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March 21, 2007
Ace is in the house!
See Acoustic Ace
This just in: Ace Young rocked the Citrus Heights home (make that backyard) of Charlene Oliver and about 25 of her best friends and family members tonight. It was all part of a 10-city Dreyer's ice cream tour/acoustic guitar concert (check out our video), which Charlene won by voting online for her favorite "American Idol"-inspired ice cream flavor.
"When they called to say I won, I was speechless," Charlene tells me. "I actually had forgotten that I had entered!"
Charlene, who is an office manager currently on maternity leave (she has an infant son and a son age 3), called her dad and then her network of "Idol" friends, who were eager to get on the invite list.
The group gathered around 6 p.m., with Dreyer's festooning the house with "Idol" balloons and setting up a table loaded with - what else? - ice cream.
But it was Ace who got the sweetest reception. Once he walked through the door, I'd never seen more cell-phone/digital cameras go off so fast, including The Bee's Andy Alfaro (see his shot above), who was right in the thick of things. There were big smiles all around from the mostly female audience. I believe there was even a bit of swooning!
Ace sat with guitarist Paul Trudeau on kitchen chairs and chatted up the group before launching into "Father Figure," a song he performed in Season 5. And, in anticipation of his own CD launch in a couple of months, he also wowed with a song called "Scattered" (on the video), his own compilation.
I got the chance to also meet Ace's older brother, Ryan, who's along for the tour and is handling Ace's entertainment ventures. (You wouldn't believe how much they look alike!)
Crowd conversation covered such hot topics as who would be eliminated this week - the consensus was Sanjaya Malakar. And which photo of Ace would be proudly gracing screensavers across Sacramento this morning.
Ace had a special affinity for getting the kids in the Citrus Heights audience to participate. Charlene's 3-year-old son even brought his favorite blanket and toy guitar.
After singing, Ace dished up bowls of ice cream. He even ended up signing the inside and bottoms of the bowls as souvenirs.
Ace and Ryan planned to take flight right after the concert, heading back to L.A., where they share a home. I asked Ryan if Ace still carried his famous beanie in his back pocket, like he did when he performed last season.
"I don't know if he brought one tonight," Ryan said. Moments later, however, Ace pulled out a black one for one last photo session before his security guy (who looked straight out of "The Sopranos") told him it was time to go.
"Thanks for having me tonight," Ace said. With that, the "Idol" left the house.
Posted by Leigh Grogan at March 21, 2007 08:10 PM
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