"Portals to Hell" Host Jack Osbourne Goes Over Season Two Of The Travel Channel Series
Descend into all-new eerie encounters with season two of Travel Channel’s hit series, “Portals to Hell." Avid paranormal investigators Jack Osbourne and Katrina Weidman resume their journey to historically haunted locations in the U.S., confronting stories of the supernatural as they seek evidence that a spirit world exists. The undaunted duo faces their most fearsome cases yet, as they uncover disturbing tales from bygone pasts and unnerving paranormal activity.
Video Transcript
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MATT FORTE: --world, what is up? Welcome to "BUILD at Home." I'm your host, Matt Forte. I'm coming to you from my home, as is our next guest who I'm super thrilled to talk to you.
But first, before we get started, something incredibly important. Kids in need have missed more than 800 million meals due to school closures with coronavirus and everything. With nokidhungry.org, we're helping schools and community groups find new ways to feed these kids, but we need your support.
If you happen to be someone in a position to give a little bit-- because I know it is hard out there. It's not the case for everybody. But if you happen to be that person, then I'd urge you to take a look at nokidhungry.org. See all the amazing work they're doing. See if we can help feed these kids, all right? Thanks, guys.
Our next guest is a TV host, producer, explorer, and paranormal investigator. Season two of his popular Travel Channel show "Portals to Hell" is well underway with new stories, new gear, and a new episode dropping April 30. Joining me now to tell us all about the terrifying places I'll never go, please welcome the great "Jack Osbourne," everybody. Jack, how you doing, man?
JACK OSBOURNE: I'm good. How you doing, Matt?
MATT FORTE: I'm hanging in there. I'm as close to normal as one could be. It's nice to have you back on a weird version of our show.
JACK OSBOURNE: It's nice to be back on a weird version of your show.
MATT FORTE: Thank you, man. We'll get into "Portals from Hell" in a second. But just, of course, got to start with how the hell are you doing? How are you holding up? How's quarantine life treating you, man? You're doing all right?
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah, I'm actually doing-- personally, I'm doing well. You know, just the good thing about having kids, it kind of-- you know, most of my energy when I have them-- because, you know, they go between my house and their mom's. It's pretty-- you know, it's kind of just a day at home. You know, we've got to do the teaching and entertaining the other two who aren't in school. So it's been good in that sense.
But, you know, I do get a little bit down. I do-- it is the kind of peaks and valleys with this whole process.
MATT FORTE: Yeah, for sure.
JACK OSBOURNE: You know, it's a very, very strange time to be kind of functioning, I think, for everyone.
MATT FORTE: How's the-- how's the homeschooling thing going and teaching and all that and facilitating that? How's that been?
JACK OSBOURNE: It's not my forte. That's really [INAUDIBLE].
MATT FORTE: That's what I'm hearing.
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah, it's just I'm not-- I'm not a good teacher. So it's-- I tell you what. It's a weird thing to go like well, what now-- I have two friends who are college professors. And they're like, yeah, we're already being prepped to not be back in school in the fall. They're already telling us, like, don't expect it.
MATT FORTE: Wow.
JACK OSBOURNE: And I'm like, how's that going to work if this continues on? Like, it's just mind boggling.
MATT FORTE: It's wild. It's also you hope it's one of those things we prepare for and we don't need it. Like, who knows between now and then if a vaccine shows up or something like that-- which, again, is all wishful thinking. But I think it's smart to plan for it and just be ready so we don't get caught, you know, with our guard down.
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah. And that's the other thing too. I'm a bit of a psycho doomsday prepper a little bit.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: So, like, leading up to this, like, I was buying supplies in January. And I was like, all right. Like, this is--
MATT FORTE: You were ready.
JACK OSBOURNE: I was like, hey, if this is shutting down China, like, viruses travel on planes really well. So I was-- I was stocking up, and I've had a bunch of supplies for a while. So I was like all right.
MATT FORTE: Good. Good. Good.
JACK OSBOURNE: Like, mentally I was in the zone for it to come.
