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There was never any doubt Toronto's Lukas Rossi would win "Rock Star: Supernova" and go on to front the new band comprised of Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted and ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. And today, he did.
The show finale, which aired this evening, was actually recorded this morning. Tonight, they party. Then, Rossi will immediately join his bandmates to finish the debut album and launch a tour in the new year. A recent lawsuit might force the group to change its name.
There will apparently be two singles to go to multi-format radio in the next week on Burnett/Epic/Sony BMG. Hopefully, one will be "Headspin," a song by Rossi's former band Rise Electric that he performed on the show.
"I've paid my dues that way," Rossi said of his past in rock bands Cleavage and Rise Electric, sitting by the pool at the famed Hollywood Hills mansion for an in-person interview for Lowdown a few weeks ago. "This is just prep for a world tour. I'm ready for it, 100 percent ready for it.
"I already know I can be on the tour bus with them because I'm a very good judge of character and I've spoken with them numerous times and they're down to earth guys, so I'm not worried about that at all."
If Rossi sounded then like he knew he'd win it's because he did. He wouldn't let himself think otherwise. But there were more than just a few clues. Lee would often make telling comments after his performances that seemed to signal as much -- "see you on the tour bus" and "cheque please" -- and that's not to mention what was said the rest of the week when cameras weren't around.
Even the other contestants were rumoured to have known he was the guy and were resigned about the outcome.
One week into the show, when Navarro did an interview with this reporter and was asked if he was surprised by the supreme confidence of the notoriously nice Canadians -- last year's J.D. Fortune, who was crowned the new singer of INXS via the first Rock Star show, displayed similar belief that he would win -- the guitarist said, "Not at all.
"I think that Lukas is totally honest and I don't think there's anything negative about someone being honest. Both of those guys, they seriously want to win and they're aware of the fact going in that this is a competition. This isn't summer camp."
The 29-year-old Rossi has been at it in Canada for more than a decade. Back then, the teenager fronted Cleavage and was managed for two years by Zack Werner, who currently manages Esthero, Down With Webster, The Johnstones, Ali Milner and James Robertson and is a judge on "Canadian Idol."
"While there were certainly other elements of that band that I was attracted to, I thought Lukas, even at that age, showed the potential to be one of the best front-people I'd ever seen," recalls Werner, whose firm also managed Fortune when he went by the name Jason Dean.
"I've got nothing but good things to say about the kid. I've always had a great deal of affection for him, both personally and professionally."
John Redmond signed Cleavage to a publishing deal with PolyGram Publishing Canada back then, but the band never did get a record deal.
"I hated the name and fought like crazy to get rid of it. A petty as that is, it was a problem," says Werner.
"But the true bottom line was the sound that he was making was directly competitive with every mainstream, harder-edged alternative rock band in America, and they either had slam-dunk hits or they didn't. (Cleavage) never had the single that would make the difference. The difference between him and My Chemical Romance was that My Chemical Romance wrote smashes and Lukas's band didn't.
"But I always thought that Lukas had the potential to do unbelievable things. At a certain point, when had the realization that I didn't think the band was going to turn the corner, I had discussions with him about moving on and the things that I thought that he should do because I thought that he was that good.
"But he was fiercely loyal to his boys (Cleavage) in those days and by the time he decided to move on, it was well down the road."
Taking over from Werner's role was then-soulDecision manager Garry Francis. In 2000, the band got an indie distribution deal with Universal Music Canada after winning best unsigned band at Toronto's North By Northeast music festival. They put out a self-titled indie EP, which sold about 1200 units, according to Francis, and released a video for "Riddled," but the major recording contract still proved elusive.
"Talent-wise, Lukas is up there with the best in the world. He's just one of these guys who never could get the right break," says Francis, who now manages indie band Rides Again. "We went to New York twice by different labels, flown out there, and both of them passed."
Francis continued to manage Rossi even after Cleavage broke up in 2004. "The only thing he did solo was I got him his publishing deal with EMI," says Francis.
Rossi had immensely improved as a songwriter. He had written a song called "Sometimes" that he thought would be suited to soulDecision, Rossi recounts, when Barbara Sedun, senior vice-president of creative at EMI Music Publishing Canada, heard it and played it to her boss, president Mike McCarty.
"I was quite familiar with him through Zack and Gary eras and I always thought that was Lukas was great and I didn't like the band -- not the band members, there was just something that wasn't quite musical enough about the songs," says McCarty.
