe he is in my house right now singer songwriter newly grammy nominated again artist and icon jc shazay I'm starting to wonder what am I doing in this house right now. What an intro. I know.

I know. Wait, what? We're so excited to have you. And it actually, we hate everyone. Oh, me too. Cool. But I love everyone too. It's like a weird thing.

I do. I love everyone and I hate everyone, right? It's like, you know. It's a great dichotomy. It's that. Yeah, it's that. Yeah. You're like, I want to, I love humanity.

just just not you leave me alone for a while okay so the reason that it's so perfect that you're on lady gang even though it's lady gang is this new project playing with fire first of all we have so many questions because i need to fill jc and if any of his fans are listening in on a little like lady gang backstory yeah becca and i met in new york in the early 2000s we both moved to new york from our small towns ish to try to get on broadway yeah only one of us was successful becca um i was not successful but that's where we met and stayed friends and then she moved to la and glee i followed her because i thought well everyone's going to la now jack is the opposite of this jack does not like broadway shows except for no i only like the mr mistoffelees song from cats

okay and then i love the phantom phantom of the opera okay so i like i love a dark broadway yes so this is why i'm you're gonna we're going you're gonna love us i know i know i'm very excited about it so we all darkness yes so we all listen and this is the perfect thing because you have a broadway star a broadway star and a girl who likes only dark broadway yes okay so why is this the perfect trail for playing with fire uh because it's uh intended for the stage and it's not on broadway right now obviously but the goal is to get it on broadway and it's dark yes you know i mean the opening line of the entire thing is this is how the world ends oh so so good wait can you give everybody a tldr exactly what it is the shortest version i can give you is that this

is a reimagining of mary shelley's frankenstein and the architecture of this entire thing is we've shrunk it down into a conversation between uh the creature and his creator the uh frankenstein the scientist and basically we meet them at the end of their journey and the two of them meet at the gravesite of Frankenstein's dead wife, which the creature murdered. This is how the world ends.

Wait, I love it. Okay, and so when you listen to, I love that we're getting the full story now. When you listen to it, are you imagining between the songs that there would be like a book? We've written a book. There is. There is a book. It's just that, look, I'm a musician and so I'm leading with the music, right?

it's like to come out and you know a playwright is going to lead with their book first when they are pitching and stuff like that yeah i'm a musician uh have been known as a musician first so we're leading with the music first to to bring people into our world so that's how it's we're starting the process okay so where are you sitting what are you doing when you're like my next thing is this and like how do you decide on the frankenstein and then how do you decide the frankenstein like how do you like it's it's it's not weird but it's like it's not an obvious choice it's not but look it's not actually the first musical i've written i've written we i started uh with uh voltaire actually i've written something uh based around a voltaire um piece but

this is the one that uh i think the public knows more about so they've been more more receptive in the beginning stages um so that's what led me to frankenstein now by the way what led me to frankenstein was uh my writing partner jimmy harry his mother was a playwright and she wrote a play called playing with fire and we i was reading through classics trying to get inspired because you know what's what better way to be inspired than to kind of dive in to the best writing ever in the history of mankind and or humankind and um so as i was reading and reading a reading and i just nothing was clicking nothing was clicking and uh and and jimmy proposed the idea he's like you know my mom wrote uh a play about mary shelley's frankenstein it's it's a

totally different take on it and uh so i read it and immediately had a thousand thoughts and that's always a good thing when you're trying to make something and so i i said you know like yo like what what if we were both talking back and forth about it and we're like well what is it you know it's like are we talking about technology and humanity are we talking about you know what is it that would make this work as a musical and um and basically it just boiled down to we over analyzed it at first and then just decided to start with a song and if the song felt right we would write another song and then if that felt right we would dive into this thing and uh and that's essentially what we did we wrote the first song we wrote was how do you sleep and that

basically sets the table you know it says okay the creature and the scientist frankenstein at the end basically at the end each of them are like what the you know what i mean like what are you doing here how dare you like i'm you know i'm like i should kill you now like or i'm going to kill you now each one of them has justifiable reasons uh when you when you see the backstory and and then um as the story unfolds each of them will tell a part of their experience to kind of enlighten the other they'll go you know what you're saying that like these things but look at it through my lens and then you kind of go through the journey through each of their lenses and understand why each of them acted the way they did and so it's it's pretty wild couldn't be a

