Archive for the ‘Matthew Morrison’ tag
Vanilla Ice: ‘Suck it, haters.’
Did you catch Tuesday night’s episode of the Fox musical comedy “Glee”? It was all about bad reputations — how to earn one, how to keep one and whether it’s better to have a “bad” one than a good one, at least in high school. As an example, faculty adviser Will Schuester — played by actor Matthew Morrison — encouraged his club members to dig up songs with a bad reputation and give them the “Glee” treatment. As an example, he pulled out “Ice Ice Baby,” the mega-hit by none other than the guy who’s coming to the Clayton Center for the Arts on the Maryville College campus this weekend.
After some grousing by the kids, Mr. Schuester breaks into his rendition of the song, complete with the dance moves made famous by Mr. Ice (born Robert Van Winkle), and by the end of the segment, they’re all into it. (Well, except wheelchair-bound Artie, who sits on the sidelines and sings along.) “I declare this song paroled,” Schuester announces when it’s all said and done. (Here’s the iTunes link to purchase the cast’s version of the song.)
No doubt fans in attendance at the Clayton Center on Saturday night will get that song, although for years Vanilla Ice has taken untold amounts of grief over it. It went from an insanely popular hit single to the butt of jokes on late-night and throughout popular culture, and the guy who made it bore the brunt of them. However, things are looking up for Ice — as he tells us in this Friday’s edition of The Daily Times Weekend entertainment section — so those who continue to deride his name and his music can … well, suck it. (My words, not his.)
“I don’t hear much anymore from the critics,” he told me during a phone interview last weekend. “Most of the haters are sitting on their couch, watching me get another platinum single on ‘X Factor’ (the British TV show, where a mash-up of “Ice Ice Baby” and Queen’s “Under Pressure,” performed by the duo John and Edward with Vanilla Ice guest-singing).
“I embrace all the haters from back in the day, because they had to move on and get mortgages and (stuff) and deal with the economy, but I’m still here, doing what I love to do. I want to thank them, because all of that made me be stronger and helped me see who I really am. It helped me get rid of the ego I didn’t need. I love it all and laugh at it all, and these days the critics don’t faze me.”