In The Weeds: How Bobby Almost Got Sued For A Justin Timberlake Video

The Bobby Bones Show

Bobby Bones recounts a high-stakes April Fools' prank involving a fake Justin Timberlake music video that nearly resulted in a lawsuit settle

Key takeaways

• Bobby's 2005 prank about a Justin Timberlake video was settled using Christina Aguilera concert tickets.
• During a flight with the Blue Angels, Bobby experienced a momentary blackout due to high G-forces.

Main topics

• Radio Career Journeys
• Blue Angels Flight Experience

Notable quotes

You can't sue fictional characters.

Conclusion

A deep dive into the personal stories and professional transitions tha

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Lisa, tell them about our new show. We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me. I'm Lexi Iwano. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa DiGiulio, the old one, Speaker 5 (0:17) which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. And at this point in my 50s, I've lived it all. Now Speaker 4 (0:24) in my 30s, being the founder of New Shoes, good taste is my business. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you Speaker 5 (0:32) get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (0:47) I'm going to start this video talking about the time that I was almost sued for a fake Justin Timberlake video shoot. I mentioned that on an Instagram story once. I think the question was, what are your Mount Rushmore favorite moments in doing the show? I had listed the time I didn't get fired for being fined a million dollars by the FCC, the time I didn't get fired whenever we did a bit that got Lunchbox put in jail, and I'd mentioned the time that I didn't get fired when we were almost sued for a fake Justin Timberlake video shoot. I'm going to lead with that. Some of you may have heard this, but what had happened was, I was doing... nights in Austin, Texas. And the night show had been on for a few months. And something that I still do to this day is let people in on inside jokes. So I will tell the audience, we're going to do this joke. So be a part of it. But then when I come back and do the joke later, I don't reference the fact that I told everybody that was listening then what I'm about to do. An example would be the pickleball courts that Eddie and I built in my backyard. We told everyone at the very beginning, one time firmly, we're not building these courts. I'm actually hiring someone, but we're going to post a lot of pictures of us in the middle of them being built. on construction equipment, and we're going to document the process as if we're building them. So every day, the guys that were building it would leave, and Eddie and I would go over and take pictures and act like we were doing it. And our ask was, if you heard me the first time tell you that it was not real and it was a joke, be a part of the joke. So that's been something that I've consistently been doing for a long time. It doesn't mean it doesn't get me in trouble sometimes. So what had happened, this is probably 2005. Speaker 1 (2:34) I went on the air and I said, hey, we're going to act like we're shooting a Justin Timberlake music video. And that I'm just going to say, if you want to be a dancer in it, show up at the studio. And you guys start calling in saying you saw him all around town. Now, look, is this the greatest bit? No, it wasn't even that good, but it was something. And I was just trying to do things. Speaker 1 (3:00) That maybe people would talk about because I was so new to Austin. So that's what I do is say, Hey, we're doing it. Call me. People started lighting the phones up and they were like, I saw Justin Timberlake at this place. He was at Walmart. He was. And so I said, I just got word that they're going to shoot a video. And so they've said anyone that wants to come up and be a background dancer in the video, come to the studio. And so within an hour, there were 200 girls lined up. outside the building, some with headshots. It's when I walked outside, I realized that this had gotten way bigger than I thought it was going to. Now, we're probably an hour and a half into this bit on the radio show at night. There were still people calling in, being a part of the joke, but I would bring in some of the girls and put them on the air, and I'd say, hey, why do you want to be in this video? They were talking about how much they loved Justin Timberlake. We had taken pictures of them, every person that came in on the air. And then we posted them all up on the website on April Fool's and said, April Fool's, there is no Justin Timberlake video shoot. So we moved on with our lives. A couple months later, someone shows up just like in the movies or on the television. And they say, hey, here's your summons. What do they call that? Maybe. But