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Bo Bice
Bo Bice inThe American Idol Experience motorcade atWalt Disney World.
Background information
Born	Harold Elwin Bice Jr. (1975-11-01)November 1, 1975 (age 50) Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.
Origin	Helena, Alabama, U.S.
Genres	Southern rock hard rock country rock
Occupations	Singer musician
Instruments	Acoustic guitar electric guitar lap steel guitar mandolin harmonica piano saxophone vocals
Years active	1994–present
Labels	RCA Sugarmoney Saguaro Road Lofton Creek
Formerly of	SugarMoney Blood, Sweat & Tears

Harold Elwin "Bo"Bice Jr. (born November 1, 1975) is an American singer and musician who was the runner-up againstCarrie Underwood in thefourth season ofAmerican Idol. Prior to auditioning forAmerican Idol, Bice released a solo album as well as a few albums with his bands while performing on the night club circuit.

Bice charted in 2005 at number two on theBillboard Hot 100 with a rendition of "Inside Your Heaven" fromAmerican Idol. He released the albumThe Real Thing afterAmerican Idol to minor success before being dropped by RCA Records. He started his own record label Sugar Money and subsequently released two more albums,See the Light and3. He was also the lead singer ofBlood, Sweat & Tears from 2013 until 2018.^[1]

Bice was born inHuntsville, Alabama to Nancy and Harold Elwin Bice. His mother was a gospel singer as were his grandmother, great-grandmother, and aunts. Bice wasnicknamed "Bogart" as a newborn by his grandmother, "Granny Madge", because she thought he had "Humphrey Bogart eyes". His family continued to call him Bogart, but when Bice was in kindergarten he shortened it to "Bo" because he did not think Bogart was cool. Bice's parents divorced when he was very young, and his mother remarried years later. Bice grew up with his mother and step-father, Earle Downes, a Coca-Cola manager, step-sisters Jenny and Sharan Downes, and half-brother John Cohran. Bice has two other half-siblings, Candace and Matthew, on his biological father's side. The Downes family moved around theSouth frequently. They lived inGeorgia,Alabama, andFlorida, including the metro area ofAtlanta. In 1990 when Bice was 14 years old they moved to England, as part of his step-father's European assignment withCoca-Cola in London.

Bice spent his teenage years living inGerrards Cross. Bice attendedLondon Central High School, aDepartment of Defense school primarily for children whose parents served in the military or worked at the U.S. Embassy. In high school, he carried hisguitar everywhere and playedfootball. It was around this time when Bice worked with some Englishalternative rock musicians.^{[citation needed]} He formed his first band, Spinning Jenny, while living there. Bice would have graduated in 1994, but in the fall of 1993, Bice dropped out of high school just before turning 18 to move back to Alabama, where he earned hisGED and attended classes atCalhoun Community College from November 1996 to May 1997.

Upon leaving Calhoun and spending one semester at theUniversity of North Alabama inFlorence, Bice turned professional and performed in shows all across the United States, the United Kingdom,Ireland, and Europe. He was a veteran of thenightclub circuit, releasing his first CD in 1995 with his band Purge.^[2] His other pre-Idol bands include Blue Suede Nickel andSugarMoney. Among his credits were opening forBlackfoot andWarrant as well as performing live and recording withJohnny Neel, formerly ofThe Allman Brothers Band. Bice had recorded other albums prior to his stint onAmerican Idol, which includedEx Gratia (1999) with his band Purge, andRecipe for Flavor (2000) with SugarMoney. In 2001, Bice was charged with purchasingcocaine at astrip club. In 2003, Bice was arrested for possession ofmarijuana,drug paraphernalia andpublic intoxication. He avoided jail time by agreeing to enter adrug program.^[3][4][5]

For the 2005 season,Idol producers raised their required age limit from 16–24 to 16–28. In August 2004, Bice’s mother and several other family members encouraged him to go try out, since he was within the eligible age limit (he would turn 29 in November 2004). Along withConstantine Maroulis andTaylor Hicks (winner of Season 5), Bice was one of the oldest contestants to audition and participate onAmerican Idol. Bice and Maroulis were among the first contestants to compete using therock idiom.^[6] His performance in the audition stage of The Allman Brothers Band's song "Whipping Post" drew raves from the judges. His later performances established him as one of the favorites in the competition. During the final three performance show, Bice took the risk of performing without a band or backup singers. He sang "In a Dream", an obscure song recorded byBadlands.

