Joey McIntyre

Summary

You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes – Joey McIntyre (Feb 26, 2025)

Main Theme:
Pete Holmes sits down with Joey McIntyre, the youngest member of New Kids on the Block, to explore childhood fame, Boston upbringing, therapy, family dynamics, creative resilience, and the evolution of both his career and personhood. They blend nostalgia, sincerity, self-examination, and the unique “weirdness” Pete’s show is known for—with plenty of laughter, music talk, and Boston banter.

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Episode Overview

Pete Holmes delights in hosting Joey McIntyre—a personal hero from Pete’s youth. The conversation moves from playful reminiscence and New Kids on the Block stories into honest discussion about therapy, growing up Irish-Catholic in Boston, the strangeness of early stardom, evolving creatively, navigating fame, and finding joy (and weirdness) in adulthood. Joey discusses his solo album "Freedom" and reflects on identity, family, and self-discovery.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Childhood, Family, and Boston

• Early days: Joey is the youngest of nine in a lively Irish-Catholic Boston family.
  • "I'm the youngest. I'm the youngest of nine, seven sisters, then my brother, then me." —Joey (47:56)
• Family dynamics and humor: His family's chaos and humor shaped his identity and stage persona.
• Boston Skepticism: Boston upbringing created a tough, sarcastic edge—in both a supportive and defensive sense.
  • "I thought sarcasm was my best tool. But it was a survival tool." —Joey (86:31)
  • Nostalgic for local Boston radio, morning shows, neighborhood pride, and morning routines with kids.

2. New Kids on the Block: Origins & Impact

• Recruitment: Joey joined at age 12 after a citywide search for “white kids who could sing and dance black music.”
  • "There were white kids who would break dance and stuff like that, but to dance and sing... we weren't amazing singers. We learned on the job." —Joey (54:47)
• Maurice Starr’s role: The group's Svengali producer was seen as a father figure and creative force—flawed, loving, and driven.
  • "He was lovely, warm... in the hands of such surety, you know? That guy, that tender big bear guy, could put on a freakin’ admiral suit and tell the world I can make anybody a star." —Joey (37:09)
• Dynamic: The group’s dynamic mirrored a sibling relationship—with friction, teasing, growth, and loyalty.

3. Fame, Identity, and the Weirdness of Pop Culture

• Child stardom & therapy: Joey discusses the effects of fame on his psyche and the value of therapy, especially being a Boston guy breaking the “tough guy” stereotype.
  • "I'm proud if any man from Boston can go to therapy." —Pete (08:42)
• Teen Beat/Tiger Beat: The peculiar gendering of boy band fandom was evident, as was '90s homophobia and the way pop culture marks masculinity.
  • "It is weird that the New Kids were considered, to use the parlance of the time, gay when you were boys and girls loved you more than anything." —Pete (13:13)
• Navigating grown fandom: The weirdness and kindness of fans changes over time; Joey reflects on misconceptions and the projection of their own identities onto celebrities.

4. Creative Growth, “Freedom,” and Solo Work

• Evolution as an artist: Joey’s solo work marks a more vulnerable, honest songwriting, as evident in his new album "Freedom."
  • "It's nice to write about something because I feel in a big way, for the first time, I'm being open to that and being vulnerable and honest." —Joey (61:07)
  • Discusses drawing on his New Kids past both for inspiration and departure.
• Lightning in a bottle: The original NKOTB success owed more to 'organic' neighborhood chemistry than cynically manufactured pop.
• Learning on the job: Both musical skills and emotional resilience were acquired amidst the whirlwind.

5. Race, Crossover, and Musical Heritage

• Intentional crossover: Producer Maurice Starr’s intention was to create a “white New Edition,” with full acknowledgment of appropriation, cross-cultural admiration, and luck.
• Industry respect: New Edition and the black community were gracious, supportive, and fundamental to NKOTB's acceptance and legacy.
  • "Meet New Edition. Holy. Meet New Edition. They've been so gracious." —Joey (41:37)

6. Reinvention and Resilience

• “Bootstrap” moments: After NKOTB, Joey self-funded and sold his first solo CD online—before it was cool.
  • "I pressed up 2,000 CDs... it was a very indie on the Internet." —Joey (75:43)
• Advice about stagnation: The importance of pushing through creative fear and doing the work, even when vulnerable.
  • "Just go do some stuff. Like, just go make something!" —Pete (80:55)
  • "Do it scared." —Joey (84:11)

7. Sobriety, Therapy, and Maturity

• Getting sober: Joey shares his journey with sobriety and the clarity/availability gained.
  • "I haven't drank since March 10th or 11th last year... The obsession was more about wanting to not drink than to drink." —Joey (102:04)
• Therapeutic approaches: Both discuss therapy, in particular “parts work,” and the value of developing self-advocacy.
  • "A lot of therapy is just telling yourself these people, parts that are arrested... 'We don’t live there anymore. We live here.'" —Pete (91:22)
• Letting go of sarcasm: The journey from using sarcasm as a defense mechanism to genuine humor and compassion.

8. Meaning, Spirituality, and the Mystery of Life

• Meaning of life: For Joey, happiness now is about presence, self-growth, and relinquishing defense mechanisms.
  • "You gotta be willing to take a look at your challenges, personality traits that don't work... I thought sarcasm was my best tool. But it was a survival tool." —Joey (86:12)
• Spiritual interests: Mild skepticism toward ghosts, but an openness to reincarnation, spiritual tools, and the interconnectedness of all things.
  • "I'm getting into reincarnation... I kind of believe in that spirit. Why wouldn't we? This ridiculous, mystical journey we're on." —Joey (96:24)
  • Conversation about mystical experiences and how presence in ordinary life can be as profound as any spiritual vision.
• The value of doing the work: Ultimately, balance, self-awareness, resilience, and humor are the takeaways.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Exchanges

• On fandom projection:
  “People aren't obsessed with you. They were obsessed with who they were when they loved you.”
  —Pete Holmes (18:23)

• On coping and advocacy:
  “Being your own advocate. Right. You have to go, just do the math, and hopefully you’ve done the work... ‘It’s up to me. I get to decide — both and.’”
  —Joey McIntyre (65:41)

• On Boston's double-edged humor:
  “I thought sarcasm was my best tool... But it was a survival tool.”
  —Joey McIntyre (86:31)

• On reinvention:
  “Do it scared.”
  —Joey McIntyre (84:11)

• On creative momentum:
  "Just go do some stuff. Like, just go make something!"
  —Pete Holmes (80:55)

• On therapy:
  "A lot of therapy is just telling yourself these people, parts that are arrested... 'We don’t live there anymore. We live here.'"
  —Pete Holmes (91:22)

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Timestamped Highlights

• On therapy & Boston men (08:39):
  Pete and Joey relate the difficulty and pride of Boston men embracing therapy, comparing therapist names ("Gotta have a Gary.").

• New Kids origin story (32:27–33:35):
  Joey details how the group formed, the search for specific talent, and Maurice Starr’s unique energy.

• Fame & audience projection (18:23, 22:09):
  Discussion of how fans project their own needs onto celebrities; comparison with John Lennon’s famous fan encounter footage.

• Voice change & musical challenges (56:05):
  Joey reflects on the difficulties of puberty for a boy band singer and pop culture's obsession with high-pitched boy vocals.

• Navigating pop/sexuality in the '90s (13:13–26:39):
  Candid chat about boy bands being called “gay,” pop masculinity, and reflection on how culture has evolved.

• Artistic evolution: writing “Freedom” (61:07):
  Joey describes the personal growth leading to this album and what it means to craft more honest, vulnerable music.

• Resilience & creative hustle (75:43):
  Independent production and internet sales as a means of reinvention post-boy-band.

• Meaning of life & presence (86:12–104:41):
  Joey’s reflections on letting go of sarcasm, the importance of self-examination, and finding fulfillment in authenticity and presence.

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Tone and Takeaways

The episode is warm, authentic, funny, and introspective. Pete’s fan energy and emotional honesty get Joey to reflect deeply, while Joey’s self-deprecating, Boston-inflected wit keeps things light. It’s a window into the realities behind pop stardom and the lasting importance of family, humility, and honest self-work—showing Joey McIntyre as a guy who’s as earnest, funny, and weird as anyone.

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Episode-in-a-Nutshell

• Joey McIntyre, legendary boy band member, discusses the realities of sudden stardom, surviving and growing up, and remaining creatively and spiritually open.
• Pete and Joey swap Boston stories, examine pop culture, therapy, fandom, and their own vulnerabilities.
• The conversation is as fun as it is thoughtful, full of laughs, insight, and memorable moments for fans and newcomers alike.

---

Closing Note:
Joey’s new album "Freedom" is out now. Solo tour dates at joeymcintyre.com.
"Keep it crispy, girl." (109:47)

Transcript

[Joey McIntyre]

You made it weird. You made it weird. You made it weird. Oh yeah, you made it weird. Made it weird. Yes you did.

[Pete Holmes]

You made it weird with Pete Holmes. What's happening, weirdos? This is a dream come true. This is Joey McIntyre, Joey Mac from New Kids on the Block, which was huge to me and still is huge to me. I mean, I love talking to Joey so much and his new album Freedom, which is out now. You can stream it now, whomever you stream your records, check it out. I loved it. I listened to it multiple, multiple times, including on my way to this chat, which is why I'm referencing it so much in our conversation. But check it out, it's called freedom. It's Joey McIntyre, you can find it. I believe you. Apple Music, Spotify, get it on there. It's got heart, it's got soul, it's got hooks, it's got rhythm blues, beats. Sounds like I'm making fun of it. I mean it, it's got rhythm and blues and beats. I just don't know how to talk about it. But you should check it out. It's called Freedom also, you can come check me out. I am on the road. Thank you to everybody that came out to all the shows recently in Utah. Vancouver was amazing. Thank you to all the Canadian weirdos that made Vancouver so much fun. My next show is March 4th at Largo here in Los Angeles. After that, April 5th, also at Largo in Los Angeles. Then I'm going to be in Atlantic City in April, followed by Austin, St. Louis, Nashville, Irvine, California, San Jose and Royal Oak, Michigan. This is a new hour. If you saw me in any of those places, places recently. I think we're going to call it the PG13 tour because it just so happened to come out fairly clean. So it's mostly clean, ish, you know, but not boring. That's important. There's just not a lot of F bombs or dirty, dirty dirty, but still very, very funny. I'm really happy. Just kind of happened organically. So I hope you can come out for the PG13 tour. I'm excited to be announcing those dates here on the podcast. All of them are available on peteholmes.com alright everybody. New kids on the block. What are you fucking nuts? How did this happen? 12 year old me is shitting his pants and 45 year old me is also shitting his pants. This is awesome. What a pleasure it was to sit down with him. Shout out to my man Adam Ray, my for making it happen. Check out Joey on Tour online. Joey McIntyre, m c I n t y r e dot com and follow him on Instagram. But most of all, check out freedom wherever and whomever you stream your music. All right, everybody. I can't believe it. Get into it. That's the sound.

[Joey McIntyre]

I love it. Look at you. You got your skyscape.

[Pete Holmes]

Your skyscape.

[Joey McIntyre]

Skyscape.

[Pete Holmes]

Now I'm gonna have to change my Netflix password. Skyscape. No, Skyscape is right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Skyscape.

[Pete Holmes]

That wasn't judgment. That was like, way to pull skys, kid. Skyscape. It must be like a landscape, but skyscrapers.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right?

[Pete Holmes]

Look at that. How's it going? Yeah, that's all for you. You feel okay? We're.

[Joey McIntyre]

Can I have my stuff here?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Should I, like, put it behind? Because it's a look.

[Pete Holmes]

No, it's no look.

[Joey McIntyre]

The mug.

[Pete Holmes]

It's no look.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, no look.

[Pete Holmes]

My wife has so many of these.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's bad. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

People can't stop and they're like, it's for the environment. I'm like, you have 50 of them, right?

[Joey McIntyre]

No, it's. We have two big draw that were supposed to be like, pull out fridges.

[Pete Holmes]

Yes.

[Joey McIntyre]

But now they're filled with privileged alert. We already had two freaking fridges. And we're like, what do we need? Oh, but you want your cream right there. You know, I've seen Airbnbs that have the drawer fridge. We're like, no, we're all set. And thank God, because. Yeah, we have 18,000 of these.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

That go there.

[Pete Holmes]

And the lids get lost.

[Joey McIntyre]

The lids. And the straws.

[Pete Holmes]

And the straws are gone. The straw.

[Joey McIntyre]

Are we rolling? Because this is good stuff.

[Pete Holmes]

It's good stuff.

[Joey McIntyre]

Always recording, right?

[Pete Holmes]

Never not recording.

[Joey McIntyre]

Never not recording.

[Pete Holmes]

Not recording. Always on. There's. People love people that are always on.

[Joey McIntyre]

There's a. There's a fantastic drummer I was privileged enough to work with. His name's Charlie Drayton and he's phone off.

[Pete Holmes]

What is this?

[Joey McIntyre]

What are you in a barn? What is this?

[Pete Holmes]

You were raised in a barn.

[Joey McIntyre]

Adam Ray just called me back because I called Adam Ray. I was like, hey, how do I get. Your buddies got me standing in the rain here? He's like, my. Inside.

[Pete Holmes]

I did text you.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, thank you, thank you, thank you. I. I didn't look, you know, I wanted to. I was late already. Where were we? Anyway, so important. Charlie Drake.

[Pete Holmes]

Drama.

[Joey McIntyre]

Charlie Drayton.

[Pete Holmes]

Charlie Jayton.

[Joey McIntyre]

He's. He's one of those, you know, drummers. There are some drummers that feel like they're musicians. You know what I mean, because we can just say, oh, you just keep the beat. But this guy is bad to the bone.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And worked with everybody and I was lucky enough to work with him years and years ago. But I always remember he came in and went right in and played the track and freaking went at it.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And then the engineer, he was like, you know, we weren't recording.

[Pete Holmes]

And he's like, is that what he said? Yeah, we're not recording.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. He go, we didn't get that one. Like he. Because he thought he was just getting sounds. He was like, bro, dude, always in the red, man. Always. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

What. What is lost?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I shoot things. I know you act as well on digital. Just keep rolling.

[Joey McIntyre]

Keep.

[Pete Holmes]

Right. Why are you cutting right? Oh, we got to save the film.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, the development costs are really hurting the production.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

It's a two cent card roll.

