Who Knew Chet Hanks Could Really Sing? Watch Him Perform on ‘Surreal Life’
White Boy Summer creator Chet Hanks has some pretty stunning vocals. In a Rolling Stone exclusive clip of Tuesday’s episode of MTV’s Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets, Chet Hanks takes the stage for a performance of an original song, titled “Leaving Hollywood.”
“In the morning you’ll be gone. Yeah, you’re all packed up and leaving Hollywood,” he sings rather beautifully as Tyler Posey strums the guitar. “I should’ve known the days would never last/Would never last.”
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“Walking on the stage, the switch gets flipped and I just go with it,” Hanks explains during his confessional.
In the clip, Hanks begins the performance full of nerves, but he ends up proving he can truly sing. “Who would’ve thunketh that Chester is such a magnificent singer,” jokes figure skater Johnny Weir, who’s also on the show.
Toward the end of the performance, Fifth Harmony‘s Ally Brooke then joins Hanks on backing vocals and shares her excitement about performing with Hanks. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on stage and I’m totally missing it and excited to be on stage,” Brooke says.
By the end of the clip, the crowd erupts in applause. Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets premiered last week and saw Hanks get vulnerable about the “twisted representation” he thinks people have had of him.
“I had a chip on my shoulder that kind of created a monster,” Hanks said during the premiere. “I just had this attitude of ‘Eff everybody.’ That, coupled with addiction and substance abuse, is a recipe for nothing good. That’s how I lived for a long time until I got sober.”
He also opened up about how difficult it was growing up in the shadows of his Hollywood star father Tom. ‘I’ll tell you something about my childhood. People think that being Tom Hanks’ son, like, I would grow up feeling like I was the shit,” Chet said last week. “I actually grew up feeling completely fucking worthless.”
Along with Hanks, Brooke, Weir, and Posey, this season of Surreal Life: The Villa of Secrets features “CoCo” rapper O.T. Genasis, influencer Josie Canseco, Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s Kim Zolciak, and singer Macy Gray.
Gray made tabloid headlines during the premiere episodes last week after revealing she was on Ozempic because she’s “kind of vain” and for saying she finds “healing” via cocaine, “a couple of shots” and marijuana. “Get those edibles down my throat, and I’m good, girl!” she said on the show. “Then order me a pizza, I’m straight! I don’t need all that shit. I’m good.”
New episodes of Surreal Life: The Villa of Secrets air on MTV Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET.
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