Drew Lachey

Guaranteed human. It's once again time for Teen Beat. The podcast where I, Danielle Fishall,

“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 90s 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 guest and I have roots in the glorious,

frosted tip chaos of the Y2K boy band invasion. And we shared a few days of MTV Spring Break glory in 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 98 degrees alongside his brother Nick. And his high school sweetheart now wife of 25 years. Leah, who doubled as a dancer and choreographer for the group.

During 98 degrees run, they sold over 15 million records,

knocked eight top 40 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 Topps, and The Temptations. And 10 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, come back tours, a new HGTV competition show, and even a shot on the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course. Almost 30 years after 98 degrees debut album,

he's proof that some 90s heartthrobs never really clock out.

But somewhere underneath the white tank top and hair gel may be even right next to that tribal arm band tattoo. It's just a boy in Ohio going through all the same weird teenage milestones you did. And today, we're going to find that kid. Welcome to Teen Beat.

My guest this week, Popstar, Champion Ballroom dancer, host, and home renovation guru, Dr. Lise. Hello. Hello. That was, I'm like, over here laughing.

Here's a, bring myself to tears. That was quite the introduction. I forgot I did some of that stuff. Right? 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?

Yeah, it makes it sound like my life's been somewhat successful. It really has. You 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 teenage hood. 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 Cancun when I went to visit Lance.

And then the minute I got there, Lance and the rest of the in-sync boys left to do a random new opportunity to perform a show somewhere. And I was basically solo in Cancun and Lance said, "Here, it's no problem. I'll just set you up with the 98 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 48 hours. Yeah, some random booze crews in there somewhere. And some, I don't, I don't even remember what we were down there for. But yeah, it was spring break.

Well, yes. We weren't supposed to remember it. Yeah. No, it was a blast. Those opportunities. So many of them came along and it's when you look back on it. There are so much that was just condensed into those,

you know, a couple years. It's really kind of this crazy whirlwind of a ride.

“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.

You're not exhausted. Touring doesn't weigh on your body the same way as it does when you're a little older. And also you're just scared that if you say no,

“that's going to be the one opportunity that you should have done.”

Yes. There's almost like a phomo of, you know,

you're always taught like, oh, you've got to keep doing this.

You've got to say yes, you've got to be out there. You've got to pound the pavement. So if you said no to something, it was like, Oh, the world is going to end. It's right. That's right. Yeah, about 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 then ever feeling like, why did Lance just pound this girl off on us? Did you?

Did you? Did you ever learn that? You guys, they've 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 you anything you guys were doing. You guys just made sure I knew I was invited. Well, it was either stare at the other three shmocks that are in the group or look at you. So it was like, well, I mean, you're an upgrade to the other three guys.

And I'm sure me as well.

“You know, I think we just, you know, we're guys from Ohio.”

Yeah, you're your gentleman. Yeah, you want to take, make sure everybody's taking care. Especially if a friend says, Hey, you know, this is somebody that's important to me. Look, look out for.

Then you're going to look out for, you know? Yeah. When I tell people that those 90s boy bands like in St. Backstreet Boys, 90 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 then you guys all had to hate each other. It just wasn't the case. Did you guys experience that as well?

Yeah. I mean, everybody thinks it was like this really bad version of, like, West Side Story. Yeah. Like boy band dances, battles in the streets.

No, I mean, we, you know, I think it was 97. We went over to the UK. He did the smash hits tour and in St. Was over there. They hadn't come to the state yet.

They had done Germany. And 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. We became friends then.

You know, back street, 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 wet airway went through the grind, the success. I mean, you look at those two groups.

And you're like, all right. It's we're in some good company there. Yes. You know, but yeah, we all, especially has time is gone by. Like, I'll text Chris and Joey.

And you know, it's usually something wildly inappropriate. And just of course. Because that's, that's the relationship. That's the relationship. Yep, you're still teenage boys at heart.

We are. We are. We're right here. Yeah. But, you know, we still have the same mental capacity that we had as teenagers.

Yeah. For you guys all being shopped the same songs.

“Like, were people did, did everyone make the rounds to see who, you know, who was going to get which song?”

