Saving Kids from Frosted Tips with Lance Bass

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Things are going to

get weird. It's your fave villain, Kale Lowry, and you're listening to Barely Famous.
All right, Lance, welcome to Barely Famous Podcast. Thank you.
Well, thank you so much. Thank you.
I am so excited about this children's book. We're coming up on Halloween, right? But I have to tell you this story first before we even get into the book.
Okay. So I expressed interest about having you on the podcast and I go on your Instagram and it said, um, surviving frosted tips.
And I was like, Oh, this must be a foundation of some sort that I could talk to him about. And I realized what it was.
And you're talking about the hair. I love that, but you're still rocking it.
It should be a foundation. Actually, we should, you know, we can on a foundation and – Save the children from their frosted tips.

So I click on it and I realize it was the podcast.

So I love that for you.

Okay.

So you write this children's book.

It's coming out for – it's out now.

It is finally.

And you love Halloween.

I'm obsessed.

Okay.

So tell me a little bit about how you got started with writing Trick or Treat on Scary Street.

Yeah.

My whole life I have loved the holidays. you know, Christmas and Halloween.
They're just, and you know, incredible. Uh, but Halloween is just always been so special for me.
Even as a kid, my grandfather and my dad, my whole family loved Halloween, but not just regular Halloween. They loved scary, gory Halloween.
So even as a little kid, I was really desensitized to the scary Halloween stuff, which I'm very happy that, you know, and that's what I'm kind of passing on to my kids. Now they, they laugh in the face of Freddy Krueger and they're, they're still two.
So I think I'm, I'm doing it right. So I knew I always wanted to write a children's book about Halloween and specifically about trick or treating, because as a kid, I grew up in Mississippi and it was all about trick-or-treating.
That night was so magical and it was safe. In our neighborhood, you never thought about kidnapping or anything bad happening.
You didn't have to have your parents. You and your group of friends went out and tried to get as much candy as possible.
It was an adventure like Goonies. I knew if I ever wrote a children's book, it would be about trick or treating.
Um, and then I had this idea in my head for years and when my kids were born, that's when it all started. I'm like, okay, this is, this is what I need to do now.
My, my brain is into family friendly content and it's probably going to be there for many years to come. Uh, and I just want to, I want to create things that my kids get to enjoy.
So yeah, that's how Trick or Treat on Scary Street came about and I'm excited to bring this world even bigger. I have so many more ideas now that they're going to hopefully – this parlays into.
Yeah, I hope so. That's so exciting.
But so you wanted to write children's book before you had kids. I did.
Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome.
Yeah. Yeah.
Cause you know, I had, uh, you know, a niece and nephews, you know, they're now in college, which is crazy to me. Um, so I've been the fun gunkle for so many years and all my friends have kids.
So I've, you know, I've been around so many kids and been inspired by them for a long time, but it really wasn't until I had my own that I just, I just felt like, okay, this is going to be my life now. And I'm excited about that.
Did you have a lot of support going into the children's book genre? Cause I know it can be a really tight industry. It is a tough industry.
It's a, you know, I didn't know that until I got into it. Um, but yeah, it's, you know, it wasn't an easy sell at all.
Uh, you know, especially Halloween time. It's very niche in the children's book.
They're like, you're not a real author. But I went to different publishers and I came here to Union Square and they just loved the idea.
And in fact, I pitched the original book everywhere and it got turned down because, again, I like a little scary Halloween, a little creepy. And the original ending was a little darker.
Um, and so, but they bought it even knowing with a darker ending and I'm like, Oh, that's fun that they really like really trusted. Believe me.
Yeah. But then we all decided at the end of the day, okay, we do need to have a little different ending if we're going to make this more for two, three year olds.
Um, so we did change the ending quite a little bit. Uh, but I was happy with that because now more kids get to enjoy it for sure but you can always do a special edition uh yeah you know it's just implied things it's nothing crazy but you know just you know you see a kid's name on the grave then it implies that they're probably not leaving oh wait that's amazing though you could do like a maybe like a tween version later on you know what i? And you are a real author.
You wrote an autobiography in 2007. So I don't know that that was fair for them to say.
Do your kids share the same love of Halloween so far? They do. Thank goodness.
Probably more than I do. Oh, really? I'm a huge holiday crazy person.
But we went through Halloween last year and it was their first year to really understand kind of what it was. We did go trick or treating, although we hit like five houses and whatever, but they got obsessed with it.
So we went through Christmas and they loved Santa and all that. But as soon as January came, they went right back to Halloween and we've been reading Halloween books since last January.
Oh, it won't stop. So it never ended.
It never ended. And then I got my book in my hands about five months ago.
And so it kind of, it got even crazier for them. They made me read this book six times a night to them.
But I love that. And they'll have the lines memorized, right? Oh yeah, they do.
But they won't let me turn the page because it's a picture book. Right.
And of course they're, you know, they're a little narcissist too too because they are in the books.

