NEED TO KNOW
Ashlee Simpson got used to having cameras around at the start of her career.
When the “Pieces of Me” singer was gearing up to release her debut album Autobiography in 2004, she became the star of MTV’s The Ashlee Simpson Show, a reality show documenting nearly every move in her personal and professional life at the time.
“We just kind of put it all out there. It was such a different time in reality TV. They were just kind of filming us, and we were going with the moment,” Simpson, who’s in the midst of her I Am Me residency at The Venetian Resort’s Voltaire nightclub in Las Vegas, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.
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Launched in the wake of her sister Jessica’s Newlyweds reality series on MTV, The Ashlee Simpson Show ran for two seasons from 2004-2005. Since then, she’s revisited some episodes. “It makes me laugh,” she says.
“The girls that are on the show are still my two best friends,” adds Ashlee of Lauren Harrison and Stephenie Pearson. “We’ve definitely had moments of looking back and laughing… We were like, ‘Why are we filming me try to mop?’ But it was just honest, real moments.”
In 2018, the “La La” performer returned to reality TV for the E! network’s Ashlee+Evan, which centered on her and husband Evan Ross as they worked on an EP together while raising kids Bronx, Jagger and Ziggy.
Ashlee is back in music once again with the Las Vegas residency, but don’t expect her to chronicle the process on TV this time around.
“I don’t think I would necessarily do another series with my family,” she says. “I did it a lot. I had my fair share. I love not having cameras in my house. It’s so nice.”
“I have three kids, so I think it’s really important that they have their normal lives,” continues Ashlee. “I would love to do maybe a documentary or something in the future… But yeah, I couldn’t really see myself day-to-day doing that again.”
I Am Me, named after Ashlee’s 2005 second album, comes after a long time away from solo music. “I haven’t played a full set in like 20 years, so I’m so excited,” she explains of the residency, which runs through Sept. 27.
The “Shadow” artist adds, “This just felt like the right opportunity to dive back into it and relive this old music.”
For more from Ashlee Simpson, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, available on newsstands everywhere now.
