John Rich Talks Marlee Matlin, Lil Jon, and Celebrity Apprentice
By: Daedrian McNaughton
Country music singer-songwriter, John Rich has made it to the final two on this season’s Celebrity Apprentice. And in a recent interview he talked about his capable opponent, super hero, Marlee Matlin and his newly formed cowboys and rappers relationship with rapper Lil Jon.
Celebrity Apprentice finale airs Sunday, May 22 at 9pm on NBC
John this season’s Celebrity Apprentice was like the Survivor, how did you manage to make it through all the hostility on set?
John Rich: It was like mental Survivor. If you crack, you’re going to get beat over the head with it for the rest of your life. If you make a wrong move forget it. They do put you in a pressure cooker. They never let you breath. The producers and the directors of the show. They keep you exhausted and they keep you in that level of fatigue on purpose. I didn’t like it, but I understood it. And I just accepted it at some point and said, “You know what, you’re going to be tired. If you want to try to win this thing, you got to power through it.” And I think a lot of contestants were affected by the exhaustion factor alone separated people. And I think for me being a road musician; I’ve been on the road for almost 20 years, and it’s not uncommon for me to be in 200-250 cities in a year. And so I’ve learned how to power through exhaustion and deal with it. And that may be the reason why some of the folks fell out when they did. And obviously it wasn’t a problem for Marlee. And if it was, she never let on to it because I think at the end of the day you just keep concentrating on the fact that if you win this thing, it’s another quarter-of-a-million dollars. And there’s all these opportunities that come into play for you charity. So being tired doesn’t really have a place.
You are up against Marlee for the finals. Do you find her to be a stiff competitor?
John Rich: Let’s start off with how smart Marlee is because she is wickedly smart. And she’s also very funny; she has a great sense of humor and is very charming. So she’s able to really get a lot done. When she’s project manager or when she’s even part of the team, she can really get a lot of things done. But I think there’s other elements to Marlee that make her a very powerful person. One is she’s a mom. She’s a great mom; she has several kids. And to me, I have all the respect in the world for moms. It’s the hardest job there is. So she’s a great mom, she’s a dynamic personality. And of course she’s overcome her deafness. She has overcome a huge challenge and has gone on to accomplish great, great things and has not let that slow her down at all and is really one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. I would consider her like a superhero kind of. She needs an M on her chest. She’s just a great person. And from the very beginning of Celebrity Apprentice, there was definitely a mutual respect from across the room between the two of us. Just an unspoken thing, it was hard to describe. We would give each other every now and then that was just an understanding of, “We’re both here for our charities. We’re serious about this,” and that we were going to compete all the way as far we could. It was always there, you could feel it in the air between the two of us.
Can you talk about your current relationship with Lil’ Jon?
John Rich: Lil Jon and I had met each other, I believe at an award show some time, I think it was two-thousand, probably five or six, somewhere in there. And I like his music, I like his production and some of just the crazy songs that he’s done. Because in country music I’m part of a duo called Big & Rich, and we’re known for being probably the most crazy, aggressive country music out there. I mean we’re a party band. And Lil Jon liked the Big & Rich stuff, we liked Lil Jon. And I remember shaking hands with him at an awards show. And it wasn’t like we became best friends or anything, because we live in different towns. But anytime I was in Atlanta or LA — because he’s back and forth between those two towns — I’d always call him. And every now and then he would come through Nashville and he would always call me. So we kept in touch. I actually called – when I decided I was going to go be on Celebrity Apprentice, I actually called Lil Jon — because he’s one of the big stars that I’m friends with — to tell him I was going to be on a TV show and that I might need him to help me out with a task at some point, or a donation. And he started laughing and said, “Too late, because I’m on the same show.” So it was really cool. That was – we just laughed our heads off when we realized that. And it was at that point I said, “Oh this is going to be fun because I don’t know how I’ll do on the show, but I know I’ll have a friend in there and somebody that I think a lot of, and somebody that’s a lot of fun.”
Will you be collaborating with Lil Jon in the future?
John Rich: It did feel like a very important relationship. Not only because Lil Jon and I are really great friends, but as an example to our two audiences that cowboys and rappers basically can get along and work hard for charities and break down some of those stereotypes. So Lil John and I actually did record something together and it’s on a record that I’ve – there’s actually a record coming out right now called Rich Rocks. And Lil Jon appears on that record as a guest artist and it’s a really cool thing. I’ve had a huge response from all the country fans that are really liking Lil Jon too. And from his side he tells me there’s a lot of his fans that are starting to look at my music. It’s just a great relationship all the way around.
Gary Busey was a huge problem for you guys to manage, how was that experience for you?
