Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - JB Gill (Part One)

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Join Emily and Raymond in London’s Regent’s Park with the performer, TV presenter and turkey farmer JB Gill!JB shot to fame as one quarter of the boyband JLS. They were runners up on The X Factor in 2008, and then went on to become one of the UK’s most-successful boybands. Their debut album went 4 x Platinum, they won two BRIT awards and five MOBO awards and achieved five number one singles. But musician isn’t the only string to JB’s bow - he’s very much a polymath and there’s no end to his knowledge and curiosity about the world. JB tells us about his early years in Antigua, what happened when he moved to South London and how he discovered all his various talents…JB and his family have a Mastiff called Nala - she was at home on the farm this day as we met JB on a day that he was co-hosting The One Show… but we find out the story of how they adopted her, thanks to Paul O’Grady! Follow @jbgill on InstagramYou can buy your copy of Ace and the Animal Heroes: The Wacky Weather Mystery here!Follow Emily: Instagram - @emilyrebeccadeanX - @divine_miss_emWalking The Dog is produced by Faye LawrenceMusic: Rich Jarman Artwork: Alice LudlamPhotography: Karla Gowlett  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I was a meme before my time. I'm actually really proud of that. You were singing Wams last Christmas. Yep. J.B. went. Merry Christmas. You mean, you've got to make it your own. This is what I've done.

This week on Walking the Dog, Raymond and I went for a stroll with singer, TV presenter, Farmer, and one-fourth of the legendary JLS, J.B. Gill. J.B. met up with us in London's Regents Park just a few hours before he was due to present the one show, so he'd left his beautiful rescue Mastiff Nala back home on his farm in Kent, but he couldn't wait to tell me all about her and how he has the late great Paul O'Grady to thank for bringing her into his life.

Ray and I got immensely good vibes from J.B. The minute we met him, he's incredibly warm and got this very gentle energy, but he also has a brilliantly self-deprecating sense of humour, and we had the loveliest walk, chatting about his really fascinating journey from his childhood growing up in Anteatine, to his early years as a bit of a musical prodigy, to a stint as a rugby player and then a theology degree at King's College London, which sadly had to be put on pause, because it's a little tricky to get to lectures when you're suddenly one-fourth of JLS and find yourself selling

10 million records. One of the things that really strikes you about J.B. is this incredible positive mental attitude he has, which is something he clearly brings to everything he does, whether it's performing on strictly, writing his series of chills. children's books or setting up his very own Kelly Bronze Turkey Farm, which by the way provides turkeys to members of One Direction, Little Mix and the Pussy Gap dolls. But mainly, he just seems like a really genuine, very decent human being who's miraculously unaffected by fame. In fact, Raymond loved J.B. so much. He's decided to move into the farm with J.B. and Chloe and their two kids with immediate effect. And frankly, I don't blame him. If you have kids, by the way, do check out

J.B.'s brilliant children's books. His latest Ace and the Animal Heroes, The Wacky Weather Mystery, is out now. I'll stop talking now and hand over to the wonderful man himself. Here's J.B. And Ray-Rey. Should we get it going? Hey? J.B. What do you think? Should we get moving? Yeah, come on, Raymond.

Oh, J-B, do you know, I love the way you took control. What can I say? I really feel, I'm getting a vibe about you already, and I feel... Are you? I feel, you quite call the shots. Well, good fives only, I hope, firstly. Secondly, no, do you know, I feel like there's a time and a place to call shots. We go this way.

There's a time and a place to call shots. Sometimes it's nice having other people call the shots, but I never like to not know what I'm doing. Right. So by default, I guess that kind of means you have to call shots. Yes, because I think you're, I get the impression you're quite a sort of organised forward planning. person? Yes, absolutely. I don't know where that comes from either, to be fair. I feel like growing up, I always had to have a plan. Yes. Like, understand what I'm doing, where I'm going.

