Drew Lachey

00:00:08
Speaker 1: That's that's okay, because no one here it is.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: It's once again time for teen Beat, the podcast where I Danielle Fischel, sit down with interesting people in an attempt to pry into their awkward teenage years and figure out how they turned into fully functioning adults. It's a bit of a quid pro quo, you see, since my own journey through puberty in the nineties was televised to millions and layered with an oversized leather Planet Hollywood jacket. In a nutshell, I gave you my childhood. It's time we hear yours. And this week I get to do a little time traveling myself because the guests and I have roots in the glorious frosted tip chaos of the Y two K boy Band Invasion, and we shared a few days of MTV Spring Break, Glory and Cancun together. But more on that later. First, he somehow went from US Army combat medic to performing in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans in the band ninety eight Degrees, alongside his brother Nick and his high school sweetheart now wife of twenty five years, Leah, who doubled as a dancer and choreographer for the group. During ninety eight Degrees run, they sold over fifteen million records, notched eight top forty hits, including a number one that earned a Grammy nomination with Mariah Carey, recorded with Stevie Wonder, toured with Janet Jackson, and carried on a motown boy band tradition, following in the footsteps of groups like The Jackson Five, the Four Tops, and The Temptations, And ten years later, in just the second season of Dancing with the Stars Ever, he took home the coveted mirror Ball Trophy with partner Cheryl Burke, becoming one of the show's most beloved contestants of all time. Throw In stops on Broadway, hosting gigs, comeback tours, a new HGTV competition show, and even a shot on the American Ninja Warrior Obstacle course. Almost thirty years after ninety eight Degrees debut album, He's proof that some nineties heart throbs never really clock out. But somewhere underneath the white tank top and hair gel, maybe even right next to that tribal armband tattoo, is just a boy in Ohio going through all the same weird teenage milestones you did, and today we're gonna find that kid. Welcome to teen Beat. My guest this week, pop star champion, ballroom dancer, host and home renovation guru Drew Lache.

00:02:55
Speaker 3: Hello, Hello, that was the I'm like over, you're laughing, there's bringing myself to tears. That was quite the introduction. I forgot I did some of that stuff, right.

00:03:06
Speaker 2: Isn't it so nice to get to hear all the accomplishments you've had, or at least some of them read back to you.

00:03:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, it makes it sound like my life's been somewhat successful.

00:03:16
Speaker 2: It really has. You've lived a very successful life, both professionally and personally. But I want to know about maybe the less stellar stuff, some of the awkward, embarrassing, worst moments of teenagehood. Thank you for doing the show. I think this is now at least the second time you've been forced to hang out with me, the first time being in Cankun when I went to visit Lance, and then the minute I got there, Lance and the rest of the Instinct boys left to do a random new opportunity to perform a show somewhere, and I was basically solo in can Kun and Lance said, here, it's no problem. I'll just set you up with the ninety eight degrees guys. They're the greatest, and you'll just hang out with them. And I literally just followed you guys around for like at least forty eight hours.

00:04:05
Speaker 4: There were some random booze cruise in there somewhere, and then there was Yeah, I don't I don't even remember what we were down there for, but yeah, those were.

00:04:12
Speaker 2: It was a spring break.

00:04:13
Speaker 3: Well, yes, we weren't supposed to remember it.

00:04:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it was a it was a blast, you know, those those opportunities, so many of them came along, and it's when you look back on it, like, there are so there's so much that was just condensed into those you know, a couple of years. It's it's really kind of this crazy whirlwind of a ride.

00:04:31
Speaker 2: It really is. Every time I think back to it, I'm like, man, even when I would just pop in because I would, you know, go on tour for a couple of days here and there with Lance, and I would pop in for a few days, And when I think about the things we did on those few days, I'm like, and that's kind of the stuff they were doing for the entire length of the tour, like every new city there's a new adventure people want you to go on. And when you're young, you say yes to everything because you're like, you've got the energy, you're not exhausted. Touring doesn't weigh on your body the same way as it does when you're a little older, so.

00:05:05
Speaker 4: You're just you're scared that if you say no, that's gonna be the one opportunity that you should have done or you know, yeah, it's there was almost like a fomo of you know, you were always taught like, oh, you got to keep doing this. You gotta say yes, you gotta you gotta be out there, you gotta pound the pavement.

00:05:20
Speaker 3: So if you said no to something, it was like, oh, the world is going to end.

00:05:23
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. Yeah, that feeling of like, oh no, this is all going to collapse if I say no to this. Do you remember that week we were talking about, the spring break week? Do you remember than ever feeling like why did Lance just pawn this girl off on us? You did you?

00:05:41
Speaker 3: Did you ever want of that?

00:05:42
Speaker 1: You guys?

00:05:43
Speaker 2: If so, you never let on I have told everyone I've ever spoken to about you, guys, about how incredibly kind and nice you were because you just took me in like I was one of your family members, and you made sure I never walked back to my hotel alone. You made sure I always had plans for dinner, like anything you guys were doing. You guys just made sure I knew I was invited.

00:06:08
Speaker 4: Well, it was either stare at the other three schmucks that are in the group or look at you. So it was like, what was I mean, You're an upgrade to the other three guys, and I'm sure me me as well.

