Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His eighth-place finish on season five of American Idol hardly guaranteed future stardom.

But then Bucky Covington released his self-titled debut album in April 2007. It opened at number one on the country charts and produced three top 10 country hits.

Two years later, Bucky is preparing to release his followup album.

And he’ll be performing at 6:30 p.m. Sunday on the Great Country Radio Stage in what promises to be one of this year’s best bargains at the York Fair.

After all, you get to see the show for the price of admission.

Bucky took time during a busy tour schedule — three stops in California and one in Alaska just last week — to talk to Idol Chatter about his career, his tour and his upcoming album.

Bucky’s band includes twin brother Rocky on percussion, Don Medlock on mandolin and guitar, Scott Saunders on keyboard, Jeff Cease (formerly of the Black Crowes) on guitar, Steve Cook on bass and Jeff Brown on drums. Not all of them will be performing on Sunday, however, because it’s an acoustic show.

Here’s the interview …

Idol Chatter: What should fans expect from the show here in York? Will they hear much of the new album?

Bucky: “Right now, we’re probably playing about half of the old album and about half of the new album also. I’ve got all the music finished up for the new album, but we’re still working — like today actually — I’m supposed to pick out the cover for the album. We’re still doing little stuff like that. But music-wise, we’re all done with it, so we are playing a bunch of the new album already. It’s a very high-energy show. By high-energy, I don’t mean we don’t play any ballads. But there is a lot of energy in the show.”

Chatter: What’s your goal with the second album? What are you trying to accomplish?

Bucky: “The first album did very well, right out of the gate. If I could do as well with the second album as the first album, I would be pretty happy. But, of course, I think everybody wants to top what they did last time. That’s going to be very hard this time (in terms of album sales), because two years ago more people bought CDs. The music I put on this second album — now I was very proud of the first album — but I do believe without a doubt I have topped the first album. Now we’ve just got to get it out to people and let people take a listen.”

Chatter: You released one single from the album already (”I Want My Life Back,” which peaked at number 32 on the country singles chart). Do you plan another single soon? Can you say what song it will be?

Bucky: “I do believe we might be releasing another song to generate some buzz for the album. I don’t know a timetable. Maybe in the next month, month and a half, give or take. I do believe we’re looking at a song — I’ve recut a Nickelback song, “Gotta Be Somebody.” I absolutely love this song. It came out great. We just took it back down to the bare minimum and added some fiddle in it. We threw some banjo in it. It’s amazing how this song came out.”

Chatter: Now the original release date for the second album was sometime this month. That’s been pushed back to November. Why the delay?

Bucky: “What we usually try to do is run a single on up the charts so then it generates a buzz, kind of gets some excitement going. What we’ve been trying to do is get a song on up the charts. It’s been tough to do this year. A lot of big hitters have been coming out with a lot of great songs.”

Chatter: I also understand there’s a song called “Evel Knievel” on the album. Can you tell me about that?

Bucky: “Evel Knievel is a no-brainer, man. I am a huge dirt bike rider. I love watching it. I’ve done it ever since I was a kid. I still do it today. It just hurts a little bit worse. Evel Knievel, I’ve always been a fan of. When I heard this song, well, it’s just a very, very upbeat song. It’s a fist-pumping good time.”

Chatter: You shared writing credits on one song on the first album. Did you do any writing for the second album?

Bucky: “I did some writing for the second album, but when it was all said and done, everything that was sent to me, I liked better. The worst thing about me writing is I’m my own worst critic. It is hard for me to write a song and me actually like it. I’ve had a lot of other people say they like it. To me, I’m very hard on myself when it comes to writing.”

Chatter: Let’s talk about Idol for a minute. Where would you be today if you hadn’t been on the show?

Bucky: “Well, I could very easily be back in my dad’s body shop sweating it out back in North Carolina. But, you know, at the time I went for Idol, there was something driving me inside. I felt like I was wasting my time. And I really, really wanted to do music. So I would either be in my dad’s body shop or I’d be in Nashville, still looking for that record, I would imagine.”

