Remember Doug? My friend and hairstylist? Did I mention in that earlier post that Doug is also a singer-songwriter? Nope? Well, my mistake. Doug’s a darn good singer-songwriter.

He’s also a great sport and recently began to enter contests. Not counting hair-related contests, he has entered at least three contests in the past couple of years, all involving music. The first was a challenge to write a new tune for the Choc Full o’ Nuts jingle. He wrote a few and made it to the finals with at least one of them. (I’ll check other computers to see if I have a copy).

Not long after that, Doug entered an American Idol contest to come up with an original song for that show. He wrote and sang Dream Come True for that contest.

Most recently Doug entered to become a contestant on Nashville Star — country & western’s answer to American Idol. His email about his experience had the whole family in stitches. Doug seemed to have had a lot of fun at the audition:

“Friday March 14, Westin Grand Hotel in DC, near GWU. Open call. I arrive at 11:30 am and enter a line 2 blocks long. I have long, straightened hair, and a redneck bandanna. In a sea of cowboy hats and boots, I am the only bandanna-guy…

…I decided that if I was fortunate enough to make the call-back,I would slip quietly through the door, not calling attention to myself. Or so I thought. When you were in the next group of five waiting to audition, they had you sit down in a little row of seats, with bright lights and cameras on you (all day extensive footage was being filmed). I had a metal tuning fork, and would tap my head with it, then hold it to my ear to get my note….

…I was the last of the three, and heard the cheers as the other two made their entrances. Now it was my turn, and the staff wanted a BIG entrance. “Ready? OK, IT’S YOUR TIME! GO! GO!!!” So I leapt through the door, and with no idea what to do, found myself pumping my arms in the air, and shouting “SHAZAAM!!” at the top of my lungs…. and you could have heard a pin drop. No one other than the camera man was expecting a third person through the door!!! So my entrance caused people to turn my way, and the camera was put in my face with me laughing like crazy and feeling like a huge idiot. The interviewer said, “Tell us about that tuning fork. You must really want to sing on key”. And with no hesitation, I blurted out, “No, that’s not for singing, I just like to smack myself in the head sometimes. It keeps me in line”.”

Well, Doug didn’t make the cut, but he did make the Nashville Star TV commercial and part of his audition is on YouTube (see below). He’s also in the sideshow on the Nashville Star website. He’s the one in the black bandanna, just to the right of the Nashville Star logo. Click the image to enlarge it. Or click here to see the image with Doug highlighted.