John Rich is making headlines and waves today from a question and answer segment posted on Tennessean.com, about his involvement with the Country Music reality show, Nashville Star.
When asked if he would appear on the show again, Rich responded with, "I wouldn't touch Nashville Star with a 40-foot pole. NBC completely bastardized what Country Music is about. I thought this was really going to represent Country Music, put us on a new level."
The Nashville Scene also posted a story about Rich, and Sirius Radio did an interview with Rich about the American Idol-ish Country Music show. Rich is quoted as saying, "Overall, I didn't like the way that the network treated country fans. I think they didn't understand that you don't have to sing pop music. You can just sing straight-ahead country music. We've got a guy named Kenny Chesney who's 40 years old, who is an East Tennessee hillbilly, who sells 80,000 tickets a show, every single year, stadium after stadium after stadium. We don't need the other people's music to make us cool enough to listen to."
Rich, a former judge on Nashville Star, went on to state there were only two artists from the show he believed in, Gabe Garcia and Melissa Lawson; Lawson won that season of the show.
The outspoken singer has been making interview rounds promoting last Tuesday's release of the his first solo album, Son Of A Preacher Man. The first single from the album, "Shuttin' Detroit Down," is climbing Billboard's Country singles chart and is ripe with political lyrics about the country's economic situation.
"Historically, I think (taking a stand) is what a lot of people who love Country Music have really expected it to do," Rich told the Tennessean.
Rich will begin touring again as part of the duo Big & Rich this summer.
