New url for Peach Buzz
Bookmark this new url for Peach Buzz.. We have moved to Wordpress!
Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > January > 08
Monday, January 8, 2007
Wild Bill’s owner ready to hit the road
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Being the house band at a bar or club can be grueling and tedious, but Bill Gentry always had an advantage at Wild Bill’s: He’s majority owner and founder of the huge Gwinnett County nightclub. In other words, he can’t fire himself.
But after more than three years honing his craft with his 35 Cent Rodeo, the Carrollton native said he’s leaving Wild Bill’s on Jan. 27 to pursue a record deal and tour nationally.
“This club gave me a chance to build a fan base,” Gentry said. “But it’s time to move on.”
The 5,000-capacity concert venue has enabled him to open for everyone from Keith Urban to Rascal Flatts. He’s also gotten to test out original songs in front of a friendly crowd.
This past year, Gentry said, he’s gotten even more breaks, lining up powerhouse Atlantans Joel Katz as his lawyer and Charlie Brusco (who manages Styx) as his agent. In fact, that’s how Gentry was able to nab Styx for a concert this Friday at Wild Bill’s, with advance tickets just $16.
In the meantime, he’s still plugging away on the Wild Bill’s stage for a couple of more weekends. During his second set on a quiet post-New Year’s Saturday night, the boyishly exuberant Gentry plowed through a couple of Dierks Bentley songs and dueted with Eric Key, a Dalton resident, on “Beer for My Horses.”
Key will take over for Gentry as the lead vocalist, but Gentry has also brought in three up-and-coming singers to give them a chance to develop.
While Gentry loves the crowds at Wild Bill’s, he won’t be obligated to be a cover band anymore: “We always have to play ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’ No ifs, ands or buts!”
VH1 ‘all-stars’
Atlantan Emmanuel Lewis was an original “Surreal Life” member back in 2003, when the goofy show featuring C-list celebs in a house was on the now-defunct WB. The show has since moved to VH1, where Lewis on Sunday night joined an “all-star” cast of past “Surreal Life” participants.
The taping took several weeks. “It was more grueling” than his first stint, Lewis told Buzz. “I’m used to privacy and listening to my music. There is no music. There is no freedom.”
But, hey, it’s a paycheck. And he got to hang out with the likes of Verne Troyer (“Austin Powers”), C.C. DeVille of Poison and porn-film legend Ron Jeremy.
“Some people use it to try to relaunch their careers,” Lewis explained. “I’m really there to have fun. And I did.”
And he is not apologetic about his signature laugh, featured prominently in the first “Surreal Life.”
“If you laugh a lot,” he said, “you live longer.”
Slim, trim DJ
Morning radio jocks are not known to be great physical specimens. But 104.7/The Fish morning co-host Kevin Avery is defying that stereotype by promising to run 10 kilometers every day on a treadmill in the Buckhead studio during the show. He started last week, and so far, so good.
“I’ve been feeling great,” Avery told Buzz. “No pain. Everything seems to be functioning.”
In recent years, the 40-year-old father of four has been running regularly and laying off the scones at the nearby Starbucks. He eats Grape Nuts with whole oats and soy milk before going to work. With regular exercise and a better diet in the past three or four years, Avery said, he’s been able to pare his waist from 38 inches to a svelte 32.
House of Wachs
In other radio news, former Regular Guys co-host Larry Wachs has gotten a two-week solo gig doing nights at Free FM, a talk station in New York.
Program Director John Mainelli said he can’t afford Wachs in that 10 p.m.-to-midnight time slot, but he wanted to expose Wachs to other Free FMs nationwide owned by CBS. “I like Larry’s dry, wry, sly wit in this age of so many ham-handed talk show hosts,” Mainelli wrote in an e-mail to Buzz last week.
Wachs, who is still seeking a full-time job, said he’s enjoying going solo. “It’s starting from the ground up again,” he told Buzz. “No characters, no sound bites. Just me in a studio with my thoughts.”
Wachs and his former Regular Guys partner, Eric Von Haessler, split up in the fall after 96rock fired the pair following Wachs’ ill-fated restroom stunt involving sister station Viva 105.7’s morning show.
The Regular Guys’ former sidekick, “Southside” Steve Rickman, has found a new home at Eagle 106.7 as a third voice on the morning show with Rhubarb Jones and Dallas McCade.
Celebrity birthdays
Comedian Soupy Sales is 81. “Sunday Morning” host Charles Osgood is 74. Singer Shirley Bassey is 70. Game show host Bob Eubanks is 69. Singer David Bowie is 60. Singer R. Kelly is 40.
HIGH FIVE
Album sales
Top five from 2006
1. “High School Musical” soundtrack, 3.72 million 2. Rascal Flatts, “Me and My Gang,” 3.48 mil. 3. Carrie Underwood, “Some Hearts,” 3.02 mil.
4. Nickelback, “All the Right Reasons,” 2.69 mil.
5. Justin Timberlake, “FutureSex/LoveSounds,” 2.38 mil.
— Nielsen SoundScan
LATE-NIGHT JOKES
“Stockholders of Home Depot are upset because after the board of directors fired Home Depot’s CEO, they have decided to give him a $200 million retirement package. Even worse, they gave the Home Depot CEO his $200 million in the form of a gift certificate to Ace Hardware.”
— Conan O’Brien on Jan. 4
“In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the prime minister of Iraq says not only will he not seek a second term in office, he wishes he could quit early. He says he has other interests he’d like to pursue, like trying to stay alive.”
— Jay Leno on Jan. 4
Contributing: news services.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
Permalink | |
