 Hey everybody, I'm Jesse camp and welcome to Street Rock on this episode. We are Today's episode fantastic guest 1998 if you watched MTV like I did you know this guy They had a contest called find a new MTV VJ this guy wanted Jesse camp. Hey guys. This is Jesse camp. You're listening to Van Halen man. He won the contest became a VJ was a smash hit all over America You're gonna find out what happened how he got that gig his childhood Everything it was fantastic. He's above ground. He exists. He walks the streets of Hollywood talking and rocking Jesse camp we are outside of so we're doing a podcast Doesn't know we're here yet. We're just gonna go up knock on the door Kill two birds with one stone. We're doing the podcast and and doing this show Yeah, live in the Hollywood Hills right here at rock and roll How are you guys? This is an insane house. Is that even plugged in dude? No Oh, I got you just go there. Yeah, it's a prop bike word is out like the candles of rock How are you guys man killer? Oh, it's epic to see you. Hell. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me this guy Look at this guy. Let's go in the morning disappoint. No way. Come on in man. We got some shit to talk about up here. All right Let's see what you got tough check you to check Yo, check it a check check check the one two check check check Uh, what's your chord black? The black record no longer blackened Okay, who's fucking All right, now let's see part ready the rip party party. Yeah, okay Quick check here. We'll be partying You like to party? Yeah, what do you like to party? Yo, okay, what's hot? Okay, there we go All right, here we go. Let there be talk Uh, I got a crazy guest today. Um, I did the live podcast a couple days ago at the My factory with Jim quarantine. Yes, I see this tall crazy dude wearing the fucking Steven Tyler style vibe And I'm and then you start talking to me and after about five minutes I realized wait I know this fucking guy And it's jesse camp from mtv days. That's right man in the flesh now And excited as hell to see mr. Dean del Rey in the flesh. Here's what's weird as fuck two things What were you doing there? What's weird as fuck is that you have a chimpanzee in the corner in a weird cage. Yeah, this is like amazing This is mini michael jackson house, dude. Oh my god. Do you you you have an ape like a bubbles type thing? I do you see him over there, man. His name's squirrel He's that chimpanzee, but his name's squirrel How many bananas does that vo vo go through a day? Yeah, see this is exactly how I thought the interview Crazy setup you have here. You have a whole pool in the back with live flamingos. Yeah, I swear This is like insane. It's like las vegas in the hollywood hills. It's amazing. Dude, you're filming it. They're looking They're gonna be looking at it going. There's nothing here Actually, you can't say stuff like that because I try to get donations and then they'll come shady Oh for the animal reserve that you have here now, man for the fucking show Now let's go a minute. Yeah, what brought you down to the show? Basically, um Oh, what brought me down to the show Thursday night Yeah at the laugh factory where I do believe if you're lucky enough to come to hollywood you can catch dean On a semi regular basis. You play there a lot I'm at the comedy store every night and the laugh factor about twice a week But what brought you there? Did you know it was a rock show? Well, um, I'm good I'm not gonna say good friends, but I I'll put it to you this way. I Love jim florentine. That's right. He's a great guy, right the greatest guy and like there's just But I'm kind of picking up that vibe from you too But he jim florentine's like one of those guys that you uh, you just look at and he makes you laugh Like just just seeing his face. I'm thinking like what is he thinking at his head? And then he's weird kind of out of tone voice, right? Yeah, absolutely No, at that, of course, you know, I mean, I was a huge cranky anchors fan And he he did arguably the best character on that, you know, hey, it's my birthday. Yeah I mean let's talk a little bit because You're uh, one of those guys to me that uh, out of sight out of mind I'm hard to pin down one day. I'm an MTV vj the next day you hear about me You know, like, uh, opening a humongous high rise in Dubai, you know, I mean, uh, Now, wait a hold on a minute now So you I remember what was it? 1998 right? The inner contest to be a vj on MTV at the time vj had some weight You could get some bj's. You could get some chicks, right? I mean that shit was still kind of cool. A vj could get a bj Right. Yeah, you know, hey, but these days the dj can definitely get a bj A crop you mean like a like Skrillex Yeah, I mean, I'll I'll bring Dean and I'm happy to do it and um, I'll tell you all about my my uh, my life and um Whole MTV period. Yeah all my subsequent craziness and I want to talk about that because growing up I grew up in the 80s and uh, where are you from originally San Francisco Bay? That's right and you do a lot of great you actually guys honestly you have a lot of great material Oh, thank you, man. I had a friend that I was telling her about you and then uh, yeah, she was she's Yeah, that drag queen now, but now I'm I'm glad that didn't work out because I'm glad it's just you and me But I I mean you have another I have another podcast subject for you if we could get her again. Yeah, yeah, like Crazy, well, some would think you're a drag queen Well the truth Dean and no one knows this but I'll let it out here is that I was born a hermaphrodite, right? And so, you know, like much like Jamie Lee Curtis, right, right, you know, I get it By the way, you want to know the number one yogurt in the uh In the hermaphrodite community. Yeah, it's activia And that's all because of Jamie Lee Curtis's endorsement those activia people, you know There are a lot of hermaphrodites out there and they're pooping regularly with that activity. Is that right? Yeah, I don't even know what the fuck you're talking about, but let's get into some rock and roll Let's get on rock because in addition to all the mtv stuff I don't know if you know this but It's great timing because uh may 25th. Yeah, it's going to be the 15th uh anniversary Of the release of my uh first record that I know we're jumping way too forward though because I don't want to get into that Yep, okay here. Let's get into it 80s. I'm watching mtv. You got the vj's you got mark curry You got fucking uh ricky rackman. Yeah ricky rackman head bangers But what are those other guys they were actually like five downtown julie brown at in the beginning you had martha quinn Yep, uh, nina blackwood jj jackson. There you go Um the guy with the afro Mark mark curry maybe mark curry and then alan hunter. Okay, there you go. There's the guys those are the guys that started it They launched it. It's biggest fuck in 1982 first video ever the bugles radio killed the that's right video killed the radio Yep, and then it becomes huge obviously and at some point Some of the vj's leave for deduce other stuff and they go on they have a contest search for a new mtv vj Oh, well, we're plowing through a lot of history because are we yeah, I mean because the Honestly, the history of mtv is vast and if we just touch on this for like a millisecond It'll make my where my place in the whole history. I'm down that much more poignant and it's interesting because I mean You know, we live in a digital age, you know And so I mean you have to really understand basically, uh when I was at mtv it was 1998 And it was like the very last era like where people would buy like, you know records and CDs, right? Right, right, right, but they had that stuff like, um I remember like that you they would have uh during the day you could vote for a video every day to win Remember that like to keep that video going to rl. Yeah, and that's that's a big part of what I did at mtv is um it's I was in there during a really crazy period because uh, uh, you know for the first year of that show rl, I was uh What, you know the the guy in the street, you know, that's right. That's right. I basically saw that show go from like You know it being like ghosts in times square like, you know Like times square is a little dead around like 4 30, you know what I mean, that's right till like it being like You know like 20,000 people in times square like it was new year's eve because the backstreet boys are there, you know, like Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's crazy, right crazy. Yeah, so let's let's talk a little bit about it uh You grew up in I mean and there's like the yeah People say all the guy was rich who because you created a character. I get it In a lot. Oh, I could tell you I'll give you 100 the facts. Yeah, let's get into that of my economics and This is some interesting stuff. Yeah that I grow up in the east coast. I feel like I'm on a first date It's good though. No, it's good. It's good because you gotta understand the magnitude of mtv if you're growing up Let me explain where I'm from and geographically and in my upbringing's long story short. Um And I won't give out my mom's maiden name or my social security number while doing this, but um, basically my um My name, uh, my birth name is Josiah holding camp the third right and I grew up I was born on harford connecticut. I grew up in grandby connecticut, which is like right on the uh Uh rich neighborhood. No, no, I mean decent though It's like a suburb of harford But there's a big difference between being a suburb of harford and being like a suburb of like greenage or stanford or some Because like like we were like basically like 10 minutes from like massachusetts Like so it was kind of grandby was a town that was on the cusp of like, you know working class But then I had like some rich people too, but my mom and dad were both teachers And uh, my dad was a history professor and then my mom was like the principal of the school of the elementary school in my town But Long story short, my mom was born and raised in the netherlands and then she came over to america when she was 19 And then she was like taking like a and then my dad was a little bit older he just started uh Teaching at the university of harford connecticut and then she was She wasn't a student in his but they met there and so yada yada yada, right? Anyway, at what so basically the whole mtv story right with me is Not so like I I was a good student my parents um Probably brought in about like 120 grand a year back then which would be like a you know the upper middle But I went to a great you see what changed my life is I went to a great private school Like for high school and that's the shit that people grabbed on to right right because you created a character That you were a street kid. Yeah, and uh, but I really became one and the thing is is uh, you know, I was one of the yeah But by the time I was doing the mtv thing, you see I was 18 and when you're 18, you know And you're so into a movement, you know what I mean like I was like so into the street kid Kind of like vibe and aesthetic that I did like actually forget in my head. Oh, yeah Yeah, but I think what was even cooler about all that is just for that time period. Um You know, how much stuff I was able to get over at mtv Basically, the thing is is that like they didn't do any research No, once I won this contest mtv put together like this half hour special about my life Yeah, and you know and the thing is is um Yeah, I mean it was all a head trip because they did really kind of create a character, you know The day created or did you oh? I 100% created it because that made them think it was me right if anybody Is like a kind of an Andy Kaufman. That's right. That's right was like a real life Andy Kaufman Well bobcat did character, you know huge comedian my bobcat created character Different people create characters and as much as they want to fry you when they find out in your mind You're not going to get it as a regular guy. You need to pop out. You need to have something So are you at your house going? I'm going to enter this contest and I'm going to come on as like a Well, the thing is is that when I was 18 I was like a mix of uh crazy confidence and um See the story really starts when I was at that private high school, right? Which was actually such a cool school because basically it was like the high school in my town Was cool was like kind of deadbeat. But like, you know, this this school was like It was like half day students, which I was and then half borders kind of like an art kind of school or Almost like an art. Yeah, very much an art school I got into acting and theater there and then basically like my senior year of high school I had like a a scholarship to for an acting program at UCLA. So my mom and dad thought that um I was going to basically go there, right? But I um You know and so and then at the same time I had an older sister marisha And she'd been going to nyu for like two years But she dropped out kept some tuition money without it getting back to my mom and dad somehow so basically like You know like the my mom and dad We had a sicko gas card and the mobile gas card and we were on our way basically right after I graduated high school Gas cards are the key to the city, right? Oh, yeah, because uh, I had one like I was dead broke But my mom gave me a shell card and she'd like if you get in any trouble Just use the card and then once they put those uh, those little markets in there Now you're eating you can get cigarettes. You can get beer, you know Yeah, oh and check this out if you have a Listen, I think that the sicko gas company maybe is not as prominent as it was like 20 years ago Back then yeah, but I mean it's an east coast station. Yeah, but then there's this thing where like so many sickos are joined to 7 11's Yeah, but it used to be bad like so shit. You could like just shop at the seven You could just live on these gas cards The deal is is that the bill would then go back to my mom and dad exactly what happened to me too My mom would be like what the hell $200 gas bill and I'd be like I need to survive You know, that's funny. Shit So like long story short basically like we took off we had the gas cards We had money my sister and I went on like a nine month Like road trip and we did come out to LA and but we had crazy adventures from like Gallup, New Mexico to like Boise, Idaho, we ended up living with like a religious cult for two weeks But then we were like we had crazy like modern-day hippies Modern-day hippies we had a crazy adventure where it was like around Halloween and Jane's addiction Were like uh reunited this 98 and they were like playing like at the uh, Sahara hotel in Las Vegas Yeah with uh, Navarro with Navarro and flea on base And they were making this whole movie about it and then this like guy Like scouting me out for and gave me like an acting part in that and I did that And so that was all even before MTV But then basically it was like mark it was like February of 1998 Yeah, and like you know me and my sister we had like this brown Volvo and it was kind of on its last legs And there was just something in us that was like, okay We've kind of done this long enough. We really need to get back home Give her parents a break from worrying a little Yeah, and so then my sister was totally fried when we got back But she had been living in New York the last two years and and it seemed really interesting to me So then basically like in march I started like what I would do is I would take like the I would basically go to go into New York City Hang out there for five days take the bus back on the weekends recuperate and do it again And I had some weird where are you hanging at it like the limelight and shit like that Um clubbing or what's going on? No, not even clubbing man. What are you doing just like fucking exploring I was still so young that like, you know, are you doing drugs? You got drugging and stuff Yeah, am I in my own way? Yeah, but not, you know, innocent stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Just weed or something. Just weed. Yeah Right. Yeah, you gotta be like You're but it's all new and it's so exciting. Now. Listen at this point I had explored like everywhere else in the country from like Dubuque, Iowa Well, not everywhere, but most everywhere I was really like hip to the road and stuff But New York was like this new urban crazy cool adventure. So anyway, basically like two weeks I'm in Like MTV announces this contest that it's like anyone who wants Can like, um, you know come down to their Times Square studio and try out to be a vj Right. And so I was like, you know, um, yeah, like who's not going to do that, right? He's not going to do that. Also the thing about how I changed my name to Jesse is that, um, Basically, I remember on that road trip me and my sister we we'd gone to Graceland Yeah, and she you know, my sister had an Elvis obsession and he had a brother named Jesse And you know, we were just like wow, Jesse that that's kind of the coolest name and I was like, yeah That's the dopest name. So then when I entered the MTV contest, they asked me my name Said my name's Jesse cam now in your but I did kind of create a care You know, like did you have the character in your mind going to the, uh, audition? Or did you just sort of yeah It was sort of like how at that time I thought to sound cool You'd sound cool and I was you know into punk rock at the time I was also very into like, uh, 80s hard rock and I was You know, which was really kind of unhipped at that time because in 1998 Yeah, because grunge had killed it all Listen, I got to tell you and I'm not going to tell anyone where they're all stored But I have like a rock t-shirt collection that's fucking Japanese were to find it. It could be worth Yeah, that's it's great right like recently like about in 1998 you could like fucking like You could actually go into a good will just buy them all remember t-shirt racks There'd be trickster t-shirts Brittany Fox t-shirts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah people 99 cents right 99 cents when I'm on the road now doing comedy I search them out, you know, and you'll score an iron mate and peace of mind or something But uh, yeah, like a lot of people don't understand like you can see in my house I got a shitload of rock memorabilia and it it it's Are we going to be lucky to go in there after just for a minute you can see it here right here You know like there's bell buckles. There's a king diamond diamond Those are some early belt buckles, but you're a huge rock fan. Oh god. Yeah, dude. Look at me I got to tell you another interesting story. So like when I was in this is pre-empty This is like november of 1997 So motley crew are under generation swine tour. Yeah, who's singing on that? Is that vince? Oh, he's back And I'm gonna tell you this Generation swine is my favorite motley crew record. Really? Well that you know what I always say afraid is their best song I always say it's whatever record you discover the band on usually has no, I knew them man I remember buying dr. Feelgood on tape cassette tape cassette. Hello So I get it that record no blows my mind also with all my Tons of t-shirts I didn't I mean I used to be a mad ass tape collector Yeah, I just sold my cassettes With hold on you're gonna wish you hadn't why I went into some like store The hipster stores that's where I saw them man. They sell them for 15 20 bucks now What the fuck can you believe it? So I was getting like eight and ten dollars a piece I've only got a few left there that they wouldn't take but I had shit like you know what like a doro pesh No, you know like uh lead of ford wicked, you know, why would they not take lead of ford? Oh hipsters don't want that. They want stuff like maiden Judas priests. Yeah, but that's the obvious shit. They have cool shit stuff. They want the cool shit listen Yeah, let me tell you this okay for your listeners And if you want to get into metal you guys gotta know that i'm true. I'm hardcore. Yeah, give me a bet and let me see if I can name All lead of ford's albums Okay All right out for blood Right dancing on the edge. That's it. That's the one they wouldn't take but go ahead You gotta let go Isn't that on there? Then I think There was an album made with tonia. My only tonia. I owe me that was never released and then um Then a big breakthrough produced by the amazing mike Chapman Lita Fucking great and then followed up by fucking awesome record. I remember buying this on tape cassette On the same day I bought steve vye passion and warfare. What? Yeah, leader ford stiletto. Yeah, which one had if I close my eyes forever That's leader leader. Yeah, that's leader leader. Yeah crazy. Oh, yeah. Yeah Is your oh, yeah, you've got to close your eyes for a man Because it's like a palm of my hand Like a dagger Put the blood through my veins Will it all remain the same But then you know what other song was on that one I went to a party last saturday night. I didn't get laid. I got in the fight. Oh, yeah It ain't no big thing Right laid for work and the traffic was bad had to borrow 10 bucks from my old man. Uh-huh It ain't no big thing, but you know what I like. You know, I like dancing with you That was followed up though. Finally thing Final thing is that stiletto was followed up by arguably leader ford's best album Dangerous curves. Yeah, which is the fucking excellent album But that came out in 1992. I think when you know, all that shit was on the wane, but that had like I wasn't listening to that. I think I was on fucking you're probably into some grunge at that point Man in the box, but you know what that's an interesting thing is that like in from nine Like if you were to take a lot of the the biggest hair metal bands Yeah, and the albums they released from like 1993 to 95 you have so many undiscovered gems But that's when you do have the motley crew Self-titled with john kriby. You have tesla bust a nut You have like cinderella still climbing I mean, I see here's the thing. I'm a huge rock fan. I love cinderella long cold winter What a fucking great record first record fantastic I I I don't think that is a good record. You know what I mean, which one though the later ones Uh, and I think because I don't just give up on bands I always clown on people like, you know, like right now kings of leon Like how come nobody's buying kings of leon? They're fucking still good, you know what I mean But people just wait are you talking about like that new album? That's like a tag one in the tempo. Yeah Take one for you Yeah, that one. That's a good album. It's not bad actually, but what I'm saying is Uh grunge came at the right time. I think oh, yeah, no, it's all good You got to understand them where where I came in Is like I um when I was in high school, listen my freshman year of high school Kurt Cobain killed himself, right So, um, basically coming from that point. It was a weird like 95 96 was strange Like the grateful dad were huge where I was at like Dave Matthews stuff. Totally. I got really into punk traveler Yeah, and that horde stuff that kind of yeah. Yeah, that that made that was huge That jam band shit was huge. Just trust a farion rock Yeah, then basically towards the end of I mean and then you had bands like bush Yeah, I remember a couple of times see I'm a huge comedy fan like even um, like being in high school And like when my