Jason Mraz got candid on the four-legged reason he wanted to cut his time on Dancing With The Stars short.
‘I went in thinking, “I’ll probably last two or three weeks.” Well, two or three weeks in, and I’m terrified, and I have to cancel all my plans for the entire rest of the year, and I’m missing my cat terribly,’ the 47-year-old revealed on Tuesday’s episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s on Me podcast.
Jason added, ‘And I start telling my friends, “Stop voting for me!'” ‘Cause like the only way I can get off this show is if I don’t get enough votes.’
In addition to pleading with his inner circle, the I’m Yours artist voiced his concerns to the show’s crew.
‘I even told the producers, “I’m good. I can go home now, thank you so much for the honor,” and they said, “We can’t do anything about you being here,”‘ Jason confessed. ‘So the only thing I could do is ask friends to vote for someone else.’
Jason Mraz recently got candid on the four-legged reason he wanted to cut his time on Dancing With The Stars short while on Tuesday’s episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson ‘s Dinner’s on Me podcast
The 47-year-old revealed: ‘I went in thinking, “I’ll probably last two or three weeks.” Well, two or three weeks in, and I’m terrified, and I have to cancel all my plans for the entire rest of the year, and I’m missing my cat terribly’
But lo and behold, the Lucky singer was there the entire time, coming in second place alongside his partner Daniella Karagach on season 32.
Xochitl Gomez and her dancing partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, took the crown, while Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix came in third.
‘Having made it all the way to the very end, made it to the buzzer, I look back and laugh and think, well, “Maybe if I’d actually given a shit,”’ Jason joked. ‘So, I would do it all over again if I could and I would try really hard. Maybe, they’ll have a Dancing with the Stars All-Star season… I would go back.’
The Hollywood icon also told the Modern Family alum the story behind the DWTS producers reaching out to him.
The team got in contact with Jason following the release of his 2023 single, I Feel Like Dancing.
‘I made the song not realizing I was gonna have to go out in the world and dance,’ he teased. ‘The producers of Dancing With The Stars called and said, “Hey, we heard you feel like dancing. Are you serious about that?” And I thought, wow, what an honor. What a great way to learn dancing fast.’
Despite missing his cat and booking up his year, Jason has fond memories of his time on the ABC series.
As he put it, ‘We had to show up on the set and perform our dance that we created and it was the hardest thing ever but so fun.’
While on the competition show, Jason opened up about coming out as bi-sexual in 2018 and touched on the topic again while speaking with Jesse.
The songwriter added, ‘And I start telling my friends, “Stop voting for me!'” ‘Cause like the only way I can get off this show is if I don’t get enough votes’
Despite missing his cat and booking up his year, he noted about being on the show: ‘We had to show up on the set and perform our dance that we created and it was the hardest thing ever but so fun’
He revealed that he ‘grew up on a very conservative street’ in Virginia and went to a high school that had a confederate symbol as their mascot.
At the time, Jason ‘didn’t really have too many sexual experiences in high school’ due to being a shy student who was continuously bullied.
The songwriter then moved to The Big Apple as an adult but still ‘didn’t have a whole lot of confidence’ in his romantic endeavors.
‘Skinny, scrawny, 18-year-old kid in New York, I don’t even know what to flirt with, who to flirt with, how to flirt,’ Jason recalled. ‘The romance in my songs was just copying other romance in songs, like, these are things that you sing about to please others.’
The Lucky singer was on the ABC series the entire time, coming in second place alongside his partner Daniella Karagach on season 32
The Hollywood icon also told the Modern Family alum the story behind the DWTS producers reaching out to him: ‘The producers of Dancing With The Stars called and said, “Hey, we heard you feel like dancing. Are you serious about that?’
But once he moved across the country, things changed.
‘It wouldn’t be until I got to California that I met a community of people that would see me in a new way, that I’d never fully been seen before, and I liked how I was being seen and heard.’ Jason shared. ‘At the same time, still took with me the conservative street that I grew up on, and that was hard to ignore or break out of. I was very shy and scared of what my family would say or what my hometown would think.’
Although his parents are supportive, he said he didn’t want to be mocked for his sexuality as a young adult.
‘In the ’90s, being gay was the punchline of a joke, and I didn’t want to be the punchline of a joke, and kept my nose down and figured out ways I could instead get out and see the world one day,’ Jason remembered. ‘I’ve been enjoying it, and even have been a late bloomer to where I am now, honestly I feel like my life is just starting. It wasn’t until you really found love that it really bloomed.’
While on the competition show, the I’m Yours artist opened up about coming out as bi-sexual in 2018 and touched on the topic again while speaking with Jesse: ‘In the ’90s, being gay was the punchline of a joke, and I didn’t want to be the punchline of a joke, and kept my nose down and figured out ways I could instead get out and see the world one day’
The DWTS competitor was previously married to Sheridan Edley from 2001 to 2002 before tying the knot again with Christina Carano in 2015
The DWTS competitor was previously married to Sheridan Edley from 2001 to 2002 before tying the knot again with Christina Carano in 2015.
The pair then split up in 2023.
Jason added that despite his two marriages, he hasn’t ‘found love yet,’ but he does feel ‘so much love’ for himself.
He noted: ‘That can only enhance the next relationship or a relationship when I find one.’
