Posted on 07/01/2003 1:12:00 PM PDT by L.N. Smithee
And then there were nine.
The hot-ticket American Idol tour will be minus little-bit country, little-bit pop singer Joshua Gracin, it was announced Friday.
Gracin was pulled from the lineup by his Uncle Sam, a harsh taskmaster also known as the U.S. Marines.
The 22-year-old, a lance corporal with the 1st Force Service Support Group, was "unable to complete his required training in the allotted time," Major Curtis L. Hill said a statement.
When the Idol tour was announced in May, word was the Marines had signed off on allowing its poster boy to return to active singing duty.
"We had no way of knowing exactly and precisely what the appointments would be...," Captain Shawn Turner of the U.S. Marines said Monday. "Initially, we thought there would be enough time."
Monday, for example, was the deadline for Marines to complete physical fitness tests covering the first half of the year, Turner said. If Gracin had been preparing to be on the road, that requirement might have been tough to meet.
"The schedule was too demanding for him to be a parttime American Idol and still be a fulltime Marine," Turner said.
A rep with 19 Entertainment, the management company behind Idol, said, in a statement, producers were "sad" Gracin wouldn't joining the tour, but that they "completely respect and applaud his commitment to the completion of his military duties."
Gracin was voted off American Idol on May 7, after having marched his way into the top four.
His TV tour of duty was marked by controversy--and not just because his western twang disappeared and reappeared from week to week depending on how harshly Simon Cowell criticized him. Eyebrows were raised when Gracin's Camp Pendleton-based unit was not deployed to the Middle East as U.S. forces massed for the eventual Iraq (news - web sites) war.
In a newspaper interview, Gracin's own mother suggested the unit was being held back from the action so her boy could butcher "Bad Blood" on Idol. (We paraphrase.) [No, that's not "paraphrasing," it's editorializing. Was your editor hung over when he read this, Joal? -- LNS.]
The Marines denied Gracin was the reason the 1st Force Service Support Group remained in Southern California. The Marines did not deny Gracin was a tool.
The Corps "sees the recruiting value of Gracin's appearance before a national audience," it said last January as its crew-cutted crooner began Idol maneuvers.
Rather than seek fame and supermarket-opening gigs after his Idol run ended, Gracin returned to base.
In May, Gracin told MTV.com he kept a bag packed during his Idol time, in case he was called up during the competition. The Fox show had its own contingency plans: If the Marine was asked to be a Marine before he was voted off, he would have been allowed to join next season's group of finalists.
The 41-date American Idol tour, brought to its pop-loving fans by (what else?) Pop Tarts, kicks off July 8 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Winner Ruben Studdard is on board, as is runner-up Clay Aiken. Both remained atop the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the second week in a row, with Aiken's "This Is the Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water" edging Studdard's "Flying Without Wings/Superstar."
Also on the Idol bill: Kimberly Locke, Trenyce, Carmen Rasmusen, Kimberly Caldwell, Rickey Smith, Julia DeMato and Charles Grigsby.
Joining Gracin on the home front: Corey Clark and Vanessa Olivarez.
Clark had his Idol status revoked in April after it was revealed he was awaiting trial on assault charges. Olivarez was voted off by viewers March 12, placing last, or 12th, among the 12 finalists.
The tour was designed for the Top 10 finalists, a spokeswoman for 19 Entertainment said Friday. Grigsby, who finished 11th, got bumped up when Clark was bounced. No offer was made to Olivarez when Gracin bowed out, the rep said.
Olivarez, whose post-Idol gigs have included posing in the buff for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also was not included on the American Idol album, American Idol Season 2: All-Time Classic American Love Songs. Earlier, a record label spokesman said the album was recorded after Olivarez was eliminated from the competition. A cut from the banished Clark remains.
Even with Gracin, Clark and Olivarez out, tickets for the new Idol tour are selling faster than last fall's edition which featured first-season wonders Kelly Clarkson (news) and Justin Guarini, late of the summer fizzle, From Justin to Kelly.
Already, at least 23 dates are sold out, more than double the rate at which shows filled up last year, the tour promoter told Billboard.com.
To Pollstar's Gary Bongionvanni, the increased demand is a simple matter of math.
"I guess that shouldn't be surprising because the TV show that spawned it did better [this season that last]," said Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of the concert-tracking publication.
Indeed, Clarkson's Idol coronation was watched by about 27 million; Studdard's by more than 34 million.
At one point, an extremely crude question is asked, and he, according to the reporter, snapped, "Now stop that right now!"
If this were fifteen years ago, maybe. Now we're in the age of big boobs, big butts, and big lips. Clay's too flat to be mistaken for a cover girl in the 00's.
Yeah, kinda like KD Lang. I wonder if he's a lesbian, too? :^)
Did she wear flowers in her hair?
I got my tickets for the tour, I think they are here this month.
On a side note, I went to a Matchbox 20 concert tonight (great group, superb vocalist in Rob Thomas), and the opening act was the L.A. band "Sugar Ray".
I like Sugar Ray's music, they've strung together some very catchy Top 40 ditties these past few years, and I was pleasantly surprised at the energy, musicality, and performance by the band's lead singer Mark McGrath...I was FLOORED when, as he introduced their biggest hit to date "Fly", he stops, and makes a little speech.
I can't quote him word by word, but he said that he was on tour, and watching the news when he saw some Marines overseas singing his song, and that he has never been prouder of anything in his life, then he said that he came from Hollywood, but that he did not believe in the garbage spouted by the Tim Robbins', the Susan Sarandon's and the other "Hollywood types" and that he was dedicating this song to the American men and women "out there like a wall of freedom, protecting us all" so that we could have "freedom, and opinions", and "all that stuff all those people out there don't believe in", then I think he said "F them", but the crowd was going wild by then.
He then said "God Bless our Troops" and ripped into the song.
It was great.
Tell Mom to buy some Sugar Ray CD's.
Mark McGrath
I dunno. Maybe because it makes sense?
Like I say in my FR home page, "I can't promise that everyone will like what I have to say, but I will say it the best way I can, and hope that you all understand that there is no personal malice involved. Some of the folks here I have had my fiercest battles with have said things I agreed with wholeheartedly hours later." Indeed, that turned out to be the case this past Sunday. Thanks for the FReepmail, btw.
I stayed away from the internet until the show was over on the West Coast, which meant three quarters of the country were commenting on the results before I knew what happened. I was shocked that there over nine hundred replies on the live thread. I knew that among those, there was going to be whining from somebody regardless of who won -- either it was going to be "It's rigged, and they gave it to the black guy" or "It's rigged, and they gave it to the white guy." And I knew that I was going to be forced to say to supporters of whoever finished second, "Get over it!"So, here I go: "GET OVER IT!"
Folks, remember, this is ONLY THE BEGINNING of their careers. This is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Remember, back in 1977, Elvis Costello was nominated for a Grammy Award as "Best New Artist." He lost to disco group A Taste of Honey ("Boogie Oogie Oogie" was their biggest hit). Earlier this year, twenty-six years and only one Grammy later, Costello was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. If the members of A Taste of Honey want to be in the Rock Hall, they have to pay their own fare to Cleveland and buy a ticket to get inside.
Sorry. I didn't write the title.
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