MATT FORTE: Nice, man. I saw-- it was a couple of weeks ago. It was on your Instagram. You just threw the kids in the car. You just had to get out and just drive them around and just look at stuff and--
JACK OSBOURNE: Yep.
MATT FORTE: --take them out places. But, generally speaking, they're doing all right? They're holding up?
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah. Yeah, surprisingly well. My daughter's birthday is on Friday.
MATT FORTE: Oh man.
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah, so it's-- I'm like, what do you want to do? And she's-- we're going to do a farming birthday. She wants-- I'm going to go get a bunch of, like, planter beds, and she just wants to plant stuff. So I'm like, all right. We can do that.
MATT FORTE: Yeah, that's totally doable. That's fantastic.
JACK OSBOURNE: That's a great quarantine activity to do on your birthday.
MATT FORTE: 100%. Last time you were on the show was about a year ago. We were talking about "Portals from Hell," and I had asked you then if anything had ever followed you home since you guys started doing the show and not. And then I saw a headline recently-- I was getting ready for this-- in "Rolling Stone," and it said "Jack Osbourne's" house is full of ghosts. And I thought that was hilarious. And I'm wondering--
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah.
MATT FORTE: --you're [INAUDIBLE].
JACK OSBOURNE: I don't know-- I don't know what the hell happened, but since August of last year-- and my house is new. It was built in 2014. And since August, weird stuff has been happening. Like my girlfriend keeps waking up and seeing, like, a cloaked figure in our room.
MATT FORTE: It's crazy.
JACK OSBOURNE: I woke up and a woman was standing over me, and I was having, like, full sleep paralysis-- like craziness.
MATT FORTE: That's too much. Because you're home, are you seeing more of that? Do you feel like the ghosts are restless? Now you're home more. There's more opportunities.
JACK OSBOURNE: I think, like-- it's been consistent since August.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: It's like one or two times a week I'm seeing something. My girlfriend's seeing something. You know, my kids are afraid to go anywhere in the house by themselves. They're just at that-- they're at that age where everything's scary. So I'm not too-- I kind of take what they tell me with a grain of salt. But, yeah, it's been pretty consistent, and I don't love it. I really am not a big-- I'm like, you know, work has literally followed me home.
MATT FORTE: What a bummer. Have you-- have you had time to play anything at all? I know you're a big gamer. You don't strike me as an "Animal Crossing" guy, but have you had time to get lost in anything with everything going on?
JACK OSBOURNE: I've been diving into a lot of "Call of Duty." And actually my girlfriend's a big "Animal Crossing"--
MATT FORTE: Nice.
JACK OSBOURNE: --player. So she's got-- you know, she's got her whole world built out, and she had her birthday party on "Animal Crossing."
MATT FORTE: That happened to me too.
JACK OSBOURNE: All her friends [INAUDIBLE].
MATT FORTE: Yeah. I was oddly moved by it, like, more so than an adult male should have been. I was like, oh, they remembered. And, like, they had, like, a little party they set up for you.
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah, she did all that. And I'll have to tell her.
MATT FORTE: Yeah. Let her know she's not alone, that we're all--
JACK OSBOURNE: OK.
MATT FORTE: We're all [INAUDIBLE].
JACK OSBOURNE: But now my kids are into it, and they've been on her Switch.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: And it's funny because they've made a complete mess of her little empire she's built. And so for punishment, we made them clean it up. So today we sat them down and were like, you need to clean that mess up.
MATT FORTE: That's amazing. They got punished in "Animal Crossing."
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah.
MATT FORTE: We are living in the weirdest version of this timeline, man. That is craziness.
JACK OSBOURNE: Seriously.
MATT FORTE: All right, well, first of all, thank you for sharing all that stuff that's going on around your house, man. I appreciate that and giving us a window into it. I'm happy to hear the kids are all right. I'm happy that you're doing all right, your girlfriend's good, man. It's good to hear. So just keep doing what you guys are doing.
Let's talk a little bit about this show. We're a couple of episodes into season two. You know, with a show like this where the premise is you and Katrina go to these incredibly scary haunted places and you get into really dangerous scenarios, when they call you for season two and they go good news, you get to do it again, is that exciting? Do you look forward to that?
