Before Chris Pratt was listening to mixtapes while guarding the galaxy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was playing in a band while slacking off as Andy in the popular comedy Parks and Recreation. Earlier this year, it was announced that the show’s band, Mouse Rat, was getting an actual album release that includes all the favorites from the series. Although Pratt’s character was the band’s frontman, he was absent from any promotion for the 16-track The Awesome Album. Now the actor is speaking out about why he didn’t help promote his former faux band’s real life album.
Chris Pratt talked with former co-star and Mouse Rat bandmate Alan Yang on the podcast Parks and Recollection, which Yang co-hosts with Rob Lowe. The two reflected on their time on the series and being in the fictional band and soon, the topic of The Awesome Album came up. Pratt admitted why he wasn’t involved in the album’s promotion despite his character being such a big part of Mouse Rat (formerly known as Scarecrow Boat):
No one consulted me about it. They’re like, ‘Hey, do you wanna promote this album?’ I was like, ‘Whoa, there’s an album?’ And then they were like, ‘Yeah, you wanna promote it?’ And part of me is like, yeah, that’d be cool. I’ve always wanted to be, like, that actor who has the vanity album. You know, I hope it gets a million copies and I get this platinum album on my wall. But then on the other hand, I’m like, I don’t think I’m being compensated for this beyond the, whatever $15,000 an episode I was making for the show. I think I’m gonna say no. A hard pass on promoting your album.
It’s unfortunate that Chris Pratt wasn’t really told much about the album, and it makes sense why he passed on promoting it. Had someone given him a heads up about it ahead of time, he might have lent his talents in some way, even without financial compensation. But to just hear about it after the fact only because some exec wants to use his popularity to spread the word? Not the best process.
Hopefully if there is another Parks and Rec reunion in the future, Mouse Rat can get together and possibly re-record some of their hit songs so fans can listen to them all over again...again. Everybody who had heard about it from other places was likely excited for the prospect of an actual Mouse Rat album after all these years, so it’s also likely that if the former members were to get together again, the songs would sell. Or at least do well on Spotify.
The cast of Parks and Recreation got together last year for a special, virtual reunion, where we got to see where all the characters are now and how they’re each doing during the lockdown. At the end, everyone sang “5,000 Candles In The Wind,” the tribute to fan-favorite miniature horse Li’l Sebastian. Fingers crossed there’s another Mouse Rat album in the future, and that Chris Pratt actually knows about it so he can promote it and maybe even get compensated for all the hard-ish work.