sister was living in new york, she would I had the best sister ever She would get like standby tickets to Saturday night live And then so like, you know, but this was like when Saturday night live was in that like post chris farley building Yeah, who was the like like it was like will ferrell's like second first It was like will ferrell's like first year. Yeah, he's right Yeah, you know, I mean like so, but it was like the only time in s l history when it was actually easy to get like tickets Yeah, because the people didn't know who the people were. Yeah, I got you and then later It gets red hot again and turning it in during that time period I remember going down and seeing like Robert dandy jr. Host Oh, that's yeah, I remember seeing like bushes the musical guests are like that was that weird period So you go to the audition you step up to the camera and what do you do? You're just like, hey, oh, yeah, man. I want to be on mtv mother fucker that kind of shit Well, I was kind of like like sly about it You know what I mean like putting in like subliminal charm because basically like it's like what you don't say so like They basically like yeah, you you go in you say your name And then you like read a cue card and you read like another cue card at another thing Yeah, oh, you're gonna love this. Yeah, I am this another fucking twit This is another twist on the story. Uh-huh that gets us back to, um, jim florentine Yeah, oh, yeah don jameson finds you here. Yeah, dom jameson So basically like they're going through like the audition tapes because basically how this contest worked is like, you know, basically Well, like I think they ended up having something like five or six thousand people like like actually come down and like, you know audition go audition, which was just like the craziest thing and then Can you imagine it now it'd probably be 50,000? Yeah, you know what here's the here's the other thing you got to remember And this is a big thing to like the story is that this all happened Pre-american idol right pre the voice. Yeah, pre america's got pretty kim kardashian suck and it's pretty kim kardash this isn't this is 15 years 15 years ago pre all the reality show So the fact that mtv was doing this was Groundbreaking groundbreaking effect mtv doesn't get the credit it deserves in reality tv because i mean they started it really with the real world Right. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean that was it. I mean that was Really, uh, they and then then what they did with the osborn's was really revolutionary. That was another great thing That's what killed. I got to be a part of Right. It killed it, but the times killed it. I mean, no, what really killed weren't watching videos anymore I get it, but also when you're making it all reality shows, you're like, we're the fuck of the video No, what killed the video aspect of it quite honestly Is Two things. I mean number one youtube basically You can watch anything your favorite video you want whenever you want, you know what I mean, but I mean And then the other thing is um Yeah, well, basically youtube, but then like you know, you gotta think now there's a station Also, then mtv kind of splintered off. They made mtv 2 They made all these other mtvs So if you buy the expensive cable package, you could still watch like 24 hour video Again, but the thing is I think that they didn't adjust to uh, like Live by the kid die by the kids, you know what I'm saying If the kids are united, they'll never be divided. The kids are your audience. I understand that That's why they had vh1 for older people, but they have that one station right now Do you remember when vh1 was seriously like saline dion and michael bolton videos? I do I do that was kind of cool hauling oats and hauling. Oh, and genesis Yeah, invisible touch And like, you know, you're no son of mine one classic came and vh1 classic This is the shit was the was the shit when it first came out I'll tell you I was such a crazy nut that when vh1 classic first came out I would buy out because I was like, holy shit. They're playing every video ever made and I realized that they had like these Eight hour cycles and then they'd repeat it another eight out like the same eight hours. Yeah 24 hour thing So I'd get like an eight hour video tape and like record eight hours of vh1 classic at some point during the day every single day I still have like a box of like a million vh1 classic videos So you go in and then they're skimming through the tapes and don jamison is one of the like guys watching Yeah, don jamison is one of the people. Um, you know pick in Contestants working at MTV at the time. Yeah, Don. I guess Don was ambitious and you know He was probably 10 years older than me. Maybe he was in his mid 20 late 20s or something He was working at. Yeah, he was he was working at MTV In production or something and so, you know, wow, they saw my tape and then a couple of people were like, no I don't think so, but he was like, no, no, we need to We need to have this kid. Yeah Anyway, well, he saw a vision that I would see too, which I see Like right now going on in comedy If you have all the same stuff all the time and you bring back a different flavor people will grab onto it You know what I mean? Like, oh, this guy's crazy and anything you have like, oh, he's rock or oh I don't like him. You have people talking and that's what you need over a vj So he saw that problem. I mean, you know, I don't know if you know this dean But you know Russell brand has come out several times and said, you know that I'm his number one influence Is that right? Yeah for real. Yeah, I've never heard that but that's real. Absolutely. Wow So, you know a lot of what I did laid the groundwork for avril Lavigne Wow, and you know, I mean I was kind of like ahead of my time You know just a little too early, but then there were there are a lot of factors Let's let's talk for one minute now. You you look exactly like you did then Uh, you're older obviously, but you look rock and roll. You have the same kind of stuff You have the exact kind of boots skinny jeans, you know, it's that g and r appetite look exactly I know the look I wore it myself 100 and I love that you still rock the look which is cool But when you uh When you went for the audition was that your look or did you fabricate it like I'm going to go in as a rock and roll guy Like an old 80s. No, no, no, you looked in New York. No, no, that's how I looked. Yeah And why did you look like that? Were you into? 80s rock that you missed or my look was actually I'll tell you, um, I've always been uh Thrift store junkie like, you know, that was you know, I love that shit myself Except for it all fits like shitty, you know, it's doesn't fit stores now and in LA. They're not what they were No, no, because it's worth money now, you know, yeah But I I know what you're talking about. I mean back in the day you go in thrift store You get like a bad-ass pair of sunglasses some cowboy boots and a fucking leather jacket that some, uh, Oh, you know grandfather left his kids and you yeah out for like 80 bucks and you'd be rocking Oh, yeah, and like the goodwill on vine in particular and then there used to be this other place I was uh called studio wardrobe that was on highland Where I don't know if you remember this place, but I don't know that one It was run by this insane guy named wreck and like, um, he was a burned out hippie But like, you know, like you basically had like the you would have like truck loads from china somehow Like all the like the fucking Greatest like fines, but then you'd be like hey rick. I'm gonna, you know, take this That's fun So so you go where am I going with all this? You've got your look Yes, you go in. I'm jesse camp. What's up? And then people the only thing I fabricated