The lead guy is modeled after my son and the girl is my daughter.

So of course they want to see themselves in the book.

Of course they do. So it definitely stems from narcissism.

So is this one inspired by Where the Wild Things Are?

Yes, actually.

Okay, I picked up on that.

Yeah, we chose Roland as our illustrator because it gave me that feeling of where the wild things are. And that was one of my favorites growing up.
Again, it's not, it's not scary, but it's just kind of eerie just in the way it's illustrated. And I wanted that, you know, this book isn't scary, but just through the illustration, you kind of get that creepy feeling.
And I love it. I absolutely love it.
Did the book come together exactly how you pictured it before you were illustrating it? It came out better than I ever could have imagined. And I didn't understand how much illustration makes a book.
I knew what I wanted to say and I knew I wanted it to rhyme and I wanted to be fun for families to be able to read it to their kids. But until I saw these characters come alive, then my brain really started going.

And now I just – I see this whole world now that's not even in this book.

Like what happens in between the pages?

And it all really came – stemmed from seeing these characters come to life.

One of my twins has Where the Wild Things Are sheets.

So I think that's so funny we have that.

Oh, yeah.

We both have twins.

We both love Where the Wild Things Are.

What are you all going for Halloween this year?

Oh, God. life.
I, one of my twins has where the wild things are sheets. So I think that's so funny.
We have that. We both have twins.
We both love where the wild things are. What are y'all going us for Halloween this year? Depends on the day.
You know, it's a, there's so many events. Yeah.
And now with this book, you know, being out, I'm doing, you know, you know, this book tour and I'm doing different signings, especially in Los Angeles, they get to host a lot of those and they're in school now. So I going to go read this to all the classes in their school that's so cute but they all have to you know wear a different costume every single party so we're we're up to eight costumes now um and we're we're trying them on we're getting them tailored yes i am that guy that tailors our kids outfits even yeah i got a blippy and mika costume that costs like ten dollars but i'm spending the money to tailor a cheap ten dollar costume um so yeah so they're gonna be blippy and mika for one of them uh we're going as the flintstones because my kids are pebbles and bam bam like it describes them like no other uh let's see we have incredibles which their own their own incredibles uh pixar made outfits for them, these incredible suits that they got to create their own superheroes.
That's cool. And I just hope they still fit in them by that time because this was three months ago and they're very tight.
Let's see. What else do we have? I was at Cracker Barrel the other day and I did not know that they sold amazing costumes.
And so my daughter got three of these amazing costumes. One's a witch.
One's like a unicorn princess. And then one is Jesse from Toy Story.
So, of course, we're going to be Toy Story as one of our family costumes too. I love that.
I would love to bring Trick or Treat on Scary Street alive, but I couldn't find anyone that can make those costumes. Maybe next year we'll start that tradition.
Oh, absolutely.

You have to do the characters from your book.

That would be iconic.

It would be so cute to see them as their characters.

100%.

And then take pictures with the book.

That would be so, so cute.

Do you think that being a father has impacted your career and wanting to further writing children's books?

100%.

Yeah.

You know, when you have kids, as you know, it changes.