it was like, you're being sued. Speaker 1 (4:20) It's like, for what? And it was Bobby Bones and Jay Shannon. Speaker 1 (4:28) That we were in trouble and we were going to be sued for so much money because we had done this bit and we'd put someone on the website. And the problem was there was no such person as Bobby Bones, some a real name. And also Jay Shannon, my program director at the time, it wasn't his real name either. His name was Eric. And so a little bit, we were nervous, but a little bit, you can't sue fictional characters. And so Jay calls the person that was threatening to sue us and said, Hey, like what, what can we do? to make this go away. Cause I think he was feeling like he was in more trouble than I was. Cause he had just hired me about a year ago and he was the boss of the station. And they basically settled for a pair of Christina Aguilera concert tickets. That's it. They weren't even that good at tickets. So they tried to sue two semi-fictional characters and they ended up dropping the lawsuit because we gave them Christina tickets. And that is my Justin Timberlake video story. I thought for a minute I was going to get fired. I didn't. The end. What was it called? Do we still think it's subpoena? It can't be subpoena. When they show up and you've been served, what are they serving you? Papers. So I want to lead with that. So that's the first thing. Number two is I'm seeing the occasional person that says, hey, I just hyped your video. I don't even know what that means. This is going to be a real papaw moment here. If you hype my YouTube video. Speaker 1 (5:59) What does hype mean? I Speaker 2 (6:01) guess it makes it more visible to people. Speaker 1 (6:04) So if you hype my video, more people see my video? Does it cost money for them to hype the video? I Speaker 2 (6:10) don't believe. I think they get like points or something. Speaker 1 (6:13) Creators must have between 500 and 500,000 subscribers and belong to the YouTube Partner Program. Top hyped content appears on dedicated regional leaderboards to gain visibility. Well, if you're hyping the video, thank you. I didn't even know that was a thing. But please hype away. Hype me up. I can use it. So for those of you that hyped this video, thanks. That's greatly appreciated. I had posted an old video of me flying with the Blue Angels. This is like two years old, so not that old. And some people had never seen it before. I even got a message from one of my corporate bosses in New York who's way up. And he's like, dang, you flew with the Blue Angels. I was like, yeah. He's like, what was that like? And I was talking to him. I don't know how I was nominated because that whole story is somebody called me randomly and left a voicemail and said, hey, we're calling from the so-and-so organization. We work with the Blue Angels and we'd love to talk to you. We'd love for you to fly with us. And I thought, man, I could be getting scammed here or pranked. But if not, that'd be really cool. I don't even like flying. I also get very motion sick. But I thought, man, the Blue Angels. Like, that's so elite. So I called them back and they said. you've been nominated for your like good deeds or something. And so I said, really? They said, yeah, would you like to fly with us? And I immediately said yes. And so it's probably a month or so out. And so I go up and I'm nervous because I don't like getting on a Southwest flight, much less a two person. But it was really cool because they're wearing their blue angel suits. I don't know. It felt like so legit. And they walk you out to the plane at first. Then you have to go through a class. And then you put on your own Blue Angel suit, which is really cool. And there's no, I don't know what a G suit is. I think it's what people wear in planes that go a certain amount of Gs so it doesn't make your chest explode or something. But you don't wear a G suit. And I've learned that part of the pride of the Blue Angels is they don't wear that G suit. Their body has to actually take on those Gs. And so I go through the class and... See the pictures of the buttons that I'm going to see inside of my little hole because there's the hole that he's in and there's a hole that I'm in and I get in. Speaker 1 (8:34) and your head's covered in glass and it is like it looks. You can see out of it. And the plane's pretty small and you do have like a joystick in the middle that you feel like you could just shoot missiles. Apparently those didn't work. They stopped them from working whenever people like me get in. But it feels like you could just shoot missiles in the thing. And before you go up, they teach you that, hey, this is going to be a bit uncomfortable whenever we... Speaker 1 (9:03) I guess, accelerate because it's going to go so hard and fast that the blood is going