Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Because we just couldn’t wait any longer to be reunited with our #PumpRules Pals, Bravo has blessed us with Jax and Brittany Take Kentucky, a spinoff and lead-up to the new season of Vanderpump Rules coming this fall. It’s the perfect viewing choice for that end of summer wind-down, with each half-hour episode chronicling Jax’s visit to Brittany’s family home in Kentucky. He shovels animal poop, he sneaks drinks, and he dodges marriage questions like never before.
We caught up with the happy couple ahead of the show’s premiere to discuss overalls, proposals, and if we might actually be seeing a softer side to Jax.
Did anybody have to be convinced a little bit more than others to participate in the show?
Jax: Absolutely not.
Brittany: Honestly no, we were all in. As soon as we heard about this opportunity, we jumped right at it. My family, they wanna do whatever is best for me. They support me no matter what I do and they were all on board. It was amazing.
Your grandma seems especially excited about it.
Brittany: Oh yeah, Mamaw is going to be hilarious. I’m so excited for everyone to get to know her because she is so funny.
What was the biggest adjustment for each of you?
Brittany: I think for me it’s just my family getting more comfortable with him, because he has met them and stuff, but this time he got to really get to know them a little bit better. So I was just wanting everything to go smoothly. I was not wanting there to be any arguments or anything like that. As you can see in the trailers, arguments do happen.
Jax: But that wasn’t until the very end.
Brittany: Yeah, but that was the only thing for me. I was more worried about how my family felt about Jax. I didn’t want them to be discouraged or anything.
Jax: Not having Internet really sucked.
Brittany: Yeah, we had no phone service on the farm.
Jax: I think that was the only thing that sucked for me.
Was anything more fun or a little bit less fun than you imagined it being?
Brittany: Well I was surprised with Jax because he was saying that he actually liked the farm work better than working at SUR.
Jax: Oh, yeah. I’d rather do that than more than SUR anyday. It’s sad to say that I’d rather shovel horse shit than work at SUR.
Well the horses are probably less demanding than people at the bar.
Jax: That’s right. They don’t talk back. Animals are a lot better than people.
Brittany: I like doing both jobs.
How do you think that Lisa Vanderpump would fare on the farm?
Brittany: She would actually be good because she’s a very hard worker and she has two mini horses, we have two mini horses. She has a horse, we have a horse. I think whenever it comes to all the horse stuff, she’ll be fine. I’m not sure if she’d want to start getting in there and shoveling. But she’d be good at training and riding.
Jax, have you incorporated the overalls into your wardrobe yet?
Jax: I have not. I actually borrowed those overalls from Brittany’s grandfather so they were kind enough to let me wear them because I didn’t have any of my own.
But you haven’t gone out and bought your own at this point?
Jax: No, no I haven’t found any cool enough yet. I do have cowboy boots.
Was there any part of the trip to Kentucky that specifically helped strengthen your relationship?
Jax: I think just the camaraderie that I had with her family. It was really easy, I wasn’t really nervous. There was no weirdness. I just jumped right in and just gave it my best shot. I think everybody had a lot of fun with me because I was out of my element. But I tried my best. I definitely got an A for effort. I don’t know if I did the best job at all my tasks but I definitely tried.
Was there anything that really put some stress on your relationship?
Jax: Towards the end. I got in a little tiff with Tiff [Brittany’s sister Tiffany]. I mean, we bumped heads a little bit here and there but that just goes with any relationship. That goes with anything. When you’re around people for that many days, close quarters all the time, that’s gonna happen. That happens with anybody.
Brittany: Yeah, I don’t wanna say too much because the ending is a little cray cray. You’ll just have to wait and see.
Jax: It’s nothing that is out of the ordinary. It happens to everybody.
And probably nothing crazier than what we’ve already seen on Vanderpump Rules, too.
Brittany: Exactly, just different.
At first, I was going to suggest that people play a drinking game when watching this show, and they drink every time someone says “marriage,” but I don’t know, people might get sick if they do that.
Jax: True.
