Get to Know Stassi Schroeder of Vanderpump Rules

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Whether you’re a casual viewer of Vanderpump Rules on Bravo or a full-on Khaleesi (if you know, you know), you won’t want to miss Stassi Schroeder’s appearance at TPAC.

The Bravo star and best-selling author of Next Level Basic will stage a live performance of her podcast, Straight Up With Stassi, featuring her fiancé Beau Clark and fellow podcaster Taylor Strecker on October 1. A night of pop culture and reality TV talk, celebrity gossip, relationship advice, and more, “Straight Up With Stassi LIVE” is going to be an all-out girls’ night in.

Ahead of her Nashville appearance (one of more than a dozen sold-out shows on the tour), we had a chance to talk to Schroeder about living out her theater kid dreams, VPR drama, wedding plans, and all things Music City. 

Nashville Lifestyles: You were a theater kid growing up. How much did that impact the plans for this show?

Stassi Schroeder: Yes, and I actually joke about that in some of my sets because I've seen podcast tours before and a lot of them are just a couple of people sitting at a table and actually recording their podcast. I'm like no, I love musical theater. I used to do musical theater. We have to make this an experience, not just a podcast episode. I'm not going to make it to Broadway so at least let me live out my fantasies through my podcast tour.

NL: Your set is pretty elaborate. What was it like when you first saw it?

SS: It's just so weird to have everything you envision right there in the exact way you wanted it to be. I just have to thank the team that's around me. There's so many people working on it that have done such a great job. Any little specific thing I text them, like, “oh I forgot I want this in the set,” they make it happen and it is magical. It really is.

NL: How excited are you that shows are selling out? 

SS: I mean honestly, I can't believe it. I'm like what the heck? I feel like Mariah Carey or something! We just thought that we were going to do four shows for like three hundred-seat audiences, like one little run, and then it was sold-out within like thirty minutes. My agents and everyone were like okay, maybe we should do some more and some bigger venues, and I'm just so excited. We've been rehearsing the last two days and I was feeling nerves before the rehearsal and now that we've done that, I'm like oh no, I am good to go! I am so ready.

NL: What can audience members expect from the show?

SS: We have different segments, different games, different conversations, topics and stuff like that, but I don't want to give away too much! I just want people to feel like this is an hour of what I'm about.

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NL: You’re bringing your fiancé, Beau, on the road with you. Are you directing him in the production?

SS: You know what? I kind of am trying to let him do his own thing because our relationship needs to still remain intact. He's a ham, so I just know that he's really excited to be doing this with me. The segments that he's in are tailored to stuff that he likes and can talk about and all of that. But I'm trying to give him some creative control.

NL: Your first book, Next Level Basic, was a best-seller. Any plans for a follow-up?

SS: I’m working on my second book right now! I wanted to redefine the term “basic” with my first book, and there's a new word I'm wanting to redefine in my second one. I don't want to say too much and then take it in another direction like six months from now and be like, “never mind, scratch that!”

NL: You got engaged in July. How’s wedding planning going? 

SS: We are loving it. I do want to get pregnant, so I'd like to not wait a couple years to get married, so we kind of started planning it right away because we want a destination wedding. We have our city that we're doing it in. I haven't announced that yet. I don't know when I will, but we knew we had to start planning like right away since it is going to be a destination wedding.

NL: Will we get to see the wedding on VPR?

SS: I've shared my life—all my twenties—on Vanderpump Rules, and the cast aren't only just my closest friends but the crew also is. Over time, even the viewers have become such a big part of our lives that I feel like it would be weird if we didn't share this with everyone. I think that if we had a wedding and my producers weren't there, I'd be like, “oh my God, this is sad!” I'm used to them being there for all my big moments, all my regular everyday moments, just everything. They know us better than we know ourselves, so I mean yeah, people are going to be able to see everything.

NL: Speaking of the show, can you give us any hint as to what is happening with you and Kristen Doute? You were best friends and now she’s absent from all of your Instagram posts.

SS: I can’t answer that! [laughs] You know what, that is like the main thing I'm struggling with in terms of even planning my content for the podcast tour because I know that everyone is going to be wondering and I really can't get fired, you know what I mean? I have a wedding to pay for! I need to keep Bravo happy. It's just something that people are going to have to watch how it unfolds. I will say, in the past you've seen on Vanderpump Rules, where it's like something major happened and then the friendship was done. It’s not like that. It’s a culmination of a lot of things that have brought us to the place we're at right now. And I don't know if the place we're at right now will be like that forever. It's just kind of what it is right now.

NL: You’ve been to Nashville before. Any favorite spots? 

SS: I love Nashville. I went last year for Kristen’s birthday ,and Beau has family there. We went in and out of all the honky tonks [on Broadway] with the live music. We went to Tootsie’s. It was really fun. I just had such a great time walking around and the freedom to go in and out of places. I'm from New Orleans, so it reminds me of that a little, where you don't have to have a specific destination in mind for a night out. You can kind of roam and I love the freedom and vibe of that.