SPEAKER_05 0:00

Hey guys, it's Casey Abrams with the Idols Podcast. This is a very special episode because we have someone on here who is one of my good friends who works behind the scenes. When I showed up at the Idol auditions with 10,000 other contestants, I saw this guy walking around, kind of being a little bit of a boss. Then I got to know him a little bit more, and we connected with jazz music, haircuts, and a little bit of Star Wars. We caught up on my season, the seasons before, the seasons afterwards, and the season that is happening right now. We also play a very fun American Idol game at the end. It's perfect timing now because now it's time for the live rounds. I have my bet on a couple people. What about you guys? Anyway, here's my friend, the super cool hipster dude that's been with American Idol since season one. Mr. Patrick Lynn. Bassie out.

SPEAKER_06 0:42

Come talk with me. Come sing with me. We are idol.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Can you hear yourself? I can hear myself.

SPEAKER_05 0:54

That's great. I'm gonna trick this up a little bit more. Test, test, test one more time. I'll scoot this a little closer. Cool. Alright. How's that shot look for you? It looks good. Looks good to me. Coming from a uh a directorial guy. So uh so I called this uh podcast Idols Podcast. Am I gonna get sued?

SPEAKER_03 1:12

You know, I don't think so. Okay. Um I might because you know there's so much stuff on the internet that is idol-esque. You know, it's like people hold their own idol contest every year. Okay, you know, like like it'll be like, you know, you know, Biloxi Idol and stuff like that. And, you know, I mean, I don't speak for Freemantle. I just know, I mean, I've been on the show forever. Um, but I know, you know, they kind of look at it like, uh, could you not do that? But it's a kind of a you're talking about the show, so it's kind of okay. Okay, all right. I actually have absolutely no pull and no say in whether or not you are allowed to do it. But you've done it so far. I think it looks nice. Thank you. I think you had a good graphic, and I, you know, I mean, you're Casey. You know, you're Casey. You're a part of the you're part, you know, as we say, you're part of the idol family, as you know, most people are that have gone through the process. And uh and here we are. Thank you. Season 10, and now it's now we're in season 24.

SPEAKER_05 2:07

Oh geez, yes, that's pretty crazy. It's been yeah, so you've so what is exactly your job title?

SPEAKER_03 2:13

So I am a senior supervising producer on American Idol. Right. Now, what that means is I do a lot of pointing. I go, don't do that. Do that. No, that's gonna get us, that's gonna get you fired. That's gonna get us sued. Yeah, that's okay. I mean stuff it's stuff like that. I mean, I kind of oversee, you know, a few things. There's you know, our idol, as I always tell people, is an absolute team effort. It is an absolute team effort, and everybody kind of throws their uh throws their thing in and and gets it done because as you've been through the process, you know how it's like on TV, it looks kind of easy. You go up, you sing, you get voted on, right? Behind the scenes, it's like you rehearse 14,000 times, you do it again another 12,000 times, and then you then you're on the show. And you know, and and your season was great. Who you wait, season 10, right? Season 10, yeah. Scotty McCreary. Scott, oh, Scotty's. Scotty, that was a that was a year. Oh man, so much stuff happened behind the scenes. That was the first year of the save, and you were the first save guy. And man, what a moment that was.

SPEAKER_05 3:16

Wow. Did you what like how did you know what was gonna happen? Like, I I I just like I just have no idea what was happening. I was I didn't know what to do with myself. My body went limp. I went to go hug my parents.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Well, you know, we you know, uh, as producers, you know, we're behind the scenes a lot, and we're kind of like, we get the show, you know, we rehearse the show, we uh we get it all ready to go, and then we just do it. And a lot of times we just kind of watch it all kind of unfold. And on I remember on that night, because you got cut that night, but the judges saved you, and it was the first night uh we decided to have a judge save, and they saved you, which you were kind of like the obvious un but unconventional choice, um, because everybody wanted you saved, and you couldn't believe it. I mean, the look on your face alone, I can still see it. I can still see it. But that was that was a great night, and it was actually and it was a great season overall, I think. You know, I mean Scotty was this young kid, I think he was 17 at the time. He had the voice, you know, maybe lock them doors, and you know, sorry. Hey, you're I was gonna say we usually have a singing thing at the end if you want to sing something. Yeah, you don't want to hear me sing. Okay, we kind of don't do that anymore, you know? Yeah, okay. I mean, uh the the whole scene. Anyways, uh let's see.

SPEAKER_05 4:30

But Scotty was good, and I I I just saw him, he he had his kid on stage with him, you know, singing on in like a crowded room. He he's dude, he's killing it. Uh I'm I'm so stoked about all my idol friends. I literally just saw Haley Reinhardt the other day. We're going on the Dave Cause cruise together. Like, you know, like we're we're constantly doing things together. We're doing I see Stefano, I see James Durbin, I see all these these awesome people, and I'm I'm like excited that I got to be on that season. I was a little bit sad that I didn't get to be on season nine um because I was like, I want to try out, I missed my opportunity, and I saw like Lido, that's when Lito Wise won. And I was like, but I was like, I was like so anxious. I was like, I want to be on that show so bad. And then I was like, oh no, I miss Simon. But then I got Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, which was on the city.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

You did, and I would say, I would say, in terms of like I, you know, former idols that are close to each other, I think your season kind of takes that that crown. I mean, it's you, I see you and Haley all the time and Stefano, and you know, Jay, I talk to James Durbin at least two or three times a year. Great. Um, and you know, and all that stuff. And I talk, I mean, you live right near me. I mean, we won't we won't say where we live for anything like that. But yeah, but we live close, we clue we live close to each other, and you know, I'm not your conventional guest, you know, and I've I've been putting off uh, you know, I got asked to do a couple of these things. Um I feel so special. Thank you. There was a young kid who did a uh a podcast, it was a couple years ago, and he was you know like a super fan. Um but I just didn't think it was the the one to do. But yours, on the other hand, I'm like, oh man, I can't see. Oh, well, I appreciate you. No, it's good.

