Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Hey, Bessie's Today on the bright Side. We're joined by
Speaker 2: the chart topping superstar Jojo. Maybe you're like me and
Speaker 2: Danielle and JoJo's hits like Leave get Out and Too Little,
Speaker 2: Too Late. We're the soundtrack to your youth too. But
Speaker 2: what happens when that voice is silenced? We'll find out
Speaker 2: when we unpack her new memoir, Over the Influence. Jojo
Speaker 2: is back, y'all, more empowered than ever and sharing for
Speaker 2: the first time how she's reclaiming her career, her story,
Speaker 2: and her voice. It's Tuesday, October First, I'm Simone.
Speaker 3: Voice, I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side
Speaker 3: from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together
Speaker 3: to share women's stories, laugh, learn.
Speaker 1: And brighten your day.
Speaker 3: All right, we're both so excited for today's guests.
Speaker 1: Joanna Jojo Leveck. You all know her.
Speaker 3: She burst into the spotlight at just thirteen years old
Speaker 3: when she released her her self titled debut album.
Speaker 1: It was a huge success.
Speaker 3: It went on to sell over four million copies and
Speaker 3: became JoJo's first platinum record, and her hit from that album,
Speaker 3: Leave Get Out, made Jojo the youngest ever solo artist
Speaker 3: to have a debut number one single in the US.
Speaker 1: I still sing that song all the time.
Speaker 2: I was just about to say the exact same thing.
Speaker 2: Her songs still live rent free in my head. I'll
Speaker 2: just be going about my day and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, Jojo has me in a choke hold again.
Speaker 3: I mean, especially with TikTok, they're everywhere once again. They
Speaker 3: never really went out, but they're having a resurgence for sure.
Speaker 3: Jojo released her second studio album, called The High Road,
Speaker 3: just two years later, and it featured her second smash
Speaker 3: hit too Little, Too Late, which I know we've all
Speaker 3: sung along too on road trips in the shower if
Speaker 3: a man leaves us all the time.
Speaker 2: Definitely sung about heartbreak at a time when I didn't
Speaker 2: even know what heartbreak was. So thank you for that education, Jojo.
Speaker 2: You know, in the early two thousands, Jojo was truly
Speaker 2: everyone where I mean movies, magazines, radio, TV, you name it.
Speaker 2: But then it felt like Jojo just kind of disappeared,
Speaker 2: leaving a lot of her fans wondering where did she go. Well,
Speaker 2: it turns out a dispute with her record label left
Speaker 2: her silence for years, and she finally took them to
Speaker 2: court to get out of her contract. I can't imagine
Speaker 2: how difficult that must have been, not just for her,
Speaker 2: but also for her family. I mean, she was just
Speaker 2: a child navigating this massive talent and music career and
Speaker 2: trying to find herself. And we've all heard the stories
Speaker 2: just about how brutal this industry can be.
Speaker 3: It's not lost on me either, the irony, right Like,
Speaker 3: she is known for her voice, and yet she was silenced,
Speaker 3: and I think it left a lot of people wondering
Speaker 3: what if, what would have happened had she not had
Speaker 3: her career ripped away from her like that.
Speaker 2: For sure, there was a big question mark there for
Speaker 2: a lot of us. And now she's back and putting
Speaker 2: all the rumors to rest. She's setting the record straight
Speaker 2: herself in her new memoir, Over the Influence. It's this raw,
Speaker 2: vulnerable depiction of her life and for the first time,
Speaker 2: she's telling her own story in her own words. And
Speaker 2: to quote the chart stopping singer, she is ready to
Speaker 2: be counted the f in. She is here with us
Speaker 2: now too, Jojo. Welcome to the bright side.
Speaker 4: Thank you. It feels good to be here on the
Speaker 4: bright side.
Speaker 3: We have been waiting fifteen years for this moment. No, Lie,
Speaker 3: I have to tell you. Your talent is undeniable, and
Speaker 3: you've always had so much to say, not just through
Speaker 3: your music, but your words too. And you're out with
Speaker 3: your new memoir Over the Influence, and it really lays
Speaker 3: bare the experiences that you went through as a teenager
Speaker 3: breaking into this industry. And I went to Google your
Speaker 3: name last night, and so many of the headlines came up.
