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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Star Search

  • Bobbie Brown’s Dirty Rocker Boys…

    Bobbie Brown’s Dirty Rocker Boys…

    I love a good trashy tell-all. I sure found one in spades when I read Bobbie Brown’s Dirty Rocker Boys…

    Remember this song?


    Warrant’s biggest hit…

    Back in the early 1990s, Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” was a big hit. I was in college when the song and the video were especially popular. One guy I knew had a girlfriend and he used to affectionately called her “Sherry Pie”, a moniker that soon spread to the rest of his female friends. For awhile, a couple of my male buddies were routinely calling me “Jenny Pie”, even though I was never a big fan of hairbands nor was I dating any of those guys.

    Over twenty years later, I happened to be snooping TelevisionWithoutPity.com for information about former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, Courtney Cook, who had mysteriously left the team for some dramatic reason not revealed on the DCC’s reality TV show, Making the Team. I didn’t find any relevant information about Courtney Cook’s sudden departure from the team, but someone did post a link to the 1987 Miss Teen USA pageant, which featured performances by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

    In 1987, current DCC director Kelli Finglass was still on the team at performed at the pageant. Team choreographer, Judy Trammell, also happened to be performing that night. As I watched the clip of them, it occurred to me that I had actually seen the pageant when it originally aired. Since my husband was out of town, I ended up watching the entire pageant. One of the contestants that year was Bobbie Brown, who was Miss Teen Louisiana and had a crazy future ahead of her as a model, video star, and ex wife and lover of several rock stars and actors.


    Bobbie Brown’s interview begins at 3:15. In a prophetic statement, she says that she loves modeling and hopes to find an agent who can “get her work”.

    Bobbie Brown has been through a whole lot since her fresh faced appearances at the Miss Teen USA pageant in 1987. After that experience, she moved to Los Angeles, where she proceeded to audition for the hit talent show, Star Search. I know from my prior Pop Rock Nation posts on Star Search, people still love that show… Well, Bobbie Brown was very successful in the spokesmodel competition, winning a record 13 times before she finally lost to Debbie James, the other finalist in the $100,000 competition.


    This video shows Bobbie Brown’s career on Star Search…

    Somehow, I ran across the news that in 2013, Bobbie Brown was going to release a tell all book called Dirty Rocker Boys. Brown wrote this book with assistance from ghost writer, Caroline Ryder. Since I love trashy tell-alls by celebrities, I decided to download the book. As of early this morning, I have finished the book and am left with mixed impressions. The book, which is written as if Bobbie Brown is sitting in the room talking to you, is full of lurid details about her sexual escapades with a long line of rock stars. She started with the relatively benign Matthew Nelson of Nelson, then moved on to Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli. Jani Lane, lead singer of Warrant eventually became her husband for three years and fathered her daughter, Taylar. When Lane began drinking heavily and cheating on her, Brown moved on to Tommy Lee, whom she was “seeing” right up until Lee’s marriage to Pamela Anderson, one of Brown’s contemporaries and a big star in her own right.

    After partying with Tommy Lee, Brown moved on to Mark McGrath, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sebastian Bach, Ashley Hamilton and then Dave Navarro. She writes that Orgy’s Jay Gordon taught her why some women love receiving oral sex. She also had minor trysts with Kevin Costner and Rod Stewart. What I thought was especially funny was that at one point, she wondered if Tommy Lee had any sexually transmitted infections. Under the circumstances, I would have wondered the same thing about Bobbie Brown. She certainly got around. Her lifestyle in the 1990s was all about sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

    Bobbie writes about her upbringing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and about how her father wasn’t around much when she was growing up. She had big dreams of being a Hollywood star and she did have some brief fame in her modeling pursuits. Unfortunately, besides getting sexually involved with rock stars, she made the choice to take drugs. Brown is very detailed as she describes her experiences with crystal meth, cocaine, and speed. She explains that the drugs helped her feel like she was in control, and yet they were the main reason why she ended up broke and nearly homeless on several occasions. More than once, she sent her daughter, Taylar, to her mother in Louisiana because her own life was such a mess.

    At times, Brown comes across as likable enough. She does seem to have a pretty good sense of humor and a good heart. At other times, she comes off as immature, self-centered, and self-pitying. It’s hard to reconcile that sweet-faced teenager who was Miss Teen Louisiana in 1987 with the skanky, foul-mouthed, drug-addicted ho she eventually became in the 1990s. On the other hand, I did expect to read trash and I got what I came for, I guess. Brown also includes photos, some of which are a bit graphic. Besides the photos of her family and exes, there are also a couple of photos of her in bed just after having had sex. There’s another one of her tonguing one of her many paramours. One weird shot makes her look almost like she’s been decapitated. Since Bobbie Brown is a model, I’m surprised she’d want that image in her book.