more fitting story. When is this coming to Broadway? Yeah. I, you know what I hope sooner than later I, what I've learned, which I didn't know going into this is that these things take forever to get made, but, uh, you know, hopefully by again, uh, engaging people, it kind of lights a fire under people, but, you know, I'm invested in the idea of theater because of the day and age we live in you know i want to see real singers up there you know using their voices to communicate these messages because you know every time you open or turn on your phone or whatever you don't know if that face is real anymore you don't know if the voice that you're hearing is real anymore and uh you know so i'm excited about making a contribution uh to that that format what's your

favorite lyric that you wrote uh this is how the world ends yeah you know just because the the the The gravity. Sing it back. There's a kind of love. Sorry. No, no, no. It really is like such a beautiful song. And the way we're imagining the play.

Look, we're talking about the ghost of Elizabeth coming out. She is the consequence of all of these two. It's their actions that kill her. Yeah. They end her, right? And throughout – and during the play, you're going to read and hear, or I guess hear, that she's given every warning to both – she has stood up to Frankenstein in this story that we've laid out, and she calls him on his shit, and she warns him of all the dangers, and his tragic flaw is his ego, and he moves forward anyway with certain things. And her tragic flaw is that she loves him and she looks past some of his faults. And I think a lot of people will look past the faults of others when they love them.

They're willing to make those mistakes. They turn a blind eye to a certain extent. And she pays the consequences. And so I love the setup of her singing, this is how the world ends. And you're staring at the consequence of it the very first thing you see. When it goes to Broadway, will you play your part? um the the creature uh and um I don't know I look I would certainly be open to it and the problem with my brain is I'm already thinking about another idea you're like I mean like I

like making things you know it's like and by the way I certainly enjoy performing but and maybe that's my ego but I like making things yeah it's like I like to tinker and I like to experiment and and by the way that'll be a great process when it goes to the stage you know you Because, again, when you get a script, you know, you understand, like, the script, as much as it's 99% there or maybe 95% there, when the actors take hold of these things and they're in those spaces moving against those walls and whatever it is, things change. And that's actually the thing I'm most excited about now because this is just, like, round one, right? Yeah. This album is, like, step one, and our book is, you know, is draft one, and we know that once these words are starting to come out of actors' mouths and stuff like that, I'm excited about the changes. I'm excited about what these actors and other singers can body for this thing, so.

This is going to answer my next question, but, like, would you ever, just being a theater lover, like, would you ever just go and do Moulin Rouge and, like, be the performer in that or, like, hop, like, guest star into another show? I don't know. Again, it's not something... Has anyone asked you? Like, you have to do Moulin Rouge. You would be incredible. You know what? Nope. I don't think anybody's called me, to be perfectly honest with you. I mean, maybe they have when I've been too busy to do something. But in my downtime, you know what? I'm a very quiet person. I think, you know, that people just kind of don't... it doesn't occur to them. We're going to bug him. We just want to...

Well, I'm going to bug you right now. I'm putting it out there. Hey, world, I would like to go next year. But let me make another one. Believe it or not, I know, and this is bad because I still want to make this one, and these things take a ton of focus. Actually, like, my writing partner and I, we have the Voltaire piece that I would love to make happen, too. There's some crazy music in that.

And then, but the next one or two ideas that we have kind of boiling, they're so nuts. Yes. And that gets me excited. Okay. So, look, by the way, if it sells a thing and they say, If you're a creature, we'll get it on the thing. I'm there 100%.

And it'll just, you know, delay the other things by, you know, a half a year or a year. Okay. So I went down a Reddit hole and. That sounds. No, no, no. Do you know what Reddit is? I do know what Reddit is. I've looked at it.