Well, where are we going now, Javier? Right now we're going to go and get a coffee. Do you want anything? Or a tea? Um, I might actually grab a water, to be fair. Are we so healthy since he's been on that farm? Not only that strictly I mean I'm trying to keep it Trim Can't lose it after You know what six months of Of doing all that dancing

You got to protect the brand And the brand's in good shape Do you know what I mean I'm gonna have What you're gonna go for Oh do you know what I think I'm just gonna I'm gonna have a flat white

And J.B Yeah Do you sure you just want to water Yeah no no no it's all good Yeah So one water and one flat white yes please Ray are you excited to meet J B I'm excited to meet you we should say Ray could not be more different from your dog and your beautiful dog is not with us

today because she's on the farm yes she is and we wanted to grab you in London but I want to hear all about her because I've seen the pictures and she's beautiful she's honestly she you know they always say thank you they always say that you know animals change your life and I genuinely believe that for us, animals have definitely done that. Farm aside, when we first got Nala, we were working on sort of things with the farm, but we didn't actually have it established as a working farm yet.

And we went to, no, what was I doing? I was on the Paula Grady show, and, you know, he loved his dogs, didn't he? And he was always talking about, you know, a different charity or a different organisation. It was helping animals, helping dogs. And I remember he had, sort of this segment on the show when I went on one time and I had to basically just sit

there with a dog and he did all the spiel about where the dog was from and what the dog was doing and you know obviously put it out there to if anyone could please you know rescue any of these dogs then it would you know be doing a great thing putting them to a good home and I remember hearing the uh the description of Nala at the time her name was Bella and you know she was a mastiff cross but she was a puppy she was going to turn into this big dog for one reason or another she'd not you know she'd had to be rehomed but you know she'd come from decent stock they thought and yeah she was she was a beautiful beautiful dog and I remember having her on my lap and she was just so cozy so chill so

beautiful so lovely and our message my girlfriend at the time is my wife and our Chloe and I just said babe I think we found a dog because we've been looking for a dog for so long and she was just like no but we can't rescue one because it was the first dog we were gonna have you know especially we were big dogs, you have to be very careful because if you, you know, they're not socialised well and trained well, you know, they can potentially become an issue and we didn't want any of that and we thought, okay, well, we'll get, if we're going to get a big dog, we'll get our first one from a proper breeder, we know exactly what it is, we've got support from them and all that sort

of stuff. And then we met Nala, I sent her the photo and she's just like, oh, she's amazing. I was like, well, she's available to rescue. You've got to go and see her. She went and saw her for the first time in the Mayhew Animal Home, and she literally just like, I love her, but she's crazy. And I was like, what do you mean she's crazy? Apparently, she, like, was hanging off her arm when she went to go and see her. Like, just obviously a puppy full of mischief. Is that what?

Do you think that's what Chloe said when she met you? I love him, but he's crazy. Do you know, I'm the sensible one. I've always been the sensible one in JLS. I'm not crazy at all, but... You are kind of accountant spice in JLS. So true. So true.

You're always my favorite, J.B. I'm not just saying that. Thank you. So, yeah, so what a lovely story about your dog. And she ended up, she found her forever home with you. And I suspect Paul O'Grady, who the much miss Paul O'Grady, who, as we say, adore dogs. I bet he loved that she ended up going to you. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I went back on the show, sort of a few years after with Nala, which is really nice. And, you know, it's, you know, obviously that doesn't happen all the time. But it's so nice when you can have a story like that. And, you know, as I say, like, she's a hundred percent changed our life, changed our outlook on everything. And, you know, it's been so nice for us to know that we've been able to give her, you know, forever home. But then similarly, I think she's going to be 12 this year in September. And, you know, it's unbelievable. Like, we're just obviously now in that phase where we're like counting down the year, so to speak.

But, you know, she's been, she's been amazing for us. I wonder what she'd make of Raymond then. I think she might be confused by Raymond, but I presume she's used to all. sorts of animals because she's on a farm. Yeah. Well, she is very, by definition, very much a mastiff. Yeah. So she does have quite a high prey drive.

Maybe it was for the best. Well, yeah, I mean, I think historically, had we been sort of in the 18 or 1900, she would have made a fantastic guard dog. You know, but I think, yeah, for her, you know, being around the chickens and stuff, that you have to be very careful, but with the pigs, of course, the pigs are bigger than her. So she does try and get, you know, a bit sort of cheeky with them, but she's very, very nice. I want to know your history with dogs then,

because you grew up really excitingly in Antigua, is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I've been to, and it's what a beautiful place. I love Antigua. I've still got quite a lot of family that live there. And this was with your, is it your mum, Cynthia and your dad, Keith? Correct, yeah. Your mum was a nurse, am I right?

