On my journey of being the next rockstar...!

Guess what?

I've been so not free for the past few days after i saw the advertisement of the Rockstar the Series. As i was a loyal StarWorld channel fan, there were a few times that they aired the advertisement, which has asked whoever interested to join in the audition to visit their website, www.startv.com/rockstar. I visited the website, filled the forms up and get myself started to be the next rockstar.

The audition, which is gonna be held at the Berjaya Times Square on the 1st and 2nd April 2006 is going to pick the one and only represtative for ASIA.

Come again? ASIA?

Yes, it's for ASIA! The whole ASIA!

Through out the NET, the next rockstar search is to get a new singer for a new band formed by Motley Crew's ex drummer Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted, the former Metallica and an ex-guns, Gilby Clarke. I reckoned that it's gonna be a mixed up of punk rock, rock & roll and heavy metal.

Each rockstar wannabe is required to prepare at least 3 songs to be presented during the audition. In my mind, there are no other than Aerosmith's songs like Kiss Your Past Goodbye or Crazy, as both of it has the vocal range variants. Two former punk & rock & roll band members is enough to tell that someone with the voice of axl rose or steve tyler is probably someone they're looking for! I would say that it's really gonna be me dudes!

Other than those songs, i've also chosen the song To Be With You by Mr. Big, Back & Forth Again by the Slash's Snakepit and Live & Let Die, the G'n'F'R`s version. For lower range voice, I've chosen Sister by The Nixon, Freshman by The Verve Pipe and Broken by the Seether.

I'm really getting myself prepared for this audition. I keep telling myself that this is the big chance i've got to prove something, rather than just going to karaoke or singing in the bathroom, or in my car, like most of us do. My days and nights were all spent on my guitar and my voice singing. I slept and wake up early in the morning just to perfect myself on the vocal and the guitar.

Oh yeah, they asked to sing by acapella, a minus one track or someone playing an instrument for you but in my case, i'm gonna play the guitar all by myself.

As it's reaching 31st March, i practiced more and more. I even intentionally missed my gym sessions, locked myself in my room and jam all the way, day and night. Right at 10 o'clock that night, me and my whole family drove up to Seremban. My brother, Ikhwan was there to drive me to Kuala Lumpur (KL) the next morning. We made a move from Seremban at around 7.30 and reached Berjaya Times Square at 8.30.

When I reached there, it was quiet. Like nothing's gonna happen. No crowd like how people crowded the place when Malaysian Idol held their audition there for the past few years. This is just surprising!

What?

It's really surprising dudes! The audition is for the whole ASIA but i can't see anyone heading to the audition. I asked the security guard about the audition and he asked me to take the elevator lift to the 6th floor. Up there, I met up with a few guys, Jeff a Malay chap, Redzuan of Lost Souls, Sashi and Ravin, both from Penang.

More surprise, Jeff arrived there as early as 6.30 in the morning. Redzuan? He was there since 3.30 AM. So as Ravin and Sashi, they arrived at around 4 AM. That's crazy man. The reason was, just look at the past years auditions. There was a super long queue that would make u wait for the whole day for your turn! But, that's not happening today!

Well we chatted, we jammed, while waiting for the clock to point to 10 a.m. Slowly we see people coming over. More and more people but it was nothing like the Malaysian Idol's audition and remind you, this is ASIA's audition!

I could see a lot of Avril Lavigne wannabes, and most of the male were middle aged chaps like me. I was quite happy when Redzuan guessed my age was just 22 or 23. When I told them I'm 29 they were like jumping! "Hey man you looked so bloody f*cking young!"

Then it was 10 a.m and we get ourselved registered. My no was 008 and here we go. I just can't wait for my turn as the nervousness made me so scared to hell. I've heard from far that there were people who were stopped while singing. There was one candidate who were stopped when he was just started singing. I was so scared. That's ridiculous! I keep on practising till i didn't realize that there were cameras shooting at me playing my guitar and singing! Suddenly...

ZERO ZERO EIGHT!

My number was called and I stepped in. I was looking for judges, but there were no one there. Just 2 cameramen, an audio engineer and 3 helpers. I played Kiss Your Past Goodbye, but surprisingly they waited me to finish my song. They applauded so loud and shouted cheerly while asking me to play the next song. I decided to play Back and Forth Again by the Slash's Snakepit. They were kinda enjoying my show and they even asked me to play the next song. I decided to play To Be With You and they were so cheerful and one of them said loudly, congratulations! Please come for the call back tomorrow! There was me smiling waling out of the door while being interviewed by Paula Malai Ali for Channel [V] and someone by the StarWorld. I cannot say anything much as I was so blank!

2nd April.

Here I come. I went for the callback and met with the judges! I was the last one to be interviewed. Showtime! I again sang KIss Your Past Goodbye and loudly cheering up by saying,

You'll be representing ASIA for the ROCKSTAR THE SERIES program!

Gosh! It was a quiet moment for me. I felt so helpless that I didn't jumped up for joy because I was so surprised! I was so speechless.............

Someone like me?

Surprised?

I really think this would be a really good April Fool surprise for you guys!

Thanks for reading!