I'm not even kidding you. I looked at it for the first time like two days ago. Did you look at your own name? People are really talking about the project on Reddit. Is that what it is? Okay. There's a big. there's well obviously there's a big in sync 2000s nostalgia moment happening and so people

want to but like you know it's been a minute since you were presenting something forward to the fans you know and so now they're like and they're like dissecting everything and so on reddit go easy no no the super fans are saying you know oh my god it turned out perfect is exactly what it should be i'm not surprised because jc is such a perfectionist that it's almost like to your detriment where you you want it to be so good before you put it out in the world would you say that's true or is that just a super fan speaking for you um you know what dichotomy i think part of that is true and part of that is false uh i like dabbling and i like and again i enjoy the creative process I think more than anything and so it's like by the time I'm done

with a song like you know I actually just want to write the next one you know I just want to start thinking about the next thing and the issue is when you're when you make something and you turn it into a product the next phase of that takes up a lot of time you know like this yeah yeah you could be writing the next hit musical but you're here with the lady like I have to do promo i think that there's a lot of that too and that for i'm assuming is for so much of your early career you were just doing that part of it it's like i'm sure you guys were creating the cycles are different you you know the the cycles before allowed space for things you know it's like there's there's so much content now and you have to deliver so much content i mean it's wild yeah

you know um and by the way that's just the world will always keep changing and that's literally how the world ends yeah it actually is so i i think part of it is just the cycle is different you know before it's like you would make you would spend you could spend up to a year making a record right and then you know you would spend the next year promoting it and touring it and then you could take another a year like a year like you know take three months off and then take the next six or seven months to work on that next record and develop that that idea so that you that you felt good about the idea and now the immediacy is so necessary people they don't you know they want it now everything now and so i think that's the the change you know um i do want to believe

in the idea and i have to try a few things before i stumble across the thing that i'm really digging you know I'm not the first idea is the genius idea all the time now sometimes it's the first thing but it's not always the first thing for everything yeah so okay so I want to know I mean I know you we had instinct and we had so album then you had like 10 how many seasons of America's best dance crew like a zillion like a decade right yeah almost and then like what did JC do what did you do in your free time when you're just like like after that between that end of that when you were off our tvs to like launching this like uh it was a bit of what is life like experimenting you know it's like it is a different look i'm older now so it's like i'm i'm not one of

those people that tries to pretend i'm 21 like um and and and behaving like a 21 year old although i'm pretty immature um but um yeah it's like it's like anything when you when you kind of put information out there out there out there out there you need to refuel and sometimes you just need to live a little bit to refuel and so i think i was doing a bit of that and again experimenting with sounds and experimenting with music because even music's made a different way now. And so I had to kind of like relearn everything. Um, so there's a bit of that going on as well. Um, but I'm, I'm, I've found something now that, that I was worth coming out. Yeah. That I feel like I'm, I'm enjoying this process now. And I feel like it's, it's, it's got value. Like

I don't want to put things out just to put them out. I feel like I'm bringing value to, to the picture and so that's why i'm focused on it the music sounds like a modern day andrew lloyd weber i wouldn't go there no way man that guy's a genius i swear when i was listening i was like there's something about this that feels very traditional musical theater we walked a fine line because i wanted to pay that respect right it's like i could just you know write pop songs and and hope that they stick um but that's the trend right now on broadway is to write two box musicals are like the mj musicals exploded you know and i'm gonna go do and juliet for for a quick thing for a sing-along or something like i think it's called a sing-along and um so but

those are pre-existing things right and so when jimmy and i started talking about it we wanted elements of pop music for sure because i love pop music i can't i can't shake that man i love it um but i do want to pay homage to the tradition of what's there as well because there's something wonderful wonderful wonderful about it and the thing that we started messing with when you say sonically and how we were approaching things we started in two places beethoven and 80s synths those were the two things that we were counterpointing from the very beginning we were like all right you know in the 80s these things were supposed to be the future yeah and uh and they're so you know these synths are like lbxa is like a giant synth i mean

it's huge and it's heavy and and that made me think of the creature in a in a way it's like this this kind of like and by the way our new version of the creature is not lumbering it's not clumsy we look at the creature and frankstein is like modern day rock stars actually um you know like that's exciting to me to kind of put a new face on that as well but but again this heavy electric electric thing that hums when you turn it on and has you know however many volts surging through it when you hit the button it's just loud as yeah you know what i mean like that's what i that's that's where we started and then obviously things evolved when the character of each song came into their own so i love it all right when we come back jc and his really cute mint sweater

are gonna answer all of our burning questions it's sweater weather you're listening to the lady gang okay we are back um you got a brand new grammy nomination like two days ago uh yeah oh congrats yeah this is huge you know it's a wild thing it's been like 20 years it has been it's been a minute look i that's all because of justin and the trolls family you know uh that was just supposed to be a fun little thing to do uh and uh and again it was it was a blast doing it um here's a crazy coincidence because i was just with my family the other day and my cousin is uh is a concert uh musician as well and he plays the clarinet and some other instruments, and a piece of work that he played on

