June 14, 2024 • 12 mins
American Idol contestant Kennedy Reid talks about her experience on the show, starting her career in music, and previews her performance at this weekend's Lyndon Summer Festival...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Are you Kennedy Reid? I amKennedy. I've seen you on TV.
Hello. People say that to mesometimes I've seen you on TV, and
I always start pointing, like Isay, I'm the You're the weather man,
aren't you? And I'll say,yeah, it's partly cloudy up here
in Maine and down in Florida they'rehaving some rain right now, and there's
a little snow out west. Ijust play along. I've seen you on
(00:22):
American Idol. Yes, I havebeen on American Idol. Are you a
Sellersburg person? I am. Yes. It's good to have you here.
Let's let people hear what you do. Kennedy Reid. How about that?
All right? I think this isa Reba McIntyre song. Oh I saw
Lionel Ritchie stand up. He aboutlost his mind when he saw it,
when he heard you hit those notesin there. Yeah, that was pretty
(00:42):
cool. Really he was here lastnight? Did he did he call and
say, hey, come to theshow. I wish he would have,
but I think we were both alittle busy. Oh you were sorry about
that? And then Luke Bryan wason there, and was Katie the other
judge that night. Yes, yeah, well they all seem to have done
pretty well for themselves, But Ithink you're a better Oh wow, I
like to say to that, Kennedy, I'm not sure about that. Oh
(01:04):
well, I'm just being a gentleman. That's how that works. First off,
do we have to pay Reba McIntyrea dollar for me playing that on
the radio? Do you know?Is that how the law works in the
music land? You know, Ireally don't know. She's got enough dollars
anyway. Tell me about the pressureof being on those shows like that.
First off, where did you audition? Yeah? So I audition in Los
(01:26):
Angeles, California. Huh And itwas a lot of pressure for sure,
very nerve racked. Do you getthere like the day before, several days
before so you can kind of collectyourself. Yeah, so we arrived two
days before, and they actually haveyou do a lot of filming as if
you've already received your golden ticket,even though you may not even receive one.
(01:49):
They go ahead and get that footageso that it's ready for when you
do get This is really good forpeople who are in the filming business.
You know, people that have camerasand do all that business. They have
a lot of work because how manycandidates were there? Do you have any
idea? Was there one hundred twohundred three and how many people were there?
I want to say in Los Angelesmaybe around three hundred and fifty O
my goodness alone. Yeah, it'sa lot of background stories that most of
(02:13):
it they just record over. Yeah, yeah, it is. There's a
lot of people that unfortunately never evenmake it to TV right exactly, there's
no way they would all fit inthere. So what did they have you
do? Walk down the street andwave at some mansion or you know,
oh, mccantire's house. No,so it was just a lot of like
(02:34):
smile at the camera, pretend likeyou're on a walk or you know,
things like that, but also doa happy dands act like you just got
your golden ticket and you're so excitedeven though I really didn't know, right,
you don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, because you have an
audition, it's just that did yousing already for some of the producers or
somebody on a lower level at thattime, so they heard you and they
(02:57):
know she's got some games. Yeah. I had to do three kind of
preliminary auditions before I even got invitedto Los Angeles. Yeah. Yeah,
and then so that's kind of nerveracking. And then and then what do
you do the rest of the time. You don't, You can't think of
anything else. It's just you know, like if Thursday's your performance day,
it's not like you're going to goshopping and carry on and let your mind
(03:19):
wind or you're just focused. Right. Yeah. Absolutely, I was very
focused. You know, I didwant to go out there, and I
wanted to kind of sight see andhave a good time. But definitely,
up until the day that I thatI got to audition, I was very
nervous and I really couldn't think aboutanything else. Weren't these shows just on
this this winter, this past severalmonths ago? Yeah? When did you
shoot them? Last year? Westarted filming in October and I believe the
(03:43):
show aired in February. Yeah,that's how that goes. So it's several
months and then you already know whathappens, and then you can't tell anybody
or they're going to pull out yourtoenails or something. Yeah. Yeah,
so we do already know what happensup until the live shows. Yeah,
and you made the top twenty.Yeah, I actually got to perform in
two of the live rounds. Yeah, is that even more nerve racking?
