In this week’s episode of MTV’s “When I Was 17,” R&B singer Tyrese confesses that he was once “gonged” while performing on his high school stage.
“My music teacher would do these ‘gong’ [talent] shows, and basically, if you got up [onstage] to sing and you were horrible, then somebody would run up and hit the bell,” the star explains. “I remember I was in the middle of singing this Brian McKnight song, and somebody ran up and hit that sh– loud and it went gong!”
Brandy, who’s a good friend of Tyrese, jokes “I think Tyrese’s natural reaction was, ‘Are you serious?!'”
Ty’s reaction to the sound provoked much laughter from the audience. And even though the gong meant the soon-to-be singer was supposed to get off the stage, because of the support he received from the girls in the crowd (no surprises there!), he kept on going.
“I finally had a conversation with the girl who hit the gong. I was just like, ‘Yo, man, why did you do that?’ And she was like, ‘Don’t get mad at me! Everybody told me to hit the gong, so I ran up and did it!’ ” Tyrese recalls.
Tyrese was clearly not impressed with her answer.
“I remember I gave her a dirty look, like, ‘Don’t you ever hit the gong again, OK?’ And I walked off.
Footage of Tyrese reliving that embarrassing moment below:
