This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Talking with the biggest stars from our Mercedes-Benz interview lounge,

backstage at Z-100's jingle ball.

This is Elvis Duran in the morning show's Jingle Ball Diaries.

I got Nelly.

Does anyone care that I've got Nellie?

We are live. This is the Mercedes-Benz Interview Lounge. It at Elvis Duran with Nellie. Oh, man. Thank you, brother. Such an honor to have you, but I want to take you down memory lane. Okay. 23 years ago at Jingle Ball. That's you and Kelly Rowland. Yo. Look at that. They just showed me that picture. Man, I had so much energy then.

I had hair back then.

Now all my hair's on my back. You don't want to see that, do you? No, I'm good, champ. Okay, let me take you back 23 years ago, Nellie. You performed here at Z100 Jingle Ball. Avrilavro Levine, Destiny's Child, Justin Timberlake, Coddy Minogue, and someone named Ashanti was here that night

Yeah

Isn't that weird?

Yeah

Same name

Different last Justin Timberlake, Connie Minogue, and someone named Ashanti was here that night. Yeah. Isn't that weird? Yeah. Same name, different last name. There it is. There you go. So were you guys good friends back then? Or was it on back then? No, no, it wasn't on back then. I think it was just admiration from afar. I mean, you know, she was basically probably just getting started.

Right. And O2, and I was on my second album, so, you know, I was a wild boy then. I wasn't ready for

them. You still are. I can see wild. I smell wild. You've got that wild stank on over there.

That's what that is. Hey, Nellie, isn't it great? You can do one of these shows. You sing one of your songs, and people who were listening to you back then, and people are just now discovering who you are now, they're all singing your songs. Yeah. It's called stamina. Yeah, that's what you hope for. That's the only way you can have a career, you know, um, 26, 27 years and counting.

Right. And you're just very thankful, man. You know, everybody don't get those opportunities.

So, um, I always like to thank all the people and Jingle Ball and I Heart has always been there for

Nelly. Well, having you here is an honor. Thank you. But wait, you were honored with the IHeart Radio

landmark award celebrating the 25th anniversary of country grammar. Yeah. God. Look at that. Yeah, they did that. Were you in Detroit the other night? You did a show the other night? Detroit. They said you came out on stage, and even though there was a set list, you said, uh-uh, I want it all changed. Yeah. And you started doing, you started bringing people up and dancing with the morning show from the stadium. Yeah, man.

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