I'm sure there was an element of it. I think once, um, and think of actually kind of gotten to the Max Martin camp. Uh-huh. That was kind of their world and no songs left that world. Uh, we, we had our own Swedish mastermind.

Uh-huh. Um, and we stole it before it ever made it to them.

So I'm sure there was some sort of like, hey, I'm just going to send this to all the labels and see which one bites first.

Right. 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 strike too far from that. That makes sense. Why, well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Yeah. I mean, I can tell you for, for a fact, by, by and ever came across our, our, our, our CD players, um, you know, but, you know, I think even if it had, that's not a song that that we could have pulled off the same way. Right. I mean, he weren't, our style was very different from, from theirs.

Um, you know, and, you know, so we just kind of tried to stay in our line, you know, the harmonies and, you know, things like that. And leave the ones that require dancing to, uh, to be, that might be a little bit more proficient at the dancing. Let's talk a little bit about growing up in Ohio, were you guys raised with music playing in the house? How did you in Nick catch this performing bug?

I think, uh, like, like, like a lot of people, you know, you grow up, you know, singing in the church quarters and all that kind of fun stuff. Uh, what was different from us is that we went to a performing art school here in Cincinnati, um, and it was a public school, you know, just kind of like you had audition. But if you got in, didn't matter what part of the city since now you lived in, you could go there for free and train and have all these great opportunities. So, we shifted to that mean the fifth grade him and the seventh grade, um, and we just started growing up doing shows and, you know, singing everything from,

opera to jazz to R&B and, you know, taking acting and all these different classes. So for us, um, you know, our exposure was young and from our family, but then once we started at that school, it kind of just exploded.

“I want to know more about this performing arts school. Was it like fame, were kids just dancing and singing in the halls?”

Yes, you just used your table, you just get on it and dance. Um, no, I mean, to assert degree, there was an element of that. You walk down the hallway and there would be somebody practicing cello in the stairwell. Um, you know, where you be walking, you know, you get the hall pass and be going to the bathroom and then the dance classes will be open. And you'd see the ballet classes going on or the modern or whatever. So yeah, there was a definite fame element to it, um, but, you know, it was, it was a great exposure for me.

Um, I mean, I can honestly say that if I hadn't gone there, I never would have probably pursued a career in the arts.

Um, you know, so it definitely changed the trajectory of my life. 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? Um, well, thank you. Um, we had a soccer team.

“Um, okay. That was miserable. Um, but I did play. I did play on the soccer team. Um, you know, I think for us, you know, we, I think most teenage guys, they, they try and balance that that jaw could with.”

Uh, they actually truly are, um, you know, because there is a path to manhood that goes through some sort of athletics. Um, you know, I think we kind of all wrongfully assumed that, but, um, you know, I think we grew up playing soccer and baseball and all those things as little kids. And, um, you know, I think if you're somewhat coordinated in athletic, you can kind of, kind of make, make your way through it, make your way through sports. Um, but yeah, I mean, we, we try and I think, you know, having, um, you know, a bunch of shirtless photos you bouncing around out there is.

And, and all the team magazines may people think that you're, maybe a little bit more, uh, fit and athletic that you might actually be. Um, man, we, we just had, uh, we just had Brian Austin Green on, uh, Pond Meets World. And we were talking about, uh, Joey Lawrence, his music video where he, uh, I think throws a football to himself, um, in one of his music videos, which is, which is pretty great. Uh, so did you guys ever contemplate doing that? Did anybody ever talk about just throwing a football to yourself?

Uh, no, there were four of us there, so there was always somebody to throw it to.

That's one of the greatest thing about having friends. Yeah. Yeah, you know, you don't have to do interviews by yourself, you know, you're, you're, you're, you're, there's always strength in numbers.

“Yeah. But they did always in these photo shoots, but like, oh, here's the football, you know, right?”

And Jeff, in the group, he, he actually did play football in college a little bit. And so, um, you know, we, we, we come by it somewhat naturally. Yeah. Um, it's not like, oh, we've never, you know, throw it a football in our lives. Here you go. Right.

But yeah, we weren't going to that NFL. Okay. Your wife, Leah, you two are high school sweetheart. Yeah. Do you remember meeting her?

