Every single person who knows us or has ever met us is aware of the fact that music is in our blood and always will be. The only TV that we usually watch is HBO, ESPN, THE WEATHER CHANNEL, or MSNBC (and some TWILIGHT ZONE episodes on the SCI-FI CHANNEL.) Last summer, a show was created for CBS that would put ROCK MUSIC back in the American spotlight—it’s been a long time coming! That show was called “ROCKSTAR” and was put together by Mark Burnett Productions. The band INXS was looking for a lead singer after the death of Michael Hutchence and decided to put together a reality show. We found it very intriguing and decided to give it a chance. After the first episode we were totally hooked! The format was for (15) “want to be” lead singers from various parts of the United States, Canada, and everywhere else to compete every week in Los Angeles in front of INXS. Does this sound familiar? It sounds like AMERICAN IDOL, but in our opinion...IT BLOWS IT AWAY! We saw some of the best ROCK performances on television in history and couldn’t wait for the next week. Each week one singer was eliminated from the competition by viewers votes on the Internet. In the end, INXS did crown the winner of ROCKSTAR as their new lead singer. Congratulations to J.D. Fortune. The runner-up, Marty Casey from Chicago did so well that INXS asked him as his band THE LOVEHAMMERS to open most of their shows on their upcoming tour. The ONE thing that we realized was the exposure each of these singers got. They were on national television every week and we now know who they are for the rest of our lives. Many of the singers were so good that various record labels have now signed them to lengthy contracts.
We were thrilled to find out that the series, “ROCKSTAR” would return this summer of 2006 for a second season. Another band was looking for a new lead singer, but CBS wouldn’t make the identity of the band public until the end of March. We decided it would be great exposure for the both of us to try out for the show. We found out that there were two ways to audition. You could send a very detailed “promo pack” meeting CBS’s criteria or you could attend an “open call” in a city that was closest to you sometime in the month of March 2006. We decided to do both. The closest city to us was Chicago, Illinois (600 miles away from Warren, OH). The audition was to be held on March 11, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. at a club called THE ELBO ROOM on the North side of Chicago. The rules were that if you attended an open call, you were to be prepared to sing at least (3) songs of your choice in front of CBS cameras and producers for the show. We decided to do our “promo pack” first and mail it in before the open call in Chicago. We worked for weeks in our “back room studio” video taping DVD performances of some of our favorite songs, making an audio CD of one song, filling out CBS’s very detailed application, and making 8 x 10 glossy photos.
We were all set for Chicago, but we had to take care of some business first. We usually hate karaoke, but Missy made it to the finals of a (16) week contest in Solon, OH where the first prize was $1000 (who couldn’t use THAT money!) Unfortunately, the contest was at 10:30 p.m. the night before our Chicago tryout for ROCKSTAR which meant we would get no sleep. As soon as I got home from work, she and I crashed until it was time to get our things ready and go to Solon, do the contest, then proceed to Chicago in the middle of the night. We were upset to leave our baby dog Melody at home, but Missy’s sister and her boyfriend Joe took care of her. We got to Solon for the contest. Only 3 out of the final four singers showed up. Each had to sing (2) songs and they would be judged by the Northeast Ohio School of Broadcasting. In my opinion, Missy won the whole thing, but the judges felt she deserved second place. She did win an I-Pod and a very expensive ping pong table (all in all...pretty good prizes!) We then “hit the road” for our ROCKSTAR experience in Chicago and let me tell you...it was an EXPERIENCE!
We started our journey at a little after midnight EST. We took turns driving the entire way and kept each other awake listening to Janis Joplin, INXS, and our second CD, “Us Against the World”. We made really good time driving through Indiana because the speed limit was 70 miles per hour on their Turnpike. Indiana was very flat and very boring, but we had some great conversation on the way there. Missy drove the whole way from about Toledo to Chicago. We knew we were close when we reached Gary, Indiana. Chicago was right on the other side of it. We crossed the SKYLINE bridge over into Chicago ($2.50 just to drive across it). I don’t do too well with heights and this was a pretty high bridge. The cool thing was the fact that you could see the whole city from this viewpoint. Let me tell you...Chicago is the biggest city that I have ever seen in my life! It makes Cleveland look like a dime. We were almost to our destination, but our Internet directions (which are usually very good) got us lost IN THE HOOD. It was 4:15 in the morning and you would swear it was the middle of the afternoon. Homeless people (very sad) and a lot of undesirables were on every street corner. There were so many police around we couldn’t believe it, but I guess that was a good thing! We pulled into a WHITE CASTLE burger joint so I could ask a policeman how to get back on the expressway. He pointed us in the right direction and we were back on our way. THANK GOD! We actually found THE ELBO ROOM about 20 minutes later. Finding a place to park in Chicago is a very tricky situation. All of the streets were lined with parked cars on each side. It seems no one had a driveway or a garage. Everyone just parks on the street. We got lucky and found a parking spot in front of some townhouses just down the street from the club. We thought it was 5:30 a.m. but forgot about the time-change. It was actually 4:30 a.m. We shut the van off and decided that we should get a little sleep before we went to stand in line in front of the club. We both slept “with one eye open” for about 45 minutes. We heard all kind of banging and various other noises. We kept jumping up only to see it was a little Korean lady throwing newspapers against doors. It was finally sunrise and we awoke to Missy’s mom calling us on my cell phone. She said, “You had better get out there and stand in line!” I asked Missy to go down the street and see how many people were waiting in line. She came back and said that there was about 15 people. So we hurried up and got dressed, got our CD’s of our back-up music and went to wait in line.