You're so selfish. It's like it's all about me.
It's my career, bro, especially in entertainment. It's all about you.
But once you have those kids, it is no longer about you. And you just want to make it about them, even in your own personal career.
So everything entertainment now, I just want to put on them and inspire me every step of the way. So yes, you're going to see lots of family entertainment stuff coming out of my brain for a very long time.
I mean, everyone wants to see that. They love your little family.
It's way more fun. Yeah, no, it is.
And I did read an interview on USA Today that was talking about how you want to travel with your kids and do all of that. So that would be cool to do like a little, you could do a book about traveling with kids.
I love that. And that's true.
If I could, you know, look, Kris Jenner did it right. She's like, how can I create a business that I can just work with my kids the rest of my life? I'm like, that's amazing.
You're like, I'll take a page or two out of her book. So do your kids understand that you wrote this book? They do.
They do. And very quickly, it's weird that they understood that because, you know, they were only one and a half when they got this in there.
Or no, sorry, two and a half. Are they two? Yeah, they are two and a half.
Every day is a blur. We love every minute, but it's a blur.
But yeah, I was like, oh, this trick or treat on Scary Street. And they can't read my name yet.
And I'm like, oh, bye, Baba. That's what they call me.
And so every time I open up, I say, okay, trick or treat on Scary Street. And they go, bye, Baba.
Oh, that's so cute. We were talking about that this interview started it's like love when they when they start talking and you don't know what they're saying and they mess up words i'm sure they're probably trying to read along now yeah and weirdly my daughter starts recognizing words now she had a shirt that said david bowie on it and she looked at she goes david bowie? How do you know that? It's just strange.
Yeah. So she's going to be way too smart.
I hear you. My daughter's the same way.
It's so weird how they just, the boys and the girls. So have any of, I saw on your Instagram, I think it was that you were recently with AJ from NSYNC.
Yes. Or Backstreet, yes.
Oh, I'm sorry. He wishes he was at NSYNC.
Has he or any of the other members of NSYNC or Backstreet Boys shown you support surrounding this book? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
You know, we all have kids. Yeah.
You know, some younger than others. But, yeah, I mean, it's great.
I was so inspired by my bandmates and the Backstreet Boys and just them being incredible dads. For sure.
So, yeah, they've been very, very supportive and, you know, sharing the book with all their friends. And it's nice.
When it comes to families, it's fun how people really come out and support. No, I love that.
And Justin Timberlake's wife, Jessica Biel, wrote a children's book. Did you ask her for advice at all? I did not know she wrote a book.
What was her book? It's actually for girls with periods. Oh, I did know that.
So obviously you're not asking for that kind of advice, but maybe children's book because we were talking about how hard it is to kind of get into this like niche genre. But did you ever reach out to her? No, I did not because at the time I had no idea that she was writing one about.
Okay. I mean it probably isn't the same.
Yeah, it's not the same, but I just – But I can't wait for my girl to be able to read that in the future. Yeah, absolutely.
So how closely were you able to work with the illustrator for this book? Pretty close. I mean he lives in France.
So physically it was impossible. But just going back and forth and just the little changes.
But it went way quicker than I imagined because I thought, OK, I'm going to – because I'm a very detailed person and I have this idea in my head. But some of the first drafts, I didn't even really have any notes.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this is better than I ever thought about. So it was very quick, the turnarounds on all of these characters and the different settings.
I was just adding a few things because I love – I grew up on books like Where's Waldo. So I just really wanted a picture book that you could get lost in every page and and that's what my kids do they won't let me turn the page for five minutes because they have to and they make up all these games and their heads like how many bats are in this one they have to count the bats like can you find the clown and you know they're always searching for all the different characters um and that's what i wanted i wanted people just to be able every time they read the book, find something else they have not seen because there is a lot going on.
Yeah. So I was able to look at the digital copy before we did this interview and I absolutely loved it.
I loved how detailed they were, each of the scenes. Like I want to go there.
I really want to go to Scary Street. Well, you took a picture on your Instagram that said Scary Street.
Where was that or was it not real? That was super post. Thank you, Ella, over over there.
Well, we're getting creative. We got to promote this book.
But what's great is, you know, on this book tour, like Orlando, we're going to, and they're recreating the houses. So yeah.
So there'll be, the houses will be up there. They're building the costumes for the characters.
So they'll come to life. That's awesome.
So yeah, everywhere we go, I'm going to get to see all of these houses, you know, in, in real life be special. No, that's really cool.
I mean we could even make a movie. We're definitely in talks with making it a series for sure.
Well, that's really cool. Also, I grew up on Charlie Brown Pumpkin and all those little – you have to watch it every year.
It's just an annual thing. It's a tradition and I would love to make this book a tradition for families.
Yeah. No, I love that for you.
A movie, a series. That's really cool.
You've acted before, right? Oh, yeah, definitely. So would you star in the – I mean I would love to.
Of course. I got to write myself into it somehow.
I can't unfortunately play the little kids. Right.
Of course not. But you can give out candy.
Well, I mean look. There's AI now.
I guess I could do anything I want. If I can play this lead character at eight years old.
I love that. So when you have book signings and stuff, does it bother you if people are going to come up to you and talk to you about NSYNC? Oh, no.
I expect it. You do? Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. But it's fun to see the NSYNC fans now, their parents.
Well, that's what I was going to say. We're all growing up together.
For sure. So it's fun to see how all of us have evolved.
Yeah. But look, I have NSYNC first and foremost, and I get it.
And I'm just glad that it brings people happiness. Yeah.
I have seen rumors about you guys possibly doing something, maybe a tour or something. Who knows? We're all talking.
We're all talking. We'll see where it goes, but you know, it's going to be, it's going

to be a long time. So give us some time, give us some time.
I'm not rushing anything. I know

everything is a process, so I get it. Just like this book.
It took a long time. Did it take a

long time? I mean, probably from start to finish three years, three years. That's a long time.

It is, but it's worth it. Right.
I mean. Yeah, I mean, it's incredible.
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And then you kind of forget because then once you're done with it and the illustration is done, then it has to go through the process of printing and all that. And then you kind of forget you even wrote it.
And then a year later, like, oh, my gosh, I have it in my hands. This is amazing.
It's the same kind of thing with like newborns where you're like you forget how hard it was in the beginning and so I mean I had six more kids after my first one because you forget how hard it was and then you're like oh wait now I remember and we're contemplating you know do we have another because I would love another but ours are almost potty trained and I couldn't imagine like once they're potty trained I'm going to be to be so happy. And then if I have another, I'm like, really? I'm going to start this all over again? Oh my gosh.
But no, I would take it. I would love it.
My twins are about to be one and I still have a one-year-old. So I'll have like essentially Irish triplets.
I don't know if it's better or worse than the rest that are like three, four years apart because I'm like, OK, I can potty train them all at once. But also potty training is a nightmare.

