Jason Mraz reveals why he wanted friends to ‘stop voting’ for him on Dancing With The Stars

Jason Mraz opened up about the four-legged reason he decided to cut his Dancing With The Stars stint short.

“I went in there thinking, ‘I’ll probably last two or three weeks.’ Well, after two or three weeks, and I’m terrified, and I have to cancel all my plans for the rest of the year, and I miss my cat terribly,” the 47-year-old revealed on Tuesday’s episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner is on me podcasting.

Jason added: ‘And I started telling my friends, “Don’t vote for me anymore!” Because the only way I’m going to get off this show is if I don’t get enough votes.’

The I’m Yours artist not only addressed those close to him, but also expressed his concerns to the show’s crew.

“I actually said to the producers, ‘I’m good. I can go home now, thank you for the honor,’ and they said, ‘We can’t help it that you’re here,'” Jason confessed. “So all I could do was ask my friends to vote for someone else.”

The 47-year-old revealed: ‘I went in thinking, “I’ll probably last two or three weeks.” Well, after two or three weeks I’m terrified and have to cancel all my plans for the rest of the year, and I miss my cat terribly.’

But lo and behold, the Lucky singer was there the whole time and finished in second place, along with his partner Daniella Karagach in season 32.

Xochitl Gomez and her dance partner Val Chmerkovskiy took the crown, while Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix finished in third place.

“When I made it all the way to the end, made it to the buzzer, I looked back and laughed and thought, well, maybe if I really cared,” Jason joked. “So I would do it all over again if I could and I would really try. Maybe they’ll have a Dancing with the Stars All-Star season… I would go back.”

The Hollywood icon also told the former Modern Family host the story behind the DWTS producers who reached out to him.

The team reached out to Jason after the release of his 2023 single I Feel Like Dancing.

“I made the song without realizing that I had to go out into the world and dance,” he teased. “The producers of Dancing With the Stars called and said, ‘Hey, we heard you want to dance. Are you serious?’ And I was like, wow, what an honor. What a great way to learn to dance quickly.”

Despite missing his cat and having his entire school year booked, Jason still has fond memories of his time on the ABC series.

As he himself put it: ‘We had to show up on set and do the dance that we had come up with ourselves. That was the hardest thing, but also a lot of fun.’

During the competition program, Jason openly talked about coming out as bisexual in 2018. He also returned to this topic during the conversation with Jesse.

The songwriter added: ‘And I started telling my friends, “Stop voting for me!” Because the only way I’m going to get off this show is if I don’t get enough votes.’

Despite missing his cat and his year being fully booked, he said of being on the show: ‘We had to go on set and do our dance that we had made up ourselves. That was the hardest thing, but also so much fun.’

He said he “grew up on a very conservative street” in Virginia and went to a high school that had a Confederate symbol as its mascot.

Jason “didn’t really have a lot of sexual experiences in high school” at the time, as he was a shy student who was constantly bullied.

The songwriter moved to the Big Apple as an adult, but still had “not much confidence” in his romantic ambitions.

“Skinny, skinny, 18-year-old kid in New York, I don’t even know what to flirt with, who to flirt with, how to flirt,” Jason recalled. “The romance in my songs was just copying other romance in songs, like, these are things you sing about to please other people.”

The Lucky singer was on the ABC series throughout and finished in second place alongside his partner Daniella Karagach in season 32

The Hollywood icon also told the Modern Family alumnus the story behind the DWTS producers reaching out to him: “The producers of Dancing With The Stars called and were like, ‘Hey, we heard you want to dance. Are you serious?’

But when he moved to the other side of the country, things changed.

“It wasn’t until I got to California that I met a community of people who saw me in a new way that I had never fully seen before, and I felt comfortable being seen and heard,” Jason shared. “At the same time, I still had the conservative streak that I grew up on, and that was hard to ignore or break through. I was very shy and afraid of what my family would say or what my hometown would think.”

Although his parents were supportive, he said he did not want to be ridiculed for his sexuality as a young adult.

“In the ’90s, homosexuality was the punchline of a joke, and I didn’t want to be the punchline of a joke, so I kept my nose down and figured out ways that I could one day go out and see the world,” Jason recalled. “I enjoyed it, and even being a late bloomer to where I am now, honestly, I feel like my life is just beginning. It’s when you actually find love that it really blossoms.”

During the competition show, the I’m Yours artist candidly discussed coming out as bisexual in 2018, and she broached the subject again during a conversation with Jesse: “In the ’90s, being gay was the punchline of a joke, and I didn’t want to be the punchline of a joke, so I kept my nose down and figured out ways that I could one day see the world instead.”

The DWTS contestant was previously married to Sheridan Edley from 2001 to 2002 before re-tying the knot with Christina Carano in 2015

The DWTS contestant was previously married to Sheridan Edley from 2001 to 2002, before re-tying the knot with Christina Carano in 2015.

In 2023, the couple split.

Jason added that despite his two marriages, he “hasn’t found love yet,” but that he does feel “so much love” for himself.

He noted, “That can only improve the next relationship, or the relationship I find.”