(04:04):
When it's live, it doesn't reallymatter. You're still going to perform and
there's cameras around, so it's allthe same deal. It is nerve racking,
yes, but even when it's notlive, it's it's still the same
vibe. Like you only get onego around. So when you go out
on the stage and you do yoursong, whether you mess up or not,
that's gonna make the final cut.So there's no there's no reason I
(04:26):
need to start over. Yeah,nothing like that. And then I'm always
curious about this. Do they putthe lyrics on a teleprompter in case your
brain freezes? Absolutely not. That'sactually my biggest fear. Of course.
Yeah, we all go to thatthing. Oh say Ken, is it
Ken? Can I see? Canyou see? You know? Right right?
(04:46):
No, they don't do that.It's definitely a fair competition. Yeah,
well, anyway, and then whenyou walk off stage, is there
somebody like family, some friends,somebody who's there to hug you and tell
you you're it's okay for some people, Yeah, And then there was some
people that went out to these locationsand didn't have anybody. But the good
(05:09):
news is the American Idol contestants,the producers, we were all like a
family. So even if you didn'thave anybody from back home with you,
you still had people there to celebrateyou. Had you been on television before
you made it to American Idol.No, actually that was my first time.
Answered. That's like, that's likea whole new world. Lights and
(05:29):
people pointing, and you're trying tothink about your thing, but there's other
people moving around and sometimes it's distractingfor me. Yeah, I'm looking and
I'm trying to think about what I'msaying off the cuff, and there's people
going around and somebody's going Jimmy broughtto sandwiches, you know, and it's
like, hey, I'm trying tothink over here. Yeah. Yeah,
it's definitely a nerve wracking with camerasright in your face. And that's the
(05:50):
thing. Even on the live shows. I mean, there's times where you're
performing your song and that's part ofbeing in the competition. You have to
find your cameras and know exactly whereto look at what time. And it's
a lot more than just singing.It's truly, you have to be a
performer. Do you, as aperformer look at certain people in the audience
(06:10):
and use them as a focal pointjust because you're getting some joy or some
sort of reaction that you want.Sometimes, yes, if I see that
there's some people that are having areally good time, you know, I
tend to kind of gravitate towards thosepeople because I know that I'm doing something
right. Yeah, But a lotof times no, I won't focus on
the audience because it's scary. It'sabout staging too though. It's where you
(06:31):
have to hit a mark at acertain time in the song, and in
your mind there's a choreography in termsof you have to move a certain way
with the song because you're gonna bamsomething out and you're gonna raise your fist
or whatever you're going to do.So that's all part of it too.
Absolutely. Yeah. And actually whenJelly Roll was my mentor while I was
in Hawaii, we actually did kindof choreograph, you could say, fancy.
(06:57):
We put some things in there whereI did like a little dip with
the microphone and I walked across thestage. Something that Jelly Roll told me
was to make sure I use mywhole real estate. He said, use
that entire stage walk to and frombecause the people on the sides are just
as important as the people in themiddle. That guy's career is unbelievable.
How far he's come. Obviously,his story is amazing, and he's as
(07:19):
a mentor had to be great becausehe's fought through so much. Absolutely,
Yeah, he was definitely amazing onand off camera. He's totally real the
way he is on cameras the wayhe is off camera. Oh yeah,
it was just a great experience withhim. I don't think anybody questions that
his genuine nature is really impressive.That's for sure. All right. So
(07:40):
what's next for you? Are you'rerecording something? Yeah, So I am
currently working on an EP, whichis like a half album. I'm currently
recording some things in Nashville. Idid just debut my very first original song,
and I was opening for a TGShepherd and mcmaville, Tennessee, which
(08:00):
is about an hour outside of Nashville'swhere I got to perform the song.