Speaker 3: Every few years it would say Jojo reclaims her powerhouse voice.
Speaker 3: And as I was reading your book, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 3: there's been reclamations a few times. You've really been fighting
Speaker 3: for that. It feels like this is the time. What
Speaker 3: does it feel like to finally tell your story in
Speaker 3: your own words?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, it feels right on time. You know.
Speaker 4: People are like, why now, And I would say, because
Speaker 4: I have the strange experience of having a twenty year
Speaker 4: career at thirty three, so I kind of wanted to
Speaker 4: make sense of a lot of the things that confused
Speaker 4: me for so long. But yeah, I went back and
Speaker 4: forth about like, can I do my own story justice?
Speaker 4: Do I even know how to? I've only written three
Speaker 4: minute songs really but before you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 4: I was like, can I even do this? I don't
Speaker 4: want to sell myself short, but I also couldn't put
Speaker 4: it in the hands of anyone else. I've done that
Speaker 4: in different ways, and just betting on myself is kind
Speaker 4: of where I'm at and trusting my own internal guidance
Speaker 4: system saying even if other people don't understand or agree,
Speaker 4: it just doesn't matter anymore. I just and that, I
Speaker 4: think is like the gift of being thirty plus, because
Speaker 4: in my twenties I just did not feel that way.
Speaker 2: Okay, Jojo, I got to get real with you for
Speaker 2: a minute. Oh my god, please, you are a true superstar.
Speaker 2: Your songs had top forty in a choke hold, including
Speaker 2: you a Girl and Danielle. You've been in major studio films,
Speaker 2: on magazine covers, national TV, and then it feels like,
Speaker 2: kind of out of the blue, everything came to a
Speaker 2: halt and you stepped out of the spotlight. I ask
Speaker 2: this on behalf of all Jojo fans around the world,
Speaker 2: because I know you're really tight with your fans, and
Speaker 2: you know how invested all of us are in you
Speaker 2: in your career.
Speaker 5: Just in you as a human.
Speaker 2: Tell us what happened, tell us what happened when you
Speaker 2: stepped out of the spotlight, and why, Oh.
Speaker 4: It was so not my intention, you know, I was
Speaker 4: feeling all the momentum that was happening in my career.
Speaker 4: I mean, I had back to back really successful albums
Speaker 4: in my teens, and then I basically kind of became
Speaker 4: a victim of music industry circumstance and politics and things
Speaker 4: that are not sexy, but basically like a label that
Speaker 4: lost their funding and was no longer a functioning record label.
Speaker 4: But then they wouldn't let me go, and then I
Speaker 4: didn't own my voice, so I couldn't do anything with it,
Speaker 4: like just a shit show and made me feel like
Speaker 4: so embarrassed because I didn't want like my fans or
Speaker 4: my family to worry about me, and they were like,
Speaker 4: they're killing your career, You're about to die on the vine.
Speaker 4: I'm like, no, it's gonna be fine, because I just
Speaker 4: never wanted anybody to feel bad for me, even though
Speaker 4: I was like pretty devastated and ultimately just wanted to
Speaker 4: be able to put music out and continue on that
Speaker 4: path that I was like that we had started on
Speaker 4: when I was twelve thirteen years old. So in the
Speaker 4: stepping out of the spotlight, it was not for a
Speaker 4: lack of trying, Like I was recording hundreds of songs
Speaker 4: over the years and fighting really hard behind the scenes
Speaker 4: to the point where I lost that fight from just
Speaker 4: fighting so long and so hard to no avail.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of feels like imprisonment because like music
Speaker 3: is all you had known since you were like five
Speaker 3: seven years old. Were there moments during that time that
Speaker 3: you thought this is it for me? Or did you
Speaker 3: have faith it would be okay.
Speaker 4: I have a resilient spirit and I'm optimistic, like I
Speaker 4: can see the silver lining, I can see a bright side.
Speaker 4: But there was a point where I no longer saw
Speaker 4: a light at the end of the tunnel. Where I
Speaker 4: also had maintained optimism for years and tried different things,
Speaker 4: and then I was like, you know what, Actually I'm
Speaker 4: a lost cause, like because then I like fell deep
Speaker 4: into depression and then like self sabotaging behaviors and addiction
Speaker 4: and just trying to like deal with the emotions that
Speaker 4: I had been suppressing because I didn't want people to
Speaker 4: worry or feel bad or anything like that.
