+ KOST 103.5 The Mark & Kim Morning Show +

Thanks to Rico1130 for translation & transcription.

>Part 1 >Part 2 >Part 3 >Part4 >Part 5 >Part 6

M: Mark
K: Kim
J: Josh

<Part 1>

M: Southern California's Coast 103.5. It's the reason we are here. It's the incredible voice of Josh Groban, in a special breakfast with Mark & Kim with Coast 103 listeners coming from all over Southern California to be here to .... nnnn ... not see him?
K: But you know what? You heard the song and not a dry eye in the place.
Why is his music effect that way? ...... yeah...
M: Seems like an angel.
K: It does seem ..
M: I gotta tell ya. He's gotta a little devil in him somewhere. Don't you think? Don't you hope? Yeah, I know. Well, you guys, ummm, we've got, we've got people listening all over the world as far away as Singapore on line right now, waiting for Josh Groban to come to a door close to 103 studios, and his manager Brian's outside, and
K: And we've been waiting ..... (Josh's laugh) ....we are waiting for the war, but you know Los Angels' traffic.
M: W, what .... Can you guys stay at least an extra hour? No, no, no, I ...
"All day" "J: All day!" All day? Really? Is this what happens? .....
How many jobs have you had in the last three years because of running around with Josh Groban? You guys, I mean, I don't know what's goin' on. I mean, he's supposed to be here ...
K: We're just waiting patiently. Just check it out, Mark ...
M: LOOK WHO'S HERE!
K: Oh, yes!! Oh, yes!
M: JOSH! C'mon out into the .... Welcome to the Coast Cafe. Don't trip over the wires here, and then grab yourself a microphone right there.
K: Hi, Josh!
J: How are ya?
K: Good to see ya!
J: Nice to see you, too!
K: He's got the most beautiful brown eyes, doesn't he? Look at that!
J: I ran.
K: Yeah, you ran...
M: Yes, you did! Well, sit down, Josh.
J: OK.
M: Thank you so much for being here.
J: It's great to be here.
M: You're obviously on concert tour. The whole thing is completely sold out. You're keeping like real musician hours, where you stay up until ....
Seriously, what time would you ...
J: This is my bed time right now I think, so I ....
K: Oh.... Not all night long ...
J: No, actually you know, my bed time on tour is usually, like three in the morning, and I'll get up at 1:30 and ...
M: I'm sorry... . Did Josh Groban just say his "bed time"?
J: Yeah, I know. Tucked in ...
K: Well, we thank you for gettin' up bright and early and you know, Mark and I were saying that we've never had an artist create soooo much excitement ....
J: That's great! Thanks!
K: in a long time here at Coast 103.
J: Thank you. It's great be here.
M: Now, if you are not as familiar with Josh Groban, stay with us this hour because you'll fall in love with him, like so many around the world have,
and, and Josh, I mean, look at this. I have got a list of cards, these come from, you know, as far away as Singapore...
J: Wow...
M: and I'm just going to fan them out and let you pick one ..
J: Looks like James Lipton stack of cards ....
M: Oh, my gosh! It is! It is kind of like that! All right, let's ask James,
what is your famous curse word?
J: Ah... It's a good question. Ahh...
M: No, no, no. NO! I'm sorry ... but hold on. Let me fan it out and we'll get .... Don't you think we should ask Josh a question here ...
K: Yeah, go ahead. 'Cause he's in town Friday, Friday and Saturday night this week.
J: Friday and Saturday night at the Greek Theater, yeah. Very excited. Oh, hope you guys will all be there, yeah.
M: Stay with us because Josh has just bought a new house, we're gonna ask him about, uh...... , you know, redecorating,
J: Yeah, ha-ha, like I have,
M: "Extreme home make-over".
J: Yes.
K: He's got some cinder blocks, and a put a stereo up on them ..
J: Yeah, I put together a little, man-made box, and put some hay on it, and I've been sleeping there ....
K: There you go ...
M: Josh, just grab one and ...
J: OK ...Um.... I'm gonna take this one right... here and ...
M: OK, and then, um... let's have a card and I'll read it to you
J: OK.
M: ..... (hew) .... Oh, my Gosh. Now, this is a controversial question ...
J: It is ...o-oh, all right, right'o...
M: This is um.... I don't wanna say complaining, they're talking about devoted fans but sometimes they are unable to get the best seats to your concerts even when they try to order them through the fan club pre-sale.
J: Really. O-oh...
M: And they are just wondering if you are aware of that at all.
J: You know, I, I have been certainly aware of it especially with, with how fast the tickets are sold. It's been, it's been a blessing, it's been a curse at the same time cuz, a lot of times, the people that I most want to have the best seats, aren't always in the best seats, and um, we try to control that as much as humanly possible, but sometimes, sometimes mistakes do happen and um...
M: Well, I'd like to follow it up with this. And that is, would you wanna see the same faces sitting right close in the rows night after night after night...
J: Well, it's... you know, depends on the face, but um...
K: Hey, that's true. That is true.
J: But I think um, you know, a lot of the times I do see some of the same faces 'cuz sometimes I can only see like the first four rows with the lights and everything and it's just... darkness so... um... so yeah, no, it's
um, but I' gonna tour forever and ever and ever. I mean, this is just been a first step for me and it's taught me so much and I really didn't know whether I enjoyed it or not, and it turns out it's just the best time I've ever had in my whole life, and so, for those people that, that found like they weren't able to go to a show or get the best seats, um, you know, I'm gonna be touring constantly, so...
K: So keep coming back and ...
J: ...Keep coming back and keep checking and we're gonna try to make everything as fair as possible.
M: It's Josh Groban right here at Breakfast with Mark & Kim. The time is 7:09. Nine minutes after seven.