00:06:19
Speaker 3: You know, no, I think we just you know, we're guys from Ohio.

00:06:22
Speaker 2: So yeah, you're gentlemen.

00:06:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, you want to take make sure everybody's taken care of, especially if a friend says, hey, you know, yeah, this is somebody that's important to me, look look out for, then you're going to look out.

00:06:33
Speaker 3: For, you know.

00:06:34
Speaker 2: Yeah. Would I tell people that those nineties boy bands, like in Sink Baxter Boys, ninety degrees, that they were all friends and that they're still all friends, People just don't believe me. They assume it really had to be, you know, like gang wars, and that you guys all had to hate each other. It just wasn't the case. Did you guys experience that as well?

00:06:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean everybody thinks it was like this really bad version of like West Side Story where they're like doing it like boy band dances battles in the streets.

00:07:06
Speaker 3: No, I mean we you know, I think it was ninety seven.

00:07:09
Speaker 4: We went over to the UK into the smash Hits tour and En Sinct was over there. They hadn't come to the States yet, they had done Germany, and then they were kind of making their way from Europe to the States, and we were in the States making our way to Europe, and we kind of met in the middle and we were the only two American groups on the tour, and you know, all the same age, all kind of at the same you know, level of coming up in the business, and we just hung out and we became friends. Then you know, Backstreet we never had that same kind of experience together. We never were on the road together, but we all we all walked a similar path, you know, so there was a level of respect and appreciation and for for what every way went through, the grind the success. I mean, you look at those two groups and you're like, all right, it's it's we're in some good company there, you know. But yeah, we've all especially as time has gone by, Like I'll text Chris and Joey and you know, it's usually something wildly inappropriate and just you know, because that's that's the relates the relationship.

00:08:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're still teenage boys at heart.

00:08:13
Speaker 4: We are we are, we are gray hair, but you know we still have the same mental capacity that we had as teenagers.

00:08:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, were you guys all being shopped to the same songs like were people did? Did everyone make the rounds to see who, you know, who was going to get which song?

00:08:29
Speaker 3: I'm sure there was an element of it.

00:08:31
Speaker 4: I think Once in Sync Backtreet kind of got into the Max Martin camp. That was kind of their world, and no songs left that world. We had our own Swedish mastermind and you know who did like because you and no shame those songs for us. But I know our first single, Invisible Man, that was originally written for boys to men and we stole it before it ever made it to them. So I'm sure there was some sort of of like, hey, I'm just going to send this to all the labels and see which one bites first. But once you kind of got your your people in your pocket and you had this you know, good working relationship. You didn't you didn't stray too far from that.

00:09:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

00:09:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I can tell you for for a fact, Bye Bye Bye never came across our our our CD players.

00:09:24
Speaker 3: You know.

00:09:24
Speaker 4: But you know, I think even if it had, that's not a song that that we could have pulled off the same way.

00:09:30
Speaker 3: I mean we weren't.

00:09:31
Speaker 4: Our style was very different from from theirs, you know, and and you know, so we just kind of tried to stay in our lane, you know, the harmonies and you know, things like that, and leave the ones that require dancing to uh, to be that that might be a little bit more proficient at the dancing.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about growing up in Ohio. Were you guys raised with music playing in the house. How did you and Nick catch this performing bug?

00:09:58
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:09:59
Speaker 4: I think U like a lot of people, you know, you grow up, you know, singing in the church choirs and all that kind of fun stuff. What was different from us is that we went to a performing arts school here in Cincinnati, and it was a public school. You know, just kind of like you had to audition, but if you got in, didn't matter what part of the city Cincinnati lived in. You could go there for free and train and have all these great opportunities. So we shifted to that, me and the fifth grade, him in the seventh grade, and we just started growing up doing shows and you know, singing everything from opera to jazz to R and B and you know, taking acting and all these different classes. So for us, you know, our exposure was young and from our family, but then once we started at that school, it kind of just exploded.

00:10:44
Speaker 2: I want to know more about this performing arts school. Was it like fame? Were kids just dancing and singing in the halls?

00:10:50
Speaker 3: Yes? You just you see a table, you just get on it and dance. No, I mean to a certain degree, there was an element of that.

00:10:57
Speaker 4: You walk down the hallway and there would be somebody practicing cello in the stairwell, you know, or you you walking, you know, you get the hall pass and you'd be going to the bathroom and then the dance classes will be open and you'd see the ballet classes.

00:11:10
Speaker 3: Going on or the modern or whatever.

00:11:13
Speaker 4: So yeah, there was a definite fame element to it, but you know, it was it was this great exposure for me. I mean, I can honestly say that if I hadn't gone there, I never would have probably pursued a career in the arts, you know, so it definitely changed the trajectory of my life.

00:11:31
Speaker 2: I feel like I may have wrongly assumed that you and Nick were also jocks. Did your school have sports teams, because you guys are very athletic.

00:11:42
Speaker 4: Well, thank you, we had. We had a soccer team.

00:11:46
Speaker 3: Okay that was.