In June 2005, Bice was quoted inRolling Stone magazine that his last thought during theIdol finale was, "Please, God, don't let me win this thing."^[7] In comments during a subsequent appearance onThe Today Show, Bice backed off this stance a bit, saying that he thanked all those who had voted for him. He lost the final, ending up runner-up toCarrie Underwood. In Alabama, May 24 was declared "Bo Bice Day" by GovernorBob Riley. Two members of the groupLynyrd Skynyrd surprised Bice during his trip home fromIdol and performed "Sweet Home Alabama" with him in his home town ofHelena, Alabama.

Idol performances

Signed toRCA Records, Bice's first single, released June 21, 2005, was his version of "Inside Your Heaven". The single debuted at number two on theBillboard Hot 100 Chart and number one on theBillboard Hot Single Sales chart. Bice's single replacedCarrie Underwood's version of the same song at number one. It wascertified Gold in late July 2005. Bice was invited to theBonnaroo Music Festival byTrey Anastasio. He sang a song withWillie Nelson at a Birmingham concert and was invited by Nelson to perform atFarm Aid. Bice appeared onCarlos Santana's 2005 albumAll That I Am with the song "Brown Skin Girl". On June 15, 2005, Bice married long-time girlfriend Caroline Fisher inHelena, Alabama. Bice had met her when he was working as a guitar store manager, and frequented the Ragtime Cafe inHoover, Alabama where she was working her way through college as a waitress. Their first child, a son, was born in September 2005.^[8] A second son was born in August 2008.^[9] A third son was born in January 2010 this was Ean Bice.^[10] Their fourth child and first daughter was born in April 2012.^[11] They reside inCovington, Georgia.^[12]

On July 31, 2005, Bice broke his foot while performing in concert inManchester, New Hampshire^[13] but carried on with the tour. On August 18, Bice, who had been suffering from stomach pain for months, was rushed to the hospital for emergency intestinal surgery to remove a blockage caused by a life-threatening intestinal condition calledintussusception. He was sidelined from the tour for several shows. During his absence from the tour, fellow contestants Anwar, Nikko, Scott, Anthony and Constantine paid tribute to Bice by singing "Sweet Home Alabama" and wearing Bo Bice T-shirts.^[14] Bice returned to the tour for the final two concerts inSyracuse, New York, September 10 and September 11 (abenefit concert with proceeds going to theAmerican Red Cross to help victims ofHurricane Katrina). In addition to playing that concert, he opened his home in Helena, Alabama to a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

On October 7, 2005, Bice introduced his own band, SugarMoney, inMobile, Alabama atBayfest. He performed two concerts the following week, including a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but was back in the hospital the next day with surgery complications. In November Bice was named "Heartland Hero of the Week" onJohn Kasich's show,Heartland, for giving up his house to the family displaced by Hurricane Katrina and for using his music to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina.Jim Croce's family awarded Bice the "Jim Croce 20th Annual Music Award" because the Croce family had been greatly moved by Bice's performance of Croce's song "Time in a Bottle" while he was a contestant onAmerican Idol.

Bice's solo debut album,The Real Thing, was released on December 13, 2005. It opened at number four.The Real Thing has the seventh-highest opening for a debut album by anAmerican Idol finalist. Bice's band at the time appears with him on three tracks onThe Real Thing's DualDisc version. In January 2006,CMT aired an hour-long TV special—calledBo Bice: In the Moment—which chronicled Bice's life post-Idol during the recording of his album,The Real Thing. Their cameras had followed Bice around for months during the making of his album. The film showed both his joy with making an album and his frustration with recording other people's pop songs. The cameras also captured the birth of his son, Aidan. On December 18, Bice startedcoughing up blood while rehearsing for a performance on the 2005Radio Music Awards, and had to miss the show.^[15]

In February 2006, Bice kicked off a radio promo tour. During the ensuing year of promotional appearances and touring, Bice continued to suffer with the recurring intestinal condition which had not been repaired by the August 2005 surgery. In the span of just a few months during his various tours, Bice was hospitalized 20 times, checking out of the hospitals each time to honor his performance commitments. In March 2006, Bice sang on theAmerican Idol Top 16 Results Show. In April 2006, Bice was one of the celebrity drivers featured in theToyota Pro/Celebrity Race held inLong Beach, California, that was sponsored byToyota to benefit various children's hospitals of Southern California. On September 12, 2006, Bice released a cover ofThe Chambers Brothers 1968 smash hit, "Time Has Come Today", which was the theme song for a newMonopoly commercial. In September 2006, Bice was a special guest star in a TV special calledDecades Rock Live: Lynyrd Skynyrd & Friends—the friends being Bice,Hank Williams Jr., and3 Doors Down.