So, um, I remember the time period because it was the fifth grade when we actually met. Oh, my gosh. Elementary school. Yeah. So, is she was, she went to the performing arts school as well. Okay. Um, so she started in the fourth grade, which is when the school started, I started there in the fifth grade.

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, have to, you know, kind of, find my way. Um, but I remember, I mean, we grew up classes together. We, we went out in the sixth grade.

We went out in the seventh grade. Uh, and then, uh, junior year, we, we got together, got together. So, that, it'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 and Leah hit? They could, they could directly, drew and Leah. Yeah, we always kind of said that to our kids, she was like, hey, you know, it kind of works both ways. Because you're like, oh, don't worry about that, that kid that's, you know, especially my daughter.

He just likes you. Yeah. Oh, don't worry, you won't, he won't be around, you know, past this year. Oh, what if, what if it's like you guys are working together forever?

Or, you know, be nice to that person because you never know you might marry them.

Yeah, exactly. It's kind of works both ways.

“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 20s, right?”

Yeah, embarrassment. Yes. I kind of always say that I'm, I'd never dated, 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. Yeah.

You know, so I can't really give advice on dating. I can't really, you know, be like, oh, well, you should do this. I don't know. What should you do? 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. It was definitely a, a weight off my shoulders because I'm not, I'm not that kind of, that's not how I'm wired. Yeah. 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. Yeah, well, I live in Ohio again. So, you know, 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 to watch or whatever, you know, that stuff, 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 go up with, it makes it a lot easier to stay grounded in, in who you want to be.

Yeah. Versus who people think you should be. I'd take a meeting at Skyline over the polo lounge any day. Yes. Just any day.

For sure. Skyline is like my go-to. Oh, I do need to go. Oh, it's so good.

I feel like when I explain it to people, they're always like,

you know, 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's finally shredded cheese is so special. Like, I used to have it shipped to me, the Skyline chili cans. Yeah. But it's not the same because you get, first of all, like, a little baggy of cheese.

And I need, you know, a pound of it. Yes. And you can't, you can't shred it as finely as they do it. I don't know what, I don't know how they do it. They do it in bulk, you know, that's how they do it.

Because each, each, on tray has like literally like three pounds of cheese. Yes. It's so good. I know, and I feel like they have to have a special machine that's making it that fine.

And it's great for, is great for your digestive tract, too. Absolutely. And they're less or all. Correct. It's very healthy.

When I, when I tell you that it's chili on top of pasta with onions and truly, oh, 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. Right? I don't know.

I've never seen the secret recipe. But there is that rumor. Yeah. I think that's the rumor they say. It's kind of like a mole almost.

Yeah. But it's like, when you grow up with it, it is like, it's like, ingrained into your DNA. Yes. It's part of who you are.

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. Nice. Okay, back to Leah.

“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 heavy lifting. We have dancing. Yeah. So we started off when we got signed a Motown.

Loran 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.

And 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, let me, let me try and figure this out." Yeah. 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. Yeah. You know, and she's been our choreographer ever since.

You know, much to her, you know, frustration.

you know, as much as possible.

But yeah, she's a, she's a saint. Wow. So, okay, do you remember then the moment when she came to you because you said she went behind your back to trying, you know, help you guys out?

Do you remember then the moment when she came to you and was like, "Okay, hi, I'm the new choreographer. I've got these three songs. Do you remember what that moment was like?" Yeah, I mean, 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 go for it. All right, let's try 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, 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.

Yeah, very true. But we, we're discovering new weaknesses every time we go into her soul. So it's not your gonna say new strengths. Nope, nope, we know what those are. And they're diminishing day by day.

Oh, hey, Jason, 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? Uh, I don't think so.

“I mean, I think she, I mean, she's grown up in the art.”

She's been around it the whole time. She's, uh, performer herself. So, she understands kind of what it is. So, I don't, I don't think there was ever, I mean, there might have been some like,

why can't you say have a girlfriend kind of thing? Right. You know, when we first started out because you couldn't have a girlfriend to be in a boy group. Nope.

But, you know, once we started being like, look, I have a girlfriend. Then it was like, okay, cool.

Um, but she, no, she never,

there was never a moment where it was like, why are those girls screaming for you? Yeah. Um, you know, I think she was just like, that's great. They're screaming for you.

