Cledus T. Judd

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CLEDUS T. JUDD: THE ESSENSHUL VIDEO COLLECTION TODAY!
One of country music’s most inventive wordsmiths, Cledus T. Judd crafts lyrics that are pointed, precise, witty and, quite often, intricately rhymed. Judd’s real name is Barry Poole. In 1993, he was well on his way to a career as a hairdresser in his hometown of Crowe Springs, Georgia, when he heard about a talent contest being held every week at the Buckboard, a country music nightclub near Atlanta.
“I went down to the club on a dare,” he says, “and I took eight buddies with me in a van. The piano player asked me what I was going to do, and I told him I had these two funny rap songs. He said, ‘We don’t play rap songs.’ I said, ‘OK, then you just play Delbert McClinton’s “Shaky Ground,” and I’ll make it fit.’ I sang the first song, and there was this guy in a suit and tie who kept coming up and putting 20-dollar bills on the stage. By the second song, he’d put down 80 bucks. I told him that if I had another song, I’d do it for him and make some real money. And he said, ‘I’m paying you to shut up.’ I figured if I could sing this bad and make this kind of money, I’d found my niche.”
Determined to make it in show business, Cledus soon set out for Nashville in a critically battered pickup truck. He remembers there were holes in the doors where the speakers had been ripped out and gaps in the floorboard that were wide enough to enable him to count the white lines creeping along below. The vehicle did have one functioning windshield wiper, but it was on the right-hand side.
Judd estimates he never made more than $4,000 a year his first three years in Nashville – most of that from doing odd jobs around Music Row. One of his employers, country dance impresario Wynn Jackson, suggested the name “Cledus T. Judd,” and a grateful Barry Poole promptly snapped it up. Judd first recorded for Cross Three Records, a small independent label. His first efforts attracted industry-wide attention, and eventually Judd signed to New York-based Razor & Tie Entertainment in 1996.
“I had about three goals when I came to Nashville,” Judd recounts. “One was for my mama to meet Vince Gill, because that’s really what got me into the business. We were sitting there in front of the TV in 1992 and watching him sing ‘When I Call Your Name.’ And my mama cried. I told her, ‘One of these days, you’ll meet him.’ When we were doing my video for ‘Wives Do It All The Time,’ Mama came up to watch. She didn’t know Vince was going to be in it. Then he walked in. Man! After a moment like that, it’s all down hill. Fulfilling my mama’s dream outweighs all mine. I also wanted to work with George Jones and Tammy Wynette and do the Grand Ole Opry. I got to work with Tammy in Vegas a few years ago, and I actually toured some with George Jones. Then, this year, I did the Opry. Knowing where I was years ago and knowing where I am now is the most fascinating thing that could happen to somebody.”
Because parodies are seldom played on radio and because neither the Academy of Country Music nor the Country Music Association gives awards for comedy recordings, Judd turned to music videos. He has made several to date and he gives them credit for helping him sell nearly 2,000,000 albums so far. “Most people write songs with radio in mind,” Judd says. “But I write for CMT and TNN. They’re my radio. Hardly anybody comes up to me and says, ‘I love that funny song.’ It’s ‘I love that funny video.’”
Judd’s first collection of music videos, The Essenshul Video Collection, will be released March 27, 2007 by Razor & Tie Entertainment. Showcasing the complete set of hit music videos from the four albums released during Cledus’ most successful period, The Essenshul Video Collection captures Cledus at the top of his redneck game and showcases the talent that has made CTJ a permanent, well-loved and popular fixture in the world of country music. “Because of these videos,” he reflects, “I have an image. And that’s so hard to get in this business.” His entries have won CMT’s Independent Video of the Year Awards on multiple occasions.
In spite of his successes, Judd still views the country music world with a sense of wonder. It both thrills and humbles him, he says, when another artist strikes up a conversation with him or volunteers to appear in one of his videos. Among those who have done cameos for him are Vince Gill, Shania Twain, Joe Diffie, Buck Owens, Deana Carter, Trace Adkins, and Faith Hill.
Judd knows and reveres the great country comics who came before him and sprinkles his conversation with references to Minnie Pearl, Homer & Jethro, Jerry Clower, Stringbean, Junior Samples, Ray Stevens and Pinkard & Bowden. I just want to carry on the tradition,” he says. It will take a long and vigorous life for Judd to complete the projects he has scheduled or aspires to do. He’s already scheduled to be featured on VH1’s hit television series Celebrity Fit Club 5 and has recently become a special correspondent on USA Network’s Nashville Star. Then there is his mega-dream – recording a duet with his idol, Weird Al Yankovic. “I’ve done wrote the song,” he reveals. “It’s a takeoff on Donny & Marie’s ‘I’m A Little Bit Country/I’m A Little Bit Rock & Roll.’” Beyond that, the trailer park is the limit.