Oh, it is.

Well, mine literally that third, second birthday, which is, you know, it was a year ago.

I was so happy because we spent a weekend.

We read this book.

I forget what it's called, but everyone's reading it where it potty trains your kids.

And it worked.

Did it?

Three days.

They were literally going to the bathroom and I'm like, this can't be that easy.

This cannot be that easy. My girl stayed potty trained.
But about two months later, my boy was like, no, I'm going to poop my pants. And he still does to this day.
Like he's still – Me too. It's still pooping his pants.
Yeah. I mean I get it.
I do. What were your favorite and least favorite aspects of writing the book? Wow.
I guess the least was really coming up with exactly what I wanted to say, um, and figuring out, you know, do we make it rhyme? Do we, you know, how hard, what age do we want to make this for? Because it's, it's a huge difference. There were a lot of words that I was going to use in this.
They're just, it's too big, you know, for two, three year olds, but there's some words I kept in because, you know, I'm like, well, maybe this is a good teaching moment no i actually thought that as a mom of seven one of the words i think seductive seductive yeah and i read that and i was like okay no this would be like a really good teaching moment yeah so i love draconians in it like you know for dracula draconian i'm like well you know what i'm keeping that in because why not why not explain it because i learned my daughter you know she learns these big words. One time you say the word and she gets it.
She knows it. So why can't a two-year-old learn what draconian is? Absolutely.
No, I mean, I talk to my kids like they're like little adults sometimes. So I think that's a better way to do it.
You know what I mean? So you did write a book in 2007. Now you've written a children's book.
Is there plans for another, maybe like a memoir? Well, the first one was a memoir. So not an autobiography? Yeah.
I mean I don't think I would write anything about myself again. Okay.
It was very cathartic with writing my first book just because there were so many stories I was never able to talk about, especially coming out. For sure.
my space. I just never spoke about it.
And I just needed to get it out before I forgot all of it. I mean, the older you get, all that just goes away.
I just don't remember certain things. So I just wanted to get it down so that I could have those memories for myself.
For sure. But it was great.
I got to get a lot of feelings out that I just needed to get out.

And I'm glad I did it, but I don't think I would ever revisit that again.

So no, like parenting stuff.

It's more like the children's books.

Yeah, I just want to stay in children's.

I'm more creative that way.

For sure.

You know, I have, I'm on my notes section in my phone.

I probably have 400 ideas of television shows and movies and books, and it's all family friendly. I love that.
So this is where I think I need to be. Would you ever do a space theme? Of course.
Children's book. Oh, my gosh.
I already have like 100 of those ideas. Yeah.
So yeah, there will definitely be some space stuff in there. Do your kids share the same interest in space? Sort of.
They don't know that Baba is an astronaut. Okay.
But they do love space. In fact, I got them – now you can get these books that they can draw your kids' faces in there in the books.
Oh, I think I did one before actually. I mean I always see them on Instagram.
I'm like, okay, this is an impulse buy. But they turned out really great.
Yeah. And so I just got one of those back.
So my son is an astronaut in one of the books. That's so cute.
And so they do love space. They understand that it's up there and all that.
They're obsessed with planets. They always, since they were born, they've always had planets kind of in their room kind of at night.
They always have to have the moon. They only call them moons.
They need the moons. They need the moons.
And their favorite moon planet is Saturn. They're obsessed with Saturn.
With the rings. It's the rings, right? It's got to be.
You recently also talked about in the USA Today article about you were misdiagnosed with type 2. Yeah, type 2.
But it's actually 1.5. 1.5.
I've never heard of 1.5. Neither did I.
I had no idea. Diabetes is new.
I've been diagnosed for four years now. And yeah, it was type 2 because I wasn't born with it.
And we treated it with different medications. And then finally we're like, well, maybe a little insulin will help.
And the doctors are like, well, you'll get out of this. It's type two, like just change your diet and exercise and you can get out of this.

And it just got worse and worse.

Like what is happening?

And then finally I had a couple of doctors really research it and they're like, oh no,

you're 1.5.

And which means that you're basically one, but you don't really develop it until you're 40.

