O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel fears Club 27, Lou Pearlman

Ashley Parker Angel of O-Town feared dying at a young age and joining a growing roster of famous musicians who did not make it to their 28th birthday.

Angel, 41, “just turned 18” when his career began in “Making the Band”. The popular pop group that formed on the smash hit reality show was later managed by disgraced boy band founder Lou Pearlman, who also discovered Backstreet Boys and * NSYNC.

“When you achieve success and fame at this age, they don’t tell you that when you achieve success and fame, you will always compare yourself to it,” explained Angel on Tuesday episode of the podcast “Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef”adding that many people “feel pressured to continue”.

“Fame can cause a lot of depression and anxiety, and a lot of substance abuse problems and all kinds of psychological problems that people have to deal with because there is a darker underbelly to dealing with fame,” he added.

After three years of being together, O-Town broke up in 2003, and Angel continued his never-ending pursuit of a solo career as documented in another reality series, There and Back.

Angel told Yontef that he lived the “rock star lifestyle” and everything that involved at the time – including depression.

“I started to turn to drugs and alcohol,” he said, adding that he began to have “close friends in the industry” who began dying of suicide, including Disney Channel star Lee Thompson Young.

“You see, sometimes this fame comes at a young age and you get acknowledgment from the world. And then suddenly the plug is pulled out and it drives people crazy, ”said Angel.

“I looked at myself in the mirror and thought,“ If I don’t make a change, I’ll join club 27. I will die as that young performer, like many of them, ”he continued.

“And I had that moment of revelation where I knew I had to make a change. And for this reason, I believe that my view of chasing music has really changed after that. That’s why I switched to Broadway.

His first appearance was to play the main character’s love interest in “Hairspray” in 2007.

During his “revelation”, Angel also returned to his previous passion: health and fitness.

“I got up cleaned and hit my fitness journey with full force,” he said. “And I don’t think a lot of people know about me. That’s why I’m so addicted to fitness. I feel so good living this healthy lifestyle. For me, it’s mental and emotional. It’s not just physical appearance. “

Few words, Angel also attributed his desire to “end the music industry” to Pearlman, who, he noted, “was eventually sued by * NSYNC and Backstreet [Boys]”.

“The music industry is full of many voracious people,” he told Yontef, pointing out that Pearlman was “a fraud and a criminal” who “died in jail.”

In addition to allegedly withholding money from contractors he managed, there were also vague rumors The alleged “thing for boys” by Pearlman.

“This is where Lou had the dark trait of using his power and influence to manipulate young performers in these truly questionable scenarios,” said Angel in the 2019 documentary The Boy Band Con.

The musician claimed that the late music mogul asks O-Town members to take off their shirts and show off their abs during rehearsals.

“I think,” Oh, that’s part of having a team mentor to make sure you’re in good shape, “because that’s what he always said,” Angel said in the film, saying Pearlman would be highlighting that part of their job was on the sale of teen magazines.