Josh Kelley
Photo: Hollywood Records

As Josh Kelley geared up to record his sophomore LP, Almost Honest, there was one thing the Georgia songster knew he would do differently: This time he would lay off the booze.

"I did all the vocals for my first record in one day, and I did them all sitting on a couch with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a bottle of honey in the other, which I now realize was a bad idea," the 25-year-old recalled of his 2003 breakthrough album, For the Ride Home. "It's not good for your voice, but nobody told me that."

No worries. The record still spawned a chart-topping single with the upbeat love song "Amazing," a feat the singer says he had doubts about being able to repeat under pressure from his record label.

"There were times they were like, 'We need another hit!' and I'm like, 'Oh my God!' but that only lasted in my head for, like, two weeks," Kelley said. "Then I was like, 'Man, screw this. I'm not gonna worry about that crap.' "

So with his creative juices flowing freely, the brazen singer/songwriter churned out close to 150 songs, which had to be whittled down to Almost Honest's final 12. Not an easy task for Kelley's A&R rep, who Kelley said "almost had a heart attack" wading through the material. But the recording process was eased a bit when the label ended up using most of Kelley's demos as the album's final tracks. ("We just couldn't beat them," he said.)

One of the most bare-bones tracks on the album is also the most personal. "Lydia," the LP's closing track, was written for the singer's younger sister, who died of sudden infant death syndrome when he was in middle school. A simple arrangement with only piano, drums and gritty vocals, the track tells the story of his parents' tragic loss from his father's eyes.

"Caught your perfect smile as I watched you sleep/ I saw your beautiful soul when I felt your heart beat/ Your body small, your spirit deep/ What might have been just makes me weep/ Lydia, where have you gone," the singer croons.

Kelley always knew he wanted to write a song for his lost sister but didn't want to do it until he unlocked the right melody. One afternoon, the song practically wrote itself.

"I had a really old 1937 piano at my house, and the song just came out. It was almost like [Lydia] was writing it," he recalled. "It was a really weird situation."

Most of Kelley's other songs were born of more worldly circumstances, like the lead track, the Matrix-produced "Only You," which stemmed from an incident during one of the singer's first headlining tours. "This gorgeous young woman was opening up for me, and she was just playing all kinds of crazy mind games," he said. "I was like, 'Man, it doesn't matter what country you go to. Women will play with guys' heads.' "

That heartbreak eventually receded, making way for a blossoming romance with actress Katherine Heigl ("Grey's Anatomy"), who caught the singer's eye after starring alongside him in the single's video last spring.

"At the end of the shoot, I said, 'You're gonna go eat dinner with us, and you can't say no,' so we ate, drank and just started hanging out after that," Kelley said. "So I guess you can't say music doesn't help you out relationship-wise, because it did for us."

Kelley may soon be pulling a Mariah on us if he decides to go with director Marcus Raboy's vision for the clip for his second single, "Almost Honest," which would essentially be a continuation of the first installment. The title track off his latest LP came about when Kelley was nearing the end of a two-and-a-half-year relationship and just didn't have the heart to break up with his girlfriend over the phone.

"I had to be 'almost honest' for two months," he explained. "It was tough to do, but it was one of those situations where you don't tell the whole truth of how you feel because you're so worried about hurting someone's feelings. It was really a weak thing for me to do. You should just be truthful about it."

Matt Wallace (Maroon 5) helped co-produce the album with Kelley, whose earthy, gospel-based tunes are reminiscent of the young Southerner's childhood growing up next to a black church in Augusta, Georgia. It's that spirited sound he's bringing with him on the road for his club tour this fall.

"When gospel guys get together and do rock, you gotta watch out, man," Kelley said. "It gets nasty."

Josh Kelley tour dates, according to his record label:

• 10/17 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
• 10/18 - Spokane, WA @ Big Easy
• 10/20 - San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo's
• 10/24 - Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
• 10/26 - Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
• 10/27 - Columbia, MO @ Blue Note
• 10/29 - St. Louis, MO @ Mississippi Nights
• 10/30 - Chicago, IL @ Park West
• 11/1 - Indianapolis, IN @ The Music
• 11/2 - Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
• 11/3 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
• 11/5 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of the Living Arts
• 11/6 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
• 11/7 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
• 11/9 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
• 11/10 - Hartford, CT @ Webster Theatre

• Josh Kelley

Kelly Clarkson (file)
Photo: Brad Barket / Getty Images

Kelly Clarkson postponed her Sunday show in New Orleans and will be doing the same for her show Tuesday in Pensacola, Florida, due to the severe weather hitting the area. New dates will be announced "as soon as possible," her label rep said, and all tickets sold for these shows will be honored for the new rescheduled dates. ...