00:11:47
Speaker 4: Miserable, but I did play. I did play on the soccer team. You know, I think for us, you know, we I think most teenage guys they try and balance that that could with who they actually truly are, you know, because there is a path to manhood that goes through some sort of athletics. Yeah, you know, I think we kind of all wrongfully assume that. But you know, I think we grew up playing soccer and baseball and all those things as little kids, and you know, I think if you're somewhat coordinated athletic, you can kind of can kind of make make your way through it, fake your way through sports. But yeah, I mean we we try, and I think you know, having you know, a bunch of shirtless photos of you bouncing around out there in all the team magazines made people think that you're maybe a little bit more fit and athletic than you might actually be.

00:12:42
Speaker 2: Oh man, I we we just had. We just had Brian Austin Green on pod Meats World and we were talking about Joey Lawrence his music video where he I think, throws a football to himself in one of his music videos, which is which is pretty great. So did you guys ever come to doing that? Did anybody ever talk about just throwing a football to yourself?

00:13:03
Speaker 3: No, there were four of us, so there was always somebody to throw it too.

00:13:05
Speaker 2: That's one of the greatest thing about having friends.

00:13:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:13:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, you don't have to do interviews by yourself. You know, you're you're there's always strengthened numbers. But they did always in these photo shoots like, oh, here's the football, you know, I throw it around. And Jeff in the group he actually did play football in college a little bit, and so you know.

00:13:24
Speaker 3: We come by it somewhat naturally.

00:13:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not like, oh, we've never you know, thrown a football in our lives. Here you go, but yeah, we weren't going to the NFL.

00:13:36
Speaker 2: Okay, your wife, Leah, you two are high school sweethearts. Do you remember meeting her?

00:13:44
Speaker 4: So I remember the time period because it was the fifth grade when we actually met.

00:13:50
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, elementary school.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, so is she was. She went to the performing our school as well.

00:13:57
Speaker 4: Okay, so she started in the fourth grade, which is when the school started.

00:14:00
Speaker 3: I started there in the fifth grade.

00:14:02
Speaker 4: So there was already like this circle of people, this circle of friends that already had a year under their belt together. Yeah, and me, I roll in in the fifth grade, and you know, I have to, you know, kind of find my way. But I remember, I mean, we grew up classes together. We went out in the sixth grade, we went out in the seventh grade, and then junior year we got together, got together.

00:14:27
Speaker 2: So that's so funny because my seven year old, or my almost seven year old, anytime he has little crushes, I always think, what if what if this is the girl that Now if we just stay in the same area, if they if they keep going to the same schools, what if they drew in le it?

00:14:46
Speaker 4: They could they could they could driftingly drool ly it. Yeah, We always kind of said that to our kids. It was like, hey, you know, it kind of works both ways because we be like, hell, oh, don't worry about that that kid that's you know, especially my daughter. That boy that's teasing you or like pulling your hair doing whatever. Class he just likes you. Yeah, Oh, don't worry. He won't he won't be around, you know, past this year. Well what if it's like you guys that were together forever or you know, be nice to that person because you never know you might marry them.

00:15:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

00:15:17
Speaker 3: It's kind of works both ways.

00:15:20
Speaker 2: I feel like you must have avoided so much embarrassment by not having to play the field too much as a teenager and young man in your early twenties.

00:15:30
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, embarrassment. Yes, I kind of always say that. I'm I'd never dated. Yeah, you know, so I can't really give dating advice. I just found somebody that I that I enjoyed being around and loved and it's just been that way, you know, so I can't really give advice on dating.

00:15:51
Speaker 3: I can't really you know, be like, oh, well you should do this. I don't know what should you do?

00:15:56
Speaker 4: You know, just don't make a fool out of yourself and don't screw it up, you know, So I think for me, Yeah, there definitely was an element of you know, I don't have to have who I'm dating in magazines or deal with all that stuff, and it was definitely a weight off my shoulders because I'm not I'm not that kind of That's not how I'm wired.

00:16:18
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:16:19
Speaker 2: No, for as long as you've been in the industry, you've never not been the guy from Ohio. You've never been you've never been the Hollywood type. So you've you've really, I say this about writer too, you've really managed to create a life for yourself that is as authentic as humanly possible, considering we work in an industry that's not known for its authenticity.

00:16:45
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:16:45
Speaker 4: Well, I live in Ohio again, so you know, and it makes it a lot easier when you know, I don't have to you know, drive over the hill to go to my general meetings or have the polo lounge club or whatever and.

00:16:58
Speaker 3: All that stuff.

00:16:59
Speaker 4: You know, you know, when you're just going to the same place as you went to as a high schooler and you're still seeing some of the same people that you grew up with, it It makes it a lot easier to stay grounded in who you want to be versus who people think you should be.

00:17:15
Speaker 2: I'd take a meeting at Skyline over the Polar Line any day, Yes, just any day for sure.

00:17:22
Speaker 3: Skyline is like my go to agot.

