Bo Bice: The Voice, The Journey & A New Beginning

Hey, it's J-Bo. Welcome back to a very special edition of Music Drives Us. At times in our life, on music, on television, and movies, you capture lightning in the bottle maybe once, if you're lucky. And that's what happened in 2005 on American Idol. Please welcome American Idol star, such an honor to see you again, Bo Bice. Welcome to Music Drives Us.

What's up, J-Bo? How you doing, brother?

Well, let me tell you something. I'm looking at you right now. You look unbelievable. I know there's some wild changes, positive changes in your life that started last April. We're going to get into that and how you have transformed yourself into a machine of love and spirituality. Not that you weren't before, but I see a change in you that's nothing but positive. So we're going to get into that. But I want to start where we all got to know you back in 2005. You came in number two to maybe the Taylor Swift of life on American Idol, Carrie Underwood. And in that season, when we first saw you on stage, when I first saw you... I mentioned lightning in a bottle. We instantly knew this guy is a star. You are the modern day Linus Skinner. And when you sang the first song I ever played on the radio, Vehicle by the Ads of March, I jumped off the couch. I couldn't believe that. The charisma and the style and the star power. So start with that. Is that something you knew you had in you? You looked right into the camera and just emerged. I'm a star and I love being here serving you.

Well, you know, first of all, thank you for your kindness and your kind words. It's been a wild journey. You know, a lot of people don't know this, J-Bo, but, you know, I've been very blessed to make a living in the industry for 35 years. And when people say, when I say that to people, a lot of the times they kind of go, well, you're only 50. You know, how did you do that? But I started my first band when I was 15 in London, England. And, you know, the next guy up for me was like 23. The next one was 28. And the other two guys were in their 30s. And so that was something after, you know, I sang, I sang as a kid. I started my career at three years old. I used to sing a long haired country boy from Charlie Daniels for a quarter. And one day my granddad came home and he said, Bogart, send me that long haired country boy. And I said, give me a dollar. And he says, oh, I left

this

morning. It was a quarter. How do

you figure it's

a

dollar?

And I said, well, I went down the road and Dolores gave me a dollar to sing it. And so I reckon now that's about what it's worth. And it was so funny because after American Idol, I was doing shows and things with Charlie Daniels. I told him that story and I said, you know, Charlie, Because of you, the money went from jingling to folding. And now they got to write me checks. Just got the biggest kick out of that. And he and I became friends and I used to do their charity event to raise money for the community of Hendersonville, Tennessee there. Every year I did it four years in a row for him and Hazel. They'd get the Marines out there. They would raise money and then they would take those funds and they would They would put that money back into the community and