Battery charges against Corey Clark stemming from a food fight last month have been dropped, according to the Sacramento County district attorney's office. Prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to justify continuing the case. ... "American Idol" finalist Constantine Maroulis has recorded his rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody" (widely considered one of this past season's highlights) for Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen, which has been pushed back a week to August 9. Maroulis worked with the cast of "We Will Rock You," the musical currently playing at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, for his rendition. Josh Kelley ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love") and Shinedown ("Tie Your Mother Down") have also been added to the compilation, joining previously announced artists Flaming Lips, Eleven featuring Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Gavin DeGraw, Sum 41 and others. ...

On Friday night at New York's Capitale, Usher held a black-tie fund-raising dinner for his New Look Foundation. Tennis star Andre Agassi, who was on hand, described the event as the "start of an amazing journey," and legendary producer Quincy Jones said he came to show support because "he is my dog, my brother from another ..." Usher himself said he was looking forward to helping educate kids on the business side of the sports and entertainment industries. ... Brian McKnight is slated to sing the national anthem before the start of the All-Star Game in Detroit on Tuesday. The R&B singer will also be joined by members of the Winans gospel family to perform "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch, organizers confirmed Saturday, according to The Associated Press. ...

After warming up with a show at Spaceland in Los Angeles on July 28, Head Automatica will hit the road with Finch and Rx Bandits for a few weeks beginning the next night across town at the Henry Fonda Theater. The outing wraps August 11 in Norfolk, Virginia. ... A watch made out of Vince Neil's leather jacket is being auctioned on eBay to benefit the Skylar Neil Foundation (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6542812928). The top bidder will also get to meet Mötley Crüe at their July 26 show in Irvine, California, at a preshow party hosted by KLSX-FM. ...

DMC of Run-DMC fame will release two singles ("Machine Gun" and "WatchTower") this month in advance of his debut solo album, Checks, Thugs and Rock 'n' Roll, due later this year. The album will feature Run, Sarah McLachlan, Doug E. Fresh, Kid Rock, Fieldy from Korn, DJ Lethal and Napoleon from the Outlawz. ... Wrekonize, the winner of MTV's "MC Battle 2: Takeover in Times Square," is releasing his first single, "Problem," later this month. His debut album, Runaround, will follow in early 2006. ... Josh Kelley has set an August 23 release date for his second album, Almost Honest. Katherine Heigl of "Grey's Anatomy" stars in the video for the first single, the Matrix-produced "Only You." ...

07.08.2005

J. Lo isn't the only diva launching a new scent this fall — Britney Spears is expanding her fragrance franchise as well with Fantasy, her sequel to Curious. Where Curious was supposed to be fun and flirty, Fantasy is designed to reflect the singer's marital status, by being more romantic and seductive, with top notes of red lychee and kiwi, as well as cupcake, jasmine petals, orchids and musk in the mix. It will be available in Sephora and department stores such as Macy's and Nordstrom in September. ...

Sean Paul made a surprise appearance Thursday night at the New York club Crobar. Just after midnight he took the stage to do two new tracks off his upcoming album, The Trinity. He performed first single "We Be Burnin' " as well as "Breakout." Sean will be shooting a video next week for "We Be Burnin' " with director Jessy Terrero in California. The Trinity is due September 20. ... Kevin Liles, who started as an intern at Def Jam and is now an executive VP at Warner Music Group, is writing an inspirational book to help others rise in the music industry. "Make It Happen: The Hip-Hop Generation Guide to Success" is due in September via Atria Books and will be co-written with Samantha Marshall, a senior reporter at Crain's New York Business. Topics include finding out what you really love to do, discovering your own "flava," finding mentors, getting connected and learning to be flexible and humble. ...