So it's, you know, it's a late onset diabetes, you know, it is genetic, but it just doesn't show up until like you're 40 years old. So they call it the honeymoon phase right now.
So my pancreas is, you know, on its way out. So in the next, you know, few months, a year or two, I'll just be completely one.
Wow. What was that diagnosis like? And have you had to change, make lifestyle changes for your whole family because of this? Yeah.
It definitely had to change a lot of things. I'm a foodie.
I love to eat, but I always thought I ate well. I wasn't crazy and I exercise.
So I thought it was funny. I'm like, there's no way I'm diabetic.
I really take care of myself. But I do like the sugar and I love my bread and I love fried things.
So yeah, maybe I eat like crap. So you cut the desserts out because one little – a spoonful of any dessert that has white sugar, I mean I just – I peak.
So I had to cut out the desserts. I lower the intake of my bread.
And then of course you have to take insulin, a certain amount of insulin amount of insulin before I eat certain amount of carbs. So I say it's a full-time job because it is, you're constantly thinking about your numbers, whatever, when I take my insulin, exactly when you take it, it is, you know, it's a, it's a burden, but, um, you know, it's made me healthier and it's made my family healthier because now I'm thinking ahead where, you know, my DNA, I'm like, okay, he could possibly have diabetes.
It runs in the family. So I'm constantly trying to figure out how to get him to eat healthier things and not so much sugar, which sucks because all he wants is bread and sugar.
That's all he wants. Yeah.
All kids want that. Yeah.
My girl's great. She'll eat anything, but he's just like, Nope, Nope.
Bread, sugar. And it just kills me.
And I'm like, well, I know he's hungry. So I guess here's another grilled cheese sandwich.
Here's another peanut butter and jelly again. Uh, but at least I'm doing the sugar-free jelly now, the lower carb bread.
So, you know, thank goodness we live in a time where you can kind of cut corners a little bit. Um, but you know, it does scare me.
Uh, but at least I know better now. Um, and I can catch it earlier than, you know, I did as a kid.
I just hadn't, I didn't even know 1.5 existed, but I, there's another children's book idea, teaching kids to eat healthy or diabetes one and a half. Is it one and a half or 1.5? Either way.
But yeah, no, it no it's true and I and one of my you know one of the things I really want to do is you know as a face of diabetes is you know juvenile diabetes it just it makes me sad that kids have to deal with that because it can be very scary you don't know and as a kid you're having to prick your finger and now thank goodness they have those things like the Dexcom, which I'm wearing now, where you don't have to prick your finger hardly anymore. You just go to your phone like, okay, that's my level.
And it's great. But even that can scare kids.
Needles are scary. So if I can help kids out there not be afraid of it, my kids, I mean, they're not diabetic and hopefully never will be.
But anytime I take a shot, anytime I have to put, you know, the Dexcom in my arm, I make them watch me. And if I take blood, they come over and they're so interested.
And so they see the needle go in me. They see me take blood and it doesn't faze them at all.
So when they go to the doctor and they have to get a shot, they're totally fine with it. So I'm really just trying to make them cool and not so scared of this.
But I know a lot of kids out there, it's just, it's sucked that they have to go through that. That is scary.
I think a lot of kids are not around that. And so I think it's important though.
And I think you're, I mean, even just talking about it on this podcast will be cool to bring awareness to it. So I think that's really cool.
You talk about meditation too. Do you still do that? I do.
How do you turn your brain off? It's hard. I have such ADD father of twins, um, doing all kinds of book tour stuff.
You're acting, you're, you're doing all, all kinds of things. How do you turn your brain off? Uh, you just have to force yourself.
One exercise is great. You know, just getting on a treadmill for 20 minutes and zoning out.
Uh, and to zone out. And it's so weird, but this is a type of meditation.
I play a game. I play a game on my iPad called Hay Day.
And it's basically like, and I've been doing it for years. And you just slowly kind of build this farm.
And, you know, you're farming vegetables, you're selling them, but you're just constantly adding things, you know, to the farm. And one of my friends years ago, because I was horrible at meditating, I can't sit still.
And I know the point is to try to get you to get still, but I just, it's so hard for me. Um, he was like, no, what you do is when you meditate and you close your eyes, you have to go back to the same place and you just add one little thing.
You build this world.

So I've been building this world in my brain when I really meditate in this ice world. And so every time I go back to this ice world, I build a little igloo or I add a little animal there.
And it just – that concentration for even 10 minutes, really that's how people, especially like with me at ADD, can meditate. And so I do that with my little game too, where I zone out and I'm on this game and I will add a little thing and I'll build a little thing here just for like 10, 15 minutes and then I'm done.
And it just really makes me hyper-focus on one thing, which helps me a lot. I'm sure it's the same kind of process though, for writing a children's book, right? Because you're like building new pages and you have these visions.
So it's sort of the same, right? It's very true. Yeah.
I love that. And I mean – and that's why now maybe I'll have to retire my ice world and start this scary street world because it's just building and building and building and it would be way more fun.
Yeah. We could do like – you should do a mobile game.
Yeah. That would be cool.
OK. We'll get on that too.
I'm not to add more to it. Yeah.
Would you ever actually do a farm? Do you farm at all? I do not farm, but I grew up in Mississippi, so I was around that a lot. Sure.
My dream is to move to a ranch and I love growing my own vegetables. In fact, my ultimate dream, ultimate, ultimate dream in a perfect world when I retire, I will live on a farm.
And my ranch will have Christmas trees and pumpkins. Oh, wow.
Okay, I love that. I want a Christmas tree farm and I want a pumpkin farm.
And I want to make it this fun place for the holidays from September to January. That's the farm that you go to, to pick your pumpkins, your Christmas trees.
We have all these fun events. You know, I grow my own vegetables that, that would be the ideal life for me.
Would you go back to Mississippi for that? No. I have a friend Matt in Alabama.
Yeah. That could be a good, he has a little, a farm in Alabama.
It's like so big, but. Yeah.
I mean, no, I just, I think, you know, I, cause, because I've lived such a big life, uh, I do like peace, but that's a little too much peace. I need, I need to be near a little more action.
So I could do Florida, you know, that's near Orlando or Miami. I could do somewhere in California that's, you know, get to LA quickly.
Um, so Texas, if I can get to Dallas or Austin quickly.. Um, but you know, but I need to be at least within an hour of somewhere that I can really enjoy myself.
Well, there's plenty of farmland in Dover, in Dover, Delaware. Okay.
And it's near the city. All right.
Okay. We got Baltimore, New York, New Jersey.
It is nice. Yeah.
I just bought 20 acres of farmland. I have several farm animals, but.

