4/27: Gabbing with Bucky

post from American Idol Blog on 27 April 2007 10:57:27 AM. © American Idol Blog

CREDIT: Rodney Ho

Bucky Covington, visiting Kicks 101.5 for a radio promotional tour Wednesday, is the nicest “Idol’ contestant I’ve ever met this side of George Huff from season three. What you saw on TV is what you get, an aw-shucks country boy with a happy grin and a relaxed demeanor.

“This sure beats working at the body shop,” he said, referencing his pre-“Idol” job.

His reaction to selling 61,000 copies his first week, which he found out that day? “It’s awesome and lets you know all this work is starting to pay off.” (He’s the biggest new male country artist in first-week sales since Billy Ray Cyrus!). He’s psyched that Lyric Street (Rascal Flatt’s label) has been so supportive of him, including Mark Miller of Sawyer Brown. He said he sampled 200 to 300 songs and picked his favorite dozen or so, the ones that resonated with him. I got to give him credit for finding songs he could perform with conviction.

Bucky said he liked the nostalgic “A Different World” (his first single) because it showed how committed he is to country. “When I was on ‘American Idol,’ although I was pretty cut and dried country, people thought I might go rock. On the show, I did a lot of harder vocals. This song is true country, the lyrics, what the songs are about. I just loved it to death.”

He said he’s still working on his own songwriting skills. (Only one song was co-written by Bucky.)

Bucky said he admits he wasn’t worthy of winning “Idol” last year. “I was far from putting on my best on the show. I didn’t know what my best was.”.

He said a radio station gave him the idea to autograph any pre-ordered CDs off his Web site. In the end, he signed 5,000 CDs, nearly 10 percent of his entire sales last week. He said he has finished signing them all. At one point, his band set up a system on his ping-pong table where he signed and signed and signed. He said he had been practicing a cool autograph for years and he can’t believe he gets to use it.

Though he’s met many big country artists, he said he gets more starstruck meeting actors like Billy Bob Thornton, Dave Chapelle and Jamie Foxx (“He knew my name!”!). And last week, when he sat in the audience for the country results show on “Idol,” he met Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith. He said Simon Cowell actually came up to him and said, “You know. I actually miss you!” That surprised Bucky, but honestly, many of us miss having a good country act on the slate this year.

And he like me is scratching his head that “Idol” couldn’t find a truly decent country act in the final 24 this year (though Phil Stacey has discovered that might be his best genre.)

He will be back in Atlanta at some point later this year for a tour. Most likely, I expect he’ll latch onto some bigger act’s tour

Here’s Kathy Grantz of Atlanta with Bucky (left) and his twin brother Rocky, who is Bucky’s drummer

Kayla Gibbs, 17, from Berkmar High School in Atlanta, is making her boyfriend jealous here.

This is one of Bucky’s biggest fans. “I’m a grandma groupie,” said 65-year-old Hilda Hanlon, of Miami and Monmouth Beach, N.J. She has met him a whopping 35 times.

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