Speaker 3: They literally took your voice. It was like you were
Speaker 3: like the little mermaid.
Speaker 4: I mean, I started to feel bad for myself. I
Speaker 4: started to feel like I was this thing that people
Speaker 4: could talk about in the industry, and people were like, Oh,
Speaker 4: if only we could sign her or we could work
Speaker 4: with her, she was available to do this, but I
Speaker 4: wasn't because I legally didn't own my voice, couldn't do
Speaker 4: anything with that. And I think that the truth about
Speaker 4: my story and what I talk about in Over the
Speaker 4: Influence is that a lot of my fans know and
Speaker 4: really helped me through that period of time with like
Speaker 4: the free jojo movement, with like creating awareness around what
Speaker 4: was going on behind the scenes with my label at
Speaker 4: the time. But that's just a small sliver of my
Speaker 4: story because I also believe that, yeah, you can have
Speaker 4: like a set of circumstances that are happening in your life,
Speaker 4: but you can make different choices with them, you know.
Speaker 4: I think that I really kind of embodied that, Like
Speaker 4: people were telling me that I was a victim, and
Speaker 4: I was like, you know what, yeah I am. And
Speaker 4: I think Over the Influence is the journey of saying
Speaker 4: that feels terrible. I hate that narrative and I am
Speaker 4: similar to what you said earlier, like I have to
Speaker 4: reclaim the way I look at things and live my life,
Speaker 4: because what is life about if not to like experience
Speaker 4: joy and connection and possibility.
Speaker 5: You know, yeah, you don't get to tell me when
Speaker 5: my story ends.
Speaker 4: Exactly, no, right, But I certainly felt like it was
Speaker 4: over a lot, and because I just I gave up
Speaker 4: on myself, you know, several times.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: I also I wonder about that because you were thirteen
Speaker 2: years old when you just exploded onto the scene. You
Speaker 2: were the youngest artist to have a single atop the
Speaker 2: top forty charts. I mean, people were praising you and
Speaker 2: waiting on you hand and foot everywhere you went. And
Speaker 2: I wonder what happens to your psyche, to your emotions,
Speaker 2: like when that NonStop avalanche of validation, as you wrote
Speaker 2: in your book, goes away.
Speaker 4: It went away in like the heightened you know, crazy,
Speaker 4: when you have a number one single, it can be
Speaker 4: an onslaught of just everybody kissing your ass and all that.
Speaker 4: But I heard somebody say this, and it's kind of
Speaker 4: true that if you're ever famous, you're kind of famous forever.
Speaker 4: And the truth is that people treat you unrealistically, So
Speaker 4: I think that that created like a false sense of
Speaker 4: first of all, not really knowing who genuinely likes me
Speaker 4: or what people's intentions are. Because I started so young,
Speaker 4: I think that that was like a tender spot for
Speaker 4: me because I was already bullied as a kid. I
Speaker 4: already didn't think that people liked me, so then when
Speaker 4: people started to being nice to me, I'm like, what
Speaker 4: is this about? But I definitely did get my sense
Speaker 4: of self worth from being popular and outside of school.
Speaker 4: But when my music was particularly popular and I really
Speaker 4: needed that validation, that can be an addictive thing, and
Speaker 4: that's one of the things that influenced so many of
Speaker 4: my decisions throughout the years, personally and professionally. Was like
Speaker 4: seeking that validation, because when fame gets into your system,
Speaker 4: it's like putting heroin into a prepubescent creature. You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, how old were you when you recorded get Out twelve?
Speaker 3: You weren't even thirteen. That's so wild. I read that
Speaker 3: you didn't initially connect with the song and you didn't
Speaker 3: want it to be your first single. It obviously was,
Speaker 3: and it had major success, But I'm wondering what happens
Speaker 3: to your brain? As a young person and as an
Speaker 3: artist when they're not listening to you.
Speaker 4: I never saw myself as a pop singer. I always
Speaker 4: felt like a soul singer. Those were the singers that
Speaker 4: I admired and that I studied and looked up to.
