This week on Barely Famous, Kail Lowry sits down with singer, songwriter, and actress Joanna “JoJo” Levesque to discuss her incredible journey spanning 20 years in the spotlight. From being the youngest artist to top the charts with her iconic debut single, “Leave (Get Out),” to releasing her deeply personal memoir, Over the Influence, Joanna opens up about her battles with addiction, navigating fame, and faith, and shares advice for parents of children aspiring to enter the entertainment industry. Joanna's book, Over the Influence, is available now at all major book retailers. Please support the show by checking out our sponsors! Posh Peanut: Go to PoshPeanut.com/FAMOUS, and use promo code FAMOUS for twenty percent off your first order. Rocket Money: Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to RocketMoney.com/FAMOUS Shopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial period at SHOPIFY.COM/barelyfamous To watch the full episode + other exclusive content, join my Patreon community! Patreon.com/kaillowry See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Full Episode
Welcome to the shit show. Things are going to get weird. It's your fave villain, Kale Lowry. And you're listening to Barely Famous. Thank you so much, Jojo, for coming on Barely Famous. Oh my God, I'm excited to be here. Yeah. No, you just released your book, Over the Influence. I can't believe it. I know. Out in the world.
How do you feel? I feel great. You should. You absolutely should. I feel relieved. I mean, you know how it is to write something and put it out. It's one thing to go through the process of writing it, which is like weird and exciting and terrifying and all this stuff. And then it unlocks another...
terrifying thing about sharing it so but it's been great the feedback from my fans and even from people that maybe didn't know who I was or didn't you know have any investment in my story it's been really nice to hear the things that stuck out to people and maybe I think the thing that excites me most is how it makes people think about their own life and maybe think about the way that they view things in the frame that they put on their experience and
Resilience and redemption and all that.
You have a following that responded as if you never left. You never left the public eye. You never, you know, pivoted from singing to acting to Broadway to anything, right? People love you just as much as when you first started.
My fans are amazing. Yeah. They are amazing. They've kept me alive. They've kept me going there. I mean, Team Jojo to the end. Absolutely. Yeah. So in different seasons, they've really been like the thing that has propelled me forward and given me the courage and the confidence to even just try to keep trying, you know. So, yeah, they're everything to me.
Why now? Why a book now compared to five years ago?
Well, 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of when I put out my first single, my first album, in the time that changed my life forever. I was 13. And I was putting out that song, Leave Get Out, and it went number one. I was the youngest artist to have that song. chart positioning. And so I wanted to do something to make sense of and commemorate my 20 years as Jojo.
And while also kind of separating myself from Jojo and kind of when I started doing movies, I went by Joanna Jojo Levesque because I'm an only child and I'm my father's Only child. I'm a daughter. So if – the Levesque name isn't going to keep going in my family if it's not for me. So I wanted to do something to honor my dad too. He passed nine years ago and –
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