was, um My voice because uh, right because it's hilarious Because when you started talking to me in front of the lab factory I was like, I know this fucking voice which creeped me out. What's scary is that after all these years Like I had a time period like like like probably like two or three years after the whole mtv thing where I really saw the magnitude of like Oh, oh, you know, I blew this I didn't blow this but I could have made this so much cooler But just actually having been myself, but that was a trouble having that happen like when I was literally 18 Well, yeah, I mean like holly shore created the wheeze People but right and here's the thing is I think psychologically Um, you do intrinsically know that it's much cooler to make it 100 from the street up, you know Then it is to kind of take a fast break and this vj contest was going to be my fast break all along My plan was um, my big dream, you know coming out of high school was to form like like a new motley crew Or like a new air smith, right? Hanoi rocks with the band I was obsessed with singer band where you're a singer before uh Before you uh started vj like did you try? Yeah, I did sing but I mean I I played guitar I played the saxophone. I played the drums and you loved hanoi rocks loved hanoi rocks That's interesting that you love motley crew because you know, right razzle kill Vince niezel Drunkenly killed razzle somewhere in hermosa beach or somewhere somewhere, but I I never I never say he killed anyone because you know it goes and this is a true Oh, yeah, listen, I have five vehicular manslaughter charges pending. So I understand what it's like Well, what I'm saying is I feel bad for the families whenever you drink I'm just kidding. And in fact, I just the minute I made that horrendous joke. No, I've No, no, but what I'm saying is honestly, I never tried fucked up in the 80s when you're partying The other guy's partying with you. It's not so if he had the car, he would have drove But you know what can I tell you something? again I'm kind of sitting here like a grandpa because I'm thinking about how beautiful the times are now I mean we There's a lot that I miss about how simple times were like in the 80s But then I mean it's amazing now in 2014 I believe that too. Vince niegel could have just gotten on his iphone and called himself a uber. Yeah, right? Yeah Yeah, I believe I believe a life could have been saved Maybe maybe this uber thing, you know, finally taking over the monopolization of like old school taxi cabs is a really healthy Healthy thing, you know, I think the uber guy's gonna end up killing people these cock suckers man on sunset If you got a new bit about uber, this is edgy and this is a good bit to get to develop Well, here's the fucking thing man. Those guys just park on sunset They get a text and they don't even look and they just fucking you turn on sunset And you know and I'm coming down sunset on my motorcycle. I was like, whoa, what the fuck dude They don't even care. They've got a guy got to get that dry ride before someone gives me a bad review So those guys are gonna kill I tell you an interesting thing See, this is what's great about a podcast. We could tell all kinds of we'll get we're we have our main narrative Yeah, we've got our main thread Our main thread is but it's okay. Yeah, all those like the way I gotta tell the audience You definitely came over stone because when I open the door, you just smell like weed, right? So that's cool. I don't smoke weed, but you're still rocking the weed. Which is nice All right, I mean, I think it must be coming from your neighbors No, I mean, I love this. Yeah, of course I do. I hope so. Oh, yeah I just didn't want to have to go into a whole drug history. I can Let's get into this now. So you get They're voting for you now jimp or uh Don Jameson Yeah, so that basically they narrow it from, um, you know, like 5000 people to 10 10 and then and so basically This is between a monday and a wednesday and then like that's as long as the vote's going That's how long it takes for they have auditions. I think on monday and tuesday and then on wednesday like the final 10 or I gotcha So they had to go through like a lot a lot of shit But then basically so then I had the number. This is pretty cell phones. I had the number of like my sister's, um roommate, uh from college and so like I gave that as my contact number and so then I called from a pay phone Just to see she was like, oh, you got to come over here right now MTV just called and said like, you know, you're one of the 10 finalists Wow, so like, you know, she put me in a cab sent me to Times Square. I jump out there It's like three o'clock. I go through the line. I'm like, hi. I'm you know, Bob. They said to come they're like Oh, yes, come with me now. You're doing the voice now. No, I'm not doing the voice. Am I okay? No, I'm saying when you're uh, oh Now in your mind you go wait, I gotta get doing like no because that was so psychologically crazy Because like I lived that character. I became that character I mean, I I really took an Alice Cooper type trip with that character Now what made you do want to do a voice? So it's what I'm saying Why not be just you right here jesse because you're already because I hadn't figured out who I was at that point Yeah, just nervous you want to nervous character to hide behind I get it That but also that it was basically like that's kind of what I did to win the contest Right now you're locked in Well, you know, all I was thinking going into the contest is let me kind of like do this character Let me kind of you know, I was purposely stupid In a way that I knew would get laughs Right, I get it and when I when I saw how successful this was going, you know, I'm like, okay Shit, this is my way in I can tell you like the day after the contest was life changing I remember taking like the path train my sister came down to like see me by this point MTV I put me up in a hotel and so Yeah, I mean it was a world would it was from like Nothing to everything like overnight who um Had basically uh, he had managed run DMC in the beginning and he had managed like uh Ed lover and dr. Dre and michael munroe from hannery rocks right some random things And so then basically he was my manager This guy was also kind of actually like instrumental in keeping me at MTV because there were a number of times You see, I mean my character got really big. This is really kind of what happened is like my character got really big um at MTV But it was all also based on kind of like this um You know danger kind of persona, you know what I mean that you didn't know what you were going to do And there were a couple of times on trl, which was like a live broadcast where I like I did a couple crazy things Right, right, right because you're which didn't seem that crazy to me But like spitting a piece of gum out or things like your character is crazy So you have to do some crazy stuff. You can't be safe and fake, right? So you gotta push a couple buttons then you're getting in trouble Yeah at the same time you got to understand like I'm an 18 year old with like the keys to the city Yeah, so like I'm like partying my ass off, you know and um, are you getting money? Well, here's the thing is that um I mean, I don't really want to get into finances, but you know, I'm actually really I'm at I'm at I'm I'm very good financially now, you know in a place where I can kind of just live my life And I don't have to worry. Yeah, you know, but um Basically, you know But that's from like my hard work the last like, you know, a bunch of years But I was gonna say that basically like Where I made like the majority of my money from that time period wasn't really from mtv But it was um from a publishing deal that I signed with record deal. Oh record. Yeah. Yeah, so