JACK OSBOURNE: I mean, I look forward to it because I love working, and l love making shows.
MATT FORTE: Right.
JACK OSBOURNE: And, you know, it was daunting because the order-- you know, the good people of Travel were like, we want 20 more episodes. And then we ended up doing a couple two-parters, so it truncated it down to 18.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: And it was like yes. And then I was like, oh, 18 episodes. Wow. That's going to take a long time.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: And then it went from taking a long time to, oh man, that's a lot of time spent talking about dead people.
MATT FORTE: Heavy, man.
JACK OSBOURNE: It does weigh on you. I mean--
MATT FORTE: For sure.
JACK OSBOURNE: --literally when we go to work, all we do is talk about really macabre, dark things. And so when I'm not working, I try to not-- I don't really watch horror horror. You know, I don't-- you know, I listen to a lot of serial-killer podcasts. That's about as--
MATT FORTE: For sure.
JACK OSBOURNE: --macabre as I'll get. But, yeah, it does weigh heavy on you.
MATT FORTE: Yeah. You're a-- and keep me honest here, but you're a bit of a history buff too. Like, you've always been into that. What's been-- have you learned something super exciting or different that you didn't know before? Like for me personally, I was completely ignorant to the Shanghai tunnels under Portland. So, like, that episode blew my mind.
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah.
MATT FORTE: Was there anything like that that you kind of stumbled upon in this journey that you were like, oh, wow, I had no idea?
JACK OSBOURNE: Man. You know, we came across, like-- you know, we went- we did an episode of the old Paulding jail in Paulding, Ohio. And we came across this cold-case murder that still to this day was never murder. It was about, you know, this teenage girl who got kidnapped and, you know, assaulted and murdered and this really horrible story and about how-- it's almost like you could see it being like a Netflix documentary--
MATT FORTE: Right.
JACK OSBOURNE: --because it's so layered with corruption and the mob and, like, this whole thing-- and missing evidence. And that was really interesting because it was like, wow, this is-- we're basically doing a Netflix murder series here.
MATT FORTE: You're living it, yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah.
MATT FORTE: That's pretty nuts.
JACK OSBOURNE: That was cool. And then we went to Ohio state reformatory in-- we go to Ohio so much, and I don't know why.
MATT FORTE: I was going to ask why is that? yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: But that's where they filmed "Shawshank Redemption." That was cool.
MATT FORTE: That's very cool. And how haunted was that place?
JACK OSBOURNE: It was creepy, man. Prisons and asylums are the places that, for me, are just--
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: --not good.
MATT FORTE: Can't-- I couldn't, man. I could never do it. That's why I love this show because it's stuff that I could never frigging-- I couldn't put myself in those positions. I was talking about-- because most recently the one I watched was the Shanghai tunnels episode. And one of your crew dudes gets like a pretty, like, wild, physical reaction to the environment, which was nuts and super creepy. What's the craziest physical embodiment sort of like manifestation that you've experienced? Was that it, or was that-- that's got to be on the list. Like [INAUDIBLE].
JACK OSBOURNE: That's definitely up there. That was probably the most, like, whoa. And, you know, I'm super skeptical about people, you know, and I was scratched by a demon. I'm like, I just-- I don't-- for me, I always go, well, I think energy can manipulate energy. So, like, if there's some spirit operating in a different spectrum, like maybe it can come through and you can see it for a second, or it can affect sound.
But I'm like the physicality of being scratched by a ghost seems really, at times, very almost far-fetched for me. MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: So I was instantly skeptical. And then in talking with him further, I mean, Austin-- he was our producer who got scratched. Like, that was like a life-changing experience for him. He has been, like, forever altered by that.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: And it was-- it was wild to witness and just be there when it all went down. And he went-- he broke out into hives that whole night, couldn't sleep.
MATT FORTE: My God.
JACK OSBOURNE: Had to see a doctor. Like, it was-- it was bad.
MATT FORTE: Insane, man. And, you know, that doesn't happen every time. That's one of the things I think-- I forget if it was, like, a making of or something. You were talking about how so much of the stories and the places that you go to, so much of what people have experienced, it's not necessarily physical like that or through some kind of tech. Like, they've seen something or they've heard something or they've felt it. And you guys have always done a great job of sort finding ways to make that compelling for people watching at home.