to rush from your head to your feet. And to combat that. I had to do these exercises where I sit in a chair, I put my feet on the ground, I spread my feet a comfortable distance, and I push down as hard as I possibly can with my feet. So I did that a couple times, and they said, does that feel okay? I said, yeah, it feels great. They said, okay, whatever you're doing now, you're going to need to do it twice that when you get up in the plane. I'm like, okay, yeah, sure, whatever. A little bit I'm nervous, though, to go flying, because those things flip and dip and dodge and dive. So that part, is making me a bit nervous to get in the Blue Angel. But I'm thinking also, this is one of the greatest pilots that exist. You don't get to fly these things unless you are the top of the top, the cream of the crop, super elite. I'm in. We're going, and there's a video from not inside. There's a video from someone on the ground where the plane, as it's coming off the runway and it starts to make that angle up like a normal plane would, it then almost turns straight up and goes straight up into the air. And I remember that going, holy crap, that was it. That was the really hard G force, whatever they called that. And the guy's like, yeah, we just did two Gs. Now, what I remembered was they were going to get us up near eight Gs. And I thought, oh my God, if that was only a quarter of what it was. So you see in the video that I posted, if you watch closely, I do black out for a split second. What would happen is they would slowly build up. They didn't go all the way to that really hard one until they knew I could take the others. But you have to push with your legs so hard because when you're pushing with your legs, it's basically fighting the blood up as when it sucks you forward. The blood's coming out. Before I had that momentary blackout, I remember having my eyes wide open and it being black because all the blood was out of my head. It felt like that. My eyes were wide open and it was complete darkness. It was the weirdest sensation that I have ever had because I know my eyes were open, but it was as if my eyes were closed because there was no blood there. It's wild. That final one that you see on Instagram was the one where they felt like I could take it. So they hit it. And I think he said like 7.9 Gs or whatever it was. And we start dumping over, like doing flips. And there's just one point where you see my head just go limp. And then I kind of startled myself up. I was out. I blacked out. I was pushing as hard as I could, my feet into the bottom of that plane, and I still could not keep the blood from rushing out of my head. So for those asking, I'm not sure how I got to fly in them. I don't know if it's perfect attendance at work, honor roll. All I know is I got a call. It was something I couldn't say no to. Did I really want to go up in a plane? I don't like flying. I get motion sick at everything. And when this thing ended and I got out of the plane and I got into my car, I had to pull over at Chick-fil-A into the parking lot and get out of my car and just lay on the ground. I felt so bad. But it was really one of the coolest things that I've ever got to do in my life. I'm so grateful for it. And if you watch that video on my Instagram, you can see as I'm dumping over, there's a split second where I'm out. But the pictures are awesome. So I'm super grateful for that. I've decided that instead of being the punching bag this year on Dancing with the Stars social media, that I'm just going to talk about it a little bit. It's always an odd time for me because when the show starts back, there's a couple weeks of me just taking strays out of nowhere for no reason from people I've never heard of talking about how bad I was. And I think they think it hurts my feelings. It doesn't hurt my feelings. It just gets to be a lot whenever it's happening 72 times a day in the first couple of weeks, just out of nowhere. So instead of just being the punch bag and letting it go by, I've done a little Dancing with the Stars content and I've watched the show. And I really haven't watched the show a whole lot since my time. And my time on there wasn't bad. I loved my time on that show. I just never really watched it before. And then my experience wasn't negative with the show, but it was negative with the fan base of the show. And you have to remember on that show, I wasn't the bad dancer on my season. There are multiple dancers that were worse than me on my season, but I'm the bad winner of Dancing with the Stars. And there is a difference. On my season, I wasn't even the one that people were upset about still lasting. There were a couple of those, but it was never me. Once I won, I ended up being the bad winner, but I was never the bad dancer of my season. I was a mid-dancer on