00:17:26
Speaker 2: Oh it's so good. I feel like when I explained it to people, they're always like, ew that's I'm like, no, no, just stop, I'm not going to explain you just you have to try it. Once you try it, that finely shredded cheese is so special. Like I used to have it shipped to me the Skyline chili cans, but it's not the same because that you get, first of all, like a little baggy of cheese and I need, you know, a pound of it, and you can't. You can't shred it as finely as they do it. I don't know. I don't know how they do it.

00:17:55
Speaker 4: Oh they do it in bulk, you know, That's how they do it because each each it has like literally like three pounds of cheese.

00:18:02
Speaker 2: It's so good, I know, and I feel like they have to have a special machine that's making it that fine.

00:18:06
Speaker 3: And it's great. It's great for your digestive tract too.

00:18:09
Speaker 2: Absolutely correct. It's very healthy. When I when I tell you that it's chili on top of pasta with onions, and truly, well, you don't need the onions. That's if you want them. I like them. But and then, like Drew said, somewhere between one to three pounds of cheese sitting on top, and boy is it ever good. But it's not like thick chili. It's thin. And I know one of the secret ingredients is like dark chocolate.

00:18:33
Speaker 3: Right, I don't know. I've never seen the secret recipe, but there is that rumor.

00:18:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's the rumor. They say it's kind of like a moley almost.

00:18:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's like when you grow up with it, it is like it's like ingrain into your DNA.

00:18:46
Speaker 3: It's part of who you are.

00:18:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, No one ever mentions Ohio to me without me talking about Skyline. It's it's easily in my top three favorite foods of all time.

00:18:54
Speaker 3: Nice.

00:18:55
Speaker 2: Okay, Back to Lea. So she would help choreograph the group's dances, right, yeah, although I'm not sure any of the four of you really did too much have he lifting with dancing?

00:19:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we started off when we got signed to Motown. Lori Anne Gibson, you know who, you know, choreographed for everybody. She was our choreographer and it was like, all right, this is she was like being pulled in a hundred different directions. She did our first you know, set of shows in our first album, and then Leah, who was dancing for Radio City Music Hall at the time, you know, went to our manager kind of behind my back and said, look, I know these guys. I want them to succeed, you know, I know what they're capable of. Let me let me get like, let me try and figure this out. And he gave he said, he gave her three songs. He was like, all right, you do these three songs and then we'll go from there. And then she did those three songs. The label loved them. It made us look like we actually know what we were doing, you know, and she's been our choreographer ever since, you know, much to her, you know frustration, you know, she has to figure out how to how to polish our dance moves, you know, as much as possible.

00:20:05
Speaker 3: But yeah, she's a she's a saint.

00:20:09
Speaker 2: Wow. So okay, do you remember then the moment when she came to you because you said she went behind your back to try and you know, help you guys out. Do you remember then the moment when she came to and was like, Okay, hi, I'm the new choreographer. I've got these three songs. Do you remember what that moment was like?

00:20:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I I So she didn't want to get the job because she was with me. She wanted to get the job on her own merits, which is very respectable and I appreciate it because it didn't put me in the middle had it not worked out. So I do remember her saying, so I called your manager. I talked to him about this, and this is what happened. And I was like, great, oh, let's let's let's go for it, all right, let's try it out. And she hasn't let us down yet, So I mean, we constantly let her down. But you know, she she definitely carries her her side of the bargain well.

00:21:01
Speaker 2: And I'm sure having known you all for as long as she has, she knows your strengths, she knows your weaknesses. So there's probably quite a shortcut that she takes where she goes, guess what not even going to try this move because I already know can't do it.

00:21:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, very true.

00:21:14
Speaker 4: But we were discovering new weaknesses every time we go into rehearsal.

00:21:18
Speaker 2: So you're going to say new strengths.

00:21:20
Speaker 4: Nope, nope, we know what those are and they're diminishing day by day.

00:21:25
Speaker 2: Oh, Age, isn't it lovely? With city after city, country after country filled with girls in the audience screaming your name? Did she ever deal with any jealousy?

00:21:36
Speaker 1: Uh?

00:21:37
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I mean I think she.

00:21:41
Speaker 4: I mean, she's grown up in the art, she's been around it the whole time. She's a performer herself, so she understands kind of what it is.

00:21:51
Speaker 3: So I don't I don't think there was ever.

00:21:53
Speaker 4: I mean, there might have been some like why can't you say I have a girlfriend kind of thing? Right, you know, we first started out because you couldn't have a girlfriend to being a boy, Milt, But you know, once once we started being like, look I have a girlfriend, then it was just like okay, cool. But she, no, she never there was never a moment where it was like, why are those girls screaming for you?

00:22:17
Speaker 3: Yeah? You know, I think she was just like, that's.

00:22:19
Speaker 4: Great, they're screaming for you, you know, which is a great, you know situation, being as opposed to having to try and convince somebody yep, that something's okay.

00:22:28
Speaker 3: You know, they're there, you know.

00:22:30
Speaker 4: Proud of your success and happy for your success, not trying to you know, cater your success to fit around with their you know, their ego needs.

00:22:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's good on It kind of goes both ways because she's obviously a confident woman who understood the industry and was proud of your successes. And on the other hand, it doesn't seem like you ever gave her any reasons to feel jealous, so you know, yeah, those it goes both ways. It speaks a lot about you too. You guys have been together through so much over the what is it twenty five years now?

