Post by 1kennychesney on May 28, 2007 15:35:11 GMT -5
Sevierville's Dennis Murphy tries to be 'The Next Best Thing' as Kenny Chesney tribute artist
Dennis Murphy is used to being stared at. For fingers to be pointed in his direction and for people to approach him and ask: Are you Kenny Chesney?
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Obviously he's not, but he often has a hard time convincing people. For two years he's used that to his advantage by becoming a part-time tribute artist, portraying Chesney around the country.
Beginning Wednesday, that talent could make him $100,000 richer as he competes in the new ABC reality show, "The Next Best Thing." The two-hour premiere will begin at 8 p.m. with auditions. The show will then air Wednesdays at 8 p.m., following the competitors - who impersonate well-known celebrities - through the process.
It's a mix between two popular shows, he said.
"It's 70 percent 'Saturday Night Live' and 30 percent 'American Idol,'" Murhpy said. "It's lighthearted, but there are incredibly talented people who make a living doing this, and who are good people."
Murphy, the drummer for Dollywood's Kingdom Heirs, said people began pointing out his resemblance to Chesney in the late 1990s when the Knoxville native first started making a name for himself in country music.
"When I'd go out, and I didn't change anything about who I am or what I do, I'd go out like this," he said, dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a T-shirt, flip-flops and a Tennessee Vols cap. "We'd be at Splash Country and see people stare and I'd think, 'What in the world are they looking at?'" Then the question came, are you Kenny Chesney?
"And after a couple of years of that, I knew that there was a market out there for it," he said. "One thing led to another and I found the right people and made the right contacts and started doing little look-alike stuff."
First, he would show up to take pictures with Chesney fans. Then he decided to take it a step further and began performing some of Chesney's songs.
"I'm an entertainer anyway, so I got his voice down and I've been doing the performing for about two years now," Murphy said. "Singing was never one of my real strong points, but I worked on it and just practiced."
Murphy performs under the stage name Denny as Kenny.
"I was Dennis in school growing up and to everybody else, and I always hated Denny," he said. "I was like, 'Mom, don't call me Denny when we're around adult friends.' Now I'm known as Denny as Kenny, and my Web site is DennyasKenny.com."
While it does take some work, being a tribute artist has its perks. He's traveled the country and had meals paid for and flights upgraded to first class.
Flying from Branson, Mo., to Los Angeles, Murphy checked in under his own name and found his flight was delayed. He noticed the ticket agent looking at him as he checked the computers for another flight.
"I was like, 'Man is there no way I can get (an earlier flight), I need to get to L.A.?' He said, 'Hang on a second and I'll look up something for you.'" And I get up there and he takes my I.D. and everything and said, 'I've got you on the next flight out of here.' I say OK, thanks."
The next thing Murphy knows, he's approached by a woman from airline security who asks if he's Kenny Chesney.
"I say, 'No, I'm a look-alike.' She said, 'Well the ticket agent swears you're Kenny Chesney traveling with a fake I.D. to throw people off. Could you go over and just meet him? Don't say nothing, just go over and shake his hand and we'll get him for a few minutes.'
"So she motions him to the end of the counter and he walks down there and he's sweating. He said, 'My wife just saw you in concert last week,' and before I could say anything he said, 'Give me that ticket,' and he took the ticket out of my hand, walked up and was gone about two minutes, and he came back and said, 'Here Mr. Chesney, you're flying first class all the way to L.A.'"
The security officer urged him to go along with it.
"And then he did tell me, 'You're either Kenny Chesney or you just pulled one of the biggest jokes,'" Murphy said. "But I didn't pull nothing."
He does feel bad sometimes when people get excited about meeting someone they believe is Kenny Chesney only to find out it's not.
"I feel more bad about after they've made a big deal out of it, and they've freaked out on you because they knew it initially," he said. "Because they've just met, in their mind, somebody that they love and idolize and to me, what was the harm in that."
Murphy has met Chesney, introduced by Chesney's father who once lived in Townsend and was a frequent visitor to the Dollywood show. After finding out Murphy impersonated his son, the elder Chesney would ask Murphy to visit people he knew wanted to meet his son.
"He has a hoot with it," Murhpy said. "He took me to a concert and we were sitting in the hotel ... and I'm just like this right here and of course it was causing a scene," he said. "He said, OK, you've got some people coming, get you a Sharpie out and get ready to sign an autograph."
Murphy does not sign Chesney's name when he signs autographs.
"I scribble Denny as Kenny, but they're so freaked out they don't pay attention," he said.
Once the finalists of "The Next Best Thing" are announced, it will be up to viewers to decide which ones look and sound most like the celebrity they are impersonating. Unlike some full-time tribute artists, Murphy said he doesn't have a lot to lose.
