Beets say being on “The Masked Singer” made one of them want to continue music career

The celebrities under the masks tell EW the "TMS" experience is "not even a comparison" to "American Idol."

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Masked Singer, season 11, episode 9, "Soundtrack of My Life Night."

Things got personal on The Masked Singer this week.

It was Soundtrack of My Life night, meaning all of the contestants sang songs that had special meaning to their lives. Compared to other theme nights this season, things were pared down — no guest stars or gimmicks, just the three Group B finalists battling it out for their chance in the quarterfinals.

The performances were pretty epic, though, and provided for a great showdown. Beets kicked things off with “One Moment in Time” by Whitney Houston, then Seal sang "It’s Tricky” by Run-DMC, and Gumball ended the first round of songs with “Carry on Wayward Son” by Kansas.

Seal was the first to be sent back to the ice floe, and half the panel got his identity right: Robin Thicke and Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg both figured out the adorable costume was hiding The Goonies actor Corey Feldman. (The guesses from Rita Ora and Ken Jeong just missed the mark, with her guessing Feldman's Stand by Me costar Jerry O'Connell and him picking another former child star, Haley Joel Osment.)

Seal's departure paved the way for an impossible Battle Royale between Beets and Gumball, who each had to sing “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. The panel all bemoaned having to choose between the two, but in the end, Gumball punched his ticket to next week's quarterfinals.

This meant fan-favorite Beets had to unmask, and the panelists' guesses were all over the place, ranging from Dan + Shay; to Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet; to CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse; to K-Ci & JoJo. In the end, none of them came close, and Beets unmasked to reveal longtime friends, singers, and American Idol season 1 winner and runner-up, respectively, Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken.

EW caught up with the duo to talk about how the show enabled them to live out their best team mascot dreams, how TMS compares to Idol, and what's next for them.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you guys want to do The Masked Singer?

RUBEN STUDDARD: It's fun. It's a way to be in front of people and kind of be an alter ego, and it's just a cool thing to do. I think everybody, when we were kids, everybody used to love to be a different character, and I think that this is a fun way for grownups to kind of play with that.

CLAY AIKEN: We got to be the mascot for the football team. [Laughs] Ruben always played. I wanted to be the mascot. I never had a chance to play whatsoever. I always wanted to be the school mascot, but they never let me in the costume. I don't know many singers who don't secretly want to do Masked Singer, because like Ruben said, it's fun. It is a silly show and it's something that allows us to do what we love to do, which is sing and perform, but also get to do it in a way where we don't have to take ourselves too seriously. And that was refreshing and fun for both of us.

Did they approach you guys to do it separately or together?

STUDDARD: I think they approached us separately. I can't remember how that process was.

AIKEN: We were already touring together. So I think that helped them kind of get the idea of the two of us doing it together. And we had just done [an appearance on] Idol last year together and we'd been on the road together for a while. So I think they saw it as an interesting way to trick people a little bit, because you don't often, except for last year and the other times we've done stuff together, I think people would not have assumed that a duo could be two people who don't typically perform as a duo. You know what I mean? Someone like Brooks & Dunn who were always together. I think they figured that would be a nice way to trick people.

Clearly it worked, because the panel did guess Brooks & Dunn at one point.

AIKEN: I have no idea where they got that from. Ruben sounds so much like Kix Brooks. [Laughs]

And with the 20th anniversary tour, whose idea was that? Did one of you take convincing to do it?

STUDDARD: Well, we'd been on tour together before. We did a tour called The Timeless Tour, I think it was in 2010.

AIKEN: Did our Broadway show together, too.

STUDDARD: Did a Broadway show. But I had been on the road forever, and Clay hadn't been singing really since our Broadway show.

AIKEN: In fact, that Broadway show, I hadn't sung before that since Timeless, frankly. I mean, it's only been Ruben who's gotten me on stage the last 10 years.

STUDDARD: Yeah. I think that no matter how much Clay says that, he gets that itch to want to get on stage and sing for people. And I'm always ready to do it. So I think, and especially knowing that it was going to be the 20th anniversary of our time on American Idol, it was just the perfect timing for it.

How did The Masked Singer experience compare to your time on American Idol?

STUDDARD: Listen, The Masked Singer and American Idol are... it's not even a comparison. Because the only stake is to have fun and enjoy the time that you are on Masked Singer. We were competing for our livelihood on American Idol, and that's just not the case here. We were just there to have a good time.

AIKEN: And we didn't have any trouble having to worry about what to pick to wear every week like we did on Idol. It was already there for us.

I've heard from many other contestants that the costumes are nice in that they allow you to just be yourself in a roundabout way.

AIKEN: Well, I think it's interesting because obviously not everybody who's on Masked Singer is a professional singer. Ruben and I are, we're used to being on stage. So I kind of think we both are kind of ourselves when we're on stage without the Beets on. But when we're on the show, we couldn't even see our feet. We couldn't see anything at all. It was a challenge for us. I looked several times and thought both of us were facing in the complete wrong direction. We did not have any idea where we were looking.

STUDDARD: And you really don't have a lot of time to get on stage and get comfortable because there are so many other contestants. Everybody has to have time on stage to rehearse. And I think it is a way to get you off the square. It really is a challenge. And just trying to know placement. I remember trying to walk on stage and remember where in the hell is my exit? I can't see. I thought I was going to say, "I can't see" while I was walking to sing with Clay one day.

AIKEN: I was worried we were both going to fall off that stage. I mean, I think we had, of all the seasons that I've watched, and especially this season, I feel like — even though I'm sure others would argue and disagree, and other people had a lot of pieces to [their costume] — but in a weird way, the Beets were probably the most cumbersome because we had no use of our arms whatsoever. We had arm holes, and we had fully outstretched arms, but we could just get our wrists through them. And you can't see anything. You can't move your knees. It was like walking around in one of those big, what are those sumo wrestling outfits that they put kids in for their birthday parties? You know what I mean? That's what it was like. Except for having an eye mask over your face, too. You couldn't see anything.

What's next for you two?

STUDDARD: My new album came out this year [The Way I Remember It, his 8th studio album] and I have a new single that is coming out in the next couple of days ["SMH (Shaking My Head)," out Friday], so I'm really, really excited about that. And yeah, just still out here doing my thing, singing.

AIKEN: And I'm applying for a job to be Ruben's nanny, because he's got a new little baby girl. And I don't know, this last tour this last year that Ruben and I were out on the road, kind of got me back into performing for the first time — that and Masked Singer. And I think, I don't know, I feel like for the first time in maybe a decade I've thought about trying to do something again, whether it be record something or perform again. I feel like I've decided that I'm going to enjoy it more this time around —without having to wear the big Beets.

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