00:23:03
Speaker 4: You've been together, we've been married for twenty five Yeah, we've been together for another eight on top of that.

00:23:08
Speaker 3: So whatever, quick math thirty thirty three?

00:23:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what do you think the secret is to having made it thirty three years together so far?

00:23:17
Speaker 3: Just try not to screw it up, that's the that's the secret.

00:23:22
Speaker 4: I think the biggest thing is just having a level of mutual respect for each other. Yeah, you know, I think regardless of you know, who's doing what working, we're you know, we're each other's biggest supporters and cheerleaders, and you know, I think that's the biggest thing. You know, remember why you got together. Yeah, and stop trying to find reasons why you aren't happy, but remember like all the reasons why you are. And you know, Okay, so I don't always necessarily get my socks in the hamper, right, it might be frustrating.

00:23:54
Speaker 3: But is it that big of a deal. Apparently it is, But apparently it is.

00:23:58
Speaker 2: It really is in the hamper.

00:24:01
Speaker 3: They're close, they make it close by.

00:24:05
Speaker 4: But no, I think it's like, you know, just not sweating the little stuff. Just keep an eye on the prize.

00:24:24
Speaker 2: Unlike a lot of the other boy band groups you who, you know, they were put together in casting calls and auditions by usually some old creepy dude. The four of you were friends from childhood, right, so you guys put yourselves together, three of you?

00:24:41
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, so mean clearly I've known Nick my entire life. Yes, we went to school with Justin at the Performing Art school as well, So me, Nick, Justin, and Leo all went to the same school together. And then a guy that we went to school with met Jeff in La and then introduced Nick to Jeff. Nick brought Justin in. The other guy didn't stick around, and then I came in. So then that's kind of how the four of us got together. But the three of us knew each other since you know, before, you know, before Pubery, Yeah.

00:25:17
Speaker 2: Since the elementary school. Yeah, you guys actually took a little bit more of a practical route to achieving your musical dreams. You were in the Army and then moved to New York and became an EMT. Tell me about that decision.

00:25:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, going to going to the performing art school, you know, it was kind of like, all right, which which theater program are you going to go into? What arts are you going to? And I was like, I don't want to be a starving artist. I don't want to do that. I want to like have a normal life. I want to like do these things. I want to have some continuity. And then I so I joined the Army because I saw the movie Cliffhanger. You know, so Vester Stallone is hanging off the side of a mountain, you know, not dropping or I was like, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do search and rescue. So I'm going to become an EMT. I'm gonna go to the Army for it. I'm going to get trained. I'm going to do all this stuff, and then I'm going to live on the side of a mountain somewhere and save people that can't read a map or a compass.

00:26:13
Speaker 3: And then it's it's that path started. You know. I went to the Army.

00:26:17
Speaker 4: I became a medic out of out of you know, basically training medic school. I moved to New York because that's where Leo was, uh, and I started driving an ambulance in New York for a private company. So I didn't get the nine to one one calls. I didn't get those calls. I had like strokes and heart attacks, broken hips, you know, a lot of the a lot of the private nursing home kind of calls.

00:26:41
Speaker 3: And then you know, I got a beep on my beeper.

00:26:44
Speaker 2: I love a beeper. Oh yeah, a story.

00:26:47
Speaker 4: It was great right up until I saw that it was an l A number and I had to use a bunch of quarters at the pay phone and to call it back as opposed to just one. But it was Nick and he beat me to see if I've intioned in joining the group.

00:27:01
Speaker 3: So it was my.

00:27:02
Speaker 4: Path was a little bit, yeah, a little bit different than most people's, but you know, got to the same destination.

00:27:10
Speaker 2: And so what did you say? You get that, you get that page that beep from Nick? You call him on the payphone. He asks, if you want to join the group? Are you like, well, let me think about it. I got to talk to Leo. What's what's the what's the thought process that runs through your mind?

00:27:25
Speaker 3: Yeah? I was. I mean Leo.

00:27:27
Speaker 4: Leah was actually she was on tour working for Radio City at the time, so so she we weren't.

00:27:34
Speaker 3: We weren't together.

00:27:35
Speaker 4: It wasn't like, oh, let me It was more like, all right, she's off doing her thing. I'm here in New York doing my thing. Let me call my dad. He's the most practical person I know. So I called my dad and he's like, oh, well, it sounds like a kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity.

00:27:48
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, it probably is.

00:27:50
Speaker 4: He was like, could you go back to driving an ambulance if it doesn't work out?

00:27:54
Speaker 3: I was like yeah.

00:27:56
Speaker 4: He was like, so once in a lifetime opportunity, opportunity, They'll still be there.

00:28:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, which one are you gonna do?

00:28:02
Speaker 4: And then two weeks later I packed up my nineteen eighty eight Plymouth Sun Dance and drove from New York to LA learning my parts.

00:28:10
Speaker 3: Along the way. And then two days later we were opening up for James Brown at the House of Blues. So kind a kind of a crazy little whirlwind a time.

