HOT DISH: Kellie Pickler Is a Superstar in the Making
What You See Is What You Get With Former American Idol Contestant
By: Hazel Smith
(CMT Hot Dish is a weekly feature written by veteran columnist Hazel Smith. Author of the cookbook, Hazel's Hot Dish: Cookin' With Country Stars, she also shares her recipes at CMT.com.)
On Friday, Jan. 19, Kellie Pickler was co-hosting ABC-TV's The View in New York. The next Friday, she was in my kitchen in Tennessee.
I just naturally love Kellie Pickler. As my daughter-in-law, Sharon Collie Smith, observed, "She talks just like your grandnieces." When Kellie speaks, I hear the sounds of home. She remains exactly the same person I saw on American Idol in the auditions in Greensboro, N.C., and when she performed in competition on the show from Los Angeles. Like Earl Scruggs, Randy Travis and Charlie Daniels and yours truly, we are what we are -- and are the same people we have always been. Like Kellie, we are North Carolina proud.
There was a song titled "Country Girl" that went, "I'd be the same in Hollywood/Right in my own kitchen/I believe in fussing when I'm mad/And scratching when I'm itching." That describes Kellie Pickler verbatim. What you see is what you get.
Photos don't do Kellie justice. At age 20, she is the most beautiful female singer in all of country music. You can quote me on that.
When Kellie came to my house to tape CMT's Southern Fried Flicks With Hazel Smith, I learned she has more than a country attitude. Being from the same part of the country, I knew what Kellie, more than likely, enjoyed eating, so I floured and fried up some tenderloin and made a pot of pinto beans, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, cornbread and fudge pie. And did that girl smack her lips. I think she said she had three helpings of mac and cheese and three slices of fudge pie, and she kept on eating pinto beans.
Kellie said she has a new stove she's never used because she can't cook. She's made instant oatmeal a couple times in her microwave.
I told Kellie to her face that she is like Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Like those two legends, when Kellie opens her mouth to sing, the truth comes out. Kellie's eyes got all teary when she heard me say that. She's dying to meet Dolly, her all-time hero.
Kellie Pickler is the real deal. Don't forget to watch on Feb. 18 when she appears on CMT's Southern Fried Flicks With Hazel Smith.
Schedule
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Sun., Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT; Mon., Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. ET/PT
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Smokey, aka Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), is the prospective father-in-law of unwilling bride Carrie (Sally Field). The Bandit (Burt Reynolds), a maverick racecar driver, makes an $80,000 bet that he can transport a shipment of Coors beer from Texarkana, Texas, to Atlanta within 28 hours. Already in danger of arrest from redneck lawmen like Smokey, the Bandit furthers his chances at a stiff jail term when he offers a ride to Carrie, who hopes to escape her unwanted wedding.
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