Josh Groban Says His Funny Side Has ‘Allowed Me to Show That There’s a Human Being Behind This Persona’

More than most singers, and certainly more than most singers in his contemporary classical world, Josh Groban has found a way to integrate comedy into his career. Earlier this year on the 98th Oscars, he joined host Conan O’Brien in some good-natured silliness in a sketch dubbed “I Won,” during the opening monologue. He has sung tweets on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played himself on such shows as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Parks and Recreation, Glee and American Dad!

Speaking in the October/November issue of Reader’s Digest, out Friday, Groban told interviewer Leigh Belz Ray (who is also the 104-year-old magazine’s editor in chief) that he was cautioned that the comedy bits might confuse some fans of his music. But he contends that his comedy appearances have served a purpose.

“I was advised for sure to not blow the brand,” he revealed in the interview. “But it allowed me to show that there was a human being behind this persona. A lot of the press I got was so serious and so much like, ‘We’re putting this opera child on a pedestal.’ Comedy was my way to get back on my feet, back on the ground.”

That turned out to be especially true for self-deprecating comedy. “It was a way for me to machete through my own demons, put a pie in my own face,” he told Belz Ray. “And also to be around some of the funniest, smartest people that I’ve ever met. The rhythm of a great song is the same as finding the rhythm that makes somebody laugh.”

What does Groban see as the best decision he ever made? “Saying yes to making a Broadway debut was a big one,” he says. Groban appeared on Broadway for the first time in 2016 in the musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. His leading role as depressed outcast Pierre earned him his first of two Tony Award nominations for best actor in a musical.

Groban amplified on why that decision was so pivotal. “Revisiting a dream that I’d had since I was a kid, knowing full well that it could go sideways and the critics and audiences could say ‘Go back to your home.’”

Groban, 45, amended his answer with a second “best decision”: “And proposing.” Groban announced his engagement to Natalie McQueen in April.

Groban is the first celebrity to appear on the cover of Reader’s Digest in more than a decade, since Good Morning America host Robin Roberts appeared on the cover in June 2013. The brand shifted from its familiar table of contents-style covers to full-bleed photography in 1998. In 1999, they featured the likes of Robin Williams (February), Jewel (September) and Meryl Streep (November) as cover stars, intermixed with issues fronted by civilians. Around 2001, Reader’s Digest shifted to having the celebrity moment in the upper right-hand corner as a smaller head shot. Some musicians who had that headshot include Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, Paul McCartney and Kelly Clarkson. In 2008, the brand moved away from that approach. 

Belz Ray explained why the magazine pursued a cover with Groban: “In a moment when people are hungry for genuine connection with real people, Reader’s Digest is focused on bringing our readers honest conversations (be it with artists, writers, thought leaders or everyday heroes in our own communities). Josh Groban is someone who has been a part of culture for decades and is a point of connection across different generations of our audience – we couldn’t have found a better person to exemplify the evolution of our brand!”

The venerable Reader’s Digest was founded in 1922. (Billboard, for the record, dates to 1894.)

Watch an exclusive video from Reader’s Digest’s interview with Groban at Reader’s Digest’s page at youtube.com.