Freddy B ETA Spotlite

The ETA Spotlight is a column written by ETA’s themselves (ranging from those just starting out to those who are fully established in their careers)........about something they’ve accomplished, an experience they’ve had, something that might be of value to other ETA’s, or -- if just starting out -- simply to introduce themselves. Suitable photos should also be provided. Some of the articles will be in response to invitations we issue to ETA’s whose stories we feel will be of interest -- while other articles will be initiated by ETA’s who feel they have an interesting topic to write about. LadyLuckMusic/ETARadio will make the final selection for this feature. We look forward to hearing from ETA’s around the world. ETAspotlight@ladyluckmusic.com

First of all, before I give you a brief history of where my career as an Elvis Tribute Artist is today, my successes could not have been accomplished without the help from very special people like Joanna of Lady Luck Music who thinks enough of me to allow me to be Spotlighted on this month’s show, and I am very appreciative of her and her staff for helping me along the way.

I guess my singing and entertaining career started the same way as that of most of the ETA's that I know did....you’re out with some friends having a good time in a karaoke bar and someone dares you to get up in front of hundreds of people and sing a song.

There were, at the time, only two singers that I really admired in the music business for their vocal abilities. One was my favorite country artist, Marty Robbins, and the other was of course Elvis Presley. I was very familiar with both of these artists but until March of 2001 I had never in my life stood in front of an audience and dared to sing. With a little help from my friend Mr. Jack Daniels I decided to give it a shot at the karaoke bar that night and this is where the roller coaster ride started.

After singing a couple of songs from each of these performers, I figured out very quickly that the audience could not get enough of Elvis’ songs and I started becoming a regular customer and singing and practicing every weekend.

After about 3 weeks of singing and practicing I signed up for a Karaoke Contest in my town called "The Big Bucks Karaoke Contest" and the Grand Prize was $5000. To my surprise, I won the contest singing Elvis' “American Trilogy.” Someone actually filmed this contest and gave me a copy, and I sent it to the producers of a new T.V. program called Ed McMahon’s Next Big Star. I was accepted on the show and made it all the way to the finals. I was beaten in the finals but I took second place in a field of 60 contestants and really felt as if I were a winner.

I then started getting gigs from big corporations such as Opryland Hotel, Six Flags Theme Parks, and various other corporations around the USA and Canada, but soon ran into a huge problem. These corporations needed me to perform during the weekdays but it would interfere with my full-time job with United Parcel Service. I decided to organize a company called Freddy.B Entertainment and build a website called www.elvisforhire.com and to find some of the best ETA's in the business to be a part of my site . And when I could not be available in certain states to perform myself, I could refer the work to my ETA friends and hopefully they could get some very good gigs out of this. So far I only have 6 or 7 guys that I refer work to, but I am always looking for ETA's to add to my site who like to do the corporate gigs.

I currently perform a steady show for the Gibson Guitar Showcase (www.gibsonshowcase.com) in their beautiful 600-seat theater and feel very fortunate to work with the management of Gibson Guitar.

I am also co-organizing a show with Joanna of Lady Luck Music called the "1st Annual International King of Kings Peoples Choice Awards” and it will be held at the Gibson Showcase here in Nashville, Tennessee next door to the Grand Ole Opry and what an impressive lineup we have for this show. Gibson Guitar is one of our sponsors and they will be presenting 3 Custom Elvis Limited edition Guitars to 3 of our performers along with other Sponsors such as B & K Jumpsuits.. more details to come on this show!

As I said before, I appreciate being a part of ETA radio and the last 3 1/2 years as a performer and as an organizer has really been a blessing to my life. All of my successes have been possible because of the great people that I have met over the past few years, but I owe most of it to my favorite Entertainer of all.....Elvis Presley.