The Wackness

I am definitely out of the loop on all the details, so if I am missing something please feel free to correct me.

In a recent interview (March 2024) with Sara Fraser (link below), Drake Bell had tears in his eyes while defending Josh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSzk-MsVKqA

Quote around the 42 minute mark: On Josh: “He's reached out to me personally, we've talked...I feel really bad that a lot of people are kind of going ‘your silence is deafening’ and it's like well don't jump so quickly because you don't know what's happening behind the scenes. Josh may have felt ‘if I just go public with support or something maybe it'll look opportunistic or maybe it'll look like I'm trying to clear my name.’ It means a lot more that he reaches out to me privately so I really just want to make sure that everybody understands that we've spoken and he's in my corner.”

“So be careful jumping on people like Josh because you know we've had our ups and downs, but we're like real brothers. It's like sometimes you want to hang out with your brother. Sometimes you want to knock him in the head. We've had our ups and downs. But at the end of the day, I mean I think we do -oh I'm gonna cry again- I think we do have a really um uh special relationship, and I would always be there for him and I know that that he would he would be the same. I know that there's been some catty remarks and things that have been said by him and by me and but you know I don't want the public jumping on him because he has in my times of struggle and times of pain um he has been somebody there that's been really important and special throughout my life. And you can't you can't put a price on that.”

From what I understand, people seem to be upset at Josh because at one point he apparently said that he and Drake weren’t ever really friends. But that seems to just be a clickbait headline. The actual quote is a lot more nuanced than that. (Again, if I am wrong, please correct me).

The quote I found from Josh, from an interview with Portnoy in 2022:

“We were kids, right? Obviously, there were times when we were closer than not, but when inevitably the show ended — I mean, we're just totally different kids. I say in my book, 'I was like this kid from New York who was into the Beastie Boys, and he was a kid from Orange County who was into the Beach Boys,' like it was just different people…. 'Drake & Josh' is something I'll be synonymous with forever and I'm proud of it … And I want to like the guy that my name is attached to forever, but unfortunately, it just sort of worked out the way that it did. The dirty little secret, I guess, was that I knew that Drake and I didn't stay in touch for the 10 years since we had made the show. But no one needed to know that . I was happy to just die with that secret that we made this thing that people really love, but maybe we weren't that close So I didn't invite him to my wedding because I hadn't really talked to him in many, many years Cut to: I'm getting married that night and I see these text messages from him cursing me out, coming for me on the night of my wedding. And I'm like, 'Yo.' And it's delusional because I'm like, 'Bro, we worked at Coffee Bean when we were 16. I'm sorry, I'm 31 now. I might've lost your number. “

I think that’s very different from Josh saying that he and Drake were never friends. It’s just that they have drifted apart in the many years since “Drake and Josh” ended.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. If I am missing anything I am open to hearing.