In a story in last week’s Scene, we told you about aspiring soul singer Ce-Cee, winner of the Cleveland Idol singing contest at the Hi-Fi Club in Lakewood, owned by former Warrant guitar player and Cleveland son Billy Morris. Ce-Cee was miffed that she’d never received her agreed to prizes, including a paid trip to the American Idol tryouts in Philadelphia, a recording session with Morris, and a $100 Visa gift card. But the saddest part of the story was that Billy Morris wouldn’t even return the poor girl’s calls after the contest. Umpire’s official ruling: Billy Morris Sucks! (To read the story, click here and scroll down to the item headlined, creatively, “Billy Morris Sucks!”)
But now it appears we have a challenge to the ruling, by Morris himself. Morris claims an Akron promoter named Kim Diamond was the one holding the competition, and was responsible for getting Ce-Cee her prizes, not him. But when turnout at the Idol nights turned out to be thinner than a Sam Fulwood III book signing, Diamond ran out on the bill, Morris says. She even left Morris with a sky-high bar tab to pay off. “I never saw her again,” says Morris. “That girl Ce-Cee, unfortunately, she got in the middle of it.”
We relayed Morris’ accusations to Diamond herself, who, basically, had the exact same barbs to throw back at him. “Of course he’s going to say that because he dropped the ball,” says Diamond. “He was the one who was supposed to cover the prizes.” Diamond says she even contacted Ce-Cee to try to make it up to her. She currently has the singer booked to sing the national anthem at some upcoming cage-fighting competitions, which is close to American Idol, only you have to wear a raincoat to keep the flying blood and eyeballs off your dress. And so we have a classic case of middle-aged-‘80s-rocker-said vs. possibly-shady-she-devil-said.
Our umpire’s official ruling: We believe the Cherry Pie guy. And so be it. Billy Morris officially does not suck. Kim Diamond, now YOU suck! — Jared Klaus
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2007.
Just another CLEVELAND music scene moment.
Congrats to both of you assholes….
Same old recycled bullshit.
An American Idol contest? Come now-
What’s next-“My Space” night at the HI-FI?
Good to see nothing has changed.
Tony, they DO have a MySpace Night at the HIFI! It’s the MySpace Battle of the Bands. People need to start checking into these “competitions” prior to getting involved in them. There are SEVERAL of them that take place in Cleveland, sadly on a weekly basis, that no one EVER gets the prizes they are suppose to for winning. It’s just a sham to get bands to sell an assload of tickets and the promoter makes all the loot and the bands walk away with nothing.
It’s no wonder the music scene here is incredibly lacking. Too many great bands out there getting taken advantage of by these sharks.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Tony, they DO have a MySpace Night at the HIFI! It’s the MySpace Battle of the Bands. People need to start checking into these “competitions” prior to getting involved in them. There are SEVERAL of them that take place in Cleveland, sadly on a weekly basis, that no one EVER gets the prizes they are suppose to for winning. It’s just a sham to get bands to sell an assload of tickets and the promoter makes all the loot and the bands walk away with nothing.
It’s no wonder the music scene here is incredibly lacking. Too many great bands out there getting taken advantage of by these sharks.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!