The Flaming Lips are giving it away for free. Limited copies of a companion CD to their recently released "The Fearless Freaks" documentary were given out at the movie's premieres, and now the eight-track disc has made it onto the Internet — just as planned. In the opening track, "Wayne's Intro," Lips frontman Wayne Coyne says, "This CD is meant as a bootleg giveaway that will be presented to all those who attend the first showing of 'The Fearless Freaks.' There's lots of embarrassing clips of us with weird haircuts and bad clothes, and though this CD has a very limited run of only a few hundred, all who can are urged to copy it and put it on the Internet and do whatever you can do with it. Please, please do not pay hard-earned money for it." ... The re-release of songwriter/producer Linda Perry's 1996 album, In Flight, has been pushed back from September 13 to October 11, according to the former 4 Non Blondes singer's publicist. ...

Seminal punk icon Richard Hell was essential in defining New York's '70s scene with tenures in Television, the Voidoids, the Neon Boys, the Heartbreakers and Dim Stars, so Rhino Records is going to give him his due with Spurts: The Richard Hell Story on August 2. Spanning Hell's career from 1973-2004, the 21-track retrospective is remastered (in some cases remixed by Hell himself) and contains numerous alternate versions and previously unreleased tracks. ... Beloved D.C. indie-rock act Q and Not U have, after seven years, decided to disband. The group said on its Web site, "We feel that we've reached all of our shared goals as Q and Not U and we're ready to move on to other projects in life. We all hope to play music together again someday, but we feel that it's a beautiful and natural time to bring this band to a close." The band still has several summer shows lined up and will officially throw in the towel once those have been satisfied. Q and Not U are also planning a spate of farewell shows in their hometown for September. ...

Atlanta's DJ Drama is going to keep putting out mixtapes, but he just signed a deal to get on the air. Drama will host a Gangsta Grillz radio show on Hot 107 in Atlanta, which he said will almost be like listening to his mixtapes, since listeners will hear lots of exclusives and remixes. The show airs Saturdays from 8 to 10 p.m. ... Former Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters' opera "Ca Ira" will be released as a CD/DVD package September 27. The three-act operatic history of the French Revolution will come in a double-SACD package with a 60-page color booklet with lyrics, original illustrations and production notes as well as a DVD making-of documentary. ...

• Kelly Clarkson
• Usher
• Josh Kelley

Josh Kelley (file)
Photo: Hollywood Records

When the time came to consider the follow-up to his hit single "Amazing," Josh Kelley's gut told him to go with "Follow You."

"It's got a killer hook and it's the song everyone gets off on at shows," the singer/songwriter said. "But everybody [at Hollywood Records] is like, 'That's too bluegrass.' It's funny, the ones people enjoy the most are the ones the record label tells me no way could they be singles. I've learned that nobody knows anything about music. It's a guessing game."

Yes, it is. And Kelley's label guesses that "Everybody Wants You" has the most hit potential of the remaining songs on the Augusta, Georgia, native's For the Ride Home (see "Napster, James Brown Featured In Josh Kelley's 'Amazing' Story").

Fortunately, Kelley said, "There are about eight songs that should be singles," and "Everybody" is one of them.

Kelley shot the video a few weeks ago in Los Angeles with director Elliott Lester (Jason Mraz, Hilary Duff). The song will be featured in Julia Stiles' upcoming "The Prince & Me," due in theaters March 12.

Dates have yet to be announced, but Kelley will promote the song heavily on the road. "We'll probably tour most of the year," he said.

When Kelley's not traveling, he's back in Augusta, recording new material or mastering the dozens of songs he's already logged.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with all those songs, but they're there," he said. "It's like a time capsule. Some are concept songs, some are commercial, and some are in between. Most of the concepts are just for me. I can't wait to put a really creative album out, a concept piece that you really have to dig into. Albums like that are gone now and it makes me mad."

Kelley has written material with his younger brother, Charles, that he hopes to release soon.

"I had a band in high school, Inside Blue. Charles was lead singer and drummer," Kelley said. "He plays drums with a band and he's the best singer I've ever heard. And I think the band's singer knows it. It would be pretty intimidating to be in a band with that kid. He's a 4.0 student and an incredibly good golfer."

Josh Kelley's no duffer himself — he attended college on a golf scholarship — and he finds ways to keep his game up.

"I play pro-ams with radio programmers now and then," he said. "Next tour, I'm gonna stick the clubs on the bus and get way more chances to play!"

