O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel is opening up about how boy band fame wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
In a new episode of the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast, the singer says he was once convinced he’d join the “27 club”: the list of legendary musicians who all died at the age of 27. Among them are legends like: Jimi Hendrix, The Doors' Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain.
Ashley, now 41, was barely 18 when he won a spot in O-Town on ABC’s Making the Band. The group went on to have success with hits like “Liquid Dreams” and “All or Nothing.”
“When you achieve success and fame at that age, what they don’t tell you is, once you become that successful and famous, you’re always going to compare yourself to that,” he says.
He admits that after the group disbanded in 2003 and he pursued a solo career, he “started turning to drugs and alcohol.”
“I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was like, ‘If I don’t make a change, I’m gonna join ‘the 27 club.’ I’m going to die as this young performer, like many have,'” Ashley says.
After that epiphany, he started down a healthier path. He explains, “I got up, cleaned up and I rode full force into my fitness journey."