Um, you know, which is a great, you know, situation being as opposed to having to try and convince somebody. Yeah. That's something's okay. They're, you know, they're there, you know,

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. Yeah. Well, it's good on, um, 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, that 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?

25 years now? You've been together? We've been married for 25. Yeah. We've been together for another eight on top of that.

So, whatever, quick math, 30. 33. Yeah. Yeah. That's a secret is to having made it 33 years together so far.

Just trying not to screw it up. That's the secret. Um,

“I think the biggest thing is just having,”

having a level of mutual respect for each other. Yeah. You know, I think regardless of, you know, who's doing what, working were,

were, you know, were each other's biggest supporters and cheerleaders. And, um, you know, I think that's the biggest thing. You know,

remember why you got together? Yeah. Um, since 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, but is it that big of a deal? Apparently it is, but here it is. But here it is.

It really is. In the hamper. They're close. Yeah. They, they make it close by.

Um, but no, I think it's like, you know, just not sweating a little stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. Keep an eye on the prize. I'm like 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. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

So me, me, clearly I've, I've known Nick, my entire life. Yes. We went to school just in, uh,

at the performing arts school as well. Uh-huh. So me, Nick, Justin and Leo all went to the same school together. Uh,

and then a guy that we went to school with, um, met Jeff in LA.

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 puberty. Yeah. Since 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. Yeah.

Um, we're going to go into the performing arts 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. Um, And then I, so I joined the army because I saw the movie cliffhanger.

Um, you know, so best just to load is hanging off the side of a mountain. You know, not dropping her.

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 going to go to the army four. 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 say people that can't read a map or a compass. Um, and then it's it's that past started. You know, I went to the army.

I became a medic. Um, out of, you know, basic training medic school.

I moved to New York because that's where Leo was. Uh, and I started driving ambulance in New York for a private company. Um, so I didn't get the 911 calls.

I didn't get those calls. I had like, strokes and heart attack broken hips. You know, a lot of the,

a lot of the private nursing home kind of calls. Um, and then, you know, I got a beep on my beeper.

Um, I love a beeper. Oh, yeah. Love a beeper story. It was great right up until I saw that it was an L.A. number.

And I had use a bunch of quarters at the pay phone to call the back as opposed to just one. Um, but it was Nick. And he beat me to see if I've been

just joining the group. So it was my path was a little bit. Yeah. A little bit different than most people. Um,

but you know, got to the same destination. And so what did you say? You get that, you get that page that beep from Nick.

You call him on the pay phone. He asks if you want to join the group. Are you like, um, well,

let me think about it. I got to talk to Leo. What's the,

“what's the thought process that runs through your mind?”

Yeah. I was. It was actually um, she was on tour, working for radio city at the time.

Um, you know, so she we weren't, we weren't together. 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, sounds like a kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity. I say, yeah, it probably is.

He was like, could you go back to driving an ambulance if it doesn't work out? I was like, yeah, he was like,

so once in a lifetime opportunity, opportunity there will still be there. Yeah. Which one you're going to do? Um,

and then two weeks later, I packed up my 1988 Plymouth Sundance and drove from New York to LA, learning my parts along the way. And then two days later,

we were opening up for James Brown at the House of Blues. So kind of a kind of a crazy little whirlwind at time. 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 master's. I got the call about doing girl meets world.

And I was like, but I, I, I thought I was for sure going to go forward and get my master's. And now this came up.

What should I do? It was like,

doing girl meets world is never going to come around again,

getting to play to Penga 20 years after. The show ended. Is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I can always go back and get my master's at any time. And you do,

you always go for the, the once in a lifetime. Not so safe necessarily, but always take that risk in my opinion. Yeah.

And for me, I was like, I was kind of laying out this plan. Like, all right,

I'm going to either, you know, join, like, YMS,

New York City, MS, or a 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, what?

Wait a second. Yeah. But you know, growing up, performing,

and doing all that stuff, you know, that, that it doesn't really go away. It's kind of like part of part of who you are.

Yeah. So given the opportunity to, you know, scratch that it's a little bit, you know,

just kind of, how to see what it was about. Did you ever save any lives? Uh, I,

I hope so.

Well, look at you.

My first call on my first day,

I lost one, which was a really, really tough way to start my, my career as an EMT. Yeah.