is also nominated for a Grammy. And so we just realized like a couple of days ago that, wow, we're both nominated for a Grammy in the same year at the same time. So I thought that was really, really – so Zach, Zachary, good job, bro. We're in this together. That's so cool. Who knew? you know us us for a cartoon movie and then him for playing on some uh some classical experimental

that's awesome but do you still get stoked like it's the grammys like it doesn't matter what it's for yeah you still get to go you get to be like all right will you go i don't know if i'll go you know who knows how this stuff works anymore if they let me go he says um yeah they look anytime that someone says they appreciate your work yeah you're grateful right i think you have to be pretty arrogant not to be thankful yeah have you ever been bitter um i don't know about bitter i would say frustrated i think every artist is frustrated you know by by something at some point you know it can drive you you know you want people to understand me you know it's like so there is some frustration in that i would say sometimes but

i don't i tend not to like rest on too many negative feelings it just doesn't do me any good god you're so evolved i know um me too um okay why did you wear so many turtlenecks summer winter fall spring because it's a turtleneck for every season you know what i don't know why they're so hot you have a beautiful neck now that you're wearing a v-neck also is your sweater wool like maybe you just like that vibe of just being like i am kind of a i'm claustrophobic you're cozy king i am a bit of a cozy yeah i'm not i i cook in the sun so maybe that's what it is maybe i just like being cozy i know that like you know uh some people like to sleep in the buff and stuff like

that and i think there was a period of time when i did that but i'm well over that period of my life and now i if i if you asked me i would sleep in a snowsuit if you asked me to sleep wait i have a i have a funny story so when i was like in seventh grade i used to do seat fillers do you know what that is like yeah where they'd like bring little kids and they could go like fill seats at music awards and i went to the mtv music award and they seat filled me yeah right next to you and it was like the best moment of my life obviously did you play it cool or were you like great turtleneck oh yeah no i know but i remember what you were wearing it wasn't a turtleneck it was like a black lace long sleeve shirt

believe it with cats on it i like this so much more now like yes it was like cat embroidered something or like an applique or something they were fancy it was but i was like this is the best moment of my life i sat next to jc and he was wearing elise cat shirt and he's a cat guy i'm an animal person it could be it could be just about anything and i'm a fan of it do did you watch the celine dion documentary i didn't okay so in the for everyone that hasn't watched it um she goes into her warehouse and she has literally everything do you have like a jc warehouse where it's like i do the magazines the doll the outfits i have a lot of the old stage clothes that are kind of in vacuum bags and stuff like that i actually have the mechanical bull

with like the the rockets and the lights and all that stuff from the pop odyssey tour still i think i'm the only one left that has theirs and it's yeah it's all sitting in a warehouse um would you ever do like the museum and like let everyone go in and see everything well uh you know what we did a pop-up when we got our star on the walk of fame so we did a pop-up and i actually pulled a bunch of items from the from the warehouse or whatever you want to call storage space um because you know chris kirkpatrick is not organized enough to have a warehouse and by the way he keeps everything and joey keeps everything but it's in a pile of shit in the corner it's literally still in the den in his mom's den yeah i uh i'm i'm pretty good about look and by the way i'm not precious about a lot

of things so it's it's kind of like you know i i'm one of those cats that like cats oh i'm one of those people that like if i haven't wanted an x amount of you know yeah it's out it's gone you know what i mean so um i'm i'm surprised at how much that i've been able to hang on to but i also think it's just because it's just there and it's like i don't mess with it and then every now and then um my folks would be like you know you should if you you want to you know you can put some of this stuff in here and then i'll go in there and all that stuff's and then i'm like oh should we get rid of this stuff like what are we doing and they're like they're like yeah you don't need to get rid of it yet it's here you know it's like it's it's fine and you're like okay what do you

