I’ll be reviewing the Kelly Clarkson concert later today at the Cobb Energy Centre. The capacity is 2,750, slightly more than the Tabernacle. A quick search on Ticketmaster this morning indicates it’s sold out.
First-week sales numbers for Jordin Sparks’ CD will be out later today but it appears the 125,000 to 150,000 estimate will be close, based on partial sales counts by hitsdailydouble.com. This will by far be the worst of the six winners by a wide margin.
And since it’s such a slow morning, I’ll post info I got from Ruben Studdard last week, an interview made available thanks to the folks at “American Idol Rewind.”
We first talked about his connections with the Boys and Girls Club since he’s come to Atlanta twice in recent months for B&G events. He wants to open a club in Birmingham “focused on the performing arts. We’re in the development stages.” He has no plans to leave Birmingham as his primary home though he’s only home four or five days a month. He spends tons of time on a bus which fits a queen-size bed in the back for Ruben.
He said he’s naturally enjoying watching “Idol Rewind.” (Wouldn’t you, knowing the outcome?) He Tivos the show since he’s on the road so much and catches up later.
“It’s awesome to get a chance to watch and learn and see where I’ve come from in such a short time,” he said. “I’m always critical of myself. When I watch it, I always think I could have done better than that.” And many of the moments captures on film he can’t even remember “and I was there!” he noted. Looking at folks like Kimberley Locke and Clay circa 2003, he said, “we’ve all changed for the better.”
He is still in touch with Clay and Kimberley and recently saw Rickey Smith in Oklahoma City. Smith is still trying to get a record deal four years later, poor guy. About the brief talk of a reunion of the three on stage that Kimberley mentioned a few months ago in Billboard magazine, he said, “I’d love to be on stage with Clay and Kim. I love them both.” Clay publicly nixed the idea, at least for now. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened eventually. It would be huge!
Ruben is wrapping up a small tour of his first stage play called “Heaven, I Need a Hug” co-starring with Robin Givens. (Yes, that’s Mike Tyson’s ex.). It hit cities in the Southeast but didn’t make it to Atlanta. “It’s really just getting out and getting my stage legs,” he said.
In fact, it’s a warmup to a much bigger role he is playing that he said will come to Atlanta: Fats Waller in the national touring company of “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” “They’ll be a lot of singing and dancing,” he said. How is Ruben’s dancing? “I think I can cut a rug. We’ll see.”
He plans to take a break through to work on his next album before hitting the road for the play.
Ruben is also an unlikely vegetarian, an idea which came to him soon after he left the Duke Health and Fitness Center last year. “It’s really not that hard. There are a lot of vegetarian meat substitutes that are really good,” he said. Reports at the time was he lost about 100 pounds but I didn’t get a specific update from him this time, just a general “everything is good… I’m going to start training hard again before I go out.”