Speaker 4: And I kind of had like an aversion to say it,
Speaker 4: say it the mainstream that just wasn't I don't really
Speaker 4: like that shit, Like I wasn't that into the boy
Speaker 4: bands and the girl bands and stuff like a little bit,
Speaker 4: I guess, but I was more like, no, it's about
Speaker 4: Areta and Eda James and even Ella Fitzgerald more on
Speaker 4: the jazz side. That's what I resonated with. So with
Speaker 4: Leave Get Out, I just didn't get it. I just
Speaker 4: didn't really like because that wasn't my world of listening
Speaker 4: to a bunch of pop records. I didn't get it.
Speaker 4: That was the first instance of me going along for
Speaker 4: the ride and my mom, who is very very much
Speaker 4: an earnest, true down to earth person. She's very heart
Speaker 4: forward and leads just with who she is, and that's
Speaker 4: the first time that I really broke with her and
Speaker 4: I was like, no, I'm going to listen to what
Speaker 4: these people who know better than us are saying oh wow,
Speaker 4: because she was like, you don't like the song, I
Speaker 4: don't like this song, blah blah blah. But I'm like, no,
Speaker 4: I think they know what they're talking about and we
Speaker 4: should just go. Because she was managing me at the time,
Speaker 4: but she was concerned that her daughter was being molded
Speaker 4: and shaped into something that I like, Naturally.
Speaker 1: Did that sort of rupture your relationship with her was
Speaker 1: at the beginning?
Speaker 4: Probably, I would say when I started to have a
Speaker 4: lot of success, that deepened that rupture. Because it's hard
Speaker 4: enough being a single mom having a girl only child,
Speaker 4: where we were so so close, and then she was
Speaker 4: managing me and we had no experience in this game
Speaker 4: because it is a game in this system. It was
Speaker 4: like trial by fire and it was really really challenging
Speaker 4: on our relationship and what that did to my brain,
Speaker 4: Like how you asked, I think that it taught me.
Speaker 4: It conditioned me to say, how you feel doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: And I'm not saying that other people were like how
Speaker 4: you feel doesn't matter, but that's the subconscious messaging that
Speaker 4: I very quickly understood.
Speaker 3: There's one story from your book that I think is
Speaker 3: going to have every stop every millennial girl in her tracks.
Speaker 3: You almost signed a record deal with Britney Spears.
Speaker 1: Can you give us the day on that?
Speaker 4: I know that is so crazy. When I was like,
Speaker 4: I don't even think I was ten yet, I was
Speaker 4: maybe nine or ten. I called into the local Top
Speaker 4: forty station in Boston because someone was like, oh, they
Speaker 4: they're giving tickets away to their summer concert. I always
Speaker 4: wanted to put myself in positions to be seen and
Speaker 4: to sing for people like I really wanted that. So anyway,
Speaker 4: long story short, I ended up winning the tickets. So
Speaker 4: my mom and I went and I sang my way
Speaker 4: through security from one security guard to the next. Ended
Speaker 4: up meeting Britney Spears, and I did, and I still
Speaker 4: do think that she's amazing. I loved Baby one more
Speaker 4: time when it came out, like there's some soul in that.
Speaker 4: First of all, I think it's an a dope record.
Speaker 4: She was saying that she was going to start a
Speaker 4: production company. Her and her attorney at the time, Larry Rudolph,
Speaker 4: were going to start something, and basically a few weeks
Speaker 4: after meeting her, a contract was sent to our little
Speaker 4: apartment in Massachuset. It was about signing to her production company,
Speaker 4: and my mom was like you no, you're too young,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, you hate me, you bought you wish
Speaker 4: death upon me, like you want me to die, because
Speaker 4: I was like, this is a chance, Like we're never
Speaker 4: going to get better than this. I'm grateful that she
Speaker 4: didn't go with that because first of all, ten, I
Speaker 4: mean not that twelve is much older, but ten is crazy.
Speaker 4: Ten is crazy, and I don't think Britney ever put
Speaker 4: out any artists on her production company, so you know,
Speaker 4: I thought I was shelved. I just don't even think
Speaker 4: my career would have gotten off the ground because sometimes
Speaker 4: it's riskier to sign to an artist's label.
