TYLER GRADY

 

Think: Constantine Maroulis only with more commitment to the gag (More talent? Remains to be seen!)

 

Our Unscientific Hunch Before the Top 24: Constantine Maroulis was a hair-band fake-rocker who winked and nudged the audience, practically screamed, "This persona is a joke to me!" For Tyler Grady, it appears that the '60s or '70s rocker stylings are totally in earnest. People are going to compare him to Jim Morrison out of laziness, even though he neither looks nor sounds like Morrison (though his mannerisms, indeed, do seem to be out of the Morrison playbook). He's almost like a rock uber-frontman from 1971. That's amusing and could be amusing for a while, but how much is schtick and how much is talent? What will happen the first time he's asked to sing something current? Or something that can't be retrofitted to the classic rock playbook? If he can do that, he's probably set through the Top 12 at the *very* least. But if it's schtick, he could get tired in a hurry. Or viewers could get tired of him.