“I Love My Life Right Now”: Ice Spice’s Little Brother on His Ascendant High School Football and Modeling Careers

The Gaston family has had quite the year. 23-year-old Isis—you probably know her as Ice Spice, the freshly Grammy-nominated rapper—is one of the most adored pop stars on the planet. Her rise from princess of the Bronx music scene to worldwide phenomenon has been well-documented. But did you know that her younger brother, Joey, 16, is a bit of a local legend himself?

The diminutive junior quarterback (5’8”, 160 pounds) at Iona Prep in New Rochelle, New York not only led his team to a playoff victory on Friday night, he’s also signed to Next Models, which has allowed the avid selfie-taker an opportunity to pursue his main non-football hobby. When he is on the gridiron, he’s dodging both defenders and jokes about his ultra-famous sibling, all the while maintaining the smile that helped him become a model in the first place. Joey finds himself in a bit of a High School Musical situation now, not wanting to choose between his sport and his art, and he’s determined to continue both after high school. Growing up, he was drawn to prestigious college programs like Clemson—“That looks like a lit place to be”—and later Oregon because “they let the quarterback air it out and they got some cool uniforms.”

While signing day is still a ways away for Gaston, he did have his first official visit with GQ. Sitting in front of a row of arcade machines in his family’s basement, sporting an Iona Prep hoodie and glistening chain, the young man told us everything about his iced-out world.

Joey Gaston: Life is amazing, to be honest. Recently I had a whole bunch of people reach out to me—famous people, old friends—being like, “Yo, I heard that was your sister. Da da da da, how is it?” It’s cool, man. Just living life. School is normal. Everything is good on the football field, I hear a couple comments, but besides that everything is amazing. It makes my life so much fun and adds a lot of character to it.

Our first game, I already knew what I was getting into for the rest of the season. I got tackled and a good friend of mine was like, “You thought I was feeling you?” And that was a good friend of mine! I started smiling, there was no hate at all. But it’s like, aight, let’s see what happens next play. Next play I get a little ten-yard gain. I’m feeling myself a little bit. It’s competition and it adds a little more fun to the game.

Recently we played a team and I looked up in the opposing student section. I never look up at the student section. I’m locked in. But my teammate next to me was like, “You see what they wearing?” I look over there and saw nothing but orange wigs! The whole student section had orange wigs on! Aight, we gon’ see what’s gon’ happen. By the second half, we were blowing them out. I think it was 42-7, something like that. I start seeing the orange wigs come off. They were embarrassed.

At the end of the game, though, it’s love. It’s never disrespectful. On the way back to the locker room they gave much respect. A bunch of little kids like Joey, Joey, Joey! Can we take a picture? Of course, no problem. But when I was taking off my shoulder pads, one of my teammates came over and said he had a surprise for me. A kid in the student section gave him one of the orange wigs and said give it to Joey. Bet. When he gave it to me in the locker room, I said, “No way I got an orange wig!” I actually have it right here with me! [holds up said orange wig]

When everything started popping off and I was doing my thing on the football field, I kind of kept it to myself. I’m not really the type to brag. Once her high school yearbook photo got leaked and people started seeing that last name and connecting faces, people that I grew up with were like, hold on…that’s your sister? They get a little mad! Why you never told me that was your sister before? What’s going on here? Come on man, I don’t go around telling people that’s my sister. You don’t go around talking about your sister, you know what I mean? It’s the same way.

I don’t look at her as Ice Spice. I look at her as Isis, my older sister. Other people that came in my life later on knowing she’s my sister, off the bat they’ll be like, “Yo, what’s good?” trying to dap me up immediately. I’m a cool guy, so I reciprocate the energy. What’s good? You chilling? Stuff like that. But anybody who knows me knows I’m a good person and I’m outgoing. If I don’t know you, I’m down to get to know you. I’m cool with everybody. I don’t have any enemies at all.

I’ll give you an example right now. I was sitting in the trainer’s room getting my ankle wrapped and spatted for practice. One of the older people—a guy who’s in college now that graduated from Iona—he walked in. He was like, “Yo, is this the famous Joey Gaston?” It made me smile because he knows me. He was like, “You don’t understand how many people have texted me talking about ‘Ice Spice’s little brother goes to your old school.’ Word? That’s cool. It’s all love and energy around me.