Speaker 2: Well, this actually makes me think of something that you
Speaker 2: wrote on your Instagram recently. You're doing the series of
Speaker 2: posts where you were giving advice to your younger self,
Speaker 2: and there was one that you wrote to your thirteen
Speaker 2: year old self and you said, quote, not every opportunity
Speaker 2: is for you say no to the ones that don't
Speaker 2: feel right, so you can be available to say yes
Speaker 2: to the things it do.
Speaker 5: What did you have in mind when you wrote that.
Speaker 4: If you're saying yes to everything from a place of fear,
Speaker 4: that you're never going to get another opportunity. Then you're
Speaker 4: not really checking in if it's like, if it's in resonance,
Speaker 4: not only just does it feel right, but let me
Speaker 4: lay this out in black and white, does it make sense?
Speaker 4: All these things? So that's really generally what I was
Speaker 4: thinking of. But I do think that regardless of how
Speaker 4: anything panned out with my former label that I was
Speaker 4: assigned to at first, that was meant to unfold that way.
Speaker 4: I'm incredibly grateful for the foundation that it set up
Speaker 4: for me to live a life that I really enjoy.
Speaker 4: And if anything else had been different about it, if
Speaker 4: I had said yes to something, then I wouldn't have
Speaker 4: been able to say yes to the thing that actually
Speaker 4: was a part of my destiny.
Speaker 2: I think we are loving this conversation, but we need
Speaker 2: to take a quick break.
Speaker 5: We'll be right.
Speaker 1: Back, and we're back with Jojo Jojo.
Speaker 3: The other day, I saw this woman from like the
Speaker 3: Harvard a cappella group on stage performing a Whitney Houston song.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, they're so good. I love the Harvard
Speaker 4: Acapella group. I saw that exact thing.
Speaker 1: They're unbelievable.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she was killing you know what I'm talking about. Yes,
Speaker 4: she was so killing.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm not in music. I just reposted it because
Speaker 3: I was like, this woman is just so embodied. Yes,
Speaker 3: And so I'm watching it back and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I started crying. M And I realized that I started
Speaker 3: crying because she looked like the world had not hit
Speaker 3: her yet, Like there was no like harassment, There was
Speaker 3: no like, there was no the stuff that you get
Speaker 3: from just being a woman in any industry, particularly in
Speaker 3: Hollywood or in music. You have really been through it,
Speaker 3: Like reading your book. I don't want to give it
Speaker 3: all away to people, but like you have gone to
Speaker 3: the depths of your soul and back again. And I'm
Speaker 3: wondering when you look at people that are like young
Speaker 3: women coming up or somebody who's like just like on
Speaker 3: the precipice of it, what do you feel like, what
Speaker 3: do you wish you could say to them to kind
Speaker 3: of like protect that that thing that I was feeling
Speaker 3: in that video from that girl.
Speaker 4: Oh, I love that. That's such a beautiful thing for
Speaker 4: you to feel and for her to be reflecting out
Speaker 4: into the you know, the joy that like unbridled connection,
Speaker 4: yes to whatever it is to source creation like it's
Speaker 4: so dope, it's so beautiful. And I think about this
Speaker 4: a lot because I really like, I've always been an
Speaker 4: old soul, but now I'm old enough that I can
Speaker 4: be that eccentric, experienced, artsy auntie to people. And I
Speaker 4: want to be so to answer your question, and there's
Speaker 4: so many things I would say, and that's part of
Speaker 4: why I did like that little series of the advice
Speaker 4: that i'd give, you know, my younger self, but I
Speaker 4: would say, just be so unapologetic about doing what is
Speaker 4: right for you, doing what feels right for you, and
Speaker 4: following that thing that lights you up, following that joy.
Speaker 4: Like I mean, maybe she goes to Harvard for music
Speaker 4: or something, but maybe that's just like a passion of
Speaker 4: hers and then she's also studying something else, and I
Speaker 4: think that's a side thing. Don't let those side things go.
