Nads: Is Trace your given name ? Does anyone ever call you Tracy?

Trace: Actually, my mom still calls me Tracy. But, growing up everyone called me Trace, and there were already two Tracys in country music, so the name Trace just stuck.

Nads: Let's talk about your book, A PERSONAL STAND: Observations and Opinions of a Freethinking Roughneck. Did you write that book all on your own?

Trace: I did have a little help. I went through a long interview process of trying to find the right fit. So, I ended up hiring these twin brothers, Keith Zimmerman, and Kent Zimmerman. When I met them, and talked them, I knew that they were the right guys to work with me on the book. It's so funny because they actually have that "twin psychic" thing going on too.

Nads: Are they the little twins that do infomercial about real estate?

Trace: (lol) no, not like that. I meant, they would literally be sitting the same way, with their legs crossed exactly the same. Meanwhile, they're on opposite sides of the room. These guys were incredible, I sat down with them for about 40 hours, and they came back to me with an outline, and I went to work.

From there I just literally sat behind my computer and just wrote, and wrote.

Nads: Did you feel like you were purging while you were writing, and did you find it therapeutic?

Trace: Absolutely. That's exactly what it felt like, it was so cathartic to write. I never thought it would be such a long cathartic process. I certainly purged a lot during the writing process, but it was a good.

Nads: You also have a new Greatest Hits CD with three new songs on it, American Man, Greatest Hits Volume II, which actually my favorite song you sing, Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. Did you coin that phrase for rappers, Badonkadonk?

Trace: (lol) I did not coin the phrase. Although I have to tell you that song has become such a popular ring tone. I never would have thought that the song would make such a comeback with ring tones.

Nads: Let's talk about Apprentice now. Who was your favorite, least favorite...How was Nadia?

Trace: You know what's so funny, I had such a crush on her back in her gold medal days, and all of the sudden I was doing this show with her. And I finally got to tell her about my old crush. She got kicked off last week, it's too bad she was really nice.

Nads: Think it was the language barrier?

Trace: (lol) Oh yeah, I'm sure she would have done just fine if people could understand her.

Nads: I think she's better off just doing cartwheels and not talking.

In all seriousness, was The Celebrity Apprentice something you wanted to do?

Trace: At first no, because I have a strong career, and I was iffy about being on a reality series. But then I saw it as an opportunity to raise money for my charity, FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network). I really believe in what they're doing. We have too many food allergies in this country, and FAAN does a lot of research for this, because there has to be a way to get to the bottom of this problem.

I have a 6-year old daughter and she had life-threatening reactions to peanut butter. She also had so many allergies to food and milk. Just recently I read about this guy who gets fed through a feeding tube because he's allergic to everything. There has to be a way to fix that. Our country is doing something wrong somewhere down the line. FAAN is a great organization, and I'm so happy to be on The Apprentice raising money for them.

Nads: You are one of 12 people remaining, and your task tonight will be to operate a mobile printing station for Kodak, then the Kodak executives will decide on the winning team, who wins? Can you tell me if you're going to be on the show next week?

Trace: I can't tell you anything, I will say that I was not the project manager.

Posted in Newsgasm by Nads at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Last Comment: Nads on Jan 18, 2008 02:23 AM.