Yes. My mom trained as a nurse. My dad trained as a carpenter. So that's why you're born here. Don't know what I mean? No, because you had parents who did solid, no messing about professions that require work. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You know, they're both very, very hard working. And, you know, that's one of the things, of course, I admire about both my parents. And, you know, my mum always had sort of, especially, she always had a dream, you know,

and she always says to me, you know, I expect you to do better than me. You know, and sometimes that can be, that can be, well, some people can feel like under quite a lot of pressure when a parent says something like that. But what I understood it to mean is effectively, I want you to go on and accomplish the things and have the opportunities that I didn't necessarily feel like I had. And so for me, I love that. And a lot of, you know, I think especially parents who are successful, go on to success or whatever, you know, really struggle with sort of passing that baton and going, that whole sort of complex of succession is a really difficult. thing to kind of, I guess, display and pass on, you know, but I love that. And, you know, growing up, you know, we weren't, you know, from a really, you know, a poor background, but, you know,

we weren't super well off or anything like that. And, you know. And did your life change a lot? So growing up in Antigua must have been very different to Croydon where you lived here. So what was the decision based on to come over here? Was it just work opportunities or? Yeah, I think it was work opportunities. So I was actually born here in the UK. Yeah. And as I said, my mum trainers and there. Dad was a carpenter. Obviously, both of them, you know, relatively flexible in terms of, you know, where they're able to work. And we moved to Antigua, I think it was an opportunity for my mum at the time.

And I was there until I was about four or five, I think. And I'm not sure what the decision was to come back. Perhaps it might have been schooling. Yeah. But we very much had an outdoors type of life. Like my dad was always into horses and, you know, the local, like my family. and they kept donkeys and you know had sugar sugar cane sort of looked after sugar cane plantations I mean it's sounding very biblical a carpenter yeah keeping the under

donkeys yeah well he didn't keep donkeys he kept horses he was always passionate about the horses but like some of my earliest photos were of me like on the back of the horses with all my my younger brother and my cousins and you know all that sort of stuff and you know I absolutely loved that upbringing and as you say it's a far cry then from yeah sort of well it's actually Tolst hill at the time when me first move back we were in Tulsa Hill. We've always been in South London. J.B., what's that? Is that a heron, do you think? Yeah, it's a heron. I thought you'd know your birds. You know your wildlife. You've got the geese in the water today. I feel I've got animal Wikipedia with me.

Do you like herons? They're beautiful. They're very elegant and regal looking, aren't they? They are and this one's grey as well. Yeah. Beautiful. Needs to get the hair dye out. The daffodils are stunning as well. Look at that. So when you were growing off the... in Croydon, as you say, that was a big change coming back to all this sort of noise and just the hustle and bustle of being in London. What were you like as a child, J.B.? Can I tell you what I imagine, you can tell me if I'm wrong, from what I know of you. Go on. I'm imagining quite well behaved and quite studious. I feel like I had the potential to be both.

Right. And I was both for the majority of the time, but I was quite spontaneous and quite inquisitive. So I, you know, I remember getting in trouble, not major trouble, but, you know, I'd always sort of like test the boundaries up until a certain point, probably until I was about 13 or 14. But, you know, certainly at primary school, you know, I was quite boisterous, love playing outside, love being outside. Were you popular? Yeah, I was quite popular. sort of the kid but you know I was kind of in the mix with the boys you don't want to be the kid because there's a big fall

from grace and they will turn on you yeah that's very true that's very never be the king be the prince yeah yeah I was definitely sort of in the mix we'll say and you were absolutely brilliant at music weren't you you had this talent from a very young age and I suspect a good old Cynthia was

saying come on do you you're practising. Was it flute? Yeah, so I started with the recorder and that was sort of your traditional, everyone in the class is going to just painfully blow away on this instrument and see what happens. Three blind minds. It was all of that. But that was what was funny because the first day I got it, I took it home, obviously, take the recorder home, take the book home and it's kind of like, probably was three blind mice, but do three bright mice and we'll come back in next week and we'll go through the rest of it. And of course, I knew.