It went over really well. Gotten. Is it online now? This is
the song? Yeah, you canfind the live performance online. We've not
released the recording yet, I see, and that'll be coming once Nashville polishes
it. That is correct. Yeah, that's how that goes. I don't
know anything about recording or anything,so I'm just I'm just asking you for
(08:22):
a little direction here. So that'swhat happens. Is they and then you
get final approval before it's released oris there some manager or some management team
that goes let us handle this?Yeah? No, So I do have
a manager. His name's Ron Johnson. He's with on Fire Concerts. He's
been really awesome. He has beenin the studio with me. There's also
you know, a couple of producers, and then of course the people that
(08:45):
have helped write my material, Tommyand Teresa Crossland. They are absolutely amazing.
They're in the studio as well,so it's a team effort. But
they do kind of say here's thefinished product, and they definitely let me
say whether or not I want somethingchanged or so on and so. Yeah.
But it's good to take advice whenpeople have already walked a path.
Oh absolutely, yeah. And that'sthe thing about me. I'm I'm always
(09:07):
open to suggestions, especially to peoplethat have been in the music business for
much longer than I have. I'mdefinitely able to be molded. Molded,
So that's well, yeah, Imean that's how we all learn following somebody
else a right. So you're goingto be performing at the Linden Fair Yeah,
the limit Linden Summer Festival. Yeah, Linden's Summer festival, and that
(09:28):
would be what Saturday night, Yeah, Saturday night, you're the headliner.
Yeah, you're excited about that.How many songs? Yeah? How many
songs? Yeah, you're gonna you'regonna do ten? I mean you do
six? I mean how much timedo they give you? Yeah, so
we're actually going to be doing twoforty five minute sets. Oh my goodness.
Yeah, we've got about thirty songspicked out and it's going to be
(09:48):
off the chain. Yeah. Yeah, go well, Kennedy, it's an
honor to meet you. And uh, just like I've said, the many
other people have been on me.Carly Peers, for one, I told
her, after you become really famous, don't act like you don't know me.
Were never we're friends. Now youalready gave me your phone number because
(10:11):
I sent you those pictures a fewmonths ago, So I don't say,
oh, it's that guy, justdon't don't block me. No, absolutely
not. All right, So whattime can people see you on Saturday?
Do we know Diana? Seven thirty? She's over there pantomime. I'm over
there and that's called Robinson Parks CloseRobsie in park uh in London. Yeah,
(10:35):
that's gonna be great. And youhave performers with you. Yeah,
so I'm gonna have a full bandwith me. The full band's going to
be out there. This is thisone of the bandmates over here? Yeah.
Yeah, So jean Anne Parker playedfor me on American Idol. She's
going to be playing for me atthe Linden Summer Festival as well. Gee,
Anne, you look like the kindof girl will go right up to
Luke Bryan and kiss him on themouth with tongue. Absolutely. Oh my
(11:00):
god. He was winking at meand I'm like, I need to know
this guy. You have a devilishlook in your eye. I can tell
you are a party girl. Iam You played keyboards? I play keyboards,
yes, all right. I playedfor several years for John Conlly and
that's how Kennedy and I met.Well that's awesome. Yeah, so I'm
(11:22):
kind of one of those people that'shad a career in it, and so
now we're best friends, inseparable.I love where this is going. Indeed,
all right, looking forward to seeingSaturday at the London Summer Festival and
that's fantastic. I'm very happy foryou, glad to hear things are going
well for you, and I knowwhen this record comes out you're going to
(11:43):
be very excited and be a bigstar. And then I want to text
you and you go, hey,Tare, when can I come back on
the show. That's what I'm goingto hear, right, Yes, yes,
yes for sure. Oh that's soawesome. Kennedy Reid last name is
spelled ri E I D. Youcan find her online of course. And
when's that new music going to bereleased? Towards the end of this month.