So 19 years old, you know, first call, still a trainee, yeah,

lady, lady to, you know, you know, code it on my stretcher.

Oh, man,

“we had she had a heart attack or a stroke.”

She had a long list of, you know, medical ailments and history and, you know, renal failure and whole bunch of stuff.

But it still doesn't make it a whole lot of, whole lot easier. But, you know, you try and,

you know, learn from it. Yeah. Before we, but yeah,

day one. Well, welcome. Exactly.

Do you remember your first,

real, pinch me moment in LA? Um, yeah. I mean,

there were a couple, a couple big moments. I mean, the first time you hear your, your song on the radio,

that's a, yeah. That's a monumental one. Um, 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 and line at a club.”

Yeah. Those, those, those little things that you like, I'm going to be standing outside,

like everybody else, and then you walk up, and then it's like, hey, come on in.

Yeah. You walk up, and hear a Sarah's there. You're like, whoa,

Sarah! Yeah. And then you become friends with the people, and then, you know,

it, you know, it's a kind of ghost from there. But yeah, I mean,

I think, you know, clearly getting to do it, do it with Stevie Wonder. Oh,

yeah. That's a, 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 kind of things that you never could have dreamed of,

when you were listening to, you know, coolly high harmony, and learning all the words, and Motown Philly,

and the next thing you know, you know, Sean's on one side of you, one year's on the other, and you're just like,

oh, man, this is my life. How did this happen? Yeah.

I mean, so it doesn't, to me, it was always kind of like, I was always the guy that never wanted to,

introduce myself to anybody, I never wanted to be like, hey, I'm true from 98 degrees, or like,

doing like, because I didn't want to deal with, I'm sorry, who? Right.

You're like, oh, we're, we're signed a Motown, and then you know,

my, my, for a little ego couldn't handle that, you know, so I just kind of like,

sat back and washed 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, it's 98 degrees in the end. Yeah. So, I got,

I got the benefit of their, their balls. I love that. I love that. That's 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 it. Exactly. Exactly.

Because everybody needs one of those people in their lives. For sure. (upbeat music) 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? Oh, yeah.

“I think my parents are still against tattoos.”

Sorry. No. No. You got the minute, Lanta. Okay.

Yeah. Actually, in a box somewhere, has still had like the business card of the tattoo, the tattoo part that we went to. Yeah, we were recording in Atlanta for our first record.

It was kind of like this thing. It wasn't like cliche at the time. No, of course not. It was like cutting edge at the time. Yeah, we were getting tattoos.

So we were badasses for getting tattoos. Totally. You know, and then, you know, we don't want to get like matching. So we got similar,

but then the L for our last name. The brother is the same. You know, because just kind of us together. Yeah. So yeah, it was a place in Atlanta.

And Jeff got Jeff got some sort of writing on his chest. And he thought it meant one thing. And then he's not sure. It means that depends on where you are in the world. It's something else.

Oh. Yeah. It's, you know, it's all stories life 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 angle and peace on the other angle. And he was walking on a beach somewhere and someone stopped him and said, "Huh. You're tattoos. War. And why this one?"

And he said, "No. That's war. But that's to eat." And Will was like, "Ooh, what?"

“And the guy was like, "I'm just kidding. It's peace."”

And it's just so funny. Because, you know, yeah, when you don't speak the language, but you get the symbols that you don't necessarily know. And the symbol means daughter. And it doesn't mean daughter just means girl. You know, it's like, you're just a girl.

Just a girl. Yeah. And it's still a little things like that. Oh, you had a number one hit and Grammy nomination with Mariah Carey. And icon, especially of the time.

Did you get to interact a lot with her? Yeah. So at the time, we didn't. Like, when we recorded, she wasn't in the studio. We recorded it in the Jameitary Lewis. We were on tour. She was on tour.

You know, it was like two ships passing in the night. Right. 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 or shoot a video.

So, you know, the thing that 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 in, 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 were talking about like, not wanting to like put yourself out there,

I actually, so I consult on some movies that film here in Cincinnati, and she came in here and did a hallmark movie. And she directed it and starred in it. And I was, you know, one of the, you know, consultants for some of the performances. And we are at the first table read and she was sitting there with her sunglasses on.