my season. But I think if you did a worst winner of all time, technically speaking, it's probably me. But highest percentage of vote, that's probably also me, which is pretty cool. And I'm pretty proud of the trophy. And so I've watched it through one week. I watched the guy episode. I watched the girl episode. I was so shocked that they kicked people off night one. It was also cool they did guys and girls, but I was shocked they kicked people off night one. On my season and other seasons, everybody would get a free pass. You dance the first week, they'd take those votes, they'd put them up with the votes there on week two, and they'd combine everything and they'd kick someone off. But man, I did a video, you can go back, where I kind of told you who wouldn't win. And I knew that Connor Leavitt wouldn't win because he wasn't even the main person. He's Whitney Levitt's husband. Now in their life, I'm sure he's the main person. But to people that are watching that show, he's not the main person. He's the husband of the main person. And so if you're not the main person and you go on a show like that where now it's you're the main person, you just can't compete because people haven't built that relationship with you. So his fans were going to be her fans and her fans, only a portion of them are going to be motivated to help him. So he got kicked off night one. He also wasn't that good, but it doesn't matter. You just need a couple of votes night one, but he didn't get them. He gets kicked off. Then night two was Brooks Nader's sister, who also wasn't the one. So it's no coincidence that the celeb-adjacent people were kicked off on night one. But I do have three tiers. Here are the three tiers of Dancing with the Stars. Those who can actually win it, those who won't win it but could last, and those who absolutely cannot win the show. Speaker 1 (15:46) Let's start with those who cannot win the show for any reason whatsoever. Guillermo. Loved him. He won't win the show. Also, Whitney's pregnant. There's a reason that they probably stuck her with him. Because she's pregnant. And if he can't win, she's not going to be on the whole time dancing. But he is fun. But there's no chance he wins the show. I'm putting in this category now Tatiana Ali. I don't think she can win the show. Watching her dance. I don't know. I didn't even feel like that she loved being there. I felt like her dancing was so far behind as well. And nostalgia can save you for a bit, but I don't think that she can win the show. And the other one is Giada. Likeable, for sure. I think she'll survive a bit. She also has an injured toe. So I think stamina and injury are going to be an issue. I think there's no chance that Giada wins. Those are the three in that tier. It doesn't mean I don't like them. There's nothing personal here. I probably would like to hang out with those three more than a lot of the ones that I'm going to put up here in these other tiers. At number two. In the tier of, they won't win, but they'll last for a while and they'll have fun, I have Sierra Miller and Brandon Armstrong. She was emotionally engaging, for sure. And she should improve. But I think she's very much a mid-season contestant. I have Julia Stiles. I do really like Julia Stiles. I don't know if I would or not, because I haven't seen Julia Stiles in a while. I mean, it's not like I live next door and would see her at the grocery store. Speaker 1 (17:25) She had a good first dance. The nostalgia factor is there. The only reason I put Julia Stiles in this is I don't know that she has a passionate group of voters that will push her the whole way. Because if it were based just on growth and dancing and how much someone's likable, I think she could be in it. But I don't think she gets up in the tier of could win it right now. I have Connor Wood with Riley. Now Riley's fan base is enormous. And I think that Connor could actually last and be a semi-final contender. I mean, he was honestly a little more athletic than I thought he would be when he danced, but I don't think he can win it. This one's going to be a bit controversial because I don't think he can win it. I really like him. It's Taylor Hanson. Loyal fan base. Good dark horse if you want to pick somebody and go, that's my guy. Speaker 1 (18:24) There is plenty of room to improve, and this is only one weekend, and God knows I improved a lot from one weekend. But I don't really see the athleticism in Taylor Hansen to win it. Wouldn't surprise me if he made the semifinals or finals, but I don't think he can win it. And the other one is Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess from Bachelor Nation. And Sharna obviously was my partner. And I think Bachelor Nation carries pretty much anybody deep. You get on The Bachelor, you're going to make it. It does not