Are you Kennedy Reid? I amKennedy. I've seen you on TV.
Hello. People say that to mesometimes I've seen you on TV, and
I always start pointing, like Isay, I'm the You're the weather man,
aren't you? And I'll say,yeah, it's partly cloudy up here
in Maine and down in Florida they'rehaving some rain right now, and there's
a little snow out west. Ijust play along. I've seen you on
(00:22):
American Idol. Yes, I havebeen on American Idol. Are you a
Sellersburg person? I am. Yes. It's good to have you here.
Let's let people hear what you do. Kennedy Reid. How about that?
All right? I think this isa Reba McIntyre song. Oh I saw
Lionel Ritchie stand up. He aboutlost his mind when he saw it,
when he heard you hit those notesin there. Yeah, that was pretty
(00:42):
cool. Really he was here lastnight? Did he did he call and
say, hey, come to theshow. I wish he would have,
but I think we were both alittle busy. Oh you were sorry about
that? And then Luke Bryan wason there, and was Katie the other
judge that night. Yes, yeah, well they all seem to have done
pretty well for themselves, But Ithink you're a better Oh wow, I
like to say to that, Kennedy, I'm not sure about that. Oh
(01:04):
well, I'm just being a gentleman. That's how that works. First off,
do we have to pay Reba McIntyrea dollar for me playing that on
the radio? Do you know?Is that how the law works in the
music land? You know, Ireally don't know. She's got enough dollars
anyway. Tell me about the pressureof being on those shows like that.
First off, where did you audition? Yeah? So I audition in Los
(01:26):
Angeles, California. Huh And itwas a lot of pressure for sure,
very nerve racked. Do you getthere like the day before, several days
before so you can kind of collectyourself. Yeah, so we arrived two
days before, and they actually haveyou do a lot of filming as if
you've already received your golden ticket,even though you may not even receive one.
(01:49):
They go ahead and get that footageso that it's ready for when you
do get This is really good forpeople who are in the filming business.
You know, people that have camerasand do all that business. They have
a lot of work because how manycandidates were there? Do you have any
idea? Was there one hundred twohundred three and how many people were there?
I want to say in Los Angelesmaybe around three hundred and fifty O
my goodness alone. Yeah, it'sa lot of background stories that most of
(02:13):
it they just record over. Yeah, yeah, it is. There's a
lot of people that unfortunately never evenmake it to TV right exactly, there's
no way they would all fit inthere. So what did they have you
do? Walk down the street andwave at some mansion or you know,
oh, mccantire's house. No,so it was just a lot of like
(02:34):
smile at the camera, pretend likeyou're on a walk or you know,
things like that, but also doa happy dands act like you just got
your golden ticket and you're so excitedeven though I really didn't know, right,
you don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, because you have an
audition, it's just that did yousing already for some of the producers or
somebody on a lower level at thattime, so they heard you and they
(02:57):
know she's got some games. Yeah. I had to do three kind of
preliminary auditions before I even got invitedto Los Angeles. Yeah. Yeah,
and then so that's kind of nerveracking. And then and then what do
you do the rest of the time. You don't, You can't think of
anything else. It's just you know, like if Thursday's your performance day,
it's not like you're going to goshopping and carry on and let your mind
(03:19):
wind or you're just focused. Right. Yeah. Absolutely, I was very
focused. You know, I didwant to go out there, and I
wanted to kind of sight see andhave a good time. But definitely,
up until the day that I thatI got to audition, I was very
nervous and I really couldn't think aboutanything else. Weren't these shows just on
this this winter, this past severalmonths ago? Yeah? When did you
shoot them? Last year? Westarted filming in October and I believe the
(03:43):
show aired in February. Yeah,that's how that goes. So it's several
months and then you already know whathappens, and then you can't tell anybody
or they're going to pull out yourtoenails or something. Yeah. Yeah,
so we do already know what happensup until the live shows. Yeah,
and you made the top twenty.Yeah, I actually got to perform in
two of the live rounds. Yeah, is that even more nerve racking?
(04:04):
When it's live, it doesn't reallymatter. You're still going to perform and
there's cameras around, so it's allthe same deal. It is nerve racking,
yes, but even when it's notlive, it's it's still the same
vibe. Like you only get onego around. So when you go out
on the stage and you do yoursong, whether you mess up or not,
that's gonna make the final cut.So there's no there's no reason I
(04:26):
need to start over. Yeah,nothing like that. And then I'm always
curious about this. Do they putthe lyrics on a teleprompter in case your
brain freezes? Absolutely not. That'sactually my biggest fear. Of course.
Yeah, we all go to thatthing. Oh say Ken, is it
Ken? Can I see? Canyou see? You know? Right right?
(04:46):
No, they don't do that.It's definitely a fair competition. Yeah,
well, anyway, and then whenyou walk off stage, is there
somebody like family, some friends,somebody who's there to hug you and tell
you you're it's okay for some people, Yeah, And then there was some
people that went out to these locationsand didn't have anybody. But the good
(05:09):
news is the American Idol contestants,the producers, we were all like a
family. So even if you didn'thave anybody from back home with you,
you still had people there to celebrateyou. Had you been on television before
you made it to American Idol.No, actually that was my first time.
Answered. That's like, that's likea whole new world. Lights and
(05:29):
people pointing, and you're trying tothink about your thing, but there's other
people moving around and sometimes it's distractingfor me. Yeah, I'm looking and
I'm trying to think about what I'msaying off the cuff, and there's people
going around and somebody's going Jimmy broughtto sandwiches, you know, and it's
like, hey, I'm trying tothink over here. Yeah. Yeah,
it's definitely a nerve wracking with camerasright in your face. And that's the
(05:50):
thing. Even on the live shows. I mean, there's times where you're
performing your song and that's part ofbeing in the competition. You have to
find your cameras and know exactly whereto look at what time. And it's
a lot more than just singing.It's truly, you have to be a
performer. Do you, as aperformer look at certain people in the audience
(06:10):
and use them as a focal pointjust because you're getting some joy or some
sort of reaction that you want.Sometimes, yes, if I see that
there's some people that are having areally good time, you know, I
tend to kind of gravitate towards thosepeople because I know that I'm doing something
right. Yeah, But a lotof times no, I won't focus on
the audience because it's scary. It'sabout staging too though. It's where you
(06:31):
have to hit a mark at acertain time in the song, and in
your mind there's a choreography in termsof you have to move a certain way
with the song because you're gonna bamsomething out and you're gonna raise your fist
or whatever you're going to do.So that's all part of it too.
Absolutely. Yeah. And actually whenJelly Roll was my mentor while I was
in Hawaii, we actually did kindof choreograph, you could say, fancy.
(06:57):
We put some things in there whereI did like a little dip with
the microphone and I walked across thestage. Something that Jelly Roll told me
was to make sure I use mywhole real estate. He said, use
that entire stage walk to and frombecause the people on the sides are just
as important as the people in themiddle. That guy's career is unbelievable.
How far he's come. Obviously,his story is amazing, and he's as
(07:19):
a mentor had to be great becausehe's fought through so much. Absolutely,
Yeah, he was definitely amazing onand off camera. He's totally real the
way he is on cameras the wayhe is off camera. Oh yeah,
it was just a great experience withhim. I don't think anybody questions that
his genuine nature is really impressive.That's for sure. All right. So
(07:40):
what's next for you? Are you'rerecording something? Yeah, So I am
currently working on an EP, whichis like a half album. I'm currently
recording some things in Nashville. Idid just debut my very first original song,
and I was opening for a TGShepherd and mcmaville, Tennessee, which
(08:00):
is about an hour outside of Nashville'swhere I got to perform the song.
