Thursday, April 22, 2010

Behind the Scenes at the ACM's

Lon Helton's Country Aircheck newsletter

Amping My Style: Fans of Keith Urban were watching and wondering why the network was teasing Urban's imminent performance, only to be disappointed he wasn't on until very late in the show. Turns out, Urban's guitar amp went on the fritz, and he didn't want to play without it. Though he was scheduled to perform in the show's first half-hour, a number of attempted fixes failed, pushing his slot back at least twice. At one point, CBS-TV ran a few extra minutes of promos as they stretched to fill time. All that stalling almost cost labelmate Darius Rucker the bulk of his performance. Show directors told Rucker that Reba might have to say goodnight and show credits would roll over his music. To their credit, the powers that be shaved off precious seconds in a number of places so Rucker could get the full shot. And just in case you were wondering, the "fan" who was onstage circling Urban with a video camera was a plant. He is a professional photographer who was trying to look like a fan given the opportunity of a lifetime, to the point of constantly getting between Urban and the production cameras.

A photo on the carpet... who is hiding in the bushes? Oh, just Kidman's assistant/purse holder... haha

Sunday, April 18, 2010