Which one do you like the most, sex, love, or music? Um...

I think there's songs from each category that I love.

Okay.

Because even the songs that are like the sex category could be just sexy or it's about sex.

Love.

Good and bad because there's breakups and then there's great relationships and then music is just fun songs for everyone to vibe to.

So it was definitely an interesting concept album.

How long did it take to learn that choreography? Oh.

Love

that.

The Angels, Alex's Angels.

I love it.

So good, so talented, so sweet.

There's a song that's very personal to me from the first album, a song called Arizona.

I wasn't prepared.

we want the clean version? I mean, you

Yes.

So, uh, my, and my, my youngest is nine.

She'll still kinda go back and watch Paw Patrol and other shows that she watched when she was younger.

And as they're listening to the demo, they're like, "Wait, that's not you guys.

That sounds like Ed Sheeran." And I was like, "Actually, it is Ed Sheeran." Ed actually wrote the song along with Savan.

So that was really cool for us to hear Ed singing the demo, and he's a big fan of ours, as we are of, you know, him as well.

So the song just hit us all.

How is that? Does it feel like you guys have just like masterfully put together this amazing family structure within this, this group?

Okay.

My rock bottom was years later.

A rock bottom moment for me then, I swore to myself that I would never do drugs before a show or drink during or before a show, and I held true for a while, and it wasn't until the end before we- Had to kind of take the tour down for a minute and I went to rehab and all those things.

That I was drinking on stage.

We had a little skit before The Call where the phone would ring, like the intro to the song, and I had a prop phone, and I would be like looking at the fans, "Is that, is that you calling me? Is that you calling me?" And then I would turn around and look at my band and I'd be like, "Is it you? Is it you?" And I would specifically walk over to our percussion player, and he had a red solo cup.

And everybody out in the audience is gonna assume it's water.

... bottom

... for me was, which was initially the turning point to really get my shit together, uh, I had a show in South Beach.

Yeah.

Um, so w- if anything's bothering me, instead of me harboring it or blowing it off, it's like let's just get it, let's just address it immediately, nip it in the bud, and then move on.Um, some things are easier to move on from than others, but, you know, I mean, I never did any step work when I got sober the first time in 2001, so I just white-knuckled it for seven years, and I was destined to relapse.

And I was a chronic relapser.

Like, I, for, like, the last 20-plus years, it was in, out, in, out, until this last time, and I just...

You know, it was finally the right time.

My youngest daughter is a big part of why I finally nipped it in the bud.

So, you know, and she's old enough now to kind of understand, like, how much she really did play a part in it.

Okay.

... today.

Yeah.

Once everything transpired, we were an open book about it.

Like, we were, you know, w- we were in, I, I think we were in Sweden about to go back in the studio, and Brian was the one that s- that basically really started doing some digging and finding out, like, this isn't adding up.

We're out here busting our ass, leaving our families, you know, touring, traveling, and he's making the same shit we're making and he's not lifting a finger, plus this, this, this and this.

So he was the one that was like, "Okay, I'm putting together a lawsuit.

You guys can hop on board with me or not."

... yeah

But do you guys go in with this? So where are you guys at mentally, like career-wise? Do you go in jaded? Do you go in excited? No,

we were excited.

I mean, we... we had a record deal now.

Like, you know, we, it was serious, you know? Um, because prior to that, everything was just done independently.

It was through trans con records, which was lose fake label that he created, you know, and everything was just done in house.

This was like, okay, we have a real record deal.

Like this is now, this is happening.

like,

And the reason I love that song is, and it's funny because I find this to be the case so much, the more vulnerable you are as an artist, the more people respond to it.

True.

And that song definitely, you know, when we wrapped up the DNA tour in South Africa, May of 2023, my wife and I were already separated.

We were living in separate homes.

And I... called her when I got home from that, from the end of the tour.

And I said, you know, I think I need a, I, I, I think I need a break, like a mental break.

And I kind of want to go away and, you know, kind of handle some stuff.

You kind of get trapped in a way in your success and now it's like you're at a place in your life where it's like yes AJ is cool and you love your bandmates and all that but you also can say to the world this is who I am as well and again I mean so many great musicians have lived with that and struggled with that and had a hard time figuring out how to get because of course everybody wants you to be who they know you to be

Thank you.

No, this is...

Look, thank you so much for having me.

This is phenomenal, and, uh, yeah, if you haven't been out to Vegas, come on out.

We got shows back this summer, so-

[cheering]

Um, but then this opportunity kind of fell in our lap, and this is the most state-of-the-art venue to do the most futuristic show.

And Millennium, we thought, was the most futuristic album, so it worked out.

Did you ever talk to him about that?

We did talk about it.

You know, the entire time that we were filming, he was sober.

We did casually talk about it.

And then...

We would talk about just everything, about life, about music.

He had just finished a new project, and this was the most length of time that him and I had ever spent together.

Um,

And the reason I love that song is, and it's funny because I find this to be the case so much, the more vulnerable you are as an artist, the more people respond to it.

True.

And that song definitely...

You know, when we wrapped up the DNA tour in South Africa, May of 2023, my wife and I were already separated.

We were living in separate homes.

And I called her when I got home from the end of the tour.

And I said, you know, I think I need a break, like a mental break.

You kind of get trapped in a way in your success and now it's like you're at a place in your life where it's like yes AJ is cool and you love your bandmates and all that but you also can say to the world this is who I am as well and again I mean so many great musicians have lived with that and struggled with that and had a hard time figuring out how to get because of course everybody wants you to be who they know you to be