George Clinton Ready To Tear The Roof Off The Sucker… Country-Style

noah | November 6, 2008 2:30 am

A third season of Gone Country–the CMT show in which artists attempt to make over their careers so they can enter the hotly contended “country crossover” market–has been announced by the network, and among the stars hoping to follow in the footsteps of season-two victor Sebastian Bach are a lot of actual famous musicians, like George Clinton and Micky Dolenz and, uh, Justin Guarini. (OK, so maybe a couple of people this time out just like being on TV.) After the jump, we handicap the contestants.

Richard Grieco What, was Peter DeLuise unavailable? 25-1

Tara Conner The deposed Miss USA didn’t have to compete in a talent competition, but her past cocaine woes will surely give her some prime tear-in-my-beer material. 10-1

Justin Guarini He’s still waiting for his moment like this. I don’t think this show will have it either. 8-1

Sheila E. Well, I guess this means The Next Great American Band isn’t coming back. 7-1

Taylor Dayne She’ll have to rein in the brassiness that made “Tell It To My Heart” one of the greatest songs ever (oh, you know I’m right), but hey, with a few production tweaks here and there, “Love Will Lead You Back” could slide right onto country stations’ playlists. 4-1

George Clinton One of the favorites. The man has a doctorate in funkensteining, after all, and I’m sure the skills he acquired on the way to his degree will help his quest for country fire. 5-3

Micky Dolenz Is there any way dude doesn’t win this competition? He has great comic timing, he probably learned something about the country side of the business from spending all that time with Mike Nesmith, and he can drum and sing simultaneously. The first order of business should be reworking “PO Box 9847” as something twangier:

CMT brings back “Gone Country” [Hollywood Reporter]