Utahn reacts to being booted from NBC's 'Nashville Star'
By Scott D. Pierce
Deseret News
Just before they eliminated him from "Nashville Star" on Monday night, the show's judges criticized Utahn Charley Jenkins for going down into the audience when he performed.
The show's producers had told him they wanted him to do just that.
"That was beyond my control," Jenkins said Wednesday in a conference call with TV critics. "That was part of something that I was ... kind of asked to do."
Jenkins, a Ricks College graduate and Roosevelt, Utah native, lives in Murray.
Following Jenkins' elimination on Monday night, the judges themselves have been under fire. John Rich, Jewel and Jeffrey Steele were, in the opinion of many, excessively and unnecessarily cruel. And not just to Jenkins.
"I think that they were a little critical, especially for the first show," said Jenkins, who hesitated to be overly critical of the judges.
He wondered if Jewel and Rich felt "uncomfortable" because "it's something they don't think is necessary and maybe is more distracting on a great vocal than it is beneficial."
Jenkins also pointed out that because Rich will produce the album for the winner and write the first single, "he can really sway the competition and take it away from somebody he doesn't believe in."
And, by having two current artists — Rich and Jewel — on the panel "the dynamics of judging changes" because they will be "sharing shelf space" with whoever wins.
Whatever the reason, "I think the judges in 'Nashville Star' were more critical of us than I think you would get in 'American Idol,"' Jenkins said.
Which is ironic because Rich has been quoted criticizing the harshness of the "Idol" judges.
Jenkins also said he found "a big irony" in Rich (of Big and Rich) telling "Nashville Star" contestants it's a country, not pop, competition given the judge's "style of country music."
"Granted, he's written some great country songs and I'm not going to take that away from him," he said. "But it's hard for me — somebody who's a George Strait fan and straight-up pretty much loves that type of country music — to get lectured when somebody's got a rapper and a more of a gimmick — even a midget —in his band.
"I hate to say that. I don't want that to sound by any means bigoted. But what I'm saying is, it's a completely different style of country music than what I'm used to."...
Deseret News | Utahn reacts to being booted from NBC's 'Nashville Star'
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