JC chasez parents, DJ: JC, let me just change gears here for one second. Are you close with your mom and dad?
JC: Yeah.
DJ: Really close?
JC: Uh, I mean, as close as a son would be to a parent, yeah.
DJ: Okay, just wondering. 'Cause I did a little research on you, and I know how - I believe this is true - that you were adopted.
JC: Uh, yeah.
DJ: 'Cause I have a little boy that we adopted.
JC: Uh huh.
DJ: And every time I meet people that are adopted, like Faith Hill, like DMC - I don't know if you saw that special on DMC where he went back to go find his birth parents and stuff. I always wanna know, like, you know, how you are with your parents. 'Cause my boy's five, and I wanna know when my son's twenty-seven and he's you know, hopefully - I pray to God he's in a successful band or doin' somethin' - I wanna know his relationship…like, do you ever think about your biological parents? Have you ever met them?
JC: I was adopted when I was close to, like, I'm gonna say it's like five and a half or so, so I was aware of the whole thing.
DJ: Oh my.
JC: Um, but uh, yeah, I know who my mother is, you know, she raised me up until when I was five, so I have a very clear idea of who she was. And my parents were very open-minded to the fact that she was actually…wow, I haven't, I don't think I've ever spoken about this in public. Um, she knew who my parents were 'cause she was actually fostered by them at one point.
DJ: Oh, wow.
JC: Because uh, you know, she had been through a lot in her life at a young age. And um, so that's how I ended up being adopted, is she reached out to the people that she trusted. And um, so that's how I ended up being placed with the family that I'm with. She reached out to them directly, 'cause she had direct contact with them, and they spoke about it, I guess. And um, so that's, you know, everybody's selection process or how they end up with a family is different. So it really…I was really fortunate. And you know, any time that she wanted to talk or come by or anything like that, the door - it was like an open door policy. Now, every situation is different, obviously, that was just my situation. I've never met my father. Um, I don't know who my father is or anything like that. I mean, it's been offered to actually, you know, my parents said, "Do you want to go look for him? We'll help you." Everything like that. But I just never, it's just never been something that has kind of like pushed me, I guess, at this point in my life. I'm content knowing my mother and things like that. But you know, the people that raised me, my mother and my father, Roy and Karen, are amazing, amazing people. And, you know, they had two kids of their own, Heather and Tyler, and they are my brother and sister. I love them, you know, I would do anything for them, if I needed to I would stand in front of a bus for them. Whatever it is.
DJ: So Roy and Karen, they're your mom and dad.
JC: They're my mother and father.
DJ: That's awesome.
JC: They're wonderful, wonderful people.
Other DJ: I never knew that about you.
DJ: Dude, you're gonna like make me cry. You're sayin' all the things that a dad who adopted a boy wants to hear. Do you know what I'm saying?
JC: I mean, that's it. And you know what, and I've been around other adopted kids as well. My uncle has also adopted a child, and you know, it is really the greatest thing. It is the greatest thing in the world. You know, my parents sacrificed so much. The position that I'm in now? Is because they helped me. I would not be here if they did not do that for me. You know, my first gig was the Mickey Mouse Club, and my parents had to make sacrifices in order to do that. Like I went on an audition that, you know, that my mom actually found in the paper, and I had never been on an audition before. She was like, "Honey, would you like to try something like this?" I'm like, "Sure, why not?" I go there, I end up getting the job, you know, and who knew that was gonna happen when it's your very first thing that you've ever done.
DJ: Well the thing is also, the true hero is your birth mother, who was strong enough to know, "I can't give him the life that he deserves."
JC: And she's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful woman. You know, she…that's it. It's like, it's a matter of, we were like, you know, apartment-hopping and homeless from time to time, and you know, and she, it's like "He's five years old. This kid needs to be in school. He needs something steady." You know, and she, as much as she loved me, had to make the choice of basically separating herself, you know, as the day-to-day mother in order to give me a better life. And I'm thankful for that judgment as well. It means, to me it means that she loved me even more to do that, you know. I'm a very, very fortunate person. And everybody's story is different, but I mean, people who adopt children, man, are fantastic, phenomenal and wonderful people. I mean, that says a lot about you to me that you would reach out and do something like that, and your kid is a very lucky kid.