you got a publishing advance on the songs Yeah, did you sell your publishing? I think we went like 50 50 right right with a bunch of co-co right, you know, basically on that album I mean the album is a great album. I mean and we had a signed Hollywood records, which was disney's label They had the scream Who signed to rachel matthews? No, um, rob cavallo rob cavallo. There you go huge a and r guy huge a and r guy his dad bob cavallo Signed prince and was prince's manager forever and basically it was a really interesting time at hollywood records. They had Like you said, they had the scream and basically since the mid 90s They were trying to make a name and get like a breakthrough act in in 1990 like eight rob cavallo took over So it was perfect time We basically um met with two record labels based from like a I did a two song Basically charlie stettler the manager knew a guy rick brownie and he had produced like poisons first record and faster pussycat and stuff and Ted nugent and so um, he put together like this band which was um Share from the band vixen. Yep Joe and bam from a band dogs demore and then this uh, other guy who's amazing alex kane from this band life section I know alex kane. He played in my band dude for six months That's you know alex kane. Dude. I can't believe it. So alex kane never brought me up Dude now here's the thing. Uh, this was before the 98. This is uh, and mike varni goes Hey, this kid from chicago is pretty good. Check him out He had a beard. He looked like ted nugent Uh, he flew out We picked him up at the airport. His beard was gone and we're like, whoa, this guy's scary looking He had some like number 805 or something tattooed on his face and uh He played with us for about I don't know six months and then we're just He played a few weeks and then went home and we said, yeah, we'll get it going and then he came back out It didn't work out. But anyway, wait, why didn't it work out because I know this guy Yeah, he's an amazing player. But the thing was time, but he's we were more of a g and r kind of band And he was a heavy cheap trick guy, which was like what what lsd was and uh, also later My my drummer played with alex this guy eddie ruder and they played together and had a band and eddie also played in lsd Um, so fast fast forward a couple years later alex's band gets this deal And we go to concrete convention over at the burbank, uh, airport. Those must have been amazing I remember that and there he is some fucking shit. I stole my money, you know some fucking shit I stole my money and here it is this homeless guy Which he created a character, which is a lot like you creating a character and I know it's Character fucking backfired though because he had to be stinky and homeless and everything all the time But he was mind boggling to see the guy sing his moves. He looked like Uh, basically he looked like Elvis Costello, you know what if you lived in the garden The thing is the thing you got to understand is that the character and me Were really There was okay. I'll tell you everything so you know the only thing about like me on mtv That was a character Was the voice you said was the voice And the personality Which I guess is a lot, but you know like my yeah, that's the character Yeah, but the way I dressed is how I would address because that's always like how I thought I was cool Here's the thing no one but me Came up with the clothing that I wear now or the clothing. Well, listen if I'm acting in something or or whatever Yeah, I know then that's something different. But like when I'm on the street But basically yeah, I mean like, you know, like Carson would be like, you know, basically when I was a vj The lineup of people were um Carson day Carson daily matt pinfield. Oh, yeah matt pinfield matt pinfield curt loader 20 minutes curt loader and john norris I got some nutso john norris stories and matt pinfield stories, but um and curt loader stories But um and uh Ananda lewis who was like a really cool girl like serena alchool now who out of all those were ego maniacs Down there because you gotta think these guys had to be like i'm the fucking star of mtv No, everyone was pretty cool because everyone Yeah, because I mean like I was like this 18 year old like crazy kid, but like I was so It was clear that I was good nature, you know what I mean? I mean, I don't know. I think I mean so and no one No one thought like oh this guy's gonna Basically the thing was is that the whole contest Um, like basically you got to be a vj on mtv for two weeks if you want Oh, then you got two weeks and you got five thousand dollars And like a and then and something possibly from old navy, which what the fuck Um, no, it was 25,000 dollars. What it was 25,000 dollars. Really, which would be like I got that wow. Yeah half right because of taxes I don't even know right. I hadn't I hadn't accounted within the the week and then basically like You know, um, I did so well and it became Basically, like, you know, I now I sound like i'm i'm bragging and I don't mean to but you know It's just about getting the story. Yeah, exactly. Um, you know, and um, so you start killing it people are loving Killing it it become and then there is also this thing like, oh my god, you know, like it was like one of us is on here like, you know, because Not a disenfranchised youth type thing, but kind of, you know, like where it was like, you know, like, um Yeah, you know, there's there's finally like a stoner or like a crazy kid. Yeah, you know I mean, I think I'm just like James Franco like, you know, I might seem stoned, but I'm not right Right. I just totally your gardener that was smoking a spliff out there Just gotta make that clear. Okay. So you uh, you um So, yeah, so basically oh, oh, yeah, so real quick then, um So basically like the two week deal then becomes like, um, oh, well then we'll sign him for another three months They give me my own show at the jersey shore called lunch with jesse, which would air every day from like 11 30 to 12 So this is how the hair metal this is a very important part of the mtv store if we're going to really cover it And then pertaining to hair hair metal. So basically like, um mtv for this is actually like when mtv would play videos for half the day and like all their stuff would be coming from Like one central studio So basically like mtv was broadcasting like, you know, eight hours a day from new jersey from, you know This was way before jersey sure, but from the same set from that same town seaside heights, you know and um Yeah, um, because jersey still loved rock. Oh jersey still loved rock then and that's the whole beauty of this So basically mtv gives me this like show that would air Like monday through friday, like, you know from 11 30 to 12 where it's like five interview segments And are you living in jersey? I'm living in jersey during the week for this And are you just screwing like jersey rock chicks with that? Ah teased up hair stuff. Look at it. It's jesse camp Are you fucking chicks or what's going on? Yeah, but i'll be that with some that that's always some it it's You hold back on stuff like drugs and pussy. No, no, I don't I won't hey It's like 20 years ago 15 years ago. Yeah, absolutely No, it's just I mean are you get you're getting groupies, right? Yeah, yeah, no I gotta be honest dean. Yeah, I like to flash back to different periods That'd be hard if jesse camp was gay All right, you're like, oh actually I was gay the whole time Yeah, are you gay? Look at you, dude. Are you serious? I don't know I'm just asking you questions It doesn't know that's cool. It doesn't matter. I love gay guys. I love heterosexual guys. I love fucking freaks I love crazies. I love artists. I love them all You know Right, I'll tell you a couple things about me first off You know, it was uh, it