New URL for the American Idol buzz blog!
Please go to the new American Idol Buzz blog at http://blogs.ajc.com/american-idol-blog/
Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > April > 25
Friday, April 25, 2008
4/26: Phil Stacey interview, ratings, Carly Smithson fallout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m in D.C. this weekend visiting friends so this will probably have to tide you over until Monday.
Phil Stacey, the Navy family man and “Idol” finalist last year, always struck me as an aw-shucks nice guy without a terribly distinctive persona despite his bald head and decent vocal prowess. But he did have a real passion for country music while on the show.
So Lyric Street Records (Rascal Flatts, Josh Gracin) signed him. His new self-titled CD is set to hit stores on Tuesday.
I readily admit I came into this interview kind of cold, without any prepared questions. But Stacey was conversational, friendly and properly grateful for the opportunity to have a career.
“We go through valleys and peaks where we feel like we’re on top of the world,” Stacey said. “I got to say: this entire thing has been the peak of a mountain. I feel like I’ve been living this dream for a year and a half.”
“I would never make the claim that I’m anything special,” he added, with proper modesty. “I love music… I feel very undeserving of the incredible life I’ve had.”
Here’s the video for his first single, “If You Didn’t Love Me.” The single, a mid-tempo love song, just broached the top 30.
The song is “really what I’m about,” he said. “I’m a man who is where he is because of the loving encouragement of an amazing wife. And I’m thrilled to show my acknowledgment to the world.”
He hopes his album sells. “I’d love to sell a million records,” he said. “But more than anything, I want my music to touch somebody.”
He said he is frequently mistaken for Chris Daughtry given his bald pate. The funniest moment he said was when he was at the Empire State Building during the “Idol” tour last year and a bunch of gals came up to him and one said, “You look like that guy from ‘American Idol.’ ” Then some gal started singing “It’s Not Over.” “I said, ‘Chris Daughtry! That’s awesome.’ I never told them I was on the show. For a sec, he considered pretending to be Daughtry, but “I thought Chris might be offended.”
Stacey said it’s fortunate his wife likes his shaved head, which he’s had since college. So he’s not even 100% sure if he’s balding.
He said though he’s a songwriter, he decided to pick from 600 songs made available to him from Music Row. He tried to pick songs that reflect his own life, which he says is going well. So he had to deliberately pick one break up song. “It was too sunshiney without it,” he said. And he included a couple of Christian-based tunes. He stays in touch with Mandisa and Chris Sligh, both whom also live in Nashville and are in the contemporary Christian world.
“If I Didn’t Love You” was originally tied to Georgian Jason Aldean but Aldean passed it to Stacey. “He graciously gave it to me,” he said.
Stacey - who is picking David Cook as the winner this year — plans to open for different acts, including Kellie Pickler, Randy Travis and possibly Kenny Chesney.
Finally, his favorite celebrity meeting was with Tim McGraw. He was in New York City during the “Idol” tour with his wife at Central Park. She needed to go to the bathroom so she ducked into the Ritz Carlton. There, McGraw came up to Stacey and said he was a fan. “I was starstruck,” he said. “It threw me off.” Stacey and his wife ended up hanging with Tim and his wife Faith Hill. He said he tried to be cool by not whipping out the camera but now regrets missing that opportunity. “It’s a story I’ll tell my grandchildren,” he said.
In other “Idol” news:
-“Extra” asked executive producer Nigel Lythgoe about the declining ratings. His response:
“We’ve had a lot of pressure put on the media this year talking about losing ratings…We’re still number one, number two… It starts to annoy you after awhile. Come talk to me about ratings when we’re not number one on the charts anymore,” he declared.
He added, “I think this is a strange time with the writer’s strike. People said that we would be seen by more people because there wasn’t anything else on television, but it’s not true. People aren’t that stupid. If there’s something on that you don’t want to watch, you don’t turn your television on and you find something else to do which is why I believe all the ratings are dipping this season.”
-Did Carly Smithson get hurt by the song she sang, “Jesus Christ Superstar”? Maybe. The song has some historical controversy more than 30 years ago. I doubt most of the voters were familiar with the song for it to matter much. But it probably didn’t help matters.
Here’s the story from the New York Times.
Since its debut, and particularly following the release of the 1973 film version, “Jesus Christ Superstar” has been railed against by some Christians for its portrayal of Jesus as confused and at times unwilling to accept his role, and because it hints that he had a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene.
Permalink | Comments (87) | Post your comment |
4/25: Anwar Robinson in Rent at Fox Theatre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anwar Robinson, the good-natured New Jersey vocal teacher from season four of “American Idol,” disappeared off the radar screen soon after.
But the smooth-sounding singer has spent the past six months crisscrossing the nation on a “Rent” tour playing Tom Collins, a gay philosophy professor with AIDS. The show arrives in Atlanta this weekend at the Fox Theatre.
In studying “Rent,” he related to the characters and Collins has an especially heavy part, especially since Collins gets attacked during the play. “He’s very patriarchal, by virtue of being grounded and optimistic,” Robinson said. “Collins is a role I can play with little or no anxiety.”
He was flattered when I mentioned that just two days before our interview, I had spoken with Debra Byrd, “Idol” vocal coach, and she said he was the only “Idol” she knew with perfect pitch, which means he can pick any note you say and hit it spot on. “I didn’t always know I had it,” he said. “When I was four, I had a Casio keyboard and I memorized the pitches in there. They always stuck.”
(Robinson said he ran into Byrd in New York City a few months earlier while she was working on a piece for Judge Hatchett. He mentored a gal Byrd was working with.)
In the two years before “Rent,” he said he recorded a bunch of cover tunes and has been seeking a way to release it. “I did a lot of freelance events and I would do workshops. I would be in parades. I’d do private parties and concerts. I was the vice president for a Celebrity Read campaign for Essex County [New Jersey.]” In other words, he kept busy, just not in a way that attracted much attention.
He hopes to venture out to Los Angeles and seek acting gigs. “I have a team who believes in what I’m doing and wants me to branch out and do more than tehater or what I was doing after ‘Idol.’ “
Robinson hasn’t had a chance to see much “Idol,” except during the semifinals while he was recuperating from knee surgery. He saw Jason Yeager sing “Moon River,” a song he sang during his semifinals, a performance I still remember. “It brought back fond memories,” Robinson said. “I loved that song. I loved ‘Breakfast at Tiffanys.’ “
