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As the Whisky photos get older (Fleetwood Mac, Joe Cocker, etc.), Bice's interest grows. "I've always been into older music, man, and I think the scene over there in England had a lot to do with my digesting of the styles," he says.
After admiring the dressing room where Mötley Crüe once held court and downing another beer, Bice returns to the Strip, where the paparazzi are waiting to take his picture. Bice pulls one aside and playfully asks if the photographer would mind him following them around with his "disposable 15-shooter." Then he poses and thanks them.
Heading to another legendary rock hangout, the Rainbow, Bice hops on a moped parked between tour buses. "This is my ride, my hardly Davidson," he jokes. "Brooke Burke, eat your heart out. I told you I'd make it. You could be riding on this!"
Bice has a big crush on Burke, though he's not exactly on the market. A few weeks earlier, he married his hometown sweetheart, Caroline Merrin Fisher. He doesn't reveal this tonight (although the word "wife" slips out once), but she's obviously on his mind. After climbing into a booth at the Rainbow, for instance, he follows up a compliment he pays the waitress by telling her, "I'm not hitting on you; I have a beautiful woman at home."
Family is an important part of Bice's life. It was his mother who convinced him to audition for "American Idol," which he'd only seen once, when fellow Alabama native Ruben Studdard won the second season's title.
"I checked it out, but I was too old," he remembers. "Then I was laying on my couch, drinking a Heineken, patting my basset hound, Graceyland, and it came on FOX 6 News there in Birmingham. I called her up and said, 'Mom, that show you're always talking about just upped the age limit.' She bet me I wouldn't go do it, and I bet her she wouldn't ride with me."
Bice tried to talk himself out of it several times, but made the trek to Orlando, Florida, anyway, mother in tow. "I'm really glad my mom was there, man," he says. "It was a great support unit. And I got a tattoo when we first got there, and that was Mom's first time in a tattoo parlor. So it was kinda cool, 'cause she got to experience a couple of firsts there."
The other first was, of course, Bo making the next round of "American Idol." When the show started months later, however, Bice's audition never aired. From then on he felt like an underdog.
"I said [to the producers], 'What's up with this a--hole Constantine getting all the play?' " Bice deadpans. " 'Why is Mr. Googly Eyes getting all the love? What's the deal? Am I chopped liver?' And of course they said, 'No, Bo; that is not the case — you just are not as talented, and you can't pout.' "
Bice jokes, knowing the media likes to think the two rockers were rivals. But he insists that Constantine Maroulis, who was his roommate during the show, is a friend. Bice always thought Constantine would finish higher than him (third behind Carrie and Anwar Robinson, to be exact), and was shocked to see him go earlier. "I sat and talked to Constantine that night, and it was all good," Bice remembers. "All of us were going home at some point in time."
When Bo made the top 24, he thought he would have to sell out with his song selections to stay alive. After nailing "Drift Away" (a Dobie Gray hit that Uncle Kracker recently scored with) the first week, though, he felt safe enough to test the waters with the Allman Brothers Band's "Whipping Post." The response was glowing.
"That was the floodgate for me," he says, pushing aside his half-finished plate of spaghetti. "Then I said, 'OK, I'm gonna push the envelope now; I'm gonna try to do everything I love. I'm not gonna worry about whatever they give me.' "
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