was late It was uh, it was at bob costas's house Johnny weir is there And you know, we were just having absinthe. I don't know what happened, but that does not make me gay Wait, you're gay sex at bob costas house Wait, I hope I made that joke right who is the um the figure skater that does commentary at the olympic I don't know. I don't know, but I thought you were giving me a funny skirt No, no dean. Let me let me let me know. I'm fucking with you the whole way through I'm fucking with you the whole way through and I like it. No, this is when I was signed a record Well, no, let me but because you touched on an interesting thing and it would be horrible if I didn't pass this over. No, I have um Yeah, oh my god, you know what that's uh That's a whole other tv show like to put out there Maybe if the one I'm trying to to make now like Go somewhere like, you know, this could be a sequel thing, but like, um Yeah, basically. Oh my god. Yeah, I've had crits so many crazy girls But then I'm thinking like it was a weird that whole year was a weird because that kicked off with um Like the year kicked off with like Hanson girls because like basically somehow like I hosted like this live Hanson concert then all of a sudden I became huge with Hanson girls and but it was really weird because they were all like Little kids and stuff and I was like 18, but then like yeah, I was actually at the jersey store where Yeah, where the pussy got real interesting that year, you know what I mean? Because there were there were like there were a lot of older women that were like rocker chicks there that were in the mix Yeah, there was cougars before there were cougars. Yeah, yeah, right, right But like it was like the cougars always had like a weird goth daughter Or like a weird like because you know what during this time era during that summer That was like when Marilyn Manson You know it was such it was really kind of a cool era because it was during that summer when like rock music Here's the thing I got a really good point here with this. Yeah, you gotta follow me. Help me get to my main points I'm trying to I'm gonna hit on the big milestones. Okay. We'll start with Elvis. Yeah, we did that then rock changes to the Beatles Stones, yeah arguably 70s you got Led Zeppelin Zeppelin maybe Alice Cooper kiss eagles boston I love boston right. Yeah. I'm just saying huge boston fan Even love the new new boston album that came out last year. That was garbage I had some great songs. Come on heaven on earth Come on. I can't believe it was horrible Here's boston. You only need one two and three And two and one and two what you want to know. No, you want to know my favorite boston album Okay, you always pick the bunk later ones Okay, what is it? Although as much as I love Corporate america their fourth album. I'm a huge third stage fan. I saw that I'm gonna take you by the hand to make you Amanda Can't you say you believe in me? Can't you say you believe in me? Yeah, that's third stage. That was killer record. That was killer They had the giant the biggest pipe organ in the world on stage and then you know, there's also great Now if you're a boston fander in that time period, there were two albums Gary Peele on guitar from Barry good up good row. Yeah, who was on the first two records didn't write anything but played on them Um, basically he made a solo record in 1980 all song lead vocals by brad delph So it's pretty much like a like an unreleased boston record that kicks but and then Then he formed a band called the ryan the hunter and they had this huge song So you ran. Yeah. Yeah, that's all boston by product. I mean you you know, you're rock, which is cool. Yeah I'm a huge fanatic. I understand it now You get the record deal Yeah, you you do a two song demo without oh final thing really quick. Okay, so I was going so okay Getting off boston. Basically. That's just again elvis beetles stones Zeppelin um the clash let's say horse guns and roses um nirvana And then basically the next big movement that happened was brewing that summer and i'm talking about basically that fall After we finished the jersey short when I got back to new york And then they actually then my manager got them to renew my contract again Right The last we're talking last two weeks. You were talking 98. So then I got I got renewed again till december trl starts in september basically that august I went on the road with corn for two weeks before their album came out followed the leader with got the life That comes out blows up Like maryland manson the dope show comes out the video with him and his breasts That was like the last time when with corn and maryland manson Arguably with the strokes a couple years later, but that's it bad. That's killed. That's the last time We got strokes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, and king zeleon all in that era right there Okay, fair enough. That's the last time rock was dangerous. That's right. You're correct and Now where I fit into all this was that basically I wanted to kind of I thought corn and limp Even limp biscuit were cool. I mean in their own way, you know, I mean because it was dangerous You know the deaf tones. It was dangerous these new metal kids. It was scary at first It wasn't this rap rock back. We've missed metallica somewhere in there, which is the kings of danger for a long time you know I mean metallica were only dangerous to me around Master of pop well from inception through injustice for all maybe maybe a little into the black album But by the time but true, but but yeah, but by the time sabbatru and through the never came out They were fucking milking that shit. Actually. I take that back. I was a huge fan Yeah, this is again just in my mindset. I remember jerry garcia dying I remember being around the exact same time that metallica's load came out Yeah, I didn't like and I remember when they cut their hair and they put out until it sleeps I didn't like that stuff I thought that was actually really ballsy and cool on their part and I dug that album And I'm actually one of the only people that digs load Yeah, quarantine loves load too. I don't like I've had a lot of crazy run-ins with metallica over the years Yeah, me too. One of my most rock and roll moments. I don't think he'll mind me saying it Because I know he's a lot different now But I remember during the mtv era like, you know going to maryland manson show This is after mtv and like just like doing coke with what the fuck is that? I'll press something on my computer There you go mid mid cocaine time. Yeah computer just came on great now. That's crazy That is crazy because that napster era happened a little later, but you know what it's been such an amazing life I mean like I you don't even I mean we'll save it for another time if you want, but I mean just like we're not in a hurry Let me tell you something when my adventures post mtv Fucking crazy. I got involved. Let's talk about that. I got involved with this You're selling firearms. Was that right? You told me or was that just bullshit on the street? Listen, I've In my life, I have sold firearms before right. I've never sold like machine gun level guns How do you know I've never been I've never been at a like, you know found myself at a walmart Just outside of Atlanta. Let me think of it. Hey, you want to see how good my geography is. Yeah, give me any Check this out because of because of how how hard and how much I've extensively toward this country And I'm proud of it. Give me any city and I'll tell you some some suburbs of it. Well, no, I get no just no Just as a home All right, great. Oklahoma doesn't have much but it has um, uh, norman admin uh, american city um Oklahoma city is its main part. Oh, and then I'll tell you, um Really interesting thing about Oklahoma city. Actually. I'm my very