K: Time now is 7:14 . We are live in the Coast Cafe on the Mark & Kim Show with the one and the only Josh Groban. .... Yes... Very excited to meet you.
J: Thank you.
K: And I know people are listening online all over the world.
J: Oh, that's exciting.
K: Yeah!
M: And the reason we're here is to get to know Josh a little bit better.
He'll be with us all hour long. And if you have NOT, picked up a copy of his CD "Closer", we want you to just turn your radio up, hear this man sing in English, Italian, French, Spanish. It is Josh Groban and his music from his CD "Closer", here on the Mark & Kim on Coast 103.

M: There it is, Josh Groban! In our Coast 103 Cafe!
K: The "Closer" CD.
J: Thanks!
K: Josh, Josh will be in town on Friday and Saturday night at the Greek Theater.
J: Yeah, it's gonna be such a pleasure to be there. I've gone to the shows there all my life. And it's such a great great theatre.
M: What was the first show you saw at the Greek Theatre?
J: Chris Isaac, actually.
M: No kidding.
J: Yeah, he put on a great show. Yeah.
M: Isn't he showing his age?
J: Well, that was still 'bout, five years ago, so ..
M: Yeah, what a, and a great artist, there is no doubt about it.
J: He's incredible, yeah,
M: I was talking to your manager Brian, and Brian said, "You know it's really funny because you sold out, all across the country, and he said prior to this tour, that you hadn't sung more than three songs in a row, and so, with everyone it was like "Wow! Can this guy, get up on stage, and can he do, 90 minutes - two hours?", and Boy! Can he!
J: Well, I think, you know, I, I've known that I could, that I could sing for, for longer than, you know, three songs worth, you know, I've done,
I've done, you know, when I'm recording in the studios ...
M: Sure.
J: ... sometimes I'm singing eight hours, nine hours at a time, so but ...But when I'm doing a live concert, you know, anything is possible, you have one great night and sometimes you have a bad night, but you know, when you are doing a concert tour, you can't really have a bad night, it's just you have to be ...
K: Does anybody believe that Josh has a bad night? Come on!
M: Well, what would make a bad night for you? What would determine that for you?
J: I, you know, before I go on stage, there is a check-list in my head, of things that I wanna accomplish whether it's a certain note of a song or whether it's a certain energy that I wanna create or something, so you know, I, I try to check off every one of those objectives during the show, you know when I'm doing the show, and sometimes I feel like I haven't checked off every single of one of those, but to the audience or, to the viewer or whoever it is, they feel like they were checked off. And so sometimes you feel like you did horribly, and the reaction is better than you've ever had in your life, and sometimes walk off the stage going "That was amazing! Why aren't they clapping?"
K: Because nobody can, nobody can reach the notes that you can reach, I think, you know?
J: Well, it's umm, I just didn't know what kind of stamina I've had during a show like this 90 minutes for 85 or 86 shows now I think we've had ... a hundred and five before the tour's over but, umm, but, but you know, I've really trained hard, it's, it's like a preparing for a marathon you know, it's not a sprint and so you have to, you have to do the right exercises and you really have to take care of yourself and...
K: And he's not drinking tea, you know, most singers drink tea in the morning. No?
J: I, I... drink tea occasionally, you know, but orange juice just seemes like it had more sugar, so ...
K: I wanna know, because, every singer has rules of the voice. You have the voice. What are your rules? What, what ... I mean, it is now complete your total livelihood...
J: Yeah ..
M: ... and as the Groban machine spins, everyone is depending on the voice,
it is a huge responsibility to yourself AND to other people ..
J: Sure.
M: What are the rules to your voice?
J: Well I mean, certainly in the last couple of years, I mean, it's become so much more... relevant that I've had to take care of it more and more I mean, the stakes have been raised and, and for me I felt like I've raised the bar and it's just I have to always, always make sure that, you know,
I'm always dictated by it, you know, so it's great but, you know, on the other hand, you know, at 23, you know, sometimes you can't, do things that other 23 year-olds do, you know, I've got a concert, or if I'm on tour and I happened to have a break for a few days back at home, you know, those few days, I've got think of still being on tour, or I can't go out real late, I can't, you know, be around cigarette smoke, or I can't, you know, drink or whatever, you know, it's just you gotta be ...
K: Yell and scream at a football game ...
J: That's, you know, that's you know, honestly, the thing that would most get me into trouble. You know, sometimes when I'm on the road, I, I love sports, I'll try, I'll try and get to a hockey game or a baseball game, or a concert, you know, when was performing at Ahems, Iowa, um, Aerosmith and I were performing at the same venue, so we went to the Aerosmith concert the night before. And I've never done so much, like, silent yelling in my life! It was just ....It was just .. 'cuz he can't tell the difference.
There was twenty thousand people yelling,
K: So you just open your mouth and ..
J: If I just open my mouth, and wave my hands in the air, he's gonna think ...."Oh, great! Thanks!" So, you know... so same goes sporting events. It's just silent yelling, it's just kind of ... you know...
M: Well, then I would imagine too, if you get in a crowded restaurant, if you are at a party, where, you know, a lot of times your conversation has to be elevated to those might be situations that you would find youself ...
J: Sure
M: ...on the road that you say "I'm sorry, I can't ... you know, yell very loudly, talk very loudly."
J: Absolutely. There are definitely times when we're writing on a piece of paper ...
M: What about the warm-up period for your voice? With this fine of voice that you have, are there exercises that you've been taught, you've been trained?
J: Sure. You know, I study constantly and my voice teacher David Romano was on the road with me a lot and um... and he really helps me keep it really fine tuned and it's definitely a regiment, you know ...
M: What are some of the exercises that you would do for your voice? Scales. ... I mean ..or. ..?
J: Yeah, it's just scales, it's just... it's just stretching and.... It's really just getting it warmed up, a lot of times when I come to sound check at four or four-thirty, sometimes I'm only ... I've only been up an hour or an hour and a half, so it's.. . , a lot of it is just getting the carve-webs out, and getting myself prime. ... I LIVE for those two hours every night. So, you know, even though the sleeping may sound like crazy,
it's actually, I actually program it so that by the time eight o'clock / nine o'clock rolls round, it's the perfect time I've been up and having been warmed up for a few hours and everything to do a concert, and of course I can't get to sleep on the bus, but you know, when the show goes it's all worth it.
K: It’s Josh Groban in our studio this morning in the Coast Cafe.
We've got more with him coming up. We'll get to know him a little bit better.

