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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2006 > December > 12
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
12/12: Kellie at Arbor Place
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kellie Pickler drew what looked like more than 500 people (that’s an eyeball estimate) to the entrance of Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville this evening. Tons of little girls on parent’s shoulders. I arrived in the middle of “Small Town Girl,” her first song, at 6:05 p.m. (Traffic on I-20 did me in.). There was no way for me to get closer than 25 feet. The front area was packed. She wore a green jacket, black fitted T-shirt and tight jeans. I couldn’t tell what her shoes were in the beginning. She then did her homage to her grandmother “My Angel,” followed by the amusing “Things That Never Cross a Man’s Mind.”
She had a guitarist and bassist behind her, not taped tracks, which is a sign Sony BMG isn’t skimping on the promotion. Sound was good outside, the weather perfect with nary a wisp of wind. She acknowledged her favorite classic female country artists including Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette, jumping into a surprisingly robust “Stand By Your Man.” She then finished with “Red High Heels,” and the crowd sang along. (The song is now a top 25 hit.) Wylie Rose, the Kicks 101.5 DJ, then got her to take off one of her shoes, which was naturally a red high heel. “I wear a 6 and a half if anybody wants to know,” Pickler teased.
Her publicist Buffy Cooper said she has been wearing herself pretty thin lately vocally, thus they limited her to five songs. But she sounded good, that slight hint of raspiness adding texture to her voice. She looked a little tired but when she smiled, that fatigue disappeared.
She then spent several minutes signing as she walked from the stage to the “Tanner Health Source,” a mall spot which had a back room. There, she took some photos with Toys for Toys reps, had a few minutes to unwind, then took a limo at 7 p.m. to Hartsfield. From there, she’s off to Los Angeles to be on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (taping tomorrow, airing Friday at 5 p.m. on WGCL-TV) and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on Thursday (to air that night.). They had also taped Pickler a few days ago in New York City shopping a gift for Leno, a spoof that is also supposed to air Thursday.
Here’s are a couple of shots of her I took from my cruddy digital camera stage left. This was as close as I could get:
Here is Kellie with Santa:
Also left off a couple of questions from my interview. Robert Butler supplied them. I asked them.
Me: You had a boyfriend in Albemarle. What happened?
Kellie: We broke up. I think that it’s hard for me to be in a relationship right now. I think it will be hard to find someone who could put up with me.
Me: You don’t read music and can’t play an instrument. Would you like to learn?
Kellie: I do want to learn to play the piano. I can play a little piano by ear but I’m not like Beethoven.
Me: Have you gotten vocal coaching?
Kellie: No, I haven’t. I don’t want to be programmed. I just want to be Kellie.
12/12: Kellie Pickler interview
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
i caught Kellie Pickler by phone last night in Nashville after she flew in from Dallas. She’s at Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville tonight at 6 p.m. for a free concert. She’ll have pre-signed CDs but won’t have time to do a personalized meet and greet. (She’s off to LA to tape the “Ellen DeGeneres Show.”) Bring a toy for Toys for Tots.
As for the conversation, she sounded harried and was apparently packing and unpacking in her apartment while she had the speaker phone on. For several questions, I couldn’t hear half of what she was saying and had to ask her repeat stuff. As a result, this wasn’t exactly the best Q&A on earth. The biggest news: she won’t talk to her estranged mom after her mom was tracked down by the Charlotte Observer. Check out the Observer story here. Overall, Kellie’s as sweet as ever and I’m looking forward to catching her tonight at Arbor Place.
Me: What are you up this week?
Kellie: I’ve been flying all over the place. Went to Tampa, Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta tomorrow, then Los Angeles to do Ellen and Jay Leno.
Me: Before Idol, you had never flown before. Now you’re pulling in frequent flier miles, eh?
Kellie: I’d never been on a plane. Now I can’t get off of them.
Me: Do you like flying?
Kellie: I’d rather ride on a bus everywhere.
Me: Are you enjoying all the promotion?
Kellie: I love my job. I’m very very happy.
Me: Are you at all surprised how well your CD has done so far?
Kellie: I am. I continue to shock myself. It’s nice to think people are interested.
Me: Who have you met in Nashville so far? [She moved to Nashville from her tiny hometown of Albemarle, N.C. in September after the “Idol” tour wrapped up)
Kellie: Everyone. But the person who I want to see is Dolly Parton.
Me; Any clue when you’ll get to meet her?
Kellie. I don’t know. She’s on tour in Europe right now.
Me: How did you manage to get your CD out so quickly?
Kellie: I recorded the album while we were on the tour. We had 60 shows in 90 days. Every single day we had a day off, I was in the studio. Sometimes, I’d record after the show until 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning.
Me: What’s up with your sitcom? [There has been talks about her playing an ingenue in a sitcom.]