first road trip before mtv. This is a great story Yeah, I got a great story because I think that you like a lot of different things and this is a freaking awesome story So anyway, you got to be the hardest interview I've ever done trying to wrangle you you have worse add than me I love it But no because this because there's because there's so much stuff that yeah, you have a ton of stories That's even more interesting mtv. Check this out. Yeah So these I'll give you just two stories of things that happen with me and my sister on on our nine month Road trip before mtv Which totally transformed me from like a new england kid into like being like a fucking like a street kid. Got it. Is that so like, um We were in uh, Louisiana We had left new orleans. We had left baton rouge I believe that we were kind of like between baton rouge and lafayette Yeah, and like so we were kids and we were basically would sleep in our car You know what I mean at night and so like we were like but sometimes it was during the summer It was hot. So we would like try to find a church and always sleep in a church parking lot back then Now if you wanted you could like sleep in any Walmart parking lot you want But we didn't know that back then right so we would always be like well And we would get woken up by the cops like all the time But like once the cops would run your id and whatever they'd be like cool cops weren't In like you could still travel the country In fact, like when my sister and I were like like we're in la for like two months during that like in 1997 Every night we'd always get so scared of like sleeping in You know sleeping in la that we would always drive the car all the way out to Santa Clarita. Wow Magic mountain parking lot. Yeah sleeping out there No, like a church parking lot out there like in 1997 you guys were commuting to stay in your car. That's hilarious But it's smart though because you could we had the mobile gas car. We didn't care We kind of like to have a Santa Clarita Well, Hollywood was gangster even It was gangster back then big time 15 years ago. It was crazy crazy. Yeah, fuck. Yeah, dude Yeah, no like mid 90s definitely and and new york was too Yeah, you know 50 42nd street was like I put it to you this way back then I lived in like I lived in I lived on Houston and avenue way for like five years in new york and like um Like back then avenue a was hip avenue b was Kind of bad C was like crack and d was death. You know Now you go to new york and it's like, you know, like clean clean clean. Yeah You can't get a reservation on avenue d for like a french restaurant. You're like, what the fuck happened? Yeah, right But getting back to um, oh shit. Oh, yeah, so really quick two great stories um So basically we're in louisiana. So we're sleeping in this backwards town and like some guy like Wakes us up kind of like in the middle of the night and he's like, why are you guys sleeping on there and we're like, uh, You know, oh, well, you know, we were just crashing in for the night He's like, I live at the house right next door. You can crash at my house and we were like Okay, even though, you know, it was like kind of could be a serial killer anyway, so like um my sister and I then he you know, we have to talk with him for an hour I think he was like On some kind of speed. We didn't know that at the time. We're snow naive But then he eventually conked out we conked out like on these couches and then I you know But then I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of that. I wake up. I open the door I think it's a bathroom. I feel for like there's a light switch turning on. What do I see in the closet? A Ku Klux Klan outfit No Really? Right here is that basically, you know, we're crazy. We were obsessed with that movie. Uh silkwood starring Meryl Streep and Cher and uh, Kurt Russell. I think in the 70s. You know what it's about. Nope Silkwood. I don't okay long story short. Basically Karen silkwood works at a power plant in Crescent, Oklahoma And this is a real true story and basically find out, you know, this is like the 70s They build this power plant in like this poor town that's like basically like just an hour north of Oklahoma city Which is already really backwards there anyway long story short Karen silkwood is this woman and she's and they have like a union and all this she finds out like that you know, like the power plant is actually like Extremely radioactive and poisoning everything in the area and that like, you know, it's actually poisoning her and stuff Right. So somehow she gets she gets in touch with like a new york times reporter You know like and basically kind of spills the thing to him But before she can get to that meeting with him someone drives her off the road Like murders her by like driving her off the road Right so she can never get to him and then like tries and then steals those files that she had That's a true story Right So I remember so we were like in Oklahoma City, which was like the weirdest and Oklahoma City still is to me The weirdest city maybe in america because it's such a weird Like it's stuck in the 70s type place Back then. Oh my god, like Oklahoma City I remember it had like it had this one record store in it that this is because I remember seeing Oklahoma City for the first time Oklahoma Red had this like record store, but don't put him on that list. That's not fair anymore You know and shout outs to Beaumont I own Shout outs to Beaumont. I do actually own I'm doing a piece of property in Beaumont I'm doing a show with uh jay morr at the fox in bakersfield may 10th So wait as bakersfield wait a minute. Wait a minute Yes, I do want to come and we got to talk about that listen because that could make an epic episode of the new thing That I'm working on okay now. Listen, I'll tell you about I got to go to san diego right now Will you come back sunday for part two? Yeah, I'd love to yeah because we're we're just touching the fucking scratch in the surface Are you sure this is all interesting? Yeah, what are you talking about dude? It's great. So listen, you'll come back sunday If you wouldn't have come back sunday, we would have finished it. So you got to come back sunday I'd say around two o'clock or something. I do have to say. Yep. I'm not the best I am a very good driver, but it's a very interesting like let's say you're eating at the 101 cafe Yeah, I love it. I'm kind of mad all the time I saw you you there's a billboard for you. That's right. Dean del ray. Yeah the del ray It's a picture of sandwich. Yeah You gotta get a del razor sandwich Yes All right, let's do you're amazing. Hold on. Yeah really quick. Okay final thing. Let me final final thing that he's out of here Yeah, yeah, because you know, but Baker's field the armpit of baker's field is called oildale. I know it. That's where corn's from Kind of right kind of that song. Oh, they'll they wrote oildale because Me and my older sister years on because I've done so much cool stuff since MTV We made this film project going through all these backwoods towns and film all kinds of crystal Methodics and oildale. So I see jonathan davis like a year before that song comes out I tell him about like, you know, because I remember he's from baker's field I'll tell him dude, you know all about oildale and we have like a talk about he's like, dude I ought to do a song called oildale. Yeah, and an oildale is the armpit But if you're in jaymore because I haven't met j o Coolest guy. Yeah, right? We got to do something where we film the Baker's field adventures. Definitely. Now listen to this right before we go to part two on sunday YouTube dean del ray corn and watch that video And then I'll just leave you with that. All right. There he is. We'll go to part two On sunday jesse camp MTV vj All right, we'll pick it up from there