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John Rich Says NBC 'Bastardized' Country Music

John Rich is busy railing at the corporate fat cats 'Shuttin' Detroit Down,' in his new single. He's also taking aim at network television big wigs, particularly those at NBC who worked with him on the reality competition show, 'Nashville Star.'

"The folks in New York at NBC -- there's some good folks up there, but I swear to God they don't know jack about country music," Rich said in a recent interview with Sirius XM radio.

"I wouldn't touch 'Nashville Star' with a 40-foot pole," he insisted in another interview, with Nashville's Tennessean newspaper. "NBC completely bastardized what country music is about."

Rich says once NBC began airing the singing competition, they insisted on infusing the show with pop music.

"We've got a guy named Kenny Chesney who's 40 years old, who's an east Tennessee hillbilly who sells 80,000 tickets a show," Rich said. "We don't need the other people's music to make us cool enough to listen to."

Rich also revealed that he's likely to be involved in another season of CMT's 'Gone Country,' and added that 'Nashville Star' was at least responsible for helping to find some talented performers.

"Melissa Lawson [the show's 2008 champ] is over the top and not anywhere close to being out of the ball game. You will be hearing more out of her," he insisted.

Rich is set to release his solo album, 'Son of a Preacher Man,' on Tuesday. Its second single, 'Shuttin' Detroit Down,' is already a Top 15 hit after just seven weeks on the charts.



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25 Comments

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mar

john make a good choose. he is cool. sheila e was the best.

April 01 2009 at 2:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
M. Andrew Cude

I couldn't resist in responding to the comments in this post. First of all, any county music fan should appreciate the efforts of those in the business who have done their best in promoting the genre'....John Rich has done what he thinks was in that vein. That being said, John Rich has little or no respect from the folks on Music Row who acknowledge talent, an unselfish agenda and who have an unbiased ear for what has made Country Music the #1 played (on radio) and listen to music on the airwaves today (apologies to the Rap and Hip Hop fans out there).

If NBC chooses to discontinue their participation in promoting reality Country Music, don't blame them...blame the egotistical, self promoting, arrogant Country Music wannabe, John Rich. John, if you are reading this, you are a disgrace to the industry and I would gladly stand before you and provide the testimony and evidence to support my claim.

March 31 2009 at 12:23 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
SUE ANN

He doesn't have any room to talk about pop being brought into country music. What they call country now was called pop/soft rock when I was growing up. If you want to hear true country, you have to go back to the 60's - 80's to hear country music. I do think that there are some good artists out there who put out some good music from time to time,but give me what they call "Classic Country" to listen to anytime.

March 30 2009 at 11:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Carey

He is NOT a great musician - barely passable. He IS known for being a mean and obnoxious drunk, so forgive me if I don't care WHAT he "thinks". Stick to what you know - booze.

March 30 2009 at 4:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dont kill the messenger

STICK TO YOUR GUNS COWBOY !!! AND, COME OUT SHOOTING!!! BTW...I am not even ... a lttle bit country!

March 28 2009 at 4:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cynthia

Mr Rich was also on that stupid show about turning singers and actors into country music stars ... ecch. You know, people like Bobby Brown, Taylor Dayne, Maureen McCormick, Carney Wilson, and it just gets worse from there.

Also my husband and I used to watch Nashville Star when it was first on the Nashville Network. Now, minus Nancy O'Dell, that was a really good show.

Cynthia

March 28 2009 at 1:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DaLi LaMa

Why is this news?

March 28 2009 at 12:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
buky3

Hank Williams III says POP COUNTRY REALLY SUCKS and he's right on the fu**in money!!!!!!

March 27 2009 at 11:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
foreverpraising

I'm not a fan of John Rich myself but I had to post. True, "Son of a Preacher Man" isn't much of an original title BUT I did learn in another article that it is WHO he is. His father is a preacher. He says that he is a hellraising Christian with a King James Bible in one hand and a drink in the other. Just wanted to point that out. BTW- the article is the one at the upper right of the screen in the MOST COMMENTED stories titled "John Rich Preaches His Own Agenda".

March 27 2009 at 10:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
pcsvp

NBC is the worst network, pure crap, and NBC news is a big zero.....

March 27 2009 at 8:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply