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 > December > 14
Sunday, December 14, 2008
12/14: Michael Johns interview at Gwinnett Arena for Infinite Energy Tennis Slam
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michael Johns says hey to his old bud Murphy Jensen, a former pro doubles tennis player.
We are converting to Wordpress soon, a more popular blog software. The good news there is you will be able to see your posts much much faster. I will try to do the conversion this week, time permitting.
Anyway, I stopped by Gwinnett Arena for the Infinite Energy Atlanta Tennis Slam, a charitable tennis exhibition Saturday night featuring Michael Johns as musical entertainment. I had to do Christmas shopping afterwards so my girlfriend and I only came for a pre-party to talk to Michael. He was feeling much better than he did at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in October, when he was visibly ill from food poisoning.
This time, he was with his Atlanta friend Cary Franklin, a former tennis partner. They actually got an hour of tennis in Friday and Cary thought Michael didn’t do half bad. I did a video interview with Michael. I don’t have editing software so it’s completely raw and my inexperience at doing video interviews certainly shows. (My girlfriend Helen Kim shot the video and inserts a question herself in the mix.)
Michael said he’s finished with his album, which will be more rock soul than rock rock. It’s due out in March, he said, with a single out in February. He’s doing a charity event with Nigel Lythgoe tonight. And he was vague about his Christmas plans, joking he’ll be working on his “Wii bowling.” He also mentioned how he got to Georgia, via a tennis scholarship, that he was a top 10 player in Australia in his age group as a teen. But he realized he wasn’t good enough to go pro.
He also said he’d love to move to Atlanta and misses it deeply. He hates to leave, he said. But for career purposes, L.A. is his home for now.
Anyway, here’s the video, for better or worse, with the bad lighting and awful background. Have mercy on me! (The videographer, of course, was brilliant!)
