American Idol
For the 2005 season, Idol producers raised their required age limit from 16–26 to 16–28. In August 2004, Bice’s mother and several other family members encouraged him to go try out, since he was within the eligible age limit (he would turn 29 in November 2004). He asked his mother to come along, and she took him up on that dare.
Along with Constantine Maroulis and Taylor Hicks (winner of Season 5), Bice was one of the oldest contestants to audition and participate on American Idol. Bice and Maroulis were among the first contestants to compete using the rock idiom.
A Southern rocker in musical approach and appearance, Bice did not fit into the normal American Idol mold. But his performance in the audition stage of The Allman Brothers Band's song "Whipping Post" drew raves from the judges, with Simon Cowell saying it was 'brilliant' and Randy Jackson saying that he was surprised that he picked a song like Whipping Post to perform for the auditions. The performance, and many others that followed established him as one of the favorites in the competition.
During the final three performance show, Bice took the risk of performing without a band or backup singers. This was the first time anybody attempted to sing a cappella at this stage in the competition. He sang "In a Dream", an obscure song recorded by Badlands. His performance was highly praised by the judges, including guest judge Clive Davis, who spoke of looking forward to making an album with Bice.
In June 2005 Bice was quoted in Rolling Stone magazine that his last thought during the Idol finale was, "Please, God, don't let me win this thing." In comments during a subsequent appearance on The Today Show, Bice backed off this stance a bit, saying that he thanked all those who had voted for him. He then played solo acoustic guitar and harmonica to one of his own compositions, in addition to singing his Idol songs with a band. But he lost the final, ending up runner up to Carrie Underwood.
In Alabama, May 24 was declared "Bo Bice Day" by Governor Bob Riley. In fact, Bice's pride in being an Alabama native resulted in the adoption of Lynyrd Skynyrd's hit "Sweet Home Alabama" as his "theme" during his tenure on American Idol. Two members of the group Lynyrd Skynyrd surprised Bice during his trip home from Idol and performed "Sweet Home Alabama" with him in his home town of Helena, Alabama.
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