the song. So I thought to myself, all right, well, I knew the notes, some of the notes. Let me just sound it out until I get it. So I practiced at home and, you know, then went on to the next page. The next page was probably, you know, insimsy spider or whatever. Then the next one would have been something else that was, you know, very well-known nursery rhyme. And I went back in the following week. And the following week it was basically time to go through the song. And I played it, you know, like all the way through. and everyone was still learning. And then we went through the next one and then played all of that. Next song, played all of that. So they were actually quite blown away because I'd just picked it up. And I'd gone through book one and was like,

right, we need to get book two out. But then, of course, everybody else was still on book one. So I remember very quickly going through all the different books. And then they gave them the opportunity to practice the flute, which then escalated into taking on lessons for the piano and the guitar as well. And I absolutely loved it.

It was one of those things. I think because I played music by ear, Yeah. It was one of those things that I think, firstly came naturally to me, but allowed me to sort of explore my musicality. And you did have this musical talent, as we say, but then you got diverted by rugby. Which is, I think, such a fascinating fact about you,

because it's quite unusual, you know, to take that turn. Yeah. Did you just start realizing again you had a talent for sport? What happened? Why did you suddenly start getting passionate about rugby? Well, I always love sport. And when I left my primary school and started secondary school, I was actually heartbroken because I'd played football.

You know, I'd done things like join the scouts, you know, the brownie, what was it, cubs and scouts. I can so see you as a scout. Yeah, and it was great. I loved it. And my scout group were great. Again, they were like cooler kids, not the kids that perhaps you might expect to do scouts and clubs and so on.

And as much as we did all that, the outdoor pursuits and stuff like that, I was canoeing down rivers and doing all that sort of stuff. You know, we also did, you know, entered football tournaments and we ended up winning them and we were really into our sport. And again, at school, I love my sport as well. And so when I went to secondary school, I thought, that's going to continue. Brilliant. I love football. We're going to play football.

We're going to do this, do that. And then I found out there was no football at all. It was a private school and the only sport they, or the major sport they offered was rugby. So I then had to make that transition. But I didn't know that at the time. And, you know, for me, as I say, I was very much heartbroken because I absolutely love my sport. But because I had to play rugby, it then was something I was like, okay, cool, this is what I have to play. And there was a rule at the time, if you selected for a team you had to play for the team,

So that obviously ended up happening. And it ended up being on the same day as I was training at the Centre for Young Musicians, which is a Saturday morning. So I had to make a choice, basically. Oh, in the film of your life, that's a big moment. It's a big moment. Isn't it? It's a big moment.

Where's you going to go? Cynthia's at home. I know what Cynthia wanted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all know what Cynthia wanted. She was heading straight for the Conservatoire. Absolutely. But you know what I think is really impressive about your mum?

Because I had to adore your mother because I've seen her interview. and just talking about raising you. And I thought it was so interesting when she said, you know, when J.B., maybe she called you Jonathan, I don't know. She did call Jonathan, yeah. Out of respect, I'll do the same for this. She said, when Jonathan, and she's an amazing woman,

I loved how she came across in this thing she did, she said, you know, what Jonathan kind of, you know, suddenly his interest was suddenly drawn towards rugby. And she said, but I just thought he's got to make that choice. And if he comes back to music here, but I never pushed him to continue with music, well, what happened is you ended up getting, sadly, a rugby injury. You know, you couldn't pursue that as a career, and you went back to music. But I thought, isn't it interesting?

I wonder if your mum had been adamant about this music thing and pushed you, you might have gone in the opposite direction and never returned to it. Perhaps so. And I think it's really interesting. One of the things, well, a lot of things I admire my mum for, But, you know, one of the things I always admire but my mum was that she was very strict when we were growing up. Was she?

Yeah, very strict. So I've done something naughty and you're Cynthia. What does she say when she comes in? Oh, you were just fully in trouble. Like there was no socializing with friends. There was no, like none of that. And you always knew where you stood with her, which is a good thing.