[Joey McIntyre]

Freaking. Two more seconds on cap cut. You know what I mean? Like, come on.

[Pete Holmes]

You know you can't afford two more seconds.

[Joey McIntyre]

Come on, come on. You can't.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. That's a big thing for me.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. The alt. In the alt world, right? You have to be an all guy. You know, the alts. You know, at the end of the day, you got. You got eight. You got eight alts. I've won at all times.

[Pete Holmes]

My favorite showbiz. It's self serving.

[Joey McIntyre]

But who, please. That's what we're here for.

[Pete Holmes]

We're here to self serve. We're here. I'm here to serve you.

[Joey McIntyre]

Freedom.

[Pete Holmes]

That was the name of the record.

[Joey McIntyre]

Thank you.

[Pete Holmes]

Freedom is the name of the record. It's one of my favorite tracks.

[Joey McIntyre]

Thank you.

[Pete Holmes]

It's fantastic.

[Joey McIntyre]

Thank you.

[Pete Holmes]

Who cares? You don't care.

[Joey McIntyre]

I freaking care. That's why I'm here.

[Pete Holmes]

Freaking.

[Joey McIntyre]

That's why I care.

[Pete Holmes]

I also loved other things.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And I love Miracle. Those were my three favorites. I wrote down my three favorites because. Don't you hate like a non specific compliment?

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, you know, tell me your favorite line. No, we're in the. We're in the biz. You know what I mean? Sometimes.

[Pete Holmes]

Want another great record, Joe.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, right, Exactly.

[Pete Holmes]

So when I was really something really like moved me. Miracle was very moving to me. I also found she to be very moving.

[Joey McIntyre]

Thank you.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. I think I'm a sweetheart.

[Pete Holmes]

I think I'm a SAP. I liked all the kind of the emotional ones, you know? You know what I mean?

[Joey McIntyre]

You don't, you don't.

[Pete Holmes]

I'm not out there grinding my denim.

[Joey McIntyre]

You don't come from the pages of Teen Beat without being a little sappy. Pete.

[Pete Holmes]

Ripped from the pages of Teen beat. It's Joey McIntyre.

[Joey McIntyre]

I've always been ripped from one thing to another. You know, this guy was ripped from.

[Pete Holmes]

The pages of Teenager.

[Joey McIntyre]

Ripped out of the choir at St. Thomas in Jamaica Plain.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, J.P. torn.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, you should have thrown into a boy band.

[Pete Holmes]

You were at 12.

[Joey McIntyre]

Shot out of a cannon, you know.

[Pete Holmes]

Shot.

[Joey McIntyre]

Ripped. Yes.

[Pete Holmes]

No. You had no age.

[Joey McIntyre]

A lot of trauma.

[Pete Holmes]

You had no life.

[Joey McIntyre]

Shot.

[Pete Holmes]

You had no life. You were. You were abducted into. Well, we don't have to go into that. Do you feel that way a little bit. You're therapized, Joey Mack. You're therapized.

[Joey McIntyre]

I just came from therapy.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, good.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's good guy. You know, I always would be like, you really got a good therapist. I mean, can't really, you know.

[Pete Holmes]

But wait, what do you mean?

[Joey McIntyre]

I got.

[Pete Holmes]

I got. Well, I have a great therapist.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, well, they're not easy to find. They're not easy because you can sit there.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And not that I've done a ton of it, but periodically and sometimes it's.

[Pete Holmes]

Just like, good for you.

[Joey McIntyre]

This guy's just. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

It's not Gary Penn, is it?

[Joey McIntyre]

What's that?

[Pete Holmes]

His name isn't Gary Penn. Is he my therapist in LA? Dr. Gary Penn, whose book is available now. I always plug him.

[Joey McIntyre]

It is a Gary, though.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, you gotta have a Gary.

[Joey McIntyre]

Gotta have a Gary.

[Pete Holmes]

If your therapist isn't named Gary, get the fuck out of there. Yeah, I'm also doing parts work therapy now. Have you ever heard about that? Internal family systems.

[Joey McIntyre]

I thought of Parkour.

[Pete Holmes]

It is like Parkour. It's a lot like Parkour. Wow. No, I'm proud if any man from Boston can go to therapy.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

You know what I'm saying? There's something extra stubborn about the men, I think, where we're from. Maybe you don't agree. I do.

[Joey McIntyre]

Because, you know, the real it's relax.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, relax.

[Joey McIntyre]

That should figure it all out.

[Pete Holmes]

Also, compare. They're like, it's not as bad as it could be. And you're like, what the fuck? Like, especially in your situation. I can hear Everett going, what do.

[Joey McIntyre]

You got to worry about? Go cry at a bag of cash.

[Pete Holmes]

Go sing that until you feel better.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well done. Well done.

[Pete Holmes]

No, cheers.

[Joey McIntyre]

Go.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, there you go. Cheers. That's me saying.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

That's me saying, looks like we're touching.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

We're talking.

[Joey McIntyre]

Can we say that?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You cut.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay.

[Pete Holmes]

You Circumcised?

[Joey McIntyre]

I am.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, then we can't. I think to dock, you need.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, to dock.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. That's when two uncircumcised whangers become one tube.

[Joey McIntyre]

Wow.

[Pete Holmes]

You know when you see buildings with like a, Like a, Like a, Like a tunnel between them? It's like that.

[Joey McIntyre]

Like in Minneapolis. They get them everywhere because it's so cold.

[Pete Holmes]

It's too cold.

[Joey McIntyre]

How cold is your town?

[Pete Holmes]

Well, you can't go outside. We have a.

[Joey McIntyre]

We have a docking tunnel. Buildings.

[Pete Holmes]

The buildings have uncircumcised penises that we walk through. But I, I, we won't get it. I do want to talk about a little of that.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But without. Maybe not up top. I don't want you to feel like we're.

[Joey McIntyre]

No. What about the kid and the thing and the.

[Pete Holmes]

Which one?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. You mean my history?

[Pete Holmes]

No, you being plucked into this.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

12 years old.

[Joey McIntyre]

Because, I mean, people were plucked.

[Pete Holmes]

Plucked.

[Joey McIntyre]

We've got another verb.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. Plucked.

[Joey McIntyre]

Plucked.

[Pete Holmes]

Torn.

[Joey McIntyre]

Plucked is more of a tiger gentler term. But plucked. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Tiger Beat.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Teen Beat. I wanted to buy those magazines when I was a kid, but I thought they were for girls only.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. You'd be gay.

[Pete Holmes]

That's what they would call it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Branded.

[Pete Holmes]

It'd be branded as gay.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But I really did want to buy one.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And if I had any feelings, they were fun. Of course they were fun. They were pictures of your.

[Joey McIntyre]

By the way, Alyssa Milano was in there, too. You could have told everybody. Hey, I read it for the Milano. Yeah. Debbie and Alyssa.

[Pete Holmes]

But I wanted. I told you this when we were first introduced by the great Adam Ray.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Is. I was so into you specifically. I like the new kids. But I realized as I was doing some, you know, light research just so I wouldn't ask you things you've been asked a million times. A dusting, a cursory glance into your catalog. I was like, oh, my God, I didn't even remember all of the new kids. That's not to say. That's no disrespect.

[Joey McIntyre]

How dare you.

[Pete Holmes]

But I was around your age.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

That's why I wanted to read Teen Beat. I was like. I wanted to know what you were having for lunch or, like, what you looked like on the bus. Just fucking kicking it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. You would have learned that Jordan likes ketchup on his eggs. That's what we always say. Because that was a. You know, that was one of them.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. That's so funny, because I also, being a Boston kid, became obsessed with Matt Damon and I was older by then. I think we all were as a city. We were like these two kids that made it big. And I read in some fucking people or something, they were like. It was like a fun fact. And they're like. Matt's nickname with his friends is Matty. I'm like, that's nothing.

[Joey McIntyre]

Wow.

[Pete Holmes]

You've given me.

[Joey McIntyre]

That's a deep dive.

[Pete Holmes]

You could have made that up.

[Joey McIntyre]

Wow.

[Pete Holmes]

It's like Joe, Joey, Petey. But Matt. Matty. Every Matt is a Matty.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Every Matt.

[Joey McIntyre]

Matty. Matty Siegel. The great Matty Siegel from Kiss108.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh.

[Joey McIntyre]

Comic from Boston. Guy like you not. Not bowing down to Maddie.

[Pete Holmes]

I was more of a ZL X man 100.7 kid.

[Joey McIntyre]

You must have been hardcore to not know. He was like, practically like Ed Sullivan to Boston. Yeah, he was really good. Dark, dry. You know? You know. You know, Tell me. Well, in this world, I mean, there's a lot of morning shows, and most. It used to be just morning shows. Right. Now you have podcasts. Yeah. Everything else. But that thing was.

[Pete Holmes]

Back then, if you wanted to do a guy talk, it was that.

[Joey McIntyre]

And, you know, a lot of the times, they're. They're not. They're not very good. Yeah, you go into town, right? And. And you go. But. But this guy was. Was very dry, very funny. Dark.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Dark. Of course, on the. On the inside. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But see, this is when I was driving to school every day. I went to school in Cambridge. Harvard. I'm just kidding. I went to Harvard for kindergarten.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay.

[Pete Holmes]

I went to CFS's little school in Cambridge. And. And every morning. This is the difference between. Do you have kids?

[Joey McIntyre]

I do.

[Pete Holmes]

You have three kids, right?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yes. Yes.

[Pete Holmes]

So you. I'm assuming you know this.

[Joey McIntyre]

Although.

[Pete Holmes]

Let's not assume. I'll ask.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

When I'm in the car, my daughter's telling me what we're listening to.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, absolutely. No question.

[Pete Holmes]

No fucking question. What are you, nuts? What are you nuts? I will sometimes lie and say the Internet, like it doesn't have the gummy bear song. We don't have it. Yeah, it's not working. We got to pick something else. That's a lie.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I'm sorry, baby.

[Joey McIntyre]

How old are you?

[Pete Holmes]

Six. Just.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, okay. So you're in the. Yeah, you're in the.

[Pete Holmes]

Prime cute.

[Joey McIntyre]

That thing.

[Pete Holmes]

Prime cute.

[Joey McIntyre]

But my daughter's 13. But she's. She's got good taste. I mean, I say good taste. It's Taylor all the time.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And the Hamilton soundtrack, which sounds like she's six, but. But she's actually a very good.

[Pete Holmes]

She listens to too.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Leela would love.

[Joey McIntyre]

That, son. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I know a lot about Taylor Swift. Listen, just listening to her, I was.

[Joey McIntyre]

Influenced a lot, as we all are. I mean, I'm a pop guy, but yeah. Coming home and maybe you'll do this. The things we said we never do. Drive your daughter to Santa Clarita every day from Hollywood to go to gymnastics. I mean, things. But you do it and suddenly that's your life. And that's okay, you know, But. And I don't. My wife does most of the time. But when I would drive her back, we'd listen to Taylor Swift. And she does. She has quite a. Quite a lot a Thing of Work, you know, catalog. It's a lot pissed me off the last out. I didn't even listen to the last album because. What. It was like 33 songs. And I said, come on. The end thought, is there a limit? Is there a line? Yeah, there is a limit to me.

[Pete Holmes]

And she's like, Hamilton, she's writing all the time.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right? Exactly, exactly. And. But that one, I still haven't gotten into it because I was so into everything else.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

It was. And it was very. That song Other Things was kind of that, you know that you mentioned that song.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Kind of relate. Very relationship. Kind of blow by blow a bit. Kinda. Yeah. So, yeah, Taylor and kids. And. Oh, we went. We were talking about your drive to school.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, just.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

When I don't. The reason. I don't know. Your kiss. Kiss108.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

My dad's not listening to Kiss108. You weren't in control. I wasn't in control. And then when I grew up, I tried to do a joke about this. I was 98.5mix 98.5. So I listened to like, what I would consider terrible music.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

Bad music. Like, here's this.

[Joey McIntyre]

Wow. Wow. I'm on. Everybody does him.

[Pete Holmes]

But somebody told me I'm on severance. Like, he doesn't know. Yeah, I just found out. I'm on severance. Like, he doesn't know. That's my Christmas.

[Joey McIntyre]

I finally got into that. I'm not got into it. I watched it. I'm not a good watcher, you know, I'm the. My wife. My wife is like, leave. Get out of the room. Because I'm like, really? You know, and she's like, go.

[Pete Holmes]

That's a Boston thing.

[Joey McIntyre]

And I'm sorry.

[Pete Holmes]

You have to criticize everything.

[Joey McIntyre]

I know. Like, why wouldn't he.

[Pete Holmes]

You're telling me he's not gonna.

[Joey McIntyre]

There are some things I love.

[Pete Holmes]

He's from fucking Needham, kid.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

You can't take it out of the kid.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, you can't.

[Pete Holmes]

Doesn't matter. It's true.

[Joey McIntyre]

I grew up in jp, by the way.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, I'm sorry. Stay from Needham.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. That's the Wikipedia version. I was born in Needham.

[Pete Holmes]

I. Needham. An update.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, that's what I told you when I first was introduced to you was when I was going for the electrolytes.

[Joey McIntyre]

Now go.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, that's what I'm doing. I called information and I said Needham, Massachusetts, called. I said McIntyre, Joe, Joseph. I probably said, Joey, like a real bag of. And the lady goes, yeah, right. Oh, this is at the height of new kids. This is the height. And I just tried. What would I have done?

[Joey McIntyre]

I'm 52. How old are you?

[Pete Holmes]

45.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay. Oh, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I would have.

[Joey McIntyre]

Your friend. That was completely appropriate.

[Pete Holmes]

Prime.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. You were like nine years old doing that, so. That's not. That's not.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, I wasn't trying to creep on you. I wanted to call you. Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, it was appropriate. This is fun.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, I. It never got weird with fans. I'm sure it got very weird.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, it's ever crossed the line. It's still. Well, few and far between as far as the weirdness. You know what I mean? People will get, you know, your number or your. They'll text you and they'll really. And it's the last thing it. It is about is me. Right? I mean, these people. If it wasn't me, it'd be something else.

[Pete Holmes]

Have you seen that clip of John Lennon talking to a fan on the steps? The 35 millimeter footage, and he's like, how could I be?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. How could I be sending you messages?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Like, how could I even be doing that?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And the guy's, like, kind of hearing.