Kellie: That’s early in the project. It wasn’t supposed to be released but someone blabbed it everywhere. We’re working with writers from “That 70s Show.” If it happens, we’re not shooting until next year.
Me: What’s on your iPod?
Kellie: I bought an iPod while I was on tour. I lost it the next day on the airplane. I bought another one. I don’t even know how to work the dang thing. It’s still in the box. I don’t know how to download music off the computer.
Me: Do you miss Albemarle since you moved to Nashville?
Kellie: I do miss the people, but I lived there for 20 years. I’m not someone to just be in one place. I always dreamed of living in Nashville. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
Me: How has your diet changed since you left Albemarle?
Kellie: I eat the same. I don’t change my diet. I did gain a lot of weight on American Idol, especially on tour. I put on 20 pounds. We ate junk food all the time and we’d have supper at 11:30 p.m., then go to sleep. I’ve gotten about 10 pounds of if off since then.
Me: How many pairs of shoes do you own now?
Kellie: I don’t even know. I haven’t been here long enought to unpack!
Me: How are things between you and your dad? [About the time the show was airing in the spring, Clyde Pickler was let out of a Florida prison after serving a three-year sentence for stabbing a neighbor. He hasn’t really been there for her. She was raised by her grandma, who died four years ago.)
Kellie: I don’t really speak to him very much. It’s hard to pick up where we left off.
Me: Who’s your family now?
Kellie: The people I’m closest to are not blood family. I learned blood doesn’t make you family. It’s people who are there for you and support and pray for you and want to see you do well. It’s kind of my adopted family in Albermarle like my best friend Summer Miller. Her parents Jerry and Caroline. They pretty much adopted me.
Me: I do an American Idol blog for my newspaper. Here are some questions I got from my readers. Marvin Atchison asks what your next single is going to be? He thinks “I Wonder” [a heartbreaking ballad about her mom, who has spent very little time with Kellie] would be good.
Kellie: It’s yet to be decided. We were not exactly sure but we’ve narrowed it to a few. “I Wonder” is one of them. It will definitely be a single. It might be second or third [after the current hit “Red High Heels”]
Me: Sarah Bowlin asked if you have had a chance to talk to your mom yet? Are you speaking to her since she talked to the Charlotte Observer? Here’s a link to the story from Nov. 17 In it, her mom said she loved Kellie and voted for her but never abused her the way Kellie said she did during the brief times she was with her daughter.
Kellie: No. I’m done. I have no desire to talk to her. I’m going to be honest with you. The guy who wrote the story, he knew a week before they even contacted me. They called me about it the night before it was published. So I just said no comment. It really hurt me that my local paper would do that to me. I’m their home girl. The sad thing is she hasn’t changed a bit. I don’t understand how you can justify your actions. It hurt me. I was finally at a point in my life dealing with closure with the whole situation not having my mom around. I was going through the forgiveness process. Then that came out. It just proved to me she’s the same person she was 10 years ago. I think it’s best to move on, just put the past in the past. I’ve made it 20 years without her help. I can make it the rest of my life. My grandmother was my mother. If anybody says something, I say my mother passed away four years ago.
At this point, I hear a snippet of Christina Aguilera in the backround and the mood lightens.
Kellie: I love Christina! “Back to Basics” is incredible. I listen to her all the time before I perform.
Me: From Kellie Bean #98, she asks, do fans mob you in Nashville? Or are folks in Nashville used to seeing country music singers?
Kellie: I think Nashville has respect for its artists. It’s not shocking to walk into the supermarket and see Kenny Chesney buying potato chips. It’s not big deal to people here. If you go downtown where all the honky-tonk bars are, where the tourists are, you’ll get mobbed. If you go to the grocery store or the mall, I’ve never had any problems. One thing people do is call me Carrie [as in Carrie Underwood, season four winner]. More people call me Carrie than Kellie! I had this boy turn to me at the Mall of America two days ago and asked me if I was Carrie Pickler. Carrie and I have talked about it before. People mistake her for me all the time, too. She gets called Kellie. It must be the blonde hair!
Me: Tina asks a pretty random question - Do you have a Christmas tree up in your new condo?
Kellie: I haven’t. I’m really lazy. I’m a bah humbug. I like Christmas. I’m not putting up a tree. A friend of mine texted me while I was the Grand Ol’ Opry. I bought you a Christmas tree. I texted her back. You better throw that in a ditch. She gets here and brings me a nightlight Christmas tree. But as soon as I took it out, the Christmas tree broke off the light. So I don’t think the Lord wants me to have a Christmas tree.
Me: Nicole Brubaker says she works at Sonic and was wondering what was the hardest part of work there? And what did you do there?
Kellie: [She paused awhile to think this one over]: The hardest part working at Sonic is as a waitress, you have to deal with different types of people, nice people, mean people and people who are just ugly. Sometimes it’s the attitudes you get. But I guess that happens anywhere.