In hindsight, I think, you know, as I got older, it was great because, you know, even now, sometimes when I go away, if I tell my mom I'm going somewhere or I'm doing something, I'm doing it. There was never a case of, oh, mum, I'm going to see my friend and then I'm going to do the opposite. And she always said to me, and I don't know if it was deliberate or not, but she always said to me, if I need to get hold of you in an emergency, I have to know exactly where you are. And so even if I was going out and didn't want to go home yet, I'd just say,

mum, I'm not, you know, I'd just be honest and just say, I'm not home yet or I'm just, you know, I'm still out or whatever, even if I wasn't detailing exactly what I was doing. Yeah. But, you know, for me, it's something that I've, you know, has helped me, I guess, morally as I've grown up. But then also she knew when to let go. So although she started very strict when we were younger, as we got older and entered into our teens and so on, she just got that balance right between still being a parent,

but also understanding that, you know, my brother and I were getting older, gaining independence. Is it Niquet? Niquet, yeah, my brother, yeah. So, you know, that's one thing I loved about her. And I think as well when it came to, you know, sort of her interest, you know, ultimately she wanted the best for us. So I think if you'd asked her how she saw my life playing out,

it probably would have been similar to how it has played out. But what she didn't want to do was squash any dreams that I may well have had. Well, she wanted you to navigate it to be the captain of your own ship, maybe. That's it. You know? I mean, there are so many fascinating facts about you because you're, what I think would technically be described as a polymath, because not only have you been in one of the biggest boy bands ever,

but you're a writer, you're a presenter, you're a farmer, you're a rugby player. You've done pretty much everything. One of the things I was most fascinated to discover was that you began a theology degree at one of the best universities in the country, King's College London. I mean, that's incredible, J.B. Do you know what? I was always on the fence about going to university, and this is what I mean in terms of... I bet you didn't it wasn't.

She wasn't. But she, the thing is, you know, because I had quite strong views about what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. One of the reasons why I stepped away from music around about 13 was because I was never sure how that translated, you know, how practicing classical music and training with that in mind was going to translate into a career. At the time, it was just pure teenage short-sightedness. I never knew that you could go on tour with Beyonce and play the flute, which you can. Well, you can, J.B. Lots of people do. When you look at America and some of the people that are in bands and these like 10, 20-piece bands that go on tour with Drake and whoever else, like it's unbelievable.

But I didn't see that at 13. Yeah, you didn't. Had I seen that at 13, I probably never have given up the flute. But it's one of those... Do you think as well, J.B., and I wonder, obviously, only you would be able to answer this question. but do you think traditionally things like, you know, some of parts of the music industry, you're associated with a kind of classical education. And I feel like maybe there wasn't a lot of inclusivity in that world

or there wasn't that sense of if you see it, you can be it, you know. I didn't necessarily have that perspective on it, purely because, you know, like, for instance, the school that I'd gone to was predominantly white. So I never, you know, and I think that was deliberate for my mum's perspective, because she knew, you know, going into the workplace and certainly here in the UK, it's predominantly white. It's just a fact. And so she never wanted me to feel like I was out of place or inadequate or anything like that. She wanted me to learn in an environment where I, you know, it was about being the best. And my school was very good. I felt very included. I never

felt, you know, sort of singled out. I never felt like I was an odd one out. I never felt different. You know, it was always about what I'm able to achieve and what I'm able to do. And the opportunity was the same and I think you know perhaps me being me and you know into my sport and other things probably helped with that but you know one of the things when it came to then sort of working out you know as I went on you know what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it you know I always felt like I did owe a bit of a duty to my parents for firstly the sacrifice but also because I had the ability to go to university and by that point as I say I got my sensible hat back on by then and I knew that it wasn't going to be easy getting into the music industry,

which at that point I decided that was what I wanted to do. Well, let's be honest, J.B. It's not easy getting into King's College to do a theology degree either, is it? I mean, that's not a walk in the park. No. Well, I actually had my site set on Oxbridge, and not for theology, for Japanese. I know, I know. You don't make it easy for yourself.