[Joey McIntyre]

Him, kind of not. He's on the edge.

[Pete Holmes]

It's creepy, though.

[Joey McIntyre]

They didn't have meds back then.

[Pete Holmes]

That's right.

[Joey McIntyre]

He would have been able to even out, I think.

[Pete Holmes]

But you're absolutely right. That wasn't about John Lennon and somebody reaching out, but to be something that someone could fixate. Like, I'm gonna say something, and then you respond to it. People aren't obsessed with you. They were obsessed with who they were when they loved you. Does that sound right? It's almost like a midlife crisis.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, they're. They. They adore me. For good reason. No, I'M not saying they don't like you. I think it's, you know, there. There's a spectrum of that, I guess. You know what I mean?

[Pete Holmes]

I really didn't mean to take away from their appreciation of fans. I'm talk. They want to time trap now. All right. He's gonna walk off.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Don't. Gallagher.

[Joey McIntyre]

I give people three.

[Pete Holmes]

I'm on two because I need them.

[Joey McIntyre]

Who walks off?

[Pete Holmes]

Gallagher walked off Mark Marin's podcast. Nobody's walked off my podcast.

[Joey McIntyre]

Gallagher.

[Pete Holmes]

Gallagher. It's a famous.

[Joey McIntyre]

The watermelon.

[Pete Holmes]

The watermelon guy. The watermelon guy. That's like.

[Joey McIntyre]

And Mark. Just. Just one. One. One. One too many needles.

[Pete Holmes]

One too many needles.

[Joey McIntyre]

Wow.

[Pete Holmes]

It happens pretty fast. It's worth listening to. Oh, happens in, like, 15 minutes.

[Joey McIntyre]

Wow. You know? Yeah. Wow.

[Pete Holmes]

So we were talking about fans that go too far, and I was gonna go too far.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, luckily. Yeah, it's. It's. It's. It's lovely now. You know, it's beyond lovely. It's like, oh, hey, yeah. Oh, my God. And then, like, you know, selfishly speaking, it's like, you know, famous enough that, you know, the maitre d might notice me and get a table.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Hamilton, for instance, I'm in the crowd and I'm with my son, and, you know, the GM says, lynn would like to see you afterwards. You know, thank you, new kids fans, you know. Thank you, Block.

[Pete Holmes]

Was Lin Manuel a new kid fan?

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, I had known it. I had done.

[Pete Holmes]

Do you call him blockheads?

[Joey McIntyre]

We call our fans blockheads.

[Pete Holmes]

Was he a blockhead? No, you do not.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah. Do you? Oh, lovingly. He's a blackhead.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, I thought it was.

[Joey McIntyre]

I wouldn't say. No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not saying he's a blockhead, but we had work. Worked. When I was in Wicked on Broadway, he was writing. I don't think it was Hamilton. He was writing in the Heights, his musical before that.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

So I was in. In Alex lacamore, who is his kind of go to arranger.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Was conducting at Wicked, so I was kind of in that world.

[Pete Holmes]

And you were in Tick Boom, which he directed, right?

[Joey McIntyre]

The movie.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, the movie.

[Joey McIntyre]

But I was.

[Pete Holmes]

But still another little.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Another musical, Wicked in Boston, was released as Very.

[Joey McIntyre]

We'll Be Back Very in Boston.

[Pete Holmes]

They really.

[Joey McIntyre]

That's a tell. When people think wicked is a noun. Wicked pissa is a complete adjective.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

But people go. It was when they put. And when they say a wicked Pissa.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Incorrect.

[Joey McIntyre]

Tell. Gone. You're dead to us.

[Pete Holmes]

Get out of here.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, go, go.

[Pete Holmes]

So you meet Lynn. Fan, blockhead, that kind of thing out there. Mostly positive.

[Joey McIntyre]

So my fame thing is very lovely. And then you have some people quite recently actually, you know, not to get too into the weeds because I. Then I think, you know, you attract a thing or whatever or something. But yeah, one moment. And it was sort of that thing with Lennon, but not as bad. But she swore I was. I was given signals.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

From the stage. And this was in. This was in a. It's still running now. It's called Drag the Musical. And I opened it on off Broadway in the fall. And she thought I was freaking sending her signals, bro. And I said. And I was able to. And again. Because you don't know where the spectrum is. Because we can lose our minds.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And still be normal people.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And not need drugs to come back to the whatever.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

And she thought I did. And I said, you know what? No, that's not.

[Pete Holmes]

How did you meet this person?

[Joey McIntyre]

Stage door.

[Pete Holmes]

Stage door.

[Joey McIntyre]

Stage door.

[Pete Holmes]

You seem like a front door guy.

[Joey McIntyre]

I'm not a back door guy.

[Pete Holmes]

That's the real.

[Joey McIntyre]

Never went there. Thought about it a lot. But the window is closing. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

You're running out of time, Joey. But I meant when I was.

[Joey McIntyre]

Thank you for keeping it open for me.

[Pete Holmes]

You know what?

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, the freedom of keeping it open. Keeping the auction open. You know, saying it's never gonna happen. I.

[Pete Holmes]

It is weird that the New kids were considered, to use the parlance of the time, gay when you were boys and girls loved you more than what was going. It's the weirdest feeling.

[Joey McIntyre]

You weren't. You weren't somebody until they said you were gay. That's true. I mean, it's.

[Pete Holmes]

That's how you made it in Boston.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. In Boston or anywhere. You know what I mean? And that's true. I love the. It's. You know, if it wasn't so hateful at times. Right. It would be really kind of cute and funny because think of all the dudes that loved, you know.

[Pete Holmes]

Liberace and Ricky Martin.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, the Elton John. I always say. Freaking frickin. I like that. I'm backdooring this icon married to Iman.

[Pete Holmes]

Iman? Katie. Who's Iman?

[Joey McIntyre]

Wasn't that the model's name?

[Pete Holmes]

Sounds like an organization.

[Joey McIntyre]

No. Oh my God. He. Ziggy Stardust.

[Pete Holmes]

Ziggy Stardust. Couldn't have gotten that. I wouldn't have gotten that.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, that's the character, the album. I'm still not getting the artist. Oh, now you're looking stupid. Bowie. David Bowie.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, I was gonna say it, but I was worried it was wrong, so. David Bowie. No, you're absolutely right. Once you be get. Once Bowie gets called.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yay.

[Pete Holmes]

That's how he knew he was really.

[Joey McIntyre]

Cooking well, I mean, but dudes, the hardest core dudes in Boston would love David Bowie.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, for sure.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, they're not thinking he's in a dress.

[Pete Holmes]

Elton John makeup. Elton John played Fenway.

[Joey McIntyre]

So it's all.

[Pete Holmes]

But we've always loved it. Little Richard, right? Little Richard is almost. He's, you know, gay and almost cross dressing.

[Joey McIntyre]

Absolutely.

[Pete Holmes]

We love it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah. It's fucking want it so bad. And on and on and on and.

[Pete Holmes]

On and on it goes.

[Joey McIntyre]

And so it wasn't like I said, it didn't. If it couldn't get so hateful, it would be sort of funny because it is for some people. For a lot of people in our culture, it was normalized and sadly. You know what you learn? You know, did you. When's the day I can't say gay or the f gay word anymore? Like, oh, oh, you just learn, right? You know, just learn all of that stuff.

[Pete Holmes]

Right?

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, did you.

[Pete Holmes]

Because you're 12 years old, did you have to like counteract that? Were you like.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, no. And I never did. I mean, I was 12 when I joined and you know, famous by 15 and 16 and 17. And you were calling me when I was like 17, trying calling some other McIntyre. And so the gay thing was never, you know, I was so younger too. If anybody was getting it, it was probably Jordan because he was the lead singer and the sexy one and he got it. The irony is that his brother was gay and not him. Right. But again, that's the perfect example. Jordan, basically the lead singer. Super sexy. Girls are crazy about him, right? He's hot and rock and roll gay.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, that's how you disarm him, right?

[Joey McIntyre]

Totally.

[Pete Holmes]

Because your girlfriend would rather be with him.

[Joey McIntyre]

He was laughing all the way to the whorehouse. No, no, he was, he was. He was never pressured by it and you know.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Who cares?

[Pete Holmes]

Well, even remember. I'm sure you do. What am I saying? The Eminem. Even Eminem took that shot. I'm sure. Have you.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know what I'm talking about, like being gay or.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, new Kids on the block.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah. Oh, which. What did he say?

[Pete Holmes]

Kids on the block suck a lot of dick.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, it was a play on words, you know, Is it, you know Chris Kirkpatrick? Chris Kirkpatrick, get your ass kicked? No. Well, he took it from. Remember the song New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits. Chinese food. So he said, New Kids on the Block suck a lot of dicks.

[Pete Holmes]

Right. I see. You're right. So.

[Joey McIntyre]

And I'm sure if I saw him, he would apologize because he's such a tender young soul man. I think so.

[Pete Holmes]

I would believe it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I think those people that let their. Their demons, for lack of a better word.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, I think he's past that. I think he's. He's got a sense of humor.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And he's. And he's shown his vulnerability time and time again, so.

[Pete Holmes]

I agree.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

What I. I really meant it, though. The darkest comedians tend to be the sweetest. So those types of performers always. Like, Alice Cooper is always going to be like, hi.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, he's like, playing golf.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, exactly.

[Joey McIntyre]

Who to figure that one out.

[Pete Holmes]

Although Marilyn Manson, I get the feeling, would want to prove it all day.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Like he's licking a tarantula at brunch.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I can't be sure.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's too bad.

[Pete Holmes]

It's.

[Joey McIntyre]

He's. He might never come back.

[Pete Holmes]

Can I ask you one New Kids question that was not answered in my research? Because I remember. This is weird. So I'm nine, and I remember even being like, oh, he's like the Michael Jackson like that. I thought. I would have thought you were the leader of the group.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, baby, give me one more chance.

[Pete Holmes]

Show me noticeable time.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I thought you were gonna go for that. Hi, girl in Please Don't Go, Girl. That's what I think of as your MJ moment.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, we got go. Yeah. Well, that. That was. Well, that was from maybe Tomorrow. Well, our. Our. Our producer and songwriter at the time, Maury Starr, he wrote the songs. He wrote the songs. Yeah. I mean, great majority of them.

[Pete Holmes]

Was that Julio Iglesias.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, that was.

[Pete Holmes]

I read Manilow. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I didn't know he wrote the songs. I thought he was just your, like.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, no, no, no. He. He produced, but he wrote. He wrote this. Yeah. And so he. Maurice was great at. Well, as they say in the theater, like, good shows, borrow, great shows, steal. Right.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

So he. He would, you know, we walk into the studio and he'd play another song and be like, Maurice, Really? That is so Janet Jackson. Are you kidding me? Like, play the song. You know, he's like, you know, so that. That song was very. Was hearkened to maybe Tomorrow, you know, the Mac Jackson 5 song. So there was always some sort of learning. But he played to that because it was a Jackson 5. It was new edition. It was new because on the block.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

The lineage of that.

[Pete Holmes]

Right. I wonder what the lineage of the Jackson 5. The songs that we know at Jackson 5 songs. I'm sure you could trace them back to their influences as well.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, we don't even. You don't. It's funny for James Brown. Michael Jackson was doing James Brown.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

He'll tell you that. But if you look at it, you know, like I. I saw one of the things on, you know, some Tick Tock or whatever and they're on, they're on. I guess it was Soul Train or the guy from Soul Train, Don. What is his name? You know, he intro to me. Here they are and they come on and stop the love. You say maybe your own. Ah. You know, everything he was doing was James Brown, you know, and. And he talks about all his. The people before him too.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, that's like early Prior was doing Bill Cosby. Like you can watch Prior's first. I think it's a Tonight show or something. Yeah, he's doing. And it's not him yet.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

But he's trying on these influences. Yeah, it's a little bit different, but we all have.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, but the looks and the taste of it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And who. We don't know who. Where he got, but everybody's getting it from somewhere.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

That's very interesting. Where were we? We were talking about, I guess, oh, plucked. And how they found you. I am curious if you ever met Michael Jackson.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, I was unfortunately, I was madly in love with my first girlfriend. I was in LA and they said, do you want to go to the studio? This is 90 91. Do you want to go and meet. Meet him? Jordan and John were going and I said, freaking no. You know.

[Pete Holmes]

Wow.

[Joey McIntyre]

I would have rather been with, you know, my girlfriend at the time. I was not 19.

[Pete Holmes]

No, no.

[Joey McIntyre]

This is a zillion years ago.

[Pete Holmes]

Wow.

[Joey McIntyre]

And they hung out with him and. And no, I never met him. So shame on me.

[Pete Holmes]

I'm that way too though.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I remember when I first came to la, I was really in love with my girlfriend and Nick Kroll, great comic, called me and was like, we're going to this premiere or something. But it was like sort of on par.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Like I think fancy Spielberg done nothing like kidding me. I just arrived and they were like, it's like Tom Hanks is in or something like that. And I was like, I just got here. Which wasn't true. I had been there for two weeks. I was like, I don't feel right. It turned out to be deeply codependent. That's what it was, my situation.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I loved her, but I was also too scared to be like, I'm gonna beat it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That came later for me in that.

[Pete Holmes]

Relationship, figuring that out.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Young, first time, you know, but so.

[Pete Holmes]

When it comes to the other guys in the group, and we won't talk too much, I don't want to bore you with more and more new kids stuff, but I. I didn't. They didn't really cover. There were the. The first four. And then they found you.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, there was. I mean, Donnie basically was just Donnie. And he met.

[Pete Holmes]

He was the first.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yes. And he was a character and just. Just a go getter. And he was, you know, as he talks about very eloquently. He. He was the good product of busing because he went to all the. To the black schools and he was this white kid and he was influenced by all that music. And then he come back to his neighborhood and Breakdance, and they'd be like, what the hell? It's like, what are you doing?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And so he had this little reputation. And then Maurice had sort of a partner to find these guys, Mary Alford. And Mary lived next door to this girl that. Who was friends with a girl that was dating Donnie and said, well, he's a. Yeah, you should meet Donnie. And we all have the same story of. Meet Maury Starr. It's very unceremonious. He had this. It was a three floor dilapidated brick building.

