NBC premieres "Nashville Star" tonight at 9 PM.
01/17/2008 - Billy Ray Cyrus - of NBC's Nashville Star - Hollywood, CA © Chris Hatcher / PR Photos
Tonight's show will feature Taylor Swift performing "Picture to Burn." The 18-year-old country star was named the 2008 best new female vocalist of the year by the Academy of Country Music.
The popular country music reality show began airing on the USA cable network in 2003 and this year has its home on sister peacock network, NBC.
The majority of "Nashville Star" was filmed at the Acuff Theatre in Nashville's Opryland. The reality talent show winner will receive a recording contract with Warner Brothers Nashville and an opportunity to sing at the Summer Olympics games in Beijing.
NBC is making the show part of its "all-American summer" theme that includes the second season of "American Gladiators" and the Summer Olympics. "Nashville Star" also will re-air its shows this season on Country Music Television,and has struck a deal with XM radio.
"Nashville Star’s executive producers Howard T. Owens, Sally Ann Salsano and country star John Rich, one of the Nashville Star judges and mentors, spoke to Monsters and Critics with other journalists at the NBC summer press day and shared some insight into the new NBC reality competition.
John Rich
John, when you have done something like this when your career was getting going, would you put yourself out like this?
JOHN RICH: As a competitor? Absolutely, man. Are you kidding? This is a real good opportunity for somebody to not only become a country music star, but to become an American music star.
You know, country music is absolutely the most diverse audience out there. All the radio stations play everything from Patsy Cline to Big & Rich. It's all one thing. It's red and yellow, black and white.
You go to a concert. You go to a Big & Rich concert, for instance, and you will see a five-year-old, his mother and her mother all wearing a "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" T-shirt. This is our audience. It's grandmas and grand kids, and everybody in between. And it really is America's music.
You know, country music hasn't been represented at this level like it's going to be on NBC for over 20 years. We have jumped quantum leaps in the last 20 years in country music.
We have artists like Kenny Chesney selling 80,000 tickets a night. The only artists that can compete with that are the Rolling Stones and U2. That's how big it is. It's a pretty damn big deal. The person that wins this show is going to have a real opportunity to become a serious, serious superstar having that fan base at their fingertips.
So why do you think it's taken so long for TV to catch on to this?
JOHN RICH: Because I think network TV lives in their only little world. And I think country music had been typecast and stereotyped as country and western music.
Every time I hear somebody say that, I want to go slam my head into a brick wall. It hasn't been country and western music since Bob Wills stopped making records in the 1940s and '50s. It's country music. It's music for the country.
You see these rock artists and pop artists and artists from all these genres just storming Nashville right now trying to get in there because we make music that matters. We make real music. We have real artists. We have real song writers. It's music that people can lock on to for their entire life. We have more artists with 15-plus-year careers in our genre than any genre on earth.
We have artists who have been around 15, 20 years still selling 30,000 tickets a night. The person that wins this show, if we make a great record and they're a truly great artist, they're going to have an opportunity to have a 20-year career. It's incredible. It's not over when you hit 30 years old in country music. You're just getting started, by God. That's what's so great about it. It's for real.
Billy Ray Cyrus
When you guys see Carrie Underwood coming up from "American Idol," a huge country star, do you see what can work?
SALLY ANN SALSANO: Everyone is getting involved with it. Even Kelly Clarkson is on tour with Reba. So whichever way you slice it, everyone is getting into it because there is a big fan base, and I just think a lot of people, like you are saying, think of what it was back then years ago and now everyone's doing it.
So apart from, obviously, the genre, how is this different from, say, "American Idol"? Are we going to see bad auditions, people living together?
JOHN RICH: I can give you the main difference. If you would like to hear it from an artist's point of view, "American Idol" infuriates me as an artist. I think the reason their ratings are going into the toilet right now is because the American public cannot stand when it comes to realty.
You know what I mean? You can tell when somebody's comment was scripted. You can tell when they told an artist, wear this and sing that and do that. That's not the way it's going to work on this show.