• Josh Kelley

Josh Kelley
Photo: Hollywood Records

It's safe to assume Josh Kelley has a different outlook on Napster than his music industry contemporaries, like, say, Metallica or Dr. Dre.

The file-sharing network was a pain in the ass to most in the business, but to the then Ole Miss student, it was the means to what he calls a "marketing scheme."

"In any situation you have to make yourself seem bigger than you are," Kelley explained recently, calling from various cell phones as his tour bus traveled across "the middle of nowhere." "I would produce my songs and compress them into MP3s and drive over to the library where there was a T3 connection and get on Napster and find artists who sounded like me. I would click on the user's name and say, 'If you like James Taylor, I just found this kid Josh Kelley. He's awesome.' One day this guy came back and said, 'Well, I work for Sony Records.' "

That guy eventually signed Kelley to Hollywood Records and "Amazing," one of the songs he once dispersed around Napster, is currently a top-40 hit.

And as remarkable as that story is, Kelley has another one equally amazing.

Growing up in Augusta, Georgia, he took to music at a young age. "I started when I was 10 on the drums and piano and worked my way through guitar, bass, harmonica, dobro, banjo and mandolin," Kelley said. In high school, he formed a band called Inside Blue with his brother Charles and cut an EP at a local studio where James Brown also recorded.

"The producer sent him our stuff and he freaked out," Kelley recalled. "This was before Hanson. [Brown's company] wanted to sign us and my dad didn't sign the papers. And I thank him every day for that. I wouldn't have grown and learned as much on my own as I have."

A couple of years later, Kelley discovered he had a knack for another instrument, his voice. "I've always written poetry, but I never started writing lyrics until my senior year of high school," he recalled. "I was realizing I could sing around that time and I started writing obsessively all through college."

Kelley attended University of Mississsippi on a golf scholarship (and could have gone pro if not for Napster). There, he discovered a couple of blues and bluegrass clubs. "I'd go home and try to find out how they got those sounds," he said. "My palette changed in a major way."

One afternoon his sophomore year, while fiddling with a guitar on his bed, he played a few chords he calls "the dream progression."

"And the first words out of my mouth were, 'Baby, you're amazing,' not even thinking about a song, it just seemed to work as far as the enunciation," Kelley said. "I was just finishing up with a long relationship and getting into a new one and the song is sort of about both ends, both feelings, how everything women do is amazing, even if it's positive or negative."

Kelley paused as if he were putting himself back in that room. "Even when they piss me off, it's awesome," he said, busting out in laughter.

The singer/songwriter eventually recorded "Amazing" and two other songs, "Everybody Wants You" and "Travelin'," with a producer friend, John Alagía, who has worked with John Mayer, the Dave Matthews Band and Jason Mraz.

"It started last August as a three-song demo to get a record deal, but we wanted to do it in record quality," he said. "We just had this feeling."

The demo helped Kelley get signed and the songs became the first three on his major-label debut, For the Ride Home, which he made in a month and released in May.

"I'm pretty much a producer and engineer myself and I had recorded these songs a thousand times, so it's kind of like going into a test and knowing all the answers, you're not going to be in there that long," he said.

For the Ride Home has since sold more than 100,000 copies, thanks to tours with O.A.R., Train and Jewel. "Amazing," which Kelley performed on an episode of "Smallville" airing November 12, is still taking off at radio and the video is just being finished.

Sam Jones, director of the Wilco documentary, "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," recently shot the black-and-white clip in Los Angeles.

"He's one of my idols. It was unbelievable," Kelley said. "We wanted it to be like an old French silent film. We hired six actors to be three couples and my lyrics would be their dialogue, yet it would look like they are speaking in a foreign language with my lyrics coming on the screen as [subtitles]. It's so artistic. It's exactly what I was looking for. The last thing anyone needs to see is some cheesy dude sitting on a bed with some chick with his head cocked 45 degrees to the right. I was just going to throw up if we had to do something like that."

Next for Kelley is a November tour with Third Eye Blind and an appearance at the end of the month as '60s folk singer Barry Maguire on the NBC drama "American Dreams."

"I'm singing 'Eve of Destruction,' " Kelley said. "It'll be fun."

• Josh Kelley
• James Brown (Soul)

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• Josh Kelley