think about this sort of era and the fact that it just seems like well first of all we're in a nostalgia right so like everything is moving so fast so anyone that grew up as part of like the pop 2k generation we are now like it was we're at the age where we're like it was so much better when we were young and you went to concerts without phones and like we're doing the thing our parents did where we felt you know like these days i think what's so interesting about you and and your fame and the fandom is that all of a sudden there's like flowers for jc like you were always famous you were always a part of this mega group like very instantly recognizable but i think a lot of people like the conversation especially online is like no no jc the voice no this is the

flowers it's maturing is realizing that jc carried in sync on the shoulders no i certainly didn't yes you did no no no no no look we all had we all had our part to play in that band and and again i'm grateful for all those guys and and because everyone stepped up when they were asked to step up yeah i i felt like i tried to do my job the best that i could do it and contribute the best way possible but the band would not be the band if it weren't the five people that you saw i want to admit something and it's it's gonna blow your mind is in the very first n-sync video of all time oh yeah i thought that thing's special what was it hail caesar wait what i had a caesar cut it was like oh i'm like wait wait was it tearing up my heart it was the very first that was this the

second one actually but the very first i want you back video yeah i want you back it's the feelings i get in my tingle it's not this is honestly jc this is not about you the feelings i get in my tingle for chris kirkpatrick in that video he was so cute he was so hot yeah he was they made him weird like later he went into like not anybody making him chris does chris no chris does chris just to understand that he came into his own got more chris as the time went on what a smoke show if you go back and watch that i need to look up a screenshot oh my god yeah okay anyway well i'm just remember like you know during and back in those days you know he was like full-blown like raver kid yeah i believe it yeah like he was going to you know orlando was believe it or not a hot

spot for edm back then and he was going to like all the shows he was the he was the you know again and Janko Janes were like the thing, and he was the guy going to all the EDM shows. That tracks. Yeah. That is so funny. Okay, so I have songwriter friends that I know have written songs,

whether they thought it was actually going to happen or not, and have submitted them for a full NSYNC album. Oh, cute. You never got those songs, did you? I haven't heard one song submitted for an NSYNC album, just so you know. Other than the songs that Justin played me for the Trolls song,

and then for the for the song for his record and maybe one other song okay so it's like not is it are we ever gonna get that or no i don't know um you're so busy doing musical yeah i mean look everybody's busy justin's on tour hello um and then uh and joey's about to do and juliet uh at the top of the year which i think lance has two children under the age of three i know yeah that being said um i will say this and and this is not like i'm not trying to gaslight i'm not trying to do any of that nonsense but we are talking more than we've ever talked about it but it's not real right now i can say and i know that's like everybody's gonna give me a hard time i guess but you know it's like we have been working towards some things and and so and and they're

important to us like you know so i have to say like i am i'm all in on the project that i'm in right now i think it's a good thing for me and by the way the band would be a great thing for me too but you know i want to make something and i and so i've i told my writing partner by the way it's like i'm going to give it my best and whatever that is that's what i'm going to give and then after that you know who knows what what happens in the world right like you just like okay maybe i'll try that you go where inspiration is right like i can't i'm not one of those people that fakes it very well whenever i've kind of tried to fake it i've always kind of felt shitty about it to be honest with you and and so it's like oh i'm never gonna get that back you know that that

amount of time back never gonna get that that impression back never gonna get that you know i don't know i'm just one of those people that you know some people can go to work and it's like they're like this is my job and i can do this and because it's the job and da da da da when it comes to these kinds of things i have to believe in it 100 so and you can't screw it up you can't whatever like from a fan's perspective there's we actually don't want new music from anywhere we're just talking about this it's like like um who said all american rejects just did an interview after the when we were young festival and they were like is there going to be new music he's like nobody wants new music from us they just want to come to a concert and watch us sing the

songs that they love well i would love new and sync music because i feel like you guys would but that's what i'm saying but they would do it thoughtfully yeah like they're not just going to be like we can make a ton of money right now let's do it it doesn't like yeah it doesn't work that way for us at least it it hasn't uh yet yeah so and uh and but that is that's a that's a great point it is like look everybody wants to go see the rolling stones they've been doing it forever but you still want to hear satisfaction and then that's what you go for you know what i mean so there is that push and pull and look i fight with it as an artist it's like i want to give the people what they want i do i want to make people happy it's part of my nature i guess but i also can't