Oh my gosh.

Wait, what do you have?

I have four goats, three pigs, 12 chickens, and two ducks.

You're living my life that I want.

Okay.

Well.

That is exactly what I want.

If you want to buy this farm from me and then I'll start my other one.

You know what I mean?

Okay.

Let's do this.

Okay.

We're going to talk.

I do have some rapid fire questions for you.

Okay.

All right.

These are going to be fun. I hope.
What is the most hated interview question you get? And I hope it's not one that I asked. No, not at all.
When they want me to talk about Britney Spears, you know, because it doesn't matter what you say about Britney because, I mean, obviously I love her. She's my sister.
She's actually my real cousin. What? Yeah.
Really related. Yeah.
She's my cousin. But anything.
Do people know people know that i think so i don't think i don't know that oh well then yeah i guess i don't know i've said it before i guess no one cares uh but you know it doesn't matter what you say about britney or the kardashians or politics it's going to be taken out of context and just you're going to get home so much hate so i've learned just like, next question. I don't even want to like say it.
Even me talking about it right now, probably.

Do you want me to edit it out?

No, no. I'm used to it.

You don't want me to ask Christina or Brittany from 2000.

Oh my gosh. Nope.
They're both friends and I could never choose.

I was a fan of all. So I get it.
Biggest misconception about you?

Misconception. Oh, I don't know.
I don't really know what the perception of me is by some people. I mean, I guess – I don't know.
I've actually never heard anything negative about you. Yeah? Like truly, I'm not just saying that because I'm sitting with you.
Because I'm a horrible person. Yeah, I can tell, obviously.
I'm going to throw this whole interview away. No, I really haven't seen anything, but maybe because we're our worst critics and we see the hate sometimes louder than the positivity.
Of course. Have you like – No.
I mean I just – I don't – I'm such an open book that I mean I talk too much. I mean I've had a radio show for the last 15 years.
So I really have never hidden anything and I – yeah, I I, yeah, I think I talk too much. So I think I overshare.
Yeah. What was the last thing you Googled? Oh my gosh.
Is it on my phone? If I look it up, I don't know. Let's see.
What did I Google? I mean, I know I Google all the time. What did I Google? Um, let's see.
Oh my God. That's so funny.
The first thing that

came up is Britney Spears, Lance Bass's cousin. I did not Google that, but that's what it just

came up. Oh my God.
Oh, it's watch what happens live. I did it last night.
So it's okay. Watch

what happened. I was looking for my picture.
Okay. I love just so great that, I mean, I don't have to

worry about anything. It's like, Oh, I really, I love that outfit.
Okay. I'll just Google it.

It's like, there it is. It's going to have like a little thing over it, but I don't have to worry about anything it's like oh i really i love that outfit okay i'll just google it just like there it is it's gonna have like a little thing over it but i don't care yeah colgate or crest toothpaste oh i was always a crest guy yeah yeah okay.
I think the Colgate gets a little too bubbly for me. Yeah.
Yeah, I would agree. Crest is a good one.
Mountains or ocean? Ugh. Because you said you like the quiet.
I know. I know.
Ultimately, ocean. Okay.
I think tropical is where I'm happiest, but I do love a mountain and just being on a lake and having that peace.

But I think a tropical, yeah, an ocean view might edge out a mountain view.

Do your kids have a preference, do you think?

I know they're a little young.

They're a little young.

They do love a beach because they – well, actually, no.

My gosh, I don't know.

I think they equally love a beach and a mountain because we did move to Palm Springs.

We lived there half the time.

