Pop Quiz: Ashley Parker Angel

Pop Quiz: Ashley Parker Angel

Aidin Vaziri | As a member of O-Town, the boy band manufactured on the MTV reality show "Making the Band," Ashley Parker Angel sold nearly 2 million records in the United States, scored radio hits and became a great pinup talent. But when the cameras stopped rolling, it all fell apart. The band split, the debt piled high and the 24-year-old Northern California native got his actor-model girlfriend, Tiffany Lynn, pregnant. Six years after first hitting it big, Angel is attempting to resuscitate his career on the heels of another reality show, "There & Back," the brutally candid MTV series that tracked the making of his solo debut, "Soundtrack to Your Life."

Ashley Parker Angel
Q: You were born on the same day as MTV. That's weird, huh?
A: Exactly to the day and the year. August 1, 1981, is the day they launched as a network and that's the day I was born. So I feel this weird connection with MTV.
Q: Is that why you let them film you while you were broke, working minimum-wage jobs and living with your pregnant girlfriend at her mom's apartment?
A: You know, I really didn't pursue the television show. MTV heard my demo as a solo artist and they were like, "What's going on in your life?" I was living off credit. I was going on job interviews. Basically, I was being evicted from my apartment, which is why I ended up living with Tiffany's mom. They were like, "This sounds like a great story. We would love to follow you!"
Q: I don't know. I think you should have held out for "Cribs."
A: I've always tried to be a real person, so even though some of the things I was dealing with in my personal life were kind of embarrassing, I just laid all my cards on the table and I said, "Look, I'm like every other American."