Josh Turner: Idol of An Idol
This year’s American Idol winner Scotty McCreery has made no secret that HIS idol is Josh Turner. Scotty sang Turner’s “Your Man” at his first audition, and then again for his first solo once the competition moved to Hollywood. It was that performance that set the stage for winning American Idol in May. Josh told Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton that’s when he first began hearing about Scotty: “he night he sang ‘Your Man’ for the first time in his first audition. I got a barrage of texts and emails saying this guy sang your song on American Idol. Then the next week, they said he sang your song again. So that was when I realized I had to pay attention to this guy. So I kept up with him, and it was neat to see someone on that show talkin’ about how he idolized me, and it was cool to see how he came from his first audition to winning the show.”
The next step for Josh & Scotty came on May 15th, when Scotty performed a Homecoming show in Garner, North Carolina. Josh told Lon his side of that day’s experience: “I showed up, and they parked my bus at the home of family friends. We hid the bus so no one would know I was there. What was funny was his grandmother was staying at the same hotel I was. So my production manager found out and told me, ‘Don’t come down for breakfast, stay in your room.’ So we tried to stay under the radar, and when I got to the venue, I found out that Scotty’s father and sister had found out I was there, but they were keeping it from Scotty. So I’m standing on the steps to the stage, and they’re filming me, and he started ‘Your Man,’ and I came up the steps, and figured he’d see me, because the crowd started cheering, but he’s still into the song, not even looking my way, and finally I get about a foot away, put my hand on his shoulder, and that’s when it dawned on him, ‘Holy cray! Josh Turner’s on stage with me!’ It was such a priceless reaction.”
Web Exclusive: Lon asked Josh if the Homecoming show in Garner was the first time he met Scotty. Turns out it wasn’t. “After I saw him that first time on Idol, my manager thought he looked familiar. So they looked through my meet & greet photos. They found out he had come to a show of mine in Myrtle Beach a while back, and I got to meet him, but at the time I didn’t know him from Adam. He was just another guy in a meet & greet. I think I signed a guitar of his, but it’s wild seeing that picture now knowing he won American Idol.”
You can hear more from Josh about Scotty at our website under “AUDIO”
Also, you can view the unedited video of Lon’s conversation with Josh about Scotty.
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