John Rich: “Managing Gary Busey,” is probably the right way to say it because it is a management situation with Gary. I can tell you that Gary is – as everybody saw, has these moments of complete clarity and genius thought. And then the rest of the time he’s kind of like a tornado he tears up a lot. So it’s really all about giving Gary a job that you knew he could do well at and excel with. And it was a big lesson being around him because it was a constant challenge to your focus. Because Gary’s really loud, and he’s really kind of going all directions all at the same time. And you can’t let that throw you off your game. You can’t let that get your mind off of why you’re there, which is to win the task or to raise money, or whatever it is you’re doing that exact minute. You have to do it well to stay in the game and get to the point that we’re at now. Gary is a good person. I like Gary Busey. I got nothing against Gary Busey at all. Matter of fact, I hope to spend time with him in the future. He’s hilarious and he’s intense. And I’m glad that I know him. I think he’s a good man.
Was it difficult for you to maintain your composure on the show?
John Rich: I would say that the Gary Busey/Meatloaf – we call it the meltdown; that was the toughest thing that I believe I dealt with, because I was Project Manager. And I watched these two guys, I’m fans of both of them. I love Gary’s movies and I love Meatloaf’s music. And they’re both quite a bit older than me. I mean they’re up around my dad’s age. I think Meatloaf is 62. And I’m not exactly sure of Gary’s age. But I have felt like the junior member I’m 37. And I’m looking at these guys going, “Okay, what can I say to these guys to make this stop?” Because Meatloaf was not playing around. And Gary, I don’t think was in touch enough with situation to understand that Meatloaf wasn’t playing around. And it was about one second away from something really irreversible happening there. And something bad. And I didn’t want see that happen for anybody’s sake. So the – I took a breath. It seemed like everything kind of went in slow motion for a minute and the light bulb went off in my mind, “Remind these guys that we are here for charity, and our charities are going to be watching this episode and this is embarrassing.” And as soon as I said that, it extinguished everything. Meatloaf just relaxed and went, “Oh my god what have I just done?” Gary Busey stepped back into his corner and went, “Wow, we got to stop this.” And to me that was a critical few seconds that happened in the show. And you know what? I think I handled it the right way. And back to the point of you’re there for charity – and I know we say that a lot. But had I not been there for charity — if we were all there for just drama — I would have just let the thing go. I would have just stepped back to see what was going to happen. But that was not what was best, so I stepped in on that. As far as Piers Morgan, you know listen, I think he was there to play his role of the agitator. He was throwing darts at people to see if he could get under your skin, see if he could make you say something, you know, off color, or you know, expose you a little bit. And you know, listen, I’m wearing a cowboy hat in New York City for God’s sake. You think I don’t hear, “Yee Haw,” every time I walk around the corner? It’s not a big deal to me. I grew up in Amarillo, Texas. I’m a Texan. They put a cowboy hat on my head when I was three years old to keep the sun out of my face. It’s not a fashion statement to me; I’ve had one on my head my whole life. So a British guy picking on my cowboy hat is not exactly something that’s going to set me off. When he started picking on my writing and – my creative writing, I thought, “Okay, he’s digging a little deeper trying to get – make it even more personal.” But I just wasn’t going to take that bait, because I knew what it was. And it was pretty transparent what he was trying to do. And I know he’s not a bad guy. He was playing a role and I took it as such.
Any regrets on your choice for team mates in the final task?
John Rich: I would say that the first thing that entered my mind when I saw that we were going to be marketing a beverage – the 70s and 80s was in my mind as, “Which one would be better?” But the Number 1 thing on my mind was the beverage, 7UP. And as I’m looking at the folks we have to pick from, there’s only one person in that group that I know for a fact has successfully marketed millions of dollars worth of beverages, and that’s Lil Jon. Everybody knows about Crunk Juice and the stuff that he’s done. I mean the guy has made untold money marketing beverages. And not only that, he’s a great marketing mind in general. So I said, “You know what, he’s a no-brainer for the first pick for me.” So you had Lil Jon. And then Mark McGrath I thought he exited the show too early. And it was his own fault because you can’t say, “If we lose it’s all my fault.” He set himself up and got knocked out of the show. But Mark McGrath to me, I like his – he’s kind of like a popcorn machine just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop all the time; lots of energy, lots of ideas flying out really, really fast. And there’s a frenzy about him that I like. And I knew that Lil Jon was a little out of gas because we had kept going this whole time. Mark was fresh. Let’s bring in some of this frenzy energy into the room. Plus Mark’s a rocker. He loves (Eddie)’s rock. He’s a huge fan of hair metal and all that. And then finally, Star Jones. I have obviously seen how Star Jones works when she’s working against you. And I just had to believe that if Star Jones was working for you and with you, she could be unbelievably effective and could keep the team really focused, and really on our timeline, and really take out any of the guess work on what you’re supposed to do and when you’re supposed to do it, and all the stuff that can get in the way of your creative thinking. So that’s why I chose the ones I chose. And I think I wound up with a really strong team.
What was the biggest surprise for you on the Celebrity Apprentice?
John Rich: I would say that the biggest surprise I encountered – I expected the unexpected as far as the contestants. But the thing that really hit me was how tired you get doing this show. You know the fans of Celebrity Apprentice — I’m a fan Celebrity Apprentice — watching the show you think, “Oh they’re doing one task a week, no big deal.” But the reality of it is you’re there for but it was what, 40-something days total? And it was averaging 17, 18, 19 hours a day sometimes.