We might need two hours for this, to be fair. Japanese. Yes, so Japanese was like my first love. And I won't name names. Along with rugby, theology, the flute. I love languages so much. Like, I did French. Hey, how are you?

I did, I did, um, I did, Latin by Duolingo at the moment. Are you? Because I believe you're quite a fan of ancient Greek. Or don't you want to go back and learn it? I think you should. Ancient Greek. I did French, I did an alliance Francaise, which is like a international qualification. So I did a GCSE in French.

But I did that a year early, and then I did the Alliance Francaise, which is like basically international qualification. And that was really cool because you got to learn a lot more about the culture of France, which I've probably all forgotten by now. Where do you get your curiosity from, J.B? It's probably from my dad, to be honest with you, because he's a very spontaneous person. He'll just go and travel and visit places.

I remember being very young and travelling on planes and thinking, is so cool and again we didn't you know we didn't come from lots of money it was just a thing that we did and you know I remember my even now my especially my mum's mom's mom's side of the family they'll travel over from the Caribbean or from the state just where they live and they'll make regular trips here and they'll come when they do come here they'll go to Athens or they go to Paris or they go to different parts of Europe or different parts of the UK even the day trips in York and you know things like that very inquisitive about the world and other cultures and so on and I think I've

definitely got it from you know that that side of the family and so you're doing your theology degree at King's College and then you meet three guys yeah where do you meet these guys and how do you get round to the subject of hey maybe we should form a band well I was at university but I'll let me caveat up with the fact that I always wanted to get into music and so for me I'd set my mind by about 17, 18, I was like, I know I want to be involved in music. I went to university because I didn't quite know just how that would transpire. I knew I probably had a bit of time to wait and obviously I didn't want to just, you know,

do something on a whim. I wanted to have a consistent job where there was a songwriter and actually to be honest that it wasn't ever, well, wasn't intentionally, especially, to be in front of the microphone it was just whether it's production or songwriting or music of some sort and I went to university and I obviously chose to be in London just so I could still do things like vocal training and vocal coaching and songwriting courses and things like that and that's how I met Arishay so a lady called Carla. Carla Celeste is a good friend of mine still I was doing some vocal training with her and songwriting workshops things like that and she

She said, oh, I met this guy the other day at the X Factor. And I said, okay, yeah, cool. And by this, at this point, the X Factor wasn't anywhere near my radar. I knew the show, of course, and I love watching it. But, you know, I didn't have any sort of mind to go on the show or anything like that. And she said, yeah, I met this guy at the X Factor and he's putting a group together. And I was like, okay, cool. Sounds good.

She's like, yeah, you know, he said, if there's any members that I know, any people that I know who are interested in joining the group, just give them a call and let him know what you think. and genuinely at that time I had no desire to join a group but I thought let me call this guy and partly because again with my sensible hat on I just thought

okay I don't want to go into something where people don't take things as seriously as I do yes and so you didn't know the guys and how serious they were you didn't want to end up in a situation where it was someone oh I want to be on TV exactly and I want to look good

and I want to get girls and all that sort of stuff because of course that's all part of of the industry and that's fine and those are things that people can enjoy that's not an issue but that can't be the focus and that certainly wasn't my focus well no of course not your accountant's sparse exactly so anyway called erisha and risha's just like yeah yeah come down i love to see you love to meet you i wish you'd recorded that first phone call can you imagine jv just you're going hello i'm trying to be quite cool but all right bro how are you well what was funny was that we we genuinely did it hit it off pretty much straight away.

And so the connection was established. You know what it's like. It's like, you know, anybody, you meet somebody. Yeah. You have a connection. How strong that connection is you don't necessarily know. But it's an established something and then you watch it grow. And so it was nice to obviously speak to him.

And I thought, yeah, you know, he sounds all right. He sounds like he's got his head screwed on. Then we go meet him and see what happens. So that's what I did. He went to meet him, sang for him. He was like, yeah, like here, you know, you have to meet the other guys because, of course, you know, they're part of the group as well. And so that was the first time, obviously, that I'd met the boys.

