Golden Tickets are Worth Their Weight in Paper

My brother Shaun decided to audition for American Idol this year. He auditioned way out in South Carolina for some strange reason, and was talented and lucky enough to make it to Hollywood Week. As great as that was, I could tell he was a little disappointed that when he got his “Golden Ticket”, nobody filmed his screaming tantrum as he ran out the judges’ door and tackled Ryan Seacrest with tears running down his face, yelling that he was on TV. A little ironic don’t you think, Shaun?

Hollywood Week aired yesterday, and while his few minutes of fame were overshadowed by Simon’s repeated and inappropriate comments about how handsome Shaun was, he did make it through all the cuts along with only 50 other potential rock/pop superstars - one of whom had a terrible audition, but maybe because he was living in his beat up Chevy and had no friends, they let him through.

At this point Shaun was feeling pretty good about his chances, although he had a few doubts when the three singers after him got “a million percent yes!” votes from Paula and he only got “one hundred percent yes.” How disappointing to only get a hundred percent.

For those of you out there who have been following the back story American Idol did on him during audition week as well as the follow-up story during Hollywood Week (see non-existent footage for more details), you’ll be sad to know that his hopes for American Idol fame came to a humiliating and depressing end as the judges forced him to wear a brown bag over his head and exit the premises. WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUG - Rather than dwell on the embarrassment I will undoubtedly face for having a brother that only made it to the top 50 on American Idol, I decided to listen to some music Shaun recently released. I found it to be much more enjoyable than most albums that have resulted from American Idol. Buy it at http://cdbaby.com/cd/barrowes5. If you want a hard copy of the CD, that will release in the near future.