Ashley Parker Angel of O-Town was afraid of dying at a young age and joining the growing list of famous musicians who won’t make it to their 28th birthday.
Angel, 41, turned “just 18” when his career began with “Making the Band”. The popular pop group formed during the hit reality show was later led by disgraced boy band founder Lou Pearlman, who also discovered Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC.
“When you achieve success and fame at that age, they don’t tell you that once you become that successful and famous, you’re always going to compare yourself to that,” Angel explained in Tuesday’s episode of the “Behind the Velvet Rope.” with David Yontef” podcast, adding that many “feel a pressure to keep going.”
“Celebrity 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 go through because there is a dark underbelly to deal with fame,” he added.
After being together for three years, O-Town broke up in 2003 and Angel continued a relentless quest for a solo career, which was documented in another reality series, “There and Back”.
Angel told Yontef that he was living a “rockstar lifestyle” and everything it encompassed at the time — including depression.
“I started turning to drugs and alcohol,” he said, adding that he began to have “close friends in the industry” who died by suicide, including Disney Channel star Lee Thompson Young.
“You see, sometimes this fame happens at a young age and you get this confirmation from the world. And then suddenly the plug is pulled, and people go crazy,” said Angel.
“I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, ‘If I don’t change anything, I’m going to join the 27 club. I’m going to die like this young artist, as many have done,'” he continued.
“And I had an epiphany where I knew I had to change something. And for that reason, I think my view of pursuing music has really changed after that. That’s why I turned to Broadway.”
His first appearance was playing the lead character’s love interest in “Hairspray” in 2007.
At the time of his “revelation,” Angel also returned to a previous passion: health and fitness.
“I got up and drove full steam into my fitness journey,” he said. “And I think a lot of people don’t know that about me. That’s why I’m so addicted to fitness. I feel so good to live this healthy lifestyle. For me it’s mental and it’s emotional. It’s not just a physical look.”
In not so many words, Angel also attributed his desire to “get done with the music industry” to Pearlman, who he says “was eventually sued by *NSYNC and Backstreet [Boys].”
“The music industry is full of sharks,” he told Yontef, pointing out that Pearlman was “a con man and a criminal” who “died in prison.”
In addition to allegedly withholding money from the artists he led, there were also unspecified rumors of Pearlman’s alleged “thing for boys.”
“It’s there that Lou had this dark quality to him, that he would use his power and influence to manipulate young performers into these really questionable scenarios,” Angel said in the 2019 documentary, “The Boy Band Con.”
The musician claimed the late music mogul would ask the O-Town members to take off their shirts and show off their abs during rehearsals.
“It feels like, ‘Oh, this is part of having a band mentor who wants to make sure you’re in good shape,’ because that’s what he would always say,” Angel said in the film, claiming that Pearlman would emphasize that part of their job was to sell teen magazines.