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''Celebrity Duets'': Chatting with the contestants | 122319__jai_l
JAI CREW Queer Eye guy sizes up Dayne, Judd, McKnight, and Robinson as potential duet partners

Jai Rodriguez

You've sung professionally doing musical theater — you were Angel in a production of Rent — so do you feel like you have a bit of an unfair advantage?
Yes, I feel like I do, but what I'm learning is that a lot of them sing in their personal lives. A lot of them have bands. I'm sure if they wanted to [sing professionally] they could if they wanted to.

Who do you most want to perform with?
Do you have a list of who is performing? Because it keeps changing, so I think you probably have a more updated one. [I hand him my list.] Okay, this is great. Taylor Dayne — love. Basically, I would gag to sing with her. Wynonna Judd... I just want to give her a big fat hug because she's so awesome and I have such compassion for a lot of the stuff she's been through... Brian McKnight, I think I'd be like a squealing little girl, and so I probably shouldn't sing with him. My mom wants me to sing with Smokey Robinson. That's all she's been saying: ''See if you can get an autograph for me.'' Michelle Williams would be great... I've always identified with her, because I feel she's like the one you don't get to hear sing all that much. And I feel like I'm that way on Queer Eye, so we have a lot in common.

I just want to say, I think it would be weird to sing a duet with, like, a guy, unless it was a rock-me-out song. I don't want to be like ''Endless Love'' with some dude. That's just weird. Even for me. That crosses the line.

What would you ultimately like to get out of this experience?
A couple numbers, maybe a few e-mails. [Laughs] I think just the reintroduction of who I am. I know you know me from [Queer Eye], but this is what I'm passionate about.

Hal Sparks

So what songs did you audition with?
They had a lot of Motown tunes — they were definitely going with that angle. So I learned ''I Heard It Through the Grapevine'' — which is one of those songs that you think you know, and then you go to the second verse and [you're] like, ''Ehhhh, I got nothing.'' I also did ''Easy'' by Lionel Richie, mostly because Faith No More did it, and that kind of cooled it up a little. [Chris] Jericho ended up doing ''Enter Sandman,'' and I was like, I didn't know we could do that! Well, crap! I would've come in and done Queensryche's ''Eye of a Stranger.''

Which music guest are you most interested in dueting with?
Peter Frampton, definitely. I mean, Frampton Comes Alive is a classic record, and just being able to sing some of those songs — if I did a duet with him I would beg, cajole, and threaten until they let me play guitar too. That would be the thing. To really stand on stage and play guitar with Peter Frampton — huge.

Here's a weird one: I was a huge Richard Marx fan in high school. If you think of Richard Marx, he was the Chad Kroeger of the '80s. He was the singer-songwriter dude who just cranked out hits. It was sort of effortless. The songs to some people were mechanical and fit that pop structure, but he just went, ''Okay, my canvas is four by six, I'm painting inside the lines, and I'm going do it really well.'' Well, years ago, I was in China — I'm walking around Beijing, and I met these three [Chinese] college students. One of the girls constantly would start breaking into kind of a broken English version of ''Right Here Waiting.'' Apparently that song was on a cassette she had that helped you learn English through songs and through words, which also included audio of me from Talk Soup.

As part of the whole talent show set-up, you have to sing and then stand there while you get judged. What do you think of that process?
Well, first of all, I hear that Little Richard [is] one of the judges? Dude, can you imagine standing in front of Little Richard and having him tell you what he thinks of you?! In any capacity? That's great! He'll go [as Little Richard], ''That was crazy! You did great! I loved it!'' And I'm like, ''I'm a big fan of your GEICO commercial.'' WOOOOOO!

Next page: Host Wayne Brady and judge David Foster


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