like lie to myself so yeah i have to be true to myself as well um okay so you did america's best dance crew like all those seasons would you ever like take place on another panel like would you do a voice would you do american idol would you do like i actually i'll be honest with you i would love to do abdc again i think there's a big void i and and you know i i know that there are other dance shows out there doing uh what they do but i think it offered something um unique and uh and so if i did anything on a panel it might be that like i i wouldn't mind kind of stepping back into that because i like the connection when it's when it's raw like there's a rawness to that show when a lot of these other shows are either based on celebrity or based on polish to be honest with

you um i liked that there was a very vulnerable thing about that show and the and the people competing on that show and it was an honest vulnerability it wasn't manufactured so had grit yeah like it should be produced it should be polished in terms of being produced but but make sure that whatever we're producing it's it is about the dancers you know and also you know it's just you're getting something i guess gritty truthful about it truthful out of it you know it's like you know you throw challenges at people it's you know treat it like a competition it is a competition you know and it was his only art it's it is but it isn't you're up there it's a competition show so you are competing so acknowledge that i mean i just think it was done in a in a

pretty pretty cool way okay so we talked about chris um so i don't know sorry your face we can talk more about chris no no well this is important for us so um you don't know this but we have our own festival next September. It's called Lady World. And, um, it's in Florida. It's in Dustin, Florida. The tickets just went on sale last week. It was, it's been really incredible and it's sort of podcasts and comedians. And then each night is music. And so Saturday night, Jack's husband is in a band called The Main. So her husband's band, The Main is playing Saturday night. And one of the nights chris kirkpatrick is coming with his little pop 2k thing he does so it's like chris o-town bb mac lfo ryan cabrera and mark mcgrath from sugar ray and they do iconic they

do 90 minutes and they kind of like i think from what i saw online the o-town and the lfos like get on and they do your parts for the n-sync songs and then chris that's crips that's probably special but like chris has his like center of the point moment you know what i mean um so we're so excited about it tickets are available right now ladyworld.co ticket go get one okay but what do we need to know about chris kirkpatrick before we go and take him to florida like do we like what does he need backstage does he have a backstage warm-up like we want to surprise him. He's very different than what he used to be, obviously, because he's a father

as well. Yeah, yeah. And so, I think he'll probably need some knee cream. Probably need some aspirin. Yeah. We're different folks

these days, you know? I know! We don't drop it like it's hot anymore. The dancing probably hurts. They dance! They dance! They don't do the, like, the iconic pump pump pump which is my favorite move of all time a lot of people do the bye bye bye but that's not it the move is from the first video that's literally what we would say in rehearsal by the way it's like a pelvic thrust and riding a pony at the same time and we're all doing it back to front and yeah it's like but beyonce does that because thank gosh we learned so much about each

other in those days and yet somehow nobody knew lance was gay like i don't know very erotic that pony okay so we need to so we're gonna walk in aspirin cbd cream for the knees like a little extra water and like a full warm-up you'll love we knew we couldn't afford you love him being there though because he is the funniest human on earth no we're so excited he is like when it comes to person like joey's like the sweetest guy on earth chris is like crazy funny okay he's because he's witty and fast and that it's like he'll throw jokes by you and you'll realize that they landed like two minutes later you'll go wait what what the what did he just say like yeah yeah he's great at that yeah it's fast well once we sell enough tickets we'll bring you

out you can play the part of jc he's like you cannot afford me what are the o-towns he's like i don't actually leave the house i don't know if you've known i just want to make things man i just would scratch an artistic itch in you yeah hey we could do a broadway sunday could play the wife what would it take what would it take how many zeros would it take he's like i have literally based on the fact that we're in kelty's like spare bedroom right now you don't have enough money i just don't i don't i don't perform anymore i just don't want to go i'm not opposed to going anywhere and doing anything. You can't wear a turtleneck or a cardigan.

It's going to be in Florida. He could wear that lace long sleeve. I could just wear a turtleneck and no shirt. Or I could wear the cat shirt. Just a dickie. Just the turtleneck only. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I'm wearing no shirt and I'm pushing 50.