And a lot of people don't know that there's – you know, it's the mountains. I mean, it's 120 degrees down in Palm Springs, but you just take this tram up and it's snowing.
Wait, you go outside in 120? Oh yeah. It's horrible.
I mean, there's very few days that are 120, but yeah, we spent all summer there and it was, it broke the record 124 this summer. It's your dry heat or like dry.
Okay goodness you know as long as you're in the pool you're fine but you do feel like your skin's melting i mean those that's a setting on an oven yeah you're right i mean so that's not you're baking you're literally baking so we stay inside most of the time other than the two months in the summer that are just horrendous palm swings is the best weather. But on those days, you just go up

to the mountain and it's beautiful. No one's there in the summer, completely your own.
It's like

50,000 acres of land and hiking and a great restaurant. I mean, it just, no one knows it

exists. And then, you know, starting October, November, you go up there and again, it's 90

degrees down in Palm Springs and it's a blizzard. It's 11 minutes, 11 minutes.
You go up and it's a blizzard.

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do you have a um do you have a bucket list location that you would like to go to that you haven't been to yet uh i have been pretty much you know alaska i've never been to alaska okay i think that's the only state i have not touched yet really you've been to the rest good for you. But Alaska I've always wanted to go to because, again, beautiful.

I've always wanted to do one of those Alaskan cruises.

Everyone says how beautiful that is.

Yeah.

And before all the ice melts, I would like to be able to show my kids one day.

I was like, there used to be ice here.

Yeah.

There's these things called icebergs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I want to go to Lake Tahoe.

I haven't been to Lake Tahoe yet.

Definitely done Tahoe. You have.
Is it nice? Gorgeous.. Worth it.
Oh my gosh. It's one of my favorite places.
One of my favorite places for winter and summer. Okay.
It's, it's beautiful all year round, but getting on that lake in the summer is great because clear, clear water, still cold, very cold, but it's very refreshing and you can like rock climb through these waterfalls.

And then, yeah, wintertime is also great too.

I'm not a big skier.

Okay.

I learned way later in life, but also just, yeah, incredible proximity to skiing.

I've never skied and I don't think I would be good at it.

Yeah, it's hard later in life.

Yeah.

But I am giving that gift to my kids.

Good for you.

I put them on skis last year and I think it's going to be one of the best gifts I give them. I want them to be so confident in skiing.
For sure. And they were.
They were going down with no poles. I'm like, what? This is so crazy.
We don't have mountains in Delaware. It's completely flat.
So we can't go. We'll come to Mississippi.
We had nothing. We had nothing.
That's so funny. Okay.
Backstreet Boys are 98 degrees. Oh my goodness.
It's kind of like Christina Burtner. You can't choose.
For different reasons. I love all those guys.
98 Degrees will always have a soft spot because when we started, we were in Germany and we would kind of tour together on some radio shows. So I got to know them first.
Okay. Everyone forgets they were the first boy band out of the gate here in America.
Really? Yeah. I actually didn't know that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Invisible man was way before us. Wow.
Um, and then backstreet, we shared a label with, so we didn't really, I mean, you know, we were pitted against each other. Yeah.
You know, the, the public love to like backstreet and sync, but they never pit us against 98 degrees. So we always got to like have more of a friendship with those guys.
Uh, but now these days I'm closer with the backstreet boys because now we're allowed to be friends. I mean, you were always friends in my head.
I had posters of both. So it worked out for me.
No, I mean, it was a friendly competition. It kept us on our toes.
I always say if it wasn't for the Backstreet Boys, we would not have made it as far as we did. It always just made us get better at our craft because we had this friendly competition.
Like, well, if we don't do this, the Backstreet Boys are going to do it. So we always were just kind of trying to one up each other.
And I think it made us get better at our craft because we had this friendly competition like, well, if we don't do this, the backstories are going to just – so we always were just kind of trying to one-up each other and I think it made us all better. I think in today's world too though, people love a good crossover.
So I'm just throwing that idea out there. Can you imagine a super group of 10 guys in a board? I mean I guess they do that.
K-pop does that. So yeah, that works.
Anything is possible, right? I mean, okay. What is the worst advice you've ever gotten? Sign this contract with no lawyer at that.
I'm sure I didn't have one when I signed. Yeah.
I mean, I was 16 years old, signed the instinct contract with Lou Pearlman and it was Lou is like, Oh yeah, my lawyers looked at it. It's all good.
Oh, I trust that your lawyer said this was good to sign for sure. You know, at that age.
Don't know any better. I get that.
What was the last thing you searched on TikTok? I saw you're really big on TikTok. I love TikTok.
Me too. It's so fun.
As a creative person, it's just – it's mini TV. Yeah.
And you get so frustrated as a television producer and writer where you work on a project for four years and then all of a sudden they're like, nah, we're canceling that. You're like, so no one's going to get to see all this work that I created.
TikTok, you come up with an idea, you have it done in a day, you put it up and 5 million people saw it. I mean, I could pray for that for a television show.
So yeah, you get to get a lot of your creativity out. I love this.
I wish I could name check her right now. don't remember her name but i do follow this woman she's an actress and a very funny actress but she has a four-year-old and she dramatically reenacts uh what her daughter says every day and it's the some of the funniest things you should collab with her i should i need to remember her name it pops up so i'll.
People love collabs. I mean – I love a collab.
I mean same. Yeah.
It's the only thing that keeps my dancing up is TikTok because everyone wants to see the dances. For sure.
I did try to learn, but I'm not a dancer. And everyone was like, please do this dance with him.
And I was like, absolutely not. Everyone was like, I want to do It's Going to Be Me.
I want to do Bye Bye Bye. And I'm like, oh, I don't remember it.
But thanks to TikTok. Well, I do now.
Oh, yeah. But thanks to TikTok.
Yeah. Everyone's been wanting to do these things with me.
So I had to relearn everything. And what's cool is that, you know, some of the music is still in movies today, right? Like the...
Oh, my God. Deadpool.
Yeah, I was going to say Deadpool. I was going to say Deadpool.
Well, you're creating a new generation of listeners and lovers of the music, right? Yes. Jay-Z.
It's so crazy to go down the street now and have 10-year-olds want to get a picture. I'm like, what? It's like the Deadpool song.
The Deadpool song. I'm like – How does that feel? I love it.
Are you kidding me? Oh, my gosh. That's so nice.
I think it's amazing. I love this young generation.
They're so amazing. I'm so hopeful for them so that they even know who I am is a treat.
Well, I think so often we get caught up in like not wanting to get recognized out in public. You want your privacy.
So it's really a breath of fresh air that you actually enjoy that and love it for the kids. Look, it always comes back to – I remember Troy Aikman.
I was a super Dallas Cowboys fan because in Mississippi we don't have a team. So the closest one one was Dallas and Troy Aikman was the quarterback.
And I was in Dallas on a church trip and I saw Troy Aikman getting a haircut at the barbershop in the mall. And I'm like, you know, 10 years old, maybe nine, 10.
And I'm with a couple of my friends and I went up to him in the middle of his haircut and like, Oh my gosh, can I get an autograph? And he was so nice, gave us autographs. And, you know, I left not thinking that was really rude to me to completely interrupt his haircut.
Like, Oh my gosh, can I get an autograph? And he was so nice, gave us autographs. And, you know, I left not thinking that was really rude to me to completely interrupt his haircut, you know, and, but he'd never made me feel like I was bothering him.
And, you know, some people would be like, no scram kid, like I'm busy. Um, but I always remember that when people come up to me and if I'm busy or whatever, I will never make them feel like they bothered me because that's a big moment for somebody.
You know, they're going to leave like so happy. Why wouldn't you want people just to be happy? Right.
No, I think, um, a lot of people have always told me like, don't go meet your idol, right? Like don't meet someone that you look up to because they may disappoint you. Has anyone ever disappointed you? Yeah.
Yeah. Really? Yeah.
I mean, I won't say who they are. Obviously.

