One week Josh King was teaching a new batch of third-graders at Independence Elementary School in Rosedale, the next he was interviewing celebrities at the MTV Video Music Awards and recapping the night on national morning television.
That was the “go, go, go” last couple of weeks for the 2011 CSUB alum starting when he woke up to an email from ABC producers asking if he’d come on “Strahan, Sara & KeKe” to talk about a viral video made of him at school.
That video, of him welcoming students back to school with a remix of Lizzo’s hit “Truth Hurts” broadcast over the school intercom, has been viewed on You Tube more than 6,000 times.
“At first I’m like, ‘This can’t be real, I need to fact-check this,’” King, 31, said of the ABC email. “I checked my sources and it was 100 percent true. So of course, I emailed them back.”
A week and a half later, ABC flew King out to New York City, put him up in a hotel across the street from its studios and gave him his own dressing room, complete with his name on the door.
During the interview with Michael Strahan, Sara Haines and Keke Palmer, King talked about the genesis of his remix, his students’ reaction and his overall approach to teaching.