SPEAKER_05 6:07

Well, you're one of the first people I ever met on American Idol, and you know, to be honest, I remember I was a little bit afraid of you, and I don't know if you've you've gotten that before because you're because you're doing a lot of pointing. And I remember you were you were like, hey, don't do that, don't do that. And I was like, I gotta. And then I remember you started to to warm up to me, and I and then you just became this this kind of drill sergeant became into a a teddy bear because you you're doing all this stuff out of love. You wanted to like help us grow. And I remember the moment that we had where I started doing um uh uh jazz bass. When when you saw me do the bass, I are you a bass player? I remember you played my bass at one point. I played your bass, probably not very well then. No, but it was still good. But that's so like I remember you you gave us a lot of life lessons, and you put us, you you brought us down. I remember there was some a quote that you had said that was like, listen guys, you get here at like 4 p.m., you rehearse, you leave at 6 p.m. There's always gonna be someone here that's here like four hours before you and four hours after you cleaning up or getting ready for you. And like that, that that type of advice was like so good, and like I feel like you were like one of the only people that were like there to kind of almost follow us through everything that was gonna happen and you know, like keep bring us back down to earth, which I really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Yeah, because my part of my job uh and still to this day is to kind of get you guys ready to go on stage because no matter what people think about live television, it's like nothing can really prepare you for it, uh uh other than the people that have done it. Right. Um so usually, you know, everybody on the idle staff always knows when when these uh when these kids are coming in, they don't know what it's like to be on a live television show. Right. And it's my job to kind of like tell you how it works and to make sure you're kind of there. You know, it's like I have this rule I call two steps ahead. And it's always like, I always want you to be two steps ahead. You know, think of it this way: you walk, you go to a party, you get there early, you walk in the house, there's nobody there, but you see that that's the kitchen, there's the bar, there's the record player, there's all this stuff. So you kind of like get it in your head where you're at, as opposed to you show up to the party late. You walk in, the room's crowded. Where's your friends? Where's the bar? Where's the food? Where's the record player? I don't know. So it's all about getting you guys ready uh to walk out on that stage. And then once you walk out on that stage, man, it's all you. It's all you. And I remember, I mean, I remember meeting you in Austin. You was it was Austin Fix, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you were running up and down the line with your little recorder, and we as producers were like, oh, this guy is great. You know, he's sort of playing the crazy, weird, you know, uh uh idle uh contestant guy. Let's let's follow him around a little bit. You did you were you handing out stickers or something? I feel like someone gave me a sticker or something. Yeah, we would sometimes sticker people to kind of like remember them. Like if you had this little sticker on, like we would like, oh, we wanted one somebody on the staff, Mike, may throw a sticker on you, and it'll be like, oh, we want to like sort of pay attention to this person. Okay, I thought so. Okay, awesome. Wow. And so I but I remember, you know, kind of like watching you, and you were kind of crazy and kind of fun, but it's like at a certain point, it's like you eventually have to walk in that room in front of those judges and you have to sing, and hopefully you sing well. Um, and I remember you went in front of them, in front of the judges, and you blew them away. And it was at that moment I knew this guy, this Casey kid, was like the real deal. It's like you're you're like this musical genius that is, and I say that knowing full I've I saw everything all season long, and I was just amazed that you were that guy. And it's like, how did we get so lucky as to have you on the show? It's like you know, running around outside with a little recorder is fun, but when you get in and you know how to play a certain amount of instruments and you know and you can sing on key and you can sing on pitch and you know you've got all these things going for you. That was the fun thing about you, and I remember you know, following you, we were not sure how far you were gonna go.

SPEAKER_05 10:08

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 10:09

We weren't we had no clue. Wow. I mean, we were just kind of like this guy gets like it's like you were the kind of guy that got better every week.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

Oh, thanks, man. So you have no idea because the judges are technically deciding who goes forward, right? Oh yeah. So who like you who's making the initial the initial uh decisions? Because that was like there was 10,000 people in that Austin auditorium to make it past all those booths. So that's w what are those people comprised of? There's like judges, and were you one of those people at the booths?

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Well, I was you know, yes and no. It's like as producers, we're all looking for the next American Idol. That's our job, is to find the next American Idol. So uh in the in the old days, like when you'd come into these big stadiums, we'd have a you'd go up in front of a table and you'd sing for maybe one or two people. Uh those are producers from the show. Right. They would say, Hey, do you want to do that for our executive producers who at the time were Ken and Nigel?

SPEAKER_05 11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Um and then you would sing in front of Ken and Nigel, and Ken and Nigel would go, hmm, do we want to put you in front of Randy Simon Apollo? Or uh it was uh Jennifer and Steven and Randy at the time. And uh and they would just kind of decide, like, how do we think you're gonna do in front of the judges? And I'll be honest with you, it's like you were an easy yes. You were an easy because you really kind of had no fear. And that's one of the one of the attributes that we go, we would look for all the time. It's like, you know, a lot of times we'll see people in line and we'll kind of keep eye on them or throw a sticker on them and go, oh god, let's let's keep an eye on that guy, and then they'll get in front of the executive producers and they'll clam up.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Oh and they'll shut down.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Um and that, and you'll be like, oh, that's kind of a bummer. They were great in line. Or you'll be like, someone will walk and go in front of the producers or in front of uh Ken and Nigel and will be like, Who's this person? And the next thing you know, it's like, oh, that was Phil Phillips, by the way. On I think he was season 11. He was the quiet guy in line, and then gets in front of like the you know, Ken and Nigel and then the judges, and we're like, this guy's a this guy's gonna be a superstar. Did he even have a sticker or did you you didn't eat? No, wow. No, because we didn't do that all the time, and it was it was pretty rare. Oh, yeah. But it was it was really more of a reason to kind of like uh tell people it's like, oh, we want to keep an eye on you. Gotcha. You don't want to we don't want you to get lost because I mean you those lines back in the day, it's like I mean, you could you could have been out there playing your thing and we never would have seen you again. Right. But with our with our little sticker system, which I probably, you know, it's out of the bag at this point, but um you know, it was just uh it was just an easy way to go, oh, let's make sure that we keep an eye on you.

SPEAKER_05 12:42

And is it different these days? I I feel like it's a little bit more um, you know, I've I've been hit up a couple times by certain shows on email, it's like, hey, come audition for this thing. So is there a lot is there a lot less cattle calls and more online things that are happening?

SPEAKER_03 12:57

So we don't really do in-person auditions anymore, although we did do them last year for the first time in like five years, uh at CMA Fest. But we normally do all this on Zoom now. And that started because of COVID, you know? Oh, okay. I mean, it basically it it really kind of allows people that can never get to us to get to us. You know, I mean it kind of sucks not being able to kind of go out and you know set up shop and have people come by and get in line and do all that. It's like uh yeah, that's still kind of one of my favorite things to do.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

But it's touring almost like it's like it's like literally, it's like touring. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

But at the same time, it's like you know, you want that young guy like um Noah Thompson who was on a construction site in you know, east uh east uh Louisville or I don't even know his time. And it enables them to get to us. So that's kind of how we do it now. But you know, we have you know, we have some great casting people on the show and producers that are we're looking for people year-round, you know, and even like former idols like yourself, it's like, you know, if you were to say, hey, check out this person, I'd be like, I would seriously check them out.

SPEAKER_05 14:04

That's good to hear, yeah. Well, and when you came to the postmodern jukebox show, that made my my day because you were you were seeing, I think, I think Haley was a part of that, but you know, a lot of the former American Idols are kind of they've flocked over to Postmodern Jukebox, and uh, you know, I've I I'm kind of doing some more things as well, but you know, I actually just sat in with postmodern jukebox in Florida and and uh it's there's there's something to be it almost felt like my second American Idol because you're singing covers in like a jazzy way, which I was already doing on the show, so it's pretty insane. What was your first time you noticed postmodern jukebox?

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Well, it was I think it was with you and Haley. Okay, it was like all about that bass. It was all about the bass, and you guys, you know, postmodern, we knew who postmodern jukebox is, but then when you guys kind of like uh paved that way for like a lot of former idols to kind of like go do that, it's like I mean, that's like a that's like a real show. And I remember the show I went to in Long Beach, and I saw you hosted the whole show, and I'm like, this is the guy that was running around with a little recorder in Austin, Texas. And look at him now, he's got a suit on and he's he's running the show, and I was very proud.

SPEAKER_05 15:13

Thanks, man. I'm glad you came to that one. That was that was that was super fun. And have you met Scott Bradley yet? Or I did meet him that night. Okay, yeah, you guys, you guys have to, there's gotta be something that happens there. So now it seems like it's not even like just Hollywood anymore. It's like it's it's Hollywood week, but it's in Nashville, and then also you have Hawaii. So, like, how fun is that to be like in different places? Is it like kind of like a vacation? Is it fun to be in these different places rather than Hollywood?

SPEAKER_03 15:43

Well, yeah, let's let's kind of like address each one of these because this is the first year we've done what we call Hollywood in Music City. Now, you know, Hollywood Week over the years, you know, has changed, and we've always been looking for a way to kind of change up Hollywood week and go, you know, and we love Nashville, so we thought let's just do it all there. You know, let's just do it all there, see how it goes. And it went really well. Of course, you know, we've been doing Hawaii now, I think this is our fifth or sixth year uh at Disney Zalani Resort and Spa. And there you go. It's and it's well, let me tell you, it is the best round ever. It is, and I tell, you know, I tell contestants all the time, after because we we eventually tell them they're going to Hawaii, I'm like, it's great. Get get in front of the judges, get a golden ticket, but you really want to go to Hawaii. That's what you really want. And so we've gone to Hawaii for a number of uh a number of years. And so this year we added this thing called the Ohana round. Right. Now, Ohana So you stay there extra time. We ohana means family, which means we do an extra round, which is all about staying in Hawaii a little bit of extra time. Which I'm never I'm never gonna say no to.

SPEAKER_05 16:48

Right. That's very smart.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

So, how many days do you get to actually stay there? I think we're there a total of like eight days. Now we do uh the vocal coaching before we get there, like you know, you know, the contestants will pick their songs, we'll do some Zoom vocal coaching so that when we get to Hawaii, we'll uh get in front of the execs, uh, in front, you know, in front of Megan and uh and them, and we'll uh they'll sing their song. Then we eventually will get with the band uh off site, and then we'll get with the band on stage, and then we'll do the show.

SPEAKER_05 17:17

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

And it's great. It's literally the best round on on Idle, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_05 17:22

That's so fun. And you get to you get to see the sights and the sounds of is is it hot over there at this time or no? It's it's beautiful. It's like 85 degrees over there.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

It's like it's you know, it's Hawaii. It's awesome. I've is it in Maui or where where is it?

SPEAKER_05 17:34

No, it's it's uh just outside of Oahu in a in a place called Koolina. Oh wow, you you got the you got the lingo down, man. Oh yeah. I I would love to I yeah, postmodern jukebox did a uh did a show there at one point, and it was just one of the most magical places I've ever been. And uh just it seems like like Disney mixed with Hawaii is just gonna be like an extra it's just gonna be a exponential. Yeah. So so like yeah, these these people are amazing. So where where are we right now? Because I I've just watched something in Hawaii. That's the Ohana round. Yeah. And now there's gonna be another Hawaii round. Am I crazy?

SPEAKER_03 18:07

Now there's gonna be two more rounds in Hawaii, which is so the Ohana round goes from 30 to 20.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

Right. So now I'm watching, so I just watched the 30 go to 20. Right. So now what is gonna happen in this 20?

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Now uh we're gonna split the 20 into two sets of 10, and we're gonna do two more shows on the beach. So the the show that you're used to seeing on the beach in Hawaii at uh uh at Alani is now that's gonna be next week and the week after that.

SPEAKER_05 18:34

Okay, and do we get to vote for these ones?

SPEAKER_03 18:36

Yes, you do.

SPEAKER_05 18:36

Yes. Finally get to vote. I saw, I saw, I feel like I'm just doing a promo this whole time. But it now I saw Ryan say something about American Idol. Uh you don't go to the website anymore? What would you go just go to the social medias and like leave a comment or something?

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Let's just say, yeah, f go to the American Idol socials and uh when they're when we're getting ready to vote, and it'll explain everything on how you do it.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

All you have to do is head to at American Idol on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and comment on the pinned official voting post with the first name of the idol hopeful you're voting for.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

Okay. Uh because, you know, now that you get to vote for these people, because uh the one thing I always want to stress, and I get this from my sister all the time, she's like, so and so didn't make it through. And I'm like, Did you vote for him? And she's like, Well, I got you gotta vote for your favorite. Ryan says that all the time. Vote for your favorites to stay in the competition. Yes. You know, because I always say, nobody really gets voted off American Idol. You just don't get enough votes.

SPEAKER_06 19:32

Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Which I don't know which one sucks more. You know? Depends on how you want to say that. I didn't get enough votes this week, so I'm going home. It's not that people like I'm voting you out. It's like I just didn't vote for you.

SPEAKER_05 19:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

So yeah, you gotta vote for your favorites, you know.

SPEAKER_05 19:48

It's either I hate you get out or whoopsie at you. It's so, yeah, I I prefer the whoopsie. I'd prefer that.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

Um, has your sister been to any of the shows? Oh god, yes. Yes, is she is she a super fan?

SPEAKER_03 19:59

She's but she's a bit of a super fan, but she she can't go anymore because they she and her husband retired and they live in Arizona. But she's she calls me every week. She's like, I love so-and-so, and I love this person.

SPEAKER_05 20:09

I love Do you give them the scoop? You give her the scoop a little bit just about what's going on behind the scenes?

unknown 20:14

No.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

No, I don't do that. Not even with family, not especially with my girlfriend as well, because my girlfriend, uh funny enough, is um, she's a fan now, but before we started dating, she's like, I knew American Idol, you know, but I didn't really watch it. And now she watches it, like her whole family, you know, now they watch it religiously. Because of you. Um yeah, well, yeah, because of me. Um, and uh, which I appreciate. Uh but uh when it comes to like what happens at the show, it's like I you know what? I leave it at the show and I come home and it'll should be like, so who's gonna be really good? And I'm like, you gotta watch the show. You just I'm not gonna sit here and tell you who's gonna be great. Um I want you to watch the show. I love that.

SPEAKER_05 20:56

Yeah, you're you're a man of your dignity and your and of your job. You're gonna yes, you're gonna yeah, watch the show.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Yeah, just go. It's so easy. Just go watch the show.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Yeah, you know, it's like even like especially like when we have uh we tell contestants like if we when we do a lot of stuff ahead of time, like you know, Hollywood week is typically done ahead of time, Hawaii is done ahead of time, and I go, You're gonna go home and your friends are gonna go, what happened? And and your number one answer is this just watch the show. And they're like, Oh, come on, tell me. I go, just watch the show. People always want what they can't have. Okay, so I always tell people, just watch the show.

SPEAKER_05 21:33

I like that. Um, to be honest, my my friend Mark Ballas, who was actually at one of the tapings, he was in the audience when I did uh I think Harder to Breathe, where I kissed Jennifer Lopez. We'll talk about that. But he was he was um he was on the traders, and I was watching week to week. I love the traders, and and here he is, and uh, I don't know if he's the trader, I don't know if he's getting voted off, I don't know what's going on. I saw him and I was like, Hey man, and I was like, he was like, Hey man, I was like, you know. What I don't even want to know, but it it just it is the are you should I keep watching this? He's like, dude, keep watching. It's like, okay, cool. So it's exactly your point.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Such a great show. Yes. I mean, that was, I mean, it's just who's the traitor?

SPEAKER_05 22:14

Yes. My God. It's I've me and my girlfriend, we host traitors' parties because we love it so much. We, in fact, before we even knew Mark was on it, we invited him and he couldn't make it. But it's such, it's just such a good show. Oh my God. Um, since I'm looking at your tattoos, I remember you told me that you're one of the people, you kind of inspired me. I don't know if I'll ever get a tattoo, but you told me you had a you had tattoos a little bit later in life.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

I did, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 22:39

And was it a Star Wars? Was it a Star Wars?

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Yes. Uh this whole arm right here is all Star Wars. Wow. It's all because I love I love Star Wars. If you know anything about me, you know I love I love my Star Wars. And of course, you know, and that's such a great shirt. Um, and then this arm over here is just kind of like generally like stuff I like. Like my favorite book is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. And I'm a big fan, I'm a big fan of uh St. Joan of Arc, which is like a whole weird childhood thing. Okay. Uh but over here, yeah, it's all Star Wars. And I did get them later in life after I got divorced. Because my my ex would say, you'll if you get a tattoo, you'll regret it. 14 tattoos in, and I don't regret it.

SPEAKER_05 23:18

Can I ask what age that you got your tat your first tattoo at?

SPEAKER_03 23:22

40 plus at least. Okay. Dang. Probably 42, I think.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Yeah. It was it was later in life. I always wanted a tattoo, and you know, everybody always tells you, You're gonna regret it. You're gonna regret it.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Yeah, I'm not gonna re I don't recognize I mean, I think I'm done.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

Like, I think I'm done with all my tattoos. I think I'm pretty happy.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

Which one was that? So it was who was it the Who Shot First? Was that your first one?

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Okay, Who Shot First is Han shot first. Han shot first. Okay, if you know anything about Star Wars, you know, in the original film, Han Solo shoots Greedo in the bar and he kind of shoots him in cold blood, which is you know kind of his character. Well, later, when George Lucas redid uh the the that that movie, uh, he kind of changed it so Greedo shoots first. That ain't how it happened. We all know that's not how it happened. Hand shot first. So there you go.

SPEAKER_05 24:14

Good, good. I think I think do you think Steven Spi No, sorry, not Steven Spiel. George Lucas. Do you think George Lucas would agree with you now? Do you think he he looks back at that and he's like, you know what? I think he should have shot first.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

You know, I think George Lucas is um he probably I think he's answered this question, but he always kind of skates around it a little bit. He's kind of like, eh, yeah, whatever. You know, it's like I don't, I don't know. I don't think he's gotta worry about it. It's like, I mean, on one hand, it's like there's like you know, there's like 12 versions of the original movie. Um, but the you know, the original is how it happened, and uh it's it's just a fun Star Wars thing. It's yeah, you know, it's not necessarily something I I argue with people about because most people don't know what the hell it means, anyways, until I explain it to them. Have you seen The Mandalorian? Are you kidding? I've seen all of it. Yes. Are you excited for the new movie? Mandalorian and Grogu coming out. Dude, I'm so stoked. Such a weird title, though. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:10

They should have just called it the Mandalorian movie. I don't know. I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Yeah, I don't know why they I mean The Mandalorian and Grogo. I mean, obviously Grogu is like the big selling point on that. Right. Uh everybody loves that little green guy, uh, including me.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

Oh, I love it. Well, do you see him over there?

SPEAKER_03 25:26

I do see him over there. He's he's my guy. He's he's uh he's the little guy, but it's like uh that's gonna be a giant movie, and I'm very excited to actually go see a uh a Star Wars film in a movie theater.

SPEAKER_05 25:37

Yes, yes. When's the last time that's happened? Uh Solo is the last one I saw. Probably I saw the the the the ninth installment on on Disney Plus, so I didn't I didn't get to see it on in movies, but I can't believe it's coming out in theaters. I know because it was an is it's an original that's weird to have something that's a Disney Plus show go to theaters. Like I feel like that never happens, so that's magic.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

I feel like it is it is I mean, and it's just you know, uh, because I'm trying to think like what was the last one before that that I saw. I want to say it was probably the the last Jedi. Yeah, the one that got a lot of flack, which you know I don't really care about. Um all I care about is seeing a Star Wars movie in an actual theater, you know, and seeing movies in theaters nowadays, man, that's that's like a it's like a treat.

SPEAKER_05 26:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

You know, if you can, you know, I mean I've gone to so I go to movies alone at this point, you know, uh, because my girlfriend's taste and my taste are so different. She doesn't like the horror action east type stuff. So I just go, and there's really good movie theaters, especially in Los Angeles, my favorite one. Have you ever been to the Alamo Draft House?

SPEAKER_05 26:44

Uh not in LA, I've been to it in Texas. Yeah. Same same thing. Same thing. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

The one out here is in downtown LA, which is a pain in the ass to get to, but it's unbelievably cool. Okay. If you don't know, uh at the Alamo Draft House, you can eat and watch the movie. They serve you food. It's it's it's my favorite.

SPEAKER_05 27:02

I remember it's magical. You remember the movies that you see in there, and I feel like they're very selective about the movies because they want you to have a great experience. I remember I saw Scott Pilgrim. Scott Pilgrim. That was so good. I had I had the best cheeseburger I've ever had and saw one of the best movies I've ever seen. It was insane. Were you working on movies before American Idol? I think I saw something.

SPEAKER_03 27:24

Were you on Deep Blue Sea? Okay, so yeah, I had a whole life in the independent film world before I came to American Idol. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 27:33

Uh and Deep Blue Sea is not an independent film, I believe.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

It is not. And and here's the thing: I didn't actually work on that movie. So I'm in there unlisted as an associate producer on Deep Blue C. Here's what happened. So in the early days of the internet um on IMDb, you could submit anything you wanted, right? And you could, I yeah, I worked on such and such a movie. So a friend of mine thought it would be hilarious if he listed me on Deep Blue C um as an associate producer. And I didn't realize it until like probably about a year after he did it. And then I have spent years trying to change it. And no, it's like impossible. It's it's there forever. Now there's a couple of Patrick Lynn's on IMDB. One's a transpot guy, uh, then there's me. There's also a bodybuilder from Canada. Um, but it's you know, I'm close to you, close to you, I think. Oh yeah, yeah, exactly right there. But um, yeah, I did not work on deep. I did work on a number of uh independent films that uh most of which kind of went nowhere. Okay. Uh but I did work on a lot of short films. Okay. I loved short films. That's what I was doing prior to getting into the reality film era was I was I worked for a website that uh basically kind of curated short films and short form content. And this was sort of the first iteration of the internet, which a lot of younger people nowadays have no idea. You know, basically from like 1995 through uh 2000, maybe 2001, there was like a whole version of the internet that's gone. And I remember, you know, a lot of people were dealing with with short films, and I was dealing with this one short film called George Lucas and Love, which was made by these two guys from USC, Joe Nusbaum and Joseph Levy. And uh Joseph Levy and I kind of like came up with this battle plan to kind of get the film on the internet and uh and kind of monetize it. And also we sold it on Amazon. I think it's still like for sale on Amazon. It's a great short film. You should definitely check it out.

SPEAKER_05 29:32

That's awesome. Anything Star Wars is gonna, you're gonna you're gonna take a kin to, aren't you?

SPEAKER_03 29:36

Anything Star Wars.

SPEAKER_05 29:37

Yes. Do you have any Star Wars figurines in your office? I feel like I saw something, no?

SPEAKER_03 29:41

I usually do, and then what I what I do with that stuff is like I like I love the Lego stuff.

SPEAKER_05 29:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Um, and I'll make it and then it'll be in my office. It'll get a little dusty, and then I'll like find out who's got a kid that likes Star Wars stuff, and I'm just gonna give it away. It's like I did this at my old apartment, which is funny enough, just down the street. Is I had all these uh uh Star Wars figures, and at a certain point they were just kind of collecting dust, so I took a box and I put it down in the in the garage and I said I put a sign on it, it said for kids only.

SPEAKER_05 30:10

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

I mean it was gone in like 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_05 30:12

For sure. Yes. You were so good at that. I think you were behind the camera a lot of the time when we were when I was on American Idol, and all of us were first starting out, you were behind the camera and you were saying, How does it feel to be on American Idol? And say, start off with saying, It feels great because it feels great to be on American Idol because you have to you always have to mention what you were saying so the producer isn't heard. What exactly is it?

SPEAKER_03 30:37

What's like So basically, yeah. So you know, one of the things that we teach um uh young singers and performers is how to how to be in an interview, right? How does that work? So one of the things we always tell them is like always rephrase the question in your answer. And we always kind of give the simplest way of thinking about it, uh, which is okay, for example, tell me what you had for breakfast this morning, and you and you go, bagel. And because we're never gonna hear my question, we're only gonna hear your answer. And just saying bagel, I can't work with that. I can't edit that. So you say, Hey, Casey, what'd you have for breakfast this morning? And you'll say, Well, for breakfast this morning, first of all, I got up really early. And for breakfast this morning, I had fruit loops and a bagel, and I think I had some toast as well, and it was a great breakfast to start my day. Now you have an entire thing that you can edit with. You can edit it down, uh, and that's kind of how it works. So, and that's one of the jobs that all the producers on Idle do is, you know, asking you questions and getting information and getting you to tell your story um uh uh in a kind of a coherent way.

SPEAKER_05 31:41

I love that. And you know, my dad does something, um, you know, he was he he he has a doctorate in anthropology, but he also has an Emmy in um in this uh in um in documentary filmmaking. And his whole thing is, which I thought was awkward at first, but which makes sense, but I think you would agree with this, is that you'd ask someone a question and they'd be like, Oh yeah, that's how I felt about it, and then you just let them you let it breathe for a little bit. And I feel like the the idol producers did this to me a lot, where they would be like, How did you feel about the performance? I'd be like, It was great. And then they wouldn't say anything, and I'd be like There was that one t thing that I did, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 32:19

And I feel like it actually like it really helps trigger like that that sort of that pregnant pause type of thing, you know, that's a producer trick to kind of get you thinking about your answer and like and what might sound a little bit better because a lot of times uh people will give very long drawn-out answers, which can be a little cumbersome sometimes. So one of our jobs is to kind of help you say that in like a good soundbite way. Now, I also do I'll do a lot of press for idle, like when we do the the cattle call editions, and I'll basically just explain to people how it's done. But I always try to talk in kind of sound bites because I'm thinking about how a producer is gonna cut, like especially a news piece, which is gonna be like little tiny bits. So I'm always trying to talk in little tiny bits.

SPEAKER_05 33:02

Yeah, you're you're you're really good at that. Do you guys have a uh so the of me and the idols, my my like top 11, our family, we have a group text. We're always saying happy birthday, Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, hey, you just got married, congratulations on the baby. Do you guys have anything like that between you and the production team? Maybe. All right.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Next question. Okay, so you know what a lot of people don't, I don't know if they realize this or not, but Ryan Seacrist is really the reason we text as much as we do today. He taught us how to text, he taught us how to text the word vote. Now, back in the day, um, you know, you had to press every button like three times in order to so we would text the word vote to whatever number was that you were you were assigned. And so he taught us how to text, which is why I think we text so much today. But nowadays, every year, like all the contestants and a couple of producers will have one text so we can talk to everybody at once. But all the contestants, or we call I think we call them hopefuls now, all the folks that are on the show have their own group text to talk about what's going on behind the scenes or with producers or whatnot. Everybody's got it every year.

SPEAKER_05 34:14

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

You guys, you still have yours?

SPEAKER_05 34:16

Yeah, we still, yeah. Like I think the last thing we did, well, Stefano had his second child, and so we congratulated him. And then uh when Lauren had, I think Lauren had a kid. She just yeah, yeah, yeah, and we congratulated her. Everyone wished me happy birthday in February. It was really, it was really uh it's Christmas time, you know. Like sometimes we'll find old photos and we'll show each other and be like, remember this guy's and then we'll all laugh. Like and every single person up until Scotty, like Scotty even is just is is laughing along, you know, like he's so humble. Everyone, I just love everyone in that. I think I think there's a couple of quarrels in between that they had. I, you know, like I think there was a couple fights during the show and during the tour, but a little less during the tour because it we weren't fighting to get number one. We already know who that you know, Scotty was the winner.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

Yeah, you were fighting just to kind of like live with each other, right? Yes, you know, but it was still fun. Oh, still fun. And I mean, I'll be it's like you, and you'll probably agree with this. It's like you look back at maybe some of the arguments you had like during the show, and it's like they're still meaningless nowadays. Yeah, yeah. What means more is the experience that you had being there behind the scenes and and and just having fun with the whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 35:26

Well, and it's beautiful because we have it's it's you know, like when I went to high school, it was a really cool arts high school in Idlewild, and and you know, you you talk to other people. I was in ninth grade when this person was in twelfth grade, but it's the same thing here. It's like I'm talking to Blake Lewis, who is a couple seasons before me. I'm talking to Nick Fradiani, who is, you know, five seasons ahead of me. You know, like we're it's we're all part of the same thing. And it's it's that's the beautiful part, is that I can brag. I'll be honest, like I when I first came off of Idol, I kind of didn't want that name associated with me because hey, it's the American Idol guy rather than my own name. But then I was I think I was lucky that I had postmodern jukebox because postmodern jukebox became, hey, you're you know, like, oh, you're the postmodern jukebox guy. It's like, well, at least I'm a guy. And and then I realized it's like, wow, being associated with something that changed my life, how can that be it's just it can only be a good thing. And so it's like a beautiful thing to be a part of, and I feel like it's like this this ether that I can constantly pull energy from and just like give back as well. It just feels like something beautiful that that is just like it's a galaxy of talent that that I can associate with and call friends, you know. So I think that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

I agree with you a hundred percent, and I always love seeing because you know, every year when we do these Zoom auditions, I'll bring in former idols to in fact, I don't even want to call them former idols, I'll bring in idols to be kind of like uh like industry experts, and I'll interview them. I had you once. That was fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:55

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

And, you know, telling these young uh upcoming singers, like, you know, here's what you should think about, here's what you should stay away from. You know, I love I love having you on, and I love being able to pull from that era. And you know, even when I do that, I remember uh there are some people like David Cook and Chris Allen went on tour. Like they went on tour to Europe, guys from different seasons. I just I love seeing that. That's so fun. I love seeing that, and I always love seeing like uh you on postmodern jukebox and all the stuff that you do, especially on TikTok, because you're TikTok fandas.

SPEAKER_05 37:28

Thanks, man.

SPEAKER_03 37:29

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

And Ruben is going on the Dave Cause cruise with us. Ruben Stuttered, Haley Reinhardt, and me. That is so great.

SPEAKER_03 37:36

I just talked to him yesterday.

SPEAKER_05 37:37

Oh, whoa.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

I talked to Ruben a lot. I'll tell him you say hi. Yeah, definitely tell him I say hi. Uh, because he's doing the Luther Van He's doing the Luther Vandross thing right now.

SPEAKER_05 37:47

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:48

Something like that. And I mean, just so you know, it's like the Luther Vandross family chose, kind of chose Ruben to be the guy that could go out and tour and sing Luther songs. It's it's unbelievable. Unbelievable. Look at all this talent, man. I just awesome. You know, I just I love Ruben to death. I mean, see, he was season two, which funny enough, uh, just if we're talking about stats or anything, still the most watched episode of Idol was, you know, Clay versus Ruben. Oh, really? Okay. Or Ruben versus Clay, depending on which way you want to look at it. 38.6 million people, I think, watched that finale. Dang, okay. I mean, it was huge. I mean, that's that was those were our Death Star days. You know? Death Star days? Yeah, they used to call Idol. Idol uh they used to uh other networks would call us the Death Star. Like back in our big heydays of like season like two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, you know, back in those days, because we were on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and nobody wanted to go against us. And it wasn't like the funny thing was, and I always think about this, it wasn't something that we were, you know, we were doing the show we thought we should be doing. It was just resonating with everybody, and it just we killed everybody in the ratings. And it was just, and we're like, sorry. You know, so they used to call us the Death Star. Um, for you know, for uh funny enough.

SPEAKER_05 39:03

I have a question about uh I heard that you were like up for the Emmys or something, and there was a decision to use one of the episodes from our season, which was either the finale or the episode where I got voted, uh I got um resurrected uh saved. Was that is that true or no?

SPEAKER_03 39:21

I have no idea. Okay. Sounds right though. Okay. I mean, if I was gonna use an episode that year for Emmy submission, I would use yours.

SPEAKER_05 39:28

Thank you. I think they they in the end didn't use the one and then they didn't it didn't get the Emmy, so that's just me saying I told you.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

You getting saved, that was great television, man. Thanks. I mean, I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere. Go find it and watch it. And just it was such a great moment, and the audience went absolutely ballistic.

SPEAKER_05 39:48

That was fun. That was that was a great time. I appreciate you. Uh, who's the nicest celebrity you've ever met?

SPEAKER_03 39:53

Oh god, on the on the show? On or off? On or off the show. Uh quite quite a few, I would say. I here's I will tell you this. Um and I should say I should probably say this. I'm gonna say Simon Cowell. Okay, because Simon Cowell uh was such a great guy, uh, like especially our first season where we were going out to these you know podunk little you know venues and doing it, and he was just he was down for it for all of it. And he was always a super nice guy behind the scenes, especially to the crew. Oh, nice, okay. Especially to the crew. That's great. Um, you know, I just I I love that, you know, it was people ask me all the time, it's like, was Simon Cowell really that mean? I go, kinda. Not to me though, but it it's not even that he was being mean, and I always try to take a page out of that book of he's trying to help people, you know, either be a better singer or not be a singer at all. You know, I mean he would tell people you shouldn't be singing. And you know, some a lot of times, and this was the great thing about Simon. Simon was saying what we were thinking. That is one of the brilliant things about him. So I will always say, I mean, I had a great relationship with Simon. I cannot say enough about him, and he really is one of the main reasons Idol did as well as it did. He is, he is, he's a great guy. That's it. And I love him to death. I've never I will never have anything bad to say about Simon Cowell just because he is, you know, he he he was just that guy at the right time at the right moment, and uh had a great time.

SPEAKER_05 41:26

That's beautiful. Um I I agree, man. I I wish I wish I would have met him one of these days. But um I I went actually went to go see um I don't know you can leave this out, but uh I went to go see America's Got Talent and he was there, and it was it was cool to see him from behind, but uh, but I really yeah, there was part of me that like wanted to get judged by him, like just to see what what he wrote, what it, you know, what the the just the normal guy felt.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

Let me tell you, behind the scenes on the years that Simon was on the show, uh everyone hinged their their whatever it was that they were thinking. It's like I I need to get a good review out of Simon. I need to get that. Um, and that was always like, you know, and when people didn't get it, they'd be like, ugh you know, but it's like you he, you know, he was just trying to spell it out for you that week. You know, I mean, I just remember um who was it? Can I no, I can't tell that story. Never mind. Sorry. You sure you don't want to? Nah, believe me, there's all kinds of stories I'd love I'd love to tell you.

SPEAKER_05 42:30

Okay, well, off camera. Or maybe not even off camera. That's all good. Um yeah, no, but he was he was a big fan of Adam Lambert. And uh, you know, like I was like, is he gonna like this guy? But he's you know, like I think he speaks the truth mostly. Mostly for the most part.

SPEAKER_03 42:45

I mean, with a with a flair for you know um for what is gonna work in the moment, you know. He's not really that guy anymore. Um but uh but that's fine. But but he's an industry expert, you know, and that's what I always loved about him. And you know, he came over here and nobody knew who the hell he was, nor cared. But I remember the first promos, and when Simon would get up there and say, You should not be singing, or whatever. It's like people were like, You're really gonna say that? And you know, and he caught a lot of flag for it. And then eventually people were like, Simon's right. Yes, Simon is right.

SPEAKER_05 43:20

Yes, we need more people like that.

SPEAKER_03 43:21

We need more people like Simon.

SPEAKER_05 43:23

What's the nicest compliment someone's ever given you? Do you remember who it was?

SPEAKER_03 43:26

The nicest compliment? Um Gosh, putting me on the spot there. I know. Um the nicest compliment. I would say Carrie Underwood.

SPEAKER_05 43:45

She complimented me.

SPEAKER_03 43:46

But she complimented me. This was yeah, this was probably I think this was like three or four years ago. We were at her residency in Vegas, and she was meeting the new hopefuls, and um I was there, and I was sort of Off in the background, and she was like, and that guy right there, don't let that guy scare you. Like, don't let that guy scare you. He means well. He means well. And she's like, Come here, come here. And I'm like, you know, and I mean I've known her for years. Uh, and she's like, This is Pat, you all know Patrick, don't be afraid of him. He might scare you a little bit, but he's doing it for the best reasons possible. And that was, I thought, that was a great compliment to get from her, especially so many years later. Um, and and and in front of all of these people, you know. I'm totally forgetting that she was she was a contestant.

SPEAKER_05 44:33

She won it. Season four. And now she's, dude, so you're working with her again. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

Yeah, she that's beautiful. She's great. Dude, I'm happy. She really is. You know, I mean, her season, uh, season four, it was it came down to her and Bo Bice. Man, and the stories about Bo Bice that we could tell. Whoo, that guy. Oh, I got some stories. I got some stories. Love Bo Bice. Yeah. Um, and Bo, if you watch this, just know I got your back, buddy. Um, but uh um, yeah, Bo, Bo versus Carrie was uh some of one of the best performances was when he sang uh the Almond Brothers song whipping post, just an unbelievable performance. And you know, when a lot of times when you watch some of these finales, you're like, I don't know who's gonna win. You know, even season one, we don't know. Kelly Justin, Kelly Justin, Kelly wins, it's like, oh, of course, Kelly Kelly's gonna win. Of course she's gonna win. Um even uh like season three, Fantasia versus Diana DeGarmo, and we're like, who's gonna win? Who's gonna win? Fantasia wins, right? Yeah, um, so yeah, I mean, and it's always fun to to kind of watch that happen, you know. Uh I just uh I love being there at the finale when all that hard work comes down to like who's actually gonna be because you know there's only a few people that actually know the the winning results when we do the finale, and it ain't me. You know, so I'm back there going, please, please, please, and I'll be my you know, most years I'm like, oh, the right person won. You know, even last year, I mean Jamal, uh, when he he took the crown, he was one of those guys that was just he learned as he went along, and he learned how to be a better performer, and he became better, and he really rose to the occasion every week, and I was so happy to see him win. John Foster, the guy that came in number two, super nice guy, would love to see him win too. But Jamal was just, it was just, yeah, I think it was in the cards for him. Loved watching him win, and of course, you know, the first thing that happens to him, he gets nominated for a Granny. That's insane. That's good. Wow, you know, and that's good.

SPEAKER_05 46:34

Uh, who who did you who did you like when you saw them when they first auditioned, you knew that they were gonna win? Like you just had a feeling.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

God, who Scotty?

SPEAKER_05 46:45

Scotty, yeah, you had that feeling. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

Yeah, I mean that I mean, and people should know. It's like I have no, I don't get any of that information behind the scenes, but Scotty was always like, he was just it was kind of like his to lose, I think. I don't know what it is. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to it's like um uh and you know, you watch everybody else kind of like come into the process and they're and they're doing their thing, and you know, people just loved Scotty.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

Yeah. I mean, what's not to love? He's a great guy.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

I can't believe he's got a kid.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

You know, and he's got a kid that can go on stage.

SPEAKER_05 47:19

Right.

SPEAKER_03 47:20

I mean, now I feel old.

SPEAKER_05 47:22

No, you shouldn't, you shouldn't. I still don't have kids yet. But uh who who do you who are you surprised did not make it even to the top ten?

SPEAKER_03 47:31

Or if there's anyone that did not make it to the top ten. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:37

Let's say top five.

SPEAKER_03 47:38

Top or top it's that's even harder. I'll I'll tell you because I I remember Tori Kelly uh well.

SPEAKER_05 47:45

I think made it to 24. Toddrick Hall also made it that same season, made it to the top 24. Were they the same season? I think so. Yeah. I remember watching them on the lead away season.

SPEAKER_03 47:54

So she was Tori Kelly got cut, I think, in group round in Maybe week.

SPEAKER_05 48:01

Maybe maybe it maybe she tried out twice. I'll I'll have to check we'll check it out. We'll check it out. Could have been, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

Toddra call man, that guy. Yeah, he's a showman.

SPEAKER_05 48:12

Yeah, he's a yeah, the backflips he's got. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I have one more thing, but dude, this was this was awesome. I mean, I I usually do a musical thing, but I have I have something else. I have uh two little things. I was just I was just telling Patrick that I was I wrote down uh um yeah, Jordan's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 48:31

You're talking about consistently.

SPEAKER_05 48:33

Yeah, yeah, Jordan. Um Ray was awesome. She's great. Um Hannah Harper and Brooks. Brooks, man. Those people were insane. So anyway, I just wanted to be a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 48:46

And there's more, there's more there's there's some there's some real talent there this year. It's uh it always I'm always pleasantly surprised when you see the talent start to rise to the top. Kind of like what happened with you. Um I always like to use you as an example, um, but seeing the talent like Jordan singing Grandma's Hands was unbelievable, you know, on a song that I am not that familiar with, and he really killed it in the Ohana round.

SPEAKER_05 49:14

Yeah, I can't believe you started off with that song. I know. I was like, where do you go from here? Where do you yeah, literally? But that that was a that was a good move. That was a good move. I really liked that. Um, all right. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna name American Idol Contestants. Are these American Idol Contestants true or false? Are they is it a real name or is it a fake? Oh, this ought to be good.

SPEAKER_03 49:36

This is gonna be this is gonna be now we're gonna really see um if uh if I've got that uh that good memory for for idol contestants. Okay. Or idol hopefuls, I think, is what we call them. Okay, ready? So headphones on, ready? Go.

SPEAKER_05 49:48

Here we go. DeAndre Brackensick.

SPEAKER_03 49:51

That's a real person.

SPEAKER_05 49:52

Yes, correct. Bill Blue.

SPEAKER_03 49:55

No.

SPEAKER_05 49:56

Correct. Constantine Marulas.

SPEAKER_03 49:58

Absolutely 100% correct.

SPEAKER_05 50:01

Yes. Sanjay Sanjaya Malakar. Yes. Yep, yep, you know. Senswana Fleagles.

SPEAKER_04 50:10

No.

SPEAKER_05 50:10

Correct. James Jameson.