It went over really well. Gotten. Is it online now? This is
the song? Yeah, you canfind the live performance online. We've not
released the recording yet, I see, and that'll be coming once Nashville polishes
it. That is correct. Yeah, that's how that goes. I don't
know anything about recording or anything,so I'm just I'm just asking you for
(08:22):
a little direction here. So that'swhat happens. Is they and then you
get final approval before it's released oris there some manager or some management team
that goes let us handle this?Yeah? No, So I do have
a manager. His name's Ron Johnson. He's with on Fire Concerts. He's
been really awesome. He has beenin the studio with me. There's also
you know, a couple of producers, and then of course the people that
(08:45):
have helped write my material, Tommyand Teresa Crossland. They are absolutely amazing.
They're in the studio as well,so it's a team effort. But
they do kind of say here's thefinished product, and they definitely let me
say whether or not I want somethingchanged or so on and so. Yeah.
But it's good to take advice whenpeople have already walked a path.
Oh absolutely, yeah. And that'sthe thing about me. I'm I'm always
(09:07):
open to suggestions, especially to peoplethat have been in the music business for
much longer than I have. I'mdefinitely able to be molded. Molded,
So that's well, yeah, Imean that's how we all learn following somebody
else a right. So you're goingto be performing at the Linden Fair Yeah,
the limit Linden Summer Festival. Yeah, Linden's Summer festival, and that
(09:28):
would be what Saturday night, Yeah, Saturday night, you're the headliner.
Yeah, you're excited about that.How many songs? Yeah? How many
songs? Yeah, you're gonna you'regonna do ten? I mean you do
six? I mean how much timedo they give you? Yeah, so
we're actually going to be doing twoforty five minute sets. Oh my goodness.
Yeah, we've got about thirty songspicked out and it's going to be
(09:48):
off the chain. Yeah. Yeah, go well, Kennedy, it's an
honor to meet you. And uh, just like I've said, the many
other people have been on me.Carly Peers, for one, I told
her, after you become really famous, don't act like you don't know me.
Were never we're friends. Now youalready gave me your phone number because
(10:11):
I sent you those pictures a fewmonths ago, So I don't say,
oh, it's that guy, justdon't don't block me. No, absolutely
not. All right, So whattime can people see you on Saturday?
Do we know Diana? Seven thirty? She's over there pantomime. I'm over
there and that's called Robinson Parks CloseRobsie in park uh in London. Yeah,
(10:35):
that's gonna be great. And youhave performers with you. Yeah,
so I'm gonna have a full bandwith me. The full band's going to
be out there. This is thisone of the bandmates over here? Yeah.
Yeah, So jean Anne Parker playedfor me on American Idol. She's
going to be playing for me atthe Linden Summer Festival as well. Gee,
Anne, you look like the kindof girl will go right up to
Luke Bryan and kiss him on themouth with tongue. Absolutely. Oh my
(11:00):
god. He was winking at meand I'm like, I need to know
this guy. You have a devilishlook in your eye. I can tell
you are a party girl. Iam You played keyboards? I play keyboards,
yes, all right. I playedfor several years for John Conlly and
that's how Kennedy and I met.Well that's awesome. Yeah, so I'm
(11:22):
kind of one of those people that'shad a career in it, and so
now we're best friends, inseparable.I love where this is going. Indeed,
all right, looking forward to seeingSaturday at the London Summer Festival and
that's fantastic. I'm very happy foryou, glad to hear things are going
well for you, and I knowwhen this record comes out you're going to
(11:43):
be very excited and be a bigstar. And then I want to text
you and you go, hey,Tare, when can I come back on
the show. That's what I'm goingto hear, right, Yes, yes,
yes for sure. Oh that's soawesome. Kennedy Reid last name is
spelled ri E I D. Youcan find her online of course. And
when's that new music going to bereleased? Towards the end of this month.
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