Fourth-season “American Idol” runner-up Bo Bice is anticipating a fall release for his 19 Recordings/RCA debut solo album.
“We’re still in the beginning stages,” the 29-year-old Helena, Ala., native tells Billboard.com. “I’ve been doing some studio work and practicing with my band, Sugar Money, when I have a chance to go back home. We did a little bit of recording while I was there. Obviously I’m still plugging my cats there, and trying to get the band on the road with me.”
Although Bice says it’s too soon to reveal everyone he’ll be working with on the album, he notes that teaming with Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora on a cover of Ides Of March’s “Vehicle” was “incredible,” and that he has been in the studio with producers Desmond Child and Jamie Houston. “Vehicle” is the second track on Bice’s current double A-sided single “Inside Your Heaven.”
As for a rumored collaboration with Carlos Santana that’s supposedly already been recorded for Santana’s upcoming album, Bice isn’t ready to confirm that just yet. “If I got the opportunity, I would truly be stoked,” he says. “I’d look forward to doing that. I can’t speculate, though. Until things are in stone with me, I don’t ever know what’s going on.”
He is sure about what fans should expect from his debut album, though. “If you genuinely love every single song you put on an album and it flops, well, I would rather be that guy standing there going, ‘Hey man, it flopped, but I loved it,'” he says. “I don’t want to try to appeal to anybody. I want to get out there and play my music, and whoever goes out and buys my album buys my album.
“[These days] musicians are putting out crap albums,” he continues. “That’s why our music society is being eaten up and overrun by Napster and everything else. When you only get two [good] songs on an album and I go out and spend 15 bucks to buy it, why not just buy a single that has an A-side and a B-side for five bucks? Why waste that extra $10? I’ll go put that into a savings account. [But] that’s why I’m the musician and not the guy who makes the financial decisions.”
Bice’s recording of “Inside Your Heaven,” written by Andreas Carlsson for “American Idol” and produced by Child, this week debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop 100 chart and No. 2 on the Hot 100. The single is coupled with “Vehicle.”
Last week, “Idol” winner Carrie Underwood’s version of “Inside Your Heaven,” which is teamed with a cover of Martina McBride’s “Independence Day,” debuted at No. 1 on both the Hot 100 and the Pop 100. Her debut album is expected in the fall via Arista.
Bice and Underwood will be on the road with the American Idols Live tour through the summer. As previously reported, the run opens July 12 in Sunrise, Fla.
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