Speaker 4: Don't lose yourself to your ambitions or to climbing. I
Speaker 4: don't think that that's worth it. I think that the
Speaker 4: example that like Simone Viles has been setting for young
Speaker 4: women is so important and so different than what we
Speaker 4: saw where it's like burnout, exhaustion. Just just push it
Speaker 4: to the max. And look, I have done that in
Speaker 4: my own ways, and I've broken many times. And I
Speaker 4: think that someone as famous and as influential as she
Speaker 4: is to say no, she's really teaching young girls and
Speaker 4: grown ask girls like myself how to be a whole
Speaker 4: person and not just a machine because we're not.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: You've gotten me thinking about just the contrast between what
Speaker 2: it was like to be a pop star in the
Speaker 2: late nineties early two thousands versus today, and I think
Speaker 2: some aspects have improved for young female pop stars. I
Speaker 2: think when you were coming up, there was this widespread
Speaker 2: sexualization of young girls from I mean the time that
Speaker 2: they were pre teens to teenagers. I read in your
Speaker 2: book that you actually didn't want to be perceived as
Speaker 2: more sexual necessarily, but like older and more mature, Like
Speaker 2: you wanted to present this older air to the people
Speaker 2: that you were around. And there was this quote, Jojo
Speaker 2: that hit me like a gut punch when I read it.
Speaker 2: You were talking about when you looked in the mirror
Speaker 2: the first time that you had gotten professional makeup done,
Speaker 2: and you said, I didn't see a thirteen year old
Speaker 2: girl anymore. I saw an eighteen year old pop star.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what I hoped other people would see too. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to put this like framing on
Speaker 2: it that might not be there for you, So correct
Speaker 2: me if I'm wrong with this framing. But do you
Speaker 2: feel like that perspective cost you anything? Looking back on.
Speaker 4: It personally cost me? Yeah, I was in such a
Speaker 4: rush to grow up. I never wanted to be a kid.
Speaker 4: I thought it was inconvenient to the work that I
Speaker 4: wanted to do, and to the money that I wanted
Speaker 4: to make, to my ambition. It just was. And first
Speaker 4: of all, why was I that way? That's a whole
Speaker 4: other conversation, like why was this little girl feeling like
Speaker 4: I needed to make a way out of no way
Speaker 4: for me and my mom and all these things? And
Speaker 4: I wanted something different. But I was embarrassed to be
Speaker 4: so young, Like I did not look at it as
Speaker 4: a cool thing. But then when the youngest artist to
Speaker 4: have a number one on the top forty chart, I'm like, oh, so,
Speaker 4: I guess this is a good thing in other people's eyes.
Speaker 4: But I still felt so alone because the closest people
Speaker 4: in age to me were eighteen like that were in
Speaker 4: music at that time or in film and television and stuff.
Speaker 4: So I just I felt like an outlier, even more
Speaker 4: so than I already did, just being like a girl
Speaker 4: who got bullied and felt like a bit of a
Speaker 4: little weirdo. And do I think it cost me anything?
Speaker 4: I think that being in a rush for cycles to
Speaker 4: complete or for like seasons to go faster, I'm sure
Speaker 4: that cost me something. I think that not being around
Speaker 4: kids my age, that's exactly what I wanted. I wanted
Speaker 4: to be around the adults and everything. But do I
Speaker 4: think that I would have benefited from maybe going through
Speaker 4: that uncomfortable process with other people my age, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: think so probably.
Speaker 3: Okay, I need to get key about your music for
Speaker 3: a second with you. So I just saw that viral
Speaker 3: clip with Adele Bawling singing one of her songs, and
Speaker 3: I wanted to ask you which one of your songs
Speaker 3: is most likely to give that to you.
Speaker 4: I would say that the one that I tend to
Speaker 4: get emotional with was a song called music from my
Speaker 4: album Mad Love, because I wrote that shortly after my
Speaker 4: dad died, and I was thinking about what has been
Speaker 4: the most consistent relationship in my life, and it's been music.
Speaker 4: It's that has been the thing that has been always
Speaker 4: there for me. I could always count on it. I
Speaker 4: could always even comforting myself with just singing some melodies.
Speaker 4: It feels good the way it reverberates in my chest
Speaker 4: and then comes out, like the lyric can take on
Speaker 4: different forms depending like who I'm singing it to, because
Speaker 4: when I'm in front of my fans and I'm singing,
Speaker 4: who would I be without you? It's so very much
Speaker 4: for them. If it weren't for their belief and support,
Speaker 4: I don't know that I would have made it through
Speaker 4: a lot of the times that I had, So that
Speaker 4: one always gets to me.