Season two, how have you sort of evolved that and kept that going and cracked that puzzle?
JACK OSBOURNE: You know, we constantly are trying to look for new tech and have-- because there's so many ghost shows, and they've been on for so long.
MATT FORTE: Right.
JACK OSBOURNE: We've kind of seen it all at this point. So we try and like-- you know, we reach out to different engineers and the come-up people who, you know, design equipment for the paranormal, ghost-hunting world. And, you know, we'll be like, hey, can you do this? Can you do that? And so we do have some really cool new tech, stuff that I don't think's really-- I mean you might have seen a little bit here and there on other shows but not really featured very much.
And it's also-- you know, we admittedly-- we knew that searching for portals was a very limiting--
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: --kind of avenue to go down because not everywhere, I believe, is a portal. In fact, it's probably maybe 10% of the places we go might have some kind of strange energy vortex, whatever you want to call it.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: At least we believe so. So we've kind of just broadened it out a bit, and we're just going to really downright creepy places at are legendary or places that have never been investigated.
MATT FORTE: What do the kids think of what dad does? Do they even know?
JACK OSBOURNE: I kind of don't tell them too much.
MATT FORTE: They can't. It's too soon. They'd go crazy.
JACK OSBOURNE: Totally. And my daughter's already saying she sees ghosts everywhere. And, you know, and I kind of like, all right. Well, let's see what-- you know, what that means.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: And, like, what are you seeing? What are you feeling? Or are you just scared to be upstairs by yourself?
MATT FORTE: Have you guys brought any of that crazy gear to your own personal house yet? Like, have you?
JACK OSBOURNE: I've been waiting to do it because I think-- you know, we've been talking about, with quarantine, like, hey, just do an episode at home--
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: --because you're at home. And so we've been batting around, you know, how would we do it? So I've been waiting as far as equipment goes.
I might set up like one of our motion trial cameras in my room just because of how many--
MATT FORTE: Yeah, you will.
JACK OSBOURNE: [INAUDIBLE]. Yeah. Giggity, giggity.
MATT FORTE: [LAUGHS] Sorry.
JACK OSBOURNE: New episodes of "Portal to Hell."
MATT FORTE: That's a different show entirely. Still on the Travel Channel though. Wide variety of programming there.
But no, I was just thinking, like, that would be wild. Like, you have access-- and I think it was Katrina saying, like, you guys have had a year that's sort of been, like, engineered for some of, like-- specifically for your moments. So, like, what a cool stable of tools to have access to to, like, explore your own weird phenomenon that you have at the house.
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah, sure.
MATT FORTE: All right, so let's-- the question that we ask every time. Scariest thing? I imagine in 18 or 20 episodes, there's got to be something that still haunts you to this day that is the craziest, scariest, wildest thing you've seen or experienced.
JACK OSBOURNE: OK, so we were in Mineral Wells, Texas, at a place called the-- they call it the Haunted Hill House or the Haunted Hell House. And this place allegedly has a demonic entity that lives there, resides in it, infests it, whatever you want to call.
MATT FORTE: Yeah. Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: And at first we were like, OK, I don't-- you know, because I think what's happened is with a lot of paranormal shows, to keep people interested, the bar constantly is getting raised and raised right.
MATT FORTE: Right.
JACK OSBOURNE: And it just used to be the little girl running around to, oh, it was an ax murderer, and now it's everything is demonic possession, and there's always a demon. You know, I was possessed last week. Like, and it's just not.
MATT FORTE: Right.
JACK OSBOURNE: Like if I'm just being honest, like a lot of that is just bolster-- you know, doing shit for ratings.
MATT FORTE: Yeah. Exactly.
JACK OSBOURNE: And it's awesome because it works, and I like watching ghost shows, so I get into it myself. But this place, there was something to it which I can't quite-- I've never experienced anything like it. It was a really dark energy. The crew was on edge. Everyone just felt like just that anxiousness, and it was a weird town. Like, everything that just didn't feel-- nothing felt normal there.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: And a lot of our witnesses we spoke to had really just strange not only stories about things that happened in the house but just strange things happening in their lives.
