Nashville Star

Michelle's first experience with reality television. Auditions were held at the Baumont Club in Kansas City (Jan. 2008). Several of Michelles closest friends came down to root her on and give support. A couple of her friends (fans) even arrived early to save her a good spot in line. That spot was within 50 feet from the door. By the time Michelle got there the line was all the way down the street and ended up in a parking garage. This was at 10:00am. What we found out was that just because you are close to the front of the line does not mean it will be a quick process or a shorter day.

From 10:00am to about 4:00pm was spent in line and most of that was outside. At about 4:00pm is when Michelle finally got to audition. There were signs up everywhere telling us we could not videotape or take pictures. We complied with this inside the building. However, I was able to take some video fooatage of the line from outside the building. This footage was edited to the "Road To Nashville" DVD.

Once inside the door they give you a one page application to fill out. Then you procede inside to this huge room. At one end of the room were contestants sperated by a bigger area in the center of the room with tables where judges sit. Just on the other side of the tables was the stage. They would have ten contestants on the stage at once and each one would step up and give their best 30 seconds of a song off a list that Nashville Star provided. If the judges liked you then you are put into a holding area and the other contestants are asked to leave. Michelle was one of about 50 they asked to stay and about 1,000 people auditioned totally that day. The next TEN hours was spent doing two things. Filling out another application, signing releases and filling out a 20 page informational packet that asked just about every question you can imagine. The second thing we did was wait. Wait for the next round in the audition process. Which came at about 1:00am. The producers asked her a few questions and had her sing one more time on camera. This was held downstairs below the holding area. At the end of that round of the audtion process Michelle was told that she woud be notified if they were interested. Within two weeks she got the above letter telling her she was a Regional Finalist. This basically gave Michelle a cut in line at one of four open call auditions held around the country. We chose Nashville.

We had three weeks to prepare for the audition in Nashville. We also had three weeks to plan the trip and finances. We decided to hold a "Road To Nashville" party where we accepted donations and gave out a lot of CDs to folks who donated. Rita Oliver is the nice lady in the picture on the left who volunteered to hold the party at her home in Independence. MO. She also provided all the food which was out of this world. We also set up equipment for Michelle to perform some songs for everyone. We estimated that over 300 people showed up to donate or simply to wish Michelle the best of luck in Nashville.

An intrumental and valuable part of preparing for this audition was solicite the help of a long time friend and professional musician - Phil Hilton. Phil took time out of his very busy schedule and assisted us in song selection and consultation.

The ten hour trip to Nashville itself was pretty uneventful. However, it did rain the whole way there. When we got there we just had to check out the place where the competition was to be held. So the Gaylord Opryland Resort was our first destination.

The Gaylord Opryland Resort is like walking into a HUGE greenhouse because everything is under glass and lots of plants. They had shops, walking paths and even boat tours!!

The hotel rooms are all along the outside of this atrium. It was simply beautiful. We had a couple of days before the audition so we decided to see a little of Nashville.

This is where it all happens, Broadway. This street is hoppin all night long with live entertainment and tourists. The above picture is looking down Broadway from in front of Tootsie's

They would not allow flash photography inside the Country Music Hall of Fame but they would allow video. The Jackson home would allow photography on the outside grounds but not in any of the buildings. So we pretty much worked within this limitation and captured both of what we could and were edited into the "Road To Nashville" DVD

This is the "New" Grand Ole Opry and it is located just a few hundred yards away from the resort. This is where all the shows are performed and televised. We know that someday Michelle will be singing here. We were going to see the show but we were not sure where the audition would take her or what would happen the night of the auditions. It would have been nice to catch a show though.

Another early day and this was the FRONT of the Open Call line. It was a very cool morning and these folks have been camped out here since about 2:00 in the Morning. We were told to be in the Regional Finalist line no later than 10:00. We were there by 8:00 but we walked around checking folks out in this line. Try to count the guitar cases in this picture. I counted five.

At the top of the stairs the line contined...

All the way down the side and then around the resort. I got tired of walking or I would have tried to find the end of the line.

We stood in the Regional Finalist line. As you can see Michelle is within 50 feet from these and a camera crew stopped, had a chat with her and had her sing on camera. Just on the other side of those doors in the background was the holding area for registration.

Again, we were limited on the use of video and still cameras once we got inside. However, we did happen to get a little video on the inside. Once inside they asked for the Regional Finalist Letter, put some information into a computer, then handed Michelle two items. One was a number to stick on her shirt and the other was a "SINGLE PAGE APPLICATION"

The Application was the same one handed to Michelle when she first walked into the Beaumont Club in Kansas City. We almost asked Nashville Star if they still had that application or the second one we filled out that had a 20 pages of questions on it... But we didn't.

Michelle filled out the application anyway and then they grouped her with three other contestants and escorted them to another area of the resort where a judge would hear their audition. Along the way - the person escorting the group told them that once they get into the audition room they were to "Not introduce themselves to the judge because at this point in the competition they were JUST A NUMBER" We took another look at the Regional Finalist letter and just as we thought - it didn't say one word about being "Just a Number" Michelle sang her best 30 seconds of "How Do You Like Me Now" by Toby Keith. Our hope was that the judges would see and hear a powerful 16 year old belting out a male song. However, the plan didn't work and nobody in her group were selected to move on.

Tootsies is wolrd famous and has been around since before Hank Williams Sr. Hank used to have jam sessions here before and after performing at the Ryman Auditorium which was located just behind tootsies across the back ally.

About three months later it was our turn to be the judge. When the show aired on NBC. We came to the conclusion that it was best Michelle didn't make it on the show. We were not very impressed by the 12 contestants they selected. Firstly, We felt we had seen and heard at least 20 folks from the Beaumont Club in Kansas City who had a lot more "natrual talent" than those selected to be on the show. Secondly, we found out that they did not allow parents to be in Nashville with thier children who were under the age of 18 while the taping of the show underway.

Finally, we didn't like the way the producers changed the show to be more about the judges than the contestants. The final twelve they selected to be on the show were split up into groups of four and each judge got their own group to work with. They made it out that the judges were going to take the contestants under their wings and make stars out of them. It became a show of patting the judges on their backs for producing each week's performance. If someone in their group didn't do so well then it became drama as to why they didn't do well. We also felt it was too much Hollywood and too much television wrapped around a singing compeition. Oh and their quest to find the best talent turned into more of a quest to find someone who had a story to tell.

We were done with the Nashville Star audition by 1:00 in the afternoon. This left us with a full day and evening to check out some of the LIVE entertainment on Broadway. Michelle got on stage at bot Tootsies and Legends and sang a few songs. The trip itself and the sites we saw was well worth the trip though. There are lots of things to experience in Nashville and we had a great time experiencing them.