00:28:19
Speaker 2: That is so cool. I love that, and you know that is something that that thought process was exactly the thought process I had when I had applied to get my master's degree from Chapman University. I had just been accepted. The same week I was accepted to Chapman for my masters, I got the call about doing Girl Meets World and I was like, but I I thought I was for sure going to go forward and get my masters, And now this came up. What should I do? And it was like, doing Girl Meets World is never going to come around again. Getting to play Tipanga twenty years after the show ended is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can always go back and get my masters any time, And you do. You always go for the once in a lifetime not so safe necessarily, but always take that risk in my opinion.

00:29:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, And for me, I was like, all right, I was kind of laying out this plan, like all right, I'm gonna either you know, join like EMS New York City MS or the fire department or maybe even go to you know, nursing school because I'm still like doing like reserve training. So I'm like, oh, I can get the army to maybe do my nursing school. And then like my whole head, my whole plan was around like first responder EMS emergency medicine, and then this happened, and then I was just kind of like.

00:29:34
Speaker 3: What wait a second.

00:29:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know, growing up, performing and doing all that stuff, you know that it doesn't really go away. It's kind of like part of part of who you are. So given the opportunity to, you know, scratch that itch a little bit, you know, just kind of had to see what.

00:29:52
Speaker 3: It was about.

00:29:53
Speaker 2: Did you ever save any lives?

00:29:56
Speaker 3: Uh? I hope?

00:29:59
Speaker 2: So yeah, look at you.

00:30:02
Speaker 4: My first call on my first day, I lost one, which was a really really tough way to start my career.

00:30:10
Speaker 3: As an EMT.

00:30:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, so nineteen years old, you know, first call, still a trainee. Yeah, lady lady coated on a stretcher.

00:30:21
Speaker 2: Oh man, had she had a heart attack or a stroke.

00:30:25
Speaker 4: She had a long list of you know, medical ailments in history and you know, renal failure and a whole bunch of stuff. But it still doesn't make it a whole lot of a whole lot easier. But you know, you try and you know, learn from it. Yeah, move forward.

00:30:43
Speaker 3: But yeah, well day one, Well, welcome to adulting.

00:30:46
Speaker 2: Welcome exactly. Do you remember your first real pinch me moment in.

00:30:52
Speaker 4: La Yeah, I mean there were a couple, a couple of big moments. I mean, the first time you hear your your song on the radio. That's a that's a monumental one, you know, But I think for me, there were ones that were you know, leading up to it. You know, you get to get to meet certain people. You don't have to wait in line at a club, those those those little things that you're like, oh, I'm gonna be standing outside like everybody else, and then you walk up and it's like, hey, come on in.

00:31:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, you walk up, Sarah is there. You're like, whoa Sarah?

00:31:28
Speaker 4: And then you become friends with the people and then you know it, you know, just kind of goes from there. But yeah, I mean I think you know, clearly, getting to do a duet with Stevie Wonder, Yeah, that's absolutely meeting boys demand for the first time, you know, another one of those moments. And then you become friends and you tour together and you know, those those kind of things that you never could have dream of when you were listened to, you know, coolly high harmony and learning all the words to Motown Philly. And the next thing you know, you know, Sean's on one side of you, Awanya is on the other, and you're just like, and this is my life?

00:32:01
Speaker 2: How did this happen?

00:32:03
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, so it doesn't to me.

00:32:05
Speaker 4: It was always kind of like I was always the guy that never wanted to introduce myself to anybody.

00:32:11
Speaker 3: I never wanted to be like, hey, I'm true from ninety eight degrees or.

00:32:14
Speaker 4: Like do anything, because I didn't want to deal with I'm sorry who right, like, oh, we're we're signed the Motown And then you know, my for al little ego couldn't have handled that, you know, so I just kind of like sat back and watched a little bit more. But luckily we had some some people around us that they didn't subscribe to that same thing, and they would just be like, hey, this is ninety degrees, and then yeah.

00:32:39
Speaker 3: I got I got the benefit of their their balls.

00:32:42
Speaker 2: I love that. That's like one of the best parts about having people on your team is that they can do the awkward, uncomfortable stuff so that you don't have to do.

00:32:50
Speaker 3: It exactly exactly. Everybody needs one of those people in their lives for sure.

00:33:07
Speaker 2: I'd like to talk for a second about tribal arm tattoos. You and Nick have absolutely legendary ones, arguably the best of the decade, if you don't count Pamela Anderson's barbed wire. Where did you get them? And were your parents ever against tattoos?

00:33:25
Speaker 3: Oh?

00:33:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think my parents are still against tattoos. No, we got them in Atlanta. Yeah, I actually in a box somewhere has still had like the business card of the tattoo par that we went to.

00:33:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were recording in Atlanta for our first record.

00:33:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know, I don't it was kind of like this thing, like it wasn't like it wasn't like cliche at the time, of course not. It was like cutting edge at the time, Like people weren't getting tattoos. So we were bad asses for getting tattooed totally, you know, and then you know you're like, we don't want to like like matching, so we got similar.

00:34:02
Speaker 3: But then the l for our last name the brothers is the same.

00:34:06
Speaker 1: You know.