Obviously.

Yeah.

I mean, of course, it's true.

I mean, I've met a lot of my heroes and they've been incredible.

Right.

I mean, so many amazing people out there.

Reba McIntyre, Garth Brooks.

I mean, Rosie O'Donnell, people that I just grew up like, oh my gosh.

And then there's some that you just really wanted them to be awesome, but they're just,

they weren't who they play themselves as.

And I understand people are just different, but yeah, it can be disappointing. Yeah.
No, for sure. I, um, I love post Malone, but I would never even, I I'll leave that right where it is.
Cause I love the parasocial relationship that we have. I love him and he can stay.
I don't think I've ever met him, but he seems like a super sweet guy. Yeah, he does.
Okay. So are you a true crime junkie at all?

Yes, I do love true.

Thanks to my nanny who was my assistant for 20 years.

She's the true crime junkie.

So she gets me into all the podcasts and all.

Yeah.

I mean, any kind of docuseries.

So are you watching anything with the Menendez brothers?

No, I haven't started that one yet.

You have to do it.

It's everywhere.

And I need to, I need to get on because I love Ryan Murphy.

And so I need to see that. There's a lot of controversy surrounding that.
So I won't even ask you about it. You haven't seen it.
I did start watching it on episode seven of nine. Yeah.
It's a little crazy. But – Yeah.
But I love like the serial podcast. Yeah.
Do you listen to Morbid? No. You got to listen to Morbid.
I think I like – that's like my favorite true crime podcast. And it's just so good, the banter.
And also one of the hosts is an author. So she has two thriller books.
I don't know if you read but she's fantastic. So I definitely recommend that one.
But before we go, is there anything else you want to share about your book? You have any upcoming projects that you want to share? No, I'm just really focusing on this one right now. I get to just enjoy this holiday season with the kids with, you know, very special treat with this book.
Yeah. I just hope people go and enjoy this and, you know, let me know what you think because I definitely read the reviews and all that because I want to, I want to steer this in the direction that I want the families to enjoy.
So, you know, give me some ideas out there and see how we can grow this trick or treat on scary street because, uh, I'm all ears right now. Well, I love that.
Thank you so much for coming on barely famous. So nice to meet you.