|
 |
Browse Bands by Name
|
|
Or enter a band name below to search:
|
 Bands Main
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The pinnacle of Bo's run came the week before the finals, when Bice decided to sing Badlands' "In a Dream" a cappella. The producers warned him about taking the stage without the band, but he never flinched.
"I had always used that song as my soundcheck," Bice says. "Most guys stand up and say 'check one two, check,' but I would get up and sing this minute-and-40-second a cappella song and let them set the levels and the monitors, and that was my gig with it. I just love the song, man."
Bice was thrilled to make it to the finale, especially since Carrie had also gone the distance. He met the 21-year-old fellow Southerner one of their first days in Hollywood and promised her mom he would watch after her. They became close friends and spent a lot of time together. Carrie was there at the Whisky when Bice was first recognized, as well as at the tattoo parlor later that night. "She's just such a good little sweet farm girl," he says. "She's like a sister to me."
The tattoo Bice got that night is a cross in the center of his chest. He has another one that says "Jesus" in Hebrew.
"I believe that you should always devote time and energy to things in your life that have given you joy and pleasure and strength," he explains. "It's not about changing somebody. ... [I'm] able to interact with people that don't share the same faith and the same outlook and look at them and say, 'Hey man, we're still all brothers and sisters living this life.' "
He pauses before summing up his stance: "As much as I love to have a good time and be out in this rock-and-roll industry, I am a Christian."
And Bice does love to have a good time. After the Rainbow, he walks next door to the Roxy, orders another beer and perches himself up in a booth in the VIP section. He happily admires the army of scantily clad women surrounding Disturbed singer David Draiman's table a few feet away, and when Metal Skool take the stage, he sings along. Bice has no idea the band is about to invite him onstage, but that won't matter when he gets there. After the last few weeks, sitting in with other artists has become second nature.
First it was the "Idol" finale with Lynyrd Skynyrd, then Bonnaroo, where he popped up on stages with Willie Nelson, Trey Anastasio, Galactic and Boyd Tinsley from Dave Matthews Band. Bice considers each a landmark moment.
"One of the biggest barriers I'm trying to cross is that barrier of legitimacy, to where people understand I am a guitar player, I am a piano player, I am a songwriter," Bice explains. "I'm something more than some guy you've seen on TV. And to have the opportunity to play with those guys, to me, legitimized why I'm here and what I'm about."
Bice says he connects with "Inside Your Heaven," the song both he and Carrie sang at the finale and have since released as a single, but he's anxious for "people to figure out what Bo Bice is about." He's been writing songs for years (some of which are available on www.sugarmoney.net), and now he's trying to convince his new record label to let him record his own stuff — so if it tanks, he can't blame anyone else. Not that's he all that worried about his career.
"If it ends tomorrow, I want to be the guy that goes, 'Hey, I had a good run. I had fun with it,' " Bice reflects. "Then I'll open some kind of farm or some Swedish vibrator shop and sell bongs out of the back of my trunk for the rest of my life."
The farm is going to have to wait for now, though. Bo's wanted onstage.
|
|
|
|
Photo: Getty Images
|
|
|
|