>Back to the top

K: ..... and Josh Groban!
J: Hi, Every body.
M: Josh is here with us at 7: 20 and all hour long... Ah, we have a fan deck of questions sent in from Josh Groban fans around the world. He's picking a question ....
J: I'll take another one here ...
K: It's just like playing an old man there when you pick that up, isn't it?
M: Uno. All right. Here's the question: Have you ever put on a pair of boxers' on your head and if so, did you take a picture?
J: Whaaaatttt? There were ... no cameras I think...... allowed in that fraternity, in that particular fraternity that night, but ummm, no, I umm, never, you know what, I think I did put boxers on my head once when I was a little kid, and I'm sure my parents documented it ...... in somewhere or another but not that I can remember.
M: Listen, if you ever go to the Los Angels Zoo, years ago, your.... Your parents bought a little ... a little star for you, some little, little ...
J: Yeah, and I was just there actually about a month and a half ago, looking for that star ...
M: Did you see it? Did you find it?
J: No, I can't find it.
K: You can't find it?
J: I can't find it. No. It's very upsetting.
M: Well, we did actually, we did actually find it and see it and ummm...
J: Really?
M: Yeah, somebody's got a picture of it somewhere ...
J: Oh, cool! Yeah ... it's in front of the koala exhibit ...
M: Yeah, and do you remember ... how old were you when your Mom bought that for you?
J: I think I was... may be ... six?
K: Isn't it funny?
J: My Mom used to be a ... a tour guide at the zoo, and so you know, I had like a zoo outfit that I'd go in and...I'd... I'd feel special 'cuz she had these keys and ...
M: Well then, obviously I’ll fall out for that question. Will there ever be something on JoshGroban.com where your Mom would post that picture of you wearing the little ........ Everybody would like to see that!
K: It looks like your Mom likes to embarrass you a little bit ..
J: Sure. If the exhibit can make some money for charity or something...
Sure, why not?
M: Ah, Josh Groban is here with us and his CD "Closer" who is out on tour supporting. This is your second album, and this song that we are going to play, we want you to talk about it "Remember when it rained", because this is the song, that really kind of, elevates you as a musician because this also is a song that you wrote, right? And played piano on it. Umm... the lyrics are very emotional, Josh, and I think the obvious question would be we need names.
J: Well, I'm not sure if I can give any names on this one, but umm, you know, I, I wanted, you know, when we're working on a song, this is the first song, that I co-wrote, ever, professionally. I mean, this was just ...
. I've gone to France and worked with Eric McKay from a group called Deep Forest and it was a dream-come-true just to be in the studio and to be, and to be sitting down at the piano, sitting down at the lap-top just kind of coming up with the story, coming up with something I wanted to say for the first time ...
M: Did you hear that? "Coming up with a story"?
J: Well, could be true! You know...
M: C'mon! This has got to be ....
K: I think it's on a .... The, you know, those magazines, once in a while there, Mark, you know, with a different date on his arms ...
M: But Josh, heat-ache!
J: Wait a minute .... I'm way over my head ....
M: Talk about, talk bout romantic heart-ache you've experienced.
K: Yeah ..
J: Well, you know, it's umm, 23 years old, you ... you ... sometimes things are way more dramatic than they actually are, you know, but, but sure I mean we've all, I tried to pick songs... I tried to relay um... messages that, that people can say, you know, "Oh, yeah, that's ... that's how I feel sometimes..."
M: So, Josh. Let me focus, when this happened to you....
J: Ha-ha.... It WAS raining....
M & K: It WAS raining ..
J: And umm, and I do remember it, very well!
M: But ... you know what? You're right! When you are younger ....
K: Well, the first love is the deepest, you know, that cut, that first cut is the ..... very true I think
J: Absolutely.
M: Let's not let this go. So....on this particular heart-ache, what was the terrible thing she did to you?
J: You know, it's, it's ....
M: Stay with me. Focus in.
J: Yeah.... I
M: What's the worst thing somebody, I mean, you don’t have to name names, but I mean we know for heart-aches...
J: You know, in any relationship, when you feel like there is a real bond between two people, you know and then all of a sudden, somebody that you feel you know so well, isn't so much that person, you know, and or, decide that that's not that person, um, you know, anything, anything that makes the relationship go sour, is, it can be, can be the hardest thing in the world. That exact moment in time.
K: Sure painful .
M: OK, are you over it yet?
J: Oh, yes.
M: OK, very good.
J: But I remember.
K: Hey, but we'got a great song from it. Here's Josh Groban on Coast 103.

"Remember when it rained"

