Hollywood calling for local 'American Idol' contestants

Feb. 20—A Gattman singer-songwriter raised on classic rock and an aspiring Amory singer, who is a fixture at Bill's Hamburgers, caught the attention of viewers throughout America on Feb. 19's season premiere of "American Idol."

Colin Stough, who graduated from Hatley last year, and Zachariah Smith, who moved to Amory from Indiana after meeting his wife, were among hopefuls to perform in front of celebrity judges Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and Katy Perry.

Both of them earned their tickets to Hollywood.

"I walked in there, and I've got a really bad confidence issue and a really bad stage fright issue. What helps me through that is to interact with the people first before I play. At the end of the day, if you really want it, a camera isn't going to bother you. That's the way I looked at it. I've got a one-track mind and I just went in there and did it," Stough said.

He performed "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd after a video introduction filmed in Amory and Gattman explaining his family's bond and love for horses.

Smith auditioned with "Hurts So Good" by John Mellencamp following his introduction, also filmed in Amory, which focused on his job cooking at Bill's Hamburgers.

"Not only am I doing this for me and my family's lives, but I figured this would shine some light on Monroe County and I would appreciate all the support I can get," Smith said.

Bringing an old thing back

Listening to classic rock and old country growing up, Stough started playing guitar when he was 7 or 8 but didn't realize his vocal talent until he was 12 or 13. He started putting his music out three or four years ago and has gained a following.

"It's always something I'd had on the backburner for a really long time and more and more people say, 'Hey man, you really ought to try to do something with that,' and I finally start listening," he said.

His mother, Nara, signed him up to audition in New Orleans for "American Idol," and she was featured on-camera and heard the news he was going to Hollywood.

He loved the experience of getting to meet like-minded artists while there.

He has written songs about dreams from the night before and experiences from years past, always wanting to write something different.

"I like being different and understand I can't go out there and be just like Hank Williams Jr. or Waylon Jennings or Elvis or Lynyrd Skynyrd; I've got to be me," he said.

Coming from Gattman, with a population of less than 100 people, Stough illustrates how people can live out their dreams, no matter how small their hometown is.

"At the end of the day, it's really just about how bad you want it. That's something that always pushed me. I look at the small town where I'm from and love it. I don't want to just be working swing shift my whole life or driving a truck. I want to do something different," he said. "I know there are some kids who really try at music in Gattman. My cousin played every bar here and his dreams didn't work out, but he told me wanted mine to and I still play with him today."

Some of Stough's bigger inspirations are Skynyrd, Stevie Ray Vaughn and the Georgia Satellites, but his biggest inspiration now is up and coming artist Marcus King.

"I've watched that dude ever since he was like me, playing small places once a week and now he's touring all over the world. He's got that old country, southern rock, blues kind of thing going on, and I eat it up," Stough said.

For his first couple of years of songwriting, Stough only knew how to write sad songs but is evolving to find his own place in the business.

"I got to talking to a guy, Gary Gentry, probably a year ago who is a songwriter in Nashville and I covered one of his songs. He reached back out to me and he told me not to give up. He said, 'If you want to make it, you've got to write a hit song that's better than the number 1 hit song,'" Stough said.

He was encouraged by Gentry saying the older country sound is coming back.

'With or without' this dream

Smith, a Wabash, Indiana native, met his wife, Crysta, who is from Amory.

"I used to be on a youth evangelistic team and we traveled around the country and sang at different churches. My father-in-law is a preacher at Hendersonville Free Will Baptist Church outside of Nashville. I knew the family pretty well. When I got married to Crysta, Reid (Wilkerson) needed somebody to run Bill's Hamburgers so he offered us the position and, of course, we took it because we wanted to keep it in the family," he said.

Smith has performed live music at Bill's, in addition to The Coffee Pot during last year's Cruisin' Amory. He hopes the TV exposure will help feed into Amory's live music scene.

"It's not every day you get to have a Sunday night premiere on 'American Idol.' To have this opportunity for not just me and my family but for even the business as well, I think overall a lot of people will get excited about it and I can pick up more gigs in the area. I think it will be great for Monroe County as well," Smith said. "Monroe County definitely has a special place for small town singers."

His inspirations range from Michael Jackson and Queen to The Weeknd and Ariana Grande, but his setlists include the likes of Bob Seger and Bon Jovi.

"Mostly, I love to do rock songs. They liven up the show no matter where you're playing. I think if you can pick a good song, sing a good song and perform a good song, you've got all the ingredients for success," he said.

First considering auditioning for "American Idol" when he was 15, Smith opted to allow himself time to gain more experience before this venture. After making it through preliminary rounds, he auditioned in Nashville.

"You go in there with 200, maybe 300 people in the holding room and everybody's singing and you start thinking, 'Wow, there's such great competition here and so many great voices and start thinking to yourself if you really have a shot and how far you can go with it. I think, for me, once I stopped listening to the voices inside my head and got on the horse and start running with it, I just started having fun in the process. It definitely inspired me to just go in there and do my best in the Nashville audition," Smith said.