Singer Alex Warren swapped the studio for a Queens classroom in the latest episode of the digital series Celebrity Substitute, where a group of second graders at PS 111 bombarded him with blunt questions about his finances, his marriage and his pets. The light-hearted segment, released on Wednesday 9 September, sees the Grammy-nominated artist teach the children about creativity while also reflecting on his own difficult upbringing, including a period of homelessness, and the role teachers played in supporting him.

During the class, Warren told pupils he did not have "a lot of money" and that he pursues music for love of the craft rather than its rewards, before revealing his biggest goal is "to be a dad". He shared stories about meeting his wife at 18 and once sleeping in a car with her, described their home life with four dogs, three horses and two cats, and named Shawn Mendes as the artist he would most like to be. The episode also involved the students helping film a music video for his track "Emerald Eyes", while Amazon restocked the school's community pantry, prompting Warren to speak about eating lunch with teachers as a child who had no one else to sit with.