[Pete Holmes]

And Donnie has a story. I'm sorry to interrupt. That he was, like, keeping his. He had a hurt foot. He was using a broom as a crutch.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, get him.

[Pete Holmes]

He's like, I'm gonna make you a star.

[Joey McIntyre]

And Donnie's like, yeah, because you're holding.

[Pete Holmes]

Yourself up with a broom right now.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, totally, totally, totally.

[Pete Holmes]

So you also.

[Joey McIntyre]

With a hat on and with a hole in it. And his, like, dreadlocks are, like, coming through the hole. Yeah. It was like Maurice. Maurice loved that, though. He fed off of that. He. One of his things, we say, hey, Maurice, how you doing? Starving to death. Stubborn to death. Like, he loved the. He had such a. He didn't fight his mentality. Yeah. You know, and huge ship on his shoulder for whatever reason. And would embarrass us all the time. He would like. He would. He would. He would like Step up to Luther Vandross and be like, you ain't shit. Teddy Riley. He'd be like, you ain't nothing. And we'd be like, we're meeting our heroes. I mean, this guy was unbelievable. It was crazy.

[Pete Holmes]

Why is he poking the bear?

[Joey McIntyre]

Because he came from nowhere and he wanted to take over the world and show everybody how special he was.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

It just came out sideways. You know what I mean? But meanwhile. And he couldn't stop because we would. Ended up being the biggest group in the world.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And so he throws on a Navy admiral's suit on. Calls himself the General.

[Pete Holmes]

So we're taking a picture from Elvis.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, but he's the General. He calls himself the General.

[Pete Holmes]

Isn't Colonel higher than right?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. I don't know what it is. I don't know either, but. So anyways, he.

[Pete Holmes]

So once you hit it big, he put on this crazy suit.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. And we love him. We adore him. He was our guy. He was our buddy.

[Pete Holmes]

It's a tricky thing, though. When I was listening to your story, it. There is a parental thing. There's, like a dad energy. Like, this person gave the group life. And then at a certain point of maturity in the group, you start going, like, what about this fucking guy? There had to be moments where you're like. Like, we're the one. And this isn't that kind of show where. I'm not trying to get some sound bite. I'm just saying there have to be moments.

[Joey McIntyre]

Absolutely.

[Pete Holmes]

Where you go, we're the ones out there. And. And the first record wasn't a hit. You guys infused it with your perspective.

[Joey McIntyre]

Donnie and Jordan and Danny got very, very involved in the second one. Yes. And that had a lot to do with it.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, Maurice was still a phenomenal songwriter and producer.

[Pete Holmes]

Of course.

[Joey McIntyre]

Of course.

[Pete Holmes]

But it's part of the journey.

[Joey McIntyre]

We just talked about it. You know, it's fun. Like, you know, we've been around for so long, and we have such a story within each other, but somehow we still have stories. And we come to these. Oh, yeah. And that thing and this and that and the other thing. And Donnie and I were just talking about it, like, that father figure, that big brother aspect to it. I mean, he was family, and so.

[Pete Holmes]

But he's also.

[Joey McIntyre]

Sorry, go.

[Pete Holmes]

He's a guy to me. I still collect dads. I love my dad. I'm just saying, if a man. I made that show with Judd Apatow. I made this show with Conan. If a guy Taps me. There's something really sacred about that. The mentor, the Mr. Miyagi who's gonna give me his wisdom, I show up for that.

[Joey McIntyre]

That's cool.

[Pete Holmes]

If Judd would ask for something. I've said this a million times. 1. I don't drink anymore, but one time I was at dinner, and I had had a few drinks and Judd was there, and I just called him dad by accident. I was like, that's not a mistake. Yeah, that's. Did it feel that way when it comes to.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, I had a strong. I had a good relationship with my dad, so it wasn'. So whatever. I mean, there were other dynamics with other members that I wouldn't speak to, but I would guess that that was more of a dynamic because of what their lives looked at, like, so to speak. And he was a sweet guy. You know what I mean? And we, you know.

[Pete Holmes]

Your dad or Maurice?

[Joey McIntyre]

Both. But speaking of Maurice. Yeah. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

So, I mean, so he wasn't filling a void necessarily. But was that a good dynamic, this guy?

[Joey McIntyre]

Great. He was lovely, warm. You know, I mean, you go in these. He. Away with going to the studio, even though, you know, we were all vulnerable and young and, like, green as hell. Like, I remember so fondly singing Please Don't Go Girl with him. You know, there was. It was just. It was just me and him. You know what I mean? And it was, you know, on a Saturday at Copley Square, by the way. It was like a studio mission control. And I remember it like when I was 14, like. Like over two weekends. And it was specifically, you know, it was so easy. The expectations were low. It was. It was loving. It was caring. He would just. In the hands of such surety, you know what I mean? And he. You know, and it's funny, you know, this. This yin and yang of it all, you know what I mean? That guy, that tender big bear guy, could put on a freaking admiral suit and. And tell the world I can make anybody a star. And we're fighting for our integrity.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, and. But he would come back. I mean, that would all happen outside. And then we'd all come in the same dressing room and be like. We wouldn't be like, you freaking bastard. You know, he'd be just like, ah.

[Pete Holmes]

Gosh, it was part of the show, Maurice. Part of the show. Yeah, well, it's also. Well, you tell me, and I hope you don't mind the term boy band. Is that an okay term?

[Joey McIntyre]

We. No, we. We were. Yeah. I think we sort of invented it. They gave. They Told us we were the first boy band. Yeah. I mean, we always point to New edition for sure, Jackson 5. But. Right.

[Pete Holmes]

But the idea. I think one of the things with Boy band is, like, is. Is it became a model. Like, we're gonna make another New Kids. Yeah. But when you. When you said it was innocent, it makes me think that, like. Like that pressure wasn't on you. Like, you were like, let's see what we can do. Not let's do what they did.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. It wasn't. It wasn't this thing we were necessarily chasing this marker. Right, right.

[Pete Holmes]

You couldn't say had their first record.

[Joey McIntyre]

We got to do that. We got to do that.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. Or which one's the bad boy? I mean, you just had Donnie. Oh, no, no, Maurice wasn't going Bad boy heartthrob.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, I mean, he could. I mean, listen, it's lightning in a bottle, man. You know, and people think it's freaking easy. You know, we want to say. Because it's. I mean, and back then, now it's like, because of. I mean, the people really, you know, the. The. The inmates are running the asylum in a good way. Right. Because the people decide. Back then, there were gatekeepers. You know what I'm saying? So, geez, if you like the new kids and you were a critic, like, God help you, you know what I'm saying? Like, and it was all white dudes in their 40s. And so, yeah, we. We had that crap to deal with. With. But, you know, we were. It's. So my point is, you know, they wanted to say that people like that. Oh, it's easy. What is that fluff? And it's like it's lightning in a bottle to make that happen. And even, like, you could say, I mean, our story makes us look like the Beatles in that world. You know what I mean? Like, up by your bootstraps, working class families hustling, trying to make it a total of eight guys rehearse. I mean, audition for the. For the darn thing.

[Pete Holmes]

But wait, a total of eight guys audition?

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Because I heard Donnie say that the talent pool was shallow.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Like, you're looking for white kids who can sing and dance. Black music.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know what I mean?

[Pete Holmes]

It's like, I couldn't have said it better. Yeah, that's what it was. It was the Jackson 5.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. A new edition.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, it was New Edition.

[Joey McIntyre]

But who are absolute heroes. And we constantly give them their flowers because, I mean, we. We did we finally in. In 2021. We did the American Music Awards. We did a 10 minute. The both of us came out back and forth and, and I was like, I pitched a thing where I said, I'll sing Please don't go girl, but we'll do a mashup with. With one of their early songs. Is this the End? Is this the End? And that was Ralph Tres Ra. I mean, talk about a freaking orgasmic, like, you know, career. And so tears, you know. But what I'm getting at is they are so gracious. If you could write up how you would. You know, they say don't. Don't meet your heroes.

[Pete Holmes]

You know, Meet New Edition.

[Joey McIntyre]

Holy. Meet New Edition. They, they, they were so, they've been so gracious. I mean, think about it. They're these. When they call it what it is. From the project, Black kids coming up, you know, huge success. But like there weren't crossover back then. And here's these five white kids coming in. They could have been rightly, like f them on and on and on. They have been nothing but gracious.

[Pete Holmes]

Wow. And kind.

[Joey McIntyre]

Kind. Collaborative.

[Pete Holmes]

Generous of spirit.

[Joey McIntyre]

Joyful. Generous of spirit.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. And it's one of the best things someone can say about a person.

[Joey McIntyre]

Unbelievable.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

That's unbelievable.

[Pete Holmes]

I'm so glad I have the chills. I just love, I love your love.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's.

[Pete Holmes]

For them. It's incredible.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's such a sweet sweet spot.

[Pete Holmes]

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[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, Donnie, Donnie's like. I mean, Maurice, the other thing, Maurice, he could get lazy sometimes. Donnie's like, I gotta put this freaking thing together. So he's like, okay, Jordan. You said he driving by Jordan and John's house. He's like, Jordan sang. They all went to school together. Yeah, growing up.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Jordan sang in the choir. Cause he. But he knew his brother Chris.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, call.

[Joey McIntyre]

Jordan calls Jordan. Yeah. Okay, that sounds cool. Well, Jordan's got a brother, so Jordan's on. John's gonna be in it. And then Danny, who wasn't hot on it, was like, wait a minute. Jordan's doing it because they were the both breakdancers.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

So now Danny's like, I want to be in this thing.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

But like they're literally like boulders rolling down a hill that somehow turned into some sort of.

[Pete Holmes]

You know, it's like, like natural. You said organic. It's like a natural thing. Because if you had asked me when I was like in the 90s and grunge, I would have been like, oh, they just make those things, in fact.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

You know what I mean?

[Joey McIntyre]

It's totally. Totally.

[Pete Holmes]

But the fact that these are friends, totally living near each other.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Here's a. Here to go back a little bit. Where did you. Because you're clearly hilarious and you act. And he's saying, where did this come from? Where are you in the family?

[Joey McIntyre]

Are you the youngest? I'm the youngest. I'm the youngest. I'm Youngest of nine, seven sisters, then my brother, then me. Yeah. Okay. That.

[Pete Holmes]

That's all we need. Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

My mother.

[Pete Holmes]

Stop talking.

[Joey McIntyre]

My mother was. It's, you know, to tell you five different stories in three minutes and, you know, nine kids never, never drove, so always walking, taking the tea on the bus. On the. I took three trolleys and two buses today. I got the thing. Whatever. Hilarious. You know, my dad. My dad was in politics, so he was a union guy. And as he always said way back when, it's all showbiz.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And, man, was he right. Freaking Donald Trump.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. That's.

[Joey McIntyre]

We're talking about back in the day in Boston.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, it's funny, we always think, you know, it's like our governor in Massachusetts, Curly was in jail when he got elected. And we think. We think this is new. You know what I'm saying? Like, we. We kid ourselves.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, I would say I've brought this out to. Teachers are in show business, politicians are in show business.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know what I mean? It's all.

[Pete Holmes]

Anybody that has the compulsion to be in front and to move a group of people emotionally or intellectually or whatever it is. So you don't let me lead you. You're the youngest of nine. You got to put on the razzle dazzle.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

To kind of have an identity. You tell me.

[Joey McIntyre]

It was fun. It was. It was fun. Yeah. It was my identity, so to speak. I was still just a kid riding his bike around the neighborhood. I mean, it was like. There was some. It was fun. You know, I. I did. I sang in the choir at 6 years old in my first song. Yeah. At St. Thomas, but there was also a neighborhood Children's Theater of Boston, kind of within that community. And I sang my first song with my sister, who was 10 years older, so I was like 6 years old. But, you know, we passed the hat and raised money to go on a trip every year, like in Faneuil Hall. Wow. And so.

[Pete Holmes]

But that was in you. My daughter is six. She sings.

[Joey McIntyre]

I love it.

[Pete Holmes]

But if you're like, fucking planting your feet and.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Singing from your diaphragm at six.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. There was a lot of. Yeah. I mean, my mother. My mother. But my mother. We live four blocks away from the Footlight Club, which was. Which is the oldest community theater in America. Now. I didn't know. Yeah, it's this gorgeous theater. I didn't know how lucky we are until you go to New York and, like, this could be a theater, you know, black box theater, you know.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

But so I saw My mom, like, you know, the inside thing is like, you know, my dad and she didn't get along. They had nine kids, Irish Catholic. You keep going, you're spitting them out.

[Pete Holmes]

We didn't. They didn't get along.

[Joey McIntyre]

They got by, say, embedded on the dance floor. Every. Everything else was a mess, you know.

[Pete Holmes]

The reason I put that out is it. Was there a peacekeeping mentality, If I can kind of put a show on.

[Joey McIntyre]

Scapegoaty. Ish. Kinda. By then I was. Everybody was exhausted by the time I came along. You know what I mean? So it wasn't like I was saving the family.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

I had a great narrative, though, because my dad would say, he's blessed now. What comes first, the narrative or the thing? You know, and then. So between that narrative and everyone protecting me from the madness.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, that.

[Joey McIntyre]

You're a lot of fun and a lot of love, but of my house and the whole thing.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. You know, but you kind of got christened. You were exactly. I don't even mean this in a religious way. There was like a blessing, like you were bestowed with a story.

[Joey McIntyre]

The story is so important. Right. You know, of what we tell ourselves.

[Pete Holmes]

And then you kind of felt okay being in front of people and shining and low stakes.

[Joey McIntyre]

It was fun, you know?

[Pete Holmes]

And by the time. Sorry, yeah. New kids came around, you hadn't done much.

[Joey McIntyre]

I was. I mean, I was 12. I did a lot of community theater. I did all of it.

[Pete Holmes]

That.

[Joey McIntyre]

I'm like, this kid's got no resume. Yeah. What has he done?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, he's 12.

[Joey McIntyre]

But they called around. They. One guy dropped out because.

[Pete Holmes]

So they got your number.

[Joey McIntyre]

Here's the. Exactly. No, they didn't. They actually called around to the public schools and said, you know, do you know any white kids who can sing and dance? Wow. And again, as Donnie said, there were. There weren't a lot of us, but I was doing an after school program at that public school. They gave me the nose.