    Anyway, if you’re looking for a trashy tell-all about hairbands and hos, I would say you’ll find it in spades with Dirty Rocker Boys… though in fairness, that title should probably also include dirty skanks, too. Seems to me that Bobbie Brown gave as good as she got, though by the end of the book, it did seem like she was starting to change her ways and had developed more depth of character. She had kind things to say about Jani Lane, who sadly died alone in a Comfort Inn after an alcoholic binge. She had developed a relationship with her father, who died about two weeks after her beloved stepfather had passed away. And it sounds like her daughter, Taylar, was smart enough to see that the hedonistic excesses of rock star life were not for her. I’d say that’s somewhat close to a happy ending.

    If you like lurid tell alls and are curious about Bobbie Brown, I’d say her book is worth reading. It’s a definite pass for those who don’t want to read about sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

  • More Star Search memories…

    More Star Search memories…

    Now that America’s Got Talent is over for 2013, it’s time for more Star Search memories…

    Like a lot of other people, I was tuned in to NBC on Wednesday night, waiting to find out who won America’s Got Talent. I was kind of rooting for Cami Bradley and Taylor Williamson, though I have to admit that everyone who was a finalist deserved to win. Season 8 of AGT was remarkably good, though there weren’t as many hilarious auditions as there have been in prior years. I will admit to not being as into America’s Got Talent or other talent shows as I once was into Star Search, a show that was famously hosted by Ed McMahon and ran for years. I wrote about that show several months ago and that post gets a lot of hits. That tells me that readers are as interested in Star Search and the stars it spawned as I am.

    Like America’s Got Talent, Star Search offered a platform for a variety of talents. Unlike America’s Got Talent, which pretty much allows anyone who can make a show of their talent come on the stage, Star Search had categories. In the early days, there were singers, comedians, actors, spokesmodels, dancers, and bands. As time went on, the acting category went away, and the singers and dancers were divided by age. If memory serves, the spokesmodels were all pretty much women, though they might have tried a male spokesmodel category at some point. I think the spokesmodels were supposed to be “presenters”, not so much actual models. I do remember them having cheesy photo shoots, though, as they introduced the commercial breaks and interacted with Ed McMahon.

    Here’s a pretty funny video of spokesmodels Laura Ballad and Theresa Ring. Theresa Ring was one of the more successful contestants. I wonder what Tyra Banks would think of this photo shoot set to “Walk Like An Egyptian” by The Bangles… I apologize for the out of sync video.

    Here’s 4 Boys and a Babe from Mesa, Arizona dancing to Buster Pointdexter’s “Hot Hot Hot”. I remember they were very successful on this show and even twenty years later, I remember where they were from. I wonder what they’re doing today…

    Here, 4 Boys and a Babe are back on Star Search doing an exhibition.

    Jarrod Spector was six years old when he became a big winner on Star Search. I remember getting a little tired of his big show tune schtick because he won for weeks on end. Then he came up against Countess Vaughn, who later starred on the show 227 with Marla Gibbs.

    Gotta say, vocally speaking, Countess Vaughn pretty much kicks Jarrod Spector’s ass in this video…

    Of course, one of the earliest future stars on Star Search was Sinbad, who later got a recurring gig on NBC’s A Different World, a spin off of The Cosby Show, as well as a successful stand up career. I couldn’t find any Sinbad Star Search clips, but I did find one of him guesting on a talk show.

    Right after he got his knees replaced, no less…

    Even Dave Chapelle was on Star Search. I found this out today, because by 1993, when he made his first appearance, I had quit watching the show as often.

    He was just 19 years old and was the youngest comedian in Star Search’s history at the time! I believe this is the first time I’ve heard Dave Chappelle do such a clean routine.

    Drew Carey made his first appearance in 1988. Who would have thought back then that Drew would one day be hosting The Price Is Right?

    Drew Carey is the ultimate party guest… leading to his cameo appearance in the first incarnation of The Sims.

    Man, I miss this game… even though my Sims’ parties were never good enough to rate a Drew Carey appearance.

    Star Search was such a cultural phenomenon in the 80s and 90s that it was even written into an episode of the hit ABC sitcom Full House!

    Looks like it was a tie between real life comedian Steve Oedekirk and “Joey Gladstone” as portrayed by Dave Coulier, the same guy to whom former Star Search competitor Alanis Morrisette allegedly dedicated her hit song, “You Oughta Know”… or was that just a nasty rumor?

    Yikes! Alanis was just 14 years old in this clip from her Star Search days. And this clip was from Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show… Guess what? Rosie was also a Star Search contestant back in the day!

    Here’s Rosie O’Donnell appearing on Star Search after she was cast on Gimme A Break as the late Nell Carter’s neighbor in New York City. I’ll be damned. She’s pretty funny in this clip.

    People love America’s Got Talent and the $1 million prize is bigger than the $100,000 prize Star Search was offering. But in all honesty, aside from Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent, have there been as many stars spawned from the Got Talent franchise? Time will tell. For now, it’s fun to watch these old clips of a classic talent show.