Rock Star: Supernova

I hate to admit it, but when Rock Star: INXS hit the airwaves last summer, I watched the show on a regular basis. Rock Star is like a rock 'n' roll version of American Idol except the contestants are competing to be the lead singer of an existing band. I was never a huge fan of INXS, but I thought it was an interesting concept, and I was interested to see what type of person could possibly step into the shoes of the deceased Michael Hutchence, the original INXS frontman. The competition was won by a guy calling himself J.D. Fortune. He was the cockiest jackass on the show, and I initially expected him to get booted, but it made more sense to me after thinking about the type of people that comprise rock bands.

I thought Rock Star: INXS would be a one season series, but rumors started to fly that other bands were considering using the show to restart their careers. At one point, Van Halen was said to be slotted for the second season, but that eventually fell through or wasn't true in the first place. As time passed, the rumors seemed to fade, and there didn't seem to be any other used, washed up rock bands that could generate enough interest to film another season.

Someone at CBS obviously wanted to keep the show alive, so a new idea was born. Instead of using a has-been rock band, they decided to create a new band from has-been rock musicians. Enter Jason Newsted from Metallica, Gilby Clarke from Guns 'N' Roses, and the infamous Tommy Lee from Motley Crue in their new band, Supernova. Gee, how could this miss?

Jason Newsted played bass for the mega group, Metallica, for ten or twelve years. He replaced the original bassist, Cliff Burton, who died in a tragic bus accident while the band was touring. In the late 90's, Newsted decided to leave Metallica, because he claimed he didn't have the freedom to do side projects. Once a few side projects were complete and abysmal failures, Newsted wanted back in Metallica. Metallica was still looking for a new bass player at the time, but wanted to move on and told Newsted to beat it.

Gilby Clarke, like Newsted, was a replacement musician when he joined Guns 'N' Roses. Until that time, he was pretty much an unknown guitar player. Guns disbanded not long after Gilby joined, and he went back into obscurity.

Tommy Lee is probably the only true "star" in Supernova, and he is undoubtedly the best musician of the three. Unfortunately, he is probably most famous for being Mr. Pamela Anderson two or three times, getting arrested for various reasons, and the infamous honeymoon video that he and Pam shot back in the mid '90s. Tommy has done a few of his own side projects outside of Motley Crue, but none were ever really successful.

Well, I think I watched one show of Rock Star: Super Nova, then I realized that I didn't have the desire to listen to bizarre people singing bad renditions of The Doors and Alanis Morissette in an attempt to impress Tommy, Gilby, and Jason. However, I did see that a winner was announced recently, so I'm sure people are going to be lining up at state fairs across the country for tickets.

Although I didn't watch Rock Star this season, I began to wonder what other groups might benefit from the show. Here's a short list that I came up with.

Rock Star: The Righteous Brothers
Rock Star: The Power Station
Rock Star: Sonny and Cher
Rock Star: Sublime
Rock Star: The Greatful Dead
Rock Star: Nirvana
Rock Star: Alice in Chains

I suppose I could go on, but I won't.