Hi Beautiful Human. I'm Zach. That's Dan. And we're back for a third time. We're so back, baby.

Yeah, our friend Joshua Bass. Third time's a charm. Let's go.

Joshua Taylor. Yes, sir, yeah. We whip out the full name for the authorship. Yeah. Funnily enough, I wanted to go by Joshua Taylor when I started my career. Like day one, my first meeting in LA, I was like, I want to be Joshua Taylor, my middle name. And they were like, no. And I was like, why? Because we already introduced you to these producers as Joshua Bassett. And I was like, well, just tell them it's Joshua Taylor. And they're like, not going to happen.

And I kind of let them win.

And then right before I dropped my last album, I told my whole team, I'm like, I'm changing it to Joshua Taylor Bassett or Joshua Taylor. And they were like, no, it's going to ruin the algorithm. It's going to fuck everything up. And I was like, okay, fine. I had enough people tell me no. Eventually I was like, this is my name. I get to do it.

And I feel like this book is like a new chapter for me and kind of stepping into a new season of life. And so I decided like it's going to happen. There's no, no one's going to convince me otherwise. And so we went for it. I remember when you told me about this like when you were going to start writing this book. Like you were in the process.

Like five fucking years ago?

Yes.

Like very infancy's like infant stages of the whole process yeah yeah

yeah I think when we I had done the first interview I think I was already working on it yes yeah yeah

and I feel like you had a name back then I actually had the cover back then yeah I literally

had written out the cover on a piece of paper as an example I was I was like, it should be something like this, should feel like super informal. And, you know, because a lot of the themes of the book are how I was no schooled and how I've always been insecure about like my intelligence or my education. And so there was something about that cover that was kind of like owning that almost, the sort of unpolished nature, I guess, of my life. And so anyways, I had the cover for five years, but then I went through a whole lot of stuff. And I always knew that I wanted to get this one right because it was so important to me. And so it's evolved over time. But yeah, I've had the cover since 2021, I think. It's only a book you can write once.

Yeah, exactly.

This is, and by the way, like, if you were to release this book back in 2022, 2021, dude,

there's not enough, so much life has happened since then.

Absolutely, yeah.

And I, and I think, you know, obviously, you know, I'm going to continue to evolve, ideally, you know, I think. But I think I didn't want to put it out until I felt like stable, you know, until I felt like I really had a general grip on my life. You know what I'm saying? Like I felt like I would kind of get a sense like, okay, I think I'm close to being ready. And then I'd be like everything I thought I knew was wrong, you know, and obviously I'm not saying I have everything figured out by any means, but I finally feel like I'm ready to kind of put out this statement, and I'm actually already working on the next book. Oh, hey. You're crazy. I'm sucked. There is, like, you did capture something when you were talking about, by the way, I only have this on my thing because I have notes that I need to get to. Dude, I have hella notes. By the way, we've consumed this book now twice and I know you were looking for the book physically. Yeah, did you not bring it? Dude, it's in my car. I have it in my dressing room if you want someone to run it in my backpack yeah we should go

and grab it right now i'm sure someone in the control room is they'll definitely go on it um

hold on i just want to i have there's a lot of stuff here because it is part your story part like this

like yes it's like self-helpy but it's also kind of like a how-to guide of like fake it until you make it. Mm-hmm. This like this how-to guide of like figuring it out as you go, quote unquote. Totally. Start before you're ready kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like not needing permission to just like go for it kind of thing. Yeah. And that's kind of what, I mean, but the other thing, too, is like, that is captured in this title. Like, this idea that you are a rookie until what? When do you ever even graduate? Exactly. And that's something that's in, like, the second chapter is when I was on set for season one of High School musical, you know, and I'm having this panic attack because I have this this big monologue scene I have to do, and I'm like, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.

You kill it in two takes. Let's go, yeah. But I'm like, the night before, I'm, like, crashing out. Like, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Like, I'm a fraud. I'm a con man. I, like, was bullshitting my way through LA and all of a sudden I'm here with this big responsibility

and Tim Federally the showrunner just was like Josh like shut up like every day I show up on

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