Oh my gosh. On the show, we'd love to do something called Hollywood Heartbreak and I said ick moment, ish moment. Ish moment is first. what is the ish the moment where you realized i am jc turtle wearing motherfucking shazay that's i mean the ish means like i'm the shit that i made it yeah like what was the moment where you were like was it the sold out stadium tour was it a award was it the walk of fame was

it like what was the moment where you were like i felt like i did that it's hard to say because honestly so much of that really got wasted on us because we were so broke when we hit because we were it was pre you know before we got out of our first deal i mean we were selling out arenas and we were broke you know what i mean so it's like we were we knew we had done something when that many people came to see us right we were like oh there are 16 000 people here this is like we we did it yeah and then we couldn't afford to put gas in our car when we would go home so it was the most exciting and depressing reality at the same time we couldn't enjoy it like we knew we were making noise yeah but it was kind of like you couldn't afford to buy your mom the

plane ticket to come see that show and that's a weird feeling no man it's it's the it's the most frustrating thing um i think the moment that it kind of kicked in where we really felt like we did something and it's just kind of like when we played stadiums you know it's like there are a lot of artists that can play arenas yes but i would and this is not to be like whatever but when you play a stadium and you have a run at stadiums when you're playing multiple shows and you're playing two nights in a row in a stadium that feels different yeah and i i you know there are some fantastic artists that are doing it today and they're crushing it and and uh but i think that's something that i'll always be thankful to have been able to participate in that okay so

when you're at a stadium this is just for us fans so because you have this unique perspective that you're like one of the probably the only artist we'll ever have sitting here that's you'll have stadium so you know it's like we can play to 200 people at a city winery you know did you say winery now you've got me see all you had to do was say there's gonna be a stage at the winery and then it's like i'm a grown-up man lady world we have an open bar so you would love to wear a turtleneck at the city winery that feels like your vibe just sitting there yeah nice gossip cabernet okay neo but here's my question when i go when you're right now taylor swift is finishing her stadium tour so i'll use that example you go to the taylor swift show you just want her to

notice you is there anything you're on the stage the lights you got the in-ears your perspective is already way different than mine right no of course well of course but like in terms of fandom though it's different than mine but could a fan do something where you would see them and notice them in the audience or is it too much of a blur you definitely notice people and i don't know if they can do something to make you notice them your eyes look your eyes just move you know and they land in spots and so you definitely and we're looking for connection I think as a performer you're looking for connection you keep looking at Becca like I also was auditioning for Broadway JC in there man so it's like you are though like you're looking for moments to be human because

it's like that's what we're up there doing like as much as we're performing we're sharing yeah an exciting moment it's exciting for me to be up there I'm like I'm so lucky to be there and i know what it's like to be a fan of someone and i like you know so when i go to shows it's like i go there i go there to enjoy the entire experience like i'm not looking to be like they need to notice me or whatever like that is i want to see what they do like i want to see this stage i want to see how they want to bring their world to life i want to see you know the the ins and outs of this thing and that's exciting to me but okay but wait but when i was like 15 and then the back row at one of your concerts jc's gonna notice me no you were like 11 he was checking

out your mother right but like was there any and this is not just for you this is for all bands i've ever seen ever okay you know like if i'm if i wear the right outfit and i wear the sparkle eyeshadow will he fall in love see me on stage fall in love with me fall in love with you is probably a no but dreams crushed but you you can be absolutely noticed like you'll see something but oh my god that's so cute like when you see somebody like hold up a sign or you see somebody you know again like put them themselves together a certain kind of way you're like oh cute and then you're like you send the security guard out and you're like no well i did one of the instant concerts you don't want that lawsuit also it's like we look we're very conscious about the world

we live in and we were like hey man we are not messing we are not this we are not doing that yeah exactly don't eat the cookies yeah don't don't do something that stupid yeah when i went to one of your concerts five of my girlfriends went and we all wore a different shirt and you know how the last like letters of all of your names i wanted the c and i got the s and i was so pissed because i'm like jc's not gonna notice you're gonna have chris though see you got the s i'm a jc girl was that on purpose so i mean this story's been told a bunch i'm sure but uh the last letters of our first names coincidentally turned out to be that when we were messing around with name ideas yeah except for so the original member who sang bass for us

his name was jason and uh and so he uh he was the n and then so when uh when he kind of decided he wanted to uh make r&b music instead of pop music and he's the worst decision no not the worst is everybody's got to do what they got to do to feel good like and uh and so he was having fun making r&b music and by the way i don't want a you know you don't want someone that wants doesn't want to be there 100 it's so much work who wasn't a member yet then lance oh so so lance was doing show choir in mississippi and we were like we were literally about to sign our contracts um which you know is a wonderful and horrible decision looking back on it but um yeah we were like right up against it and you know we had worked on all these arrangements for for all these tunes and you

