Jesse oh, yessee!!! GL got Summerland's Jesse McCartney on the line ...

We know we're always telling you to never sit by the phone and wait for it to ring. But when juicy Jesse McCartney's dialing ya up, you stare at the phone and you wait. And you wait. And you wait. Jesse was supposed to call on Tuesday. And then again on Wednesday. ... Nothin'. We were beginning to get a complex. But, hey, he's a busy guy. So finally, on Friday, straight off a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York, he called us from the car on his way to a photo shoot....

GL: Give as some scoop on what will be going on in Summerland this season. JM: My character has a lot of stuff happening with Callie [Bradin's girlfriend, played by Danielle Savre]. They're having their ups and downs. And there's some crazy teenage stuff, drugs and alcohol, that whole scene. I won't give you too many specifics; I don't want to ruin it, but it's very, very dramatic.

Tell us how you're most like your character Bradin. He's very athletic and t love sports, too. I'm a big jock at heart. And Bradin loves women, which is a good thing.

How are you not like Bradin? I'm very much against any kind of muck, like drugs. He experiments with things I've never even thought about. He's got a lot of baggage. It's kind of hard to blame him for being crazy--he has no guidance, really, no one to stand him up anymore and say, "Look, this is wrong." He's learning what it's going to do to him, as you'll see in the second season.

Are you totally tight with the cast? Ryan [Kwanten, who plays surf shop owner Jay] and I are very, very good friends. We go bowling, partying; we like to eat so we go out to nice restaurants. Taylor [Cole as Jay's GF Erika] is a great friend of mine. And I actually went to prom with Kay [Panabaker as Bradin's sister Danielle], which was fun. She's a smart cookie, so she graduated early. We definitely have a great relationship. She's like my little sister.

How about Darcy's Wild Life's Sara Paxton, who has guest-starred as a Bradin love interest? She was a lot of fun to work with, she had this great dry humor. Very funny but very quiet. She's away in Canada, becoming a star, but I heard she's back in L.A. Danielle's friends with her, so we're going to see if she can come to the set one day.

What's up with your Beautiful Soul CD? I was kind of finding myself on this album. I got a chance to do a lot of writing. I co-wrote four tracks. I'm very proud of "Shine On." It's very funky. It's got an amazing amount of vibes, instruments going on--strings and brass and trumpet. It'll make a huge performance number; it'll be killer. I went in the studio with nothing but paper and pen, and this huge thing came out. I'm very, very proud of that song.

So you'll be touring? I'm doing shows on the weekends now. We stop taping in March, and then we'll probably have about five to six weeks off. There's talk about doing a tour with Kelly Clarkson for a few weeks, We're not sure, but we'll see. That would be fun. I'm a huge fan. She's a great singer.

How can we get our hands on your tour schedule? Get it right on my Web site: jessemac.com. It has everything. It has my whole schedule from second to second as to where I'm going to be.

Do you have a girlfriend? I wish I did. I love having someone to talk to. I've taken a few people out to dinner and to the movies--typical dates. I just can't commit right now with my work schedule.

Dating in Hollywood must be weird. How can you tell if a girl is into you for you or just because you're on a show? I can usually tell what they're after. It's just a vibe you get. If they're only talking about your career, it's a little weird, You know what I mean? You can just tell there's, like, this giggly kind of attitude if they're a fan.

If you were to have a girlfriend, what would she be like? I have a very dry personality--it's kind of hard to get me to laugh, really. So if a girl can make me just bust out, then those are big points. And I hate insecurities. I can't stand when someone is self-conscious in front of me. Confidence and humor are big in my book.

Hey, Jesse, have you heard the one about ...