Oh, oh, oh–James Maslowknown as James Diamond in the Nickelodeon hit “Big Time Rush,” said there was a popular boy band song that he and his band members never really liked singing. During his appearance on the “Joe Vulpis Podcast,” the actor and “Big Brother” alum talked about the series, which ran from 2009 to 2013, and spilled the tea on things that some of the show’s biggest fans may not have known about.
James Maslow doesn’t really like singing this song from “Big Time Rush”
While Big Time Rush was created as a fictional boy band for the television series of the same name, the group has actually released popular songs and albums, three of which reached the top 20 on the Billboard 200.
And while the music has resonated with some fans of the show, Maslow said the theme song “Big Time Rush” is the one he and his co-stars have the most difficulty performing.
“In my defense, it was written as a theme song, which means it wasn’t written to be sung…to be performed live like regular music,” he said.
Maslow said it was always a “struggle” to sing the show’s theme song “Cheesy”
Maslow, 35, was first cast in the Nickelodeon series at age 19. On the podcast, the actor said he didn’t like singing the “BTR” theme song live back then, but now he’s learned to appreciate it a little more.
Even so, it’s not a track he and his bandmates, including Kendall Schmidt, Carlos PenaVega and Logan Henderson, are eager to sing live.
“It’s always been a struggle, and we’ve always found a way to put it in a mashup or sing half of it and move on, and we still do that to a certain extent because, again, it’s a theme song and it’s cheesy by nature,” he said.
Fans Probably Didn’t Know This Fact About ‘Big Time Rush’
Elsewhere in the podcast, Maslow told the podcast host that he wasn’t even sure “Big Time Rush” would air, given that they shot a million-dollar pilot without Schmidt, the show’s leading man.
According to Maslow, they filmed the pilot with a different actor, but once it was finished, the network suspended the program to do another nationwide search. Despite the back and forth, Maslow expressed gratitude that everything went according to plan.
“The reality is, and I remind myself of this all the time, [we] “I could have gone through those two years, those four screen tests, the million-dollar pilot, and then gone back to nothing, and then started it again, and then it still wouldn’t have worked,” Maslow said. “So I’m just grateful that so many people have fallen in love with the show and the band.”
Maslow and his comrades had to fight for creative control over their music
After Nickelodeon filled out the cast with the right actors, Maslow said he and his co-stars then had to fight for some creative control, noting that the people involved in creating the series didn’t realize they had cast men who wanted to be involved in the music-making process.
“So it became an art imitating life in a lot of ways where they started saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to hire some actors to do a show, and maybe they can play music or something outside of that,’ but we proved that no, we’re actually going to be a band,” Maslow explained.
Speaking of fictional bands… this band returns to the small screen almost 20 years later
And speaking of fictional bands, another band is returning to the small screen almost 20 years later.
According to a previous report from The Blast, Raven-Symoné and Adrienne Bailon are returning to Disney to reprise their roles as Galleria and Chanel in the new “Cheetah Girls” movie titled “Next Gen.”
The TV movie, produced by “That’s So Raven” alum and Debra Martin Chase, will feature her and Bailon’s characters traveling to Africa with a group of young singers to help save a wildlife reserve.
Sabrina Bryan, who played Dorinda in the first three films in the franchise, will reprise her role, alongside Lynn Whitfield and Lori Alter. Kiely Williams, however, is not attached to the project at the moment.
“Cheetah Girls has always been about friendship, music and empowering young people to use their voices,” said Ayo Davis, president of Disney Kids & Family. “That spirit is deeply connected to an entire generation of fans, and it still resonates today. Bringing this dynamic new group of young stars to the franchise allows us to continue that legacy for a new era of kids and families.”