K: KOST 103.5. Josh Groban "Remember when it rained"! Josh Groban, our special studio, in-studio guest in the KOST Cafe this morning.
J: Thank you for having me.
M: And Josh, how long did it take you to write that song? We know you came up with the melody, and umm, you know, with the help with that lyrically....
J: Well, with Eric, you know it's...it's....every song is written differently, and everything is, it's, it's..... for the three songs that we co-wrote in the album, they were all done kind of in different ways and with this song, it was the first time I had contacted Eric in France, and I said, you know, "Are you working on the melodies, is there any ideas that you had? Let's ... let's work together." He sent me, he sent me what was about kind of 50 % of the melody and, and, ummm, and I listened to it and I thought, this is. .....this is kind of really, kind of haunting vive, I really liked the vive to it. And umm, I said "Great! Let's tackle this one when I get over there." And so we went over there, and he's got, you know, he's got his studio full of synthesizers and ...just ...drum machines, and everything imaginable, and umm, we just sat down at the piano together, and started kind of tinkering at the rest, and umm, he said, "you know, you know.... Great! I'll work on the lyric...I'll work on the production , you go write the lyrics...". You know.
M:
J: "Go write a lyric!" you know. So I said ..."All right!" and ... so I've got my laptop and I went and, I went and came up with a lyric, and...it just kinda happened very very quickly.
M: Great song....great song ....
J: And the whole rest of time we’d work .....
K: How, how well do you play piano? I mean, are you considered.....
J: Ummm, I'm OK. I'm not, I'm not ...amazing. You know, I, I leaned to play by ear, I never took any lessons or ...
M: Would you like to hear Kim play the piano?
J: Yes, I would! Any time! You know, we'll do a little....
K: Can you read the music? Do you read the music?
J: I've, I've learned to read the music. Yeah, when I first....when I first started studying, ummm, theatres and everything, I, I just did everything by ear. But as I, as I started doing this and getting more into it, something had to be picked up very quickly.
K: Right.
M: From the Josh Groban message board, we have people listing online all over the world, to Josh Graban, umm Grob.... Groban, and this is Rainbow....
J: Grebeling, Growling!
M: I'm ...I'm trying to read her name, umm, although, you know what? Why don't you people put up your real name there? This is Rainbow Explorer....
J: I love that show....
M: I know, I like that. Three of your songs, "To Where You Are", "Remember Me" and "For always" focus on themes of death, dying in grief, though obviously with hopeful, soothing, comforting messages. What is it about songs with this theme that draws you to them, and then I wanna follow up, as a kid, was "Dust in the wind" one of your favorite songs?
J: Hah ...... oh, my God.....
M: That was mine!
J: As a kid....yeah, that was a classic for me. That was, uhhh...
M: No! But, but there are, those themes do seem to be......what....why are you drawn to them?
J: Well.....y, you know, in growing up, you know, I've....I've always looked at music as, as umm, as kind of the universal language and universal healer in the terms of just what you go to, to...umm.....to help you fully understand and express what you are feeling inside yourself for whatever situation you may be in, and umm, you know, certainly there have been, there have been songs that've helped me get through, you know, either loosing loved one or...or you know... relationships, or whatever it is, it's...
it's always what you turn to, so ...you know, whenever there can be a song that, that is not just about, umm, the grief or the sadness, but, but also umm, a look into, into, you know the hope, and, and the light in all of it, umm, you know...., it's always very inspiring. And so the songs, the songs like, the one that she mentioned, "To Where You Are" especially, now just kinda took on the life of its own, kind of went beyond me or the writer or anything else, it's kind of just became this, this, this song that, it just connected so many people. When a song does that, umm, you know, it's so special, and it's so great, so it's, it's ummm...
K: Your voice lens itself to it, too, you know...
J: Well, thanks....
K: You can create... like a haunting... melody with ...
M: You are scary.....
K: Well, I didn't mean it that way... I just like ....when I listen to him....

J: I'd like .....I'd like to take a song and make it frightening ....
K: No, but when I listen to you, it makes, it makes me cry....
M: It'd give me the melody... ahhhhh....
J: If it gives me heebee-jeebees, I ....
K: It makes people cry, Josh. That's what I'm saying.
M: And do you ....when you're singing these songs, find yourself getting emotional?
J: Oh, sure. I mean, that's been the other interesting things about the tour, is that, you know, I was just thinking...is it like umm, is it like a Broadway run? Do you, do you just get to stay or left for a while, you know, you know, it's, it's like new, every single time, you know, if I hear the opening of "To Where You Are", it's....it just... you click right into it. And it's just umm...you know, it's really that way for all of those songs....all the songs that I recorded, the first time I heard them, it was...it was...you know, an immediate kind of vissoreaction, so you know, when I, when I hear them again, or start hearing the openings of them or start singing them again, it doesn't change.
M: You are listening to the Mark & Kim Show with Josh Groban in our studio audience. Back with questions from the studio audience here in just seconds. The time is 7:41.
J: Yeah!

