Russell Brand has admitted that he once auditioned to become a member of UK boy band 5ive.
It could've been the most bizarre line-up addition in pop music history since Colin Farrell missed out on Boyzone, but the future comic blew the opportunity. It was a close call for music.
Appearing as James Corden's guest on one of The Late Late Show's UK specials, Brand was asked if it was true that he once auditioned for a boy band, leading him to recall all the details of what he described as a "pitiful" audition.
"As a young man, I made many mistakes," he told Corden. "During one of my frenzies brought on by the methamphetamine, I thought that perhaps I'd do rather well in the boyband 5ive."
As he was a bit of a car-crash at the time, Brand turned up for his audition with a beer, but things got even worse when the booze was ditched and he started singing. His memory seems a little sketchy.
"I believe I sang More Than Words by the band Extreme," he said, before starting to serenade Corden with a bar or two of the tune.
"I'll recreate it if you want but it was a disaster then, and I think it would be even worse now," he joked.
"It was a pitiful experience, the people were staring down at the table in disbelief and great disappointment by the time I left."
But had he made it, Brand envisioned himself as making quite a unique contribution. "I could have been the maverick in the boyband," he told Corden. "The troubled one, the first into rehab one."
So Brand lost out as 5ive enjoyed remarkable success worldwide, before they split up in 2001 after selling 20 million records.
They have reformed twice and currently operate as a three-piece.