[Pete Holmes]

Like, was the white thing, by the way, Maurice, who's black? For anyone who doesn't know Maurice.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Was that just a marketing thing? Was that the 1% boy band? Kind of.

[Joey McIntyre]

I'm gonna build Intentional. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, if Eminem was black, would he be as popular as he is? I. I don't know. I mean, yeah, actually, I do have a guess. I would say no. I mean, it was, but it's like more of a. You talk about crossover.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I don't know. I mean, so that was on purpose.

[Joey McIntyre]

Absolutely.

[Pete Holmes]

We're gonna make the white Jackson Five.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Because White New Edition. White New Edition Maurice produced their first album.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

And then they broke up.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Chip on your shoulder gets bigger.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

I'm gonna do it even better with white kids. You know what's so funny?

[Pete Holmes]

What I keep thinking about.

[Joey McIntyre]

But we were of that. We were. No, I know. I had seven brothers. I'd be listening to Iron Maiden.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

I listened to disco and Lionel Richie and the Jackson 5. I grew up that way.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, the kid who. Who dropped out, his parents were like, I don't want my kid going to Roxbury. My parents grew up in Roxbury.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, you went to Lightning in a Bottle.

[Joey McIntyre]

I didn't go to school in Roxbury. My parents were from Mission Hill. They were from that area.

[Pete Holmes]

Because I knew the other kids went to school in Roxbury.

[Joey McIntyre]

They went. They went to Dorchester.

[Pete Holmes]

Dorchester.

[Joey McIntyre]

Excuse me. Yeah, so.

[Pete Holmes]

But town school in Roxbury because of a inter. Like a Maybe.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, they might have. Yes, yes, yes.

[Pete Holmes]

I just remember that scene.

[Joey McIntyre]

The Wheatley and the Trotter. Yeah, you're right. So same, but very close. Dorchester, Jamaica Plain.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Roxbury. So when I said, dad, this woman's picking me up, taking me to Roxbury, he didn't bat an eyelash. All right. Right. Be home by 3. You know, it was 1985. I was 12. That's what we did back then. Like, you know, like, not to be weird.

[Pete Holmes]

If you had said to my mom, we're taking your son and we're going to Roxbury, she would have said no. Yeah, because she didn't. She's not her world.

[Joey McIntyre]

She doesn't know. Oh, and my. Yeah. I mean, my. My parents weren't perfect. They still had their fears and this. That. Mostly my mom would say dumb stuff like that. But. Yeah, but. Yeah, so Lightning in a Bottle. It all had to, like.

[Pete Holmes]

What I was gonna say was. What's weird is when I went to high school, I graduated in 97. Everybody, every third kid was Donnie. You know what I'm saying? But when you think about when you're making this group, if I'm hearing you correctly, the white kids who liked breakdancing, rapping, R and B. Not that many. That's a different world.

[Joey McIntyre]

I think we got all of them. We got all of them. We were literally all of them. There might twice as many. You know what I mean? Like. I mean, there were. There were white kids who would break dance and stuff like that, but to dance and sing in, like.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And we weren't Amazing singers we learned on the job.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, that's another area, you know, I. I'm never gonna forget. When you hit the high, girl don't go girl. Right here in the studio. That was fun for me.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

That's not easy. You have incredible pitch on your new record. You. I mean, it's stupid to say you have pitch. It's like saying a stand up can stand up while he's doing stand up. But I'm just saying. I know that's like a basic, you know, that's true. A lot of. A lot of singers don't have reliable pitch.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, I mean, it's. It's tricky. I mean, listen, I'm. I'm not, unfortunately. It's like you think you're having a great show and then, you know, from the first row, the tick tock, it was like, God damn it. I knew. I thought I was singing better than that. You know, like nothing. You know, it's like, is anything sacred?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

So you get every clam. You know what I mean? It's like you get every clam. Yeah, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Is that an expression?

[Joey McIntyre]

Because it should be hit a few clams. I think Frank Sinatra said that. He hit a few clams there, you know, so. But that being said, what a great.

[Pete Holmes]

Term for a sour note. I hit a few clams.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. That being said, you can do it.

[Pete Holmes]

And you learned on the job. That's what I was wanting on the job.

[Joey McIntyre]

You're getting vocal coaches, you know, more easier. No, vocal coach back then. I mean, my voice didn't, you know, hadn't changed for that first two albums.

[Pete Holmes]

So that's what I was gonna say. Was that a problem when it did?

[Joey McIntyre]

Huge. It was awful.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, no.

[Joey McIntyre]

It was painful. Screaming and trying to reach and then break. You know what I mean? And that's our song. And then like, I did it, like, I had to take it down and I barely sang it because, you know, they're looking for the girl.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

They want that high girl giving it to them. So let me do something else we've.

[Pete Holmes]

Had throughout human history. Sorry.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, that's the. That's the irony on the. The thing about it is, like, my voice changed. So our first hit, we weren't even singing.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Because I couldn't sing it anymore.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, but I was gonna say, throughout human history, we've really loved boys singing high notes. Like that's been a thing. Like. And I wonder what it was like for.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean. Yeah, they used to.

[Pete Holmes]

That's how bad we Love it.

[Joey McIntyre]

We want it.

[Pete Holmes]

Singing high.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Was with Choppa the next.

[Joey McIntyre]

It is weird.

[Pete Holmes]

That's insane.

[Joey McIntyre]

But look at.

[Pete Holmes]

Look, that was like.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, it is true.

[Pete Holmes]

That was the Internet of that.

[Joey McIntyre]

It is true. Look at the Bee Gees, you know, even as you get older. But that sound, that falsetto. It's kind of fun because you have this whole other world that you can explore.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Look at the weekend.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

The freaking weekend. Sings all this stuff all up here.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, we love it. We love it, we love it. Thank God.

[Pete Holmes]

Why? I know, I know. I. I don't know if we know.

[Joey McIntyre]

I don't know. Look at the stylistics.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, it's like.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Why does that.

[Pete Holmes]

And why. Sorry to belabor this, because we made this point earlier, but the most gruff guy with hairy knuckles and gold rings and the chains and his white undershirt fucking loves it. Loves it. If he knew. It's like, dude, looks like a lady or. Yeah. Turn the page. The Bob Seger song, you know, they come in. Is it a woman or a man? It's like you take Bob Seger off the stage.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

That's the guy in the bar that you out other and outcast.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But if you're in the crowd, he's your hero.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

But we love things that, like.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's like a switch almost.

[Pete Holmes]

It is a switch and it's permission.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Theater, too. I know you're a theater guy. When I go. I've made this point before, but I want to hear what you say is, I went and saw Hadestown.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And that has. Hermes is like a all falsetto. It's like, really beautiful. But I'm sitting there and. And not to be negative, I wasn't closing my heart to it, but I was like, it's weird that a lot of these people don't think this dude should be able to get married to another man. You know what I mean?

[Joey McIntyre]

Like.

[Pete Holmes]

Or think that his lifestyle is not biblical or whatever. So. But here we are. We'll all gather around to listen to him sing. They'll allow it, but it's. You enter into the theater. Will allow it. Yeah, we'll allow it, but that's sort of offensive. It's like, then you should stick up for his rights. Cause you fucking love him.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, I know.

[Pete Holmes]

Love him. And that's. The magic of music is like, a homophobe can love Elton John magic because it. Because when you're in. When you're transfixed by music or art or whatever, it Might be you can't hold on to your hate. You know what I'm saying? You can't hold on to your identity. Sorry.

[Joey McIntyre]

Or something. Yeah, you have. You have to do this. That's right. Because the moment you grab onto, you're done.

[Pete Holmes]

As soon. If you want to fly with the song, you have to. To put down every prejudice and every. You even have to put down your identity. Like, I'm Pete. I'm 45. I like this kind of music. At this, you want to be. You want to lose yourself in the experience.

[Joey McIntyre]

Identify with that and identify with. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Something in between you and them that was greater than both of you.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

But unfortunately, we keep being human, you know?

[Pete Holmes]

Then you leave and you're like.

[Joey McIntyre]

You get human. Wow.

[Pete Holmes]

That gay guy. Yeah, I don't. I don't like. But he sings pretty good.

[Joey McIntyre]

Pasta beforehand. God damn it. Yeah. It's like, right back to life.

[Pete Holmes]

All right, so your voice changing was a big issue, and you. You dropped the octave of the song.

[Joey McIntyre]

I didn't go an octave. I mean, I remember dropping it down and it was lower than what? I do it now. I do it at a place now where you still feel.

[Pete Holmes]

I was gonna say it's. It's there now, but you.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, well, it's there now because it's sort of like the national anthem. You gotta know where to start.

[Pete Holmes]

Take me out to the ball game.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, you got. You got to start at a place where when you hit the highs, they feel as high as you need to go.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Interesting. So, yeah, it was. It was tough. I mean, we were. We were all shot out of a can, and it was. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. You know what I mean? It was just really intense.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And. Yeah. What. And Freedom's about that?

[Pete Holmes]

The record. Record available now.

[Joey McIntyre]

Does he know? I'm trying to bring it back to my new album. It's called Freedom. Out now, everywhere.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. My favorite tracks. Other things. Miracle and Freedom.

[Joey McIntyre]

And she. I'm kidding, but. No, it is. It is. It's nice to write about something because I feel in the first. In a big way, for the first time, I'm being open to that and being vulnerable and honest in the. I heard that in the lyrics with what I'm writing about. It's like Freedom, the song that's. You know, I just did a video for. And that's the name of the album. It's kind of lead track or whatever. Title track. You know, it's like I go through the steps so step by step, One of our biggest songs is step one. We can have lots of fun. Step two, there's so much we can do Step three, it's just you and me Step four, I can give you more Step five, don't you know the time has arrived we all have our stuff steps. So in freedom, it's step one. This isn't any fun I'm two steps from the door Close your eyes and count to three Open up, you won't see me Step four, I cannot give you more Joe is done. The time has finally arrived. But honestly. And that's okay, you know what I'm saying? Like, and I'm glad I've been able to share, you know, with, like, Donnie and I have did a listening party. We're doing another one for the record. And it's so. I'm doing it within the family. I'm not doing it here. And, like, trying to be coy about it. I'm like, no, it's like, it's. It can be a gilded cage. It can be a gilded cage, but any job, job, family.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know what? Life in general, we want to have autonomy. We want to carve our own path.

[Pete Holmes]

Path.

[Joey McIntyre]

But we also want to be a part of the circle. We also need to eat. We also. Blah, blah, blah. So it was nice to talk about a lot of those things because you can get, I don't know, self conscious about it or scared you're gonna turn people off.

[Pete Holmes]

And, you know, I won't bring Boston into it. I do feel like more people from Boston deal with this issue. Absolutely.

[Joey McIntyre]

Don't you dare.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know what I mean? Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. Oh, I. At my uncle's funeral, someone was like, look at you out in California.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Must be nice. I've told that. I'm like, I'm mourning my uncle and you're taking a shot. Yeah, like, but it wasn't even, like, I was doing well.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

So they were saying, like, good for you. My brother was like, I love my brother. He's like, yeah, it's the only place where you can say, must good for you. And they mean, go yourself. Go yourself. So I want you to know that on the record, but also just here and also just in your life, like, so much of becoming a grown up, to me is it's both. And you know what I mean? It's not either. It's not like, oh, no kids, but you can't. I feel like the generation before us, I'm not sure, but, like, they went around going, like, just Keep a lid on it. But then it ends up driving the car. Then you're, like, yelling at somebody, and you don't know why. Like, you need to go, like, yeah, new kids was a gift, but also.

[Joey McIntyre]

Ripped out, torn up.

[Pete Holmes]

This you're at. So you had this, like, plucked second family experience. Meaning they're giving you your life. They're giving you the sustenance, they're launching you. That's like birthing you.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And then as you get older, you have to look back and go, like. Yeah. You hear me say this a lot. My mom and dad did the best they could. They did a great job, and I am grateful to them and I love them, and I need to work on some of these things, because it's not, or I'm gonna die.

[Joey McIntyre]

They're mine.

[Pete Holmes]

They're mine.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Doesn't mean to say big time.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

It wasn't perfect. And did you have an advocate? Was somebody standing up for Joe?

[Joey McIntyre]

I did. I mean, I.

[Pete Holmes]

You had Culkin, bro.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, I. No, I. I did. I mean, again, seven older sisters. I couldn't. I couldn't fall too low and down without them, you know, giving me the eyes. Like, what's going on? Watch it, Joe. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

What do they call you?

[Joey McIntyre]

Joseph.

[Pete Holmes]

Watch it, Joseph.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Yeah. But my dad was a good dad, so. But, you know, we learn on our own. Like, my dad was great, but it's in one ear and out the other, you know?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. It helps to know that there's someone there. You're not.

[Pete Holmes]

Like, you weren't just flying solo.

[Joey McIntyre]

No. But I think when you say advocate, you know. You know, it takes a village. You know, success is what has a thousand fathers, you know, so our own success spiritually, you know, and, you know, it takes a lot. And I. And I have done that work, and I've been able to do that. And it is getting to that point where, like, you say, you know, sounds corny, but being your own advocate. Right. You know, at the end of the day, you have to go just do the math. And hopefully you've done the work. So you can do the math and go, oh, it's. It's up to me.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

I get to decide.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right. I get to the. Both and.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, both.

[Joey McIntyre]

And, you know, because it's not easy being in any job. But I've been with these guys for 40 years.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. That's too long.

[Joey McIntyre]

Period. Full stop. Full stop.

[Pete Holmes]

All of them would agree.

[Joey McIntyre]

To think of going to college for four. 40 years, bro. Never mind four. So. And so it's like. And of course the fans are like. Some of the fans. It's like, it's like, like. And I love them. Some of them understand, but like I. They might as well be wearing a Disney shirt.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And I'm Daffy Duck. And they just want Daffy to be Daffy.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Cuz Mickey. No, no, no. You're not Mickey. You're Daffy. And that's Mickey and that's Minnie, you know? And it's like. And good for them.

[Pete Holmes]

I love that Your character isn't even Disney. Wait, is Daffy Disney?

[Joey McIntyre]

He's lunatic. Oh, okay. Well, there you go. That makes sense. That makes sense.

[Pete Holmes]

You felt like Warner Brothers. You were.

[Joey McIntyre]

But like literally though, there's so much of it that like. No, no, they came to Walt. Walt Disney World.

[Pete Holmes]

That's right. They want the head in the. In the giant mask to be like.