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<Part 3>

K: 7:45 on the Mark & Kim Show. It's Breakfast with Mark & Kim and Josh Groban!
J: Heeey!
K: Feelin' good this morning.
M: We have listeners from all over Southern California that have come in, umm, to meet Josh Groban, and umm, I mean, it's so funny because, you know when Josh is speaking, it's like, the mouths kinda drop a little bit, a lot of whites of the eyes....Rodrigo, we've got a question from....what's your name?
B: My name is Barbara Koulger.
J: Hi, Barbara.
B: Hi, how are you?
J: Great.
B: I've got a quick question. My daughter is performing in Washingon DC this weekend...
J: All right...
B: and she wanted me to ask you what you do to prepare so you don't have stage fright?
J: Ohhhh, good question. Well, the first thing I would tell her is that a stage fright is extremely normal, umm, it's a, something that I tackle, every single night, no matter how much I'm doing this and no matter how large the audience or how small the audience, I, I get very very scared, and umm...but but I think... the breathing is the most important thing, you know, off stage and on, you know, just making sure that, that you've warmed up enough and you know the songs enough, so that even if your brain tells you you can't do it, your technique tells you you can....
B: She practices even when she's asleep.
J: Good. You know, practice that song to death because, it's....umm, it's gonna be so important 'cuz when the nerves do hit on stage, and you feel like ....this is gonna be just a major...shut-down.....this is not gonna happen tonight... you know...you know... the fact you've practiced it, means that, that....on a little bit, you can just kinda, you can kinda get close to it....because you can kinda ...
M: We've all gotton up in front of... maybe had to speak whether a church or in front of your work and you do have those heebee-jeebee's .....
J: Oh, yeah...
M: When do they leave you? Is that the minute you finally start or does it continue while you are performing for a little while?
J: I think, you know, I think it's.... I try to get it to leave me....maybe 10 minutes before I go on stage... I have to....I have to have just...you know, a moment to myself backstage where I can just run around and scream or, or you know, whatever it is, you know, just hit a pillow or whatever ..
K: Forgetting the words when you do that...
M: What about take a shot?
K: He can't do that, 'cuz he does voice. If you forget the words, you just go
on, I mean, you don't... have you made a...
J: I've made a port before...I think ahhhh, yeah, I'm....
M: Especially the ones in French, where ...
J: No, actually you know what, no...the ones in foreign languages are actually the ones that I remember the most. It's the Englihsh, it's the English songs that sometimes, I'll just, I'll just make up a word or two and ...
M: And what's your name?
L: Lamsing Ngyen.
J: Hi.
M: Hi, Lamsing. How are you?
L: Hi, Josh. I love you more even now.
J: I... love you more, too. Thank you.
L: Umm, you are so great on Alley McBeal. I was wondering if see more acting in your future.
J: Well, thanks. Umm, I had an amazing time on Alley McBeal. That was such a fun, fun experience because it was so out of my element. I hadn't really done except for, you know, theater acting, anything professional in a acting role, and I had such a great time, and the cast was so wonderful to work with and all so, it was just so great to kinda get out of the music thing for a little bit. Umm, but yes, I would love, I would love to do some more acting, I think that umm, I think that there's a lot of similarities between, you know, acting and music and singing, and so, you know, it'd be fun. So, I'm reading a bunch of scripts right now and if the right time came, I'd love to do some films....and may be in theaters.
M: You're listening to Mark & Kim Show at 7: 48 with Josh Groban, and Josh, uhh, what kind of scripts are coming your way that....yeah I mean, here it is, we're in tinsle town right here.
J: I know, we are! So....
M: You say, "Yeah, I'm reading scripts" and that means, that there are 50 scripts that just got heard right now and ..
J: Sure...
M: And "Oh! Let's send them to Josh....."
J: Some of them are real possibilities if you like...this is something I can tackle, because, you know, I don't wanna, I don't wanna choose something that I think would be over my head, you know, and I really wanna...pick kinda right role in a right part, and umm....
M: Would you play, oh, I don't know, a singer?
J: It depends on a role. You know, I get asked a lot, you know, "would you....", you know, "Do you have anything against singing in a movie? Or not singing in a movie?"
M: Maybe Kevin Cosner could be a bodyguard to ....
K: There you go. You'll never know.
J: Carry me around?
M: This is the, the, you know, forth floor, we can go ahead and do that if you feel comfortable.
J: You know, anything is possible, but you know, some of them are real possibilities and some of them are just entertaining reads so...
K: We've got another question in the back there.
M: What's your name?
L: My name is Lonny Bartlett.
J & M: Hi, Lonny.
L: Hi, guys. Love to be here. Thanks for inviting us. Josh, do you, have you ever sung in complete opera and if not, are you going to?
J: I've not ever sung in complete opera, Umm,
M: He needs to eat.
J: Ha-ha-ha....
K: Now that's funny...
J: Umm, I, umm, yeah.... I'm waiting a little bit to do, to do the opera type...
M: Get me another 200 pounds and I'm all over there.
J: Exactly, I'm working on this breakfast plate first. But umm, you know, the opera thing, I've loved opera, so much, and umm...
M: You are soooo weird.
J: I know. Haha..
M: A 23 year-old loves opera!?!?!
J: I loved opera when I was 14 and 15...
M: Isn't that interesting? I find that ....
K: Well did your parents play it around the house? Or...
J: You know, they did, and they introduced to me a lot of it growing up, growing up in Los Angeles...which was just such a melting pot of some many different cultures and .....
K: Such opera, the opera capital of the world...
J: It's certainly not the opera capital of the world, but, but you know, the LA Opera had tons of productions coming through and, and so you know, they would introduce me to classical music and opera and they would take me to the youth programs at LA -- and so that was me and I was very much interested in it and I had such a great respect for it that I kind of want to wait a little bit to actually start doing the opera.
K: But you know when you talk about opera and how heavy people you see at the opera, how does that weight affect singing?
J: Well....
K: I mean, really!
J: I think, you know I think more and more you know, if you flip through the opera news or something, you know you see, you see more and more people, that are really really ...
M: Show hands how many flip-though opera geeks? OK?
J &K: Ha-ha-ha!
J: I just totally, just....geeked out there for a second! But umm......you know...OK, so, I, I flip through opera news every once in a while, just to catch up, you know, on what's goin' on...
M: Hey, by the way, didya...didya...didya hear what singer is sleeping with what singer?
J: Yeah, exactly! In my pad, you find a MAXIM and a opera news, you know...
M: And you go straight to the Opera Gossip page...
J: Ha-ha.... But umm, you know, I think, I think that more and more people are realizing that your health is important for you voice, you know, and it's, it's...there are, certainly, there've been number of large singers that hasn't affected thier voice, one iota, but I think, I think that health is the best.
K: One more question there, Rodrigo.
L: Hi, Josh,
J: Hi ...
K: What's your name?
L: My name is Lourdes... Martin.
J: Hi, Lourdes.
L: Hi, Josh. I love your voice.
J: Thank you. I love you shirt!
L: Umm, oh, thank you very much!
R: Hold on! Before anything, her hand is shaking and it's claming!
J: No...
R: Relax there!
L: OK.....
M: Wouldya...would you like to come up here and hug Josh? Come on here!
J: Come here!
K: ..... She knocked Rodrigo down!
R: Oh, my God!!! Help!
M: Wow! That's great! And there's a little side movement here...
K: Oh, she's sweeeet... She's getting a big hug!
M: And now, now she wants a picture.... Oh, gees, here it goes...
K: That is so sweet of him...alright...
M: And....and she's got the picture! Isn't that fantastic?
R: You guys! I'm injured!
J: That was smooth.
M: OK, now, I'm sorry, what were we doing? Oh, she was gonna ask a question...
K: What was her question?
J: Oh!
R: You mean, you just didn't wanna knock me over, right?
M: Are you OK, Lourdes?
L: Josh .....yes...
J: We were, we were almost dancing for a second there ...that was...
L: I just would love to know what high school did you attend and what college did you go to?
J: Well, I, umm...
M: Are you kidding me?
K: That's it?
J: I graduated from Los Angels County High School for the Arts. And umm, it's a, great, great great, great great school on the campus of -- state of Los Angels. That's a public school with an audition base Art Program, and it's just umm. It's the place where I really really developed such a love, love for art education. And it has so many great friends that I still have today, and umm, I wound up getting accepted to Carnegie Melon University for Musical Theatre, which is an amazing theatre program and then just, got a little side-tracked... but I hope, I hope to go back to school.
M: You know what, I think it's a tragedy, in you know, with cut-backs in education today, that so much of the Arts has been removed from our curriculum. You, think about this, and you know, you're right about the performing arts high school in Los Angeles, where I'm fortunate enough to know a couple of kids that are going there right now, they are very very talented.....You know, what ...could you imaging having this guy's talent lost because, you know, you didn't get the education and, and staff wasn't offered? I mean, thank God for your mother and father who, who noticed the talent...
J: Oh, yeah, absolutely....they umm, they, they were so supportive by the way and you are so right about the fact that art programs all over the state and the country have been cut at such an alarming rate, that's one of the reasons why I kind of decided to be a spokes person in music matters, which is the program with LA Phil....to raise awareness for arts education...
.because you know at LAXA, the ---- of the Arts, you know, we all came from so many different backgrounds, we all had different, different arts that we loved, but, but we all had one...one kind of light at the end of the tunnel, which was, which was the arts, and we all became friends because of it. And whether or not we did it professionally or not, umm, you know, some of us wanted to do it professionally, some of us just wanted to do it just because we needed to express ourselves. But it was so important ...
M: And the thing is though...is...is that those with you that maybe that you went to school with, that aren't going to be professionals and had the success that you have, that their exposure to the arts that they'll pass onto their kids, who knows what we've got waiting in the future for us.
J: Absolutely..
M: It's Josh Groban here on the Mark & Kim Show. 7:53. Stay with us. More music from Josh Groban on the way here at KOST 103.

