John Stamos admits he didn’t know what a ‘street urchin’ was when auditioning for role of Blackie Parrish on soap opera General Hospital

John Stamos admitted he didn’t know what a “street kid” was when he auditioned for General Hospital during an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC on Tuesday.

The 60-year-old actor who played Blackie Parrish on the soap opera from 1982 to 1984 revealed he had to go to the library to look it up.

John was on the NBC talk show to promote his recently released memoir If You Would Have Told Me.

He ran out and high-fived some audience members when he first arrived, then talked about how he prepared for his General Hospital audition. John said they told him they wanted a “street kid” from New York.

“I’ve never been to New York,” the California native said. “I didn’t know what a street boy was.”

John said he went to the library to look up what a street urchin was and then started thinking up a “walk” for his character Blackie. He said he drove through Hollywood and then decided Santa Monica Boulevard looked like New York and stepped out wearing his mother’s leather jacket and feathered hair.

The actor then hopped on the show and showed Jimmy his walk, which he said was modeled a bit after John Travolta.

“And that’s how you got the part?” asked Jimmy, who was accused in an article last month of creating a “toxic work environment.”

“No, they said stop moving, just do the lines,” John joked.

Jimmy asked how he went from General Hospital to playing with The Beach Boys.

John said his friend was in the band and said he had to meet them before the encore when they played a baseball stadium in San Diego.

“I was walking out to the field, and I was just at General Hospital, and I heard all this screaming and I thought, what is that?” said Johannes. “They go, oh, it’s for me! And all these cheerleaders started chasing me around the diamond. I run the bases like an idiot.”

“They ran after you?” Jimmy asked.

Soap star: The 60-year-old actor played Blackie Parrish on General Hospital from 1982 to 1984

Fan Favorite: John ran out and high-fived some audience members when he first arrived, then talked about how he prepared for his General Hospital audition

The host: “And that’s how you got the part?” asked Jimmy, who was accused in an article last month of creating a “toxic work environment”

New book: John was on the NBC talk show to promote his recently released memoir If You Would Have Told Me

‘Yes! And they caught me because I wasn’t a very good runner,” John said. “And thin legs, these Jordache jeans, feather hair. It looks like I have a dead crow on my head, and I’m running, and I look up, I’m on a Jumbotron. Then there was backstage, and then I ran in, and they slammed the door, and these girls were yelling at me. And all the Beach Boys turned around and looked at me like, ”who is that crazy?”

John said Mike Love asked if the girls screamed for him like that all the time and after finding out that was the case, he ordered John onto the stage.

“I played Barbara Ann and it was beautiful,” John said.

John said writing a memoir was initially the last thing on his mind, but his life changed when he became a father at age 55 and when his fellow Full House co-star Bob Saget suddenly turned 65 in 2022. age died of head trauma.

“I decided to write the two most difficult chapters,” John said. ‘The first chapter was: it’s terrible. My lowest DUI and my five stages of grief were sex, drugs, and alcohol. And then I wrote the second hardest thing, which I thought was the Bob Saget chapter, and by then my five stages of grief were health, therapy, and family and I was trying to figure out how I got there, but it was a good trip. ‘

John said writing the book helped him cope. He revealed that he shared other stories in the book that he wanted to make relatable to people, such as how he was bullied growing up.

Life changed: John said writing a memoir was initially the last thing on his mind, but his life changed when he became a father at age 55 and when his fellow Full House co-star Bob Saget suddenly died of head trauma at age 65

John also remembered his last dinner he had with Bob before he died. He said he had no idea this would be the last time he would see his friend.

“We looked at each other, and what did we do to get these beautiful women, and it was just such a beautiful evening, and you know, you’re always in a hurry in life, right?” John said. “You know, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. We stayed, and when something like that happens, you kind of want to remember everything. What did we eat? What have we done? And we ordered some cake, and we had some coffee, and we stayed longer than usual, you know? And so, if you have the chance, if you’re with someone you love, someone you care about, stay a little longer, have the cake, have some coffee.”

“It was a beautiful evening, and you know, it’s hard without him,” John said, his voice cracking with emotion.

John and actress Caitlin McHugh, 37, have been married since 2018 and have a five-year-old son together.