NEED TO KNOW
Jesse McCartney’s early days in the spotlight were largely kept under wraps from his classmates at school in New York — until, that is, his middle school principal spilled the beans.
McCartney, 38, was cast as JR Chandler on All My Children at just 11 years old, and was also a member of the boy band Dream Street. But the singer tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that he had a “normal childhood” growing up in Ardsley, N.Y. up until his junior year of high school.
For starters, few of his classmates had any idea that he was on a soap opera at all, let alone nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards.
“It’s a daytime soap opera, so we’re all in school. A lot of people didn’t even know that I was on a soap” he says. “Then, I was in science class, I’ll never forget it. My [middle school] principal announced on the loudspeaker, ‘Oh, one of our own students has been nominated for a daytime Emmy Award.’”
McCartney continues: “That outed me, that I was on a soap opera. Dream Street came along, and because the audience were mainly female tweens, some of the girls at school started to catch on.”
Still, it wasn’t until he was cast in Summerland at age 16 that things really changed.
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“Things started to get weird at school,” he says. “Then, people were treating me differently. I ended up leaving and coming to California. I was mainly tutored on set for my junior year and senior year. Then I would come back for graduation, and people were just a little different.”
McCartney admits that that period of his life was tough to navigate.
“The sacrifices, that was definitely hard. I missed out on a lot of family things that I wish I didn’t miss out on,” he says. “My brother and sister’s moments, they were younger than me. My brother’s 10 years my junior, so I missed a lot of his childhood. But it was overall, I guess, a small price to pay for everything that I have now, and my relationship with my family is really strong.”
He eventually embraced the spotlight, and his debut album Beautiful Soul came out in 2004, when he was 17. He’s since released a number of hits, most recently the EP Weightless, and has acted in other projects, including Greek and Young and Hungry.
Despite finding fame at such a young age, McCartney has emerged relatively unscathed from the hazards of the fame machine.
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“I think you’re not a normal teenage boy if at some point you don’t just want to stick your finger to the world and say, ‘I’m not doing this,'” he says. “I definitely had some hard lessons in life with work. I was always the youngest person in the room. I just got lucky I had a lot of good people that weren’t afraid to tell me no. [I learned that] actions have consequences. I skirted some of the cliché pitfalls, and I’m very grateful for that.”
He also reflects fondly on “Beautiful Soul,” the song that started it all.
“It was such a whirlwind. I was literally in math class and then suddenly I’m in Japan and singing for an audience of people that don’t speak English, but they can sing the song,” he recalls.
“It was pretty amazing and also strange… We never really knew what kind of impact that song would have then, let alone now, that it stood the test of time and became multi-generational. Moms that were fans then are bringing their kids and they’re singing the song. That song took on a life of its own, and I’m very grateful for it.”
McCartney is currently on tour, and will stay on the road through December, including select dates with the Jonas Brothers.
For more from Jesse McCartney, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