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<Part 4>

K: It's 8 o'clock at KOST Los Angeles.
M: We're Mark & Kim. It's Breakfast with Josh Groban. Yummy!
K: And everybody has brought out their camera phones now I think...
J: Yeah, I hear camera phones making that little fake camera noise. It's great.
M: It's good thing it's not like a phazer, Startreck,, you know? (Laughter)
J: You can program to do anything...
M: We're grateful for that ....umm, everybody doing OK? I mean, this is a pretty special experience ...
K: Yeah? We're getting to know Josh a little bit, and you ...you know you've traveled and you're on tour and you're gonna be here at the Greek Friday and Saturday night.
J: Aha ...
K: When you travel with people, do you consider the people that work with you "friends", "co-workers", "employees", I mean how close do you get to people on the road?
J: They're, I mean, they're all friends and co-workers, I mean, it's, I mean, you become so close with them, because, they're all you see on a day-to-day basis, you're living out of each other's pockets, and ah, I've got...I've been so fortunate to, to...on...on a work level, to have so many incredible, talented, just...just...they'are so into it, and these people, and so but, but...you know, on a friendship level, you know, I mean, we hang out all the time ....
K: And now.. do you fly the girlfriend in on...?
J: Yeah, I do! I absolutely do! You know January comes in as often as she can and, she's off sometimes on locations....and it's hard, but umm, but we've actually really worked out and our schedules have worked out and ...
M: When are you guys getting married?
J: HAHH-HA!
K: He's 23, Mark!!!
M: No, I think it's a legitimate ...and listen! Your mother is wondering, too!
J: Not for a very, very, very long time! But umm..
K: You know, but a lot of people are getting married young today...
J: They are! They certainly are! I read about in US Weekly all the time....(laughter)....you know, it's a...we all know how that story ends...but ah....
M: All right, so Josh, you do, you have these intense relationships, you know, with these people that you work with, but there's gotta be one, though, if you had to replace one person ....
J: What!!! Hah-hah-hah-ha!!!
K: Who are you gonna fire this weekend?
M: If there was just one person.....
K: You can't ask him that!
M: .... everybody you know...right now, who do you have to replace? Who needs
to sharpen his skills?
J: The caterer, for sure!
K: Aaallll right!
M: There you go!
J: The catering sucks!
M: Gladstone Malibu ...then, that's what you to get on the road ..
K: It’s all about the food.
J: Gladstone Malibu definitely needs to come on tour.
M: Really sometimes, now, that, I, I would assume, umm, do you have one of those clauses in your contract that, you know, pull up the green M&M's?
J: ...nnnNo. Ha-ha!
M: Really?
J: I, umm, my dressing rooms are so bare...
M: Is there anything unique that you ask for, that, maybe...is something special to Josh Groban, on these concert tours?
J: Umm, my writer basically just has bottled water and potato chips, and....
K: Josh, Josh, Josh.....
J: ...and I don't even eat the potato chips, so.....I don't know ....I know...
K: You know, Oprah, think Oprah, Diva!
J: I know....
K: You know, you need to work on that a little bit.
J: It's true.
M: I gotta couple of things.
J: Sure. You tell me.
M: I think you need .....a masseuse.
J: Ohh! You know, that's...
M: You know, couple of hours before the show, you know...you get that stage fright thing starting to work up, you know...
J: That's a good idea...
K: That might make him fall asleep or something.....
J: Yeah, real loose performance...that's ahh......that's a.....that's a good, that's a good time. 'How'ya all doing!?"
(laughter)
M: This is why Brian is his manager, and not me....all right, not very good.
His CD "Closer" which is out right now, umm, we played a selection of songs from it earlier in our broadcast this morning as Josh Groban visits us here, and umm, this is the final cut on the CD that is out in the stores...
J: Right.
M: ....there is another CD that was available...
J: Yes...
M: ...at joshgroban.com ...
J: nh...
M: ...which has some additional cuts...
J: Right.
M: ...but, "Never let go" put you with a very unique, umm, musician that maybe you've heard of a not group called Deep Forest.
J: Right. Yeah, this was, this was the real collaboration with the both of them. There's Eric & Michelle from, from Deep Forest and, this was the situation where we had finished "Remember when it rained" and I said, "You now what? Let's, let's, let's take it way far left, let's, let's go...let's go on a different direction, you know, don't be afraid to make it classical sounding or whatever you think of me, whatever you think of my vocals or whatever, just throw it out the window....and just let's create a song that
you would normally do. "
M: And this....has some great energy to it. It's a wonderful song.
J: It...one of the...some of, some of the -----we've had in the recording studio, it happened very very quickly, it started actually....the melody for the song started with him playing a cord, and I would just improvise into the microphone on "ah" , you know, "ah-ah-ah---ah-a...", and that's the beginning of the song. And that eventually, that...(laughter), eventually, "a frog in the throat!". Umm, and eventually that, that improvisation became, became the melody for the verse, and we started doing the lyrics, so...
K: Well, let's hear it on the Mark & Kim Show. "Never let go." It's Josh Groban.