We stood in line for 5 and a half hours! The only cool thing about waiting in line for that long was the fact that we met some very cool people. Everyone was very gracious talking about their rock and roll experiences over the years and where they came from. We all exchanged business cards, e-mail addresses, and CD’s. There were people that came all the way from North Carolina, Idaho, Minnesota, and even Canada. We were all there for the same thing. Scott (from the band “Confessor”) was actually from North Carolina, but is currently living in Layfette, Indiana with his wife who is studying veterinary medicine at Purdue University. He is a very cool guy. Lenny was from Chicago and is currently playing in a all-cover band called “Backstage Pass”—again another very cool guy. Amber and her boyfriend were very nice people. The auditions were supposed to start at 10:00 a.m., but the people from CBS came out and told us that they would probably start at 10:30 a.m. They finally started letting people into the club in groups of (10). By the time we got to go in, we looked back at the line and there was at least 500 people standing there! Before we got into the club, we were told that anyone who had been drinking or on any type of drug would not be allowed to audition (there were a lot of people dying for a beer only to find out that they couldn’t have one!) My number was 23 and Missy’s number was 24. When we got into the club, we thought that the previous two groups of (10) had already auditioned. We were wrong. Inside was total mayhem and disorganization. They had to take your application, take your picture, get all your information and wait some more. We couldn’t believe that such a big show on CBS would come all the way to Chicago to a very tiny and “beat up” club. The upstairs was were the bar was and about half the size of UP A CREEK TAVERN (where we play the most.) Finally, it was time for our group to audition. We were led down to the basement (where the stage was and a small bar.) The stage was about the size of a postage stamp and it was very dingy—I guess this is rock and roll! One of the producers (who kind of looked like Ryan Seacrest from “American Idol”) came out with some band news. He said, “Since there are so many people here today, we are only giving each of you 45 seconds to audition...” I immediately thought, “YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” Everyone seemed pretty PISSED since they told us to be prepared to sing (3) songs. I mean really...how much can you gauge from a person in who sings for 45 seconds? I was going to do “Creep” by Radiohead, but they best part of the song isn’t until the end. I had no idea on the CD where that part began, so I decided to do “New Year’s Day” by U2, because the first part of that song is pretty vocally challenging. Missy decided to do “What’s Up?” by 4 non Blondes. Everyone was pretty good and the great thing was that all of us who stood in line together cheered and applauded for each other. I belted out my song until they cut me off. I thought I did an excellent job. Missy belted her song out and kicked ass, but right before she got to the really great part, they cut her off too. Before we knew it, all of us were ushered out the back door of the club and were standing on the sidewalk saying, “What the hell just happened?” We all wished each other luck, told everyone to be careful driving and went off on our separate ways.
We were so pissed and “hyped-up” that we decided to drive straight home. We hit gridlock at 12:30 in the afternoon on the main expressway going out of Chicago. As soon as we crossed THE SKYLINE BRIDGE and got into Indiana, we said, “THANK-GOD!” We then hit a McDonald’s in Indiana (paying $18 for lunch...UNBELIEVEABLE!) because we hadn’t eaten in so long. No...they have no “extra-value” deals on the Indiana Turnpike. By the time we had gotten home we had spent $30 on tolls both ways and I don’t know how much in gas.
We are now playing “the waiting game” to see if CBS will call us. We have since found out that the band we were auditioning for is a totally new one. It will be called SUPERNOVA and feature the likes of Tommy Lee, Gilby Clarke, and Jason Newsted. Knowing this information might have helped with our song selections! We will see what happens. ---Todd (04/01/06)