00:34:06
Speaker 4: It's just kind of us together. Yeah, so yeah, it was. It was a place at Lantin Jeff got Jeff got some sort of writing on on his on his chest and he thought it meant one thing, and then he's not sure, it means that depends on.

00:34:26
Speaker 3: Where you are in the world something else. Yeah, it's it's you know, it's all just stories life.

00:34:34
Speaker 2: Will my Pod meets World co host and Boy meets World co star had I think Japanese. I think Japanese symbols, but one of them is he had war on one ankle and peace on the other ankle. And he was walking on the beach somewhere and someone stopped him and said, huh, your tattoos war and why this one? And Will said it war in peace and he said, no, that's war, but that's to eat. And Bill was like what and the guy was like, I'm just kidding, it's peace. It's just so funny because you know, yeah, when you don't speak the language, but you get the symbols, you don't necessarily know.

00:35:23
Speaker 4: Oh this symbol means daughter and it doesn't mean daughter, just means girl, right, you know, it's like you're just a girl.

00:35:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still little things like that.

00:35:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, you had a number one hit and Grammy nomination with Mariah Carey, an icon especially of the time. Did you get to interact a lot with her?

00:35:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, So at the time, we didn't like when we recorded, she wasn't in the studio. We recorded Jimmy Jaime and Terry Lewis, we were on tour. She was on tour. You know, it's like two ships passing in the night. But when we shot the video for it, she did, you know, come out to our tour stop. Because we were literally like six days a week. We have no time to travel somewhere shoot a video. So you know, the thing, God I found you video was basically on our you know, yellow and black, you know, like bumblebee looking, you know, tour set in the middle of somewhere and you know, the middle of America, and it was just kind of like, all right, let's just make a video for it. And then we did like a Christmas special. And you know, if we're talking about like not wanting to like put yourself out there. I actually so I consult on some some movies that film here in Cincinnati, and she came in here and did a Hallmark movie and.

00:36:36
Speaker 3: She directed it and starred in it.

00:36:38
Speaker 4: And I was, you know, one of the you know, consultants for some of the performances. And we're at the first table read and she was sitting there like with her her sunglasses on, and we're like, she was sitting across the table from me, and it gets to me we're like introducing ourselves, and she literally like pulls her sunglasses down and looks at me.

00:36:57
Speaker 5: She's like, I know you. I was like, thank god, because it would have been really embarrassing had you like, hey, I'm Drew blah blah blah, and you like okay, like.

00:37:09
Speaker 2: Just just for yeah, hello, nice to meet you, sir.

00:37:12
Speaker 4: So at least she acknowledged that we had worked together and we had a number one together, and so that was that was good because that would have been really embarrassing.

00:37:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would have been tough to I have to say hello again and reintroduce myself. Yes, you also survived reality TV well before it was a way to become famous. The Nick and Jessica era was very much in the spotlight and that always kind of seemed uncomfortable for the Laches. Was that a lot to deal with at the time.

00:37:41
Speaker 4: I think, you know, everybody that gets into reality now knows what they're getting into. Yeah, at that time, it was the Osbourne's and that show. So it was you know, the kind of you know, beginning the incubation period of what reality was going to become. I think early on it was for the most part reality, Like we just kind of lived our lives.

00:38:06
Speaker 3: We had cameras following.

00:38:08
Speaker 4: Us pretty much twenty four hours a day, and you know, they got their stuff, and then they edited together as the show, you know, progressed, and as reality TV progressed, they figured, oh, well, let's kind of shape our storylines. You know, shoot what we need to shoot, you know, and then you know, save a bunch of money and don't worry about it. And that's when stuff kind of got a little bit more, you know, a little more annoying, a little more difficult. You know, you're living somebody else's story, living someone else's life. But you know, as things progress, you realize you're like, all right, well, in order to control this, we need to get you know, executive producer credit on it so we can be there for the editing and we can do all that stuff. So you learn as it goes. But it was it was always something that was a bit of a something.

00:38:55
Speaker 3: It was just kind of always a little bit weird.

00:38:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, why right, Yeah, it seems like an uncomfortable way to live.

00:39:03
Speaker 4: It was.

00:39:05
Speaker 2: Have you been watching the rebirth of Dancing with the Stars at all?

00:39:09
Speaker 4: So the strange part for me is that my daughter who was not even born yet, my wife was pregnant when I was on the show.

00:39:18
Speaker 3: She is now a big fan of Dancing with the Stars.

00:39:22
Speaker 4: So for me like this, you know, little nugget, who was born two weeks after I won, you know, is now watching the show that you.

00:39:32
Speaker 2: Know, Yeah, you helped pioneer. I was.

00:39:35
Speaker 4: I was part of the beginning of you know, so I definitely do follow it, you know, because you know, you can't be a part of it and then not get asked about it or or not, you know, have some sort.

00:39:46
Speaker 3: Of connection to it. Of course, I mean.

00:39:50
Speaker 4: The people that I came up with, none of them are really there anymore or their judges, Yeah, on the panel now, you know.

00:39:59
Speaker 3: So it's it's a little different.

00:40:01
Speaker 4: But you know, I definitely appreciate that that show is still on and that, you know, it kind of like went to the streaming world, you know, was able to come back because you know, the arts and dancing and the joy that that show kind of has deserves a place on network.