Brittany: Yeah, it does seem like, watching the trailer, that my family is always asking about marriage but really it’s just because they wanna make sure that I’m okay and that I’m not wasting my time by moving to LA and living away from them. They wanna make sure that I’m okay and making the right decisions.
We learned a little bit about both of your parents in this, Brittany, and that they’ve been remarried a few times each. Has that affected the way that you think about marriage, really wanting to be sure and not rushing into things?
Brittany: Well, [my parents] divorced when I was like two or three. And [my dad] got remarried to my stepmom, Linda. They’ve been married for, I don’t know, like 25 years. So she’s part of my family 100%. My mom has had a couple of different relationships, but I don’t know. I think it’s just about finding the right person. I mean, it’s just about finding the person that you’re supposed to be with. I can’t really base anything off of anyone else’s relationship because I have to have my own experiences.
Who is it most annoying to get marriage pressure from: your family, your friends, or strangers?
Brittany: Strangers! Strangers, because we were dating for a month and people were asking when we were gonna get married, it seemed like. And then, you know our friends Katie and Tom, they’re married now so it’s already, ‘When are you gonna have kids?’ It’s just like, people ask questions on social media and sometimes that blows my mind.
Jax: Other than your family, I think it’s a very rude question to ask.
Brittany: Yeah, like your family, they’re looking out for your best interest. I think sometimes people think they know everything about us and they might not actually know what’s really going on.
Speaking of that, Jax, were there times when you thought things were going really well and then you’ve watched the show back and Brittany’s family is expressing a little bit of concern that you were unaware of?
Jax: Yeah, of course. The way it’s cut up sometimes, you don’t know how things are gonna air. But that’s just normal. I mean, I know who I am. I know the person that I am. I’m very stubborn. I’m very hard-headed. I have zero patience. So it takes a very special person to deal with me on an everyday basis. So I get it. I get it why people get frustrated with me. I would get frustrated with myself too if I was talking to me.
Brittany: I love it when he admits it.
Jax: Well, I know who I am. It’s not a secret. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who I am.
During the last season of Vanderpump Rules, it seemed like we were starting to see maybe a bit of a softer side to Jax, especially when it comes to being around Brittany and your relationship. Do you feel like you get even softer after your time in Kentucky?
Jax: I would say that I’m more aware of certain things. I do go to therapy like everybody else and I’m learning to be a little bit easier but it’s tough. Do I see myself being softer? Yeah, when I catch myself. When I catch myself doing things that I’m being a little hard-headed or stubborn then I like to try and wash that.
Brittany: I think the difference is that now he’s actually seeing that stuff. He’s paying attention to it now.
What were you guys surprised that you missed the most after you left the farm?
Brittany: Everytime I leave home, of course my family is what I miss the most. But the stuff that really surprises me that I miss is just like the green grass. You know, whenever it rains and stuff like that. We don’t really have those things around us here in LA. It’s so relaxing when it rains and we never have rain here. Like, you could see the beautiful stars at night. It’s just gorgeous. My farm is just gorgeous. I miss all of that stuff.
Jax: The peace and quiet. I’ve lived in cities pretty much the majority of my life. So going out there, it almost freaks me out because I’m not used to the peace and quiet. I lived in New York, I lived in Miami, I lived in Chicago, I lived in LA. I’ve never lived on a farm before. I’ve never lived where it’s that quiet. It was like wow, like it was like God’s country. It was beautiful. There was a time where it was almost too quiet. It was almost too—you when something’s too perfect? It was like, too perfect. So I was like, okay I don’t know what to do with myself. It was too perfect. I was waiting for something to go wrong.
Brittany: We’re just blessed.
Is there anything that you can tease about the upcoming season of Vanderpump Rules that you’re excited for us to see?
Brittany: We can’t really talk about the new season yet because it’s so fresh.
Jax: We’re not even really done.
Brittany: It’s going to be crazy, that’s all I could say.
Jax: It definitely won’t be like every other season. And we say that every year, [that we] don’t know how we’re going to top the following season. But we always do.
Vanderpump Rules Jax & Brittany Take Kentucky airs Wednesdays at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo.