I don’t mind, but everyone still knows me as Joey Gaston. At school and all of that, I made my own name. They know me as the quarterback. I don’t go around the halls with people being like, “What’s good Ice Spice’s little brother!” They always call me Joey.

I always had a little passion for taking photos. I was on a bus ride to a football game, over here taking selfies and stuff like that, snapping people. That’s just in me. It’s in my blood. To my teammates, I was trying a little too hard to take my photos, but like, I'm not trying at all. It's natural to me. Once I got the opportunity from Next Models, they reached out to me and I jumped right on it immediately. I can actually show myself and be myself. Instead of being on a bus taking selfies, I could be in a good setting taking professional photos!

They found me on Instagram and I saw it was an official, verified account. I clicked into it and was like, “I need to hop on this ASAP!” Here I am.

I don’t think so, not at the time. I guess they figured it out as it went on.

Yeah, I grew up on Fordham [Road]. Right now, I’m upstate. I played youth football in Harlem, then I went to the Bronx, I tried out in Brooklyn, and I played high school football in Jersey for my freshman and sophomore years. My dad decided to make a change and move upstate. He was like, ‘Yo, there’s a bigger house up there, it’s a better environment.’ I was excited because, you know, it’s tough living in the Bronx sometimes. I was excited to get out. It was a little more travel, though. I had to hop on a train—45-minute ride then a 20-minute bus ride just to get to school—but the environment was definitely worth the change.

Hundred percent. I want to go back so bad sometimes. Damn, I’m really just sitting at home listening to birds chirping? Deers eating leaves and stuff like that. Sometimes I miss being able to go outside and just walk the streets. But it’s cool having peace and quiet too.

Football is football, to be honest. I still get nervous of course, whether it’s a big game or not. Being nervous is part of the game. As long as I’m not scared, you know what I mean? You can never be scared. Nervous is good because it means you still love the game. My dad always reminds me of that. He always tells me that whenever I’m nervous I play good, just don’t play scared and you’ll be aight.

My routines always change throughout the year, I don’t have a specific routine. Lately, I’ve been eating overnight oats every morning before games so I have that energy. When I go into the locker room, they’re always playing a bunch of New York drill music, right? That be getting people hype, but sometimes I just want to calm down and lock in. So, I listen to my own songs. Not my own music! Like, my own playlists. I listen to Lil Tjay, A Boogie, Sleepy Hallow.

Nah, never. That’s all my sister. She has her lane; I have my lane. I always support Isis and her dreams, but me? I’ve always just liked taking photos of myself and playing football. I love my life right now.

Modeling, since I’m a little new to it, I'm still a little nervous. But as time goes on, I’m more calm. It’s definitely a relaxing feeling when I’m able to be myself in front of the camera. The first time I was like, What’s going on? This is legit, this is real! It’s not like me sitting on the bus trying to take selfies. But once it calmed down, the people around me were comforting me. They were like, “You can be chill with us.” You know what I mean? We’re all part of the same family. I took that into consideration, like, yeah let me calm down.

I don’t know. Maybe it is in our blood! Maybe it was the way we were raised or the area we were raised in. Whatever it is, I just know I’mma keep on doing it and pushing for perfection. She’s going to keep doing what she’s doing, we’re going to love each other and give each other support 100% of the way. That’s all I know.

When she first started rapping and I heard her songs I was like, hold on, this a little catchy! I went home and I couldn’t get it out of my head. She’s gonna do her thing. I always have faith in her. I’ve never doubted her, not a single day. Once she posted her songs and started going viral on TikTok, I started seeing it all over my For You page. Look at her now! She’s up there. I’m proud of where she’s at.

She always had that passion. It wasn’t really a surprise when she made it because I knew she was going to make it. I’m gonna keep pushing to make it too. She gives me motivation to keep going. We were close growing up and are still pretty close now. I still call her and still text her. She watches my games online and tells me I’m doing my thing and making her proud. She’ll always hear the announcers saying Gaston, Gaston, throwing the ball, running it, doing this, doing that. It makes me smile on the inside because I’m like damn, she’s making me proud! To know that I’m making her proud? That touches my heart.

Definitely. She’s always trying to talk me up on little things, giving me tips. Whether it’s football or girls, you know what I mean? School too, she's always giving me tips because she always has my back. I’m grateful to have her as a sister.