"Never let go"

K: Kost 103.5. We are having so much fun this morning. Breakfast with Mark & Kim and Josh Groban!
J: Taking pictures and....
K: "Never let go" the name of that tune...
M: Pick of the CD "Closer", it is wonderful beginning to end, he sings in four languages, and one question was do you understand all those languages that you are singing in? Do you speak them fluently?
J: Well, Ｉ certainly understand them. I mean, when I, when I take on a song in another language, there is ton of home work that goes into it before I even go in front of the microphone.....
M: So you make sure that they're not putting any dirty words and ...
J: Yeah, absolutely! (laughter)
M: ....that's not your first language.
J: It could happen, but umm, no it's, it's, its, umm.....languages are so musical, themselves ...
M: .... is amazing in Italian, in Spanish, and French...
J: It is. That's true. And sometimes you know, when you translate it back into English, just because of my first language, you know, it gets lost in translation, the poetry of it, the musicality of it, it just, even though some people may not understand everything that I'm singing, they feel that much more, and so it's very important for me to really learn it.
M: It's umm, nine after 8 here and Josh Groban is going to step outside and he's gonna be going on television on Channel 11 here pretty soon. Keep it here on KOST 103, we'll be back with Josh Groban. You'll also be able to see him on Channel 11 here in a little bit, but umm....what are we gonna do?
We've gotta do something.
J: How'bout a ho-down?
M: You know what? No, we're gonna, we're gonna like...mysteriously walk in front of the camera and ...something like that. "Hey! How about this!"
K: They're here to see Josh, Mark. Mark....
M: We'll just tackle him! You know, all of a sudden, there's a camera shot, and he's straight down!
J: Absolutely.
M: Yeah, so we'll figure out some way to screw this up with him.....
K: They're here to see Josh ...
M: Exactly. It's the Mark & Kim Show and Josh Groban. The time right now is 8:11......

>Back to the top

M: Southern California's KOST 103.5. Hey, it's the Mark & Kim Show with Josh Groban here. Josh, go ahead and back us up ....
J: Hey, guys! Glad to be here!
K: He always wanted to be a disk jockey in a former life.
J: I certainly did!
M: Did you ever, you know, want to, you know, the....sometimes, you know, when, Grobanites, we hear on the message boards, I haven't had a chance to see you, I missed you at the shrine...
J: OK.
M: I'm gonna be there Friday night, at the Greek. It'll be great to see you
...but you, kinda joke about dancing up on stage...
J: Ah-ha-ha! Some times, you're a just a little bit hyper, and you gotta let out a little nervous energy, so you just gotta ...
M: But Grobanites love it though...
J: Well, I appreciate that. That's really, umm....
M: We're just wondering where the back-up dancers are gonna come ....
J: Anything that takes the dancing away from me, I think probably would be....an amazing idea...but probably not gonna happen.
M: From "Grit eating grobie", here comes a question off the message board...
J: Also another, real, another real name...
M: "Hello, have you ever made real cultural missteps outside the US?"
J: Umm, I hope not.
M: Messed a president of some country and called him, you know "butt head" by accident in his language.
J: Actually...
K: You know, because you, you know, you sing in another languages, people probably assume you can speak those fluently.
J: Well...I...I didn't really know how to greet the Pope. I, umm....
J&M&K: Wow.....that's a big one....
J: I wasn't really sure whether or ...
M: Your Holiness, that's a nice one....
J: Yeah, well, or just, just shake hands, or kiss his ring, or give him a hug or....I didn't know what umm...what to do, so gave him a nice steady hand shake.
M: What about umm, the Royalty in England? Any Royalty in England?
J: Haven't met any Royalty in England...
M: That will happen to you, and I think that they've actually come to you before and we'll tell you exactly how...
J: Really? Interesting...
M: ....you're supposed to behave. Somebody from the Pope should have done that ...
J: That may have happened, in Italy, but I didn't, I really didn't understand...yeah, I ,,,
K: Yeah, I would think, that they would...would warn you. Listen. Coming up, you need to, if you are driving to work or, not driving to work, but if you're still at home, and you are close to a TV, you wanna switch on Channel 11, because coming up you are gonna see Josh Groban there on "Good Day LA".
M: Along with the Mark & Kim Show with Dorothy Julian and Steve Edwards.
K: Yes!
M: It's 8:30...