"Barb called me into her office one day and said, "I want to play you something; I'm not going to tell you who it is and see if you can guess.' So she played that song, piano and vocal. It was a very soulful vocal. I couldn't figure out who it was and she said, 'It's Lukas Rossi,' and I couldn't believe it because it was so much more musical than anything I had heard Cleavage do. So we called him and we had a meeting with him."
Rossi recalls that he played some songs on an unplugged electric guitar.
"We talked to him at length about the process of writing songs with Cleavage," says McCarty. "I got the impression, when he told me the process and what would happen with the songs, that he was a very musical guy who somehow his bandmates ironed the musicality out of his songs. So we decided to sign him because by now the band had broken up."
Francis then bowed out of the picture as well.
EMI put Rossi together with a variety of "musical people." He demoed with Gavin Brown (Three Days Grace, Billy Talent), and others, but Rossi wanted to put together another band.
It was Toronto entertainment lawyer Chris Taylor (Nelly Furtado, Sum 41, Avril Lavigne), who told McCarty that Montreal guitarist Dominic Cifarelli of the band Pulse Ultra (formerly Headspace which had once played with Cleavage) had always wanted to work with Rossi. So they hooked the pair up and Rossi packed his bags for Montreal. They wrote a number of songs and formed Rise Electric with bassist Jay Cianfrini and drummer Maxx Zinno.
Confident about the songs and line-up, EMI set up a series of showcases for Rise Electric during North By Northeast 2005 in June. A parade of A&R caught the band at its rehearsal space in Toronto, even though there was no demo yet made.
"We were together a week or two then we had every label known to man that really mattered come to see us, but we were green," recalled Rossi, now seated in the sunroom at the mansion beer in hand in the early afternoon.
"I think it was premature. We knew our songs better than each other, which was frightful if you're on the other end, if you're someone who wants to sign a band. 'Okay, they have great songs, but will these guys last as friends?'"
One night, Rossi's then-girlfriend spotted actor and musician Kiefer Sutherland outside Clinton's in Toronto and convinced him to come in and see Rise Electric. "He was fantastic," Sutherland told Lowdown shortly after. "That's a fantastic band. I was just walking down the street and I heard them playing and I walked in."
Rise Electric then recorded with Toronto's Brian Moncarz (The Junction, Pilate), but there were no bites from labels.
"I wrote an album that I was going to record with a friend of mine, with Rise electric, which still no body has heard It's still in my back pocket," says Rossi of his next step. "It's more like Muse, Radiohead shit."
Broke and disillusioned, and living in Montreal (where he was working as a telemarketer and composing music for animated scores such as "Beyblade"), Sedun called up Rossi earlier this year to let him know about the second season of "Rock Star," and that an audition would be held in Toronto in mid-March. He declined. The band had not yet been announced.
"I thought it was for Van Halen. I couldn't see myself being the singer," says Rossi. "That was the rumour on the street and I was like, 'Hell no!'"
By the time Vancouver auditions had been added weeks later, the band had been confirmed -- Lee, Clarke, and Newsted,, a.k.a. Supernova.
"Barb told me who was in the band and I was like 'Fuck, yeah, but I can't afford it and she said, 'I'll pay for you to go.'" (Sedun was later reimbursed by EMI Music Publishing Canada).
Rossi hopped a plane to Vancouver and at the audition played a minute or so of his original, "Headspin," and Live's "Lightning Crashes" for the show producers.
"He had something special," says Peter Cohen, talent producer for "Rock Star: Supernova," who scheduled the referrals by respected members of the music industry for appointed audition times. "He came very highly recommended from the Toronto music scene. He had an element of risk and danger to him that some of the other performers didn't have and it definitely stood out."
He, obviously, made the final 15, and when "Rock Star: Supernova" debuted in July, it was clear that Rossi was the only singer that fit, was real, was true, and lived rock 'n' roll. He didn't have a pop background. He didn't have to develop or adjust or "put on" a snarl. He was the ideal person to front "Rock Star: Supernova."
"From the first moment of the first show, he's been the guy who's destined to win," says McCarty. "He's the most real person on there and he's the most true rock star on there. I think he was born to be a rock star and he was born to be on this television show. Unwittingly, everything he's done his whole life has prepared him for this moment in the spotlight. And I think he's absolutely the right person for it."