Speaker 5: Jojo.
Speaker 2: It's clear that you care deeply about fairness. I mean,
Speaker 2: you mentioned wanting to be a civil rights attorney when
Speaker 2: you were younger if you didn't end up doing music.
Speaker 2: And I feel like Jojo fans collectively, we are all
Speaker 2: invested in fairness for you. I mean, there was a
Speaker 2: free Jojo movement. We all feel like you were wronged
Speaker 2: after all that you've been through in this business.
Speaker 5: What does justice look like for you?
Speaker 2: And I don't even know if that's the right word,
Speaker 2: but like, what does freedom look like for Jojo?
Speaker 5: Ooh?
Speaker 4: Freedom just looks like following what actually sparks joy right
Speaker 4: now and makes me feel like a little kid and
Speaker 4: where I can be connected to community and purpose. And
Speaker 4: I think that in having nothing to hide, that's freedom
Speaker 4: as well. So I kind of wanted to like blow
Speaker 4: up my own spot and be like, here's some embarrassing
Speaker 4: things that I did. Here's some things that like you're
Speaker 4: not supposed to do, or some blind spots that I had.
Speaker 4: I do think that freedom is saying this is just
Speaker 4: what it is, this is just where I'm at, and
Speaker 4: releasing shame. And I was carrying around so much of
Speaker 4: it for a variety of different reasons, and some of them,
Speaker 4: like guilt can sometimes help change behavior and maybe that
Speaker 4: can be a good thing, but the shame and embarrassment,
Speaker 4: I think freedom is letting go of those things. And
Speaker 4: I think the freedom is in the present.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm about to ask you a question, and I
Speaker 3: don't want it to come off rude, because I want
Speaker 3: you to know how big of a fan I am.
Speaker 3: I bought a ticket to your concert before COVID hit.
Speaker 4: Oh thanks, Cinya.
Speaker 3: But when I read your book and I'm thinking about
Speaker 3: all that you have been through, and my question is
Speaker 3: coming from a place of thinking that you are just
Speaker 3: one of the most talented people. Do you ever sit
Speaker 3: with yourself and think my music career should be so
Speaker 3: much bigger right now?
Speaker 4: I appreciate that question and the way you prefaced it too,
Speaker 4: but I'm I'm not offended by that, and I'm glad
Speaker 4: that we're talking about it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being open to that.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I really want to answer it, honestly, I'm like,
Speaker 4: do I think that. I think that there was a
Speaker 4: moment where I definitely felt like that and where I
Speaker 4: felt entitled and deserving of being one of the biggest stars.
Speaker 5: In the world.
Speaker 4: But I got to be so honest with you, that's
Speaker 4: just that's not my passion anymore. It's not my aspiration
Speaker 4: to compete on that level. I can't play the game anymore.
Speaker 4: Like I just have to unsubscribe from some of those things.
Speaker 4: I was hurt so badly at such a soft, impressionable
Speaker 4: formative time that I'm way too sensitive for that. And
Speaker 4: I think that on the other side of like accepting,
Speaker 4: which happened pretty recently, I would say in the past
Speaker 4: like four years, like I want to make music that
Speaker 4: I dig and I want it to resonate with enough
Speaker 4: people to where I can make an impact on them,
Speaker 4: and I can have a great career and talk with
Speaker 4: cool people and have access to more connections and opportunities
Speaker 4: and things like that. But do I want to compete
Speaker 4: or make a certain type of I just I don't
Speaker 4: think I can. I just can't do that anymore physically, emotionally,
Speaker 4: I just can't. So I don't know if that answers
Speaker 4: your question or if I kind of talked around that
Speaker 4: in a circle. But I'm not making music with that
Speaker 4: intention anymore, and I was for a while. I'm interested
Speaker 4: in how I can help support other younger people on
Speaker 4: their journey too, while they're going through a lot of
Speaker 4: the things that I went through in their own things
Speaker 4: and personal stuff. Because I just don't have the stomach
Speaker 4: for it anymore.
Speaker 3: It's time for another short break, But don't go anywhere,
Speaker 3: because when we come back, Jojo is telling us all
Speaker 3: about the importance of protecting her peace. And we're back
Speaker 3: with Joanna Jojo Levek.