know because we looked at ourselves as dancing in acapella group right and so we were like uh so we have to redo everything or like you know the the the magic number seems to be five everybody digs a five piece so we got to find somebody and uh and so we we got a hold of a vocal coach that worked with uh justin and lance and uh and he told us about lance and so we went and saw him and then we brought him to florida to meet you know uh the people that we were working with and and uh and we just knew right away though i mean look he's so charming and and his person and his voice people i don't think understand how comfortable he is singing low you know it's not it's like it's hard to sing low when you're doing choreography right because you're breathing heavy and when you want

to sing low you want to control that breathing and it's natural for him down there so it's really special he he's a gifted human being and so um we're really lucky to have him so we would always crack jokes well you're lance den and that's basically where that whole thing came from it was kind of like we were cracking jokes about it like because we had we basically had the name by then i love it and we were like you're lance den okay not to end on a sour note but what's your Hollywood heartbreak other than like the contract stuff? Like, has there been something you were up for or something you put out in the world that no one understood or like the time where you were like, I'm never leaving my house. Um, I would say one of the, one of a bummer for me, and this is

goes to theater actually, it lit the fire inside of me, but it also kind of punched me in the face pretty good um i was supposed to play pontius pilate for jesus christ superstar and i like i loved that part it's like i got to basically crucify jesus which is not the nicest thing to say out loud but you love a little dread to play a meaningful part in the story right and uh and i was so excited and the cast was wild it was michelle williams from destiny's child and brandon from incubus like oh yeah who by the way wait did he play jesus no he played uh um ben ben played uh jesus and he played judas he was he was doing so he was gonna sing yeah he's gonna sing judas who double crosses everybody and so it was it was a cool thing that we were

gearing up for and it just kind of fell apart at the last minute and um it was it was heartbreaking but it's a memory I'll never forget because we were all together when we found out that it wasn't going to happen we had just kind of gotten together and we were starting to work on the the piece together and we were all rooting for each other and then somebody comes in and just goes pack up your shit it's not happening yes and it was like oh yeah so that that stung quite a bit And, um, but the experience of being with those other performers got me excited for this and life later in life. Yeah.

Cause it was a, it was a long time ago, but it was always something that, that stayed with me and bubbled inside of me and frustrated me. And, and I was, and so when, when Jimmy and I were talking about making something, I was like yeah i was like it's unfinished business you know it's like i was like i need like i need to do this so you're a real theater nerd that's why i don't know if i'm a real theater nerd because i don't know like i can't quote all these these shows and things like that like the soul of a theater you're very nerdy actually it just all makes sense i'm very nerdy you're very nerdy like it all makes sense yeah all of it makes sense yeah like it's all making sense are you okay

no it's like hot nerd you need to specify definitely a hot nerd but like you know when you were like watching from the outside in and you're like oh these are the cool people but like she's resonating with you i'm digging in right now sorry okay anyway she's like what does it mean how many he's like i gotta go no come on how many streams do we need so that we can get this on broadway lady gang you need to go stream playing with fire it's on that's spotify is that where's your preferred it's everywhere it's pw where do you want people to go people pwfmusical.com will can take you anywhere you want to go to get information about this thing look we're look to be fair we're already talking to uh producers we're we're

talking it's very early early stages yeah but either um but but to have somebody at least interested yeah and what we're doing and again uh someone we can talk about our vision with um is exciting because you know it's a very exciting time i would say for theater the the way things are evolving it's like when we were talking about darren he's doing a piece right now where he's playing a robot you know what i mean like they're experimenting a bit now yeah he's rad man um but they are playing a bit now like again i know that you need to have the traditional pieces in the arsenal and on the stage for everybody and everyone's always gonna love you know those those pieces but it is cool that they're being open to messing around with some

fresh ideas yeah and you know so i think that it's a fun time to start with this hell yeah hell yeah playing with fire is available everywhere this is how the show ends we will see you next tuesday lady gang is produced by podcast one with podcasting production assistance from steve delameter derrick haley editing by jared monaco and social support from Carly Carrera and Mastermind Evil Genius from Kelty Knight.