>Back to the top

<Part 6>

K: We've got Josh Groban in studio this morning, we're just on live on Good Day LA. That was...
J: I've been exposing myself all morning.....we can see that...
M: You have been in a wonderful wind, Josh...Thank you very much for sharing so much.....
K: Boy, I think that Julian was trying to hit on you big time there.
J: That's.....you know, I've been watching the show for a while, it's been....a dream of mine. So....that's great...
K: So that's OK..
J: Ah-ha-ha!
M: That's right. Now, let me tell you that girl swings on a vine, if you know what I'm saying...
J: Ah-ha-ha!
M: We have NO idea which side of the fence she is in.....but, but it's exciting for everybody, I guess...
K: Yeah! That was fun. You guys having a good time this morning?
Audience: Yeah!
K: We've had a wonderful breakfast with Josh Groban ...
J: I'm full.
K: Are you?
J: It’s great...that was delicious...
M: Josh, thank you SO much for being here. You're at the Greek Theatre, Friday and Saturday night...
J: Yes.
M: Umm, what is going on for you in future recording as far as your third album? I know that you are already thinking about a way of gathering songs...
.
J: Absolutely. I....Absolutely. I've already started, started thinking about working on the third album and it's....it’s umm...it's so exciting. Being on the road you get so many inspirations....
M: And what...what kind of material are you looking to do for your third album?
J: At the moment, I'm really....kind of interested in....in....in finding some things that really happened kind of the world, world music element ...I'm gonna be traveling to Africa very soon to do some concerts there and I hope to also pick up some musical, musical things for the album over there, too. So ...
M: How would you do that? Do you just turn on the radio on when you get there? You, people, musicians sometimes......they'll hook up with you?
J: You know, sometimes, it’s as simple as turning on the radio. I heard "You raise me up" in Ireland three years ago on a radio station in a taxi.
And I, and I...it just was in the back of mind, and umm, and so....you know, it really depends...
K: You heard that song performed by someone else?
J: It has been done by one of the persons in Ireland long time ago.
K: Ohh! Is that right?
J: Yeah, yeah, so...
K: How interesting. So, every, everywhere you go you can hear different versions of it. That's interesting.
M: So, so then, would you third album still contain, the....the...multi-language that you do, the...I mean, people call you still very classical influences...
J: Right. I, I think, I think that I owe it to my past influences, I owe it to pay, you know, really to pay ....to those influences that got me started, and to keep doing that, to keep working with different languages in the classical inspirations...
M: Has anybody done any dance version of any of your songs?
J: Ummm....
M: Listen. We've got ??? who's done Celine Dione and
J: It’s incredible...
M: ...their, you know, some of those songs have been, turned into kind of dance songs...
J: It’s, it's a crazy business, you know, it's....for all I know, it could've been done. Every once in a while, yeah, I get CD's and DJ's who've mixed it, and put, you know "@#$%+" into it, you know, but, I did, I did a re-mix once, and it was awful, so I tend to not, to not, to not, do that a lot, on my own, but other people, other people do that a lot all the time.
K: Yeah.
M: When, umm, for former President, Ronald Regan past away, we put together a wonderful piece with...
J: I head that..
M: ....and Nancy Regan wrote us a letter thanking us and being very inspired by your music.
J: She's is an extraordinary lady and umm, it's been really really great to, to meet her.
M: I don't think we've ever seen such an artist touching, you know teenagers, to.....
K: Right. So many different generations.....but you talked about music being the universal language.
J: Ah, it is. Yeah. So....
K: Yeah.
J: No, the letters I receive and the people that I meet, when I, when I, when I see that, that connection, that's why, why I do what I do.
M: And I talked with a musician who is a huge pop fan, and I told him, I said, "you know, we're gonna have Josh Groban on the air with some breakfast, ...and I said, you as a musician, what is it about Josh Groban that hits you?" And this guy has, he's a professional, makes a great living in music, and he said, "You know what? It's a stupid to say, but I'll say it. It is real music." And I think that, it is, it....that's so simple but, your music, whether your singing English, French, German...are you gonna do German song?
J: Yeah, maybe, yeah.
M: Yeah! I don't think German is a romantial language but, you know...
J: (laughter)
K: You can do that um-pa-pa.
J: Exactly. ????
K: But you know, Josh, if music is the real deal, and he, as a man is a real deal, isn't he, ladies?
Audience: Yeah!
K: I mean, you're just so down to earth....
J: Thanks, ladies....
K: ...and like everybody keeps a bother, I mean, you're just so sweet that way.
J: Well, Thanks!
K: So it hasn't gone to your head yet?
J: Ummm.....
K: What's the one way that you've spoiled yourself, since you've gained all this success?
J: Ummm. I bought a sports car.....
M: What kind?
J: I bought a silver gray, porche 911-2004....
M: Oh, my Gosh.
K: Here's the man there...
M: Haw many tickets so far?
J: Three...
M: There you go...and the problem is that, you know, he goes, it's like...
"Who are you?" "Josh Groban" Anybody recognize you and say "Hey, listen. Slow down. It's sunset here."
J: Not on the way to Vegas, no. (laughter)
M: Oh, yeah, I know...
J: (laughter)

K: But they ask you if your Daddy bought it for you?
J: Umm, no, I don't, I don't think so.
M: You know, just one final question. You know your life has really changed in the last three four years, umm....you know the friends that you grew up with, you know, how does your celebrity affect them? Has there been any, anything negative that way at all with...
J: Sure. I mean, there's, there's have been negative, but I think, I think the nice thing about is, is that your real friends are the ones that understand when you have to be away for a while and they understand, you know what's, what's happening in your life, and umm, you know, I'm just as understanding to them. I think that sometimes, you know, you find your truest friends when you...you are in a situation that's very different, so...many of my friends that I grew up with are still very very close friens.
K: That's good.
M: Well, I can tell you that....here's an artist sitting right next to me who you are going to know for years to come, you have SOOO much on the horizon at being 23 years old. Congratulations! And, God has blessed you with an unbelievable talent...
J: Thank you very much....
K: And you know, we're happy to be there in the beginning, so it's exciting.
J: You certainly were. And I cannot thank you enough both, for just being, just incredible supporters from the beginning.
M: We're hoping to be there in the end.
J: Yeah...
(Laughter)
M: Everyone. How about it? Josh Groban joining us this morning.
J: Thanks, everybody.
M: Thank you very much! We look forward to many more CD's and many more visits, Josh!
J: You got it. Any time.
M: It's 8:50.