On October 5, 2006, Bice underwent emergency surgery inNashville, Tennessee to correct his recurring intestinal problem. The surgery came after several rounds of tests and doctors deemed his condition serious enough to operate immediately. The day after that surgery, a complication occurred and Bice had to undergo another surgery. During the subsequent recovery time,Ben Stiller invited Bice to record for theWill Ferrell filmBlades of Glory produced by Stiller. Bice made several promotional appearances in connection with the releases. Bice was presented with agold record forThe Real Thing not long afterRCA dropped Bice from its roster.

In the spring and summer of 2006, Bice began to talk of his hopes for a second CD, saying that "[he]'d like to go more rootsy, more country, more southern rock Bo."^[16] Bice encouraged his fans to start a petition askingClive Davis for Bo's original southern rock songs on a subsequent CD. The Grassroots Coalition to Hear More Bo started the online Petition to Hear More Bo, which collected over 5,300 signatures before it was closed February 21, 2007, after word broke that Bice was no longer with RCA. Bice subsequently formed his own record label called Sugar Money/StratArt (in partnership withStrategic Artist Management). He spent the next few months planning, writing, and recording music for his new album,See the Light. Bice introduced many of his newly written songs on a short acoustic tour which began in May 2007 and ended a few weeks later with his hospitalization for flu and bronchitis.See the Light was released October 23, 2007.

In October 2007, Bice made an appearance on the TV showAmerican Chopper: The Series in an episode which featured a custom-built Peavey Bike with a built-in guitar, microphone, and amp.Peavey Electronics Corporation and Bice were working together to develop a Bo Bice guitar for their line of products. Bice had made appearances in Peavey Electronics Corporation's after school programs (in conjunction with National Afterschool Alliance) during which Peavey donated instruments to schools. In February 2008, Bice traveled toKuwait andAfghanistan to perform for U.S. troops deployed in the region, and to thank them for their service. He went back to the war region in Fall 2008. During Spring and Summer 2008, Bice continued his tour promoting hisSee the Light album. He simultaneously spent a few weeks participating in a special tour calledIt Was Forty Years Ago Today withTodd Rundgren,Denny Laine,Lou Gramm, andChristopher Cross. The tour paid tribute to the fortieth anniversary of the release of theBeatles'Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

On September 13, Bice participated in "Share the Beat", a benefit for the Georgia Transplant Foundation and the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness. Bice sang two tracks on theBrothers of the Southland CD,^[17] a compilation spearheaded byThe Marshall Tucker Band'sGeorge McCorkle who had died from cancer just days prior to the recording sessions. On December 2, Bice was invited to Washington to perform for President Bush. Throughout 2009, Bice continued touring to supportSee the Light. Bice did tour dates with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Bice was honored with the prestigious Lifetime Presidential Volunteer Service Award for volunteering more than 4,000 hours of his time for worthy causes, such asHabitat for Humanity, Katrina assistance,muscular dystrophy, organ transplants, two concert tours for the military troops in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, Safe House, and many others. In addition to the hours for which he received recognition, he has donated instruments, music equipment, meaningful personal memorabilia, and some of his own paintings to be auctioned off for charities.

Bice started 2010 with an acoustic tour to introduce some newly written songs that he was recording for his upcoming album.^{[citation needed]} Bice's Sugar Money record label cooperated withTime Life for the album which was called3, which was officially released onSaguaro Road Records on May 18, 2010.^{[citation needed]} On October 12, 2010, Bice guest-starred on the syndicated game showDon't Forget the Lyrics! and won the $50,000 grand prize for his charity,MusiCares. Bice was the first celebrity contestant to win the grand prize by correctly singing the lyrics to all the songs in his round.^[18]

In 2013, Bice sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at theNASCARFeed the Children 300 inSparta, Kentucky.^{[citation needed]}

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBo Bice.

• BoBice.com 'official' site fromSuperstar Media
• Bo Bice Day declaration
• Thomas, Ronnie (2005-03-29) "Stepdad Downes recalls years Idol contender spent overseas".Decatur Daily.

• 1975 births
• American Idol participants
• American male pop singers
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• People from Helena, Alabama
• Country musicians from Alabama
• Calhoun Community College alumni
• 21st-century American male singers
• 21st-century American singers
• Rock musicians from Alabama

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