We've got myself. We've got Jewel who, in my opinion, is one of the greatest singer/songwriters in my generation, and another guy named Jeff Steele who has written more hits in county radio than anybody in the last 40 years.
These are the judges. We are going to be able to not only -- we are going to be hard on these contestants. Of course you have to be. It's not that "American Idol" shouldn't be hard on them. They're being fake about it. They're not doing it real.
When you can't make a cognizant happened the day before, why don't you just walk up on stage and slap them right across the face while you're at it? As an artist, I would just flip them the bird and walk off the stage and go, Thank you very much. I'm going back to Topeka and work on it on my own. Appreciate that, Paula.
That is just absolutely disrespect to the artist, to the music, and don't forget to the fans, which is the only reason we even have these shows in the first place, because we have fans that watch it, and we have to respect the fans' ears and eyes and give them something that's for real. Don't try to con them.
And I think that's why "American Idol," in my opinion, is just dive bombing. I can't stand watching it. I wouldn't want to be on that show now if you gave me $100 bill.
HOWARD T. OWENS: And let's not forget we were the first show for performers to play with a live band. They knocked us off after that. We were the first show for performers to actually play with 9 of our 12 -- 11 out of our 12 acts are actually instrumentalists and serious instrumentalists since they were young players, and that's not fake.
They don't use their guitars and instruments as props. We were the have that be one of the litmus tests for engaging in the competition.
Jewel
Jewel or Jeffrey Steele are going to say, John, how could you pick that song for these two? That was horrible. And John's going to say, the reason I did it is because of X, Y, A, B, C. It's going to be basically critiquing them in a very unique way that will hopefully change someone's life, Also, hopefully change these 12 acts for the better.
I don't think it's just one person winning in a great way. I think all these people will go away with a lifetime of knowledge that they are going to get over nine weeks.
SALLY ANN SALSANO: The other thing, too, I'm a fan of just the genre in general. For me watching this judge panel was totally different than anything I've ever seen before. You have three true artists up there who do every single day what these young men and women are trying to do, and at the end of the day, right behind their judge chairs is their guitars, and as they're sitting there and the kids are hitting the notes, they're like, no, dude. Try it like this.
And when your judge can actually pick up the guitar and strum and sing it way better than you can, then they have the right to tell you and give you advice. So we have true artists on the panel, which I think has never been done on any show that I know of.
John, do you have problems with the judging aspect of "American Idol," or you don't like Simon, Paula and Randy?
JOHN RICH: No. I'm friends with Randy, actually. I don't have a problem with the way they comment. I have a problem with the fact that -- it's not a problem of somebody's being tough on somebody.
You gotta be tough. My God. If people hadn't been tough on me, I wouldn't be sitting here having this interview with you right now. You gotta be tough on people and be honest with them. But you gotta respect these people. This is their entire life hanging by a thread, and when you make comments like some of the things -- I've heard her (say) recently, I mean, as an artist, I take extreme offense that they don't care.
Can you give an example?
JOHN RICH: Sure. Paula Abdul's comment about, I liked the second song you did. I thought you only did one song. I thought all of America saw you do one song. She was commenting on rehearsal tape or something that she had seen where they did a different song or something.
She wasn't even paying attention to what was going on. I mean, total lack of respect for that artist, and I'm sure she's a fine lady, but that was a very, very disrespectful thing, and as an artist, I take offense, and I felt terrible for the artist up there going, what are you talking about?
I spent my whole life getting to this point, and that's what I get out of you? Uh-huh.
Nashville Star judges and mentors
How important is the songwriting aspect and setting a show like this apart from a strict singing competition?
HOWARD T. OWENS: You know, over the -- the fact is that over the course of the season, we'll primarily focus on cover songs, classic cover songs from different genres of country, from different genres of American music. In order to win this show, you are going to have to perform an original song and original composition in front of the American audience.
And that is going to be part of the determining factor as to who wins the show. So how important it is, it really depends on how much goodwill the artist is engendered, how good the song is.