[Joey McIntyre]

They spent a lot of money to come to Disney World too. And I'm giving them.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Daffy or whatever else you want. And I don't blame them.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And I have enough space to give them that.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

But also for this in my, my lane, I get to have my lane pain.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And. And you can take what you like and leave the rest, and it's all good. But they, you know, there's a. There's a lot of that. And the good news is I've learned that's. That's been, you know, my real family. I was, I was blessed in my family of origin, as they say, but new kids were my siblings.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

When you think. When people talk about their siblings, that was my thing.

[Pete Holmes]

Right, right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Being pushed around, bullied, blah, blah, blah. All that stuff that we deal with, Siblings deal with.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And so I learned that was my spiritual journey. And I'm lucky enough to be at a position, a place now. Haven't figured it all out, but that I can still be with them. And like you said, both. And it's just a lovely place to be and not easy to get to, but for some. Some people it is.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

Some people would. Some people.

[Joey McIntyre]

Jordan. I'd be like, Jordan. I might be like, okay.

[Pete Holmes]

You know. Yeah, yeah, he's fine. I wouldn't trust it though. I need to. I need to know that you went through it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right. I mean. No, but everybody has different.

[Pete Holmes]

That's true.

[Joey McIntyre]

Wiring.

[Pete Holmes]

That's right. And needs to learn what you learn about man. Like being in a group. Because I saw. I think it was Donnie. Donnie, if you watch some new kid stuff, you're gonna get A lot of Don. I love Donnie. I was a Donnie kid. He talks. He's a good talker, and he's a great talker.

[Joey McIntyre]

And he's. We both thought that was part of our. See, Jordan and John, they have. They're.

[Pete Holmes]

They.

[Joey McIntyre]

They're from Canadian descent, so. Stiff upper lip.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Don't say shit if you have a mouthful, you know. You know?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Tough.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Don't say anything. Which is such power in that too.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You could see. You could be like, say something. And they like. Like, everything's fine, you know? You know? And then Danny's more lowkey, too. And then there's me and Donnie.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

From day one.

[Pete Holmes]

Really?

[Joey McIntyre]

From day one.

[Pete Holmes]

So he was with you.

[Joey McIntyre]

But he is my day one, as the kids say. You know what I mean? Because we go back and now. But we also collaborate really well.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And we love each other, but, you know, that was. You know, I forget what. What was your question? Because we were talking about.

[Pete Holmes]

About dynamics on how you learned to. What Donnie was saying was that.

[Joey McIntyre]

Sorry, we're both talkers. I love to talk and he loves to talk, but he's a great storyteller.

[Pete Holmes]

He would be in the hallway in the hotel, and you guys wouldn't even, like, look at each other. Right. Because you're just, you know, you're becoming like the police.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

The band. The police.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

You can't stand each other or.

[Joey McIntyre]

That was. But it was always played out between me and Donnie.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, really?

[Joey McIntyre]

There was friction. I mean, he says he had friction with other people, and I did, too, but I think it was really played out more.

[Pete Holmes]

Do you have a guest?

[Joey McIntyre]

Same family. Same kind of families. Again, Canadian, stiff upper lip.

[Pete Holmes]

Right. And you're the.

[Joey McIntyre]

Danny was a little bit more just. They were a little bit more on the down low. I think they're the family dynamic. Great, great people. But just, you know, I think he had some. He had older brothers. I had all the sisters. That kind of thing. Yeah, I think.

[Pete Holmes]

Interesting, I think. Was Mark around a lot?

[Joey McIntyre]

No, Mark. Mark wasn't around that much. And then.

[Pete Holmes]

Because that seems like a scary duo if you have beef with Donnie. And then Mark Wahlberg is also there.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. I mean, I don't know Mark that well, but, you know, their family is like family to me. I mean, they're all very tender.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, I'm not saying they don't seem sweet. I'm just saying, at 18 years old.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yes. No, he was. He was. He was quite an energy. And, you know, he had his troubles and had to, you know, do some jail time before he came out. And then Donnie teed it up and gave him a hit album and the rest is history.

[Pete Holmes]

Donnie produce?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, he produced that whole thing. I know.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, wow. People don't know that because.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, because Donnie didn't put a general suit on and say, I did this. You know, honestly, he just said, you know what? I'm gonna let him have it. But yeah. Donnie produced and wrote Good Vibrations in the whole album. He gave him.

[Pete Holmes]

He wrote Good Vibrations?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah. He. He brought.

[Pete Holmes]

He.

[Joey McIntyre]

He did that whole thing. What? Yeah, Feel it.

[Pete Holmes]

Feel it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. I mean, that. That was a. That was a sample, but Donnie produced it.

[Pete Holmes]

I like, I like.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, feel. It wasn't a sample, but. Yeah, yeah. Good Vibrations.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. Oh, my God. I didn't know that. I. So I'm wondering if you learned from Maurice. You're talking about how scrappy he was. I heard him say, if we can't go in the back door, we'll go in the black door. He tried to get you guys in front of the black audience. If they accept and you become big in the world. Didn't work that way. Yeah, but he. He was out there.

[Joey McIntyre]

That being said, we did. It was. We still went through the Apollo Theater.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, you did.

[Joey McIntyre]

You performed? We perform. We perform for all in Boston. All black audiences. So when he says that, he means the industry to black radio.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

But on a day to day boots on the ground. We. We perform for all black audiences at talent shows and everything. And it was, oh, those white boys are bad. You know what I mean? And you know, there's a sample.

[Pete Holmes]

We brought it. You should, you should open Mike's record with that.

[Joey McIntyre]

We brought it. We brought, you know, you know, we, we, we. We came, you know, and. And it sort of, you know, to echo the. The New Edition thing. The black community was so joyful, you know, it was such a privilege to be. In retrospect. You know, white kids don't experience that. We were so embraced. We never. We. It was never like. You know what I'm saying?

[Pete Holmes]

I do know, because you think of.

[Joey McIntyre]

This, for me, it's Irish, you know, this thing of like. Like what? You know what I mean? What. What black people have been through. They have every right to be like, what the. You know what I mean? And they did nothing but like, go ahead.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. You know, I went to church in Mattapan. Not. Not every week, but that was like our sister church.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Always felt incredible. I love it so much. And this Isn't quite the same, but I worked on the south side of Chicago and the entire staff was black, more or less.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And I was like, the one. One of the few white people.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

You know, there were. Who cares? I'm not going to give you the numbers.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

It was the time in my life where I had the most black friends. And I couldn't have been more folded in. It was just really moving. I think it's because of that Irish. Like.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

We're not the warmest. So you think, like, maybe.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Defensive, maybe. Oh, we need.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, that kind of thing.

[Pete Holmes]

And then when you're like, yeah, at a church and having a great time, it means more. It feels really nice.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I love that. So I'm wondering if Maurice taught you the bootstrap stuff, because when you. After New Kids and you're doing your first solo record. Forgive me if I have the details wrong. I believe you could. You were getting a little frustrated finding.

[Joey McIntyre]

Someone to sign you because it was, you know, it was in that has been area a few years after New Kids broke up.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, pop scene is gonzo, but it's kind of coming back. But.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, I tail between my legs going into these meetings. And they liked it, but not really, you know.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

And.

[Pete Holmes]

But then tell.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, I mean, the bootstrap. Well, the bootstraps thing also, you know, came from our parents. My dad had, as he reminded me again and again, $12 when he got married. You know what I mean? And he had six and he was. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

He'S six and his wife's eating a hoagie.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I like that. I've never.

[Pete Holmes]

He was. 12 bucks. Yeah. That's the new family bucks.

[Joey McIntyre]

I love it. Let's go. Can we write that?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay. 12 bucks. All our parents are like that.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Working class.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, so there was a grit there. But there was also, like, what am I gonna do? Oh, my God, I put it on the shelf. So anyways, I will answer your question. What did I do? This was a big deal. This got me, like, headlines and interviews. Because I said, this was 98. I said, okay. Actually, I always give the credit to my lawyer, my New York lawyer. And sometimes you think, oh, lawyers, whatever. Like he said, you belong on stage. Book some shows. I was trying to put things different. And I said, I'll start with that. So I said, book some shows. Well, they got to know the music. So I pressed up 2,000 CDs. So it was a very indie on the Internet. And sold them on the Internet.

[Pete Holmes]

Wow. Your first solo record was called cdr, right?

[Joey McIntyre]

Exactly.

[Pete Holmes]

It's called Staples.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, exactly. Totally.

[Pete Holmes]

That's great. You printed them up yourself.

[Joey McIntyre]

We printed. I mean, it looked better than that. It was.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

I believe. I believe spent a few bucks, you know, on the. On the artwork. But, you know, you know, all the press and Entertainment Weekly and Billboard would be like, so you're selling this on the Internet. You know, it was like, that was the hook, you know, Got me some headlines. So showed out that.

[Pete Holmes]

Remember when radio did.

[Joey McIntyre]

Had.

[Pete Holmes]

Did that? And it was like, the first time it had been done, I think it was in rainbows, maybe. It was like, such a big deal. Name your price on the Internet.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Now it's a normal thing. Yeah, you were really.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, it was that kind of a thing. And shows sold out. Then I. I just went to Kiss108 to play, to just say, can I announce the shows? And they heard the record. They said, we love this record. Let's put it on.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, wow.

[Joey McIntyre]

Top five requests right away.

[Pete Holmes]

Wow.

[Joey McIntyre]

And then Columbia Records and all the. All the places I. I visited are now calling because I got a story to tell. And I ended up going back to Columbia Records, which the new kids were at.

[Pete Holmes]

Wow.

[Joey McIntyre]

And, yeah, it was a top 10 hit solo album, Stay the Same. And. Yeah, it was. It was. It was. In retrospect, it was. Yeah. I was like, ah, you got it done. I mean, I felt like I was 12 at that time, too, you know, But I was in my twenties.

[Pete Holmes]

But just get. That's so funny. Yeah, you were. You had your midlife crisis at 20 or whatever. 25.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Which is wild. Yeah, I know.

[Pete Holmes]

And in front of people watching.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Have you ever laid on a bed of nails? I do it all the time. Not exactly. I lay on my Shakti mat whenever I'm feeling stressed or I'm feeling fatigued in my body, I got tension that I wish I could get a massage, but I don't have time or money or want to be coated in oil by a stranger. I love my Shakti mat because it dissolves the tension in my back, neck, shoulders, and arms quickly and on. On command. I am obsessed. Shakti mat is what it sounds like. Like I said, a bed of nails. It's thousands and thousands of tiny little pokes. It's an acupressure mat that I roll out and lay down on. And I'm not gonna lie, it is intense. In fact, this is a wonderful gift for people that you don't know what to get for them because it's fun and it's interesting and it says, hey, I think you're an interesting person that might like to try this. But within minutes, minutes of laying down on it, you feel this deep warmth start to emerge. And after 20 minutes you feel completely relaxed and your muscles just yield to the experience. Like cold exposure or deep tissue work or sauna that release after doing something you don't want to do. Maybe that doesn't quite make sense. Like laying on a bunch of spiky pokes suddenly yields this experience that you couldn't have gotten otherwise. Shakti mat is a total game changer, moving us through the pain and back home to ourselves. I've tried other kinds of acupressure mats. They are not the same. Shakti is the sharpest on the market, which is what you want. If you're like me, you will get addicted to this experience and crave it. And it's the only ones that work. Handmade in India by people who are paid fairly with the highest quality materials and I can vouch for that, is a really, really nice. Nice and pretty. It's a beautiful product. And I love the pillow. You put it under your neck and it gets all these pokies in your neck and you feel that tension just fade away. What a wonderful secret weapon for deeper sleep, stress relief, muscle relaxation, better circulation, mental clarity, and just a general sense of well being whenever you need it. Shakti mats are my secret weapon for reliable serenity and relief. So go to shakti mat s that's H A K T I M A T dot com. Use promo code weird30 and you'll get 30% off any Shakti mat. That's shaktimatt.com, promo code weird30. We're also brought to us by our friends at Modern Mammals. You guys know I'm obsessed with modern mammals. You probably see me in your feeds talking about modern mammals. And I know that because people often come up to me and they say, are those just ads that you do or is it the real deal? And I always tell them, of course it's the real deal. You guys know how I do this?

[Joey McIntyre]

This?

[Pete Holmes]

I find products that I love and then I do ads. And that's how it went with modern mammals. I hate shampoo. It dries your hair out. It makes it look all poofy. But I want to have clean hair. I don't want to lay on my pillow, get it all greasy and then put my face in that and wake up pimples. And feeling gross. It's disgusting. You got to have clean hair, but you want it to look great. That's what modern mammals does. It cleans it, but leaves just enough natural oil in your hair to still be clean. But to give it some control. It's almost like the feeling of when you got get back from the beach after swimming in the ocean. There's a little bit of bed headiness to it so you don't have to put product in it. It's ready to go. I'm talking about I'll wash my hair with modern mammals and do a red carpet event that night. It gives it flow, it gives it control. It's not poofy. It's all in one place. It's basically a perfect hair day in three seconds. It's absolutely a game changer. I travel with little pouches of it. You'll see those on set here at the podcast. And I only, only, only use modern mammals. Over 40,000 guys have made the switch. Once you use it, you will be hooked for life. Six seconds, three seconds, depending on how much you scrub to perfect hair. Come on. Modernmammals.com weird. You can get a special combo deal and try both products, the bar and the bottle. The bar is perfect, perfect for a gentler, lighter, plastic free experience. And the bottle is the more classic shampoo style. Both of those for 44 bucks. They last a really long time. Modernmammals.com weird. But getting back to like, I love that advice that your lawyer gave you. I remember talking to a friend of mine who was being disillusioned in show business and I was like, we started just doing stuff. Like, just go do some stuff. I know that sounds so basic, but I'd love to hear your take on that. It's like when you're feeling like you're getting stale and atrophy. It's like, go make something.

[Joey McIntyre]

I know. You just got to get vulnerable and. And start that, that wheel.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Just push it.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And ask for help. You know, in this community, it's like, you know, hey, I got this idea. Whatever. Oh, yeah, that's hilarious. You know, you just one to the, to the next.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And I still do that. You know what I mean? It has to still be that.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

It doesn't. It. That's how stuff get made. Right. Is when we get excited or take a chance or, you know, be vulnerable. Vulnerable, yeah, yeah. Vulnerable, Yeah. I just did a bit the video for freedom. It's like, what am I gonna do? I had an idea And I knew that was the idea and I. Well, could I do something else? But every time I taught told people about this idea, I didn't mean it wasn't rocket scientists or anything, you know, but they were like, oh, that's good. And so I was like, oh, I guess I'll do that. It was just me getting out of.