And we were coming towards the end of our investigation. Nothing had really happened other than just this very heavy feeling. And it sounded like someone took a baseball bat and smacked one of the walls upstairs while we were in, like, the loft area. And I've never done an investigation where I've heard such a loud, deliberate, like, aggressive thud.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: And I about jumped out a window. And there was--
MATT FORTE: My God.
JACK OSBOURNE: --no one in that room. There was no one throwing rocks outside. It was-- it came from inside of the house we were in in the corner of a room.
MATT FORTE: Too much, man. I can't wait. Do you have any concept of-- that episode hasn't aired yet, right? No. I haven't missed that one.
JACK OSBOURNE: No. It hasn't aired yet.
MATT FORTE: Yeah. That one's coming up. All right, I'll have to keep an eye out for that one.
JACK OSBOURNE: I have a date for you, actually, when that one airs.
MATT FORTE: Oh, no way.
JACK OSBOURNE: That one airs on May 7.
MATT FORTE: Perfect, May 7.
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah.
MATT FORTE: I'll have to remember that. And for those watching at home, the show is back on the 30th, April 30, 9:00, 8:00 Central. And if you have missed a couple, you can catch up on the Travel Channel GO app.
Jack, again, I'm super excited that you were here, man, and hung out for a little bit. I'm happy everybody's doing all right, the kids are all right. Well, how's the rest of the family holding up? I mean, how's Dad doing? How's Kelly, Mom, and [INAUDIBLE]?
JACK OSBOURNE: Good. You know--
MATT FORTE: They're OK?
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah. I mean, they're super locked down. I've maybe--
MATT FORTE: Yeah?
JACK OSBOURNE: I've seen my parents from a great distance twice in this whole time. So, you know, we're just like, all right, you guys hide away until this is all over. You know, the notion that a disease started by eating bats could potentially, you know, come and bite my dad in the ass is really ironic.
MATT FORTE: I didn't even connect those dots. That's insane. Oh my God.
JACK OSBOURNE: I'm like, the bats will not get revenge this time.
MATT FORTE: I saw something in doing my research that Kelly had mentioned recently. This was, like, supposedly the year that you guys were talking about bringing back the old-school show and doing the show again. But then, like, coronavirus happened, so everything is kind of on hold. Did you guys get far along in that process? Was that some [INAUDIBLE]?
JACK OSBOURNE: Yeah. I mean, listen. There's a lot of-- put it this way. It was-- it was next to-- we did "The Osbournes" podcast a couple years ago, and it was next to impossible just to get all four of us at my parents' house for one hour to talk crap. And I'm like-- and there was money involved in that. And I'm like, OK, so that should-- we're doing this anyway on a weekend. Like, why can't we make this thing easy?
And so the notion of actually making another TV show where we're all supposed to be together is just-- I'm like, listen, I'm totally down to play ball, and I will produce the shit out of this.
MATT FORTE: Yeah.
JACK OSBOURNE: You guys just have to show up, and I need a--
MATT FORTE: Show up.
JACK OSBOURNE: --promise you're going to show up or I'm going to sue you.
MATT FORTE: What's scarier, "Portals to Hell" or the idea of having to corral your entire family around again for a new reality show?
JACK OSBOURNE: Probably doing a new version of "The Osbournes" is scarier to me than going to the most haunted places on earth.
MATT FORTE: Fantastic, and there's the pull quote. Jack, gentleman, man, always so nice to talk to you, dude. I really appreciate you--
JACK OSBOURNE: Thank you.
MATT FORTE: --taking the time. Thank God everybody's doing all right and hanging in there. I was happy to hear that. Just keep doing what you're doing.
For those watching at home, April 30 new episodes start up again. "Portals to Hell" on Travel Channel or check out the Travel Channel GO app. Wherever you are right now-- hopefully you're at home-- make some noise, and thank the great Jack Osbourne for hanging out with us. Thanks, man, so much.
JACK OSBOURNE: Thank you.
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