And then you met Aston and Marvin after that. They left me waiting outside the rehearsal room for about 10 minutes before they made their decision in inverted commas. Oh, it was like a chorus line. You were sat there waiting. It was like a proper, well, it literally was my first audition. My wife hates this about me because, Basically, my first audition led to being in JLS.

So yeah, and that was it. And then obviously, rather strangely, obviously, we witnessed everything pretty much from that point onwards. Yeah. Because we saw you on X Factor and boy did we see you. In fact, it's really interesting for me, JV, because obviously, I mean, the producer, I don't need to tell you, when I said you were coming on my podcast, I've had everyone on this podcast from Ricky Jervais to Jimmy Carter,

Jeremy Paxman. When I said you were coming on, I have never had so many women between the ages of 20 and 40 getting in touch with me. Oh, my God! And I can remember, and I hope you don't mind me telling you this, I think you'll probably be okay with it. I get the sense you will be comfortable with it because you're comfortable with emotion.

but my sister has a daughter and sadly my sister passed she's no longer with us but her daughter she often asks about my sister her mum and I say well I've still got these text messages so I go back to them

and she wants to hear more about her mum and get a sense now who she was as a person and I'm trying to find emotional meaningful messages and all I can find I said Mimi I'm afraid all of them seem to be about you

crying about JLS And she's loving me So we look back through them and it's my sister saying I'm expecting to read things like Oh you know Look after my daughter Oh no It's my sister saying

Mimi in tears again Won't come out of her room Because Simon said JLS Might have to work a bit harder I mean not even you've been booted out Or Mimi's upset And refusing to eat her dinner Because she doesn't think Cheryl was nice enough

To JLS Come on Mimi This is the Kate So when I told her that I was seeing you today. Oh my God. But this is the case for a lot of people. And that experience on X Factor,

obviously it was life-changing. Yeah. When you look back on that, I mean, you must have so many amazing memories of that experience. But I felt what was interesting about that was you guys, it felt like you kept your heads. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

Why do you think that was? Was that because you had a bond before? for the show? Yeah, I think there were a number of different reasons. Definitely one of them was the fact that we were a group before we went on the show. I think it's very, very difficult when you go on a show like the X Factor and you don't know people because you haven't tested that relationship yet. And that happens in every relationship, you know, you get to a point where you're just like,

okay, if I push this button, that person breaks or that person doesn't mind or that person adapt or you know there's lots of different scenarios of every relationship and as a family when you have a family you very quickly learn which buttons push what emotions and so on and you and you manage that as a family and generally speaking most people don't try and push the buttons purposefully until you know they're probably a teenager and trying to push the buttons purposefully or whatever but i think when we went through the show because we've been together and we you know work stuff out and we'd worked out creative differences and you know every opportunity that came came around it was a case of, okay, we know what we're going to do in this situation.

Someone might come along and suggest something different, and maybe we might go with that suggestion, but actually we have a very clear idea of what we want to achieve and how we want to achieve it. So any differences to that is because we really want the difference, which I think for a lot of the groups that go on the show that are created and put together, you've got three or four or five different people

who come from all different backgrounds, who have all different ideas of what success looks like to them, have all different ideas about what music looks like, to them and it's very difficult to get on the same page that quickly without testing the relationship. And I think for us as well, we had a great network of family because of the relationship. So all our family knew exactly what we were trying to accomplish. And we're there for the journey, we're there to support us. And I think that family network was massive for us. And then finally, I think, you know, being able to have, to go on that show as 20-somethings,

rather than late teens. 17 even or 16, you know. Massive difference. Because, you know, like we touched on the university, I'd already been to university. I'd already done a night when I'd been out and shouldn't really have been out and should have done more work

and turned up to the lecturer and been hung over. You know what I mean? Sorry about that, Cynthia. Yeah, well, mum knew. Of course she did. But those sorts of experiences genuinely are life-changing and they help form and shape your life and you make decisions based on the mistakes that you make.

You know, and it wasn't a major mistake. You know, lots of children, I say children, lots of young people up and down the country will do similar, but it's a formative part of life. And I think then going on to a show where you're exposed to those sorts of things, it's not a shock. It's not really a novelty. You've kind of already done it.