She knows a little bit! If somebody knows football, it’s my dad. That’s who talks to me about football. He’s always sitting me down like, “Yo, this defensive back did this, this linebacker did that, you should have went there with the ball.” Whatever he says, he tells me first, and then I go into the film room and my coach tells me the exact same thing. So I’m like, oh yeah my dad knows what he’s talking about.

He coached me when I was like eight years old and we actually won the championship! It was the first time that that age group had ever won a championship for that team. That felt really good. He played a little bit in high school, but he had a lot of other things going on in life so he wasn’t really able to chase his dream.

[laughs] Who knows?

I don’t listen to her all the time, like actively. My dad is always playing it in the car though. On the rides to football games or the rides to practice, I always hear it, and not only because it’s on his playlists, but it’s always popping up on the radio. All the time. I’m constantly hearing her. My favorite artist is Lil Tjay. So when she made that song “Gangsta Boo” with him, I was like hold on, I gotta listen to this! She dropped that song and I was like, “This is my favorite song now.”

My little sister is! I’m not much of a Taylor Swift fan. I listen to a couple of her songs, but that’s not really my type.

That’s like asking a dad if he values one kid over the other. You can’t do that! He loves both his kids! I want to be able to do both for as long as possible. I want to be in the NFL, and I want to model. I have a little bit of a passion for both. It’s amazing that my schedule allows me to do both. I can’t work a 9-5 or something like that. I’m always busy. Modeling is a job that I’m able to do but also feel comfortable in. Whenever I have a free day, I can go model. I would never say that I value one more than the other.

Yeah, it’s so much fun. I get to go out there and read defenses, pull the ball, do things with my legs. I’m always trying to make a move on the field, make a highlight, but I’m never selfish with the ball. If I see my teammate open, I’m always throw first. If nothing’s open, I gotta run. Even getting hit, it’s all part of the game and it’s all fun. I get back up, do my little dance. I might flex my arm a little bit. Go back to the line, get the next play.

Sometimes I’ll even be talking to the defense. Defensive linemen are always saying they’re going to come get me. Bet! Come get me! It’s all fun and games.

I block all of that out. People are going to hate no matter what’s going on, on every level. That’s a natural thing and I understand that, so I don’t let it get to me at all. It goes in one ear and out the other. All that talk doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve never shed a tear over none of that, never frowned or felt sad, lost any motivation. The hate makes me smile, to be honest. It means I’m doing something right! Hate isn’t going to come if I’m doing bad! It’s a great experience to have hate because it builds character. It strengthens me for the future and what’s to come.

I’ve played against people that are D1-bound or D1-committed. I’ve gone against people that are 6’7”—you can’t really get much taller than that and play football!—and my height doesn’t affect me at all. I don’t think it ever will. If anything it gives me a little advantage. I take my three-step drop, and maybe the linebacker can’t see me, but I can see them! I feel like a ninja on the field.

They go to tackle me. Oh he’s small, I’m about to swallow this guy, run full speed and boom him. I hit them back, I bounce off, and I’m gone! I’ll juke ‘em when they’re not expecting it, or hit ‘em with a little spin move. Where’s he going?!

Honestly, this is the thing about me: I don’t really watch football. My dad is always trying to get to me to watch so I can improve my football IQ and stuff like that. But I want to experience it. I want to go through things and learn by myself. The best way to learn is to go through it, because I never make the same mistake again. Or if something works, I’ll keep doing it.

But I do watch Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson. They inspire me a lot. They’re not really tall quarterbacks. They’re around my skill set. I always see Russell Wilson escape the pocket and do a little 360 underneath some defenders. Kyler Murray, he’ll take off using his legs. That’s why I like watching them, I can see myself in that position.

I’m still working on official offers as of right now. I have a lot of interest, but I just gotta wait my turn a little bit more. They’re going to start coming in as I keep on proving myself. I want to go to whatever college accepts me as the quarterback I am. I want to go anywhere that will allow me to play, and play as me. Give me those read options, or a three-step drop and hit a receiver in between the defense. My dream college is the college that wants me.

There’s a couple parts of fame [for her] where it’s like, hard to go outside and show herself to the public. Everybody just bombards her. But for me, I’m glad to accept all of that. I’m gonna be myself, whether I’m famous or not. I love the idea of becoming successful. That’s the goal. Fame comes with success, but I don’t bother myself with that. I’m not scared of it—I’m not scared of nothing—I’ll embrace it once it comes.

This interview has been edited and condensed