Speaker 2: I think my favorite thing that you've said throughout our
Speaker 2: whole conversation, Jojo, is how you answered Danielle's question about
Speaker 2: whether you feel like your career should be bigger because
Speaker 2: I think so many people, myself included in your twenties,
Speaker 2: you have this vision or perception of what your career
Speaker 2: is going to look like, but you have no idea
Speaker 2: the cost, the relational collateral that's a part of that,
Speaker 2: the sacrifices. And it sounds like at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, you have discovered that peace is more priceless
Speaker 2: than any of that.
Speaker 5: And I just think that that is such an important message.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: I definitely love my career and love being busy and
Speaker 4: being in community and all that stuff, but yeah, my
Speaker 4: piece and being able to look at myself in the
Speaker 4: mirror and feel good about myself and not be constantly
Speaker 4: thinking that I need to go against what feels right.
Speaker 4: Like I realized that like my addictive tendencies were kind
Speaker 4: of stoked by wanting to get outside myself, I would
Speaker 4: numb those things that discomfort that I was feeling. I
Speaker 4: would need the attention of a guy or like a
Speaker 4: love affair, and like just like being wrapped up in
Speaker 4: a whole thing because I wasn't satisfied in my career
Speaker 4: or with trying to please other people. And I have
Speaker 4: a tattoo in white ink that you can't see because
Speaker 4: I'm so pale. It's like pretty much the same, but
Speaker 4: it's PYP protect your piece.
Speaker 1: PYP is the new pyt I have. This is amazing.
Speaker 4: One of my best girlfriends, not Done, She's an amazing
Speaker 4: songwriter artist. She would say it all the time. She's like,
Speaker 4: pyp PYP. I'm like, I'm gonna get tattooed. We should
Speaker 4: get that tattooed. She's like, yeah, and anyway, I got
Speaker 4: a tattooed. She didn't. Pip is that feels like a trick.
Speaker 4: It feels like a trick. No, but pyp is the
Speaker 4: is the message. Yeah, protect your piece. Like you said, Simon,
Speaker 4: It's just I think a lot about how life is
Speaker 4: short and how I always say, God willing life is long.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know what I'm saying, because you never
Speaker 4: you never know when when your time is and we
Speaker 4: get one shot, get one shot, and living for other
Speaker 4: people's ideas about your life sucks.
Speaker 5: That's it. I think we got our episode title, protect your.
Speaker 3: Pathaya your piece, Yeah, Jojo. These kinds of conversations make
Speaker 3: me so grateful that I get to do my job.
Speaker 3: So thank you. I know someone feels the same way.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your heart today.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, well I feel the same way. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 4: I so appreciate it. I love talking about this stuff,
Speaker 4: about the journey of the a person, just trying to
Speaker 4: experience brightness and joy. So thank you so much for
Speaker 4: having me Jojo.
Speaker 5: We're so proud of you, girl. Yeah, I'm so proud
Speaker 5: of you.
Speaker 2: I'm genuinely so happy for you, like you just seem
Speaker 2: like you just seem like you have so much peace.
Speaker 2: And I'm so happy that you're in Mulan Rouge, one
Speaker 2: of my favorite shows. I'm so excited for this next
Speaker 2: Jojo Eraich.
Speaker 1: You please tour again so that I can make the show.
Speaker 4: I promise it's going to be the best tour yet.
Speaker 4: So I can't wait. And I gotta have you backstage.
Speaker 4: I got to I got to see you.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, You're so sweet.
Speaker 4: Thank you guys.
Speaker 5: Thank you be there.
Speaker 2: Jojo is an award winning singer, songwriter, actor and author
Speaker 2: of Over the Influence, which is in bookstores right now.
Speaker 2: She's sorry in Mulan Ruse the Musical on Broadway through
Speaker 2: October thirteenth.
Speaker 1: That's it for today's show.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow it's Wellness Wednesday, breast cancer surgeon and women's health advocate,
Speaker 3: doctor Christy Funk joins us for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Speaker 3: Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join the
Speaker 3: conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect with us
Speaker 3: on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram and at
Speaker 3: The bright Side Pod on TikTok, and feel free to
Speaker 3: tag us. Simone Boys and Danielle Robe
Speaker 2: See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.