And you might do it again, but actually you don't need to do that every night because you don't, actually, do you know what? I've got to get up tomorrow, so I will go to bed early. rather than, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Oh, what the best thing you're here, cool, let's go. You know what? And you can get that with some, you know,

some of the younger people who go on the show. It's a completely different way of, I think, experiencing the show. Do you think also, Joby, I mean, quite literally your frontal lobe is still in its infancy developing when you're that age? Because as we know, it's not until you're 25. I mean, in some cases, it never happens. I'm still waiting for the maturity thing to kick in. But do you know what I mean?

actually, you're absolutely right. You only learn how not to behave. Or even things like, we've all seen teenagers, you've got this to come, haven't you? With the slight difficulties regulating their emotions. And when you're in a creative, collaborative, professional environment, you know, if you're in your 20s and Marv, I'm not saying this happened, but let's say Marvin says, oh, J.B. I sounded a bit, yeah, maybe try that again. I'm not sure that sounded great. You're able as an adult to say, okay, do me? mean that personally. Whereas at 16, maybe that wouldn't be your reaction. Very true. And I think it makes a big difference because some people, again, you have to know where people's lines are.

You know, some people like to joke and laugh or even play pranks and things like that. And it's not because they're being mean or they're being rude, it's just their character. When you understand that about somebody, that's fine. If you are not used to that and you don't understand that about someone you think they're being rude or you think they're doing something deliberately you know what I mean and so your perception of that person is so different in those two scenarios and it's just little things like that which over time you get to learn you know and if you know you've got an uncle who's a joker whatever and you don't particularly like that you probably stay more clear of that uncle than your other uncle that's a bit more like you but when you go into that

environment you have to be with somebody and being in a group I think you know people don't quite realize just how all-encompassing it is and you know that's not a a negative, it's just a fact. So all your time, and I mean all your time, even when you're not on group business, is focused on being in the group. People recognize you from the group. The amount of times I've had people going, oh, it's JLS. But they still say that? Yeah, of course. You know, they do know, I'm me and I'm J.B., but that's the first association that they get. And so you represent the group as an individual, but of course you're part of the group as a collective and the others are the same.

And so, you know, it is all encompassing. And I think when you're younger, you don't quite realise that, it can be difficult to navigate. What was the hardest thing about fame that you found? Because the thing about X Factor is, despite all this stuff that we're saying about, you know, you having your, yes, it is J.B. And I'm more excited than you. As a very excited man, we're all excited, babe, let's face it, in this whole part, as another person's excited. I mean, as I say, I've never had quite so many head. turned in my life and it's not Ray. Your national treasure at this point. Well, you know what?

I mean, when you say these sorts of things, I'm just like, really? How do you feel about compliments, J.B.? I can take a compliment, I think, he says. No, I mean, I do feel genuinely quite proud, you know, when sort of turns like that get bandied about. But yeah, for me, I mean, Fame is one of those things. You know, I always understood that fame was going to be a byproduct of certainly being in a group and being in JLS and doing the things that we did in those early days. And obviously after the X Factor, things just went from zero to hero, you know, absolutely massive. Caterported us straight, you know, to the top of everything, basically. But I kind of always anticipated it, if that makes sense, because the aim was always to try and release our music.

The aim was always to try and, you know, have our stuff out there. you know, maybe get a number one, you know, try and, you know, release an album, that sort of stuff. And I think, as I say, thinking about it, you know, not to say that, oh, this is so great and we're going to be amazing, but more that if we do what we want to do, then it will result in this. You know what I mean? And so I always had half a mind on, okay, well, what happens when we get to that point? Did you? Yeah, always.

And I think that's, again, maybe why we did so well, not just me, obviously the other boys as well. because you're always sort of thinking, okay, you know, we want to be on the cover of blah, blah, we want to be at the Brits performing, we want to meet these people, we want to have a number one and a number one album. You know what all that sort of stuff, they're dreams that obviously through the show

and through our choices, we're able to become a reality. I really hope you love part one of this week's Walking the Dog. If you want to hear the second part of our chat, it'll be out on Thursday, so whatever you do, don't miss it. and remember to subscribe so you can join us on our walks every week.