And we're like, she was sitting across the table from me. And it gets to me and we're like, introducing ourselves. And she literally like pulls your sunglasses down and looks at me. She's like, "I know you." I was like, "Thank God."

Because it went through really embarrassing. Had you, like, "Hey, I'm Drew. I'm a bobble up." And you're like, "Okay, like, just..." Just for, yeah, hello, nice to meet you, sir. So, at least she acknowledged that we had worked together and we had a number one together.

And so, that was, that was good. That because that would have been really embarrassing. Yeah, that would have been tough to feel like I have to say hello again and reintroduce myself. Yeah. 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 Lashais.

Was that a lot to deal with at the time?

“I think, you know, everybody that gets in the reality now knows what they're getting into.”

At that time, it was the Osborns and that show. Yeah. 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.

We had cameras following us pretty much 24 hours a day. And, you know, they got their stuff and then they edited it 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 in.

Yeah. I 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, you're living somebody else's story.

Let me, somebody 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, take a 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 that was just kind of always a little bit weird. Yeah. Why? Right. It, yeah.

It seems like an uncomfortable way to live. For sure. Yeah.

“Have you been watching the rebirth of dancing with the stars at all?”

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. She is now a big fan of dancing with the stars. You know, so for me, like this, you know, a little nugget who was born two weeks after I won,

you know, is now watching the show that, you know, Yeah, you helped pioneer. Yeah, 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 I could ask about it or not, you know,

have some sort of connection to it. Of course. I mean, my, the people that I came up with, none of them were really there anymore for their judges. Yeah.

On the panel now. You know, so it's, it's a, it's a little different,

And that, you know, it kind of like went to, went to the streaming world.

You know, was able to come back because, you know, the arts and dancing and the, the joy that that show kind of has deserves a place on network TV for everybody to see it. Yes. And I do enjoy the fact that it's, 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. Not true. That's true. They do show, they do show clips sometimes in my free style. They sure do.

Well, 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.

“So 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 since we're 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. You know, so it's just kind of become part of who I am. And I do find like there's a, there's like a grounding to it.

Like do it be able to do something with your hands versus like everything else that I do. You know, there's something tangible about it. 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 yeah, we did a little bit of flipping, but clearly my skills have improved over the last, you know, 15 years. I also love about a home renovation that you can every day set goals that then at the end of the day. You, you're like there, I accomplished those goals like today, you're going to do the drywall.

“You're, you know, 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.”

Where as you're right, like in the creative arts, there's like we're going to record this part of the song, but it still doesn't like get you to, you know, you don't, yeah, it's not tangible. Yeah, very exciting. Even though I suppose to finish the drywall three days ago and I just keep, you know, I just keep sanding and it's not right. Keep redoing it and it keeps sanding.

Yeah. That's okay. You know what, I want a perfectionist doing my home remodel, that's for sure. As you should, as you should. We're 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. Yes. And building in Las Vegas, right? So it's, you know, four, four very familiar HD TV faces, you know, so it's me and I and Cam Scott and Tanya. Me and Tanya were paired up and then Brook Hogan, Brennan Davis, Chelsea Meisenar and me.

So you got, you know, reality star NFL player, Southern Charms survivor and then me, which is 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 fun to kind of get in there and you're literally given 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 and this show has been around.

This is the seventh season. It's been the number one show for HTTB for for a while, but this is just a new twist on it in Vegas, you know, it's like doing construction on the dusty moon.

Yeah, I guess 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.

“Wow, I can't wait to watch. What is the most difficult thing you've done so far when it comes to a remodel?”

Um, 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 who don't care about that, they just want to know it's done right. They want to know that the tile is pretty and this is the right. Oh, let's take this wall down. I'm more intrigued by like the guts of the house. Like, oh, today is plumbing. Yeah, right.

Who pipes? 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, pouring 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.

Make sure to check that out and watch Drew on the new season of rock the block on HD TV.

“Team beat is an eye-heart podcast produced and hosted by Daniel Fishel, executive producers, Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, executive and charge of production, Daniel Romo, producer and editor Tara Sue Box.”

The theme song is by Marcopas.

Yes, that Marcopas. Follow us on Instagram @TeamBeatPod.