And it's going to be at a very crucial point in the composition. You are going to hear the original song, so it's a serious factor.
JOHN RICH: I have to produce the winner. I don't say I have to. I get to produce the winner of this show. So as a record producer, my comments are going to be even probably more intense than the other two judges because I actually have to go in the studio and cut a hit record and hit songs and give the American public what they want, which is great music out of the artist.
It's a big responsibility for me which is -- which is why we're going to treat them extremely aggressively, very aggressive in the contents and the mentoring process to push them hopefully to a level where they can be a true superstar.
Can you be a country superstar, specifically in country, without being a songwriter or is that just integral?
JOHN RICH: Absolutely. Of course you can be. George Strait, Faith Hill. I can just go down the list. You know, what they do have, though, is they have great ears for great original music as well. And I think on this show you're not going to just assume that every contestant is going to be a great songwriter.
That's a whole other area of expertise. I will say this. If we can find an artist on this show that is a really good songwriter, that is such a huge bonus to their career and to their chance of becoming a superstar because they're not dependent on someone else feeding them something.
They can actually come with it. And I think your own personal perspective in your music is what really transcends everybody else to send you to superstar status.
What's the importance of having a showcase just for country music itself on non cable television, on broadcast television, every week?
JOHN RICH: What's the importance of it? Well, I think, in my opinion, country music is the greatest music out there. It's music for the country. It's American music. I think now you could call Tom Petty country music.
You could call The Eagles country music. You could call -- Motley Crue has just revved up country music. I mean, Big & Rich, for God's sake. "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy." That's AC/DC with a fiddle.
How much support have you guys got from the rest of the country music world, celebrity involvement?
HOWARD T. OWENS: We've had great support, over the last five years on cable on channel -- whatever the local 140 on your local dial. We have – obviously Leann Rimes has a been a host.
Wynona has been a host. We've had Leonard Skinner. We've had Big & Rich, which is the genesis of our relationship. Gretchen Wilson, Trace Adkins. We've had some of the finest.
Tim McGraw's participated in this show. People have really bent over backwards to help us in the national community, and I don't think moving to NBC will in any way dampen that. I think it be open up our process.
JOHN RICH: I can say as a member of the Academy of Country Music Award of Bands and the CMA Board, I'm a board member on both, which is all the leaders of our industry. Everybody's jumping up and down at the prospect that country music is finally going to have a national presence on something as large as NBC.
John, will you collaborate as a songwriter with the winner?
JOHN RICH: I think that will definitely happen. Yeah. Absolutely. The thing about songwriting is that if you can get into -- every true artist is a unique thing. That's why they're an artist.
There's a difference between a singer and an artist. We're looking for an artist. And when I go and produce this artist, absolutely I'm going to write with him because we are going to figure out what makes them tick, what makes them special and get them into the song. That's how you really become a superstar, singing about yourself and your true life. That's why country music is what it is.
SALLY ANN SALSANO: In this year's competition, too, we're opening it up. There's going to be also duos and trios in the competition, which is unique because they're competing against, you know, just typical single acts, and the other thing is also there's going to be a big wide age range, which normally doesn't exist.
You can have the 16-year-old girl competing against the 31-year-old mother of five to make their dream come true, so like true country music, it's about the story. That's the thing. If you listen to pop music, if you listen to any other kind of music, it's about the hook.
This is about the story, and you're in, and as soon as they start singing, and the stories are going to basically transcend these people's lives.
The characters are great. Our casting is amazing, and one of the things you're going to see is these people from week one to the end take a complete journey, like literally who they are when they start and the superstar they are at the end will be completely different. And that's why we have these guys on board, because we know what they went through to get from where they started to where they are now, and that's basically what we are going to do with these guys as well.
"Nashville Star" is created by Reveille and produced by 495 Productions. Ben Silverman (NBC's "The Office"), Howard T. Owens ("American Gladiators"), Mark Koops ("The Biggest Loser") and Sally Ann Salsano ("Design Star," "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila") serve as executive producers. Jon Small ("Garth Brooks Live in LA") is a producer.
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