"So I thought, why not. It will be a great experience and I guess there's really no such thing as bad publicity," he said. "So I said I'm going to go for it. Never been one to miss out on something that comes your way."
Dennis Murphy is used to being stared at. For fingers to be pointed in his direction and for people to approach him and ask: Are you Kenny Chesney?
Advertisement
Obviously he's not, but he often has a hard time convincing people. For two years he's used that to his advantage by becoming a part-time tribute artist, portraying Chesney around the country.
Beginning Wednesday, that talent could make him $100,000 richer as he competes in the new ABC reality show, "The Next Best Thing." The two-hour premiere will begin at 8 p.m. with auditions. The show will then air Wednesdays at 8 p.m., following the competitors - who impersonate well-known celebrities - through the process.
It's a mix between two popular shows, he said.
"It's 70 percent 'Saturday Night Live' and 30 percent 'American Idol,'" Murhpy said. "It's lighthearted, but there are incredibly talented people who make a living doing this, and who are good people."
Murphy, the drummer for Dollywood's Kingdom Heirs, said people began pointing out his resemblance to Chesney in the late 1990s when the Knoxville native first started making a name for himself in country music.
"When I'd go out, and I didn't change anything about who I am or what I do, I'd go out like this," he said, dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a T-shirt, flip-flops and a Tennessee Vols cap. "We'd be at Splash Country and see people stare and I'd think, 'What in the world are they looking at?'" Then the question came, are you Kenny Chesney?
"And after a couple of years of that, I knew that there was a market out there for it," he said. "One thing led to another and I found the right people and made the right contacts and started doing little look-alike stuff."
First, he would show up to take pictures with Chesney fans. Then he decided to take it a step further and began performing some of Chesney's songs.
"I'm an entertainer anyway, so I got his voice down and I've been doing the performing for about two years now," Murphy said. "Singing was never one of my real strong points, but I worked on it and just practiced."
Murphy performs under the stage name Denny as Kenny.
"I was Dennis in school growing up and to everybody else, and I always hated Denny," he said. "I was like, 'Mom, don't call me Denny when we're around adult friends.' Now I'm known as Denny as Kenny, and my Web site is DennyasKenny.com."
While it does take some work, being a tribute artist has its perks. He's traveled the country and had meals paid for and flights upgraded to first class.
Flying from Branson, Mo., to Los Angeles, Murphy checked in under his own name and found his flight was delayed. He noticed the ticket agent looking at him as he checked the computers for another flight.
"I was like, 'Man is there no way I can get (an earlier flight), I need to get to L.A.?' He said, 'Hang on a second and I'll look up something for you.'" And I get up there and he takes my I.D. and everything and said, 'I've got you on the next flight out of here.' I say OK, thanks."
The next thing Murphy knows, he's approached by a woman from airline security who asks if he's Kenny Chesney.
"I say, 'No, I'm a look-alike.' She said, 'Well the ticket agent swears you're Kenny Chesney traveling with a fake I.D. to throw people off. Could you go over and just meet him? Don't say nothing, just go over and shake his hand and we'll get him for a few minutes.'
"So she motions him to the end of the counter and he walks down there and he's sweating. He said, 'My wife just saw you in concert last week,' and before I could say anything he said, 'Give me that ticket,' and he took the ticket out of my hand, walked up and was gone about two minutes, and he came back and said, 'Here Mr. Chesney, you're flying first class all the way to L.A.'"
The security officer urged him to go along with it.
"And then he did tell me, 'You're either Kenny Chesney or you just pulled one of the biggest jokes,'" Murphy said. "But I didn't pull nothing."
He does feel bad sometimes when people get excited about meeting someone they believe is Kenny Chesney only to find out it's not.
"I feel more bad about after they've made a big deal out of it, and they've freaked out on you because they knew it initially," he said. "Because they've just met, in their mind, somebody that they love and idolize and to me, what was the harm in that."
Murphy has met Chesney, introduced by Chesney's father who once lived in Townsend and was a frequent visitor to the Dollywood show. After finding out Murphy impersonated his son, the elder Chesney would ask Murphy to visit people he knew wanted to meet his son.
"He has a hoot with it," Murhpy said. "He took me to a concert and we were sitting in the hotel ... and I'm just like this right here and of course it was causing a scene," he said. "He said, OK, you've got some people coming, get you a Sharpie out and get ready to sign an autograph."
Murphy does not sign Chesney's name when he signs autographs.
"I scribble Denny as Kenny, but they're so freaked out they don't pay attention," he said.
Once the finalists of "The Next Best Thing" are announced, it will be up to viewers to decide which ones look and sound most like the celebrity they are impersonating. Unlike some full-time tribute artists, Murphy said he doesn't have a lot to lose.
"So I thought, why not. It will be a great experience and I guess there's really no such thing as bad publicity," he said. "So I said I'm going to go for it. Never been one to miss out on something that comes your way."