SPEAKER_04 50:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 50:14

Nope. Oh, really? No? I think you're thinking of Phil Phillips.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

Could be.

SPEAKER_05 50:19

Maybe. I threw that in there.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

James Jameson? James Jameson. It's not a person. Now, if I go back and look up and see if he's there. You know what? Let's uh that's why we have Google. Oh my gosh. Hang on. Before we go on, we're just gonna look up James Jameson American Idol.

SPEAKER_05 50:32

You might be right. I literally just made it up right now.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

And if I James Jameson American Idol.

unknown 50:36

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 50:40

Well, there is a James Jameson. There is not a James Jameson I'm you are. Okay. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 50:49

Keep going, keep going. Christina Christian. Yes. Correct. EJ Day. Yes. Correct. Amy Adams.

SPEAKER_04 50:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 50:58

Correct. I thought that was crazy. Jackie Wilson.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 51:02

Correct. Ace Young.

SPEAKER_04 51:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 51:05

Correct. Jacuzzi. No. Correct. Christy Lee Cook. Yes. Correct. Cindy Lee Lufthouse. No. Correct. James Casey. No. Correct. Thea McGeea.

SPEAKER_04 51:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 51:22

Correct. Lazaro Arbos.

SPEAKER_04 51:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 51:26

Wow. I actually had to look and make sure that that was okay. Last one. LK Fabriloin. No. Correct. Wow, you did pretty good. I think you did. I got at least a 95 on that. You got a 95 on that. Correct. Good job. Now I just have some things, and I will put this in the edit, but there's four pictures that I took during the idle days, and I just want you to remember. See if you can remember what was happening at that moment.

SPEAKER_03 51:52

Oh my god. Alright, so you're gonna bring these up on screen. So this is me and uh and Scotty. Uh-huh. We're in the elevator. Yep. Which are is that at CBS Television City? No. Where is this elevator? TMZ. Oh my god. That you were a TMZ season? Yeah, where we went to TMZ and Harvey Levin gave a talk on uh media training. Exactly. Yes. Love Harvey Levin.

SPEAKER_05 52:19

Yeah, it's great. Uh press the right button or the next button. Let's see.

SPEAKER_03 52:22

Oh yeah, I remember this. Okay, so this is you getting a haircut. It's a place, it's over on La Cienaga, and it's called it starts with a B.

SPEAKER_05 52:32

We'll look it up. We'll look it up, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:33

Look it up. But yeah, I remember taking you over there. This was this really cool sort of high-end uh barber shop. And I remember seeing it, and you you had a rug on for hair. Um I think this was getting ready for one of the big shows, like maybe one of the big first big live shows. Yeah, I think, yeah. And we did we uh you and I did a little piece on you getting a haircut uh and a beer trim, I think. It was a beer trim um at this place over on La Cienega. And I'm wondering if it's still there. The guys there, they were so nice.

SPEAKER_05 53:02

They were so nice. Yeah, I think we went in after hours and they they yeah, but it was part of it was part of the vibe to like it was part of the um the idol experience. It was like w what do you call it? It's like a segment. Yeah, it was a nice segment. All right, next, go down.

SPEAKER_03 53:17

Oh god, what's her name? What is her name?

SPEAKER_05 53:20

Uh Lauren Turner is her name.

SPEAKER_03 53:23

Lauren Turner. Yes. But do you know where do you see where you are? Oh yeah, that's on the third floor um uh rehearsal room at CBS Television City. You still do that place? We did we don't. We're no longer at CBS Television City. We're at Red Studios or RSH.

SPEAKER_05 53:37

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 53:38

Yeah, over in Hollywood.

SPEAKER_05 53:39

Oh okay. Oh, Hollywood, that's that's closer.

SPEAKER_03 53:41

We had uh we moved. We had to move uh uh four or five years ago, I think. Oh, okay. Yeah, we got a we got a new spot. Uh the studio that we're at we're at is called RSH. It stands for Red Studios Hollywood, and it is a legendary studio. I mean uh uh I love Lucy with shot there. Oh, awesome. It's unbelievable, it's so cool.

SPEAKER_05 54:00

You're but you're in better company there. That's like that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 54:03

Um I also like the fact that she's wearing my jack a jacket, my Johnson Motors jacket, which I don't know what happened to that jacket, but I really liked it. Oh, you miss it, yeah. I was also much thinner back then. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_05 54:14

Okay, one last one.

SPEAKER_03 54:16

Oh, geez. Okay, so this is holding is this your bass? That's the bass that Gibson, I believe, gave to us. Oh, that was the year they gave you guys guys guitars and basses. Yes. Yeah, that's nice. And we are, or where are we there? We're in the mansion. Oh, God, that's oh, that's right. That big hideous mansion right off of uh Laurel Canyon, I think it was. Correct, yeah. I want to say it was it was across the street from Lance Bass's house.

SPEAKER_05 54:44

I I hope so.

SPEAKER_03 54:45

I was man, but yeah, that was Gibson was super cool that year. They gave you guys uh they gave everybody guitars, but they gave you a bass. That was very smart of them.

SPEAKER_05 54:53

Yeah. And I still have that bass. I still have that bass. But uh yeah, and that that that was crazy. I remember we had you guys were nice enough because you put in us put us in a mansion, but the mansion kind of ended up being a little bit uh we thought it was haunted. So you were like, okay, let's let's get you to a nice like condo. And so that was really nice. Yeah, that I think you were visiting.

SPEAKER_03 55:12

Living in a mansion is um not all it's cracked up to be. You know, it really isn't. I mean, there's all kinds of problems that you're gonna have, or the air isn't right, or there's like ants, or I mean, I'm thinking of things that have happened over the years. Yeah, for sure. But that was probably one of the nicer mansions as opposed to the the season two mansion, which was you could actually see from the studio that we were at, um, which actually Slash owns it now. Whoa. Um, it's a mansion up on Curson, and that was a really nice mansion. Oh, dang, okay. Um, but your your mansion was nice too. That was also the one where Scotty bounced the basketball from the second floor and made a made a hoop.

SPEAKER_05 55:51

Oh yeah. That was a piece that that was like a piece of the show. There was there were two pianos there too, and Haley and I got to like jamming. I have video that I'll show you where I'm playing bass and and there's a piano there. And so yeah. Anyway, dude, well, I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_03 56:05

Here's your uh give you that bacon.

SPEAKER_05 56:07

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 56:08

All right, thanks so much, man. Appreciate you too. Thanks for having me on. Um, you know, it's always a pleasure to kind of like come by and uh and see you guys and talk to you guys. Um, of course, if I asked to be invited into your special uh text chat, I know the answer is gonna be no.

SPEAKER_05 56:23

Yes, hard no. It's a hard no get the no, it's it's fine.

SPEAKER_03 56:29

Um, but uh yeah, thanks for having me on. Um, and uh, you know, we'll see you when we see you.

SPEAKER_05 56:34

Yeah, I'm gonna come visit the set at some point.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Very nice.

SPEAKER_05 56:36

All right, much love.