00:40:20
Speaker 3: TV for everybody to see it.

00:40:22
Speaker 4: Yes, and I do enjoy the fact that it's back and people are still enjoying it and new people have discovered it, even though those new people don't know who I am.

00:40:32
Speaker 3: Not true, Well, that's true. They do show They do show clips sometimes in my freestyle, so.

00:40:38
Speaker 2: They sure do.

00:40:40
Speaker 1: Well.

00:40:40
Speaker 2: Now, you have also become a home remodel expert. Were you always handy? Have you and Leah flipped properties before? Have you done renovations a little bit?

00:40:51
Speaker 3: So?

00:40:52
Speaker 4: I think like most people, like if you redo your house and you hire a contractor you have some sort of nightmare story. You know, I have one of those I got taken advantage of. And you know, my my pride couldn't handle the fact that I got bamboozled and I couldn't I didn't know it. So I started trying to learn everything I could about how houses work and you know what I could do myself. And then you start, you know, expanding on those skills and you know, like literally listeners were done here. I'm redoing a friend's bathroom, so I'm going over there to you know, finish the dry wall and start laying the tile.

00:41:28
Speaker 3: You know. So it's it's just kind of become part of who I am.

00:41:31
Speaker 4: And I do find like there's a there's like a grounding to it, like it be able to do something with your hands versus like everything else that I do.

00:41:39
Speaker 3: It's you know, there's something tangible about it.

00:41:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, a lot of everything else I do is like, oh, I'm writing this song and it's I can't hold it, you know. So I think like home renovation number one, there's a sense of pride. Number two, it saves yourself a fortune. And number three there is this you know, actual you know, before and after a moment that you can kind of appreciate but totally Yeah, we did a little bit of flipping, but clearly my skills have improved over the last you know, fifteen years.

00:42:10
Speaker 2: I also love about a home renovation that you can every day set goals that then at the end of the day you're like, there, I accomplished those goals. Like today you're going to do the drywall. You're you know what, and that's maybe the goal for the day is just finish the drywall before or lay whatever you need to lay in order to put the tile down. Whereas you're right, like in the Creative Arts, there's like we're gonna record this part of the song, but it still doesn't like get you to a you know, you don't. Yeah, it's not tangible. It's yeah, very exciting, even.

00:42:38
Speaker 4: Though I supposed to finish the drywall three days ago and I just keep you know, I just keep sanding and it's not right, so I keep redoing it and keep standing.

00:42:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's okay.

00:42:46
Speaker 2: You know what, I want a perfectionist doing my home remodel, that's for sure.

00:42:51
Speaker 3: As you should. As you should, we're.

00:42:52
Speaker 2: About ready to do a home remodel. So I'm very very interested in this journey. So the new show is called Rock the Block, and it's celebrities competing against each other who are paired with experts and building in Las Vegas.

00:43:06
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, So it's it's you know for for very familiar HGTV faces. Yeah, you know, so it's Mina and Kim Scott and Tanya. Me and Tanya were paired up, and then Brooke Hogan, Vernon Davis, Chelsea Meisner and me so you got you know, reality Star, NFL Player, Southern Charm Survivor, and then me which was category you want to toss me into. But all four of us also have you know, either design experience or construction experience or things like that, So it was a lot of.

00:43:39
Speaker 3: Fun to kind of get in there and you're literally given.

00:43:41
Speaker 4: A shell of a house. We're all have matching shells, and we have to design and build out these houses. Like each each week you're like this new new section of the house.

00:43:51
Speaker 3: And the show has been around. This is the seventh season.

00:43:53
Speaker 4: It's been the number one show for HGTV for for a while, but this is just a new twist on it in Vegas, you know, like doing construction on the Dusty Moon. You know, I guess the Dusty Sun is a better comparison, but it was. It was a lot of fun and I'm excited for people to finally see it.

00:44:10
Speaker 2: Wow, I can't wait to watch what is the most difficult thing you've done so far when it comes to a remodel.

00:44:18
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the things that people find the least sexy are the most difficult. You know, like, oh, I'm running new electric, you know, people are people don't care about that. They just want to know it's done right. They want to know that the tile is pretty and that's the right.

00:44:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, let's take this wall down.

00:44:37
Speaker 4: I'm more intrigued by like the guts of the house, like, oh, today's plumbing, yeah righties, yes, yes, let's make sure the toilet doesn't overflow, you know, things like that. But you know I've done I've kind of messed with everything, you know, from you know, poorn foundations to throwing a roof on. So it's kind of like, you know, from the ground up to the to the top to you know, you just learn as you go and you find the right people to teach you, and it's kind of like anything.

00:45:05
Speaker 2: We kept this little Cancun reunion going. Is Drew stuck around for our bonus episode coming out this Friday on the dedicated teen Beat feed. Make sure to check that out and watch Drew on the new season of Rock the Block on HDTV. Teen Beat is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production Danielle Romo, producer and editor Tara Subosch. The theme song is by mar Coppus. Yes that Mark Coppus. Follow us on Instagram at teen beat Pod