[Pete Holmes]

The.

[Joey McIntyre]

A cold plunge and looking in the mirror in my bathing suit, grabbing my gut and gone crap, you know what I mean? And so I slowly get ready and I put on like a. Almost like a girdle, a man girdle. I'm painting in my abs. You know, they see me the behind the scenes. Then it turns out I start to get better and better. I'm looking good. There's some good shots there that you know, and I haven't worked out in forever. But driving, smoke and mirrors, leather jacket, I get in a Waymo. Have you done the Waymos yet?

[Pete Holmes]

I tried to call one in Phoenix, but it was 30 minutes away.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh, they're phenomenal. Try the Waymo. Yeah, really so fun.

[Pete Holmes]

Really.

[Joey McIntyre]

Driverless. Driverless Ubers.

[Pete Holmes]

It's a fart friendly Uber.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Pete Holmes]

No one will know. No one will know.

[Joey McIntyre]

I want to meditate. I want to 15 minutes, close my eyes and see what happens.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, phenomenal. Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

So I threw that in as a character. I get in a Waymo. Where's he going? I end up at the Abbey. Very world famous gay club in West Hollywood. It's not about. I'm not talking about it didn't really look like a. There was passing by guys in Jack Straw jockstraps, you know. But long story short, I jump up on the bar. Yeah, but I did it three times. I asked the club to do it. They were like, sure. But I didn't interrupt the night night. Wasn't a lot of people there. It has like a dance with myself vibe.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, but again, I was scared.

[Pete Holmes]

Like so scared.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, do it scared.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, do it scared.

[Joey McIntyre]

Do it scared.

[Pete Holmes]

In fact, scared might be a good indication that you're on to something.

[Joey McIntyre]

And it's elect, you know, you're doing something with energy, electricity, which what Rob.

[Pete Holmes]

Bell, my, my dear friend says, he goes, butterflies are good. So if I'm backstage and I feel butterflies, I'm like. I say the same thing about cold plunges, actually. I go, it's the opposite of death. When you do something like a cold plunge, that's such a shock where you're backstage and you're about to go on and you feel nervous, you Go like. Yeah. When you're in a nursing home, you're going to miss the moments where you were like, oh, yeah, you don't want your meals brought to you.

[Joey McIntyre]

No.

[Pete Holmes]

You want to go in the jungle and find it. Right, right. It's actually. It's like worse than prison. It's just kind of.

[Joey McIntyre]

The tray, man. No, no, no, I got it. This.

[Pete Holmes]

Not yet.

[Joey McIntyre]

Not yet.

[Pete Holmes]

So we're closing out here. This is a wonderful guest.

[Joey McIntyre]

Thank you.

[Pete Holmes]

I. One of the. I did like, the. Who cares? Why I'm asking you. I want to know everybody's take on the meaning of life. Let's start with your happiness. You seem like a well adjusted guy and that really makes me happy.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, people have always kind of mentioned that. I mean, you come from such this massive pop iconic thing at a young age and you don't get that vibe either.

[Pete Holmes]

You're very well rehearsed.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, there's, I think, being one of five.

[Pete Holmes]

Ah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, we all kind of silently checked, but we checked ourselves.

[Pete Holmes]

I see.

[Joey McIntyre]

A little bit.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Boston, working class.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, that's the good side of.

[Pete Holmes]

Like, you wouldn't have it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, good for you. You know what I mean? Like. Okay.

[Pete Holmes]

But you could have grown up in a culture, certain neighborhoods of la, for example, where they would puff smoke and they would make you believe it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Sure.

[Pete Holmes]

And now you're the kid.

[Joey McIntyre]

Sure. And let's throw you a party.

[Pete Holmes]

Sorry. Is the ice tap water? Is the ice purified?

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And then you're. That.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

So. Yes, that's.

[Joey McIntyre]

I think that was a big part of the. The brew and the recipe. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But what makes you happy now? Well, sorry, you can also say the last one.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, no, you gotta. No, you gotta. I think you gotta do the work. You gotta be willing to kind of take a look at your. Yeah. Your. Your challenges, your. Your personality traits that don't work for you. You know, I, I thought, coming from Boston, I thought sarcasm was my best tool.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

But it was a survival tool.

[Pete Holmes]

Can you please.

[Joey McIntyre]

I thought it was my best.

[Pete Holmes]

This is legit. This is the best thing. I love.

[Joey McIntyre]

I thought it was the best thing. And then I was like, oh, no. Like, lots of times they're laughing because they're embarrassed.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, that's right.

[Joey McIntyre]

You're inappropriate.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

And which is so hard for this business because, well, that's my tool. Yeah. Like, can I be funny without being sarcastic? Well, I'll never have fun again. And it's like. Well, that's not true. It's called growing up.

[Pete Holmes]

That's right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Trying to be an adult.

[Pete Holmes]

That's a new kind of sobriety. Sarcasm sobriety.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Because sarcasm is cheap. I'm not saying it's not wonderful.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

Like, sometimes you and I are at a wedding and we're in the back and something crazy happens and I go, they should have got a big one. You know, like, that might be fun. And that's appropriate. That's just us. But if it's all you do.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right. Get sober and leading it. Yeah. Leading with that.

[Pete Holmes]

If your personality is sarcasm.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

Guess What? We got 30 million of you. It's way too many.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

You see it in people's Twitter bios. It'll say, like, sarcasm is just one of the many services I offer. It's like, that's not unique.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

It's not interesting.

[Joey McIntyre]

Mouth of a sailor.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, exactly.

[Joey McIntyre]

Like, okay.

[Pete Holmes]

Or I'm sorry, I have no filter. It's like, maybe get one.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right? Get one. Maybe get one, get one.

[Pete Holmes]

Because when you say with pride, filter to use. It's getting mean, it's getting honest.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But if you actually know what the truth is, then maybe you can have no filter. But you don't. There's no humility there.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

The filter is going. I could be wrong.

[Joey McIntyre]

And it's control and it's defensive and it's. You know, I used to tell people. I thought I was telling people, Putting people in their place. Right.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. So I dropped that. You know.

[Pete Holmes]

Love it.

[Joey McIntyre]

And people laugh. You're like, really? You're not sarcastic. Believe. Believe me, sometimes it's different. Yeah, it's different.

[Pete Holmes]

Tell me.

[Joey McIntyre]

Funny in a sense of humor and. And. And this kind of stuff.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

A little self deprecation and. Yeah. I'm not perfect. Of course it slips up. But yeah, there was. It's night and day. Because sarcasm in the fun times is. Is one thing, but sarcasm in the not so good times. Watch out.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's. You're all guns blazed and. And you're really just using it as a. As to work out your resentments in a very childlike way.

[Pete Holmes]

That's right. And people need other flavors sometimes. You just need to be compassionate or quiet or spacious.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Like, let them have their feelings so hard instead of coming in and being.

[Joey McIntyre]

Like, you know, so hard.

[Pete Holmes]

It is hard.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's so hard.

[Pete Holmes]

I think Donnie said that too. One of the things that he learned was talk less and listen more. I know that sounds so basic.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But. God, that's right. It's just what's going on? Settle down and, like, look at the situation instead of thinking, like, my first interpretation, first choice, best choice.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And now I'm gonna make some jokes.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

It's like, I don't think you read the room.

[Joey McIntyre]

And I think the tool is to, you know, that thing is like, well, what's the how? And that's like. Like, without trying to be perfect, like, keeping it clean with your adult relationships, you know, with the outside world. And the way to do that is to. Is to unload in a safe place.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

With buddies or friends or therapists or whatever it is.

[Pete Holmes]

I said it. That's good.

[Joey McIntyre]

Unload over here. Work it out over here.

[Pete Holmes]

And that's what therapy is too, by the way. It's like, when we better help is one of our sponsors. And sometimes I'll be like, your friends won't tell you this, but they don't want to hear 50 times a month about that thing. That's what a therapist is. Guilt free.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Yep. We're talking about mom again, or whatever it is. I'm not saying your friends are going to turn their backs on you. I'm just saying, like, get an outlet. Get someone who can play catch with you and you won't tire out your friends throwing that ball again and again.

[Joey McIntyre]

And you might find an answer and.

[Pete Holmes]

You might actually somebody who's not instead.

[Joey McIntyre]

Of going, I know, right? I mean, that's okay too, to listen.

[Pete Holmes]

But it's true. But I want you to. I want everybody to try internal family systems. What you do is you find the different parts, like your protectors. I'm not going to go on and on, but you end up talking to yourself. When you have, like, an irrational response to something. You recognize who's protecting the child and you go like, oh, it's like one of my protectors is like the politician who's gonna fawn for everybody and tell everybody how great they are. Because to not be liked is death to the child.

[Joey McIntyre]

You have these characters. I've been doing that too, naming them. Naming these things. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Because they want respect and they want recognition. They want your gratitude. And then you can tell them, by the way, kid, yeah, I'm 45 years old. And you can stand down.

[Joey McIntyre]

Got this.

[Pete Holmes]

I got this. So much of therapy is just telling yourself these people, parts that are arrested, meaning they've stopped developing. And I say, you know the thing I say to myself more than anything, this is pretty vulnerable. But I go, we don't live there anymore. And I go, we live here.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And like sometimes I'll be having dinner with my family, I go, this. You live with these people.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Look at these people. They're amazing.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

This. Wait, just. Just come to reality with me.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I respect you and thank you, but just look, everything's okay.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Talking to Joey McIntyre. Kid, come on, we're fucking.

[Joey McIntyre]

4.

[Pete Holmes]

1 1. Did I tell you? I didn't. 1. When I have told you. We made a. A Weird Al style parody called Old Farts on the Block. It wasn't making fun of new kids. It was. We were huge fans, but we were.

[Joey McIntyre]

So past that now, like any. It just. Your name is. My father would say years ago. Did they spell your name right?

[Pete Holmes]

McIntyre Tard.

[Joey McIntyre]

That was it, though. That's all that mattered. No, that was all that mattered.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh my God. That's all he cared about, not the criticism.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, that's showbiz. Yeah. Did they spell your name right? I like that, dad, they said this and that. Did they spell your name right?

[Pete Holmes]

I love it.

[Joey McIntyre]

That's it. That's, you know, so to that point and it's easy to. But we've been in the game so long, it's like, what'd you do? Great. Did you mention our name? Fantastic.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, whether it was a joke or a jab, it doesn't matter anymore.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

And it's genuine anyways. I mean, that's what time does for all of us. But.

[Pete Holmes]

But you got a masterclass in not taking yourself too seriously. Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, it seems that. Still do that I have to like remind myself.

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Not. But you got humor about our work.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, but anyways, Old Farts on.

[Pete Holmes]

The Block and this. And the single was called Swinging Week. Hanging Tough. And we were swinging. Weak.

[Joey McIntyre]

Swinging. We see. I love it. I love it.

[Pete Holmes]

And they would go, are you tough enough? And would go, no, we're not.

[Joey McIntyre]

Not.

[Pete Holmes]

And the only.

[Joey McIntyre]

When was this? In Chicago?

[Pete Holmes]

I was. No, no, no. I was in Boston probably in third or fourth grade. And instead of. Oh, in the heyday, we went lmnop, which I thought was very funny, but then I remember playing it for people and no one laughed.

[Joey McIntyre]

I am dead, as they say. Deceased. Deceased. Oh my God.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. So that was one of my first.

[Joey McIntyre]

No wonder.

[Pete Holmes]

So you took it and we made comedy with it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yes.

[Pete Holmes]

Just played the track and kind of sang.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay.

[Pete Holmes]

I can't believe I'm telling you this.

[Joey McIntyre]

What a fun moment when the. When you make your biopic. Yeah, that's where we start that scene. Third Grade. And that's when I knew, yes, I had something.

[Pete Holmes]

You know what's funny? Talk about being happy and just making stuff as a kid. I think we just had two boom boxes. We hit play on the tape.

[Joey McIntyre]

You double.

[Pete Holmes]

And then we put record on the other one.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And then we just did it. Meaning.

[Joey McIntyre]

I don't think we had lyrics on the kitchen table. What's that on the kitchen table? The new kids would do that too.

[Pete Holmes]

Boom, boom, boom. Oh, my gosh.

[Joey McIntyre]

Freestyle.

[Pete Holmes]

So same thing.

[Joey McIntyre]

But.

[Pete Holmes]

Yes, but without fear of, like. But I don't have anything. I would just make a comedy album and then would be done. We're like, we have a comedy album. So much so that I took it to school and played it for people and I still remember.

[Joey McIntyre]

They're like, do you know the tick tick boom song song?

[Pete Holmes]

The.

[Joey McIntyre]

The soundtrack. That much. But there's a song called what A Way to Spend a Day.

[Pete Holmes]

Yes.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yes, that's it.

[Pete Holmes]

Yes.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, that's that freaking thing.

[Pete Holmes]

By the way, when I'm stuck, I watch that movie. It's such a great reminder.

[Joey McIntyre]

It is. I. I love what they did with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

I. And I mean, you were in it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, I was. I was in the. It was in the show and it was lovely. Great. No, very cool way to make your debut, you know, New year, New York debut, you know, in the West Village. It was.

[Pete Holmes]

That's.

[Joey McIntyre]

And. And it's three people.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, wow.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. The show is three people. I played Jonathan. And so you're on the stage for an hour and a half. No intermission.

[Pete Holmes]

Holy.

[Joey McIntyre]

Eleven songs. Thirteen songs.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, man. You. Dude, you got forged.

[Joey McIntyre]

It was so cool.

[Pete Holmes]

You're minted.

[Joey McIntyre]

It was so cool.

[Pete Holmes]

It's amazing.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, it's a nice. Nice.

[Pete Holmes]

Let's do some. Before we get to the meaning of life. We talked about happiness a little bit. You ever see a ghost? Ghost? You seem like a guy who's seen a ghost.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, you know, I hesitate because, like, I'm. I'm working on my cynic, you know, My cynic is sort of, you know.