Chatter: Speaking of your dad’s body shop, I understand you and your twin brother have had to fix the tour bus on occasion. Is that a true story?

Bucky: “We worked in the body shop for 10 years with my dad. So mechanical stuff just sort of comes naturally. Sometimes when you break down, you’re out somewhere … well, you can call somebody and wait. Then you’ll be behind schedule. Rather than do that, me and my brother can easily go out and probably put a hand on it. That hasn’t happened very often. Only about twice. We had a generator problem and a door problem. And we were able to fix both of them in 10 minutes versus probably calling somebody and probably waiting three to four hours before it actually gets done.”

Chatter: Your bio also indicates you didn’t pick up a guitar until you were 19. Is that correct?

Bucky: “That’s exactly right. When I was in middle school, I did trumpet and French horn. But I kind of did that just because my sister did it. I was never really into music back then. I just did it. When I was growing up, I did karaoke and would sing in the shower and in my truck, like anybody else did. B but there came a point, where I started thinking to myself, I don’t personally think I sound that bad. By about the age of 19, I was listening to a Jeff Healey album. The next day, I went out and bought a guitar and started teaching myself how to play.”

Chatter: That’s a little surprising consider many of the Idol contestants say they’ve been performing and wanting to be performers since they were very young.

Bucky: “Well, my Mom always really wanted me to stick with something. And I was always that person that, if I got into soccer, I played soccer for a little bit. A month or two later, I was playing baseball. I hated baseball because I sucked at it. I’ve got a very short attention span.

“But when I got into music, I started to teach myself how to play guitar. When I got frustrated with it, I went over to drums. When I got tired of that, I went over to the bass. Music worked very well for me because I was able to switch around. Of course, singing the whole time. Singing and performing on stage is just something I’ve just never, ever got tired of. I dig that to the fullest.”

Chatter: You’ve got the album coming out. You had a cameo in the Hannah Montana movie this summer. Any other projects in the works?

Bucky: “Not long ago — I think it’s supposed to air in September — I went and taped ‘Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?’ I had a ball doing that show. Of course, the host is Jeff Foxworthy. I’m a huge fan of stand-up comedians and a very big fan of Jeff Foxworthy. It was such a cool thing to do. And I’ve gotta be honest with you, the three fifth-graders who are on the show … I’m pretty certain I was not that smart when I was in fifth grade.”

Chatter: Did you do better than Kellie Pickler when she was on the show (in a performance you can still watch on YouTube)?

Bucky: “Well, I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say I had an awesome time and I think it will be a wonderful show. I did do better than Kellie. I won’t say how much better or whether it was one or two questions better. I think I did do better than Kellie.”

Chatter: Now, one last question about Idol. The show seems to be looking for a fourth judge. You’ve met a lot of entertainers and people in the music industry. Whom would you suggest?

Bucky: “You know who would actually be just great, of course I don’t know that you could get him to do it — Billy Bob Thornton. A lot of people don’t know, but he’s a very talented musician. He’s a drummer. He’s a producer. He sings. I think he would tell you exactly what he thought, good or bad. He’s just a nice guy. But I think he also knows and appreciates all styles of music.

Chatter: How did you wind up meeting him?

Bucky: “I ended up going over to his house one evening while I was out in L.A., me and Chris Daughtry, just hanging out drinking lukewarm Coronas and it was completely awesome. He actually bought (former Guns n’ Roses guitartist) Slash’s old house. So of course there was a studio downstairs, and we went downstairs and just hung out all night.”

For more on Bucky, check out his official Web site and his MySpace page.

For coverage of Sunday’s show, check back that evening.

Also check back for coverage of the York Fair concerts featuring Kelly Clarkson and David Cook. I’ll be posting an interview with David next week.