My Celebrity Encounter

My Celebrity Encounter is about meeting Bucky Covington. I have interviewed several musicians over the past few years all via telephone. Bucky Covington is one such musician.

Bucky Covington rose to fame on season five of American Idol where he placed 8^th on the show. After the show Sawyer Brown lead singer Mark Miller saw the talent in Bucky Covington and became his producer and Bucky signed a recording contract with Lyric Street records. Bucky's first self titled CD was released April 2007. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts, and produced three hit singles on the Hot Country Songs charts. Bucky Covington is working on releasing another CD title "I'm Alright" sometime in 2010 and has had three singles released from it so far. "I Want My Life Back," "Gotta Be Somebody" and "A Father's Love (The Only Way He Knew How)."

My family and I attended a concert of Bucky Covington's in Hillsboro, Ohio at the Festival of the Bells on July 5^th 2008. This is where I had my celebrity encounter meeting Bucky Covington.

My daughter and I were granted a meet and greet with Bucky Covington and it took place before the show. I love to give gifts to people and I always go for something that is personalized for them. When I interviewed Bucky April of 2007 I asked him who he would like to duet with. He mentioned Elvis. I told him that may be a tough one to do and he stated with today's technology it could happen.

So from this interview I knew Bucky Covington was a fan of Elvis Presley. We had attended Bucky Covington's show in Dayton, Ohio in 2007 and Bucky sang Elvis Presley's song Suspicious Minds. I had videotaped it. So I had the video of Bucky singing an Elvis Presley song. Also any fan knows Elvis used the letters TCB for lots of jewelry, etc. TCB stands for Taking Care of Business.

With this info I was able to come up with a couple ideas for gifts to give to Bucky at the meet and greet. I had a dog tag necklace made. The dog tag had an angel over the top of a picture of Bucky and I had TCB put at the top of the Angel. We then had it engraved on the back. Letting Bucky know the angel was watching over him and she was Taking Care of Bucky.

I then took the video I had of Bucky Covington singing Suspicious Minds and a video of Elvis singing the song. I spliced them together and created what looked like a duet of Bucky Covington and Elvis Presley singing Suspicious Minds.

We presented the gifts to Bucky at the meet and greet and explained to him what was on the CD. He thanked us and told us he would be sure to watch the DVD.

Now of course you never know if they actually use the gifts you present to musicians or if they even remember them as they receive so many I am sure it would be hard to use or remember them all.

However I later got the chance to ask Bucky. March 2010 I again was granted the opportunity to interview Bucky Covington. At the conclusion of the interview I mentioned to Bucky that my daughter and I had presented him with a couple gifts at the Festival of the Bells show he did in Hillsboro Ohio. I told him my daughter and I had presented him with a TCB dog tag necklace and a DVD. I asked him if he watched the DVD and if so other than him who else was in that DVD. His reply was one that proved he remembered it and made my daughter and I very happy.

"Oh my goodness, I remember the necklace, how long ago was that maybe a year and half, two years?" I remember the necklace. A buddy of mine was always talking about TCB and I never knew what it meant. By the time I found out I met you all shortly after that. But I cannot remember what was on the DVD. I know I watched it, because I watch all of them."

I told him it was you and Elvis. "Oh Yes! You put the old Elvis with me and we were doing Suspicious Minds. Yes I do remember that. Anything that has got me on it I watch it. Tell your daughter I sure do remember that and I think it is still on the back of the bus. The back of the bus is my bedroom on the bus. What was your daughter's name again?"

I told him Ashley and he said. "Please tell Ashley I said hi and give her my best." Needless to say when my 15 year old daughter heard the recording she was very excited. My celebrity encounter meeting Bucky Covington is one I will never forget and one that I know my daughter will treasure forever. She has always been a huge fan of Bucky but meeting him and then with him remembering the gifts and giving her a shout out has cemented her admiration of Bucky Covington.