[Pete Holmes]

He'Ll delete a ghost, you know, like.

[Joey McIntyre]

But this. The Boston cynic. I don't know. We blame everything on Boston, but I think that's. Come on, dude. Really?

[Pete Holmes]

You know that in Boston.

[Joey McIntyre]

Really?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, the cynicism.

[Pete Holmes]

Bill Burr could see a ghost on a horse riding by and he'd like, come on.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, totally.

[Pete Holmes]

Fucking didn't get enough sleep.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah, he wouldn't.

[Pete Holmes]

And somebody in LA could see something in the Distance and be like, yeah, exactly. I saw a ghost on horseback.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's my uncle, you know, like, they know exactly who it was.

[Pete Holmes]

Which is so funny that it's the two sides of the country.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And that is the spectrum, Right. We're over here going, like, I think there might be a ghost sitting right there. And Bill Burr is in Boston going, like, come on.

[Joey McIntyre]

I am getting into reincarnation.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, there you go.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Fun.

[Joey McIntyre]

There's this woman, Asha. She comes from the Yogananda something something.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And actually he came from India to. To LA, like, in 1920.

[Pete Holmes]

Anyways, autobiography of a yogi guy.

[Joey McIntyre]

Thank you.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah. I can never say his first name, but Yogananda.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. And what I like about her, she's like a disciple of it. She's very practical in the now. She will give you tools about what works now and talk about. Okay, blah, blah, blah. And then. Oh, and by the way, you know, you were also King Ferdinand in your other life, which is super radical, but I kind of dig it, because I. I kind of. I kind of believe in that spirit, but I don't. I've never. Never. I've never seen a ghost, but I kind of believe that. And why wouldn't we? This ridiculous, mystical, magical journey we're on. How can you believe this and not believe that that's possible?

[Pete Holmes]

This is going to be boring, but it's almost over. Like, the fact that I'm seeing you, that I'm beholding you, is as weird as seeing a ghost. Like, we think this is normal, right? Like, oh, well, there's a guy over there and I'm over here. Like, if we could see it, honestly, we would go like, this is insane.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

There's an awareness localized in you and an awareness localizing me and 1. Localizing Katie. We're all going around having lunch. It's fucking crazy.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

So you're into. And I'll do you one. One worst.

[Joey McIntyre]

It's cool that you can do that. Like, it's like a. It's like a physical thing. Like, you saying that and acknowledging that you can get, like, a high off of that. Of course, you just get a drug thing saying, thank you, because I haven't gone there in a long time.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, no, it's absolutely true. I like the image of the ocean and. And we're waves. Like, you're a wave and I'm away, but we're all the same water. That's why I was gonna say, on reincarnation, I'm. If that's weird, I'm Even weirder. Meaning I think there's only one of them. So in a way, you could say you were everyone and it's all happening at once.

[Joey McIntyre]

Is it all a dream or is it actually happening?

[Pete Holmes]

I actually think that's a nice way to put. Has a reality. It has a relative reality. But thinking of it as God's dream or the one mind's dream.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

So when you dream. This is Rupert Spiro, who I love when you dream at night, you localize yourself in the dream, the whole dream is you. You dream you're at Epcot. You're. You are the stuff of Epcot. The giant golf ball is your mind. Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay.

[Pete Holmes]

It's all made in your mind. But to experience it, you localize yourself as Joey at Epcot. So you put yourself in the dream.

[Joey McIntyre]

And here it's like a software. It just keeps. That's how you get the information, because.

[Pete Holmes]

But it has to have a point of reference.

[Joey McIntyre]

But it's okay.

[Pete Holmes]

You can't be disembodied. You can't be Epcot. You need to look at Epcot. So you put yourself as a point.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And reality. One way to think of reality is like a dream with lots of localized. With billions of localized points, but it's still one mind. But it doesn't mean it's not real to be taken seriously.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

It just means it's not what it appears to be.

[Joey McIntyre]

Right.

[Pete Holmes]

And. And we can just go out and I, like.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Go around treating like it's real.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, exactly. I get. Yes. And I think that's.

[Pete Holmes]

I.

[Joey McIntyre]

That speaks to my practical nature.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

I. I have to have my own story, because if you go too far with, like, it's all a dream, it never happened, you know?

[Pete Holmes]

Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay. But I think that's the beauty of life, is this game we get to play.

[Pete Holmes]

I. I agree. I actually just had a ketamine experience where I was like, yeah, we already know. We just want to keep swimming. It's meaning living. Like, we know there's nothing to be achieved or enlightened or realized. We like swimming.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

We were.

[Joey McIntyre]

We were. What is that? So you took a. What is it?

[Pete Holmes]

Ketamine is a. Yeah. I don't know if it's. If it's classified as a hallucinogen.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But it really gives you, like, a spiritual experience.

[Joey McIntyre]

Whoa.

[Pete Holmes]

Like a unitive consciousness. And you can do it legally in therapeutic settings.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And it gives you those types of feelings. But the last time I did, it was. I was like, we're not trying to like get out of this or shed this. This is what we want to do. We want to swim. Even. Even the nasty bits. All of it kind of belongs in this.

[Joey McIntyre]

In this.

[Pete Holmes]

Weird. It gets hard to talk about.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

But really cool. You've never done a psychedelic.

[Joey McIntyre]

I did mushrooms twice years ago.

[Pete Holmes]

Okay.

[Joey McIntyre]

And the funny thing is, as I say is like, I. They were so amazing and I don't know why I didn't do them again.

[Pete Holmes]

Right. You know, maybe you just got them out message.

[Joey McIntyre]

I guess.

[Pete Holmes]

They're not. It's not like a beer where you're like, let's do that again.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Yeah, maybe. I don't. I'm newly clean and sober, which is so. I. A ketamine trip sounds amazing.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, but. But which is a whole. This is a whole nother trip that I'm like day to time leaning into this experience because people can talk about sobriety being psychedelic in its own way.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

And it is when it's new, the pink cloud and the whole thing. Sometimes you wish you could turn it off and whoop de whoop. But I'm not doing that. So the ketamine thing goes. Oh, wouldn't that be sweet?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

But teach his own for sure.

[Pete Holmes]

And I don't think. How could it be that the mysteries and the truth that the universe, for lack of a better term, wants you to know are limited to people who take a intravenous psychedelic. You don't have to. Certainly not. But that goes back to what we were saying here is. It's right here and now.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Anything that is real is. Is here right now and you can tap into it. I think it's amazing that you got sober. How? I guess I shouldn't say.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, no, I. I didn't. I. I haven't drank in since March, like 10th or 11th last year. So. Coming up on a year. Yeah. Yeah. And just always wanted to give it a shot.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

It was more. I wasn't a huge drinker. I was thriving. It just. I was. The obsession was more about wanting to not drink than to drink.

[Pete Holmes]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

You wanted to see what that was like.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. And then when I stopped, I realized how much, even if it was next Thursday, how much I was managing my life around the next drink. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Turning it off, the.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, the. The rip cord.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know what I mean?

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

Lots of. Lots of. I mean, I couldn't even believe it. And the bandwidth exploded. I was available for so much more simply from the physical standpoint of, oh, I'm not gonna, I'm never, I'm not gonna drink.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know, and again, to each his own. But I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm showing up in, you know, more present. That's, that's been my journey.

[Pete Holmes]

I love you that, I love that more and more young people are not drinking.

[Joey McIntyre]

Oh yeah. A lot of it was the Internet.

[Pete Holmes]

The Internet.

[Joey McIntyre]

And that was in my algorithm. And that helped too. And I have a lot of people around me that, you know, are sober too.

[Pete Holmes]

So I stopped drinking my as well. I haven't drank in seven years. Obviously. I still occasionally do psychedelics.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

The most California thing I can say. But, but that actually has the reason. For example, I just did Ken mean was, I was, I could tell I needed a reboot in that way. And if you saw.

[Joey McIntyre]

I'm close to that too. I mean again, a day at a time. But it's like, yeah, that makes total sense.

[Pete Holmes]

If you saw me on it, you wouldn't be like, that dude's partying.

[Joey McIntyre]

Why not? There's no judgment around it. And it's safe. Yeah, absolutely. Great.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, great. Do you know my favorite, My friend Matt told me this. He goes, when you stop drinking, you'll feel better. He goes, you'll feel angry better. You'll feel sad better. And it's true.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. The Frank Sinatra quote. I feel sorry for people that don't drink because that's the best they're gonna feel all day when they wake up in the morning, you know, that's the best they're gonna feel all day. That's it. I blew the joke, but I actually.

[Pete Holmes]

Thought it worked both ways.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, in closing, the record is called Freedom. Sorry. Freedom.

[Joey McIntyre]

Freedom.

[Pete Holmes]

I think it's great. You should be really proud. Go ahead.

[Joey McIntyre]

Do you edit any of this or. This is it.

[Pete Holmes]

This is it.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay, good, good. Because I'm announcing because I was going to ask when it's going to air because I'm going, I have some April dates.

[Pete Holmes]

It'll be up before.

[Joey McIntyre]

Okay. Okay.

[Pete Holmes]

Absolutely.

[Joey McIntyre]

So solo dates. Keep an eye, eye on that joeymacintyre.com for all the fun dates. I n T Y R E dot com.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, and check them out. That's incredible, man. I, I, that's, I wish you all the success.

[Joey McIntyre]

Thanks for listening. This was a blast.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah, I'm glad you, you were here. We do have one more question, but it's easy.

[Joey McIntyre]

I love it.

[Pete Holmes]

Who cares? Look at these dumb notes. The last question is, can you tell me a time in your Life where you laughed, tears streaming down your face, you thought you're going to pee your pants. It doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be a good story. And here's this. Might open it up. Maybe someone fell, maybe someone farted. The. The answers are often dumb, so don't feel like I'm not looking for a. I open the door, it's Judy Tanuda. Yeah, I just, you know.

[Joey McIntyre]

I, I think, you know, I'd like to say it was, you know, something, but it was, it was probably an Instagram. Oh, my comedy guy. Yeah, you know, he does.

[Pete Holmes]

I. I'm pretty against social media, but the times I've gone on reels, I have tears streaming.

[Joey McIntyre]

What's his freaking name? He's in my algorithm. But I don't, I don't follow him. But he's.

[Pete Holmes]

Gosh, I bet he's stand up guy.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, he's got it by. By the way, my for you page is pathetic. There's more cleavage on my for you page than any dad should have on his phone. It's. It's embarrassing. I gotta like this guy. Grill guy.

[Pete Holmes]

Grill guy.

[Joey McIntyre]

Grill Guy. He's just a funny guy. He just does silly videos.

[Pete Holmes]

All you need. Yeah, Grill guy. I mean, grill guy. You're welcome.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, Grill guy. There you go.

[Pete Holmes]

What a nice moment for grill Guy.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know Tony B. From Island Wild Real Estate? He's this guy selling.

[Pete Holmes]

That's his character.

[Joey McIntyre]

No, this is not the real life guy on Staten Island. You know, he's just hilarious. I wish, I wish I had a better answer for that. No, I'm gonna think of you the next time I laugh really hard.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, we know the real answer was old farts on the. On the block.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

With their heads swinging.

[Joey McIntyre]

Swinging. Weak. Dude, that is. Wow.

[Pete Holmes]

And I think I remember one of the other lines. Does he go, listen up, everybody, because we're gonna do our thing.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Pete Holmes]

And then we went. Not on the silky white sheets. As like, gonna do what I do.

[Joey McIntyre]

You have to be older than third grade. This is really good.

[Pete Holmes]

Maybe we will.

[Joey McIntyre]

Maybe we're not writing movies with. Who's the other one?

[Pete Holmes]

His name was Miguel.

[Joey McIntyre]

Miguel. It was the two of you. You were kind of the writers. And then there were three other. There's.

[Pete Holmes]

There was only two of us.

[Joey McIntyre]

Wow.

[Pete Holmes]

I mean, to quote Chris Rock, I don't have five friends now. Right.

[Joey McIntyre]

I love that. Yeah, me too.

[Pete Holmes]

Well, what a thrill. I'm. I'm so happy to meet you and so happy to see that you're doing Boston Good for you out there following your dreams.

[Joey McIntyre]

Look at you.

[Pete Holmes]

You put out a solo album. Must be nice.

[Joey McIntyre]

Must be nice.

[Pete Holmes]

I mean.

[Joey McIntyre]

Dot, get the car.

[Pete Holmes]

I'd love to see you at a Boston funeral. That would be a hoot. Oh, Joey, how many times. Let me ask you this. How many times a month does somebody say, look, we have a. My cousin just moved to la. He wants to get in the music room.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah, yeah. No, not too bad. But, you know, did you get the thing where. What we would get was, you know, they. They tell you, like, where you were, you know. Oh, you were. Oh, you were down. You used to date Stacy. No. You know. Yeah, you did. No, you're not. Yeah, you are.

[Pete Holmes]

That's the most.

[Joey McIntyre]

I mean, that was it ever. And. And, like, God bless. And, like, we got older and, like, I was living my lost weekend. And then our fans got older, so they were drunk, and I wasn't their hero anymore. I would. They were just drunk and they'd come up and they, you know, say the dumbest things, you know, and it was always. They'd love to tell you. Yeah, you were there. Oh, you were.

[Pete Holmes]

Yeah.

[Joey McIntyre]

You know.

[Pete Holmes]

You don't remember. You know, Jimmy's on 128.

[Joey McIntyre]

Yeah. Oh, you were there. Yes, you were.

[Pete Holmes]

We went to Steve's ice cream.

[Joey McIntyre]

He's, like, just completely making things up with such conviction.

[Pete Holmes]

Most awesome thing I've ever heard. Would you. This is how we close. It's just to give the show a sense of completion, would you say? Keep it crispy. It's just how we end.

[Joey McIntyre]

Keep it crispy, girl.

[Pete Holmes]

Wow, that's really high. But yours stays soft.

[Joey McIntyre]

Well, that's.

[Pete Holmes]

I know, but listen, mine, it's pinched, it's thin. Now do yours.

[Joey McIntyre]

Because you're doing all the. The. The talking here. You're using the. Which me, I talk too much to. Yeah, I don't know. The airy thing is good, too. The raspy thing can work for you. Embrace that. Embrace that.

[Pete Holmes]

It's both.

[Joey McIntyre]

And there's room for all of us.

[Pete Holmes]

It.